Presto Music Classical Podcast

Amid the plethora of Bruckner recordings released to mark the composer’s bicentenary this year, Manfred Honeck’s account of Symphony No. 7 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (coupled with a new commission by Mason Bates) stands out for what BBC Music Magazine described as the ‘high levels of synergy and mutual comprehension’ between conductor and orchestra as well as the sheer beauty of sound from each section.Our guest contributor Rob Cowan spoke to Maestro Honeck last month about his lo...

Pianist Rebeca Omordia recently released her second album of African piano music, African Pianism Volume 2, bringing the classical music of native composers the attention it deserves. I had the pleasure of chatting with her to find out more about the music, its background, the qualities that make it uniquely African, and common ground with Western, and particularly English, music. I also enjoyed hearing more about this award-winning pianist’s career and her fruitful relationship with SOMM Rec...

To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the London Symphony Orchestra's own label, Head of LSO Live Becky Lees, first violinist Maxine Kwok, and principal percussionist Neil Percy talk to James about how the label came to exist, the process of capturing live concerts for release, and their memories of some favourite recordings through the years.Presto MusicAll things musical... on your doorstep!Visit our website: www.prestomusic.comFollow us on Facebook, Twitter or InstagramLove us? Revi...

Another second-album episode! A follow-up not to a trailblazingly exploratory recording (as when we spoke to Heloïse Werner last episode) but to a quietly uplifting one, filled with spirituality and peace. The Poor Clares of Arundel appeared on many people's musical radar back in 2020, when their album Light For The World was released into the midst of uncertain and difficult times. Inspired by the daily life of the community of the Poor Clares, and mixing contemporary compositions with ...

Hot on the heels of 2022's Phases comes a second album from acclaimed young singer-composer Heloïse Werner, Close-Ups. Drawing together works by Bingen, Strozzi, the French Baroque composer Julie Pinel, and Errollyn Wallen, it also features compositions by Werner herself - including Les Leçons du Mardi, an acerbic, witty piece biting back against centuries of medical misogyny, and the title-track close-ups, a selection of wordless character-sketches that push the boundaries of song itself.&nb...

This year the Berliner Philharmoniker celebrates two anniversaries, with the online Digital Concert Hall turning 15, and the Berliner Philharmoniker label marking its first decade. Rob Cowan spoke to Olaf Maninger, who alongside a busy schedule as principal cellist with the orchestra, is General Manager of Berlin Phil Media GmbH, and has been one of the key figures driving these innovative projects. Presto MusicAll things musical... on your doorstep!Visit our website: www.prestomusic.com...

Violinist Francesca Dego kicks off the Busoni centenary celebrations with her new album, pairing his concerto with that of Brahms - a juxtaposition that might seem strange, until you realise (as Francesca describes) the deep connections between the two works, so much so that Busoni's concerto could even be seen as a direct homage to Brahms's.As well as discussing Busoni himself - the prolific arranger, the unorthodox music theorist, the passionate advocate of performers taking liberties with ...

Pianist Martin James Bartlett first came to many people’s attention in 2014, when he won the BBC Young Musician Award. A Proms debut followed the next year, and a recording contract with Warner Classics not long after. To date, both of Martin’s albums on Warner have been centred around a unifying core concept - recital-recordings with a clear and thoughtful point to them.His latest, La Danse, released on January 26th, is no different - and to tie in with this exploration of French dance-music...

As every opera-fan must surely be aware by now, December saw the centenary of Maria Callas’s birth, and Warner Classics marked the occasion by issuing the most comprehensive collection of her recordings ever released – clocking in at a whopping 131 CDs, La Divina offers the chance to experience Callas’s unique qualities in all 74 roles for which audio documents exist, and also includes a bonus CD of alternative takes from recording-sessions in the 1960s.In this latest episode of the Presto Po...

Although plenty of attention has been lavished on the four hundredth anniversary of the death of William Byrd, his contemporary Thomas Weelkes also died in 1623 - on the 30th of November - and has seen rather less in the way of commemoration.In addition to Weelkes being a composer of great gifts, his reputation also rests in part on his track record of poor and unruly behaviour throughout his career, especially during his time at Chichester Cathedral; posterity has enthusiastically elaborated...

The 'Schubert in English' series on Signum Classics sees its fourth instalment this year - following up Winter Journey, Swansong and The Fair Maid of the Mill with a wider-ranging collection of songs, sung by Roderick Williams and Rowan Pierce with Christopher Glynn at the piano. Front and centre, too, are the translations of Jeremy Sams, which at last enable English-speaking audiences (and indeed singers) to experience the full vernacular immediacy of the words.For this fourth volume, Roderi...

