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
Dies Irae
Pianist Dmitry Masleev, who took first prize in the 2015 Tchaikovsky International Competition, leads the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra (a.k.a. Russian State Symphony Orchestra) from the piano in a program that centers two piano concertantes utilizing the chant melody Dies irae: Liszt’s Totentanz, and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The program also includes Liszt’s Rhapsodie espagnole in a version ...
Reynaldo Hahn: Piano Quintet; Songs; Piano Quartet
The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective was conceived in 2017 by husband-and-wife duo Tom Poster, piano, and Elena Urioste, violin. The Collective operates with a flexible roster featuring many of today’s most inspirational musicians, both instrumentalists and singers, and its creative programming is marked by an ardent commitment to celebrating diversity of all forms and a desire to unearth lesser-known gems of ...
The Korngold Symphony
This two-CD album presents, for the first time ever, a recording of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Symphony in F-sharp performed by the composer himself, an incredibly special historical recording from the Korngold Family Archives. The new release also presents a 1997 live performance by the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana conducted by John Mauceri, whose research into the symphony included his exclusive ...
Schubert Beatles
New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) presents the debut solo album of the rising star American baritone Theo Hoffman, a student of the late Sanford Sylvan and an alumnus of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, in an adventurous yet appealing program that pairs Schubert songs with Beatles songs (by Lennon-McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison) on similar themes. Hoffman tells WFMT, ...
Terra Mater
The world music-leaning period instrument band L’Arpeggiata, led by theorbo player Christina Pluhar, celebrates nature in a mostly Baroque program (Monteverdi, Bononcini, Biber and Handel) coupled with traditional songs and ballads including eden ahbez’s “Nature Boy.” In Terra Mater (meaning Mother Nature), Pluhar writes, “You will hear the chirping of the nightingales, sweet birds, cuckoos, frogs and chicken, the whispers of the winds, ...
In the Cabinet of Wonders
Chicago-based violinist Martin Davids (Callipygian Players, Bella Voce Sinfonia, Haymarket Opera, Music of the Baroque) is joined by organist, musicologist, and author David Yearsley for a program paying tribute to an unlikely, yet celebrated duo. In 17th century Hamburg, organist Heinrich Scheidemann (1595-1663) and violinist Johann Schop (1590-1667) became one of the town’s leading cultural attractions playing from the organ ...
The Age of Extremes
Francesco Corti leads the prolific period-instrument orchestra from the harpsichord in a program centering composers belonging to the generation of the Empfindsamer Stil or “Sentimental Style.” Following the High Baroque style of JS Bach and Handel, the composers of the next generation explored contrast and extreme juxtapositions in their music. This avant-garde style remained in fashion for only a short ...
Panoramas: Flute Music of the Philippines
Flutist Norman Menzales is Principal Flutist of Montana’s Great Falls Symphony, Colorado’s Fort Collins Symphony, and the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra. In Panoramas, he reflects on his Filipino heritage through a series of chamber ensemble collaborations. The album’s title work is by the groundbreaking Filipino composer Nicanor Abelardo (1893-1934). Panoramas, scored for flute, violin, viola, celeste, and piano, blends Filipino folk ...
Weber: Clarinet Concertos, Clarinet Quintet
French clarinetist Arthur Stockel has established himself as a passionate and eclectic musician through his virtuoso career as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. For his debut solo album, he is partnered with the Hanson Quartet and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, where was appointed principal clarinet at the age of 21. The repertoire features the two concertos and ...
Beethoven: The Early Quartets
As their first decade of performing together coincided with the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, the Calidore String Quartet embarked on a tour to perform the complete cycle of the composer’s sixteen string quartets. “Performing the Beethoven cycle is the musical equivalent of scaling Mount Everest,” said violinist Ryan Meehan, who once appeared on WFMT’s Introductions. “It is a grueling ...
Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Works
Star Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho marks the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth by recording his complete solo piano music. Cho’s insightful readings of Ravel, on stage and in the studio, underline his status as one of today’s most elegant and accomplished pianists, ten years after his First Prize win at the Chopin International Competition. Seong-Jin Cho has always felt ...
Vivaldi: Le Quattro Stagioni
Théotime Langlois de Swarte has quickly become one of today’s most sought-after violin soloists. His almost super-human dexterity on both the baroque and modern instrument has mesmerized critics, while his passion and conviction has made him a star with audiences everywhere. In a recent review, Gramophone wrote, “I’m running out of ways to recount Théotime’s brilliance….Most of all, I’m in ...
Debussy: String Quartet & Sonatas
The Nash Ensemble presents Debussy’s String Quartet, Violin Sonata, Cello Sonata, Sonata for Flute, Viola & Harp, and a chamber ensemble arrangement of the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. From two players to twelve, the elite musicians of the Nash Ensemble respond with authority to the varied demands made by this wonderful collection of Debussy’s chamber music. Currently celebrating its ...
Palestrina Revealed
Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge celebrate the 500th anniversary of Palestrina’s birth with five world-premiere recordings of still little-known works: the Magnificat secundi toni a 5; two motets: Ad te levavi oculos meos a 12, Memor esto verbi tui a 5; and two mass settings: Missa Memor esto verbi tui a 5 and Missa Emendemus in ...
Symphonic Stradivarius
Italian violinist Davide Alogna, a champion of Italian twentieth century repertoire, is the soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra for a program of new works for violin and orchestra. Each work on the program is tonal, often cinematic, and around 5 minutes in duration, serving as an accessible introduction to the composer. The collection showcases eleven composers, several who are ...
Something So Transporting Bright
Featuring works by composers spanning multiple generations—from the late Gloria Coates to emerging talents Tom Metcalf and Joel Järventausta—the Kreutzer Quartet’s latest album highlights the quartet’s unique role as both interpreters and collaborators. Three of the featured compositions emerged during the global pandemic, reflecting resilience through artistic partnership. With themes ranging from water to profound social responses, the album showcases ...
Rufus Wainwright: Dream Requiem
Singer-songwriter and composer Rufus Wainwright scored his epic Dream Requiem for orchestra, chorus, soprano and narrator. In June 2024, it received its world premiere in Paris with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the chorus and children’s choir of Radio France conducted by Mikko Franck with Meryl Streep as the narrator and soprano Anna Prohaska. Dream Requiem combines words ...
Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande Suite & Other Works
This album spotlights Gabriel Fauré’s orchestrated songs and his music for the stage, of which his suite from the incidental music for Pelléas et Mélisande includes some of his best-loved music. Performances of Fauré’s spectacular Wagnerian drama Prométhée are a real rarity, while the Shylock Suite, based on Shakespeare, contains some of his most elaborate symphonic music. Fauré orchestrated only ...
Al-Bunduqiyya – The Lost Concerto
Al-Bunduqiyya is the Arabic name for Venice and The Lost Concerto is a work composed in 2021 by the charismatic cellist Giovanni Sollima. It germinated from the only extant fragment – the orchestral viola part, now preserved at the Venice Conservatory – of a Vivaldi cello concerto in E minor. Among the other items are complete concertos by Vivaldi, solo ...
Mirrors
Recent guests on Live from WFMT, violinist Paul Huang and pianist Helen Huang (no relation) present their second album as a duo. Following the critical praise for Kaleidoscope, the duo’s 2023 release featuring sumptuous Romantic Era works by Respighi and Saint-Saëns, Mirrors centers two violin sonatas composed during the Second World War. Paul Huang explains that both the Prokofiev Violin ...
