Podcasts about Wigmore Hall

Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a unique and distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster.As a concerto soloist he appears regularly with the world's leading orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, London Philharmonic and Zurich Tonhalle orchestras. He gives recitals every season in major musical centres, and plays with many of the world's foremost chamber orchestras, including the Australian, Mahler, Norwegian, Scottish, Zurich and St Paul Chamber Orchestras, as well as period-instrument ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Unusually, he also directs chamber orchestras from the cello in classical programmes.Recent and upcoming highlights include performances with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Salzburg Mozartwoche; the US premiere of Thomas Adès's Lieux retrouvés with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, following world and UK premieres in Lucerne and at the BBC Proms, and a further performance of the work in Amsterdam with the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by the composer; Prokofiev's Concerto Op. 58 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, in London and at the Dresden Music Festival; and Haydn's C major Concerto with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Adam Fischer.As a chamber musician, he has curated series for many of the world's most famous festivals and venues, including the Wigmore Hall, the 92nd St Y in New York, and the Salzburg Festival. These specially devised programmes have included ‘In the Shadow of War', a major four-part series for the Wigmore Hall to mark the centenary of the First World War and the 75th anniversary of the Second World War; explorations of Czech music; the teacher-pupil line of Saint-Saëns, Fauré and Ravel; the affinity of the cello and the human voice; varied aspects of Robert Schumann's life and music; and the music of Sergei Taneyev (teacher of Steven's grandfather, Julius Isserlis) and his students. For these concerts Steven is joined by a regular group of friends which includes the violinists Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Pamela Frank, and Janine Jansen, violist Tabea Zimmermann, and pianists Jeremy Denk, Stephen Hough, Alexander Melnikov, Olli Mustonen, Connie Shih, and Dénes Várjon.He also takes a strong interest in authentic performance. This season's projects include a recording of the Chopin Cello Sonata and other works with Dénes Várjon for Hyperion, using ones of Chopin's own piano; and a recital of Russian sonatas with Olli Mustonen. In recital, he gives frequent concerts with harpsichord and fortepiano. Recent seasons have featured a special performance with Sir Andras Schiff at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, using Beethoven's own cello; and performances and recordings (selected for the Deutsche SchallplattenPreis) of Beethoven's complete music for cello and piano with Robert Levin, using original or replica fortepianos from the early nineteenth century. With harpsichordist Richard Egarr, he has performed and recorded the viola da gamba sonatas of J.S. Bach as well as sonatas by Handel and Scarlatti. This season, they tour together in the US.He is also a keen exponent of contemporary music and has premiered many new works including John Tavener's The Protecting Veil (as well as several other pieces by Tavener), Thomas Adès's Lieux retrouvés, Stephen Hough's Sonata for Cello and Piano, Left Hand (Les Adieux), Wolfgang Rihm's Concerto in One Movement, David Matthews' Concerto in Azzurro, and For Steven and Hilary's Jig by György Kurtág. In 2016, he gave the UK premiere of Olli Mustonen's of Frei, aber einsam for solo cello at the Wigmore Hall.

In this episode, Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford talks to pianist Leif Ove Andsnes about his new recording on Sony Classical of the extraordinary work Via Crucis by Franz Liszt, the composer's deeply spiritual meditations on the Stations of the Cross, released just before the start of Holy Week.  This week's podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall, where performers over the coming week include two performances by the former Gramophone Artist of the Year, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, conductor William Christie with the ensemble that he founded, Les Arts Florissants, and the Chiaroscuro Quartet. For full details of these concerts, and many more, visit https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Freya's music is characterized by contrasts between earthy rhythmic play and fragility, luminous spaces, and a sense of the otherworldly. She has been commissioned by numerous institutions and ensemblesHer current season includes Mother Tongue, a new four movement work for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Ed Gardner; a new work for the Archipelago Collective's 10th anniversary festival on San Juan Island WA; and a new work for classical orchestra for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in response to Fanny Mendelssohn's Das Jahr. Also upcoming is the release on NMC of Waley-Cohen's Debut Disc, Spell Book, with performances from the Manchester Collective as well as Tamsin Waley-Cohen, Ann Beilby, Nathaniel Boyd, Hèloïse Werner, Fleur Barron and Katie Bray.Other recent successes include the world premiere of Pocket Cosmos, premiered in June 2022 by commissioners London Chamber Orchestra and directed by Pekka Kuusisto, and staging of Freys's contemporary dramatic song cycle Spell Book at Longborough Festival Opera and Waley-Cohen's first opera WITCH, commissioned in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Royal Academy of Music.Freya was the 2019/20 Associate Composer at Wigmore Hall, which held a day of concerts in March 2023 focused on her music. She was also Associate Composer of St. David's Hall's contemporary music series, ‘Nightmusic', from 2018 – 2021. Winner of a 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize, Freya Waley-Cohen held an Open Space Residency at Snape Maltings from 2015 – 2017 and was 2016 – 2018 Associate Composer of Nonclassical.I spoke to Freya from her home in London.

How can we balance confidentiality and integrity? Is democracy under attack in Turkey? What are the benefits of independency?In this episode of In:Dependence, Phil Topham (FIEC Executive Director), Adrian Reynolds (FIEC Head of National Ministries), and John Stevens (FIEC National Director) discuss the stories in the news over the past weeks.You can watch a video of this episode and get more resources for church leaders on the FIEC website.Show notesFIEC Leaders' Conference 2025 (fiec.org.uk)Rising Lights (fiec.org.uk)Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump's Advisers Shared on Signal (theatlantic.com)Protests erupt in Turkey after Erdogan rival arrested (bbc.co.uk)Assisted dying in doubt as rollout could be delayed until at least 2029 (news.sky.com)Wigmore Hall quits 'crippling' funding system (bbc.co.uk)About In:Dependence: In:Dependence is FIEC's official podcast, where you'll hear conversations on topics for church leaders.About FIEC: We are ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠a fellowship of Independent churches⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with members of the family across England, Scotland and Wales. Our mission is to see those Independent churches working together with a big vision: to reach Britain for Christ.00:00 - FIEC news04:40 - Signal chats and confidentiality13:25 - Political arrests in Turkey16:24 - Religious or secular societies20:17 - Opposition to the Assisted Dying Bill25:16 - Wigmore Hall and independency

Maurice Ravel was born 150 years ago, on March 7, 1875, and he is the subject of numerous tributes this season. Bertrand Chamayou recorded the complete piano works ten years ago for Erato ('No one who loves French music or exquisite piano-playing will want to miss this' wrote Patrick Rucker in Gramophone), a set that incidentally has just been released on LP. So, by way of a supplement, he has curated a programme that weaves a handful of Ravel transcriptions together with tributes and memorials by other composers. James Jolly went to visit Bertrand at his home in Paris this week to talk about the new album, but also to discuss Ravel's place in the pianist's repertoire.  This Gramophone Podcast is given in association with Wigmore Hall

For this edition of the Gramophone Podcast Editor Martin Cullingford was joined by three of the four members of the French ensemble Nevermind - flute player Anna Besson, viola da gamba player Robin Pharo and harpsichordist Jean Rondeau - to talk about the group's new creative exploration of Bach's Goldberg Variations, newly released on the Alpha label. This Gramophone Podcast is given in association with Wigmore Hall   

The baritone Benjamin Appl has recorded an album for Alpha that combines the music of György Kurtág with that of Franz Schubert. 'Lines of Life: Schubert & Kurtág' is the result of a long process that started with Kurtág choosing the singer for this unique project and working with him on the music, and finally producing the recording - and even playing the piano for Appl in two songs that close the programme. James Jolly met up with Benjamin Appl – a former Gramophone Young Artist of the Year – to talk about the album, but also about another recording that's on the horizon, his tribute to his teacher, and one of the great Lieder singers of the post-war period, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the 100th anniversary of whose birth falls in May. This Gramophone Podcast is given in association with Wigmore Hall

The pianist Samson Tsoy makes his solo debut on record with an album for Linn, 'Inmost Heart'. Built around Brahms's Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, the programme explores Brahms's fascination with the Baroque, but also how his music was later transcribed by Reger and Busoni.  This Gramophone Podcast is given in association with Wigmore Hall  James Jolly visited Samson at his North London home to talk about the new album, his journey from Kazakhstan to London via Moscow, and how he plans to incorporate music from the album into his concert programmes.

A celebrated pianist, Alexander Boyd is appreciated for his sensitivity and the integrity of his interpretations. He made his concerto debut at the age of just 11 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He's since performed at London's Wigmore Hall and St Martins in the Fields, as well as throughout Europe, the US and Australia. He's also a composer, having written music for three films. He has a pair of new albums out in March, one of Chopin's Ballades and other works, the other an album of Fandangos. Alexander talks about the development of these albums, and also gives some lovely insights into the life of a professional pianist.

Pianist Tim Horton is a busy chap. Always playing the piano and playing it a lot. Wigmore Hall, Sheffield Chamber Music Festival, Ensemble 360. All manner of places. So I consider it a considerable triumph that we arranged to meet in person a week or so ago to talk about his Wigmore Hall Chopin project -- there's a concert on December 11 and one in March 2025. Its not simply the programme that I was drawn to, but the way in which he suggests to audience members what they might listen out for in performance and, how that suggestion, might actually influence the way in which someone listens. In all truth, this suggestion about listening for ambiguity in music (instead of the predictable) doesn't simply extend to his concerts, but perhaps to all listening to classical. And if more people bought into, what impact might it have on how we appreciate live performance in the moment?

Violist Irina Morozova has a long and distinguished career, including as principal viola of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, and guest principal of the Sydney Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras. But it's as part of the Goldner String Quartet that she and her fellow musicians Dene Olding, Dimity Hall and Julian Smiles, have found a significant place in the hearts of Australia's classical music lovers. Long been considered Australia's pre-eminent string quartet, the Golders are considered among the best quartets in the world. They've recorded 19 albums covering repertoire from Beethoven to Peter Sculthorpe and have performed internationally including at London's Wigmore Hall and at the Biennale in Venice. But this year, their 30th season, is also their last, with their farewell concert taking place this Sunday 8th of December at the Verbruggen Hall of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in association with Musica Viva. Irina talks about the significant place the Golden String Quartet has had in her life and heart. The music she shares is done so with thoughtfulness and passion, and her story is inspiring.

