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.
The top two spots on the Classical Chartz remain unchanged over last week. The Vienna Philharmonic with conductor Tugan Sokhiev hold on to the top position with their recording of the Summer Night Concert 2025. The lush romance of the music and the setting have an undeniable appeal.
At second spot, Lorien Testard’s soundtrack for the French video game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 holds on to No. 2.
The real story this week comes in at No. 3, making a huge leap up from No 13 last week, with pianist Steven Osborne’s simply titled Schubert. The recording includes the composer’s Moments Musical D780, and the Piano Sonata in A Major, D959.
Scottish pianist Steve Osborne is a two-time Gramophone Award winner, among other accolades he’s collected. Osborne has performed with orchestras and ensembles across the globe, and he’s created a significant and wide ranging catalogue with Hyperion Records, including works by Ravel, Mozart, Beethoven, and Messiaen, among others.
Schubert has long been a pillar of Osborne’s repertoire, and it’s his third recording of the composer’s work on the Hyperion label. As an interpreter of Schubert, Osborne has been noted for his sensitivity and expression.
Schubert would write his Piano Sonata in A Major a few months before his untimely death, and is characteristic of his later work. It has a wide emotional range, from despair to bucolic serenity.
Together with D958 and D960, the would be his last major compositions for solo piano, written in 1828, but not published until about a decade later in 1838 or 1839. Today, Schubert’s piano sonatas are part of the core classical piano repertoire, but they were not highly regarded in the 19th century, and they languished in neglect until critical and public opinion began to change throughout the 20th century.
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