Gramophone Magazine

This month’s Gramophone features the superb Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto on the cover, who talks to us about his highly personal new album with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra for Platoon, ‘Willows’, which includes a gently radical re-imagining of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending alongside works by Caroline Shaw, Ellen Reid and the American folk singer Sam Amidon, whose songs have been arranged by Nico Muhly. Elsewhere in the issue, we mark the 400th anniversary of the death of the English composer and lutenist John Dowland, whose melancholy songs still feel relevant today, offering some essential listening recommendations. We also explore Russian symphonies written in the immediate aftermath of Shostakovich’s death in 1975, discussing works composed by Alfred Schnittke, Valentin Bibik, Mikhail Nosyrev, Boris Tishchenko and Mieczysław Weinberg. Our monthly Icons celebrates the career and recordings of the great British bass-baritone Owen Brannigan, while in Classics Reconsidered we listen again to Murray Perahia’s Gramophone Award-winning recording of Handel and Scarlatti on Sony Classical – does it still sound as good today as it did in the late 1990s? The Collection surveys the available recordings of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 5, the ‘Reformation’, composed in 1830, and our Contemporary Composers feature introduces the music of Kerensa Briggs, best known for her choral music. Musician & the Score talks to the chief conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Kazuki Yamada, about recording Walton’s First Symphony for Deutsche Grammophon, while My Music meets broadcaster and extreme angler Jeremy Wade to hear about his musical reflections. Plus, as always, our expert critics review the latest classical releases, with the very best named Editor’s Choices.