This Classical Life

Jess Gillam is joined by Italian-American violinist Francesca Dego to swap some of their favourite music. Francesca has played everywhere from Wigmore Hall to Lincoln Centre New York, and her latest recording of Brahms and Busoni violin concertos with BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Dalia Stasevska is out now via Chandos. Today Francesca has brought along music from neglected Finnish composer...

Jess Gillam and tenor Alessandro Fisher share the music they love. Alessandro Fisher is a former member of the BBC New Generation Artist scheme, and a Kathleen Ferrier award winner: a versatile performer equally at home in baroque and romantic opera, or song. His choices today include barbershop quartet, brass band music, and the voice of Fritz Wunderlich. Jess has chosen music by Coleman Hawkins...

Jess Gillam swaps music with pianist James Baillieu, including works by Mozart, Bach, and Ella Fitzgerald. Pianist James Baillieu has worked with musicians including Lise Davidsen, Timothy Ridout and Pretty Yende, and has performed everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Vienna Musikverein. He is also Senior Professor of Ensemble Piano and a Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He’s brought Ma...

Jess Gillam and soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha share their favourite tracks. South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha was the winner of the Song Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2021 and is a current BBC New Generation Artist. She’s brought a track from iconic South African artist Miriam Makeba and Maria Callas singing a prayer from Verdi’s Otello, and Je...

Jess Gillam swaps favourite music with pianist Keelan Carew, and between them they put together a boundary-pushing playlist with songs by Kurt Weill and Nat King Cole - pianistic fireworks by Busoni and Chopin, orchestral fireworks by Shostakovich and some classic Japanese jazz fusion by Casiopea. Playlist: KURT WEILL: Der Abschiedsbrief [Teresa Stratus (sop), Kurt Weill (piano)] SHOSTAKOVICH: Fes...

Jess Gillam meets violist Jordan Bak to share some of their favourite music. Jamaican-American violist Jordan Bak is a proud new music advocate – he’s performed world premieres of works by composers including Kaija Saariaho and Augusta Read Thomas. His debut album IMPULSE was released in 2022 and he’s performed with orchestras including London Mozart Players. His musical picks include works by Flo...

Jess's guest this week is the composer Kate Whitley. Kate is an award-winning composer and pianist, who also runs the Multi-Story Orchestra. The orchestra was born in a multi-story car park in Peckham, and perform in car parks around the country, as they wanted to take classical music out of formal concert halls. They also create hugely powerful musical projects like the RPS Award-winning The Endz...

Jess Gillam meets Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene to swap some of their favourite music. At 23 years old, Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene is already the winner of several awards, including the prestigious Carl Nielsen Competition in 2019, the Gramophone Young Artist of the Year Award in 2022, and a Swedish Grammy in 2023. His music choices include a squelchy bassline from Thunder...

Jess Gillam and conductor Robert Ames share some of the tunes they love, with music by Philip Glass, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Makaya McCraven, Pauline Oliveros and J.S. Bach. Playlist: Philip Glass – Aguas da Amazonia - Madeira River [Uakti] Abel Selaocoe – Voices of Bantu Hildur Guðnadóttir - For Petra [London Contemporary Orchestra, Robert Ames] Tchaikovsky – The Tempest, Op. 18; VI. Andante non tant...

Jess Gillam meets mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron to swap some of their favourite music. Singaporean-British mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron sings everything from opera to chamber music, from the baroque to the contemporary. She is mentored by Barbara Hannigan and has performed with LSO, Czech Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony. She joins Jess ahead of performing Freya Waley-Cohen's Spell Book with Ma...

Jess Gillam shares music with composer Laura Cannell, including a sublime Biber Requiem, new music by Kenya Grace, traditional Norwegian fiddle music and a Memphis Soul Stew! Playlist: Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1; first movement [Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra, Lorin Maazel] Kenya Grace - Strangers John Mackey – Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Wind Ensemble [ Timothy McAll...

Jess Gillam is joined by Norwegian soprano and Last Night of the Proms star Lise Davidsen for a very Christmassy edition of This Classical Life. They share their favourite Christmas music and chat about what gives them that festive feeling! Lise Davidsen has been described as “the greatest soprano in the world right now”, with a “one-in-a-million voice”. Her performance at the Last Night of the Pr...

Jess Gillam and bassoonist Guylaine Eckersley share their favourite tracks, with music by Abel Selaocoe, Pergolesi, Vivaldi, Laura Misch and a guilty pleasure from Frozen 2. Playlist: Abel Selaocoe - Ka Bohaleng / On the Sharp Side Pergolesi - Stabat Mater [Philippe Jaroussky (counter-tenor), Julia Lezhneva (soprano), I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis] Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez - Into the...

