Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2016 i BBC Music Magazine

ON DISC Scarlatti return Back in 2005, Yevgeny Sudbin’s first solo recording for BIS, of Scarlatti sonatas, brought him to international attention. A decade-or-so later, and with a string of well-reviewed discs now behind him, the Russian pianist has returned to Scarlatti, see review p83. Plus he talks to us about his recording career so far, See Rewind p13 ON AIR Young guns On 15 May, three talented young players will be bidding to inherit pianist Martin James Bartlett’s title of BBC Young Musician. BBC Four and Radio 3 will be broadcasting the performances, as the finalists appear at the Barbican in London alongside the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mark Wigglesworth. See p94 ON STAGE Complex opera Sophocles comes to the Royal Opera House this month, as Enescu’s rarely…

LISTEN WITH ANTONY Ivan Hewett (The Art of Listening, April) is a little hard on Antony Hopkins and his Talking About Music programmes. He accurately expresses Hopkins’s view that ‘listening is a skill, and without it we miss much that music has to offer’, but then describes this as the ‘determination to prescribe the right way to listen’. Hopkins did not, I would say, prescribe – rather he said things like, ‘Did you hear that bit? It’s going to crop up again a bit later, with a difference.’ He provided a map so that you could find your way through a piece without getting lost; or he took you for a walk, pointing out the scenery. Of course, you can listen to music in many ways, and much depends on…

Best of the Bard Tenor Ian Bostridge and conductor/pianist Antonio Pappano have been exploring 400 years of songs setting Shakespeare for a new album out this September. Their programme ranges from settings by Robert Johnson in the 16th century to Stravinsky in the 20th century, and featuring music by a long list of composers including Byrd, Schubert, Gurney, Poulenc and Korngold. Bostridge and Pappano are joined by lutenist Elizabeth Kenny and, for the Stravinsky, viola player Lawrence Power, clarinettist Michael Collins and flautist Adam Walker. The pair will also appear on the BBC’s Live from the RSC broadcast on Saturday 23 April, with a performance of Quilter’s ‘Come Away Death’ from the church where Shakespeare is buried. You’ll also be able to hear the track premiered on Radio 3’s Record…

After her first recital disc, Fleurs, on BIS last year, soprano Carolyn Sampson’s next disc is A Verlaine Songbook. With pianist Joseph Middleton, she’s put together a programme featuring songs by the composers inspired by the French poet, recorded at Potton Hall, Suffolk. Pianist Marc-André Hamelin brings together two Russian composers for his new Hyperion CD with the LPO and conductor Vladimir Jurowski. He’s the soloist in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Medtner’s Piano Concerto No. 2, recorded at Henry Wood Hall, London. Stile Antico turns to the early motets by Giaches de Wert, a Renaissance Franco-Flemish composer. The 12-voice conductor-less ensemble recorded in All Hallows, Gospel Oak for Harmonia Mundi. La Nuova Musica has also been recording its latest album for Harmonia Mundi. With soprano Lucy Crowe and…

One of the things I like about Morton Feldman is that he chose his notes just because he liked them My speculations in last month’s issue on the nature of music – you may recall Sir Thomas Beecham’s distinction between Music and the Noise it Makes – were stimulated by BBC Radio 3’s Record Review calling me in to comment on some fairly recent music. My survey ranged from the latest complexities of Brian Ferneyhough all the way back to Morton Feldman’s tribute to his friend Mark Rothko, while taking in Kaija Saariaho’s flute music along the way. What all the music had in common was a demand that we should listen in a different way. Saariaho, for instance, has worked over the years with Camilla Hoitenga to incorporate spoken…

Bob Harris New Hampshire, US Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man is one of my favourite short pieces of classical music. Recently I heard a performance that kept me riveted to my chair. It was an arrangement for pipe organ played on the Skinner organ in what was once the Union Depot in Cincinnati, Ohio (now the Cincinnati Museum Center). The combination of an adept arrangement for organ, artistic playing by the organist and the superb acoustics of the 160-foot-tall rotunda of the museum made for an awesome listening experience! Ann Waterworth Matamata, New Zealand A couple of weeks ago, I went to a performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers in Melbourne, Australia – the first time I have ever been to the city’s Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. The concert was given by…

