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Anyone who aspires to a professional career as a violinist must eventually reckon with Beethoven's Violin Concerto. This exacting instrumental jewel demands not only technical mastery, but also an extraordinary sense of lyricism and emotion from those who seek to make it their own. It is not surprising that, over the centuries, famous virtuosos have never stopped reimagining and recording this masterpiece in order to pass it on to posterity: Fritz Kreisler, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Isabelle Faust... Now, it is in their footsteps - rather intimidatingly, let's admit - that a new, irresistibly charismatic voice has now arrived.Only 20 years old, María Dueñas possesses the talent and radiance of a long-standing virtuoso. She grew up in Granada and studied in Dresden and Vienna with Boris Kuschnir. Her first major success came in 2021, when she won first prize in the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin Competition. That same year, she attracted the attention of Deutsche Grammophon, with whom she soon signed a contract. It was with this label that she presented her first album, Beethoven and Beyond."Beethoven's Violin Concerto has been with me at the most important moments of my life," says María, for whom it seems only natural to dedicate the first chapter of her discography to this work. She had the chance to record her œuvre with Manfred Honeck and the Vienna Symphony at the beginning of 2023, during a concert held in a hall with a rich history: the Vienna Music Hall - a 'home' debut, as it were. But how to stand out from the crowd? "With the Beethoven concerto, you can't show off your virtuosity, only yourself. And only sound can reveal it.”It was precisely this sound that convinced us! But that's not all: to really add her own touch to the work, María composed her own cadenzas. The album also includes cadenzas by five other famous virtuosos (Louis Spohr, Eugène Ysaÿe, Camille Saint-Saëns, Henryk Wieniawski and Fritz Kreisler) as well as works for violin and orchestra by each of these composers. María takes up the Concerto with a unique sincerity and authenticity and manages to shed a new light on Beethoven, that of her own time. Let us be the first to warn you; instead of Beethoven and Beyond, there will soon be María Dueñas and Beyond. No doubt about it, this is a Qobuzissime! Lena Germann/Qobuz

This recording landed on classical best-seller lists in the autumn of 2023, and several factors combined to place it there. One is the sensitive ensemble work throughout from the trio of violinist Veronika Jarůšková, cellist Peter Jarůšek, and pianist Boris Giltburg. Jarůšková and Jarůšek are members of the fine Pavel Haas Quartet, but the trio, as such, is quite new, and Giltburg, moreover, is better known for virtuoso repertory than for chamber music. One would never know it from the seamlessly executed conceptions and transitions, with Giltburg in no way spilling out of the texture. Another factor is the presence of the first two Dvořák trios, early but by no means immature works. Recordings of them are not common, but hear the absolutely characteristic opening of the Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 21, with its pentatonic melody; handled as sensitively as it is here by Jarůšková, the work is the equal of any of the later trios. Lastly, there is the fresh reading of the Piano Trio, Op. 90 ("Dumky"), one of Dvořák's most popular works. Several movements receive interesting interpretations. Consider the beginning, where the Lento maestoso designation is applied to the movement as a whole, with the opening chords kept consistent in tempo with what follows. This diverts the emotional center to the beautifully sad counterpoint between the cello and violin as the movement continues. The sound from the Wyastone Estate is warm but a bit close up, one of few complaints, and this is a major chamber music release that will yield a great deal of satisfying listening.© James Manheim /TiVo

Recordings by Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman are a rare event, and eagerly awaited by his many fans. They surely won’t be disappointed with this new opus that brings together Szymanowski, Zimerman and legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein.Returning to his roots, Krystian Zimerman pays tribute to his compatriot Karol Szymanowski on the 140th anniversary of the composer’s birth. This selection of little-known works testifies to the importance of Szymanowski within the piano repertoire. A long twenty-eight years separate Zimerman's recording of Masques, Op. 34 (made in 1994 in Copenhagen) from the rest of the programme, which was recorded in 2022 in the exceptional acoustics of the Fukuyama Concert Hall near Hiroshima.Nevertheless, the considerable lapse of time between these recordings doesn’t detract from the album's coherence. This is thanks to Zimerman's fluid, clear and readable sound, which—as we know—leaves nothing to chance. This fascinating recording reveals various facets of Szymanowski's compositional genius and features both his mature and early works, all of which were influenced by the great Chopin.Composed during the First World War whilst staying at the family estate in Ukraine, the three parts of Masques evoke Debussy, Scriabin and Stravinsky. However, each movement is overlaid with the orientalist perspective so typical of the Polish composer. A few carefully chosen Préludes and Mazurkas stand alongside the splendid Variations on a Polish Folk Theme for piano, Op. 10, composed by a young Szymanowski still in the process of mastering his mother tongue. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Constantly shifting from the most impulsive exuberance to the most restrained meditation, from the most intense passion to the most innocent tenderness, this programme forms a representative panorama of Schumann’s chamber music. Going beyond the Piano Trios, which already give us a fully rounded account of Schumann, the Trio Wanderer have invited their favourite partners to join them for their interpretation of two supreme masterpieces, the Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet. © harmonia mundi

