KRYSTIAN ZIMERMAN CECILIA BARTOLI

The pianist’s heartfelt tribute to Leonard Bernstein James Naughtie meets the dazzling mezzo

The world’s best-selling classical music magazine

The essence of
Mendelssohn JC Bach
ISABELLE FAUST Mozart’s great
inspiration
How the visionary Bruckner’s
violinist has revitalised Ninth
a Romantic masterpiece His heroic final
symphony explored

The joy of streaming:

the best sites revealed
Barbara Hannigan on her
extraordinary new disc

Plus! December’s
full BBC Radio 3
listings See p114
We celebrate its 50th birthday
15 calamitous cancellations
Musicians’ colourful sicknotes
Gábor Takács-Nagy
The conductor’s favourite music

110 reviews by the

world’s finest critics
CDs, DVDs & books – see p72
Opera in two acts, in Italian, with Hungarian and English subtitles
 Welcome
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Find us online recording of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, you get a
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sense of its chamber qualities – the soloist much more
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orchestra. Gut strings make Faust’s violin a good deal
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Oli C d Editor
Edi

THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS

Jessica Duchen John Evans Chris de Souza

Critic, writer and author
‘Talking to Krystian Zimerman,
you hear the same voice you
hear in his playing: wise, witty,
sometimes startling, always
ringing true. He’s a piano wizard – and, happily,
the best interviewee in the world.’ Page 48
Journalist
‘In my short performing career
I never cancelled a recital but
came very close as the dreaded
time drew near. Throw a sicky?
Do a runner? I considered everything but in the
end bit the bullet and did my duty.’ Page 56
Writer and broadcaster
‘I have always felt proud that
Britain had a Bach of its own.
JC seems to have been a sunny
character, who wrote a lot of
sunny music. The sad ending to his short
life deserves sympathy.’ Page 62

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 3

 Visit Classical-Music.com for the
Full December
very latest from the music world Radio 3 listings
and television

Contents
highlights
See p114

DECEMBER 2017

FEATURES
26 Cover story: Isabelle Faust
Clemency Burton-Hill meets the violinist to discuss
her fresh approach to Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto
34 The BBC Music Magazine interview
James Naughtie talks to mezzo Cecilia Bartoli
40 The joy of streaming
We review and rate the best music streaming sites,
and show you how to get the most out of them
48 Krystian Zimerman
In a rare interview, Jessica Duchen learns about the
Polish pianist’s friendship with Leonard Bernstein
52 European Broadcasting Union
Andrew Green celebrates the EBU’s 50th anniversary
56 15 calamitous cancellations
John Evans on musicians’ most incredible excuses

EVERY MONTH
7 Letters
The glories of Cipriani Potter; our new look
12 The Full Score
Shostakovich score discovered; Dausgaard and
Bychkov get new roles; a journey back to 1808 26 Isabelle Faust
25 Richard Morrison
Sometimes it pays not to be a specialist…
60 Musical Destinations
Listings editor Paul Riley
Neil McKim visits a new concert hall in Katowice (Octet)
62 Composer of the Month MAGAZINE
Art editor Dav Ludford
(Overture and Incidental Music to
COVER IMAGE: JOHN MILLAR THIS PAGE: JOHN MILLAR, DAVID LYTTLETON

Chris de Souza on JC Bach, the toast of London Subscriptions rates £64.87 (UK); £65
(Eire, Europe); £74 (Rest of World)
68 Building a Library ABC Reg No. 3122
The best recordings of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 EDITORIAL
Plus our favourite work by Mendelssohn
112 Live events Editor Oliver Condy
(Elijah)
The best opera and concerts across the country Deputy editor Jeremy Pound
114 Radio & TV listings (Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor)
Reviews editor Rebecca Franks
Full Radio 3 listings plus television highlights (Octet)
Production editor Neil McKim
124 Crossword and quiz (Hebrides Overture ‘Fingal’s Cave’)
Cover CD editor Alice Pearson
126 Music that Changed Me (Octet)
Conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy
A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Designer Liam McAuley
(Piano Concerto No. 1)
Picture editor Sarah Kennett
(Symphony No. 3 ‘Scottish’)
Thanks to Daniel Jaffé
and Claire Jackson
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4 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

 48 Krystian
Zimerman
December reviews
Your guide to the best new recordings, DVDs and books

56 Calamitous cancellations

72 Barbara Hannigan

72 Recording of the Month

Barbara Hannigan
Crazy Girl Crazy
‘Hannigan achieves artless poise
and musical intelligence in her debut
recording as conductor-soprano’

74 Orchestral 79 Concerto 82 Opera

Advertisement manager Ad designer Parvin Sepehr 86 Choral & Song 94 Chamber
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BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 5

NEW RELEASE

LAWO CLASSICS
www.lawoclassics.com

In stores now!
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN (LWC1139)
SYMPHONY NO. 2, OP. 29
PIANO CONCERTO, OP. 20
Vasily Petrenko
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra
Kirill Gerstein — piano

Gramophone’s ‘Artist of the Year’ Vasily Petrenko

and the Oslo Philharmonic present the next
recording in their Scriabin series on Norwegian
label LAWO Classics, with pianist Kirill Gerstein
joining forces.

“If ever a set of performances caught the weird,

psychedelic world of Scriabin, it’s this one.”
The Scotsman (LWC1088).

Distributed in the UK by
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 Letters

Have your say…

Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol, BS1 3BN
Email: music@classical-music.com

L ET T
Hurray for Potter of theER
How encouraging for those of us who have realised that there is MON
TH
plenty of hugely enjoyable British music from the Classical and
early Romantic periods, to hear Howard Shelley and the Tasmanian
Symphony Orchestra’s recording of the Cipriani Potter concertos
which received a fine review in BBC Music Magazine earlier this year.
Those of us who know some of Potter’s symphonies would not have
been surprised by the high quality of
WORTH £170! the outer concerto movements, but
the revelation is in the two beautiful,
dreamy slow movements. So when
will we have the chance to obtain a
proper appreciation of Potter’s cycle
of symphonies and overtures? Nine
of his symphonies are extant, yet
only three have been commercially
recorded. Perhaps one of the more
WIN A DIGITAL RADIO!
Every month the editor will
enterprising CD companies will
award a Geneva Lab Touring S oblige? Or perhaps there are at least
radio (retail value £170 – see three more symphony recordings
www.genevalab.com) to the lurking in the BBC’s archives? What
writer of the best letter received.
an excellent CD they would make, if
The editor reserves the right to
shorten letters for publication. released with BBC Music Magazine! A rich legacy:
a recorded cycle of Potter’s
Keith Bartlett, Marlow symphonies is long overdue

Looking good
I have enjoyed BBC Music
Magazine since its very
first edition, especially the
articles on composers and the
reviews. Opening my copy
this morning to see what gems
were to be revealed, I was
amazed and delighted at the
improved format – the new
font is much clearer and easier
to read. I have always liked the
Composer of the Month article
and, again, the new layout is
easier to read and I also like
the shortened chronology.
ALAMY
information on the cover disc,
reverting to the original format
that I enjoyed. Well done and
thank you.
Michael Shaw, via email
Past glories
Your new look is a huge
success. I really admire the
much clearer layout, the
attractive new typeface and
the clarity with which CD
reviews are now presented.
What I would like to see, in
addition, is more emphasis
on recordings of the past
prompt older readers to
re-examine their collections
and encourage younger
ones to investigate the
manifold riches of the past
that may not yet have come
to their attention.
Richard Landau, London
Font of wisdom
I read the editor’s letter in
your November issue and
thought ‘Oh no, not another
makeover!’ But when I opened
the following pages and saw
the new font, all was forgiven.
what is written without having
to strain my eyes. Thank you
so much! And at first sight, the
whole magazine looks good.
Jan Lowy, via email
Dinner time
You invited comment on the
new format of your front pages.
The larger font is harder to
read and looks unattractive,
filling as it does almost all
the white space on the page.
Further, the mixture of fonts,
for example on pages 24 and
25, makes for a dog’s dinner,

You have also improved the succinct features that might Wonderful at last I can see and I can only imagine that

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 7


you have been misguided by
an over-enthusiastic design
team wanting change for
change’s sake.
A Holt, via email
The editor replies:
Many thanks for your
feedback regarding our
recent changes. All of it is
always appreciated, whether
positive or negative!
Ivan idea
I enjoyed Daniel Jaffé’s
thoughtful piece on Soviet
music (November) . It was
good to see Ivan Sollertinsky
remembered for his own
achievements as well as his
friendship with Shostakovich
(important though the latter
was to both men). When
trying to buy a collection of
Sollertinsky’s writings a few
years ago, I found nothing
available in English and had
to revive my rusty German
to read a 30-year-old
paperback from the DDR.
Is a rediscovery overdue?
Laura Del Col Brown, Harrow
Glinka discovery
Reading Erik Levi’s article
on Glinka (November), I will
confess to not knowing as
much of his music as I should.
However, I do possess a
wonderful live recording of his
Sextet in E flat, for piano, string
quartet and double bass, part
of a set recorded at the Lugano
Festival in 2009. For anyone
who enjoys chamber music
with unusual instrumental
forces, I would recommend it.
All six players, led by pianist
Polina Leschenko, are clearly
having great fun. I would be
interested to hear if any other
readers have views on other
recommended works by him?
Ian Morgan, Malvern
The editor replies:
The recordings made each
GETTY
year at the Lugano Festival
8 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
have, in general, been a
wonderful treasure trove for
those wanting to investigate
rarely performed repertoire.
Sadly now discontinued, this
brilliantly programmed and
performed summer event will
be badly missed.
Slava correction
As we were responsible for
negotiating the visit of the
cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
and the USSR State Symphony
Orchestra to the BBC
Proms on 21 August 1968
and subsequently to the
Edinburgh Festival, we wish
to point out the inaccuracies
in Peter Haydn Pike’s letter
(September). We were present
at the concert, sitting next to
the BBC controller of music,
the late Sir William Glock. In
view of the Soviet invasion
into Prague, we were all
expecting serious trouble,
but there was absolutely
no interruption during
Rostropovich’s emotionally
charged performance of the
Dvořák Cello Concerto, no
‘catcalls’ to drown out the
Shostakovich symphony,
and the concert was broadcast
in full. Only one incident
occurred, when two students
left the hall shouting ‘Viva
Casals’ as Rostropovich
appeared on the stage (they
later apologised to him by
letter). Nor was it true that
the orchestra did not go to
the Edinburgh Festival,
buut immediately
reeturned to
R
Russia. In fact,
w travelled
we
w them to
with
Edinburgh.
No hitches:
was Slava’s 1968
visit incident free?
SOCIAL GATHERING
What’s being said on Twitter & Facebook
Following our focus on Russian
music in November, on social
media we asked you to tell
us which piece of music best
encapsulated the Soviet era.
Here are some of your replies:
Prokofiev’s (pictured right)
Cantata for the Twentieth
Anniversary: the Soviets
banning it perfectly sums up
the hypocrisy of the era – it’s
brutally honest!
Charlotte Perkins
(@lottie_perkins)
Shostakovich flipping
the bird to Stalin in his
Symphony No. 10
Gene De Lisa
Rachmaninov’s Piano
Concerto No. 4 – shows an
exile longing for his homeland.
Christopher Johnson
The Iron Foundry Op. 19
by Alexander #Mossolov
Orpheus (@OrpheusL)
Alfred Schnittke’s First
Symphony sums it all up
Marek Škvarenina
Again, there were no
interruptions during the
performance. A group of
demonstrators stood outside
the Usher Hall, carrying a
placard saying: ‘We love your
music but we hate your tanks’.
Victor and Lilian
Hochhauser, London
Marvellous Mirga
A year ago now you
introduced us to conductor
Mirga Gražinyttė-Tyla, and
her appointmment as
music direector of the
City of Birrmingham
Sympho ony Orchestra.
Tweelve months
on,
o I have just
experienced a
performance
by them of
Mahler’s Fourth
Sym
mphony at
Shostakovich Symphony
No. 10, with its ubiquitous
2nd movement (Stalin) and DS’s
triumph in the finale
Ben Daniell (@benjamindaniell)
Shostakovich’s Festive
Overture, as it was
premiered a year after
Stalin’s death
Hiew Tze Jia (@hiewtzejia)
1st Violin Concerto by
Tikhon Khrennikov (sadly)
Jens F Laurson
(@ClassicalCritic)
the splendid Saffron Hall
in Essex. Wow! What an
intense and musical reading,
beautifully controlled by
Gražinytė-Tyla and played to
perfection by the musicians
of the City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra. The
understanding of Mahler’s
music, and the innovative use
of three trebles as the soloist
in the final movement, was
overwhelming. I have seen
countless live performances
of this symphony and heard
dozens of recordings, but never
a performance like this.
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, if
you are reading this, please
record this work as soon
as possible so that we can
immerse ourselves in your
wonderful musicianship
time and time again.
Alan Barker, Chelmsford
 Pavel Haas Quartet
Boris Giltburg piano, Pavel Nikl viola
'YRĘ N  4XLQWHWV 2S  THE OFFICIAL 50TH ANNIVERSARY RELEASES
L E T G R E AT M U S I C S H I N E
Excellently recorded, these
performances are among
the most memorable I have
encountered in recent
years.
BBC Music Magazine,
Recording of the Month
SU 4195-2

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&]HFK 3KLOKDUPRQLF -Lʬ %ÚORKO YHN  'ROHĽDO 4XDUWHW
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while the soloist’s crisp
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SU 4234-2

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 Thefullscore
Our pick of the month’s news, views and interviews

Impromptu find:
Shostakovich and
(right) the new score
discovered in the
Moscow State Archives

Shostakovich discovery made in Moscow

Previously unknown work for viola and piano found in state archives
A short work for viola and piano by
Shostakovich has been discovered in the
Moscow State Archives. The impromptu
Op. 33 was unveiled on what would have
been the composer’s 111th birthday, amid
the events to mark the centenary of the
Russian Revolution and its aftermath.
The score itself comprises just three
pages: a title sheet, a one-page viola part
and a one-page piano part. The title page
reveals that the work was composed on
2 May 1931 in Leningrad and was
dedicated ‘in memory of our meeting’
to Alexander Mikhailovich, believed by
scholars to be Alexander Mikhailovich
GETTY
the Glazunov Quartet. Shostakovich was
24 when he composed the Impromptu; the
work followed on from his deeply ironic
ballet The Bolt, which had been deemed
unacceptable by Soviet officials.
Though compact, the Impromptu score
provides some useful insights and poses
a few questions. Musicologists believe
that the style of the piece and the precise
dating of the dedication suggest that
Shostakovich may have written the work
in one sitting. And then there is the piece’s
opus number: why did the composer later
assign Op. 33 to his music for the film
Counterplan when this Op. 33 was already
After the Impromptu, Shostakovich is
not believed to have written any further
music for viola and piano until his Viola
Sonata in 1975, which was his final
completed work. Despite being composed
44 years apart, the Impromptu and Sonata
have a connection. The Impromptu
was found among the papers of Vadim
Borosovsky, the founding violist of the
Beethoven Quartet. When Borosovsky left
the quartet in 1964, he was replaced by
Fyodor Druzhinin, to whom Shostakovich
later dedicated the Viola Sonata. It is
not yet known why Borosovsky was in
possession of the Impromptu. The work

Ryvkin, the violist and founder member of in existence? has yet to be publicly performed.

12 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


Mall we dance?:
Robin Ticciati wows
Berlin’s shoppers
Ticciati gets mobbed
If you happened to be at Berlin’s Mall in late
September you may have been pleasantly
surprised. For there was conductor Robin
Ticciati, no less, overseeing a huge T-shirt-
clad orchestra and choir – of almost 1,000
amateur musicians, including 100 members
of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester
THE MONTH IN NUMBERS
2 900
GETTY, ALLARD WILLEMSE, SIMON FOWLER
…players are better than one. Nursing
an injury but unwilling to cancel a
concert of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in
Blue, pianist Lang Lang invited Maxim
Lando (age 14) to play the left-hand
part for him. It went down a storm.
Berlin – in a Symphonic Mob event. The
programme, arranged to celebrate Ticciati’s
arrival as the DSO Berlin’s chief conductor,
included Bizet’s Toreador Song,g Grieg’s
‘Morning’ from Peer Gyntt and excerpts from
Wagner operas. ‘Everyone is so into the
music and the experience,’ said Ticciati.
‘It gives me energy and I give it back’.
563
…eager maestros. This year’s Nikolai
Malko Competition for conductors,
run by the Danish National Symphony
Orchestra, has received a record entry.
…years and away. Having
3
steadied the financial ship
at ENO, Cressida Pollock is
departing as chief executive.
…children, singing in harmony. On
tour in Beijing, Scottish Opera has
recruited a chorus from the Fang Cao
Di School for Alan Penman’s Warriors!
The Emperor’s Incredible Army.y
Thefull score
RisingStars
Three to look out for…
Owain Park Composer and conductor
Born: Bristol, UK
Career highlight: As a
composer, I had a great
time at the Edinburgh
Fringe Festival with a
group of 20 musicians
performing my chamber
opera, The Snow Child,
and I was delighted to be asked by Nigel
Short to write Footsteps, a piece for Tenebrae.
Musical hero: My writing is often
influenced by what I have been listening
to, but I often refer to Britten as I love his
musical ideas. I also admire the way James
MacMillan has shaped his career.
Dream concert: I’d like to bring together the
wonderful musicians I work with now with
some of the world’s most established artists,
rehearsing until the final performance – and
then take it around the world!
Lucienne Renaudin Trumpeter
Born: Nantes, France
Career highlight: I’ve
done many concerts
worldwide. I won the
Victoires de la Musique
competition in 2016
and recently played
with maestro Vladimir
Ashkenazy. I also met tenor Rolando Villazón
on TV and he sings on my new album.
Musical hero: I would say trumpeter Chet
Baker because of his incredible sense of
musicality. His choruses are just like themes
– so deep, so powerful and so beautiful.
Dream concert: For me, every concert
is a dream concert! I just love playing
with orchestras, and meeting conductors,
musicians and new people in general.
Mariam Batsashvili Pianist
Born: Tbilisi, Georgia
Career highlight:
Winning the Franz Liszt
Piano Competition in
Utrecht, being a European
Concert Hall Organisation
Rising Star and a Radio 3
New Generation Artist.
And each of my performances is a highlight.
Musical hero: From what I can hear from
Liszt’s music I believe he must have been a
real hero. Anyone who can combine every
element in one piece – gentle, refined details
with substantial deep and rich sounds –
deserves to be called a musical hero.
Dream concert: It would be in a small
candlelit 19th-century ballroom, attended
by Mozart, Liszt, Chopin, Wilde and
Shakespeare. I’m playing the piano and we
are all being painted by Hieronymus Bosch!
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 13
Thefullscore
SoundBites TIMEPIECE This month in history

Striking out:
an artist’s impression
of Beethoven conducting
his symphonies

Seattle bound:
Thomas Dausgaard

Seattle Dane
Thomas Dausgaard has been named as the
new music director of the Seattle Symphony
Orchestra. The Danish conductor will begin
the role at the beginning of the 2019-20
season, having served as the US orchestra’s
principal guest conductor since 2014.
Familiar with British audiences as chief
conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra, Dausgaard is also chief conductor
of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

Czech mate
Also heading for pastures new is Semyon
Bychkov, who is to join the Czech
Philharmonic as chief conductor and music
director in the 2018-19 season. The Russian,
who first conducted the orchestra in 2013,
fills a position that became vacant following
the death of Jiří Bělohlávek in June. He will
be joined by Jakub Hrůša and Tomáš Netopil
as principal guest conductors.
DECEMBER 1808
Regal Brummies
No sooner has the Birmingham
Conservatoire moved into its plush new
Beethoven premieres his
premises (see November issue) than it has
another reason to celebrate: from now on,
it will be allowed to call itself the Royal
Fifth and Sixth Symphonies
Birmingham Conservatoire. ‘The Royal
title bears testimony to the value the

Conservatoire places on the importance of
the performing arts in all our lives,’ says
delighted principal, Julian Lloyd Webber.
Ivories to stay
Musical instruments – pianos, in particular
– have been exempted from proposed new
laws to ban the sale of items containing
ivory. Currently, only ivory-containing items
dating from after 1947 may not be bought or
sold in the UK, but environment secretary
Michael Gove has expressed his intention to
extend the ban to before that date.
I
t was a ‘most bitter’ winter evening
in Vienna when, on 22 December
1808, Beethoven staged the most
ambitious and notorious concert of
his career. The composer had booked
the Theater an der Wien for his first
benefit concert in six years, a showcase
for his best and latest compositions and
a chance to make some money. Over
four hours, the shivering audience in
the unheated hall was treated to the
under-rehearsed premieres of his Fifth
and Sixth Symphonies, the Fourth
Piano Concerto, the Gloria and Sanctus
from his Mass in C, the concert aria ‘Ah!
Perfido’, a solo piano improvisation and
a hurriedly written finale in the form of
the Choral Fantasy which fell apart
to the extent that it had to be restarted.
‘It was like a runaway carriage going
downhill… an overturn was inevitable,’
recalled the pianist-composer Ignaz
Moscheles. The Mass extracts were
‘completely unsuccessful, added the

14 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


Underprepared: the Theater an der
Wien premiere failed to impress
Ignaz Moscheles and Johann
Friedrich Reichardt (below)
well-established composer Johann
Friedrich Reichardt. His view of the
whole concert? ‘One can have too much
of a good thing.’
Why did this concert of masterpieces
go so wrong? Beethoven had, after all,
premiered his Eroica Symphony, Third
Piano Concerto and Violin Concerto
in this auditorium. He had even lived
in the building when writing parts of
his opera Fidelio. So he knew the space
well. But the theatre was popular and
the December date (the result of many
postponements by the theatre directors)
was far from ideal. To make matters
worse, Beethoven had fallen out with
the theatre orchestra and most of the
performers refused to play when he was
in the room even though he was the
conductor and piano soloist. Instead, he
had to communicate from an ante-room
via the orchestra’s leaders Seyfried and
Clement. Time was short, and, given the
sheer amount of new music with the
ink barely dry on some of the copyists’
pages mishap was almost inevitable.
Still, although the Allgemeine
musikalische Zeitung said the
performances ‘must be called
unsatisfactory in every respect’, the
critic suggested that the audience
ALAMY, THOMAS GRØNDAHL, GETTY
should refrain from judging the works
themselves until further hearing.
Beethoven was so disillusioned with
Vienna and its musical life that he
seriously considered taking up a post
in Westphalia, before the Archduke
Rudolph, Prince
Kinsky and
Prince Lobkowitz offered him instead a
lifelong stipend to remain in the capital.
Beethoven accepted and continued to
compose, starting work on his glorious
Fifth Piano Concerto in the April of
1809. However, the December concert
‘It was like a runaway
carriage going downhill...
an overturn was inevitable’
was to be his last public performance as
a pianist. The prodigy-turned-virtuoso
had become deaf, and the Emperor
Concerto was premiered by Friedrich
Schneider. Yet despite this disastrous
introduction to the world, the Fourth
Piano Concerto and Fifth and Sixth
Symphonies have become some of
his most famous works. A few years
later, ETA Hoffmann gave the Fifth its
first public seal of approval. It was, he
wrote, ‘one of the most important works
of that master who no one will now
deny belongs among the first rank of
instrumental composers’.
Thefullscore
Vote winner:
James Madison
Also in December 1808
1st: Following the Russian Empire’s invasion
of Finland in February, and its subsequent
victory over the occupying Kingdom of
Sweden, Tsar Alexander I announces that he
will take direct control of government. As if to
rubber stamp the decision, he adds ‘Grand
Duke of Finland’ to his long list of titles.
7th: In the United States presidential
election, James Madison, the Democratic-
Republican candidate, decisively defeats
the Federalists’ Charles C Pinckney, winning
122 electoral votes to Pinckney’s 47. Also
standing for election is George Clinton, the
current vice president, who wins six electoral
votes as an independent. Clinton continues
to serve as vice president when Madison
takes office the following March.
21st: Having reached Salamanca in its bid
to support the Spanish against Napoleon’s
forces in the Peninsular War, the British army
under Sir John Moore is forced to retreat
towards the coast as the campaign starts to
falter. As they do so, though, the British 15th
Light Dragoons manage at least to defeat two
regiments of French cavalry at the Battle of
Sahagún, inflicting serious losses. The retreat
is otherwise a dispiriting and damaging affair,
and Moore is killed in January at the Battle
of Corunna.
31st: The Prince of Wales lays the first
stone of the new theatre at Covent Garden,
the former one having been destroyed by a
fire on 20 September when all its costumes
and many of its manuscripts were also lost.
The architect chosen for the rebuilding is Sir
Robert Smirke, whose design is based on the
Temple of Minerva in the Acropolis at Athens.
Sirke’s efforts are heavily criticised by his
former teacher, Sir John Soane, one of the
leading architects of the era.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 15
 Thefullscore
MEET THE COMPOSER
HK Gruber

Romantic coupling to such questions, by inviting users

Finding true love can be tricky
when you’re a classical music lover.
What do you do, for instance, if
you discover your dream partner
is a closet thrash metal devotee?
Or can a Ferneyhough fan and
an Einaudi enthusiast ever be
compatible? Thankfully, the good
people at Clikd, an online dating
app, believe they have the solution
to set out their musical preferences,
ensuring that any culture clashes
are avoided long before potential
lovebirds get to meet. One hopes
they’ve taken historic hatreds
into their clever methodology.
Does, for instance, the thought
of a Brahmsian and a Wagnerian Serious business:
‘composing is
sharing a romantic dinner even
absolutely not fun’
bear thinking about? Cripes.

Born in Vienna in 1943, HK Gruber sang in the Vienna Boys’

Choir and from 1969 to 1997 played double bass with the ORF
Vienna Radio SO. As a composer, he came to international
DÉJÀ VU attention with his 1978 piece Frankenstein!. Gruber’s music
is the focus of the Stockholm Composer Festival (16-24 Nov).
History just keeps on repeating itself…
I spent 40 years playing the Symphony Orchestra. I’m not very
Who needs a cello anyway? When double bass in an orchestra. far along with it, but the piece will
Alban Gerhardt (left) recently broke It was the best way of learning be a 25-30-minute Concerto for
a string during a recital at the what you can do as a composer. Orchestra. It’s a very nice thing to
Lammermuir Festival and realised he If I had any problems with any of sit and write music and know that
had no spare with him, he did what the instruments I could ask my each note I write will be played by
any cellist would: he played the piano colleagues. I also learned how the best orchestras in the world.
instead, joining his accompanist Steven conductors communicate. I began I have many gods in my life,
Osborne in a four-hands rendition of to conduct my own music in the but Stravinsky is number one.
Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance No. 10. He’s early days – I found that it gave me I first heard his Circus Polka when
by no means the first soloist to play two control over what I had written. I was 12, and from then on I found
instruments in one concert, mind… I enjoy the chance to escape him the most interesting living
The violinist Julia Fischer has long dazzled audiences with from my composer’s prison and composer. Kurt Weill is one of my
her technique and musicality, but on New Year’s Day 2008 work with an orchestra. But it’s other gods. When I was 20, Vienna
at Frankfurt’s Alte Oper she caused jaws to drop a little bit dangerous because conducting is was dominated by the Darmstadt
further. After playing Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto No. 3 with fun and composing is absolutely movement; they said atonality and
the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, she rejoined them on stage not fun. To compose you have to serialism were the only ways to
in the second half… this time as the soloist in Grieg’s Piano ignore the phone, the computer compose. I wanted to find my own
Concerto. Not that that would have impressed pianist Dejan and any entertainment – and sit path. Weill found his way back to a
Lazić. In 1991, at Zagreb’s Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, the for hours. But when I conduct very clear tonal way of writing.
then 14-year-old Croatian performed as the soloist in Mozart’s a piece by a colleague and the I rediscovered my gift as a
KAUPO KIKKAS, GETTY ILLUSTRATION: JONTY CLARK

Piano Concerto No. 14 and Clarinet Concerto in one concert, performance is successful, I’m
after the evening had opened with his own composition, the really jealous. I think, oh, ha,
Spring Serenade. Nor is multi-tasking restricted to soloists. hmm, go back to your own desk
After delighting the Prommers with Brahms and Kodály at the and write your music.
2014 Proms, the female players of the Budapest Festival The sound of a large orchestra
Orchestra stood up to sing some Dvořák as an encore. And is one of the greatest miracles
at the 2009 BBC Music Magazine Awards, the Ebène String of our time. My next composition
Quartet celebrated winning the Newcomer Award by playing on project is for Andris Nelsons’s
stage then serenading the audience as a four-part vocal group. two orchestras – the Leipzig
Gewandhaus and the Boston
singer when I was in an ensemble
in Vienna in the 1960s called
MOB art & tone ART. Each
member was a musician, singer
and actor. I composed so-called
MOB pieces for it; very simple,
tonal pieces. Probably the most
well-known, successful of them
is Frankenstein!, for chansonnier,
orchestra or 12 instruments.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 17

Thefullscore
StudioSecrets
Final Fantasia:
Anne Akiko Meyers
records Rautavaara

We reveal who’s recording

what, and where…
Rautavaara’s final major piece, a violin
concerto for Anne Akiko Meyers, has been
recorded. The American violinist wrote to
the Finnish composer to ask him to write
her a piece, and the Fantasia was the result
– the 87-year-old completed the score not
long before he died in 2016. Meyers performs
it with the Philharmonia and conductor
Kristjan Järvi on her new disc for Avie.
Violinists Renaud Capuçon and Vilde
Frang have both been turning their attention
to Bartók Concertos, for Warner. Capuçon
has recorded both the Hungarian composer’s
concertos with the LSO and François-Xavier
Roth, while Frang pairs the First Concerto,
recorded with Orchestre de Radio France and
Mikko Franck, with Enescu’s Octet.
Pianist Andreas Haefliger, who has
REWIND
Great artists talk about their past recordings
previously recorded for Avie, has signed to
BIS Records. The Swiss pianist will continue
his Perspectives series, six volumes of which This month: LEIF OVE ANDSNES Pianist
are already available, with a disc that frames
Beethoven’s Sonata No. 28 Op. 101 with
Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Berg’s
MY FINEST MOMENT details that are usually not given such
Piano Sonata and Liszt’s Légende No. 1. Beethoven attention and care by orchestras. There
VANESSA BRICENO SCHERZER, ÖZGÜR ALBAYRAK, PETER ADAMIK, FRANK BONITATIBUS

Katherine Parr was the first queen of
England to have her writings published when
her Psalms or Prayers came out anonymously
in 1544. Composer Thomas Tallis took one
of her psalm paraphrases, Against Enemies,
and set it as an alternative text for his motet
Gaude Gloriosa. It’s been recorded for the first
time, by Alamire and David Skinner, who
recently pinned down the text’s authorship.
Here’s a box-set to enter the record books.
With 330 CDs, 24 DVDs and two Blu-rays,
and weighing 15kg, the complete DG/Decca
recordings of Herbert von Karajan is being
billed as the largest box set ever created. It’s a
limited edition, and also includes a 140-page
book about the famous conductor. The snag?
You’ll need £899, and some strong shelves.
Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 3
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano/direction);
Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Sony 88725420582 (2012)
I worked regularly for almost three years
with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra
(MCO) recording the Beethoven
concertos, and by the end of it I felt
that I really knew the group. The first
recording happened right after the very
first tour we did, soon after we had got
to know each other. I was naturally
nervous. One never knows what the
chemistry will be like. But immediately
it was tremendously exciting to work on
is this real sensitivity and quality in the
MCO’s sound and understanding. We
had played a few
concerts in Italy in
a very dry theatre,
which was fun but
I didn’t feel like
we were there yet.
Then we got to the
Rudolfinum in Prague which has such
a magnificent acoustic, and the whole
thing changed. In the first concert we
did the Rondo from the First Concerto as
an encore. After my little introduction
the orchestra burst out in this first tutti

18 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


Leading the Rach:
Leif Ove Andsnes records
Rachmaninov’s concertos
with Pappano and the Berlin
Philharmonic; (above) a break
in the sessions, with principal
flautist Emmanual Pahud
with such an explosive energy, I was
completely overwhelmed. I remember
thinking we really had something
special. It was a very special moment
for me realising the potential of what we
were doing. The encore ended up on the
disc, so one can actually hear it.
MY FONDEST MEMORY
Rachmaninov
Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano); Berlin
Philharmonic/Antonio Pappano
Warner Classics 474 8132 (2005)
It’s funny how in recordings one often
has the feeling that one needs the live
element, especially with an orchestra.
Often something happens with an
orchestra in the hall like with the
Beethoven concertos. Here, we recorded
Rachmaninov’s Second Concerto live
and the First Concerto in recording
sessions, in just one day after the
concerts. The Philharmonie in Berlin
is a little less good for recording when
there’s an audience in it it’s a little
Thefull score
dry but the Second Concerto
concerts were fine. Then we
BuriedTreasure
got to the First Concerto, and Mezzo Anna
it sounded different. The Bonitatibus on three
acoustic without people is musical rarities from
warmer and more exuberant. her record collection
Antonio Pappano has a soft
spot for Rachmaninov’s First
Rossini ‘Pensa alla Patria’
Concerto he always talks
Guerrina Fabbri (contralto)
about it. And I always talk
Symposium SYMPCD1065
to him about the Fourth!
Fabbri was one of the first contraltos
Pappano gave so much ever recorded – she was born in 1866
in these sessions there when Rossini was still alive, and she
was such a passion, such made this recording
a sound, such an energy. for Gramophone &
Rachmaninov One is a Typewriter in 1903.
young man’s piece: it needs It’s fascinating to see
what singers sounded
that sort of abundance and like at the time – you
total exultation. In a way can hear how her
the sessions were a more intense live voice changes completely to be very
experience than the concert, which was resonant in the lower notes, and again
a new experience for me. for the soprano register when the music
requires it. Singers today try to have the
I’D LIKE ANOTHER GO AT… same colour and timbre in all ranges –
Fabbri’s style wouldn’t be accepted today.
Janáček Piano Sonata 1.X.1905;
In the Mists; On an Overgrown Path Rossini Péchés de Vieillesse
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) Dino Ciani (piano)
Fonit Cetra LAR 34
Warner Classics 2435618395 (2001)
There’s always something I want to do The Italian Dino Ciani,
who died in 1974
differently, but I have to accept that a at just 32 in a car
recording is a moment in time. Some accident, was one of
of my recordings go back 35 years, and the first pianists to
it feels like a different life. I started record Rossini’s piano
with Virgin Classics when I was 20. I works in his short but
was lucky to begin when there was a very intense life. I love these pieces – in
my opinion, they’re the true testament
CD boom. One of my first CDs was of
of Rossini. They’re very demanding to
Janáček’s piano music which I recorded play but also very impressionistic – they
in Snape Maltings. At that time I was sound almost contemporary at times.
quite a late-night person, and so was my Ciani’s recording is very beautiful, and
record producer; we thought the hall shows him to be a very lyrical pianist.
had a beautiful silence and ambience À la recherche de la musique perdue
at night. Much of the recording took Cathy Berberian (mezzo)
place at around RTVE 650002
2am, but one of the Berberian completely changed the recital
problems is that it as a concert form. This rare recording
shows in the very is a live concert she made with Bruno
slow tempos. I think Canino at the piano in Madrid for Spanish
that was also my radio in 1974. The album, of arias and
songs by Ravel, Sullivan, Offenbach and
character at the many more, really
time. I was very much into the music’s shows her as as a
dark, slow colours. It’s beautiful, but my ‘cant’actrice’ – a
taste has developed and I now find it too singer-actress.
static. It lacks the restlessness which is But what is really
part of Janáček’s music, the abrupt and inspiring is that she
was also the first
irrational side, and also sometimes the
to introduce music to audiences who
natural flow of his simple melodies. So I weren’t used to going to recitals. The way
hope to do it again. Maybe at 2pm. she talks to the audience about each
Leif Ove Andsnes’s new disc of Sibelius piece is the concert. We haven’t invented
piano music will be reviewed next issue anything new today!
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 19
Thefull score
THE LISTENING SERVICE

We’ve got rhythm!

In the latest instalment
of his new regular series,
Radio 3’s Tom Service
explains why there can be
no music – and no sound –
without rhythm

ILLUSTRATION: MARIA CORTE MAIDAGAN

W
hat is the elemental
essence of the music we
love the most? A good
tune is essential. Isn’t it? Not quite:
a hummable melody is always nice,
but it’s hardly the definition of what
makes a piece of music memorable.
The opening of Beethoven’s Waldstein
Piano Sonata, say, hardly has a
melody worth the name; instead, it’s a
collection of endlessly iterated cells of
musical possibility, fragments that are
expanded and contracted and repeated.
So if it’s not about tunes, what about
the harmonies that underpin them
– surely they’re musically essential?
Again, they’re nice to have, but we can
do without them: think of folk tunes, sixteen times a second, like the very Bruckner scherzo. Jessica Grahn’s work
plainchant, or early vocal polyphony bottom notes of the biggest organs in at the Music and Neuroscience Lab
all musical cultures that do without the the country to the highest, pulsing at in Ontario shows that it’s not just that
cosseting of harmonic colouration. You around 20,000Hz. we’re attracted to regularly rhythmic
can say the same about other musical There’s a symbiotic connection music; we actually participate in these
properties – timbre, instrumentation, between our bodies and these rhythms when we hear them: our brains
or whether pitches are high or low. But rhythmically pulsating pitches. The and our bodies predict where the next
there’s one element you really can’t do beat comes, so we tap our toes or get our
without, which will mean you don’t Research has demonstrated groove on and dance. And we delight in
need to ask for anything more. If, that is, the games that composers play in either
you’ve got rhythm! that musical rhythms excite confirming our rhythmic desires, like
Because there can be no music, our bodies to move Haydn does in his symphonies, and as
and there can be no sound, without Stravinsky takes to another dimension
rhythm. As physicists knew and as beating of our hearts, the moving of in the terrifying terpsichorean
the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen our limbs, our breath, our blinking, mechanisms of his ballet The Rite of
revealed through his forensic electronic the firing of our nervous systems: our Spring. Composers are playing with
explorations in music like Kontakte, bodies are polyphonic palimpsests of rhythm, with time and they’re playing
if you slow any sound or note right rhythmic cycles, all playing in concert with us, too. Just like pieces of music, we
down, you open up a world of rhythm. or contradiction with one another. are made of rhythm.
In the beating of the frequencies that So it’s no surprise that recent
give us the pitches of every sound that scientific research has demonstrated Tom Service explores how
we hear as music, from the lowest that musical rhythms excite our bodies music works in The Listening
sound – pulsing down there around to move, whether it’s Gloria Gaynor or a Service on Sundays at 5pm

20 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

 FAREWELL TO…

Harpsichord champion:
Zuzana Růžičková at
the keys in 1968

Zuzana Růžičková Born 1927 Harpsichordist

‘I want people to understand Bach,’ said Zuzana Růžičková when
interviewed in BBC Music Magazine at the beginning of this year.
And the Czech harpsichordist did arguably as much as any musician
to help achieve that aim, recording from 1965-75 the composer’s
complete keyboard works – released on the Erato label, they enjoyed
a huge audience. Bach, though, was not Růžičková’s only forte, and
over a career lasting nearly 60 years she performed and recorded
works by composers ranging from the Renaissance era to the likes of
Poulenc, Martinů and her own husband, Viktor Kalabis, in the 20th
century. Whether through her own playing or as the teacher of players
including Christopher Hogwood and Mahan Esfahani, few have done
as much to popularise the harpsichord in the modern era. That career,
though, so nearly didn’t happen. Born to Jewish parents in Plzen,
Růžičková was, during World War II, sent first to Terezín and then to
Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, narrowly escaping the gas chambers.
On returning to Czechoslovakia after the War, she began studies of
the harpsichord in earnest, first in Prague, then in Paris, where her
international career was launched. Going on to become a teacher at the
Prague Academy, she remained an influential figure in Czech music,
both during and after the Communist era, for the rest of her life.

