Photos: OH Music Announces October Classical Releases

Outhere Music (OH Music) has announced its October 2026 release highlights, including a Delos debut from violinist Geneva Lewis with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Gemma New, a Linn Records recital debut from mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor, the continuation of Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich's Mahler symphonies cycle, and new titles from Alpha Classics and Channel Classics.

Barber, Zorn, Glass: Violin Concertos, Partita for the Firebird (Delos)

Geneva Lewis (violin) is joined by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Gemma New on the album, DE3638, set for release Oct 2. A BBC New Generation Artist in 2022–24, Lewis is also the recipient of a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. For her recording debut on Delos, she performs an all-American program, accompanied by 2021 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award recipient Gemma New leading the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Samuel Barber's neo-Romantic Violin Concerto – with a notorious finale that provides hardly any respite for the soloist – is followed by the first recording of John Zorn's Partita for the Firebird, a solo violin work in which Lewis declares that 'every note burns and demands your entire self,' and Philip Glass's Violin Concerto No. 1. Written with his late father in mind, the latter work marked Glass's first full-scale venture into non-theatrical orchestral composition.

The Deeps Have Music (Linn Records)

Mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor and pianist Hamish Brown make their debut recital album with Linn Records, CKD794, releasing Oct 2. Taylor, a rising vocal star, came to international prominence as a finalist of the 2023 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, and has since collaborated with both the Berliner Philharmoniker and Wiener Philharmoniker. An award-winning pianist, Brown enjoys a highly diverse collaborative career with singers, instrumentalists, orchestras, and theater productions. The sea-inspired program starts with the evocative My Lagan Love arranged by Hamilton Harty – included by NPR's Tom Huizenga in a recent edition of 'All Songs Considered' – followed by Hedwige Chrétien's Petits Poèmes du Bord de l'Eau, Ethel Smyth's Three Moods of the Sea, and Edward Elgar's celebrated Sea Pictures. Placed among these gems are songs by Schubert and Alma Mahler, together with a world premiere recording of Cameron Biles-Liddell's The Breakers.

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (Complete Mahler Symphonies, Vol. 4) (Alpha Classics)

Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich present Symphony No. 2 for the fourth volume of their complete cycle of Mahler's symphonies, ALPHA1276, releasing Oct 30. It is a monumental five-movement work with a colossal orchestra, complemented by choir and soloists. As Järvi comments: 'Mahler's Symphony No. 2 is a gigantic work – both in substance and in scale.' Mahler completed the composition in 1894, after more than six years of work, during a difficult period in his life. In a letter dated 1896, the composer wrote: 'When you wake from this melancholy dream and have to return to life and its chaos, it can easily happen that this ceaselessly moving, never resting and always incomprehensible bustle of life becomes horrifying to you.'

Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich – a nominee for Gramophone's 2026 Orchestra of the Year – launched their Mahler cycle on Alpha Classics in 2025 with releases of both the Fifth Symphony and the First. The latter recording was named a Gramophone 'Editor's Choice' for November 2025, with the reviewer declaring: 'I do believe this is one of the best – perhaps even the best – account of Mahler's precocious First Symphony that I've heard on disc since the celebrated Bernstein/Concertgebouw version. … Paavo Järvi and his Zurich orchestra really do make it feel and sound brand new. Its daring colourations are relished, its youthful audacity writ large. Everything is ripe and vivid. ... Put simply this account rekindles much of the excitement that I for one experienced in hearing the piece for the first time. Heartily recommended.'

