Cellist Ben Michaels on commissioning music for cello

Gus and Lily from Apollo 5 join Hattie in the Gramophone studio to discuss their new album, Crossings, out now on the Voces8 label. Mapping a musical journey across the centuries and ancient pilgrimage trail the Via Francigena, the album takes us from Morley's English madrigals to Italian Renaissance polyphony and new commissions from Francis Pott and Apollo 5 soprano, Penelope Appleyard. This week's podcast is sponsored by Concerto BudapestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a special edition of the Gramophone Podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford travelled to Bergen to spend time with our current Orchestra of the Year, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, as they come to end of their year as holder of that title. He talks to Chief Executive and Managing Director Sigurd Sverdrup Sandmo about the orchestra’s history and its place in regional and national life, and then meets its newly named Chief Conductor Designate, Tabita Berglund. Throughout you can enjoy music taken from the Orchestra’s acclaimed recordings on the Chandos and Lawo labels, as well as from their opening concert of the new season.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this week's Gramophone Podcast, conductor Lukáš Vasilek joins Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about his fascinating new recording with the Czech Philharmonic of Honegger's Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher - Joan of Arc at the Stake – newly released on the Animal Music label. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cellist Ben Michaels speaks to Hattie Butterworth about his new album on Delphian, 'for cello, by cellists'. Michaels speaks about commissioning cellist-composers, carving out a less typical career as a musician and the versatile identity of the cello.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Roxanna Panufnik talks to Editor Martin Cullingford about her fascinating and moving new album of Love Songs and Lullabies, released on the Signum label, as well as about her approach to composing and creativity more widely. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The conductor Philipp von Steinaecker and the Mahler Academy Orchestra recorded Mahler’s Ninth Symphony in 2024 for Alpha Classics using instruments contemporary with the composer and employing historically informed performance practices. The recording attracted much attention and engaged a lot of music lovers’ imaginations. Now, the same performers have turned to the Fifth Symphony. Gramophone’s James Jolly talked to Philipp von Steinaecker about his history with Mahler’s music and how the Mahler Academy Orchestra created its ‘Mahler sound’ both from its instruments and its pursuit of a performance practice that the composer might have recognised. (Conductor and orchestra are bringing Mahler’s Ninth Symphony to the BBC Proms on September 11.)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week's episode of The Gramophone Listening Room, presented in partnership with dCS Audio, host Charlotte Gardner welcomes tenor Freddie De Tommaso and violinist Charlie Lovell-Jones to the studio to share two of their personal favourite recordings. Freddie De Tommaso is a familiar presence on the world's opera stages, not least London's Covent Garden. Known for his verismo roles, he is an exclusive recording artist with Decca Classics. Charlie Lovell-Jones is a violinist who, beyond his soloist career, is concertmaster of John Wilson's Sinfonia of London. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the latest edition of the Gramophone Podcast, composer Joby Talbot and the conductor of vocal ensemble Conspirare Craig Hella Johnson join Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about their fascinating collaboration: a setting of Mexican poet Octavio Paz's epic work, Piedra de sol, newly released on the Divine Art label.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this week’s Gramophone Podcast we dip into the archives and offer you another opportunity to hear a fascinating conversation about Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, the Anglo-Irish composer, teacher and conductor, the centenary of whose death fell in 2024. The leading expert on the composer, Jeremy Dibble, joins Editor Martin Cullingford to mark the centenary year of Stanford's death. Though arguably still best known today for his church music, we discuss the full breadth of Stanford's works, including his symphonies, songs, chamber music and his operas – the latter a genre he was devoted to throughout his life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pianist Bruce Liu’s new album ‘Lunaris’ is just out from Deutsche Grammophon – it explores the cosmos, the moon and the stars through music, taking in music by Chopin, Beethoven, Scriabin, Mompou, Agnes Obel and others. Gramophone’s James Jolly caught up with Bruce Liu in Canada earlier this year and, as well as talking about ‘Lunaris’, they discussed the aftermath of Bruce’s Chopin Competition win, and which of the Tchaikovsky piano concertos is his favourite.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.