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Presto Editor's Choices - May 2019
1st Jun 2019
An almost indecently seductive French song programme from Sandrine Piau, a thought-provoking debut album from young British pianist Martin James Bartlett, and a rare outing for Granados’s one-act opera Goyescas, which crackles with Mediterranean heat.
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Lise Davidsen sings Wagner and Strauss
31st May 2019
The robust young Norwegian soprano thrills in scenes from Tannhäuser and Ariadne auf Naxos, and Strauss's Four Last Songs.
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Xavier Sabata on L'Alessandro amante
30th May 2019
Ahead of his appearance as Ottone in Handel’s Agrippina at the Barbican tomorrow evening, the Catalan countertenor talks to Katherine about his recent album exploring baroque representations of Alexander the Great.
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Gerald Finley on Kaija Saariaho's True Fire
29th May 2019
The bass-baritone talks to Katherine about recording the Finnish composer's song-cycle on texts by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Seamus Heaney and Mahmoud Darwish, written for him in 2014 and released on Ondine earlier this month.
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Lise Davidsen on Wagner & Strauss
27th May 2019
The Norwegian lyric-dramatic soprano discusses her career so far and her debut album on Decca, out this Friday.
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Michael Fabiano on Donizetti and Verdi
23rd May 2019
The charismatic American tenor talks to Katherine about his debut solo recording on Pentatone, centring on two composers who have played a pivotal role in his career to date.
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Kirill Petrenko conducts Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony
17th May 2019
Recorded live in concert in 2017, the Berliner Philharmoniker's first album with their new Chief Conductor augurs very well indeed for their new partnership.
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Colin Matthews on NMC
16th May 2019
The English composer looks back over 30 years at the helm of Britain's cutting-edge contemporary music label NMC.
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Melvyn Tan on Miroirs
13th May 2019
The Singapore-born British pianist discusses his new album of Ravel, Scarlatti, Weber and Liszt, released at the end of last month on Onyx.
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Sir András Schiff on Schubert
7th May 2019
The Hungarian-born British pianist talks to Katherine about late Schubert, and ‘falling in love at first sight’ with the Brodmann fortepiano which he plays on his recent recordings of sonatas and impromptus on ECM.
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Presto Editor's Choices - April 2019
4th May 2019
A beautifully-programmed and sung recital which takes the Schumann-Wieck engagement as its theme, a Casella triptych from Tuscany, and vivid depictions of strong women from the Bible courtesy of Charpentier and Ensemble Correspondances.
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Jess Gillam on RISE
2nd May 2019
The young saxophonist talks to Katherine about her debut solo album on Decca, released last week and including music by Dowland, Milhaud and David Bowie, plus a new commission by her teacher and producer John Harle.
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Rise
Jess Gillam (saxophones)
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International Opera Awards 2019 - The Winners!
30th Apr 2019
The results of last night's ceremony at Sadler's Wells, including the winning recordings in the complete opera and recital categories.
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Rossini: Semiramide
Albina Shagimuratova (Semiramide), Daniela Barcellona (Arsace), Mirco Palazzi (Assur), Barry Banks (Idreno), Gianluca Buratto (Oroe), Susana Gaspar (Azema), David Butt Philip (Mitrane), James Platt (L’ombra di Nino) Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment & Opera Rara Chorus, Sir Mark Elder
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Rachel Podger plays the Bach Cello Suites
26th Apr 2019
The baroque violinist's own transcriptions of one of the pinnacles of the cello repertoire have an integrity and intelligence that's entirely convincing on its own terms, and the music never stops dancing.
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Heather Harper (1930-2019)
23rd Apr 2019
The Belfast-born soprano, who sang in the premiere of Britten's War Requiem and created the role of Mrs Coyle in his Owen Wingrave, has died aged 88.
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Britten: War Requiem
Heather Harper (soprano), Peter Pears (tenor), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone) City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Melos Ensemble, Coventry Festival Choir, Boys of Holy Trinity, Leamington and Holy Trinity, Stratford, Meredith Davies (CBSO), Benjamin Britten (Melos)
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Schumann from Matthias Goerne and Leif Ove Andsnes
19th Apr 2019
The German bass-baritone brings near-Wagnerian intensity to Schumann's two great cycles of 1840, yet he and Andsnes are at their most spellbinding in the introspective songs.
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BBC Proms 2019 - Our Top Related Recordings
17th Apr 2019
Katherine picks out some highlights from this year's season (announced this morning) and recommends related recordings.
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Carolyn Sampson on Reason in Madness
15th Apr 2019
The soprano talks to Katherine about her Nietzsche-inspired recital of songs depicting vulnerable women by Debussy, Koechlin, Poulenc, Schumann and others, out now on BIS.
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András Schiff plays late Schubert
12th Apr 2019
The Hungarian-born pianist brings introspective poetry to two late sonatas, the Four Impromptus D899 and the Drei Klavierstücke D946, recorded on his Franz Brodmann fortepiano from 1820.
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Tasmin Little reflects on her career
11th Apr 2019
In the wake of winning Personality of the Year at last night's BBC Music Magazine Awards, the British violinist chats to Katherine about her life in music and her plans for retirement.
