Sept. 26: Cellist Anastasia Kobekina Releases New Album of Bach's Cello Suites on Sony Classical – Suite No. 5 ‘Sarabande’ Out Today
Cellist Anastasia Kobekina Releases New Album of Bach's Cello Suites on Sony Classical
Cellist Anastasia Kobekina Records Bach’s Cello Suites
for New Album to be Released on Sony Classical
New Single: Suite No. 5 ‘Sarabande’ Out Today
Worldwide Release Date: September 26, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now
“There might not yet be as many recordings of Bach’s cello suites as there are stars in the sky, but there are certainly as many ways of interpreting this monumental music, both in performance and philosophically.”
An extraordinary two years for Anastasia Kobekina, who reaches a high point in September when Sony Classical releases the trailblazing cellist’s recording of Bach’s iconic Cello Suites on September 26, 2025. Pre-order is available now. Accompanying today’s announcement is the release of Suite No. 5 ‘Sarabande’ - listen here.
Kobekina’s career has been gathering momentum since her receipt in 2024 of both the Leonard Bernstein Award and an Opus Klassik Award and the release of the full length documentary ‘Jetzt oder nie!’ through ARD.
Taking on Bach’s set of six suites for solo cello – an Everest for cellists – she aims to open up ‘a shared space for interpretation, mine and yours.’ As with her previous album for Sony Classical, the hugely acclaimed Venice, Kobekina promises a fresh view of familiar music. She performs on period instruments, bringing a historically informed perspective to these iconic works.
Bach’s Cello Suites represent the music that has accompanied Kobekina the longest and which has performed most frequently. ‘The dialectic nature of Bach’s suites – their internal dialogue and contradictions – has always fascinated me,’ says
Kobekina. ‘The language is abstract, architectural, rational, logical, and at the same time passionate, emotional, and deeply personal to the performer.’
The works themselves represent the baroque composer’s most inwardly concentrated and revered music. Each consists of a prelude and a suite of dance movements. Adding to the work’s iconic status is the mystery behind its creation. No autograph score exists – only a copy, in the hand of Anna Magdalena Bach, the composer’s second wife – while the work’s original recipient remains unknown.
Kobekina studied baroque cello with Kristin von der Goltz in Frankfurt. Her singular intelligence is brought to bear on Bach’s suites, which increasingly straddle the realms of classical art and popular culture. Courtesy of her ‘almost overwhelming sincerity’ (The Strad) and her formidable musicianship, Kobekina’s playing reaches beyond technique into the realms of direct communication. ‘At times,’ wrote Gramophone of her album Venice, ‘you forget you are listening to a cello at all.’
Kobekina is a former BBC New Generation Artist and Borletti-Butoni Trust Artist, and signed to Sony Classical in 2024. In February 2025, the German television channel ARD broadcast a four-part documentary about her, Anastasia Kobekina: Now or Never. She returns to the BBC Proms in London this summer, having debuted in 2024, when she also made her first appearance with the Czech Philharmonic under its Music Director, Jakub Hrůša. In the summer of 2025, Kobekina will be artist-in-residence at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Beethovenfest Bonn.
‘She is the embodiment of grace.’
Le Monde
‘Kobekina plays with gorgeous elegance and effortlessly wide lines’
Der Tagesspiegel
DOCUMENTARY ‘JETZT ODER NIE’ WATCH HERE
ANASTASIA KOBEKINA LIVE DATES
July –September Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele (Residency), Germany
July 5 Wonderfeel, Netherlands
July 24 Gstaad, Switzerland
July 26-August 1 Verbier Festival, Switzerland
August 2-3 Schleswig-Holstein-Musikfestival, Germany
August 7 Rheingau-Musikfestival, Germany
August 8 BBC Proms, London, UK
August 22 Wismar, Germany
August 24 France
August 27 Helsinki, Finland
Sept 5 Musikfest Bremen, Germany
Sept 6-21 Beethoven Festival, Bonn (Residency), Germany
Sept 10 BBC Proms, London, UK
Sept 27 Wigmore Hall, London, UK
Sept 29 Canterbury, UK
Sept 30 Leicester, UK
WEBSITE
https://www.kobekina.info
Sept. 5: Jonas Kaufmann Releases New Album Doppelgänger on Sony Classical with Long-Time Pianist Helmut Deutsch
Jonas Kaufmann Releases New Album Doppelgänger on Sony Classical with Long-Time Pianist Helmut Deutsch
Sony Classical Presents Doppelgänger
New Album by Jonas Kaufmann
New Single Out Today
Dichterliebe: Im wunderschönen Monat Mai – Listen Here
Jonas Kaufmann presents central works of the German Lied repertoire together with his long-time collaborator at the piano, Helmut Deutsch
Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Kerner Lieder on CD
Plus a spectacular staging of Franz Schubert’s Schwanengesang on DVD
Album Release Date: September 5, 2025
Pre-Order is Available Now
Just like the album Selige Stunde, the recordings of Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Kerner Lieder were made during the first COVID lockdown in 2020. In retrospect, the circumstances were as bizarre as they were artistically creative, and, according to Helmut Deutsch, “made the recordings feel almost like ‘domestic music-making’, which is very different from the usually austere atmosphere of a concert hall or a studio.” For Jonas Kaufmann, it was a welcome opportunity to intensively engage with Dichterliebe once again: “It is an incredible stroke of luck to be able to sing this song cycle both as a young and as a mature singer. Dichterliebe is unique and unparalleled in the entire Lied repertoire.”
Kaufmann had already worked on the famous song cycle during his student years in Munich, while attending Helmut Deutsch’s Lied class. His piano accompanist at the time was Jan Philip Schulze, who is now Professor of Art Song Interpretation at the Hanover University of Music; together, they presented the final result at a recital, which was also recorded. Jonas Kaufmann has chosen six songs from this previously unreleased recording, made in March 1994, as bonus tracks for the Schumann CD – a fascinating contrast to the 2020 recording. Sony Classical will release Kaufmann’s new recording, titled Doppelgänger, on September 5, 2025 – pre-order is available now. Accompanying today’s announcement is the single Dichterliebe: Im wunderschönen Monat Mai – listen here.
Unlike Heinrich Heine’s ingenious texts in Dichterliebe, the poems of Justinus Kerner (1786–1862) were viewed rather critically by some of his contemporaries. “His poems may not be the greatest on their own,” Jonas Kaufmann points out, “but they become something very special when combined with Schumann’s incredibly expressive music.” Especially when it comes to the last two songs of the cycle, “Wer machte dich so krank” and “Alte Laute,” one has to be rather hard-hearted to remain unmoved.
In over 30 years of working together, Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch have performed Schubert’s song cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise many times. However, it wasn’t until 2023 that they decided to perform Schwanengesang. Their hesitation stemmed from the fact that it is not a real song cycle “but rather a collection of Schubert’s last songs left behind in a manuscript and subsequently described by the publisher as Schubert’s swan song, i.e. a dying man’s last utterance,” states Jonas Kaufmann. “From today’s perspective, the whole thing would more likely be described as a collection put together by a publisher. But Claus Guth’s staging has now turned it into a genuine cycle.”
Claus Guth, one of the world’s most renowned theatre directors whose work encompasses stagings for the Salzburg Festival as well as opera houses in London, Vienna and New York, presented Schwanengesang as the story of a wounded soldier during the First World War: in the former Drill Hall of the historic Park Avenue Armory in New York, dancers portrayed nurses and war invalids on a huge stage filled with seventy hospital beds. Kaufmann’s intense portrayal of the protagonist, the musical dialogue with Helmut Deutsch, the sophisticated use of lighting, and electronic soundscapes resulted in a performance that was enthusiastically received by audience and press alike.
“The theatrical force of this scene was so strong that the audience let out an audible gasp of shock,” wrote The New York Times. And Theatermania stated: “Doppelganger is awesome experimental theater on a grand scale … There’s really nothing like it in New York right now.” The New York production also marked Helmut Deutsch’s début as a solo pianist: playing the “Andante sostenuto” from Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B-flat major, D 960, he created a haunting moment of repose in the middle of the performance.
For both musicians, this production was an experience that had a lasting impact. “The staging added a new dimension. It is certainly far more than anyone could have imagined for this song cycle,” says Jonas Kaufmann. “For me, the shadow of the plane that swept over us was an extraordinary moment. It was very oppressive, and we could vividly imagine how the people who were constantly exposed to such attacks from the air at that time must have felt. For the audience, the most powerful moment was probably the final scene, when I, close to death, walk into the light and the heavy gate of the Armory Hall suddenly opens onto Lexington Avenue: you see pedestrians and cars, and hear the street noise. Many audience members have described this intrusion of reality into the stage action as an unforgettable experience.”
Jonas Kaufmann Concert Calendar: https://jonaskaufmann.com/kalender/
Oct. 10: Eydís Evensen Announces Oceanic Mirror New Album to be Released on XXIM Records – New Single Helena's Sunrise Out Now
Eydís Evensen Announces Oceanic Mirror New Album to be Released on XXIM Records – New Single Helena's Sunrise Out Now
© Einar Egilsson
Pianist and Composer Eydís Evensen Announces Oceanic Mirror
New Album to be Released on XXIM Records
New Single: Helena’s Sunrise Out Now
Listen Here | Watch the Music Video
Worldwide Album Release Date: October 10, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now
Icelandic pianist and post-classical composer Eydís Evensen announces her third studio album Oceanic Mirror to be released October 10, 2025 on XXIM Records – pre-order is available now. Holding the promise of what lies in store, she unveils Helena’s Sunrise - the first of its thirteen pieces which reflect the human experience through sonic translations of the ocean’s secrets. Alongside the album announcement, she also announces a series of international tour dates, inviting audiences to experience the music live. Tickets are available here.
Turbulent and beyond prediction; serene and spiritually transformative - Oceanic Mirror captures the ocean in all its power, movement and contradictions to speak to truths which transcend language. Listening to this album reawakens you what you knew all along; the things that the pace of our lives can lead us to forget. Loss, reincarnation, the cycles of life and nature: Evensen’s compositions share elemental lessons which we can bring on our own voyages across troubled waters.
Helena‘s Sunrise is the dawning of hope - a reminder of how the ocean’s expansive beauty can set our minds at ease. Married to swelling strings and the swoon of woodwinds which mirror the flutter of our hearts, Evensen’s music is the soundtrack to our own stories. The video is a summer’s day in technicolour: Evensen is living in an idyll where the ocean has never been more brilliant.
Another powerful aspect of Oceanic Mirror is the inclusion of compelling artistic collaborators, whose contributions expand Evensen’s sound world in unexpected and resonant ways.
It follows on from her 2021 debut Bylur and its 2023 successor The Light - each an excavation of elemental truths told through nature. As an Icelandic artist, Evensen has spent her life awed and humbled by its lessons; her music teaches these to us without having to speak a word.
TOUR DATES
July 8 – Gent Jazz Festival
October 17 - Berlin - Silent Green
October 20 - Brussels - Royal Circus, The Club
October 22 - Hamburg - Elbphilharmonie, Kleiner Saal
October 24 - Paris - Les Trois Baudets
October 28 – Tivoli - Cloud 9
November 13 - NYC - Le Poisson Rouge
November 15 - Montreal - Gesu
November 16 - Toronto - Great Hall
November 18 - Evanston, Chicago - Space
November 20 - Seattle - Woodlawn Hall
November 23 - LA - Masonic Lodge @ Hollywood Forever
More information - https://www.eydis-evensen.com/concerts
© Einar Egilsson
XXIM Records (Twenty One M) is headquartered in Berlin. It is predominantly devoted to innovative, progressive instrumental music, offering a bespoke home to a new generation of artists whose work explores and integrates, among other realms, neo-classical, post-rock, electronic and ambient sounds. At the heart of XXIM’s ethos lie experimentation and collaboration, with the ultimate goal of providing a solid platform for the creative development of the label’s impressive international roster of unusually talented musicians. www.xximrecords.com
Sony Classical Celebrates 90th Birthday of Visionary American Composer Terry Riley with Terry Riley - The Columbia Recordings - Out August 22
Sony Classical Celebrates 90th Birthday of Visionary American Composer Terry Riley with Terry Riley - The Columbia Recordings - Out August 22
SONY CLASSICAL CELEBRATES THE 90TH BIRTHDAY OF
VISIONARY AMERICAN COMPOSER TERRY RILEY
WITH THE RELEASE OF
TERRY RILEY – THE COLUMBIA RECORDINGS
ON AUGUST 22, 2025 | PRE-ORDER NOW
THE DEFINITIVE REISSUE OF TERRY RILEY’S PIONEERING WORKS
PACKAGED IN A NEW FOUR-DISC SET HIGHLIGHTING HIS REVOLUTIONARY RECORDINGS
IN C / A RAINBOW IN CURVED AIR / CHURCH OF ANTHRAX / SHRI CAMEL
PLUS A 50-PAGE BOOKLET WITH RARE STUDIO PHOTOS AND ESSAYS
One of the most consequential musicians of the 20th century – the visionary American composer Terry Riley – is celebrated with the Sony Classical release of Terry Riley – The Columbia Recordings. Set for release on August 22 and available for pre-order now, the four-disc box set includes Terry Riley’s unique recordings for Columbia Masterworks between 1968 and 1980 that changed the direction and expanded the range of late 20th-century music.
Terry Riley – The Columbia Recordings box set includes the albums In C (1968); A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969); Church of Anthrax (1971, in collaboration with John Cale of the Velvet Underground); and Shri Camel (1980), all made for Columbia Masterworks at a time when the label was boldly embracing new directions in American music. This collection offers an essential document of Riley’s most transformative period when the pulse of innovation met the possibilities of high-fidelity sound.
In addition to all four complete recordings and rarely seen archival photographs from recording sessions in Columbia’s fabled 30th Street Studios in Manhattan, Terry Riley – The Columbia Recordings includes a 50-page booklet featuring first-hand reflections from David Behrman, the original producer of In C and A Rainbow in Curved Air; and an essay by Thomas M. Welsh, Terry Riley’s longtime manager and archivist; and reprints of all essays and notes from the original vinyl releases.
“The magic of Terry Riley’s music derives from many worlds, among them the minimalist world, the indeterminate world, and the music of the world,” Grammy-nominated producer and former Sony Masterworks executive Tom Laskey wrote in his essay for Terry Riley – The Columbia Recordings. “And the way it all fuses together creates its own world. And like going to a new world, maybe it’s awkward at first. And then, maybe, it’s like you’ve lived there all your life. Or maybe your experience of listening to Terry’s music is like mine: it’s not the world I live in, but when I visit, I don’t want to leave.”
