Latest stories
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Eric Whitacre at... 30!
26th Apr 2023by David Smith
Looking back over three decades of music, the world-renowned composer talks Whitman, musical hits and misses, and the correlation between a piece's length and the age of the composer's children...
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Episode 36: I've Started, So I'll Finish – A Return to Mozart with Robert Levin
22nd Apr 2023by David Smith
Pianist, conductor, musicologist and Mozart reconstructionist Robert Levin talks about the resumption of his complete survey of Mozart's works for keyboard and orchestra.
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John Eliot Gardiner at 80
20th Apr 2023by David Smith
A look back over the conductor's long and illustrious recording career - from Monteverdi operas and Bach cantatas to Romantic rediscoveries and more.
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David Skinner on Byrd's 'Songs of Sundrie Natures'
18th Apr 2023by David Smith
The artistic director of Alamire talks about his new recording with Fretwork of Byrd's 1589 collection of church and domestic songs, complementing an album from two years ago in which they explored the previous volume from 1588.
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Florian Deuter on Biber's sonatas "for altar and court"
13th Apr 2023by David Smith
The violinist talks about his recent album of ensemble music by Biber - twelve sonatas for various combinations of instruments, interleaved with twelve duos for trumpets, all coming from Biber's time in the service of the Salzburg court.
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Bracing Change - Helen Grime on contemporary string quartets
11th Apr 2023by David Smith
Scottish composer Helen Grime discusses her second string quartet, which features on the second volume of Bracing Change string commissions from NMC and the Wigmore Hall.
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Music for Holy Week
6th Apr 2023by David Smith
A selection of recent recordings of music inspired by Holy Week - from early to contemporary, religious to humanist, and with a mix of choral, solo vocal, and instrumental works.
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Episode 35: Tom & Will (& Jimmy & Roddy) – Tudor Anniversaries with Fretwork and The King's Singers
2nd Apr 2023by David Smith
Patrick Dunachie of The King's Singers and Richard Boothby of Fretwork talk about the madrigals and instrumental music of two Tudor titans.
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Sergei Rachmaninoff Russian composer
1st Apr 2023by David Smith
A selection of some of the finest recent recordings of the Russian colossus, to mark his 150th anniversary.
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Visages Baroques from new Deutsche Grammophon signing Raphaël Feuillâtre
31st Mar 2023by David Smith
The 26-year-old guitarist makes his debut for the yellow label with a dance-suite-inspired programme of Bach and French Baroque works.
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Christopher Gunning (1944-2023)
29th Mar 2023by David Smith
The English composer, whose output ranged from sweeping symphonies and concertos to award-winning music for a huge range of film and television productions, has died aged 78.
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Simon Mayor on Carolan
22nd Mar 2023by David Smith
The mandolinist talks about his new album of music by the eighteenth-century Irish harpist Turlough O'Carolan, featuring his own arrangements that meld together Baroque, folk and chamber styles.
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St Patrick's Day - Music from Ireland
17th Mar 2023by David Smith
A selection of music from Ireland - Baroque odes, piano concertos, chamber music, art songs, opera and more.
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The Calidore String Quartet record late Beethoven
15th Mar 2023by David Smith
Violinist Ryan Meehan talks about the quartet's new album, which builds on their earlier more exploratory releases with an all-Beethoven programme.
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The Dudok Quartet on Shostakovich and Bacewicz
8th Mar 2023by David Smith
Cellist David Faber talks about the quartet's recent album of intense chamber music by two composers who grappled with Soviet oppression - Dmitri Shostakovich and Grażyna Bacewicz.
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Johannes Moser on being Alone Together
6th Mar 2023by David Smith
The cellist talks about his new album that blends the artistry of the solo cello with the technology of sequencing and spatial audio - conceived well before the pandemic, but brought into focus by the enforced isolation that characterised 2020 for so many people.
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Stravinsky from Isabelle Faust, François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles
3rd Mar 2023by David Smith
Violinist Isabelle Faust's relationship with the music of Stravinsky continues, with François-Xavier Roth and his period-instruments orchestra Les Siècles joining her in an album built around the chamber-inspired Violin Concerto.
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Mark Bebbington on Vaughan Williams's 'Fantasia on the Old 104th'
27th Feb 2023by David Smith
The pianist talks about his recent recording of a striking, category-defying work by Vaughan Williams that is very rarely heard - and shares his thoughts on some other rarely-explored sides of Vaughan Williams's music.
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Eric Lu on Schubert
23rd Feb 2023by David Smith
The pianist talks about his recent album of Schubert sonatas, his empathy for the troubled composer, and his unique relationship with his music.
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Biber's Rosary Sonatas from Amandine Beyer and Gli Incogniti
17th Feb 2023by David Smith
Inspired by a dance project for the stage, Beyer and her fellow musicians rediscover the vitality of Biber's cycle of devotional sonatas.