The Gramophone Classical Music Podcast Gramophone

For their debut Harmonia Mundi release as a duo, pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy have recorded two works by Schubert, the great Fantasy in F minor and the Divertissement à la Hongroise, and, in between, a work they commissioned, Trompe-l’oeil by the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov (b1955), who has said of his piece, ‘You can envisage it as the follow-up, or the rough draft of Schubert’s Fantasy. Something incomplete. Like a study for a composition that’s been abandoned en route.’
James Jolly went to visit Pavel and Samson, partners both off stage and on, at their home in North London recently to talk about the art of piano four-hands …

Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená speaks to Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford about her new album, ‘Czech Songs’, which features composers Bohuslav Martinů, Antonín Dvořák, Hans Krása and Gideon Klein, and for which she's joined by the Czech Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle. ‘Czech Songs’ is out now on Pentatone.

The American tenor Nicholas Phan has just released an album of protest songs, many from the 1960s by legendary singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger and Malvina Reynolds. It also contains a new work by Errollyn Wallen. ‘A Change in Gonna Come’, featuring Palaver Strings, and a couple of guest appearances by Farayi Malek, is just out from Azica.
James Jolly talked recently to Nicholas Phan about the album, and also about another song project that he’s currently in the studio working on …

Since winning BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2012, aged 15, Laura van der Heijden has enjoyed a career as a cellist to watch. She’s a Chandos artist, recording both as a soloist and also as part of Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective. This month she makes her concerto debut with an album of three British cello concertos, Frank Bridge’s Oration, Sir William Walton’s Cello Concerto (the work she played for the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition) and Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s new cello concerto, Earth-Sea-Air. She is joined by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth. James Jolly recently went to speak to Laura about the new release.
You can also hear Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s cello concerto, Earth-Sea-Air, at the BBC Proms on Friday, July 26 joined by the same performers as on the new recording.

This week's Gramophone Podcast sees pianist Can Çakmur join Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about the latest album in his series for the BIS label in which he pairs works by Schubert with music by composers inspired by him - in this instance Ernst Krenek. As well as introducing Krenek's Second Sonata, he also talks about the composer's completion of Schubert's Piano Sonata in C Major, D 840.

With Winterreise, Andrè Schuen and Daniel Heide complete their recordings for DG of Schubert’s three song cycles, and have understandably saved the most challenging to last. James Jolly spoke to Andrè to discover how he approaches this colossal work, the Everest of any singer’s repertoire.
This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.