Home//BBC Music Magazine/September 2019/In This Issue
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019THIS 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
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019LETTER 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
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019THE MONTH IN NUMBERS20,000 …bees have set up shop in Martin Bencsik’s cello. ‘I don’t need a beer or a wine,’ he says; ‘I just need to watch my bees in the cello and I’m satisfied.’ 9 …organs will descend on Westminster Cathedral for a clearly ambitious – and loud – concert on 20 November. 660,000 …people on Facebook have watched South African taxi driver sing Verdi’s ‘La donna è mobile’. Menzi Mngoma, 27, has since auditioned for Cape Town Opera among many other offers. 33 …years as principal clarinet. But now, Andrew Marriner (above), 65, is calling it a day at the London Symphony Orchestra. Happy retirement, Andrew!…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019At 84, Richard Strauss writes his Four Last Songs‘On 12 March, the glorious Vienna Opera became one more victim of the bombs,’ reflected Richard Strauss in his diary in 1945. ‘But from 1 May onwards the most terrible period of human history came to an end, the 12-year reign of bestial*ty, ignorance and anti-culture under the greatest criminals, during which Germany’s 2,000 years of cultural evolution met its doom and irreplaceable monuments of architecture and works of art were destroyed by a criminal rabble of soldiers.’ The end of World War II and the collapse of the Nazi regime did not spell good times ahead for the German composer, however. Despite his age – now in his eighties – his previous close association with the Third Reich spelt possible recrimination and even the threat of years of forced…3 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019DÉJÀ VUAn Italian vet has won a legion of fans after videos of him singing opera to cows appeared on the internet. Alfonso Camassa, who plies his trade on farms in Hampshire, serenades the beasts with repertoire learnt when he took singing lessons in his twenties. ‘My profession can be very tough,’ he says. ‘You need to do something to make everything more enjoyable for the farmer, for the cattle and for yourself.’ It’s not the first time the worlds of classical music and cows have come together… Percy Grainger may have infamously done a disservice to both Vaughan Williams and ruminants when he described VW’s Third Symphony as ‘a little too much like a cow looking over a gate’, but other composers have been more favourable – not least Milhaud,…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019REWINDThis month: SEMYON BYCHKOV conductor MY FINEST MOMENT Tchaikovsky Manfred Symphony Czech Philharmonic/Semyon Bychkov Decca 483 2320 (2017) The Manfred Symphony has a bad image – Tchaikovsky himself wanted to burn most of it; so it’s sort of like an unloved child! As we started working on it in Prague, the musicians didn’t think much of it; most of them had never played it and those who did maybe played it once and it did not convince them. So the first effort was what it was, and then some months later we came back to it; the transformation was difficult to believe. There was conviction, there was commitment and – in the concerts and recording that followed – they played for their lives. It’s about a human trying to find…3 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019FAREWELL TO…João Gilberto Born 1931 Singer, songwriter, guitarist A Brazilian musical legend, Gilberto was one of the pioneers of bossa nova in the late 1950s. Along with Antonio Carlos ‘Tom’ Jobim, and others, he concocted a distinct musical flavour for the country, one which truly tapped into its international appeal as a laid-back, sun-kissed paradise. But it wasn’t an easy start for Gilberto, whose talent with the guitar as a youngster didn’t suit his father’s wishes. Dropping out of school in Bahia to pursue music, he tried his hand as a radio singer and moved to Rio where he was soon fired from the vocal group Garotos de Lua – turning up for rehearsals didn’t entirely suit him, it seems. Meeting Jobim was a turning point, and he rode the wave…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Our Choices The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favouritesOliver Condy Editor Back in June I had the privilege to guide 13 fans of JS Bach around the composer’s Thuringian churches. And it was beyond a thrill to perform for them some of the organ works where they were written, including the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor BWV 582 at the Divii Blasi church in Mühlhausen and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 at the Bachkirche in Arnstadt. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor I hadn’t expected the highlight of a trip to the Classiche Forme festival in Lecce to be Xenakis’s Rebonds B for solo percussion. But then, I’d never heard Simone Rubino play before. With his bass drum reverberating around the Chiostro Antico Seminario courtyard, this brilliant young Italian wowed the audience with…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Post-war inspirationsOver the course of World War I, Elgar’s close contemporary Stanford , a professor at the Royal College of Music, learnt of the deaths of several former pupils, not least the composer George Butterworth. Badly affected, Stanford paid his respects to the fallen in two works: an orchestral tone poem called A song of Agincourt and the large-scale Mass ‘Via Victrix’ – the latter of these, however, was doomed to gather dust for nearly a century, only enjoying its first complete performance in Cardiff in October 2018 (see Brief notes, p102). Formally commissioned to write a symphony to celebrate the Treaty of Versailles, meanwhile, was the Brazilian Villa-Lobos . He subtitled the resulting Symphony No. 3 ‘A Guerra’ (War) and followed it later that same year with his Fourth Symphony,…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Elgar’s housesElgar lived in a staggering 25 different houses and flats throughout his life, not including various friends’ pads where he bunked up from time to time. He was born at The Firs in Broadheath, just outside Worcester, and by the time he was eight had already lived in four different houses. His life from then on was spent flitting between Sussex, Malvern (Craeg Lea pictured above), London, Worcester, Stratfordupon-Avon and Hereford. He apparently hated the upheaval of moving, but often chose to rent for a short time properties that offered him the peace and tranquillity he needed for concentrated inspiration. A guide to his sundry houses can be found at www.elgar.org.