Presto Music Classical Podcast

Pianist Rebeca Omordia recently released her second album of African piano music, African Pianism Volume 2, bringing the classical music of native composers the attention it deserves. I had the pleasure of chatting with her to find out more about the music, its background, the qualities that make it uniquely African, and common ground with Western, and particularly English, music. I also enjoyed hearing more about this award-winning pianist’s career and her fruitful relationship with SOMM Recordings.

A new release with soprano Omo Bello, due on 18th October 2024, moves the focus to African Art Song.

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To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the London Symphony Orchestra's own label, Head of LSO Live Becky Lees, first violinist Maxine Kwok, and principal percussionist Neil Percy talk to James about how the label came to exist, the process of capturing live concerts for release, and their memories of some favourite recordings through the years.

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Another second-album episode! A follow-up not to a trailblazingly exploratory recording (as when we spoke to Heloïse Werner last episode) but to a quietly uplifting one, filled with spirituality and peace. 

The Poor Clares of Arundel appeared on many people's musical radar back in 2020, when their album Light For The World was released into the midst of uncertain and difficult times. Inspired by the daily life of the community of the Poor Clares, and mixing contemporary compositions with ancient plainchant, it was a huge hit - offering reassurance and comfort to listeners in a situation that could hardly have been imagined when the recording was made.

Earlier this year, the Poor Clares' second album was released - My Peace I Give You, drawing particularly on the Canticle of Creation written by St Francis of Assisi, the medieval saint whose lifestyle of deliberate poverty and rejection of worldly goods and activities was the direct inspiration for the formation of the order itself.

We talk to Sister Aelred and Sister Graca of the Poor Clares about the unlikely formation of a relationship between a cloistered convent and a major record label, the role of music in the daily life of their community, and how the releasing of commercial recordings fits in with their calling to a life of seclusion and prayer.

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Hot on the heels of 2022's Phases comes a second album from acclaimed young singer-composer Heloïse Werner, Close-Ups. Drawing together works by Bingen, Strozzi, the French Baroque composer Julie Pinel, and Errollyn Wallen, it also features compositions by Werner herself - including Les Leçons du Mardi, an acerbic, witty piece biting back against centuries of medical misogyny, and the title-track close-ups, a selection of wordless character-sketches that push the boundaries of song itself. 

We talk about how some of these works came to be, how Heloïse assembled her dream team of top-notch musicians and improvisers, what it's like to be a bilingual composer, and more. 

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This year the Berliner Philharmoniker celebrates two anniversaries, with the online Digital Concert Hall turning 15, and the Berliner Philharmoniker label marking its first decade. Rob Cowan spoke to Olaf Maninger, who alongside a busy schedule as principal cellist with the orchestra, is General Manager of Berlin Phil Media GmbH, and has been one of the key figures driving these innovative projects. 

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Violinist Francesca Dego kicks off the Busoni centenary celebrations with her new album, pairing his concerto with that of Brahms - a juxtaposition that might seem strange, until you realise (as Francesca describes) the deep connections between the two works, so much so that Busoni's concerto could even be seen as a direct homage to Brahms's.

As well as discussing Busoni himself - the prolific arranger, the unorthodox music theorist, the passionate advocate of performers taking liberties with music - we talk about Italian composers trying to be German (with varying degrees of success); beards (or the lack of them); the secret to marital bliss in musical couples (not related to facial hair); and the rather 'wand chooses the wizard' nature of a performer's bond with their instrument.

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Pianist Martin James Bartlett first came to many people’s attention in 2014, when he won the BBC Young Musician Award. A Proms debut followed the next year, and a recording contract with Warner Classics not long after. To date, both of Martin’s albums on Warner have been centred around a unifying core concept - recital-recordings with a clear and thoughtful point to them.

His latest, La Danse, released on January 26th, is no different - and to tie in with this exploration of French dance-music for the piano, we thought we’d take the opportunity to dive more deeply with Martin into the broader place of the dance in classical music. Along the way, in addition to touching on the ideas that have moulded his albums to date, we encounter some whimsical musicological speculations on Couperin; Bacchus, Ariadne and ‘the wine situation’ make an appearance; and Martin explains why he’s content to do the dancing with his fingers and leave the fancy footwork to other people!

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As every opera-fan must surely be aware by now, December saw the centenary of Maria Callas’s birth, and Warner Classics marked the occasion by issuing the most comprehensive collection of her recordings ever released – clocking in at a whopping 131 CDs, La Divina offers the chance to experience Callas’s unique qualities in all 74 roles for which audio documents exist, and also includes a bonus CD of alternative takes from recording-sessions in the 1960s.

In this latest episode of the Presto Podcast, our host Rob Cowan is joined by Warner Classics and Erato President Alain Lanceron to reflect on Callas’s vast and varied recorded legacy – discussing just what it was that made her singing so special, exploring how attitudes to her artistry have shifted over the decades, explaining how decisions were made as to what to include on this tribute edition, and selecting some personal highlights along the way…

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Although plenty of attention has been lavished on the four hundredth anniversary of the death of William Byrd, his contemporary Thomas Weelkes also died in 1623 - on the 30th of November - and has seen rather less in the way of commemoration.

In addition to Weelkes being a composer of great gifts, his reputation also rests in part on his track record of poor and unruly behaviour throughout his career, especially during his time at Chichester Cathedral; posterity has enthusiastically elaborated on some of these tales, perhaps to the point of overshadowing Weelkes's music.

Fortunately, amid all the Byrd-related festivities that this year has seen, there are still some stalwarts to fly the flag for Weelkes, and among them is Dr Katie Bank of the University of Birmingham, an expert on musical culture of the Tudor period. She takes us through the real Weelkes, the made-up Weelkes and everything in-between, in a wide-ranging discussion featuring madrigals and memorials, disciplinaries and dogs.

https://www.katiebankmusic.com/

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The 'Schubert in English' series on Signum Classics sees its fourth instalment this year - following up Winter Journey, Swansong and The Fair Maid of the Mill with a wider-ranging collection of songs, sung by Roderick Williams and Rowan Pierce with Christopher Glynn at the piano. Front and centre, too, are the translations of Jeremy Sams, which at last enable English-speaking audiences (and indeed singers) to experience the full vernacular immediacy of the words.

For this fourth volume, Roderick, Rowan and Christopher talk about the album, the significance of the translations, and the impact that they have on the music. Also among our topics of conversation were a look back at earlier eras of performing Lieder in translation, 'singer face', product-placement in Bach cantatas... and an unintentionally macaronic performance of Donizetti.

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