Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2016 i BBC Music Magazine

ON DISC Various Hughes British soprano Ruby Hughes, a former BBC New Generation Artist, has released her debut recital disc – and it’s a winner. In ‘Nocturnal Variations’ on the Champs Hill label, Hughes explores with pianist Joseph Middleton the many moods and characters of the night, in music by Berg, Britten, Mahler and Schubert. See reviews, p72 ON AIR First Night verve On 15 July, the Proms return, each one live on Radio 3. Sakari Oramo conducts a First Night that highlights three of the season’s themes: Shakespeare’s 400th and Russian music are marked by Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet , while the cello is celebrated in Elgar’s Concerto, with Sol Gabetta (left). See p94 ON STAGE Another fine messe It’s Gloucester Cathedral’s turn to host the august Three Choirs…

MAX MEMORIES I was saddened to read your article about the passing of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (May). I have two fond remembrances of him and his music. The first was as a lad of eight or nine, when my grandparents took me to the St Magnus Festival in Orkney and I got to meet this great composer. He had a nice smile and a kind and teaching spirit about him and, as I was dressed in my childhood costume of The Lone Ranger, Sir Peter said to me, ‘Do you know that the theme of The Lone Ranger is a classical piece, the William Tell Overture by Rossini?’ That inspired me to hear it on LP for the very first time in my grandparents’ living room the night we…

Chart for week ending 12 May 2016 1 Arias Pumeza Matshikiza (soprano); Aarhus Symphony Orchestra/Tobias Ringborg Decca 478 8964 A dazzling second album from the lyric soprano 2 The Deer’s Cry Music by Pärt, Tallis and  Byrd The Sixteen/Harry Christophers Coro COR16140 The Sixteen mixes ancient and modern choral works in this atmospheric, spine-tingling disc 3 Roots Martin Fröst (clarinet, conductor); Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra Sony Classical 88875065292 A colourful, idiosyncratic tour of musical history 4 Elgar Symphony No. 1 Staatskapelle Berlin/Daniel Barenboim Decca 478 9353 Our critic gives this recording five stars ( p65 ) for its Wagnerian grandeur and individuality 5 Rutter Psalmfest St Alban’s Cathedral Choir; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew Lucas Naxos 8.573394 Uplifting choral works by the popular composer 6…

SYMPHONIC RETURN Thirty years after it disappeared, the hand-written score of Malcolm Arnold’s Seventh Symphony has returned to his family. The manuscript was bought by Arnold’s daughter Elizabeth when it appeared, remarkably, on eBay, the online auction site. It is believed that the composer had given it to a plumber in payment for work done in the 1970s. ENO DIRECTION Daniel Kramer has been appointed as the new artistic director at English National Opera, a post that has been lying vacant since the departure of John Berry last year. The American, 39, is a familiar figure at ENO, having directed his first opera there, Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy, back in 2008. JESUS AND MARY CHAIN Following the recent news that Daniel Hyde is to become the new director…

ISAO TOMITA Born 1932 Composer and synthesizer player An important pioneer of the early synthesizer era, Isao Tomita introduced millions of listeners to classical music through his arrangements for electronic instruments of composers such as Holst, Copland, Strauss and, above all, Ravel and Debussy. The most famous of his albums, 1974’s The Snowflakes are Dancing, was nominated for four Grammy awards. Born in Tokyo and brought up in both China and Japan, Tomita began his musical career as a composer for TV and films in the 1950s. It was when, in the late 1960s, he bought himself a Moog III Synthesizer that he saw the potential for putting his skills to a different use – the following years saw him record electronic versions of works including Stravinsky’s Firebird,…

Early life: Born in Oxford to non-musical parents, Bray began learning the flute and cello while at primary school. Development: She went to the Birmingham Conservatoire to study the cello, but swapped to composition after two years. After graduating with a First, she went on to study with Mark-Anthony Turnage (above) at the Royal College of Music. Debut: In 2010 she was awarded the RPS Young Musician’s prize for composition, and in 2012 her work At the speed of stillness was premiered at the Proms by the Aldeburgh World Orchestra under Mark Elder. Just in: Bray’s opera Entanglement, telling the story of the last woman to be hanged in Britain, met with acclaim when it premiered at last year’s Cheltenham Music Festival.…

UNSURPRISINGLY, it was in gospel choirs that a number of leading opera stars, from the middle of the 20th century to the present day, first discovered the joy of singing, and several have gone on to make recordings of spiritual music. The first ever black singer to appear at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Marian Anderson (1897-1993) had a large discography that included Verdi, Brahms and, from 1962, He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands (RCA G0100017167746), a compilation of spirituals recorded over the course of her career. It was on being taken on a school trip to see Anderson in 1941 that the Mississippi-born Leontyne Price (b1927) herself was inspired to become a singer. As well as going on to become one of the great opera sopranos of her…

Near-instant obscurity befell even the very best composers How many unknown operas exist, out there in the world’s libraries and archives? Up until the early 19th century, operas were, after all, eminently dispensable items: you wrote one, and if you were lucky it got a few airings; then it was simply discarded. A famous example is the fact that most of Monteverdi’s Venetian operas have disappeared, the two that remain doing so by sheer luck. He was a respected creator of church music and madrigals, but no one thought it important to preserve his dramatic music. For opera’s first two centuries, librettists, men of letters, had far more prestige than mere composers: that’s why Pietro Metastasio, the doyen of 18th-century librettists, saw dramas like his Artaserse set to music nearly…

All great artists are misunderstood in one way or another. It would be fair to argue, however, that Anton Bruckner has been, for all kinds of reason, more misunderstood than most. As his biographer Derek Watson wrote, ‘There is no parallel to Bruckner among creative artists’ – a bold claim, but one that is difficult to refute. If we knew less about the man, and if there were fewer legends about him, it might be easier. As it is, we are confronted, largely, with a series of immense, immensely sophisticated and revolutionary symphonies, by a man who seems in many ways to have been simpleminded to a clinical degree, and whose life alternated between work as an organist, teacher and composer, with fearful periods of mental and even physical collapse.…

