Shostakovich Cello Concerto No 2. Cello Sonata Britten Cello Sonata

Sheku Kanneh-Mason vc Isata Kanneh-Mason pf Sinfonia of London / John Wilson (Decca Classics)

Sheku Kanneh-Mason's new album for Decca features the Cello Sonata and Second Cello Concerto of Shostakovich, and Britten's Cello Sonata. For the chamber works he is joined by his sister Isata at the piano, a relationship he spoke about with Andrew Farach-Colton for Gramophone: ‘We’ve played a lot of repertoire together for quite a few years, and Isata was with me at many of my lessons, so essentially we learnt this sonata as a duo. Because of that, we’re able to be spontaneous in micro ways with the timing because we have that trust that we’ll find each other. In other words, we can be quite alive, as it were, as we’re playing. It’s so satisfying playing duos when you have that kind of profound understanding.’

Scriabin Vers la flamme

Yevgeny Sudbin pf (BIS Records)

Yevgeny Sudbin is the guest on this week's episode of the Gramophone Classical Music Podcast, discussing his new recording of Scriabin's Vers la flamme with Editor-in-Chief James Jolly. Listen to the episode below, or on your podcast platform of choice.

Elgar The Kingdom

Francesca Chiejina sop Dame Sarah Connolly mez Benjamin Hulett ten Ashley Riches bass-bar Crouch End Festival Chorus, London Mozart Players / David Temple (Signum Classics)

Crouch End Festival Chorus and the London Mozart Players have struck up an enthralling recording partnership in recent years, with recordings of Parry's Prometheus Unbound and Judith (conducted by William Vann) both being shortlisted for Gramophone Awards and a recording of choral music by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn (with David Temple conducting) also earning high praise from Malcolm Riley in February last year: 'This new recording is surely the new benchmark'. 

Today see the release of their latest collaboration, an oratorio which David Temple believes is Elgar's finest – The Kingdom. In a note accompanying the new recording for Signum, Temple writes, 'I am now so taken with the work that I struggle to find any fault with it at all. It is a gem from the first note to the last, and my desire to share this as widely as possible is reinforced by the present recording.'

Chopin Intime

Justin Taylor (Alpha)

This album is a voyage into the sound world that Chopin himself would have conjured on the very specific kind of piano that he composed many of his Preludes – a Pleyel pianino, smaller than a regular piano at six and a half octaves, and only in production for seven years between 1835 and 1842. The album features a number of the Preludes, of course, but also a selection of Chopin's Etudes, Nocturnes and Mazurkas, plus an arrangement by Justin Taylor of Bellini's 'Casta Diva'.

Schumann Symphony in G minor, WoO 29, 'Zwickau' Bruckner Symphony No 0 in D minor, WAB100, 'Die Nullte'

Le Concert des Nations / Jordi Savall (Alia Vox)

There aren't many recordings of either of these symphonies that adopt historically informed performance practices, but that is Jordi Savall's approach with Le Concert des Nations. In 2022 the partnership produced a truly outstanding recording of Beethoven's final four symphonies that was our Recording of the Month in February 2022 and was also shortlisted for a Gramophone Award. Mark Pullinger wrote: 'Much as I will always love Norrington’s trailblazing recordings and Krivine’s crisp, underrated set, Savall’s may well have just become my favourite period-instrument Beethoven cycle of them all.'