Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2020 i BBC Music Magazine

Michael White Critic and writer ‘The Proms are about music, but also about people; and confined by lockdown, it’s been therapeutic to spend time – in imagination – with the people in this piece. I’d embrace them all if social distancing allowed.’ Chris de Souza Broadcaster and writer ‘I’m fascinated by the role that Czerny, friend of Beethoven and teacher of Liszt, played in the evolution from the Classical to the Romantic aesthetic. There’s much fascinating music too, not necessarily all for piano.’ Natasha Loges Academic, critic and writer ‘Brahms’s Requiem can feel dauntingly vast and complex, especially if you’re in the choir! But I’ve also been reminded that it’s a deeply moving testament of personal and collective grieving – and healing.’…

Music for difficult times  Here is a keyworker point of view on music choices in corona times. When enclosed in PPE in a COVID-19 lab for hours, my memory is my source of musical therapy. Having spent the last 20 years in amateur orchestras, there is quite an array of music floating around in my head. I keep coming back to Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, particularly the contrast between the third and fourth movements. The theme opening that heart-wrenching fourth movement is a composite of notes contributed to by different sections – no single instrument has the whole melody. On a tiring day in the lab, it occurred to me that our contribution to the effort is much like this – only when combined with the work of others does it…

11 …letters fewer. With a new name to be announced in the near future, the ‘Colston Hall’ sign has been removed from the Bristol concert venue, currently undergoing rebuilding work. 24 …years old. That’s the age of Klaus Mäkelä, named as the new music director of the Orchestre de Paris. 87 …per cent of British music teachers say they have adapted well to teaching students online during lockdown, reveals a recent survey. 88,000 …pounds raised by pianist Margaret Fingerhut (above) through her ‘88 Keys’ series of livestreamed recitals.…

TIMEPIECE This month in history On the evening of 29 August 1952, David Tudor stepped onto the platform of the aptly named Maverick Concert Hall, a historic timber-hewn venue nestling in forest near Woodstock, New York. Seating himself at the piano he placed a score on the stand, set a stopwatch, closed the lid – and sat quietly for 33 seconds. Briefly opening then re-shutting the lid, he re-set the stopwatch and sat for two minutes 40 seconds, occasionally turning the score’s pages. He repeated the process, this time for one minute 20 seconds. Finally he stood, bowed to polite applause from the remaining audience and walked off stage. So passed the premiere of 4'33", the three-movement ‘silent piece’ titled for its chance-determined total duration and marked ‘Tacet, for any…

At the age of 85, the Dalai Lama is set to release his first record. Available from early July, Inner World features 11 tracks of the spiritual leader reading mantras and discussing Buddhist themes, accompanied by music. But while it may be his debut on disc, it is by no means the first time Buddhism, in its various forms, and music have enjoyed each others’ company… In the mid-1850s, Wagner’s voracious reading included Eugène Burnouf’s Introduction to the History of Indian Buddhism, plus references to Buddhism within the writing of Schopenhauer. The former inspired him to sketch out plans for an opera called Die Sieger (The Victors), though he never finished it. About a century later, Britten found himself transfixed by a performance of Sumida River by Juro Motomasa (1395-1431).…

This month: THOMAS DAUSGAARD Conductor MY FINEST MOMENT R Strauss An Alpine Symphony Seattle Symphony Orchestra/ Thomas Dausgaard Seattle Symphony Media SSM1023 (2019) This recording was released for the opening of the 2019/20 season, my first with the Seattle Symphony as music director. We were discussing which of the many live recordings we should use, but there was no doubt in my mind that this was it. There is one glorious moment towards the end; Strauss asks the orchestra to perform in ‘soft ecstasy’. After a long passage for the winds, the violins join in with a slow melody, making a huge jump up in a very cantabile fashion. When I heard that on the recording I just cried – I have never cried over a recording I have done…

Mady Mesplé Born 1931 Soprano One of the leading lyric coloratura singers of her generation, Mady Mesplé performed many of the great roles in French opera during her 30-year career. It was the role of Delibes’s Lakmé with which she would become inextricably linked, though, making her professional debut in the title role in 1953 and going on to perform it over 140 times. While her radiant presence was enjoyed by audiences around the world, it was in Europe that Mesplé performed the most. She transcended the theatre later in her career, bringing opera into people’s living rooms on French television; these appearances included performances of contemporary works, something she was passionate about. Her professional ‘retirement’ saw memorable concert appearances and a new life as a teacher: she inspired a…

Oliver Condy Editor Performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations in public should be left to the professionals. Fudging one’s way through the odd variation or five, however, is a different matter. I’ve been seeking solace in these gems this past month, although I wish I had a double-manual harpsichord to save me from the worst of the hand-crossing. That said, as with all Bach, forensic practice has been paying off. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor As the 50th anniversary of the death of conductor John Barbirolli approaches, it feels only right to mark the occasion with multiple plays of his 1962 recording of Vaughan Williams’s Fifth Symphony. The Philharmonia’s string playing has its rough-and-ready moments and you can hear Sir John himself grunting away in the Romanza third movement, but there’s…

