- The Works
UPDATED PLAYLIST
The Works
“Sonic Samba”, taken from Armin van Buuren’s upcoming debut classical album <i>Piano</i>, heads up this week’s The Works, our playlist showcasing the week’s best new classical releases. Composed, produced and performed by van Buuren, <i>Piano</i> is a collection of beautifully sculpted miniatures for piano and strings—“Sonic Samba” showcases one of his most powerful melodies to date. The album represents a major departure for the Dutch trance DJ, who conceived the album after a gruelling promotional tour of the US took its toll in early 2020. “The shows were amazing, they were all sold out, but I ran against a brick wall and a kind of a depression, and I was like, ‘OK, I’m not happy’,” van Buuren tells Apple Music. He considered giving up music for good, he admits, “and that’s when I found my real love for music again.” Van Buuren’s childhood was full of classical music, and his father still presents a classical show on Dutch radio. And so he began taking piano lessons. Satie and Chopin led to experiments in composing and, eventually, an urge to record his musical thoughts. “This was my higher power putting me here,” he says. “This needed to happen.” We regularly update The Works, so if you find a piece of music or a performance you particularly love, don’t forget to add it to your library.
Hear Armin van Buuren’s debut classical piano track, plus more of this week’s finest releases. - Karina Canellakis conducts Tchaikovsky
NEW ALBUM
Karina Canellakis conducts Tchaikovsky
Karina Canellakis & London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Piano Chill
JUST UPDATED
Piano Chill
Apple Music Classical
Eighty-eight keys of calm—piano music of past and present selected to bring you peace.
- Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos & Emanuel Ax
- Sondra Radvanovsky, Matthew Polenzani, Janai Brugger, Ekaterina Gubanova, Michele Pertusi, Carlo Rizzi, The Metropolitan Opera Chorus & The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
- Jascha Heifetz, Boston Symphony Orchestra & The New Symphony Orchestra Of London
- Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal & Rafael Payare
Coming Soon
- Francesco Piemontesi, Gewandhausorchester & Manfred Honeck
- Il Pomo d'Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev & Aylen Pritchin
- Véronique Gens, Hervé Niquet & Chœur et Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire
- Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Harry Bicket & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
- Brian Mulligan, Jennifer Holloway, Bryan Register, Ain Anger, Richard Trey Smagur, Maya Yahav Gour, Netherlands Radio Choir, Hong Kong Philharmonic Chorus, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra & Jaap van Zweden
- Quinn Kelsey, Rosa Feola, Piotr Beczala, Varduhi Abrahamyan, Andrea Mastroni, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, The Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Daniele Rustioni
- Graham Ross, Choir of Clare College, Cambridge & Dmitri Ensemble
- Isabelle Faust, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin & Bernhard Forck
- Stradivari Orchestra, Xiaoming Wang & Stefan Tarara
- Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Ana Vieira Leite & Julie Roset
- The Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst & Garrick Ohlsson
- Berlin Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert & Wenzel Fuchs
- Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal & Rafael Payare
- Leonard Bernstein, London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Plácido Domingo, Ruggero Raimondi, Martina Arroyo & Josephine Veasey
- Francesco Piemontesi, Gewandhausorchester & Manfred Honeck
- Berlin Philharmonic, Seiji Ozawa & Pierre Amoyal
- Oslo Philharmonic & Vasily Petrenko
- Eldbjørg Hemsing, Norwegian String Quintet & Tim Allhoff
- Esther Abrami & Esther Abrami Ensemble
- Yo-Yo Ma, María Konráðsdóttir, Hildigunnur Einarsdóttir, Eyjólfur Eyjólfsson, Fjölnir Ólafsson, Philip Barkhudarov & Viktor Orri Árnason