Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

Following last year's Gramophone Award-winning solo Verdi album, Ludovic Tézier returns to the composer – and a couple of others – for his latest Sony Classical release, 'Insieme' (Together). Joining Jonas Kaufmann he explores some of the great tenor-baritone duets of the operatic repertoire with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano. He talks to Gramophone Editor-in-Chief James Jolly.

This autumn marks five year since the death of the baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, aged just 55. To mark this sad anniversary Decca Eloquence has gathered together the 11 recital programmes he recorded for Philips following his sensational triumph at the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World competition, one that launched his live and recorded career. Anna Barry was the producer of all of Hvorostovsky's recordings for Philips, and for this week's edition of the Gramophone Podcast she joined Editor Martin Cullingford to look back at a glorious voice and a fine artist.

Lucie Horsch's new album, Origins, begins with the bebop of Charlie Parker before taking us on wide-ranging and diverse journey embracing Bartók, Piazzolla, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, with a particular focus on folk music. The Dutch recorder player joined Editor Martin Cullingford on this week's Gramophone Podcast to talk about the release, which will be available on Decca next Friday.

The forthcoming album from Bjarte Eike and the Barokksolistene explores the world of Restoration London, when musicians, actors and art forms all mingled creatively in the backrooms of English pubs. Eike joins Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford to tell us more about the recording. Gramophone Podcasts are published in association with Wigmore Hall.

Guitarist Plínio Fernandes's debut album for Decca Gold, 'Saudade', is a very personal album drawing on his Brazilian roots. From music at the heart of the classical guitar repertoire such as Villa-Lobos's Five Preludes to arrangements of popular songs, it's a wonderful portrait of both Fernandes as an artist and of the guitar's place in Brazilian musical life. Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford met up with him. Gramophone Podcasts are in association with Wigmore Hall.

Edward Seckerson joins the Gramophone Podcast to talk to Editor Martin Cullingford about the music, recordings and greatest interpreters of Mahler

The tenor Jonathan Tetelman has signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, the first fruit of which is a solo album called, simply, 'Arias'. James Jolly caught up with him by video call as the tenor prepared for a concert in Stockholm. They spoke the day 'Arias' was released. For 'Arias', Jonathan Tetelman was joined by the Orquesta Filarmonica De Gran Canaria conducted by Karel Mark Chichon in some of Italian and French opera's favourite numbers, including a role Tetelman has performed to great acclaim, Paolo in Riccardo Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini.

During holiday periods, we occasionally return to past podcasts, and this week, prompted by the news that he is about to release a new album inspired by an encounter with György Kurtág, we revisit a conversation from September 2021 with the Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. James Jolly caught up by video call with the pianist at his home in Iceland just a few days after Ólafsson's triumphant debut at the 2021 BBC Proms to talk about the album 'Mozart & Contemporaries' which gathers music by CPE Bach, Galuppi, Cimarosa and Haydn around the great Wolfgang Amadeus.

During holiday periods, we occasionally revisit past podcasts, and this week, prompted by the announcement that Andrew Nethsingha will be succeeding James O'Donnell as Organist and Choirmaster of Westminster Abbey, we return to a conversation from November last year. Editor Martin Cullingford was joined by Andrew, Director of the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge to discuss the choir's new album on Signum, 'The Tree' - as well as the recent announcement that the choir will soon welcome female voices for the first time in its history.

Eloquence has just issued two box sets, 'Paul Paray: The Mercury Masters', 45 CDs in all, which gather together the recordings made for Mercury between 1953 and 1962. The French conductor (1886-1979) created a magnificent ensemble during his ten years as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's Music Director, and their partnership became one of the cornerstones of the Mercury Living Presence catalogue. Rob Cowan, Gramophone's expert on archive recordings, spoke to James Jolly for this podcast about the recordings and Paray's very special art.

Gramophone's Orchestra of the Year Award is the only prize voted on by readers. To help you choose this year's winner, James Jolly spoke to two of Gramophone's regular contributors about five orchestras each, and in this second of two podcasts, Andrew Mellor gives his perspective on ensembles from Hungary, France, Norway, the UK and one that draws its players for over 40 different nationalities. The Orchestra of the Year Award is presented in association with Apple Music.

