Oct. 2: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Releases New Album 24 on Sony Masterworks – New Single Nine on Blue Out Today
Oct. 2: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Releases New Album 24 on Sony Masterworks – New Single Nine on Blue Out Today
PR Photo: Credit – Alex Lake (Download)
Pioneering Composer and Pianist
Alexis Ffrench
New Single: Nine on Blue
Out Today - Listen Here
Taken From Upcoming Album, 24
Worldwide Album Release Date: October 2, 2026
Pre-Save Here
New York, NY – Pioneering pianist, composer and chart-topping Classical Soul artist Alexis Ffrench has shared new single, Nine on Blue, out now from his forthcoming album 24 - listen here. The album set for release on October 2, 2026 and available for pre-save here.
Nine On Blue finds Alexis Ffrench stepping into a late‑night jazz trio, with piano, bass and drums in close conversation. Written for the 9pm chapter of his 24‑hour album, it weaves blue‑note harmony and rhythmic nods to David Brubeck and George Gershwin into an unmistakably Alexis Ffrench sound.
Formed of 24 meticulously crafted piano pieces and intended as a musical companion to the clockwork regularity of everyday life, 24 unveils as an intimate and immersive snapshot of a singular day.
Gently guiding listeners from dawn to dusk – through the quiet of early morning into the busy heart of day and on to the evening’s golden hour – 24 is woven from daydreams, memories of human connection and the desire for authenticity amongst an ever evolving and increasingly simulated digital age.
Made at legendary Provençal studio Miraval, owned by Brad Pitt and Damien Quintard, Ffrench recorded 24 during ten-days of near-total immersion on an array vintage of grand pianos, upright pianos and organs. Adding delicate ripples of percussion to the record’s kaleidoscopic sound, 24 also enlists a string ensemble featuring harp and upright bass.
Inspired in part by the many messages Ffrench has received from listeners throughout his career, 24 finds Ffrench reflecting on what his music means to those who find solace in it and the cherished moments it has served to soundtrack. He explains: “I wanted this album to reflect the everyday miracles in people’s lives.”
Throughout his career, Ffrench has asked one question above all others: “what do my listeners need from me?” Now, with 24, the answer is both simple and profound: music to live by.
2026 also marks the 20th anniversary of Ffrench’s seminal debut album Piano Diaries. With each piece evoking the pull of a series of intimate and reflective moments, the record fuses cinematic simplicity with an emotionally direct and highly accessible composition that welcomes all listeners to step directly into Ffrench’s intimate and atmospheric world.
One of the world’s most exciting artists, Alexis Ffrench has played a pivotal role in bringing instrumental music to an ever-increasing audience. His accolades speak for themselves, with well over 1 billion streams across his catalogue, multiple No.1 albums and Gold-selling status in the USA for his single “Bluebird.”
Whether he’s performing at the King’s Coronation Concert to an audience of over 18 million, scooping an ARIA Award for his Apple Music show Classical Connections, hosting brand-new Classic FM series “Music to Live By”, performing at major festivals and selling out venues worldwide, hosting masterclasses with schools & charitable organizations or putting his own spin on contemporary pop hits for his enthusiastic social media audience, Alexis is driven by the desire to make music accessible to all.
Refusing to be penned in by genre, time period or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be, and rather than leaning into the traditional understanding of the ‘classical’ genre, Alexis instead leans outward – with his expansive perspective drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes his listeners by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
With the new album acting as a timelessly enchanting musical journey through the in numerous possibilities held inside one singular day, 24 is the first studio album from Alexis Ffrench since 2024’s Classical Soul Vol. 1 – welcoming in a contemplative and captivating new dawn for the forerunner of contemporary classical music.
Alexis Ffrench - New Album 24 out October 2, 2026
Listen to Blackbird Rising and Blackbird Returning, and Pre-Save 24 here
About Alexis Ffrench
Alexis Ffrench is an artist with a special ability to create music for the soul. A pioneering superstar and trailblazer of ‘Classical Soul’, Alexis’ sound refuses to be penned in by genre, time period, or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be. Rather than leaning into the narrow, traditional understandings of ‘classical’, Alexis instead leans outward, expansive in his perspective, drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes the listener by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
Alexis’ accolades speak for themselves, as he has surpassed a staggering 1 billion streams across his catalogue, his record Evolution and his single ‘Bluebird’ achieved RIAA Gold status in the US.
A passionate advocate for music education, Alexis is the first-ever Artistic Director of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in its 133-year history. He is also Trustee and Governing Body Member and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and Honorary Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge. Alexis is an Ambassador for Restore The Music, who work with state schools to provide funding to buy musical instruments and ensure every young person has access to music.
Alexis Ffrench Socials
Website | Instagram | X | TikTok | YouTube
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.
Oct. 2: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Releases New Album 24 on Sony Masterworks – New Single Grateful Out Now
Oct. 2: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Releases New Album 24 on Sony Masterworks – New Single Grateful Out Now
PR Photo: Credit – Alex Lake (Download)
Pioneering Composer and Pianist
Alexis Ffrench
New Single: Grateful
Out Now - Listen Here
Taken From Upcoming Album, 24
Worldwide Album Release Date: October 2, 2026
Pre-Save Here
New York, NY – Pioneering pianist, composer and chart-topping Classical Soul artist Alexis Ffrench has shared new single, Grateful, out now from his forthcoming album 24 - listen here. The album set for release on October 2, 2026 and available for pre-save here.
Formed of 24 meticulously crafted piano pieces and intended as a musical companion to the clockwork regularity of everyday life, 24 unveils as an intimate and immersive snapshot of a singular day.
Gently guiding listeners from dawn to dusk – through the quiet of early morning into the busy heart of day and on to the evening’s golden hour – 24 is woven from daydreams, memories of human connection and the desire for authenticity amongst an ever evolving and increasingly simulated digital age.
Made at legendary Provençal studio Miraval, owned by Brad Pitt and Damien Quintard, Ffrench recorded 24 during ten-days of near-total immersion on an array vintage of grand pianos, upright pianos and organs. Adding delicate ripples of percussion to the record’s kaleidoscopic sound, 24 also enlists a string ensemble featuring harp and upright bass.
Inspired in part by the many messages Ffrench has received from listeners throughout his career, 24 finds Ffrench reflecting on what his music means to those who find solace in it and the cherished moments it has served to soundtrack. He explains: “I wanted this album to reflect the everyday miracles in people’s lives.”
Throughout his career, Ffrench has asked one question above all others: “what do my listeners need from me?” Now, with 24, the answer is both simple and profound: music to live by.
2026 also marks the 20th anniversary of Ffrench’s seminal debut album Piano Diaries. With each piece evoking the pull of a series of intimate and reflective moments, the record fuses cinematic simplicity with an emotionally direct and highly accessible composition that welcomes all listeners to step directly into Ffrench’s intimate and atmospheric world.
One of the world’s most exciting artists, Alexis Ffrench has played a pivotal role in bringing instrumental music to an ever-increasing audience. His accolades speak for themselves, with well over 1 billion streams across his catalogue, multiple No.1 albums and Gold-selling status in the USA for his single “Bluebird.”
Whether he’s performing at the King’s Coronation Concert to an audience of over 18 million, scooping an ARIA Award for his Apple Music show Classical Connections, hosting brand-new Classic FM series “Music to Live By”, performing at major festivals and selling out venues worldwide, hosting masterclasses with schools & charitable organizations or putting his own spin on contemporary pop hits for his enthusiastic social media audience, Alexis is driven by the desire to make music accessible to all.
Refusing to be penned in by genre, time period or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be, and rather than leaning into the traditional understanding of the ‘classical’ genre, Alexis instead leans outward – with his expansive perspective drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes his listeners by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
With the new album acting as a timelessly enchanting musical journey through the in numerous possibilities held inside one singular day, 24 is the first studio album from Alexis Ffrench since 2024’s Classical Soul Vol. 1 – welcoming in a contemplative and captivating new dawn for the forerunner of contemporary classical music.
Alexis Ffrench - New Album 24 out October 2, 2026
Listen to Blackbird Rising and Blackbird Returning, and Pre-Save 24 here
About Alexis Ffrench
Alexis Ffrench is an artist with a special ability to create music for the soul. A pioneering superstar and trailblazer of ‘Classical Soul’, Alexis’ sound refuses to be penned in by genre, time period, or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be. Rather than leaning into the narrow, traditional understandings of ‘classical’, Alexis instead leans outward, expansive in his perspective, drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes the listener by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
Alexis’ accolades speak for themselves, as he has surpassed a staggering 1 billion streams across his catalogue, his record Evolution and his single ‘Bluebird’ achieved RIAA Gold status in the US.
A passionate advocate for music education, Alexis is the first-ever Artistic Director of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in its 133-year history. He is also Trustee and Governing Body Member and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and Honorary Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge. Alexis is an Ambassador for Restore The Music, who work with state schools to provide funding to buy musical instruments and ensure every young person has access to music.
Alexis Ffrench Socials
Website | Instagram | X | TikTok | YouTube
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.
OUT TODAY: New Sony Classical Album by Pianist Arcadi Volodos Featuring the Music of Franz Schubert & Robert Schumann
OUT TODAY: New Sony Classical Album by Pianist Arcadi Volodos Featuring the Music of Franz Schubert & Robert Schumann
New Album by Pianist Arcadi Volodos
Out Today on Sony Classical
Schubert: Piano Sonata No.17 In D Major, D.850
Schumann: Kinderszenen Op.15
Kinderszenen, Op.15/I. Von fremden Ländern und Menschen
Out Today - Listen Here
Album Release Date: Out Today
A musician known for conjuring up magical sounds on the piano is back with a new release – out today. Seven years after his last album, the exceptionally gifted Arcadi Volodos releases a new and long-awaited Sony Classical album, recorded live at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. And again, he is devoting himself to the music of Franz Schubert as well as Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen. Kinderszenen, Op.15: XII. Kind im Einschlummern is out today – listen here.
“The great difficulty with Schubert”, says Volodos, “is the basic outline, the absolute transparency. It is in silence that the personality and the spirituality of the interpreter shine through.” For Volodos as an interpreter, it is here, in this world of stillness and half-tones, that his real work begins, since “this demands simplicity and depth”.
Volodos’s earlier Schubert recordings have included the great sonatas in G major (D 894, released in 2002) and in A major (D 959, first issued in 2019). He is now turning his attention to the D major Sonata D 850, a work sometimes known as the “Gastein” Sonata since Schubert composed it during the summer of 1825, when he was taking the waters at Bad Gastein to the south of Salzburg.
Arcadi Volodos draws particular attention to the “extreme sensibility” of Schubert’s music, which explains why he favours a freedom of approach that allows for flexible tempos.
“It is absurd to want to fix the tempo by means of a metronome,” he argues, because “music is a language, not an equation.” It is very much the many incomparable transition passages, the melodies and the gently changing harmonies that make Schubert’s music so unmistakably his own. And this is all the more true when they are performed by a pianist as exceptional as Arcadi Volodos.
The second work on his new album is Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen, a set of thirteen priceless miniatures for the piano, the best known of which is the famous “Träumerei”.
“I think that it is only when you grow older that you understand these pieces better and better,” says Volodos, referring obliquely to the fact that Schumann did not write them for children. What matters more, as Volodos explains, is “It is a question of rediscovering within oneself the child’s sense of wonderment, this pure and sincere understanding of a world that one spends an entire lifetime trying to rediscover.”
To that extent this recording of Kinderszenen seems like a summation of Volodos’s whole life as an artist: each piece is a little jewel that allows the piano to radiate with light and to shine in all its colours and nuances. One could argue that this profundity is accessible only to those artists who, like Volodos, have a relatively manageable repertory at their command, at least in terms of their public appearances. “I like it when the works come to life inside me and become a part of me.” The present recording attests to the truth of this comment in many different ways.
Arcadi Volodos was born in St. Petersburg and it was there, too, that he studied. He first became famous for his highly virtuosic piano arrangements of Romantic orchestral works but since his international breakthrough in the late 1990s he is now invariably numbered among the finest pianists currently before the public. He appears in all the leading concert halls and at festivals all over the world. His relatively few recordings have regularly garnered the most prestigious international awards.
