Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop
Naxos · 8570714 · 64 minutes
Marin Alsop takes the “New World” and strips away some of the varnish that decades of overfamiliarity tend to add — the Largo breathes without wallowing, and the finale has real forward motion instead of just grandeur for grandeur’s sake. The Baltimore Symphony sounds genuinely invested here, not just competent, and you can hear it in the woodwind solos especially, which get room to be conversational rather than just pretty. At full price this would already be a contender, but at Naxos’s price point it’s basically a no-brainer for anyone who wants to hear this symphony sound freshly discovered again.
Awards:
- BBC Music Magazine Awards — 2009 — Orchestral Finalist
- BBC Music Magazine — July 2008 — Disc of the month
- Building a Library — November 2023 — Also Recommended – Symphony No. 9
“It is rare to be able to say that a performance forces one to listen to a work anew, but this is exactly what Alsop’s reading achieves. Excellently recorded and with an elegant and witty performance…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Colin Currie (percussion)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Marin Alsop
LPO · LPO0035 · 60 minutes
Colin Currie has this way of making a percussion concerto feel like a conversation rather than a spectacle, and Higdon’s writing gives him plenty to say — melodic, generous, never showing off just for the sake of it. Pair that with MacMillan’s raw emotional pull and the tight, glittering strangeness of Adès’s Chamber Symphony, and you get a program that jumps between very different musical personalities without ever feeling scattered. Alsop holds it all together with the kind of clarity that makes new music sound inevitable rather than difficult, which is probably why the Grammy voters agreed.
Awards:
- Grammy Awards — 52nd Awards (2009) — Best Contemporary Classical Composition
“…a moving, compelling performance, and coupled with strong accounts of the phenomenal Adès Chamber Symphony… and Jennifer Higdon’s essentially old-fashioned but well-wrought Percussion Concerto,…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Marin Alsop
Naxos · 8559024 · 69 minutes
Barber gets tagged as the guy who wrote that one sad string piece, but there’s so much more warmth and muscle in his orchestral writing than the Adagio ever lets on, and Alsop clearly knows it. She leans into the lyricism without letting it go soft, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra plays with the kind of unforced emotional clarity that makes even familiar passages feel newly considered. At this price point and with that Penguin Rosette attached, it’s an easy way to hear an American voice that deserves way more airtime than he gets.
Awards:
- Building a Library — June 2006 — Budget Choice
- Penguin Guide — Rosette
“Under Marin Alsop’s sensitive guidance, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra has found the heartbeat of this music.”
— BBC Music Magazine
Leonardo Capalbo (Candide), Jane Archibald (Cunegonde), Anne Sofie von Otter (Old Lady), Thomas Allen (Dr Pangloss/Narrator)
London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Marin Alsop
LSO Live · LSO0834 · 1 hour 56 minutes
Bernstein packed so much manic energy into this score that it practically dares an orchestra to keep up, and Marin Alsop has spent decades proving she’s exactly the conductor for the job. She lets the LSO dig into all that satirical bite and orchestral wit without losing the genuine tenderness underneath, and the cast matches her instinct for the piece’s weird tonal balance — Anne Sofie von Otter is a riot as the Old Lady, while Leonardo Capalbo finds real sweetness in Candide’s naivety rather than playing him as a simple punchline. It’s the kind of performance that reminds you this “operetta” is really one of the great American theater scores in disguise.
Awards:
- Record Review — 9th October 2021 — Record of the Week
- Presto Recording of the Week — 15th October 2021
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2021
- International Classical Music Awards — 2022 — Nominated – Opera
“In the title role, Leonardo Capalbo offers charm, delicacy and a touch of melancholy. Jane Archibald makes an amiable Cunegonde, though her showpiece ‘Glitter and be gay’ doesn’t sparkle enough….”
— BBC Music Magazine
Yunchan Lim (piano), Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop
Decca · 4871023 · 42 minutes
There’s something almost unfair about how easily Yunchan Lim handles the Rach 3, a piece that’s supposed to chew up pianists twice his age and spit them out. What strikes you most isn’t the technique, though there’s plenty of that, but the patience — he lets the big tune in the first movement breathe instead of rushing to prove he can play the hard bits. Alsop and the Fort Worth players stay locked in with him the whole way, which matters more than usual here, since so many recordings of this concerto turn into a battle rather than a conversation.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — July 2025 — Editor’s Choice
- BBC Music Magazine — August 2025 — Concerto Choice
“Lim’s was a stupendous achievement not just for an 18-year-old and deserves its stand-alone presentation. Thanks to his surfeit of technical wizardry and determination to take nothing for granted…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop
Naxos · 8574620 · 52 minutes
Anna Clyne’s music has this way of making you feel like you’re standing in front of a painting and watching it slowly start to move — which makes sense, since each movement of Abstractions was written in direct response to a specific artwork. Marin Alsop is exactly the right conductor for this: she’s always had an ear tuned to orchestral color, and the Baltimore Symphony players clearly trust her instincts on where to push and where to let a phrase just hang in the air. It’s the kind of piece that rewards headphones and a quiet room, letting all those textural details — the shimmer, the grit, the sudden stillness — come through the way Clyne clearly intended.
Awards:
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2025
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Winner 2025
“There is a strong visual element to much of Anna Clyne’s work, with each movement of 2016’s Abstractions linked to specific art works…Marin Alsop’s conducting currency is also colour, and…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Orf Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop
Naxos · 8559935 · 69 minutes
There’s something delicious about hearing an orchestra dig into the saxophone-soaked, film-noir swagger of City Noir with total conviction rather than polite curiosity, and the Vienna Radio Symphony clearly relishes every smoky, restless bar of it. Marin Alsop has spent decades inside Adams’s music, and you can hear that familiarity in how naturally the rhythmic gears shift in Fearful Symmetries, never rushed, never stiff, just propulsive in exactly the right way. Lola Montez Does the Spider Dance rounds things out with a wink of theatrical mischief, making this whole program feel less like a survey and more like a night out with a composer who still knows how to surprise you.
Awards:
- Grammy Awards — 67th Awards (2025) — Nominated – Best Orchestral Performance
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalists 2024
- International Classical Music Awards — 2025 — Nominated – Contemporary Music
“In every respect, this disc is a must for all fans of John Adams and Marin Alsop. The performances and recording are terrific, and the programme provides a good range of the composer’s style……”
— MusicWeb International
Jennifer Johnson Cano (mezzo-soprano), Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano)
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop
Naxos · 8559790 · 59 minutes
Bernstein’s early symphonic thinking is fascinating because it’s already so restless — the “Jeremiah” wrestles with faith and destruction while sneaking in that gorgeous, aching mezzo finale, and the “Age of Anxiety” turns Auden’s poem into a piano concerto in disguise, full of jazz inflections and nervous energy. Alsop has spent years championing this music, and it shows in how naturally the Baltimore Symphony moves between grandeur and unease, while Thibaudet brings real wit to the score’s trickier, more sardonic passages. Jennifer Johnson Cano’s contribution to the “Jeremiah” is the kind of singing that stays with you long after the disc ends — warm, unforced, devastating in the quietest way.
Awards:
- Record Review — 14th January 2017 — Recording of the Week
- Opus Klassik Awards — 2018 — Winner – Symphonic Recording (20th/21st-century music)
“The performances are predictably excellent. In No. 1, the imposing first movement is presented with fervour, and the Copland-like central scherzo with lightness and precision; Jennifer Johnson…”
— BBC Music Magazine