As "the classiest brass ensemble in Britain" turns 30, Onyx Brass's trombonist Amos Miller looks back over three decades of brass quintet music-making, with an eye on exploring contemporary repertoire. We discuss the group's latest album, 'The sun is free to flow with the sea', and some of the works featured on it, as well as touching on questions of diversity in classical music - but we start off with a look at music education in today's world.Presto MusicAll things musical... on your doorst...

A discussion of the OUP's recently-published collection of sacred and secular choral works by Black composers, with its editor Dr Marques Garrett - taking in Vicente Lusitano, Undine Smith Moore, R Nathaniel Dett (Dr Garrett's own particular labour of love) and more. Presto MusicAll things musical... on your doorstep!Visit our website: www.prestomusic.comFollow us on Facebook, Twitter or InstagramLove us? Review us on Trustpilot, Facebook or Google

Arthur Bliss was one of the most important British musicians of his age. Having served with distinction in the Great War, in which he was both injured and gassed, he subsequently became the most performed British composer abroad. He served as Director of Music at the BBC from 1942-44, and was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music in 1953.Bliss was a private figure who stated that the only way to get to know him was through his music. Author Paul Spicer took this as his starting point for a pi...

The great Russian Romantic composer Sergei Rachmaninoff declared that his music was "the product of his temperament, therefore Russian", but he spent the final 26 years of life in exile after fleeing Russia in 1917. While in exile he composed his late masterpieces including the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the Symphonic Dances, while also preserving his legendary piano playing for posterity through a series of recordings.To discuss this fascinating period of Rachmaninoff's life it...

Earlier this year we saw the release of not one, but two box sets dedicated to recordings by the Minnesota Orchestra under their Hungarian conductor Antal Doráti, recordings made by the Mercury Record Company in the 1950's. To discuss the artistic and sonic legacy of these Mono and Stereo box sets I was privileged to be joined not only by record critic Rob Cowan but also by Thomas Fine, the son of the husband and wife team of Robert and Wilma Cozart Fine who produced these recordings and...

Some "concept" albums can seem a little contrived – with themes not so much neatly interwoven as crudely welded onto one another. Not so Emmanuel Despax's new album Après un rêve, which draws together its three main ideas so naturally that it seems as if the album must have sprung from Despax's mind fully formed.A poetic legacy from his music-loving grandfather meets Emmanuel's own interest in the refined music of the French belle époque (from about the mid-1870s until 1914, when Europe chang...

Over the nearly twenty years since its formation, Vox Luminis has appeared in our metaphorical pages plenty of times – the Belgian early music ensemble consistently combines original and exploratory programming with impeccable musicianship. Every album Lionel Meunier and his musicians release can be relied on to be not just a feast for the ears but also an interesting and well-thought-out dive into musical history, drawing connections and parallels and linking everything together seamlessly.T...

Robert Levin set out to record a complete set of Mozart's works for keyboard and orchestra. After several highly successful and critically-acclaimed volumes over the following decade, fate eventually intervened to force the project into the deep freeze, and on that unsatisfying note the story might have ended.Happily, though, circumstances have now opened up the opportunity to pick things up again. The concluding five volumes are now very much in motion, with the first released recently...

2023 sees the quadricentennials of the deaths of both William Byrd - sacred polyphonist, virginalist and recusant Catholic - and Thomas Weelkes, remembered especially for his madrigals, his verse services and his repeated tellings-off by his bosses at Chichester Cathedral for what might delicately be termed rowdiness. Among various groups with albums in honour of these two composers are The King's Singers and Fretwork, who come together on the recently-released *Tom & Will* to perfor...

Founded by four ambitious teenagers in Middlesbrough in 1972, the Brodsky Quartet’s extraordinary fifty-year career has encompassed collaborations with musicians including Sting, Björk and Sir Paul McCartney as well as a whole host of superb recordings of core repertoire from Mozart to Bartók.It was a great pleasure to be joined by cellist and founder-member Jacqueline Thomas and her husband Paul Cassidy (who became the quartet’s viola-player in the early 1980s) for a whistle-stop tour throug...

One of the most keenly anticipated music biographies in 2023 has been 'Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World' a wonderfully vivid account of the lives, times and music of 4 extraordinarily talented composers from the late 19th and 20th Centuries. Guiding me through the fascinating world of Dame Ethel Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell and Doreen Carwithen, I was delighted to be joined by the books author, Dr Leah Broad.Presto MusicAll things musical... on your doorstep!Visit ou...

