Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2016 i BBC Music Magazine

ON AIR Early Edinburgh Radio 3 heads to the Edinburgh Festival this month where, among much else, it will be broadcasting from The Queen’s Hall each day at 11am. The line-up includes tenor Mark Padmore performing Schubert’s Schwanengesang, baritone Simon Keenlyside singing Gershwin and Weill, and Tenebrae showcasing Brahms. See p88 ON DISC Back on form The Minnesota Orchestra was on the cusp of a bitter 16-month dispute when, in 2012, it released volume one of its Sibelius symphony cycle – things looked bleak. Since 2014, however, the musicians have been back playing and, as their final disc in the cycle (Symphonies Nos 3, 6 and 7) shows, they’re sounding excellent. See p56 ONLINE Get Playing! Has your instrument been gathering dust in the attic? Or maybe you’re keen to…

RUNNICLES ROCKS Another great performance from Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on your July cover disc! Their Mahler Ninth symphony is among the very finest, as were their Brahms German Requiem (Vol. 21, No. 9), my absolutely favourite recording, and their Shostakovich Tenth Symphony (Vol. 23, No. 8). More from this combination, please. To judge from Runnicles’s performance with an illustrious continental orchestra, I hope that someone has already locked him and the BBC SSO in a studio with Elgar’s First Symphony and turned on the recording equipment! Revd Peter Phillips, Swansea UNLIKELY ADMIRER Erik Levi noted that ‘there are surprising allusions to Wagner in Mendelssohn’s work’ (Mendelssohn profile, June). But I think that a case can be made that it was Wagner who was…

Chart for week ending 16 June 2016 1 Granada 1013-1526 Hespèrion XXI/Jordi Savall Alia Vox AVSA9915 A captivating 500-year musical survey of the Spanish city’s cultural and religious diversity 2 Légende Works for trumpet and piano Alison Balsom (trumpet), Tom Poster (piano) Warner 9029598772 A colourful and involving recital disc, including French composer Jean Françaix’s witty Sonatine 3 The Deer’s Cry Works by Pärt, Tallis and Byrd The Sixteen/Harry Christophers Coro COR16140 Still in the chart, and deservedly so… 4 Rachmaninov Etudes-tableaux Boris Giltburg (piano) Naxos 8.573469 Gutsy, muscular performances of the Russian composer’s pianistic tours de force 5 Hymns from King’s King’s College Choir, Cambridge/ Stephen Cleobury King’s College Cambridge KGS0014 Congregational lollipops sung to perfection 6 Tchaikovsky Symphonies Nos 1,…

ALISA WEILERSTEIN cellist I recently played the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio, and I have been listening to the live recording with cellist Jacqueline du Pré, pianist Daniel Barenboim and violinist Pinchas Zukerman. It’s amazing playing all round. Du Pré is probably my favourite cellist, and maestro Barenboim is a person I admire musically and personally so deeply, and someone I have learnt so much from over the past few years. The chemistry between the three of them in this incredible recording is very inspiring. Mstislav Rostropovich is someone I’ve always looked up to, and his recording of Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain… is spectacular. I’m going to be playing this piece next year and I’m using this as my reference recording. When I’m learning a piece it is helpful to…

FLYING FINN Santtu-Matias Rouvali has been named as the new chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. The brilliant Finn, 30, who was interviewed for BBC Music Magazine’s Rising Star column last July, is also currently chief conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic, where he has earned a reputation for imaginative programming and no-holds-barred performances. STARTING BLOXHAM The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, meanwhile, has announced that Jonathan Bloxham is to be its new assistant conductor. Bloxham, who hails from Newcastle, takes over from Alpesh Chauhan. Chauhan has proved a big success in his time at Symphony Hall and also recently conducted the BBC Philharmonic in the BBC’s Ten Pieces II series of films. SOGGY PLANETS June’s rain proved to be the bringer of misery for the Holst Birthplace Museum in…

ALBERTO REMEDIOS Born 1935 Tenor Obsessed by opera and football in equal measure, Alberto Remedios’s passion for the latter once had a near-disastrous impact on the former – called up as a late replacement as Alfredo in Verdi’s La traviata, he had to admit he had spent the afternoon shouting himself hoarse at Liverpool FC. When his voice was in better fettle, however, he was acclaimed as a tenor of exceptional power and agility, particularly at home in Wagner. Born in Liverpool, and employed in his teens at the Cammell Laird shipyard, he went on to enjoy success at many opera houses, but above all English National Opera (ENO). Among his numerous Wagnerian successes at ENO was his Siegfried in the company’s famous Ring cycle conducted by Reginald…

The first time Pinchas Zukerman heard of The Lark Ascending was when Daniel Barenboim asked him, in the midst of their late-1960s heady time in London, what he was doing the following day. There was a piece he wanted him to play. Zukerman tells the story like a New York patter merchant. ‘He said it was by Vaughan Williams. The Lark Ascending, I said; what’s a lark?’ ‘It’s a bird.’ ‘What kinda bird?’ ‘Ah, just a bird. You know. Never mind – it flies.’ So they got up early on the Saturday morning – they were holed up in the Westbury Hotel for a few months, Zukerman staying away from the US because of the Vietnam War – and got to Schott’s music shop in Great Marlborough Street when it…

