Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2016 i BBC Music Magazine

ON DISC Creative thinking Haydn’s oratorio The Creation has done well on disc this month, with not one but two new five-star recordings from top names. Harry Christophers directs his American group The Handel and Haydn Society, while Philippe Herreweghe leads his Continental forces of Collegium Vocale Gent and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées. See pp74 and 75 ON STAGE Four times four Any visit to these shores by the Pavel Haas Quartet is a welcome one, especially when the scintillating Czech foursome arrive with a quadruple date penned into their diary. Every Thursday in February, audiences at LSO St Luke’s in London will be able to enjoy hearing the award-winning group in works by Schubert, Smetana and Shostakovich. See p88 ONLINE Rocks away Mezzo Joyce DiDonato’s (pictured) Opera Rocks site, a…

CHORAL GREATS Brian Kay’s reference (Christmas) to Sir David Willcocks’s habit of putting a handkerchief on his head to embarrass inattentive choristers recalls the time he resorted to that ploy while conducting our choral festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Amused (and glad it was not for me!), I was also chagrined that anyone could not be watching every gesture of the world’s greatest choirmaster. At rehearsal break, Sir David was delighted to autograph the programme of a Southbank concert I had attended in which he conducted the Philharmonia and Bach Choir in Charpentier’s Requiem and Saint Saëns’s Organ Symphony with John Scott. Who should lead the next year’s festival but Scott, whose autograph was added to that programme. Now both of these superb musicians have left us, sadness is mixed…

January: ENO chairman Martyn Rose quits, calling for artistic director John Berry (left) to go too. Executive director Henriette Götz resigns soon after. February: Arts Council England announces that ENO is to be placed under a ‘special funding arrangement’ as its management and future plans are closely monitored. July: John Berry resigns as artistic director with immediate effect. He is not replaced. December: Widespread rumours of proposed cuts to the ENO chorus are publicly condemned by leading opera artists in a letter to The Times.…

Vasks first Cellist Sol Gabetta has recorded Vasks’s Second Cello Concerto, which was written for her by the Latvian composer. Premiered live in 2012 by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta – who commissioned the piece – conductor Candida Thompson and Gabetta, Klatbutne (Presence) is premiered here on disc by the same forces. It is programmed with the solo cello piece Gramata Cellam and the cello-organ work Musique de Soir, performed with Gabetta’s mother, the organist Irène Timacheff-Gabetta. That’s on the Sony label, while record label Wergo has also turned to Vasks with a recording from the Spikeru String Quartet. The Second Quartet has been recorded several times before, but this marks the first outing on disc for the Fifth. Modern-day muse Barbara Hannigan is no stranger to presenting new music, with over…

Handel’s Water Music is the latest addition to the Akademie für Alte Musik’s already impressive catalogue of the composer. The early-music group plunged into the ever-popular piece in the Teldex Studios in Berlin for Harmonia Mundi. The Szymanowski Quartet has joined forces with pianist Jonathan Plowright for a disc of Polish piano quintets on Hyperion. Together, they have recorded Ludomir Rózycki’s 1918 quintet and Ignaz Friedman’s work of five years earlier. Michala Petri continues to champion new recorder works with her latest disc for OUR Recordings. Following the success of her recent disc of Icelandic and Faroese works, her new German and French disc features premieres of music by Fabrice Bollon, Markus Zahnhausen and Günther Kochan, played in Odense with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and Christoph Poppen. There’s a Czech…

I used to have a one-man piano moving machine that bristled with hand-jacks and rolling bars A good deal of pushing pianos about at Southampton lately, jigsawing our Fazioli and Steinway together to form a duo for our Mozart Re-Mix Festival, where we’re unearthing all manner of reworkings of Wolfgang Amadeus – the Jupiter Symphony for eight hands, for instance, or innocent piano sonatas brusquely traduced by Grieg’s bold second piano parts (what that man could do with a tonic pedal!). The pianos reappear with two percussionists in a concert inspired by last year’s performance of George Crumb’s Makrokosmos. Our composers have been busy out-Crumbing each other, with their plucking and strumming, magnetic piano bows, cymbal resting on the timps and double-bass bow for the vibraphone. Just occasionally they use…

Peter Bree Leusden, Netherlands Listening to the CD of archive recordings that has been released to mark the centenary of Bernard Rose’s birth next year, I was reminded of a splendid series of concerts I heard when he and the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford toured the Netherlands and Belgium in 1976. Stanford’s Blue Bird never sounded so ethereal, Purcell’s Hear my Prayer is very moving (both recorded in Amsterdam on that tour), and a 1964 BBC recording of Byrd’s Great Service (with the Choir of New College, Oxford) still sounds fresh and clear. What a first-class choir Magdalen was then, and still is. Charles Brickley Bristol I recently discovered a real gem of Christian music in a small Bristol music shop, recorded by the choir from Holy Trinity Church…

1500 BC First evidence of a guitar-like instrument. It belonged to the Egyptian singer Har-Mose, who was in the service of Queen Hatshepsut’s architect, Sen-Mut. 13th century The first recorded use of the of the word ‘guitar.’ The instruments, however, bear little relation to the modern instrument, and are today referred to as ‘gitterns’. 1536 The first collection of music for the Spanish Vihuela (left), a guitar-shaped instrument with six double strings made of gut, is written by Luis de Milán. The notation used is numeric tabulature, the predecessor to the modern guitar tab. 1590 The first treatise for the Baroque guitar is published, reflecting the huge surge in popularity of the instrument. By the end of the century, the Baroque guitar had overtaken the lute as the most popular…

