Latest stories
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Presto Presents... Claire Booth and Christopher Glynn
9th Jul 2026
The soprano and pianist take us behind the scenes of their new album Cocteau's Music, out now on Orchid Classics and featuring Poulenc's La voix humaine alongside songs by Maurice Delage, Darius Milhaud, Georges Auric and others.
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Cocteau's Music from Claire Booth and Christopher Glynn
26th Jun 2026
The British soprano and pianist explore the extraordinary legacy of French poet, playwright and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, including songs by Milhaud, Honegger and Auric, and culminating in a visceral account of Poulenc's La Voix humaine.
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Pascal Rogé at 75
7th Apr 2026
The French pianist celebrates his 75th birthday this week, with a new album of Fauré and a career-spanning box set, both on Decca – the label to which he first signed at the age of eighteen. We look back on the career of a master of musical architecture who communicates affection without affectation.
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Charles Owen & Katya Apekisheva on the art of the piano duo
27th Dec 2023
The curators of the London Piano Festival reflect on what makes the perfect partner on the piano-bench, and discuss their new album of music by Poulenc, Milhaud and Debussy (released on Orchid Classics last month).
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Mathieu Romano on Ensemble Aedes
18th Dec 2023
The French conductor talks about the choir which he founded as a twenty-one-year-old student in Paris, their mission to be 'specialists of nothing', and their close rapport with his mentor François-Xavier Roth & Les Siècles.
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Véronique Gens on singing Poulenc's Elle
13th Feb 2023
The French soprano reflects on undertaking the biggest challenge of her career to date, and explains why La voix humaine is 'unique in the whole history of music'...
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Véronique Gens in Poulenc's La Voix Humaine
13th Jan 2023
The great French tragedienne tackles a role that’s surely been beckoning for years, and the results are every bit as compelling as you'd expect - with the Orchestre National de Lille providing some telling insights into the other side of this fraught phone-conversation...
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Rosalind Plowright on Dialogues des Carmélites
2nd Dec 2014
Katherine talks to the British mezzo about singing Poulenc's masterpiece in a new production from Paris, out now on DVD/Blu-ray on Erato.
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Francis Poulenc
21st Nov 2014
Katherine selects some favourite recordings of the French composer Francis Poulenc.
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Poulenc from Patricia Petibon and Paavo Järvi
25th Nov 2013
The fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s death is marked by outstanding performances of three of his sacred works: the Gloria, Stabat mater, and Litanies à la Vierge*.
