Press Room

Warner Classics & Erato releases: March 2026

Highlights include:

  • Music by Kurtág and Bach, launching a new project from Bertrand Chamayou
  • Baroque arias from Jakub Józef Orliński and Michal Biel
  • Prokofiev from Nemanja Radulović and the Philharmonia Orchestra
  • Schubert and Berg sonatas from Fazıl Say
  • A new 21-CD collection of Andrei Gavrilov’s Warner Classics recordings
  • A new collection of Daniel Barenboim’s recordings with Orchestre de Paris
  • The debut album from all-women’s vocal ensemble Lyyra, featuring songs by composers from Hildegard von Bingen to Amy Beach

New titles

Bach: Chaconnes BWV 1178 & 1179 (World Premieres)
Aurélien Pontier, piano
Digital EP
Release date: Feb 20

French pianist Aurélien Pontier performs three keyboard works by J.S. Bach, coupling Alfred Cortot’s transcription of the Largo from the composer’s Fifth Harpsichord Concerto with the world premiere recordings of two newly rediscovered chaconnes. Authenticated from 300-year-old manuscripts as the work of Bach just last year, the two chaconnes are early compositions, both originally intended for organ. The Chaconne and Fugue in D minor (BWV 1178) is an astonishingly daring work that demonstrates Bach’s contrapuntal mastery, while the Chaconne in G minor (BWV 1179) is striking for both its fractured rhythms and its lyricism.

One to One
Bertrand Chamayou, piano
Digital EP
Release date: Feb 27

To celebrate György Kurtág’s centenary on February 19, 2026, French pianist Bertrand Chamayou launches One to One, an ongoing project pairing Kurtág masterpieces with works by other composers. Recorded on piano sordine at Chamayou’s home in Paris, this first set of digital singles juxtaposes “Flowers We Are, Frail Flowers” and “Perpetuum mobile” from the Hungarian composer’s Játékok, Book 1, with the Prelude in C from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1. Further tracks will be released on streaming services throughout 2026, with a physical album planned for release next year.

Pictures at an Exhibition: The Paintings of Bob Peak
Los Angeles Film Orchestra / Leonard Slatkin, conductor
CD / digital
Release date: March 6

Pictures at an Exhibition: The Paintings of Bob Peak was conceptualized and commissioned by music producer Robert Townson, who followed the idea behind Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition to create a modern-day cycle. He commissioned new works from ten leading film composers, each of whom drew inspiration from a different artwork by American illustrator Bob Peak (1927–92), best known for his iconic film posters for West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and others. In 2024, 150 years after the first performance of Mussorgsky’s original cycle, The Paintings of Bob Peak was premiered by Leonard Slatkin and the LA Film Orchestra at LA’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. This concert brought to life new works by Mychael Danna (500 Days of Summer, Life of Pi), Harry Gregson-Williams (The Chronicles of Narnia, X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Marc Shaiman (When Harry Met Sally, Sister Act), Bill Conti (For Your Eyes Only, The Right Stuff), and others, all of which receive world premiere recordings on Warner’s new album.

Lost to the World
Daniel Lozakovich, violin; Hélène Mercier, piano
CD / digital
Release date: March 6

On his new recording, Lost to the World, Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich reflects on childhood and the redeeming power of music. His program places several great late-Romantic works – Fauré’s Après un rêve, Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, Tchaikovsky’s D minor Nocturne, and Mahler’s Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen among them – alongside French chanson arrangements, including La chanson d’Hélène, Autumn Leaves, andYoukali. Lozakovich recorded the album – his second since signing with Warner Classics in 2024 – with pianist Hélène Mercier, his collaborative partner for more than ten years.

