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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Bach: Six Suites for Viola Solo – Kim Kashkashian
The poetry and radiance of Bach’s cello suites are transfigured in these remarkable interpretations by Kim Kashkashian on viola, offering “a different kind of somberness, a different kind of dazzlement” as annotator Paul Griffiths observes. One of the most compelling performers of classical and new music, Kashkashian has been hailed by The San Francisco Chronicle as “an artist who combines a probing, ...
Gabriele Carcano Plays Schumann
Italian pianist Gabriele Carcano is a performer equally at home in recital, as a soloist with orchestras, and in chamber music. He has studied under Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, and Alfred Brendel. Brendel worked closely with Carcano on the preparation of this all-Schumann program, which features the Humoreske and Davidsbündlertänze. A young pianist of extraordinary talent, Carcano’s 2016 debut album on Oehms ...
Benjamin Appl & Concerto Cologne: Bach
German baritone Benjamin Appl has been hailed as “the current front-runner in the new generation of Lieder singers” by Gramophone magazine. Trained as a chorister in the renowned Regensburg Cathedral Choir, he continued his studies in Munich and London and was mentored by one of the greatest singers of the 20th century, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Appl says that the music of ...
Sung-Won Yang & Enrico Pace: Cantique d’amour (Music of Liszt & Chopin)
They were the greatest pianist-composers of their time, almost exact contemporaries, and friends: Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin. Having met soon after Chopin arrived in Paris in 1831, they made music together in public several times. They were a study in contrasts – Liszt at the height of his extroverted, virtuoso period, Chopin introverted, delicate, almost a salon pianist. The ...
Seasons: Orchestral Music of Michael Fine
Grammy Award winner Michael Fine is widely acknowledged as one of the top classical producers in the world. In addition to recording production, he has been active in artistic planning for orchestras and was the first American to hold the post of Artistic Director at the Deutsche Grammophon label. Fine began composing in 2013. His scores are born from his ...
Danish String Quartet: Bach, Beethoven & Shostakovich
For its third ECM release, the prize-winning Danish String Quartet inaugurates a series of five albums with the overarching title of Prism, in which the group will present one of Beethoven’s late string quartets in the context of a related fugue by J.S. Bach as well as a linked masterwork from the quartet literature. With Prism 1, it’s the first of Beethoven’s ...
L’Arpeggiata: Himmelsmusik
“Himmelsmusik” (“heavenly music”) is a collection of sacred works by German composers of the 17th century, performed by the acclaimed early music ensemble L’Arpeggiata under its director Christina Pluhar. They are joined by countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and the distinguished Belgian soprano Céline Scheen in a program that includes the music of Johann Christoph Bach (born over 40 years before his relative Johann Sebastian), ...
Cupertinos: Music of Manuel Cardoso
Manuel Cardoso (1566 – 1650) was a Portuguese composer and organist who represented the “golden age” of Portuguese polyphony. Conductor Luís Toscano and the vocal ensemble Cupertinos present a selection of the composer’s finest. Cardoso was praised throughout his lifetime for his devoutness and musical ability, integrating old and new elements to create a highly individual and expressive style. This is most apparent in his devotional music, ...
Mozart: Violin Sonatas, Volume 1 – Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov
With their new Mozart series, Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov, performing on period instruments, revive the tradition of the sonata for keyboard with violin accompaniment. Born in the middle of the Age of Enlightenment, this rather unusual concept continued to thrive in the era of Viennese Classicism. Mozart swiftly sealed its fate by instigating (or, in a sense, restoring) an ...
2019 New Year’s Concert in Vienna
There are few concerts in the world that are awaited with as much excitement as the New Year’s Concert from Vienna. Under the direction of Christian Thielemann, the Vienna Philharmonic ushered in 2019 in the magnificent Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein. The concert was relayed to over ninety countries around the world, reaching an audience of more than fifty ...
