Gramophone Magazine

Gramophone issue summary for May 2026
This month, our cover artist Sean Shibe discusses his new album of contemporary guitar works by Harrison Birtwistle, James Dillon and Thomas Adès. Martin Cullingford talks to Shibe about his personal advocacy of their work and to Thomas Adès about collaborating with this creative musician.
Elsewhere in this issue, Leif Ove Andsnes discusses the music of Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt with Harriet Smith, the pianist’s new album is centred on Tveitt’s only remaining piano sonata. And with two albums released this Spring – from The Tallis Scholars and the Choir of Magdalen College Oxford – Nico Muhly’s music seems to be everywhere. Hattie Butterworth meets him and finds a mixture of infectious enthusiasm and deep commitment to the Anglican choral tradition.
In this month’s Musician & the Score, Charlotte Gardner talks to pianist Tom Poster and violinist Elena Urioste about Brahms’s ever-popular Piano Quartet No 1.
For our Icons feature, Tim Ashley explores the life and legacy of the American soprano Eleanor Steber, while in Classics Reconsidered, Hugo Shirley and Richard Wigmore revisit Olaf Bär’s recording of Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Op 39 Liederkreis.
In the May issue’s Collection, Mark Pullinger has been listening to the plethora of recordings of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 5, while as always, our world-leading experts review the latest classical music albums, with the very best being named Editor’s Choices.