Disc and Stream

DIGITAL REVIEW – Early-music ensemble Les Délices led by oboist Debra Nagy has put together an engaging album of secular cantatas by Rameau, Handel, and others sung with grace by soprano Hannah De Priest, plus Baroque sonatas.

DIGITAL REVIEW – On an album titled simply Prokofiev, British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason generously profiles the composer with a mix of genres including the Third Piano Concerto. But am I hearing Prokofiev or the virtuoso pianist?

DIGITAL REVIEW – The celebrated French pedagogue taught an amazing array of students. A new CD titled Nadia, by the Houston-based ensemble WindSync, explores music by Boulanger and composers who honed their craft with her.

DIGITAL REVIEW – The celebrated pianist known for his perfectionism died in 2022 at age 76, leaving behind many unreleased recordings. The revealed gems of this new six-disc set range from Mozart and Schubert to Pictures at an Exhibition.

DIGITAL REVIEW – Naxos' fine new release of Dvě vdovy (The Two Widows) offers an opportunity to get to know in modern sound a compelling romantic comedy by Bedřich Smetana, his last completed opera (1874) before deafness set in.

DIGITAL REVIEW – In his live recording of the Goldberg Variations at Carnegie Hall, Yunchan Lim lets a controlled Romanticism into the line, not as indulgence but as a way of allowing Bach's counterpoint to sing without ceasing to argue.

DIGITAL REVIEW – In three premiere recordings played by Freiburg-based Ensemble Aventure, the Mexican-born composer melds the musics of early Latin America with those of modern Europe, with a backdrop of cutting-edge electronics.

DIGITAL REVIEW – The album performed by The Crossing chamber choir captures Lang’s ability to blend minimalism with emotional resonance, drawing listeners to a place where recurring text and minimal harmony hold the allure of simplicity.

DIGITAL REVIEW – Pianist Samantha Ege's recording with the BBC Philharmonic dedicated to the impressive music of Avril Coleridge-Taylor (1903-1998) isn't so much a resurrection as it is the revealing of an important British composer.

DIGITAL REVIEW – The music of 19th-century German composer Ferdinand Hiller achieved success in his own time only to vanish later. Two symphonies, the early F minor and the mature E minor, have been revived on an impressive CD.

DIGITAL REVIEW – In its brief, albeit impressive, debut disc with conductor Thomas Søndergård, the Minnesota Orchestra pairs the 22-minute symphony, drawn from The Exterminating Angel, with the composer's still-shorter Violin Concerto.

DIGITAL REVIEW – Quebec’s Ensemble ArtChoral, led by founder Matthias Maute, is on a mission to record “the history of choral singing through six centuries.” The latest release features only works by Canadians. The composers are all women.

DIGITAL REVIEW – The French miniaturist is getting a burst of attention in 2025, the 100th anniversary of his death. New recordings include guitarist Xuefei Yang's Chapeau Satie and jazz vocalist Tessa Souter's Shadows and Silence.

DIGITAL REVIEW – While the name Herbert Howells may evoke sweeping works like Hymnus Paradisi and Missa Sabrinensis, conductor David Hill offers a more intimate perspective on the album Sine Nomine with the vocal ensemble Ikon.

DIGITAL REVIEW – One album shifts the spotlight from William Lawes' familiar instrumental works to his lesser known vocal music. Another, pairing a vocal sextet with a trumpet, traces an arc from the Middle Ages to recently commissioned pieces.

DIGITAL REVIEW – Can the lyrical art of Poulenc’s songs be captured instrumentally, sans the poetry of Anouilh, Apollinaire, and others? A new album by violinist Hongyi Mo and pianist John Etsell spins a string of answers in the exquisite affirmative.

DIGITAL REVIEW – Having recorded all of her symphonies, conductor John Jeter, a Price devotee, now embraces a rarely heard aspect of the composer's musical skill: her choral works. Three pieces are world-premiere recordings.

DIGITAL REVIEW – Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes' new recording, in part with the Norwegian Soloists' Choir, is a curious mix. To find immediate reward, I suggest jumping in late for his sublime account of Liszt's Six Pensées poétiques, or Consolations.

DIGITAL REVIEW – This account of Lalo's Le roi d'Ys, another enterprise of the historically meticulous foundation Bru Zane, boasts a fine cast featuring a Dutch soprano and an American mezzo-soprano long adept in French repertoire.

DIGITAL REVIEW – The Center for French Romantic Music has released the sixth in its Portraits series, this one a bundle of four discs and book offering five hours of fascinating works by the short-lived composer that are little known to music lovers.