Classical

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of one of the worst natural disasters in Quebec’s history while celebrating the courage and collective humanity that emanated from it, the album Ice Storm Symphony (Symphonie de la tempête de verglas) takes the listener into a whirlwind of music by Quebec composer Maxime Goulet. The program features Orchestre classique de Montréal under the direction of Jacques Lacombe performing three of Goulet’s compositions: Fishing Story, What a Day, and the title work.

The Blue Hour is a song cycle written collaboratively by the composers Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider with the chamber orchestra A Far Cry (Shara Nova also is featured as vocal soloist).  Set to excerpts from Carolyn Forché’s epic poem On Earth, the music follows one woman’s journey through the space between life and death via thousands of hallucinatory and non-linear images. Exploring memories of childhood, of war, of love, and of loss, The Blue Houramplifies the beauty, pain, and fragility of human life from a collective female perspective.

Nonesuch Records releases the first recordings of Steve Reich’s Runner (2016) and Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (2018), performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conducted by Susanna Mälkki, available on CD on September 30, 2022; a vinyl LP version will be released on December 2.

Reich says Runner is written “for a large ensemble of winds, percussion, pianos, and strings. While the tempo remains more or less constant, there are five movements, played without pause, that are based on different note durations. First, even sixteenths, then irregularly accented eighths, then a very slowed-down version of the standard bell pattern from Ghana in quarters, fourth a return to the irregularly accented eighths, and finally a return to the sixteenths but now played as pulses by the winds for as long as a breath will comfortably sustain them. The title was suggested by the rapid opening and my awareness that, like a runner, I would have to pace the piece to reach a successful conclusion.”

“Music for Ensemble and Orchestra is an extension of the Baroque concerto grosso where there is more than one soloist,” the composer continues. “Here there are twenty soloists—all regular members of the orchestra, including the first stand strings and winds, as well as two vibraphones and two pianos. The piece is in five movements, though the tempo never changes, only the note value of the constant pulse in the pianos. Thus, an arch form: sixteenths, eighths, quarters, eighths, sixteenths. Music for Ensemble and Orchestra is modeled on my Runner, which has the same five movement form.”

Everybody loves a party, and who better to serve as the master of ceremonies than global superstar cellist HAUSER.

With the Dedicated Tour marking the end of a remarkable 10-year run for 2CELLOS, HAUSER is ushering a new era as a solo artist and visual concept creator on his new album THE PLAYER, accompanied by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Steven Mercurio, released on September 16, 2022 on Sony Music Masterworks.

Whether it is captivating reimaginations of timeless world music classics such as “Bésame Mucho,” “Quizás, Quizás, Quizás” and “Historia de un Amor,” or his take on modern-day hits such as Ricky Martin’s Latin Pop smash “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita,” Camila Cabello’s “Señorita,” and Shakira’s 2010 Official 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Song “Waka Waka,” HAUSER traverses from genre to genre with ease, inviting fans of all ages and backgrounds to join him for a global dance party extravaganza.

HAUSER uses his irresistible charisma and musical stylings to take listeners on a whirlwind adventure of romance and excitement, a trademark for HAUSER that has made him an international star.  The success of HAUSER himself extends far beyond his many, many millions of social media followers with a devoted, international fan base that continues to grow. With more than a billion audio streams across the globe and more than 4 billion video views, the Croatian cellist is a phenomenon that is one part virtuoso and the other, that of sheer, animal magnetism. For HAUSER’s fans, perhaps it is simply his ability to unify generations of music lovers.

HAUSER. He is a magician of the cello…and this is only the beginning.

Bob Marley with the Chineke! Orchestra reimagines some of Bob Marley’s most recognized and listened to songs with contemporary classical orchestration. The Chineke! Orchestra provides opportunities to a diverse range of up-and-coming and internationally respected classical musicians.

