Classical Music

Naxos has done it again! Francis Poulenc's delicious Concert Champêtre for harpsichord and orchestra, surely the finest work of its genre, also is one of the most difficult to bring off. The problem is one of balance: it was composed for a huge Pleyel harpsichord, which had the dynamic range of a modern grand piano. Usually it's played on a tiny little Baroque instrument, with the balance problems left to the recording engineers, who either blow it completely or adjust matters electronically, which is equally unconvincing. Here, finally, is a performance that works: the right-sounding instrument, dazzling execution, and excellent sonics. The same holds true for the Organ Concerto, appropriately captured in live performance before a very quiet audience in Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris. In fact, not since the recordings supervised by the composer himself have we had this music rendered with such idiomatic flair.--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

REVIEW:

In the early 1730s Bach revised his E flat major Magnificat of 1723, transposing it to D major and omitting the interpolations peculiar to Christmas performances in Leipzig. (Recent research suggests such richly scored Latin Magnificats could be performed in Lutheran churches at some 15 annual festivals, not just the three – Xmas, Easter, Ascension – previously supposed.) The D major was apparently Bach’s preferred version and is the one commonly played today, as on this latest instalment of Masaaki Suzuki’s acclaimed survey of Bach’s sacred vocal music. Suzuki’s Magnificat, like his earlier Bach recordings, is sharply focused and performed with engaging conviction. My benchmark disc, by Philippe Herreweghe, grips with its palpable air of excitement. Suzuki’s reading is cooler, more nuanced and has a clearer acoustic; yet Herreweghe’s soloists retain a slight edge – few could match Barbara Schlick and oboist Marcel Penseele in rapt duet on ‘Quia respexit’. Herreweghe’s coupling is the splendid Cantata, BWV 80; Suzuki offers a trio of fascinating rareties. The Magnificat by Kuhnau, Bach’s predecessor at Leipzig, resembles Bach’s in instrumentation and division of text: it’s a lively, attractive piece, trumpets ringing out boldly in the bright opening chorus. Two shorter Magnificats by Bach’s Dresden-based contemporary Zelenka represent a very different and highly individual approach, the C major’s tripartite structure creating an almost concerto-like framework for soprano soloist. Suzuki’s excellent, scrupulous performances should provoke greater interest in Kuhnau’s and Zelenka’s church music – the latter’s Missa Dei Filii, by Tafelmusik/Frieder Bernius (DHM), is also highly recommended. Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Graham Lock, BBC Music Magazine

Dvořák’s Legends and Slavonic Rhapsodies, recorded by Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, Tomáš Netopil, marks the Orchestra’s fourth recording featuring Czech composers in 2024’s Year of Czech Music. Dvořák wrote his Slavonic Rhapsodies just before the Slavonic Dances that catapulted him to world fame, and they share their colorful orchestration and appealing folk dance melodies, even if the Rhapsodies have more expansive, ambitious forms. The Legends are at least as ingenious, with a smaller orchestra giving the pieces a more intimate, introspective quality. These lesser-known gems are now presented in a glorious idiomatic interpretation by the Czech Philharmonic, arguably the world’s best orchestra for this repertoire.

The Czech Philharmonic is one of the world’s orchestral gems, recognised for its rich tradition with the Czech masters as well as European repertoire. Together with their chief conductor and artistic director Semyon Bychkov, they have so far recorded for PENTATONE Mahler’s First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Symphonies (2022-2023), part of the complete Mahler cycle to be released by the label, as well as Smetana's Má vlast and Dvořák's Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Symphonies (2024). The Orchestra is also featured on the albums Folk Songs (2023) and Czech Songs (2024) recorded by Magdalena Kožená and Sir Simon Rattle. Principal Guest Conductor Tomáš Netopil makes his Pentatone debut.

