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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Strauss: Don Quixote, Till Eulenspiegel – Gürzenich Orchestra, François-Xavier Roth
After two memorable recordings devoted to Mahler’s Third and Fifth symphonies, François-Xavier Roth continues his exploration of the major works premiered by the Gürzenich Orchestra. In the spotlight this time are two of the young Richard Strauss’s most brilliant achievements: Till Eulenspiegel and Don Quixote. In the latter, a symphonic poem in the guise of a double concerto, Jean-Guihen Queyras ...
Víkingur Ólafsson: Mozart & Contemporaries
For his latest album, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson presents some of his favorite Mozart keyboard works in the company of pieces by a selection of the composer’s leading contemporaries. Juxtaposing works by Mozart, Haydn, and C.P.E. Bach with rarely-recorded Galuppi and Cimarosa, Mozart & Contemporaries dispels the image of Mozart as the angelic prodigy, instead presenting a mature composer through music ...
ARC Ensemble: Chamber Works by Dmitri Klebanov
A casualty of Soviet-era cultural suppression and anti-Semitism, Jewish-Ukrainian composer Dmitri Klebanov (1907-1986) is among the scores of musicians whose works are largely forgotten and rarely performed. Fortunate not to have been among those artists and intellectuals arrested, killed, or sent to forced labor camps during Stalin’s brutal reign, Klebanov understood that his career and survival depended on producing works ...
Nuevo Tango Concertos by Astor Piazzolla and Omar Massa
Omar Massa is a bandoneon player, composer, and arranger from Buenos Aires, based in Europe since 2016. Regarded by critics as an expert on Astor Piazzolla’s music – whose work he has interpreted from the age of six – Massa has often been the connecting bridge between classical music and Argentine tango music. He has recorded with the Berlin Symphony ...
Mozart: Complete Masses, Volume 1
The occasion for the composition of Mozart’s Missa longa is still a matter of speculation, but the Mass remains an exceptional work with its elaborate choral writing, extended orchestration, and dramatic changes. The symphonic qualities of the Coronation Mass reveal influences from Mozart’s travels in Paris and Mannheim, as well as a move towards a more operatic style. The richness ...
Liszt: Années de pèlerinage, Première année: Suisse – Charles Owen
With his critically acclaimed recordings of music by Bach, Brahms, Fauré, and Rachmaninov to his credit, celebrated British pianist Charles Owen celebrates his 50th birthday by scaling the heights of Franz Liszt’s anthology Années de pèlerinage—Première année—Suisse, which evokes the composer’s travels throughout Switzerland and the breath-taking Alpine landscape. The program concludes with the emotive Bénédiction de Dieu dans la ...
Florence Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 – Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Florence Price came to prominence almost ninety years ago, having surmounted systemic barriers to the progress of African Americans and women in classical music. Much of her music then fell into neglect, however, and has only recently been rediscovered. Among those championing her work today are the Philadelphia Orchestra and its music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Their latest recording, featuring Price’s Symphonies Nos. ...
Skylark Vocal Ensemble: It’s a Long Way
Skylark is a premier vocal group—led by Artistic Director Matthew Guard—of leading American vocal soloists, chamber musicians, and music educators, whose dramatic performances have been described as “gripping” (The Times of London). The Boston-based, Grammy-nominated ensemble has released It’s a Long Way, a selection of choral and solo vocal music from the Renaissance to the 21st century, including four world ...
Saint-Georges: Symphonies Concertantes – Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra
Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was a brilliant swordsman, athlete, violin virtuoso, and gifted composer, with a claim to being the most talented figure in an age of remarkable individuals. He was an early and important exponent of the hybrid symphonie concertante – a genre that draws on both the symphony and concerto traditions. This novel format was the ideal ...
Mozart: Piano Concertos – Jeremy Denk, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra
Pianist Jeremy Denk is joined by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for two Mozart concertos—No. 25 in C Major, K. 503 and No. 20 in D minor, K. 466—bookending the composer’s solo Rondo in A minor, K 511. Denk says of K. 503 in his liner notes: “As I write these words … the world as it used to be ...
