This year’s album releases from 21C artists

21C artists have had another busy year in the studio. As we approach the season of gift guides, Grammys*, and year-end round-ups, here’s a reminder of the recordings released over the past twelve months by 21C artists, in repertoire ranging from Schubert, Bruckner, and Schoenberg classics to new music from Jüri Reinvere, Errollyn Wallen, and other original voices.

Albums already released in 2024

*Daniel Hope: DANCE! (Feb 2, Deutsche Grammophon)
Offering almost two hours of music in styles ranging from Baroque opera and Russian ballet to klezmer, tango, and swing, Daniel Hope’s DANCE! was hailed as an “infectious musical survey of seven centuries of music” (WRTI, Philadelphia). Recorded with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, of which the violinist is Music Director, the double album scaled bestseller lists worldwide, topping the German classical chart and reaching number two in Canada.

*Rafael Payare: Strauss: Ein Heldenleben – Mahler: Rückert-Lieder (March 15, Pentatone)
On his second recording as Music Director of Canada’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra/OSM), Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare pairs “a revelatory performance” (AllMusic) of Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, featuring soprano Sonya Yoncheva, with “a performance of real flair” (Gramophone) of Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss.

*Paavo Järvi: Mendelssohn: Symphonies (March 15, Alpha Classics)
In 2020, at the start of his second season as Music Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Paavo Järvi observed that he did not think Mendelssohn gets the attention he deserves. He therefore undertook to record a complete cycle of Mendelssohn’s orchestral works with the ensemble. On the program of this four-volume set are the composer’s five symphonies, including the second, “Lobgesang,” a symphony-cantata recorded with the participation of the Zürcher Sing-Akademie, tenor Patrick Grahl and sopranos Chen Reiss and Marie Henriette Reinhold; plus A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the overture to which Mendelssohn composed when he was just 17. Gramophone called the set “a superb Mendelssohn symphony cycle from conductor Paavo Järvi to set against the finest of recent times – rich in tonal weight but wonderfully light in spirit too.”

*Sergei Babayan & Daniil Trifonov: Rachmaninoff for Two (March 29, Deutsche Grammophon)
On his third release as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, Armenian American pianist Sergei Babayan performs Rachmaninoff duos with his former student and frequent piano partner, Grammy winner Daniil Trifonov. Recorded to mark the composer’s 150th anniversary, the album was named among the “Best Classical Music Albums of 2024 (So Far)” by BBC Music magazine, which calls it “a winning mix of limitless pianism, deep knowledge and visionary boldness.”

*Edgar Meyer: But Who’s Gonna Play the Melody? (March 22, Mack Avenue Records)
Christian McBride and Edgar Meyer were presented together for the first time back in 2007 at the Aspen Music Festival and School. The partnership between two of the world’s foremost bassists continues to bear fruit as they join forces for a duo album exploring their collective backgrounds in jazz, folk, classical, bluegrass and funk. The album encompasses diverse original compositions, American Songbook standards, and familiar classics by jazz and bluegrass masters.

*Marin Alsop: John Adams: City Noir (April 1, Naxos)
Marin Alsop is not only a long-time collaborator of John Adams, but also one of the foremost exponents of his music. Recorded with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, of which she is Chief Conductor, Alsop’s new album combines Adams’s City Noir and Fearful Symmetries with the premiere recording of Lola Montez Does the Spider Dance, a work the composer dedicated to the conductor herself. As BBC Musicmagazine writes, “Alsop guides this programme of ultra-American music by John Adams with typical dedication and vim.”

*Paavo Järvi: Jüri Reinvere: Ship of Fools (May 17, Alpha Classics)
Paavo Järvi – Founder and Artistic Director of the Estonian Festival Orchestra – began his collaboration with Estonian composer Jüri Reinvere in 2016 in Pärnu, where the orchestra is in residence at the Pärnu Music Festival and Järvi Academy. They begin the program with And tired from happiness, they started to dance, in which feverish rhythms alternate with moments of ecstasy, variously evoking Debussy or the brass writing in Bruckner’s symphonies. Next is a playful double concerto for flute, the study of which instrument allowed Reinvere to join a military band instead of fighting in the Soviet army. Finally, On the ship of fools is inspired by the key phrase of a 16th-century novel: Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur (The world seeks to be deceived, therefore let it be deceived). Diapason declared of the album that “the profusion of details and the sophistication of the timbral combinations are perfectly served by the Estonian Festival Orchestra.”