…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019It’s good to be Bach‘Beethoven tells you what it’s like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it’s like to be human. Bach tells you what it’s like to be the universe’. Apt words from Douglas Adams, creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Nor is there any shortage of quotes from composers reflecting their lofty admiration of Johann Sebastian. From Wagner’s ‘the most stupendous miracle’ assessment to Brahms’s ‘study him and you will find everything’, many have lined up over the years to bow down with a mixture of resigned admiration and ecstatic gratitude to Bach. And yet the composer revered above all others is the one whose music has been most reworked over the centuries. If Bach, as so many of us believe, attained such heaven-sent perfection in his music,…8 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Family fortunesNature or nurture? It takes good helpings of both talent and teaching to make a musician, and when a family has the good fortune to have both, whole musical dynasties can flourish. Take the Estonian Järvi family. Brothers Vallo and Neeme are both conductors, and the latter’s sons Paavo and Kristjan have both followed their father in carving out careers on the orchestral podium. Born two years apart, the French sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque have made their name as a piano duo – proving that not all siblings are rivals. Since winning BBC Young Musician in 2016, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason has become globally famous. Older sister Isata has just released a piano album, and they have five other gifted brothers and sisters who are all learning instruments. And in…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Music CompetitionsThere’s something irresistible about music competitions. Their appeal is about more than watching young musicians as they strive to win prizes, although the elimination process is usually compelling, often controversial. Audiences at the world’s top competitions can later savour the ‘I was there’ moment, the thrill that comes from catching rising stars at the start of their careers. Those who heard Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Bryn Terfel in BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition final thirty years ago, the great Battle of the Baritones, will never forget it. Daniil Trifonov has likewise become a household name among classical musicians. But he will always hold a special place in the hearts of all who heard his winning performance at the Moscow International Piano Competition eight years ago. The cut and thrust…3 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Doha QatarDoha is growing at an amazing rate. There’s every chance, in fact, that the Qatari capital’s landscape has already visibly shifted since my visit just a few months back. Oil and gas money is seemingly in inexhaustible supply. Qatar is now the richest country on earth per capita and owns, for example, great swathes of London including Canary Wharf, the 12.5 acres of land formerly occupied by Chelsea Barracks and, further east, the Olympic Village. This super-wealth is fuelling the creation back home of an instant metropolis comprised of mind-boggling infrastructure and dazzling architecture, rising almost as fast as it can be designed. Space-age businesses, universities, hospitals, libraries, mosques and, in time for the 2022 football World Cup, no fewer than nine brand new stadiums are just the start. And…4 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Copland’s styleDiatonic dissonance: Try sitting at a keyboard and seeing what effects you can create merely by playing random selections of (exclusively) white notes together at the same time. Copland became masterful at extracting expressiveness from just the seven notes of a simple major scale: check out Appalachian Spring (1944), or the opening section of the Clarinet Concerto (1948) he wrote for Benny Goodman. Brass writing: Copland’s rousing Fanfare for the Common Man, written in 1943 for brass and percussion in response to a commission to make a ‘stirring and significant’ contribution to the war effort, became possibly the most instantly recognisable piece in the history of American music. Mexico: As with Debussy’s and Ravel’s love affairs with the exotic music of Spain, Copland was deeply attracted to a musical culture…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019The composerIn his late 60s at the time of writing The Creation , Haydn was enjoying something of an Indian summer. His enormous celebrity at home in Vienna was matched elsewhere in Europe, particularly in London, to which he had made two enormously successful and happy journeys in the 1790s. No more symphonies would flow from his pen – his 104th, premiered in ay 1795, would be his last – but there were plenty of other pieces yet to come. These included his last string quartets plus several major choral works including The Seasons (1801) and the Harmoniemesse (1802).…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019An interview with Lionel MeunierWhy was the Bach family so drawn to the cantata? I think what was fantastic about the cantata was the addition of instruments, the colours you could bring and the arias you could begin to write. It carried the sacred text, and I think people were starting to want not only motets. Cantatas were popular, also, because they increased the musical possibilities you could offer the congregation. Imagine the people going to mass and getting this as the music. It would have created an amazing impression. What did JS Bach do differently to his forebears? Whatever it was – motets, cantatas, anything – he didn’t invent a new style, but he wrote everything to its maximum potential. What impresses me with Bach is actually the writing for instruments, even more…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Reissues Reviewed by Malcolm HayesDebussy La mer; Jeux; Dukas La Péri, etc Eloquence 482 4975 (1953-57) 67:53 mins Ernest Ansermet’s mastery of this repertoire shines throughout. Decent mono sound conveys specially fine Suisse Romande orchestral playing in Jeux, and in Dukas’s marvellous ballet score La Péri. ★★★★★ Franck Psyché; Variations symphoniques; Ravel Boléro; La valse; Rapsodie espagnole Eloquence 482 5491 (1943-58) 78:28 mins Pre-LP mono sound doesn’t obscure the superlative Concertgebouworkest playing under Eduard van Beinum. Boléro and La valse, recorded in stereo, are done with class and panache. ★★★★★ Farnon Concord March; Holiday Flight CRD 6001 (1969) 6:02 mins Robert Farnon’s rousing Concorde March, commissioned by BA to mark the aircraft’s launch, first appeared on a seven-inch vinyl ‘single’. The ‘B side’, Holiday Flight, is engaging BBC Light Programme-style material. ★★★ Moyzes Symphonies…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Shelley reveals the riches of London’s ‘Glorious John’JB Cramer Piano Concerto No. 4 in C; Piano Concerto No. 5 in C minor London Mozart Players/Howard Shelley (piano) Hyperion CDA 68270 60:52 mins Both concertos have irresistibly charming slow movements Johann Baptist Cramer tends to be remembered today as the composer of a book of piano exercises gathering dust at the back of a cupboard, but most people don’t think of him at all. Yet in his day – born in 1771, died in 1858 – he was one of the most celebrated pianists alive. He was born in Mannheim but his violinist father took him to live in London when he was three, and it was there that he studied, fledged, and blossomed as England’s most remarkable pianist. And, also, most loved: ‘Glorious John’ was the nickname…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019A winning performance of an American masterpieceBarber Vanessa (DVD) Emma Bell, Virginie Verrez, Edgaras Montvidas, Rosalind Plowright; Glyndebourne Chorus; London Philharmonic Orchestra/Jakub Hruša; dir. Keith Warner (Glyndebourne, 2018) Opus Arte DVD: OA1289D; Blu-ray: OABD7258D 130 mins Emma Bell holds your eyes and ears as the titular Vanessa Vanessa is a great American masterpiece. Not just because of Samuel Barber’s luscious score, or the care with which he writes for the voice, but also the immaculate libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, with its chilling sense of mystery. Here now is the production and cast that Vanessa has been waiting for. Glyndebourne’s director Keith Warner well understands the work’s American roots, premiered at the Met in 1958 two years after Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind had shown how melodrama could cut to the heart of the American…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019ChamberCarbonelli • Vivaldi Carbonelli: Sonata da Camera Nos 7-12; Vivaldi: Concerto in B flat, RV366 (Il Carbonelli) Bojan Cicic (violin); Illyria