Also remembered…
The Swiss composer Klaus Huber (born 1924) was an important
presence in the contemporary music scene, both for his own music
and as a teacher – his students included major figures such as Brian
Ferneyhough and Kaija Saariaho. Huber made his breakthrough in
1959 when his chamber cantata Des Engels Anredung an die Seele was
premiered at the International Society for Contemporary Music’s
World Music Days event in Rome. He would go on to write music for a
wide range of forces, from solo works for flute, cello and accordion to
the 1973 opera Jot oder Wann kommt der Herr zurück.
Soprano Tsisana Tatishvili (born 1937) excelled in roles including
Verdi’s Aida and Richard Strauss’s Salome in opera houses across
eastern Europe. She made her first appearance in 1963 at Tbilisi State
Opera (now Georgian State Opera) before forging a career across the
Soviet Union and in countries including Poland and Czechoslovakia.
The baritone Robert Honeysucker (born 1943) was a popular figure
in US opera houses. A very versatile performer, his roles ranged from
Plutone in Monteverdi’s Orfeo to Porgy in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.
He also sang regularly in recital with his wife, the pianist Noriko
GETTY

Yasuda and, in his home city, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Thefullscore
Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Simon Halsey Conductor
A recording I
constantly come
back to is Gibbons’s
Almighty and
Everlasting God,
sung by the choir of
King’s College, Cambridge under
Boris Ord in the 1950s. It’s so slow
and ethereal and the boys are
allowed to sing with a little bit of
vibrato that style of singing and
the feeling of not being in a hurry
seems to belong in a different world
from what we know today.
When I myself was a student at
King’s, I sang in a performance of
Britten’s Curlew River soon after
he had died. We felt very in touch
with the composer, as we had sung
a concert at Snape Maltings in
his presence and then sang at his
memorial concert. It’s a marvellous
piece it has that extraordinary
freedom of composition that you
22 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Partial to the Partita:
Simon Rattle’s Mozart
inspired Simon Halsey
get very much in the 1960s and
its soundworld is very reminiscent
of my childhood and student days.
I particularly like Britten’s own
recording on Decca.
One of my favourite pieces is
Mozart’s Gran Partita, K361 for
13 wind instruments. I remember
‘I can enjoy Mozart’s
Gran Partita without
feeling I have to listen
to it critically’
Simon Rattle conducting this
in his very early days at the
City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra, though the recording
I’d choose is on the LSO Live
label. Because I’m not a woodwind
player and because it is not a work
that needs much conducting, I can
enjoy it with pure pleasure and
without feeling I have to listen to it
critically. It’s just so lovely to hear.
Though I’m not a Brummie
myself, I’ve lived and worked for
36 years in Birmingham, the city
for which Mendelssohn wrote
his Elijah. Today, the library there
owns the closest thing we have to
a handwritten score of it plus the
various pen and ink drawings he
made when he was here, and to
have this amazing international
music belonging to my home city
is a matter of real pride. I’d suggest
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos’s
recording of it from the late 1960s.
Simon Halsey conducts The CBSO
Choruses in ‘A Choral Christmas’
at Symphony Hall, Birmingham on
19-21 December.
Gunvor Sihm Violinist
My late mother-in-
law, the pianist
Anne Øland, spent
much of her time
playing and
recording
Beethoven piano sonatas. When
my son was born six months ago,
we thought that a really nice way to
have her with us, and for him to get
to know her, would be to play her
albums. Her interpretations of
READER CHOICE Beethoven are amazing. They are
so clear and have such depth and
Mauricio Guim
Virginia, US intensity, and she is very true to the
I have been listening to composer and never overshadows
a lot of Haydn, Mozart him with her own personality.
and Beethoven and The Copenhagen Phil has
three ‘new generation’ been doing some very interesting
pianists that embody
the best qualities that experimental concerts called
every musician strives ‘Open Orchestra’, one of which I’ve
for in this repertoire
are Jonathan Biss,
been to. They play these concerts
in, say, an industrial warehouse
Francesco Piemontesi
and Shai Wosner.
and don’t have a real stage
Biss’s live Schumann/
Janácek/Berg recital at
instead, the musicians are placed
on islands around the hall, and the
Wigmore Hall is, for audience is invited to walk around
me, one of the greatest and stand close to the instrument
musical moments
captured on record.
they’d like to hear. During
Piemontesi’s sound Schumann’s Fourth Symphony,
and sense of rhythm in I listened to the horns and the
Mozart is amazing and violas, and it was fascinating!
gives this music a sense I am a big Langgaard fan, and
of improvisation that
is truly unique. And
recently went to a performance
I love everything that of his Antikrist at the Langgaard
Wosner plays, from Festival in Ribe. It’s a huge, dark
Haydn to Ligeti. and grotesque opera. It doesn’t

have a real plot it’s just six
scenes that focus on the arrival
of the antichrist and the way that
he ruins society around him. It’s
such a strong opera to experience
live. It’s very challenging for
everybody, both the listeners and
the musicians, but I was so taken
aback by it.
I’ve also been listening to
András Schiff’s recordings of
Mozart’s Piano Concertos, which
are wonderful. Everything is so
natural for him. Nothing is ever
forced, and each phrase feels
effortless. These are the sort of
performances I can listen to at any
time whether to start the day, or
to wind down at the end of it, it
goes with the moment perfectly.
I choose one concerto at random,
then listen to the whole album.
Gunvor Sihm’s new disc of
Langgaard violin works (Dacapo)
will be reviewed in a future issue
Julius Drake Pianist
On my iPod is one of
my favourite
recordings of
Janáček’s piano
music, in particular
In the mists and On
an overgrown path, played by the
great Czech pianist Rudolf
Thefull score
READER CHOICE Firkušny. His first teacher was performances on this disc are
Janáček and there is such poetry absolutely wonderful.
Anders Bengtsson
Brantevik, Sweden and intensity in his interpretation Mozart is another composer
I am hugely enjoying of the composer’s piano music. You I can never tire of listening to
two new albums, quite really do feel that you’re sitting at and who is a constant solace,
different in terms of the master’s feet. It’s a treasured inspiration and delight. I’m
repertoire, but united
recording and I love listening to it. listening at the moment to the
in spirit and freshness
and by heartfelt The composer I listen to most is late symphonies, as recorded
performances. First JS Bach and I’m always fascinated by Claudio Abbado with the
is Carolyn Sampson what it is about his music that Orchestra Mozart shortly before
and Iestyn Davies in makes it so important to so many he died. There is such deep feeling
My lost is my quiet, a
set of beautiful songs
people. I just find the music in the music. I think a good
ranging from Purcell so extraordinarily satisfying, example of that would be the
to Mendelssohn. fulfilling and heartfelt. I’m often Andante con moto slow movement
They deliver on listening to recordings but my of Symphony No. 39 in E flat: the
both quantity and favourite at the moment is one of music is just wonderful.
quality – what a cool
and convincing duo
his motets, which are a discovery I recently went along to
they are! The second for me. I didn’t know them until Kings Place in London to hear
album, Agitata, I heard a recording by John Eliot Rachmaninov’s Piano Suite No. 2
features French Gardiner and the Monteverdi being performed by Charles Owen
contralto Delphine
Choir, and both the music and and Katya Apekisheva. I’m dying
Galou singing sacred
pieces from the 17th to get their recent recording. I
and 18th centuries. love Rachmaninov and this suite
The performances are is one of his most joyful, upbeat
energetic and touching, and melodic creations. It was a
showing a great feel
for the music and the
wonderful performance of a
spirit of the words. piece that is fiendishly difficult
and they are a great duo. The
music is so ebullient, joyful and
life-affirming.
Julius Drake and tenor Ian
Bostridge will be celebrating
25 years of collaboration with a
concert at Middle Temple Hall,
Dynamic duo: Apekisheva and Owen London, on 29 November

Our Choices The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites

Oliver Condy Editor
Considering Elgar (below) was an organist
himself, he wrote very little music for the
instrument. Having just come into possession of
the Novello score of Elgar’s complete works for
organ, it’s been a joy to discover simple works
such as the Vesper Voluntaries, the delightful
Cantique, an arrangement of the orchestral
Severn Suite, some of the unfinishhed
sketches of fugues and sonatas anda
a work written for the opening of tthe
Loughborough Memorial Carillon.
GETTY, RICHARD CANNON, SIM CANETTY-CLARKE
composer Erkki Melartin (1875-1937) – these
are works that surely deserve to be considerably
better known. I’m particularly taken with the
Third, whose expansive opening movement,
complete with ominously rumbling timpani,
reminds me more than a little of Melartin’s
compatriot and contemporary, Sibelius.
Rebecca Franks Reviews editor
I think one of the marks of a great performance
is how long it sticks in the memory. A week after
going to Welsh National Opera’s production
Alice Pearson Cover CD editor
Jonathan Harvey’s Mortuos plango, vivos voco is
a milestone of electro-acoustic music in which
the composer manipulates the pure human voice
and the rich tolling resonance of the great bell
of Winchester Cathedral into a seamless and
luxuriant aural texture – his genius is to make
the technology his expressive tool and not be
controlled by it. I like my recording, produced by
the composer himself in 1980, nice and loud.
Neil McKim Production editor

Jeremy Pound Deputy editoor
Road-testing various streaming
services this month has given mee
the perfect opportunity to take a
wander around some of classical
music’s less well trodden areas.
My favourite discovery has been
the six symphonies by the Finnish
of Janáček’s
J From the House of the Dead
in Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre,
I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s an
overwhelming,
o disturbing opera that
fearlessly
f presents the horrific crimes of
a group of Siberian prisoners. Janáček’s
music
m is extreme, too, dancing between
beeauty and brutality. The musicians and
prodduction team did it full justice.
I’ve been enjoying the Allegri Quartet’s recording
of Beethoven’s uplifting String Quartet No. 14 in
C sharp minor. Anchored around an expansive
fourth movement – containing its own delightful
set of variations and a gorgeous opening violin
tune – are six movements that capture varying
moods, ranging from a wistful opening Adagio to
a scurrying Presto. A high-spirited Allegro finale
rounds off this masterpiece.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 23

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
DONA NOBIS PACEM

BERNSTEIN
CHICHESTER PSALMS

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge and

Britten Sinfonia explore a theme of peace through
the choral music of Vaughan Williams and Bernstein.

Features soloists Roderick Williams and Ailish Tynan

in a new arrangement of Dona nobis pacem by
Jonathan Rathbone, plus a specially-commissioned
essay about the two works.

SACD | Download | Stream

www.kingscollegerecordings.com

Richard Morrison
Why are musicians so fearful of
stepping outside their specialisms?
I
t helps to have more than one string
to your bow, especially if you don’t
have a spare one in your cello
case. And if that sounds like a chronic
example of mixed metaphors, bear
with me. At this year’s Lammermuir
Festival, the cellist Alban Gerhardt
had the misfortune to snap a C string
in the rehearsal, then another in his
recital with the pianist Steven Osborne
leaving him C-stringless. Luckily a
cellist in the audience had a spare one in
her car, but that left a ten-minute hiatus.
Gerhardt coolly put his cello down
and played a piano duet with Osborne
instead, one of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances.
Of course he comes from a family
of musicians. His dad played violin
in the Berlin Philharmonic, his mum
was a coloratura soprano, his brother
a guitarist, and he himself studied
piano as seriously as cello in his teens.
Even so, how refreshing to find a top
instrumentalist willing to risk a public
performance on his second instrument.
There are deep, dark reasons
why most don’t. Competition in the
music world is brutal and nonstop.
In such an atmosphere, cultivating
an aura of perfection becomes more
important than exhibiting spontaneity,
improvisational skills or daring. Or
simply having fun. It’s hard to imagine
five brilliant youngsters today risking
what Jacqueline du Pré, Daniel
Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Itzhak
Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman risked
nearly 50 years ago: allowing a film-
maker to record them larking about
on each other’s instruments during
rehearsals for Schubert’s Trout Quintet.
Barenboim is one of the few eminent
musicians to speak out against over-
specialisation. A few years ago I had the
daunting task of refereeing (I choose the
verb advisedly) a discussion between
him and Pierre Boulez in which he
launched into a diatribe about how
conservatoires turn out instrumentalists
who know little about each other’s
instruments and the historical context
of the music they played. ‘My friend
Edward Said always said that a specialist
is someone who knows more and
more about less and less,’ Barenboim
thundered. ‘That’s deeply worrying.’
Boulez murmured: ‘Except if you have
a brain tumour, Danny.’
Cultivating an aura of
perfection can become
more important than
exhibiting spontaneity
‘Sorry?’ Barenboim replied, his
rhetoric momentarily deflated.
‘Well,’ said Boulez, ‘if I had a brain
tumour I would rather have a specialist
than an all-rounder to do the surgery.’
Boulez had a point. Specialists are
prized in many fields because there’s
no substitute for a level of expertise
acquired through years of study and
practice. But should music be one of
them? Shouldn’t all composers aim
to be like Paul Hindemith, who wrote
a sonata for almost all the orchestra’s
instruments and could play them all
himself? Shouldn’t all conductors be
like Lorin Maazel capable of plucking
a fiddle from the leader’s hands and
demonstrating a bowing or fingering?
The answer is that it takes all sorts to
make a varied musical world. You could
Opinion
argue that the sort of jack-of-all-trades
brain that enabled Hindemith to play
every instrument also compelled him to
write grey, functional music. Similarly,
the easy mastery of Maazel on violin
may have contributed to the arrogance
that made him a little-loved conductor.
But I accept Barenboim’s general
point. In the UK, the education system
makes children choose between subjects
at a very early age. By 14, most will have
dropped music and art. By 17 they will
be studying just three subjects, and by
19 just one. And such is the pressure
exerted on schools to deliver academic
results that extra-curricular hobbies are
squeezed out, if not actively discouraged.
Musicians have been at the forefront
of the campaign to reverse this
narrowing of the school curriculum
to what are seen as ‘proper’ academic
subjects. Yet do music conservatoires
behave any differently? I often meet
music students who believe because
of being told by teachers that the only
thing that matters, professionally, is
perfecting their playing techniques.
It’s hard to argue against that, because
without a solid technique a young
musician doesn’t stand a hope at an
audition with 200 applicants competing
for two jobs. But good technique by itself
guarantees only competence. Those
who aspire to artistry need to explore
the galaxy of emotions, experiences and
cultural riches that exist outside their
relationship with their own instrument.
Observing a parade of self-absorbed
finalists at a recent piano competition,
I did start to wonder whether some of
them even realised there was a world
outside their practice studios.
Richard Morrison is chief music
critic and a columnist of The Times
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 25
Isabelle Faust

A
different
angle
Is Mendelssohn’s Violin
Concerto old hat? Not at all,
says Isabelle Faust, whose new
period instrument recording
sheds light on the original spirit
of this Romantic masterpiece.
She tells Clemency Burton-Hill
about its many challenges
PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN MILLAR

26 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

‘I t was never the thing I thought the world
needed my interpretation of!’ Isabelle Faust
is laughing as I ask about her new recording
of that not-exactly-underserved warhorse,
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. ‘It was the first big
Romantic concerto I learned when I was a kid, and I played it
so much; there are so many recordings out there. We all grow
up with favourite interpretations, don’t we?’ Indeed: mine was
a young Kyung-Wha Chung collaboration with Charles Dutoit
that I played on repeat until it gave up the ghost. ‘Mine was
Anne-Sofie Mutter,’ she grins. ‘I had it on a CD paired with
the Bruch and I’d listen over and over again. And you know,
certain famous interpretations become fixed, they get burned
into your vision of what a piece is. At the beginning, perhaps
you deliberately want to imitate them, but then we tend to get
hooked on certain things – it’s as though this is the way the
piece should sound forever. We have to be clear, though: those
things are just habit, and fashion.’

THE ELFIN GERMAN violinist, 45, is
not one to cling to habit. Winner of the
Leopold Mozart International Violin
Competition in 1987 and a multiple
award-winner ever since, she has steadily
forged a distinctive path for herself
in the overpopulated world of violin
virtuosos. Her string of remarkable
‘period firsts’ include Franck’s Violin
Sonata and concertos by Mozart and
Schumann. So why Mendelssohn;
why now? The temptation to apply a
similar degree of intellectual curiosity
and historical acumen to this concerto
became irresistible, she admits, for two
reasons: a ‘serendipitous encounter’ with a
musicologist who was intent on revealing
the approach of the three violinists –
Ferdinand David, Joseph Joachim and
Hubert Léonard – who performed under
the composer’s own baton; and the
opportunity to work with the Freiburger
Barockorchester which, having never
previously tackled the concerto, could do
so unencumbered.
Faust’s face, which exudes radiant
intelligence, shines even brighter when she
tells me this. ‘It felt like such
an occasion, such a challenge,
such luck for me to work with
a group that did not bring
the usual heavy baggage,’ she
says. ‘I thought: let’s go, let’s clearly took it
see what happens when we play at an incredible
this not just on gut strings and with speed; we have
historical winds – and I would a contemporary
never have recorded it not on gut review which
– but when we really look at what notes that he
someone like Joachim, working with played it quicker
Mendelssohn, would have done. We than anybody
have a lot of help from him because else. And in all
in his score he writes, at certain bar three violin parts
numbers, very specific instructions there is so much
– like “composer would not have portamento. It’s
wanted ritardando here”. He is highly clear they used it
detailed in his descriptions about things very differently from a modern glissando.
like the use of vibrato; portamento; how to From our perspective, the strangest
use the bow. And we have his fingerings fingerings are in the second movement: in
and bowings which are very interesting. an upwards arpeggio, all three of them use
You play it like this and something very the first finger four times, like this.’ She
different comes out!’ demonstrates the awkward shift with her
What was the biggest revelation? ‘At first left hand and gives a little grimace. ‘When
I found the metronome markings and the I first took it to the orchestra and Pablo
tempos so quick,’ she admits. ‘Joachim [Heras-Casado, the conductor], I thought:

6028BBCBBC
28 MUSIC
MUSIC
MAGAZINE
MAGAZINE

“I need to prepare him for what I’m up to,
otherwise he will think I’m completely
nuts, he’ll think: what is she doing with
these tempos, those portamenti?” But
they are so professional the Freiburgers,
they listen so carefully, they are so open,
and have such a freedom of adapting. Yes,
it sounds different to what we are used
to, but for me it was thrilling: to see how,
working directly with Mendelssohn,
these violinists created sentiment without
overwhelming the music with vibrato,
with sugar.’
Nobody could accuse Faust of a fondness
for sugar: she is persistently acclaimed
for her emotional restraint and seeming
preference for introverted team-playing
over virtuosic dazzle. But such techniques
were a challenge even for her. ‘At first I had
to force myself to override the fingerings
I knew so well,’ she admits. ‘When I first
GETTY
started playing it like this, I was having
Devilish apparel: Isabelle
Faust is photographed
for BBC Music Magazine
in Berlin; (opposite)
Felix Mendelssohn
‘As you give it more
chances you will
ğQGLWWRXFKLQJ
interesting, with
a new freshness’
to use the score and read the music in
concert, otherwise my old reflexes would
have kicked in.’ Even close friends – ‘who
know I am always looking for a new way of
doing things’ – were ‘shocked’ when they
first heard her radical period reboot. ‘It did
seem to be a completely different way of
playing Romantic music, but that, as I say,
is just habit.’ She gives a disarming shrug.
‘After all, it took people a long time to get
Isabelle Faust
used to conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt:
now people find what he does fantastic.’
I’m intrigued not just by the process of
unlearning what you know in your bones
and of having to internalise ‘new’ historical
techniques, but how you then overlay a
distinctive musical interpretation over the
top. Were her emotional instincts about
this long-loved concerto transformed
by her scholarship? ‘It was so interesting
how my view about the piece changed
over a very short period of time,’ she nods.
‘I had about two or three months, while
also playing a lot of other repertoire, to
figure out a way to integrate this new
information, really fully absorb it, learn
and digest a lot of new technical needs, and
then create a tabula rasa so I could come
to the recording with something I could
really stand behind. Because it was not my
desire to produce a performance based
purely on theoretical knowledge; it should
not sound like I’m giving you a history
lesson simply because I happen to have
read the sources – if that were the case it
could sound quite artificial and that would
be the worst! I wanted to come up with my
own interpretation. This is not me saying
“Joseph Joachim or Ferdinand David
would definitely sound like this”, but I
tried to not ignore what I saw from those
parts and then take what I could to make
the concerto my own.’ She smiles. ‘It now
feels very natural to me, in a certain way, so
I hope it sounds natural too.’
It does. Like many, I suspect, who have
the Mendelssohn Concerto running
through their blood, I was slightly wrong-
footed by the first hearing but became
swiftly convinced. ‘Good,’ Faust laughs.
‘I’ve seen with projects like the Mozart’ – a
concerto cycle with Il Giardino Armonico
– ‘that it’s not so easy to open people’s ears
and make them listen at least, say, three
times. The first time, people of course find
it strange. Then they listen again and start
to discover different things – suddenly,
perhaps, or more slowly, depending on
how open the ears are, or how rusty, or
how determined you are to hear what
you want to hear! But I think as you give
it more chances you will find it touching,
interesting, with a new freshness.’
Faust’s fearless curiosity and
reinvigorating interpretations certainly
deserve to reach a larger audience. ‘I
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 29
Love can make
you lose your head.
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
Britten’s unforgettable story, in English
1 –15 March at London Coliseum
Tickets from £12 plus booking fee* at eno.org

English National Opera

*£1.50 fee per ticket up to a maximum of £6 per

transaction applies to online and telephone bookings.
Words by Andy Rigden Photography by James Day Design by Rose

hope they can. As I say, I don’t feel like
giving any lessons,’ she insists; ‘the score
can only ever be a symbolic thing. But I
feel extremely lucky that my own musical
path guided me to the place where I am
happiest. Through playing on gut strings,
taking a different approach to music of
different periods, reading a lot, trying to
get information so I’m not completely in
the air, the possibilities were opened of
interpreting music in a wonderful way.
And having the opportunity to work with
the likes of Andreas Staier, Frans Brüggen,
Il Giardino, the Freiburgers – it has opened
up questions I might otherwise not have
asked myself. Because of that I somehow
entered a different musical universe.’
I get the impression that in this alternate
universe of hers, Faust rather likes
questions. ‘I love questions!’ she beams.
‘Always asking
yourself means
the way you play is
not so automatic’
‘They enrich your knowledge even if you
don’t find the answers. Always asking
yourself means the way you play is not so
automatic. And the answers are multiple:
sometimes you think you’ve found
some, and then it’s frustrating because
your esteemed colleague is thinking the
contrary, or the sources suggest otherwise,
but to be honest I’m over the point where
I think I need to find the answer. The
question is much more interesting. It
is incredible to play the Mendelssohn
concerto, having played it so many
times, and think: “this is a new piece!” To
re-question everything and not just follow
what your teacher told you to do, or what
famous violinists did on your favourite
recording. It’s important to be able to feel
about this piece that it was written today.’
When she is not delving into the riches
of the canon and re-cutting gems we
all think we know inside out, making
them shine in surprising new ways,
Faust also plays plenty of 20th-century
GETTY
and contemporary music. While her
Isabelle Faust
Perfect partnership:
David Oistrakh and
Shostakovich in 1968;
(below) Fritz Kreisler Joint venture:
Joachim (standing)
advised Brahms
It takes two
Composer-violinist partnerships
Over the centuries, composers and
violinists have collaborated in the
creation of some of the instrument’s
greatest works. In the 18th century,
for instance, Vivaldi, JS Bach and
Telemann were all friends with violinist
Johann Georg Pisendel, leader of the
Dresden Court Orchestra. Pisendel
helped to popularise Vivaldi in Germanyy
and it’s thought that his own Sonata
for Solo Violin in A minor may have
been one of the major influences on
Bach’s music for solo violin.
Moving into the next century, Joseph
Joachim, a protégé of Mendelssohn,
later enjoyed close relations with Violin Sonata No. 2 in 1943. When,
Brahms. When writing his Violin 25 years later, Shostakovich penned
Concerto in 1878, Brahms sent a copy his Violin Sonata as a 60th-birthday
of the first movement to Joachim, the present to Oistrakh, it was partly in
work’s dedicatee, instructing him to thanks to a friend who had, over the
point out bits that might be unplayable years, often advised him on matters
and, tellingly, to ‘correct it, not sparing of technique and sound. And Oistrakh
the quality of the composition’. collaborated closely with Khachaturian
It was Fritz Kreisler who, in 1905, too, submitting his own cadenza for the
persuaded Elgar to compose his Violin latter’s Violin Concerto in 1940.
Concerto. Over the next five yyears,, Today
Today’ss co
composers also rely on
Kreisler made recomme endations soloists’ exxpertise. Anne Akiko
as the concerto took shape, Meyers’s w work with Rautavaara
and declared the finishe ed article in 2016 re esulted in the Finn
as the ‘greatest violin co oncerto incorporating her changes to the
produced since Beethovven’s’. bowing directions in Fantasia,
In the Soviet Union, one of his very last works.
David Oistrakh was A
And Daniel Hope works
a great source of closely with various
encouragement to composers, including
Prokofiev, prompting Roxanna Panufnik,
him to transform his Flute G
Gabriel Prokofiev and
Sonata, Op. 94 into his Jan Müller-Wieland.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 31
Isabelle Faust

A veritable feast of fabulous Faust

Six recordings that had our reviewers purring

Berg & Beethoven Violin Concertos

Orchestra Mozart/Claudio Abbado (Harmonia Mundi HMC902105)
‘Listening to these wonderful performances side by side is cathartic, an
experience Faust eloquently describes in the booklet notes as “an intense
journey through sorrow and suffering in the Berg, to Beethoven at his most
radiant, leaving all earthly cares far behind him”.’ April 2012
Mozart Violin Concertos
Il Giardino Armonico/Giovanni Antonini Team player:
(Harmonia Mundi HMC902230/31) ‘I prefer to interact
‘Mozart told his father on one occasion that when he played one of his with people’
concertos “it flowed like oil”. Much the same could be said of Isabelle
Faust’s remarkably smooth and sweet-toned playing.’ February 2017
Beethoven Violin Sonatas partners as pianist Alexander Melnikov
Alexander Melnikov (piano) (Harmonia Mundi HMC902025/27) and fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout
‘These are the most stimulating and fascinating accounts of the Beethoven (with whom, by the way, she has a
violin sonatas I have heard in many years. Faust and Melnikov bring out the mouthwatering new disc of Bach violin
full quirkiness of the earlier works as well as their beauty, and their playing and harpsichord sonatas out in January),
is remarkably accomplished throughout.’ October 2009
the season is designed to showcase her
Bartók Violin Concertos Nos 1 & 2 remarkable breadth of curiosity and
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding repertoire. Wigmore Hall has become
(Harmonia Mundi HMC902146)
a home-from-home for her; it is, Faust
‘Isabelle Faust’s interpretations of these masterpieces are compelling
from first bar to last. Her playing here is not only bold and energetic, but enthuses, ‘one of the most prestigious
also teasing and seductive.’ September 2013 small jewels for chamber music in the
whole world. Of course because it’s so
Schumann Violin Concerto
Freiburger Barockorchester/Pablo Heras-Casado historically important and beautiful, but
(Harmonia Mundi HMC902196) even more, it is about the audience that has
‘In this superb performance, Faust brings tremendous musical insight and grown inside that hall. You can count on
an infinite variety of colour. The advantage of presenting Schumann on one hand the places where you might find
period instruments is brilliantly demonstrated.’ June 2015 such an expert, attentive, warm-hearted,
Franck Violin Sonata passionate and eager public.’ She laughs.
Alexander Melnikov (piano) (Harmonia Mundi HMM902254) ‘Maybe if you live in London you think
‘The Franck sounds absolutely inspired and collegial: Alexander Melnikov that’s a normal thing, but I play all over the
emerges as veritable Carlos Acosta of the piano, a powerful virtuoso with world, and I can tell you it’s not.’
the ability also to offset Faust’s elegance and soaring phrases (and, of Having seen Faust perform often
course, whispering) with self-effacing charm.’ August 2017
in Wigmore Hall over the years, it’s
no surprise that she should feel so at
home. For all the acclaim she receives
recital programmes are as likely to include is an example: I’m giving a premiere in as a concerto soloist, I sense that in her
Ligeti and Lachenmann as Mozart and December of a work by Ondrej Adamek heart she thinks of herself as chamber
Mendelssohn, she has an impressive and he is so specific in colours, in sounds. musician. ‘Always,’ she confirms, with
record of working with today’s composers, It is essential to work with the composer that disarming smile. ‘Whatever I’m
including Ondrej Adamek, Marco because it’s not something you can playing, I prefer to interact with the people.
Stroppa, Oscar Strasnoy and Beat Furrer. immediately read in the score. And that Through dialogue, through polyphony,
As I write, a handful of new concertos are makes me think: there are a few bars in the through everything that goes on between
being composed for her. ‘I would find it Schumann Violin Concerto which were musicians, we listen to each other, and
very strange not to play the music of today,’ impossible to play; Joachim came up with through listening, that’s what makes it
she admits. ‘Do we want to only dig in the his proposal for these passages. It was an interesting; that’s what makes it each time
museum of dead music? Think about it: in intense collaboration between composer a new piece; that’s what creates the most
Mozart’s time, most of the pieces were new and violinist. And now I can collaborate in emotion. That’s how I don’t get bored.
and it was essential for people to hear new the same way with a composer, looking for Standing up and playing something to
things and not simply look back or resort to a solution as Joachim may have done.’ show off I’m just not interested.’ She
pieces they could already whistle along to.’ Intense collaboration is certainly the grins. ‘For me, it’s not about showing
Do these living collaborations inform name of Faust’s game. We meet in London what you can do. It’s about the music.
how she approaches a historically- on the eve of the opening weekend in Always, the music.’
informed project such as the a five-concert residency at Wigmore Faust’s recording of the Mendelssohn Violin
GETTY

Mendelssohn? She thinks about it. ‘Here Hall. Alongside such cherished musical Concerto is out now on Harmonia Mundi

32 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 6032

 2017- 2018 New for
NOVEMBER 2017
TAMSINWALEY-COHEN
& HUW WATKINS
return with a new disc
exploring folk-inspired
Bohemia from before
the First World War,
featuring works by:
Antonin Dvořák
Josef Suk and
Leoš Janáček.

SIGCD510
MARY BEVAN soprano
& JOSEPH MIDDLETON
perform a programme exploring
the genius of Baudelaire and
Goethe, and how texts by
them unlocked very specific
musical landscapes in settings
by Debussy, Duparc, Chausson,
de Bréville, Séverac, Fauré and
Schubert.

SIGCD509
ROXANNA PANUFNIK
& SIR JOHN TAVENER
Voce Chamber Choir
Suzi Digby conductor
For intimate recitals in-the-round, A personal tribute to Sir John
Tavener. At the heart of the
huge international orchestras disc is the premiere recording
or listening to Beethoven in a car park, of Panufnik’s ‘99 Words to my
Darling Children’, a moving

everyone is welcome. SIGCD519

setting of Tavener’s last message
to his family.

FRETWORK
HIS MAJESTYS SAGBUTTS
AND CORNETTS
MAGDALENA CONSORT
Some of the leading performers of
17th-century music combine
forces under the artistic direction
of William Hunt for this first
complete recording of the consort
anthems of Orlando Gibbons.

SIGCD511

WWW.SIGNUMRECORDS.COM
Distributed by [PIAS] in the UK
& Naxos of America in the USA
34 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
 Cecilia Bartoli

You have to play

or sing with passion
– lyrical, dramatic,
whatever it is – but
with passion
THE BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE INTERVIEW

Cecilia Bartoli
BBC Radio 4’s James Naughtie
talks to the Italian mezzo about
her ceaseless quest to revive
forgotten masterpieces, and
how her voice has changed for
the better over the years.
PHOTOGRAPHY: ULI WEBER
known repertoire, and is always hunting
around for the obscure or the forgotten
poking around in the St Petersburg
archives, for example, for music by Italian
visitors to Catherine the Great’s court,
which they were forbidden to take home
afterwards. ‘People talk about crossover,’
she says. ‘That is my crossover. Of course I
sing music everyone knows – but also the

D
olce Duello – a sweet duel. Mezzo- work of composers who are forgotten.’
soprano Cecilia’s Bartoli’s new So a singer, who 20 years ago was a
recording of Baroque arias is best-selling recording artist, in demand
indeed a luxurious and comfortable from every opera house and with a
journey, but it’s also bristling with fire. huge following, has consistently tried to
Her collaboration with the cellist Sol innovate and surprise. It may be one of the
Gabetta involves a delicious struggle reasons for her bubbling good humour and
between voice and cello, a restless to-and- confidence. There’s nothing weary about
fro that explores music over a century or her; the quest goes on.
so, from the birth of the Baroque onwards. We meet in Gstaad in the Alps, where she
But no one who’s watched Bartoli in recent spends a good deal of time, and it’s natural
times will be surprised that it includes that along with the Gabetta collaboration,
little-known works by Nicola Porpora and which she’s taking on a European tour,
Antonio Caldara among others. she should talk about her endless desire to
It’s a collection (see them at the Barbican present music to challenge expectations.
in London on 1 December with the Capella This is hardly revolutionary, but it is
Gabetta) that catches the liveliness of fresh. We speak about Handel’s Ariodante
Bartoli’s musical imagination. Over the at the Salzburg Whitsun festival, in
years, she has consistently opened up little- which she took the title role, the part

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 35

 “ T h a n k y o u f o r p r o v i d i n g p i a n o s t h a t h a v e p e r s o n a l i t y a n d e v e n m o r e i m p o r t a n t l y, s o u l .”

HÉLÈNE GRIMAUD
S T E I N W AY A R T I S T

photography: mat hennek

St e i n wa y Ha l l 4 4 Ma r yl ebo ne La ne Lo ndo n W 1U 2 D B

Fo r more informa tio n o r t o a r ra ng e a pr i va t e a ppo in t m e n t

a t ou r L ond on sh ow ro o m s , pl ea s e c a l l :

0207 4 8 7 3 3 9 1 o r em a i l i nf o @ s t ei nw a y. c o . uk

Meeting of minds:
Bartoli talks to
James Naughtie in
Gstaad, Switzerland
first played by one of Handel’s favourite
castrati, Giovanni Carestini. ‘The role is
very tricky because this is why Carestini
was a star it’s low and it’s high and you
need a flexible voice. Things become
very dramatic after the first act. They’re
some of the most beautiful scenes Handel
composed. I’m so interested in the
repertoire of the castrati [her disc of music
for castrati, Sacrificium, was released in
2009], because they had the chance to
sing, thanks to their popularity, the music
of the greatest composers of their time.’
But how did they sound? We know the
countertenor voice so well in our own time,
but what about these 18th-century heroes
of the stage? ‘It’s difficult to say maybe
impossible but it’s true that when a
castrato was ill, he was often replaced by a
mezzo-soprano (though not in the Vatican,
of course!) and this means that we can
say a castrato had a voice something like
a woman’s, but with the power of a man’s.
And without being a man, you could say.’
The consequence for Bartoli is a
vocal challenge. ‘It suits me, but it’s
quite demanding, because a man was
performing this. You have to produce the
power but especially the intensity, and that
is difficult. In Ariodante, there’s a huge act
with a huge coloratura… well that’s fine,
but in the second and third acts it becomes
RAPHAEL FAUX
more dramatic. So you have to show the
depth of the character and also the depth
of the tragedy, so you need to be not only a
good singer but also a good actor.’
She goes on to speak about her own
approach to operatic roles, like the Norma
seen at the Edinburgh Festival last year
in which she sang the title role as a mezzo,
her own voice considerably darker than it
used to be. ‘First of all, what we performed
‘I feel that I can
sustain a beautiful
long phrase more
comfortably now’
is exactly what Bellini composed. We kept
the same keys for everything. Remember
this. When it was premiered, Norma was
probably around 35. You realise the story
much better that way. It makes much more
sense like Don Giovanni, tied to Donna
Elvira and looking for the young Zerlina,
not the other way around!’
If emotional truth is the point, Norma
is better not sung by a soprano. ‘Here is
why. You need a drama in the role. You
need to know there has been this terrible
conflict from the very beginning of the
opera because she is lying from the start.
She’s trying to take time without telling
her father and her people that she had
Cecilia Bartoli
already two children with the enemy. This
is how Norma begins and you have to feel
that conflict. The moment she opens her
mouth she’s not telling the truth about her
life. Everything comes from the integrity
of the story. The libretto is important. The
story has to be believable.’
For her, a mezzo Norma, which some
audiences hadn’t heard but Bellini’s
audiences would mostly have expected,
was in part a piece of dramatic integrity,
but also a chance to exploit to the full the
changes in her own voice, which began
to dazzle audiences with its power and
range many years ago. ‘I feel of course
that my voice changed some years ago. I
can sustain a beautiful long phrase more
comfortably now. It is easier to sustain and
I can tell you it is much more comfortable
than even 15 years ago. Somehow I can
keep the elasticity in the voice, but I can go
deeper into the music. Somehow I know
my instrument better now. Learning and
performing with other musicians and
other instruments, you know.’
So the collaboration with Sol Gabetta
was a natural one. ‘This is certainly the case.
This part of the cello Baroque repertoire
is often forgotten, but the combination of
cello and voice was quite usual. Sometimes
the voice dominates, sometimes the cello.
It was a style that people knew.
‘Especially in the Baroque time the
voice had to fight with the trumpet
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 37
Cecilia Bartoli
Double bow:
Gabetta and Bartoli
in close harmony
Sol Gabetta
The cellist on the joys of working
alongside Cecilia Bartoli
I’ve known Cecilia
Bartoli for many
years: she lives in
Zurich and I live in
Basel and we’ve
been to each
other’s concerts
many times. She’s an extraordinary
musician. Her most unbelievable
quality is her extreme pianissimos
– the control she has over every
single note. Bartoli is very famous
because of her virtuosity – which is
quite right, of course, but I think that
what moves me even more is how
incredibly strong her slow and soft
singing is. It’s much more difficult
to keep your energy up in this sort
of music.
I recognised something in my
personality that attracted me to her,
probably because all string players
are told by their teachers to play
like a singer. The bow should breath
like a singer; you should not stop
the note when you change the bow;
you need to articulate like a singer.
There are so many musical ideals
in the voice. To have the chance to
work with someone like Cecilia was
a dream because I was an admirer
of her, and I’ve learnt so many things
RAPHAEL FAUX
from her approach both to the music
and to her audiences. She has so
much energy!
38 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
sometimes, but I do believe that the voice
of the cello is very similar to the mezzo
voice, especially in expressing humanity,
and Sol is such a fantastic musician. I’ve
known her for many years. She has a love
of enjoyment, and a deep passion for music
and everything else. That’s important. You
have to play or sing with passion lyric,
dramatic, whatever it is but with passion.’
Bartoli’s enjoyment of the Baroque
repertoire, demonstrated on the new
recording, brings us back to Handel, the
composer who, along with Rossini, has
probably defined her voice for so many
audiences. ‘I think he was aware of the
weakness of humanity, the distress of
humanity. I have the same feeling with
Mozart’s music, and of course he was a
big admirer of Handel’s music, too. And
it’s hard to believe now how much of the
music was neglected for so long. But that
is the way that it was. Baroque opera was
huge. Vivaldi was better known as an
opera composer than anything else.’
And beside Handel stands Rossini, who
offers so much for the Bartoli voice and in
whose operas she’s been such a conquering
presence. ‘Isn’t it strange that now Rossini
is better known for comic opera than
anything? We know Cenerentola and The
Barber of Seville so well. But I’m singing
L’Italiana in Algieri next year to mark the
150th anniversary of his death in 1868,
and when you think of that date you
remember how the structure of music was
developing. It was the year of Wagner’s Die
Meistersinger. Imagine that. The world was
shifting. A different kind of drama.’
Concert dress:
together in a recent
performance featuring
the Capella Gabetta
The theme of the conversation, it turns
out, is intensity. No one who has watched
Bartoli in concert or on the operatic stage
can doubt her emotional and physical
immersion in the performance: nothing
is held back; everything is brought to bear
on the music. And whether she’s talking
about Handel’s humanity, the suitability
of the cello as a partner to the mezzo voice,
or the common sense casting of Norma for
a voice like hers, the purpose is to make
the case for emotional commitment. She
talks about Ariodante with the enthusiasm
that you’d expect a young singer to show,
having recently discovered Handel.
Without wishing to stretch the point
about a long career, Bartoli has had plenty
of time to get accustomed to a familiar
repertoire that she can return to again and
again. But she’s still exploring, restlessly.
‘In this recording [with Sol Gabetta] you
will hear music that creates passion in
me. That is why I love singing, of course.
You have to show it, all the time. It is what
music suggests to you, and you have to
obey. Every time you sing. Why else do it?’
Bartoli’s sheer vivacity points to
someone who appears much less
interested in maintaining the standards
of her own stellar career, but in pressing
on in repertoire, with developing parts
of her voice that weren’t obvious to the
same degree a decade or two ago and in
discovering the unknown or the lost.
‘The difference is between being a good
singer and a good artist, and I tell you that
there is a big gap between them.’
Dolce Duello is out on Decca on 10 November
 © Jens Braun
STEVEN ISSERLIS & CONNIE SHIH

The Cello in Wartime

and pieces played on a Trench Cello

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 Perchance
to stream
The time is ripe to talk about music
streaming. As several new services open
their digital doors, we survey the scene
and select the best streaming sites and apps

S
treaming may have been around for
over 20 years, but only now is it coming
of age. If you had internet access back
in 1995, you’ll remember that, thanks
to that endless buffering, streaming audio and
video was a painful experience. It took days to
download a symphony, too.
When ‘high-speed’ internet (sluggish by
today’s standards) made surfing bearable around
2006, downloads became the norm, spurred on
by Apple’s iPod which enabled us to carry 5,000
tracks around with us. But downloads took up the world among Tchaikovsky, Tschaikowsky,
space on your device; and inevitable hard drive Tchaikowsky, Ciaikovsky. The thinking seems to
failure meant that thousands of hours of music be: sort out intelligent metadata, and you’ll have
could be deleted in seconds. Today, downloading the keys to the streaming kingdom.
is taking a back seat, overtaken by streaming. But not quite. And this is where streaming has
whose sound quality, until very recently, has yet to prove its worth. Artists are currently paid
been its Achilles heel. so little per stream (fractions of pennies) that a
However, two problems need solving.
In around handful of labels are refusing to come on board.
The first is metadata – the information that 2006, downloads So, until musicians, composers and labels are
tells us everything we need to know about a rewarded sufficiently ‘per stream’, the industry is
recording. Without it, classical music is an EHFDPHWKHbQRUP a little wary of throwing its weight behind it.
unsearchable, unfathomable mess of random In the meantime, new streaming services are
tracks. Mainstream software, however, has spurred on by offering listeners realistic alternatives to physical
traditionally only been good for rock and pop –
Apple’s iTunes displays artist, album, song, year,
Apple’s iPod recordings, thousands of hours of music at a
click. And our guide to the best of them over
artwork but not much else. No separate field for the next six pages will help you find the best
chorus, conductor, librettist, edition, orchestra experience for your money. We haven’t included
leader… And while there is only one way to spell streamed content from the BBC in our survey,
GETTY

Taylor Swift, you can take your pick around but you can find much of it on its websites.

40 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


Classical-only services
Featured artists, curated playlists, expert
guidance… these are the kinds of things
a classical-only service can offer. But has
anyone built a top-notch site yet?
THE BEST THREE
Naxos
naxosmusiclibrary.com
plus iOS and Android apps
Price: free via many institutions; individual
from £17.40 per month
Naxos Music Library is expensive, but if your
school, university or library belongs, then you
could get it free. NML’s website and apps may
be in desperate need of a design update, but its
incredible resources and content make it king.
There are more than 130,000 recordings from
800 labels, you can download booklet notes and
Music streaming
cover artwork and there are glossaries, podcasts
and interactive music courses. A search for
William Byrd throws up 605 recordings. Way
ahead of the competition.
Pros: An almost limitless resource; free for many
users; good sound quality; education services.
Cons: Looks outdated; no curated content;
no lossless streaming.
Rating: 8/10
Idagio
idagio.com plus iOS and Android apps
Price: £9.99 per month
Idagio is relatively new, much like Primephonic
(see p42) – although there’s much to enjoy, there’s
a way to go. While recordings on the homepage
get the full editorial and design treatment, things
get sparser deeper in, but lists of instruments,
artists and composers show a site already
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 41
Get the best from streaming services
Audio expert Chris Haslam shows you how to get the music from your device onto your hi-fi and into your ears

It’s great knowing you’ve got access to virtually every note of

music ever recorded, but without the right hi-fi equipment all Bluetoothsome:
the Arcam Mini Blink
you’ve got is some expensive binary code. At the very least, you’ll
sells at around £99
need home broadband, ideally with Wi-Fi, and if you want to listen
to music on the go, a smartphone or portable MP3/Music player
and a pair of headphones.

A simple set-up
Assuming you want to liberate your digital music from the
confines of a player, the easiest – and cheapest – solution is to
simply connect your phone, MP3 player or laptop to your existing
hi-fi either using a 3.5mm jack plugged into the headphone
socket, or one with a 3.5mm jack to RCA phono, that feeds into
your amplifier. If you’re streaming, rather than playing downloaded
music, make sure it’s over Wi-Fi to avoid data charges.

Bluetooth streaming
There are dozens of Bluetooth speakers, radios and hi-fi
components that give you the convenience of wireless music
streaming from your smartphone or tablet. If you have an existing
hi-fi, a plug-and-play box such as the Arcam Mini Blink (£99) or
Google Chromecast Audio (£30) offer an instant upgrade with
solid sound quality. Bluetooth speakers cost from just £20, but
these cheap options, which often use batteries for portability,
generally sound terrible, so it’s worth spending more. One of the
best options is the £200 Audio Pro Addon T3, but brands such
as BeoPlay and KEF also impress.
Most all-in-one stereo systems now feature Bluetooth
alongside DAB radio and even CD. The Denon D-M41DAB (£380)
will appeal to the traditionalist looking to upgrade, while the
gorgeous Ruark R4 (£699) makes a stylish sound statement.
To enjoy the best quality Bluetooth streaming, look for the aptX
logo. This is your guarantee of almost CD quality streaming (and

Grammofy
The streaming market is
tough, and at the time
of going to press, we
learnt of the sad demise
of Grammofy, a service
with one of the more
colourful and imaginative
approaches. Its playlists
were clearly conceived
from knowledge and
passion, and its spoken
curations were often fun.
Its weak spot, however,
seemed to be its reliance
on playlists alone rather
than a service that catered
to individual tastes.
jam-packed, and comparing different recordings
of the same work is a breeze. Playlists, either
expert-curated or based on mood, are well
thought-through, and the FLAC streaming
quality is excellent. The slick app is easy to use.
Pros: Fine iOS app; good playlists; clear site
layout; good sound
Cons: A little bare away from the homepage;
no label info on many recordings
Rating: 7/10
Primephonic
play.primephonic.com plus iOS app coming
in December
Price: $14.99 per month after free trial
Primephonic’s uncluttered website puts search
at its heart (it needs sorting ‘Paul Lewis
Waldstein’ presented us with Schubert). At
present, content is limited: there are only 40
labels and 9,000 recordings, playlists are thin
and the ‘Medieval’ section yields eight works,
although the lossless sound is excellent. Talks
with the major labels are ongoing, with Warner
Classics and Sony Classical recently joining.
Primephonic promises much, but wait a few
months before diving in.
Pros: Enticing design, clearly laid out; fast-
growing library of content; good sound.
Cons: Limited library; search a little awry.
Rating: 6/10
What else is out there?
Classical Archives ($7.99 a month) comes a
close fourth, offering a great deal of music for
relatively low monthly cost, although there is
no major label content at present. Its iPhone
app works well (Airplay and Sonos compatible),
although music has to be ‘queued’ before it can
be played. There are some interesting interviews
and blogs (it would be nice to see that side of
things pepped up a bit) but the site looks a
little old-fashioned and needs clarifying. We
wanted to like DiscMuseum more ( from just
£2 a month for limited access). Music is sorted by
composers, instruments, moods etc, but there’s
no general search function and no CD artwork.
Plus, many of the recordings on offer are quite
old the most recent recording of Beethoven’s
Third Piano Concerto is from 1963. But what
there is is fascinating. Finally, we were about to
test Grammofy but the service is shutting in
November (see box, left).

