Classical Interviews
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Mariam Batsashvili on Influences
21st May 2025
Mariam Batsashvili's new album, Influences, is a chronological journey through sonatas that she holds close, spiritually and musically. Ahead of her BBC Proms appearance, playing Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on 27th July, she spoke with Matthew Ash about the new album and her connection with the music.
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Influences
Mariam Batsashvili (piano)
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Alon Sariel on Vienna Mandolin Stories
19th May 2025
The Israeli mandolinist talks about his new album with the Kölner Akademie, in which he takes us on a tour of the Vienna of Haydn and Mozart - making some new discoveries along the way.
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Dr Susan Lim on Cosmic Rhapsody
14th May 2025
The surgeon and scientist discusses the second instalment of the ALAN Trilogy (created with composer Manu Martin and librettist Christina Teenz Tan), which was premiered at the Barbican last month and recently released on Decca with Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist.
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Germán Enrique Alcántara on Simon Boccanegra
7th May 2025
The rising Argentinian baritone discusses his recent recording debut on Opera Rara (which saw him stepping in to sing Verdi's troubled Doge at very short notice), his two transformative years on the Jette Parker Artists Programme at Covent Garden, and why it 'takes a village' to raise an opera-singer...
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James Ehnes on Bach
6th May 2025
The violinist discusses his new recording of a selection of Bach concertos with Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra - an organisation which 'played a pivotal part' in his early life through tours, radio broadcasts and competitions for young artists.
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Aulis Sallinen at 90
30th Apr 2025
In the wake of his ninetieth birthday earlier this month, the Finnish composer talks to Ben Hogwood about how his style has changed over the decades - and why he's enjoying life at ‘tempo molto sostenuto’ in semi-retirement.
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Holy Week with The Bevan Family Consort
17th Apr 2025
Four members of the British choir of cousins and siblings discuss their new album of music for Lent and Passiontide Attende Domine, released on Signum Classics earlier this month and featuring works by composers including Alfonso Ferrabosco, Girolamo Giacobbi, Mel Bonis and family friend Neil Wright.
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Rosa Feola on Niccolò Piccinni
16th Apr 2025
The Italian soprano discusses her new album of opera arias by the Bari-born composer (1728-1800), who enjoyed enormous early success in Rome before relocating to Paris at the invitation of Marie Antoinette.
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Sean Hickey on Sapiens
14th Apr 2025
The American composer (and Managing Director of Netherlands-based label PENTATONE) discusses his dual career and the genesis of his new solo piano work Sapiens, released on Dorian Sono Luminus earlier this month.
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Jeannette Sorrell on Le Tre Soprano
10th Apr 2025
The founder and music director of Apollo's Fire talks about the group's new album, placing the spotlight on the all-female 'concerto delle donne' that arose in Ferrara towards the end of the 16th century.
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Samantha Ege on Maestra
9th Apr 2025
The pianist and musicologist discusses her new recording of piano concertos by Julia Perry (the eponymous 'maestra') and Doreen Carwithen, released on Lorelt at the end of last month with Lontano and Odaline de la Martinez.
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Nobuyuki Tsujii on Beethoven
26th Mar 2025
Coinciding with the release of his Deutsche Grammophon debut album, and the reissue by DG of his earlier recordings, pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii spoke to Matthew Ash about his experiences, approaching Beethoven and learning new repertoire as a blind musician.
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Beethoven
Nobuyuki Tsujii (piano)
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Harry Christophers on 'Angel of Peace'
24th Mar 2025
The conductor talks about his new album of choral works, released to accompany The Sixteen's 2025 Choral Pilgrimage.
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Jeneba Kanneh-Mason on Fantasie
19th Mar 2025
Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason talks about making her debut solo album (released earlier this month on Sony Classical), her journey with Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2, the attractions of Scriabin's soundworld, and the music of Margaret Bonds.
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Paavo Järvi on Mahler
17th Mar 2025
As he embarks upon a cycle of Mahler’s symphonies with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi talks about his early exposure to the composer’s music listening at home to recordings with his father, and how Mahler’s own experience as a conductor helps inform interpreters of his music today.
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Martyn Brabbins on Michael Tippett's New Year
12th Mar 2025
The conductor discusses the world premiere recording of Tippett's final opera, a 'space-aged fairytale' from 1989 which centres on a troubled child psychologist's transformative encounter with time-travellers from the future.
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María Dueñas on Caprices
10th Mar 2025
The violinist gives us a peek behind the scenes of how her new album centred around Paganini's legendary Caprices came to be.
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Bertrand Chamayou on Ravel Fragments
6th Mar 2025
Bertrand Chamayou talks about his new album, open-minded creativity, and a piano concerto you may not have come across before.
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Nevermind Ensemble on recasting Bach's Goldberg Variations
5th Mar 2025
The quartet talk about their new recording of the immortal Goldberg Variations, seamlessly adapted for flute, violin, gamba and continuo.
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Fatma Said on Lieder
26th Feb 2025
In the wake of her recent recording of songs by Schubert, Brahms, Robert Schumann and the Mendelssohns, the Egyptian soprano discusses how her passion for the German language and literature was ignited during her childhood in Cairo, the joy of making music with true friends - and why her heart lies in the concert-hall rather than the opera-house for the moment...
