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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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 ...
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 ...