42 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


24-bit ‘better than CD quality’ with the new aptX HD service).
Remember though, you’ll need a compatible speaker and music
player to benefit, and Apple devices don’t support it. For iPhone,
etc. you’ll need to use Airplay for CD-quality streaming over Wi-Fi.
Hi-res streaming
If you’ve subscribed to a hi-res streaming service, you can plug
your laptop into your hi-fi with a 3.5mm to RCA cable, but to get
Multi-genre services
If your listening goes beyond classical music,
consider a service covering all genres for one
monthly fee. But given their enormity, finding
what you want can be a little hit and miss.
THE BEST THREE
Qobuz
Qobuz’s
play.qobuz.com plus iOS and Android apps presentation is
Price: £9.99 per month (Premium); £19.99 per
month (Hi-fi); £219 per year (Sublime); £349 per both informative
year (Sublime+); three-month free trial period
There’s a lot to like here, whether you’re using
and eye-catching,
the basic ‘Premium’ service (MP3 320 kbps) and there’s a
or the ultra-plush ‘Sublime+’ (Hi-Res 24-bit
FLAC). Searching for, say, ‘Haydn Violin handy list of latest
Concertos’ brought up a wide (and, unlike some
services, relevant) range of recordings and
releases
the presentation is both informative and eye-
catching. The bespoke ‘Classical’ section has
a handy list of latest releases and – this is the
clincher – many recordings come accompanied
by the original sleevenotes in PDF format. Some
all-encompassing sites seem to treat classical
music like a necessary but inconvenient add-on;
with Qobuz, you feel they actually care.
Music streaming
Remote controls:
Naim’s Mu-So wireless
system; (left) the
£399 Chord Mojo
the best sound it might be worth investing in a separate DAC
(digital-to-analogue converter) like the Chord Mojo (£399).
Some systems also let you play hi-res files from USB storage
devices or networked PC via an Ethernet cable, while dedicated
hi-fi ‘streamers’ such as the Cambridge Audio CXN (£800)
pulls music files from virtually all sources and upscales to
hi-res 24-bit/384kHz.
Wireless convenience
Multi-room wireless systems such as Sonos (from £199), Naim
Mu-so (from £649) and Yamaha MusicCast (from £149) offer
seamless integration with platforms such as Spotify, Qobuz and
Tidal, and Apple’s upcoming HomePod may give them all a run
for their money. Many of these can find and play downloaded
content on networked hard drives. These multi-speaker systems,
controlled via an app, connect to your home Wi-Fi to create a
stronger network than Bluetooth and streaming in higher quality.
Pros: Choice of formats, ease of use, sleevenotes.
Cons: Track details are not always clearly set out.
Rating: 8/10
Apple Music
apple.com/uk/music plus iOS
and Android apps
Price: £9.99 per month (individual);
£4.99 (student); £14.99 (family);
three-month free trial period
Don’t go hunting for technical details of audio
file formats here, as Apple keeps its magic secret
pretty much to itself: you’ll just have to judge
the results for yourself. Nor should you expect
much in the way of listening guidance, despite
the vast number of playlists to listen to. For
classical music fans, this is a service best suited
to those who already know what they are looking
for. Being able to switch easily between its huge
number of tracks and one’s own existing iTunes
library is a big plus, however.
Pros: A comprehensive, good quality service
with not much in the way frills.
Cons: Little in the way of accompanying
information; metadata not always accurate.
Rating: 7/10
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 43
 ANNE AKIKO MEYERS

RAUTAVAARA FANTASIA
SZYMANOWSKI CONCERTO NO.1
RAVEL TZIGANE

The exciting new release of Fantasia by

best-selling violinist Anne Akiko Meyers
captures the rare combination of virtuosity
and poetic color with the premiere recording
of the title track, Einojuhani Rautavaara’s
last masterpiece written for Meyers; Ravel’s
virtuoso showpiece Tzigane, and Karol
Szymanowski’s sensuous Violin Concerto No. 1.

“Playing that flows from the heart”

AV 2385

THE NEW YORK TIMES

avierecords.com
Distributed in the UK by Proper Music Distribution Ltd, The New Powerhouse, Gateway Business Centre, Kangley Bridge Road, London SE26 5AN, Tel: 020 8676 5114
 Music streaming

YouTube
youtube.com plus iOS and Android apps
Price: Free
Given that anyone, anywhere can upload a
video or audio file to YouTube, the range of
quality ranges from abysmal someone, say,
recording a crackly vinyl on their phone to
very good indeed. There are also the obvious
moral dilemmas: are the artists you are enjoying
receiving their due share of royalties? But it is all
free, and there are all sorts of gems historic and
contemporary, wonderful and plain weird that
you won’t find on the paid-for services. Always
worth a dabble. (See also video streaming
services, below).
Pros: A lot of unique audio and video content;
it’s completely free.
Cons: Much of that content is of variable quality.
Rating: 6/10
What else is out there?
The longest established of any streaming
service, Spotify also has the largest number of
users worldwide. For those wanting to explore
streaming for the first time, its Spotify Free
service which, as the name suggests, costs
nothing is a good place to start. You might,
though, find yourself driven to distraction by the
advertisements that crop up in between tracks.
If so, you may choose to upgrade to Spotify
Premium, which has a similar pricing structure
to Apple Music, as does another big player in
the market, Google Play as well individual
packages, all also offer family packages for up to
six people. Away from the ‘big boys’, meanwhile,
Napster and Tidal both offer neatly presented,
user-friendly services similar to Qobuz but
while Tidal has differently priced ‘Premium’
and ‘HiFi’ services, Napster allows one to switch
between three different levels of audio quality on
GETTY
Privileged access:
Find performances by
pianist Martha Argerich
on Medici TV; (above) rare
footage of Elgar on YouTube
Video streaming services
Few services cover all concerts, operas,
documentaries and masterclasses… So as well
as naming the best overall, we’ve picked the
top places to watch concerts and opera online.
THE BEST THREE
Medici TV
medici.tv; iOs and Android apps;
Chromecast and AirPlay
Price: Free (limited); £12.90 per month (premium)
When it comes to video streaming, Medici TV
Currently is pretty much unbeatable. Currently, there are
there are over over 600 concerts, 140 operas and a staggering
1,148 documentaries on the site. Plus there are
600 concerts, always live-streamed events in the diary, with
an impressive roster of partners including the
140 operas London Symphony Orchestra, the Verbier
and 1,148 Festival and the International Tchaikovsky
Competition. Site presentation is excellent,
documentaries with handy programme listings, film chapters
and readable blurb. High marks for filming and
on Medici sound, and the app works nicely.
Pros: Easy to sign up, easy to use; clean look,
plentiful content.
Cons: Minimum one-month contract; partial
access is very partial.

the one site. All have 30-day free trial periods. Rating: 9/10

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 45

Music streaming

Plug-in Puccini:
enjoy Vittorio Grigolo
and Kristine Opolais in
La bohème in HD from
the New York Met

The Met Opera gave its first live telecast in

1977 one of the four Puccini La bohèmes now
available on its on-demand site and those
years of experience show in the success of its live
cinema events and the richness of this archive.
Sadly, those cinecasts aren’t streamed live by this
service, and are only added three to six months
later. But with over 600 filmed operas, as well as
audio-only broadcasts going back to 1935, you’ll
be spoiled for choice when it comes to opera
favourites. Video quality varies over the ages, but
is mostly in high-definition with handy track
listings alongside.
Pros: World-class artists, historic productions.
Berlin Philharmonic Cons: Hard to find the videos once you’ve signed
Digital Concert Hall up; the Met tries to sell you lots of extras.
digitalconcerthall/com; iOS and Android Rating: 7/10
apps; Apple TV; Amazon Fire TV, Google
Nexus player What else is out there?
Price: €14.90 per month or €149 for a year; Opera Vision has just launched, superseding
€19.90 (30 days); €9.90 (7 days) the must-visit Opera Platform site. It’s free and
The Berlin Philharmonic was the first orchestra simple to use. There are only six operas on there
to launch a digital concert hall, back in 2008 at the moment, but the launch programme for
though many others have now followed the rest of 2017 a mixture of live-streamed and
suit (see ‘what else is out there’, below). The on-demand videos is enticing, and the venture
40+ concerts broadcast live in HD from the involves 30 opera companies from 18 countries
Online responses Philharmonie each year are all available, and the around Europe. If you want to follow the work
Choral evensong is sung hall’s permanent film and sound set-up means of specific opera companies, try the Vienna
each day in Britain’s everything is high quality. The Berliners offer State Opera’s live-streaming service (€14.00
places of worship, and is the most comprehensive catalogue of any of the per ticket) or the Bavarian State Opera’s free
rightly celebrated as one
orchestra sites, going back to the 1960s. Simon live-streaming programme. Orchestras and
of this country’s musical
glories. You can enjoy Rattle is particularly well represented, with 179 concert halls are embracing live-streaming, and
audio streams of many concerts, but there are a good number of concerts there are a few to keep your eye on. The Bergen
of them from the comfort with former chief conductors Claudio Abbado Philharmonic Orchestra’s two-year-old
of your own fireside pew, and Herbert von Karajan. archive already includes an unmissable concert
including webcasts from Pros: Great range of repertoire; interviews and performance of Britten’s Peter Grimes conducted
St John’s and King’s documentaries included. by Edward Gardner. The Royal Stockholm
(above) colleges, Cons: Limited to one orchestra; in-app search Philharmonic Orchestra and Gothenburg
Cambridge and New could be clearer. Symphony (who also offer an impressive
College, Oxford. Further Rating: 8/10 free app with programme notes and more)
afield, St Thomas’s, Fifth
and the Paris Philharmonie have excellent
Avenue, New York streams
its services live, as does
Metropolitan Opera on Demand free offerings, while the Detroit Symphony
metopera.org/season/on-demand; Orchestra offers free live webcasts of concerts.
MARTY SOHL/MET OPERA

Washington National
Cathedral which includes iOS and Android; Roku, Samsung Don’t forget YouTube either (see all-music
video webcasts in its Smart TV and Apple TV services), and if you belong to an educational
offerings. There are many, Price: $14.99 per month; $99.99 per year (Met institution, Naxos has an extensive performing
many others to explore… members); $149.99 per year (non-members) arts video library.

46 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

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A touch of Polish
When Krystian Zimerman celebrates the 100th birthday of Leonard
Bernstein by performing his Second Symphony, he will be fulfilling a
promise he made to the composer himself, as Jessica Duchen discovers
A
bout ten years ago, pianist Krystian
Zimerman gave a pre-concert talk
before his recital at London’s Royal
Festival Hall – and his sense of
comic timing had the audience rolling in the
aisles. Unexpected, perhaps, from someone
whom many music-lovers consider either an
outspoken maverick or a rare bird of musical
paradise. But for 2017-18 the witty, daredevil
side of this legendary Polish pianist may well
be uppermost. He turned 60 last December – ‘I
don’t accept this. Maybe the world is turning at
the wrong speed after the Japan earthquake!’
he quips – but his chief preoccupation is not his
own birthday, but Leonard Bernstein’s 100th.
Zimerman is touring as soloist in Bernstein’s
exuberant Symphony No. 2, ‘The Age of Anxiety’,
Pieces you mostly with conductor Sir Simon Rattle –
including with the London Symphony Orchestra
thought you knew in December – in tribute to the late composer
and conductor who exerted tremendous
would take on influence over his own development. ‘Lenny
a different light gave me the courage to be myself,’ he recalls.
Zimerman first met Bernstein as a young
when Bernstein competition winner, fresh from the small town
of Zabrze in southern Poland. His victory at the
touched them 1975 Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, aged
18, had catapulted him into the international
limelight. Visiting Vienna, he heard Bernstein
conduct Mahler’s Sixth Symphony with the
Vienna Philharmonic, and was ‘completely
wiped out’ by it. Afterwards, he auditioned for
the conductor, who engaged him as one of four
pianists to record Stravinsky’s Les Noces.
He toured plentifully with Bernstein thereafter,
also recording the two Brahms concertos and the
48 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
last three Beethovens with him. ‘There was no
other musician quite like him,’ says Zimerman.
‘He functioned as if he was in a different universe.
Pieces you thought you knew would suddenly
take on a different life when he touched them.’
Touring the Brahms Second Concerto,
Zimerman recalls, ‘we were having lunch one
day and he asked me about his own music.
When I told him I had played his Symphony
No. 2, he was amazed. “How come I didn’t
know?”, he said. “You never asked!”, I replied.’
Naturally, numerous performances
followed: ‘Each time was completely different.
That was a special feature of his music
making: he was always totally honest, so the
smallest thing that changed his emotional
construction immediately found its way into
his interpretations. So there was not really a
Bernstein interpretation – it was done ad hoc
in the performance, to the extent that it was
impossible to rehearse! He could make dramatic
changes on stage. That’s something I have never
experienced with any other conductor, this
degree of courage and daring.’ Scary, perhaps?
Zimerman smiles: ‘Maximum adrenalin!’
Returning to the symphony this year fulfils
a promise he made to Bernstein. ‘He asked
me: “Will you play this piece with me when
I’m 100?”. And that’s why I’m playing it now,
because I realised two years ago that he’d be
100. It’s a great piece. It’s so much fun. And it’s
so much like him, with all the freshness and
flexibility and craziness of his character.’
Another old friend is on the podium: ‘I first
met Simon Rattle when he was still a student and
he came to my recital in the Royal Festival
 Krystian Zimerman

‘Maximum adrenalin!’:
Krystian Zimerman relishes
MAT HENNEK, GETTY

the chance to perform ‘The

Age of Anxiety’ by Bernstein
(pictured opposite)

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 49


Poetically inspired
A guide to Bernstein’s ‘The
Age of Anxiety’ Symphony
When Leonard Bernstein
read WH Auden’s (above)
1947 poem The Age
of Anxiety, he found
himself, to use his own
words, ‘breathless’ in his
excitement. Describing
the Pulitzer Prize-winning
work as ‘one of the most
shattering examples of
pure virtuosity in the
history of English poetry’,
the composer set himself
the challenge of writing
a symphony inspired by
it. He follows the course
of Auden’s poem closely,
beginning with a sombre
Prologue in which four
people – Malin, Quant,
Rosetta and Emble – are
depicted sitting in a New
York bar, meditating on life.
In the five movements that
follow – called The Seven
Ages, The Seven Stages,
The Dirge, The Masque
and The Epilogue – we join
the characters as they get
tipsy, take a cab back to
Rosetta’s flat, party and
then head off or fall asleep.
While Bernstein called
the work his Second
Symphony, the piano part
gives it more of a feeling
of a concerto. There is
more than a hint of Ravel’s
Piano Concerto in G, with
glimpses of Shostakovich,
Stravinsky, Gershwin and
even Brahms. Bernstein
MAT HENNEK, GETTY
played the piano part at the
premiere, on 8 April 1949,
with its dedicatee Serge
Koussevitzky conducting.
50 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Hall,’ Zimerman says. ‘I remember him from the
1970s as a sparkling personality – he’s the music
himself. That’s one of the talents that brings
Rattle closer to Bernstein for me: you never
thought of him conducting a piece – you thought
it’s his piece. He’s composing the moment he’s on
stage with it.
‘Another similarity is that he rehearses,
preparing the orchestra, but what happens in
the concert is not necessarily the same. We’ll set
up a framework, but he knows I can switch at
any moment and I know he can follow, and vice-
versa. When I make a joke on stage, he doesn’t let
me get away with it – I will get it back in the next
two minutes! I like his sarcasm, his humour and
his ability to jump into any project, no matter
how crazy, the minute he is convinced of it.’
Zimerman has been in the news this autumn
for a different project: his first solo recording for
nearly a quarter of a century, namely the two
last Schubert piano sonatas, D959 and D960.
Its genesis is a tale in its own right. In 2007, a
‘I like Simon Rattle’s
ability to jump
into any project,
no matter how crazy’ you are flying. The piano just opens and you can
terrible earthquake hit Kashiwazaki in Japan – do incredible things there because you get so
the site of a nuclear plant – and Zimerman gave a inspired by this acoustic.’
benefit concert for the town’s reconstruction. In He has done incredible things with the
gratitude, the mayor, Hiroshi Aida, offered him Schubert sonatas. Part of his aim, he says, is
a week’s use of the newly built Kashiwazaki City to strip away false ‘traditions’ to get closer to
Performing Arts Centre for a recording; in 2015 the composer’s intentions – though that is just
Zimerman finally took him up on it. ‘We arrived the beginning. ‘I was looking into Viennese
in three metres of snow,’ he recalls. ‘My wife said, tradition, especially of [pianist] Paul Badura-
“You should record [Schubert’s] Winterreise!”.’ Skoda. But actually, English pianists, especially
The hall’s acoustic is by a student of Yasuhisa Clifford Curzon, were also inspiring to me in
Toyota; Zimerman regards the latter as the Schubert. You have to go after your intuition and
world’s finest acoustician, responsible for the play that which you feel in your soul.
Paris Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie in ‘Of course, read as much as you can and
Hamburg and venues all over Japan; Zimerman understand the style, but mostly from studying
helped to persuade him to design the new hall scores of other pieces, not from recordings. As
for the Polish National Radio Symphony Arthur Rubinstein said, if you repeat mistakes
Orchestra, NOSPR, in Katowice (see Travel, for long enough, they become tradition. For me,
p60), where Zimerman had studied. London, tradition comes when I listen to Schubert’s song
he adds, could do worse than secure Toyota’s cycles, then try to translate it into piano music,
services for its hoped-for Centre for Music. trying to make the piano sing.’
It’s the combination of warmth, bloom and These raw, intimate works wring out their
clarity that makes those halls so special, he listeners emotionally in a way that only Schubert
says. ‘Suntory Hall was the first proof – you can. ‘In Schubert’s time, this was the climax of
hear every note, yet every note is in a cushion of what emotion could be in music,’ Zimerman
warm surrounding and while playing you feel reflects. ‘That’s what music is for: in the end

we’re not listening to sounds, we’re listening to
that which the sounds create. For myself, I’m
not replaying a score – I’m replaying the reason
why this composer wrote this score, trying to
understand the emotions he wanted to create
and then trying to translate it into modern times.’
But why no solo recordings for so long? ‘I don’t
have the illusion that I’m producing something
valuable, and if it’s not valuable then there’s
no sense to put it on the market,’ he says. ‘I
wasn’t always happy with some of my other
recordings and I thought it’s not necessary to
litter the market with yet another mediocre one.’
(That thudding noise you can hear is multiple
pianophiles’ foreheads hitting their desks).
‘I consider audio recordings as a historical
mistake,’ he explains. ‘Music was never an
“audio” experience. In the 19th century, you could
always see the performer, so you always had an
interaction with the performer’s way of being
touched by this music – therefore, his musical
credibility. You have to be the first victim of the
music you play, because if you’re not, you won’t
be able to sell it credibly to the people.’
At home in Switzerland, where he and his wife
Maja have lived since 1981, Zimerman never
Career triumphs: Krystian
Zimerman’s new disc of Schubert
Sonatas; (top) on stage with
conductor Leonard Bernstein;
(above right) with Sir Simon Rattle
Krystian Zimerman
stops working with his explorations, musical or
beyond. He’s one of few concert pianists to be
concerned with the instrument’s mechanics. As
a teenager, to earn money he learned to repair
pianos and make the parts himself; he says they
were simply unavailable in Zabrze in the 1970s.
The inclination is still there. ‘It’s not something
for everyone,’ he says. ‘It requires so much
studying and you have to like it. Besides, people
laugh at a pianist who’s running around at 4am
with a jig-saw they think he should sit at the
window and be inspired by the moon.’
As for his reputation for being politically
outspoken, I ask if he would offer a few words
on artists and politics today. ‘No, but I can say
something about human beings and politics,
because artists are not some other kind of being.
We all have responsibilities as human beings,
as citizens. As people who are voting, we should
also be people who revolt when it goes wrong, or
the moment we are cheated with promises… It’s
difficult, when analysing politics in Europe in
the 1930s, to say: at what time was it not too late
to stop it? Because then came a moment when it
was too late, and when you said something, you
paid with your life. When is the moment to say:
“Now is the time to get angry”? By that I don’t
mean be a rebel and smash windows. Democracy
allows us many tools which are civilised. We just
don’t use them because of comfort, laziness, or
naively thinking it will somehow end well.’
His view on the future of classical music is also
food for thought. ‘I’m worried, very worried,’ he
admits. ‘But I’m not concentrating on whether
I’m optimistic or not, but on whether I did
enough to secure its existence. I want to look in
the mirror when I’m 70, if I’m still around, and
say I did all I could in this life to honestly be
called a representative of this profession. I have
to have the courage to do my part.’
Krystian Zimerman performs Bernstein’s Symphony
No. 2 with the LSO at the Barbican, 16 Dec. His
Schubert Sonatas, D959 & 960 are out now on DG
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 51

A song for Europe
For 50 years the European Broadcasting Union has
been sharing landmark concert broadcasts from a
wide range of countries, as Andrew Green discovers
N
ovember 27th, 1967,
19.30 (Greenwich
Mean Time)
precisely. The refined
tones of the Radio 3 announcer:
‘Tonight at the Queen Elizabeth
Hall in London the BBC presents,
on behalf of the European
Broadcasting Union, the opening
concert of the Union’s first
international concert season.’
Simultaneously across
Europe on that late autumn
evening 50 years ago (see box,
p54) in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey other radio
presenters were introducing the concert in
their own ways. The line-up of performers
and repertoire was pure pedigree. Britten
conducting the English Chamber Orchestra,
opening up with Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto
No. 4. Then came the Amadeus String Quartet
playing Haydn’s ‘Emperor’ Quartet. After the
interval, two Amadeus members were soloists in
Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante before tenor Peter
Pears hauntingly delivered Britten’s Nocturne
song cycle. ‘Four masterpieces in masterly
performances,’ decided the critic Stanley Sadie.
This gold-plated occasion and the concert
season that followed kick-started a new era
of Europe-wide co-operation in the sharing
of musical performances between public
service broadcasting organisations. What
BBC, GETTY
is now known as the ‘Euradio Season’ is a
brimful treasure-chest of mainly live concerts,
52 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Making waves: Britten
conducts the English
Chamber Orchestra in
an early EBU broadcast
in 1967; (below) the
visionary BBC producer
Hans Keller
opera performances, musical
competitions and one-day events
offered to subscribing stations
in 56 countries. Alongside this
has developed a music exchange
mechanism, by which each EBU
member broadcaster has the right
to both offer concerts to fellow
contributors and to transmit
anything from over 3,000 (largely
recorded) ‘live’ performances
pooled annually online.
The reach of all this extends far
beyond Europe, most notably to
subscribers in North America, the Far East and
Australia/New Zealand. ‘It’s the largest concert
hall in the world,’ says EBU Radio Music Group
chair, Miikka Maunula, executive producer
at Yleisradio in Helsinki. ‘On average, seven
broadcasters take each offered performance, so
the overall added audience is really significant.’
‘It’s a cost-effective way for radio stations to
access a diverse range of material,’ adds Graham
Dixon, the EBU’s head of radio, based in Geneva.
Highlights from the history of this wide-
ranging collaborative exercise include a 1975-78
Haydn complete opera project and a four-year
feast of Palestrina in the 1990s. One-off events
have included the 2001 Last Night of the Proms
commemorating those who died on 9/11 and a
concert from Pyongyang, North Korea, in 2008.
Many musical genres are embraced, including
jazz since 1971. A world music programme in
2015 was performed by refugees, while listeners
around Europe joined the One Love Manchester
concert for victims of the city’s terrorist tragedy.
 European Broadcasting Union

The week-in, week-out use of shared EBU

performances touches millions of listeners,
whether they’re fully aware of it or not. As far as
Radio 3 is concerned, strands making extensive
or exclusive use of the material include Afternoon
Concert, Early Music Late, Opera on 3 and Through
The Night. Radio 3’s selection of music in the latter
is also shared with other European stations.
Radio Latvia’s LR3 Klasika network often
uses EBU material. ‘For a quarter of a century
we’ve broadcast fantastic performances from
major concert halls and opera houses – currently
around 450 a year,’ says LR3 director Gunda
Vaivode. ‘You can enjoy them in your Riga flat,
at your summer house or in the car. We have a
catchphrase: “Without dinner jacket and evening
dress in the world’s greatest concert halls.”’
Since the dawn of broadcasting, radio
waves have never been respecters of national
frontiers. Broadcasting schedules printed in

‘Radio often makes

use of a language
trusted by peoples of
all tongues: music’
British newspapers of the 1920s demonstrate
the interest listeners had in tuning to European
radio stations with music very much in the mix.
Place-names from those classic wavelength-
finder panels on early wireless sets convey
the allure of foreign networks – Hilversum,
Bucharest, Hamburg, Baranavichy: a sound of
music in their own right.
From the beginnings of public service
broadcasting there were visionaries across
Europe who saw that radio could promote
international harmony – none more so than
Oskar Czeija, the general manager of the RAVAG
Austrian station between the wars. Radio,
suggested Czeija, ‘often makes use of a language
trusted by peoples of all tongues – music – and
is called upon to co-operate in the work of
international understanding.’
‘Czeija went to visit the heads of other radio
stations around Europe,’ says Dixon, ‘to explore
what could be done in a collaborative way.’
World War II put paid to most of that. After
the conflict, says Radio 3’s head of music
programmes Edward Blakeman, who represents
the station on the EBU Radio Music Group,
the BBC was ‘a driving force in European
broadcasting at a time when there was much

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 53

European Broadcasting Union
rebuilding of cultural contacts. The new Third
Programme was international in its outlook,
emphasising that music and culture join nations
together. The BBC helped with the training of
European radio personnel.’
The EBU came into existence in 1950,
independent of moves toward political
integration in Europe: it’s not an EU institution.
Back then, the sharing of musical material
between EBU stations took place on an ad
hoc basis. From 1963 the Union had a radio
programme committee, from which hung a
music sub-committee with an international
membership that was ‘…too large and unwieldy’,
says music historian Alison Garnham. ‘Getting
it to agree on anything was a major challenge.’
Everything changed when BBC producer
Hans Keller appeared on the EBU scene. A
survivor of Nazi detention and torture, Keller
had burst onto the Third Programme like a one-
man tidal wave. ‘Such a charismatic individual,’
says one-time Radio 3 producer Misha
Donat. ‘He was a fine musician but also very
opinionated! Young performers and new music
were special interests.’
‘Hans was renowned for being a bit
aggressive with his superiors when he
thought they were wrong,’ says another BBC
colleague, Julian Hogg. ‘Perhaps it was the
bravery he’d found during the war showing
through. But it was never personal.’
The dominating force in a new, more
manageable three-man EBU working
GETTY, EVA VERMANDEL
party, Keller ensured that the first
international concert season in 1967 was a
success. ‘He was a superb administrator,’
says Garnham, who is currently
54 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Forbidden city: Lorin
Maazel arrives in the
North Korean capital
to conduct an EBU
concert in 2008
50 glorious years
A BBC concert to mark
the EBU anniversary
To celebrate the EBU’s
50th anniversary,
there will be a concert
at London’s LSO St
Luke’s on 27 November.
Broadcast around Europe
and beyond, the evening
will be a cosmopolitan
affair: the BBC Concert
Orchestra will be
conducted by an Austrian,
Johannes Wildner, with a
commissioned Fanfare by
British-Bulgarian composer
Dobrinka Tabakova.
Russian pianist Pavel
Kolesnikov (below) will
play Beethoven’s Emperor
Piano Concerto No. 5
which has been selected
online by listeners. And
there’s a nod to 1967
in the performances
of a Britten work and
Mozart’s Sinfonia
concertante, featuring
US-Korean violinist
Esther Yoo and
Norwegian
violist Eivind
Holtsmark
Ringstad.
see www.
bbc.co.uk/
concert
orchestra
collaborating on a project to commemorate
the centenary of Keller’s birth in 2019. ‘And he
had a creative personality; he was overflowing
with ideas. After that first season he remained
in charge for the next dozen years. He ran
things like his own broadcasting network.’
Keller masterminded such spin-offs as a
contemporary music series and an EBU string
quartet competition which allowed ensembles
to play whatever Haydn quartet was sprung
on them. By the time of his retirement in 1979,
the EBU concerts were on sure foundations.
Sadly he died, much mourned, in 1985 without
witnessing the new opportunities for EBU
expansion thrown up as eastern Europe was
liberated on the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
However, the great technical innovations that
spurred the sharing of musical performance
across national boundaries, via TV as well
as radio, were the arrival of efficient satellite
transmission in the 1990s, followed by the
internet, making possible the offering and
dissemination of concerts to fellow EBU
member stations via an online database. Live
transmissions in the Euradio Season were far
easier to set up. ‘The music exchange system grew
dramatically,’ says Dixon. ‘Previously, offered
recordings had to be dubbed in real time and sent
in the post to a foreign station so they could be
assessed. They were known as “pink offers” after
the colour of the forms that had to be filled in.
Only around 200 concerts a year were exchanged
but it all changed with satellite and the internet.’
You might think the same technology now
threatens the whole EBU music-sharing edifice,
given how much online music can be streamed
and downloaded. Pascale Labrie, the EBU’s head
of music, disagrees. ‘What listeners value is that
the music offered by us has been curated. It’s like
when a friend you trust suggests something he
or she thinks you will enjoy. Then there’s the role
that presentation plays in enhancing the concert
experience, guiding listeners through, say, a
work’s historical context, aspects of the life of the
composer and so on – things which enable the
listener to appreciate the music better.’
‘The EBU system shows the continuing value
of public service broadcasting,’ says Blakeman.
‘You wouldn’t get this range of music from a
commercial network. And as stations across
Europe experience cuts, this is a cost-effective
way of accessing huge riches. It’s needed more
than ever.’ Affirmation comes from Maunula:
‘Even after all these years, there’s still a magic in
listening to a concert from another country. You
travel in your mind to another landscape.’
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 ‘T
onight’s concert is cancelled’. It’s the
dreaded notice that can spell the
end of a much anticipated evening.
Often, no reason is given beyond
the fact that the artist is ‘indisposed’. At least
the guitarist Miloš Karadaglić had the grace to
plead his fans’ forgiveness when he cancelled his
concert at Bristol’s Colston Hall in October 2016.
‘It saddens me deeply to need to write these lines,’
he wrote. ‘Performing is all I live for. I would do
anything to make the situation different. I am
totally and utterly bereft by such news. I am
unbending and adamant in my promise that I
WILL be back on a stage near you.’ His problem
was a long-standing thumb injury and, to be fair
to musicians, aches and pains, as much as colds
and sore throats, are often the reason they are
forced to cancel at short notice.
Often, that is, but not always. Sometimes,
totally unexpected events can cause a
cancellation. At other times, sheer bloody-
mindedness on the part of the musicians
themselves is to blame. Below, we pick our way
through some of classical music’s strangest
cancellations, from the opera singer terrified
of being showered with knickers to the naked
violinist who tried to strangle a pensioner…

1 Triple disappointment
Even the greatest names suffer cancellations,
especially when the forces of mammon come
into play. Early in 1802, Beethoven was looking

15 forward to performing his new Triple Concerto at

a benefit concert his brother Carl was organising.
But then, out of the blue, the director of the venue
cancelled. In a letter to his brother’s publisher,
OF NOTE Breitkopf & Härtel, an angry Carl wrote, ‘My
brother would have written to you but is not

15 calamitous
in the mood for anything because the theatre
director Baron von Braun, who is clearly an
ignorant and rude man, did not allow him
the theatre for a benefit concert and gave
it to other, utterly mediocre artists.’

cancellations
ILLUSTRATIONS: DAVID LYTTLETON
John Evans presents a potted history of
audience disappointment as he takes a
look at some of classical music’s more
intriguing, and unexpected, no-shows
2 Ashes to ashes
The Metropolitan Opera’s
performance of Rossini’s William
Tell in October 2016 had been
going so well right up until
the moment a member of the
audience walked up to the edge
of the orchestra pit and, from a
container concealed on his person,
poured white powder into it.
Fearing a chemical attack, the
management evacuated the

56 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


auditorium. In fact, they had nothing to fear.
‘An individual from out of town indicated that
he was here to sprinkle the ashes of a friend, his
mentor in opera, during the performance,’ said
John Miller of the New York Police later.
3 No pay, no play
When it comes to money, performers
themselves can, of course, be just as single-
minded. With a gambling addiction to support,
the violinist Niccolò Paganini couldn’t afford
to waste time performing for the odd florin. He
needed to make serious cash and he did, in
the first three months of 1830 stashing around
88,000 florins in the bank, making 3,000 florins
per concert. All was going well until, on 26 April,
he gave a concert in Frankfurt that attracted a
small audience and netted him just 600 florins.
In September, it happened again in Cassel. ‘It
seems foreign artists are little regarded here,’ he
said, and promptly cancelled further gigs.
4 Liszt of requirements
Today’s image-conscious pop stars have
nothing on Liszt. He thought nothing of
cancelling a concert if he thought the hall too
large for the audience he expected. At each
new location, he would make a careful study
of his audiences, sometimes swapping halls
for private rooms so as always to play to a full
house. He managed his image in the local press,
ensuring editors and critics were on-side. If
the stars weren’t aligned, no problem he’d
cancel. There’d always be a promoter or wealthy
supporter willing to accept his demands.
5 Badly trained
As disappointed members of the audience
trudged home from the concert hall in Albany,
New York, one day in 1862, they could never
have guessed the reason behind the pianist
Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s no-show. Smallpox,
perhaps? An epidemic had just ravaged
Pennsylvania, after all, and rumours it was
heading for New York were rife. The truth was
less dramatic: Gottschalk had missed his train.
He’d been flirting with a mother and her daughter
in the same railway carriage. When they alighted
at some remote stop, he dutifully escorted them
to the platform… and the train left without him.
6 Strictly off-limits
In most places, a symposium on Wagner
would excite little comment. This, however, was
not most places it was Israel, where feelings
about the anti-Semitic composer run high.
15 calamitous cancellations
Officials at Tel Aviv University had agreed to the
conference in June 2012 on the understanding
that his music would not be performed. When
they heard the Israel Wagner Society, which
organised it, had commissioned an orchestra to
do just that, they pulled the plug. ‘You concealed
this from us,’ university officials told organisers,
who disputed their claim. ‘It is ludicrous and a
lie,’ said Jonathan Livny, the society’s founder.
7 Knickers in a twist
Nothing fazes the straight-talking, clay-
pigeon shooting, golf-playing opera star Dame
Kiri Te Kanawa. Well, almost nothing. In 2005,
the soprano pulled out of a series of concerts
with pop singer John Farnham because she was
terrified the audience would throw knickers
at her. She’d seen them do that to Farnham on
a DVD of one of his concerts and so cancelled
the three performances that would have earned
Paganini her £240,000. Te Kanawa told reporters of her
concerns, which included Farnham’s habit of
couldn’t afford
to waste time
holding up jettisoned undergarments ‘as some
kind of trophy’. The organisers sued but, at court
in 2007, the judge dismissed the case against her.
performing for
WKHRGGĠRULQ 8 Opening strike
The great and the good of New York had
been looking forward to Carnegie Hall’s opening-
night gala in 2013 and then disaster struck. In
a dispute with management about extending
their influence to a new educational wing,
the hall’s army of stagehands, members of the
Local One union, went on strike. There was
no choice but to cancel the concert and refund
patrons’ money, putting a dent in Carnegie Hall’s
finances. Accusing management of unfairness
and to make their point, the strikers, who work
60 hours a week and earn $400,000 (£320,000)
a year, brought an inflatable rat to the picket line.
9 Playing politics
Twitter has a lot to answer for, not least
the cancellation in 2015 of a concert by pianist
Valentina Lisitsa. Famous for her YouTube
performances, the Ukraine-born artist became
infamous when she tweeted her opposition to the
country’s government. Rattled by her outbursts,
the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, which
was due to accompany her in Rachmaninov’s
Piano Concerto No. 2, cancelled the event.
‘Our priority must remain being a stage for
the world’s great works of music, and not for
opinions that some believe to be offensive,’ said
Jeff Melanson, the orchestra’s president. Lisitsa
denied posting anything illegal.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 57
15 calamitous cancellations
10 Going to pot
Arts sponsorship is difficult to attract
at the best of times, but the Colorado Symphony
Orchestra must have realised it was sailing close
to the wind when, in 2014, it organised a series of
concerts sponsored by the state’s legal marijuana
industry. Called Classical Cannabis: The High
Note Series, the concerts, billed as Bring Your
Own Cannabis, were originally open to the
public. However, after City of Denver officials
threatened to prosecute the organisers, the CSO
refunded tickets and made it a private fundraiser.
11 Me and my gull
For professional pianists with precious
fingers to protect from injury, potential danger
can lurk around every corner. Paul Lewis
probably wasn’t expecting it to come from
the sky, however. As Lewis was arriving for a
rehearsal at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall in
June 2015, he was astonished to find himself
being swooped on by an aggressive seagull.
Taking evasive action, he stumbled and fell on
his right hand. The resulting sprained finger
caused him to call off two concerts with the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, as
doctors ordered him to recuperate. His place was
taken by bird-proof virtuoso Finghin Collins.
12 Too much to bare
‘Due to unforeseen circumstances, the
above concert has been cancelled,’ read the notice
on Wigmore Hall’s website one day in March
58 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
2015. However, behind this deadpan message
was a story of, quite literally, naked terror. Two
weeks, earlier, Stefan Arzberger, a violinist in the
Leipzig Quartet, had been found wandering nude
in the corridors of the Hudson hotel in New York,
having attacked a 64-year-old guest in her room.
Arzberger blamed his actions on a date rape drug
given to him by a prostitute he had invited to his
room. Just over a year later, he was acquitted by
a court and allowed to return to Germany.
13 Bad Korea move
It’s designed to shoot down ballistic
missiles, but America’s THAAD (Terminal High
Altitude Area Defense) system can knock out
classical concerts too. South Korean pianist Kun-
Woo Paik was booked to play in China in March
this year but his country’s decision to deploy
the missile system caused tensions with Beijing.
These resulted in his visa being delayed and
the concert cancelled. Earlier in the year, South
Korean opera singer Sumi Jo’s concerts suffered
the same fate. ‘We never thought the classical
Paul Lewis
music industry could be the target of retaliation,’
an industry source was quoted as saying.
was astonished
WR ğQG KLPVHOI 14 Immovable Vlad
Pianist Vladimir Horowitz was no
stranger to cancelling concerts. He was a highly-
being swooped strung individual for whom things had to be just
so: his water filtered, his own cook to prepare
on by a seagul meals, his own Steinway for concerts usually
performed at 4pm on Sundays when, he said,
audiences were most relaxed, and his hotel
rooms decorated like home. Even then, nerves
and stage fright could get the better of him.
Occasionally, assistants would be required to
coax him on stage, not always successfully. As he
once said, ‘Playing the piano is the easiest thing
in the world. It is the moving that is the big deal.’
15 The wrong direction
The desire of some opera directors to
shock their audience leads them into the realms
of bad taste. Wagner’s Tannhäuser, for instance, is
supposed to be an opera about a lovesick minstrel
and a singing contest, but in a 2013 production by
Rheinoper in Düsseldorf, it morphed into a story
about the Holocaust opera lovers expecting
to see our hero win his lover’s hand in marriage
instead saw Nazi thugs, Jews being gassed and
a family awaiting execution. It was so upsetting
that audience members sought medical help.
As the production was duly cancelled, director
Christopher Meyer said the purpose had been
to ‘mourn, not mock’ the Holocaust victims.
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MUSICAL DESTINATIONS

Katowice Poland
With its state-of-the art concert hall, the former mining city combines
its rich musical and industrial traditions, as Neil McKim discovers

Best of both worlds:

the magnificent NOSPR concert
hall in Katowice’s cultural
district; (below) the café-lined
approach to the cathedral

T
he Polish city of Katowice is
emerging as a major classical music
destination, thanks to the stunning
NOSPR concert hall, named after its
resident Polish National Radio Symphony
Orchestra. Word is spreading fast about
this vast red-brick venue which opened
its doors in 2014 and cost £57m not just
around the rest of the Silesian region,
drawing in crowds of classical music
lovers, but also among a growing number
of visiting musicians. ‘Everyone is raving
about the great new hall here and that’s
why we’re so excited to come,’ says Eckart
Runge, the cellist of the Berlin-based
Artemis Quartet.
To British eyes, the
NOSPR hall’s vast
red-brick exterior is
perhaps reminiscent of
London’s Tate Modern,
but this is the striking
outer shell, concealing a
separate concrete-cased
performance space
inside (for an audience of
1,800). It was designed by
architect Tomasz Konior
in collaboration with
Yasuhisa Toyota, one of the world’s leading
acousticians, who is also famous for his
work on Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.
No detail at the NOSPR
hall is left unconsidered;
the seats alone took over
a year to perfect and the
spacious interior features
beautifully varnished
birch wooden balconies.
The hall’s edges are lined
with dark concrete panels
that resemble the interior
of a coal mine, a nod to the
city’s industrial past.
And perhaps there’s no
better place to have a music festival with
an earthly theme than in a former mining
city. Katowice’s annual Kultura Natura