The guitarist’s pithy aphorisms On being self-taught: ‘To this day, teacher and pupil have never had a serious quarrel.’ On the special qualities of the guitar: ‘The guitar is a small orchestra. It is polyphonic. Every string is a different colour, a different voice.’ On guitarists’ posture: ‘Lean your body forward slightly to support the guitar against your chest, for the poetry of the music should resound in your heart.’ On playing the guitar at large venues: ‘My friend who is a philosopher was speaking to students in a great hall and one said he could not hear. “Very well,” said the philosopher, “I will speak lower”.’ On bringing encores to an end: ‘My guitar is tired.’ On marriage and music: ‘I’ve had three wives and three guitars. I still…

CHOOSING THE NOMINATIONS for this year’s BBC Music Magazine Awards was, as usual, a difficult process, our specially selected jury of critics agonising over which incredible recordings to add to the shortlist. But we got there… so here, over the next three pages, are the nominated recordings, each one a gem in its own right and a lifetime of enjoyment for its listeners. Our 21 nominations were chosen from a longlist of more than 200 recordings, each of which had been awarded five stars by our critics in their reviews. Now we want you to vote for which recording you think deserves an award – read the feature, then head over to www.awards.classical-music.com, listen to the clips and choose your favourites. The winners will be announced in the May issue.…

Bach to Baby www.bachtobaby.com Set up by pianist and mother Miaomiao Yu, Bach to Baby offers concerts in London and the home counties. Classical babies www.classicalbabies.com Another London-based set-up boasts soft flooring and toys for the babies, and coffee and cake for the adults. Win-win. Lilliput Concerts lilliputconcerts.blogspot.co.uk Founded in Cheltenham in 2013, Lilliput Concerts, for babies and adults, expanded to Bristol last year; tickets are in huge demand. Classical Kids classicalkids.ie This Dublin-based company is only a year old but is already making sizeable waves.…

Benjamin Grosvenor One of the finest pianists of his generation plies his trade in the charming 15th-century church of St Oswald’s in Askrigg, over in neighbouring Wensleydale. 29 May The Hallé Over in the capacious tea-rooms of the newly tarted-up Tennants Auctioneers, the Manchester-based orchestra will perform Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and Elgar’s Serenade for Strings plus other works. 11 June Stile Antico The fine chamber choir perform a programme of music inspired by Shakespeare in the 12th-century church of St Mary in Richmond. 1 June Florin Trio ‘The Cathedral of the Dales’, St Andrews, Grinton, welcomes the Florin Trio to perform the world premiere of of a new commission by Hugh Wood alongside music by Mozart,…

THE LIFE 1947 John Adams is born on 15 February in WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS. His father is a jazz musician, who later teaches him the clarinet. 1961 Aged 14, he writes a suite for string orchestra, which is performed by the New Hampshire State Hospital Auxiliary Orchestra, for whom he plays the clarinet. 1968 He turns down a place to study conducting with LEONARD BERNSTEIN to concentrate on composition. 1972 Having moved to the west coast of the US with his wife, jazz violinist Hawley Currens, Adams becomes a lecturer at San Francisco Conservatory, where his duties include the running of the New Music Ensemble. 1983 His new partner, Debbie O’Grady, gives birth to their daughter, Emily. Their son, Samuel Adams, is born two years later. 1991 His second opera, The…

IN THIS PIECE, as with most Bartók, the Hungarian language is never far away, with its distinctive rhythms and snap-stresses. Perhaps it’s no wonder that a number of my top choices find the composer’s compatriots on the podium. My frontrunner is Ferenc Fricsay’s (right) live recording with the RIAS Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, from 1952 – not to be confused with his other recording with WDR Cologne a year later. Aged sound quality aside, it’s inspired: a multifaceted, multidimensional account with limitless shades of emotion to convey. The opening’s throbbing staccato chords are relatively broad here, while the main theme’s cross-rhythms swing above it. There’s fulsomeness and rhapsodic intensity to the tone, but plenty of light, shade and grace in the quadruple metre of the second subject; and here the…

George Pratt emeritus professor of music, University of Huddersfield George has spent his life enthusing university students, radio listeners (Radio 3’s Spirit of the Age ) and others. As kapellmeister of Powderham Castle, he now spurns ‘retirement’, promoting and performing concerts, cruise-ship lecturing and reviewing. John Allison editor, Opera; critic, Sunday Telegraph Nicholas Anderson Baroque specialist Terry Blain writer Kate Bolton-Porciatti lecturer, New York University, Florence Garry Booth jazz writer & critic Geoff Brown critic, The Times Michael Church writer, critic The Independent Christopher Cook broadcaster, critic Martin Cotton radio and recording producer Christopher Dingle Professor of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire Misha Donat producer, writer Jessica Duchen critic, novelist Hilary Finch critic, broadcaster George…

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) Hindemith was violinist with the Frankfurt Opera orchestra from 1914, a post he held – interrupted by military service in 1917-19 – until 1923. His first operatic works were a trilogy of ‘apprentice’ one-act works, including Sancta Susanna about a nun obsessed with lustful thoughts. Neues vom Tage (1929), featuring a soprano singing in her bath, shocked Hitler who thought the work degenerate. Goebbels initially admired Hindemith, but took the party line when in 1934 the conductor Furtwängler, in an open letter, defied Nazi policy by defending Hindemith’s right to artistic freedom.…