Terry Riley, a Californian who celebrates his 90th birthday in June, is widely regarded as the father of minimalist music, particularly because of the electrifying, global impact that In C had when the recording was released in 1968 as a part of Columbia’s Music of Our Time series.
The composer’s ideas had an immediate impact on other innovators in the 1960s, a group that included Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and La Monte Young, all eventually recognized as key figures in the minimalist movement. (Young was an early friend and collaborator of Riley’s, and Reich was among the performers in the original concert performance of In C.) Modern jazz and Indian classical music were basic influences on Riley’s work, as well as the potential in improvisation and the expressive possibilities in tape and electronic music.
It was the impact of the recording of In C – perhaps because it revealed to a mass audience such an epic, indescribable but mesmerizing new musical expression – signaled a turning point in 20th-century music, a rare instance when the avant garde and a liberated audience converged in a popular commercial success for a musical visionary with a major American record label.
Terry Riley’s rich musical life has continued through the decades to explore the potential of his musical ideas, building on the early success and his four seminal recordings for Columbia Masterworks.
TERRY RILEY – THE COLUMBIA RECORDINGS - SET CONTENTS:
DISC 1 - CD
1 In C (2009 Remastered)
DISC 2 – CD
1 A Rainbow in Curved Air
2 Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band
3 A Rainbow in the Curved Air (Radio Spot) (Bonus Track)
DISC 3 – CD
1 Church of Anthrax
2 The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles
3 The Soul of Patrick Lee
4 Ides of March
5 The Protégé
DISC 4 – CD
1 Anthem of the Trinity
2 Celestial Valley
3 Across the Lake of the Ancient World
4 Desert of Ice
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/.
Sony Classical Celebrates Composer John Williams with Historic 3-Volume Set including Soundtracks from First Three Star Wars Films - Available for Pre-Order May 4
Sony Classical Celebrates Composer John Williams with Historic 3-Volume Set including Soundtracks from First Three Star Wars Films
Sony Classical Celebrates Composer John Williams
With a Historic 3-Volume Set to be Released Throughout 2025 in Celebration of his Extraordinary Career
John Williams: The Anthology – Vol. 1 1969-1990
First Volume of this 3-Part Anthology Showcasing Williams’ Acclaimed Film Scores from 1969 to 1990
Available July 18, 2025
The 22-Disc First Volume Includes Original Soundtrack Recordings of the First Three Star Wars Films, Jaws, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the First Two Indiana Jones Adventures, Superman, and 18 Other Films
(MAY 4 – NEW YORK, NY) Sony Classical embarks on a definitive, one-of-a-kind celebration of the music of five-time-Oscar®-winning composer John Williams, with the release of John Williams: The Anthology. The three-volume comprehensive collection will be released as three individual box sets throughout 2025. It will encompass the seven-decade career of the most popular and admired composer of his time, plus feature many of the maestro’s original soundtrack recordings and concert music recordings.
John Williams: The Anthology – Vol. 1 1969-1990 is set for release on July 18th and available now preorder. The 22 discs in Volume 1 showcase Williams’ music for 27 films that established him as one of the most influential and imaginative composers in the history of film music. They include his unforgettable scores for the first three Star Wars films, Jaws, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the first two Indiana Jones adventures, Superman and a range of others from The Reivers (1969) to Home Alone (1990).
Three of the scores included in this first volume – Jaws (1975), Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – won Williams the Academy Award® for Best Original Score. Fifteen more Oscar® nominations were accorded to other scores in Volume 1, as well as five BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globes and 14 Grammy® Awards.
“I have often said that without John Williams, bicycles do not fly, nor do brooms in Quidditch matches or heroes in red capes. Dinosaurs do not walk the earth. Sharks do not terrorize idyllic summer beaches. And Jedi do not return,” the director Steven Spielberg, the composer’s most frequent collaborator, writes in the foreword for this collection.
“Without the magic of John Williams, audiences do not wonder, or weep, or believe. Whether in an elegant concert hall or a darkened cinema, John’s music is instantly recognizable both for its emotional power and its ability to tap into our collective unconscious… to inspire us, to captivate us, and to illuminate our shared journey through the human experience.”
This historic box set retrospective will be completed later this year with the releases of John Williams: The Anthology – Vol. 2 1991-2008 and John Williams: The Anthology – Vol. 3 2011-2022. All three volumes combined will comprise a magnificent 75-disc collection celebrating the most beloved composer of our time.
JOHN WILLIAMS: THE ANTHOLOGY – VOL. 1 1969-1990
SET CONTENTS:
DISC 1: THE REIVERS
DISC 2: THE COWBOYS
DISC 3: EARTHQUAKE + THE TOWERING INFERNO
DISC 4: JAWS + JAWS 2
DISC 5: STAR WARS (EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE)
DISC 6: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
DISC 7: THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS + 1941
DISC 8: THE FURY
DISC 9: SUPERMAN
DISC 10: DRACULA + MONSIGNOR
DISC 11: STAR WARS (EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK)
DISC 12: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
DISC 13: E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL
DISC 14: STAR WARS (EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI)
DISC 15: INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM
DISC 16: SPACECAMP
DISC 17: THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK
DISC 18: EMPIRE OF THE SUN
DISC 19: THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST
DISC 20: INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE
DISC 21: BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY + Always
DISC 22: HOME ALONE
ABOUT JOHN WILLIAMS
John Williams began his career in Hollywood in the 1950s, as a studio musician as well as a composer, while also writing music for television. In the mid-1960s, he began scoring major Hollywood films. His rise coincided with that of Steven Spielberg, and the partnership of the two is unique in film history – all but three of the feature films Spielberg has directed since 1974 have had scores by Williams.
The composer is the second-most nominated person (after Walt Disney) in the 97-year history of the Academy Awards. In addition to his five Oscars – out of 54 career nominations – he has won 26 Grammy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, five Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. When he was 91 years of age, Williams became oldest nominee in Oscar history with his nomination for Best Original Score for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
John Williams is also a recipient the Kennedy Center Honor (2004), the National Medal of the Arts (2009) and was the only composer to receive the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award (2016). Among his many other honors, he was named by Queen Elizabeth II an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) for “services to film music.”
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
Sony Classical Signs World-Renowned Pianist Alexander Malofeev
Sony Classical Signs World-Renowned Pianist Alexander Malofeev
“…His intensity overwhelms…[he] makes a monumentally thunderous impression with his music…” – The Los Angeles Times
Sony Classical is thrilled to announce the exclusive signing of world renowned pianist Alexander Malofeev. His debut album for Sony Classical is expected in the fall.
The twenty-three-year-old Berlin-based musician has quickly emerged as one of the most prominent pianists of his generation, captivating audiences and garnering high praises from critics. The Guardian noted of him: “Malofeev doesn’t just play the notes; he brings every phrase to life as if it tells something entirely new...” Der Standard in Austria described his 2022 debut at the world-famous Musikverein as a: “world piano revolution.”
On the signing of this exclusive agreement with Alexander Malofeev, Per Hauber, President, Sony Classical noted: “Alexander Malofeev is undoubtedly one of the most exciting pianists of his generation. Despite his young age, he can already look back on an impressive career on stage. We believe the time has now come for him to embark on his career in the recording studio. With his unique debut album and many more ideas for the future, we can look forward to a brilliant recording career for Alexander Malofeev. Sony Classical is very proud to be his exclusive partner for this.”
Alexander Malofeev added: “In Sony Classical, I have found the right place to bring my personal recording vision to life - with genuine trust, openness and a shared sense of artistic curiosity. Recording for me is about capturing a moment that feels magical and honest. It’s an exciting beginning."
Malofeev gained international attention when in 2014, he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians aged just thirteen with high praise including: “…an incredible maturity. Crystal clear sounds and perfect balance revealed his exceptional ability” (Amadeus). Since then, he has performed with many leading orchestras around the world, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala and many more.
Alexander Malofeev regularly works with some of the most distinguished conductors of the day, including Charles Dutoit, Michael Tilson Thomas, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, JoAnn Falletta and Riccardo Chailly, who has said of him: “he is very young but already possesses depth and technical abilities…”. As well as performing on leading stages internationally, Malofeev has been a guest at world-famous music festivals such as Verbier Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival and Aspen Music Festival (USA), among others.
Renowned for his virtuosic technique and profound musical expressiveness, Malofeev's exceptional talent has also been recognized with numerous awards and prizes. In addition to his first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, he won the Grand Prix at the 1st International Competition for Young Pianists Grand Piano. In 2017, he became the first Yamaha Young Artist.
Gramophone’s Mark Pullinger reviewing a 2022 Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra concert from the city’s Alte Oper – where Malofeev stepped in for the indisposed original soloist - wrote that: “Alexander Malofeev…played a truly exciting rendition of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, displaying glittering dexterity, expansive rubatos and a demonic first movement cadenza.”
Official Channels
Alexander Malofeev: Official Website
Alexander Malofeev: On YouTube
Alexander Malofeev: On Instagram
Alexander Malofeev: On Facebook
OUT TODAY: Marcin and Hayato Sumino Unite On New Song I Wish – Out Today via Sony Music Masterworks
OUT TODAY: Marcin and Hayato Sumino Unite On New Song I Wish – Out Today via Sony Music Masterworks
Single Artwork (Download)
Marcin and Hayato Sumino Unite On New Song
I Wish
Out Today via Sony Music Masterworks
Listen Here | Watch Here
The superstar guitarist and piano virtuoso deliver a new take on the Stevie Wonder classic
Guitar wunderkind Marcin and pianist-composer extraordinaire Hayato Sumino today release their new collaboration, a cover of Stevie Wonder’s 1976 Billboard No. 1 hit song, I Wish via Sony Music Masterworks – LISTEN HERE. Each a social media sensation with millions of followers tuning in to their captivating live performances, the two artists recorded the song live in-studio in Tokyo, their unique instrumental arrangement blending elements of jazz, funk, R&B, and soul in a showcase of their distinctive playing styles. Today’s track arrives alongside an accompanying music video for I Wish – WATCH HERE.
“Working with Hayato on I Wish was one of the most challenging and fun experiences,” notes Marcin. “We arranged the song in about two hours at Hayato’s studio in Tokyo, and two days later we were already recording it live in the studio! It was the first time I was tracking a true, live, jazz-style performance with another artist and Hayato is such a beast! I knew how crazy he was on the piano before, but actually seeing how he worked in the studio was so inspiring for me. Take 12 is the one that we used. It’s a fun and pure piece of music – just two friends from completely different continents jamming in a studio.
"I’m beyond excited to collaborate with my friend, the incredibly unique and charismatic guitarist, Marcin,” exclaims Hayato Sumino. “The blend of guitar and piano isn’t something you hear every day, which makes this project even more thrilling. The chemistry between us was absolutely electric!"
ABOUT HAYATO SUMINO
Hayato Sumino, known as ‘Cateen’, is an exceptional artistic phenomenon with nearly 1.5 million followers globally and over 200 million views on YouTube. His participation in the 2021 International Chopin Competition, where he reached the semifinals, caused a sensation, garnering over 8.5 million views on YouTube. In April 2024, Sumino made a spectacular debut at the Royal Albert Hall with his performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” capturing the spotlight both online and in the concert hall. His debut Sony Classical album, Human Universe, released in November 2024 to critical acclaim, showcases his multi-faceted talents with a diverse selection of works ranging from Bach, Handel, and Chopin to film composers like Hans Zimmer and Ryuichi Sakamoto, as well as Sumino’s own compositions and arrangements. A prodigious composer, Sumino effortlessly combines his diverse musical interests, spanning classical, jazz, film music, post-classical, and electronica. He is also in high demand for film and TV scores in Japan and is rapidly becoming a leading figure among the next generation of musicians for whom genre borders are no obstacle. This year, Sumino is set to make his performance debut at the Hollywood Bowl on July 22 and Carnegie Hall on November 18, further solidifying his rise on the global music scene.
CONNECT WITH HAYATO SUMINO:
Website | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | X
HAYATO SUMINO 2025 TOUR DATES
JAPAN
Thurs, March 20 | Tokyo, JP | Sumida Triphony Hall
Sat, March 22 | Tokyo, JP | Suntory Hall
Sat, April 5 | Kanagawa, JP | K Arena Yokohama
Fri, April 11 | Aichi, JP | Aichi Prefectural Art Theater
Sat, April 12 | Aichi, JP | Aichi Prefectural Art Theater
Sun, May 4 | Tokyo, JP | Suntory Hall
Mon, May 5 | Tokyo, JP | Suntory Hall
Tues, May 6 | Tokyo, JP | Suntory Hall
Fri, May 9 | Miyagi, JP | Hitachi Systems Hall Sendai
Sat, May 10 | Miyagi, JP | Hitachi Systems Hall Sendai
Thurs, May 15 | Ishikawa, JP | Ishikawa Ongakudo
Tues, May 27 | Tochigi, JP | Utsunomiya Bunkakaikan
Wed, May 28 | Tokyo, JP | Suntory Hall
Mon, September 15 | Kanagawa, JP | Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall
Tues, September 16 | Tokyo, JP | Suntory Hall
Thurs, September 18 | Aichi, JP | Aichi Prefectural Art Theater
Sat, September 20 | Saitama, JP | Tokorozawa Cultural Center
TAIWAN
Sun, April 25 | Taipei, TW | National Theater & Concert Hall
NORTH AMERICA
Sat, March 29 | Washington, DC | Blues Alley
Sun, March 30 | Washington, DC | Blues Alley
Tues, July 22 | Los Angeles, CA | Hollywood Bowl
Sun, November 16 | Chicago, IL | Concert Hall at Symphony Hall
Tues, November 18 | New York, NY | Carnegie Hall
EUROPE
Tues, June 3 | Bergen, NO | Toldsalen
Sun, June 8 | Warsaw, PL | NFM, Sala Czerwona ORLEN
Mon, June 30 | Ruhr, DE | Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr Great Hall
Fri, July 4 | Rheinfelden, CH | Hotel Schützen
Sat, July 5 | Rheinfelden, CH | City Church of St. Martin
Fri, July 18 | Lübeck, DE | Musik-und Kongresshalle, Konzertsaal
Fri, August 22 | Amsterdam, NL | The Concertgebouw
Sun, November 2 | Brussels, BE | Bozar
ABOUT MARCIN
Named “one of the most talented guitarists of his generation” by Guitar World, Marcin is one of the pioneers of a new percussive style, rooted in flamenco and classical. With nods from Rolling Stone, Billboard, Guitar World, Premier Guitar and more, plus a performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and his first-ever cover for Total Guitar, Marcin continues to captivate millions of fans and followers with his show-stopping guitar style across multiple platforms. In a few short yet explosive years, Marcin’s virtuosic technique has been championed by the likes of Tom Morello, Paul Stanley, Madonna, BTS’ Jungkook, Timbaland, Ty Dolla $ign and Wyclef Jean, to name a few. In 2022, Marcin launched a signature guitar with Ibanez Guitars as ambassador for the Japanese brand. The electrifying performances by this Polish-born musician extend far beyond the screen, with his first global headlining tour selling out across Asia and Europe in weeks. Marcin now gears up to take his debut album, Dragon in Harmony (Sony Masterworks), on the road with his first-ever North American headline tour kicking off in September – tickets on sale now.
