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Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast

Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast

Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast 474 Episodes Sep 19, 2026

Jon Jacob talks to artists, writers, and audience members about classical music. The podcast features interviews that explore how classical music is made, performed, and appreciated. It offers diverse perspectives from both professionals and listeners. Suitable for anyone interested in classical music culture.

Episodes

240: Fran Wilson's 'Facing the Music'
240: Fran Wilson's 'Facing the Music' Sep 19, 2026 00:22:24 Writer Fran Wilson's debut publication 'Facing the Music' captures a lifelong love of experiencing music both from a performer and an audience member's perspective. Buy the book in bookshops, Amazon and on Kindle Unlimited.
239: Eleanor Alberga & Thomas Bowes
239: Eleanor Alberga & Thomas Bowes Sep 16, 2026 00:31:42 Does the world need another recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto? Yes, I think it does. This episode makes the case: a conversation with violin Thomas Bowes and pianist, composer and arranger Eleanor Alberga, celebrating a touching lifelong musical partnership with a new release on the Rubicon label featuring Sinfonia Arcadiana conducted by Nic Fallowfield.
238: Jessica Walker
238: Jessica Walker Sep 1, 2026 00:42:01 In this episode, listen to singer Jessica Walker introduce the story of Barbara — the singer, composer and lyricist whose output equals Jacques Brel's, someone who sold over a million copies of a single song in a day, but who remains little known in the UK.Walker has spent years translating these songs, many of which are released in English for the first time on her new album La Solitude.We ta
237: Three Choirs 2026 in Gloucester with composer Grace Evangeline-Mason
237: Three Choirs 2026 in Gloucester with composer Grace Evangeline-Mason Aug 1, 2026 00:30:01 A scrapbook in sound: voices, reflections and field recordings from Three Choirs Festival 2026 in Gloucester — a postcard from two life-enhancing days.
236: Guy Johnston on Britten’s Cello Symphony
236: Guy Johnston on Britten’s Cello Symphony Jul 21, 2026 00:41:08 Days before his BBC Proms appearance marking 50 years since the death of Benjamin Britten, cellist Guy Johnston talks candidly about his career, his influences, and his preparation for performance.
235: Pianist Beatrice Nicholas
235: Pianist Beatrice Nicholas Jul 17, 2026 00:38:43 Beatrice Nicholas is a British concert pianist and composer. She performs the traditional classical canon, and she composes and arranges, fusing classical and jazz together. She's also a member of the Chineke! Chamber Ensemble, drawn from principal players of the Chineke! Orchestra.On the seventeenth of August, she makes her debut Upstairs at Ronnie Scott's — a set that runs from a straigh
234: Laura Bowler and the Cheltenham Music Festival's Composer Academy
234: Laura Bowler and the Cheltenham Music Festival's Composer Academy Jul 10, 2026 00:28:28 Composer Laura Bowler on leading the Cheltenham Music Festival's Composer Academy, recorded on-site during the week of workshops in Gloucestershire. She talks about what conservatoire didn't teach her — pitching, funding applications, resilience — plus a look back at Houses Slide, her 2021 piece for London Sinfonietta and seventeen cyclists.
233: Belly of the Beast at Aldeburgh, Spitalfields and Edinburgh
233: Belly of the Beast at Aldeburgh, Spitalfields and Edinburgh Jun 21, 2026 00:30:50 Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre isn’t a name many will recognise — despite an opera that reached the Paris stage in 1694, two books of biblical cantatas published three years apart, in 1708 and 1711, and a career that ran for decades either side of those dates. The point this episode seeks to highlight is that legacy isn’t always guaranteed. You’ll need more than talent writing and managing busines
228 Repeat: Aldeburgh & Snape, 50 Years After Britten's Death
228 Repeat: Aldeburgh & Snape, 50 Years After Britten's Death Jun 18, 2026 00:38:53 This episode is being republished during this year's Aldeburgh Festiva. This episode was first published 1 June.Fifty years after Britten's death, Aldeburgh and Snape still carry his fingerprints — and still provoke the same question: what is this place actually for? In this special episode, contributors who've performed there, programmed it, and thought hard about its future speak in
232: Adrian Brendel on Tree of Strings
232: Adrian Brendel on Tree of Strings Jun 16, 2026 00:36:25 Cellist Adrian Brendel on Tree of Strings, his new Dorset festival — the Harrison Birtwistle story behind its name, genre-mixing, and watching his father Alfred's final tour from the audience, occasionally incognito.
231: Bergen International Festival's Lars Petter Hagen
231: Bergen International Festival's Lars Petter Hagen Jun 8, 2026 00:44:49 Bergen International Festival Artistic Director and Chief Executive Lars Petter Hagen talks programming, audiences, leadership and listening in this special Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast episode - something of a pilgrimage for Jon Jacob.
230: Franco Fagioli
230: Franco Fagioli Jun 4, 2026 00:38:15 Time with the most playful of interviewees, Franco Fagioli, recorded in Versailles in March 2026. Fagioli appears with Orchestra de l'Opera de Versailles at St Martin in the Fields on 13th June 2026.

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