Symphony No. 7 Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Stanisvaw Skrowaczewski Oehms OC216 A near-ideal combination of lyrical exaltation, celebration and lament. Symphony No. 8 Berlin Philharmonic/ Carlo Maria Giulini Testament SBT21436 This recording is affectionate in its detail, but with a firm grasp of structure. Symphony No. 9 Berlin Philharmonic/ Wilhelm Furtwängler DG 477 0062 (Download) From 1944 in Berlin, ‘apocalypse’ is stamped on every bar. The ne plus ultra of Bruckner conducting. Mass in F minor RIAS Kammerchor, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées/ Philippe Herreweghe Harmonia Mundi 901976 A beautifully balanced account showing Bruckner’s contrapuntal powers.…

Recording of the Month The Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle record arguably the greatest symphony cycle of them all – the nine by Beethoven – with exhilarating energy, p62 Beethoven in all its glory Do we need another Beethoven symphony cycle on CD? Surely these nine famous pieces have been recorded every way possible, cast as monumental edifices by some, reimagined as lean, fast creatures on period instruments by others. Yet, as with all great art, there’s always a fresh look to be taken and new detail to be found. Our Recording of the Month does just that, as well as offering a snapshot of the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle in the last years of their partnership before he heads to London. But if, on the other…

Even after all the other great symphonies and cycles you’ve done, is Beethoven still a challenge? It really is. And not just because conductors are simple people who only ever want to conduct Wagner’s Ring or record a Beethoven cycle. There is the sense this is an event because of all the music that comes after it: this is like going back to the source of everything. For so many members of the orchestra, Beethoven was one of the first composers they loved. Somehow it is music that keeps you honest. You look at yourself reflected in the Beethoven mirror and there aren’t many places to hide. It shows you where you are. Do you have to find a balance between treating the symphonies individually and as part of a…

Johannes Matthias Sperger (1750-1812) Born in Feldsberg (today Valtice in the Czech Republic) Sperger studied under Friedrich Pichlberger, a double bass player in the orchestra of the impresario Emanuel Schikaneder (famous for commissioning Mozart’s The Magic Flute). Having become a proficient bass player, he then studied under the noted composition teacher Albrechtsberger, who later taught Beethoven. As well as writing several concertos for his instrument, Sperger composed many other works including motets, cantatas, 45 symphonies, chamber music and sonatas.…

BARTÓK • MOZART Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos 21 & 23*; Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3† Annie Fischer (piano); Wolfgang Sawallisch, *Adrian Boult, †Fricsay Praga Digitals PRD 250 326 (1958-60) 79:59 mins In Mozart’s late concertos Annie Fischer brings supple pianism and intuitive sense of form; No. 23, under Boult, has a spellbinding Adagio. Bartók’s valedictory Third is lit with fearless fantasy. Sound varies. PERFORMANCE RECORDING HAYDN Violin Concertos: in C; in A; in G Isabelle Faust (violin); Münchener Kammerorchester/Christoph Poppen Pan Classics PC 10353 (1997) 61 mins It’s hard to imagine Haydn’s early violin concertos played with fresher, more graceful vivacity. Faust, on seraphic form, finds ideal partners in Poppen and the Munich Chamber Orchesra. PERFORMANCE RECORDING MENDELSSOHN Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2; Capriccio Brillante; Rondo Brillante, etc Rudolf…

HANDEL • MOZART Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto – arias; Mozart: opera arias Lisa Della Casa (soprano); various orchestras and conductors Eloquence 482 0278 (1950-57) 74:48 mins One of the greatest of post-Second World War Countess Almavivas, Lisa Della Casa’s dramatic instincts and her beautifully positioned voice also make her a compelling Donna Elvira. PERFORMANCE RECORDING MOZART Arias from Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, etc Hilde Gueden (soprano); Vienna Philharmonic/Erede, Krauss; LSO/Krips Eloquence 482 0681 (1951) 69:03 mins Gueden’s Susanna and Despina are creamy of tone with top notes spun out like filigree silver. There is character too: a minx of a Zerlina and heartfelt Ilia for Clemens Krauss from 1951. PERFORMANCE RECORDING GREAT TENOR ARIAS I Giordano, Verdi, Mascagni, Puccini & Bellini Prevedi, Raimondi, Penno (tenor);…

Francisco Guerrero (1528-99) Guerrero was born in Seville and received his earliest musical training from his brother, Pedro, and then as a chorister in Seville Cathedral. Such was his innate talent that by the age of 17 or 18 he had become choirmaster at Jaén Cathedral in Andalusia. About three years later he returned to Seville where in 1551 he was appointed director of the choir school. Except for two visits to Rome and a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (publishing an account of this journey), he spent most of his working life in Seville. His compositions were chiefly religious, although he also composed some secular madrigals as well as instrumental music for vihuela .…

Augusta Read Thomas (b1964) Born in New York, Augusta Read Thomas studied composition under Oliver Knussen at Tanglewood in the 1980s, and continued her studies at Yale University and then at London’s Royal Academy of Music. She was Mead composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1997 until 2006, working with both Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez. She has been particularly praised for her mastery of orchestral writing, and has written several choral works including two recorded by Chanticleer in the Grammy award-winning Colors of Love.…

Though jazz in the movies has shown a natural affinity for the louche, dark and edgy, the classic documentary Jazz on a Summer’s Day proved it could be idyllic as well, a soundtrack for all things bright and beautiful in mid-century America. Shot at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, over the weekend of the Fourth of July, the film celebrates both the breezy prosperity of its setting and the all-star array of performers commanding the festival stage. In fact, director Bert Stern knew very little about jazz. He was a fashion photographer, but with an unerring feel for the heady mix of Newport’s palatial houses and white-sailed yachts, the festival’s intoxicating music and the throngs of hip Ivy-League youth revelling in its spell. And the music’s spell is the movie’s…

