Welcome to our weekly series in which we take a look at the most compelling new classical releases and offer listening suggestions for the week ahead.

We’ve provided links to all of the albums on Apple Music where available so that you can dive straight into enjoying the best new classical albums in great sound.

So, here are five albums to listen out for this week...

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1. To Paris, With Love

Hilary Hahn's new album is both a tribute to a city and also marks a return from a year-long sabbatical for Hahn. Read Andrew Mellor's full and fascinating interview with the violinist here: Hilary Hahn interview

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2. Renaud Capuçon's Elgar

You can read all about this new album in the March 2021 issue of Gramophone, which features Renaud Capuçon on its cover. With multiple concerts and recordings each year, life’s busy for Renaud Capuçon – even in lockdown. Refusing to give up on himself or the young artists he supports, the violinist has launched several projects – not least an all-Elgar recording, he tells Charlotte Gardner. Find out more about the March issue: Gramophone magazine

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3. Lewis & Osborne

The combination of Steven Osborne and Paul Lewis in music by Fauré, Poulenc, Debussy, Stravinsky and Ravel will surely prove irresistible for most pianophiles. Their album of duets by Schubert was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award in 2011, as Jeremy Nicholas wrote in his original review: 'In this repertoire they are as one, touch and tone indistinguishable from one another, playing with a delicious fluency and obvious affection.'

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4. Sandrine Piau's Four Last Songs

Sandrine Piau's album 'Si J’ai Aimé', exploring French orchestral songs from the late 19th century, won last year's Gramophone Recital Award. Today she returns, this time with Orchestre Victor Hugo and Jean-François Verdier, for a programme of works by Richard Strauss (including the Four Last Songs), Berg and Zemlinsky. 

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5. Special Talent

Johan Dalene's debut recording for BIS of the Tchaikovsky and Barber violin concertos was an Editor's Choice last year, with Gramophone's Edward Seckerson observing, 'from the shaping of his solo entrance in the Tchaikovsky alone there’s a "presence" about Johan Dalene’s playing that announces a musician of special sensibilities. It’s amazing how quickly one can tell.'

For his second album, Dalene – still only 20 years old – has teamed up with pianist Christian Ihle Hadland for a programme of works including Grieg's Violin Sonata No 1, Sibelius's Six Pieces and Rautavaara's Notturno e Danza.

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The Listening Room

Gramophone’s The Listening Room is an Apple Music playlist featuring hand-picked selection of the most interesting new classical releases chosen by Editor-in-Chief James Jolly. It’s the essential classical playlist:

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Specialist Classical Chart

The Official Specialist Classical Chart Top 20 appears on the Gramophone website and is updated every Friday at 6pm (UK time). It’s another great way of exploring the new classical releases and well worth checking every week: 

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