Innehållsförteckning för Christmas 2025 från BBC Music Magazine

I remember well the first time I heard the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge. A trip with my parents to that fine university city presented the opportunity to hear services at both John’s and King’s on the same day. Beforehand, King’s College felt like the star draw, and looking up at the chapel’s breathtaking fanned ceiling was incredibly special. But St John’s, the ‘other’ Cambridge choir, was well worth hearing, my father assured me – and he was right. While King’s was ethereal and atmospheric – a product of its chapel acoustics – John’s was solid and earthy, full of raw passion and energy. That was 30 years ago, but a mere flash in the pan, given the choir’s 350-year history. And despite the muchpublicised introduction of girls and…

2nd: After lengthy negotiations, delegates from the British and Russian governments sign The Anglo-Russian Treaty of Friendship and Commerce in St Petersburg. To be recognised by Russia as ‘the most favoured nation’, Britain gains superior legal status over other Western trading nations, while ‘a true, sincere, firm and perfect Peace, Amity and good intelligence’ between the two nations is also established. 18th: With castrato Giovanni Carestini in the title role, Handel’s opera Oreste is premiered at Covent Garden Theatre in London where, according to The Bee magazine, it is ‘perform’d with great Applause’. Adapted from Euripides’s play Iphigenia in Tauris, the opera is a ‘pasticcio’, consisting of material that Handel had previously composed for other works. 21st: Philipp Hyacinth, Fourth Prince of Lobkowicz, dies aged 54. A close friend of…

Florian, our first violinist, and I had been listening to Gabriel’s music for a long time, on flights and so on. One day, Florian wrote to Gabriel on Instagram and said that it would be nice to build some sort of partnership and Gabriel replied instantly, which is one of the good things about the internet! We played with him earlier this year at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, which was the first time we’d met him. Gabriel is a multi-functional musician. He has a singer-songwriter approach – he sings and plays the piano beautifully – but also plays classical music, and when we met him, he suggested we play Brahms’s Piano Quintet together. His own music is quite complex. There are many different harmonies and modulations, and he picks random…

British composer-conductor John Rutter shares the Christmas carols that mean the most to him With his talent for creating memorable melodies, John Rutter is one of the most popular composers of English choral music. Born in London, he read music at Clare College, Cambridge, and later served as the college’s director of music before founding his own choir, the Cambridge Singers, with whom he made multiple recordings. This autumn, he celebrated his 80th birthday with the release of Reflections on Decca Classics, which includes the first ever recording of his Piano Concerto, composed in 1979. The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge also marks his birthday with a new album of choral works on Harmonia Mundi. Eric Milner-White The Bidding Prayer Before the carols start in King’s College Chapel on Christmas…

Change is in the air at St John’s College, Cambridge – quite literally. Next year, the chapel will welcome a newly restored fourmanual organ by Henry Willis (pictured left). ‘The Mander & Sons organ we’ve had since 1994 has become increasingly unreliable,’ explains Christopher Gray. Rather than undertake a costly rebuild, the college decided to seize an opportunity. ‘We were offered a magnificent Father Willis instrument, from roughly the same era as the famous organs at Truro, Salisbury and Hereford cathedrals. Willis just got it right – his instruments have an unmistakable grandeur and warmth.’ The Father Willis organ was initially housed in the Hampstead Conservatoire before being moved to St Peter’s Church in Brighton in 1910. Former director of music Andrew Nethsingha worked closely with organ consultant William McVicker,…

Here’s a little festive teaser for you. What do Away in a manger, I Saw Three Ships, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, O Little Town of Bethlehem, The 12 Days of Christmas, This is the Truth Sent from Above and The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’ have in common? Answer: they all begin the same way! Or, to put it in music theory terms, they start with an upward interval of a perfect fourth from the dominant to the tonic. Also add to the list Once in Royal David’s City and the chorus to Slade’s ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’, which effectively do the same, but with one and two steps respectively on the way up to the tonic. Consulting a cluster of well-known choral experts,…

