Horizon 8 (Live)

Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra once again champions modern masterpieces with engaging, committed performances. There are two world premieres here—James MacMillan’s kaleidoscopic 2016 Trombone Concerto is full of rhythm and drive, and the most beautiful crystalline soundworlds. And the Nasimi-Passion for choir and orchestra by Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh is an urgent, searing work of Mahlerian scope that mourns the destruction of Aleppo with music uniting East and West, along with breathtaking passages from Bach’s St John Passion. Knussen’s Horn Concerto, meanwhile, from 1994, shimmers with the most astonishing sonorities.