Cellist Nicolas Altstaedt presents the Cello Sonatina and Cello Sonata, Op. 4 by Zoltan Kodály paired with two works by the Finnish composer Olli Mustonen. Born 1967, Mustonen was a student of Einojuhani Rautavaara. Mustonen’s Heavenly Lights (Taivaanvalot) for tenor, cello, and piano is the centerpiece of the program, presented here by Ian Bostridge, Nicolas Altstaedt, and the composer at …

The Grammy-nominated duo of soprano Laura Strickling and pianist Joy Schreier present the first installment in a new series of recordings celebrating women as storytellers and bearers of cultural memory. LEGENDS: Rebellion comprises world-premiere recordings from composers Cecilia Livingston, Jens Ibsen, Jodi Goble, Jasmine Arielle Barnes, and Juhi Bansal on texts by Duncan McFarlane, Susan Bywaters, Caitlin Vincent, and Jocelyne …

Praised by The American Prize for their “careful choices, elegant phrasing and beauty of sound,” Luminae Trio (violinist Elizabeth Wright, cellist Jacob Nordlinger, and pianist Jestin Pieper) presents works by three American composers spanning nearly a century of chamber music. The program opens with Lowell Liebermann’s Piano Trio No. 1, a neo-Romantic single-movement work of searching intensity. Amy Beach’s Piano Trio in …

Winners of the 2025 Naumburg Chamber Music Competition and prizewinners at the 2025 Bordeaux and Wigmore Hall International Quartet Competitions, the Terra String Quartet presents three quartets by American composer Greg Sandow. The album heralds Sandow’s turn to full-time composing after a distinguished career as a critic, consultant, and teacher at Juilliard, Eastman, and Peabody. The Terra String Quartet comprises …

Imani Winds presents the second recording on their own record label featuring works that explore the juxtaposition of oppression and liberation, and which celebrates the resilience of persecuted peoples. The album opens with Pavel Haas’s virtuosic Wind Quintet, Op. 10; almost lost during World War II and Haas’s early death in Auschwitz. The album’s eponymous work was composed by Shawn …

Swiss-French cellist Christoph Croisé and Georgian pianist Ana Bakradze present a program of works united by the spirit of folk traditions and national character, as well as personal memories of the performers. Seven Popular Spanish Songs by Manuel de Falla is his most-arranged composition and among his most popular. Béla Bartók’s Six Romanian Folk Dances, originally composed for solo piano, …

As a finalist of NBC’s The Voice in 2020, countertenor John Holiday’s fan base extends well beyond the world of classical music. His highly anticipated debut solo album reflects both the breadth of his artistry and the clarity of his artistic voice. Praised as one of the finest countertenors of his generation, Holiday brings together a thoughtfully curated program spanning …

Directed by violinist Peter Fisher, the Chamber Ensemble of London, a virtuoso group of hand-picked string players whom The Times counts amongst “a handful of the world’s finest musicians.” Their second album draws on the rich tradition of light classical music. The program features Rhapsody for Clarinet & Strings by Geoffrey Bush and 5 Pieces for Clarinet & String Orchestra …

In 17th-century Venice, music underwent a series of profound transformations. It was a time of splendor, marked both by the development of musical writing and by advances in instrument making, with the rise of the violin and the recorder, experimentation with continuo without bass or keyboard, and the golden age of the sackbut. Under the direction of French multi-instrumentalist and …

Violinist Elena Urioste and pianist Tom Poster present a treasure-trove of lesser-known French and Belgian repertoire spanning a forty-year period, from 1892 to 1932. A number of unifying threads run through the program, perhaps the most significant of which is the influence of a composer whose music is not heard here at all: César Franck. Franck taught and championed Guillaume …

In their ninth studio album, Apollo Chamber Players present a bold musical tapestry celebrating the ideals, complexities, and evolving story of American democracy at this milestone juncture. Featuring new commissions, world premieres, and transformative reimaginings, the release amplifies voices from across cultures, eras, and communities whose lived experiences help define the collective meaning of “We the People.” The album opens …

