BBC Music - September 2015 UK

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THE WORLD’S BEST-SELLING CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE Download this month’s issue on iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire and Android

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ARVO PÄRT 80TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

CDS, DVDS & BOOKS see p55

How the composer’s sacred sounds have captivated a generation

Yo-Yo Ma The celebrated cellist on his favourite music

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Stephen Kovacevich The acclaimed pianist at 75

Debussy’s Images The best recordings of the piano masterpiece

Tchaikovsky Competition Ivan Hewett reports from Moscow

Richard Morrison Should concerts really be relaxing?

Classical India Mumbai’s orchestral renaissance

Pencils and Post-its

Berg’s Violin Concerto How musicians attack their scores

George Enescu Romania’s greatest composer

SEPTEMBER 2015 THE MONTH IN MUSIC

THE MONTH IN MUSIC The recordings, concerts, broadcasts and websites exciting us this September

ON STAGE Electric Leeds Former Leeds International Piano Competition winners have included Radu Lupu and Murray Perahia, and the likes of Mitsuko Uchida and András Schiff have been finalists too. The competition, founded by Dame Fanny Waterman (right) in 1961, has a fine track record of bringing to light the greats of tomorrow, so expect an electric atmosphere at Leeds Town Hall for the final on 13 September. See p86

ON AIR Brahms charms Jamie Barton was an immensely popular winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 2013, so will be sure to receive the warmest of welcomes when she makes her debut at the BBC Proms on 1 Sept. For her Albert Hall outing, the US mezzo joins the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, conducted by Marin Alsop. See p90

ON DISC Riley special It’s Terry Riley’s 80th birthday this year, and to celebrate the occasion, the Kronos Quartet is releasing a box set of his works. The American minimalist has worked with the world-renowned string quartet for 35 years; they’ve commissioned 27 works from him, beginning with Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector, which they’ve recorded afresh this year. See p76

CLIVE BARDA/ARENA PAL

ONLINE Tasty Apple Apple Music, the much anticipated music streaming service, is now up-and-running. Seen by some as a badly needed alternative to Spotify, but by others as a worryingly large stride towards the US giant’s domination of the global music market, Apple Music’s vast resources are being offered for free to users for the first three months. Visit www.apple.com/uk/music

page 22: Arvo Pärt, a giant among composers

page 28: Stephen Kovacevich talks to James Naughtie

page 36: Winning smiles in Moscow

CONTENTS EVERY MONTH 3 A Month in Music 6 Letters 10 The Full Score 21 Richard Morrison 46 Musical Destinations Rebecca Franks pushes the boat out in Venice

48 Composer of the Month Erik Levi on George Enescu, a Romanian great

52 Building a Library Rebecca Franks explores the best recordings of Debussy’s colourful Images for solo piano

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86 Live Events 90 Radio & TV listings 96 Crossword and Quiz 99 Music that Changed Me Cellist Yo-Yo Ma

FEATURES 22 Arvo Pärt We celebrate the 80th birthday of the Estonian, arguably today’s most influential composer, with a look at his life and uniquely powerful music

28 James Naughtie meets… Pianist Stephen Kovacevich

32 Pencils and Post-its What do top musicians write in their printed music scores? Ten leading performers explain their array of scribbles, scrawls and swearwords

36 Moscow duels As he reports from the International Tchaikovsky Competition, Ivan Hewett wonders whether home advantage still rules a little too strongly…

40 Classical India John Allison heads to Mumbai, where an exciting young symphony orchestra is introducing an enthusiastic new audience to classical music

44 The Young Ones What were today’s musicians like at university? Christopher Gillett opens the photo album and reveals the past antics of five well-known names

Welc

‘How does Arvo Pärt write music that breathes an intense spirituality to people of all faiths and of none? Part of the answer, I think, lurks within his odyssey of inward and outward exile, and his spiritual and musical searches…’ Page 22

Christopher Gillett Baritone and author ‘I’ve worked with countless musicians who, like me, found their musical feet at university rather than at a conservatoire. What inspired them to give up Law, Zoology, Economics (that was me)... and perform for a living?’ Page 44

Erik Levi Professor, critic and author

COVER: LEBRECHT THIS PAGE: JOHN MILLAR, KAUPO KIKKAS, ALEX SHAPUNOV/TCHAIKOVSKY COMPETITION

‘After immersing myself in the wonderful and wideranging musical world of George Enescu, there is little doubt in my mind that he is the one great composer of the first half of the 20th century who still awaits rediscovery.’ Page 48

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Peter Bouteneff Author and writer

SEPTEMBER REVIEWS The important new recordings, DVDs and books reviewed

56 Recording of the Month WA Mozart Arias and overtures 58 Orchestral 62 Concerto 66 Opera 70 Choral & Song 74 Chamber 78 Instrumental 80 Brief Notes 81 Audio 82 Jazz 84 Books

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■ Download a free track every week from one of the best reviewed recordings from a recent issue ■ Read the latest classical music news ■ Listen to clips from BBC Music Magazine’s choice recordings ■ Listen i t to t the th ffortnightly t i htl BBC Music i Magazine i podcast d t ■ Discover more about the lives of the great composers ■ Plus: the official chart, interviews, competitions, radio and TV highlights, a preview of our monthly cover CD and much more! The licence to publish this magazine was acquired from BBC Worldwide by Immediate Media Company on 1 November 2011. We remain committed to making a magazine of the highest editorial quality, one that complies with BBC editorial and commercial guidelines and connects with BBC programmes.

be ur cri o r bs for offe Su e p8 stic Se anta f

THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS

A musicians, amateur and All professional, know only too p well that their best friends w aare a decent 2B pencil and a top-quality p qu y w white rubber. u Add to that coloured felt-tip A pens, crayons and Post-it p Notes and you’ve got the full N aarsenal. Marking up a score with i h fingerings/bowings/pedallings fi i /b i / is the first thing many musicians do before the serious practice can begin; as pianist James Rhodes told me for our fascinating piece starting on p32, good fingering can do 90 per cent of the work for you. From then on, the score becomes a musical notice-board of philosophical ramblings, reminders, quotations, directions for the page-turner and even phone numbers of favourite restaurants. This world of intense musical preparation is usually hidden from us, partly because so many musicians perform without the score, but also because their annotations are usually very private.

The road to musical perfection is paved with messy scrawls The road to perfection is paved with messy scrawls, and it’s understandable that we should only be allowed to hear the final product… But we hope that this feature will not only inspire you to see under the bonnet, as it were, of great performance, but will reassure those musicians among you that the greatest artists need the security of good fingering too, and even the legendary ones are prone to forgetting the odd semi-quaver rest unless it’s well marked! Ivan Hewett’s absorbing piece on this year’s Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and St Petersburg (see p36) paints a very vivid picture of an asphyxiating musical environment – one where, Hewett hints, musicianship comes a distant second to very Russian ideas of performance. The stress, strain and anxiety of the event calls to mind a feature from one of last year’s issues, when Brenda Lucas Ogdon told the tale of her husband John’s triumph in the 1962 competition. Having made it into the second round, Ogdon returned to the UK to give a scheduled performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with the London Philharmonic, before flying back out to clinch the first prize (jointly with Vladimir Ashkenazy). How times have changed…

Oliver Condy Editor BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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LETTERS Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, e Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol, BS1 3BN or email: [email protected] LETTER OF THE MONTH

albert hall icons: pianist Daniel Barenboim and mezzo Janet Baker

A MEMORABLE START

CLIVE BARDA/ARENA PAL

I read July’s Music That Changed Mee by Daniel Barenboim during a pause in clearing my house in readiness for down-sizing. It brought to mind a memory that has now been confirmed by finding in said clearing a concert programme for a concert by the New Philharmonia at the Royal Albert Hall, to which my parents took me as a teenager some 46 years ago. The performances that night have continued to live and enrich my very being: the Elgar Cello Concerto played by Jacqueline du Pré, followed by The Dream of Gerontiuss with Janet Baker, Robert Tear and John Shirley-Quirk. Du Pré’s passion was deepened by Baker’s heavenly angel, Tear’s humanity, and Shirley-Quirk’s diction and clarity of phrasing – truly touches of the divine. That concert opened my ears, eyes, heart and mind to appreciate the rich humanity of music composition and performance and the architectural space and Every month the editor will award a SolarDAB 2 Roberts form of the building in which it is radio (retail value £80 – see being performed – qualities so richly www.robertsradio.co.uk) to the writer of the best letter received. demonstrated by Daniel Barenboim The editor reserves the right to and his music-making. shorten letters for publication. David Yabbacome, Collingham

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PETER THE GREAT Your farewell to violinist Peter Cropper (August) does not do justice to all that he did for chamber music. He and The Lindsays founded Music in the Round in Sheffield, playing in the Crucible Studio with the audience surrounding them 360 degrees at close quarters. They introduced a less stuffy form of music-making – no tails and bow ties – with Peter’s illuminating and amusing commentary on the music. We were all friends! When the Lindsays retired, he founded Ensemble 360 at the Crucible, which included The Elias String Quartet, Tim Horton on piano and distinguished wind players, 11 in all. His vision was to take chamber music to places where it had never been heard, principally in the north of England. Music in the Round, which he founded, continues the work that he started. Many like me are grateful to Peter for introducing them to chamber music. David Sharpe, via email

SLOVAK SURPRISE I was interested to read your article on Bratislava (August). While I was there, I saw the oddest production of the Barber of Seville I have ever witnessed. I sat next to a Finnish lady who agreed with me that the orgy which seemed to be developing behind the singers throughout the entire performance had nothing whatever to do with the plot. ‘Do you know what is going on?’ she whispered to me. I could only shake my head – though I know the opera very well having played Doctor Bartolo in two productions. Bratislava old town itself is very pretty, and has the

added virtue of more than one chocolate shop in which the most sublime chocolate drinks can be tried. Bryan Kesselman, Ruislip

FINE DISCOVERY I’d like to thank your disc editor Alice Pearson (Music To My Ears,s July) for her recommendation of Kabalevsky. He’s a composer I wasn’t too familiar with (with the exception of the well-known ‘Dance Of The Tumblers’), but I downloaded Anatoly Lapunov and the Byelorussian Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra’s disc of his music as a result, and I’ve discovered that he has a fine ear for melody coupled with a great feel for orchestration. It’s fun to have a ‘new’ composer to explore! John Peel, via email

DODGY LIBRARY? In his July Building A Libraryy piece on Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos, surely Daniel Jaffé didn’t mean to actually recommend the Toradze/ Gergiev Decca recordings? With its ‘sins’ of ‘perverse liberties’, ‘languid tempos’, ‘corner cutting’ and ‘several wide-leaping chords missed’, surely Mr Jaffé intended this to be in the ‘And One To Avoid’ category? Your writers have got to be realistic and use some common sense in their recommendations. David Rowe, Denver, US THE EDITOR REPLIES: One of the beauties of music is that a recording can have faults aplenty, yet still have much of interest in it to prompt a reviewer’s excitement and, hence, recommendation. This is the case in Daniel Jaffé’s well considered article.

MISSING IN CARDIFF Congratulations to the BBC on its excellent coverage of the Cardiff Singer of the World competition. One of the joys of the competition is the debate it engenders, and we are all ‘armchair critics’ at heart. But it cannot be right when one of the UK’s most senior arts correspondents reviews the event without having even been present. Rupert Christiansen of the Telegraph had the temerity to pass judgment on the singers having merely ‘browsed the heats on TV’. So too the final itself. How can anyone judge the true quality of a voice without being present in the same acoustic space? Television sound tends to make all voices sound the same size – colour, bloom and ‘spin’ is lost. Also, to judge an artist’s charisma and abilty to project personality from a TV transmission alone is equally wrong. Some singers come across better in the hall, and vice-versa.

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£74.99 (Rest of World) ABC Reg No. 3122 EDITORIAL Editor Oliver Condy Deputy editor Jeremy Pound Production editor Neil McKim Reviews editor Rebecca Franks Cover CD editor Alice Pearson Listings editor Paul Riley Consultant editor Helen Wallace Art editor Dav Ludford Designer Liam McAuley Picture editor Sarah Kennett Office assistant Maisie Hillier Thanks to Jenny Price

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THE EDITOR REPLIES: Critics

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starting to review from the TV would be, as you suggest, a worrying trend. We, however, are pleased to say that BBC Music’s correspondent was present at the heats and the final!

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WHICH PARRY? I was puzzled by the photo of Parry in August (p17). Surely this cannot be Sir Hubert Parry (1848 –1918) who, one imagines, never wore an open-neck sports shirt. Is this a photo of Ben Parry (born 1965), director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain? Steve Kirby , via email THE EDITOR REPLIES: It was

definitely Hubert, not Ben.

UNBEATABLE NAME ‘The Inextinguishable’ is a near-aspossible translation of the Danish ‘Det Uudslukkelige’ for Nielsen’s Symphony No. 4. (Composer of the Month, August). But would not ‘The Indomitable’ do? Or ‘The Invincible’? ‘Inextinguishable’ has stuck, but it’s a bit of a mouthful. Andy MacFarlane, Anglesey

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TheFullScore

OUR PICK OF THE MONTH’S NEWS, VIEWS AND INTERVIEWS

Petrenko says ‘Ja!’ to Berlin Phil Russian conductor named as successor to Simon Rattle at the world’s most prestigious orchestra Kirill Petrenko

berlin, here i come!: Kirill Petrenko has landed the biggest conducting post of all

A life in brief

ARENA PAL, GETTY

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n what was once seen as a headto-head race between Christian Thielemann and Andris Nelsons, Kirill Petrenko has been chosen by the players of the Berlin Philharmonic to be their new chief conductor. The Russian, 43, will be taking over from Sir Simon Rattle, who leaves the orchestra in 2018, though no exact date has been given for when Petrenko’s tenure will begin. Appropriately for an election process that has endured more than its fair share of mishaps along the way, even the announcement of the conductor’s appointment came with a touch of farce – with Petrenko himself nowhere to be seen, his big moment was revealed at a lunchtime press conference that was

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hastily convened by the orchestra’s board after the outcome of the players’ vote had been leaked to a local radio station. Thankfully, the Omsk-born conductor was at least able to convey his thoughts by way of a written statement. ‘Words cannot express my feelings – everything from euphoria and great joy to awe and disbelief,’ he said. ‘I am aware of the responsibility and high expectations, and I will do everything in my power to be a worthy conductor of this outstanding orchestra.’ If it is an appointment that has British and US music-lovers scratching their heads, that is largely because Petrenko has plied his trade almost entirely in Russia and Germany, is decidedly media-

Born: in 1972 in Omsk, Siberia, 1,400 miles to the east of Moscow Early career: a brilliant pianist, he made his concerto debut in Omsk at the age of 11 Conducting: having moved to Vorarlberg, Austria, with his family in 1990, he went on to study conducting in Feldkirch and Vienna Major posts: music director, Meiningen Theatre (1999-2002); music director, Komische Oper Berlin (2002-7); music director, Bavarian State Opera (2013-present)

shy and has made very few recordings. Where he is known, however, he is extremely highly rated. Currently music director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, he has also been music director at Berlin’s Komische Oper, and has won great acclaim for his performances at Bayreuth. And now that he takes over a position that has previously been held by the likes of Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan and Claudio Abbado, his name will doubtless soon become very familiar much further afield.

For more news and artist interviews visit www.classical-music.com

TheFullScore Koutcher soars to Cardiff glory Belarusian soprano hits the high notes in BBC competition final Soprano Nadine Koutcher has won BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015, joining a list of winners that includes Karita Mattila and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. The Belarusian sang Mozart, RimskyKorsakov and Delibes in the final, beating four other singers to the main prize. She wins £15,000, the Cardiff Trophy and will also perform a new piece by John Lunn commissioned by the competition. Koutcher, 32, already has an established career. She made her debut in St Petersburg in 2009, joined Perm State Opera in 2012 and has recorded Rameau with conductor Teodor Currentzis. The four other finalists included bass Jongmin Park, baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat, soprano Lauren Michelle and tenor Oleksiy Palychykov. In a final sure to be remembered as one of the competition’s most interesting contests in years, they performed to a packed-out St David’s Hall, with the BBC National of Wales and conductors Thomas Søndergård and Martyn Brabbins.

aiming high: Koutcher celebrates her Cardiff Singer win

BRIAN TARR

RISING STAR Great artists of tomorrow musicians and there was so much I could learn Kevin Zhu from others, as well as meeting new friends. I Violinist was very happy to win it, but the most important thing was to keep growing as a musician.’ It took Kevin Zhu around a year to get over his As well as the performance opportunities fear of the violin. ‘I started playing when I was it brought him, not least a concert with the about three,’ he tells us. ‘When I was two, my Philharmonia at the Royal Festival Hall, that Dad would play Chinese folk songs and give my 2012 Menuhin success gave the California-based sister violin lessons. I was really interested in Zhu one particularly notable benefit: part of the sounds that the violin the prize was the year-long made and so would come ‘The most important loan of a Guarneri by Florian over to listen. Once or twice Leonhard, the worldthing is to keep my Dad tried to hand me renowned violin dealer and the instrument but I crawled growing as a musician’ restorer. In fact, so impressed away – I found it scary was Leonhard that he’s now because it was about as big as I was.’ extended the loan, and also lent Zhu Stradivarius But once he had got going, there was no violins for important performances. stopping him. By five, he knew that playing Taking a look at Zhu’s repertoire list, one the violin was something he wanted to do can’t help but notice the number of works seriously, and by 11 he had become the youngest by composers who were equally famous as ever winner of the junior section of the Yehudi violin virtuosos – Kreisler, Sarasate, Paganini, Menuhin International Competition, the most Wieniawski, Tartini and Ysaÿe are all well prestigious such contest for young players. ‘The represented. So is he a bit of showman at heart experience of the competition was amazing,’ himself? ‘These composers blend the physical says Zhu, now 14. ‘There were so many talented aspects of playing with the emotional aspects

For more news and artist interviews visit www.classical-music.com

BBC Cardiff Singer The 2015 finalists Nadine Koutcher (Belarus; soprano) Amartuvshin Enkhbat (Mongolia; baritone, left) Oleksiy Palychykov (Ukraine; tenor) Lauren Michelle (US; soprano) Jongmin Park (South Korea; bass)

A five-strong jury chaired by David Pountney, artistic director of Welsh National Opera, marked the finalists on vocal quality, technical excellence, musical presentation and artistic personality. Tackling a repertoire described by the Guardian as ‘carrying the highest possible tariff in difficulty’, Koutcher held her nerve, and her top notes, and was presented with the trophy by fellow soprano Kiri Te Kanawa. Two other prizes were awarded over the weekend. The Song Prize went to Park, who impressed with Schubert, Schumann and others, while the public, voting by phone and on online, awarded the Audience Prize to Enkhbat, the first ever entrant from Mongolia.

fast progress: Zhu won the Menuhin Competition at 11

of music very well,’ he counters. ‘And, in fact, having a Guarneri to play on makes it easier for me to express what I want to. And music is, after all, a method of expression.’ Interview by Jeremy Pound. Kevin Zhu performs Szymanowski, Ysaÿe and others at Florian Leonhard Fine Violins, London, on 1 September

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BBC Music Recording news THE OFFICIAL CLASSICAL CHART The UK’s best-selling specialist classical releases Chart for week ending 4 July 2015

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Todd Alice’s adventures in Wonderland Opera Holland Park Signum Classics SIGCD420 In the 150th anniversary year of the book, Will Todd’s Alice-inspired opera proves a winner

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American Polyphony Polyphony/Stephen Layton Hyperion CDA 67929 From Barber to Bernstein, Polyphony’s visit to Uncle Sam was our August Disc of the Month

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Schoenberg Gurrelieder Gurzenich-Orchestra Köln/Markus Stenz Hyperion CDA 680812 Stenz’s Cologne forces bring a riot of colour and character to Schoenberg’s sumptuous cantata

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Ysaÿe Sonatas for Solo Violin Alina Ibragimova (violin) Hyperion CDA 67993 The impeccable Ibragimova revels in the glorious isolation of Ysaÿe’s captivating solo violin works

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Sonic Waves Emmanuel Vass Vass002 Water, water everywhere, from Chopin to Debussy, as Vass invites us to join him for a dip Sibelius Belshazzar’s Feast Turku Philharmonic Orchestra/ Leif Segerstam Naxos 8.573300 Finland meets the Middle East as conductor Leif Segerstam tucks into Sibelius’s exotic suite

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The Tchaikovsky Album RLPO/Vasily Petrenko Classic FM CFMD38 A fine Tchaikovsky orchestral romp, including the cannons and bells of the 1812 Overture

Lassus Missa super dixit and motets Cinquecento Hyperion CDA 68064 A great of the Dutch Renaissance receives due attention from this exceptional six-voice group Mendelssohn • Grieg • Hough Cello Sonatas Steven Isserlis (cello), Stephen Hough (piano) Hyperion CDA 68079 Steven and Stephen: a winning formula yet again

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Martha Argerich and friends: Lugano 2014 Various artists Warner Classics 825646134601 The pianist and her notable chums deliver the goods as they enjoy another Swiss get-together Visit our website at www.classical-music.com for weekly chart updates, and download the regular Radio 3 specialist chart podcast from iTunes

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box clever: new Horowitz recordings are being released by Sony

Horowitz treasure trove When tthe e great virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz toured the US, many of his conccertts were recorded. But until now mu uch of the material has been lang guishing in archives, unheard a unreleased. Sony has recently and d g out recordings of 25 of these dug solo o recitals, with 13 different prog grammes, and is releasing the em m as the 50-CD box-set Vladimir Horrow witz: the unreleased live recordings, 1966-1983 this October. Three works are new to the Horowitz discography: Schumann’s Carnavall Op. 9, Chopin’s Etude Op. 25 No. 10 and Scriabin’s Prelude for the Left Hand Alone, Op. 9 No. 1. The set also includes a recital at the White House and his 1978 Rachmaninov Concerto No. 3, his first performance with orchestra for 25 years.

Beyond Jerusalem Hubert Parry might be best known as the composer of Jerusalem and I was Glad, d but he was also a song-writer of considerable gifts. The 12 sets of his English Lyrics have been recorded complete for the first time, over three discs for the Somm label, with the first to be released this November. Written between c1885 and 1920, these settings grew out of Parry’s love of Schumann and Brahms. The project brings together soprano Susan Gritton, baritone Roderick Williams, tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Andrew West. ‘Our programming will endeavour to loosely bind thematic groups of songs with strands of biography,’ explains Gritton, adding that ‘this might really help shift false prejudices of Parry being an institutional Victorian.’

Left-hand drive The one-handed pianist Nicholas McCarthy (left) has been signed to Warner Classics. His debut album Solo is out this month. He is the only left-hand pianist ever to have graduated from the Royal College of Music, defying critics who said he wouldn’t be able to make a career. Solo features 17 pieces, ranging from Paul Wittgenstein’s left-hand arrangement of Bach/Gounod’s Ave Maria to McCarthy’s own version of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’. ‘I hope this album will offer a snapshot of the range of repertoire that exists for the left hand,’ he says. ‘My selection also offers a portrait of me as an artist.’

For more news and artist interviews visit www.classical-music.com

TheFullScore

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REWIND Artists talk about their past recordings My fondest memory

THIS MONTH DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES The US conductor and pianist began his career at the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, and has gone on to perform across the world. He currently holds posts with the Linz Opera, Bruckner Orchestra and Basel Symphony Orchestra, with whom he tours the UK and Ireland this September.

Hindemith & Schumann Cello Concertos János Starker (cello); Bamberg Symphony Orchestra/Davies RCA Victor Red Seal 09026 68027 2 I had the great fortune from early on in my conducting career to meet János Starker, when I was with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, and was able to perform with him many times, also as a pianist. He was the conducting mentor I never had. We had three days reserved to record the Schumann and Hindemith, but we ended up using g onlyy two – not g good luck for the musicians as they were paid for a tthe sessions! But more tto the point, János was always completely a prepared and strong. p He played beautifully H ffrom the beginning. It’s a very good orchestra, but having o someone like János there forces you to perform and play at a new high level. In the Schumann Concerto he always played a cadenza that he’d composed. Usually in a recording, at that point the orchestra would leave and the soloist would stay on. Here, he said to the musicians, I hope you don’t mind if I play the cadenza. He played it one time through and that was it. That’s what you hear on the recording.

I’d like another go at…

GETTY, PHILIPPE MATSAS, REINHARD WINKLER

My finest moment M S Schubert Symphony No. 9, ‘Great’ N Basel Symphony B Orchestra/Dennis O Russell Davies R Basel Symphony Orchestra B SOB03 S Schubert’s Sch bert’s Ninth Symphony S mp (the Eighth in Germany) is one of those pieces I’ve lived with for a very long time, and I had some pretty strong ideas about how it should be played. In my childhood, growing up in Ohio, I had a George Szell recording I used to listen to, and although I haven’t listened to it for 40 years, the atmosphere of the whole thing stayed with me. I had a feeling my recording is something he might have recognised. Music of this kind needs space in the concert hall. From the standpoint of endurance, the ‘Great’ Symphony is very difficult for musicians, especially the string players. The Hallé orchestra refused to play it in the 19th century, saying it was unplayable. It is playable but it demands a lot, and needs acoustical, rhythmical and sonic space. And it’s an important work, not just for Schubert but as a forerunner of composers like Hans Rott and Mahler.

Musique funèbre Works by Bartók and Lutosławski Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra/Davies ECM 476 4672 This is a recording that I was extremely proud of and happy with. But when I was listening to the retakes after the session I discovered that, in the first movement of the Bartók Divertimento, the double bass player who was new to the orchestra was playing a note in one bar that was clearly a third higher than printed. To my chagrin I hadn’t heard it. I was dumbfounded and stunned. Fortunately, we live in a time in which we have all these digital recording techniques, which I’ve spoken about not very ccomplimentarily as I think tthere’s too much editing and fussing around. a But in this case I was B rreally grateful. We had a rrecording of another work sscheduled a month later, and we were able to drop a tthat bar into the recording. It was not one of my p prouder moments, but I was just happy we were able to fix it. But every time I listen to it and get to that bar I cringe.

For more news and artist interviews visit www.classical-music.com

STUDIOSECRETS We reveal who’s recording what, and where

bach man: René Jacobs conducts St John René Jacobs and the RIAS Kammerchor have been in the Teldex Studios, Berlin to record JS Bach’s St John Passion for Harmonia Mundi. Jacobs himself sang as an alto soloist in Sigiswald Kuijken’s recording of the work in 1989; his own soloists include Werner Güra as the Evangelist, and Johannes Weisser as Jesus. Pianist Nelson Freire has also been in the Teldex studio, recording his first Bach recital disc. The final choice has yet to be made, but among the works the Brazilian has recorded are the Toccata in C minor, BWV 911, English Suite in G minor, BWV 808, and Partita No. 4 in D major, BWV 828. Elgar, Debussy and Respighi have been occupying violinist James Ehnes and pianist Andrew Armstrong, whose latest CD features sonatas by these three 20th-century composers. Recorded at Potton Hall, Suffolk, for Onyx Classics, it follows the pair’s superb recent recording of Franck and Strauss sonatas. Yevgeny Sudbin made his solo debut on disc ten years ago, with a programme of Scarlatti. A decade on, the Russian pianist is marking his anniversary with the BIS record label by recording a second disc of Scarlatti Sonatas, at St George’s Bristol. Klara Min is just about to make her debut with the Steinway & Sons label. The South Korean pianist has recorded an all-Scriabin album, featuring the 24 Preludes and a selection of short pieces. It was recorded in Boyce, Virginia, at the record label Sono Luminus’s studios.

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TheFullScore #61 SERIALISM

DISCOVERING MUSIC

NO SINGLE MUSICAL technique Stephen Johnson gets to grips with has elicited such extravagant praise or classical music’s technical terms such pungent opprobrium. Reading its leading exponents, it’s sometimes hard to tell which side they think they’re on. ‘What we were doing,’ proclaimed serialist apostle Pierre Boulez in 1963, ‘was to annihilate the will of the composer in favour of a predetermining system’. So was this an extreme interpretation of the Nietzschean proclamation ‘God is dead’? Was it an understandable reaction to the destruction unleashed by the unrestrained human will in two world wars? Or was it simply the final expression of what Nietzsche also called ‘the will to power’ in music? Strikingly, Schoenberg, the great Lawgiver of 20th-Century Music, invented his that might replace the old ‘system’ of tonality. version of serialism in the aftershock of WWI. Schoenberg came up with a device to keep all 12 notes of the chromatic scale in constant, Looking back on the wild experimentalism of ordered rotation: a ‘12-note row’. A theme? It’s his atonal works before the war, he seems to both more and less than a theme: less in that it have reacted like someone waking suddenly has no rhythmic dimension and therefore no from a terrifying dream. There had to be existence in time; more in that everything – unity, a means of organising non-tonal music

ILLUSTRATION: ADAM HOWLING

Molto meno stresso W knew it anyway, We but now scientific b sstudy has proved iit – attending a cconcert reduces sstress. In research ccarried out by tthe Royal College of Music at two recent concerts of choral music by Eric Whitacre ((above), b ) singers i and d audience di members submitted saliva samples and wore ECG monitors to measure their heart activity. When the audience’s results were analysed, a general drop in stress hormones (cortisol and cortisone) was observed, while mood states invariably became more positive. The singers’ stress levels also lowered in rehearsal but, unsurprisingly, rose while performing. ‘Singing is something that many people inherently feel is good for them and relaxes them,’ says the chilled composer himself. ‘But to show biologically (and scientifically) that it can reduce stress is very exciting.’ See Comment, p21

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absolutely everything – in the resulting composition must derive from it. Compared to the elastic, wonderfully ambiguous language of tonality, serialism was a deterministic nightmare. Some of Schoenberg’s efforts to fuse it with the stylistic features of Brahmsian Classical-Romanticism in the 1920s and ’30s can remind one of the tragic Trojan priest Laocoön, wrestling desperately with huge constricting seaserpents. Yet, perhaps inspired by the less fanatical efforts of his pupil Alban Berg, Schoenberg later began to relax the rules and introduce tonal elements to his rows, and from then it’s arguable that the flow of real masterpieces resumed. What Boulez and his confrèress attempted, in the wake of yet another world war, was to bring other musical parameters – rhythm, dynamics, instrumental colour – under serialist control. It was a heroic, almost certainly doomed enterprise. When asked, at the 1999 Edinburgh Festival, why the public resolutely refused to love serialism’s children, Boulez replied wistfully, ‘Perhaps we did not take into account sufficiently the way music is perceived by the listener.’

APP REVIEW Every issue we explore a recent digital product

Bach, Casals and the Six Suites for Cello Solo £5.49 per volume First the warning. Guitarist Steven Hancoff has lavished a lot of love and attention on this project, packing it full of videos, pictures and text – as a result, each volume is vast, so leave a lot of time and free memory to download them. Once you’ve done so, the rewards are rich. There are four volumes in all, readable in iBooks, which introduce us to the life of Bach (Vol. 1) and his legacy (Vol. 2), an account of how Pablo Casals discovered the Six Suites for Solo Cello (Vol. 3) and, finally, an in-depth look at each of the suites in turn (Vol. 4). All four volumes are worth

investigating, but perhaps the real gem lies in the last of them. Whether or not you agree with Hancoff’s analysis of the music – and occasionally one gets the feeling that he over-philosophises a touch – his thoughts are always interesting, and his playing of the music itself is glorious. Jeremy Pound d ★★★★

TheFullScore Rakes’ progress seen in Fife They do like playing in the sand at the East Neuk Festival. In 2014, to mark the Fife event’s Schubertiad weekend, the organisers commissioned the creation of a giant image of Schubert on nearby Elie Beach. This year, in honour of a 1715 Stradivarius being loaned to them for the duration of the festival, they chose a violin as the sandy subject. Drawn by sand artists Jamie Wardley and Claire Jamieson using various rakes, the vast violin provided a fine sight before the tide consigned it to history. Someone, though, clearly didn’t look at the photo closely enough before applying rake to sand. A left-handed Strad? With five strings? Hmmm…

rake mistake: East Neuk’s rare five-stringed Stradivarius…

TWITTER ROOM Who’s saying what on the micro-blogging site @ThomasGouldVLN Why so much fuss @ over a new chief conductor? Maestrohype only leads to further inequality in how conductors get paid/treated vs. players. As the Berlin Philharmonic names its A new conductor, violinist Thomas Gould n (l ft) ffails (left) il tto share h in the excitement @Flutelicious Recording of the new concerto finished. I think I may have broken the world record for notes recorded on one session Fast-fingering flautist Gareth Davies is put through his paces by US composer Douglas Knehans @danieltongpiano Now I can fully focus on Beethoven and Wimbledon. Pianist Daniel Tong gets his summer priorities in order

MIRA STOUT

@clarebalding Watching the rugby league and @alicearnold1 says of Mark Minichiello ‘why don’t they just call him Violin?’ BBC presenter Clare Balding makes a valid musical point @Paul_McCreesh I’m blessed. Sitting in the garden. Total silence broken only by the odd sheep and owl. You can’t love music if you don’t love silence. Conductor Paul McCreesh (right) likes the sound of a silent evening

Notes from the piano stool

David Owen Norris

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ompleteness has a glamour all its own. Last year the Oxford Lieder Festival won prizes for putting oon all of Schubert’s songs. I contributed SSchubert’s first song cycle, the Kosegarten ssettings from 1815. These had languished piecemeal in the Complete Edition p until 1997, when the scholar Morten u SSolvik discovered pencilled numbers oon the back of the manuscripts and grouped d them h together h – he h surmised that their haphazard published order had resulted from so simple a thing as the Imperial librarian dropping a pile of papers. Performed in the numbered order, they form what’s known as a Liederspiel, l a charade sung by several singers. There’s a famous painting of Schubert and his friends performing a simple example, the Serpent tempting Adam and Eve. Schubert sits playing the piano with his left hand (I like to think it’s a tremolando diminished seventh) as the dog looks on. The fact that, after 18 years, few have ever heard of that early cycle alerts us to another force acting on concert repertoire – distaste for the new. Completeness, though, can happily square that circle: ‘If you

I think the appeal of Completeness is about the lust of possession: the Collector’s Instinct liked X, then you may like Y’. But I think the appeal of Completeness is more about the lust of possession: the Collector’s Instinct. The most egregious example of Completeness is Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, proverbially 32 in number, depending on your definitions. The debate over the number is a handy reminder of one of the common misapprehensions about Completeness – the one that led a student of mine to write ‘Fortunately Beethoven did not die until he had been able to complete his 32 Piano Sonatas.’ Beethoven did not intend them as a set. In the 19th century, pianists like Sir Charles Halle made a point of playing the last five sonatas at a sitting – the distilled essence of Beethoven – and complete cycles did come along from time to time, but most critics regarded them as a bit of an oddity. Things change, however, and Complete Beethovens confront us on every side. The latest to enter the lists is that by the Welsh pianist Llyˇr Williams, and I had the pleasure of prefacing one of his Wigmore Hall performances with a pre-concert talk. Funny how life catches up with you – two members of my audience wanted to remind me of a concert I gave some 40 years ago with the baritone David Wilson-Johnson. ‘You’d left your music on your kitchen table’, they guffawed, ‘but you played it anyway!’ That was Beethoven too, the song-cycle An die ferne Geliebte. They recalled it with a good deal of pleasure, and I’m glad the performance has stayed in their minds, because by gum, it’s stayed in mine! ■ David Owen Norris is a pianist, composer and radio presenter BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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MUSIC TO MY EARS What the classical world has been listening to this month LARS VOGT pianist I regularly listen to Bach’s cantatas conducted by Ton Koopman as they are simply food for the soul. I love the way that he phrases everything – it is beautiful music-making, clear in its simplicity and clear in its language. I particularly love the final box of CDs in the series, which has the last cantatas that Bach wrote, such as ‘Ich habe genug’. I’ve never performed with Koopman but would love to – let’s hope he reads this! Q I’ve recently been performing Schubert Lieder with tenor Ian Bostridge, so to get myself into that, I’ve been listening to them performed by baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and pianist Gerald Moore. It is so deeply inspiring, and Fischer-Dieskau’s voice is such a miracle – it changes with every little change of words and temperament and character, and is so incredibly flexible that it just seems to go at will with Schubert’s music. And I really admire the warmth and character of Moore’s accompaniment. Q I have a wonderful new job as music director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and this autumn, my dear friend Christian Tetzlaff will be coming to perform Sibelius’s Violin Concerto with us. I have been listening to his recording of it with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard. His playing is outstanding – he dares to be intimate like no other player that I know. He is also a very versatile player who can change tone depending on whatever composer he is playing. Q Schumann’s Scenes from Faustt is the most wonderful big-scale setting of Goethe. It is a challenge for both listeners and performers, but a glorious challenge with some of the most beautiful music. I have been listening to the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra’s recording under Daniel Harding and with soloists including baritone Christian Gerhaher and soprano Christiane Karg. I am such a big fan of Gerhaher, in particular – he’s an incredible artist who simply becomes whatever he’s singing. Lars Vogt’s new recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations will be reviewed in the October issue

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OUR CHOICES The BBC Music team’s current favourites Oliver Condy Editor While digging around on a music streaming site, I came across the original orchestral score to Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. y Composed by Alex North, the score was famously ditched by its director in favour of works by Strausses R and J, among others. Fascinatingly, North’s opening ‘Main Title’ music begins with a similar rumble and brass fanfare as Also Sprach Zarathustra, and ends, too, with an organ chord.

Jeremy Pound Deputy editor Memoirs of a pear-shaped life, a new play about Satie at this year’s Cheltenham Music Festival, has encouraged me to look beyond the Frenchman’s eccentricities and explore his music further. While I have no plans to tuck into all 20-plus hours of his Vexations just yet, I have been enjoying Anne Queffélec’s exquisitely mannered performances of his solo piano works on the Virgin label.

PHILIP HIGHAM cellist One recording that I have known about for a long time but only recently heard is the Brahms Sextets performed bythe American group L’Archibudelli. They play on period instruments with gut strings which gives the texture a greater transparency, and the players show such a healthy and invigorating interest in what’s happening. So often you hear the first violin and first cello trying to outdo each other in these works, but here it’s more of a conversation. Q Dvorák’s Cello Concerto is a dear piece to me, and I find Pablo Casals’s recording from 1936 such a masterful interpretation. In many ways, it’s also an unusual one, as he prioritises rhythm above everything – as a result, the piece becomes incredibly unified, almost like a symphony. Tempo relationships can very easily become a problem for both performer and conductor in this concerto, but Casals understands them so well, and his passion and commitment to phrasing is a miracle to hear. Q Another historic recording that I find inspiring is one made by the Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman of Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’. He plays the melody with such breathtaking integrity and control and the most beautiful use of portamento and phrasing. He plays the first verse only on the G string, so it sounds more like a cello, then he plays

Rebecca Franks Reviews editor Brahms’s three violin sonatas make for a glorious evening of chamber music, sweeping the listener between dark turbulence and ecstatic lyricism, melancholic introspection and tender intimacy. Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov’s intelligent, heartfelt performance of them at Wigmore Hall recently was a joy to hear, even if the FAE Sonata that completed the programme is, admittedly, a patchy piece.

finely tuned: Bronislaw Huberman wows with Schubert

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TheFullScore the second verse in octaves with impeccable control and expression. The piece is only four minutes long, but just wonderful. Q One of the best concerts I’ve ever been to was at the Edinburgh Festival when the Chamber Orchestra of Europe played Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony and Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen, conducted by Yannick Nezet-Séguin. I’ve never seen both conductor and orchestra inhabit the architecture of the Beethoven in such a tangible way – the orchestra played like the world’s greatest string quartet, deriving their imagination and passion from the structure of the piece itself. Philip Higham’s recording of Bach’s Cello Suites will be reviewed in the October issue

HIDEKO UDAGAWA violinist Many people think that Jascha Heifetz was the greatest violinist ever, and I wouldn’t disagree. He always played with a lot of emotion. Everything he recorded was great, but one of the greatest, I feel, was his unusual recording of Vitali’s Chaconne, performed with organ in an edition by Respighi. It is a monumental performance that is deeply moving. It is played with a magnificent organ in a very acoustic church, and the result is out of this world. Q I studied with the violinist Nathan Milstein for ten years, and he had such an influence on me. He was so individual as a player but always very satisfying to listen to as he was well known as the aristocrat of good taste in everything he played – he never over-indulged himself. He made his debut playing

OUR CHOICES The BBC Music team’s current favourites Neil McKim Production editor I’ve been exploring Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto, performed by clarinettist Dimitri Ashkenazy. Originally composed for Woody Herman, the work is bursting with inventive contrasts, from its spiky first movement to its mournful Andante. In the Moderato finale, Stravinsky underpins complex jazzy melodies with mechanical pulsing rhythms.

Alice Pearson Disc editor Finzi’s Cello Concerto is arguably his finest work. He had sketched ideas for it but didn’t get round to writing it until he had the news that he was terminally ill. The work has a wide emotional range, maybe as a result of its long gestation period and the many changes in his life. The turmoil of the first movement contrasts greatly with the playful Rondo and in between there is a beautiful, singing Andante quieto.

AND MUSIC TO YOUR EARS… You tell us what you’ve been enjoying on disc and in the concert hall

GETTY, AKG, NEVA NADAEE, SUSSIE AHLBURG

Tony King Edinburgh I was lucky enough recently to play in the first UK performance of the Norwegian composer Eivind Groven’s Hjalarljod Overture. It is fresh, arresting, tuneful, exciting and deeply affectionate (it’s also nice and short); I cannot for the life of me understand why it isn’t an established concert hall favourite. There’s an excellent recording by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Eivind Aadland on BIS that has been spending a lot of time on my CD player and iPod.

David Kane Maryland, US My recent listening has been very varied. In particular, I love the audacious polytonality of Milhaud’s

Saudades do Brasil,l played by the pianist Eudóxia de Barros. And then Thomas Adès’s Tevot, t performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle, is one of the most powerful works of the 21st century so far. Add to these, Mikhail Pletnev’s fantastic renditions of CPE Bach Keyboard Sonatas, Mahler’s First Symphony – a childhood favourite – and, for a bit of first-class post-modern jazz-funk, Snarky Puppy’s We Like It Here.

