This year’s album releases from 21C artists for your consideration

(October 2025) — 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 Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Schoenberg classics to new music from György Kurtág, Rufus Wainwright, and other original voices.

Albums already released in 2025

*From Warner Classics: Rufus Wainwright: Dream Requiem (Jan 17, Warner Classics)
Dream Requiem is a major new work, composed during the pandemic, by musical polymath Rufus Wainwright. Captured live in Paris at its June 2024 world premiere, the mass features Meryl Streep as narrator and Anna Prohaska (Opus Klassik’s Female Singer of the Year 2024) as soprano soloist, with Mikko Franck conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique, Choeur et Maîtrise de Radio France. “The overall sense is of a language that Wainwright has developed for his own expressive purposes and which he has used with great fluency,” writes The Guardian. “There’s a real sense of a special occasion.”

*From Warner Classics: Maria Callas: Maria original motion picture soundtrack (Jan 17, Warner Classics)
A nominee for the Venice International Film Festival’s Golden Lion award, Pablo Larraín’s Maria stars Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in her final days in Paris. In the film, Jolie’s singing voice is “blended” with that of the legendary American-Greek soprano. However, on Warner Classics’ original soundtrack album, the featured voice is pure Callas. Produced by John Warhurst, the album combines the soprano’s original audio recordings with select spoken dialogue and scenes from the film.

*Julia Bullock: Schubert/Beatles (Jan 25, NYFOS Records)
Grammy award-winning classical singer Julia Bullock is a featured collaborator on the debut solo album of rising star American baritone Theo Hoffman, presented by the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS). The adventurous program pairs songs by Schubert and The Beatles on similar themes, and also features tenor Andrew Owens, guitarists Rupert Boyd and Alex Levine, and pianists Kunal Lahiry and NYFOS co-founder Steven Blier. The January 25 release was timed to anticipate Schubert’s birthday a week later.

*Pierre-Laurent Aimard: Kurtág: Játékok (Feb 2, Pentatone)
Pierre-Laurent Aimard has enjoyed an intimate musical friendship with 99-year-old Hungarian modernist György Kurtág for almost five decades. On Kurtág: Játékok, the Grammy-winning French pianist performs more than 80 selections from Játékok (“Games”), Kurtág’s playfully avant-garde collection of miniatures, recorded under the composer’s close artistic guidance. Selecting the double album as its July “Recording of the Month,” BBC Music Magazine gave it a five-star review under the headline: “Kurtág’s life’s work is in the safest possible hands.” Also awarding the set five stars, The Guardian explained: “Játékok is one of the major achievements of the last half century, and Aimard is the perfect guide to it.”

*From Warner Classics: Beatrice Rana: Bach Keyboard Concertos (March 21, Warner Classics)
Italian pianist Beatrice Rana performs four of Bach’s keyboard concertos (BWV 1052 in D minor, BWV 1053 in E, BWV 1054 in D, and BWV 1056 in F minor), all recorded with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta after their recent ten-date tour. Gramophone’s review concludes: “[Rana’s] interpretations are characterised by a sense of freshness, with energy in the outer movements and soul in the inner ones, ornamentation absolutely integral to the line, and a relishing of the possibilities of her Steinway.”

*Anthony Parnther: Sinners (Original Motional Picture Score) and Sinners (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (April 18, Mutant / Sony Masterworks)
Anthony Parnther conducts Oscar-winner Ludwig Göransson’s bluegrass-inflected score on both the original studio recording and the original soundtrack album for Sinners, a box office sensation that recently became the first horror film to receive a perfect “A” from CinemaScore. As Classic FM writes, “Music lives at the heart of Sinners.”

*Audra McDonald: Gypsy, starring Audra McDonald (2024 Broadway Cast Album) (April 25, Rhino)
Audra McDonald headlines the Broadway cast recording of Gypsy, which captures her star turn in the recent revival of the classic Sondheim / Laurents musical at New York’s Majestic Theatre. Recognized with an unprecedented eleventh Tony nomination for her role in the production, she became the acting categories’ most decorated individual in Tony history, prompting Time magazine to pronounce her “the greatest living stage actor.”

*From Warner Classics: Sir Thomas Beecham: The Complete Stereo Recordings on Warner Classics (June 27, Warner Classics)
This 35-CD boxed set brings together all the stereo recordings from Sir Thomas Beecham’s rich discography for Columbia and HMV. Many of these albums were produced at a turning point in recording history, when the industry began to move from mono to stereo recordings. Highlights include the first experimental stereo recording of the first movement of Mozart’s 41st Symphony, Carmen with Victoria de los Ángeles, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Franck’s Symphony in D minor, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, and the conductor’s famous “lollipops” albums. “What a generous box of goodies this is,” writes Rob Cowan in Gramophone. “Magical listening.”

