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. You’ll find the full Top 20 for 2025 here.
With the year coming to an end, and Ludwig-Van on holidays until January 2, this is our Classical Chartz for 2025, representing favourites from the entire year.
Topping the Chartz at No. 1 is French vocal and instrumental ensemble Pygmalion’s Bach B Minor Mass, conducted by founder Raphaël Pichon is a two-CD set on the Harmonia Mundi label. Bach’s Mass in B Minor is considered one of the major peaks of the composer’s oeuvre, and the French ensemble gives a reverent performance. Along with the ensemble performing on period instruments, the performance includes soloists includes soprano Julie Roset, mezzo Beth Taylor, tenor Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, and bass Christian Immler, with violist Lucile Richardot. As a bonus, the CD liner notes include a booklet with an introduction by Pichon that includes a discussion of how Bach created the work from disparate parts.
Coming in at second place is Alice Sara Ott’s exquisite rendition of the John Field Complete Nocturnes. The German Japanese pianist brings the works of a rarely heard composer to life in this release on the Deutsche Grammophon label — even though he is now credited as one of the key figures to develop the Nocturne. In the liner notes, Ott says, “Engaging with Field’s nocturnes was a deeply rewarding experience,” says Ott. “Their beauty and grace affected me profoundly and enriched my life while I was preparing for this recording. By recording this album, I hope to share the story of this historically important composer and to encourage listeners to discover the origins of the Nocturne.”
At the No. 3 position, Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen’s The Flying Dutchman also features Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley as The Dutchman, with Edward Gardner and the Norwegian Opera orchestra and chorus. The popular release won a 2025 Gramophone Award, and was recorded on the Decca label using two live performances given at the opera house in Oslo in the summer of 2024. Interestingly, Davidson does not plan on taking on the role of Senta ever again. In the liner notes, she comments, “I can never know if it will be my last,” she adds, “but it’s a role I was asked to sing for a long time and waited because I thought it was too demanding. Now I have so many other Wagner roles coming up that it’s unlikely I will sing it again. But I was very grateful to do it like this: in concert, with great friends and colleagues, and to top it off with a recording.”
Désert by Jean Michel Blais and Lara Somogyi, No. 4 on the end of year Chartz, spent many weeks at the No. 1 spot. Désert celebrates the bountiful joy of springtime, and results from a series of improvisations between harpist Lara Somogyi and pianist-composer Jean-Michel Blais that were captured in Joshua Tree, California. Ironically, Blais and Somogyi, an experimental electronic harpist, met by chance. The 11 tracks follow their improvised impressions from dawn to dusk in the California desert. The notes in the Decca release describe each track; for escaliers, Blais writes, “escaliers was born in one of those moments when stars align. weaving through hope, doubt, and acceptance, the piece mirrors the steps we take on our serendipitous journey toward discovery and healing…as it ascends and descends, the music reflects the emotional climbs we may encounter, gently reminding us we are not alone. together, we can find solace and strength in both music and each other, illuminating the beauty found in light and shadow, through resilience.”
Likewise, Ludovico Einaudi’s The Summer Portraits was a fixture on the Chartz for months during the year. It comes in at the No. 5 position for 2025. The Italian composer took a holiday in the summer of 2024, renting a villa on a Mediterranean island. When he arrived, he discovered that the house had been decorated with between 30 and 40 lovely oil paintings that had been created by the same artist – the owner of the house. He delved into the history of the villa, and found they had been painted by the woman who owned the house. She had spent each summer there with her family, and created new works each summer. The composer couldn’t help but be inspired. “I started to think at my summers, the time where my life was strictly connected with all my senses, where the days felt like months and months like years, and I was free from morning to night, and every day was a new discovery of life, and nature was a fundamental part of it, we were nature,” he writes.”And I thought that everyone has their own version of the summer portraits,” he notes. “A beautiful season connected with the best moments of our lives. So, I started to make my own paintings with music. This album is dedicated to all our endless summers memories, all our beautiful moments.”
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s simply titled Ravel, on the Chandos label, sits at No. 6. The album of the composer’s complete piano works was released to coincide with the Ravel anniversary. Bavouzet writes in the liner notes, “I subscribe completely to Ravel’s idea that a composer does not have to be profound in order to write good music. And furthermore, owing no doubt to his modest character, Ravel rarely addresses us in the first person. He does not confide in us intimately except on the rarest occasions. At these exceptional moments, our admiration for this musical giant, for his intelligence and elegant style of writing, for his perfect proportions, give way to a wave of emotion that is difficult to contain.”
British superstar organist Anna Lapwood’s Firedove takes up the No. 7 position on the Chartz for 2025. On her own website, Lapwood writes, “I wanted to create an album where the listener doesn’t quite know where it’s going to go next. There are lots of little easter eggs in there that you wouldn’t expect – even the first appearance of the choir – and a through-line of flight and spreading wings, because this does feel as though I’ve found what I want to say as an artist. I’m very proud of it.” It’s the follow up album for Lapwood’s Luna album. The artist, who has amassed a huge following, and many young fans of the venerable pipe organ, through social media, recorded the album during the night at the 11th century Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway with a track list that includes everything from Robbie Williams song Angels to Maurice Duruflé’s Prelude and Fugue.
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Pulcinella comes in at No. 8 for the year 2025. Gustavo Gimeno conducts the TSO on the Harmonia Mundi release, which also incorporates Stravinsky’s The Fairy’s Kiss, and a TSO commission from Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has a historical relationship to both Stravinsky and Pulcinella, having hosted his final conducting appearance in a performance of Pulcinella. The masterwork, a favourite of Gimeno’s was recorded at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall with mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, tenor Paul Appleby, and bass-baritone Derek Walton.
Bach — Telemann — Albinoni by Ensemble Masques, at No. 9, was a popular release during 2025. The Alpha Classics album includes work by soloists Olivier Fortin, organ, violinist Sophie Gent, and Torontonian Kathleen Kajioka on the viola. “We have wanted to record Bach’s violin concertos with Sophie Gent ever since she joined Ensemble Masques in 2003,” writes Olivier Fortin, organist, harpsichordist, and founder of the ensemble. “Sophie is an exceptional musician with an extremely convincing, honest and unpretentious style.” Kathleen Kajioka is the soloist for Telemann’s viola concerto. “Telemann is a fantastic storyteller,” she says, “who provides a plot, characters, costumes and props — and leaves you to put it all together.” The concerti are linked on the album by two sinfonia by Albinoni to complete the Baroque program.
Preludes by Jan Lisiecki rounds out the year end Chartz at No. 10. The Canadian pianist includes Frédéric Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Op. 28, at the heart of the album, part of a project that also included a recital tour. The Chopin opus is contrasted by, rounded out by preludes by Bach, Rachmaninoff, Messiaen, and Górecki. In the notes for the Deutsche Grammophon release, Lisiecki writes that he was looking “to showcase the broad possibilities of the humble Prelude” that takes “the audience on a musical expedition”. He also notes the seminal role that Chopin played in the development of the prelude itself, “embracing its ability to establish a mood and be taken out of context, so to speak”.
Are you looking to promote an event? Have a news tip? Need to know the best events happening this weekend? Send us a note.
#LUDWIGVAN
Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.