BBC Music Magazine March 2023

First, a confession… I have always been slightly wary of Wagner. As a devotee of Mozart’s sophisticated elegance, of the shadowy musings of Ravel, the cool modalism of Vaughan Williams and the barbed rhythms of Bartók, to me Wagner’s fevered Romanticism has seemed, to put it delicately, a little intense. Yet it’s impossible to deny the German composer’s vision, the persuasive power of his musical language and his colossal impact on his contemporaries and successors. I am reminded of a vivid musical experience – which occurred not in a concert hall, but in a cinema. Watching the 2011 Lars von Trier film Melancholia, an astonishing meditation on depression masquerading as apocalyptic cinema, I was swept up in the incredible soundtrack, comprised primarily of the Prelude to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.…

Terry Blain Journalist and critic ‘Several weeks spent thinking and writing about Wagner’s Ring cycle felt more like a treat than a work assignment. It’s an extraordinary masterpiece whose messages only seem more relevant as the years go by.’ Page 26 Paul Roberts Pianist, writer and lecturer ‘I started reading the works of Byron through performing Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage. Two chapters of my latest book, Reading Franz Liszt, are devoted to Liszt’s own discovery of this great poet.’ Page 44 Leah Broad Author and research fellow ‘Writing about Dorothy Howell has been such a joy. Not only did she write extraordinary music that deserves to be remembered, but she seems to have also been a delightful person! I’m excited to introduce readers to her.’ Page 60…

Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST Email: music@classical-music.com Social media: contact us on Facebook and Twitter Hidden passion Richard Morrison (Opinion, February) almost certainly also knows of Shostakovich’s hopeless passion for one of his students, the Azerbaijan-born composer Elmira Nazirova. The third movement of his Tenth Symphony is full of not only his own monogram DSCH (often used in his other works) but also Elmira’s name in the recurring horn call. What with her name in partly French notation (E-La-Mi-Re-A) and his in German, no wonder the affair was never to be. She kept the secret for 40 years. Richard Hollinshead, Wirral Elgar farewell I read Terry Williams’s Building a Library on Elgar’s First Symphony (February) with interest. It was in a letter to…

In Déjà Vu (Full Score, February), you comment that the Greeks were accompanied into battle by the aulos, which you describe (as do many others) as a type of flute. However, it had two double reeds, which makes it a type of oboe. There is an interesting demonstration of the aulos by oboist and composer Melinda Maxwell on YouTube – except that she produces the most delicate, soothing sounds, hardly likely to spur on your average Greek soldier. I think the answer to this conundrum is that Melinda is holding the reeds with her lips, but in ancient times they might have moved their lips forward, on to the instrument itself, which would produce a result more akin to the bagpipes – especially as the pipes seem to act as…

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Sam Jackson is named as new controller of Radio 3 Former Classic FM managing editor to begin at Broadcasting House in April Sam Jackson is to be the new controller of Radio 3. Previously the senior managing editor of Classic FM and then executive vice-president of global classics & jazz for Universal Music Group, Jackson, 39, will be starting his new post in April, taking over from Alan Davey, who announced his departure in November. He will be working closely with David Pickard, the director of the BBC Proms, and Simon Webb, recently appointed as the BBC’s head of orchestras and choirs. The appointment sees Jackson return to where it all began, as he began his career as a runner at the BBC Proms. In 2004, he joined Classic FM…