Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2016 i BBC Music Magazine

ON DISC Grand Dane ‘Each of my symphonies has its own personality, which cannot be repeated,’ says Per Nørgård, one of today’s most distinguished composers. The Oslo Philharmonic and conductor John Storgårds have turned their attention to Norgård’s Symphonies Nos 2, 4, 5 & 6 for their latest recordings, with stunning results. See p74 ON AIR Threescore and ten To mark the 70th anniversary of Radio 3’s forerunner, the Third Programme, the station is celebrating with 70 days of 10-minute music commissions. ‘70 at 70’ begins on 29 September, with contributions from upcoming composers including Matthew Kaner, Radio 3’s ‘embedded’ composer for the duration. See p104 ONLINE Eugene for free Head to the BBC Arts website to catch Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin starring Roderick Williams and Natalya Romaniw filmed this summer…

MAX’S MUSIC One of the lasting legacies of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s work must be the compositions he wrote for children to perform. My sister and I were recently in the audience at the Barbican, London, for the world premiere of Max’s last work for children: The Hogboon. Although tinged with sadness, it was a joyous occasion, and received a rapturous reception. There must be thousands of children who have been involved in ‘Max’s music’, from those of us privileged to have been taught by him to those young people taking part at the Barbican. During the interval I asked one of the young performers, who was buzzing with excitement, if he had enjoyed himself. With a broad smile and shining eyes he replied ‘Oh yes!’. Thank you Max –…

The music gossip mill has been in full working order of late, this time with a report that the former artistic director of English National Opera (ENO) is in for a top post at the Bolshoi Theatre. It’s thought that the Moscow opera house is looking to strengthen its international profile although, as with all unannounced appointments, the story, broken by the Financial Times, has since been pooh-poohed by the opera house’s general director Vladimir Urin. At the time of going to print, Berry was headed to the Bolshoi for its staging of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust and, apparently, further discussions. Watch this space. Berry stepped down from ENO in July last year, with the company embroiled in financial turmoil and acrimony that also led to the resignation of…

Chart for week ending 15 July 2016 1 Glazunov and Shostakovich Violin Concertos Nicola Benedetti; Bournemouth SO/ Kirill Karabits Decca 478 8758 Atmospheric and passionate performances 2 The Deer’s Cry: works by Pärt, Tallis and Byrd The Sixteen/Harry Christophers Coro COR 16140 An imaginative mix of ancient and modern 3 Hymns from King’s King’s College Choir, Cambridge/ Stephen Cleobury King’s College Cambridge KGS 0014 Congregational favourites beautifully sung 4 Bantock Omar Khayyám Sarah Walker; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Del Mar Lyrita REAM 2128 A great performance of Bantock’s still rarely-heard masterpiece, based on Persian poetry 5 Evensong Live 2016 King’s College Choir, Cambridge/ Stephen Cleobury King’s College Cambridge KGS 0015 The Cambridge choir sings Tudor and new music 6 Mozart Le nozze di…

ELIZABETH JOY ROE piano I recently dusted off the classic recording of Elgar’s Cello Concerto performed by Jacqueline du Pré and the London Symphony Orchestra, under Sir John Barbirolli. When I first heard this recording as a child I was riveted by du Pré’s genius and beauty, and the sad poignancy of her life. She had this amazing intensity to her playing, married to a soulfulness and generosity of spirit, which is perfect for the darkness of this concerto. Barbara Hannigan is a master of the music of our time. The soprano’s recent recording of Hans Abrahamsen’s new song cycle Let me tell you is extraordinary. Abrahamsen was inspired by the words of Ophelia, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and absolutely captures her fragility and passion. The music is haunting, ethereal…

CULTURE CLUB Karen Bradley has been been appointed secretary of state for culture, media and sport. The Tory MP for Staffordshire Moorlands is a former chartered accountant, and has been parliamentary undersecretary of state (minister for preventing abuse, exploitation and crime) since 2014. See Comment, p21 FAREWELL FUGUES David Cameron’s humming has sparked some musical imaginations. The former prime minister was caught on microphone singing a brief ditty as he headed into No. 10 after announcing his resignation. Pianist Gabriela Montero and organist David Briggs both improvised on the ‘theme’, while composer Thomas Hewitt Jones wrote a Fantasy on David Cameron. BEST OF BRITISH And if that’s not enough new music from you, a new fund has been set up to encourage orchestras to play more British music from the…

PELLE GUDMUNDSEN-HOLMGREEN Born 1932 Composer One of Denmark’s most strikingly individual composers, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen stood out in a talented family when he became fascinated by music rather than the visual arts. He studied with Finn Høffding and Vagn Holmboe at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and in 1955 a set of variations for solo cello became the first of his works to be publicly performed. In the 1960s he was drawn to the complex worlds of Stockhausen, Boulez and Ligeti, but he later became associated with ‘New Simplicity’. Samuel Beckett’s work captivated him: Gudmundsen-Holmgreen aimed to emulate the Irish playwright’s exploration of meaningless in his own music. Sound would just be sound, stripped of music’s emotional associations. Gudmundsen-Holmgreen had a strong sense of irony and the ridiculous, writing, for…

The symphony emerged from the opera overture Although the term ‘symphony’ (or ‘sinfonia’) in its original sense of ‘sounding together’ had been employed by musicians for centuries, the orchestral genre as we know it today first appeared in the mid-18th century. With more sophisticated instruments at their disposal and the modern system of major and minor keys in place, composers began experimenting with ways of organising contrasting musical ideas, initially by gravitating towards specific key centres. Emerging from the opera overture or sinfonia – typically in three continuous sections (fast-slow-fast) – a new kind of tonal drama was developed, unleashing an unprecedented range of expression within the same work. This was the symphony. The speed at which the genre caught on was phenomenal – within half a century the symphony…

