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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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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Finzi's death this weekend, the tenor and pianist discuss their new album including world premiere recordings of five unpublished early songs discovered in the Bodleian Library.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.
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New Release Round-Up - 11th September 2026
11th Sep 2026
Enescu from the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, Brahms from Anna Fedorova, Verdi from Lise Davidsen, and a French Baroque programme from Mishka Rushdie Momen.
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Jacques Forestier on Song and Dance
8th Sep 2026
in the wake of his debut album on Warner Classics (featuring music by Brahms, Ysaÿe, Bartók and Gershwin via Heifetz), the young Canadian violinist discusses the impact of his victory at the 2024 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition and why he believes that variety is indeed the spice of life.
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Song & Dance
Jacques Forestier (violin), Boris Kusnezow (piano)
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New Release Round-Up - 4th September 2026
4th Sep 2026
Handel from Carlo Vistoli and Le Concert d'Astrée, Janáček's The Excursions of Mr Brouček from the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, Lassus from Vox Luminis and Lionel Meunier, and Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers from I Fagiolini and Robert Hollingworth.
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Missy Mazzoli on Breaking the Waves
3rd Sep 2026
Fresh from the premiere of The Galloping Cure at the Edinburgh Festival, the American composer looks back on her 2016 opera inspired by Lars von Trier's 1996 film, which was recently recorded by Houston Grand Opera and released on their own label last month.
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New Release Round-Up - 28th August 2026
28th Aug 2026
Beethoven and his Italian contemporaries from the Münchener Kammerorchester and Enrico Onofri, Rameau from Théotime Langlois de Swarte and William Christie, Don Giovanni from Iván Fischer in Budapest, and Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri from Le Concert des Nations and Jordi Savall.
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Mujer Fatal from Aigul Akhmetshina and Antonio Pappano
21st Aug 2026
Two strong musical personalities come together to spellbinding effect in a programme exploring the idea of the femme fatale, taking in songs by composers including Elena Roussanova, Montsalvatge, Bizet, Gershwin and Britten.
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New Release Round-Up - 14th August 2026
14th Aug 2026
Piazzolla from Argentine mezzo Daniela Mack, the world premiere recording of Olli Mustonen's Heavenly Lights, an eclectic recital on the theme of light from Simone Kermes, and Julius Katchen’s complete Brahms recordings on Eloquence.
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Martha C. Nussbaum's The Republic of Love
12th Aug 2026
The American academic offers an ideal blend of head and heart in this hugely engaging book on opera and political thought, taking in works from Mozart to Jake Heggie and drawing on her lifelong love for the artform as well as her extensive background philosophy.
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Jader Bignamini in Detroit
11th Aug 2026
The Italian conductor discusses his recent live recording of Carmina Burana with the Detroit Symphony, how the city has become a second home, and what he learned about conducting from the years which he spent as an clarinettist in the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano.
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New Release Round-Up - 7th August 2026
7th Aug 2026
Finnish orchestral works from Rumon Gamba in Oulu, Strauss from Gianandrea Noseda in Zürich, and the world premiere recordings of two recent American operas: Mark Adamo's Lysistrata and Missy Mazzoli & Royce Vavrek's Breaking the Waves.
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Jessica Walker on Barbara
6th Aug 2026
The mezzo-soprano and writer discusses her new album La Solitude (out now on Resonus Classics) which celebrates the legacy of the iconic French singer-songwriter (1930-97) and seeks to bring her songs to new audiences through deft English translations.
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Nathalie Stutzmann on Bruckner
4th Aug 2026
The French-born Swiss conductor discusses her new live recording of Symphony No. 4 from Atlanta, why institutional misogyny kept her off the podium until middle age, and the thrill of bringing Wagner's Rienzi to Bayreuth at long last.
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Giordano's Marina rediscovered
31st Jul 2026
Submitted for a competition in the late 1880s, the Italian composer's first opera finally sees the light of day on a live recording with Eleonora Buratto in the title-role and Freddie De Tommaso as the enemy fugitive who captures her heart.
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New Release Round-Up - 31st July 2026
31st Jul 2026
A visit to eighteenth-century Leipzig with Reinhard Goebel, Bruckner from the late Michael Tilson Thomas in Verbier, a lively collaboration between VOCES8 and Swedish barbershop group Ringmasters, and Robert Schumann from Matthias Goerne and Markus Hinterhäuser.
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New Release Round-Up - 24th July 2026
24th Jul 2026
Two new orchestral works from Joe Hisaishi, Bruckner from Nathalie Stutzmann in Atlanta, John Williams's Flute Concerto from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and a ninetieth-birthday celebration of Zubin Mehta.
