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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Avant l’orage: French String Trios – Black Oak Ensemble
Black Oak Ensemble, the Chicago-based string trio with an international following, treats listeners to a double-album of stylish and often witty French treasures written between the World Wars. The ensemble offers seven rarely heard delicacies from the 1920s and 30s, including world premiere recordings of trios by Henri Tomasi, Robert Casadesus, and Gustave Samazeuilh along with works by Jean Cras, ...
J.S. Bach: Concertos for Harpsichord & Strings, Volume 2 – Bach Collegium Japan, Masato Suzuki
The concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach for solo harpsichord and strings are some of the earliest, if not the very first, keyboard concertos. In all likelihood Bach wrote them for his own use (or that of his talented sons) – probably to be performed with Leipzig’s Collegium Musicum. The concertos’ fresh and exuberant character came across on Masato Suzuki’s first ...
Celestial Dawn: Pembroke College Girls’ Choir, Anna Lapwood
Directed by Anna Lapwood, the Chapel Choir of Pembroke College has one of the most exciting and varied ranges of choral endeavors among choirs at the University of Cambridge. Alongside their primary responsibility of contributing to worship in the College’s Chapel, they engage in regular artistic collaborations, media appearances, and outreach work. The Pembroke College Girls’ Choir was founded in ...
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Early Chamber Works – Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is best known for his cantata Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, which brought him international success as well as propelling his career at home in the United Kingdom. The three pieces recorded here were all composed during his time as a student at the Royal College of Music. They were destined to remain unpublished during his lifetime, and indeed for ...
Plínio Fernandes: Saudade
Born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, Plínio Fernandes’s musical talent has brought him all over the world, including to the Royal Academy of Music in London where he received his master’s degree and has lived for the last seven years. With Saudade, an entrancing collection of works for solo guitar, Fernandes makes his auspicious recording debut for Decca Gold, weaving ...
Jean Mouton: Missa Faulte d’argent & Motets – Brabant Ensemble, Stephen Rice
Stephen Rice and the Brabant Ensemble continue exploring the music of the French composer Jean Mouton. Their earlier album of his works was described as “gorgeous” (BBC Music Magazine) and its successor is every bit as rewarding, confirming the distinction and originality of this near contemporary of Josquin des Prez. The Missa Faulte d’argent emerges as a major work in ...
Tournament for Twenty Fingers: Emma Abbate, Julian Perkins
Initially enjoying popularity first in Germany-speaking lands and then in France, the genre of the piano duet (four hands, one piano) went on to blossom in England during the 20th century. On this album, Emma Abbate and Julian Perkins present the complete works for piano duet by each of the composers selected: Lennox Berkeley, Richard Arnell, Stephen Dodgson, and Constant ...
Itamar Zorman: Violin Odyssey
Violinist Itamar Zorman’s new album was born out of his 2020 live-streamed video series Hidden Gems, presented during the lockdown when concerts were on hold. The popular series focused on many lesser-known and rarely-played works for violin. From this musical treasure trove, Zorman selected ten pieces for Violin Odyssey, made with pianists Ieva Jokubaviciute and Kwan Yi. The far-reaching geographical ...
Peter Boyer: Orchestral Works – London Symphony Orchestra, Peter Boyer
This album presents eight of the most recent works by Peter Boyer, one of the leading American orchestral composers of his generation. Balance of Power was commissioned for the 95th birthday of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, while Fanfare for Tomorrow was composed for the inauguration of President Joe Biden in 2021. Each of these pieces displays Boyer’s vivid ...
Alexander Ullman: Liszt
Alexander Ullman was the winner of the 2011 Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Budapest. He studied at the Purcell School, the Curtis Institute, and the Royal College of Music. Ullman’s debut album on Rubicon was a recital of great Russian ballet music arranged for piano – Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky – and received enthusiastic reviews from around the world. ...
Ferdinand Ries: Piano Trio and Sextets – Nash Ensemble
Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838) has long been lurking in the shadows of musical history, his place in the footnotes assured through his role as Beethoven’s student, amanuensis, and de facto agent. Yet his position by Beethoven’s side has probably limited most historical assessment of Ries himself. His compositions span all the main genres, including eight symphonies, three operas, and some twenty-six ...
Corazón: The Music of Latin America – John-Henry Crawford, Victor Santiago Asuncion
John-Henry Crawford writes: “In the summer of 2019, I traveled to Mexico to compete in the International Carlos Prieto Cello Competition, and little did I know, the trip would transform my life musically. At the time I was very well acquainted with Latin American music, but after having the great fortune of winning first prize and returning to Mexico multiple ...
C.P.E. Bach: Flute Concertos – Rune Most, Danish Sinfonietta, David Riddell
Rune Most, the distinguished Danish flutist, performs three delightfully virtuosic flute concertos by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach with the Danish Sinfonietta and conductor David Riddell. Of the three concertos recorded here, the D minor concerto is the only one conceived for flute. The A minor began its life as a cello concerto, and the G major began as a concerto ...
Sebastian Bohren: La Folia
Sebastian Bohren’s new album La folia is an affectionate homage to Ida Haendel, one of his heroes; to fiddlers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and to the violin itself. The Swiss violinist says, “It is also like a hall of mirrors, as some tracks invoke the spirits of two or three violinists.” From an early age, Bohren ...
Guitar Recital: Bokyung Byun
Bokyung Byun, winner of the 2021 Guitar Foundation of America Competition and one of the most formidable classical guitarists of the younger generation, presents a wide variety of music from diverse nationalities and eras. From 18th-century Classicism and 20th-century works inspired by the mastery of Andrés Segovia, to the eclectic works of today, Byun takes us through many moods and ...
Beethoven: Complete Cello Sonatas – Alisa Weilerstein, Inon Barnatan
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan present a complete recording of Beethoven’s cello sonatas. Composed over a span of nearly twenty years, these works not only contain some of the most appealing and lyrical music Beethoven wrote, but also allow the listener to trace his exceptional artistic development. The third sonata, moreover, is a watershed in sonata writing, arguably ...
Time for Three: Letters for the Future
Innovative string trio Time For Three (violinists Nicolas Kendall and Charles Yang and bassist Ranaan Meyer) release the new album Letters for the Future with the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Xian Zhang on Deutsche Grammophon. The album comprises world-premiere recordings of technically demanding and musically virtuosic concertos for trio and orchestra by two Pulitzer Prize-winning composers commissioned for the group: Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto ...
Liszt: Transcendental Etudes – Gabriel Stern
A major figure of the Romantic period, the inventor of the piano recital, Franz Liszt with his twelve Transcendental Etudes brought technical virtuosity up to a level never reached before him. Beyond technically challenging the performer, these flamboyant, evocative pages feed on the composer’s observation of nature and readings. French-Israeli pianist Gabriel Stern takes on these groundbreaking works that foreshadow the ...
Music@Menlo Live: Gather
Music@Menlo has released recordings from the 2021 summer festival. The seven-disc collection, titled Gather, celebrates the joy of coming together around a shared love of live music after an immensely challenging period for the arts. Each of the discs explores pinnacles of chamber music, including both masterworks and new discoveries. This collection also celebrates the first season in the Spieker ...
Zlata Chochieva: Chiaroscuro
Naïve Classics has released pianist Zlata Chochieva’s Chiaroscuro, the first of three albums on the label. Praised by The Scotsman for performing with “effortless, liquid finesse…a triumph of natural expression and unswerving musicality,” Chochieva has compiled for the album a symmetrical program of works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Alexander Scriabin. Chochieva titled the program Chiaroscuro, explaining that the works ...
