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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Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra: Music of Kodaly
Zoltán Kodály, like his compatriot Béla Bartók, wrote major orchestral scores that were deeply enriched by his research into Hungarian folk music. The Dances of Galánta and Dances of Marosszék are full of swagger and vitality, and the Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 50th anniversary, is lush, sparkling, and vivid. Like the Variations on a Hungarian ...
Andsnes & Hamelin: Music of Stravinsky for Two Pianos
Pianists Leif Ove Andsnes and Marc-André Hamelin have captured on disc the collaboration that has, in live performance, been hailed as “a keyboard partnership of titans.” The centerpiece of the album is The Rite of Spring. First heard in public when the composer played through its opening half with Debussy, the piano four-hands arrangement was also the first version to be published. For their two-piano ...
The King’s Men: Love From King’s
The Choral Scholars of King’s College Choir, under their a cappella group name The King’s Men, present a new collection of close harmony music. “Love from King’s” is an album of new arrangements of folk songs and romantic pop and jazz favorites. The majority of the tracks on the album were arranged specially for the album, with arrangements by former King’s Choir members ...
Brahms: Cello Sonatas
Gary Hoffman is one of the outstanding cellists of our time, combining instrumental mastery, great beauty of sound, and a poetic sensibility. On his latest album, he is joined by pianist Claire Désert in the two sonatas for cello and piano by Johannes Brahms. Hoffman says, “These sonatas are as inexhaustible and revelatory as the Beethoven sonatas or Bach suites; ...
Handel & Haydn Society: Works by Haydn & Mozart
Continuing their acclaimed live series on the Coro label, the Handel and Haydn Society presents one of Haydn’s early Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) symphonies – No. 26 in D minor. More commonly known as Lamentatione because of its association with Holy Week, Haydn incorporates an old plainsong chant juxtaposing it against the furious opening theme. The later Symphony ...
Impressions: The Sound of Debussy
This 3-CD set from Warner Classics gathers together Debussy’s best-loved masterpieces, the foundation of his reputation, along with a few works that remain lesser-known. Among the rarities is the world-premiere recording of Chanson des brises (1882) for female voices and piano – a work which until now had remained undiscovered.
Hilary Hahn: Retrospective
An artist portrait curated by Hilary Hahn herself, “Retrospective” features recordings from albums she made as a Deutsche Grammophon artist as well as almost 30 minutes of new, unreleased material from a live concert in Berlin – Mozart’s Violin Sonata, K. 379, and new recordings of works from her “Encores” album. Commissioned through Hahn’s social media platforms, the “Retrospective” artwork ...
Munich Philharmonic/Pablo Heras-Casado: Music of Bartok
Neither the disillusionment that set in after his exile to the United States nor his declining health stopped Béla Bartók from fulfilling his commission for the Concerto for Orchestra nor from writing the Third Piano Concerto, his final work, intended to secure his wife’s future. Hence his gloomy circumstances led to two masterpieces (and gained him a long-awaited American reputation). ...
Yale Schola Cantorum: Music of Palestrina
Yale Schola Cantorum is a chamber choir that performs sacred music from the sixteenth century to the present day in concert settings and choral services around the world. It is sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and conducted by David Hill. Open by audition to students from all departments and professional schools across Yale University, the choir has ...
Denis Matsuev: Rachmaninoff & Prokofiev Piano Concertos
Born less than twenty years apart, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev were two of the greatest composer-pianists of the 20th Century and their instrument played a central role in many of their greatest works. In this recording, virtuoso pianist Denis Matsuev contrasts their second piano concertos, pieces that are both formidable and unmistakably Russian in their own way. He is joined by ...
Arcangelo: Bach Magnificats
Arcangelo brings together some of the world’s finest musicians who excel on both historical and modern instruments under the direction of Jonathan Cohen. Equally, their handpicked choir features the cream of the British choral scene. These are performers of dazzling technical ability, but they also have a passion for faithful interpretation that goes far beyond historical understanding. On their latest ...
Joseph Calleja: Verdi
Joseph Calleja explores the light and dark in Verdi’s heroic tenors on his new album. A significant step into Verdi repertoire for Calleja, the album reflects the tenor’s flourishing live career performing at leading opera houses the world over. The recording features solo favorites such as Celeste Aida and Di quella pira, as well as duets with soprano Angela Gheorghiu ...
Liza Stepanova: Tones & Colors
Pianist Liza Stepanova, praised by the New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache,” presents the new album “Tones & Colors” on CAG Records. This collection showcases the cross-pollination between visual and aural media through thirteen pieces of music, spanning the centuries between Bach and Ligeti, inspired by paintings, drawings, and sculptures.
Lea & Esther Birringer: Lifelines
Lea Birringer has firmly established herself as one of the most celebrated German violinists to emerge internationally in recent years. Her sister, pianist Esther Birringer, generates equal enthusiasm among the public with her confident style. Since their shared international success in major chamber music competitions in 2011, the sisters have also conquered the concert halls as a duo. Their album ‘Lifelines’ pays tribute to three ...
Charles Owen & Katya Apekisheva: Music of Rachmaninoff
Piano duo partners Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva turn to Rachmaninoff’s diverse Suites for two pianos, and the composer’s atmospheric Morceaux, for their first joint recording for Avie. The co-founders of the London Piano Festival delve into the Suite No. 1, also known as Fantaisie-tableaux, with its poetic inspirations, and the more traditional Suite No. 2 which marked Rachmaninoff’s compositional comeback ...
Bruce Levingston: Windows
Bruce Levingston is one of today’s celebrated figures in contemporary classical music. The title of his new album, “Windows,” is taken from the suite by American composer James Matheson, heard here in its world premiere recording. This evocative work depicts the stained glass windows of Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse inspired by ancient imagery and scripture. These works led Levingston ...
2018 New Year’s Concert in Vienna
Few concerts can claim to generate such tremendous international interest as the New Year’s Concert from Vienna. Under the baton of the world’s leading conductors, the Vienna Philharmonic rings in the New Year with a gala concert from the magnificent setting of the Golden Hall in Vienna’s Musikverein. The event is broadcast to over 90 countries all over the world ...
Stephen Hough: Debussy
Stephen Hough is widely regarded as one of the most important and distinctive pianists of his generation. From highly acclaimed performances of central repertoire in recital, in recording, and with the world’s greatest orchestras to an interest in contemporary and neglected nineteenth-century works, he integrates the imagination and pianistic color of the past with the scholarship and intellectual rigor of ...
Francesca Dego: Violin Concertos by Paganini & Wolf-Ferrari
This album marks Italian violinist Francesca Dego’s debut orchestral recording on Deutsche Grammophon. It features two Italian masterpieces: Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s seldom-performed Violin Concerto and Paganini’s renowned Concerto No. 1, which celebrates its 200th anniversary this year. Dego recorded Wolf-Ferrari’s concerto when she gave the UK premiere of the piece at Symphony Hall with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and ...
Camerata Chicago: Sweetest Day Concert
Founded in 2003, Camerata Chicago is a chamber orchestra equally at home in intimate settings well as in larger chamber music venues, performing the rich tapestry of diverse chamber orchestral repertoire that includes newly commissioned works. Camerata Chicago is now firmly established as one of the finest chamber orchestras and has performed frequently on WFMT. On their latest album, taken from ...