The idea of a Proms in the Park event back in the mid-1990s was pooh-poohed by John Drummond (see p31) who suggested he’d be happier watching the last Night of the Proms on telly than sit ‘in a damp park’. But the old curmudgeon was proved wrong, and in 1996, 28,000 turned up at London’s Hyde Park to watch Sheridan Morley present a mix of classical and popular artists, with a live link-up to the Albert Hall for the second half of the Last Night. Millions listened on BBC Radio 2. Such was its success that an annual event was born. By 2005, Proms in the Park had spawned sister events in Belfast, Manchester, Swansea and Glasgow, with each ‘region’ celebrating its identity through performances of Henry Wood’s Fantasia on…

Joseph Boulogne (1745-99) Also known as Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and nicknamed ‘Le Mozart noir’, Boulogne was the son of a French plantation owner and a slave from Guadeloupe. His works include operas, symphonies and 14 violin concertos. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) Taught by Stanford and championed by Elgar. The success of his cantata trilogy The Song of Hiawatha overshadowed his other fine output. Florence Price (1887-1953) Price was the first African-American woman to have a large-scale work performed by a major orchestra, when the Chicago Symphony played her Symphony in E minor in 1933. William Grant Still (1895-1978) When New York City Opera staged his Troubled Island in 1949, it was the first opera by an African American to be staged at a major US opera house. His Afro-American Symphony was…

Recently I introduced a series of concerts in Leighton House, home of the Victorian artist Frederic Leighton, set in a secluded part of Kensington. In effect it’s a grand artist’s studio, replete with the kind of images and artefacts to set a creative mind working. At its heart is the stunning Arab Hall, filled with textiles, pottery and images Leighton collected during his trips to Turkey, Syria, Egypt and Damascus in the 1860s and ’70s, and furnished with exquisite tiles, mosaics and marbles mostly made in London but closely modelled on the kind of things Leighton had seen during his Middle-Eastern travel. There’s a contemporary school of thought that says that Western Europeans like me should feel uncomfortable about all this. And I do – a little. Since the publication…

Any way you approach it, the Sydney Opera House lives up to expectations. Whether you first glimpse the iconic sails as you approach through the lush Botanical Gardens, or you catch its myriad roof tiles shimmering across the blue water as your ferry chugs under the famous harbour bridge, it’s a breath-taking experience. Sydney Harbour itself has been wowing Europeans since Captain Arthur Phillip sailed the First Fleet and its cargo of 732 convicts into Sydney Cove in 1788. Back then, culture – at least as the newcomers knew it – was a luxury few could afford, but with the abolition of transportation Sydney’s creative life gradually fell into step with mainstream European artistic movements. For a visual guide, the easily managed Art Gallery of New South Wales is a…

The Piano Sonatas Dating from 1810-43, the sonatas are personal works. Sonata No. 3 shares more than its opus number – 57 – with Beethoven’s Appassionata, and the second movement of No. 4 has a whiff of romantic lyricism worthy of the best. The finest movement in them all is the pilgrim’s march-like variations on a Czech hymn in No. 6, referring to Czerny’s Catholicism. Fugue Beethoven’s teaching involved studying Bach. Czerny passed that knowledge of Bach to Liszt and dedicated his Op. 856 preludes and fugues to him. To Czerny we owe Liszt’s inventive use of fugue in his Faust and Dante symphonies, the B minor Sonata and the B-A-C-H Fantasy and Fugue. Quartets Czerny’s large body of chamber music includes between 20 and 40 quartets, none with an…

Brahms began to write his A German Requiem roughly midway through the long, tortured process of composing his First Symphony, a work begun in 1854 but not premiered until 1876. Aged 32 at the time, his output up to this point had consisted largely of solo piano works and chamber music – one notable exception was his First Piano Concerto which, after an underwhelming premiere in Hanover in 1859, had gone on to enjoy a better reception elsewhere. That same year had also seen him break off his engagement to Agathe von Siebold who, he later told a friend, was the last love of his life.…

Why did you want to embark on this album series? We take for granted the masterpieces of Beethoven and sometimes we forget the multitude of very good composers who wrote wonderful pieces around the same time. I already had the beautiful Clementi sonata and the amazing Dussek up my sleeve, as I played them about 30 years ago. It is a very dear project that I was happy to elaborate with the help of Marc Vignal, the brilliant French musicologist. Did you make any particularly interesting discoveries? What interested me was the mutual influences; they had very common ground of musical language then. For example, to learn the very fast Presto of the Hummel sonata, I had to start by playing it slowly, and in doing so I realised that…

Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2; Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24 Lars Vogt (piano); Royal Northern Sinfonia Ondine ODE 1346-2 74:38 mins This is Brahms playing of the highest quality. Lars Vogt secures an ideal balance between the intellectual and emotional components of these two epic works. He delivers a blisteringly exciting account of the Handel Variations, maximising the degree of contrast between the individual variations whilst at the same time driving forward with a great sense of purpose towards the glorious concluding Fugue. The warmly recorded performance of the Second Piano Concerto is equally compelling, benefiting from Vogt’s subtle manipulation of rubato, structural lucidity and the astonishing wealth of colours he draws from the piano. This fluidity of sound is most obviously exemplified by contrasting…

