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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Gloriæ Dei Cantores: Music of Arvo Pärt
Modest about his achievements yet authentically convinced about the role of his music in today’s world, Arvo Pärt is today’s most performed “classical” composer. For the past forty years, Pärt’s compositions have shown and spoken the influence of multiple layers and global influences – the music of the Orthodox Church, bells, Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, a compositional technique he developed ...
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 – Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mariss Jansons
Anton Bruckner himself gave his Fourth Symphony its popular title “Romantic.” After extensive revisions, the work was premiered in 1881 in Vienna. The performance was a great triumph and marked a decisive change in the reception of Bruckner’s music. It remains one of his most-performed works to this day. BR Klassik has released this concert recording of the “Romantic” from ...
Nash Ensemble: Clara Schumann & Fanny Mendelssohn
This recording from the Nash Ensemble celebrates the talents and importance of the ‘other’ Mendelssohn and Schumann. These oft-neglected composers emerge from the shadows of their illustrious family names in a blaze of triumphant chamber music. “The Nash Ensemble is still the best champion that any composer could hope to have.” – The Times, London
Howells: Missa Sabrinensis – Bach Choir, BBC Concert Orchestra, David Hill
The English composer Herbert Howells is chiefly celebrated for his liturgical choral music within the Anglican cathedral tradition, but that represents a fraction of his overall output. His large-scale masterpieces for chorus, soloists, and orchestra, including the Missa Sabrinensis, take that style and elevate it to a new level. It was the Bach Choir (under Sir David Willcocks) that played ...
Cantilena: Tabea Zimmermann, Javier Perianes
Cantilena brings together two virtuoso soloists, violist Tabea Zimmerman and pianist Javier Perianes, for an exploration of repertoire from Spain to South America featuring works by the greatest composers those regions have produced. Spanish folk songs arranged by Falla are paired here with compositions by Casals, Granados, Montsalvatge, Piazzolla, and Villa-Lobos.
Key of A: Beethoven & Franck Violin Sonatas – Lara St. John, Matt Herskowitz
The new album from violinist Lara St. John and pianist Matt Herskowitz pairs two works in the key of A major: Beethoven’s Sonata No. 9, Kreutzer, and César Franck’s Sonata. Beethoven’s work was written during a period of tumultuous success and the tragedy of his impending deafness. Franck’s sonata, considered one of the greatest from the French Romantic period, is ...
Bach: English Suites – Andrew Rangell
Pianist Andrew Rangell continues his acclaimed series of recordings of Bach’s music with a new complete set of the six English Suites. Bach did not give these suites the designation of “English,” which is evident by the fusion of French, Italian, and German compositional elements throughout. The different styles featured in the English Suites are held together by a feeling ...
Mozart: Gran Partita – Toronto Chamber Winds
Mozart’s Serenade No. 10 in B-flat, K. 361, known as the Gran Partita, is a masterpiece in every respect. One of his longest instrumental works, it is written for 12 wind instruments and double bass. This reissued 1982 recording by the Toronto Chamber Winds is one of the few that adheres to the original Mozart manuscript. The ensemble includes members ...
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2, Handel Variations – Lars Vogt
The second album in Lars Vogt’s Brahms series with the Royal Northern Sinfonia includes the Second Piano Concerto, with Vogt directing from the keyboard. The concerto is combined with a solo piano work, Handel Variations, Op. 24, which was dedicated to Clara Schumann. This set of 25 variations and a fugue shows Brahms as a great successor to the tradition ...
Brillance Indéniable: The Virtuoso Violin in the Court of Louis XV
Award-winning violinist Alana Youssefian and her ensemble Le Bien-Aimé showcase music of the brilliant but seldom-heard French violinist and composer Louis-Gabriel Guillemain. His precociousness was noted at an early age, and Guillemain went on to serve in the court of King Louis XV. His symphonies are as uplifting and innovative as his sonatas are astonishingly virtuosic. While his compositions tested ...
Luc Beauséjour: Le Rappel des Oiseaux
A highly sought-after musician not only for his virtuosity and the subtlety of his playing, Luc Beauséjour is never short of ideas when it comes to offering music programs imbued with originality and authenticity. For his new album, Le rappel des oiseaux, the harpsichordist proposes a selection of works by French Baroque composers, including Rameau, Couperin, d’Agincourt, and Daquin, who ...
Mozart: Piano Concertos, Volume 2 – Anne-Marie McDermott
Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott’s cycle of Mozart’s Piano Concertos continues with his first original Concerto, K. 175, composed at age 17. Volume 2 also presents two of Mozart’s unquestionable masterpieces: the powerful concerto in D major, K. 451, and the ever-popular Concerto in B-flat major, K. 450. McDermott is joined in these performances by the Odense Symphony Orchestra.
Asplmayr: String Quartets, Op. 2 – Eybler Quartet
Toronto’s Eybler Quartet is internationally-renowned for brilliant performances as well as for an unquenchable passion for delving deep into the works of lesser-known composers of the Classical era. Now, the Eyblers have released an album featuring the music of Viennese composer Franz Asplmayr (1728-1786), the first-known recording of the entirety of his Six Quartets, Op. 2. In these remarkable works ...
British Violin Sonatas – Clare Howick, Simon Callaghan
The story of British music for violin and piano is a fascinating one, but by no means as fully appreciated as it might be. It forms part of the broader genre of British chamber music, overshadowed by the breadth of orchestral, choral, and solo vocal music. Violinist Clare Howick and pianist Simon Callaghan pay tribute to the remarkable flourishing of ...
The Gesualdi Six: Fading
Since the fourth century, the service of Compline has marked the end of the day, ushering in the darkness of the night. Much of the music here on the Gesualdo Six’s third album is inspired by this ancient service. The first half features a selection of atmospheric works that relate to the transition between light and darkness. Then there is ...
Pedro Aguiar: Brazilian Guitar Music
Rooted in European music, native folk traditions, and often infused by jazz, Brazilian music encompasses a huge variety of dance forms and songs. Prize-winning guitarist Pedro Aguiar has selected a panoramic recital to illustrate these elements with music rich in melody and rhythmic vitality. From Villa-Lobos, whose Chôros No. 1 is one of the most popular guitar solos ever written, ...
Mussorgsky & Ravel – Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
Arturo Toscanini regarded Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition as a genuine treatise on instrumentation. Scored for the same instrumental forces as La Valse, Ravel’s version quickly established itself ahead of all the many competing orchestrations of Mussorgsky’s piano suite. In conductor François-Xavier Roth’s view, La Valse and Pictures together represent the peak of Ravel’s output for the ...
Schubert: Late Inspirations – Mathieu Gaudet
Mathieu Gaudet, concert pianist, full-time emergency physician, and father of three young children, says he is delighted by his work at the hospital as much as by his music projects. “Yes, it’s tiring. But it’s so great to do both. I don’t have to say yes to everything in music. I can choose my projects,” he said in a recent ...
Martin Fröst: Vivaldi
Martin Fröst’s new album is a Baroque adventure based on the question: What might Vivaldi have composed for the clarinet if it had been more fully developed? For this recording, three clarinet concertos have been newly composed, made up of music drawn from Vivaldi’s most beautiful opera and oratorio arias. Performed on the mellow, song-like chalumeau, the predecessor of the ...
Víkingur Ólafsson: Debussy & Rameau
After the remarkable global success of his award-winning Bach recording, celebrated Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson returns with his third solo album. Debussy · Rameau juxtaposes pieces by two of the greatest French composers – both musical revolutionaries – exploring the contrasts and common ground between them. Ólafsson says, “As extraordinary innovators of both harmony and form, with a unique ear ...