Gramophone's Orchestra of the Year Award is the only prize voted on by music lovers, and to help you decide on 2022's ensemble, James Jolly spoke to two of our regular contributors about five orchestras each. In the first of two episodes, Rob Cowan gives his perspective on ensembles from Austria, the Czech Republic, England, the USA and Germany. The Orchestra of the Year Award is presented in association with Apple Music, and you can listen to complete recordings of the works discussed in the special lossless playlist at our website.

Nico Muhly's Stranger, premiered in 2020, gives its name to a new album from Avie featuring the tenor Nicholas Phan. The album also includes two earlier works, Muhly's Lorne ys my likinge, written as a companion piece to Benjamin Britten's Abraham and Isaac and similarly scored for countertenor, tenor and piano (for which Phan is joined by countertenor Reginald Mobley and pianist Lisa Kaplan), and Impossible Things, setting poems by CP Cavafy, and featuring a solo violin and ensemble: on the new recording, The Knights, conducted by Eric Jacobsen with Colin Jacobsen taking the solo violin role. James Jolly caught up by video call with Nicholas Phan in San Francisco and Nico Muhly in New York to talk about the album, and how Stranger came into being.

Andrew Mellor is a former Gramophone Reviews Editor who now lives in Denmark where he pursues a career as a freelance journalist with a special focus on things Nordic, and he's still very much part of the Gramophone family as a regular contributor to the magazine. James Jolly caught up with him recently to talk about his new book, The Northern Silence, his passion for Nordic culture and the differences between the various countries he writes about. The Northern Silence is published by Yale University Press, and is just out. The recording of Sibelius's Tapiola is by the Helsinki PO and Leif Segerstam (Ondine).

Alexander Ullman's new album featuring Liszt's Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2 and the Sonata in B Minor, is released today on Rubicon Classics. The Award-winning pianist joined Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford to explore this extraordinary music, its beauty and its challenges.

The Canadian violinist James Ehnes has his own string quartet for which he's joined by fellow violinist Amy Schwarz Moretti, viola-player Richard Yongjae O'Neill and cellist Edward Arron, and they've released the final instalment in their series of recordings for Onyx of the Op 74 and 95 quartets and all the late quartets. Their final volume includes the A minor, Op 132 and the F major, Op 135. James Jolly caught up with James Ehnes by video call in Bergen, where he was recording the Nielsen Violin Concerto with Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic, to talk about how he formed the quartet, and their journey through the quartets of Beethoven.

This week's guest is Bridget Cunningham, Artist Director of London Early Opera, who joins Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about her new recording - Caio Fabbricio, a pasticcio opera by Handel, newly available on Signum. But what exactly is a pasticcio opera, and what role does the music of Hasse play in the work? Join us as we step into 18th century London musical life to find out the answers...

Anne-Sophie Mutter premiered John Williams's Second Violin Concerto, written for her, in Boston in July 2021 and DG recorded the work shortly after. One of the most listened-to composers on the planet, thanks to his peerless film scores, Williams has long been drawn the concerto as a form, and has written for many great musicians, including Gil Shaham and Yo-Yo Ma. James Jolly caught up with John Williams by phone earlier this year to talk about the new violin concerto, Williams's concert music and his love of conducting. John Williams features on the cover of the July issue of Gramophone, out on June 10. Andrew Farach-Colton writes about Williams's concert music and we review the new DG recording of the Second Violin Concerto as well as Yo-Yo Ma's new Sony Classical recording of the revised version of John Williams's Cello Concerto.

Helen Charlston has recorded her first entirely solo album for Delphian, for which she was joined by the theorbo player Toby Carr. 'Battle Cry: She Speaks' combines music of the 17th century with a new work written for her by Owain Park, 'Battle Cry', which gives the album its title. James Jolly caught up with her to talk about the album and find out about what's coming up from this much sought-after young singer. A BBC New Generation artist, Helen won First Prize in the 2018 Handel Singing Competition and was a Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for 2017-19. Her first album for Delphian, mainly of duets with her soon-to-be-husband Michael Craddock, was 'The Isolation Songbook', warmly welcomed by Gramophone's Alexandra Coghlan who wrote that 'the results are varied, from comic miniatures to distilled dramas and contemplative outpourings, but together add up to a recital that's hard to resist, at once fresh and profoundly familiar'.