Bob Stuartt Cambridge Sometimes one discovers a work that is interesting at first listen, but which on second and subsequent listening gets right inside your skin. This has been my experience with the exquisite, lyrical setting of the Magnificat by Kim André Arnesen. Everything is

G Glazunov’s Violin Concerto conducted C by the composer b himself and, as h tthis is Glazunov’s anniversary year, I a have been enjoying h his recording of h tthe work. Q I have a set of recordings of o Rachmaninov playing R Rachmaninov. When I listen to him playing his own concertos, it is very different d ff from hearing other pianists play them. He adds a lot of rubato, but every single phrase makes sense. I was always drawn to Rachmaninov, partly through Milstein who collaborated closely with him, but of course he wrote very few pieces for the violin – he seems to have preferred the darker sound of the cello. Q Less well known than Rachmaninov, but also very great, was the Soviet pianist Stanislav Neuhaus (above). He didn’t make many recordings, so every one that is available is very precious. One that I particularly treasure is a collection of pieces including Chopin impromptus and smaller works by Liszt, Rachmaninov and others. Every piece on this disc has so much personality – you could say that Neuhaus has a bit of nervous tension to him, but he handles the music so freely and is very passionate. ‘Baroque Inspirations’, Hideko Udagawa’s new disc with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, will be reviewed in a future issue

fresh: a young Norwegian composer, the Nidaros Cathedral’s Girls Choir, the Trondheim Soloists’ strings and a technically superb recording by 2L. One to treasure.

Lior Sayada London I have been listening (again!) to Mariss Jansons’s complete Shostakovich Symphonies on EMI. The First had always been my favourite with its brashness and grotesquerie, but this time around Symphony No. 7 blew me away! The first movement grows relentlessly and is utterly Shostakovich in every percussive, melodic, dissonant and Russian respect.

Stanford’s (below) Songs of the Sea brought back great memories of my Air Force days in London, and the magical music had me going through my old albums of his music. BBC Music, you’ve done it again. You bring such life to my home – great reading and amazing music. Tell us what concerts or recordings you’ve been enjoying by emailing us at [email protected]

Mike Rayy Indiana, US The April edition of BBC Music Magazine has brought great joy to my home – that month’s CD is a real treasure. Charles

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TheFullScore NEWSINBRIEF ivor new job: conductor Bolton is heading for Basel

Where seagulls dare… Leadingg pianist p injured j in savage g Liverpool p bird attack

BOLTON WANDERS Basel Symphony Orchestra has named Ivor Bolton as its new music director. The Brit, 57, will take over from Dennis Russell Davies at the Swiss ensemble at the beginning of the 2016/17 season. He adds this new role to his current positions of music director of the Teatro Real Madrid in Spain and chief conductor of the Dresden Festival Orchestra.

ALPESH STAYS While the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra keeps us waiting as to the identity of its new chief conductor, it has at least announced that Alpesh Chauhan will be staying on as assistant conductor for another season. Chauhan recently impressed when, standing in for Andris Nelsons at the last minute, he conducted the CBSO to acclaim in concerts in Birmingham and Oxford.

CHORAL CAPTAIN England cricket captain Alastair Cook has reconnected with his musical past by agreeing to become a patron of the Friends of Newport Cathedral Choir. Though he tends to keep quiet about it these days, Cook was a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral as a boy and, by all accounts, is still a dab hand at the saxophone.

GETTY ILLUSTRATION: JONTY CLARK

STICKIE PROBLEM Opera Australia has joined the rapidly growing global campaign against selfie sticks by banning them from its productions. While the company says it has no wish to stop audience members from taking lovely mugshots during applause, it evidently believes that bringing in a long, waggly pole to do so is taking vanity just a little too far. Hurrah.

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There’s danger up in those skies. Just ask Paul Lewis. In a moment that could have come straight out of a Hitchcock movie, the pianist recently injured himself in a fall… while trying to evade an attack by a particularly aggressive seagull. Yes, a seagull. Lewis’s moment of horror came as he was leaving rehearsals with the

AFTER HOURS Musicians and their hobbies

Royyal Liverpool R Philharmonic Ph Orchestra (RLPO) O an nd the spiteful squawker – sq evidently not a fan ev off tthe Schumann and dM Mozart they had been p pla aying – chose its momentt tto swoop. As he ducked out of tth he way, stumbled and then hit th he e ground, our ill-ffated virtuoso sp prrained a finger in hiis right hand, an injju ury that instantly rule ed him out of the week’s pe erformances. While Lewis went home e to convalesce and share the story of his bad luck on Twitter, and Finghin Collins flew in from Dublin to fill the breach, RLPO top brass are believed to have been discussing the provision of gull-proof armour for all future soloists. Possibly.

a job wool done: Fenella Humphreys works on a new project

FENELLA HUMPHREYS Violinist

KNITTING When I was studying in Germany, the practice rooms were absolutely freezing. At first I cut off pairs of tights to keep my hands warm, but I thought there must be a better way than that. My mum and my gran knitted, and so I started knitting wrist warmers, and it escalated from there. I enjoy challenges, such as cabling and anything else that looks good, but hate knitting with various colours at once. I’m also a little bit lazy in that I like to knit and read at the same time, so it can’t be too complicated or it gets frustrating. One of the great things about knitting is that it’s easy to take with me when I go on tour. I can knit on the train and, now we are allowed to take knitting needles on planes again – they were banned for a while – I can knit there too. As well as knitting for myself, I like to knit things

both for new-born babies and also as thank you presents. I’m currently knitting a hat for Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to say thank you for writing an incredible piece for me – it can be cold and windy in Orkney where he lives, so I hope he likes it!

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TheFullScore Farewell to… JJON VICKERS Born 1926 Tenor P Powerfully built with a voice to match, Jon Vickers excelled in m big, heroic roles such as Wagner’s b Parsifal and Tristan. A major P figure on the global opera scene fi in the 1960s, particularly at the New York Met, the Canadian N ssang for conductors including Otto Klemperer and Herbert von O Karajan and made important K rrecordings of many of his major roles, such as Britten’s Peter mighty presence: Grimes and Verdi’s Otello. As a G Jon Vickers excelled man of strong Christian faith, in heroic tenor roles however, he avoided roles such as Wagner’s Tannhaüser which a he felt offended his beliefs, earning himself the nickname ‘God’s tenor’. He retired from the stage in 1987.

WALTER WELLER Born 1939 Conductor Such was Walter Weller’s impact as principal conductor of the Scottish National Orchestra in the 1990s that his image appeared on Scottish £50 notes. Born in Vienna, he started out as a violinist, becoming concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic before taking up the baton when he stepped in for Karl Böhm at late notice in 1966. He went on to hold posts at orchestras including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic.

JAMES HORNER Born 1953 Composer James Horner’s many famous film scores included that of Titanic, whose soundtrack album sold over 27m copies and won him two Oscars. His first major score was for the The Lady in Red (1979), while in the 1980s he worked on the Star Trekk franchise and blockbusters including Aliens. The directors he worked with included Oliver Stone, Ron Howard and Titanic’s James Cameron, for whom he also wrote the score for 2009’s Avatar. r

GUNTHER SCHULLER Born 1925 Composer Having played the French horn in the Cincinnati Symphony and Metropolitan Opera orchestras and then with the likes of Miles Davis and Charles Mingus, Gunther Schuller’s natural affinity for both classical and jazz led him to fuse the two in his music, an approach that became dubbed the ‘Third Stream’. His works included the orchestral Reminiscences and Reflections, which won the 1994 Pulitzer prize for music and, earlier, Concerto for Jazz Quartet and Orchestra and Variants on a Theme of Thelonious Monk.

Also remembered… Friedemann Weigle (born 1962) was best known as the violist of Germany’s acclaimed Artemis Quartet, which he joined in 2007. Before that, he was a founder member of the Petersen Quartet.

GETTY

Edward Greenfield d (born 1928) joined the Guardian in 1955 and was chief critic from 1977 to ’93. He also wrote for The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Gramophone magazine among others.

September Releases Disc of the Month 7

escape from serialism: Pärt become disenchanted with the 12-tone system

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CHIMING & TIMING Peter Quinn examines Arvo Pärt’s tintinnabuli style

ringing a bell: Pärt and a ‘tintinnabulum’ FOLLOWING THE COMPOSITION of Credo (1968), Pärt reached a creative impasse and underwent a dramatic reorientation of style. The impulse for this was twofold, springing from an inner musical necessity brought about by his encounter with plainsong and other early music, and by his religious awakening. Anything that had no properly audible, as opposed to merely textural, purpose no longer had a place in his work. With plainchant offering him a way to proceed, Pärt wrote reams of technical exercises using just a single line of music. Apart from its innate inner strength, what impressed the composer most about plainchant was its cohesiveness, clarity and

KAUPO KIKKAS, ARVO PÄRT CENTRE

Pärt uncovered a method of fusing harmony and melody flexibility. From working with just a single line of music, Pärt began to investigate using two voices, before discovering the simple two-part homophonic unit – a generally stepwise ‘melodic’ line accompanied by a triadic harmony – that became the basis of what he calls his ‘tintinnabuli’ style (after the Latin word tintinnabulum, meaning ‘small bell’). By combining the triad and the diatonic scale in a single plane, Pärt had uncovered a method of fusing the harmonic and the melodic. The new style was announced in 1976 by the crystalline beauty of Für Alina, with an outpouring of works including Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, Tabula Rasa and Fratres following in 1977. The most perfect realisation of the style came with the St John Passion (1977-82), one of the most transcendent works of 20th-century sacred music, in which the Passion text yields the entire melodic, harmonic and rhythmic substance of the work.

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liturgical leanings: Pärt has been influenced by the Orthodox church

and overall ethos – though not, I should mention, its music – has profoundly informed his life and his art. As he clarifies it: ‘The liturgical life of the Orthodox Church is rich, and it feeds all the human senses. But my musical education was formed mostly on the basis of Roman Catholic church music. The Orthodox faith came to me later, and not so much through the music of the church, but through the teachings and words of early Christianity, and Byzantine holy men. And that heritage has influenced me greatly.’ Arvo Pärt’s immersion into Gregorian chant had one further effect. I mentioned above the power of the single line. That perception impelled Pärt to fill notebook after notebook with strings of melody, unmetered lines of notes, sometimes set to psalms or prayers, sometimes conforming to physical shapes or diagrams. These came to form a continuous thread by which he would pull himself out of his compositional stalemate. He was awaiting a breakthrough, and the single voice was half of it. The other half was the second voice. One morning in 1976,

Pärt came to the realisation that a melody line could be paired with a second line, one that would be constrained to the notes of the underlying triad. It may not sound to us like much of an innovation, but this configuration struck Pärt like thunder out of a blue sky. His wife Nora recounted the day: ‘It was the 7 February 1976. And I was going to go out with a pram with Immanuel, because it was the first sun and the birds were singing. And Arvo says to me, “Wait! Don’t go anywhere.” And that was when Alina was born. The moment of birth that day was the discovery of the second voice, like the “Big Bang” of creation.’ At this point, it would help to find and listen to a recording of Für Alina, the breathtakingly simple piano work that was the first to emerge from that discovery. Each note of the melody – the right-hand upper line, in B minor – is accompanied by a note in the left hand from the B minor triad. Played separately, these are pretty, but unremarkable. Played together, they create a sonorous unity, sounding like the little bells that give this new music its name: tintinnabuli.

Tintinnabuli speaks of loss and hope, of sorrow and consolation

ARVO PÄRT COVER FEATURE The 90-odd works that Pärt wrote after Alinaa are nearly all composed in stricter or looser obedience to this basic melodyplus-triad rule. These take a wide variety of forms and tonal colours, from the sparse Missa Syllabicaa (1977) and austere 70-minute masterpiece Passioo (1982), to two works that play dramatically on the juxtaposition of major and minor tonalities, Te Deum m (1985) and the Berliner Messee (1990). Tintinnabulii is but one of the rules that Pärt applies to his compositions; others are generated by the shape of the underlying texts, or by other factors. But tintinnabulii is more than a rule. It is an ethos, such that Pärt calls it ‘a space I sometimes wander into … where everything unimportant falls away.’ The two voices of tintinnabulii are at the root of what gives Pärt’s music its inimitable character, the particular tensions and resolutions created by the melody-triad intervals, yet the ‘rule’ is also endlessly adaptable in its diverse applications. While he justly shuns the (often pejorative) characterisation of ‘holy minimalism,’ Arvo Pärt has made his tintinnabulii style into a precision instrument for the reduction of all that is extraneous. The result is music that is intensely concentrated in its effect: everything unimportant has fallen away. It speaks to deep and complementary human emotions, of loss and hope, of sorrow and consolation and, as Pärt himself puts it, ‘sin and forgiveness’ and ‘the human and the divine.’ Indeed, the vast majority of Pärt’s post1976 music is openly sacred in its character. Apart from some of the earlier iconic works such as Alina, Spiegel im Spiegel, l Fratress and Cantus, nearly every composition is set to a sacred text, taken from scripture or Christian prayers and liturgies. He is an Orthodox Christian, something explicitly represented in his settings of texts by St Silouan the Athonite (Silouan’s Songg and Adam’s Lament) t and from the Eastern prayer tradition (Kanon Pokajanen, Triodion, and many others). But he is as likely to set texts from the Latin Mass and Roman Catholic prayers, as well as from the Bible that is common to East and West. The spiritual character of Pärt’s work is received by a broad diversity of listeners with or without their own religious affiliation. Whether or not they care to access the underlying texts, the music itself says enough. It has managed to translate the words of a particular religious tradition into a universal language. Neither this, nor the curious world of tintinnabuli, nor the essential and stirring character of his music, is fully understood by anyone. For Arvo Pärt’s devotees, he has changed and deepened their inner lives. ■ ‘Arvo Pärt: Out of Silence’ by Peter Bouteneff is out now, published by SVS Press

PÄRT ON RECORD Six of the finest recordings of his music

ambient session: Tõnu Kaljuste and musicians at the ECM recording of Adam’s Lament in St Nicholas’ Church, Tallinn

Tabula Rasa

Alina

Gidon Kremer (violin), Tatiana Grindenko (violin), Alfred Schnittke (prepared piano), Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra/Saulus Sondeckis ECM 476 3878 £14.99

Various artists ECM 449 9582 £14.99

The ECM label, through its founder Manfred Eicher, is in great part responsible for Pärt reaching a broader non-classical listenership. This inaugural ECM Pärt recording features three of his most important and enduring works: Fratres, Cantus, and Tabula Rasa.

Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem The Hilliard Ensemble ECM 837 1092 £14.99

When Pärt first heard the Hilliard Ensemble perform his St John Passion under Paul Hillier’s direction, he wept at the purity of their intervals and the perfection of their rendering. An ideal recording.

Te Deum Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra/Tõnu Kaljuste ECM 439 1622 £19.99

The first of several ECM recordings with the outstanding Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of conductor Tõnu Kaljuste, features several major and memorable works: Te Deum, Magnificat, t Silouan’s Song and the Berliner Messe.

This recording is indispensable both as an excavation to the 1976 origins of tintinnabuli,i and as an album to hear, and get lost in, endlessly. Just two sparse and simple compositions here, in multiple subtlyvarying renderings. Their copious use in film soundtracks becomes understandable, if not entirely forgivable.

Adam’s Lament Latvian Radio Choir, Vox Clamantis, Riga Sinfonietta, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir & Tallinn Chamber Orchestra/Tõnu Kaljuste ECM 476 4825 £14.99

Pärt’s most recent major work, Adam’s Lament, t is a dramatic setting of the eponymous text by St Silouan the Athonite, a 20th-century starets whose influence on Pärt is incalculably large. The disc, which won a Grammy for Best Choral Performance, closes with two irresistible lullabies.

Tintinnabuli The Tallis Scholars Gimmell CDGIM049 £13.99

Pärt has made an indelible mark on contemporary choral singing. The Tallis Scholars’ deep experience with both Renaissance and Russian Orthodox music inform their reverential – and flawless – renderings of one brilliant gem after another.

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THE JAMES NAUGHTIE INTERVIEW W FEATURE

The James Naughtie interview

STEPHEN KOVACEVICH A his 75th birthday approaches, the pianist gladly embraces the As wildly different characters of Bartók and Beethoven, Schubert and w SScriabin, even if he doesn’t always recognise his own playing… PHOTOGR A PH Y JOH N M I L L A R

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couple of years ago Stephen Kovacevich was driving along and a recording of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 27 in E minor came on the radio. He recalled a recording he had made of the piece and a last movement about which he’d never been quite satisfied. This one was much better. Who was playing? Wilhelm Kempff, probably. The performance ended. ‘Do you know what? It was my own recording, and I didn’t even recognise it,’ he tells me. ‘I wasn’t expecting it, and there it was.’ And the lesson is? ‘Sometimes when you anticipate, you preclude ecstasy.’ It’s a mistake to think too much about what to expect. Let it come to you. Some critics fail to do it, he says, too often. There’s a nice expletive here about someone from another magazine, which is better omitted. ‘I’m not going into California hippy mode to say that everything has to be unplanned, but I do think that we often overlook spontaneity.’ We’re talking about this battle against expectation in his home in Hampstead, in the room where he plays, which is draped with Indian wall hangings and where a steady stream of the most talented young players come to seek the advice of one of the great artists of our era, about to turn 75. ‘When I’m coaching someone and they have a beautiful sense of rubato, I will praise

STEPHEN KOVACEVICH

away from the keys: Kovacevich conducts Starting out: Born on 17 December 1940 in California, he made his public concert debut age 11 in San Francisco, performing Jean Françaix’s Concertino. Heading abroad: At 18, he moved to London to pursue a piano scholarship with Dame Myra Hess before making his European debut at Wigmore Hall in 1961. Notable partnership: Among his most fêted recordings is his 1978 disc of Bartók, Mozart and Debussy piano duets with Martha Argerich, his former partner with whom he has a daughter, Stéphanie. Multi-tasking: 1984 saw his first concert as a conductor with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He has since conducted many of the world’s leading orchestras.

them, but I will never, ever, praise a certain phrase, saying “Oh you played that phrase so wonderfully”, because next time they won’t do it. They’ll be self-conscious, they’ll worry they can’t do it again. Is it going to be so beautiful the second time? ‘I can say that most of the gifted kids between 20 and 30 have found their way to this piano. I worked with someone who was very gifted – could not be more gifted, really – playing the Chopin B minor Sonata. There was a beautiful phrase that we both liked. Then another beautiful phrase which, on a very high level, was tight. I said, “Please do it again. I’m giving you no advice. But don’t type it.” What was released was something completely magnificent. It was inside. That person – I won’t say who it was – trusted me. That trust was a catalyst and it was miraculous. If you heard that at a concert, you would be so grateful.’ He talks with the excitement of a youngster. On the set of his complete Philips recordings being released to mark his birthday (recorded between 1968 and 1985) you can hear many such moments, and feel the warmth of that fire. When he arrived in London at the end of the ’50s, the young Stephen Bishop began to give electric performances. By the time he recorded Beethoven’s Diabelli Variationss in 1968 he had established himself in the repertoire that was going to build his > BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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roll over, beethoven: ‘He’s sometimes a puppy dog, you know – he teases’

remarkable career: Beethoven and Brahms, Mozart and Schubert, Bartók. It is Bartók’s Second Concerto, under Colin Davis, of which he says he’s most proud among these recordings, and we talk about the extent to which his Slavic roots draw him to the composer. ‘I can’t tell. But I will say that, apart maybe from Fou Ts’ong, I think I play the Chopin mazurkas with a different feeling from most pianists who have no connection with central Europe.’ He would clearly like this to be true. After all, he changed his name to reclaim his Croatian background, eventually dropping Bishop (his mother’s name after her remarriage), having spent some years as Bishop-Kovacevich. A Californian by birth and style, he feels deeply European too. As an adolescent, he was moved most by Chopin, Wagner (‘I thought Beethoven was awful!’) and, above all, by the Russian Scriabin’s exoticism. ‘I was too young to know how erotic it was, but I knew it was something of that nature. And the sonorities! Sometimes he’s off the wall, you know. Quite mad.’ And as we start to talk about the composers he has studied and played throughout his life, he reveals his fascination for character, and his feeling for music as a never-ending search for an explanation which, however wholeheartedly you try to find it, is always bound to remain elusive.

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As for Beethoven, ‘What he does that nobody else does in the same way is to be subversive to his own muse. Then he’ll take the mickey. It’s not out of character for him; it’s deep in his own nature. I think he was fundamentally religious, though not obviously in a conventional sense. There was a sense of underlying connections. Take the third period in his work – there’s nothing of

‘If there is a god of some kind, we are not on good terms’ this in the first or second period. The subtext is: it’s all right in the end. There’s some destiny that makes it all worthwhile. I feel there’s a strong feeling there. There’s a radiance in late Mozart – the Jupiter Symphony, my God! – and Beethoven also has radiance. Listen to the minuet in the Diabellis.’ But Schubert is different. ‘The quintet is out of this world. But there’s no subtext there. And with Brahms, I don’t think there’s a positive message that I can feel. His main thing is compassion.’ Back to Mozart. ‘If you take his third period from K482 – the late E-flat major

Concerto – and listen to Symphony No. 39, the interesting thing is that in No. 39 he starts with this descending scale that’s like paradise and you don’t know why. It’s a scale, that’s all. But there’s something secret, something that can’t be revealed. We just don’t know how to talk about it. It takes your breath away.’ It’s natural to ask, with all this interest in mystery, if his fascination with India, which gripped him before he’d set foot in it, had led him towards meditation. No. And he’s not religious (‘if there’s a god of some kind, I can tell you that we’re not on good terms’) and he prefers irreverence. He enjoys that in Beethoven (‘he’s sometimes a puppy dog, you know, he teases you’) and although he has no sense of a simple answer in the search for meaning in life, he’s moved by the seriousness of the quest, and the passion that it stirs up. We return to the word which has cropped up a few times in our conversation. ‘Radiance. Beethoven hoped that there was maybe a god, although his last words were bleak: “Comedia finita est”. You have to remember how much physical pain he had. Terrible stomach pain, and now we’d describe him as borderline alcoholic. But, you know, when Rossini when to visit him he was surprised by two things: how polite he was, and how quietly he spoke. With his deafness you might have expected something else. But you know his love life was a mess. I think most people had a better time

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family gathering: with former partner Martha Argerich, daughter Stéphanie and violist Lyda Chen-Argerich in 2012

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making a point:

than Beethoven, and I’d say I wouldn’t have wanted him to marry my daughter.’ This is all delivered more cheerfully than it might seem. Kovacevich is bubbling with good humour, lots of that irreverence that he loves, and it’s the kind of encounter where we’re talking one minute about Beethoven’s interest in Indian philosophy and then about which Netflix series he watches on his big screen (Breaking Badd and House of Cards, for the record). Above all, however, we’re talking about composers whom he’s known all his life, and about performance. ‘In my life experience, Schubert is the only one who scares me when I’m working. As a man, he was I don’t know what. When I’m playing the late A major Sonata, I realise that the slow movement is the only written-out nervous breakdown in music. The first time I heard it – Serkin was playing – I thought he had made a slip. It’s an astonishing passage. And here’s a thought: I think there’s an affinity between Schubert and – wait for it – Musorgsky. You can hear the repeated use of ostinatoo in the accompaniment. It’s one of the symptoms of madness, a repeated thing like that. And there’s something about Schubert’s accompaniments that have that in them – think of the middle A minor passage. ‘It’s an unlikely connection to make. When you say it to some musicians they are shocked, but in an interesting way. The quality of the material is vastly different, but I think it’s this quality of taking it on the chin that’s the same. You know there’s no way out. Mozart is completely different. The late quintets and late concertos have a quality which is radiant.’ He recalls an occasion after a New Year party when some musicians stayed late into

Kovacevich and Jacqueline du Pré swap notes, 1964

the night and, without it being planned, played the Divertimento, K563. ‘It was beautiful beyond words, the kind of thing that can happen when no one expects it. No one who heard that will ever forget it. Next time it mightn’t happen.’ He recalls the psychiatrist Oliver Sachs, troubled and in pain, going back to what he called ‘the music of consolation’ and discovering that it didn’t work every time. Kovacevich is back to his theme of the power of the unexpected and he tells an anecdote from India. ‘I was playing the Diabellis i there about three years ago in Mumbai, and they hadn’t heard it played live since 1925 – Kempff – because, remember, classical music still isn’t that big in India. My experience actually still chokes me up just to remember it. I walked out and I saw the public, and there were so many kids that I thought I had miscalculated. And I said to the kids, “Look, this piece is very long. Don’t worry if you find some of this boring, because some of it is boring. Just stay with me.” ‘What was unbelievable afterwards was that a girl came backstage – she was about ten or

12 – and she wasn’t crying, she was absolutely sobbing, out of control. And where would a European or American kid do that? The culture doesn’t allow us to be overwhelmed. We’re so judgmental. But she was in floods of tears. She’d never heard anything like this before. She was so moved, and so was I.’ I wonder if he thinks that the reason such experiences happen less now is that we’ve simply got too many recordings around us. Maybe we hear too much. ‘Maybe it’s too many CDs? Who can tell? but there is a shining that doesn’t happen as often as it used to, whatever the reason is. All I know is that when Horowitz walked on the stage to play Tchaikovsky, people hadn’t had heard a dozen different pianists playing it. Schnabel didn’t have ten different versions of Beethoven’s Op. 111 Sonata that people were comparing. Why, I don’t know, but I think that nobody W plays with the unbelievable passion of p Horowitz or Schnabel or Rachmaninov. I don’t hear it, and I’m including myself.’ d Mentioning Rachmaninov takes him to the Russian’s recording of Schumann’s Carnaval, l made in the 1940s: ‘It’s unsurpassed, even m ttoday. Everyone I know who hears it, doesn’t kknow what to say.’ His playing? ‘Dark and iincredibly subtle; the rubato is probably the most beautiful that I know from anybody, m bbecause it comes from the music. There iis no one else who can slow up like this. Some things have a passion that is just ooverwhelming. What worries me is that some people may not be able to hear it.’ He quotes p Blake on the horror of people who don’t understand temptation. Myra Hess, his teacher, knew Rachmaninov and told Kovacevich what it was like to hear him play, and understand his depth. She went to a performance in which he misread a chord – one chord. Backstage, she said, ‘Maestro that was wonderful, but you misread a chord.’ He bowed and said little. The next day she got the biggest bouquet of flowers she’d ever seen. ‘I love that story,’ Kovacevich says. And he ends our conversation with another. Hess was playing with Arturo Toscanini, and in the second half of the concert he conducted Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. After the performance, she found him locked in his dressing room. He was unhappy with the performance, and he was shouting, ‘I’ve sinned again the Holy Ghost.’ People standing outside his room heard him saying it again and again. ‘You see?’ says Kovacevich. ‘He wasn’t really making a religious statement, he was just saying that music is sacred. He was right, of course, about music. I’m no goody goody. But sacred is sacred. And that’s it.’ ■ BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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Score draws

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What do musicians’ written markings tell us about their interpretations? We open the door on the rarely visited world of professional pencil scribblings, fingerings and Post-it Notes…

ANY CONCERT PERFORMANCE only ever tells the tiniest fraction of a story. By the time musicians walk on stage, they will have spent days, weeks or even years honing their interpretations. We only hear the polished final product, but the printed scores that they have learnt from often tell of the hard graft that has gone before, with fingerings, phrase marks, tempos, rhythm clarifications, even advice from the composers themselves scribbled onto the page. Some musicians annotate their music clearly and neatly in different coloured pens and stickers, making them easy for anyone to understand. Others adopt the renowned doctors’ scrawl – indecipherable to all but themselves. Whichever it might be, the marked-up page is an insight into the musician’s mind, a window onto his or her interpretation. Here, eight artists present their own scores, plus two from greats of the past, complete with jottings – an intriguing look at their unique relationships with the music. 32

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1. Semyon Bychkov Conductor Score: Brahmss – Symphony No. 3, second movement, Andante (pictured above) ‘In the score, I’ve emphasised Brahms’s marking semplice: as in life, so in music, there is nothing harder to achieve. The vertical lines are like an X-ray showing the construction of the music: proportions need to be respected, the lengths keep shifting. It always amazes

MARKED-UP SCORES FEATURE

mark my words: Georg Solti annotating his score; (left) his colourful score for Wagner’s Ring

3. Sir Georg Solti Conductor Score: Wagner – ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’ from Die Walküre (pictured left) Charles Kaye, Solti’s executive administrator, 1997-2007: ‘This system was unique to Solti. The big numbers you can see everywhere – 1-4, 2, 3 4 – was an old German conductor’s technique he learnt at the Liszt Academy back in Hungary to remind him of the phrasing; what these numbers mean is 1-4: the first bar of a four-bar phrase then bars 2, 3 and 4. And so on. As Solti’s eyesight became worse, he’d mark his scores more and more clearly so he wouldn’t have to conduct with glasses – that’s why so many markings are in red. Solti has thought of everything here: how it should be phrased, the tempos, the dynamics; you hear those in the recordings. You can even see, at the top left of the page, details of how he adopted different tempos at different times.’

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2 window with his fingernails, saying “Let me in”. The kid gets up and opens the window. I am always trying to find things that very vividly capture the emotion of something and, while I was practising once, this scene suddenly came into my mind.’

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4. Paul Jacobs Organist me how little information Brahms gives on the score, but how complete it is. His indications of articulation are so precise: at letter C, a dotted triplet with a slur, so it’s almost legato, but not quite. The exact point at which a crescendo should begin is crucial. The wavy line indicates where we need to take time. I’ve no idea what conductors did before Post-it Notes – they’re unbelievably useful! If something happens in rehearsal that doesn’t work, I remember it, but I may not want to stop just then, so I put in the note and come back to it later.’

2. Steven Osborne Pianist Score: Ravel – ‘Scarbo’ from Gaspard de la nuit (pictured above) ‘For me “Scarbo” is very much about madness and about somebody seeing things that are not actually there. At the beginning, the poem is all about something that he can’t quite catch in his eye but is always scraping around, but then at this crucial point it’s right in front of him. The ‘“cf Salem’s Lot” refers to the Stephen King film. There’s this moment where there’s this kid in bed and a friend who has become a vampire is scraping on the

Score: Reger – Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme (pictured above) ‘All of these notes were written quite some years ago and are a record of my personal journey with this music – I can see I mention TS Eliot, Shakespeare and Dante; Eliot wrote a pair of essays on the greatness of Shakespeare and Dante and I’m seeing a connection between the magnificence of this music and these essays. I even mention Hesse’s novel The Glass Bead Game; I’ve often seen a connection between the musical mazes that Reger presents, and the complexities of Hesse’s writing. At the top right-hand > BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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musical shades: mezzo Lucy Schaufer explains her unique colour system

5 5. Lucy Schaufer Mezzo

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Score: John Corigliano – The Ghosts of Versailles; Jonathan Dovee – Flight ‘This system goes back to Tanglewood when I was a student. I was doing the Fables de Jean de la Fontainee by André Caplet, a song cycle about all sorts of animals. And I ended up drawing them. I’m not synaesthetic, but I am visual and have an almost photographic memory. I realised that by using colour I could better understand the music. I’ve done it ever since, and the colour system has stayed in place. Red has always been structure, for instance, while blue has always been phrasing. It’s my key to opening the lock to owning the music and getting it off the page. And I believe in always marking up scores with positive comments. Colour helps with that. I also have these naughty, hysterical labels. Comedy and laughter always helps.’

corner, I’ve written “indifference to c[lassical] m[usic]” – indifference in our society is, I think, music’s greatest challenge. Sometimes, however, I write things that are indecipherable to others – I can even see a phone number there, reminding me to ring someone!’

6. Pierre-Laurent Aimard Pianist Score: Ligeti – Musica Ricercata, second movement (pictured left) ‘I worked on all of Ligeti’s piano pieces with him in the 1990s. This page shows his handwriting and, in red, his comments

in my writing. This piece is like Tibetan music: everything is ritualised. Ligeti wrote “espressivo” and “parlando “ ”, but in fact he insisted on the “impitoyable” and “cérémonial ” aspects. The last three bars of this page are marked “fff ” but he wanted “ fffff ”. There are hundreds of ways to play a note very loud with accents. He told me it was like a ‘coup de feu’ – a gunshot, or he suggested ‘couper la tête’ – cut off the head. These terrifying metaphors reveal a lot: his father and brother were murdered during the war. Once you know this, this single note has a new intensity. It shows how a text is just a starting point.’

7. James Rhodes Pianist Score: Chopin n – Piano Sonata No. 3; Nocturne Op. 62 No. 1 (pictured above) ‘My teacher Edoardo Strabbioli wrote the “Fog in London” on my score to the Chopin Sonata – he seemed to think the passage was quite impressionistic. This was the first piece I performed in public and my teacher and I did a lot of work on it – he was always on the look out for things that would help give it a programmatic feel. “Fog in London” helped me use more pedal, make it a little more

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9. Paul Cassidy Violist (The Brodsky Quartet) Score: Shostakovichh – String Quartet No. 8 ‘A few years ago, we did all of the Shostakovich string quartets in Bologna, and Irina, the composer’s widow, was in the front row! Afterwards, we were having dinner together, and so I took my opportunity to ask her a question: what does the “pah-pah-pah” rhythm that you constantly hear in Shostakovich’s music refer to? She paused, then after a while said in three distinct syllables, “Nikogda”, which means “Never again”; and then, in that same rat-tat-tat rhythm, “Bohze moi” – “Oh my God”. I asked if this was a reference to knocking on the door, and she said “Of course!” – they all lived in constant fear of that knock. Importantly, the syllables are accented equally, so when you see the notes in the score, as in the third line here, you hit the three equally too.’

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fear of three: Paul Cassidy’s marked-up score

7 mysterious… The “baby killer” inscription is Edo again – he would always do things like that, even throw mobile phones across the room and slam the lid of the piano down in a rage. It was vile! I wanted to bring out two notes in the Nocturne’s inner texture, but he went mad, and wrote ‘“baby killer” in the score as if what I was doing was as bad as infanticide!’

8. Peter Jablonski Pianist Score: Lutosławskii – ‘Largo’, Movement III from the Piano Concerto (pictured below) ‘The first time I met Lutosławski was in 1988, when the Piano Concerto had just been premiered. I was 17 and on my way to Kraków to record Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. Polish Radio had somehow arranged for me to meet him, and we spent an evening at his house listening to the first recorded takes of the premiere, by Krystian Zimerman, and leafing through his handwritten score. I remember him in particular talking about

the Largo. The music builds up to the high C, which is where one would have thought the emotional high point would be. But actually it’s two bars later. In my Lutosławski score, the markings are a lot to do with direction. I use the arrows as a simple way of showing where the phrase and momentum is going.’

10. Sviatoslav Richter Pianist Score: Saint-Saëns – Piano Concerto No. 2, first movement (pictured right) Pianist Alexander Melnikov: ‘Many years ago, towards the end of his life, Richter gave me his copy of the Saint-Saëns Second Piano Concerto. Some pages have more markings, some less; they give an insight into his views about music, although some markings are more enigmatic, some more clear. In the first line, Richter has written the words “press

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down”, which is quite enigmatic, and the backwards arrow in the second line is about timings. In the left hand there is always this quaver rest, each underlined by a wavy line. We can only assume their meaning, although I think they indicate some sort of gesture he might give to those rests. At that stage in his life he was playing with the score, and the word “attendre” at the bottom of the page is probably a message for the page turner.’

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The International Tchaikovsky Competition is the most coveted of them all. But, asks Ivan Hewett, are East-West politics still in danger of dominating it?

ALEX SHAPUNOV/TCHAIKOVSKY COMPETITION

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hat makes the International Tchaikovsky Competition different to any other? The name itself points to one factor: it is rooted in a composer who for many represents Russia musically. The scale of the competition is another. Like Russia itself, the competition is outsize – in 2015, it is spread across two cities, St Petersburg and Moscow, and involved 120 competitors, in four categories (piano, violin, cello and voice), judged by 53 jury members. Its 57-year history is also grand and tumultuous, in properly Russian fashion. There have been great winners, including violinists Viktoria Mullova and Gidon Kremer, and pianists John Ogdon and Vladimir Ashkenazy (who shared first prize in 1962) as well as Grigory Sokolov and Mihail Pletnev. Adding to the competition’s mythic status is the extraordinary drama of the first ever competition in 1958, when Shostakovich

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was chairman of the organising committee, and legendary names like violinist Leonid Kogan and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich were on the juries. The winner in the piano category was an American, Van Cliburn, an event of huge significance in those Cold War days. The Americans had just been beaten in the space race, but Van Cliburn’s victory evened the honours. He was given a tickertape victory parade in New York. Since then the competition has had its ups and downs. Allegations of bias and corruption and a general air of lassitude and poor organisation dogged it during the 1990s. The roster of winners has, frankly, not always been inspiring. The world has changed, with new and possibly fairer competitions springing up all round the world. And Russia itself has

c changed unimaginably ssince the 1950s. No doubt aware of all tthis, the organisers have ttried to reinvigorate the iinstitution. Since the previous competition of p 22011, conductor Valery Gergiev has taken a keen G iinterest in it. He wants to nurture the competitors, n not just line them up like n racehorses, and he’s worked hard to ensure the juries have a strong international component and that the marking process is free of bias. However, the fact that the competition is still entirely state-funded arouses suspicions about its independence. The current culture minister Vladimir Medinsky is fond of sweeping ex cathedraa statements asserting the importance of Russian cultural values. It seems a good moment to ask: does the

TCHAIKOVSKY COMPETITION FEATURE

notable successes: Moscow Critics’ prize winner, French pianist Lucas Debargue; (top left) voice fourth prize winner, Russian soprano Antonina Vesenina; (left) voice winner, Mongolian Aruinbaatar Ganbaatar; (bottom) Valery Gergiev

competition really find the best musical talent, as it so proudly claims? Or is it just a forum for asserting Russian pride? To find out I go to the final rounds in person, which I do as a guest of the competition. My visit begins in St Petersburg, the one-time Imperial capital. I arrive on 27 June, just in time to catch the second round of the vocal competition. First impressions of St Petersburg are like first impressions of any new city; the same distracted people peering at smartphones, the same chain stores at the airport. But in among the overwhelming evidence of globalisation are signs of older ways; a goldleafed onion-domed church half-hidden by the tower blocks, a giant poster reminding us of the heroes of the siege of Leningrad. The competition has that same quality of a shiny new packaging papered over stubborn continuities. The little Musorgsky Hall in the new Mariinsky theatre has an antiseptic,

wood-lined purity, like a lecture theatre. Busy PR types in chic ’60s-retro outfits glide about, whispering into iPhones in a dozen languages. Yet the music-making itself carries us back to a different era. The roster of singers is overwhelmingly Russian/Slavic and South-

The music-making carries us back to a different era East Asian, particularly Chinese. Most tackle some Verdi or Gounod, but every candidate has to sing some Tchaikovsky, and one or two sing only in Russian. There is also a requirement to sing a folk song, and also something composed post-1950. The Russians fulfill this requirement by digging

into long-forgotten works from the Soviet era, like Kirill Molchanov’s The Dawns Here are Quiet. All that, plus the quaint folk songs from the Chinese competitors, gives the whole thing a curiously antiquated air, as if we are being carried back to a Sino-Soviet cultural junket from the 1960s. The other striking thing about the singers is their determination to overwhelm us with sheer fire-power, often at the expense of subtlety. One of the very distinguished judges, bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, takes a dim view of this. ‘All this concentration on power is wrong, and potentially damaging,’ he says. ‘At this stage of their careers they should be concentrating on flexibility. I like the idea of including a folk song, but in general I wonder about the choice of repertoire. It’s a shame the juries could not be consulted in the selection.’ The next day involves a trip to the Grand Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the > venue for the final concerto rounds for the BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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TCHAIKOVSKY GLORY The winners in full

grand master: winning pianist Dmitry Masleev

west beats east: Shostakovich presents pianist Van Cliburn with the first prize in 1958

Piano 1st prize: Dmitry Masleev (Russia, 27) 2nd: George Li (US, 19) 3rd equal: Lukas Geniusˇas (Lithuania, 24) and Sergey Redkin (Russia, 23) 4th: Lucas Debargue (France, 24)

Violin 1st prize: Not awarded 2nd: Yu-chien Tseng (China/Taipei, 20) 3rd equal: Pavel Milyukov (Russia, 31), Alexandra Conunova (Moldova, 26) and Haik Kazazyan (Russia, 32) 4th: Clara-Jumi Kang (Germany, 28)

Cello 1st prize: Andrei Ionut¸ Ionit¸a˘ (Romania, 20) 2nd: Alexander Ramm (Russia, 27) 3rd: Alexander Buzlov (Russia, 31) 4th: Pablo Ferrández-Castro (Spain, 24)

Voice

GETTY, ALEX SHAPUNOV/TCHAIKOVSKY COMPETITION

Joint 1st prize: Yulia Matochkina (Russia, 32) and Aruinbaatar Ganbaatar (Mongolia, 27) 2nd equal: Svetlana Moskalenko (Russia, 28) and Chuanyue Wang (China, 30) 3rd equal: Mane Galoyan (Armenia, 21) and Hansung Yoo (South Korea, 30) 4th equal: Dmitry Grigoriev (Russia, 28) and Antonina Vesenina (Russia, 29)

cellists’ prize. It has a heavy, glaringly lit grandeur with outsize pillars marching down each aisle, and vast chandeliers hanging over the orchestra. In the interval I meet Alexander Milich, the TV presenter who four days later will co-host the award ceremony. He’s very upbeat about the competition, and classical music’s importance. ‘It’s cool among young people to follow the competition, and to know what’s happening culturally,’ he says. ‘I’m only 31 and I have a subscription to the Mariinsky.’ Is this just a passing fashion, or a sign that classical arts still have a hold on the young? Or

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is it bound up with national pride? There is no time to pursue these questions, as it’s time to hear the Romanian Andrei Ionut¸ Ionit¸a˘ play Dvoπák’s Cello Concerto. Immediately his big extrovert sound and eager commanding way of relating to the orchestra tell me this could be a winner. There are more cello finals to come, and the semi-finals and finals of the singers’ competition. But for me, next day involves heading off to Moscow for the violin and piano finals, on the swanky earlymorning high-speed train.

