Atmos This Week August 24 2026

María Dueñas (vl.), Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel (cond.) — Homage to Heifetz (Deutsche Grammophon, 2026). Maria Duenas seems to be everywhere you look and listen these days. Here, she revisits a concerto pairing Heifetz himself made famous: Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole and Korngold’s Violin Concerto. Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra in a studio recording. The Heifetz homage extends to encores by Debussy and Ponce, including pieces in his own arrangements, making this a fine celebration of the great violinist’s recorded persona.

Iván Fischer (cond.), Budapest Festival Orchestra, Miah Persson (sop.), André Schuen (bar.), Luca Pisaroni (bass-bar.) — Mozart: Don Giovanni (complete opera) (Channel Classics, 2026). First of a projected trilogy of Mozart opera recordings from this team, with Magic Flute and Marriage of Figaro to follow in coming years. Recorded live in October 2025 at Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, the starry cast includes André Schuen’s Giovanni, Luca Pisaroni’s Leporello and Miah Persson’s Donna Elvira. The competition is fierce, but new full opera recordings in spatial audio with lineups like this can’t be ignored.

Leonidas Kavakos (vl.), Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Emanuel Ax (piano) — Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" (Sony Classical, 2026). The fifth instalment in Ax/Kavakos/Ma’s Beethoven for Three becomes Beethoven for four, with the addition of violist Antoine Tamestit to the team. This time they tackle the Eroica Symphony and Leonore Overture No. 3, as they continue their entertaining experiment in stripping Beethoven’s orchestral music back to intimate chamber scale. This is a welcome addition to a series that has become one of the most stimulating Beethoven projects going.

Eldbjørg Hemsing (violin), Oslo Philharmonic, Gergely Madaras (cond.) — Bruch: Violin Concerto (Sony, 2026). This is a change of atmosphere for Eldbjørg Hemsing, following the Nordic landscapes and contemporary repertoire of her recent Sony albums. She turns to the core Romantic violin repertoire with Bruch’s First Concerto, with the Oslo Philharmonic conducted by Gergely Madaras. The program also includes Bruch’s lyrical Romance, Op. 85, and the less familiar In der Nacht, Op. 72, heard here in an arrangement for violin and orchestra.

Enrico Onofri (cond.), Munich Chamber Orchestra — Beethoven & The Italians: Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 & 7 – Cherubini, Rossini, Spontini (harmonia mundi, 2026). As the album title says: three Beethoven symphonies, with short interludes of music by operatically inclined contemporaries, including Cherubini’s rarely heard Symphony in D major. We can expect Onofri to bring some theatrical energy to the proceedings, along with historically-informed flavour.

Théotime Langlois de Swarte (vl.), William Christie (keyboards) — Le Violon de Rameau (Harmonia Mundi, 2026). Familiar dances and airs from Les Indes galantes, Hippolyte et Aricie and other stage works mingle with music by Rameau’s violinist contemporaries. Théotime Langlois de Swarte and William Christie build an imaginary Rameau recital for violin and keyboard, reminding us that the composer himself was an accomplished violinist. The pre-release track sounds like they recorded in the Taj Mahal.

Yulianna Avdeeva (piano) — Metanoia (Pentatone, 2026). Following her Chopin (2024) and Shostakovich (2025) albums for Pentatone, Yulianna Avdeeva turns now to Liszt. Metanoia is a Greek term signifying inner transformation, with overtones of spiritual conversion or repentance. Here it describes Liszt’s evolution from celebrated virtuosity (Sonata in B Minor) toward the spare, startlingly modern late works of his late career (La lugubre gondola, Unstern! – Sinistre, 2 Légendes).

Carmen Stefanescu (piano) — Shapes of Water – Music by Debussy and Beyond (Prospero Classical, 2026). The watery theme starts with Debussy’s rain, snow, and engulfed cathedrals, and ripples outwards to pieces by Bonis, Mompou, Fauré, Beach, Zemlinsky and Bloch. The most unexpected splash is Nobuo Uematsu’s The Boundless Ocean, drawn from the world of video games, a fitting choice for a pianist whose own route has passed through classical training, ten years in rock and pop bands, and back again.

Tianxu An (piano) — Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Schumann: Piano Sonatas (Signum Classics, 2026). Not a familiar name to many of us, this is Tianxu’s sophomore album, four years since his debut release on Alpha Classics. He may be best known for a strange incident at the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition, where he won fourth prize and a special jury award for “courage and restraint,” after a backstage error caused the orchestra to begin playing the wrong concerto (he recovered and performed both works). No surprises this time out: he places Beethoven’s lyrical Sonata No. 24, Op. 78 between Mendelssohn’s rarely-recorded E-major Sonata and Schumann’s impetuous First Sonata.

Anna Besson (flute), A Nocte Temporis — Mozart: Complete Flute Quartets (Alpha Classics, 2026). This is a follow-up to last year’s Mozart Flute Concertos release by Besson and her period-instrument ensemble. Here they return to their chamber music roots, to offer the four Mozart flute quartets proper, plus an arrangement of his D Major Piano Sonata K.311, by Mozart’s friend Franz Hoffmeister. Anna Besson brings enthusiasm for this seldom-played Mozart repertoire, born of fond teenage memories… read her charming program note in the online booklet.

Philipp von Steinaecker (cond.), Mahler Academy Orchestra — Mahler: Symphony No. 5 on Period Instruments (Alpha Classics, 2026). In 2024, von Steinaecker and the Mahler Academy showed us a different world of Mahler sonorities in their Ninth Symphony, fitted out with gut-strung strings and Viennese wind instruments from around 1900, and playing with the portamento, flexible tempo and reduced vibrato they associate with Mahler’s era. They continue the exploration with Symphony No. 5, playing from a new Urtext edition that incorporates numerous corrections indicated by Mahler.

Ryan McAdams (cond.), National Symphony Orchestra Ireland — Donnacha Dennehy: Limina (Nonesuch, 2026). This is Nonesuch’s third release of music by Irish composer Dennehy. The last one, in 2024, won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, for his Land of Winter. Here we have the premiere recordings of two concertos: the album gets its title from the “Limina” Piano Concerto, with soloist Eliza McCarthy; soloist in the Violin Concerto is Stephen Waarts.

Konstantin Krimmel, Ammiel Bushakevitz — Melancolie (Alpha Classics, 2026). At first glance, you might imagine that the main attraction of this album is the selection of familiar Brahms songs, like Feldeinsamkeit and Die Mainacht. But it may turn out that the Romanian songs of Eusebius Mandyczewski cause more of a stir. He was a close friend of Brahms, he edited both Brahms and Schubert, and he shared their fascination with folk song. The pre-release tracks suggest this is a notable discovery.

Lara Somogyi (harp) — a [time] patterned (Mercury, 2026). Harp, prepared effects, tape loops, electronics, strings and field recordings form shifting patterns around ideas of memory, grief and renewal, in Los Angeles harpist Lara Somogyi’s second album. With guests including cellist Clarice Jensen and multi-instrumentalist Rob Moose.