Paavo Järvi ‘The Eroica is a landmark. It was a breakthrough in Beethoven’s output, but it also created a new direction for the symphony as a personal, subjective point of view on world affairs. It can have a political, dramatic and literal meaning, and be something that expresses protest in a very powerful way. It’s also a shocking composition. There is nothing else that starts like that – it is as if someone has walked up to you and slapped you in the face. To this day it’s shocking, if done well. The Eroica inspired later composers to take it as a kind of starting point. It created a new direction for everything that came after it.’ Han-Na Chang ‘Beethoven made a quantum leap with his Third Symphony. He finds…

A LIFE IN BRIEF Early life: Born in Greater Manchester to British and Polish parents. Starting the violin at age five, she studied there at Chetham’s School of Music. Debut: At 12 she won BBC Young Musician of the Year, and at 15 she made her debuts at the Proms and Wigmore Hall. A year later she was awarded a postgraduate scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music. Recent highlights: Pike performed at events for the World War One centenary and the Queen’s 90th birthday. She was also a BBC Music Day ambassador. Accolades: Pike became the youngest Menuhin International Violin Competition major prize winner and the only classical musician ever to win the South Bank Show/ Times Breakthrough Award. The night after the European referendum, Jennifer Pike was playing…

Exactly a century ago, Ralph Vaughan Williams was in action as an ambulance wagon orderly not far from the bloodbath that was the Battle of the Somme. When he returned to the Western Front as a commissioned officer in 1918, he must have witnessed still more horrific sights during the final, tumultuous phases of the war. After the Armistice, like so many other demobbed soldiers he showed no inclination (as far as we can tell) to offload those appalling memories in words. But composers are alchemists, able to turn the base metal of experience into the precious and uniquely expressive commodity of music. And that is what Vaughan Williams did. Secretly. January 1922. Britain was struggling to cast off the legacies of the Great War. A sense of anticipation surrounded…

The 14-year-old Fauré bunked off boarding school to see Faust We’ve probably heard a few arias from his opera Faust; we’ll certainly know his ‘Ave Maria’, based on Bach’s C major prelude, and maybe a few of his songs; and if we’re wind players, we may have enjoyed contributing to his delightful 1888 Petite symphonie for wind octet. But beyond that? Gounod is a composer whose currency has devalued steeply from those late Victorian days when he sold his oratorio Mors et Vita to the music publisher Novello for 100,000 francs. But already, even then, the critics were sharpening their pens. In 1893, the year of Gounod’s death, George Bernard Shaw complained that most probably his eyesight had been ‘damaged by protracted contemplation of the scarlet red coat and red…

RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS Faust Jerry Hadley et al; Welsh National Opera/Rizzi Warner 2564676915 Fine singing and orchestral playing that brings out the score’s inherent warmth. St Cecilia Mass  Luba Orgonásová, Christian Elsner, Gustáv BeláOek; Bavarian Radio SO/Jansons BR Klassik BR900114 A performance that explains why this work was the talk of 1855 Paris. Symphonies Nos 1-3 Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana/Oleg Caetani CPO 777 8632 Sparkling versions of these delightful works, including a first recording of the unfinished Third. Mors et Vita  Barbara Hendricks, José Van Dam et al; Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse/Plasson Warner 754 4592 A spacious, powerful performance of this unjustly neglected masterpiece.…

Recording of the Month Allan Clayton has the voice and the artistry to recall Handel’s favourite tenor, John Beard, in a programme performed with Ian Page and the Chorus and Orchestra of Classical Opera, p72 Celebrating Bacewicz It’s great to hear a second fantastic recording of Grazyna Bacewicz’s complete string quartets (p88). Described as ‘the great unsung heroine of post-war Polish music,’ between 1938 and 1965 she wrote seven vivid, brilliant quartets. Last year, the first volume of the Lutoslawski Quartet’s Bacewicz series was nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award; it was pipped to the post by the Pavel Haas Quartet’s Smetana. You’ll have to wait until early next year to find out if the Silesian Quartet makes the shortlist, but in the meantime it’s well worth exploring…

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 (Choral) Benita Valente (soprano), Janice Taylor (mezzo), Richard Leech (tenor), William Stone (bass); Atlanta Symphony Chorus & Orchestra/Robert Shaw ASO Media CD 1007 (1988) 74:36 mins Recorded live in a single take on 21 May 1988 at Robert Shaw’s final concert as music director in Atlanta, this devoted performance captures the mighty Ninth’s epic grandeur with imposing authority. PERFORMANCE RECORDING MOZART Symphony No. 36 in C (Linz); Symphony No. 38 in D (Prague); 6 Ländlerische Tänze, K606 Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Sergiu Celibidache Weitblick SSS 0184-2 (1970-71) 54:51 mins Sergiu Celibidache’s expertly played, immaculately conceived performances combine Karajanesque textural radiance with a Marriner-like deftness of touch and a soupçon of infectious bonhomie. PERFORMANCE RECORDING SCHUBERT Symphonies Nos 1-4 Camerata Salzburg/Sándor Végh BMC CD 201 (1996) 120:52…

Peter Eötvös (b1944) Born in Transylvania, Eötvös was a close associate of Stockhausen’s, playing in his electronic ensemble in Cologne from 1968 to 1976 and, in 1981, conducted the premiere of Donnerstag aus Licht in Milan. In 1978, invited by Pierre Boulez, he conducted IRCAM’s inaugural concert, and became musical director of the Ensemble InterContemporain, a post he held until 1991. In 2014 Radio France opened its new auditorium with a concert celebrating Eötvös’s 70th birthday, which was recorded by Alpha (reviewed on this page).…

BARRY Beethoven; O Lord, how vain; The Coming of Winter; First Sorrow; Long Time; Schott & Sons, Mainz Stephen Richardson (bass); Chamber Choir Ireland; Crash Ensemble/Paul Hillier Orchid Classics ORC 100055 71:21 mins If you’ve heard the chunterings of the bass Lady Bracknell in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest, you’ll have some idea of what to expect here. But only up to a point: Barry is never predictable for long, veering off at alarming tangents, and unfathomable in the way he chooses to set his texts. The two monodramas based on Beethoven’s letters here always avoid the obvious. The first, simply titled Beethoven, starts with pure Stravinsky muscle-pumping – there’s great writing for trumpet throughout – and even in one of its interludes quotes not Beethoven but a…

