Johan Dalene (violin), Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Blendulf
BIS · BIS2440 · 58 minutes
Pairing Tchaikovsky with Barber is a smart move because it puts two very different kinds of lyricism side by side, and Johan Dalene seems to understand exactly what separates them. His Tchaikovsky has that youthful, almost impulsive sweep to it, but he doesn’t just coast on charm — there’s real structural thought behind the way he shapes those big melodic arcs. Then the Barber slips into something more interior and aching, and honestly it might be the highlight of the whole disc; the slow movement in particular has a kind of unhurried tenderness that a lot of more seasoned violinists never quite find.
Awards:
- Record Review — 25th January 2020
- Gramophone Magazine — February 2020 — Editor’s Choice
- BBC Music Magazine — March 2020 — Concerto Choice
- Diapason d’Or — April 2020 — Découverte
“Dalene’s freshness, vitality and interpretative charisma [in the Tchaikovsky] swept me along…If anything, the Barber is finer still, perhaps the closest anyone has yet come (at least on disc)…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Nicole Heaston (Vanessa), J’Nai Bridges (Erika), Matthew Polenzani (Anatol), Susan Graham (The Old Baroness), Thomas Hampson (The Old Doctor), National Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda
National Symphony Orchestra · NSO0023 · 1 hour 57 minutes
Barber’s Vanessa gets unfairly filed under “American opera curiosity” when really it’s a lush, Puccini-adjacent fever dream about longing and self-delusion, and this Kennedy Center recording makes that case with real conviction. Noseda finds all the shadows under that gorgeous surface, and the cast is stacked — Nicole Heaston brings genuine ache to the title role, while Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson add gravity without ever tipping into camp. It’s the kind of performance that reminds you why this score deserves more than the occasional revival.
Awards:
- Record Review — 30th May 2026 — Record of the Week
- BBC Music Magazine — July 2026 — Opera Choice
“This new live Kennedy Center recording hits the mark. Noseda draws playing of real lustre from the National Symphony Orchestra. He is alert, too, to the score’s unease…The more compelling…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Gerald Finley (baritone) & Julius Drake (piano)
The Aronowitz Ensemble
Hyperion · CDA67528 · 62 minutes
Barber’s songs have this way of sounding effortlessly American and deeply European at once, all lush harmony wrapped around plainspoken text, and Finley just gets that duality completely. His baritone has this burnished warmth that never tips into heaviness, so even the more anguished settings stay intimate rather than operatic, and Drake matches him at every turn with playing that breathes right alongside the voice. Throw in the Aronowitz Ensemble for the chamber-scored pieces and you get a real sense of Barber the miniaturist, someone who could say more in two minutes than most composers manage in twenty.
Awards:
- BBC Music Magazine — December 2007 — Choral & Song Choice
- Gramophone Magazine — January 2008 — Disc of the Month
- Gramophone Awards — 2008 — Winner – Solo Vocal
“As on his 2005 Ives collection, the Canadian baritone Gerald Finley is golden in tone, persuasive in phrasing, and unfailingly responsive to the sound and sense of the words. Julius Drake once…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Marin Alsop
Naxos · 8559024 · 69 minutes
Barber gets stereotyped as the guy who wrote that one sad string piece for funerals, but there’s so much more warmth and rhythmic snap to his orchestral music than that reputation suggests. Alsop clearly gets this — she leans into the American optimism running through these scores without ever losing the melancholy undertow that makes Barber’s music so distinctive. At 69 minutes and a genuinely budget price tag, this is about as low-risk an introduction to his orchestral catalogue as you’ll find.
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
Matthew Rose (bass)
Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective
Chandos · CHAN20224 · 63 minutes
There’s something genuinely touching about hearing British musicians throw themselves this fully into American repertoire, and the Florence Price piano quintet is the reason to show up. It’s a lopsided, quietly stubborn piece that refuses to resolve the way you expect, and the Kaleidoscope players lean into that awkwardness rather than smoothing it over. Matthew Rose’s presence elsewhere on the disc just deepens the sense that everyone involved actually believes in this music, not just admires it from a polite distance.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 28th May 2021
- Gramophone Magazine — July 2021 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2021
- Building A Library — January 2022 — Featured Recording
“Judging by their passionate performances, this British team clearly feel utterly at home in this repertoire…The hit, undoubtedly, is the premiere recording of Price’s structurally lopsided…”
— BBC Music Magazine
James Ehnes (violin)
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey
Onyx · ONYX4016 · 78 minutes
Pairing Barber, Walton and Korngold makes so much sense once you actually hear them side by side — three composers writing lush, unapologetically romantic violin concertos while the rest of the musical world was busy elsewhere. James Ehnes plays all three with a kind of golden, singing tone that never tips into syrup, which is exactly the tightrope this repertoire demands. It’s no surprise this one picked up a Grammy — the Korngold especially just glows under his bow.
Awards:
- Penguin Guide — Rosette
- Grammy Awards — 50th Awards (2007) — Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)
“It’s an inspired coupling, as well as a generous one, to have these three high-romantic concertos together. James Ehnes gives superb performances, bringing out their full emotional thrust without…”
— Gramophone Classical Music Guide
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
Reference Recordings · FR-724 · 60 minutes
Honeck’s Shostakovich Fifth doesn’t play the usual game of winking irony through that famous finale — he takes the triumph at face value and lets it hit like a freight train, which honestly might be the more unsettling choice given everything we know about the circumstances of its premiere. Pairing it with the Barber Adagio is a smart bit of programming too, giving you a few minutes to just sit in silence and recover before the Shostakovich starts pulling you apart. The Pittsburgh Symphony sounds terrific throughout, and it’s no surprise the engineering picked up a Grammy alongside the performance itself — this is a record that rewards good speakers and full attention.
Awards:
- Grammy Awards — 60th Awards (2017) — Best Orchestral Performance
- Grammy Awards — 60th Awards (2017) — Best Engineered Album, Classical
“Honeck’s Shostakovich sounds magnificent. From intense pianissimos to the shrieking upper register and full bass thwack of a grand peroration – which Honeck takes surprisingly at face value…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Dylan Perez (piano), Samantha Clarke, Soraya Mafi, Louise Kemény, Mary Bevan (sopranos), Fleur Barron (mezzo), Jess Dandy (contralto), Nicky Spence (tenor), Dominic Sedgwick, Julien Van Mellaerts (baritones), William Thomas (bass)
Navarra String Quartet
Resonus Classics · RES10301 · 2 hours 37 minutes
Barber’s songs never quite got the spotlight his orchestral works did, which makes a project like this feel almost overdue — two and a half hours of a composer working in miniature, finding just as much emotional depth in three minutes as he does in a full symphony. What makes this collection so satisfying is the sheer range of voices assembled, each singer bringing something different to Barber’s melodic lines without ever losing that thread of Romantic lyricism running through all of it. Dylan Perez deserves real credit here too — coordinating ten singers across an entire song output is no small feat, and his playing throughout stays sensitive and alert rather than just functional accompaniment.
Awards:
- Presto Editor’s Choice — May 2022
- BBC Music Magazine — August 2022 — Recording of the Month
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2022
- Gramophone Awards — 2023 Finalists — Shortlisted – Song
“Dylan Perez’s pianism is consistently insightful without obtruding – a tall order for any accompanist – and his curating of the entire project is masterly…These two discs undoubtedly set a…”
— BBC Music Magazine