Oct. 2: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Announces New Album 24 on Sony Masterworks – New Two-Track Bundle Out Today
Oct. 2: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Announces New Album 24 on Sony Masterworks – New Two-Track Bundle Out Today
PR Photo: Credit – Alex Lake (Download)
Pioneering Composer and Pianist
Alexis Ffrench
Shares New Two-Track Bundle
Blackbird Rising and Blackbird Returning
Out Today - Listen Here
Taken From Upcoming Album, 24
Worldwide Album Release Date: October 2, 2026
Pre-Save Here
New York, NY – May 1, 2026 – Today, pioneering pianist, composer and chart-topping Classical Soul artist Alexis Ffrench has shared Blackbird Rising / Blackbird Returning - listen here, a fluttering and thoughtful two-track release taken from his forthcoming album 24 set for release on October 2, 2026 and available for pre-save here.
A calming and contemplative duo of tracks that serve to bookend the day – from the first birdsong of morning to the blackbird’s final lullaby at dusk – Blackbird Rising / Blackbird Returning finds Ffrench artfully reconciling with one of the most distinctive threads in his work: birdsong. From 2018 hit Bluebird, which has been streamed over 200 million times globally and is Gold-certified in the US, to 2022’s Songbird and now to the blackbird, birds have circled his music throughout the span of his career.
Ffrench explains: “That sense of awe and wonder when you look at a bird in flight makes you feel that you’re part of this incredible Earth when we’re all connected.”
The new tracks also coincide with International Dawn Chorus Day on Sunday, May 3, 2026. A global celebration encouraging us to wake at sunrise to hear the “natural symphony” of Spring’s peak birdsong, the Dawn Chorus celebrates connection with nature and the notion that the beauty of the natural world can be appreciated from the most ordinary locations: whether from a garden, woodland or urban park.
Formed of 24 meticulously crafted piano pieces and intended as a musical companion to the clockwork regularity of everyday life, 24 unveils as an intimate and immersive snapshot of a singular day.
Gently guiding listeners from dawn to dusk – through the quiet of early morning into the busy heart of day and on to the evening’s golden hour – 24 is woven from daydreams, memories of human connection and the desire for authenticity amongst an ever evolving and increasingly simulated digital age.
Made at legendary Provençal studio Miraval, owned by Brad Pitt and Damien Quintard, Ffrench recorded 24 during ten-days of near-total immersion on an array vintage of grand pianos, upright pianos and organs. Adding delicate ripples of percussion to the record’s kaleidoscopic sound, 24 also enlists a string ensemble featuring harp and upright bass.
Inspired in part by the many messages Ffrench has received from listeners throughout his career, 24 finds Ffrench reflecting on what his music means to those who find solace in it and the cherished moments it has served to soundtrack. He explains: “I wanted this album to reflect the everyday miracles in people’s lives.”
Throughout his career, Ffrench has asked one question above all others: “what do my listeners need from me?” Now, with 24, the answer is both simple and profound: music to live by.
2026 also marks the 20th anniversary of Ffrench’s seminal debut album Piano Diaries. With each piece evoking the pull of a series of intimate and reflective moments, the record fuses cinematic simplicity with an emotionally direct and highly accessible composition that welcomes all listeners to step directly into Ffrench’s intimate and atmospheric world.
One of the world’s most exciting artists, Alexis Ffrench has played a pivotal role in bringing instrumental music to an ever-increasing audience. His accolades speak for themselves, with well over 1 billion streams across his catalogue, multiple No.1 albums and Gold-selling status in the USA for his single “Bluebird.”
Whether he’s performing at the King’s Coronation Concert to an audience of over 18 million, scooping an ARIA Award for his Apple Music show Classical Connections, hosting brand-new Classic FM series “Music to Live By”, performing at major festivals and selling out venues worldwide, hosting masterclasses with schools & charitable organizations or putting his own spin on contemporary pop hits for his enthusiastic social media audience, Alexis is driven by the desire to make music accessible to all.
Refusing to be penned in by genre, time period or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be, and rather than leaning into the traditional understanding of the ‘classical’ genre, Alexis instead leans outward – with his expansive perspective drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes his listeners by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
With the new album acting as a timelessly enchanting musical journey through the in numerous possibilities held inside one singular day, 24 is the first studio album from Alexis Ffrench since 2024’s Classical Soul Vol. 1 – welcoming in a contemplative and captivating new dawn for the forerunner of contemporary classical music.
Alexis Ffrench - New Album 24 out October 2, 2026
Listen to Blackbird Rising and Blackbird Returning, and Pre-Save 24 here
About Alexis Ffrench
Alexis Ffrench is an artist with a special ability to create music for the soul. A pioneering superstar and trailblazer of ‘Classical Soul’, Alexis’ sound refuses to be penned in by genre, time period, or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be. Rather than leaning into the narrow, traditional understandings of ‘classical’, Alexis instead leans outward, expansive in his perspective, drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes the listener by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
Alexis’ accolades speak for themselves, as he has surpassed a staggering 1 billion streams across his catalogue, his record Evolution and his single ‘Bluebird’ achieved RIAA Gold status in the US.
A passionate advocate for music education, Alexis is the first-ever Artistic Director of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in its 133-year history. He is also Trustee and Governing Body Member and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and Honorary Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge. Alexis is an Ambassador for Restore The Music, who work with state schools to provide funding to buy musical instruments and ensure every young person has access to music.
Alexis Ffrench Socials
Website | Instagram | X | TikTok | YouTube
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.
Oct. 2: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Announces: 24 – New Album on Sony Masterworks
Oct. 2: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Announces: 24 – New Album on Sony Masterworks
Alexis Ffrench Announces: 24
New Album on Sony Masterworks
Debut Single: Good Morning
Out Now - Listen Here
Available October 2, 2026 | Pre-Save Here
Pioneering pianist, composer, and chart-topping Classical Soul artist Alexis Ffrench announces his brand-new album 24, set for release on October 2, 2026, via Sony Music Masterworks. The new album is available for pre-save here. Accompanying the new album's announcement is the release of Ffrench's debut single, Good Morning, which is out now - listen here.
Formed of 24 meticulously crafted piano pieces and intended as a musical companion to the clockwork regularity of everyday life, 24 reveals as an intimate and immersive snapshot of a singular day. See full track listing below.
Gently guiding listeners from dawn to dusk - through the quiet of early morning into the busy heart of day and on to the evening’s golden hour – 24 is woven from daydreams, memories of human connection and the desire for authenticity amongst an ever-evolving and increasingly simulated digital age.
Made at legendary Provençal studio Miraval, owned by Brad Pitt and Damien Quintard, Ffrench recorded 24 during ten days of near-total immersion on an array of vintage grand pianos, upright pianos, and organs. Adding delicate ripples of percussion to the record’s kaleidoscopic sound, 24 also enlists a string ensemble featuring harp and upright bass.
Inspired in part by the many messages Ffrench has received from listeners throughout his career, 24 finds Ffrench reflecting on what his music means to those who find solace in it and the cherished moments it has served to soundtrack. He explains: “I wanted this album to reflect the everyday miracles in people’s lives.”
Throughout his career, Ffrench has asked one question above all others: “What do my listeners need from me?” Now, with 24, the answer is both simple and profound: music to live by.
Arriving as an instant warm embrace and a simple promise of things to come, new single “Good Morning” opens a window to the new world Ffrench has built. An invitation to greet the day, whatever it might bring, the piece was inspired by a close friend’s routine of articulating out loud the things he is grateful for. Carrying with it that same spirit of thankfulness in the face of the everyday, Ffrench describes “Good Morning” as “a burst of positivity at the start of the day.”
One of the world’s most exciting artists, Alexis Ffrench has played a pivotal role in bringing instrumental music to an ever-increasing audience. His accolades speak for themselves, with well over 1 billion streams across his catalogue, multiple No.1 albums, and RIAA Gold in the USA for his single “Bluebird.”
Whether he’s performing at the King’s Coronation Concert to an audience of over 18 million, hosting his ARIA Award-winning Apple Music show Classical Connections, performing at major festivals and selling out venues worldwide, hosting with schools & charitable organisations, or putting his own spin on contemporary pop hits for his enthusiastic social media audience, Alexis is driven by the desire to make music accessible to all.
Refusing to be pinned by genre, time period or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be, and rather than leaning into the traditional understanding of the ‘classical’ genre, Alexis instead leans outward– with his expansive perspective drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes his listeners by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
With the new album acting as a timelessly enchanting musical journey through the various possibilities held within one singular day, 24 is the first studio album from Alexis Ffrench since 2024’s Classical Soul Vol. 1 – welcoming in a contemplative and captivating new dawn for the forerunner of contemporary classical music.
Alexis Ffrench - New Album 24 Out October 2, 2026
Listen to Good Morning & Pre-Save Here
24 TRACKLISTING
1. Good Morning
2. Where The Sunrise Finds Me
3. Blackbird Rising
4. Coffee Song
5. Lifted
6. A Moment Of Calm
7. Daydreamer
8. A Friend In You
9. In Flight
10. This Life, This Moment
11. Passing Time
12. Stolen Whispers
13. My Life, In Motion
14. Grateful
15. Nightfall
16. Blackbird Returning
17. Nine On Blue
18. City Lights
19. Golden Hours
20. Midnight Dreamer
21. Coffee Dreams (Reprise)
22. Low
23. Dreaming In Slow Motion
24. Before The World Sings
About Alexis Ffrench
Alexis Ffrench is an artist with a special ability to create music for the soul. A pioneering superstar and trailblazer of ‘Classical Soul’, Alexis’ sound refuses to be penned in by genre, time period, or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be. Rather than leaning into the narrow, traditional understandings of ‘classical’, Alexis instead leans outward, expansive in his perspective, drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes the listener by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
Alexis’ accolades speak for themselves, as he has surpassed a staggering 1 billion streams across his catalogue, his record Evolution and his single ‘Bluebird’ achieved RIAA Gold status in the US.
A passionate advocate for music education, Alexis is the first-ever Artistic Director of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in its 133-year history. He is also Trustee and Governing Body Member and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and Honorary Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge. Alexis is an Ambassador for Restore The Music, who work with state schools to provide funding to buy musical instruments and ensure every young person has access to music.
Alexis Ffrench Socials
Website | Instagram | X | TikTok | YouTube
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.
May 1: New Sony Classical Album by Pianist Arcadi Volodos Featuring the Music of Franz Schubert & Robert Schumann - Latest Single Out Today
May 1: New Sony Classical Album by Pianist Arcadi Volodos Featuring the Music of Franz Schubert & Robert Schumann - Latest Single Out Today
New Sony Classical Album by Pianist Arcadi Volodos
Schubert: Piano Sonata No.17 In D Major, D.850
Schumann: Kinderszenen Op.15
Kinderszenen, Op.15/I. Von fremden Ländern und Menschen
Out Today - Listen Here
Album Release Date: May 1, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now
A musician known for conjuring up magical sounds on the piano is back. Seven years after his last album, the exceptionally gifted Arcadi Volodos is releasing a new and long-awaited Sony Classical album on May 1, 2026, recorded live at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. And again, he is devoting himself to the music of Franz Schubert as well as Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen. New single Kinderszenen, Op.15/I. Von fremden Ländern und Menschen is out today – listen here.
“The great difficulty with Schubert”, says Volodos, “is the basic outline, the absolute transparency. It is in silence that the personality and the spirituality of the interpreter shine through.” For Volodos as an interpreter, it is here, in this world of stillness and half-tones, that his real work begins, since “this demands simplicity and depth”.
Volodos’s earlier Schubert recordings have included the great sonatas in G major (D 894, released in 2002) and in A major (D 959, first issued in 2019). He is now turning his attention to the D major Sonata D 850, a work sometimes known as the “Gastein” Sonata since Schubert composed it during the summer of 1825, when he was taking the waters at Bad Gastein to the south of Salzburg.
