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. Find the full Top 20 here.
Lorien Testard’s atmospheric soundtrack for the video game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 retains its stranglehold on the No. 1 spot of the Classical Chartz for yet another week. The game, developed by French studio Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive, has been highly rated and popular with gamers. It sets players in the world of Belle Époque France, where they battle monsters and find their way through an imaginative environment.
It’s proof, if any were needed, that video game soundtracks have come to the same level of respect as other forms of orchestral music. Testard’s father worked in a video game shop, and it’s a passion that Lorien took to early. As he played, he also fell in love with the music that he calls “a companion to our lives”. It’s certainly true that many video game melodies and entire soundtracks have become iconic, and now with Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, have truly crossed over into the mainstream.
Beethoven For Three is at No. 2, up from No. 5 last week. It’s the latest in the series by classical superstars Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, and Leonidas Kavakos exploring the Romantic master’s works.
Québec artist Viviane Audet comes in at No. 3, and charts the fastest rising among the Top Ten of the Classical Chartz this week. Her album Le Piano et le Torrent is her fifth. It takes a musical walk through the town of Maria in Gaspésie, Québec (48°10’34” N, 65°59’18” W), from sunrise, through streets named after birds, into the sea, and more. It’s an imaginative take that she describes on her website.
Audet is a graduate of École supérieure de théâtre musical in Montréal, and has worked on over 25 original film, TV, theatre and dance soundtracks, including feature films.
She’s part of a strong trend of Canadian artists working in the neoclassical realm, including Alexandra Stréliski and Ottawa native François Dompierre.
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