Cellist Ben Michaels on commissioning music for cello

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.

Hattie Butterworth is joined by composers Gavin Higgins and Grace-Evangeline Mason to discuss the Three Choirs Associate Composer programme, the realities to life as a composer and writing choral music.  Explore the Three Choirs Festival here. 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 lutenist Thomas Dunford and viola da gamba player, singer and composer Lucine Musaelian to the studio to share two of their personal favourite recordings. Thomas Dunford can only be described as prolific in the recording studio, whether it's with Les Arts Florissants or his own Jupiter ensemble, and Lucine Musaelian is a member of the Bellot Ensemble and Intesa duo, her debut album with the Bellot Ensemble, 'Cupid's Ground Bass', was described by William Yeoman in Gramophone as: 'an intimate theatre where all the colour and splendour of the Venetian opera is played out in microcosm.'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s guest is the Finnish-Ukrainian conductor Dalia Stasevska. Her new ‘Ukrainian Mixtape’, just out from Platoon, showcases four Ukrainian composers – Levko Kolodub, Borys Liatoshynsky, Fedir Yakymenko and Mykola Lysenko –  for which she’s joined by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, of which she’s Principal Guest Conductor. James Jolly spoke to her last week by Zoom from her home in Finland about the new album, but also about the First Night of the BBC Proms which finds her and the BBC Symphony Orchestra on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall. You can catch Dalia Stasevska, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, at the First Night of the Proms in all the usual places – live at the Royal Albert Hall, and also on BBC Radio 3, BBC 2 TV and on the BBC iPlayer at 7pm on July 17.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.