Arifa Akbar and Peter Bradshaw join Tom Sutcliffe to review the film Anora which was written and directed by Sean Baker. Set in contemporary New York the romantic drama won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. They also review the stage production of Dr. Strangelove. The original film version of the black comedy starred Peter Sellers in three roles, in this version Steve Coogan takes on four parts. And they discuss Ali Smith's 13th novel Gliff which focuses on a brutal surveillance state in the future.Plus, French composer Gabriel Faure is best known for his Requiem – but to mark 100 years since his death, cellist Steven Isserlis tells Tom how he's playing a series of concerts at London's Wigmore Hall, to highlight his other work including his cello sonatas and piano quintets. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

In this episode of Legends of Reed, host Jo Anne Sukumaran interviews French oboist Armand Djikoloum, who shares his journey from early musical beginnings to becoming a professional musician. He discusses the challenges of being an oboist, the importance of physical fitness through running, and the impact of social media on musicians. Armand emphasizes the need for self-care, mental resilience, and creating positive environments in music. He also reflects on the recording process and the significance of staying true to oneself in the competitive world of classical music.   French born oboist Armand Djikoloum enjoys a varied and highly successful career as both a soloist and chamber musician, featuring frequently as a guest with some of Europe's finest orchestras and ensembles. Armand will be joining a star-studded group of YCAT artists in February 2025, as they celebrate YCAT's 40 year anniversary, performing at venues such as BoulezSaal Berlin, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Cologne, Tauberphilharmonie Weikersheim and Wigmore Hall.  Armand Djikoloum, is a multi prize winning soloist and chamber musician and, in 2022, was recognised as one of Classic FM's Rising Stars. Find out more about Armand here: https://www.ycat.co.uk/armand-djikoloum Listen to the latest chamber music album "Zelenka: Trio Sonatas Zwv 181 & Ghosts" :https://open.spotify.com/album/0FlcdMG3wFLoFJkE0udTPF?si=5xFDJfG_Sl-UkpitZr2VMw Photo credit (c) Kaupo Kikkas IG: https://www.instagram.com/armandjikoloum/ Hosted by Jo Anne Sukumaran https://www.joannesukumaran.com IG: https://www.instagram.com/jewelair2.0/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Armand  03:08 Early Musical Beginnings 07:03 Recording Process and Collaboration 11:41 Running as a Complement to Music 16:26 Injury and Recovery in Music 24:20 Creating Positive Musical Environments 30:25 Challenges of the Oboe as a Solo Instrument 37:46 Social Media and the Musician's Image 42:01 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Today on Too Opinionated,  we chat with Award-winning Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman-Lee.  Measha in collaboration with composer and pianist Aaron Davis, she will be performing their highly acclaimed concert aria Zombie Blizzard at National Sawdust, in Brooklyn, on Monday, Oct. 28, & Halifax at The Carleton on Oct. 31 and in Wolfville at the Church Brewing Company on Nov. 6 ahead of Nova Scotia Music Week. Measha is the artist in residence for the Canadian opera company, Opera Atelier, and holds several honorary doctorates and ambassadorial titles with international charities. Her engaging personality, exceptional musicianship and powerful voice have taken her to the major orchestras and concert halls of every continent. She has also presented innovative programs at Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center in New York City, Washington's Kennedy Center and London's Wigmore Hall, among others.     She is the recipient of Canada's 2024 Governor General's Award for Lifetime Achievement in Classical Music.    Want to watch: YouTube Meisterkhan Pod (Please Subscribe)

One of the UK's most sought-after baritones, Roderick Williams has a vast repertoire which spans from the baroque to world premieres. He was called the greatest living baritone by Britain's Daily Telegraph, and The New York Times labelled him a natural and expressive communicator in song. He has performed at Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw and the Musikverein, and composed for and performed in the coronation of King Charles III. Roddy is infectiously cheerful, and his musical selections highlight key points of his career. He shares stories with joy and humility, from his idyllic childhood and the discovery of his massive potential to performing at some significant events of the 21st Century. This conversation was recorded at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in late July.

Classical music can be such a slow-moving industry.  I'm fascinated by our innovators, like today's guest, who is developing new ways to serve and support his audience and students!    Since winning the BBC Young Musician strings category, Callum has soloed with the UK's leading orchestras (Royal Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Hallé) and offered recitals in leading venues (Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Auditorium du Louvre).  This season, he's heading on tour to China and Hong Kong and launching an interactive new recital series in London. With 3 albums to his name, his most recent, ‘Transatlantic', was a top 30 album on the UK classical charts and earned Callum features as Classic FM and Scala Artist of the Week. A dedicated pedagogue, Callum is a Violin Professor at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), faculty member at Orford Musique, and mentor at Music Masters. Callum also shares violin tips with his Instagram community of 60k followers and is launching ‘Caidence', his free generative AI practice companion to support violinists in their musical journeys.  Recognized as a forward thinker in the industry, he has been invited to share insights in BBC Music Magazine, the Strad, BBC Radio 3's This Classical Life, Mind Over Finger, and more. Follow Callum on instagram, YouTube, or his website, and check out Caidence!   Thanks for joining me on Crushing Classical!  Theme music and audio editing by DreamVance. You can join my email list HERE, so you never miss an episode! I help people to lean into their creative careers and start or grow their income streams. You can read more or hop onto a short discovery call from my website. I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!        

This week on the podcast is part two of our interview with renowned English cellist Matthew Barley.  He has performed in over 50 countries, and with numerous orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic and the London Sinfonietta, and in venues from Ronnie Scott's to Wigmore Hall. In addition to being a busy performing musician, his varied experiences include founding Between the Notes, a performance and education group that works with musicians and artists in other arts genres; he was a former music director and presenter of the BBC2 Series Classical Star; and he founded the Matthew Barley Arts Foundation to run creative workshops using music and theatre to help university students improve their mental health. Matthew's most recent project is Light Stories, a new program for cello, electronics and visuals which launches this month in London's Southbank Centre.https://matthewbarley.com/

Today we released part one of our interview with renowned English cellist Matthew Barley.  He has performed in over 50 countries, and with numerous orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic and the London Sinfonietta, and in venues from Ronnie Scott's to Wigmore Hall.  In addition to being a busy performing musician, his varied experiences include founding Between the Notes, a performance and education group that works with musicians and artists in other arts genres; he was a former music director and presenter of the BBC2 Series Classical Star; and he founded the Matthew Barley Arts Foundation to run creative workshops using music and theatre to help university students improve their mental health. Matthew's most recent project is Light Stories, a new program for cello, electronics and visuals which launches this month in London's Southbank Centre.We hope you'll join us for Matthew's inspiring journey from a near-death experience as a teen to becoming a world-class performer.  https://matthewbarley.com/

I have wondered, in my darker days, whether this portfolio career I love is truly sustainable. Whether I can really keep tweaking and evolving all the way until I stop. This interview gave me an inspiring YES!   Hailed by Fanfare Magazine as "one of the great cellists of our time", Nancy Green is an internationally recognized recording artist, known for her highly acclaimed CDs of previously unrecorded works as well as staples of the cello repertoire.  Her numerous CDs, which include many premieres, are broadcast worldwide and her performances have earned rave reviews internationally.  Her CD recordings on the US label, JRI, and the British labels, Cello Classics and Biddulph Recordings, have received special notice in many major publications, among them Strings Magazine (Editor's Choice), MusicWeb International (CD of the Month), Fanfare Magazine (Want List), and Classical Music Magazine (CD of the Fortnight). Her recording of the Brahms sonatas with duo partner Frederick Moyer was named by Fanfare Magazine as the "hands-down pick" for these standard works which have been recorded, sometimes multiple times, by the most acclaimed cellists in history.  Green has performed as soloist in venues such as the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, as well as London's Wigmore Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and Windsor Castle.  She has also performed in major concert halls in Holland, Belgium, and the Far East. International press reviews have likened her to great cellists such as Rostropovich, Yo-Yo Ma, and Jacqueline du Pré.  Since 2015 Ms. Green no longer performs live and is exclusively a recording artist. Follow Nancy's YouTube, Spotify, Apple music, Instagram, or Facebook   Thanks for joining me on Crushing Classical!  Theme music and audio editing by DreamVance. You can join my email list HERE, so you never miss an episode! I help people to lean into their creative careers and start or grow their income streams.You can read more or hop onto a short discovery call from my website. I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!    

Concert pianist Rebeca Omordia, has just released her second African Pianism album, volume 2, which was just named Editor's Choice in the Gramophone Magazine,  and it is a fascinating and beautiful kaleidoscope of piano works from West Africa, North Africa, South Africa and East Africa. Rebeca spoke to me about her extensive research about these composers, varied styles, and the different traditional music traditions which are often at the heart of this music.  We talked about  her experiences growing up in Romania with a Romanian mother and a Nigerian father. Now based in London, Rebeca spoke to me about The African Concert Series at Wigmore Hall, and  many of her collaborations,  including with Errollyn Wallen whose  Piano Concerto,  written for Rebeca Omordia, is featured in this podcast along with excerpts from several of the works on the African Pianism album, volume 2.     Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast on all the platforms, and I've also linked the transcript to my website https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/rebeca-omordia-african-pianism Rebeca Omordia website and recordings: https://www.rebecaomordia.com/recordings Original Merch for sale: https://www.leahroseman.com/beautiful-shirts-and-more Can you buy this independent podcaster a coffee? ⁠https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman⁠ Complete Catalog of Episodes: ⁠https://www.leahroseman.com/about⁠ Newsletter sign-up: ⁠https://mailchi.mp/ebed4a237788/podcast-newsletter⁠ Linktree for social media: ⁠https://linktr.ee/leahroseman⁠ Timestamps (00:00) Intro (02:50) African Pianism, Akin Euba (05:41) Wakar Duru: Study in African Pianism number 1 by Akin Euba (10:30) childhood in Romania, deportation and return (20:50) Florence Price (22:40) excerpt from Fantaisie Nègre by Price (24:46)  encouraging women composers in Africa, Rebeca's identity in Africa (27:11) Salim Dada Algerian composer (31:14) excerpt from Soirée au Hogarr by Salim Dada (33:05) about Salim Dad's Crépuscule sur la baie d'Alger, with an excerpt (35:36) African Concert Series  (38:13) different ways you can help this podcast continue (39:06) Delius Prize, duo with Julian Lloyd Weber, book about John Ireland (42:50) duo with South African bass soloist Leon Bosch (46:36) about Errollyn Wallen's Piano Concerto (50:12) last movement of Errollyn Wallen's Piano Concerto (52:55) family legacy in music, Nigerian grandfather (57:03) experience of nerves, performing from memory (01:01:12) Ethiopian composer Girma Yifrashewa (01:03:43) excerpt from Elilta - Cry of Joy by Girma Yifrashewa (01:05:21) next projects, Omo Bello (01:07:51) childhood music exposure in Romania (01:09:41) advice about self-care photo of Rebeca Omordia: Fourchiefs Media

