New Classical Tracks - Shai Wosner by Shai Wosner – Beethoven Diabelli Variations (Onyx Classics) “He was asked to provide one variation. And at first, according to the legend, he dismissed the whole project and decided, ‘This is beneath me. I don't need this, and I don't have time for this.’ I never quite bought that,” pianist Shai Wosner says about Ludwig van Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, which are featured on his latest release. Anton Diabelli was a...

New Classical Tracks - James Newton Howard by James Newton Howard – Night After Night (Sony Classical), featuring pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinist Hilary Hahn and cellist Maya Beiser “I've been so lucky,” composer James Newton Howard says. “I've done over 140 movies at this point. Things for television, record and producing. I’ve been so lucky to get all these ideas writing concert music. I may have checked all the boxes that go on a bucket list with music,...

New Classical Tracks - Awadagin Pratt by Awadagin Pratt/A Far Cry/Roomful of Teeth – Stillpoint (Art of the Piano) “When I'm talking to a non-musician, they often say, ‘Oh, you’ve played in Carnegie Hall, sure, that’s great.’ But the only time they say, ‘Oh, well, you must be something!’ is when they find out I’ve been on Sesame Street,” says pianist Awadagin Pratt. “It was fun. I did a skit with Big Bird about sharing the piano. He was pecking away at the...

New Classical Tracks - Plinio Fernandes (radio edit) by Plinio Fernandes - Bacheando (Decca) “For me, playing the guitar gives me a sense of identity, because it's something that I have been doing since I was very, very young,” guitarist Plinio Fernandes says. “I don't really remember my life that well before I was 6 or 7, which is when I started to play. Like brushing my teeth, drinking water, showering and breathing, I just have to play a couple of notes and...

Simone Menezes, Camila Provenzale and Philharmonic Zurich – Amazônia: Villa-Lobos - Glass (Alpha Classics) New Classical Tracks - Simone Menezes (radio edit) by “I think it's very funny that people think I am creative,” conductor Simone Menezes says. “I just I feel like the ideas are in the air and I just take them.” Menezes is a Brazilian conductor who is known for her creative approach. With her new recording, Amazônia, she says it was...

Ronn McFarlane and Carolyn Surrick: And So Flows the River (Flowerpot Productions) New Classical Tracks - Carolyn Surrick & Ronn McFarlane by “The music that we're doing is music that's really a part of us,” viola da gamba player Carolyn Surrick says. “It's like music inside of us, the way that the deciduous forest is inside of us, because this is where we're from.” Surrick and Ronn McFarlane have both lived in Maryland for most of their...

Conspirare – Miró Quartet/Craig Hella Johnson – House of Belonging (Delos) New Classical Tracks - Craig Hella Johnson by “It's exciting, isn't it? It's hard to believe,” says Craig Hella Johnson, the artistic director of Conspirare. “I don't know how to understand the passage of time like this because it feels like we just got started.” The vocal ensemble Conspirare was started 30 years ago in Austin, Texas, by Johnson, who was inspired by...

Rachel Barton Pine/Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Tito Muñoz – Dependent Arising (Cedille Records) New Classical Tracks - Rachel Barton Pine by “From age 10, when Santa Claus brought me my first transistor radio and I discovered all the other kinds of music out there on the airwaves, I was particularly drawn to metal,” violinist Rachel Barton Pine says. “It never occurred to me to play anything but classical on my own instrument. Actually,...

Clancy Newman and Natalie Zhu – From Method to Madness: The American Sound (Albany) New Classical Tracks - Clancy Newman and Natalie Zhu by “I just love to play with Clancy because he challenges my mind,” pianist Natalie Zhu says. “This program was Clancy's idea. When I tried to plan for my festival, I asked Clancy if we should play a cello recital together. I asked him, ‘What do you want to play?’ And he came up with this program. I said,...

Marc-André Hamelin – Fauré: Nocturnes and Barcarolles (Hyperion) New Classical Tracks - Mark-Andre Hamelin and Cathy Fuller by “The thing about him is that he's so honest and real and natural,” pianist and radio host Cathy Fuller says. “He never thinks about how he comes across so much as how the music gets to the other person, and you can even sense that in the way he converses. And that's one of the things that really struck me about...

Sphinx Virtuosi – Songs for Our Times (Deutsche Grammophon) New Classical Tracks - Andre Dowell, Sphinx Virtuosi by “My role with the organization as the chief of artist engagement is to really understand the talent that is out there and to be able to recruit the musicians who perform with the Sphinx Virtuosi,” Andre Dowell says. “Community engagement, in terms of how they are engaging their community, not just the youth, but also their...

Ashley Jackson and the Harlem Chamber Players – Ennanga (Bright Shiny Things) New Classical Tracks - Ashley Jackson by “I started thinking about this album in the summer of 2020. We were still living in Harlem, and the protests were happening just outside of our street,” harpist Ashley Jackson says, “And I really remember sitting and practicing and thinking, ‘What can I put on my music stand that's going to be able to speak to what's happening...