Kasper Holten’s production coheres compellingly SZYMANOWSKI DVD Król Roger Mariusz Kwiecien, Georgia Jarman, Saimir Pirgu, Kim Begley; Royal Opera Chorus; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House/Antonio Pappano; dir. Kasper Holten (Royal Opera House, 2015) Opus Arte DVD : OA 1161D; Blu-ray: OABD 7162D 88 + 17 mins Last season’s highlight at Covent Garden, Król Roger’s appearance on screen is exceptionally welcome. Szymanowski’s fascinating yet compact masterpiece bears repeated viewing and listening, for there is so much going on both in this performance and the work itself. The atmospheric choral opening – growing out of darkness – was effective in the theatre but is even more striking here; throughout there is a sense of detail that perhaps disappeared into the huge stage picture at Covent Garden.…

You can hear every word without referring to the booklet’s text HAYDN The Creation Sarah Tynan (soprano), Jeremy Ovenden (tenor), Matthew Brook (bass-baritone); Handel and Haydn Society/Harry Christophers Coro COR 16135 97:75 mins (2 discs) Boston’s long-established Handel and Haydn Society first performed Part I of Haydn’s great oratorio on Christmas Day 1815, and the entire work four years later. This new recording was taped over two performances in May 2015, with the organisation’s music director, Harry Christophers, conducting its excellent period-instrument orchestra and its chorus of 40 voices. Of the various recordings by the group I have heard, this one is the finest. Indeed it’s an exceptional account of the oratorio from all points of view. The Creation is here sung in English – a bilingual version was originally…

Lim has exceptionally clean articulation in the flashes of virtuosity CHOPIN 24 Preludes; Barcarolle; Berceuse; Variations brillantes on ‘Je vends des scapulaires’ Dong Hyek Lim (piano) Warner 2564606888 60:53 mins This 31-year-old South Korean pianist has made a glittering career on the competition circuit, including an unprecedented refusal to accept third prize – on the grounds of ‘unfair judging’ – at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 2003. But all thoughts of inflated self-worth are banished by this outstanding new CD. Wisely choosing an unfamiliar entry into very familiar terrain, Dong Hyek Lim begins with the Variations brillantes, Op. 12 which Chopin composed to entertain his Parisian audiences a year after he had composed his much more substantial Op. 9 Nocturnes and his first set of Etudes. As Jeremy…

Stravinsky was a man of his time – not simply a lone genius IGOR STRAVINSKY: Critical Lives Jonathan Cross Reaktion Books ISBN 97801078023049406 208pp (pb) The last recommendable single-volume introduction to Stravinsky, written by Michael Oliver, was published just over 20 years ago. Here now is an up-to-date introduction, which addresses more recent discoveries and ‘revelations’ – genuine or otherwise – within a beautifully written and thought-provoking narrative, all achieved in an even shorter space than was available to Oliver. Drawing on recent scholarship, Jonathan Cross depicts Stravinsky’s character and private life in vivid detail, and persuasively demonstrates how the composer was very much a man of his time – not simply a lone genius who impacted the musical world. For instance, the pared-down style of Coco Chanel –…

John Sheppard’s music speaks with a real individuality In these dark winter months when I’m not out and about at festivals it can get a little lonely in the Early Music Show studio, so it’s always a treat to have a guest to join me. This month it’s the singer and scholar Sally Dunkley who’s made a valuable contribution to the revival of one of Tudor England’s more shadowy figures – the church composer John Sheppard. Sheppard certainly lived through unstable and dangerous times. Born into the Catholic England of the 1510s, he was a young man when Henry VIII (right) plunged the country into religious and political turmoil over his plans to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon. By the time Sheppard started composing, pressure to reform the…

Rob Ainsley Freelance journalist and author ‘Miloÿ spotted my fingernails: left hand short, right hand long, like his. So, as a fellow guitarist, he played me some of his own private iPhone recordings of modern standards. Awesome playing. Our similarity ended there.’ Page 20 Simon Heighes Academic and Radio 3 presenter ‘Capturing music on paper is a complex alchemy. As musical notation has gradually become more and more precise, it has chipped away at performers’ expressive freedom. I think it’s time we turned back the clock!’ Page 38 Helen Wallace BBC Music’s consultant editor ‘Having spent years introducing music to the under twos, I’m familiar with the special intensity of their listening. So it’s good to see them being taken seriously by our most creative music-makers in a…

ANTARCTIC JOURNEYS In your Christmas issue, I appreciated the Building a Library reviews of Vaughan Williams’s Sinfonia Antarctica, followed by your So, Where Next…? suggestions of further listening. May I offer a few additions? These include the wonderful recording of the symphony with extended narration from Captain Scott’s journals, played by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under Raymond Leppard, a lesser known but terrific, dramatic recording of this work. I’d also add Vangelis’s Antarctica Echoes, from his soundtrack for the 1983 film Antarctica – six minutes of sublime music; Bo Nilsson’s beautiful Arctic Air; Gösta Nystroem’s powerful and mysterious Ishavet; and Nigel Westlake’s Antarctica, an atmospheric classic by the composer of Babe. Hal A Lingerman, California, US…

Xian Zhang has been appointed principal guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW). Beginning her new role in Cardiff in September 2016, she will be the first female conductor to hold a titled position with a BBC orchestra – in fact, after Marin Alsop and JoAnn Falletta in Bournemouth and Belfast respectively, she becomes only the third woman to hold such a post with any major orchestra in the UK. ‘I’m very honoured to be one of the first,’ says Zhang; ‘in a way it brings me more pressure because I want to set a good record for the later ones.’ Xian Zhang was born in Dandong, China, and made her professional debut at the Central Opera House in Beijing at 20. After moving to the…