Jazz Walton’s rise to prominence coincided with the 1920s jazz age. This influenced his music’s liking for snappy cross-rhythms, as in Belshazzar’s Feast – and also its distinctive harmonic tang, described routinely (and no less accurately for that) as ‘bitter-sweet’. Italy Walton’s lifelong love of Italy went much deeper than the standard Anglo-Saxon vogue for contented living in Chianti-shire. The sunlit peninsula’s sounds, colours and moods, from roguish to dreamily lyrical, were central to his music, particularly after his move to the island of Ischia in 1949. Romanticism Many of Walton’s works amount to a richly inventive dialogue between two seemingly disparate musical impulses: a forward-looking modernist streak, with complex rhythms and jazz-inflected harmony; and a deep vein of lyrical romanticism, relating to his love of…

Geoff Brown Critic, The Times Geoff Brown studied English at Cambridge University, sang under Benjamin Britten’s baton and wrote a thesis on the Marx Brothers, before joining The Times’s music team in 1999. He has also been the paper’s film critic and continues to work as a film historian. 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…

BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra; The Miraculous Mandarin – Suite; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; Divertimento for Strings*; Hungarian Sketches* etc LSO, *Chicago Symph Orch/Georg Solti Eloquence ELQ 480 6872 (1964) 138:49 mins (2 discs) Bartók’s key orchestral works here bristle, lament, play, startle, terrify and glow as if plucked fresh from the composer’s heart. Likely to turn you into a Bartók fan if you are not one already. PERFORMANCE RECORDING DEBUSSY • SIBELIUS Sibelius: Symphonies Nos 3 & 7; Swan of Tuonela; Debussy: Nocturnes Nos 1 & 2 Leningrad Philharmonic Orch/Mravinsky Praga Digitals 350106 (1963-65) 70:56 mins Live performances of searing intensity, authoritative pacing and a breathtaking balance of tension and beauty. Includes Mravinsky’s only known Sibelius Symphony No. 3. PERFORMANCE RECORDING KORNGOLD Symphony in F sharp major; Violin…

Hans Gál (1890-1987) Born to a Jewish family near Vienna, Gál studied piano with Richard Robert (whose pupils included Clara Haskil and Rudolf Serkin). From 1909 until 1911 he studied composition under Eusebius Mandyczewski, a former colleague of Brahms, later assisting his teacher with a complete Brahms edition (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1926). After some success as an opera composer, Gál became director of the Mainz Conservatory in 1929, but lost his post in 1933 when the Nazis took power. He eventually fled to the UK, where he settled and taught in Edinburgh.…

John Taverner (c1490-1545) We know nothing of Taverner’s life before 1524, when he travelled from Tattershall in Lincolnshire to be a guest singer at the Church of St Botolph in Boston. Two years later he was appointed by Cardinal Wolsey first organist and master of the choristers at Cardinal College (today Christ Church), Oxford. He became one of England’s great polyphonic masters of 16th century, and his surviving compositions include eight Masses, including one of his most celebrated works which is based on the secular song ‘The Western Wynde’. His Mass Gloria tibi Trinitas became the source of several instrumental compositions called In nomine .…

Helen Wallace Writer and journalist ‘Practise saying “Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla” in front of a mirror: this girl is going to go very far. My prediction is that she’ll be the music director of one of the world’s great opera houses before she’s turned 40.’ Page 22 Richard Westwood-Brookes Writer and document collector ‘Recently by accident I unearthed a secret document, lost for decades, chronicling the notorious activities of composers Peter Warlock and EJ Moeran during the 1920s – and here reveal its remarkable contents for the first time.’ Page 32 Rebecca Franks BBC Music’s reviews editor ‘What would I do if I found myself with £10 million? It was a question I pondered throughout my fascinating visit to Saffron Hall, a superb new concert hall built in a state…

THE ESSENCE OF BRAHMS I got a kick from your June issue when I read, on successive pages, the words of praise for Emil Gilels’s performance of Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto (Music To My Ears). I bought the new LP release as a schoolboy of 14 nearly 45 years ago, and it has stayed ever since at the top of my Desert Island chart. Remarkable as Gilels is in distilling the piano part, I think what makes the performance special is the contribution of Eugen Jochum and the Berlin Philharmonic in creating a sense of true partnership. Obviously, the diverse character of the four movements is a compositional principle but it is the first movement which is the work’s sublime heart. To me, the definition of a true Brahmsian is…

‘To say I went to Cambridge for a break sounds ludicrous’ Making the choice between music college and university was a pivotal moment for Joseph Shiner, as it is for many aspiring musicians. Today, he is happy with his choice. ‘To say I went to Cambridge for a break sounds absolutely ludicrous,’ he laughs, ‘but it allowed me to make my own choices about playing for the first time in years. I had had an amazing time at Wells Cathedral School [a specialist music school], but after so many years of being on the treadmill, it was wonderful to experience something completely different.’ As it was, he managed to complete both a music college and university qualification in the four years it usually takes to do just the one. ‘I…

