The Carlisle Sessions • Floyds Row
The “folk collective” Floyds Row recently released “The Carlisle Sessions”: just five tracks and eighteen minutes of music.
modern
Seasons • Cicada Woods
This Toronto-based string quartet has released their version of Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires or Cuatro estaciones porteñas combined with Robert Carli’s Four Seasons of Toronto, completed in 2026.
Mondrian – 21st Century Harpsichord Concertos • Esfahani
The common thread here is harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, who brings into our living rooms three different conceptions of the harpsichord concerto for our own time.
Songs without Words • Bertrand Chamayou
Felix Mendelssohn's Lieder ohne Worte hold an odd place in the repertoire. In the nineteenth century they were among the most widely played piano music in Europe, and for much of the twentieth they were among the most…
Johnny Loves Johann
“You all seated here are a community.” I attended last evening a performance of violinist Johnny Gandelsman at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Center with four talented choreographers. The music of J.S.
Philip Glass for Cello • Camille Thomas
The music of Philip Glass includes a substantial body of work for cello: a concerto, a second concerto drawn from his film score to Naqoyqatsi, the Songs and Poems for Solo Cello, Orbit for solo cello, and likely others…
Beethoven & the Italians
This Harmonia Mundi release from the Munich Chamber Orchestra, with nearly three hours of music, works as three separate productions across three discs; each disc pairs a Beethoven symphony with additional music by…
J.S. Bach: Cello Suites • Haruma Sato
No booklet accompanied this album, which simply appears to have been released by Universal Music, without any label credited. The metadata reports it as coming from a live concert this year in Tokyo.
Herstory • Luke Welch
This short album of solo piano music features compositions from, as the cover indicates, “female composers of colour.” Represented are Florence Price, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Montague Ring, L.
Quirky Nightclub Chronicles • Arcis Saxophone Quartet
Claus Hierluksch (soprano), Ricarda Fuss (alto), Anne-Marie Schäfer (tenor), and Jure Knez (bari) form this quartet with a release featuring works by Shuteen Erdenebaatar, Marc Mellits, Emma O’Halloran, and Astor…
J.S. Bach: Cello Suites, arr. for viola • Sabbah
One might understand how a violist could feel slighted for not getting their own sonatas or suites when Bach’s music for the violin and cello is so monumental.
J.S. Bach: The French Suites • Tristano
We have the next installment here of Francesco Tristano's recording of Bach's keyboard works with the so-called French Suites, BWV 812-817.
Bach: Goldberg Variations at the Thomaskirche • Zhu
Born in 1949 into an artistic, bourgeois Shanghai family, Zhu Xiao-Mei was performing on Peking radio and television by age eight and entered the Beijing Conservatory at ten.
Clavecin XX • Justin Taylor
Early music specialists — as a concept — are people who focus on performing music from an earlier period of history. That may be all they do.
Cello Octet Amsterdam – Music by Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt, a living composer, has attracted fans of early music because of his stylistic affinity for earlier forms, harmonies, and partly because of the religious aspect of his music.
Bach: Die Kunst der Fuga • Maria Perrotta
The Italian pianist Maria Perrotta was a name I was unfamiliar with. Her bio reveals some details that you may be interested in. She won at competitions in 2004 and 2008, and has been praised for her “crystal clear sound.
Bach – Goldberg Variations • Yunchan Lim
I noticed this album weeks ago online, offered with images of a vinyl pressing. The marketing for this album has been rich.
Kirnberger: Sinfonias • Berlin Baroque Solisten
Johann Philipp Kirnberger emerges from Reinhard Goebel’s liner notes as a man of exacting standards—perhaps a difficult personality, but one shaped decisively by his studies with Johann Sebastian Bach.
Visionaries of Piano Music: Byrd & Bull • Armstrong
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.
Bach Dialogues • Haimovitz & O’Riley
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 gamba.
Bach – Sonatas & Partitas, vol. 2 • Thile
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 second volume of Bach’s solo violin works, played upon his own instrument.
Opus 109 “Green Album” • Ólafsson
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…
Bach’s Cello Suites • Prandi
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 the Rainbow.
Electric Counterpoint • Redžepagić
One of the central ideas explored in Steve Reich’s music has been to ask a performer to play with themselves, using tape.
Haydn: Haydn 2032 – Volume 18 “Maestro di scuola” • Antonini
Symphonies Nos. 29, 55 (The Schoolmaster), and 56 belong to the late 1760s and early 1770s, a period when Joseph Haydn was firmly established as Kapellmeister to the Esterházy court and increasingly confident in his…
Mozart: Serenata • Münchener Kammerorchester
The last album I purchased featuring Mozart directed by Enrico Onofri was one that took considerable talent to identify; it included the 40th symphony which Onofri directed with his own personal stamp upon the famous…
The Book of Fixed Stars
You may have learned at some point that the elements of music are rhythm, harmony, and melody. Yet we can experience each of these on its own.
Bach The 7 Toccatas • Tristano
Having already covered Tristano’s earlier Bach releases—the Six Partitas and English Suites—this album feels like the next logical chapter in his piano-based traversal of Bach.
Vanessa Wagner plays Glass
Vanessa Wagner brings body and human presence to the minimalist etudes by Philip Glass, producing a remarkable recording that serves as a reference for these works.
Beethoven & Liszt • Zhang
Albums like this one often serve as calling cards for younger pianists: they establish technical command through repertoire that everyone knows, while the best also reveal a distinctive interpretive voice.
Bach: The Toccatas • Ferrucci
This album includes Bach’s Toccatas for keyboard, BWV 910-916, in addition to three bonus tracks, the Kempff arrangement of BWV 1031, a selection from Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin and Poulenc’s Improvisation no.
Vision String Quartet • Webern • Dvorak
On Sunday, July 6, 2025, I attended a concert by the Vision String Quartet at London’s Wigmore Hall. The program included two pieces plus an encore: The concert was special for me on several fronts: first, the location.
Pachelbel (on piano) • Batagov
Johann Pachelbel is known to you more than likely for his work for three violins and continuo, his Canon and Gigue in D major, which has been a favorite at weddings.
La Cremona/La Cremona II (or an essay on historically-informed performance practice)
These two recordings challenged me. Readers will know—but may not agree with me—that baroque music can be played rewardingly with different philosophical approaches applied.
Tristano performs Bach’s English Suites
My favorite album by Tristano is his earlier “On Early Music,” which in addition to Frescobaldi and Gibbons (among others) are his own pieces, inspired by this Renaissance-early baroque style.
Goldberg (Live) – Deljavan
This month brings a new recording of the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, performed by Italian pianist Alessandro Deljavan.
Bach: The Art of Fugue • Albert Cano Smit
This past year I allowed myself to try a number of recordings of Bach on the piano. While I understand that some readers may be offended by such a thing, I’ve always been fascinated by the piano, it being for me, my…
Inmost Heart: Bach, Brahms, Busoni, Reger
When I saw Bach and Busoni attached to this recording, I assumed it would include the Bach Chaconne arranged by Ferruccio Busoni, a piece that for me is a wonderful ride.
Aguas da Amazonia • Third Coast Percussion
Third Coast Percussion has released this January a recording of the 1993-99 work by Philip Glass, envisioned as part of a ballet dance performance, entitled Aguas da Amazonia which like his work entitled Orion, used…
C.P.E. Bach Flute Concertos • Ariel Zuckermann
My apologies for thinking this album’s cover depicted Lord Voldemort on first sight; it instead is the conductor and soloist Ariel Zuckermann, who appears here with his orchestra, the Ingolstadt chamber orchestra, one…