Alexandre Kantorow was winner of the piano category at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition as well as the recipient of that year’s Grand Prix. One of the world's finest young musicians, he has recorded a series of much-praised albums for BIS. And the latest release – a Gramophone Editor's Choice in the November 2024 issue – completes the trio of recordings of the three youthful piano sonatas by Johannes Brahms. It’s joined by Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy and a selection of Schubert songs in Liszt’s transcriptions. James Jolly caught up with Alexandre in Paris recently to talk about the new release, and also to find out about his plans for the future.  

Pianist Hanni Liang speaks to Hattie Butterworth about her new album 'Voices' on Delphian Records formed around Liang's interest in Ethel Smyth's music and life. They also speak about Liang’s musical upbringing and her move towards doing things differently on the concert platform. She shares the cultural differences between China and the west, and what it was like growing up in Germany with Chinese parents.  

For this week's Gramophone Podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by soprano Nardus Williams and Director of the Dunedin Consort John Butt to talk about their new album exploring the music Handel wrote during his years in Rome, a young composer still in the early stages of his creativity. 'Handel in Rome' is released on Linn Records, and available now. 

For this week's Podcast, Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by Rafael Payare, Music Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal to talk about the music of Schoenberg in the year that marks the composer's 150th anniversary. The focus is his beautiful new recording of Pelleas und Melisande and Verklärte Nacht, which is available today on the Pentatone label.

The 2024 Gramophone Classical Music Awards were revealed on Wednesday October 2, and for this week's edition of the Podcast Editor Emeritus James Jolly, Editor and Publisher Martin Cullingford, and Deputy Editor – and Editor of International Piano – Tim Parry, gathered in the studio to discuss the winners. From Instrumental to Opera, and from Early to Contemporary, join us as we discuss and celebrate the finest albums of the past year. 

Claire Booth speaks to Hattie Butterworth about her new album with Ensemble 360, 'Pierrot Portraits', focussed around Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and looking at other composer's interpretations of the character of Pierrot across time. All audio clips come from Pierrot Portraits by Claire Booth and Ensemble 360 out now on Onyx Classics 

Editor Martin Cullingford is this week joined by violinist Joshua Bell, pianist Jeremy Denk and cellist Steven Isserlis to talk about their new recording for Sony Classical of Mendelssohn piano trios. 

Huw Montague Rendall is a singer who is making waves in the musical world, and he has just released his debut album with orchestra, 'Contemplation'. Signed to Erato by Alain Lanceron, Rendall gives us a superb showcase of his talents with a programme that ranges widely, and reveals many different facets of this fine young artist. Huw's partners for the album are the Opéra Orchestre Normandie Rouen and conductor Ben Glassberg. The son of two distinguished singers – the mezzo Diana Montague and the tenor David Rendall – Huw talks to James Jolly about 'Contemplation'.

On October 2, the Swedish label BIS will hand over its Label of the Year Award to another company. So, to celebrate its 2023 Award, Gramophone’s James Jolly sat down to talk with BIS’s founder and guiding spirit for past 50 years, Robert von Bahr. In this second of two podcasts, Robert discusses some of the outstanding artists who have recorded for BIS, including Bach Collegium Japan, Johan Dalene (who appears on the cover of the October issue of Gramophone), Yevgeny Sudbin, Carolyn Sampson and Sharon Bezaly, Robert's wife. This podcast was made in association with BIS.

In this week's Gramophone Podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by the conductor Semyon Bychkov to talk about his new recording with the Czech Philharmonic for the Pentatone label of the music of Dvořák - the composer's last three symphonies, Nos 7, 8 and 9, along with three concert overtures, In Nature’s Realm, Carnival and Othello. 

In almost exactly one month’s time, the Swedish label BIS will hand over its Label of the Year status to another company. So, to celebrate its 2023 Award, Gramophone’s James Jolly sat down to talk with BIS’s founder and guiding spirit for past 50 years, Robert von Bahr. In this first of two podcasts, James and Robert discuss the label’s beginnings, some of its milestone projects and Robert shares some anecdotes as only he can. This podcast was made in association with BIS.

