Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

Carlo Rizzi, Opera Rara’s Artistic Director, has recorded Mercadante’s Il Proscritto for Opera Rara, another rarity to add to the label’s growing catalogue. A well-chosen line-up of singers, including Ramón Vargas, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Irene Roberts, Elizabeth DeShong, Sally Matthews, Goderdzi Janelidze and Susana Gaspa, are joined by the Britten Sinfonia and Opera Rara Chorus. James Jolly catches up with the conductor.

The French pianist Cédric Tiberghien has just released a new album, Variation[s], on Harmonia Mundi. It takes Beethoven's many sets of themes and variations for solo piano as its starting point, and weaves in major sets by others composers, in Vol 1 by Mozart, Schumann and Webern. James Jolly caught up with the pianist in New York, by Zoom, to talk about the project and find out his thinking on the programme of this first volume. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall

Guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre talks to Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford about his debut album for Deutsche Grammophon, Visages Baroque, which weaves a programme of arrangements of music by French Baroque composers around two major pieces by Bach. This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall. 

Tom Poster is pianist and co-artistic director of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, and in the latest in our series celebrating our Label of the Year Chandos Records, Editor Martin Cullingford talks to him about what defines the group and its aims, and about their three albums so far.

The two violinists of the Tippett Quartet – John Mills and Jeremy Issacs – tell Editor Martin Cullingford about the group's new recording of the three string quartets of Erich Korngold, released on the Naxos label.

Klaus Mäkelä's second recording for Decca finds him at the helm of his French orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris. They recorded Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and the complete Firebird ballet. James Jolly spoke to the conductor by Zoom when Klaus was in Cleveland conducting performances of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall

The soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen has just released an album of Richard Strauss, two late works – the Four Last Songs and the Closing scene from the opera Capriccio. On this new Sony Classical release she's joined by the Gewandhausorchester and Andris Nelsons. James Jolly caught up with her by Zoom to talk repertoire and the allure of Strauss's vocal writing. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall.

The Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare was appointed Music Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal SO) at the start of the 2022-23 season and one of their first projects together, Mahler's Fifth Symphony, has just been released by Pentatone. Rafael Payare was in London recently conducting a run of much-praised performances of Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia at Covent Garden, and Gramophone's James Jolly took the opportunity to catch up with him to talk about his work in Montreal and the new Mahler recording. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall.

In this week's podcast, French mezzo soprano Lucile Richardot talks to Gramophone's Hattie Butterworth about Les heures claires, an album of the complete songs of Nadia and Lili Boulanger on the Harmonia Mundi label, and also about recording Scarlatti Cantatas with harpsichordist Philippe Grisvard, for Audax.  

This week's Gramophone Podcast explores the life and works of Liszt, with a particular focus on his piano music. Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by Gramophone writer and expert on both Liszt and the piano, Jeremy Nicholas to discuss the composer's greatest works, and their greatest recordings. Visit Gramophone's website for details of the featured excerpts.