The Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

The tenor Alessandro Fisher is a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Artist and a former member of the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme, and on February 23 Rubicon releases a solo album, ?A Gardener?s World?, a collection of songs about flowers and their symbolic significance. Joined by the pianist Anna Tilbrook, Alessandro explores the horticultural theme in the company of composers from many countries, including France, Germany, Scandinavia, Catalunya and Argentina.

James Jolly went to visit Alessandro in his north London home and, overlooking the garden, they discussed the genesis of the new album, which was recorded live at Wigmore Hall in July 2021.

Pianist Lara Downes joins Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford this week to talk about her fascinating new recording of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, as reimagined for today's world by composer Edmar Colón to mark the iconic work's centenary, and available from the Pentatone label. 

 

Youth is an EP of solo piano music by Edmund Finnis and performed by Clare Hammond, and described as 'a set of brief pieces recalling an image, sensation of place, significant encounter or a moment of vivid perception'. Editor Martin Cullingford invited both Finnis and Hammond into the Gramophone Podcast studio to talk about this beautiful new recording. 

Timothy Ridout won last year?s Concerto category at the Gramophone Awards for his Harmonia Mundi recording, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins, of Elgar?s Cello Concerto transcribed by Lionel Tertis for viola, alongside the Bloch Suite for Viola and Orchestra. His new HM release continues his exploration of the huge role that Tertis played in the history of the viola, as player, teacher, arranger and champion of the instrument.

Ridout's new double album, for which he's joined by pianists Frank Dupree and James Baillieu, includes sonatas by York Bowen and Rebecca Clarke, as well as many shorter works with powerful links to Tertis. James Jolly met up with Timothy to talk about the album, and the place that Tertis holds for viola-players.

The great Polish pianist and conductor Krystian Zimerman came to London last October to collect his Gramophone Award, his seventh, for his latest DG album of music by Karol Szymanowki. James Jolly caught up with him on the morning of the ceremony, and their conversation ranged widely.

For his tenth album of music for trumpet and piano in the ?re-imagined? series for Linn, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood has turned to a composer right at the centre of the period he?s most associated with, the Baroque ? and George Frideric Handel. ?Handel for Trumpet? features transcriptions of arias as well as theoretical ?sonatas?, created from concertos and other works.

As well as being a contributor to Gramophone, Jonathan is also Principal of the Royal Academy of Music, a record producer, teacher ? and trumpeter. Gramophone?s James Jolly spoke to him about the new album, how he maintains his technique amid a busy schedule and how being a recorded musician helps his role as the leader of one of the world?s great music conservatories.

The Tallis Scholars' acclaimed series of recordings of the Masses of Josquin Desprez is one of the great milestones to the catalogue. Featuring what may be the last Mass the composer wrote, the Missa Mater Patris, along with a Mass not by Josquin but once thought to have been by him, the penultimate volume certainly raises some fascinating questions!

To discuss them, The Tallis Scholars' founder and director Peter Phillips joined Editor Martin Cullingford for this Gramophone podcast - which features excerpts from the album, available on Gimell, which was named an Editor's Choice in the November 2019 issue of the magazine. We revisit that podcast 'From the Archive'.

Dame Janet Baker's contribution to classical music - in performance and on record - has been remarkable, enriching both the stage and the catalogue with performances of astonishing beauty, power and vivid insight. To mark her 80th birthday in August 2013, James Jolly met with her at Wigmore Hall to talk about her career for a Gramophone Milestones Podcast, made in association with EFG International. She shared her memories of working with Sir John Barbirolli, Leonard Bernstein, Gerald Moore, Raymond Leppard and Benjamin Britten.

Now 10 years on, we revisit the podcast to celebrate one of the UK's greatest musical artists, the recipient in 2011 of Gramophone's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Esa-Pekka Salonen took over the helm of the San Francisco Symphony in 2020 from Michael Tilson Thomas. Both men have had a major impact on symphonic music in California, and Salonen is one of the three guiding figures ? with the LA Phil's Gustavo Dudamel and the San Diego Symphony's Rafael Payare ? behind the California Festival, a statewide celebration of music that launched in November.

James Jolly spoke to Salonen at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco following an afternoon concert, as part of the California Festival, in November.

This week Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by Owain Park, conductor, composer and founding director of The Gesualdo Six to explore the ensemble's new album, 'Morning Star', a programme of music for the feast of Epiphany, released by Hyperion Records. 

The Deutsche Grammophon recording of Carl Nielsen?s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies ? with Fabio Luisi conducting the Danish National Symphony Orchestra ? was voted Gramophone?s 2023 Recording of the Year, and in the December issue of the magazine our critics choose their personal favourite albums of the year. But, as is customary, this podcast focuses on some recommendations by Gramophone?s editors, Editor, Martin Cullingford, Deputy Editor, Tim Parry, and Editor-in-Chief, James Jolly.

