Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

Gramophone
  • 4.3 (73)
  • MUSIC INTERVIEWS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Weekly conversations about classical music with leading musicians and writers

  1. 2D AGO

    Joyce DiDonato and Time for Three on Emily: No Prisoner Be

    Kevin Puts' newest song cycle sets Emily Dickinson's poetry for mezzo and three instrumentalists. Hattie Butterworth speaks to Joyce DiDonato and ensemble Time for Three about this unique collaboration and recording, 'Emily: No Prisoner Be'

    33 min
  2. Soprano Adriana González on her album 'Rondos for Adriana'

    JAN 30

    Soprano Adriana González on her album 'Rondos for Adriana'

    The soprano Adriana González has just released a new Audax album, 'Rondos for Adriana', inspired by her namesake, the Italian 18th-century diva Adriana Ferrarese del Bene. Ferrarese was Mozart's first Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) and she sang Susanna in the Viennese revival of Le nozze di Figaro in 1789. Joined by Ensemble Diderot (led by Johannes Pramsohler, who also plays a couple of rondos for violin and orchestra), conducted by Iñaki Encina Oyon, Adriana González performs arias and rondos by Vicente Martín y Soler, Angelo Tarchi, Ferdinando Gaspari Bertoni, Giuseppe Giordani, Pasquale Anfossi and Joseph Weigl. James Jolly caught up with Adriana González in Vienna while she was rehearsing for her debut at the Staatsoper as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro.

    31 min
  3. ARC Ensemble's Simon Wynberg on their Music in Exile series for Chandos

    JAN 23

    ARC Ensemble's Simon Wynberg on their Music in Exile series for Chandos

    Toronto's ARC Ensemble have been exploring the music of composers forced to flee their homeland by the Nazis. The most recent release in Chandos's Music in Exile series – of music by Ernest Kanitz (1894-1978) – drew an enthusiastic welcome by Gramophone's critic Richard Bratby, a review that closed with the hope that 'there's more Kanitz to come'. James Jolly spoke by Zoom to the ARC Ensemble's Artistic Director Simon Wynberg about the musicians of the Ensemble and the music that animates this important recording project, bringing this often totally forgotten music back to life – and also about their forthcoming visit to London's Wigmore Hall for a day of concerts on February 1.

    26 min
  4. William Vann on Elgar's choral music

    JAN 16

    William Vann on Elgar's choral music

    This month's Gramophone Podcast sees Editor Martin Cullingford joined by William Vann, Director of the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, to talk about his new album of choral music by Elgar: Light out of Darkness, released on Somm Recordings. The wonderfully-chosen selection of music spans the composer's career, and even includes five premiere recordings.

    31 min
  5. Marina Rebeka and Edgardo Vertanessian on their record label, Prima Classic

    JAN 9

    Marina Rebeka and Edgardo Vertanessian on their record label, Prima Classic

    The soprano Marina Rebeka and her husband, the sound engineer Edgardo Vertanessian, founded their record label, Prima Classic in 2018, and in the years since have built up an impressive catalogue. To coincide with the release of their latest project, Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, recorded live in Naples, they talk to Gramophone's James Jolly about what inspired them to create the label and how they approach developing their catalogue.  This podcast was made in association with Prima Classic, and all the music included in the podcast comes fom the Prima Classic catalogue. The new recording of Simon Boccanegra features Ludovic Tézier in the title role, Marina Rebeka as Amelia Grimaldi, Francesco Melli as Gabriele Adorno, Michele Pertusi as Jacopo Fiesco, Mattia Olivieri as Paolo, and Andrea Pellegrini as Pietro with the Chorus and Orchestra of Naples's Teatro San Carlo conducted by Michele Spotti.

    31 min
  6. Exploring Beethoven

    12/26/2025

    Exploring Beethoven

    In this week's Gramophone Podcast, the last of 2025, we explore the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). Editor Emeritus James Jolly talks to Richard Wigmore – a long-standing contributor to our pages, and an expert on the music of the classical and early romantic periods – about this musical Titan. They discuss Beethoven's transformative role, through the three periods that have been applied to his creative life, in expanding the range, scale and ambition of pretty well every genre he tackled, from the symphonies and concertos, via his piano sonatas and chamber music, to his opera and choral works. All the music on this podcast comes from the Sony Classical catalogue, including the Gramophone Award-winning sets of the complete piano sonatas and the Diabelli Variations played by Igor Levit, as well as the symphonies from Antonello Manacorda and Kammerakademie Potsdam, Murray Perahia with members of the English Chamber Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Bernard Haitink, the Juilliard Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber, and, in Fidelio, Jeanine Altmeyer and Siegfried Jerusalem with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and Kurt Masur. All Sony Classical recordings.

    1h 8m
  7. Critics Choice 2025

    12/19/2025

    Critics Choice 2025

    As another year of preparing and publishing many hundreds of reviews draws to a close, the three team members most involved - Reviews Editor Gavin Dixon, Deputy Editor Tim Parry, and Editor and Publisher Martin Cullingford - take time out to discuss what lies behind the process, and how we decide which albums are named Gramophone Editor's Choices. And, after that, they celebrate their own personal pick of the year, explaining which recording they chose for our annual Critics' Choice feature, and why it so impressed and inspired them.

    25 min
  8. Remembering Alfred Brendel, with his son Adrian Brendel

    12/13/2025

    Remembering Alfred Brendel, with his son Adrian Brendel

    In this week's Gramophone Podcast we remember Alfred Brendel, one of the most significant and much-loved musical figures of age, in the company of his son, the cellist Adrian Brendel, who takes Editor Martin Cullingford around the pianist's library and studio and reflects on what his books, art and belongings tell us about him. He also talks about a very special event on January 5, at the Barbican in London, at which fellow artists and friends of Alfred Brendel will gather for a remarkable evening of music, to celebrate his life and also raise money for a cause very close to his heart.

    51 min
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Weekly conversations about classical music with leading musicians and writers

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