Arauxo • Cabanilles • F Valls Arauxo: Tiento y discurso de segundo tono; Tiento de medio registro de tiple de septimo tono; Cabanilles: Tiento de falsas; F Valls: Missa Regalis Choir of Keble College, Oxford; Academy of Ancient Music/ Matthew Martin (organ) AAM Records AAM 008 39:29 mins This is the very first recording of Francisco Valls’s Missa Regalis. Though the Spanish Baroque composer is now obscure, in 1715 Valls’s contrapuntal rule-breaking as Barcelona Cathedral’s precocious maestro de capilla sparked a massive row about proper sacred vocal writing, and Valls was accused of ‘destroying the very essence of music’. Missa Regalis, which he composed in 1740, is one of Valls’s greatest works. Like one of JS Bach’s career-end masterpieces, it is a compendium of craft. Valls championed Palestrina-styled polyphony, but…

Dejours • Schubert Schubert: Piano Quintet in A, D667 (The Trout)*; Ländler** – D366 Nos 12 & 15; D790 Nos 5, 7, 8, 10 & 12; Olivier Dejours: Schubertiade *Christoph Eschenbach, **Jean-Frédéric Neuberger (piano); Thymos Quartet, Yann Dubost (double bass) Avie AV 2416 54:31 mins The 22-year-old Schubert’s pen was blessed when he wrote this insouciant, elegant Quintet, the double bass making an unusual appearance in the string quartet (there being no second violin). In this delightful recording, the limelight is shared between Christoph Eschenbach’s crystalline piano playing and the creamy string sound, underpinned by the rumbling, bouncing bass. The tempo is elastic, yielding. And there’s no rigid ensemble, either; the mood is convivial, like conversing friends who occasionally interrupt each other. Eschenbach’s solo moments have memorable rhetorical swagger. Schubert’s…

August round-up If you think the music for classic Doctor Who was ‘merely’ electronic bleeps and blops, you’re ignoring the huge contribution made by Dudley Simpson. The Australian composer wrote music for just shy of 300 episodes from 1964-79, often using chamber musicians. While 1977’s The Sun Makers is not perhaps Simpson’s most memorable turn, it is one of only a pair of complete surviving records of his work on the show. This album release, featuring just six musicians on woodwind, percussion, horn and keyboard – and making a big sound, is a fine tribute and has a lot of charm. (Silva Screen Records SILCD1569 ★★★★ ) Staying with small-screen sci-fi, Tales from the Loop is an eight-part series which recently landed on Amazon Prime and features music by Philip…

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Well, for the first time, you know as much about this year’s BBC Proms as I do. As we go to press, Proms controller David Pickard and his team are still busy deciding which archive concerts to broadcast and, depending on the ever-changing government guidelines, second-guessing whether any sort of live performance will be possible in the final weeks of the season. All very complicated. So for that very reason, we’re unable to bring you listings as we usually would. Fear not, however – as soon as we get the nod, we’ll be posting full details on our website at www. classical-music.com. And we hope to preview some of the live elements (should there be any) in next month’s issue. Among the Proms we had been looking forward to is…

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (RLPO) has announced that Domingo Hindoyan is to be its next chief conductor. The 40-year-old Venezuelan will begin his new role on Merseyside at the beginning of the 2021-22 season, taking over from Vasily Petrenko, who will become the orchestra’s conductor laureate. Currently the principal guest conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hindoyan started his musical career as a violinist within Venezuela’s El Sistema music education network. He first turned his attention to conducting while studying at the Haute École de Musique de Genève in Switzerland and, from 2013-16, was assistant to Daniel Barenboim at Berlin’s Deutsche Staatsoper. His appointment in Liverpool will make him the latest in a line of El Sistema alumni to take up significant conducting posts worldwide, joining the…

Operatic Alpesh Conductor Alpesh Chauhan has been named as the new music director of Birmingham Opera. Hailing from the Midlands city himself, Chauhan was assistant conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 2014-16, after which he was appointed principal conductor of the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma. Home inspirations This year’s Royal Philharmonic Society Awards for live performance are to include a prize for musical achievements during lockdown. Voted for by the public, the Inspiration Award will be presented to an individual or group who, says the RPS, ‘found a way to perform something truly special online, who shared their creativity in a fresh format or setting, or who roused others to be more musical themselves in confinement’. Distant success Congratulations to Diana Adamyan, who has won this…

Ginastera Cinco canciones populares argentinas Bernarda Fink (mezzo-soprano), Roger Vignoles (piano) Hyperion CDA67186  I encountered these through the double bass repertoire, even though they are written for voice and piano. My husband Nicholas Schwartz is a wonderful double bass player and he shared this beautiful disc with me. I was captured by the wide range of colours and strong characters – though short, every piece opens its own world. Valentin Silvestrov Last Love Jana Ivanilova (soprano), Alexei Lubimov (piano) Megadisc MDC 7832  My father, Borys Fedorov, played Silvestrov’s First Piano Sonata at a festival in Ukraine; he met the composer, and musicologist Yakiv Hubanov. Hubanov gave him a tape with this song on and my father often played it at home; I was captured by the beauty of it. Fyodor…