The book includes texts by 100 poets, scrupulously edited THE PENGUIN BOOK OF ENGLISH SONG: Seven centuries of poetry from Chaucer to Auden Richard Stokes Penguin ISBN 978-0-241-24478-4 976pp (hb) This weighty tome (some 1.5kg) attempts a valuable task already done for the art song in German, French, Italian and Spanish. It brings together in one chronologically arranged volume texts by 100 poets writing in English that have been set to music by a wide variety of composers. The poets themselves include figures major and minor, from Chaucer to Auden, taking in Welsh, Scottish and Irish writers as well as English (Americans and others from beyond the UK are excluded). Of course, no selection can be absolutely comprehensive, and given its weight the volume as it is is not…

1 BBC NATIONAL CHORUS & ORCHESTRA OF WALES Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff, 1 July Tel: 0800 052 1812 (UK only) Web: www.bbc.co.uk/bbcnow Exactly 100 years to the day marking the start of the Battle of the Somme, baritone Christopher Maltman and soprano Elizabeth Watts join the BBC National Orchestra of Wales forces under Adrian Partington for a potent tribute. The programme includes songs from Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad, music by Howells and Roussel, plus the Requiem that Delius completed that very year. 2 PAVEL HAAS QUARTET East Neuk Festival, Kilrenny Church, 1 & 2 July Tel: +44 (0)131 473200 Web: www.eastneukfestival.com With Dvopák included in both concerts, the Pavel Haas Quartet – winner of the chamber category in this year’s BBC Music Magazine Awards –…

Over eight weeks, BBC TV will be broadcasting a selection of the best Proms concerts. The excitement of the 122nd season begins and ends with Sakari Oramo at the helm of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In the First Night (15 Jul), he is joined by Sol Gabetta for Elgar’s Cello Concerto, live on BBC Two. BBC Four will be broadcasting on Fridays and Sundays, switching to BBC Two during the Olympics. A glorious evening of Fauré, Mozart and Haydn from the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, in Prom 3 (17 Jul), is followed by the first ‘Strictly Prom’ where presenter Katie Derham dances the night away in Prom 8 (22 Jul). In stark contrast, in Prom 11 (24 Jul), Mark Wigglesworth raises the baton with the BBC National Orchestra of…

Ken Burton Composer and conductor ‘I find it fascinating that gospel, a relatively new form, draws its ethos from ancient sacred music; continually evolving and fusing with diverse genres, including Classical music, it is truly music past, music present, music future.’ Page 34 Tully Potter Music journalist and author ‘I have loved Max Reger’s music for more than 40 years. Since writing my article I have been in Leipzig, taking part in a Reger conference and seeing audiences wildly applaud some of his masterpieces.’ Page 38 Roger Parker Writer and academic ‘Pursuing rare, neglected operatic masterpieces is a huge pleasure as well as a privilege. Most of us agree that the operatic repertoire has become too fixed: adding new works to the mix will revive the entire enterprise.’…

‘As pianists, we can learn a lot from string and wind players’ Danae Dörken first encountered the piano at a birthday party. ‘I was only five, but when I heard the instrument I knew I had to play,’ she says. Her mother wasn’t so sure. ‘She said, “the piano is such a big instrument! Can’t you play something more practical, like the flute?”’ I was so serious about it, even then. I won a competition after a year of playing as a hobby, and after that we got a piano at home.’ Dörken’s hobby quickly escalated to a full-time obsession. Aged ten, she began commuting to Hanover every weekend, three hours from her home in Düsseldorf, to study with Professor Karl-Heinz Kammerling. He taught her for ten years. ‘The truth…

THIS MONTH IMOGEN COOPER piano Renowned for her intelligent, sensitive approach to the Classical and Romantic repertoire, Imogen Cooper is one of Britain’s finest pianists – equally at home as soloist, chamber musician and Lieder recitalist. She was awarded a CBE in 2007. Her CD of Chopin piano works is out now on Chandos. My finest moment Schubert Live, Vols 1-3 Imogen Cooper (piano) Avie AV2156-58 (2009) These Schubert recordings – the last six years of his piano music – were recorded by the BBC at concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The days when it all happened were very full on, and some of these big sonatas are anything up to 40 minutes long. So I’m pretty proud to have achieved these recordings on the…

Would you like to play at the Last Night of the Proms? As part of the BBC’s Get Playing campaign aimed at encouraging people to play instruments, an online ‘virtual orchestra’ will be part of the Last Night celebrations. Similar to composer Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir, the virtual orchestra will consist of videos that music enthusiasts from around UK can make of themselves playing the Toreador Song from Bizet’s Carmen. Uploaded onto a website, the videos will then be edited together and conducted by Marin Alsop alongside live performers on the big day. Anyone over 16 can take part, on any instrument. See bbc.co.uk/getplaying…

@gavricivana That thing where, at a meeting, you push your glasses up your nose only to realise you’re wearing contact lenses #fail Pianist Ivana Gavric makes a spectacle of herself @susantomespiano I hate those books called ‘X things to do before you die’. There’s certainly no other time to do them! Pianist Susan Tomes evidently has no agenda planned for the afterlife @Paul_McCreesh So glad to be back in UK after more than a month away. Even if the weather is grim. Fanfare trumpets at eurostar St Pancras in mitigation? For conductor Paul McCreesh, every cloud has a brass lining… @fhvln WHO TURNED OFF THE SUN??????? …while violinist Fenella Humphreys is more blunt in her assessment of the British weather @PosterTom Despite not playing the bassoon, I’ve appeared on…