Terra Infirma was directly inspired by the experiences of it's creative team. Reena Esmail, who resides in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Altadena, was forced to evacuate her home during the catastrophic fires of January 2025. Kondonassis, a committed advocate for the environment, is founder and director of the non-profit organization Earth at Heart; her initiatives include the widely-praised commissioning project FIVE MINUTES for Earth. Terra Infirma reflects not only the environmental passion and advocacy of both artists, but also their inspiration to innovate and expand the concerto form. In this bold new work, with a title taken from a poem by Robert Walters, the harp symbolizes the protagonist Earth, both fragile and powerful. The towering instrument is moved choreographically by Kondonassis across the stage as she journeys through various arrays of suspended percussion. In the composer's words, the work is "part virtuoso concerto, part performance art, and part theater." Esmail, who is Indian-American, has drawn on her extensive studies of Hindustani music in composing Terra Infirma. Her compositional voice is at once arresting, lyrical, haunting, and fierce. The work, which includes a defining movement titled "Immolation," incorporates elements of Raag Deepak, an ancient collection of pitches believed to invoke fire. Kondonassis, known for "a range of colour that's breathtaking," (Gramophone), brings the work to life with colorful authenticity. Says Esmail, "Terra Infirma sits somewhere between a harp/percussion concerto and a monodrama - Yolanda leads us through the trajectory of a wildfire, starting with the eerie moments before the first spark, and ending with the hope of new growth. The work explores our human relationship to fire - a force that can be at once devastating and illuminating. It has been a dream to work so closely with Yolanda, who has reinvented the role of the harp over and over again throughout her career. We have built the DNA of this piece together over so many years - experimenting in percussion studios, mapping stage plots, pushing our imaginations to the limit. I am so excited to share this work with the world." States Kondonassis, "The personal and musical resonance that I feel with Reena has resulted in a work that's deeply personal, uniquely colorful, and ground-breaking in so many ways. The harp is a highly visual instrument, and Terra Infirma utilizes that element to the fullest. In this work, the harp is actually a character in the musical drama onstage, and that gives me the chance to portray an enormous range of artistic emotion." The new concerto forms the heart of The Terra Infirma Project, a multi-year initiative of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, which boasts Kondonassis as an alumna (class of '82). The Interlochen Orchestra is featured along with Kondonassis and conductor Andrew Grams on the world-premiere recording, released in April 2026 on the Grammy-winning Azica label. The entire process, from initial workshops to the world-premiere and recording, has been captured by the award-winning film crew, Fulvew Productions, for an upcoming documentary to be released for airing on PBS Television in August 2026. The Terra Infirma Project is generously supported by the Allen B. Cutting Foundation.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

One of the foremost musicians of his generation, James Ehnes continues to dazzle audiences around the world. Here he joins the BBC Philharmonic and Sir Andrew Davis in a recording of Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto. Written for the Polish virtuoso Samuel Dushkin, the four-movement work takes the music of Bach as its inspiration, and is built around a chord of the notes D, E, and A, which Stravinsky described as his ‘passport to the concerto’ and with which the solo violin part opens each movement. Dushkin gave the premiere, conducted by Stravinsky, in Berlin in 1932.

Apollon musagète, a ballet in two parts for string orchestra, was written in 1927-28, and demonstrates the composer’s complete rejection of the Russian folk music and idioms that had been so instrumental in his previous ballets (The Firebird, Petrushka). They are replaced by a concentration on ‘pure form’, which became known as his neo-classical style. The album is completed by his two orchestral suites – light-hearted music arranged from piano duets he had written in the 1910s – and Scherzo à la russe, a showpiece for the Paul Whiteman band that he composed in the early 1940s when newly arrived in California.

Included in this impressive program is Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka, and Balakirev's Islamey - Oriental Fantasy. (Vox)

21 tracks recorded in the Chapel of New College, Oxford, under the direction of Edward Higginbottom. Tracks include "Out of Your Sleep," "Wassail Carol," "A Virgin Most Pure," "Once in David's Royal City," "Sussex Carol (On Christmas Night)," "There is a Rose of Such Virtue," Alleluya, a New Work is Come on Hand," and more. (CRD)

The waltzes of Johann Strauss II (‘The Waltz King’) remain de rigueur concert fare for the annual New Year’s Eve celebrations occurring throughout the world. Opera overtures number far less in his oeuvre but are of equal attraction and popularity. Bookending this nine-track Naxos CD overture selection conducted by Alfred Walter are the openers to Die Fledermaus and Die Zigeunerbaron, with the Eine Nacht in Venedig overture among the seven additional Viennese delights on offer.

