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. Check out the full Top 20 list here.
First, it was J.S. Bach, who continues to take up three positions on the Classical Chartz Top Ten. This week, Prokofiev also makes a statement, occupying the focus of two of the albums on this week’s Top Ten more than seven decades after his death.
Yunchan Lim makes the leap from No. 5 last week to take this week’s top spot with his Bach Goldberg Variations, displacing Pygmalion’s J.S. Bach: Johannes-Passion, which falls to No. 2. Likewise, Ludovico Einaudi’s Solo Piano steps down one position to land at No. 3.
The top half of the Chartz is rounded out with Sinfonia of London and their album Puccini Orchestral Works at No. 4, and at No. 5 the first release devoted to Prokofiev by Nemanja Radulovic.
The second comes in at No. 6— Isata Kanneh-Mason’s similarly titled Prokofiev. Isata is, of course, one of the British siblings who rose to fame with their family concerts during the pandemic. The Decca Classics release includes a variety of pieces, including works for solo piano and the Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26, accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor Ryan Bancroft.
Kanneh-Mason explored Prokofiev’s writing for solo piano with the Toccata, Op. 11; 10 Pieces, Op. 12: No. 7. Prelude; the March and Scherzo from The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33; 10 Pieces from Romeo & Juliet, Op. 75; 10 Pieces from Cinderella, Op. 97; Sonata No. 3, Op. 28; along with a piano version of Troika, from Lieutenant Kije, Op. 60: IV.
Isata has had a long relationship with Prokofiev’s work. She made her BBC Proms debut as a soloist with the Concerto No. 3 back in 2023.
“I’m playing Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, one of my favourites, completely crazy and very rhythmic,” Isata writes in a statement. “That’s something I really relate to, the patterns and precision.” She first heard the work at the age of 18, played by Yuja Wang on YouTube. “I instantly fell in love with it and dreamed about playing it,” she says. “It was another eight years before I started learning it properly, but I listened to it constantly. It’s always exciting to bring this piece to new people. The music speaks to a place deep inside of me. I feel very free when I perform it.”
She’s played it through Europe and North America, and it has a key connection to Toronto, where she performed it with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 2024, led by guest conductor Ryan Bancroft.
The other newcomer this week comes in a No. 10 — Joep Beving’s Liminal, which rises from No. 13 last week.
The Dutch composer and pianist formed his first band at the age of 14. Still a teenager, a repetitive strain injury of the wrist led him to sideline piano studies. He switched to studying public policy and administration, and eventually worked in the advertising business.
There, however, his gift for music came to the fore again. He was responsible for creating the music for several commercials, and then branched to short films. He released his first album of contemporary piano pieces in 2015. He’s since released another six albums and several singles not counting Liminal.
Liminal was inspired by Guillaume Logé’s book “Wild Renaissance”, and revolves around themes of ecology, the growing uncertainty of our society, and the collapse of existing systems. The 15 pieces for solo piano incorporate electronic elements, and offer an atmospheric space somewhere between contemporary music and sound poetry.
“The album moves between two sides. Sometimes, I try to shape and refine sound into its purest form. Other times, the music seems to flow on its own, shifting, fading, and returning to silence as if guided by something natural. It’s less about structure and more about connection, resonance, and change, closer to ecology than architecture,” says Beving in a statement.
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.