Carlo Rizzi, Opera Rara’s Artistic Director, has recorded Mercadante’s Il Proscritto for Opera Rara, another rarity to add to the label’s growing catalogue. A well-chosen line-up of singers, including Ramón Vargas, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Irene Roberts, Elizabeth DeShong, Sally Matthews, Goderdzi Janelidze and Susana Gaspa, are joined by the Britten Sinfonia and Opera Rara Chorus.

James Jolly caught up with Carlo Rizzi late last year to talk about Mercadante’s Il Proscritto and Opera Rara’s mission to restore it for a 21^st-century audience.

Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall. (See below for the coming week's concerts.)

You can listen to the Podcast above. To hear other Gramophone podcasts, or to subscribe for free to new editions, search for 'Gramophone' in your Podcast App of choice, or visit Gramophone's page on Apple Music podcasts. Meanwhile, further down this page you can also listen to Mercandate's Il Proscritto on Apple Music in lossless audio.

Gramophone Podcasts are given in association with Wigmore Hall and these are the concerts for the coming week.

Friday, April 14 at 7.30pm: The soprano Brendra Rae, with Janathan Ware at the piano, performs songs by Schubert and Richard Strauss.

Saturday, April 15 at 1pm: The Royal Academy of Music/Wigmore Hall Fellowship Ensemble, the Kyan Quartet, perform a programme which includes the world première of a new piece by the Rosie Johnson Wigmore Hall Learning Composer, Florence Maunders. Its companions are Webern’s Langsamer Satz and Britten First String Quartet.

Saturday, April 15 at 7.30pm: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet plays works by Boulez, Chopin and Debussy. (Bavouzet, incidentally, is one of the artists appearing in Gramophone’s Centenary concert on May 14.)

Sunday, April 16 at 11.30am: The Oliver Schnyder Trio play Schubert’s Second Piano Trio as well as an arrangement of his song, The Shepherd on the Rock.

Sunday, April 16 at 3pm: The baritone Michael Arivony with Teodora Oprisor at the piano give a programme of Beethoven, including the cycle An die ferne Geliebte, and Mahler, including his Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.

Sunday, April 16 at 7.30pm: The clarinettist Martin Fröst is joined by the Leonkoro Quartet in the UK premiere of John Adams’s Dolce pianissimo before the clarinet quintets by Mozart and Brahms.

Monday, April 17 at 1pm, and live streamed: The Nash Ensemble play music by Mozart, the Piano Concerto in E flat, K449 with Alasdair Beatson as the soloist, and Fauré, his First Piano Quartet.

Monday, April 17 at 7.30pm: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet returns in the company of fellow pianist François-Fréderic Guy for four-hand music by Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring.

Tuesday, April 18 at 7.30pm: The semi-final of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards.

Tuesday, April 18 at 7.30pm: The pianist Leslie Howard celebrates his 75^th birthday with a programme of music by the composer he’s most closely associated with, Franz Liszt.

Wednesday, April 19 at 7.30pm: The soprano Elsa Dreisig and pianist Jonathan Ware give a programme called ‘…car le songe est plus beau que la réalité…’, an evening of song from the Gilded Age including music by Berg, Ravel, Korngold, Amy Beach and Kurt Weill.

Thursday, April 20 at 10.45am & 11.45am: Two chamber tots concert for children.

Thursday, April 20 at 7.30pm: The Schuman Quartet plays Schumann’s A minor String Quartet, and, joined by Anna Vinitskaya, his Piano Quintet, as well as Aribert Reimann’s Adagio (In memory of Robert Schumann).

Friday, April 21 at 6pm: The finals of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards,

The programme for the 2023-24 Wigmore Hall season has been announced. Full details can be found at wigmore-hall.org.uk where you can also watch a video of the Hall’s Director John Gilhooly introducing the season.

Priority booking for concerts between September and December 2023 will open next week, on Wednesday, April 19. General sale of tickets for same period will open on Thursday, May 4 and tickets for under 35s concerts will go on sale Thursday, May 11.

And don’t forget that tickets for Gramophone’s Centenary Concert on May 14 are on sale now.