Nobody has done more in recent years to promote the music of Ralph Vaughan-Williams in recent years than Albion Records, the record label of the Ralph Vaughan-Williams Society. So to celebrate the English composer's 150th birthday this year I asked John Francis, Vice-Chairman of the Ralph Vaughan-Williams Society to guide me through his life and music through recordings of lesser-known Vaughan-Willams works on the Albion Records label.Presto MusicAll things musical... on your doorstep!Visit o...

Celebrating his 150th anniversary this year is the Russian composer, poet and visionary Alexander Scriabin who, in his short life undertook a compositional journey that took him from a frustrated piano virtuoso who idolized Chopin to a radical modernist who prophesized that a concert of his mystical music in Tibet would bring about the end of the world. Helping me explore the life and work of this unique figure I'm delighted to be rejoined on the show by Cambridge Russian music Professor Mari...

Undoubtedly one of the great orchestral success stories in recent years has been that of Sinfonia of London, formed by conductor John Wilson in 2019. Their albums have consistently received a whole host of awards, demonstrating the orchestra’s great virtuosity and versatility.Their latest recording sees them delving into one of my favourite genres, with a selection of music from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to chat to John not only about the album itse...

As both a world-class performer and an advocate for her instrument, Sarah Willis is an inspiration to a generation of horn players, so I was somewhat star-struck to talk to her for this week's episode. Despite the unceasing travel difficulties and upheaval of the past two years, Sarah has been continuing to spend time in Cuba working with Cuban instrumentalists and composers. The fruits of this can be heard on her two *Mozart y Mambo* albums from July 2020 and September 2022, where she sets M...

One of the most outstanding releases so far this year has been a remarkable collection of live recordings by the great Czech conductor Karel Ančerl, and I was delighted to be joined not only by regular guest Rob Cowan to discuss the set, but also by Matouš Vlčinský, who produced the set for Supraphon Records. The recordings, made between 1950 and 1968 show Ančerl's mastery in a wide variety of repertoire, and the numerous recordings of Czech music also gave us the opportunity to explore Bohem...

The relationship between musicians' lives and the music they create is one the most discussed and debated aspects of music, and examinations of the lives of great musicians is almost as old as their music itself. Three authors who produced highly praised music biographies in 2020 were Philip Clark, on the Jazz great Dave Brubeck, Oliver Craske on the Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar and Oliver Soden on the British composer Michael Tippett, and on this week's show I was delighted to welcome ...

For this episode, we turn our attention to the violin, and the changing styles of playing that have been documented over the past hundred years since the advent of sound recording. I was delighted to be joined by Charlotte Gardner, a freelance writer, journalist, and critic who specialises in string playing for The Gramophone and The Strad magazines, as well as contributing programme notes for the BBC orchestras and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. By focussing on a handful of hardy per...

As you may well have seen on our site and social media channels lately, Presto Music is currently celebrating a double anniversary, as 2021 marks not only the 20th anniversary of the website launching, but also 35 years since the first Presto shop opened in Leamington Spa. So it seemed fitting that we invite the boss, Chris O'Reilly, onto the show to tell us how he came to find himself working for Presto Music in 2001, how he helped it develop into one of the leading indepen...

My guests this week are the members of The Hermes Experiment, a contemporary music quartet made up of Heloise Werner (soprano and co-director), Oliver Pashley (clarinet), Anne Denholm (harp), Marianne Schofield (doube bass), and the group's co-director Hanna Grzeskiewicz. Having just releases their second album,*Song*, for Delphian Records, the group tell me about the rewards and challenges of running an ensemble with such an idiosyncratic combination of instruments, and have already no...

German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954) was one of the towering musical giants of the 20th century, a man whose near mythical reputation is arguably better known than his actual recordings. This year has seen a number of reissues of his recordings, the most signifcant of which is Warner Classics's 55 disc boxset featuring many previously unpublished recordings. For this special episode of the podcast we invited critics Rob Cowan and David Hurwitz to discuss the relative merits of Fur...

This week's topic concerns musicology and musicologists... what is it, who are they, and what exactly do they get paid to do? So who better to ask than one of them, Daniel Elphick, a musicologist and researcher who has recently started his own YouTube which sets out to demistify things for the layman. Daniel is currently working as a Teaching Fellow in Music at Royal Holloway, University of London (having also taught at Manchester, Goldsmiths, and Buckinghamshire New University), his re...

