Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

Purcell's The Fairy Queen, music originally written for an adaption of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, features music of delightful theatricality and some of the composer's most beautiful songs. Paul McCreesh, founder and Artistic Director of the Gabrieli Consort and Players, has recorded the work for his latest release on the group's Winged Lion label. For this week's podcast the conductor joins Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford to discuss the work, and his approach to capturing and conveying its 17th-century spirit and splendour.

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The Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw, who has received terrific reviews of her stage performances in the Russian operatic repertoire (particularly as Tchaikovsky's Tatyana in Eugene Onegin), releases her first solo album, for Orchid Classics. Joined by her teacher from the Guildhall School of Music, the pianist Lada Valešová, they present 'Arion: Voyage of a Slavic Soul', songs by three Russians – Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov – and three Czech composers – Dvořák, Janáček and Novák.

James Jolly, in Gloucestershire, caught up simultaneously with Natalya in Swansea and Lada in London to talk about the repertoire, the programme and how they started working together.

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As Onyx releases a fourth album of music by Elgar with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and its Chief Conductor Vasily Petrenko, including the vocal works Sea Pictures and The Music Makers, James Jolly met the Russian conductor.

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Sarah Traubel makes her recorded debut for Sony Classical with an album entitled 'Arias for Josepha', the soprano who created the role of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte ('The Magic Flute'). She's joined on the recording by the Prague Philharmonia conducted by Jochen Rieder and it's now available digitally.

In this latest Gramophone Podcast, Sarah Traubel talked to James Jolly about the programme and the various composers who write arias for Josepha, how she fills her time under lockdown and her two illustrious relatives.

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The Sitkovetsky Trio – Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin), Wu Qian (piano) and Isang Enders (cello) – has launched a series for BIS focusing on Beethoven's music for piano trio and Vol 1 is just out. It contains Op 1 No 3 and Op 70 No 2 with the small B flat Trio, WoO39 tucked in between them. James Jolly caught up with husband-and-wife Alexander Sitkovetsky and Wu Qian to find out about how the Trio was formed, how they're approaching this Beethoven series and how they're filling their time now that they're under lockdown in their house in London.

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Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by sopranos Julia Doyle and Grace Davidson to talk about their new recording of music for Tenebrae, Couperin's Leçons de Ténèbres and Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday. The album, featuring the choir Tenebrae under the direction of Nigel Short, is available now on Signum Classics.

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Released today by Alpha Classics, 'La Passione' combines Luigi Nono's Djamila Boupacha for solo soprano, Haydn's Symphony No 49 (sometimes called La Passione) and Gérard Grisey's Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil. Ludwig Orchestra is conducted by Barbara Hannigan who also sings in the two modern works. James Jolly spoke to Hannigan, down the line, to find out about how she put the album together.

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Jack Liebeck today releases a new recording on Orchid Classics, coupling the violin concertos by Brahms and Schoenberg, both works which have strong personal connections. He's joined on the new album by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Gourlay.

Jack talks to James Jolly about why he put the two works together, how he sees their relationship and the challenges of learning and playing the Schoenberg concerto.

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Gramophone is excited to announce the publication of its digital special: Ballet on Screen. With nearly 20 reviews of ballet DVDs released in the past year, written by the world's best dance writers, this digital special is free to view. The special's editor Sarah Kirkup talks to Gramophone's editor Martin Cullingford about the magazine's contents, including its two features, one exploring Margot Fonteyn's legacy on film, the other investigating the surging popularity of ballet in the cinema.

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The violinist Johannes Pramsohler has recorded an album of sonatas by Pieter Hellendaal who studied in Italy and moved to England in the middle of the 18th century and worked as violinist, composer and teacher, spending the last couple of decades of his life in Cambridge. Pramsohler and his musical partners Gulrim Choï and Philippe Grisvard have recorded six of Hellendaal's 'Cambridge Sonatas' for Audax, an album released on March 6. Pramsohler talks to Gramophone's James Jolly about the composer and his music.

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