German composer Johanna Senfter (1879–1961) was a student of Max Reger, who recognized her musical talent and encouraged her to pursue advanced studies in his composition class in Leipzig, which she completed with distinction in 1909. In 1910, she was awarded the Arthur Nikisch Prize for best student composition of the year. Born into a well-to-do industrial family, she was …

Mel Bonis (1858-1937) was a great musical talent and a sensitive soul, the child of a socially aspiring family who forbid their daughter to marry the love of her life. Forced into a utilitarian marriage with a respectable husband, she later had an affair with her first sweetheart after all — the stuff of a sentimental novel. Yet she was …

Renowned horn player Felix Klieser’s eighth solo album explores Italian opera arias, film music, and song. Kleiser is joined by the Italian orchestra I Solisti di Pavia, recorded in the famous Teatro Fraschini at Pavia. The program features some of the most beloved opera arias by Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, as well as Italian songs like “O Sole Mio” and Nino …

Jonathan Biss concludes his Beethoven/5 commissioning project bringing to a close one of the most ambitious and innovative Beethoven release series of the 21st century. Over the course of five years, Biss selected a composer to write a piano concerto in response to one of Beethoven’s. The final installment of the project, featuring the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Malin …

Finnish conductor Eva Ollikainen leads the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, where she has held the post of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director since 2020, in the four symphonies of Arvo Pärt. Composed over a span of forty-five years and bearing little or no relationship to one another, the symphonies represent the composer’s output at separate parts of his creative journey. The …

Marking Earth Day, Grammy-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis releases her new album Terra Infirma featuring the titular work by Reena Esmail – a concerto for harp and percussion both performed by Kondonassis with the Interlochen Center for the Arts Orchestra conducted by Andrew Grams. Terra Infirma was directly informed by Esmail’s experience living in Los Angeles during the catastrophic fires of …

This album comprises world premiere recordings of seven new Nordic violin concertos by Veronique Vaka from Iceland, Sunleif Rasmussen from the Faroe Islands, Andrea Tarrodi from Sweden, Aksel Kolstad from Norway, Arnannguaq Gerstrøm from Greenland, Joel Järventausta from Finland, and Poul Ruders from Denmark. Composed for violinist Niklas Walentin and the Danish Chamber Players, these commissions reinterpret the Romantic violin …

Isata Kanneh-Mason’s latest recording stems from a long and personal relationship with the composer’s music, which reached a major public milestone when she made her BBC Proms solo debut in 2023, performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Since she first heard the concerto at the age of 18, the work and has been a key part of Kanneh-Mason’s concert life. …

Cuban pianist-composer Aldo López-Gavilan presents world-premiere recordings of three of his own orchestral and solo works highlighting the composer’s distinctive musical voice—one that seamlessly blends classical virtuosity, improvisational freedom, jazz inflections, and Afro-Cuban rhythmic vitality. The title work is a three-movement piano concerto originally conceived during an improvisation session as a musical gift for the composer’s daughters. The album also …

Vyacheslav Gryaznov’s Rhapsody in Black is a stunning and original work that blends classical and jazz influences, showcasing Gryanznov’s extraordinary skill as both a pianist and a composer. Based on themes from the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Rhapsody in Black picks up the story where the opera leaves off: Bess in New York, Porgy following in her footsteps. Rhapsody in Black …

Composed during Antonio Vivaldi’s stay in Prague in 1729–30, the Concerto for Lute RV 93 is the most celebrated example of a repertoire almost totally neglected today, but once extremely popular in the German-speaking world, particularly in the Habsburg lands of Austria and Bohemia. In her new album. lutenist Evangelina Mascardi illuminates a fundamental chapter in the history of the …

Leokadiya Kashperova (1872–1940) was Igor Stravinsky’s piano teacher, having herself been a student of Anton Rubinstein. To this day, however, her compositions remain in the shadow of the male Russian masters, a fate shared by many other women of this era. Although her output is nowhere near as comprehensive as that of her contemporaries, what she did produce demonstrates incredible …

Violinist Midori — artistic director of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute program for piano and strings — presents an album of works by Robert and Clara Schumann with pianist Özgür Aydin and the Festival Strings Lucerne under the direction of Daniel Dodds. Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto in D Minor was composed in 1853 but withheld from publication for more than …

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 …

Sarah Kirkland Snider’s latest album features four of the composer’s orchestral works performed by Metropolis Ensemble led by artistic director Andrew Cyr. The title work, Forward Into Light, is a commission for the New York Philharmonic inspired by the American women’s suffrage movement. The album includes a reimagining of the string quartet Snider wrote for the Emerson String Quartet as …

Written in 1892, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut catapulted him to international fame, but his early works — pre-Manon Lescaut — offer a fascinating insight into his development as a composer. John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London lead a journey through this development that includes student compositions and orchestral extracts from Puccini’s earliest operas. The Preludio sinfonico (loosely based on Wagner’s …

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra presents its first recording led by Kazuki Yamada who took the helm as music director in 2023, continuing the work of such eminent predecessors as Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo, Andris Nelsons, and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. The rogram, recorded live at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, showcases three works by William Walton: the Coronation March Orb and …

Gil Shaham’s latest album with conductor Eric Jacobsen and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra explores the violin concerto as a vehicle for cultural memory and continuity. The program pairs Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 80, and Antonín Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53, with the world-premiere recording of “F. Harper,” from The Famous People by Curtis …

Considered to be the most gifted and promising pianist of his generation in Poland, Szymon Nehring is the only Pole to have won first prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv (2017). He was also a finalist at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw at age 19. His new album is dedicated to Karol Szymanowski, one of …

Known for her refined neoclassical voice, the new album from Italian composer and pianist Olivia Belli draws inspiration from Homer’s Odyssey. Belli was fascinated by Odysseus’s destined return to Ithaca and the idea that every life follows a journey toward its true purpose. This concept shaped her new piano concerto, Daimon, recorded with the German Chamber Orchestra Berlin and influenced …

The legendary Lithuanian pianist Mūza Rubackytė, a longtime friend of Krzysztof Penderecki, presents a live recording of the late Polish master’s Piano Concerto “Resurrection” with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Keri-Lynn Wilson. Completed in 2006, Penderecki dedicated it to the events of 9/11, saying: “The title ‘Resurrection’ should be understood in a broader, symbolic, and universal …

Winner of the 2024 La Maestra competition in Paris and recipient of five additional prizes, conductor Bar Avni was born in Israel and first studied percussion before turning to conducting. She counts Yoav Talmi, Barbara Hannigan, and Ayelet Geva as mentors and has assisted conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Klaus Mäkelä and Myung-Whun Chung. Known for her desire to seek …

Under Jörg Widmann’s 10-year leadership as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director, the Irish Chamber Orchestra has established itself as a globally recognized, high-energy ensemble known for innovative programming, premiering new works, and extensive international touring. Widmann, a clarinetist, composer, and conductor, often directs the orchestra while performing as a soloist on the clarinet. This album celebrates their transformative ten-year creative …

French composer Elsa Barraine (1910–99) was a pupil of Paul Dukas and fellow student of Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire. She won the Prix de Rome at age 19, before going on to hold several public posts in French music. She spent more than 20 years as a professor and was also prominent in the French Resistance during the …

The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under conductor Neeme Järvi present orchestral works by Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén and Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. Born in Stockholm in 1872, Hugo Alfvén was influenced by Wagner and Richard Strauss, and his style is also permeated by the influence of Swedish folk music. The program features two works by Alfvén: Festspel (Festival Play), Op. 25, …