On a hot summer evening at Southbank Centre, Alex Ho gets risqué: he invites his audience to follow Chinese custom by removing their shoes. The sweaty couple sitting in front of me exchanges shocked glances. ‘This’ll be different!’ one eagerly says to the other. What follows is an hour-long tale of Ye Xian, surprisingly familiar Chinese folklore – a kind woman trapped by a wicked stepmother and stepsister, who gets supernatural help to attend a royal ball, then leaves a shoe – but written 1,000 years before the Brothers Grimm’s Cinderella. It’s Ho’s show but he shares the stage with five other musicians, their personal anecdotes intersecting the fable. Flautist Daniel Shao balancing being ‘the Chinese kid’ in London and a wàiguórén (foreigner) in Beijing. Countertenor Keith Pun remembering his…

The Pietà was not the only ospedale in Venice in which music flourished in the early 18th century – a similarly high level of activity could also be found at the Incurabili, Mendicanti and Derelitti. It was, though, the wealth of theatres such as San Cassiano and San Giovanni Grisostomo that, showcasing new operas and star performers such as the castrato Farinelli, brought well-to-do visitors from far and wide. And, of course, the basilica of San Marco continued to be a major player in the sphere of sacred music. All of which meant that there was plenty of work for the various composers plying their trade in the city. As well as Vivaldi, these included Tomaso Albinoni (above), best known today for ‘his’ falsely attributed Adagio but famous in his…

As Philip Larkin’s famous poem said, ‘They f*** you up, your mum and dad.’ And it’s a notion that, since Larkin dropped it into common consciousness back in the 1970s, has gathered traction – notably in families where children grow up to be what their parents were. We’re told that doctors/dentists/lawyers steer their offspring into dutiful pursuit of similar career paths, whether it’s a good idea or not. And when it comes to music, everybody knows that runs in families. Think Bach. Think Mozart, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky… But was Larkin right? And didn’t Mozart, Strauss and co have reasons to be grateful – on the whole – for what their fathers gave them, passing on a way of life in which they flourished? Overbearing, pushy and exploitative he may have…

On the morning of 15 November 2007, Morten Lauridsen stepped onto a podium in the East Room of the White House to receive the National Medal of Arts from president George W Bush. He was 64 at the time, and the award capped four decades of creative endeavour during which he had become the most frequently performed choral composer in the US. The Medal celebrated Lauridsen’s achievement, lauding ‘his composition of radiant choral works combining musical power, beauty and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide’. Lauridsen’s career as a composer had, remarkably, come perilously close to never happening. When he started university at Whitman College in 1961, he took no courses at all in music. He was happy, it seemed, to view his musical activities (playing trumpet and piano,…

The best recording Gennady Rozhdestvensky (conductor) USSR RTV Symphony Orchestra Melodiya RCID24689058 Numerous recordings by the good and the great ensure that the bar is set extremely high here, and among the many persuasive readings are those by Dmitry Yablonsky and the Russian State Symphony, Leonard Slatkin and the St Louis Symphony, Mark Ermler and the Royal Opera House Orchestra, and André Previn and the LSO. And in a more recent release, Vladimir Jurowski conducts the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia and adopts the 1877 world premiere version of the score, an impressive performance that is only let down by a patchy violin solo. All the above succeed in highlighting the symphonic elements, which gives a surging cogency to the score. Rozhdestvensky adopts this approach, but brings both the…

Mahler Songs of Fate Anna Lucia Richter (mezzosoprano), Gürzenich-Orchester Köln/Jordan de Souza Myrios Classics MYR036 55:28 mins The booklet accompanying this remarkable release begins with a short interview with Anna Lucia Richter. She all at once pins down the conundrum of how to approach Mahler’s song-settings from the folk anthology Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn): ‘They demand naturalness’. Indeed, and how does a highly trained concert singer capture that, which in its way is in opposition to the artistic sophistication that’s also required? Richter engages happily with the paradox. Her mezzosoprano voice is impressively true and sure, ranging from a dusky low register to a lovely way with floating high notes, and a beautiful range of shades and colours to conjure the music’s shifting range of moods. One…

