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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Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Toussaint L’Ouverture; Ballade Op. 4; Suites from “24 Negro Melodies”
Michael Repper leads the National Philharmonic in a celebration of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – an album of world-premiere recordings commemorating the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.. The program features new performance editions of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Ballade in D minor, Op. 4, and the Suite from 24 Negro Melodies. Grammy-nominated violinist Curtis Stewart is featured in the Ballade and in his ...
Dialogue: Debussy & Schumann
The debut solo album of French cellist Juliette Herlin — noted for having given the first performances since 1919 of a lost cello sonata by Camille Saint-Saëns — pairs her with Canadian pianist Kevin Ahfat. This repertoire features original works for cello and piano (Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Debussy’s Cello Sonata, etc.) as well as song transcriptions, exploring the subtle connections between ...
PRISM, Vol. 2
Saxophonist Jess Gillam and her ensemble continue their innovative exploration of sound in the second EP (five tracks) in the PRISM series, blurring boundaries between classical, folk, and contemporary music. Arrangements of Debussy’s “Clair de lune” and Nadia Boulanger’s “Cantique” showcase the lyrical tone of the soprano saxophone. Transcriptions of Baroque works include Scarlatti’s F minor sonata and Telemann’s Oboe ...
Next Generation Mozart Soloists, Vol. 12
The current volume in this series showcases a vibrant pairing of young soloists with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in concertos by Mozart. The Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat, K. 271 has long been known as the ‘Jeunehomme’ — but it was discovered in 2004 that it was actually composed for Louise Victoire Jenamy. Mozart misspelled her name ...
Play, Music! Songs from Shakespeare’s Plays
Founded in 2020 by tenor and lutenist Brian Kay, THEATRO is dedicated to creating memorable theatrical experiences that transport audiences to different eras and places, illuminating the stories of the past. THEATRO’s debut album on Avie Records gathers Renaissance instruments and voices for a program of songs and dances from Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare frequently directed his characters to burst into ...
Just Biber
Following up on her critically acclaimed recording of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber’s Rosary Sonatas, violinist and musical director Rachel Podger—“the unsurpassed British glory of the baroque violin” (The Times)—leads Brecon Baroque on Just Biber, an album of sonatas from Biber’s 1681 collection Sonatæ Violino Solo and his theatrical Sonata Representivo. These works are extremely virtuosic, with extensive multiple stopping ...
An American Affair: American Works For Flute
The latest album from English flutist Lisa Friend — who has performed as a soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra — is a collection of American works for flute and piano, featuring composers such as Copland, Price, Bernstein, Beach, and Griffes. Joined by pianist Rohan de Silva, Friend explores ...
Visiting Rachmaninoff: Chopin Variations; Romances
Pianist Alexander Melnikov new album is dedicated to music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, centering his Variations on a Theme by Chopin. Melkinov traveled to Villa Senar, Rachmaninoff’s Bauhaus summer home on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, to record on the composers’s own grand piano, a birthday gift from Frederik Steinway. The album also features the luminous soprano Julia Lezhneva who joins Melkinov ...
Silvestrov: Symphony No. 8 & Violin Concerto
Valentin Silvestrov was forced to leave his native Ukraine after the Russian invasion of 2022, and his earlier music has an almost prescient quality that seems to express the fate of his homeland. The intimate Violin Concerto and the heartfelt, one-movement Eighth Symphony are notable for their economy of expression and emphasis on beauty, depth and harmony. Silvestorv’s “metaphorical style,” ...
Bacewicz: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2
Pioneering twentieth-century Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz’s vibrant and dynamic musical language bridges the gap between neoclassicism and modernism. This second volume of conductor Sakari Oramo’s Bacewicz series features three rarely recorded works. The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was written in 1949 for the Frédéric Chopin Composers’ Competition, organized by the Polish Composers’ Union to commemorate the centenary of Chopin’s ...
Tania León: Horizons, Raíces (Origins), Stride, Pasajes
Tania León was the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence for two seasons concluding in July 2025. The orchestra’s new album on their in-house label presents four of León’s works which the orchestra has premiered in the UK and Europe including an LPO commission. Horizons (1999) is a shimmering tapestry of asymmetrical rhythms and Latin inflected orchestration. Stride (2020) is a Pulitzer ...
American Vignettes: Contemporary Works for Cello and Piano
Cellist Aron Zelkowicz is the founder and director of the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival which presents rare and diverse works from Jewish musical traditions. In his new album with pianist Christina Wright-Ivanova, Zelkowicz presents late 20th and early 21st century works by six American composers—Carter Pann, Gabriela Lena Frank, Kevin Puts, Margaret Bonds, Stacy Garrop, and Stephen Paulus. Though quintessentially ...
Handel: Chandos Anthems (Anthems for Cannons)
In the summer of 1717, after performing his Water Music during a royal cruise on the Thames, Handel began composing for James Brydges (1674-1744), who became the first Duke of Chandos and created the Cannons Concert at his estate in Cannons. Handel composed eleven anthems and a Te Deum for him, as well as transposing and revising As pants the ...
Handel: Italian Cantatas & Arias
Opera Prima’s second album with soprano Amanda Forsythe features two early works by a young Handel—Armida abbandonata (1707) and Agrippina condotta a morire (1708)—as well as a trio sonata, sinfonia, and selections from his oratorio Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno. Highly sought-after for her interpretations of Handel, Forsythe is acclaimed for her agile coloratura, exquisite breath control, and ...
Ellis Island
On her debut album, Hungarian‑American pianist Julia Hamos presents a deeply personal musical journey that weaves together her dual heritage. A graduate of Juilliard, the Royal Academy of Music, and Mannes—where she studied with luminaries like Richard Goode and Sir András Schiff—Hamos brings technical brilliance to the miniatures by György Kurtág and Béla Bartók which anchor the program. The repertoire for Ellis Island, ...
A French Odyssey
UnderStories is a Baroque ensemble consisting of only bass instruments inspired by the botanical term “understory,” referring to the layer of plants that grow in the shade of the canopy of a forest. Founded in 2018, the group focuses on exploring the rise of the cello as a solo instrument, and especially the repertoire for two concertante cellos in the ...
Elsa Barraine: Symphonies 1 & 2
The WDR Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Elena Schwarz present orchestral works by Elsa Barraine, a composer who has long been unjustly neglected. Born in Paris in 1910 and a pupil of Paul Dukas alongside Olivier Messiaen, Barraine won the Prix de Rome in 1929—a remarkable achievement for the fourth woman ever to receive it. The album centers Barraine’s ...
French Impressions: Chamber Music by Chausson & Tailleferre
Rachel Barton Pine’s 25th album on the Cedille label unites her with pianist Orion Weiss and the Pacifica Quartet for French music of the turn-of-the-century and early mid-20th century. As a violinist who adores playing chamber music, but isn’t a member of a string quartet, Pine holds special fondness for the centerpiece work on this program: Ernest Chausson’s Concert for ...
Light and Shadow
Following their acclaimed mixtape series, Light and Shadow is the sixth album from Orchestra of the Swan and David Le Page. Featuring works by Peter Gabriel, Thomas Newman, and Radiohead alongside music by composers more widely accepted in the classical genre such as Ennio Morricone, Bernard Herrmann, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, this latest installment promises to take you on a compelling, ...
Johannes Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4
Recently awarded the prestigious Brahms Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Brahms Society, Kent Nagano and the Hamburg State Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor from 2015 until 2025, perform the last two symphonies by the Hamburg-born composer, recorded in concert. The most personal of Johannes Brahms’s four symphonies, the Third is both heroic and deeply troubled with each movement ending ...
