At the top of each month, WRTI broadcasts a special Sunday Classical focused on recommended new releases. Join host Mark Pinto on WRTI on April 12 from 3-6 p.m. to hear highlights from these albums, which are detailed below.
Pictures at an Exhibition: The Paintings of Bob Peak
Los Angeles Film Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin (conductor)
Celebrated for his movie posters and commissioned artwork for magazines, the Olympics, and more, American illustrator Bob Peak (1927-1992) is fêted in this release of world-premiere compositions by ten internationally renowned composers, each inspired by one of Peak’s works. Subjects range from Jesse Owens to the Brooklyn Bridge, Mother Teresa to the New York World’s Fair.
Forgotten Melodies
Alexander Malofeev (piano)
A former child prodigy, the now-24-year-old Alexander Malofeev has been hailed as a “Russian genius” and a “piano-world revolution.” His phenomenal technique and remarkable expressiveness are on display in his debut recording of nostalgia-laden works by four Russian-born composers – Glinka, Glazunov, Rachmaninoff, and Medtner – who died far from their homeland. Highlights include the title cycle by Medtner and Rachmaninoff’s monumental Piano Sonata No. 2.
Haydn
Sung-Won Yang (cello), Orchestre national Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Thomas Zehetmair (conductor)
Haydn’s two concertos, early cornerstones of the cello repertoire, are the featured vehicles here for internationally recognized South Korean cellist Sung-Won Yang. The album also affords us an opportunity to hear a rare but significant work by Mozart – conductor Zehetmair’s completion of the single-movement Sinfonia Concertante in A major, K. 320, Mozart’s only known writing for solo cello with orchestra.
Puccini: Orchestral Music
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson (conductor)
The young Puccini is showcased in this new outing from John Wilson and his Sinfonia. Student compositions and orchestral excerpts from his earliest operas offer a fascinating insight into Puccini’s development as a composer. Puccini himself thought highly enough of some of these pieces to recycle them for his operatic hits Manon Lescaut and La bohème. Encounter some early but remarkably mature music by this great operatic composer here.
Puccini: Heroines
Sondra Radvanovsky (soprano), Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, Enrique Mazzola (conductor)
Anna, Mimi, Tosca, and Turandot share the same stage in this live 2025 recording from Chicago’s Lyric Opera of an all-Puccini program performed by Sondra Radvanovsky, one of the preeminent Puccini interpreters of her generation. Radvanovsky offers emotionally charged and insightful performances of trademark roles and others not previously in her stage repertoire.
Dora Pejačević: Complete Symphonic Works
Annika Schlicht (mezzo), Martina Filjak (piano), Staatskapelle Weimar, Ivan Repušić (conductor)
The music of Croatian composer Dora Pejačević (1885-1923) has been enjoying a major and welcome revival. One of the most outstanding women composers of her era, she wrote over 100 works in her short life. Among these are orchestral gems marked by profound emotional intensity and luxuriant orchestration. Two of these pieces, her Symphony and Piano Concerto, were firsts by a Croatian composer, regardless of gender. They’re among the works offered here by Croatian conductor Repušić with his Staatskapelle Weimar.
Telemann: Ino Cantata and Double Concertos
Rachel Podger (violin), Elizabeth Watts (soprano), Hannah Parry (recorder), Florilegium, Ashley Solomon (flute and conductor)
The outstanding British period instrument group Florilegium and their director Ashley Solomon present instrumental and vocal music of Telemann. Acclaimed soprano Ellizabeth Watts solos in Telemann’s dramatic cantata, Ino, based on a story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Plus, we’re treated to two masterful concertos that display Telemann’s penchant for unusual instrumental combinations – one for flute and violin, paired with his popular concerto for recorder and flute (featuring Solomon as flute soloist).
Beethoven: String Quartets, Op. 59 Nos 1 & 2
Chiaroscuro Quartet
The renowned all-female Chiaroscuro Quartet bring their gut strings and historical bows to bear on the first two of Beethoven’s three ‘Razumovsky’ quartets. Named for their patron, Count Andreas Razumovsky, these groundbreaking works baffled audiences, critics, and even the performers themselves at their premiere. The weighty and dense first quartet was likely the longest string quartet composed up that point, while the second is permeated by a profound darkness from start to finish.
Jóhann Jóhannsson: Piano Works
Alice Sara Ott (piano)
Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson died in 2018 at age 48, leaving behind a cherished output of film scores and instrumental music hailed as revolutionary in their seamless blend of minimalist orchestrations with electronic, ambient, and even drone elements. German pianist Alice Sara Ott offers a generous sampling of Jóhannsson’s music in premiere solo piano arrangements of selections from his most popular film scores and studio albums.
Prokofiev
Nemanja Radulović (violin), Philharmonia Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor), Laure Favre-Kahn (piano), Johan Dalene (violin)
“There is something wondrous in the music of Sergei Prokofiev,” says Nemanja Radulović, “as if it constantly moves between light and shadow, searching for truth through contrast, sarcasm, magic, love, irony, and beauty.” The Serbian-French violinist, famous for his rock star stage presence and intense emotional style, surveys these facets of Prokofiev’s writing for violin in this new release. Traversing solo, chamber, concerto and arranged repertoire, Radulović’s program features the Violin Concerto No. 2 together with music from Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, The Love for Three Oranges, and the Classical Symphony.
Nadia
WindSync (wind ensemble)
Oswald: Symphony, Op. 43, Sinfonietta, Op. 27 & Elegia
Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra, Fabio Mechetti (conductor)
Often described as the most European of Brazilian composers, Henrique Oswald (1852-1931) was one of the most prominent South American composers of his time and an influential educator of a generation of Brazilian musicians. Oswald’s compositions blend European Romanticism and Impressionism with Brazilian influences. This release brings together three orchestral works, including a lyrical and elegant Sinfonietta and a Symphony regarded as one of the most significant achievements in Brazilian orchestral literature.
