Presto Music Classical Podcast

One of the most outstanding releases so far this year has been a remarkable collection of live recordings by the great Czech conductor Karel Ančerl, and I was delighted to be joined not only by regular guest Rob Cowan to discuss the set, but also by Matouš Vlčinský, who produced the set for Supraphon Records. The recordings, made between 1950 and 1968 show Ančerl's mastery in a wide variety of repertoire, and the numerous recordings of Czech music also gave us the opportunity to explore Bohemian musical culture.

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The relationship between musicians' lives and the music they create is one the most discussed and debated aspects of music, and examinations of the lives of great musicians is almost as old as their music itself.  Three authors who produced highly praised music biographies in 2020 were Philip Clark, on the Jazz great Dave Brubeck, Oliver Craske on the Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar and Oliver Soden on the British composer Michael Tippett, and on this week's show I was delighted to welcome all three for a round table discussion on the art of music biography.

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For this episode, we turn our attention to the violin, and the changing styles of playing that have been documented over the past hundred years since the advent of sound recording. I was delighted to be joined by Charlotte Gardner, a freelance writer, journalist, and critic who specialises in string playing for The Gramophone and The Strad magazines, as well as contributing programme notes for the BBC orchestras and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. By focussing on a handful of hardy perennials like Bach's Sonatas and Partitas, and violin concertos by Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn, we take a deep dive into some of the most characterful players down the years.

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As you may well have seen on our site and social media channels lately, Presto Music is currently celebrating a double anniversary, as 2021 marks not only the  20th anniversary of the website launching, but also 35 years since the first Presto shop opened in Leamington Spa. So it seemed fitting that we invite the boss, Chris O'Reilly,  onto the show to tell us how he came to find himself working for Presto Music in 2001, how he helped it  develop into one of the leading indepenent music specialists, and explain the ethos of the business.  

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My guests this week are the members of The Hermes Experiment, a contemporary music quartet made up of Heloise Werner (soprano and co-director), Oliver Pashley (clarinet), Anne Denholm (harp),  Marianne Schofield (doube bass), and the group's co-director Hanna Grzeskiewicz. Having just releases their second album,*Song*, for Delphian Records, the group tell me about the rewards and challenges of running an ensemble with such an idiosyncratic combination of instruments, and have already notched up over 60 commissions from a wide variety of composers. 

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German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954) was one of the towering musical giants of the 20th century, a man whose near mythical reputation is arguably better known than his actual recordings. This year has seen a number of reissues of his recordings, the most signifcant of which is Warner Classics's 55 disc boxset featuring many previously unpublished recordings. For this special episode of the podcast we invited critics Rob Cowan and David Hurwitz to discuss the relative merits of Furtwängler's art, and how these legendary recording hold up in the cold light of 2021.

Rob Cowan is one of the UKs best loved authorities on classical music, having written for Gramophone managazine for many years, and also hosted long-running radio shows on Classic FM and BBC radio 3. Based in New York, David Hurwitz is the co-founder and executive editor of ClassicsToday.com, and in 2020 launched his very popular YouTube channel on which he regularly posts video reviews and discographical surveys. 

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This week's topic concerns musicology and musicologists... what is it, who are they, and what exactly do they get paid to do? So who better to ask than one of them, Daniel Elphick, a musicologist and researcher who has recently started his own YouTube which sets out to demistify things for the layman.  Daniel is currently working as a Teaching Fellow in Music at Royal Holloway, University of London (having also taught at Manchester, Goldsmiths, and Buckinghamshire New University), his research focusing on the history and analysis of Russian and East-European music since the 19th century, as well as music and politics more broadly. Dan’s first book, Music Behind the Iron Curtain was published by Cambridge University Press in 2019, and he is currently preparing a volume on socialist realism and music. 

If you are enjoying the Presto Music Podcast please like and subscribe to it on your preferred platform, and maybe even give us a short review.  And we would love to hear your feedback and suggestions for future topics, and also guests who you would like us to talk to. Please email us at [email protected]

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The fascinating life and music of Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is the topic of this week's show, and we are delighted to welcome back Andrew Mellor to the Presto Music Podcast to take us through his humble childhood on the island of Funen through to the international acclaim he received as one of the most modernistic symphonic composers of his generation. Andrew has established himself as something of a British cultural attaché to Scandinavia since moving to Copenhagen in 2015, and is well known for his contributions to BBC Radio 3's Record Review and Gramophone Magazine, and currently finishing his first book about Nordic identity in music.

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This week's guest is one Britain's most talented young organists Anna Lapwood. Anna joins me to chat about two great organ traditions, the music of J.S. Bach and the world of French Symphonic Organ and also about how she's reinventing the Organ with both the repertoire she's chosen for her new CD and her projects in the Organ community.

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Rainer Hersch is a comedian and musician who has performed on every major comedy stage in Britain and abroad.  He has appeared thirteen times at the Edinburgh Festival, had numerous comedy-concert series at the South Bank in London, featured in comedy clubs all across Europe and in TV shows around the world. Rainer and his classical ‘Orkestra’ communicates, connects and corrupts some of the great works of classical music. A popular highlight is when Rainer invites members of the audience to participate in a conducting competition with hilarious results! It was a delight to get the opportunity to talk with Rainer, and chat about some of his great forebears, such as Victor Borge, Anna Russell, Dudley Moore and PDQ Bach.

You can listen to the podcast right here on this page, or click on the links in the player (via the symbol of the box with the arrow coming out of the top) to find it in Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and other popular podcast apps, where you will be able to subscribe and receive notifications when new episodes become available in the future.

If you are enjoying the Presto Music Podcast please like and subscribe to it on your preferred platform, and maybe even give us a short review.  And we would love to hear your feedback and suggestions for future topics, and also guests who you would like us to talk to. Please email us at [email protected]

Presto Music

All things musical... on your doorstep!

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