Classic Music Podcast

In our August edition, Laurence Lewis highlights new releases by MSR Classics and Hevhetia of three contrasting instruments  - Piano, Cimbalom and Violin.  Playing Time: 10.23 mins.  

In this edition host Laurence Lewis, invites you to find the Illuminating music of Curt Cacioppo.  There's a gift of French masterworks from Bulgarian violinist Zornitsa Ilarionova.  While pianist Jerry Wong plays a selection of pieces describing Love and Longing by Franz Liszt.  Playing Time: 8.27 mins.

Discover a universe of little known Cuban music,  as Laurence Lewis talks to pianist Elena Casanova about her new MSR Classics release, Daydreams of Cuba.   Playing Time: 24.46 mins.

On Czech label Arta , Marek Stryncl and his period instrument orchestra Musica Florea restore to currency neglected Bohemian Baroque master, Antonin Reichenauer's dramatic Requiem.  Ether side, on MSR Classics ,  are personal selections for bassoon by Shannon Lowe and trumpet by James Tinsley.  Hosted by Laurence Lewis.  Playing Time: 9.14mins.  

This edition features American label MSR Classics highlighting a two disc set celebrating string-quartets by Alabama based composers, the University of Massachusetts Wind Ensemble and the Japanese landscapes evoked in southeast Texas by composer Marty Regan and the  shakuhachi.  Its Bulgarian cousin, the kaval, visits Places with Zhivko Vasilev on a Gega New release.  Presented by Laurence Lewis. ...

Jason Calloway, cellist with the Amernet String Quartet, discusses with Laurence Lewis their new two CD MSR Classics release highlighting composers who have connections to Alabama.  Playing Time: 13.23 mins.

Milan Pala takes his violin and viola into  uncharted musical territory with his two disc survey of Moravian solo string music.   Bass, Gustav Belecek visits Fantastic Landscapes of Songs, while "Between Us" celebrates the meeting of Czech Jazz greats, pianist,  Emil Viklicky and the bass clarinet of Pavel Hruby.  Playing Time: 10.46 mins.

Bulgarian composer Yassen Vodenitcharov puts into music the antique and very obscure texts of The Voynich Manuscript, using an ensemble of viola da gamba's and a mezzo-soprano.  Karel Bendl (1838 - 1897) goes into The Nature Realm with the Foerster Female Chamber Choir, and there's Shostakovich's First and Fifteenth Symphonies to complete the cycle conducted by Emil Tabakov.  Lauren...

Czech conductor, Zdenek Klauda, talks to Laurence Lewis about his latest Nibiru release, Concertos for Cello and French Horn by Jakub Jan Ryba, and his discovery of this composer previously known only by his celebrated Old Czech Christmas Mass.  Playing Time: 23.04 mins.

Discover the extraordinary  Cello Concerto by Jakub Jan Ryba - known for his Old Czech Christmas Mass - and listen to our interview with conductor Zdenek Klauda in our latest  Classic Music Podcast Extra.  There's String Quartets by Shostakovich and Goleminov and Contemporary sounds by Dust in the Groove.  Laurence Lewis introduces these digital releases by Czech label, Nibiru, Bulgarian labe...

Our first edition of 2021, hosted by Laurence Lewis,  features Unexpected Isolation , guitarist David Kollar and trumpeter Arve Henriksen's staggering electronic meditation, released by Hevhetia,  on Covid-19,  there's Scriabin's Sonata No. 8 from an MSR Classics disc of Russian Piano Sonatas with Euntaek Kim and Dvorak and Suk, on Artesmon,  played by the Variace Ensemble Prague.  

Laurence Lewis introduces the sound, on Pavlik Records ,  of the Saxophone Syncopators in Nuclear Sax by Evgeny Irshai, on Hevhetia , guitar and electronics master David Kollar tells of the Crime on the Bunny and on a second disc 10 Poems for Ronroco and in their ongoing series Famous Opera Voices of Bulgaria , Gega New present tenor Nikola Nikolov, the Pavarotti of a previous age.  Playing time:...

In our November episode Laurence Lewis introduces a moment, on Hev Het Tune ,  from Julo Fujak's sonic landscape, kaleidoSONICope! There's a first Slovakian recording of York Bowen's Viola Phantasy, on Pavlik Records , while MSR Classics release amazing American soprano Amy Johnson singing Janacek's Kat'a Kabanova and lusting over John  the Baptist in the final astonishing...

Laurence Lewis highlights an important two disc set release by Slovakian label Pavlik Records , with Milan Pala playing the Six Violin Sonatas by Weinberg.  Beginning in 1943, these reflect the times in which Weinberg lived, suffered and composed.  The "live" recording brings a huge emotional impact to these performances.  We discover the French inspired music of Danae Vlasse on her MSR...

On a Zoom conversation, composer Luis Pine, in San Francisco, talks to Laurence Lewis in London about his recent MSR Classics album, Times of Day , where various combos of wind instruments alight at times of the day from Dybreak to Solar Midnight.  Playing Time: 13.04 mins.

Laurence Lewis visits the Organ Theatre in St. Albans to explore their amazing collection of mechanical musical instruments.  These include a mechanical violin, street organs, musical boxes and the "Mighty Wurlitzer."  Recorded in HD FLAC format audio.  Playing Time: 60 mins.

An instrumental edition, with viola sounds, released by Pavlik Records , composed by Rebecca Clarke, and played by Martin Ruman, bass player Robert Oppelt brings an Encore to MSR Classics - From Bach to Blues - while Ronald Sebesta plays clarinet solos that invite you to savour some Classic Malts, distilled by Pavlik Records.   Laurence Lewis uncorks this particular bottle.  Playing Time: 9.22 min...

In 2018 Martin Kather restored an antique clavichord made by Johann Christoph Georg Schiedmayer in 1787.  Czech keyboard wizard, Jaroslav Tuma, explores this amazing instrument on a two disc set released by Arta .  From this recording, Laurence Lewis introduces pieces by Christoph Graupner (1683 - 1760), Carl Philip Emanuel Bach (1714 - 1788), Josef Antonin Stepan (1726 - 1797) and Herbert Howells...

Iveta Zatkova showcases the sound of Jan Pazicky's organ, built in 1768, in Saint Nicholas Church in Kovarce, Slovakia.  From a new Arta recording, Laurence Lewis presents music by Johann Sebastian Bach,  Adam Vaclav Michna, Orlando Gibbons and Johann Ulrich Steigleder.

On MSR Classics , Summerland, for summer listening, highlights music by American composers of African descent, Czech label Nibiru continue their Zelenka series with a World Premiere recording of his Missa Sanctae Caeciliae, while another MSR Classics release showcases trumpeter Andrew Stetson in recent concertos by American composers.

Cellist Benjamin Whitcomb explores solo sounds by Robert Muczynski and Ernest Bloch on his new MSR Classics release, while Czech label Arta find period instruments in choral and instrumental Marian Motets with Capella Ornamentata and conductor Marek Stryncl continues his Dvorak series with Symphony No. 4 played by Musica Florea,