Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

The winners of the 2021 Gramophone Classical Music Awards have been revealed. To hear more about what lay behind the decisions to honour this year's winners, and to hear excerpts from all the winning artists and recordings, listen to this special second edition of our Awards Podcast, featuring Editor-in-Chief James Jolly, Editor Martin Cullingford and Reviews Editor Tim Parry. This week's Gramophone Podcast is in association with Leipzig – the City of Music.

This weekend marks the 90th anniversary of the death of Carl Nielsen, and one of the most prominent flag-bearers for his legacy today is the Carl Nielsen International Competition. In this week's Gramophone podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford talked to the competition's President, the violinist and conductor Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, about some innovative changes to next year's edition – and about the music of the composer it's named after. This week's Podcast is presented in association with Leipzig – the City of Music.

Today, we revealed the 11 albums to have won the recording categories at this year's Gramophone Classical Music Awards, and which will now go on to compete to be named Recording of the Year on October 5. In this special edition of the Gramophone Podcast, Editor-in-Chief James Jolly, Editor Martin Cullingford and Reviews Editor Tim Parry discuss these extraordinary recordings - and play excerpts from all 11 of them. This week's Gramophone Podcast is in association with Leipzig – the City of Music, where in June and July 2022 the Leipzig Opera Festival will focus on the music of Wagner.

Charles Owen's latest recording for Avie is of the First Book, Switzerland from Franz Liszt's Années de pèlerinage ('Years of wandering). Charles talks to James Jolly about how he took the opportunity to return to the work during the long, quiet months of lockdown, how he performed the work in his first concerts with an audience and how he became drawn into Liszt's world as the composer-pianist travelled throughout Europe. This week's Gramophone Podcast is in association with Leipzig – the City of Music, where in June and July 2022 the Leipzig Opera Festival will focus on the music of Wagner. For full information at visit wagner22.de

To celebrate his 60th birthday – and his first album for Decca in a decade – Jean-Yves Thibaudet has programmed a beautiful solo recital full of works with strong personal connections for him. Called 'Carte blanche', it ranges from Couperin to a Charles Trenet transcription, and is out today. Editor Martin Cullingford caught up with the pianist for this week's Gramophone Podcast

Gramophone's Artist of the Year for 2019, Víkingur Ólafsson, has recorded three critically acclaimed albums for DG, and now he adds a fourth entitled 'Mozart & Contemporaries' which gathers music by CPE Bach, Galuppi, Cimarosa and Haydn around the great Wolfgang Amadeus. James Jolly caught up by video call with the pianist at his home in Iceland just a few days after Ólafsson's triumphant debut at the BBC Proms where he joined the Philharmonia and Paavo Järvi in concertos by JS Bach and Mozart.

Lucas Debargue, who shot to fame during the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition where he took fourth prize, but totally stole the audience's hearts, and shortly after was signed by Sony Classical. 'Żal' is Debargue's sixth album for the label and, joined by the violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica, he explores the music of the Polish composer and pianist Miłosz Magin (1929-99) who, like Chopin, settled in Paris. James Jolly caught up with Debargue by video call to talk about the album and to learn what Żal is, and to hear how Debargue and Gidon Kremer collaborated n this new album.

Sean Shibe has just released a new album, 'Camino', an exploration of the cross-fertilisation of French and Spanish music, and built around the gentle sound world of Federico Mompou. He talks to James Jolly about the stop-start music-making experience of the pandemic and how it focused his mind on exploring Spanish music for the first time on record. A passionate advocate for new music, Shibe also reveals what he's been up to on the contemporary music front. This Gramophone Podcast is given in association with Tomplay Sheet Music.

Jan Lisiecki, a former Gramophone Young Artist of the Year, has recorded his eighth album for Deutsche Grammophon, the complete Chopin Nocturnes (his third Chopin recording for the DG). James Jolly caught up with him by video call in Poland where he's spent a long period during the pandemic and from where he has maintained a busy schedule. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Tomplay Sheet Music.

With the voting open for the 2021 Orchestra of the Year Award, music journalist and broadcaster Rob Cowan joins Gramophone's Editor in Chief, James Jolly, to talk about ensembles from Germany, the USA, Singapore and Switzerland. This is the only award chosen by our readers and an international audience of music-lovers. Visit our Awards pages for the list of the ten nominated orchestras and to vote. But before you do, listen to the ensembles on ten specially curated playlists and our dynamic playlist on Apple Music in lossless audio. Gramophone Podcasts are presented in association with Wigmore Hall.