Prokofiev
Nemanja Radulović, violin
Philharmonia Orchestra / Santtu-Matias Rouvali, conductor
CD / digital
Release date: March 13

“There is something wondrous in the music of Sergei Prokofiev, as if it constantly moves between light and shadow, searching for truth through contrast, sarcasm, magic, love, irony, and beauty,” writes Serbian-French violinist Nemanja Radulović. His new release is devoted entirely to Prokofiev’s music, including the Second Violin Concerto, recorded with the Philharmonia Orchestra and its Principal Conductor, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who, Radulović says, “brought this work to life with fearless artistry, luminous musicality, and a vibrant pulse.” The album also includes examples of Prokofiev’s chamber music, including the Sonata for Solo Violin, Sonata for Two Violins, recorded with Johan Dalene, and Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, recoded with Laure Favre-Kahn. Radulović and Favre-Kahn team up once again for violin-and-piano arrangements of Prokofiev’s ballets Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, and Chout; his opera The Love for Three Oranges; and his “Classical” Symphony. The program concludes with the “Grand Waltz” from Cinderella, featuring the ensemble Les Trilles du Diable.

Schubert – Berg: Piano Sonatas
Fazıl Say, piano
CD / digital
Release date: March 20

On his new album, Turkish pianist Fazıl Say pairs two, highly contrasting Viennese piano sonatas, composed at either end of the Romantic era: Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat, D 960, and Berg’s one-movement Sonata in B minor, Opus 1. Of Schubert’s work, written shortly before the composer’s death, Say explains: “There is a unique depth of sorrow and melancholy here, the pain of parting from this world. Yet at the same time, we feel Schubert’s joy of life, his vitality, his attachment, his passion, and even his defiance.” Say first encountered Berg’s sonata as a 15-year-old. Considering the piece “a highly significant work in the piano repertoire,” he says: “Over the work’s comparatively brief span, the piano is used almost orchestrally, full of color and intensity. It is a remarkably beautiful piece.”

Nocturnal Blues
Matteo Myderwyk, piano / composer
LP / digital
Release date: March 20

Offered as an ode to the night, Nocturnal Blues is a collection of 15 contemplative nocturnes by pianist-composer Matteo Myderwyk. About his concept for the recording, Myderwyk explains: “For centuries, artists have turned to the night as their muse. My greatest hero, Vincent van Gogh, once wrote: ‘It often seems to me that the night is much more alive and richly colored than the day – as if the night were not black but blue, violet, and green.’ That idea – that the night contains a deeper palette, a richer language – lies at the heart of this album.”

If music …
Jakub Józef Orliński, countertenor; Michal Biel, piano
CD / LP / digital
Release date: March 27

If music… showcases Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński in 17 songs and arias by Baroque composers Purcell, Handel, and Fux. Partnered by his long-standing collaborator, pianist Michał Biel, Orliński sings “Music for a While,” “Strike the Viol,” “If Music Be the Food of Love,” “Ombra mai fu,” “Wher’ever You Walk,” “Non t’amo per il ciel,” and more. Although the countertenor has recorded several of these songs and arias before, the new title marks the first time he has done so with piano, and presents them in a new light. He explains: “I love thinking of albums as pages out of my diary. They are a statement of where I am as an artist. … They solidify my interpretations, which sometimes change over time.”

Rising
Lyyra, vocal ensemble
CD / digital
Release date: March 27

Celebrating the multifaceted beauty of upper voices, Rising is the genre-defying debut album by Lyyra, the only U.S.-based all-women’s a cappella ensemble of its kind. Created by VOCES 8, Lyyra comprises members Anna Crumley, MaryRuth Miller, Elizabeth Tait, Ingrid Johnson, Aryssa Leigh Burrs, and Cecille Elliott, who collectively draw on backgrounds in classical, jazz, pop, folk, and other music. Featuring the first performances of new arrangements made especially for the group, Rising combines music by singer-songwriters, including Vienna Teng, Donny Hathaway, Simon & Garfunkel, and Billie Eilish, with that of composers ranging from Hildegard von Bingen to Amy Beach and Leslie Savoy Burrs, as well as such traditional favorites as “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

Catalogue

Great Violin Concertos
David Oistrakh, violin
6 SACDs
Release date: March 6

This new compilation gathers together David Oistrakh’s recordings of violin concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Sibelius, Lalo, Bruch, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. These have been newly remastered for SACD by Circé Studio, based on the 2024 remasterings, made in 192kHz/24-bit from the original tapes, by Art & Son Studio.