Consort Delphian DCD 34214 78:18 mins Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli was one of many 18th-century Italian musicians who headed for Britain to make profit from his music. A talented violinist whose name was appended to one of Vivaldi’s concertos, Carbonelli also played in Handel’s orchestra from time to time. On the strength of the six sonatas on this disc – which make up the balance of the other six in the collection, earlier warmly reviewed in these pages – Carbonelli was a gifted composer. Sadly, these represent his only surviving music. Bojan Cicic and his Illyria Consort play these Sonate da Camera with expressive warmth and sensibility. The continuo cadre…14 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Keyboard kings and national anthemsFeltsman’s 1987 Carnegie Hall concert is at the centre of the set Scott Ross had a short but remarkable career, changing the image of harpsichord music with a nonchalance that masked incredible focus and devotion to music. With Bach – Keyboard Works (Erato 9029545842), the American-born artist’s unfinished ambition to record all of Bach’s harpsichord works is (sort of) realised. The original five discs, themselves mostly released after Ross’s death from AIDS in 1989, are accompanied by six discs of broadcast recordings. The additions include organ works and many are on disc for the first time. Another fascinating backstory accompanies pianist Vladimir Feltsman, with The Complete Columbia Album Collection (Sony 19075911432) showcasing recordings made after moving to the US in 1987. For years before that his voice was all but…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019From the archivesCharlie Barnet was that rare thing, a jazz musician who didn’t have to worry about making a living, but could pursue jazz for the love of it. As a teenager, he dismayed his wealthy banking family by taking up the saxophone and going on the road. Just as remarkable was his total indifference to racial prejudice. He formed his first band in 1933, and in 1934 became the first white band to appear at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theatre. Passionate about the best music regardless of who was playing it, his closest musical friends and allies were the likes of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Barnet made no secret of his desire to incorporate Ellington’s harmonies and Basie’s swing in his own way, and the acclaim for his 1939 band showed…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019BACKSTAGE WITH… Tenor Nicky SpenceWhat’s the story of Martinu’s The Greek Passion ? It’s based on a book called Christ Recrucified, which is the story of a group of Greek villagers putting on their annual passion play. The characters begin to resemble their parts in the play more and more. My character Monolios is given the part of Jesus, and when refugees from another village arrive and most people want to send them away, Monolios gives them refuge. There’s a power struggle, and the other villagers turn against him and crucify him. Considering the setting, are there Greek influences in the music? It’s a kaleidoscopic selection of influences, with everything from Greek orthodox music to Moravian folk songs. There are even strains of neoclassical in there – it’s got a church-like quality, but with…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019SEPTEMBER TV CHOICE Proms 2019As well as the annual Last Night of the Proms festivities (14 Sep), there are a handful of other Proms available to watch on BBC Four this month. The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra makes its debut with young pianist Eric Lu (6 Sep), and 14 composers including Sally Beamish, Brett Dean and Judith Weir dedicate new works inspired by Elgar’s Enigma Variations to Martyn Brabbins as a 60th birthday tribute (1 Sep). If you’re after more of a visual feast, the Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon are staging an orchestral production of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, complete with choreography, lighting and design (13 Sep). An assortment of Late Night Proms will also be broadcast this month, including a showcase of music from Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts (6 Sep), as well as a…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Laura Mvula Singer-songwriterSinger, songwriter and composer Laura Mvula studied composition at Birmingham Conservatoire, before joining the a cappella group Black Voices, teaching, directing community choirs and writing her own music. After signing to Sony in 2012, she released two acclaimed albums: Sing to the Moon and The Dreaming Room. Mvula’s choral work Love Like A Lion was premiered by the BBC Singers in 2018, and Sing to the Moon will be performed at the Last Night of the Proms. My father was a big jazz and soul man, and he played music at home all the time. On Sundays we went to an independent free church which played Christian rock, and then also to a Caribbean Methodist church where I heard reggae-influenced gospel. I moved to a school that was part of…3 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019WelcomeThere’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
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Royal 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
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Rising StarsHelen Charlston Mezzo-soprano Born: Harpenden, UK Career highlight: Performing Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Gabrieli Consort and Players in Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, where the composer himself would have first directed it. Musical hero: The mezzo Janet Baker and song composer Barbara Strozzi both embody the most important parts of singing: honesty of delivery through your own unique voice, and the insatiable need to sing and perform above all else. Dream concert: I’m working on a couple of projects bringing period instruments into a modern setting which are currently fulfilling a dream, but singing my first Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas would be top of the list! Rob Luft Jazz guitarist Born: London, UK Career highlight: Releasing my debut album Riser, made up of my compositions. Having just…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Also in September 19488th: Terrence Rattigan’s The Browning Version is premiered at the Phoenix Theatre, London. A deeply reflective play about a largely unpopular classics master’s final day after 18 years at a public school, it runs until April the following year and then opens on Broadway, New York. The central character is believed to have been based on Rattigan’s own classics teacher at Harrow. 9th: Following the division of Korea after World War II, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is established in the Soviet-controlled northern half. The Soviet general Terentii Shtykov is made ambassador to the new state, which appoints Kim Il-sung as its premier. 