Jan Vogler Cellist I have recently come back to Strauss’s Four Last Songs, sung by Jessye Norman with the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra under Kurt Masur. When this recording was made, East Germany, where I’m from, was a very isolated world, into which came Norman, a black singer from the US with her incredible ability to sing long legato lines. The orchestra must have been in awe of her, while she was probably inspired by the modest, simple way they played Strauss. This idea of cultural exchange is one of the great things that music can bring. This idea of cultural exchange is one of the great things that music can bring Since lockdown, everybody seems to have had their own COVID-19 composer, with many choosing Bach. Mine is Robert Schumann.…

As I write I have no idea of what the BBC is planning for the final fortnight of this summer’s strange, socially distanced Proms season – the fortnight when live concerts will apparently happen again in the Royal Albert Hall. It’s quite possible that David Pickard, the Proms director, doesn’t yet have every detail sewn up either. In a world where we still aren’t sure whether we can safely walk a metre or two metres from strangers or whether we can visit dear old granny on alternate Saturdays if we haven’t formed a bubble with two maiden aunts in the meantime, it’s no shame to say, as in effect the BBC has done, ‘Let’s wait and see’. I do know, however, what should not be part of Pickard’s plans. With…

Promenading was a feature of concerts long before Henry Wood launched his festival, when wandering in and out mid-performance was deemed perfectly acceptable. Today’s Promenaders – who, in a full house, make up roughly 1,400 of the Royal Albert Hall’s near-6,000 capacity – tend to stay put, either standing (or occasionally sitting or lying) in the central Arena or in the Gallery at the very top. The heart and soul of the audience, they certainly like to make themselves heard. Whether it’s shouting ‘heave!’ (Arena) and ‘ho!’ (Gallery) when the piano lid is lifted before a piano concerto or applauding the A played to tune the orchestra up, the Prommers’ pre-performance rituals have become part of tradition. In more recent seasons, the end of the interval has been marked by…

Aside from Martinu’s Fantasia and new works by Fazil Say (Universe Symphony) and Kalevi Aho (Theremin Concerto, see p48), the theremin pops up in a few of classical music’s nooks and crannies. Written between 1932 and ’34, Edgar Varèse’s Ecuatorial was one of the first pieces to mix electronic and traditional instruments. A Mayan invocation to the creative gods, the work’s premiere featured two theremins, although subsequent performances used ondes Martenot. Gershwin’s pupil Joseph Schillinger wrote his 1929 First Airphonic Suite for Lev Termen, the inventor of the theremin (above) – highly Romantic in style, the suite incorporates the instrument as naturally as if a cello or violin were the soloist. Although not originally scored for the theremin, the Australian composer Percy Grainger’s theoretical Free Music Nos 1-4 suits them…

Weber Abu Hassan (1811) The ‘Turkish’ influence of Mozart’s Seraglio can be heard in Weber’s opera, which tells of how the Caliph’s cup-bearer feigns death to pay off a debt to money-lender Omar. Cherubini Ali Baba (1833) Cherubini took liberties with ‘Ali Baba’, portraying him as a wealthy merchant. Berlioz was not impressed, describing it as ‘one of the feeblest things Cherubini ever wrote’. Cornelius The Barber of Baghdad (1858) This tale of a hairdresser-turned-matchmaker (above) was such a failure at its Weimar premiere that the composer left town. Modern audiences have proved more appreciative. Reyer The Statue (1861) Having lived for years in north Africa, Reyer had a natural feel for Arabic culture. The Statue – about a man’s lucky encounter with a genie – was a hit. Rabaud…

‘La Stupenda’ was born and raised in Waverley, one of Sydney’s Eastern suburbs. Her Scottish Presbyterian work ethic and down-to-earth Aussie manners saw her rise through the ranks in the 1950s to become the greatest bel canto and coloratura singer of the post-Callas era. A prima donna but no diva, her modest ego and self-deprecating humour won her friends and fans, though she could be scathing about directors who espoused modern dress in opera. In 2012 the Sydney Opera House renamed its opera theatre The Joan Sutherland Theatre.…

1791 LIFE: Carl Czerny is born in Vienna to Czech parents – ‘Czerny’ means ‘black’ in Czech. His father, a piano teacher, accepts a job in Poland, where the family lives till 1795. TIMES: Within weeks of receiving a commission to compose a Requiem, Mozart dies in Vienna, aged 35. The Requiem is incomplete at his death. 1801 LIFE: He is introduced by the Czech composer Krumpholz to Beethoven, for whom he plays the Pathétique Sonata. Beethoven takes him on as a pupil for the next three years. TIMES: British forces commanded by Sir Ralph Abercromby defeat the French army at the Battle of Alexandria. Abercromby later dies of wounds sustained during the conflict. 1816 LIFE: He begins a series of Sunday recitals to his pupils at his house devoted…

