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.
Remarkably, the top four placements in the Classical Chartz remain the same over last week. At No. 1, Andrea Bocelli and his Duets (30th Anniversary) reigns at the top of the heap, followed by Jon Batiste’s Beethoven Blues.
Two Canadians occupy the Nos. 3 and 4 spots; Ottawa native François Dompierre and Requiem, and Bruce Liu’s The Seasons respectively. From Bocelli’s classical and pop mix to Batiste’s innovative take on the master, Dompierre’s cinematic musical sensibilities and Bruce Liu’s take of a beloved Tchaikovsky work, those top four point to the wide range of music that can be found on the Classical Chartz today. Modern listeners are finding ever new ways to love orchestral music.
Freddie De Tommaso is the newcomer to the Classical Chartz Top Ten this week, with his Puccini album vaulting from No. 12 last week all the way up to No. 7. De Tommaso is a British-Italian tenor whose career is the stuff that dreams are made of. At the age of 28, in 2021, he was scheduled to perform in Tosca as Cavaradossi in the Royal Opera production – but not as the headliner. During a performance, the other tenor playing the role fell ill, and De Tommaso jumped into the performance after the first intermission.
The press loved his performance, and he shot to early fame. Since then, he’s performed a variety of roles at Gran Theatre del Liceu, Teatro all Scala, and elsewhere throughout Italy and the rest of Europe. In April 2021, he beat out both Andrea Bocelli and Max Richter on the charts when his debut album Passione on the Decca label landed at No. 1, the first tenor to have that distinction in two decades.
His most recent release, Puccini, he’s accompanied by Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in interpreting the opera master’s works. De Tommaso recorded the album to celebrate Puccini’s centenary in 2024, and made his debut at the Met Opera performing his by now signature Cavaradossi in November.
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