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.
Stay on top of New Releases with WFMT's curated Spotify and Apple Music playlists
Generations – Théotime Langlois de Swarte, William Christie
Poised at the convergence of 18th-century French and Italian schools, Jean-Marie Leclair and Jean-Baptiste Senaillé were the French Paganinis of their day. Technically challenging yet full of poetry, rhythmically varied and always dance-like, their sonatas find two fervent advocates in violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and harpsichordist William Christie. Transcending generational differences, the “venerated elder statesman of early music” (Opera ...
Elena Casanova: Ensueños de Cuba
Elena Casanova has a special enthusiasm for the music of Cuba, where she was born, which has inspired her to perform and record the music of her roots. On Ensueños de Cuba (Daydreams of Cuba), she plays works by sixteen different composers, each displaying the distinctive rhythms of the island nation. Casanova says the album is a nostalgic musical travelogue ...
The British Project – City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra launched The British Project on Deutsche Grammophon last October with an e-album of Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem. That was followed earlier this year by a second digital release, presenting the Symphonic Suite from Walton’s opera Troilus and Cressida in what The Times (London) described in its five-star review as an “ebullient, luscious, and splendid account.” The British Project is now appearing on CD, with the ...
Tchaikovsky Plus One, Volume 3 – Barry Douglas
For the third volume of his musical tribute to Russia, Barry Douglas has selected a range of love songs and dances by Tchaikovsky that span much of his composing life. From the early Romance, Op. 5 through to the two pieces from Op. 72, his last works for the piano, there is a uniform singing quality, each piece redolent with ...
Nicola Benedetti: Baroque
Grammy award-winning violinist Nicola Benedetti’s new Baroque album is the first recording in which she plays on period set-up, including gut strings. Benedetti is joined by a leading group of freelance baroque musicians, forming the Benedetti Baroque Orchestra for the very first time. The album features a selection of concertos by Vivaldi plus Geminiani’s incredible arrangement of Corelli’s La Folia. Benedetti says, “This ...
Music of Vítězslava Kaprálová
Despite her tragically early death at the age of 25, Vítězslava Kaprálová left a portfolio of more than 50 works of the highest craftsmanship and inspiration. This selection of her orchestral music, recorded at the Kaprálová Festival in Michigan, includes the work that won her international esteem in 1938, the Military Sinfonietta. Abounding in youthful energy and brilliant colors, the ...
Haydn Symphonies, Vol. 10: The Times of Day – Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini
The Haydn 2032 edition celebrates the release of the tenth volume in the complete recording of Haydn’s symphonies. Entitled “The Times of Day,” the program is devoted to Symphonies Nos. 6, 7, and 8, whose individual names translate as Morning, Noon, and Evening. Prince Paul Anton Esterházy, who commissioned the works, is said to have wanted to show his guests ...
Lara Downes & Friends: New Day Begun
Rising Sun Music, pianist Lara Downes’ transformative series of monthly digital EPs featuring music by Black composers spanning nearly 200 years, releases the series’ first album-length recording, New Day Begun. With music by fifteen composers performed by Downes and special guests including violinist Regina Carter, bass-baritone Davóne Tines, and PUBLIQuartet, the album brings together newly recorded music with selections from ...
Emmanuel Pahud: Mozart & Flute in Paris
This double album brings together nine captivating works, all with their origins in Paris, which feature a solo flute. Emmanuel Pahud is joined by his colleagues from Les Vents Français – oboist François Leleux (here also conducting the Paris Chamber Orchestra), clarinetist Paul Meyer, bassoonist Gilbert Audin, and horn-player Radovan Vlatković – and by Belgian harpist Anneleen Lenaerts. “The pieces ...
Beethoven: Hammerklavier Sonata, Eroica Variations – Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard returns to the Pentatone label with a recording of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata and Eroica Variations. The sonata is one of the pinnacles of Beethoven’s creative output, and arguably one of the highest mountains to climb for any pianist. To Aimard, it poses one of the most frightening tests of a performer’s life, but one that is as ...