Daniel Barenboim conducts Orchestre de Paris: Warner Classics Edition
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
15 CDs
Release date: March 6

Barenboim served as the Chief Conductor of the Orchestre de Paris from 1975, when he was 33, until 1989. This tenure was marked by a strong commitment to both the classical repertoire and contemporary music by such composers as Boulez, Dutilleux, and Henze. Barenboim’s collaboration with the orchestra resulted in numerous recordings, many of them originally issued on EMI Classics and Erato, which included a significant body of French repertoire. This 15-CD boxed set presents those made between 1973 and 1990.

Complete Warner Classics Recordings
Andrei Gavrilov, piano
21 CDs
Release date: March 13

In 1974, aged just 18, Andrei Gavrilov won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and replaced Sviatoslav Richter at the Salzburg Festival a few weeks later. This key debut saw the pianist become internationally celebrated for his artistry, but later his career was overshadowed by his years of political confinement in the Soviet Union. This boxed set gathers together all Gavrilov’s Warner Classics recordings, most of which date from the peak of his career (1977–1989), with works by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, and others. Marking its first CD release, the collection also includes Gavrilov’s recordings of Prokofiev’s Sonatas Nos. 8 and 10 and of selections from the composer’s Romeo and Juliet, all newly remastered in HD 192kHz/24-bit from the original tapes by Art & Son Studio.

Tchaikovsky: Symphonies 1-6 and other works
Philharmonia Orchestra / Riccardo Muti, conductor
5 SACDs
Release date: March 20

This SACD boxed set presents Riccardo Muti’s complete Tchaikovsky symphonic cycle with the Philharmonia, together with their accounts of the same composer’s Romeo & Juliet, “Manfred” Symphony, and First Piano Concerto, featuring Andrei Gavrilov. The first four discs have been newly remastered in HD 192kHz/24-bit from the original tapes by Studio Circé.

Upcoming April 2026 releases

New titles:

  • April 3: Elsa Dreisig, Massimo Zanetti, Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova Orchestra – Invocation, Audio (streaming) – Assets
  • April 10: Marc-André – Mirage, Audio
  • April 17: Renaud Capuçon – Chausson
  • April 17: Christina Pluhar, L’Arpeggiata – Torre del Oro, Audio (streaming)
  • April 24: Edgar Moreau, David Moreau, Jérémie Moreau – Schubert: Piano Trios, Audio – Assets
  • April 24: Laurence Equilbey, Insula Orchestra, David Fray, Pierre Génisson, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, Carlo Vistoli, Justin Taylor – Musiques de cinéma, Audio (streaming)

Catalogue:

  • April 10: Herbert von Karajan, Philharmonia Orchestra – Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies, etc (CD re-release)
  • April 20: Sir John Barbirolli – Sibelius: Complete Symphonies, Orchestral Works (6-SACD boxed set)
  • April 17: Marie-Claire Alain (organist), Various artists – L’Encyclopédie de l’orgue (46-CD boxed set)

Upcoming U.S. performances by Warner Classics & Erato artists

Associated labels: Opera Rara

Rosa Feola, soprano; Carlo Rizzi, piano
Donizetti Songs Vol. 7
CD / digital
Release date: March 20

On the seventh and penultimate volume of its Donizetti Song Project, Opera Rara presents 24 Italian songs, as performed by soprano Rosa Feola and the charity’s artistic director, Carlo Rizzi. Feola and Rizzi recorded the album in November 2024, before giving a recital at London’s Wigmore Hall in Opera Rara’s “Donizetti and Friends” concert series in the British capital.

Associated labels: EuroArts

Danish National Symphony Orchestra / Antony Hermus, conductor
John Williams: A Tribute
Blu-ray / CD / digital
Release date: March 20

The Danish National Symphony Orchestra presents John Williams’s music in concert. Featured works include excerpts from the composer’s classic scores for Star Wars, Harry Potter, E.T., Schindler’s List, Jaws, and Indiana Jones.

January 2026 news release
February 2026 news release

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