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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.

NEW RELEASE: 28 MARCH 2025

Mozart at his sunniest

1, 2, 3, or 4 players: Julien Libeer and three of his illustrious friends invite us to explore the Mozartian sound world in just such a variety of settings (solo, duo, trio, and quartet).

Above all, it is the cheerfulness and brilliance of Salzburg’s famous son that the performers allow us to sample in this intriguing programme. Here we have a sunlit sonata for solo piano; a violin-and-piano duo in which joy triumphs over disquiet; a flamboyant piano trio roughly contemporaneous with The Marriage of Figaro; not forgetting the piano quartet—a rarely encountered format pioneered by the composer who wittily explores the space midway between chamber music and concerto in his K. 478. The sense of drama in the overall concept is surely worthy of one of his operas!

NEW RELEASE 21 MARCH 2025

Russia’s heart and soul

Stanislav Kochanovsky makes his label debut, with more releases to follow! For harmonia mundi, the versatile maestro has chosen to explore the orchestral music of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russia.

An impressive podium presence, he decided two years ago to leave his native Russia behind to become chief conductor of the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover. His electrifying readings of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol and Tchaikovsky’s less well-known Orchestral Suite No. 3 are paired with a rare gem by Tcherepnin: the sparkling prelude to La Princesse lointaine. All of Russia’s heart and soul on full display!

NEW RELEASE 14th MARCH

J.S. Bach in Weimar

Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants continue their chronological survey of Bach’s life in music. As he borrowed from the French style and reshaped the Italian model of the concerto, the years of his residence in Weimar (1708-1717) left a lasting mark on the church-cantata genre and blazed a new trail for it.

Volume 2 in this series again invites us to compare Bach’s approach with that of his contemporaries, particularly when they set the very same text written by Luther — as in Telemann’s stunningly dramatic cantata “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland.”

 

Discover more about this album and about “A Life in Music” by Paul Agnew & Les Arts Florissants.

NEW RELEASE 7th MARCH

Visionary Satie

Alain Planès, whose admiration for Erik Satie is no secret, pays the composer a vibrant tribute to mark the centenary of his death. Complemented by a largely unpublished selection of paintings and drawings in the accompanying booklet, this is a remarkable album!

Performing on a 1928 Pleyel grand piano, Alain Planès delivers a panoramic survey of this often witty, caustic yet visionary music that resists classification. He is partnered by Marc Mauillon in the songs and François Pinel in the four-hand pieces for this exploration of the finest compositions penned by the “Master of Arcueil.”

New release: 28 February 2025

Schubert, from darkness to light.

For this second volume in their chronological traversal of Schubert lieder, Samuel Hasselhorn and Ammiel Bushakevitz explore the masterpieces dating from the years 1824 and 1825.

Schubert 200, episode 2: following a period of self-doubt and despondency at the diagnosis of a disease he knew to be incurable, Schubert regained hope thanks to the support of his friend, the baritone Johann Michael Vogl.

 

(The series continues…)

NEW RELEASE 21 FEBRUARY 2025

A love letter to the viola

In his fourth project with harmonia mundi, Timothy Ridout presents a programme of unaccompanied works for the viola that ranges from Telemann to Benjamin Britten and Caroline Shaw—a veritable love letter to his instrument, prized for its warm and soulful timbre.

Combing through several centuries of viola repertoire, the young British virtuoso contrasts the music of the Baroque (Bach, Telemann) with that of our time (including Britten’s rarely heard Elegy and Caroline Shaw’s in manus tuas). A ravishing performance full of youthful freshness!

New release: 14 February 2025

Stravinsky, master of pastiche

After exploring the music of Olivier Messiaen, Gustavo Gimeno enters the singular universe of another twentieth-century titan: Igor Stravinsky. The composer had a special artistic affinity with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the musicians amply repay the debt in this new recording!

The two ballet scores heard here reveal a particular facet of Stravinsky’s genius: his skill in pastiche. Having drawn from the music of eighteenth-century Naples for ‘Pulcinella,’ he turned to Tchaikovsky for ‘The Fairy’s Kiss.’ On both occasions, he succeeded in transforming the exercise of homage into a distinctly personal work.

New release: 7 February 2025

“Something rich and strange…”

Geoffroy Jourdain and Les Cris de Paris explore some of the most astonishing examples of late-Renaissance polyphony and find a fascinating echo in a contemporary work by Francesca Verunelli. A journey into the land of “strange harmonies”!

To shed more light on this puzzle in 16th-century music at the periphery of the now standard norms of harmony and tuning, they also present the world premiere recording of VicentinoOo, in which a modern-day Italian composer pays tribute to the microtonal pieces of Nicola Vicentino by employing his 31-note scale!

New release: 31 January 2025

A cornucopia of night music!

To launch their exclusive partnership with harmonia mundi, Enrico Onofri and the Münchener Kammerorchester invite us to explore, in the company of Isabelle Faust, the poetic and colourful universe of Mozart’s serenades.

Continuing a time-honoured tradition of open-air music, Mozart raised this genre to an outstanding level of accomplishment. From his celebrated gem A Little Night Music to the Posthorn Serenade, alongside the majestic Haffner Serenade with Isabelle Faust as the stellar guest, here is our chance to experience a whole musical world brought vividly to life.