Classical Music

A fine Danish chamber ensemble brings together a unique compilation of chamber pieces by an overshadowed contemporary of Messiaen. The music of Andre Jolivet (1905-1974) is slowly being revived after decades of neglect, enabling us to discover a distinctive voice in the kaleidoscopic variety of 20th-century French music. Jolivet never followed some of his better-known contemporaries - Messiaen among them - down the path of serialism, yet his harmonic technique exercised a hidden influence on them (including the young Pierre Boulez). The Serenade (1945) for wind quintet, opening this collection of chamber music, casts a mystic air in it's opening Cantilene before breaking off into wild peals of instrumental laughter in the Caprice. The world of Poulenc and Stravinsky is not so far away, but there is a grounded density to Jolivet's writing which is entirely individual. From 1968, the Controversia for oboe and harp finds Jolivet at his most gesturally experimental, drawing on the combined talents and innovative techniques of Heinz and Ursula Holliger. The flurries and confrontations of the Controversia could hardly be predicted from the composer of the reflective miniatures which make up the Petite Suite (1941) for flute, viola and harp, in the mould of Debussy's late sonata. Indeed the collection as a whole serves as an illuminating demonstration of Jolivet's range and his evolution through a career spanning the turbulent aesthetic struggles of the last century. The Pastorales de Noel (1943) for flute, bassoon and harp fulfil a brief for picturesque and festive illustration, whereas the sonatinas for flute and clarinet (1961) and oboe and bassoon (1963) swoop and flutter with unpredictably Stravinskian fluidity between their instruments. Modal and exotic scales, Spanish rhythms, Debussyan sensuality: all these diverse elements and more keep the listener (and musicians) on their toes in this music. The album is enhanced by a new essay from Paul Griffiths, a pre-eminent authority on new and modern music. - Andre Jolivet (1905-1974) is considered one of the most interesting French composers of the 20th century. His vast oeuvre includes nearly all musical genres. Actively open to all musical genres (he never had a proper conservatory education) he developed a personal style that was distinctly avant-garde. - This new recording presents a variety of chamber music in which the flute plays a prominent role: Serenade for Wind Quintet, Sonatine for flute & clarinet, Petite Suite for flute, viola and harp, Pastorale de Noel for flute, bassoon and harp, and other shorter pieces: music of dazzling colours, vivid and vibrant, but also at turns serene and melancholic. - Played with astonishing virtuosity and "joie de vivre" by the Danish Ensemble MidtVest.

This album is a reissue of the Chandos label's 1988 recording of Dvorák’s Cello Concerto in B minor and the Konzertstück for Cello and Orchestra by Dohnányi, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras, with Raphael Wallfisch the featured soloist.

The Cello Concerto in B minor by Dvorák has become one of his most popular works, and perhaps the most popular concerto ever written for the instrument. He was asked to write this piece by a friend of Wagner, the cellist Hanuš Wihan. Initially reluctant, Dvorák stated that the cello was indeed a fine orchestral instrument but totally insufficient for a solo concerto. Fortunately, he changed his mind upon hearing Victor Herbert’s Second Cello Concerto performed in concert, in 1894. The resulting Cello Concerto is richly inventive, full of deep feeling, and perfectly fitted to the cello. Dvorák combined his experience as an orchestral player with an understanding of the cello’s distinct textural qualities to produce a grand and emotionally intense work, one of his finest achievements.