Christmas round-up Sir John Rutter turned 80 this year, and All the Stars Looked Down is The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge’s salute to Rutter’s lifetime achievement as a composer of choral music. Rutter favourites such as Dormi, Jesu, Nativity Carol and All Bells in Paradise receive radiant performances under Daniel Hyde’s highly sympathetic direction, with the Britten Sinfonia adding warm-textured accompaniments. A tranche of pieces arranged by Rutter is featured, including Adam’s evergreen O Holy Night (with eloquent tenor solo by Matthew Supramaniam), and a lush take on Gruber’s Silent Night, with sprinklings of Strauss’s Rosenkavalier in the orchestration. (King’s College KGS0075) String quartets don’t normally release Christmas albums, but the Miró Quartet is making an exception. The group asked 15 composers to set ‘any holiday tune they wanted’…

Walton Cello Concerto; Symphony No.1; Scapino Jonathan Aasgaard (cello); Sinfonia of London/John Wilson Chandos CHSA5328 76:38 mins A fervent romantic liaison with Baroness Doernberg inspired Walton’s First Symphony, passion and intensity coursing beneath the surface of its brilliant invention. Yet the structure and textures are carefully constructed, the last movement, in particular, proving tricky to complete. The composer’s trademark calling card is an ability to create exquisite colours, cast in the Ravelian tradition, the textures also owing much to Sibelius. In John Wilson’s hands, these timbres shimmer and glisten. He has already proved himself to be masterful in this repertoire; his ear for balancing lines coupled with scrupulous attention to detail seals the deal. The intricacy of the score is bequeathed tremendous lucidity, and pungency in the rhythmically defined motives,…

Les Divas d’Offenbach Works by Offenbach Véronique Gens (soprano); Chœur et Orchestre National des Pays de La Loire/Hervé Niquet Alpha Classics ALPHA1168 55:49 mins This is not for the po-faced. If you enjoy charming and inventive music, much of it unfamiliar, allied to witty texts and sung magnificently, then Les Divas d’Offenbach will not disappoint. An outstanding earlier Alpha release of rarities, Offenbach Colorature, explored the composer’s love of stratospheric vocal pyrotechnics, delivered with champagne sparkle by the much-missed Jodie Devos. While that repertoire dazzles, the fine wine of this new disc features music written for the sopranos who tended to carry the drama, singers who possessed the linguistic dexterity and dramatic flair to develop the plot and deliver the often risque jokes. It is music ideally suited to Véronique…

The Madman’s Orchestra: The Greatest Curiosities from the History of Music Edward Brooke-Hitching Simon & Schuster 978-1-398-53240-3 256pp (hb) £30 This is a fascinating compendium of classical curiosities, thoroughly researched and charmingly written by Edward Brooke-Hitching, which perhaps is no surprise given his work as a scriptwriter and factfinder for BBC’s QI. He’s clearly poured great care into this book, filling it with a sense of boundless discovery. Across nine themed chapters, he takes us on a tour of the ‘murky alleyway’ around the side of more official histories, via intriguing topics including ‘visible music’ (think synaesthesia, ocular harpsichords and colour organs) and ‘musical hoaxes’ (such as Berlioz’s critic-fooling alter ego Pierre Ducré). There are playlists to explore at the end of each themed chapter, as well as spreads of…

Rakhi Singh is a British violinist and composer known for her innovative multi-genre programming. She is music director and co-founder of Manchester Collective, and collaborates with artists from Steve Reich and Björk to Vessel. Her solo album Purnima came out in 2023. Singh appears at the Highgate International Chamber Music Festival on 4 December 2025 with leading classical-folk fusion players and djembe player Sidiki Dembélé. My mum is a violin teacher to young kids – she studied the Kodály method in Budapest, and the house was always full of children playing violin, piano, singing and playing games. I don’t remember when I started violin – I think it was just placed under my chin! My mum is English and my dad is Indian, and having a mix of cultures at…