In this episode of One Symphony, conductor Devin Patrick Hughes sits down with renowned composer Pierre Jalbert to explore Jalbert's musical journey, creative process, and the spiritual influences that shape his work. Jalbert shares intimate stories about his childhood in Vermont, his collaborations with world-class musicians, and the importance of resonance and reverberation in his compositions. He also pays tribute to his mentor, the late Larry Rachleff, and discusses his genre-bending project with the Apollo Chamber Players. Throughout the interview, Jalbert offers insights into the challenges and rewards of writing for both chamber groups and large ensembles and reveals how he strives to create music that serves the audience. Join us for a fascinating glimpse into the mind of one of today's best composers. Earning widespread notice for his richly colored and superbly crafted scores, Pierre Jalbert's music has been described as “immediately captures one's attention with its strong gesture and vitality” by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  Among his many honors are the Rome Prize, the BBC Masterprize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Fromm Foundation commission.   Jalbert's music has been performed worldwide in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and the Barbican.  Recent orchestral performances include those by the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.    He has served as Composer-in-Residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the California Symphony, and Music in the Loft in Chicago. Select chamber music commissions and performances include those of the Ying, Borromeo, Maia, Enso, Chiara, Escher, Del Sol, and Emerson String Quartets, as well as violinist Midori.  Three new CDs of his music have been recently released:  Violin Concerto, Piano Quintet and Secret Alchemy, and Piano Trio No. 2.   Jalbert is Professor of Music at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music in Houston, and he is a co-founder of Musiqa, a Houston-based new music collective.  His music is published by Schott Helicon Music Corporation, New York.   Thank you for joining us on One Symphony. Thanks to Pierre Jalbert for sharing her music and stories. You can find more info at https://www.pierrejalbert.com.   Pierre Jalbert composed all music featured in this episode, with one exception.   String Theory was performed live by the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra.   Mystical and With Great Energy, from Secret Alchemy, from the album Music From Copland House performed by Curtis Macomber, Danielle Farina, Alexis Pia Gerlach and Michael Boriskin.   The first movement from From Dusk to Starry Night “The Night in Silence” on a text by Walt Whitman features Sasha Cooke and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra.   Violin Concerto, featuring Steven Copes on violin. Performed by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra with Thomas Zehetmair as the conductor.    “Fiddle Dance” from L'espirit du nord. Performed by the Apollo Chamber Players.    Mozart Piano Concerto K488 in A major, first movement improvised cadenza performed by Robert Levin with the Cluj-Nacopa Philharmonic in Romania with Nicole Moldovenau as the conductor.    “Chanson de Lisette” from Le'spirit du nord. Performed by the Apollo Chamber Players.   “Music of air and fire” performed by the Houston Youth Symphony conducted by Michael Isadore.   You can always find more info at OneSymphony.org including a virtual tip jar if you'd like to support the show. Please feel free to rate, review, or share the show! Until next time, thank you for being part of the music!  

To mark the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, which took place on May 7, 1824, Gramophone's podcast this week focuses on the work. Antonello Manacorda has just completed a cycle of the nine symphonies with Akademie Potsdam for Sony Classical, including a brand-new Ninth. James Jolly went to visit him at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden , where he was conducting a run of Bizet's Carmen. This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.

The British bass Brindley Sherratt has released his first solo album, ‘Fear No More', a Delphian recording, with Julius Drake at the piano. One of the UK's most distinguished singers, and with an international reputation on the great concert and operatic stages, Sherratt talks to James Jolly about this new, and belated, chapter in his musical career. This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.

Hanif Kureishi has joined forces with Emma Rice to adapt his 1990 novel The Buddha of Suburbia into an RSC production that's just opened at the Swan Theatre, Stratford upon Avon. Kureishi discusses what it feels like to see himself and his fictionalised family onstage, why his first novel remains painfully relevant and how he has been able to continue writing despite the December 2022 accident that left him tetraplegic. Recently on Front Row we heard from some leaders of classical music organisations including the Wigmore Hall and LSO saying that Arts Council England, the body responsible for distributing funding, was putting inclusion before excellence. Today we hear from the Arts Council's CEO, Darren Henley about Let's Create, the ten year strategy behind the recent funding decisions.Ingrid Persaud discusses the real man behind her new novel The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh, an outlaw figure who looms large in the cultural memory of Trinidad and Tobago - an island nation with a wealth of contemporary novelists, including Persaud herself.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Corinna Jones

Thomas Pitfield, born in Bolton in 1903 and whose life stretched to the very end of the 20th century – he died in 1999 – is one of those polymaths who embraced numerous different outlets: he was a composer, a poet, an illustrator, a calligrapher, a cabinet maker and a teacher. He is probably better known for the people he knew and taught – including John McCabe, John Ogdon and Ronald Stevenson – than in his own right. This new collection of songs is a good start to get to know a fine musical voice. James Jolly spoke, separately, to James Gilchrist and Nathan Williamson about this appealing composer.  This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.  

Anna May Wong was an international star who appeared in some of Hollywood's biggest movies in a career that spanned from the silent films of the 1920s, through the advent of talkies in the 30s, to television in the 1950s, despite all the obstacles in her path. A new biography, Not Your China Doll, examines how against all the odds Anna May Wong found international fame and became a trailblazer for Asian American actors. The English folk singer and guitar virtuoso Martin Simpson performs material from his new album - his 24th - Skydancers. The title track, commissioned by naturalist Chris Packham, highlights the plight of the Hen harrier. Simpson talks about his love of birds, of traditional song, of writing his own, the influence on him of American music, and a lifetime playing the guitar and banjo. Some leaders of classical music organisations say that the attitude to funding by the Arts Councils in England and Wales is undermining excellence, and putting inclusion before professionalism. We hear from a range of voices, including Sir Antonio Pappano, Chief Conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Royal Opera House; John Gilhooly, director of the Wigmore Hall and chair of the Royal Philharmonic Society; Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra and a former music director at Arts Council England; and Michael Eakin, Chief Executive of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and former Executive Director of the Arts Council Northwest. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May

Klaus Mäkelä has been named Riccardo Muti's successor at the helm of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a role he assumes in 2027 alongside the post of Chief Conductor of Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Meanwhile, he remains committed to his two European orchestras, the Orchestre de Paris and the Oslo Philharmonic.  Following his Decca debut recording, of the complete Sibelius symphonies in Oslo, Mäkelä has made two much-admired recordings of music commissioned by Serge Diaghilev. The first of these, made with the Orchestre de Paris, was released early last year – Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and the complete Firebird ballet – and James Jolly spoke to the conductor by Zoom back in February 2023 as Klaus was in Cleveland conducting performances of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall

Jess Gillam is joined by Italian-American violinist Francesca Dego to swap some of their favourite music. Francesca has played everywhere from Wigmore Hall to Lincoln Centre New York, and her latest recording of Brahms and Busoni violin concertos with BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Dalia Stasevska is out now via Chandos. Today Francesca has brought along music from neglected Finnish composer Helvi Leiviskä and a fiendish 12-tone work from Schoenberg, while I've chosen David Bowie's swansong.PLAYLIST:GIOACHINO ROSSINI – ‘Una voce poco fa' (Il barbiere di Siviglia: Act 1) [Teresa Berganza (mezzo soprano), London Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Gibson (conductor)] PETER MAXWELL DAVIES – Farewell to Stromness [Richard Casey (piano)] HELVI LEIVISKA – Orchestral Suite No 2, Op 11 (2nd mvt, Humoresque) [Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Dalia Stasevska (conductor)] DAVID BOWIE - Lazarus JOHANNES BRAHMS – Concerto for violin and cello in A minor, Op 102 (2nd mvt, Andante) [Salvatore Accardo (violinist), Heinrich Schiff (cello), Kurt Masur (conductor), Gewandhausorchester] ARNOLD SCHOENBERG – Phantasy for violin and piano [Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), Joonas Ahonen (piano)] LANKUM – Wild RoverProduced by Rachel Gill.

Paavo Järvi's latest recording project adds the five Mendelssohn symphonies to his substantial catalogue. Alpha Classics has released the new set which features the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. James Jolly caught up with Paavo Järvi recently by Zoom to talk about the cycle, but also to talk about the conductor's passion for recording the complete symphonic outputs of many of the great composers.  This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall.