It is thanks to Shakespeare that we have one of the most famous ever quotes about music. As Twelfth Night opens, Duke Orsino speaks the words that are familiar to millions of us: ‘If music be the food of love, play on’. Shakespeare’s plays are awash with music. His characters make reference to music; singers and dancers regularly accompany the action on stage; and the Bard’s words themselves flow melodiously. Unsurprisingly, then, composers for centuries have in turn been inspired by Shakespeare’s plays. Tragedies, comedies and histories have alike found themselves entering the repertoire, represented in all manner of ways: from Purcell, writing in the same century that Shakespeare died, to Thomas Adès in the present day; from Nordic types such as Sibelius and Stenhammar to those masters of Italian…

The BBC’s Shakespeare weekend AROUND THE EXACT anniversary of Shakespeare’s death on 23 April, the BBC is broadcasting a wide variety of Bard-related music and drama programmes. Here are the musical highlights: BBC Radio 3 is heading to Stratford-upon-Avon for a weekend of live broadcasts (22-24 April). On Friday 22 April, Live in Concert comes from Shakespeare’s birthplace, the Holy Trinity Church, and, in Late Night Sonnet Symphony, the BBC Philharmonic plays music by contemporary composers to accompany five modern-day dramas inspired by the Bard’s sonnets. Saturday’s Building A Library discusses the best versions of Verdi’s Falstaff, while, in Sound of Cinema, the BBC Concert Orchestra performs music from famous film adaptions of Shakespeare’s plays, including Walton’s for the 1944 Henry V starring Sir Laurence Olivier (above). In a live…

Daniel Jaffé writer, critic Daniel worked at Classic CD and Gramophone before becoming reviews editor at BBC Music Magazine from 2004-11. Having published a biography of Prokofiev, he is now researching Holst’s life and work, and is a playlist curator at the classical streaming service Grammofy. 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 Anthony Burton writer, broadcaster Michael Church writer, critic The Independent Christopher Cook broadcaster, critic Martin Cotton radio and recording producer Christopher Dingle Professor of music, Birmingham Conservatoire…

HOLST • RACHMANINOV Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2; Holst: The Planets Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra/Kakhidze CuGate Classics CGC 001-2 (1997) 106:87 mins (2 discs) Kakhidze’s highly-charged Rachmaninov offers bags of interpretative charisma. The Holst suffers from poor woodwind intonation and the recording gives a wheezy organ undue prominence. PERFORMANCE RECORDING MUSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition (orch Ravel) TCHAIKOVSKY Symphonies Nos 4 & 5; Capriccio Italien Tbilisi Symphony/Jansug Kakhidze CuGate Classics CGC 002-2 (1997) 139:87 mins (2 discs) The Musorgsky is idiosyncratic, with percussive effects added in some movements. Fluid, exciting accounts of the two Tchaikovsky symphonies but with muffled sound. PERFORMANCE  RECORDING STRAVINSKY Rite of Spring; Firebird Suite; Petrushka BBC Symphony Orchestra; New York Phil; Cleveland Orchestra/Pierre Boulez Sony 88697714372 (1967-72) 91:30 (2 discs) Boulez’s Rite packs a mighty punch with superb…

BEETHOVEN • MOZART Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22; Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3* Alicia de Larrocha (piano); Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR/ Navarro; *SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg/Bour SWR Music SWR 19006 CD (1977/86) 72:24 mins Although invariably associated with the music of her Spanish homeland, De Larrocha was also a stylish classicist with a cantabile elegance and velvet tone that tend to lack sparkle here. PERFORMANCE RECORDING RACHMANINOV Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2* Peter Katin (piano); LPO/Boult; *New Symphony Orchestra of London/Davis Eloquence 480 7281 (1958/59) 58:57 mins Expertly transferred, these fine recordings capture Katin at his 1950s peak when his scintillating agility, beautifully regulated tone and bittersweet melodic composure were at their most pristine. PERFORMANCE RECORDING TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1; Concert Fantasy* Peter Katin (piano); New…

BEETHOVEN Violin Sonatas Nos 5, 6 & 9 David Oistrakh (violin), Frida Bauer, Sviatoslav Richter (piano) Praga Digitals PRD 250 322 (1967/69) 78:17 mins David Oistrakh provides visceral excitement and heavyweight mastery. The duo with Richter can be more rewarding than that with Bauer. The scruff-of-the-neck Kreutzer Sonata is best of all. PERFORMANCE RECORDING BRAHMS Horn Trio; Violin Sonata; Fantasien Faust (violin), Van der Zwart (horn), Melnikov (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMA 1951981 (2008) 79:19 mins Brahms on instruments of his time, but Faust’s playing feels excessively emaciated, and despite Melnikov’s artistry the 1875 Bösendorfer sounds like a honky tonk. PERFORMANCE RECORDING DEBUSSY String Quartet; Syrinx; Sonatas Kuijken Ensemble Arcana A392 (1999) 71 mins The Kuijkens keep it in the family for this twilit account of Debussy’s chamber works. Delicate, wonderfully…