Oliver Condy Editor With the promise of some sort of summer on the horizon (or at least there was one at the time of going to press), I’ve been exploring the sensuous sounds of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin’s First Symphony in a new recording by the LSO under Gergiev. Russian at its core, the 50-minute work has flashes of Wagner, Liszt, Franck and the odd sultry dash of Debussy. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor Way back in 1997, I had the pleasure of interviewing the Cuban guitarist Manuel Barrueco about Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. Recordings of the work are two-a-penny but, as I recently reminded myself in the company of a fine Rioja, Barrueco’s remains my favourite, not least as it is coupled here with the same composer’s songs…

What interests me is the danger of hitching orchestras to any political cause or entity Surprisingly few orchestras die. When I think of how precarious and competitive the classical music industry is, I am amazed that almost all the orchestras I remember from my boyhood are still rattling along, even if (in some cases) at least two wheels have come off the wagon. Musicians are born survivors. But this summer, it seems, a very famous orchestra will disappear forever. For 40 years, the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) has been a glamorous rite of passage for gifted instrumentalists starting their careers. There’s not a top orchestra in Europe that doesn’t have EUYO alumni in its ranks, nor any of the 28 European Union member states that doesn’t have players in…

How would you sum up this year’s season in one pithy answer? I would hope that it represents the best values of what Henry Wood and Robert Newman set out to do – the finest classical music for the widest possible audience. But it must be difficult to please everyone? It’s totally impossible! I come from a job [as head of Glyndebourne] where I’d be told it was pitiful there was no Mozart/Puccini/Verdi in the Glyndebourne season, and at the Proms you’ve got a similar balancing act – of course, there’s a difference between a Prom you’re putting on for an audience of young people, and one that might include an interesting piece of modern music that only the Proms could put on. What do you think is unique…

Once you find a way in, his harmony and chromatic melody will possess you Think of three great composers active in the first decade of last century, all with two-syllable names ending in ‘r’. Elgar... yes. Mahler... yes. But the third? Max Reger. Max Who? That’s just the trouble. Reger is well known in his native Germany but, even in his centenary year, his name obstinately refuses to travel abroad. For decades, Austro-German refugees at the BBC waged a campaign on behalf of Schoenberg, so listeners became aware of the Blessed Arnold. No one broke a lance for Reger. When a recording or a performance does pop up, it risks being dismissed by lazy critics with patronising remarks or the ‘witticisms’ that make Reger lovers cringe. Admittedly, Reger could be…

Leoncavallo Zazà Opera Rara ORC55 A tragic tale of the effects of one man’s infidelity as a wounded mistress visits her lover’s home only to discover his young daughter. Italian conductor Maurizio Benini directs the BBC Symphony Orchestra. See review, p71 Offenbach Fantasio Opera Rara ORC51 A student prankster pretends to be the king’s dead jester and goes on to win the hand of his daughter, having prevented a war. Sir Mark Elder conducts fine performances from a cast led by mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly. Donizetti Les martyrs Opera Rara ORC52 This opera’s story line revolves around, as you might expect, Christians being martyred. ‘Mark Elder elicits from his admirable singers and the OAE a reading of great intensity and refinement’, we wrote last year. Gounod La colombe…

Although born in 1931 in Bursa, some 550 km from Bodrum, the Turkish singer, composer and actor Zeki Müren became closely associated with the port. After suffering a heart attack in 1980, he settled in Bodrum for his last 16 years, and became known to locals as ‘Pasha’: his songs are still widely performed in Turkey and are part of the soundscape of Bodrum’s Barstreet. Müren’s extravagant style and effeminate appearance helped to make the Turks more tolerant, if not yet publicly accepting, of alternative sexual identities. His beautifully furnished Bodrum home became a museum after his death in 1996.…

The openings Typically, Bruckner’s symphonies begin with a string tremolo , as Beethoven’s Ninth does, with a theme emerging from it. The alternative is a reiterated rhythmic figure, as in the Sixth, with a theme eventually sneaking in. The closings In Bruckner’s grandest works, the final pages have the main themes of the symphony, sometimes with themes from another symphony, built into a mighty polyphonic conclusion, suggesting that the individual symphonies constitute an Ubersymphonie . The scherzos Bruckner’s scherzos become ever more thunderous and stampeding, the Ninth’s to an almost unbearable effect. The trios are often in marked, strongly lyrical contrast, and are almost movements in themselves. Finales Bruckner, like many other composers, found these the hardest to write impressively, and even the greatest…

Malcolm Hayes Composer, writer, biographer While considering that the rest of life is essentially a distraction from watching cricket and Ferrari motor-racing, Malcolm nonetheless composes his own music and writes about that of others. His book subjects include Messiaen, Webern, Walton and Liszt. 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, editor Michael Church writer, critic, The Independent Christopher Cook broadcaster, critic Martin Cotton radio & recording producer Christopher Dingle professor of music, Birmingham Conservatoire Misha Donat producer, writer Jessica Duchen critic, novelist Hilary Finch critic,…

MUSORGSKY • SCHULLER • R STRAUSS Musorgsky: Pictures at an Exhbition (orch. Ravel); Khovanshchina – excerpts; Schuller: Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee; Strauss: Don Juan Minneapolis Symphony/Antal Doráti Minuet 428411 (1958-60) 78:42 mins Polished playing, Pictures brisk and rather relentless, and Khovanshchina marginally more sympathetic. The Schuller – a tongue-in-cheek compendium of modernist styles – is engaging, as is the Strauss despite airless sound. PERFORMANCE RECORDING STRAVINSKY Petrushka; The Rite of Spring Paris Conservatoire Orchestra/ Pierre Monteux Eloquence 480 8903 (1956) 68 mins A virtually complete recording of Petrushka, though omitting the drummed links, and a Rite that’s fascinatingly detailed yet mutes the more visceral thumps and crashes. Rather boxy sound. PERFORMANCE RECORDING STRAVINSKY Igor Stravinsky in USSR: Apollon Musagète; Orpheus; Ode; Fireworks Leningrad Philharmonic/Mravinsky; USSR Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic/Igor…

