Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Gramophone's Orchestra of the Year 2023 - the nominees, Part 1, with Andrew Mellor Jun 30, 2023

Show notes

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.

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Benjamin Appl and James Baillieu on 'Forbidden Fruit' Jun 23, 2023

Show notes

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.

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Handel: a podcast portrait Jun 16, 2023

Show notes

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.

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Richard Boothby on his new album 'Music to hear...' Jun 09, 2023

Show notes

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.

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Lawrence Brownlee on his new album, Rising Jun 02, 2023

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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.

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Reginald Mobley on his new album, 'Because' May 26, 2023

Show notes

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.

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Kirill Gerstein on playing Rachmaninov May 19, 2023

Show notes

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.

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Edward Gardner: celebrating Chandos, Gramophone's Label of the Year May 12, 2023

Show notes

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.

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Karim Sulayman and Sean Shibe on 'Broken Branches' May 05, 2023

Show notes

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.

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James Newby on 'Fallen to Dust', an English song recital Apr 28, 2023

Show notes

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.

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