Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero is on a mission with the Nashville Symphony to expand the contemporary American concerto repertoire. Each of the three works on their new release spotlights a different facet of the relatively underexplored brass instrument family. Brad Warnaar’s Cornet Concerto is a witty and heartfelt homage to the rich heritage of 19th-century band music. Chick Corea’s Trombone Concerto, …

Joseph Haydn gave lessons in singing, keyboard instruments, theory, and composition throughout his life. His pupils included Ignaz Pleyel, Sigismund Neukomm and the Pole Franciszek (Franz) Lessel. In October 1805, Lessel received from his teacher the autograph score of his Symphony No. 56, dating from 1774. This symphony forms a pair with Symphony No. 55, known as “The Schoolmaster” and …

Composers Jocelyn Hagen and Timothy C. Takach partnered with the VOCES8 Foundation Choir and Orchestra and violinist Jack Liebeck to create and record Rose Ever Blooming, a new 55-minute Christmas oratorio featuring SATB choir, violin solo, and orchestra. The libretto is inspired by Patricia Monaghan’s poetry, featuring twelve poems woven together with traditional Christmas carols as musical touchstones. Rose Ever …

The BBC Philharmonic led by John Andrews present a landmark recording, the first album devoted entirely to the music of Avril Coleridge-Taylor (1903–1998), daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. A composer, conductor, pianist, and singer of remarkable versatility, she long remained in the shadow of her father, but as the album reveals, she had a distinctive, eloquent, and assured musical voice. Her …

The Ulster Orchestra conducted by Chales Peebles with violinist Ioana Petcu-Coland soprano Rebecca Murphy mark the 150th anniversary of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912) with a selection of his orchestral works, reflecting both his Afro-British parentage and a musical milieu that included Holst and Vaughan Williams. Five of the seven works presented here are first recordings including his first work for voice …

Crossover classical pianist, arranger, and composer Chloe Flowers presents her first Christmas album. While planning this release, Flowers discovered that works by women composers represented less than 1% of the music performed during the holiday season. “There are just so many Christmas pieces that are known, which are stunning, but there’s actually so many women-composed holiday music out there that …

Violinist Geneva Lewis and pianist Clare Hammond are soloists join the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for another released this calendar year celebrating the music of Grace Williams. The Welsh composer held herself and her art to the highest standards, withdrawing and destroying scores which failed to live up to her ideals. Her Violin Concerto was only performed a few …

Recorded during two sold-out performances in May of 2025 at the Mahler Festival in Amsterdam, this new album captures Klaus Mäkelä leading the Concertgebouw Orchestra, joined by five choirs – the Choeur de l’Orchestre de Paris, Netherlands Radio Choir, Laurens Symfonisch, and the Dutch National Children’s and Boys’ Choirs – and soloists Hailey Clark, Golda Schultz, Miriam Kutrowatz, Jennifer Johnston, …

In the heart of Baroque Rome, the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is the principal Marian sanctuary of the Eternal City. For centuries it has guarded not only the relics of Jesus’s cradle and swaddling-clothes, but also the celebrated marble Nativity Scene by Arnolfo di Cambio (1291), the first of its kind in the history of art, thus earning it …

The Sinfonia of London conducted by John Wilson present their second volume of works by Sir William Walton featuring Jonathan Aasgaard as soloist in the Cello Concerto. Walton’s First Symphony was universally acclaimed as an outstanding success, with John Ireland commenting: “unlike any other English symphony, this is in the real line of symphonic tradition. It is simply colossal, grand, …

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 …