Classical Interviews
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Tim Mead on Beauteous Softness
30th Mar 2023
The countertenor discusses his new album of songs by Henry Purcell, John Blow, Pelham Humfrey and William Webb with La Nuova Musica & David Bates (released last week on Pentatone).
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Cyrille Dubois on So Romantique!
23rd Mar 2023
The French light lyric tenor explains how he found his operatic niche as a lover rather than a fighter - and discusses his new album on Alpha Classics, featuring rarities by Louis Clapisson, Charles Luce-Verlet and Théodore Dubois alongside one or two old favourites...
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Simon Mayor on Carolan
22nd Mar 2023
The mandolinist talks about his new album of music by the eighteenth-century Irish harpist Turlough O'Carolan, featuring his own arrangements that meld together Baroque, folk and chamber styles.
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Jean Rondeau on Gradus ad Parnassum
16th Mar 2023
The French harpsichordist discusses his new album on Erato, which takes its title from a 1725 treatise on counterpoint by Johann Joseph Fux and includes music by Palestrina, Haydn, Beethoven and even Debussy...
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Gradus ad Parnassum
Jean Rondeau (harpsichord)
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The Calidore String Quartet record late Beethoven
15th Mar 2023
Violinist Ryan Meehan talks about the quartet's new album, which builds on their earlier more exploratory releases with an all-Beethoven programme.
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Michael Repper on New York Youth Symphony
14th Mar 2023
The American conductor discusses the orchestra's debut recording of music by Florence Price, Valerie Coleman and Jessie Montgomery, which won the Best Orchestral Performance prize at this year's Grammys.
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The Dudok Quartet on Shostakovich and Bacewicz
8th Mar 2023
Cellist David Faber talks about the quartet's recent album of intense chamber music by two composers who grappled with Soviet oppression - Dmitri Shostakovich and Grażyna Bacewicz.
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Reflections: Shostakovich & Bacewicz
Dudok Quartet
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Johannes Moser on being Alone Together
6th Mar 2023
The cellist talks about his new album that blends the artistry of the solo cello with the technology of sequencing and spatial audio - conceived well before the pandemic, but brought into focus by the enforced isolation that characterised 2020 for so many people.
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Mary Bevan on Visions Illuminées
28th Feb 2023
The British soprano discusses her new album with 12 Ensemble, the Ruisi Quartet and Joseph Middleton on Signum, featuring works by composers including Britten, Chausson, Holmès, and Ravel & Debussy (via Robin Holloway).
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Mark Bebbington on Vaughan Williams's 'Fantasia on the Old 104th'
27th Feb 2023
The pianist talks about his recent recording of a striking, category-defying work by Vaughan Williams that is very rarely heard - and shares his thoughts on some other rarely-explored sides of Vaughan Williams's music.
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Eric Lu on Schubert
23rd Feb 2023
The pianist talks about his recent album of Schubert sonatas, his empathy for the troubled composer, and his unique relationship with his music.
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Schubert: Piano Sonatas D.784 & D.95
Eric Lu (piano)
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Rory McCleery on Vicente Lusitano
16th Feb 2023
The Marian Consort's director talks about the ensemble's recent album of choral polyphony by Vicente Lusitano, the earliest-known classical composer of African ancestry.
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Simon Callaghan on Reinecke
15th Feb 2023
The British pianist and academic talks about his latest contribution to Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto series, featuring three works by a German composer whose many illustrious students included Grieg, Albéniz and Janáček...
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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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Julian Podger on the music of Dufay
9th Feb 2023
The director of Gothic Voices talks about the group's new album of choral works from Florentine collections, including two of Dufay's most famous motets - Nuper rosarum flores and O tres piteulx.
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Beatrice Rana on Clara & Robert Schumann
8th Feb 2023
In the wake of her recording of the Schumanns' piano concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Italian pianist reflects on the 'powerful, open and beautiful' relationship between the couple.
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Matthew Schellhorn on the piano music of Herbert Howells
26th Jan 2023
The pianist talks about his second volume of piano works by Howells, consisting almost entirely of world premiere recordings.
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Christopher Tin on The Lost Birds
22nd Jan 2023
The composer talks about his new work, calling attention to declining bird biodiversity through settings of Romantic poetry.
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Ivan Ilić on Joseph Jongen
19th Jan 2023
Ahead of the release of his recording of two sets of Préludes on Chandos tomorrow, the Serbian-American pianist talks to Katherine about the Belgian composer and teacher's 'huge appetite for contrast'.
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Ian Venables on the first recordings of his Requiem
18th Jan 2023
The composer talks to David about his Requiem, recorded on Somm Records in 2020 by the choir of Gloucester Cathedral, and more recently in its full orchestral version by the choir of Merton College Oxford and the Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia.
