NEW RELEASE 11 JULY 2025

Recorded on Rachmaninoff’s own piano

Alexander Melnikov returns to the music of Rachmaninoff. Here, the pianist explores the composer’s superb “Variations on a Theme of Chopin” and joins forces with the luminous soprano of Julia Lezhneva for some of his most captivating songs.

The performers travelled to Lake Lucerne to record these masterful works at the Villa Senar, Rachmaninoff’s last summer home – for a chance to let us hear the sound of his own piano. A unique listening experience!

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NEW RELEASE: 4 JULY 2025

Three visions of Maurice Ravel

Seven years after releasing the album “Debussy…et le jazz”, the members of the Debussy Quartet renew their collaboration with vibraphonist Franck Tortiller to pay a glowing tribute to Ravel.

The unique quality of this project lies in the way Ravel’s music is presented. Alongside his justly famous String Quartet, the musicians explore two other works but in a new guise: “Ma mère l’Oye” (the “Mother Goose” suite) is heard in Alain Brunier’s transcription; while Franck Tortiller also contributes an original composition inspired by “Le Tombeau de Couperin” and enriched with jazz improvisations – an approach that Ravel, from all we know of him, would have greatly relished.

 

New release: 20 June 2025

The key to “A Dream”

Pablo Heras-Casado, the Freiburger Barockorchester, and the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin deliver an exhilarating performance of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Nights Dream.

Here, Mendelssohn’s incidental music returns to its sources! With this score, famed for its subtle orchestration and evocative power, the composer entered the Romantic pantheon. Keen to return to the original melodrama format, maestro Heras-Casado, flanked by the inimitable Max Urlacher as a wonderfully ebullient narrator in this historically informed reading, now bring it off with a complete mastery of the musical and textual components.

NEW RELEASE: 13 JUNE 2025

Opposites attract!

The Kolesnikov-Tsoy duo explore the original four-hand piano versions of two iconic masterpieces by Stravinsky and Ravel!

From the poignantly gentle farewell to the world of childhood (Ma mère l’Oye) to the savage power of rituals in pre-Christian Russia (The Rite of Spring), Ravel and Stravinsky, each in his own way, discovered musical horizons of incredible modernity. To pair together two such radical statements that on the face of it seem to be… ‘mutually antithetical’? This was but one of the challenges deftly met here by the piano duo whose expressive palette offers an endless variety of colours.

New release: 6 June 2025

Baroque love duets

With masterly support from William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, the countertenors Carlo Vistoli and Hugh Cutting vie with each other in virtuosity and charm throughout this programme exploring the myriad shades of love in the music of the Italian Baroque.

Duets for the operatic stage or for chamber performance, cantatas for solo voices… Adopting the ‘new practice’ introduced by Monteverdi in all of these genres, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century composers in the Italian tradition sought ways to express every nuance of human emotions. This dazzling selection of rare gems is brilliantly served by our expert team of performers!

NEW RELEASE: 30 MAY 2025

Ligeti concertos

Isabelle Faust and Jean-Frédéric Neuburger have partnered with Les Siècles to explore three concertos composed by one of the twentieth century’s greatest musical minds.

The poetics of space and the art of time, high-precision mechanism, rhythmic exhilaration… Ligeti’s music defies criteria and codes. This new recording offers an opportunity to assess the evolution of the composer’s musical language, from the early Concert Românesc to the later concertos for piano and for violin, performed here by two fabulous virtuosi.

 

NEW RELEASE 23 MAY 2025

“O ravishing delight!”

For his debut recording as a recitalist, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian and his friends from Le Consort invite us to rediscover the sublime repertoire that is close to their heart: the music of England’s Golden Age.

Half a century after Alfred Deller’s legendary revival of this 17th-century treasury, the French countertenor and his musical partners deliver an expert reading of these exquisite works they have long made their own. Alongside the indispensable gems of Henry Purcell, here is a chance to savour a selection of songs and airs by Blow, Eccles, Clarke, and Croft, with their no less delectable melodies.

New release: 16 May 2025

Anna Magdalena Bach’s private delights

After stopping off in Cöthen, Benjamin Alard continues his musical odyssey through the works of J.S. Bach, encountering the composer next in what would become his final position, in Leipzig.

In this instalment, Alard has focused on Bach’s six Trio Sonatas (seminal works performed here on pedal harpsichord and clavichord) and on the famous ‘little music book’ of Anna Magdalena, taking us into the more intimate sphere of the Kantor’s household.

NEW RELEASE: 9 MAY

Bizet, a prodigious composer of songs

Surprising as it may seem, the songs of Georges Bizet have never received the honour of a complete recording. This triple album at last does full justice to a remarkable and vast share of his output.

