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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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 ...
Unraveled
Kebyart is a Spanish saxophone quartet currently celebrating its tenth anniversary season. To mark the Ravel’s 150th anniversary, Kebyart sets out to explore his unique compositional legacy, despite the composer never having written for saxophone quartet. The album includes Kebyart’s transcriptions of Le Tombeau de Couperin and Pavane pour une infante défunte, alongside arrangements of French Baroque works by Rameau, ...
Adam: Griseldis
Adolphe Adam is famous for the popular ballets Giselle and Le Corsaire, works that were highly influential in the development of 19th-century musical theater, most especially in the evolution of the Romantic ballet. Giselle, still considered the very essence of the Romantic ballet, marked a peak in the composer’s career. The 1848 Revolution, however, coincided with a period of financial ...
Northern Colours
In his new Scandinavia-centric album, Felix Klieser and the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Jamie Phillips, present two contemporary concertos for horn and orchestra. Soundscape – A Walk in Colours by Swedish composer Rolf Martinsson (b. 1956) was commissioned for Felix Klieser and was premiered in 2022. Martinsson describes Soundscape as a single-movement concerto divided into five distinct sections, ...
Shostakovich: The Piano Concertos & Solo Works
This album marks the culmination of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s decade-long, Grammy-winning Shostakovich cycle and is released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death. It showcases Yuja Wang’s performances with the BSO under the baton of its Music Director Andris Nelsons of Shostakovich’s two contrasting piano concertos – No. 1 in C minor and No. 2 in ...
Fantasies
The youngest cellist ever to win the International Tchaikovsky Competition, Zlatomir Fung presents his solo debut album with pianist Richard Fu featuring six fantasies on themes from opera, including fantasies on melodies from Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment, Rossini’s William Tell, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Additionally, the album features Fantasy on Jenůfa which Fung ...
Beloved
Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers presents the world premiere recording of Billy Childs’s In the Arms of the Beloved featuring the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Grant Gershon. In the Arms of the Beloved is a requiem for Childs’s mother, Mable Brown Childs. It conveys a profound message of hope, love and resilience that is especially poignant in the wake ...
Errollyn Wallen: Orchestral Works
The BBC Concert Orchestra led by John Andrews present a survey Errollyn Wallen’s orchestral music written between 2000 and 2023, showcasing her distinctive voice across a wide range of moods. Recently appointed Master of the King’s Music by King Charles III, Wallen is a groundbreaking figure in contemporary classical music. The program kicks off with the newest composition: Dances for ...
Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On
After a few albums that stretched the ensemble towards contemporary, crossover, and popular repertoire (including an all-Disney program), The King’s Singers, prolific recording artists at any rate, present a new album that can be characterized as a return to standard repertoire. “’Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On’ is an exploration of European choral music from the early 20th century ...
Brahms & Contemporaries, Vol. 2
Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective continues its series with this recording of Johannes Brahms’s Third Piano Quartet, alongside Piano Quartet No. 1 of Louise Héritte-Viardot. The Third Piano Quartet gestated for a long time – the first sketches were made in 1855, whilst the work was not completed until 1875. Numerous commentators tie the work to the composer’s infatuation with Clara Schumann, ...