Ashutosh Khandekar Journalist and critic ‘I was fascinated to learn how Christopher Gray’s Northern Irish upbringing brings a radical streak to his respect for St John’s heritage. His first Christmas album with the choir captures this blend of tradition and innovation.’ Page 24 Amanda Holloway Music journalist ‘What perfect timing it was to be sitting in composer Roxanna Panufnik’s garden studio during a spectacular thunderstorm and talking about the Aurora Borealis – the inspiration for her new choral and orchestral work.’ Page 40 Harriet Constable Writer and filmmaker ‘Venice is known for its jewelled palaces and mud-licked canals, but once it was the “Republic of Music”. I discovered its original music school, which was also an orphanage for girls, and the workplace of Antonio Vivaldi.’ Page 50…

Charlotte Smith Editor A trip to the Swiss town of Andermatt was special not only for its snow-topped peaks and gourmet food, but for the chance to witness two performances in the resort’s Concert Hall. Under music director Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer, the resident Swiss Orchestra’s considerable skills were on display in a programme of operatic arias, featuring talented soprano Jeanine de Bique – the perfect complement to Bach and Beethoven from the Budapest Festival Orchestra the previous evening. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor As someone whose very job involves immersing myself in Christmas music from mid-October, I have little empathy with those who annually make a point of moaning about even a single fairy light being turned on before Advent Sunday. And so, while they sit cheerlessly looking out at the November…

Bizarre they may seem, but music’s most outlandish inventions and notions can also be just what is needed to unleash truly original thought, says Tom Service It’s music history, Jim, but not as we know it. Edward Brooke-Hitching’s The Madman’s Orchestra: The Greatest Curiosities From the History of Music (see p97) seems, on the face of it, to be a collection of the bizarre and the grotesque, in which badger theremins, trumpets with 13 bells and organs made from the bodies of pigs are lavishly illustrated, and in which you can see Elgar’s unsolved musical riddles alongside Hieronymus Bosch’s diabolical instrumentarium in his Garden of Earthly Delights. There’s even a picture and description of the German Schandflöte, the ‘shame flute’, a medieval torture device designed to put incompetent players who…

The little church choir in which I sang more than half a century ago had an unbreakable engagement every Christmas Eve: we would walk round the local cottage hospital singing carols. Some patients were clearly very ill, so the rules for us kids were ‘nothing louder than mezzopiano, don’t stare and keep moving’. If patients did want to talk, our genial vicar walked just behind us – ‘fielding compliments, complaints, concerns and any choccies on offer’, as he put it. But there was one moment when we did stand still and sing strongly. The hospital had a long corridor connecting its two wings, and its echo was astonishing. Our harmonies, which sounded so weedy as we moved through the wards, suddenly acquired extraordinary richness. And by some acoustical alchemy the…

What do St John’s choristers do when they have left the choir? In many instances, they simply keep on singing. Take, for example, Simon Keenlyside who, after his time as a treble came to an end in the early 1970s, returned to St John’s a few years later as an undergraduate choral scholar, singing bass. And after that, he went on to launch what has become a stellar career as an operatic baritone. A similar route was taken by Iestyn Davies, who has followed his chorister and then choral scholar days by becoming one of today’s best-known opera countertenors. In his second spell with the choir in the late 1990s, Davies would have come across treble Julian Gregory who, in 2009, also chose to return as an undergraduate choral scholar.…

Vanishing Point (2016) ‘In my first professional work, the Shanghai Philharmonic commissioned me to write for erhu and it was the first time I wrote for Chinese instruments. I had never heard of the erhu, actually. My mum was shocked. It unlocked something internally – not compositionally or sonically, but about myself. The final result imagines a distant horizon moving further away, which is how I felt at the time about losing touch with my heritage.’ Unveiling (2022) ‘While I was artist-inresidence at Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, they commissioned my wacky fanfare for a singing orchestra. It can be difficult to raise our voices. So, I asked the orchestra – untrained in singing – to literally raise their voices, something we should all do more. I hope it brought up…

