This week, we chat to the multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Cosmo Sheldrake from his home in Dorset. True to form, he recorded his side of the conversation outdoors in the countryside, so there are quite a few birds and woodland creatures keeping us company throughout this episode. He explains how he records the most intimate, low-level sounds of animals, fungi, rain and even tree sap, and how he goes about recontextualising them in his music. He also tells us all about his musical childhood with his mother, who was trained in Mongolian overtone chanting and who had previously lived ..read more

This week, we meet the star Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński to discuss the laborious process of recording previously undiscovered works, his passion for breakdancing and the music he listens to while he’s on the move. He also tells us about why he believes the post-pandemic concert format works surprisingly well, and why he prefers listening to ambient music when he travels as opposed to music by the likes of Palestrina and Tallis.    Listen to all the music featured in this episode on our Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7BIiAN1ge4UruD9bKO0VFb?si=1e ..read more

Swedish pianist Peter Jablonski discusses his recent recording of music by Stanchinsky (out now on Ondine), discovering the music of Bacewicz and his downtime during the pandemic has seen him fall in love with the piano all over again. Recordings featured: Stanchinsky: Piano Sonata in E flat minor (Peter Jablonski) Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 2 (Yuri Boukoff, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire/Ljubomir Romansky) Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Martha Argerich , LSO/Claudio Abbado) Chopin: Mazurka, Op. 6 No. 4 (Peter Jablonski) Bacewicz: Children’s Suite – VII: Gavotte (Mor ..read more

Reviews editor Michael Beek sits down for a chat with Hannah Rankin. The professional boxer and classically trained bassoonist discusses dividing her time between the worlds of sport and music, choosing the perfect ‘walk-out’ music for when she enters the ring and some of her most cherished works to play and listen to. Recordings featured: Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Philadelphia Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski) Bill Conti: Rocky – Gonna Fly Now (DeEtta Little, Nelson Pigford (vocals); Studio Orchestra/Bill Conti) Pierné: Solo de Concert, Op. 35 (Karen Geoghegan (bassoon), Philip Fisher (pi ..read more

British clarinettist Julian Bliss has an extremely wide breadth of listening tastes, from heavy metal to core classical via jazz and funk. In this episode, he tells us about his passion for Rachmaninov and Oscar Petersen and why he thinks wind band music should be taken more seriously in the UK. He also reflects on the last year of lockdown and what it meant for his practice and approach to performance. Recordings featured: Stranger on the Shore (Acker Bilk) Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Martha Argerich, Berlin Philharmonic/Claudio Abbado) Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 (Alexandre Tha ..read more

We speak to Radio 3 broadcaster and producer Georgia Mann, who recently took over the reins on the station’s morning programme, Essential Classics. She tells us all about the new musical discoveries she’s made so far in the job, her experiences of live music during lockdown, starting out as a singer in Gilbert & Sullivan musicals and how to be articulate live on radio when a performance blows you away. Recordings featured: Miles Davis: Lift to the Scaffold Trad: Blow the wind southerly (Sheku Kanneh-Mason) Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8 ‘Pathétique’ (Igor Levit) Peggy Granville-Hicks: Sinf ..read more

The Montenegrin guitarist talks about falling in love with the guitar in Montenegro, ‘growing up’ in London, his favourite guitar to play, the healing power of Mozart and his latest album The Moon & The Forest. Recordings featured: Joby Talbot: Ink Dark Moon – Luminoso (Miloš Karadaglić) Howard Shore: The Forest (Miloš Karadaglić) Albéniz: Suite Española – Asturias (Andres Segovia) JS Bach: Suite No. 4 in E major BWV 1006a - Prelude (John Williams) Mahler: Symphony No. 5 - Finale (Vienna Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein) Mozart: String Quartet No. 2 in D major, K 155 (Armida Quartett)   ..read more

This week, we have the delightful composer-librettist duo Héloise Werner and Octavia Bright on the podcast. The pair worked together on a one-woman opera The Other Side of the Sea and spoke to us from their respective London homes at the end of the UK lockdown, discussing themes of grief and isolation, as well as the role music plays in their lives and the ever-changing emotional responses they’ve had to it over the last year. They also share stories of carnival music and the human compulsion to dance. Music featured: Héloïse Werner: Coronasolfège for 6 (The Gesualdo Six) Britten: Peter Grime ..read more

Author and Indian classical singer Amit Chaudhuri talks to BBC Music Magazine about his relationship with western and Indian classical music, the allegories and narratives that can be created within music and his experience of working as the librettist on Ravi Shankar’s opera Sukanya. His latest book, Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music, was published recently by Faber, and is part memoir/part essay, focused on his enduring love for Indian classical music and the power of the voice. Music featured: Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Chile Blues Ustad Dilshad Khan: Raga Todi Kishori Amonkar ..read more

As he turns 70 years old, the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber tells us about his remarkable life in music, from growing up in one of Britain’s most famous musical families to performing on the world’s finest stages and his unending passion for helping to create tomorrow’s great players. Music featured: Shostakovich: Cello Concerto (Mstislav Rostropovich, Philadelphia Orchestra/Eugene Ormandy) Bernstein: Mambo (Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela/Gustavo Dudamel) Elgar: Cello Concerto (Julian Lloyd Webber, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Yehudi Menuhin) Mozart: Symphony No. 40 (Academy of St M ..read more