BARTÓK • PROKOFIEV Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2; Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2* Gil Shaham (violin); The Knights/Eric Jacobsen; Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra/Stéphane Denève* Canary Classics CC 16 62:41 mins For his second CD exploring great violin concertos of the 1930s, Gil Shaham turns to two masterpieces with more in common than one might have expected. Despite their very different musical languages, both Second Violin Concertos by Prokofiev and Bartók are characterised by feelings of nostalgia and lyrical reflection. Yet an underlying sense of anxiety is never far from the surface, fuelled in many instances by sudden eruptions of high-voltage aggression. Shaham’s earlier DG recording of the Prokofiev with the LSO under André Previn remains a benchmark performance, so it’s perhaps not surprising that he has opted for a slightly…

BERTONI Orfeo ed Euridice Vivica Genaux (mezzo-soprano), Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli (soprano), Jan Petryka (tenor); Accademia di Santo Spirito di Ferrara; Ensemble Lorenzo da Ponte/Roberto Zarpellon Fra Bernardo FB 1601729 70:24 mins Orfeo ed Euridice (1776), composed or perhaps, rather, arranged by the Italian Ferdinando Bertoni (1725-1813), is essentially a one-act cover version of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (1762). Bertoni not only reset the same libretto, but also cribbed much of his music from Gluck. The driving force behind it was its star, the castrato Gaetano Guadagni. Gluck had written Orfeo ed Euridice for him, and after its premiere in Vienna, Guadagni helped put together various pasticcio versions of the Gluck opera for his later engagements. Bertoni’s Orfeo was the last of a series of such works, of which…

BRITTEN Young Apollo; Lachrymae: Prelude and Fugue for 18 strings; Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings Allan Clayton (tenor), Richard Watkins (horn), Máté Szücs (viola), Lorenzo Soulès (piano); Aldeburgh Strings/ Markus Däunert Linn CKD 478 55:03 mins Here’s a remarkably effective and unusual programme. Though featuring the Aldeburgh Strings, it offers not the usual all-string showpieces like the Frank Bridge Variations, but such less regarded works as Young Apollo and the Prelude and Fugue, Op. 29; together with the short but potent Lachrymae, their shared melancholy is an effective foil to the generally more ebullient Serenade. In that deft masterpiece, tenor Allan Clayton’s hushed tone for ‘Pastoral’ is quite different from the dedicatee Peter Pears’s more mellifluous approach, yet effective and engaging. And in the following Tennyson song, ‘Nocturne’, aided…

BARTÓK Rhapsodies Nos 1 & 2; Violin Sonatas Nos 1 & 2; Violin Sonata in E minor; Solo Violin Sonata; Piano Sonata; Romanian Folk Dances (arr. Szekely); Andante in A Tanja Becker-Bender (violin), Peter Nagy (piano) SWR Music SWR 19003 146:35 mins (2 discs) Beginning with the First Rhapsody is a cunning move: not only does it demonstrate Tanja Becker-Bender’s engagement with the folk style of string playing, but also it eases the ear in gently to the more acerbic harmonies and sophisticated musical arguments of the First Violin Sonata. Here, she and pianist Peter Nagy characterise the free-flowing, rhapsodic substance of the opening movement with complete assurance, and her palette of tone colours is dazzling and well-chosen. She could be a little further forward in the recorded balance, but…

BEETHOVEN Cello Sonatas Nos 1-5 Daniil Shafran (cello), Anton Ginsburg (piano) Melodiya MEL CD 10 02296 (1971) 62:58 mins Masterly early 1970s performances from Daniil Shafran and Anton Ginsburg who triumph over close microphone scrutiny with an infectious chamber-scale delight in the cascading emotional exuberance of these sonatas. PERFORMANCE RECORDING BEETHOVEN • FRANCK Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor; Beethoven: Cello Sonatas Nos 2 & 4 Mstislav Rostropovich (cello), Sviatoslav Richter (piano); Bolshoi Theatre Quartet Minuet Records 428415 (1949/62) 78:53 mins Compared to Marc-André Hamelin’s poetic introspection, Richter’s brooding 1949 account of the Franck fires on all cylinders, counterpoised by early 1960s Beethoven of great wit and sparkle. PERFORMANCE RECORDING SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartets Nos 1, 2 & 5 Borodin Quartet Praga Digitals PRD 250 323 (1964-6) 79:55 mins Recorded live…

BRAD MEHLDAU Blues and Ballads Brad Mehldau (piano), Larry Grenadier (bass), Jeff Ballard (drums) Nonesuch 0075597946505 56 mins Pianist Brad Mehldau has a reputation for disparate, daring collaborative projects along a wide spectrum ranging from classical (with soprano Renée Fleming) to prog rock (with drummer Mark Guiliana), as well as stupendous solo recitals. But the jazz trio is arguably his fans’ favourite format, and four years on from this band’s last album, they won’t be disappointed. The numbers interpreted here by Mehldau are characteristically eclectic. An obtusely articulated blues (with a curious cliffhanger ending), Buddy Johnson’s ‘Since I Fell For You’ is the gentle launch pad for a programme of studiously swinging standards. He extracts the essence of Cole Porter’s ‘I Concentrate On You’, drip-feeding the tune to prolong the…

APRIL 2016 To mark his 100th anniversary, we celebrate violinist Yehudi Menuhin; plus, Menuhin plays Bartók on the free CD MAY 2016 What are the greatest works inspired by the plays of Shakespeare? Plus, Schumann’s Rückert songs on the free CD JUNE 2016 We explain why Mendelssohn was a 19th-century great; plus, his First and Fourth Symphonies on your free CD We’re sorry, but issues of BBC Music published more than 12 months ago are no longer available. BBC Music Magazine and CD slipcases are perfect for storing your collection. Subscribers can save up to 30% when ordering both together. TO ORDER CALL 0844 844 0260 BACK ISSUE PRICES SUBSCRIBERS UK – £4.48 per copy Europe – £5.28 per copy Rest of world – £6.08 per copy NON-SUBSCRIBERS UK –…