Arthur Sullivan: Incidental Music – RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Sir Arthur Sullivan achieved worldwide fame as the composer who joined librettist W.S. Gilbert to create the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. However, his success with these “Savoy Operas” has overshadowed his other works, including a considerable amount of music for the theater that was wildly successful in its day. Sullivan’s suites of incidental music for Shakespeare are among his most ...
Robert Kyr: In Praise of Music – Antioch Chamber Ensemble, Joshua Copeland
Robert Kyr is one of the most prolific composers of his time, having written twelve symphonies, three chamber symphonies, concertos, and more than 100 works for vocal ensembles of all types. His choral music is distinguished by a warmly compelling lyricism, as well as by a contrapuntal mastery that arises from his love of early music, especially the work of ...
Sibelius: Orchestral Works – Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner
Following their acclaimed recordings of Schoenberg and Britten’s Peter Grimes, Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic turn their attention to the music of Sibelius. Written in 1913 for the singer Aino Ackté, the tone poem Luonnotar draws on text from the Finnish national epic poem, the Kalevala. Its virtuosic demands are ably met here by award-wining soprano Lise Davidsen, who ...
William Byrd & John Bull: The Visionaries of Piano Music – Kit Armstrong
Pianist and composer Kit Armstrong steps back in time to revive the spirit of the early English composers William Byrd and John Bull in his Deutsche Grammophon debut recording. In the notes that accompany the double album, Armstrong discusses the composers’ immeasurable contribution to keyboard music, their contrasting means of expression, and his own approach to performing sixteenth-century repertoire on ...
Joachim: Two Fantasies Rediscovered – Katharina Uhde
During World War II, valuable scores and books from various Berlin libraries were taken to Eastern Europe, including a pair of fantasies on Irish and Hungarian themes by the violinist and composer Joseph Joachim. These pieces remained unknown until 2016, when violinist Katharina Uhde rediscovered them. She performed the modern premiere in Baden-Baden, and this new recording with the Polish ...
Bryars: A Native Hill – The Crossing
Navona Records presents A Native Hill from Philadelphia’s professional chamber choir, The Crossing. This monumental unaccompanied work is the result of a collaboration with composer Gavin Bryars, whose previous music for The Crossing won them their first of two recent Grammy awards. With intimate knowledge of the individual voices and art of each singer, Bryars composed the work to capitalize ...
Isata Kanneh-Mason: Summertime
Following her debut album Romance, a portrait of Clara Schumann, British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason presents her vibrant second album Summertime. She says, “Summertime features a rich array of pieces from many of my favorite American classical composers. The Barber Piano Sonata forms the anchor around which the rest of the album was developed; I fell in love with the piece the first ...
David Russell: Cantigas de Santiago
Grammy-winning guitarist David Russell releases his latest album of contemporary works written just for him. Russell is renowned for his superb musicianship and inspired artistry, having earned the highest praise from audiences and critics alike. The recording opens with Cantigas de Santiago by Stephen Goss, who was inspired by the medieval pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Russell ...
Chopin: Complete Nocturnes – Alain Planès
His Debussy and Chopin recordings already offer ample evidence that Alain Planès is highly adept at selecting a period instrument best suited for the repertoire. For this complete recording of the Chopin Nocturnes, he has chosen a superb 1836 Pleyel – dating from the same decade during which many of these masterpieces saw the light of day. With this instrument’s ...
Stravinsky: Ballets Russes – Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
Paris, early twentieth century: in the space of three ballets, a previously unknown Russian composer revolutionized the music of his time. With The Firebird and Petrushka, respectively fairytale and folktale, and of course The Rite of Spring, with its insanely innovative harmonies and rhythms, Igor Stravinsky took the orchestra to unheard-of places. Among the first musicians to perform these works ...
