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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Emilie Mayer: Symphonies 4 & 6
The internationally acclaimed German label CPO has been enthusiastically filling the niches that larger companies in the industry have sometimes overlooked. The latest release is the label’s sixth album dedicated to the music of Emilie Mayer, and their third in a series presenting the composer’s symphonies with the NDR Radio Philharmonic. Orchestrator Andreas N. Tarkmann reconstructed the lost score of ...
Shostakovich Discoveries
To mark the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death, DG has released an album of world premiere recordings and rarities featuring violinist Gidon Kremer, violist Nils Mönkemeyer, pianists Daniil Trifonov and Yulianna Avdeeva, Kremerata Baltica, the Dresden Staatskapelle conducted by Thomas Sanderling, and others. Most of the pieces were recorded at the International Shostakovich Festival in Gohrisch, the world’s only annual ...
Chopin: Sonatas 2 & 3/Ballade No. 1/ Berceuse/Nocturnes
On his ninth album on the Decca label, internationally renowned British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor celebrates Chopin’s genius with two of his most profound and contrasting works: the Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor and the Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor. Composed five years apart, these masterpieces showcase the range of Chopin’s emotional and musical brilliance. Grosvenor comments, ...
Chopin Intime
French harpsichordist and fortepianist Justin Taylor is celebrated for his stylish interpretations of early music. Keen to match the works he tackles with the most appropriate historical instruments, Taylor presents a program of intimate Chopin miniatures on a Pleyel pianino. The pianino, a small upright piano of six and a half octaves that was only made between 1835 and 1842, ...
Prokofiev & Shor
Behzod Abduraimov won the 2009 London International Piano Competition at the age of 18 with a performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 — a victory that marked his graduation from a prodigy to a celebrated musician. In his new album recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra led by Vasily Petrenko, Abduraimov pairs Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto with the lyrical ...
Bartók, Enescu, Kodály, Martinů
This album from the celebrated Borusan Istanbul Phiharmonic Orchestra and their new chief conductor, Carlo Tenan, presents a program of vibrant eastern European orchestral music. Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, close friends and musical collaborators, did much to explore and preserve traditional Hungarian music which shines through in the Dance Suite and Dances of Galánta. Bohuslav Martinů’s radiant Frescoes of ...
Firedove
Appointed as the first-ever official organist of the Royal Albert Hall in May 2025, Anna Lapwood has strived to make organ music more accessible to a broader audience. Her dynamic presence and innovative programming continue to inspire both traditional concertgoers and new listeners alike. Firedove is her third solo album, blending classical organ works with contemporary and pop influences. The ...
Complicité
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein releases her first album with the string ensemble she founded and directs, Baroklyn (a portmanteau of Baroque and Brooklyn), and featuring the music of J.S. Bach and Philip Lasser. The program features new arrangements of chorale settings for piano and strings, the Keyboard Concerto in E major, BWV 1053, and Cantata 170, Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust with ...
Vienna Mandolin Stories
In his first album of concertos, Israeli mandolinist Alon Sariel explores music of late 18th- and early 19th-century Vienna with the Cologne Academy on period instruments conducted by Michael Alexander Willens. Sariel showcases his inventive approach by adapting pieces such as Mozart’s Andante for Flute and Orchestra for mandolin, and creating a unique “Haydn’s Mandolin Concerto” by combining movements from ...
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works, Vol. 3
Alpesh Chauhan and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra continue their survey of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral works, combining established repertoire with lesser-known works. For this third volume, the former are represented by excerpts from Eugene Onegin and the Marche slave. Less well-known music includes the “Dance of the Tumblers” from the rarely performed opera The Enchantress, while the overture The Storm was ...
Madeleine Dring: Complete Works for Oboe
Madeline Dring was born into a musical and theatrical family and gained an exhibition scholarship to the junior department of the Royal College of Music at the age of nine. Her focus changed from violin to piano and composition, which she studied with Herbert Howells, Gordon Jacob, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Her dedication to the theater opened up a career ...
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Yunchan Lim’s electrifying interpretation of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at the age of 18 is one of the most talked-about performances in recent classical music history. Lim, now 21, first gained international recognition with this very performance, which conductor Marin Alsop described as showing “an old soul, rather than a young ...
Moonlight Variations
Pablo Ferrández describes his Moonlight Variations program as “night followed by day.” The latest album from the star Spanish cellist is a realization of his dream to record Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, the centerpiece of the program, recorded here with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra led by Martin Fröst. The orchestra also joins Ferrández for his own transcription of the “Song to ...
Images: Hommage à Marcel Tournier
Virtuoso harpist Emmanuel Ceysson served as principal harp with the Opéra national de Paris for fifteen years and the Metropolitan Opera of New York for five years. He has been principal harpist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel since 2020. On this album, he pays tribute to Marcel Tournier (1879-1951), one of the greatest harpist-composers in the ...
Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1 & Symphonic Dances
John Wilson and Sinfonia of London complete their cycle of Rachmaninoff symphonies with this recording of the First Symphony and the Symphonic Dances. The 1897 premiere of the First Symphony in St. Petersburg was a disaster. Rumor had it that the conductor was drunk; in any case he seems to have had little interest in the piece, and the performance ...
Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony
As a piano soloist, Lahav Shani made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and legendary conductor Zubin Mehta when he was just 18 years old. As a double bassist, Shani became a regular sub with the IPO, and in 2020, was chosen overwhelmingly by his colleagues to succeed Mehta as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s music director. Lahav Shani has ...
For Dieter: Hommage à Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
This tribute album from baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist James Baillieu honors Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s centenary. “The first time I heard his voice was at school when I was twelve,” says Appl. “In 2009, I applied for his master class at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg which was the start of a long and transformative relationship. I was fortunate to work with ...
CANTUS
On this EP of six tracks, brothers and pianists Lucas and Arthur Jussen explore repertoire that was originally based on a sacred aria or chorale melody. CANTUS includes Anderson and Roe’s two-piano arrangement of “Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben” from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and Reinhard Febel’s four-hand arrangement of Bach’s setting of the chorale “Erbarm dich mein, o ...
Shostakovich & Britten
The new album from star cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason features Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2, performed with John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London, alongside the cello sonatas of Shostakovich and Britten with his sister, pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason. This deeply personal recording pays tribute to cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, the towering figure who inspired both composers and Kanneh-Mason himself. Sheku Kanneh-Mason has ...
Se in fiorito ameno prato
Quartetto Vanvitelli is an Italian ensemble (violinist Gian Andrea Guerra, lutenist Mauro Pinciaroli, cellist Nicola Brovelli, and keyboardist Luigi Accardo) specializing in baroque repertoire with a particular focus on Handel’s works. In Se in fiorito ameno prato, the period instrument ensemble explores Handel’s violin sonatas, connecting them to other pieces, including misattributions, opera excerpts, and keyboard pieces. The program invites ...