THIS MONTH OSMO VÄNSKÄ conductor The Finnish conductor has been at the helm of the Minnesota Orchestra for the past decade, after 20 years in charge of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. He brings his American group to Europe in August, and their latest disc of Sibelius symphonies is this month’s Orchestral Choice. My finest moment Sibelius Symphonies Nos 1 & 4 Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä BIS BIS1996 (2013) Potentially I think it could be the final CD of my Sibelius cycle with the Minnesota Orchestra, featuring Symphonies Nos 3, 6 & 7. I have listened to various edits and I was just crying – really, really crying. The orchestra really puts its heart into the music. That’s coming out in August, so I will choose for here…

Tenor Nicky Spence and sopranos Mary Bevan and Ailish Tynan are joining up with fellow singers and other musicians to do their bit for ‘SongCycle’, a sponsored bike ride that aims to raise over £25,000 for the charity Help Musicians UK. Beginning with a concert at Scottish Opera in Glasgow on 24 July, the SongCycle peloton will then make its way 500 miles south to London, where another performance will be given at the Coliseum on 31 July. ‘This is certainly a more terrifying prospect than any six hour-long opera by Wagner,’ says Spence, the group’s organiser and, yes, spokesman. For details, go to helpmusicians.org.uk/songcycle2016.…

@JoyceDiDonato Yanniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick!!!!! @nezetseguin We take it that mezzo Joyce DiDonato (left) is pleased by the appointment of Yannick Nézet-Séguin as music director at the New York Met @matthewmbarley Just walked into the side of a doorway at the eye doctor... guess that gave them some useful info. Ouch. Cellist Matthew Barley proves a hit at the opticians @AmyHarmanBsn Tonight I simultaneously make my memorised Beethoven 5, Swanee whistle, toy trumpet, double handed hose pipe & ratchet debuts @ auroraorchestra If Amy Harman is anything to go by, bassoonists are nothing if not multi-talented @danieltongpiano If you see two magpies landing next to a large rat, is that good luck or bad luck? Fate and the natural world come together for pianist Daniel Tong @JRhodesPianist Automatic…

Oliver Condy Editor Towards the end of his life, personal tragedy and illness prompted Duke Ellington to explore his Christianity. The result was a late flowering – a series of loosely-written Sacred Concerts (from 1965, ’68 and ’73) that Ellington called ‘the most important thing’ he’d done. They’ve been brought to vivid life in a new recording on the Rondeau label featuring the terrific Fette Hupe big band plus choir and soloists. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor Inspired by a feature in last month’s issue, I’ve been pondering the pieces that I’d love to be able to play in front of an adoring audience. Maybe in another life, I’ll get to impress packed concert halls with my coruscating performance of Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor? As it is, I’ll have…

The LSO agreed to Pierre Monteux’s demand for a 25-year contract. He was 86. The words ‘end of an era’ are wheeled out so often that they have lost all connection with reality. The death or retirement of even a celebrity figure rarely signifies a seismic shift in human affairs akin to the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution or the First World War. Nevertheless, I’m going to write ‘end of an era’ about James Levine’s departure from the New York Metropolitan Opera after 40 years as music director – 18 of those as artistic director as well. As it happens, I don’t warm to Levine as musician or man. But neither do I underestimate his impact on the Met – for better or worse. Conducting more than 2,500 performances there, he…

Joana Carneiro (b.1976) Portuguese Carneiro is music director of the Berkeley Symphony and principal conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica Portuguesa. She came to attention with the successful UK premiere of John Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary at English National Opera. Elim Chan (b.1988) The first female winner of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, in 2014, Hong Kong-born Chan is currently assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and about to take up the baton of chief conductor at Norrlands Opera in Umeå, Sweden. Han-Na Chang (b.1982) The highly regarded cellist made the switch to conducting in 2007, and has worked with a host of prestigious orchestras. After a bruising experience with the Qatar Philharmonic, she’s set to become chief conductor of Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.…

Early life: Born in Tel Aviv to a father who was a professional violinist and a Polish concentration camp survivor, he started the violin at eight. At 14 he was scouted by Isaac Stern to study at the Juilliard. Debut: He made his recording debut at 21 with concertos by Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn, accompanied by the LSO and NY Phil. His conducting debut came a year later with the English Chamber Orchestra. Major player: Having been a soloist with the LA Phil, Boston SO, Philadelphia Orchestra and NY Phil, he formed a trio with Daniel Barenboim and Jacqueline du Pré. Accolades: He has won two Grammys and 21 nominations, and is now on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and principal guest conductor of the RPO.…

THE LIFE 1902 The second of four children, Walton is born on 29 March in OLDHAM . His father is a choirmaster and his mother a contralto. 1912 He wins a scholarship to be a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. He progresses onto the University itself at 16, but leaves without a degree. 1920 A holiday to Italy with Edith, Osbert and SACHEVERELL SITWELL inspires him, and works such as Façade and Portsmouth Point soon follow. 1935 Initially spurred by his love affair with Imma von Doernberg, his Sibelius-like First Symphony enjoys a successful premiere. 1944 His score for Laurence Olivier’s film of Shakespeare’s HENRY V is one of a number of patriotic pieces he composes during World War II. 1949 Shortly after he marries Susana Gil Passo, they…

