Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

William Christie, the founder - and guiding spirit for the past 45 years – of Les Arts Florissants, celebrates his 80th birthday on December 19.  Gramophone's James Jolly went to visit him at home in Paris to talk about his long career and its colossal impact of the rediscovery of the music of his adopted homeland. Since leaving the USA in the early 1970s and settling in France, Christie has been a major figure both in concert and on record (with a clutch of Gramophone Awards to his name), focusing on music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Their conversation ranged widely taking in memories of the harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick, the countertenor Alfred Deller, the founder of Harmonia Mundi Bernard Coutaz, and many others. Musical excerpts are from from his Harmonia Mundi catalogue, including his latest release 'Bill and Friends' which finds him performing with a host of young musicians.  

George Szell took over the Cleveland Orchestra in 1946, and, once he had created the instrument he needed, he started an extensive series of recordings for CBS (American Columbia, now Sony Classical). The focus was on the great works of the Austro-German repertoire and, needless to say, the nine Beethoven symphonies and a selection of overtures were among them (recorded between 1957 and 1967). Sony Classical have just gathered together the symphonies and overtures from the large 'George Szell Complete Columbia Collection' set from 2018, and are releasing them on seven CDs on December 13 and also digitally (already available). James Jolly went to talk to Gramophone's long-serving contributor Rob Cowan about the recordings, and also about George Szell as a conductor in general.

Benjamin Nicholas, Music Director of Merton College, Oxford joins Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about his new recording of Gabriel Jackson's The Christmas Story. This major new commission by the college, available now on the Delphian label, has been recorded by the Choir and Girl Choristers of Merton College and the Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia, and is an Editor's Choice in the latest edition of Gramophone.

Thélème won Gramophone’s Early Music Award in 2022 with their Aparté album of music by Josquin Desprez, ‘Baisiez-moi’. Now they return with a new programme, also for Aparté, ‘All we get is life’, that brings together the music of John  Dowland and John Cage – with an extra track featuring Sting in his song ‘Shape of my Heart’ which he performs alongside Thélème. James Jolly caught up with Thélème’s Director and one of his vocalists, Jean-Christophe Groffe, to talk about what made him bring these two composers together on a single album.