Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

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Conductor Klaus Mäkelä on performing Mahler's Eighth at the 2025 Mahler Festival Nov 07, 2025

Show notes

In May this year, the Concertgebouw – Amsterdam's legendary concert hall – played host to the 2025 Mahler Festival. Originally scheduled for 2000, the centenary of the first such event, but moved back by five years due to the pandemic, the Mahler Festival saw all of Mahler's symphonies performed chronologically over two weeks, and performed by a handful of the world's great orchestras. The Eighth Symphony fell to the local band, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and their Chief Conductor Designate, Klaus Mäkelä, who gave two performances, both of which were recorded. And that recording has just been released by Decca – digitally worldwide, with a CD version available in Japan and Korea to coincide with the orchestra's first tour of Asia with Mäkelä before Christmas.

James Jolly caught up with Klaus Mäkelä to talk about the conductor's continuing fascination with Mahler's music, and particularly with the Eighth Symphony, the performances of which were clearly a highpoint in the conductor's career so far.

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Pianist Mao Fujita on concluding his preludes project Oct 28, 2025

Show notes

Mao Fujita, who took second prize in the Piano category at the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition, released an album on Sony Classical of 72 preludes back in the autumn of 2024 – the three sets of 24 by Chopin, Scriabin and Akio Yashiro. Now as a pendant to that project he has recorded another six, by Ravel, Rachmaninov, Mompou, Franck, Busoni and Alkan. These have been issued individually over the past couple of months, and on November 28 they are all gathered together as an EP.

James Jolly caught up with Mao Fujita in the summer at the Verbier Festival and spoke to him about the 72 preludes album, the new six preludes, and his plans for the future.

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Composer and author Robin Holloway on celebrating 900 years of classical music Oct 28, 2025

Show notes

The composer, academic and writer Robin Holloway has just published a new book, Music's Odyssey, An Invitation to Western Classical Music (Allen Lane). He's Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge, where James Jolly went to visit him a couple of weeks ago to talk about the book's genesis and aims.

The podcast features an excerpt from Holloway's Second Concerto for Orchestra played by the BBC SO conducted by Oliver Knussen on NMC which won Gramophone's Contemporary Music Award in 1994, and also one from Hans Werner Henze's Undine, played by the London Sinfonietta, also conducted by Oliver Knussen on DG.

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Countertenor Philippe Jaroussky on his new album 'Gelosia!' Oct 24, 2025

Show notes

The French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky has just released a new Erato album of cantatas da camera by Alessandro Scarlatti, Porpora, Galuppi, Handel and Vivaldi, 'Gelosia!'. On it he also conducts his ensemble Artaserse, which he founded in 2002, and with which he increasingly appears solely as conductor rather than as singer.

Gramophone's James Jolly went to talk to him in Paris about the new album, but also about a major milestone in his musical career, 25 years of making recordings for Erato.

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The Hermes Experiment on their new album, Tree Oct 20, 2025

Show notes

The Hermes Experiment - an ever-innovative, exploratory and imaginative ensemble - have released their new album, Tree, a meditation on nature, memory and change embracing contemporary composers and reimagined music from the past. Two members of the group, soprano Héloïse Werner and clarinetist Oliver Pashley - who also both have compositions on the album - joined Editor Martin Cullingford in the Gramophone Podcast studio to discuss this beautiful release.

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Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2025: The Winners Oct 17, 2025

Show notes

In this special edition of the Gramophone Podcast, we explore the full list of winners from this year's Gramophone Classical Music Awards. Editor Emeritus James Jolly, Editor Martin Cullingford, Deputy Editor Tim Parry and Editor of Opera Now and Choir & Organ Hattie Butterworth talk through the Category Winners, the Special Awards, and of course the new Recording of the Year – complete with excerpts of every album.

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Maxim Emelyanychev on Mozart's symphonies Oct 10, 2025

Show notes

For this week's Gramophone Podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford travelled to Padua to talk to Maxim Emelyanychev, Chief Conductor of Il Pomo d'Oro, about recording Mozart symphonies - and specially their latest release of Symphonies Nos 35 and 36, and Violin Concerto No 3 - on period instruments for the Aparté label.

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Tine Thing Helseth on Echoes, her new album of trumpet concertos Oct 02, 2025

Show notes

This week's guest on the Gramophone Podcast is trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, who talks to Editor Martin Cullingford about her new recording on the Lawo label. Called 'Echoes', it features works by Arutiunian, Penderecki and Weinberg - she talks about the album, as well as her wider work championing her instrument and its repertoire.

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Ian Page on the music of Gluck Sep 26, 2025

Show notes

In this week's Gramophone Podcast, the conductor Ian Page joins Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about the music of the 18th-century composer Gluck, setting him in the context of musical developments of his time. The conversation marks the release of the new album from his ensemble The Mozartists - a recording of arias from Gluck operas, sung by Ann Hallenberg, and newly released on Signum Classics.

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Anastasia Kobekina on Bach's Cello Suites | Gramophone Podcast Sep 19, 2025

Show notes

In this week's Gramophone Podcast, cellist Anastasia Kobekina talks about her new recording of one of the most revered series of works for her instrument - Bach's Solo Cello Suites. While the album isn't released by Sony Classical until next Friday (September 26), three movements are already available as singles, and in this side ranging conversation with Editor Martin Cullingford Kobekina talks about interpreting music from the Baroque through to the present day.

The Gramophone Podcast will now be included in The British Library Sound Archive, catalogued and preserved for future generations as part of the nation's audio and cultural heritage.

Gramophone Magazine is a leading monthly publication for classical music, offering expert reviews, in-depth interviews, and industry insights. Available in print and online, it connects enthusiasts with the best recordings, artists, and trends in classical music worldwide.

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