The French tenor, Cyrille Dubois, with his regular piano partner Tristan Raës, releases the complete songs by Gabriel Fauré on May 27. This Aparté release is the first time the entire song output of the composer has been recorded by a single singer. James Jolly caught up with Cyrille Dubois to discuss the project, and also hear about what the tenor is up to next. Gramophone Podcasts are presented in association with Wigmore Hall.

Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers's new album, 'Shining Night', takes listeners on a musical journey through the passing of a day - via Villa-Lobos, Leo Brouwer, Bach and even Elvis - much of it in the company of guitarist Jason Vieaux. She talks to Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford about how she developed this wonderful programme. A Gramophone Podcast presented in association with Wigmore Hall.

Jakub Józef Orliński was Gramophone's Young Artist of the Year in 2019 and in the three years since has established himself as one of the world's leading countertenors. An exclusive Erato artist, he's made a trio of recordings of Baroque music, but his new album, 'Farewells', for which he's partnered by Michał Biel, features a selection of Polish art songs that ranges over two centuries. James Jolly caught up with Jakub Józef Orliński by Zoom to talk about 'Farewells' and how he chose the songs for the album. Gramophone Podcasts are presented in association with Wigmore Hall.

The Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley has just released an album, 'Crossing the Bar', created during lockdown and prompted by her acquiring a new piano. Gramophone's James Jolly went to speak to her at Angel Studios in Islington about the album, but also about her work in music across so many different genres. Gramophone Podcasts are presented in association with Wigmore Hall.

This week's guest is Emmanuelle Haïm, the conductor of Le Concert d'Astrée, and the creative spirit behind its superb catalogue of brilliant and Award-winning albums. It's 20 years since she founded the ensemble to perform baroque music, and in a celebratory podcast Haïm tells Editor Martin Cullingford about those two decades of discovery. Musical excerpts are taken from the new album 'Une nouvelle fête Baroque - 20 ans du Concert d'Astrée', available from today on Erato. This Gramphone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.

While we take a short break, we've revisited one of the most popular episodes we've published. It's a conversation devoted to exploring the music, life and legacy of a composer whose work is very associated with Easter – the greatest genius of Baroque music, JS Bach. In March 2021, Editor Martin Cullingford invited Bach specialist and Gramophone reviewer, the Royal Academy of Music's Principal Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, to talk about the composer of some of the most profound masterpieces ever written. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall.

In this week's Gramophone Podcast Editor Martin Cullingford meets with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet to discuss volume six of his series of Mozart piano concertos, recorded with the Manchester Camerata and conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy. This album features Piano Concerto No 22, K482 and No 23, K488, and is available on the Chandos label. Gramophone Podcasts are produced in association with Wigmore Hall.

The 2022 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition launches on Tuesday, April 5 with its preliminary rounds in London. Between then and April 10, some of the world's most impressive young ensembles will be performing in front of an impressive jury until one is awarded first prize, and the guarantee of a glowing future. James Jolly went to Wigmore Hall to talk to the Hall's Director John Gilhooly and Hélène Clément, the viola-player of the Doric Quartet, to learn about the competition and how the jury reaches its verdict. We hear excerpts from the Alpha Classics recordings by the 2018 winners, the Esmé Quartet (in music by Beethoven and Bridge) and the 2015 winners, the Van Kuijk Quartet (in music by Schubert). Gramophone Podcasts are presented in association with Wigmore Hall.

Last year – and for the fourth consecutive year – we asked our readers, followers and visitors to our website to vote, from a short list of 10, for our Orchestra of the Year for 2021. Thousands of votes were cast, but romping in by a long margin, was the Minnesota Orchestra. As we look back on that Award, Gramophone's Editor in Chief, James Jolly, caught up with the Minnesota Orchestra's Music Director Osmo Vänskä to talk about his 19-year tenure with the ensemble, how the relationship has changed, and the recordings they have made together. Gramophone Podcasts are presented in association with Wigmore Hall.

