Sarah Traubel makes her recorded debut for Sony Classical with an album entitled 'Arias for Josepha', the soprano who created the role of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte ('The Magic Flute'). She's joined on the recording by the Prague Philharmonia conducted by Jochen Rieder and it's now available digitally. In this latest Gramophone Podcast, Sarah Traubel talked to James Jolly about the programme and the various composers who write arias for Josepha, how she fills her time und...
Apr 17, 2020•17 min
The Sitkovetsky Trio – Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin), Wu Qian (piano) and Isang Enders (cello) – has launched a series for BIS focusing on Beethoven's music for piano trio and Vol 1 is just out. It contains Op 1 No 3 and Op 70 No 2 with the small B flat Trio, WoO39 tucked in between them. James Jolly caught up with husband-and-wife Alexander Sitkovetsky and Wu Qian to find out about how the Trio was formed, how they're approaching this Beethoven series and how they're filling their time now tha...
Apr 10, 2020•18 min
Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by sopranos Julia Doyle and Grace Davidson to talk about their new recording of music for Tenebrae, Couperin's Leçons de Ténèbres and Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday. The album, featuring the choir Tenebrae under the direction of Nigel Short, is available now on Signum Classics.
Apr 03, 2020•15 min
Released today by Alpha Classics, 'La Passione' combines Luigi Nono's Djamila Boupacha for solo soprano, Haydn's Symphony No 49 (sometimes called La Passione ) and Gérard Grisey's Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil . Ludwig Orchestra is conducted by Barbara Hannigan who also sings in the two modern works. James Jolly spoke to Hannigan, down the line, to find out about how she put the album together.
Mar 27, 2020•17 min
Jack Liebeck today releases a new recording on Orchid Classics, coupling the violin concertos by Brahms and Schoenberg, both works which have strong personal connections. He's joined on the new album by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Gourlay. Jack talks to James Jolly about why he put the two works together, how he sees their relationship and the challenges of learning and playing the Schoenberg concerto.
Mar 20, 2020•13 min
Gramophone is excited to announce the publication of its digital special: Ballet on Screen . With nearly 20 reviews of ballet DVDs released in the past year, written by the world's best dance writers, this digital special is free to view. The special's editor Sarah Kirkup talks to Gramophone's editor Martin Cullingford about the magazine's contents, including its two features, one exploring Margot Fonteyn's legacy on film, the other investigating the surging popularity of ballet in the cinema....
Mar 13, 2020•18 min
The violinist Johannes Pramsohler has recorded an album of sonatas by Pieter Hellendaal who studied in Italy and moved to England in the middle of the 18th century and worked as violinist, composer and teacher, spending the last couple of decades of his life in Cambridge. Pramsohler and his musical partners Gulrim Choï and Philippe Grisvard have recorded six of Hellendaal's 'Cambridge Sonatas' for Audax, an album released on March 6. Pramsohler talks to Gramophone's James Jolly about the compose...
Mar 06, 2020•16 min
Eric Lu, winner of the 2018 Leeds Piano Competition and now signed to Warner Classics, today releases his new album. The bulk of the programme is given over to Chopin's Op 28 Preludes, to which he adds Brahms's late Intermezzo Op 117 No 1 and Schumann's last completed work, the so-called Ghost Variations. James Jolly caught up with him to talk about the programme, but also to find out about some of Eric's piano heroes ...
Feb 28, 2020•17 min
The Estonian conductor, Paavo Järvi, talks about his three orchestras, and particularly his Tokyo-based NHK Symphony Orchestra as they arrive in Europe as part of a concert tour that takes in nine cities. To coincide with the tour, Sony Classical has released two new albums: Mahler's Sixth Symphony and three work by Bartók, the Music for strings, percussion and celesta , Dance Suite and Divertimento.
Feb 21, 2020•20 min
Twenty five years after his first recording for BIS of JS Bach's St Matthew Passion, Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan have taken the work into the studio for a second time, and a magnificent achievement it proves. James Jolly met up with Suzuki when he was in London recently, working with students at the Royal Academy of Music.
Feb 13, 2020•15 min
The latest album from The King's Singers draws together music from the Protestant Reformation through to the US Civil Rights Movement, and right up until the present day. The uniting theme is that reflected in the album's title – Finding Harmony, where music has given hope in times of oppression and brought people together after tragedy. Editor Martin Cullingford met countertenor Patrick Dunachie and bass Jonathan Howard to discuss this ambitious album, which is available now on Signum Classics....
Feb 07, 2020•28 min
José Serebrier has just released a new recording for BIS containing two works specially commissioned from him for the pianist Alexandre Kantorow and the flautist Sharon Bezaly, alongside a group of shorter works for orchestra. James Jolly went to meet Serebrier to talk about his music, how he approaches composition and conducting his own music. And what he does when he finds himself without manuscript paper!
Jan 28, 2020•18 min
For her latest Signum Classics album, 'The Divine Muse', the soprano Mary Bevan has chosen a programme of Franz Schubert and Hugo Wolf, and at its heart, Joseph Haydn's scena Arianna a Naxos. She explores the project with James Jolly.
Jan 24, 2020•12 min
Rhian Samuel's work for soprano and orchestra, Clytemnestra , was commissioned by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales who gave the first performance, under Tadaaki Otaka, and with Della Jones as soloists, in November 1994. Twenty five years later, the work has been recorded by the soprano Ruby Hughes with the same Welsh orchestra, this time conducted by Jac van Steen. Coupled with orchestral songs by Gustav Mahler and Alban Berg, Clytemnestra has just been released by BIS. James Jolly caught up ...