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. …

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 …

Coinciding with the conclusion of Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s 50th anniversary season and the final performances with Ken-David Masur as music director, MSO Classics presents a live recording of Brahms’s German Requiem. The highly acclaimed performance conducted by Masur was recorded in spring of 2025 at the Bradley Symphony Center featuring the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus under the direction of Cheryl Frazes …

Although primarily known as a Bach interpreter, pianist Simone Dinnerstein and her string ensemble, Baroklyn, find a natural affinity for the music of Philip Glass, who celebrates his 90th birthday in January 2027. Their first recording for the Naïve label features Glass’s Suite from The Hours and his Tirol Concerto (Piano Concerto No. 1). “When I think about the music of …

Flutist Juliette Hurel and harpist Isabelle Moretti present an inspired selection of French music arranged for their instruments, featuring key masterpieces alongside some rare delights. Their program highlights the virtuosity and expressive verve of a duo of great stylistic finesse and features the Suite en duo of Jean Cras (1879–1932), Deux Impressions by Eugène Bozza (1905–1991), Claude Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque, and select …

Arco e Tasto comprises violinist Jinwoo Lee, concertmaster of Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the highly sought-after collaborative pianist Eunice Kim. On Once Heard, Long Forgotten, the duo shines a long-overdue spotlight on Emilie Mayer and Luise Adolpha Le Beau, two extraordinary women who contributed substantially to German Romantic repertoire. The program features Le Beau’s Violin Sonata, Op. 10, Romance, Op. …

Emilie Mayer (1812-83) had eight symphonies to her name but, after finding that her gender hampered her orchestral music gaining public performances, she turned to chamber music. The string quartet offered, perhaps, a place for her to forget the restrictions of 19th-century society. Mayer proves herself a masterful exponent of classical forms with subtle plays of musical lines and delicate …

Grammy-winning flutist Brandon Patrick George and pianist Bryan Wagorn present an album inspired by the myth of Undine – her emergence from the depths, her experience of love, and her transformation into human form. Franz Schubert’s Introduction, Theme, and Variations on “Trockne Blumen,” D. 802 and Carl Reinecke “Undine” Sonata form the album’s foundation. Additional music by Lili Boulanger, Florence …

Catalyst Quartet presents the fourth and final release of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet works by historically important Black composers. Volume 4 profiles French composer Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges and features three distinct sets of six quartets, each composed at different times in Bologne’s musical career. This marks the first-ever commercial recording of all 18 works together. The …

The Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal led by violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte offer a unique survey of the music of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, drawn from varied performance contexts:  sonatas for piano and violin, string quartets, concertos, opéras-comiques, concert arias, and symphonies. “His music — that of a performer-composer, as it was the case for most musicians of the …

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective concludes their series of pairing Brahms’s three piano quartets with lesser known contemporaries. The final installment features the Quartet No. 1 paired with Dora Pejačević’s Piano Quartet in D Minor, Op. 25 and her Impromptu for Piano Quartet, Op. 9b. “We can imagine some eyebrows being raised at the description of Dora Pejačević as a contemporary of …

Spanish violinist Cristina Prats Costa presents her debut solo debut album, a vibrant portrait of the sound world of 17th and early 18th century music shaped by the cultures of the Mediterranean. Inspired by Andrea Falconieri’s Il Spiritillo Brando, the album takes the spiritillo – a mischievous, animating sprite – as a metaphor for the Baroque imagination: a realm of …

Clarinetist Chen Halevi and the Arethusa Quartet bring together two towering works of contemporary chamber music from profoundly different traditions: Osvaldo Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind and Pēteris Vasks’ String Quartet No. 6. Golijov’s ecstatic, ritual-like score finds the composer returning to Jewish mysticism, while Vasks’ Sixth Quartet references Baltic spirituality, tracing a life’s arc from …

Violist Timothy Ridout and pianist Jonathan Ware present works by friends and colleagues working side by side in the musical melting pot of fin de siècle Paris. The centerpiece of the album is César Franck’s Violin Sonata of 1886 performed in Paul-Louis Neuberth’s 1919 arrangement for viola. The program also features Léon Honnoré’s Morceau de concert, premiered in 1904 by viola …