Bach Generations delivers, as promised, works by several members of the Bach family, ranging from Johann Sebastian's older cousin Johann Christoph Bach through J.S. Bach himself to sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach. None of the works J.S. Bach is thought to have actually written for the oboe (these exist as adaptations by J.S. Bach himself for keyboard, but the originals have been reconstructed) is included. Those might have worked better than the transcriptions the Albrecht Mayer does play; the spiky Keyboard Concerto No. 2 of Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach doesn't rest so easily on the oboe's keys. However, in the slower numbers, Mayer has a distinctively luxurious tone. Sample the adaptation of the tenor aria "Sanfte soll mein Todeskummer" from the Easter Oratorio, BWV 249. The familiar Badinerie from the Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067, is just as good on the oboe as it is on the flute. Mayer plays an oboe, an oboe d'amore, and an English horn for variety, and he is ably backed by the Berliner Barocksolisten. Another draw, especially for physical CD buyers, is the attractive drawing of the entire Bach family tree in the booklet. For oboe buffs, much of this album is likely to set a new standard, and it has shown considerable general appeal, making classical best-seller charts in the summer of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo

Musical careers last longer than they used to, and here, it is difficult to detect any weakening of the long-impressive technique of pianist Garrick Ohlsson, 74 years old, when this album was recorded in the summer of 2022. The feat is especially impressive in that all five of the Beethoven concertos (plus the Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43, with no piano) were performed live within a single week. Ohlsson is backed by the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra under the direction of veteran conductor Donald Runnicles, who points out that he and Ohlsson had very little discussion about interpretation prior to the performances. It is here that Ohlsson's expertise is evident. He doesn't blaze any new paths in these works, but one has the feeling that he holds the performances, to borrow a phrase from John Le Carré, like a thrush's egg in his hand. His readings are simple in the best way. Sample the arresting opening of the first movement of the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58; it is direct, yet there are micro shapings that bespeak long familiarity. In fact, it is in the first two concertos, where the lengthy expositions make it less possible for Ohlsson to control the flow of events, that are less effective. The partnership between Ohlsson and the orchestra, though, is lively throughout, and Runnicles gets excellent results from what is likely essentially a pickup group; the orchestra is moderately sized and agile. Superb live recording from Reference Recordings, discussed in detail in the booklet, is another draw. © James Manheim /TiVo

There are certainly contemporary guitarists who can match Sean Shibe for technical facility, but very few can match him for an ability to entrance an audience with a single stroke or strum. He has recorded Spanish music in the past in strikingly unusual ways, but this is his first album of South American works. It is splendid. There is a "bonus track" included on the physical album and, in some online versions, a recording of Villa-Lobos' Prelude No. 3 in A minor (Homage to Bach); recordings with this are recommended, for it makes an arresting beginning. Shibe proceeds to the three-movement La Catedral of the underrated Agustín Barrios (here, Agustín Barrios Mangoré), whose mysterious, mystical style fits Shibe beautifully. The album title, Profesión, comes from a poem, Profesión de Fé ("Profession of Faith"), by Barrios, reproduced in the booklet. The 12 Studies of Villa-Lobos are dispatched with a suitably commanding style, and when they seemingly reach an absolute peak of intensity with the final one, Shibe deftly steps into new territory with Alberto Ginastera's Guitar Sonata, Op. 47. That, too, is a somewhat underrated work; it is Ginastera's only composition for guitar, despite the popularity of the instrument in Argentina, and it deftly fuses the folk and modernist strands of his musical character. It makes an elegant finale to an album that fascinates from beginning to end. An added attraction is the double set of notes by Shibe and Hugh Morris, delving into the history of the repertory. The church sound, one feels, is not quite right, and yet producer Matthew Swan does succeed in capturing Shibe's larger-than-life quality. This release made classical best-seller charts in the holiday season of 2023; it will be around long after that season is over.© James Manheim /TiVo