Daniel Harding (conductor) Christiane Karg (soprano), Matthias Goerne (baritone); Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Daniel Harding Harmonia Mundi HMM902635 Recordings of Brahms’s large-scale choral-orchestral works have to pass two acid tests: first, the balancing of massive structures so that the whole thing hangs together, neither rushing nor dragging; and secondly, the handling of texture, so that listeners can hear individual orchestral-vocal lines and timbres, but also enjoy the seamless fusion of the gigantic collective sound which give such works their meaning. The orchestral sound is revelatory, evoking the austerity of a chuch organ Harding’s sense of structure in this 2019 recording is assured and persuasive, evoking a slow, dignified but steady move from the depths of grief into a bruised but courageous renewal. The orchestral sound is revelatory, evoking the austerity…

The Beethoven Connection Wölfl: Piano Sonata in E, Op. 33/3; Clementi: Sonata in A, Op. 50 No. 1; Hummel: Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 20; Dussek: Piano Sonata No. 24 Op. 61 in F sharp minor (Elegie Harmonique); Jean-Efflam Bavouzet: Musical Illustrations Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano) Chandos CHAN 20128 82:34 mins This recording embodies a brilliant idea, brilliantly carried out. Beethoven’s revolutionary fire burned so brightly that all around him were cast into the shade: the French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has reached into that shade to bring out sonatas by four other composers written during Beethoven’s fourth decade. All knew each other, all knew Beethoven, and three of them spent much time in London; as Bavouzet observes, their works, when laid alongside those of Beethoven, can give us a much…

Falla • Granados Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat; Nights in the Garden of Spain; La vida breve – Interlude & Dance; Granados: Goyescas – Intermezzo Jorge Federico Osorio (piano); The Orchestra of the Americas/ Carlos Miguel Prieto Linn CKD 625 70:55 mins The infectious two-act ballet, The Three Cornered Hat, is the atmospheric opener to this recording of two of Manuel de Falla’s key works. Written after the influential composer’s return from Paris to Spain after the outbreak of the First World War, the ballet, commissioned by Diaghilev, is partnered with the work that inspired the ballet impresario to knock on Falla’s door, Nights in the Gardens of Spain. In between, a contrast is offered with Granados and his short, dreamlike Intermezzo from Goyescas. The youthful Orchestra of the Americas –…

Anton Arensky (1861-1906)  Arensky studied composition under Rimsky-Korsakov at the St Petersburg Conservatory. On graduating, he became professor of harmony and counterpoint at the Moscow Conservatory. His First Symphony (1883) was greatly admired by Tchaikovsky, with whom he soon became a close friend, submitting his latest compositions for the older composer’s constructive criticism. Arensky is most widely remembered for the two elegiac works he composed in 1894: the Piano Trio No. 1, written in memory of the cellist Karl Davydov, and the String Quartet No. 2 in memory of Tchaikovsky.…

Alwyn Miss Julie Anna Patalong, Benedict Nelson, Rosie Aldridge, Samuel Sakker; BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo Chandos CHSA 5253 (hybrid CD/SACD) 115:02 mins (2 discs) Renewed attention to the long-neglected William Alwyn makes this second studio recording of one of his major operas, composed in 1973-6, especially welcome. The score is intoxicated with waltz rhythms, including distinct echoes of Ravel’s La valse; but Alwyn’s late-Romantic heritage runs deeper, with the impact of Wagner, Strauss, Mahler, Scriabin and Janácek all apparent in the heady mix. Alwyn’s extensive experience of composing film scores stood him in good stead: his subtly-flavoured orchestral writing intensifies the atmosphere, his sense of pacing is accomplished and there’s psychological depth to the well-constructed libretto – his own, adapted and altered from Strindberg’s dark tale of human destructiveness and…

Tchaikovsky All-Night Vigil, Op. 52; Hymn in Honour of Saints Cyril and Methodius; A Legend, Op. 54, No. 5; Jurists’ Song; The Angel Cried Out Latvian Radio Choir/Sigvards Klava Ondine ODE 1352-2 52:10 mins Tchaikovsky’s output is dominated to such a degree by his orchestral music, chamber works, operas and to a lesser extent his piano music and songs, that it is easy to overlook his two major contributions to the church music repertoire: the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (1878, which appeared on the first volume of this project, ODE 1336-2) and All-Night Vigil, completed four years later. It is also easy to forget that Tchaikovsky, although as he confessed to a friend he had ‘long lost faith in the dogmas’, was a regular church-goer and described attending the…

JS Bach The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I Trevor Pinnock (harpsichord) DG 483 8436 117:32 mins (2 discs) In the booklet notes accompanying this recording, Trevor Pinnock rightly observes that the preludes and fugues of The Well-Tempered Clavier were not intended for the concert hall, but for sharing and teaching. Given the domestic milieu in which these works were performed, it might have been nice to have included a greater variety of instruments, perhaps the clavichord much beloved of German organists of the day for home practice. But the copy of an 18th-century Hemsch harpsichord on which Pinnock plays is handsome sounding and provides a welcome variety of registration. The quality of these performances is immediately apparent in the opening prelude and fugue, the former unaffectedly simple and the latter beautifully…

August round-up At the time of writing, circumstances have inevitably steered listeners back to their collections of recorded music, so musicians and labels have either responded with their own initiatives or are simply weathering the storm. One intervention that deserves to head this month’s list for sheer Audacity (experts will see what I did there) is The Light That Shines, an EP release from The Patchwork Jazz Orchestra. This young London-based big band created the programme by having each member record individual parts at home and then having the results assembled via the magic of the studio, which these days can just be a computer in someone’s bedroom. Will the results turn the whole idea of the big band and its repertoire on its head? No. Is this nonetheless a…