Kathleen Parlow was one of the most outstanding violinists at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1912, she was signed by the Columbia Record Company in New York, and her first records for the U.S. label were brought out alongside those of the legendary Eugene Ysaÿe. Listen to her fascinating story and how she took the world by storm. From her devastating looks to the intrigue her priceless instrument created. You will hear rare recordings of this prodigious player as we retell her life and try to understand why such an incredible talent has been so forgotten today. Brought to you by Biddulph recordings   TRANSCRIPT   Kathleen Parlow Part 1  Welcome to this very first episode of the Historical Strings Recording Podcast.  A show that gives you a chance to hear rare and early recordings of great masters and their stories.  Hello, my name is Linda Lespets. I'm a violin maker and restorer in Sydney, Australia, and I'm also the host of another podcast called ‘The Violin Chronicles',  a show about the lives of historically important violin makers and their instruments. But today we have a different podcast and telling this incredible story with me is my co-host Eric Wen. Hello, my name is Eric Wen, and I'm the producer at Biddulph Recordings, which is a label that focuses upon reissuing historic recordings, particularly those by famous string players of the past.  I also teach at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where I've been for the past 24 years. In this first episode, we will be looking at an incredibly talented violinist called Kathleen Parlow, who, in her time, took Europe and the world by storm, giving even Fritz Kreisler a run for his money in the popularity department. She was described in the media as being ‘One of the phenomena of the musical world' on par with Mischa Elman, or the ‘greatest lady violinist in the world', and ‘the girl with the golden bow'.  She was treated with superstar status wherever she went, which begs the question as to why she is so little known today? Well, join us to discover her incredible story, the events of her career and her violin. A violin which would eventually financially ruin one man and divide his family. We will take a closer look at high hat kicking breakdancers, militant fascists, scandalous theatre directors, impossible love, a score ripping composer, and all this revolving around one of the world's most expensive violins and the incredible means one man went to get it into his hot little hands and then give it away. This is the story of Kathleen Parlow.  And all of the pieces you will be hearing in this podcast are of Kathleen Parlow playing her violin. Kathleen Parlow was born into a modest family in Calgary on the Canadian prairies in 1890.  Her mother, Minnie, was a violinist. So, at a young age at four, she gave her daughter a violin and started teaching her. When she was six years old, the family, Kathleen, Minnie, and her father, Charlie, they moved to San Francisco where her talent was immediately recognized. And well, this is probably because of the, the mom. And she was having lessons with her cousin called Conrad Coward in San Francisco.  Very soon, still aged six, she gave her first recital in San Francisco.  So is six, is six a reasonable age for a child to give a recital? What do you think? It's extremely young. In fact, that is truly prodigious. I mean, people don't even begin the violin till six and that's an early beginning of an instrument. Most people start around seven or eight, but to begin much earlier and to even be playing a concert at the age of six. That's really quite phenomenal. So with her burgeoning talent, she now started having lessons with Henry Holmes, who was a pupil of Louis Spohr, the well-known German composer and violinist. And he's a conductor and who he's the man who apparently invented the chin rest.  So where would we be without the chin rest, really? He's attributed with inventing it.  Well, Spohr was a fine violinist, German violinist. He was also a quite prominent composer. He was quite a conservative composer. So, I believe he wasn't that fond of the music of Beethoven. In other words, there were people like Spohr, Von Weber, and they represented a much more conservative branch of the sort of German composition.  of the German composers. And basically, they looked upon Beethoven as such a wild revolutionary in his music, so daring that I think they were almost a little offended by it. So Spohr, if you could say, is primarily a kind of conservative, very well-schooled, excellent composer. He wrote many, many violin concertos, the most famous of which is No. 8 in A minor, which is written in the form of an operatic scene. Full of violin solo recitatives and arias for the violin. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's interesting. So they were, there was like very shocked by Beethoven. They were, apparently. Was he a contemporary of Beethoven? Because I, because sometimes you go back pretty quickly, don't you? Like the teacher of the teacher of and all of a sudden you're in like the Well, Spohr was born 14, he's 14 years younger than Beethoven. Oh, okay. So, he was born in 1784, but he lived a lot longer. He lived over 20 years longer than Beethoven. Oh, wow. And that's fascinating. So, Henry Holmes, Kathleen Parlow's teacher, was taught by this guy who would have known Beethoven? Yes, absolutely. And objected to Beethoven.  Was shocked by his music. Well, I mean, I think sort of the, you might say the more mature Beethoven or the more daring Beethoven. But I think, you know, I'm sure maybe some of Beethoven's early works were much more acceptable. They were more normative, so to speak. Oh, okay.  So Kathleen's in San Francisco and her parents' marriage is breaking down. Her father, Charlie, moves back to Calgary where he dies of tuberculosis the year after. But Kathleen, she rockets on and is becoming more and more well known. Her new teacher sees real talent in the girl, and this teacher, Henry Holmes, he has contacts to make things happen. And he helps arrange a tour for her and playing engagements in England. So for this to happen, Kathleen's mum, she's, she's I'm getting stage mum vibes. Yes.  Because she's still very, still very young. Oh, yeah. I mean, I can't believe she wasn't playing with dolls.  And this would have been a conversation between Minnie, Kathleen's mum, and the teacher. It probably wouldn't have been a conversation with her as a child. No, probably not.  You don't really choose much when you're six, seven. No, that's true. So the problem they have is that they have no money. So, so what do you do, Eric? You have no money, you have a prodigy. You exploit the prodigy by having them play and make an income for you, which is something that happens unfortunately to many, many talented musicians coming from, you might say, less well-off families. They end up becoming the breadwinner. All their focus gets put upon these, these kids. And so not only do they have the added burden of playing and making sure they keep up They're playing well, but they also have the burden of making sure that they play well enough to make an income so that their families can survive. I mean, that's a very familiar story, and it's a story that has more failures than winners, I'm afraid, because you do hear about the winners. You do hear about the Misha Elmans or the Yasha. Well, Heifetz is a little different because he had a more middle-class family, but you do hear of Oskar Shumsky, for example, who I know I knew personally, he says, don't believe that these violence that you hear about having normal childhood behind every great violence, there's always a mama or a papa. And I think he himself endured that kind of pressure, the pressure to somehow become. The breadwinner, or let's say the some, the pressure to become a great violinist, primarily because he would serve as the breadwinner for the family. Well, if you think about it, you could say that.  Violin playing in the early 20th century was very dominated by Russians, particularly Russian Jews. And one of the reasons for that was that in Russia, all the Jews were confined to an area known as the Pale of Settlement.  In other words, a designated area that they could live in, but they could not leave that particular area. And basically, some very gifted young students could get into university or could go into a conservatory, and one of the big examples was Misha Elman, and Misha Elman, you might say left the Pale of Settlement to go study with Leopold Auer in St Petersburg. And they had to get all sorts of permission to do that. Well, the success of Misha Elman, the global success, the international success, I think resonated so well. with the people in the ghetto that they sort of saw, wow, this is one of our boys and look what he's done. He's now playing for the crowned heads of Europe. So I think for them, they felt this was a way out. And if you think about it, the film, Fiddler on the Roof,  which is a famous musical and it was adapted as a famous film. And basically, that film, just the very title, talks about the Fiddler on the Roof. And the setting is in the Pale of Settlement, the Jewish ghetto in Russia. They're often subjected to random attacks by the Cossacks and all sorts of difficulties. But here, despite all that, you know they manage to survive. And of course the image of the Fiddler on the Roof. The violinist is exemplified, you might say, by Misha Elman, who literally grew up in the Russian ghetto. Yeah, and Misha Elman, he'll, he'll become, he He'll become important in our story, yeah. The money. This is not a problem. There is a wealthy admirer called Harriet Pullman, Carolan, in San Francisco. And she pays for Kathleen and her mother to take the trip to England. And in 1904, at the age of 14, Kathleen plays for King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace. And then in the next year in 1905, she and her mother, they come back to England. This tour marks the beginning of a life that she would lead for years to come of performing and playing. And so by the time she was 15, she was touring and playing with the London Symphony. And it was in a concert at the Wigmore Hall in London that she really shoots to fame.  So is the Wigmore Hall, is that, is that still today an important place to play? Oh, extremely so. It's funny because the Wigmore Hall was originally called the Bechstein Hall, and obviously during the wars, it became a much more the name was more neutralized to become less dramatic, and it became named after the street it's on, which is Wigmore Street. It was always a very important venue, but around the sort of 60s In the 70s it had declined a bit in its status because the South Bank had been built and so the Wigmore Hall was a little bit relegated to a sort of a little second class status. But in the past 20 years or so the Wigmore Hall has catapulted to  fame again and it's today one of the most distinguished halls. In London. All right. Okay. And this is, this is pre war. So it's, it would have been called? Bechstein. Okay. So it would have been called the Bechstein Hall when she played? Probably. Oh yeah, definitely. So the Bechstein Hall was, I think first opened in 1901 and it was built by the piano manufacturers, the German manufacturers Bechstein, hence the name. And after the First World War, I believe it was changed to a more neutral sounding, less Germanic name, and it adopted the name of the street that it's currently on, which is Wigmore Street. Incidentally, the first concert at Wigmore Hall was actually performed, was a violin and piano recital, performed by Eugene Ysaye and Federico Busoni.  And then one night in London, Kathleen and her mother went to another concert of another child prodigy called Mischa Elman. And he was, so he's the fiddler on the roof guy, and he was almost exactly the same age as Kathleen. He was just a few months there's just a few months difference between them. And she, she hears him playing this concert and she's, she's just blown away. Blown away, and after the concert, she and her mother decide that Kathleen, she just has to go and have lessons from the same teacher as this, as this, as Mischa. So the only thing, only little thing about Mischa Elman's teacher is that he is in Russia. And as far as anyone knows, no foreigners study in the St. Petersburg Conservatorium, but that is about to change. Definitely no ladies. So, Kathleen and her mother had arrived in England with 300 raised by their church in San Francisco and this was, it just wasn't enough to get them to Russia and to the conservatorium where the famed Leopold Auer was a professor, but get there they would because Kathleen's mum, Minnie, still had a few tricks up her sleeve. She went and petitioned the Canadian High Commissioner.  So she must have been, I feel like Minnie, she must have been very persuasive. Like there was nothing was getting in between, you know, her daughter and this career. Forceful, a task to be reckoned with, certainly. Yeah. She's like we'll get to England, we have no money. Not a problem. We're gonna, we're gonna get this teacher. He's in Russia. Not a problem. No foreigners. It, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't seem to be a problem for her, no girls. Not a problem. No foreigner has ever studied in this St. Petersburg conservatorium. Not daunted. They're off. They go. So to pay the cost travel, Minnie managed to get a loan from Lord Strathconia, the Canadian high commissioner.  And from there, mother and daughter travelled to Russia. And in October of 1906, Kathleen becomes the first foreigner to attend the St. Petersburg Conservatorium. And in her class are 45 Students and she's the only girl. And we have to remember this is pre-revolutionary Russia. So there's still the Tsar Nicholas the second at this point. Yeah. She's mixing in, in that set. So it's an interesting place to be as a musician. Cause you're frequenting the sort of the upper classes but you can come from, from nothing and arrive there. Her professor was the famed teacher, Leopold Auer, who had a knack of discovering talent. Leopold Auer was actually a Hungarian violinist, and he was trained in Vienna, and he also studied with Joachim.  And what happened was Russia has always had a sort of love for the violin, and they employed many people to teach at the conservatory, because they really embraced Western culture. They had A number of important French violinists come, but their big, you might say, catch was to get Vieuxtemps, Henri Vieuxtemps,  to teach for a number of years at, in St. Petersburg. And after Henry Vieuxtemps, they actually got Henry Wieniawski to teach at the conservatory. And when Wieniawski decided to go back to Europe, they employed Leopold Auer to take his place at St Petersburg. Right. So he's up there with the big names. Well, they were a little bit let down. I mean, that's what they were, I think, a little bit disappointed to replace Wieniawski with Leopold Auer because Wieniawski was such a major violinist. So he had initially a little rough time, but he was adored by Tchaikovsky and Tchaikovsky loved Auer's playing, dedicated a number of works for him, including the famous serenade melancholic, and wrote a lot number of ballet scores, which Leopold Auer played the solos for. But of course, they had a big rift when Tchaikovsky wrote his violin concerto for Auer, because Auer said it was unplayable.  And that really hurt Tchaikovsky's feelings. And it laid dormant for several years before another Russian violinist. Brodsky took it up, learned it, and. Premiered it in Europe first, and only after its success in Europe did he bring it back to Russia, where it became a big success, and Auer felt very bad about that, and in fact, just before Tchaikovsky died, a few months before Tchaikovsky died, story has it that Auer went to Tchaikovsky and apologized to Tchaikovsky for his initial mistrust of the concerto. In fact, by that time, Auer himself had actually performed the concerto, championed it, and taught it to many of his students.  Yeah, and we'll see in this story how sensitive composers are, and how easy it is to hurt their feelings and really create. Like a lot of emotional turmoil. That's coming up. So Auer, like he might not have been their first choice for replacing, but he did have a knack of finding star pupils. That is something that we see, that I see in the conservatorium. Every now and then you have a teacher who's very talented at finding talent. Absolutely. And I know in Australia you have one very distinguished teacher who I think now has been poached by the Menuhin School in, in England. Yes. And we're not going to talk about that. Yes, we won't.  Because it's Must be a sore point.  But we do see, we do see him every now and then when he comes back. So along with Elman and Efren Zimbalist, Parlow becomes one of Auer's star pupils and Auer was so taken with her playing that he often called her Elman in a skirt, which I think is supposed to be a compliment. And in Auer's biography, he writes, he says, “It was during this year that my first London pupil came to me, Kathleen Parlow, who has since become one of the first, if not the first, of women violinists”.  And that, he says that in his biography, My Long Life in Music.  So, Every year, Auer had a summer school in Kristiana, which is Oslo today. And Parlow spent her summers there and became a great favourite in Norway, which leads us to the next and perhaps one of the most marking events in her career and life. At 17, having spent a year at the conservatory in Russia, Kathleen begins to put on public performances she gives solo performances in both St. Petersburg and Helsinki. So these are two places she knows quite well by now. And these concerts were, they were very important as Kathleen's mother really had no money to support them. And so, with but you know, Minnie doesn't bother her, she just ploughs on. And so with the money from these concerts this would have to tide her over.  From letters that I've read, they were living in like this small apartment and then another friend writes, you know this other person, they've been saying you live in a tiny little place, but I'm not going to spread that rumor. And, and so it was a, it was a thing on the radar that they didn't have much money and they were scraping by and they were like frequenting people of much more wealthier than they were, so they were sort of on the fringes of society, but with her talent that was sort of pushing, people wanted to know her. So she makes her professional debut in Berlin and then began, she begins a tour of Germany and the Netherlands and Norway. And in Norway, she performs for the King Hakon and Queen Maud. Of whom she'll become a favorite. And, and her touring schedule was phenomenal. It was just like nonstop. So, yeah. For a 17-year-old that's, you know, she's going all over the world. And you were saying that Auer knew . Do Tchaikovsky do you think Auer, was he was giving her these pieces that did, that influenced him? Yes.  I mean, Tchaikovsky  wrote a number of violin, solo violin works before the concerto, the most famous of which is, of course, the Waltz Scherzo and the Serenade  Melancholique. One is a fast, virtuoso piece, the other is a slow, soulful piece. And I know that Auer was the dedicatee of certainly the Serenade Melancholique, which she did play. So, so Auer's giving her stuff from, you know, his friend Tchaikovsky to play. Now she's 17 and she's touring to support herself and her mother and she has an amazing teacher who probably understands her circumstances all too well because Auer growing up also found himself in her position, supporting his father in his youth with his playing. So she's studying in St. Petersburg, which is an incredible feat in itself. So she must have had quite a strong character and her mother, Minnie, also appears to be very ambitious for her daughter. We're talking about her mother being ambitious, but for Kathleen to, you know, she's her daughter, she, she must've had quite a strong wheel as well. Yes. Well, she certainly did.  I wish we knew more about her because maybe she was very subservient, you know, we have no idea. Maybe she didn't have, I mean, it's a speculation, of course. Yeah. We do have like hundreds of letters from Kathleen and there's a lot between her and Auer, and there's a real sort of paternal, he really sort of  cared for her like a daughter almost and she looked up to him like a father and he was always very correct about it, you know, he would always write the letter to her. To Minnie, her mother the correspondents, it was, and it was always very, everything was very above board, but a very, they were very close. Kathleen later says that after expenses, her Berlin debut netted her exactly 10 pounds.  