Issue September 2019 - BBC Music Magazine (2024)

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in this issue

IN THIS ISSUETHIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORSJulian Lloyd Webber Principal, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire ‘Elgar’s Cello Concerto carries for me many personal memories and associations. Putting my thoughts on it into words proved to be a very different challenge to playing it!’ Meurig Bowen Artistic curator and director ‘From Gounod’s Ave Maria to scatting Swingles and Wendy Carlos’s Moogs, I’ve always been fascinated by the range of Bach revamps. Are they inspired and enhancing, or gratuitous and unnecessary?’ Sarah Urwin Jones Author and writer ‘I made some surprising discoveries while researching the parents of the great composers, from overbearing fathers and overworked prodigies to secret lessons and a clavichord secreted in the attic.’…1 min

IN THIS ISSUEWelcomeThere’s a danger that Elgar will never be able to shake off associations with Empire and Establishment. While his Pomp and Circ*mstance March No. 1 continues to be bound to vigorous Union flag-waving, the composer’s body of music will carry on emanating a sense of nationalism. But Elgar was at his best not in the rousing, cheekychappy bars of those Marches, nor the co*ckaigne Overture, but in the darker, introspective pages of the Piano Quintet, the String Quartet, the Cello Concerto – all of them written in 1919. It was a harrowing time. Elgar’s friends were dying, his wife, who supported him through thick and thin, was falling desperately ill. And the country that he loved had been brought to its knees by a war of unspeakable horror. The composer…1 min

EVERY MONTHHave your say…Victorian splendour Richard Morrison is certainly right to praise music in Victorian Britain (August issue, Opinion). However, he should not so easily dismiss the composers of that period and just single out Elgar. At the recent English Music Festival, we heard the world premiere performance of Stanford’s Violin Concerto of 1873. It is certainly more than good enough to stand beside any of the concertos written in Europe during that period, but has been totally neglected. It has been forgotten that, in his lifetime, Stanford’s symphonies were performed in Germany and also in New York, conducted by Mahler. Morrison also rings true with his comment that studying Elgar in the music schools of the 1970s would have seemed perverse. At the world premiere performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and…4 min

EVERY MONTHLETTER of the MONTHShura-fire winner I wholly agree with Martin James Bartlett’s opinion of Shura Cherkassky as a wonderful pianist (Music to my ears, July). His recordings (mostly live) are not so often heard these days, but his recitals, with their Horowitz-like sense of occasion, were always rapturously received, and he was one of only two pianists with whom Horowitz himself played duets, the other being Rachmaninov. In his Evenings with Horowitz (1992), author David Dubal recalls Horowitz’s comments: ‘You know, Wanda [Wanda Toscanini, Horowitz’s wife] can’t play piano good enough to play with me … More pianists live in London now than in New York. And at least there, I can play duets with Shura Cherkassky … I play duets in London. Shura will love it with me.’ I was fortunate enough…1 min

EVERY MONTHRoyal Philharmonic Society announces relaunchThe Royal Philharmonic Society, the London-based organisation that brought us world-famous works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and more, has announced a major revamp to increase its membership and raise the prominence of classical music in the UK. The RPS’s changes include a new membership scheme that, with fees beginning at £5 a month, is aimed at encouraging thousands of enthusiasts to explore the world of classical music – in return, members will enjoy benefits such as talks and events involving leading musicians, viewable both live and online. In the long run, the RPS hopes to give itself the sort of prominence enjoyed by the Royal Horticultural Society which today has over 400,000 members and has become a central hub for lovers of all things garden-related. ‘Imagine if Britain had an equivalent…2 min

EVERY MONTHCommons time for Parliamentary string playersHarmony of any sort rarely happens in the House of Commons, so the recent appearance of a string quartet in the chamber must have proved soothing to the ears. The Statutory Instruments – an ensemble made up of Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire (cello), Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman (violin), Emily Benn (violin, far left), granddaughter of former Labour MP Tony Benn, and Labour councillor Katherine Chibah (viola) – were given special permission by speaker John Bercow to play in the Commons, which they treated to some of Debussy’s String Quartet. ‘It would be fantastic if we can expand our ensemble so that the Statutory Instruments could become, maybe, the Statutory Instruments Orchestra at some point,’ said Debbonaire.…1 min

Issue September 2019 - BBC Music Magazine (2024)

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