CONNECT WITH MARCIN:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube
MARCIN – SOLO DRAGON
2025 HEADLINE TOUR DATES
EUROPE
Mon, March 17 | Paris, France | La Maroquinerie
Tues, March 18 | London, UK | Islington Assembly Hall
Thurs, March 20 | Birmingham, UK | O2 Institute2 Birmingham
Fri, March 21 | Manchester, UK | Gorilla
Sun, March 23 | Dublin, IE | The Button Factory
Tues, March 25 | Bristol, UK | The Lantern
Wed, March 26 | Brighton, UK | Dukes at Komedia Picturehouse
Thurs, March 27 | Amsterdam, NL | Melkweg
Sat, March 29 | Brussels, BE | La Madeleine
Mon, March 31 | Stuttgart, DE | Im Wizemann
Wed, April 2 | Frankfurt, DE | Das Bett
Thurs, April 3 | Cologne, DE | Club Volta
Sat, April 5 | Hamburg, DE | KENT Club
Sun, April 6 | Berlin, DE | Gretchen
Mon, April 7 | Vienna, AT | WUK
Wed, April 9 | Prague, CZ |Palác Akropolis
Thurs, April 10 | Munich, DE | Backstage
Sat, April 12 | Rome, IT | MONK Rome
Sun, April 13 | Milan, IT | Legend Club
Mon, April 14 | Zurich, CH | Papiersaal
Wed, April 16 | Barcelona, ES | La Nau
Thurs, April 17 | Madrid, ES | Sala Villanos
Fri, April 18 | Lisbon, PT | LAV – Lisboa Ao Vivo
TURKEY
Wed, May 14 | Ankara, TR | Yenimahalle Nazim Hikmet Kültür Merkezi
Thurs, May 15 | Izmir, TR | Ahmed Adnan Saygun Sanat Merkezi
Fri, May 16 | Istanbul, TR | Zorlu PSM
NORTH AMERICA
Mon, June 30 | Montreal, QC | Montreal Jazz Festival
Sun, September 1 | Vancouver, BC | The Pearl
Mon, September 2 | Seattle, WA | Washington Hall
Tues, September 3 | Portland, OR | Aladdin Theatre
Thurs, September 5 |San Francisco, CA |Bimbo's 365 Club
Fri, September 6 | Los Angeles, CA | Fonda Theatre
Sun, September 8 | Denver, CO | Meow Wolf
Tues, September 10 | Minneapolis, MN | Fine Line Café
Wed, September 11 | Chicago, IL | Park West
Fri, September 13 | Quebec City, QC | Palais Montcalm
Sat, September 14 | Toronto, ON | The Concert Hall
Tues, September 16 | Boston, MA | Royale
Wed, September 17 | New York, NY | Irving Plaza
Fri, September 19 | Washington, DC | Howard Theatre
April 25: Composer Thomas Newman Records His First Ever Ballet Score Of Mice And Men – to be Released on Sony Classical
April 25: Composer Thomas Newman Records His First Ever Ballet Score Of Mice And Men – to be Released on Sony Classical
Composer Thomas Newman Records His First Ever Ballet Score Of Mice And Men
to be Released on Sony Classical
Album Release Date: April 25, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now
From Academy Award-nominated and GRAMMY Award-winning composer Thomas Newman (The Shawshank Redemption, American Beauty, Skyfall) comes the premiere recording of his debut ballet score, Of Mice and Men. Composed for The Joffrey Ballet’s critically acclaimed 2022 production and choreographed by Cathy Marston, Newman’s evocative music explores themes of loneliness and the aspiration for a new life in the face of hardship. The Sony Classical album will be released on April 25, 2025 and is available for pre-order now. Accompanying today's announcement is the release of the single Bucking Grain - listen here.
“One of the things that has always interested me about writing music for film is a sense of empathy towards characters and an ability to relate to story,” says Newman. “So, in some ways it's not much different working on a ballet based upon a classic novel, because I still have to put myself in the mindset of a place and time, and have the music express character, as much as that character is going to be expressed through bodily movement.”
Of the working relationship with Thomas Newman, choreographer Cathy Marston says, “we had a fabulous collaboration that extended over two years due to the pandemic, with almost weekly Zooms. I was struck by how he uses textures I’ve not discovered with other composers—it wasn’t just about rhythm, tempo, and melody, but about the music’s role in storytelling. There were no shortcuts with him. I was amazed by the intimate working relationship we could build, even over a screen.”
Newman’s score incorporates elements of folk music, designed to fit both the characters and the world they inhabit. “California still evokes a feeling of dust and weeds, but it’s not quite Texas or the South,” Newman explains. “At the same time, you accept these sounds—high string guitars, mandolins, and country fiddle—as part of the story. It’s about finding groove and rhythm that best express the movement and emotion of the piece." Newman himself conducts the recording which features full symphony orchestra and instrumental solos from collaborators Steve Tavaglione, George Doering, Luanne Homzy and Rick Cox.
Thomas Newman is an acclaimed composer best known for his scores for more than eighty film and television projects including The Shawshank Redemption, Angels in America, Little Women, American Beauty, Finding Nemo, Skyfall, 1917, Scent of a Woman, WALL-E, Bridge of Spies and Elemental. His work has earned him numerous nominations and awards, including fifteen Academy Award nominations and six Grammy Awards.
Of Mice and Men had its world premiere at The Joffrey Ballet in Chicago in 2022, choreographed by Cathy Marston. The ballet, inspired by John Steinbeck’s novel, explores the themes of friendship, loneliness, and the American Dream. The production received widespread acclaim. The score, nearly an hour of music in total, comprises 16 short movements.
May 30: Anna Lapwood Unveils Firedove New Album to be Released on Sony Classical – First Single Limina Luminis Out Today
Anna Lapwood Unveils Firedove New Album to be Released on Sony Classical
Anna Lapwood Unveils Firedove
New Album to be Released on Sony Classical
First Single Limina Luminis
Out Today - Listen
Album Release Date: May 30, 2025
Pre-Order Now
One of the most gifted and visionary artists of her generation, Anna Lapwood, releases her brand-new album, Firedove, May 30, 2025 on Sony Classical. Pre-order is available now. It is the follow-up to Lapwood's acclaimed album Luna.
The lead track is the captivating Limina Luminis, commissioned for and first performed at the 2023 BBC Proms, composed for Anna by Italian composer Olivia Belli. The single is out today – listen here.
“This piece was part of my first solo recital at the BBC Proms, and I’ve played it in nearly every concert since, because I love it so much.” Anna says.
Already renowned for introducing the organ to new generations of music fans through her extraordinary interpretations of both classical and contemporary works, Anna Lapwood has become known to millions through viral TikTok videos, high-profile collaborations an sold-out live concerts.
Anna recorded her new album Firedove through the night at Nidaros Cathedral, a spectacular Gothic masterpiece founded in the 11th century in Trondheim, Norway.
“I wanted to create an album where the listener doesn’t quite know where it’s going to go next,” Lapwood says. “There are lots of little easter eggs in there that you wouldn’t expect – even the first appearance of the choir – and a through-line of flight and spreading wings, because this does feel as though I’ve found what I want to say as an artist. I’m very proud of it.”
Firedove effortlessly demonstrates Anna’s open-minded approach to music, one where a Vierne scherzo can sit alongside a rendition of Robbie Williams’ Angels, and Maurice Duruflé’s Prelude and Fugue with Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love.
The repertoire choices on her album clearly indicate that it is Anna’s most personal record to date. She is no stranger to blending classical music with pop having performed with RAYE, Florence & The Machine & Aurora, even finding time to give Tom Cruise an impromptu organ lesson during a late-night rehearsal at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Anna was appointed Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridgeshire when she was 21, the youngest person ever to hold that position at either an Oxford or Cambridge University College. Now, nine years later, she is stepping down to pursue her live and recording career full time.
On Firedove Anna Lapwood brings a breath of fresh air into classical musical making. “Since I started focusing on the music I loved and stopped worrying about what others felt I ‘should’ be doing, I have fallen in love with the organ again in a completely new way” she says.
The results are staggering, and Anna’s intense musical passion is evident throughout Firedove. An intoxicating listen.
Firedove Track list
1. Bells of Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim
2. The Bells of Notre Dame (from Hunchback of Notre Dame Soundtrack) | Alan Menken
3. Time (From Inception Soundtrack) | Hans Zimmer
4. Flight - Intro | Rachel Portman
5. Flight | Rachel Portman
6. Limina Luminis | Olivia Belli
7. Firedove | Julie Cooper
8. Come to me | Ivo Antognini
9. Make You Feel My Love | Bob Dylan
10. Angels | Robbie Williams, Guy Chambers
11. Northern Lights | Ola Gjeilo
12. Murmurations | Poppy Ackroyd
13. Naiades | Louis Vierne
14. Prelude et fugue sur le nom d'Alain Op.7 : I Prelude | Hania Rani
15. Glass | Maurice Duruflé
16. Prelude et fugue sur le nom d'Alain Op.7 : II Fugue | Maurice Duruflé
May 9: Pentatonix Powerhouse Kevin Olusola Announces Debut Solo Album Dawn Of A Misfit on Sony Music Masterworks – Debut Single & Music Video Out Now
May 9: Pentatonix Powerhouse Kevin Olusola Announces Debut Solo Album Dawn Of A Misfit on Sony Music Masterworks – Debut Single & Music Video Out Now
Album Artwork (Download)
Pentatonix Powerhouse Kevin Olusola Announces Debut Solo Album Dawn Of A Misfit
Singer, Cellist, and Beatboxer Shares
Debut Single and Music Video for Dark Winter
Listen | Watch
Kevin Olusola, the dynamic singer, cellist, and beatboxer best known for his work with the 3x-GRAMMY® Award-winning a cappella group Pentatonix, will release his debut solo album, Dawn of a Misfit, on May 9, 2025 via Sony Music Masterworks. The record is available to pre-order and pre-save here.
The multi-faceted artist previews his new LP with the electrifying lead single Dark Winter, out now, which blends samples from Vivaldi's Four Seasons and symphonic strings with Olusola's potent beatbox percussion, 808s & elastic R&B hooks."
The song introduces a bit of edge for a musician often recognized for exuberant joy—and the music video for Dark Winter directed by Ron Jaramillo, follows in that spirit, following Olusola and his “Misfit Mafia” as they destroy objects from the classical tradition, including cellos, paintings, and statues. “My misfits and I are completely demolishing them,” Olusola says. “We don’t have to destroy the past, but we have to break the things that have been traditional or stereotyped in us to become exactly who we’re called to be. I want to shatter boundaries, only to bring all the pieces back together with a newfound harmony.” The official music video for Dark Winter is out now – watch here
Dawn of a Misfit follows two EPs: The Renegade, which explored classical music and celloboxing, and Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, which delved more into pop influences. This new LP seamlessly blends elements from both projects while continuing to expand his already-vast musical canvas. Dawn of a Misfit draws on his classical virtuosity and the graceful soulfulness of his vocals, partly fueled by his Nigerian and Grenadian heritage. While recording the new album, he was influenced by a diverse range of artists, including Sting, multi-hyphenate artist Jon Batiste, Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, American singer and actor Harry Belafonte, country-rap artist Shaboozey, cellist Jacqueline du Pré, pianist Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr., and Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The wide-ranging album touches on spirituality, fatherhood, and being a first-generation person in a Western country, all while fusing classical, pop, R&B, and hip-hop. It even includes a nod to Pentatonix with “Kevin’s Fifth,” a fan-favorite expansion on Beethoven’s 5th that he often performs during their live shows. The beloved quintet—who broke out after winning NBC’s The Sing-Off in 2011—have released 12 albums in total, including 2022’s GRAMMY-nominated Holidays Around the World. More recently, they starred in the #1 Netflix rom-com Meet Me Next Christmas.
KEVIN OLUSOLA - DAWN OF A MISFIT
Tracklisting
1. Dark Winter
2. Hallelujah (I Don't Think About You)
3. I Feel Misunderstood
4. Crazy
5. Like Us
6. Smile
7. A Change Is Gonna Come
8. Have I Told You
9. Love, Leigh & Kaia
10. Kaia's Swan
11. Showdown
12. Hymn for Christian
13. Kevin's Fifth
ABOUT KEVIN OLUSOLA
As one-fifth of multi-platinum-selling a cappella phenomenon Pentatonix, the multi-faceted artist, Kevin Olusola defies stereotypes by reimagining classical musicianship through a modern sonic and lyrical lens, all the while balancing his dynamic background of Nigerian and Grenadian heritage. With his debut solo album, Dawn of a Misfit, out May 9, 2025 via Sony Music Masterworks, Olusola uses his love of classical music as the backdrop to tell his story as a first-generation person growing up in a Western country. He hopes to unlock entry points for those unfamiliar with the classical genre and reach those in and outside the Black diaspora who may still be finding themselves through life’s hardships. “My purpose is to spread love far and wide with the unique frequency l've been given. I want to shatter boundaries, only to bring all the pieces back together with a newfound harmony,” Olusola says. “I hope my music makes you feel comfortable in who you are and the love you want to portray to the world.”
Follow Kevin Olusola
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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.
April 25: Violinist Esther Abrami to Release New Album Women on Sony Classical – Music Video for Valse Di Fantastica by Yoko Shimomura Out Now
April 25: Violinist Esther Abrami to Release New Album Women on Sony Classical – Music Video for Valse Di Fantastica by Yoko Shimomura Out Now
Acclaimed Violinist Esther Abrami to Release Women
New Album on Sony Classical
Music Video for Valse Di Fantastica by Yoko Shimomura
Out Now - Watch Here
Out Today
Album Showcases Works by a Wide Range of Women Composers
Album Release Date: April 25, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now
Celebrated violinist and social media sensation Esther Abrami announces the release of her highly anticipated new album Women set for release on April 25, 2025 via Sony Classical and available for pre-order now.
A tribute to women composers across history and a range of genres, Women showcases the exceptional talent of 14 remarkable composers, spanning newly composed works and rediscovered masterpieces. The album features Oscar winners Rachel Portman and Anne Dudley, as well as new arrangements of compositions by historic composers such as Pauline Viardot, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Teresa Carreño or Ethel Smyth. Women also includes Transmission, an original composition by Esther Abrami, who has arranged several pieces on the album. At its heart is the world-premiere recording of Ina Boyle’s Violin Concerto, a breathtaking, late-Romantic composition. Esther Abrami carefully chose each piece on Women not only for its musical brilliance but also for the emotional connection it holds for her, highlighting the often-overlooked voices of women in classical music.