HI-FI HEADPHONE AMP Audeze Deckard £599 Designed by BMW Designworks and named after Deckard, Harrison Ford’s character in the film Bladerunner , Audeze’s £599 headphone amp has an industrial-style beauty, with a stark, utilitarian brushed metal finish. The Deckard is hi-resolution audio ready, thanks to an in-built DAC (digital to analogue converter) that’s able to handle 16- to 32-bit music tracks with sampling rates all the way up to 384kHz. For the uninitiated, that’s very high-quality digital encoding. The performance is impressive, to say the least. Even with compressed music sources such as Spotify, the Deckard delivers superb playback, almost as if the streaming service had decided to go hi-res overnight and not tell anyone. The only downside is the hefty price tag. But if you spend a good deal…

Il trovatore, one of Verdi’s most popular operas, with its spectacular arias, rousing choruses and nail-biting dramatic tension, was composed 1851-3. Verdi had been impressed with the melodramatic play El trovador by Spanish playwright Antonio García Gutiérrez and suggested it to his librettist Salvadore Cammarano. Although Cammarano died in July 1852, when the opera was still being written, Verdi enlisted a talented young poet, Leone Emanuele Bardare, to take over. The plot, set in 15th-century Spain, is somewhat convoluted, and concerns two separated brothers, the heroic troubadour Manrico and the evil Conte di Luna. Manrico is in love with Leonora, a lady-in-waiting, although the Conte also happens to fancy her. Meanwhile, the gypsy Azucena, who has raised Manrico as her own son, is out to avenge the death of her…

Shostakovich Symphony No. 1 New York Philharmonic/ Leonard Bernstein Sony G010002678757L (download only) Sibelius Symphonies Lahti Symphony Orchestra/ Osmo Vänskä BIS-CD-1286/1288 Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians Various soloists Nonesuch 7559794482 Kurt Weill The Threepenny Opera Ute Lemper, René Kollo, et al; RIAS Berlin Sinfonietta and Kammerchor/John Mauceri Decca 430 0752 Berlioz Harold in Italy Pinchas Zukerman (viola); Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal/Charles Dutoit Decca 421 1932…

Which works are you most looking forward to discovering at the Proms? One of the biggest challenges of programming the BBC Proms, the festival’s new intendant, David Pickard tells me, is combining a wide range of unfamiliar and new repertoire with the needs of classical music newcomers for whom Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, for example, is a totally new experience. It’s a delicate balancing act, alongside that of choosing lesser-known works of a high enough quality to sit comfortably alongside the established classics. Those booking tickets for Prom 72 with the aim of hearing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel may well be swept up instead in Max Reger’s brilliant Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Mozart, a work of mesmerising beauty and craft that scotches the German…

Recorder milestone Decca Classics has signed its first recorder player, 16-year-old Lucie Horsch. The Dutch musician will release her debut album this autumn, an all-Vivaldi affair featuring four concertos, including La notte and La tempesta di mare, as well as aria arrangements from his Nisi Dominus and Giustino. Horsch took up the recorder at the age of five. ‘I loved the pure, authentic sound – it’s so beautiful and vulnerable,’ she says. ‘And because you blow directly into the instrument, everything you do, you hear immediately. For me it’s the instrument closest to the human voice, but it has an even greater range.’ Nelsons scores hat-trick Three composers in particular will be on Andris Nelsons’s mind for the next few years, after signing an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. The…

The first instalment in Andrew Manze and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s Vaughan Williams symphony cycle on Onyx Classics is our Orchestral Choice this month, p74. And they have recently been back in the studio to record the second volume, which turns to Symphonies Nos 3 & 4. The National Youth Orchestra plays Holst’s The Planets, under the baton of Edward Gardner, at this year’s Proms (p29). And there’ll be a chance to hear it again, as their performance at the Royal Albert Hall will be recorded live and released by Chandos Records. Soprano Grace Davidson, often to be heard singing as a soloist with and as a member of The Sixteen, and lutenist David Miller headed to Ascot Priory in Berkshire recently to record a disc of Dowland’s songs.…

If you go to the Harvard website, you can see a bound copy of all 12 of Lear’s settings of Tennyson A couple of years ago I wrote about finding a manuscript of hymn-tunes by Thomas Bartlett, rector of Swanage till his death in 1841 – a discovery that led me into the enjoyable world of West Gallery Music. Copyright law meant that we had to trace Mr Bartlett’s descendants, and recently his great-great-something-grandson came to Southampton to inspect the manuscript. He very kindly brought along a few items that he thought might interest us – a fine 18th-century manuscript of music by William Knapp of Poole, and some mysterious snippets of parchment with plainsong neumes. These were very decorative. One big initial D (for Domine) had been filled in…

Dennis Smith Borehamwood JS Bach is one of my favourite composers and I’ve recently been listening to the recording of his toccatas by pianist Angela Hewitt on the Hyperion label. I especially love the one in C minor which I’ve known for years. I love the way the fugue goes on and on, constantly repeating but always different. I first heard the work when I bought a record by pianist Marcel Maas – that’s what got me hooked on it. Liana Püschel Turin, Italy I recently saw a performance of La donna serpente by Alfredo Casella at Turin’s Teatro Regio, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. Casella, as other Italian composers of the beginning of the 20th century, struggled to demonstrate that Italy could be more than the land of melodrama,…

UPHOLSTERY I bought my art deco flat three years ago and I was determined not to put any flat pack furniture in it. Instead, I went to auctions, where you can get lovely original pieces which are just slightly unloved and need a little bit of work. As an upholsterer, I am essentially completely self-taught: it was my mother’s hobby, actually, and I have a book. I am working on a chaise longue, but only get the chance to do it when I’m not working so it’s a bit on and off. But it’s nice to come back from singing and do something physical and repetitive, and I was a mechanical engineer as an undergraduate so the artisan side appeals. There’s always shock as you undo the layers of the…