9th: A crowd of over 500,000 people gather near the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin to urge the Allies not to abandon them. Following a blockade…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Gabriel ProkofievWith a career as a dance, grime, electro and hip-hop producer running alongside his life as a composer, Gabriel Prokofiev has developed a distinctive voice in today’s musical world. He also founded the Nonclassical record label and club night. His latest disc, featuring a selection of his concertos, is out this September. The concerto is a particularly powerful format. When you have just an orchestra and a conductor whose back is turned to the audience, it’s physically less approachable. Add a soloist, and there’s a human connection. The listener can identify with the individual and follow their adventures or struggles, and the orchestra can represent the world. This metaphor sets up a lot of different possibilities. The social and human aspect of music is so important. The more I can…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Buried TreasureChant byzantin Sister Marie Keyrouz Harmonia Mundi Gold HMG 501315 What’s so wonderful about this is that it’s completely pared down and very uncompromising. It’s all from the Greek, Lebanese and Christian Orthodox churches, so she does the ‘Hallelujah’ in three different languages – Arabic, Greek and a sort of Latin. The emotion of it is overwhelming, but incredibly controlled; she’s doing microtones and quarter tones, and stylistically it’s incredibly focused. It’s just extraordinarily passionate singing. Weiss The Dresden Manuscript Robert Barto, Karl-Ernst Schröder (lutes) Pan Classics PC10238 Weiss is quite well known, but mostly to guitarists. The duets are sort of lost, though there are references to them; a lot of reconstruction was done. This was an incredible pairing: Robert Barto’s playing is deeply eloquent and has a level…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Music to my earsKatie Bray Mezzo-soprano I tend to listen to other genres of music while I’m out and about, saving classical music for when I’m cooking or relaxing at home. Recently I’ve been listening to Massenet’s Werther, which isn’t performed all that often. Stefano Secco’s performance in the title role is particularly glorious and gutsy. Listening to an opera is a different experience to having the visuals, but it can be better because you can have your own interpretation. I prefer to get to know an opera as a piece of music first. Mozart’s quintets are so perfect that you shouldn’t try to do too much to them I’ve loved Edith Piaf since childhood. She had the most incredible, soulful sound which you can recognise instantly. Plus, I like the fact that…5 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Richard MorrisonIt’s heartening when a venerable but sleepy organisation rediscovers its va-va-voom. And one encouraging aspect of British musical life over the past 25 years has been how the Royal Philharmonic Society has crept back into relevance. Even I, a totteringly ancient music critic, had trouble remembering what the RPS did before that. Of course there was its illustrious history: commissioning Beethoven’s Ninth and Mendelssohn’s Italian symphonies; inviting Wagner and Tchaikovsky to conduct in Britain; presenting its famous gold medal to some eminent musician every now and then. But for most of the 20th century it seemed a spent force. That started to change in 1989, with the inauguration of the RPS Awards: an annual dinner at which the British classical music business could celebrate its own pacemakers and trendsetters. Then…3 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Elgar’s Concerto on discBeatrice Harrison New Symphony Orchestra/ Edward Elgar (1928) Naxos 8.111260 The concerto’s first complete recording, under the baton of the composer himself. Pablo Casals BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Adrian Boult (1945) Warner Classics 7777634985 Casals’s approach is heavily romantic – too much so for some listeners at the time. Paul Tortelier BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Malcolm Sargent (1953) Testament SBT2025 Nuanced and refined – one of three recordings of the work made by the French cellist. Jacqueline du Pré LSO/John Barbirolli (1965) Warner Classics 2564607600 A powerfully passionate performance that propelled Du Pré into the limelight. Julian Lloyd Webber Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Yehudi Menuhin (1985) Philips 416 3542 Julian Lloyd Webber’s own recording of the concerto was deservedly acclaimed for its understated passion. Alisa Weilerstein Staatskapelle Berlin/ Daniel Barenboim (2013) Decca 478 2735…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Marc-André Hamelin‘‘When it comes to translating human emotions, the piano is the most perfect instrument I know’’ ‘You feel so damn special,’ says Marc-André Hamelin. ‘It’s the occasion, it’s the audience, it’s the Royal Albert Hall – there’s really nothing like it in the world.’ The Canadian virtuoso is talking, of course, about the Proms, to which he’ll make a return this season to perform the world premiere of Ryan Wigglesworth’s new Piano Concerto alongside the Mozart Double Concerto. ‘I remember, back in 2011, I did a late-night all-Liszt recital, and one of the pieces I played was the “Benediction of God in Solitude” from the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. It’s a very quiet, reflective, beautifully calm piece. At some point I got out of my state of reverie and I…8 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Bach the arrangerLike most Baroque composers, Bach was no stranger to recycling his own music when it suited, but towards the end of his time working at the court in Weimar, he also turned his attention to other composers. Fascinated by the flourishing Italian concerto style, between 1713 and ’14 he made a substantial number of transcriptions of works by Alessandro Marcello, Benedetto Marcello and, most importantly, Vivaldi – whose handling of rhythm, motif and modulation all made an impact on Bach’s own music. Taking concertos written for orchestra, he transformed them into virtuoso solo keyboard works, for organ and harpsichord. It was his arrangements, when published in the 1850s, that stoked the Vivaldi revival. Away from the Italians, he also transcribed music by Georg Philip Telemann and Prince Johann Ernst of…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Sense of an endingMany classical musicians emerge from years at music college petrified by the idea of improvising. Yet improvisation is living musical creativity: a structured response to a moment in real-time that is all about the exchange of energy between musician and audience. In Arabic and Indian classical traditions, that is essentially what music is. But in western music, improvisation has lately been pushed aside and is now almost the sole preserve of the jazz and organ worlds. One familiar trace of it, however, remains in staple concert-hall repertoire: the not-so-humble concerto cadenza. The word derives from ‘cadence’ – the pattern of two or more chords that bring a piece or part of one to a close. In a traditional cadenza format, towards the end of a concerto’s first movement the orchestra…8 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano CompetitionThe International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition was established nearly 90 years ago and founded by Professor Jerzy Żurawlew and Aleksander Michałowski. It’s one of the oldest and most prestigious competitions in the world. Over the years, interest in the competition has started surpassing other artistic events connected with Chopin. The competition is held every five years, and in October next year it will take place for the 18th time. Despite the fact that the Chopin Competition is one of the few in which the participants play the music of just one composer, evidence suggests that mastering Chopin’s music enables musicians to learn other composers’ works quicker.. There are various opportunities for our prizewinners, from performances at the most prestigious concert halls around the world to introductions to the most important…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Dana Al FardanIf you’ve flown Qatar Airways, you might have already heard the music of Dana Al Fardan, the country’s only female composer (above). Sky 2, played while passengers board and disembark, was one of the works showcased by members of the Qatar Philharmonic at a concert in March dedicated to her music and held at the newly-opened Qatar National Library. Al Fardan’s output, which ranges from chamber and orchestral works to pop songs and musicals, combines Western, Arabic and Asian influences. You can hear her latest work on the album Sandstorm, featuring the Doha String Quartet.