ABRAHAMSEN let me tell you Barbara Hannigan (soprano); Bavarian Radio SO/Andris Nelsons Winter & Winter 910 232-2 ‘Abrahamsen expresses both the fragility and force of Griffiths’s imagined Ophelia through glinting, gauze-like textures and moments of clattering tumult. Barbara Hannigan’s agile, luminous voice is ideal, and sings with power and subtlety.’ May 2016 BENJAMIN DVD Written on Skin Christopher Purves, Barbara Hannigan et al; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House/George Benjamin Opus Arte DVD: Opus Arte OA 1125 D; Blu-ray: OA BD7136 D ‘Hannigan deserves all the superlatives in the dictionary for her portrayal of Agnes’s awakening from repression to sexual discovery to beyond mania.’ April 2014 DUTILLEUX Correspondances; Tout un monde lointain…; The Shadows of Time Barbara Hannigan (soprano); Anssi Karttunen (cello); Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/ Esa-Pekka Salonen Deutsche…

BRUCKNER • WAGNER Bruckner: Symphony No. 7; Wagner: Das Liebesmahl der Apostel Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden; Tschechischer Philharmonischer Chor Brünn; Sinfoniechor Dresden; Tschechischer Nationalchor Prag; MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig; Philharmonischer Chor Dresden; Dresdner Kammerchor; Staatskapelle Dresden/ Christian Thielemann Profil PH 15013 99:05 mins (2 discs) Christian Thielemann took over the Dresden Staatskapelle, the world’s oldest orchestra, in 2012. Since then he has cultivated his Romantic tastes with them, with Bruckner’s symphonies foremost in their orchestral repertoire. This performance from the Semperoper in 2012 is stupefying in its grandeur, recorded to the point where one begins to wonder if there is such a thing as a too-good recording. Bruckner is susceptible of varying kinds of interpretation, from the monumental to the molten-lava-style. Thielemann, whose career began as repetiteur for Karajan, favours in general…

JS BACH Keyboard Concertos, BWV 1052-56 & 1058 Andrea Bachetti (piano); Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI Sony Classical 88875184942 94:32 mins Readers may recall that Andrea Bachetti is a spirited if on occasion idiosyncratic interpreter of Bach’s keyboard music. Here, he gets to grips with the composer’s concertos for solo harpsichord and instrumental ensemble, which belong to his Leipzig years. Most if not all of them are arrangements of earlier works, probably intended as vehicles for his sons and pupils to play. All are scored for harpsichord and strings, except the arrangement of Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 which also requires two treble recorders. Annoyingly, presumably because recorder players were not available the work has been omitted here. Bacchetti’s direction is clearly articulated and elegantly phrased. His textures are lucid with…

BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos Nos 1, 3-5; Bagatelle in C; Six Ecossaises in E flat; Rondo a capriccio in G Wilhelm Kempff (piano); various orchestras/Paul Van Kempen, Peter Raabe APR 6019 (1925-1942) 213 mins (2 discs) Recorded between 1925 and 1942, these historically important, expertly remastered recordings by one of the most celebrated Beethovenians of the 20th century are an endless source of fascination. PERFORMANCE RECORDING CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 1 Grigory Sokolov (piano); Munich Philharmonic/Witold Rowicki Sony 88875194722 (1977) 42:23 mins An unforgettable 1977 performance from Sokolov that uncovers poetic metaphors behind every gesture, while revitalising and subtly nuancing well-worn phrases as though they were freshly minted. PERFORMANCE RECORDING FRANCK • MOZART Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos 21 & 23; Franck: Variations symphoniques Arthur Rubinstein (piano); RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra/Wallenstein Minuet…

Jennifer Higdon (b1962) Born in Brooklyn, New York, Higdon spent her childhood in Atlanta, Georgia, and in Seymour, Tennessee. She played flute in her high school’s concert band, and percussion with the marching band, but heard very little classical music before going to Bowling Green State University. Encouraged by her flute teacher, Judith Bentley, Higdon took up composition, and eventually studied under first David Loeb at the Curtis Institute, then George Crumb at the University of Pennsylvania. Her first opera, Cold Mountain , was premiered in 2015.…

HARVEY I Love the Lord; Magnificat; Nunc Dimittis; Toccata for organ and tape; Come, Holy Ghost; Praise ye the Lord; Missa Brevis; The Royal banners forward go; Laus Deo; The Annunciation The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge/Andrew Nethsingha; Edward Picton-Tubervill (organ) Signum SIGCD456 60:24 mins ‘Deo’ is an apposite, yet intriguing title for this disc of Jonathan Harvey’s sacred choral works. Harvey did not shout about his beliefs, which were not confined to a single religion, but quietly expressed them. The rich Anglican choral tradition was an important seam throughout his life and, in addition to being irresistible music, the works on this outstanding disc are crucial to understanding Harvey’s output as a whole. A labour of love and joy for the choir’s director, Andrew Nethsingha, it is apparent…