BACEWICZ Complete String Quartets Silesian Quartet Chandos CHAN 10904(2) 132:48 mins (2 discs) The seven quartets of Grazyna Bacewicz form a significant, too-little known chapter in the history of postwar music. Following the Lutosvawski Quartet’s excellent Naxos set, these lived-in readings by the older generation Silesian Quartet deepen and enrich our understanding. The lithe First Quartet (1939) combines the fluid sensuality of Debussy with the cerebral rigour of Bartók. The Silesian lend vibrant warmth to its swinging Moderato , and expressive ardour to the mournful set of a variations on a Lithuanian theme. Only in the dancing Vivo , in which they maintain a breezy brio, does one find the Lutosvawskis travelling farther: a nonchalant beginning growing into something more outrageously exuberant. The mobile Second Quartet (1943) benefits from gorgeously-recorded…

JS BACH • YSAŸE JS Bach: Solo Sonata No. 2, BWV 1003; Partita No. 3, BWV 1006; Ysaÿe: Solo Sonatas Op. 27/s3 & 5 Antje Weithaas (violin) AVI Music 8553346 63:04 mins In this second volume of solo Bach and Ysaÿe, Antje Weithaas’s desire to make the violin sing regardless of technical pressure or physical awkwardness pays special dividends. In the solo Bach pieces, Weithaas makes even the A minor fugue sound like musical droplets falling onto a warm bed of contrapuntal moss, with ringingly true intonation and golden sound, subtly inflected by an infinite range of gently cushioned bow-strokes. Although recorded with tactile precision against a backdrop of radiant ambience, so exemplary is her control of bow pressure, speed, weight, micro-inflection and angle that in a movement notorious for…

ORCHESTRATING THE NATION: The 19th-Century American Symphonic Enterprise Douglas W Shadle Oxford University Press ISBN 978-0-19-935864-9; 330pp (hb) Between 1800 and 1900 about 100 symphonies were written by over 50 composers born or resident in America. Most were immediately forgotten or ‘failed to launch’, as Douglas Shadle, author of this new study of the symphony in 19th-century America, puts it. Why is this? Are there forgotten masterpieces gathering mildew in the archives? Frustratingly, this is one question Shadle refuses to answer, averring that ‘the inherent musical value of individual symphonies does not concern me here’. In other words, he won’t tell you whether he thinks the obscure music that he writes about is good or not, or worth resuscitating. Instead, his focus is on ‘canon formation’, or how…

Jeremy Pound BBC Music’s deputy editor ‘Much as I love music and adore doing quizzes, actually taking part in BBC Radio 4’s long-running music panel quiz show, Counterpoint , would terrify me. My admiration for those who have the guts to do so is unbounded.’ Page 42 Elinor Cooper BBC Music’s editorial assistant ‘Speaking to competitors in the new TV series, The Great Orchestra Challenge , I was struck by the respect and affection they had for other members of their orchestras, and the passion they had for amateur performance.’ Page 60 Roger Nichols French music specialist ‘Despite the energetic labours of university researchers, in the outside world opinions change but slowly: so there Charles Gounod is still a shadowy…

‘They’d never had a saxophonist in the final before’ How many pre-teens do you know who have started their own concert series? Well, Jess Gillam is one. ‘When I was 12 I met Snake Davies, the most prolific jazz session saxophonist in the last 25 years,’ she says. ‘I said to him, “it would be great to see you perform in Ulverston, where I live.” And he said, “Well, you’ll have to book me!” He was just joking of course, but I thought – well, why not?’ World-renowned saxophonists have been playing annually in Ulverston since. And, of course, they end each concert duetting with Ulverston’s resident star saxophonist. It was this energy and enthusiasm that made Gillam a standout performer in this year’s BBC Young Musician competition earlier this…

THIS MONTH Nelson Goerner pianist With acclaimed recordings of Chopin, Schumann and Debussy to his name, the Argentinian pianist is renowned for his poetic and virtuosic artistry. For his latest disc Goerner turns to Beethoven’s mighty Hammerklavier Sonata and six Bagatelles, out on Alpha this September. My finest moment Debussy Images pour piano, Book 1; Études pour piano, Book 2; Estampes; L’isle joyeuse Nelson Goerner (piano) Zigzag ZZT326 (2013) I have affection for this recording. For so long I hesitated to play Debussy in public. I had studied most of his works for many years, but somehow the moment had not arrived to perform it. Then all of a sudden I thought, now’s the time for it to happen, and I started to programme his music…

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the 17-year-old cellist who won this year’s BBC Young Musician, is to be the subject of a BBC documentary. Young, Gifted and Classical will air this autumn on BBC Four as part of the Black and British season. As well as showcasing Kanneh-Mason and his family (he has six siblings who are each gifted musicians), the programme will explore diversity in classical music. All the young Kanneh-Masons play in the orchestras of the Chineke! Foundation, an organisation set up by double-bassist Chi-Chi Nwanoku to promote black and minority ethnic musicians in Europe.…

@CherylHoad Just typed ‘He hath filled the hungry with good vibes’ into my Magnificat setting. Perhaps time to call it a day and pour a glass of wine. We’ve all got a positive feeling about composer Cheryl Frances- Hoad’s new work. @StevenIsserlis I dreamt last night that I played in NY. Carlos Kleiber was there, and told me he’d not enjoyed it: ‘The bird didn’t fly.’ Nice to wake up! Cellist Steven Isserlis gives a disappointing performance – in his dreams… @houghhough Favourite lunch: enough cherry tomatoes for a game of snooker; a hunk of rancid cheese; a packet of salt ‘n’ vinegar crisps. We’re not totally convinced by pianist Stephen Hough’s gourmet menu. @fatboyclaton The Belgians have got a good hair game, but Wales are edging…

