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Reviews

Mar 29, 2026

Label
Passacaille
Catalog no
PAS 1080
Released
2020
Length
1:15:07

Props to Passacaille for giving us a memorable and interesting album cover.

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L’arte della scordatura Hirasaki

Mar 29, 2026

Composers
Arcangelo Corelli
Label
Berlin Classics
Released
2026
Length
1:00:34

A friend just recently attended a performance featuring Concerto Köln, led by Shunske Sato.

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Pantheon – Corelli’s Orbit Evgeny Sviridov

Mar 28, 2026

Composers
George Frideric Handel
Label
Linn

Handel completed Messiah in an astonishing 24 days in August and September of 1741, and the work received its premiere not in London but in…

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Handel: Messiah Irish Baroque Orchestra and Choir

Mar 22, 2026

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach
Label
Harmonia Mundi

Raphaël Pichon's recordings of late with his Ensemble Pygmalion have turned out, to my ears, to be extremely engaging performances.

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J.S. Bach: St. John Passion Pygmalion

Mar 22, 2026

Composers
François Couperin
Released
2025
Length
3:04:22

François Couperin "Le Grand" (d. 1733) wrote prolifically for keyboard — unsurprisingly, given his career as both organist and…

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Couperin: Premier livre de pièces de clavecin Kuwagata

Mar 21, 2026

Scott Ross was born in Pittsburgh (1951) and early on studied piano and organ. His father died early in his youth, followed by a move with his mother and siblings to France, where he began to live "on his own" at the age of 13.

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Scott Ross – A Retrospective of Erato Discography

Mar 16, 2026

This new album featuring a copy of a Silbermann piano, including two works for piano and flute, takes its title from a sentiment embraced by Bach’s son: Empfindsamkeit. Anne Thivierge contributes as the flautist and the piano is commanded by Arnaud de Pasquale.

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Empfindsamkeit – Music for Piano and Flute Arnaud de Pasquale

Mar 14, 2026

Composers
JSBach

No, Bach didn’t return from the dead last year to provide us with new music, but the Bach Archiv in Leipzig did authenticate two keyboard…

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Two New Pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach

Mar 14, 2026

Composers
Telemann
Label
Channel Classics
Catalog no
CCS48926
Released
2026

In this album, Rachel Podger re-joins Florilegium to record concertos and the dramatic cantata Ino with director Ashley Solomon.

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Telemann: Double Concertos and Ino Florilegium

Mar 8, 2026

This album presents music by Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger, sponsored by, and performed on an instrument commissioned by the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis – Hochschule für Musik Basel.

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To the World – Music for Lyra Viol Pandolfo

Mar 8, 2026

This new release from Da Vinci Classics explores a little-known corner of Renaissance keyboard repertoire, drawing from the manuscript collection of the Collegiate Church of Castell’Arquato in Emilia—a provincial archive that nevertheless preserves a vivid…

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Æmilia Andrea Chezzi

Mar 3, 2026

This album, save for a few instrumental numbers, celebrates through a solo voice the role the Virgin Mary has in our lives. The composers represented include Monteverdi, Sances, Purcell, Goussot, Kempis, Mazzocchi, and Merula. I am familiar with Ms.

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Lagrime – Les Larmes de la Vierge Ricercar Consort & Céline Scheen

Mar 1, 2026
Composers
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber

This music was published in modern times (1956) as part of the Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, a red-bound series I encountered in…

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Revisiting Biber’s Harmonia Artificioso-Ariosa

Mar 1, 2026

Label
Rubicon Classics
Catalog no
RCD1041
Released
2019
Length
59:51

As the notes for the new album, Visions du Diable, communicate, this album is viewed as a second installment, if you will, from the…

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Histoires d’un Ange and Visions du Diable Johanna Rose

Feb 22, 2026

Ensemble Théodora’s debut album features German music written in the French style, or so that’s the idea, but the composers represented (with one work attributed to no one) includes pieces by Lully and Campra.

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Tranquilles Coeurs Ensemble Théodora

Feb 21, 2026

Composers
George Frideric Handel
Label
Accent
Catalog no
none
Released
2025

The curiously named album (props for the creativity) features, as we might imagine, Handel’s orchestral suites known as the Royal Fireworks…

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Handel – Water and Fire Collegium 1704

Feb 18, 2026

Composers
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Released
2026
Length
1:13:25

This album features two concertos written by Mozart in 1776-1777, performed upon a Tangentenflügel, a unique instrument not often heard…

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Mozart: Piano Concertos (nos. 6, 8, & 18) Pashchenko

Feb 17, 2026

Composers
Johann Sebastian BachGeorg Philipp TelemannTomaso Albinoni
Released
2002
Length
1:12:48

This recording (July 2025), just over an hour long, would make an excellent concert program: Bach’s well-known violin concertos alongside…

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Bach, Telemann, Albinoni: Concertos and Suites Ensemble Masques

Feb 16, 2026

Composers
JSBach
Released
2026
Length
1:10:22

In the most recent review I did of Bach’s three works performed on two smaller cellos, one four-stringed and one five-stringed, I was a bit…

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Bach – Mein Geist Le Banquet Céleste

Feb 15, 2026

Composers
JSBach
Label
ArcanaOuthere Music France
Catalog no
A590
Released
2026

The starting point for this album comes from an interesting source: the transcriptions by Gustav Leonhardt of Bach’s violin works for…

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Bach on Nine Strings Brunello & Valli

Feb 14, 2026

Composers
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber

The sonatas known today (in English) as the Rosary or Mystery Sonatas by Heinrich Biber are extraordinary for multiple reasons.

