Enjoy new music with our classical music chart for this week. Our weekly selections are based on sales numbers and simply what albums we love and think you NEED to hear.
For the complete top 20, tune into Classical Chartz with the New Classical FM’s Mark Wigmore every Saturday from 3-5 p.m.
Nos. 1, 5 and 6 are locked in for another week, with Lang Lang’s Saint-Saëns, Bryn Terfel’s Sea Songs, and Renaud Capuçon’s latest release, Les choses tea la vie: Cinema II respectively. The National Arts Orchestra and Truth in our Time make the climb from 4 to 2, displacing Il Divo and Daniel Hope, who sup down to 3 and 4 respectively.
Two new releases land in the Top Ten for the first time.
Béla Fleck’s Rhapsody in Blue, with the Virginia Symphony and conductor Eric Jacobsen, rises from No. 12 to No. 8 this week. Fleck plays the banjo, and while he may be more often associated with bluegrass, he’s carved out a unique career known for ignoring genres (he’s won awards in the pop world music, classical, country, and jazz categories). Conductor and cellist Eric Jacobsen is also known for his adventurous programming. Fleck redefines Gershwin’s American classic via three variations, Rhapsody in Blue(grass), Rhapsody in Blue(s), and in an orchestrated version where the banjo takes the place of the piano. Gershwin’s lesser known Rialto Ripples and Unidentified Piece for Banjo (discovered at the Library of Congress) round out the album.
Nash Ensemble’s Tchaikovsky & Korngold: String Sextets showcases works not often heard in concert. It makes the climb from No. 13 to No. 9 this week. As it happens, both Tchaikovsky and Korngold wrote string sextets n the key if D minor. Tchaikovsky was riddled with the doubts that would plague his career when he wrote his ‘Souvenier de Florence’, op. 70, while Korngold was just a teenager when he wrote his Op. 10. The Nash Ensemble of London has been around for more than four decades as one of the UK’s most vital classical groups.
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