Inspired by a meeting of musical minds in Budapest last summer, Víkingur Ólafsson's 'fan-letter' to Hungarian composer and pianist György Kurtág on Deutsche Grammophon was our best-selling title by some margin last month. Featuring music by Bartók, Schumann, Brahms and Adès & transcriptions by Ólafsson and Kurtág as well as excerpts from Játékok, From Afar was recorded twice: first on a Steinway concert grand and subsequently on an upright similar to the 'very old, fragile Danish piano' on which Ólafsson learnt much of this repertoire as a teenager, partly in homage to Kurtág's own preference for performing some of his compositions on lived-in uprights.
You can read our in-depth interview with Ólafsson about his friendship with a composer whom he describes as a 'living legend' and his reflections on the different interpretative possibilities offered by the two instruments here.
No. 1 (new entry)
Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 2 (new entry)
Hans Rott: Symphony No. 1
Mahler: Blumine - Bruckner: Symphonisches Präludium
Bamberger Symphoniker, Jakub Hrůša
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 3 (new entry)
Alina Ibragimova (violin)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 4 (new entry)
Eclipse
Dvořák - Ginastera - Sarasate
Hilary Hahn (violin), Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 5 (No. 13 last month)
Krystian Zimerman (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 6 (new entry)
Eleonora Buratto (soprano), Teresa Iervolino (contralto), Lawrence Brownlee (tenor), Michael Spyres (tenor), Carlo Lepore (bass)
Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 7 (new entry)
Lisette Oropesa (Theodora), Joyce DiDonato (Irene), Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian (Didymus), Michael Spyres (Septimius), John Chest (Valens)
Il Pomo d'Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev
Available formats: 3 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 8 (new entry)
Juliana Koch (oboe), BBC Philharmonic, Rumon Gamba
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 9 (new entry)
Jonas Kaufmann (tenor), Ludovic Tézier (baritone), Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 10 (new entry)
Steven Osborne (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 11 (new entry)
Roderick Williams (baritone), BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, Martyn Brabbins
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 12 (No. 1 last month)
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Available formats: SACD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 13 (No. 20 in June)
Mitsuko Uchida (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 14 (No. 5 last month)
Kirill Gerstein (harpsichord), Marie-Christine Zupancic (flute)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 15 (new entry)
Dunedin Consort, John Butt
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 16 (No. 9 last month)
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 17 (No. 16 in March)
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Available formats: SACD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 18 (new entry)
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Available formats: SACD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 19 (new entry)
Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Kirill Petrenko
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 20 (new entry)
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 21 (No. 7 last month)
Sabine Devieilhe (soprano), Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 22 (new entry)
Vilde Frang (violin), Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Pekka Kuusisto
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 23 (No. 14 last month)
John Osborn (Robert), Nicolas Courjal (Bertram), Amina Edris (Alice), Erin Morley (Isabelle), Nico Darmanin (Raimbaut)
Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Chœur de l'Opera National de Bordeaux, Marc Minkowski
Available formats: 3 CDs + Book, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 24 (new entry)
Elena Urioste (violin), Chineke! Orchestra
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 25 (new entry)
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Semyon Bychkov
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