This Gramophone Podcast is brought to you in association with STAGE+, the new streaming service from Deutsche Grammophon, which offers weekly live-stream videos of concerts from around the world, as well an archive of over 400 concerts to enjoy on demand, plus documentaries, audio albums, interviews and much more. Visit stage-plus.com or download the STAGE+ IOS App.

The soprano Maria Callas was born on December 2, 1923, and during her short life ? she died aged 53 ? rose to become one of the most celebrated singers of all time. And even 46 years after her death she remains a unique and unassailable figure in the world of opera and its interpretation. 

She left a substantial recorded catalogue ? both commercially for Columbia/EMI/Warner Classics and on the myriad pirate recordings that still circulate. To mark this milestone anniversary Warner Classics has issued a 131-CD and one DVD set celebrating her art, 'La Divina ? Callas in all her roles', a wonderful survey of her musical career.

This Warner Classics Icons podcast has been made by Gramophone, and on it James Jolly talks to Richard Fairman, a regular contributor to Gramophone and also the music critic of The Financial Times.

Composer Errollyn Wallen speaks to Hattie Butterworth about her new book, out now on Faber, mapping her trajectory as an artist, extensive recordings and philosophy on life.

Errollyn Wallen: Becoming a Composer

Check out Deutsche Grammophon STAGE+

Music clips used:

Cello Concerto from 'Photography' on NMC horseplay: lively from 'The Girl in My Alphabet' on Avie Records daedalus from 'Errollyn' on Avie Records Dervish for Cello and Piano from 'The Girl in My Alphabet' on Avie Records Peace on Earth from 'Peace on Earth EP' on the Kings College Cambridge label 

 

Composer John Pickard joins the Gramophone Podcast this week to talk to Editor Martin Cullingford about his new album, Mass in Troubled Times, available on the BIS label. 

Bertrand Chamayou, who won Gramophone's Recording of the Year in 2019 for his Erato album of two Saint-Saëns piano concertos, has turned his attention to two groundbreaking composers. John Cage was a great admirer of the music and aesthetic experiments of the Frenchman, Erik Satie - and Chamayou has created a programme for Erato that links the two, 'Letter(s) to Erik Satie'.

James Jolly caught up with Bertrand Chamayou at his Festival Ravel in St Jean de Luz in south-west France this summer to talk about the project.

The music critic and regular Gramophone contributor Richard Bratby has just published a history of the Academy of Ancient Music, Refiner's Fire, the first book telling the story of a period-instrument ensemble (Elliott & Thompson; £25). 

James Jolly spoke to Richard about the book, about its charismatic founder and long-serving Music Director Christopher Hogwood, and about how a substantial recording contract with Decca'a L'Oiseau-Lyre label ? masterminded by the producer Peter Wadland ? shaped the ensemble's style and approach.

This week's podcast is made in association with Wigmore Hall. For a full list of concerts, visit wigmore-hall.org.uk

This week's Gramophone Podcast explores the music by Gabriel Fauré for cello and piano to coincide with a beautiful new recording by Xavier Phillips and Cédric Tiberghien on La Dolce Volta - and the cellist and pianist join Editor Martin Cullingford to discuss it. 

This week's topic is a new recording by Brecon Baroque of Bach's Goldberg Variations in a fascinating new arrangement by Chad Kelly who, together with violinist Rachel Podger, joins Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about it. This week's Podcast is published in association with Wigmore Hall. 

 

Milo?'s new album is a journey of music around the continent of Europe in the era of the Baroque, and is named an Editor's Choice in the current issue of Gramophone. Editor Martin Cullingford met up with the guitarist to talk about the story behind this beautiful recording, which is available on the Sony Classical label.

In this week's Gramophone Podcast we meet with Swedish violinist Johan Dalene, a former Gramophone Young Artist of the Year. He joins Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about his new release on the BIS label, 'Stained Glass', recorded with pianist Christian Ihle Hadland ? a beautifully-performed programme of Ravel, Prokofiev, Pärt, Bacewicz and Boulanger. 

In this special edition of the Gramophone Podcast, we explore the full list of winners from this year's Gramophone Classical Music Awards. Editor-in-Chief James Jolly, Editor Martin Cullingford and Deputy Editor Tim Parry talk through the Category Winners, the Special Awards, and of course the new Recording of the Year - complete with excerpts of every album.

The complete piano trios of Dvo?ák is the topic this week, as Editor Martin Cullingford catches up with pianist Boris Giltburg, violinist Veronika Jar??ková and the cellist Petre Jar??ek, who have just recorded them for Supraphon. 