*Pierre-Laurent Aimard: Schubert: Ländler (May 24, Pentatone)
Named for the Austro-German folkdances once enjoyed at social gatherings, Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s new solo album comprises more than 100 short dances by Franz Schubert: deceptively simple works, enriched by the composer’s bittersweet harmonies and haunting lyricism. The Times of London writes: “Aimard’s approach to these miniature jewels is entirely suitable and rewarding. He shapes and shades the notes with poise and subtle inflections. … I would happily have listened on for much longer.”

*Nicholas Phan & Palaver Strings: A Change Is Gonna Come (May 24, Azica)
Three-time Grammy-nominated tenor Nicholas Phan, whom the Boston Globe declared “one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” recorded A Change Is Gonna Come on the Azica label with Portland, Maine’s musician-led string ensemble Palaver Strings and jazz vocalist Farayi Malek. The new album, hailed by the UK’s Arts Desk as “A superb album, beautifully produced,” explores America’s rich legacy of protest songs and includes the world premiere recording of a new commission by Errollyn Wallen titled Protest Songs, sung by Phan. Spanning genres, eras, and movements, A Change Is Gonna Come provokes conversation, confronts the past and present, and celebrates the act of protest as one of humanity’s most precious rights.

*Aaron Zigman: Émigré (June 28, Deutsche Grammophon)
In 1938, Shanghai was one of the few places offering refuge to Jews from Nazi Germany. Their story finds new life in Emigré, an oratorio by Emmy-winning American composer Aaron Zigman, with lyrics by Mark Campbell and Brock Walsh. The recording captures Emigré’s acclaimed world premiere performance by the Shanghai Symphony, members of the New York Philharmonic, and a binational Chinese and American cast. Praising Zigman’s “highly listenable score,” the UK’s Financial Times found that “the premiere rose to the challenge,” while Hong Kong’s Interlude pronounced it “a clear winner.”

*Paavo Järvi: Schoenberg & Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande (July 5, Alpha Classics)
No fewer than four major composers – Fauré, Debussy, Schoenberg and Sibelius – were inspired by Maurice Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas et Mélisande (1892). With an eye toward the milestone anniversaries of Fauré and Schoenberg in 2024, Paavo Järvi offers his reading of their settings of Pelléas et Mélisande with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, where he served as Music Director for almost ten years. BBC Music declared of the album: “Järvi shows a complete grasp of the structural direction of the music, knowing exactly when to pile on the intensity and where to allow for some repose; and … he handles the orchestral sound with vivid imagination, generating sumptuously warm and erotic textures in the love scene and, in contrast, creating suitably cold and icy colours in the moments of gloom and terror.”

*Daniel Hope: Irish Roots (July 5, Deutsche Grammophon)
Embodying Hope’s deep connection to Ireland, inherited from his paternal great-grandfather, Irish Roots explores the intersection of folk and classical music through compositions by Ina Boyle and Turlough O’Carolan, traditional favorites like “Danny Boy,” Vivaldi’s fifth L’estro armonico concerto – once a hit in Ireland – and more. Hope is joined by guest artists including harpist Siobhán Armstrong, flautists Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway, singer Rea Garvey, multi-instrumentalist Ross Daly, fellow violinist Simos Papanas, folk band Lúnasa, and the Thessaloniki State Symphony.

*Pat Metheny: MoonDial (July 26, BMG)
Legendary American guitarist, composer, improviser, and 20-time Grammy winner Pat Metheny’s newest album, MoonDial, is reminiscent of the guitarist’s previous recordings One Quiet Night (2003) and What’s It All About (2011), in that it is purely a solo album with no overdubs. But this time the instrument is a custom-built nylon-string baritone guitar which, coupled with a new kind of nylon string made in Argentina, inspired Metheny to do something he has never done before: conceive, record, and release a new album in the middle of another tour. MoonDial is a combination of original tunes inspired by the new instrument and standards for which it is the perfect match, prompting the Financial Times to declare the album, “out of this world.”

Paavo Järvi: Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (Sep 6, Alpha Classics)
Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, where he is now in his sixth season as Music Director, conclude their tribute to Bruckner in this bicentenary year with a recording of his Ninth Symphony, following a Diapason d’Or for their recording of the Austrian composer’s Symphony No. 7 and “Best Symphonic Recording of the Year” at the International Classical Music Awards for their rendition of Symphony No. 8. The orchestra’s history has been closely linked to Bruckner since it gave the first Swiss performance of one of his symphonies under Richard Strauss in 1903. Järvi comments: “The great classical and romantic tradition of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich make it ideally suited to Bruckner, the central composer for modern symphony orchestras.”