Ernst von Dohnányi was highly acclaimed as a pianist-composer, and widely regarded during his lifetime as a successor to Liszt. As a composer, however, he had more in common with Brahms than with Liszt, despite his Hungarian heritage, and his creative output was not limited to the piano. His Konzertstück in D major is in fact a full-scale cello concerto, in three interconnected parts. A lyrical rhapsody, it begins quietly, the cello emerging out of the orchestra and seeming to sing, until parting with a sense of regret at the end.

Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 4-5 July 1988 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Janet Middlebrook (Assistant)

A celebration of Bohemian spirit and rhythmic brilliance, Antonin Dvorak's Slavonic Dances come to life in a vibrant new recording by the Czech Philharmonic, led by the masterful Sir Simon Rattle. These vivid orchestral gems, full of rhythmic vitality, folkloric color, and lyrical charm, are central to Dvorak's legacy and pivotal in defining a Czech national sound. Composed at a turning point in the composer's career, the Slavonic Dances radiate with joy, invention, and national character qualities that captivated audiences across Europe and beyond. As Principal Guest Conductor: Rafael Kubelik Chair, Sir Simon Rattle has already graced the label alongside the orchestra and Magdalena Ko�ena with Czech Songs (2024) and Folk Songs (2023). This release continues the exclusive collaboration between PENTATONE and the Czech Philharmonic (awarded Gramophone's Orchestra of the Year in 2024), committed to bringing Czech music to life on a global stage. It follows the acclaimed recordings of Dvorak's Symphonies Nos. 7, 8 & 9 (2024) and, 2025's winner of the BBC Music Magazine Orchestral Award, Smetana's Ma Vlast with Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, as well as Dvorak's Legends and Rhapsodies with Tomas Netopil.

Autumn 2020 offered Daniel-Ben Pienaar an opportunity, not because the world was in lockdown but rather for the benefit it provided. A professor at London’s Royal Academy of Music, Daniel-Ben was allowed overnight access to the RAM’s Angela Burgess Hall. Solitary, with a Steinway and a single pair of suspended omni-directional microphones, surrounded by silence and the darkness of the night, Daniel-Ben recorded this inspired eight-CD set of Haydn’s Piano Sonatas over a four-month period.

Daniel-Ben’s choice of Haydn’s 48 Piano Sonatas is based on his own meticulous research. The cycle comprises authenticated works plus earlier compositions presumed by scholars to be penned by Haydn. This deluxe box set follows in the footsteps of Daniel-Ben Pienaar’s acclaimed surveys of sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

The three concertos featured on this album were composed together in 1782 / 83 – shortly after Mozart had left his patron and position in Salzburg to establish himself as a freelance composer and performer in Vienna. The concertos were all performed by the composer in a series of subscription concerts that he gave in the city. All share the same form – opening movement in sonata form, slow movement in ternary form, and a bright rondo finale. Despite these similarities, though, each piece has its own distinct character and identity; such was the extent of Mozart’s genius for invention. Although formally scored for strings with wind, horns, trumpets, and timpani, Mozart also offered them to his publisher to be performed ‘a quatro’ – for strings only. These would be the last concertos he wrote in which this would be possible, and it is certainly likely that it reflected a need to earn greater income as opposed to being a purely artistic decision. As in the rest of this series, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is joined by the Manchester Camerata and Gábor Takács-Nagy, who open the album with a dazzling performance of the Overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which dates from the same period.

With 'An American Dream?', Barbara Hannigan explores the concept of The American Dream. "I grew up in awe of America. I am still in awe, but largely in a nostalgic way. With this repertoire, I want to express my admiration for the incredible creativity and tenacity of composers who shaped a musical language that was truly their own." The Canadian conductor and soprano collaborates with her long-term partners, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, on this programme of works by American composers. With 'the fair' as a recurring theme across the repertoire, the image on the cover shows a carousel horse that is at a standstill. A pretty, painted object - but the floor is cracked and half the lights are burned out. Nostalgia and memory are mixed with underlying darkness and destruction. From George Gershwin's masterpiece Porgy and Bess - an opera about love, addiction, racism, and hope - Robert Russell Bennett's iconic arrangement of A Symphonic Picture is featured. Inspired by watching the silent film Nosferatu, Aaron Copland composed the vibrant Dance Symphony. The Carousel Waltz (arr. Don Walker) is the overture to the Broadway musical Carousel by Richard Rodgers. For the grand finale, Barbara Hannigan reunites with American composer and arranger Bill Elliott in their joint creation, At the Fair, a suite which includes a multitude of American songs and themes, including Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair? and Jule Styne's famous hit Don't Rain on my Parade.