The most unforgettable songs from Disney’s iconic films reimagined by the greatest living pianist, Lang Lang’s The Disney Book tells the story of a century of magical, joyous entertainment for all. Join him on an uplifting, virtuosic journey to experience beloved songs from Disney films with collaborators from across the globe, including Andrea Bocelli, Sebastián Yatra, and Jon Batiste, performing hits from Snow White, Encanto, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio and many more. Deluxe 2 LP.

On the deluxe edition of her breakthrough album, Arooj Aftab's remarkable voice, backed by a team of renowned musicians, transports listeners to worlds once known. Intimate compositions unveil mystical passage into Aftab's emotionally gripping symphonic world - vast with colorful sounds and transcendent of genre.

This is a follow up to the astoundlingly successful Album "Black Swans: Earliest African-American Classical Stars". Produced by Leslie Gerber with painstaking re-mastering from Steve Smolian, this 2 CD set follows the canon through to the early 1960s.

David Fray adds a landmark of the solo keyboard repertoire to his Bach discography: the Goldberg Variations. "The Goldberg Variations are a real test," he says. "They are the work of a lifetime, perhaps a work about life itself... a kind of rite of passage, a journey. Every element of human life is in them... When you play the theme again after the 30 variations, in it's original purity, it is as if you're at the end of your life, looking back over everything that has happened in the last hour-and-a-half. Few works give such a sense of eternity".

Teunis van der Zwart and Alexander Melnikov have chosen to pay tribute to Giovanni Punto, now unknown to most music lovers, even though he truly established the cor basse (horn focused on the low register) by devoting no less than sixteen concertos to it. It was he who inspired Beethoven's famous Sonata Op.17, and the pieces by Danzi and Ries also bear the mark of his legacy. This recording provides an opportunity to discover the unique sound of this instrument in four emblematic works.

After the critical success of the first volume of Beethoven's symphonies, Jordi Savall offers us Symphonies Six to Nine. This latest publication crowns a nearly two-year world tour and confirms the extent to which the Savall renews our vision of these most famous works. The Concert des Nations shows that it also knows how to magnify the repertoire of the early 19th century.

A precursor in this field as in so many others, Telemann gave the viola it's very first masterpieces, immediately establishing it as a solo instrument in it's own right. Alongside Sabine Fehlandt and the musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Antoine Tamestit pays splendid tribute to this pioneering music, which blends melodic charm and contrapuntal rigor into an organic whole.

A celebration from The Orlando Consort of the musical and literary worlds of Florence's golden age under the Medici, in a selection of works which includes a number of first recordings.

Howard Shelley's survey of the piano music is an undoubted highlight of the Mendelssohn revival. In this, the final instalment of the series, he focuses on late works and posthumous publications.

The "extravagantly talented" (The New York Times) American organist Cameron Carpenter releases his first album on Decca Gold, a recording of J.S. Bach's The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 juxtaposed with his own transcription of American composer Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2 in D-flat Major, Opus 30, W45, "Romantic." Both works are performed on Carpenter's tailor-made instrument, the International Touring Organ, which was designed to allow him to perform at almost any location worldwide.

Mozart: Works for Oboe and Orchestra - ALBRECHT MAYER / DEUTSCHE KAMMERPHILHARMONIE - Star oboist Albrecht Mayer's new album is inspired by his lifelong love for the music of Mozart and featuring a world premiere recording and several new arrangements of Mozart's most famous pieces. Mayer's album is made in partnership with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and harpsichordist Vital Julian Frey and will be released 9 April 2021. It's tracklist features a B flat major version of the Concerto for flute and harp, K. 299 (297c) arranged for oboe and harpsichord, and a transcription of Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165 (158a) for oboe d'amore, orchestra and organ. Also included are arrangements of the concert arias Non temer, amato bene, K.505 and Ah se in ciel, benigne stelle, K.538, the Rondo in C major, K.373 and the motet Ave verum corpus, K.618.

