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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Cantus: Into the Light
The vocal ensemble Cantus offers Into the Light – its first holiday album in over a decade. The group is widely known for its warmth and blend and innovative programming of music ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century. Into the Light reflects Cantus’ commitment to diversity of repertoire with works spanning five languages by a broad range of composers ...
Queen Elizabeth II: The Commemorative Album
Decca Records has released an album to commemorate in music the life, times, and passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The poignant collection features music from key moments of the Queen’s life and reign: her wedding, coronation, and jubilees; hymns and anthems heard at national events such as Remembrance Sunday and the Last Night of the Proms; melodies reflecting ...
Robert Schumann: The Three Violin Sonatas – Andrew Wan, Charles Richard-Hamelin
After recording all of Beethoven’s violin sonatas, Andrew Wan and Charles Richard-Hamelin are continuing their partnership with a recording of the complete violin sonatas of Robert Schumann. In a letter to Schumann dated January 1, 1850, violinist Ferdinand David wrote “Why don’t you write something for violin and piano? There is such a lack of good new pieces, and I ...
Rudolf Buchbinder: Soirée de Vienne
Soirée de Vienne sounds echoes of pianist Rudolf Buchbinder’s home city in the form of music closely associated with it. “We all have impossible dreams,” says Buchbinder. “And one such dream gave rise to this album: I’d so much like to attend a Viennese soirée where all the composers on this recording are assembled: Strauss, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, and Beethoven.” ...
Alfred Momotenko: Creator of Angels (Choral Works) – Latvian Radio Choir
The Latvian Radio Choir’s new album marks the international debut of Alfred Momotenko. Surrounded by choral music in his youth, the Ukrainian composer has returned to that world at a relatively late period: all the works on this album have been written between 2017 and 2022. Many of his enigmatic choral works are religious and could be described as poems ...
Boccherini: The Six Symphonies, Op. 35 – Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
Emilio Moreno’s passion, knowledge, and thirst for the music of Luigi Boccherini yields a further revelation with the Six Symphonies, Op. 35, premiered in 1782, newly edited by violist Moreno and performed here by the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. The musicians, all specialists in eighteenth and early nineteenth century music, play on period instruments or on contemporary copies.
Xuefei Yang: Guitar Favorites
Xuefei Yang presents Guitar Favorites, an album representing her journey to become one of the finest performers on the world stage through a collection of much-loved tracks known to classical guitar lovers around the world. Yang has put together a personal selection of pieces showcasing her career, including pieces she played as a young girl through to audience favorites she’s ...
Gautier Capuçon: Sensations
Gautier Capuçon has long sought to create programs that blend classical with popular, ancient with modern, and are accessible to everyone, from lifelong classical music aficionados to those who are only just discovering its wonders. The French cellist presents his latest project, Sensations. Capuçon samples from a range of styles and genres: musical hits of Broadway and opera arias, cinematic ...
A Golden Cello Decade: Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih
Cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Connie Shih take listeners on a journey to uncover some lesser-known works from an astonishingly fruitful decade for the cello: 1878-1888. The album includes sonatas by Richard Strauss and Luise Adolpha Le Beau, alongside Kol Nidrei of Max Bruch and Isserlis’s own arrangement of Antonín Dvořák’s Four Romantic Pieces.
Dvořák: Poetic Tone Pictures – Leif Ove Andsnes
“I have to say I think this is the great forgotten cycle of 19th century piano music,” says Leif Ove Andsnes about his latest release on Sony Classical. On this album, he presents the most substantial piano collection by the great Romantic composer Antonín Dvořák – the unjustly neglected Poetic Tone Pictures. According to Andsnes, these undiscovered gems show an ...
Portrait: Alex Baranowski – Angèle Dubeau, La Pietà
Following their passion for seeking out rare musical gems, violinist Angèle Dubeau and La Pietà present Portrait: Alex Baranowski, the sixth release in their series of albums dedicated to contemporary composers. A successful young composer based in London, multiple award winner, and graduate of Paul McCartney’s LIPA, Alex Baranowski offers beautiful and generous music, rich in sound atmospheres. The album includes ...
The String Queens: Rise
Praised for its authentic, soulful, and orchestral sound, The String Queens (TSQ) is a dynamic trio that creates stimulating musical experiences that inspire diverse audiences. With an array of repertoire spanning from the Baroque era to the Jazz Age to today’s Billboard Hot 100 Chart, TSQ performs versatile programs that take listeners on a rousing musical journey through time and ...
Alexandre Tharaud: Cinema
Alexandre Tharaud’s relationship with film music runs deep – it also ranges wide. On his double album, Cinema, the French pianist delves into 50 celebrated film scores by composers from 19 countries. Among them are Michel Legrand, John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Francis Lai, Marvin Hamlisch, Nino Rota, and Philip Glass. As Tharaud says: “This album pays tribute to them with ...
Beethoven, Stravinsky: Violin Concertos – Vilde Frang
“The Beethoven concerto is a piece of overwhelming power,” says violinist Vilde Frang. “It is somehow more than music – the dimension of it feels almost cosmic. The force of this concerto takes me by surprise, over and over again.” Frang juxtaposes Beethoven’s epic, lyrical work with Stravinsky’s compact violin concerto, which pays spiky tribute to 18th century models. The ...
Santiago Cañón-Valencia: Ascenso
“Ascenso is a collection of works that have, in one way or another, a direct connection to myself. I wanted to present an album that was a representation of my current self, not just as a cellist, but as an artist. My idea is that this is not a cellist’s recording, or an album centered around the instrument, but rather ...
Schubert: Piano Sonatas D. 537, 568, 664 – Paul Lewis
After a brilliant Beethoven cycle and forays into Haydn and Brahms, Paul Lewis returns to complete his exploration of Schubert’s sonatas, which began with his first recording for Harmonia Mundi in 2001. The new recording features three early masterpieces. The Sonatas D. 537 and D. 568 display the daring and freshness of their youthful creator, while with D. 664, Schubert ...
Ravel: Orchestral Music, Volume 2 – Basque National Orchestra, Robert Trevino
Robert Trevino’s first album together the Basque National Orchestra featuring orchestral works by the great French-Basque composer Maurice Ravel received an excellent response. The program in this second volume is perhaps more “French” in nature, but the Basque orchestra is giving dazzling performances of these works by their own national composer. While the first album was focused on some of ...
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas – Midori, Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Though Midori and Jean-Yves Thibaudet have long been friends, they had never collaborated with one another until the 2018–19 season, when they toured a recital program of violin sonatas. The result was a consistent success, and they quickly got to work planning a recording of Beethoven’s violin sonatas. Over ten sonatas, spanning fifteen years of Beethoven’s life, this recording sees the longtime ...
Hans Rott: Symphony No. 1 – Bamberg Symphony, Jakub Hrůša
Fortune dealt Hans Rott a cruel hand. The Austrian composer, born in Vienna in 1858, struggled as a freelance musician and died at the age of twenty-five soon after succumbing to mental illness. Rott’s name lives on thanks to his Symphony No. 1 in E major and receives top billing in a new recording by the Bamberg Symphony and its Chief ...
Music of Charlotte Sohy
La Boîte à Pépites (The Jewel Box) is a new classical record label dedicated to releasing music by women composers. Founded by cellist Héloïse Luzzati, the label has ambitious plans to discover and record works by women composers that have rarely, if ever, been heard before or were lost over the decades. The label launches with a boxset of the ...