“For as far back as I can remember, the only classical music I ever came across was written by male composers. I studied classical music for over 15 years in some of the top music schools and conservatoires in the world. During those years I never played a single piece written by a woman. It wasn’t that I actively avoided them - I simply didn’t know they even existed! Nobody talked about them, nobody played their music, no one ever introduced me to their compositions. It took stepping out of my formal education to question this reality. ‘Did any women ever compose classical music?’ Turns out they did! Just when I thought I knew all about the main classical composers, I discovered a hidden treasure. I spent months researching, drawn into a whole new world of music and stories from women left in the shadows of history. This album is my tribute to them. Women is a journey through centuries of music, told through the voices of women who composed, fought, lived, and created despite the odds. The stories of these women inspired me to create; they showed me the importance of leaving your mark for future generations to discover. I hope Women can inspire a new generation of young girls to compose.”
Throughout her career, Esther Abrami has been dedicated to celebrating and amplifying the voices of women composers. From her popular podcast Women in Classical, where she interviews influential musicians, composers and women working in classical music to her EP Spotlight, dedicated to women composers, Abrami continues her mission to highlight and elevate women’s contributions to classical music. With her new album Women, she is taking another major step towards breaking down barriers and redefining the landscape of the genre.
Women brings together an extraordinary lineup of collaborators, including the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor Irene Delgado-Jiménez, pianist Kim Barbier, harpist Lavinia Meijer, and the Esther Abrami Quintet.
“I felt extremely lucky working with such an incredible orchestra and musicians on a project that is so personal. Hearing my own composition brought to life by a whole orchestra is a memory I will never forget.”
Esther Abrami - Women - Tracklist:
1) March of the Women* (Ethel Smyth / Esther Abrami)
2) Valse Di Fantastica* (Yoko Shimomura)
3) Flowers* (Miley Cyrus)
4) Hai Luli! (Pauline Viardot) with Lavinia Meijer and the Esther Abrami Quintet
5) Wiegala (Ilse Weber) with the Esther Abrami Quintet
6) Corta Jaca (Chiquinha Gonzaga) with the Esther Abrami Quintet
7) Medhel an Gwyns* (Anne Dudley)
8) O Virtus Sapientiae (Hildegard von Bingen) with the Esther Abrami Quintet
9) Apple Tree* (Rachel Portman)
10-12) Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (To the Memory of My Mother)* (Ina Boyle)
13) Mi Teresita ‘Little Waltz’* (Teresa Carreño)
14) Lua Branca (Chiquinha Gonzaga) with Kim Barbier
15) Solitude (Rita Strohl) with Kim Barbier
16) Transmission* (Esther Abrami)
* Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Irene Delgado-Jiménez
FOLLOW ESTHER ABRAMI
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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.
Esther Abrami – WOMEN - Track by Track Stories
The stories of these women inspired Esther Abrami to create. They showed her the importance of leaving a mark for future generations to discover. She hopes Women can inspire a new generation of young girls to compose.
March of the Women – Ethel Smyth, recomposed by Esther Abrami
A voice appears in the introduction to Esther Abrami’s album saying, “You have to make more noise.” Not just any voice, but the voice of Emmeline Pankhurst, a leading figure in the suffragette movement fighting to obtain women’s right to vote. The sample is taken from an original recording of a speech given by Emmeline in Hyde Park, London in 1908 and Esther Abrami incorporated it into her arrangement of “March of the Women.”
For the music, Esther was inspired by composer Ethel Smyth (1858–1944), who was also a warrior for women’s rights and wrote “March of the Women,” which became the official anthem of the suffragettes. It is said that after being arrested and imprisoned for activism, Ethel met a group of women, also arrested for the same cause, who were singing her anthem. One can picture Ethel in a prison cell, standing in front of a small window, conducting a group of women during their daily prison walk using all she had with her… a toothbrush!
Valse Di Fantastica – Yoko Shimomura
For those who enjoy gaming, this composition might sound familiar. This incredible piece was written for the video game Final Fantasy XV! Like many teenagers, Esther Abrami played video games growing up, and Yoko Shimomura (*1967) was one of the first female composers she ever heard—though she didn’t realize it at the time.
Flowers – Miley Cyrus, arr. Esther Abrami
“Flowers” adds a pop touch to this classical album. Being independent, living life on one's own terms, and working towards realizing a dream career isn't easy. This song by Miley Cyrus (*1992) gave Esther motivation and energy, representing a modern statement of female empowerment.
“Hai Luli!“ – Pauline Viardot, arr. Jan-Peter Klöpfel
Pauline Viardot (1821–1910) was a remarkable figure of the 19th century, often regarded as an “influencer” of her time. She was immensely popular and well-connected with the most significant artists of her era. Viardot had the ability to significantly impact the careers of those around her. Her Parisian salon regularly hosted luminaries such as Chopin, Liszt, the Schumanns, and her close friend George Sand, who also introduced Pauline to her future husband. Unlike many, he supported and financed Pauline’s musical career.
Regarded as a piano prodigy, Pauline took lessons with Franz Liszt from an early age and it is known that her hands would tremble during these lessons—not out of nervousness, but because of her admiration for him, a sentiment shared by many girls of the time. Viardot grew into become a legendary opera singer and composed over 450 pieces (for comparison, Chopin composed only 300 pieces in his lifetime). Esther considers ‘Hai Luli!’ to be one of Viardot’s most beautiful songs.
Wiegala– Ilse Weber, arr. Esther Abrami
“Wiegala” is a haunting lullaby written by Jewish composer and poet Ilse Weber (1903–1944). In 1942, she was imprisoned in the Theresienstadt concentration camp where she worked as a nurse. Without medicine to ease the children’s suffering, she used music—singing and composing lullabies to comfort them. When the children were sent to Auschwitz, she voluntarily accompanied them, and it is said that they sang “Wiegala” as they entered the gas chambers. Her husband, who survived the Holocaust, buried her music in the ground and later recovered it, ensuring that her voice would not be lost to history. Ilse Weber sacrificed her life out of pure altruism, and her music serves as a poignant reminder of the resilience of the human spirit.
Corta Jaca – Chiquinha Gonzaga, arr. Jan-Peter Klöpfel
Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847–1935) was a trailblazer. Born in 19th-century Brazil, she faced a difficult choice imposed by her husband: music or marriage. She chose music, a scandalous decision at the time. Gonzaga became the first woman in Brazil to conduct an orchestra and composed over 2,000 pieces, including the music that became the official hymn for the Brazilian Carnival. As the daughter of a Black slave, she fought for the abolition of slavery and women’s rights, selling her music to support these causes. Gonzaga was also a pioneer in copyright law, founding the first company to protect and advocate for composers’ rights, long before it became standard practice. “Corta Jaca” is a Brazilian tango and one of her most famous works, known for causing quite a scandal due to its title, which apparently had a sexual innuendo.
Medhel an Gwyns – Anne Dudley
Anne Dudley (*1956) is one of the very few women to have won an Academy Award for Best Original Score. Esther Abrami had the incredible experience of working directly with her in arranging the music from the Netflix show Poldark for violin and orchestra. “Medhel an Gwyns” has a folk music influence, which Esther felt inspired to express through her violin.
O Virtus Sapientiae – Hildegard von Bingen, arr. Penelope Axtens
Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179) is the earliest composer featured on this album, having lived during the Middle Ages. She is one of the first identifiable composers in the history of Western music. Hildegard was not only a composer but also a medieval nun, healer, writer, and visionary. She wrote music as well as one of the first known medical texts on women's health, openly discussing topics like menstruation and female pleasure in an era when such subjects were unspeakable. Hildegard was an extremely powerful figure, exchanging letters with Henry II, King of England, and Emperor Frederic I, both of whom held her in high regard. “O Virtus Sapientiae” offers a glimpse into her world, where spirituality and music were inseparable.
Apple Tree – Rachel Portman
Rachel Portman (*1960) is the first female composer to win an Oscar for Best Original Composition. “She is one of my biggest musical inspirations and I am honored to have collaborated with her on all my albums so far!,” says Esther. “Apple Tree” is a very sweet piece of music with a touch of nostalgia, personally reminding Esther of childhood moments in the countryside of southern France.
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (To the Memory of My Mother) – Ina Boyle
“I think it is most courageous of you to keep going with such little recognition. All I can say is that it sometimes does finally come.” This quote comes from composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in a letter to his student Ina Boyle (1889–1967). Ina lived during a challenging time, between two world wars, and received countless rejections for her compositions, yet she never stopped writing. This is the first-ever professional recording of her violin concerto, a piece Ina dedicated to her mother, based on a poem and filled with deep emotions. It is astonishing to think that she spent her entire life in a small Irish village, composing symphonies that the world is only now beginning to discover. Esther hopes that today is the day when “it does finally come” for Ina Boyle.
Mi Teresita / Little Waltz – Teresa Carreño, arr. Esther Abrami
Teresa Carreño (1853–1917), known as “The Lioness of the piano,” was one of the greatest piano virtuoso of her time. She was humorously described as a musician with “a male head, male fingers, and a female heart.” Born in Venezuela, she was a true child prodigy, invited at the age of nine to perform for President Lincoln at the White House. Admired by Liszt, Brahms, and Rubinstein, Carreño led a whirlwind life, marrying four times and constantly touring due to her remarkable performing career. Despite her immense fame as a performer, her compositions were often overlooked and forgotten, likely due to the fact that she was a woman from South America. “Mi Teresita,” a waltz inspired by Venezuelan rhythms, was written for her daughter.
Lua Branca – Chiquinha Gonzaga, arr. Esther Abrami
Another piece by Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847–1935), “Lua Branca” translates to “White Moon.” It features a very seductive melody, and the first time Esther Abrami hummed it, she knew she had to arrange it for the violin. Listening to this piece, one might imagine traveling all the way to the streets of Brazil.
Solitude – Rita Strohl, arr. Esther Abrami
Rita Strohl (1865–1941) decided at one point in her life to completely isolate herself from the world, moving away from society to be left with only music and solitude. She spent her days composing tirelessly. This piece resonates deeply with Esther Abrami, reminding her of the beauty found in countless hours spent alone, completely alone, with only her violin and music for company.
Transmission – Esther Abrami
Esther Abrami's grandmother was a violinist who stopped her career when she got married. Esther knows her grandmother never imagined that her only granddaughter would one day take up the instrument she had left behind. This piece is Esther's way of continuing her grandmother's story while also telling her own. “Transmission” represents the passing of music through generations. This is the first time Esther has ever recorded one of her own compositions.
March 28: Lorin Maazel conducts the Cleveland Orchestra – The Complete CBS Masterworks Recordings
March 28: Lorin Maazel conducts the Cleveland Orchestra – The Complete CBS Masterworks Recordings
Lorin Maazel conducts the Cleveland Orchestra – The Complete CBS Masterworks Recordings
This is the first release of Lorin Maazel’s complete commercially released Cleveland recordings in a single 15 CD edition
Includes the first release on CD of two special records once distributed through Columbia Special Products with recordings from Blossom Music Festival and Sydney Opera House, remastered from broadcasting tapes using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology
Original LP sleeves and labels, booklet with full discographical notes
Album Release Date: March 28, 2025
Reviewer Rate: $43.77
Pre-Order Available Now
When he was called to succeed George Szell as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1972, the 42-year-old American conductor was hardly known in his home country. But over the next ten years, as the recordings collected for the first time in Sony Classical’s new 16-CD box set amply demonstrate, this enigmatic genius by the name of Lorin Maazel burnished the Cleveland image and maintained the exalted standards set by Szell, who had elevated his ensemble to pre-eminence among the US “Big Five” orchestras. This set will be released on March 28, 2025. Pre-order is available now.
Born in 1930 in Paris, Maazel moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1932 and began violin lessons, then conducting lessons with the associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He was not yet ten when he mounted the Pittsburgh Symphony’s podium and only eleven when he was invited by Toscanini to conduct the NBC Symphony in a concert broadcast nationally. In 1953, he made his European début; by 1960, he had conducted some 300 concerts with more than 20 European orchestras and become the youngest and the first American conductor to appear at the Bayreuth Festival.
When he arrived in Cleveland, By the time this brilliant young man reached the age of 15, he was determined to get a university education and withdrew from conducting engagements to study languages and philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh – meanwhile also giving violin recitals and playing in the Pittsburgh SO and the Fine Arts Quartet. After graduation, a Fulbright Scholarship took Maazel to Rome, and in 1953 he made his European debut, standing in for an indisposed conductor in Catania. A Rome Radio recording followed, and his career was now well underway. By 1960 he had conducted some 300 concerts with more than 20 European orchestras and, aged 30, became the youngest conductor, the first American and the first Jew since the fall of the Third Reich to appear at the Bayreuth Festival.
Maazel was already recording regularly for DG and Decca; immediately he joined the artist stable of Columbia/CBS, his new orchestra’s label. Their first album – works by Berlioz, Brahms and Barber– was released in 1973. The next one, also now being reissued for the first time in Sony’s new box, was a gripping performance of Brahms’s First Symphony taped in October 1973, when the Clevelanders became the first visiting orchestra to play in the concert hall of Sydney’s recently opened Opera House.
A decade earlier, Maazel had begun an association with the Vienna Philharmonic, recording, along with much else, works by Richard Strauss which he would revisit and record in Cleveland for Columbia/CBS. He seems to have had the Viennese sound in his ear in those interpretations of Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel and Tod und Verklärung set down in Cleveland’s acoustically excellent Masonic Auditorium in May 1979. The Penguin Guide called the Don Juan “one of the most thrilling accounts on record.”
Also in Masonic Auditorium, in January 1977, Maazel set down an urgently paced, finely played Ein Heldenleben as well as the first of his three traversals of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique: “Rarely have the ‘March to the Scaffold’ and the ‘Witches Sabbath’ achieved fiercer bite and impact or sounded more terrifyingly demoniac” (High Fidelity). The last three Tchaikovsky symphonies collected here date from the early 1980s. Two decades earlier, he had undertaken the complete cycle in Vienna; comparing the versions in his review of this Cleveland remake, Gramophone’s reviewer enjoyed the newer recordings’ instances of more flexible phrasing, added breathing space and crisper ensemble.
