Gramophone Magazine

Gramophone enriches your classical music experience and connects you with great recordings.

Packed with features across all classical music genres, our globally acclaimed writers will inform and entertain you with independent and intelligent editorial and more than 150 reviews in every issue. Our reputation is founded on our acclaimed critical analyses of the latest CD releases, in-depth features and interviews with classical stars, and our comprehensive coverage of recorded and live music. Please Note: This price excludes VAT which will be added when you checkout.

Relationships and recordings: why it matters • Founded in 1923 by Sir Compton Mackenzie and Christopher Stone as ‘an organ of candid opinion for the numerous possessors of gramophones’

THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS

Gramophone Magazine • Volume 104 Number 1272

Editor’s choice • Martin Cullingford’s pick of the finest recordings from this month’s reviews

FOR THE RECORD • The Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2026

Rattle renews at the BRSO

ONE TO WATCH

Online • The magazine is just the beginning. Visit gramophone.co.uk for …

Brilliant Classics • In our latest guide to a classical record label, Tim Parry explores the history of a budget label best known for its box-set composer editions

Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques join Glossa

Jean Rondeau • Our Recording of the Year winner on the music of Louis Couperin

Rendering • David Threasher introduces a restoration of a Schubertian symphony based on unfinished sketches, a compositional alternative to academic reconstructions

Thank the Maharaja … • Seventy five years after the death of the composer and pianist Nicolas Medtner, James Jolly traces the history on record of this fine musician and his champions

NOTES & LETTERS • Write to us at St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB or gramophone@markallengroup.com; email is preferable

OBITUARIES

NEXT MONTH DECEMBER 2026

Putting down roots • Rafael Payare and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal recently recorded Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, and James Jolly joined them in their home city to experience this dynamic partnership of conductor and orchestra

Reaching Farther • As Clare College, Cambridge, marks 700 years since its foundation, Director of Music Graham Ross tells Rachel Halliburton about a new album celebrating the place of music in its history

From Berlin to the world • As the pioneering Digital Concert Hall adds further technological advances to its facilities, Martin Cullingford takes a seat – both actual and virtual – for two performances of Mahler

RECORDING OF THE MONTH • Aleksander Laskowski on a kaleidoscopic account of Chopin’s Nocturnes from Pavel Kolesnikov – readings of colour, imagination and a deep affinity with the music

Orchestral

Beyond the piano • Images is the debut solo album from Spanish pianist Elena Font, featuring music by Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Manuel de Falla

Schubert’s Piano Sonata, D894 • Tim Parry talks to Martin Helmchen about this expansive and intimate masterpiece

Chamber

Jessye Norman • Mark Pullinger looks back on the life and work of a soprano with an incredible voice who – although a true American icon – didn’t break through in the US until she was in her late thirties

Instrumental

Give the give of music this Christmas • SAVE 25% ON GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS

Joe Cutler • This UK composer is one of the most individual and intriguing of his generation, reports Richard Whitehouse

Vocal

THE WORLD’S BEST CLASSICAL MUSIC REVIEWS

A BACH FAMILY ALBUM • Fabrice Fitch explores a complete collection of the known music by the ancestors of JS Bach,...