Rachel Podger
Baroque violinist Rachel Podger has combined specialist knowledge with an accessible public persona, collaborating with many historical-performance groups. In the 21st century, she has also emerged as an important educator. Podger was born in England in 1968. Her primary education was at a Rudolf Steiner school in Germany, where she took up the violin early. In England, she studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, with Pauline Scott and David Takeno. At this point, the Baroque violin was still rarely taught in British conservatories. Podger, applying to study the instrument in her first year, was turned down because, she was told, the school's only Baroque violin had already been given to another student. Refusing to take no for an answer, Podger acquired a Baroque violin, and secretly took lessons with Micaela Comberti at Guildhall. During this time, she also worked with her brother, Julian Podger, who had formed the Trinity Baroque ensemble in Cambridge. Eventually, Podger was able to take regular classes on the Baroque violin, and she found a ready market for her talents, both as a soloist, and as a chamber music group leader. One of Podger's earlier groups was the Palladium Ensemble, which had a distinctive sound with a viola da gamba, and one or more plucked instruments (no harpsichord) for a continuo. In 1991, she co-founded the successful Baroque group Florilegium, specializing in music from the 17th through 19th centuries. She also performed with the London Baroque, among other groups, during this time. The Palladium Ensemble was featured in a major rising-groups concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in 1996. The following year, Podger became the leader of the well-established English Concert, remaining in that position until 2002. Since then, she has often conducted Baroque groups from the violin. She became guest director of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in 2004, leading the group on a tour of the U.S. She would also become the guest director for other early music ensembles, including the Santa Fe Pro Musica, and Musica Angelica. Podger often performed as a soloist with the Academy of Ancient Music, another long-established Baroque group. In 2007, Podger founded Brecon Baroque, specializing in the music of Bach and his contemporaries. Podger has also established an extensive teaching career, having taught at the Guildhall School, as well as the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. In 2008, she became professor of Baroque violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Podger has often recorded for the Channel Classics label, releasing a cycle of Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin in 2002. Her recorded repertory has extended as far forward as Mozart, but most of her recordings involve Baroque favorites. In 2018, she released a recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons violin concertos with the ensemble Brecon Baroque, as well as a solo album: a transcription of Bach's solo cello sonatas for Baroque violin.© James Manheim /TiVo Read more
Baroque violinist Rachel Podger has combined specialist knowledge with an accessible public persona, collaborating with many historical-performance groups. In the 21st century, she has also emerged as an important educator.
Podger was born in England in 1968. Her primary education was at a Rudolf Steiner school in Germany, where she took up the violin early. In England, she studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, with Pauline Scott and David Takeno. At this point, the Baroque violin was still rarely taught in British conservatories. Podger, applying to study the instrument in her first year, was turned down because, she was told, the school's only Baroque violin had already been given to another student. Refusing to take no for an answer, Podger acquired a Baroque violin, and secretly took lessons with Micaela Comberti at Guildhall. During this time, she also worked with her brother, Julian Podger, who had formed the Trinity Baroque ensemble in Cambridge. Eventually, Podger was able to take regular classes on the Baroque violin, and she found a ready market for her talents, both as a soloist, and as a chamber music group leader.
One of Podger's earlier groups was the Palladium Ensemble, which had a distinctive sound with a viola da gamba, and one or more plucked instruments (no harpsichord) for a continuo. In 1991, she co-founded the successful Baroque group Florilegium, specializing in music from the 17th through 19th centuries. She also performed with the London Baroque, among other groups, during this time. The Palladium Ensemble was featured in a major rising-groups concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in 1996. The following year, Podger became the leader of the well-established English Concert, remaining in that position until 2002. Since then, she has often conducted Baroque groups from the violin. She became guest director of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in 2004, leading the group on a tour of the U.S. She would also become the guest director for other early music ensembles, including the Santa Fe Pro Musica, and Musica Angelica. Podger often performed as a soloist with the Academy of Ancient Music, another long-established Baroque group. In 2007, Podger founded Brecon Baroque, specializing in the music of Bach and his contemporaries.
