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.
Josh Groban takes over the No. 1 spot on the Classical Chartz this week, taking the baton from Jean-Michel Blais and Lara Somogyi, who held on to the top position for several weeks with their release Desert. That album takes two steps down to No. 3.
Groban’s album Gems is a collection of hits culled from his Uber-successful 35 million album selling career. He’s selected many of his own as well as fan favourites, with a mix of original songs like You Raise Me UP and February Song, Broadway tunes, classical American songbook, and more.
His rise from No. 5 to No. 1 is one of the biggest up glows of the week. Another fast riser is The Flying Dutchman, with Norwegian lyric soprano Lise Davidsen and Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley. It makes the leap from No. 8 last week to land at No. 4.
In between, Yuja Wang and the Boston Symphony Orchestra take one step up from No. 3 to No. 2 with Shostakovich: Piano Concertos.
French violinist Esther Abrami’s album Women is the only newcomer to the Classical Chartz Top Ten, rising from No. 12 last week to end up at No. 7.
Abrami fell in love with the violin at age three, and has been making waves ever since as both musician and social media influencer. During her musical studies, she couldn’t help but notice the dearth of music created by women in the standard repertoire. Her latest album Women showcases works by women composers, often as the result of Abrami’s own research and study.
The album includes music by 14 women composers: Abrami herself, Boyle, Carreño, Cyrus, Dudley, Gonzaga, Hildegard, Portman, Shimomura, Smyth, Strohl, Viardot-Garcia and Weber. Of special note is Irish composer Ina Boyle’s 1935 Violin Concerto in its world premiere studio recording.
Boyle’s work has been largely forgotten, like that of Brazilian Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935) and Venezuelan composer Teresa Carreño (1853-1917). The album also includes contemporary tracks like an arrangement of Miley Cyrus’ Flowers, and Yoko Shimomura’s Valse di Fantastica, a theme from the video game Final Fantasy XV.
Pianist Kim Barbier and harpist Lavinia Meijer perform on the album, with the Esther Abrami Quintet, and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Irene Delgado-Jiménez.
In an interview with NPR, Esther says, “Hopefully, in 10 years, it won’t be needed to have an album titled Women. But for now, we still have to do so much, to push so much to be able to even come to something that is close to being equal in terms of, for example, performing works by women. And we are so, so, so far off still.”
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