Chart for week ending 10 December 2015 1 Carols with St Paul’s Cathedral Choir St Paul’s Cathedral Choir/Carwood Decca 478 8656 ’Tis the season to be jolly, as St Paul’s treat us to familiar and not-so-familiar festive fare 2 The Puccini Album Jonas Kaufmann (tenor); Orchestra e coro di Santa Cecilia/Antonio Pappano Sony Classical 88875092492 The brilliant tenor shares his Italian passion 3 Taverner Missa Corona spinea Tallis Scholars/Peter Phillips Gimell CDGIM046 The world-class choir turns its attention to a Renaissance masterpiece, with superb results 4 Rutter Gift of Life Cambridge Singers; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/John Rutter Collegium COLCD138 Uplifting listening, as Rutter marks his 70th birthday in typically effervescent choral style 5 Cantate Domino Music by Allegri, Anerio, Lassus, Palestrina and Victoria Sistine Chapel…

HUW WATKINS composer and pianist I have an old Deutsche Grammophon recording of Brahms’s Liebeslieder-Walzer, sung by tenor Peter Schreier and other notable singers accompanied by a piano duet of Karl Engel and Wolfgang Sawallisch. It was one of the first CDs I ever bought, but I still absolutely love it. In works that sometimes last under a minute, Brahms manages to write the most touching and heartbreaking songs about love, and Schreier’s voice in particular is just gorgeous in them. I have also been listening to Tippett’s four symphonies, played by the London Symphony Orchestra under Colin Davis. Occasionally, I have to remind myself of how brilliant these works are, as they are almost never played in concert, possibly because they are just so difficult. They are all…

SWIFT GIFT Inspired by its performance of the music of John Luther Adams, Taylor Swift has donated $50,000 (£33,000) to the Seattle Symphony. The US singer-songwriter decided to make the gift after hearing the orchestra play Adams’s Become Ocean, saying in an accompanying letter that she believes more people should have the chance to hear classical music. DEPARTING DANE Kasper Holten has announced that he is to quit as director of opera at the Royal Opera House in 2017. The Dane, who has proved a popular figure since arriving at Covent Garden in 2011, is leaving so that he can spend more time with his family in Copenhagen. He turned down a five-year extension to his contract in the summer. SWEET SUCCESS Harrison Birtwistle has racked up his seventh success…

London’s residents and visitors support many things: for instance, five Premier League football clubs, 40 commercial theatres, 10,000 restaurants and pubs, and about a trillion coffee shops. But after a 70-year experiment that has cost British taxpayers the best part of a billion pounds, we have to admit failure in one field. London seems unable to support two full-time, large-scale opera companies. And since the Royal Opera House is better connected, better equipped and supported by a great many powerful fat cats, it will always be English National Opera (ENO) that struggles to survive. I love much of what ENO does, and have done so all my adult life. As a student I earned a few quid chaperoning the kids who appeared in the shows, and thus had the thrill…

Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) If the guitar were a small country, the Spaniard would be the general who led it to independence. He pioneered techniques, commissioned works, transcribed others, and legitimised it as a serious instrument (see feature, p26) Recommended disc: The Art of Segovia DG 471 6972 (2 discs) Julian Bream (born 1933) Individual, inspired, original and daring, he brought the guitar (and lute) to a wide British audience and he enriched the repertoire with some imaginative commissions. Recommended disc: Julian Bream: The Ultimate Collection RCA 74321337052 John Williams (born 1941) The all-round artist-technician, who embraced all sorts of music from highbrow to rock. Like Bream, he recorded widely. With his outward-looking Australian-English background, he gave concerts with a friendly, informal feel. Recommended disc: Seville…

Sitting on a competition jury a while ago, Steven Osborne found himself listening to the pianists alongside a musician he greatly admired. He believed that their tastes, and their attitude to style and technique might converge. ‘We listened, and it was a really strange experience. We disagreed on nearly all the competitors. The ones I thought were honest, he thought were charlatans, and vice versa.’ What to make of that? Steven was taken aback. ‘Your instinct is to hear something and think that if what they are doing is self-evidently true it will work for you. Then you discover that the person sitting next to you doesn’t think that.’ But he discovered that his companion, whom he decides not to name, thought that Steven’s observations of ‘true feeling’ in some…

In 1970, frustrated by his studies of the Second Viennese School at Harvard University and with a yearning to experience life beyond the academic confines of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the young John Adams packed up his VW Beetle and left the east coast, heading northwest in the direction of the Trans-Canada Highway on route to California. His memories of that cross-country journey, set down in his autobiography, Hallelujah Junction, vividly capture the aromas and colours of the changing landscape and his dreams of a California ‘paradise of deep greens, shimmering blues and powerful seacoasts’. After a false start – 30 miles into the journey, the car broke down and he and his wife had to return home, saying embarrassed goodbyes again the following day – they journeyed via the north shores…

Shaker Loops etc Nathan Gunn (baritone); Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop Naxos 8.559031 Adams’s energetic, minimalist score in the version for string orchestra Harmonium San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/Edo de Waart ECM 1277 Adams’s choral symphony setting poetry of John Donne and Emily Dickinson Nixon in China Soloists; Chorus and Orchestra of St Luke’s/ Edo de Waart Nonesuch 7559791772 A study of the US president’s controversial meeting with Mao Zedong in 1972 The Dharma at Big Sur Tracy Silverman (violin); BBC Symphony Orchestra/Adams Nonesuch 7559798572 A concerto for electric violin and orchestra written for the opening of Disney Hall in LA…

