Classical Interviews
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Vilde Frang on Elgar
20th Oct 2025
In the wake of winning a Gramophone Award for her outstanding recording of the Violin Concerto with Robin Ticciati and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Norwegian violinist discusses how her relationship with Elgar's music has blossomed from a transformative encounter with the Serenade for Strings as a teenager.
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Sir Thomas Allen reflects on his career
16th Oct 2025
In the wake of receiving Gramophone's Lifetime Achievement Award last night, the beloved British baritone shares insights and anecdotes from his five decades on stage - and picks out four favourite recordings from his vast discography...
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Thomas Allen (Don Giovanni), Carol Vaness (Donna Anna), Maria Ewing (Donna Elvira), Elizabeth Gale (Zerlina), Keith Lewis (Don Ottavio), Richard van Allan (Leporello), John Rawnsley (Masetto), Dimitri Kavrakos (Il Commendatore) Glyndebourne Chorus & London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
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Clare Hammond on Tippett, Britten and Walton
14th Oct 2025
British pianist Clare Hammond spoke to Matthew Ash about her new album dedicated to the music of Tippett, Britten and Walton, and her tireless work to provide musical opportunities and exposure for everyone, irrespective of background, race or gender.
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Erin Morley and Lawrence Brownlee on Golden Age
9th Oct 2025
In a break from rehearsals for Laurent Pelly's production of La fille du régiment at the Metropolitan Opera, the American soprano and tenor discuss their new album of arias and duets by Donizetti, Bizet, Delibes, Adam and Rossini (out tomorrow on Pentatone).
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Anna Clyne and Marin Alsop on Abstractions
8th Oct 2025
The composer and conductor talk about their long history of working together, including their first collaboration at the Cabrillo Festival back in 2010, the Last Night of the Proms in 2013, and their latest album of four pieces with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
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Francesco Piemontesi on Brahms and Alchemy
7th Oct 2025
A deep-thinking and communicative pianist, Francesco Piemontesi spoke to Matthew Ash about his new Brahms album, the support that made it possible, and the things that need to come together to create music on the most orchestral of instruments.
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The Pavel Haas Quartet on Martinů
29th Sep 2025
Violinist Veronika Jarůšková and cellist Peter Jarůšek discuss how the composer's music featured in their first meeting as children on a TV talent show, Martinů's relationship with fellow composer Vítězslava Kaprálová, and surmounting the technical challenges of music that is 'almost impossible to play'.
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Pavel Haas Quartet
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Craig Ogden on Tango at Tetbury, Dancing with Piazzolla and Latin Connections
25th Sep 2025
Ahead of opening the 2025 Tetbury Music Festival with the London Tango Quintet, and the release of a new Aquarelle Guitar Quartet album in October, Craig Ogden chatted with Matthew Ash about the breadth of his musical passions, the joys of chamber music and his choice of strings, giving insight into an instrument that is all too often unfairly viewed as sitting at the periphery of classical music.
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Sir John Rutter at 80
24th Sep 2025
Composer Sir John Rutter reflects on eight decades of music-making - from studying and conducting at Clare College Cambridge to the turn to full-time composition, and the various influences that have helped to shape his musical style.
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Will Dawes on Divine Light and the Indian choral tradition
22nd Sep 2025
The conductor of the unique choir of Oxford University's Somerville College talks about their new album of works from, and drawing on, some of the musical worlds of the Indian subcontinent.
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Seong-Jin Cho on the LSO, Ravel and the Chopin Competition
16th Sep 2025
As his Artist Portrait series with the London Symphony Orchestra gets underway, the South Korean pianist discusses his relationship with the city, the new concerto by his compatriot Donghoon Shin which he'll premiere in November, and his memories of winning the International Chopin Piano Competition almost exactly a decade ago...
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Steven Osborne on Lammermuir, Schubert and Rutter
9th Sep 2025
Ahead of his performance with the Philharmonia Orchestra at Lammermuir Festival tomorrow, the Scottish pianist discusses his recent, widely praised album of late Schubert - and the upcoming world premiere recording of John Rutter's new piano concerto Reflections.
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John Butt on Bach's elusive St Mark Passion (and theatrical Handel)
4th Sep 2025
The conductor of the Dunedin Consort talks about his upcoming performance of an innovative hybrid reconstruction of Bach's fragmentary third Passion setting, and his recent recording of dramatic Handel cantatas featuring soprano Nardus Williams.
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Janai Brugger on Intelligence
28th Aug 2025
The American soprano discusses her central role in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's new opera about an enslaved woman who becomes a Union spy in the Confederate White House during the American Civil War - the world premiere recording is released tomorrow on Houston Grand Opera's new label.
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Benjamin Nicholas on (more!) Orchestrated Anthems
27th Aug 2025
Merton College Choir's Director introduces his second volume of favourite anthems and church music, reimagined once again in glorious orchestral Technicolor, with the choir and the Britten Sinfonia.
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Giovanni Antonini on Il Giardino Armonico
20th Aug 2025
As the Italian period instrument ensemble celebrates its fortieth anniversary, its founder member and current Music Director reflects on the group's evolution - and why he believes that 'everything in Italy is theatre, for better or for worse'...
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Michael Repper and Curtis Stewart on Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
14th Aug 2025
Celebrating the 150th anniversary of English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, the conductor and violinist talk about their shared passion for making the unheard heard, ensuring music is accessible, and the teamwork behind their new album.
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Nigel Short on A Prayer for Deliverance
13th Aug 2025
Tenebrae's conductor talks about the choir's most recent album, pairing an astonishing, virtuosic and powerful new work from rising US composer Joel Thompson with Howells's well-loved Requiem.
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Martin Baker on Corpus Christi from Buckfast Abbey
11th Aug 2025
The organist and composer talks about his newly-commissioned Mass for Buckfast Abbey, and some of the age-old strands of liturgical music that partly inspired it.
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Elizabeth Sombart on Mozart and philanthropy
6th Aug 2025
The pianist and humanitarian activist talks about her new album of Mozart concertos and her work with the Fondation Résonnance over the years.