Jeremy Eichler's new book, Time's Echo, just out from Faber (HB; £25) tangles with memory ? what we choose to remember, what to forget ? as history takes hold, and he argues that music can become in many ways the most powerful form of memorial. To illustrate this argument, he engages with works by Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten. James Jolly caught up with him recently to talk about the book. 

The musical excerpts which appear on the podcast, with kind permission, are:

Shostakovich Symphony No 13, 'Babi Yar' Nikita Storojev; CBSO & Choir / Okko Kamu (Chandos)

Schoenberg A Survivor or from Warsaw Franz Mazura; CBSO & Chorus / Simon Rattle (Warner Classics)

R Strauss Metamorphosen Sinfonia of London / John Wilson (Chandos)

Britten War Requiem Soloists; Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral; LSO & Chorus / Richard Hickox (Chandos)

This Gramophone Podcast is published in association with Wigmore Hall. Visit Wigmore Hall's webite for full details of this week's events.

The conductor William Vann discusses his superb new Chandos Records release of Parry's Prometheus Unbound, Gramophone's Recording of the Month, with Editor Martin Cullingford. 

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, this week, Benjamin Britten. Each podcast is accompanied by a special Apple Music playlist. 

In this final podcast, James talks to the Financial Times and Gramophone critic Richard Fairman about this towering figure in British musical life. Britten recorded for Decca, as composer, pianist and conductor, for most of his adult life and left a peerless catalogue of recordings, including one of the classics of the gramophone, the War Requiem.

The latest in our series of composer podcasts focusses on Dmitri Shostakovich. Edward Seckerson joins Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford to share his insights with us into one of the greatest of 20th-century musical figures, with a particular focus on his extraordinary symphonies and what they reveal about his life. 

In this third in our series of Decca Icons podcasts, James talks to the critic and broadcaster Rob Cowan about the Hungarian-born Sir Georg Solti who made his first recording for Decca in 1947 and remained a Decca artist until his death in 1997, leaving an extraordinary recorded legacy. The podcast is accompanied by a special Apple Music playlist which you can find at Gramophone's website. 

Jennifer Higdon wrote her Concerto for Orchestra for the Philadelphia Orchestra and its then-Music Director Wolfgang Sawallisch who gave the work its premiere in 2002. Since then it's been recorded by the Atlanta Symphony and, on a new Naxos album just out, by the Houston Symphony - both conducted by Robert Spano. The new recording finds the Concerto for Orchestra joined by a much newer work, Higdon's double percussion concerto, Duo Duel (2020), played by the artists who commissioned it, Svet Stoyanov and Matthew Strauss.

James Jolly caught up with Jennifer Higdon to talk about the two works' beginnings, and about how the composer manages her amazingly busy schedule.

This week's podcast is produced in association with the Lake George Music Festival where you can enjoy classical music among some of America's most spectacular scenery. Visit lakegeorgemusicfestival.com to find out more.

Rachel Barton Pine's new album pairs Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No 1 with a new work by Earl Maneein called Dependent Arising, a heavy metal-influenced concerto written especially for her. In this week's Gramophone Podcast the violinist tells Editor Martin Cullingford about the recording, and explores some of the links between the two genres of music, classical and heavy metal. The album - called Dependent Arising - is available from Cedille. 

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 enthusiast Jed Distler about the Russian-born pianist and conductor, Vladimir Ashkenazy.

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.

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 tenth, to discuss and to share on this week's Podcast. Find out what they've chosen, as we celebrate some superb recordings and a splendid label. 

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 up ensembles and opera house in Amsterdam, London, Glyndebourne, Dresden and Chicago, as well as being a much sought-after guest, and left a vast recorded catalogue.

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, and we play excerpts from some absolute highlights from the archives. 

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.

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 our website before September 7.

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 orchestra, head to the Awards page of our website, but before you do (and voting remains open until September 7), maybe wait until next week's podcast when James will be in conversation with Rob Cowan about the remaining five orchestras. And to help you make up your mind, you can listen to the specially created playlists on Apple Music Classical.

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 audiences today demand such an approach and how concert-giving has changed since the dark days of the pandemic.

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 accompaniment to our cover story.

 

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.

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.

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. 

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, with the Corelli Variations forming the centrepiece.

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 catalogue for Chandos is extensive and is crowned by the 2020 release of Benjamin Britten?s Peter Grimes, recorded in Bergen, which was voted Gramophone?s Opera Award winner but also our Recording of the Year.

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. 

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, Newby's career has taken off impressively. James Jolly met up with him earlier this week to talk about the new album.

Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall. 

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. 

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.

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

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.