She didn't know it at the time, but this was an indication of what her future would be like, and she would be sort of financially in a precarious state most of her life, and she would so her routine was she studies with Auer every summer in order to prepare, like they were preparing her repertoire for the next season of touring. So now she has a tour  in 1908, so she's still 17, almost 18. It's in Norway, and to understand just a little bit of the political climate in the country, We can see that Norway, only three years earlier, had become independent of Sweden and had basically become its own country. So there's this this great sense of nationalism and pride in being Norwegian. And they have a newly minted king, King Hakon, who she's played for, and his queen, who was, He was in fact a Danish prince. And then when Norway, the Norwegian parliament asked him if he would like to become the king of Norway when they had their independence. And he said, why not? As part of this great sense of nationalism Norwegian musicians, composers, writers, and poets, they were celebrated and became superstars. And, oh gosh, yes, We can sort of understand. Poets have sort of dropped off the list, but back then poets, they were a big deal.  So you add to this a young, fresh faced, talented Canadian girl who knows and understands their country. She arrives in Oslo to play in the National Theatre, where Norway's very own Johan Halvorsen who's conductor and composer and violinist, he's conducting the country's largest professional orchestra. And that night for Kathleen's concert, she plays Brahms and some of  Halvorsen's compositions and the two, Kathleen Parloe and Halvorsen, they would go on to become quite good friends and Halvorsen regarded her very highly in saying, he said that her playing was superior almost to all the other famous soloists who made guest appearances in the city. So, I mean, a lot of people went through Oslo, so that was, you know, high praise.  And Kathleen quickly Becomes a admirer of his and she would become a driving factor in him finishing his violin concerto that he'd been dithering over for a very long time.  And this is Kathleen playing one of Halvorsen's compositions. It's not his concerto, it's Mosaic No. 4. So back to the theatre. And it was a magical night with the romantic music of Brahms to make you fall in love. And everyone did, just some more than others. And to finish off, there's music from their very own Johan Halvorsen to celebrate you know, a Norwegian talent. So Kathleen plays her heart out and when the concert ended, the crowd goes wild and the 17 year old soaks up the thunderous applause. She's holding on tight to her violin as she bows to adoring fans. Tonight she is the darling of Oslo.  In the uproarious crowd stands a man unable to take his eyes off this young woman. Her playing has moved him and her talent is unbelievable.  This man makes a decision that will change both their lives forever. So, Einar Bjornsson had fallen head over heels for the 17 year old Canadian there and then. She would turn 18 in a few months. And in that moment, he decided to give her the most beautiful gift she would ever receive.  So, who is Einar Bjornsson?  So what we were saying, poets, poets are less of a, you know, a hot shot today, but Einar was the son of a very, very famous poet. A Norwegian businessman and son of one of the most prominent public figures of the day, Bjørnstan Bjørnsson. He was a poet, a dramatist, a novelist, a journalist, an editor, a public speaker, and a theatre director. Five years earlier, in 1903, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and one of his poems, called ‘Yes, We Love This Land', was put to music and is the Norwegian national anthem up to this day. So, you could say he was kind of famous in these parts, and his personality alone would have easily filled. A concert hall, that one in Oslo.  Einar's father here, we're talking about Einar's father, he's the poet. Einar himself doesn't appear to have written any poetry. And this, so this situation could have been just fine the whole infatuation, love at first sight thing, except for a few things that put a spanner in the works. To begin with, Einar Björnsson is somewhat older than the youthful Kathleen he's 26 years older.  Then her, in fact, and for a 17 year old, that is a big age gap. So he's 45, but that aside, there is a problem that he's also married and has two children. His daughter is actually almost the same age as Kathleen she's 16, but he doesn't really seem to  see that. All he can see is this violinist and her talent. And he's been just, he's besotted and he's going to make a grand gesture. So obviously, one way to support the arts is to, what patrons do is they will buy, a lovely instrument and lend it to someone. So that's your normal affair. Obviously, one way to show his devotion to her is to find her a better violin. Hers is absolutely not good enough for someone of her talent. And he has to find her something amazing because she is amazing. He's determined to give her the most wonderful gift she has ever received.  So he goes out and he's a businessman. And so he goes to his businessman contacts. And Kathleen would have spoken to her entourage. I imagine, and I now finally finds a violin worthy of Kathleen's virtuosity, and it happens to be one of the most expensive violins on the market in 1908, and it's a 1735 Giuseppe Guarneri Del Gesu violin. It had previously belonged to great violinists  such as Giovanni Battista Viotti and Pierre Baillot. So just to clarify in the violin making world Antonio Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesù are the two top makers. If you're comparing two instruments, if one was owned by no one not anyone that you know. And then another one was owned by Viotti and Pierre Baillot . The one that's owned by Viotti and Pierre Baillot is probably going to be worth more. Yeah. So Viotti, he was just huge. He had a lot of instruments. I think he did a little bit of teaching and dealing on the side, Viotti. Like with the number of instruments named after him, or he just went through a lot of instruments. So she buys this violin, and it's not all smooth sailing to get the violin. Because she, there's this, there's a big correspondence between her and Auer, and we see that actually there's this letter where it says from Auer saying, I saw Hamming very cross.  He says that the violin is compromised if he takes it back. So at one point, I think she may have changed her mind about this violin, but Hamming the dealer was not okay with this. All the I'm just trying to read his writing, it's not that easy. All the papers brought the news That Kathleen bought it so the newspapers have already, so the, you've got Hamming, that's annoyed, the papers have already said they've bought this violin and he could not, it says he could not sell it soon and repeat the sale, waiting till he finds something equal to the Guarneri. He showed me a Strad, indeed wonderful, asking 60, 000 livres, which must be pounds, right?  A nice fellow, isn't he?  And now, goodbye, write to me.  Love, Auer.  They do end up getting the violin. They, they don't get the 60, 000 Strad that Hamming Gets all upset about and offers, which I think he might have been exaggerating the price just to make him calm down about and to keep the del Gesu. Then Einar gives this to Kathleen. So this is a very kind of strange situation because normally you don't, you don't actually give, the patrons don't actually give their instrument to the No, absolutely. That's a remarkable gift. Just in terms of, I mean, the gesture is very magnanimous, but in terms of financial, there's just a financial cost or value of the gift is quite enormous. And  so really after only knowing her for a month, Einar transfers this money into her account and she travels, Kathleen travels to Germany to the Hamming workshop and purchases her del Gesu violin for two thousand pounds  and in today's money  according to an inflation calculator, that is three hundred thousand pounds. Almost four hundred thousand US dollars. More than half a million Australian dollars, which at the time was a lot for a violin as well. So we're not I mean, I, today you'd be kind of happy to buy a Del Gesu for half a million, but then it was, it'd be a bargain. So, it's interesting this, like, he buys this, this young violinist this very expensive present and it's a, and it's a grey area and it's fraught with debate ethically, really. And I feel like today musicians find themselves sometimes in this position where they're sort of indebted to the, to a benefactor. It's almost feudal. I I feel cause at the same time you're very happy that they're lending it to you, but got to keep an eye on if it's a healthy relationship to. To get the money he had to get, you know, half a million pounds pretty quickly. If you remember, Ina's father was a very famous poet who'd won a Nobel Prize in literature and part of the prize is that you win a large sum of money. And so, what does Einar do? He goes and asks Dad. So he asks, he borrows, he borrows most of the money actually. Goodness knows how he convinced him, but you know, he's a businessman. And also for the remaining, he's married, remember, and he's married to, actually, to an heiress, and he takes a bunch of her, her dowry money and transfers this to essentially a teenager he met a month ago. The purchase of this incredibly expensive violin attracted, it attracted the attention of the press internationally, but journalists It's never really questioned the fact that this, this gift was given to a young woman by a, by an established family man. So everyone was just like, Oh, isn't it amazing? Because normally in this circumstance, people don't often give the instrument. You buy it as an investment and you'll lend it to someone. I think I've heard of like very few, very few cases of things being gifted, but actually normally your standard practice is to, to lend it to people. And most people playing on strads, that's, that's what it is, someone's lent it to them. How would you feel about someone giving a 300, 000 instrument to your daughter, who's a teenager? Well, I'd be, I mean, I'd just hate the sort of obligation that would involve, because On one hand, it is a very wonderful gift if it is a gift, but you almost expect that  there is some expectation in return, don't you? Yeah. It's like he's bought her almost.  Kind of.  So, Einar, as, as I mentioned, he's, he's from a well known Norwegian family. They're very patriotic. His father's writings really established a sense of pride and meaning to what it was to be Norwegian. And he was. Like his father was this beloved figure in the country and he was quite frankly a hard act to follow. But his children gave it a good shot.  You have Einar was one of five children. His father Bjornstein Bjornsson was the poet and public figure. He worked in a theatre. His mother was an actress when he'd met her. Which is a little bit risque also for the time. So they're a bit more of sort of an acting bohemian theatre family. His older brother Bjorn Bjornsson, just to be complicated here, his brother's called Bjorn Bjornsson.  And not to be confused with Bjornstein Bjornsson, his father. So he was a stage actor and a theatre director.  Like his dad. He was a playwright and he was the first theatre director of the National Theatre. And that was the big theatre in Oslo where Kathleen played. He was also quite busy in his personal life, because his first wife was Jenny Bjornsson. I mean, another Bjornsson. Boarding house owner. So he married her for four years. So this is Einars older brother. He married her for four years, then he divorced her, then he married an opera singer. Called Gina Oselio for 16 years, but then he, they, they got divorced, and then he married in 1909 Aileen Bendix, who was actually Jewish, and that's an important point, that she was Jewish, because at this time, things are kind of soon things will start heating up in Europe. And then he was, then there was Einar's younger brother called Erling Bjørnson, and he was a farmer and a politician for the Norwegian Far Right Party. So he was extreme right. Bit of a fascist. The other brother. So he was elected to the parliament of Norway and he was very active during World War II. So his two brothers have very, like, polarized opinions. Einar himself, he was a passive member of the far right party, but during the war years at that time that was the only party that people were allowed to be part of, so you can't, it's hard to tell his political leanings from that. Then he has a younger sister.  Bergliot Bjornson, and she was a singer and a mezzo soprano, and she was married to a left wing politician Sigurd Ibsen, who was, he was the son of a playwright, and he becomes the Norwegian Prime Minister, so he plays a central role in Norway getting its independence. He met Einar's sister because he's a big patriot. Einar's father is a big patriot and that's how they were kind of family friends. It's not bad, you know, having your husband as the prime minister. Then he has another little sister called Dagny Bjornson and she was 19 when she marries a German publisher called Albert Langdon and so they're sort of like leftish as well. So Einar, he marries the sister of Albert Langdon. So they have this joint brother sister wedding. On the same day, the Bjornson brothers sisters marry the Langdon brothers sisters. But, the important thing to know is that the Langdons are very, very wealthy. They're orphans and they, they've inherited a lot of money. And so, but then Dagny, she ends up leaving her husband. Goes to Paris and works at another newspaper. And this is all in the, you know, the early 1900s.  So she had this amazing life and then and then she marries another man, a French literate called Georges Sartreau well he comes also from a very wealthy family. Then you have Einar, who's a businessman, and he marries Elizabeth and they have two children, and his life is like not that remarkable. I think the most exciting thing he does is fall in love with Kathleen, I suppose, and sort of runs after her and her violin. From Kathleen's diaries, we can see the day after this concert in Oslo on the 10th of January, it's written 10th January, Mr Bjornson, 11;30am She meets with him the day after skiing and tobogganing with the Bjornsons. She has a concert the next day, but the day after that it's dinner with the Bjornsons, then another concert. And then she plays for the King. Then she goes to dinner with the Bjornsons. So this is just an excerpt from her diary for those weeks. And the next day, it's just Mr. Bjornson. That's just her meeting him not with the family. And maybe this is where he says, you know, I'll get you a violin. Maybe that was that meeting. And then on the 28th of February, she's in Germany and, and he's there. Einar is there. He goes to see her. Then on the 6th of March, she's in Amsterdam and in her diaries, you know, Mr Bjornson, he's there. He's kind of like, I don't know if this is creepy. He's following her around and then, and it's around about this time that he buys the violin for her. So she finishes her tour and she goes back to England and a month later in her diary, who rocks up?  I know, he's there.  In England, and she's still only 17 there. It's like he's kind of shadowing her a bit. Yes, it's that next level patronage.  And then there's the, the aesthetic at the time, the, the pre-Raphaelite willowy type woman, which she fits perfectly into. And Kathleen, if you, if you see Kathleen, it's kind of like. John William Waterhouse, his paintings. There's women in these long flowy robes with flowers in their hair and long willowy postures and, they're often like, you know, they're flopping about on something like a chair or there's this one holding this pot of basil. And there's that famous painting, The Lady of Shalott, where you've got this woman float, is she, is she dead? She's floating in the water with her hair and, and all this fabric and flowers and.  In a promotional article, there was this quote from a review in the Evening Sun. “Kathleen Parlow, tall, straight, slim, and swaying as the white birch sapling of her native Canada, but a spring vision, but a spring vision all in pink from her French heels to her fiddle chin rest and crowned with parted chestnut hair of a deeper auburn than any Stradivarius violin made an astonishing impression of masterful ease”. I don't know if men were described like this, but they loved her. She's like a white birch.  Well she's very slender, she had beautiful long hair she was very thin, very fragile, and I think she sort of exemplified this pre Raphaelite beauty basically and that was so enchanting to have someone who  was almost from another world playing the violin divinely. I think she must have cut an incredibly attractive image  for the day. Absolutely. Yeah. And then she would have been like playing these like incredible romantic pieces. It would be juxtaposed with her playing. Yeah. And yeah. Yes. So she was this real William Waterhouse figure with her violin.  So she's lithe and willowy, and she has her touring schedule, which was phenomenal. She, so she tours England, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway. Just to name a few. It just kind of stopped after that. It was just never ending. And you have to remember it's the beginning of the 20th century,  and traveling, it's not like it is today. It was much more. Uncomfortable. I mean, it's incredible. You see one day she's in one country, the next day in another country. So this must have been quite fatiguing. And she's just playing night after night. Her mother, Minnie, she's her, she's, they're quite close. She's, and often like with these, with prodigies, often their parents. They're best friends, like they're the only constant in their life. So in the summers, she returns to Oslo every year for the summer school hour that's helping her for the next concerts. She spends quite a lot of time with Halverson, going to lunches and teas and rehearsals with him. You can see this in her diaries.  But is this, is this kind of the life of a musician as well? Like you have to, you have to go to a lot of teas and lunches with people to please patrons and so on. Yes, I think you do because musicians don't normally have much money and so to ingratiate themselves to patrons and sponsors they really had to coax them into help Yeah, because she's living this life sort of beyond her means, going to the theater, going to concerts and things, and sort of a balancing act. Back in Norway, and a week after she turns 18, there's an entry in her diary, play for Mr. Bjornson, and the next month her entries, they change slightly, and she'll now just call him E. B. For Einar Bjornson and the entries will say things like E. B. arriving and then often like a week later It's E. B. leaving and in her diaries, it's intermittently always though he'll be there for a week wherever she is often in England or and every few months He'll just pop up, you know in London in Germany in the Netherlands And he just always happens to be happens to be there and what's interesting is she has these hundreds of letters archived Of her writing to friends, to family, to her pianist. And it's really interesting that there's zero letters to Einar. There's no correspondence between them, which I think is maybe on purpose, they may be, they have to have been removed because she just writes letters to everyone, but we don't have these, any letters from them, so it just leaves things up to speculation. This brings us to the end of part one in the story of Kathleen Parlow. I would encourage you to keep listening to the music of Kathleen. To do this, Biddulph Recordings have released two CDs that you can listen to on Apple Music, Spotify, or any other major streaming service. You can also buy the double CD of her recordings if you prefer the uncompressed version. I hope you have enjoyed her story so far, but stick around for part two to find out what will happen with her career, the violin, the man who gave it to her, and the mystery behind a missing concerto that Kathleen would, in part, help solve after her death.  Goodbye for now.   ​ 

