Classical Music Discoveries

The album follows up on the soprano’s Sony Classical debut, an aria recital entitled “Rachel,” released last year to unanimous international praise. Germany’s Das Opernglas noted that “Willis-Sørensen sings marvelously with her beautifully shimmering, silvery, well-rounded soprano voice, whose slight vibrato enhances the emotions expressed.” While Gramophone Magazine recommended the album as “a rewarding and intelligent de...

Verbier Festival Gold's first release of 2023 is based on the concept of storytelling, a theme that is central to many of the festival’s performances. This offering pairs two tantalizing performances from the very first summers of the organization's history. First, Peter Ustinov narrates Jean de Brunhoff's iconic tale "L'Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant". Charming piano accompaniment by Poulenc, played by Roger Vignole...

‘Book of Ways’ was recorded on the 14th of July 1986 in Ludwigsburg. Rather amazing is the great variety of sound and rhythm – Jarrett played alternately one or two instruments simultaneously. Beyond unmistakeable echoes of lute music and Japanese koto, the whole range of modes of expression the clavichord is capable of is being fathomed out. All this has been supported by studio techniques, which recorded the sound of the...

A complete, separate sentence begins the journey of a conceptual album. In the translucent sonority, something percussive, and in the melody undulating towards repose, the inspiration of the work is manifested. It is water; in itself, in its role for life to thrive, in its subjection to those who have it. Moments later, on Life Cycles, H2O's opening track, melody and harmony come together. The anticipation that precedes th...

On THE PRIESTESS OF MORPHINE, composer Rosśa Crean and librettist Aiden K. Feltkamp create a beautifully haunting portrait of a Gertrud Günther, a young Jewish lesbian caught between her two selves during the Third Reich, who bravely sought her inner truth and passions while forced to live in the shadows.

The monodrama’s unusual story is matched by a unique ensemble. Two sopranos represent each side of Gertrud’s lif...

The Common Ground Ensemble is English cellist Kate Ellis (Artistic Director of Crash Ensemble), Irish jazz pianist Cormac McCarthy (Peter Washington, Phil Woods), Irish traditional musician Brian Donnellan (bouzouki, concertina, harmonium, and like Hayes an alumnus of Hayes's father's Tulla Céilí Band), and New York guitarist Kyle Sanna (Bela Fleck, Chris Thile). Collectively they span the worlds of traditional, contempora...

composer Robert Honstein releases a portrait album of works for percussion, Lost and Found, on New Focus Recordings. Drawing inspiration from early memories and his experience as a new parent, Honstein’s Lost and Found features percussion trio Tigue, duo New Morse Code, and solo percussionist Michael Compitello in three multi-movement works that capture the amplitude of wonder, confusion, and delight of the early childhood...

Through the complex purity of the harp, Paola Baron takes an intimate look at opera. She turns to the legacy of bringing this repertoire to solo music. A necessary revisitation, as the musical production of the stage and private life leading up to the 19th century, partly obscured in the era of early recordings, cannot be fully glimpsed.

Opera, in different ways, manifests that the limits of the harp are not known. It celeb...

A new music genre has emerged in the last few years, mainly thanks to streaming playlists: LoFi beats are chilled instrumental hip-hop tracks whose hazy, hissing aesthetic makes them sound as if they’ve been lifted from well-worn cassette tapes. LA-based producer L.Dre is a true master of this style, but in making his album LoFi Symphony for Deutsche Grammophon he rose to a completely new challenge by blending LoFi beats w...

Blechacz’s devotion to the art of Chopin predates his victory in the 2005 Warsaw International Chopin Piano Competition – when he became just the fourth Polish winner in its prestigious history. It has continued to deepen and mature over the years, underpinned by a desire to uncover fresh layers of expression and meaning. Rafal Blechacz – Chopin presents his insightful interpretations of Sonatas Nos. 2 and 3, among the mos...

Gerpe’s album is a beautiful tribute to the legendary work of George Crumb, and it showcases his exceptional skill and talent as a pianist. The album features Gerpe’s performance of Makrokosmos, Volume 1, and twelve newly composed pieces by an immensely talented and diverse group of composers. Vera Ivanova, Fernanda Aoki Navarro, Gernot Wolfgang, Eric Guinivan, Alexander Elliott Miller, Viet Cuong, Julie Herndon, Gilda Lyo...

Navona Records presents HAMLET from Joseph Summer. In this installment of the Shakespeare Concert Series, composer Joseph Summer brings us along to Elsinore with The Bard’s classic play in an all new setting complete with the lyric integrity of Shakespeare’s words in a contemporary musical arrangement. Performed by Bulgaria’s State Opera Ruse orchestra, choir, and selected Bulgarian soloists with nine international soloist...

Track Listing:

1 Robert Schumann: Fantasie in C major, Op. 17

2 Nicholas Ho: Piano Sonata, Op. 8

3 Samuel Barber: Piano Sonata, Op. 26

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The acclaimed British pianist, Benjamin Grosvenor, still only 30 and yet a well-established favourite of critics and audiences around the globe, takes Robert Schumann’s haunting Kreisleriana as his starting point in his new album, Schumann & Brahms. This eight-movement work portrays the mercurial personality of the fictional Johannes Kreisler, created by E. T. A. Hoffmann: Kreisler’s highs and lows, and his dreamy natu...

Following numerous accolades, Christian Thielemann’s landmark Bruckner symphony cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic - the orchestra’s first under a single conductor - continues with the composer’s final, unfinished symphony captured live at the Salzburg Festival in the summer of 2022.

Track Listing:

1 Bruckner Symphony No. 9 in D Minor / I. Feierlich, misterioso

2 II. Scherzo. Bewegt, lebhaft - Trio Schnell

3 III. Adagio. L...

Concept albums are few and far between, and rarer yet in classical music. THINGS IN PAIRS, a conceptual as well as a musical beacon by violin/piano duo Audrey Wright and Yundu Wang, fills this gap. The tracks on THINGS IN PAIRS were not just carefully curated – rather, they were selected and sorted with the precision of a steady-handed artist stacking a formidable house of cards. Spanning five centuries, these pieces contr...

The album Aria presents favorite scenes and arias from some of the greatest Romantic operas, in arrangements for violin and piano by some of Faulisi’s most illustrious forbears.

Track Listing:

1 Addio, del passato

2 Carmen Fantasie Air des cartes

3 Carmen Fantasie Coda

4 Carmen Fantasie Prelude - Habanera

5 Carmen Fantasie Pres des remparts de Seville

6 Concert Phantasy on Le coq dor Epilogue

7 Concert Phantasy on Le coq dor H...

The name and personality of Niels Wilhelm Gade are well known among music specialists, but unfortunately largely ignored by the mainstream concert repertoire and its audiences. And this is an unfair and regrettable situation, since Gade is an important figure under both the historical and the artistic viewpoint.

Tracklist

1)Aquarelle Op. 19 n. 1 “Elegie”

2)Aquarelle Op. 19 n. 2 “Scherzo”

3)Aquarelle Op. 19 n. 3 “Canzonette...