Gramophone | September 2024

Our September 2024 issue features the French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann, Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, who has recorded her first symphonic album for Erato. Stutzmann made her name as a contralto before turning to conducting, and since 2022 she has been Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. James Jolly travelled to Georgia’s state capital to meet her and discuss her journey from singer to podium and her first symphonic recording, featuring Dvorák’s New World Symphony.

Puccini’s singers: Puccini died 100 years ago, the year before the advent of electrical recording, and his operatic roles have attracted many of the finest singers of the last century. Mark Pullinger offers a guide to the finest Puccini singers on record.

The NMC label marks its 35th year by celebrating the music of Imogen Holst. Richard Bratby talks to Colin Matthews, NMC’s founder and executive producer, about the importance of this composer’s work, both to him personally and to a label dedicated to new and neglected modern British music.

In this month’s Icons, Tully Potter celebrates the legendary violinist Fritz Kreisler, whose playing conveys the essence of Viennese style – with its leisurely ease and carefree charm – more than any other violinist.

In Classics Reconsidered, Rob Cowan and Jeremy Nicholas return to Alfred Cortot’s 1933/34 recording of Chopin’s Preludes, Op 28 – the second of his four recordings of this work, and for many the finest. Does this monument of the gramophone stand the test of time?

For the September issue’s Collection, Andrew Farach-Colton explores the history on record of one of the staples of the orchestral repertoire, Gustav Holst’s suite The Planets. Which versions emerge as his recommendations?

In our Contemporary Composers feature this month, Hattie Butterworth profiles the young British composer Oliver Leith, and recommends some entry points for his eclectic output.

In this month’s Musician & the Score Mark Pullinger talks to the conductor Pablo Heras-Casado about the unique character of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony and the challenges of recording it – for Harmonia Mundi – on period instruments.

Finally, in My Music, the actor Lawrence Gilliard Jr, known for his work on film, stage and television – not least as D'Angelo Barksdale in The Wire – talks about the role music has played in his life.

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 here: magsubscriptions.com/music-gramophone