Oliver Condy Editor A thrilling recording of Bach’s Second Partita on the Willowhayne Records label landed on my desk a few weeks back. British pianist Yasmin Rowe has a keen sense of line and voicing, particularly in the final movement Capriccio. The rest of the disc is an imaginative selection of works by Chopin, JanáOek and a concert étude by the jazz-inspired Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin. Rebecca Franks Acting deputy editor When Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis was premiered in Gloucester Cathedral in 1910, Howells and Gurney were so overwhelmed by what they heard that they walked the streets until the small hours. If it was anything like the performance by the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra in the Cathedral this summer, I would…

Free movement of European musicians has lifted standards in orchestras everywhere The old Chinese curse, ‘may you live in interesting times’, has certainly hit the British people hard this summer. Perhaps the 493rd most interesting thing to happen is that we now have a new secretary of state for culture, media and sport. No need to remember her name, since almost certainly she will be doing a different job in government 18 months from now. Or, like her immediate predecessors at DCMS – the hapless John Whittingdale and his veteran No. 2, Ed Vaizey – no job at all. But for the record she is Karen Bradley, a 46-year-old MP from Staffordshire who was a tax specialist at a big accountancy firm before going into politics and has no known…

…the grandest, most soul-scouring funeral march ever composed 1 Beethoven SYMPHONY NO. 3 (1803) A trailblazing, mammoth masterpiece, glorifying the life of a great heroic figure It had to be the Eroica. Of the other top Beethoven contenders, Five and Nine both have their impassioned dissenters, but almost from the start the Third Symphony seems to have awed and thrilled would-be critics into silence. From those first two electrifying orchestral chords to the final victorious timpani flourishes it never puts a toe wrong. How different from the historical figure of Napoleon Bonaparte, to whom Beethoven originally intended to dedicate the Symphony. Architecturally it’s stunning. The spacious but beautifully proportioned first movement ‘rides time like riding a river’, to borrow a phrase from Gerard Manley Hopkins. The whole thing is…

In front of us, three quiz warriors prepare for intellectual battle Whose Second Symphony is nicknamed the ‘Little Russian’? Which 1990 Stephen Sondheim musical tells of the deaths of four US presidents? Can you name the Italian composer who wrote operas called La bohème and Zazà? And on which Beatles album will you find the song ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’? Have those four questions got you utterly stumped? Or maybe you nearly know the answers – they’re lurking somewhere in a dark corner of your brain, but you can’t quite think of them. If either of these apply to you, you’ll be pleased to know that the answers are at the end of this article. Maybe, though, you simply breezed through them thinking ‘easy peasy’? If so, you may be the…

JOHN BUNYAN WROTE his celebrated text while in Bedford county jail, having been locked up for celebrating mass outside the auspices of the Church of England. Narrated as the author’s dream, the book (first edition pictured above) tells of the hero Christian’s – and, eventually, his family’s – journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. On his way, he encounters various characters (Mr Worldly Wiseman, Mr Stand-fast, Lord Hategood and Mr Valiant-for-Truth among others) and travels through the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair and, of course, the Delectable Mountains on his route, collecting advice and defeating a host of enemies. It’s all told in language of remarkable clarity and flow and, miraculously, has never been out of print since it was first published in 1678. Such is…

Carl Nielsen Carl Nielsen was born just south of Odense in 1865. His father, Niels, was a celebrated fiddler and a cornet player who played in a number of local bands, and young Carl himself learnt how to play both the violin and various brass instruments. At the age of 14, he joined up as a bugler and alto trombonist in the army’s 16th Battalion band, stationed in Odense itself. Though a move to Copenhagen soon followed, setting his career as a violinist and composer off in earnest, the area of Nielsen’s upbringing continued to have an influence on his music, not least in his 1922 choral work Springtime on Funen .…

Tunes For Gounod, melody lay at the heart of music, and in the fairly few cases where it failed him he found it hard to make up the deficit with other techniques. At their best, his melodies are smoothly undulating, singable, and radiate a sense of wellbeing. Sequences As in one of his most famous melodies, the aria ‘Salut, demeure’ in Faust , initial ideas are often repeated immediately at a different pitch, giving listeners the fleeting impression that they are complicit in the composition. Sidesteps All seems to be proceeding normally when, suddenly, you’re in a new key, giving a refreshingly different view of the landscape. No complex chromatic writhings, just a quick sidestep. Orchestration Like a good page-turner, it’s so beautifully judged you barely notice…

Rob Ainsley freelance writer and author Rob studied classical guitar and voice at Goldsmiths, University of London, then composition, until he found that even writing mediocre guitar music was hard enough. He edited Classic CD magazine and various arts TV websites, and is now a freelance writer in York when he is not cycling. John Allison editor, Opera; critic, Sunday Telegraph Nicholas Anderson Baroque specialist Terry Blain writer Kate Bolton-Porciatti lecturer, New York University, Florence Garry Booth jazz writer & critic Geoff Brown critic, The Times Anthony Burton writer, editor Michael Church writer, critic, The Independent Christopher Cook broadcaster, critic Martin Cotton radio & recording producer Christopher Dingle professor of music, Birmingham Conservatoire Misha…

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960) The son of the owner of soap manufacturer D&W Gibbs, Cecil lost his mother aged two, and was largely brought up by his father who intended him to run the family business. Gibbs’s musical ability was nonetheless recognised, and he studied in Cambridge under Edward (‘EJ’) Dent, Cyril Rootham and Charles Wood. Initially working as a schoolmaster, he was then persuaded by Adrian Boult to study for a further year at the Royal College of Music, where his teachers included Vaughan Williams. He became particularly celebrated as a song writer.…

J ANDERSON In lieblicher Blaue – poem for violin and orchestra; Alleluia; The Stations of the Sun Carolin Widman (violin); London Philharmonic Choir; London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Vladimir Jurowski London Philharmonic LPO 0089 54:26 mins Celebration permeates the London Philharmonic’s second Julian Anderson disc. The Stations of the Sun reflects a sense of various seasonal festivities and was a relatively early marker of Anderson’s ability to create complex, whirligig orchestral textures that nonetheless remain lucid. The other two pieces were written for the LPO. Alleluia marked the re-opening of the Royal Festival Hall in 2007 and is a prime exemplar of Anderson’s choral writing, notably the extraordinary vocal murmuration at the climax, brilliantly unleashed by the London Philharmonic Chorus. In lieblicher Blaue (In lovely blueness) is described by Anderson not as…

