One of the pleasures of editing Gramophone is that every month we get to act both as advocates of the new, and to salute the extraordinary contribution of those who have been shaping classical music for decades.

It’s particularly pleasing when our Recording of the Month highlights one of the generation of younger artists already making records destined to stand the test of time in an increasingly crowded catalogue. This month we welcome a superb new recording by young German baritone Konstantin Krimmel. Aged just 31, he already has an Editor’s Choice-winning Die schöne Müllerin to his name (10/23), an album of Liszt songs, and more besides. His new release features songs by Schubert and Loewe, and reveals an immediately engaging interpretative personality.

He’s an impressive artist, and joins a line-up of Recording of the Month recipients which this year has already included cellist Bruno Philippe in Saint-Saëns, pianist Behzod Abduraimov with a personal programme called ‘Shadows of my Ancestors’ (both artists also in their early 30s), and of course the extraordinary talent of pianist Yunchan Lim, astonishingly aged just 20, with Chopin Études.

Highlighting the younger generation is something we take seriously, not least in our One to Watch column, which profiles people in even earlier stages of their careers. It’s almost exactly five years since Krimmel featured in that slot, and he’s far from alone in making the journey from it to the Editor’s Choice page (something this issue’s Ones to Watch, the Protean Quartet, have achieved within a single month).

Joana Mallwitz, meanwhile, is one who has made the step from it right on to our front cover. Reading our profile interview by Richard Bratby, the affection with which Mallwitz talks about music-making in Berlin, the city where she’s now one season into her tenure with the Konzerthausorchester, is inspiring and infectious. Her Deutsche Grammophon debut, featuring Kurt Weill’s symphonies, marks a significant catalogue contribution from a much-talked-about conductor, and one from who we look forward to bright things in the years to come.

And then there are those other artists I also alluded to – those whose contribution over many decades has not only enriched recording but, through tireless commissioning, the repertoire. One such is Leonard Slatkin, a conductor whose 80th birthday it’s a real pleasure to be celebrating this issue. With 220 premieres to his name – so far – his belief in acting as an advocate for new composers is matched by a commitment to American music more broadly. An impressively varied list of composers he’s championed over the years embraces Joan Tower, Mason Bates, David Del Tredici, John Williams and William Bolcom, while those of an earlier era have received equal devotion. It seems fitting that a third feature in this issue is an exploration of the music of Charles Ives, a composer whose music, more than many, managed to capture and convey something central to the American soul of his own era.

I very much hope you enjoy reading these articles, and exploring the music discussed within them.

Subscribers to the Gramophone Full Club and the Gramophone Digital Club can now read all of the articles from the latest issue on our website on the day of publication. Explore our subscription options: magsubscriptions.com