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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Williams: Violin Concerto No. 2 & Selected Film Themes – Anne-Sophie Mutter, Boston Symphony Orchestra, John Williams
Deutsche Grammophon presents the world-premiere recording of John Williams’ Violin Concerto No. 2. The work was written for and recorded by the venerated composer’s friend and frequent collaborator Anne-Sophie Mutter. Her impassioned performance was given with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Williams. The new album also includes three film themes newly arranged for the violinist by their composer. Williams ...
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6; Stucky: Silent Spring – Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
Reference Recordings presents the Symphony No. 6 of Ludwig van Beethoven, with Steven Stucky’s Silent Spring, in exceptional performances from Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In the program notes, Honeck gives rare insight into his conducting and interpretation, as well as the history and musical structure of Beethoven’s beloved Pastoral Symphony. Silent Spring was commissioned by the PSO in honor of the 50th anniversary ...
Einojuhani Rautavaara: Lost Landscapes – Simone Lamsma, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Robert Trevino
Conductor Robert Trevino’s new album on Ondine focuses on the late works of Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928–2016), one of Finland’s most celebrated composers after Sibelius. Titled Lost Landscapes, the album features the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and violinist Simone Lamsma in performances of Rautavaara’s Fantasia; Deux Sérénades; Lost Landscapes (world premiere of version for violin and orchestra); and the world-premiere recording of ...
Scenes in Tin Can Alley: Piano Music of Florence Price – Josh Tatsuo Cullen
The music of Florence Price (1887 – 1953) is enjoying a renaissance. The 2009 discovery of a trove of manuscripts in the composer’s abandoned summer home generated a lot of excitement and renewed interest in her life and work. Pianist Josh Tatsuo Cullen has recorded an entire album of her evocatively-titled music for solo piano, all specifically from that 2009 discovery. ...
Live from Vienna: phil Blech Wien, Olivier Latry
In April 2019, the brass ensemble phil Blech Wien joined forces with organist Olivier Latry, creating a new, unique body of sound under the baton of Anton Mittermayr. The concept for this extraordinary listening experience took more than a year’s worth of work: the declared aim was not the usual juxtaposition, but the merging of the two sound worlds, realized ...
Robert Schumann: Complete Symphonies – Munich Philharmonic, Pablo Heras-Casado
Four symphonies were enough for Robert Schumann to leave his mark. Without allowing himself to be overawed by Beethoven’s shadow, he succeeded from the outset in coining a highly personal idiom, with an astonishing combination of formal rigor and freedom of inspiration. Pablo Heras-Casado and the Munich Philharmonic offer their interpretation of this music, more mysterious than it appears, which ...
William Bolcom: The Complete Rags – Marc-André Hamelin
From the easy-going elegance of Tabby Cat Walk to the high spirits of Eubie’s Luckey Day, William Bolcom’s lifelong and affectionate homage to – and continuation of – the archetypal American genre of the rag is a guaranteed winner. Marc-André Hamelin channels his inner Eubie Blake in these exuberant accounts, and the inclusion of booklet notes by the composer himself adds to the ...
Saint-Georges: Six Concertante Quartets – Arabella String Quartet
A brilliant swordsman, athlete, violin virtuoso, and composer, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, might well lay claim to being the most talented figure in an age of remarkable individuals. The string quartet was still in its infancy in France in the 1770s, but while these pieces are small in scale they are exceptionally rewarding. Saint-Georges appreciated the intimate nature of ...
Richard Strauss: Three Tone Poems – Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst
This fourth release for the Cleveland Orchestra’s own label again showcases the unparalleled artistry, refined polish, and emotional power of this ensemble under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst. The album features three of Richard Strauss’ early tone poems (Macbeth, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, and Don Juan), providing a tantalizing window into Welser-Möst’s reputation as a renowned conductor of Strauss’ music. ...
ORA Singers, Suzi Digby: Music for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
The award-winning ORA Singers celebrate the reign of Britain’s longest-serving monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, by releasing two works that draw inspiration from her equally illustrious predecessor, Elizabeth I. ORA has commissioned the renowned British composer Bob Chilcott to write a new work based on O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth our Queen by William Byrd. These words have been sung ...