BARBER Adagio for Strings*; Piano concerto^; Violin concerto**; 4 Choral Pieces† ^Tedd Joselson (piano); **Ittai Shapira (violin); *LSO/Schenck; ^Russian Philharmonic Orch/Sanderling; †Joyful Company of Singers/Peter Broadbent Alto ALC 1309 (1995-2001) 74:13 mins Only a great violinist such as Shapira can take the unchecked gorgeousness of Barber’s Violin Concerto and make it burn. Joselson breathes life into the sadder, more abstract Piano Concerto. PERFORMANCE RECORDING BEETHOVEN • BRAHMS Triple/Double concertos Isaac Stern, Leonard Rose, Eugene Istomin; Cleveland Orchestra/Szell Do Re Mi DHR 8047 (1966/69) 70:13 mins A bronchial audience, poor tuning and crude edits marr these live Cleveland concerts. Stern is prone to wild swoons and blowsy phrasing in the Beethoven; Rose is magisterial in Brahms’s Double. PERFORMANCE RECORDING RÓZSA Cello Concerto; Sinfonia Concertante Philippe Graffin (violin), Raphael Wallfisch (cello); BBC…

WA Mozart (1756-91) In the late-18th century, alla turca-style music – based on the music of Janissary bands (that is, of the Ottoman Sultan’s elite infantry) – became a temporary rage in Western classical music. Mozart wrote a number of well-known examples of this, including the finale of his Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, ‘Rondo alla Turca’, which imitates a Turkish march, while his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, largely set in an Ottoman harem, reflects at greater length contemporary Vienna’s fascination with, and perhaps fear of, the Ottoman empire.…

Here’s powerful advocacy for one of British music’s heroes BUTTERWORTH The Banks of Green Willow – Idyll; Six songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’*; A Shropshire Lad – Rhapsody; Two English Idylls; Suite for string quartette; Love blows as the wind blows*; Orchestral fantasia (completed by Russman) *James Rutherford (baritone); BBC National Orchestra of Wales/ Kriss Russman BIS BIS-2195 (hybrid CD/SACD) 75:32 mins It’s good to see the growing international regard for British composers extended to the tragically unfulfilled George Butterworth. Not that conductor Kriss Russman is exactly foreign – Estonian-born but an alumnus of the Royal College of Music, Cambridge and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Nevertheless, his knowledge of and depth of feeling for this ill-fated Edwardian are striking. In the most famous pieces, The Banks of Green Willow,…

The prevailing gloom is relieved by some livelier dances DOWLAND Lachrimae, or Seven Tears; Semper Dowland semper Dolens; Sir Henry Umpton’s Funeral; plus Galliards, Pavans and Almans Elizabeth Kenny (lute); Phantasm/ Laurence Dreyfus (treble viol) Linn CKD 527 (hybrid CD/SACD) 58 mins Dowland’s 1604 collection of 21 lachrymose dances and musical ‘tears’ (as he himself described them) is tinged throughout with melancholy – the same ‘humour of the night’ that pervades so many of the musical, literary and artistic works of his age. Dowland gives voice to his own dolorous spirit in an epigram on the collection’s title page – ‘He whom Fortune has not blessed either rages or weeps’ – and in his obsessive re-working of the relentless, four-note ‘falling tear’ motif that saturates the first seven pavans.…

1 MUSIC IN COUNTRY CHURCHES St Bartholomew’s Church, Orford, 2 & 3 Sep Tel: +44 (0)1603 628319 Web: musicincountrychurches.com For almost 30 years Music in Country Churches has promoted concerts in ecclesiastical outposts raising funds for their upkeep. 2016’s final edition in Orford falls to Maria João Pires with a programme including Beethoven’s last piano sonata; Debussy, Beethoven and Shostakovich from cellist Adrian Brendel accompanied by Katya Apekisheva; and the Ravel Piano Trio intriguingly coupled with Hildegard of Bingen. 2 BERLIN PHILHARMONIC/ ENSEMBLE INTERCONTEMPORAIN Royal Albert Hall, London, 2 Sep Tel: 0845 4015040 (UK only) Web: www.bbc.co.uk/proms Friday night is… Boulez night, as two formidable ensembles pay a BBC Proms tribute to the composer who died in January. Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin…

GLENDA JACKSON Actor, politician STRAVINSKY Symphony of Psalms (3rd mvt: Alleluja) Philharmonia, Simon Joly Chorale/Robert Craft ‘I was introduced to Stravinsky via the ballet because I was a great ballet fan. The first time you get a taste of him, you want to know more. I’m not an individual of any particular faith, but this piece of music is just incredible in how it touches upon that spirituality which is in all of us.’ SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 4 (1st mvt: Allegretto poco moderato) RLPO/Vasily Petrenko One of the great privileges of my life was working with director Ken Russell. I was playing the Fifth in my dressing room and he was very dismissive – for him the Fourth was more much important. The Fourth is just the…

GERMAN-BORN Daniel Müller-Schott is one of the world’s most respected cellists. In 1992, at the age of 15, he won first prize at the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians. Today, playing his 1727 ‘Ex Shapiro’ Matteo Goffriller cello, he performs as a soloist with major orchestras around the world. In September, Müller-Schott together with violinist Julia Fischer will release Duos, their new recording on Orfeo, including music by Kodály, Schulhoff, Ravel and Halvorsen. I grew up in a family of diverse influences – my father was a maths and physics teacher, whereas my mother was a professional harpsichordist in Munich. She used to practise BACH’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and the Goldberg Variations. Her playing influenced me before I even took up the cello. She talked about the…

The symphony is the bedrock of western classical music Welcome to the 300th issue of BBC Music Magazine. Phew! If you’ve been a subscriber since the first issue back in 1992, you’ll have enjoyed 300 Composer of the Month profiles, 300 Building a Library recommendations and 300 Music that Changed Me interviews… you get the idea. Your listening library will have been bolstered by a fair few cover discs, too, covering a whole range of repertoire performed by the wonderful BBC ensembles, New Generation Artists and many more besides. It’s a privilege having you all along for the ride, and we’re already looking forward to the next 300 editions. For the 300th issue itself, however, we fancied setting ourselves a challenge. What, we wondered, is the greatest symphony ever written?…

