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.
Stay on top of New Releases with WFMT's curated Spotify and Apple Music playlists
Transatlantic
Founded in 1993, Onyx Brass has been a leader in cementing the place of the brass quintet as a medium for serious chamber music. The group has commissioned and performed the world premières of more than 200 new works with many more are in the pipeline for performance and recording. Their new album combines pieces for the ensemble’s core quintet ...
Furtwängler: Symphony No. 2 in E Minor
Wilhelm Furtwängler rose to the most important conductorships available, replacing Richard Strauss at the Staatskapelle Berlin in 1920, and then, following the sudden death of Arthur Nikisch, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. Through the 1930s and ‘40s, his career was defined by his opposition to Nazism, and the determination of the regime to use his international reputation ...
Price: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Piano Concerto / Dances in the Canebrakes
During the decade of the 1930s, Florence Price produced two substantial concertos: the romantic Piano Concerto in One Movement and her first violin concerto – an expansive and richly orchestrated work that was apparently never performed during her lifetime. The later Violin Concerto No. 2 was completed just a few months before her death. These three works represent her entire ...
Bach: The 6 English Suites
Francesco Tristano’s two-disc set follows the pianist’s chart-topping album Bach: The 6 Partitas and marks the next chapter in Tristano’s “great life project” to record J.S. Bach’s complete repertoire. The project will continue with the releases of Bach’s 7 Toccatas in the fall of 2025 and the 6 French Suites in 2026. According to J.S. Bach’s first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, ...
Sky of My Heart
For the ensemble’s tenth commercial album, New York Polyphony has assembled a program of Renaissance compositions by William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons, ingeniously complemented by 20th and 21st century works composed in the same timeless spirit – often by composers with personal and collaborative ties to New York Polyphony. The album’s evocative title comes from the text of a poem ...
Corelli: Concerti grossi Op. 6, 1-6
The Berlin Academy for Ancient Music presents a recording of the first six Concerti grossi, Op. 6 by the composer, ensemble leader and violin virtuoso Arcangelo Corelli, who received the almost cult-like reverence during his lifetime. The composer had been experimenting with this one of the most distinctive forms of instrumental music of the Baroque era since the late 1670s, ...
From Eastern Europe
German cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker caused a sensation by winning both the First Prize and two Special Prizes at the eighth Rostropovich Competition twenty years ago, while her duo partner Martin Helmchen has also been performing on the most prestigious international stages for two decades. Partners both on and off the concert platform, the two artists are passionate advocates of chamber ...
Henriëtte Bosmans: Cello Concertos 1 & 2 – Poème
Henriëtte Bosmans is considered one of the most important Dutch composers of the first half of the 20th century. Having refused to become a member of the Nazi’s Chamber of Culture, her career was put on hold. This new album from cellist Raphael Wallfisch and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra led by Ed Spanjaard is part of Wallfisch’s survey “Voices ...
Forgotten Symphonies
Following the success of his Beethoven and Schubert recordings, Jordi Savall now presents his first album devoted to music of Robert Schumann and Anton Bruckner. Adopting historically informed performance practices, Le Concert des Nations casts light on a repertoire that has been unfairly forgotten. Starting with Robert Schumann’s Zwickauer Symphony, the period instrument orchestra reveals new colors and ardor. The ...
La Mer: French Piano Trios
The Neave Trio explores the power and majesty of the ocean as the inspiration behind their newest album of French works for piano trio. La Mer includes: Trio No. 2, Op. 92 in E minor by Camille Saint-Saëns; Soir-Matin, Op. 76 by Mel Bonis; and La Mer by Claude Debussy, arranged by Sally Beamish. “La Mer is a meditation on ...
Mozart: Piano Sonatas K457, 533, 545, 570 & 576
Angela Hewitt’s 50th album for Hyperion Records concludes her Complete Mozart Piano Sonatas project. The 2-CD album ranges from two of the most beloved works – the K545 “Sonata facile” and the charming Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, maman” – to the composer’s last and most profound piano sonatas. “When you play the complete works of Mozart, you get the ...
Haydn 2032, Vol. 17: Per il Luigi
The 17th volume of the complete Haydn 2032 collection and presents a number of Haydn’s earliest symphonies, composed to display the talent of the musicians who had joined the Esterházy court orchestra during the same period as Haydn himself. The center of the program is the Symphony No. 13 in D major from 1763, whose orchestration includes four horns and ...
Farrenc – Firsova – Bonis: Chamber Music
This release from CPO marks two important anniversaries – the 150th anniversary of the death of French composer Louise Farrenc and the 75th birthday of Russian composer Elena Firsova. The USSR-born, UK-based composer’s piano quartet, now ten years old, is the centerpiece of this recording. For her piano quintet, Farrenc adopted the unusual scoring of her piano quintet from her ...
Nei Giardini d’Amore: Baroque Arias For Two Alti
This new album featuring two rising star countertenors Carlo Vistoli and Hugh Cutting. Accompanied by Les Arts Florissants, conducted by William Christie, the program centers Baroque arias and duets for two altos by composers such as Monteverdi, Caldara, Bononcini, and Vivaldi. The album’s release marks a significant milestone in Cutting’s career, following his recognition as the first countertenor to win ...
Brahms/Koncz: Sonatas for Clarinet and Orchestra
Daniel Ottensamer presents Brahms’ two legendary clarinet sonatas, reworked for clarinet and orchestra by Stephan Koncz, who also conducts the Berlin German Symphony Orchestra on this recording. Koncz’s orchestrations bring these masterful pieces out of the limited space of chamber music, presenting them in a new symphonic light. The album is rounded out by a hidden gem, Walter Rabl’s clarinet ...
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique; Ravel: La valse
Klaus Mäkelä conducts Orchestre de Paris in two classic showpieces that premiered in Paris: Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Ravel’s La valse. “Mäkelä is a star, no doubt, and the proof of it is that he makes his players look and sound like stars, too” wrote The Guardian about the BBC Proms performance of the Berlioz last summer, shortly before this ...
Beethoven: Sonatas Nos. 18, 27, 28 and 31: The Lost Tapes
The Lost Tapes presents previously unreleased live recordings of four pivotal Beethoven piano sonatas. Captured during performances at the Lucerne Festival and Richter’s private venue in La Grange de Meslay, these recordings offer a rare glimpse into the interpretative genius of one of the 20th century’s most esteemed pianists. The selected sonatas—Op. 31 No. 3 “The Hunt”, Op. 90, Op. ...
Romanza
Andreas Ottensamer, who recently announced he will step down as principal clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic to focus on conducting, presents his latest album with pianist José Gallardo. Romanza features select movements from clarinet sonatas by Brahms, Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, Rota, and Joseph Horovitz. The album also includes Ottensamer’s own transcriptions of beloved classical melodies such as Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1, ...
Âmes Soeurs
Named “Instrumental Soloist Revelation” at the 2025 Victoires de la Musique awards, Lorraine Campet has been principal solo double bassist with the Paris Opera Orchestra since 2024. In her debut solo album with pianist Nathanaël Gouin, Campet explores German Romanticism with works by Schubert, Robert Schumann, Beethoven, and Josephine Lang arranged for the double bass. Under the deep and warm ...
The Music of George Frederick McKay
The boundary pushing Formosa Quartet continues its commitment to unexplored repertoire with their latest album featuring the first commercial recordings of string quartets by American composer George Frederick McKay (June 11, 1899-October 4, 1970). McKay was a prolific composer and author, born a year after Gershwin, whose music evokes “…a vigorous blend of influences, including Civil War Era folksongs sung ...
