Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

Gramophone has been making an Orchestra of the Year Award since 2018 when it was given to the Seattle Symphony (last year the Award went to the Hong Kong Philharmonic). This year the voting is open and we offer ten ensembles for your to consider. Each has struck us for the dynamism, imagination and style of their collaborations with their conductors on record.

In this, the first of two podcasts, Gramophone's Editor-in-Chief James Jolly talks to Gramophone critic, Andrew Mellor, about five of the ensembles: the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo and MusicAeterna.

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In this week's Gramophone Podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford speaks to the Artistic Director of Voces8 about their fascinating new album 'After Silence' - it's out on July 24, but several sections are already available to stream online - and about the forthcoming online choral festival from the Voces8 Foundation, Live from London, of which Gramophone is a media partner.

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The cellist Inbal Segev has just released an album of cello concertos by Anna Clyne, DANCE, and Sir Edward Elgar. Her partners on this Avie release are the London Philharmonic and Marin Alsop. James Jolly caught up with them – Inbal in New York and Marin in Baltimore – to talk about the album, how the Anna Clyne piece came about and what makes them fit so well together on the same album.

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Beethoven's violin sonatas sit at the heart of the repertoire for violin and piano. As Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Huw Watkins embark on a complete cycle for Signum Classics - starting with Nos 1, 5 & 8 - they join Editor Martin Cullingford in this week's Gramophone Podcast to explore what the music means for performer and listener alike.

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The broadcaster, critic, composer and author Stephen Johnson has recently published a new study of Mahler's Symphony No 8 – The Eighth: Mahler and the World in 1910. James Jolly spoke to him about the book: why Mahler's Eighth and the extraordinary story of its 1910 Munich premiere.

The Eighth: Mahler and the World in 1910 is published by Faber & Faber (hardback: £18.99 & ebook: £14.99). The musical excerpts come from Lorin Maazel's third (!) recording of the work, one captured live with the Philharmonia Orchestra, five choruses and nine soloists, and available from Signum Classics.

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The conductor of Aurora Orchestra, Nicholas Collon, talks to James Jolly about their brand-new DG release, 'Music of the Spheres'. It links themed-music that takes in Mozart's Jupiter Symphony, Thomas Adès's violin concerto, Concentric Paths (played by Pekka Kuusisto), a Dowland song arranged by Nico Muhly, 'Time stands still', Max Richter's Journey (CP1919) and David Bowie's song 'Life on Mars' (in an arrangement by John Barber and sung by Sam Swallow).

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This week's guest is the conductor Robert Trevino, who today has released a set of the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, on the Ondine label - recorded in order, over a two-week period. He tells Editor Martin Cullingford about his personal and musical approach to these iconic orchestral works.

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Martin Fröst has just released a new album for Sony Classical entitled 'Vivaldi'. On it he plays a handful of Vivaldi 'clarinet concertos', works created with the assistance of the composer and arranger Andreas Tarkmann from arias drawn from the composers operas. James Jolly spoke to Fröst at his home in Stockholm about the project and the challenges of performing at an unusual pitch and working with the period-instrument ensemble Concerto Köln.

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Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by guitarist Sharon Isbin to discuss her two new albums, both out today on Zoho. The first, Affinity, features four world premiere recordings by Chris Brubeck, Leo Brouwer, Tan dun, and Richard Danielpour. The second, Strings for Peace, offers a journey through the ragas and talas of North Indian classical music.

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Gabriel Prokofiev has just released a Signum Classics album of two of his concertos: his Concerto for Turntables No 1 and his Cello Concerto. James Jolly talked to the composer about the release and why the concerto as form appeals so strongly to him. The new recording features the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Alexey Bogorad with Mr Switch on turntables and Boris Andrianov the cellist.

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