A complete cycle of symphonies that Maazel committed to disc on only one occasion is Beethoven’s, and it naturally forms the centerpiece of this collection. The set, released complete in 1979, was acclaimed by the critics: “The music‐making is full-bodied, intense, hearty and impassioned,” wrote the New York Times. “The First, Second, Fourth, and Eighth symphonies are breathtaking, and the Fifth and Seventh are truly exciting, as well.” High Fidelity’s reviewer called the “Pastoral” a ravishing performance – “crystalline and beautifully graded in sound, patrician and well sprung in rhythm.” Gramophone found the First, Second, Fourth and Eighth Symphonies “played with the kind of inspiring directness we have come to expect from Cleveland … Led by outstandingly lucid readings of the Sixth and Seventh symphonies and distinctive readings of the three overtures, [Maazel’s cycle is] a bracing experience aesthetically and intellectually.”
Finally, the new set brings a curiosity, Lorin Maazel’s own “symphonic realizations” of chansons by the French pop star Serge Lama. After accompanying the singer-songwriter on the violin on a French TV show, he hatched the idea of “lending Lama’s poetry a new, larger dimension”. This is the 1980 album’s first international release, as well as its CD début.
SET CONTENTS
DISC 1:
Berlioz: Le carnaval romain, H 95: Overture
Brahms: Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80
Barber: The School For Scandal, Op. 5: Overture
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68
DISC 2:
R. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40
DISC 3:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21
Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36
DISC 4:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica"
DISC 5:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60
Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93
DISC 6:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67
Beethoven: Egmont Overture, Op. 84
Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72
DISC 7:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastoral"
DISC 8:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92
Beethoven: Fidelio Overture, Op. 72
DISC 9:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 "Choral"
DISC 10:
Strauss: Don Juan, Op. 20
Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Op. 28
Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
DISC 11:
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14
DISC 12:
Lama: Les P'tites Femmes de Pigalle
Lama: Chez Moi
Lama: Je t'aime à la folie
Lama: Je suis malade
Lama: L'esclave
Lama: La Chanteuse a vingt ans
Lama: La Salle de Bains
Lama: Ah!
Lama: L'enfant au piano
Lama: Femmes, Femmes, Femmes
Lama: L'enfant d'un autre
Lama: An old-fashioned Waltz
DISC 13:
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64
DISC 14:
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 "Pathétique"
DISC 15:
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36
March 21: Sony Classical Presents the Guarneri String Quartet – The Complete RCA Victor Collection
March 21: Sony Classical Presents the Guarneri String Quartet – The Complete RCA Victor Collection
Sony Classical Presents the Guarneri String Quartet
The Complete RCA Victor Collection
9 recordings new to CD and 1 recording previously unreleased
Album Release Date: March 21, 2025
Reviewer Rate: $120.16
Pre-Order Available Now
In the early 1960s, four young musicians who had been playing chamber music at Rudolf Serkin’s Marlboro School and Festival in Vermont were encouraged to form a string quartet. In July 1964, the Guarneri Quartet gave its first concert and less than a year later made its first recordings under contract to RCA Victor. For the next 45 years, with only one change of personnel, the Guarneris performed all over the world and amassed a large, wide-ranging, prize-winning discography. Sony Classical now presents, for the first time in a single collection, all the recordings made by the Guarneri Quartet for RCA between 1965 and 2005. Pre-order is available now. The set will be released on March 21, 2025.
When the announcement came of its retirement at the end of the 2008–09 season, the eminent British critic Rob Cowan wrote a perceptive, affectionate tribute to the Guarneri Quartet in Gramophone, comparing it to the Juilliard Quartet, the other superb ensemble that had dominated the American quartet catalogue for so many years. Using their respective Bartók recordings as an example, he contrasted the “cut-glass precision” of the Juilliard’s early-60s set to the Guarneri’s “volatile, free-spirited, generously expressive and tonally rich” performing style in its RCA cycle from the mid-70s.
That characterization of the Guarneri Quartet’s playing runs through virtually all the reviews garnered in their long recording career, a story that began with the 1966 release of two of Mozart’s late “Prussian” Quartets and an album coupling Dvořák and Smetana. HiFi Stereo Review wrote that “not since the Juilliard String Quartet set the New York music world on its collective ear some 25 years ago has a new chamber group created such a furor as the Guarneri Quartet on the occasion of its New York début in February, 1965. This pair of discs demonstrates eloquently what all the shouting was about, for these players – Arnold Steinhardt, John Dalley, Michael Tree, and David Soyer – blend precision with flexibility of phrasing and rhythm in a way not often encountered in contemporary American string groups. Here, indeed, is the influence of the seed bed from which the quartet stems – the Marlboro of Rudolf Serkin, Alexander Schneider, and Pablo Casals … To the Smetana [‘From My Life’] the Guarneri Quartet brings blazing intensity and fierce rhythmic verve, while the wonderful slow movement of the Dvořák [Op. 105] comes forth from the stereo speakers with an almost orchestral lushness, yet with inner voices flawlessly balanced.”
Other critics concurred in their reviews of these two LPs: “The foursome produces an unfailingly luscious tone, plays with letter-perfect intonation, and displays all sorts of felicitous pinpoint balances and coloristic effects. And how these gentlemen stay together … even in the most wayward of tempo changes. In short, this is ensemble work of a transcendental variety … The Guarneri Quartet is the most gifted group of its kind I have heard in years” (High Fidelity). “This is distinguished Mozart playing indeed. Its technical excellence needs little comment: as with the Dvořák/Smetana record … last month, with this team you take technical mastery for granted as soon as you hear the first phrase, and straightaway it's the intensely musical quality of the playing which strikes you. Theirs is Mozart played with the classical virtues, above all with firm line, poise and sensibility. The surface of the music is polished, but how much the Guarneri Quartet find beneath” (Gramophone).
Arthur Rubinstein was the quartet’s longtime keyboard partner. In 1966, they recorded the Piano Quintets of Schumann and Brahms: “Rubinstein and the Guarneris search out to equally convincing effect the flowingly lyrical aspects of the music, and this yields special rewards in a ravishing slow movement [the Brahms]” (HiFi Stereo Review). Dvořák’s followed in 1971: “The performance is beautifully balanced between the gentleman at the keyboard and the gentlemen with strings, and the sense of give and take comes from the experience of many collaborations” (High Fidelity).
They also recorded the piano quartet literature, beginning in 1967 with “beautiful performances” (High Fidelity) of Brahms. Their reading of Fauré’s Op. 25 in C minor was judged (also by High Fidelity) to be “beautifully played and exquisitely well reproduced. The instrumental lines are wonderfully clear in this highly directional recording … Rubinstein displays his regal style.” And in a disc containing both of Mozart’s piano quartets, “the playing throughout both sides is extremely beautiful … and superbly integrated – at once expressive and elegant, making all of Mozart’s points with clarity, straightforwardness, and the exalted give-and-take that is the life’s breath of real chamber music. The recorded sound, too, is exceptional for its richness, balance, and clarity” (HiFi Stereo Review).
One of many other composers who feature prominently in Sony’s Guarneri collection is Haydn. About the ensemble’s 1977 recording of the two Op.77 quartets, HiFi Stereo Review wrote that “these spirited, attractive performances of Haydn's two greatest string quartets are marked by a sense of real involvement. Articulation is crisp, ensemble is impeccable, and there is an organic flow from the first phrase to the last in each work”, while Gramophone praised their “deeply thoughtful, powerfully paced” 1986 reading of Haydn’s Seven Last Words.
With reinforcement from the Budapest Quartet in 1965, the Guarneris produced an “absolutely stunning performance (HiFi Stereo Review) of Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence sextet. In 1966, they recorded quartets by Mendelssohn and Grieg (the latter receiving its CD première in this set): “The Guarneri ensemble does itself proud throughout this disc – most notably in the Mendelssohn, in which they display a tonal homogeneity and a warmth of phrasing that are truly striking. It is as though one instrument, not four, were producing the lovely sound that emerges from the speakers. Happily, the RCA recording staff has come up here with a string quartet sonority of the utmost intimacy, yet endowed with just enough room tone to enhance the naturally warm tone of the Guarneris” (HiFi Stereo Review).
But the heart of any string quartet’s repertoire is inevitably the Beethoven cycle, and it is with these works that the Guarneris were most closely associated. They made their complete recording for RCA between 1966 and 1969. Gramophone described the Early Quartets as “elegant and buoyant, with well-chosen tempos, subtle bowing, crisp articulation, telling contrasts between staccato and legato, and a consistent sense of style.” HiFi Stereo Review enumerated the virtues of their Middle Quartets: “(1) excellent intonation; (2) glowing tone; (3) ensemble that is balanced and accurate but always flexible and natural; (4) superb phrasing and line-building; (5) good feeling for a high Beethoven style. These are strong and expressive readings that often achieve great poetic insight and a powerful dynamic impulse.” The HiFi Stereo Review’s critic rhapsodized over their Late Quartets: “If I had to make the choice of a very few records to take with me to a desert island, I’d choose recordings of the last five Beethoven string quartets. Now, with the arrival of this new album (complete with the Grosse Fuge) by the Guarneri Quartet, I’ve got my island package. All I need is the island. The Guarneri is, without a doubt, one of the most extraordinary string quartets before the public these days: the group has an absolutely stunning sense of both soloistic and ensemble color. Indeed, I can’t think of another string quartet that can match them for sheer sensuous appeal.”
SET CONTENTS
DISC 1:
Smetana: String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor T.116 "From my life"
Dvorák: String Quartet No. 13 in A-Flat Major, Op. 105
DISC 2:
Mozart: String Quartet No. 22 in B-Flat Major, K. 589
Mozart: String Quartet No. 23 in F Major, K. 590
DISC 3:
Tchaikovsky : Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70
DISC 4:
Mendelssohn: Quartet in A Minor, Op. 13
Grieg: String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 27
DISC 5:
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34
DISC 6:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 7 in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1, "Razumovsky"
DISC 7:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 8 in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 9 in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3
DISC 8:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 10 in E-Flat Major, Op. 74, "Harp"
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 11 in F Minor, Op. 95 "Serioso"
DISC 9:
Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25
Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60
DISC 10:
Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 26
Schumann: Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major, Op. 44
DISC 11:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat Major, Op. 130
Beethoven: Große Fuge, Op. 133
DISC 12:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 12 in E-Flat Major, Op. 127
DISC 13:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135
DISC 14:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18 No. 1
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18 No. 2
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3
DISC 15:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 4, in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6
DISC 16:
Dvorák: Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81
DISC 17:
Schubert: String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor, D. 804
Schubert: String Quartet No. 12 in C Minor, D. 703 "Quartettsatz"
DISC 18:
Dvorák: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 87
DISC 19:
Dvorák: String Quartet in No. 11 in C Major, Op. 61
Dvorák: Terzetto in C Major, Op. 74
DISC 20:
Debussy: Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10
Ravel: String Quartet in F Major, M. 35
DISC 21:
Mozart: String Quartet No. 14 in G Major, K. 387
Mozart: String Quartet No. 15 in D Minor, K. 421
DISC 22:
Mozart: String Quartet No. 16 in E-Flat Major, K. 428
Mozart: String Quartet No. 17 in B-Flat Major, K. 458 "Hunt"
DISC 23:
Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 15
Fauré: String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 121
DISC 24:
Mozart: String Quartet No. 18 in A Major, K. 464
Mozart: String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465 "Dissonant"
DISC 25:
Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D. 956
DISC 26:
Dvorák: String Quartet in No. 6 in F Major, Op. 96 "American"
Dvorák: String Quintet No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 97
DISC 27:
Schubert: Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D.810 "Death and the Maiden"
Wolf: Italian Serenade
DISC 28:
Bartók: String Quartet No. 1, Sz. 40 (1909)
Bartók: String Quartet No. 2, Sz. 67 (1915-17)
Bartók: String Quartet No. 3, Sz. 85
DISC 29:
Bartók: String Quartet No. 4, Sz. 91 (1928)
Bartók: String Quartet No. 5, Sz. 102 (1934)
Bartók: String Quartet No. 6, Sz. 114 (1939)
DISC 30:
Mozart: Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478
Mozart: Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, K. 493
DISC 31:
Haydn: String Quartet in G Major, Hob.III:81 "Lobkowitz"
Haydn: String Quartet in F Major, Hob.III:82
DISC 32:
Schubert: Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D.887
DISC 33:
Beethoven: String Quintet in C Major, Op. 29
Mendelssohn: Quintet in B-Flat Major, Op. 87
DISC 34:
Haydn: String Quartet in D Major, Hob.III:34
Haydn: String Quartet in G Minor, Hob.III:74
DISC 35:
Brahms: String Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 51 (1909)
Brahms: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 51
DISC 36:
Brahms: String Quartet No. 3 in B-Flat Major, Op. 67
Schumann: String Quartet No. 1, Op. 41 No. 1
DISC 37:
Schumann: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 41 No. 2
Schumann: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 41 No. 3
DISC 38:
Dvorák: String Quartet No. 14 in G Major, Op. 106
DISC 39:
Borodin: String Quartet No. 2 in D Major
Dohnányi: String Quartet No. 2 in D-Flat Major, Op. 15
DISC 40:
Mozart: String Quartet No. 20 in D Major, K. 499
Mozart: String Quartet No. 21 in D Major, K. 575
DISC 41:
Brahms: String Quintet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 88
Brahms: String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 111
DISC 42:
Schubert: Piano Quintet in A Major, D. 667 "Trout"
Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525
DISC 43:
Verdi: String Quartet in E Minor
Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11
DISC 44:
Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ Op. 51
DISC 45:
Mozart: String Quintet No. 1 in B-Flat Major, K. 174
Mozart: String Quintet No. 4 in G Minor, K. 516
DISC 46:
Mozart: String Quintet No. 2 in C Minor, K. 406
Mozart: String Quintet No. 5 in D Major, K. 593
DISC 47:
Mozart: String Quintet No. 3 in C Major, K. 515
Mozart: String Quintet No. 6 in E-Flat Major, K. 614
DISC 48:
Dohnányi: String Quartet No. 2 in D-Flat Major, Op. 15
Kodály: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10
Dohnányi: String Quartet No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 33
DISC 49:
Mendelssohn: Octet for 4 Violins, 2 Violas and 2 Cellos in E-flat Major, Op. 20
Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 44 No. 1 (previously unreleased)
May 23: Sony Classical Releases Moonlight Variations New Album by Cellist Pablo Ferrández – Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33: Var. 6. Andante Out Today
May 23: Sony Classical Releases Moonlight Variations New Album by Cellist Pablo Ferrández
Sony Classical Releases Moonlight Variations
New Album by Cellist Pablo Ferrández
Out Today
Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33: Var. 6. Andante - Listen Here
Album Release Date: May 23, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now
Pablo Ferrández Unites Moonlit Nocturnes with Sunlit Tchaikovsky
Star cellist Pablo Ferrández has realized a twenty-year dream to record Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations on his latest album for Sony Classical, combining the spirited work with melancholy nocturnes to create Moonlight Variations - an album he describes as ‘night followed by day.’ The album will be released internationally on May 23, 2025 - pre-order is available now. Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33: Var. 6. Andante is out today – listen here.
