Contemporary Classical 2024

Mary Elizabeth Bowden, praised for her “splendid, brilliant” artistry (Gramophone), celebrates the narrative power of the trumpet with Storyteller: Contemporary Concertos for Trumpet. Bowden is joined by the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and conductor Allen Tinkham in a collection of new concertos that redefine the trumpet’s voice in modern classical music.

Ubuntu Music is delighted to announce the upcoming release of Anthropometricks, Trio HLK’s next project, on 15th March 2024. This will be the group’s second release on the Ubuntu Music record label. The core members of the ensemble are Rich Harrold (piano), Ant Law (guitar) and Rich Kass (drums).

At the occasion of the 70th birthday of Swedish contemporary composer Anders Hillborg, the award-winning conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra release an album with some of his most recognizable works. Together with violinist Eldbjorg Hemsing and soprano Hannah Holgersson they have recorded Hillborg's compositions: 'Liquid Marble', 'Kvall' and 'Violin Concerto No. 2'.

Music as a possibility to process things; this has become a matter of course for Nora Benamara. Anyone who delves into the pieces of her group's extraordinary album debut can discover a variety of facets, both lyrically and musically. Some go deep, but still retain a certain degree of lightness, of sensual, joyful expression. "My music was created out of emotion and intuition," the singer, composer and band leader emphasized. The wonderfully poetic texts in turn speak of a lot of reflection, sometimes almost philosophical thinking and daring—even dreaming. Her pieces speak of longing for a home, of utopian places, of doubts, of an intense connection to nature. They are the results of a personal inner "odyssey" as she wrote: "a search for deeper connections, a pursuit of the beautiful and the cathartic in the search for finding one’s place in the world."

Born in São Paulo, Clara Sverner's interpretations are well considered by public and critics from Brazil and abroad.

The 21st century is characterized by diverse innovations in the field of classical music: the intensive preoccupation with advanced playing techniques, acoustic principles and the newly discovered complexity of timbres enabled a small number of mostly European composers to redefine “sound excess”. The exploration of frequencies has allowed the sonic extremes of the scores to be linked to both the concept of energetic overexposure and the physical presence of the materials. Essentially, it is the materials that have to change.

In 2023 Joe Hisaishi made his triumphant debut on the podium of a sold-out Vienna Musikverein, conducting a programme of his own works. Deutsche Grammophon is now thrilled to announce the release of Joe Hisaishi in Vienna – the world-renowned and multi-award-winning Japanese composer, conductor and pianist’s second album for the Yellow Label. The new recording follows on from his immensely successful DG debut, A Symphonic Celebration – Music from the Studio Ghibli films of Hayao Miyazaki, one of the best-selling classical albums worldwide in 2023.

In the ever-evolving landscape of contemporary classical music, composer Henning Fuchs is proving to be a trailblazer with his latest release COCOON. He combines a variety of genres and cultural influences to create his own world. It is the third album on the Neue Meister label. In terms of content, it deals with farewell, transformation and new beginnings - musically it is a unique combination of neoclassical elements and nuances from world music, pop and jazz. The boundaries of musical conventions are exceeded here. Henning Fuchs, who worked for the composer Max Richter for five years, brings his cinematic composition experience and creates works that invite inner reflection and contemplation.

Contemporary classical composer Sophia Jani and violinist Teresa Allgaier announce their new collaborative work Six Pieces for Solo Violin on Squama Recordings. Characterized by its calmness and poise, each movement focuses on a particular technical aspect, bending the boundaries of the instrument while maintaining the illusion of simplicity.

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki was a Polish composer of contemporary classical music. According to critic Alex Ross, no recent classical composer has had as much commercial success as Górecki. He became a leading figure of the Polish avant-garde during the post-Stalin cultural thaw. His Anton Webern-influenced serialist works of the 1950s and 1960s were characterized by adherence to dissonant modernism and influenced by Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Kazimierz Serocki. He continued in this direction throughout the 1960s, but by the mid-1970s had changed to a less complex sacred minimalist sound, exemplified by the transitional Symphony No. 2 and the Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs). This later style developed through several other distinct phases, from such works as his 1979 Beatus Vir, to the 1981 choral hymn Miserere, the 1993 Kleines Requiem für eine Polka and his requiem Good Night.