Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

For this week's episode of the Gramophone Podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford sat down for an in-depth conversation with the wonderful soprano Ermonela Jaho, to talk about Opera Rara's new release of the final version of Puccini's La Rondine, as well as to talk about her path to the artist she has today.

This week's podcast is brought to you in association with the Pehlivanian International Conducting Competition, which takes place in Bled, Slovenia from November 7-14, and which Gramophone is proud to be the official media partner of. For more details, visit https://pehlivaniancompetition.com/

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Anthony Roth Constanzo has not only released a new recording for Nonesuch, but he has written a book, also called Countertenor, which is published next week, by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The album’s astoundingly eclectic programme embraces a world premiere recording of a new song by Osvaldo Golijov; arias by Philip Glass, Mozart, Vivaldi and Monteverdi; a traditional Hawaiian song; John Dowland and Thomas Morley lute songs; a Klaus Nomi-inspired interpretation of John Madara and David White’s ‘You Don’t Own Me’; and the classic Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons’ number, ‘Walk Like a Man’.

As well as being a highly acclaimed singer and opera director, with a remarkably broad repertoire, Anthony Roth Costanzo has, since June 2024, been General Director of Opera Philadelphia. James Jolly caught up with him by Zoom during rehearsals for a new Missy Mazzoli opera, Lincoln in the Bardo, which has just opened at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

They talked about the castrato, how the countertenor re-emerged from obscurity in the middle of the last century, how his own voice has led him in many unexpected directions and how his experience in, among other things, Baroque and modern opera, shapes the way he approaches his role at the helm of Opera Philadelphia.

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The Georgian-born pianist and composer – and a former Gramophone ‘One to Watch’ and Editor’s Choice recipient – Nicolas Namoradze has signed a recording contract with the Finnish Ondine label. The first fruit of the agreement is an album of solo Beethoven that includes two of the composer’s greatest fugues, the Grosse Fuge (the original last movement of the Op 130 String Quartet) which Namoradze has arranged for piano, and the Hammerklavier Sonata, Op 106, whose finale finds Beethoven writing one of his most dazzling examples of the form. The third work on the album is the earlier F major Piano Sonata, Op 54, which though not a fugue reveals the composer’s mastery of contrapuntal writing. James Jolly spoke to Nicolas Namoradze about the new album and explored Beethoven’s use of the fugue in these great works, and how the pianist, as composer, transformed the Grosse Fuge from music for four string instruments to a towering work for solo pianist.

This episode is sponsored by Concerto Budapest, and earlier this month Concerto Budapest and its Music Director András Keller celebrated the centenary of the legendary Hungarian composer György Kurtág with a special concert live from the Grand Hall of Budapest’s Liszt Academy which you can watch here on Gramophone’s website and also read an interview with András Keller about Concerto Budapest.

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In this week's episode of The Gramophone Listening Room, presented in partnership with dCS Audio, host Charlotte Gardner welcomes cellist Laura van der Heijden and horn player Ben Goldscheider to the studio to share two of their personal favourite recordings.

A video version of this podcast is available on the Gramophone website and YouTube channel

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In this special edition of the Gramophone Podcast, we explore the full list of winners from this year's Gramophone Classical Music Awards. Editor Martin Cullingford, Deputy Editor Tim Parry, Reviews Editor Gavin Dixon 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.

Explore the awards issue available now.

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Gus and Lily from Apollo 5 join Hattie in the Gramophone studio to discuss their new album, Crossings, out now on the Voces8 label. Mapping a musical journey across the centuries and ancient pilgrimage trail the Via Francigena, the album takes us from Morley's English madrigals to Italian Renaissance polyphony and new commissions from Francis Pott and Apollo 5 soprano, Penelope Appleyard.

This week's podcast is sponsored by Concerto Budapest. On 11 October at 19.30, you can watch Concerto Budapest live on Gramophone.co.uk from Budapest’s historic Liszt Academy, in a special concert celebrating György Kurtág in his centenary year. Conducted by András Keller, a former student and close musical collaborator of Kurtág, the concert pays tribute to one of Hungary’s greatest living composers.

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In a special edition of the Gramophone Podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford travelled to Bergen to spend time with our current Orchestra of the Year, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, as they come to end of their year as holder of that title. He talks to Chief Executive and Managing Director Sigurd Sverdrup Sandmo about the orchestra’s history and its place in regional and national life, and then meets its newly named Chief Conductor Designate, Tabita Berglund. Throughout you can enjoy music taken from the Orchestra’s acclaimed recordings on the Chandos and Lawo labels, as well as from their opening concert of the new season.

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For this week's Gramophone Podcast, conductor Lukáš Vasilek joins Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about his fascinating new recording with the Czech Philharmonic of Honegger's Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher - Joan of Arc at the Stake – newly released on the Animal Music label.

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Cellist Ben Michaels speaks to Hattie Butterworth about his new album on Delphian, 'for cello, by cellists'. Michaels speaks about commissioning cellist-composers, carving out a less typical career as a musician and the versatile identity of the cello.

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Roxanna Panufnik talks to Editor Martin Cullingford about her fascinating and moving new album of Love Songs and Lullabies, released on the Signum label, as well as about her approach to composing and creativity more widely.

