New Piano Albums

Boris Giltburg:2025-02-08

Rachmaninov – Piano Sonatas, The Isle of the Dead

Rachmaninov often seems to have written only one piano sonata – that in B flat minor. The first Sonata, symphonic in scale and with great dramatic power, has remained severely underappreciated. The symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead was inspired by the eponymous painting by Arnold Böcklin. Boris Giltburg has revised Georgy Kirkor’s 1957 transcription, reinstating Rachmaninov’s complex three-layer writing.
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Dmitry Masleev:2025-02-03

DIES IRAE – Liszt, Rachmaninoff

On his fourth album, centered around the haunting Dies Irae theme, Dmitry Masleev leads the Svetlanov Orchestra from the piano. It opens with Liszt's Totentanz, which Masleev performed when winning the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition. The program continues with Rhapsodie espagnole (adapted for piano and string orchestra by Masleev's mentor Petukhov) and concludes with Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody.
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Seong-Jin Cho:2025-01-28

Ravel – Complete Solo Piano Works

2025 marks the tenth anniversary of Seong-Jin Cho’s first-prize victory in the Chopin Competition, and Maurice Ravel's 150th birthday anniversary. Cho celebrates with this recording of the composer's complete piano works, which he also performs in single recital programs, in chronological order and with two intermissions: a tour de force that few concert pianists have dared to attempt publicly.
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Kate Liu:2025-01-24

Beethoven Op. 110, Brahms Sonata No. 3

Since being awarded third prize in the Chopin Competition in 2015, Kate Liu has performed in many prestigious venues worldwide. In 2016, she released her debut album of Chopin works on the Fryderyk Chopin Institute label. For her debut with Orchid Classics, she has chosen to leave Chopin aside and record two great sonatas, one by the aged Beethoven and one by the young Brahms.
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David Kadouch:2025-01-19

Amours interdites

"I’ve lost count of the number of times I have had to talk about, or heard about, the love triangle between Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, or Beethoven’s ‘Immortal Beloved’... Today, I think it’s time to talk about other love stories". On Forbidden Loves, David Kadouch presents seven composers whose forbidden passions could not be expressed through any other means but their music.
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Bella Schütz:2025-01-15

Chiaroscuro – Bach, Chopin

On this album, we find the young Bach of the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue and the Toccatas, together with the late Chopin of the Fantaisie, the Barcarolle, and the final Nocturnes op. 62. "What fascinates me in these works born of fantasy and improvisation is the way in which they reveal the eternal conversation between light and darkness."
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Aimi Kobayashi:2025-01-08

Schubert – Sonata D.958,
Impromptus, Rondo

Aimi Kobayashi, a prizewinner at the 2021 International Chopin Piano Competition, plays an all-Schubert recital: the four Impromptus D935, the Sonata in C minor D958 and – with her fellow laureate and husband Kyohei Sorita – the four-hand Rondo in A major D951. Pieces written towards the end of Schubert's life, "when he was 30 or 31 years old…I thought it would be meaningful for me to play them at the same age that this composer of genius wrote them."
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Dina Stojilkoviic:2025-01-05

Granados – Goyescas

The six scenes in Granados Goyescas, some of them very extensive, are based on drawings by the great Spanish artist Francisco Jose de Goya. They form a cycle of great technical difficulties as well as picturesque and highly emotional expression. Dina Stojilkovic has recorded it on a Steinway B built in 1895, an instrument that Granados might well have had under his virtuoso fingers at the time.
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Duo Pleyel:2024-12-24

Yuletide Treats

Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya and Richard Egarr name themselves after the 1848 Pleyel they own. But the instrument on which they play here is a Chris Maene straight-strung concert grand.They have selected and arranged "some of the greatest classical Yuletide hits for your festive delight", such as Handel's Hallelujah chorus arranged by Czerny, and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite.
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Nobuyuki Tsujii:2024-12-19

Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 29, An die ferne Geliebte

Nobuyuki Tsujii shared the Gold medal in the Cliburn Piano Competition in 2009, and has become a national hero in Japan – through his pianism but also because of his tireless work for various charities. Menahem Pressler said: “I have the utmost admiration for Tsujii. God has taken his eyes, but given him the physical endowment and mental endowment to encompass the greatest works for piano."
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Alexander Soares:2024-12-14

Tippett, Beethoven, Knussen

"Tippett’s four piano sonatas hold an unusual position in the repertoire, comprising 100 minutes of highly inventive and totally idiosyncratic music", says Alexander Soares. On this album he places Tippett’s Second and Fourth Sonatas alongside Beethoven’s ‘Les Adieux’ Sonata, and Variations for Piano, op. 24 by one of Tippett’s great champions, Oliver Knussen.
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Mathias Halvorsen:2024-12-10