Competitors have to measure up to Russian ideas of musicality By now, social media and the competition’s own website are abuzz with speculation about possible winners. The warmest comments for the six violin finalists are reserved for the German violinist Clara-Jumi Kang, who finds a sweetly intimate tone in her opening recital. But the real excitement, as always, is generated by the pianists. Everyone is astounded by the sheer facility of the 16-yearold Daniel Kharitonov, a Russian, in one of Liszt’s Transcendental Studies, and the American George Li’s charm in Mozart’s A major Piano Concerto. The pianist who really piques everyone’s curiosity, though, is the Frenchman Lucas Debargue. We learn bit-bybit about his troubled family life, his late start, his love of jazz, his omnivorous reading and

the fact that he worked in a supermarket for three years. Naturally we are all agog to see him on the second night of the piano finals. The lovely, dark-green tinted main hall of the Moscow Conservatoire is packed. Up above, oil portraits of the great composers (Glinka among them) gaze down. At the back, a huge photo of Tchaikovsky presides over everything. On comes Debargue, blinking, razor thin, in dishevelled black tie without the tie. He plays Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto with a fascinating nervous intensity, his pinkie sticking out oddly. ‘I can’t bear to watch him,’ says one old-school female Russian professor of piano when it is over. ‘He has absolutely no technique. Why, the child doesn’t even know what a down-beat is!’ But the crowd loves him. One girl next to me gazes up at Debargue’s pained thin face with such adoration I think she might actually pass out. After the performance comes the media scrimmage. Up the backstage staircase surges an army of TV crews, PR minders and avid journalists, me included. Down the same stairs pour the orchestral players, dying for a cigarette. The mêlée is indescribable. ‘Lucas is DOWNSTAIRS!’ somebody shouts. Back we turn, in pursuit of the elusive Frenchman. I never find him, but I do bump into him at 1am in the hotel, when he tumbles out of a lift, all knees and elbows. ‘It was HORRIBLE,’ he says. ‘This is just not a natural way to make music.’ What are his plans for the next day? ‘To go to the forest, to get some peace.’ By the end of the following night all the competitors have been heard. Everyone is agreed that Debargue and Li are the most

TCHAIKOVSKY COMPETITION FEATURE characterful of the finalists. Of the four Russians, people agree only on two things: they are all technically impeccable, and Kharitonov the most blisteringly impressive of all – but too thoughtlessly and naturally brilliant to be a serious contender (though some feel it is that quality that might clinch it for him). Finally comes the prize-giving, in the big Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. For sheer oddity, this beats everything. As the lights fall, coloured patterns swirl over video screens behind the stage, resolving into cave paintings, then hieroglyphics, then Cyrillic letters. Meanwhile strange electronic noises, suggestive of the primeval soup, morph by degrees into the triumphant finale of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. On comes Gergiev, to remind us that ten million people are watching the prize-giving on Medici TV. ‘Don’t be too excited about winning, and don’t be too disappointed about losing,’ he says to the waiting finalists in the front row. As the prize-giving gets under way, impossibly tall and thin Russian models with bouncing hair sashay on, hand flowers, medals and certificates to the jury member

in on sufferance. A winning and engagingly original Dutch cellist or German violinist or French pianist may get cheers and the Moscow Music Critics Association Award, but not the really major gongs. To win those, competitors have to measure up to Russian ideas of what constitutes musicality. One can name those things: a full-blooded virtuosity allied to a tone of massive deliberation, a proud assertion of a living tradition mongolian medal: leading back through Alexander baritone Aruinbaatar Goldenweiser to Liszt (and Ganbaatar collects his prize therefore a contempt for ‘period performance’, of which we saw not whose job it is to award the prize, and sashay a trace), and a focus on Russian music. Yet we off. The gold medal-winners in each category need to remember Tchaikovsky was indebted (none is awarded in the violin category) are all to the West, and was as much a European as efficient and decent enough, but none sparks Russian composer – that always made him huge enthusiasm. Debargue wins the Moscow suspect to the large body of opinion which Critics’ prize, which raises the biggest cheer, says that the West is the enemy. That opinion but first place in the piano section goes to the is gaining ground in the new Russia. One can Russian Dmitry Masleev. only hope in future years the competition So what have I learnt? Many things, the rejects that narrow, conception of Russianness chief one being that in Russia patriotism is not in music, and strives to live up to its name. ■ a dirty word. This may be the International The Tchaikovsky Competition Winners Concert Tchaikovsky Competition, but the emphasis takes place at Cadogan Hall on 26 October and is on ‘Tchaikovsky’. The foreigners are let at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on 28 October.

sounds under the stars: the Symphony Orchestra of India performs at Cross Maidan in Mumbai’s Churchgate area

INDIAN TONIC

John Allison heads to Mumbai, where India’s first professional symphony orchestra is marking its tenth anniversary with pomp and ambitious plans

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lassical music in an Indian context normally means that country’s enormously rich traditions of Hindustani and Carnatic music from the north and south of the subcontinent. Western classical music, by contrast, has maintained little more than a toehold since the early days of the Raj, when performers sometimes stopped off en route to Australia and other destinations. At times during both the country’s colonial and post-colonial history, that presence may have increased at least to a foothold, yet it has nearly always still felt tenuous. So next year’s tenth anniversary of the founding of

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the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) – the country’s first professional symphony orchestra – must be a cause for optimistic celebration. In Mumbai (formerly Bombay), at least, where the imposing National Centre for Performing Arts is home to the SOI, western classical music seems to be thriving. These two classical musics can co-exist, of course, but even perhaps the greatest figure ever to try to reconcile them, Rabindranath Tagore, recognised their fundamental differences. It was the Nobel Prize-winning writer – also the composer of ballad operas that blended European elements with traditional Indian music – who said: ‘For

us, music has above all a transcendental significance. It disengages the spiritual from the happenings of life; it sings of the relationships of the human soul with the soul of things beyond. The world by day is like European music; a flowing concourse of vast harmony, composed of concord and discord and many disconnected fragments. And the night world is our Indian music; one pure, deep and tender raga. They both stir us, yet the two are contradictory in spirit. But that cannot be helped.’ It’s tempting also to blame this disconnect on the British Raj, never much of a cultural hothouse even by the wider standards of

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF INDIA FEATURE

cultural centre: the busy Victoria Terminus; (bottom) Nobel Prize-winning author Rabindranath Tagore

orchestral heroes:

GETTY, ISTOCK

SOI founder Khushroo Suntook and director Marat Bisengaliev

colonial philistinism and better at leaving railways than orchestras, but that suggestion is gently denied by Khushroo Suntook, the chairman of the NCPA and founder of the SOI. Suntook, who turned 80 earlier this year, is a member of the small but prominent Parsi community that has taken the lead in all western-looking cultural matters since even before Mehli Mehta founded the Bombay Symphony Orchestra in 1935, and points to the Anglophilia of the Parsis. ‘Mind you,’ he adds with a twinkle, ‘we were Anglicised only to a certain extent. The first rebels against British rule were also Parsi. We’re a little contradiction!’ A classmate of Mehli’s son Zubin, Suntook came from a distinguished legal household who counted Mahatma Gandhi as a family friend. ‘I heard music in the home from when I was born. The piano was always being played, as were the 78s, which I still have. A lot of great musicians came to Bombay in those days.’ Suntook is speaking in his office at the NCPA, a multi-venue arts complex that was established in 1969 in a prime South Mumbai location overlooking the sparkling Arabian

Sea at Nariman Point. Within walking distance – in some cases, an energetic walk – are many of the city’s most spectacular Indo-Gothic colonial buildings, including the Gateway to India (built to commemorate the landing of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911, an occasion also marked musically by Elgar in his Crown of India) a and the Victoria Terminus, now known as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. In such surroundings it is not hard to imagine the trail of famous musicians visiting the city. Suntook even recalls hearing Karajan conduct the Berlin Philharmonic in the great courtyard of St

In Mumbai, western classical music seems to be thriving Xavier’s College, his alma mater, on that orchestra’s only visit to the city in 1959. As well as less surprising visitors such as violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears went there around Christmas 1955 and enjoyed lunch with the music-loving prime minister, ‘Pandit’ Nehru. But lovers of western music remain a tiny minority, and the same could be said of the city now known as Kolkata, where a remarkable institution, the Calcutta School of Music, is celebrating its centenary this year. For all its teeming chaos, Mumbai is still the most westernised city in India, and even it struggled to maintain any sort of consistent orchestral life after Mehli Mehta left in 1955 to join John Barbirolli’s Hallé orchestra. Those who heard the Bombay Symphony Orchestra more than 60 years ago admit it was a little ad hoc and not fully professional,

with many doctors and lawyers in its ranks, but certainly, as first its concertmaster and then conductor – also founder of the Bombay String Quartet – he was the motivating force in musical life then. His legacy lives on through the Mumbai-based Mehli Mehta Music Foundation, dedicated to the promotion of music education – and of course through the dynasty of Mehtas on the international musical scene. But the modern renaissance of orchestral music – more than a rebirth considering that the Symphony Orchestra of India operates on a higher level than the city has witnessed before – is down to one man, Khushroo Suntook. His labours represent a late career shift, as he spent most of his working life with the Indian conglomerate Tata, the largest industrial group in the subcontinent, and he jokes that he tailored most of his business travel to places that were Europe’s great musical centres. ‘By the time I retired after 35 years I was very friendly with Jamshed Bhabha and his family, and they invited me to lunch. That’s always a dangerous thing! They asked me what I was going to do next, and before I could answer they said I should go and help Dr Bhabha at the NCPA.’ Suntook describes the NCPA’s founders, Bhabha and JRD Tata, as ‘two visionaries who saw India’s need for an all-encompassing, world-class performing arts centre’. When Bhabha died in 2007, Suntook succeeded him as chairman. So it is no surprise that Suntook has made it his mission to promote classical music in Mumbai and beyond. His biggest achievement has been to set up and run the Symphony Orchestra of India, which he did in 2006 with Bhabha’s blessing and by enlisting the help of the irrepressible Kazakh violinist Marat Bisengaliev – after a chance post-concert meeting in London – as music director. As India’s first fully professional symphony orchestra, the SOI had to import all its musicians at the beginning, many of them coming from Bisengaliev’s West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra; but between 15 and 20 per cent are now Indian, and the rest are a mix of Mumbai residents and a regular roster who return for the seasons, concentrated entrated in the spring and autu umn. Bisengaliev will be playing Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto No. 3 undeer Charles Dutoit this autumn, but the seasoon’s opening concert will be under the baton of the assocciate music director, the UK-born Parsi conductor Zanee Dalal. His programm me >

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF INDIA FEATURE mixes Smetana and Bartók with the world premiere of Zakir Hussain’s tabla concerto, Peshkar, r a work the SOI will be taking on its Swiss tour in January. Dalal is very much a public face of the orchestra, and delivered a smart ‘talking programme note’ before the Verdi Requiem I heard in bombay beat: conductor Mehli February conducted by Yuri Mehta in 1989 Simonov (the SOI attracts some serious names). That Verdi Requiem featured d the h Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, and vocal music forms a regular part of the SOI’s programming – even the occasional fullystaged operas, which enjoy a strong following with local audiences. As Suntook says, ‘The popular operas that we do appeal for being similar to Bollywood, with their absurd plots and sweet songs about death. We can very easily make Bollywood-style sets, and we also

o culture is richer than in our oother places’. Whatever the reason, ccertain instruments have bbeen favoured over others, aand the majority of the SOI’s IIndian musicians are string players. ‘We have had no p tteachers of winds and brass here, but it is part of my h long-term aim to change tthat; in 2012 we launched tthe NCPA’s Special Music Training Programme to T nurture a new generation of Indian players. Many of our teachers are from Eastern Europe, so we run it something along the lines of a Russian conservatoire. It’s always

LOOKING EAST Five British works inspired by India the plot of his 1916 opera Savitri,i scored for three singers, chorus and chamber orchestra.

GETTY, LEBRECHT, ARENA PAL

‘It’s arrogant to say our culture is richer than in other places’ have excellent tailors.’ Suntook himself has a deeper operatic interest and has been an avid collector of old recordings. All the same, visitors to the NCPA might still be astonished to see the large, airy room there, handsomely converted a few years ago to house the StuartLiff Library of 6,000 books and 11,000 recordings, all devoted to the lyric arts and donated by UK-based collector Vivian Liff. Educating audiences and future orchestral players is a major part of the SOI’s work, going on even when the orchestra is not in residence at the NCPA. And the orchestra, of course, forms only a part of the venue’s western classical music programming, which accounts for 18 per cent of all events there (Indian classical music receives the same exposure, Indian dance slightly less, while about 50 per cent is given over to theatre). Opportunities to learn orchestral instruments have been relatively rare until now, unlike in, say, China, and without making generalisations by comparing India with other big Asian countries, there is no avoiding the fact that western music has been lower down the agenda here. Some have suggested that the huge preoccupation of families with Indian classical music may explain this, but, as Suntook says, ‘it’s a little arrogant to say that

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good to have a dream, but now at least we have concrete plans to grow music exponentially.’ Audience development is also on the agenda, and Bisengaliev was the driving force behind an outdoor concert earlier this year that reflects his vision of integrating the orchestra into the community and, he hopes, of taking it to other parts of the country. Most of the NCPA patrons – usually described in the local press as ‘Mumbai’s posh set’ – come from a narrow stratum of Indian society, but even that is changing. As Suntook says, ‘It’s good in a way that we’re moving away from the coughless audience only clapping in the accepted places. It indicates that a new generation is coming in. To survive, western classical music needs this audience first. Etiquette can come later.’ ■

Cyril Scott Indian Suite Along with the likes of Granville Bantock, Cyril Scott was one of a number of early 20th-century composers whose ‘Indian’ works were based more on the popular British conception of the country’s culture than any detailed knowledge or research. With movements such as ‘The Snake Charmer’ and ‘Dancing Girls’, his 1922 Indian Suite for solo piano is fun, if not hugely authentic.

spice pearls: English composers Cyril Scott and (below) Kaikhosru Sorabji

John Foulds Three Mantras Married to Maud MacCarthy, a leading western authority on Indian music, John Foulds (1880-1939) incorporated various elements of it, from scales derived frrom ragas to microtonal intervals, into much of his work. His orchestral Threee Mantras (1930) is made up of prelude es from Avatara, his abandoned opera about the god Krishna.

Gustav Holst Savitri In contrast to Elgar, whose take on India was his bumptiously Empirecelebrating The Crown of India of 1911, Holst chose to delve deeper into the country’s culture. Teaching himself Sanskrit so that he could read d Hindu scriptures at source, he turned d to the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata forr

Amy Woodforde-Finden Four Indian Love Lyrics The wife of a surgeon in the British army in India at the end of the 19th century, Amy Woodforde-Finden composed songs that, while unmistakeably English at their heart, paid a nod here and there to the culture of her adopted home. In 1902, she set the poems of Laurence Hope in her Four Indian Love Lyrics, the most famous of which, ‘Kashmiri Song’, g went on to become something of a hit.

Kaikhosru Sorabji Pastich he on the Song of India An English composer of Parsi descent, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892-1988) had little time for romanticised re epresentations of oriental music by western composers ‘who go trotting off to the nearest musical-theatrical costumiers buying their local colour by the yard’. His 1922 piano arrangement of the ‘Hindu Merchant’s Song’ o ffrom Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko is therefore sardonic, peppered with intentional ‘wrong notes’. w

Revere it. Play it. Listen to it.

S O O T H E Y O U R S O U L W I T H I T.

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s e n O g n u o Y e h T

From noisy fellow students to dodg y gas fires, Christopher Gillettt looks back at the glamorous university days of five eminent musicians THE MAIN REASON THAT many professional musicians went to university is that they have no idea what they want to do. Of course they’re musical – they know that – but their teenage sights are often set on something completely different. Wannabe conductors, on the other hand, go to Cambridge because, apparently, that’s where conductors come from. It has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Cambridge is a musical madhouse (as is Oxford). If you want to conduct all the Beethoven symphonies you don’t need anybody’s permission; you just find the best players you can, book a hall or chapel and organise it.

those were the days: countertenor James Bowman in a record store ; (below) George Benjamin

As for singers, it’s not really in the college choirs that they start to ferment their professional ambitions. It’s in all those extra-curricular concerts and operas that those wannabe conductors are putting on. And it’s unlikely the most successful organists would have emerged from anywhere else except the dusty loft of an Oxbridge college… There was a time when you could get away with handing in a cake rather than an essay to a sympathetic tutor, as I did. Those days, however, are gone, but let’s hope universities continue to produce musicians who have been schooled in History, Chemistry and Law – and stupidity. Because it will become a dull profession if the only qualifications musicians ever aspire to are performance diplomas…

JA J MES BOWMAN Countertenor Ne ew College, Oxford (1960-64), choral scholar Subject: History (Fourth) Bowman’s first college room was so enormous it has since been divided into three. But there was no basin and the college scout used to bring a tin of water every morning for shaving. Bowman is rare in that he knew he wanted to be a singer before he went up, though with no o idea he would end up being ‘the most famous fairy in the world.’ Evven though he was a poor student (‘stupid and idle’) and often go ot others to write his essays, conservatoire wasn’t an alternative: ‘N No one knew how to teach my type of voice.’ So, he sang in choirs an nd stayed on as a lay clerk before auditioning for Britten – he was ta aught the role of Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by fellow New College lay clerk Simon Carrington (of King’s Singers fame).

GEORGE BENJAMIN Composer and conductor G K King’s College, Cambridge (1978-81) Subject: Music (Double-starred First) S Already on the path to being a professional composer before he went to Cambridge, Benjamin still endured the trappings of student life. In his first year, despite having already studied in Paris with Messiaen, he lived in Garden Hostel, a cheerless building the other sside of the college, where the corridors echoed with Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd (from other students’ rooms). But he managed to compose there – Flightt and Ringed by the Flat Horizon (a Proms commission) – and studied with Alexander Goehr. Did he go to lectures? ‘Some. After Messiaen they were dry in comparison.’ In 1980 he met Pierre Boulez, who was up to collect an honorary degree, and nearly destroyed a grand piano while accompanying a film society’s showing of Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera.

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UNIVERSITY DAYS FEATURE ANDREW DAVIS Conductor A K King’s College, Cambridge (1963-67), organ scholar o Subject: Music (2:1) S

class of ’67: Andrew Davis in his clean shaven days

With the idea that he might become a cathedral organist somewhere, Davis moved into the substantial Organ Scholar’s rooms at King’s, where he discovered that the gas fire was w good for toasting crumpets. His Chapel g duties kept him busier than his academic d ones: ‘I once had the temerity to submit o tto my supervisor a Palestrina counterpoint exercise which I had submitted to him the year before. He, being a civilised and indulgent person, merely raised his eyebrows and said, “This looks vaguely familiar.”’ Despite strong competition from the likes of John Eliot Gardiner, Mark Elder and David Atherton, Davis dipped his toes into the waters of conducting – his first big gig was Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra. Who inspired him? ‘Sir David Willcocks and Thurston Dart.’ With hindsight, would he do anything differently? ‘I wouldn’t change a thing.’

musical jeans: organist Thomas Trotter sports a denim look

bunny times: Jennifer Johnston in, presumably, fancy dress

JENNIFER JOHNSTON Mezzo-soprano Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (1995-98), choral scholar Subject: Law (2:1) Johnston was a hard-working, hard-living student. Focussed on becoming a barrister (in which she succeeded) she knew she had to do well academically. Her experience singing soprano in the chapel choir was less happy: ‘I was a bit of a disaster.’ Too loud (‘I wrecked all balance’) and certain she wasn’t really a soprano, she left the choir after a year and sang instead in lots of concerts and opera with contemporaries like Edward Gardner and John Fulljames, as well as ‘drinking lots of poor quality alcohol and catapulting sprouts at the portraits in Hall during Christmas dinner.’ Her bedder Betty kept a beady eye on her, barging into her room ‘regardless of whether the bin was outside (the signal not to enter). That was pretty awkward at times.’ No regrets though. ‘I loved Cambridge, and am very proud to have studied there.’

MATTHEW LLOYD, JAMES CHEADLE, JOHN MILLAR

THOMAS TROTTER Organist King’s College, Cambridge (1976-79), organ scholar Subject: Music (2:2) Organists are traditionally a tweedy lot but Trotter never looked the part. As a student his style was denim. Bell-bottoms, no less. A phenomenal player, he never had his sights on the cathedral world, and had no interest in conducting or choir-training. Before King’s he ‘fancied himself as a theatre organist, resident at the Odeon Leicester Square.’ He hated taking early morning chorister practices (one of his duties) and wasn’t interested in the academic course. But he did have ‘palatial’ rooms with high ceilings, window seats (where he could enjoy a quiet ciggy), sofas, a dining table, a piano and a harpsichord. The bathroom, though, was ‘down two flights of stairs’ and the heating, ‘primitive.’ Rehearsals and practice took up to six hours a day, interspersed with tea and cake, baked by Mrs Waller, his ‘wonderfully kind’ bedder.

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BEAUTIFUL CITY, ROMANTIC HEART Venice discovering onslow:

This magical Italian city was loved by 19th-century composers, as Rebecca Franks finds out on a visit to a restored concert hall celebrating the French Romantics

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ay-trippers flocking to Piazza San Marco, street-sellers brandishing selfie-sticks, musicians playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in concerts roundthe-clock: modern-day Venice can seem like a tourist’s playground. But in some ways that has always been its essence. Grand but crumbling, bathed in sunshine but filled with shadowy alleys, beautiful, smelly, packed by day and empty by night, this unique lagoon city has long drawn in visitors – with many composers and musicians among them. And it isn’t just the city of Vivaldi and Monteverdi, it also seduced Fauré, Hahn, Gounod, Gustave Charpentier and Mendelssohn. Wagner died in Venice; years later Wolf-Ferrari, Diaghilev

LOCAL HERO Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari Italy was always reluctant to claim Wolf-Ferrari (left) as one of its musical heroes, unlike Germany where his music was acclaimed. But he was born and bred in Venice and worked there, always returning when he lived elsewhere. He died in Venice in 1948 and was buried on the cemetery island of San Michele. Famous for his comic operas, particularly Il segreto di Susanna, Wolf-Ferrari initially trained as a painter, which took him to Rome and Munich. He later turned his attention to composing, and although he dabbled with various styles, he was most at home as a neo-classicist.

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and Stravinsky were buried here. It’s a city filled with illustrious ghosts, whose traces can still be found here today. This rich history of 19th-century visitors explains in part why a 1695 palazzetto has been turned into an intimate concert hall that specialises in forgotten French Romantic music. Venice might seem an unlikely home for a philanthropic foundation that’s all about France, but its allure was as strong for French composers as anyone else. ‘Venice is an enchantress,’ wrote Gounod in his 1841 memoirs, ‘a pearl in a cesspool’, while

Cries of the gondoliers found their way into Tristan und Isolde Charpentier thought it ‘the most beautiful city in the world’. The Palazzetto Bru Zane is one of Venice’s treasured secrets. It’s a haven, set back from the hurly-burly of the streets, on a quiet stretch of canal. Only the sounds of a cello and piano colour the peace of the walled garden where an abundance of pale purple wisteria clads the stone. Inside, a doubleheight salon divided by a wooden balustrade is crowned with an eye-catching fresco. The building was restored in 2009, and is now home to a team who produce editions of rare scores, recordings, books and put on concerts – all on a French theme. It’s also here that two annual festivals take place, with George Onslow (1784-1853) the composer of choice for the 2015 spring concerts. He’s a perfect

Emmanuelle Bertrand performs a cello sonata

past reflections: The Teatro La Fenice was rebuilt in a 19th-century style, following a fire in the 1990s

fit for the Palazzetto Bru Zane’s mission: a forgotten French composer, prolific and talented. Admired by Berlioz and Cherubini, Onslow was known for his chamber music, including 36 string quartets and 34 quintets. For the opening weekend, cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand and pianist Pascal Amoyel played the yearning Cello Sonata Op. 16 No. 1, its echoes of Mendelssohn and Schubert not detracting from Onslow’s own voice. The next evening, the Quatuor Diotima showcased the String Quartets Op. 54 and 56. ‘He wrote these after listening to late Beethoven quartets, which he was shocked by,’ says the quartet’s violist Franck Chevalier. ‘He found it difficult, complicated music and wrote these more Classical quartets as an answer.’ On the quest to see Venice through the eyes of the Romantics, two other buildings are necessary stops: La Fenice and the Wagner Museum. The ‘Phoenix’ opera house, three

VENICE MUSICAL DESTINATIONS on the waterfront:

ISTOCK, UGO DALLA PORTA, MICHELE CROSERA, ALAMY, GETTY

the Palazzo Vendramin, where Wagner died in 1883; (left) the beautiful interior of the Palazzetto Bru Zane

times ravaged by fire and rising again from the ashes, was the scene of many Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi opera premieres, including La traviata. Verdi immortalised Venice in I due foscari, while Wagner said that the gondoliers’ cries may have found their way into Tristan und Isolde’s Act III opening. Wagner visited Venice six times, and in 1883 stayed in the Palazzo Vendramin, where he unexpectedly died in a lavishly furnished room. It’s not as luxurious today, but the Wagner museum preserves a wealth of material and boasts a view of the Grand Canal. And, jokes cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand, Wagner’s spirit lives on: ‘I played the La lugubre gondolaa there, the piece Liszt composed when he visited Wagner and had a premonition of his death. It was a hot July, 40 degrees. We started to play and suddenly the wind made the windows fly open. It was like a visit from the ghost of Wagner!’ ■

VENICE 5 MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS Edouard Lalo cycle The focus of the Palazzetto Bru Zane’s autumn festival (17 September – 10 November) is Edouard Lalo, with eight concerts exploring the French composer’s chamber music. Performers include the Hermes Quartet and the Cérès Trio. www.bru-zane.com

Benjamin Godard cycle Godard’s ‘Berceuse’ from his opera Jocelyn is probably all that’s remembered by him today. But over nine concerts this spring festival (9 April – 15 May 2016) reveals what he wrote for his favourite instruments, the violin and piano. www.bru-zane.com

Palazzetto Bru Zane Concerts are held here throughout the year between

festivals, still with a focus on forgotten French Romantics. On 15 January, cellist Silvia Chiesa (below) pays homage to Charles Koechlin.

www.bru-zane.com La Fenice Verdi’s La traviata and Stiffelio both feature in the Venetian opera house’s 2015-16 season, cconducted by Daniele Rustioni ((January & February 2016). Mozart’s Idomeneo gets the M programme underway. p

www.teatrolafenice.it w Musica a Palazzo M F opera up close, head to the For Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto where P sscaled-back productions are put on every day. You can choose from o Verdi’s La traviata and Rigoletto V or Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. o

www.musicapalazzo.com w

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COMPOSER OF THE MONTH

GEORGE ENESCU Romania’s multi-faceted hero One of the greatest violinists of his era, Enescu was also a composer whose colourful craftsmanship deserves to be much more widely appreciated today, says Erik Levi

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he history of music is littered with countless composers that were highly praised by their contemporaries, but nowadays remain unfairly neglected and undervalued. Such a fate has certainly befallen the Romanian George Enescu, except in his native country where he is still very much regarded as a cultural icon. Enescu’s neglect elsewhere, however, is particularly puzzling given the spectacular accolades that were bestowed upon him by some of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. As far as cellist Pablo Casals was concerned, Enescu was unequivocally ‘the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart’. Violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who spent several years studying with him, echoed this estimation: ‘Enescu was an extraordinary human being, the greatest musician and the most formative influence I have truly experienced.’ Enescu’s talents as a musician were indeed prodigal. He carved out a long-lasting international reputation as a violin virtuoso, but was no less skilled as a pianist, boasting a consummate technique that was the envy of his close friend, Alfred Cortot. A proactive conductor, he worked tirelessly to enhance musical life in Romania, but also appeared frequently in this capacity in France and the US. His reputation as an interpreter was so high that during the 1930s, he was even courted as a potential successor to the great Arturo Toscanini as music director of the New York Philharmonic. Yet Enescu’s chief preoccupation was with composition, and it was for this that he craved the most recognition. Although his catalogue of published works amounts to only 33 opuses, a relatively low number for someone who lived over 70 years, he mastered almost every major musical genre. However, the only piece that gets anything like a regular

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ENESCU’S STYLE A multi-faceted outlook Enescu’s musical idiom represents a confluence of three distinct traditions, the Austro-German symphonic style that he encountered in Vienna, the more sensual approach to harmony and timbre absorbed from his teacher Fauré (pictured below) in Paris, and the exotic improvisatory Romanian folk music which he experienced as a child.

Modernist or reactionary? From the 1920s onwards Enescu wrote music that could be uncompromisingly angular and dissonant in places. Yet he never rejected tonality and shunned the irony and sense of alienation that characterises the music of some of his modernist contemporaries. He was in essence an innovative composer profoundly inspired by the great music of the past.

Classicism with Romanticism Throughout his compositional career, Enescu consciously adapted baroque and classical musical gestures to his own purposes, but without resorting to pastiche or parody. At the same time, his music was imbued with an intense level of passion. As he said on his deathbed, ‘music should go from the heart to the heart’.

Instrumentation As a supremely gifted performer on both the violin and piano, Enescu not surprisingly wrote particularly idiomatically for both these instruments. Yet the sumptuous textures of his Second and Third Symphonies demonstrate a level of mastery of the orchestra that rivals Berlioz, Strauss and Ravel.

outing in concert programmes these days is his First Romanian Rhapsody – a deliciously exuberant and brilliantly orchestrated potpourri of folk-inspired melodies, composed at the beginning of the 20th century. For all its undoubted fluency, the work is hardly characteristic of the composer, and unfortunately has served to obfuscate the emotional range, musical depth and creative originality that he achieved elsewhere. Perhaps the popularity of the First Romanian Rhapsody has also created the misapprehension that Enescu was a narrowminded Eastern European nationalist. True, his musical idiom was profoundly influenced by the uniquely defined folk music of Romania, but his outlook was far more cosmopolitan and embraced a wider range of concerns. No doubt this cosmopolitanism was prompted by his exposure to two very different European traditions that were flourishing at the turn of the 19th century. His first port of call was Vienna, where he arrived at the age of seven from the village of Liveni to study violin and composition, immersing himself in a stimulating cultural environment and becoming a lifelong admirer of the music of Brahms. Then, after graduating from the Vienna Conservatory at 12, he eventually moved onto Paris, where he imbibed the subtly fragrant harmonies of his principal composition teacher Fauré, and was no less responsive to the colour and textural sensuality explored by his contemporaries such as Debussy and Ravel. Paris was to remain his main musical base in Western Europe for the rest of his life, though during the two World Wars, he returned to Romania, working assiduously to enhance the country’s musical life. Enescu was astonishingly prolific in the early part of his career. By 19, >

ILLUSTRATION: RISKO

GEORGE ENESCU COMPOSER OF THE MONTH

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GEORGE ENESCU COMPOSER OF THE MONTH

LIFE&TIMES A quick guide to the main events in the life of George Enescu

THE LIFE

1881

1881

1881

George Enescu is born on 19 August in LiveniVîrnav, a village in north-eastern Romania. His father is an estate manager, his mother a teacher.

Following independence three years earlier, Carol I is declared as Romania’s king. He reigns for 33 years.

1897 Irish author Bram Stoker publishes Dracula, a character inspired by the historical VLAD III DRACULA A (‘the impaler’) from the region of Transylvan nia.

1888 AGED JUST SEVEN, he starts studying at the Vienna Music Conservatory. He lives in the city with his violin teacher, Josef Hellmesberger, the concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmoniic..

1918 After siding with the Allied forces in World War I, Romania acquires new territories in the peace settlement, significantly increasing the country’s size.

1895 He moves to Paris to study at the Conservatoire, where his teachers include the compossers se MASSENET T and Fau uré, ur and Ravel is one of his h fellow students.

1939 Romanian prime minister ARMAND CALINESCU U is assassinated by the Iron Guard, a far-right political organisation. He is the second prime minister in six years to have been killed by the group.

1946

1912

Following the vvictory of the Romanian Communist Party in a general election, King Mihai I K abdicates and the a People’s Republic of P Romania is declared. R

He tours Europe as a conductor and violinist, conducting the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra among others. At home, he founds the Enescu Prize to promote work by Romanian composers.

1927 As well as holding teaching posts at the Ecole Normale e de Musique in Paris and Harvard university in the US, he takes on the 11-yearrold YEHUDI MENUHIN as a violin pupil.

11950 L CANTATRICE CHAUVE (‘The bald LA ssoprano’), the first play by the Romanianborn absurdist playwright Eugene b Io onesco, is premiered at the Théâtre des Noctambules in Paris. An instant success, it N receives many further performances.

1936 Two weeks after his opera Oedipe receives its premiere at the Grand Opera in Pariss, France awards Enescu the ttitle of Commandeur de la Légio on d’Honneur.

GETTY, LEBRECHT

1955 Enescu dies on 5 May at the Hotel Atala in central Paris. He is buried in the city’s Père Lachaise Cemetery.

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he had already composed four apprentice symphonies and sketched drafts for several concertos and string quartets. His first published opus was the Poème Roumain, an ambitious Lisztian symphonic suite for orchestra first performed in Paris in 1899 to considerable acclaim. Even in this relatively early work an individual voice is already evident, most notably in his atmospheric assimilation of the doina, a highly ornamented melismatic melody that betrays an almost Middle Eastern influence, and in the imaginative orchestration which also includes a wordless chorus. Enescu continued to be highly active in the first decade of the 20th century, writing technically challenging works such as the Octet for strings (1900) whose range of expression and emotional intensity can be compared to Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht. t From this period, there is also the impressive and haunting Second Violin Sonata (1899), plus two engaging orchestral works, the First Suite (1903) and First Symphony (1905). But he was unable to sustain this level of activity. One important factor that affected his productivity was undoubtedly the obligation to pursue a career as a performer, which inevitably deflected his attention away from composition. Perhaps too he experienced a crisis in confidence. He became increasingly fastidious, refusing to release a work until he was fully satisfied with it – for example, the Second String Quartet, on which he began work in the early 1920s, underwent seven revisions before it finally saw the light of day in 1952, only three years before his death. Composing the symphonic poem Vox Maris, a wonderfully effective portrayal of the sea that warrants direct comparison with Debussy’s La mer, r was a similarly fraught process. First drafted in 1929, it was eventually published in 1954. His magnum opus, the opera Oedipe, e occupied him from 1910 to ’31, but then had to wait another five years before it was staged with some success in Paris. Several other substantial projects, including two large-scale symphonies (Nos 4 and 5), remained in an embryonic state. In charting Enescu’s development towards the more angular modernist style which became his musical lingua francaa from the 1920s, it is worth considering him in the context of his contemporary, the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski. The parallels between the creative preoccupations of the two in the period that preceded and encompassed the First World War are striking. For example, both composers’ prewar second symphonies respond powerfully to the late-Romantic Austro-German tradition and to the increasingly chromatic rhetorical

multiple talents: Enescu excelled as a composer, violinist,.pianist and conductor

gestures pursued by such composers as Richard Strauss. There is also a fascinating congruence between their respective third symphonies. Both were composed during the war and although Enescu’s work is conceived on a much grander and more epic scale than Szymanowski’s, they share similar stylistic traits, not least in their extravagant orchestration, which includes a prominent role for chorus, and in their rejection of Strauss in favour of a more perfumed mystical style with unmistakable allusions to the East. The link with Szymanowski could be extended well into the 1920s, when both expended much creative energy on their operas – Szymanowski’s King Rogerr and Enescu’s Oedipe, e both based on Greek drama. It’s notable, too, that both Szymanowski and Enescu shunned the fashionable neoclassicism of the 1920s by turning for inspiration towards the traditional folk music, the landscape and the natural environment of their countries. In Enescu’s case, this resulted in a series of works which explore these improvisatory and exotic idioms in a very individual manner, the most famous being the Third Violin Sonata (1926) with its subtitle ‘dans le caractère populaire roumain’. It’s tempting to consider Enescu as following a similar path to Bartók. But whereas Bartók was also an ethnomusicologist rigorously transcribing indigenous music from Eastern Europe, Enescu never quoted exact folk tunes. Rather he was responding nostalgically to the music he heard as a child. The idiom was so profoundly absorbed into his bloodstream that it sounded authentic and was therefore bereft of any element of modernist alienation. So, given this fascinating and multi-faceted output, why has this great composer has thus far failed to be more widely recognised? Can we simply put this down to his modest and

self-effacing personality and a reluctance to advance his cause more assiduously? Or could it be a problem of dissemination? Admittedly, a substantial proportion of his work is now available on disc, but his scores are still not easily found either in libraries or music shops. This situation would not have arisen had Enescu enjoyed greater luck with his music publishers – undoubtedly, his reputation would have been strongly enhanced had he been invited to sign a contract with the influential Vienna-based music publisher Universal Edition, an organisation that

Folk was profoundly absorbed into Enescu’s bloodstream promoted a substantial proportion of the early 20th century’s major composers, including Bartók and Szymanowski. Two main difficulties, perhaps, face newcomers to Enescu’s mature style. The first is that much of his music is densely argued with complex linear passage work. It requires repeated and concentrated listening before revealing its secrets. On the surface, the structures in some of his large-scale movements appear rhapsodic, whereas in essence they are highly organised and often cyclical, utilising an extremely subtle transformation of a limited number of musical ideas. A second issue is that his development cannot be so easily pigeon-holed in terms of a progression from the AustroGerman and French influences of the early period to an indigenous assimilation of Romanian folk music of his later style. Rather there was a constant shift in the balance of all these elements at any one time in his life, and

they either moved to the foreground or the background depending to a large extent on the kind of music he was currently writing. Unlike Szymanowski, Enescu thus far has not enjoyed the imprimatur of a leading interpreter such as conductor Sir Simon Rattle to place him more firmly on the musical map. Yet there is some evidence that his cause is beginning to be taken much more seriously. This year, for example, Vladimir Jurowski programmed the massive Third Symphony with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, and the work was received with great enthusiasm. However, it is the eagerly awaited British premiere of Oedipe at Royal Opera House in 2016, 80 years after its first performance, which may well act as the catalyst for a major and much-needed reappraisal of his colossal achievement. ■ Composer of the Week is broadcast on Radio 3 at 12pm, Mon to Fri, repeated at 6.30pm. Upcoming programmes are: 31 A August – 4 SSeptember b Brahms 7-11 September Elgar 14-18 September Shostakovich 21-25 September TBC 28 September – 2 October Vanhal

GEORGE ENESCU RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS Complete Violin Music Remus Azoitei (violin), Eduard Stan (piano) Hanssler HAEN 98035 £16.99 Finely judged performances display Enescu’s brilliance as a violinist-composer.

Oedipe Barbara Hendricks, José Van Dam etc; Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra/ Lawrence Foster EMI 948 2752 £15.99 José van Dam as the title role and Barbara Hendricks as Antigone excel in Enescu’s only opera.

Symphony No. 3 Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra/Hannu Lintu Ondine ODE11972 £13.99 Enescu’s most colourful symphony is heard in a recording of power and flair.

Piano Quartets Schubert Ensemble Chandos CHAN 10672 £13.99 Folky in parts, rhapsodic in others, Enescu’s pianos quartets are a discovery well worth making.

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BUILDING A LIBRARY

IMAGES Claude Debussy Whether gazing idly on watery reflections or taking us on a journey to the past, these piano works conjure up a world of their own. Rebecca Frankss searches for the best recordings

‘I

love pictures almost as much as music,’ Debussy once said, offering a telling insight into his creative life and his remarkable two books of Imagess for piano. Published in 1905 and 1907, each volume contains three pieces exploring, to coin Debussy’s own phrase, ‘the most recent discoveries of harmonic chemistry’. Titles suggest a picture or mood for each piece, but these are also joyous explorations of piano sonority and aural colour, earning them a firm place in the keyboard repertoire. There are the evocations of water (‘Reflets dans l’eau’) and bells (‘Cloches à travers les feuilles’) that helped earn Debussy his ‘Impressionist’ label. But his inspirations are varied: in ‘Hommage à Rameau’ he honours the French Baroque, while ‘Mouvement’ is as abstract as its title suggests. Debussy turns his gaze to the East in ‘La lune qui descend sur la temple qui fut’, but stays closer to home for the concluding ‘Poissons d’or’, which depicts the carp in a Japanese lacquered picture he owned.

THE BEST RECORDING JEAN-EFFLAM BAVOUZET

GETTY ILLUSTRATION: STEVE RAWLINGS/DEBUTART

CHOICE

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano) Chandos CHAN10497 (2008) £13.99

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DEBUSSY EXPECTED PIANISTS to follow the letter of his scores. But he also wanted more: an imaginative ear and an ability to interpret the spirit of the music. The best recordings of his Images do both, and with so many excellent versions around, it comes down to personal taste. Both Books have fared well on disc, although it’s a tantalising disappointment that Sviatoslav Richter, Nelson Goerner and Emil Gilels only recorded the first book, and Friedrich Gulda only the second. But for a complete recording that captures the distinctive character of each Image in excellent sound, and for a truly classy display of pianism, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (above) is the one to hear. The Frenchman,

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w whose complete Debussy piano works iis one of the stand-out recording projects of recent times, plays with the ‘‘fluid transparency’ of the composer himself, as recalled by his friend and biographer Louis Laloy. In ‘Reflets dans l’eau’, the surface gleams seductively, like a pool on a hot day, with every ripple and droplet crystal clear. There’s cool suppleness in ‘Cloches à travers les feuilles’ and meditative calm in ‘La lune qui descend’. Bavouzet takes ‘Hommage à Rameau’ a shade too fast perhaps, but does give this sarabande a winning delicacy. And he raises a smile with the quixotic carp, while his fleet ‘Mouvement’, light and precise as Debussy requests, conjures up the image of a whirling spinning-top.

