Mel Bonis: Orchestral Works

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra led by Rumon Gamba join the very welcome trend of recording Mel Bonis’s orchestral works, composed between 1891 and 1912. Their program features the three-part Les Femmes de Légende, the Suite en forme de valses, the Suite Orientale, Three Dances, Danse sacrée, and Les Gitanos. Soprano Elizabeth Watts is soloist for Noël de la Vierge …

Deep River

Violinist Miclen LaiPang presents his debut solo album with pianist Nigel Yandell. The program is a deeply personal recital of repertoire representing styles and places that have played meaningful roles in LaiPang’s own life, featuring American spirituals and works by Amy Beach, Clarence Cameron White, Fritz Kreisler, Richard Strauss, Robert Schumann, Maurice Ravel, Franz Liszt, Felix Borowski, and Peter Tchaikovsky. …

Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky

Nobuyuki Tsujii has performed Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto the world over, from London to Australia, where Limelight Magazine deemed his performance “flawless” and “second to none.” On this new recording of “Rach 3” with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Domingo Hindoyan, Tsujii also presents solo transcriptions of songs by Rachmaninoff and Mikhail Pletnev’s suite of transcriptions of Tchaikovsky’s The …

Karina Canellakis conducts Tchaikovsky

Recorded live at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, this new release on the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s proprietary label presents two of Tchaikovsky’s most profound symphonies: a revelatory account of the Fifth, with its shifting balance between fate and triumph, and a searingly personal reading of Symphony No. 6 (“Pathétique”). The Times praised the “explosive chemistry between this conductor and …

Cuban Christmas

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 …

Tchaikovsky: The Seasons

Yunchan Lim shares a deeply personal and thoughtful interpretation of one of Tchaikovsky’s most intimate piano works: The Seasons. Recorded live at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, Yunchan Lim views the twelve pieces not merely as a set of months, but as a story portraying someone’s final year of life “It begins with a man who is lost in …

Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works, Vol. 3

Alpesh Chauhan and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra continue their survey of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral works, combining established repertoire with lesser-known works. For this third volume, the former are represented by excerpts from Eugene Onegin and the Marche slave. Less well-known music includes the “Dance of the Tumblers” from the rarely performed opera The Enchantress, while the overture The Storm was …

Moonlight Variations

Pablo Ferrández describes his Moonlight Variations program as “night followed by day.” The latest album from the star Spanish cellist is a realization of his dream to record Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, the centerpiece of the program, recorded here with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra led by Martin Fröst. The orchestra also joins Ferrández for his own transcription of the “Song to …

For Dieter: Hommage à Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

This tribute album from baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist James Baillieu honors Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s centenary. “The first time I heard his voice was at school when I was twelve,” says Appl. “In 2009, I applied for his master class at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg which was the start of a long and transformative relationship. I was fortunate to work with …

Fantasies

The youngest cellist ever to win the International Tchaikovsky Competition, Zlatomir Fung presents his solo debut album with pianist Richard Fu featuring six fantasies on themes from opera, including fantasies on melodies from Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment, Rossini’s William Tell, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Additionally, the album features Fantasy on Jenůfa which Fung …

Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No. 3

Stanislav Kochanovsky began his new post as chief conductor of the NDR Radio Philharmonic in 2024. For his debut album leading the orchestra, he leads a program of music of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian music dear to his heart and training in St. Petersburg. The album’s centerpiece is Tchaikovsky’s Third Orchestral Suite, evocative of the composer’s melancholy Sleeping Beauty ballet …

Tchaikovsky: String Quartets Vol. 2

The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam completes its two volume project of recording Tchaikovsky’s complete String Quartets on gut strings with this new release, featuring the posthumous Quartet Movement in B-flat and the Third String Quartet. When the artists told their coach Dmitri Ferschtman, a pioneer in historically informed performance practice, that they wanted to perform Tchaikovsky on gut strings, he asked: …

Cello Dreams

In a delightful program of lullabies and gentle serenades, husband and wife duo cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand and pianist Pascal Amoyel have gathered a collection of some of the most beloved melodies that touch, console, comfort, and soothe. These are at once a marvelous entry point to listening to music for the very young, and a treat for all music lovers. …