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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Panoramas: Flute Music of the Philippines
Flutist Norman Menzales is Principal Flutist of Montana’s Great Falls Symphony, Colorado’s Fort Collins Symphony, and the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra. In Panoramas, he reflects on his Filipino heritage through a series of chamber ensemble collaborations. The album’s title work is by the groundbreaking Filipino composer Nicanor Abelardo (1893-1934). Panoramas, scored for flute, violin, viola, celeste, and piano, blends Filipino folk ...
Weber: Clarinet Concertos, Clarinet Quintet
French clarinetist Arthur Stockel has established himself as a passionate and eclectic musician through his virtuoso career as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. For his debut solo album, he is partnered with the Hanson Quartet and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, where was appointed principal clarinet at the age of 21. The repertoire features the two concertos and ...
Beethoven: The Early Quartets
As their first decade of performing together coincided with the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, the Calidore String Quartet embarked on a tour to perform the complete cycle of the composer’s sixteen string quartets. “Performing the Beethoven cycle is the musical equivalent of scaling Mount Everest,” said violinist Ryan Meehan, who once appeared on WFMT’s Introductions. “It is a grueling ...
Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Works
Star Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho marks the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth by recording his complete solo piano music. Cho’s insightful readings of Ravel, on stage and in the studio, underline his status as one of today’s most elegant and accomplished pianists, ten years after his First Prize win at the Chopin International Competition. Seong-Jin Cho has always felt ...
Vivaldi: Le Quattro Stagioni
Théotime Langlois de Swarte has quickly become one of today’s most sought-after violin soloists. His almost super-human dexterity on both the baroque and modern instrument has mesmerized critics, while his passion and conviction has made him a star with audiences everywhere. In a recent review, Gramophone wrote, “I’m running out of ways to recount Théotime’s brilliance….Most of all, I’m in ...
Debussy: String Quartet & Sonatas
The Nash Ensemble presents Debussy’s String Quartet, Violin Sonata, Cello Sonata, Sonata for Flute, Viola & Harp, and a chamber ensemble arrangement of the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. From two players to twelve, the elite musicians of the Nash Ensemble respond with authority to the varied demands made by this wonderful collection of Debussy’s chamber music. Currently celebrating its ...
Palestrina Revealed
Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge celebrate the 500th anniversary of Palestrina’s birth with five world-premiere recordings of still little-known works: the Magnificat secundi toni a 5; two motets: Ad te levavi oculos meos a 12, Memor esto verbi tui a 5; and two mass settings: Missa Memor esto verbi tui a 5 and Missa Emendemus in ...
Symphonic Stradivarius
Italian violinist Davide Alogna, a champion of Italian twentieth century repertoire, is the soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra for a program of new works for violin and orchestra. Each work on the program is tonal, often cinematic, and around 5 minutes in duration, serving as an accessible introduction to the composer. The collection showcases eleven composers, several who are ...
Something So Transporting Bright
Featuring works by composers spanning multiple generations—from the late Gloria Coates to emerging talents Tom Metcalf and Joel Järventausta—the Kreutzer Quartet’s latest album highlights the quartet’s unique role as both interpreters and collaborators. Three of the featured compositions emerged during the global pandemic, reflecting resilience through artistic partnership. With themes ranging from water to profound social responses, the album showcases ...
Rufus Wainwright: Dream Requiem
Singer-songwriter and composer Rufus Wainwright scored his epic Dream Requiem for orchestra, chorus, soprano and narrator. In June 2024, it received its world premiere in Paris with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the chorus and children’s choir of Radio France conducted by Mikko Franck with Meryl Streep as the narrator and soprano Anna Prohaska. Dream Requiem combines words ...
Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande Suite & Other Works
This album spotlights Gabriel Fauré’s orchestrated songs and his music for the stage, of which his suite from the incidental music for Pelléas et Mélisande includes some of his best-loved music. Performances of Fauré’s spectacular Wagnerian drama Prométhée are a real rarity, while the Shylock Suite, based on Shakespeare, contains some of his most elaborate symphonic music. Fauré orchestrated only ...
Al-Bunduqiyya – The Lost Concerto
Al-Bunduqiyya is the Arabic name for Venice and The Lost Concerto is a work composed in 2021 by the charismatic cellist Giovanni Sollima. It germinated from the only extant fragment – the orchestral viola part, now preserved at the Venice Conservatory – of a Vivaldi cello concerto in E minor. Among the other items are complete concertos by Vivaldi, solo ...
Mirrors
Recent guests on Live from WFMT, violinist Paul Huang and pianist Helen Huang (no relation) present their second album as a duo. Following the critical praise for Kaleidoscope, the duo’s 2023 release featuring sumptuous Romantic Era works by Respighi and Saint-Saëns, Mirrors centers two violin sonatas composed during the Second World War. Paul Huang explains that both the Prokofiev Violin ...
Gipps: Orchestral Works, Vol. 3
For their third installment of orchestral works by Ruth Gipps, Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic center the 20th century composer’s Symphony No. 1 and Horn Concerto with soloist Martin Owen. Dated September 1942, the First Symphony is a direct reflection of the horrors of war. The work demonstrates Gipps’s personal voice and features some wonderful writing for winds. Gipps ...
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5; Leonore Overture No. 3
A reissue of a live recording made at an acclaimed concert in Munich on October 17, 1976, featuring the Fifth Symphony and Leonore Overture No. 3, new to the WFMT library. Following this all-Beethoven program with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein returned to Munich to conduct regularly, beginning an annual series with the orchestra in 1983. Joachim Kaiser, ...
Alone Together
Recent guests in the WFMT studios, Cantus presents a collection of songs that what it means to connect in the modern world on their fourth release on Signum Classics. The program reflects upon the tension between technology and human longing for genuine in-person interaction. Citing the documentary Social Dilemma as an inspiration, ensemble bass Chris Foss says “the digital revolution ...
Clara Schumann: Piano Music, Vol. 1
Pianist Jean-Pierre Armengaud is considered a leading interpreter of French music and a specialist in Impressionist and Expressionist repertoire. He has been director for musical programming at Radio France and is associate professor at the Paris-Sorbonne University. Following his acclaimed recordings of the complete piano works of Debussy, Armengaud embarks on a project to record all of Clara Schumann’s solo ...
Vivaldi: Sacro Furore – Stabat Mater, Nisi Dominus, Concerti
A former member of Le Jardin des Voix, the apprenticeship program for William Christie‘s seminal ensemble Les Arts Florissants, Carlo Vistoli has risen to the top of the field of baroque specialists. Chicago audiences were introduced to the Italian countertenor in 2017 when he sang the role of Ottone in The Coronation of Poppea with the Monteverdi 450 tour in ...
The Great Glad Tidings Tell
This new album that showcases the singers of Trinity Church Boston, the historic 1,500-seat Episcopal Church in Boston’s Back Bay. The title comes from “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, the famous text penned by Phillips Brooks, the storied nineteenth century rector of Trinity Church – yet the release has a contemporary feel that showcases the choir’s commitment to inclusivity, community, ...
Christopher Tyler Nickel: Concerto For Piccolo, Concerto For Four Wagner Tubas
Celebrated for his scores for film and television, Canadian composer Christopher Tyler Nickel is also known for writing concertos for unusual instruments. Nickel’s newest release features his Concerto for Piccolo, dedicated to and premiered by Sarah Jackson, principal piccolo player of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The piccolo concerto is paired with the Concerto for four Wagner Tubas, the hybrid tuba-French ...