60 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


Festival was founded in 2014 by NOSPR’s
artistic director Alexander Liebreich
and makes full use of the hall’s facilities.
The theme of the earth and those who
have worked on it (and under it) crops up
throughout the festival. In the NOSPR
hall the Hungarian folk musician Márta
Sebestyén (who sang on The English
Patient soundtrack) performs Bartók’s
Folk Songs, with Iván Fischer’s Budapest
Festival Orchestra joining in for the rousing
choruses. Nearby, the festival makes use of
three performance spaces in the Silesian
Museum which, like the NOSPR hall,
is built in the former mining area. The
concert, Agata Zubel’s Mother Lode I-III,
features Szymon Bywalec conducting the
New Music Orchestra. It makes use of a
former pit engine room and a converted
underground gallery. The latter is covered
with mirrors, creating a distorted sense of
perspective, like an MC Escher artwork.
Liebreich sees the city’s mining and
musical heritage as interconnected. ‘A lot
of people here worked below the earth and
every NOSPR player I speak to, who comes
from Katowice, says that their parents or
grandparents worked in the mines.’ This
fits well with the orchestra’s own musical
legacy. The NOSPR has been based in
Katowice since 1945. ‘This orchestra has a
history of working with great composers,’
says Liebreich. ‘Penderecki, Górecki (see
box) and Lutosławski worked here on
world premieres with this orchestra. There
GETTY, BARTEK BARCZYK
is a very strong heritage of Polish music.’
A key adviser in the development of
the NOSPR hall was pianist Krystian
Zimerman (see p48), a friend of the
Festive power:
Alexander Liebreich
conducts Zemlinsky’s
Lyrische Symphonie
architect and a graduate of Katowice’s
Academy of Music. The academy itself
was founded in 1929 and is one of Poland’s
finest. Taking its name from Polish
composer Karol Szymanowski, it has
benefited from an impressive extension,
also designed by Konior. For visitors,
there are regular free concerts and a
delightful basement museum packed
with old church organs.
Katowice’s character has transformed
dramatically over recent decades since
the mine closures. ‘I was here as a teenager
Katowice’s new
concert hall is
reminiscent of
London’s Tate Modern
in the 1980s,’ recalls Liebreich. ‘It was a
dark city with bad air and there weren’t
many people in the streets. But that’s all
changed.’ An afternoon visit to Maja Street
in the sunshine confirms this, as locals
and visitors pass the time at café tables.
A guided tour around the city centre
of Katowice reveals its varied heritage. It
grew under Prussian rule from the 18th
century, becoming an industrial heartland
that transferred to Polish rule after World
War One. The rapid growth in the mid-
19th century, including the neo-Gothic
St Mary’s Cathedral, was spurred on by
the arrival of the railway. And you can
still see Poland’s first skyscraper, Drapacz
MUSICAL DESTINATIONS
Local talent:
Górecki taught
in Katowice
Henryk Górecki
An avant-gardist who
gained popular appeal
Composer Henryk Górecki (1933-
2010) studied in Katowice at the
Music Academy, where he also
taught from 1965 until 1979. He
made his name as an avant-garde
composer with Epitafium, Op. 12
(1959), a dissonant work for
choir and instrumental ensemble,
featuring five percussionists. In later
years his style shifted, becoming
more tonal, and he took inspiration
from Polish folk songs. His Third
Symphony ‘Symphony of Sorrowful
Songs’ contains three Lento
movements and was prompted by an
inscription on a concentration camp
wall. A Warner recording by soprano
Dawn Upshaw and the London
Sinfonietta was a huge bestseller.
Chmur, an example of functionalism
from 1934. Not far from the NOSPR hall
is Spodek, from the Eastern Bloc era.
The extraordinary-looking performance
venue, completed in 1971, resembles a
UFO. Spodek has been host to Rawa, the
‘world’s biggest indoor blues festival’.
Next year’s Kultura Natura Festival
theme is ‘childhood’, with a world-class
line-up including the Tonhalle Orchestra,
pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and the Quatuor
Ébène. There’s no doubt that the festival
and its new venue have put Katowice on the
musical map. ‘If a city has a phenomenal
hall, it has an entirely different standing,’
says Artemis Quartet violist Gregor Sigl.
Further information:
Kultura Natura Festival
kulturanatura.eu/en
NOSPR www.nospr.org.pl/en
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 61
 Composer of the month
Composer of the Week
is broadcast on Radio 3 at
12pm, Monday to Friday.
Upcoming programmes are:
27 Nov – 1 Dec Koechlin
4-8 Dec 21st-century opera
11-15 Dec Tchaikovsky
18-22 Dec JS Bach
25-29 Dec Cole Porter
Backing Bach:
Leopold Mozart was
impressed by JC
JC Bach’s style
The singing Allegro: JC Bach’s music
departs completely from his older
brothers, being primarily melodic
and in the galant style with balanced
phrases, emphasis on melody
and accompaniment, and less
contrapuntal complexity.
Bach’s appeal: In 1777, Leopold
Mozart writes to his son, referring
to the popular characteristics of
JC Bach’s art: ‘Good compositions,
sound construction, il fiol [the thread]
– these distinguish the master from
the bungler, even in trifles.’
Bach’s travels: Like Handel before
him, Bach moved from Germany to
Italy and then England. After studies
in Berlin and an operatic grounding in
Milan, Turin and Naples, from 1762
he settled in London, though he also
made visits to Paris and Mannheim.
Bach and the piano: Bach made
his mark on the development of the
piano. According to the historian
Charles Burney, ‘after the arrival of
John Chr. Bach in this country and
the establishment of his concerts,
all the harpsichord makers tried their
GETTY
mechanical powers at piano-fortes’.
62 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Johann Christian Bach
Adventurous and inventive, the pioneering
‘English Bach’ proved a major inspiration to the
young Mozart, as Chris de Souza explains
ILLUSTRATION: MATT HERRING
E
arly autumn is a pleasant time in
Leipzig, and it was probably warm
and sunny on 5 September 1735
when JS Bach’s youngest son, Johann
Christian, was born. He seems to have
been, accordingly, an amiable personality.
But he was an adventurous one too. Bach
Snr never travelled further than 250
miles from his birthplace, and never left
Germany. JC, in contrast, would go on to
become the most travelled of all the Bachs.
Johann Christian was 15 when JS died
and, with three harpsichords bequeathed
to him by his father, went to live in Berlin
with his step-brother, Carl Philipp
Emanuel, King Friedrich Wilhelm’s
Attended by George III and Queen Charlotte,
JC Bach’s opera Orion was a great success
harpsichordist. There he continued his
studies, played some of his works in public
for the first time, and must surely have
taken part in the concerts at court and
learnt the aristocratic graces.
From Berlin in 1756 he took himself off
to Italy rumour has it that an Italian lady
singer was involved and, surprisingly
for the son of the greatest contrapuntist
who ever lived, began a further study
of counterpoint with the famous Padre
Martini. Travel, they say, broadens
the mind, and within a year, Bach had
jettisoned his family’s stolid Lutheranism
and become a Catholic. A Mass he wrote
under Martini’s tutelage made a great
mark, and he was soon appointed as an
organist at Milan Cathedral.
Bach’s eyes and ears were elsewhere,
though on the stage, to be precise,
attracted by both its music and its
denizens (around this time he seems to
have become involved with a ballerina,
Colomba Beccari). In Italy he learnt a
lyricism that, through opera and through
the shifting of tastes away from the serious
ecclesiastically based counterpoint, was
to become the style of the future: the stile
galant. He became possibly its greatest
exponent. He scored a great success with
his first opera, Artaserse, in Turin, and
then Cato in Utica and Alexander in India at
the San Carlo in Naples. All this opera was
getting Milan worried. His patron Count
Litta, in a letter to Martini, refers to Bach’s
‘frivolous character’, but the Cathedral
granted him a year’s leave when in 1762
he was invited to London, commissioned
for an opera, by the lady impresario of the
King’s Theatre.
This was no chance invitation. Bach
had already had his eye on London, and
the year before had written an Ode on
the Auspicious Arrival of the Nuptials of
Queen Charlotte. His opera, Orion, was a
great success. On the first two evenings
King George III and Queen Charlotte
attended, and it ran for three months. Bach
was appointed Music Master to Queen
Charlotte, putting him right at the centre
of London society and music-making, and
justifying historical references to him as
‘the London Bach’. He never returned to
Italy and was based for the rest of his life in
England. Mozart would later refer to him
as ‘the English Bach’.
It’s fascinating to imagine what the
part of London south of Oxford Street
COMPOSER OF THE MONTH

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 63

 PROKOFIEV
Violin Concertos
Franziska Pietsch
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
&ULVWLDQ0úFHODUX audite 97.733 (CD)

distributor UK: RSK Entertainment

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ALSO IN DECEMBER
WED 6 DEC
The English Concert
at Kings Place
Biber Rosary Sonatas
SUN 10 DEC
Odysseus Piano Trio
Beethoven, Bloch

Laura van der Heijden © Sam Trench

& Mendelssohn
SUN 17 DEC
DECEMBER HIGHLIGHTS Orchestra of the Age
SUN 3 DEC of Enlightenment
Raphael Wallfisch with Antimatter Matters
the Orchestra of the Swan Bach Cantata:
Albion – From Elgar to Britten Darzu ist erschienen
+ a talk by Professor Tara Shears,
FRI 8 DEC University of Liverpool
Pieter Wispelwey
Bach Through Time – Concert III
Bach Cello Suites Nos 1 & 3
FRI 15 DEC
Laura van der Heijden
with Academy of St Martin
in the Fields
Schumann’s Concerto –
with Serenades by Elgar & Dvořák

Tickets from £9.50*

*A £3.00 booking fee will be applied to all ticket bookings. Fees do not
apply to bookings or ticket collections made in person at the Box Office. 90 York Way, London N1 9AG | King’s Cross | kingsplace.co.uk/cello |   Ř

and across to Green Park was like when
people such as Handel and, later, JC Bach
and visitors including the Mozarts were
there. This was Bach’s world. Having at
first lodged with Colomba Mattei, the
lady impresario in question, in 1764 he
moved in to 80 Newman Street with Carl
Friedrich Abel, a fellow composer and
ex-pupil of his father’s.
In 1764, at Spring Gardens, Bach and
Abel established a series of concerts.
They transferred them to Carlisle House,
Soho Square the following year, then to
King Street, and finally, from 1774, to the
specially built Hanover Square Rooms.
The concerts, which ran until 1781, were
enormously influential within the city
and beyond. Bach’s use of instruments
was forward-looking: Orion, for instance,
had been the first opera in London to use
clarinets, while in 1766 his Op. 5 sonatas
were the first to be published for the piano.
In 1768, he himself was the first to perform
in public at the piano.
Also in 1764, the Mozarts visited
London. John Christian (as he was
now known) took to the eight-year-old
Wolfgang, who already admired his music.
He now got to hear a lot more. Mozart’s
sister recalled how Bach put Mozart in
front of him at the keyboard, where one
GETTY
would play a bar, the other would carry on,
‘and in this way they played
a whole sonata, and someone
not seeing it would have
thought that only one man
was playing’.
They improvised fugues
like that too Johann
Sebastian Bach had probably
written the second book of
the Well-Tempered Clavier for
Mozart’s partiality
to wind instruments
may well have come
from JC Bach
JC, who was not averse to including fugal
movements in his own sonatas. Mozart,
the great musical parrot, already had
Bach’s style, was profoundly influenced
by him and had a deep affection for
him throughout his life Haydn and JC
Bach are the only composers in his vast
correspondence with his father for whom
only kind words are to be read.
When the Mozarts left London,
they took more music by JC with them,
including the Sonatas Op. 17 No. 2, whose
COMPOSER OF THE MONTH
London life:
Hanover Square Rooms, home
to Bach’s concert series;
(below) the young WA Mozart
finale looks forward
to Mozart’s own C
minor Sonata. Mozart
consciously modelled
much of his music on
specific works by JC Bach.
Bach’s Op. 5 sonatas,
for instance, influenced
the younger composer’s
keyboard style, and three
of them form the basis of
his first attempts at Piano Concertos, K107.
Significantly too, the theme of the slow
movement of Mozart’s Concerto K414,
written just after Bach’s death, contains a
commemorative reference to the overture
of JC’s opera, La calamita de cuori. Mozart
also used the theme in two other works,
including an aria in La finta giardiniera.
Nor does the influence end there.
Mozart’s partiality to wind instruments,
maybe even his use of clarinets, may well
have come from Bach and he modelled his
early symphonies particularly K16 and
K19, written in London on Bach’s, whose
own G minor Sinfonia Op. 6 No. 6 in G
minor puts one in mind of Mozart’s in that
key. Mozart was also struck by Bach’s use
of concertante instruments in opera, and
Constanze’s great aria from Die Entführung
aus dem Serail, ‘Martern aller Arten’, is,
with its four concertante parts, directly
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 65
COMPOSER OF THE MONTH

JC BACH Life&Times
modelled on one in Bach’s opera La

1735
LIFE: Johann Christian Bach
clemenza di Scipione.
Bach’s huge output, though, deserves to
be appreciated aside from just its influence
is born on 5 September on Mozart, not least because it is very
in Leipzig, Germany, the pleasant. One orchestral type that he
youngest son of Johann developed, for instance, was the Sinfonia
Sebastian and Anna Concertante, of which he composed over
Magdalena Bach. 30. Many were written for performance in
TIMES: The Swedish Paris, where such types were popular.
chemist Georg Brandt After his first great successes, however,
discovers cobalt. It is Bach’s operas failed to maintain his
the first new metal to be reputation. Perhaps his easy-going
identified since the tunefulness was not sufficiently dramatic?
pre-historic period.
His last opera, Amadis de Gaule was
premiered in Paris in 1779, but fell short of

1750
LIFE: Following the death
of his father, he moves to
Berlin where he studies
composition and the
harpsichord with Carl Philipp
Emanuel, his half-brother.
TIMES: Eleven years
after construction began,
London’s Westminster
Bridge is opened, linking
Westminster on the north
bank of the Thames with
Lambeth on the south bank.
1760
LIFE: Having moved to o Italy five
requirements – quite simply, he wasn’t an
Italian, and that wouldn’t do. After nearly
20 years, the Bach-Abel concerts, too,
years previously, he iss appointed became less and less popular and closed
second organist at Milan Cathedral. down. With Bach’s decreasing success
His opera Artaserse is s premiered
at Turin’s Teatro Regioo.
TIMES: As the Seven Years
Y The Bach-Abel
War enters its fourth year,
y
Frederick the Great’s concerts became less
Prussian army defeats s
the Austrian army at and less popular,
the Battle of Liegnitz
in Lower Silesia. and closed down
came ill health. He had been a fine pianist

1776
LIFE: Thomas Gainsborough, one
of Bach’s many influential friends in
London, completes his portrait. The
painting can still be seen today in the
National Portrait Gallery.
TIMES: On 4 July, the Continental
Congress, comprised of delegates
from the 13 US colonies, ratifies the
country’s Declaration of Independence
from Great Britain.
in his prime, but his performing powers
declined to the extent that at the premiere
of his oratorio Gioas, re di Giuda audience
and chorus were reduced to fits of giggles
by his playing.
In a final blow, one of his servants
embezzled £1,000. Bach had to sell his
house in Richmond, eventually moving
to Paddington. When he died on New
Year’s Day 1782, he was just 46 years old.
Badly in debt, he was buried in a pauper’s
grave. Queen Caroline gave his widow
– Cecilia Grassi, whom he married in

1764
LIFE: Now resident in London, he
shares lodgings with fellow composer
Carl Friedrich Abel, with whom he
sets up a series of concerts at the
Great Room in Spring Gardens.
TIMES: William Hogarth, the English
painter and satirist best known for
works such as Gin Lane and A Rake’s
GETTY
1782
LIFE: JC Bach dies on
1776 – a pension and paid for her return
to Italy. She was older than JC, and they
had no children. Other Bach family
1 January, leaving big debts.
He is buried in London’s members continued the line for a
St Pancras churchyard. few more generations, but all that
is left now of the ‘London Bach’ is
TIMES: The Montgolfier
brothers conduct their a stone in St Pancras churchyard
first test flight of a hot air which hints at the fact that he
balloon in Avignon, France. was buried there in a mass grave.
The unmanned craft floats for His name is inscribed in the parish

Progress, dies in London aged 66. just over a mile before landing. register as ‘John Back’.

66 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

 Building a library
Symphony No. 9 in D minor
Anton Bruckner
The emotional peaks and troughs of Bruckner’s incomplete final
symphony stir Terry Williams as he compares the best recordings
The composer
Anton Bruckner was born in 1824
near the Austrian city of Linz and in
his early life worked as an organist
and teacher, most notably (and
happily) at the monastic church
in nearby Sankt Florian. He later
moved to Vienna to study, and then
taught at both the Conservatory
and the University there. He began
writing symphonies relatively late in
life, completing his First in 1866 at
the age of 42. A lifelong bachelor –
his various infatuations with younger
women all came to nought – he was
a devoutly religious man and, as well
as his famous symphonies, wrote a
number of similarly brilliantly crafted,
if under-performed, masses.
Building a Library
is broadcast on Radio 3
at 9.30am each Saturday
as part of Record Review. A highlights
podcast is available at bbc.co.uk/radio3
68 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
The work
Fate didn’t look kindly on Bruckner. His
symphonies cruelly attacked, or subjected
to disastrous cuts by his well-meaning
students, he was mocked by his many
detractors for his quaint country manners
and odd behaviour. His life seemed beset
by ridicule and disappointment. Only his
unwavering belief in God, to whom the
Ninth Symphony was dedicated, provided
him with the determination to persevere
during periods of crisis. Even so, towards
the end, he still had moments of doubt.
Recognition of his true worth as one of
the 19th century’s most forward-looking
composers, meanwhile, came only decades
after his death.
Tragically, he failed to complete his
Ninth Symphony, struggling with it even
on the day he died. Just as tragic was its
first performance in Vienna in 1903 in
a severely mutilated form concocted
by Ferdinand Löwe, one of Bruckner’s
pupils. It wasn’t until 1932 that what
Bruckner actually wrote was heard in
Dogged: Bruckner caricatured by Theodore Zasche
Munich at a private concert. Its first
public performance was given later that
year by Clemens Krauss and the Vienna
Philharmonic Orchestra.
Bruckner had planned to crown his
life’s work with a symphony to surpass all
his others. It didn’t quite happen, though
he came close. Bruckner suffered from
what might be described as ‘revision
mania’, constantly redrafting previous
compositions. Even had he written a
four-movement Ninth in the nine years
he devoted to the Symphony, off and on,
it would only have been a first draft and
therefore might have turned out quite
differently. Earlier on, progress suffered as
Bruckner abandoned the Ninth to revise
Symphonies Nos 1, 3 and 4. Conductor
Hermann Levi, who had championed
the Seventh Symphony, dealt another
inadvertent blow to its progress: his
rejection of the 1887 version of the Eighth
Symphony edged Bruckner toward near
mental collapse. Fortunately, he rallied,
and his revised Eighth was ultimately
recognised as one of the great Romantic
symphonies of the 19th century.
But from 1892, Bruckner’s physical
and mental health rapidly deteriorated.
Depressed by what he felt were his failing
powers of imagination and by fear of
imminent death, he instructed that his
Te Deum should take the place of the
Finale of the Ninth Symphony. However,
the very idea of a C major finale to a D
minor symphony is unthinkable and the
antithesis of Bruckner’s musical credo.
Thankfully, this unsatisfactory solution
has largely been ignored. Symphonies Nos
5, 7 and 8 culminate with triumphant,
brass-drenched Alleluias – had it been
 BUILDING A LIBRARY

A tortured tale:
Clemens Krauss conducted
the Ninth’s premiere;
(right) Hermann Levi drove
Bruckner to despair; the Te
Deum, a suitable finale?

completed, the Ninth Symphony would
have ended in similar fashion. As it
stands, it closes with the composer’s most
profoundly moving Adagio, a summation
of sorts in that, like the Andante of
Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony, it
makes satisfying musical sense.
The darkness-to-light opening of the
first movement is even more sensational
than Richard Strauss’s depiction of dawn
in Also Sprach Zarathustra, completed in
the year of Bruckner’s death. Bruckner
is often criticised for halting mid-flow
and then changing direction; but this
is fundamental to his compositional
style. The first movement is grounded
in these moments of hiatus which serve
to heighten tension; it is capped by one
of his signature codas. The Scherzo is a
‘dance of death’, its violence only slightly
tempered by the fleet-footed pastoral
Trio. Ecstatic fortissimo strings launch the
Adagio, quoting part of the Grail theme
GETTY, BRIDGEMAN
the fore, after which serenity and anguish
alternate in almost equal measure. An
unprecedented, terrifyingly dissonant
climax threatens complete collapse
as we near the Coda, in itself a form of
musical suspended animation. In the
final bars, a quartet of horns resurrects the
An unprecedented,
terrifyingly dissonant
climax threatens
complete collapse
opening theme of the Seventh Symphony,
Bruckner’s first recognised success.
So ends Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony.
That should be the end of the story; but
it isn’t, quite. Bruckner left about 200
pages of manuscript, outlining the form
published in 2012, the result of 20 years’
research which Sir Simon Rattle has
recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic. It
is either a revelation or an abomination,
depending on whom you read. Better still,
hear it for yourself. For purists, however,
the three-movement torso is sacrosanct.
Michelangelo’s unfinished Pietà, still
bearing the marks of the sculptor’s chisel,
radiates greatness in its rough-hewn form.
So, too, does Anton Bruckner’s incomplete
Ninth Symphony.
Turn the page to find out the

from Wagner’s Parsifal. A brief pause which the Finale was to take. Various best recording of Bruckner’s
is followed by a thunderous orchestral attempts at ‘completion’ have been made, Symphony No. 9
outburst, trumpets and unison horns to most recently a performance version

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 69


Brilliant Brucknerian:
Carlo Maria Giulini
conducting in 1985
Perfectly paced Giulini inspires awe
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/
Carlo Maria Giulini (1988)
Deutsche Grammophon E427 3452
For many listeners, Bruckner’s Ninth is
the most visionary of all symphonies.
I first heard it as a teenager in Bruno
Walter’s classic 1959 recording with the
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, and
have been under its spell ever since. The
list of great recordings is a long one, and
still growing. The fact that even legendary
Brucknerians such as Sergiu Celibidache,
Otto Klemperer, Eugen Jochum, Herbert
von Karajan, Bernard Haitink, Stanislaw
Skrowaczewski and Günter Wand – all
70 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
The best
recording
superb in their different ways – don’t
make the shortlist here is testimony to
the Ninth’s continuing fascination. There
is a handful more that are all worth
considering, and it is very difficult to find
a recording that falls short of the mark.
However, it’s to Carlo Maria Giulini
that I’m drawn again and again – one
Giulini navigates the
journey with an unerring
command of tempo
can never tire of his profound realisation
of this wonderful score. His live Vienna
Philharmonic account from 1988,
beautifully recorded, is a humbling
experience. Clocking in at just over 68
minutes, it is one of the most expansive on
disc; only Celibidache takes significantly
longer. However, at no point does the
musical argument falter, as Giulini
navigates the symphony’s troubled journey
Three other
great recordings
Wilhelm
Furtwängler
(conductor)
Some would reckon
that Wilhelm
Furtwängler is the
echt Bruckner conductor, and this
recording, set down in Second World
War Berlin, is like no other. It’s as
if Furtwängler were mirroring the
devastating world events unfolding
beyond the walls of the Beethoven-
Saal where this Berlin Philharmonic
recording was made – tempos in the
first movement are often frenetic,
he unleashes the dogs of war in the
Scherzo and the Adagio’s dissonant
climactic chord becomes an agonised
scream. Excellently remastered, this
1944 recording is now available on the
Praga Digitals label (PRD350125).
Claudio Abbado
(conductor)
What better
testament to Abbado
than this moving
2013 recording from
his final concert with the Lucerne
Festival Orchestra? Although mortally
ill, he summons up all his reserves
to produce a performance of great
resolve and personal strength, not so
much a farewell as a vision of what
might come. Whereas Karajan and
Klemperer head straight for Mount
Olympus, Abbado favours a more
with an unerring command of tempo, its
counterpoint and its scale.
From its misty opening, clearly indebted
to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, to
the ethereal ending of the Adagio, this
performance is just about perfect. Giulini’s
terracing of Bruckner’s unorthodox
orchestral structure, quite unlike that
of any other symphonist, is a wonder of
internal clarity, no detail overlooked,
no texture smudged. Instead of creating
clichéd ‘cathedrals of sound’, the Italian
conductor lights the score from within so
that it seems to glow like an illuminated
manuscript. The Vienna Philharmonic

human approach. His star-studded
orchestra plays sublimely for its hero
and DG’s sound is exemplary
(Deutsche Grammophon 479 3441).
Fabio Luisi
(conductor)
What is it about
Italian conductors?
On the evidence of
their recordings, they
simply seem to ‘get’ Bruckner’s Ninth.
Fabio Luisi’s beautifully recorded live
2003 recording with the Dresden
Staatskapelle is the third by an
Italian in my chosen quartet. The first
movement heaves like a mighty ocean,
its uneasy ebb and flow flawlessly
managed; the Scherzo has all the
savagery demanded of it; and the
Adagio, with its vast mood swings
between faith and despair, is simply
superb. Available as a download, it’s
as ‘complete’ a Bruckner Nine as
you’ll find (Sony G0100014380065).
And one to avoid…
Leonard Bernstein
(conductor)
Leonard Bernstein
was gracious enough
to concede that,
when it came to
Bruckner, he could not compete with
Herbert von Karajan. The Bruckner
idiom does indeed seem alien to him
on this 1990 Vienna Philharmonic
recording. He seems to be trying hard
to find links with Gustav Mahler… but
really, there aren’t any.
is the Bruckner orchestra par excellence,
its burnished string tone a special glory,
woodwind and brass superbly alert and
to the fore. In climaxes, the sound of
the orchestra at full throttle is simply
overwhelming, horns and trombones
waging antiphonal war to hair-raising
effect. At the other extreme, the prayer-like
closing bars are wafted heavenward with
calm finality. Not surprisingly, the Vienna
audience is stunned into awed silence at
the end. Even within his own outstanding
list of recordings, Giulini’s Bruckner Ninth
Symphony is possibly the most precious
GETTY
gift this great conductor has given us.
BUILDING A LIBRARY
Painful inspiration:
the wartime destruction of
Dresden was reflected on by
Richard Strauss (below)
Continue the journey…
We suggest works to explore after Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony
L
ike Brucker’s Ninth, at just over 25 minutes
Mahler’s Symphony each (DG 474 8892). Karl
No. 10 lay unfinished Amadeus Hartmann’s
at the time of this death, searing 1939 Concerto
although Mahler’s final funèbre also bears an
statement was little more onerous weight, straining
than a series of sketches. under what the composer
Cue various attempts to saw as the ‘intellectual
complete them, including and spiritual hopelessness
Deryck Cooke’s from of the period’. That was
1960, widely considered in 1939. Worse was to
since to be the come, of course,
best encapsulation There’s a mournful, and Hartmann
of Mahler’s late revised the piece
expansive richness to
style and probable 20 years later. The
musical intentions Strauss’s Metamorphosen musical language
(and endorsed by may be advanced,
his wife, Alma). Like Bruckner, Mahler but the horror of the third movement
reserved his most abrasive and tonally Allegro and prayerful stillness of the
ambiguous music for his final work – its final Choral bears a resemblance to
fourth movement, the most complete, the conflicting, uneasy sentiments
although not as violent as that of in Mahler’s Tenth Symphony (Canary
Bruckner’s Scherzo, is nevertheless Classics CC12). British composer
sinister and despairing (Warner Classics Robert Simpson had a life-long
556 9722). Despair is very much fascination with Bruckner’s music.
the order of the day in Richard His own Symphony No. 9 was not his
Strauss’s Metamorphosen, written last (he wrote 11), but it’s by far his
in the aftermath of the destruction most accomplished. Like Bruckner’s
of Dresden in World War II. There’s a Ninth, Simpson’s 1987 work is
beautiful, mournful expansive richness uncompromising and unflinching with
to this work for small string orchestra its vast blocks of sound, terrifying
that echoes much of the huge and Scherzo and a serene conclusion
pained final movement of Bruckner that searches unsuccessfully for a
Nine, and they’re of similar lengths, resolution (Hyperion CDA66299).
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 71
 Reviews
110 CDs, Books & DVDs rated by expert critics
Welcome
There’s an art to great
CD programming, as
our stunning Recording
of the Month from
soprano-conductor
Barbara Hannigan
shows. Her juxtaposition
of Berg and Gershwin sent me to the
bookshelf to find out what happened
when this leading light of the Second
Viennese School and one of America’s
most popular composers met. It was in
1928 – the year of An American in Paris
– on a trip Gershwin made to Vienna.
Mutual friends put them in touch, leading
to a musical evening that included
performances of a quartet arrangement of
Berg’s Lyric Suite, and Gershwin playing
parts of Rhapsody in Blue. His brother Ira
noted in his diary: ‘George big hit with
Berg’. The feeling was mutual. Gershwin,
a keen champion of Berg, went off with an
autographed excerpt of the Suite.
Rebecca Franks reviews editor
This month’s critics
John Allison, Nicholas Anderson, Terry Blain,
Kate Bolton-Porciatti, Garry Booth, Anthony
Burton, Michael Church, Christopher Cook,
Martin Cotton, Christopher Dingle, Misha Donat,
Jessica Duchen, Rebecca Franks, Hannah French,
George Hall, Malcolm Hayes, Julian Haylock,
Claire Jackson, Daniel Jaffé, Stephen Johnson,
Berta Joncus, Erik Levi, Natasha Loges, Max
Loppert, Jon Lusk, Andrew McGregor, David Nice,
Roger Nichols, Bayan Northcott, Anna Picard,
Steph Power, Anthony Pryer, Paul Riley, Michael
Scott Rohan, Jan Smaczny, Geoffrey Smith,
Michael Tanner, Kate Wakeling, Helen Wallace
KEY TO STAR RATINGS
★★★★★ Outstanding
★★★★ Excellent
★★★ Good
★★ Disappointing
★ Poor
72 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
RECORDING OF THE MONTH
A daring foray into the
world of Berg’s Lulu
Barbara Hannigan’s debut recording as
conductor-soprano is an illuminating and
imaginative tour de force, says Steph Power
Crazy Girl Crazy
Berio: Sequenza III;
Berg: Lulu Suite; Gershwin:
Girl Crazy Suite
Ludwig Orchestra/Barbara
Hannigan (conductor and
soprano); plus film by
Mathieu Amalric
Alpha Classics: Alpha 293
57:28 mins (CD); 20 mins (DVD)
Crazy Girl Crazy is an album
that – just like its muse and
protagonist – flouts the rules.
Berio, Berg and Gershwin
aren’t ‘meant’ to be jointly
programmable; disturbingly
semiotic solo vocal music isn’t
‘meant’ to work alongside
lush, jazzy orchestral scores;
orchestral players aren’t ‘meant’
to break into chorus; and, above
all, soprano soloists aren’t
‘meant’ to turn about-face to
conduct the orchestra – while
delivering with aching beauty
one of the most challenging
arias in the repertoire.
All this Barbara Hannigan
achieves with artless poise
and musical intelligence in her
debut recording as conductor-
soprano, alongside willing
co-adventurers the Ludwig
Orchestra. At the heart of the
project lies Berg’s eponymous
antiheroine, Lulu; a signature
role for Hannigan, who tracks
her free and ever-elusive spirit
from inside-out, blazing a trail
through supposedly disparate
genres of radical music-theatre,
post-Romantic expressionist
opera and Broadway musical.
The theme is craziness; ‘the
craziness of being in love…
of being driven crazy by an
internal rhythm.’ But these are
no barmy juxtapositions. As
each piece unfolds in lyrical
silver, shot with gaiety, abandon,
black shadow, they become part
of a ‘hall of mirrors’ in which
Lulu – and Hannigan herself –
is reflected, just out of reach.
Berio’s neo-avant-garde
Sequenza III (1965) is transposed

Breaking the rules:
soprano-conductor
Barbara Hannigan
up in pitch to render his vocal
athletics especially girlish;
just like the adolescent Lulu
might deliver, with a steel-
soft, mellifluous core that is
anything but histrionic. The
litheness of Hannigan’s voice
beguiles, so that the near-
segue into the Lulu Suite (1934)
comes as a sense-sharpening
emotional jolt.
There is surprisingly little
singing in Berg’s symphonic
extrapolation, created for
listeners impatient to catch a
glimpse of the forthcoming
opera he never got to finish.
But with Hannigan at the helm,
coaxing wave upon languid
wave of silken sound, we get
more than a glimpse of Lulu.
It’s a highly personal, sensual
reading; lavish with orchestral
detail and, when it comes, a
spellbinding ‘Lied der Lulu’.
A further, piercing jolt awaits
in the shift from Countess
At the heart of the
project lies Berg’s Lulu,
a signature role for
Barbara Hannigan
Geschwitz’s darkly enraptured
‘Liebestod’ to ‘They’re writing
songs of love, but not for me’.
Now we enter an obliquely
other 1930s in the form of a
rich suite of arrangements
from Gershwin’s Girl Crazy,
brilliantly orchestrated by
Recording of the month Reviews
B6<6O
>C:
CHOICE
Bill Elliott. This is no straight
take on musical theatre but
an inspired evocation of Lulu
through oompah-cabaret,
merry-go-round allusion.
‘Music is music’, as Berg once
said to Gershwin, and as the
bonus film reminds us. But it
takes a performer of Hannigan’s
calibre to show how gloriously
illuminating supposedly lateral
connections can be.
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
DOCUMENTARY ★★★★
Hear excerpts and a
discussion of this recording
on the BBC Music Magazine
podcast available free on iTunes or
at www.classical-music.com
An interview with
Barbara Hannigan
How did you come up with
this unusual programme?
Lulu has been such an important
role for me as a musician since I
first started singing her in 2012.
When I started conducting I was
intrigued by Berg’s Lulu Suite,
and I managed to find a way
to both conduct and sing at
the same time. I like to present
music in a very dramaturgical
way, so the CD is related by
emotional themes rather than
having three pieces in the same
style. The Berio Sequenza III
is an exploration of a woman
in a traumatic and precarious
situation – she is the 15-year-old
Lulu from the opera’s third act.
The Gershwin is a mirror of the
Lulu Suite. There are Lulu themes
worked into the orchestration, as
well as Ligeti and Mahler.
Who is Lulu for you?
I don’t think of Lulu as a
stereotype or a femme fatale –
that is completely uninteresting
to me. I feel she is a free spirit.
She is incredibly intelligent and
emotionally intelligent. She
remains true to herself at the
expense of the happiness of
other people – she expects them
to look after themselves. Singing
this role gives me a strength
and confidence that carries to
all other roles. I’m still singing it
this season and I have plans to
conduct the whole opera.
What will your next CD be?
I have a completely improvised
CD which will be a small release.
Then in a month I’m recording
an all Second Viennese School
programme, all from before
Lulu and 1910. It features
Schoenberg, Webern, Zemlinsky,
Alma Mahler and Hugo Wolf. I’ll
be recording with the pianist
Reinbert de Leeuw, who is a
huge mentor for me.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 73
Orchestral
ORCHESTRAL CHOICE

Vaughan Williams’s controlled fury

Stephen Johnson admires Sir Mark Elder’s unforced mastery

composer’s later recorded thoughts. It

works, though.
Other conductors may have gone
Vaughan Williams more consistently for the burn, but
Symphonies Nos 4 & 6 Elder’s versions make one question
Hallé/Mark Elder the wisdom of that kind of approach.
Hallé CD HLL 7547 64:55 mins It’s the power behind it all that’s so
Vaughan Williams’s ferocious stirring. Elder builds his climaxes
Fourth Symphony was first carefully, and judges their relative
performed in 1935, four years before effect with a sculptural objectivity
the outbreak of World War II. The that enhances rather than lessens
stormy Sixth was completed two the total impression – well, they do
years after the War. say that controlled
Whether or not Mark Elder reveals fury is the most
Vaughan Williams
conceived these
the most dangerous dangerous emotion
of all. The sense
symphonies as emotion of all of long line is
‘tracts for troubled superb, the detailed
times’, they certainly sound like that phrasing telling, especially in the
now. The urgency, the mixture of quieter, more intimate passages.
anguish, violence and desolation (There are plenty of those, even in the
feels as relevant today as it ever did. Fourth Symphony.)
Mark Elder doesn’t try to force What moved me most, though,
the point. Nothing is over-hyped or was the sense of craggy dignity
over-driven – in fact there are times conveyed by both symphonies. This
when he seems to have deliberately above all is what prevents them from Feel the Fourth:
opted for a less sensational approach. coming across as onslaughts of pure Mark Elder shapes
the symphonies well
The breathtaking hushed Epilogue pessimism. The playing – as usual
of the Sixth Symphony, for example, with Elder’s Hallé – is outstanding,
is taken at a relatively lively, flowing technically and expressively.
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices
tempo – nearer to the original PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ on the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
metronome marking than to the RECORDING ★★★★★

Mahler as ‘Mahler’s Pastoral Symphony’ – It’s also the alternation between Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 4 the chamber-like Fourth. cataclysm and serenity that Fischer Symphony No. 2
Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra/ And it’s a fascinating, detailed and his fine Dusseldorf musicians Lucy Crowe (soprano), Jurgita
Adam Fischer account. After those opening sleigh capture so well in this live account. Adamonytė (mezzo), Michael Spyres
Avi-Music 8553378 bells sprinkle their fairy dust, On a micro-level, the plentiful (tenor); Monteverdi Choir; LSO/
Iván is not the you immediately hear one of the rubato in the first movement John Eliot Gardiner
only Fischer most distinctive features of this suggests different moods, all jostling LSO Live LSO 0803 (Blu-ray & hybrid CD/
with impressive performance – how the strings for attention, each imposing its own SACD) 64:03 mins (2 discs)
Mahler play the glissandos, which pepper tempo and character. Jaunty tunes This work has
recordings to the score. As Fischer explains in interrupt unstable elements, and had a mixed press
his name. While his liner notes, he’s paid special vice versa. On a macro-level, the over the years:
Iván is now nearing the end of his attention to how Mahler has notated pacing is spot on. The build-up in Schumann was
version of the symphony cycle –the them and the fingerings he’s marked the long Adagio is overwhelming, impressed by
Hungarian conductor says he no – taking a little detour below the the glimpse of the depths and the Mendelssohn’s
interest in recording the Eighth – his starting note before sliding up to the arrival at Heaven’s gates superb. If imagination, ‘especially in the parts
brother Adam is just embarking main note. Here they sound by turns Hanna-Elisabeth Müller’s soprano where the chorus predominates’,
on his Mahler series with the slinky, sultry, sharp, sentimental, isn’t my ideal, the overall effect is but Tovey damned the opening of
JAMES CHEADLE

Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra. exaggerated, but above all evocative magical. Rebecca Franks the Adagio religioso as ‘the origin of
The Seventh came out last year, and of the Viennese world in which PERFORMANCE ★★★★ almost all that is sickly in English
now he’s turned to what he describes Mahler was working. RECORDING ★★★★ church music’. For me, the three

74 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


initial orchestral movements are on
the dull side, but things perk up to
some extent with the vocal entries.
The Monteverdi Singers produce,
as ever, a clean, well-focused tone
and there is much pleasure to be had
in Lucy Crowe’s radiant soprano
and Michael Spyres’s lyrical tenor,
making the most of the arias that
Mendelssohn added after the
first performance.
The evidence seems to be that
the orchestral movements had been
planned by 1838 for a Symphony
in B flat, but that Mendelssohn
then added the choral movements
when commissioned to write
music for the 400th anniversary of
Gutenberg’s invention of printing –
perhaps not much of an inspiration
compared with Fingal’s Cave or
Shakespeare’s fairies ? I can’t help
remembering Berlioz’s comment
that Mendelssohn was overly fond
of fugal stuff, of which there’s quite a
lot here, much of it derived from the
work’s opening fanfare, and at times
it does become a touch predictable
despite rhythmic vigour from
all concerned.
My only query over the
performance concerns two
unduly leisurely tempos, for the
Allegretto un poco agitato and the
soprano’s Lobe den Herrn, for which
Mendelssohn requests some ‘fuoco’:
reducing his crotchet beat from 104
to 70 does rather dowse the flame.
Roger Nichols
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Rachmaninov
Symphony No. 1
Philharmonia Orchestra/
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Signum SIGCD 484 43:23 mins
Way back in
the late 1980s,
Vladimir
Ashkenazy gave
us a stunning
and powerfully
driven account of Rachmaninov’s
First Symphony with the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra on
Decca, a performance which
still holds its own as one of the
benchmark versions of this
compelling work. He subsequently
recorded the Symphony again with
the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
for Exton. That performance is no
less passionate or dynamic than its
predecessor, though in all fairness
the orchestral playing isn’t quite
in the same league. This third
recording, taken from a concert
given at the Royal Festival Hall
in November 2016, is perhaps the
most satisfying of all. Whereas
Decca clothed the Dutch Orchestra
in a gloriously reverberant
acoustic, thereby obscuring some
of Rachmaninov’s more intricate
part-writing, the drier sound of
the London concert hall brings a
welcome transparency which works
particularly effectively in the fleet-
of-foot second movement.
Moreover, Signum’s recording
engineers have achieved a near
miracle in somehow creating a much
warmer ambience to the sound
than you would normally expect
from this venue. Of course, much
of this warmth derives from the
wonderfully rich string sonorities
of the Philharmonia who play their
hearts out for Ashkenazy, especially
in the powerful climaxes of the
Finale. But perhaps the real strength
of Ashkenazy’s interpretation
lies not so much in its deeply-felt
emotional intensity, but rather in the
way he brings a sense of architectural
integrity to music that in lesser
hands can seem episodic and
discursive. A good example is the
second idea of the first movement,
a passage which under Ashkenazy
has a real sense of cohesion as its
initially halting and hesitant nature
grows in intensity. Erik Levi
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Ravel
Daphnis et Chloé; Une barque
sur l’océan; Pavane pour une
infante défunte
Orchestre Philharmonique du
Luxembourg; WDR Rundfunkchor
Koln/Gustavo Gimeno
PentaTone PTC 5186 652 (hybrid
CD-SACD) 72:35 mins
Now and then I
think every music
critic is faced
with a disc that
makes us wonder
whether, by
scratching away at Beckmesserish
detail, we aren’t missing the bigger
picture. The disc under review
here contains so much that is
right: elegant phrasing, excellent
woodwind, no ugly over-emphases
distorting the rhythm and, in
Daphnis, a splendidly lumpish
Dorcon and truly terrifying pirates.
I also have to face the fact that, in
the concert hall, I would probably
not have registered all the faulty
Orchestral Reviews
details I found score in hand. But Shostakovich • Barber
then a disc is, ideally, for repeated Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5;
listening; not only that but there are, Barber: Adagio for Strings
of course, for the Ravel repertoire Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/
a large number of other recordings Manfred Honeck
where both the heart and the head Reference Recordings FR-724 (hybrid CD/
of the interpretation are in line with SACD) 60:17 mins
the score. Manfred
So, with something of a heavy Honeck’s
heart, I append some scratchings Shostakovich
that I really can’t ignore. In the sounds
Pavane the bass of the second magnificent.
chord is barely audible, so Ravel’s From intense
pseudo-Baroque foundation is pianissimos to the shrieking upper
immediately undermined, and the register and full bass thwack of a
two horns at letter B are too loud. grand peroration – which Honeck
In Une barque what should be the takes surprisingly at face value –
dangerous chromatic octaves in the there’s faith in what can sometimes
bass at fig. 16 are much too quiet, seem like a time-serving symphony.
and in the final bars the tiny but I wondered whether Honeck’s
crucial piccolo figure is obscured by determination to probe deep needed
the first flute. And there are more a slower tempo before the grinding
inaccuracies in Daphnis, not least an first-movement development, but if
over-enthusiastic wind machinist the sequel means the most human
– no doubt they don’t get that many and nurtured slow movement in
opportunities to ply their trade, but the business, then it’s a small price
even so... Roger Nichols to pay. The scherzo is writ huge, like
PERFORMANCE ★★★ Mahler on steroids, cellos and basses
RECORDING ★★★★ digging in at the start; the finale has
Reissues Reviewed by Bayan Northcott
Bartók Concerto for Orchestra; Music for
Strings, Percussion and Celesta*
Recorded with startling clarity, Rafael Kubelík and
the Boston Symphony’s 1973 account of Bartók’s
Concerto-in-exile blazes with passion and nostalgia.
Seiji Ozawa’s fill up* is efficiently done, if less
characterful. PentaTone PTC 5186 247 (hybrid CD/
SACD) (1973/76) 69:53 mins ★★★★
Brahms Symphonies Nos 1-4
Unmannered, firmly structured and phrased with
loving musicality, Rafael Kubelík’s Brahms cycle with
the Vienna Philharmonic in traditional form remains
classic, despite its now aged recorded sound.
Eloquence 482 4969 (1956-57)
158:23 mins (2 discs) ★★★★
Mahler Symphony No. 5; Five songs from
Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Though the East Berlin brass of the 1979
Staatskapelle blare a bit, Otmar Suitner’s take on the
Fifth is more cogent and forward-moving than many
of today’s over-fussed accounts. Lorenz is eloquent in
the Rückert songs.
Berlin Classics 0300922BC (1979)
103:92 mins (2 discs) ★★★★
Mahler Symphony No. 9
Despite his reputation for fierce urgency, Georg
Solti’s 1967 Kingsway Hall recording with the LSO in
great form is a spacious as Bernard Haitink’s 1969
Concertgebouw account, and as deeply felt.
Eloquence 4827163 (1969) 80:03 mins ★★★★
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 75
Orchestral Reviews
all the trenchancy it needs, whatever
you make of the ending.
More background knowledge
in Honeck’s long programme note
wouldn’t have gone amiss; nowadays
you might expect observation of a
possible first-movement quotation
(the ‘Habanera’ from Bizet’s Carmen,
for personal, plausible reasons too
complicated to examine here) and
a significant nod to one of his own
Pushkin settings in the finale. And
a musicologist wouldn’t claim that
the first movement climax ‘depicts
the simple but violent machine that
insists to indoctrinate its ideology
into the heads of the people’ (did any
English speaker proof this text?). But
‘Sonic spectacular’: whatever it takes to get results. And
Louis Fremaux put the while Honeck also ignores evidence
CBSO on the CD map that Barber meant his Adagio as a
lovesong to Menotti, that’s a deeply
From the archives
felt reading, too. David Nice
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Andrew McGregor explores the recording history Wagner
of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Concert Overtures Nos 1 & 2;
Overtures to Das Liebesverbot,
These two slim sets together tell the story of the Christopher Columbus, Die
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) Feen, König Enzio; Siegfried Idyll
as a modern recording orchestra, now so well MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony
established it’s strange to think that it made its Orchestra/Jun Märkl
first LP in 1966. So when Louis Frémaux became Naxos 8.573414 71:52 mins
principal conductor in 1969 he set about creating Wagner’s earliest
the orchestra’s discography, beginning with an LP of favourite works, once
arias from David Hughes. The Birmingham-born tenor died derided – not least
tragically young, otherwise, from the sound here, we would be a by himself – have
lot more familiar with his voice. Frémaux started exploring French recently attracted
repertoire: Massenet ballet suites in 1971 sparkle and impress more serious
with their Gallic poise. That was a best-seller, and so a year later attention. Certainly they reveal an
was Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony. Berlioz’s Grande Messe des unusually promising composer,
Morts was a sonic spectacular featuring the newly-formed CBSO already above the ordinary for his
Chorus, and still has tremendous impact. Frémaux’s fondness for day and with occasional startling
Walton is obvious, and the McCabe song-cycle with soprano Jill flashes of the genius to come. Jun
Gomez is beautiful. Frémaux’s Poulenc is outstanding: Les Biches Märkl and the excellent MDR
and the Gloria are highlights. (Warner Classics 9029588673; 12 CDs) Leipzig Radio players, rather brightly
In 1980 the young Simon Rattle took over the reins, and soon recorded, provide a lively selection.
realised he had inherited an orchestra he could train to take The Weberish, fantastical Die
on the world in Mahler (Warner Classics 9029586917; 12 CDs). Feen, the Italianate Das Liebesverbot,
The Resurrection Symphony came first in 1986, and like much and the wave-filled theatrical
of Rattle’s CBSO Mahler cycle, immediately divided the critics. overture Columbus are already
But then which Mahler cycle doesn’t? Yet I can hear why Warner quite well known and recorded,
has stuck with the CBSO’s version rather than Rattle’s Berlin not least in Neeme Järvi’s superb
Philharmonic remake: the voices of soloists Arleen Auger and Chandos collections. The two
Janet Baker, the greater depth to the recording and the magical earlier concert overtures, though,
choral contributions. It’s the Berlin Phil live for Nos 5, 9 and are rarer, the second in particular
most memorably the completed 10th Symphony. The Third from worth hearing for its robust Classical
Birmingham is particularly successful, while the live Eighth is style, very much in the mould of
superbly played but has balance issues. It’s a shame not to have Wagner’s idol Beethoven. The
Das Lied von der Erde, but it’s a lot of Mahler for your money, a König Enzio overture, for Raupach’s
great reminder of Frémaux’s influence and importance, and an sombre rescue drama (in which
education in orchestral evolution. Wagner’s sister Rosalie starred),
is also drenched in Beethoven’s
Andrew McGregor is the presenter of tragic gloom, especially Egmont and
REG WILSON
Radio 3’s Record Review, broadcast each Fidelio; its only current rival appears
Saturday morning from 9am until 12.15pm on an earlier Naxos collection, rather
76 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
less effective. Least satisfactory is
the Siegfried Idyll in its unoriginal
orchestral form, stylistically a
lifetime away from the rest; the Faust
overture would surely have been
better. Michael Scott Rohan
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★
Life Reflected
Castri: Dear Life; Estacio: I Lost
My Talk; Lizée: Bondarsphere;
Morlock: My Name is Amanda Todd
Canada’s National Arts Centre
Orchestra/Alexander Shelley
Analekta AN28870 72:85 mins
Life Reflected
is an artistic
collaboration
commissioned by
Canada’s National
Arts Centre.
Blending new music, writing,
dance and video, the work offers a
powerful meditation on (female)
experience and is by turns uplifting,
unsettling, mischievous and
deeply poignant, albeit with some
contributions stronger than others.
Four different scores underpin the
work. Strongest is the opening piece,
Dear Life, setting extracts from Alice
Munro’s semi-autobiographical
short story of that name. Narrated
with impeccable poise by Martha
Henry, Munro’s text fizzes with
humour and menace, while Zosha
Di Castri’s orchestral score chimes
and simmers below, erupting in
wild, beautiful flurries (and also
featuring a stellar performance
by soprano Erin Wall). Jocelyn
Morlock’s My Name is Amanda
Todd is an elegaic tribute to a brave
young anti-bullying advocate, while
Bondarsphere celebrates the life of
neurologist Dr Roberta Bondar, the
first Canadian woman in space.
Nicole Lizée’s playful, sweeping
score evokes the thrill and danger of
space travel, blending a soundtrack
of spoken voice and electronica with
live orchestra. The disc concludes
with I Lost My Talk which sets a
poem by Mi’kmaw elder and poet
Rita Joe and explores the systematic
mistreatment of indigenous peoples.
Joe’s redemptive text is spellbinding
but John Estacio’s score (which
admittedly accompanies a film, here
unseen) feels saccharine in places,
and the performance from the
otherwise excellent National Arts
Centre Orchestra seems patchy here.
Kate Wakeling
PERFORMANCE ★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
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The Bridgewater Hall Manchester Camerata
International Concert Series 17|18 Wednesday 31 January 7.30pm | The Bridgewater Hall