St. Charles Singers: American Reflections
“American Reflections” is a collection of live recordings made by the St. Charles Singers and Music Director Jeffrey Hunt during a concert tour of England in 2017. The album of 20th and 21st century American choral music reflects four themes: Water, Love, Oppression, and Hope. The centerpiece of the program is Dominick Argento’s masterpiece Walden Pond, a song cycle based on ...
Christoph Denoth: Tanguero
Guitarist Christoph Denoth presents a new album of works inspired by South America, centered on the iconic tango. The continent of South America, with its diverse countries and various lines of historical development, has stimulated the creation of many musical traditions. The guitar has a central part to play as a national instrument in all South American countries. This collection ...
Mahler: Symphony No. 5 – Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding
For the second installment in his Mahler cycle for Harmonia Mundi, conductor Daniel Harding revisits a symphony which clearly represents a turning point in the composer’s output. The years following Mahler’s early period (marked by Des Knaben Wunderhorn) saw the production of works of ever greater complexity and sardonicism, which show no trace of naïveté. Within a framework of utmost ...
Florence Price: Symphonies 1 & 4 – Fort Smith Symphony, John Jeter
Florence Price was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and studied at the New England Conservatory, but it was in Chicago that her composing career accelerated. The concert in 1933 at which her Symphony No. 1 in E minor was premiered was the first time a major American orchestra had performed a piece written by an African-American woman. Influenced by Dvořák ...
Anna Shelest: Music of Anton Rubinstein
Hailed by the New York Times as a pianist of “a fiery sensibility and warm touch,” Anna Shelest is an international award-winning artist who has thrilled audiences throughout the world. A champion of lesser-known repertoire, Shelest is collaborating with the legendary conductor Neeme Järvi on a recording project of the complete works for piano and orchestra by Anton Rubinstein. The ...
Cecilia Bartoli: Vivaldi Arias
Almost 20 years after her historic Vivaldi album, Cecilia Bartoli turns to the composer once again for a new solo recording. The album is a glorious collection of Vivaldi arias, performed with the French orchestra Ensemble Matheus under Jean-Christophe Spinosi. Bartoli’s 1999 recording redefined her status as a rescuer of neglected and forgotten music, in her dual role as meticulous ...
Stile Antico: In A Strange Land
The regime of Queen Elizabeth I dealt harshly with supporters of the old Catholic religion. Torn between obedience and conscience, some of England’s most talented musicians – Peter Philips, Richard Dering and John Dowland – chose a life of exile abroad. Others chose to remain in spiritual isolation in England, comparing themselves to the exiled Israelites in Babylon. Among them ...
Music of Clarke, Bridge & Vaughan Williams – Natalie Clein, Christian Ihle Hadland
The two major offerings on this recording rank among the most personal and passionate chamber works created by their respective composers. That both were also conceived and completed while the world was at war may have contributed to their expressive character, but in markedly different ways. Cellist Natalie Clein and pianist Christian Ihle Hadland perform sonatas from the time of ...
Hee-Young Lim: French Cello Concertos
Hailed by the Washington Post as “exceptional…a deeply gifted musician, with a full, singing tone, near-flawless technique, and a natural lyricism,” Hee-Young Lim makes her superb recording debut with this exploration of French masterpieces. She relishes the contrasts of three great cello concertos – the glorious melodicism of Saint-Saëns, the dramatic, Spanish-infused rhythms of Lalo, and the jazz-inflected new world ...
Philippe Quint: Chaplin’s Smile
Multiple Grammy Award-nominated violinist Philippe Quint makes his debut on Warner Classics with the release of his latest album “Chaplin’s Smile,” a collection of Charlie Chaplin songs newly arranged for violin and piano. To commemorate the 130th anniversary of Chaplin’s birth in 2019, Quint is joined by pianist Marta Aznavoorian and, on two tracks, by his friend and frequent collaborator, violinist Joshua Bell. Over more ...