IMAGES CLAUDE DEBUSSY BUILDING A LIBRARY Y Building a Library is broadcast on BBC Radio 3 at 9.30am each Saturday as part of CD Review. w A highlights podcast is available at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3

played in half tints, like Chopin, without any hardness of attack.’ Noriko Ogawa isn’t afraid to play quietly in this finely-grained account of Debussy’s Images, with her ‘Reflets dans l’eau’, in particular, painted on a soft canvas. Nor does she short-change the louder end of the dynamic spectrum. Her approach works to the advantage of the hushed, muffled atmosphere of ‘Cloches à travers les feuilles’, and her delicately etched, beautifully still ‘La lune qui descend’. There’s a certain coolness to Ogawa’s emotional temperature, but she also brings a colourful sparkle and imaginative flair to the music, turning ‘Mouvement’ into a flurried blur and luxuriating in ‘Poissons d’or’. Ivan Moravec (piano) Vox CDX5103 (1983) Available online at Presto

THREE MORE GREAT RECORDINGS Zoltán Kocsis (piano) Philips Collectors Edition E4757301 (1990) Download only

Zoltán Kocsis is alive to every possibility for colour and nuance, varying his pedaling and touch for each piece, each texture, each articulation. Particularly remarkable is the ancient, monumental quality with which he imbues ‘Hommage à Rameau’ – it’s quite different in feel to any other interpretation. The Hungarian pianist’s ‘Mouvement’ has a restless energy that stills into rapt silence, a parallel to the darting ‘Poissons d’or’ that concludes the work. It’s all done with such

imagination that it would be a shoo-in for best recommendation but for one movement: ‘Cloches à travers les feuilles’. The bells ring clear and true – the most bell-like of any pianist – but the fast tempo isn’t what Debussy asked for, and the various tempo changes seem drastic. But if you can live with it, then this is a wonderful recording. Noriko Ogawa (piano) BIS BISCD1105 (2001) £13.99

‘Everyone plays my music too loudly,’ said Debussy, while pianist Marguerite Long recalled that ‘his nuances ranged from triple pppp to forte’, and that ‘he only

The great Czech pianist Ivan Moravec is renowned for his Chopin playing, and he is also wonderful in Debussy, bringing to it silky tone, liquid line and immaculate pedalling. Those qualities are ideal for ‘Reflets dans l’eau’, which glides by languidly but precisely; perhaps a degree more flexibility would have met Debussy’s tempo rubatoo marking. But in ‘Cloches à travers les feuilles’ Moravec hits on a tempo that feels natural, allowing the bells to sing through the exquisitely judged layers of sound. He is elegant and nimble in ‘Mouvement’; indeed, throughout he plays with poise and refinement, though never at the expense of colour or life. There’s a buoyant spring to his ‘Poissons d’or’, contrasting with the internal stillness that the music coalesces around in ‘La lune qui descend’.

AND ONE TO AVOID… A pupil of Marguerite Long, who studied with Debussy, Philippe Entremont has the credentials and technique to do something special with Images, but instead he throws Lisztian virtuosity at it, covering up its atmosphere. This approach destroys the lightness of ‘Mouvement’ and the playful shimmering of ‘Poissons d’Or’. And it’s exacerbated by a tendency to keep the sustaining pedal down and by tinny sound. There are moments of quiet beauty, but overall it’s a tiring listen.

If you enjoy Debussy’s Images and would like to try out similar works, see overleaf… BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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IMAGES CLAUDE DEBUSSY BUILDING A LIBRARY

SO, WHERE NEXT…? We suggest works to explore after Debussy’s Images Composed in 1920, his Cipressii was inspired by the cypress trees in Usigliano, where he spent many a summer. The composer appears to be taking us through the course of the day, as the slow-moving chords of night give way to the first rays of sun and eventually the heat of the day – all is graced by a charming melody that has, intriguingly, a slightly Spanish lilt to it. Essential recording: Jordi Masó (piano) Naxos 8.555856 £7.99

Scott Five Poems

making an impression: Albert Roussel (left) and friends enjoy a hazy day in Varengeville, 1910

Debussyy Images (oubliées) Eleven years before writing his first set of Images, Debussy had composed a work of the same name but chose to keep it to himself. Perhaps an explanation for this lies in his own description, saying that the work’s three pieces were ‘not for brilliantly lit salons … but rather conversations between the piano and oneself’. The triptych begins with the sombre and hauntingly melodic ‘Lent’, while the similarly paced ‘Sarabande’ that follows continues the contemplative feel. In contrast, ‘Nous n’irons plus au bois’ scurries around busily before fanning out, as Debussy puts it, ‘like peacocks spreading their tales’. Images (oubliées) was published under its current title long after the composer’s death. Essential recording: Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano) Decca 452 0222 £18.99

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Liszt Nuages gris As Liszt grew into old age, the virtuoso fireworks of his youth gave way to a much more contemplative, descriptive style that paved the way for the ‘impressionism’ of Debussy, Ravel and co. A typical example is his short, simple Nuages griss (‘Grey clouds’), which begins with a slow, mournful sixnote G minor motif that lingers sinisterly on a pair of tied C sharp crotchets. Low rumbling octaves are heard before the motif soon reappears and is repeated obsessively, this time accompanied in the right hand by something that almost threatens to turn

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into a melody. That melody never materialises, though. This piece is about stillness, introspection and gloom. Essential recording: Paul Lewis (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMA1951845 £7.99

Roussel Rustiques Debussy’s influence can be clearly heard in the music of Albert Roussel who, in 1920, paid his regards to his late compatriot with the solo piano work L’Accueil des Muses (in memoriam Debussy). Roussel’s 1906 Rustiques, meanwhile, conjures up images of life in and around the Forest of Fontainebleu and by the banks of the rivers Seine and Loing. After a dreamily ebbing-and-flowing ‘Danse au bord de l’eau’, we are lured into a ‘Promenade sentimentale en forêt’ that soon turns decidedly passionate – Roussel evidently had more than just walking in mind. The colourful ‘Retour de fête’ that rounds things off is, in contrast, a model of Gallic restraint. Essential recording: Eric Parkin (piano) Chandos CHAN 8887 (see iTunes)

Castelnuovo-Tedesco Cipressi Though the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco never moved in Parisian circles, he nonetheless fell under the spell of Debussy’s alluring style, and the shapely contours and rich colours of his beloved Tuscany gave him plenty of opportunity to wield his own impressionist musical brush.

Often described as the ‘English Debussy’, Cyril Scott was certainly an original figure. Composer, poet, occultist and homeopath, he found fame as a writer of salon piano music, with Lotus Landd his most enduring piece. His Five Poemss of 1912 parallel Debussy’s Imagess in their melding of art forms: Scott’s own poems, each a marvel of purple prose, prefaced and inspired p tthese piano miniatures. Although tthey lack the experimental zeal of tthe piano writing of Images, Scott’s ffree-floating rhythms and chains of parallel chords give his music its own p distinctive flavour as he evokes fields of poppies, cascades of bells and the singing of the Paradise Birds. Essential recording: Leslie De’Ath (piano) Dutton CDLX7224 (see duttonvocalion.co.uk)

Griffes Three Tone-Pictures Listen to ‘The Night Winds’, the last of the Three Tone-Pictures, and it’s obvious that this springs from the same world as Ravel and Debussy – with virtuosic, glistening writing that calls to mind Poissons d’Orr or Ravel’s ‘Scarbo’. The New York-born Charles Griffes, prolific but short-lived, studied in Europe, and became known as the first American Impressionist. The Three Tone-Picturess were published in 1915 as his Op. 5, after initially being rejected by his publisher for not being ‘accessible’ enough. ‘The Lake at Evening’, an atmospheric evocation of water lapping at the shore, takes its inspiration from a WB Yeats poem, while the elusive ‘The Vale of Dreams’ and dazzling ‘The Night Winds’ stem from Edgar Allen Poe. Essential recording: Garrick Ohlsson (piano) Hyperion CDA 67907 £13.99

Next month: Mendelssohn’s ‘Italian’ Symphony

CONTENTS 56 Recording of the Month 58 Orchestral The late Claudio Abbado’s recording of Schubert’s Great Symphony is superlative

62 Concerto

REVIEWS

110 CDs, Books & DVDs rated by expert critics

Recording of the Month

Krystian Zimerman returns to the piano concerto Lutosławski dedicated to him

Soprano Elizabeth Watts gets to the heart of Mozart in a sparkling recording of arias and overtures, performed with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Christian Baldini, p56

66 Opera Nielsen’s comic opera Maskarade in a powerful new recording from Denmark

70 Choral & Song The all-male group Cinquecento brings a distinctive sound to Lassus

74 Chamber The Berkeley Ensemble paints an illuminating portrait of Lennox Berkeley

78 Instrumental Artur Pizarro casts fresh light on Rachmaninov as his superb piano series continues

80 Brief Notes A quick look at 16 new recordings

81 Audio

zesty mozart:

A guide to the best new hi-fi

Elizabeth Watts’s voice dazzles

82 Jazz Maria Schneider draws on her Minnesota upbringing in a magnificent new album

84 Books A well-researched guide to Szymanowski’s sumptuous opera King Roger

Minimalist milestones This year marks the 80th birthday of two hugely influential composers, entirely different from one another, but both associated with minimalism and both still writing. Working halfway around the globe from each other, one in sunshine and one in snow, Terry Riley and Arvo Pärt spring from different worlds – that much can be heard in their music. The Californian-born Terry Riley kickstarted American minimalism with his 1964 In C; turn to p76 for reviews of new Riley discs from the Kronos Quartet and piano duo Zofo. The Estonian Arvo Pärt developed a bells-inspired style all of his own – holy minimalism, if you like. You can read about new CDs of his choral works on p71 and about his life on p22. Rebecca Franks Reviews Editor

Our Recording of the Month features in one of the BBC Music Magazine podcasts free from iTunes or www.classical-music.com BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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RECORDING OF THE MONTH FURTHER LISTENING ‘perfect candour’: Elizabeth Watts is spot on as Figaro’s Susanna

CHOICE

Elizabeth Watts R STRAUSS The complete songs, Vol. 6 With Roger Vignoles (piano) Hyperion CDA 67844 67 mins

BBC Music Direct

£13.99

‘As well as showing Watts’s ability to weave around a wide-ranging phrase, apparent in the first song on the disc, “Einerlei”, she shows a wicked penchant for donning joke fangs in the songcycle Krämerspiegel.’ l March 2013

ARNE Artaxerxes Christopher Ainslie, Elizabeth Watts, Caitlin Hulcup, Andrew Staples, Rebecca Bottone, Daniel Norman; Classical Opera Company/Ian Page Linn CKD 358 137:49 mins (2 discs)

BBC Music Direct

£18.99

‘At its best, as in the soprano showpiece, “The soldier tir’d” (a favourite of Victorian singers) Artaxerxess is very worthwhile; here that aria is resplendently delivered by Elizabeth Watts.’ March 2011

SCHUBERT Lieder With Roger Vignoles (piano) RCA Red Seal 88697329322 69:30 mins

Download only: prestoclassical.co.uk

Mozart packed with character Elizabeth Watts hits new heights with this superb disc, finds David Nice

MOZART

MARCO BORGGREVE

Arias and overtures from Le nozze di Figaro, Idomeneo, Don Giovanni, La clemenza di Tito, La finta giardiniera and Così fan tutte Elizabeth Watts (soprano); Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Christian Baldini Linn CKD460 59:40 mins

BBC Music Direct

£15.99

An interweaving of Mozart overtures and (mostly) well-known arias could be a recipe for the conventional or

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anodyne, but this disc is neither of Trojan princess, was just a good those thanks to the fresh approach of girl. If that’s how Watts started out, its exceptional soprano, orchestra and this disc shows, and in supremely conductor. It would work as a straight vivid sound, that a delightful light concert, and you can play it all lyric soprano is on the cusp of through at one sitting without ever becoming something greater. That, tiring at Mozart’s and comparisons resourcefulness. with the best The overtures are as Mozartians, is She may look demure, much of a pleasure to probably why it but Elizabeth a waste to listen to as the arias seems Watts, or rather give us a rather at least one of her indifferent aria, Mozart heroines, can be a tigress from La finta giardinieraa instead of when roused: try the bold rasps Pamina’s ‘Ach, ich fühls’ or Elvira’s on ‘carnefici spietati’ (‘ruthless ‘Mi tradi’. Even Donna Anna would butchers’) in the abbreviated be possible on CD, if not yet (or ever) recitative to the first aria in Idomeneo. on stage. Still, we can be more than And you thought Ilia, the sweet thankful for what we’ve got.

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‘Schubert was a wise choice for a debut recital, the songs are carefully programmed and Watts’s youthful, radiant delivery, with no flaws in technique that I can hear, fits many of the Lieder like a glove.’ January 2009

That the overtures are as much of a pleasure to listen to as the arias is thanks to the exceptional qualities of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) under conductor Christian Baldini – never rushing, usually finding the perfect tempo in common with his and Robin Ticciati’s predecessor in perfect SCO Mozart, Sir Charles Mackerras. Woodwinds are clear and characterful, the approach to Don Giovannii and his Stone Guest is authentically brisk but not lacking in

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RECORDING OF THE MONTH REVIEWS fangs and the strings sound especially bright in the jubilant bells of the Clemenza di Titoo Overture. Our diva has no truck with mere prettiness, just perfect candour as Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro) o – she is breathtaking in the last two phrases of an unfussily begun ‘Deh vieni non tardar’ as she moves into a midsummer night’s dream – as Zerlina (Don Giovanni), i with exquisite cello obbligato, and as an unusually serious Servilia (La clemenza di Tito). o Watt’s discreet ornamentation, unforced tone and careful vocal emphasis all seem nighon perfect. The biggest comes last: Fiordiligi’s aria ‘Per pietà’, perhaps the deepest

point of Così fan tutte, e with, I presume, period-instrument horns (don’t worry, they’re meant to sound like that). It’s the best demonstration of the direction in which one of the UK’s most profoundly musical and surprising singers is heading. For her next recording, Watts has been researching the vocal music of Alessandro (not Domenico) Scarlatti. That should be quite something. PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★★

THIS MONTH’S CRITICS Our critics number many of the top music specialists whose knowledge and enthusiasm are second to none Anthony Burton Writer, editor Anthony studied music at Cambridge and was an arts administrator before working for BBC Radio 3 for some years, first as a producer and then as presenter of programmes including Record Review and In Tune. He is now a writer, mostly of programme notes, on a wide range of music.

ON THE PODCAST Hear excerpts and a discussion of this recording on the BBC Music Magazine podcast, available free on iTunes or at www.classical-music.com

Q&A ELIZABETH WATTS The soprano tells REBECCA FRANKS why Mozart is one of her musical idols and which roles she would like to do next A overture and aria CD is a simple but An cclever idea. How did it come about? T That was all Christian Baldini and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. It was S already a project before I was on board. a But I wanted to record arias that I had B done the full roles of before, so those d were the top priorities, and then there w were things that were just wonderful w arias, like Servilia’s ‘Per pietà’ from La a cclemenza di Tito. The overtures are small portraits of the entire operas; they are like lockets containing miniatures of Mozart. Did he ever write a duffer? I’m M not sure. He’s not like Beethoven in that ssense, though they are both gods. When I ffirst heard the Eroica I went crazy about Beethoven’s symphonies. Sadly songs weren’t his forte, although Fidelio is one of the finest operas.

John Allison editor, Opera; critic, Sunday Telegraph Nicholas Anderson Baroque specialist Terry Blain writer Kate Bolton lecturer, New York University, Florence Garry Booth jazz writer & critic Geoff Brown critic, The Times Michael Church critic, The Independent Christopher Cook broadcaster, critic Martin Cotton recording and radio producer Christopher Dingle Professor of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire Misha Donat producer, writer Jessica Duchen critic, novelist Hilary Finch writer, critic, broadcaster George Hall writer, editor, translator

Malcolm Hayes biographer, composer Julian Haylock writer, editor Ivan Hewett broadcaster, critic Daniel Jaffé writer, critic Erica Jeal critic, The Guardian Stephen Johnson writer, BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Berta Joncus senior lecturer, Goldsmiths, University of London Erik Levi professor, University of London Max Loppert critic, Opera Jon Lusk world music journalist Andrew McGregor presenter, BBC Radio 3’s CD Review David Nice writer, biographer Roger Nichols French music specialist Bayan Northcott writer, composer

Tim Parry writer, editor Anna Picard writer, critic George Pratt emeritus professor of music, University of Huddersfield Anthony Pryer lecturer, Goldsmiths, University of London Paul Rileyy journalist Michael Scott Rohan author Nick Shave journalist, writer Jeremy Siepmann biographer, editor Jan Smaczny professor of music, Queen’s, Belfast Geoffrey Smith presenter, Radio 3 Michael Tanner critic, The Spectator Roger Thomas critic Kate Wakeling writer, researcher Helen Wallace consultant editor, BBC Music Barry Witherden critic

What qualities make a good Mozart singer? You always have to sing with a great technique, reproduce the Classical style in a truthful way, and bring through the characters. Mozart writes characters brilliantly. Sometimes you have to do even more in a recording session as you haven’t got the visuals. You have to really go for it. All the characters on this disc are fascinating. I’ve done Susanna a lot: I never tire of Figaro. And I find the same with Fiordiligi and Zerlina. I’ve never sung Ilia on stage, which I would love to do. And I’m singing my first Countess in February with Welsh National Opera, which is moving on to a bigger role, so we’ll see how that progresses.

Key to symbols Star ratings are provided for both the performance itself and either the recording’s sound quality or a DVD’s presentation Outstanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ★★★★★ Excellent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ★★★★ Good . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ★★★ Disappointing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ★★ Poor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ★

What’s next for you on disc?

BBC Music Direct You can now buy CDs, DVDs or Books reviewed in this issue from BBC Music Direct. The prices are given at the head of each review, and are inclusive of p&p for orders placed from within the UK.

In October I have a disc of Alessandro Scarlatti coming out, who I call the Baroque daddy. It includes opera, cantatas, serenatas and oratorio. It was a great odyssey going through reams of his music and picking out the best bits. There was an element of wading as he wrote so many operas in a short time but when you find the gems they are absolutely extraordinary. There’s a battle piece with timpani, a piece with a tambourine and a castrato aria in which I sing an 89-note run without a breath. I went into Olympic training for that.

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ORCHESTRAL Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico are lively guides to Haydn’s symphonies; plus a fine new Nielsen symphony cycle from John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic

ORCHESTRAL CHOICE

A true record of a lifetime Michael Tanner is thrilled by Abbado’s final Schubert Symphony No. 9

CPE BACH Hamburg Symphonies Ensemble Resonanz/Riccardo Minasi Es-dur ES 2053 65:45 mins

fresh and revealing:

BBC Music Direct

Claudio Abbado achieved a rare level of greatness

other conductors, and a long time ago. Every bar surges with energy, thrust, warmth of tone, miraculous detail in even the fastest passages and, all told, what I can only say is a huge joy in living, which must leave every sensitive listener stirred to the depths. Abbado seems freer here

SCHUBERT Symphony No. 9 Orchestra Mozart/Claudio Abbado DG 479 4652 62:47 mins

MARCO CASELLI NIRMAL/DG

BBC Music Direct

£14.99

This wonderful work, usually called No. 9 in the UK, and either No. 7 or No. 8 in German-speaking countries, was always a speciality of Claudio Abbado’s. In this recording, live from performances given in Bologna and Bolzano in 2011 with the last orchestra he founded, he reaches extraordinary heights, previously only reached, in my experience, by a couple of

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All told, Abbado’s performance surges with a huge joy in living than he usually was, with beautifully tailored rallentandos (unmarked but always appropriate), climactic passages where he pushes the orchestra along, and vast thrilling climaxes which lift you out of your seat. He takes all the repeats, which means all the music apart from the opening Andante, e so it’s perhaps the

longest performance that I’ve heard. But you welcome every repeat, because you know something fresh and revealing will happen. The Orchestra Mozart, which apparently consisted of some older players than is often thought, is well up to every challenge that Abbado offers them, and there are plenty. Fortunately Deutsche Grammophon’s superb recording is fully able to cope with the immense volume that they often achieve. This is without doubt one of the records of a lifetime. PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★★

ON THE WEBSITE Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine website www.classical-music.com

£14.99

The six ‘Hamburg’ Symphonies were in the vanguard of the CPE Bach revival when Christopher Hogwood and Trevor Pinnock both recorded them over 30 years ago, and they continue to fascinate. Even Sakari Oramo recently released a set with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra (reviewed February 2015). Ensemble Resonanz’s new addition spotlights a tight-knit ensemble based in the city where the symphonies were composed, commissioned by Baron van Swieten – later Mozart’s ‘Baroque conscience’ in Vienna. Curiously, whereas the diplomat deepened Mozart’s appreciation of (JS) Bachian counterpoint and Handelian decorum, he urged CPE Bach to let rip without ‘considering the difficulties’. CPE didn’t disappoint. The symphonies continually ambush the ear, bristling with startling leaps of the imagination that resonate powerfully with Riccardo Minasi’s visceral direction. The B minor Symphony’s Prestoo is so incendiary that asbestos gloves might be in order, while the protean energy of the C major’s opening movement, scales going off like fire-crackers in all directions, compounds the Hamburgers’ relish for the sort of fevered edginess that it obtains throughout the set. At one sitting, their gusto can be a little abrasive – the ‘innocentemente of the A major Symphony or the ameliorating gracefulness’ (to quote the booklet) of No. 2’s Poco adagio are under-cherished – but the ride is exhilarating. Playing it safe in these rollercoaster symphonies is never an option. Paul Riley PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★

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ORCHESTRAL L REVIEWS HAYDN • WF BACH

REISSUES

Haydn 2032, Vol. 2: Symphonies Nos 46, 22 & 47; WF Bach: Sinfonia in F, F67

Reviewed by Terry Blain

WEINBERG

Il Giardino Armonico/Giovanni Antonini Alpha 671 75:18 mins

BBC Music Direct

BRAHMS DVD Serenade No. 2; Alto Rhapsody; Symphony No. 2 Sara Mingardo (mezzo); Bavarian Radio Choir; Lucerne Festival Orchestra/ Andris Nelsons Accentus ACC 20325 109 mins

BBC Music Direct

£20.99

August 2014 – the first Lucerne Festival without Claudio Abbado. One can only guess at the burden of expectation weighing on Andris Nelsons, chosen to conduct the four concerts programmed by Abbado before he died. As this finely directed, unfussily shot DVD shows, long and standing ovations confirmed Nelsons’s triumph. We see his sentient hands and face incarnate and gleefully make visible the entire nerve system of the music. All this adds delight to the Lucerne Festival Orchestra’s performance of Brahms’s Serenade No. 2 in A, and to Nelsons’s mischievous animation of detail in the third movement of Symphony No 2. Nelsons ventilates Brahms’s orchestration, exploiting the refined ensemble nurtured over a decade by Abbado. There’s a lightness of pacing, but also a tautly focused heft in the slow movement, where weight and world-weariness demand it. There’s also, particularly in the finale, that thrilling frisson of the unpredictable. In the Alto Rhapsody, y Sara Mingardo offers a stark and sombre intensity of reponse to the isolation of the traveller in Goethe’s Harz Mountain Journey in Winter. r Yet the melodic line is everywhere live and lithe, with the finest, most elusive nuancing of tone and colour. The men of the Bavarian Radio Choir soothe her fragile prayer with the gentlest support. Hilary Finch PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★

HAYDN • GLUCK Haydn 2032, Vol. 1: Symphonies Nos 1, 39 & 49; Gluck: Don Juan Il Giardino Armonico/Giovanni Antonini Alpha 670 70:00 mins

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£15.99

£15.99

No one could accuse Giovanni Antonini and his ensemble Il Giardino Armonico of not planning ahead: these CDs mark the start of a Haydn symphonies project whose completion is timed to coincide with the composer’s tercentenary in 2032. The first two instalments include some of the dramatic works from Haydn’s so-called Sturm und Drang, g or ‘Storm and Stress’, period of the late 1760s and early 1770s. No. 49, aptly nicknamed La Passione, e begins with a sombre Adagio, and features two exceptionally turbulent quick movements; while No. 46, in the unusual key of B major, has a fragment of its minuet returning during the course of the finale, thereby anticipating Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony by several decades. The Philosopherr No. 22 uses a pair of cors anglais instead of oboes, producing a strikingly original sonority. Less even in inspiration is the G minor No. 39, with a bland and retrogressive slow movement sandwiched between violently agitated outer movements. An enterprising feature of these recordings is their inclusion of a piece by one of Haydn’s contemporaries, as a form of reference point. WF Bach’s F major symphony for strings has its moments of quirky originality, but more substantial is Gluck’s complete Don Juan n ballet featured on the first disc. Mozart must have known this piece, and its concluding scene with the Don tormented by the Furies in hell (Gluck later borrowed from it in the Paris version of his Orfeo) o is tremendously effective. The earlier numbers, including a captivating serenade for oboe and pizzicato strings, and a Spanish dance resonating to the sound of castanets, are generally more graceful. Antonini’s spiky performance style, with period instruments playing at modern pitch, is sometimes a touch overheated, but there’s no denying its effectiveness. His choice of repeats is generally well judged (though it’s a mistake to include the second-half repeat in the finale of No. 46, making the surprise of the minuet’s return occur twice), and it’s good to have these still underperformed pieces so vividly played and well recorded. Misha Donat PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★★

MURAIL Le partage des eaux; Contes cruels (for electric guitar and orchestra); Sillages Wiek Hijmans, Seth Josel (electric guitars); BBC Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic/ Pierre-André Valade Aeon AECD 1222 61:39 mins

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£15.99

Tristan Murail, having emerged from spectralism, writes orchestral music that ravishingly explores, analyses, muses upon and takes inspiration from sound itself. These three works, superbly realised under the nuanced direction of Pierre-André Valade, provide both a fine introduction for those unfamiliar with Murail’s music and a corrective of sorts for those who only know the pieces from the first phase of his output. Le partage des eauxx (1995-96) is a result of Murail’s close analysis of the sound of a wave breaking and its backwash. The result is a constantly shifting texture, at times smooth, others turbulent, yet always shimmering. The closest it comes to being melodic is with what sounds like a diffuse memory of a Messiaen chorale, yet it is continually mesmerising. The same might be said of the other two works. In Contes cruelss (2007), the orchestra transforms the often filigree gestures of two electric guitars tuned a quarter-tone apart, opening up whole new vistas of colour, while the kinetic energy and gravitational flux of the harmonies in Sillagess (1985) continually enthralls. Christopher Dingle PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★

Symphonies Nos 5& 10* Moscow Phil/Kondrashin, Barshai* Melodiya MEL CD 10 02281 (1975) 75:32 mins

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£11.99

If you find Shostakovich prolix, explore Weinberg’s tauter idiom. Both symphonies are conducted by their dedicatees and bristle with authority. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

SIBELIUS En Saga; The Swan of Tuonela; Karelia Suite; Finlandia; Valse triste; Tapiola Berlin Philharmonic/Karajan Warner 2434768462 (1976) 78:56 mins

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£8.99

Intense, concentrated performances, with great power in reserve orchestrally. Tapiola’s string playing has exquisite subtlety, Karelia’s brass is fired off like bullets. Some opacity of sound mutes the impact slightly. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

JANÁ∫EK From the House of the Dead: Prelude & Suite; The Cunning Little Vixen Suite; Amarus Soloists; Prague Philharmonic Choir; Czech Philharmonic/Neumann, Jilek Praga PRD 250 308 (1974, 1979, 1988) 75:24 mins

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£14.99

Moments of visionary wonder in the orchestral playing alternate with the bumps and slippages of live performance in these Czech Radio recordings. Not a first choice in this repertoire but interesting. PERFORMANCE ★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

DVO∏ÁK • SMETANA Symphony No. 9 • Má vlast Vienna Symphony/Karel AnΩerl Wiener Symphoniker WS 008 (1958) 49:01 mins

NIELSEN Symphonies Nos 1 - 6 Gillian Keith (soprano), Mark Stone (baritone); BBC Philharmonic/ John Storgårds Chandos CHAN 10859(3) 210:38 mins (3 discs)

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£28.99

It’s fascinating to hear Carl Nielsen’s six symphonies in quick succession. They all sound like manifestations of the same volatile personality, but gaining in confidence in their radical rethinking of the concept of

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A genial, relaxed New World Symphony, with pungent orchestral textures. Ensemble can be casual, and the 1958 stereo sound is boxy. Ancˇerl fans may be keen but it’s otherwise unexceptional. PERFORMANCE ★★★ RECORDING ★★★

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REVIEWS ORCHESTRAL the symphony towards the Fifth, a masterpiece of the 20th century, and with the enigmatic Sixth as coda. In much of this cycle, issued to coincide with Nielsen’s 150th anniversary, John Storgårds’s approach is thoughtful. Fast movements, such as begin the Third and Fourth, sound measured and lacking in Nielsen’s reckless forward drive. Slow movements are more convincing: that of the Fourth, with its alternation of plainchant-like declamation and solemn chorales, comes across as a deeply personal episode of spiritual questioning. Any reservations are dispelled by a masterly reading of the Fifth, moving sure-footedly from its opening sterility through successive crises to final affirmation. The BBC Philharmonic players respond to their principal guest conductor superbly: the woodwind with well-characterised phrasing, notably clarinettist John Bradbury in the Fifth; the strings with perfect discipline in Nielsen’s challenging outbursts. The Chandos recording maintains clear internal balance throughout – although the vocal parts in the Third, impersonally delivered as they should be, sound a little too far forward. But when the brass and timpani are loud, as often in the earlier symphonies, they seem to overload the orchestra’s Salford studio: a contrast with the wide open spaces afforded the San Francisco Symphony in Herbert Blomstedt’s late-1980s cycle on Decca. That remains a prime recommendation, yet Storgårds’s offers outstanding playing and a consistent personal view. Anthony Burton

BBC PROMS: The UNESCO Concert for Peace DVD Works by R Strauss, Mahler and Panufnik World Orchestra for Peace/Valery Gergiev C Major DVD: 730 108; Blu-ray: 703 204 151 mins

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animated conducting: Philippe Jordan adds zest and character to Daphnis

RAVEL

Daphnis, where they compete for the affection of Chloé, so effectively characterised: Daphnis’s in particular is genuinely ‘légère et gracieuse’ – light-footed with feline grace. After the final orgiastic Bacchanale, La valsee makes an apt coupling, Jordan and his orchestra ideally combining lusciousness with vicious menace. All that said, I was not quite as carried away by this Daphniss as I have been by Pierre Boulez’s Berlin Philharmonic recording which also includes La valsee (on DG). Boulez admittedly makes rather less of Dorcon and Daphnis’s character dances; but while Jordan’s flute ‘solo’ (which in fact neatly dovetails contributions by piccolo and alto flute) sounds over-deliberate and self-conscious, Boulez’s players phrase with apparent spontaneity within Ravel’s slow tempo. Boulez also has the edge when it comes to drama and sheer excitement: witness his characterisation of the young girls – feisty rather than merely decorous – or the furious pace and barbaric edge of his pirates. And Jordan’s choir, though characterful, is not at the superlative level of Boulez’s, going marginally flat in Part 2’s demanding a cappella introduction. Daniel Jaffé

Daphnis et Chloé (complete ballet); La valse

PERFORMANCE RECORDING

PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★

★★★★ ★★★★★

Orchestre et Choeurs de l’Opéra national de Paris/Philippe Jordan Erato 2564616684 68:35 mins

JF LECLERCQ

BBC Music Direct

£14.99

Philippe Jordan has clearly put much thought into his interpretation of Daphnis et Chloé, é further refined through several staged performances. Part 1’s ‘Danse religieuse’ is animated and purposeful rather than the usual hedonistic wallow. The famous flute solo in Part 3 may seem exceptionally slow, but sure enough the score is marked ‘Très lent’. And I don’t think I’ve heard the dances by Dorcon and

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REICH Music for 18 Musicians Ensemble Signal/Brad Lubman Harmonia Mundi HMU 907608 59:17 mins

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£14.99

It’s fascinating when a performance tradition of a relatively new work

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begins to evolve. I say new, but Reich’s Music for 18 Musicianss (197476) is nearing 40. Since Reich’s own pioneering recording of that seminal work (on Nonesuch) there have been at least five other recordings before this one. The young musicians in Ensemble Signal weren’t even born when it was composed, though they’re directed by Reich’s colleague Brad Lubman. They prepared it for the 2014 Big Ears Festival, followed by this recording (the seventh in the piece’s history): the result is a fast, sharply focused achievement that flies past barely touching the ground. One cannot help but be staggered by the skill of musicians who wear its arduous repetitions so apparently effortlessly, and succeed in lending it a sense of free-wheeling fantasy too. What do we lose? Certainly some of the emotional weight of bass clarinet parts underpinning the first and last Pulses sections: where, in Reich’s own recording, they burdened the long-breathed lines with something intangibly melancholy, at this faster speed we seem to lack an undertow. While the performance as a whole is dynamic and minutely calibrated, there’s something undeniably more funky about the dancing lines of Section VIII; after all, breakbeats have speeded everything up since 1976. The sense of drag and dissolution on Reich’s version in Section XI isn’t as pronounced, since the clarinets are so precisely synchronised. Still, a sense of catharsis comes powerfully through the final recapitulation, waves of lower pitches swimming in and out of view. It might be said, this is Reich for the 21st century. Helen Wallace PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★★

£25.99 £34.99

Since its foundation by Sir Georg Solti in the mid 1990s, the World Orchestra for Peace has performed a steady stream of high-profile concerts. These are celebrated here in a somewhat hagiographic documentary which forms an aperitif to its recent appearance at the 2014 BBC Proms. The concert, marking the centenary of the start of the First World War, opens with the rather episodic Symphonic Fantasia from Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten. Gergiev inspires his players to deliver a fervent account that is only momentarily put out of kilter by some poor ensemble near the end. Less convincing is Roxanna Panufnik’s Three Paths to Peace. e Her attempt to fuse elements of Christian, Jewish and Islamic musical idioms seems contrived, and the programmatic allusions to the Abraham and Isaac story are rather too obvious. Gergiev’s Mahler Symphony No. 6 is something of a mixed bag – lots of high-octane aggression, but relatively little subtlety. As in his LSO live recording, Gergiev follows Mahler’s second published edition by placing the slow movement immediately after the opening Allegro. Whatever the structural merits of his decision, the argument that the Andantee provides necessary emotional respite after the trials and tribulations of the Allegro energicoo is subverted by the rather fierce manner in which Gergiev drives the final climax of the movement. Indeed, despite some wonderfully sophisticated solo playing particularly from the woodwind, the performance as a whole could have benefited from more points of repose and a wider range of colours. On the whole, the camerawork is refreshingly free from gimmickry, and the visual impact of the huge flurry of dust that follows the striking of the two massive hammer blows is certainly a sight to behold. Erik Levi PERFORMANCE PICTURE & SOUND EXTRAS

★★★ ★★★★ ★★★

All discs can be ordered from www.classical-music.com/shop

CONCERTO Raphael Wallfisch plumbs the despair and nostalgia of three rarely heard concertos by Hungarians in exile; plus Anna Vinnitskaya tackles the hidden depths of Shostakovich’s Piano Concertos

CONCERTO CHOICE

Refreshing dedication John Allison applauds Krystian Zimerman’s return to Lutos√awski

ALBÉNIZ • GRANADOS Albéniz: Concierto fantástico, Op. 78; Rapsodia española, Op. 70; Granados: Concerto in C minor ‘Patético’ (arr. Mestre) Melani Mestre (piano); BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins Hyperion CDA 67918 76:58 mins

BBC Music Direct

outstanding duo: conductor Simon Rattle and pianist Krystian Zimerman

LUTOSŁAWSKI Piano Concerto; Symphony No. 2 Krystian Zimerman (piano); Berlin Philharmonic/Simon Rattle DG 479 4518 52:22 mins

BBC Music Direct

£14.99

Krystian Zimerman has recorded Lutosławski’s Piano Concerto before, even for the same label: as dedicatee, he not only gave its premiere in Salzburg in 1988 but made the first recording under the composer’s baton soon afterwards. He has lived with the work ever since, and over a quarter of a century on his performances of it

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mix complete authority with fresh, questing spirit, as if he were laying out the notes for the first time. So there is not just room but need for another recording from him, especially with such outstanding forces as the Berlin Philharmonic. Zimerman injects both delicacy

Zimerman holds the key to the Concerto’s wistful undercurrents and virtuosity into the dialogue with Simon Rattle’s orchestra, and also holds the key, as probably only a Pole could do, to the serious yet wistful undercurrents of this work. Yet Rattle’s own input is distinguished; well known for his affinity with Szymanowski’s music, he conducts this with a

similar ecstatic beauty, suggesting a plausible if unexpected kinship between these two great Polish masters from opposite ends of the 20th century. The slightly distant recorded sound is no disadvantage here, but a little more immediacy in the live recording of Symphony No. 2 might help. With its dense harmonies and ad libitum m explosions, this belongs to an earlier Lutosławski phase. But it is still a work of warmth, and who better to summon up that than the luxurious-sounding Berliners? PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★

ON THE WEBSITE Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine website www.classical-music.com

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The Spanish pianist and composer Melani Mestre is nothing if not bold, and on this CD he presents a concerto ‘by’ Granados, much of which he has himself written. But first he plays Albéniz’s Concierto fantásticoo and his Rapsodia española, the latter in a score whose status is also a matter of debate. Albéniz’s concerto is impregnated throughout with the influence of Chopin, sometimes to a point where you’d think it was by him – particularly in the lyrical opening. Mestre’s playing is limpid and convincing, with Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra giving discreet support (Albéniz’s focus stays firmly on the soloist), but as the first movement turns declamatory it becomes clear that Albéniz didn’t have Chopin’s magic touch. The Reveriee which follows has a tender expressiveness, and the Scherzoo a Mendelssohnian fizz, with the concluding Allegro making a fine vehicle for Mestre’s virtuosity. The Rapsodiaa allows Albéniz’s Spanishness to come clearly through, however, with its intense atmosphere, Hispanic intervals, and sequence of dances. The first movement of Granados’s concerto (‘Patético’) only exists in fragmentary form, with several blank pages which Mestre has filled in from a two-piano sketch; he’s created the second and third movements by writing symphonic arrangements of two of Granados’s solo piano pieces. This ‘recomposition’ has mixed results: while the first movement

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CONCERTO REVIEWS has a brooding Romantic power reminiscent of Rachmaninov, the second and third are pale reflections of the piano pieces they are drawn from, with a tendency to schmaltz. Michael Church PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★

BARTÓK Violin Concerto No.2

incisively dramatic:

MENDELSSOHN

Josef ≤paΩek makes a strong case for JanáΩek

Violin Concerto Augustin Hadelich (violin); Norwegian Radio Orchesta/Miguel Harth-Bedoya Avie AV 2323 62:27 mins

RADOVAN SUBIN, MAT HENNEK

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Over recent years, the Italian-born, German-rooted violinist Augustin Hadelich has been establishing himself as an exciting and distinctive soloist, not least through his series of recordings on Avie. He has a vivid tone, bright and supple, with a deepseated rhythmic sense and plenty of mercurial dazzle at his disposal. And it’s the kind of sound you can quickly begin to recognise as his – something relatively unusual these days. Nevertheless, he is not the first lively, engaging violinist to steam through the Mendelssohn Concerto without quite nailing its point. This account, though extremely well played, seems to conceive the work as a grand-scale Romantic firework display. Mendelssohn’s lightness of touch, his awareness of half-lit, enchanted atmospheres, rarely comes through, and the somewhat heavyhanded accompaniment from the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Harth-Bedoya does little to assist that. Hadelich sounds more at home in the Bartók Concerto No. 2. This makes an interesting pairing with the Mendelssohn – sharing with it not only a perfectionist concision of thought, but also a rich vein of intense sensitivity and imagination. Hadelich manages to make this supposedly ‘difficult’ work sound as approachable and lyrical as any Romantic warhorse, which is an achievement in itself. His expressive range traverses a satisfying sonic rainbow as the work progresses; and he delivers the ultra-demanding solo part with unfailing precision, yet as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The orchestra and its conductor remain efficient rather than inspiring. Jessica Duchen PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★ ★★★

BARTÓK • DORÁTI • SEIBER Doráti: Cello Concerto; Bartók: Viola Concerto (arr. Serly); Seiber: Tre pezzi Raphael Wallfisch (cello); BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Gábor Takács-Nagy Nimbus NI 5919 77:28 mins

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The Hungarian concertos featured on this beautifully recorded release were all written a considerable time after their respective composers had left their native country. It’s perhaps not surprising, then, that a feeling of displacement hovers over each work, though this is manifested in rather different ways. Loneliness and despair seem to be the overriding emotions in much of the Seiber and Bartók, whereas nostalgia and romantic warmth are the main components of Doráti’s Concerto. The most musically rewarding of these in my opinion is Mátyas Seiber’s Tre Pezzii composed in 1956. It opens with a brooding and ingeniously scored Adagioo that is punctuated from time to time by menacing dissonances in the brass. In contrast, the central ‘Capriccio’ is more fragmentary, juxtaposing both playful and grotesque material which in many ways seems to point forward to Ligeti. After this, Seiber returns to the elegiac mood of the opening with a beautifully serene and rather moving ‘Epilogue’. Raphael Wallfisch delivers a very engaging performance of this work, ably supported by Gábor TakácsNagy and an alert BBC National

