Updates from the world's leading classical music label
Franz Joseph Haydn has long been a focus of admiration for conductor Sir Simon Rattle. In this podcast conversation with Raymond Bisha, we hear excerpts from his recent recording of the composer’s oratorio The Creation, “the last masterpiece that this amazing man wrote.” A clear candidate for one of the maestro’s Desert Island Discs, Sir Read More …
Raymond Bisha introduces the latest instalment of a collectable series of seven albums showcasing Ukraine-born composer Alexey Shor’s appealing personal style and superb craftsmanship. The programme features vivid portraits of literary figures for piano (Behzod Abduraimov) and orchestra (Kyiv Virtuosi), similarly an homage to Glinka, and a dazzling concerto for flute (Jasmine Choi). The conductors Read More …
Born in 1986, Jake Runestad is a versatile and prolific young composer whose visceral music and charismatic personality have fostered a busy schedule of national and international commissions, residencies, workshops, and speaking engagements, enabling him to be one of the youngest full-time composers in the world. In this podcast he discusses with Raymond Bisha the Read More …
Notker Balbulus (c.840–912), also known as Notker of St Gall or Notker the Stammerer, was a renowned Benedictine monk at the Abbey of St Gall in Switzerland who made substantial contributions to both the music and literature of his time. In this podcast Michael Alan Anderson, musical director of Schola Antiqua of Chicago, explains to Read More …
Franz Schmidt is not the most neglected composer among the 20th century grand romantics, but the discrepancy between the greatness of his music and his neglect in concert is staggering. Together with conductor Jonathan Bermann, who recently recorded Schmidt’s four symphonies with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Jens & Joe try to zero in Read More …
Since the 1970s, Brazilian conductor Isaac Karabtchevsky has steadfastly developed one of the most brilliant careers across the Brazilian and international music scenes, The Guardian in 2009 hailing him as one of Brazil’s living icons. He’s heard in this podcast In conversation with Raymond Bisha, discussing the music of fellow Brazilian icon, the composer Heitor Read More …
American composer Daron Hagen talks about his cantata Everyone, Everywhere in conversation with Raymond Bisha. Composed In 2023 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Hagen found impetus in the contemporary political status of his own nation to recontextualise the declaration’s dry language and enable him to convey its emotional Read More …
In this podcast, Raymond Bisha discusses a new album from the Danish National Vocal Ensemble with their chief conductor, Slovenian Martina Batič. The programme similarly melds the two nations in a programme of choral music by Slovenian composer Uroš Krek (1922–2008) and Danish composer Else Marie Pade (1924–2016), the latter a pioneer in electronic music Read More …
Raymond Bisha introduces the first of two albums of transcriptions of J. S. Bach’s cello suites performed by Yasunori Imamura, one of the world’s leading lutenists, both as a soloist and as a continuo player. His chosen instrument for these recordings is the theorbo, an instrument that more suitably reflects the range of the cello, Read More …
What to make of Norwegian composer Christian Sinding, who is chiefly remembered only by ambitious amateur pianists for his Rustle of Spring? He was a more important figure in the music of his native Norway than this might suggest; there, in his time, he was second only to Grieg. Raymond Bisha introduces us to Sinding’s Read More …