Haydn: Piano Sonatas – Paul Lewis
In 2018, the English pianist Paul Lewis embarked on an exploration of one of the richest bodies of work of the Classical era: the keyboard sonatas of Haydn. For this second volume, Lewis tackles some of the most remarkable pieces in this vast output. He says, “I’ve wanted to explore the piano sonatas of Haydn in detail for some time. ...
Janine Jansen: 12 Stradivari
For the first time in history, 12 instruments by Antonio Stradivari have travelled across the world for a ground-breaking new project with violinist Janine Jansen. The resulting album, 12 Stradivari, captures the individual characters of each instrument in specially-curated music accompanied by Sir Antonio Pappano at the piano. These days, Stradivari’s instruments can reach prices well over $20 million, and some of ...
Piano Music of Robert Schumann – Stephen Hough
Stephen Hough is widely regarded as one of the most important and distinctive pianists of his generation. His artistry proves ideal for the three works by Robert Schumann on this album: Arabeske, Kreisleriana, and Fantasie. The emotional sweep of these marvelous pieces, reflecting the vicissitudes of Schumann’s complex personal life at the time, calls for a pianist wholly responsive to ...
Haydn: Complete Symphonies, Volume 25 – Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra, Johannes Klumpp
The Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra named conductor Johannes Klumpp as their Artistic Director last season. He follows in the footsteps of founder Thomas Fey, who established the ensemble as one of the leading historically-informed orchestras for the Classical and early Romantic periods. In a continuation of their survey of Haydn’s complete symphonies, the orchestra plays five early works. Klumpp says, “We ...
Pēteris Vasks: Oboe Concerto, Vēstījums, Lauda
Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks is one of the most prominent names among living composers today. This album by the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Poga includes the first recording of Vasks’ atmospheric and pastoral Oboe Concerto written for the centenary celebrations of Latvia’s independence in 2018 and performed by one of today’s leading oboists, Albrecht Mayer. The new ...
Jean-Yves Thibaudet: Carte Blanche
Legendary pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet releases Carte Blanche, a new album continuing his long-standing relationship with Decca Classics. To mark a milestone birthday and celebrate a new chapter in his relationship with the label, Thibaudet was given “carte blanche” by Decca to choose personal music that he has never recorded before—a selection that reflects on the people and pieces that have impacted his ...
Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa – Renaud Capuçon, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra
“Arvo Pärt’s music takes us from darkness to light,” says violinist Renaud Capuçon. “It looks relatively simple on paper, but each note needs to have its own life as it undergoes change. This music is not just relaxing – it has a depth and drama.” In Autumn 2021, Renaud Capuçon becomes Artistic Director of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. His first ...
Bruch: Chamber Works – Nash Ensemble
The Nash Ensemble, Resident Chamber Ensemble at London’s Wigmore Hall, is regarded as a standard-bearer of British music-making, and has been acclaimed by The Independent as a “chamber music group beyond compare.” Max Bruch wrote beautiful chamber music but it was concentrated in two periods, at the beginning and end of his career. In between came the concertos, the orchestral music, ...
Daniel Hope: Songs of Hope
Violinist Daniel Hope’s latest album is a deeply personal, strikingly distinctive musical anthology, one which captures the spirit of community and compassion that music helped cultivate during the pandemic. Hope recalls, “This album is my attempt to project a glimmer of hope and give people, including myself, something to hold on to.” The album opens with a specially commissioned arrangement ...
Mozart: Three Haydn Quartets – Cuarteto Casals
Cuarteto Casals continues to explore Mozart’s body of works dedicated to Haydn. Here, one composer takes on the mantle of the other: the younger man, now settled in Vienna and just starting a family, was experiencing an exceptional period of creativity, transfiguring everything he touched with his genius. In its review of the group’s first release of Mozart’s quartets dedicated ...
