Soprano Francesca Aspromonte and violinist Boris Begelman present an all-Handel programme exploring the vicissitudes of love, together with Arsenale Sonoro. On Un’alma innamorata, Aspromonte urges us to take ownership of our amorous infatuations, rather than blaming it on Cupid’s arrows. The programme consists ...
Composer: Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
Rheinberger & Mendelssohn: Choral Works
On their Pentatone debut, the Netherlands Radio Choir and its chief conductor Benjamin Goodson bring together choral works by Josef Rheinberger and Felix Mendelssohn, presenting some of the greatest choral compositions of the nineteenth century. This recording begins with Rheinberger’s rarely-recorded Mass in E-Flat Major and closes ...
Composer: Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Choral
Magdalena Kožená’s fourth Pentatone album Folk Songs brings together folk-inspired song cycles from across the globe. Ranging from Berio’s Folk Songs to sets by Bartók, Ravel and Montsalvatge, this collection provides a kaleidoscope of twentieth-century orchestral song composition. ...
Composer: Luciano Berio (1925-2003), Béla Bartók (1881-1945), Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Xavier Montsalvatge (1912-2002)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
Harpist Bridget Kibbey makes her Pentatone debut with Crossing the Ocean. Via virtuosic soundscapes to driving grooves, Kibbey takes the concert harp to uncharted territory in precision, sound, and verve, by merging traditional music with the contemporary via six newly-commissioned works she has curated, by an ...
Composer: David Bruce (1970), Avner Dorman (1975), Kati Agócs, Kinan Azmeh (1976), Paquito D'Rivera (1948), DuYun
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
Cellist Matt Haimovitz, the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Dennis Russell Davies present the first commercial recording of Ukrainian unsung composer Thomas de Hartmann’s cello concerto. De Hartmann was an important compositional voice in his own time, connected to the greatest musicians and ...
Composer: Thomas Alexandrovich de Hartmann (1884–1956)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
First Light: Nico Muhly & Philip Glass
Two New Yorkers in A Nordic Light: Violinist Pekka Kuusisto and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra present First Light, the first fruit of Kuusisto’s tenure as the ensemble’s Artistic Director, on which two eminent New York composers are cast in a Nordic light. The album offers the world premiere recording ...
Composer: Nico Muhly (1981), Philip Glass (1937)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
La Nuova Musica and its artistic director David Bates present Henry Purcell's most widely admired work Dido and Aeneas. With Nathum Tate's libretto based on Virgil's Aeneid Book IV, Dido and Aeneas is a miniature opera, as well as the only all-sung opera Purcell ever composed. ...
Composer: Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard joins forces with the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen for a recording of Bartók’s complete piano concertos. A pianist himself, Bartók imbued his three concertos with multiple aspects of his compositional ...
Composer: Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
John Corigliano: The Lord of Cries
A Tale of Ecstasy and Ruin: Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and Gil Rose present the world-premiere recording of The Lord of Cries, a breathtaking opera by John Corigliano and Mark Adamo. Telling the story of Euripides’s The Bacchae with the characters of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the piece explores the power of sexual desire ...
Composer: John Corigliano (1938)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
The Czech Philharmonic and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, continue their acclaimed Mahler cycle with the composer's First Symphony, one of the most evocative and colourful symphonic debuts in the history of the genre. Mahler once famously said that "a symphony should be like the world, it should encompass everything." ...
Composer: Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
Liszt: Piano Sonata & Transcendental Etudes
Pianist Francesco Piemontesi presents Franz Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes and Sonata in B Minor, two of the highest mountains to climb within the piano repertoire. The metaphor of climbing a mountain not only applies to the technical demands placed on the player, but also to the sublime nature of these works: colourful, poetic, lyrical, ...
Composer: Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
Rachmaninoff & Tchaikovsky: Romances
Star tenor Piotr Beczala presents a selection of romances by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, together with the acclaimed lied accompanist Helmut Deutsch. The romance was the most popular musical genre in nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century Russia, practised by professionals as well as amateurs. ...
Composer: Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
Schubert: Unfinished and Great Symphony
Multiple prize-winning conductor René Jacobs and the B'Rock Orchestra complete their Schubert cycle on Pentatone with the composer's two most famous symphonies, the Unfinished and Great. In his extensive liner notes, Jacobs develops a theory that the B Minor Symphony did not remain "unfinished", but was deliberately left unfinished, ...
Composer: Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
In Loving Memory of La Voce D’angelo: Melody Moore pays tribute to the legendary soprano Renata Tebaldi, presenting a selection of arias and scenes by Rossini, Verdi, Boito, Catalani, Puccini, Mascagni, Giordano, Cilea and Alessandro Scarlatti, documenting the most important stages in the ...
Composer: Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), Arrigo Boito (1842-1918), Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945), Umberto Giordano (1867-1948), Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893), Francesco Cilea (1866-1950), Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
Folk, Gypsy and Hungarian influences are very evident in these exuberant compositions. Appropriately, Lawrence Foster was decorated by the Romanian President for services to Romanian Music in 2003. This is a live performance by the Gulbenkian Orchestra. ...
Composer: Béla Bartók (1881–1945), Zoltan Kodály (1882-1967), György Ligeti (1923–2006)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
Schubert: 6 Moments musicaux & Piano Sonata
This is Martin Helmchen’s first solo recital album on PentaTone. His recording of Mozart Concertos received excellent reviews and his ever increasing amount of concert performances are securing this talented young pianists reputation. ...
Composer: Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
"All of these Mozart recordings featuring the remarkable young violinist Julia Fischer have been favorably reviewed on this site and elsewhere. Now Pentatone is issuing them in this boxed set that also includes a DVD of excerpts from recording sessions for Violin Concerto No. 2 and the Sinfonia Concertante. ...
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 –1791)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn & Symphony No. 1
A live recording from the Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, March 2007. "Well, rather than mincing my words and having to hold you in suspense while you read the entire paragraph, I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that this has become not only my favourite performance of the Haydn Variations, but I’m having a hard time thinking about any other performance of the Brahms 1st ...
Composer: Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
This remarkable album marks the recording debut of German violinist Julia Fischer as well as the beginning of her extraordinary partnership with Russian-born conductor Yakov Kreizberg, which would result in numerous PENTATONE releases before the conductor’s untimely death in 2011. Together they tackle three ...
Composer: Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978), Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