The fascinating life and music of Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is the topic of this week's show, and we are delighted to welcome back Andrew Mellor to the Presto Music Podcast to take us through his humble childhood on the island of Funen through to the international acclaim he received as one of the most modernistic symphonic composers of his generation. Andrew has established himself as something of a British cultural attaché to Scandinavia since moving to Copenhagen in 2015, an...

This week's guest is one Britain's most talented young organists Anna Lapwood. Anna joins me to chat about two great organ traditions, the music of J.S. Bach and the world of French Symphonic Organ and also about how she's reinventing the Organ with both the repertoire she's chosen for her new CD and her projects in the Organ community.Presto MusicAll things musical... on your doorstep!Visit our website: www.prestomusic.comFollow us on Facebook, Twitter or InstagramLove us? Review us on Trust...

Rainer Hersch is a comedian and musician who has performed on every major comedy stage in Britain and abroad. He has appeared thirteen times at the Edinburgh Festival, had numerous comedy-concert series at the South Bank in London, featured in comedy clubs all across Europe and in TV shows around the world. Rainer and his classical ‘Orkestra’ communicates, connects and corrupts some of the great works of classical music. A popular highlight is when Rainer invites members of the audience...

It's always a pleasure to catch up with friend-of-the-show Rob Cowan, especially when he comes armed with chunky historic boxsets from the golden age of conducting. This time we were listening to recently released collections of recordings by Artur Rodzinski in New York, Rafael Kubelik in Chicago, and Eugene Ormandy in Philadelphia. As ever it was a delight to share in Rob's vast knowledge of recordings and pick out highlights from the sets.If you are enjoying the Presto Music Podcast please ...

This week in a special bonus episode of the Presto Music Podcast, Patricia Kopatchinskaja took time out from her busy schedule to record answers to some questions I had about her new Alpha recording of Schoenberg's *Pierrot Lunaire*, which finds the acclaimed violinist singing, or rather Sprechstimming, the titular role. Patricia tells us why the piece holds such an important place in her heart, and how she approaches this demanding modernist statement.You can listen to the podcast righ...

This week I am joined by Professor Suzanne Aspden, an expert on both Handel, and the construction of identity through music, to trace the composer's journey from his youthful Italian Cantatas & Operas to his later English Oratorios, and the impact that his compositions have had on British culture and musical life from the Georgian era all the way to the present day.You can listen to the podcast right here on this page, or click on the links in the player (via the symbol of the box with th...

This week Paul is joined by British clarinettist Julian Bliss for a brief history of the the instrument, touching upon its earliest appearances in Mozart, through Krommer and Brahms, and its important role in the development of jazz in the first half of the 20th century. The episode includes not one but two "sneak peeks" of forthcoming recordings from Julian, one of which was recorded in Julian's home studio during lockdown.Presto MusicAll things musical... on your doorstep!Visit our website:...

We are delighted to be joined by Piers Burton-Page, author of Philharmonic Concerto: Life and Music of Malcolm Arnold, the first published biography of this complex character, and president of the Malcolm Arnold Society, to celebrate the life and work of one of the most distinctive British composers of the 20th century. Well-known for his Oscar winning score to David Lean's Bridge on the River Kwai, Piers has picked 9 nine pieces by Arnold to give an overview of a diverse compositional career...

Bruckner and Mahler, those behemoths of the romantic symphony, have recently enjoyed lavish boxsets of their complete cycles, with the Münchner Philharmoniker and Valery Gergiev tackling Bruckner, and eight conductors with the Berliner Philharmoniker for Mahler. Peter Quantrill, who reviewed both of these sets in latest edition of Gramophone joins me this week to assess the relationship between these composers, as well as bringing his perspective on how performance practices, and his own pers...

As Valentine's day is almost upon us, could there be a more apt topic than the art of Romantic Song? We welcome Natasha Loges on to the show, Head of Postgraduate Programmes and Reader in Musicology at the Royal College of Music, London, and author of several books on Brahms, including *Brahms and His Poets - A Handbook*, and editor of *German Song Onstage: Lieder Performance in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries*. In te programme we focus on the art of lieder as it move...

Harriet Smith returns to the show to discuss some of her favourite pianists, drawing upon 85 years of piano recordings from the earliest recorded ivory tinklers to the most recent trailblazers. Harriet is well know to readers of Gramophone Magazine and BBC Radio 3's Record Review, and her deep knowledge and passion for piano music brings insights into the world of piano playing and pianists themselves to this weeks show.Presto MusicAll things musical... on your doorstep!Visit our website: www...