Jess Gillam and flautist Daniel Shao play each other their current favourite music. Daniel is a versatile musician, at home in the classical repertory with a number of leading orchestras, or performing contemporary music and exploring his Chinese heritage with the group Tangram. Daniel's choices include Britten, Whitney Houston, and music for the flute by Ibert. Today's choices: Britten - Dawn fro...

Jess Gillam meets jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant to swap some of their favourite music. Cécile is a 3 time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer and her music shows off her passion for storytelling and finding the connections between vaudeville, blues, jazz, baroque and folkloric music. She spoke to Jess ahead of her show at London Jazz Festival 2023 and picked some of her favourite voices from Mar...

Jess Gillam and cellist Matthew Barley sit down to listen together to the music they love. Matthew's career as a cellist has seen him straddle any number of different genres and continents. He's just as at home in front of an orchestra as he is improvising in a nightclub, playing chamber music with his wife – the violinist Viktoria Mullova - or going solo and combining his cello with electronics....

Jess Gillam and mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska share the music they love, including a traditional Macedonian folk song, Janelle Monáe’s sci-fi concept album The Arch Android, a sublime Bach partita in the hands of guitarist Sean Shibe and the beautiful voices of Mara Carlyle and Odetta. Playlist: Janacek - Prelude to The Cunning Little Vixen [Vienna Philharmonic, Sir Charles Mackerras] Odetta - Some...

Jess Gillam meets with the conductor Nicholas Collon to share some of the music they love. Today their musical journey takes in the harmonic genius of Jacob Collier, glorious choral music by Poulenc, a youthful Octet by Mendelssohn, a dreamy song from Sibelius, Britten’s iconic Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, some grooves from Pino Palladino and Taylor Swift visits The Lakes. Playlist: Feli...

Jess Gillam and violinist Sumina Studer swap some of their favourite music. As well as picking up prizes for her playing in the Berliner International Music Competition and the Verbier Festival amongst others, and performing with various orchestras across the world, Sumina still finds the time to make hugely popular videos for social media where she demystifies the violin to try and bring classica...

Jess Gillam and trumpeter Lucy Humphris share their favourite music. Their musical adventure today includes scary Prokofiev, dreamy Debussy, wide open space from Edmund Finnis and Schoenberg, birdsong with Lady Maisery and some 8-bit chiptune from the computer game FEZ by Disasterpeace. Playlist: Cinderella-Suite Nr. 1, Op. 107, VIII. Midnight Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra, Theodore Kuchar Ed...

Jess Gillam and pianist Karim Kamar share some of their favourite music. Karim has an amazing musical story - after loving playing as a kid but never studying properly, at 25 he decided to quit his job and learn the piano seriously to become a professional musician. He spent years painstakingly learning how to play - and has since released 6 albums and performed at some of the most iconic music ve...

Jess Gillam is joined by percussionist Delia Stevens to share the music they love and make some new discoveries, including tracks by Tessa Lark, Avner Dorman, Fabiano do Nascimento and Jack Hylton and His Orchestra. Playlist: Debussy: Danse profane for harp & orchestra Tessa Lark: Jig and Pop Cyrille Aimée: It’s a Good Day Vega Trails: Love Your Grace Avner Dorman: Frozen in Time (Indoafrica &...

Jess Gillam and violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason swap some of their favourite tracks and chat about their lives in music. Braimah comes armed with a classic Beethoven recording by violinist Itzhak Perlman, a feel good tune by The Melodians and a Haydn quartet. Meanwhile Jess spins Rachmaninov at his most romantic, Monteverdi by the ensemble l'Arpeggiata and a soaring performance by Etta James. Playl...

Jess Gillam and baritone James Newby swap some of their favourite tracks and chat about their lives in music. James - who was one of Radio 3's New Generation Artists - is one of the country's most exciting young baritones and performs all around Europe in everything from contemporary opera to intimate song recitals. His music picks include a choral piece by Howells that changed the direction of hi...

Jess Gillam swaps favourite music with the mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter Anne Sofie is one of classical music's most celebrated singers with a huge back catalogue of recordings, and she's also known for her huge versatility and musical curiosity working with artists from conductors Claudio Abbado and Giuseppe Sinopoli to Elvis Costello, Brad Mehldau and Rufus Wainwright. Today though she's li...