Academy of
St Martin
in the Fields Performed by the stunning Choir of Clare College,
Cambridge and four outstanding soloists

with Joshua Bell

Monday 22 January 7.30pm

Programme includes
Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and
Beethoven’s Second Symphony

Box Office: 0161 907 9000 Box Office: 0161 907 9000
www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk
 Concerto
CONCERTO CHOICE

An intense and charismatic new star

Julian Haylock hails the rising young Greek-Polish violinist Irmina Trynkos

confirms violinist Irmina Trynkos as

a phenomenal talent. Whether in the
scintillating virtuosity of the outer
Borenstein movements or the heartfelt cantabile
Violin Concerto; The Big Bang of the Adagio, she plays with a
and Creation of the Universe; charismatic incandescence and
If you will it, it is no dream intensity reminiscent of Isaac Stern’s
Irmina Trynkos (violin); golden period of the late 1950s and
Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra/ early ’60s. The orchestral playing
Vladimir Ashkenazy and engineering is of bracing impact
Chandos CHSA 5209 (hybrid CD/SACD) and captivating allure.
56:45 mins The Big Bang and Creation of the
Born in Tel Aviv and educated in Universe (completed in 2009 and
Paris, the composer premiered, like the
Nimrod Borenstein Irmina Trynkos’s Violin Concerto,
originally trained by the Oxford
as a violinist. It
intensity recalls Isaac Philharmonic)
seems appropriate, Stern’s golden period is cast in three
then, that the movements –
most substantial work here, at ‘Light’, ‘Peace’ and ‘Adam and Eve’.
nearly half-an-hour in length, is Borenstein writes in an unflashy
the Violin Concerto of 2013. There tonal language that somehow
are moments when the ghosts of manages to draw upon traditional
Prokofiev (the Second Concerto, sources and yet sounds urgently
especially), Khachaturian and spontaneous. If you will it, it is
Walton pass fleetingly over the no dream (2012) encapsulates A phenomenal talent:
music’s swirling, colourful textures, Borenstein’s high-compression Irmina Trynkos plays
yet the overriding sensation here sound-world in which melodic and Borenstein with charisma
is of an exuberantly inventive rhythmic ideas create a multi-layered
composer with a symphonic instinct frisson of hyper-activity.
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices
exhilarating in the concerto medium. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
on the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
This spectacular performance RECORDING ★★★★★

JS Bach
Keyboard Concertos Nos 1-3,
BWV 1052-1054
Schaghajegh Nosrati (piano);
Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin
Genuin GEN 17482 59:37 mins
Schaghajegh
Nosrati’s debut
disc of JS Bach’s
The Art of Fugue
came with ringing
imprimaturs
from pianist András Schiff and
fortepianist Robert Levin, and the
latter is partly implicated in this
sequel devoted to three of Bach’s
best-known keyboard concertos.
AGATA PREYSS
newly spruced up, performed with
delectable, unadulterated buoyancy,
the protean D minor and E major
Concertos unveil a fascinating new
twist. At Levin’s suggestion, Nosrati
presents the outer movements with
added wind parts sourced from
previous cantata incarnations.
Necessary transpositions of key also
necessitate instrumental tweaks,
yielding a trio of oboe, oboe d’amore
and cor anglais. The result isn’t a
reconstruction of a lost version;
rather, this is an experiment in ‘what
if’, the woodwind chorus lending
graininess to the tuttis and moments
of pungent commentary elsewhere.
alive to the expressive kernel without Martinů
over-milking it. And with minimal Cello Concerto No. 2
vibrato the small-scale forces of the Shostakovich
Deutsche Kammerorchester Berlin Cello Concerto No. 2
are stylish collaborators. Sometimes Christian Poltéra (cello); Deutsches
Nosrati’s left hand is a little over- Symphonie Orchester Berlin/
insistent, and final cadences a touch Gilbert Varga
apologetic, but the D minor’s first BIS BIS-2257 (hybrid CD/SACD)
Allegro knows exactly where it’s 64:16 mins
going (acquiring a little Sturm und A welcome
Drang en route); the finale blows recording of two
away the Adagio’s disquiet with ‘black-sheep’
gusto; and Nosrati’s penchant for cello concertos:
teasing out motivic felicities keeps Shostakovich’s
the opening movements of BWV elusive, tragi-
1053/4 pulsating with vitality. Bach comic Second, and another Second,
on the piano has a compelling new a splendid work by Martinů. Few

‘Best-known’ is perhaps misleading At her most inspired, Nosrati is a exponent. Paul Riley recordings exist of the latter, which
though. For while the D major captivating Bachian; rhythmically PERFORMANCE ★★★★ was never performed in Martinů’s
Concerto, BWV 1054 appears infectious, supremely intelligent, RECORDING ★★★★ lifetime after he failed to secure

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 79

Concerto Reviews
Gregor Piatigorsky as soloist.
Written in 1945, it combines an
open-road, American breeziness
with soulful, Czech glow. Christian
Poltéra gives a blazing account,
bringing both eloquent shape
and tonal richness to his melodic
line. He fairly burns in the deeply
nostalgic Andante while the high-
kicking Allegro showcases his
technical mastery, including a
cadenza of glittering detail and a
break-neck coda, dispatched with
flair. To date, Raphael Wallfisch’s
marvellous 1991 account with the
Czech Philharmonic under Jiří
Bělohlávek has been a benchmark:
while that remains a reference for the
subtlety of Bělohlávek’s orchestral
handling, Poltéra is a worthy
successor as soloist, and they offer a
swifter, more satisfying finale.
While the Deutsches Symphonie-
Orchester Berlin under Gilbert Varga
is lively enough in the Martinů, their
literalness dampens the theatrical
potential of the Shostakovich
Concerto. Poltéra carries the opening
movement’s sombre narrative, but
the Scherzo dares not venture into
vulgarity: while Alisa Weilerstein
(Decca) was prepared to take the
jaunty street song down a dark alley,
Poltéra keeps it on the straight and
narrow. When this song returns
BACKGROUND TO…
Nimrod Borenstein
(b.1969)
Born in Tel
Aviv and
raised in
France,
Borenstein
has evolved
his style
from such
20th-century techniques as
serialism and ‘sound clusters’ to
his own approach to traditional
systems of tonality. He was
originally trained as a violinist –
after studying in Paris, he came
to London to further his studies
under Itzhak Rashkovsky at the
Royal College of Music before
choosing to devote himself to
composition – and so has a
particular empathy with the
violin’s expressive potential.
His orchestral work has long
been championed by Vladimir
Ashkenazy in particular.
80 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
in the thunderous finale climax,
Varga is heavy and over-deliberate,
smoothing out the rhythmic
edges. The feverish, hospital-ward
atmosphere found by Weilerstein
or in Pieter Wispelwey’s singularly
sinister reading (Channel) is
replaced here by rather incongruous
jollity. Helen Wallace
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Rachmaninov
Piano Concerto No. 2; Rhapsody
on a theme of Paganini
Anna Vinnitskaya (piano); NDR
Elbphilharmonie Orchestra/
Krzysztof Urbanski
Alpha Classics ALPHA 275 56:36 mins
Whether or not
Rachmaninov’s
Second is the
world’s most
popular piano
concerto, there
are probably enough recordings of
it now to fill the Royal Albert Hall.
To hold its own in a desperately
overcrowded market populated
with the likes of Sviatoslav Richter,
Vladimir Ashkenazy and, indeed,
the composer himself, any new
recording has to be exceptionally
fine. Anna Vinnitskaya and
Krzysztof Urbanski here offer a
reading of this concerto that has
much to recommend it – not least,
that it is straightforward and ‘classic’
in the best sense. Vinnitskaya’s
playing is an absolute delight for
its natural, songful, expressive
phrasing and a cool, unpretentious
temperament rather akin with the
composer’s own recorded approach.
Always intelligent, and present
in the moment, she is alive to the
inner voices and colourful contrasts
in both this and the Paganini
Rhapsody, maintaining control,
poise and sensitivity throughout.
If the Paganini Rhapsody could
do with sharper edges and more
sparkle, that is possibly down to a
somewhat ploddy accompaniment
from the orchestra, tempos that
could perhaps move with more
energy and conviction, and a slightly
bulbous acoustic (the recording is
from the NDR studios in Hamburg,
not the Elbphilharmonie itself, if
you were wondering). So, of the two
pieces, the concerto emerges in finer
form, its moody temperament and
tenderness excellently intact.
Jessica Duchen
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Reissues Reviewed by Jessica Duchen
Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2
Gorgeous phrasing, soulfulness, wit, delicacy,
elemental power – Martha Argerich’s dream
performances are expansively accompanied by
Giuseppe Sinopoli and the Philharmonia, albeit in an
over-resonant acoustic. Eloquence 482 8145 (1986)
65:24 mins ★★★★★
Gulda Improvisations 1 & 2 Mozart Rondos for
piano and orchestra; Piano Sonata No. 12
Friedrich Gulda’s startlingly fresh improvisations and
compositions rub shoulders with Mozart, the latter
often sounding a tad dogged and pedantic.
BR Klassik 900713 (1969/82) 54:36 mins ★★★
Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 3
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2
Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues
Recorded in Prague, some of these vivid and
characterful performances are on CD for the first time
and they’re a must-have for all pianophiles. Tatiana
Nikolayeva’s own Concert Etudes are fabulous.
Supraphon SU 4216-2 (1951/54)
91:21 mins (2 discs) ★★★★★
Mozart Piano Concertos Nos 20, 21, 23 & 25
A mixed bag for four of Mozart’s most popular piano
concertos: serene, streamlined elegance from
conductor Kurt Masur and the Dresden Philharmonic,
but slightly ploddy pianism from Annerose Schmidt.
The recorded sound on the download is excellent.
Berlin Classics 885470010359 (download only)
114 mins ★★★
Rachmaninov and, when appropriate, a surrender
Piano Concerto No. 2; Etudes- to the grand sweep of the music. The
tableaux, Op. 33; plus Kreisler: decrescendo at the end of the slow
Liebesleid (arr. Rachmaninov); Behr: movement cadenza is controlled to
Lachtäubchen (arr. Rachmaninov) the point of an astonishing hold-
Boris Giltburg (piano); your-breath whisper.
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/ The third movement is just a
Carlos Miguel Prieto notch slower than usual, but Giltburg
Naxos 8.573629 66:58 mins and Carlos Miguel Prieto seem to use
Yet another CD of this to increase drama in its ebb and
Rachmaninov’s flow, sometimes convincingly. The
ubiquitous Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Concerto No. 2… sounds smooth and elegant, even if
but with soloist it could sparkle more in the finale.
Boris Giltburg, The Royal Concert Hall Glasgow
whose recent recording of the Op. 39 acoustic is perhaps a touch over-
Etudes-tableaux and Moments resonant with the piano slightly
musicaux was truly exceptional. too much to the fore – not that one
Giltburg paces the concerto’s solo would want to miss a note of it.
opening crescendo beautifully; and Giltburg brings atmosphere
though he breaks the chords at the and drama to the Etudes-tableaux,
bottom note, he’s in good company always serving Rachmaninov’s
as the composer did so himself. In storytelling. The range of his playing
terms of sheer pianism, the ensuing – from colour to pacing to emotional
saga is frequently breathtaking. It’s shading and sheer heady propulsion
not only the fleetness of fingerwork, – makes for compulsive listening.
utter clarity and beauty of tone, but Jessica Duchen
the imagination that goes with it, the PERFORMANCE ★★★★
placing of pointillist harmonic detail RECORDING ★★★★
 Joanne Lunn | Esther Brazil | Amy Lyddon | Rory McCleery | Joshua Ellicott
Matthew Long | Nicholas Mulroy | Peter Harris | Peter Harvey | William Gaunt
His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts

PERFORMANCE / RECORDING

‘This compelling and insightful album is an outstanding contribution

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coloristic sonority of the organ which, by employing the Hauptwerk
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— BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

‘...this luminous rendition of the 1610 Vespers is one of

the most exciting and satisfying for its virtuosity and
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‘If you want some Monteverdi in your life, you can’t

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recorded with a small, hand-picked choir of ten voices,
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Opera
OPERA CHOICE
Stuart Jackson is a dream
tenor in Mozart’s Scipione
Max Loppert applauds this latest venture in early
Mozart operas by Ian Page and his musicians
Tenor triumph:
Stuart Jackson is a
standout success
in Mozart’s title role
Mozart
Il sogno di Scipione
Stuart Jackson, Klara Ek, Soraya Mafi, Krystian Adam,
Robert Murray, Chiara Skerath; Choir and Orchestra of
Classical Opera/Ian Page
Signum SIGCD 499 108:14 mins (2 discs)
Scipio’s Dream, Mozart’s sixth opera, is also Classical
Opera’s sixth complete Mozart opera recording
for Signum Classics under its
conductor, Ian Page. The company’s All the arias offer
devotion to the very young
composer’s theatrical creations –
moments
the list so far, leaning heavily on Mozart dramatic spark singers a standout leading
the earliest, reaches no further
than Zaide (1779) – has already paid off handsomely.
Evidence of Mozart’s extraordinary youthful
accomplishment has been piled up in a way that
cumulatively makes nonsense of past dismissal of
these works as immature parrotings of contemporary
operatic fashion.
This one-act serenata for a cast of three tenors
and three sopranos, written in 1771, is a case in point. RECORDING
The dramatic limitations of Metastasio’s blandly
moralising libretto may be obvious (the celebrated
MARTIN SIGMUND
Roman commander dreams of having to choose
between two goddesses, capricious Fortune and
82 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
steadfast Constancy: no prizes for guessing the
outcome). Yet all the da capo arias offer moments of
genuine Mozartian musico-dramatic spark – of which
later there’s an abundance in the long accompanied
recitative depicting Scipio’s awakening, which Page in
his admirably detailed booklet essay calls ‘music (of)
sublime beauty and haunting otherworldliness’.
This is a rewarding set: gracefully paced, with
period-instrument playing more
polished than in Astrée’s 2001
Freiburg Sogno di Scipione, and
of genuine among its fresh-voiced young
tenor, Stuart Jackson, as Scipio.
From that earlier recording, though, and Philips’s
celebrated 1979 one conducted by Leopold Hager and
featuring Edita Gruberová, Lucia Popp and Edith
Mathis, one gains a much stronger impression of the
soprano roles’ distinctively contrasted qualities; but
overall, this is an impressive achievement.
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
★★★★
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of
this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine
website at www.classical-music.com
Berg
Lulu (DVD)
Marlis Petersen, Daniela Sindram,
Rachael Wilson, Rainer Trost, Bo
Skovhus, Matthias Klink; Bavarian
State Orchestra/Kirill Petrenko; dir.
Dmitri Tcherniakov (Munich, 2015)
Bel Air BAC 129 182 mins (2 discs)
Controversy has
surrounded Lulu
since its 1937
Zürich premiere,
in the form Berg
left unfinished
at his untimely
death two years
earlier. Still problematic today,
the opera’s key question concerns
surprisingly little-changed social
attitudes towards women, sex and
class hierarchy: exactly who – or
what – is Lulu?
Director Dmitri Tcherniakov
rejects the cliché of a monstrous,
pseudo-innocent vamp who
torments men unto death, suicide
and murder – including her own. Yet
his protagonist, the vocally stunning
Marlis Petersen, feels reined in from
her extreme coloratura. White-
costumed, in a set comprising
glass labyrinths, cold lighting and
anonymous crowds, she is neither
determined rebel nor passive
victim, but self-endangered by her
desperation to be loved – by more
or less anyone, but especially her
businessman ‘protector’ Dr Schön
(Bo Skovhus, more brooding than
menacing). Thus subtler clichés
take hold – and Tcherniakov hardly
avoids caricature in portraying
the lesbian Geschwitz (Daniela
Sindram) as a mannishly pathetic
bluestocking, while the composer
Alwa (Matthias Klink) remains a
dithering aesthete until his violent
demise. For all Lulu’s teasing come-
ons, the production lacks erotic
charge, and the savage black comedy
that Berg carefully retained from
Wedekind’s Lulu plays is dulled
from a lampooning exposure of
bourgeois hypocrisy into a basically
domesticated – if complex and
viscerally brutal – narrative of
lovers, jealousy and greed.
Yet all is very far from lost, thanks
to an impeccable cast who attack that
narrative with exceptional music-
dramatic skill, and the ravishingly
transparent playing of the Bavarian
State Orchestra under music
director, Kirill Petrenko. Petersen
invests Lulu with a paradoxical

strength in vulnerability, killing
herself rather than dying by Jack
the Ripper’s hand. Close-up camera
work makes the most of intimate
gestures and facial expressions
lost in the theatre but which, if not
visionary, help to make this Lulu
tragically human. Steph Power
PERFORMANCE ★★★
PICTURE AND SOUND ★★★★
Handel Goes Wild
Handel: Alcina – Act III Sinfonia,
‘Verdi prati’, ‘Mi lusinga il dolce
affetto’; Rinaldo – ‘Venti turbini’;
Semele – ‘O, Sleep Why Dost Thou
Leave Me?’, ‘Where’er you walk’;
Rinaldo – ‘Cara sposa’; Solomon
– Arrival of the Queen of Sheba;
Amadigi – ‘Pena tiranna’; Giulio
Cesare – ‘Piangerò la sorte mia’;
Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno
– ‘Tu del ciel ministro eletto’; Serse –
‘Ombra mai fu’; Vivaldi: Concerto in
G minor, RV 157
Nuria Rial (soprano), Valer Sabadus
(countertenor); L’Arpeggiata/
Christina Pluhar
Erato 9029581170 75:25 mins
Hybrid cars.
Fusion food.
If it’s your
thing, so might
be Baroque-
Jazz Handel.
Opera Reviews
Director and arranger Christina
Pluhar presents re-imagined
arias, sinfonias, and instrumental
numbers with L’arpeggiata – two
stellar teams of instrumentalists: a
Baroque band, and a jazz ensemble.
Personally, I would like more
of one or the other and I would
very happily listen to this same
programme of top-of-the-pops
Handel performed by either. The
Baroque instrumentalists display
lyricism, drive, and percussive
energy, and the jazz instrumentalists
improvise on the germs of Handel’s
imagination with infectious
enthusiasm. Combined, I’m not
always persuaded, but I can imagine
that if I heard it live, I might return
home thoroughly entertained – with
the souvenir CD in my pocket.
There are some natural moments
of departure, where the music invites
sensual creativity and if you enjoy
the lounge-style piano and clarinet
soundworld there’s much to enjoy.
However, at worst the affect of arias
such as ‘Where’ere ye walk’ do not
survive clarinet references of ‘I’ve got
plenty o’nothing’, and the beat in the
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba verges
on a Klezmer-inspired Hooked-On-
Classics. Instrumental numbers
see the greatest integration between
all instruments with the cornetto

Reissues Reviewed by George Hall

An Evening at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Recorded in indifferent sound, this gala concert from
the Chicago Lyric Opera under Georg Solti features
five starry principals in standard arias and duets.
Eloquence 482 7518 (1956) 57:11 mins ★★★
The countertenors
A riposte to The Three Tenors, this album from
Pascal Bertin, Andeas Scholl and Dominique Visse
provides a camp giggle or two as they essay unlikely
and even inappropriate material. Harmonia Mundi
HMA 1901552 (1995) 34:43 mins ★★
Handel Ombra cara
Arias for Handel’s long-term associate, the alto
castrato Senesino. Bejun Mehta sings with an
expressive imagination matched by René Jacobs and
the Freiburg players. Harmonia Mundi HMA 1902077
(2010) 71:46 mins ★★★★
Handel Arias
An earlier generation of superb Handelians, led
by Joan Sutherland, Bernadette Greevy’s opulent
contralto, William Herbert’s textured tenor and the
refulgent basses of Hervey Alan and Forbes Robinson.
Eloquence 482 4759 (1959-67)
145:08 mins (2 discs) ★★★★
Opera Reviews
proving a fascinating virtuosic
diplomat and continuo instruments
reminding us that these genres
have more that unite than divide.
Most arias, including the exquisite
‘Piangero la sorte mia’, alternate
the two groups with unflappable
vocalists, Valer Sabadus and Nuria
Rial, bridging the divide while
themselves embracing a fusion of
heartbreak and sass.
Whether or not Handel really
goes wild here, he certainly gets
experimental. Who knows if he
would have loved it, but if you do
that’s enough. Hannah French
PERFORMANCE ★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Rorem
Our Town
Matthew DiBattista, Margot Rood,
Brendan Buckley, Donald Wilkinson,
Krista River, David Kravitz, Angela
Gooch, Glorivy Arroyo, Stanley
Wilson; Monadnock Music/Gil Rose
New World Records 80790-2
123:25 mins (2 discs)
Thornton
Wilder’s 1938
play Our Town
finds magic in
the everyday life
of a small New
England town, through a series of
non-consecutive episodes set in
the period before the First World
War. Filmed in 1940 with a score by
Aaron Copland, it was made into an
opera only in 2005 by the veteran
American composer Ned Rorem.
Rorem pays occasional homage
to Copland’s luminous simplicity,
especially in his treatment of
church hymns, but also introduces
a Stravinskyan linking chord and
touches of the asperity and humour
of Milhaud and Poulenc, as well
as devising a new other-worldly
tone when the focus switches to the
town’s cemetery and its inhabitants.
Thanks to his experience as a song
composer, he conveys the text clearly
and with well-defined characters.
And altogether he creates a musical
world which you feel glad to re-enter
after each break between the acts.
In this well-balanced studio
recording by the forces of Gil Rose’s
Monadnock Music Festival, the
playing of the chamber orchestra
is alert, the small chorus produces
pleasingly blended tone, and the
cast – led by the flexible tenor
Matthew DiBattista as the narrating
MARC RIBES
Stage Manager – deliver words and
pitches with clarity and accuracy,
84 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
if not always shaped into rounded
phrases. Excepted from that
criticism is the soprano Margot
Rood, whose instinctive musicality,
pure tone and radiant upper register
are reminiscent of the young Dawn
Upshaw, and who brings touching
conviction to the central role of
Emily Webb in young life and after
death. Anthony Burton
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Rossini
William Tell (DVD)
Gerald Finley, Malin Byström, John
Osborn, Sofia Fomina, Nicolas
Courjal, Alexander Vinogradov,
Enkelejda Shkosa, Eric Halfvarson,
Michael Colvin, Samuel Dale
Johnson, Enea Scala; Royal Opera
Chorus/Renato Balsadonna;
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House/
Antonio Pappano; dir. Damiano
Michieletto (Covent Garden, 2015)
Opus Arte DVD: OA 1205 D;
Blu-ray: OA BD7195 D 201 mins (2 discs)
When it opened in
June 2015, the first
night of the Royal
Opera production
of William Tell
attracted a storm
of protest, much
of it occasioned
by a protracted gang-rape scene
that many observers found both
gratuitous and offensive; the booing
for the production team resumed at
their curtain call.
Seeing the show again after more
than two years, the negative audience
In her vocal prime:
Véronique Gens sings
rarely heard French arias
reaction remains comprehensible;
but in fact Damiano Michieletto’s
staging has further problems. Its
overall look is ugly and grungy, and
there are repeated appearances by
a silent, comic-book representative
of the historical William Tell who
comes over – whatever the intention
– as not merely intrusive but
also ridiculous.
On a visual and theatrical
basis, then, the show is scarcely
recommendable – though
Michieletto would redeem himself
not long afterwards at the same
address with a Cav & Pag which,
not surprisingly, reached DVD and
Blu-ray first. William Tell itself is
pretty well a write-off. Yet musically
it has a lot going for it, not least the
rarely performed and ambitious
score itself, conducted by Antonio
Pappano with his customary zeal
and stylistic insight. The leading
role of the Swiss patriot is delivered
in sombre (if not glowering) yet
dignified manner by Gerald Finley,
who quite properly makes the
famous aria ‘Sois immobile’ an
expressive highlight. In the near-
impossible tenor role of Arnold, with
its punishing plethora of high notes,
John Osborn stands his ground
more than honourably. Malin
Byström understands the internal
conflict of Arnold’s beloved enemy
Hapsburg princess Mathilde and is
persuasive in delineating it, while
Sofia Fomina is vocally confident
and convincingly boyish as Tell’s
son, Jemmy. Secondary roles such as
Eric Halfvarson’s vigorous Melcthal,
Enkelejda Shkosa’s concerned
Hedwige and Nicolas Courjal’s
ultra-villainous Gesler are expertly
done, while the Royal Opera Chorus
and Orchestra are on top form
throughout. George Hall
PERFORMANCE ★★
PICTURE AND SOUND ★★★★
R Strauss
Die Liebe der Danae (DVD)
Krassimira Stoyanova, Tomasz
Konieczny, Norbert Ernst, Wolfgang
Ablinger Sperrhacke, Regine
Hangler, Gerhard Siegel, Mária
Celeng, Olga Bezsmertna, Michaela
Selinger, Jennifer Johnston; Vienna
Philharmonic, Concert Association,
Vienna State Opera Choir/Franz
Welser Möst; dir. Alvis Hermanis
(Salzburg, 2016)
EuroArts DVD: 8024297028;
Blu-ray: 8024297024 160 mins
Salzburg’s
grotesque
obsession with
design over
direction reached
its apogee with
this second
production by
Latvian Alvis Hermanis. I found
myself shocked by the vacuous
nature of his response to Strauss’s
‘cheerful mythology’, based on an
idea left behind by the long-dead
Hofmannsthal and planned as his
operatic farewell (the end actually
came with the connoisseur’s piece
Capriccio, more popular now than
Strauss can have imagined).
There’s room for imaginative
personenregie, the relations between
singers, in the conflated mythic
characters – Danae, shut up in a
tower and impregnated by Jupiter
in a shower of gold, and greedy
Midas – to point up the love-
versus-power theme of the Ring.
Any acting potential in Hermanis’s
cast is squashed in favour of purely
decorative – and expensive –
visuals, plus a hint of his declared
anti-Islamism in the third act’s
vision of repressed burka-ed women
at their looms.
Musically the saving grace is
Krassimira Stoyanova, well up to the
challenges of a hugely demanding
Strauss soprano role. Jupiter,
Tomasz Konieczny, and strenuous
Midas, a miscast Gerhard Siegel,
struggle to make an impact. Franz
Welser-Möst’s conducting ignores
the expansive generosity of Strauss’s
glorious score. If only this had been a
Christof Loy-Christian Thielemann

collaboration, it might have been
watchable. As it is, revisiting this
awful production felt like a real
penance. David Nice
PERFORMANCE ★★
PRESENTATION ★★★★
Wagner
Parsifal (DVD)
Klaus Florian Vogt, Elena Pankratova,
Ryan McKinny, Georg Zeppenfeld,
Karl Heinz Lehner, Gerd Grochowski;
Bavarian Festival Orchestra and
Choir/Hartmut Haenchen; dir. Uwe
Eric Laufenberg (Bayreuth, 2016)
Deutsche Grammophon DVD: 073 5350;
Blu-ray: 073 5353 247 mins (2 discs)
This production
from last year’s
Bayreuth Festival
was involved
in even more
controversy than
that enterprise
usually
generates, with a replaced director,
a conductor who took over in the
last weeks of rehearsal, and police
on guard round the Festspielhaus
in case Muslims were upset. They
might easily have been, but so
might adherents of other religions.
Wagner’s music is of course intact
here, but very little else is. I shall
listen to the performance, an
exceptionally fine one in the outer
acts, again, but I doubt if I shall
see it, with its distracting cosmic
projections, expanding to the whole
known universe, then contracting to
Mosul in Iraq.
The distance between Eric
Laufenberg’s production and
Wagner’s idea may be judged by the
fact that Amfortas, the chief knight
of the grail, and the sinner whose
wound will not heal, is transformed
into Christ, with an immense crown
of thorns, the five wounds, and in
the communion scene blood from
the wound in his side gushes into
the cups held by the knights, who
drink it.
That makes total nonsense of
Wagner’s words and actions, but that
is now routine. Fortunately Hartmut
Haenchen’s conducting is fine
throughout, tempos on the quick
side but not feeling it, with superb
climaxes. The Gurnemanz of Georg
Zeppenfeld is magnificent, despite
his woolly hat and schoolmasterly
spectacles. Klaus Florian Vogt has
a voice which is ideal for the title
role, though his acting isn’t always;
and Ryan McKinny’s Amfortas
is both painful and beautiful.
Opera Reviews
Unfortunately Elena Pankratova’s
Kundry is the least appealing I
have ever seen or heard, which
makes Act II rough going. She and
Gurnemanz take turns pushing
one another around in a wheelchair
in Act III, but by then nothing
whatever would come as a surprise.
Michael Tanner
PERFORMANCE ★★
PICTURE AND SOUND ★★★★
Visions
Works by Bizet, Bruneau, David,
Février, Franck, Godard, Halévy,
Massenet, Niedermeyer &
Saint-Saëns
Véronique Gens (soprano), Munich
Radio Orchestra/Hervé Niquet
Alpha Classics ALPHA 279 55:43 mins
The bad news
first. You’ll
need an opera
dictionary before
you’re ready
for Véronique
Gens’s Visions. The 11 recitatives
and airs here are from unfamiliar
19th-century French repertoire
and the liner notes that accompany
the CD are, to put it mildly, casual
and uninformative.
So there is nothing about
composers like Alfred Bruneau,
Abraham Louis Niedermeyer or
Benjamin Louis Paul Godard.
Nothing, either, about their
librettists and no attempt to put each
number into a dramatic context.
Frankly, the title Visions is
pretty misleading too. Despite the
harps and bells, these are airs that
dramatise those operatic staples, the
abandoned heroine and the woman
who loves the wrong man. Even
when César Franck apostrophises
the Virgin Mary in his quasi oratorio
Rédemption it’s as much profane as
sacred love.
Now the good news. Véronique
Gens is in fine voice – indeed,
she seems to be in her prime. Her
diction as always is immaculate and
she produces a stream of elegant
tone. There is light and shade in
the simple air from Bizet’s Clovis
et Clotilde, and the required vocal
heft to ride Massenet’s orchestra
in the number from La Vierge. But
it’s at her prayers that she excels; in
Février’s Gismonda or Bruneau’s
Geneviève. You almost begin to
wonder what it would like to see
these works staged – but not quite.
Christopher Cook
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Choral & Song
CHORAL & SONG CHOICE
A star of the English
Baroque explored
Paul Riley admires Arcangelo’s way with Purcell’s
great forebear and memorialist, John Blow
High-flying tenor:
Thomas Walker evokes
the lark singing in duet
Blow
Begin the Song!; Chaconne a 4 in G; An Ode
on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell; Ground in
F minor; The Nymphs of the Wells; Sonata in A;
Dread Sir, the Prince of Light
Zoë Brookshaw, Emma Walshe (soprano),
Samuel Boden, Thomas Walker (tenor),
Callum Thorpe, William Gaunt (bass);
Arcangelo/Jonathan Cohen
Hyperion CDA 68149 76:36 mins Blow’s exquisitely
Not only did John Blow vacate the crafted Purcell Ode is Boden and Thomas Walker, director
organ loft of Westminster Abbey
to make way for Purcell. Outliving the disc’s centrepiece a quintessentially English sound
his pupil by over a decade, he
compounded the compliment with an exquisitely
crafted, recorders-enriched Ode on the Death of
My Henry Purcell. This supplies the centrepiece of
Arcangelo’s new disc, which interleaves four odes
with chamber music including an affable sonata
and two works based on a recurring bass: a G minor
Ground not quite matching the intensity of Purcell’s
famous Chacony, plus a G major Chaconne oozing
contrapuntal vitality.
And what riches are contained in the odes – even
if, after a promising start, the creative spark dims on
86 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Dread Sir, the Prince of Light. Written for St Cecilia’s
Day 1684, Begin the Song! is a worthy rejoinder to
Purcell’s Welcome to all the Pleasures composed for
the previous year’s feast, and with renowned bass
John Gosling among the company, it takes the singer
down to a saturnine low ‘D’ – sung here with gravelly
solemnity by Callum Thorpe.
Duets for high tenor seem to have been something
of a Blow speciality – the Purcell Ode
contains four alone – and in Samuel
Jonathan Cohen has harnessed
whose lyricism fits the vocal writing
like a glove. Mark how the Lark is a twittering number
to launch what turns out to be more a celebration of
Purcell than a lament. Throughout, the instrumental
contribution is a joy; Cohen’s direction a model of
stylish empathy and suavely-negotiated gear changes.
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of
this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine
website at www.classical-music.com
JS Bach
Secular Cantatas, Vol. 8:
Schleicht, spielende Wellen,
BWV 206; Preise dein Glücke,
gesegnetes Sachsen, BWV 215
Hana Blažíková (soprano), Hiroya
Aoki (alto), Charles Daniels (tenor),
Roderick Williams (baritone); Bach
Collegium Japan/Masaaki Suzuki
BIS BIS-2231 (hybrid CD/SACD)
70:23 mins
Each of these
resplendent
works, first
performed in the
mid-1730s, fall
into the dramma
per musica or serenata category.
Both are closely associated with
Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and
King of Poland. JS Bach’s opulent
orchestration for each piece includes
three trumpets, drums, flutes, oboes,
oboes d’amore, strings and continuo.
Schleicht, spielende Wellen
is anchored to a somewhat
inconsequential dispute between the
four principal rivers of the countries
under Augustus’s rule. Each tries
to outdo the other in obsequious
praise of the monarch. Poland’s
River Vistula gets my vote with a
swaggering A major bass aria with
strings. At last the Pleisse which
flows through Leipzig is called
upon to mediate. In her galant style
aria she urges the rivals to flow in
harmony like the three flutes which
accompany the soprano voice.
Redolent with aquatic metaphor
this piece, seemingly without later
parodied material, is one of Bach’s
finest dramma per musica.
While Schleicht spielende Wellen
was a birthday and name day tribute,
Preise dein Glücke is a homage piece
to Augustus. Two of its movements
were later parodied by Bach; the
soprano aria found its way into
Part V of the Christmas Oratorio
and the other, the work’s opening
chorus was used in the B minor
Mass. This eight-vocal strand double
chorus, a rare occurrence in Bach’s
cantatas testifies to the exceptional
importance of the occasion.
All four soloists acquit themselves
stylishly, demonstrating on occasion
praiseworthy virtuosity, while
the choruses, in which the soloists
partake, rise spontaneously to the
music’s occasional character. Brass,
timpani, woodwind and strings
sound cohesive and unanimous
making this volume of Suzuki’s