Arcadi Volodos draws particular attention to the “extreme sensibility” of Schubert’s music, which explains why he favours a freedom of approach that allows for flexible tempos.
“It is absurd to want to fix the tempo by means of a metronome,” he argues, because “music is a language, not an equation.” It is very much the many incomparable transition passages, the melodies and the gently changing harmonies that make Schubert’s music so unmistakably his own. And this is all the more true when they are performed by a pianist as exceptional as Arcadi Volodos.
The second work on his new album is Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen, a set of thirteen priceless miniatures for the piano, the best known of which is the famous “Träumerei”.
“I think that it is only when you grow older that you understand these pieces better and better,” says Volodos, referring obliquely to the fact that Schumann did not write them for children. What matters more, as Volodos explains, is “It is a question of rediscovering within oneself the child’s sense of wonderment, this pure and sincere understanding of a world that one spends an entire lifetime trying to rediscover.”
To that extent this recording of Kinderszenen seems like a summation of Volodos’s whole life as an artist: each piece is a little jewel that allows the piano to radiate with light and to shine in all its colours and nuances. One could argue that this profundity is accessible only to those artists who, like Volodos, have a relatively manageable repertory at their command, at least in terms of their public appearances. “I like it when the works come to life inside me and become a part of me.” The present recording attests to the truth of this comment in many different ways.
Arcadi Volodos was born in St Petersburg and it was there, too, that he studied. He first became famous for his highly virtuosic piano arrangements of Romantic orchestral works but since his international breakthrough in the late 1990s he is now invariably numbered among the finest pianists currently before the public. He appears in all the leading concert halls and at festivals all over the world. His relatively few recordings have regularly garnered the most prestigious international awards.
OUT TODAY: Jonas Kaufmann Releases Magische Töne – New Album on Sony Classical
OUT TODAY: Jonas Kaufmann Releases Magische Töne – New Album on Sony Classical
Jonas Kaufmann
Releases New Operetta Album on Sony Classical
Magische Töne - Out Today
Listen Here
Album Release Date: April 10, 2026
Available Now
Jonas Kaufmann’s new Sony Classical album, Magische Töne (Magical Sounds), which is out today – listen here – features some of the most beautiful operetta and opera melodies. In addition to perennial favourites by Emmerich Kálmán, Franz Lehár, and Paul Abraham, the album also includes one of the most popular arias in the tenor repertoire: the eponymous Magische Töne from Karl Goldmark's opera Die Königin von Saba (The Queen of Sheba).
First Vienna, now Budapest: this is where Jonas Kaufmann recorded his new album with the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, conducted by Dirk Kaftan. The album focuses on highlights by composers from the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918), including perennial favourites from the operettas of Emmerich (Imre) Kálmán, Franz (Ferenc) Lehár, and Paul (Pál) Abraham.
According to Kaufmann, “this era produced an incredible wealth of music. In retrospect, it is fortunate that the majority of these works were premiered in Vienna and written in German, because that meant they quickly achieved international success.”
Had they used the Hungarian language, these works would probably have remained a national art form – like the operettas of Jenő Huszka (1875–1960), which, despite their quality, were rarely performed outside Hungary. For this album, Kaufmann has chosen one of Huszka’s “best known” pieces: Bob’s entrance aria from the operetta Bob herceg (Prince Bob).
“There, the whole world is still red, white, and green” – these are the final words of the duet Komm mit nach Varasdin (Come with me to Varasdin) from Kálmán’s Gräfin Mariza (Countess Maritza). Of course, the colors of the Hungarian flag are just as clearly audible in the music as they are in the lyrics, and thus represent an element of national identity. But this second heyday of operetta also represents the melancholic memory of a liberal, cosmopolitan, and culturally diverse Europe that perished with the First World War, and which Stefan Zweig described so vividly in his memoir Die Welt von gestern (The World of Yesterday). Jonas Kaufmann's duet partner is Nikola Hillebrand, currently one of the most “sought-after” sopranos of her generation.
For Dirk Kaftan, the conductor featured on the album, the recordings were a welcome reunion with a genre he had studied thoroughly during his time as general music director in Graz: “Above all, one must develop an understanding for a musical language that cannot be captured in notation. Gustav Mahler’s famous statement is particularly applicable to this repertoire: ‘The most important things are not written in the score!’ This is also why I found the recording sessions with the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra so rewarding: these musicians know exactly what it is all about and how to bring it to life.”
Kaftan sees a clear parallel between the innovative style of Paul Ábrahám, who enriched the genre with elements of jazz, foxtrot, and revue, and the works of Kurt Weill: both represent “a means of expression for a future that was destroyed by the Nazis.”
Two opera arias round off the new album: Hazám, hazám (My Homeland) from Ferenc Erkel’s opera Bánk bán – a passionate declaration of love for the Hungarian homeland – and Magische Töne, the famous aria from Karl (Károly) Goldmark’s Die Königin von Saba. These sounds become magical when the singer knows how to produce delicate, intimate pianissimo sounds in a high register – something that Jonas Kaufmann finds particularly enticing: “Someone once said to me: ‘Your loud notes are thrilling, but your soft ones drive me crazy.’ Dramatic sounds probably have more of an effect on the listener’s body and nervous system, while soft ones affect the heart and soul.”
Magische Töne with Jonas Kaufmann, the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, conductor Dirk Kaftan, and soprano Nikola Hillebrand will be released digitally and on CD by Sony Classical on April 10, 2026.
Magische Töne Repertoire
Imre Kálmán (1882–1953): Komm Zigány [Gräfin Mariza, Act 1]
Imre Kálmán (1882–1953): Ich bitte, nicht lachen … Komm mit nach Varasdin! [Gräfin Mariza, Act 1, Duett] (mit Nikola Hillebrand, Sopran)
Imre Kálmán (1882–1953): Mondd meg, hogy imádom a pesti nőket (Grüß mir mein Wien) [Gräfin Mariza, Act 1]
Imre Kálmán (1882–1953): Holdes, berauschendes Bild … Liebe singt ihr Zauberlied [Kaiserin Josephine, Act 1, No. 4]
Imre Kálmán (1882–1953): Tanzen möcht’ ich … Tausend kleine Engel singen [Die Csárdásfürstin, Act 2, Duett] (mit Nikola Hillebrand, Sopran)
Imre Kálmán (1882–1953): So verliebt kann ein Ungar nur sein (Tief wie der Bergsee) [Der Teufelsreiter, Act 1, No. 2]
Ferenc Lehár (1870–1948): Allein! Wieder allein! (Es steht ein Soldat am Wolgastrand) [Der Zarewitsch, Act 1]
Ferenc Lehár (1870–1948): O Mädchen, mein Mädchen… [Friederike, Act 2]
Ferenc Lehár (1870–1948): Ich trete ins Zimmer … Immer nur lächeln [Das Land des Lächelns, Act 1]
Ferenc Lehár (1870–1948): Wer hat die Liebe uns ins Herz gesenkt [Das Land des Lächelns, Act 2, Duett] (mit Nikola Hillebrand, Sopran)
Ferenc Lehár (1870–1948): Schön wie die blaue Sommernacht [Giuditta, Act 2, Duett] (mit Nikola Hillebrand, Sopran)
Pál Ábrahám (1892–1960): Ein Paradies am Meeresstrand [Die Blume von Hawaii, Act 1]
Pál Ábrahám (1892–1960): Will Dir die Welt zu Füßen legen [Die Blume von Hawaii, Act 1]
Pál Ábrahám (1892–1960): Pardon Madame [Viktoria und ihr Husar, Act 1]
Pál Ábrahám (1892–1960): Nur ein Mädel gibt es auf der Welt [Viktoria und ihr Husar, Act 1]
Pál Ábrahám (1892–1960): Sing-Sing [Julia]
Pál Ábrahám (1892–1960): Der schönste Gedanke [Zigeuner der Nacht]
Fred Raymond (1900–1954): Die Juliska, die Juliska aus Buda-, Budapest [Maske in Blau, Drittes Bild, Nr. 11, Duett] (mit Nikola Hillebrand, Sopran)
Nico Dostal (1895–1981): Frag nur dein Herz, was Liebe ist [Die ungarische Hochzeit, Act 1, Duett] (mit Nikola Hillebrand, Sopran)
Jenő Huszka (1875–1960): Londonban hej! (Bob belépője) [Bob herceg, Act 1, No. 3]
Ferenc Erkel (1810–1893): Mint számûzött ki vándorol … Hazám, hazám [Bánk bán, Act 2]
Karl Goldmark (1830–1915): Magische Töne, berauschender Duft [Die Königin von Saba, Op. 27, Act 2]
Magische Töne Live Tour Dates
11.04. Hamburg, Laeiszhalle
15.04. München, Isarphilharmonie
18.04. Nürnberg, Meistersingerhalle
20.04. Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
22.04. Wien, Konzerthaus
24.04. Budapest, MüPa
26.04. Hannover, Kuppelsaal
28.04. Essen, Philharmonie
30.04. Freiburg, Konzerthaus
03.05. Stuttgart, Liederhalle
05.05. Luzern, KKL
07.05. Mannheim, Rosengarten / Mozartsaal
09.05. Frankfurt, Alte Oper
Tickets and information: jonaskaufmann.com
OUT TODAY: Anna Lapwood Returns with New Sony Classical Album Arise, Shine – Featuring The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge
OUT TODAY: Anna Lapwood Returns with New Sony Classical Album Arise, Shine – Featuring The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Anna Lapwood Returns with New Sony Classical Choral Album
Arise, Shine
Featuring The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Out Today - Listen Here
Following a stellar 2025, sensational musician Anna Lapwood starts 2026 with the announcement of her brand-new choral album, Arise, Shine – pre-order here. This new recording follows her 2025 chart topping album, Firedove, and sees Anna conducting her beloved Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge for the very last time.
Arise, Shine will be released on Friday, March 6, 2026 on Sony Classical and comes at a pivotal moment in Anna’s career, marking the conclusion of her tenure as Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, a role she held for nine years until the end of the summer term in 2025. The album is a deeply personal project, highlighting Anna’s close connection to The Pembroke College Chapel Choir and her committed mentoring of the students. The album features a rich and varied programme, including two original compositions by Anna – Arise, Shine and An Irish Blessing – written in response to special people and key moments during her time with Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Of the album, Anna notes:
“As I was preparing to leave Pembroke, I felt it was really important to do one final album with the Chapel Choir to mark their incredible hard work over the course of the last nine years. The choir has grown so much in that time - both in size but also in ambition and identity, and I have learned so much from working with these singers. I wanted to curate an album that felt like it summed up just a little of what makes Pembroke unique, pairing traditional repertoire with modern reinterpretations, and showcasing music written by young composers from within Pembroke Choir and beyond. It feels particularly special to include a piece written by Maryam Giraud who was one of my first girl choristers when I set up the Girls’ Choir, and who is now an undergraduate at the College. Her piece sets a text written by Cassidy McKinlay, one of our other altos, and it’s this kind of creative teamwork that I feel sums up Pembroke so beautifully. This is an album that is all about the unique warmth of making music with friends and being able to share that experience with others”.
The track list reflects Anna’s fascination with contrasting interpretations of sacred texts, pairing works such as Ubi Caritas by Maurice Duruflé and Ola Gjeilo, and O Sacrum Convivium by Olivier Messiaen and Lucy Walker. Walker, a former alto in the choir who knows its sound inside out, has become its most-performed living composer and contributes several works to the album. Other Pembroke highlights include Rain, a joint project between two more Chapel Choir altos where Maryam Giraud sets a text written by her fellow chorister, Cassidy McKinlay. Giraud’s journey from a young singer in the Girls’ Choir, founded in 2018, to composer on this album is a testament to Anna’s commitment to nurturing talent and creating opportunities for women and girls in music. The album also features Abide With Me by Maggie Kaposamweo, a young composer living in Zambia. Anna set up an online mentoring scheme for Maggie with Lucy Walker, and the commission fee for this composition helped fund Maggie’s music studies at the University of Lusaka, Zambia.