Composer Bryce Dessner joins Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford for this week's podcast to talk about his new album for Sony Classical, featuring solo works performed by a superb line-up of star soloists.

A new album mapping 10 years of string writing, Anna Clyne's Shorthand takes its name from a concerto for cello and strings, performed on the album by Yo Yo Ma. Hattie Butterworth meets Anna to speak about this new project, as well as her BBC Proms commission and the impact of words, poetry and spirituality on her writing. 

This week on the Gramophone Podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford meets pianist Alexandra Dariescu who has recorded the piano concertos of Clara Schumann and Edvard Grieg for Signum with the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Tianyi Lu. Dariescu talks about her passion for Clara Schumann's concerto, and why she thinks it should be much more widely performed than it has been historically. 

Leonard Bernstein (1918-90) was perhaps the most ‘complete’ classical musician of the last century, as composer (covering everything from Broadway musicals to serial orchestral works), conductor (one of the 20th century’s most admired), teacher or pianist. Edward Seckerson interviewed Bernstein for Gramophone in December 1989, but his admiration went back much further, as he reveals to James Jolly in this next instalment in our occasional series focusing on major composers. The music is drawn from Bernstein’s extensive CBS catalogue, now available from Sony Classical.

The great Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan (1908-89) was fascinated with technology from an early age, and, from the early 1960s onward, he filmed many of his performances. Deutsche Grammophon’s streaming service Stage+ has a huge archive of Karajan’s films including his Telemondial legacy – recorded with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics during the 1980s, the conductor's last decade. Karajan’s biographer, and long-serving Gramophone critic, Richard Osborne, discusses Karajan’s video legacy with James Jolly, and they pick some favourites from the Stage+ catalogue. This podcast is sponsored by STAGE+, the streaming service for classical music by Deutsche Grammophon, hosting concerts, operas, documentaries, albums and much more, including 50 live streams per year. With a special summer offer, you can get 2 months of STAGE+ for just 1€ with access to the entire content library and live broadcasts from some of this year’s finest summer festivals. Visit stage-plus.com/summer before August 16 to find out more.

As we step into the summer holiday period, this week we thought we’d revisit one of our special longer-length episodes from last year featuring one of our writers, our historical recording expert Rob Cowan on what we can gain from listening to recordings from the past. Why should we listen to historic recordings? What can we learn from them, and which artists, many decades on, still offer listeners such extraordinary joy and insight? Across more than 45 fascinating minutes Rob addresses these questions, and we play excerpts from some absolute highlights from the archives. 

Hattie Butterworth meets soprano Sophie Bevan ahead of her appearance at the First Night of the Proms. Moving through Sophie's early life and career, they speak about her experience navigating a diagnosis of bowel cancer, the importance of her faith and family, and what she wishes audiences knew about the life of a singer.  Music included in the epsiode: 'Take the Heart' from Jephtha Act I, Scene 3: George Friderich Handel · The Sixteen · Harry Christophers on CORO (2014) 'Perché, se tanti siete' from Scena di Berenic on Perfido!  · Sophie Bevan · Franz Joseph Haydn · Ian Page · Classical Opera / The Mozartists on Signum Classics (2017) 'Ferma l'ali' from Pt. 1 Scene 2 from Handel's La Resurrezione · The English Concert · Harry Bicket · Sophie Bevan on Linn Records (2023) 'Beati Quorum Via' by Charles Villiers Stanford from Vidi Speciosam: Sacred Choral Music · Graham Ross · The Bevan Family Consort  on Signum Records (2023)    

In April, Dalia Stasevska, Chief Conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, launched a new project, ‘Dalia’s Mixtape’, for Platoon. Leading her BBC orchestra, she has recorded ten works by ten modern composers, each shedding a new and different light on the symphony orchestra and what it can do. And, breaking with tradition, the project will unfold piece by piece over the next half year. And each work will be accompanied by a podcast focusing on the music. In this latest episode, hosted by Gramophone’s Andrew Mellor, Dalia’s guest is the Master of the King's Music, Dame Judith Weir whose orchestral work Still, Glowing features on the 'Mixtape'. Composer and conductor discuss this haunting piece.