The incomparable team assembled for this project offers a chance to discover a little-known side of Bizet’s vocal music, with numerous rarities, juvenilia, alternative versions, and other unpublished pieces compiled by the leading specialists and accompanied by period instruments. On the 150th anniversary of his death, the creator of Carmen richly deserved this tribute!

NEW RELEASE: 25 APRIL 2025

A Mozartian “academy”

Anna Prohaska and Riccardo Minasi invite us to explore Mozart’s musical universe via some of the most sublime pieces he composed in the last ten years of his life after leaving Salzburg for Vienna.

This superb programme, structured (like the “academies” of Mozart’s own time) around some of the major symphonic and operatic works of that decade, paints a bracingly complex portrait of the composer while subtly blending maestro Minasi’s historical expertise and the sumptuous voice of soprano Anna Prohaska with the vigour and freshness of Ensemble Resonanz, here in electrifying form.

NEW RELEASE: 18 APRIL 2025

The Rose of England

With their latest release, Mathilde Vialle and Thibaut Roussel take us on a fascinating journey into a largely unexplored part of seventeenth-century England and its music.

It was love at first sight when Mathilde Vialle and Thibaut Roussel first encountered the English bass viol and Venetian archlute preserved at Paris’s Museum of Music. Their choice of repertoire, much of it never recorded before, showcases the exceptional sonorities of their two period instruments, complemented by the virginal of Ronan Khalil and the tenor voice of Zachary Wilder. A selection of music that is both subtle and sublime!

NEW RELEASE: 11 APRIL 2025

Echoes from Scandinavia

Sébastien Daucé, the Ensemble Correspondances, and Lucile Richardot (fresh from her triumph at this year’s Victoires de la Musique awards) reunite to take us to the shores of the Baltic Sea to discover music from the court of King Charles XI of Sweden.

Continuing their exploration of 17th-century vocal art (who could forget the magnificent anthology “Perpetual Night”), they have unearthed another treasury of music both beautiful and rare: sacred works written for the Court of Stockholm. A fascinating musical voyage in the form of a meditation on the meaning of life, and its ending…

NEW RELEASE: 4 APRIL 2025

Timeless Bach

With the release of the Mass in B minor, Raphaël Pichon and his ensemble Pygmalion continue their illuminating exploration of J.S. Bach’s masterpieces.

The absolute pinnacle of the Leipzig Kantor’s entire output, this visionary synthesis of profound emotion, spirituality, and humanity gives meaning to the world we live in while opening a window on the next. Enthused with the scope of the endeavour, the performers practically inhabit this timeless score and deliver a powerful reading that conveys all its mysteries and depth.

Latest New Releases

LATEST NEWS

Harmonia Mundi announces new recording partnership with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

under the direction of

Vasily Petrenko

We are delighted to welcome to our label one of Britain’s leading symphony orchestras, conducted by its Music Director Vasily Petrenko: “When you have the privilege to conduct a great orchestra, you get used to thinking big. Naturally, I do my best to aim high: to share with our audience the finest melodies, the strongest emotions, the most magnificent sounds. But for me, there’s another side to music-making and that is the ability to capture moments of shared magic in recorded form, allowing them to live in people’s hearts in perpetuity. I have always enjoyed the creative process of recording music, and I’m delighted to start a new chapter with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – and for our music to have the opportunity to be heard and enjoyed far beyond the concert hall.”

The first recording, planned for release this autumn, will feature Elgar’s symphonic study ‘Falstaff’ and Rachmaninov’s choral symphony ‘The Bells.’ Future planned releases include the music of R. Strauss, Bartók, and Stravinsky.

The RPO’s rich recording legacy includes collaborations with the likes of Sir Thomas Beecham, André Previn, Sir Charles Mackerras, Yehudi Menuhin, Antal Dorati, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yuri Temirkanov – and, more recently, Joe Hisaishi (RPO Composer-in-Association).

Huw Davies, Deputy Managing Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra adds: “We are delighted to be working with a new record label that has such pedigree and whose international audience reach is a natural fit for the RPO, following our recent performances in Germany, Vienna, Greece, Eastern Europe, USA, Dubai, India, China, and Saudi Arabia. We look forward to capturing the magic of our work with Vasily in recordings that people will be able to enjoy for years to come – and we are enormously grateful for the support and enthusiasm of the RPO’s President who has enabled us to embark on this exciting project.”

“For the love of Ravel…”

This year, we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth.

