Cedille Records presents Mischa Zupko’s virtuosic three-movement Harpsichord Concerto performed by Grammy-nominated American harpsichordist Jory Vinikour joined by violinists Desirée Ruhstrat and Charlene Kluegel, violist Margaret O’Malley, and cellist David Cunliffe. Originally written for American harpsichordist Bradley Brookshire, who premiered the work with the Corigliano String Quartet in 2003, Zupko’s Harpsichord Concerto draws on influences from J.S. Bach’s motor-rhythmic Prelude …

Formerly known as the Boulder Bach Festival, the Colorado-based virtuoso string band COmpass REsonance (CORE) has emerged as a trailblazer, connecting centuries of musical tradition with bold, modern innovation. Violinist Vadim Gluzman found a group that shared his artistic values, and they now have a close working relationship. Combining the music of J.S. Bach and Valentyn Silvestrov in one program …

Founded in 1988, Il Gardellino is a Flemish Baroque orchestra whose name is taken from the virtuosic goldfinch in Vivaldi’s eponymous concerto. What was applied as a playful metaphor almost 40 years ago, now encapsulates the identity of this internationally acclaimed Belgian period instrument ensemble acclaimed for their focus on works by Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries Johann Friedrich …

The third solo album from German pianist Esther Birringer surveys music by 15 different composers, bringing the masters such as Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, and others into dialogue with modern voices like Lera Auerbach, Ludovico Einaudi, and Valentin Silvestrov. “The term spectrum is usually associated with physics: when white light passes through a prism, it breaks into a full rainbow of …

Raphaël Pichon and his ensemble Pygmalion have emerged as superlative interpreters of Bach. They continue their exploration of the composer’s major works with this new recording of the St. John Passion. With their exemplary articulation and dynamic flexibility, the Pygmalion chorus is at the center of this striking drama. Raphaël Pichon’s precise direction restores the Passion’s original dramatic arc, instilling …

Violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing reimagines 20 of J.S. Bach’s most beloved melodies in playful, yet intricate arrangements for chamber ensemble with piano or harpsichord. At the core of this project lies a shared artistic philosophy: to expand, rethink, and reshape Bach’s music without ever diminishing it. The arrangers draw strength from the positive and universal nature of his themes and harmonies, …

For their first recording exploring the world of Bach, Sébastien Daucé, and Ensemble Correspondances give new life to the young composer’s first sacred cantatas: Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 4; Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (Actus tragicus), BWV 106; and Aus der TIefe rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131. These three works were written in Mühlhausen, where he …

The new album from Víkingur Ólafsson features music by Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert in a recital the Icelandic pianist presented at Symphony Center last June, named one of “Top Ten Performances of 2025” by Chicago Classical Review. At the heart of Opus 109 is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109, which Víkingur places in a musically …

A Chinese-German-Finnish trio comprising sheng virtuoso Wu Wei, violist Martin Stegner, and double bass player Janne Saksala perform arrangements of works by Claudio Monteverdi, J. S. Bach, and Antonio Vivaldi with an additional non-Baroque bonus: “Buremarsj frå Beiarn,” a bridal march from Norwegian folk tradition. The sheng, whose history goes back three thousand years, is a free reed polyphonic instrument, …

Francesco Tristano’s latest album, the third in the pianist’s “great life project” to record Johann Sebastian Bach’s complete catalogue, features the seven Toccatas, BWV 910-916. The Toccatas probably date to around 1707-1715, though no autograph manuscript has survived and their precise origins remain unknown. It is not clear if the Toccatas were written to provide training materials for his pupils, …

Following the success of the popular Mozart y Mambo project, Sarah Willis, horn-player of the Berliner Philharmonic, and The Sarahbanda release their first album on Deutsche Grammophon. Together they inject the colourful, contagious energy of Cuban music into a selection of timeless holiday classics. With their trademark genre-defying approach, the album includes works by Bach and Tchaikovsky – also re-imagined …

Acclaimed Swedish clarinetist and conductor, Martin Fröst presents his new album dedicated to the music of J.S. Bach. Although Bach never encountered the clarinet, this has proved no barrier for Martin Fröst, who has returned to Bach’s music time and time again throughout his illustrious career. Fröst had already devised and performed programs entitled Beyond All Clarinet History (B.A.C.H.), which …