Michelle Cann – Revival: Music of Price and Bonds (Curtis Studio) New Classical Tracks - Michelle Cann by Pianist Michelle Cann has had a pretty incredible journey. Her path into the world of piano led her to the Cleveland Institute and the Curtis Institute of Music, which is where she teaches. In 2022, she was the recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence. Now, her journey goes down another life-changing path with the release of her debut...

Gabriel Olafs and Steiney Sigurðardóttir: Lullabies for Piano and Cello (Decca) New Classical Tracks - Gabriel Olafs by “When you write a pop song today, you want it to be catchy. But with folk music, you want it to be catchy for hundreds of years. You need it to survive. I really like that,” pianist Gabríel Ólafs says. “I thought that was intriguing. And I thought of this idea of challenging myself to write new ‘folk melodies’ or new...

Joshua Bell, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra and Tsung Yeh: Butterfly Lovers (Sony Classical) New Classical Tracks - Joshua Bell by Joshua Bell is a world-class violinist who has also been music director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields since 2011. With all his years of experience, it might be difficult to imagine insecurities creeping in on occasion. But that’s precisely what happened during the making of his latest recording,...

William Kanengiser and the Alexander String Quartet — British Invasion (Foghorn Classics) New Classical Tracks - William Kanengiser and Ian Krouse by “When I was in high school, I was in a rock band called Euphoria. We did all these covers. I had massive hair,” guitarist William Kanengiser says. “Even though I'm a classical guitarist, I have a background in rock, jazz, flamenco and world music. The whole vibe of this recording is something...

Hilary Hahn - Eugène Ysaÿe: Six Sonatas for Violin (Deutsche Grammophon) New Classical Tracks - Hilary Hahn by “This was my grand homage. And I really put so much love and time and energy and respect into the recording,” violinist Hilary Hahn says. “I really wanted to focus on that aspect, almost like giving a gift to a relative on their birthday. This is my gift to my musical grandfather on his hundredth birthday.” Hahn is talking about her...

Maya Beiser – InfInIte Bach: J.S. Bach’s Six Cello Suites (Islandia Music Records) New Classical Tracks - Maya Beiser by “I'll never forget. I think I was 10. My father said, ‘Maya, you have to decide: It's Carnegie Hall or Wimbledon,’” cellist Maya Beiser says, “And I remember telling him, ‘I don't think it's going to be Wimbledon, so why don't we do Carnegie Hall?’” Beiser did not disappoint her father. She has performed at Carnegie Hall...

Randall Goosby with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin — Max Bruch & Florence Price Violin Concertos (Decca) New Classical Tracks - Randall Goosby by “This whole season, since January, I've been performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto,” violinist Randall Goosby says. “I actually hadn't performed it with an orchestra prior to that. It's been a fun exploration of the piece from the stage.” He recently had a...

Lara Downes – Love at Last (PENTATONE) New Classical Tracks - Lara Downes by Love at Last is a new recording by pianist Lara Downes featuring music of healing and hope. The album contains music that came out of the darkest period of the global pandemic. Downes recalls hearing those years referred to as unprecedented times, but that’s not entirely accurate, she says. “When we are immersed as classical musicians in a tradition that goes back so...

Tessa Lark — The Stradgrass Sessions (First Hand Records) New Classical Tracks - Tessa Lark by “Smell is supposedly one of the strongest sensory responses to bring memories back. But for me, the sound of bluegrass may as well be the smell of bluegrass because it launches me back to a pure time and place every time I listen to it,” violinist Tessa Lark said about recording her latest album, The Stradgrass Sessions.  In this recording, she...

Osmo Vänskä/Minnesota Orchestra – Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (BIS) New Classical Tracks - Osmo Vanska by In the past few months, Osmo Vänskä has conducted from a wheelchair, a stool and now, finally, standing up after suffering a bad fall and shattering his pelvis. There’s a lot of metal keeping him going, he says, and that’s another reason he’s decided his motorcycling days are over. “I have decided to sell it, because I’m now 70, and I’ve had...

Mehmet Ali Sanlikol and A Far Cry — A Gentleman of Istanbul (Crier) New Classical Tracks - Mehmet Ali Sanlikol by Mehmet Ali Sanlikol is a Turkish American composer and multi-instrumentalist who grew up surrounded by Western classical piano music. Then, he discovered jazz. He moved to Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music. And today, he’s a professor at the New England Conservatory. His life-changing journey comes to light in his...

Brooklyn Rider — The Wanderer (Icy Cold Records) New Classical Tracks - Nicholas Cords by “We think of the string quartet as a laboratory and learning experience of which there is no end,” says Nicholas Cords the violist for Brooklyn Rider. “We've done so much over our nearly 20-year history, and I think it would be as interesting to us if we only stayed in the world of what we knew.” Cords says Brooklyn Rider is a string quartet that...

JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra — Danny Elfman: Violin Concerto 'Eleven Eleven' & Adolphus Hailstork: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Naxos) New Classical Tracks - JoAnn Falletta by “I've been doing a lot of American concertos and commissioning them for our players. I'd love to start a concert series of American concertos,” conductor JoAnn Falletta says. “What better way to start than with these two unbelievable pieces?” As...