A perfect occasion to peruse harmonia mundi’s Ravel discography, replete with hidden gems such as the repertoire off the beaten path recorded by Béatrice Rana, Bernarda Fink and Christiane Karg, among others, alongside high-profile contributions from Alexandre Tharaud, Les Siècles and the Orchestre de Paris. With the myriad musical events devoted to the composer this year, will they succeed in finally “unravelling” the Ravel mystique? Unlikely: it is perhaps the very challenge of the endeavour (close to the heart of musicologist Vladimir Jankélévitch) that makes the composer of a certain Bolero the most irresistible. The more one tries to encompass Ravel, the more elusive he becomes. As you discover our Ravel playlist, you can also look forward to a splendid threesome of future releases that shed more light on the many facets of his output: the original piano-duet version of Ma mère l’Oye from Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy in June, a lovely tribute from the Debussy String Quartet, joined by vibraphonist Franck Tortiller, in July, plus a deep dive into the piano repertoire from Julien Libeer this coming autumn.

“He also manages to pass for one who is wonderfully detached, a magician of sound who performs his magic tricks merely to amaze an enraptured audience; yet this illusionist is the most sensitive and moving musician of any.” — Tristan Klingsor

Upcoming albums, projects, life of the label…

With Maurice Ravel all summer long!

Harmonia mundi celebrates the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth with new recordings and live concerts!

June 13 saw the release of the long-awaited album “Stravinsky|Ravel” by the Kolesnikov-Tsoy duo. On July 5, the Debussy String Quartet partnered by vibraphonist Frank Tortiller will unveil their programme “Ravel(s)” in Lagorce (Ardèche), coinciding with the release of their recording the day before. And on August 25 and 26, Julien Libeer will illuminate Claude Monet’s colour palette in a sumptuous recital programme presented at the Carrières des Lumières in Les Baux-de-Provence…

STRAVINSKY|RAVEL / RELEASED ON 13 JUNE 2025
RAVELS / QUATUOR DEBUSSY / AVAILABLE 4 JULY 2025
RAVEL BOX SET / JULIEN LIBEER / TO BE RELEASED IN OCTOBER 2025

The alchemy of Italian influences in France

In their debut recording for harmonia mundi, Marie Théoleyre, Guillaume Haldenwang, and the ensemble La Palatine explore Italian influences on French music in the reign of Louis XIV.

In its fascination with Italy, 17th-century France saw the blossoming of a new national art that was in fact directly inspired by the best of what was then being created in Florence, Rome, and Venice. Though the primacy of Jean-Baptiste Lully may have subjugated the musical world of his time, this recording helps to resituate him in a quite different constellation – one that is far more diverse and overflowing with imaginative riches.

“DOLCE CONCENTO”: The Italians in Paris under Louis XIV, AVAILABLE ON 27 JUNE 2025
THÉOTIME

Julien Libeer & company

This is a busy and rewarding time for the Belgian pianist, whose unfailingly innovative projects happily combine elegance at every turn with a supreme mastery of the keyboard.

Julien Libeer is not just a solo performer: in his search for the absolute, he enjoys surrounding himself with musical partners such as Pierre Colombet (first violin of the Ébène Quartet), Máté Szűcs (viola), and Eckart Runge (cello), as they explore Mozart’s chamber music for 4 players (a piano quartet), or 3 (a trio), or 2 (a violin sonata) – closing with a solo contribution from himself!

A few months later, he will turn to the monuments of piano literature by Ravel, paired with some of the composer’s chamber-music masterpieces. As can be expected in both cases, the operable word is conversation.

MOZART 1, 2, 3, 4 / AVAILABLE 28 MARCH 2025
RAVEL / AVAILABLE 3 OCTOBER 2025
THÉOTIME

To be released in 2025!

New harmonia mundi albums for the first half of the year

The first six months of 2025 will be filled with of all kinds of “firsts”: a year after the wide acclaim garnered by his “Concerti per una vita” album, Théotime Langlois de Swarte takes on the challenges of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, approaching it with infinite nuance (January). At the other end of the spectrum, we celebrate the season with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in the company of two topflight pianists: Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy (June). Along the way, Sébastien Daucé will explore Europe’s High North with a programme of seventeenth-century Swedish music (April), while the Curious Bards traverse eighteenth-century Scandinavia in song and dance (January). Not forgetting an eagerly awaited performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor led by Raphaël Pichon! We will also showcase the music of ERIK SATIE with Alain Planès, not to mention that of MAURICE RAVEL and GEORGE BIZET. Joining harmonia mundi to record exclusively for our label are the Münchener Kammerorchester under the direction of Enrico Onofri, conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky at the head of the NDR Radiophilharmonie (Hanover), and the superb French countertenor Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian.

Discover all the details here!

Dolby Atmos sound

is present on many new releases and re-releases by harmonia mundi..

No less than 18 new releases are announced in Dolby Atmos format on the label in 2024. Find the complete list of releases in this format in our Topics.

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Discover the latest harmonia mundi playlists on your favorite platform.

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A passion for excellence, since 1958.

Exploring new repertoires, broadening our horizons, developing young talent and constantly striving for excellence: this is harmonia mundi’s motto. We are demanding, passionate and proud of our independence. This is our story…

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