Gramophone Magazine

In the cover story for our June issue violinist Rachel Podger talks about her life in music, her joy in collaborations and love for music from the English Baroque that forms her latest album, ‘The Muses Restor’d’. Also in this issue we meet with the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, who begin a new series pairing each of Brahms’s three piano quartets with a work by one of his lesser-known contemporaries. Plus, Ensemble Diderot tell us about their typically adventurous new album of Berlin harpsichord concertos by composers from the court of Frederick II. In this month’s Icons, David Patrick Stearns traces the legacy of the German conductor Klaus Tennstedt, while in Classics Reconsidered, Edward Breen and Fabrice Fitch return to the 1983 recording, originally for EMI, of Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame by the Taverner Consort and Taverner Choir directed by Andrew Parrott. In Collection, the work in focus is Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri, a cycle of seven cantatas composed in 1680. Which versions are the best? In Contemporary Composers we explore the music of the English symphonist Matthew Taylor and suggests some listening, while Musician & the Score sees pianist Alexander Melnikov and harpsichordist Céline Frisch discuss CPE Bach’s Concerto for harpsichord and fortepiano. Plus, as always, our world-leading critics review the latest classical music releases on CD, DVD and download – with the best being crowned ‘Editor’s Choice’.