…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019WelcomeWhere do you like to listen to music? Given the beautiful weather, I’ve been enjoying taking my Bluetooth speaker into the garden so that I can stream and discover new favourites – it has been quite the summer soundtrack so far. The neighbours have been party to Baroque works unearthed by violinist Johannes Pramsohler in Paris and London and the first recording of works by 82-year-old composer Erika Fox (see Chamber), not to mention a new piece for theorbo by Nico Muhly (see our Instrumental Choice). Other composers bring further surprises: if you only think of the Adagio for Strings when you see the name Samuel Barber, you’ll have to discover Vanessa, which has a big thumbs up in Opera this month. And what about sacred choral works by Tchaikovsky…?…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019OrchestralBartók The Wooden Prince; The Miraculous Mandarin Suite Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/ Susanna Mälkki BIS BIS-2328 (hybrid CD/SACD) 73:07 mins All three of Bartók’s stage works explore the mysteries of the relationship between men and women. Here we have the two ballets, of which the most ‘innocent’ of them is The Wooden Prince. Its essential warmth, rooted in folk-like melodies (but never folksiness), comes across well here in Susanna Mälkki’s recording, since with a feeling for the score’s rubato she completely commands a rich-sounding Helsinki Philharmonic: the entire orchestra seems to flex and breathe with the music. There’s delicacy, too, and the Rheingold- recalling introduction hovers on the fringe of audibility – a tribute also to the engineering of this recording. Yet ultimately this performance lacks the gripping momentum of the…11 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019From the archivesWhen you think about what this trim red box (Chandos ANNI 0040; 40 CDs) represents, it’s remarkable. The origins of Chandos go back over half-a-century, when Brian Couzens – a composer, arranger and orchestrator – started a publishing company specialising in brass band music. Couzens also worked as a freelance producer, and in 1979 he turned Chandos into a record label, with his son Ralph as engineer. When people talk about ‘the Chandos sound’ – and they did from the label’s early years – it’s hard to define, but the first recording in the box is a good example: Bax’s Symphony No. 4 conducted by Bryden Thomson. Richard Hickox succeeded Thomson, and of his almost 300 recordings for the label, they’ve picked his award-winning account of Vaughan Williams’s London Symphony…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Choral & SongAmner Complete Consort Music Dublin Consort Singers; Fretwork/Mark Keane Rubicon RCD 1032 72:11 mins John Amner was a chorister in Ely Cathedral; then, from 1610 until his death in 1641, Informator Choristarum there. His music has surfaced in recorded anthologies, but it’s almost 25 years since an entire disc has been devoted to his music. And only now does the complete Sacred Hymnes of 3, 4, 5 and 6 Parts for Voyces and Vyols of 1615 enter the catalogue; a bold venture, though whether Amner is best served by 30 tracks which play with scarcely a break is questionable, especially when the emotional thermostat sometimes fails to register a change of mood, resulting in a certain fastidious uniformity. There are arresting ideas. The ‘spare me’ in ‘Remember not Lord our…11 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Candour, ebb and flow give this Cabaret appealThe Yiddish Cabaret Korngold: String Quartet No. 2; Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet; Desyatnikov: Yiddish Hila Baggio (soprano); Jerusalem Quartet Harmonia Mundi HMM 902631 59:50 mins The quartet gets under Korngold’s skin to a splendid degree This ‘concept album’ pays a personal and original tribute to pre-war Jewish life in central Europe. The Jerusalem Quartet has assembled a well-contrasted array of music: first, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, the Viennese composer who went into exile in Hollywood; then Erwin Schulhoff, whose cutting-edge career was truncated by the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and ended in a concentration camp. Finally, sophisticated arrangements by Leonid Desyatnikov specially commissioned for the recording capture five Yiddish cabaret songs from Poland, full of biting irony and sorrow. The result couldn’t be much better if it tried. The…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Reissues Reviewed by John AllisonDodgson Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 Claudio Records CC4941-2 (2005) 66:44 mins Best known for his guitar and harpsichord music, Stephen Dodgson also wrote for the piano with remarkable consistency. Bernard Roberts offers sympathetic championship. ★★★ Duruflé Organ Music Guild GMCD 7804 (1997) 72:54 mins Still one of the best surveys of Duruflé’s organ works. David M Patrick’s playing is technically impeccable and brilliantly musical, and the Coventry organ has the right mystical snarl for this music. ★★★★★ The Joan Benson Collection Works for clavichord and fortepiano Clavier Classics CC108 (1962-82) 125 mins (2 discs) Now 93, Joan Benson was a period keyboard pioneer and some of these recordings go back nearly 60 years. The clatter of old mechanisms helps evoke her voyage of discovery. ★★★ The Organ at Sydney Opera…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019JazzSeptember round-up Tenorist Tubby Hayes, who died in 1973 aged just 38, was one of a handful of Brits who could tough it out with 52nd St’s finest bebop galacticos. His legacy has been enjoying a much deserved reassessment recently and so the astonishing discovery of a lost album in Universal’s archive is very timely. And what a find: Grits, Beans and Greens, recorded in 1969, is the real deal. The Little Giant’s fabled last quartet is brought back to swinging, surging life across a programme of Hayes’s punchy bop originals, complete with alt takes and studio chat. The deluxe version comes with copious liner notes from biographer Simon Spillett. (Decca 775 6964 ★★★★★ ) The Israeli virtuoso bass player Avishai Cohen is a restless spirit, always trying out different…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019BooksBeethoven: The Relentless Revolutionary John Clubbe Norton 978-0-393-24255-3 512pp(hb) £28 This ambitious book aims to show that Beethoven was not only a revolutionary in music, which noone would doubt, but in life and action too. John Clubbe is obsessed with the composer’s fluctuating attitude to Napoleon and political revolution in general, going so far as to call Beethoven the most revolutionary of composers. What about Wagner whose political activities led to almost 13 years of exile, and whose Tristan und Isolde revolutionised music at a single stroke? To make his case, Clubbe is highly selective in his choice of works, concentrating on the odd-numbered symphonies and scarcely mentioning the even-numbered ones. He follows a similar pattern with works in the other genres too, so that the beetle-browed Beethoven of the…4 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Live choiceLONDON Vienna Philharmonic Royal Albert Hall, 3 September Tel: +44 (0)20 7070 4441 Web: www.bbc.co.uk/proms The Vienna Philharmonic is no stranger to the BBC Proms, but the first of two appearances will be especially poignant given Bernard Haitink’s imminent retirement. In what will now be the veteran conductor’s last UK performance, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 