All-new remasterings of live and previously unissued recordings: a Mendelssohn concert from 1962 demonstrates Thomas Jensen's undimmed power to galvanize an orchestra towards the end of his life. From his very last concert, given a fortnight before his death in 1963, works by Handel and Mozart find him (and pianist Annie Fischer) on fluent, sparkling form. Novelettes by 'the Danish Mendelssohn' Niels W. Gade make a neat coupling, and the set closes with the Dvorák overture which launched the DRSO on the international scene. Another landmark album in the wider appreciation of a conductor whose legacy has been too narrowly restricted to the music of his homeland.

Award winning Canadian violinist James Ehnes returns to the greatest body of work for solo violin: Bach's 6 Sonatas and Partitas. After many years of performing these masterpieces, it was lockdown 2020 that led to James recording the complete set at his home in Florida in the early hours of the morning. His interpretation of this music has changed over the years - he first recorded them in 2000 - and now at the height of his powers he delivers performances of superb musicianship that are sensitive and thoughtful, showcasing breath-taking technical prowess combined with great emotional power.

This album of popular short pieces provides a memento of the first French lockdown in 2020: Renaud Capuçon and pianist Guillaume Bellom performed on social media each day, raising the spirits of their fans. Ideal for streaming, the collection includes music by Enrico Morricone, Charlie Chaplin, Carlos Gardel, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Schumann

Some of Stephen Hough's most exquisite recordings come from his collaborations with EMI and Virgin Classics during this early period, offering a taste of the pianist's impeccable touch, his musical and intellectual rigor, and his fondness for the short showpieces that filled late 19th-century salons and peppered the 78 rpm records of golden-age pianists. In the two all-Liszt recitals, Stephen Hough is also in his element, creating atmospheric colors, with notes flowing like streams of pearls, shaping and magnifying the dramatic depth of these works. From Mozart to Schumann, Brahms to Britten, looking back at the great virtuoso tradition while looking forward through his own arrangements, Stephen Hough presents, through these early recordings, a fascinating portrait of a young artist whose brilliant, artistic intellect and appetite for creativity remains unmatched today.

Anima Aeterna, an adventurous album of sacred arias and motets from the 18th century, follows in the vein of Anima Sacra, which in 2018 decisively announced Jakub Józef Orlinski's arrival as a recording artist. It's programme - music by Zelenka, Handel, Fux, and the little-known Gennaro Manna, Francisco António de Almeida, Bartolomeo Nucci and (on the LP version) Davide Perez - contains several world premiere recordings. Joining Orlinski in Zelenka's sparkling 'Laetatus sum' is the captivating soprano Fatma Said, and Francesco Corti conducts the orchestra and chorus of Il pomo d'oro. Orlinski feels that "the shades and colours to be heard in in sacred music of baroque era touch people's souls, even today. Anima Aeterna means 'eternal soul', which for me means nature... Something so vital, wild and dangerous, yet also so calm, mesmerizing and healing."

This double album includes two recordings never published before: Robert Hacomplaynt's Marian Antiphon: Salve Regina, and Robert Fayrfax's Magnificat 'Regale', both from the Eton Choirbook. The other recordings in the album include works from the Early English Polyphony era, by composers John Taverner, Christopher Tye, Thomas Morley and last but not least Thomas Tallis

"The worlds of opera and symphony merge perfectly in daily life in Vienna, and with this album, I'm hoping to take the listener on a wonderful orchestral journey with my harp", says Anneleen Lenaerts. Anneleen chose this repertoire to reflect her life as a musician in Vienna with one of the most prestigious orchestras in the world: the Vienna Philharmonic. The album features pieces from both the operatic and symphonic worlds that are special to her, e.g. a concert memory of Les Préludes by Liszt with Riccardo Muti and Onegin with Andris Nelsons.