Musa Italiana: Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn – La Scala Philharmonic, Riccardo Chailly
Musa Italiana celebrates the influence of the “Italian style” on three Austro-German composers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, and Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony (No. 4 in A major) was composed during a 10-month Grand Tour of Italy. It draws inspiration from the county’s natural beauty, culture, and music. By the late 1810s, the musical innovations of Gioachino Rossini had taken Vienna by storm and clearly ...
A Gathering of Friends: John Williams, Yo-Yo Ma, New York Philharmonic
The 40-year friendship between two musical titans, John Williams and Yo-Yo Ma, reaches a new peak with A Gathering of Friends. The album is comprised of two acclaimed concert works the composer wrote for the cellist (Cello Concerto and Highwood’s Ghost), plus selections from his scores for Schindler’s List, Lincoln, and Munich. Featuring Williams himself conducting the New York Philharmonic, ...
Ivo Pogorelich: Chopin
Ivo Pogorelich has a special relationship with the piano music of Frédéric Chopin. It is Chopin, after all, whom he has to thank for his international breakthrough. When, at the age of 22, Pogorelich took part in the 1980 Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, his exceptional playing caused an immediate sensation. Martha Argerich, who was on the jury, described him ...
William Grant Still: Summerland – Zina Schiff; Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Avlana Eisenberg
William Grant Still wrote nearly 200 works including nine operas and five symphonies. Still’s many awards included three Guggenheim Fellowships and eight honorary doctorates. His work combines classical forms with jazz and blues idioms and was inspired by the rich tradition of African American spirituals. Still hoped that his music would serve a larger purpose of interracial understanding, and this ...
Ravel: Piano Concertos, Songs – Cédric Tiberghien, Stéphane Degout, Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
With the unique timbres of their period instruments and a superb Pleyel grand from 1892, conductor François-Xavier Roth and his orchestra Les Siècles explore some of Maurice Ravel’s major works. With pianist Cédric Tiberghien and baritone Stéphane Degout, two of the finest specialists in this repertory, this recording provides an opportunity to hear many aspects of Ravel’s colorful, kaleidoscopic world, ...
Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin – James Ehnes
Award-winning Canadian violinist James Ehnes returns to the greatest body of work for solo violin: Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas. After many years of performing these masterpieces, it was the lockdown in 2020 that led Ehnes to record the complete set at his home in Florida in the early hours of the morning. His interpretation of this music has changed ...
Thomas Lupo: Fantasia – Fretwork
Fretwork explores an overlooked English musical dynasty. The grandson of an Italian immigrant family brought to England under Henry VIII’s reign, Thomas Lupo (1571-1627) was a talented composer, viol player, and violinist who served in the Royal Court from the age of 16 until his death. His consort music for viols demonstrates a variety of moods and musical devices, with ...
Port of Call: Buenos Aires – Louise Bessette, Marc Djokic, Chloé Dominguez
Argentine composer and bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla has largely contributed to the fame of tango throughout the world. His Four Seasons of Buenos Aires are as famous as those of Vivaldi. The arrangement presented here, for piano, violin, and cello, is by José Bragato, a cellist with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic and a member of Piazzolla’s ensemble. Three Canadian musicians (pianist ...
Franck: Les Djinns, Symphonic Variations, Piano Triptychs – Tanguy de Williencourt, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Kristiina Poska
The two pieces for piano and orchestra (Les Djinns, Symphonic Variations) and the two large solo triptychs gathered here testify to César Franck’s dazzling maturity in his last years of life, as well as to his return to writing for the piano. The quintessence of his creative quest is manifested in these formally ambitious and expressively powerful works. Above all, ...
Haydn: Symphonies, Volume 26 – Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra, Johannes Klumpp
Conductor Johannes Klumpp writes: “The chronological journey through Joseph Haydn’s surviving symphonies that we began in Volume 25 now continues with his Symphony No. 107. Do not be misled by the high number! Composed about 1760/61, this is a work from Haydn’s early days, before his time at Schloss Esterházy. It was undoubtedly commissioned by Graf Morzin, who was Haydn’s ...