Stephen Johnson Writer and broadcaster ‘Writing my orchestral piece Behemoth Dances has been one of the most exhilarating adventures of my life. Even after recounting it in these pages, it still feels a bit like a dream. I suspect the performance will change that.’ Page 42 Brian Wise Music journalist ‘At first, dropping into strangers’ apartments to cover Groupmuse, which arranges house parties featuring live classical music, was a bit daunting. But that trepidation was unnecessary: music provided the ideal conversation fodder.’ Page 46 Hilary Finch Music critic and broadcaster ‘Mahler’s intense and often anguished love of the life-force itself, as well as of the human love within it, energises his music uniquely. When his inspiration meets that of the poet Friedrich Rückert, something…

HISTORIC SCHUMANN In Alex Marshall’s National Deficit article about national anthems (March issue) your side-panel mentions Schumann’s Hermann und Dorothea as one of the two most famous works to quote La Marseillaise. I would say that a better known work by Schumann with a La Marseillaise quote is Die beiden Grenadiere, Op. 47 No. 1 from 1840, one of the composer’s most beloved songs. Set to a poem by Heinrich Heine, it is also more historically accurate than Hermann und Dorothea, as the story occurs during the Napoleonic wars. It has been recorded by several great baritones, but none matches Erich Kunz’s recording from early 1960. Long out of print, this timeless rendition can be found on YouTube.…

Chart for week ending 10 March 2016 1 Introit: The Music of Finzi Aurora Orchestra/Nicholas Collon Decca 478 9357 Arrangements of Finzi sit next to extracts from some of the composer’s best-known masterworks 2 Elgar • Walton Cello Concertos Steven Isserlis (cello); Philharmonia/ Paavo Järvi Hyperion CDA 68077 The master cellist does it again –searing, evocative renditions of two timeless concertos 3 Nessun Dorma The Puccini Album Jonas Kaufmann (tenor); Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale Still here – Kaufmann’s thoroughly enjoyable Puccini disc continues to sell and sell… 4 Pure Chopin Ji Liu (piano) Classic FM CFMD41 Waltzes, etudes and the odd polonaise and nocturne – a Chopin programme to savour 5 Copland Orchestral works, Vol. 1 BBC Philharmonic/John Wilson Chandos CHSA5164 Scintillating playing…

INGOLF WUNDER pianist I am always interested in rare recordings, and am astounded at how many artists and composers are almost completely unknown these days. The pianist Karol Szreter died at just 34 in 1933, so he didn’t have a long life, but he performed with musicians of the calibre of Gregor Piatigorsky and Nadia Boulanger. What is amazing for me in his recordings of Beethoven, Schumann and others is his musicality, and the brilliant technique goes without saying. This is sincere, honest pianism. For me, Carlos Kleiber was the best conductor who ever lived. His natural instinct for music is what grabs me the most – he lives every single detail on his recording of Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos 5 & 7. It’s partly his choice of tempos, but…

PROG ROCK LOSS A sad month for music included the death of prog rock’s Keith Emerson who, as the keyboardist of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, introduced millions of fans to the likes of Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Copland by basing songs on their music. Emerson had recently started to write his own classical works, including a well-received Piano Concerto. MULTI-TALENTED MARTIN A mention, too, must go to the late Sir George Martin who, while primarily known for his work as The Beatles’ producer, also regularly immersed himself in the classical music world. As well infusing the Fab Four’s songs with classical music references, his own compositions included a number of deftly crafted filmscores and his Three American Sketches for guitar and string quartet. BOSTON BOUND Some nicer news at least from…

Five Shakespearean musical quotes ‘If music be the food of love, play on’ Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night ‘How sour sweet music is When time is broke, and no proportion kept! So is it in the music of men’s lives’ Richard II in Richard II ‘The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils’ Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice ‘Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends, Unless some dull and favourable hand Will whisper music to my weary spirit’ King Henry in Henry IV Part II ‘Where should this music be? I’ th’ air or th’ earth? It sounds no more, and sure, it waits upon Some god o’ th’ island’ Ferdinand…

