Latest stories
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Donizetti's Il Paria and other forthcoming highlights
23rd Dec 2020
Donizetti's 1829 opera about religious intolerance gets a rare outing under the baton of Sir Mark Elder, plus French piano duets from Paul Lewis and Steven Osborne, Beethoven from René Jacobs, and Josquin from Stile Antico.
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Paavo Järvi on Franz Schmidt and Tchaikovsky
22nd Dec 2020
The Estonian conductor talks to Katherine about falling in love with the music of Franz Schmidt, and how Leonard Bernstein reignited his passion for the Tchaikovsky symphonies.
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Vivaldi's Argippo from Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante
18th Dec 2020
Emőke Baráth and Delphine Galou head a small-but-perfectly-formed cast in Vivaldi’s pasticcio from the early 1730s, which also features arias by Galeazzi, Pescetti, Hasse, Porpora, Fiorè and Vinci.
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Saint-Saëns from Renaud Capuçon, Edgar Moreau and Bertrand Chamayou
11th Dec 2020
The French triumvirate pays early tribute to the centenary of the composer's death with lucid, affectionate accounts of the Violin Sonata No. 1, Cello Sonata No. 1, and Piano Trio No. 2.
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Recordings of the Year 2020 - Our Top 10
10th Dec 2020
The winners revealed - ten fantastic recordings which really stood out from the crowd for us over the past twelve months...
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Bertrand Chamayou on Good Night!
9th Dec 2020
The French pianist talks to Katherine about his beguiling collection of lullabies by composers including Lyapunov, Liszt, Alkan and Mel Bonis, released in October on Erato.
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Good Night!
Bertrand Chamayou (piano)
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Presto Editor's Choices - November 2020
30th Nov 2020
Ian Bostridge's miller-lad toughens up on the tenor's third recording of Die schöne Müllerin, whilst Philippe Jaroussky and TrioW both unearth some fascinating buried treasure and Paavo Järvi begins a promising new Tchaikovsky cycle.
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New Release Round-Up - 27th November 2020
27th Nov 2020
Prokofiev and Myaskovsky from Vasily Petrenko, Puccini's Il tabarro from Marek Janowski, Martinů from Frank Peter Zimmermann, and a celebration of 'Queen of Baroque' Cecilia Bartoli.
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Grammy Nominations 2021
25th Nov 2020
The shortlist for next year's Awards was revealed yesterday - read on for full details of the contenders in the nine classical categories.
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Carnival of the Animals from the Kanneh-Masons
20th Nov 2020
The seven siblings bring Saint-Saëns’s menagerie to teeming life, with Michael Morpurgo delivering his own new narration with avuncular charm.
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Recordings of the Year 2020 - Our Top 100
19th Nov 2020
The first meeting of the Presto Awards committee is over, and it's time to reveal the 100 recordings which have most impressed our editorial team this year...
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Elīna Garanča on Schumann and Brahms
18th Nov 2020
The Latvian mezzo talks to Katherine about her first lieder recording (released earlier this month on Deutsche Grammophon, with Malcolm Martineau), and preparing to make her Wagner debut as Kundry...
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Amici e Rivali - Michael Spyres and Lawrence Brownlee
13th Nov 2020
The two American tenors trade vocal fireworks in a thrilling all-Rossini programme which pays homage to Andrea Nozzari and Giovanni David, who created major roles in several of the composer's operas for Naples.
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Lawrence Brownlee on Rossini
13th Nov 2020
The American tenor talks to Katherine about today's Recording of the Week Amici e Rivali, which sees him exploring friendship and rivalry in Rossini's Neapolitan operas with his compatriot Michael Spyres.
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Daniil Trifonov's Silver Age
6th Nov 2020
The Russian pianist is by turns balletic, poetic and dramatic in solo works by Stravinsky and Prokofiev, whilst the Mariinsky Orchestra match his precision and imagination in concertos by the the latter composer and Scriabin.
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Silver Age
Daniil Trifonov (piano)
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John Andrews on The Dancing Master
5th Nov 2020
The British conductor talks to Katherine about recording Malcolm Arnold's one-act comic opera, written at high speed for TV in the early 1950s but rejected by the BBC for being 'too bawdy'...
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BBC Music Magazine - December 2020 Choices
3rd Nov 2020
Katherine introduces this month's selection, with Diana Damrau's triptych of Donizetti's Tudor Queens on Erato as Recording of the Month.
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Presto Editor's Choices - October 2020
31st Oct 2020
Vivid, cinematic orchestral works from Anna Clyne, Reynaldo Hahn's enchanting first opera, and mesmerising musical riddles from singer-composer Stef Conner.
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Fatma Said on El Nour
29th Oct 2020
The Egyptian soprano talks to Katherine about her debut solo album on Warner Classics, featuring songs by Egyptian, French and Spanish composers.
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Mahler from Christiane Karg, Malcolm Martineau - and Gustav Mahler
23rd Oct 2020
The German soprano and her regular recital-partner beguile in the Rückert-Lieder and songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit, whilst the composer himself makes an appearance (via a 1905 piano-roll) for ‘Das himmlische Leben’.