Bartók String Quartet No. 6 The sense of unease that pervades the Molto adagio central movement of Bartók’s Divertimento for Strings is also there in his Sixth and final String Quartet, composed in the same year – notice, in particular, the chill wind that whistles through the mesto opening of the Quartet’s second movement. In fact, all four movements are marked mesto (sad) at the outset, reflecting the composer’s bleak spirits at both the outbreak of World War II and grave illness of his mother, who was to die soon after its completion. The fourth movement, though, is the only one to sustain the mournfulness throughout – elsewhere, the composer’s mood turns to jitteriness and bitterness. Jolly, it is not. Recommended recording: Emerson String Quartet Deutsche Grammophon 423 6572…

RAVEL Gaspard de la nuit SCHUMANN Etudes symphoniques BARTÓK Out of Doors Beatrice Rana (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMU907606 62 mins ‘The 20-year-old Rana offers refined performances: a cautious but polished Schumann, an articulate and atmospheric Ravel, and a confident, percussive Bartók. Rana’s Symphonic Etudes shows immaculate poise and thoughtfulness. She cultivates a beautiful, poetic tone with an orchestral touch … Gaspard de la nuit and Out of Doors offer riveting, charged interpretations.’ American Record Guide March/April 2014 CHOPIN Preludes, Op. 28; Prelude Op. posth. in A flat; Prelude Op. 45 in C sharp minor SCRIABIN Piano Sonata No. 2 Beatrice Rana (piano) ATMA Classique ACD22614 57 mins ‘The 18-year-old pianist Beatrice Rana was first prizewinner in the Montreal International Music Competition. She confidentally and gracefully takes the first steps of…

COPLAND An Outdoor Overture; Billy the Kid; El Salón México; Rodeo Colorado Symphony/Andrew Litton BIS BIS-2164 (hybrid CD/SACD) 77:26 mins Andrew Litton is billed on this recording as its ‘conductor and honky-tonk pianist’ – not a common combination. But in Copland’s complete Rodeo ballet, furious honky-tonking kicks off the third section, ‘Ranch House Party’ and Litton ploughs into its clatter with unmistakeable glee, adding a welcome twist of character to performances which are in general neat and clean but rather too pale. The recording acoustic doesn’t help. Romantic scores would swell beautifully in the generous resonance of Denver’s Boettcher Concert Hall, home of the Colorado Symphony (Litton has been its music director since 2013). But Copland’s populist scores of the 1930s and ’40s need athletic élan and a crisp attack,…

SCHUBERT Symphony No. 8; Rosamunde – incidental music Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Vienna Philharmonic/Pierre Monteux Eloquence 480 8905 (1965) 48:07 mins This is a fiery, intense and dark Unfinished, followed by an ideal performance of three pieces from Rosamunde, some of it so tender you can hardly breathe. PERFORMANCE RECORDING SCHUBERT Schubert: Symphony No. 9; plus Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 – finale Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Elsa Cavelti (mezzo-soprano), Ernst Haefliger (tenor), Otto Edelmann (baritone), Lucerne Festival Choir; Philharmonia/Wilhelm Fürtwangler Praga Digitals 350085 (hybrid CD/SACD) (1954) 79:27 mins An odd disc, though the contents are marvellous. The studio Schubert No. 9 is acknowledged as a classic, but the last movement of his last performance of Beethoven’s Ninth makes a strange and unsatisfactory filler. PERFORMANCE RECORDING BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos 2 & 7 Vienna…

SCHUMANN • BEETHOVEN Schumann: Piano Concerto; Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2* Annie Fischer, *Leon Fleisher (piano), Philharmonia Orchestra/Giulini; *Swiss Festival Orchestra/Szell Audite 95.643 (1962) 60:23 mins Recorded live at the Lucerne Festival in remarkably fine sound, Fischer’s golden tone recalls an already bygone age, while Fleisher’s dazzling clarity points to the future. PERFORMANCE RECORDING PROKOFIEV • BRAHMS Prokofiev: Symphony-Concerto; Brahms: Double Concerto* Natalia Gutman (cello), Oleg Kagan (violin); USSR State Academic Symphony/Lazarev & *Svetlanov Melodiya MELCD 10 02380 (1981) 73:01 mins Natalia Gutman sounds less than her usually eloquent self, and the forward placing of the soloists in the Brahms tends to mask orchestral detail. PERFORMANCE RECORDING HAYDN Violin Concerto No. 1; Sinfonia Concertante LA Phil/Pinchas Zukerman (violin) Pentatone PTC 5186 224 (hybrid CD/ SACD) (1977-79) 75:54 mins The soaring…

Rufus Wainwright (b1973) The American-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer has been hailed by Elton John as ‘the greatest songwriter on the planet’. The son of folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, Rufus lived with his mother in Montreal when his parents divorced, and started touring as a pianist and singer aged 13 with The McGarrigle Sisters and Family. This folk group included his mother, his sister Martha and his aunt Anna. He has written many songs and recorded seven albums including the Grammy-nominated Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall.…

THE TUDORS: Courtly Pastimes Songs & Dances from Henry VIII’s Book St George’s Canzona/John Sothcott Eloquence 480 4865 (1973) 53:11 mins A colourful medley of pieces from Henry VIII’s court marred by slack ensemble, insecure intonation and singing styles that, 40 years on, sound self-conscious and affected. PERFORMANCE RECORDING THE TUDORS : Metaphysical Tobacco Songs and dances by Dowland, East and Holborne Purcell Consort of Voices/Burgess; Musica Reservata/Morrow Eloquence 480 7740 (1968) 48:30 mins Though period performance has become more sophisticated and less mannered since the 1960s, this cleanly remastered reissue offers a fascinating glimpse of the gritty sounds that kick-started the early music revolution. PERFORMANCE RECORDING THE TUDORS : To Entertain a King Music for Henry VIII and his Court Purcell Consort of Voices/Burgess; Musica Reservata/Morrow…