*Alisa Weilerstein: Yanga (July 18, Platoon)
Alisa Weilerstein performs the new cello concerto, Dzonot, by Gabriela Ortiz, known for intense and colorful music engaged with issues of social justice, gender and the environment. The concerto – commissioned for Weilerstein by the LA Phil and inspired by the cenotes of the Yucatán Peninsula – is included on Ortiz’s new album Yanga, which continues the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel’s multi-Grammy-winning Latin series on Platoon. Gramophone’s reviewer declared: “Weilerstein and the Los Angelenos play Dzonot with such conviction and technical mastery that I did a double take when I read in the booklet that this recording is taken from the premiere performances.”

*Teddy Abrams: Preludes (July 25, New Amsterdam)
Grammy Award winner Teddy Abrams’s Preludes on New Amsterdam Records comprises solo piano pieces composed by Abrams, but with two vital collaborators. The “recorded sonic identity” of each piece – ranging from a variety of instruments and techniques to added sounds and individually-tailored recording setups – was developed in collaboration with co-producers Gabriel Kahane and Casey Foubert, with “often magical” results (The Wall Street Journal). The 16 pieces on the album take inspiration from the canon of classical piano works such as Bach’s Inventions and Bartok’s Mikrokosmos.

*From Warner Classics: Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (Aug 22, Warner Classics)
Three-time Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato stars as Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, recorded live at Germany’s Essen Philharmonie during a celebrated 2024 European tour, of which The Times of London marveled: “I have never heard Purcell – any Purcell – delivered with more wit and character, panache and polish.” Anchored by Il Pomo d’Oro and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, the performance also features Michael Spyres, Fatma Said, and Hugh Cutting. “DiDonato sings with blazing fury [on] this five-star recording,” marvels the Financial Times.

*Alisa Weilerstein: Richard Blackford: The Recovery of Paradise Cello Concerto (Aug 22, Pentatone)
Released as a digital-only EP, Richard Blackford’s new cello concerto, The Recovery of Paradise, was commissioned by the Czech Philharmonic for cellist Alisa Weilerstein and is conducted by Tomáš Netopil. Blackford’s concerto reflects on climate catastrophe and human perseverance, inspired in part by the wildfires that decimated the town of Paradise, California, in 2018. Calling the work “a first-rate addition to the growing corpus of really fine British cello concertos,” Gramophone continued: “Weilerstein provides an exciting, committed performance of what sounds like a tricky piece to play, relishing the various expressive roles required of her, whether the incendiary, high-speed winds scorching all before them, the soul of the landscapes blasted in their wake or the voice of the resurrected community that triumphs at the close.”

*Manfred Honeck: Requiem: Mozart’s Death in Words and Music (Aug 28, Reference Recordings)
Documenting conductor Manfred Honeck’s deeply personal conception of Mozart’s final, unfinished masterpiece, Requiem: Mozart’s Death in Words and Music offers a profound meditation on the composer’s death, Catholic faith and tradition, and the nature of death itself. In place of Süssmayr’s posthumous additions, Honeck’s version integrates Mozart’s completed portions of the mass with other examples of his sacred choral music, Gregorian chant, church bells, and dramatic spoken word. This live 2023 recording presents the conductor and his Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with a stellar quartet of vocal soloists, the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the Westminster Choir College of Rider University, and expert narration by F. Murray Abraham, the Hollywood and Broadway star who won the Academy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor as Salieri in Amadeus.

*From Warner Classics: Itzhak Perlman: The Complete Warner Classics Edition (Aug 29, Warner Classics)
Born in 1945, Itzhak Perlman is widely regarded as the supreme violinist of our time. Released in honor of Perlman’s 80th birthday this past August, this comprehensive 78-CD edition features all the recordings he made for EMI Classics, Teldec, Erato, and Warner Classics over more than 40 years. Documenting his collaborations with the world’s greatest orchestras, they feature an array of superlative fellow soloists and conductors, including Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Carlo Maria Giulini, Bernard Haitink, Lynn Harrell, Yo-Yo Ma, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, and Pinchas Zukerman.

Paavo Järvi: Credo (digital Sep 5; U.S. CD Nov 7, Alpha Classics)
In a review of the 2025 Pärnu Music Festival, which honored the 90th birthday of Arvo Pärt, Classical Voice North America declared: “Pärt’s career is inextricably and significantly associated with the so-called Järvi dynasty of conductors: patriarch Neeme and sons Paavo and Kristjan.” Neeme Järvi memorably conducted the 1968 premiere of Pärt’s monumental Credo in Tallinn, a dramatic event that saw the piece subsequently banned by Soviet officials for its religious and political provocations. Paavo Järvi’s new album with the Estonian Festival Orchestra, which was digitally released on September 5 to coincide with Pärt’s birthday a week later, is titled Credo to honor this turning point in the composer’s life. The U.S. CD release is upcoming on November 7. A longtime champion of Estonian composers in general, Paavo Järvi is uniquely positioned to celebrate the music of his compatriot and friend, and in fact Pärt’s Silhouette – inspired by the Eiffel Tower and heard on Credo in its world premiere recording – was composed for Järvi in 2010 when he was Chief Conductor of the Orchestre de Paris.