Music Comes Out of Silence András Schiff; Trans. Misha Donat W&N 978-1-474-61527-3 352pp (hb) £20 ‘In any interpretation worth taking seriously, the personality of the performer plays a part,’ notes András Schiff in his fascinating memoir. Fortunately, Schiff proves just as thoughtful and appealing a character on the page as he does on the concert platform. Divided into two parts, the book opens with a wide-ranging Q&A between Schiff and writer Martin Meyer, where the pianist outlines his philosophies of music-making and recounts his journey from growing up in the Eastern bloc to international stardom. The second half is a selection of essays exploring everything from individual composers and works (Schiff’s ‘guided tour’ of the Goldberg Variations is a highlight) to the machinations of the music industry, including an enjoyable…

Dalia Stasevska studied the violin and composing before turning her attention to conducting at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy. Since July 2019, she has been principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and has been named as chief conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Finland from the 2021-22 season. She also regularly conducts opera and has a particular passion for contemporary music. I am the first professional musician in my family, but my father’s Ukrainian heritage meant we grew up singing folk songs and music from the Orthodox church. We lived in Tampere, Finland, and I studied violin at the conservatory. By the time I was 16, I was desperate to play in the Tampere Philharmonic; I auditioned as an extra player and was thrilled when they put me in…

Crystal clear I was fascinated by your July issue A Manns for All Seasons article, documenting the life and work of August Manns at Crystal Palace. My first visit to the site was one misty Sunday morning in November 1990 and I was astonished by its size – even the railway station was magnificent! I wondered what the acoustic was like with such a large building and so much glass in its construction – are there recordings of August Mann conducting his orchestra or of later recordings from the 1920s and 1930s? Perhaps it was the misty morning but the whole feeling was one of melancholy. But there was a better feeling when I stumbled across the prehistoric statues of dinosaurs – not music, but it gave the feeling of…

The classical music world has been nothing if not inventive in finding ways to keep concert life as normal as possible in these socially distanced times. In Bochum, Germany, even the tradition of presenting post-concert flowers has been taken into consideration, as Rudolf Buchbinder discovered to his delight after his recent recital at the Klavierfestival Ruhr (below). There was greenery aplenty on show, too, at the Uceli Quartet’s concert at Barcelona’s Liceu on 22 June when, to celebrate the famous opera house’s livestreamed re-opening recital, management filled each of the 2,292 seats with a pot plant. The programme included, aptly, Puccini’s Chrysanthemums.…

Marci Meth Soprano Born: Los Angeles, US Career highlight: The creation of The Wild Song, my album which frames Britten’s folksong arrangements with nature soundscapes and poetry by WB Yeats. Musical hero: Soprano Barbara Bonney, the consummate recitalist – within minutes of a concert, she has the audience breathing with her and her attention to text is astounding. Dream concert: I would love to bring the staged performance of The Wild Song to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Having lived in Europe for so long, it would be like bringing it home. Lisa Robertson Composer Born: Lochaline, Scotland Career highlight: Hearing Seabird Cities, my portrait of the coastal Highland landscape, brought to life in the hands of the Czech Philharmonic was thrilling. The musical individuality…

Portuguese a cappella vocal ensemble Cupertinos have gathered together 18 previously unheard works by composer Duarte Lobo for a forthcoming album. The selection includes a pair of masses which are almost totally unknown to modern audiences and a set of Christmas Responsories fine-tuned by the ensemble over a number of years. Hyperion releases the album in late August. Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and its conductor Alexander Shelley have announced a new cycle of album releases exploring the intensely personal and artistic connections between Clara and Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. The first of four recordings, released on the Analekta label, has just appeared and features pianist Gabriela Montero performing Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto. The Sacconi Quartet was joined by bassoonist Amy Harman, oboist Nicholas Daniel, soprano Mary Bevan and…

It’s a question that has taxed musicians, philosophers, politicians and audiences ever since its sensational premiere in 1876 in a specially built theatre in Bayreuth, a temple to the ego and ambition of its creator, Richard Wagner: what does the Ring cycle mean? Is it an exercise in futility, as the mid 20th-century musical satirist Anna Russell says, in which you end up in the final bars of The Twilight of the Gods exactly where you started four operas earlier, with the same Rhinemaidens, the same river, the same gold ? Or is the Ring a philosophical discourse on the limits of power and the limitlessness of love? Or a creation myth that contains its own destruction in the conflagration of the Gods and Brünnhilde’s suicidal immolation on the funeral…

Margaret Evernden Edinburgh I don’t suppose I was alone in eagerly waiting by the radio for Stephen Hough’s lunchtime performance from Wigmore Hall at the beginning of June. Yes, it was only a piano recital but, as the first broadcast since lockdown, it felt like so much more than that. And Radio 3 couldn’t have chosen a better person to launch its new ‘season’ – Hough’s opening Bach-Busoni was as thrilling as the Schumann that followed was enrapturing and, ultimately, moving. Thank you! Alastair Whelan Salisbury After reading your July Recording of the Month review of Alina Ibragimova playing Shostakovich’s violin concertos, I have ordered my copy and look forward it arriving in the post. This will be by no means my only recording of the First Concerto, a work…