ARTHUR GRUMIAUX IN SALZBURG Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 1; Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1; Debussy: Violin Sonata; Stravinsky: Divertimento Arthur Grumiaux (violin), István Hajdu (piano) Orfeo C 912151B (1961) 79:46 mins Recorded live at the 1961 Salzburg Festival in generally fine mono sound, Grumiaux plays with a spontaneity, freshness and poetic intensity that comfortably surpasses his studio recordings. PERFORMANCE RECORDING VIRTUOSO VIOLIN Works by Bartók, Kreisler, Stravinsky, Schubert, Brahms, Elgar, Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Martinu, etc Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Tibor Bisztriczky (violin), Felix Schröder, Albert Hirsch (piano) Eloquence 482 0726 (1957/58) 82:12 mins Two recital rarities from 1957/58, both enjoying their first outing on CD. Wolfgang Schneiderhan is rather straight-laced in these exquisite miniatures, whereas Tibor Bisztriczky sounds completely at home. PERFORMANCE RECORDING BRAHMS String Sextets Nos 1 & 2 Louise Williams (viola),…

Horowitz restlessly challenged his core repertoire Who knew that there was so much more Horowitz to rediscover, or what a can of worms would be opened by lifting the lid of this beautifully packaged box of recordings. Vladimir Horowitz: The Unreleased Live Recordings 1966-1983 sounds so straightforward – and perhaps it is for fans. But do we really need these 25 concert performances, and how do they change our view of one of the greatest pianists of the age of recording? Look at the dates and answers emerge; 1966 was the year after Horowitz’s triumphant return to Carnegie Hall and a mature flowering of his artistry in Sunday afternoon concerts from New York to Philadelphia. As the same works crop up in different contexts, you hear how no performance is…

The first Tubby Hayes Jazz Starter, in January 2011, sketched the postwar British jazz scene that was transformed, in 1950, by the explosive arrival of this 15-year-old tenor prodigy. Now a fascinating, fast-paced DVD, fittingly called A Man in a Hurry, fills in the picture of this talent, who dominated his time and was synonymous with British modern jazz. He seemed born to play bebop. Steeped in Charlie Parker from childhood, Hayes took up tenor at 12, started his own band, and ‘frightened the life’ out of an astonished Ronnie Scott when he sat in with Scott’s established group. But then he astonished everybody with his ferocious attack and flying fingers. Mark Baxter and Lee Cogswell’s film still conveys a tone of awe, with Hayes contemporaries and devotees recalling the…

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29, also known as the ‘Hammerklavier’, is a gigantic four-movement work in B flat. Its length set a new precedent for a sonata, with an Adagio sostenuto third movement that can last for over 20 minutes in some performances. The score includes Beethoven’s own metronome markings. The work is dedicated to Beethoven’s patron, Archduke Rudolf – the youngest son of Emperor Leopold II – who had elevated Beethoven’s position in Viennese society. The sonata’s composition period, from 1817-18, marked the end of a time of stagnation for the composer, when he had been coming to terms with the onset of chronic illness. Beethoven had accepted a symphonic commission by London’s Royal Philharmonic Society but instead started working on this sonata. Taking almost a year to compose…

The guitar is a tricky instrument to communicate to an audience of 2,000 I was lucky enough to go on tour this time last year with our cover star, Miloÿ Karadaglic – while I paced the corridors backstage in Bristol and Edinburgh, waiting nervously for my time on stage to play Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony, Miloÿ was captivating the audience with Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez followed by a series of brilliantly executed performances of solo music by Manuel de Falla. As Rob Ainsley says in his terrific profile of Miloÿ, the guitar is a tricky instrument to communicate effectively to a crowd of a couple of thousand, yet Miloÿ seemed to draw his listeners in with his body language; his on-stage manner, much like Andrés Segovia’s decades before him, had a…

Anna Huntley enjoyed a stellar singing career from the outset. ‘I had a little solo in my first nativity play at school,’ she explains. ‘I was about four, and was playing a little star. One of the teachers came up to my mum, who was playing the piano, and suggested I should have lessons.’ And from little stars grow world-class mezzo-sopranos. Advice duly taken, Huntley’s singing lessons eventually led to her heading south from Stockton-on-Tees for an audition at the Royal Academy of Music’s Junior Academy. ‘I went there thinking I wanted to be a lawyer, but my teacher told me that singing was a possible career. She recommended taking a couple of gap years to let my voice develop, then going to music college.’ Full-time studies at the Royal…

THIS MONTH RONALD CORP conductor Ronald Corp has become best known as a conductor of English music, particularly with his own New London Orchestra and New London Children’s Choir. A tireless champion of neglected repertoire, he is soon to release a disc of works by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs on the Dutton label. My finest moment Sullivan The Golden Legend Janice Watson etc; The London Chorus, New London Orchestra/Ronald Corp Hyperion CDA67280 (2001) There are a number of discs I’m very proud of, not least Rutland Boughton’s The Queen of Cornwall which I recorded for Dutton – it’s a fantastic opera and it felt like a major achievement. But the recording that I would really choose is that of Sullivan’s The Golden Legend. I’m a big English…

Nikolaus Harnoncourt has announced that he is to retire with immediate effect. Forced to withdraw from a couple of recent concerts through illness, the German conductor, 86, came to the conclusion that the time had come to put down the baton for good, bringing to an end a glorious, and hugely influential, career that began when he and his wife Alice founded the period-instrument ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien in 1953. Harnoncourt, who began his musical life as a cellist, announced his decision in a handwritten note inserted into the programme at one of the Vienna Musikverein concerts that he had been due to conduct. ‘My physical condition makes it necessary to cancel my further plans,’ he wrote, before reflecting fondly how he and the Vienna audience have become ‘a happy…