The night-time has long fascinated Ferrández. On his new album, he assembles eleven handpicked gems by composers from Antonín Dvořák to Manuel Ponce that speak of the heightened emotional intimacy of the dark hours. The cellist has arranged songs, piano nocturnes, violin works and an opera aria. ‘I feel more creative at night,’ says the cellist. ‘I’m not alone in that. So many composers have written special music connected to this time. They all felt a difference in the world once the sun had gone down.’
In addition to Tchaikovsky’s extended variation set, recorded in Örebro with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under Martin Fröst, Ferrández includes movements from Liszt’s Liebestraum and Schumann’s Kinderszenen, transcriptions of piano nocturnes by Chopin and songs by Schubert and Debussy. The album also includes two additional works by Tchaikovsky including the composer’s own arrangement for cello and orchestra of his ‘Nocturne’ from 6 Pieces for Piano.
‘We made a decision to make our arrangements true to the instrument I’m playing while not removing the piece from its original concept,’ says Ferrández. ‘The idea was to give each piece a personality of its own that suits the cello. I was thinking, of course, of singing - of that more human kind of expression. One reason I love to play lieder is that we always try to sing though the cello.’
The recording constitutes Ferrández’s first on the 1689 Archinto Stradivarius he recently acquired. ‘I haven’t heard any other cello with this warmth and I think it really suits my vocal approach and the mellow feeling I wanted to convey here,’ he says.
Ferrández’s attitude to the night hours is supported by recent scientific research, which suggests the brain’s neurotransmitters shift gear markedly at night, opening up pathways to pleasure and communication. ‘My timing feels different at night,’ days Ferrández, ‘I am somehow more relaxed, more open.’
Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations is a staple of the concertante repertoire for solo cellists. Ferrández has played the work for twenty years. He relished the opportunity to record it with fellow Sony artist Martin Fröst and his Swedish Chamber Orchestra. ‘I just love Martin as a musician, he is full of intuition and sensibility and is incredibly inspiring,’ says Ferrández. ‘I have played with him a few times and I think he must be the best clarinetist in history. As a conductor, I thought he would be a perfect fit for the Rococo Variations because of his expertise in Mozart. Mozart was Tchaikovsky’s favorite composer and Tchaikovsky is clearly channeling something of his Classical spirit in this piece.’
Joining Ferrández for the piano and cello works is his regular piano partner Julien Quentin. ‘Julien is a great musician and a great friend,’ says the cellist. ‘We have previously recorded night-themed music together for Sony, which came out of our Night Sessions project where we would gather musicians and friends together at Julien’s house and play, talk and drink wine. We have tried to capture the same atmosphere in our collaboration on this album. Every time we play together it feels like being at home.’
Pablo Ferrández was born in 1991 Madrid and named after the great Spanish cellist, Pablo Casals. He released his debut solo album on Sony in 2021 to critical acclaim and has since recorded as a concerto partner with Anne-Sophie Mutter and won an Opus Klassik Awards.
APRIL 25: Sony Classical Presents Eugene Ormandy – The RCA Victor Recordings 1935-42
Sony Classical Presents Eugene Ormandy – The RCA Victor Recordings 1935-42
Sony Classical Presents
Eugene Ormandy – The RCA Victor Recordings 1935-42
Album Release Date: April 25, 2025
Reviewer Rate Available Upon Request
Pre-Order Available Now
16 recordings on CD for the first time ever
55 recordings for the first time on CD as authorized releases from the original masters
1931 was the breakthrough year for 32-year-old Hungarian immigrant Eugene Ormandy. First, he was engaged by the Philadelphia Orchestra to deputize for his idol Toscanini, who was briefly indisposed. Then, a few months later, he was asked to step in for the conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, also indisposed – but in this case permanently. Soon Ormandy was hired to take over that rising Midwestern orchestra. At the end of his five-year tenure in Minneapolis, which produced a considerable discography for RCA Victor (available in an 11-CD Sony Classical box set), Ormandy was called back to Philadelphia, this time to become its co-conductor with Leopold Stokowski. In 1936, he began recording regularly for Victor with his new orchestra, picking up the pace in 1938 when he became its sole music director. Sony Classical is pleased to continue its comprehensive documentation of Eugene Ormandy’s discography with a new 21-CD release of everything he set down in Philadelphia before the ban on commercial recording instigated by the musicians’ union in 1942. By the time the strike ended in 1944, Ormandy and the orchestra had moved to Columbia Masterworks. The set will be released on April 25, 2025. Pre-order is available now.
As connoisseurs have long known, these early Philadelphia albums are among the most impressive performances Ormandy set down in over 40 years at the orchestra’s helm. The first to be released – fittingly enough for a Russian music specialist – was Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony, recorded by Victor on December 13, 1936. That three-hour session in Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, the orchestra’s home, was the first of more than 400 led by Ormandy. And it was highly productive – Ormandy had a reputation as a fast worker – yielding not only the Tchaikovsky, but also two Bach arrangements by Lucien Cailliet, a Philadelphia Orchestra clarinetist and its staff arranger, the first three movements of Schumann’s Second Symphony and, most importantly, Fritz Kreisler’s arrangement of Paganini’s D major Violin Concerto, with Kreisler himself as soloist.
More Tchaikovsky followed during this early Victor stint: in 1941, Ormandy and the Philadelphians recorded the Fifth Symphony and the Nutcracker Suite. The latter’s matrices suffered from processing problems that rendered them too noisy to release until now. The orchestra’s contract, however, allowed them to re-make the recording for RCA in 1945, even though they’d already gone over to Columbia, and it has been possible to include both versions here.
Ormandy recorded Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, one of his most celebrated interpretations, in 1937, but not in the familiar Ravel orchestration that he would always use later. Having just taken over as sole conductor of the orchestra after Stokowski’s resignation, he wanted his own version of the Pictures, so he commissioned a new score from the orchestra’s house arranger, Lucien Cailliet.
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s most famous Russian connection was with Sergei Rachmaninoff, who premièred a number of his works with them during Stokowski’s tenure. When Ormandy assumed the music directorship, he was thrilled to continue the partnership – especially as he had developed a friendship with the composer at his 1931 Minneapolis SO début concert, in which Rachmaninoff was the soloist. The partnership reached its height in late 1939 when Ormandy mounted a “Rachmaninoff Festival” at the Academy of Music and New York’s Carnegie Hall to mark the 30th anniversary of his Philadelphia Orchestra début. They also took advantage of the opportunity to record three of Rachmaninoff’s concertos for RCA, the First, Third and Fourth, legendary performances that have never been out of the catalogue and are, of course, reissued here.
At the Budapest Academy, Ormandy had studied the violin with a pupil of Brahms’s great friend Joseph Joachim – who also encouraged Ormandy as a child, so Brahms’s music was in his blood from the beginning. As a conductor, Brahms’s symphonies were at the core of his repertoire, and he gave more performances of them with the Philadelphia Orchestra than any other conductor in American musical history. He first recorded the Second with the Philadelphians anonymously for the “World’s Greatest Music” series in March 1939, and nine months later conducted a tauter, “official” version for release on RCA. Both are included here along with Ormandy’s other recordings for “World’s Greatest Music”, all made in 1938: the Mozart G minor, Beethoven’s Fifth, Schubert’s “Unfinished” and the Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2 and 3.
Two other famous Brahms recordings from 1939 are the Alto Rhapsody with Marian Anderson and the Double Concerto with Jascha Heifetz and Emanuel Feuermann, about which Gramophone’s original reviewer wrote: “Rarely can the powers of two string players have been so fully extended, so richly proved … The whole thing is tremendous: a manifestation, for all who have an ear of the soul, of the composer’s greatness of heart and mind.”
Soloists revered Ormandy throughout his career. Said Isaac Stern: “There was not a single conductor who was a greater colleague in the making of a concerto record.” In addition to the Brahms Double and the Paganini First Concerto with Kreisler, mentioned earlier, the new Sony collection reissues the Mendelssohn and Spohr’s No. 8 with another famous violinist, Albert Spalding, and the Grieg Piano Concerto with Arthur Rubinstein: “A glittering specimen and exuberantly played … The best of the modern readings” (Gramophone).
Sibelius was another leading composer Ormandy knew personally and performed regularly – he also visited him in Finland and brought him to Philadelphia. For an album to mark the composer’s 75th birthday in 1940, he recorded three tone poems, while the next year saw a new recording of the First Symphony (Ormandy’s earlier one was made in Minneapolis in 1935), which he identified as “the first of the master’s symphonies I ever conducted”. Two further versions would follow, in 1962 (for Columbia) and in 1978 (for RCA).
Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra were Victor’s chief Richard Strauss exponents during these years, making the first electrical recording of the Symphonia Domestica in 1938, followed in 1939 by Ein Heldenleben and in 1940 by Don Quixote, with Emanuel Feuermann. Hindemith’s “Mathis der Maler” Symphony was still a new work when Ormandy recorded it in 1940, only six years after the composer introduced it with his own Berlin Philharmonic recording. Strauss family waltzes had already featured in Ormandy’s Minneapolis recordings. The three waltzes in this Philadelphia set earned praise from Gramophone in 1942: “You will enjoy the brilliance of the combinations of tone, and their balance – one of the exciting things about all the best American recordings … Here is full-voiced tonal splendour.”
American music was a prominent feature of this conductor’s repertoire – he was always eager to promote the composers of his adopted homeland. Here we find the first recording of any work by Gian Carlo Menotti, his Amelia Goes to the Ball Overture, and the earliest recording of an orchestral work by Samuel Barber, his First Essay for Orchestra, as well as pieces by Roy Harris and two Sousa marches from the orchestra’s last session before the musicians’ strike shut down commercial recording for the next three years. But not before Ormandy and his Philadelphians had amassed the treasures brought together here for the first time.
SET CONTENTS
DISC 1:
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64
Spohr: Violin Concerto No. 8 in A Minor, Op. 47 "Gesangscene"
Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 6: I. Allegro maestoso - Tempo giusto
DISC 2:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21
Schumann: Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61
DISC 3:
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 "Pathétique"
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (suite), Op. 71a
Rimsky-Korsakov (arr. Ormandy): Christmas Eve, Act III: Church Scene (first release)
DISC 4:
Mussorgsky (arr. Cailliet): Pictures at an Exhibition
Liszt: Les Préludes, S. 97
Enescu: Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A Major, Op. 11
Debussy (arr. O'Connell) I: Préludes, Book I, L. 117: No. 12, Minstrels (first release)
DISC 5:
Beethoven: Ah perfido!, Op. 65 - Konzertarie für Sopran und Orchester
Weber: Oberon, Act II: "Ozean Du Ungeheuer"
Beethoven: Fidelio, Op. 72, Act I: "Abscheulicher, Wo Eilst Du Hin?"
Wagner: Die Walküre, WWV 86B, Act I: "Du bist der Lenz"
Wagner: Die Walküre, WWV 86B, Act II: "Ho-Yo-To-Ho" - Hans Lange, conductor
Wagner: Lohengrin, WWV 75, Act I: Elsas Traum - Hans Lange, conductor
Wagner: Lohengrin, WWV 75, Act II, Scene 2: "Euch Lüften, die mein Klagen "
Wagner: Tannhäuser, WWV 70, Act II: "Dich teure Halle, grüß ich wieder" - Hans Lange, conductor
Wagner: Tannhäuser, WWV 70, Act III: Elisabeths Gebet - Hans Lange, conductor
Wagner: Götterdämmerung, WWV 86D, Act III: "Starke Scheite schichtet mir dort" (Brünnhilde's Immolation)
Bach, J.S.: Cantata No. 140: Now Let Every Tongue Adore Thee
Charpentier: Louise, Act III: "Depuis le jour où je me suis donnée"
Debussy: L'enfant prodigue, L. 57: "L'année, en vain chasse l'année"
DISC 6:
Wagner: Die Walküre, WWV 86B, Act I: Winterstürme "Spring Song"
Wagner: Siegfried, WWV 86c, Act I: "Notung! Notung! Neidliches Schwert!"
Wagner: Siegfried, WWV 86c, Act I: Schmiedelied "Hoho! Hoho! Hohei" Schmiede, mein Hammer" - Edwin McArthur, conductor
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, WWV 96, Act I: "Am stillen Herd"
Wagner: Die Meistersinger, WWV 96, Act III: Morgenlich leuchtend "Prize Song"
Wagner: Lohengrin, WWV 75, Act III: "In fernem Land" "Lohengrin's Narrative"
Wagner: Parsifal, WWV 111, Act III: "Nur eine Waffe taugt"
Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91: No. 4, Schmerzen}
Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91: No. 5, Träume
Wagner: The Flying Dutchman, WWV 63, Act I: Steuermann Lied - Edwin McArthur, conductor
Wagner: Tannhäuser, WWV 70, Act I: "Dir töne Lob!" - Edwin McArthur, conductor
Wagner: Tannhäuser, WWV 70, Act III: Rome Narrative - Edwin McArthur, conductor
Wagner: Lohengrin, WWV 75, Act III: Mein lieber Schwan "Lohengrins Abschied und Finale"
Wagner: Parsifal, WWV 111, Act II: "Amfortas! Die Wunde!"
