This fall, Sony Classical looks forward to releasing Chopin: Ballades & Nocturnes for solo piano by Leif Ove Andsnes, "a pianist of magisterial elegance, power and insight" (New York Times). Interspersing the Romantic master composer's four Ballades – works immense in the range and power of their expression – with three of his nocturnes, the new album represents the Norwegian pianist's first recording of Chopin's music in more than a decade.

Uncompromising in his life as he was in his music, Korean composer Isang Yun (1917–95) held fast to his dream of a united Korea, even as he was unjustly accused of espionage for North Korea and sentenced to imprisonment and death. From a life of unimaginable oppression and torture emerges music of raw emotional power, heard on ISANG YUN: Sunrise Falling, a centennial commemoration of Yun's life and music from the PENTATONE Oxingale Series. Maestro Dennis Russell Davies, a longtime collaborator and advocate for Yun, curates the program and conducts the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. A cellist himself, Yun's fascinating, highly autobiographical Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (1975/76) anchors the album. In a live performance, cellist Matt Haimovitz tackles the controlled chaos of Yun's score, bursting with passion, despair, and new timbral textures, such as the use of a plectrum to emulate the Korean zither, the kŏmun'go. Yun's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 (1981) features violinist Yumi Hwang-Williams, who reflects upon her own emotional return to Korea in 2015, where she performed the work at a Festival in honor of Yun. The double album also includes the orchestral Fanfare & Memorial, and additional illuminating solo works by Yun performed by pianist Maki Namekawa, Hwang-Williams, and Haimovitz. 100 years after Isang Yun's birth, the two Koreas still teeter on a razor's edge, with ever more global ramifications. His music opens the gate to a lost, united land, with Yun's own heart bleeding but ever hopeful.

Currently wowing theatre-goers in the US with her Tony-nominated performance in Carousel, Grammy-winning soprano Renée Fleming announces her new album ‘Broadway', to be released on Decca Classics on Friday 7th September. Celebrating musical theatre, the album features a diverse array of great songs for the stage by composers including Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Pasek & Paul, and Rodgers & Hammerstein, as well as a special guest duet with the Hamilton, television and film star, Leslie Odom, Jr.

Fleming made her Broadway musical debut this April as Nettie Fowler in the hit new production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's beloved Carousel. She received glowing reviews and even a Tony nomination – the prestigious awards ceremony takes place this Sunday. The Hollywood Reporter described her performance in Carousel as "superb" and "sheer euphoria", and Newsweek said, "she is divine".

When Leonard Bernstein celebrated his 70th birthday, Krystian Zimerman was asked to perform Symphony No. 2 (The Age of Anxiety) with Bernstein for the first time. Full of praise for Zimerman's performance, Bernstein asked the pianist to perform the piece again when the composer turned 100. To fulfill that promise, Zimerman releases a new recording of Bernstein's Symphony No. 2, performed with the Berlin Philharmonic and conducted by Simon Rattle in his last appearance as its chief conductor.

Tony Bennett and Diana Krall celebrate their shared love of the music of George and Ira Gershwin on their new collaborative album, LOVE IS HERE TO STAY, set for a September 14th release on Verve Records/Columbia Records.  Tony Bennett, who celebrates his 92nd birthday today, has been friends with Diana Krall for over 20 years. The two toured together in 2000 and recorded duets for two of Bennett's albums ("Duets" and "Playin' With My Friends"), but this marks their first full album project together.  LOVE IS HERE TO STAY is out just in time for the 120th Anniversary of George Gershwin's birthday which takes place on September 26th.  Both multi-Grammy winning and platinum-selling artists, Bennett is the only artist at the ages of 85 and 88, respectively, to have an album debut at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and Krall is the only jazz artist to have eight albums debut at #1 on Billboard's Jazz Albums chart.  Danny Bennett, President and CEO of Verve Label Group commented, "When Tony Bennett and Diana Krall sing the music of the Gershwins, it's truly the consummate artistic pairing of singers and songwriting.  It's one of those recordings that when you listen to it, you recognize instantly that it had to happen - it was just a matter of getting these two extraordinary performers into a studio and putting the Gershwin songbook in front of them."

