Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

Gramophone

Weekly conversations about classical music with leading musicians and writers

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100 episodes
Updated Friday

Episodes100

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March 20 · 48 min
Nico Muhly and Peter Phillips on their new album 'No Resting Place'
For this week's episode, the composer Nico Muhly and the founder of the Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips join the Gramophone Podcast to talk to Editor Martin Cullingford about their beautiful new release 'No Resting Place', released on Linn Records and an Editor's Choice in the April edition of Gramophone. Reflecting on more than a decade of collaboration, they talk about how they developed a remarkable understanding of each other's creativity, and also recount the story behind the album's powerful works. This podcast is in association with REMA/Early Music Day See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
March 13 · 47 min
Sir Mark Elder and Huw Watkins on their new Hallé recording
In this week's edition of the Gramophone Podcast Editor Martin Cullingford was joined by conductor Sir Mark Elder and composer Huw Watkins to talk about the Hallé's new recording of Watkins's orchestral music, featuring his Symphony No 2, Concerto for Orchestra and Fanfare, all written specially for the Manchester ensemble. This podcast is in association with REMA/Early Music Day See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
March 5 · 20 min
Elektra: Edward Gardner on Strauss's opera
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 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
February 26 · 24 min
Pianist Alexander Malofeev on his debut solo album, 'Forgotten Melodies'
The young Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev has just released his first album for Sony Classical. 'Forgotten Melodies' takes its name from the work by Nikolai Medtner which appears on the recording, alongside pieces by Glinka, Rachmaninov and Glazunov. The theme that links all four composers is that they were all born in Russia, but died far from their country of birth. As well as Medtner's substantial work, Malofeev also plays Rachmaninov's Second Piano Sonata in its 1931 revised version. James Jolly caught up with Alexander Malofeev in Paris when the pianist was there as part of short European solo tour to talk about the new album, his repertoire and jumping in to replace Martha Argerich on a tour with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. This podcast is in association with REMA/Early Music Day See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
February 19 · 16 min
Martin James Bartlett on his new album of Bach, Mozart and Britten
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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
February 13 · 50 min
Pianist Imogen Cooper looks back on her recording career
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 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
February 6 · 32 min
Joyce DiDonato and Time for Three on Emily: No Prisoner Be
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' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
January 30 · 31 min
Soprano Adriana González on her album 'Rondos for Adriana'
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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
January 23 · 26 min
ARC Ensemble's Simon Wynberg on their Music in Exile series for Chandos
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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
January 16 · 30 min
William Vann on Elgar's choral music
This month's Gramophone Podcast sees Editor Martin Cullingford joined by William Vann, Director of the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, to talk about his new album of choral music by Elgar: Light out of Darkness, released on Somm Recordings. The wonderfully-chosen selection of music spans the composer's career, and even includes five premiere recordings. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
January 9 · 30 min
Marina Rebeka and Edgardo Vertanessian on their record label, Prima Classic
The soprano Marina Rebeka and her husband, the sound engineer Edgardo Vertanessian, founded their record label, Prima Classic in 2018, and in the years since have built up an impressive catalogue. To coincide with the release of their latest project, Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, recorded live in Naples, they talk to Gramophone's James Jolly about what inspired them to create the label and how they approach developing their catalogue. This podcast was made in association with Prima Classic, and all the music included in the podcast comes fom the Prima Classic catalogue. The new recording of Simon Boccanegra features Ludovic Tézier in the title role, Marina Rebeka as Amelia Grimaldi, Francesco Melli as Gabriele Adorno, Michele Pertusi as Jacopo Fiesco, Mattia Olivieri as Paolo, and Andrea Pellegrini as Pietro with the Chorus and Orchestra of Naples's Teatro San Carlo conducted by Michele Spotti. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 26, 2025 · 1 hr 8 min
Exploring Beethoven
