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.
From TV theme tunes to a folk-inspired 'circle dance on seven notes' by Villa-Lobos, Laurence Perkins-aided by a wide variety of accompanists-presents another pleasing miscellany of composers and works (no fewer than fourteen of each) demonstrating the many moods and expressive potential of the bassoon.
In this superb program structured around major pieces composed in the last ten years of Mozart's life, Anna Prohaska and Riccardo Minasi sweep away the image of the well-mannered figure that tradition has tended to impose. They paint a bracingly complex portrait of the Salzburger after his move to Vienna, subtly blending the maestro's historical expertize with the vigor and freshness of Resonanz, here in electrifying form.
It was love at first sight when Mathilde Vialle and Thibaut Roussel first encountered the English bass viol and Venetian archlute preserved at Paris's Museum of Music. Both instruments are heard in this program of English music from the second half of the seventeenth century, much of it never recorded before. The exceptional sonorities of their two period instruments are complemented by the virginal of Ronan Khalil and the tenor voice of Zachary Wilder for an album as subtle as it is sublime.
The Trio Wanderer pays tribute to Dvorak and his last two trios. Alongside the somber interiority and fiery intensity of the Trio No.3 in F minor, this program presents a new version of the famous Dumky Trio, to which the Wanderers owe their first great success on record. Passionate and melancholy by turns, it is also the most innovative and the freest of Dvorak's trios. A fine symbol for the Trio Wanderer, which has just reached it's thirtieth year of existence without ever ceasing to surprise and touch us.
Following on their exploration of 17th-century English song (Perpetual Night), Sebastien Dauce, the Ensemble Correspondances and Lucile Richardot find themselves on the shores of the Baltic Sea in the same century. They have unearthed a treasury of music both beautiful and rare: the sacred music of the Court of Stockholm. This is a fascinating musical voyage in the form of a meditation on the meaning of life, and it's ending.
Multiple Grammy-nominated Estonian bassoonist Martin Kuuskmann showcases the expressive power and versatility of his instrument in this compel]ing album featuring three concertos written for him by close collaborators: Tonu Korvits, Eino Tamberg, and Erkki-Sven Tuur. With the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra under Mihhail Gerts, this recording offers a vivid journey through contemporary Estonian soundscapes-from Tamberg's Stravinskyan dynamism and Korvits's folk-infused impressionism to Tuur's rhythmically charged reinvention. The album is a bold testament to the bassoon's modern voice from one of the instrument's foremost exponents.
Rising star Manami Suzuki makes her highly anticipated recording debut on Orchid Classics, following the pianist's historic win at the 12th Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, where she became the first Japanese and first female laureate of the prestigious award while also earning the coveted Audience Prize. Showcasing the poise and vitality that captivated audiences during the Hamamatsu Competition, Suzuki presents Haydn's elegant Piano Sonata No.13 alongside Schubert's expansive and lyrical Sonata in G major, D.894, as well as works by Bach and Szymanowski. These masterpieces reveal Suzuki's exceptional sensitivity, profound expressiveness, and the range of her interpretive insight.
