Jon Batiste - "Monk Meditations" On Monk Meditations (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 3), multi-Grammy® and Oscar® winner Jon Batiste expands introspective short form compositions by Thelonious Monk into longer form piano works imbued with classical structure and quiet grandeur. Verve; Classical Crossover.
The second installment of the Batiste Piano Series sees multi-Grammy and Oscar winner Jon Batiste reinterpret Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's most beloved melodies as Black American classical music, infused with influences from jazz, rags, stride, blues and stomps. The result is a vibrant conversation without words - not about genre, but pure expression.
'hush' is Chad Lawson's most intimate and understated work to date - a deeply restorative collection of music born from a singular moment of silence at London's legendary Angel Studios. After the final note of the orchestral recording faded, no one in the room moved or spoke, and in that shared stillness Chad discovered both the spirit of the album and it's name. Rather than offering another solution, ritual, or self-improvement tool, hush creates a place to simply be. A refuge at the end of a day that has taken more than it has given. Embracing restraint and honesty, Chad pares each composition down to only what it needs, allowing space, breath, and silence to become part of the music itself. The result is Chad's quietest recording yet. A beautifully immersive listening experience that leaves listeners feeling lighter, renewed, and gently reminded that even the longest nights eventually give way to morning.
Sir Anthony's first album released on Decca Classics, Life Is A Dream, brings his passion for classical music to the forefront, presenting a deeply personal collection of original compositions that reflect a lifetime of creativity, imagination, and storytelling. Recorded with the internationally renowned Philharmonia Orchestra, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, and featuring world-class musicians from Argentinian pianist Sergio Tiempo and Venezuelan cellist Gregorio Nieto to the Bach Choir and the Choristers of Winchester Cathedral. The album showcases Sir Anthony's unique musical voice through a series of cinematic, emotional, and richly orchestrated works, offering audiences an intimate window into a creative life that spans decades and disciplines. Life Is A Dream is the culmination of a lifelong artistic journey and a landmark project for Decca Classics, introducing Sir Anthony's music to audiences worldwide and celebrating an extraordinary new chapter in his creative legacy.
Kristian Bezuidenhout and the Freiburger Barockorchester pursue their lively exploration of Mozart's concertos. From the early impulses of the Concerto No.5 K.175 to the incandescent drama of the Concerto No.20 K.466, via the daring formal novelties of the Concerto No.14 K.449, these works reveal a myriad facets of Mozart's genius, always wondrously inventive, theatrical and profoundly modern.
These recordings, originally released in the early 1980s, are foundation stones for the rediscovery of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's sacred works that was set in motion by William Christie et Les Arts Florissants. For the most part devoted to Christmas music, these pieces radiate all Charpentier's fervor, freshness and elegance, showing him to be truly French, yet nurtured by the sunlight of Italy.
Emilie Mayer's works bear witness to an indomitable personality, despite having languished for so long in the shadow of her male peers. The musicians of the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin have resolved to do her justice with this revelatory symphonic triptych of recordings. They begin with two of her most remarkable works played on period instruments, including a wondrous Bluthner piano handpicked by the soloist here, Alexander Melnikov.
Combining the vigorous forces of the Insula Orchestra and Insula camerata, Laurence Equilbey revives a historic tradition: that of the double orchestra. Beethoven, who was familiar with this principle, composed with the great festivals in mind at which orchestras could muster large numbers, often exceeding a hundred players. A unique musical experience.
Mozart's piano sonatas reveal an extraordinary range of character, from effortless lyricism to profound emotional intensity. In the third volume of his complete survey, pianist Jae-Hyuck Cho performs three contrasting sonatas which form an arc from light into shadow, before emerging into light once more. Opening with the luminous Sonata in C major, K. 330, the program moves to the dramatic A minor Sonata, K. 310, one of Mozart's most emotionally charged keyboard works, before concluding with the freshness and wit of the G major Sonata, K. 283. Together, these three sonatas reveal Mozart's ability to combine elegance, theatrical instinct and deep humanity. Cho approaches these works with a distinctly vocal perspective, shaping each phrase as though sung and drawing on Mozart's close relationship with opera. The result is a performance of warmth, clarity and expressive freedom that allows each sonata's individual voice to emerge while revealing the broader narrative that connects them. This third instalment continues a thoughtfully conceived cycle that places musical character and storytelling at it's heart.
Once established in London, Handel devised a new kind of music drama that won over the English audience and modernized the operatic stage: the oratorio. Revolutionizing English traditions, he imported the drama and color of Italy, and the voices of it's greatest operatic castrati. Carlo Vistoli now presents this heritage, reviving some of the greatest Handel arias first sung in London by his illustrious compatriots.
Anton Bruckner's Eighth Symphony stands among the largest and most ambitious works in the orchestral repertoire. Completed after the success of his Seventh Symphony and extensively revised before it's eventual premiere in 1892, it unfolds on an epic scale, combining monumental architecture with moments of profound introspection. Recorded by the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Karl-Heinz Steffens, this new album presents the 1890 Nowak edition of the symphony, and continues Steffens' exploration of the Austro-German symphonic tradition with one of Bruckner's most expansive and richly scored works.
Winner of the 2024 Joseph Joachim International Competition, 19-year old Canadian violinist Jacques began playing the violin at the age of two, and has performed across North America, Europe, and Asia. His debut album for Warner Classics offers a varied repertoire for violin - featuring works by Bartok, Brahms, Ysaye, Gershwin and more - and balances technical brilliance with intimate, lyrical moments for a captivating listening experience.
THE DEFINITIVE EDITION OF A 20th-CENTURY ICON Alexis Weissenberg (1929-2012) was one of the most polarizing and fascinating virtuosos of his era. Born in Sofia, Weissenberg made his mark as an exceptional young virtuoso, touring at the age of fifteen and performing with Leonard Bernstein before moving to New York in 1946. He trained at Juilliard and won the 1947 Leventritt Competition. After a decade-long sabbatical in the 1950s to "reconstruct" his technique, he returned to the stage with a style defined by "steel and soul" - a combination of chiselled sonorities, rhythmic precision, structural unity, and a total lack of superficiality. This comprehensive boxset captures his tireless pursuit of musical truth (a vision that continues to provoke and fascinate today), an essential acquisition for collectors of great 20th-century pianism.
With the attention given to Rameau's harpsichord pieces and operas, we often forget that he was also an accomplished violinist: William Christie and Theotime Langlois de Swarte have therefore devised this imaginary concert in which the violin and harpsichord vie with each other in creative inventiveness. The program naturally draws on the best-known opera scenes and arias by Rameau, but also includes some of his contemporaries, in a poetic journey between the theatre, dance and song.
These two albums, originally released in 2015 and 2016, are among the finest of the benchmark recordings that Brad Lubman and his Ensemble Signal have devoted to Steve Reich. They reveal in their inexorable pulse and clarity of texture all the profundity of this music. Far beyond brilliant precision, here is a gripping sense of radiant vitality - a welcome return to the catalog to celebrate the 90 years of this Grand Old Man of the music of our time.
As an admirer of Cherubini, an attentive follower of Spontini's dramatic daring, and a critical but deeply fascinated witness of Rossini's public success, Beethoven was shaping his language in a musical landscape in which the symphony was in constant dialogue with the opera. This fertile state of tension has been newly uncovered by Enrico Onofri and the Munchener Kammerorchester: heard alongside Italian overtures of the time, Beethoven's great symphonies appear newly charged with a theatrical urgency, dramatic impulse and unparalleled intensity.
For his debut recording, Paul-Antoine Benos-Djian and his friends from Le Consort invite us to rediscover a 17th-century repertoire for which they have a particular love, drawn from the Golden Age of English music. Half a century after Alfred Deller's legendary revivals, they have placed their art entirely at the service of the sense of wonder they continually experience when confronted by these sublime works.
Following in the footsteps of Bach and Handel, Felix Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny Hensel wrote some of the most sumptuous choral works of the first half of the nineteenth century. The testamentary Christus, left unfinished at Felix's death, though often overshadowed by Paulus and Elias, forms a veritable trilogy with them. Fanny's early cantata Lobgesang, composed for her son Sebastian's first birthday, offers a joyous, festive contrast to her brother's music.
Inspired by the view over the lake from his new house 'Ainola', the atmospheric opening of Sibelius's violin concerto transports the listener directly to the wide open, forested landscape of Finland. It also signaled farewell to Sibelius' dream of becoming a virtuoso violinist. The concerto remains a supreme challenge to performers, with it's two huge cadenzas. It was, after much revision, given it's premiere in the version we know today in 1905 in Berlin, conducted by Richard Strauss with Karel Halir as soloist. Jarnefelt's berceuse is altogether simpler fare, but touching and sentimental. He was the brother of Aino, Sibelius's wife. It was inspired by the sight of his two year old daughter sleeping. Szymanowski has become the most famous Polish composer after Chopin before the First World War, and his style embraced the lush romanticism of Richard Strauss, Stravinsky's early ballets and of course, Polish traditional music. The composer called this concerto 'horribly sentimental'.
After stopping off in Cothen, Benjamin Alard continues his musical journey through the works of J.S. Bach. Here he focuses on the composer's early years in Leipzig, with the six Trio Sonatas, which he performs on harpsichord and clavichord. The famous 'little keyboard book' of Anna Magdalena takes us into the more intimate world of the Kantor's household.