secular cantatas one of the
strongest. Nicholas Anderson
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Bednall
Sudden Light: Choral works
The Epiphoni Consort/Tim Reader
Delphian DCD 34189 70:54 mins
It’s a bold
composer who
takes on the
Thomas Tallis of
Spem in alium at
his own game, but
David Bednall does just that. His
motet Lux orta est iusto, which opens
this CD, has eight five-voice choirs
in it, the same as Tallis’s polyphonic
masterpiece, with the same aim of
exploiting the enhanced spatial and
dynamic possibilities of 40-part
writing. The results are impressive.
From its dramatic opening – a full-
throated cry of ecstasy in D major
– through episodes of sparky
syncopation, and quieter passages
where the spirit of ages past seems
to be summoned, Bednall’s setting
is constantly evolving and shifting
in perspective, in ways which go
decisively beyond mere mimicry of
Tallis’s original composition.
Of the 16 other pieces on the disc,
Everyone Sang (to a text by Siegfried
Sassoon) is a particularly good
advertisement for The Epiphoni
Consort’s fresh, enthusiastic
performances, while both
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 98 and Te lucis
ante terminum show considerable
interpretive subtlety.
Tuning in the lower voices can be
suspect, and there are occasional
ragged edges tonally. But with more
than a dozen premiere recordings on
offer, this is a significant addition to
the Bednall discography. Terry Blain
PERFORMANCE ★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Bingen
Ego Sum Homo: plainsongs,
hymns and other liturgical works
Tiburtina Ensemble/
Barbora Kabatkova
Ricercar RIC 383 64:17 mins
Hildegard
(1098-1179)
was a medieval
mystic and
composer whose
musical works
are preserved in manuscripts at
Dendermonde and Wiesbaden. In
the late 1990s (celebrating the 900th
anniversary of her birth) there was
a rush of fine recordings of her
works by Gothic Voices, Sequentia,
Anonymous 4 and other groups, but
since then there has been something
of a lull. Now the nun of the Rhine
is truly back on song with this
accomplished and atmospheric
offering by the Prague group, the
Tiburtina Ensemble.
Most of her music is in plainsong
style, but that does not mean it is
unoriginal or prosaic. O tu illustrate
(in praise of the Virgin Mary),
for example, is extraordinarily
rhapsodic, inventive and wide
ranging, and it draws deftness and
suavity from the singers. By contrast,
in the hymn O caritas (based on
the story of the entry of St Ursula
into heaven) the narrative and
dialogue elements are rather lost in
the efficient but uniform approach,
though the improvised interjections
on the harp pander to our modern
craving from colour and atmosphere.
Most of these compositions are
designed for church services, but
that is not the aim here and they are
not sung in their full liturgical forms.
Instead we get a sound experience
which is both clear and ethereal,
not unlike earlier recordings of
Hildegard by the all-female group
Anonymous 4. Anthony Pryer
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Chilcott
All Good Things: Ophelia,
Caliban and Miranda; Jazz
Songs of Innocence; Nidaros
Jazz Mass, etc
Commotio/Matthew Berry,
Bob Chilcott (piano/conductor);
Alexander Hawkins (piano),
Raphael Mizraki (double bass),
Jon Scott (drums)
Naxos 8.573383 71:40 mins
Is it jazz? Is it
classical? Does
it matter? Yes,
maybe and no,
are probably the
answers. More
importantly, this CD swings, and is
thoroughly enjoyable. In Ophelia,
Caliban and Miranda, the opening
set of pieces, composer Bob Chilcott
seamlessly integrates Commotio, a
classically-trained choir, with the
jazz combo providing the partly
improvised accompaniments.
Charles Bennett’s droll texts imagine
what might have happened to three
Shakespearian characters in a
parallel universe, eliciting buoyant,
chipper settings by Chilcott of the
Choral & Song Reviews
outer songs, and a more laid-back
response to the central Caliban, with
smoky saxophone commentary.
The Blake-inspired Jazz Songs of
Innocence, originally written for a
children’s choir, finds the women
of Commotio in zesty voice, neatly
nailing the syncopations in the faster
numbers, and distilling considerable
poignancy in The Divine Image,
which concludes the cycle.
The other extended work is
the Nidaros Jazz Mass, where the
addition of men’s voices makes
for more complexity of texture in
the vocal writing. Occasionally
the chirpy insouciance of the jazz
rhythms seems to cut across the
solemn import of the Latin text – but
then similar complaints are often
voiced about Mozart’s sacred music
sounding too flamboyantly operatic.
Of the shorter pieces the
unaccompanied Weather Report
provides the Commotio singers
the opportunity to show their
paces technically, and they turn
in an appropriately dashing
performance. It’s also worth noting
that there is nearly an hour’s worth
of previously unrecorded music
here. Terry Blain
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Fauré
The complete songs, Vol. 2:
La chanson d’Eve; Two Duets,
Op. 10; Three Songs, Op.
85; Two Songs, Op. 87; Rêve
d’amour; L’aurore; Aubade etc
Lorna Anderson, Janis Kelly
(soprano), Sarah Connolly,
Clear and ethereal:
Tiburtina Ensemble
does Bingen proud
Ann Murray (mezzo soprano),
Iestyn Davies (countertenor),
Ben Johnson (tenor), Nigel Cliffe,
Thomas Oliemans (baritone),
Malcolm Martineau (piano)
Signum SIGCD 472 68:53 mins
Another lovely
evening in an
imaginary salon.
Like the first
instalment of
this complete
survey of Fauré’s songs curated by
Malcolm Martineau, a plurality of
voices evokes a gathering of friends
taking turns. Opening with an
exquisitely serene Rêve d’amour
from John Chest, the songs are
generally presented in chronological
order. Whereas Ben Johnson,
Nigel Cliffe and Iestyn Davies each
have just a single offering on this
occasion, the Aubade, Barcarolle and
Le plus doux chemin respectively,
Thomas Oliemans makes his first
contributions to the series with,
among others, a richly toned
Shylock, Op. 57 and carefully
nuanced performance of the three
Op. 85 songs.
At the heart of the disc, Lorna
Anderson’s stillness in Le secret
is utterly entrancing, and Janis
Kelly glides effortlessly in Le pays
des rêves. Unfortunately their
voices do not always fit together
comfortably in the challenging early
duet of Tarentelle. The inclusion
of some of the recently discovered
Vocalises Fauré wrote while
director of the Paris Conservatoire
distinguishes this from other cycles.
Nonetheless, while Ann Murray
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 87
 KIRKER MUS IC HOLIDAYS
F O R D I S C E R N I N G T R AV E L L E R S
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as we retrace his life and career through Thuringia and Saxony. Flying to Frankfurt we shall stay in mediaeval Erfurt for the first part of
the holiday, making visits to historic towns and cities including Eisenach,Arnstadt, and Dornheim.We then move to Leipzig, one
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floats enchantingly through No. 7,
No. 22 is decidedly prosaic even in
Anderson’s stylish performance.
Having metaphorically sat silently
through these various delights,
Sarah Connolly joins Martineau
for the final third of the disc in La
chanson d’Eve. It is certainly worth
the wait, for Connolly is at her
best, capturing the controlled, yet
rapturous passion of this achingly
beautiful cycle. Martineau is, as
ever, an ideal pianistic host for
all his companions, but listeners
should supply their own wine.
Christopher Dingle
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Glanert
Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch
David Wilson Johnson (voice), Aga
Mikolaj (soprano), Ursula Hesse
von den Steinen (mezzo soprano),
Gerhard Siegel (tenor), Christof
Fischesser (bass), Leo van Doeselaar
(organ); Netherlands Radio Choir;
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Amsterdam/Markus Stenz
RCO Live RCO 17005 (hybrid CD/SACD)
83:09 mins
Hieronymus
Bosch, creator
of some of the
most worryingly
alluring images
of human
suffering in Western art, undergoes
a trial by music in Detlev Glanert’s
Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch.
We follow him through a kind of
Purgatory, overseen by a rasping,
quasi-demonic Archangel Michael,
in which his soul is scrutinised for
stains of each of the seven deadly
sins in turn, and finally received
into Paradise.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of the music
– especially in its early stages – is
zestfully raucous and grotesque.
Settings of texts from the medieval
Carmina Burana at times sound
rather like Carl Orff put through a
modernist wringer. But as the music
speaks of beauty, and later of angelic
consolation, Glanert can’t help but
fall back on tonal harmony and
near-Romantic lyricism.
The turning point is the dramatic
organ solo at the heart of the work,
after which mezzo-soprano Ursula
Hesse von den Steinen’s depiction
of Sloth is so beguiling it almost
succeeds in turning the Requiem’s
message on its head. Or is the point
that in Bosch’s alleged ‘sins’, or at
least in his creative transformation
of them, we are meant to find
something redeeming?
The performance has power and
conviction – you would think this
was an established concert work
rather than a first performance –
and the recording captures it all
with atmosphere and clarity. I need
to go back and listen to this again.
Stephen Johnson
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Mayr
Mass in C; Stabat Mater
Katja Stuber (soprano), Marion
Eckstein (alto), Fernando Guimarães
(tenor), Tareq Nazmi (bass); Orpheus
Vokalensemble; Concerto Köln/
Florian Helgath
Carus 83.480 77:51 mins
Simon Mayr
is mostly
remembered
as Donizetti’s
teacher, but as
recent recordings
of his sacred music reveal, there is
more to him than that; more, even,
than the 70 operas he produced over
his long career in his adopted Italy.
According to expert Franz Hauk’s
liner notes, Mayr produced in all
some 600 sacred compositions;
many of these are individual mass
movements but they also included
18 complete masses.
The one heard on this disc
dates from 1825, the year after the
German-born, long-term Bergamo
resident staged his final opera; in
fact it’s a composite piece, Mayr
for some reason using in the Credo
sections written the year before
by his former star pupil. Even at
this advanced point in his career
Mayr adheres to the values of the
Classical Austro-German tradition
he had grown up with: he was born
in Bavaria just eight years after
Mozart. His writing is skilful and
often imaginative: attractively
mixing German and Italian
elements, the result is worthwhile.
The Stabat Mater is earlier,
perhaps dating from around 1803,
or not long afterwards – soon
after Mayr had become Bergamo’s
maestro di cappella. The affecting
interweaving of lines in the grief-
stricken opening chorus is one
notable feature, the obbligato violin
solo in the Eja mater another.
Recorded in an appropriate
ecclesiastical acoustic, both pieces
receive secure performances, with
a well-balanced and stylistically
Choral & Song Reviews
Reissues Reviewed by Terry Blain
Poulenc Stabat Mater; Litanies à la vierge noire
Both the Choeur and Orchestre National de Lyon
provide variable input to this Stabat Mater, under
Serge Baudo, where impressively devotional moments
alternate with others where tuning and rhythmic
coordination waver. Harmonia Mundi HMA 1905149
(1985) 42:51 mins ★★★
Brahms A German Requiem
If slow in places, Richard Hickox’s German Requiem
is warmly expressive, with good soloists (Felicity Lott,
David Wilson-Johnson) and especially glowing singing
by the London Symphony Chorus.
Chandos CHAN 10945 X (1991) 74:25 mins ★★★★
Ligeti Requiem; Lux aeterna
No other currently available CD pairs these two Ligeti
masterpieces. These evocative Stuttgart Chamber
Choir performances with Frieder Bernius are coupled
with short pieces by Ravel, Debussy and Mahler.
Carus 83.283 (2006) 56:16 mins ★★★★
Elgar The Black Knight
Mendelssohn meets pomp and circumstance in The
Black Knight, Elgar’s setting of a dastardly medieval
fable. Acclaimed on first release, Richard Hickox’s
recording with the London Symphony Chorus and
Orchestra still sounds lustily involving.
Chandos CHAN 10946 X (1996) 61:24 mins ★★★★
confident quartet of soloists. background. And the quality of her
The choral singing combines music is such that her neglect seems
vitality with fluidity while Florian positively strange.
Helgath’s spirited conducting keeps Outstanding creations among her
both pieces nicely on the move. Verlaine settings include a furious
George Hall and impassioned setting of Spleen,
PERFORMANCE ★★★★ and an unforgettable version of
RECORDING ★★★★ L’heure exquise which could give
Reynaldo Hahn a run for his money
Poldowski Reimagined (this heavenly song, which begins
22 Mélodies on the poems of the disc, is probably responsible
Paul Verlaine for the sudden flurry of interest).
Ensemble 1904: Jazmin Black Her style is deeply of the French
Grollemund (soprano), Angélique fin de siècle with vividly inventive
Charlopain (violin), Jérémie harmonic colours. Ensemble 1904
Decottignies (double bass), David include, too, one movement of a
Jackson (piano & arrangements) violin sonata, stylistically situated
Resonus RES 10196 54:05 mins somewhere between Franck and
Poldowski, more Szymanowski: it would be good to
or less unheard hear the whole thing.
since her death The group performs the songs in
in 1932, is at chamber arrangements with violin
last having a and double bass, ‘reimagined’ by
‘moment’. And David Jackson, who argues that
not before time. Her real name Poldowski herself would have
was Irène Régine Wieniawska – offered similar versions. Though
the daughter of the violinist and it might perhaps seem strange to
composer Henryk Wieniawski; later reimagine something that most
she married an English aristocrat listeners have never imagined in
and became Lady Dean Paul. The the first place, the arrangements
androgynous pseudonym kept are salon-like, atmospheric and
her anonymous and disguised, sympathetically performed,
while paying tribute to her Polish expanding the scale of the music –
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 89
Choral & Song Reviews
A perennial abuse:
Jordi Savall traces
a history of slavery
which is great-hearted enough to
take it. Jazmin Black-Grollemund’s
soprano is deep, rich and flexible,
with warmth and colour in every
register; the ensemble balances well
with her expressiveness. Poldowski
needs quality advocates, so this CD
should do much to help her cause.
More, please! Jessica Duchen
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Elbphilharmonie
Hamburg
Works by Beethoven, Dutilleux,
Britten, Caccini, Liebermann,
Messiaen, Praetorius, Wagner,
Rihm and Zimmermann (DVD)
Hanna Elisabeth Müller (soprano),
Wiebke Lehmkuhl (mezzo
soprano), Pavol Breslik (tenor), Bryn
Terfel (bass), Philippe Jaroussky
(countertenor), Iveta Apkalna
(organ); Ensemble Praetorius; NDR
Choir; Bavarian Radio Choir; NDR
Elbphilharmonie Orchestra/
Thomas Hengelbrock
C major DVD: 741408;
Blu-ray: 741504 165 mins (2 discs)
In January this
year, after a
seven-year delay
on construction
and an overspend
of half a billion
euros, the new
Elbphilharmonie
building in Hamburg finally
hosted its opening concert. The
story of that evening is told in this
JOSEP MOLINA
commemorative video.For an
overview, it’s best to start with the
hour-long bonus documentary
90 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
on the hall’s 17-year journey from
conception to completion. Although
detailed analysis of the contractual
wrangling which dogged the
‘Elphi’ project is avoided, the film
usefully illustrates the architectural
challenges involved in making a
world-class concert venue from a
superannuated, pier-end warehouse
on the Elbe river.
The finished product, its glassy,
wave-form outline glistening
against the Hamburg skyline, is an
undeniably striking creation. There
was boldness, too, at the opening
concert, which flipped dramatically
across six centuries of musical
history, from pieces with a single
performer to those requiring the full
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra,
the Elphi’s resident ensemble.
There are plenty of musical
highlights – oboist Kalev Kuljus’s
exquisite ‘Pan’, from Britten’s Six
Metamorphoses after Ovid; a lithe,
light-textured finale from Messiaen’s
Turangalîla Symphony; and the
rumbling, inflammable Photopsosis
of Bernd Alois Zimmermann.
Countertenor Philippe Jaroussky,
on wavery form, sings two gorgeous
Renaissance arias, and Bryn Terfel
anchors the choral movement of
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
The recorded sound is dry in
places, which may not reflect
the situation in the hall itself. All
told, this video is a tantalising
advertisement for the new venue,
and puts it high on my bucket list of
places to visit. Terry Blain
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
PICTURE AND SOUND ★★★★
The Routes of Slavery
1444-1888
Works from Africa, Portugal,
Spain and Latin America
La Capella Reial de Catalunya,
Hespèrion XXI, Tembembe
Ensamble Continuo/Jordi Savall
Alia Vox AVSA9920 128:30 mins (2 discs)
Jordi Savall’s
usual recipe of
releasing a book
to go with his CDs
is here expanded
by the addition
of a DVD of the
entire concert on which the CDs
are based. And that book, in which
everything is translated into eight
languages, is hefty. The music
spans four and a half centuries, but
the book’s panorama presents the
history of global slavery through five
millennia, as described by academic
essays plus panoramic surveys of
this perennial and ubiquitous abuse.
It’s interesting to read of the
European travellers enslaved in
Arab countries in the 16th century,
and also to learn of the five-year
enslavement into which Miguel de
Cervantes accidentally stumbled.
But Savall’s musical business
is with slavery in sub-Saharan
Africa, Portugal, Spain and Latin
America, and this concert is an
expertly-woven tissue of words and
music drawn from those places, the
songs and dances being laced with
eye-witness accounts (delivered in
French). It’s refreshing to hear music
from Mali outside its usual African
context: here it sits very comfortably
beside its deracinated counterparts
from the New World.
Savall’s brew is so rich
that singling out individual
performances is almost invidious,
but tracks I love include songs
from Brazil and Mexico sung
by Maria Juliana Linhares and
Ada Coronel, choral numbers by
singers from the Capella Reial, and
instrumental improvisations from
Mali; everything performed by the
Tembembe Ensamble Continuo has
a genuineness which goes straight
to the heart, and their lyrics have a
disarming simplicity and directness.
But, as always with Savall’s
albums, the supplementary material
says nothing about the music.
Rather than bombarding us with
statistical and political information
irrelevant to this exercise, Savall
should have included an essay on
these musical forms, some of which
are unlike anything most listeners
will have encountered. Does Savall
think musicology would frighten his
listeners? Michael Church
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★
Secret History
Sacred music by Josquin,
Victoria, Heringman, Mouton
and anon
John Potter, Anna Maria Friman,
Ariel Abramovich (voices), Jacob
Heringman, Lee Santana (vihuelas),
Hille Perl (viola da gamba)
ECM 481 1463 62:15 mins
The ‘secret’ that
John Potter
alludes to here
is the fact that,
although the
sacred works and
songs of the Renaissance received
‘official’ performances in courts and
churches by vocal ensembles, they
were also consumed in less formal
settings in different arrangements.
His method is to team up with the
soprano Ariel Abramovich, and with
players of the lute and vihuela (a
kind of early guitar), to demonstrate
that such reduced performances
are viable. He takes as his model the
arrangements found in publications
such as Enriquez de Valderrábano’s
1547 collection Silva de Sirenas,
where some of these works appear.
His approach is varied. In
Mouton’s Nesciens Mater only the
top two parts are sung, while in
the Benedictus of the Missa Surge
Propera it’s the top and bottom
lines. In the Gloria of the Mass and
elsewhere Potter artfully switches
between parts as he goes along so as
to produce an appealing continuous
vocal line. The instrumentalists
nicely demonstrate that some
pieces (O Magnum Mysterium) can
be effectively portrayed without
voices. Another interesting aspect
(not mentioned in the liner notes)
is that the notation used by the
instrumentalists shows exactly
where the fingers should be placed
on the frets, and thus reduces the
uncertainty about which sharps and
flats were added in performance.
Hence the relatively plain harmonies
of this instrumental version of
‘Josquin’s’ Absalon fili mi (it is
probably by Pierre de la Rue) provide
an intriguing contrast with the exotic
tonal excursions frequently heard in
vocal performances. Anthony Pryer
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
 EW

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Chamber
CHAMBER CHOICE
Rachel Podger on fire with
fantastic Baroque sonatas
Paul Riley hails the violinist’s improvisatory
playing of inventive music by Vivaldi and friends
Grandissima Gravita
Pisendel: Violin Sonata in C; Tartini:
Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 2 No. 5;
Veracini: Violin Sonata in G minor, Op. 2 No. 5;
Sonata accademica in D minor, Op. 2 No. 12;
Vivaldi: Violin Sonata in A, Op. 2 No. 2 (RV 31)
Rachel Podger (violin); Brecon Baroque
Channel Classics CCS SA 39217 (hybrid CD/SACD) 69:08 mins
Rachel Podger’s new disc opens
with an incomparably fluid violin Rachel Podger’s
fantasy, the flurry of agitated
continuo… what could it be? Some
playing is intoxicated
unfamiliar masterpiece of the stylus and intoxicating
phantasticus perhaps? It’s only when
the cello initiates a purposeful break in the clouds
that the Red Priest makes himself known. Podger
was ever the free spirit, and her playing is intoxicated
and intoxicating in equal measure, buoyed up by the
THERESA PEWAL, GETTY, ESPEN MORTENSEN
wonderful improvisatory camaraderie of a continuo
battery including Daniele Caminiti’s palette-
enhancing lute and guitar. Vivaldi has the first word
– and the last thanks to an encore: the Adagio from
his C minor Solo Sonata composed for Pisendel.
The Grandissima Gravita of the title unites four
brooding minor key sonatas by Tartini, Veracini and
94 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
CPE Bach
Violin Sonatas in D, Wq71 &
D minor, Wq72; Sonata for
harpsichord obbligato and flute,
Wq73; Sinfonia in D, Wq74;
Sonata in B minor, Wq76;
Sonata in B flat; Arioso con
variazioni, Wq79; Sonata in
C minor; Trio Sonata for flute,
violin and continuo, Wq151
Rie Kimura (violin), Pieter Jan Belder
(harpsichord, fortepiano)
Resonus RES10192 131:83 mins (2 discs)
This pair of discs
Worthy of the Red Priest: embraces the
Rachel Podger is joined
by imaginative colleagues
complete output
for keyboard
and violin by
CPE Bach –
infinitely varied works offering
a snapshot of his entire career.
Graceful melodies, breezy textures
and dancing rhythms characterise
the early sonatas, Wq 71-73:
originating from his student years
in Leipzig, they were revised
in 1746 to reflect the courtly,
style galant favoured by Bach’s
music-loving patron, Frederick
the Great. The later works, by
contrast, plunge the listener into
a proto-Romantic sound-world:
impetuous and turbulent, with
their nervous arpeggios, unsettling
dynamic shifts, dissonances
and chromaticisms.
Despite the frequent dialogue
between the two players, the
keyboard gets top billing and tends
Pisendel, all, we must imagine (according to an arch to steal the spotlight thanks both
liner note), joining forces with Vivaldi in the heavenly to Bach’s brilliant and idiomatic
green room to raise a glass or three on Corelli’s writing (he was, after all, court
birthday. Gravitas is never in short supply. Tartini harpsichordist) and to Pieter-Jan
lends the most modern accent; Pisendel an injection Belder’s sparkling accounts. Belder
of Northern rigour; but the palm goes to Veracini’s plays a fine copy of a 1730 Blanchet
Op. 2 No. 12. His Violin Sonata in G minor wraps a harpsichord for the sonatas,
Passagallo (thoughtfully paced, its contrasts roundly while his choice for the more
savoured), and a Ciaccona that forward-looking, Sturm und Drang
forswears initial foreboding to turn inspired Fantasia and Arioso is a
more febrile by the minute, around warm-toned copy of a 1795 Walter
a central Capriccio, a thing of sharp fortepiano. On both instruments,
edges, incisively etched. he etches Bach’s lines with delicate
Podger, inevitably, is the star, but precision; rhythms are buoyant,
ultimately the disc’s compulsive spell is down to the phrases articulate. Violinist Rie
triumph of ensemble chemistry. Even the humblest Kimura’s playing is supple and
of cello lines is elevated beyond functionality into stylish, though the sound (slightly
something expressive and integral to the overall
favoured in the recorded balance)
effect. Bewitching. is a little edgy in the upper reaches.
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ Her felicitous manner is best suited
RECORDING ★★★★★ to the more galant works, where
the duo converse and banter with
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of
terrific brio. Particularly lovely is
this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine
website at www.classical-music.com their lyrical and wistful rendition
of the D major Sonata – a work
resonant with echoes of papa Bach
 Chamber Reviews
– but, throughout, their response to delightful. They certainly have the
the younger Bach’s rhetoric is keenly measure of impassioned lyricism ‘An ensemble to watch’:
felt. Kate Bolton-Porciatti tinged with slight neurotic quirks the Engegård Quartet
PERFORMANCE ★★★★ in the outer movements. The inner play Mozart with warmth
RECORDING ★★★★ movements are not quite so assured.
Their playing of the scherzo has
Dvořák the right amount of energy, but it
String Quintet No. 3; lacks a certain passion and the slow
String Quartet No. 14 movement, one of Dvořák’s most
Lawrence Power (viola); harmonically experimental, could
Takács Quartet have been more searching. That
Hyperion CDA68142 64:59 mins said, theirs is a fine performance, if
Dvořák wrote not quite on the level of the Quintet.
his E flat major Jan Smaczny
String Quintet PERFORMANCE ★★★★
just after he had RECORDING ★★★★
completed the
more celebrated Fauré • Franck
American Quartet in the summer of Fauré: Violin Sonatas Nos 1 & 2;
1893, while enjoying an extended Franck: Violin Sonata in A
break from his duties in New York Tedi Papavrami (violin),
in the small town of Spillville, a Nelson Goerner (piano)
Czech-speaking community in Alpha Classics ALPHA 271 74:58 mins
Iowa. The Quintet has many of the Pianist Nelson
Quartet’s most appealing qualities: Goerner’s but the textures are often barer, from the King of Prussia, Friedrich
open-hearted pentatonic melody, opening and the harmonies more quirky Wilhelm II. The king was a keen
infectious rhythmic impetus statement in and less predictable. The Andante amateur cellist, and in order to give
and clarity of form. The Takács Fauré’s First spins a long, questing line, and his instrument greater melodic
Quartet’s interpretation in the first Sonata is finds both players in complete independence than normal in
movement is at times a little soulful, passionate, free and probing, and agreement, while the more energetic a string quartet Mozart found
a not inappropriate approach since I was expecting violinist Tedi outer movements surge with an himself having to devise a new style
Dvořák’s muse in America was Papavrami to follow suit, but he emotional logic. of writing in which all four players
often inclined toward melancholy. is a little more discreet and gentle There’s technical aplomb discoursed in the manner of an
Their attention to detail produces in tone. This is emphasised by the throughout. This holds in the operatic ensemble.
constantly arresting textures recording, which favours the piano Franck, where the recording The Norwegian Engegård Quartet
and the recorded balance allows in dynamic and in its position in the balance is truer, not only in the responds well to the warmth and
the all-important viola lines full sound image. One’s ears adjust after restrained first movement – Franck melodic ardour of these pieces.
prominence, although at times I a while, and what’s then clear is that clearly paying homage to Fauré – These aren’t, perhaps, the most
could have done with slightly more this is a performance of subtlety but also in the turbulent Allegro polished performances you’re ever
of the first violin. They provide full- and confidence, with Papavrami in which the opening theme is a likely to hear – there are some slight
throated tone in a moving account modulating his tone with effortless little too aggressive, but the quieter lapses of intonation in the higher
of the Larghetto and both scherzo elegance in the Andante, lithe in sections are beautifully judged. reaches of the first violin part,
and finale are captivating in this the athletics of the Allegro vivo, The Recitativo keeps up a high and there’s a touch of harshness to
splendid and above all superbly and mercurial in the sudden mood voltage throughout, and some of the recorded sound – but they’re
considered performance. changes in the finale. this is transferred to the finale, likeable enough, with finely-judged
Their performance of Dvořák’s The Second Sonata is, where the opening canon could expressive freedom in the slow
last string quartet (it was completed characteristically for late Fauré, be more relaxed to give contrast. movements, and an imaginative
days after the G major Quartet a much more hermetic work: the An impressive, well-planned CD approach to providing subtle
designated as such) is unfailingly sweeping melodies are still there, nevertheless. Martin Cotton variation in repeats. There’s a hint
PERFORMANCE ★★★★ of impatience about the minuets,
RECORDING ★★★★ particularly in the last quartet; and
at the mid-point of the finale in
BACKGROUND TO… Mozart the middle work of the group the
Giusseppe Tartini (1692-1770) String Quartets (Prussian):
No. 21 in D, K575; No. 22 in
tempo suddenly lurches forward –
perhaps the result of an edit between
Tartini (see Chamber Choice) was one of the most remarkable figures of B flat, K589; No. 23 in F, K590 different takes. One small point:
18th-century music. Born in Pirano in Istria, he studied with equal lack of Engegård Quartet in the slow movement of K589 the
success for the church, law and armaments before being forced to flee LAWO LWC 1123 67:35 mins cellist and first violinist ought to
from Padua in 1710, violently denounced by thee Archbishop Mozart’s have come to an agreement about
who objected to his niece becoming Tartini’s wife. Taking last three how to play the ornament in the
refuge in a monastery in Assisi, Tartini studied composition quartets – that opening melody (the cellist seems to
and acoustics, invented a new type of violin bow w and ‘troublesome me to have got it right). But despite
gave violin recitals. The Archbishop of Padua is said work’, as he once any such niggles, these are enjoyable
to have pardoned Tartini when he became awarre of his complained performances, and this is clearly an
musicianship. In 1728 Tartini founded a school of violin to a friend
f – were composed ensemble to watch. Misha Donat
playing in Padua and taught until 1768. in tthe hope of receiving PERFORMANCE ★★★★
fiinancial compensation RECORDING ★★★★

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 95

Chamber Reviews
Schoenberg soprano:
Malin Hartelius joins
the Gringolts Quartet
Onslow
String Quintets Nos 10 & 22
Elan Quintet
Naxos 8.573689 65:48 mins
In the early
19th century
neither England
nor France was
particularly
renowned for its
great composers. Yet Anglo-French
George Onslow’s music is finally
re-establishing its place in both
catalogue and concert hall. He was,
Schumann admiringly commented,
among the heirs to the chamber
music style of Mozart and Haydn
– and his music’s atmosphere also
seems a refined sibling to Schubert
and Weber, oozing geniality and
charm. Essentially an amateur
composer (he was of the nobility)
he wrote most of his numerous
string quintets for like-minded
amateur players: the format could
be the same as Schubert’s string
quintet with two cellos or, as in this
recording, one cello and bass.
Receiving their world premiere
recordings, the F minor String
Quintet No. 10 of 1827 and the E
flat major Quintet No. 22 of 1836
are lucky to have the Elan Quintet
at their service. Their playing
evokes the spirited conversation,
lightness of touch and soulful hinted
darkness in the Schubertian, early-
Romantic E flat Quintet, as well as
the vivid interchanges of the more
dramatic and Beethovenian-at-a-
tangent F minor. The Elan players’
96 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
sympathy for the music smiles out of
every bar. Jessica Duchen
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Rihm
Geste zu Vedova; String Quartet
in G; String Quartet No. 1;
Epilogue for String Quartet
Jens Peter Maintz (cello);
Minguet Quartet
Wergo WER 7346 2 47:04 mins
Wolfgang Rihm
is a musical
phenomenon:
a composer
of ceaseless
invention and
total integrity, completing a dizzying
number of works across a dizzying
range of styles. This fine disc
traces something of the composer’s
creative journey, placing a pair
of early quartets alongside two
mesmeric recent works.
The earlier scores – Rihm’s String
Quartet in G (1966) and the String
Quartet 1968 – are tightly-wrought
and agile, their angular poise offset
by a glorious ‘Chaconne’ in the
finale of the latter work, marked
‘expansive, free beat, expressive’
and performed here with sonorous
beauty. The two later compositions
reveal the depth of the mature
Rihm’s imagination and expression.
Sparked by the work of modern
Italian painter Emilio Vedova, Geste
zu Vedova (2015) is an arresting
blend of the meditative and the
percussive, while Epilogue for String
Quintet (2012/13) offers a complex
response to Schubert’s String
Quintet in C. Rihm’s piece first
conjures something of the exquisite,
otherworldly repose of Schubert’s
slow movement, before the quintet
crackles and storms with microtonal
clusters and sfffz pizzicatos.
The Minguet Quartet (joined
by Jens Peter Maintz) deliver fine
performances, finding the precision,
lyricism and fiery abandon
demanded by Rihm’s endlessly
inventive scores. Kate Wakeling
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Schoenberg
String Quartets Nos 2 & 4
Malin Hartelius (soprano);
Gringolts Quartet
BIS BIS-2267 (hybrid CD/SACD)
64:59 mins
Schoenberg’s
Quartet No. 2
(1907-08) is a
curious hybrid:
part traditional
structure,
part song cycle, part covert tone
poem reflecting the turmoil of his
private life at the time, and veering
restlessly between tonality, extreme
chromaticism and atonality with
the intensity of a spiritual quest.
By comparison, the clear forms
and crisp thematic give and take of
Quartet No. 4, composed in America
in 1936, sound almost Classical
– Haydnesque even – except that
the lines and harmonies of its four
movements are strictly derived from
the 12-note method, continually
contradicting what the ear might
expect from Classical tonality.
The players of the nine-year
old Gringolts Quartet – Zurich-
based, but international in
personnel – make much of the
contrast. The Second Quartet’s
yearning first movement and
the desperate scutterings of its
scherzo are conveyed in febrile,
hyper-Romantic style. They give
eloquent accompaniment in the
third movement to the blanched,
mezzo-ish tones of the Austrian
soprano Malin Hartelius delivering
lines of Stefan George, and finely
realise Schoenberg’s breakthrough
to a strange new floating world
of expression in the finale to the
famous words, ‘I feel the air of
another planet’.
Yet the Gringolts’s precision and
finesse in the Fourth Quartet also
remind one how light-textured
and playful Schoenberg could be
– though there is no lack of heft in
the rhapsodic unisons of the slow
movement, which he seems to have
regarded as demonstrations of
the extended melodies that could
also be drawn from 12-tonery. The
recordings are focused and vibrant.
Bayan Northcott
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Stravinsky
Violin music, Vol. 1: Suite; Duo
concertant; Pastorale; The
Firebird – Prélude et Ronde des
princesses, Berceuse, Scherzo;
Mavra – Chanson Russe;
Petrushka – Danse Russe;
Le rossignol – Airs du rossignol,
Marche chinoise
Ilya Gringolts (violin),
Peter Laul (piano)
BIS BIS-2245 (hybrid CD/SACD)
60:48 mins
This first volume
of a new series
of Stravinsky’s
solo violin
music proves at
once extremely
enjoyable – each re-listening
only heightens my pleasure
in the programme and all the
performances – and extremely
valuable in its illumination of an
important subsidiary aspect of the
composer’s artistic outlook.
Prior to the 1930s Stravinsky
tended to view the instrument and
its virtuosos with disfavour. Then in
1930 he met the young Polish soloist
Samuel Dushkin, and from that first
encounter sprang a collaboration
that both modified the disapproval
and resulted in significant additions
to the Stravinsky oeuvre. For their
violin-piano recitals, Stravinsky
extracted a series of morceaux from
earlier large-scale works, alongside
a five-movement violin-piano
suite entitled Duo concertant (1932).
That and the even more substantial
1931 Violin Concerto (for Dushkin
too) elucidate a ‘persona’ for the
solo violin – by turns percussively
rhythmic, jazzily playful, and calmly
lyrical – in which Stravinsky’s neo-
classicism achieved wonderfully
fresh new expression.
Ilya Gringolts and Peter Laul steer
clear of the coolly unemphatic style
evident in Dushkin-Stravinsky’s
celebrated 1930s recordings of these
pieces, and find in each a poise and
simplicity of tone and manner that
strike one as instinctively right.

Where needed the virtuosity is
unfailing, but there too the right
balance is unfailingly struck. I shan’t
be banishing from my collection
those Dushkin-Stravinsky versions,
nor those of Itzhak Perlman,
Gringolts’s mentor, not to mention
the even more serenely poised
Leonidas Kavakos-Peter Nagy Duo
concertant. Overall, though, this disc
is a winner. Max Loppert
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Concerto: Works for one
& two harpsichords
Concertos by JS Bach, WF Bach,
CH or JG Graun
Guillermo Brachetta,
Menno van Delft (harpsichord)
Resonus RES 10189 56:42 mins
This disc offers
a rewarding
conspectus of
concerto writing
for solo keyboard
and keyboards
in mid-18th century Germany. Best
known is JS Bach’s Italian Concerto,
first published in 1735 and widely
admired and circulated almost
ever since. Johann Adolph Scheibe
praised it to the skies four years
later remarking that it deserved
emulation by all great German
composers and would be imitated
in vain by foreigners. Guillermo
Brachetta performs it with elegance
and sophistication, allowing the
continuous melody of its centrally
placed Andante to sing out above the
recurring bass patterns.
Brachetta is joined by Menno
van Delft in Bach’s probably earlier
version for two solo harpsichords
of the Concerto in C, BWV 1061.
The work is musically complete
without the additional string parts
which anyway Bach omitted from
the middle movement. The first
movement and the invigorating
concluding Fuga are splendidly
supple, clearly articulated and
robust while in the intervening slow
movement the artists realise its
reflective character.
The Concertos by Bach’s eldest
son Wilhelm Friedemann, and by
Carl Heinrich or Johann Gottlieb
Graun – the authorship of their
instrumental music is often
indeterminate – strike an altogether
more forward-looking, early
Classical note. Both are attractive,
warmly expressive pieces, especially
perhaps the Graun and their galant
gestures are affectionately enlivened
by Brachetta’s communicative
musicianship. The booklet includes
an informative essay by Nigel
Simeone. Nicholas Anderson
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
The Clarinotts
Works by Druschetzy, Denisov,
Mozart, Ploy, Prinz & J Strauss II
The Clarinotts
Gramola 98874 69:27 mins
The Clarinotts
are the two
Ottensamer
brothers,
principal
clarinettists of the
Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestras, and their father Ernst,
another Vienna Philharmonic
principal, who died in July. With
Ernst sometimes switching to the
tenor-register basset horn, they play
a suite of neatly arranged numbers
from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, a Trio
Chamber Reviews
by the Romantic composer Joseph
Friedrich Hummel in the style of
his earlier namesake, and a set of
eight short, crisp movements by
the prolific Georg Druschetzky.
There’s also an imaginative Scherzo
fantastique by the late Vienna
Philharmonic clarinettist Alfred
Prinz, and Denisov’s Two Pieces
for Three Instruments, which meld
uniform sonorities into cluster
chords and thickened lines, a
ragtime-tinged vignette by one
Henry Ploy and a suite arranged
from Strauss’s Die Fledermaus.
It’s all fairly inconsequential
stuff, but played with impeccable
technical mastery, albeit in
generally bleached tones, favouring
the upper partials, which pall in
an antiseptic acoustic. The disc
would make a good gift to a young
clarinettist as model for technique
and encouragement to explore the
pleasures of ensemble playing.
And it’s an appropriate memorial
to Ernst Ottensamer, founder of
an impressive ‘royal family of the
clarinet’. Anthony Burton
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★
 Edition

