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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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 ...
Angela Hewitt: Love Songs
Angela Hewitt’s recording Love Songs features some of the best-known musical declarations of love across the centuries, heard in transcriptions by some of the great pianists (including Hewitt herself). She sums up the album by saying, “It means a lot to me to present you with this recording, especially as it was made during a time of great isolation for ...
Concentus Musicus Vienna: Haydn & Schubert Symphonies
Concentus Musicus Vienna continues its exploration of works of the Classical and Romantic periods as envisioned by the ensemble’s late founder Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Stefan Gottfried conducts Schubert’s Symphony No. 5, written in 1816 at the age of 19, and the seventh of Haydn’s 12 London symphonies, No. 99, written in 1793. Recorded live at the famous Musikverein in Vienna, this ...
Brahms: Piano Sonatas, Rhapsodies – Garrick Ohlsson
Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of masterful interpretative and technical prowess. Although he has long been regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire. The two sonatas recorded on this album are the ...
Leif Ove Andsnes: Mozart Momentum 1785
Mozart Momentum 1785 is the first of two releases on which pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra explore the remarkable years of 1785/86 in Mozart’s life. In 1781, aged 25, Mozart made the bold move of going freelance. With both public and private concerts taking place on a daily basis, Vienna was the place to be for an ...
Verona Quartet: Diffusion
Through the intimate voice of the string quartet, Diffusion explores a mosaic of cultures in Janáček’s String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters,” Szymanowski’s String Quartet No. 2, and Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major. As an ensemble of four nations (Singapore, Canada, United States, and United Kingdom), the Verona Quartet reveals a kaleidoscopic snapshot of cultural migration at the turn ...
The Romantic Piano Concerto, Volume 83: Gablenz, Paderewski
The Hyperion label’s wide-ranging exploration of the Romantic piano concerto continues with works by two Polish composers. Ignacy Jan Paderewski is a familiar name, but the same can hardly be said of Jerzy Gablenz. Jonathan Plowright makes the strongest case possible for Gablenz’s piano concerto: a substantial work rich in melodic invention and thunderous pianism. The album also features Paderewski’s ...
Randall Goosby: Roots
Rising star violinist Randall Goosby presents his debut album, Roots. The album is an exploration of music written by Black composers and inspired by Black American culture. The collection is an homage to the pioneering musicians who paved the way for Goosby and his generation of young artists. Goosby says, “I am so grateful for the opportunity to share this album ...
Cantus: Manifesto
The vocal ensemble Cantus’ latest release of world premieres marks their full-length album debut on Signum Classics. In Manifesto, Cantus takes a nuanced look at identity and relationships — with friends, lovers, family, and the divine. The album takes its name from “Manifesto,” a minimalistic piece from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang set to text from Google’s auto-complete list of ...
Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective: American Quintets
The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective was founded in 2017 by Tom Poster and Elena Urioste, who met through the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists program. The Collective operates with a flexible roster of today’s most inspirational musicians. For their debut recording, the ensemble performs Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet, which the KCC fell in love with during a residency at the ...
Duo Mantar: Music from the Promised Land
This selection of pieces for mandolin and guitar performed by Duo Mantar represents the rich variety of music from Israel. Styles range from the diaspora of Babylonian Jewry through European klezmer traditions and Balkan Ladino songs to contemporary influences from America. Paul Ben-Haim and Marc Lavry pioneered the use of music originating in the Jewish East, and Jan Freidlin continues ...
Inna Faliks: The Schumann Project
Ukrainian-born American pianist Inna Faliks is a passionately committed artist who has made a name for herself through her commanding performances of standard piano repertoire, genre-bending interdisciplinary projects, and inquisitive work with contemporary composers. On her latest recording, Faliks juxtaposes two large scale works by Clara Schumann (née Wieck) and Robert Schumann. In this first volume of her Schumann Project, ...
Mozart: Violin Concertos – Sebastian Bohren, CHAARTS Chamber Artists, Gábor Takács-Nagy
Swiss violinist Sebastian Bohren makes his Avie label debut with two concertos from Mozart’s “year of the violin” – Nos. 3 and 5 – paired with the composer’s youthful Symphony No. 29. Bohren’s interpretations bring out the sparkling energy of the concertos, written when Mozart was just 19 years old. His partners on the album, famed Hungarian violinist-turned conductor Gábor ...
Americans – Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, James Gaffigan
Vivid testimony to the multifaceted partnership of James Gaffigan and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, their latest release invites us to explore the conductor’s American roots, from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story to Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 3, based on his works for solo organ. With dramatically potent dissonances, Ruth Crawford’s Andante for strings casts a spell in the form of ...
Andrew von Oeyen: Bach, Beethoven
Shaped by pianist Andrew von Oeyen’s experience of lockdown, this solo recital comprises Bach’s Overture in the French Style BWV 831, Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas No. 13 in E-flat major and No. 23 in F minor, Appassionata, and arrangements by Wilhelm Kempff of two movements that Bach wrote for accompanied flute. “Perhaps more than any other composer, Bach expresses the clearest ...