RAH = Royal Albert Hall CH = Cadogan Hall FRIDAY 15 JULY PROM 1 7pm–c9.15pm RAH Tchaikovsky Fantasy-Overture ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Elgar Cello Concerto, Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky – cantata. Sol Gabetta (cello), Olga Borodina (mezzo-soprano), BBC National Chorus of Wales, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo SATURDAY 16 JULY PROM 2 7.30pm–c9.45pm RAH Musorgsky Boris Godunov (original version, 1869). Bryn Terfel (Boris Godunov), Benjamin Knight (Fyodor), Vlada Borovko (Xenia), John Graham-Hall (Shuisky), Kostas Smoriginas (Shchelkalov), Ain Anger (Pimen), David Butt Philip (Grigory, Pretender Dmitry), Andrii Goniukov (Varlaam), Harry Nicoll (Missail), Rebecca de Pont Davies (Innkeeper), Royal Opera Chorus, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House/Antonio Pappano SUNDAY 17 JULY PROM 3 7.00pm-c9.30pm RAH Mozart Exsultate, jubilate, Haydn Mass in Time of War (Paukenmesse), Fauré Pavane (choral version), Cantique de Jean…

‘How did you learn to do this?’ one of Charlotte Bray’s teachers asked her ten years ago. He was talking about composition, and she didn’t know the answer. The story isn’t told to sound grand or precious – she’s at pains to say so, although it’s hardly necessary – but simply to illustrate the fact that she’s still not at all sure how it is that she came to find her composer’s voice; how she began to develop her style. It’s remarkable because she’s now established as an important talent. Since her early 30s, she has had a formidable body of chamber music to her name, including opera, and this summer her first concerto – for the cello, her own instrument – will have its first performance at the BBC…

Reger Collection Various artists Brilliant 94663 (11 discs) A bargain, as ten of the orchestral performances have claims to be the best. Konwitschny’s Hiller Variations is one of the great recordings of anything. Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Mozart Staatskapelle Dresden/ Herbert Blomstedt Hänssler Profil PH07003 Blomstedt’s is the real deal, spontaneous but beautifully played. Each variation is subtly paced and the fugue tops it all. Violin Concerto Two Romances Kolja Lessing (violin); Göttingen SO/Mueller Telos Music TLS 097 A gorgeous disc of Reger’s music for violin and orchestra, Kolja Lessing’s idiomatic solo work backed by an equally sympathetic conductor. String Quartets; Clarinet Quintet Karl Leister (clarinet), Drolc Quartet DG 477 5518 (3 CDs) The Drolc turn on their Romantic manner but respect the structural demands. In the…

Be honest. We’ve all done it. You put on a recording of your favourite work, you gently close your eyes… and you imagine that you yourself are the soloist or conductor. Before you know it, you are pounding out Rachmaninov’s ferociously difficult chords in front of an adoring audience at the Royal Albert Hall, holding Carnegie Hall in rapt attention with the sheer brilliance of your Sibelius Violin Concerto, or conducting vast forces in Mahler’s Third Symphony. But what about the world’s great musicians themselves? Given that they already enjoy such experiences, what do they dream of? We asked ten leading performers, all of whom are appearing at this year’s BBC Proms, to tell us which instrument other than their own they would love to master – and by ‘instrument’,…

Opening concert Bodrum’s D-Marin Classical Music Festival opens, fittingly, with Turkey’s celebrated pianist Idil Biret, this year celebrating her 75 birthday. Biret performs Grieg’s Piano Concerto. 20 August Vladimir Ashkenazy Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts the London Chamber Orchestra in Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto. Pianist Daniel Kharitonov and trumpeter Lucienne Renaudin-Vary are the soloists. 21 August Lionel Bringuier and friends The inspirational young Lionel Bringuier conducts two concerts with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. Gautier Capuçon joins them for Dvopák’s Cello Concerto, and Patricia Kopatchinskaja then plays Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. 25 & 26 August Fazil Say A festival favourite, Fazil Say (left) appears at the Castle, firstly as pianist in a concert featuring young Turkish musicians, then as composer with his large-scale Nâzim Oratorio , performed on the D-Marin…

THE LIFE 1824 Joseph Anton Bruckner is born in ANSFELDEN, Austria, on 4 September. His father is the village schoolmaster, and plays the violin for extra income. 1845 Following in his father’s steps, he becomes an assistant teacher at St Florian. On the death of his friend Franz Sailer, he writes his first large work, the Requiem in D minor. 1855 He abandons teaching to become an organist at Linz cathedral. He studies with music theorist SIMON SECHTER, giving up composition for a while. 1867 Following a breakdown, he spends the summer in a sanatorium. The following year he recovers sufficiently to begin work at the Vienna Conservatory as professor of harmony and counterpoint. 1877 On 16 December his Third Symphony is premiered in Vienna. After the death of his…

SIBELIUS Symphonies Nos 1-7 Berlin Philharmonic/Sir Simon Rattle Berliner Philharmoniker BPHR 150071 297 mins (4 discs + 2 Blu-rays) ‘Rattle has undoubtedly prepared his Berlin Philharmonic to the highest level for this Sibelius project. The youthful impetus behind the wealth of ideas in the First Symphony is always felt; the dewy-eyed beauty of so much of the instrumentation can be breathtaking.’ December 2015 SCHUMANN Symphonies Nos 1-4 Berlin Philharmonic/Sir Simon Rattle Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings BPHR 140011 (Blu-ray) 175 mins (3 discs) ‘These are predictably fine performances, with well-judged tempos throughout, and moments such as the pianissimo fugato in the slow movement of Symphony No. 2 are spellbinding.’ September 2014 BRAHMS Symphonies Nos 1-4 Berlin Philharmonic/Sir Simon Rattle Warner 267 2542 166:30 mins (3 discs) ‘Rattle has clearly forged a deep…

