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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
One of the most-performed composers of our time, Sir John Rutter, celebrates his 80th birthday on September 24. To mark the occasion Harmonia Mundi has released an album of his choral music sung by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, directed by Graham Ross – 'John Rutter: A Clare College Celebration'. And next week Decca releases an all-orchestral collection, 'Reflections', that includes a performance of Rutter's piano concerto, which gives the album its title. Rutter himself conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Steven Osborne the piano soloist. James Jolly went to visit Sir John at his home to talk about the new releases but also reflect on his long association with Clare College, and much else.
Soprano Rowan Pierce joins Jonathan Whiting to reflect on the intimacy of making chamber-scale Baroque music without a conductor, the challenges of Bach's expansive recitatives, and the almost operatic drama of Handel's 'Tra le fiamme'. She also speaks about her long collaboration with Ashley Solomon, the ensemble's director, and about finding new colours and meaning in these works – music that, though written three centuries ago, resonates with striking relevance today. We were also incredibly honoured to recently learn that the Gramophone Magazine 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. To hear other Gramophone podcasts, or to subscribe for free to new editions, search for 'Gramophone' in your Podcast App of choice, or visit Gramophone's page on Apple or Spotify.
Composer jake Heggie joins Hattie Butterworth to speak about the recording release of 'Intelligence', an opera premiered at Houston Grand Opera in 2023 and out now on the LSO Live label. They also look back on 25 years since Heggie's first opera 'Dead Man Walking' was premiered and ahead to a new production of the work at English National Opera in November
During the 2024-25 season, Alisa Weilerstein premiered three new cello concertos – Richard Blackford's The Recovery of Paradise (which she has recorded for Pentatone with the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Tomáš Netopil), Gabriela Ortiz's Dzonot (recorded for Platoon with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel) and Thomas Larcher's Returning into Darkness (premiered with the New York Philharmonic). James Jolly caught up with Alisa to talk about the two new recordings and also hear about her Fragments project that she's bringing to London as part of a South Bank Centre residency later this year. 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.
Joel and Camden from the Dover Quartet meet Hattie Butterworth in Philadelphia to discuss their latest album, Woodland Songs, which places the music of Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate and Pura Fé alongside the Dvorak 'American' String Quartet in F Major. Though vastly different works in style, expression, and historical context, they share the common influence of music native to North America.
The mandolin player Avi Avital, with his ensemble Between Worlds, has just released a new DG album 'Song of the Birds' which crosses boundaries to explore the musics of three geographical regions – Iberia, southern Italy (Puglia) and the Black Sea – with vivid results. For this week's Gramophone Podcast, James Jolly caught up Avi Avital while he was on tour in Northern Germany to talk about the new album.
Join Hattie at the 2025 Three Choirs Festival in Hereford as she speaks to performers, composers, clergy and audience members to discover what makes the festival such a place of pilgrimage 300 years since its foundation
Guy Johnston joins Hattie Butterworth to discuss his latest recording of the Arthur Bliss Cello Concerto with Andrew Manze and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. A technical mine field, the concerto was written for the great cellist Rostropovich and premiered with Benjamin Britten conducting at the 1970 Aldeburgh Festival. Guy also speaks about his dedication to pedagogy and gives details of more upcoming English cello recordings he has in the pipeline.
As the 2025 BBC Proms season gets underway, Martin Cullingford is joined by Tim Parry and Hattie Butterworth select their top picks. From Rachmaninov with Yunchan Lim and the UK premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir's Cello Concerto to a late-night tribute to Arvo Pärt and a rare performance of Delius's A Mass of Life, the team reflects on the Proms's cultural significance, its breadth of programming, and the enduring tradition of live music at the Royal Albert Hall.
We're today continuing the theme set by last week's edition, in which we marked the 500th episode of the Gramophone Classical Music podcast by looking back over some of our most memorable interviews and episodes. The interview Editor Martin Cullingford chose to reflect on was a conversation he had with the guitarist Julian Bream all the way back in 2013, to mark his 80th birthday and also the fact that Gramophone had honoured him with our Lifetime Achievement Award. So here, for this week's podcast, we offer a retrospective edition - and a chance to hear at full length that earlier episode.