Schönberg Piano Works (Alpha Classics)

Making his debut on the Alpha Classics label, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard performs an all-Schönberg program, ALPHA1281, releasing Oct 2. Aimard has waited more than forty years to record Schönberg's piano works – a journey that began in 1973 when, as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, he performed Schönberg's Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11 live on TV after winning the Olivier Messiaen Competition. On this recording, he traces the composer's artistic evolution through five landmark piano works, from the milestone Op. 11 (1909) – known as the first work in music history to fully embrace atonality – to Op. 33b (1931), written on the eve of Schönberg's emigration to the U.S. and reflecting both Brahmsian tradition and a world in transition. Aimard says: 'It is extraordinary that, in an era where everything is recorded multiple times, we still do not have a wide spectrum of choices for Schoenberg's music. It suggests there remains a profound misunderstanding of this repertoire – or perhaps that we simply need more time to absorb what is truly valuable.' Aimard shares his insights about Schönberg and his legacy in contemporary music in conversation with LA Times music critic Mark Swed, illustrated at the piano, on November 22 at 2220 Arts + Archives in Los Angeles.

Patkop & Say: Prokofiev, Szymanowski, Say and Kopatchinskaja (Alpha Classics)

For this second album on Alpha Classics (following ALPHA885), the performing duo of Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Fazıl Say feature both as performers and as composers on ALPHA1278, releasing Oct 16. Say's sonata Lost Screams, which was written for Kopatchinskaja, opens the program. He explains: 'It embodies the struggles, fears, and silent protests of our times.' Closing the album is Patkop's UniSolo, with which she sought to create a musical process without knowing its outcome. She elaborates: 'At the beginning it revolves around the note A – situations then developed from this that have surprised even me.' She concludes: 'Composing opens up your ears and dispels any sense of awe. I feel freer, and regard my works as living beings whom I've been conversing with for my whole life.' Rounding out the album's repertoire are Szymanowski's magnificent Myths and Prokofiev's sonata, written between 1938 and 1946 amid the violence and fear of war and the Soviet regime – as Kopatchinskaja emphasizes, 'every note says something about today.'

Duologues: C.P.E. Bach, Telemann, Boismortier, trad (Channel Classics)

This album, CCS49526, releasing Oct 16, includes duos and trios by J.S. Bach, Telemann, C.P.E. Bach, and Boismortier. Violinist Rachel Podger presents these works of musical intimacy, pairing her violin with recorder, viola, and cello, played respectively by Baroque instrumentalists Lucie Horsch, Jane Rogers, and Alex Rolton. A staple of 18th-century domestic music-making, the playing of duos – two solo instruments rather than a solo with accompaniment – faded out with domestic music in general, but it offers the players a unique chance to perform in an intimate, conversational setting.

Acclaim for Recent Releases

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7, featuring conductor Rafael Payare and the San Diego Symphony (DE3634, Delos), released June 2026 with a Sep 11, 2026 physical release, received a Gramophone 'Editor's Choice' for October 2026: 'The rhythms are crisp and the ensemble consistently perfect. … The players of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra produce marvellous sounds that drew my attention to some lesser-known episodes. … [Payare's] taut, disciplined approach is a fresh view worthy to take its place among the essential recorded accounts of the symphony.'

Handel: Giulio Cesare, featuring conductor Harry Bicket and The English Concert (CKD792, Linn Records), released Sep 18, received a Gramophone 'Recording of the Month' for October 2026: '[Title character Christophe] Dumaux's dramatic presence is superb, and his tone secure through his range … The strings are also united, with a firm tone, and again and again in this recording they shine this way. … It's one of Handel's most colourful orchestrations, richly rendered on this fabulous all-rounder recording. An outstanding addition to the 'Handel for All' collection and an album that surely captures Dumaux at the top of his game.'

About Outhere Music

Outhere Music (OH Music) is one of the world's largest independent classical music production and recording groups, producing and distributing recordings all over the world ranging from early to contemporary music, by way of jazz and world music. Alpha Classics, Delos, Analekta, Arcana, Channel Classics, Linn Records, and Fuga Libera represent the group's best-known labels, with catalogues encompassing eclectic repertoires and artists of international stature. Ricercar, Phi, and Ramée are the group's specialist labels. The Outhere Music group was founded in 2004 by Charles Adriaenssen and has offices in Brussels and Paris, with partners in London, Milan, and Montreal, as well as in the Netherlands, Mexico, and the United States.