Latest stories
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New Release Round-Up - 8th August 2025
Bach, Telemann and Albinoni from Ensemble Masques, Brahms from Mikhail Zemtsov, the world premiere recording of Florence Price's Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, and music from Italy, Iberia & the Black Sea from Avi Avital and friends.
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Elizabeth Sombart on Mozart and philanthropy
The pianist and humanitarian activist talks about her new album of Mozart concertos and her work with the Fondation Résonnance over the years.
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Debbie Wiseman - Ten: Memories for solo piano
Debbie talks about her experiences being Classic FM's Composer in Residence, her new album and sheet music collection, 'Ten: Memories for solo piano', and the music she has composed over the past decade.
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The Presto Chart - July 2025
Our 25 best-selling titles across all formats for July, headed by Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque's all-Biber programme on Channel Classics.
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Orchestral transcriptions of Bach's organ works by Andrew Davis
The late conductor demonstrates his love of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach with a series of orchestral transcriptions of the composer’s organ works, the recording of which was completed by Martyn Brabbins after Davis’s death last year.
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New Release Round-Up - 1st August 2025
A celebration of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's 150th birthday, the world premiere recording of Antonia Bembo's 1707 opera L'Ercole amante, Max Reger from Jaime Martín, and a radiant collaboration between The Gesualdo Six and trumpeter Matilda Lloyd.
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Presto Team Choices - July 2025
An irresistible recital of Ibero-American songs from Julieth Lozano Rolong and João Araújo, Rachmaninoff from Alexander Melnikov and Julia Lezhneva, an exuberant Turangalîla-Symphonie from Andris Nelsons in Boston, and an ear-opening collection of Welsh music for strings.
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David Atherton – Vienna: From Mozart to Schoenberg
Our contemporary music guest-writer explores a 13-disc anthology of recordings from the London Sinfonietta, including the group's 1974 debut on Decca with Schoenberg's complete works for chamber ensemble.
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Vienna: From Mozart To Schoenberg
London Sinfonietta; David Atherton
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BBC Music Magazine - August 2025 Choices
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by accounts of six cello sonatas which are 'in a class of their own' from Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and her husband Martin Helmchen on Alpha Classics.
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Tom Lehrer (1928-2025)
The American musician, satirist and mathematician, whose songs included 'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park' and 'The Masochism Tango', has died at the age of 97
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Steve Reich, Big and Small
An EP of two new works by Steve Reich, a new live recording of Reich and Hisaishi, and a huge, delicious box-set of Reich on Nonesuch.
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New Release Round-Up - 25th July 2025
Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations and more from Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrández, Ginastera from the Miró Quartet, a triptych of orchestral works by Liza Lim, and a nature-themed album from Venezuelan male soprano Samuel Mariño.
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Sophie Pacini on Bittersweet
In advance of her performance at the Oxford Piano Festival on Sunday evening, the Italian pianist discusses her mission to share music as a source of hope in women's shelters, and how this has influenced the programmes for this recital and her latest album, bittersweet.
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bittersweet
Sophie Pacini (piano)
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Early Music Round-Up - Summer 2025
Groundbreaking Corelli from the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, a musical soundtrack to Henry VIII's travels around England from Ensemble Pro Victoria, the final glorious flowering of English Catholic polyphony from New College Oxford, Gabrieli-inspired Zieleński from the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble, and more.
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David Rendall (1948-2025)
The versatile British tenor, whose career was cut short by a stage accident in 2005, has died aged 76.
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Béatrice Uria-Monzon (1963-2025)
The French dramatic mezzo-soprano, who was especially celebrated for her visceral yet nuanced interpretations of Carmen, has died aged 61 after a lengthy illness.
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Roger Norrington (1934-2025)
The British conductor, known for his lifelong opposition to the over-use of vibrato in orchestral playing and for his passionate devotion to historically-informed performance in general, has died aged 91.
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Mark Williams on Be Still My Soul
Magdalen College's Informator Choristarum (Director of Music) talks about his new album of favourite hymns with the choir, the role they play in the choir's daily life, and the trick to writing a really good descant.
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Be Still, My Soul
Choir of Magdalen College Oxford, Mark Williams
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Mozart's Clavichord from Alexander Gergelyfi and Georg Nigl
The Austrian clavichordist and baritone explore a range of keyboard pieces, songs and arias on the soft-grained instrument where Mozart first conjured several of them into life in a remarkable recital recorded at the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum in Salzburg last spring.
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New Release Round-Up - 18th July 2025
Messiaen from Yuja Wang and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Mozart from Chloe Chua and the Singapore Symphony, solo Bach from Céline Frisch, and historical recordings of Poulenc playing his own music and that of Satie.
