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 …

Composer Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958) is one of Europe’s leading names in contemporary music. This new album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Nicholas Collon features some of the most recent orchestral compositions by Lindberg culminating with his new Viola Concerto, a performed by Lawrence Power as soloist. Lindberg was commissioned by the Rotterdam Philharmonic to …

Nathalie Stutzmann, initially celebrated as a contralto, has firmly established herself as a conductor. Her debut album leading the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra features Dvořák’s Symphony No 9, ‘From the New World’ paired with Dvořák’s American Suite. When Stutzmann inaugurated her tenure as its music director in 2022, she became only the second woman to serve as artistic leader of one …

These performances are CSO music director designate Klaus Mäkelä’s first Shostakovich on record and shows off the Oslo Philharmonic’s pedigree in the music of Shostakovich, one it learned with former chief conductor Mariss Jansons. Jansons studied with Yevgeny Mravinsky, the Principal Conductor of the Leningrad (now St Petersburg) Philharmonic, the man who premiered no fewer than five of Shostakovich’s symphonies. …

The gradual rollout of the National Symphony Orchestra’s recordings of symphonic works by Carlos Simon is completed with his Songs of Separation and Wake Up! Concerto for Orchestra. Based on poems of Rumi, Songs of Separation (four) was commissioned by the NSO and features mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges. Wake Up! was inspired by the poem “Awake, Asleep” by Nepali poet Rajendra …