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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Espansiva
Danish pianists Rikke Sandberg and Kristoffer Hyldig have partnered to record dazzling versions of music by Denmark’s most famous composer Carl Nielsen for piano, four hands. Selections include Nielsen’s own piano, four hands versions of his Third Symphony, “Sinfonia Espansiva,” and excerpts from his opera Saul and David. In addition to being promotional tools, four hand arrangements were , in ...
Discovering Imogen
Before Imogen Holst died in 1984, she established the Holst Foundation to support living composers which led to the founding NMC Recordings. Imogen Holst, daughter of Gustav Holst, was a teacher, educator, festival administrator, and one of Britain’s most accomplished composers. Discovering Imogen features many world premiere recordings of her Modern era works for choir and orchestra. Colin Matthews, founder ...
Réveiller
Following their acclaimed recordings of the complete Brahms and Beethoven sonatas, Bella Hristova and Michael Houstoun turn to French works for violin and piano, featuring sonatas by Ravel, Poulenc, and Fauré. Acclaimed as a player with impressive power, passion, and control, a beautiful sound, and a compelling command of her instrument, violinist Bella Hristova is an ardent proponent of contemporary ...
Seven
Award-winning Spanish cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios returns with Seven, which features seven of her most recent chamber works, all in world-premiere recordings. Alongside works for solo cello or cello and piano, this recording features her Piano Quintet, a Chicago Symphony Orchestra commission for the distinctive combination of clarinet, violin, viola and cello. At the heart of this collection lies ...
Cello Dreams
In a delightful program of lullabies and gentle serenades, husband and wife duo cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand and pianist Pascal Amoyel have gathered a collection of some of the most beloved melodies that touch, console, comfort, and soothe. These are at once a marvelous entry point to listening to music for the very young, and a treat for all music lovers. ...
Nessun Dorma
Pene Pati’s second solo album balances favorite numbers with operatic rarities including the world premiere recording of the aria-cabaletta for the title character of the 1858 version of Gounod’s Faust. In addition to Puccini, the Italian composers are Verdi, Donizetti, Mascagni and Mercadante, while the French school is represented by Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Massenet, Halévy and Guiraud. Joining the Samoan tenor ...
Magnus Lindberg: Viola Concerto, Absence, Serenades
Composer Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958) is one of Europe’s leading names in contemporary music. This new album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Nicholas Collon features some of the most recent orchestral compositions by Lindberg culminating with his new Viola Concerto, a performed by Lawrence Power as soloist. Lindberg was commissioned by the Rotterdam Philharmonic to ...
Oiseaux Tristes
Pianist Fazıl Say writes: “Oiseaux tristes brings together works by three prominent French composers… As I was working on the album during the pandemic period, it reflects the mood of that time… (Ravel’s) Miroirs is one of the most comprehensive and interesting works in the piano repertoire. I spent months working on it, and although it’s difficult to play, it ...
Contemplation
The young British baritone Huw Montague Rendall makes his debut as an exclusive Erato recording artist joined by the Rouen Opera Orchestra under its music director Ben Glassberg. The album demonstrates the multiple facets of Montague Rendall’s talent and his exceptional stylistic sensitivity. Huw Montague Rendall has already performed the roles Papageno (Magic Flute), Count Almaviva (Marriage of Figaro), Don ...
Corelli: Violin Sonatas, Op. 5
In her 24th release for Cedille Records, violinist Rachel Barton Pine performs Arcangelo Corelli’s 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 5, with early music specialists David Schrader, John Mark Rozendaal, and Brandon Acker. Known for her dynamic range and versatility, Pine revisits the Baroque period, highlighting Corelli’s influential yet seldom performed sonatas. The ensemble performs on a diverse collection of period instruments—Schrader ...
Origins
In a celebration of his heritage, pianist Jean-Paul Gasparian’s new solo album is dedicated entirely to Armenian music. The program features works by Komitas, Aram Khachaturian, and Arno Babajanian, as well as two pieces composed by his father Gérard Gasparian inspired by the renowned Armenian poet Sayat-Nova. A third selection by Babajanian is also based on a song by Sayat-Nova, ...
Beethoven: The Middle Quartets
Following their award-winning first installment of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Caldidore String Quartet presents the Middle Quartets on a three-disc set. Winners of top prizes at major competitions including the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition, the ensemble has distinguished itself as one of the foremost interpreters of a vast repertory since they were founded in 2010 at the ...
Sarahbanda
Berlin Philharmonic French hornist Sarah Willis’s three-album Mozart y Mambo project fused Mozart with Cuban rhythms. Besides recording all of Mozart’s horn concertos, the project also experimented with the French horn joining the traditional Cuban band mix of saxophone and rhythm section. Willis loved this grouping so much that she subsequently formed the Sarahbanda with some of Cuba’s most talented ...
Kraft & CPE Bach Cello Concertos
A short but stylish recording of two Classical era concertos composed 50 years apart. CPE’s B-flat major concerto feels related to the High Baroque, while Kraft’s C major concerto has more in common with Haydn’s D major concerto. The French cellist JeanGuihen Queyras along with the period instrument Ensemble Risonanz led by Riccardo Minasi wish to shed light on the ...
Prokofiev Piano Concertos
Goodyear’s new recording features some of the greatest works in the repertory: the Op. 16 and Op. 26 Piano Concertos, as well as the Piano Sonata No. 7 in B flat. According to his note in the CD booklet, the recording of this album, with its roots in the struggles of the 2020 pandemic, is inherently personal to Goodyear, as ...
Life
Mari Samuelsen’s third album for Deutsche Grammophon is inspired by her experience of becoming a mother. Known for her imaginative programming and penchant for electronics and looping, the Norwegian violinist presents music by Olivia Belli, Bryce Dessner, Ludovico Einaudi, Nils Frahm, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Mário Laginha, Hania Rani, Max Richter, and Steve Reich, with a dash of Schubert also thrown into ...
Florence Price, Her Song
Austin based Grammy-nominated baritone, trumpeter, and pianist, Michael Hawes (former Chicagoan and former member of Axiom Brass) has devoted his first solo album to the music of Florence Price. Hawes sings most of the selections with pianist Eugenia Jeong. Four of the songs are performed on the trumpet. A brass ensemble, which includes the distinguished trombonist Randall Hawes, Michael’s father, ...
Impressions Parisiennes
Quatuor Van Kuijk explores treasures by Fauré, Debussy, Satie, Ravel and Poulenc that were originally composed for piano or voice. The program includes Debussy’s Petite Suite pour piano à quatre mains, Ravel’s famous Pavane pour une infante défunte and well-known songs by Poulenc, Fauré and Satie in transcriptions made especially for this recording by Van Kuijk violist Emmanuel François and ...
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 From The New World, American Suite
Nathalie Stutzmann, initially celebrated as a contralto, has firmly established herself as a conductor. Her debut album leading the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra features Dvořák’s Symphony No 9, ‘From the New World’ paired with Dvořák’s American Suite. When Stutzmann inaugurated her tenure as its music director in 2022, she became only the second woman to serve as artistic leader of one ...
Keel Road
This release is the latest chapter in the Danish String Quartet’s exploration of northern folk and traditional sources. Their previous album in this genre, Last Leaf, was a resounding success with press and public and ranked high amongst albums of the year at NPR, The New York Times and Gramophone. Amid the traditional pieces, the album includes compositions by members ...