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, WWV 96, Act III: "Tanz der Lehrbuben"
DISC 7:
Strauss, R.: Sinfonia Domestica, Op. 53
Strauss, R.: Der Rosenkavalier, Suite, TrV 227d
DISC 8:
McDonald: Symphony No. 1 "The Santa Fé Trail"
McDonald: From Childhood "Suite for Harp and Orchestra" – Harl McDonald, conductor
McDonald: Cakewalk - Scherzo from Symphony No. 4
McDonald: 3 Poems on Aramaic Themes
DISC 9:
Vivaldi (arr. Cailliet): L'estro armonico, Op 3, No. 8: Concerto for 2 Violins in A Minor (Arr. Lucien Cailliet)
Purcell (arr. Cailliet): Suite from Dido and Aeneas
Mozart: Divertimento No. 10 in F Major for Strings and 2 Horns, K. 247
Telemann: Ouverture-Suite, TWV 55: a2
Jenkins (arr. Cailliet): Five-Part Fantasy in D Major (first release)
DISC 10:
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 1
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Minor, Op. 40
DISC 11:
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30
Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16
DISC 12:
Brahms: Concerto for Violin and Cello in A Minor, Op. 102
R. Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35: Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character
DISC 13:
Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73
Brahms: Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53 "Harzreise im Winter"
Brahms (orch. Hertz): 8 Lieder and Songs, Op. 59, No. 8: Dein blaues Auge hält so still
Brahms (orch. Hertz): 5 Poems, Op. 19, No. 4: Der Schmied
Brahms (orch. Hertz): 5 Lieder, Op. 105: "Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer"
Brahms (orch. Hertz): Von ewiger Liebe, Op. 43, No. 1
DISC 14:
Strauss, R.: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé - Suite No. 2
DISC 15:
Sibelius: Finlandia, Op. 26
Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Suite, Op. 22, No. 2: The Swan of Tuonela
Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Suite, Op. 22, No. 4: Lemminkäinen's Return
Sibelius: Symphony No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 39
DISC 16:
Hindemith: Mathis der Maler Symphony
Menotti: Amelia Goes to the Ball - Overture
Barber: First Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12
Harris: 3 Pieces for Orchestra
Sousa: Washington Post March
Sousa: The Stars and Stripes Forever
DISC 17:
Bach, J.S. (arr. Cailliet): Prelude and Fugue in F Minor, BWV 534 (Arranged for Orchestra by Lucien Cailliet)
Bach, J.S. (arr. Cailliet): Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (from Cantata No. 147, BWV 147)
Bach, J.S. (arr. Cailliet): Preludio in E Major from Partita No 3 for Violin Unaccompanied, BWV 1006 – Leopold Stokowski, conductor
Bach, J.S. (arr. Cailliet): Prelude and Fugue in B Minor, BWV 544
Bach, J.S. (arr. O'Connell): St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244: Herzliebster Jesu
Strauss, Johann II: Frühlingsstimmen - Walzer, Op. 410
Strauss, Johann II: Wiener Blut Walzer, Op. 354
Strauss, Johann II: Kaiser-Walzer, Op. 437
DISC 18:
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (suite), Op. 71a
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 5. in E Minor, Op. 64
DISC 19:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67
Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D.759 "Unfinished"
DISC 20:
Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550
Bach, J.S.: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047
Bach, J.S.: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048
DISC 21:
Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73
March 21: Sony Classical Releases Songs With Words New Album from Vocalist & Composer Malakoff Kowalski – Debut Single When I Died, Love feat. Igor Levit Out Now
March 21: Sony Classical Releases Songs With Words New Album from Vocalist & Composer Malakoff Kowalski – Debut Single When I Died, Love feat. Igor Levit Out Now
Album Artwork (Download)
Sony Classical Releases Songs with Words
New Album from Vocalist and Composer Malakoff Kowalski
with Pianists Igor Levit, Johanna Summer, and Chilly Gonzales
Out Now: Debut Single When I Died, Love
Featuring Igor Levit
Listen Here | Watch Here
Album Release Date: March 21, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now
Songs With Words is the new album by vocalist and composer Malakoff Kowalski, together with pianists Igor Levit, Johanna Summer, and Chilly Gonzales. Set for release on March 21, 2025 and available for pre-order now, the new Sony Classical album features miniatures by classical composers coupled with sung poems by American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Reflecting on Felix Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, this extraordinary quartet presents a new kind of music, and possibly a whole new genre that has never before appeared in this form either in classical music, jazz, or pop. Accompanying the album news is the first track release, When I Died, Love featuring pianist Igor Levit - watch the official video.
In his liner notes, Kowalski, the Berlin-based German-American composer and singer of Persian origin, succinctly describes the album thus: “It took about five years to birth these twelve songs. They were assembled from both famous and lesser-known miniatures by Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Aram Khachaturian, Maurice Ravel, Edvard Grieg, Amy Beach, Germaine Tailleferre, Claude Debussy, and Gabriel Fauré. I kept unearthing timeless, intimate, vulnerable poems from Ginsberg’s oeuvre, and for some reason, again and again, these poems, with little or no reworking, functioned very naturally as song lyrics. The quiet, inner-directed vocals strictly followed the piano’s motifs and themes, while the piano parts, in turn, stuck to their original versions, with only the most imperceptible of alterations here and there.”
The result is a song cycle reminiscent of Tom Waits, Jim Morrison, and David Bowie, infused with the musicality of Bill Evans, Kurt Weill, and Michel Legrand. Malakoff Kowalski describes it as a great stroke of luck that three of his closest musician friends played the piano on this album in order to transform a mere concept into actual music: “Three personalities with contrasting pianistic spirits, as distinct as the material we engaged with here: Igor Levit, whom I love above all for his three great Bs: Busoni, Bach, Brahms. Johanna Summer, who improvises between jazz and classical so freely and so thoroughly that it makes me dizzy with joy. And Chilly Gonzales, who with SOLO PIANO and its successors, has done more for contemporary miniatures than any other living composer.”
With the album Songs With Words, this remarkable group has created a fascinating interplay between the pristine European piano tradition and the American poetry of the Beat Generation.
“All I know: my parents were born in Tehran, I was born in Boston, I grew up in Hamburg and I now live in Berlin. I love nothing more than music. Everything else equals question marks, exclamation marks and dashes.” This is how musician and composer Malakoff Kowalski describes himself. VOGUE magazine named him “The Piano Poet,” fellow musician Chilly Gonzales regards him as one of his “favorite living composers.”
Kowalski refers to Debussy, Scriabin and Frederic Mompou as his influences—while Jazz and Psychedelic music from the fifties and sixties is just as important to him. “One is being forced to listen closely. Kowalski’s compositions may appear to be rather simple, but the world hidden inside them is most complex. From unresolved harmonic turns to frequent musical quotations—it remains unclear on how many different levels his music takes place. Its calm is only a facade.” (Concerti Magazine)
In addition to his solo music, recorded on seven albums to date, Malakoff Kowalski composes for film and theater as well. As a writer he publishes passionate and controversial music critiques. In his concerts the auditorium is entirely dark, with a small reading lamp above the grand piano and a white spotlight being the only sources of light.
Igor Levit, who recently premiered a work specially written for him by Kowalski at the Salzburg Festival, raves about his compositions: “Ferruccio Busoni once said, ‘Music is sonorous air.’ That’s what this music is. Most wonderful sonorous air.”
Malakoff Kowalski, Vocals
Igor Levit / Johanna Summer / Chilly Gonzales, Piano
Songs With Words
Tracklist:
1. Dry Old Rose (Ft. Johanna Summer)
2. Shadow Changes into Bone (Ft. Igor Levit)
3. When I Died, Love (Ft. Igor Levit)
4. See the World Go Wild (Ft. Chilly Gonzales)
5. Interlude #A
6. A Strange Wild Leaf (Ft. Johanna Summer)
7. The Weight of the World Is Love (Ft. Igor Levit)
8. Until They Try (Ft. Johanna Summer)
9. An Empty Hungry Ghost (Ft. Johanna Summer)
10. Interlude #B
11. One Day (Ft. Igor Levit)
12. The Nightingale at Night (Ft. Chilly Gonzales)
13. Dawn (Ft. Johanna Summer)
14. Awake (Ft. Chilly Gonzales)
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.
April 11: Leif Ove Andsnes Releases New Album on Sony Classical – Franz Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works
April 11: Leif Ove Andsnes Releases New Album on Sony Classical – Franz Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works
Album Artwork (Download)
Leif Ove Andsnes Unveils the Hidden Side of Liszt
New Album to be Released on Sony Classical
Franz Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works
Out Today: Consolations No. 3 – Listen Here
Album Release Date: April 11, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now
The pianist explores the introspective beauty of Liszt’s consolations and the spiritual depth of Via Crucis with the Norwegian Soloist Choir, led by Grete Pedersen
“a pianist of magisterial elegance, power, and insight.” – The New York Times
“as usual with the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, blend is exquisite, intonation perfect and articulation superlative.” – Gramophone
On his latest album Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works for Sony Classical, Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes unveils the often-forgotten side of the famed virtuoso Franz Liszt - the sacred music that offers a more intimate picture of the man and his deeply held faith. The new album, Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works, is set for release on April 11, 2025 and available for pre-order now. The first single, Consolations No. 3 is out today – listen here.
With acclaimed vocal ensemble the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, Andsnes has recorded Liszt’s remarkable late work Via Crucis (The Way of the Cross’) for choir and piano. The pianist completes his all-Liszt album with the solo piano work Consolations and two movements from the composer’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses.
Franz Liszt is often described as the ‘first virtuoso’ - a superstar pianist and composer who invented the piano recital and whose fame and following in the nineteenth century were unprecedented. Much of Liszt’s reputation hangs on sweeping virtuosic showpieces so technically challenging that only Liszt could play them.
But that is only half the story. In 1847, at the age of just 35, Liszt retired from public performance to focus on writing and teaching. Thirteen years later he took another step back, taking Holy Orders and embarking upon a new life of religious devotion and creative introspection.
In this later period, a new aesthetic took root in Liszt, one characterized by austere, spare and sometimes inscrutable musical utterances that tended to question more than they assert. ‘I find Liszt’s religious music fascinating,’ says Andsnes, who has lived with Liszt’s music since childhood. ‘This is very different music, with so few notes but with a tension and beauty.’
One of the major statements of Liszt’s late period was Via Crucis, a journey through the Roman Catholic tradition’s Stations of the Cross for choir and piano, written in Rome in 1866 but considered too unusual by Liszt’s publisher and never performed in the composer’s lifetime. It wasn’t until 1929 that the work was given its first airing, on Good Friday, in the capital of the composer’s native Hungary, Budapest.
Via Crucis is unlike any other work in the repertoire: a concentrated ritual drama, ranging from liturgical chant to Lisztian chromaticism at its most searching and expressive. It sets a pianist and choir in dialogue with one another, each performing alone as well as together.
“This is something very different,” says Andnsnes. “It is incredible, the journey Liszt made as a composer, from this very flamboyant virtuosic style to [Via Crucis], which is very bare, with so few notes, but still an incredible tension and beauty. It points forward to the twentieth century while also building on the tradition of scared music.”
The work’s unusual scoring gave Andsnes the opportunity to extend his long-standing collaboration with the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir - one of the finest vocal ensembles in the world and a seasoned recording group, consisting of 26 handpicked professional singers.
“Via Crucis tells a story about a man who gave his life for others, and at the same time is so much about humanity,” says Grete Pedersen, artistic director of the choir; “it is a piece with a lot of question marks, and I hope listeners will feel that.”
“We live in a world of pain and conflict and Via Crucis offers room for empathy, for philosophical thought, and for the taking-in of different emotions,” says Andsnes. “Audiences seem to be mesmerized by it. It really is a special work in which you can discover so much beauty.” He likens the work to ‘14 miniature tone poems’.
The musicians examined the piece extensively before recording it together in Oslo, performing it in concert and attempting to fathom is unusual scoring in which piano and choir are sometimes partners yet sometimes sound diametrically opposed.
“It was inspiring to be in the middle of the sound of a choir of this quality,” says Andsnes; “I was inspired by the exacting way Grete and the Soloists’ Choir do these things. Their attention to detail is so great, which is important in music that is so fragile.” Grete Pedersen comments: “If any pianist can make the piano sing, it’s Leif Ove.”
Completing the program is music from two earlier cycles by Liszt that prove there was always more to his musical outlook than showmanship and virtuosity. A mood of thoughtful reflection dominates the composer’s Consolations, written on the eve of the composer’s retirement from public performance and in a paired-back idiom that alternates the lyrical, the winsome and the forthright before dissolving into silence.
Two of the six movements are cast in the key of E major, the tonality Liszt reserved for music addressing the divine. “ find the Consolations so tender, so intimate, speaking from heart to heart,” says Andsnes. “But still, they have different styles, from the spiritual to the dramatic. They are so wonderfully written for the piano; it always sings.”
Andsnes’s album also includes two movements from Liszt’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, a magnificent 10-movement cycle written in 1853, inspired by poetry by Alphonse de Lamartine. Andsnes describes the ‘Andante Lagrimoso’ as “full of sorrow.”
The other movement from the set, which ends the album, is something else entirely. Liszt’s ‘Miserere, d’après Palestrina’ is a startling creation written in homage to Italy’s great Renaissance polyphonic composer, which treats a chant-like theme with an almost improvisatory spontaneity. “It ends with an enormous flourish,” says Andsnes, “it’s a relief after all the intimate music we have been through. But it also brings us back to the very beginning of the album, as the Via Crucis begins with a Gregorian chant.”
Franz Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works
TRACKLIST
Via Crucis, S. 53
1 Vexilla regis
2 Station I: Jesus wird zum Tode verdammt
3 Station II: Jesus trägt sein Kreuz
4 Station III: Jesus fällt zum ersten Mal
5 Station IV: Jesus begegnet seiner heiligen Mutter
6 Station V: Simon von Kyrene hilft Jesus das Kreuz tragen
7 Station VI: Sancta Veronica
8 Station VII: Jesus fällt zum zweiten Mal
9 Station VIII: Die Frauen von Jerusalem
10 Station IX: Jesus fällt zum dritten Mal
11 Station X: Jesus wird entkleidet
12 Station XI: Jesus wird ans Kreuz geschlagen
13 Station XII: Jesus stirbt am Kreuze
14 Station XIII: Jesus wird vom Kreuz genommen
15 Station XIV: Jesus wird ins Grab gelegt
Consolations, S. 172
16 No. 1 in E Major. Andante con moto
17 No. 2 in E Major. Un poco più mosso
18 No. 3 in D-Flat Major. Lento placido
19 No. 4 in D-Flat Major. Quasi adagio
20 No. 5 in E Major. Andantino
21 No. 6 in E Major. Allegretto sempre cantabile
Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S. 173
22 No. 9. Andante lagrimoso
23 No. 8. Miserere, d'après Palestrina. Largo
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.
FOLLOW LEIF OVE ANDSNES
Website: http://www.andsnes.com/
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OUT NOW: Violinist Esther Abrami Presents Wiegala – First Single from New Album on Sony Classical to be Released April 25
Violinist Esther Abrami Presents Wiegala on Sony Classical
Violinist Esther Abrami Presents Wiegala
First Single from New Album on Sony Classical
Listen Here | Watch Music Video
Album Release Date: April 25, 2025
Esther Abrami presents moving lullaby by Jewish composer Ilse Weber in honour of International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Violinist Esther Abrami releases a poignant new interpretation of Wiegala a lullaby by Jewish poet and composer Ilse Weber. Arranged for violin and string quintet by Abrami herself, the song is available now, alongside a music video - watch here in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Ilse Weber (1903–1944) was a Czech-born Jewish poet, writer, and composer known for her children’s books and heartfelt songs, many of which she wrote during her imprisonment in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. “Wiegala, a lullaby which she composed during this time, stands as a testament to Weber’s courage and compassion. While working as a nurse for children in the camp, Weber offered music as a source of comfort and hope when medicine was unavailable. She composed songs, led performances, and even formed a choir, bringing light into one of history’s darkest chapters. When the children were deported to Auschwitz in 1944, she chose to accompany them, singing “Wiegala” with them for the last time before she was murdered, alongside the children she had cared for.
