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Presto Editor's Choices - February 2021
1st Mar 2021
A breathtaking Liszt recital from Benjamin Grosvenor, three electrifying orchestral works by Raymond Yiu, and a highly enjoyable trip to the zoo with Ashley Riches and Joseph Middleton.
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Trish Clowes on Wayne Shorter's 'Footprints Live!'
1st Mar 2021
In the second of our new series of videos, British saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, Trish Clowes, tells us about Wayne Shorter's Footprints Live!, The Record That Changed Her Life.
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Biber's Requiem from Vox Luminis
26th Feb 2021
Lionel Meunier's ensemble explore a time of religious and musical flux in Europe, with an album centred around Heinrich Biber's Requiem and less-heard works by his contemporaries.
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Biber: Requiem
Freiburger Barockconsort, Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier
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New Release Round-Up - 26th February 2021
26th Feb 2021
Piazzolla from Lucienne Renaudin Vary, Bartók from Thomas Dausgaard, Brahms from Antoine Tamestit and Cédric Tiberghien, and French theatre music from Neeme Järvi.
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Elephant9 - Arrival of the New Elders
26th Feb 2021
Jazz-rock trio Elephant9's Arrival of the New Elders is a carefully composed hard-rocking romp, offering a healthy blend of the rawness of rock, the improvisatory chops of jazz and the spacey, outer-space sounds of psychedelia.
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Emmanuel Despax on Spira, Spera
25th Feb 2021
The pianist talks about his new album of Bach transcriptions, inspired in part by his personal reaction to the Notre-Dame de Paris fire of 2019.
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Jazz New Release Round-Up - 25th February 2021
25th Feb 2021
Cameron Graves' 'thrash-jazz', experimental vocal jazz-meets-pop, and a series of singles from up-and-coming Russian jazz talent are among our picks for this week's new release round-up.
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A Stanford Organ Album
25th Feb 2021
A superb volume comprising of a selection of twenty pieces by Charles Villiers Stanford, the hugely influential composer, conductor, and teacher from the late-Victorian and Edwardian age. Providing the repertoire-hungry organist with preludes, postludes, and shorter descriptive works, suitable for either liturgical or recital use. Find out more here.
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BBC Music Magazine - March 2021 Choices
24th Feb 2021
Chris introduces this month's selection, with a 'sexy, sparkling' account of John Eccles's Semele from the Academy of Ancient Music and Julian Perkins in pride of place.
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New Decca and Deutsche Grammophon titles added to Presto CD
23rd Feb 2021
Featured artists on our latest batch include Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Jorge Bolet, Martha Argerich, and Erich Kleiber.
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Pure Exotica: As Dug By Lux and Ivy
23rd Feb 2021
A new compilation from Cherry Red offers an ideal entry point into the weird and wonderful world of Exotica.
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Pure Exotica: As Dug By Lux and Ivy
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Francesca Dego on Paganini's Violin
22nd Feb 2021
The violinist talks about her new recording on Paganini's own violin, featuring works by, dedicated to and responding to the great composer.
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New Music Book Publications - 22nd February 2021
22nd Feb 2021
An introduction to Western musical notation; a new translation of Richard Wagner's essays on the art of conducting; a biography of blues singer, Bessie Smith; an encyclopedia of historical performance practice; a look behind the scenes at the Ballets Russes; a guide to piano fingering; a study of concert life in nineteenth-century America; an exploration of music in Ancient Greece; and the history of the ballad singer in Georgian and Victorian London.
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Ludovic Tézier sings Verdi
19th Feb 2021
The French baritone is on spine-tingling form in a high-octane programme of arias from operas including La forza del destino, Otello, Don Carlos, and Falstaff.
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New Release Round-Up - 19th February 2021
19th Feb 2021
Liszt from Benjamin Grosvenor, Beethoven from Freiburg, Bach from Francesco Corti and Il Pomo d’Oro, and an homage to Piazzolla from Ksenija Sidorova.
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Binker and Moses - Escape the Flames
19th Feb 2021
Saxophone/drum duo Binker Golding and Moses Boyd give us a raw reinterpretation their debut album, 2017's Journey to the Mountain of Forever, in a fiery live recording.
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Escape the Flames
Binker and Moses
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Jake Heggie and friends on Intonations
18th Feb 2021
Along with violinist Daniel Hope and mezzo Sasha Cooke, the American composer talks to Katherine about his song-cycle, inspired by and written for a group of instruments which survived the Holocaust.
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BBC Music Magazine Awards 2021: Shortlist
18th Feb 2021
The nominations are just in and voting is open...
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Jazz New Release Round-Up - 18th February 2021
18th Feb 2021
Julian Bliss playing Gershwin, a new project from nu-jazz keys player Robert Glasper and chamber jazz from saxophonist/composer Aaron Irwin are among our picks for this week's new release round-up.
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Introducing My Library
17th Feb 2021
Here's an update on the latest feature we added to the site: a new web player to explore and listen to your CDs and download collections online.
