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.
Lang Lang and Piano Book II top the Classical Chartz for another week, holding on to the No. 1 spot. Just below, Hildur Guðnadóttir’s Where To From and Christopher Tin’s Song Offerings exchange places to end up at No. 3 and No. 2 respectively. Isabelle Faust’s Telemann Violin Concertos holds the line at No. 4 for a second week.
This week, there are three newcomers to the Classical Chartz Top Ten — Gautier Capuçon’s Gaïa, which makes the leap from No. 11 to No. 6, Vikingur Ólafsson’s Opus 109, which lands at No. 9, up from No. 14, and Alexandra Whittingham’s Letters From Paris, which rounds out the list at No. 10, up from No. 16.
French cellist Gautier Capuçon’s Gaïa features 17 world premiere original works by 16 composers, each exploring the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Many different lenses are used to depict that relationship, with Capuçon’s cello becoming the voice of the earth in each.
“Each track gives its own voice to the cello, immersing us in the power and depth of nature and the Earth, the source of life,” Gautier explains in the album notes. “In each piece, it is the Earth that expresses itself in music: sometimes fragile, sometimes majestic, always essential. … This album is also a song of warning, a hymn to this threatened beauty, a prayer for future generations.”
Composers on the album include well known names like Max Richter, Ludovico Einaudi, and Joe Hisaishi, along with lesser known artists such as Armand Amar, Jasmine Barnes, Olivia Belli, Quenton Blache, Michael Canitrot, JB Dunckel, Missy Mazzoli, Gabriela Montero, Nico Muhly, Xavier Foley, and Ayanna Witter-Johnson. Bryce Dessner contributes two pieces.
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109 lies at the heart of GRAMMY®-winning pianist Víkingur Ólafsson’s latest release on the Deutsche Grammophon label. The work comes from Beethoven’s late period, and Ólafsson has bookended the masterwork with the work of two composers he considers vital to Op. 109.
The album includes pieces by J.S. Bach, including his The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 846-869, Prelude & Fugue in E Major, BWV 854, Partita No.6 in E minor, BWV 830, and French Suite No.6 in E, BWV 817. The Icelandic pianist sees the works as precursors of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 30, as well as his Piano Sonata No. 27 in E Minor, Op. 90, which is also included on the album.
At the other end of the scale, coming after Beethoven, he incorporates Schubert’s Piano Sonata No.6 in E minor, D566, an early work of the composer which was influenced by Op. 90.
Both Schubert and Beethoven, as Ólafsson notes, confront Bach “as every great composer must.”
“France is where it all started for me,” says British guitarist Alexandra Whittingham in the album notes for Letters From Paris.
Alexandra Whittingham’s new release on the Decca Classics label is, not surprisingly, an album of that celebrates French music, and France in a broader sense, drawing from centuries of music. There are works by Cabral, Piaf, Louiguy, Debussy, Durand, Tiersen, Fauré, Monnot, Kleynjans, Hahn, Aznavour, Satie, Chopin, Presti, Lutyens, Pravi, Igit, and Poe. The guitarist’s personal connections to France, in particular the southwest, began at age 19, when she performed her very first professional recital at Puy-l’Évêque before an audience that included her parents. They subsequently bought a property next to the church where she’d performed, and since that time, Alexandra has spent a great deal of time in France.
In addition to her performances, Alexandra has built a formidable online presence, with more than 500,000 followers across various social media platforms. She’s joined on the album by saxophonist Jess Gillam, fellow classical guitarist, Stephanie Jones, and cellist Margarita Balanas.
“I’m incredibly excited to release this album,” she says in the album notes. “This is a project I’ve had in mind for so long, and it’s been such a lot of fun being able to realise these ideas whilst collaborating with such great friends and musicians. I’ve always loved pairing music by popular household names alongside composers that might be less well-known outside of the guitar world, and this record does exactly that.”
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