is preceded by Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with Murray Perahia. Knussen Chamber Orchestra Cadogan Hall, 9 September Tel: +44 (0)20 7070 4441 Web: www.bbc.co.uk/proms Music by Oliver Knussen opens and closes the London debut of the ensemble that bears his name. In this lunchtime Prom, his …upon one note – Fantasia after Purcell is answered by Birtwistle’s Fantasia upon all the notes, while conductor Ryan Wigglesworth introduces a new work by Freya Waley-Cohen. Beethoven…5 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019KOŽENÁ & RATTLEMartinu Piano Concerto No. 4 Pianist Garrick Ohlsson with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov; plus Dvo ÿ ák’s Legends PLUS! Kate Wakeling explores how the poems of William Blake inspired a generation of composers; leading performers reveal the pieces that inspired them as children; Freya Parr takes her mobile phone to the concert hall; Mikel Toms names the best recordings of Janá ÿ ek’s Taras Bulba; and Weinberg is our Composer of the Month Competition terms and conditions Winners will be the senders of the first correct entries drawn at random. All entrants are deemed to have accepted the rules (see opposite) and agreed to be bound by them. The prizes shall be as stated and no cash alternatives will be offered. Competitions are open to UK…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Have 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
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Commons 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
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Sound BitesCheltenham change After two seasons as music director of Cheltenham Music Festival, trumpeter Alison Balsom has announced that she is to step down to concentrate on her performing and recording career. Next year, the 75-year-old event will be in the hands of conductor and composer Jules Buckley, who will be acting as guest curator alongside the festival’s permanent head of programming. Venetian dream A British tax consultant has revealed his plans to rebuild the world’s first ever public opera house, more than two centuries after it was demolished. Paul Atkin is currently seeking to raise the ›90m (£85m) needed to construct a present-day version of Venice’s Teatro San Cassiano, the original of which opened its doors with a performance of Manelli’s Andromeda in 1637. He is also working with the…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Zimmer gives a bit of vroom for manoeuvreSilence is not always golden. Or so says BMW, which has spotted a possible drawback in its new ultra-quiet electric vehicles – some people love nothing more than the growly sound of a petrol engine. To address this, the German motor manufacturers have commissioned Hans Zimmer to create sounds that will be produced when drivers of its Vision M NEXT model put foot to accelerator – vrooms on demand, as it were. ‘When the driver interacts with the accelerator pedal it is not only a mechanical touchpoint but also a performative element,’ says the composer, who says he has been a BMW fan since he was a child.…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019We reveal who’s recording what and where...Hans-Christoph Rademann and the Dresden Kammerchor have come to the end of a ten-year project recording all of Heinrich Schütz’s music. Across 20 volumes it represents the most complete account of the composer’s work, with many pieces recorded for the first time. The musicians celebrated at the ION Music Festival in Nuremberg by performing Psalmen, which features on the final disc, just out on Carus Records. Another cycle in the works is Schubert’s complete symphonies, performed by the Kammerorchester Basel under Heinz Holliger. The conductor and oboist celebrated his 80th birthday earlier this year, just days ahead of recording the penultimate album in the series for Sony Classical. The fifth and final recording, featuring the ‘Unfinished’ Symphony and the German Dances, among other works, will be recorded in October. Schubert’s…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019The practice problemMusic practice, suggests Tom Service , has got a bad rap. Rather than expect our hours of toil to produce unattainable perfection, we should simply enjoy them Practice. It’s the musical bare necessity without which there could be no musical culture: right now, billions of notes are being played in practice rooms by professional musicians working up new repertoire, and by schoolchildren and amateurs from Barnsley to Boston to Beijing brushing up on their scales and arpeggios – otherwise there’ll be no Netflix before bedtime. So given that practising makes up so much of our lives, why is it often such a chore? And what’s the secret of making the most of your practice time? One theory used to be that it was all a question of how much time…3 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019READER CHOICEJeff Swayne Lansing, MI, US Herbert von Karajan has not always fared well recently in BBC Music Magazine’s Building a Library feature, but at his best he has few peers. The splendid Deutsche Grammophon box set of his performances with the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is full of gems, with Karajan’s trademark orchestral sound heard at its most glorious. There’s variety, too, from characterful Mozart concertos to sumptuous Brahms and Tchaikovsky. A wonderful indulgence! Joan Metcalfe Preston This August marks the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre (above) in Manchester, when a peaceful demonstration by over 60,000 people ended in tragedy as magistrates ordered a cavalry charge to disperse the crowd. Jonathan Scott, associate artist at The Bridgewater Hall, has composed Peterloo 1819, an evocative programmatic solo organ work partly…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019The Final BowDame Fortune was smiling kindly on me when I first encountered Elgar’s Cello Concerto. I was nine years old and my grandmother had evidently decided that it was time I heard the instrument I kept sawing away on played properly. So she bought me a cello record for Christmas. My grandmother didn’t know much about classical music and I later discovered that she had been guided by the ‘nice old gentleman’ who ran the specialist record shop on the corner. I have always been grateful to my mysterious mentor, as my present turned out to be one of the finest cello recordings of the era – the Elgar, played by Paul Tortelier with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Malcolm Sargent. I loved Tortelier’s gentle rendition with its French…12 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Cottage industryWhen Elgar’s three great chamber works were first performed 100 years ago this month, critics believed his music was entering a new and exciting phase. Their emergence ended six years of relative creative silence in which he produced little to rival the masterpieces of the past. In fact, he had even resorted to writing for the West End and music-halls . But in the summer of 1918, his inspiration caught fire once again, and within a few months he had completed the Violin Sonata, String Quartet and Piano Quintet – followed soon after by his Cello Concerto. Many hoped that this signalled the beginning of a new chapter in his compositional career. These new chamber works surprised many. The music contained moments of great beauty, but there were also dark…4 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Hamelin on recordMarc-André Hamelin’s impressive recording career includes over 100 discs to date, more than 60 of them for the Hyperion label, with solo, chamber and concerto repertoire by a staggering variety of composers. For finger-twisting virtuosity, try Godowsky’s Complete Studies on Chopin’s Etudes (Hyperion CDA 67411/2). ‘This is probably the most breathtaking piano recording I’ve ever heard,’ wrote our reviewer in 2000. Alkan makes equally fiendish demands, which Hamelin more than meets, particularly in the Concerto for Solo Piano (Hyperion CDA 67569). If you want to explore off the beaten track, try the double-bill of Dukas’s Piano Sonata and Decaux’s Clair de lune (Hyperion CDA 67513) or, for late Romanticism, the pairing of Korngold and Marx Piano Concertos (Hyperion CDA 66990). Or, of course, there’s a superb line-up of mainstream composers.