BBC Music Magazine October 2018

Helen Wallace Music journalist and critic ‘I first heard Steven Isserlis play in 1990 and he made an indelible impression. There’s been no let-up in the intensity of his focus since – it was great to catch up with him and find him just as passionately engaged.’ Page 24 James Naughtie BBC radio presenter ‘Back in July I spent an inspiring few days travelling to Romania with the Czech Philharmonic who were taking a group of young Roma singers on a bold journey to discover their rich cultural roots.’ Page 40 Jessica Duchen Music journalist and critic ‘We all live ridiculously busy lives these days, but just take a look at French composer Gabriel Fauré’s schedule –sometimes I wonder how he managed to write any music at all…’ Page 74…

Looking back just 20 years, the career guidance I got after my degree was no more useful than Baz Luhrmann’s advice at the time to ‘wear sunscreen’. I seem to remember my parents even forked out for one careers expert to recommend that I either become an actuary or a librarian. Not that I knew what an actuary was. Today, however (and thankfully), things have moved on a little – faced with the complexities and challenges of a modern career, it’s essential that students are at least given a picture of what’s actually out there, even if they’re left ultimately to fend for themselves. The music world, far from becoming an impoverished desert of opportunity, needs talent in many more ways than even ten years ago thanks to the proliferation…

Sacred sax I hope none of your readers has been searching for a recording of Berlioz’s beautiful Chant sacré in his own arrangement for Sax’s instruments (Cover feature, September), as the score has been lost. Berlioz’s fuller orchestration, however, uses two bass clarinets to good effect – he was of course aware of Sax’s recent improvements to that instrument. At a recent 19th-century music conference in Huddersfield, I enjoyed a modern transcription of Chant sacré finely played on saxhorns. I think both composer and inventor would have enjoyed it too. Julian Rushton, Huddersfield I’ll get my Coates Your September issue cover CD featuring the saxophone was enjoyable and reminded me of my very favourite saxophone piece, Saxo-Rhapsody. It was written by Eric Coates for the German-born virtuoso Sigurd Raschèr in…

To sing or not to sing? In your September issue (Letters), Paul Wilson takes Jessica Duchen’s Building a Library on Schumann’s Dichterliebe to task for eliminating singers who ‘cop out of the top notes towards the end of “Ich grolle nicht”’. Intrerestingly, if you check the end of ‘Ich grolle nicht’ in its most reliable editions, you’ll find that the high notes are printed in small type – ie they are optional – which casts an interesting light on what should and should not be acceptable in performance. Certainly it makes me queasy to think that singing them rather than the large-type version is now considered de rigueur, even for baritones who consistently seem to perform the song in its original ‘tenor’ key – which reminds me that, for all…

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is on the hunt for a new chief conductor after parting company with Daniele Gatti over allegations of inappropriate behaviour. The renowned Amsterdam ensemble revealed that it had decided to dispense with the 56-year-old Italian’s services in the light of an article in the Washington Post in late-July reporting indiscretions made by him in 1996 and 2000. ‘The accusations and Gatti’s reactions with this respect have caused a lot of commotion among both musicians and staff, as well as stakeholders both at home and abroad,’ read a statement issued by the orchestra. ‘Besides this, since the publication of the article, a number of female colleagues of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra reported experiences with Gatti, which are inappropriate considering his position as chief conductor. This has irreparably…

When, in 2007, a company of piano movers unceremoniously dropped a £26,000 Bösendorfer into a ditch, the organisers of the Two Moors Festival in Devon, who’d saved up for two years to buy the unfortunate instrument, had probably wished they’d added a helicopter to their budget. Mind you, the boggy hills of south-west England are a good deal less treacherous than the mountainous landscape of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Hunan, south-east China where, in August, a red Blüthner grand piano was airlifted to the top of the park’s 1,098m-high Tianzi Mountain by Écureuil helicopter. Once the piano had been safely winched into place, pianist Yuan Jie (see above left) gave a performance that was beamed back to a stage in Huanglong Dong (Yellow Dragon Cave) back down the mountain.…