Fabio Luisi: Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht (Sep 13, Deutsche Grammophon)
As Chief Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (DNSO), Grammy-winner Fabio Luisi launches their comprehensive edition of Schoenberg’s orchestral works with an account of the composer’s luxuriant tone poem Verklärte Nacht. Timed to celebrate Schoenberg at 150, the release follows Luisi’s complete Nielsen cycle with DNSO for DG, which was not only recognized with Limelight and Abbiati Awards, but was also named Gramophone’s 2023 Recording of the Year.

Alan Gilbert: Mahler: Symphony No. 7 (Sep 27, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester)
Recorded in October 2022, Alan Gilbert’s performance of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra is the first in a series of recordings captured at Hamburg’s iconic Elbphilharmonie. Often nicknamed “Song of the Night,” the Seventh Symphony is one of Mahler’s most fantastical and expansive works, beginning in dusky mystery supposedly inspired by the sound of rowing oars on a mountain lake and ending in a blaze of sunlit glory. The work has long had a special place in the Grammy winner Gilbert’s heart, and the performance shows the orchestra in top form.

Grammy-eligible albums released in 2023

*Leif Ove Andsnes: The Complete Warner Classics Edition 1990-2010 (Oct 13, Sony Classical)
This 36-CD retrospective chronicles Leif Ove Andsnes’s 20-year partnership with Virgin and EMI Classics, which yielded a rich seam of treasures. Highlights include the pianist’s Gramophone Award-winning recordings of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces and Piano Concerto; his world premiere recordings of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Piano Concerto and Bent Sørensen’s The Shadows of Silence, both written for Andsnes; Schubert’s late sonatas, paired with lieder featuring Ian Bostridge; and Rachmaninoff’s four Piano Concertos, variously recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra. The set was named “among 2023’s most rewarding releases” by the Wall Street Journal.

*Dallas Symphony Orchestra & Fabio Luisi: Brahms Symphony No. 3 (Oct 27, DSOLive)
Marking the second release in their cycle of Brahms’s complete symphonies, Fabio Luisi and the Dallas Symphony present a live recording of their spring 2023 performance of Symphony No. 3. Composed in a single summer in 1883, the symphony was a triumph from the start; Clara Schumann—pianist, composer, and Brahms’s intimate friend—was delighted by the work from start to finish. The lyrical main melody is borrowed from Robert Schumann’s “Rhenish” Symphony, a clear tribute to Brahms’s late friend. But as biographer Jan Swafford persuasively argues, Brahms’s Third also recalls the composer’s supposed enemy, Wagner, whose “atmospheric string textures” and “grand triadic leitmotifs and themes” echo throughout.

Albums coming soon in 2024

Daniil Trifonov: My American Story – North (Oct 4, Deutsche Grammophon)
Pairing concertos by Gershwin and Mason Bates with solo pieces by composers ranging from Copland and Carter to Art Tatum and Thomas Newman, this double album represents the first installment of a two-part series exploring music of the Americas through selections of personal importance to Daniil Trifonov. Bates’s concerto is dedicated to the pianist, and both orchestral works were captured live with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, who previously partnered with Trifonov on Destination Rachmaninov, the series that earned him two Grammy nominations and BBC Music’s “Concerto Recording of the Year.”

Rafael Payare: Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande & Verkärte Nacht (Oct 11, Pentatone)
On his third release as Music Director of Canada’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra/OSM, Payare celebrates the 150th anniversary of Schoenberg’s birth with recordings of two late-Romantic tone poems: Pelleas und Melisande and Verklärte Nacht, in which “it is clear how carefully Payare has gauged the gradual accumulation of tension and the coda is exquisitely delicate: the aural equivalent of sparkling flakes of starlight – just beautiful” (Music-Web International).

Chanticleer: The Rivers Are Our Brothers (Oct 18; Chanticleer Records)
Majel Connery’s The Rivers Are Our Brothers is a song cycle on ecological responsibility told from the point of view of the land, originally commissioned by Musica Sierra in 2020 in a version for synthesizer, violin, bassoon, and voice. Musica Sierra served as co-commissioner with Chanticleer of the six choral arrangements featured on this album. Each movement personifies a different element of the Sierra Nevada’s majestic terrain, from its towering trees to its rushing rivers and snow-capped peaks. The title of the cycle is based on a quote from the Native American leader Chief Seattle, who believed humans must relate to their environment the way they relate to their closest kin. “The goal,” says Connery, “is to give nature a voice. I wanted to allow these vibrant things to speak on their own behalf.”

* Recording eligible for 2024 Grammy Awards nomination