BERLIOZ BLU-RAY La Damnation de Faust Von Otter, Lewis, Van Dam, Rose; Chicago Symphony Chorus & Orchestra/Georg Solti Arthaus Musik 109182 (1989) 134 mins Georg Solti conducts an electrifying Prom performance of Berlioz’s ‘dramatic legend’ boasting an excellent team of soloists plus focused sound and high definition visuals. PERFORMANCE PICTURE & SOUND HAYDN The Creation Seefried, Holm, Borg; Chor der St Hedwigs-Kathedrale, Berlin; Berlin Philharmonic/Igor Markevitch Eloquence 482 1645 (1955) 105:38 mins Recorded well before the period-instrument movement got underway, Igor Markevitch’s version of Haydn’s masterpiece benefits from fine soloists and a keen sense of drama. PERFORMANCE RECORDING MOZART BLU-RAY Requiem Mathis, Schmidt, Schreier, Howell; Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus & Orchestra/Colin Davis Arthaus Musik 109180 (1984) 60 mins Once again uninfluenced by the period-instrument movement, Colin Davis demonstrates his grandly…

Ben Johnston (b1926) In 1949-50, Johnston worked for six months with the experimental composer, Harry Partch, and so became profoundly involved in ‘just intonation’ using microtonal tuning. With Johnston’s help, Partch created several non-conventional instruments able to play music written to such tuning, and Johnston performed in several of Partch’s recordings. Johnston then studied under Milhaud at Mills College, San Francisco, and subsequently worked and studied with John Cage. Johnston typically writes for conventional instruments.…

George Crumb (b1929) George Crumb’s most widely known work is Black Angels (1970) for ‘electric string quartet’. In this, and in his four volumes of music for piano, Makrokosmos (the title alludes to Bartók’s Mikrokosmos), Crumb has used ‘extended techniques’, using such unconventional implements as a glass tumbler or metal thimble to create new sounds from his instruments. Like the early 20th-century pioneer, Charles Ives, his music also includes associative sounds and allusions to other works, such as Schubert's Death and the Maiden in Black Angels.…

A thrilling release by drum legend Jack DeJohnette; pianist Zoe Rahman is in reflective mood; plus a long-awaited solo disc by pianist Jason Rebello ZOE RAHMAN Dreamland Zoe Rahman (piano) Manushi Records MANUCD006 51 mins I have heard pianist Zoe Rahman enlivening and enriching so many albums and concerts by other people’s bands and her own small groups that it is a joy to find her fully in the spotlight, uninterrupted, on this dazzling solo session. In a solo situation the ability of an improvising pianist to be truly two-handed, to be as strong and imaginative in the left hand as the right, to blend the two effectively, to create parts that complement each other while repaying attention in their own right, is a real challenge. Rahman conquers it all…

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 JULY 2016 Join us for our complete guide to this year’s BBC Proms! Plus a free CD of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 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…

Schoenberg used poetry from Jens Peter Jacobsen’s Gurresange as the setting for his work, which focuses on the bloodthirsty legend of a 14th-century Danish King, Waldemar, and his mistress Tove, who is murdered by the jealous queen, Helvig. The title refers to the medieval backdrop of Gurre Castle (now ruined). He wrote the work as a song cycle and was strongly influenced by Wagner’s operas, notably Götterdämmerung. He used Romantic symphonic interludes to connect his songs, setting the whole poem as a vast, extravagant cantata. The cantata is divided into three parts, with the first two scored for soprano and tenor, and orchestra, while the third introduces two more soloists, adding larger choruses. The first part contains nine songs, before an orchestral interlude leads to the famous ‘Song of the…

TANITA TIKARAM Singer JS BACH Partita No. 2 in C minor Rosalyn Tureck (piano) ‘In my thirties I started to learn the piano. I first fell in love with classsical music by listening to Rosalyn Tureck and then discovered Bach and The Well-Tempered Klavier and the Partitas. It wasn’t as overwhelming as it might have been had I started with Wagner. It was baby steps. I don’t know why Rosalyn Tureck has the reputation of being dry: I think she’s robust and I feel this woman has lived with this music her whole life. Sometimes if I go home in the evening all I want to listen to are a few pieces by Bach. They really transport you in a way that not much music can do.’ RAVEL…

Grieg Solveig’s Song (Peer Gynt) Karita Mattila (soprano); CBSO/Sakari Oramo Warner Classics 8573802432 Crusell Clarinet Concerto in F minor Emma Johnson (clarinet); English Chamber Orchestra/ Sir Charles Groves ASV CDDCA559 Original Benny Goodman Trio and Quartet Sessions, Vol. 1: After You’ve Gone Benny Goodman Trio Bluebird 6312 JS Bach Goldberg Variations Glenn Gould (piano) Sony Classical COLSMK52619 (1981) Brahms Four Serious Songs Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Jörg Demus (piano) Australian Eloquence ELQ4803527…

Those chaps in Birmingham have got talent spotting down to a fine art The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra took plenty of time appointing a successor to Andris Nelsons, its much-loved Latvian music director, who left over a year ago to devote his attention to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, leaving a hole that the orchestra’s chief executive knew would be tricky to fill. Months went by, guest conductors came and went and potential star candidates were snapped up by other ensembles. But the CBSO played the waiting game. Ever since Simon Rattle’s momentous years with them during the 1980s and most of the ’90s, that saw the orchestra transformed from municipal band to international powerhouse, its conductors have been carefully selected – not at all for their reputations or fame,…