YO-YO MA releases Six Evolutions – Bach: Cello Suites today.  The new album from Sony Classical marks Ma's third and final recording of the works and celebrates his nearly six-decade-long relationship with the music.  Six Evolutions – Bach: Cello Suites is available to stream and download now on all digital service providers and for purchase as a 3-LP 180-gram vinyl set.

As Ma's "constant musical companions" for almost 60 years, Bach's Cello Suites first entered the cellist's life at the age of four, when he learned the first measure of the Prélude to Suite No. 1 under his father's instruction.  His Grammy Award-winning first complete recording of the suites was made in his late twenties. His second, Inspired by Bach, was released in his early forties and recorded alongside a multi-genre, collaborative exploration of the works. Both previous recordings of the Cello Suites, also on Sony Classical, became landmarks in classical discography, as well as milestones in Ma's musical life.  Since then these works have been a through line in his life, guiding him through times of happiness as well as hardship, prompting Ma to ask, "What power does this music possess that even today, after three hundred years, it continues to help us navigate through troubled times?"

Grammy Award-winning jazz guitarist, band leader and composer, John Scofield is set to release his new album, Combo 66, marking his 66th birthday, on September 28 via Verve Records. The album, which features long-time drummer Bill Stewart, bassist Vincente Archer and pianist/organist Gerald Clayton, combines jazz with genre-defying elements, allowing Scofield to find new modes of expression.

Following his critically acclaimed recording of piano works by Philip Glass, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson will release his second concept album, Bach, on Deutsche Grammophon on September 7, 2018 (CD released 9/14). The album is available for pre-order everywheretoday.

Renowned for his innovative musical projects, Ólafsson offers listeners a very personal vision of Bach's intricate keyboard music on his new recording – artfully weaving Bach's original works together with transcriptions by Busoni, Kempff, Ziloti, Rachmaninov and Ólafsson himself. Ólafsson will also perform some of the repertoire from the album live at venues including London's LSO St Luke's, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk (Denmark), Hamburg's Laeiszhalle, and the Berlin Philharmonie during the 2018-19 season.

Madeleine Peyroux's new album, Anthem, finds the singer-songwriter collaborating with writers/musicians Patrick Warren (Bonnie Raitt, JD Souther, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Lana Del Rey, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers), Brian MacLeod (Sara Bareilles, Leonard Cohen, Tina Turner, Ziggy Marley) and David Baerwald (Joni Mitchell, David and David, Sheryl Crow), who are also the basic rhythm section players on the album. Together, they cast a sober, poetic, and at times philosophical eye on the current state of the world.

Produced and co-written by Larry Klein, the album came to life during the pivotal 2016 US elections, with the writers absorbing a "constant stream of news" over many months. The "consciously not too preachy" songs, fuse Peyroux's, at times political outlook, with glimpses into her personal world. Honed and patiently refined with fellow writers they mix the public with the personal, striking that perfect equilibrium of dark humour and compassion.

Throughout the week CLASSIC fM's presenters bring you the best new recordings, including world exclusives and premiere broadcasts of latest releases. Hélène Grimaud brings us a collection of well-known pieces by Chopin, Satie, Debussy and others. The album comprises pieces associated with reflection and freedom of form that certainly illustrate the concept of Memory. Grimaud demonstrates her mastery of musical transportation here and beautifully creates the fleeting wistfulness she clearly intends to. It is an effortless interpretation of truly immersive music – worth a relaxing listen.

Max Richter is a busy man, most recently having composed the score to new film White Boy Rick. He's also currently on tour, playing The Blue Notebooks & Infra, on most dates, but he's got something special lined up for NYC: He'll be playing his amazing, elegiac score for The Leftovers at Town Hall on October 14 with the ACME ensemble. Fans of the HBO series may recognize October 14 as "Sudden Departure Day" (aka the day in the series when 2% of the world's population disappeared with no explanation). Tickets are on sale. Check out all dates along with streams of The Leftovers and White Boy Rick scores via Brooklyn Vegan