A recording of Drone Mass by the late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson is released today by Deutsche Grammophon, performed by Theatre of Voices and ACME, and conducted by Paul Hillier. In this week's Gramophone podcast, Hillier joins Editor Martin Cullingford to recall the creative process of working with Jóhannsson, and to explore this fascinating work and the experience of recording it. Gramophone Podcasts are produced in association with Wigmore Hall.

The American soprano Nadine Sierra's second album for DG, 'Made for Opera', focuses on three timeless operatic heroines, Verdi's Violetta in La traviata, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Gounod's Juliette from Roméo et Juliette. She's partnered by the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI conducted by Riccardo Frizza. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall. James Jolly caught up with Nadine Sierra by Zoom to talk about the album and her relationship with these three remarkable operatic women.

For his second album for Warner Classics, the pianist Martin James Bartlett brings together works by Gershwin and Rachmaninov, both solo and with orchestra. James Jolly met up with Martin to talk about the album, the connections it makes and his admiration for the work and playing of the American pianist Earl Wild. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall.

Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande was recorded for Harmonia Mundi, following performances directed by Daniel Jeanneteau at the Opéra de Lille last March. François-Xavier Roth conducted his period-instrument ensemble, Les Siècles, with Julien Behr and Vannina Santoni singing the title-roles. James Jolly caught up with the conductor by Zoom to talk about the opera. Gramophone podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall.

Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford talks to Mozart expert Richard Wigmore about the composer's extraordinary life and music.

For this week's Gramophone podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by violinist Daniel Hope to explore his new album 'America', available now on the Deutsche Grammophon label

Leonidas Kavakos's recording of the complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin is newly released on Sony Classical. In today's Gramophone Podcast he talks to Editor Martin Cullingford about these extraordinary works.

Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie, designed by Harzog and du Meuron, and occupying a prime position in the old docks area of the city, opened its doors five years ago. Since then it has welcomed about 3.3 million concertgoers to the hall and 4.5 million visitors to the Plaza viewing platform. The result is that the concert audience in Hamburg has actually tripled over the past five years. More than 3400 educational events with 200,000 participants and almost 10,000 guided tours to date demonstrate how the Elbphilharmonie has succeeded in attracting people of all age groups. In this latest Gramophone Podcast, produced in association with Hamburg Marketing, James Jolly spoke to the Elbphilharmonie's General and Artistic Director, Christoph Lieben-Seutter, and the Chief Conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Alan Gilbert, about the effect of the hall not just on the city but also in Continental Europe. To find out more about what Germany's second city has to offer, visit hamburg-travel.com

While we take a pause for Christmas, we're bringing you four podcasts which we found particularly memorable conversations, and this week it's once again the turn of Martin Cullingford to choose. In October 2019, he met up with the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber to talk about a classic of the instrument's repertoire, Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto, which was first heard exactly 100 years earlier. The excerpts are taken from from Julian Lloyd Webber's own recording of the work conducted by Yehudi Menuhin, on the Philips label.

While we take a pause for Christmas and the New Year, we're bringing you four podcasts which we've particularly enjoyed making. This week's is by James Jolly, and comes from August 2018 when he went to Rome to report on a celebration of the music of a composer currently very much in the news with the release of the Steven Spielberg's film of West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein, and whose centenary was being marked that year.

While we take a pause for Christmas, we're bringing you four podcasts which Gramophone's Martin Cullingford and James Jolly have chosen as particularly enjoyable conversations. This podcast dates from February 2019, the month the much-loved singer Dame Emma Kirkby turned 70 – and also the year in which Gramophone celebrated her enormous contribution to musical life with a Gramophone Lifetime Achievement Award. James Jolly went to talk to the soprano for a special birthday podcast.

While we take a pause for Christmas, we offer four podcasts which Gramophone's Martin Cullingford and James Jolly have chosen as particularly enjoyable and memorable conversations. We start with one of Martin's ... In this archive Gramophone Podcast from October 2018, the baritone Sir Thomas Allen talks about his Champs Hill album, September Songs. Drawing on personal favourites from the 'Great American Songbook', it sees the acclaimed singer step from the opera stage and lieder recital hall for which he is best known, to the music of Broadway. In this fascinating conversation he discusses his love of this repertoire, with its melodic beauty, lyrical inventiveness and emotional directness - and his choice of songs.