Global appeal The Globe Theatre is launching its own record label. Globe Music will showcase studio recordings from the theatre’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the restored candlelit Jacobean-style theatre. Over the past two seasons, performers at the London venue have included Arcangelo, countertenor Andreas Scholl and the OAE. The first release will feature tenor Ian Bostridge and guitarist Xuefei Yang with their programme ‘Songs from our ancestors’, featuring songs by Dowland, Schubert, Britten and Argento. The plan is to release three recordings a year, with future projects including an exploration of the music of Mali. Double Sony signing Singers Juan Diego Flórez and Benjamin Appl have signed to Sony. Flórez will release his first album with his new label in autumn next year. The Peruvian tenor – whose high Cs in…

It’s Elliott Carter all round on a new Ondine recording being made in Maida Vale. A showcase of the late American composer’s music, including Dialogues, Dialogues II, Interventions and Instances, brings together Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Colin Currie, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras, the BCMG, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Oliver Knussen. Violinist Bojan ›iOic and his Illyria Consort continue to explore rare 17th- and 18th-century repertoire in their first recording for Delphian Records. They’ve turned to Sonatas by Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli, an Italian violinist who worked in London around the same time as Handel. They recorded in St Martin’s Church, East Woodhay. Spring has sprung in the latest CD recorded by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko for Onyx Classics. The programme brings together Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Rachmaninov’s Spring…

Grammofy £6.99/month With Spotify, Apple Music and Composed all offering a classical music streaming service, you’d be forgiven for wondering why we need another. However, Grammofy offers the listener something quite distinct from its competitors: information. Aiming to bridge the gap between radio and streaming, Grammofy’s curators have recorded narratives to accompany each of the playlists they’ve created. These tell the user variously about when the work was written, the themes it explores and what specifically to listen out for. Important for many will be an option that allows the listener to compare directly alternative recordings of the pieces in the playlists, and compile a list of ‘favourite’ recordings. The design is stylish and easy to use, with links to buy the recordings embedded, information about artists available, and virtual…

‘I am building, Sir, a vest-pocket piano – one that a musician can carry with him as easily as a watch’ The reference books will tell you that when Erich Zepler fled to Britain from Germany in 1935 he left all his possessions behind. Not quite all, though. He brought with him a heavy, briefcase-sized box of adjustable tuning-forks – an octave’s-worth, marked with the German note-names including ‘H’ for B natural and ‘B’ for B flat. Not that Zepler’s interest was primarily musical – the largest tuning-fork is below the range of human hearing. He was into vibration in general, and his forks belong now to the Institute for Sound and Vibration Research at Southampton, where Zepler became the first professor of electronics. They are one of the treasures…

Harold Mead Taunton Recently I listened to soprano Elizabeth Watts and her husband singing the ‘Bei Männern’ duet from Mozart’s Magic Flute, followed by mezzo-soprano Alison Kettlewell singing ‘Du Ring an meinem Finger’ from Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben. Next, the Amici chamber choir sang George Shearing’s setting of ‘It Was a Lover and His Lass’ and the Ira and George Gershwin classic ‘’S Wonderful’. An odd concert? In fact, it was my wedding! Anne and I are so fortunate to have such awesome musicians as our friends and their presence at the ceremony was the icing on the cake. Reiko Reay Edinburgh I have been listening to pianist Nikolai Lugansky’s Schubert CD released earlier this year (Ambroisie AM214), which has a similar tranquillity to that of Radu Lupu’s recordings. The…

CYCLING I used to cycle in London when I was a child, and when I was a student I decided to cycle from London to Manchester simply to challenge myself! These days, I live in north Italy and I go out on the road with my children, who cycle competitively – organised competitive cycling starts very early in Italy. The area is a very important one for cycling in Italy, and a lot of the roads around where we live are choc-a-bloc with riders. We also get a lot of professionals training in our area, including Vincenzo Nibali, the 2014 Tour de France winner, who lives in nearby Lugano and is quite often to be seen out and about. At the moment, I use a mountain bike, as it allows…

As Mirga talks, her hands perform an elegant choreography My first sight of Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla is on a YouTube video from around 1996. Google it. It tells you (almost) everything you need to know about the new music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. A small, fair girl in her Sunday best kneels before a vast orchestra, eyes closed. She sings softly into a microphone, exchanging phrases with solo winds; her tone is true, her rubato perfectly judged. The song turns a corner; she opens her eyes, momentarily blinded by the television lights, but never missing a beat. Now she’s on her feet, edging the tempo forward, stamping her heel. Faster and faster it goes until the words are a rattling tongue-twister which explodes into a grandiose finale.…