Orchestra of Wales. Similar qualities abound in their committed playing of the Doráti Concerto, though here I am less persuaded by the composer’s rhapsodic and somewhat discursive musical material which invokes a variety of musical influences from Kodály and Bloch to a strong whiff of Hollywood film score in the Finale. Transcribing Bartók’s Viola Concerto for cello, a strategy first adopted by János Starker, seems perfectly viable. Wallfisch plays eloquently here, though I wonder whether there could have been a bit more momentum and energy in the Finale. Erik Levi PERFORMANCE RECORDING

orchestral accompaniment, produces a near-ideal interpretation. JanáΩek’s Concerto – with its intriguing title, The Wandering of a Little Soull – is, in fact, a reconstruction from sketches. JanáΩek had intended for a violin concerto in 1926, but the material was diverted into the opera From the House of the Dead. d Leo≥ Faltus and Milo≥ Stedron’s realisation of the work is attractive, if somewhat lightweight, but with an incisively dramatic reading, B∑lohlávek and ≤paΩek make the best of this curiously shaped piece. The Dvoπák, which is likely to be the main event for most listeners, is by any standards given a handsome performance. In a well-balanced recording, there is a wealth of orchestral detail to savour in the first movement. And yet, particularly in the secondary material, there is sometimes a lack of energy. Many will warm to ≤paΩek’s soft-grained tone, especially in the slow movement; the finale, while flawless in tone, doesn’t really sweep the listener away. Isabelle Faust’s magical performance, again with B∑lohlávek, though with the Prague Philharmonia Orchestra (on Harmonia Mundi), remains a clear front runner. Jan Smaczny PERFORMANCE SUK & JANÁ∫EK DVO∏ÁK RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★

★★★★ ★★★★★

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 21, K467; Piano Concerto No. 23, K488; Concert Rondo in A, K386 Ingrid Jacoby (piano); Academy of St Martin in the Fields/Neville Marriner ICA Classics ICAC 5135 67:27 mins

DVO∏ÁK • JANÁ∫EK • SUK Dvoπák: Violin Concerto; JanáΩek: Violin Concerto ‘The wandering of a little soul’; Suk: Fantasy in G minor, Op. 24 Josef ≤paΩek (violin); Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Jiπí B∑lohlávek Supraphon SU 4182-2 66:12 mins

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£14.99

This is a boldly imaginative gathering of Czech works for solo violin and orchestra. Suk’s Fantasyy from 1903 is a terrific blend of storm and stress with soulful introspection, passion and charm in fruitful alternation. Rather too long to be a curtain-raiser, the Fantasyy is not quite long enough to count as a full blown concerto which perhaps counts against its becoming part of the standard repertoire outside the Czech lands. Josef ≤paΩek, with Jiπí B∑lohlávek’s wonderfully attentive

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Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 (the so-miscalled ‘Elvira Madigan’) has been so variously recorded that any new version needs to be special to contend. This one, recorded in Abbey Road Studios last summer, begins promisingly indeed with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields sounding deliciously crisp, expressive and lifelike under their ageless director. Then the piano comes in – and with it, the doubts. It is not just that the recording favours the Steinway over the orchestra, so that string and woodwind detail is occasionally obscured and the overall balance is remote from anything Mozart at his fortepiano would have expected. There is also a certain hardness about the piano timbre. American born, but BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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REVIEWS CONCERTO

REISSUES Reviewed by Daniel Jaffé

DVO∏ÁK • SCHUBERT Dvoπák: Piano Concerto; Schubert: Fantasy for Piano in C Sviatoslav Richter (piano); Bavarian State Orchestra/Carlos Kleiber Warner 2435668952 (1963/76) 59:30 mins

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£9.99

Dvoπák’s Piano Concerto, as played by two great musicians, is full of drama, charm and atmosphere. Richter’s Wanderer Fantasy is magisterial yet genuinely touching when intimate. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue; An American in Paris; Piano Concerto in F LSO/André Previn (piano) Warner 2435668912 (1971) 65:15 mins

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An ageless album, every performance full of characterful playing, the LSO clearly inspired by Previn’s idiomatic style, infectious swagger and sheer joy in this music. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

Violin Concertos Nos 1 & 2; Violin Sonata No. 2 David Oistrakh (violin), Vladimir Yampolsky (piano); LSO/Lovro von MataΩic´; Philharmonia/Alceo Galliera Warner 0724356288829 (1955-59) 72:53 mins

£9.99

A disappointing set, with some poor coordination between Oistrakh and the orchestra in Concerto No. 1. Sonata No. 2 is the best performance, but in very dry sound. PERFORMANCE ★★★ RECORDING ★★★

RAVEL • RACHMANINOV Ravel: Piano Concerto in G; Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 4 Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (piano); Philharmonia Orchestra/ Ettore Gracis Warner 0724356723825 (1957) 46:34 mins

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£9.99

Michelangeli at the peak of his art, the Rachmaninov No. 4 outstanding with playing by turns fiery and easeful, the Ravel G major unhurried yet suavely masterful. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

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Miguel Prieto and the YOA Orchestra of the Americas in the background. This problem is particularly acute at the start, where the beauty of the opening orchestral theme is obscured by the intrusive sound of the piano’s passagework – yet that should only be the accompaniment. The best part of this CD consists of three improvisations – and, having once had the chance to challenge her improvisatory claims, I can believe that these perfectly structured performances really were spontaneous. The first is a gracefully Bachian exploration, the second a Rachmaninov-style rumination, and the third a Chopinesque cabaret number. Here is the full Montero, revelling in her fine technique and unstoppable creative flow. Michael Church PERFORMANCE RECORDING

19-year-old son Maxim, Vinnitskaya and Kremerata Baltica collaborate in a particularly alert and responsive performance: the outer movements are perky and playful, and the wellloved slow movement, taken not as slowly as has become standard but at a flowing Andantee (moderately slow) as requested by the composer, conjures a seductive ease rare in Shostakovich. The Concertino for Two Pianos and the lighthearted Tarantellaa are attractive makeweights. Daniel Jaffé PERFORMANCE CONCERTO NO. 1 OTHER PIECES RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★

★★★★ ★★

TOWER

★★★ ★★★

Stroke; Violin Concerto; Chamber Dance Cho-Liang Lin (violin); Nashville Symphony/Giancarlo Guerrero Naxos 8.559775 57:30 mins

SHOSTAKOVICH RACHMANINOV

Anna Vinnitskaya (piano), Tobias Willner (trumpet), Ivan Rudin (piano); Kremerata Baltica/Omer Meir Wellber Alpha 203 49:45 mins

MONTERO Ex Patria, Op. 1 (In Memoriam); Improvisations Gabriela Montero (piano); YOA Orchestra of the Americas/ Carlos Miguel Prieto Orchid Classics ORC 100047 64:29 mins

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Self-exiled from Venezuela, Gabriela Montero’s Op. 1 expresses her grief and fury at what has befallen that land. Ex Patriaa is dedicated to the 20,000-plus of her compatriots murdered each year since 2011, and is a tone poem purporting to reflect the country’s civic collapse and moral decay; it is, she says, ‘a portrayal of a country barely recognisable from that of my youth’. In effect it’s an elegiac fantasia for piano and orchestra, very Russian in style, with echoes of Rachmaninov and Shostakovich; it hangs organically together, and has no need to be read as programme music. It’s appropriately preceded by a work from pianism’s most celebrated self-exile. Montero’s playing in Rachmaninov’s Second Concerto has a zest which reminds us why Martha Argerich originally took her under her wing, but it’s marred by soundrecording which insistently thrusts the piano into close-up, leaving Carlos

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Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2; Concertino for two pianos; Tarantella for two pianos

Piano Concerto No. 2

PROKOFIEV

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resident in Britain, Ingrid Jacoby has been much praised, and she certainly commands a firm, finger-perfect technique. Yet, compared with, say, Murray Perahia in his coupling of the same two concertos on Sony, she sounds somewhat relentless in K467, and short on charm. The gentler Concerto No. 23, without trumpets and drums, gets the more nuanced performance, even if Jacoby’s articulation of the opening solo of the tragic F sharp minor slow movement is more notable for Classical poise than Romantic affect. Mozart’s own first-movement cadenza for this concerto survives; for K467 Jacoby uses her (lengthy) own, devised with Benjamin Kaplin, which emulates Mozart’s technique while somehow missing his style. The A major Concert Rondo makes an amiable fill-up – though Perahia manages to squeeze in the betterknown D major Concert Rondo, K382 as well. Bayan Northcott

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£15.99

Shostakovich’s Piano Concertos can appear mere divertissements among his ‘major’ works. Yet the First Concerto’s apparently lightweight and flippant character is deceptive: its mercurial changes of mood – fullblown Romanticism undercut by skittish non sequiturs – are tricky to pull off. Indeed, the composer’s own nervy recordings do less than full justice to its concentrated emotional range. Anna Vinnitskaya, by keeping a relatively cool head, reveals more of its depths as well as its teasing character; too self-consciously so, perhaps, in her over-drawn out trill in the finale which precedes a prankish snippet of ‘Rage over a lost penny’. For that extra inch towards perfection, I would still recommend Oleg Marshev (on Danacord), who captures something of Shostakovich’s own edge-of-seat impetuosity while also revealing more of the work’s mischief and its moment of bleak despair (in the slow movement). His trumpeter, too, comes across as a more evenly matched and charismatic partner, acceptable though Tobias Willner is. In the less complex Second Concerto, written for Shostakovich’s

£7.99

A performer herself (as an ensemble pianist), the American composer Joan Tower understands what’s needed for a concerto. The solo part of her 1991 Violin Concerto effectively combines singing melodic lines and virtuoso challenges. The progress of the work isn’t easy to follow, because Tower eschews traditional forms based on repetition and contrast in favour of a continuous opening-out from a generating cell. But the ear is caught by the constantly changing colours of the soloist’s interaction with different orchestral players – and in particular by two cadenzas in which he duets on equal terms with the orchestra’s leader (uncredited anywhere in the booklet). Violinist Cho-Liang Lin is lyrical and muscular as required, and his slender tone is well balanced with the excellent Nashville Symphony. The orchestra impresses also in two more recent pieces by Tower, both singlemovement structures. Stroke, e evoking the emotions experienced by a stroke victim, makes painful listening at times but ends with a ray of hope. Chamber Dancee is so named because it was written for the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and, even if conducted (as here), requires a chamber-music-like responsiveness among the players. It bears further witness to Tower’s imaginative handling of instrumental colouring. Anthony Burton PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★

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CONCERTO REVIEWS

NORDIC SOUND Works by Sørensen, GudmundsenHolmgreen, Clausen, Rasmussen, Christensen & Borup-Jørgensen Michala Petri (recorder); Lapland Chamber Orchestra/Clemens Schuldt OUR Recordings 6.220613 69:12 mins

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£13.99

A KOPPEL Concerto for recorder, saxophone and orchestra; Triple concerto for mezzo saxophone, cello & harp Michala Petri (recorder), Benjamin Koppel (saxophones), Tine Rehling (harp), Eugene Hye-Knudsen (cello); Odense Symphony/Henrik Vagn Christensen Dacapo 6.220633 67:25 mins

BBC Music Direct

£13.99

DANISH & FAROESE RECORDER CONCERTOS Works by T Koppel, GudmundsenHolmgreen, Rasmussen Michala Petri (recorder); Aalborg Symph. Orch./Henrik Vagn Christensen OUR Recordings 6.220609 57:01 mins

CLIVE BARDA/ARENA PAL

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£13.99

While the mainstay of the recorder’s repertoire sits within the medievalBaroque periods, recent years have seen a growing body of new music composed for that instrument, recognising and celebrating its distinct timbre and ready agility. These three well-recorded discs, all of Scandinavian origin, mark the recorder’s continuing appeal, offering complex and challenging new compositions alongside more broadly accessible works. Nordic Soundd presents five world premieres for recorder and string orchestra and string orchestra alone, with the outstanding recorder virtuoso Michala Petri as soloist. The works were each commissioned in tribute to Danish composer Axel Borup-Jørgensen (1924-2012), whose own transfixing Sommasvitt (1957) for string orchestra closes the disc. Standout pieces include Sunleif Rasmussen’s Winter Echoes, which unleashes ferocious trills and flutters from the recorder in a pleasing subversion of the instrument’s dulcet reputation, and Bent Sørensen’s Whisperingg for recorder and strings, its title said to be inspired by Axel’s ‘soft and fragile

way of speaking’ and which forms a delicate and moving tribute. Son of eminent Danish composer Herman Koppel (1908-1998), Anders Koppel has made his name as a renowned composer of both film and art music, all while remaining a member of the chart-topping psychedelic rock group Savage Rose for some 40 years. The mischievously titled Double Triple Koppell brings together two recent concertos: Koppel’s Double Concerto for Recorder, Saxophone and Orchestra (2010) and Triple Concerto for Mezzo Saxophone, Cello, Harp and Orchestra (2009). Koppel’s music is unabashedly sumptuous and tonal, with both scores full of whip-smart musical adventure and demonstrating Koppel’s knack for a luscious melody. There are occasional lapses in intonation across soloists and ensemble, but the disc features a notably tender and playful performance by Petri. Thomas Koppel (brother of Anders and also a founder member of Savage Rose) heads up the diverse Danish and Faroese Recorder Concertos (once more performed with aplomb by Petri). Koppel’s recorder concerto Moonchild’s Dream m (1990-91) was commissioned for a film recounting the hopes and dreams of a penurious young girl in Copenhagen, and while Koppel’s rich, cinematic score may have been a fine match for the film’s emotive theme, as a concert piece the work borders on the saccharine. Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s fiercely inventive recorder concerto, Chacun Son Son n (2014) offers a welcome astringence. Comprised of a ‘longbreathed canon’ scored between soloist and orchestral sections, the concerto snarls, sings and whispers, making for a powerful addition to the repertoire. Sunleif Rasmussen’s Territorial Songss (2008-9) explores the mingling sounds of birdsong with notable originality, capturing distinct and magical soundworlds (including an arresting passage where Petri hums through the recorder) across the work’s five short movements. Kate Wakeling NORDIC SOUND PERFORMANCE RECORDING DOUBLE TRIPLE KOPPEL PERFORMANCE RECORDING DANISH AND FAROESE PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★

Hear the BBC Music team give its verdict on Danish and Faroese Recorder Concertos on our ‘First Listen’ podcast, available from iTunes & www.classical-music.com

REISSUES SPECIAL

russian sounds: Lydia Mordkovitch studied with Oistrakh

A tribute to Lydia Mordkovitch CD Review’s Andrew McGregor explores the Russian violinist’s concerto legacy, from Bruch to John Veale When Lydia Szymanowski, and completely Mordkovitch died unknown works like the Violin last December, we Concerto (1984) by John Veale. It lost a significant finds Mordkovitch at her best, in link to a special the service of a work that follows school of Russian in the tradition of Veale’s mentor violin playing through her teacher Walton, or American concertos David Oistrakh. It’s immediately like the Barber or Korngold. The apparent when listening to these performance has a cinematic five tribute CDs reissued by sweep that’s highly engaging, and Chandos how strongly that sound re-coupled for this release with came through. You’d expect it in concertos by Bax, Dyson and Bliss, the two Shostakovich Concertos, it deserves to find a new audience. not just in the powerful Mordkovitch’s Bruch is here: sweetness of her sound, but her not the famous one but the instinctive empathy with the other two concertos. She brings music’s most a winning darkest John Veale’s Violin passionate resonances. These and Concerto deserves to yearning were awardimprovisatory find a new audience fluency to the winning when they were start of No. 2. released in 1990, and 25 years on The last tribute is a new they’re compelling performances, compilation taken from three with savage wind playing from recitals: Poème – the Artistry the Royal Scottish National of Lydia Mordkovitch. There’s Orchestra for Neeme Järvi. heart-on-sleeve romance from Perhaps it’s too easy to Rachmaninov, meditative and pigeonhole Mordkovitch as an virtuosic Chausson, spiky and Oistrakh pupil and assistant – for turbulent Shostakovich Preludes. anyone that would be a huge Elgar’s Sospirii is last, its rapt shadow to escape – as it ignores intensity a poignant reminder the characterful individuality of of her generosity of sound and her playing. And once she started musical spirit. her long relationship with the BBC Music Direct: Chandos Chandos label, just look at the CHAN10864 X (Shostakovich) range of her repertoire in over £8.99; CHAN 241-53; 2 CDs 60 recordings, from Bach and (British concertos) £13.99, Brahms to Shostakovich and CHAN10866 X (Poème) £8.99

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OPERA Dorothea Röschmann and Michael Schade head a compelling production of Schubert’s Fierrabras; plus, a chance to reconsider Tara Erraught in Richard Jones’s Glyndebourne production of Der Rosenkavalier

OPERA CHOICE

Nielsen for the modern age Michael Scott Rohan enjoys Michael Schønwandt’s well-cast Maskarade nielsen focus: Dénise Beck and Nils Jørgen Riis in the studio

could mingle anonymously. The lyrical score bounces with dance rhythms, alongside more reflective moments like Act II’s twilit prelude, recalling Die Meistersingerr with its recurring watchman, and the extraordinary memento morii end to the masquerade itself.

NIELSEN Maskarade Stephen Milling, Johan Reuter, Stig Fogh Andersen, Niels Jørgen Riis, Dénise Beck, Anne Margrethe Dahl, Ditte Højgaard Andersen, Christian Damsgaard; Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir/Michael Schønwandt Dacapo (hybrid CD/SACD) 6.220641/6.220642 134:56 mins (2 discs)

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Nielsen’s second and finest opera, adapted from an 18th-century play by Baron Ludwig Holberg, is a cheerful comedy about youth and freedom, set against the fashion for masquerades – masked balls at which all classes and backgrounds

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Michael Schønwandt conducts with great detail and sweep This latest CD boasts probably the strongest cast on record so far. The mighty bass Stephen Milling catches the ageing paterfamilias Jeronimus’s comically fallible humanity likeably. However, Nils Jørgen Riis sounds somewhat mature as his son Leander, while Johan Reuter’s Wagnerian tones render the Figaro-like valet Henrik

unduly dour. But Denise Beck and Ditte Højgaard Andersen as love interests Leonora and her maid Pernille are excellent, as are the many character roles. Michael Schønwandt conducts with great detail and sweep, but ultimately the effect’s a touch stately, lacking the dancing lightness that made John Frandsen’s 1977 premiere recording so successful, although his voices don’t equal this. Both are recommendable; if you want big voices and 21st-century recording, there’s Schønwandt, but Frandsen, now remastered to SACD, is livelier. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★★ ON THE WEBSITE Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine website www.classical-music.com

HANDEL DVD Rinaldo Antonio Giovannini, Gesche Geier, Marie Friederike Schöder, Florian Götz, Yosemeh Adjei, Owen Willetts, Cornelius Uhle; Lautten Compagney Berlin/Wolfgang Katschner; dir. Eugenio Monti Colla (Ludwigsburg, 2014) Arthaus 102207 DVD: 147 mins; plus CD (2 discs): 130 mins

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This production of Handel’s first London opera, set at the time of the First Crusade, comes from the festival at Ludwigsburg, where it was performed in May 2014. It’s a most unusual show in that while the music is delivered by live singers and an orchestra, both of them placed in a pit, what we see on stage is enacted entirely by puppets. These are not small puppets of the Punch and Judy variety, however, but created on a life-size scale. It’s a co-production between the theatrical Lautten Compagney of Berlin and the Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla & Figli – leading practitioners of the ancient art of puppetry. As one of the booklet articles tells us, there is a long and distinguished history of puppet performances of opera in Italy, where close by to La Scala stands the Teatro Gerolamo, which from 1868 onwards regularly presented marionette versions of works that had triumphed at the glamorous venue next door. Visually, there’s a lot to charm. The sets are traditional and often magical, recreating the environs of medieval Jerusalem with style and with flamboyant period (First Crusade) costumes. The movements and interactions are devised by Eugenio Monti Colla, a member of the family which has worked with marionettes for 150 years. The puppets perform quite complex movements, though their mouths do not always move exactly in synch with the voices. A surprisingly large number of them can be fielded on stage for the more spectacular scenes. Musically, things are more ordinary. The cast is not special, and while the orchestra is perfectly decent, conductor Wolfgang Katschner doesn’t provide enough momentum to excite interest; in addition, neither the sound nor the picture are of top quality. A CD

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OPERA A REVIEWS version of the same performance is also included. George Hall PERFORMANCE PICTURE & SOUND EXTRAS

★★★ ★★★ ★★★

HURD The Aspern Papers; The Night of the Wedding Owen Gilhooly, Pippa Goss, Clare McCaldin, Louise Winter; Ulster Orchestra/George Vass; Matthew Buswell*, Rhian Lois*, Nicholas Morton*; Simon Lepper* (piano)/Ronald Corp* Lyrita SRCD.2350 110:56 mins (2 discs)

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In his lifetime, record companies took scant interest in the tuneful output of Michael Hurd. But his death brought one substantial reward: the establishment in 2007, through the terms of his will, of the British Music Society Charitable Trust, mostly devoted to promoting his music. I wish I could be more enthusiastic about this latest offering, the biggest to date. But for all Hurd’s experience in setting words, his prose libretto for the three-act opera The Aspern Paperss (1994), derived from Henry James’s novella, too often generates vocal lines heavily corseted and coloured grey. The juicy stuff actually lies in the orchestral writing (beautifully played), often suffused with a wistful melancholy distantly suggesting the moodier film scores of Bernard Herrmann. The opera as a whole adopts a reflective stance. There’s little outward drama even when Louise Winter’s Juliana, keeper of the poet Jeffrey Aspern’s secrets, calls his biographer a ‘publishing scoundrel’ and collapses onto the floor. A leaner voice than Owen Gilhooly’s baritone might have given us pleasanter listening as Jordan, the biographer, presses his case; but George Vass’s team all do their best for this modest and thoughtful opera. It’s worth hearing once. At least there’s a loud pistol shot in The Night of the Wedding, g a slightly risqué 16-minute opera adapted from a theatrical trinket by Frederick Witney. Hurd’s manner is light and slightly Frenchified. Simon Lepper’s piano accompaniment prances nicely, and there’s a kick to Rhian Lois’s soprano. But it’s not enough; the piece is a damp squib. Geoff Brown PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★ ★★★★

robotic ritual: Machover’s intriguing Death and the Powerss comes to Blu-ray

MACHOVER DVD Death and the Powers Robert Orth, Patricia Risley, Joélle Harvey, Hal Cazalet; The Dallas Opera Company Orchestra and Chorus/Nicole Paiement; dir. Diane Paulus (US, 2014) The Dallas Opera Company Blu-ray: ISBN: 8-88295 20400-2 96:33 mins

opera.media.mit.edu

Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers is a curious mixture of the visionary and the antiquated. Created in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab, this innovative ‘robot opera’ blends live performance with on-stage robotics and a colossal video wall. The premise is intriguing: an assembly of robots perform a ritual drama through a ‘memory download’ of their once-mortal forms, who tell a tale of human sensibility versus machinic objectivity. We learn that some time ago billionaire entrepreneur Simon Powers set about renouncing his human self to become immersed in The System: a technological advancement that will allow Powers a kind of faceless immortality. Powers’s daughter, Miranda, struggles with the moral implications of Powers’s complex desire for both omnipotence and surrender, pleading that her father uphold humankind’s connection to ‘the body of death’. Yet despite a deft libretto by Robert Pinsky and a fine cast, both opera and production feel unexpectedly outmoded on occasion, an issue further exposed by the work’s futuristic ambitions. While Machover’s score for 19-piece orchestra features the arresting

sonorities of a 21st-century Messiaen, the soundworld of the actual robots is a synthesizer cliché. At times the narrative feels clunky and overwrought and the physical robots themselves are curiously trundling, a problem not aided by the disc’s somewhat jarring use of ‘robot-eyeview’ shots. There are, however, strong lead performances, with Patricia Risley (Evvy) and Joélle Harvey (Miranda) bringing notable command and sensitivity to their challenging roles. The scope and ambition of the opera is also highly commendable, in both the production’s more successful technical innovation and the work’s urge to grapple with the big questions of this ‘post-human’ age. The disc is largely well-shot, with sound and image crystal clear on the Blu-ray edition: if only the opera’s vision was as finely tuned. Kate Wakeling PERFORMANCE PICTURE & SOUND

lighter voices like Emma Kirkby or Emily Van Evera. Among the most memorable are Anthony Lewis’s 1961 version with Janet Baker in noble and mellifluous voice; William Christie’s period-instrument reading, with Véronique Gens adding sultry French colours and stylish embellishments; Emanuelle Haïm’s dynamic 2003 account, graced by Susan Graham’s magnetic Dido; and an interesting 2009 version by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which features the glorious Sarah Connolly and includes dances from Purcell’s other works to replace lost originals. This new recording, with a cast of youthful, fresh-voiced soloists and an ingenuous approach, recaptures the spirit of the first known performance in a Chelsea boarding school for ‘young gentlewomen’. Thanks to the slender instrumental resources, the text cuts through with perfect clarity and the singers are highly responsive to the accents and nuances of Nahum Tate’s poetry. Rachel Lloyd makes a graceful Dido, though she cannot compete in drama or gravitas with some of the great names who have tackled this role; Robert Davies is a velvet-voiced Aeneas, Elin Manahan Thomas an agile and dulcet Belinda, while the Sorceress and witches ham up their roles like the wicked witches of pantomime. Christopher Monks’s fleet direction and wispy instrumental playing enhance the allpervasive dance rhythms. Kate Bolton PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★

★★★ ★★★★

SCHUBERT DVD Fierrabras

PURCELL Dido and Aeneas Rachel Lloyd, Robert Davies, Elin Manahan Thomas, Roderick Morris, Eloise Irving, Jenni Harper, Miles Golding; Armonico Consort/Christopher Monk Signum SIGCD 417 50:45 mins

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It is hard to make a mark with a new performance of Purcell’s Dido: recordings stretch back some 80 years and range from grand-scale classic accounts figuring great operatic divas (Kirsten Flagstad, Jessye Norman, Tatiana Troyanos) to more intimate, historically informed versions with

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Georg Zeppenfeld, Julia Kleiter, Markus Werba, Benjamin Bernheim, Michael Schade, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Manuel Walser; Vienna Philharmonic/ Ingo Metzmacher; dir. Peter Stein (Salzburg, 2014) C Major DVD: 730708; Blu-ray: 730804 164 + 10 mins

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This is an almost perfect performance, both vocally and in its staging and acting, of Schubert’s greatest claim to operatic success – which unfortunately is still, in the end, a failure. A large part of its unsatisfactoriness must be put down to its wretched libretto, a ramshackle tale of Moors and Christians, set in BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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REVIEWS OPERA the time of Charlemagne. One of the most striking things about this production is that its director, Peter Stein, actually sets the opera in that period. In an engaging interview he dismisses the contemporary vogue for setting everything in the nearpresent as rubbish, and insists that for this opera to have any credibility it has to be seen as set long ago: this despite the enormous temptation, since it deals with Muslims and Christians, to set it now, especially as its characters inevitably have the tendency to fall in love with a member of the hostile other religion. Stein and his designers’ aim seems to have been to make it all look as beautiful as possible. The sets are fairly simple but delightful and ideal for the actors, and costumes are white, black, or silver (chain-mail). The plot doesn’t admit of much intelligible action, but what there is is persuasive and even, occasionally, moving. One marvels at the reams of nonsense which the gifted singers have learned to speak and sing. Charlemagne is taken by the young and magnificent bass-baritone Georg Zeppenfeld, and Fierrabras himself, son of the Moorish prince, by Michael Schade. They both deservedly get huge applause, but Dorothea Röschmann gets even more, and whenever she is singing the whole thing does get more intense. Benjamin Bernheim sings Edingard, an important role, with assurance. If this doesn’t put Fierrabrass securely on the map, nothing can. Michael Tanner PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★★

BACKGROUND TO… L Leonardo V Vinci

GETTY

((1690-1730) V Vinci entered Naple’s N Conservatory in C 11708. Such was his talent that h within ithi th three years he had become one of the Conservatory’s teachers. He made his successful debut as an opera composer in 1719, having his comic opera Lo cecato fauzo staged at the Teatro Fiorentini in Naples. For a while he capitalised on this success, writing comic operas in Neapolitan dialect. Then in 1722 he attempted his first serious opera, Publio Cornelio Scipione, which met with success. He began his celebrated collaboration with the librettist Metastasio in 1726.

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people’s tastes. But the orchestral performance is handsome and lithe. There is more to this production than a handful of ungallant reviews allowed. Anna Picard PERFORMANCE RECORDING EXTRAS

★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★

R STRAUSS

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It’s only in Act II of Der Rosenkavalier that we learn the age of the boy we first meet as dawn breaks in the Marschallin’s bedroom in a coital flurry of trilling flutes, rearing French horns and tangled strings. Strauss’s 1911 comedy of sex, love and arranged marriages among the casteconscious Viennese aristocracy is as sour as it is sweet. In Richard Jones’s 2014 Glyndebourne production, that sourness is emphasised by the youth of the cast from Tara Erraught’s wide-eyed, fluffy-cheeked, puppyish portrayal of the 17-year-old Octavian to Teodora Gheorghiu’s diminutive Sophie, Kate Royal’s brittle, beautiful Marschallin, and even Lars Woldt’s fantastically oafish, prematurely bald Baron Ochs. In a twist on the conventional sentimental ending, Jones sets the Marschallin up with another young lover-in-waiting, her pageboy Mohammed (Daniel FrancisSwaby). Still Royal’s parting phrase ‘Ja, ja’ cuts like a knife: no lover can heal the loneliness she details in her monologue at the end of Act I, curled up on the long, lemonyellow couch that stretches across the set, as a Freud-like figure sits behind her, taking notes. Costume (Nicki Gillibrand) and decor (Paul Steinberg) filter 18th-century design through a 20th-century lens, with accents borrowed from Futurism and Bauhaus. There is a large cast of grotesque extras added to the myriad of minor roles. Yet the focus remains on Octavian, Sophie, Ochs and the Marshallin. In François Roussillon’s video production you can appreciate how candid, nuanced and complex these impersonations are. There are minor quibbles with Gheorghiu’s diction and Robin Ticciati’s impetuous tempos. Jones’s staging may be too sharp for some

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Silvana Michaela Kaune, Ines Krapp, Ferdinand von Bothmer, Jörg Schörner, Detlef Roth, Andreas Burkhart, Simon Pauly, Tareq Nazmi, Marko Cilic; Rut Nothelfer (cello); Bavarian Radio Choir and Orchestra/ Ulf Schirmer CPO 777 727-2 142:34 mins (2 discs)

DVD Der Rosenkavalier Tara Erraught, Kate Royal, Lars Woldt, Teodora Gheorghiu, Michael Kraus, Miranda Keys, Christopher Gillett, Helene Schneiderman, Andrej Dunaev, Gwynne Howell, Robert Wörles, Scott Conner; London Philharmonic Orchestra/Robin Ticciati; dir. Richard Jones (Glyndebourne, 2014) Opus Arte DVD: OA 1170D; Blu-ray: OA BD 7168D 191 + 22 mins

WEBER

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VINCI Catone in Utica Juan Sancho, Franco Fagioli, Valer Sabadus, Max Emanuel Cencic, Vince Yi, Martin Mitterrutzner; Il Pomo d’Oro/ Riccardo Minasi Decca 478 8194 233:42 mins (3 discs)

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Catone in Uticaa (1728) was written in Rome for four stars: the tenor Panacci (Cato) and the three castratos Carestini, Farfallino and Minelli. Though this all-male casting was dictated by a 1588 Papal decree, the decision to pit a lead tenor against castratos was novel. Librettist Metastasio, then at the start of his career, cleverly used a story about Cato’s defiance of Caesar, and Caesar’s love of Cato’s daughter, to give composer Leonardo Vinci rich opportunities for heroic show. This new recording showcases today’s top countertenors: Franco Fagioli (Caesar), Valer Sabadus (Marzia, Cato’s daughter) and Max Emanuel Cencic (Arbace, Caesar’s rival). With Vinci’s score effectively setting performers in competition with each other through alternating arias, director Riccardo Minaso heats up this sense of rivalry – the variations get wilder, the yearning more palpable. All three countertenors are virtuosos, but Fagioli, fittingly for Caesar, takes the laurels. His embellishments, besides astonishing the ear, deepen his characterisation – for instance bringing out the latent narcissism of ‘Quell’amor che poco accende’. The band contributes enormously throughout, its brash exuberance alternating with continuo realisations as delicate as they are original. Although dramatically convincing, tenor Juan Sancho as Cato strains some top notes and belabours the more fiendish diminutions. Indeed, clocking in at almost four hours, Catone in Uticaa requires stamina all round. Patience is however rewarded by this largely superb premiere recording. Berta Joncus PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★★

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Unless you are a specialist in early Romantic opera, you are likely to think that Weber wrote three operas, of which Der Freischützz is the most popular. Actually he wrote several more, but the others are early works and rarely get performed. So CPO is doing yet another service in issuing this full recording, even if it is not an ideal one. I must congratulate them on still producing ample booklets with the full sung text, in German and English. This is yet another work cursed with spoken dialogue, which is not printed, so one only hears a stagey narrator or the odd character speaking, leaving non-German speakers in the dark. Not that there is much to interest one, anyway. This is the youthful work of an inexperienced composer, and it sounds it. After a rather good Overture, well performed under Ulf Schirmer, the work alternates between hearty hunting choruses, folk-ish songs, and excursions into Italian-style coloratura. The heroine is dumb, and is confined to gesturing until the last scene of the opera. But that is only one of its peculiarities, and given that it lasts for almost two and a half hours, with only patchy moments of interest, I’m afraid that it tends to confirm my view that there are no neglected masterpieces. Michael Tanner PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★ ★★★★

AGRIPPINA Works by Perti, Graun, Orlandini, Mattheson, Handel, Telemann, Sammartini and Legrenzi Ann Hallenberg (mezzo-soprano); Il Pomo d’Oro/Riccardo Minasi Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 88875055982 74:54 mins

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This rewarding album is the result of Ann Hallenberg’s investigations into

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OPERA A REVIEWS

three agrippinas: Ann Hallenberg portrays these striking women

vocal and instrumental, displayed in each case with remarkable ingenuity of form. Karg, a splendidly accomplished artist, delivers every item with acute sensitivity to mood and verbal nuance. Her voice is lean in terms of tonal ‘flesh’; listeners used to the more substantial instruments of (say) Maria Callas, Régine Crespin and Janet Baker in Beethoven or Baker and Edda Moser in Mendelssohn may find her lightweight. But on its own terms, with Arcangelo in perfectly weighted period-instrument support, the disc gives uninterrupted pleasure. A word must be said for the expert obbligato soloists, the orchestra’s woodwind ones no less than the named fortepianist (Mozart) and violinist (Mendelssohn). Max Loppert PERFORMANCE RECORDING

ancient Roman history. Not one, but three Agrippinas are mustered here. Two of them are daughters from two of three marriages of consul Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, while the third and best known was the infamous daughter of the younger of the abovementioned, sister of Caligula and mother of Nero. She gets the lion’s share of the music – not the happiest figure of speech, perhaps in this period of Roman history – with arias by six of the ten composers featured in Hallenberg’s recital. Most of the music is new to disc, though keen followers of Italian opera seriaa may have encountered Telemann’s ‘Rimembranza crudel’ from Germanicus, and many will recognise the three chosen arias from Handel’s early opera Agrippina. Especially alluring is ‘Ogni vento’ in waltz metre, though the instrumental accompaniment is insufficiently light-footed. Among other delights are pieces by Handel’s gifted Italian contemporary Porpora and two generously proportioned arias from Britannicoo by Frederick the Great’s Kapellmeister, Carl Heinrich Graun. Hallenberg is on scintillating form, fluent alike in bravura, of which Graun’s ‘Mi paventi’ with horns provides a dazzling example, and cantilena. The instrumental support provided by Il Pomo d’Oro under its director Riccardo Minasi is generally crisp and alert with fine contributions from the oboes. Nicholas Anderson PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★★

with some fine playing by the woodwind and a melting horn solo at the start of Bellini’s aria for Juliet. Christopher Cook PERFORMANCE RECORDING

SINFUL WOMEN Works by Massenet, Saint-Saëns, Stravinsky, Cherubini, Wagner, Strauss and Mariotte Dagmar Pecková (mezzo-soprano); Ivana Veberová (soprano), Peter Mikulás (bass); Slovak Philharmonic Chorus; Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra/ Aleksander Markovic´ Supraphon SU 4181-2 67:59 mins

★★★★ ★★★★★

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SEMPRE LIBERA Works by Donizetti, Gounod, Bellini, Bizet, Delibes, Puccini, Meyerbeer, Offenbach, Messager and Verdi

SCENE! Concert arias by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Mendelssohn Christiane Karg (soprano); Arcangelo/ Jonathan Cohen; Malcolm Martineau (piano), Alina Pogostkina (violin) Berlin Classics 0300646BC 64:08 mins

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The record label Berlin Classics, which in 2012 presented this team of German soprano, English conductor and British period band in Amoretti, a Gluck-Grétry-Mozart potpourri, has reassembled it for another greatly rewarding disc. Here we have a selection of concert arias no less imaginatively devised and stylishly delivered. Scene!,! its confusing title, is in fact the plural of scena, the Italian word for the type of Classical concert monodrama exampled here, of which Mozart wrote a gratifyingly large number. One unifying programme factor is that all the texts, including that for Mendelssohn’s 1834 Infelice!,! were drawn from Metastasio’s opera seriaa librettos. Another is that each depicts a Classical heroine in situations of tragedy, emotional suffering or romantic turmoil. And a third is that the chosen words inspired each composer to his most generously lyrical vein of musical characterisation: this is a recording of continual riches,

Miah Persson (soprano); Swedish Radio Symphony Orhcestra/Daniel Harding BIS BIS-2112 (hybrid CD/SACD) 66:16 mins

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Miah Persson is a personable singer with a loyal following on both sides of the Atlantic. If the voice sometimes lacks weight, she is nimble in the early 19th-century repertoire. Indeed Juliet’s Act I number ‘Eccomi in lieta vesta … Oh! Quante volte’ from Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi is one of the better tracks on this new recital disc, with a well-judged final cadenza. Persson gets the character right too: a young woman overwhelmed by passion, but not for the man that she is about to marry. Elsewhere it’s more about singing than character, though Persson does find an emotional depth in Michaela missed by other singers when she searches for Don José in the mountains in Act III of Carmen. And ‘Le jour sous le soleil béni’ from Messager’s Madame Chrysanthème whets the appetite for a deeply underrated composer. It might be kinder to remain silent about her ‘E strano, è strano … Sempre Libera’ from Verdi’s La traviata. Many sing the role of Violetta, but few have the measure of its vocal challenges. Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra are genuine partners in this recital

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★★★ ★★★★

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Throughout a stellar career – literally: she has an asteroid named after her – Czech mezzo Dagmar Pecková’s voice has evolved from strong and stylish Mozartian into a richly powerful instrument whose darkly sensuous hues are ideally suited to the lusher late Romantics. This album ranges from Wagner and Strauss to French coevals such as Massenet, and, from earlier and later, Cherubini and Stravinsky, their anti-heroines linked by themes of sin and forgiveness – the latter, as Massenet’s verbose Mary Magdalene demonstrates, usually less interesting. Pecková, singing decent French, makes it easy on the ears at least, as she also does with Mariotte’s Salome, e contemporary with Strauss’s, more elegantly Wildean but far less powerful. The less flowing lines of Stravinsky’s Jocasta expose a distinct beat in the voice, and Wagner’s Kundry some squally moments under pressure. Medea’s aria (Cherubini), though, is amply passionate, but suffers from cloudy, unfocused tone and unsteadiness. As Massenet’s Hérodiade and in particular SaintSaëns’s Delilah Pecková is seriously seductive, but her hollow-toned, haunting Klytaemnestra is the finest performance here. Conductor Aleksandar Markovic´ and the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra provide much more than routine accompaniments, and his orchestral interludes are notably dynamic and fresh. Less impressive are the booklet’s superficial and poorly translated notes, and images of Pecková got up as 1950s Hollywood-style temptresses – pomegranates and all... Michael Scott Rohan PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★

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CHORAL & SONG David Atherton and the London Sinfoniettaa give Birtwistle ‘both soul and a zinging edge’; Wilten Boys’ Choir and Bavarian Radio Choir offer fine new recordings of Arvo Pärt; and Pavol Breslik and Mauro Peter offer alternative views of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin

CHORAL & SONG CHOICE

Cinquecento on colourful form This small group bring madrigalian power to Lassus, says Kate Bolton

BIRTWISTLE Angel Fighter; In Broken Images; Virelai (Sus une fontayne) Andrew Watts (countertenor), Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts (tenor); BBC Singers; London Sinfonietta/David Atherton NMC Recordings NMC D211 53:36 mins

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making it personal: Cinquecento turn their small number to advantage

LASSUS Confitemini Domino; Missa super Dixit Joseph; In me transierunt irae tuae; Deus, qui sedes super thronum; Deus, canticum novum; Veni dilecte mi; Fallax gratia, etc Bernd Oliver Fröhlich (tenor); Cinquecento Hyperion CDA 68064 66:26 mins

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The vocal ensemble Cinquecento has previously focused on shadowy composers like Chatelet Regnart, Schoendorff and Vaet. Here they unveil some less familiar works of one of the great names in Renaissance music, Orlandus Lassus. Rarities include the parody

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Mass Dixit Josephh along with a selection of Lassus’s more obscure motets, including the Song of Songs poem ‘Veni dilecte mi’, the joyful ‘Deus, canticum novum’ and the intimate yet florid ‘Fallax gratia’. Among familiar works are the influential ‘Deus, qui sedes

With just one voice to a part, words cut easily through the texture super thronum’ and the intensely expressive ‘Timor et tremor’. With just one voice to a part, polyphonic lines are sharply etched and perfectly weighted throughout; rhythms are bouyant and full of momentum. Words cut easily through the texture, throwing into high relief the contrasts and colourful word painting that characterise Lassus’s style. The

singers point up the bittersweet discords of ‘O mors, quam amara est memoria tua’ in almost madrigalian fashion, and relish the rhetorical expressivity of ‘In me transierunt irae tuae’. As an all-male ensemble, their sound is robust and plangent: compare their version of ‘Timor et tremor’, for instance, with The Sixteen’s – rich and velvet toned. Some listeners may miss the more opulent sound of a full choir, but nonetheless the group has a surprising resonance, subtly enhanced by the glowing acoustic of Kloster Pernegg, Austria, and Hyperion’s lustrous recording. PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★★

ON THE WEBSITE Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine website www.classical-music.com

