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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Poulenc Trio: Trains of Thought
Since its founding in 2003, the Poulenc Trio has established itself as one of the world’s finest ensembles in the lesser-known domain of double-reed chamber music. On “Trains of Thought,” the qualities of these instruments are particularly well-served by the trios from Francis Poulenc and Jean Francais. The album also offers winning arrangements of music by Shostakovich and Rossini, topped ...
Price & Cockerham: Violin Concertos
It is indeed a cause for excitement when two concertos by Florence Price, the first African-American woman to write a symphony performed by a major U.S. orchestra, are recorded. There are no known performances of Price’s first violin concerto, but the Violin Concerto No. 2, completed in 1952 was performed posthumously by its dedicatee, Minnie Cedargreen Jemberg, at the opening ...
Daniel Hope: Journey to Mozart
A stylish player and imaginative programmer, Daniel Hope would never give us just a Mozart violin concerto album. Instead, as the title implies, he leads us towards the composer, putting him in context, and taking us down some intriguing and delightful byways. So, before Mozart’s ever-charming Third Concerto, he offers works by Gluck, Haydn, and Salomon. Coaxing crisp, sprightly playing ...
Haydn: An Imaginary Orchestral Journey
Sir Simon Rattle pays homage to a composer he holds close to his heart with An Imaginary Orchestral Journey through the music of Joseph Haydn. Rattle trawls through the great composer’s impressive catalog, piecing together excerpts from symphonies, oratorios and operas spanning a 40-year period in what Rattle describes as ‘a kind of greatest hits’ format. The London Symphony Orchestra’s music director ...
ChangYong Shin: Bach, Mozart, Haydn & Beethoven
Changyong Shin, the gifted winner of the 2016 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, debuts on the Steinway Label with a shimmering program. During the competition, Jury Chair Douglas Humphreys remarked that Shin “is a pianist with passionate expression and profound artistry, representative of the best among his generation.” As part of his first prize package for the competition, Shin has ...
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir: Music of Schnittke & Pärt
Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt lived through times of remarkable change in the last decades of the Soviet Union. From the 1970s, state restrictions on religion were gradually relaxed and this was reflected in the arts and especially in music. Both composers began to incorporate religious themes into their work, moving away from the modernist abstraction that had characterized their ...
Third Coast Percussion: Paddle to the Sea
Third Coast Percussion’s Paddle to the Sea transports listeners into a realm of imaginative sounds and world-premiere recordings evoking the aquatic world. Anchoring the album is the ensemble’s original collaborative composition Paddle to the Sea. The talented foursome conceived it as a live soundtrack to the 1966 film of the same name, based on a classic children’s story. Third Coast found a wellspring of ...
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra: Music of Kodaly
Zoltán Kodály, like his compatriot Béla Bartók, wrote major orchestral scores that were deeply enriched by his research into Hungarian folk music. The Dances of Galánta and Dances of Marosszék are full of swagger and vitality, and the Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 50th anniversary, is lush, sparkling, and vivid. Like the Variations on a Hungarian ...
Andsnes & Hamelin: Music of Stravinsky for Two Pianos
Pianists Leif Ove Andsnes and Marc-André Hamelin have captured on disc the collaboration that has, in live performance, been hailed as “a keyboard partnership of titans.” The centerpiece of the album is The Rite of Spring. First heard in public when the composer played through its opening half with Debussy, the piano four-hands arrangement was also the first version to be published. For their two-piano ...
The King’s Men: Love From King’s
The Choral Scholars of King’s College Choir, under their a cappella group name The King’s Men, present a new collection of close harmony music. “Love from King’s” is an album of new arrangements of folk songs and romantic pop and jazz favorites. The majority of the tracks on the album were arranged specially for the album, with arrangements by former King’s Choir members ...
Brahms: Cello Sonatas
Gary Hoffman is one of the outstanding cellists of our time, combining instrumental mastery, great beauty of sound, and a poetic sensibility. On his latest album, he is joined by pianist Claire Désert in the two sonatas for cello and piano by Johannes Brahms. Hoffman says, “These sonatas are as inexhaustible and revelatory as the Beethoven sonatas or Bach suites; ...
Handel & Haydn Society: Works by Haydn & Mozart
Continuing their acclaimed live series on the Coro label, the Handel and Haydn Society presents one of Haydn’s early Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) symphonies – No. 26 in D minor. More commonly known as Lamentatione because of its association with Holy Week, Haydn incorporates an old plainsong chant juxtaposing it against the furious opening theme. The later Symphony ...
Impressions: The Sound of Debussy
This 3-CD set from Warner Classics gathers together Debussy’s best-loved masterpieces, the foundation of his reputation, along with a few works that remain lesser-known. Among the rarities is the world-premiere recording of Chanson des brises (1882) for female voices and piano – a work which until now had remained undiscovered.
Hilary Hahn: Retrospective
An artist portrait curated by Hilary Hahn herself, “Retrospective” features recordings from albums she made as a Deutsche Grammophon artist as well as almost 30 minutes of new, unreleased material from a live concert in Berlin – Mozart’s Violin Sonata, K. 379, and new recordings of works from her “Encores” album. Commissioned through Hahn’s social media platforms, the “Retrospective” artwork ...
Munich Philharmonic/Pablo Heras-Casado: Music of Bartok
Neither the disillusionment that set in after his exile to the United States nor his declining health stopped Béla Bartók from fulfilling his commission for the Concerto for Orchestra nor from writing the Third Piano Concerto, his final work, intended to secure his wife’s future. Hence his gloomy circumstances led to two masterpieces (and gained him a long-awaited American reputation). ...
Yale Schola Cantorum: Music of Palestrina
Yale Schola Cantorum is a chamber choir that performs sacred music from the sixteenth century to the present day in concert settings and choral services around the world. It is sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and conducted by David Hill. Open by audition to students from all departments and professional schools across Yale University, the choir has ...
Denis Matsuev: Rachmaninoff & Prokofiev Piano Concertos
Born less than twenty years apart, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev were two of the greatest composer-pianists of the 20th Century and their instrument played a central role in many of their greatest works. In this recording, virtuoso pianist Denis Matsuev contrasts their second piano concertos, pieces that are both formidable and unmistakably Russian in their own way. He is joined by ...
Arcangelo: Bach Magnificats
Arcangelo brings together some of the world’s finest musicians who excel on both historical and modern instruments under the direction of Jonathan Cohen. Equally, their handpicked choir features the cream of the British choral scene. These are performers of dazzling technical ability, but they also have a passion for faithful interpretation that goes far beyond historical understanding. On their latest ...
Joseph Calleja: Verdi
Joseph Calleja explores the light and dark in Verdi’s heroic tenors on his new album. A significant step into Verdi repertoire for Calleja, the album reflects the tenor’s flourishing live career performing at leading opera houses the world over. The recording features solo favorites such as Celeste Aida and Di quella pira, as well as duets with soprano Angela Gheorghiu ...
Liza Stepanova: Tones & Colors
Pianist Liza Stepanova, praised by the New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache,” presents the new album “Tones & Colors” on CAG Records. This collection showcases the cross-pollination between visual and aural media through thirteen pieces of music, spanning the centuries between Bach and Ligeti, inspired by paintings, drawings, and sculptures.