The roller-coaster relationship between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his father Leopold has long been a source of fascination; and although documented in the letters that passed between them, it remains open to debate. Leopold was sharp and intelligent – he studied philosophy and jurisprudence at Salzburg University – and in many ways a loving parent. Even the angriest letters to his son begin ‘Mon tres cher fils’. And he unquestionably sacrificed his own career for the advancement of Wolfgang’s. Until the early 1770s he had been a successful performer, teacher and composer; but when Wolfgang’s genius emerged, Leopold dedicated more time to managing his son’s career. Historians might call it exploitation, but he showered Wolfgang with worldly wisdom about career-building. And he paid a heavy price, professionally, in Salzburg circles…

Iso*; Rameau** Zémide*; Pygmalion** Ema Nikolovska, Virginie Thomas et al; A Nocte Temporis, Chœur de Chambre de Namur/Reinoud Van Mechelen Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS174 80:10 mins Readers may be grateful for a heads up, for this is the second recording of Rameau’s acte de ballet, Pygmalion, to have appeared on the same label, in the same year and in a startlingly similar visual format. What is different, though, in each case, is the work with which it is coupled. In the present instance, the piece is an acte de ballet, Zémide, by Pierre Iso, which was premiered in Paris in 1759, 11 years after Pygmalion and here receiving its world premiere recording. Both versions reflect a practice of the time, termed fragments, by which pièces choisies from opéras-ballets, by…

B.A.C.H. Works by Bach arr. for clarinet Martin Fröst (clarinet); Jonas Nordberg (lute) et al Sony Classical 19802814742 41:45 mins The album B.A.C.H. from Swedish clarinettist and conductor Martin Fröst continues his fruitful association with Sony Classical. Fröst’s collaborative homage to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach includes his violist brother Göran and pianist Benny Andersson, known as a member of one of Sweden’s most celebrated ensembles. Of the album’s 17 tracks, 14 pair the clarinet with either double bass, cello, theorbo or viola. The remaining three are trios. Whilst his cousin Johann Ludwig (1677-1731) included a chalumeau in a secular cantata from 1728, JS Bach appears not to have composed for any single-reed instruments. In addressing that lacuna, Fröst’s album testifies to the versatility of the clarinet, reminding us…

Andrew McGregor looks over this month’s reissued and live archive recordings Moeran Symphony in G Minor & Violin Concerto Albert Sammons (violin); BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sir Adrian Boult Somm ARIADNE5045 74:45 mins On 1 December, in 1950, in the town of Kenmare in County Kerry, a body was seen falling from the pier into the bay during a fierce storm. It was the English composer Ernest John Moeran, who’d made his home there, reconnecting with his Irish roots after being wounded in the First World War, struggling with alcoholism and a strained marriage to the cellist Peers Coetmore. Irish folk music, landscape and the Atlantic coastline inhabit much of the music in these three major works with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Adrian Boult, broadcast recordings from the 1940s. The…

Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST Email: music@classical-music.com Social media: contact us on Facebook and X (Twitter) LETTER of the MONTH Jolly frolics in the company of Peer Gynt Your feature about the composition of Grieg’s Peer Gynt (December) reminded me of two incidents relating to Ibsen’s original. I saw it staged in the early 1960s starring an (even then) portly Leo McKern, who bounded about the stage like a ten year-old, even turning cartwheels which I can still visualise when I listen to the Grieg. The other was when that old reprobate Wilfrid Lawson was cast as the Button Moulder. A friend visited him at the theatre and they sat at the back of the gallery during the performance. At one point in…

