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 …

A genuine masterpiece inspires musicians to adopt, adapt, or transcribe it without losing any of its greatness. Period-instrument ensemble Nevermind (Anna Besson, flute; Louis Creac’h, violin; Robin Pharo, viola da gamba; and Jean Rondeau, harpsichord and organ) has taken a creative look at Bach’s famous Goldberg Variations and made their own stylishly insightful “variations” on the work. As they themselves …

Meet one of Germany’s most acclaimed choruses in advance of their US Tour.

Pianist Dmitry Masleev, who took first prize in the 2015 Tchaikovsky International Competition, leads the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra (a.k.a. Russian State Symphony Orchestra) from the piano in a program that centers two piano concertantes utilizing the chant melody Dies irae: Liszt’s Totentanz, and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The program also includes Liszt’s Rhapsodie espagnole in a version …

The music of Bach is a major cornerstone for Michael Houstoun, who has recorded the 96 pieces that comprise Bach’s Preludes and Fugues Books 1 & 2 on a four-CD set. As Houstoun says, “For a pianist like myself, someone for whom music virtually begins with Johann Sebastian Bach, he provides a series of bottom lines of incalculable value everywhere …

Lieder specialist Benjamin Appl celebrates Christmas with sacred arias by Bach and Mendelssohn, carols from Germany, Austria, America, Britain, Sweden and France. Appl is accompanied by instrumentalists (including his own mother on guitar), the Munich Radio Orchestra, and Germany’s most famous children’s choir, Regensburger Domspatzen, of which he was a member in his youth. “I returned to my hometown to …

Francesco Tristano is a Luxembourgish classical and experimental pianist and composer who also plays the clarinet. In his new album, Tristano interprets some of JS Bach’s most challenging pieces written for keyboard. The album is branded with Tristano’s own imprint intothefuture, making its debut on the Naïve label. Tristano has previously released three other albums dedicated to the music of …

The latest album from the prolific 25-year-old trumpeter Lucienne Renaudin Vary features a collection of winter-themed popular songs by Richard Rodgers, Charlie Chaplin, and Hugh Martin alongside short movements from the classical repertoire by Dvořák, Rossini, Falla, Kreisler, Bach, and Vivaldi. Winter Gardens, which features the Paris Chamber Orchestra conducted by Sascha Goetzel, also features a work new to the …

Inspired by the musical soirées curated by J.S. Bach, this new release from Apollo’s Fire features repertoire that is believed to have been performed at the Café Zimmerman in Leipzig. Selections include Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 with virtuoso soloists Alan Choo, violin, and Daphna Mor, recorder; and the Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin featuring oboist Debra Nagy and …

Rinaldo Alessandrini adds a generous helping to the baroque orchestral repertoire with his original transcriptions, arrangements, and adaptations of works by J.S. Bach. Stylishly performed by Concerto Italiano, the album features an orchestral transcription of the Overture in the French Style, BWV 831 (for solo harpsichord), a pastiche Partita for Traverso and String Orchestra, and a pastiche Overture for String …