Haydn’s stupendous, joyous and uplifting oratorio Die Schöpfung (The Creation) is thrillingly brought to life in this recording with Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducting the Houston Symphony, with the Houston Symphony Chorus and the acclaimed operatic soloists Nicole Heaston, Toby Spence and Peter Rose. ...
Composer: Joseph Haydn
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Choral
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 52, MWV A18 "Lobgesang"
With its combination of three instrumental movements, followed by a cantata with three soloists and chorus, Mendelssohn’s Second Symphony “Lobgesang [Hymn of Praise]” is highly original from a conceptual point of view. The piece is a milestone in the history of the symphonic ...
Composer: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1909-1847)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
Bartók & Kodály: Concertos for Orchestra
Exuberant, colourful and edgy concertos for orchestra by Bartók and Kodály are brought together in spirited and vivid performances from the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the podium sensation Jakub Hrůša on this PENTATONE release. ...
Composer: Béla Bartók (1881-1945), Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
The prologue is a unique feature of early baroque opera: an opening scene where an allegorical figure enters the stage to prepare the audience for the musical drama to come. Thus Prologue is the musical introduction of Italian star soprano Francesca Aspromonte and her exclusive, long term ...
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
Bizet: Les pêcheurs de perles, WD 13
Les Pêcheurs de perles is best known for its glorious duet, but Georges Bizet’s opera has much more to offer. This live recording more than ever brings out the brilliance of this oriental story about love, duty and friendship. In the last 150 years, Bizet’s piece has mainly been heard in ...
Composer: Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Opera
The exceptional nature and musicality of Emily Dickinson’s poetry has attracted many composers. A Certain Slant of Light features musical settings of Dickinson poems by four outstanding American composers: Aaron Copland, Gordon Getty, Jake Heggie and Michael Tilson ...
Composer: Aaron Copland (1900-1990), Gordon Getty (1933-), Jake Heggie (1961), Michael Tilson Thomas
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
Ravel & Gershwin: Piano Concertos
“Technically flawless, Kozhukhin combines wisely the brilliance and power of his playing with a masterful sense of form, maturity, and a very unique sensitivity.” Exuberant high spirits, pulsating rhythms and breathless virtuosity jostle with urbane sophistication ...
Composer: George Gershwin (1898-1937), Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
This release reunites the Kodama sisters in the studio following their scintillating recording of Tchaikovsky ballet suites for PENTATONE. In a review of a public performance of the Martinů Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, the Ziebline journal wrote “Mari and Momoyo Kodama are ...
Composer: Bohuslav Martinů
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
Calefax is an internationally acclaimed ensemble of reed players renowned for performing their own arrangements and newly commissioned compositions for the unique combination of oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bass clarinet and bassoon. Switching genres and periods with consummate ease, ...
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Renowned French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard kicks off his exclusive engagement to PENTATONE with a recording of Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux (1956-1958). The pianist had intimate ties to the composer himself and his wife, Yvonne Loriod, for whom Messiaen wrote the Catalogue. ...
Composer: Olivier Messiaen (1930)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
This album contains a selection of solo cantatas, both secular and sacred, from the Italian, German, and English traditions. Including works by Handel, Vivaldi, and Bach in settings large and small, with obbligato instruments ranging ...
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759), Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782), Georg Melchior Hoffmann (1679-1715)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
Hailed as one of the most adventurous and outstanding string quartets of today, both in the performance of modern pieces and the iron repertory, Signum Quartett now releases its first PENTATONE recording with an all-Schubert program. ...
Composer: Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G Major & Piano Quartet in A Minor
With their combination of modernism and Romantic nostalgia, and alternation of sweeping orchestral gestures with chamber-musical delicacy, Gustav Mahler’s orchestral works are as impressive and moving today as they were at the time of their premiere. ...
Composer: Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
Having demonstrated their musical excellence with three well-received recordings on PENTATONE of orchestral works of Antonin Dvořák, Houston Symphony and Andrés Orozco-Estrada now present an album that comes closer to their cultural roots than ever before. ...
Composer: Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940), Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), Ástor Piazzolla, George Gershwin (1989-1937)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis, Nobilissima visione Suite & Konzertmusik
Paul Hindemith belongs to the most original and interesting composers of the 20th century. Once described by the Boston Globe as a "20th-century Brahms", Hindemith wrote music that is Modernist in its rhythmic audacity and colourful orchestration, but simultaneously inspired by Classical forms and styles. ...
Composer: Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5
Sensuously Mediterranean sounds and Northern solemnity shake hands on this recording of Mendelssohn’s Italian and Reformation symphonies (Nos. 4 and 5). This is the second release in a series of recordings in multi-channel surround sound for PENTATONE by the conductor Andrew Manze ...
Composer: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
Desire. Brutality. Lust. Slyness. Anxiety. What a fascinatingly menacing thematic melange is seething in this Salome. Richard Strauss, the “nervous contrapuntalist,” had immediately recognized the potential of Oscar Wilde’s play, and had proceeded to add to it a musical meta-plane, ...
Composer: Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Opera
The opera Otello by Giuseppe Verdi and Arrigo Boito not only represents the outstanding result of an intensely fruitful creative collaboration between composer and librettist, but also one of the most important core works ever in the opera repertoire. ...
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Opera
Prokofiev: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3
The acclaimed Russian-born maestro Vladimir Jurowski kicks off his new cycle of the complete symphonies of Prokofiev for PENTATONE with a searing account of the challenging and uncompromising second and third symphonies. ...
Composer: Sergei Prokofjew (1891-1953)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
Britten & Hindemith: Violin Concertos
Breathtaking virtuosity flows seamlessly with expansive lyrical passages and fiendish passagework in this commanding performance by Arabella Steinbacher of the restless and technically demanding violin concertos of Britten and Hindemith in this new release from ...
Composer: Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
