Classical Interviews
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William Vann on Parry's Prometheus Unbound
28th Sep 2023
The conductor discusses the world premiere recording of Parry's 1880 setting of scenes from Shelley's lyrical drama - the first performance of which was described by the musicologist Ernest Walker as 'a definite birthday for modern English music'...
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John Corigliano and Mark Adamo on The Lord of Cries
21st Sep 2023
The composer and librettist discuss their spine-tingling new opera fusing elements of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Euripides's The Bacchae, released on Pentatone earlier this month and starring countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo as Dionysus.
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John-Henry Crawford on Rachmaninoff
13th Sep 2023
The cellist talks about his new album of Rachmaninoff cello works, built around the sonata in G minor and exploring the relationship between the cello's timbre and the human voice.
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John Andrews on Ethel Smyth's Der Wald
11th Sep 2023
The conductor discusses the first-ever recording of Smyth's second opera - a deliciously dark fairy-tale in one act, which was premiered in Berlin in 1902 and subsequently transferred to the Metropolitan Opera.
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John Wilson on Oklahoma!
7th Sep 2023
In the run-up to the release of his new recording of Rodgers & Hammerstein's first musical, the conductor explains how a chance encounter with the piece at the age of fourteen changed his life - and why he considers it to be 'the Marriage of Figaro of the twentieth century'.
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Jonathan Sells on motets by two Bachs
6th Sep 2023
The founder and director of early music collective Solomon's Knot talks about the group's new album of motets, pairing Johann Sebastian Bach's six motets with those of his ancestor and precursor Johann Christoph.
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Suzi Digby on Sanctissima
28th Aug 2023
The founder and director of the ORA Singers talks about her new album of music inspired by Vespers, and her ongoing mission to celebrate choral music from two Golden Ages centuries apart.
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Tim Parker-Langston on Fanny Hensel's Lieder
24th Aug 2023
The tenor and musicologist discusses his mission to make Hensel's complete songs readily available to audiences and performers alike - and explains why her music 'just never stops surprising us'...
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Julian Perkins explores Handel's Attick
15th Aug 2023
The man BBC Radio 3 dubbed the "Indiana Jones of Early Music" talks about his new album of music for the clavichord - an instrument that most definitely doesn't belong in a museum.
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Joseph Middleton on Mahler
7th Aug 2023
The pianist discusses his mission to record all of Mahler's songs in the versions for voice and piano (which launched at the end of last month on Signum Classics) and recounts how 'there was never a grand plan for this to be my job'...
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Benjamin Nicholas on Orchestrated Anthems
25th Jul 2023
Merton College Choir, the Britten Sinfonia and Benjamin Nicholas present a selection of magnificent orchestrations of favourite church music.
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Reginald Mobley on Because
20th Jul 2023
Ahead of his Proms performance of the programme at The Sage this weekend, the American countertenor discusses his album of spirituals and songs by Black composers with jazz pianist Baptiste Trotignon, released on Alpha Classics in May.
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Because
Reginald Mobley (counter-tenor), Baptiste Trotignon (piano)
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Robyn Allegra Parton on Burnished Gold
19th Jul 2023
The British soprano discusses her Klimt-inspired debut solo album on Orchid Classics, exploring music by composers associated with the Viennese Secession movement and featuring songs by Joseph Marx, Alma Mahler, the teenage Erich Korngold and Johanna Müller-Hermann.
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Burnished Gold
Robyn Allegra Parton (soprano), Simon Lepper (piano)
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Owain Park on performing and dramatising Byrd's sacred music
17th Jul 2023
The Artistic Director of The Gesualdo Six talks about the group's new anniversary-year album of Byrd, and their exciting new staged performance based around the music of Catholicism-in-hiding during England's Tudor era.
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Iestyn Morris on Romances
13th Jul 2023
The countertenor talks about his new recording of Russian Romances with pianist Nigel Foster on Quartz Records.
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Romances
Iestyn Morris (countertenor), Nigel Foster (piano)
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Kirill Troussov on his EP of violin duos with Julia Fischer
11th Jul 2023
The violinist discusses his recently-released EP, pairing Shostakovich's Five Pieces for Two Violins & Piano with Prokofiev's Sonata for Two Violins.
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Karim Sulayman on Broken Branches
5th Jul 2023
Tenor Karim Sulayman talks about his recently-released eclectic album of works for guitar and voice with Sean Shibe.
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Broken Branches
Karim Sulayman (tenor), Sean Shibe (guitar)
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Elgan Llŷr Thomas on Unveiled
28th Jun 2023
In the wake of the release of his debut album featuring a bold new translation of Britten's Michelangelo Sonnets (plus music by Tippett, Gipps and Thomas himself), the Welsh tenor discusses queer representation in opera and song - and why he feels that 'it's about time we started adding other stories into the mix'...
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Madeleine Mitchell on Violin Conversations
26th Jun 2023
The violinist discusses her new album featuring works by composers including Thea Musgrave, Errollyn Wallen, Howard Blake and the late Joseph Horovitz.
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Anna Bonitatibus on Monologues
22nd Jun 2023
The Italian mezzo discusses her new album of works which 'occupy a middle-ground between opera and art-song', including music by Zingarelli, Rossini, Donizetti, Viardot-García and Wagner - and her plans to shine a new light on the latter composer's Wesendonck Lieder...
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Monologues
Anna Bonitatibus (mezzo-soprano), Adele d'Aronzo (piano)