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MEDITATIONS FOR PIANO
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Anton Bruckner – The Collection
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Te Deum, Latin Motets, Organ
Works, Piano Works, Motets,
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INSTRUMENTAL CHOICE
Kit Armstrong’s subtle
new Goldbergs album
The polymath pianist puts Bach’s warhorse into historical
context – with great results, writes Kate Bolton-Porciatti
JS Bach
Goldberg Variations; plus Bull: Walsingham;
Byrd: Hughe Ashton’s Ground; Sweelinck: Mein
junges Leben hat ein End – variations; Erbarm dich
mein, o Herre Gott (DVD)
Kit Armstrong (piano)
C Major DVD: 741608; Blu-ray: 741704 126 mins
American-born Wunderkind Kit Armstrong –
mathematician, linguist, juggler,
origamist, composer, pianist, to His sound is pearly, judged for the hall’s ample space
name but a few of his talents – is
without doubt one of the most
highlighting the
prodigiously gifted polymaths Goldbergs’ lyricism syncopations and dancing rhythms,
of our day. This thoughtfully
planned recital, given last year, before a rapt and
silent audience at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, sets
Bach’s Goldbergs in the context of the keyboard school logical understanding of its rational, mathematical
that preceded it. Armstrong reveals a subtle web of
connections between Bach, the Dutch organist Jan
Sweelinck and the English Virginalists John Bull and
William Byrd. He takes a concert pianist’s approach
to the Sweelinck, revelling in his virtuosic writing
and giving the rhythms an almost jazzy swing. In the
two English works, he shapes and tapers phrases with
NEDA NAVAEE
all the expressive devices and dynamic shades of the
Instrumental
Kit and caboodle:
American pianist
Kit Armstrong
modern piano but, even in the spacious acoustic of
the Concertgebouw, lines are cleanly etched, never
blurred with the sustaining pedal.
Though these pieces are far from mere curtain
raisers, the main focus of the programme is JS Bach’s
Goldberg Variations, which Armstrong reads with
assurance, refinement and a maturity beyond his
years. His sound is pearly, highlighting the work’s
lyricism, and tempos are beautifully
– never too fast, nor too showy.
Here, too, the young pianist relishes
picking out playful details and
figurations with impish delight. Above all, though,
he builds the music’s architecture with a profoundly
structure. The DVD production is in good taste,
thankfully lacking video gimmickry.
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of
this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine
website at www.classical-music.com
JS Bach
Sonatas & Partitas for solo
violin, BWV 1001-1006
Christian Tetzlaff (violin)
Ondine ODE 1299-2D 130.5 mins (2 discs)
This is Christian
Tetzlaff’s third
recording of JS
Bach’s Sonatas
and Partitas:
the first dates
back to the mid 1990s; the second
to 2007. With greater maturity
comes greater introspection, and
these thoughtfully nuanced new
accounts take a quasi-metaphysical
journey through some of Bach’s
most challenging – yet rewarding –
works, plumbing their spiritual and
intellectual deaths. One also senses
greater freedom and pliancy here,
no doubt due to his long familiarity
with the music.
Tetzlaff spans the gamut of
technique and expression, from
the fiery virtuosity of the G minor
Sonata’s Presto to the meditative
Sarabande of the D minor Partita,
uttered here as a quiet interior
monologue. He sees the A minor
Sonata as a Passion composition
– vocally inspired – and hence the
violin sings, weeps and sighs. Then
again, Tetzlaff describes the titanic
D minor Chaconne as a ‘funerary
lament’ – perhaps an epitaph for
Bach’s recently deceased wife, Maria
Barbara – and certainly this starkly
austere account reaches the nadir of
human grief.
The German violinist shows
a keen understanding of Bach’s
semantics, thanks to his detailed
knowledge of the 1720 manuscript
copy. Lines are lucidly shaped
and cadenced, and the implied
counterpoint is so articulately
voiced as to create dialogues and
conversations, flitting from witty
repartee to gritty debate. His tonal
palette is richly chromatic, and
when the violin sound turns from
the earthly to the ethereal, the effect
is almost that of a philosophical
discourse between body and soul.
Vibrato is expressively used but
never feels intrusive. A few of his
tempos are a shade frenetic, and,
throughout, one senses rather more
of the cerebral than the intuitive;
but these are minor caveats to what
are, by any standards, impressive
accounts. Kate Bolton-Porciatti
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 99
Instrumental Reviews
Bernstein Suite, a wedding gift for his friends
Complete solo works for piano: and colleagues Phyllis Newman
Anniversaries; Touches; Piano and Adolph Green, is a miniature
Sonata; Non troppo presto; triumph of whimsical dexterity.
Music for the Dance, No. 2; Cooperstone’s crisp dispatch is
Four Sabras; El Salón México; pleasurable too, even though the
Bridal Suite – In 2 Parts with recording at times brings him close
3 Encores to hammering. But the big fact
Andrew Cooperstock (piano) remains: for the real meat from
Bridge 9485A/B 104.22 mins (2 discs) Bernstein, the music that lasts,
‘To my first love listeners need to look elsewhere,
– the keyboard’: mostly to his work for the stage.
so reads Leonard Geoff Brown
Bernstein’s PERFORMANCE ★★★
dedication to RECORDING ★★★
Touches (1980),
his last substantial piano piece. Brahms
The passion may have been real Piano Sonata No. 3; Intermezzo
enough, though in a hectic life in A flat, Op. 76 No. 3;
and career the composer mostly Intermezzo in B flat, Op. 76
used the object of his affection No. 4; Capriccio in D minor,
for the musical equivalents of Op. 116 No. 1; Intermezzo in
notebook jottings. As a wayward E, Op. 116 No. 4; Intermezzo
composition pupil of Walter in B flat minor, Op. 117 No. 2;
Piston at Harvard, he managed a Intermezzo in A, Op. 118 No. 2;
serious – if arid – 16-minute sonata, Ballade in G minor, Op. 118
forcefully punched out here by No. 3; Klavierstücke, Op. 119;
Andrew Cooperstock. The first Waltz, Op. 39 No. 15
disc contains the 29 mostly thin- Nelson Freire (piano)
textured miniatures Bernstein Decca 483 2154 73.14 mins
called Anniversaries, written over Fifty years
the decades to significant friends after he made
and family, littered with material his sensational
fruitfully recycled in bigger works. recording debut
Copland’s greeting card, one of the with the F minor
earliest, echoes the master’s own Piano Sonata,
mode of affecting simplicity. Others Nelson Freire has returned to
bring different delights, though this monumental work, making
Cooperstock’s sure touch cannot it the centrepiece of a thoroughly
transform the collection into the engrossing recital. Since his earlier
modern equivalents of Chopin and recording is currently unavailable,
Debussy’s preludes suggested in the it is impossible to glean to what
booklet note. extent his interpretation of the
The Sonata of 1938 and the bare- Sonata might have changed over
boned abstractions of Touches give this long period of time. All one can
the second disc greater ballast. Hot say is that Freire still projects the
rhythms fly in the ingenious and work’s youthful impetuosity, but
taxing transcription of Copland’s manages at the same time to bring
El Salón México. The 1960 Bridal structural cogency to music that
BACKGROUND TO…
Anton Reicha (1770-1836)
Friend of Beethoven, teacher of Liszt, Berlioz
and Franck, Anton Reicha was also a theorist
and prolific composer – though his music is
only really recently being explored in depth.
Born in Prague, Reicha ran away at the age
of ten and grew up with his musical uncle,
ending up in Bonn. There, he played violin in the
Hofkapelle Orchestra, alongside Beethoven on
viola. After a period in Vienna, during which he wrote numerous large-scale
educational piano works, he moved to Paris and became a professor at the
ERIC DAHAN
Conservatoire. Much of his music has never been performed or published.
100 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
embraces a much greater degree
of fantasy than many of Brahms’s
later extended works. Above all,
Freire’s phenomenal mastery of
keyboard sonority ensures that
the quasi-orchestral textures in
the outer movements and Scherzo
never sound hard edged. At the
opposite end of the dynamic
spectrum, the funereal tread of
the fourth movement Intermezzo
is spellbinding, as is the skilful
way in which Freire negotiates the
transition from this ghostly mood
to the Finale, gradually notching
up the intensity from the somewhat
halting opening to the fiery and
defiant closing pages.
The rest of the recording is made
up of an imaginatively conceived
overview of Brahms’s piano
output that is varied in mood and
tonality, but nonetheless moves
chronologically from middle period
works to the later Intermezzos, and
is followed by the famous A flat
major Waltz performed here with
artful simplicity.
Some might regret Freire’s
decision to present only selected
pieces from these sets, with only the
Klavierstücke, Op. 119 performed
in its entirety. But with playing
that is in turns ethereal (Op. 119/1),
impassioned (Op. 116/1), tender
(Op. 118/2) and grandiose (Op. 119/4),
this issue is of little consequence.
Erik Levi
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Welcome return:
pianist Nelson Freire
revisits Brahms
Chopin
Polonaise No. 7 (Polonaise-
fantaisie); Nocturne No. 3,
Op. 9/3, Nocturne No. 5,
Op. 15/2; Impromptu No. 3,
Op. 51; Waltz No. 10, Op. 69/2;
Waltz No. 5, Op. 42; Scherzo
No. 4, Op. 54; Preludes Nos 14
and 15, Op. 28; Ballade No. 4,
Op. 52
Janina Fialkowska (piano)
ATMA Classique ACD2 2728 60.12 mins
Many pianists
would save
Chopin’s
Polonaise-
Fantaisie for the
end of a recital,
but Janina Fialkowska bravely
plunges right in. Maybe she is intent
on making a particular statement,
or maybe merely recalling her
previous two Chopin recitals on
the same Canadian label, both
of which open with one of the
composer’s Polonaises. But this
piece, a late work, represents one
of Chopin’s greatest interpretative
challenges. The introduction is
almost ‘symphonic’ – Liszt and even
Wagner come to mind in the work’s
rhapsodic freedom – yet as the title
implies it is underpinned by a great
Polish dance, and this is the work in
which the exiled Chopin most of all
seems to be bidding farewell to his
country. Fialkowska’s performance,
a little more polonaise than fantasy,
is not the most successful part of her
new recording.
 Instrumental Reviews
But much else here gives great
pleasure. No composer understood
the piano better than Chopin, and
no one can reasonably ever tire of
listening to his works, even when
a programme such as this seems a
little haphazard in its combinations
(repertoire choices presumably
fitting around her previous releases).
Many of Chopin’s major genres are
represented here, but Fialkowska’s
fine playing in particular
illuminates the poetic Impromptu
in G flat, and the Waltz in A flat,
Op. 42, where the music whirls with
deliciously heady humour.
John Allison
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Reicha
Complete piano music, Vol. 2:
Fugues, Op. 81; Etude de piano
ou 57 Variations sur un même
thème suivies d’un Rondeau
Henrik Lowenmark (piano)
Toccata Classics TOCC 0017 78.06 mins
The pianistic
oeuvre of Anton
Reicha (see
‘Background
to’, left) is, for
many people,
undiscovered country, largely
because it was overshadowed by
Beethoven’s work. The two men
were not only born in the same year,
but played side by side – Reicha
on the violin, Beethoven on the
viola – in the Bonn court orchestra
when they were 15; they remained
friends in adulthood, with Reicha
paying tribute to Beethoven’s music
through his own compositions.
The fugues with which Henrik
Löwenmark begins his second
volume of Reicha recordings show
the influence of Bach and Handel,
but possess what Löwenmark
describes as a more expressive
language; Löwenmark delivers them
with a ringing clarity.
The rest of this CD consists of 57
variations on a theme from an opera
by Grétry. This work reflects an
ambition comparable to Beethoven’s
with the Diabellis, and it employs
a similar musical vocabulary. But
here the gulf between talent and
genius is cruelly exposed: time and
again one catches oneself wishing
that this or that variation had been
worked up by Beethoven, rather
than by his well-meaning friend.
Michael Church
PERFORMANCE ★★★
RECORDING ★★★
Reicha
Harmonie; Grande Sonate;
Capriccio, Sonata on a Theme
of Mozart; Fantaisie sur un seul
accord; Etude
Ivan Ilić (piano)
Chandos CHAN 10950 66.47 mins
Ivan Ilić’s Reicha
Rediscovered is
infinitely more
satisfying than
the other Reicha
release reviewed
here (above), partly because of the
colour and drama infused into the
music, and partly because Ilić has
much more interesting things to
play. All the pieces on this disc (and
Lowenmark’s) are recorded for the
first time. Subtitled ‘a contribution
to the intellectual culture of the
composer’, Reicha’s 24 Practische
Beispiele were his application of the
theoretical rules he himself had laid
down, and Ilić plays three of them.
The section entitled ‘Harmony’
consists of fantasias – in varied
tempos and characters – strongly
reminiscent of CPE Bach in their
surprising modulations and
shifts in mood. Capriccio is highly
capricious, and Fantaisie sur un seul
accord is simply that: it’s a tribute
both to Reicha and to Ilić that this
extraordinary exercise in harmonic
self-denial is anything but boring.
Grande sonate is an imposing
piece of virtuosity that roams
through remote keys, and its
spacious Adagio creates a very
Beethovenian effect; its final Allegro
is rigorously economical, exploring
each of its ideas to the limit. The
variations on Mozart’s ‘March of the
priests’ from Die Zauberflöte become
another measure of Reicha’s
invention, while the final Etude tests
his powers of expressiveness by
dwelling on one simple rhythmic
idea. All these pieces deserve to be
incorporated into today’s recital
repertoire. Michael Church
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Scarlatti
Sonatas (selection)
Pierre Hantaï (harpsichord)
Mirare MIR 326 78 mins
In the fifth
volume of
his survey
of Scarlatti’s
harpsichord
sonatas Pierre
Hantaï demonstrates, as before,
his intuitive understanding of
Instrumental Reviews
all those subtle ingredients that
make this music compelling and
to my ears utterly irresistible. As
a harpsichordist and Scarlatti
biographer, the late Ralph
Kirkpatrick remarked that no
one Sonata should be regarded as
typical. The 16 pieces on this disc
amply endorse his point – while at
the same time impressing upon us a
style that is always distinctive.
Though the component parts of
that style are immensely diverse,
overall the music is strongly
characterised by syncopation,
dissonance, chromaticism,
cascading arpeggios, imitative
passages and percussive effects.
Sometimes, as in the E flat Sonata,
K253 the tension is thrilling,
providing expressive contrast
with pieces like the poetic and
reflective B minor Sonata, K87
which brings to mind Rameau’s La
Villageoise. While such pieces are
in a minority, fighting their corner
against a profusion of wonderful
extravagances and exoticisms,
they are perhaps those that more
persistently haunt the memory.
No detail is lost and no expressive
nuance overlooked in Hantaï’s vital
and luminous playing.
The disc is further enhanced
by Mirare’s outstanding recorded
sound. Nicholas Anderson
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Schumann
Carnaval; Faschingsschwank
aus Wien; Theme and
Variations in E flat
‘Geistervariationen’
Juan Carlos (piano)
Odradek ODRCD342 69:25 mins
The Spanish
pianist Juan
Carlos has
assembled an
interesting
choice of
repertoire for this all-Schumann
disc: the ever-popular Carnaval,
the Faschingsschwank aus Wien (a
carnival jest of another kind) and
the introspective Geistervariationen,
Schumann’s last, troubled and
troubling piano work. The
composer’s alter-egos Florestan and
Eusebius dance their way through
the character portraits of Carnaval
plus the naughty hint of the
MARCO BORGGREVE
Marseillaise in Faschingsschwank,
while the Geistervariationen leaves
only Eusebius, trembling on the
edge of dissolution.
102 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Telemann discovery:
Robert Smith reveals
the gamba sonatas
Carlos’s playing errs if anything
on the side of caution, he proves
himself a deeply sensitive musician,
excelling in the processional
moments of Carnaval and the
impassioned Intermezzo of the
Faschingsschwank. Tempos are
occasionally a tad ponderous and
dutiful, though – the impetuosity
of Florestan is rarely given its head
– and Carlos’s lavish use of rubato,
while thoughtful, sometimes does
not catch up quite as promptly as it
slows down.
The Geistervariationen of
1854 come off best, with Carlos
gently picking up on Schumann’s
discordant inner voices
without exaggerating the piece’s
posthumously acquired pathos.
But there is one major problem
with the recording, and it is not
Carlos’s playing. It’s that the
sound quality is so woolly that the
programme might as well have
been recorded in a haberdashery. It
permits the piano little resonance,
makes the pedal mechanism all
too audible and muffles Carlos’s
best attempts to introduce audible
variety of tone colour.
Odradek describes itself as ‘non-
profit, democratic cooperative,
putting music and musicians first’,
which is a pleasing aim; but neither
music nor musician can benefit
from this sort of aural fuzziness.
Jessica Duchen
PERFORMANCE ★★★
RECORDING ★★
Sibelius
Impromptus in B minor and
E, Op. 5; Kyllikki, Op. 41; 10
Pieces for Piano – Romance
in D flat and Barcarola;
The Shepherd; Valse Triste;
Sonatina No. 1; Bjorken;
Branen; Rondino; Elegiaco;
6 Bagatelles; 5 Esquisses
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Sony Classical 88985408502 66 mins
Not every piano
piece by Sibelius
cries out for
attention, but
there are plentiful
treasures as
the five volumes covering the
gamut – recorded by Leif Ove
Andsnes’s fellow Norwegian and
good colleague Havard Gimse
– demonstrates. Much more, in
short, than is found on this careful
selection – but predictably it has
a magic of its own which Andsnes
casts equally, with his pure-source
sound and range of colours, over
early, middle and late Sibelius.
The crystalline cascades of the
Impromptu that launches the CD,
No. 5 in B minor, could be French
impressionist, but the tenor melody
is very Nordic – and it’s a preferred
range for themes in many of the
pieces on this disc.
The cornerstones are the semi-
programmatic, almost operatic
dialogues between the amorous hero
from the Kalevala Lemminkäinen
and a teasing maiden of Saari
island, Kyllikki, and the haunting
Sketches among Sibelius’s last works
before the long creative silence that
lasted up to his death in 1957. These
aren’t the only numbers where an
idea, in Andsnes’s words about
another piece, ‘turns into something
surprising and wonderful’; the two
tree pictures from Op. 75 do that
too. The noble melody of The Spruce
is what sticks in my mind. If only
all its companions were here, along
with some of the later flower pieces.
But what we do have, Sibelius’s
own piano-only Valse Triste with
‘improvement’ by Andsnes possibly
excepted, makes up a mesmerising
programme. Its ambiguity should
inspire individual thoughts and
questions in every listener.
Pure, atmospheric sound by Sony
captures the necessary intimacy
which is an Andsnes hallmark.
David Nice
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Andsnes talks about his past
recordings in 'Rewind', p18
Telemann
Fantasias for Viola da Gamba
Robert Smith (viola da gamba)
Resonus RES10195 79.15 mins
Telemann’s
recently
discovered
Fantasias for viola
da gamba provide
the missing link
in his series of fantasias for solo
instruments. Those for traverso
flute, violin and harpsichord have
long been cherished by performers
but, though mentioned by the
composer himself, the viola da
gamba solos only came to light
in 2015 in a manuscript by an
unknown hand in a private library
near Hanover.
Listening to these 12 pieces,
almost all of which are in three
movements, I am immediately
struck by their uniformly high
quality as well as by Telemann’s
hallmark eclecticism in matters of
style, form and measure. Several
of the Fantasias contain fugal
movements, one of which, in the
First Fantasia, is deftly interwoven
with arresting chromaticism.
Songlike melodies, syncopation,
wide-ranging tessiture, rhetorical
declamation, occasional multiple
stopping and fleeting references to
the central European folk tradition
so beloved of the composer all find
a place in music which unlocks the
 Instrumental Reviews
instrument’s subtle sonorities with
characteristic sensibility.
Robert Smith is not first in the
field with his recording, and there
will certainly be others to follow,
but the expressive warmth which
he brings to these attractive pieces,
together with a feeling for rhetoric
and an accomplished technique
deserve to win many friends. The
sound is excellent and Smith has
provided an elegantly written
introduction. Nicholas Anderson
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Echoes of Land & Sea
Piano music by Britten, Holst,
Stevenson, Ireland, Leighton
and Roderick Williams
Maria Marchant (piano)
Somm SOMMCD 0174 73.04 mins
This attractively
devised and
immaculately
performed recital
showcases both
the charms of
the byways of the English musical
scene, and the quiet frustrations
that so often come with it. Britten’s
Holiday Diary is a very early work,
and operates within the low musical
horizons of small-scale character-
pieces from which Britten himself
to some extent recoiled; such as the
music of his teacher, John Ireland
– whose Ballads of London Nights is
also included here.
Ronald Stevenson’s Peter Grimes
Fantasy connects with a very
different tradition, the virtuoso-
paraphrase pianistic world of
Liszt and Busoni; but despite some
impressive moments, the end result
feels strangely depersonalised.
Even Holst’s ultra-individual
creative voice doesn’t quite emerge
through his small output of piano
pieces, engaging as they are. None
of this slightly unsatisfying feeling
lies at Maria Marchant’s door:
on the contrary, her playing has
a combined energy, verve, and
technical precision that does all it
can to search out the character of
each item on her programme. This
includes Goodwood by the Sea, a
chirpy number specially written
for her by Roderick Williams. But
the most memorable experience
here, by far, comes in Williams’s
‘free transcription’ of Ireland’s
immortal song Sea Fever – arranged
with wonderful keyboard
imagination (this from one of our
leading baritones!), and delivered
by Marchant with a richness of
musicianship that haunts the
memory. Malcolm Hayes
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
George Li
Live at the Mariinsky
Haydn: Piano Sonata in B minor;
Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 2;
Rachmaninov: Variations on a
Theme of Corelli; Liszt: Consolation
No. 3; Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
George Li (piano)
Warner Classics 0190295812942 68 mins
Child piano
prodigies – and
their teachers
and carers – face
an unusual
challenge in
weighing musical development
against early career opportunities.
Boston-born George Li appears to
have found an ideal balance. Despite
winning the prestigious Gilmore
Young Artist Award back in 2011
(at the tender age of 15), Li waited
until he had a few more years – and
a clutch of prizes, such as the silver
medal from Moscow’s Tchaikovsky
Competition (2015) – before
releasing this debut disc.
It was worth the wait. The
solo recital, recorded live at the
Mariinsky Concert Hall in St
Petersburg (and also performed at
the Edinburgh Festival in 2016),
has all the light and shade expected
from such a varied programme. The
Haydn sonata is an airy Victoria
sponge, with a thick and luxurious
cream filling. The Chopin sonata,
on the other hand, is a deep and
complex fruitcake; while the
Rachmaninov variations are cake
pops: tiny – but intense – bursts of
flavour. Liszt appears as a lemon
drizzle cake, and the acidity cuts
through the sweetness.
Li’s style is thoughtful and
expressive, rather than exciting,
and the concert recording gives
the performance a directness. The
21-year-old produces an exquisite
tone in Consolation No. 3 (Liszt),
melting into the keyboard with
incredible technique. (This is also to
the fore in the Hungarian Rhapsody.)
The Haydn is beautifully delineated.
The sound quality is extremely good
throughout, although the lower
registers of the keyboard feel overtly
resonant at times, particularly
during the Chopin. Claire Jackson
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Brief notes
Our collection of 25 further reviews, including Albéniz, Tchaikovsky and Zapf
Albéniz Piano music, Vol. 9
Miguel Baselga (piano) BIS BIS-2173
The final volume
of Baselga’s Albéniz
survey includes a
brief improvisation
transcribed from a
phonograph recording made by the
composer. The playing is sometimes
a little lacklustre. (RF) ★★★
Beethoven
Piano Sonatas Nos 21, 23 and 26
Olga Pashchenko (piano) Alpha 365
Pashchenko plays
on an 1824 Conrad
Graf fortepiano
belonging to a
collection housed
in Beethoven’s birthplace. The
instrument can generate surprising
drama, but sometimes lacks clarity.
(OC) ★★★
Brian Symphonies Nos 8, 21 & 26
New Russia State Symphony Orchestra/
Alexander Walker Naxos 8.573752
The latest instalment
in Naxos’s recordings
of Brian’s 32
symphonies is
a mixed bag.
Symphony No. 8 is, frankly, as
directionless as it is unmemorable,
but Nos 21 and 26 have emotional
depth and character. ( JP) ★★★
Clifford The Cowes Suite; Voyage
at Dusk and other works
BBC Concert Orchestra/Ronald Corp
Dutton Epoch CDLX 7338
The Australian-born
Hubert Clifford was
formerly the BBC’s
head of light music.
The BBC Concert
Orchestra is on lively form in this
portrait of his breezy orchestral
music. (RF) ★★★
Dvořák Piano Trios Nos 1 & 2
The Tempest Trio Naxos 8.573723
Solid performances
of solid works
– Dvořák’s mid-
career piano trios
aren’t among his
greatest masterpieces, but they
do contain some lovely moments.
There are one or two intonation
GETTY
issues. (OC) ★★★
104 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Eben String Quartet; Piano Trio; Milhaud Chamber music Weber Concerto No. 1; Variations,
Piano Quintet Pierluigi Bernard (clarinet), Mauro Op. 33; Grand Duo, Op. 48
Karel Kosarek (piano); Martinů Quartet Tortorelli (violin, viola), Angela Meluso Raphael Severe (clarinet); Deutsches
Supraphon SU 4232-2 (piano) Brilliant Classics 95449 Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/
The chamber music And smile. Milhaud’s Aziz Shokhakimov; Jean-Frederic
of Petr Eben (1929- chamber music is Neuburger (piano) Mirare MIR 372
2007) is rhythmic charming, cheeky Warm and engaging
and harmonically and often quirky, playing from
fascinating, shifting but never dull. The Raphael Severe. The
between atonality and modality. Scaramouche Suite for clarinet and orchestral ensemble
The Martinůs prove fine advocates; piano is especially fun. (JP) ★★★★ isn’t always as tight
great sound, too. (OC) ★★★★ as it could be, but the spirit is always
Mompou Cancons i Danses; right. (RF) ★★★★
Enescu • Poulenc • Schönberg • Paisajes; Scenes d’enfants etc
Tüür Works for violin and piano Luis Fernando Perez (piano) Weiner Five Divertimentos;
Mari Poll (violin), Mihkel Poll (piano) Mirare MIR 364 Serenade
Dux DUX 1383 Mompou’s Estonian National SO/Neeme Järvi
From the smoky sophistaticated Chandos CHAN 10959
opening to Enescu’s music often sounds A near contemporary
Third Sonata to like modern jazz. of Bartók, Weiner’s
Erkki-Sven Tüür’s A selection of his charming Serenade
edgy Köielkõnd, this works is given a beautifully lithe for small orchestra
is an imaginatively programmed performance by Perez, recorded and lively five
disc played with both passion and superbly, too. (OC) ★★★★ divertimentos, which date from
panache. (JP) ★★★★★ 1933 to 1951, are given winning
Respighi Fountains of Rome; performances here. (RF) ★★★★
Glinka Septet; Trio Pathetique etc Pines of Rome etc
Consortium Classicum Giulio Biddau, Norberto C Respighi Whittington Windmill etc
CPO 777 871-2 71:26 (piano) Evidence EVCD035 Zephyr Quartet Cold Blue Music CB0048
Don’t expect Glinka’s The excitement of This evocative
music to sound Respighi’s orchestral minimalist piece
‘Russian’ –his works can’t be depicts the steel
chamber works matched by his own windmills seen in the
have the distinct arrangements for two Australian outback.
air of the German salon. That said, pianos, but these are nonetheless It’s a short CD, but the playing is
they’re really rather beautiful, and atmospheric, well-paced excellent. (RF) ★★★★
performed with grace. (OC) ★★★★ performances. (JP) ★★★★
Zapf String Quartet
Haydn Stradella Santa Pelagia Sonar Quartet Wergo WER 7348 2
Violin Concertos Nos 1, 3 & 4 Ensemble Mare Nostrum/Andrea De Challenging
Lisa Jacobs (violin); The String Soloists Carlo Arcana A431 chamber works by
Cobra Records COBRA 0061 A lightly-etched this 61-year-old
Crisp, clean playing, performance of German explore
buoyant orchestral Stradella’s oratorio intervals, rhythm,
interaction and about the life of Saint independent part-writing and
superb recorded Pelagia. The four solo the human voice – the Sonar
sound all make this a voices delight in the fleet-footed, Quartett give committed, exacting
very pleasurable listen. (JP) ★★★★ dancing numbers. (RF) ★★★★ performances. (OC) ★★★★
Larsen Cowboy Songs etc Tchaikovsky String Quartet No. 1; Avital meets Avital
Tracey Engleman (soprano), Laura Souvenir de Florence Avi Avital (mandolin), Omer Avital
Bolton (piano) Innova 975 Novus Quartet; Lise Berthaud (viola), (bass, oud) et al
This showcase of Ophelie Gaillard (cello) Aparte AP154 Deutsche Grammophon 479 6523
the US composer A Ukrainian folk Omer and Avi
Libby Larsen is a song inspired the Avital (not related)
tad disappointing. beautiful Andante explore their
The restricted sound cantabile of heritage in an album
doesn’t show off the artists to their Tchaikovsky’s early rich in Moroccan
best, and it left me wanting to hear String Quartet No. 1. It’s glorious flavouring, with touches from
these songs live in performance music, played with clarity and elsewhere in the Mediterranean.
instead. (RF) ★★ refinement. (RF) ★★★★ Hugely enjoyable. (JP) ★★★★
In My Father’s House
Choral music by Philip Stopford The month in box-sets
Truro Cathedral Choir; BBC NOW/
Christopher Gray Regent REGCD517
Stopford’s accessible
and endearing
church anthems
are heard here
in specially
orchestrated versions, played and
sung with tenderness. (OC) ★★★★

Jungle Baroque
Works by Schmid, Zipoli et al
Sonidos de Paraquaria/Luis Szaran
Klanglogo KL1414
Premiere recordings
of music by Jesuit
missionaries,
performed on its
home turf by devoted
young enthusiasts. Apply a little
goodwill and ignore the moments
of dodgy intonation. (JP) ★★

Le Sonate de Vinteuil
Saint-Saëns, Debussy etc
Maria Milstein (violin); Nathalia
Soviet legend:
Milstein (piano) Mirare MIR 384
Evgeny Svetlanov is
The inspiration celebrated on 56 discs
behind Proust’s
imaginary violin
sonata in A la
recherche du temps
perdu has inspired this charming
album of masterpieces and lesser-
Great gifts from Mother Russia
known gems. (OC) ★★★ Maestros past and present are at the heart of this month’s round-up
Revolting Rhymes and It’s ten years since Vladimir Jurowski took up the conductor Evgeny Svetlanov’s recorded
Marvellous Music the post of principal conductor of the London catalogue (Melodiya MELCD1002481). Glazunov’s
Works by Patterson and Butler Philharmonic Orchestra, and you can sample complete orchestral music opens the set,
Magnard Ensemble; Rebecca Kenny some of the highlights of the past decade on a which also includes 14 of Myaskovsky’s 27
(narrator) Orchid Classics ORC100071 celebratory new seven-CD set (LPO 25251). There symphonies and works by Prokofiev, Glière and
Bright performances are both the towering masterpieces – Brahms’s Khachaturian. There’s contemporary Russian
of deliciously dark German Requiem, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé – music to discover too, including pieces by
fairy tales and and the lesser-known gems that Alexandrov, Galynin, Peiko,
macabre verses Jurowski has championed, such This is a set to keep Mosolov and Zaborov. A set,
by Roald Dahl. as Enescu’s Third Symphony if ever there was one, to keep
Clever quotations and musical and Silvestrov’s Fifth Symphony.
ardent Russophiles ardent Russophiles happy for
onomatopoeia aplenty. Tchaikovsky has been a happy for days on end days on end. Just add vodka.
(RF) ★★★★ regular fixture in the LPO’s BBC Radio has also been
programmes over the years, and another set opening up its archives, resulting in the second
The British Cello from the orchestra’s in-house label features volume of the BBC Legends series (ICA Classics
Works by Moeran, Britten etc a complete cycle of the Russian composer’s ICAB 5141; 20 CDs). The collection of great
Alexander Baillie (cello), John Thwaites symphonies (LPO0101; 7 CDs). The recordings performances here includes David Oistrakh in
(piano) Somm SOMMCD 0175 of the Symphonies Nos 2 and 3, along with Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1, recitals
From folky Moeran the Serenade for Strings an nd f
from pianists Sviatoslav
to the more intense Francesca da Rimini, are released ichter and Walter Gieseking,
demands of sonatas here for the first time; the pieces
p a
and sopranos Kirsten
by Britten, Rodney were recorded from 2004 tto 2016. lagstad and Victoria de Los
Bennett and James There’s even more Russ sian A
Angeles. Composers Walton
MacMillan, this is an excellent music – vast amounts of it, and Stravinsky conduct their
introduction to British cello music. in fact – to be had in the own works on two discs, while
The slightly roomy recorded sound impressive Anthology of Britten at the piano joins the
might not suit all tastes. (JP) ★★★★ Russian Symphonic Music, violinist Yehudi Menuhin for
Reviewers : Oliver Condy (OC), Rebecca Vol. 2, consisting of works by Haydn, Debussy
Franks (RF), Jeremy Pound (JP) 56 CDs dedicated to and Schubert.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 105

Jazz
Roger Thomas presents six of the best jazz releases available this month
December round-up
JAZZ CHOICE Two recent albums share a
cinematic connection and a
Skill and enthusiasm strong element of personal and
political narrative. The first is from
trumpeter and producer Keyon
Nat Steele and friends offer some vibrant Harrold, who has spent a lot of
his career to date making other
insights into the music of the legendary MJQ people sound
good, including
providing
Discreet highlights: the trumpet
Nat Steele adds performance
subtle freshness
for actor Don
Cheadle in the Miles Davis quasi-
biopic Miles Ahead. If his current
solo album The Mugician feels a
little overstuffed it may just be an
instance of an in-demand creative
musician wanting to get the most out
of (and indeed into) the rare luxury
of a personal project. Essentially a
sextet recording with some studio-
based elements and occasional
guests (including Robert Glasper),
the music energetically weaves in
and out of jazz, hip-hop, downtempo
and related areas; but rising above it
all is Harrold’s exceptionally warm
and sumptuous trumpet tone, which
would be worth hearing even if the
CD contained nothing else. (Legacy
88985479742 ★★★★)
The second comes from Antonio
Sánchez, a drummer whose
bandleaders have ranged from Dizzy
Gillespie to Chick Corea. His more
recent exposure as a film composer
Nat Steele (notably for the
Portrait of the Modern Jazz Quartet acclaimed 2014
Nat Steele (vibraphone), Gabriel Latchin black comedy
(piano), Dario Di Lecce (double bass), Birdman) caused
Steve Brown (drums) him to develop
Trio 589 52:54 mins an interest in
It’s easy to overlook a recording of this how drums can be recorded and
nature, as any x-plays-the-music-of-y in studio composition in general.
disc can be its own worst enemy. Apart from the likely availability Bad Hombre, performed on drums,
of the original material on CD, the question as to whether the keyboards, electronics and vocals,
work of a hugely respected artist or group – such as the Modern is dense, atmospheric and allusive.
Jazz Quartet (MJQ), who disbanded in 1994 – actually needs (CamJazz CAMJ 7919-2 ★★★★)
re-interpreting at all means that any undertaking of this kind has Like Sánchez, Björn Meyer
to be particularly convincing to avoid sounding like a tribute act. has recorded a truly solo, one-
Happily, this quartet succeeds in all respects, bringing just performer album in the shape of
enough vivacious originality to a set of early MJQ tunes to make Provenance, although his chosen
its own mark on them while avoiding overcooking the material instrumentation is sparse and is
and never lapsing into bland-cover-version syndrome. The most as ambiguous in its description
effective highlights are actually quite discreet – a little more (try permutating ‘6-string electric
extended ornamentation here, some added ventilation there – and acoustic bass guitars’) as it
but the band’s sheer skill and enthusiasm are always to the fore. is sonically. He favours gentle
GETTY
Altogether, a refreshing treat for your ears. ★★★★★ dynamics and off-centre registral
106 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
choices and also
regards room
acoustics as
being important
to his sound, so
his music, subtle
yet richly engaging, is genuinely
ambient. (ECM 574 1917 ★★★★)
By way of contrast, the music
on Septembro from Laginha/
Argüelles/Norbakken (piano,
saxophones and percussion
respectively) is very much a set of
ensemble pieces, although Mário
Laginha takes all but two of the
composition credits. There’s a
great deal of fine jazz in Laginha’s
homeland of Portugal and it’s
always good to see its practitioners
getting the wider presentation they
deserve. My only
reservation here
is Helge Andreas
Norbakken’s
percussion, which
frequently draws
upon the scrapes-and-skitters
style associated with Tony Oxley.
He does this well, but it seems a
little incongruous here. (Edition
EDN 1099 ★★★★)
Finally, given that jazz has
long been burdened by reissue
fatigue, it’s always good to find an
example that’s genuinely worthy
of recommendation, albeit for
slightly perverse reasons. On The
Centennial Edition – Paris 1954,
Thelonious Monk turns in an
exposed solo piano performance
of the kind that’s always good to
have, recorded under somewhat
precarious circumstances which
are detailed in the booklet notes.
This material originally appeared
as a 10-inch LP, but the added bonus
tracks deserve their own slightly
wobbly place in history. This is a trio
set recorded with an unrehearsed
local rhythm
section; baffled by
the pianist’s spiky
style, his sidemen
are clearly
hanging on by
the skin of their teeth. The results
are exactly as one might expect, but
are enjoyable for all that; jazz doesn’t
always have to be ‘good’ to be good.
(Swing/Sony 88985472342 ★★★★)
 BACK ISSUES

SEPTEMBER 2017 OCTOBER 2017 NOVEMBER 2017

In sparkling form:
Join us to welcome Which opera did 172 How did the Russian
Thelonious Monk is lucid conductor Sir Simon singers vote as the Revolution nurture
in Liaisons Dangereuses Rattle as he takes up greatest of all time? one of the greatest
his new position at the Find out in our opera composers of the 20th
LSO; plus a CD of issue, along with a century? Discover

From the archives Sibelius’s Kullervo. CD of beautiful arias. Shostakovich’s secret.

Geoffrey Smith welcomes the handsome packaging of UP TO 30% OFF

a rediscovered original Thelonious Monk soundtrack
FOR SUBSCRIBERS
Besides its musical bounty, one of the pleasures ■ We’re sorry, but issues of BBC Music
of the historic archive of recorded jazz is the published more than 12 months ago are no
way it continues to grow. It’s not just a matter of
longer available.
reissuing classic sessions, but of discovering new
material, performances that were lost or forgotten ■ BBC Music Magazine and CD slipcases are
found on tapes consigned to anonymous boxes perfect for storing your collection. Subscribers
long before. Indeed, jazz’s illustrious past grows ever more can save up to 30% when ordering both together.
precious as it recedes, and the musical treasure hunt grows ever
more intense.
One of the most recent Eureka moments came in Paris,
when dedicated researchers turned up Thelonious Monk’s
original sound track recordings from the French film Les Liaisons
To order call
Dangereuses 1960 (Sam Records SRS-1-CD), an updating of the
classic novel of sexual intrigue. Now issued as an elegant, well-
documented double CD, the set comprises all the material used
in the film plus alternates and out-takes, including a fascinating
0844 844 0260
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Our critics cast their eyes over this month’s selection of books on classical music
Year of Wonder
Clemency Burton-Hill
Headline Home ISBN 978-1-4722-5182-4
442pp (hb) £20
Such is the current pace of
technological advance that those
of us of a certain age (ahem!)
occasionally struggle to keep
pace with the latest trends. Fully
embracing
the modern
age of internet
streaming
and music
portability,
Clemency
Burton-Hill
aims to shatter
cosy preconceptions about classical
music elitism and bring as many
people to the ‘party’ as possible. As
she points out in her impassioned
introduction, her bracingly eclectic
selection of 366 pieces by 240
composers (one for each day of the
year) is neither encyclopaedic nor
intended as a formal historical
guide. Her intention is rather to
‘demystify both the music itself and
the context in which it was written.’
Eschewing technical jargon
and demonstrating an infectious
‘can-do’ attitude, Burton-Hill
packs an extraordinary amount of
information into each commentary.
By establishing a personal point of
contact with many pieces, she also
holds out a reassuring hand to the
novice listener, as when she recounts
her first magical encounter with the
slow movement of Ravel’s G major
Piano Concerto and experienced a
‘sort of mute outrage that I’d existed
all these years without knowing
it existed.’ For those taking their
first tentative steps into the world
of classical music, I can’t imagine a
more welcoming or inspiring place
to start. Julian Haylock ★★★★
Live Wires – History of
Electronic Music
Daniel Warner
Reaktion Books ISBN 978-1-7802-3824-1
224pp (hb) £16
Electronic music has grown from
being the stuff of 1950s avant garde
experimentation – in Paris with
Pierre Schaeffer’s manipulation of
GETTY
taped sounds, and in Cologne with
In the vanguard:
Pierre Schaeffer
experimenting with
sound in 1955
Stockhausen’s Elektronische Musik –
to enter the musical mainstream.
Its proliferation drives this
concise account,
in which music
professor Daniel
Warner takes five
technological
innovations – the
tape recorder,
circuits, turntable
and record,
microphone, computers – and
explores chronologically across
genres the key musical works they
inspired. The first chapter, for
example, takes us from the splicing
together of the sounds of train
engines in Schaeffer’s Railway Study
to Steve Reich’s minimalist tape
loops It’s Gonna Rain and Come
Out, Brian Eno’s ambient Music for
Airports, the glittering carousels in
The Beatles’s For the Benefit of Mr
Kite and the controversial editing of
Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way.
Warner gives us just enough
theory to grasp the significance
of each development or key work.
It’s a good introduction to the
artistic aims and means of an ever-
expanding sound world, and – from
Varèse to Blondie to Squarepusher
to DJ Shadow – makes for an
invigorating and nostalgic playlist.
Nick Shave ★★★★
The Bible in Music
Robert Ignatius Letellier
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
978-1-4438-7314-7 551pp (hb) £70.99
Robert Ignatius Letellier has set
himself a daunting task in this
substantial
volume: a
detailed look at
music inspired
by the Bible. No
such volume
can encompass
everything, and
there are (for
instance) numerous oratorios and
cantatas by 19th-century British
composers that don’t get a mention.
However, Letellier has diligently
covered as much as possible over the
course of 550 pages, starting with a
traversal of the history of the Bible in
opera and oratorio, and examining
the music in the Bible itself before
moving on through mystery plays
to contemporary operas and choral
works. Letellier then deals with
Books
Biblical themes, from the Creation to
the Last Judgment. Who would have
thought there were 20 oratorios on
the subject of Judith and Holofernes,
and as many as 29 operas?
The book also includes 250
coloured illustrations; the overall
result is impressively informative.
George Hall ★★★★
Benjamin Britten Studies:
Essays on An Inexplicit Art
Ed. Vicki P Stroeher
& Justin Vickers
Boydell Press ISBN 978-1-78327-195-5
548pp (hb) £60
‘Access at the new Britten-Pears
Foundation Archive is now
unprecedented,’ boast the editors of
this weighty tome; ‘A field of study
that once seemed open to insiders
only has now been passed to the
critical enquiry of a new generation.’
American-based scholars Vicki P
Stroeher and Justin Vickers describe
how they were formerly made to feel
outsiders when visiting that archive.
These essays, some the result of
this new access, include several by
lesser-known writers. Kevin Salfen’s
very fine chapter on Nō drama and
its influence on Britten’s Church
Parables benefits from his specialist
knowledge of that Japanese genre;
and Colleen Renihan thoughtfully
explores Gloriana’s manipulation
of memory. Of the essays by well-
established authors, Jenny Doctor
on Britten’s wartime radio work and
Byron Adams on the little-explored
influence of John Ireland are the
most distinguished. Biographer
Paul Kildea, though, indulges in
some gratuitous
sensationalism,
comparing
an innocuous
portrait of
Hans Keller to
‘a modernist
Schiele: the
reclining women,
their legs wide apart [etc]’. Editorial
intervention might have helped
here, as well as in a chapter on the
Soviet stagings of Peter Grimes
and Prince of the Pagodas by PhD
candidate Thornton Miller, whose
well-researched subject is hobbled
by clumsy prose. Daniel Jaffé ★★★
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 109
 Audio choice
Every issue our audio expert Chris Haslam tests the best products on the market

THIS MONTH: IN-EAR HEADPHONES

HIGH END CHOICE

Sennheiser IE 80 S £299
Sennhe
Exxceptionally comfortable,
light and unobtrusive,
BEST BUY
Sennheisher’s latest high-end in-ear
monitors (IEM) offer the sort of sound
m
quaality that will make you wish your
commmute was just a little bit longer. Listening
to thhe Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin’s
recent Telemann Concerti per molti stromenti
recording, the detail and clarity of the soloists
is remmarkable, transporting you to the heart of
the performance.
Despite being firmly wedged in your ear,
they’rre poised, exciting, balanced and never
overp powering. If I’m being picky, they lack
wow--factor in the design, but they sound
fabulous and, besides, I can’t see them. You can
Crystal clear:
manu ually adjust the bass in each ear – using a Sennheiser’s
tiny sscrewdriver – to suit your tastes. In a world earphones pick out
domiinated by bass-heavy pop headphones, this every musical detail
is an absolute treat. sennheiser.com

BUDGET PRICE CHOICE MID-RANGE CHOICE

SoundMagic E10C £44.95 Audio Technica ATH-LS70IS £125
When a colleague started eulogising about a pair of ‘phenomenal’ £40 Given that so many classical
headphones, I assumed bribery or insanity, but after listening to the performances are recorded in
E10C, and countless pairs of vastly more expensive models, I’m sold. concert halls and not in sanitised
With premium quality aluminium casing, an in-line mic and controls studio environments, the idea of
(iOS and Android), they produce a spirited sound that’s a pleasure on a pair of in-ear headphones with
the
h ears whatever
h you’re
’ listening
li i to. soundmagicheadphones.com
d i h d h two ‘Live Tuned’ 8.8mm m speaker
drivers is tempting, and
a wh hile
predominantly
aimed at the pop p
gig-goer, the exxtra
space given to the
music is noticeable
and huggely
appreciated. At times the headphone’ss pop prowess
dominates the lower frequencies, bu ut the bass never
distorts, and given you’re probably going
go to be
wearing these out and about, the extra ooomph helps
to drive the performance through backgroun nd chatter
and transport noise. The Audio Technica has a great
gr
all-round performance. audiotechnicashop.com

IN-EAR HEADPHONES CHECK-LIST
Wires Even with aptX Bluetooth now offering
CD-quality wireless streaming, traditional
wired headphones still sound better and will
get the best from any quality of recording.
Drivers Most in-ear headphones use
‘dynamic’ speaker drivers that cover the
entire frequency range, while more expensive
options feature multiple balanced-armature
drivers that are designed to reproduce a
specific frequency range which can help draw
out more detail in the recording.
Earbud or IEM? Cheap earbuds tend to sit
on, rather than in the ear, leaking sound
and letting the world in, while IEMs – in-ear
monitors – are designed to be pushed deep
into your ear canal to create a tight seal
isolating the sound and improving quality.
Fit All quality headphones come with a range
of different-sized earbuds and it’s essential
you experiment to get the best fit.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 111

