Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast

How can recontextualising classical music help build a new audience for the genre? Classics Explained YouTube producer Ben Levy explores the opportunities he's discovered using animation to tell the story of some of classics most-loved works, and some of the pushback he's received doing so.

This episode spotlights a new release from cellist Tim Posner. Recorded weeks ago, this episode has I'm sorry to say been subject to all manner of technical challenges. Publication has been delayed as a result. But all good things come to those who wait. And this is GOOD. Tim Posner's debut album includes music by Bloch, Bruch and Dohnanyi is a case in point. The music speaks for itself (especially the rarely heard Konzertstucke by Dohnanyi) Posner's playing is full bodied, heartfelt and huggable, if you know what I mean. A Thoroughly Good highlight of 2024.

Hailstones, frogs and sexy trills. Monteverdi Choir's director Peter Whelan joins Amy Wood and Nick Pritchard to introduce the detail and the colour in Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt.

LPO Principal Concductor Edward Gardner, and LPO Conducting Fellows Charlotte Politi and Luis Castillo-Briceño reflecting on their roles as conductors and the process of developing their conducting presence.

Lovely people from across the classical music industry share their reflections on the year gone by, and look forward to the year ahead. Hear thoughts and recommendations from violinist Fenella Humphreys, pianist Charles Owen, Roger Wright, London Chamber Orchestra's Jocelyn Lightfoot, Manchester Camerata's Bob Riley and Manchester Collective's Rakhi Singh.

Schubert's epic and much-revered song cycle Die Schoene Mullerin is given a folksy feel with a new recording released by Rubicon Classics featuring Barokksolistene and Thomas Guthrie (who you'll hear in this podcast episode). If you're pro-deference this one probably isn't for you, but if you're open, curious or in need of a fresh approach then come on in and make yourself comfortable. Find yourself a bale of straw and sit yourself down. It's a treat.

Soprano Katharine Dain and pianist Sam Armstrong reflect on the recording of their latest ravishing duo album Forget This Night, featuring the music of Lili Boulanger, Karol Szymanowski, and Grażyna Bacewicz.

Hear the thoughts and reflections of two Ivor Award-Winning composers - John Rutter and Tansy Davies. Both doing the same thing - writing music. Both creating entirely different work. At the 2023 Awards at the British Film Institute in London, Tansy Davies received an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Works Collection. John Rutter received the Academy Fellowship - the highest honour the institution awards individuals. Thoroughly Good explored their purpose, what they've learned, what they advise and what they write.

Producer and Director Tom Volf explores his fascination with soprano Maria Callas and the work involved restoring her 1958 Paris debut for cinema release.

Violinist Victoria Mullova and cellist Matthew Barley explore Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht.

Guitarist Miloš Karadaglić reflects on his work producing the new album 'Baroque' released October 2023.

Cordelia Williams returns to the Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast to talk about her new album on SOMM 'Cascade', and to reflect on her experiences teaching in Kenya.

Lucy Parham introduces selected piano works by Sergei Rachmaninoff ahead of her London Piano Festival appearance with actor Tim McInnery. For more information and tickets visit: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/london-piano-festival/

Composer Joseph Phibbs returns to the podcast to introduce two new pieces premiered at Hatfield Chamber Music Festival and Wigmore Hall on 29th October and 7th October.

Ahead of the world premiere of Matthew Taylor's second horn concerto, Jon Jacob speaks to the composer about his work, his inspiration and the life force of Beethoven.

Nicola Benedetti announces the new Benedetti Baroque Sessions, a competition to participate in her Baroque orchestra, plus she pops up on Radio 4's Today to talk about what music education needs now.

Dr Leah Broad's book Quartet tells the story of four women composers who have received little or no attention by the classical music world. The lives of Ethyl Smyth, Dorothy Howell, Rebecca Clarke and Doreen Carwithen span the 20th century and yet their music was, until a few years ago, relatively unheard of. Quartet - a substantial history of four women's compositional lives - explains why. Following publication, Leah Broad and violinist Fenella Humphreys have joined forces with pianist Nicola Eimer, mounting a series of concerts across the country where curious audience members can hear not only the music but selected stories about the women who wrote it. There were two things apparent from the event I attended - the first in the trio's UK tour in Harrogate earlier in the summer. The carefully selected music works in performance (so much so that the programmed movements played made me want to hear the works in their entirety) AND the briefest of introductions works wonders at focussing the listener, enhancing the experience as a result. Leah, Fenella and I met up to discuss the book, the concerts and the impact good storytelling has on the concert experience. Lost Voices is at Snape on 9th August, and Milton Court Concert Hall, Barbican on 5 November. Works included in the Lost Voices programme: Ethel Smyth Sonata Doreen Carwithen Sonata Rebecca Clarke Midsummer Moon Rebecca Clarke Sonata Movement Dorothy Howell Andante Dorothy Howell The Moorings Fenella Humphrey's next album Prism including works by Caroline Shaw, Sarah Lianne Lewis and Cheryl Frances-Hoad is released by Rubicon Classics early 2024.

Klieser plays the horn with his feet. This seemingly monumental achievement is of comparatively little consequence to Felix who sees himself not as a differently abled artist but as a musician who wants to make the audience happy. At a point in time when identity, representation and opportunity are words that rightly weigh heavily in our present-day discourse and thinking, it’s Klieser’s motivation – from the age of 4 – which is counter-intuitively the more powerful message he shares. He is not someone who tells the story of achieving against the odds, but an individual who is content.

The Endz is a production mounted by school children in South London, supported by the Multi Story Orchestra, a radical performance group well-known in the industry for mounting live performances in a former multi story car park (now known as Bold Tendencies) in Peckham. Since its Proms appearances in 2016 and 2017, the team behind the orchestra led by Kate Whitely has sought out new ways to enhance cultural experiences for the community its made its home in. But Multi Story’s vision and method feel slightly different from convention when you hear from two of their teenage collaborators Flame and Prince talk about The Endz – a musical setting of a play a group of teenagers created themselves in response to violent crime in their neighbourhood. The word is collaboration rather than education and outreach. Co-creation too might be a good word. And the other thing that’s important to stress is how Multi Story are helping young creative talent make the music they want to make rather than what the orchestra thinks they ought to be making.

RPS award-winning composer and vocalist Laura Bowler talks about her newest opera 'The Blue Woman', and her climate-change inspired collaboration with Cordelia Lynn, 'Houses Slide'. TICKETS: https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/the-blue-woman-by-katie-mitchell-details Laura's new work Distance is premiered by Juliet Fraser and the Talea Ensemble at Cheltenham Festival on 10 July. TICKETS: https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/music/whats-on/2022/distance This interview was recorded on Monday 27 June 2022.