With a capacity approaching 6,000 people and a huge space to fill, the Royal Albert Hall is not a venue one instantly associates with intimate solo recitals – large orchestral and choral concerts, plus the occasional semi-staged opera, tend to be its forte. A select few musicians have, however, been invited to come and share the Proms stage with no one but themselves. In 1997, the 26-year-old Evgeny Kissin made history when he gave the first ever Proms solo piano recital – at the end of his Sunday afternoon concert of Haydn, Liszt and Chopin, the Russian took advantage of his single status by giving no fewer than seven encores. Kissin’s fellow pianist András Schiff has given three solo Proms recitals, playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations in 2015 and the same…

Who says that a concerto has to be for a musical instrument? Certainly not Leroy Anderson, whose 1950 The Typewriter brought together the sounds of the office and the orchestra in glorious harmony – no prizes for guessing what the soloist plays. Clickety-clacking of a different type can also be enjoyed in the Tap Dance Concerto by Anderson’s fellow American Morton Gould, a work premiered by dancer Danny Daniels and the Rochester Philharmonic in 1952. It was the world of sport, meanwhile, that inspired Andy Akiho’s ‘Ricochet’ Concerto for Ping Pong, Violin, Percussion and Orchestra (2015), which features two people playing a game of table tennis at the front of the stage. Stephen Montague’s 2018 Horn Concerto may sound orthodox… except that the ‘horn’ in question is a car klaxon…

If genius is 99 per cent perspiration, then Carl Czerny undoubtedly was one. His output was enormous, produced on an industrial scale, using conveyor-belt processes. His published works extend to Op. 861, with many numbers used more than once, plus hundreds of other works without opus numbers, some of which are most important for a proper reckoning of his output. Yet it is almost unknown apart from the volumes of studies and exercises with which he filled the page. Czerny’s musical output was produced on an industrial scale using conveyor-belt processes Born in Vienna the year Mozart died, Czerny got the work ethic from an early age. He was three when he started piano lessons with his church-organist, music-teacher father, seven when he began composition and nine when he made…

The work A ‘sort of German Requiem’ – this was the unformed compositional plan that the 32-year-old Brahms announced to his friend Clara Schumann in a letter 1865. Four years later, this magnificent work fulfilled the prophecy of Brahms’s genius made by Clara’s husband Robert in 1853. Brahms’s A German Requiem emerged from a decade of turmoil. The composer was moving between cities, seeking professional opportunities. He was absorbing musical influences ranging from Wagner’s operas to Schubert’s choral and orchestral works, which were emerging posthumously in Vienna. He also held his first demanding job as conductor of the Vienna Singakademie, a role that exposed him to several centuries’ worth of choral repertoire. However, circumstances were increasingly troubled at home in Hamburg. Following her separation from Brahms’s father, the composer’s beloved…

Wolfgang Sawallisch (conductor) From the opening notes of this 1995 performance, we know that this will be a serious, dignified experience, characterised by a large-scale choral-orchestral sound and spacious, grand tempos. But there is pathos here, too; each phrase breathes naturally, never sounding regimented. Thomas Allen brings a rugged grief to his solos, while Margaret Price’s sound is both richly resonant and angelic. The pace picks up in the last two movements, beautifully conveying the mourner’s healing. (Orfeo C039101A) John Eliot Gardiner (conductor) The vibrato-free Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique may divide listeners, but the payoff of this live performance from 2008 is the fabulous recorded sound quality across the range, from the throbbing subterranean bass which opens the work to the piercing, high solo winds of the inner movements. There…

There’s a rather Russian flavour running through this month’s selections, led by Tchaikovsky whose Fourth Symphony and sacred choral works take the top spots in Orchestral and Choral & Song. Then there’s the LSO, which takes on Shostakovich 1 and 5, and the Oslo Philharmonic, which unwraps a feast of Rimsky-Korsakov, plus reviews of works by two members of the Prokofiev family. We have some rarities, too, in the shape of an opera by William Alwyn, a mass by Francisco Valls and a piano concerto by Brazilian composer Almeida Prado. All that is topped of with another set of short, sharp ‘Brief Notes’ and a round up of some of the very best new music being written for the screen – including a celebration of Joe Hisaishi. This month’s critics…

Leshnoff • Tchaikovsky Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4; Leshnoff: Double Concerto Michael Rusinek (clarinet), Nancy Goeres (bassoon); Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/ Manfred Honeck Reference Recordings FR-738 (hybrid CD/ SACD) 61:05 mins There is no doubting the excitement Honeck generates Tchaikovsky’s Fourth is a work of inspired structural ingenuity, as is clear both from Manfred Honeck’s insightful and extensive notes and this fine recording by the Pittsburgh Symphony on the kind of commanding form older collectors may recall from the orchestra’s 1950s-70s heyday under William Steinberg. In contrast to such hectic accounts as the 1960s Mravinsky (DG) and 1970s Karajan (on DG: CD and DVD), both of whom barely let up for a second in the outer movements, Honeck paces everything so that the eruptions that crown the first movement’s exposition, development, recapitulation…