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Birtwistle’s cantata Angel Fighter was written for St Thomas Leipzig, JS Bach’s own church. But, as Paul Griffiths observes in his insightful notes, it’s Stravinsky who haunts the score, from the first bassoon duo. Birtwistle unleashes all his powers as a stage composer onto Stephen Plaice’s text, using the whole building to create a thrilling dramatisation of the Bible story, with the life-and-death struggle of the Angel and Jacob at its heart. Pungent pizzicato rhythms, visceral trumpets, groaning lower brass and winds shrilling overhead drive the three-way confrontation between taunting chorus, Jacob himself (a committed but occasionally strained Jeffrey LloydRoberts) and the Angel (a charismatic Andrew Watts). The chorus’s accusations exhausted, Jacob is left alone, pleading for a sign: a menacing pulse in the bass, and, from afar, the angel is heard incanting, gradually approaching. It’s enthralling stuff, as is the moment when radiant trumpets call the Angel back. In between comes the fight, which ends in the angel’s blessing and a hard-won passage of churning, rhythmic blues. In Broken Images, after Robert Graves, the composer is ‘slow, thinking in broken images’ who arrives at ‘a new understanding of my confusion’. Four clear orchestral sections (as in Gabrieli’s multi-choir canzonas), including percussion, spar against each other in a complex play of collision, fragmentation and integration. The London Sinfonietta, under David Atherton, lend it both soul and a zinging edge. Birtwistle’s

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CHORAL & SONG REVIEWS vivid orchestration of a medieval Virelai is an inspired sign-off. Helen Wallace PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★

MAHLER Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen (arr. Schoenberg)

ZEMLINSKY Sechs gesänge, Op. 13 (arr. Christopher Austin)

KOWALSKI

BUSONI • WAGNER

Lieder

Busoni: Berceuse élégiaque, Op. 42; Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

Wolfgang Holzmair (baritone), Thérèse Lindquist (piano) Bridge 9431 61:13 mins

PAUL COWAN

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Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble/Trevor Pinnock Linn CKD 481 (hybrid CD/SACD) 61:29 mins

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Few singers have been more committed to espousing the cause of unfairly neglected German Lieder than the Austrian baritone Wolfgang Holzmair. In this recital, recorded live in Munich in 2011, his focus is on Max Kowalski, a largely self-taught composer who lived in Frankfurt up to 1933 before being victimised by the Nazis and subsequently moving to Britain. A successful lawyer, Kowalski wrote songs in his spare time, but was so highly esteemed in this regard that many prominent recitalists of the day featured his work in their programmes. Kowalski’s main claim to fame rests with a cycle of 12 songs entitled Pierrot Lunairee which forms the centrepiece of the disc. Ironically, his set was composed in 1913, the same year as Schoenberg’s iconic work. But, in contrast to his far more illustrious contemporary, Kowalski is no musical iconoclast, preferring instead to exploit the grotesque imagery of the poetry within strictly tonal parameters. Nevertheless, given the limitations of his largely intimate late-Romantic style, the music is certainly worth hearing, not least for demonstrating Kowalski’s instinctive grasp of word setting and his capacity to encompass a surprisingly varied and resourceful range of emotions. Among the other items on the disc, the most interesting to my mind are the harmonically adventurous Rilke settings, composed some years after Kowalski had left Germany. As one might expect, Holzmair delivers all the music with great commitment, taking infinite care to put across the exact sentiment and mood of each poem. The one drawback, however, is an occasional unreliability of pitch mainly in the upper register, something that would no doubt have been ironed out in studio recording conditions. Erik Levi

This is the third release from the Royal Academy of Music’s series showcasing Schoenberg’s vision of chamber-music arrangements of contemporary works made for his Society for Private Musical Performances in Vienna. It’s doubly welcome because this CD focuses on the familial and musical crosscurrents and cross-fertilisations flowing around Schoenberg himself. His own arrangement of Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden gesellenn reveals that Schoenberg minutely understood the older composer’s core sensibility; and the warm, fine-grained and lyrical baritone of Gareth Brynmor John tunes in to Schoenberg’s pungent and resinous arrangement, sweet with avian flute and violin, bittersweet in the dark, mesmeric breathing of the harmonium. Christopher Austin prefers to use the accordion for his own wonderfully imaginative and idiomatic arrangement of the six Maeterlinck settings of Schoenberg’s pupil and brother-in-law, Zemlinsky. He succeeds in balancing the intimacy and the opulence of Zemlinsky’s particular flavour of Expressionism, and nudges the composer’s voice even further into the future in his inspired use of the vibraphone. Katie Bray’s mezzo here catches Zemlinsky’s dark and impassioned response to the Romantic archaism of Maeterlinck’s verse. In between comes an arrangement of an arranger-supreme. Busoni’s unsettling Berceuse elegaique, e recreated in a chamber version by another Schoenberg pupil, Erwin Stein, creates recessions of instrumental mist, beautifully poised in Trevor Pinnock’s direction of the excellent RAM Soloists Ensemble, and nicely captured in this warm, close, yet clear recording. Hilary Finch

PERFORMANCE RECORDING

PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★ ★★★★

★★★★ ★★★★

heavenly sounds: Andrew Watts is the ‘Angel’ in Birtwistle

profoundly gentle musical sensibility and his remarkable capacity to build restrained yet beguiling harmonies from the simplest of materials, all handled with skill and confidence by the Wilten Boys’ Choir. Kate Wakeling

PÄRT

PERFORMANCE RECORDING

Babel

★★★★ ★★★★

Wilten Boys’ Choir/Johannes Stecher Col legno WWE 1CD 20427 57:26 mins

BBC Music Direct

£15.99

Commentators can be quick to dismiss Pärt’s music as too simple or sentimental. Yet such claims belie the complex musical and political process that saw Pärt arrive at his ‘tintinnabulatory’ approach amid the iron strictures of communist Estonia. This fine collection of choral works gathers together a rich array of Pärt’s works for voice, featuring a number of surprisingly strident, urgent works amid Pärt’s otherwise controlled musical expression. The disc is also notable in being the first recording of Pärt’s vocal music performed by children’s voices. The collection ranges from the plaintive Magnificat of 1985 to two spirited world premiere recordings, including Drei Hirtenkinder aus Fátimaa (2015), where the setting of Matthew w 21: 6 (‘out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?’) is all the more affecting for the young voices here performing. Composed to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Pope Benedict’s ordination, the syrupy Vater unserr for boy soprano and piano still baffles, but is rendered with warmth and maturity (although the sleeve notes do not say by whom). The disc otherwise captures Pärt’s

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PÄRT Te Deum; Wallfahrstlied; Berlin Mass; After the Victory Bavarian Radio Choir; Munich Radio Orchestra/Peter Dijkstra BR Klassik 900511 67:06 mins

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The album Te Deum m offers powerful performances of four mid-period works by Pärt for choir and orchestra. Composed in 1985, the disc’s title work is a bold 30-minute piece for three choirs, prepared piano, string orchestra and an aeolian harp or ‘wind’ harp (heard here on tape recorder), blending echoes of early European polyphony with homophonic passages based on Gregorian Chant. The work exemplifies the intensity and delicacy of the composer’s signature restraint, with a single D triad standing as the harmonic basis of the entire work, and is here performed with sensitivity and poise. Te Deum m is teamed with the Berliner Messee (Berlin Mass) of 1990, composed for voices and organ in honour of the 90th Catholic Day in Berlin and subsequently rearranged for choir and string orchestra in 1992 BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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REVIEWS CHORAL & SONG

REISSUES Reviewed by George Hall

DVO∏ÁK Songs Bernarda Fink (mezzo), Vignoles (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMG 501824 (2004) 68:46 mins

BBC Music Direct

£10.99

The rich and complex colours of Bernarda Fink’s mezzo well suit the late-Romantic emotional world of Dvoπák’s songs, while Roger Vignoles gives thoughtful accompaniments. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

(the edition heard here). The work alternates between the meditative and the vividly animated. The disc also offers full-blooded renderings of the buoyant cantata for solo voices, Dopo la vittoriaa and the brooding, dazzling Wallfahrtslied for male voices and orchestra. The Bavarian Radio Choir gives authoritative accounts of these subtly complex works, skilfully marshalled by conductor Peter Dijkstra and smartly captured in this impressive live recording. Kate Wakeling PERFORMANCE RECORDING

a sense of drama: Mauro Peter does full justice to Schubert

★★★★ ★★★★

KORNGOLD Lieder Henschel (baritone), Deutsch (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMA 1951780 (2002) 75:45 mins

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This generous selection of Korngold’s songs testifies to his immense lyric gift and technical skills, fully displayed by Dietrich Henschel and his fine accompanist Helmut Deutsch. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★★

ENGLISH SONG Works by Purcell, Vaughan Williams, Butterworth, Moeran, Ireland etc John Shirley-Quirk (bass-baritone), Viola Tunnard, Eric Parkin (piano) etc Heritage HTGCD 283/4 (1960s) 124 mins

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A wide-ranging collection of English song that shows the mastery of the great bass-baritone, working with some of the finest accompanists of his time. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

JANET BAKER Lieder by Schumann, Schubert, Brahms; English Song Anthology Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano); Martin Isepp, Ernest Lush (piano) Heritage HTGCD 290/1 (1960-61) 125 mins (2 discs)

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£14.99 (2 discs)

Early recorded recitals of Lieder and English song are complemented by Brahms broadcasts from the same period; already Baker’s art is one to reckon with, and her voice unique. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

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SCHOENBERG DVD Pierrot Lunaire; Solar Plexus of Modernism (a documentary) Mitsuko Uchida (piano), Barbara Sukowa (sprechgesang), Marina Piccini (flute), Anthony McGill (clarinet), Mark Steinberg (violin), Clemens Hagen (cello); film by Leutzendorff & Meyer Belvedere 10130 39:32 + 52 mins

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£24.99

It was Stravinsky who described Schoenberg’s settings of poems from Albert Giraud’s Pierrot Lunaire as ‘the solar plexus as well as the mind of early 20th century music’ – though he admitted it was more the unprecedented range of contrapuntal textures and colours that Schoenberg drew from his five players than the vocal part that impressed him when he first heard the work in 1912. Schoenberg set the words to wideranging phrases of exact pitches, but insisted these should be spoken, not sung, with the voice just touching the pitches before moving away, and performers have striven to reconcile these requirements ever since. In this DVD, vividly performed by a line-up led by Mitsuko Uchida at the 2011 Salzburg Festival, the reciter is the distinguished actress Barbara Sukowa. She projects the surreal intensity of the texts, is pretty faithful to Schoenberg’s rhythms and manages to be on pitch for the few notes he asks to be actually sung. But elsewhere, she is not only wide of the relative rise and fall of Schoenberg’s notation but frequently contradicts his instructions. It sets this release at a significant disadvantage to those by such vocalists as Christine Schäfer, Anja Silja and Jane Manning. The documentary does a decent enough job sketching the work’s

creation, includes evocative early film footage of Berlin and reminiscences by Nuria Schoenberg, Nono and Lawrence Schoenberg, but is mainly given over to interviews with the performers on the work. Given the title, some material on influence of Pierrot Lunairee on subsequent modern music would have been welcome. Bayan Northcott PERFORMANCE PICTURE & SOUND EXTRAS

★★★ ★★★★ ★★★

SCHUBERT Die schöne Müllerin, D795 Pavol Breslik (tenor), Amir Katz (piano) Orfeo C 737 151 A 68:15 mins

BBC Music Direct Die schöne Müllerin, D795

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Mauro Peter (tenor), Helmut Deutsch (piano) Wigmore Hall Live WHLive 0075 62:17 mins

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Both these recordings of Schubert’s first song-cycle are overwhelmingly beautiful, with fine young tenors and excellent pianists. Pavol Breslik is a Czech singer who has appeared several times with distinction at Covent Garden, though I was more struck by the warmth and youthfulness of his tone on this recording than I have been in the theatre. He brings enormous freshness and vitality to the work, so that strophic songs which can strike one as monotonous are wholly captivating, and one concentrates on the meaning of each verse more than usual. It is, though, an extrovert’s

reading of the cycle, and for all its charm it doesn’t seem to plumb its depths. But Breslik’s is a full-throated tenor, and in Amir Katz he has a reliable accompanist. Go to the recording from the Wigmore Hall, however, with the Swiss tenor Mauro Peter and his immensely experienced partner Helmut Deutsch, and you are on a different level of interpretation. There is no undue fuss about the words, but the individuality of the songs is more striking, and moments such as the alarming one when the fair maid announces ‘It’s going to rain: I’m off home’ are realised with a sense of drama which Breslik seems somewhat casual about. And in the marvellous ‘Trockne Blumen’ Peter and Deutsch build to an overpowering climax, and then bring the cycle to an hypnotic close with the final song, rudely cut off by raucous applause. Michael Tanner BRESLIK PERFORMANCE RECORDING PETER PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★

TOMÁSEK Gedichte von Goethe; Sechs böhmische Lieder, Op. 71; Drei Gesänge, Op. 92 Renata Pokupic´ (mezzo-soprano), Roger Vignoles (piano) Hyperion CDA 67966 61:22 mins

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£13.99

It was ‘return to sender’ as far as poor Schubert’s settings of his poetry were

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CHORAL & SONG REVIEWS concerned; but Goethe warmed to his Czech contemporary, Václav Jan Krtitel Tomásek, declaring that his Mignon songs showed true understanding of his poetry. Tomásek’s Kennst du das Landd – praised highly by Goethe – is not, alas, included in a nonetheless generous and revelatory recital of his Lieder, which includes 15 of his 41 Goethe settings. This is a rare opportunity to judge for yourself if Tomásek is indeed unjustly neglected. His setting of Mailiedd hasn’t quite the spontaneous lift-off and exuberance of Beethoven’s; and for Rastlose Liebe, e Tomásek lacks the sheer melodic impetus of Schubert. At times, Tomásek’s response to a poem’s metre and inflection can be a little earthbound – his Mignon setting of Singet nicht in Trauertönen (here called Die Nacht) t compares unfavourably, for instance, with the poignancy of Hugo Wolf’s setting. And there is no real frisson factor in his galloping Erlkönig. g Tomásek’s settings then, as represented here, are uneven in quality. But his delightful, often salonesque, piano writing is palpably enjoyed by Roger Vignoles, and Renata Pokupic’s winey mezzo, whose slightly accented German and rolled ‘r’s has an apt flavour and timbre, especially for the six Bohemian songs. In many ways, these setting seem more substantial, more inventive musically – though Tomásek’s settings of Goethe’s Heidenroslein n and Wanderers

BACKGROUND TO… V Václav T Tomásek

((1774-1850)

A self-taught pianist, p Tomásek was T Prague’s leading P tteacher not only of that instrument, but also of music theory and composition. His pupils included the future music critic and champion of Brahms, Eduard Hanslick. Tomásek was one of 51 composers approached by the publisher Anton Diabelli to write a variation on a waltz theme (the theme which provoked Beethoven into composing one of his greatest works). However it was his song writing and subsequent association with Goethe which secured his greatest fame.

Nachtliedd certainly bear comparison with those of Schubert. Hilary Finch PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★

IL TRIONFO DI DORI Italian madrigals by Anerio, Asola, Baccusi, Balbi, Bertani, Bonini, Bozzi, Cavaccio, Colombani, Costa, Croce, Eremita, Florio, G Gabrieli, Gastoldi, Giovannelli, Leoni, Macque, Marenzio, Massaino, Monte, Palestrina, Porta, Preti, Sabino, Stabile, Striggio, Vecchi & Zerto The King’s Singers Signum SIGCD 414 72:46 mins

BBC Music Direct

£12.99

First published in Venice in 1592, Il Trionfo di Dorii is a collection of 29 madrigals by 29 different composers, ranging from elusive figures like Ippolito Baccusi and Ludovico Balbi to some of the most celebrated names of the day, including Giovanni Gabrieli, Marenzio and Palestrina. Intended as a sort of commemorative wedding album for the Venetian nobleman Leonardo Sanudo, the collection praises his young wife Elisabetta Giustinian, idealised as the graceful mythological seanymph Dori, daughter of Oceanus. Across the waters, the set inspired Thomas Morley to produce his more famous equivalent in praise of Queen Elizabeth I: The Triumphs of Oriana. Our backdrop is an Arcadian idyll where ‘gentle nymphs and loving shepherds’ sing the praises of the divine Dori. The main challenge any ensemble faces in presenting this collection is that the musical, poetic and emotional range of the madrigals is inevitably restricted, given their adulatory purpose, the stylised pastoral idiom and the endlessly repeating refrain, ‘Viva la bella Dori’, that rounds of each piece. Technically, The King’s Singers turn out their characteristic, highly polished finish: diction is razor-sharp, ensemble and intonation are well-nigh flawless. Yet their consistently shiny, clean sound – dominated by countertenors David Hurley and Timothy WayneWright – is limited in its colour palette and the effect grows monotonous on extended listening. The performances are certainly slicker than the rival recording by the Gruppo Vocale Arsi & Tesi but the end result verges on the clinical. Kate Bolton PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★ ★★★★

CHAMBER Clarinettist Lorenzo Coppola joins pianist Andreas Staier to perform Brahms on instruments approved by the composer; violinist Ulf Wallin and pianist Roland Pöntinen n prove a dream team in Liszt; and the Kronos Quartet celebrate the 80th birthday of minimalist pioneer Terry Riley

CHAMBER CHOICE

Lennox Berkeley’s Gallic muse Roger Nichols applauds the Berkeley Ensemble’s stylish album

JS BACH Sonatas Nos 1-6, BWV 1014-1019 Lucy Russell (violin), John Butt (harpsichord) Linn CKD 433 85:05 mins (2 discs)

BBC Music Direct

wit and polish: the Berkeley Ensemble do their namesake proud

L BERKELEY Pièce for wind trio; Sextet, Op. 47; In Memoriam Igor Stravinsky (Canon for string quartet); Introduction and Allegro for double bass and piano; String Trio, Op. 19; Three pieces for solo viola; Sonatine for clarinet and piano Berkeley Ensemble Resonus Classics RES 10149 59:48 mins

www.resonusclassics.com

This very enjoyable album shows some sides of Lennox Berkeley’s music that are familiar and some that are not, notably in the two works from his Paris years, recorded here for the first time. The Clarinet

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Sonatine of 1928 is a curious mixture of English pastoral and bitonal Honegger – not wholly convincing, but with a surprisingly powerful quasi-sarabande as the slow movement and some rude energy in the finale. In the Piècee for wind trio of 1929 he pays friendly homage

The Piècee pays friendly homage to Berkeley’s friend Poulenc to his friend Poulenc with some naughty pastiche of 18th-century figures; but by the time of the String Trio of 1943 Berkeley had absorbed any influence into a personal style that recognises tonality while playing subtle games with it, with a particular gift for lyrical passages that flower from nowhere. The slow

movement of the Sextet of 1955 has an austere beauty that suggests Shostakovich, splendidly contrasted with the good-humoured jig that follows. There’s great fun too in the 1971 Introduction and Allegro for double bass and piano, boasting an occasional burst of jazz, while the tiny, elegiac In Memoriam m for Stravinsky of the same year is a marvel of economy and grace. The playing is superb throughout, the recording warm and clear, and Berkeley’s biographer Tony Scotland provides elegant, illuminating notes. PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★★

ON THE WEBSITE Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine website www.classical-music.com

£20.99

Given the monumentality of the D minor Partita’s concluding Chaconne, or the quicksilver brilliance of the E major’s Prelude it’s not entirely surprising that Bach’s Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord have tended to live in the shadow of their cousins for solo unaccompanied violin BWV 1001-6. But what a wealth of music those duo sonatas encompass! Indeed they must have meant a lot to their composer since Bach was still tinkering with the last of the six at the end of his life. Violinist Lucy Russell and harpsichordist John Butt play the five-movement ‘last thoughts’ version including a wonderfully muscular and exuberant account of the solo harpsichord central Allegro. Whenever Bach set out to create a collection of pieces he invariably contrived the maximum variety imaginable, and one of the abiding strengths of this new recording is its enthusiastic willingness to embrace and celebrate the diversity. The rapport between Russell and Butt is riveting, and their meeting of musical minds leaves no detail undercharacterised. How insouciantly the violin steals in above Butt’s fluid introduction to the B minor Sonata, and the A major’s dolcee is as deliciously coy as a twosome on their first date – the trills executed with fluttering delicacy and the momentary minor key cloud exquisitely inflected. Very occasionally a hint of strain threatens Russell’s tone, and the recorded balance doesn’t always feel consistent in an otherwise beautifully clean recording; but don’t hesitate:

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CHAMBER R REVIEWS for sheer freshness, insight and lifeenhancing joy, this newcomer goes to the top of the class alongside Rachel Podger and Trevor Pinnock, Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr. Paul Riley PERFORMANCE RECORDING

fresh and insightful: Lucy Russell plays riveting and characterful Bach

★★★★★ ★★★★

to the Amars’ subtle warmth. The great Fourth Quartet, dating from 1921, finds Hindemith already in possession of his full powers: these players ensure that the opening ‘Fugato’ is never dry, and they are superbly attuned to the unsentimental melancholy of the beautiful middle movement. John Allison PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★

BRAHMS Clarinet Sonatas Nos 1 & 2; Sechs Klavierstücke, Op. 118 Lorenzo Coppola (clarinet), Andreas Staier (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMC 902187 62:15 mins

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£14.99

Johannes Brahms’s late chamber music is now so familiar and central to the repertoire that it is easy to forget how elliptical, recherché and difficult to follow many of its early listeners found it. This latest recording sounds like an attempt to recapture some of that initial strangeness. Clarinettist Lorenzo Coppola plays a modern copy of a Bärmann Ottensteiner instrument – the already somewhat outmoded make favoured by Richard Mühlfeld, the player who originally inspired these sonatas. Brahms himself admired the tone of early Steinway pianos and Andreas Staier duly plays an 1875 American model – a cleartoned, well-balanced instrument mercifully free from the booming bass sound of modern models that can make Brahms’s piano writing sound so bottom-heavy. The two instruments blend so well that clarinet phrases can sometimes seem to emerge from the piano timbre and dissolve back into it again. In an interesting note, Coppola reminds us that Mühlfeld was praised by Joachim for his ‘art of declamation’ and that Brahms’s instrumental writing is full of short slurs, suggesting a kind of varied, speech-like mode of continuity rather than the smooth, eventoned ‘autumnal’ flow of many modern performances. The restless changefulness in colour and mood that these players find, especially in the F minor Sonata, certainly invites us to listen afresh. And while Staier may be more associated with the harpsichord and fortepiano repertoire, his searching account of the Op. 118 pieces culminates in a reading of the wistful final Intermezzoo of the most mysterious intensity. Bayan Northcott PERFORMANCE RECORDING

LISZT

★★★★ ★★★★

the strings rather than the piano; not that I could possibly complain when the cello springs into delightful song during the third movement’s variations. Geoff Brown PERFORMANCE RECORDING

GOETZ

★★ ★★

Piano Quintet

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Piano Quintet Fabergé Quintet; Yoko Kikuchi (piano) Es-dur ES 2056 55:38 mins

BBC Music Direct

£14.99

If you wished to investigate Vaughan Williams the European, this CD might tempt you. Brahmsian torrents open his 1903 Piano Quintet and many of the passages that follow. It’s paired with another C minor quintet, a genuinely German work from 1874 by Hermann Goetz. The musicians, moreover, have largely peeled off from Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra. Japanese-born pianist Yoko Kikuchi adds an international tincture of her own. For a clear and convincing account, though, you’re better served elsewhere. The warm and resonant studio acoustic doesn’t illuminate Vaughan Williams’s rather clotted palette, darkened so often by the double-bass (the instrumentation follows Schubert’s Trout Quintet, t and indeed the Goetz itself). Meanwhile, Kikuchi’s piano tone is nothing special. Seek out the Nash Ensemble on Hyperion for the most convincing account of this imperfect but interesting melting-pot piece. Recording quirks remain in the Goetz, yet the players buckle down with more panache. Tautly constructed, with much motivic interplay, the music is stronger too, and makes you grieve for the works lost when the composer died early from tuberculosis. Balance favours

HINDEMITH String Quartets Nos 1 & 4 Amar Quartet Naxos 8.572165 67:23 mins

BBC Music Direct

£7.99

The Amar Quartet plays Hindemith with all the proprietorial authority one would expect from such a brand. The first Amar Quartet was founded back in 1921 by Hindemith, who played viola in it under the leadership of Licco Amar. But the name was revived 20 years ago when, to mark the composer’s centenary, the Hindemith Institute awarded the title to today’s Swiss-based players on account of their deep engagement with his music. This third and final volume in their Naxos series of the complete Hindemith string quartets proves again how worthy they are of the honour. Hindemith’s seven quartets were written between 1915 and 1945, and show all the stylistic progress that implies. The String Quartet No. 1 is his Opus Two, so not surprisingly there are echoes of Brahms in its lateRomantic language, and it is a long work lasting just over 40 minutes; the composer put it away after its premiere and it was not heard again until 1986. It might cloy in a lesser performance, but not here thanks

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Grand Duo concertant, S 128; Zweite Elegie, S 131bis; Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth, S382bis; Epithalam, S 129; Rhapsodie Hongroise XII, S 379a; Romance oubliée, S 132; La lugubre gondola, S 134bis Ulf Wallin (violin), Roland Pöntinen (piano) BIS BIS-2085 (hybrid CD/SACD) 60:02 mins

BBC Music Direct

£13.99

Liszt’s output involving solo violin was quite substantial; and while much of it consists of his arrangements of existing works, he resembled Stravinsky in that this process often amounted to the creation of something effectively new. La lugubre gondola, that tragic and wonderful pianistic vision of Liszt’s old age, is subtly transformed in his violin and piano arrangement – partly by the sombre loveliness of the added violin line, and partly by an extended ending which, vanishing into silence at the end of this programme, haunts the memory long afterwards. The only sizeable original creation here is the early Grand Duo concertant, t a swaggering virtuoso showpiece. Another jewel among the transcriptions is the song ‘Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth’, originally composed while Liszt was on holiday on an island in the Rhine; the long musical perspective of the ageing and lonely master-composer’s arrangement has a mesmerising poignancy. Ulf Wallin’s Hungarian-style, gypsy-vibrato delivery here is a miscue – the music itself is simply not about that aspect of Liszt’s style. Without exception, the other performances by this Swedish duo are superlative: Wallin offers a stream of full-throated, gloss-free tone, brilliant in the Grand Duo, and searchingly expressive elsewhere, with beautifully alert and supportive accompaniments from Pöntinen. The recorded sound offers an ideal blend of clarity and warmth. Malcolm Hayes PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★★

BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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REVIEWS CHAMBER R

RILEY Etude from the Old Country; Jaztine; Tango Doble Ladiado; Half-Wolf Dances Mad in Moonlight; Simone’s Lullaby; G Song, etc

and heft to the sound, but it’s often at the expense of more subtle voicing and balance: one longs for a less hard-edged touch. They achieve more depth and variety in the loping pianissimoo sections of Cinco de Mayo, and find a pleasing fluency in the rhapsodic twists and turns of Jaztine. Helen Wallace PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★ ★★★★

Zofo (piano) Dorian Sono Luminus DSL-92189 67:36 mins (CD plus Blu-ray audio version)

BBC Music Direct

BACKGROUND TO…

GETTY

Terry Riley (b1935) R Riley is widely ccredited as tthe founder of Minimalism in M music. In the m 11950s he was experimenting e with tape loops. w His i earliest li t masterwork, t In C (1964), works through the use of melodic cells, initiated by the musicians at a time of their choice and repeated a random number of times. Riley’s two greatest influences are Indian classical music, which he imbibed as a student of the Indian classical singer Pandit Pran Nath, and jazz, himself citing John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, and Gil Evans as being musicians he particularly admires.

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PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★★

BBC Music Direct

INSPIRED BY BACH

BBC Music Direct Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector; One Earth, One People, One Love; Cry of a Lady; G Song; Lacrymosa – Remembering Kevin; Cadenza on the Night Plain Kronos Quartet; Le mystère des voix bulgares Nonesuch 549523 72:09 mins

www.nonesuch.com

Of all David Harrington’s many achievements, persuading Terry Riley that he was a string quartet composer must rank near the top. Not only did it result in 27 groundbreaking quartets, but also in the Kronos Quartet’s new approach to string playing, which inspired so many other composers, and opened the form to non-Western traditions. In honour of Riley’s 80th birthday, Nonesuch has issued a five-disc set of this ‘Kronos’ legacy, including re-releases of three albums, and this (partially) new disc, a seductive appetiser. There’s the sassy, scalic G Song, g a hit of pure serotonin, and the heady collision of string delicacy against gutteral melismas and hardedged vocalisation of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares in Cry of a Lady (1990). These scores were created by an alchemical mix of Riley and the Kronos, best illustrated in newlyreleased Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collectorr (1980): as it uncurls, keening and swooping into a dance of elastic, luminous interplay, the subtle flow of rhythmic impulse feels entirely spontaneous. The beguiling Cadenza on a Night Plain n again lends each player the freedom and space to sing, and how. Lacrymosa – Remembering Kevin n (1998), written in memory of violist Hank Dutt’s partner, builds from almost nothing to a dark, limping dirge, while newly released One Earth, One People, One Love, e the final part of the epic Sun Rings (2002) reminds us just how powerful Riley’s response to 9/11 was. Featuring ravishing cello as chief

BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

Reviewed by Bayan Northcott Late String Quartets Op. 76, Op. 77/1 & 2 Alban Berg Quartet Warner 2564612345 (1993) 198:42 mins

Julius Berger (cello), Oliver Kern (piano) Nimbus NI 6302 131:13 mins (2 discs)

RILEY

REISSUES HAYDN

Works by JS Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Reger, Schachtner, Bach arr. Kodály

£20.99

Terry Riley, at 80, still wakes every morning to improvise at the piano. That creative freedom informs his keyboard output, which is continually morphing as he revises and rearranges pieces, as he has done here with Simone’s Lullaby, y Etude from the Old Countryy and Jaztine. Zofo (Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi) have brought together a collection of his works for four hands, including the exuberant Cinco de Mayoo and sections from The Heaven Ladder, r and new arrangements of string quartet pieces, including G Songg and Half-Wolf Dances Mad in Moonlight. t The comparison with the Kronos recordings of these is not a happy one: lithe liveliness is replaced by prosaic heaviness and weirdly slow tempos. Who am I to argue if Riley says Zofo ‘are mesmerising in the vast scope of their musicality’? Recorded here in Pure Audio Blu-ray, there’s certainly a high polish, bassy richness

mourner, it achieves a tragic Pärt-like monumentalism. Helen Wallace

£15.99

Julius Berger has evidently thought long and hard about the most effective way with which to connect Bach’s music to some central works in the cello repertory. The solution he has come up with is both imaginative and thought-provoking. Two particular highlights are the compelling and strongly delineated performance of Reger’s somewhat knotty A minor Sonata and a warmly expressive account of Kodály’s arrangement of a Prelude and Fugue in D minor. Throughout both discs, there are some beautifully stylised transcriptions of Bach’s chorale preludes and cantata arias, all of which bear some fascinating and unexpected thematic links to the more extended works. The first of these is undoubtedly going to be controversial since Berger gives us what purports to be the Brahms E minor Sonata in its original conception as a four-movement work. To achieve this, he has accepted the opinion of several musicologists that the movement Brahms suppressed from the work was in fact the Adagio which later featured in the F major Cello Sonata Op. 99. Once you get over the shock of the Minuet not following the opening Allegro, the appearance at this juncture of the Adagio, here transposed down a semitone, makes perfect musical sense, even if the composer subsequently rejected the idea. Berger has another surprise up his sleeve by featuring the original and texturally rather different version of the first movement of Beethoven’s A major Cello Sonata. Its presence is fully justified by the intriguing thematic connection that exists between the melancholic melody that dominates the development section in the Beethoven and the aria ‘Es ist vollbracht’ from the St John Passion. Erik Levi PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★

£18.99 (3 discs)

Big, projective readings, short on intimacy. The spacious acoustic emphasises the insistent brightness of the leader’s tone and his sometimes mannered phrasing. PERFORMANCE ★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

HAYDN Piano Trios Nos 32-37 Eric Höbarth (violin), Christophe Coin (cello), Patrick Cohen (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMG 508298-99 114 mins (1990) (2 discs)

BBC Music Direct

£13.99 (2 discs)

Wonderfully inventive music, but the recording favours the period piano over the strings and Patrick Cohen’s often choppy touch inhibits expressive flow. PERFORMANCE ★★★ RECORDING ★★★

KROMMER Wind Sextets Nachtmusique/Eric Hoeprich (clarinet) Glossa GCDC80604 (2001) 64:05 mins

BBC Music Direct

£11.99

Amiable if not very individual Classical serenade stuff by Mozart contemporary Franz Krommer, played with zest and warmth by period instrument ensemble and recorded with real presence. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

SCHUBERT Trout Quintet; Quartettsatz; Arpeggione Sonata Borodin Quartet; Sviatoslav Richter (piano); Georg Hörtnagel (bass); Tokyo Quartet; Daniil Shafran (cello); Felix Gottlieb (piano) Alto ALC 1294 (1978/82) 69:34 mins

BBC Music Direct

£8.99

A vivacious and affectionate Trout from the great Richter and the Borodins. There is a touch of the gypsy in the spontaneous cello playing of Daniil Shafran in the Arpeggione. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★

All discs can be ordered from www.classical-music.com/shop

INSTRUMENTAL Angela Hewitt gives lucid, well-considered accounts in Vol. 5 of her Beethoven cycle; and violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen performs an intriguing programme of contemporary music

INSTRUMENTAL CHOICE

Rachmaninov’s hidden voices Artur Pizarro casts a new light on some well-loved music, says Erik Levi

ALKAN Transcriptions, Vol. 1: Mozart José Raúl López (piano) Toccata TOCC 0240 67:47 mins

BBC Music Direct

RACHMANINOV Piano works, Vol. 2: 13 Preludes, Op. 32; Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22; Morçeaux de fantaisie, Op. 3; 10 Preludes, Op. 23 Artur Pizarro (piano) Odradek ODRCD 316 133:48 mins (2 discs)

BBC Music Direct

£19.99

It’s unusual to glean so many echoes of Debussy while listening to Rachmaninov. Yet this is exactly what Artur Pizarro conjures up in this, the second volume of his survey of the Russian composer’s piano music. Even the Op. 3 set of Cinq morçeaux de fantaisiee bears witness to such an unexpected kinship. Take, for example, the Elegie, e a piece that to all intents

Pizarro’s playing is exquisite in the reflective Preludes and purposes follows very much in the footsteps of Tchaikovsky. Here, however, Pizarro bathes its introverted Slavic melancholy in a kind of impressionist haze through his subtle use of the pedal. Likewise, the rich timbral chords in the wellknown C sharp minor Prelude sound rather different, being delivered with the same degree of mystical grandeur that is normally encountered in Debussy’s La cathédrale engloutie. e Connections to French music are perhaps more overt in the Preludes. Certainly, Pizarro imbues the G major and the

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BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

unexpected kinship: Artur Pizarro highlights affinities with Debussy

G sharp minor Preludes from Op. 32 with a luminous, almost Ravelian elegance and delicacy, placing these colours in sharp contrast to the dark and despondent gloom that clouds the B minor. In other more reflective Preludes, Pizarro’s playing is absolutely exquisite, not only revelling in the expressive beauty of Rachmaninov’s invention, but also managing to draw out lots of interesting inner melodic voices in the more densely scored passages. Pizarro’s impeccable technique ensures that such mercurial showpieces as the ‘Polichinelle’

from Op. 3 or the A major Presto Chopin variation are dispatched with dazzling lightness of touch. The only minor drawback in this marvellously recorded set is a slight reluctance to let rip in the more exuberant works such as the bold and demonstrative B flat major Prelude from Op. 23. PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★

ON THE WEBSITE Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine website www.classical-music.com

£13.99

In typically enterprising fashion, Toccata Classics has identified a project that’s been crying out to be done, and delivered it with sensible programming. Unlike Liszt’s, Alkan’s complete transcriptions make a manageable project, and his Mozart arrangements fit neatly onto a single CD. So far, so good. Yet this recording sets a low benchmark. The mainstay of the programme is the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466, a companion to Alkan’s arrangement of the first movement of Beethoven’s C minor Concerto. It likewise features typically Alkanesque cadenzas, although not as audacious as the one he supplied for the Beethoven (which at one point introduces the finale of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in cataclysmic counterpoint). The variations from the A major String Quartet, K464, demonstrate the notorious difficulty of transcribing string quartets for the piano (Liszt tried with Beethoven’s quartets but was forced to admit defeat), with many awkward stretches, leaps and challenges of articulation. Unfortunately, in these performances we are too aware of the technical demands. José Raúl López has enough on his plate negotiating the notes, which inhibits his ability to extend and shape phrases. The result is rather literal and unimaginative, with insufficient variety of tone and timbre. In the Concerto, the ‘Romanze’ is neither dolcee nor cantabile, e and we only really get a sense of differentiated solo and tutti passages in the finale. The problems are exacerbated by the airless recorded sound, which makes it hard for the piano to sing. Tim Parry PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★ ★★★

All discs can be ordered from www.classical-music.com/shop

INSTRUMENTAL L REVIEWS

JS BACH Bach in Montecassino: Chorale Preludes, BWV 753 & BWV 668a; Duettos Nos 1-4, BWV 802-805 etc Luca Guglielmi (organ) Vivat VIVAT 108 69:12 mins

BBC Music Direct

£14.99

Vivaldi’s seismic impact on Bach is well known. But how, in turn, was Bach received in Italy? Luca Guglielmi’s disc gives a lively snapshot of what at least might have been heard; and, thanks to an instrument built in the year before Bach’s death and located in the Church of San Nicolao, Alice Castello, how it must have sounded too. The programme’s focus is the great monastery of Montecassino. A Bach harvest was donated to it by Friedrich Wilhelm Rust who was gratified to find a piece by the Thomaskantor on the organ’s music desk when he visited in 1766. Included, too, is a prelude and fugue – better known (in modified form) as the opening to the second Book of the ‘48’ – from the library of Padre Martini of Bologna. A version of the Chromatic Fantasia is dispatched with such breezy panache that it sounds entirely at home on the organ – if a tad unrelenting. There’s a relentless drive also to the Fugue on the Magnificat which shows off the instrument’s majestic ‘organo pleno’; and, clad in fruity registrations, how much more than two-part inventions the Four Duetti of Clavierübung III sound. Thoughtfully programmed, Guglielmi’s Italian perspective intrigues. Paul Riley PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★ ★★★★

BEETHOVEN Piano sonatas, Vol. 5: No. 2 in A, Op. 2/2; No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10/ 1; No. 24 in F sharp, Op. 78; No. 31 in A flat, Op. 110 Angela Hewitt (piano) Hyperion CDA 68086 76:08 mins

BBC Music Direct

£13.99

Here is a stimulatingly wellcontrasted programme. Each sonata benefits from Angela Hewitt’s beautifully clean-cut pianistic command, in which every score marking is placed within a precisely

articulated interpretative overview. The occasional pile-driver sforzando, notably in Op. 2 No. 2, should be blamed on recording resonance rather than performer overkill. Slow-movement timings may look surprisingly spacious on paper – her Op. 10 No. 1 Adagioo slower than Claudio Arrau’s – but nothing drags: everything adds up. In each sonata, however, I soon longed for something more than coolly lucid expertise: for more Beethovenian impetuosity, expressive warmth, emotional engagement. In Op. 2 No. 2 it was to Stephen Kovacevich, so alive to the first movement’s punchy vivacity, and Murray Perahia, his Largo appassionato so full of unforced tenderness, that I turned for those missing ‘extra dimensions’. Likewise to Artur Schnabel’s ancient Op. 10 No. 1, with its unique con brioo dash and zest, and Solomon’s incomparably profound 1956 Op. 110. The pick of these Hyperion performances is probably Op. 78, finely poised and flowing, but even here the ‘and yet’ factor soon intrudes. Max Loppert PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★ ★★★★

SOLI Solo violin works by Benjamin, Bartók, Penderecki, Carter & Kurtág Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin) Signum SIGCD 416 76:33 mins

BBC Music Direct

£12.99

The opening of the Bartók Sonata is powerful and arresting, and there’s passion and musical imagination throughout, the fiendish multiple stops and alternations between bowed and plucked notes assured in tone and precise in intonation. I’m not so sure about Tamsin Waley-Cohen’s slow tempo in the first movement: what starts out being improvisatory can morph into caution, and there needs to be an even wider range of colour to reflect Bartók’s imaginative writing. Still, there is contrast between the aggressive ‘Fuga’ and the more yielding and intimate ‘Melodia’, while the final Prestoo restores the microtones which Yehudi Menuhin edited out of the first printed edition. He found more performance energy though. Apart from Penderecki’s empty, over-long Cadenza, the rest of the CD shows composers at the top of their game in a series of shorter pieces. Benjamin’s include a restless

canon and a lullaby; one of Carter’s Laudss remembers Aaron Copland, complete with a brief passage of jazzy syncopation; the other, more rhapsodic, the leader of the Juilliard Quartet. Waley-Cohen is at her most persuasive in Kurtág’s masterful Six Miniatures, which span a wide range of moods, from the angry to the tenuous and tentative. Martin Cotton PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★★

LIGHT AND SHADOWS

REISSUES Reviewed byy Paul Riley

JS BACH Cello Suites Nos 1-6 Paul Tortelier (cello) Warner 2435628782 (1982) 145:02 mins

BBC Music Direct

£13.99 (2 discs)

Tortelier’s second recording of the Bach was made in Temple Church where his readings inhabit a similarly hallowed spaciousness, the spirit of the dance often tamed by a soulfully Romantic lyricism. PERFORMANCE ★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

BEETHOVEN

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 15 (Pastoral); Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 2; Schumann: Waldszenen; JanáΩek: Christ the Lord is Born

Piano Sonatas Nos 10, 21 & 23 Vladimir Horowitz (piano) Minuet 428405 (1956/59) 72:16 mins

Tom Poster (piano) Edition Classics EDN 1060 72:47 mins

Horowitz’s first ever stereo recordings of 1959 supplemented by his 1956 Waldstein, but he’s not an instinctive Beethovenian. An air of studied self-consciousness prevails, and the narrative cogency is fitful. PERFORMANCE ★★ RECORDING ★★

