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.

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

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

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and it's Music Director Jader Bignamini present Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, one of the most electrifying works of the twentieth century. Drawing on thirteenth-century manuscripts from Benediktbeuern Abbey, Orff transformed the exuberant, irreverent texts of wandering scholars and rebellious clerics into a monumental scenic cantata. From the iconic opening of "O Fortuna" to the exuberant outdoor dances, tavern scenes, and courtly love interludes, the work pulses with elemental rhythms and striking orchestration, with chorus, percussion, two pianos, and celesta playing central roles. Motifs from "O Fortuna" recur throughout, linking the contrasting worlds of humour, erotic longing, and the inexorable wheel of fate. Orff balances diatonic simplicity with rhythmic ostinati, while movements such as the flute-timpani duet, castanets solo, and piano-percussion passages evoke primal energy and recall Stravinsky's Les noces. From the introspective soprano arias in "In trutina" to the sardonic baritone tavern numbers, the score alternates between joy, melancholy, and satire, culminating in the final return of "O Fortuna" to close the cycle. Following their acclaimed release of Marsalis' Blues Symphony in March 2025, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Jader Bignamini return to PENTATONE, reaffirming their mastery of landmark repertoire.

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)

Around the time The King's Singers was starting up, one of the most productive periods of songwriting in history was coming to a close in America, starting with composers such as Gershwin, Kern, Berlin and Porter in the early 1920s, and continuing through to the early 1960s. In this new 2-CD studio recording - featuring brand new a cappella arrangements by jazz composer and arranger Alexander L'Estrange, and swing-orchestra performances with the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra - The King's Singers bring their own unique performance style to this wonderful music.

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.

Twenty five years after their last recording of piano duets on Chandos, the Canadien pianists Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier return in a watershed collection of magnificently played duets by Rachmaninoff including the two suites and an arrangement for his Symphonic Dances. The Lortie/Mercier piano duo have known one another since their early teens, and have a considerable collaborative discography that showcases their affinity for the art of 4 hands and 2 pianos performances and repertoire.

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.

Gabriela Lena Frank's Conquest Requiem brings to life the complexities of colonisation, identity and survival through the story of Malinche, a Nahua woman from the Gulf Coast of Mexico who was given to the Spaniards as a young slave. Using a fusion of Western liturgical traditions, indigenous Nahua poetry and Latin influences, this powerful work deals with the fundamental question of how to reconcile a legacy of historical violence that continues to shape modern issues. Antonio Estevez's wildly popular Cantata Criolla - considered one of the greatest choral pieces of the 20th century in Latin America - is the composer's most celebrated work.

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.

Leonard Bernstein conducted regularly in Munich from the 1980s onwards. It was then that he learned to appreciate and love the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in particular. In October 1976, Bernstein had appeared with an all-Beethoven programme, and in 1983 he began a series of annual concerts with the orchestra. This CD from BR-KLASSIK presents the live recording of the Beethoven concert on October 17, 1976, in which Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the Leonore Overture No. 3. The programme of the Munich concert in October 1976 included Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which can be seen as stroke of liberation in the sense of "per aspera ad astra" ("through hardships to the stars" or "through darkness to light") and also a symphonic piece that he had written for his only opera "Fidelio": the Third Leonore Overture, with it's lone trumpet signal announcing the arrival of the minister Don Fernando - and thus the rescue of Florestan from arbitrary violence and imprisonment. Joachim Kaiser, Munich's leading music critic at the time, said: "Bernstein demonstrated to a spellbound Munich audience how much he is filled with Beethoven, the man is full of a freedom and fire that can be produced and reproduced. Even if Bernstein's leaps, crouches and crescendos may seem violent to anxious listeners, the inner rightness of the music - which sounds natural, powerful, wonderful and relaxed - is overwhelming." The live recording was made on October 17, 1976 at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

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.

Limited 14CD box set. The ultimate tribute to Paul Robeson, singer, stage and film actor, all-American football player, lawyer, and advocate for civil rights. Blacklisted and erased from American history, many of Robeson's recordings in the U.S. remained unreleased - until now. Special 14-CD edition, documenting his complete major-label discography, recorded 1925-1947. First release of Robeson's groundbreaking Victor recordings on CD, 16 recordings reissued for the first time, 5 previously unreleased. First restoration of Robeson's famous 1944 Othello stage production with Uta Hagen and Jos� Ferrer from the original 33 master disc sides. His complete remastered Columbia albums (Songs of Free Men, Popular Favorites, Spirituals). First release of his historic 1958 recitals at Mother A.M.E. Zion Church, New York, and Royal Albert Hall, with 30 previously unissued recordings. Richly illustrated 160-page book with essays by Shana L. Redmond and Susan Robeson, a wealth of photos and facsimiles from the archives of The Paul Robeson Trust, the Academy of the Arts, Berlin, and Columbia Records, plus complete discographical notes.

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.