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The conductor Philipp von Steinaecker and the Mahler Academy Orchestra recorded Mahler’s Ninth Symphony in 2024 for Alpha Classics using instruments contemporary with the composer and employing historically informed performance practices. The recording attracted much attention and engaged a lot of music lovers’ imaginations. Now, the same performers have turned to the Fifth Symphony.

Gramophone’s James Jolly talked to Philipp von Steinaecker about his history with Mahler’s music and how the Mahler Academy Orchestra created its ‘Mahler sound’ both from its instruments and its pursuit of a performance practice that the composer might have recognised. (Conductor and orchestra are bringing Mahler’s Ninth Symphony to the BBC Proms on September 11.)

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In this week's episode of The Gramophone Listening Room, presented in partnership with dCS Audio, host Charlotte Gardner welcomes tenor Freddie De Tommaso and violinist Charlie Lovell-Jones to the studio to share two of their personal favourite recordings.

Freddie De Tommaso is a familiar presence on the world's opera stages, not least London's Covent Garden. Known for his verismo roles, he is an exclusive recording artist with Decca Classics. Charlie Lovell-Jones is a violinist who, beyond his soloist career, is concertmaster of John Wilson's Sinfonia of London.

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In the latest edition of the Gramophone Podcast, composer Joby Talbot and the conductor of vocal ensemble Conspirare Craig Hella Johnson join Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about their fascinating collaboration: a setting of Mexican poet Octavio Paz's epic work, Piedra de sol, newly released on the Divine Art label.

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For this week’s Gramophone Podcast we dip into the archives and offer you another opportunity to hear a fascinating conversation about Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, the Anglo-Irish composer, teacher and conductor, the centenary of whose death fell in 2024.

The leading expert on the composer, Jeremy Dibble, joins Editor Martin Cullingford to mark the centenary year of Stanford's death. Though arguably still best known today for his church music, we discuss the full breadth of Stanford's works, including his symphonies, songs, chamber music and his operas – the latter a genre he was devoted to throughout his life.

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Pianist Bruce Liu’s new album ‘Lunaris’ is just out from Deutsche Grammophon – it explores the cosmos, the moon and the stars through music, taking in music by Chopin, Beethoven, Scriabin, Mompou, Agnes Obel and others.

Gramophone’s James Jolly caught up with Bruce Liu in Canada earlier this year and, as well as talking about ‘Lunaris’, they discussed the aftermath of Bruce’s Chopin Competition win, and which of the Tchaikovsky piano concertos is his favourite.

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Hattie Butterworth is joined by composers Gavin Higgins and Grace-Evangeline Mason to discuss the Three Choirs Associate Composer programme, the realities to life as a composer and writing choral music.

Explore the Three Choirs Festival here.

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In this week's episode of The Gramophone Listening Room, presented in partnership with dCS Audio, host Charlotte Gardner welcomes lutenist Thomas Dunford and viola da gamba player, singer and composer Lucine Musaelian to the studio to share two of their personal favourite recordings.

Thomas Dunford can only be described as prolific in the recording studio, whether it's with Les Arts Florissants or his own Jupiter ensemble, and Lucine Musaelian is a member of the Bellot Ensemble and Intesa duo, her debut album with the Bellot Ensemble, 'Cupid's Ground Bass', was described by William Yeoman in Gramophone as: 'an intimate theatre where all the colour and splendour of the Venetian opera is played out in microcosm.'

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This week’s guest is the Finnish-Ukrainian conductor Dalia Stasevska. Her new ‘Ukrainian Mixtape’, just out from Platoon, showcases four Ukrainian composers – Levko Kolodub, Borys Liatoshynsky, Fedir Yakymenko and Mykola Lysenko – for which she’s joined by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, of which she’s Principal Guest Conductor.

James Jolly spoke to her last week by Zoom from her home in Finland about the new album, but also about the First Night of the BBC Proms which finds her and the BBC Symphony Orchestra on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall.

You can catch Dalia Stasevska, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, at the First Night of the Proms in all the usual places – live at the Royal Albert Hall, and also on BBC Radio 3, BBC 2 TV and on the BBC iPlayer at 7pm on July 17.

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Pianist George Fu joins Hattie Butterworth to speak about his new album of Schubert and how the composer helped him through the loss of his father. They speak about the late sonatas and their complexities, as well as the emotions around recording well-known works. Elsewhere, Fu speaks about his collaboration with the soprano Lotte Betts Dean and the rewarding experience of coming together to record Einsamkeit.

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The music of the Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz is undergoing a long-overdue renaissance. Her output was extensive and extraordinarily rich, as both the pianist Peter Jablonski and the violinist Bomsori Kim have proved in their explorations of her work. To celebrate not only Bacewicz’s music but Polish music in general, Gramophone’s James Jolly spoke to Jablonski and Kim about their individual journeys through Poland's music.

The podcast episode it presented in association with the Polish Cultural Institute and PWM Edition, since 1945 Poland’s leading music publisher whose catalogue includes the complete works of Fryderyk Chopin, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Stanisław Moniuszko and Karol Szymanowski. It’s the house that published the first works of prominent Polish composers, Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Lutosławski and Henryk Górecki, and it’s home to many scores by Grażyna Bacewicz, Tadeusz Baird, Wojciech Kilar, and many composers of a younger generation.

Peter Jablonski, who records for Ondine, and Bomsori Kim, a DG artist, are PWM ambassadors.

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