Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

Gramophone's Orchestra of the Year Award is the only one offered as a public vote. Our editorial team has produced a short list of ten ensembles which have particularly impressed for their work on record over the past 12 months and, with Apple Music, has created ten playlists featuring each of the orchestras' work (as well as an 11th which includes all ten ensembles and which is updated regularly). In this, the second of three podcasts dedicted to the Award, Gramophone's Contributing Editor, the critic and broadcaster Rob Cowan, joins Gramophone's James Jolly to talk about the nominated ensembles. This week their focus is on three major European ensembles, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. To listen to these three playlists (as well as the other eight) and to vote, just visit the Apple Music page on Gramophone's website, where you can also start your free three-month trial to Apple Music.

Gramophone's Orchestra of the Year Award is the only one offered as a public vote. Our editorial team has produced a short list of ten ensembles which have particularly impressed for their work on record over the past 12 months and, with Apple Music, has created ten playlists featuring each of the orchestras' work (as well as an 11th which includes all ten ensembles and which is updated regularly). In this, the first of three weekly podcasts, Gramophone's Contributing Editor, the critic and broadcaster Rob Cowan, joins Gramophone's James Jolly to talk about the nominated ensembles. This week their focus is on the two US groups, the San Francisco Symphony and Boston Symphony Orchestra, alongside the London Symphony Orchestra. To listen to these three playlists (as well as the other eight) and to vote, just visit the Apple Music page on Gramophone's website, where you can also start your free three-month trial to Apple Music.

The tenor Nicky Spence, with Julius Drake at the piano, has just released a new recording of Janáček's 'The diary of one who disappeared' on Hyperion - Gramophone's Recording of the Month in its August issue. Almost simultaneously, Resonus has released on CD for the first time, Mark Anthony Turnage's cycle 'A Constant Obsession'. The Scottish singer talks to James Jolly about these fascinating projects.

Isata Kanneh-Mason has chosen to explore the music of Clara Schumann - whose bicentenary is marked this year - for her debut disc on Decca. Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford met with her, to talk about the life of one of the 19th century's most acclaimed virtuosos, and her often neglected music.

Edward Gardner has just released another instalment in his City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Mendelssohn cycle, a collection of overtures, and a new Brahms symphony cycle with the Bergen Philharmonic starts this autumn – both for the Chandos label. Editor-in-Chief James Jolly caught up with him to talk about recording complete series of works, how he approaches such well-know repertoire as the Brahms symphonies, and how he seeks a different sound for each composer.

For his new Signum Classics album, Hugo Ticciati and his ensemble O/Modernt have explored the ground, or chaconne, down the years. James Jolly caught up with him when O/Modernt were in London recently to talk about the album.

Sir John Tavener's The Protecting Veil was premiered at the BBC Proms 30 years ago. To coincide with the anniversary, a new recording has been issued by Signum Classics which finds Matthew Barley directing Sinfonietta Riga from the cello - James Jolly meets him.

The latest recording from King's College Cambridge explores the music of Herbert Howells, featuring choral music (including An English Mass), organ works, and a newly completed Cello Concerto. Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford met with Music Director Stephen Cleobury to talk about the album - and, as Cleobury prepares to retire from the position this summer, to look back over 37 years of extraordinary music-making.

Gramophone's current Young Artist of the Year is Lise Davidsen, a singer with a huge future ahead of her. May 31 sees the release of her much-anticipated Decca debut album, opera arias and orchestral songs by Wagner and Richard Strauss, for which she's joined by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen. James Jolly went to see her at her home in Copenhagen for a 'Musician and the Score' article on Strauss's Four Last Songs (you can read it in Gramophone's June issue), but he also took the opportunity to talk to her more generally about this solo album.

Michael Fabiano, recently in London to sing the title-role in Gounod's Faust at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, has recorded an album of arias by Donizetti and Verdi. He was joined for the Pentatone sessions by the London Philharmonic Orchestra - with whom he'd worked at Glyndebourne – and Enrique Mazzola. James Jolly caught up with Michal Fabiano during rehearsals at Covent Garden to talk about the programme of the recital, and his interest in the operatic music of this period.