This album of world-premiere recordings is inspired by opera but without singing. As conductor Timothy Redmond says, it is “a distillation of the theatrical experience heard through the voice of the orchestra.” The repertoire includes Jonathan Dove’s Stargazer, subtitled “an opera for trombone and orchestra,” featuring virtuoso trombonist Peter Moore. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Thomas Adès’s opera …

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra presents Wynton Marsalis’s Blues Symphony. The work is a triumphant ode to the power of the blues and the scope of America’s musical heritage. With a blend of influences from ragtime to habanera, the seven-movement work takes listeners on a sonic journey through America’s revolutionary era, the early beginnings of jazz in New Orleans, and a …

This release marks the fifth and final volume of the complete Sibelius symphonies performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under the charismatic Finnish percussionist turned conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali. Rouvali, who made his debut with Chicago Symphony Orchestra in February, has been Chief Conductor of Gothenburg Symphony since 2017, a position that concludes in 2025. This series has already won numerous …

Founded in 2019, the New York-based chamber orchestra Parlando is the brainchild of conductor Ian Niederhoffer, a Musical America “New Artist of the Month” and BBC Music Magazine “Rising Star.” In the ensemble’s debut album, Niederhoffer explores from the 20th century as a tool of cultural resilience in the face of censorship, particularly in the Soviet Union. The album opens …

The prolific recording artists Sinfonia of London conducted by John Wilson present works by Sir William Walton (the first in a new series of recordings) featuring Charlie Lovell-Jones as soloist in the Violin Concerto. Leader of the Sinfonia of London, the 26-year-old Welsh violinist has been recognized as one of the most promising international soloists of his generation. Commissioned by …

Formerly known as Philharmonie zuidnederland, Philzuid is the only professional symphony orchestra in the south of the Netherlands as well as one of the largest in the country. Founded in 2013 and based in Eindhoven and Maastricht, Philzuid was created by merging the Brabant Orchestra and the Linburg Symphony Orchestra. Chief Conductor Duncan Ward leads a high energy performance of …

Violinist Renaud Capuçon pays homage to Richard Strauss with a 3 CD compilation of chamber and orchestral works. The album is bookended by a new recording of the youthful Violin Concerto with the Wiener Symphoniker led by Petr Popelka, and an archival reading of Ein Heldenleben. Recorded in 2000, “A Hero’s Life” comes from Capuçon’s days as leader of the …

The fifth volume of John Wilson’s series of orchestral works by his mentor and friend Sir Richard Rodney Bennett features three works composed between 1973 and 1989. The Concerto for Orchestra is an homage to Benjamin Britten, taking a twelve-note series used by Britten in his Cantata Academica as an abstract musical starting point. Bennett’s rarely performed cello concerto Sonnets …

Their names were Laura, Livia, and Anna. Together, they were known in the late 1500s as the Tre Donne di Ferrara – the three ladies of Ferrara. Their ensemble was praised by contemporary poets and won highest renown throughout Italy and Germany. However, women were not supposed to become famous for their professional achievements. And so, one of them was …

The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra centers a 20th century Welsh composer whose distinctive voice was influenced by both Vaughan Williams and the Second Viennese School. Four of Grace Williams’s orchestral gems, spanning three decades of her illustrious career, are performed on this program conducted by John Andrews. Four Illustrations of the Legend of Rhiannon (1939) is a suite that brings the …

This two-CD album presents, for the first time ever, a recording of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Symphony in F-sharp performed by the composer himself, an incredibly special historical recording from the Korngold Family Archives. The new release also presents a 1997 live performance by the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana conducted by John Mauceri, whose research into the symphony included his exclusive …

For their third installment of orchestral works by Ruth Gipps, Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic center the 20th century composer’s Symphony No. 1 and Horn Concerto with soloist Martin Owen. Dated September 1942, the First Symphony is a direct reflection of the horrors of war. The work demonstrates Gipps’s personal voice and features some wonderful writing for winds. Gipps …

A reissue of a live recording made at an acclaimed concert in Munich on October 17, 1976, featuring the Fifth Symphony and Leonore Overture No. 3, new to the WFMT library. Following this all-Beethoven program with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein returned to Munich to conduct regularly, beginning an annual series with the orchestra in 1983. Joachim Kaiser, …

This volume of modern premieres of works by Johann Friedrich Fasch was recorded during a program that opened the 2023 International Fasch Festival in Zerbst, the city in which the composer was Capellmeister to the princely court. Fasch, a German violinist and composer, falls in the transitional period between the High Baroque and Classical eras. Tempesta di Mare has been …

This first release in a new series dedicated to the orchestral works of the American composer Edward MacDowell centers the First Piano Concerto, played by Xiayin Wang with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by John Wilson. The various romantic influences that shaped the style of the First Concerto include the music of Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, and Grieg, while the technical demands …

Led by Stilian Kirov, the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra makes its debut on Cedille Records with the world premiere recordings of Michael Abels’s Frederick’s Fables and Augusta Read Thomas’s Gwendolyn Brooks Settings. These works were adapted from short stories by celebrated children’s author and illustrator Leo Lionni and the poetry of former U.S. Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks. Frederick’s Fables, which features …

Following the acclaimed, Grammy-nominated Americascapes, the Basque National Orchestra and its music director Robert Treviño present a second album dedicated to American repertoire. American Opus features three 20th century compositions. George Walker’s first orchestral work, the folk and gospel-tinged Address for Orchestra (1959), is one that the composer hoped Robert Treviño would one day record. George Crumb’s enigmatic A Haunted …

In the lead-up to the 300th anniversary of Joseph Haydn’s birth in 2032, the Joseph Haydn Foundation in Basel is producing the performance and recording of all 107 of the composer’s symphonies by Il Giardino Armonico and Basel Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Giovanni Antonini, one of the most highly-respected specialists in baroque, early classical and classical music, with …

The first release of Florez Records, the new label founded by tenor Juan Diego Flórez, is dedicated to the genre of zarzuela. “These romances full of passion and emotion represent an almost unique opportunity for Spanish and Latin American tenors to sing in their mother tongue,” says Flórez. “This recording production certainly fills me with happiness and pride. Firstly, because …

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 …

Music of the Baroque presents the sublime oratorio Jephtha, Handel’s final masterpiece, recorded live conducted by Dame Jane Glover. Tenor David Portillo, a Ryan Opera Center alum, leads the cast that includes sopranos Lauren Snouffer and Katelyn Lee, mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski, countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, and bass-baritone Neal Davies. The performance from September 2022 marked Jane Glover’s 20th season leading …

The Danish Chamber Orchestra presents the fourth volume in a series of Haydn symphonies led by Ádám Fischer, who has led the orchestra for over two decades. The three late symphonies on this album were written during Haydn’s second, triumphant visit to London. The works possess increased artistic weight and mark a transition from Viennese Classicism to Romanticism. With this …

Following a devastating cancer diagnosis in September 2022, Adrian Sutton, the composer of the music for War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and other National Theatre productions, made a conscious decision to change his focus, committing himself to working solely on music for the concert hall. This new album of world premiere recordings reflects his …

Before Imogen Holst died in 1984, she established the Holst Foundation to support living composers which led to the founding NMC Recordings. Imogen Holst, daughter of Gustav Holst, was a teacher, educator, festival administrator, and one of Britain’s most accomplished composers. Discovering Imogen features many world premiere recordings of her Modern era works for choir and orchestra. Colin Matthews, founder …