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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Mozart: The Last Three Symphonies – Ensemble Resonanz, Riccardo Minasi
With its unique enthusiasm and artistic quality, Ensemble Resonanz of Hamburg ranks as one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras. After the widespread acclaim for their previous recordings of C.P.E. Bach and Haydn, the musicians pursue their explorations on modern instruments. Here they tackle Mozart’s last three symphonies – Nos. 39, 40, and 41 – under the direction of Riccardo ...
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 22 & 24 – Charles Richard-Hamelin
For their first album collaboration, pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin and Les Violons du Roy, under the direction of Jonathan Cohen, have chosen to record Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 22 and 24. Richard-Hamelin says, “This project, which brings together two of my favorite Mozart concertos, was an unforgettable experience. Throughout the recording, I felt like I was doing chamber music. The concertos ...
Eric Lu: Chopin, Brahms, Schumann
In his second album with Warner Classics, pianist Eric Lu performs an emotional repertoire of music by Chopin, Brahms, and Schumann. The centerpiece for the album, Chopin’s 24 Preludes, was an inspirational collection of works for Lu at a young age, and was composed during a period of turmoil in Chopin’s life. Lu pairs the Preludes with the vulnerable Ghost Variations, the ...
Beethoven Piano Trios – Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Frank Braley
Violinist Renaud Capuçon, cellist Gautier Capuçon, and pianist Frank Braley, well established as chamber-music partners, perform two of Beethoven’s greatest piano trios, the Ghost and the Archduke. “Together, all three musicians have the quality that is the most priceless of all in playing chamber music,” wrote The Guardian when the Capuçons and Braley played the Archduke at London’s Wigmore Hall. ...
Iris Trio: Homage and Inspiration
The Iris Trio pairs works by Schumann and Mozart with modern tributes to these masterpieces by György Kurtág and Christof Weiss on Homage and Inspiration, their debut album. Comprised of three outstanding musicians – clarinetist Christine Carter, violist Molly Carr, and pianist Anna Petrova – who first came together in New York City during their years at the Juilliard School ...
Ola Gjeilo: Night
Norwegian composer and pianist Ola Gjeilo presents a collection of new original works for solo piano, composed and performed by Gjeilo himself. His musical style is often described as cinematic and evocative, characterized by warm harmonies, flowing melodies, and gently rocking, repeated figures. Night is an intimate and meditative album, inspired by the twilight hours in the place Gjeilo now ...
12 Ensemble: Death and the Maiden
Following the critical success of their debut album, Resurrection, the 12 Ensemble has released their second album, Death and the Maiden. With their own arrangement of Schubert’s famous string quartet at its heart, the recording features a commission from the newly appointed Royal Opera House Composer-in-Residence Oliver Leith, alongside a poignant work by John Tavener and an arrangement of a ...
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique – Utah Symphony, Thierry Fischer
Hector Berlioz’s groundbreaking Symphonie fantastique is the centerpiece of a new recording by the Utah Symphony under its music director Thierry Fischer. Rounding out the album are choral versions of La mort d’Ophélie and Sara la baigneuse. These works may be relative rarities on record but both are vintage Berlioz, short and striking, which should be much better known.
Franck: Preludes, Fugues, and Chorales – Nikolai Lugansky
Given the scarcity of César Franck’s piano music on recordings, Nikolai Lugansky’s focus on this composer is to be commended. On his third release for Harmonia Mundi, the Russian pianist reveals an organ master strongly attached to the musical forms inherited from J.S. Bach: the prelude, the fugue, and the chorale. Translated to the piano keyboard, Franck’s music, with its ...
Music of Copland & Dvořák – National Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda
The National Symphony Orchestra has a rich history of recording, dating back to award-winning projects from the early 1970s with past music directors Antal Dorati, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Leonard Slatkin. The Orchestra’s new self-produced label celebrates this legacy and looks to the future with the release of the first recording under the baton of its seventh music director, Gianandrea Noseda, ...
The Early Horn – Ursula Paludan Monberg
The Mozarts – father Leopold and son Wolfgang Amadeus – bookend a virtuosic recital from Ursula Paludan Monberg, who traces the development of the natural horn as a solo instrument throughout the 18th century. Monberg has been principal horn of the English Concert since 2012. This recording marks her solo debut.
Mozart: Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin, Volume 2 – Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov
Using period instruments, Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov breathe new life into these “sonatas for keyboard with violin accompaniment,” a tradition Mozart renewed from within, blazing the trail for Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann. The first volume was widely praised: “The greater similarity of tone between Faust’s sparkling violin and Melnikov’s glittering fortepiano (within an airier acoustic) results in a sound ...
Virgil Boutellis-Taft: Incantation
On-the-rise French violinist Virgil Boutellis-Taft reveals many sides of the violin’s singing voice on this album with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Jac van Steen’s direction. Sometimes violent and fiery – as in Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre – and sometimes tender – as in Tchaikovsky and Bruch – Incantation is deeply rooted in musical history. Boutellis-Taft showcases works where the voice ...
Alessio Bax: Italian Inspirations
“Clearly among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public” (Gramophone), Alessio Bax releases “Italian Inspirations.” A native of Bari, Italy, Bax expands his critically acclaimed discography with a creatively curated solo recital program themed to his homeland, combining music of Bach, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and Dallapiccola.
Samuil Feinberg: Piano Sonatas – Marc-André Hamelin
Samuil Feinberg (1890-1962) embodies the type of musician whose creative work extends to several fields simultaneously. In addition to his compositional output, which shows striking harmonic invention, he left behind a number of theoretical writings, influenced several generations of pianists as a professor at the Moscow Conservatory, and enjoyed an excellent reputation over four decades as a profound and sensitive ...
Mozart Serenades – Cologne Academy
The Cologne Academy and Michael Alexander Willens are undertaking a survey of Mozart’s serenades and other incidental works. Here, the orchestra takes on one of the most famous of the serenades, the Haffner, named after Sigmund Haffner, who commissioned it for the festivities surrounding his sister’s wedding in 1776. A notable feature of Mozart’s serenades is the incorporation of virtuosic ...
Chopin: Piano Concertos – Benjamin Grosvenor
British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor presents a new recording of two favorites: Chopin’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with conductor Elim Chan and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. These works have been an active part of Grosvenor’s repertoire since his early teens: “Chopin was the first composer to whom I felt a strong connection as a child. I have always ...
Brahms: String Sextets – WDR Chamber Players
After their acclaimed Brahms String Quintets recording, the WDR Chamber Players now present the composer’s string sextets. Brahms wrote his two sextets at the beginning of his career, partly as a way to evade the “Ghost of Beethoven” haunting the string quartet, but also as the ideal genre to realize a typically Brahmsian sound: full, “orchestral,” and rich in harmonies. ...
Piano Trios by Henry Charles Litolff – Leonore Piano Trio
If the name of Henry Charles Litolff is familiar today only through the scherzo of his Concerto symphonique No. 4, the absurdity of that ‘one-hit composer’ tag is clearly demonstrated by this release. These are among the finest examples of the piano trio genre still inexplicably absent from the standard repertoire. The Leonore Piano Trio gives thrilling performances of these ...
A Bouquet of Bach – Andrew Rangell
Long recognized as among our most eloquent and insightful interpreters of the major keyboard works of Bach and Beethoven, pianist Andrew Rangell has drawn acclaim for a variety of recordings. Steinway & Sons has released A Bouquet of Bach, Rangell’s album comprised of works that span the career of Johann Sebastian Bach. The collection includes the complete Inventions and Sinfonias, 30 ...
