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Katherine Cooper
Katherine Cooper read English at University College, Oxford, and joined Presto in 2009. She began her musical life as a violinist, but now spends much of her time singing Rossini and Elgar (sometimes even for money). She is also an Associate Lecturer for the Open University, specialising in music and literature.
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New Release Round-Up - 13th November 2026
13th Nov 2026
'A life in encores' from Steven Osborne, the world premiere recording of Gustav Holst's opera Sita, Handel's Giulio Cesare with Jakub Józef Orliński and Sabine Devieilhe, and Sheku Kanneh-Mason's Hope in Shadow.
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Laurence Equilbey on Beethoven Extended
11th Nov 2026
The French conductor discusses the historical precedents for her new 'double-orchestra' recordings of Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7, performed by Insula Orchestra and its newly-formed Camerata.
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Puccini's final version of La rondine from Opera Rara
6th Nov 2026
Ermonela Jaho is on tear-jerking form as the complex heroine Magda in this darker, 1921 iteration of Puccini's rom-com turned sour, outstandingly conducted by Carlo Rizzi and idiomatically reconstructed from archive materials by the Opera Rara team.
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New Release Round-Up - 6th November 2026
6th Nov 2026
Stravinsky from Simon Rattle in Munich, Bach from Víkingur Ólafsson and friends, Adès, Kurtág and Tippett from the Hallé, and Shostakovich from the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov.
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Britten, Walton and more from Sinfonia of London and John Wilson
30th Oct 2026
Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (with soloists Laurence Kilsby and Christopher Parkes) gets a new library-choice recording, whilst pathos and precision abound in Walton's Sonata for String Orchestra.
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New Release Round-Up - 30th October 2026
30th Oct 2026
Mahler's Symphony No. 2 from Paavo Järvi in Zürich, the final version of Puccini's La rondine from Opera Rara, Strauss's Eine Alpensinfonie from Vasily Petrenko and the RPO, and contemporary harpsichord concertos from Mahan Esfahani.
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Ermonela Jaho on La rondine
29th Oct 2026
In advance of Opera Rara's new recording of the final, 1921 version of Puccini's storia di salon (plus excerpts from the 1919 revision of the score), the Albanian soprano discusses why the composer kept revisiting the 'beautiful soul' of its heroine Magda de Civry.
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New Release Round-Up - 23rd October 2026
23rd Oct 2026
A complete Mahler cycle from Andris Nelsons in Vienna, Chopin from Pavel Kolesnikov, William Grant Still from Gianandrea Noseda in Washington, and a resistance-themed recital from Igor Levit.
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Joyce DiDonato and Time for Three on Kevin Puts's No Prisoner Be
22nd Oct 2026
The star mezzo and GRAMMY-winning string trio discuss the genesis of Puts's new work exploring the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson, recently recorded and released on Platoon.
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New Release Round-Up - 16th October 2026
16th Oct 2026
Vaughan Williams and Maconchy from Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra, Baroque duets from Rachel Podger and Lucie Horsch, Florent Schmitt from Peter Donohoe and Yan Pascal Tortelier, and Beethoven from the Chiaroscuro Quartet.
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Barbara Kingsolver's Partita
13th Oct 2026
Four years on from the savage brilliance of Demon Copperhead, the American novelist returns with a compelling portrait of the artist as a middle-aged woman which explores the connections between music, memory, trauma and healing.
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Partita
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The Deeps Have Music from Beth Taylor and Hamish Brown
9th Oct 2026
Including Elgar's Sea Pictures and songs by Ethel Smyth, Hedwige Chrétien and Cameron Biles-Liddell, the Scottish mezzo's debut album is knock-out stuff thanks to the lively musical intelligence behind her wine-dark voice.
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New Release Round-Up - 9th October 2026
9th Oct 2026
An 'Angels and Demons'-themed Baroque programme from La Serenissima, an eclectic programme spanning nine centuries of music from Jess Gillam, Fatma Said's 2025 recital from the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a celebration of women and the piano from Susan Tomes.
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New Release Round-Up - 2nd October 2026
2nd Oct 2026
A water-themed debut recital from Beth Taylor and Hamish Brown, Granville Bantock from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Rumon Gamba, Handel's Messiah from the Monteverdi Choir and Christophe Rousset, and Mahler's Symphony No. 2 from Simon Rattle in Munich.
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Beth Taylor on The Deeps Have Music
1st Oct 2026
The Scottish mezzo discusses her water-themed debut recital album on Linn (out tomorrow on Linn), centring on Elgar's Sea Pictures and also featuring songs by Hedwige Chrétien, Ethel Smyth, Alma Mahler and Cameron Biles-Liddell.
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Emilie Mayer from Alexander Melnikov, Akamus and Bernhard Forck
25th Sep 2026
The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin launches a new series exploring orchestral works by a trailblazing composer who was dubbed 'the female Beethoven', with Melnikov's Midas touch working its magic in her sole concerto.
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New Release Round-Up - 25th September 2026
25th Sep 2026
Falla from Domingo Hindoyan and the Liverpool Philharmonic, Mozart from Kristian Bezuidenhout in Freiburg, Smetana's Libuše from Jakub Hrůša and Kateřina Kněžíková, and orchestral works (both new and upcycled) by Hildur Guðnadóttir.
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Nick Pritchard and Ian Tindale on Gerald Finzi
23rd Sep 2026
Ahead of the seventieth anniversary of Finzi's death this weekend, the tenor and pianist discuss their new album including world premiere recordings of five unpublished early songs discovered in the Bodleian Library.
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New Release Round-Up - 18th September 2026
18th Sep 2026
Late Brahms from András Schiff on ECM, Ferdinand Hérold's dark opéra comique Zampa on Bru Zane, Handel's Giulio Cesare from Harry Bicket and The English Concert, and a fairy-tale recital from Sandrine Piau and David Kadouch.
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María Dueñas on Homage to Heifetz
16th Sep 2026
The Spanish violinist discusses paying tribute to one of her musical idols on her new album of Korngold, Lalo and Debussy (released last month on Deutsche Grammophon), and the uncanny experience of playing a Stradivarius which was once owned by Heifetz himself.