Ravel & Korngold – Piano Concertos for the left hand

Ravel’s and Korngold’s concertos for the left hand were both commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in World War I. Both stand out as some of the darkest and most dramatic works they ever composed, "possessing an intensity that feels almost unhinged at times", according to Mathias Halvorsen, who recorded the concertos live with conductor Otto Tausk and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.
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François Dumont:2024-12-05

Debussy – Clair de Lune

This recording is the first ever made on Debussy's own piano, a Blüthner that he acquired in 1904 and used for nearly fifteen years, until his death in 1918. François Dumont's encounter with this instrument was "a real aesthetic shock. All of a sudden I felt as though I were getting closer to a far-off sound-world; I felt that I had a living, vibrant instrument in my hands, certainly capricious but always warm and colourful."
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Abdel Rahman El Bacha:2024-12-02

Bach – Goldberg Variations,
Italian Concerto

Abdel Rahman el Bacha came to the world's attention in the mid-1970s, when he won the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition by unanimous decision of the judges. Since then he has appeared at the most prestigious concert halls and recorded a large part of the standard repertoire – Beethoven's 32 Sonatas, Bach's 48 Preludes and Fugues, and Chopin's complete works, just to mention some of it.
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Alessandro Simonetto:2024-11-28

Giya Kancheli – 33 Miniatures

Giya Kancheli, Georgia’s most famous composer, was born in Tbilisi in 1935 but lived in Western Europe from 1991 until his death in 2019. After studying piano and composition he followed a familiar path for composers in the Soviet era and wrote mostly for stage and film, which allowed him greater freedom. His music often unfolds quietly with a slow, measured pulse, punctuated by violent outbursts.
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Margherita Santi:2024-11-25

Fantasies – Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann

Margherita Santi's new album is a collection of Fantasies, through which we discover the history that changes between two centuries and witness the balance between creativity and form. "In each composer we find characteristics typical of the time in which he lived, others typical of the composer, and sometimes phrases, ideas, fragments, which seem to come out of time and space."
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Yoav Levanon:2024-11-19

Liszt – Piano Concertos 1 & 2, Totentanz

Yoav Levanon is only 20 years old but has already released two solo albums — his "A Monument for Beethoven" included a much-praised performance of Liszt's mighty Sonata in B minor. So it's only logical that his first album with orchestra features three concertante works by Liszt — the Concertos Nos 1 & 2 and the Totentanz.
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Sergei Redkin:2024-11-17

Prokofiev – Piano Sonatas 6 & 7

According to Sergei Redkin, the Sixth and Seventh Sonatas are "the brightest examples of Prokofiev’s genius: two symphonies for piano, two deeply tragic poems, two vivid documents of their time. I’ve been in love with this music since my school years; I hope this recording will help bring it to the attention of new listeners."
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Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu:2024-11-15

Tchaikovsky – The Seasons

Since winning the International Chopin Competition in 2021, Bruce Liu's life has changed completely: “I’ve gone from being a student to not having much time at home for a whole year, being constantly on tour. I find the ‘cosiness’ and ‘intimacy’ in this music give me a chance to stand back and reflect, because it is so much about private memories.”
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Peter Jablonski:2024-11-13

Ronald Stevenson – Piano Works

This album includes several world première recordings of works by the Scottish pianist-composer Ronald Stevenson, who wrote music in a variety of styles – often with direct reference to other composers or works, visible in titles like: Piccolo Niccolò Paganinesco, Little Jazz Variations on Purcell's New Scotch Tune, or Pensées sur des Préludes de Chopin.
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Khatia Buniatishvili:2024-11-11

Mozart – Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 23, "Sonata facile" K 545

Khatia Buniatishvili plays and directs two of Mozart most beloved concertos, No. 20 in D minor and No. 23 in A major, and rounds off with a performance of the "Sonata facile". In the booklet, she shares something that her piano teacher once said which has remained with her since: “Mozart’s music is smiley but there is always a hidden sadness in that smile. Like in your eyes.”
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Maurizio & Daniele Pollini:2024-11-10

Schubert

The great Maurizio Pollini, who passed away in March 2024, planned and recorded his last album together with his son Daniele. It showcases the three essential areas of Schubert’s music for piano – sonatas, short pieces, and works for four hands – exemplified by the Piano Sonata No. 18 (recorded by Maurizio), the Moments Musicaux (recorded by Daniele), and the four-hand Fantasia in F minor.
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Alexandre Tharaud:2024-11-08

BachTharaud

On his new album, Alexandre Tharaud makes a personal selection of J S Bach's music on the piano. Among the many works included, only a few were originally written for solo keyboard – most of the tracks are the pianist's own transcriptions of works for other solo instruments or for orchestra, and excerpts from the Passions.
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Edna Stern:2024-11-05

Carnaval

Edna Stern's Schumann portrait album features Carnaval Op. 9 and Kinderszenen Op. 15 but also Stern’s own first recorded composition, very much inspired by Schumann: "It is while reading a passage written by Schumann in his journal, that I got the idea to compose. Schumann believed that any pianist should put aside two of his ten fingers, and use them for the purpose of composing."
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