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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The Four Seasons in Janoska Style
The Austrian-based Janoska Ensemble (two violins, double bass, piano) has established it’s brand as an innovative, improvisational, boundary-defying quartet that bridge classical, jazz, pop, folk, and world music genres. Their fourth studio album is an idiosyncratic new arrangement of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with newly composed passages by ensemble member, pianist, and composer František Janoska. Inspired by Vivaldi’s original sonnets, ...
Ukrainian Christmas
The Ukrainian violin virtuoso Solomiya Ivakhiv presents a selection of Ukrainian Christmas carols arranged for violin and orchestra. Accompanying Ivakhiv in these world premiere recordings is the Lviv National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Serhii Khorovets. The soulful playing of Solomiya Ivakhiv, who grew up in Western Ukraine singing these songs, and the fanciful arrangements of Bohdan Kryvopust, born in ...
The Golden Age of the Horn
Hornists Jacek Muzyk and Daniel Kerdelewicz and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra led by JoAnn Falletta pay tribute to the extraordinary time in the classical period that celebrated extreme virtuosity on the horn, unmatched before or since. The two soloists play some of the most difficult pieces composed for the instrument, works which are rarely performed live due to the very ...
Flórez: Zarzuela
The first release of Florez Records, the new label founded by tenor Juan Diego Flórez, is dedicated to the genre of zarzuela. “These romances full of passion and emotion represent an almost unique opportunity for Spanish and Latin American tenors to sing in their mother tongue,” says Flórez. “This recording production certainly fills me with happiness and pride. Firstly, because ...
Schubert
The great Italian legend of the piano Maurizio Pollini passed away on March 23, 2024. This album, recorded together with his son Daniele, showcases three different aspects of Franz Schubert’s mastery of the piano: the sonatas, the collections of short pieces, and music for four hands. Schubert’s great F minor Fantasia was the first piano four hands work father and ...
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Challenging traditional perceptions of classical music, Ray Chen’s new album with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Cristian Mǎcelaru juxtaposes Erich Korngold’s perennial favorite Violin Concerto with music from video games, television, Anime, and film. By transforming simple 8-bit game tunes into lush symphonic arrangements, Chen believes he can tap into the nostalgia of Generation X and Millennials who grew ...
Leonardo da Vinci
The original score for the upcoming Ken Burns documentary Leonardo da Vinci features 28 new compositions by Caroline Shaw. The album features performances by the composer’s longtime collaborators Attacca Quartet, Sō Percussion, and Roomful of Teeth as well as double bass player John Patitucci. David McMahon, one of the documentary’s directors, says “Caroline’s existing body of music—joyful, daring, at times ...
Love Letters
French cellist presents a double album tribute to Clara & Robert Schumann pairing Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto (with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Raphaël Merlin) with works and arrangements for cello and piano by both composers (with pianist Jean-Frédéric Neuburger). La Marca says “With this album, I wanted to bring to life one of the most beautiful love stories in ...
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
The celebrated international virtuoso James Ehnes joins the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner in this exploration of Sibelius’s extensive output for violin and orchestra. Sibelius studied the violin in his youth, and actively entertained the prospect of a career as a professional violinist for much of his student life. It therefore comes as no surprise that the instrument plays ...
Block: Chamber Works
The ARC Ensemble is devoted to righting sins of omission, unearthing 20th century music suppressed or marginalized as a result of political and racial discrimination. The ARC Ensemble’s Music in Exile series continues with this album of chamber music by Frederick Block, the first commercial recording of this composer’s works; hidden gems that richly deserve inclusion in the mainstream classical ...
Beethoven: Hammerklavier
With a discography of well over 100 albums, this release marks Marc-André Hamelin’s first Beethoven recording. The transcendental difficulties of the Hammerklavier — by far Beethoven’s longest piano sonata, and in the composer’s view also his finest — will always deter all but the greatest pianists of the day, with only a select few able to master its formidable musical, ...
Close Harmony
The Grammy Award-winning and internationally acclaimed The King’s Singers present a combination of newly recorded works alongside reissues from their The Library series, taking a deep-dive into one of the most beloved and unique corners of their music library: the close-harmony arrangements. Selections include a whimsical arrangement of the Barber of Seville Overture, John Rutter’s arrangement of Kern’s “The Way ...
Bach’s Coffeehouse
Inspired by the musical soirées curated by J.S. Bach, this new release from Apollo’s Fire features repertoire that is believed to have been performed at the Café Zimmerman in Leipzig. Selections include Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 with virtuoso soloists Alan Choo, violin, and Daphna Mor, recorder; and the Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin featuring oboist Debra Nagy and ...
My American Story: North
CSO Artist-in-Residence Daniil Trifonov celebrates music from the country he now calls home with his new double album ranging from jazz and swing to modernism, minimalism, and popular soundtracks. Joined by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin for George Gershwin’s Concerto in F and the world premiere recording of the concerto written for him by Mason Bates, Trifonov also performs ...
More Bach, Please!
Rinaldo Alessandrini adds a generous helping to the baroque orchestral repertoire with his original transcriptions, arrangements, and adaptations of works by J.S. Bach. Stylishly performed by Concerto Italiano, the album features an orchestral transcription of the Overture in the French Style, BWV 831 (for solo harpsichord), a pastiche Partita for Traverso and String Orchestra, and a pastiche Overture for String ...
Handel: Jephtha (Live)
Music of the Baroque presents the sublime oratorio Jephtha, Handel’s final masterpiece, recorded live conducted by Dame Jane Glover. Tenor David Portillo, a Ryan Opera Center alum, leads the cast that includes sopranos Lauren Snouffer and Katelyn Lee, mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski, countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, and bass-baritone Neal Davies. The performance from September 2022 marked Jane Glover’s 20th season leading ...
Prayer for Ukraine
Founded in 2010 by students of the Lviv National Music Academy, Vivere String Quartet showcases three Ukrainian composers: Zoltan Almashi, Vasyl Barvinsky, and Hanna Havrylets. The program includes Maria’s City, an homage to Mariupol, composed by Zoltan Almashi from a bomb shelter in Kyiv; two works by Hanna Havrylets, who died from lack of medical care at the onset of ...
Danish Chamber Orchestra: Haydn Late Symphonies, Vol. 4
The Danish Chamber Orchestra presents the fourth volume in a series of Haydn symphonies led by Ádám Fischer, who has led the orchestra for over two decades. The three late symphonies on this album were written during Haydn’s second, triumphant visit to London. The works possess increased artistic weight and mark a transition from Viennese Classicism to Romanticism. With this ...
Nightfall
The new album from Voces8 gathers night-inspired repertoire. includes two world premiere works from British composer and 2024 Classic FM Rising Star Lucy Walker, as well as US composer and regular collaborator, Taylor Scott Davis. Selections by contemporary choral composers Caroline Shaw, Kerensa Briggs, Dan Forrest, and Frank Ticheli share Voces8’s formidable platform with arrangements of songs by Ludovico Einaudi, ...
Mozart: Requiem
The staged production of Raphaël Pichon’s concept for Mozart’s Requiem with director Romeo Castellucci premiered at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, 2019. After several dates across Europe, a concert version premiered at the 2023 BBC Proms; The Times headline exclaimed, “Mozart’s Requiem is reborn at the Proms” continuing with “It’s not often a performance of Mozart’s Requiem comes along that makes it sound ...