This week's episode is a little different. Instead of interviewing an artist about their new album, Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford, Editor-in-Chief James Jolly, and Reviews Editor Tim Parry, each choose their favourite three recordings of 2021, and explain why they were so impressed by them. Listen to the discussion - and excerpts from each album - in this week's special edition of the Gramophone Podcast.

Aleksandra Kurzak joined Vienna's Morphing Chamber Orchestra for a new album for Aparté - 'Mozart - Concertante'. The programme culminates in a performance of the great Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola, K364, but before that she sings a selection of arias that present many of the orchestra's players in solo roles. James Jolly caught up with the soprano by Zoom in Wrocław.

After leading orchestras in Bournemouth, Baltimore and São Paulo, Marin Alsop became Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2019. Her inaugural concert in Vienna's Konzerthaus featured music by Paul Hindemith, Christopher Rouse and Lera Auerbach, making a strong statement about where her musical sympathies lay. From that opening concert, recorded live, comes a new album from Naxos of Hindemith's Mathis der Maler Symphony and one-act opera Sancta Susanna, supplemented by a studio recording of three dances from another of the one-act operas, Nusch-Nuschi. James Jolly caught up with the American conductor to talk Hindemith, her vision for her new tenure in Austria and how the pandemic has reset many perceptions about the 'core' repertoire and how things might change in the future.

For this week's Gramophone podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by Andrew Nethsingha, Director of the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge to discuss their new album on Signum, 'The Tree' - as well as the recent announcement that the choir will soon welcome female voices for the first time in its history. This week's Gramophone Podcast is produced in Association with Leipzig, the City of Music.

The soprano Jeanine De Bique has released her first solo album, 'Mirrors', with Concerto Köln, for Berlin Classics. Gramophone's James Jolly caught up with her to talk about the recording, as well as Rameau's Platée, also just out from Harmonia Mundi, as she start rehearsals in Paris for Handel's Alcina at the Salle Garner. This Gramophone Podcast is given in association with Leipzig – the City of Music.

In this week's podcast we welcome countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, to talk about his new album À sa guitare, recorded with Thibaut Garcia. A beautiful album that takes us on a journey from the Renaissance to the modern age, it's available on the Erato label. The Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Leipzig - the city of music.

The great Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink died on October 21 at the age of 92. During his 65 years career he conducted many of the world's great orchestras, holding posts with Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra for 27 years, as well as the London Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Glyndebourne and the Royal Opera, and regularly guest conducting the Boston Symphony, the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the Bavarian RSO, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and numerous others. He left over 450 recordings, and they provide the focus for this conversation between Gramophone's Editor in Chief, James Jolly, and the critic and broadcaster, and Gramophone reviewer, Rob Cowan. This Gramophone Podcast is given in association with Leipzig – the City of Music.

For this week's Gramophone Podcast Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by the acclaimed violinist and conductor Fabio Biondi to talk about the complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by JS Bach, which he has just recorded for the Naïve label. This week's Gramophone Podcast is in association with Leipzig – the City of Music.

Bach's cello suites are among the most extraordinary works - both joyful and profound - written for the instrument. In his new book, 'The Bach Cello Suites: A Companion', published by Faber, Steven Isserlis draws on decades of reflection on this music, sharing his views and encouraging us to listen in even greater depth. He joins Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about his book and the music. Excerpts throughout are taken from his recording of the suites, available on the Hyperion label, Gramophone's Instrumental Award winner back in 2007. This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Leipzig – the City of Music.

The winners of the 2021 Gramophone Classical Music Awards have been revealed. To hear more about what lay behind the decisions to honour this year's winners, and to hear excerpts from all the winning artists and recordings, listen to this special second edition of our Awards Podcast, featuring Editor-in-Chief James Jolly, Editor Martin Cullingford and Reviews Editor Tim Parry. This week's Gramophone Podcast is in association with Leipzig – the City of Music.