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to renowned American pianist, Jeremy Denk, ahead of his Wigmore Hall recital of Bach Partitas. He discusses his passion for Bach and the profound impact and connection he has when he plays his music.Sara talks to Grammy-nominated composer Missy Mazzoli ahead of the day-long immersion into her work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Together they explore what it means for Missy Mazzoli to be a composer today and the stories that she likes to tell through her work. Writer Gillian Dooley discusses her new discoveries when researching her new book, “She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and music”. She tells Sara more about the role music held in Jane Austen's life and highlights the importance of it on the characters in her novels. With the help of film critic, Lillian Crawford, we are also taken on a journey through the pastiche film scores that have accompanied adaptations of Austen's novels over the last 30 years.Plus Donne foundation founder Gabriella di Laccio talks to Sara ahead of her record-breaking acoustic concert, 24 hours of continuous music by female and non-binary composers.

The tenor Alessandro Fisher is a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Artist and a former member of the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme, and on February 23 Rubicon releases a solo album, ‘A Gardener's World', a collection of songs about flowers and their symbolic significance. Joined by the pianist Anna Tilbrook, Alessandro explores the horticultural theme in the company of composers from many countries, including France, Germany, Scandinavia, Catalunya and Argentina. James Jolly went to visit Alessandro in his north London home and, overlooking the garden, they discussed the genesis of the new album, which was recorded live at Wigmore Hall in July 2021.

