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 …

The three composers featured on this recording, remarkable for expressiveness and virtuosity, were all deeply rooted in fin-de-siècle Vienna. They were banned by the dictatorships of the 1930s, then blacklisted in the aftermath of the Second World War by the young European avant-garde. Only in recent years has the beauty of their works been newly appreciated. Vienna-born conductor Sascha Goetzel …

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) led by Marin Alsop present four orchestral works from the last two decades by Anna Clyne, the former Chicago Symphony Orchestra Mead Composer-in-Residence, including world premiere recordings of the title work Abstractions and Color Field. Alsop, a regular collaborator of Anna Clyne, commissioned both Abstractions (for the BSO) and Restless Oceans (for her Taki Concordia Orchestra); and …

Following their acclaimed series of music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra led by Andrew Manze presents a collection of works by two composers influenced by Vaughan Williams. George Butterworth left a small but enduring body of work. He was introduced to folk music by Vaughan Williams, but he was also a dancer and collector of folk …

Led by Graham Ross, the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge celebrates the 80th birthday of legendary English composer and conductor Sir John Rutter with an album of choral works. The album includes pieces that Rutter wrote when he was a student himself at Clare College, then director of the Choir in the mid-1970s. Also included are pieces commissioned or gifted …

The two concertos presented here by Chloë Hanslip with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra led by Andrew Litton have been neglected for the same reason: their composers were much better known for their achievements in musical theater than their works for the concert hall. Robert Russell Bennett studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, and his output includes seven symphonies. He …

With more than 125 concertos to his credit, Telemann was one of the pioneers of this genre that had flowered in Italy. Combining daring, humor, and emotion, he particularly delighted in exploring the virtuosity of the violin, its gift for imitation and its lyricism. Alongside other works of his where the violin also takes center stage, Isabelle Faust and the …

The Czech Philharmonic led by Principal Guest Conductor Rattle present the set of sixteen pieces which Dvořák composed between 1878 and 1886, taking inspiration from Brahms’s Hungarian Dances. Originally written for piano four hands, the first set of Slavonic Dances were orchestrated soon after publication at the request of Dvořák’s publisher Simrock, who also commissioned the second volume; the pieces …

Pianist Anna Shelest presents an album dedicated to her home city and the music of fellow Kharkiv-native Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952). Anchored in a deep sense of nostalgia, Bortkiewicz’s works evoke a world imbued with dreams and elegance—a stark contrast to the chaos of the early 20th century that surrounded him (the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the unrelenting …

Alexandre Desplat, the Academy Award-winning modern master of the film score, presents a double-album souvenir of concert performed at the Philharmonie de Paris in January 2025. The concert program featured new arrangements from 15 of his best-known film scores including a suite from three Wes Anderson films (Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The French Dispatch); a “Royal …

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s first album with Music Director Stéphane Denève comprises three world premiere recordings by native St. Louisan and Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-winning composer Kevin Puts. Dedicated to this orchestra and conductor, Concerto for Orchestra was written in response to the school shooting that occurred in Uvalde in 2022. “Silent Night Elegy” is drawn from Put’s acclaimed opera, …

Navona Records continues its series of world premiere recordings of orchestral works by celebrated living composers from a wide variety of backgrounds and influences. Volume five includes Kim Diehnelt’s With Courage, Dear Heart. Diehnelt, currently a resident of Burlington, Vermont, was previously active in the Chicago scene leading such groups as Sounds of the South Loop, the South Loop Symphony, …

Daphnis et Chloé, Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Ma Mère l’Oye anchor this new three CD box set of orchestral works by Maurice Ravel, recorded by the Orchestre National de France and its Music Director, Cristian Măcelaru at the Ravel Festival in Paris earlier this year. The festival marked the 150th anniversary of the French composer’s birth and celebrated the …

Music director JoAnn Falletta leads the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in works by three French composers who saw Spain as a paradise of warmth, fragrance, and color, whether real or imagined. Debussy’s Images, Ibert’s Escales, and Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole show the considerable impact Spanish culture had on French composers in the early 20th century. “I have personally always been drawn to …

Edward Gardner’s series of Nielsen symphonies with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra continues with this recording of the Symphony No. 5 complemented by the overture Helios and the Clarinet Concerto, featuring Alessandro Carbonare as soloist. Composed in 1903 on a trip to Greece, Helios depicts sunrise, noontime, and sunset over the Aegean Sea. The Clarinet Concerto dates from 1928 and is …

A native of Los Angeles, Laurie Christman was raised in a musical home as her mother had been an opera singer. Her melodic compositional style has been influenced by the music of the Romantic and Impressionist eras. Christman’s compositions embody those musical aesthetics while directing the listener toward a future where concert music continues to be relevant, meaningful, accessible, and …

The Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and its music director Kazuki Yamada — a great lover of the French symphonic repertoire  — present the first symphonies of three giants of French Romantic music. Camille Saint-Saëns was only fifteen years old when he composed his first symphony in 1850, which is known as his Symphony No. 0 — his official Symphony No. …

Rumon Gamba and Oulu Sinfonia present a fascinating picture of Finnish orchestral music, their second program of works from their native land. The album takes its title from Selim Palmgren’s four-movement suite, written in 1904, offering richly atmospheric character pieces celebrating the changing seasons. Several works take inspiration from the natural world, such as Kurkikohtaus (Scene with Cranes) which Sibelius …

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 …

Composer, cellist, and vocalist Able Selaocoe presents his genre-defying concerto Four Spirits, recorded live with the Aurora Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon. Commissioned by BBC Radio 3, Seattle Symphony and PhilZuid, Four Spirits reframes the concerto format through a rich tapestry of musical influences rooted in Selaocoe’s South African heritage. Singing in Sotho and Zulu, he interweaves ancestral melodies, improvisation, …

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, present a third installment of their multi-Grammy Award-winning Latin series with an album centering Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz. Inspired by a 16th century African prince who was enslaved in Mexico, Yanga is composed for choir, percussion quartet, and orchestra. Yanga uses African instruments that arrived in Latin America including …

The fifth installment of John Storgårds’s Shostakovich symphony cycle with the BBC Philharmonic contains works written primarily during Shostakovich’s student years. The two orchestral scherzos on the program share links with the later First Symphony, which was composed as a graduation test in composition from the Petrograd Conservatoire. Shostakovich spent two years working on it and the Symphony he eventually …

Max Reger’s 150th anniversary was celebrated in 2023, but his music is not often programmed. During his own lifetime, however, he was much esteemed. Paul Hindemith described him as “the last giant of music,” and Schoenberg promoted his music because “he still remains unfamiliar” and “I consider him a genius.” Written towards the end of his life, Max Reger’s Four …

Marking 70 years since George Enescu’s death, celebrated violinist Charlie Siem and the Philharmonia Orchestra present two of the Romanian composer’s concertante works (Aria and Scherzino and Ballade, Op. 4a) as companion pieces to Brahms’s Violin Concerto conducted by Oleg Caetani. Charlie Siem is one of today’s foremost young violinists with wide-ranging cross-cultural appeal. Siem has appeared with many of …

Creative collaboration is a fundamental aspect of American composer Joel Puckett. The three works receiving their premiere recording here exemplify this spirit, each reflecting synergy between Puckett’s dynamic creative vision and the musicians for whom he composes. Puckett’s new Trumpet Concerto was written for the distinguished jazz trumpeter Sean Jones as an homage to Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, commissioned and …