Washington, D.C.–based pianists—composer-performer Sam Post and his friend and colleague Ralitza Patcheva—have join forces to reimagine Bach’s iconic Well-Tempered Clavier. Their new recording, The Well-“Tampered” Clavier, Book 1, embraces the expressive possibilities of the modern piano and infuses the music with rhythmic vitality drawn from jazz, ragtime, folk, world music, and twentieth-century classical styles. In the Baroque era, improvising, ornamenting, …

The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra led by Johannes Fritzsch present the world premiere recordings of two concertos by Elena Kats-Chernin: Ancient Letters, inspired by 1700-year-old letters from the Silk Road, and her third piano concerto, Lebewohl, written expressly for acclaimed Australian pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska. Kats-Chernin and Cislowska have worked together closely on many music projects and enjoy a rare level of …

Sir Andrew Davis was a talented keyboard player as a child and teenager, and after study with Peter Hurford at St Albans he spent four years at the University of Cambridge as organ scholar at King’s College, under Sir David Willcocks. It was this period of his life that sparked his love for the organ works of J.S. Bach, which …

Francesco Tristano’s two-disc set follows the pianist’s chart-topping album Bach: The 6 Partitas and marks the next chapter in Tristano’s “great life project” to record J.S. Bach’s complete repertoire. The project will continue with the releases of Bach’s 7 Toccatas in the fall of 2025 and the 6 French Suites in 2026. According to J.S. Bach’s first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, …

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein releases her first album with the string ensemble she founded and directs, Baroklyn (a portmanteau of Baroque and Brooklyn), and featuring the music of J.S. Bach and Philip Lasser. The program features new arrangements of chorale settings for piano and strings, the Keyboard Concerto in E major, BWV 1053, and Cantata 170, Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust with …

On this EP of six tracks, brothers and pianists Lucas and Arthur Jussen explore repertoire that was originally based on a sacred aria or chorale melody. CANTUS includes Anderson and Roe’s two-piano arrangement of “Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben” from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and Reinhard Febel’s four-hand arrangement of Bach’s setting of the chorale “Erbarm dich mein, o …

Inspired by the polyptchs (altarpieces composed of multiple panels, often depicting scenes from the Bible or religious figures) of the 14th century Italian painter Duccio, Swiss composer Frank Martin composed a work in six tableaux based on the Passion of Christ. Polyptyque, a concerto for violin and two small orchestras rooted in the music of Bach, Martin sets out to …

James Ehnes debuted with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1993 when he was 17 and has since shared the stage with the ensemble countless times. He was the Orchestra’s first-ever Artist in Residence from 2021 to 2024 and a featured artist on several national and international tours. Ehnes reunites with the musicians of the NAC Orchestra to perform Bach’s …

Raphaël Pichon and his ensemble Pygmalion mark their 20th anniversary with a new recording of Bach’s Mass in B minor, a work that has been central to the group’s repertoire. Having first performed the piece in 2013 and revisited it regularly since, Pichon now presents a recording shaped by over a decade of performance experience with a close-knit group of …

On his new album Canadian virtuoso pianist Jan Lisiecki brings the diverse sounds of the prelude to life, illustrating the genre’s potential to be more than just a curtain-raiser to something else. Frédéric Chopin’s extraordinary 24 Preludes Op. 28 are inspiration and centerpiece of this recording. For Lisiecki, Chopin was a “master of the short form” who “brought the prelude …

Oboist Debra Nagy, founder and artistic director of the Cleveland-based period instrument ensemble Les Délices, presents an album on the eponymous label with her longtime collaborator, harpsichordist Mark Edwards. The program features François Couperin’s 1er Concert in G major from Concert Royaux and J.S. Bach’s Oboe Sonata in G minor, BWV1030b (better known as Flute Sonata in B minor, BWV …

Beatrice Rana performs four of Bach’s keyboard concertos (BWV 1052 in D minor, 1053 in E, 1054 in D, and 1056 in F minor) in a new recording with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. The internationally acclaimed Italian pianist describes Bach as “an important figure in my life … My piano studies began when I was very young, and Bach was there …

In his second album for Warner Classics, cellist, vocalist, and composer Abel Selaocoe celebrates his South African heritage with traditional Bantu music played alongside cello-centric “Western Classical” baroque or baroque-inspired works. Much of the album features Selaocoe original compositions or arrangements on which he sings and plays both percussion and cello with a full band that includes string ensemble (the …