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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Luka Šulić: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
After seven years of touring the world as part of the critically acclaimed duo 2Cellos, Luka Šulić returns to his classical roots with his first solo album for Sony Classical. A graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music and a prize-winning cellist, Šulić takes on one of the most iconic works in classical music for his first independent recording project. His dramatic ...
Chamber Music of Dohnányi – Takács Quartet, Marc-André Hamelin
The celebrated partnership of pianist Marc-André Hamelin and the Takács Quartet has already set down reference recordings of piano quintets by Schumann, Franck, and Shostakovich, and this latest addition is equally illustrious. These performances of Dohnányi’s Piano Quintets Nos. 1 and 2, alongside his String Quartet No. 2, are an important milestone in the critical reevaluation of the composer’s work.
Beatrice Rana: Music of Ravel & Stravinsky
Beatrice Rana, in the words of the New York Times, is a pianist who “has ferocious technique but is distinguished by her musical intelligence.” Here she plays virtuosic, poetic works that evoke the creative ferment of Paris in the transitional early years of the 20th century: piano transcriptions of Stravinsky’s iridescent ballet scores The Firebird and Petrushka, and Ravel’s Miroirs ...
Angèle Dubeau, La Pietà: Pulsations
With a career spanning over four decades and an impressive discography of more than forty albums, Angèle Dubeau continues to leave her mark in today’s music world. Pulsations, the violinist’s new album with her ensemble La Pietà, brings together works that evoke strong images and possess a profound emotional intensity. Dubeau has a flair for finding and recording the works ...
Beethoven: Complete Piano Concertos – Jan Lisiecki, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Beethoven has proved a serendipitous theme in Jan Lisiecki’s remarkable rise to international renown. The young pianist now turns his attention to the complete set of concertos, recorded live over the course of a week at the Berlin Konzerthaus with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Lisiecki believes that the composer did not conceive the piano concertos as a ...
Paul Merkelo: The Enlightened Trumpet
Recognized among the finest trumpet virtuosos of his generation, Paul Merkelo releases The Enlightened Trumpet, his first recording for Sony Classical. Merkelo has been Principal Trumpet with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra since 1995 and has appeared as soloist with prestigious orchestras around the globe. In The Enlightened Trumpet, Merkelo is joined by the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and its founder and conductor Marios Papadopoulos ...
Joy & Desolation – Alexander Fiterstein, Tesla Quartet
Following its acclaimed debut on Orchid Classics, the Tesla Quartet returns alongside clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein in works ranging from the Classical period to the present day. Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet finds outstanding advocates in this performance, and Finzi’s autumnal Bagatelles are heard here in a delightful arrangement by Christian Alexander. Contemporary American composer John Corigliano wrote his deeply-moving Soliloquy in memory of ...
Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky & Lieutenant Kijé Suite – Utah Symphony, Thierry Fischer
Sergei Prokofiev was one of the giants of 20th century music. Reference Recordings is proud to present the Utah Symphony conducted by Thierry Fischer in two of his most brilliant and dramatic musical works. The music of Lieutenant Kijé was originally written as the score to the film of the same name in 1934. Prokofiev soon adapted it into a ...
Piano Music of Shostakovich – Andrey Gugnin
Hyperion is thrilled to welcome the exceptional Andrey Gugnin to the label. Winner of the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition, he offers a spectacular all-Shostakovich program built around the two piano sonatas. The recording aptly demonstrates Gugnin’s electrifying pianism.
Vivaldi: Cello Concertos, Volume 3 – Christophe Coin, L’Onda Armonica
Cellist Christophe Coin has embarked on a project to record all of Vivaldi’s cello concertos. With this third installment (the sixty-first volume of the Naïve label’s complete Vivaldi Edition), he now has twenty cello concertos under his belt. Coin has become a noted authority on the work of the brilliant, tirelessly prolific Venetian composer, performing it with a host of ...
Chopin: Late Masterpieces – Sandro Russo
Sandro Russo delves into the world of Chopin during his later years. “Chopin – Late Masterpieces” features some of his undisputed treasures from that period. Though Chopin’s life tragically came to an end at just 39, he remained productive during his final years, and the late-period compositions featured on this album proved inspirational to many composers that came after him, ...
Miloš Karadaglić: Sound of Silence
Last time we saw the Montenegrin-born and London-based classical guitarist Miloš Karadaglić, his Beatles album ‘Blackbird’ had been received with unanimous acclaim, his new record was already in development, and a major international concert tour was booked. It was then that Miloš was struck by an inexplicable but devastating hand injury. Miloš travelled across Europe seeking help from experts and went ...
Music of Gustav Holst – Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern
Reference Recordings presents Gustav Holst’s beloved works in outstanding interpretations from Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony. This hybrid SACD release was recorded in the acoustically acclaimed Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The album includes Holst’s ever-popular “astrological suite” The Planets and ballet music from his one-act opera The Perfect Fool.
New York Polyphony: Lamentationes
The Grammy-nominated vocal quartet New York Polyphony present is latest album on BIS Records. The recording features rarely heard works from late 15th-century and early 16th-century Spanish composers Francisco de Peñalosa, Pedro de Escobar, and Francisco Guerrero, including world premiere recordings of Peñalosa’s Lamentationes and movements of his Missa L’homme armé. The end of the 15th century in Spain witnessed ...
Across the Stars: Anne-Sophie Mutter Plays John Williams
Legendary film composer John Williams conducts a new album of many of his beloved movie themes in stunning new adaptations written especially for his violinist friend and collaborator Anne-Sophie Mutter. Recorded in Hollywood, “Across the Stars” features familiar themes from blockbuster films including “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter,” as never heard before. “There is only one John Williams,” says Mutter. ...
Benjamin Hochman: Mozart Piano Concertos 17 & 24
Winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2011, pianist Benjamin Hochman’s eloquent and virtuosic performances blend colorful artistry with poetic interpretation, exciting audiences and critics alike. Hochman brings his new conducting skills to this release of two Mozart concertos: the joyful and lithe No. 17 in G major, and the dark and explosive No. 24 in C minor. ...
Neave Trio: Her Voice
The Neave Trio’s third album for Chandos Records, Her Voice, celebrates the trailblazing work of three distinguished female composers. One of her most prominent pieces, Rebecca Clarke’s Piano Trio showcases her unique harmonic language, influenced by both the French and British styles of the early 20th century, as well as by folk music. Amy Beach’s trio was composed late in ...
Danish String Quartet: Prism II
The Danish String Quartet’s Grammy-nominated Prism project links Bach fugues, late Beethoven quartets, and works by modern masters. In volume two of the series, Bach’s Fugue in B-flat minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier (in the arrangement by Viennese composer Emanuel Aloys Förster) is brought together with Beethoven’s String Quartet, Op. 130, and Alfred Schnittke’s String Quartet No. 3. As the ...
Pavel Kolesnikov Plays Chopin
Pavel Kolesnikov’s deep affinity with the music of Chopin is once again on display in a program of impromptus, waltzes, and mazurkas. Immaculate performances—and an intelligently planned recital, which builds towards the epic F minor Fantasy—can only enhance the listener’s appreciation of this much-loved repertoire. “Pavel Kolesnikov is an engrossing musician. He is perhaps the most introspective and meditative pianist ...
Music of Manuel de Falla – Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Pablo Heras-Casado
The two splendid works on this album were the result of Manuel de Falla’s encounter with the husband-and-wife team of dramatists Gregorio and María Martínez Sierra. El amor brujo (Love the Magician) takes us to the very heart of the flamenco repertory, and the brilliant pantomime El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat), whose sets and costumes were originally ...
