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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Satie
French pianist Alain Planès could not let the centenary of Satie’s death go by without paying tribute to this composer whom he admires above all others. Planès is the heir of the great 20th century French pianism as a student of Jacques Février, the renowned interpreter of Satie who studied with Marguerite Long and was a favorite of both Poulenc ...
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No. 3
Stanislav Kochanovsky began his new post as chief conductor of the NDR Radio Philharmonic in 2024. For his debut album leading the orchestra, he leads a program of music of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian music dear to his heart and training in St. Petersburg. The album’s centerpiece is Tchaikovsky’s Third Orchestral Suite, evocative of the composer’s melancholy Sleeping Beauty ballet ...
Ruth Gipps Orchestral Works, Vol. 4
Rumon Gamba’s exploration of the music of Ruth Gipps continues with these world premiere recordings of the Fifth Symphony, Violin Concerto, and Leviathan. Composed in 1943 and conceived for her elder brother, Bryan, the Violin Concerto is large in scale and shows remarkable assurance of touch for a twenty-two-year-old composer. Leviathan, for double-bassoon and orchestra, dates from the late 1960s, ...
Elfrida Andrée: Symphony No. 1; Fritiof Suite
Elfrida Andrée, the youngest daughter of a Swedish musical family, demonstrated early talent and at fourteen began studying organ in Stockholm. She became Sweden’s first female organist in 1857 at age sixteen and was later appointed Sweden’s first female cathedral organist. It would take 150 years before another woman would follow in her footsteps. She enjoyed remarkable success as a ...
Thomas Adès: Orchestral Suites
London born composer, pianist, and conductor Thomas Adès is known for his extensive work with world’s leading orchestras, opera companies, and festivals. This album features performances of three of his operatic and ballet suites conducted by Adès himself. The Luxury Suite is adapted from the opera Powder Her Face and was premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic in 2018. Adès’s 1995 ...
Standard Stoppages
Third Coast Percussion’s 20th anniversary album celebrates ensemble’s legacy of musical collaboration and artistic growth since its founding in 2005. The program of world premiere recordings explores the passage of time, both through the eyes of percussionists charged with “keeping time” for an ensemble, and on the grander scale of time elapsed over decades. The album opens with Jlin’s Please ...
Concertos for Baroque Lute
After being the king of court instruments in the seventeenth century, a symbol of refined entertainment, the lute was gradually abandoned in the following century. A small group of virtuosos and composers nevertheless refused to accept this predicted decline: these musicians moved the epicenter of its influence to the courts of Vienna, Bayreuth and Dresden, adapting the codes and forms ...
Milestones
Multi-Grammy nominated violinist Philippe Quint’s presents the world premiere recording of works written for him by three trailblazing women: Lera Auerbach, Errollyn Wallen, and celebrated Soviet-born composer Lora Kvint, the violinist’s mother, with whom he collaborates here for the first time. The concertos by Auerbach and Wallen feature the Royal Scottish National Orchestra led by conductor Andrew Litton, who also ...
Sondheim: New Chamber Music Arrangements
Award-winning violin-piano duo, Opus Two (violinist William Terwilliger and pianist Andrew Cooperstock) presents world-premiere recordings of highlights from Stephen Sondheim’s exceptional Broadway shows in arrangements by Eric Stern, a longtime collaborator of the late composer. These include “Broadway Baby” from Follies, “Every Day a Little Death” from A Little Night Music with cellist Beth Vanderborgh, “Finishing the Hat” from Sunday ...
Shift
Born in Belfast and brought up in Greater Manchester, trombonist Peter Moore came to international attention in 2008 when, aged 12, he became the youngest ever winner of BBC Young Musician. Appointed Co-Principal Trombone of the London Symphony Orchestra aged just 18, he departed after ten years to focus on his solo career. As a recording artist, Moore is has ...
Preludes
On his new album Canadian virtuoso pianist Jan Lisiecki brings the diverse sounds of the prelude to life, illustrating the genre’s potential to be more than just a curtain-raiser to something else. Frédéric Chopin’s extraordinary 24 Preludes Op. 28 are inspiration and centerpiece of this recording. For Lisiecki, Chopin was a “master of the short form” who “brought the prelude ...
Take Me to the Water
In her debut album on Decca, acclaimed harpist Ashley Jackson presents her own arrangements of spirituals and works by Margaret Bonds, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Alice Coltrane. The album also includes Debussy’s “Danse Sacrée” and original compositions by contemporary composers Brandee Younger, João Luiz Rezende, and Jeromy Thomas. Jackson sings on a few selections and is supported by the Harlem Chamber ...
River of Fire
Cavatina Duo (Bosnian guitarist Denis Azabagić and Spanish flutist Eugenia Moliner) presents five new works that draw inspiration from Romani culture and musical traditions written for them by Clarice Assad, Sergio Assad, Matthew Dunne, Stacy Garrop, and Atanas Ourkouzounov. The duo aims to break down inherited negative cultural stereotypes of the Romani people. Azabagić and Moliner believe that the artificial ...
Vox Feminae
Formed in 2015 by lutenist Albane Imbs, the early music ensemble Les Kapsber’girls has a permanent core of four women musicians: two singers, a viola da gamba player, and Imbs as artistic director on plucked instruments, with guest artists based on the nature of each project. The French ensemble’s name is a nod towards one of the most celebrated Italian ...
The Poet and the Prodigy
Oboist Debra Nagy, founder and artistic director of the Cleveland-based period instrument ensemble Les Délices, presents an album on the eponymous label with her longtime collaborator, harpsichordist Mark Edwards. The program features François Couperin’s 1er Concert in G major from Concert Royaux and J.S. Bach’s Oboe Sonata in G minor, BWV1030b (better known as Flute Sonata in B minor, BWV ...
Clara & Robert Schumann: Music for Clarinet and Piano
Julian Bliss is one of the world’s finest clarinetists, excelling as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, and jazz artist. James Baillieu is one of the leading song and chamber music pianists of his generation. As a duo, they revel in the versatile chamber music delights of the husband-and-wife composers Robert and Clara Schumann. Selections include Robert Schuman’s Romances, Op. ...
Pilgrimage
Ukrainian pianist Dmytro Choni is internationally recognized for his technically impeccable pianism, stupendous virtuosity, clarity of articulation and finest sensitivity. In recent years he garnered international attention by winning numerous awards, including the bronze medal at the 2022 Van Cliburn Competition and fourth prize at the 2021 the Leeds International Piano Competition. His debut solo album on for Naïve Classiques ...
Bach: Keyboard Concertos
Beatrice Rana performs four of Bach’s keyboard concertos (BWV 1052 in D minor, 1053 in E, 1054 in D, and 1056 in F minor) in a new recording with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. The internationally acclaimed Italian pianist describes Bach as “an important figure in my life … My piano studies began when I was very young, and Bach was there ...
Rare Birds
Owls is an inverted string quartet (two cellos instead of two violins) featuring an all-star lineup of renowned soloists: violinst Alexi Kenney, violist Ayane Kozasa, and cellists Gabriel Cabezas and Paul WIancko. Their debut album features six works by an eclectic range of composers, traditions, and eras including Owls’s own Paul Wiancko; Dan Trueman and Monica Mugan folk duo Trollstilt, ...
Schubert: Light and Shadow
The years 2023-2028 mark 200 years since the five last years of Franz Schubert’s life. This leads up to the 200th anniversary of Schubert’s death in Vienna on 19 November 2028. In homage to this important event, baritone Samuel Hasselhorn and pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz have started a multi-genre international project titled SCHUBERT 200 which includes the release of one album ...
