The soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen has just released an album of Richard Strauss, two late works – the Four Last Songs and the Closing scene from the opera Capriccio. On this new Sony Classical release she's joined by the Gewandhausorchester and Andris Nelsons.

James Jolly caught up with Rachel by Zoom to talk repertoire and the allure of Strauss's vocal writing.

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

You can listen to the Podcast below. 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 the new Richard Strauss album via Apple Music.

This Gramophone podcast is published in association with Wigmore Hall: this week's concerts include:

Friday, March 10 at 7.30pm: Harpsichordist Jean Rondeau plays music by Fux, Haydn, Clementi, Beethoven and Mozart, the programme taking its title from Clementi’s Gradus ad Parnassum.

Saturday, March 11 at 7.30pm: Hans Werner Henze’s powerful re-telling of the true story of the runaway slave Esteban Montejo, El Cimarrón, receives a rare performance. Will Liverman is the baritone soloist, and he’s joined by Adam Walker (flute), Sean Shibe (guitar) and Owen Gunnell (percussion).

Sunday, March 12 at 11.30am: The Consone Quartet plays Haydn’s Joke Quartet and Mendelssohn’s E flat, Op 44 No 3. 

Sunday, March 12 at 7.30pm: François-Frédéric Guy plays a programme of piano music by Liszt, Debussy and Tristan Murail.

Monday, March 13 at 1pm: A quartet from Concerto Italiano performs music by Alessandro Scarlatti, Handel and Francesco Mancini.

Monday, March 13 at 7.30pm: Will Liverman is joined by pianist Jonathan King for songs by Damien Sneed, Margaret Bonds, Henry T Burleigh, Florence Price, Robert Owens, Jasmine Barnes and Shawn E Okpebholo 

Tuesday, March 14 at 7.30pm: Il Pomo d’Oro directed by Federico Guglielmo is joined by the cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima for a programme of his own music alongside Vivaldi and traditional music.

Wednesday, March 15 at 7.30pm: Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays solo cello music by Bach, Gwilym Simcock, Britten, Leo Brouwer, Edmund Finnis and Gaspar Cassadó.

Thursday, March 16 at 11.30am: and also streamed live: A school’s concert, London Rhymes, an explosion of a show, presenting highly original, eclectic and interactive songs that have been co-written with families since 2015.

Thursday, March 16 at 7.30pm: The Novus Quartet plays Britten’s Three Divertimenti, Janáček’s First String Quartet, The Kreutzer Sonata, and Shostakovich’s Ninth Quartet.

Friday, March 17 at 7.30pm: The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective Music Masters gives a concert of ten in-demand composers, written in collaboration with school children through Music Masters, a charity putting music and creativity at the top of the agenda. Music performed by Kaleidoscope Collective, as well as Music Masters students, graduates, artists and teachers.

Full details and tickets from Wigmore Hall where you can also find details of Gramophone’s Centenary Concert on May 14 with performances by pianists Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Bertrand Chamayou, Cédric Tiberghien and Martin James Bartlett, violinist Alina Ibragimova, guitarists Sean Shibe and Milos, and singers Carolyn Sampson, Fatma Said, Emma Sventelius and Karim Sulayman with accompanists Joseph Middleton and Malcolm Martineau.

Tickets for Wigmore Hall concerts between April and July are on sale now