Jan 17, 2020•13 min
The soprano Louise Alder has just released her first recording for Chandos. It's called 'Lines written during a sleepless night: The Russian Connection' and finds her joined by the pianist Joseph Middleton in songs by Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Grieg, Medtner and Britten. She tells James Jolly about the project.
Jan 10, 2020•12 min
The pianist Stephen Hough has just released a new Brahms album for Hyperion, 'The Final Piano Pieces'. It has just been named Gramophone's Recording of the Month in the January 2020 issue. James Jolly caught up with Stephen just before Christmas to talk about the recording for this Gramophone Podcast.
Jan 03, 2020•14 min
The Oscar-winning composer's latest project is the score for a musical animation of Sir Michael Morpurgo's children's book Mimi and the Mountain Dragon . Commissioned by the BBC, and to be broadcast on BBC One on Boxing Day, the film also features illustrations by Emily Gravett. In the latest Gramophone podcast, the composer talks about the project, which was recorded by the BBC Philharmonic and the Hallé's family of choirs.
Dec 20, 2019•15 min
Freddy Kempf has recorded another Prokofiev piano sonata album (containing Nos 3, 8 and 9) for BIS. During this year's Tchaikovsky International Competition, at which Kempf was a jury member in the piano category, James Jolly caught up with the pianist to talk about the composer and his music.
Dec 13, 2019•14 min
Alison Balsom's new album, Royal Fireworks, is a collection of virtuoso baroque works performed on natural trumpet. For the latest Gramophone podcast she joins Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about the natural trumpet and about the repertoire on the album. Royal Fireworks is available from Warner Classics.
Dec 06, 2019•19 min
Stile Antico's latest album - their third in a series of three explorations of Christmas from different countries - takes us to the golden age of the Spanish Renaissance, from the polyphony of Victoria to dance-like carols in the Spanish language. For the latest Gramophone podcast, soprano Helen Ashby and bass Will Dawes join Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford to talk us through this richly fascinating festive feast of choral music. A Spanish Nativity is available now from Harmonia Mundi....
Nov 29, 2019•17 min
In the latest Gramophone podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford meets renowned pianist Norma Fisher to talk about her life and career, about the condition that forced her to give up public performance in the 1980s, about her teaching work, and about volume 2 of the fascinating recordings from the BBC archives.
Nov 27, 2019•32 min
Sir Stephen Cleobury died on Friday, aged 70 - just two months since he had retired as Music Director of King's College, Cambridge, a post he'd held for 37 years. In tribute, we're republishing the last of the many interviews Gramophone conducted with him across his career, in which we discussed the then new release of music by Herbert Howells, and look back across his time leading the music at King's.
Nov 25, 2019•16 min
Maxim Emelyanychev joins the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as its new Principal Conductor, an occasion marked by the release, on Linn Records, of a new recording of Schubert's Great C major Symphony. Maxim was in the UK this summer conducting Handel at Glyndebourne and at Covent Garden. Gramophone 's James Jolly caught up with him at the Royal Opera House to talk about his new role, his very wide-ranging musical sympathies and his approach to Schubert's last symphony.
Nov 22, 2019•15 min
The Tallis Scholars's acclaimed series of recordings of the Masses of Josquin reaches Volume 8. Featuring what may be the last Mass the composer wrote, along with a Mass not by Josquin but once thought to have been by him, this penultimate volume certainly raises some fascinating questions! To discuss them, the Tallis Scholars's founder and director Peter Phillips joins Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford on this week's podcast - which features excerpts from the album, available now on Gimell...
Nov 15, 2019•14 min
The pianist and conductor Lars Vogt has just released a new recording of Brahms's D minor Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, directing from the keyboard. James Jolly met him to discuss the project, released on the Ondine label.
Nov 08, 2019•14 min
Jonathan Biss has been recording the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas for the past nine years. Now, as he reaches the end of the journey with Vol 9, Gramophone's James Jolly caught up with the pianist to talk about this extraordinary series of works. Excerpts are taken from the album, released today by Orchid Classics.
Nov 01, 2019•19 min
Elgar's Cello Concerto was premiered 100 years ago today, and to mark the anniversary Julian Lloyd Webber joins Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford to explore the work, its performance and recording history, and to discuss why it still speaks so powerfully to audiences today. The podcast features excerpts from Julian Lloyd Webber's own recording of the work with Yehudi Menuhin, on the Philips label.
Oct 27, 2019•27 min
For his new album, the pianist Joseph Moog has chosen to explore the music of Franz Liszt, presenting works from across the composer's life, including his monumental Sonata in B Minor. Called 'Between Heaven and Hell', it's available on the Onyx label, and in the latest Gramophone podcast Moog discusses the project with Editor Martin Cullingford.
Oct 25, 2019•13 min
The 2019 Gramophone Classical Music Awards have been announced! In this special edition of the Gramophone podcast, Editor-in-Chief James Jolly, Editor Martin Cullingford and Reviews Editor Tim Parry explore the winning albums, and you can hear from some of the artists honoured by Special Awards, including our Artist of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award winners.
Oct 16, 2019•35 min
The pianist Boris Giltburg is recording Beethoven's five piano concertos for Naxos with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko. The first album is out with the first two piano concertos and the early Rondo, WoO6 from 1793. James Jolly met up with Boris Giltburg after a performance of the First Piano Concerto and the day before the recording sessions.
Oct 11, 2019•14 min
