In a series of four Decca Icons podcasts, Gramophone 's James Jolly explores the artistry of four major recording musicians with Rob Cowan, Jed Distler and Richard Fairman. Focusing on recordings in the Decca catalogue, the series turns the spotlight on Bernard Haitink , Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Georg Solti and Benjamin Britten. Each podcast is accompanied by a special Apple Music playlist. In this second podcast, James talks to the New York-based critic, composer, broadcaster and piano enthusias...
Aug 09, 2023•34 min•Ep. 416
In the latest Podcast Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford caught up with the multi Award-winning composer Tan Dun to explore his new work, Buddha Passion , available on Decca, and to hear his fascinating thoughts on composing, conducting and on music in general.
Aug 04, 2023•35 min•Ep. 415
Hyperion Records, one of the most admired and successful of specialist classical music labels, is from today available on streaming services. The entire catalogue will be uploaded in stages over the next year, but the initial 200 albums released today feature every Hyperion recording to have received a Gramophone Award – and from that illustrious list, Editor-in-Chief James Jolly, Editor Martin Cullingford and Deputy Editor Tim Parry have chosen three of their favourite albums, topped up with a ...
Jul 28, 2023•51 min•Ep. 414
In a series of four Decca Icons podcasts, Gramophone 's James Jolly explores the artistry of four major recording musicians with Rob Cowan, Jed Distler and Richard Fairman. Focusing on recordings in the Decca catalogue, the series turns the spotlight on Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Georg Solti and Benjamin Britten. Each podcast is accompanied by a special Apple Music playlist. In this first podcast, Rob and James talk about the great Dutch conductor who, during a long career, headed ...
Jul 26, 2023•36 min•Ep. 413
This week's Podcast is another special long-length edition, for which Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by Rob Cowan, Gramophone' s expert on historic and archive recordings and the author for 30 years now of our monthly feature devoted to the area, Replay. Why should we listen to historic recordings? What can we learn from them, and which artists, many decades on, still offer listeners such extraordinary joy and insight? Across more than 45 fascinating minutes Rob addresses these questions, a...
Jul 21, 2023•48 min•Ep. 412
Following five acclaimed albums with the LSO and JoAnn Falletta for Naxos, the composer Kenneth Fuchs has released a new collection of his orchestral works with John Wilson's Sinfonia of London. Recorded at St Augustine's, Kilburn, in North London, by Chandos, the collection has just been issued. James Jolly caught up with Kenneth Fuchs just before last Christmas - and the day after recording sessions - to talk about the four works on the new album.
Jul 14, 2023•29 min•Ep. 411
Gramophone 's Orchestra of the Year is the only award voted for by our readers and music lovers worldwide. Each year, the magazine's editors produce a short list of 10 ensembles whose music-making, particularly on record, has made a particularly strong impression on our critics. In the second of two podcasts, Gramophone 's Editor-in-Chief, James Jolly, talks to the broadcaster and critic Rob Cowan about these five superb ensembles. To vote for your chosen orchestra, head to the Awards page of ou...
Jul 07, 2023•31 min•Ep. 410
Gramophone 's Orchestra of the Year is the only award voted for by our readers and music lovers worldwide. Each year, the magazine's editors produce a short list of 10 ensembles whose music-making, particularly on record, has made a particularly strong impression our critics. In the first of two podcasts, Gramophone 's Editor-in-Chief, James Jolly, talks to the Copenhagen-based critic and cultural commentator, Andrew Mellor, about five of the nominated ensembles. To vote for your chosen orchestr...
Jun 30, 2023•32 min•Ep. 409
For his second album for Alpha Classics, again with his regular piano partner James Baillieu, the German baritone Benjamin Appl has put together a programme under the title 'Forbidden Fruit'. Musically it ranges widely, taking in songs in English, French and German, and all bound together by a theme, and then grouped under biblical verses. James Jolly caught up with singer and pianist by Zoom – Benjamin Appl in Switzerland and James Baillieu in the UK – to talk about the programme, whether audie...