BBC Music Direct

£14.99

In this thoughtfully programmed album, ‘Light and Shadows’, we get ‘radiant’ Beethoven, ‘dark’ Chopin and Schumann’s Waldszenen, a work that lives in the flickering half-lights of the forest. That sense of light and shade, though, is not conveyed in Poster’s playing so much as his poise and admirable attention to detail. Beethoven’s Pastorall Sonata flows gently, tenderness balanced with sparkling fingerwork in the first movement, and a light touch that complements the lovely lilt of the finale. Poster’s dynamics are carefully graded, as is his pedaling, necessarily judicious in a generous though intimate acoustic. Could the Andante and Scherzoo have been let off the leash a little more? Murray Perahia certainly gives them more character: a beautiful surface isn’t always enough. The nine movements of Waldszenen infuse nature with a sometimesunsettling spirit. Schumann’s pianist wife Clara reportedly found some of it too painful to play. For all his finesse and nuance, I feel Poster somehow tames the music’s elusive spirit. Yet his crystalline, silvery tone suits the strange ‘Vogel als Prophet’ and ‘Verrufene Stelle’; and the ‘Hunting Song’ bounds to life. Chopin’s Funeral Marchh Sonata also seems to skirt the edges of the wild darkness; the finale’s graveyard wind blows without chill. But JanáΩek’s brief Christ the Lord is Born n emerges from the gloom, as described by the eloquent booklet notes, ‘fragmentary’ and ‘luminous’. Rebecca Franks PERFORMANCE RECORDING

To order CDs call BBC Music Direct +44 (0)1322 297 515; prices include P&P

★★★★ ★★★★

BBC Music Direct

£9.99

HANDEL Solo Sonatas for transverse flute, recorder and oboe B Kuijken (transverse flute), W Kuijken (viola da gamba), Van Heyghen (recorder), Ponseele (oboe) Accent ACC 24308 (1991) 147:03 mins

BBC Music Direct

£19.99 (2 discs)

Kuijken and Van Heyghen mix nimble vivacity with a rather business-like purposefulness in this usefully completist compendium, but it’s the plangent, urbane eloquence of Marcel Ponseele’s oboe which steals the show. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★

PACHELBEL Hexachordum Apollinis Huguette Grémy-Chauliac (harpsichord) Solstice FYCD 874 (1978) 59:10 mins

BBC Music Direct

£15.99

Grémy-Chauliac’s is the only harpsichord version of Pachelbel’s salute to variation form currently available; and like John Butt she bookends the set with elaborate ciaconas, all dispatched with crisp authoritative lucidity. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★

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BRIEF NOTES Your quick listening guide to more new releases, including Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet, songs and vocal quartets, and symphonies by Spohr and Paine Brahms Clarinet Quintet romantic revival:

B Harlan (clarinet), M Baillie (violin), M Sharp (cello), J Banks (accordion), J Pissaride (santouri) Zum Roten Igel ZRI www.zrimusic.com Buyer beware! On the strength of its gypsy affinities, Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet is dubiously rewritten with accordion and cimbalom, and seamlessly interleaved with enthusiastically played gypsy and klezmer numbers. (AB) ★★

JoAnn Falletta conducts John Knowles Paine

Busoni Complete clarinet music Davide Bandieri (clarinet), Alessandra Gentile (piano); Quartetto di Roma and various musicians Brilliant Classics 94978 £10.99 Intriguing salon pieces from Busoni’s childhood; and from much later an ornate Elegy with piano and a nimble Concertino with orchestra. Diligent playing, variable recordings, detailed notes. (AB) ★★★

D’Indy Orchestral music, Vol. 6 Iceland Symphony/Rumon Gamba Chandos CHSA5157 £13.99 This invaluable traversal of D’Indy’s orchestral music continues with the inventive Wallenstein, delectable Suite in Ancient Style and heartfelt cello Lied. (JH) ★★★★

Falla Complete piano music Juan Carlos Rodriguez (piano) Paladino PMR 0062 £13.99 A remarkably small oeuvre, but as played here always charming and felicitous: the earliest pieces are entirely Chopinesque, then we hear echoes of Satie, Grieg, Ravel and above all Granados. (MC) ★★★★

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Pier Paolo Vincenzi (piano) Brilliant 94836 £10.99 Beethoven’s 33 come with refinement but no fire; the other 50 are surprisingly accomplished, with Liszt, Czerny and Hummel in fine form, and Schubert turning in a miniature masterpiece. (MC) ★★★★

For the Wings of a Dove Works by Stanford, Nystedt, Byrd, Gibbons, Tomkins, Mendelssohn, Purcell etc The Choir of Queen’s College, Cambridge/Silas Wollston Orchid Classics ORC 100046 £13.99 In tutti sections these performances of pieces setting mainly Psalm texts can sound impressive. When one or two voice-parts only are singing, however, focus sags a little. Uneven. (TB) ★★★

Brahms Vocal Quartets, Vol. 1 Norddeutscher Figuralchor/Jörg Straube; Markus Bellheim (piano) MDG 947 1867-6 www.mdg.de The Op. 103 Zigeunerlieder are the main item here, showing Brahms at his most uninhibited and zestful. Colourful performances, excellent sound. (TB) ++++

Complete variations on a waltz by Diabelli 51 Composers including Czerny, Kalkbrenner, Payer, Schubert, Rieger and Beethoven

Mit Vierzig Jahren Brahms songs Jongen Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 17; Adagio symphonique in B, Op. 20; Fantasia in E , Op. 12

Paine Symphony No. 2; Oedipus Tyrannus-Prelude etc

Philippe Graffin (violin); Royal Flemish PO/Martyn Brabbins Hyperion CDA 68005 £13.99 Philippe Graffin works his magic on these post-Wagnerian scores, supported to the hilt by Martyn Brabbins, bringing vividly to life music that has for too long lain on the outer fringes of the repertoire. (JH) ★★★★

Kalkbrenner Piano Sonatas, Op. 4 Luigi Gerosa (piano) Dynamic CDS 7707 £13.99 Kalkbrenner contributed to Diabelli’s waltz compendium, but his music was designed to showcase his own virtuosity; although these sonatas are well played they never transcend their own derivativeness. (MC) ★★★★

Liszt Meyerbeer opera transcriptions Sergio Gallo (piano) Naxos 8.573235 £7.99 Gallo makes a good case for Liszt’s honouring of the operatic originals: the nuns rise spookily from their graves, Les patineurs execute dizzying glissandos. (MC) ★★★★

BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

Ulster Orchestra/JoAnn Falletta Naxos 8.559748 £7.99 Far more than an American footnote in Romanticism, desperately playing catch-up with the European mainstream, John Knowles Paine emerges in these devoted performances as a gifted master in his own right. (JH) ★★★★★

Spohr Symphonies Nos 7 & 9; Erinnerung an Marienbad NDR Radiophilharmonie/Griffiths CPO 777 746-2 £13.99 Concerto grosso meets the symphony in Spohr’s irrepressible Seventh, scored for two unequally sized orchestras, while the Ninth captures the spirit of the seasons with magical enchantment. (JH) ★★★★

Weinberg Clarinet Sonatas Annelien Van Wauwe (clarinet), Lucas Blondeel (piano) Genuin GEN 15372 £13.99 Pure, colourless clarinet tone doesn’t flatter Weinberg’s 1945 Sonata, a strong piece with touches of klezmer and Jewish lamentation, nor the transcription of Prokofiev’s breezy Sonata for flute (or violin). (AB) ★★★

Håvard Stensvold (bass-baritone), Tor Espen Aspaas (piano) Lawo LWC1079 £13.99 An intelligently constructed recital, though more Lieder could have been included. Stensvold’s interpretations are reliably free of idiosyncracy, if somewhat plain and dour in places. (TB) ★★★

Night Thoughts Works by Bennett, Benary, Tutino, KargElert, Kam, Harvey and Rózsa Dimitri Ashkenazy (clarinet) Orlando Records OR0012 £13.99 Close-up recordings of solos including Bennett’s well-crafted Sonatina, Karg-Elert’s rhapsodic Sonata and much besides, ending with a haunting Scottish lament. (AB) ★★★

Sommernachtskonzert 2015 Works by Strauss, Nielsen, Grieg, Sinding, Sibelius and Lumbye Rudolf Buchbinder (piano); Vienna Philharmonic/Zubin Mehta Sony 88875075722 £14.99 The VPO al fresco at Schönbrunn Palace, with a Scandinavian focus. Buchbinder’s Grieg Concerto is missable, elsewhere there’s some entertaining music-making. (TB) ★★★ Reviewers: Terry Blain (TB), Anthony Burton (AB), Michael Church (MC), Julian Haylock (JH)

To order CDs call BBC Music Direct +44 (0)1322 297 515; prices include P&P

AUDIO Our audio expert Michael Brookk takes a look at the best new audio and d video equipment to help you get the most out of recorded classical musicc

CHOICE HIGH-RESOLUTION AUDIO PLAYER

Astell & Kern Jr £399 Astell & Kern was born out of the popular iriver brand. When iPods were still the he talk of the town and the iPhone was barely out of o long shorts, iriver created a numberr of very promising iPod challengers in various forms. Lauded by the critics, these products b were extremely good, but the draw of Apple-bran nded products meant they remained a niche intere est. Fast forward a few years y and a gap in the portab ble audio market appeared d. There was a need for a hard drive-based highresolution audio player that Astell & Kern set aboutt filling. Again, lauded byy the critics but with eye-watering price tags, Asttell & Kern’s first forays into the market were tremendo ously capable players but the e £1,000-plus prices put o off swathes of would-be buyers. The new Astell & Kern Jr model aims to change that. t

PORTABLE HEADPHONES

Denon AH-MM400 £300 Denon’s AH-MM400 (below) travelling companions slot neatly into its Music Maniac range of headphones and add some muchneeded portability to the company’s selection of high-end g p products.

Capable of the same high-resolution playback as its forebears, the Astell & Kern Jr has been cut back and is available for a much more palatable price of £399. This means there is now a high high-resolution resolution portable music player that many of us can afford. As with anything in hi-fi, once yyou have a high-end se et-up, you need high-end d audio sources to go with h it or your equipmentt will spend its life pickin ng out deficiencies in com mpressed music. The Astell & Kern Jr’s performan nce is phenomenal – provvided the source material is good enough – but you’ll also need to make sure yyou have a suitably competent set of headphones to makke the most of that sumpttuous performance. If you u do, the Astell & Kern Jr gen nuinely sings, picking out m masses of previously unheard detail. astellnkern.com ++ +++++

The AH-MM400s sit a little awkwardly at £300, a price that pits them directly against PSB’s sublime M4U2 travelling headphones. If the bigger Denon models are quite aggressively tuned with a heavy bass frequency leaning, the AH-MM400s are tuned for a less brash musical audience, which m makes them pleasing enough. In direcct comparison to the PSB M4U U2s, however, they are just not quite as vivid or dynamiic. The M4U2s just give tthe music source a little e more edge. The AH-MM400s T are e an excellent set of headphones – as we e’ve come to exp pect f om Denon – but fro this price range is a hotly contested on ne and d you would be very wiise to audition th he PS SB M4U2s as welll. de enon.co.uk ++++

perfect finish: the Astell & Kern Jr brings out masses of musiccal detail

INTERCONNECT CABLES

QED Performance 40 from £39.95 One of the forgotten upgrades of a great audio system is the cables. Once you have put together your perfect hi-fi system – including a playback device and speakers – you’ll need to make sure you don’t skimp on the cables that connect it all together. Cable manufacturer QED has undergone a complete range redesign to celebrate its 40th

To order CDs callll BB BC Music i Di Directt + 44 (0) 0)13 13222 2977 515; prices include P&P

anniversary and this includes the Performance 40 interconnect cables (above). These represent excellent value for money, from £39.95 for 0.6m lengths, up to £64.95 for 3m. Although they are not exactly on the cheap side, the Performance 40s are the equal of cables costing two to three times more, giving your music a level of detail that’s detectable when compared with bog standard interconnect cables. While the transformation is never going to be as marked as replacing low-end speakers with high performance models, the Performance 40 cables will let you squeeze those last ounces of quality from your hi-fi set-up without breaking the bank. armourhome.co.uk ++++ BLUETOOTH HI-FI ADAPTOR

Tivoli BluCon £49 If you are a hi-fi aficionado, chances are that you have a number of bits of kit in your hi-fi arsenal that will be lacking Bluetooth. Most modern docks incorporate Bluetooth wireless streaming but in many cases older hi-fi gear won’t have this capability. This is where the Tivoli BluCon (below) steps in. Keenly priced at a reasonable £50, the BluCon offers a simple 3.5mm jack connection to your chosen device. Just plug in the compact BluCon adaptor (available in walnut, cherry, black or white), power it up and it automatically searches for devices to link to. Once you have set it up on your phone or tablet device, you’re ready to stream music. It’s an attractive box of tricks and sonically it’s engaging. Despite having a fairly basic frequency range, it does its job to a high standard. This is a useful bit of equipment that will modernise your ageing but capable hi-fi system. tivoliaudio.co.uk ++++

BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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JAZZ A long-awaited Maria Schneider disc; The Bad Plus team up with Joshua Redman; the Sun Ra Arkestraa in Istanbul; plus Liverpool’s The Weave

JAZZ CHOICE

Fields of dreams Garry Booth enjoys Maria Schneider’s latest album, inspired by the landscape of Minnesota

SUN RA ARKESTRA Under the direction of Marshall Allen Live at Babylon, Istanbul Marshall Allen (saxophone, flute) etc In and Out Records IORCDDVD771229 CD 78 mins & DVD 104 mins (2 discs)

BBC Music Direct

thinking big: Maria Schneider’s music evokes wide open spaces

MARIA SCHNEIDER ORCHESTRA The Thompson Fields Maria Schneider (conductor), Donny McCaslin, Scott Robinson, Rich Perry, Steve Wilson (saxophones) etc ArtistShare AS0137 77:27 mins

GETTY, BRIENE LERMITTE

Available from www.artistshare.com

If the late Gil Evans could see Maria Schneider now. The legendary big band arranger hired Schneider out of college as his copyist 30 years ago. Today, she’s celebrated as a composer, arranger and bandleader sans frontiers, her music winning Grammy awards in both the

classical and jazz categories. The Thompson Fields, an extended work inspired by memories of her upbringing in rural Minnesota, sees the return of the leader’s long-standing 18-piece orchestra, complete with her favourite soloists. It’s a magnificent piece of pastoral work, Schneider making some inspired choices to evoke the flora and fauna of the Midwest’s wide open landscapes. She augments the brass for example, with the tender timbre of alto clarinet as a solo instrument; an accordion breathes a cool breeze into the harmonies. But there’s intensity too, with more hotly improvised solos breaking into the through-composed dynamic. A sumptuously illustrated booklet seals the deal. Garry Booth PERFORMANCE RECORDING

+++++ +++++

Hear an excerpt of this recording at www.classical-music.com

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£19.99

The music of the sprawling big band founded by the late Sun Ra still manages to imply that his model of this joyful noise we call jazz – and its potential for development – was and remains the right one and that everyone else has simply got it wrong. This live set from Istanbul is an excellent example, stirring classics from the Arkestra’s repertoire and newer material together and redelivering the band’s unique ability to perform the most avant-garde pieces as if they were folk music (which in the Ra universe they essentially are) while at the same time investing near-conventional swing with an ethereal strangeness, as if the music’s lineage was a gift from some exotic alien culture. The CD and DVD programmes overlap but aren’t identical and the DVD sound is less congested, so although there is also a CD-only variant, I highly recommend this joint version. Roger Thomas PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★

THE BAD PLUS The Bad Plus • Joshua Redman Joshua Redman (sax), Reid Anderson (bass), Ethan Iverson (piano) etc Nonesuch 548920 60 mins

BBC Music Direct

£15.99

The much-acclaimed Bad Plus was part of that early 21st-century piano

trio renaissance that also included EST and paved the way for the likes of Phronesis and Trichotomy. Much of the splash they made seemed to be prompted by their penchant for including rock songs in their repertoire. Here, all the pieces are by members of the band. As ever, these in-house compositions are clever, complex and technically impressive, but my problem is that they don’t really seem to go anywhere. Development is largely confined to ramping up the volume, density and intensity, sometimes coming perilously close to bombast. Given the classic, boundary-free improvisation that Redman has consistently shown himself capable of, it is somewhat disappointing to hear him locked into this rather claustrophobic context. That said, they all do what they do immaculately and with great panache, and if you are a fan you certainly won’t be disappointed by this album. Barry Witherden PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★ ★★★★

THE WEAVE Knowledge Porridge Martin Smith, Anthony Peers (trumpet/ flugelhorn), Anthony Ormesher (guitar), Rob Stringer (piano) etc RufusalbinoRecords 02 54 mins

Available from www.theweave.com

Knowledge Porridgee comes from Liverpool-based band The Weave, made up from a core of players who have held long-standing jazz residencies in the city. And those years of paying dues have clearly paid off. The group’s playlist is inventive, with an upbeat, celebratory feel, full of surreal surprises and a jostling mixture of styles, loosely anchored around a 1960s hard bop sound, thanks to the close harmony teamwork of frontmen Smith and Peers – on trumpet and flugelhorn. Effortlessly woven around this are many influences, whether it’s celtic percussion, laid-back swing, breezy vibraphone, brash rhythmic shades of tango or a twinkling waltz. Trumpeter Martin Smith has a knack for foot-tapping melodies and the disc’s opener ‘The Pogo’, with its catchy trumpet hook and arrestingly rhythmic piano, has all the makings of a jazz hit. The band’s previous release went largely under the radar but this excellent follow-up deserves a wide reception. Neil McKim PERFORMANCE RECORDING

★★★★★ ★★★★★

JAZZ REVIEWS

JAZZ STARTER COLLECTION

miles above: Davis experiments with electronics in 1969

No. 183 Miles Davis IV Geoffrey Smith, presenter of Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz, looks at two decades of the trumpeter at Newport The year 1955 may not seem an obvious Miles Davis anniversary, but that summer the trumpeter made a prophetic appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. A lastminute addition to an ad hoc band including Thelonious Monk, Davis stole the show with confident, swinging solos, crowned by a darkly lyrical ‘’Round Midnight’. His star turn gave notice that he was back on track, no longer blighted by drugs, and ready to move into the top flight – which he duly did, signing with Columbia Records, and launching the trajectory which would make him an icon of jazz and rock, one of the most influential musicians of his time. Miles’s Newport breakthrough, and his diverse festival visits over the next 20 years, are celebrated in a special Newport weekend and a four-CD set of live festival recordings. Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 comprises eight sessions, encompassing the trumpeter’s odyssey from hard bop to free bop to fusion – the stylistic gamut that not only transformed jazz, but plunged it into controversy. These four discs provide an invaluable overview of Miles’s

single-minded quest to realise his sound, both on his horn and in his starry ensembles. His bands are constellations, beginning with his encounter with pianist Monk, plus saxists Gerry Mulligan and Zoot Sims, followed in 1958 by a set from his sextet with John Coltrane and Bill Evans. By 1966 and ’67, the intensity is more elliptical, with a spur-of-themoment freedom that was the hallmark of Miles’s supergroup of saxist Wayne Shorter, keyboardist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams. But in 1969 the rock electronics of Bitches Brew were well in place, in a passionate quartet segment by Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette. And from 1971-75, Davis is all thick electric textures, wah-wahs and overlays, though the last number, from ’75, betrays the failing health that would sideline him for five years. These live recordings, many hitherto unreleased, chart the spellbinding progress of a uniquely charismatic personality. CD CHOICE Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975 The Bootleg, Vol. 4 Columbia/Legacy 88875081952 £19.99

BOOKS Leading American composers discuss the impact of digital technology; plus a new, impeccably researched book on Mahler’s infamous wife

COMPOSITION IN THE DIGITAL WORLD: Conversations with 21st-Century American Composers Robert Raines

BOOKS CHOICE

Oxford University Press ISBN 978-0-19-935703-1, 386pp (hb)

A companion fit for a King John Allison welcomes a short guide to Szymanowski’s King Roger dionysian excess: Szymanowski’s opera King Roger as first staged in Duisburg in 1928

SZYMANOWSKI’S KING ROGER: The opera and its origins Alistair Wightman Toccata Press ISBN 978-0-907689-38-6, 172pp (hb)

www.toccatapress.com

Published to coincide with Covent Garden’s recent first production of King Roger, r this welcome study of Szymanowski’s only full-length opera – if so compact a three-act work can be considered ‘full-length’ – would have been timely in any recent season. An early 20th-century opera that has long held a place in the affections of connoisseurs

AKG IMAGES

Alistair Wightman writes with a deep love of the opera rather than on stage, King Roger has lately received quite a surge in productions around the world. Alistair Wightman has published extensively on Szymanowski and is also author of the only Englishlanguage monograph on Karł r owicz. Whether he is justified in his generally unfavourable skimming over of these recent stagings in his book’s concluding performance history survey boils down to personal taste, but the detail he provides on some key early productions is certainly valuable. Wightman writes with a deep love of the opera, and

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much of what he says will surely be convincing to anyone still sceptical about the voluptuous style found here at the climax of Szymanowski’s middle, Mediterranean period. In chapters charting Szymanowski’s interest in the theatre, the composition of King Rogerr and the opera’s ideology, he covers everything from the composer’s fascination with the 12th-century ruler of Norman Sicily to the partly destroyed homoerotic novel Efebos by the librettist (and cousin of the composer) Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz.

Valuable for marshalling so much material on King Rogerr in relatively few pages, this book is an inspiring read. Naturally, there are numerous musical examples in the analysis chapter, and it assumes some knowledge of Szymanowski’s wider output and stylistic adventures: when it comes to context, we get only a partial sense of the composer himself pulling back after King Rogerr and rejecting Dionysian excess in favour of the Apollonian clarity found in his late-period, mountain-inspired music. ★★★★

www.oup.com

An introduction that tells you it’s now ‘hip’ to be a composer, and refers to jazz as a form of ‘popular’ music doesn’t bode well for a book that claims to have its finger on the pulse of new American composition. But this collection of informal Q&As does, as it says, offer a snapshot of how US concert hall composers – from the well-established such as Steve Reich, to ‘radical innovators’ such as Eric Whitacre, to many less familiar names – are responding to the digital age. Some express their concerns about the decline of the recording industry as music is made available free online. Others express how the writing and editing of music is so much easier using computer software: ‘No publisher is going to give the time of day to young composers who don’t submit their music as computer files,’ says Christopher Rouse, who still composes using a pencil, paper, a straight-edged rule. But it’s at the aesthetic level, where technology impacts our understanding of beauty, that the relationship between music and technological innovation becomes most interesting. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich says that her awareness of what MIDI lacks has made her more aware of what it is she appreciates about the human performance: ‘breathing, pulse-like rubato, all of the kinaesthetic elements’; and Reich reflects on how the new technology is integral to his conception of a work, allowing him to realise sounds on computers that, in the 1970s, he would do manually with recordings, for example. The central theme of this book is how digital technology is more relevant to some, including business minds such as Michael Torke, than to others, such as Joan Tower who describes herself, at 75, as a technological ‘dinosaur’. Raines finds this disparity ‘fascinating’ and ‘important’, and leaves it entirely up to his readers to try and figure out why. Nick Shave ★★★

All discs can be ordered from www.bbcmusicmagazine.com/shop

BOOKS REVIEWS

BACK ISSUES

Hilmes can only conclude that her ‘life’s achievement consisted of the composition of her own legend.’ More a silver than a golden one, the process of tarnishing is now well underway. Hilary Finchh ★★★★

MALEVOLENT MUSE: The Life of Alma Mahler Oliver Hilmes Northeastern University Press ISBN 978-1-55553-789-0, 360pp (hb)

www.upne.com

The title may seem parti pris; yet Gustav Mahler’s own biographer, Henry-Louis de la Grange, praises Oliver Hilmes’s study as both well-informed and objective. Four biographies of Alma Mahler in the last two decades (all by women), and Antony Beaumont’s invaluable selection and translation of her diaries, have certainly whetted the appetite for some sort of grand consummation – a word of which Alma herself would certainly have approved. Oliver Hilmes has researched his subject as meticulously as he did his biography of Cosima Wagner. Indeed, the sheer breadth of his source material makes one’s head spin. He tells, ever freshly and lucidly, the known narrative of Alma’s dysfunctional childhood, her first kiss with Klimt, her no less dysfunctional and dissatisfied marriage to Mahler, her successive seductions and humiliations of Alexander Zemlinsky, Oskar Kokoschka, Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel. Hilmes is perhaps just too ready to drop Alma into the Freudian-hysteric box into which so many ambitious women of her period were consigned. On the other hand, Alma’s obsessivecompulsive search for self-esteem and domination certainly drove every aspect of her behaviour. So what’s new? Nothing very edifying, alas. Largely through Hilmes’s fastidious examination of unpublished letters and particularly telling interviews with Werfel’s biographer and with Alma’s and Gustav’s daughter, Anna, his revelations include the extent of Alma’s increasingly politicised anti-Semitism, and her destructive meddling in the relationships between Schoenberg and Kandinsky and Schoenberg and Thomas Mann. And Berg’s dedication of his Violin Concerto to her daughter Manon Gropius takes on a rather different tint when one learns of the murky mix of transferred eroticism and racist politicking behind Alma’s own stylisation of Manon as an ‘angel’. Fifty years after Alma’s death,

KELLY’S WAR: The Great War Diary of Frederick Kelly 1914-1916 Ed. Jon Cooksey & Graham McKechnie Blink Publishing ISBN 978-1-910536-04-9, 352pp (hb)

www.blinkpublishing.co.uk

Among countless individuals killed during World War I were notable composers such as the Englishman George Butterworth. Others have not been so well remembered, including the Australian-born Frederick Kelly, who also died during the devastating Somme conflict, aged just 35. This new volume, edited by two historians with an interest in the First World War and in sport, makes available Kelly’s personal diaries covering the war years up to his death on 13 November 1916. Kelly has a claim to fame other than his music. Born into a wealthy Sydney family, he would go on to Eton and Oxford, where he became a star rower. The climax and endpoint of his rowing career came in 1908, when he was part of the Gold Medal-winning British team; thereafter he devoted his energies entirely to music. Kelly had wide cultural interests and knew many distinguished artists, writers and politicians as well as musicians. His war diaries show him somehow finding time for composition and piano playing even in the terrible battle-zones where he was deployed: he spent 1915 in Gallipoli. It was following the death of one of his close friends, the poet Rupert Brooke, on the Greek island of Skyros in April 1915, that Kelly produced one of his most important pieces, his exquisite Elegyy for string orchestra. Impromptu performances in bars and barracks of works including Ravel’s fiendish Ondine, e as well as his own works, show him to have been a fine pianist. There’s not a huge amount about music in this volume – British army officers had other things to think about – but what there is will add to the growing interest in this worthwhile figure. George Hall ★★★

To order CDs call BBC Music Direct 01322 297 515; prices include P&P

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JULY 2015

AUGUST 2015

We celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Three Tenors; plus Poulenc’s Organ Concerto on the free cover CD

Join us for our complete guide to this year’s BBC Proms; plus a cover CD of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony

We meet pianist Benjamin Grosvenor in an exclusive interview; plus a CD of Britten, Beethoven and Shostakovich

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LIVE CHOICE 20 UNMISSABLE EVENTS FOR SEPTEMBER 2015 BBC Music Magazine’s choice of the best September concerts and operas, plus a guide to Richard Strauss’s Salome For detailed concert listings visit www.classical-music.com/whats-on

INTERNATIONAL 1 LEEDS PIANO COMPETITION

Town Hall & University Great Hall, Leeds, 26 August – 13 September Tel: +44 (0)113 224 3801 Web: www.leedspiano.com Leeds is contemplating the unthinkable. After 54 years at the helm, the chairman and artistic director Dame Fanny Waterman is retiring from the Piano Competition she co-founded in 1961. Before the final stages of the competition get underway – where this year’s winning successor to Radu Lupu (1969) and Murray Perahia (1972) will be declared – the competition’s ‘global ambassador’ Lang Lang is joining 2012 winner Federico Colli (left) on 9 September for a recital of Mozart, Musorgsky and Chopin.

PHILHARMONIC 2 VIENNA & SIMON RATTLE

Royal Albert Hall, London, 11 September Tel: 0845 401 5040 (UK only) Web: www.bbc.co.uk/proms Prefaced by a Birmingham performance on 8 September, Simon Rattle and the Vienna Philharmonic bring The Dream of Gerontius to the penultimate night of the Proms. The BBC Proms Youth Choir is joined by top soloists, including mezzo Magdalena Kozˇená, tenor Toby Spence and baritone Roderick Williams.

3 ALAMIRE

Wanamaker Theatre, London, 13 & 14 September Tel: +44 (0)20 7401 9919 Web: www.shakespearesglobe.com Coinciding with the release of its latest disc Anne Boleyn’s Songbook: Music & Passions of

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a Tudor Queen, David Skinner’s vocal consort Alamire explores works associated with the sometime Queen, including motets by Josquin, Mouton, Brumel and Compère, as well as solo items for lute and harp.

DANISH 4 ROYAL ORCHESTRA

Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 16 September Tel: +44 (0)121 345 0600 Web: www.thsh.co.uk Birmingham is winning points for authenticity with its Nielsen 150 festivities. Michael Boder is conducting the orchestra in which Nielsen served as a violinist – the Royal Danish – in a performance of the composer’s Fifth Symphony. The concert also includes Iris, a work by fellow-Dane Per Nørgård. In between, mezzo Petra Lang tackles Schoenberg’s expressionist monodrama Erwartung.

russian flavour: violinist James Ehnes performs Glazunov’s Violin Concerto (Choice 12)

SYMPHONY 5 LONDON ORCHESTRA

Barbican, London, 15, 20 & 23 September Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 8891 Web: www.barbican.org.uk Conductor Bernard Haitink launches the London Symphony Orchestra’s 2015/16 series with no fewer than three programmes – two of them featuring the pianist Murray Perahia. The first pairs Mozart’s C minor Piano Concerto, K491 with a Haitink speciality: Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7. In the second, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony follows Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, and there’s more Beethoven in the third when Imogen Cooper performs Piano Concerto No. 1 between Purcell and Brahms.

6COWBRIDGE FESTIVAL

Holy Trinity Church, Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, 17-25 September Tel: +44 (0)1446 773824 Web: cowbridgemusicfestival.co.uk With medieval Holy Trinity Church at its hub, the Cowbridge Festival has just gained violinist Nicola Benedetti as patron, and her piano trio will add a Schubert and Brahms postscript to the festival in November. In the meantime Cellophony and pianist Alexandra Dariescu are Vale of Glamorgan bound, while clarinettist

SEPTEMBER 2015 LIVE EVENTS includes Berg’s Piano Sonata, Op. 1 and music by Schubert and Mozart, ahead of another Uchida favourite: Schumann’s F sharp minor Sonata, Op. 11.

11 BRITTEN SINFONIA

Turner Sims, Southampton, 24 September Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 5151 Web: www.turnersims.co.uk Fresh from his BBC Proms debut, American pianist Jeremy Denk is in residence with Britten Sinfonia for an ear-catching conversation between JS Bach and Stravinsky. Dumbarton Oaks and two of Bach’s keyboard concertos are interleaved with Bach arrangements by Stravinsky and Webern, plus solo dance-inspired miniatures. The musical conversation continues in Norwich (25 Sep) and Cambridge (27 Sep).

SCOTTISH 12 BBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA City Halls, Glasgow, 24 September Tel: +44 (0)141 353 8000 Web: www.glasgowconcerthalls.com There have been various attempts at completing the torso of Mahler’s unfinished Tenth Symphony, but for many the modestly titled ‘performing edition’ by Deryck Cooke remains the most convincing. In this concert it’s set beside the Glazunov Violin Concerto as Donald Runnicles embarks on his last season as the BBC Scottish Symphony’s principal conductor. The soloist is James Ehnes (left).

Julian Bliss discloses his jazz side as well as appearing alongside soprano Ailish Tynan.

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BBC PHILHARMONIC

Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 19 September Tel: +44 (0)161 907 9000 Web: www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk It’s 25 years since Leonard Bernstein died, and the BBC Philharmonic is devoting 18 concerts in its forthcoming season to his memory. Juanjo Mena conducts an exuberant 20thcentury classic which Bernstein stepped in to premiere when Serge Koussevitzky was indisposed: Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony.

SARAH FERRARA, BEN EALOVEGA

NORTHERN 8ROYAL SINFONIA

St Mary’s, Haddington, 20 September Tel: +44 (0)131 473 2000 Web: www.lammermuirfestival.co.uk Sibelius’s 150th anniversary is high on the agenda at Lammermuir. The festival opens with Sibelius’s Rakastava (on 11 Sep), with Ben Gernon conducting the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, while the largely Nordic finale (on 20 Sep) begins with the composer’s Andante Festivo. This closing concert features the Royal Northern Sinfonia under its new music director

Lars Vogt and will include Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Insula Deserta and – with Vogt swapping baton for keyboard – the Grieg Piano Concerto.

9 FLORIAN BOESCH

Wigmore Hall, London, 22 September Tel: +44 (0)20 7935 2141 Web: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk With nearly 1,000 concerts and associated events planned for the new season, Wigmore Hall is thinking bigger than ever. Here, it embarks on a two-season journey through the complete Schubert songs. Austrian baritone Florian Boesch sets the ball rolling with Graham Johnson at the piano and an early to late survey, stretching from Lebenstraum, D1a to Das Lied im Grünen, D917.

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MITSUKO UCHIDA

The Concert Hall, Reading, 24 September Tel: +44 (0)118 960 6060 Web: www.readingarts.com Pianist Mitsuko Uchida spent her formative teenage years studying at Vienna’s Academy for Music, so it’s no surprise that the music of the First and Second Viennese Schools has remained at the centre of her musical life. Both are represented in this recital which

HATFIELD HOUSE 13 CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL Hatfield House, Hatfield, 24-27 September Tel: +44 (0)1707 273129 Web: hatfieldhousemusicfestival.org.uk The Navarra Quartet is very much in evidence for cellist Guy Johnston’s fourth chamberfest at Elizabethan Hatfield House. He teams up with the quartet for Schubert’s C major Quintet on the opening night and, before the Choir of King’s College Cambridge calls ‘last orders’ with Mozart’s Requiem, there is new music by Charlotte Bray. On the festival’s penultimate evening, it is the turn of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, flanked by Mahler and Strauss.

14 SACCONI QUARTET

Firstsite, Colchester, 25 September Tel: +44 (0)1206 729356 Web: www.romanrivermusic.org.uk Roman River Festival has braved its first commission, and, framed by Nielsen’s G minor Quartet and Sibelius’s Voces Intimae, the Sacconi Quartet (pictured overleaf) premiere a new string quartet by jazz pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock. Another festival highlight is violinist Alina Ibragimova’s Chiaroscuro Quartet, whose gut strings lend > BBC M USIC M AG A Z I N E

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QUICK GUIDE TO… RICHARD STRAUSS’S SALOME Five essential facts about a work being performed this month

festive four: The Sacconi Quartet head to the Roman River Festival (Choice 14)

period instrument expertise to Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven on 19 September. fatal attraction: Maria Nemeth as Salome ■ Salome is an opera in one act which Richard Strauss a ((left) based on Oscar Wilde’s notorious play, after he n ssaw a performance in 1902. Very loosely taken from V tthe biblical account of tthe execution of John the Baptist (Jokanaa (Jokanaan), the play and opera’s story instead creates a lustful fantasy, where Herod’s teenage stepdaughter Salome desires to kiss the severed head of Jokanaan, in return for dancing erotically for Herod. ■ The opera met with controversy. The Catholic church condemned the work and Kaiser Wilhelm II only allowed it to be performed if it included a star of Bethlehem. The Kaiser said of Strauss, ‘I like him otherwise, but with this he will do himself a great deal of harm.’ Strauss was able to build a lavish villa on the proceeds of this ‘harm’.

GETTY, EMILIE BAILEY

■ The orchestration of Salome is large, with 105 players used to sustain the atmosphere of frenzied tension. The composer employs some inventive devices. In ‘Salome’s Dance’ the orchestra imitates Herod’s quickening heartbeat, and when Salome awaits Jokanaan’s execution, an eerie effect is produced by four double basses ‘pinching’ the strings while bowing. ■ In Britain, conductor Sir Thomas Beecham met the prime minister, Herbert Asquith, to discuss if the opera could be performed. Beecham eventually performed it with certain caveats. The severed head had to be replaced with a platter covered with a cloth. ■ Soprano Marie Wittich, the first Salome, refused to perform ‘Salome’s Dance’ or kiss the severed head. ‘I’m a respectable woman’ she protested… See Choice 20

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18 PHILHARMONIA AT 70

Ulster Hall, Belfast, 25 September Tel: +44 (0)28 9033 4455 Web: www.ulsterorchestra.com For a century and a half, the Ulster Hall has cherished its Mulholland Organ. The instrument takes centre stage, twice over, as principal conductor Rafael Payare steers his Ulster Orchestra through an all-French programme. After Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, Belfast City Organist Colm Carey mans the console for Poulenc’s Organ Concerto and Saint-Saëns’s organ-infused Symphony No. 3.

Southbank Centre, London, 27 September Tel: 0844 875 9915 (UK only) Web: www.southbankcentre.co.uk It’s quite a year for orchestral anniversaries. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic continues to celebrate its 175th birthday, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra turns 125, and the Philharmonia hangs out the bunting to mark its 70th season. Christoph von Dohnányi brought the previous Philharmonia season to an end conducting Beethoven’s Seventh and returns for the Ninth, adding the promise of ‘universal brotherhood’ to Martin Helmchen’s account of the Schumann Piano Concerto.

16 TENEBRAE

19 ORLANDO

MACBETH 17 LADY OF MTSENSK

20 STRAUSS’S SALOME

15 ULSTER ORCHESTRA

Hexham Abbey, Northumberland, 26 September Tel: +44 (0)1434 652477 Web: www.hexham-abbey.org.uk Nigel Short’s vocal ensemble Tenebrae has a long-standing interest in Russian sacred choral music which they revisited for the first release on their own Bene Arte label last year. To close the 2015 Hexham Abbey Festival excerpts from Rachmaninov’s All Night Vigill and the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom are being woven together with works by Tchaikovsky, Chesnokov and Kalinnikov.

Coliseum, London, from 26 September Tel: +44 (0)20 7845 9300 Web: www.eno.org Conductor Edward Gardner bid farewell to his role as English National Opera’s music director with Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades. His successor, Mark Wigglesworth, takes up the reins with an iconic Russian opera from the Soviet era: Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Soprano Patricia Racette sings the role of the hapless Katerina Ismailova.

Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, from 27 September Tel: +44 (0)29 2063 6464 Web: www.wno.org.uk ‘Music and Madness’ provides the thematic peg for Welsh National Opera’s autumn trinity of Bellini’s I Puritani,i Handel’s Orlando and Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Handel’s respray of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso is updated to the outbreak of World War II in Harry Fehr’s staging which returns Concerto Italiano’s Rinaldo Alessandrini to the pit. Countertenor Lawrence Zazzo is the warrior knight.

Lighthouse, Poole, 30 September Tel: 0844 406 8666 (UK only) Web: www.lighthousepoole.co.uk Andris Nelsons made concert performances of opera a highlight of his time as music director of the CBSO. And now the Bournemouth Symphony is following suit, as Kirill Karabits flexes his operatic muscles over Richard Strauss’s 1905 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Salome (see box, left). Soprano Lise Lindstrom is the lead and baritone James Rutherford is John the Baptist.

Artist’s impression of the new extension

What makes a concert hall great? sublime acoustic intimate performance experience established roll call of world class artists engaged and loyal audiences innovative education programme

St George’s Bristol has all these. What it lacks are spacious, well designed back stage and front of house facilities. We have a plan, a team, award winning architects and the backing of major national funding bodies to put that right – will you join us? Located in a tranquil landscape of beautiful terraced gardens, St George’s is a model of classical architecture and has been a prominent city landmark since 1823 when it was designed by Sir Robert Smirke, architect of the British Museum. The auditorium of this elegant Georgian former church creates a uniquely intimate exchange between artist and audience and is the favourite performance space for many of the world’s leading musicians. 6QHWNƂNKVUTGOKVCUCYQTNFENCUUEQPEGTVJCNN5V)GQTIGoUKUn$WKNFKPIC5QWPF Future’ with the construction of a contemporary garden pavilion extension designed by architectural practice Patel Taylor. This major capital project will extend and upgrade St George’s, transforming the visitor experience and securing its future for generations to come.

Artist’s impression of how the new building will link to the existing building

2CTVPGTUJKRQRRQTVWPKVKGUJCXGDGGPETGCVGFCVCTCPIGQHNGXGNUYKVJDGPGƂVU extending to naming rights of the complete new extension in perpetuity, so delivering a permanent record of major philanthropic support to this iconic world class venue.