@susantomespiano My favourite job ad this week: the School of Textiles & Design at Heriot-Watt University has a research studentship in Bovine Bumbags. Pianist Susan Tomes’s (left) scanning of the small ads doesn’t go unrewarded @danielssings I’m so close to 2000 followers, and I’m so horrible at tweeting! :) #BadTweeter A moment of Twitter repentance from contrite countertenor David Daniels @CJGillett Have become so conditioned by hipsterdom that if a barista making my coffee is clean-shaven I assume he’s not properly trained. Worrying. Tenor Christopher Gillett demands hair with his espresso @StuartSkelton Loving, in a smug way, that Bergen Airport urinals assume you’re taller than, say, 5’9”. Tall tenor Stuart Skelton finds himself at home in the land of the lofty @TamsinWaleyCohen Yesterday my string unwound at the end of…

Oliver Condy Editor There’s nothing quite like a bit of Mendelssohn to blast away the February blues. A recent performance of his Reformation Symphony by the LSO under Sir John Eliot Gardiner was captured in incredible surround sound (for those fortunate to have a 5.1 set-up at home). The closing minutes of the final movement, a gigantic chorale prelude on ‘Ein’ feste Burg’, fills the room with a glorious euphoric wave of sound. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor When, a few years back, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sir Mark Elder, he told me that he preferred to leave Vaughan Williams to other conductors. Listening again to his and the Hallé’s superb recording of VW’s Pastoral Symphony from last year – immaculately played, exquisitely paced and extraordinarily atmospheric – I…

‘At its best, Segovia’s sound was ravishing, magnificent’ It may be a gloomy, draughty late November day in the wilds of Wiltshire, but the talk inside Julian Bream’s living room is warmed by reminiscences of the man who transformed perceptions of the Spanish guitar and became an authentic superstar. Andrés Segovia. One of those rare performers – like Paganini, Caruso or Rachmaninov – whose image seems diminished by the addition of a first name. ‘Segovia had a style of playing that was utterly distinctive, often idiosyncratic,’ says legendary guitarist Bream, who as a young man occasionally played privately to the Spaniard and attended many of his packed-out London concerts over the years. ‘At its best his sound was ravishing, magnificent. You could recognise Segovia’s way of playing instantly: too many…

Early years: Born in Scotland in 1971, Osborne attended St Mary’s School in Edinburgh – Scotland’s only specialist music school. Development: He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music with Renna Kellaway and in 1991, shortly after graduating, won the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition. Next steps: In 1998 he signed to Hyperion Records, recording 19 discs with them to date. He became a BBC New Generation Artist in 1999, the scheme’s inaugural year. Awards: Osborne has been nominated three times for a BBC Music Magazine Award. In 2013, the Royal Philharmonic Society named him Instrumentalist of the Year…

Although Butterworth, who died only last year at the age of 91, was born in Manchester, he had a soft spot for the Yorkshire Dales, living in Skipton, just south of the Dales, for most of his life. After WWII, the English composer, no relation to George, studied with Vaughan Williams, who encouraged him to find his own voice, even in the face of a vastly shifting musical landscape. Among his considerable output, which included seven symphonies, his orchestral works The Path across the Moors and A Dales Suite were both written in tribute to his beloved Yorkshire.…

Post-minimalist Strictly speaking, John Adams’s works – whether orchestral works, choral pieces or operas – are way too overblown to be called ‘minimalist’, yet his trademark pulsing rhythms and repeating motifs show him to be adapting minimalist techniques to his own expressive ends. Political awareness Like Philip Glass, Adams explores archetypes, but his operas, particularly in collaboration with Peter Sellars (above), engage with more overtly political events – from Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 to the murder of Leon Klinghoffer by Palestinian terrorists to Doctor Atomic about the creation of the bomb. A new take on tradition Sometimes, such as in Grand Pianola Music , Adams will celebrate the past with pastiche; at other times it goes to the deeper structure of…

Recording of the Month Italian pianist Beatrice Rana makes her hugely impressive concerto debut with Prokofiev’s Second Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s First, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, p62 The newcomers to watch… It was at the lakeside festival in Evian-les-Bains that I first heard Beatrice Rana, our current Recording of the Month artist. She was playing Schubert with cellist Pablo Ferrández and fellow pianist Adam Laloum. Three impressive young artists and each very different; it was a treat to hear them all. Festivals are a great place for discoveries: I wonder which musicians you’ve heard in concert whom you would like to hear more of on disc? We’ll be revealing our BBC Music Magazine Newcomer of 2015 in our upcoming Awards issue, as chosen by our jury. But in the…

What was it like to work with Antonio Pappano and his Santa Cecilia group? Some months before the recording I worked with the orchestra on the Tchaikovsky concerto but with another conductor. It’s the best Italian orchestra and it was a privilege to play with these musicians. And when I worked with them and maestro Pappano it was a life-changing experience. He found his own sound with the orchestra and it was like working with one single entity. Every minute of the recording session was inspiring. He had so much energy and he gave that to me and to the orchestra. The microphones can be very attentive, acoustically speaking, but emotionally it’s difficult – you aren’t talking to the heart of a person but to a machine. That’s why I’m…

