Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by Peter Whelan, the Artistic Director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra, to talk about his new recording on the Linn label of one of the great masterpieces of all choral music - Handel's Messiah. The world-famous oratorio was premiered in Dublin, where the ensemble is based, and so on this wonderful recording they've set out to recreate the atmosphere and experience of that very first occasion. Listen now to find out more about the story behind – and about Peter Whelan's lifelong relationship to – this remarkable work.

Peter Phillips, founder and conductor of the Tallis Scholars, renowned for Renaissance polyphony. Nico Muhly, contemporary composer noted for vocal and choral works and long-term collaboration with the ensemble. They discuss how their partnership developed, writing for the Tallis ten-voice texture, blending Renaissance models with modern texts, and the stories behind several striking new pieces.

Huw Watkins, British composer and pianist who wrote several works for the Hallé. Sir Mark Elder, distinguished British conductor and long-time Hallé music director. They discuss Watkins composing his Symphony No.2, Concerto for Orchestra and a fanfare for the Hallé. Topics include writing during COVID, orchestral character and principals, rhythmic and rehearsal challenges, and the conductor-composer collaboration.

For this episode, we're joined by conductor Edward Gardner, who talks to Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford about his new recording of Richard Strauss's opera Elektra, which is newly released on the Chandos label. Recorded by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, and with an impressive cast led by Iréne Theorin in the title role, Gardner talks us through what it takes to bring this extraordinarily dramatic work to the stage - and to life. This podcast is in association with REMA/Early Music Day

Alexander Malofeev, a Russian concert pianist and Sony Classical recording artist, discusses his debut solo album Forgotten Melodies. He talks about choosing Medtner’s cycle, the nostalgic thread linking Glinka, Rachmaninoff and Glazunov, recording in an intimate church acoustic, stepping in for Martha Argerich with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and crafting an experimental European recital programme.

In this week's episode of the Gramophone Podcast, editor Martin Cullingford is joined by pianist Martin James Bartlett to discuss his new recording of the music of Bach, Britten and Mozart, available on the Warner Classics label from February the 27th. Bartlett reflects on the artistic ideas that shaped this programming.

The celebrated pianist Dame Imogen Cooper recently announced that the coming year will be her last of public performances. To mark the occasion - and the release of her new album of late Beethoven sonatas on the Chandos label - Editor Martin Cullingford welcomed her on to the Gramophone Podcast, and invited her to select a number of her recordings that have meant the most to her. This podcast is in association with REMA/Early Music Day

Kevin Puts' newest song cycle sets Emily Dickinson's poetry for mezzo and three instrumentalists. Hattie Butterworth speaks to Joyce DiDonato and ensemble Time for Three about this unique collaboration and recording, 'Emily: No Prisoner Be'

The soprano Adriana González has just released a new Audax album, 'Rondos for Adriana', inspired by her namesake, the Italian 18th-century diva Adriana Ferrarese del Bene. Ferrarese was Mozart's first Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) and she sang Susanna in the Viennese revival of Le nozze di Figaro in 1789. Joined by Ensemble Diderot (led by Johannes Pramsohler, who also plays a couple of rondos for violin and orchestra), conducted by Iñaki Encina Oyon, Adriana González performs arias and rondos by Vicente Martín y Soler, Angelo Tarchi, Ferdinando Gaspari Bertoni, Giuseppe Giordani, Pasquale Anfossi and Joseph Weigl. James Jolly caught up with Adriana González in Vienna while she was rehearsing for her debut at the Staatsoper as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro.

Toronto's ARC Ensemble have been exploring the music of composers forced to flee their homeland by the Nazis. The most recent release in Chandos's Music in Exile series – of music by Ernest Kanitz (1894-1978) – drew an enthusiastic welcome by Gramophone's critic Richard Bratby, a review that closed with the hope that 'there's more Kanitz to come'. James Jolly spoke by Zoom to the ARC Ensemble's Artistic Director Simon Wynberg about the musicians of the Ensemble and the music that animates this important recording project, bringing this often totally forgotten music back to life – and also about their forthcoming visit to London's Wigmore Hall for a day of concerts on February 1.