On today's episode we welcome the brilliant, Swiss pianist, Sebastian Issler.  Sebastian was in London during the beginning of the pandemic. He was in need of lessons online and remembered watching 'The Choreography of the Hands' a few years before. He then sought out Robert Durso. Since then, he has been having lessons with Robert Durso online and has travelled to Philadelphia several times for in person lessons. His story demonstrates  the possibility of excelling in the Taubman Approach through a combination of online and in person lessons. Sebastian is an inspiring pianist! Please visit Sebastian's website at: www.sebastianissler.com Swiss Pianist Sebastian Issler received the Jean Meikle Prize for best Duo at the 2022 Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition, together with British-Hungarian soprano Anna Cavaliero. He is the winner of the 2022 Paul Hamburger Prize for Lieder, finalist of several international competitions, including the International Schubert Competition Dortmund, and multiple prize winner of the Swiss Youth Music Competition.​Sebastian is the first pianist-in-residence at the City Music Foundation in London, which also acts as his management.​With his duo partners, Sebastian has performed at Milton Court Concert Hall, International Lied Festival Zeist, LIEDBasel Festival, Origen Festival Cultural, Liedrezital Zurich, Abbey Library of Saint Gall, Tonhalle Zurich, Barts Heritage Great Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and Wigmore Hall, among others. He also appears regularly as an accompanist in masterclasses with luminaries such as Brigitte Fassbaender and Thomas Hampson, and recently as a soloist with the Collegium Vocale Lenzburg in Switzerland.​In 2021, he recorded his unique programme ‘The World of Song' for the Montreux Jazz Festival China at the Schubertiade Hall. ‘The World of Song' was first broadcast in an immersive cinema in 360 Reality Audio at the festival in Hangzhou, China.​He is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, where he completed his Artist Diploma as a Guildhall Scholar working with Julius Drake and was a member of Graham Johnson's Song Guild. Prior to his studies in London, Sebastian completed two master's degrees, both with distinction, at the Zurich University of the Arts. He is a scholarship holder of Arosa Kultur and LIEDBasel.​Sebastian is influenced greatly by working with Robert Durso at the Golandsky Institute in New York which significantly changed his own playing and teaching style. He is based in Zurich and enjoys teaching, specializing in the Taubman Approach.​He is currently a fellow at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he gives his lecture ‘Choreography of the Hands' to piano master students in the piano accompaniment programme. Sebastian is a teacher for piano accompaniment at the Zurich University of Teacher Education and is a guest lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts.The Golandsky Institute's mission is to provide cutting-edge instruction to pianists based on the groundbreaking work of Dorothy Taubman. This knowledge can help them overcome technical and musical challenges, cure and prevent playing-related injuries, and lead them to achieve their highest level of artistic excellence.Please visit our website at: www.golandskyinstitute.org.

Dame Janet Baker's contribution to classical music - in performance and on record - has been remarkable, enriching both the stage and the catalogue with performances of astonishing beauty, power and vivid insight. To mark her 80th birthday in August 2013, James Jolly met with her at Wigmore Hall to talk about her career for a Gramophone Milestones Podcast, made in association with EFG International. She shared her memories of working with Sir John Barbirolli, Leonard Bernstein, Gerald Moore, Raymond Leppard and Benjamin Britten. Now 10 years on, we revisit the podcast to celebrate one of the UK's greatest musical artists, the recipient in 2011 of Gramophone's Lifetime Achievement Award.

The music critic and regular Gramophone contributor Richard Bratby has just published a history of the Academy of Ancient Music, Refiner's Fire, the first book telling the story of a period-instrument ensemble (Elliott & Thompson; £25).  James Jolly spoke to Richard about the book, about its charismatic founder and long-serving Music Director Christopher Hogwood, and about how a substantial recording contract with Decca'a L'Oiseau-Lyre label – masterminded by the producer Peter Wadland – shaped the ensemble's style and approach. This week's podcast is made in association with Wigmore Hall. For a full list of concerts, visit wigmore-hall.org.uk

Andrew Armstrong is a pianist who has performed for audiences all over the world, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London's Wigmore Hall, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw's National Philharmonic. He has performed with conductors including as Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Günther Herbig, Stefan Sanderling, Jean-Marie Zeitouni and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and has appeared in solo recitals and in chamber music concerts with a bunch of Quartets and as a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi, Boston Chamber Music Society, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.

Julian Joseph is acclaimed as one of the finest jazz musicians to emerge this side of the Atlantic and his career has been characterised by many ground-breaking advances: he was the first Black British jazz musician to host a series of concerts at London's Wigmore Hall and the first to headline a late-night televised performance at the BBC Proms. We explore how jazz and life are both animated by the art of improvisation, the methodology that undergirds the educative offering of the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy, the instruments and symphonies that enchant him, the artists and composers he recommends to inspire us to adventure, and his message to those who feel like they have music within them, but aren't quite sure how to get it out. Julian plays Gershwin with London Philharmonic Orchestra on 22 November – and subscribers to Field Notes have an exclusive discount on tickets. About Busy Being Black Busy Being Black with Josh Rivers is the award-winning podcast that centres and celebrates queer Black liveliness. Help these enlivening conversations reach more people, by leaving a rating and review. Thank you to our funding partner, myGwork – the business community for LGBT+ professionals, students, inclusive employers and anyone who believes in workplace equality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's topic is a new recording by Brecon Baroque of Bach's Goldberg Variations in a fascinating new arrangement by Chad Kelly who, together with violinist Rachel Podger, joins Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about it. This week's Podcast is published in association with Wigmore Hall.   

Composer Joseph Phibbs returns to the podcast to introduce two new pieces premiered at Hatfield Chamber Music Festival and Wigmore Hall on 29th October and 7th October.

Jeremy Eichler's new book, Time's Echo, just out from Faber (HB; £25) tangles with memory – what we choose to remember, what to forget – as history takes hold, and he argues that music can become in many ways the most powerful form of memorial. To illustrate this argument, he engages with works by Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten. James Jolly caught up with him recently to talk about the book.  The musical excerpts which appear on the podcast, with kind permission, are: Shostakovich Symphony No 13, 'Babi Yar' Nikita Storojev; CBSO & Choir / Okko Kamu (Chandos) Schoenberg A Survivor or from Warsaw Franz Mazura; CBSO & Chorus / Simon Rattle (Warner Classics) R Strauss Metamorphosen Sinfonia of London / John Wilson (Chandos) Britten War Requiem Soloists; Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral; LSO & Chorus / Richard Hickox (Chandos) This Gramophone Podcast is published in association with Wigmore Hall. Visit Wigmore Hall's webite for full details of this week's events.

This month we had the pleasure of speaking with cellist turned journalist Ruth Hallows. You may know her from her blog From A Cellist's Perspective. She shares with us her experiences and challenges going through music school, why she turned to journalism and how she is marrying the two to create the career of her dreams.    Ruth Hallows Bio: British cellist Ruth Hallows graduated from the Royal College of Music and was winner of both the Pendle Young Musicians Bursary Competition and the Reuben Burton Foundation Scholarship. Ruth has studied with famous cellists including Raphael Wallfisch and Gregor Horsch. As a chamber musician, Ruth performed on BBC Radio 3 In Tune, collaborated with the award-winning Sacconi Quartet and played at UK venues including the Wigmore Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. Ruth Hallows is now a freelance journalist with experience in investigative reporting, conflict analysis, local news and video journalism. Due to complete her MAJ at Goldsmiths University in Sept 2023, Ruth has been the online assistant for The Strad, Lewisham correspondent for EastLondonLines and worked as a freelancer as part of the Telegraph's Investigations Team. Internships include Tortoise Media and Airwars. Show Notes: Royal College Of Music  Creative Career Center Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Abbey Roads Studios Alexander Chaushian  Danny Howard  Goldsmiths University  Polyphony - The New Voice of Classical Music  On All Fronts by Clarissa Ward

EPISODE 1548: In this KEEN ON episode, Andrew talks to Peter Cave, the author of HOW TO THINK LIKE A PHILOSOPHER, about the scholars, dreamers and sages who can teach us how to live Peter Cave read philosophy at University College London (UCL) and King's College, Cambridge. He has held lectureships in philosophy at UCL, University of Khartoum, Sudan, and City University London; he was an associate lecturer for many many years at the Open University (and is now Honorary) and New York University (London). Further, he is a principal examiner for the Chartered Insurance Institute. Peter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Honorary Member of Population Matters, former member of the Council of the Royal Institute of Philosophy and Chair of Humanist Philosophers – and is a Patron of Humanists UK. He is also a keen supporter of the Wigmore Hall and for some years English National Opera (now under unjustified funding cuts). He was elected to The Athenaeum Pall Mall Club in 2007. Author of numerous philosophical papers, both serious and humorous, Peter's particular interests are paradoxes, ethical matters and life and death dilemmas. He has given guest philosophy lectures at, for example, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Bucharest and has edited collections and written articles for various publications. In previous decades, he was columnist on taxation and money myths for The Investor magazine. Peter has scripted and presented BBC radio philosophy programmes – from a series on the Paradox Fair to more serious ones on John Stuart Mill. He often takes part in public debates on religion, ethics and socio-political matters, in Britain and on the Continent – and believes that one should ‘stand up and be counted' when faced with some horrors, horrors that are often the result of religious belief or unbridled enthusiasm for capitalism. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paul Da Vinci is a highly talented British singer and musician with a career spanning several decades. Best known as the lead vocalist on the 1974 hit recording by the Rubettes, "Sugar Baby Love," Paul's distinctive falsetto voice captured the hearts of music lovers worldwide. Although he didn't perform with the Rubettes at the time, his vocals on the track became iconic.Born in Grays, Thurrock, Essex, Paul embarked on his musical journey in the late 1960s. He began as the lead singer for the group 1984, recording two singles on the Big T label in 1969. Following the group's breakup in the early 1970s, Paul established himself as a sought-after session singer in London. He worked with renowned artists such as Gary Moore, Ringo Starr, Barry Blue, and David Essex, lending his incredible vocal talents to their recordings. Paul even had the opportunity to showcase his singing on Top of the Pops alongside Elton John and Justin Hayward.In 1973, Paul sang on a demo recording of "Sugar Baby Love," which eventually became a massive hit. However, he had already signed a solo contract with Penny Farthing Records, leading him to pursue a successful solo career. His debut solo single, "Your Baby Ain't Your Baby Anymore," co-written and co-produced by Paul himself, achieved significant success in the UK, reaching number 19 on the singles chart. The song topped the charts in the Netherlands and found popularity in other European countries.Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Paul continued to contribute his exceptional vocals to various projects. He sang most of the voices backing and lead on the Tight Fit hit "Back to the Sixties, Part 2" and co-wrote "Anyway You Do It" for the group Liquid Gold. His versatile talent allowed him to excel in different musical genres and collaborate with a wide range of artists.In addition to his singing prowess, Paul is also a skilled songwriter and composer. In the 1990s, he composed several pieces for cello and piano, including the three-movement tone poem "Visions of Aaron," performed at the prestigious Purcell Room in London. His concerto, "Hope," was recorded by the Innovation Chamber Ensemble and showcased at the renowned Wigmore Hall.In recent years, Paul has continued to captivate audiences with his dynamic performances. In 2016, he launched his show, The Paul da Vinci Explosion, which has been touring extensively. Notably, on the 13th of July, he will be performing with his band at Viva Blackpool, a highly anticipated event for his fans.Residing in Somerset, Paul Da Vinci remains a respected and influential figure in the music industry. His contributions as a singer, songwriter, and performer have left an indelible mark on the world of music, and his enduring talent continues to shine brightly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's Gramophone Podcast we talk to tenor Karim Sulayman and guitarist Sean Shibe about their album 'Broken Branches', released today on the Pentatone label. Featuring music by composers including Dowland, Britten, and Takemitsu, as well traditional songs from the Middle East, it's a fascinating and highly personal project for them both. A podcast produced in association with Wigmore Hall. 