Conductor and founder of The Sixteen Harry Christophers speaks to Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford about his new album, ‘70: A Life in Music’, which features 39 carefully selected recordings from the conductor's career so far, spanning periods from the renaissance to contemporary music. Reflecting on his 45-year career, Christophers' talks about his introduction to music, the formation of The Sixteen and the future of young composers today.  ‘70: A Life in Music’ is out now on CORO.  

Soprano and composer Héloïse Werner speaks to Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford about her new album, ‘Close-ups’, which features composers Barbara Strozzi, Julie Pinel and Hildegard of Bingen as well as compositions by Werner herself. Her second album sees her collaborating with fellow musicians Colin Alexander, Julian Azkoul, Max Baillie, Kit Downes, Ruth Gibson and Marianne Schofield.  ‘Close-ups’ is out now on Delphian.  

For their debut Harmonia Mundi release as a duo, pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy have recorded two works by Schubert, the great Fantasy in F minor and the Divertissement à la Hongroise, and, in between, a work they commissioned, Trompe-l’oeil by the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov (b1955), who has said of his piece, ‘You can envisage it as the follow-up, or the rough draft of Schubert’s Fantasy. Something incomplete. Like a study for a composition that’s been abandoned en route.’ James Jolly went to visit Pavel and Samson, partners both off stage and on, at their home in North London recently to talk about the art of piano four-hands …

Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená speaks to Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford about her new album, ‘Czech Songs’, which features composers Bohuslav Martinů, Antonín Dvořák, Hans Krása and Gideon Klein, and for which she's joined by the Czech Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle. ‘Czech Songs’ is out now on Pentatone.

The American tenor Nicholas Phan has just released an album of protest songs, many from the 1960s by legendary singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger and Malvina Reynolds. It also contains a new work by Errollyn Wallen. ‘A Change in Gonna Come’, featuring Palaver Strings, and a couple of guest appearances by Farayi Malek, is just out from Azica. James Jolly talked recently to Nicholas Phan about the album, and also about another song project that he’s currently in the studio working on …

Since winning BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2012, aged 15, Laura van der Heijden has enjoyed a career as a cellist to watch. She’s a Chandos artist, recording both as a soloist and also as part of Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective. This month she makes her concerto debut with an album of three British cello concertos, Frank Bridge’s Oration, Sir William Walton’s Cello Concerto (the work she played for the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition) and Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s new cello concerto, Earth-Sea-Air. She is joined by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth. James Jolly recently went to speak to Laura about the new release. You can also hear Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s cello concerto, Earth-Sea-Air, at the BBC Proms on Friday, July 26 joined by the same performers as on the new recording.

This week's Gramophone Podcast sees pianist Can Çakmur join Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about the latest album in his series for the BIS label in which he pairs works by Schubert with music by composers inspired by him - in this instance Ernst Krenek. As well as introducing Krenek's Second Sonata, he also talks about the composer's completion of Schubert's Piano Sonata in C Major, D 840.

With Winterreise, Andrè Schuen and Daniel Heide complete their recordings for DG of Schubert’s three song cycles, and have understandably saved the most challenging to last. James Jolly spoke to Andrè to discover how he approaches this colossal work, the Everest of any singer’s repertoire. This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.

To mark the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Vienna, which took place on May 7, 1824, Gramophone’s podcast this week focuses on the work. Antonello Manacorda has just completed a cycle of the nine symphonies with Akademie Potsdam for Sony Classical, including a brand-new Ninth. James Jolly went to visit him at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden , where he was conducting a run of Bizet’s Carmen. This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.

The British bass Brindley Sherratt has released his first solo album, ‘Fear No More’, a Delphian recording, with Julius Drake at the piano. One of the UK’s most distinguished singers, and with an international reputation on the great concert and operatic stages, Sherratt talks to James Jolly about this new, and belated, chapter in his musical career. This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.

Violinist James Ehnes talks about his new recording for Pentatone of Leonard Bernstein's Serenade and John Williams's Violin Concerto No 1.