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Biber – Rosenkranzsonaten Leila Schayegh

Feb 9, 2026

A reduced ensemble from Apollo’s Fire recently stopped in Richmond, Virginia—my hometown—on a multi-city tour. The Sunday afternoon concert took place at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Center for the Arts.

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Apollo’s Fire Plays the VCU Chamber Music Series

Feb 7, 2026

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach

I noticed this album weeks ago online, offered with images of a vinyl pressing. The marketing for this album has been rich.

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Bach – Goldberg Variations Yunchan Lim

Feb 7, 2026

Composers
JSBach
Released
2026
Length
1:13:28

The concept behind this album, featuring early works for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, is to perform his early works within the…

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Juvenilia Gabriel Smallwood

Feb 4, 2026

Composers
Johann Ludwig Bach

This album reminded me of a point to consider as we look at music and what it means to us, out of the context for how it was written.

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Johann Ludwig Bach: Cantatas

Feb 2, 2026

Composers
Johann Philipp Kirnberger
Released
2026
Length
1:01:48

Johann Philipp Kirnberger emerges from Reinhard Goebel’s liner notes as a man of exacting standards—perhaps a difficult personality, but…

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Kirnberger: Sinfonias Berlin Baroque Solisten

Feb 1, 2026

Composers
George Gershwin

I still remember when Tao’s first album, Voyages came out on iTunes. It opens with Monk’s Railroad and it was hyped enough on the digital…

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Conrad Tao Plays Gershwin Richmond Symphony

Jan 31, 2026

Composers
William Byrd
Label
Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog no
00289 486 0583
Released
2021

There’s a knee-jerk reaction to the title of this album. Of course William Byrd and John Bull never knew or experienced a concert grand.

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Visionaries of Piano Music: Byrd & Bull Armstrong

Jan 31, 2026

Composers
JSBach
Released
2026
Length
53:55

Today there’s no shortage of recordings of Bach’s viola da gamba sonatas (BWV 1027-1029), however they’re not all performed on the viola da…

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Bach Dialogues Haimovitz & O’Riley

Jan 25, 2026

Composers
JSBach
Label
Nonesuch
Catalog no
75597895421
Released
2025

It was the Goat Rodeo recording with Yo-Yo Ma that turned me onto the high art of Chris Thile, mandolinist, who just last year released his…

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Bach – Sonatas & Partitas, vol. 2 Thile

Jan 24, 2026

One of the first things I noticed about this program is its centering on the keys of E major and E minor. The liner notes reveal that the pianist experiences synesthesia—not the first musician to associate musical keys with color.

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Opus 109 “Green Album” Ólafsson

Jan 22, 2026

Label
Challenge Classics
Catalog no
CC720016
Released
2025
Length
59:33

Founded in 2018, UnderStories focuses on exploring the rise of the cello as a solo instrument, and especially the repertoire for two…

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A French Odyssey UnderStories Ensemble

Jan 20, 2026

This curiously named album is born out of polyphonic music from the early baroque, but realized for instruments instead of voices. The musicians here have dedicated themselves to performing in an old tradition, with the viola da gamba as the star.

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Per la viola bastarda

Jan 19, 2026

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach

Olivier Spilmont directs this recording of Bach cantatas with Alia Mens, following an earlier release from 2017.

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Antimelancholicus – Bach Cantatas

Jan 19, 2026

Composers
Francesco Maria Veracini
Label
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
Catalog no
88697705302
Released
2010

I reviewed this album back in December of 2010. I wanted to revisit it, sadly, that Musica Antiqua Roma were a flash in the past.

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Veracini Sonatas Minasi

Jan 18, 2026

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach

I recently saw that Yo-Yo Ma made an appearance on Colbert’s Late Show, performing the opening prelude to BWV 1007 and also performing Over…

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Bach’s Cello Suites Prandi

Jan 18, 2026

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach

Lilian Gordis is a Franco-American harpsichordist who left California at 16 to study with Pierre Hantaï in France.

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Bach: The world of the harpsichord Gordis

Jan 12, 2026

Composers
Claudio Monteverdi
Label
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
Catalog no
19439997192
Released
2022

Katharina Bäuml founded her ensemble, Capella de la Torre, featuring winds with continuo, back in 2005 and have become, in my eyes, a kind…

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Monteverdi Memories Capella de la Torre

Jan 11, 2026

Composers
George Frideric Handel

I am expecting that Tafelmusik, their choir, and soloists Amanda Forsythe and Thomas Hobbs recorded this album after their late spring…

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A Handel Celebration Tafelmusik

Jan 10, 2026

Composers
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
Label
Arcana
Catalog no
A588
Released
2026

Before auditioning this release, I was not familiar with W.F. Bach’s flute duets; the liner notes provide a good historical perspective…

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W.F. Bach: Six Sonatas for Two Flutes Granatiero & Biščevič

Jan 9, 2026

One of the central ideas explored in Steve Reich’s music has been to ask a performer to play with themselves, using tape. If you’ve used a digital sequencer (software, or earlier, when they were stand-alone devices), the idea doesn’t seem that interesting.

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Electric Counterpoint Redžepagić

Dec 29, 2025

Released
2022
Length
1:37:09

Likely because of the Christmas theme, I came across this release from November 2022 by Ensemble 1700, directed from the recorder by…

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Pastorale Ensemble 1700, Oberlinger

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