ON 26 AUGUST, Mirga begins her reign as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with a concert of Mozart, Abrahamsen and Tchaikovsky at Symphony Hall. Other highlights of her first season include: 16 November 2016 Mahler Symphony No. 1; Haydn Symphony No. 6; Raminta =<erksnyte Fires 29 January/2 February 2017 Haydn Symphony No. 31; Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27 (with Francesco Piemontesi); Beethoven Symphony No. 5 6/8 April 2017 Weinberg The Golden Key: Suite No. 4; Copland Clarinet Concerto (with Oliver Janes); Rachmaninov Symphony No. 3 24 June 2017 Mozart Idomeneo (starring Christoph Strehl)…

Usher Hall, Edinburgh On 23 June 1896 Andrew Usher, a whisky distiller and brewer, gave £100,000 to the City of Edinburgh. The money was for a hall that would ‘become and remain a centre and attraction to musical artistes and performers and to the citizens of Edinburgh and others who may desire to hear good music.’ The hall opened in 1914 and is still a thriving concert venue today. Donald Gordon Theatre, Cardiff The main auditorium of the Wales Millennium Centre – home to Welsh National Opera – is named after a South African businessman who made a joint £20m donation to the Royal Opera House and the WMC in 2004. At the time it was thought to be the largest single private donation ever made to the arts in…

When early performances of William Walton’s Façade astonished concert-goers in the 1920s, its brilliantly talented young composer was seen in cultural circles as representing the essence of contemporary modishness. Four decades later, when Walton conducted the first performance of his Variations on a Theme of Hindemith at the Royal Festival Hall, critical consensus was that music of this later-than-late-Romantic variety was now old hat. Today, a small but choice group of Walton’s works – the three string concertos, the first of his two symphonies and his oratorio Belshazzar’s Feast – keep a firm place in the international repertory. But there is also much more of his music that shows Walton at his rewarding best. Fashion loves to categorise. And the individuality at work in Walton’s music makes it specially resistant…

The Centenary Edition Tasmin Little etc; Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Litton Decca 470 5082 (download) All the symphonies, concertos and more, in a comprehensive set. Walton Conducts Walton LPO, LSO/William Walton Lyrita SCRD 224 Walton here directs Portsmouth Point, Capriccio burlesco and other works. Troilus and Cressida Arthur Davies, Judith Howarth etc; Opera North/ Richard Hickox Chandos CHAN 9370 Top-flight singing and orchestral playing makes an ultra-strong case for Walton’s neglected opera. Façade; Façade 2 Susana Walton, Richard Baker (narrators); City of London Sinfonia/Hickox Chandos CHAN 8869 Walton’s early masterwork, plus its later supplement.…

Recording of the Month Soprano Barbara Hannigan and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw give atmospheric, timeless performances of Satie’s vocal works, including his groundbreaking 1919 cantata Socrate, p54 Notes from across the Atlantic This month we’ve got a veritable feast of 20th and 21st-century American composers for you in the reviews section. Pianist Steven Osborne explores meditative Morton Feldman and colourful George Crumb with exquisite poise (p75), while Ben Johnston’s microtonal string quartets will open your ears to new sonic realms (p72). It’s a remarkable achievement to have all of Virgil Thomson’s songs together on disc at last (p66). And the Utah Symphony Orchestra brings us up to date with works by Nico Muhly, Andrew Norman and Augusta Read Thomas (p58). Plus you’ll find Philip Glass, John Luther Adams, Julia…

How does Erik Satie write for the voice? The songs are simple, although they are high and need to be very transparent. With Socrate, I don’t get the feeling that he was writing for the voice. He says at the beginning ‘en lisant’ so to be sung as if you are reading it. It’s more like reading a sacred than dramatic text. Reinbert de Leeuw’s influence was very important and he guided me a lot in how to sing Socrate. We worked very hard to remove ourselves from the ‘performance’ of it. The voice has a passive role. You have to be almost behind the sound. I’m not talking rhythmically, I’m talking in an existential way. It was tricky. So it’s music that is well suited to being recorded? I…

The Irish players take centre stage with devil-may-care aplomb CONCERTI BIZARRI Concertos by Fasch, Graupner, Heinichen, Telemann and Vivaldi Irish Baroque Orchestra/ Monica Huggett (violin) Linn CKD 526 73:28 mins There’s little to frighten the horses in the ‘eccentricities’ gleefully paraded by this batch of concertos. It brings together a circle of friends and colleagues plus their concerto mentor Vivaldi. Moments of ear-grabbing outlandishness are relatively few and far between given music so eminently personable and effortlessly urbane. What bucks the commonplace, however, is the solo instrumentation that so often takes the road less travelled. Graupner feels the love three times over in a concerto for flute d’amore, oboe d’amore and viola d’amore, while Fasch chooses two oboes da caccia alongside pairs of violas and bassoons – a deep-hued confection…

HANDEL Arminio Max Emanuel Cencic, Layla Claire, Ruxandra Donose, Vince Yi, Juan Sancho, Xavier Sabata, Petros Magoulas; Armonia Atenea/George Petrou Decca 478 8764 150:36 mins (2 discs) Premiered in 1737, Arminio is a tale of conflicted loyalties and heroic sacrifice in Roman-occupied Germany. It was previously recorded, in 2001, by Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco, with Vivica Genaux in the title role (now reissued on Erato). George Petrou’s new recording with Armonia Atenea is the first complete version. Of greater interest is the muscularity of his interpretation, with a thrillingly abrasive overture and a third act of great plangency. Petrou stops short of adding extra percussion or sound effects, yet manages to suggest that violence might erupt at any moment. In Arminio’s greatest aria, ‘Vado a morir’, the dynamic…