…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019TheParentTrapPushing the six-year-old Mozart and his sister Maria Anna round the concert halls of Europe, Leopold Mozart was the archetype of what we would now call the Pushy Parent – the Tiger Father, if you will, of classical music. But if treating one’s offspring as a musical entrée to high society and a quick buck did not necessarily start with Leopold, his efforts undoubtedly contributed to the trend. The trouble with pushy parents, of course, is that not all of them push in the same direction. Handel’s father directed him strongly towards Law, banning him from playing the violin whereas his mother reacted by secretly installing a clavichord in the attic. And while some delighted in their child’s obsessions, such as the family of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, whose relations clubbed together…7 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Perfect wholesJS Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 Some of the Brandenburg Concertos have cadenzas; No. 6, however, is for several types of viola, subtly rather than vividly differentiated, and Bach does not give them much chance to show off. Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 Here the strings often form a halo of sound around the pianist, who tackles page after page of viciously difficult virtuoso writing. It scarcely needs a cadenza. Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 Rach 2’s sheer fame and big tunes have sometimes hindered the recognition of its taut, elegant, cadenza-less construction and its conversational, sometimes chamber-like tone. Stravinsky Violin Concerto The composer (pictured below) explains: ‘I did not compose a cadenza – not because I did not care about exploiting violin virtuosity, but because the violin in combination…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Singapore International Violin CompetitionThe next Singapore International Violin Competition (SIVC) will take place from 18 to 29 January 2021. Following a pre-selection tape round, 30 competitors will be invited to the live rounds in Singapore at three iconic concert venues, and grand finalists will perform with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. In addition to a $50,000 first prize and concert opportunities, six top prize-winners will receive a three-year loan of a Rin Collection instrument. Find out more about this exciting competition and its past laureates via the SIVC website. www.singaporeviolincompetition.comadmin@singaporeviolincompetition.com…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Aaron CoplandCopland was bowled over by the music of Stravinsky and Milhaud in particular These days, thanks largely to our constant exposure to film and television music, we have a very clear idea of what constitutes an ‘American’ orchestral sound. There are several different types: the brashly optimistic brass-driven march idiom of a John Williams blockbuster theme; the breezily tuneful and rhythmically dynamic bustle of a typical western score; delicately transparent chamber ensemble music, embodying the simple melodic style of a folksong or communal hymn; the elegiac solo trumpet issuing its forlorn yet noble call from a distant battlefield; the dignified, patriotic (and sometimes disconcertingly militaristic) strains we associate with almost any depiction on screen of a fictional or historic US president; and the exciting mix of classical and popular musical…7 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019The Creation Joseph HaydnThe work When Joseph Haydn first visited London in 1791, he saw something he had never seen before – grand performances of Handel’s oratorios in Westminster Abbey, some with 1,000 or more performers. The effect was electrifying. ‘He was struck as if he had been put back to the beginning of his studies,’ wrote an early biographer, ‘and had known nothing up to that moment.’ The Creation’s reverence for the natural world chimes with our own ecological concerns Could he do something similar? Although he was already a successful composer of over 90 symphonies, 50 string quartets and many other pieces, the thought stalked Haydn constantly in the period between his first visit to London and the second two years later. But what would the subject of a new oratorio…3 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Three other great recordingsAndreas Spering (conductor) In writing The Creation , Haydn referred mainly to the German version of the words, so it’s arguable that every collection needs a recording in that language. This one, from 2003, fits the bill impressively. Performed on period instruments with an excellent choir and fresh-toned soloists, Spering’s interpretation is zesty and rhythmic, with plenty of intelligent detailing. The sound is vivid too, especially in high-resolution download format. No libretto is included, but at budget price that’s forgivable, and you can easily find one on the internet. (Naxos 8.557380-81) Harry Christophers (conductor) The Handel and Haydn Society of Boston gave the North American premiere of The Creation 200 years ago, and this live performance from 2015 shows the society to be still in prime fettle. In using period…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019A spellbinding Bach family gatheringBach Kantaten H Bach: Ich Danke dir Gott; JC Bach: Die Furcht des Herren; Herr, wende dich und sei mir gnädig JM Bach: Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ; Herr, der König freuet sich; JS Bach: Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV4 Vox Luminis/Lionel Meunier Ricercar RIC 401 66.30 mins JS Bach devoted years to tracing his composer forefathers, and in this spellbinding performance Vox Luminis explores their favourite genre, the cantata. Bach’s great uncle Heinrich and his sons took up Schütz-styled writing to exploit anew the cantata’s sudden fluid shifts, from instrumental to vocal solo, from hom*ophony to polyphony, and from single to double choir. These early Bachs forged tools – complex counterpoint with lilting rhythms and urgent, fanciful rhetoric for one, two and three solo voices – that…3 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019A poignant tribute to two musical titans and friendsHenze Los Caprichos; Heliogabalus Imperator – allegoria per musica; Englische Liebslieder*; Ouverture zu einem theater *Anssi Karttunen (cello); BBC Symphony Orchestra/Oliver Knussen Wergo WER 7344 2 72:11 mins It’s hard to imagine finer elucidation of these four, dense and acrobatic scores The music world still mourns the recent loss of two titans who were great friends and mutual admirers: Hans Werner Henze (1926-2012) and – last year, aged just 66, and beloved champion of fellow composers – Oliver Knussen (1952-2018). How poignant, then, that this disc of Knussen conducting Henze should prove a marvellous tribute to them both. Recorded live and in studio in 2014, it’s hard to imagine finer, more compelling elucidation of these four, dense and acrobatic scores than Knussen delivers with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Anssi…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019ConcertoMozart Piano