Podger has also established an extensive teaching career, having taught at the Guildhall School, as well as the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. In 2008, she became professor of Baroque violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Podger has often recorded for the Channel Classics label, releasing a cycle of Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin in 2002. Her recorded repertory has extended as far forward as Mozart, but most of her recordings involve Baroque favorites. In 2018, she released a recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons violin concertos with the ensemble Brecon Baroque, as well as a solo album: a transcription of Bach's solo cello sonatas for Baroque violin.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Vivaldi : Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons)
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 23 Mar 2018
Prise de Son d'ExceptionDiapason d'orGramophone Editor's ChoiceAfter the volumes dedicated to Vivaldi's great instrumental cycles, La Stravaganza (2004), La Cetra (2012) and L’Estro armonico (2015), English violin ...
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante - Haydn: Violin Concerti
Rachel Podger
Concertos - Released by Channel Classics Records on 11 Sep 2009
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Johann Sebastian Bach : Double & Triple Concertos
Rachel Podger
Concertos - Released by Channel Classics Records on 13 May 2013
Prise de Son d'ExceptionChoc de ClassicaDiapason d'orHi-Res AudioThere are numerous recordings of Bach's concertos avec plusieurs instruments, or with several instruments, as he called them. Posterity has labeled th ...
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Sonatas & Partitas for Violin Solo
Rachel Podger
Violin Solos - Released by Channel Classics Records on 8 Jun 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: 12 Concertos, Op. 3 "L'Estro Armonico"
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 10 Mar 2015
Diapason d'orGramophone Record of the Month24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Sonatas and Partitas Vol. 2 (Rachel Podger)
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Heinrich Biber : Rosary Sonatas
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 27 Sep 2015
Choc de Classica5 Sterne Fono Forum KlassikThe Rosary Sonatas of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704), a cycle formed of fifteen sonatas for violin with basso continuo and a passacaglia f ...
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi : La stravaganza (12 concerti, Op. 4)
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 13 May 2003
Diapason d'or24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart/Jones: Violin Sonatas Fragment Completions
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 26 Mar 2021
Think of the uncompleted fragments Mozart left behind at his premature death in 1791, and the Requiem is probably the one that springs most easily to ...
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Violin Concertos
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 3 Jul 2015
Hi-Res Audio24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 16 Sep 2016
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: The Complete Sonatas for Violin and Obbligato Harpsichord
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Complete Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin Volume 6 (Rachel Podger, Gary Cooper)
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 21 Apr 2009
Hi-Res Audio24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Cello Suites (Trans. Violin by Rachel Podger)
Rachel Podger
Violin Solos - Released by Channel Classics Records on 1 Apr 2019
Diapason d'orBaroque violinist Rachel Podger is right that Bach's output is riddled with transcriptions, and that the same is true of the performance history of hi ...
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Complete Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin, Vol. 2 (Rachel Podger, Gary Cooper)
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 1 Jan 2005
Hi-Res Audio24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Guardian Angel (Bach, Matteis, Tartini, Pisendel, Biber)
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 7 Sep 2013
Prise de Son d'ExceptionDiapason d'orGramophone Editor's ChoiceHi-Res Audio24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart - Complete Sonatas For Keyboard And Violin, Vol. 1
Rachel Podger
Duets - Released by Channel Classics Records on 11 Jan 2005
Fans who were blown away by Rachel Podger's acclaimed Bach and Telemann recordings have no doubt waited with baited breath for her to work the same ma ...
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Perla Barocca: Early Italian Masterpieces
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 22 Sep 2014
Gramophone Editor's Choice5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Complete Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin, Vol. 3 (Rachel Podger, Gary Cooper)
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 8 Aug 2006
Hi-Res Audio24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Sonatas for Violin and Obbligato Harpsichord vol. 1 (Rachel Podger)
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Complete Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin, Vol. 4 (Rachel Podger, Gary Cooper)
Rachel Podger
Classical - Released by Channel Classics Records on 1 Jan 2007
Hi-Res Audio24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo