Curating the best new classical recordings
There’s always wonderful music to discover, from instrumental to vocal music, new recordings of old favorites, or albums featuring cutting-edge contemporary works. Discover more about each selection below.
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Ravel Paris 2025
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 ...
The French in Spain
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 ...
Home
Rising American violinist Karisa Chiu — Cedille Records’ 2021 Emerging Artist Competition Finalist — and renowned Chinese pianist Zhu Wang unite for Chiu’s debut album, HOME. Influenced by her Chicago upbringing, pandemic discoveries, and Korean and Chinese family roots, the recording reflects the various interpretations of “home” in the 25-year-old violinist’s life. “This album is not only a story of ...
Songs of Passion
In their newest release, mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and Jupiter, the ensemble led by lutenist Thomas Dunford, present a collection of vocal and instrumental music by John Dowland and Henry Purcell. Repertoire includes Dowland’s Lachrimae and vocal works from his First and Second Book of Ayres, as well as selections from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and The Fairy Queen. Baritone Huw ...
For Arvo
Georgijs Osokins, a proud advocate of the rarely celebrated musical heritage of the Baltic states, presents an album of works by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, who turns 90 this year. For Arvo features Pärt’s complete solo piano works as well as Osokins’s own transcriptions of several other famous pieces, including Fratres. This album marks Latvian-born pianist’s first solo recording on ...
Edge of the Storm
The Telegraph Quartet presents the second volume in its 20th-Century Vantage Points series with a new album examining the turbulent years of war and its aftermath from 1941-1951 through string quartets by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg. As Kai Christiansen writes in the liner notes, “Each composer featured on the album lived a unique wartime life that unmistakably ...
William Lawes: Lighten Mine Eies
Led by gambist/conductor Robin Pharo, the French period instrument Ensemble Près de votre oreille (Close to your ear) makes its debut on the Harmonia Mundi label with a program of sacred vocal work and viol consorts with harp by William Lawes. The brilliant heir to William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons, Lawes wrote contrapuntal 5- and 6-part works of immense complexity ...
Nielsen: Clarinet Concerto, Helios, Symphony No. 5
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 ...
Laurie Christman: Running with Horses
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 ...
River of Music
Reuniting all seven of the Kanneh-Mason siblings – Isata, Braimah, Sheku, Konya, Jeneba, Aminata and Mariatu – the family’s second joint album features new arrangements of classical works and folk songs, with the centerpiece being Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, a beloved family favorite the siblings grew up listening to together. River of Music shares how the Kanneh-Masons’ love of music has ...
Robert Schumann: Violin Sonatas No. 1 & 2; Fantasy, Op. 131
Violinist Joshua Brown is an alumnus of the Music Institute of Chicago, recipient of a 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and 2nd Prize-winner and Audience Award-winner of the 2024 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He presents his debut solo album of violin sonatas by Robert Schumann with pianist Paolo Giacometti. “The struggle that Schumann so openly expresses through his music ...
The Legendary Harmonia Mundi Recitals
Thirty years ago, a young German countertenor recorded his first disc for Harmonia Mundi. Since then, Andreas Scholl has recorded numerous albums for the label that have been met with great critical acclaim. To celebrate this outstanding artist, a box set combining six of his iconic recitals retraces some of the highlights of his career to date. This special reissue ...
First Symphonies: Bizet, Gounod, Saint-Saens
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. ...
Tchaikovsky: The Seasons
Yunchan Lim shares a deeply personal and thoughtful interpretation of one of Tchaikovsky’s most intimate piano works: The Seasons. Recorded live at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, Yunchan Lim views the twelve pieces not merely as a set of months, but as a story portraying someone’s final year of life “It begins with a man who is lost in ...
Reena Esmail: Exaltations
Washington’s distinguished Cathedral Choral Society presents EXALTATIONS by award-winning Indian-American composer Reena Esmail. Commissioned by the Cathedral Choral Society, EXALTATIONS is a three-movement work for double choir and brass quintet that draws inspiration from the monumental works of Giovanni Gabrieli and Anton Bruckner. Each movement is set in a different Hindustani raga, reflecting Esmail’s deep engagement with her bicultural heritage. ...
Pictures from Finland
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 ...
Elena Kats-Chernin: Ancient Letters
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 ...
London circa 1760: J.C. Bach, C.F. Abel & friends
In the latest installment of their series devoted to British 18th-century music, the musicians of period-instrument ensemble La Rêveuse take us to London 1760. Handel had just died and George III acceded to the throne. During his reign with his queen Charlotte, both discerning musicians, musical life in the British capital was to enjoy an exceptional revival. Virtuosos and composers ...
Woodland Songs
The Dover Quartet presents Antonín Dvořák’s “American” quartet paired with music by Pura Fé Crescioni and Jerod Impichcha̱achaaha’ Tate. “While the three works contrast each other substantially in style, expression, and historical context, they all share the common influence of music native to North America. Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate and Pura Fé Crescioni both find inspiration from the traditional music of ...
Four Spirits
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, ...
