Latest stories
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There Is Sweet Music Here
16th Jun 2026
Published to mark Wigmore Hall's 125th birthday, Julia Boyd's insightful biography of the beloved venue is compelling reading for anyone with even a passing interest in London’s cultural life throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
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There is Sweet Music Here: The World of Wigmore Hall
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Mel Bonis from Rumon Gamba and the BBCSSO
12th Jun 2026
The Scottish orchestra delivers characterful performances of works including the Trois Femmes de Légende and Suite Orientale, with soprano Elizabeth Watts on luminous form in the Noël de la Vierge Marie.
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Ted Black on the songs of Florence Price
8th Jun 2026
The rising young tenor discusses recording the American composer's many unpublished art songs, which he describes as sounding like 'a cross between Brahms and Cole Porter'.
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New Release Round-Up - 5th June 2026
5th Jun 2026
Copland and Walker from the LSO and Antonio Pappano, Schubert from Roderick Williams and the Carducci Quartet, Vasks from the Latvian Radio Choir, and Beethoven from Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien.
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Vasily Petrenko on Mahler
4th Jun 2026
The Russian conductor joins a live audience at Presto HQ via video-link to discuss his new recording of Symphony No. 3 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (released on Harmonia Mundi last month).
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Wagner's Ring Cycle from Fabio Luisi in Dallas
29th May 2026
Recorded live at concert performances in 2024, this new Ring scores highly for the Italian conductor's lyrical, nuanced approach to the score and boasts a fine new Wagnerian hero in Swedish tenor Daniel Johansson.
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Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
Mark Delavan (Wotan/Wanderer), Lise Lindstrom (Brünnhilde), Daniel Johansson (Siegfried), Sara Jakubiak (Sieglinde), Christopher Ventris (Siegmund), Stephen Milling (Hunding/Hagen), Tómas Tómasson (Alberich), Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Fabio Luisi
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New Release Round-Up - 29th May 2026
29th May 2026
Barber's 'Vanessa' from the National Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda, Dvořák and Wagenaar from Lahav Shani and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Bach from Aapo Häkkinen, and microscopic Schubert from Rudolf Buchbinder.
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Sean Shibe on Vesper
25th May 2026
The Scottish guitarist discusses his new album of works by Thomas Adès, Harrison Birtwistle and James Dillon, released on Pentatone last month.
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New Release Round-Up - 22nd May 2026
22nd May 2026
Mahler's Symphony No. 3 from Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, an American Dream from Barbara Hannigan in Gothenburg, Wagner's Ring Cycle from Fabio Luisi in Dallas, and Celtic nocturnes and folksongs from Barry Douglas.
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Leif Ove Andsnes on Geirr Tveitt
20th May 2026
The Norwegian pianist discusses the music of his compatriot (who lost most of his unpublished manuscripts to a devastating house fire in 1970), including the extraordinary 'Sonata Etere' and the folk songs which he collected in his native Hardanger.
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New Release Round-Up - 15th May 2026
15th May 2026
Lutosławski from Jean-Guihen Queyras and Gustavo Gimeno, Mozart horn concertos from Martin Owen and Manchester Camerata, choral works by Nico Muhly from the Choir of Magdalen College Oxford, and Charles Wood from the London Chamber Ensemble Quartet and Madeleine Mitchell.
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María Dueñas's Homage to Heifetz and other forthcoming highlights
12th May 2026
The young Spanish violinist pays tribute to her role-model, with other highlights for the summer including Copland and Walker from Pappano and the LSO, Mel Bonis from the BBCSSO and Rumon Gamba, and musical postcards from Stephen Hough.
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Bows and Arrows
11th May 2026
In the latest of our new monthly book reviews, Katherine delves into Julian Lloyd Webber's 'engaging, forthright and often laugh-out-loud funny' autobiography, taking in his childhood in a chaotic, ever-expanding household filled with music, collaborations with the great and not-so-good, and the devastating health issue which led to his premature retirement from performing and a second career as a music educator.
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New Release Round-Up - 8th May 2026
8th May 2026
Elegiac Haydn from Giovanni Antonini, Brahms and Dora Pejačević from the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, Florence Price from Ted Black & Sascha El Mouissi, and a Heine-themed recital from Helen Charlston and Sholto Kynoch.
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New Release Round-Up - 1st May 2026
1st May 2026
Schubert and Schumann from Arcadi Volodos, Beethoven from Paul Watkins and Alessio Bax, Reicha from Trio Bohémo, and Morales from De Profundis.
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Thomas de Hartmann's Esther
24th Apr 2026
De Hartmann's 1946 opera-oratorio about the Biblical queen who thwarts a poisonous courtier's bid to annihilate the Jewish race receives its first complete professional recording courtesy of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Kirill Karabits, with Corinne Winters in the title-role.
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De Hartmann: Esther
Corinne Winters (Esther), Yuriy Yurchuk (Assuérus), Andrew Foster-Williams (Mardochée), Bernard Richter (Aman), Olga Bezsmertna (Élise), Edwin Crossley-Mercer (Hydaspe /Asaph), Paul Appleby (Chantre), The Grange Festival Chorus, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Karabits
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New Release Round-Up - 17th April 2026
17th Apr 2026
Contemporary works from guitarist Sean Shibe, a double-bill of Chausson from violinist Renaud Capuçon, a transatlantic celebration of Spanish and South American Baroque and traditional music from L'Arpeggiata, and Mozart piano concertos from Jan Lisiecki.
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Michael Waldron on Arthur Oldham
13th Apr 2026
To mark the release of Mentor (out now on Orchid Classics), the conductor of London Choral Sinfonia discusses the unique relationship between Benjamin Britten and his only private pupil, whose centenary falls this year.
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Jonas Kaufmann's Magische Töne
10th Apr 2026
The superstar tenor sounds in mint condition on this fascinating exploration of operetta by Hungarian-born composers including Emmerich Kálmán, Franz Léhar and Paul Abraham, supported by wonderfully idiomatic playing from the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra under Dirk Kaftan.
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New Release Round-Up - 10th April 2026
10th Apr 2026
French orchestral mélodies from Cyrille Dubois, Semyon Bychkov's complete Mahler cycle with the Czech Philharmonic, Prokofiev from Isata Kanneh-Mason, and Steve Reich from the Colin Currie Group.