Thomas Pitfield, born in Bolton in 1903 and whose life stretched to the very end of the 20th century – he died in 1999 – is one of those polymaths who embraced numerous different outlets: he was a composer, a poet, an illustrator, a calligrapher, a cabinet maker and a teacher. He is probably better known for the people he knew and taught – including John McCabe, John Ogdon and Ronald Stevenson – than in his own right. This new collection of songs is a good start to get to know a fine musical voice. James Jolly spoke, separately, to James Gilchrist and Nathan Williamson about this appealing composer.  This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.  

Kirill Gerstein’s new album, timed for release mid-way between the anniversary of the death of Claude Debussy (March 25) and Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (April 24), pairs music by Debussy and the Armenian, Komitas. Both composers were profoundly affected by the death and destruction surrounding them during the First World War, and both responded with music of multi-layered intensity. Gerstein links late Debussy piano music with Komitas’s piano works, as well as songs by each composer. 'Music in the Time of War' is released to stream and download by Platoon, and on two CDs with a substantial book of essays next month by Myrios. James Jolly spoke to Kirill Gerstein to learn about the project and why he brought together these two powerful musical voices in the same programme. This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.

Klaus Mäkelä has been named Riccardo Muti's successor at the helm of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a role he assumes in 2027 alongside the post of Chief Conductor of Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Meanwhile, he remains committed to his two European orchestras, the Orchestre de Paris and the Oslo Philharmonic.  Following his Decca debut recording, of the complete Sibelius symphonies in Oslo, Mäkelä has made two much-admired recordings of music commissioned by Serge Diaghilev. The first of these, made with the Orchestre de Paris, was released early last year – Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and the complete Firebird ballet – and James Jolly spoke to the conductor by Zoom back in February 2023 as Klaus was in Cleveland conducting performances of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall

This month's Gramophone Podcast explores the life and music of Franz Schubert. Editor Martin Cullingford talks to Richard Wigmore about this most remarkable of composers, one whose finest works, notably in the song, piano and chamber music genres, are today held to be among music's most beloved creations.

Paavo Järvi's latest recording project adds the five Mendelssohn symphonies to his substantial catalogue. Alpha Classics has released the new set which features the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. James Jolly caught up with Paavo Järvi recently by Zoom to talk about the cycle, but also to talk about the conductor's passion for recording the complete symphonic outputs of many of the great composers.  This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.

Hattie Butterworth is joined by composer Rebecca Dale for this week's Gramophone Podcast to explore her new album of works for cello and choir with cellists Steven Isserlis and Guy Johnston and the choir Tenebrae, out now on Signum Classics. More about Rebecca Dale   

Dalia Stasevska, Chief Conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, has launched a new project, ‘Dalia’s Mixtape’, for Platoon. Leading her BBC orchestra, she has recorded ten works by ten modern composers, each shedding a new and different light on the symphony orchestra and what it can do. Breaking with tradition, the project will unfold piece by piece over the next half year. And each work will be accompanied by a podcast focusing on the music. In this first episode, hosted by Gramophone’s Andrew Mellor, Dalia’s guest is the Scottish composer and performer Anna Meredith whose work, Nautilus, originally conceived for electronics, is presented in a new acoustic guise. She, Andrew and Dalia discuss the work’s origins and its transformation into a vibrant new work for a traditional symphony orchestra. Produced by Platoon and Gramophone.

This week on the Gramophone podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by the co-founders of the 12 Ensemble – cellist Max Ruisi and violinist Eloisa-Fleur Thom – to talk about their fascinating new album on the Platoon Label, Metamorphosis, featuring music by Edmund Finnis, Claude Vivier, Oliver Leith and Richard Strauss.

For this week's Gramophone Podcast, Jonathan Cohen, conductor of Arcangelo, joins Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about his new recording on the Alpha label of Handel's powerful late oratorio, Theodora, a work Cohen describes as Handel at 'his very finest and most inspired'.

The tenor Alessandro Fisher is a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Artist and a former member of the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme, and on February 23 Rubicon releases a solo album, ‘A Gardener’s World’, a collection of songs about flowers and their symbolic significance. Joined by the pianist Anna Tilbrook, Alessandro explores the horticultural theme in the company of composers from many countries, including France, Germany, Scandinavia, Catalunya and Argentina. James Jolly went to visit Alessandro in his north London home and, overlooking the garden, they discussed the genesis of the new album, which was recorded live at Wigmore Hall in July 2021.

