Presto Music Classical Podcast

Some "concept" albums can seem a little contrived – with themes not so much neatly interwoven as crudely welded onto one another. Not so Emmanuel Despax's new album Après un rêve, which draws together its three main ideas so naturally that it seems as if the album must have sprung from Despax's mind fully formed.

A poetic legacy from his music-loving grandfather meets Emmanuel's own interest in the refined music of the French belle époque (from about the mid-1870s until 1914, when Europe changed forever), all seen through the lens of evening and night-time – or perhaps, as Emmanuel suggests, seen through the bottom of a glass of fine wine.

We talk about the music, the poetry, the chicken-and-egg question of which came first, and how Emmanuel prepares these pieces for performance – but we start with a little leçon in pronunciation...

Presto Music

All things musical... on your doorstep!

Visit our website: www.prestomusic.com

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Love us? Review us on Trustpilot, Facebook or Google

Over the nearly twenty years since its formation, Vox Luminis has appeared in our metaphorical pages plenty of times – the Belgian early music ensemble consistently combines original and exploratory programming with impeccable musicianship. Every album Lionel Meunier and his musicians release can be relied on to be not just a feast for the ears but also an interesting and well-thought-out dive into musical history, drawing connections and parallels and linking everything together seamlessly.

The title of their latest album, Ein Deutsches Barockrequiem, provides a heavy hint as to the theme of the repertoire being performed – comprising earlier settings of the same Biblical texts that Brahms would later select for the movements of his German Requiem. I caught up with Lionel to talk about the process of tracking down these motets, and what threads might link together Brahms himself with the composers featured here – as well as a surprising connection with one of today's finest bel canto tenors.

Presto Music

All things musical... on your doorstep!

Visit our website: www.prestomusic.com

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Love us? Review us on Trustpilot, Facebook or Google

Robert Levin set out to record a complete set of Mozart's works for keyboard and orchestra. After several highly successful and critically-acclaimed volumes over the following decade,  fate eventually intervened to force the project into the deep freeze, and on that unsatisfying note the story might have ended.

Happily, though, circumstances have now opened up the opportunity to pick things up again. The concluding five volumes are now very much in motion, with the first released recently in March,  and it's full steam ahead for the remainder of this much-loved and much-needed cycle. 

I caught up with Robert to talk about this project, and his work as a reconstructor and completer of the surprisingly large number of Mozart works that have only come down to us as fragments.

Presto Music

All things musical... on your doorstep!

Visit our website: www.prestomusic.com

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Love us? Review us on Trustpilot, Facebook or Google

2023 sees the quadricentennials of the deaths of both William Byrd - sacred polyphonist, virginalist and recusant Catholic - and Thomas Weelkes, remembered especially for his madrigals, his verse services and his repeated tellings-off by his bosses at Chichester Cathedral for what might delicately be termed rowdiness. 

Among various groups with albums in honour of these two composers are The King's Singers and Fretwork, who come together on the recently-released *Tom & Will* to perform some of the lighter and more secular works from these two composers, along with two new commissions. I had a very enjoyable chat with representatives of both groups - Patrick Dunachie batting for The King's Singers, and Richard Boothby for Fretwork.

Presto Music

All things musical... on your doorstep!

Visit our website: www.prestomusic.com

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Love us? Review us on Trustpilot, Facebook or Google

Founded by four ambitious teenagers in Middlesbrough in 1972, the Brodsky Quartet’s extraordinary fifty-year career has encompassed collaborations with musicians including Sting, Björk and Sir Paul McCartney as well as a whole host of superb recordings of core repertoire from Mozart to Bartók.

It was a great pleasure to be joined by cellist and founder-member Jacqueline Thomas and her husband Paul Cassidy (who became the quartet’s viola-player in the early 1980s) for a whistle-stop tour through the group’s first five decades, not least because the pair had such a profound direct influence on my own development as a young musician growing up in Middlesbrough during the 1990s – in between touring with Elvis Costello and recording a landmark cycle of the Shostakovich quartets, they regularly carved out time to return to the area to coach aspiring chamber-groups and perform concertos with local amateur orchestras, experiences which will stay with me for life.  

Join us for a trip down memory-lane, taking in their early days feverishly transcribing Janáček and Shostakovich direct from radio-broadcasts, game-changing encounters with Japanese designer Issey Miyake, Costello and *Line of Duty* star Adrian Dunbar, and the process of documenting the quartet's history in their recently-published twin autobiographies...

Presto Music

All things musical... on your doorstep!

Visit our website: www.prestomusic.com

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Love us? Review us on Trustpilot, Facebook or Google

One of the most keenly anticipated music biographies in 2023 has been 'Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World' a wonderfully vivid account of the lives, times and music of 4 extraordinarily talented composers from the late 19th and 20th Centuries. Guiding me through the fascinating world of Dame Ethel Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell and Doreen Carwithen, I was delighted to be joined by the books author, Dr Leah Broad.

Presto Music

All things musical... on your doorstep!

Visit our website: www.prestomusic.com

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Love us? Review us on Trustpilot, Facebook or Google

Nobody has done more in recent years to promote the music of Ralph Vaughan-Williams in recent years than Albion Records, the record label of the Ralph Vaughan-Williams Society. So to celebrate the English composer's 150th birthday this year I asked John Francis, Vice-Chairman of the Ralph Vaughan-Williams Society to guide me through his life and music through recordings of lesser-known Vaughan-Willams works on the Albion Records label.

Presto Music

All things musical... on your doorstep!

Visit our website: www.prestomusic.com

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Love us? Review us on Trustpilot, Facebook or Google

Celebrating his 150th anniversary this year is the Russian composer, poet and visionary Alexander Scriabin who, in his short life undertook a compositional journey that took him from a frustrated piano virtuoso who idolized Chopin to a radical modernist who prophesized that a concert of his mystical music in Tibet would bring about the end of the world. Helping me explore the life and work of this unique figure I'm delighted to be rejoined on the show by Cambridge Russian music Professor Marina Frolova-Walker.

Presto Music

All things musical... on your doorstep!

Visit our website: www.prestomusic.com

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Love us? Review us on Trustpilot, Facebook or Google

Undoubtedly one of the great orchestral success stories in recent years has been that of Sinfonia of London, formed by conductor John Wilson in 2019. Their albums have consistently received a whole host of awards, demonstrating the orchestra’s great virtuosity and versatility.

Their latest recording sees them delving into one of my favourite genres, with a selection of music from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to chat to John not only about the album itself, but also about the history of Sinfonia of London, his thoughts on some favourite recordings with the orchestra so far, plus a look ahead to future releases, including an exclusive preview of their forthcoming album of music by Rachmaninoff.

Presto Music

All things musical... on your doorstep!

Visit our website: www.prestomusic.com

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Love us? Review us on Trustpilot, Facebook or Google

As both a world-class performer and an advocate for her instrument, Sarah Willis is an inspiration to a generation of horn players, so I was somewhat star-struck to talk to her for this week's episode. Despite the unceasing travel difficulties and upheaval of the past two years, Sarah has been continuing to spend time in Cuba working with Cuban instrumentalists and composers. The fruits of this can be heard on her two *Mozart y Mambo* albums from July 2020 and September 2022, where she sets Mozart's magnificent horn concertos alongside traditional and contemporary Cuban dances. We dig into what makes this music tick, and how a cross-cultural collaboration can combine faithfulness to its ingredients with a knowing and sometimes irreverent angle on the canon.

Presto Music

All things musical... on your doorstep!

Visit our website: www.prestomusic.com

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Love us? Review us on Trustpilot, Facebook or Google