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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Debussy: The Three Sonatas & Late Works
The Harmonia Mundi label’s ongoing series of recordings marking the centenary of the death of Claude Debussy continues with this fascinating album of chamber works. On it, violinist Isabelle Faust has brought together an all-star team of musicians including cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, violist Antoine Tamestit, flutist Magali Mosnier, harpist Xavier de Maistre and pianists Alexander Melnikov, Javier Perianes, and Tanguy ...
Music of Janáček – Czech Philharmonic, Jiri Bělohlávek
Jiří Bělohlávek was a leading interpreter of Czech music. He became chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990, a role he would serve on two different occasions during a combined span of seven years. This release continues the series of Bělohlávek’s last recordings of Czech masterworks for Decca Classics before he passed away in 2017. It holds four of Leoš Janáček’s most ...
Mozart Violin Concertos: Nikolaj Znaider, London Symphony Orchestra
Nikolaj Znaider performs at the highest level as both conductor and virtuoso violin soloist, and for this album, the second of two releases exploring all five Mozart violin concertos, he directed the London Symphony Orchestra from his instrument, the ‘Kreisler’ Guarnerius ‘del Gesu’ 1741. Speaking of his admiration for these works, Znaider says, “For me Mozart is the greatest composer, ...
Fazil Say: Debussy & Satie
Fazil Say’s interpretive daring and seemingly limitless imagination reap great rewards in the fertile territory of Debussy’s evocative First Book of Preludes and the mystical eccentricity of Satie’s best-known miniatures. Perhaps because their piano music was so different, Satie and Debussy were close friends. Whereas Satie’s titles look back to ancient Greek civilization, Debussy derived the inspiration for the individual ...
Jakub Jósef Orliński: Anima Sacra
This release, Anima sacra, marks a number of firsts. It is the debut album from countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński – born in Poland, trained at the renowned Juilliard School in New York, and winner in 2016 of the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious National Council Auditions. It also features what are believed to be world premiere recordings of eight Baroque arias. Orliński plumbs the depths of sacred music for a ...
Calidore String Quartet: Resilience
The Calidore String Quartet is a recent Avery Fisher Career Grant and Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award recipient. The multi-award-winning ensemble is based in New York and already recognized as one of America’s foremost quartets with a steadily growing reputation in Europe. The players wanted to find their own musical standpoint in the current environment of unrest and division. So they identified four masterworks from ...
David Finckel & Wu Han: Music of Bach, Mendelssohn, Debussy, Britten
ArtistLed, the classical music industry’s first musician-directed and internet-based recording company, has released its 20th recording. Featuring the company’s founders, cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, the album includes four iconic duo sonatas: Bach’s Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Keyboard in G major; Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 2 in D major; Debussy’s Sonata; and the Sonata in C by ...
Franz Schubert: Die Nacht – Anja Lechner, Pablo Márquez
German cellist Anja Lechner and Argentinean guitarist Pablo Márquez met in 2003 and have since explored the most diverse repertoire and modes of expression in their concerts. For their first duo album, they highlight the strong tradition of songs with guitar accompaniment prevalent in 19th century Vienna. Lechner and Márquez play some of Schubert’s most beloved songs, framing the album’s ...
Music of Franz Schreker – Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta
Franz Schreker was a prominent figure in early 20th-century Austro-German music, his reputation as an opera composer rivaling that of Richard Strauss. The Prelude to a Drama is the concert overture of Schrekers acclaimed opera Die Gezeichneten, a lurid drama involving murder and madness. Conceived as a theatrical pantomime, The Birthday of the Infanta adapts Oscar Wilde’s tragic tale of ...
Vienna Boys Choir: Strauss Forever
The Vienna Boys Choir is among the oldest musical organizations, having been founded by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in 1498. The Emperor wished boys’ voices to be added to the choir of the Imperial Chapel, or Hofkapelle. This established a tradition of having the boys sing in weekly Sunday masses in the Imperial Chapel of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, ...
Christian Svarfvar: Music of Bruch & Stenhammar
Swedish violinist Christian Svarfvar has emerged as one of Scandinavia’s most sought after soloists. He is equally at home as a soloist with orchestra as with giving recitals. His creative and exciting approach to concert programming, paired with the passion and energy he brings to musical interaction, marks Svarfvar as one of the most captivating voices of his generation. On his first ...
Rachel Barton Pine: Blues Dialogues
Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, a longtime advocate for music by black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine’s frequent recital partner, joins her on Blues Dialogues, their third album together on the Chicago-based label Cedille. World-premiere recordings include Noel Da ...
Alice Sara Ott: Nightfall
Alice Sara Ott takes a very personal look at the magical moment in time and space between day and night, light and darkness, basing her explorations on works by Debussy, Satie and Ravel. The German-Japanese pianist decided to mark the dual celebration of her 30th birthday and her 10th anniversary as a Deutsche Grammophon artist by examining her relationship with ...
A Portuguesa: Iberian Concertos and Sonatas
This colorful musical journey takes its title from one of William Corbett’s Bizzarie universali, a set of concertos which, in truth, owe much more to the Italian tradition than to the Iberian Peninsula. Performed by Andreas Staier and the Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música, À Portuguesa features a selection of concertos and sonatas in the Portuguese style composed during the ...
Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 64 – London Haydn Quartet
One of the world’s leading period instrument string quartets, the London Haydn Quartet was born out of a passion for Haydn. Their series of recordings of Haydn’s quartets on the Hyperion label (of which this is the seventh) have met with international critical acclaim. Op. 64 is a set of six string quartets composed in 1790. Along with six earlier works, they ...
Chanticleer: Then and There, Here and Now
Warner Classics celebrates the 40th anniversary of Chanticleer, “the world’s reigning male chorus” (The New Yorker), with a new recording, Then and There, Here and Now. The album features longtime ensemble favorites including works by Palestrina, Victoria, Stucky, Sametz, and Bates, and popular arrangements by Jennings, McGlynn and others. The recording represents the expansive aesthetic of Chanticleer’s repertoire, from the earliest ...
Beethoven Violin Sonatas: Andrew Wan & Charles Richard-Hamelin
The Analekta label has released the first of three albums that will cover Beethoven’s complete Violin Sonatas, performed by two of Canada’s most outstanding musicians. Andrew Wan is concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Charles Richard-Hamelin was winner of the silver medal at the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition. In this first volume, we find the three Sonatas, Op. ...
Sandro Russo: Images and Mirages
Sandro Russo’s playing has often been described as a throwback to the grand tradition of elegant pianism and beautiful sound. On “Images and Mirages,” Russo pays a heartfelt tribute to Claude Debussy on the 100th anniversary of his death. Russo creates a portrait of the composer that not only highlights his many masterpieces, but which also recreates his world through ...
Thibaut Garcia: Bach Inspirations
Praised for his “smooth, rich and sweet sound and impeccable virtuosity,” guitarist Thibaut Garcia releases his second album on Erato, a recital of works composed and inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach. Garcia says, “Bach has been part of my life as a musician since the very start.” Taking Bach’s mighty Chaconne as his centerpiece, he ranges wide — from Gounod’s much-loved Ave Maria ...
Renaud Capuçon: Cinema
“Film music can be sublime and has attracted some truly great composers,” says Renaud Capuçon of his latest release, Cinema. “This album is something of a dream come true.” The French star violinist’s homage to the silver screen features unforgettable themes – in stunning new arrangements – from Ennio Morricone (Cinema Paradiso, Mission), Nino Rota, John Williams (Schindler’s List), James Horner ...