Claire Victoria Roberts is a composer, vocalist, and violinist, who blurs the boundaries of jazz, contemporary, and singer-songwriter genres. She collaborates, as an artist, with musicians from classical, jazz, and folk spheres, drawing upon her diverse influences and melding styles together: through improvised vocals, contemporary classical timbres, and melody-driven compositions. Her work has been performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Psappha Ensemble, cellist Oliver Coates, Opra Cymru, Uproar Ensemble, Solem Quartet, and The Carice Singers. She has collaborated as a violinist and improvising vocalist with Camden Symphony Orchestra, Sherman Theatre, New Voices Choir, Morley Arts Festival, Aberystwyth Arts Festival, and Sherman Theatre. As a composer, she has been commissioned by Cheltenham Festival, Presteigne Festival, MusicFest, and the Wigmore Hall. As a jazz vocalist, Claire has performed at festivals across the UK and abroad including Brecon jazz, Marsden jazz, and Begues jazz (Cataluna). 2021 saw the release of her E.P. 'NOIR', alongside the Treske Quartet, interpreting the melancholy, cynical lyrics of her chosen jazz and chanson material. Claire won the Welsh Music Guild's Young Composer award in 2022, was awarded a Jerwood Arts composer award in 2021, is the Winner of a Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize 2019-2020, as well as 2017 winner of the Mathias Composition prize, and 2019 winner of a Francis Chagrin award. She has been broadcast on Radio 3, Radio Wales, and Radio Cymru. In this episode, Claire shares her background, education, and musical journey. If you enjoyed this episode please make sure to subscribe, follow, rate, and/or review this podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, ect. Connect with us on all social media platforms and at www.improvexchange.com

Allyson Devenish uncovers the remarkable story of an African American composer and musician who made his life in London and Paris in the early twentieth century. Edmund Thornton Jenkins was a composer, musician and band leader from Charleston in South Carolina who travelled to London in 1914. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music for seven years and became a sub-professor. In 1919, at Wigmore Hall, he conducted his own work, A Folk Rhapsody, which incorporated themes from spirituals and songs of the Gullah fisherman of his native Charleston. As well as composing some of the earliest music in the European concert tradition to incorporate jazz rhythms and the folk melodies and spirituals of his home town, Edmund was also wildly successful as a dance band leader and recorded some of the earliest British jazz records in 1921 playing clarinet and saxophone. His early death, in 1926, far from home, meant his story almost faded away. His music, shipped back to the US after his death in 1926, remained almost entirely unperformed. Only one piece of Edmund's work has been commercially recorded: Charlestonia which was premiered in 1925 and reconstructed in the 1980's, by the composer Vincent Plush from manuscripts held at the Centre for Black Music Research at Columbia College in Chicago. Now, nearly a hundred years later, the pianist Allyson Devenish travels to Charleston to hear about Edmund's roots and to meet some of the people trying to bring his music the recognition it deserves. She traces his musical life in London and Paris and returns some of Edmund's music to the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied for seven years and performs it with some students and alumni, including the violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason. Edmund Thornton Jenkins' story is told in a biography by Jeffrey Green and we are grateful for his invaluable help in researching this programme. Contributors include: Kellen Gray Assistant Conductor of the Royal National Scottish Orchestra and Associate Conductor of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra who conducted the premiere of Edmund T Jenkins' piece Rhapsodic Overture, (reconstructed by Tuffus Zimbabwe) for the Spoleto Festival in 2022. John Kennedy, Resident Conductor and Director of Orchestral Activity at the Spoleto Festival. Wojciech Milewski, Music Director of the Charleston Opera Theatre and the Summerville Orchestra who has made the parts and score for Charlestonia publically available. Dr Bernard Powers, historian and Director of the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston. Victoria Smalls, Director of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. Braimah Kanneh-Mason, violinist and Royal Academy of Music alumnus who performs Edmund T Jenkins' Reverie Fantasie with Allyson Devenish. Tamara Tare, a student at the Royal Academy of Music who sings Edmund T Jenkins' That Place Called Italy, accompanied by Allyson Devenish. Jeremy Ng, a student at the Royal Academy of Music who performs Edmund T Jenkins' Prelude Religieux. Emily Woolf, the archivist at Wigmore Hall. Adam Taylor, the librarian at the Royal Academy of Music. Dr Stephanie Doktor, Assistant Professor, Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University. Professor Catherine Tackley, Head of the Department of Music at the University of Liverpool. Presenter: Allyson Devenish Producer: Natalie Steed A Rhubarb Rhubarb Production for BBC Radio 3

The French pianist Cédric Tiberghien has just released a new album, Variation[s], on Harmonia Mundi. It takes Beethoven's many sets of themes and variations for solo piano as its starting point, and weaves in major sets by others composers, in Vol 1 by Mozart, Schumann and Webern. James Jolly caught up with the pianist in New York, by Zoom, to talk about the project and find out his thinking on the programme of this first volume. Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall

Guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre talks to Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford about his debut album for Deutsche Grammophon, Visages Baroque, which weaves a programme of arrangements of music by French Baroque composers around two major pieces by Bach. This Gramophone Podcast is produced in association with Wigmore Hall. 

Laurence Osborn (b. 1989) is a British composer currently based in London. His music has been commissioned and/or programmed by the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Britten Sinfonia, The Riot Ensemble, Manchester Collective, 12 Ensemble, GBSR Duo, Ensemble Klang, and Ensemble 360, among others. He has also written for solo performers Sarah Dacey, Mahan Esfahani, Bartosz Glowacki, Zubin Kanga, Lore Lixenberg, Michael Petrov, and Agata Zubel. His music has been programmed throughout the UK, at venues such as The Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Royal Opera House, Symphony Hall (Birmingham), The Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, LSO St Luke's, St Martin- In-The-Fields, Milton Court, Wilton's Music Hall, Britten Studio (Aldeburgh), The National Portrait Gallery, The Holywell Music Room (Oxford), The Crucible Theatre (Sheffield), Kettle's Yard (Cambridge), and at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (where he was an International Showcase Artist), St Magnus International Festival, Music in the Round Festival, and Ulverston International Music Festival.Laurence Osborn's song cycle Essential Relaxing Classical Hits was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in 2021. He won the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize in 2017, was runner up in the New Cobbett Prize for Composition (2014) and the International Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition (2013) and was shortlisted for the ICSM World Music Days (2018). Laurence has won student prizes for composition while studying at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, including the Adrian Cruft Prize for Composition and the Royal College of Music Concerto Competition. He has held positions in association with LSO Soundhub (2013-15), Nonclassical (2015-17), and the London Philharmonic Orchestra (2017-18).SOUND EXERPTS, IN ORDER:1. Coin Op Automata  for harpsichord and string quartetperformed by the Manchester Collective2. Essential Relaxing Classical Hits, for amplified solo soprano and 6 playersperformed by Agata Zubel and Ensemble Klang3. Absorber, for solo piano and MIDI controllerperformed by Zubin KangaLINKSLaurence Osborn official websiteWatch video of ‘Absorber' for piano and MIDI controllerSUPPORT THIS PODCASTPatreonDonorboxORDER SAMUEL ANDREYEV'S NEWEST RELEASEIridescent NotationLINKSYouTube channelOfficial WebsiteTwitterInstagramEdition Impronta, publisher of Samuel Andreyev's scoresEPISODE CREDITSPodcast artwork photograph © 2019 Philippe StirnSupport the show

BONNIE BROWN is a Franco-Australian concert pianist. As a soloist and collaborative musician she has performed across Europe, Asia, North America and Australia, in prominent music festivals and performance venues, including Wigmore Hall, London, the Sydney Opera House, Australia, on Broadway, New York, across France, as well as with Australia's leading orchestras and on the radio internationally.​At the invitation of the French Government, in 2008 Bonnie Brown was Australian Artist in Residence at the Cité internationale des arts, Paris. To assist with her performance research in Europe, she was the recipient of over 20 grants and scholarships. These include, from France, the 2nd Prize internationally from the Fondation Nadia et Lili Boulanger (Paris) for 2009-2010, and from Australia, the prestigious Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship, the Australia Council for the Arts Project Fellowship, to name a few (full list of prizes a and scholarships here)​Her mentors and teachers include celebrated concert pianist Cristina Ortiz (2008-2018), renowned French pedagogue and concert pianist France Clidat (2008-2012) and her assistant Paul Blacher at the Ecole normale de musique de Paris, Professor Alexandr Satz (2003-2004) at the Universität für music und darstellende kunst, Austria and Professor Ronald Farren-Price A.M., Australia. She holds the Diplôme supérieure d'enseignement (6ème niveau) from the Ecole normale de musique de Paris, as well as a Master of Music (performance) from the University of Melbourne, Australia, which she completed with a full post-graduate scholarship. She attended the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School in Melbourne, Australia where she graduated Dux of the school, her exceptional results at the end of her schooling afforded her a full scholarship for her undergraduate studies at the University of Melbourne. In 2018 Bonnie Brown founded Concerts sans frontières, an international chamber music series for which she is also artistic director, which launched at the Australian Embassy in Paris. Biography https://www.bonniebrownpiano.com/biographyExamples of my work as a concert pianist https://www.bonniebrownpiano.com/watch-listenInformation about my work as a teacher https://www.bonniebrownpiano.com/teaching-experience-1Support the show