Pianist Lara Downes joins Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford this week to talk about her fascinating new recording of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, as reimagined for today's world by composer Edmar Colón to mark the iconic work's centenary, and available from the Pentatone label.   

Youth is an EP of solo piano music by Edmund Finnis and performed by Clare Hammond, and described as 'a set of brief pieces recalling an image, sensation of place, significant encounter or a moment of vivid perception'. Editor Martin Cullingford invited both Finnis and Hammond into the Gramophone Podcast studio to talk about this beautiful new recording. 

Timothy Ridout won last year’s Concerto category at the Gramophone Awards for his Harmonia Mundi recording, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins, of Elgar’s Cello Concerto transcribed by Lionel Tertis for viola, alongside the Bloch Suite for Viola and Orchestra. His new HM release continues his exploration of the huge role that Tertis played in the history of the viola, as player, teacher, arranger and champion of the instrument. Ridout's new double album, for which he's joined by pianists Frank Dupree and James Baillieu, includes sonatas by York Bowen and Rebecca Clarke, as well as many shorter works with powerful links to Tertis. James Jolly met up with Timothy to talk about the album, and the place that Tertis holds for viola-players.

The great Polish pianist and conductor Krystian Zimerman came to London last October to collect his Gramophone Award, his seventh, for his latest DG album of music by Karol Szymanowki. James Jolly caught up with him on the morning of the ceremony, and their conversation ranged widely.

For his tenth album of music for trumpet and piano in the ‘re-imagined’ series for Linn, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood has turned to a composer right at the centre of the period he’s most associated with, the Baroque – and George Frideric Handel. ‘Handel for Trumpet’ features transcriptions of arias as well as theoretical ‘sonatas’, created from concertos and other works. As well as being a contributor to Gramophone, Jonathan is also Principal of the Royal Academy of Music, a record producer, teacher – and trumpeter. Gramophone’s James Jolly spoke to him about the new album, how he maintains his technique amid a busy schedule and how being a recorded musician helps his role as the leader of one of the world’s great music conservatories.

The Tallis Scholars' acclaimed series of recordings of the Masses of Josquin Desprez is one of the great milestones to the catalogue. Featuring what may be the last Mass the composer wrote, the Missa Mater Patris, along with a Mass not by Josquin but once thought to have been by him, the penultimate volume certainly raises some fascinating questions! To discuss them, The Tallis Scholars' founder and director Peter Phillips joined Editor Martin Cullingford for this Gramophone podcast - which features excerpts from the album, available on Gimell, which was named an Editor's Choice in the November 2019 issue of the magazine. We revisit that podcast 'From the Archive'.

Dame Janet Baker's contribution to classical music - in performance and on record - has been remarkable, enriching both the stage and the catalogue with performances of astonishing beauty, power and vivid insight. To mark her 80th birthday in August 2013, James Jolly met with her at Wigmore Hall to talk about her career for a Gramophone Milestones Podcast, made in association with EFG International. She shared her memories of working with Sir John Barbirolli, Leonard Bernstein, Gerald Moore, Raymond Leppard and Benjamin Britten. Now 10 years on, we revisit the podcast to celebrate one of the UK's greatest musical artists, the recipient in 2011 of Gramophone's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Esa-Pekka Salonen took over the helm of the San Francisco Symphony in 2020 from Michael Tilson Thomas. Both men have had a major impact on symphonic music in California, and Salonen is one of the three guiding figures – with the LA Phil's Gustavo Dudamel and the San Diego Symphony's Rafael Payare – behind the California Festival, a statewide celebration of music that launched in November. James Jolly spoke to Salonen at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco following an afternoon concert, as part of the California Festival, in November.

This week Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by Owain Park, conductor, composer and founding director of The Gesualdo Six to explore the ensemble's new album, 'Morning Star', a programme of music for the feast of Epiphany, released by Hyperion Records.