Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast

This year Aldeburgh Festival celebrates 50 years of the artist development programme - a music-making experience rooted in the Suffolk countryside that has supported many of the world's leading musicians. In this episode, previous participants reflect on their experience attending the Britten-Pears Orchestra and courses at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies now known as the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme.  Contributors in order of appearance: Nicholas Daniel Jessica Mogridge Kirsty Matheson Caroline Clarke Julia Lawrence Mark Stone Jacqui Shave Jacqueline McCarthy Patrick McCarthy Amy Helen Forsdike Chi-Yu Mo

Josie Dixon the great great great great grandaughter of Polish Lithuanian violinist and composer Felix Yaniewicz explains how a chance discovery unearthed a series of discoveries about the man in her family she knew only from a portrait. https://www.yaniewicz.org/piano.html

Helen Charlston and Toby Carr release 'Battle Cry' in May 2022 - available from 27th on Delphian records featuring songs by Barbara Strozzi, Henry Purcell, John Eccles, Claudio Monteverdi & Owain Park. To coincide with the release, both performers appear at the London Festival of Baroque at St John's Smith Square and the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. TICKETS: https://www.lfbm.org.uk/whats-on/helen-charlston-and-toby-carr

Written in 2019 and originally premiering at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2020, Tom Coult and Alice Birch's 'Violet' tells the 24-day story of a village discovering the gradual loss of time. Recorded at rehearsals in the Jerwood Space in London in May 2022. 'Violet' opens the 2022 Aldeburgh Festival on 3 June.

Released on Friday 6 May, 'Air' features a collection composer Oliver Davis' characteristically uplifting writing performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Kerensa Peacock, and Grace Davidson. Jon Jacob speaks to Davis about his dyslexia, his compositional influences, and his commercial writing experience. This podcast was recorded in March 2022 at the Southbank Centre. 

"Beauty and the Seven Beasts is possibly the most incredible but also the most challenging Opera Story project so far." Opera Story Hamish McKay, soprano Katherine Aitken, Dan de Sousa, and conductor Berrek Dyer talk about this new work combining the librettos and music of eight composers in one chamber opera staged at Brixton Jamm, 6-14 April 2022.

On the day James Ehnes was meant to be playing Berg's Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, we meet on Zoom to discuss intonation, Walton, and being a tourist in London. 

How did Gillian Moore's musical upbringing shape her views about the relevance of music in the lives of everyone today? Ahead of her appearance a the Association of British Orchestras conference in Glasgow in February 2022, she reflects on her own experiences and offers some thoughts on what we need to do next to secure music in the lives of future generations. 

Baritone Benjamin Appl prepared for his first ever performance of Schubert epic song cycle Winterreise by learning the work on a four-hour car journey back in 2010. Twelve years later he's recorded it with pianist James Baillieu both as an album and in a documentary made by John Bridcut. Baillieu and Appl perform live at Wigmore Hall on 18th February 2022. 

Jon Jacob speaks to a selection of Ivors Composer Award Winners from 2021 backstage at the ceremony in the British Museum. 

Clarinettist Barnaby Robson discusses his latest release on Orchid Classics. 

Hear participants Ryan Corbett, Milly Forrest, Mathias Balzart, David Zucchi and members of the Echea String Quartet, plus artistic director Geoff Parkin discuss the importance of the Royal Overseas League Music Competition.  The Gold Medal 2021 will be staged at the Royal Overseas League in London on Wednesday 24 November. Watch live on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpkkTQnwNHGi7Jj_SK6x20g. 

Theatre of Sound director Daisy Evans and conductor Stephen Higgins are currently mid-way through a run of a new of Bartók’s only opera Bluebeard's Castle. Their work reimagines the piece as a love story between a long-married couple – Duke Bluebeard and Judith – both coming to terms with living with dementia. The production is staged at Stone Nest – a stunning former Welsh chapel in the heart of London’s West End – and runs until 14 November with singers soprano Susan Bullock, bass-baritone Gerald Finley, baritone Michael Mayes and soprano Gweneth Ann Rand sharing the principal roles of Duke Bluebeard and Judith. Tickets via the Theatre of Sound website. 

Composer Electra Perivolaris talks about her collaboration with a Devonshire couple living with dementia, capturing their musical memories and reworking them in a brand new chamber opera, performed on Saturday 6 and 13 November 2021. Tickets via the Theatre of Sound website : https://www.tickettailor.com/events/theatreofsound/576577

English Concert artistic director Harry Bicket talks about Handel's Samson, the opera Alcina. Bicket also explains the three things others find annoying about him. Lateness is one of them. What are the other three?

Pianist Pavel Kolesnikov appears at The Two Moors Festival in October 2021 in a programme of Bach's Goldberg Variations. In this podcast he explores identity, the careers he might pursue if he had the time, and 'those shoes'.

Throughout 2020 and 2021 Help Musicians UK supported creatives impacted by COVID-19 to the tune of £18 million. In this podcast HMUK ambassador Nicky Spence and CEO James Ainscough explain how the 100 year old charity works, how its support has been invaluable, and how it will be vital in the years to come. 

The Jukebox Album is the soundtrack to the feeling that characterises this period in time we’re slowly coming out of, and perhaps a reminder that we should forget about either. A love letter from two musicians to their audience. A potent reminder of things previously taken for granted. A musical Ground Zero.     

Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage has written a Concertino for clarinettist John Carnac. It will be performed at Music@Malling in Kent in late September by clarinettist John Carnac. Jon Jacob spoke to composer and performer about the work at rehearsals in Birmingham. 

Ben Goldscheider appeared with members of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective at the recent Lammermuir Festival in East Lothian, Scotland. In this conversation he discusses horn player Dennis Brain, plus works by Oliver Knussen and Ruth Gipps.