Pianist Florian Noack has a gift for the humorous and the unexpected, shown here in the double meaning of the album title, which refers both to the album's final track (originally sung by Louis Prima in The Jungle Book) and to the contents, consisting of transcriptions. Noack's humorous spirit also shows in the sensitivity of his reading of Prokofiev's witty Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25 ("Classical"). Ultimately, though, Noack is after something more than humor here. He wants to recapture some of the spirit of the golden-age piano virtuoso in an age where the social position of such pianists has largely disappeared, Lang Lang notwithstanding. Transcriptions and paraphrases were part of the stock-in-trade of the late 19th century and early 20th century virtuoso, who aimed not only at keyboard heroics but also at a theatrical sense, an impression of total command not only of the piano but also of its repertory. Noack seeks to surprise, including a selection of Renaissance dances by Tylman Susato, and he succeeds. The program is artfully put together, with a sense of not knowing what is coming next. Further, the transcriptions, all his own, are not what one might expect. In the dense Bach Concerto for four harpsichords in A minor, BWV 1065, Noack strips the texture down. The overall result is a fun sense of mystery and a thoroughly enjoyable outing that marks a new direction from pianist Noack.© James Manheim /TiVo

The Takács Quartet has been remarkably consistent, and the addition of a couple of new members doesn't seem to have affected the group's track record at all. Consider this release, which made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023. It is splendid. One attraction is the set of Fantasiestücke by Samuel-Coleridge Taylor. He has been showing up more frequently on concert programs and recordings, but these are novel, with just two recordings on small independent labels in the catalog ahead of this one. Coleridge-Taylor was still a student at the Royal College of Music when he wrote these short pieces for string quartet, but they clearly showed what was coming. Not only was he able to produce a decent facsimile of Dvořák's style (sample the Dance finale), but in the second-movement Serenade, he picked up the unusual 5/4 time of the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, and put his own spin on it. The main attraction is Dvořák's String Quartet in G major, Op. 106, is even better, with many subtle details in the phrasing married to deep expression. Sample the Adagio ma non troppo slow movement, which has rarely seemed so profound; the opening melody rises to the level of Beethoven's late quartets here. There is a short early quartet movement to ring down the curtain and superb, idiomatic sound from the Wyastone Estate Concert Hall. This is certain to be counted as one of the top chamber music recordings of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo

This is a Barbiere "di qualità, di qualità": in fact, of very great quality indeed, from Deutsche Grammophon. Recorded in London in the summer of 1971, it is one of the first meetings of Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony Orchestra. It is also the first of Alberto Zedda's philological editions of Rossini's works, whose scores have been covered over by inherited errors for over a century. Getting rid of the additions which have, quite wrongly, become traditional, means restoring certain interruptions and the fine instrumentation of the period; and above all, singing and playing without exaggerations, thanks to an innate sense for the theatre. It's a spot of spring cleaning which has restored the youth of the 24-year-old composer's masterpiece. Bravo, signor barbiere, ma bravo! It is a dream record, with singers who are well-versed in the repertoire. Everyone is right where they need to be, from Teresa Berganza's wiley and cheeky Rosina, to the refined and hard-working Figaro played by Hermann Prey, via Luigi Alva's frivolous Count and the utterly ridiculous Basilio played by the outrageous Paolo Montarsolo. We're amused by their antics, as we admire the well-oiled and unstoppable machine of Rossini's theatre, under the unceasingly inventive and thrilling baton of Claudio Abbado. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Pianist Rafał Blechacz came on the scene when he made a clean sweep of the prizes at the 2005 International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. He has gone on to record a variety of repertory, but it would seem that Chopin is still closest to his heart. Blechacz has emerged as the arch-Romantic in Deutsche Grammophon's stable, with plenty of power and a fine touch in the big, dramatic gesture. Here, in Chopin's two piano sonatas, he does all that and more: he combines the Romantic pianism with structural insight. In the piano sonatas, Chopin did not simply slap the sonata label onto sequences of four character pieces; these are true sonatas, with contrasting first and second subjects and a kind of thematic development. Blechacz, in the interview-like notes, alludes to the problem of balancing this Classical element with the stormy Chopin all know and love, and it must be said that his solutions are impressive indeed. One could drop the laser almost anywhere, but consider the famed "Funeral March" from the Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35, where he enters quietly and gloomily, saving the fireworks for the big D flat major theme. The march rhythm is still there, but in Blechacz's hands, this material becomes a true second subject. In general, Blechacz draws large contrasts between sections, but these are never done for pure effect. An unusually satisfying recording of these well-known works, with excellent Teldec Studio sound, this appeared on classical best-seller charts in early 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo