- "Solos" - Bryce Dessner's music has an unpretentious nostalgic quality, and this new album of unaccompanied instrumental works showcases that quality brilliantly. His piece On a Wire features harpist Lavinia Meijer and stands out as a prime example of the effective simplicity that makes his music shine.
- "Schoenberg & Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande" - Paavo Järvi leads the Frankfurt Radio Symphony in two works inspired by Maurice Maeterlink's play of 1892, Pelléas et Mélisande. Schoenberg's music here is knotty and gorgeously rich, a far cry from the twelve-tone music for which he's most famous.
- "Anna Clyne: SHORTHAND" - Anna Clyne writing for strings that has a vocal-like quality, with melodies worth humming along to. The album opens strong with a new piece for cello and strings, performed here by Yo-Yo Ma and The Knights. Later in the album, listen for mandolinist Avi Avital's thrillingly virtuosic playing in Three Sisters and for the movie score-like drama of Clyne's Prince of Clouds.
- "LIFE" - Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen's latest album is inspired by her experience of becoming a mother, a "kaleidoscopic musical reflection of some of the emotional discoveries that come with parenthood." Samuelsen's playing is earnest and animated with optimism, making for a satisfying listening experience.
- "Carlos Simon: Four Symphonic Works" - Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra perform a set of orchestral pieces by John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Composer-in-Residence, Carlos Simon. This music has live wire energy coursing through it; the highlight is his Wake Up! Concerto for Orchestra, inspired by the poem Awake, Asleep, from Nepali poet Rajendra Bhandari.