Great sorrow and great joy, expressed in in sacred and secular arias and cantatas, are the themes of Sabine Devieilhe's album of Bach and Handel. Recorded with the Pygmalion ensemble and conductor Raphaël Pichon, it features appearances by baritone Stéphane Degout and lutenist Thomas Dunford and includes Bach's cantatas 'Mein Herze schwimmt i'm Blut' and 'Jauchzet Gott in allen Lande', and excerpts from Handel's Brockes Passion and Giulio Cesare. "This is possibly the most personal programme I've recorded so far," says Sabine Devieilhe, "and I've been lucky enough to record it with the Pygmalion ensemble and my husband Raphaël Pichon. We really wanted to convey the idea of human emotion that at times goes beyond our understanding, and which creates music of extraordinary drama. "

Manuel de Falla is regarded as the greatest Spanish composer of the twentieth century. Established in Paris from 1907 to 1914, he met Debussy, Ravel and Dukas and steeped himself in their works. Exploring and capturing Hispanic musical idioms he invented scores for lavish ballets, colour-saturated orchestras, splashy voices, refined pianos, thus contributed greatly to universal modernism. Setting his main works in their diverse context, this edition invites exploration and discovery. It spans almost a century of recording history, encompassing a host of great instrumentalists, singers, conductors and orchestras, many of them from Spain and France. And among legendary sessions from which he gained fame is Falla himself at the piano, still astonishing today.

Barbirolli's recordings of Mahler symphonies are now regarded as landmark performances, on top of the Mahlerian discography. This fifth symphony, the last recording Barbirolli devoted to Mahler, is an essential testimony of the conductor's art. It is accompanied by the Rückert-Lieder sung by Janet Baker, a perfect example of the two artists' perfect mutual understanding in Mahler's vocal music. This landmark recording is released on LP with the fine HD remastering made for the Barbirolli Complete Warner Edition.

The programme for Alexandre Tharaud's first album of Schubert comprises the four Impromptus D 899 (op 90), the six Moments musicaux and, in Tharaud's own transcription for piano, four excerpts from the stage music for Rosamunde. When Tharaud performed the Impromptus at London's Wigmore Hall in 2014, The Guardian wrote: "He got to the heart of the beauties and abysses of this music."

The original concept of Lea Desandre's Amazone is based on music of the Baroque period written specifically on the subject of the Amazons, the mythical race of female warriors. Amazone has been recorded with the magnificent ensemble Jupiter and conductor Thomas Dunford. Lea Desandre explores the fascinating ways that composers treat their Amazonian characters, particularly interesting figures in that they embody a "male/female" duality. Gender ambiguity, which plays a role in so many operatic plots, provides an infinite source of dramatic and musical inspiration. Amazone has three special guests, true stars in the world of Baroque music: Cecilia Bartoli and Véronique Gens appear in separate duets with Lea, and William Christie features on harpsichord in a piece by Couperin. Amazone features compositions of Vivaldi, Cavali, Provenzale, Couperin, Rameau, and more.

An original album from the critically acclaimed Quatuor Ébène, 'round midnight features Dutilleux's quartet Ainsi la nuit, Schönberg's Verklärte Nacht, and a composition by the group's cellist Raphaël Merlin: Night bridge. All the works on the album are inspired by moods of the NIGHT. It improvises on jazz standards & pop songs that have become a trademark of the quartet. The album also features distinguished guest musicians Antoine Tamestit (viola) and Nicolas Altstaedt (cello).

Randall Goosby presents Roots, a celebration of classical music by Black composers and inspired by Black American culture. This debut album is a homage to the pioneering musicians that paved the way for Goosby's generation of young artists. It features world premiere recordings of pieces by Florence Price, as well as looking to the future, opening with a new work by Xavier Foley.

Six CD holiday box set. Christmas is a holiday filled with magic and wonder. One of the many things that make it more special are the beautiful Christmas carols that have become a part of the holiday season. So, this year when you gather family and friends together or when you spend time decorating the house, it's time to throw on this marvelous collection containing 100 of the best holiday carols around. Let your heart sing along to glorious musical moments like 'Away in a Manger', 'The First Noel', 'O Little Town of Bethlehem' and many, many more. EMI.