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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Mari Kodama: New Paths
Mari Kodama presents New Paths, exploring the young Johannes Brahms and his fascinating friendship with Clara and Robert Schumann. The album derives its title from Robert Schumann’s famous essay Neue Bahnen, in which he heralded the young Brahms as the most eminent musical voice of the future. The program brings together Brahms’s first piano sonata, his Variations on a Theme ...
Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings, Souvenir de Florence, Andante cantabile – United Strings of Europe, Julian Azkoul
The United Strings of Europe and their director Julian Azkoul have chosen to devote their latest project to a single composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. They open with the composer’s Serenade, a tribute to Mozart’s divertimentos, but infused with Tchaikovsky’s characteristic pathos and melancholy. The other works are arrangements tailor-made for the ensemble by Azkoul. Composed following a stay in Florence, ...
Chamber Music with Viola – Yue Yu, Anthony Hewitt, Jeffrey Armstrong
An accomplished horn and viola player, York Bowen is said to have preferred the tone of the viola to the violin. Inspired by the virtuosity and vibrato style of the distinguished violist Lionel Tertis, Bowen wrote several works for him and became his accompanist. Gustav Holst’s daughter Imogen is represented here by the open-air freshness of her Four Easy Pieces ...
Stravinsky: Symphonies, Divertimento – BBC Philharmonic, Sir Andrew Davis
Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony in C was conceived in Paris but completed in America in 1940, and is dedicated to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premiered in 1946, the Symphony in Three Movements also manifests different ways of moving. The Greeting Prelude was written as an eightieth birthday tribute to conductor Pierre Monteux. The other two ...
Matthew Locke: The Little Consort – Fretwork
Fretwork returns for the second installment of their cycle of works by Matthew Locke. While he is often ranked as one of England’s finest composers, Locke is still unaccountably neglected: his music may not be as immediately appealing as his immediate successor, Henry Purcell, nor as wide-ranging as William Byrd, yet his forceful musical personality and luxuriant technique place him ...
Berlioz: Les nuits d’été; Harold en Italie – Michael Spyres, Timothy Ridout, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, John Nelson
Following the award-winning Berlioz recordings of Les Troyens and Damnation de Faust, conductor John Nelson and the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra present Les nuits d’été and Harold en Italie, with singer Michael Spyres and the young violist Timothy Ridout. Inspired by the poetry of Theophile Gautier, this version of Les nuits d’été will be the first-ever recording of the original 1856 ...
Johann Wilhelm Wilms: Piano Concertos, Volume 2 – Ronald Brautigam, Cologne Academy
Born in the vicinity of Cologne, Johann Wilhelm Wilms was once a musical force to be reckoned with. In Amsterdam, where he lived from the age of 19, his music was actually performed more frequently than Beethoven’s at one period. Besides chamber music and solo sonatas, Wilms composed several symphonies and concertos, among them piano concertos for his own use. ...
Monteverdi: Seventh Book of Madrigals – Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Five years separate the publication of Monteverdi’s Sixth Book of Madrigals (1614) from the Seventh (1619). “The stylistic rupture between the Sixth and Seventh Books is evident,” notes conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini. “We move from an anthology generally conceived, as in the previous books, for a group of five singers (though already accompanied by continuo in the second part of the ...
Two4Piano: Hommage à Victor Babin
The year 1972 saw the death of Victor Babin, one half of the legendary Vronsky and Babin, arguably the most brilliant piano duo of the 20th century and a worldwide sensation for over three decades. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Babin’s death, Katerina Moskaleva and Alexey Pudinov, themselves two musical forces of nature, come together as Two4Piano, a duo ...
Lucienne Renaudin Vary: Trumpet Concertos
For her fourth Warner Classics album, trumpeter Lucienne Renaudin Vary has chosen four favorite concertos. Composed by Haydn, Hummel, Neruda, and Arutiunian, they span three centuries. Joining them on the program are a so-called “concerto” by big-band maestro Harry James – which lasts all of three jazzy minutes – and, inspired by Haydn’s Concerto, a brief solo improvisation by Vary ...
Carl Nielsen: Symphonies 1 & 3 – Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Fabio Luisi
After six years of acclaimed live performances in Europe, the United States, and Asia, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Fabio Luisi are now presenting their special take on Carl Nielsen’s symphonies on record for the first time. The orchestra is internationally acclaimed for its interpretations of Nielsen’s music, cultivated through generations of musicians ever since the composer himself conducted ...
Mozart: Piano Sonatas – Angela Hewitt
“Endless hours of joy and wonder” is how Angela Hewitt sums up the insights and rewards of playing and recording Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s piano sonatas, and a similar experience awaits listeners to these remarkable accounts, the first release in a complete cycle.
Christmas Carols at King’s with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Founded in the 15th century, the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge is undoubtedly one of the world’s best-known choral groups. The magical sound of Christmas is celebrated in an album of favorite carols sung by the choir combined with rich instrumental settings by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
A Baroque Christmas at Sono Luminus – Felipe Dominguez
Chilean-American organist and musicologist Felipe Dominguez performs music for the Christmas season by a wide range of composers, from giants of the period to the rarely performed, as well as traditional gems in Baroque arrangements. The Sono Luminus studio, located in the nearly 110-year-old former Emmanuel Episcopal Chapel in rural Boyce, Virginia, boasts a 25-foot vaulted wood ceiling over an ...
Veni: Songs of Christmas, Volume 2 – Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, Grete Pedersen
The songs on this album encompass many nuances and moods – from joy and jubilant celebration to deep melancholy and longing. They move between folk tunes, English carols, and traditional Christmas songs from different times and parts of the world. The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir’s annual Christmas concerts under the leadership of Grete Pedersen have become a cherished tradition in their ...
The First Nowell – Edison Singers, Noel Edison
The Christmas carol has its origins in the Middle Ages, but it has since embraced a wide variety of musical backgrounds. Some of the most famous and beautiful examples are heard here alongside energizing contemporary carols to present a tapestry of the genre across the centuries.
Monteverdi: Christmas Vespers – La Cetra, Andrea Marcon
This stunning recording is a reconstruction of the Christmas Vespers as they may have been heard in St. Mark’s Basilica during the early 17th century. Andrea Marcon has assembled resplendent music that was performed for a large audience of aristocrats and visitors from across Europe. The ablum features works from various printed anthologies of works by Claudio Monteverdi and his contemporaries ...
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel: Piano Music – Sontraud Speidel
One of the most prolific female composers of the 19th century, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel was also a pianist of rare talent and prodigious memory who dazzled private audiences at her concert series in her Berlin home. During her lifetime, her career was overshadowed by that of her brother, Felix Mendelssohn. Hensel’s music reflects her deep reverence for Bach and Beethoven, but ...
In Winter’s House: Christmas with Tenebrae
Tenebrae’s fourth Christmas album features a wide range of festive music, including Britten’s iconic Ceremony of Carols for upper voices and harp. The album takes its name from a wonderfully atmospheric piece by Joanna Marsh, commissioned for Tenebrae’s tenors and basses in 2019.
Byrd: Pavans & Galliards; Variations & Grounds – Daniel-Ben Pienaar
Daniel-Ben Pienaar continues his campaign of performing early music on a modern piano with an abundant selection of works by William Byrd. The 16th-century composer’s finest sets of dances and variations, featuring some of the Elizabethan era’s most popular tunes, set the standard for English keyboard music for generations to come. With astonishing virtuosity, Pienaar elicits a wealth of color ...
