Podcasts by The Lebrecht Interview

John Adams from 2012-09-03T21:45

Norman Lebrecht talks to the American composer and conductor John Adams in the week that he conducts his opera Nixon in China at the BBC Proms. Adams who was born in Massachusetts is one of the ...

Riccardo Muti from 2012-08-27T22:15

Norman Lebrecht talks to the great Italian conductor, Riccardo Muti, music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Muti's career has spanned key orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchest...

Andris Nelsons from 2012-08-20T21:45

Norman Lebrecht talks to the young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons currently music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Born in Riga to musical parents Nelsons cites one of hi...

Graham Vick from 2012-08-14T21:15

Norman Lebrecht talks to the British opera director Graham Vick whilst in rehearsals in Birmingham for Stockhausen's massive opera Mittwoch. Vick is one of the leading British directors. He work...

Lilian Hochhauser from 2012-08-06T21:15

Norman Lebrecht meets celebrated impresario Lilian Hochhauser, who along with her husband Victor, introduced British audiences to some of the greatest Russian musicians of all time, during the f...

Ivan Fischer from 2012-07-30T21:00

Norman Lebrecht meets Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer, who looks back on a career characterised by ground breaking musical achievements and occasional political controversy.

Fischer reca...

Menahem Pressler from 2012-07-23T22:00

Norman Lebrecht meets pianist Menahem Pressler, founder of one of the most prolific and influential piano trios of all time: The Beaux Arts.

Pressler looks back on a career which began in ...

Gustavo Dudamel from 2012-07-16T21:30

The Lebrecht Interview is the interview series that runs during the Proms season in which the writer and broadcaster Norman Lebrecht talks to key figures in the world of classical music.

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Janet Baker from 2011-09-05T22:00

In the last edition in this series, Norman Lebrecht talks to the great English singer, Dame Janet Baker. The Yorkshire-born mezzo-soprano has mostly been known for her performances in operas by ...

Edward Gardner from 2011-08-29T21:30

Edward Gardner is the Music Director of English National Opera and about to become Principal Guest conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He talks to Norman Lebrecht about his c...

Monica Mason from 2011-08-23T21:45

Dame Monica Mason has spent all of her working life at the Royal Ballet in London. Now 70 she is about to start her final season as Director of the Royal Ballet. In conversation with Norman Lebr...

Valery Gergiev from 2011-08-15T22:00

Norman Lebrecht meets the conductor Valery Gergiev, head of the Kirov Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, and Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and the World Orchestra for Pea...

Richard Rodney Bennett from 2011-08-08T21:45

Richard Rodney Bennett is a contemporary of Birtwistle and Maxwell Davies but his musical life has pursued a very different path. From his childhood onwards music was there for him. His mother w...

Thomas Quasthoff from 2011-08-01T21:45

Norman Lebrecht meets the German bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, widely considered to be one of the finest lieder singers performing today. Although only four feet tall, with very short arms - Q...

Deborah Borda from 2011-07-25T20:45

Deborah Borda's is Chief Executive Officer of the hugely successful Los Angeles Philharmonic. Her career has also spanned a range of the great American institutions, including the New York Philh...

Semyon Bychkov from 2011-07-18T21:00

In the first of a series of interviews with prominent musicians, writer and broadcaster Norman Lebrecht talks to one of the world's most sought after conductors, Semyon Bychkov. Born in Russia, ...

Patrice Chereau from 2010-09-06T21:00

Now 65, Patrice Chereau is one of the most highly regarded French directors. He began his career directing at his Lycee and running a theatre in the Parisian suburbs in the 1960s. Not long after...

Sir Clive Gillinson from 2010-08-30T21:30

Sir Clive Gillinson began his musical life as a cellist, holding positions in the Philharmonia Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. When that orchestra got into financial difficulties in...

Stephen Kovacevich from 2010-08-23T21:30

Norman Lebrecht talks to the American born pianist Stephen Kovacevich in the year of his 70th birthday.

Originally from Los Angeles, Kovacevich's father was Croatian and his mother America...

Joyce DiDonato from 2010-08-16T22:00

Norman Lebrecht meets the acclaimed American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. The sixth child of an Irish Catholic family in Prairie Village, Kansas, she married young and was almost thirty before ...

Roger Norrington from 2010-08-09T21:30

Sir Roger Norrington has been one of the major movers and shakers on the classical music scene for nearly half a century. He founded the Schutz Choir and the London Classical Players, and was Mu...

Simone Young from 2010-08-02T20:45

Simone Young is an Australian conductor whose career has centred around the opera world and conducting the great Austro-German symphonic works. She appeared as a judge in the BBC TV series Maest...

Marilyn Horne from 2010-07-26T21:00

Norman Lebrecht talks to the American mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, tracing her career from precocious Shirley Temple sound-alike, to pirate recordings of pop songs in the 1950s, to dubbing the t...

Riccardo Chailly from 2010-07-19T22:00

In the first of this year's Lebrecht Interviews, Norman meets the Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly. For more than 30 years, Chailly has been one of Europe's most important conductors. The son ...