Ever since Leonard Bernstein introduced him to televeision audiences as a 7-year-old prodigy, cellist Yo-Yo Ma has captured the public's imagination over a 50-plus year career. From concert stage appearances, to Sesame Street, to American Presidential inaugurations, Yo-Yo Ma is a shining presence everywhere. Our WRTI: Philadelphia album of the week showcases why. The Essential Yo-Yo Ma, a double-CD set compiled and released in 2005 by Sony Classical, highlights some of the widely disparate musical explorations that Yo-Yo Ma has brought to the world.   Ma's cello playing sings and dances in the haunting sound world of American Appalachian music, with fiddler and mandolinist Mark O'Connor, and bass-player Edgar Meyer. Vocalist Allison Krauss's pure soprano is complemented by Ma's spare, lyrical style in Meyer's arrangement of the Shaker tune "Simple Gifts." Ma's performances with the Silk Road Ensemble brings us the intersection of East and West: a popular Italian Renaissance song, which would have traveled East along the Silk Road, and traditional Chinese and Indian music, which would have travelled West, bring us an understanding of how cultures sonically collide. Ma's musical message of global ambassadorship, in playing that is soulful yet never heavy-handed, is beautifully displayed in our Album of the Week. It reminds us why Yo-Yo Ma will always remain essential. 

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always loved classical music.  Especially opera.  More than once, people have captured her on their camera phones at Santa Fe Opera (you can find this on Facebook and You Tube).  Now there's a CD that sets her words, and those of friends and family to music.  Soprano Patrice Michaels records for the Cedille label (based in Chicago).  She's married to James Ginsburg, Justice Ginsburg's son.  James also happens to be the founder of Cedille.  So, this remarkable project is really a family affair! The CD's title, "Notorious RBG in Song" refers to the nickname given by Justice Ginsburg's fans, particularly a group of law students who started a blog (and a rap) a few years back when an aspect of the Voting Rights Act was being challenged.  Ms. Michaels, also a composer, set that event to music, as well as some humorous letters, and very inspiring correspondence by men who saw great potential in the young clerk's life back in the 1940s and 1950s. "Notorious RBG in Song" plays like a musical photo album, as it sets to music words of encouragement, thoughtful arguments, and even dissenting opinions, from the many years of service by a woman who continues to inspire young people to express their own opinions and commit to making a difference. LISTEN TO THE All Classical Portland SEGMENT

Rich, foot-stomping Irish folk music rocked downtown DeKalb 8 p.m. Friday at the Egyptian Theatre, 135 N. Second St. The High Kings gave a powerful and impassioned performance that had the crowd singing along from start to finish. Before the show began, Alex Nerad, Executive Director of the Egyptian Theatre, came out to address the audience. Upon asking who had seen the High Kings play live before, most of the hands in the crowd shot up in excitement. "This is our fifteenth time seeing them," Chicago resident Maura Hoyt said. "We'd been listening to Irish music growing up, and they came up on someone's Spotify or something, and we saw them at an Irish Fest, and we liked them a lot. [We've] been following them ever since." READ THE FULL Northern Star Online ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

The music of George Gershwin has a special place in Tony Bennett's heart. The New York-born singer's first ever commercially-released recording – which he cut in 1949 at the age of 23, under the short-lived stage name Joe Bari, for the small indie label Leslie – was a version of Gershwin's enduringly popular celebration of syncopation, ‘Fascinating Rhythm'. The significance of debuting with a song by one of America's greatest composers, who had died 12 years earlier, wasn't lost on Bennett. In his 1998 memoir, The Good Life, the singer wrote, "I'm proud that I sang a Gershwin song at the very start of my recording career – for me, that really was beginning at the top!" Now he revisits the song on an entire album of tunes by the much-venerated composer, Love Is Here To Stay, recorded alongside Diana Krall. READ THE FULL udiscovermusic. REVIEW p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060}

Public Radio Tulsa's third-hour theme this week, running in the 11pm-to-midnight hour and Undoubtedly Worth Staying Up For, will be Trane Songs -- as John Coltrane would have turned 92 this weekend (on September 23rd). Our birthday tribute to Trane will feature the likes of Hilton Ruiz, Chico Freeman, Lee Konitz, and McCoy Tyner, among others -- hope you can join us! And elsewhere in our show, we'll enjoy the music of Charles Lloyd, Shirley Scott, Gerald Wilson, Frank Wess, Bill Carrothers, and many others. Every Saturday night, both online and over the air, ATJ delivers three hours of recent and classic jazz -- across a wide range of styles -- from 9 o'clock till midnight.      SEE THE FULL Public Radio Tulsa PAGE. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}