2025 was an extraordinary year for Anna Lapwood. Her album Firedove soared to No.1 on the Official Classical Artist Album Chart. She became the Royal Albert Hall’s first-ever Official Organist, premiered Max Richter’s new concerto Cosmology alongside Kristina Arakelyan’s Toccata and captivated audiences with her all-night BBC Proms event From Dark Till Dawn. International acclaim continued to grow with a landmark performance in Cologne, Germany, drawing a crowd of 13,000 people, forming a one-mile queue around the city.
Beyond the concert hall, Anna’s infectious enthusiasm for music has reached new audiences and she has achieved some remarkable milestones, including an appearance at New York Fashion Week, being featured on the Sunday Times Power List, and even giving Hollywood icon Tom Cruise an impromptu organ lesson. She rounded off 2025 with a sold-out nationwide tour ‘Christmas with Anna Lapwood’ and a Royal Albert Hall headline Christmas show.
ARISE, SHINE : TRACKLISTING:
1. Arise, Shine
Composer: Anna Lapwood
2. Adoro Te Devote
Composer: Cecilia Mcdowall
Lyricist: Saint Thomas Aquinas
3. Miserere
Composer: Gregorio Allegri
4. Regina Caeli
Composer: Lise Borel
5. Rain
Composer: Maryam Giraud
Lyricist: Cassidy Mckinlay
6. Ubi Caritas
Composer: Maurice Duruflé
7. Silent Night
Composer: Franz Xaver Gruber
8. The Lord’s Prayer
Composer: Lucy Walker
9. O Sacrum Convivium
Composer: Olivier Messiaen
Lyricist: Saint Thomas Aquinas
10. Ubi Caritas
Composer: Ola Gjeilo
11. A Hymn For St Cecilia
Composer: Lucy Walker
Lyricist: Ursula Vaughan Williams
12. Abide With Me
Composer: Maggie Kaposamweo
Lyricist: Maggie Kaposamweo & Henry Francis Lyte
13. O Sacrum Convivium
Composer: Lucy Walker
Lyricist: Saint Thomas Aquinas
14. An Irish Blessing
Composer: Anna Lapwood
15. Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Composer: Harold Arlen
Lyricist: Yip Harburg
Visit: www.annalapwood.co.uk
May 1: New Sony Classical Album by Pianist Arcadi Volodos Featuring the Music of Franz Schubert & Robert Schumann - New Single Out Today
May 1: New Sony Classical Album by Pianist Arcadi Volodos Featuring the Music of Franz Schubert & Robert Schumann - New Single Out Today
New Sony Classical Album by Pianist Arcadi Volodos
Schubert: Piano Sonata No.17 In D Major, D.850
Schumann: Kinderszenen Op.15
Kinderszenen, Op.15/VII. Träumerei
Out Today - Listen Here
Album Release Date: May 1, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now
A musician known for conjuring up magical sounds on the piano is back. Seven years after his last album, the exceptionally gifted Arcadi Volodos is releasing a new and long-awaited Sony Classical album on May 1, 2026, recorded live at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. And again, he is devoting himself to the music of Franz Schubert as well as Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen. Accompanying today’s announcement is the first single, Kinderszenen, Op.15/VII. Träumerei - listen here.
“The great difficulty with Schubert”, says Volodos, “is the basic outline, the absolute transparency. It is in silence that the personality and the spirituality of the interpreter shine through.” For Volodos as an interpreter, it is here, in this world of stillness and half-tones, that his real work begins, since “this demands simplicity and depth”.
Volodos’s earlier Schubert recordings have included the great sonatas in G major (D 894, released in 2002) and in A major (D 959, first issued in 2019). He is now turning his attention to the D major Sonata D 850, a work sometimes known as the “Gastein” Sonata since Schubert composed it during the summer of 1825, when he was taking the waters at Bad Gastein to the south of Salzburg.
Arcadi Volodos draws particular attention to the “extreme sensibility” of Schubert’s music, which explains why he favours a freedom of approach that allows for flexible tempos.
“It is absurd to want to fix the tempo by means of a metronome,” he argues, because “music is a language, not an equation.” It is very much the many incomparable transition passages, the melodies and the gently changing harmonies that make Schubert’s music so unmistakably his own. And this is all the more true when they are performed by a pianist as exceptional as Arcadi Volodos.
The second work on his new album is Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen, a set of thirteen priceless miniatures for the piano, the best known of which is the famous “Träumerei”.
“I think that it is only when you grow older that you understand these pieces better and better,” says Volodos, referring obliquely to the fact that Schumann did not write them for children. What matters more, as Volodos explains, is “It is a question of rediscovering within oneself the child’s sense of wonderment, this pure and sincere understanding of a world that one spends an entire lifetime trying to rediscover.”
To that extent this recording of Kinderszenen seems like a summation of Volodos’s whole life as an artist: each piece is a little jewel that allows the piano to radiate with light and to shine in all its colours and nuances. One could argue that this profundity is accessible only to those artists who, like Volodos, have a relatively manageable repertory at their command, at least in terms of their public appearances. “I like it when the works come to life inside me and become a part of me.” The present recording attests to the truth of this comment in many different ways.
Arcadi Volodos was born in St Petersburg and it was there, too, that he studied. He first became famous for his highly virtuosic piano arrangements of Romantic orchestral works but since his international breakthrough in the late 1990s he is now invariably numbered among the finest pianists currently before the public. He appears in all the leading concert halls and at festivals all over the world. His relatively few recordings have regularly garnered the most prestigious international awards.
April 10: Jonas Kaufmann Announces New Sony Classical Album Magische Töne – Title Track Out Today
April 10: Jonas Kaufmann Announces New Sony Classical Album Magische Töne – Title Track Out Today
Jonas Kaufmann
Announces New Operetta Album on Sony Classical
Magische Töne
Title Track Out Today - Listen Here
Album Release Date: April 10, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now
Jonas Kaufmann’s new Sony Classical album, Magische Töne (Magical Sounds), features some of the most beautiful operetta and opera melodies. In addition to perennial favourites by Emmerich Kálmán, Franz Lehár, and Paul Abraham, the album also includes one of the most popular arias in the tenor repertoire: the eponymous Magische Töne from Karl Goldmark's opera Die Königin von Saba (The Queen of Sheba), which is out today – listen here. Pre-order is available now.
First Vienna, now Budapest: this is where Jonas Kaufmann recorded his new album with the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, conducted by Dirk Kaftan. The album focuses on highlights by composers from the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918), including perennial favourites from the operettas of Emmerich (Imre) Kálmán, Franz (Ferenc) Lehár, and Paul (Pál) Abraham.
According to Kaufmann, “this era produced an incredible wealth of music. In retrospect, it is fortunate that the majority of these works were premiered in Vienna and written in German, because that meant they quickly achieved international success.”
Had they used the Hungarian language, these works would probably have remained a national art form – like the operettas of Jenő Huszka (1875–1960), which, despite their quality, were rarely performed outside Hungary. For this album, Kaufmann has chosen one of Huszka’s “best known” pieces: Bob’s entrance aria from the operetta Bob herceg (Prince Bob).
“There, the whole world is still red, white, and green” – these are the final words of the duet Komm mit nach Varasdin (Come with me to Varasdin) from Kálmán’s Gräfin Mariza (Countess Maritza). Of course, the colors of the Hungarian flag are just as clearly audible in the music as they are in the lyrics, and thus represent an element of national identity. But this second heyday of operetta also represents the melancholic memory of a liberal, cosmopolitan, and culturally diverse Europe that perished with the First World War, and which Stefan Zweig described so vividly in his memoir Die Welt von gestern (The World of Yesterday). Jonas Kaufmann's duet partner is Nikola Hillebrand, currently one of the most “sought-after” sopranos of her generation.
For Dirk Kaftan, the conductor featured on the album, the recordings were a welcome reunion with a genre he had studied thoroughly during his time as general music director in Graz: “Above all, one must develop an understanding for a musical language that cannot be captured in notation. Gustav Mahler’s famous statement is particularly applicable to this repertoire: ‘The most important things are not written in the score!’ This is also why I found the recording sessions with the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra so rewarding: these musicians know exactly what it is all about and how to bring it to life.”
Kaftan sees a clear parallel between the innovative style of Paul Ábrahám, who enriched the genre with elements of jazz, foxtrot, and revue, and the works of Kurt Weill: both represent “a means of expression for a future that was destroyed by the Nazis.”
Two opera arias round off the new album: Hazám, hazám (My Homeland) from Ferenc Erkel’s opera Bánk bán – a passionate declaration of love for the Hungarian homeland – and Magische Töne, the famous aria from Karl (Károly) Goldmark’s Die Königin von Saba. These sounds become magical when the singer knows how to produce delicate, intimate pianissimo sounds in a high register – something that Jonas Kaufmann finds particularly enticing: “Someone once said to me: ‘Your loud notes are thrilling, but your soft ones drive me crazy.’ Dramatic sounds probably have more of an effect on the listener’s body and nervous system, while soft ones affect the heart and soul.”
Magische Töne with Jonas Kaufmann, the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, conductor Dirk Kaftan, and soprano Nikola Hillebrand will be released digitally and on CD by Sony Classical on April 10, 2026.
Magische Töne Repertoire
Imre Kálmán (1882–1953): Komm Zigány [Gräfin Mariza, Act 1]
Imre Kálmán (1882–1953): Ich bitte, nicht lachen … Komm mit nach Varasdin! [Gräfin Mariza, Act 1, Duett] (mit Nikola Hillebrand, Sopran)
Imre Kálmán (1882–1953): Mondd meg, hogy imádom a pesti nőket (Grüß mir mein Wien) [Gräfin Mariza, Act 1]
Imre Kálmán (1882–1953): Holdes, berauschendes Bild … Liebe singt ihr Zauberlied [Kaiserin Josephine, Act 1, No. 4]
Imre Kálmán (1882–1953): Tanzen möcht’ ich … Tausend kleine Engel singen [Die Csárdásfürstin, Act 2, Duett] (mit Nikola Hillebrand, Sopran)
Imre Kálmán (1882–1953): So verliebt kann ein Ungar nur sein (Tief wie der Bergsee) [Der Teufelsreiter, Act 1, No. 2]
Ferenc Lehár (1870–1948): Allein! Wieder allein! (Es steht ein Soldat am Wolgastrand) [Der Zarewitsch, Act 1]
Ferenc Lehár (1870–1948): O Mädchen, mein Mädchen… [Friederike, Act 2]
Ferenc Lehár (1870–1948): Ich trete ins Zimmer … Immer nur lächeln [Das Land des Lächelns, Act 1]
Ferenc Lehár (1870–1948): Wer hat die Liebe uns ins Herz gesenkt [Das Land des Lächelns, Act 2, Duett] (mit Nikola Hillebrand, Sopran)
Ferenc Lehár (1870–1948): Schön wie die blaue Sommernacht [Giuditta, Act 2, Duett] (mit Nikola Hillebrand, Sopran)
Pál Ábrahám (1892–1960): Ein Paradies am Meeresstrand [Die Blume von Hawaii, Act 1]
Pál Ábrahám (1892–1960): Will Dir die Welt zu Füßen legen [Die Blume von Hawaii, Act 1]
Pál Ábrahám (1892–1960): Pardon Madame [Viktoria und ihr Husar, Act 1]
Pál Ábrahám (1892–1960): Nur ein Mädel gibt es auf der Welt [Viktoria und ihr Husar, Act 1]
Pál Ábrahám (1892–1960): Sing-Sing [Julia]
Pál Ábrahám (1892–1960): Der schönste Gedanke [Zigeuner der Nacht]
Fred Raymond (1900–1954): Die Juliska, die Juliska aus Buda-, Budapest [Maske in Blau, Drittes Bild, Nr. 11, Duett] (mit Nikola Hillebrand, Sopran)
Nico Dostal (1895–1981): Frag nur dein Herz, was Liebe ist [Die ungarische Hochzeit, Act 1, Duett] (mit Nikola Hillebrand, Sopran)
Jenő Huszka (1875–1960): Londonban hej! (Bob belépője) [Bob herceg, Act 1, No. 3]
Ferenc Erkel (1810–1893): Mint számûzött ki vándorol … Hazám, hazám [Bánk bán, Act 2]
Karl Goldmark (1830–1915): Magische Töne, berauschender Duft [Die Königin von Saba, Op. 27, Act 2]
Magische Töne Live Tour Dates
11.04. Hamburg, Laeiszhalle
15.04. München, Isarphilharmonie
18.04. Nürnberg, Meistersingerhalle
20.04. Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
22.04. Wien, Konzerthaus
24.04. Budapest, MüPa
26.04. Hannover, Kuppelsaal
28.04. Essen, Philharmonie
30.04. Freiburg, Konzerthaus
03.05. Stuttgart, Liederhalle
05.05. Luzern, KKL
07.05. Mannheim, Rosengarten / Mozartsaal
09.05. Frankfurt, Alte Oper
Tickets and information: jonaskaufmann.com
OUT TODAY: Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli Releases Daimon – Her First Piano Concerto on Sony Classical
OUT TODAY: Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli Releases Daimon – Her First Piano Concerto on Sony Classical
Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli
Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical
Out Today - Listen Here
Album Release Date: Out Today
Whether Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Philip Glass or Arvo Part– the works of these composers have inspired Olivia Belli, one of the most captivating voices in the neoclassical scene. Equally, art and literature open new worlds for her, fueling her creativity as a composer. The starting point for her new album Daimon –– out today on Sony Classical –– was Homer’s Odyssey. “It was Odysseus’ fate to return to his homeland Ithaca,” says Olivia Belli. “That’s where his wife and son were – everything that defined him.”
The idea that every life is essentially a journey, one that inevitably leads us toward our true purpose, deeply fascinated the Italian artist from the picturesque Marche region. From this concept emerged the piano concerto Daimon – recorded with a string orchestra and inspired by Italian Baroque music. It consists of three movements: The Departure, The Journey, and The Return. The second movement, The Journey, stands out in particular. It reflects the trials, hardships, and suffering faced not only by Odysseus but also by Olivia Belli herself on her path to catharsis. These emotional highs and lows unfold in strikingly epic soundscapes.
Olivia Belli consciously wove her own biography into the concerto. Daimon spans her life from adolescence to the present. As the daughter of a bank manager, she moved frequently as a child. Despite discovering exciting cities, she always felt something was missing – though she couldn’t quite name it.
That changed at age 14, when an accident left her bedridden for several months. “During that time, I was thrown back on myself. With no distractions, I realized what I truly needed: music and nature.” She had reached the point Socrates once described: “You must know who you are before you go out into the world.” In other words, Olivia Belli had found what the Greek term daimon expresses – her calling. Since then, she has never lost sight of her purpose.
Olivia Belli studied with distinguished pianists and pedagogues including Alexander Lonquich, Jörg Demus, Franco Scala, and Piero Rattalino, and also pursued composition studies, enriching her artistic identity. She has performed at acclaimed events such as the Piano Nights in Amsterdam, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and the Steinway & Sons Piano Series at the Royal Albert Hall (Elgar Room). Olivia Belli has also composed works for various artists, including Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen, French cellist Gautier Capuçon, and British organist Anna Lapwood. Above all, she has continually embarked on sonic explorations for her own recordings – often inspired by nature or Greek mythology. Her latest creative phase, especially with the piano concerto Daimon, has produced something truly exceptional for a neoclassical artist. Rather than relying on force and orchestral grandeur, this work calls for sensitivity – expressed in Olivia Belli’s unmistakable musical language. She favors gentleness, nuanced emotion, and pastel tonal colors.
Following Daimon, her recording continues with the Ithaca Suite, another musical journey into ancient Greece. This piece portrays the characters Odysseus encounters upon his return – including his father Laertes and his son Telemachus. In these Rencontres, cellist Raphaela Gromes, violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing, and saxophonist Jess Gillam shine as guest musicians. Olivia Belli not only contributes her musical signature but also embraces the collaborative spirit with her fellow artists. Her openness to shared creative processes and her refined sense for musical dialogue make her a sought-after partner – both as a pianist and composer. This artistic connection is also reflected in Olivia Belli’s own compositions, where she interweaves personal themes with universal emotions.
Odysseus’ wife Penelope is honored by Olivia Belli with a piano solo at the heart of the Ithaca Suite, its melody gently oscillating between melancholy and hope. “There is no Odysseus without Penelope,” the musician reflects. “Knowing you’re not alone is essential. We exist above all thanks to the people by our side.”
The album concludes with a sonata that openly reveals its unpretentious beauty: the Sonatina for Nausicaa. Nausicaa was the daughter of the Phaeacian king. She did not shy away when she found the shipwrecked Odysseus on the shore, but instead offered him clothes and food. “Nowadays, few would invite a homeless person into their home,” Olivia Belli observes. “For many, a person’s worth is measured primarily by success or money. Yet we all have our own unique calling.”
Daimon: Piano Concerto, Ithaca Suite & Sonatina for Nausicaa
Release Date: February 20, 2025
Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra Daimon
1 I. The Departure
2 II. The Journey
3 III. The Return
Ithaca Suite
4 I. Proci
5 II. Telemachus
6 III. Eumaeus
7 IV. Penelopeia
8 V. Eurycleia
9 VI. Laertes
10 VII. Pax Athenae
Sonatina for Nausicaa
11 I. Semplice
12 II. Andantino
13 III. Allegretto
Olivia Belli & Eldbjørg Hemsing – Telemachus (Official Music Video)
# # #
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Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com.
OUT TODAY: The Swan – Superstar Cellist HAUSER Revisits The Magic of Great Classical Melodies with New Sony Masterworks Recording
OUT TODAY: The Swan – Superstar Cellist HAUSER Revisits The Magic of Great Classical Melodies with New Sony Masterworks Recording
HAUSER
Revisits The Magic of Great Classical Melodies
with His New Musical Collection
The Swan
Out Today - Listen Here
Album Release Date: Out Today
Hauser’s ‘Musical Love Letter’ Features Seven All-New Recordings
Performed With The London Symphony Orchestra
International cello sensation HAUSER adds a grace note to his global hits Classic and Classic II with the release of The Swan — out today via Sony Masterworks on all digital music platforms — a new “musical love letter” to his instrument. The new musical collection features seven beautiful classical melodies transformed by the HAUSER’s deeply felt signature style and virtuosity, once again with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Ziegler.
The Swan – a gentle, rapturous melody from Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals – is an obvious choice for HAUSER. The piece has a profound, personal meaning to him.
“I was just a few years old when I heard a cello on the radio for the first time, playing Saint-Saëns’ ‘The Swan’,” HAUSER recalls. “I just fell in love with the sound when I heard it. It was like… I can’t describe it. It’s not usual for a child to know what he wants at an early age. But that was the sound. I remember thinking, ‘That’s it.’”
The Swan also includes all-new arrangements of two favorites by the French composer Gabriel Fauré – Après un rêve (After a Dream) and the lightly dancing Pavane; perhaps Puccini’s most beloved aria, O mio babbino caro from the opera Gianni Schicchi, popularized on the soundtrack the classic film A Room with a View; a worldwide hit from over a century ago, Sir Edward Elgar’s charming Salut d’amour (Love’s Greeting); and the robust, instantly recognizable zest of Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5.
HAUSER tops off this musical bouquet with a new take on the soaring pop anthem You Raise Me Up, best known in Josh Groban’s chart-topping recording.
Though Saint-Saëns’ The Swan was written for the cello, the other selections on The Swan were written for voice, various other instruments or the orchestra. Like the selections on Classic and Classic II, they reflect HAUSER’s passion for taking the most expressive and unforgettable melodies, and adapting them to showcase the warm, singing tone of the cello.
HAUSER – THE SWAN
RELEASE DATE: OUT TODAY
OFFICIAL TRACKLIST –
1. The Swan
2. Après un rêve
3. Pavane
4. mio babbino caro
5. Salut d'Amour
6. Hungarian Dance No. 5
7. You Raise Me Up
ABOUT HAUSER
Following an incredible 10-year run as half of 2CELLOS, global superstar HAUSER has ushered in a new era as a solo artist and visual concept creator, using his innovative musical skills and irresistible charisma to bring a new wave of cello music to fans everywhere. Making his solo debut in 2020 with the release of CLASSIC, followed by The Player (2022), HAUSER CHRISTMAS (2023), CLASSIC II (2024) and CINEMA (2025), HAUSER has amassed over 2 billion audio streams and 4 billion video views globally. Revered globally for his captivating live performance, the Croatian musician is a phenomenon that thrives on audience interaction, hitting the stage in over 40 countries across the globe including historic venues like New York City’s Radio City Music Hall and London’s Royal Albert Hall and performing alongside such wide-ranging acts as Andrea Bocelli, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Elton John, as well as adored by Céline Dion. His electric stage presence has also led to several high-profile appearances, including an opening night performance at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, performing at the Vatican for the Pope, and special features for both the NFL and UEFA. Named one of People Magazine’s 2022 Sexiest Men Alive and featured by the likes of Rolling Stone, Forbes, and The New York Times, HAUSER has graced the stage for numerous broadcast performances, most recently adding Love Island to a long resume of appearances that includes The Bachelorette, TODAY Show, Good Morning America, Ellen, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CNN en Español and more. In 2025, HAUSER launched “Music Unites the World” on his social media -- a passion project where he will record an iconic song from each nation around the globe to spread a message of unity through music.
Connect With Hauser:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok
# # #
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/
Feb. 27: Pianist Alexander Malofeev Announces Sony Classical Debut Album Forgotten Melodies – Lilacs by Sergei Rachmaninoff Out Today
Feb. 27: Pianist Alexander Malofeev Announces Sony Classical Debut Album Forgotten Melodies – Lilacs by Sergei Rachmaninoff Out Today
© Dovile Sermokas
Pianist Alexander Malofeev Announces Sony Classical Debut Album
Forgotten Melodies
Out Today: New Single
12 Romances, Op. 21: V. Lilacs by Sergei Rachmaninoff
Listen Here
“…His intensity overwhelms…[he] makes a monumentally thunderous impression with his music…” – The Los Angeles Times
Worldwide Album Release Date: February 27, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now
Sony Classical is thrilled to announce the debut album of world-renowned pianist Alexander Malofeev titled Forgotten Melodies set for release on February 27, 2026 and available for preorder here. New single 12 Romances, Op. 21: V. Lilacs by Sergei Rachmaninoff is out today – listen here.
“A world piano revolution” (Der Standard) at just twenty-three, Alexander Malofeev has already become one of the most captivating pianists of his generation. Praised by Il Giornale for embodying “the piano mastery of the new millennium,” he has performed with leading orchestras worldwide.
Born in Moscow in 2001, Malofeev studied at two of Russia’s most renowned institutions: the Gnessin Special School and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. In 2014, at just thirteen, he won first prize at the junior edition of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition.
Today, Alexander Malofeev lives in Berlin. With this recording, he seeks to connect traces of his heritage with those of the present. “I chose Berlin more or less by accident, but previously it had been home to Glinka, Glazunov and Medtner at some point in their lives.”
For his album, Malofeev has selected four composers who were all born in Russia but died far from their homeland: Alexander Glazunov in Paris (1936), Mikhail Glinka in Berlin (1857), Sergei Rachmaninoff in Beverly Hills (1943), and Nikolai Medtner in London (1951).
Yet more than the theme of exile - which shaped the lives of these four composers -what moves Malofeev most is another idea: “They all share a similar feeling of nostalgia,” he explains. “But you cannot really figure out which moment in time they are actually nostalgic for. It’s almost as if they are nostalgic for a very similar setting which never really existed in history. It’s like it is totally made up, almost a dream world - and you can find it everywhere on this album.”
Alongside Medtner’s cycle Forgotten Melodies, the most extensive work on the album is Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Sonata, composed while he was still in Russia and revised nearly two decades later in Switzerland. “I’ve loved Rachmaninoff for as long as I can remember,” Malofeev admits - referring to his composing and piano: “His freedom, his spirit, his hands, his genius.” Malofeev deliberately chose the revised version of the Sonata, as it is shorter, more concise, and more economical in its writing - and therefore closer to Medtner.
Not yet in his mid-twenties, Alexander Malofeev has already stepped into the international spotlight, thanks to his phenomenal technique and, above all, the remarkable expressiveness of his playing. Conductor Riccardo Chailly notes that he is “not just a child prodigy,” recognizing that Malofeev “already possesses depth as well as technical, musical and mnemonic abilities.” The international press has hailed him as a “Russian genius” (Corriere della Sera); his performances are described as a “piano-world revolution” (Der Standard), his “magnetic pull” and ability to create a “weightlessly singing tone” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) already marking him, at such a young age, as a truly exceptional artist.
ALEXANDER MALOFEEV – FORGOTTEN MELODIES – TRACKLIST:
Glinka – A Farewell to Saint Petersburg: No. 10, The Lark
Glinka – Mazurka in C Major
Glinka – Mazurka in C Minor
Glinka – Polka in D Minor
Glinka – Farewell Waltz
Medtner – I – Sonata reminiscenza
Medtner – II. Danza graziosa
Medtner – III. Danza festiva
Medtner – IV. Canzona fluviala
Medtner – V. Danza rustica
Medtner – VI. Canzona serenata
Medtner – VII. Danza silvestra
Medtner – VIII. Alla reminiscenza
Medtner – 2 Fairy Tales, Op. 48: No. 2, Tale of the Elves
Rachmaninoff – 5 Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3: No. 2, Prélude in C-Sharp Minor - Lento
Rachmaninoff – Fragments, Op.posth
Rachmaninoff – I. Allegro agitato
Rachmaninoff – II. Non allegro
Rachmaninoff – III. Allegro molto
Rachmaninoff - 12 Romances, Op. 21: V. Lilacs
Rachmaninoff – 5 Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3: No. 1, Élégie in E-Flat Minor
Rachmaninoff – No. 3: Grave
Rachmaninoff – No. 7: Moderato
Rachmaninoff – No. 8: Grave
Glazunov – 3 Études for Piano, Op. 31: No. 3. La nuit
Glazunov – Song of the Volga Boatmen, Op. 97
Glazunov – Idylle, Op. 103
Glazunov – 3 Miniatures for Piano, Op. 42: Valse - Allegretto
ALEXANDER MALOFEEV 2025 – 2026 PERFORMANCE DATES:
Oct 24 – Frankfurt, Germany – Alte Oper Frankfurt
Nov 9 – Leipzig, Germany – Mendelssohn-Haus Leipzig
Nov 10 – Berlin, Germany – Philharmonie Berlin
Nov 13 – Munich, Germany – Isarphilharmonie Munich
Nov 27 – Bari, Italy – Teatro Petruzzelli
Nov 30 – Trento, Italy – Sala Filarmonica
Dec 14 – Brussels, Belgium – Bozar / Centre for Fine Arts
Jan 12 – Bologna, Italy – Teatro Auditorium Manzoni
Jan 14 – Lausanne, Switzerland – Week-End Musical de Pully
Jan 15 – Grenoble, France – Auditorium du Musée
Jan 17 – Vienna, Austria – Konzerthaus
Jan 21 – Milan, Italy – Milan Conservatory / Sala Verdi
Jan 23 – Paris, France – Salle Gaveau
Jan 28 – Hamburg, Germany – Elbphilharmonie
Jan 31 – Shenzhen, China – Shenzhen Concert Hall / Verbier Festival
Feb 6 – Shenzhen, China – Shenzhen Concert Hall / Verbier Festival
Feb 7 – Shenzhen, China – Shenzhen Concert Hall / Verbier Festival
Feb 8 – Shenzhen, China – Shenzhen Concert Hall / Verbier Festival
Feb 14 – Brussels, Belgium – Festival Musiq3 / Flagey
Feb 25 – Hamburg, Germany – Elbphilharmonie / Großer Saal
Mar 3 – Orlando, FL, USA – Steinmetz Hall
Mar 5 – Houston, TX, USA – Jones Hall
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.
Alexander Malofeev Official Channels
Feb. 20: Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical – New Single Laertes Out Now
Feb. 20: Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical – New Single Laertes Out Now
Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli
Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical
New Single: Laertes Featuring Cellist Raphaela Gromes
Out Now | Watch Music Video Here
Album Release Date: February 20, 2026
Pre-Save | Listen Here
Whether Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Philip Glass or Arvo Part– the works of these composers have inspired Olivia Belli, one of the most captivating voices in the neoclassical scene. Equally, art and literature open new worlds for her, fueling her creativity as a composer. The starting point for her Sony Classical album Daimon –– to be released on February 20, 2026 –– was Homer’s Odyssey. “It was Odysseus’ fate to return to his homeland Ithaca,” says Olivia Belli. “That’s where his wife and son were – everything that defined him.” New single, The Laertes featuring cellist Raphaela Gromes is out now. Watch the accompanying music video here.
The idea that every life is essentially a journey, one that inevitably leads us toward our true purpose, deeply fascinated the Italian artist from the picturesque Marche region. From this concept emerged the piano concerto Daimon – recorded with a string orchestra and inspired by Italian Baroque music. It consists of three movements: The Departure, The Journey, and The Return. The second movement, The Journey, stands out in particular. It reflects the trials, hardships, and suffering faced not only by Odysseus but also by Olivia Belli herself on her path to catharsis. These emotional highs and lows unfold in strikingly epic soundscapes.
Olivia Belli consciously wove her own biography into the concerto. Daimon spans her life from adolescence to the present. As the daughter of a bank manager, she moved frequently as a child. Despite discovering exciting cities, she always felt something was missing – though she couldn’t quite name it.
That changed at age 14, when an accident left her bedridden for several months. “During that time, I was thrown back on myself. With no distractions, I realized what I truly needed: music and nature.” She had reached the point Socrates once described: “You must know who you are before you go out into the world.” In other words, Olivia Belli had found what the Greek term daimon expresses – her calling. Since then, she has never lost sight of her purpose.
Olivia Belli studied with distinguished pianists and pedagogues including Alexander Lonquich, Jörg Demus, Franco Scala, and Piero Rattalino, and also pursued composition studies, enriching her artistic identity. She has performed at acclaimed events such as the Piano Nights in Amsterdam, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and the Steinway & Sons Piano Series at the Royal Albert Hall (Elgar Room). Olivia Belli has also composed works for various artists, including Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen, French cellist Gautier Capuçon, and British organist Anna Lapwood. Above all, she has continually embarked on sonic explorations for her own recordings – often inspired by nature or Greek mythology. Her latest creative phase, especially with the piano concerto Daimon, has produced something truly exceptional for a neoclassical artist. Rather than relying on force and orchestral grandeur, this work calls for sensitivity – expressed in Olivia Belli’s unmistakable musical language. She favors gentleness, nuanced emotion, and pastel tonal colors.
Following Daimon, her recording continues with the Ithaca Suite, another musical journey into ancient Greece. This piece portrays the characters Odysseus encounters upon his return – including his father Laertes and his son Telemachus. In these Rencontres, cellist Raphaela Gromes, violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing, and saxophonist Jess Gillam shine as guest musicians. Olivia Belli not only contributes her musical signature but also embraces the collaborative spirit with her fellow artists. Her openness to shared creative processes and her refined sense for musical dialogue make her a sought-after partner – both as a pianist and composer. This artistic connection is also reflected in Olivia Belli’s own compositions, where she interweaves personal themes with universal emotions.
Odysseus’ wife Penelope is honored by Olivia Belli with a piano solo at the heart of the Ithaca Suite, its melody gently oscillating between melancholy and hope. “There is no Odysseus without Penelope,” the musician reflects. “Knowing you’re not alone is essential. We exist above all thanks to the people by our side.”
The album concludes with a sonata that openly reveals its unpretentious beauty: the Sonatina for Nausicaa. Nausicaa was the daughter of the Phaeacian king. She did not shy away when she found the shipwrecked Odysseus on the shore, but instead offered him clothes and food. “Nowadays, few would invite a homeless person into their home,” Olivia Belli observes. “For many, a person’s worth is measured primarily by success or money. Yet we all have our own unique calling.”
Daimon: Piano Concerto, Ithaca Suite & Sonatina for Nausicaa
Release Date: February 20, 2025
Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra Daimon
1 I. The Departure
2 II. The Journey
3 III. The Return
Ithaca Suite
4 I. Proci
5 II. Telemachus
6 III. Eumaeus
7 IV. Penelopeia
8 V. Eurycleia
9 VI. Laertes
10 VII. Pax Athenae
Sonatina for Nausicaa
11 I. Semplice
12 II. Andantino
13 III. Allegretto
Olivia Belli & Eldbjørg Hemsing – Telemachus (Official Music Video)
# # #
CONNECT WITH OLIVIA BELLI
Website | Instagram | Facebook | X | YouTube
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com.
March 6: Anna Lapwood Returns with New Sony Classical Choral Album Arise, Shine – Featuring The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge
March 6: Anna Lapwood Returns with New Sony Classical Choral Album Arise, Shine – Featuring The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Anna Lapwood Returns with New Sony Classical Choral Album
Arise, Shine
Featuring The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Album Release Date: Friday, March 6, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now
Following a stellar 2025, sensational musician Anna Lapwood starts 2026 with the announcement of her brand-new choral album, Arise, Shine – pre-order here. This new recording follows her 2025 chart topping album, Firedove, and sees Anna conducting her beloved Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge for the very last time.
Arise, Shine will be released on Friday, March 6, 2026 on Sony Classical and comes at a pivotal moment in Anna’s career, marking the conclusion of her tenure as Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, a role she held for nine years until the end of the summer term in 2025. The album is a deeply personal project, highlighting Anna’s close connection to The Pembroke College Chapel Choir and her committed mentoring of the students. The album features a rich and varied programme, including two original compositions by Anna – Arise, Shine and An Irish Blessing – written in response to special people and key moments during her time with Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Of the album, Anna notes:
“As I was preparing to leave Pembroke, I felt it was really important to do one final album with the Chapel Choir to mark their incredible hard work over the course of the last nine years. The choir has grown so much in that time - both in size but also in ambition and identity, and I have learned so much from working with these singers. I wanted to curate an album that felt like it summed up just a little of what makes Pembroke unique, pairing traditional repertoire with modern reinterpretations, and showcasing music written by young composers from within Pembroke Choir and beyond. It feels particularly special to include a piece written by Maryam Giraud who was one of my first girl choristers when I set up the Girls’ Choir, and who is now an undergraduate at the College. Her piece sets a text written by Cassidy McKinlay, one of our other altos, and it’s this kind of creative teamwork that I feel sums up Pembroke so beautifully. This is an album that is all about the unique warmth of making music with friends and being able to share that experience with others”.
The track list reflects Anna’s fascination with contrasting interpretations of sacred texts, pairing works such as Ubi Caritas by Maurice Duruflé and Ola Gjeilo, and O Sacrum Convivium by Olivier Messiaen and Lucy Walker. Walker, a former alto in the choir who knows its sound inside out, has become its most-performed living composer and contributes several works to the album. Other Pembroke highlights include Rain, a joint project between two more Chapel Choir altos where Maryam Giraud sets a text written by her fellow chorister, Cassidy McKinlay. Giraud’s journey from a young singer in the Girls’ Choir, founded in 2018, to composer on this album is a testament to Anna’s commitment to nurturing talent and creating opportunities for women and girls in music. The album also features Abide With Me by Maggie Kaposamweo, a young composer living in Zambia. Anna set up an online mentoring scheme for Maggie with Lucy Walker, and the commission fee for this composition helped fund Maggie’s music studies at the University of Lusaka, Zambia.
2025 was an extraordinary year for Anna Lapwood. Her album Firedove soared to No.1 on the Official Classical Artist Album Chart. She became the Royal Albert Hall’s first-ever Official Organist, premiered Max Richter’s new concerto Cosmology alongside Kristina Arakelyan’s Toccata and captivated audiences with her all-night BBC Proms event From Dark Till Dawn. International acclaim continued to grow with a landmark performance in Cologne, Germany, drawing a crowd of 13,000 people, forming a one-mile queue around the city.
Beyond the concert hall, Anna’s infectious enthusiasm for music has reached new audiences and she has achieved some remarkable milestones, including an appearance at New York Fashion Week, being featured on the Sunday Times Power List, and even giving Hollywood icon Tom Cruise an impromptu organ lesson. She rounded off 2025 with a sold-out nationwide tour ‘Christmas with Anna Lapwood’ and a Royal Albert Hall headline Christmas show.
ARISE, SHINE : TRACKLISTING:
1. Arise, Shine
Composer: Anna Lapwood
2. Adoro Te Devote
Composer: Cecilia Mcdowall
Lyricist: Saint Thomas Aquinas
3. Miserere
Composer: Gregorio Allegri
4. Regina Caeli
Composer: Lise Borel
5. Rain
Composer: Maryam Giraud
Lyricist: Cassidy Mckinlay
6. Ubi Caritas
Composer: Maurice Duruflé
7. Silent Night
Composer: Franz Xaver Gruber
8. The Lord’s Prayer
Composer: Lucy Walker
9. O Sacrum Convivium
Composer: Olivier Messiaen
Lyricist: Saint Thomas Aquinas
10. Ubi Caritas
Composer: Ola Gjeilo
11. A Hymn For St Cecilia
Composer: Lucy Walker
Lyricist: Ursula Vaughan Williams
12. Abide With Me
Composer: Maggie Kaposamweo
Lyricist: Maggie Kaposamweo & Henry Francis Lyte
13. O Sacrum Convivium
Composer: Lucy Walker
Lyricist: Saint Thomas Aquinas
14. An Irish Blessing
Composer: Anna Lapwood
15. Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Composer: Harold Arlen
Lyricist: Yip Harburg
Visit: www.annalapwood.co.uk
Feb. 13: Superstar Cellist HAUSER Revisits The Magic of Great Classical Melodies with The Swan – New Album on Sony Masterworks
Feb. 13: Superstar Cellist HAUSER Revisits The Magic of Great Classical Melodies with The Swan – New Album on Sony Masterworks
International cello sensation HAUSER adds a grace note to his global hits Classic and Classic II, with the release of The Swan, a new “musical love letter” to his instrument. The new musical collection features seven beautiful classical melodies transformed by the HAUSER’s deeply felt signature style and virtuosity, once again with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Ziegler. Available for pre-save now, The Swan is set for release on February 13, 2026 via Sony Masterworks on all digital music platforms.
Accompanying today’s news is the release of the title track and music video for The Swan, starring Italian prima ballerina Angelica Gismondo – watch here.
The Swan – a gentle, rapturous melody from Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals – is an obvious choice for HAUSER. The piece has a profound, personal meaning to him.
“I was just a few years old when I heard a cello on the radio for the first time, playing Saint-Saëns’ ‘The Swan’,” HAUSER recalls. “I just fell in love with the sound when I heard it. It was like… I can’t describe it. It’s not usual for a child to know what he wants at an early age. But that was the sound. I remember thinking, ‘That’s it.’”
The Swan also includes all-new arrangements of two favorites by the French composer Gabriel Fauré – Après un rêve (After a Dream) and the lightly dancing Pavane; perhaps Puccini’s most beloved aria, O mio babbino caro from the opera Gianni Schicchi, popularized on the soundtrack the classic film A Room with a View; a worldwide hit from over a century ago, Sir Edward Elgar’s charming Salut d’amour (Love’s Greeting); and the robust, instantly recognizable zest of Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5.
HAUSER tops off this musical bouquet with a new take on the soaring pop anthem You Raise Me Up, best known in Josh Groban’s chart-topping recording.
Though Saint-Saëns’ The Swan was written for the cello, the other selections on The Swan were written for voice, various other instruments or the orchestra. Like the selections on Classic and Classic II, they reflect HAUSER’s passion for taking the most expressive and unforgettable melodies, and adapting them to showcase the warm, singing tone of the cello.
HAUSER – THE SWAN
RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 13, 2026
OFFICIAL TRACKLIST –
1. The Swan
2. Après un rêve
3. Pavane
4. mio babbino caro
5. Salut d'Amour
6. Hungarian Dance No. 5
7. You Raise Me Up
ABOUT HAUSER
Following an incredible 10-year run as half of 2CELLOS, global superstar HAUSER has ushered in a new era as a solo artist and visual concept creator, using his innovative musical skills and irresistible charisma to bring a new wave of cello music to fans everywhere. Making his solo debut in 2020 with the release of CLASSIC, followed by The Player (2022), HAUSER CHRISTMAS (2023), CLASSIC II (2024) and CINEMA (2025), HAUSER has amassed over 2 billion audio streams and 4 billion video views globally. Revered globally for his captivating live performance, the Croatian musician is a phenomenon that thrives on audience interaction, hitting the stage in over 40 countries across the globe including historic venues like New York City’s Radio City Music Hall and London’s Royal Albert Hall and performing alongside such wide-ranging acts as Andrea Bocelli, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Elton John, as well as adored by Céline Dion. His electric stage presence has also led to several high-profile appearances, including an opening night performance at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, performing at the Vatican for the Pope, and special features for both the NFL and UEFA. Named one of People Magazine’s 2022 Sexiest Men Alive and featured by the likes of Rolling Stone, Forbes, and The New York Times, HAUSER has graced the stage for numerous broadcast performances, most recently adding Love Island to a long resume of appearances that includes The Bachelorette, TODAY Show, Good Morning America, Ellen, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CNN en Español and more. In 2025, HAUSER launched “Music Unites the World” on his social media -- a passion project where he will record an iconic song from each nation around the globe to spread a message of unity through music.
Connect With Hauser:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok
# # #
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/
Feb. 20: Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical – New Single The Departure Out Now
Feb. 20: Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical – New Single The Departure Out Now
Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli
Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical
New Single: The Departure
Out Now | Watch Music Video Here
Album Release Date: February 20, 2026
Pre-Save | Listen Here
Whether Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Philip Glass or Arvo Part– the works of these composers have inspired Olivia Belli, one of the most captivating voices in the neoclassical scene. Equally, art and literature open new worlds for her, fueling her creativity as a composer. The starting point for her Sony Classical album Daimon –– to be released on February 20, 2026 –– was Homer’s Odyssey. “It was Odysseus’ fate to return to his homeland Ithaca,” says Olivia Belli. “That’s where his wife and son were – everything that defined him.” New single, The Departure is out now. Watch the accompanying music video here.
The idea that every life is essentially a journey, one that inevitably leads us toward our true purpose, deeply fascinated the Italian artist from the picturesque Marche region. From this concept emerged the piano concerto Daimon – recorded with a string orchestra and inspired by Italian Baroque music. It consists of three movements: The Departure, The Journey, and The Return. The second movement, The Journey, stands out in particular. It reflects the trials, hardships, and suffering faced not only by Odysseus but also by Olivia Belli herself on her path to catharsis. These emotional highs and lows unfold in strikingly epic soundscapes.
Olivia Belli consciously wove her own biography into the concerto. Daimon spans her life from adolescence to the present. As the daughter of a bank manager, she moved frequently as a child. Despite discovering exciting cities, she always felt something was missing – though she couldn’t quite name it.
That changed at age 14, when an accident left her bedridden for several months. “During that time, I was thrown back on myself. With no distractions, I realized what I truly needed: music and nature.” She had reached the point Socrates once described: “You must know who you are before you go out into the world.” In other words, Olivia Belli had found what the Greek term daimon expresses – her calling. Since then, she has never lost sight of her purpose.
Olivia Belli studied with distinguished pianists and pedagogues including Alexander Lonquich, Jörg Demus, Franco Scala, and Piero Rattalino, and also pursued composition studies, enriching her artistic identity. She has performed at acclaimed events such as the Piano Nights in Amsterdam, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and the Steinway & Sons Piano Series at the Royal Albert Hall (Elgar Room). Olivia Belli has also composed works for various artists, including Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen, French cellist Gautier Capuçon, and British organist Anna Lapwood. Above all, she has continually embarked on sonic explorations for her own recordings – often inspired by nature or Greek mythology. Her latest creative phase, especially with the piano concerto Daimon, has produced something truly exceptional for a neoclassical artist. Rather than relying on force and orchestral grandeur, this work calls for sensitivity – expressed in Olivia Belli’s unmistakable musical language. She favors gentleness, nuanced emotion, and pastel tonal colors.
Following Daimon, her recording continues with the Ithaca Suite, another musical journey into ancient Greece. This piece portrays the characters Odysseus encounters upon his return – including his father Laertes and his son Telemachus. In these Rencontres, cellist Raphaela Gromes, violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing, and saxophonist Jess Gillam shine as guest musicians. Olivia Belli not only contributes her musical signature but also embraces the collaborative spirit with her fellow artists. Her openness to shared creative processes and her refined sense for musical dialogue make her a sought-after partner – both as a pianist and composer. This artistic connection is also reflected in Olivia Belli’s own compositions, where she interweaves personal themes with universal emotions.
Odysseus’ wife Penelope is honored by Olivia Belli with a piano solo at the heart of the Ithaca Suite, its melody gently oscillating between melancholy and hope. “There is no Odysseus without Penelope,” the musician reflects. “Knowing you’re not alone is essential. We exist above all thanks to the people by our side.”
The album concludes with a sonata that openly reveals its unpretentious beauty: the Sonatina for Nausicaa. Nausicaa was the daughter of the Phaeacian king. She did not shy away when she found the shipwrecked Odysseus on the shore, but instead offered him clothes and food. “Nowadays, few would invite a homeless person into their home,” Olivia Belli observes. “For many, a person’s worth is measured primarily by success or money. Yet we all have our own unique calling.”
Daimon: Piano Concerto, Ithaca Suite & Sonatina for Nausicaa
Release Date: February 20, 2025
Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra Daimon
1 I. The Departure
2 II. The Journey
3 III. The Return
Ithaca Suite
4 I. Proci
5 II. Telemachus
6 III. Eumaeus
7 IV. Penelopeia
8 V. Eurycleia
9 VI. Laertes
10 VII. Pax Athenae
Sonatina for Nausicaa
11 I. Semplice
12 II. Andantino
13 III. Allegretto
Olivia Belli & Eldbjørg Hemsing – Telemachus (Official Music Video)
# # #
CONNECT WITH OLIVIA BELLI
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Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com.
Out Now: Sony Classical Releases 2026 New Year’s Concert with The Vienna Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Out Now: Sony Classical Releases 2026 New Year’s Concert with The Vienna Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Sony Classical Releases The 2026 New Year’s Concert
with The Vienna Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Album Release Dates:
Digital: Out Now
CD: Out Today
DVD and Blu-Ray: January 30, 2026
Available Now
The most famous event in the world of classical music will be available on Sony Classical in a digital format, on 2 CDs, on vinyl, on DVD and on Blu-ray
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted the concert for the very first time.
On January 1, 2026, Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert from the world-famous Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein. It was his first appearance at this event. There are few concerts in the world that are awaited with as much excitement as the New Year’s Concert from Vienna, which is broadcast to over 150 countries and watched by more than 50 million viewers.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who is the music director of both the Metropolitan Opera in New York and of the Philadelphia Orchestra, can look back on a long association with the Vienna Philharmonic. His program for the 2026 New Year’s Concert included not only popular pieces such as Roses from the South and the Fledermaus Quadrille but also five rarities, all of which were heard for the first time in this setting. Among them are works by the Black American composer Florence Price (1887–1953) and by Josephine Weinlich (1848–87), who founded the first all-women’s orchestra in Europe.
The annual New Year’s Concert has been a major event in the musical calendar for more than eight decades. Starting in 1939, it is now broadcast on television and on the radio and reaches millions of viewers and listeners all over the world. Among the internationally acclaimed conductors who have appeared on the podium at this event have been Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons, Franz Welser-Möst and Gustavo Dudamel. As Austria’s musical ambassadors, the members of the Vienna Philharmonic extend their New Year greetings to the whole world in a spirit of hope, friendship and peace by performing lively, carefree and at the same time nostalgic and more serious music by members of the Strauß family and their contemporaries.