‘Shout, exult, arise, praise these days! Glorify what the Almighty today has done!’ Early on the morning of 25 December 1734, these words resounded from the choir stalls of the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, to a jubilant accompaniment of festive timpani, pealing trumpets and scampering violins. Seated at a keyboard, the church’s director of music Johann Sebastian Bach marshalled the musicians in a performance of the cantata Jauchzet, frohlocket! Auf, preiset die Tage, which preceded the sermon in the morning service. Jauchzet, frohlocket! was the first of six cantatas Bach had specially assembled for that year’s Christmas season, a cycle collectively titled the Weihnachtsoratorium (Christmas Oratorio) which told the story of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. As the exuberant opening movement echoed round the building, some in the congregation may well have experienced…

‘It may be one of the most popular carols of all time, but Silent Night has spoiled the anticipatory energy of many a Christmas carol service’ At BBC Music Magazine we’re rather fond of Christmas… for the fizz and food, family and fun. But especially, of course, for the music. Even the most withering Scrooge must admit that festive hymns and carols are a prime reason to cherish the season of goodwill. Be they sacred or secular, they’re comforting and familiar, an important annual ritual, and often very well composed. Yet one man’s stuffing is another man’s sprout, and no matter how much your heart may be lifted by the sound of Deck the Halls, for another, seemingly reasonable person, even the first few notes of that much-loved carol can…

As well as Christmas, the Light festivals celebrated in Panufnik’s Aurora are: Milad un Nabi Celebrating Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, the date of Milad un Nabi shifts each year as it is based on the lunar calendar – in the UK in 2025, it fell on 4-6 September. Celebrations can range from solemn ritual to processions and feasting. Diwali Symbolising the victory of Dharma (light/good) over Adharma (darkness/evil), this five-day Hindu, Jain and Sikh festival sees homes and public spaces brightly illuminated and fireworks lit (above). Again, the timing depends on the lunar calendar – in the UK in 2025 it took place on 18-22 October. Hanukkah The eight-day Jewish festival falls between the end of November and early January – 14-22 December in 2025. Marking the recapture of Jerusalem and…

I had assumed it would be located in the dank backwaters of Venice. The Ospedale della Pietà – the orphanage where Antonio Vivaldi spent most of his career teaching music – I thought would be hidden away, lurking somewhere to the north of the island, somewhere tourists do not usually venture. I thought Venice would have been ashamed of it, and of the girls who grew up here. It was a surprise, then, to walk just a few moments from St Mark’s Square and find myself facing an imposing building with green shuttered windows. I had to check Google Maps to make sure I was in the correct location. The Pietà, now the Hotel Metropole, looks proudly over the lagoon, occupying some of the most prestigious land mass in the…

The composer The premiere of Swan Lake towards the beginning of 1877 was just one major occasion in what was to prove a significantly eventful year for the 37-year-old Tchaikovsky. One particularly notable date in his diary was 6 July, the day of his wedding to Antonina Miliukova – but within less than two months, the disastrous marriage had fallen apart. On a considerably more positive note, the year also saw the premiere of his Variations on a Rococo Theme (in November), plus the composition of the majority of two masterpieces, his Symphony No. 4 and the Pushkininspired opera Eugene Onegin. The work ‘I accepted the commission partly for the money, and partly because I have long wanted to try my hand at this sort of music,’ wrote Tchaikovsky to…

If you want to hear the haunting grandeur of Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn perfectly paired with the tragedy of Kindertotenlieder, look no further than our Recording of the Month, where Anna Lucia Richter makes a stunning orchestral record debut with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and Jordan de Souza. Elsewhere, Dobrinka Tabakova’s richly textured Sun Triptych traces the shifting light of day; Véronique Gens’s Les Divas d’Offenbach offers a witty tribute to the composer’s stars and, in Book Reviews, Edward Brooke-Hitching’s The Madman’s Orchestra delivers an irresistibly eccentric history of music. Terry Blain’s Christmas roundup raises a glass with Ensemble Altera’s luminous Feminine Voices at Christmas, Miró Quartet’s Hearth and more. This month’s critics John Allison, Nicholas Anderson, Miranda Bardsley, Terry Blain, Garry Booth, Geoff Brown, Michael Church, Christopher Cook, Martin Cotton,…