Gergiev’s LSO farewell Valery Gergiev, who stepped down as the London Symphony Orchestra’s principal conductor last year, is releasing his final LSO album this autumn, taped live last October during their final concert tour in Newark, NJ in the US. The programme – including Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite and Stravinsky’s Firebird – represents the kind of inventive, colourful 20th-century scores which have always brought out the best from Gergiev and the LSO. The concert is rounded out by a performance of Bartók’s atmospheric and lyrical Third Piano Concerto with a soloist much associated and admired in this work, Yefim Bronfman. Fischer composes himself Already renowned as the conductor of his own Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer is now stepping into the limelight as a composer. His music draws particularly on…

Nigel Short (above) is conducting Tenebrae and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a new recording of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Schoenberg’s Friede auf erden and Zemlinsky’s setting of Psalm 23. Due for release on Signum in autumn 2017. Stanford’s 24 Preludes for piano, the first such cycle by a British composer and among the composer’s most important works, are finally being recorded. Sam Haywood is making this landmark disc for Hyperion at St Silas the Martyr, north London. Meanwhile Somm starts a new series of Stanford’s string quartets, being recorded for the first time by the Dante Quartet at St Nicholas Church, Thames Ditton. Quartets Nos 5 and 8 are first, Jeremy Dibble editing the previously unpublished No. 8 specially for the recording. One should not forget…

Within a generation of Sumer is icumen in being written, someone came along and ‘improved’ it In case we haven’t had any summer at all by the time you read this, let me record that the rain held off in Reading for our Come and Sing Sumer is icumen in. This famous round from the middle of the 13th century, the oldest bit of harmony and counterpoint still regularly performed, was part of the library of Reading Abbey. Henry I founded the abbey in 1121, and its royal endowments along with its convenient position on the Thames made it an important place of pilgrimage. It hasn’t done too well since its last abbot was hanged, drawn and quartered in front of it in 1539, a victim…

Byrwec Ellison Fort Worth, Texas, US It’s hard to keep up with the latest orchestra works by rising, young composers on recording, but I’ve been catching archival streams by UK-born Anna Clyne and American Hannah Lash (below), both in their mid-30s, on their websites. Lash’s otherworldly music has hints of delicate chimes and tintinnabulations with gauzy, atmospheric strings and woodwinds in Hush, This Ease and Music for Loss. Clyne’s is muscular and eclectic, drawing widely from madrigal, folk, Baroque to minimalist styles. Her kinetic <<rewind<< is an exhilarating rush, and Night Ferry is faintly exotic. Michael Thorn Helston, Cornwall A recent concert in St Mary’s Church, Penzance, featured the small-scale chamber music of Messiaen, which was revelation to those of us more familiar with the large-scale works.…

RUNNING Running has become my thing, and is a great counterbalance to the hours of sitting at the piano. Some years ago, I went out one morning and simply jogged down the road. Over time, the road has got much longer, and the enjoyment of the exercise and the fresh air has been immense. Running is a great way to discover a new city, particularly when I’m away on tour and brief visits are the norm. My favourite places to run in include Vancouver Island and the beautiful harbour in Victoria, Canada; running into Central Park in Manhattan in New York City; the hilly streets of San Francisco; and the challenge of the summer heat in Seville in Spain. Running can make competition inviting and challenging, and so far I…

Symphonies can express the most powerful of human feelings AS VOTED FOR BY 151 OF THE WORLD’S TOP CONDUCTORS See p34 for how each maestro voted It’s a classic rags to riches story. From humble beginnings in the Baroque period the symphony has grown in size and influence, becoming a badge of honour among composers clamouring for recognition. When Haydn went to London in 1791, it was his symphonies the public wanted, not his string quartets or sonatas. They were, literally, the ideal way to make a noise in society, the vehicle for a communal experience wholly different in scale to that of chamber music in a domestic setting. Haydn’s symphonies ‘electrified’ his London audiences, causing ‘a pleasure superior to any that had ever been caused by instrumental music in…

Marin Alsop São Paulo State Symphony Barber Symphony No. 1 Brahms Symphony No. 3 Mahler Symphony No. 2 Vladimir Ashkenazy Guest conductor Beethoven Symphony No. 6 Sibelius Symphony No. 5 Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 Dalia Atlas Guest conductor Beethoven Symphony No. 5 Bloch Symphony No. 1 Sibelius Symphony No. 5 Moshe Atzmon Sydney Symphony (1967-71) Mozart Symphony No. 40 Beethoven Symphony No. 9 Mahler Symphony No. 1 Victor Aviat Bournemouth Symphony Mozart Symphony No. 41 Beethoven Symphony No. 9 Berlioz Symphonie fantastique Matthias Bamert Guest conductor Mozart Symphony No. 40 Brahms Symphony No. 4 Bruckner Symphony No. 6 Jipí Belohlávek Prague Symphony Mahler Symphony No. 7 Beethoven Symphony No. 7…

1. Of the seven planets that make up Holst’s The Planets suite, which was the first to be completed by the composer? 2. ‘Scrambled Eggs’ was the working title of which Lennon and McCartney song? 3. Which French musician played first viola at the premiere of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and conducted the premiere of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring? 4. What is the name of the concert hall in Vienna from which the annual New Year’s Day concert is broadcast? 5. Which Rodgers and Hammerstein song, the last they wrote together, was a UK top ten hit for Vince Hill? 6. Which jazzman recorded with an outfit called The Red Hot Peppers in the 1920s? 7. At which venue were the Henry Wood Promenade concerts held until its destruction…