Hugo Wolf’s reputation rests securely on his 300-plus songs, many of which have taken their rightful place in the central repertory of the German lied. His own trajectory as a creative artist, though, was full of fits and starts. Regarded during his lifetime as a relatively marginal figure in the Austrian musical world, he never broke through to achieve much success in genres other than song, though he attempted orchestral and chamber music as well as opera; apart from songs, his only work to have won a permanent place in the repertoire is his Italian Serenade, written for string quartet in 1887 and rescored for string orchestra in 1892. Wolf’s lack of success was partly due to health problems, notably the syphilis he most likely contracted in 1878 at the…

JANÁCEK Jealousy; Violin Concerto; The Ballad of Blaník; The Fiddler’s Child; The Danube; Taras Bulba Susanna Andersson (soprano), James Ehnes (violin), Melina Mandozzi (violin); Bergen Phil/Edward Gardner Chandos CHSA 5156 77:48 mins ‘The Violin Concerto is remarkable: beautifully shaped by soloist and conductor with a captivatingly operatic sense of timing. The Taras Bulba is one of the most impressive available.’ July 2015 SZYMANOWSKI Stabat Mater; Harnasie Soloists; BBC Symphony Chorus; BBC Symphony Orchestra/Edward Gardner Chandos CHSA 5123 58:36 mins ‘Once again, Gardner shows that he excels in Szymanowski’s rich orchestral tapestries. This performance mixes wild mystery with coruscating brilliance.’ November 2013 LUTOSLAWSKI Chantefleurs et Chantefables; Les espaces du sommeil; Paroles tissées; Tryptyk slaski; Lacrimosa; Spijze Spij Soloists; BBC Symphony/Gardner Chandos CHAN 10688 67:40 mins ‘Chantefleurs et Chantefables consists of nine…

BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos 4 & 5 Concentus Musicus Wien/ Nikolaus Harnoncourt Sony 88875136452 70:41 mins You couldn’t have a better demonstration of the paradoxical extremes of the late conductor, Nikolaus Harnoncourt (see Obituaries, p19). The same energy and fiercely independent critical intelligence are at work in both these performances. But where one is refreshing and uplifting, the other baffles and finally infuriates. The Fourth Symphony is as good a new version as I’ve heard in a long time. The first movement’s progress from darkness to sudden illumination is gripping, the slow movement is full of magic, drama and pathos, the Scherzo and finale overflow with vitality and wit. It’s the kind of performance that brings back the sense of discovery and surprise to a slightly over-familiar score. There are plenty…

BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1 LALO Symphonie espagnole SARASATE Zigeunerweisen Renaud Capuçon (violin); Orchestre de Paris/Paavo Järvi Erato 2564698276 65:47 mins The orchestral opening of the Lalo comes as quite a shock, with heavy reverberation blurring detail, and leaving the final chord hanging over into Renaud Capuçon’s entry. It makes it quite difficult at times to judge the performance, although, when the music is quiet and less heavily scored, the sound is better balanced, and still warm. Those who have experienced the new Philharmonie de Paris concert hall in the flesh report much the same, and that it may need time to settle. A pity, as Capuçon gives a committed reading, and isn’t afraid to dig into the strings when it’s apt. There’s virtuosity in the faster movements and a…

DONIZETTI Lucia di Lammermoor; plus Puccini arias Callas, Di Stefano, Panerai, Zaccaria; Coro del Teatro alla Scala Milano, RIAS Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/Karajan; Philharmonia Orchestra/Serafin Minuet Records 428412 (1954-55) 144:35 mins (2 discs) One of Callas’s finest live recordings, this 1955 Lucia from Berlin under Karajan finds her at the peak of her powers in an iconic role and with an excellent supporting cast. PERFORMANCE RECORDING HAYDN OPERA GALA L’Infedeltà delusa; La vera costanza Kermes, Reiss, Lascarro, Holzmair etc; WDR Funkhausorchester Koln/Markus Poschner & Manuel Hernandez-Silva Capriccio C 5255 (2009-11) 141:69 mins (2 discs) Haydn’s operas take a back seat to Mozart’s in the repertoire, but they contain a lot of excellent music. Two comedies are brought together here, in high quality performances. PERFORMANCE RECORDING GREAT VERDI VOICES Arias from Ernani, Macbeth,…

