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Classical Highlights for April 2026

Our new reviewers have been thrown into the huge world of recent Classical recordings and are discovering their footings. Among the highlights they discovered this month embrace literature-inspired music by composer-conductor Daníel Bjarnson, carried out by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (pictured); a program of Artwork Noveau piano trios by Trio Wanderer; and a few meticulously sung, calming music for a night service by The King’s Singers. There are additionally the perpetual favourite composers — J.S. Bach, Mahler, and Brahms, to call simply three — among the many new releases, together with a restored recording by Sir Edward Elgar main his personal Enigma Variations.

April Classical Reviews
April Classical Evaluations

Piotr Anderszewski – Brahms: Late Piano Works

Giovanni Antonini, Kammerorchester Basel – Haydn 2032, No. 18: Il maestro di scuola

Martin James Bartlett, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Howard Griffiths – Concertos: Bach, Mozart, Britten

Olivia Belli – Belli: ‘Daimon’ Piano Concerto; Ithaca Suite; Sonatina for Nausicaa

Daníel Bjarnason, Iceland Symphony Orchestra – The Grotesque & The Elegant

Café Zimmermann, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian – Vivaldi: Masques

Calidore String Quartet – American Tapestry

Renaud Capuçon – Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonatas & Partitas

Thibault Cauvin – Alter Ego

Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, William Vann – Gentle out of Darkness: Choral Music by Elgar

Stella Chen, Academy of St Martin within the Fields, Jean-Jacques Kantorow – Beethoven & Barber: Violin Concertos

Fabrizio Chiovetta – Brahms: Klavierstücke, Op. 116-119

Imogen Cooper – Beethoven: The Final Three Sonatas

Christoph Croise, Past Fashionable Orchestra, Daniel Schnyder – Daniel Schnyder: Cello Concerto; Concerto Populaire

Alexandra Dariescu, Academy of St. Martin within the Fields – A Baby’s Dream

Grace Davidson, Julian Perkins – A Thousand Charms

Gaspard Dehaene – Fauré en Héritage

Lea Desandre, Jupiter, Thomas Dunford – Songs of Ardour

Frank Dupree, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, HK Gruber – HK Gruber: Piano Concerto; Brief Tales from the Vienna Woods; Castles within the Air

Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Henry Wooden – Elgar: From the Archives, Vol. 1

Jennifer France, Wallis Giunta, HK Gruber – Weill: The Seven Lethal Sins

Eliza Garth – By the River: Works for piano solo

Gustavo Gimeno, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Toronto Symphony Orchestra – Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin; Concerto for Orchestra

Neal Goren, Talea Ensemble, Melissa Harvey, Laurie Rubin – Nadia Boulanger: La ville morte

Gould Piano Trio – Franz Schubert: Piano Trios, Vol. 2

Amy Harman, Tom Poster – Bassoonist’s Songbook

Linda Hedlund, La Tempesta Orchestra, József Hárs – Finnish Works for Violin and Orchestra

Heinz Holliger, Marie-Lise Schüpbach – con slancio

Huddersfield Choral Society, Opera North Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins – Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius

Ruby Hughes, Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann, Jonas Nordberg – Amidst the Shades

Steven Isserlis, Connie Shih – 1851: Schumann & Moscheles Sonatas

Victor Jacob, Isaure Brunner, Jean-Gabriel Saint-Martin – Gabriel Fauré: Requiem

Neeme Järvi, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra – Alfvén: Festspel; Suite from ‘Gustaf II Adolf’; Rautavaara: Cantus Arcticus

Vladimir Jurowski, London Philharmonic Orchestra – Mahler: Symphony No. 9

The King’s Singers – Head Area: Candlelight

Anna Lapwood, Chapel Choir of Pembroke Faculty, Cambridge – Come up, Shine

Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Andrew Staples, Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth – Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Yunchan Lim – Bach: Goldberg Variations – Reside at Carnegie Corridor

Eric Lu – Schubert: The Impromptus Opp. 90 & 142

James McVinnie – Bach: Clavier-Übung III

The Choir of Magdalen Faculty, Oxford; Mark Williams – Come up my love: Music for the Break of Day

Julien Martineau, Victor Hugo Orchestre, Jean-François Verdier – La Cinquième Saison: Apparailly, Vivaldi, Beffa

Kenji Miura – Heimat: Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms

Alice Sara Ott – Jóhann Jóhannsson: Piano Works

Charles Owen – De Profundis: Liszt, Franck

Luciano Pavarotti – The Misplaced Live performance

Luciano Pavarotti – Novanta

Georges Prête, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR – Fauré: Requiem; Poulenc: Gloria

Roberto Prosseda – Georges Bizet: The Piano Works

Choir of the Queen’s Faculty, Oxford; Owen Rees – The Crown of Life: Leighton, Clarke, Holst, Darke

Daniel Reuss, Cappella Amsterdam, Noord Nederlands Orkest – Igor Stravinsky: Late Works

Esa-Pekka Salonen, San Francisco Symphony – Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 1

Ole Schmidt, London Symphony Orchestra – Havergal Brian: Symphony No. 1 ‘The Gothic’

Christian Schmitt, Bamberger Symphoniker, Fabien Gabel – César Franck: Grande Pièce Symphonique; Les Éolides; Charles-Marie Widor: La Nuit de Walpurgis

Aristo Sham – Timeline

Hayato Sumino – Chopin Orbit

Trio Barclay – Past the Pacific: Seyfried, Wineglass, Wonderful

Trio Ernest, Eleonore Billy – Great Adventures of Amanda Maier

Trio Wanderer – Artwork Nouveau: French Chamber Music Round 1900

Nobuyuki Tsujii – Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky

Dénes Várjon – Dénes Várjon performs Bela Bartók

Voces8 – Twenty

Mary Elizabeth Williams, Kenneth Kellogg, Opera Lafayette Orchestra, Patrick Dupre Quigley – Edmond Dédé: Morgiane, ou, Le Sultan d’Ispahan

John Wilson, Xiayin Wang, Peter Dixon, Sinfonia of London – MacDowell, Vol. 2: Piano Concerto No. 2; Romanze; Suite; Hamlet; Ophelia

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