BARTÓK • LIGETI Ligeti: Piano Concerto; Cello Concerto; Violin Concerto; Bartók: Contrasts; Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion Jeanne-Marie Conquer (violin), Pierre Strauch (cello), Hidéki Nagano (piano); Ensemble Intercontemporain/ Matthias Pintscher Alpha 217 108:42 mins (2 discs) In this disc of 20th-century Hungarian music, Bartók’s Contrasts lives up to its title, with tangy playing in the outer movements and a fittingly smoother approach in the central ‘Piheno’ (Relaxation). The folk influence may also be heard in the more severe Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, though the music has a greater abstract quality. The performers successfully sustain its rhythmic tension, even in the central Lento, holding the foreboding atmosphere between the exhilarating outer movements. The recording quality helps, with superb balance. Others may have taken the opening Vivace of Ligeti’s…

GOUNOD La Colombe Erin Morley, Javier Camarena, Michèle Losier, Laurent Naouri; Hallé Orchestra/Mark Elder Opera Rara ORC 53 79:59 mins (2 discs) Horace loves the countess Sylvie who spurns him. Desperate to prove his love he is willing to roast the beloved dove which he has named for her for a diner à deux that may win her. It’s a silly plot, but musically La Colombe is a little gem, blending charm and skill in equal measure and revealing Gounod to be a master of the opéracomique form. The short overture masterfully rehearses the emotional landscape before the curtain rises on Horace and his godson Mazet in penurious exile, and the violin solo in the entr’acte would melt the steeliest of hearts. One hero of this admirable Opera Rara release…

JS BACH Mass in B minor Hannah Morrison (soprano), Esther Brazil (mezzo), Meg Bragle, Kate Symonds-Joy (alto), Peter Davoren, Nick Pritchard (tenor), Alex Ashworth, David Shipley (bass); Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner Soli Deo Gloria SDG 722 105:56 mins (2 discs) It’s 30 years since John Eliot Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir first recorded the B minor Mass. How times change. Few then could have predicted that the minimalist approach to Bach would turn mainstream, and even if Gardiner has no intention of going down that route (a ‘B minor Madrigal’ was never going to happen), something has rubbed off. Without compromising the monumentality of the work, he finds an intimacy too. The choir (and orchestra) is actually larger than the class of 1985. The sound-world however is…

BEETHOVEN Cello Sonatas Nos 1-5; Variations – on ‘See the conquering hero comes’, ‘Bei manner, welche Liebe fühlen’, and ‘Ein mädchen oder Weibchen’ Xavier Phillips (cello), François-Frédéric Guy (piano) Evidence Classics EVCD 015 128:05 mins (2 discs) Beethoven composed his first two cello sonatas, Op. 5, and variation-sets during his 1796 visit to the court of King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia. Tailor-made for the virtuosity of the famous Duport brothers, who were employed by the cello-playing King, they were also meant to display Beethoven’s own prowess as a pianist. This new recording describes the music as being for cello and piano – a hierarchy that would have perplexed Beethoven and his contemporaries, since for them the primary instrument was the piano. Certainly this priority holds for these early sonatas;…

JS BACH Sonatas and partitas for solo violin, BWV 1001-1006 Midori (violin) Onyx ONYX 4123 136:03 mins (2 discs) Bach’s six solos for violin are, both technically and expressively, a summit of the repertoire whose multiple challenges few if any violinist can resist. Yehudi Menuhin was one of the first to record them in the 1930s, since when virtuosos such as Arthur Grumiaux, Nathan Milstein and more recently Viktoria Mullova and Gil Shaham have demonstrated the infinite expressive nuances which enliven these pieces, divided into three each of sonatas and partitas. The Japanese violinist Midori offers a conservative performance avoiding anything which would be construed as controversial. Her tempos are moderate, her vibrato well controlled and her intonation secure in all but a few instances of multiple stopping. I do…

FOOD This Is Not A Miracle Thomas Strønen (drums, piano), Iain Ballamy (sax), Christian Fennesz (guitar) ECM 473 9039 47:33mins Some people’s initial reaction on hearing Food’s electronic synth loops and beats might be, ‘this is not a jazz album’. But the Anglo-Norwegian group has already made two CDs for ECM that confounded yet pleased critics – and their third is different again. After recording hours of material intensely over a short period, drummer Strønen worked for months on recasting it – in his words, cutting the improvised music ‘to the bone’ and turning it into tracks with tunes, or at least hooks. The result is a sound that is frequently closer to the Krautrock of bands like Neu! than modern jazz. However, to complement the crisp clarity of the…

BEETHOVEN FOR A LATER AGE: The Journey of a String Quartet Edward Dusinberre Faber & Faber ISBN 9780571317134 272pp (hb) The Takács Quartet has been a major presence in musical life for the last 30-odd years. Here its leader Edward Dusinberre offers a fly-on-the-rehearsal-room-wall account of their work on key Beethoven Quartets: Op. 18 No. 1, the Op. 59 Razumovskys and three late quartets. Each marks a different point in the Takács story: Dusinberre’s arrival as a callow youth on the recommendation of his teacher Dorothy DeLay; his absorption into the Hungarian group, whose intense, risk-taking attitude captivated him and catapulted him both onto an international platform and into adulthood; there’s the sad loss of violist Gábor Ormai to cancer, the arrival of viola player Roger Tapping, and eventually,…

ALEXANDER ARMSTRONG was born in Northumberland and was a chorister at Durham School and a choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he joined Footlights. He is best known for The Armstrong and Miller Show, with comedian Ben Miller, and as presenter of Pointless. He has also presented Rome’s Invisible City and Land of the Midnight Sun and is CBBC’s new voice of Dangermouse. Armstrong tours his new Warner album A Year of Songs nationwide from February 2016. From about the age of five I would go down stairs early in the morning and play my parents’ records on the turntable: it felt like a very grown-up thing to do, placing the needle on the groove, the smell of vinyl, watching the fluff accumulate. The technophile in me led me…