Denis Kozhukhin presents a new album of Haydn: Sonatas, offering a fresh and illuminating journey through the composer's keyboard repertoire. Haydn's keyboard sonatas brim with invention, drama, and wit, matching the brilliance of his symphonies and quartets. Revisiting this repertoire, Kozhukhin reveals their expressive depth and sparkling originality in a recital of striking contrast and character. From the genial Allegro of the early D Major Sonata, Hob XVI:4, to the restless intensity of the C minor Sonata, Hob XVI:20, each work reflects Haydn's inexhaustible inventiveness and subtle mastery of keyboard textures. A prize-winner of prestigious competitions, including the Leeds International Piano Competition (2006) and the Queen Elizabeth Competition (2010), Denis Kozhukhin has established himself as one of the most acclaimed pianists of his generation. He presents another chapter in his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, following albums such as Grieg and Tchaikovsky: Piano Concertos (2016, Gramophone Editor's Choice), Brahms: Ballades and Fantasies (2017, 5 stars in Diapason), Ravel & Gershwin and Richard Strauss' Burleske (2018), Grieg: Lyric Pieces & Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte (2019, Gramophone Recording of the Month), Cesar Franck's Symphonic Variations (2020), and Somnia (2025, Gramophone Critic's Choice for 2025 Top Recordings).

Richard Strauss summed up his two-act opera Intermezzo as a 'bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes'. The soprano role of Christine with it's shimmering cantilenas represents Strauss's wife Pauline, while the successful Kapellmeister Robert Storch serves as Richard Strauss himself in a domestic drama that was avant-garde for it's time but now resonates with the accessibility of today's reality shows. This production from the Deutsche Oper Berlin was acclaimed for it's lush orchestral sound and superbly characterful cast led by a formidable central performance from Maria Bengtsson.

Anyone familiar with Apollo's Fire will recognise the exceptional baroque orchestra's engaging and entertaining principal cellist Rene Schiffer. Featured on dozens of the Apollo's Fire recordings, Rene steps into the spotlight for his solo debut recording with a meticulous rendering of that pillar of the baroque repertoire, J. S. Bach's Six Suites for Solo Cello. Deploying different instruments - a 1768 Benoit Fleury cello for the first four suites, an anonymous late 18th century violoncello piccolo with an added string for the fifth (in his own arrangement) and sixth - and multiple tunings, Rene's distinctive interpretations are in harmony with his comprehensive and probing liner notes which abound with theories and intellectual insights.

Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony recorded a great deal of music, originally for Delos, now on Naxos. Much of the discography, while good, was ephemeral—yet another disc of standard repertoire—but some of it was really important: symphonies by Hanson, Piston, and Diamond, for example, and this disc. No one much cares today about music critic/composer Deems Taylor’s often charming but conservative music, but his suite Through the Looking Glass, based on Alice in Wonderland, really is worth hearing. If you know John Alden Carpenter’s Adventures in a Perambulator then you know what to expect: good tunes, colorful scoring, and a nice, light touch.

The Griffes pieces are famous, of course, as the works of one of America’s great “might have been” composers. The Poem for Flute and Orchestra is the best known, followed by the exotic Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan and The White Peacock. These evocative miniatures all point to a major talent, a life tragically cut short at the age of 36. Both here and in the Taylor work the performances are uniformly splendid: extremely well played, and just about perfectly conducted regarding tempo, texture, and balance. Scott Goff plays the flute solo in the Poem with finesse and lovely tone.

The original Delos recordings always were a bit low-level and dull on top, but this one at least has transferred well, once you find a comfortable volume setting. A great disc for collectors of turn-of-the-(20th)-century Americana.

-- ClassicsToday.com

Bent Sørensen’s distinctive music thrives on the intangible, from atmospheres and feelings to memories and dreams. This recording assembles three recent concertos from the Grawemeyer Award-winning composer performed by distinguished Nordic soloists, beginning with a second piano concerto played by its dedicatee and inspiration, Leif Ove Andsnes. Sørensen’s clarinet concerto for Martin Frost is inspired by the scents of Spanish poetry, while his trumpet concerto for Tine Thing Helseth feeds of his constant obsession with the beauty and vulnerability of Venice. Each is highly evocative and filled with Sørensen’s etched beauty.

-----

REVIEWS:

The Second Piano Concerto, obviously a difficult work to perform, is played by the Norwegian pianist, Leif Ove Andsnes, who proves a highly persuasive exponent. Serenidad (Serenade), for clarinet and orchestra, is sparsely scored. The soloist, Martin Frost, produces a beautifully refined and creamy tone. The Trumpet Concerto was composed with the young charismatic Norwegian, Tine Thing Helseth in mind. She is capable of producing a multitude of colours. The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra adds a transparent accompaniment. The recordings are to Dacapo’s immaculate quality, the release much commended to those looking for cutting-edge contemporary sounds.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

Three recent concertos by Bent Sørensen, which are full of attractive, vivid instrumental effects, are brought together by Dacapo Records, all with their dedicatees as the soloists. It may be fundamentally undemanding music, but it is beautifully made.

– The Guardian (UK)