Odense Symphony Orchestra Based at Odense Concert Hall, Odense’s professional orchestra has a season that runs from September to May. Highlights for the upcoming season include Alexander Vedernikov conducting Wagner’s Siegfried, and two performances of Mahler’s Third Symphony conducted by Thomas Søndergård. odensesymfoni.dk Carl Nielsen International Competitions First held in 1980, the Carl Nielsen International Competitions for violinists, flautists and clarinettists are famous worldwide. The next competition is not until 2018, but coverage of the 2016 event, including performances and interviews with winners Ji Yoon Lee and Liya Petrova (below), can be viewed on its website: nielsen.odensesymfoni.dk HC Andersen Festivals Taking place in the last week of August, Odense’s HC Andersen Festivals is a richly colourful coming-together of all manner of cultural…

THE LIFE 1818 Charles Gounod is born on 17 June in PARIS to an artist father and a pianist mother, who becomes his first piano teacher. 1839 After graduating from the Paris Conservatoire, he wins the Prix de Rome for his cantata Fernand , which enables him to stay in the Italian city for three years. 1852 He begins work on his opera Faust , which premieres in 1859. More sophisticated than his other works, one critic expresses doubt as to whether Gounod actually wrote it. 1859 After having been introduced to Bach’s keyboard works by FANNY MENDELSSOHN , he is inspired to write a melody to fit Bach’s C major prelude, setting the words of the ‘Ave Maria’. 1869 He composes his ‘Marche Pontificale’, which becomes the official national…

BRITTEN Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, etc With Richard Watkins (horn); Aldeburgh Strings/Markus Däunert Linn CKD 478 55:03 mins ‘Allan Clayton’s hushed tone for “Pastoral” is quite different from the dedicatee Peter Pears’s more mellifluous approach, yet effective and engaging. And Clayton sounds suitably heroic at “Blow, bugle, blow”.’ July 2016 HANDEL Belshazzar Les Arts Florissants/William Christie  Les Arts Florissants Editions AF 001 166 mins (3 discs) ‘In Christie’s theatrical reading of Handel’s 1745 oratorio, Allan Clayton is suitably reckless as the orgy-loving, polytheistic despot.’ Christmas 2013 INSOMNIA Britten: Nocturne; plus works by Dean, Gurney, Couperin, McCartney, Ligeti, Buck, Mills & Stripe Aurora Orchestra/Nicholas Collon Warner 2564608223 58:41 mins ‘In Britten’s Nocturne, Clayton is most successful in Middleton’s “Midnight’s bell”, his imitation of various night creatures sounding sinister rather…

ARMSTRONG GIBBS Crossings (suite); The Enchanted Wood; A Vision of Night; Suite in A for violin and orchestra; Four Orchestral Dances, etc Charles Mutter (violin), Ben Dawson (piano); BBC Concert Orchestra/ Ronald Corp Dutton Epoch CDLX 7324 77:08 mins Such a tremulous year, 1919, in music, politics, and societies at large. Not that you’d know from the gentle English art of Cecil Armstrong Gibbs. That was the year of his ‘dance phantasy’ The Enchanted Wood, piquantly scored for violin, piano, and strings; and his incidental music to Crossings, a whimsical school Christmas play by Walter de la Mare, festooned with fairies in a haunted house. Given the composer’s dainty skills, particularly ingratiating in the dancing flowers and trees of The Enchanted Wood, there’s no reason to decry his narrow focus,…

Haydn and Ligeti share imagination, humour and whimsy HAYDN • LIGETI Haydn: Concerto No. 4 in G, Hob.XVIII:4; Concerto No. 11 in D, Hob:XVII:11; Capriccio in G, ‘Acht Sauschneider müssen sein’; Capriccio (Fantasia) in C; Ligeti: Capriccio Nos 1 & 2; Piano Concerto Shai Wosner (piano); Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Nicholas Collon Onyx ONYX 4174 79:35 mins Haydn and Ligeti? The mix isn’t as startling as you might think. The imagination, humour and whimsy of both composers make them happy companions in the sparkling musicianship of Shai Wosner and Nicholas Collon. Two Haydn piano concertos enjoy a welcome airing – too often Haydn is overshadowed in programming choice elsewhere by his friend Mozart – and Ligeti’s concerto should unquestionably be a staple part of the repertoire, were it not such…

GOUNOD Cinq-Mars Mathias Vidal, Véronique Gens, Tassis Christoyannis; Bavarian Radio Choir; Munich Radio Orchestra/Ulf Schirmer Ediciones singulares ES 1024 138:17 mins (2 discs) ‘The dreamt-of triumph did not materialise, but even so there was no question of having to lament a flop and, with its 57 performances, the new work took its place among the most honourable succès d’estime.’ We can only applaud the Palazzetto Bru Zane in promoting neglected operas and in providing notes that are both scholarly and unencumbered by jargon. Inevitably there are hits and misses. Certainly the fact that Cinq-Mars, following the above run at the Opéra-Comique in 1877 and the less-than-ecstatic contemporary review, never made it into the 20th century, should not by itself be a reason to write the work off indefinitely. But since…

BEETHOVEN Fidelio Adam, Numsgern, Jerusalem, Meven, Nossek, Wohlers, Konig; Radio Choir; Gewandhausorchester Leipzig/Masur Sony 88875194822 (1981) 124:37 mins (2 discs) One of the best recordings of this sublime masterpiece, with an all-round excellent cast, though some voices lighter than usual. Masur conducts magnificently. PERFORMANCE RECORDING BEETHOVEN Fidelio Krause, Adam, King, Marton, Haugland, Watson, Moser; Vienna State Opera Chorus; Wiener Philharmonic/Maazel Orfeo C 908 152 l (1983) 138:20 mins (2 discs) Some exciting things in this live recording from Salzburg, but Maazel tends to sabotage the enterprise by adopting weird and inappropriate tempos, and the total effect is too uneven to recommend. PERFORMANCE RECORDING MOZART Don Giovanni Titus, Varady, Panerai, Auger, Mathis, Moser, Scholze, Rootering; Bavarian Radio Chorus & Symphony/Kubelík Sony 88875194802 (1985) 113:33 mins (2 discs) A mainly fine cast,…

