Hosted by BBC Radio 3’s Petroc Trelawny, this series of six Classical Music podcasts -available exclusively to Independent readers - feature BBC Music Magazine Editor Oliver Condy and the Chair of the Judging Panel Helen Wallace (who is a regular commentator on BBC Radio 3 and 4) discussing the nominations for the 2009 BBC Music Magazine Awards.

This years nominations are a star-studded list balancing giants of the international scene like Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Murray Perahia, Susan Graham and Sir Charles Mackerras in core repertoire, with some exciting new performers and musical discoveries by Tarik O'Regan, Peteris Vasks, Ernest Bloch, Gabriel Pierné and Donizetti.

The first in the series, this podcast discusses the nominees for the vocal categories. Fabulous mezzo-soprano Susan Graham’s Un Frisson Francais takes the listener on a colourful journey through her irresistible ‘tasting menu’ of 100 years of French song. Bass-baritone Gerald Finley is compelling in the Wigmore Hall Live recording of the morbid and at times simply terrifying Musorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death; and Christian Gerhaher fuses insight, intensity and unselfconscious enunciation to create an exceptional performance in Melancholie: Lieder by Robert Schumann.

To vote in the BBC Music awards, go here.