From Warner Classics: Pene Pati: Serenata a Napoli (Sep 26, Warner Classics)
On Serenata a Napoli, Samoan tenor Pene Pati explores the Italian art form of canzone napoletana. Characterized by its lyrical expressions of passion, melancholy, and joy, Neapolitan song enjoyed a golden age in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Alongside such beloved hits as “O sole mio” and “Funiculì-Funiculà,” the album includes songs by Francesco Paolo Tosti, Enrico De Leva, Mario Pasquale Costa, Salvatore Gambardella, and others.

Grammy-eligible albums released in 2024

*Michael Tilson Thomas: The Complete Columbia, CBS and RCA Recordings (Sep 9, Sony Classical)
Issued as an 80-CD boxed set, The Complete Columbia, Sony, and RCA Recordings of Michael Tilson Thomas showcases the conductor’s leadership of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, and other leading orchestras in repertoire ranging from Beethoven, Mahler, and Stravinsky to Ives, Gershwin, Bernstein, and Steven Mackey. The New York Times hails the collection as “a monument to the breadth of [MTT’s] interests,” while Australia’s Limelight magazine exclaims: “What a treasurable collection this is. … Well worth the price!”

*Fabio Luisi: Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht (Sep 13, Deutsche Grammophon)
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Schoenberg’s birth, Chief Conductor Fabio Luisi and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra launched their complete, new edition of the composer’s orchestral works with a recording of his tone poem Verklärte Nacht, in the 1943 version for strings. This follows the conductor’s complete Nielsen symphonic cycle with the orchestra, which received both Limelight and Abbiati Awards for Best Orchestral Recording of 2023, while his account of the Danish composer’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies was chosen as Gramophone’s 2023 Recording of the Year.

*Michael Tilson Thomas: Grace (Oct 4, Pentatone)
Isabel Leonard, Audra McDonald, Renée Fleming, Thomas Hampson, John Wilson, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Bay Brass, and both the San Francisco Symphony and New World Symphony celebrate Michael Tilson Thomas’s 80th birthday with performances of his music on Grace. A four-disc set spanning more than five decades of the artist’s compositional career, this comprises 18 works, ranging from premiere recordings to remastered archival ones, now available for the first time. In a five-star “Recording of the Month” review, Limelight welcomed the set as “a fascinating look at the other side of a great conductor,” and the UK’s Arts Fuse concluded: “This album … adds meaningfully to the story of American concert music.”

*Rafael Payare: Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande & Verklärte Nacht (Oct 11, Pentatone)
Marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arnold Schoenberg with his Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Rafael Payare – known as a passionate advocate for that composer’s music – released a recording last season of two of his late-Romantic masterworks: Verklärte Nacht and Pelleas und Melisande. Reviewing the Verklärte Nacht recording, MusicWeb International declared: “When we come to the climax of redemption and transfiguration in the penultimate track 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.” Gramophone, likewise praising the “well-paced and impassioned performance” of Verklärte Nacht, raved about Pelleas: “The playing is detailed and expressive, and in the finale in particular, depicting the death of Melisande, the performance blazes with conviction.”

*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.”

*Michael Tilson Thomas: Complete Deutsche Grammophon & Argo Recordings (Oct 25, DG Eloquence)
Gathering together Michael Tilson Thomas’s complete recordings for Deutsche Grammophon (1970–2003) and Argo (1992–95), this 14-CD set features his interpretations of Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Stravinsky, Bernstein, Elvis Costello, and many more, in recordings made with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and New World Symphony. The New York Times heralded the set as “a diamond cut in [MTT’s] honor, sparkling with the precocity of his whiz-kid years with the Boston Symphony, and shining with the inquisitive enthusiasm of the young players of the New World Symphony.”

*From Warner Classics: Paavo Järvi: The Complete Erato Recordings (Nov 8, Warner Classics)
Paavo Järvi has always been a passionate advocate and tireless interpreter of Nordic composers like Sibelius, Grieg, and Arvo Pärt, but as Gramophone says of this 31-CD boxed set, “It is unusually rich in quality and scope – and not just for those with an interest in Baltic and Nordic music.” It comprises the complete recordings made by Järvi for Virgin Classics, EMI and Erato. A bonus CD (CD 31) includes the Symphony in D minor by César Franck – recorded in September 2023 with the Orchestre de Paris and previously unpublished – along with Dukas’s L’Apprenti sorcier and Roussel’s Third Symphony, both of which were previously released only in digital format. Featured orchestras are the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (8 CDs), Orchestre de Paris (7 CDs), Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (5CDs), Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (4 CDs), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (3 CDs), and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (3 CDs).

*Jon Batiste: Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1) (Nov 15, Verve)
Once recognized as a vital component of classical music, improvisation is vanishingly rare in the classical world today. As a Juilliard-trained pianist with roots in the New Orleans jazz tradition, Jon Batiste found himself perfectly placed to revive the bygone art. By approaching each of Beethoven’s works as a living dialogue between the composer and himself, Batiste has succeeded in creating fresh musical experiences that honor the originals while reimagining them through an expansive lens. As a result, Beethoven Blues embraces a broad genre spectrum that celebrates Black American artistry, and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Classical Albums chart.

Albums coming soon in 2025

Daniil Trifonov: Tchaikovsky (Oct 3, Deutsche Grammophon)
On his double album, Tchaikovsky, Grammy-winning Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov interprets the Russian composer’s rarely performed early Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor, his Children’s Album, and the “Thème original et variations” from his Six Piano Pieces, together with the Concert Suite from his ballet The Sleeping Beauty, as transcribed for piano by Mikhail Pletnev. This collection reveals a side of Tchaikovsky that is often overlooked. Trifonov explains: “We think of him as an archetypical Romantic. But, particularly in his younger years, Tchaikovsky found joy in his close relationships and emotional comfort in his family.”

Rafael Payare: Berlioz: Le carnaval romain & Symphonie fantastique (Oct 17, Pentatone)
Continuing their ongoing exploration of Romantic repertoire, last fall the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Music Director Rafael Payare toured Europe with performances of Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture and Symphonie fantastique, culminating with live performances in Montreal that were recorded for an upcoming release on the Pentatone label. In a special touch, the performance of Symphonie fantastique features OSM’s two newly acquired carillon bells – G and C – which play a prominent role in the climactic fifth movement Witches’ Sabbath. Reviewing their performance of the Symphonie fantastique at London’s Barbican, The Times observed: “In a work that’s really about emotional fixation, Payare carefully planted the hero’s churning obsession into Berlioz’s seething textures, giving a brooding energy that tied the whole sprawling work together.”

Fabio Luisi: Scriabin: Orchestral Works (Oct 24, Deutsche Grammophon)
Chief Conductor Fabio Luisi and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra celebrate the ensemble’s centenary this October with this recording of Scriabin: Orchestral Works. Presenting their interpretations of the Russian composer’s complete orchestral oeuvre, this comprises Rêverie, Le poème de l’extase, and his three symphonies, of which the first will feature mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska, tenor James Ley, and the Danish National Concert Choir, together with two works showcasing the piano: Prométhée, le poème de feu, with the choir and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and the Piano Concerto in F-sharp with Julius Asal.

Chanticleer: Joy to the World (Oct 31, Delos)
Chanticleer’s beloved holiday program, “A Chanticleer Christmas,” has been featured on a PBS special and multiple appearances on NBC’s Today show, and hearkens back to some of the group’s most cherished traditions. Now Chanticleer reimagines some of those traditions with the release of a new holiday album, Joy to the World, blending fresh arrangements of favorites like “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World” with Renaissance masterworks and new commissions.

Paavo Järvi: Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (Oct 31, Alpha Classics)
Paavo Järvi – embarking on his seventh season as Music Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich – releases Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 on the Alpha Classics label this fall. The release marks the second installment – after the Fifth Symphony last season – of a complete cycle that will span the remaining four years of the conductor’s Zürich tenure.

From Warner Classics: Sir Thomas Beecham: The Mono Era on Warner Classics 1926-1959 (Oct 31, Warner Classics)
Sir Thomas Beecham was one of the most influential pioneers of the early history of orchestral recording. His complete mono recordings for Columbia Graphophone and His Master’s Voice will be collected together in a 53-CD boxed set as a companion to the complete EMI stereo discs, released this past June. Two-thirds of the mono recordings will be newly remastered in HD by Art & Son Studio, and many are appearing on CD for the first time.

Nicholas Phan: Rebecca Clarke – The Complete Songs (Nov 7, Signum Records)
Grammy-winning tenor Nicholas Phan has long championed the music of British composer Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979), whose songs and duets represent one of the 20th century’s most distinctive contributions to the vocal repertoire. Gathering together her vocal works in their entirety, Rebecca Clarke – The Complete Songs was recorded in collaboration with mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately and pianist Anna Tilbrook, with guest appearances from soprano Gweneth Ann Rand, baritone Roderick Williams, violinist Max Baillie, and members of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

* Recording eligible for 2025 Grammy Awards nomination