NEW RELEASE: 24 JANUARY 2025

A Nordic getaway

Following their two earlier recordings devoted to Ireland and Scotland, Alix Boivert and The Curious Bards have crossed the North Sea to investigate the music of eighteenth-century Sweden and Norway.

Exploring traditional as well as classical repertoires, along with folk and courtly music, The Curious Bards invite us to discover the colourful and varied world of Scandinavian songs and dances.

NEW RELEASE: 17 JANUARY 2025

Dream Théotime!

A year after the release of their magnificent first album of Vivaldi’s music – “Concerti per una vita,”Théotime Langlois de Swarte and the orchestra of Le Consort turn to that composer’s most famous masterpiece: “The Four Seasons.”

To place this beloved cycle in context, they hold up a subtle mirror to other works by the Venetian composer that share the same musical gestures and tonalities, alongside Lambranzi’s rarely heard dances: an obvious if often overlooked source of inspiration for Vivaldi.

NEW RELEASE: 10 JANUARY 2025

Palestrina, 500 years on!

This year marks the quincentenary of the birth of Palestrina, one of the greatest musical minds of his time. Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, pay tribute to the Roman master of sacred choral music with a superb new album of his rarely heard or previously unrecorded works.

To add historical context, they offer further versions of the same texts as set by William Byrd, Robert White, and William Mundy. Musical discoveries galore!

Latest New Releases

Samuel Hasselhorn

Winner in the Vocal Recording category at the 2025 International Classical Music Awards.

The German baritone’s album “Urlicht” scored a triumph in Düsseldorf on 19 March.
“This is a remarkable CD, not only because of Samuel Hasselhorn’s outstanding singing, grippingly dramatic and movingly sensitive throughout the programme, but also because of the conductor Łukasz Borowicz and the highly evocative ‘sound theatre’ he gets from the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra*. The symbiosis of voice and orchestra is just perfect.” (*with our thanks to Philip Nedel)
This recording served as a fortuitous interruption (to be repeated) in the multi-volume series of Schubert lieder which the acclaimed baritone is recording with Ammiel Bushakevitz.

The album was also named Recording of the Year by unanimous vote of the jury.

Our warmest congratulations to all the performers!

“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…

Lucile Richardot

Named “opera singer of the year” at the 2025 Victoires de la Musique Classique, she is also featured on the next release by the Ensemble Correspondances.

The French mezzo-soprano receives this prestigious award seven years after the release of her debut solo album, “Perpetual Night.” Combined with an impressive vocal range and rare artistic honesty, her unique timbre has allowed her to explore a broad range of repertoire in collaboration with such partners as Sébastien Daucé, Raphaël Pichon, Anne de Fornel, and Geoffroy Jourdain, to name a few.

BRUSSELS, 5 MARCH 2025

To be released on vinyl!

The double album featuring “The Four Seasons” continues to garner worldwide acclaim across multiple formats.

Théotime Langlois de Swarte is currently on an extended tour of the United States with the orchestra of Les Arts Florissants (22 dates). With nearly 4 million downloads and streams over the course of just a few weeks, the album has climbed to the top of the digital sales charts and will be available on vinyl on 16 May. Full of finesse, his reading of “The Four Seasons” will also be the subject of a special broadcast on the Arte channel on 21 June.

ON TOUR IN NORTH AMERICA UNTIL MID-APRIL
… AND FEATURED SOON IN A UNIQUE IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE!
AVAILABLE ON VINYL ON 16 MAY 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

A dazzling “Rite of Spring”…

A year after their first duet recording devoted to Schubert (and crowned by a Diapason d’or, among other accolades), Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy deliver a potent Rite of Spring, paired with a magical Ma mère l’Oye. Compare and contrast!

“Emotionally and aesthetically, the two pieces are exact opposites, but in both of them, the complex effects and lush sonorities are sacrificed in favour of the most essential. If, as a result, compressed within the limits of a single piano, the Rite of Spring feels far too much for one instrument, Ma mère l’Oye feels far too little. There are too few notes there for the pianists’ twenty fingers! […] The concentration of musical magic in these two works made recording this album an extraordinary, intoxicating experience for us.” – Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy

STRAVINSKY: LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS / RAVEL: MA MERE L’OYE
AVAILABLE 13 JUNE 2025

“The Pearl Finders”

Harmonia mundi will mark the 150th anniversary of the death of a musical visionary of France’s Second Empire with a journey through his art song.

Brought together for the first time, this will be a complete set of Georges Bizet’s mélodies, a musical genre that accompanied the composer of Carmen from his youth until his untimely death in 1875. The impressive team gathered for the occasion will offer us a chance to discover this little-known aspect of Bizet’s music for voice, featuring period keyboard instruments and including many rarities, juvenilia, alternative versions, and other unpublished works.
Marianne Croux, Coline Dutilleul, Cyrille Dubois, Guilhem Worms
Luca Montebugnoli and Edoardo Torbianelli, period keyboards
BIZET, Complete art songs (3 CD)
Available 9 May 2025

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.

Current playlists

Discover the latest harmonia mundi playlists on your favorite platform.

Toutes les playlists Toutes les playlists

A passion for excellence 1958.

Now 65, the label cultivates an insolent youth. 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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