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.
Sinfonia of London’s French Orchestral Favourites takes over the No. 1 spot on the Classical Chartz this week, making the leap from No. 4 last week. Himari’s The Red Violin comes in at No. 2, up from No. 5, while Arcadi Volodos’ Schubert & Schumann drops from No. 1 to No. 3.
Jeehee Yan’s Reinecke: Flute Works likewise drops from No. 2 to No. 4, and the top five positions on the Classical Chartz is rounded out by Sofiane Pamart’s Movie at No. 5, (No. 3 last week).
There are two newcomers: Alexander Malofeev’s Forgotten Melodies, which jumps from No. 13 to land at No. 8, and Timothy Ricout & Jonathan Ware, whose Alto Apassionato comes in at No. 9.
At 24 years of age, Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev is being hailed as one of the greats of his generation. He’s a graduate of the Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow, and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Conservatory. A critic of Russia’s war against Ukraine, he left his home country in 2022, and has been living in Berlin ever since.
He first caught the international spotlight in 2014 at the age of 13 when he took home first prize at the 8th International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians. Alexander followed up with the Grand Prix at the 1st Grand Piano Competition – International Competition for Young Pianists in Moscow, and second prize and silver medal at the 1st China International Music Competition in 2019.
He’s since performed with a number of major orchestras internationally, and in Russia.
In a controversial move, Alexander’s debut with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in 2022, which was to conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, was cancelled due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Not surprisingly, he’s chosen the work of four composers who were reborn in Russia, but died in exile, for his debut album on the Sony Classical label. They include Alexander Glazunov, who died in Paris (1936), Mikhail Glinka in Berlin (1857), Sergei Rachmaninoff in Beverly Hills (1943), and Nikolai Medtner in London (1951).
It’s not that simple fact that interests the young pianist, however, as he explains in a statement.
“They all share a similar feeling of nostalgia,” he explains. “But you cannot really figure out which moment in time they are actually nostalgic for. It’s almost as if they are nostalgic for a very similar setting which never really existed in history. It’s like it is totally made up, almost a dream world – and you can find it everywhere on this album.”
The album takes its title form Medtner’s cycle Forgotten Melodies. Other tracks include Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Sonata, in the shorter, revised version he completed in Switzerland after leaving Russia. “I’ve loved Rachmaninoff for as long as I can remember,” Malofeev says.
He also includes Glinka’s A Farewell to Saint Petersburg: No. 10, The Lark (Transcr. Balakirev for Solo Piano), Glazunov’s Song of the Volga Boatmen, Op. 97, and several other tracks by the four composers.
British violist Timothy Ridout and pianist Jonathan Ware team up for Also Appassionato, an album of French works, many of which are transcribed for the instrument by Ridout. The repertoire is curated from artists who worked in the rich and fruitful environment of the Paris fin-de-siecle music scene. Along with works composed for the viola, such as Léon Honnoré’s Morceau de concert, George Enescu’s Concertstück, and Henri Büsser’s C-sharp minor Appassionato, the album offers Ridout’s own arrangements of songs by Gabriel Fauré, and César Franck’s Violin Sonata.
Timothy Ridout didn’t begin studying the viola until his mid-teens. He won first prize at the very first Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition in 2014, and in 2016, Ridout became the first British violist to win the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition.
Timothy won the 2025 Opus Klassik award in the ‘Young Instrumentalist of the Year’ category for his first solo viola album featuring works by Telemann, Bach, Britten and Shaw.
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