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Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast

Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast
  • 4.2 (6)
  • Performing Arts
  • Updated Biweekly

Jon Jacob talks to artists, writers, and audience members about classical music.

  1. 290: Franco Fagioli

    1d ago

    290: Franco Fagioli

    Time with the most playful of interviewees, Franco Fagioli, recorded in Versailles in March 2026. Fagioli appears with Orchestra de l'Opera de Versailles at St Martin in the Fields on 13th June 2026.

    38 min
  2. 289: Christophe Rousset on Lully, Mozart, and playing with rules

    3d ago

    289: Christophe Rousset on Lully, Mozart, and playing with rules

    Christophe Rousset is a harpsichordist, conductor, and founder of Les Talens Lyriques. In this conversation, recorded in Paris, he talks about completing his twenty-year project to record all thirteen of Lully's operas — a composer long dismissed as boring, and why that dismissal gets the history wrong. We also discuss the young Mozart as musical sponge, absorbing Jommelli and Gassmann before finding his own voice; the Amadeus problem and what it gets wrong about Salieri; the relationship between scholarly knowledge and artistic intuition; and the kind of authority a conductor holds — total in theory, useless if exercised clumsily. The closing distinction Rousset draws — between playing with rules and breaking them — turns out to be the most revealing thing he says. In this episode Why comparing Lully to Rameau is a category errorHow a twenty-year recording project accumulates rather than gets plannedThe young Mozart's debts to Jommelli and GassmannScholarliness versus intuition in the rehearsal roomPower, charm, and persuasion as a conductor"Playing with the rules" as a governing philosophy** SUBSCRIBER EDITION EPISODE ** The Aldeburgh Festival subscriber edition is available via the podcast feeds on Spotify or Apple, and via the the Thoroughly Good Blog. £2.99 a month to get early access to this and future episodes. Subscribe now.

    34 min
  3. 228: Aldeburgh & Snape 50 years after Britten's death

    4d ago

    228: Aldeburgh & Snape 50 years after Britten's death

    Fifty years after Britten's death, Aldeburgh and Snape still carry his fingerprints — and still provoke the same question: what is this place actually for? In this special episode, contributors who've performed there, programmed it, and thought hard about its future speak in their own voices about why they came to East Suffolk, and why they couldn't leave.

    39 min
  4. 228: Aldeburgh and Snape 50 years after Britten's Death

    May 23 • Subscribers Only

    228: Aldeburgh and Snape 50 years after Britten's Death

    Fifty years after Britten's death, Aldeburgh and Snape still carry his fingerprints — and still provoke the same question: what is this place actually for? In this special episode, contributors who've performed there, programmed it, and thought hard about its future speak in their own voices about why they came to East Suffolk, and why they couldn't leave.

    39 min
  5. 227: Claire Booth

    Apr 24

    227: Claire Booth

    Sheffield Chamber Music Festival 2026 curator Claire Booth was asked a blunt question when she was invited her to put together this year's programme: why is selling a song recital so difficult? This year's Sheffield is the answer — or rather, her answer, or the argument. Or maybe its her case for it. Across a week of concerts, she pulls in Ravel's Scheherazade into the orbit of folk tales, positions Judith Weir's King Harald's Saga alongside a repeat performance of Gavin Higgins's Speak of the North, and premieres Julian Philipps's multilingual children's opera Henny Penny. Song sells itself because song tells a story. Recorded in the Royal Opera House café after a day of rehearsals, Claire talks about the Festival, a planned collaboration with Rufus Norris on Beckett, her 2025 RPS Singer Award, and — briefly, and with more disappointment than heat — Timothy Chalamet.

    43 min
  6. 226: Huw Watkins

    Mar 26

    226: Huw Watkins

    Composer and pianist Huw Watkins explores his work, his musical language, his collaborations with musicians including Tamsin Waley-Cohen with whom he has released a new album on Signum, Reflection.

    41 min
  7. 224: Lizzie Ball

    Jan 28

    224: Lizzie Ball

    A conversation with violinist and singer Lizzie Ball that begins with “big announcement week” energy and opens into a thoughtful exploration of intimacy, collaboration, and how classical music can be presented with integrity, warmth, and curiosity — from Ronnie Scott’s new series to life on and off the stage..

    43 min
  8. 223: Mezzo Soprano Katie Bray

    Jan 9

    223: Mezzo Soprano Katie Bray

    What’s the point of pursuing something you can never reach? Hope, apparently. Mezzo-soprano Katie Bray makes a compelling case. Her new album In Search of Youkali explores Kurt Weill’s musical response to longing, exile, and the fragile idea of belonging.

    36 min
See All (467)

Ratings & Reviews

4.2
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Jon Jacob talks to artists, writers, and audience members about classical music.

Information

  • Creator
    Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast
  • Years Active
    2010 - 2026
  • Episodes
    467
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast
  • Show Website
    Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast
  • Provider
    Jon Jacob

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