Classical Recommendations
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Early Music Round-Up - Summer 2025
23rd Jul 2025
Groundbreaking Corelli from the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, a musical soundtrack to Henry VIII's travels around England from Ensemble Pro Victoria, the final glorious flowering of English Catholic polyphony from New College Oxford, Gabrieli-inspired Zieleński from the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble, and more.
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New Release Round-Up - 18th July 2025
18th Jul 2025
Messiaen from Yuja Wang and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Mozart from Chloe Chua and the Singapore Symphony, solo Bach from Céline Frisch, and historical recordings of Poulenc playing his own music and that of Satie.
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Gramophone Editor's Choices - August 2025
14th Jul 2025
Chris introduces next month's selection, headed by Vilém Vlček and Denis Linnik's 'urgent and profound' set of Martinů's complete works for cello and piano on Supraphon.
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New Release Round-Up - 11th July 2025
11th Jul 2025
Shostakovich from Cuarteto Casals, Steve Reich's Jacob's Ladder and Traveler's Prayer, this year's summer concert from the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, and choral works by the Mendelssohn siblings from the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin.
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Tchaikovsky from Yunchan Lim and other forthcoming highlights
9th Jul 2025
The young South Korean pianist tackles Tchaikovsky's The Seasons, with other stand-out releases for late summer including Purcell's Dido & Aeneas with Joyce DiDonato and Michael Spyres, Jonas Kaufmann's Doppelgänger, and Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady from John Wilson and Sinfonia of London.
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New Release Round-Up - 4th July 2025
4th Jul 2025
Schubert from Steven Osborne, Rachmaninoff from Alexander Melnikov and Julia Lezhneva, Handel from Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen, and Mozart from Andrè Schuen.
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The Presto Chart - June 2025
2nd Jul 2025
Our 25 best-selling titles across all formats for June, headed by Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and Ravel's La valse from Klaus Mäkelä and the Orchestre de Paris on Decca.
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Presto Team Choices - June 2025
1st Jul 2025
Staff favourites from June include the fourth volume of the LSO's Panufnik Legacies series, piano quintets by Vasyl Barvinsky and Borys Liatoshynsky, Sibelius from Nicholas Collon and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and vibrant Baroque duets from countertenors Carlo Vistoli and Hugh Cutting.
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New Release Round-Up - 27th June 2025
27th Jun 2025
British and American music for brass ensemble from Onyx Brass and John Wilson, Kurtág's Kafka Fragments from Susan Narucki and Curtis Macomber, CPE Bach from Ryo Terakado and Fabio Bonizzoni, and Martinů from Vilém Vlček and Denis Linnik.
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Opus Klassik Awards 2025
26th Jun 2025
Revealed in advance of October's ceremony at the Konzerthaus Berlin, the winners of this year's 'Deutscher Musikpreis' awards include Abel Selaocoe, Emily D'Angelo, Joana Mallwitz and Seong-Jin Cho.
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Gramophone Editor's Choices - July 2025
24th Jun 2025
Chris introduces next month's selection, headed by Bojan Čičić's 'masterly' recording of Biber's complete violin sonatas from 1681 on Delphian.
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New Release Round-Up - 20th June 2025
20th Jun 2025
Haydn from Kammerorchester Basel and Giovanni Antonini, Biber from Bojan Čičić and the Illyria Consort, Mendelssohn's Ein Sommernachtstraum from Pablo Heras-Casado in Freiburg, and fin de siècle French music from the Neave Trio.
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BBC Music Magazine - July 2025 Choices
18th Jun 2025
Chris introduces next month's selection, headed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard's recording of his long-term friend György Kurtág's Játékok on Pentatone.
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New Release Round-Up - 13th June 2025
13th Jun 2025
A Pan-European programme from La Serenissima, Stravinsky and Ravel from Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy, Bach from Francesco Tristano, and Brahms's clarinet sonatas (in new orchestrations by Stephan Koncz) from Daniel Ottensamer and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
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New Release Round-Up - 6th June 2025
6th Jun 2025
Debussy and Messiaen from Magdalena Kožená and Mitsuko Uchida, Sibelius from Nicholas Collon and Christian Tetzlaff with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mozart from Angela Hewitt, and Haydn from the Chiaroscuro Quartet.
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The Presto Chart - May 2025
2nd Jun 2025
Our 25 best-selling titles across all formats for May, headed by 'dazzling' accounts of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1 and Symphonic Dances from Sinfonia of London and John Wilson on Chandos.
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Presto Team Choices - May 2025
31st May 2025
Staff favourites from May include Charles Koechlin's Symphony No. 1 from Ariane Matiakh, Madeleine Dring from Nicholas Daniel and friends, a Bruckner 9 with a difference from the Hallé and Kahchun Wong, and Lalo's Breton opera Le Roi d’Ys from György Vashegyi.
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New Release Round-Up - 30th May 2025
30th May 2025
Tchaikovsky from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Alpesh Chauhan, a second helping of British orchestral anthems from Britten Sinfonia and the Choir of Merton College Oxford, Ligeti concertos from Les Siècles and François-Xavier Roth, and Anna Lapwood's eclectic new album Firedove.
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Boxed Set Selections - Spring 2025
29th May 2025
Heavyweight sets from the last couple of months include anthologies devoted to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (who would have celebrated his hundredth birthday yesterday), Joan Sutherland, Walter Weller, Steve Reich and Georges Bizet.
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BBC Music Magazine - June 2025 Choices
27th May 2025
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by a 'distinctive, individual' solo recital from viola-player Timothy Ridout on Harmonia Mundi, featuring music by Telemann, JS Bach, Britten and Shaw.