Concertos: No. 11 in F, K413; No. 15 in B flat, K450; No. 27 in B flat, K595 Viviane Chassot (accordion); Camerata Bern Sony Classical 19075908412 78:02 mins As young virtuoso accordionist Viviane Chassot writes, her instrument has very little in common with the piano – or the fortepiano Mozart knew. Blown reeds cannot rival the attack of strings struck by hammers. Yet the accordion’s sustaining power enables Chassot to bring out Mozart’s cantabile qualities, particularly in the B flat Concerto K595, that hammers can only suggest. Indeed, if it has to be done, it is difficult to imagine a transcription of the solo part of these concertos being more skilfully arranged and expressively performed than here. Yet, after the 20-player Camerata Bern led by Sonja Starke have…5 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019OperaArne The Judgment of Paris Mary Bevan, Gillian Ramm, Ed Lyon, Susanna Fairbairn, Anthony Gregory, Andrew Mahon; Brook Street Band/John Andrews Dutton Epoch CDLX 7361 (hybrid CD/ SACD) 67:50 mins When staged in the UK in 2016, Thomas Arne’s masque of 1742 took place not on the mythology-enriched slopes of Mount Ida, but on a plane of the ‘Arne Air’ fleet – ‘the low-cost airline: no frills, plenty of trills’. Given Arne’s light and simple British melodies, sometimes garlanded with Italianate decorations, the advertising slogan is spot on. Setting a libretto by one of the leading playwright and poets of the age, William Congreve, Arne’s masque received two radio performances broadcast by the BBC in 1950; yet this is its first commercial recording, using Ian Spink’s 1978 edition to substitute…10 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Alamire sparkles in these many-splendoured motetsH Praetorius Motets in 8, 10, 12, 16 & 20 Parts Alamire; His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts/ David Skinner; Stephen Farr (organ) Inventa INV001 100:25 mins (2 discs) The Roskilde Cathedral organ is the ace up Skinner’s sleeve Is Hieronymus Praetorius enjoying something of a ‘moment’? After languishing for so long in relative obscurity there are stirrings afoot. Two major releases surfaced last year, and now comes an ambitious two-disc set interleaving motets written for up to 20 parts with a Mass alternating plainsong and organ, plus two similarly structured sequentiae. It’s the latest scrupulously researched project from Alamire, and director David Skinner has plundered Michael Praetorius’s Syntagma Musicum for ideas as to how to present the music of a near-contemporary who, despite sharing a surname and predilection for the…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019InstrumentalJS Bach Magna Sequentia I – dances from Partitas, French Suites, Goldberg Variations, etc. Sonia Rubinsky (piano) Naxos 8.574026 71:08 mins This Juilliardtrained Brazilian pianist has been nominated by Murray Perahia as artist-in-residence at the Edward Aldwell Center in Jerusalem (where she gives masterclasses), and is laden with honours in her native land. With this unusual recording she attempts a synthesis which has not been made before. She takes as her cue the fact that Bach’s contemporary Louis Couperin wrote sets of dances too numerous to be played at one sitting, and that performers of the time would choose which pieces to play on the spur of the moment. Drawing 19 pieces from Bach’s suites, she has created a super-suite of her own. I doubt if any listener would guess…10 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Brief notesJon Deak Symphonic Tales Cabrillo Festival Orchestra et al Naxos 8.559785 Folktales blended with orchestral and chamber music isn’t a new concept, but here the performers also narrate. A fun, live recording, although the sound quality could be more dynamic. (FP) ★★★ Bryce Dessner El Chan etc Katia and Marielle Labèque (pianos) et al DG 481 8075 The Labèques bring fizz to Bryce Dessner’s Concerto for Two Pianos, but even they can’t stop it stalling periodically. El Chan shows the composer to be a more successful miniaturist. (OC) ★★★ Daniel Elms Islandia etc Daniel Elms et al New Amsterdam NWAM114 What begins as another slice of post-classical ambience quickly develops to reveal hidden depths and creative substance. Elms crafts a captivating soundworld; exquisite trumpet solos, too. (MB) ★★★★ Leifs Edda,…5 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Giving thanksJazz at Berlin Philharmonic IX Pannonica Iiro Rantala (piano), Dan Bergland (bass), Anton Eger (drums), Angelika Niescier (alto sax), Ernie Watts (tenor sax), Charenee Wade (vocals) ACT 9889-2 British-born Rothschild scion Pannonica de Koenigswarter, aka the Bebop Baroness, dedicated her life in New York to supporting wayward jazz stars such as Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. This gorgeous album, organised by ACT label boss Siggi Loch, celebrates her memory with a live programme of pieces associated with some of the famous musicians she helped. Loch’s line-up for the 2019 Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic shows was inspired. It’s so great to hear the American tenorist Ernie Watts enjoying much deserved limelight here on the quintet’s front line, with impressive German altoist Angelika Niescier. His solo on Sonny Rollins’s ‘Poor Butterfly’ is…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019AudioHow to choose the best speakers for your home Earlier this year at Munich’s High End Hi-Fi Show, I was lucky enough to sample the world’s finest speakers, which were mostly enormous and highly impractical. But worry not – living room-friendly bookshelf or freestanding speakers can still sound fantastic. Good bookshelf speakers can have real punch and dynamism Bookshelf speakers, also known as standmounts, actually sound best when placed on dedicated speaker stands rather than on a bookshelf. That’s not to say you can’t put them somewhere more convenient and enjoy them immensely – a solid sideboard is a good compromise – but they won’t reveal their full potential if they’re pushed against a wall or between a row of novels. Despite their compact size, good bookshelf speakers can have…2 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Venue of the month25. Symphony Hall Where: Birmingham Opened: 1991 Seats: 2,262 Shortly before his death in 1983, Sir Adrian Boult wrote a letter to Simon Rattle, the young music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In it, the older conductor revealed that, when he had held Rattle’s position back in the 1920s, he had been promised a nice new concert hall – but in the intervening 60 years, not much had happened. But Rattle and his players did not have much longer to wait. To breathe life into the ailing local economy, Birmingham City Council hatched plans for a major conference venue in the city centre, including within it a permanent home for the CBSO. And not just any old home, but a state-of-the-art, 2,000-seat concert hall. Brought on board…1 min
BBC Music Magazine|September 2019Three to look out forAlan Davey , the controller of BBC Radio 3, picks out three great moments to tune into this September In the Name of the Earth Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams is renowned for creating big musical spectacles. In the Name of the Earth is no exception, featuring eight choirs with 600 singers placed around the auditorium. It is a celebration of the earth and a pressing reminder of its sanctity. Proms 2019: Prom 66; 8 September, 11am Weimar Berlin: Angels and Demons The Weimar period was one of great musical and artistic advancement and collaboration. The Philharmonia performs works composed during this era, including Berg’s fragile Violin Concerto, which was dedicated to Manon, the daughter of composer Alma Mahler and Bauhaus School founder and architect Walter Gropius. Radio 3…1 min
