Presto Music Classical Podcast

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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As "the classiest brass ensemble in Britain" turns 30, Onyx Brass's trombonist Amos Miller looks back over three decades of brass quintet music-making, with an eye on exploring contemporary repertoire. We discuss the group's latest album, 'The sun is free to flow with the sea', and some of the works featured on it, as well as touching on questions of diversity in classical music - but we start off with a look at music education in today's world.

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A discussion of the OUP's recently-published collection of sacred and secular choral works by Black composers, with its editor Dr Marques Garrett - taking in Vicente Lusitano, Undine Smith Moore, R Nathaniel Dett (Dr Garrett's own particular labour of love) and more. 

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Arthur Bliss was one of the most important British musicians of his age. Having served with distinction in the Great War, in which he was both injured and gassed, he subsequently became the most performed British composer abroad. He served as Director of Music at the BBC from 1942-44, and was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music in 1953.
Bliss was a private figure who stated that the only way to get to know him was through his music. Author Paul Spicer took this as his starting point for a pioneering biography which underlines the importance of a reappraisal of the composer’s music.
We had the pleasure of hosting Paul at our store in Leamington Spa, where, in conversation with Andrew Burn, chairman of The Bliss Trust, he not only explained the circumstances behind his writing of the book and how it affected his appreciation of Bliss’s music, but also provided many fascinating insights into the composer’s life, illustrated with excerpts from several of his pieces along the way.
We made an audio recording of their engrossing discussion, which with their permission we are delighted to present here.

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The great Russian Romantic composer Sergei Rachmaninoff declared that his music was "the product of his temperament, therefore Russian", but he spent the final 26 years of life in exile after fleeing Russia in 1917. 

While in exile he composed his late masterpieces including the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the Symphonic Dances, while also preserving his legendary piano playing for posterity through a series of recordings.

To discuss this fascinating period of Rachmaninoff's life it was a great pleasure to be joined by critic and author Fiona Maddocks, who has explored this period of the composer's life in her highly enjoyable new book 'Goodbye Russia'.

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Earlier this year we saw the release of not one, but two box sets dedicated to recordings by the Minnesota Orchestra under their Hungarian conductor Antal Doráti, recordings made by the Mercury Record Company in the 1950's. 

To discuss the artistic and sonic legacy of these Mono and Stereo box sets I was privileged to be joined not only by record critic Rob Cowan but also by Thomas Fine, the son of the husband and wife team of Robert and Wilma Cozart Fine who produced these recordings and exective producer of these new editions. 

It's a fascinating chat about not only about the oustanding music-making contained within the sets and Doráti himself, but also about the recording process, and the great leap forwards in recording technology that took place in this period.

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