ALBÉNIZ Suite española; Rapsodia española; Piano Concerto No. 1 (Concierto fantastico); The Magic Opal – Suite Martin Roscoe (piano); BBC Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena Chandos CHAN 10897 79:42 mins Albéniz demonstrated that Spanish composers could write Spanish music. Until he made his mark, music with a Spanish flavour was essentially presented as a kind of exotic other, notably by French composers, often without setting foot in the country. For Albéniz, the rhythms and harmonies of his native land were a natural part of his music, his Spanish accent often coming through even when portraying other places, such as the Greek setting of the Suite from The Magic Opal. This latest instalment of conductor Juanjo Mena’s absorbing La Musica de España series with the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos fills in some of the…

These are stimulating performances, elegantly presented It’s the best part of half a century since the historically-informed specialists began recording Haydn symphonies, yet there’s been no complete cycle on period instruments… until now. There have been noble attempts to scale this Everest; Derek Solomons and l’Estro armonico barely made it beyond base camp; Roy Goodman’s Hanover Band and Christopher Hogwood with the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) climbed further, without summiting. Then Decca had the brainwave of taking Hogwood’s recordings and filling most gaps using Frans Brüggen’s catalogue. Perhaps the best surprise is how fresh and invigorating the AAM’s first Haydn from 1983 still sounds. Back then after Thomas Beecham and Antal Doráti’s Haydn, this was a brave new world of smaller ensembles, a clean athletic string sound, plangent but…

In performances of such commitment and flair, nothing is routine HAYDN Violin Concerto in G; Horn Concerto in D; Keyboard Concerto in G; Symphony in G minor (La poule); Fantasia in C; Keyboard Concerto in D ; Concerto for violin & harpsichord in F Riccardo Minasi (violin/conductor), Maxim Emelyanychev (harpsichord/ conductor), Johannes Hinterholzer (horn); Il Pomo d’Oro Erato 2564605204 124:97 mins (2 discs) ‘Less original and less popular than his symphonies’: this is the Grove Dictionary’s assessment of Haydn’s keyboard concertos – of which he wrote 11 – but it can also serve for the way received opinion generally views his entire concertante output. If the aim of Il Pomo d’Oro’s two-disc set was to contradict such dismissal, it has been achieved with exhilarating success. It’s a concerto pot-pourri, so…

JS BACH The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I Christophe Rousset (harpsichord) Aparté AP 120 123:46 mins (2 discs) No need to wait eagerly for Book II of Christophe Rousset’s recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier: it was released a couple of years ago. It set down a marker not only as to Rousset’s approach to the music, but also to his preferred sound-world since both Books deploy the same instrument: a regally piquant 1628 Ruckers harpsichord whose decoration is as splendid as its home, the Palace of Versailles. ‘Intellectual and technical mastery’ are the qualities Rousset believes to be paramount in the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier, and he possesses both in spades. His is a grounded, incontestably considered reading, exuding a quiet, unflappable authority reminiscent of Gustav Leonhardt. Tempos are…

THE SEEDS OF LIFE Kirsty Potts, Alison McMorland Own Label KP 227 A DAY FOR THE HUNTER, A DAY FOR THE PREY Leyla McCalla Jazz Village 570116 WA DI YO Lakou Mizik Cumbancha CMB CD38 ALA TA Awa Sangho Motema/Membran 233909 LIKE A BIRD OR SPIRIT, NOT A FACE Sainkho Namtchylak Ponderosa Music & Art THE QUEEN OF TURQUOISE Basel Rajoub & the Soriana Project Jazz Village 570123 Just as Causley’s music clearly projects an English identity, The Seeds Of Life, an eclectic self-produced debut by singer and accordionist/keyboard player KIRSTY POTTS of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, sounds like a very Scottish biography. Local songs reflect the influence of her mother, the folk singer Alison McMorland (on backing vocals), while there’s an English music hall song, blues and rock flavours, and even…

WHY WE LOVE MUSIC: From Mozart to Metallica – The Emotional Power of Beautiful Sounds John Powell John Murray ISBN 9781473613744 (hb) 304pp 9781473613751 (e-book) There are often times in physics professor John Powell’s chatty exploration of the basic psychology, theory and acoustics of music when you do stop to wonder how useful, accurate, let alone scientifically grounded, his insights are. Take this observation on how we choose music: ‘If you’ve just got back from a party and are feeling excited because someone you fancy asked for your phone number, you’ll choose to listen to something soothing and relaxing to help calm you down.’ Or this, on the same page, about taste: ‘We have a Goldilocks attitude toward the complexity of music we enjoy. We like it to be…

ONE BOX-HI FI SYSTEM Naim Mu-so Qb £595 At the tail end of 2015 I was sent the Naim Mu-so wireless music system (the Mu-so Qb’s larger sibling) and was blown away. The Mu-so Qb promises to retain that excellence in a smaller package, but is that possible? The compact build quality is superb and and the whole feels refreshingly weighty, due, in part, to the arrangement of its five speakers – including two dome tweeters, two mid-range drivers, and a subwoofer – that have been snugly fitted into the confines of the Mu-so Qb’s chassis. It doesn’t disappoint when you take a listen, either, producing an astonishing level of sound. There’s plenty of thunderous low-end thump, a pleasing dash of mid-range frequencies and crisp, crystal-clear treble. In fact it’s…

DAVID LANG IS ONE OF America’s most-performed and imaginative composers, and co-founder of contemporary ensemble Bang on a Can. His extensive catalogue of works includes the Pulitzer prize-winning choral work little match girl passion and death speaks, a song cycle based on Schubert, performed by rock musicians. The premiere of Lang’s Memorial Ground is at the East Neuk Festival on 2 July before touring the UK as part of the First World War centenary art commissions, ‘14-18 NOW’. One day, when I was nine, it was raining at school, so to keep us quiet at lunchtime, they put us in the auditorium and showed us Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts. All my classmates were yelling and throwing their lunch, but I was transfixed. Bernstein was conducting Shostakovich’s First Symphony and…