Mexico’s leading classical music label, Urtext Digital Classics, offers a catalog of well over a hundred titles, most of which feature artists and composers from The Americas. This recent release titled 3 Conciertos from March of 2014 offers a trio of concertos by Mexican composer Samuel...

As it is played here, the complete piano music of Arvo Pärt takes about two hours to perform and fits neatly on these two Brilliant Classics CDs. I’ve qualified this statement with “as it is played here” because some of the music is rather improvisatory, leaving much to the...

The two concertos dating from 2007 and 2010 on this Toccata Classics CD sound, for the most part, as though they could have been written over a century ago. The music is by the Russian born American classical and jazz pianist and composer Igor Raykhelson. It is the third release of the...

Despite the fact that an illustration of a piano keyboard is their logo, and the term “toccata” is most often associated with music for keyboard, Toccata Classics is not just a “piano label”. In addition to the many revelatory premiere recordings of keyboard music the...

Gravity and Grace from the CentreDiscs label is the first album devoted entirely to the chamber music of Canadian composer Allan Gordon Bell. I have wanted to recommend this extraordinary disc for several months now, but sometimes, reviewing contemporary music comes with a unique set of...

There’s some wonderful music here! British composer Christopher Gunning, best known for his award-winning film and television scores, has produced a substantial body of music for the concert hall, which includes seven numbered symphonies. This new CD from the Discovery label contains the...

While several important areas of music by American composer John Musto can be heard on CD, including samplings of his chamber music, opera, and a considerable selection of songs, nothing of his orchestral oeuvre has been made available until the release of this Bridge Records CD. Bridge has...

While there are many similarities between the music of Mikołaj Górecki and that of his father, Henryk, the younger Górecki has clearly (and in all likelihood, with a purpose) developed his own distinct sound, producing highly nuanced, interesting and compelling music. This title from the...

I’ve listened to this CD many times and have enjoyed it more on each successive hearing. There is much beautiful music here. When it came time to select a track to feature as a sample, it wasn’t easy because I have many favorites. This New Naxos CD contains the complete solo piano...

Belgian composer Jan Van der Roost was born in 1956 and currently teaches counterpoint and fugue at the Lemmensinstituut, the Belgian conservatory in Leuven. From Navona Records comes this program of three of Mr. Van der Roost’s orchestral pieces: Sirius (2003), a brilliant thirteen...

Listening to and reading about this cycle of piano miniatures titled “Children’s Songs”, written and performed by Australian composer Mark Isaacs, you can’t help but be mindful of a similar and much loved cycle from Robert Schumann, his Scenes from Childhood. The...

Originally released in 2006, Harmonia Mundi has returned this recording of Olivier Greif’s Sonate de Requiem and Piano Trio to the active catalog as part of their mid-priced HM Gold line. Not having heard the initial release, I feel fortunate that I didn’t miss this powerful and...