Program of the 2026 New Year’s Concert
Johann Strauss II Overture to the operetta Indigo and the Forty Thieves
Carl Michael Ziehrer Legends of the Danube. Waltz op. 446*
Joseph Lanner Malapou Galops op. 148/1*
Eduard Strauss Brausteufelchen. Polka schnell op. 154*
Johann Strauss II Fledermaus Quadrille op. 363
Johann Strauss I The Carnival of Paris. Galop op. 100
Franz von Suppè Overture to the operetta The Fair Galatea
Josephine Weinlich Siren Songs. Polka mazur op. 13 (arr. W. Dörner)*
Josef Strauss Women’s Dignity Waltz op. 277
Johann Strauss II Diplomats’ Polka. Polka française op. 448
Florence Price Rainbow Waltz (arr. W. Dörner)*
Hans Christian Lumbye Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop
Johann Strauss II Roses from the South. Waltz op. 388
Johann Strauss II Egyptian March op. 335
Josef Strauss Olive Branch Waltz, op. 207
Encores:
Philipp Fahrbach Circus, Quick Polka, Op. 110
Johann Strauss II The Blue Danube, Waltz, Op. 314
Johann Strauss I Radetzky March, Op. 228
* for the first time at a New Year’s Concert
Jan. 23: Pianist and Composer Hayato Sumino Releases Chopin Orbit Second Album on Sony Classical – New Single White Keys Out Today
Jan. 23: Pianist and Composer Hayato Sumino Releases Chopin Orbit Second Album on Sony Classical – New Single White Keys Out Today
Album Artwork (Download)
Chopin Orbit
The Eagerly Anticipated Second Album
by Celebrated Japanese Pianist and Composer
Hayato Sumino
New Single White Keys Out Today
Listen Here | Watch Music Video Here
Worldwide Album Release Date: January 23, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now
Sony Classical has announced the forthcoming release of Chopin Orbit, the second album by the acclaimed, multi-faceted New York-based Japanese pianist and composer, Hayato Sumino, set for release on January 23, 2026 and available for pre-order now. A new single from the album, White Keys, is out today, along with an accompanying music video – watch here.
For this new recording, Hayato Sumino has turned his gaze on the composer who possibly means the most to him, namely Chopin (1810-1849). It was indeed Sumino’s sensational performances during the 2021 International Chopin Competition where he was a semi-finalist that first brought this fine young musician to wider international attention.
Hayato Sumino explains his concept for Chopin Orbit: “For me, Chopin has always been like an idol, and his music has remained close to my heart since childhood. As I grew as a musician, I began to realize how naturally his influence found its way into my own creations. At some point I thought—why not create an album with Chopin at its center? That moment became the starting point of this project. My pieces were born out of inspiration from Chopin’s works. Sometimes I quote a motif or weave in a melody, but I never set out simply to write “in the style of Chopin.” What I wanted was to bring together his spirit with my own modern sensibility and creativity.
The title Chopin Orbit reflects this idea. I placed Chopin’s music at the center, and from there different responses and offshoots take shape—as if drawn by his gravity, forming new orbits of their own. In respect for Chopin, each of my pieces is paired with the original that inspired it, so the album presents his works and my responses in alternation. And not only with my own works: I also paired Chopin with composers I admire—including Thomas Adès (b. 1971), Leopold Godowsky (1870–1938), and Leoš Janáček (1854–1928)—showing how the resonance of Chopin’s music continues to expand across time.
I imagine the listener roaming freely between these two closely connected worlds, old and new, whilst keeping in mind the twist that pieces composed in the 19th century were themselves considered new and different in their time to the music that had gone before, highlighting that we inhabit an ever-evolving musical space."
The album includes, among others, Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantasie op. 61, Nocturne in c-sharp minor, Berceuse and Raindrop Prelude, coupled with Hayato’s own pieces White Keys and Post Rain, Godowsky’s transcription of Chopin's Waltz No. 1 and Janacek’s Good Night! from On an Overgrown Path.
Echoing this imaginative framework, Chopin Orbit showcases Sumino’s distinctive musical style, merging his refined classical sensibilities with his discerning ear as an arranger and his instinctive feel for the new. During his exquisite performances of his carefully curated programme for the album, Sumino adeptly utilises a variety of keyboards, including a concert grand, a vintage piano, a modern upright and celeste.
Chopin Orbit follows this exceptional young musician’s acclaimed Sony Classical debut album Human Universe, released in November 2024, which saw Sumino range effortlessly across a diverse selection of repertoire from Bach to Zimmer via some of his own compositions.
HAYATO SUMINO:
2025-2026 PERFORMANCE DATES
Oct. 24, 2025 Fresno Concert Hall; Fresno, CA
Oct. 26, 2025 Bing Concert Hall; Stanford, CA
Oct. 27, 2025 Bing Concert Hall; Stanford, CA
Nov. 16, 2025 Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center; Chicago, IL
Nov. 18, 2025 Carnegie Hall (DEBUT); New York, NY
Mar 25, 2026 Bowker Auditorium – University of Massachusetts; Amherst, MA
Mar 27, 2026 McKnight Center, Performance Hall; Stillwater, OK
Mar 27, 2026 McKnight Center, Performance Hall; Stillwater, OK
Mar 31, 2026 Carnegie Hall; New York, NY
Apr 4, 2026 Irvine Berkeley Theatre; Irvine, CA
May 9, 2026 The Baker-Baum Concert Hall; La Jolla, CA
May 10, 2026 Visual and Performing Arts Center; Cupertino, CA
ABOUT HAYATO SUMINO
Hayato Sumino is an artistic phenomenon. Also known as Cateen, he has garnered over 2.2 million followers globally across his social media platforms.
In April 2024, he made a spectacular Royal Albert Hall debut with his performance of Gershwin's ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ and recently performed at the BBC Proms in an historic overnight event, as a personal guest of the evening’s curator, star organist Anna Lapwood. He has enjoyed a string of successful concerts this year, performing at prestigious venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie and the Hollywood Bowl, and is set to make his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York in November.
Following a sold-out performance for 15k spectators at Budokan in July 2024, Sumino will headline the +20,000-capacity K-Arena Yokohama in the fall of 2025—an unprecedented achievement for a classical solo artist. In July 2025, he was awarded the prestigious Bernstein Award, recognizing his exceptional contributions to contemporary classical music. At the upcoming 2025 Opus Klassik Awards, he will also be honored with two accolades for his Sony debut album Human Universe: “Young Talent of the Year” and “Best Live Performance (Soloist).”
Sumino’s rising international profile has earned him widespread recognition: he was featured in Japan’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2023, named one of Vogue Japan’s #TheOnesToWatch in 2024, spotlighted by Rolling Stone Korea, and most recently selected by Elle Magazine US as one of “9 Artists Shaping Culture in 2025.”
A prodigious composer, Hayato Sumino possesses a unique and captivating style that readily combines his diverse musical interests, ranging from classical and jazz to film music, post-classical, and electronica. He is also much in-demand for film and TV scores in Japan. He also holds a Master of Engineering degree from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Information Science and Technology and was honored with the President’s Award for his exceptional achievements in both music and engineering.
Hayato Sumino is one of the leading members of the next generation of boundary-pushing musicians who move seamlessly between genres and across musical borders, and who allow themselves the freedom of musical expression however they see fit, for the benefit of the audience.
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com.
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Dec. 5: Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason Announces Jane Austen's Piano on Sony Classical – New Single Dawn by Dario Marianelli Out Today
Dec. 5: Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason Announces Jane Austen's Piano on Sony Classical - New Single Dawn by Dario Marianelli Out Today
Expressive Young Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason
Explores Jane Austen’s Musical World on New EP
Jane Austen’s Piano
New Single:
Dawn (from the Pride & Prejudice Soundtrack) by Dario Marianelli
Listen Here
Celebrates the 250th Anniversary of the Beloved Author’s Birth in 2025
Worldwide Release Date: December 5, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now
To which books does a busy professional musician turn for relaxation in between the hectic whirl of rehearsals, performances and travel?
In the case of young rising star pianist, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, whose debut album Fantasie was praised by Gramophone for its “poetry and confidence” and by BBC Music Magazine for its “sparkle and self-possession”, it’s the novels of Jane Austen (1775-1817) that provide her with an unending source of enjoyment and contentment as well as revelry in the understated humour and social commentary contained therein.
So much so that Jeneba started to reflect on references to music in Jane Austen’s works and more broadly on the music of the time. It started a new train of thought for her: known to be a pianist herself, with which music may Jane Austen have been familiar? Which pieces might she have performed privately?
Happily, Jeneba had two important lines of enquiry to follow: the original Austen family music book collection dating from Jane Austen’s lifetime is extant and was able to provide some direction. Furthermore, Jane Austen is also very likely to have visited the annual local Hampshire Music Meeting, for which records exist. In fact, Jane Austen’s own piano teacher Dr George Chard, assistant organist at Winchester Cathedral (where Jane Austen is buried), was someone who helped organise the festival and curate the programme, all of which no doubt had a lasting musical influence on his private pupils.
The result of Jeneba’s fascination with the music of Jane Austen’s time is this brand-new recording for solo piano: Jane Austen’s Piano, scheduled for release on December 5, 2025 via Sony Classical, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth on December 16, 1775. New single, Menuet by George Frideric Händel, is out now - listen here. Accompanying the announcement is a new music video as well - watch here.
The recording consists of six pieces overall, mirroring the fact that Jane Austen wrote six full, famous and much-loved novels: ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (published in 1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), Persuasion (1817) and Northanger Abbey (1817).
Jane Austen’s Piano includes music hand-picked by Jeneba either because of its specific link to Jane Austen or for its significance to the time. It features music by George Frideric Händel (1732-1809), Joseph Haydn (1685-1759), George Kiallmark (1781-1835) and Johann Baptiste Cramer (1771-1858) plus a bonus Jane Austen-related work composed by Dario Marianelli (b. 1963).
Jeneba has chosen Händel’s Suite in B flat major/Menuet and his Suite in D minor/Allemande for inclusion on the recording. Jane Austen would have been very familiar with Händel’s music, as his works were regularly featured at the local music festival and several arrangements of his vocal works formed part of her family’s own personal music collection.
In showcasing Haydn, Jeneba performs the Piano Sonata in C major, first published in 1780 but only published in London in 1792. It is extra-special to Jeneba as a copy of this work in Jane Austen’s own hand appears in the Austen family music collection. It is therefore highly likely that the author herself performed this work.
As for music specifically referenced in Jane Austen’s work, Jeneba has included the Robin Adair Variations by British violinist and composer George Kiallmark, as mentioned in Jane Austen’s fourth novel ‘Emma’. This version of the Irish folk tune appears in the Austen family music collection, signed by Jane’s sister, Cassandra and is likely the version Jane would have had in mind when referencing the piece in her novel. Kiallmark was also someone well-known to the audiences of the local music festival, performing there in 1803 and 1805 and appointed by Jane’s teacher George Chard to be one of the principal instrumentalists at the event.
Johann Baptist Cramer was a famous English pianist and composer of German origin, some of whose music is also contained in the Austen family music collection. He is the only composer to be named by Jane Austen in all her novels (also in ‘Emma’, referenced there as “something quite new”). His Etude No. 3 in A minor, although not in the family collection, is a welcome addition, introducing early flares of romanticism into Jane Austen’s mostly very classical piano literature.
Finally, sitting alongside the music of the period is Dario Marianelli’s Dawn from his Oscar-nominated 2005 soundtrack to the film Pride and Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright. Jeneba has included it as a modern cinematic homage to Jane Austen’s world, bridging historical inspiration with contemporary interpretation, and also marking the 20th anniversary of the film.
About her new recording, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason notes: “I am an avid reader and from a very young age, I have thoroughly enjoyed Jane Austen’s novels and being immersed in the world that she inhabits. When I read her books, I always find myself imagining a soundtrack to each novel. Curating this collection has therefore been such a joy, as the music has all been in my head for a very long time.”