Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

Sarah Traubel makes her recorded debut for Sony Classical with an album entitled 'Arias for Josepha', the soprano who created the role of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte ('The Magic Flute'). She's joined on the recording by the Prague Philharmonia conducted by Jochen Rieder and it's now available digitally. In this latest Gramophone Podcast, Sarah Traubel talked to James Jolly about the programme and the various composers who write arias for Josepha, how she fills her time under lockdown and her two illustrious relatives.

The Sitkovetsky Trio – Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin), Wu Qian (piano) and Isang Enders (cello) – has launched a series for BIS focusing on Beethoven's music for piano trio and Vol 1 is just out. It contains Op 1 No 3 and Op 70 No 2 with the small B flat Trio, WoO39 tucked in between them. James Jolly caught up with husband-and-wife Alexander Sitkovetsky and Wu Qian to find out about how the Trio was formed, how they're approaching this Beethoven series and how they're filling their time now that they're under lockdown in their house in London.

Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by sopranos Julia Doyle and Grace Davidson to talk about their new recording of music for Tenebrae, Couperin's Leçons de Ténèbres and Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday. The album, featuring the choir Tenebrae under the direction of Nigel Short, is available now on Signum Classics.

Released today by Alpha Classics, 'La Passione' combines Luigi Nono's Djamila Boupacha for solo soprano, Haydn's Symphony No 49 (sometimes called La Passione) and Gérard Grisey's Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil. Ludwig Orchestra is conducted by Barbara Hannigan who also sings in the two modern works. James Jolly spoke to Hannigan, down the line, to find out about how she put the album together.

Jack Liebeck today releases a new recording on Orchid Classics, coupling the violin concertos by Brahms and Schoenberg, both works which have strong personal connections. He's joined on the new album by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Gourlay. Jack talks to James Jolly about why he put the two works together, how he sees their relationship and the challenges of learning and playing the Schoenberg concerto.

Gramophone is excited to announce the publication of its digital special: Ballet on Screen. With nearly 20 reviews of ballet DVDs released in the past year, written by the world's best dance writers, this digital special is free to view. The special's editor Sarah Kirkup talks to Gramophone's editor Martin Cullingford about the magazine's contents, including its two features, one exploring Margot Fonteyn's legacy on film, the other investigating the surging popularity of ballet in the cinema.

The violinist Johannes Pramsohler has recorded an album of sonatas by Pieter Hellendaal who studied in Italy and moved to England in the middle of the 18th century and worked as violinist, composer and teacher, spending the last couple of decades of his life in Cambridge. Pramsohler and his musical partners Gulrim Choï and Philippe Grisvard have recorded six of Hellendaal's 'Cambridge Sonatas' for Audax, an album released on March 6. Pramsohler talks to Gramophone's James Jolly about the composer and his music.

Eric Lu, winner of the 2018 Leeds Piano Competition and now signed to Warner Classics, today releases his new album. The bulk of the programme is given over to Chopin's Op 28 Preludes, to which he adds Brahms's late Intermezzo Op 117 No 1 and Schumann's last completed work, the so-called Ghost Variations. James Jolly caught up with him to talk about the programme, but also to find out about some of Eric's piano heroes ...

The Estonian conductor, Paavo Järvi, talks about his three orchestras, and particularly his Tokyo-based NHK Symphony Orchestra as they arrive in Europe as part of a concert tour that takes in nine cities. To coincide with the tour, Sony Classical has released two new albums: Mahler's Sixth Symphony and three work by Bartók, the Music for strings, percussion and celesta, Dance Suite and Divertimento.

Twenty five years after his first recording for BIS of JS Bach's St Matthew Passion, Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan have taken the work into the studio for a second time, and a magnificent achievement it proves. James Jolly met up with Suzuki when he was in London recently, working with students at the Royal Academy of Music.