This week I held something of a cultural exchange programme with writer, vlogger, and musician David Hurwitz. Known to many from his reviews website *Classics Today*, the lockdown prompted David to start his very successful YouTube channel earlier this year, which has been gaining a global following ever since. On the show David chooses five of his favourite pieces of British music, I return the compliment with five American classics and we have a discussion peppered with David's inimitable n...

As we approach the holiday season, who better to take us on a guided tour through the history of the English choral tradition than Presto's own resident choral music expert, David Smith. David has been a church musician since the age of 8, and is currently a lay clerk at St. Philip's Cathedral Birmingham and a member of the vocal ensemble Ex Cathedra, as well as a writer for Early Music America.Presto MusicAll things musical... on your doorstep!Visit our website: www.prestomusic.comFollow us ...

In the midst of the awards season for classical music recordings, this week I am joined by Marina Frolova-Walker, a Russian-born British musicologist and music historian, to discuss the subject of her 2016 book Stalin's Music Prize: Soviet Culture and Politics. Marina specialises in German Romanticism, Russian and Soviet music, and nationalism in music, and is Professor of Music History and Director of Studies in Music at Clare College, Cambridge. Its a great chat, taking in some of the less ...

This week I am joined by Professor Laura Tunbridge, whose book Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces (published earlier this year by Viking Books) offers new perspectives on the man, the music and early nineteenth-century Vienna in this, the year of his 250th anniversary. Laura guides us through the nine works that she chose for the book, offering new perspectives on some of the choices made by this complicated genius. www.prestomusic.com/classicalYou can buy Laura's book here:Beethoven: A Li...

We are delighted to welcome back Rob Cowan, who was our inaugural guest back in June. Rob and Paul discuss several recent historical boxsets that collect together recordings by three American émigré artists; pianist Andor Földes, conductor Antal Dorati and violinist Isaac Stern. www.prestomusic.com/classicalThe recordings discussed in this episode:Andor Foldes: Complete Deutsche Grammophon RecordingsEloquence - ELQ4841256https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8797738--andor-folde...

This week our host Paul Thomas talks to saxophonist Jess Gillam about the motivations behind her new album "Time" and the effect that moving from the country to the metropolis has had on her. Hailing from Ulverston in Cumbria, Jess Gillam is blazing a trail in the music world with her outstanding talent and infectious personality. In 2016 Jess was the first-ever saxophonist to reach the final of BBC Young Musician of the Year, and performed at the Last Night of the Proms in 2018, having her p...

Paul Thomas is joined by guitarist, broadcaster and concert organiser Tom McKinney for a wide-ranging conversation about contemporary music. As well as discussing some recent new releases the discussion touches upon performances in unconventional venues and the art of commissioning new works.www.prestomusic.comThe music discussed in the show:Haydn: String Quartets Op. 76 Nos. 1 - 3Chiaroscuro QuartetBIS - BIS2348https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8777472--haydn-string-quartets-op-...

Andrew Mellor has established himself as something of a British cultural attaché to Scandinavia since moving to Copenhagen in 2015. Well known for his contributions to BBC Radio 3's Record Review and the BBC Proms, he takes Paul on a guided tour of Denmark, Faroe, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, discussing some of the fascinating music that has been inspiring him recently.www.prestomusic.comMusic discussed:Nielsen: Symphony No. 3, Op. 27 (FS60) 'Sinfonia espansiva'Gothenburg Symphony Orc...

Paul talks to Harriet Smith about the pleasures and pitfalls that come with being a successful music critic, writing for, amongst others, Gramophone Magazine and making regular appearances as a guest on BBC Radio 3's Record Review. Paul asks Harriet to reappraise three albums that she reviewed in the past, right a wrong for a record she didn't review, and to take up the challenge of reviewing four albums in less than 24 hours.Presto MusicAll things musical... on your doorstep!Visit our websit...

Our host Paul Thomas is joined by broadcaster and critic Rob Cowan to discuss recent reissues and new releases, including a mammoth Barbirolli boxset from Warner, Robert Trevino's Beethoven symphony cycle, and Michael Tilson Thomas's moving From the Diary of Anne Frank. We also hear Rob's Confessions of a Bartók Salesman and delve into his extensive interview archive for a conversation with Finnish conductor and composer Leif Segerstam.Presto MusicAll things musical... on your doorstep!Visit ...