BEETHOVEN Complete violin sonatas Martin Roscoe (piano), Tamsin Little (violin) Chandos CHAN 10888 237:34 mins (3 discs) It says a great deal for Tasmin Little that she has allowed pianist Martin Roscoe’s name to go first on the booklet cover. Well, these works were all published as Sonatas ‘for Piano and Violin’, and any violinist who approaches them as potential star vehicles is already guilty of a capital offence. I’ve heard, and admired performances in which violin and piano work as one: ‘two minds with but a single thought’. Here though one is very much aware of two distinct personalities, each with plenty to say about this music. There’s even a sense of friendly rivalry at times – and all to the good. Little’s expressive style is generous and extrovert,…

JS BACH Sonatas Nos 1-3; Partitas Nos 1-3 Markku Luolajan-Mikkola (cello) Linn LC11615 158 mins One cannot argue with the booklet note enumerating the ways in which JS Bach’s music has been successfully transcribed. But plunging the airy violin solo partitas and sonatas down a twelfth to be played on Baroque cello proves a step too far. In Markku Luolajan-Mikkola’s hands these sprightly dances are barely recognisable as they lumber through a gloomy, boomy church acoustic. The elegant E major Loure grinds away as if heard on an LP at half speed, while the faster Gigue is all friction. Luolajan-Mikkola is a distinguished cellist and teacher, and his affection for the music is palpable. But the sound is congested, phrases lumpen, tempos laboured. The tumultuous D minor Chaconne loses momentum…

GOGO PENGUIN Man Made Object Rob Turner (drums), Nick Blacka (double bass), Chris Illingworth (piano) Blue Note 0602547648341 48 mins The Mancunian trio GoGo Penguin was until recently a crossover cult favourite of the UK’s metropolitan hipsters. But having signed a multi-album deal with the iconic Blue Note Label they’re doing sell-out tours everywhere and seem set to go global. Instantly recognisable as a GoGo Penguin production, Man Made Object is not a Blue Note album to file alongside say, Thelonious Monk or Art Blakey, however. With the emphasis on break beat drumming and thrumming bass lines, the trio’s concept is to reimagine hypnotic electronic music on acoustic instruments; pianist Illingworth’s role is to inject mood by repeatedly planting minor chords into the tight rhythmic structure of the pieces. Minimalist…

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Composer, Radical, Patriot – a Biography Keith Alldritt Hale Books ISBN: 9780719809378 384pp (hb) Since the death in 2007 of the British composer’s widow, Ursula Vaughan Williams, his story can now be told within a less selective perspective than she herself understandably chose in her writings about her husband. Resources drawn on by Keith Alldritt in his biography include Ursula’s own poetry; this was clearly fine enough for her to have made her name in her own right, if her life had turned out differently. Alldritt’s text packs in a masterly amount of information with a fluency that’s personable and precise. His view of the composer’s achievement is that this charted a more turbulent inner life – itself much influenced by an era of social and wartime…

DIRECTOR’S CHOICE Alan Davey , the controller of Radio 3, picks out three great moments to tune into in May BBC YOUNG MUSICIAN 2016 BBC Young Musician 2016 aims to find the finest musicians among the younger generation, and this month it’s reaching its exciting last stages. The biennial contest’s final is on 15 May, with Radio 3’s Clemency Burton-Hill and trumpeter Alison Balsom lined up to present. The three finalists will do battle at London’s Barbican, accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor Mark Wigglesworth. Radio 3’s Live in Concert will also include coverage from the competition’s category finals, on each weekday from 4 April to 13 May, as 25 contenders are whittled down at Cardiff’s Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. BBC Young Musician 2016 Final;…

BBC YOUNG MUSICIAN 2016 Since 1978, the biennial BBC Young Musician competition has been a highlight of the musical television calendar, producing a long list of winners, including household names like violinists Jennifer Pike and Nicola Benedetti and pianist Freddy Kempf. It’s only two years since Martin James Bartlett, then 17, impressed the judges with his performance of Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Viewers will be able to witness the final stages of the competition on BBC Four, as the five category finals – of keyboard, woodwind, percussion, brass, and strings – are televised on Friday evenings, over four weeks, before the final (on 15 May). Radio 3’s Clemency Burton-Hill (above) presents alongside TV’s Josie D’Arby and trumpeter Alison Balsom, a former BBC Young Musician finalist. BBC Four’s…

