Christian Gerhaher, baritone
"Certainly, he has been my best friend for a very long time – I would say he's like my second brother. This also true of how we perform and practice; in the beginning, the effort we put into rehearsing together was enormous..." Read more...
Daniel Stoll, violinist of vision string quartet
"The real idea to actually make this happen came just two or three days before our very first concert. We never thought that it would be possible to learn the scores by heart, but we were at a masterclass at a castle somewhere in Germany, and there was another string quartet in the room next to ours..." Read more...
Duo Tal & Groethuysen
"Since the piano as an instrument has such a consistent, as you suggest, and also a somewhat abstract sound, piano playing always requires that musicians imagine other instruments or human voices!..." Read more...
Kris Davis, piano
"Around the seventh or eighth grade, I joined the jazz band at school, and that was my entry point into jazz – mainly because I wanted to play with other people, and I discovered that through playing in the jazz bands, collaborating with other students, and having the joy of making music together..." Read more...
Nigel Short, conductor of Tenebrae
"By the time I was introduced to Joby by a former colleague, I'd already had this idea for a while of commissioning pieces with the theme of a journey at its heart. I was in dialogue with Joby for a long time about the idea of this pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, the Camino de Santiago..." Read more...
Rachel Podger, violin
"I think the name, Guardian Angel, has a rather beautiful meaning to it as well, I think because it seems that the ground bass – which is always there, even when it’s heard in the top voice – is a little bit like the guardian angel, because it’s always by your side..." Read more...
Richard Boothby, founder of Fretwork
"It came about because we did a few concerts with Iestyn several years ago, and his voice is very much on the same artistic page as our own. Of course, we had spent a lot of time in previous years doing concerts with countertenor Michael Chance, recording with him and doing concerts with him and his wonderful voice..." Read more...
Tomo Keller, concert master of Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
"It’s pure love. That piece is just love and joy, and it’s light and it’s bright. And actually, when I applied for the position at the Academy, they invited me to play a chamber music session with the other musicians just to get to know each other..." Read more...