“St George’s Bristol is my old friend. Warm acoustics, intimate and with an enthusiastic audience. This is truly a great combination.” - Dame Mitsuko Uchida “The best acoustic for chamber music in Europe” - Sir Simon Rattle

The existing auditorium

For further partnership details please contact Simon Farley on +44(0)117 929 4929 x205, by email [email protected] or visit http://buildingasoundfuture.co.uk

RADIO & TV LISTINGS Each issue we provide full listings for BBC Radio 3 introduced by the station’s controller Alan Davey, plus highlights of classical music programmes on television a dream sing: mezzo Magdalena Kozˇená performs Elgar on 11 September

CONTROLLER’S CHOICE Alan Davey, the controller of Radio 3, picks out three great moments to tune into in September

WHY MUSIC? WEEKEND London’s Wellcome Collection is a world centre for exhibitions and research into the links between science and the arts. Radio 3 is joining forces with it for the first time, in a weekend that looks at connections between music and human behaviour. With a host of musicians and experts on board – including members of the Aurora Orchestra, The Clerks, pianist James Rhodes and music psychologist Victoria Williamson – Why Music? will explore

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many aspects of music, from its use as a medicine to its ability to scare, soothe or thrill. Performances include Anna Meredith’s Chorale for MRI scanner and string quartet and Radio 3 presenter Andrew McGregor is undergoing a brain scan of his own to measure his response to different types of music. Why Music? Weekend; 25-27 September

LEEDS INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION As the 18th triennial Leeds International Piano Competition reaches its final stage, Radio 3 will be on hand to catch all the action. This year sees 79 competitors from 20 countries whittled down to just six for the final at Leeds Town Hall. The 2015 competition is particularly significant as it is the last time Dame Fanny Waterman, now 95, is part of the judging panel. Leeds has launched the careers

of many of today’s finest players, including Murray Perahia and Sunwook Kim, so the result will be eagerly awaited. Leeds International Piano Competition finals; 13 September, 7.30pm

ELGAR’S THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS The BBC Proms may be in its final stages but it’s saving some of the best for last, as Simon Rattle conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. The oratorio, based on the poem by John Henry Newman, was first performed in Birmingham in 1900. Rattle made a landmark recording there in 1987, during his own time with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He is joined by mezzo Magdalena Kozˇená (above), tenor Toby Spence and the Proms Youth Choir. Proms 2015, Prom 75, 11 September, 7.30pm

SEPTEMBER 2015 RADIO & TV LISTINGS 11 FRIDAY

SEPTEMBER’S RADIO 3 LISTINGS

6.30am-1pm As Monday 7 Sep 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Proms 55 (rpt) 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Weekk Elgar (rpt) CHOICE 7.30-10pm Proms 2015 Proms 75 Elgar The Dream of Gerontius. Magdalena Kožená (mezzo-soprano), Toby Spence (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone). BBC Proms Youth Choir, Vienna Philharmonic/Sir Simon Rattle 10-10.45pm Proms Plus Late 8 10.45-11pm The Essayy (rpt) 11pm-1am World on 3

Schedules may be subject to alteration; for up-to-date listings see Radio Times 1 TUESDAY 6.30-9am Breakfastt with Petroc Trelawny 9am-12 noon Essential Classics 12 noon-1pm Composer of the Weekk Brahms (rpt) 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Prom 44 (rpt) 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Week Brahms (rpt) 7.30-10pm Proms 2015 Prom 62 Brahms Academic Festival Overture, e Alto Rhapsody, y Triumphlied, d Symphony No. 1 in C minorr Jamie Barton (mezzo-soprano), Benjamin Appl (baritone), Choir of the Enlightenment, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Marin Alsop 10-10.45pm Gavrilo Princip’s Footprintt (rpt) – a look at the legacy of the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand 10.45-11pm The Essayy Music on the Brink (rpt) – capital cities at the brink of World War I

2 WEDNESDAY 6.30am-1pm As Tuesday 1 Sep 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-3.30pm Proms 2015 Proms Saturday Matinee 4 (rpt) 3.30-4.30pm Choral Evensong 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Weekk Brahms (rpt) 7.30-10.15pm Proms 2015 Prom 63 Messiaen Hymne, Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat K595, Bruckner Symphony No 7 in EE. Igor Levit (piano), Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Peter Oundjian 10.15-11pm God and the Great Warr (rpt)

HARALD HOFFMANN/DG, SHEILA ROCK

3 THURSDAY 6.30am-1pm As Tuesday 1 Sep 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Prom 45 (rpt) 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-9pm Proms 2015 Prom 64 Nielsen Aladdin – excerpts, B Tommy Andersson Pann (BBC commission: world premiere), Mahler Symphony No. 4 in G. David Goode (organ), Klara Ek (soprano), BBC National Orchestra of Wales/ Thomas Søndergård 9-10.15pm Proms Composer Portrait 4 B Tommy Andersson 10.15-11.45pm Proms 2015 Prom 65 Handel – arias from operas, and cantatas. Alice Coote (mezzo), The English Concert/Harry Bicket

4 FRIDAY 6.30am-1pm As Tuesday 1 Sep 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert

2-4.30pm Prom 46 (rpt) 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Week 7.30-10pm Proms 2015 Prom 66 Beethoven Fidelio – overture, Schoenberg Piano Concerto, Shostakovich Symphony No. 8 in C minor. r Mitsuko Uchida (piano), London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski 10-10.45pm Matthew Sweet’s Palace of Great War Varieties (rpt) – popular culture in World War I 10.45-11pm The Essay Music on the Brink (rpt)

5 SATURDAY 7-9am Breakfastt with Martin Handley 9am-12.15pm CD Review w– Building a Library 12.15-1pm New Generation Artists 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert from the 2015 Schwetzingen Festival. Works for harpsichord including Rameau, D’Anglebert and Couperin. Skip Sempé, Olivier Fortin (harpsichord) 2-4pm Saturday Classics 4-5.30pm Jazz Line-Up 5.30-8pm Proms 2015 Prom 67 Bernstein – stage and screen. Music from Bernstein’s Broadway musicals, including West Side Story, y Candide, On the Town, 1600 Pennsylvannia Avenuee and Wonderful Town, plus the suite from his only film score, On the Waterfront. t Louise Dearman, Julian Ovenden (vocalists), Maida Vale Singers, John Wilson Orchestra/John Wilson 8-9pm Jazz Record Requests 9pm-12 midnight Proms 2015 Prom 688 JS Bach Suite No. 1, BWV 1007, 7 Suite No. 2, BWV 1008, Suite No. 3, BWV 1009, Suite No. 4, BWV 1010, Suite No. 5, BWV 1011, Suite No. 6 in D, BWV 1012. Yo-Yo Ma (cello) 12 midnight-1am Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz

6 SUNDAY 7-9am Breakfastt with Martin Handley 9am-12 noon Sunday Morning 12 noon-1pm Private Passions Val McDermid, Scottish crime writer 1-2pm Proms 2015 Proms Chamber Music 7 (rpt) 2-3pm The Early Music Show 3-4pm Choral Evensong 4-6.15pm Prom 47 (rpt) 6.15-7.30pm Words and Music 7.30-10.15pm Proms 2015 Prom 69 Saint-Saëns Danse macabre, Guy Barker The Lanterne

12 SATURDAY

about schmidt: conductor Semyon Bychkov champions the Austrian composer (10 September) of Lightt (BBC commission, world premiere), Orff Carmina burana. Charles Mutter (violin), Alison Balsom (trumpet), Olena Tokar (soprano), Thomas Walker (tenor), Benjamin Appl (baritone), Southend Boys’ Choir, Southend Girls’ Choir, BBC Symphony Chorus, London Philharmonic Choir, BBC Concert Orchestra/Keith Lockhart 10.15-11.45pm Drama on 3 (rpt) The Oresteiaa by Aeschylus 3/3 11.45pm-12.30am New Generation Artists

7 MONDAY 6.30-9am Breakfast with Clemency Burton-Hill 9am-12 noon Essential Classics 12 noon-1pm Composer of the Weekk Elgar (rpt) 1-2pm Proms 2015 Proms Chamber Music 8 Brahms Piano Trio No. 1 in B, Op. 8, Arlene Sierra Butterflies Remember a Mountain. The Benedetti Elschenbroich Grynyuk Trio 2-4.30pm Prom 49 (rpt) 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Weekk Elgar (rpt) 7.30-10.15pm Proms 2015 Prom 70 Tchaikovsky Francesca da Rimini,i Rachmaninov Piano Concerto. No. 2 in C minor, r RimskyKorsakov Scheherazade. Nikolai Lugansky (piano), St Petersburg Philharmonic/Yuri Temirkanov 10.15-11pm Proms Plus Late 11pm-12.30am Jazz on 3 presented by Jez Nelson

8 TUESDAY 6.30am-1pm As Monday 7 Sep 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Prom 51 (rpt) 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Weekk Elgar (rpt) 7.30-9.45pm Proms 2015 Prom 71 Rimsky-Korsakov The Legend g of the Invisible Cityy of Kitezh

– Symphonic Pictures, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Elgar ‘Enigma’ Variations. Julia Fischer (violin), St Petersburg PO/Yuri Temirkanov 10.45-11pm Proms Poetry Competition

9 WEDNESDAY 6.30am-1pm As Monday 7 Sep 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-3.30pm Proms 65 (rpt) 3.30-4.30pm Choral Evensong 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Weekk Elgar (rpt) 7.30-10.15pm Proms 2015 Prom 72 Nielsen Springtime on Funen, Violin Concerto, Webster In the Sweet By and By, y Zeuner Ye Christian Heralds, Marsh Jesus, Lover of My Soul,l Mason Nearer, My God, to Thee, Ives Symphony No. 4. Henning Kraggerud (violin), Malin Christensson (soprano), Ben Johnson (tenor), Neal Davies (bassbaritone), William Wolfram (piano), Tiffin Boys’ Choir, Tiffin Girls’ Choir, BBC Singers, Crouch End Festival Chorus, BBC SO/Andrew Litton 10.15-11pm Caucasian Roots 1 (rpt)

10 THURSDAY 6.30am-1pm As Monday 7 Sep 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Proms 54 (rpt) 4.30-6pm In Tune 6-7pm Composer of the Week Elgar (rpt) 7-9.30pm Proms 2015 Proms 73 Brahms Symphony No. 3, Schmidt Symphony No. 2. Vienna Phil/ Semyon Bychkov (above) 9.30-10.15pm Caucasian Roots 2 (rpt) 10.15-11.45pm Proms 2015 Proms 74 Wireless Nights Prom with Jarvis Cocker. Radio 4 show Wireless Nightss becomes a live concert experience, pairing music and spoken word inspired by the night. Jarvis Cocker (presenter), BBC Philharmonic/Maxime Tortelier

7-9am Breakfast 9am-12.15pm CD Review w– Building a Library 12.15-1pm New Generation Artists 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4pm Saturday Classics 4-5pm Sound of Cinema 5-6pm Jazz Record Requests 6-7.15pm Jazz Line-Up 7.15-11pm Proms 2015 Proms 76 Last Night of the Proms Eleanor Alberga Arise, Athena! (BBC commission, world premiere), Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 in FF, Arvo Pärt Credo, R Strauss Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Puccini Tosca – ‘Recondita armonia’, Manon Lescaut – ‘Donna non vidi mai’, Turandot – ‘Nessun dorma’, Johnson Victory Stride, Copland Old American Songss – ‘I bought me a cat’, Grieg Peer Gynt – ‘Morning’, Gershwin (arr. P Grainger) Love walked in, Morton Gould Boogie Woogie Étude, Lehár The Land of Smiles –‘Dein ist mein ganzes Herz’, Rodgers (arr. C Hazell) The Sound of Music – medley, y Wood Fantasia on British Sea Songs – ‘Jack’s The Lad’ (Hornpipe) and ‘Home Sweet Home’, Arne (arr. Sargent) Rule, Britannia!, Elgar Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D (‘Land of Hope and Glory’), Parry (orch. Elgar) Jerusalem, (arr. Britten) The National Anthem, Trad. (arr. Thorpe Davie) Auld Lang Syne. Benjamin Grosvenor (piano), Danielle de Niese (soprano), Jonas Kaufmann (tenor), BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop 11pm-12 midnightt Hear and Now 12 midnight-1am Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz

13 SUNDAY 7-9am Breakfast 9am-12 noon Sunday Morning 12 noon-1pm Private Passions Kathryn Tickell (rpt), Northumbrian pipes player 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-3pm The Early Music Show 3-4pm Choral Evensong 4-5.30pm The Choir 5.30-6.45m Words and Music 6.45-7.30pm Sunday Feature CHOICE

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SEPTEMBER 2015 RADIO & TV LISTINGS

14 MONDAY

6.30-9am Breakfastt with Clemency Burton-Hill 9am-12 noon Essential Classics 12 noon-1pm Composer of the Weekk Shostakovich 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert from Wigmore Hall, London. Poulenc La voix humaine. Anna Caterina Antonacci (soprano, below), Donald Sulzen (piano) 2-4.30pm Afternoon on 3 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Weekk Shostakovich (rpt) 7.30-10.45pm Radio 3 in Concertt from the Three Choirs Festival, Hereford Cathedral. JS Bach St Matthew Passion. James Oxley (Evangelist), Matthew Brook (Christus), Elizabeth Watts (soprano) etc, Three Cathedral Choirs, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Geraint Bowen 10.45-11pm The Essay 11pm-12.30am Jazz on 3

15 TUESDAY 6.30am-1pm As Monday 14 September 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Afternoon on 3 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Weekk Shostakovich (rpt) 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert from Usher Hall, Edinburgh. Edinburgh International Festival opening concert. Brahms Gesang der Parzen, Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzer (orch. Brahms), Schicksalslied, d R Strauss Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40. Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Christopher Bell (chorus master), BBC Scottish SO/ Donald Runnicles 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 10.45-11pm The Essay 11pm-12.30am Late Junction

16 WEDNESDAY 6.30am-1pm As Monday 14 September 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-3.30pm Afternoon on 3 3.30-4.30pm Choral Evensong 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Weekk Shostakovich (rpt) 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert from Usher Hall, Edinburgh. Edinburgh International Festival. Bartók Piano Concerto No. 2, Stravinsky Petrushka (1947), Tchaikovsky Francesca da Rimini. Lang Lang (piano), Philharmonia Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 10.45-11pm The Essay

17 THURSDAY 6.30am-1pm As Monday 14 September 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Afternoon on 3 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Week k Shostakovich (rpt) 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert from Usher Hall, Edinburgh. Edinburgh International Festival. Mozart Symphony No. 38 ‘Prague’, Requiem. Miah Persson (soprano), Barbara Kozelj (mezzo-soprano), Jeremy Ovenden (tenor), Konstantin Wolff (bass), Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Christopher Bell (chorus master), Budapest Festival Orchestra/Iván Fischer 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 10.45-11pm The Essay

18 FRIDAY 6.30am-1pm As Monday 14 September 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Afternoon on 3 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Week k Shostakovich (rpt) 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert from Usher Hall, Edinburgh. Edinburgh International Festival. Berlioz Grande messe des morts. Edinburgh Festival Chorus,

perfect poulenc:

BEN EALOVEGA, ADRIANE WHITE

soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci sings La voix humaine on 14 September

Christopher Bell (chorus master), Philharmonia Orchestra/ Esa-Pekka Salonen 10-10.45pm The Verb 10.45-11pm The Essay

19 SATURDAY 7-9am Breakfast with Martin Handley 9am-12.15pm CD Review – Building a Library Beethoven Symphony No. 4 12.15-1pm Music Matters 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4pm Saturday Classics music 4-5pm Sound of Cinema 5-6pm Jazz Record Requests 6-7.30pm Jazz Line-Up 7.30-10pm Opera on 3 from Usher Hall, Edinburgh. Edinburgh International Festival. Gilbert & Sullivan HMS Pinafore. John Mark Ainsley (Rt Hon Sir Joseph Porter, KCB), Andrew Foster-Williams (Captain Corcoran), Toby Spence (Ralph Rackstraw), Elizabeth Watts (Josephine), Hilary Summers (Little Buttercup) etc, Scottish Opera/ Richard Egarr 10-10.30pm Between the Ears 10.30pm-12 midnightt Hear and Now 12 midnight-1am Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz

20 SUNDAY 7-9am Breakfastt with Martin Handley 9am-12 noon Sunday Morning 12 noon-1pm Private Passions – Amitav Ghosh, Bengali Indian author. Broadcast as part of Radio 3’s Indian season 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-3pm The Early Music Show 3-4pm Choral Evensong 4-5.30pm The Choir 5.30-6.45pm Words and Music 6.45-7.30pm Sunday Feature, Asian theatre in Britain. Broadcast as part of Radio 3’s Indian season 7.30-9pm Radio 3 In Concert from the European Broadcasting Union (tbc) 9-11.30pm Drama on 3

21 MONDAY 6.30-9am Breakfastt with Petroc Trelawny 9am-12 noon Essential Classics 12 noon-1pm Composer of the Week 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert from Wigmore Hall, London. Arne Nordheim Den Første Sommerfugl,l Shostakovich Regeneration, A jealous maiden, sobbing bitterly, y Premonition, Glazunov Albumblatt, t Puccini Storiella d’amore, Sole e amore, E l’uccellino, Canto d’anime, Avanti Urania!! Piazzolla Histoire du Tango – ‘Café’, ‘Nightclub’, Kreisler Miniature Viennese March, Toy Soldiers’ March. Tine Thing Helseth (trumpet), Kathryn Stott (piano) 2-4.30pm Afternoon on 3 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Weekk (rpt) 7.30-10.45pm Radio 3 Live in Concertt from St John’s Smith Square, London. The 2,000th concert of the Tallis Scholars. Taverner Leroy Kyrie, Sheppard Missa Cantate, Gabriel Jackson Ave dei patris filia, Byrd Infelix ego, Ye sacred muses, Tribue Domine. Tallis Scholars/Peter Phillips 10.45-11pm The Essay 11pm-12.30am Jazz on 3

22 TUESDAY 6.30am-1pm As Monday 21 September 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Afternoon on 3 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Weekk (rpt) 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert from the Royal Air Force Museum, London. A special concert to mark this month’s 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and the history of aviation. Edward Cowie Three Spitfire Motetss (world premiere), Eric Whitacre Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Gabriel Jackson Airplane Cantata. Rex Lawson (pianola), BBC Singers 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 10.45-11pm The Essay

23 WEDNESDAY 6.30am-1pm As Monday 21 September 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-3.30pm Afternoon on 3 3.30-4.30pm Choral Evensong 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Weekk (rpt) 7.30-10pm Radio 3 Live In Concertt from the Barbican. Purcell (arr. Stucky) Funeral Music for Queen Mary, y Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1, Brahms Symphony No 1. Imogen Cooper (piano), London Symphony Orchestra/ Bernard Haitink 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 10.45-11pm The Essay

24 THURSDAY 6.30am-1pm As Monday 21 September

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1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Afternoon on 3 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Week k (rpt) 7.30-10pm Radio 3 Live In Concert from the Barbican, London. Mahler Symphony No. 3. Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano), Trinity Boys Choir, The BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Sakari Oramo 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 10.45-11pm The Essay

25 FRIDAY CHOICE WHY MUSIC? RADIO 3 RESIDENCY AT THE WELLCOME COLLECTION 6.30-9am Breakfast with Petroc Trelawny 9am-12 noon Essential Classics 12 noon-1pm Composer of the Weekk (tbc) 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Afternoon on 3 4.30-6.30pm In Tune from the Henry Wellcome Auditorium. Introduction to Why Music?, ? a collaboration between Radio 3 and the Wellcome Collection, looking at links between music and behaviour. Sean Rafferty is joined by guests including pianist James Rhodes 6.30-7.30pm Why Music? Author Philip Ball asks why music is such a universal human trait 7.30-9.30pm Radio 3 Live In Concertt from Maida Vale, London – an exploration through music of what makes us human, including works by Elgar, Maxwell Davis and Judith Davis. BBC CO/Michael Seal 11pm-1am World on 3 A look at links between domestic and work songs from around the world 11.30pm-12 midnight Late Junction live from the Wellcome Trust, with compositions inspired by organs in the human body

26 SATURDAY 7-9am Breakfast with Martin Handley at the Wellcome café, including a theme of synaesthesia 9am-11.30pm The Listening Brain – Andrew McGregor looks at his own brain scan to discover how he responds to music 11.30-1pm Playing With Patterns chamber concert from the Wellcome Reading Room. Professor Marcus Du Sautoy looks at how composers, from Bach to Messiaen, have used patterns of mathematics and nature in their works 1-2pm Music Matters Tom Service explores how music can be used to manipulate the mind 2-4pm Saturday Classics from the Henry Wellcome Auditorium – a look at how mental illness has influenced great composers 4-5pm Words and Music a selection of prose and poetry looking at the power of music 5-6pm Question time from the Henry Wellcome Auditorium. An expert panel answers questions about the weekend QUIZ ANSWERS from p120

7.30-10pm Leeds International Piano Competition. Coverage of the finals (see p90) 10-11.30pm Drama on 3 ≈

SEPTEMBER 2015 RADIO & TV LISTINGS xwho

WEEKLY TV AND RADIO HIGHLIGHTS On our website each week we pick the best of the classical music programmes on radio, TV and iPlayer. So to plan your weekly listening and viewing, head to the website or sign up to our weekly newsletter to be sent information about the week's classical programmes directly to your inbox.

28 MONDAY 6.30-9am Breakfast with Petroc Trelawny 9am-12 noon Essential Classics 12 noon-1pm Composer p of

Marin Alsop raises the baton for the finale of this year’s Proms

the Weekk Johann Baptist Vanhal 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert from Wigmore Hall, London. Rebecca Clarke Dumka (Duo Concertante for violin and viola with piano), Martinu˚ Three Madrigals for violin and viola, Brahms Trio in E flat, Op. 40. Anthony Marwood (violin), Lawrence Power (viola), Simon CrawfordPhillips (piano) 2-4.30pm Afternoon on 3 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Week Johann Baptist Vanhal (rpt) 7.30-10.45pm Radio 3 Live in Concertt (tbc) 10.45-11pm The Essay 11pm-12.30am Jazz on 3 Presented by Jez Nelson

29 TUESDAY 6.30am-1pm As Monday 28 September 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Afternoon on 3 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Weekk Johann Baptist Vanhal (rpt) 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert from Usher Hall, Edinburgh. Glazunov Concerto for Violin in A minor, Op. 82, Mahler Symphony No. 10 in F sharp minorr (version by Deryck Cooke). James Ehnes (violin), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Donald Runnicles 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 10.45-11pm The Essay 11pm-12.30am Late Junction

30 WEDNESDAY 6.30am-1pm As Monday 28 September 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-3.30pm Afternoon on 3 3.30-4.30pm Choral Evensong 4.30-6.30pm In Tune 6.30-7.30pm Composer of the Week Johann Baptist Vanhal (rpt) 7.30-10pm Radio 3 Live In Concert (tba) 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 10.45-11pm The Essay 11pm-12.30am Late Junction

QUIZ ANSWERS from p96

27 SUNDAY 7-9am Breakfast with Martin Handley, from the Wellcome Café, looking at musical memory 9-11.30am Feeling Music – an exploration of the emotional power of music, presented by Sara MohrPietsch, from the Wellcome Café 11.30am-1pm Sunday Morning Chamber concert from the Wellcome Reading Room, with a talk by music psychologist Victoria Williamson 1-2pm Private Passions – Frank Wilczek, professor of physics 2-4pm The Singing Ape – the origins of music-making, presented from the Wellcome Café by Tom Service 2-3pm Sounds of Nature from the Henry Wellcome Auditorium. An exploration of music in the natural world, presented by Tom Service 5-6.30pm The Descent Of Language Early music ensemble The Clerks perform in the Wellcome Reading Room 6.30-7.30pm Round up A look back at the Why Music?? Weekend 7.30-10pm Radio 3 Live In Concert (tbc) 10-11.30pm Drama on 3

last orders:

1. Romeo and Juliet 2. Papa 3. Oscar Wilde 4. Golf 5. Charlie Parker 6. 22 November 7. India

6-7.30pm Jazz Line-Up live from the Wellcome Trust, presented by Julian Joseph 7.30-10pm Music and Medicine Live from the Wellcome Café – Claudia Hammond and guests discuss music’s effect on mental and physical health 10pm-12 midnightt Hear and Now w live from the Wellcome Trust. A concert with members of the Aurora Orchestra and featuring a performance of Anna Meredith’s Chorale. Presented by Tom Service. (see p90) 12 midnight-1am Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz

SEPTEMBER TV HIGHLIGHTS

THE LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS 2015 Conductor Marin Alsop (above) is making a very welcome return to this year’s Last of the Proms after grabbing the headlines in 2013 for being the first woman to ever conduct the worldfamous final event of the season. The evening gets underway with the world premiere of Eleanor Alberga’s Arise Athena before the soloists, including tenor Jonas Kaufmann and soprano Danielle de Niese take centre stage. Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor – BBC Music Magazine’s August cover artist – performs an eclectic mix of works, from Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 to pieces by Gershwin and Morton Gould. And Arvo Pärt’s 80th anniversary is marked with his sublime Credo. The Proms close with favourites from Arne and Elgar, plus ‘Auld Lang Syne’. Prom 76 is broadcast live on BBC Two (first half) and BBC One (second half); 12 September; times tbc

ROMEO AND JULIET In 1965 the choreographer Kenneth MacMillan’s London staging of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet caused a sensation when Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev appeared as leads. This autumn sees Covent Garden return to this iconic production. The ballet was premiered in 1938 and Prokofiev makes use of some unusual instrumentation, including tenor saxophone and the Baroque viola d’amore. Sky Arts 2; 28 September, 9.30pm

JS BACH’S CELLO SUITES American cellist Yo-Yo Ma has a long association with JS Bach’s Cello Suites (see Music That Changed Me, p99) and is performing all six – without an interval – at the Royal Albert Hall this summer, in what is expected to be one this year’s most intimate and breathtaking Late Night Proms. Proms 2015 Prom 68; BBC Four 10 September; time tbc

OTHER GREAT SEPTEMBER HIGHLIGHTS Prom 50 Pianist András Schiff tackles JS Bach’s masterful Goldberg Variations BBC Four, 3 Sept; time tbc Prom 57 Conductor Bernard Haitink and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe perform Schubert’s Greatt Symphony No. 9 and are joined by Maria João Pires for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 BBC Four, 4 Sept; time tbc Prom 24 Donald Runnicles conducts the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Fourth Symphony, alongside Mahler’s Second BBC Four, 6 Sept; time tbc

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8. Echo and Narcissus 9. Mike Leigh 10. The NATO phonetic alphabet (Romeo/Juliet, Papa, Oscar, Golf, Charlie, November, India, Echo, Mike)

American world premiere recordings* Henry Kimball Hadley

John Alden Carpenter

Salome – tone poem Scherzo Diabolique* San Francisco* Othello Overture* The Enchanted Castle* Cleopatra’s Night*

Concertino for piano and orchestra Patterns for piano and orchestra* Krazy Kat Carmel Concerto* * WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Keith Lockhart (conductor) Michael Chertock (piano)

* WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

CDLX 7321 X

Rebecca Miller (conductor) CDLX 7319 X

Henry Kimball Hadley (1871-1937) was one of the leading American composers of the inter-war years and before. He developed his art from music founded in that of the German late romantic composers, but he subsequently searched for the roots of a distinctive American style, his musical car-ride Scherzo Diabolique being the Short Ride in a Fast Machine of its time. This Dutton Epoch survey presents six varied scores – all splendid discoveries – from across Hadley’s career in mostly world premiere recordings.

John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951) was a descendant of the very John Alden Carpenter who CTTKXGFCV2N[OQWVJ /CUUCEJWUGVVUQPVJG/C[ƀQYGT*GYCUQPGQHVJGGCTNKGUVVQKPEQTRQTCVG LC\\ CPF .CVKP5RCPKUJƀCXQWTGF őRQRWNCTŒ OWUKE KPVQ JKU UEQTGU +P JKU FC[ JG GPLQ[GF C remarkable success, his music promoted by many leading conductors and orchestras. This Dutton Epoch release features brilliant American pianist Michael Chertock and conductor Keith Lockhart, who bring verve and panache to the popular Concertino for piano and orchestra and the world premiere recording of Carpenter’s later Patterns for piano and orchestra. Also presented here is the delightful jazz-ballet Krazy Kat and Carpenter’s Leopold Stokowski commission, the beautiful Carmel Concerto.

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, BRITTEN, DELIUS & MILFORD BENJAMIN BRITTEN

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Violin Concerto op.15

A London Symphony (1920 version) Concerto for Two Pianos

Philippe Graffin (violin) PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA Nicholas Collon (conductor)

John Lenehan (piano) Leon McCawley (piano) ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA Martin Yates (conductor) W CDLX 7322

FREDERICK DELIUS Violin Concerto Philippe Graffin (violin)

ROBIN MILFORD The Darkling Thrush Philippe Graffin (violin) ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA David Lloyd-Jones (conductor) W CDLX 7320 6IOLINIST 0HILIPPE 'RAFlN COUPLES HIS RECORDING OF "RITTENS BITTERSWEET 6IOLIN #ONCERTO WITH $ELIUSS6IOLIN#ONCERTO THELATTERGIVENSPECIALRESONANCEBYBEINGPLAYEDFROMTHEPERSPECTIVE OF !LBERT 3AMMONSS EXTENSIVELY MARKED PLAYING COPY OF THE SOLO PART 4O BOTH WORKS  'RAFlN BRINGSAPERSONALVIEWANDWARMLYEXPRESSIVEPLAYING4HEPROGRAMMEISCOMPLETEDBYAWORLD PREMIERERECORDINGOF2OBIN-ILFORDSDELIGHTFULThe Darkling ThrushFORVIOLINANDORCHESTRA A SORTOFWINTERTIMELark AscendingAFTERA4HOMAS(ARDYPOEM$ATINGFROM THISGLORIOUSLY ATMOSPHERICPIECEPROVESTOBEAWORTHWHILEDISCOVERYTHATALLENTHUSIASTSFORINTER WAR%NGLISH ORCHESTRALMUSICWILLWANTTOEXPLORE

SIR HENRY WALFORD DAVIES

Sir Henry Walford Davies Solemn Melody for Cello & Organ; Jesu dulcis memoria ,QWHUOXGHLQ&&KRUDOHIRU2UJDQ)XJXHLQ%ÀDW Memorial Melody in C; Solemn Melody for Organ Reverie for Organ & Two Voices O Jesu, King most wonderful Jongen Prélude Élégiaque op.47 no.1 Darke Chorale Fantasia on Darwell’s 148th Ye Holy Angels Bright op.20 no.2 Thalben-Ball Elegy for Organ Thalben-Ball DUU)LVKHU (OHJ\LQ%ÀDWIRU&HOOR 2UJDQ Sir Hubert Parry Chorale Fantasia on the Old 100th Roger Fisher (organ); Andrew Fuller (cello) Recorded on the Rothwell organ at St George’s Church, Headstone, Harrow, 24-26 October 2000 CDLX 7108 X

4HISENTHRALLING6AUGHAN7ILLIAMSPROGRAMMECOUPLESTWOWONDERFULALTERNATIVEVERSIONSOFGREAT WORKS6AUGHAN7ILLIAMSSTWO PIANOVERSIONOFHISCRAGGY0IANO#ONCERTOREINFORCESITSSTANDING ASINMANYWAYSTHELINKBETWEENTHE4HIRDAND&OURTH3YMPHONIES(ERETHEBARNSTORMINGPIANO TEAMOF*OHN,ENEHANAND,EON-C#AWLEYWITHTHE2OYAL3COTTISH.ATIONAL/RCHESTRAAND-ARTIN 9ATESARETHRILLINGINTHEIRTRAVERSEOFTHISCHERISHABLESCORE4HEPROGRAMMEISCOMPLETEDBYTHE VERSIONOFA London Symphony NOTRECORDEDSINCE'OOSSENSSWARTIMES(ERE FORTHElRST TIMEINMODERNSOUND WEHAVETHEOPPORTUNITYOFEXPLORINGTHOSEVARIOUSMOMENTSTHAT267 DELETEDFROMTHEVERSIONGENERALLYPLAYED

BACK IN THE CATALOGUE JOHN McCABE

ARTHUR PENDRAGON Ballet Suite no.1: Arthur Pendragon Piano Concerto no.1 Pilgrim for Double String Orchestra John McCabe (piano) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Christopher Austin (conductor) Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, 12–14 June 2006 CDLX 7179 X

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BACK 2 THE FUTURE FENELLA HUMPHREYS violin Take one talented young British violinist, inspired by the solo violin music of J S Bach, and mix with some of the best British composing talents of today and the result is the Bach 2 the Future project. First release includes new works by Cheryl FrancesHoad, Gordon Crosse and Piers Hellawell.

Brahms: The Violin Sonatas Sadie Fields violin Jeremy Young piano

Liszt | Scriabin | Medtner Poom Prommachart piano

CHRCD079

CHRCD102

CHRCD104

CHRCD097

CHRCD092

“a golden tone in all registers with the utmost sensitivity to where every phrase is moving…” The Strad

Love’s Old Sweet Song Kathryn Rudge mezzo-soprano James Baillieu piano

Pictures at an Exhibition Federico Colli piano

Over the last 15 years, The Music Room at Champs Hill, a private 160-seat concert hall in the West Sussex countryside, has become a venue of choice for recitals and chamber music, recordings and live broadcasts. David and Mary Bowerman founded Champs Hill Records – an independent label dedicated to recordings made at the hall, young artists and under-represented repertoire – five years ago. Champs Hill Records is proud to support young performers and ensembles as they develop their professional careers.

Champs Hill Records Available on CD or for download from all good record shops & online, or direct from:

www.champshillrecords.co.uk

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September prize crossword No. 285 The first correct solution of our monthly crossword to be picked at random will win a copy of The Oxford Companion to Music worth £40 (available at bookstores or www.oup.co.uk). Send your answers to: BBC Music Magazine, Crossword 285, PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA to arrive by 26 August (solution in our December 2015 issue). Crossword set by Paul Henderson ACROSS 1/29 Pianist in five Prom concertos – and five soli almost seen, possibly (4,3,7) 5 Sort out odd place for conductor to stand (7) 9 Source of Last Night item in alto’s calendar (5) 10 Things like lullabies contralto alternatively recalled in song, possibly (9) 11 Raise tone of fellows beginning to tire after August (7) 12 Stringed instrument and nothing more for silent performer (5) 14 Musical composer’s inability to write, having forgotten line (4) 15 University piano is used in Wagner operas, prompting rebellion (8) 19 A bass makes mark: refuses to participate? (8) 20 Proms pianist with some hidden knowledge (4) 23 I note bass, initially under duress, about to get flowers? (2,3) 25 Stay for Late Prom, being resolute about musical work (4,3) 27 Popular page in Proms guide? Arranged for more to be sent round road (5-4) 28 A lot of good fortune around Puccini’s birthplace (5) 29 See 1 across 30 Played cymbal and exhibited passion? (7) DOWN 1 Stringed instrument and wind instrument missing forte (4) 2 Incessant vibrato provides examples (9) 3 Shostakovich premiere arranged to be placed after end of concerto (6) 4 Master of Musick briefly linked to the clergy? (6) 5 Elevated spot for containing old location of Fiddler? (4-4) 6 Cabaret composer’s form of hedonism (8) 7 Programmed premieres of Debussy and Ravel for a quiet time (1,3,1)

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THE

QUIZ

‘Bravo!’ if you can get full marks in this month’s quiz… 1. Which Shakespeare play inspired works by Berlioz (1839), Tchaikovsky (1880), Prokofiev (1935) and Leonard Bernstein (1957) among many others? 2. Which nickname was bestowed on Joseph Haydn by his musicians at the Esterházy Court in recognition of his benevolent nature?

PICTURE THIS 5. Nicknamed ‘Bird’, this pioneering saxophonist (below) died at the age of just 34 in 1955. Who is he?

8 Russian composer, vulgar, revolutionary, with perfumed exterior (10) 13 Proms artist: ‘I boast I mostly affect foremost in audience’ (10) 16 Same detail in C appears in variation (9) 17 Bloke mostly facing Bartókian figure (8) 18 1940s pop group variously sink snooker shots (8) 21 Openings to include a bit of music for TV detective (6) 22 Composer’s French pastime overlooking last and final character (6) 24 Predicted lyric for singing would fit between beginning and end of ballad (5) 26 Orchestra not allowed to perform on the radio? (4)

JUNE SOLUTION NO. 282

JUNE WINNER V Jones, Stoke-on-Trent Immediate Media Company Limited, publisher of BBC Music Magazine, may contact you with details of our products and services or to undertake research. Please write ‘Do Not Contact’ if you prefer not to receive such information by post or phone. Please write your email address on your postcard if you prefer to receive such information by e-mail.

6. Which date in the calendar marks the feast day of St Cecilia, patron saint of music, and also the birthdays of composer Benjamin Britten and pianist Stephen Hough? 7. Telling the story of the doomed love affair between the daughter of a high priest and a British army officer, Delibes’s opera Lakmé is set in which country? 8. In which Ovid-inspired opera by Gluck (1779) are Cupid’s attempts to bring the two eponymous characters together hindered by one of them having already fallen in love with himself?

3. Described by Mahler as ‘one of the greatest masterpieces of our time’, Richard Strauss’s 1905 opera Salome was based on whose play of the same name, written in 1891?

9. Who in 1999 directed Topsy-Turvy, the award-winning film about Gilbert and Sullivan starring Allan Corduner and Jim Broadbent?

4. Which sport did Elgar, a very keen player himself, describe in 1904 as ‘the best form of exercise for writing men, as it involves no risk of accident’?

10. Finally, taking one word from each of the previous nine answers, what is the theme running through this month’s quiz? See p93 for answers

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NEXT MONTH in BBC Music Magazine Volume 23 No. 12 BBC Music Magazine (ISSN 0966-7180) (USPS 018-168) is published 13 times a year by Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited under licence from BBC Worldwide, 9th Floor, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN, UK. © Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited, 2015

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In Leipzig and at La Scala, the conductor is enjoying a golden era. Charles Searson meets him

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Edvard Grieg Music from Peer Gynt plus Stenhammar’s Symphony No. 2, played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra

How closely are the worlds of music and maths related? Professor Marcus du Sautoyy explains all

Hard lessons Sandy Tolan n tells how Palestinian children have been defying the odds in their war-torn region by aspiring to learn and perform music together

Gustav Mahler The Austrian who sought to bring the whole world into his music is 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 residents only, except employees of Immediate Media Company Limited, the promoter and their agents. No purchase necessary. Only one entry per competition per person. Proof of postage is not proof of entry. Immediate Media Company Limited accepts no responsibility for entries lost or damaged in the post. Entrants agree to take part in any publicity related to these competitions. The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Entrants’ personal details will not be used by Immediate Media Company Limited, publisher of BBC Music Magazine, for any other purpose than for contacting competition winners.

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MUSIC THAT CHANGED ME

Yo-Yo Ma cellist

STEPHEN DANELIAN

I

have been playing the suites for solo cello byy JS BACH for 55 years. I recall the first time I sat down to the Prelude from Suite No. 1, aged four, learning two bars a day, day by day, taking it all in. In a month I would get through one movement; a rich, worthwhile pursuit for a child. Bach is central to an understanding of music, an all-encompassing intelligence. In that Preludee you find endless permutations of regularity and irregularity, an infinite variety, the basic building blocks of music – and of our digital world – and Bach’s observation of nature through the prism of human experience. Much later in my life I was forced to think more deeply and laterallyy a lifelong appreciation: about these works: what was their ‘Bach is central to an meaning, why do they affect so many understanding of music’ people so powerfully? I began to read Albert Schweitzer on Bach, and to thinkk YO-YO MA WAS BORN in Paris in about the specific emotional characters of each 1955. He played for John F Kennedy suite. I wanted to see how this music could be when he was just seven years old, and expressed on a wider platform. So I approached studied at the Juilliard School and six different artists: we had a film by director Harvard University. A world-renowned Atom Egoyan, the ‘Music Garden’ in Toronto performer, he has made more than 90 by landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy, and recordings, collaborated with jazz singer Torville and Dean, who created an ice dance Bobby McFerrin, the Dixie Chicks, for the Sixth Suite. One of the most wonderful and founded the Silk Road Project. On things was Mark Morris’s choreography to 5 September he plays JS Bach’s six solo the Prelude in C major, Falling down stairs: it cello suites at the BBC Proms, and in allowed me to watch Bach’s mind at work. October releases a new album with When I was 12, I spent a year living pianist Kathryn Stott: Songs from the with SCHUBERT’s E flat Trio. It achieves a complete world view, encompassing a Arc of Life (Sony). whole life, from the depth of mourning to transcendence. In the second movement we hear Schubert’s response to Beethoven’s imitate: when I learned it, I needed to find death. That falling third is carried in one’s my own energy. Solomon Volkov’s book on ear, and then, near the end, comes the radiant Shostakovich had just come out in 1974. I read major third: life and hope. It requires a it and I went to the Berlin Wall. The idea that passionate patience to wait for that seismic music could speak to people in a world where change. It reminds me that, however difficult they could believe nothing, and have such an things are, we humans do have the power to impact – that was so powerful. No wonder change things – it’s in all of us. that German soldier surrended when he heard As a student at college, I was wildly excited the Leningradd Symphony on the radio: he by SHOSTAKOVICH’s First Cello Concerto. I heard the recording of Mstislav Rostropovich recognised Russia would win with this voice. BOBBY MCFERRIN changed my life. He playing it with Eugene Ormandy in 1961. forced me to do 40 minutes of improvisation. It It was the height of the Cold War: he was was Leonard Bernstein’s 70th birthday concert like a hurricane, a gigantic force of nature, at Tanglewood. He said he wanted me to join and I responded to his energy. But you can’t

in n with the improvisation: I explained that I didn’t do that. That was a giant step: I ccould have fallen flat on my face. It took me to the edge of my lawn, beyond which m I could see another musical ecosystem. It was where the edges of these two ssystems combined that the SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE E came into being. I had been in Jordan at a conference; I went to Israel, JJerusalem, Petra and then to Aqaba where I was asked to play something for King Hussein. I met with the Middle Eastern H Youth Orchestra and we exchanged ideas. Y I realised I wanted to explore a slower gglobal age, when the Mediterranean had bbeen joined to the Pacific via a trade route oof cultural exchange. Here we were in this post-Soviet world, with all these countries p oof which we knew so little… The Silk Road project was born. ■ R IInterview by Helen Wallace

YO-YO MA MUSIC CHOICE JS Bach The Cello Suites Yo-Yo Ma (cello) Sony 82876787512 £12.99

Schubert Piano Trio in E flat, Op. 100 Beaux Arts Trio Philips 475 7571 £10.99

Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 Mstislav Rostropovich (cello); Philadelphia Orchestra/ Eugene Ormandy Regis RRC1385 (see iTunes)

Hush Bobby McFerrin (vocals), Yo-Yo Ma (cello) Sony 88697556512 (See prestoclassical.co.uk)

A Playlist Without Borders Yo-Yo Ma (cello); The Silk Road Ensemble Sony 88883757732 £15.99

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