Iwasn’t born to musical parents, so my introduction to music was very mainstream. I remember being captivated by Walt Disney’s film Fantasia. While I loved the part with Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, with all the horses and unicorns flying about, what really gripped me was STRAVINSKY’s The Rite of Spring – the dinosaurs, the earthquake and that rhythmic, percussive music really captured my imagination. I could not fathom what instrument was playing that high, lyrical opening. When I was ten or 11, I saw it performed by the RAI National Symphony Orchestra. It was thrilling to see an orchestra at work and I discovered that instrument was the bassoon! My ‘crunch’ time came at 13. I clearly had a facility for the piano, so should I go to the conservatoire? My…

Antonio Pappano seemed delighted to have just six days to record Aida If the winners of the BBC Music Magazine Awards spent months, even years, preparing for their recordings, financial pressures have decreased the amount of time musicians spend in the studios to the bare minimum. Not that they’re necessarily complaining. When I spoke to Sir Antonio Pappano about recording Aida in Rome, he seemed almost delighted to have had just six days to put it all together, suggesting that time limitations made his singers and players more alert and gave the sessions a nervous edge. No room these days, he suggested, for the multiple weeks that the major labels used to lavish on their biggest productions. That’s not to say that today’s finished product is inferior. Quite the opposite.…

THIS MONTH YEVGENY SUDBIN piano One of today’s finest concert pianists, Yevgeny Sudbin has recorded for BIS for the past decade, making his mark in repertoire ranging from well-known Tchaikovsky to rare Medtner. His first solo recital disc was of Scarlatti in 2005 and he now returns to the Italian composer for his latest disc. My finest moment Scriabin Piano Sonatas Nos 2, 5 and 9; Four Mazurkas, Op. 3; Nuances, Op. 56/3; Poème, Op. 59/1; Waltz in A at, Op. 38; Etudes, Op. 8/12, Op. 2/1 Yevgeny Sudbin (piano) BIS (hybrid CD/SACD) BIS-SACD-1568 (2007) There are recordings that have been very well received by reviewers and then there are recordings of which I’m particularly proud. Sometimes there’s not much connection between how I personally perceive…

The piano on which Vaughan Williams wrote many of his best known works has gone on display for the first time. Bought by the composer in 1905, the Broadwood upright can be seen at Leith Hill Place, his childhood home that was opened as a museum by the National Trust in 2013. ‘We’re thrilled that an instrument so key to Vaughan Williams’s life now has its permanent home at Leith Hill Place,’ says Gabrielle Gale, the property’s manager. ‘It sat in the composer’s study where he used it daily to try out musical ideas, so it is a “workhorse” rather than a concert piano.’ The workhorse will still get to enjoy the occasional trot, as there are plans for it to be played in recital.…

@cargillmezzo You know you’re old when.... You have an outrageously itchy back, but no scratcher, so the pasta strainer comes in handy At least mezzo Karen Cargill (left)didn’t grab the cheese-grater by mistake @RevRichardColes So much sneezing on the 0714 it’s beginning to sound like one of the less plausible choruses from a middle period Verdi opera. The Rev. Richard Coles’s train journey takes an unexpected operatic turn… @VikingurMusic Spotted in Berlin U-bahn: 13-year-old girls discussing Hildegard von Bingen #thereishopeforhumanity …while, in Germany, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson’s is reassuringly intellectual… @fhvln They just announced my train is running slightly late due to problems coming into Potters Bra …and violinist Fenella Humphreys’s is just plain daft @cellojohnston Message from promoter: Light supper will be supplied – do you allow yourselves a glass…

Oliver Condy Editor With the passing of conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, I’ve been listening anew to his recording of JS Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Concentus Musicus Wien. From the very opening chorale prelude, his tempos are sprightly and fresh as if the whole has taken on a new mantle of hope. Even ‘Ebarme dich’, traditionally the most despairing of arias, here carries an air of fortitude. It’s masterful music-making. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor I love the unexpected musical paths my job takes me on now and then. After listening to Nino Rota’s score for Romeo and Juliet as part of my research for our Shakespeare feature, I’ve now moved on to the same composer’s Concerto Soirée for piano & orchestra. It’s a superb work and, in contrast to the…

Are we running short of radical geniuses with the talent to change music history’s course? It appears as if the Grim Reaper has swept away not just a few eminent musicians but an entire era. Peter Maxwell Davies, David Bowie, Pierre Boulez, George Martin, Nikolaus Harnoncourt – they seem, and indeed were, a motley bunch. Yet they had one thing in common. Each was a pioneer with a visionary approach to music that had a huge and lasting impact. The two composers, Max and Boulez, began their careers as avant-garde firebrands, creating music that challenged their contemporaries’ ears, intellects and preconceptions. What happened next, however, was symptomatic of how different their personalities were – or maybe how different the French and British are. Boulez remained the uncompromising iconoclast, creating both…

Talking about the walk across the concert platform towards the piano, Paul Lewis admits he still doesn’t know what to do. When his fingers are on the keys, all is well. But as for ‘the walking out bit… acknowledging the applause and so on – I’m not at all sure.’ This seems remarkable. Lewis, 44 this year, has already scaled the peaks of a great career. His recordings of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas for Harmonia Mundi, completed six years ago, established him firmly as a master of the repertoire that has always drawn him most strongly, yet he retains an attractive innocence about the world in which he moves. ‘I’m wary of too much showmanship,’ he tells me. ‘It’s not me. What I do know is I love music…

16 April, New York Violinist Jocelyn Zhu and friends perform works by Bach, Shostakovich, Borodin and Schubert. Says host Chance Huskey, ‘As we leave behind, in theory, our 20- or 30-degree days, let us celebrate the coming warmth together with some timeless music.’ 23 April, Seattle Guitar duo Michael Partington and Marc Teicholz perform the Variations from Brahms’s Op. 18 Sextet and Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Sonata Canonica . ‘Attendees will be asked to make a donation (minimum $10) all of which goes to the musicians. Please bring any drinks and snacks you’d like to share’, suggests the host. 29 April, New York Pianist Audrey Vardanega performs at a home near Union Square for a ‘low-key 20s crowd’. ‘My ’muses are well attended by people who’ve never met each other before,’ says host…

THE LIFE THE TIMES 1860 Hugo Wolf is born in WINDISCHGRATZ in the Austrian Empire. His father teaches him the violin and piano from an early age. 1867 The nationalist group Young Slovenes enjoys a rise to prominence when, challenging the rule of the Austrian Parliament, it aims to mobilise Slovene peasantry with a series of rallies. 1870 He starts at a SECONDARY SCHOOL in Graz, but is homesick and leaves after a term. The school records him as ‘wholly inadequate’. 1871 The year-long Franco-Prussian War ends with the Prussians’ CAPTURE OF PARIS in January 1871, leading to the surrender of French territory to the German Empire. 1875 Expelled from his third school, he goes to live with his aunt in Vienna and begins his studies at the Vienna Conservatory.…

Recording of the Month Janácek’s Glagolitic Mass is given an incandescent performance by conductor Edward Gardner and his Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir; plus they showcase Janácek rarities, p60 The genius of Haydn Let’s hear it for Haydn! He is of course one of the great composers but I sometimes feel that his imagination and inventiveness aren’t widely enough celebrated. Yet, as Ottavio Dantone writes in the notes to his lively new recording of Haydn’s Symphones Nos 78-81, Papa Haydn was ‘the reference point for great composers and musicians to come.’ A magazine reader recently pointed out how Haydn pre-empted Beethoven’s Fifth in his Symphony No. 46, boldly recalling the third movement in the finale. And I remember one of my university lecturers demonstrating how Haydn got to the ‘Tristan…

Why did you decide to include JanáOek’s Glagolitic Mass in a series of orchestral music? I adore almost every note JanáOek wrote but for me the pinnacles of his orchestral writing are the Sinfonietta and the Glagolitic Mass. The orchestra has to define a performance of the Mass and I never had a thought about not doing it. When we started this project JanáOek wasn’t in any way a well-known composer in Bergen. But the trust and love of the music came very quickly. The Bergen sound is beautiful and refined but here there’s also savagery, immediacy and instinct. I feel that we got the best sound in this Mass of anything we’ve recorded before. The choir is of course also an enormous part of it.…