NIELSEN Springtime in Fünen; Aladdin – Suite; Three Motets* Soloists; St Klemens School Children’s Choir; The University Choir ‘Little Muko’/*Mogens Wøldike; Odense Symphony Orchestra/Tamás Vetö Alto ALC 1334 (1983/6) 59:29 mins Two irresistible, dancing Nielsen suites, the idyllic Springtime in Fünen and the exotic, rumbustious Aladdin, in fine 1983 Unicorn recordings, plus his Three Motets directed by their dedicatee Mogens Wøldike. PERFORMANCE RECORDING RACHMANINOV All-Night Vigil (Vespers), Op. 37 Budapest Tomkins Vocal Ensemble Hungaroton 32307 (2004) 60:18 mins Spirited recording, but there’s some 30 others, especially Nicolai Korniev’s authentic Russian basses, and, still finer, Sigvards Klava’s Latvian voices. PERFORMANCE RECORDING SVIRIDOV The Snowstorm*; Pushkin’s Garland; Five Choruses – excerpts † *USSR TV and Radio Large Symph Orch/ Fedoseyev; Novosibirsk & Moscow Chamber Choirs/Minin;† Leningrad M Glinka Choir/Vladislav Chernushenko…

ELGAR Piano Quintet; Serenade; The Spanish Lady; Elegy; La Capricieuse Schubert Ensemble; Academy of St Martin in the Fields/Marriner Alto ALC 1321 (1989/2001) 70 mins Salon (La Capricieuse) meets soul (The Schubert Ensemble’s impassioned account of the Piano Quintet) in a compilation that includes an affectionately idiomatic Serenade from Sir Neville Marriner’s big-boned strings. PERFORMANCE RECORDING ENSEMBLE PIECES Music by Bryars & Hobbs Gavin Bryars, Christopher Hobbs, Brian Eno, Cornelius Cardew etc GBR BCGBCD 23 (1975) 49:40 mins Four reed organs weave a gently murmuring lament; an ensemble mustering percussion, bells, and toy piano evokes a psychedelic gamelan: welcome to 1970s experimentalism in all its mesmeric, tie-dyed idealism. PERFORMANCE RECORDING FORGOTTEN FERRAS Works by JS Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Kreisler, Ravel etc Christian Ferras (violin); various accompanists DG 482 5037 (1951-71)…

Sofia Gubaidulina (b1931) Born in the Tatar Republic of the USSR, Gubaidulina studied composition at the Kazan Conservatory. She then studied under Nikolai Peiko at the Moscow Conservatory, pursuing graduate studies there under Vissarion Shebalin. Until 1992, she lived in Moscow, then settled in Germany, outside Hamburg. Dancer on a Tightrope, composed in 1993, is typical in expressimg an existential or philosophical conundrum: as the composer explains, ‘The title stems from a desire to break away from the confines of everyday life’.…

STEFANO BOLLANI Napoli Trip Stefano Bollani (piano), Nino Gori (clarinet), Daniele Sepe (sax, flute), Manu Katché (percussion) Decca Records 479 2713 50 mins The Italian virtuoso pianist Stefano Bollani was packed off to the Florence Conservatoire at the age of 11 to develop his precocious talent for jazz. Happily it did nothing to cure him of his sense of fun or adventure. Since those early days he’s cultivated a form of European jazz that frequently has more to do with commedia dell’arte than New Orleans or New York. Naples is Bollani’s muse for this new recording on the Decca label and the series of 16 short sketches describes the city in all its anarchic, volcanic and also classical beauty. With cameos for Italian songwriters, shot through with bravura slapstick moments…

JUNE 2016 We explain why Mendelssohn was a 19th-century true great and present Symphonies 1 & 4 on the cover CD JULY 2016 Join us for our complete guide to this year’s BBC Proms. Hear Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 on the cover disc AUGUST 2016 We meet the CBSO’s new music director, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla; plus a CD of chamber music by Beethoven, Brahms and Webern We’re sorry, but issues of BBC Music published more than 12 months ago are no longer available. BBC Music Magazine and CD slipcases are perfect for storing your collection. Subscribers can save up to 30% when ordering both together. TO ORDER CALL 0844 844 0260 BACK ISSUE PRICES SUBSCRIBERS UK – £4.48 per copy Europe – £5.28 per copy Rest of world – £6.08 per…

SOUNDBAR SENSATION B&O Beosound 35 £1,745 With soundbars becoming ever more popular, the market is littered with examples of every price point and ability. But when B&O (Bang & Olufsen) steps into a market, you expect something a little different. And the Beosound 35 is different in the sense that it’s not just a soundbar. It’s more of an all-in-one wireless system, placing it in a different league to the supermarket-sold, sub-£100 soundbars that are on the market. The Beosound, true to form, sounds like a much bigger system than its dimensions suggest, but there are caveats: that big sound can become muddled at high volumes and it has a habit of showing up all but the most pristine of sound sources. The latter point is no bad thing generally…

Richard Strauss began working on his tone poem for large orchestra in 1898 while staying at a resort in the Bavarian mountains. Lasting 50 minutes, Ein Heldenleben deals with the Nietzschean theme of the struggle between the individual and his inner and outer worlds. Strauss admitted it was also inspired by Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. ‘It is entitled A Hero’s Life and while it has no funeral march, it does have lots of horns, horns being quite the thing to express heroism.’ Strauss was also influenced by Wagner and uses recurring leitmotif themes. Ein Heldenleben consists of six movements, stitched together into one single symphonic movement. The hero is introduced by a strong theme on the horns and cellos, his adversaries are mocked by woodwind, and his companion is portrayed by…

JS Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 Concerto Italiano/ Rinaldo Alessandrini Naïve OP30412 Schumann Cello Concerto Yo-Yo Ma (cello); Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Sir Colin Davis Sony SMK89716 Bruckner Symphony No. 9 Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra/Sergiu Celibidache DG E477 5136 Mozart Magic Flute Peter Schreier (Tamino), Margaret Price (Pamina) et al; Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden/Davis Philips 446 2472 Britten Cello Symphony Mstislav Rostropovich (cello); New Philharmonia Orchestra/Benjamin Britten Decca E425 1002…