Esther Abrami’s delicate arrangement captures the profound emotional depth of the piece, honoring Weber’s legacy and highlighting the enduring power of music in the face of unimaginable adversity. Wiegala is the first single from Abrami’s forthcoming album, which will exclusively feature works by female composers. The Sony Classical album will be released on April 25, 2025. Wiegala is available in both Stereo and Dolby Atmos.
About Esther Abrami
Esther Abrami is much more than a musician: she's an inspiration to a new generation of music enthusiasts. Through her large social media platform, Esther shares her passion for music, performance, and practice sessions and shares behind-the-scenes glimpses into her life as a musician with an ever-growing community worldwide. With her dazzling talent, infectious personality, and boundless enthusiasm for music-making, Esther Abrami is a rising star.
Born in 1996 in Aix-en-Provence, the violinist studied at the Royal College of Music and completed her master's degree at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, for which she received a full scholarship. In 2019, she became the first classical musician ever to win the ‘Social Media Superstar’ category at the Global Awards and in 2021 she was featured in Classic FM's ‘30 under 30 Classical Artists to Watch’ series, curated by Julian Lloyd Webber and was listed as a ‘Rising Star’ by BBC Music Magazine. In the UK, Esther Abrami is considered one of the most promising young classical artists of her generation and has been appointed Creative Partner and Artist in Residence by the English Symphony Orchestra. With her debut album ‘Esther Abrami’ (2022), the follow up “Cinema” (2023) and an EP “Spotlight” dedicated to women composers recorded with ‘Her Ensemble’, a free-form group that seeks to address the gender gap and gender stereotypes in the music industry, Esther has become an artist who achieves wide attention outside the classical sphere and on social media. In her podcast ‘Woman in Classical’, Esther Abrami regularly interviews outstanding women musicians and composers from the world of classical music with the hope of inspiring young people to pursue a career in music. Esther Abrami plays a violin by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, kindly provided by Beare's International Violin Society.
Follow Esther Abrami
Website: https://www.estherabrami.com/
Instagram: @estherabrami
TikTok: @estherabrami
Facebook: @estherabramiviolin
X: @estherabrami
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March 7: Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason Releases Debut Solo Album Fantasie on Sony Classical
March 7: Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason Releases Debut Solo Album Fantasie on Sony Classical
Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason
Releases Debut Solo Album on Sony Classical
Fantasie
New Single: Summerland by William Grant Still
Listen Here | Watch the Music Video
Album Release Date: March 7, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason has a passion for curating programmes that cross diverse musical landscapes, and on her debut solo album Fantasie, she takes listeners on a journey that explores connections across different composers’ sound worlds – whether they met, influenced each other, or simply existed in resonance.
From Claude Debussy, Frédéric Chopin and Alexander Scriabin to Florence Price, Margaret Bonds and William Grant Still, Jeneba presents a programme which is also very personal to her as an artist. “I’ve always loved coming up with quite complex programmes which flow really nicely from one piece to the other and all these works mean a lot to me” she says. “By gathering them here for my debut album, I am not only revealing more of myself as a musician, but also sharing the very different styles of music I grew up listening to.”
William Grant Still’s 1935 Summerland - released today alongside album launch, listen here and watch the music video - perfectly illustrates Jeneba’s sense of the composers and their inter-connecting soundworlds. “I hear a lot of similarity between Still & Debussy” she explains. “I think that they occupy a similar sound world. ‘Summerland’ is very beautiful and it’s about a soul reaching heaven, and you can definitely hear that in the music. Like the Debussy Preludes, it’s very tranquil, but also harmonically complex… when you listen to it, you’re transported.”
Frédéric Chopin is central to Jeneba’s repertoire, and she opens with his Second Piano Sonata in B flat minor, Op 35, one of his most powerful works, celebrated for its emotional depth and technical brilliance. This is followed by The Nocturnes, Op 27, two contrasting pieces that illustrate Chopin’s mastery in evoking complex emotions in music. “These pieces need to feel as if they’re being improvised” she reveals. “I’ve had to know the notes inside out, so that when I come to perform it, I can see what happens. With Chopin, I don’t feel like I do the same thing every time.”
From Chopin she takes us into the sound world of Claude Debussy and his Préludes - ‘La fille aux cheveux de lin’ (‘The girl with flaxen hair’ from Book 1) and ‘Bruyères’ (‘Mists’ from Book 2), both of which evoke delicate, atmospheric worlds, where simplicity belies harmonic depth.
Then in a nod to the Russian tradition, Jeneba plays three works by Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915), who, like Chopin, expanded the piano’s expressive capacity. Two of his Op 11 Preludes, youthful works, and his Sonata No 2 offer her a canvas of harmonic daring and rhythmic freedom. “They both have a beautiful way of making the piano sing” she comments on Chopin & Scriabin. “You can hear Chopin’s influence in Scriabin’s music as he sometimes has these Chopin-esque decorations over the melodies. What I also really love about Scriabin’s music is that it’s very colourful. When he goes to a specific key, it’s important for him that it’s that key, and not any other key.”
Anchoring her programme’s central section are three African-American composers dear to Jeneba’s heart – Florence Price (1887-1953), Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) and William Grant Still (1895-1978) – each in their way pioneering new modes of musical expression. Jeneba’s affinity for Florence Price is palpable, dating back to her 2021 BBC Proms debut with Price’s Piano Concerto. Jeneba notes “I was very grateful to be able to perform Florence Price’s music at the BBC Proms and I am delighted to have her on my album as well. In lots of concerts when I have played her Fantasie in E Minor, people have come to me after the performance and said: ‘that was my favourite piece; that’s what I really loved’. I think it’s because her music is very vulnerable and instantly speaks to the heart. She has such a distinct style to which a lot of people can relate. Maybe it’s the passion and her direct connection to the Spirituals that she uses that makes her music so emotional and easy to connect to.”
Troubled Water by Margaret Bonds – who was a pupil and friend of Florence Price and a champion of her music and who played Price’s Concerto at its premiere in 1934 – is based on the Spiritual ‘Wade in the Water’ and combines syncopations, jazz influences and virtuoso demands. “The Spiritual in ‘Troubled Water’ is ‘Wade in the Water’ and I grew up listening to that when I was very young, so it’s nice to have a piece where you can really hear the pianistic side of Margaret Bonds’ playing and how she’s managed to weave in the Spiritual. There’s this sense of rhythm which follows through the whole piece and it’s a constant pulse underneath the Spiritual. It was an easy choice for me to include Margaret Bonds’ ‘Troubled Water’ on my debut album” Jeneba remarks, emphasizing the rhythmic intensity Bonds brings to her work.
William Grant Still’s Summerland’is a vision of paradise, and it suggests to Jeneba a similar musical world to the Debussy Préludes. It offers a delicate, rising hymn to transcendence and is the central movement of his Three Visions. “It's so beautiful and visual, yet delicate and intimate as well. It starts very simply, and then even though it grows in the left hand and the accompaniment becomes more harmonically complex, it stays in this peaceful Paradise world. Then the pitch gets higher and higher, as if the soul is lifting to heaven”.
The third youngest of the prodigiously musical Kanneh-Mason family, 22-year-old Jeneba knows instinctively who she is as a musician. “We are a very close-knit family and yet we all have very individual personalities” she explains. “We constantly influence each other, and I have learned a lot from my siblings - and still do. We all have our own voices yet can always turn to each other for support. Isata is six years older than me and she gave me a lot of lessons when I was younger. She’s always been a massive inspiration for me, and she’s already released many albums, so I feel like I’m following in her footsteps.”
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason is a musician deeply committed to her craft, relishing the challenges of performance and recording and dedicated to her audience, whether in the concert hall or via her recordings and is a talented young artist for whom mastery isn’t just technical but emotional too.
Fantasie will be released internationally on March 7, 2025 on Sony Classical.
Tracklist
Chopin: Piano Sonata No.2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 35
1. I. Grave - Doppio movimento
2. II. Scherzo
3. III. Marche funèbre (Lento)
4. IV. Finale (Presto)
5. Chopin: Nocturne No. 7 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 1
6. Chopin: Nocturne No. 8 in D-Flat Major, Op. 27, No. 2
7. Price: Fantasie Nègre No. 1 in E Minor
8. Bonds: Troubled Water
9. Still: Three Visions: II. Summerland
10. Debussy: La fille aux cheveux de lin
11. Debussy: Bruyères
12. Scriabin: 24 Preludes, Op. 11: No. 1 in C Major
13. Scriabin: 24 Preludes, Op. 11: No. 11 in B Major - Allegro assai
Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 2 in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 19 "Sonata Fantasy"
14. I. Andante
15. II. Presto
Jan. 31: Sony Classical Releases The World Of Hans Zimmer Part II: A New Dimension – New Single Dune II Suite Out Today
Jan. 31: Sony Classical Releases The World Of Hans Zimmer Part II: A New Dimension – New Single Dune II Suite Out Today
Sony Classical Releases
The World Of Hans Zimmer – Part II: A New Dimension
Out Today: Dune II Suite
Listen Here
Featuring Composer’s Acclaimed Film Music In Captivating Orchestral Suites Includes New Arrangements Of Iconic Themes From
Dune II, No Time To Die, The Rock, The Prince Of Egypt
New Album Release Date: January 31, 2025
Pre-Order Now
Sony Classical announces the release of Dune II Suite from the forthcoming double album, The World Of Hans Zimmer – Part II: A New Dimension available January 31, 2025 - pre-order here. The highly anticipated sequel to the acclaimed 2019 album The World of Hans Zimmer – A Symphonic Celebration features over 2 hours of music, reimagining 17 of the legendary composer’s most iconic film scores. Melding the grandeur of symphonic music with the dynamic power of Zimmer’s cinematic compositions, this album transforms more of his most successful soundtracks into epic new orchestral suites. Highlights include a short, captivating “cello-concerto-like” version of Final Ascent from No Time to Die, a tranquil rendition of A Time of Quiet Between the Storms from Dune II, and a new romantic suite from The Prince of Egypt. Additionally, Zimmer revisits one of his classic 90s soundtracks with a newly crafted suite of The Rock.
The World Of Hans Zimmer – Part II: A New Dimension features Zimmer accompanied by a stellar ensemble of soloists and collaborators, including singers Lebo M, Lisa Gerrard, Gan-ya Ben-gur Akselrod, and Nokukhanya Dlamini; multi-woodwind wizard Pedro Eustache; bass player Juan García-Herreros; guitarist Alexios Anest; pianist Eliane Correa; cellist Mariko Muranaka; violinist Rusanda Panfili; and percussionists Aleksandra Šuklar, Luis Ribeiro, and Lucy Landymore. Together, they perform alongside the Odessa Orchestra & Friends and the Nairobi Chamber Choir, under the baton of conductor Gavin Greenaway.
Hans Zimmer says: “We’re taking music that fans know and love and presenting it with a renewed sense of energy, scale, and emotion. These new orchestral suites are a testament to the incredible musicians I’ve had the pleasure of working with, and the magic that happens when we come together with the orchestra and choir. It’s about capturing those transformative moments in performance.”
The World of Hans Zimmer – Part II: A New Dimension is available for streaming and digital download in stereo and the immersive format Dolby Atmos. The album will also be released as a 2-CD set and a limited-edition 3 x 180g audiophile vinyl box – preorder here.
US Version: Hans Zimmer fans can experience the magic of his music live in January 2025 in five additional concerts of the hugely successful HANS ZIMMER LIVE tour:
Friday, January 31 Austin, Texas - Moody Center
Sunday, February 2 Nashville, Tennessee - Bridgestone Arena
Tuesday, February 4 Columbus, Ohio - Nationwide Arena
Thursday, February 6 Brooklyn, New York - Barclays Arena
Friday, February 7 Baltimore, Maryland - CFG Arena
For tickets and more information, visit:
www.hanszimmerlive.com.
HANS ZIMMER – THE WORLD OF HANS ZIMMER – PART II: A NEW DIMENSION
SUITES ON THE ALBUM:
Part 1
Man of Steel Suite: Part 1 "What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving The World?
Driving (Miss Daisy)
The Rock: Two Parts Suite
James Bond: Two Parts Suite
Interstellar: Two Parts Suite
Dune II - Part 1: Intro + Part 2: "A Time of Quiet…"
The Prince of Egypt: Three Parts Suite
Wonder Woman: Two Parts Suite
Sherlock Holmes: Three Parts Suite
Inception: Part 1: Dream Is Collapsing + Part 2: Time
Part 2
The Dark Knight
Gladiator: Four Parts Suite
Pearl Harbor: Two Parts Suite
Kung Fu Panda: Two Parts Suite
Power of One: Mother Africa
The Lion King: Four Parts Suite
Pirates of the Caribbean: Two Parts Suite
ABOUT HANS ZIMMER
Hans Zimmer has scored more than 500 projects across all mediums, which combined have grossed more than 28 billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Zimmer has been honored with two Academy Awards®, three Golden Globe® Awards, five Grammy® Awards, an American Music Award, and a Tony® Award, as well as six Emmy® nominations.
Upcoming, Zimmer scored Steve McQueen’s highly anticipated Blitz, set for release in November, and Joseph Kosinski’s F1, which will premiere in June 2025.
Most recently, Zimmer scored Denis Villeneuve’s critically acclaimed sequel, Dune: Part Two, which premiered in March 2024. The film is the follow-up to the 2021 Hollywood blockbuster Dune, which earned Zimmer his second Academy Award® in the category of Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures. He was recently nominated for his three Emmy® Awards on behalf of his work on Planet Earth III and The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
Zimmer’s additional work highlights include No Time to Die, Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, As Good as It Gets, Rain Man, The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Thelma and Louise, The Last Samurai, 12 Years A Slave, Blade Runner 2049 (co-scored w/ Benjamin Wallfisch) and Dunkirk, as well as recent film scores including Top Gun: Maverick, Wonder Woman 1984 and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.
In 1994, Zimmer won his first Academy Award® for the Best Original Score of Disney animated film The Lion King. Additionally in 2019, he scored the live-action remake of the iconic film and received a Grammy® nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
Beyond his award-winning compositions and globally recognizable achievements, Zimmer has gone on to complete highly successful Hans Zimmer Live tours around the world. After sold-out European runs, he is gearing up to bring the tour to North America for his first performances in the region since his 2017 Coachella performance. Previously, he performed in the Middle East at Dubai’s renowned Coca-Cola Arena for two consecutive nights as well as Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Hans Zimmer Approved Image (Credit Lee Kirby): Download
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