Jun 23, 2023•23 min•Ep. 408
The July edition of Gramophone features a fascinating article by Handel expert Richard Wigmore, in which he focusses on six specific years spread throughout the composer's life to offer a fascinating insight into his art and his era. Last year Gramophone 's Editor Martin Cullingford sat down with Richard to record a very special edition of the Gramophone Podcast - lasting more than an hour, it's filled with rich insight into Handel's music and some of its finest recordings. It's the perfect acco...
Jun 16, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 407
This week's Gramophone Podcast sees acclaimed viol player, and founding member of Fretwork, Richard Boothby join Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about his new album 'Music to hear...'. Featuring works by Alfonso Ferrabosco written for lyra viol and dating from 1609, it's available now on Signum Classics. We discuss the composer and his place in the London cultural life of his day, and the sort of instrument he actually wrote for - plus, hear some beautiful excerpts from the album....
Jun 09, 2023•25 min•Ep. 406
This week's guest on the Gramophone Podcast is tenor Lawrence Brownlee, who joins Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about his new album 'Rising', recorded with pianist Kevin J Miller, and available now from Warner Classics. The beautifully-performed programme includes commissions from six African-American composers of the younger generation who were invited to set texts by writers of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as songs by 20th-century composers.
Jun 02, 2023•23 min•Ep. 405
This week's Gramophone Podcast features the countertenor Reginald Mobley, who joins us to talk about his new album 'Because', a programme of Spirituals performed with jazz pianist Baptiste Trotignon, and available on the Alpha label. He tells Editor Martin Cullingford about recording these beautiful, and moving, works, what they mean to him and what he hopes they will mean to audiences.
May 26, 2023•22 min•Ep. 404
The Gramophone Award-winning pianist Kirill Gerstein has recorded Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko: it forms part of a twinned release, 'Rachmaninoff 150', from Platoon. James Jolly met up with Gerstein a couple of months ago in London to talk about playing the music of a composer who left us two recordings of the concerto as well as being one of the greatest pianists ever to have lived. The second part of the programme includes solo works,...
May 19, 2023•29 min•Ep. 403
Chandos was named Gramophone 's Label of the Year at the 2022 Gramophone Classical Music Awards in October – a perfect excuse for a series of podcasts focusing on some of the label's key artists and the people who steer and shape the label. This month, James Jolly talks to the conductor Edward Gardner, Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic and Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic; in August 2024 he will assume the Music Directorship of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet. His recorded ...
May 12, 2023•29 min•Ep. 402
On this week's Gramophone Podcast we talk to tenor Karim Sulayman and guitarist Sean Shibe about their album 'Broken Branches', released today on the Pentatone label. Featuring music by composers including Dowland, Britten, and Takemitsu, as well traditional songs from the Middle East, it's a fascinating and highly personal project for them both. A podcast produced in association with Wigmore Hall.
May 05, 2023•20 min•Ep. 401
James Newby's new album, 'Fallen to Dust', for BIS explores English song, and particularly English on the theme of death. Joined by the pianist Joseph Middleton, he offers cycles by Sir Arthur Somerville and Gerald Finzi, as well as songs spanning a century, including contemporary settings by Jonathan Dove and Errollyn Wallen. A former BBC New Generation Artist, a recipient of a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, a Rising Star for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and an ECHO Rising Star...
Apr 28, 2023•24 min•Ep. 400
Countertenor Alexander Chance – last year's winner of the International Handel Singing Competition – joins Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about his debut album of English lute songs, 'Drop not, mine Eyes', recorded with lutenist Tony Carr and available from Linn.
Apr 21, 2023•33 min•Ep. 399
Carlo Rizzi, Opera Rara's Artistic Director, has recorded Mercadante's Il Proscritto for Opera Rara, another rarity to add to the label's growing catalogue. A well-chosen line-up of singers, including Ramón Vargas, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Irene Roberts, Elizabeth DeShong, Sally Matthews, Goderdzi Janelidze and Susana Gaspa, are joined by the Britten Sinfonia and Opera Rara Chorus. James Jolly catches up with the conductor.