Driving intensity, rhythmic flair, and demonstration-quality sound are brought to the fore in a new anthology of Antal Doráti's early recordings with the Philharmonia Hungarica on Mercury and Philips. Founded in 1956, the Philharmonia Hungarica emerged from turbulent post-war times as a crack ensemble of émigré Hungarian musicians who had fled Communism for the West. While they gave concerts in Europe and the US, it was through these seven albums on Mercury and Philips that they became famous, and synonymous with the name of the conductor Antal Doráti. Together, Doráti and the Philharmonia Hungarica would go on to make a celebrated cycle of Haydn symphonies for Decca in the early 1970s. But these early recordings already demonstrate what a potent artistic combination they were, as forerunners both to that monument of gramophone history, and to the modern-day Budapest Festival Orchestra. As reviewers at the time remarked, the strings play with a particular unanimity and attack which sounds uniquely 'Hungarian'.

A booklet essay by the music historian David Patmore tells the story of the Philharmonia Hungarica and their debut on record. All six Mercury albums were recorded at sessions in June 1958, held in the Vienna Konzerthaus: a spacious but analytical acoustic, well suited to the label's trademark high-impact sound. The repertoire played to the strengths of both label and musicians: mostly Hungarian music from the last half century, vividly colored and coursing with rhythmic energy.

There is an early taste of the ensemble's feeling for Haydn, in the 'Surprise' and 'Drum Roll' Symphonies. Doráti's established reputation as a masterful conductor of ballet brings a sweeping sense of line to a collection of Viennese waltzes. The ace in the pack of the Mercury/Philharmonia Hungarica albums was Respighi's suites of Ancient Airs and Dances, which soon became a demonstration disc for audiophiles worldwide. Never previously collected together, this Mercury legacy is complemented by the two albums which the Philharmonia Hungarica and Doráti recorded for Philips. The ensemble's first-ever recording, made in October 1957, appeared on the Fontana imprint, coupling Bartók's Divertimento with Leo Weiner's Hungarian Dances. From 1974, the second Philips album returns to Bartók, with gripping interpretations of the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and Dance Suite.

Classical Music

Before television or radio, the piano was the focal point of the home. Holiday recordings such as Jacqueline Schwab's DOWN CAME AN ANGEL evoke the spirit of days gone by.
Best known for her solo piano soundtracks to Ken Burns's PBS documentaries, Schwab has a quaint, inviting touch on the keyboard and a wonderful appreciation of Appalachian musical tradition. The result is a warm, familiar Christmas sound filled with nostalgia. Schwab's piano shimmers with a delightful tone, like a parlor with a fireplace on a snowy day.
Though the album is entirely instrumental, the traditional hymns, carols, and spirituals were meant to be sung. To that end, the producers have included lyric sheets, giving families the opportunity to gather around the piano once again to experience a Christmas tradition.

