Classical Music Discoveries

Joe Hisaishi
Songs of Hope: The Essential Joe Hisaishi Vol. 2
Out August 20, 2021
Decca Gold

Following the massive success of his Dream Songs album, Joe Hisaishi is releasing the second volume of his greatest hits: Songs of Hope: The Essential Joe Hisaishi Vol. 2. Featuring iconic works from Studio Ghibli films (Hana-Bi, Porco Rosso, and Princess Mononoke), Songs of Hope features two brand-new recordings: Hana-Bi and Kids Return.

Víkingur Ólafsson
Mozart & Contemporaries
Out September 3, 2021
Deutsche Grammophon

Award-winning pianist Víkingur Ólafsson presents some of his favorite Mozart keyboard works alongside a selection of the composer’s leading contemporaries. Juxtaposing works by Mozart, Haydn, and C.P.E. Bach with rarely-recorded Galuppi and Cimarosa, Mozart & Contemporaries dispels the image of Mozart as the angelic and prodigious idiot savant, instead of presenting a mature composer and a resourceful, hard-working adult who had come to know adversity.