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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Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Triple Concerto – London Symphony Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
LSO Live celebrates the 90th birthday of one of the conducting world’s greats – Bernard Haitink. Few artists have a deeper understanding of the music of Beethoven than the celebrated Dutch conductor, who is known for his mastery of the great symphonic repertoire. This album focuses on Haitink’s interpretations of Beethoven’s concerto writing, coupling a new recording of the Piano ...
Artur Schnabel: Complete Works for Solo Piano – Jenny Lin
Artur Schnabel, still regarded as one of the most important pianists of the 20th century, particularly for his role in re-popularizing Beethoven’s piano music, was himself a passionate composer. His work as a pianist has overshadowed his composition career, but Steinway & Sons aims to correct this imbalance of perception with the double album Artur Schnabel: Complete Works for Solo ...
Beethoven: Cello Sonatas – Leonard Elschenbroich, Alexei Grynyuk
Leonard Elschenboich is joined by pianist Alexi Grynyuk for a program of Beethoven’s five cello sonatas, which span his three creative periods. The audacious Op. 5 sonatas date from his early years in Vienna as a piano virtuoso and aspiring composer. The great Op. 69 sonata is from the same period that saw the composition of Symphonies Nos. 4-8. The ...
Music of Bairstow, Harris & Stanford – Choir of Westminster Abbey
Resident throughout most of the year, the Choir of Westminster Abbey sings the daily services in the Abbey, as it has since its foundation in the late fourteenth century. Today, the Choir has a worldwide reputation which also encompasses its concerts, recordings, and broadcasts. On this album, the choir presents seminal works by three composers whose contributions to the Anglican ...
Mozart: The Final Quartets – Alexander String Quartet
The Alexander String Quartet turns its attention to Mozart’s last years, beginning with this recording of the final four quartets (the first of a three-volume set which will add his other great chamber works from that period). Eric Bromberger’s liner notes are prefaced by comments from ASQ violist Paul Yarbrough, excerpted here: ”Taken as a whole, Mozart’s works for string ...
Iridescence: Adria Sternstein Foster, Susan Robinson
Adria Sternstein Foster and Susan Robinson offer a new recording of contemporary works for flute and harp. As the principal flutist and principal harpist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, the two have been colleagues since the mid-1990s performing for the Washington National Opera as well as Kennedy Center ballet and musical theater programming. “Iridescence” is a fitting title ...
Duo Sonidos: Wild Dance
This collection, the first of three volumes by Duo Sonidos, unleashes a wellspring of exciting new transcriptions culled from the rich repertoire of vocal and violin chamber music. This colorful mosaic of 20th-century music unveils the hidden world of charm and intimate expressivity provided by Gregg Nestor’s skillful and sensitive arrangements. Based in New York and Boston, Duo Sonidos comprises ...
Busoni: Piano Concerto – Kirill Gerstein, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo
Pianist Kirill Gerstein has long championed the music of Ferruccio Busoni, and this release marks his most ambitious engagement with the composer’s work—a live recording of Busoni’s monumental Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and men of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, conducted by Sakari Oramo. Not only is the album a rare contribution to the discography of this concerto, but ...
Schumann: Complete Piano Trios – Horszowski Trio
The Horszowski Trio debuts on the Avie label with the complete piano trios by Robert Schumann. The works were written within a decade of each other yet represent three distinct periods in the composer’s life. Since their debut in 2011 at New York City’s Rockefeller University, the Horszowski Trio has performed throughout North America, Asia and India. Based in New ...
Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 2 & ‘Urbs Roma’ – Utah Symphony, Thierry Fischer
The Utah Symphony under Music Director Thierry Fischer is recording a cycle of works by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns on Hyperion Records. This three-volume set will be the first complete, commercial recording of the composer’s five symphonies by an American orchestra. Volume 2 holds the Symphony No. 2 and the Symphony in F major (“Urbs Roma”), whose descriptive title—Saint-Saëns’s own—suggests a ...
Choral Works of Fauré, Debussy & Poulenc – Ensemble Aedes, Les Siècles
Written between 1887 and 1890, Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem is among the best-loved pieces in the choral repertory. Traditionally, Requiems are serious, prayerful laments for the dead. Fauré’s was altogether different. In place of the usual somber mood, his is noted for its calm, serene, and peaceful outlook. The composer revised and expanded the work several times, but it is the ...
Mary Elizabeth Bowden: Rêverie
Trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden is highly regarded for her artistry and virtuosity as a soloist and has been praised for the clarity, purity and power of her sound. She is the First Prize winner of the International Women’s Brass Conference Trumpet Competition. On the album “Rêverie,” she’s joined by the Kassia Ensemble for a far-reaching program of arrangements and new ...
Out of Italy: Music for Baroque Cello
The 18th century experienced a mass migration of musicians from Italy seeking better fortunes in nations to the north. Geminiani, Cervetto, and Cirri went to London, Boccherini to Madrid, and Vivaldi aimed for Dresden though never arrived, having died en route in Vienna. These Italian instrumentalist/composers and others are the focus of “Out of Italy,” an exploration of sonatas and ...
András Schiff: Schubert Sonatas and Impromptus
In the latest chapter in András Schiff’s ongoing documentation of Franz Schubert’s music, the pianist plays the Four Impromptus, D. 899, and compositions from 1828, the last year of Schubert’s too brief life: the Three Pieces, D. 946 (“impromptus in all but name” notes Misha Donat in the CD booklet), the C minor Sonata, D. 958, and the A major ...
Evocation: Violin Works by Paul Ben-Haim
Paul Frankenburger left his native Germany in 1933 in response to the Nazis’ rise to power. Up to that point, he had been fully immersed in the German tradition and his compositions followed in the footsteps of the great German post-Romantics like Mahler. Yet after arriving to the British Mandate of Palestine, not only did he change his name to ...
Charles Richard-Hamelin: Chopin’s Piano Concertos
In their first recording together, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Kent Nagano, and pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin perform Chopin’s concertos for piano and orchestra, two vibrant and poetic works that the composer wrote in his early 20s. Richard-Hamelin was the silver medalist at the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He is also the recipient of the ...
Lucie Horsch: Baroque Journey
The astonishing 19-year-old Dutch recorder player returns to takes us on a journey around Baroque Europe, showcasing the most virtuosic music from her native Netherlands, as well as Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and England. Highlights from the album include Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Bach’s Badinerie, and the world premiere recording of a concerto by Jacques-Christophe Naudot. Horsch ...
Kurt Sander: The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
Reference Recordings presents the second release in their series from the PaTRAM Institute, which is dedicated to cultivating and promoting the Russian Orthodox liturgical arts. The music performed on this new recording of choral music in the English language was written by Dr. Kurt Sander. Conductor Peter Jermihov writes: “The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by Kurt Sander is unique in several respects. Within ...
Celebrating John Williams – Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel
No other orchestra champions the classic film-music tradition like the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The close working relationship that Music Director Gustavo Dudamel has established with the legendary John Williams makes this the ultimate showcase album of the composer’s greatest works. Celebrating John Williams features a selection of unforgettable themes from Williams’ much-loved scores for films and film series such as Star Wars, ...
Lang Lang: Piano Book
With this collection, Lang Lang goes back to his first love – to the pieces that made him want to become a musician in the first place. Rediscovering the most popular and accessible pieces written for learners and lovers of the piano, this album is a journey of inspiration, of discovery, fantasy, and learning. It is also a reflection on ...