VERDI Luisa Miller Millo, Domingo, Chernov, Quivar, Plishka, Rootering, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus/James Levine Sony 88875194772 (1992) 136 mins (2 discs) This is the first of Verdi’s ‘domestic’ operas. A work of incongruities, it has the best case made for it by Levine and his starry cast, with Domingo in his glory days and Aprile Millo a winning heroine. PERFORMANCE RECORDING VERDI Otello Vickers, Rysanek, Gobbi, Andreolli, Carlin, Mazzoli, Calabrese, Kerns, Pirazzini; Rome Opera Orchestra & Chorus/Tullio Serafin Sony 88875196362 (1961) 184 mins (2 discs) Though more than 50 years old, this remains the finest recording of Otello, with Jon Vickers at his greatest, Gobbi a subtle and sinister Iago, and Rysanek a Desdemona with personality. PERFORMANCE RECORDING WAGNER Die Walküre Altmeyer, Jerusalem, Norman, Minton; Staatskapelle Dresden/Marek Janowski Sony…

ADÈS • DUTILLEUX • RAVEL Adès: Arcadiana; Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit; Ravel: String Quartet Quatuor Varèse No Mad Music NMM 033 66:08 mins This is a delectable programme from the Quatuor Varèse. The glimmering dreamscapes of Adès’s Arcadiana, infested with ghosts of music past, find a clear resonance with the scintillating mechanisms of Dutilleux and Ravel. This Arcadiana is exquisitely detailed, with an edge-of-silence delicacy in the first, fifth and final movements that is true to the score. Yet, when compared with the Danish Quartet’s living-breathing performance (see Chamber Choice) one feels here that the work is laid out on the operating table, precisely dissected but anaesthetised. Arcadiana’s seven scenes owe a clear debt to Dutilleux’s Ainsi la nuit (1976) which fares better in the Varèse’s hands, with just the right…

JS BACH Solo violin sonatas & partitas Rachel Barton Pine (violin) Avie AV 2360 125:34 mins (2 discs) With 108 recordings already available, it takes an inventive mind to find anything new in this pinnacle of the violin repertoire. Rachel Barton Pine has waited until her early 40s, having had a distinguished career in the Classical and Romantic concerto repertoire but also jazz and heavy-metal music. To her uninhibited and extrovert vitality, she also adds a scholarly approach, sometimes to unexpected detail. She suggests, for example, that redundant two-bar tags ending Allemandes might recall dancers pausing to bow to each other. Pine plays on her modernised Guaneri violin, using a Baroque bow which allows an off-the-string lightness in fast movements, and more readily sustained multiple-stopped chords. These are wonderfully managed,…

THE BATSFORD BOOK OF MUSIC FOR CHILDREN Rebecca Rumens-Syratt Batsford ISBN 978-1-84994-309-3 128pp THE USBORNE FAMOUS COMPOSER STICKER BOOK Ed. Anthony Marks; Illustrator: Galia Bernstein Usborne ISBN 978-1-4095-9879-4 31pp If ever there was a place for kinaesthetic learning, it’s music. The most an introduction to music can hope to do is to enrich the child whose imagination is already caught. Usborne’s Famous Composers Sticker Book gets some things right. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as matching sticker to space, even if it’s Beethoven’s ear trumpet or the ghastly machine by which Schumann wrecked his finger. Scannable codes to download music examples enliven staid texts, although terms like ‘Romantic’ and ‘Classical’ are bandied about with barely an explanation. Without being read cover-to-cover, it’s fact-heavy and insight-light. Read The Batsford…

AFFORDABLE HI-FI HEADPHONES AKG K92 £49 Last year I was sent AKG’s studio-quality K812 headphones. It’s no exaggeration to say that they completely revolutionised my solitary listening, although given how much they spill sound, pretty much anyone in the same room could also enjoy them. The K812’s eye-watering £700-plus price tag is enough to put all but the most ardent audiophile off, so I was intrigued to try the considerably more keenly priced K92s (left), a closed-back headphone that costs just £49 (or less if you shop around). It’s amazing to see how much of the build quality of the K812s is retained in the K92s. These headphones feel solid and well built which, at less than a tenth of the price, is surprising in itself. Back-to-back, the difference in…

EMMA JOHNSON WAS BORN in 1966 in London. In 1984 she won BBC Young Musician of the Year, was awarded an MBE in 1996, and three years later became the first woman to be made an honorary fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Her new disc, English Fantasy, is out this month on Nimbus Records, and she has also just recorded her first jazz album, with pianist John Lenehan, drummer Paul Clarvis and the Carducci Quartet. It will be released in November, also on Nimbus. Idon’t know if people say they feel fortunate to have grown up in South London, but actually I do. There was so much music going on in my school in Bromley, and I was offered the chance to start an instrument. And so at the age…