In this week's Gramophone Podcast, the last of 2025, we explore the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). Editor Emeritus James Jolly talks to Richard Wigmore – a long-standing contributor to our pages, and an expert on the music of the classical and early romantic periods – about this musical Titan. They discuss Beethoven's transformative role, through the three periods that have been applied to his creative life, in expanding the range, scale and ambition of pretty well every genre he tackled, from the symphonies and concertos, via his piano sonatas and chamber music, to his opera and choral works. All the music on this podcast comes from the Sony Classical catalogue, including the Gramophone Award-winning sets of the complete piano sonatas and the Diabelli Variations played by Igor Levit, as well as the symphonies from Antonello Manacorda and Kammerakademie Potsdam, Murray Perahia with members of the English Chamber Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Bernard Haitink, the Juilliard Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber, and, in Fidelio, Jeanine Altmeyer and Siegfried Jerusalem with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and Kurt Masur. All Sony Classical recordings. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 19, 2025 · 24 min
Critics Choice 2025
As another year of preparing and publishing many hundreds of reviews draws to a close, the three team members most involved - Reviews Editor Gavin Dixon, Deputy Editor Tim Parry, and Editor and Publisher Martin Cullingford - take time out to discuss what lies behind the process, and how we decide which albums are named Gramophone Editor's Choices. And, after that, they celebrate their own personal pick of the year, explaining which recording they chose for our annual Critics' Choice feature, and why it so impressed and inspired them. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 13, 2025 · 51 min
Remembering Alfred Brendel, with his son Adrian Brendel
In this week's Gramophone Podcast we remember Alfred Brendel, one of the most significant and much-loved musical figures of age, in the company of his son, the cellist Adrian Brendel, who takes Editor Martin Cullingford around the pianist's library and studio and reflects on what his books, art and belongings tell us about him. He also talks about a very special event on January 5, at the Barbican in London, at which fellow artists and friends of Alfred Brendel will gather for a remarkable evening of music, to celebrate his life and also raise money for a cause very close to his heart. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 6, 2025 · 23 min
Christophe Rousset on Charpentier's Christmas music
In this week's edition of of the Gramophone Podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by the conductor and harpsichordist Christophe Rousset to talk about his new album of Christmas music by the 17th century composer Charpentier - called a Baroque Christmas - recorded with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, and released on the ensemble's own label, Soli Deo Gloria. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nov 28, 2025 · 36 min
Thomas Adès and the Ruisi Quartet on their new recording, Növények
We're joined for this week's Gramophone Podcast by composer Thomas Adès and two members of the Ruisi Quartet, violinist Alessandro Ruisi and viola player Luba Tunnicliffe, to talk about their recording of Növények, Adès's setting of seven Hungarian poems for mezzo-soprano and piano sextet. They explore this fascinating work with Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford, which is newly released on the Platoon label along with Haydn's String Quartet in G Minor Op 20, No 3, and an arrangement of A legszebb Virág by Ligeti. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nov 20, 2025 · 33 min
Samantha Ege and Leah Broad on Avril Coleridge-Taylor
Hattie Butterworth is joined by pianist and historian Samantha Ege and author Leah Broad to discuss the life and music of composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor as the first recording of her orchestral music and piano concerto is released on Resonus See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nov 7, 2025 · 19 min
Conductor Klaus Mäkelä on performing Mahler's Eighth at the 2025 Mahler Festival
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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 28, 2025 · 23 min
Pianist Mao Fujita on concluding his preludes project
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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 28, 2025 · 37 min
Composer and author Robin Holloway on celebrating 900 years of classical music
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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

Nico Muhly and Peter Phillips on their new album 'No Resting Place'

Sir Mark Elder and Huw Watkins on their new Hallé recording

Elektra: Edward Gardner on Strauss's opera

Pianist Alexander Malofeev on his debut solo album, 'Forgotten Melodies'

Martin James Bartlett on his new album of Bach, Mozart and Britten

Pianist Imogen Cooper looks back on her recording career

Joyce DiDonato and Time for Three on Emily: No Prisoner Be

Soprano Adriana González on her album 'Rondos for Adriana'

ARC Ensemble's Simon Wynberg on their Music in Exile series for Chandos

William Vann on Elgar's choral music

Marina Rebeka and Edgardo Vertanessian on their record label, Prima Classic

Exploring Beethoven

Critics Choice 2025

Remembering Alfred Brendel, with his son Adrian Brendel

Christophe Rousset on Charpentier's Christmas music

Thomas Adès and the Ruisi Quartet on their new recording, Növények

Samantha Ege and Leah Broad on Avril Coleridge-Taylor

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

Pianist Mao Fujita on concluding his preludes project

Composer and author Robin Holloway on celebrating 900 years of classical music