Sounds Interesting: Leaving a legacy.

Composers can’t always hang around waiting for a visit by Euterpe, the ancient Greek Muse of music, to sow a seed of inspiration for their next composition. Commissioning agents have a long and much-appreciated record of standing in for when that vital role of providing a creative impetus is required and this podcast from the Read More …

Podcast: Johan Smith performs his dream guitar recital programme

Raymond Bisha introduces Johan Smith, winner of the 2019 Guitar Foundation of America Competition, in a recital that the Swiss artist has described as his dream programme: “It’s an exceptional album in many ways: the music is engaging, the playing is outstanding, and the recorded sound is first-rate. And the artist himself is uniquely intriguing, Read More …

Podcast: Ludwig van Beethoven. Works for solo piano.

Raymond Bisha introduces a programme of Beethoven’s music for solo piano that contains some of his most visionary, groundbreaking and memorable works. Drawn from the Complete Edition boxed set (Naxos 8.500250), the selected movements from Beethoven’s best-known piano sonatas illustrate his dynamism as a composer/pianist, his gift for flowing melodic beauty, and the range of Read More …

Podcast: Unpacking the unusual, unfamiliar and unknown. French piano rarities.

Raymond Bisha introduces a new release from Dutch pianist Ralph van Raat of French piano rarities by Boulez, Debussy, Messiaen and Ravel: “I heard Ralph play this same repertoire at a concert in Carnegie Hall a couple of years ago, and it was amazing. Ralph says his aim is to convince people of the ‘immense Read More …

Podcast: A 20th-century troubadour. A 21st-century tribute.

Raymond Bisha introduces Michael Daugherty’s This Land Sings: Inspired by the Life and Times of Woody Guthrie. The work celebrates The Dust Bowl Troubadour’s folk songs of love, wandering and social justice through Daugherty’s own original songs and instrumental music. These were composed after he drove for several weeks along the desolate, barren and dusty Read More …

Podcast: Ludwig van Beethoven. Music from his late compositional period.

Raymond Bisha introduces the latest release in the Naxos Beethoven anniversary digital album series. Ranging from a solo piano to the huge resources required for his final symphony, the programme comprises ten works that define the last ten years of Beethoven’s creative life, exemplifying his ever more technically challenging pieces, their novel structures, and the Read More …

Podcast: The resurrection of a requiem. Randall Thompson’s choral masterpiece.

Join Raymond Bisha in a podcast of artistic discovery as he unveils yet another American classic—Randall Thompson’s Requiem. Reckoned by many to be his most ambitious work, the composer himself considered it to be his masterpiece, yet it has languished for decades on the periphery of the choral performance repertoire. This world première recording from Read More …

Podcast: Ludwig van Beethoven–the concertos

Beethoven’s concertos enjoy the spotlight in this podcast from Raymond Bisha. It serves as a companion resource to the latest digital album in our series marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The technical and musical demands Beethoven makes of his concerto soloists shine centre-stage in this compilation of wonderful performances of movements from Read More …