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2; Piano Concerto No. 5 ‘Emperor’; Piano Concerto in D, Op. 61a (arr. of Violin Concerto); Fantasia for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra in C minor, Op. 80* Inon Barnatan (piano); *London Voices; Academy of St Martin in the Fields/Alan Gilbert Pentatone PTC 5186 824 133:40 mins (2 discs) It was Clementi, in his guise as a London music publisher, who commissioned Beethoven to transform his famous violin concerto into a piano concerto. The transcription has been much maligned, and it’s true that it’s often rather workmanlike; but there’s no shortage of imaginative touches, and the wild and wacky cadenzas (Beethoven left none for the violin version) have to be heard to be believed. The talented Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan finds much poetry in the piece, and…

Massenet Thaïs Erin Wall, Joshua Hopkins, Andrew Staples Nathan Berg, Neil Aronoff, Liv Redpath, Andrea Ludwig, Stacey Tappan, Emilia Boteva; Toronto Mendelssohn Choir; Toronto Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Davis Chandos CHSA 5258 (hybrid CD/SACD) 132:08 mins (2 discs) Whatever his colleague Vincent d’Indy meant when he described one of Massenet’s musical characteristics to be ‘a discreet and semi-religious eroticism’, such a trait finds its apogee in Thaïs (1894), which tells the ironic tale of a fanatical monk converting a courtesan only to lose his own faith in the process. Much of the opera is interior, as we look deep inside the two main characters who pass each other on their opposing spiritual trajectories. This is a perceptive account of one of Massenet’s best creations To Thaïs herself Erin Wall brings a clean,…

Beethoven Cello Sonatas Nos 1-5; Variations – on ‘See the conquering hero comes’, WoO 45; on ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen; on ‘Bei Mannern, weiche Liebe fühlen’, WoO 46 Nicolas Altstaedt (cello), Alexander Lonquich (piano) Alpha Classics ALPHA 577 143:05 mins Beethoven’s five cello sonatas make up a satisfying complete set, taking in every main period of his creative life. Op. 5 consists of a powerful pair of early works, commissioned by the cello-playing King of Prussia; Op. 69 is a vintage example of the composer’s expansive middle-period style; and the Op. 102 twosome features, in No. 2 in D major, an Adagio slow movement exploring wondrous late-Beethoven depths, followed by a finale – first a single fugue, then a double one – of near-impossible mastery. Nicolas Altstaedt and his exceptional…

Beethoven • Brahms • Mozart Beethoven: Bagatelles, Op. 119; Piano Sonata No. 3 in C, Op. 2/3; Brahms: Intermezzo in B flat minor, Op. 117/2; Klavierstücke, Op. 118/1-3, 5 & 6; Klavierstücke, Op. 119; Schubert: Impromptu in A flat, D935 No. 2; Allegretto in C minor; plus encores by Debussy, Rachmaninov and Rameau On DVD: Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos 27 & 32; Mozart: Piano Sonatas Nos 14 & 16; Fantasia in C minor, K475, etc. Grigory Sokolov (piano) DG 483 6570 120:55 mins (2 discs, plus DVD) Once, I spent an afternoon with Sokolov and watched him practise – a process which consisted mostly of silent communion with the score. I got him talking about his art. ‘First I must internalise the music,’ he said. ‘The inspiration I leave to…

Kalevi Aho Chamber works Jaakko Kuusisto, Pekka Kuusisto (violin) BIS BIS-2186 Not just a master of orchestral music, the leading Finnish composer here reworks motifs by Bach and Beethoven in these diverse and vibrant works. (FP) ★★★★ Beethoven Clarinet Trios Kilian Herold, Peter-Philipp Staemmler, Hansjacob Staemmler CAvi-music AVI 8553479 Largely engaging performances with some impressive agility on display, particularly from clarinettist Kilian Herold, though there are occasional flat-footed moments too. (JP) ★★★★ Beethoven Piano Trios Sitkovetsky Trio BIS BIS-2239 Like three good friends enjoying a glass of wine and a natter, the Sitkovetsky Trio sparkle with conviviality in this pairing of early- and middle-period Beethoven. It’s wonderfully uplifting. (JP) ★★★★★ Copland Appalachian Spring etc Württemburgisches Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn Berlin Classics 0301411BC This performance of the chamber version of Appalachian Spring…

Alan Davey , the controller of BBC Radio 3, picks out three great moments to tune into this August How to play Beethoven Composer of the Week turns its attention to Beethoven once more, this time focusing on the experience of performing and teaching his music. Presenter Donald Macleod is joined by double bassist Chi-chi Nwanoku, pianist Ronald Brautigam, soprano Rachel Nicholls, percussionist Adrian Bending and horn player Sarah Willis to discuss how Beethoven helped develop repertoire for their respective instruments. Composer of the Week: 24-28 August, 1pm BBC Proms This year’s Proms season kicks off on Friday 17 July (see p26), with archive Proms broadcast daily on Radio 3. From 28 August, we hope to return to the Royal Albert Hall for the season’s final fortnight. Throughout August Edinburgh…