The Dresdner Philharmonie and Marek Janowski present a recording of Antonin Dvorak's Stabat Mater, together with the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir, Hanna-Elisabeth Muller (soprano), Roxana Constantinescu (mezzo-soprano), Christian Elsner (tenor) and Tareq Nazmi (bass). In terms of scope and duration, Dvorak's Stabat Mater is the largest setting of this sacred text to date. Likely inspired by the tragic death of all his three children - in the timespan of just two years - the work is heartrending, yet establishes a gradual path from darkness to light, from despair to peace and hope; ascetic and restrained, yet full of suspense. This recording, made in connection to a live performance commemorating the bombing of Dresden, offers a rendition that never drags, avoids excessive sentimentality, and is all the more moving as a result. Marek Janowski is one of the most celebrated conductors of our time and has a vast PENTATONE discography, chiefly consisting of German operas and symphonic works. From 2019 to 2023 he was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Dresdner Philharmonie. Dvorak's Stabat Mater is his seventh PENTATONE recording with this orchestra, with whom he recently released Schubert's Unfinished and Great Symphonies (2023), Schumann's complete symphonies (2024), as well as Haydn's Die Schopfung (2024). The MDR Leipzig Radio Choir also appeared on that recording, has frequently featured on other PENTATONE recordings and starred on Bruckner Haydn Motets (2021) and Mendelssohn Choral Works (2023). Hanna-Elisabeth Muller released Reine de coeur (2018) and Sinnbild; Strauss Songs (2022) on PENTATONE. Roxana Constantinescu featured on PENTATONE recordings of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Puccini's Il tabarro (both 2020), as well as Kodaly & Bartok (2023). Christian Elsner also has a longstanding relationship with the label, including his solo recording of Schubert Lieder (2015). Tareq Nazmi appeared on the beforementioned recording of Die Schopfung.

The premiere of Franz Lachner’s Symphony No. 6 was held in Munich on 19 April 1837 with the composer as the conductor. The Munich press termed it a “magnificent work” and an “outstanding masterpiece,” and in this truly extraordinary work Lachner refrains from the confrontational juxtaposition of large-format thematic blocks (above all occurring in his third and fifth symphonies), instead presenting a “more organic” compositional style in which motivic-thematic developments are realized step by step. Lachner’s Concertino for Bassoon and Orchestra is a work from 1824, composed during his Vienna years. He dedicated it to Theobald Hürth, who was then the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra’s principal bassoonist. It is not known whether or not Hürth ever performed this work in public, and performances of it are not documented. It is one of the earliest extant compositions by Lachner and possibly his first work with orchestra. Here Chia-Hua Hsu, the solo bassoonist of Taiwan’s Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, interprets its recording premiere.

Composed in Russia between 1884 and 1917, the four works appearing on this disc all do so in some kind of disguise. Prokofiev and Scriabin both conceived their respective collections for the piano, and it is later arrangers that have adapted them for string orchestra. Rudolf Barshai took on Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives in 1962, selecting 15 of the 20 brief pieces and arranging them for his own ensemble, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. Scriabin’s Preludes received a similar treatment in 1999 when the Finnish composer Jouni Kaipainen chose 13 from the original 24, rearranging the order they appear in and transposing them in some cases. As for Anton Arensky (1861—1909), he composed his set of variations as the third movement of a string quartet, taking the theme from a song by Tchaikovsky and letting it undergo a series of transformations. Cheered by the success of the piece, he made his own arrangement for larger forces, a version which remains one of his best-known works. Tchaikovsky’s Elegy, finally, is actually heard here as it was composed, in 1884, but the piece saw the light of day as ‘A Thankful Greeting’ and was renamed ‘Elegy’ only at the time of publication, before making a final reappearance, as part of the composer’s music to Hamlet. The four works are performed by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, one of Finland’s finest ensembles, conducted by its artistic director Sakari Oramo.

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REVIEWS:

The long-established Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra is, on this evidence, one of Finland’s finest ensembles, and the scale of its string band (5.5.4.3.2) is very effective in this repertoire. Each piece is sensitively conducted by their artistic director Sakari Oramo, and well captured in BIS’s excellent SACD surround sound. The English notes by Andrew Huth are very useful and the disc will be welcomed by musical Russophiles.

– MusicWeb International

Sakari Oramo and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra deliver exciting performances. The orchestra’s playing is outstanding in its sharpness and immediacy. Nothing sounds exaggerated, the Finnish musicians are only concerned with awakening moods and telling dramatic stories.

– Pizzicato