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Dobrinka Tabakova Sun Triptych Maxim Rysanov, Dasol Kim, Roman Mints et al; BBC Concert Orchestra/Dobrinka Tabakova ECM 4878558 64:61 mins This is the second ECM disc to feature the extremely accessible music of Bulgarian-born English composer, Dobrinka Tabakova. As before, it highlights works written for instrumentalists, such as violinist Roman Mints, violist Maxim Rysanov and cellist Kristina Blaumane, with whom Tabakova has been closely associated for many years. Such long-standing musical partnerships guarantee that the performances in this recording are authoritative. As to the music, I particularly liked the easy-going charm of the Suite in Jazz Style composed for Rysanov, who is ably partnered here by pianist Dasol Kim. Another tangible connection between the two ECM discs is the inclusion of a number of works for string orchestra, a medium…

Stravagante pensiero Works by Gesualdo & composers of Naples Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini; Monica Piccinini (soprano); Maria Chiara Gallo (mezzo) et al Naïve OP8677 62:13 mins Don’t be deceived – Carlo Gesualdo is represented by only one of the 22 madrigals on this CD, and it stands out from the others by its serene grace, rather than by the Houdini esque harmonic contortions we normally expect from him. For what Rinaldo Alessandrini has done is mine the works by largely unknown Neapolitan composers, to show what extraordinary music was being produced in that city in the early 17th century, with active encouragement by Monteverdi and Gesualdo himself. I had never heard of Scipione Lacorcia (1590-1620) but his five-voice madrigal ‘Stravagante pensiero’ (‘extravagant ideas’) blew me away. Monteverdi’s seconda pratica was based…

Terra Memoria Works by Saariaho and Shostakovich Dudok Quartet Amsterdam Rubicon RCD1218 59:41 mins Carrying a dedication to ‘those who have departed’, Kaija Saariaho’s Terra Memoria for string quartet, composed in 2006, is a wonderfully evocative piece which attempts to reflect upon the lives and experiences of people who are no longer with us. Subtle transformations of easily identifiable musical material coalesce with more static ideas to create a fantastical dreamscape world whose range of colours and timbres sustains the listener’s attention from first bar to last. At first glance, Saariaho’s intricate post-tonal language seems far removed from the distinctive mixture of neo-classical, ironic and romantic musical allusions that characterise Shostakovich’s Third String Quartet. On closer acquaintance, however, there is a tangible connection between the two works, since Shostakovich originally…

Warner Classics’s Dvořák: Symphonies 7-9, Cello Concerto and Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto (Warner Classics 2173276722) nine-disc collection presents in Hybrid SACD format for the first time recordings of works from each composer by Carlo Maria Giulini with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the London Philharmonic and Philharmonia orchestras. These newly mastered works bring a real clarity to Giulini’s brilliant interpretations and guidance of the orchestra throughout each piece, whilst Rostropovich’s playing is both commanding and deeply expressive. From the brooding intensity in Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony to the grandeur of his beloved ‘New World’, each work is performed with sensitivity and insight. The inclusion of Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto, meanwhile, adds a sparkling contrast and showcases Rostropovich’s extraordinary virtuosity. This release is both a truly enjoyable listen and a historical document worth treasuring. Luciano…

THE 12 SHOWS OF CHRISTMAS John Rutter at 80 Donald Macleod visits John Rutter at home in this celebratory series of Composer of the Week, looking back at the highs and lows of his extraordinary career. We hear about the full breadth of his musical adventures – including his recent all-orchestral album – garnished with a liberal sprinkling of the evocative carols that made his name. Radio 3, 1-5 December, 4pm Christmas Around Europe Uniting listeners across the European Broadcasting Union, this special day of programming brings together 14 concerts from 12 countries, including Bach’s Christmas Oratorio from Stockholm, traditional Ukrainian carols in Kyiv and music of the Iberian Renaissance live from Madrid. Radio 3, 14 December, from 12noon This Classical Life: Guy Barker Jess Gillam’s festive guest on This…

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