Apr 14, 2023•30 min•Ep. 398
The French pianist Cédric Tiberghien has just released a new album, Variation[s], on Harmonia Mundi. It takes Beethoven's many sets of themes and variations for solo piano as its starting point, and weaves in major sets by others composers, in Vol 1 by Mozart, Schumann and Webern. James Jolly caught up with the pianist in New York, by Zoom, to talk about the project and find out his thinking on the programme of this first volume. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall...
Apr 07, 2023•30 min•Ep. 397
Guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre talks to Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford about his debut album for Deutsche Grammophon, Visages Baroque, which weaves a programme of arrangements of music by French Baroque composers around two major pieces by Bach. This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.
Mar 31, 2023•18 min•Ep. 396
Tom Poster is pianist and co-artistic director of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, and in the latest in our series celebrating our Label of the Year Chandos Records, Editor Martin Cullingford talks to him about what defines the group and its aims, and about their three albums so far.
Mar 22, 2023•25 min•Ep. 394
The two violinists of the Tippett Quartet – John Mills and Jeremy Issacs – tell Editor Martin Cullingford about the group's new recording of the three string quartets of Erich Korngold, released on the Naxos label.
Mar 17, 2023•26 min•Ep. 393
Klaus Mäkelä's second recording for Decca finds him at the helm of his French orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris. They recorded Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and the complete Firebird ballet. James Jolly spoke to the conductor by Zoom when Klaus was in Cleveland conducting performances of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall
Mar 16, 2023•28 min
The soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen has just released an album of Richard Strauss, two late works – the Four Last Songs and the Closing scene from the opera Capriccio . On this new Sony Classical release she's joined by the Gewandhausorchester and Andris Nelsons. James Jolly caught up with her by Zoom to talk repertoire and the allure of Strauss's vocal writing. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall ....
Mar 10, 2023•30 min•Ep. 392
The Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare was appointed Music Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal SO) at the start of the 2022-23 season and one of their first projects together, Mahler's Fifth Symphony, has just been released by Pentatone. Rafael Payare was in London recently conducting a run of much-praised performances of Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia at Covent Garden, and Gramophone 's James Jolly took the opportunity to catch up with him to talk about his work in Mo...
Mar 03, 2023•25 min
In this week's podcast, French mezzo soprano Lucile Richardot talks to Gramophone 's Hattie Butterworth about Les heures claires , an album of the complete songs of Nadia and Lili Boulanger on the Harmonia Mundi label, and also about recording Scarlatti Cantatas with harpsichordist Philippe Grisvard, for Audax.
Feb 24, 2023•31 min
This week's Gramophone Podcast explores the life and works of Liszt, with a particular focus on his piano music. Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by Gramophone writer and expert on both Liszt and the piano, Jeremy Nicholas to discuss the composer's greatest works, and their greatest recordings. Visit Gramophone's website for details of the featured excerpts.
Feb 17, 2023•59 min
Pianist, composer and author Stephen Hough tells Editor Martin Cullingford about his latest book, a childhood memoir called Enough (published by Faber), his new recording of the music of Mompou, Música callada, and his String Quartet No 1, recently recorded by the Takács Quartet (both recordings available from Hyperion).
Feb 10, 2023•34 min
The pianist Frank Dupree's new album for Capriccio is his third devoted to the music of Kapustin: his previous concerto album, which included the Fourth Piano Concerto, made it to the short list in the Concerto category for last year's Gramophone Classical Music Awards, and this new release, as well as containing the Fifth Piano Concerto, also includes the Concerto for two pianos and percussion, and the Sinfonietta for two pianos, both works find Frank joined by Adrian Brendle, and Dominik Beyki...
Feb 03, 2023•22 min