HANDEL Imeneo Magnus Staveland, Ann Hallenberg, Fabrizio Beggi, Cristiana Arcari, Monica Piccinini; Europa Galante/Fabio Biondi Glossa GCD 923405 114:51 mins (2 discs) Handel’s penultimate Italian opera found little favour at its 1740 London premiere. Undeterred by what Fabio Biondi admits is a libretto ‘almost bereft of any dramatic sense’, Handel revised Imeneo for a new cast in 1742, presenting a concert performance in Dublin. Much of the action occurs before the curtain rises: Tirinto’s lover Rosmene is abducted by pirates and rescued by Imeneo, who asks for her hand in marriage. In Acts I and II, the suitors argue their claims with variable gallantry. In Act III, Rosmene fakes supernatural possession, bidding a tender farewell to Tirinto before she elects to marry Imeneo. It’s nonsense, but reflects a society in…

ABRAHAMSEN Let me tell you Barbara Hannigan (sop); Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons Winter & Winter 910 232-2 32:47 mins Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen’s mesmerising song-cycle is based on Paul Griffiths’s experimental novella of the same title, whose protagonist is described as ‘not quite the Ophelia of Shakespeare’s Hamlet’. Using only words uttered by Ophelia in the play, Griffiths’s book circles new themes of music and memory, here further adapted by the author into seven poems for these songs. Abrahamsen expresses both the fragility and force of Griffiths’s imagined Ophelia through glinting, gauze-like textures and moments of clattering tumult; the richly varied vocal writing draws on Monteverdi’s technique of ‘stile concitato’ where the voice rapidly repeats a single tone, here capturing both Ophelia’s doubt and urgency. Barbara Hannigan’s agile, luminous…

FORQUERAY Suites Nos 1-5 Atsushi Sakai, Marion Martineau (viol), Christophe Rousset (harpsichord) Aparté AP 122 199:12 mins (3 discs) One of the celebrated viol players at the court of Louis XIV, the notorious but prodigiously gifted Antoine Forqueray was said to ‘play like the devil’ – indeed, his lurid biography suggests the two were in league. Such facility on the instrument resulted in highly idiomatic, often virtuoso writing that fully exploits the rich potential of this ‘king of instruments’: layered counterpoint, resonant harmonies, ornate and lyrical melodies, and a gamut of colours, shades, and special effects. Forqueray’s suites consist of colourfully-named movements, including dances, fantasy-like musings, evocations of places and sounds, or character portraits of friends and fellow composers like Couperin, Rameau, and Leclair. So forward-looking is some of the…

SCHUBERT Impromptus, D899; Klavierstücke, D946 BEETHOVEN Hammerklavier Sonata No. 29; plus Rameau and Brahms Grigory Sokolov (piano) Deutsche Grammophon 479 5426 138:26 mins (2 discs) Periodically prevented from touring abroad by a repressive Soviet government, Grigory Sokolov learned to regard recitals as the elixir of life: the urgency and immediacy of his performances – and his generosity with encores, which can on occasion almost double the length of a concert – are all thanks to that life-giving spark across the footlights. And this double-CD, consisting of live recordings from Warsaw and Salzburg, benefits hugely from that spark. The first Schubert Impromptu becomes an epic journey in miniature, set in a bleak landscape where emotional restraint is the norm. The second goes at such a leisurely pace that every quaver in…

The People United Will Never Be Defeated! is a set of 36 variations by the US composer Frederic Rzewski (b1938), based on a Chilean protest song that was originally written by Sergio Ortega. Rzewski’s work received its world premiere on 7 February 1976 and was performed by pianist Ursula Oppens at Washington’s Kennedy Center. It was dedicated to Oppens, who had commissioned it. Ortega was a supporter of the Chilean Popular Unity alliance government of President Allende (1969-73) and his song ‘¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!’ (‘The People United Will Never Be Defeated!’) became an anthem of worldwide solidarity against the military coup of General Augusto Pinochet. It was composed between September and October 1975 and is a powerful example of agitprop. A performance of the work takes around…

IQBAL KHAN Opera and theatre director VERDI ‘ La Vergine degli angeli’ from La forza del destino Renata Tebaldi (soprano), Cesare Siepi (bass) Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/ Francesco Molinari-Pradelli ‘We’re going to hear the end of Act II when Leonora has taken refuge in the monastery and is joining the monks in prayer. I do like this opera. It has an enormous amount of dramatic range and this is such a perfect moment. This is a recording from the early 1950s with soprano Renata Tebaldi. What attracts me about this is just how perfect a moment it is. In an opera which has so much rage and passion, this is the most delicate and sacred moment; I’m often drawn to these moments of transcendence and delicacy.’ MAHLER…