 Oxford first:
Holywell Music Room
Venue of the month
The UK’s best concert halls
2. Holywell
Music Room
Where: Holywell St, Oxford
Opened: 1748
Seats: c.190
Situated in the heart of
Oxford – close to the
Bodleian Library and
Sheldonian Theatre and a
short stumble away from
the King’s Arms pub – the
Holywell Music Room has a
claim to fame as the oldest
purpose-built concert hall
in Europe. Funded by public
subscription, it was designed
by Thomas Camplin, the
vice-president of St Edmund
Hall, and opened its doors
for its first concert in 1748.
Handel is known to have
performed here late in his
life, but Haydn, alas, was
unable to fulfil his much
anticipated appearance here
when he visited the city in
1791. Grade II listed in 1954
and refurbished soon after,
Holywell Music Room is
appreciated by musicians
and audiences as an intimate
venue for solo recitals
and small chamber music
ensembles, and it also boasts
its own organ. A highlight of
its calendar comes in October,
when it hosts a number of
concerts at the Oxford Lieder
Festival. Hopefully, none of
the festival’s singers will ever
meet the same fate as the
fictional Gwyladys Probert
ALAMY, CHRIS DUNLOP, JEN OWENS
– this is where, in Twilight
of the Gods in the Inspector
Morse series, the outspoken
mezzo gives her last recital
before a marksman’s bullet
silences her for good.
112 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Live choice
This month’s highlights include multi-recital Bach and fiery Prokofiev
LONDON
Spitalfields Winter Festival
Various venues, Spitalfields,
2-10 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)20 7377 1362
Web: www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk
Conductor André de Ridder is
the first curator of the new-look
Spitalfields Winter Festival,
whose feisty commitment to
musics early and contemporary
remains undimmed. ‘House
of Monteverdi’ in Shoreditch
Church mixes madrigals of love
and war with new and recent
works by Josephine Stephenson,
Anna Thorvaldsdóttir and Qasim
Naqvi, while across the Festival,
performers include La Nuova
Musica, London Contemporary
Orchestra and the orchestral
collective Stargaze.
David Titterington
St John’s Smith Square, 3-21 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)20 7222 1061
Web: www.sjss.org.uk
‘Bach in Advent’ promises a
19-recital odyssey through
the organ works of Leipzig’s
Wonderful tone:
Danielle de Niese
sings Bernstein at
the Barbican
Thomaskantor performed
by David Titterington on the
magnificent Klais instrument of
St John’s. All the concerts except
the final one – devoted to the
German Organ Mass, with choral
contributions from Siglo de Oro
– are free.
London Sinfonietta
Southbank Centre, 6 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)20 3879 9555
Web: www.southbankcentre.co.uk
As part of the Southbank
Centre’s Belief and Beyond
Belief festival, conductor Oliver
Knussen and the London
Sinfonietta tackle a Stockhausen
double bill which prefaces the
dream-like, quasi-theatrical Trans
with the 12 astrological melodies
of Tierkreis.
Pieter Wispelwey
Kings Place, 8 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)20 7520 1490
Web: www.kingsplace.co.uk
The Dutch cellist completes
Kings Place’s year-long traversal
of the Bach solo cello suites
by partnering Suite No. 1 with
Britten’s Suite No. 3, a work
partly inspired by it, and Bach’s
own Suite No. 3 with the young
Ligeti’s Sonata for solo cello.
London Symphony Orchestra
Barbican, 16 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 8891
Web: www.barbican.org.uk
With the festival flurry greeting
his arrival as music director
now over, it’s time for business
as usual for Sir Simon Rattle
and the LSO. With one eye very
firmly on next year’s Leonard
Bernstein birth centenary
celebrations, Rattle musters
luxury casting here, with Krystian
Zimerman as the piano soloist
in the Symphony No. 2, ‘The
Age of Anxiety’ (see interview,
p46) and soprano Danielle de
Niese heading up a concert
performance of Wonderful Town.
SOUTH
Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra
The Anvil, Basingstoke, 1 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)1256 844244
Web: www.anvilarts.org.uk
Following a performance in
Poole on 29 November, chief
conductor Kirill Karabits brings
his orchestra to Basingstoke’s
Anvil for a Viennese programme
rich in contrast. Mozart’s radiant
Piano Concerto No. 23 in A K488
features Robert Levin as soloist,
and it’s followed by Bruckner’s
profound meditation on death
and transfiguration, the
Eighth Symphony.
Orchestra of the Age
of Enlightenment
St George’s, Bristol, 5 Dec
Tel: 0845 402 4001 (UK only)
Web: www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk
Fresh from the release of her
new disc of Baroque violin
sonatas (see review, p94),
Rachel Podger fast-forwards to
the Classical era as she joins
the Orchestra of the Age of
Enlightenment for Mozart’s Violin
Concertos Nos 1 & 5. They are
interleaved with a couple of
darkly passionate symphonies

by two of Mozart’s closest
friends: Op 6. No. 6 in G minor
by JC Bach (see Composer of
the Month, p62), and Haydn’s D
minor ‘Lamentatione’ Symphony.
Nash Ensemble
Pittville Pump Room,
Cheltenham, 13 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)1242 227979
Web: www.cheltmusicsoc.co.uk
Currently journeying its way along
a ‘French Connections’ series
at London’s Wigmore Hall, the
Nash Ensemble downsizes here
to negotiate an Anglo-French
entente cordiale bookended by
the Debussy Sonata for flute,
viola and harp and Ravel’s
Sonatine, arranged for the same
forces. Midway comes Bax’s
Elegiac Trio flanked by music by
Mozart and Piazzolla.
EAST
Alec Frank-Gemmill, Joe
Puglia, Alasdair Beatson
John Innes Centre, Norwich,
10 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)1603 598595
www.norwichchambermusic.co.uk
Ligeti’s 1982 Trio for violin,
horn and piano was composed
under the shadow of Brahms’s
brooding example from 1865.
The two works anchor an
afternoon otherwise lightened
by Schumann’s Three Pieces in
Folk Style and the rumbustious
scherzo from Brahms’s F-A-E
Sonata. See interview, right.
Academy of Ancient Music
West Road Concert Hall,
Cambridge, 12 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)1223 357851
Web: www.westroad.org
In a last hurrah for this year’s
Telemann 250th-anniversary
celebrations, the Academy
of Ancient Music is tilting at
windmills as the German’s
colourful Burlesque de Quixotte
Suite takes centre stage.
Cheering from the wings are
JS Bach’s Brandenburg
Concertos Nos 4 & 5.
MIDLANDS
& NORTH & WALES
Orchestra of Opera North
Town Hall, Leeds, 2 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)113 376 0318
Web: www.leedsconcertseason.co.uk
Soirées musicales, Britten’s
scintillating reimagining of
themes by Rossini, launches
an evening that culminates in
Elgar’s Symphony No. 1. Elena
Urioste is the soloist in Mozart’s
‘Turkish’ Violin Concerto No. 5.
Garry Walker conducts.
Ex Cathedra
Town Hall, Birmingham, 3 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)121 780 3333
Web: www.thsh.co.uk
Having limbered up with
October’s performance of the
Missa in illo tempore, Jeffrey
Skidmore’s Ex Cathedra
ensemble could hardly let
‘Monteverdi year’ pass without
visiting the Mass’s most
celebrated sibling from the
landmark publication of 1610:
the Vespro della Beata Vergine.
Lending instrumental heft is His
Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts.
BBC Philharmonic
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester,
9 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)161 907 9000
Web: www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk
Shostakovich stalks the BBC
Philharmonic’s concert under
chief conductor Juanjo Mena.
Renaud Capuçon is the soloist in
the First Violin Concerto, which
precedes the Soviet composer’s
enigmatic symphonic swansong,
the Rossini-and-Wagner-quoting
Symphony No.15. First, though,
there’s the UK premiere of
Dialogues with Shostakovich
by veteran Russian composer
Rodion Shchedrin.
Ensemble Cymru
Tramshed Tech, Cardiff, 9 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)29 2075 4556
Web: www.sinfoniacymru.co.uk
US composers Philip Glass
and George Crumb go head-
to-head in the second of
Sinfonia Cymru’s multimedia
collaborations with Tramshed
Tech. Glass’s String Quartet
No. 5 and Suite from ‘Bent’
are wrapped around Crumb’s
Dark Angels.
SCOTLAND
& N IRELAND
Ulster Orchestra
Ulster Hall, Belfast, 1 Dec
Tel: +44 (0)28 9033 4455
Web: www.ulsterorchestra.org.uk
Former Radio 3 New Generation
Artist Esther Yoo is the soloist in
Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, whose
finale the writer and musicologist
Donald Tovey famously described
as ‘a polonaise for polar
bears’. Conducted by the Ulster
Orchestra’s principal guest
conductor Jac van Steen, it
separates Vaughan Williams’s
Tallis Fantasia and Dvorák’s
Symphony No. 7.
Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel
December Live
BACKSTAGE WITH…
Horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill
High notes:
Alec Frank-Gemmill
combines Ligeti and
Brahms trios
Ligeti’s Horn Trio, which you’re playing in Norwich, is often
referred to as a homage to Brahms’s Trio. Why is that?
The work was billed as a homage to Brahms at its premiere,
but I think Ligeti later disowned that description. There is
a trio in the middle of the Scherzo in both pieces, so one is
reminiscent of the other in that way, but there’s no clever
reworking of Brahms’s structure or themes in the Ligeti. In fact,
given that any horn trio is automatically compared to Brahms’s,
Ligeti’s achievement is that he’s made something so different.
Have you, Joe Puglia and Alasdair Beatson played the Ligeti
Trio on many occasions together?
Yes. We played it for the first time together at the Musique à
Marsac festival in France several years ago, and I remember
having to go and lie down afterwards as it was emoitionally so
draining – it’s a devastating piece. It was, though, the one work
that people talked about all festival, and I was so proud of that.
Given your interest in historic instruments, will you be playing
different horns for the Brahms (1865) and Ligeti (1982)?
I’m not that much of a glutton for punishment! The technical
challenges of the Ligeti are so extreme that if I then have to
fumble about with a natural horn in the Brahms it would throw
me entirely. That said, it is certainly not a cop-out to play the
Brahms on a modern horn – it has its own beauty on both.
Frank-Gemmill, Puglia and Beatson play in Norwich, 10 Dec
City Halls, Glasgow, 3 Dec Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Tel: +44 (0)141 353 8000 Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 14 Dec
Web: www.scottishopera.org.uk Tel: +44 (0)131 668 2019
A Russian theme underpins Web: www.sco.org.uk
Scottish Opera’s series of ‘opera Winner of the 2016 Sir Georg
in concert’ which stretches Solti Conducting Award, the
through to a Rachmaninov American Karina Canellakis
double bill next May. And after made her BBC Proms debut this
October’s fairy-tale Tchaikovsky summer. Here, she squares
Iolanta, it’s quite a leap to up to two contrasting works
Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel, the from her homeland: Barber’s
composer’s adaptation of the glowing Violin Concerto and John
novel by Valery Bryusov. It’s Adams’s spiky Son of Chamber
conducted by former Mariinsky Symphony. The soloist in the
Theatre stalwart Mikhail Agrest. Barber is Benjamin Beilman.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 113
TV&Radio
Your complete guide to what’s on Radio 3 this month, plus TV highlights

DECEMBER’S RADIO 3 LISTINGS

Schedules may be subject to alteration. For up-to-date listings see Radio Times

12.15-1pm Music Matters Op. 2, Clara Schumann 3 Advent atmosphere:

Three to look out for 1-3pm Saturday Classics Romances, Op. 22, Schumann join the Choir of St John’s
College on 3 December
3-4pm Sound of Dance 12 vierhändige Clavierstücke für
4-5pm Jazz Record Requests kleine und grosse Kinder, Op. 85
Alan Davey, the controller of 5-6.30pm Jazz Line-Up ‘No. 12 Abendlied’, Pasculli
BBC Radio 3, picks out three 6.30-10pm Opera on 3 from the Concerto on ‘La Favorita’ by
great moments to tune into European Broadcasting Union. Donizetti. Céline Moinet (oboe),
this December Verdi Aida. Anna Netrebko Florian Uhlig (piano)
(Aida), Roberto Tagliavini (King 2-5pm Afternoon Concert
St John’s College of Egypt), Ekaterina Semenchuk 5-7pm In Tune
advent carol service (Amneris), Francesco Meli 7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape
Establishing itself firmly in Radio 3’s festive (Radamès) et al, Vienna 7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert
Philharmonic/Riccardo Muti from St George’s, Bristol. Mozart
offerings is the Advent service from St John’s
10pm-12.30am Hear and Now Serenade in G, K525 ‘Eine kleine
College, Cambridge. Expect the unexpected, as 12.30-1.30am Nachtmusik’, Joseph Boulogne,
music director Andrew Nethsingha delights us with Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz Chevalier de St Georges Violin
a deftly chosen mix of the familiar and the new. Concerto in G, Op. 8 No. 9,
Choral Evensong; 3 December; 3-4.30pm 3 SUNDAY Erollyn Wallen Concerto Grosso,
7-9am Breakfast Tchaikovsky Serenade for strings.
Nico Muhly’s Marnie 9am-12noon Sunday Morning Chineke!/Shaun Matthew
We head to London’s Coliseum for English National 12 noon-1pm Private Passions 10-10.45pm Music Matters
Opera’s premiere production of Nico Muhly’s much- Susan Richards, author 10.45-11pm The Essay
anticipated new opera, set in the 1950s. The superb 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert Between the Essays
US mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke is in the title role. 2-3pm The Early Music Show 11pm-12.30am Jazz Now
Opera on 3; 9 December; 6.30-9pm from Brighton Early Music
Festival. The Phesant’s Eye. 5 TUESDAY
21St-Century Opera Fiona Talkington introduces a 6.30-9am Breakfast
In Composer of the Week we are looking at the concert by the harpsichord and 9am-12noon Essential Classics
wonderful work of today’s leading opera composers, recorder duo Ensemble Hesperi CHOICE 12noon-1pm
with the hope of encouraging listeners to explore new CHOICE 3-4pm Choral Composer of the
productions at local opera houses. Donald Macleod is Evensong Advent Carol Week 21st-century opera,
joined by librettist Paul Griffiths to explore cutting- Service from St John’s College, including a focus on works
edge works including Birtwistle’s The Minotaur, Cambridge (rec. 26 Nov) by Birtwistle and Stockhausen
Glass’s The Trial and Benjamin’s Written on Skin. 4-5pm Choir and Organ 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
5-5.30pm 2-5pm Afternoon Concert 3.30-4.30pm Choral Evensong
Composer of the Week; 4-8 December; 12 noon-1pm
The Listening Service 5-7pm In Tune from Keble College, Oxford
5.30-6.45pm Words and Music 7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape 4.30-5pm
6.45-7.30pm Sunday Feature 7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert New Generation Artists
7.30-9pm Radio 3 in Concert from London’s Middle Temple 5-7pm In Tune
European Broadcasting Union Hall. Programme includes: 7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape
1 FRIDAY 7.30-10pm Radio 3 in 9-11.10pm Drama on 3 Justin Vaughan Williams On Wenlock 7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert
6.30-9am Breakfast Radio 3’s Concert from Bridgewater Butcher’s The Devil’s Passion Edge. Ian Bostridge (tenor), live from Barbican Hall, London.
Spirit of Bach season begins Hall, Manchester. Arlene Sierra 11.30pm-12.30am Julius Drake (piano), Sibelius Press Celebrations
with 24 days of 24 Preludes Nature Symphony, Bartók Early Music Late Piatti Quartet Music (UK premiere), Cantique
and Fugues from Book II of Piano Concerto No. 1, Dvořák 10-10.45pm Free Thinking and Devotion, Sibelius
Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Symphony No. 8. Jean-Efflam 4 MONDAY 10.45-11pm The Essay Symphony No. 1. Guy Johnston
performed every morning after Bavouzet (piano), BBC 6.30-9am Breakfast (cello), BBC SO/Sakari Oramo
the 8am news (1-24 Dec). (For Philharmonic/Ludovic Morlot 9am-12noon Essential Classics 6 WEDNESDAY 10-10.45pm Free Thinking
full details of the Spirit of Bach 10-10.45pm The Verb CHOICE 12noon-1pm 6.30-9am Breakfast 10.45-11pm The Essay
season see the next issue) 10.45-11pm The Essay Composer of the 9am-12noon Essential Classics
9am-12noon Essential Classics Week 21st-century opera, CHOICE 12noon- 7 THURSDAY
12noon-1pm Composer of 2 SATURDAY including a focus on works by 1pm Composer of 6.30-9am Breakfast
the Week Koechlin 7-9am Breakfast Glass, Saariaho and Benjamin the Week 21st-century opera 9am-12noon Essential Classics
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 9am-12.15pm Record Review 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert live including a focus on works by CHOICE 12noon-1pm
2-5pm Afternoon Concert – Building a Library Bruckner from Wigmore Hall, London. Adès and Sciarrino Composer of the
5-7pm In Tune Motets, reviewed by Jonathan Schumann 3 Romances, Op. 94, 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert Week 21st-century opera,
7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape Freeman-Attwood Nielsen 2 Fantasy Pieces, 2-3.30pm Afternoon Concert including a focus on works

114 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


by Barry and Ferneyhough
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-7pm In Tune
7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert
live from St David’s Hall, Cardiff.
Takemitsu Twill by twilight, Elgar
Cello Concerto, Rachmaninov
Symphony No. 2. Steven Isserlis
(cello), BBC National Orchestra
of Wales/Tadaaki Otaka
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
8 FRIDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
CHOICE 12noon-1pm
GETTY, ANA CUBA
Composer of the
Week 21st-century opera,
including a focus on works by
Haas, Glanert and Dusapin
Thrill factors: Nico Muhly’s Marnie
is Opera on 3 (9 Dec); (left)
Composer of the Week surveys
today’s great opera writers,
including Birtwistle (4-8 Dec)
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-7pm In Tune
7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 in
Concert from Symphony Hall,
Birmingham. Brahms Piano
Concerto No. 2, Prokofiev
Cinderella (highlights). Martin
Helmchen (piano), City of
Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra/Alexander Vedernikov
10-10.45pm The Verb
10.45-11pm The Essay
9 SATURDAY
7-9am Breakfast
9am-12.15pm Record Review –
Building a Library Elgar’s
The Dream of Gerontius,
reviewed by Mark Lowther
12.15-1pm Music Matters
1-3pm Saturday Classics
3-4pm Sound of Dance Dame
Gillian Lynne discusses her
experiences and connection
with different music and dance
styles throughout her career
4-5pm Jazz Record Requests
5-6.30pm Jazz Line-Up
CHOICE 6.30-9pm
Opera on 3 from
English National Opera. Nico
Muhly Marnie. Sasha Cooke
(Marnie), Daniel Okulitch (Mark
Rutland), James Laing (Terry),
Kathleen Wilkinson (Marnie’s
mother) et al. Orchestra of
English National Opera/
Martyn Brabbins
9-10pm The music of
Edgard Varèse
10pm-12.30am
Hear and Now
12.30-1.30am
Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz
December TV&Radio
10 SUNDAY
7-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Sunday Morning
12noon-1pm Private Passions
Michael Frayn, author and
playwright
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
from Wigmore Hall, London
(rpt, from 4 Dec)
2-3pm The Early Music Show
Telemann at the opera. Lucie
Skeaping looks at the operas
of Telemann, who was born
350 years ago this year
3-4pm Choral Evensong from
Keble College, Oxford (rpt)
4-5pm Choir and Organ
5-5.30pm
The Listening Service
5.30-6.45pm Words and Music
6.45-7.30pm Sunday Feature
7.30-9pm The British
Composer Awards 2017
Coverage of the ceremony at
The British Museum
9-11.10pm Drama on 3
Ninety minutes with Stanislavski
11.30pm-12.30am
Early Music Late
11 MONDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon
Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer of
the Week Tchaikovsky
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert live
from Wigmore Hall, London.
Mozart String Quartet in B flat,
K458 ‘The Hunt’, Beethoven
Grosse Fuge in B flat, Op. 133.
Armida Quartet
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-7pm In Tune
7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert
from Royal Festival Hall, London.
Programme includes excerpts
from Raksin Laura, Waxman
Sunset Boulevard, Antheil In
a Lonely Place, Rosenman
Rebel Without a Cause, Roberts
Gilda etc, Jonny Greenwood
Inherent Vice, Rozsa Double
Indemnity. Mark Kermode
(presenter), BBC Concert
Orchestra/Robert Ziegler
10-10.45pm
Music Matters (rpt)
10.45-11pm The Essay
Nothing is Real
11pm-12.30am Jazz Now
12 TUESDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer of
the Week Tchaikovsky
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-7pm In Tune
7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert
from Kings Place, London.
Mozart Concerto No. 8, K246
‘Lützow Concerto’, Ch’io mi
scordi di te?, K505, Exsultate,
jubilate, K165, Symphony
No. 29. Samuel West (readings),
Tom Poster (piano), Sophie
Bevan (soprano), Aurora
Orchestra/Nicholas Collon
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
Nothing is Real
13 WEDNESDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer of
the Week Tchaikovsky
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-3.30pm Afternoon Concert
3.30-4.30pm Choral Evensong
Eton Choral Course at St John’s
College Chapel, Cambridge
4.30-5pm
New Generation Artists
5-7pm In Tune
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 115

7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 in
Concert live from the
Barbican Hall, London. Strauss
Metamorphosen, Mahler Das
Lied von der Erde. Simon O’Neill
(tenor), Christian Gerhaher
(baritone), LSO/Simon Rattle
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
14 THURSDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer of
the Week Tchaikovsky
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-7pm In Tune
7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 in
Concert from Bridgewater
Hall, Manchester. Shchedrin
Dialogues with Shostakovich,
Shostakovich Violin Concerto
No. 1, Symphony No. 15.
Renaud Capuçon (violin), BBC
Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
11-12.30am Late Junction
15 FRIDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer of
the Week Tchaikovsky
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-7pm In Tune
7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert
live from Temple Church,
London. M Praetorius Est ist
ein Ros’ entsprungen, Tallis arr.
Voces8 O Nata Lux, Trad. arr.
Clements Gabriel’s message,
Britten A Hymn to the Virgin,
Rachmaninov Bogoroditse
Devo, Stopford Ave Maris Stella,
Lully, Lulla, Lullay, H Praetorius
Magnificat Quinti Toni, Pott
Balulalow, Dove The Three
Kings, Trad. arr. Stefan Claas
Maria Durch ein Dornwald
Ging, Mendelssohn Denn Er hat
Seinen Engeln beföhlen über dir,
Olafur Arnalds & Arnur Dann arr.
G Lawson For now I am Winter,
Trad. arr. Geoff Lawson The snow
it melts the soonest, Scheidt
Puer Natus in Bethlehem,
Biebl Ave Maria
10-10.45pm The Verb
10.45-11pm The Essay
11pm-1am Jazz Now
16 SATURDAY
7-9am Breakfast
9am-12.15pm Record Review
– Building a Library Schubert’s
Piano Sonata in B flat, D960,
reviewed by David Owen Norris
FELIX BROEDE
12.15-1pm Music Matters
1-3pm Saturday Classics
3-4pm Sound of Dance
City to city:
Berlin’s Armida Quartet
visit London (17 Dec)
Nutcracker – a classic tale
for Christmas
4-5pm Jazz Record Requests
5-6.30pm Jazz Line-Up
6.30-10pm Opera on 3 from
the Metropolitan Opera, New
York. Bellini Norma. Angela
Meade (Norma), Joyce DiDonato
(Adalgisa) et al. Orchestra of
the Metropolitan Opera House/
Joseph Colaneri
10pm-12midnight
Hear and Now
12 midnight-1am
Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz
17 SUNDAY
EUROPEAN BROADCASTING
UNION CHRISTMAS MUSIC DAY
7-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Sunday Morning
12noon-1pm Private Passions
Jane Birkin, actress and singer
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
from Wigmore Hall, London
(rpt, from 11 Dec)
3-4pm Choral Evensong from
Eton Choral Course at St John’s
College Chapel, Cambridge (rpt)
4-9pm Christmas music
from the EBU
9-10.30pm Drama on 3
10.30pm-11.30pm
Early Music Late
18 MONDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer of
the Week JS Bach, part of
Bach’s Spirit of Bach season
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert live
from Wigmore Hall, London.
Ysaÿe Poème élégiaque Op. 12,
Vierne Violin Sonata Op. 23.
Alina Ibragimova (violin),
Cédric Tiberghien (piano)
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
featuring works by Bach
5-7pm In Tune The annual
Christmas special broadcast
from the radio theatre
at Broadcasting House
7-7.30pm In Tune Bach Mixtape.
A 30-minute mixtape of some
of Bach’s most popular works,
centred around his famous
‘Air on a G String’
7.30-10pm Radio 3 in
Concert Spirit of Bach
Proms 2017 Prom 49 (rpt)
JS Bach St John Passion
(plus other Bach works).
Nicholas Mulroy (Evangelist),
Matthew Brook (Jesus), Sophie
Bevan (soprano), Tim Mead
(countertenor), Andrew Tortise
(tenor), Konstantin Wolff (bass),
Dunedin Consort/John Butt
harpsichord/director
10-10.45pm Music Matters
10.45-11pm The Essay
11pm-12.30am Jazz Now
19 TUESDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer
of the Week JS Bach
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
As part of the Spirit of Bach
season, Radio 3 is broadcasting
repeats of concerts from
LSO St Luke’s (19-22 Dec)
2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
4.30-5.45pm Words and Music
5.45-7pm
New Generation Artists
7-7.30pm A Bach Walk As part
of the Spirit of Bach season,
broadcaster Horatio Clare
retraces the composer’s steps
when he walked 250 miles
from Arnstadt to Lübeck to hear
organist Dietrich Buxtehude
(over five episodes)
7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert
Spirit of Bach. A repeat of a
Lunchtime Concert from January
2017. Bach Goldberg Variations,
December TV&Radio
BWV 988. Beatrice Rana (piano)
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
20 WEDNESDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer
of the Week JS Bach
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-3.30pm Afternoon Concert
live from Media City UK, Salford.
As part of the Spirit of Bach
season the BBC Philharmonic
performs arrangements of
Bach masterpieces
3.30-4.30pm Choral Evensong
Advent Sequence at Edington
Priory Church, Wiltshire
4.30-5.45pm Words and Music
5.45-7pm
New Generation Artists
7-7.30pm A Bach Walk
7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert
Spirit of Bach Proms 2017
Prom 25 (rpt) Schütz Nun lob,
mein Seel, den Herren, SWV 41,
Nicht uns, Herr, sondern deinem
Namen, SWV 43, Danket dem
Herren, denn er ist freundlich,
SWV 45, JS Bach Cantata No.
79 ‘Gott der Herr ist Sonn und
Schild’, Cantata No. 80 ‘Ein feste
Burg ist unser Gott’. Monteverdi
Choir, English Baroque Soloists/
John Eliot Gardiner
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
21 THURSDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer of
the Week JS Bach
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
4.30-5.45pm Words and Music
5.45-7pm
New Generation Artists
7-7.30pm A Bach Walk
7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert
Spirit of Bach BBC Proms 2012
(rpt) Bach The Art of Fugue
BWV 1080, Academy of Ancient
Music/Mahan Esfahani
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
11pm-12.30am Exposure
22 FRIDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer
of the Week JS Bach
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
4.30-5.45pm Words and Music
5.45-7pm
New Generation Artists
7-7.30pm A Bach Walk
7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert
Spirit of Bach Proms 2017
Prom 73 JS Bach The Well-
Tempered Clavier – Book I.
András Schiff (piano)
10-10.45pm The Verb
10.45-11pm The Essay
11pm-1am World on 3
23 SATURDAY
7-9am Breakfast
9am-12.15pm Record Review
– Building a Library Bach
Brandenburg Concertos,
reviewed by Sarah Mohr-Pietsch
as part of Radio 3’s Spirit of
Bach season
12.15-1pm Music Matters
1-3pm Saturday Classics
3-4pm Sound of Dance
Weekly TV &
radio highlights
On our website each
week we pick the
best of the classical
music programmes on
radio, TV and iPlayer.
To plan your weekly
listening and viewing,
go to classical-music.
com or sign up to our
weekly newsletter to be
sent information about
the week’s classical
programmes directly to
your inbox.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 117
December TV&Radio
As part of Radio 3’s Spirit of
Joy to the world: Bach season, BarrocoTout (the
carols from King’s winners of the main prize in the
College on BBC Two 2017 York Early Music Festival
International Young Artists
Competition) play Bach’s The
Musical Offering
2-3pm The Early Music
Show Soprano Emma Kirkby
introduces performances of
Bach’s vocal music
3-4pm Choral Evensong from
Edington Festival (rpt)
4-5pm Choir and Organ
Sara Mohr-Pietsch explores
Bach’s organ music
5-5.30pm The Listening
Service Tom service on Bach
5.30-6.45pm Words and Music
A special Bach edition
6.45-7.30pm A Bach Walk
The final leg of Horatio Clare’s
DECEMBER TV CHOICES journey (see 19 Dec for details)
7.30-9pm Radio 3 in Concert
Carols from King’s European Broadcasting Union.
A Spirit of Bach
As music director of King’s College, Cambridge 10.30pm-11.30pm
Stephen Cleobury maintains the high standards of Early Music Late
one of the world’s most important Christmas musical 25 MONDAY
traditions. Each year, the BBC’s televised Carols from CHRISTMAS DAY
King’s is broadcast from the 16th-century chapel and 6.30-9am Breakfast
attracts 30 million viewers. Cleobury has worked 9am-12noon Essential Classics
with the esteemed choir for 35 years, commissioning 12noon-1pm Composer of
new carols from some of today’s greatest names, the Week Cole Porter (rpt)
including Arvo Pärt and Peter Maxwell Davies. The 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-3.45pm Festival of Nine
service also gives us the chance to enjoy the chapel’s Lessons and Carols from King’s
refurbished Harrison & Harrison organ. College, Cambridge (rpt, from
BBC Two: Carols from King’s; Sunday 24 Dec; time tbc BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Eve)
3.45-5pm Simon Callow’s
Casanova Dickensian Christmas
Filmed for Sky Arts at Manchester’s Palace Theatre 5.30-6.45pm Words and Music
is Northern Ballet’s production of Casanova, with a 6.45-8pm
New Generation Artists
score by contemporary composer Kerry Muzzey. As
8-11pm Proms 2017 Prom 34
the tale of 18th-century decadence unfolds, Muzzey (rpt) Rodgers & Hammerstein
conducts the Northern Ballet Sinfonia. His past work Oklahoma! John Wilson
includes The Architect, a 2014 collection of pieces Orchestra/John Wilson
for piano and strings, recorded by The Chamber 10-10.45pm
Orchestra of London. Sky Arts 2: date & time tbc Music Matters (rpt)
10.45-11pm The Essay
11pm-12.30am Jazz Now
26 TUESDAY
Choreographer Mark Morris House/Harry Bicket 6.30-9am Breakfast
explores Bach and dance (for 10pm-12 midnight 9am-12noon
Radio 3’s Spirit of Bach season) Hear and Now Essential Classics
4-5pm Jazz Record Requests 12 midnight-1am 12noon-1pm Composer of
Alyn Shipton looks at how Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz the Week Cole Porter (rpt)
Bach’s works have been 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
reinterpreted by jazz musicians 24 SUNDAY 2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-6.30pm Jazz Line-Up A DAY OF PROGRAMMES 5-6.15pm Words and Music
6.30-10pm Opera on 3 from CELEBRATING RADIO 3’S 6.15-7.30pm
the Metropolitan Opera House, SPIRIT OF BACH New Generation Artists
New York. Mozart The Marriage 7-9am Breakfast 7.30-9.35pm Proms 2017
of Figaro. Rachel Willis-Sørensen 9am-12noon Sunday Morning Prom 8 (rpt)
(Countess Almaviva), Christiane celebrating Bach’s music 9.35-11pm Proms 2017
Karg (Susanna), Serena Malfi 12noon-1pm Private Passions Proms at… Wilton’s Music
(Cherubino), Count Almaviva Favourite Bach moments picked Hall (rpt). John Luther Adams
(Luca Pisaroni) et al. Orchestra by former guests songbirdsongs – excerpts,
of the Metropolitan Opera 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert Messiaen Le merle noir, Handel
FOR WEEKLY TV & RADIO CHOICES GO TO WWW.CLASSICAL-MUSIC.COM
GETTY
118 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Rinaldo – ‘Augelletti, che
cantate’. Rebecca Saunders
Molly’s Song, Davies Eight
Songs for a Mad King. Jennifer
France (soprano), Marcus
Farnsworth (baritone),
Birmingham Contemporary
Music Group/Sian Edwards
27 WEDNESDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer of
the Week Cole Porter (rpt)
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-3.30pm Afternoon Concert
3.30-4.30pm Choral Evensong
Rodolfus Choir at St Gabriel’s
Church, Pimlico, London
4.30-5pm
New Generation Artists
5-6.15pm Words and Music
6.15-7.30pm
New Generation Artists
7.30-9.30pm Proms 2017
Prom 13 (rpt). Malcolm
Sargent’s 500th Prom
9.30-11pm Proms 2017
Prom 67 (rpt).
28 THURSDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer of
the Week Cole Porter (rpt)
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-6.15pm Words and Music
6.15-7.30pm
New Generation Artists
7.30-9.35pm Proms 2017
Prom 71 Stravinsky Funeral
Song arr. Stravinsky Song of the
Volga Boatmen, Prokofiev Violin
Concerto No. 1 in D, Britten
Russian Funeral, Shostakovich
Symphony No. 11 ‘The Year
1905’. Alina Ibragimova
(violin), London Philharmonic
Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski
9.35-11pm Proms 2017
Prom 62 (rpt)
29 FRIDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Essential Classics
12noon-1pm Composer of
the Week Cole Porter (rpt)
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-6.15pm Words and Music
6.15-7.30pm
New Generation Artists
7.30-9.40pm Proms 2017
Prom 27 (rpt)
9.40-11pm Proms 2017
Prom 41 (rpt)
30 SATURDAY
7-9am Breakfast
9am-12.15pm Record Review
– Building a Library Mozart’s
Prague Symphony, reviewed
by Tom Service
12.15-1pm Music Matters
1-3pm Saturday Classics
3-4pm Sound of Cinema
4-5pm Jazz Record Requests
5-6.30pm Jazz Line-Up
6.30-10pm Opera on 3 a
double-bill from Opera North:
Bernstein Trouble in Tahiti.
Quirijn de Lang (Sam), Wallis
Giunta (Dinah), Fflur Wyn
et al, Orchestra of Opera
North/Tobias Ringborg
Janačék Osud. Giselle Allen
(Míla Valková), John Graham-
Hall (Živný), Rosalind Plowright
(Míla’s Mother) et al. Orchestra
of Opera North/Martin André
10pm-12 midnight
Hear and Now
12 midnight-1am
Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz
31 SUNDAY
7-9am Breakfast
9am-12noon Sunday Morning
12 noon-1pm Private Passions
Dame Katherine Grainger, rower
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-3pm The Early Music Show
Telemann’s lost gamba sonatas.
Lucie Skeaping presents a
concert by gamba player Robert
Smith at Buckinghamshire’s
Little Missenden Festival
3-4pm Choral Evensong
Rodolfus Choir at St Gabriel’s
Church, Pimlico, London (rpt)
4-5pm Choir and Organ
5-5.30pm The Listening Service
5.30-6.45pm Words and Music
6.45-7.30pm Sunday Feature
7.30-9.25pm Proms 2017
Prom 74 Brahms Variations
on the St Anthony Chorale,
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 14,
Beethoven Symphony No. 7.
Emanuel Ax (piano), Vienna
Phil/Michael Tilson Thomas
9.25pm-12midnight Proms
2017 Prom 75 Last Night of
the Proms (rpt). Nina Stemme,
Lucy Crowe (soprano), Christine
Rice (mezzo) et al, BBC Singers,
BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC
SO/Sakari Oramo
D.666, Z.666)
number ‘666’ (BWV666,
10. They all have the cataloque
Licht
9. Stockhausen’s Samstag auf
8. The Mephisto Waltz
7. His violin
6. Dvořák
5. Peter Warlock
fourth or diminished fifth)
4. The tritone (or augmented
3. Niccolò Paganini
2. Gounod
1. Berlioz
QUIZ ANSWERS from p124
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THE QUIZ
It’s a sin not to give our aptly
Faustian questions a try…
1. Premiered in December 1846,
La damnation de Faust is large-
scale choral work – or ‘légende
dramatique’ as the composer
himself called it – by whom?
2. And whose grand opera Faust
was premiered at Paris’s Théatre-
Lyrique in March 1859?
3. Which Italian violinist had
such a phenomenal technique that
rumours spread that his mother
had sold his soul to the Devil?
4. Which musical interval has long
been referred to as ‘diabolus in
musica’ (‘the devil in music’)?
5. A regular dabbler in the occult,
the composer pictured above had
various vices, including singing
ritual chants to summon up
demons. Who is he?
6. The Devil and Kate, in which the
two title characters dance together
in the first act, is an 1899 opera by
which Czech composer?
7. In Stravinsky’s theatrical work
The Soldier’s Tale (1918), what does
the soldier sell to the Devil in return
for untold riches?
8. Taking its name from devilish set
of piano works by Liszt, which 1971
horror film stars Alan Alda as a
pianist-turned-music journalist?
9. ‘Lucifer’s Dream, ‘Lucifer’s
Dance’ and ‘Lucifer’s Farewell’ are
all scenes from which 1984 opera?
10. What slightly devilish quality
links Bach’s chorale prelude Jesus
Christus, unser Heiland (c1708),
Schubert’s Kantate zum Geburtstag
GETTY, ALAMY
des Sängers Johann Michael Vogl
(1819) and Purcell’s Suite No. 5 in C
major (c.1695)? See p118 for answers
124 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
The BBC Music Magazine
PRIZE CROSSWORD NO. 314
The first correct solution of our monthly ACROSS
crossword to be picked at random will 7 German composer
win a copy of The Oxford Companion to finding drinks expensive
in Paris (9)
Music worth £40 (available at book stores
10 Island identified by a
or www.oup.co.uk). Send your answers to:
bell sound? (5)
BBC Music Magazine, Crossword 314, PO 11 An amount of repetition
Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA to arrive by in the Choral? (5)
30 Nov 2017 (solution in our February 2018 12 Carol singer was and
issue). Crossword set by Paul Henderson is real upset (9)
13 Like Maazel opera ENO
will air (not current
broadcast) (9)
14 Shun third of concerts
after incentive (5)
16 Reclaim revised Haydn
symphony (7)
17 Note in rather tense Trout? (7)
18 New English composer
rejected chair (5)
19 Percussion ensemble
best with Handel
(omitting opening, sadly) (5,4)
21 Not once perturbed about
mega piano part (9)
23 Portable players? Some devices
do pieces in reverse (5)
24 Belgian composer upset
most of Keele University (5)
25 Result in part of the stave? (9)
DOWN
1 Type of tenor very much
accepting a beer (6)
2/17 What Ives pondered,
possibly producing
new quietness
around (10,8)
3 When does the
performance start? (Question
Your name & address in Met is misplaced) (8)
4 National song is all realism,
blended with a touch of
extravagance (2,12)
5 Number ends with the usual
seasonal song (4)
6 Recital arranged to
introduce new wind
instrument (8)
SEPTEMBER WINNER 8 Clamorous chant
SEPTEMBER SOLUTION
No. 311 pulsating in choir school (6,8)
Roy Eaglestone, Northampton
9 Violinist’s application regarding
Immediate Media Company Limited,
note is revolutionary (5)
publisher of BBC Music Magazine, may
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and services or to undertake research. audible by humans? (10)
Please write ‘Do Not Contact’ if you 16 Greek character
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19 Dance moves: favourite
We abide by IPSO’s rules and regulations. kept up on board (5)
To give feedback about our magazines, 20 Composer half-seen
please email editorialcomplaints@
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in gloaming (6)
or write to Oliver Condy at the address 22 Run from Mark Elder’s initial
above (opposite, top right) style (4)
 Family fortunes:
a Bach gathering with
JS at the harpsichord
Volume 26 No. 2 BBC Music Magazine
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BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 125

 Music that changed me
Gábor Takács-Nagy
Violinist and conductor
Born in Budapest, Gábor Takács-
Nagy began learning violin at eight,
later studying at the city’s Franz Liszt
Academy and then with Nathan
Milstein. In 1975, he co-founded the
Takács Quartet which he led until 1992,
earning worldwide acclaim and winning
major awards. Also the founder of the
Takács Piano Trio and Mikrokosmos
String Quartet, he took up conducting in
2002. Among other posts, he is principal
guest conductor of the Budapest Festival
Orchestra and, since 2011, director of the
Manchester Camerata.
M
y great-grandmother used to
sing Hungarian folk songs to
me when I was a very small
boy. When I sang them too, I was totally
in tune and everybody realised that I had
a talent for music. I still love Hungarian
folk songs they are deep inside me.
But the first record I remember was a
Christmas present my parents, who were
not musicians but economists, gave me
when I was nine. I had already started
to play violin, and they chose for me
TCHAIKOVSKY’s Violin Concerto with
David Oistrakh. This was magical music
with magical playing from Oistrakh, and I
realised how wonderful a violin can sound.
In the 1970s, I had fantastic teachers
at the Franz Liszt Academy including
composer GYÖRGY KURTÁG. It was
an extra plus working with someone who
could give us a great insight into what goes
on in the brain and soul of a composer. We
formed the Takács Quartet at the Academy
in 1975, and I remember we worked on his
Twelve Microludes. He told us, don’t play
how it is written, but what is written.
We went on to win competitions and
work with many great international
quartets. I’m especially grateful to the
Amadeus String Quartet; we worked with
them many times in London and they
gave us tremendous advice. They were all
extraordinary musicians but all had totally
126 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Hungarian soul:
‘Solti gave me the
courage to conduct’
The choices
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
David Oistrakh (violin); Staatskapelle
Dresden/Franz Konwitschny DG 447 4272
Kurtág Twelve Microludes
Quatuor Molinari Atma ACD 22705
Schubert String Quintet in C
Amadeus String Quartet, William Pleeth
DG 423 5432
Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2,
Zoltán Székely (violin); Concertgebouw/
Willem Mengelberg Decca 480 7636
Brahms Violin Concerto
Yehudi Menuhin (violin), BBC Symphony
Orchestra/Adrian Boult
BBC Music Magazine, Sept 1997 issue
different ideas. It showed me that even if
quartets play with unanimous ensemble,
each member still has many different
ways they could imagine music. Hearing
their SCHUBERT Quintet with William
Pleeth on second cello in the late 1970s at
the Royal Festival Hall was a life-changing
experience, in terms of both the music of
Schubert and this deeply spiritual playing.
As a chamber music teacher at the Geneva
Conservatoire, I never forget this Amadeus
Quartet experience always search for new
things; never think ‘this is the only way’.
In 1981, we spent three months in
Banff with Zoltán Székely, Bartók’s close
friend, for whom he wrote the big violin
concerto. We studied all six Bartók
quartets intensively with him, this real
genial performer who also knew Ravel and
Stravinsky. We could get behind the notes,
and he was a direct link to the past. His
whole approach was not about technique
of course, he talked to me about violin
playing but it was much more about
the spirituality and the character of the
music. He has a famous recording of
BARTÓK’s Second Violin Concerto, made
at the premiere in Amsterdam in 1939.
Another of my absolute favourite concerto
recordings is Yehudi Menuhin playing the
BRAHMS Violin Concerto with Adrian
Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra,
from 1943. How he plays that piece! I knew
Menuhin very well, and this recording is
personal for me for many reasons.
I came to conducting relatively late. In
2002 I was invited to conduct a new piece
by Christophe Fellay at the Swiss EXPO
in Biel. It was my first experience, and
involved a ten-minute piece, half classical,
half jazz; I immediately fell in love with
conducting. But the story goes back to
1991, when, on the 200th anniversary of
Mozart’s death, the Takács Quartet played
one of his piano quartets in London and
in Vienna with conductor Georg Solti.
During rehearsals Solti told me, ‘Gábor
you could be an excellent conductor. Your
body language is so clear that you could
conduct immediately and everybody
would understand.’ I was still in the Takács
Quartet but this remained in my brain that
the great Solti said I could be an excellent
conductor. In 2002, when I was asked to
conduct, I dared to say yes because of the
confidence he gave me 11 years earlier.
Interview by Amanda Holloway
 OSTERFESTSPIELE
SALZBURG 2018
CHRISTIAN THIELEMANN
SÄCHSISCHE STAATSKAPELLE DRESDEN

SALZBURG EASTER FESTIVAL

24 March — 2 April

Opera Orchestral Concerts Chamber Concerts

SAT • 24 March | MON • 2 April • 18:00 Staatskapelle Dresden SUN • 25 March • 15:00
Grosses Festspielhaus Stiftung Mozarteum, Grosser Saal
SUN • 25 March | SUN • 1 April • 19:00
Grosses Festspielhaus
SOFIA GUBAIDULINA
GIACOMO PUCCINI GIACOMO PUCCINI Die Pilger for violin, double bass, piano and
two percussionists — Austrian premiere
TOSCA Preludio sinfonico in A major
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART OLIVIER MESSIAEN
Christian Thielemann Conductor Concerto for two pianos and orchestra in E flat major, K. 365 Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Michael Sturminger Stage director
Renate Martin and Andreas Donhauser
HECTOR BERLIOZ Sol Gabetta Violoncello
Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 Bertrand Chamayou Piano
(donmartin supersets) Stage and costume designers
Musicians of the Staatskapelle Dresden
Anja Harteros Floria Tosca Katia Labèque Piano
Aleksandrs Antoņenko Mario Cavaradossi Marielle Labèque Piano
Ludovic Tézier Baron Scarpia Andrés Orozco-Estrada Conductor SUN • 1 April • 15:00
Andrea Mastroni Cesare Angelotti Stiftung Mozarteum, Grosser Saal
Matteo Peirone The Sacristan
MON • 26 March | SAT • 31 March •19:00
Mikeldi Atxalandabaso Spoletta
Grosses Festspielhaus
SOFIA GUBAIDULINA
Rupert Grössinger Sciarrone Die Pilger for violin, double bass, piano and
Levente Páll A Jailer two percussionists
FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY
Salzburger Bachchor
Die Hebriden. Concert overture, Op. 26 FRANZ SCHUBERT
Quintet for two violins, viola and two violoncellos
Chorus master: Alois Glaßner ROBERT SCHUMANN in C major, D. 956
Salzburger Festspiele und Theater Kinderchor Concerto for violoncello and orchestra in A minor, Op. 129
Chorus master: Wolfgang Götz
JOHANNES BRAHMS Sol Gabetta Violoncello
Staatskapelle Dresden Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73 Elisaveta Blumina Piano
Musicians of the Staatskapelle Dresden
New production Sol Gabetta Violoncello
Christian Thielemann Conductor

Concert for Salzburg

Chamber Opera Staatskapelle Dresden
SUN • 25 March • 17:00 | WED • 28 March •19:00 Choral concert
Staatskapelle Dresden THU • 29 March • 18:00
SA • 31 March • 15:00 • republic
Grosses Festspielhaus
TUE • 27 March | FRI • 30 March • 19:00
BRUNO MADERNA Grosses Festspielhaus JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
SATYRICON
Photo:: © Adobe Stock • Design: Eric Pratter

St John Passion, BWV 245

Peter Tilling Conductor
Georg Schmiedleitner Stage director
Harald Thor Set designer
Tanja Hofmann Costume designer
Juliane Schunke Dramaturg
Soloists of the Young Ensemble and the
Ensemble of the Semperoper Dresden
œnm . österreichisches ensemble für neue musik
GUSTAV MAHLER
Symphony No. 3 in D minor Maximilian Schmitt Evangelist
Krešimir Stražanac Jesus
Elīna Garanča Mezzo-soprano Dorothee Mields Soprano
Ladies of the Wiener Singverein Damien Guillon Altus
Chorus master:JohannesPrinz Robin Tritschler Tenor
Salzburger Festspiele und Theater Kinderchor Peter Kooij Bass
Chorus master: WolfgangGötz Collegium Vocale Gent
Christian Thielemann Conductor Philippe Herreweghe Conductor

New production
Coproduction with the Semperoper Dresden

As of October 2018. Subject to alteration

Tickets: Phone +43-662-8045-361 • karten@ofs-sbg.at www.osterfestspiele-salzburg.at