Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2017 i BBC Music Magazine

ONLINE Looking back What were the big classical news stories of 2016? From the woes of English National Opera to happier tales including legendary film score composer Ennio Morricone’s first Oscar, we take a look back over the year in a special feature on the BBC Music Magazine website. Visit classical-music.com/2016 ON DISC Rare Ralph Unheard Vaughan Williams? Surprising as it might seem, there are still discoveries to be made when it comes to the British composer. Two new discs from Albion Records reveal some vocal rarities, including the Three Nocturnes. The line-up of soloists includes Roderick Williams and Mary Bevan. See p70 ON AIR Forward thinkers BBC Radio 3 begins 2017 with a celebration of the Second Viennese School. With Schoenberg as Composer of the Week, the week-long Breaking…

INSPIRED BY AUNTIE The feature ‘In the beginning…’ (October) presented a fascinating brief history of the origins of the BBC. Here in the US, broadcasting of serious music and literature on radio has become a rarity. Thanks to internet radio, I have access to BBC Radio 3 and 4 and enjoy the incredible array of musical performances from every period of history, written by composers of all nationalities. I am staggered year-round by the sheer quantity of BBC’s broadcasting of superb ‘live’ musical presentations. The BBC has educated me for years, and I feel gratitude for my exposure to such a wonderful array of intellectual and emotional stimulation. After all, what is education if not the possibility of encountering new and different ideas and conceptions of reality? Michael D Moore,…

‘I would be curious myself to see what I was composing just before The Firebird’ An orchestral work by Stravinsky that was once thought to have been lost during the upheaval of the Russian Revolution has enjoyed its first performance in over 107 years. On 2 December in St Petersburg, Valery Gergiev conducted the Mariinsky Orchestra in Funeral Song, a 12-minute piece that Stravinsky wrote in 1909 in memory of his late teacher, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. It’s a work that gives an invaluable insight into the young composer’s creative development. An insight, in fact, that Stravinsky himself would have appreciated – later in his life, he expressed regret that he had become separated from the score when he left Russia in the aftermath of the Revolution, writing that ‘the…

Chart for week ending 18 November 2016 1 The Lost Songs of St Kilda Trevor Morrison (piano); Scottish FO/ James MacMillan Decca 481 2795 The recovered music of an abandoned Scottish archipelago still remains at the top of the chart 2 Wiseman The Musical Zodiac National Symphony Orchestra/Debbie Wiseman Classic FM CFMD46 From Aries to Pisces, Wiseman’s 12-movement orchestral work takes us through every star sign 3 Remembrance: Duruflé, Tavener, Elgaret al Clare College Choir, Cambridge/ Graham Ross Harmonia Mundi HMU907654 A stunningly performed remembrance-themed disc is capped by Duruflé’s exquisite Requiem 4 JS Bach The French Suites Murray Perahia (piano) Deutsche Grammophon 479 6565 The brilliant pianist’s first disc for the DG label was our Christmas issue Recording of the Month 5 Christmas…

LISA OSHIMA violinist I have been enjoying Schubert’s Fantasie for violin and piano, played by Szymon Goldberg and Radu Lupu. In Goldberg’s later life, he lived in Japan with his Japanese wife, with whom I studied. I often had the chance to hear him in masterclasses and rehearsing with the orchestra, and it was so impressive how he always brought out some hidden message from the music. There is plenty of character in this recording, and Lupu’s playing is so beautiful – it’s like being in heaven. • Recently, I watched Sviatoslav Richter’s documentary Enigma, on which he performs Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B flat (D960). He plays especially slow tempos throughout the Sonata, but I never get tired of it. Instead, it takes me to a different world –…

FLICK VICTOR Congratulations to Niklas Benjamin Hoffmann, who has won the 14th Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition. In the final at the Barbican, the German, 26, impressed a jury that included maestros Antonio Pappano and Yuri Temirkanov with his mastery of Verdi, Elgar and Rachmaninov. His received a prize of £15,000 for his baton brilliance. COMPOSER JOY Talking of winners, Claudia Molitor and Tansy Davies are among those celebrating their first ever British Composer Awards, in the Stage Works and Sonic Arts categories respectively. Others wearing big grins at the event at the British Film Institute included Roderick Williams, who won the Choral category. He adds his trophy to those he has also won as one of the UK’s top baritones. HONOURABLE VAS Vasily Petrenko has been appointed a Liverpool…

PAULINE OLIVEROS Born 1932 Composer and accordionist Pauline Oliveros’s life’s work was all about promoting enhanced sensory perception, or ‘deep listening’, as she termed it. Her album of the same name, recorded in a disused cistern 14 feet underground in 1989, compels the listener to pay attention not just to musical details, but also to extra-musical noises and the unusual acoustic of the location. In 2005, Oliveros created the Deep Listening Institute, with a mission of encouraging creative innovation across boundaries and abilities. Oliveros began to play her mother’s accordion – a popular instrument in the 1940s – when she was nine, and became a renowned improviser on the instrument. She studied music at the University of Houston, and composition at San Francisco State College, where she met…

Misha the cat paddles across the strings of Richard Egarr’s 1804 Broadwood piano, a good excuse to talk about what the instrument is like to play. We’re sitting in a room in Egarr’s home in Amsterdam containing another piano (made in 1849 by Pleyel, Chopin’s favourite manufacturer) and a harpsichord, the instrument with which Richard has been most associated for nearly 30 years since he sprang to prominence in the early music movement. But it’s the Broadwood that seems to interest Misha most. This was a piano of the kind Beethoven came to love, and which was revolutionary compared with the instruments that Mozart was using 20 or 30 years before. ‘The thing to remember about pianos before the 20th century was that they were all very different, each instrument,’…

Elgar Cello Concerto Beatrice Harrison (cello); New Symphony Orchestra; LSO/Elgar Somm SOMMCD261-4 ‘Accidental’ stereo recordings made in 1928. ‘The sense of being present is breathtaking’ (Stephen Johnson review, Dec, p78). No Mozart . 41 ‘Jupiter Symphony ’ LPO/Beecham LPO-0040 Alan Blumlein’s pioneering stereo tests at Abbey Road in 1934, plus his experimental ‘walking, talking’ recording of 1934. No Mozart . 36 ‘Linz Symphony ’ London Mozart Players/Blech First Hand Records FHR15 The earliest surviving EMI stereo recording of a complete work, made by Christopher Parker in December 1954 at Abbey Road. Beethoven Symphony No. 7 Philharmonia/Klemperer Warner Classics 567 8512 (download) One of the earliest stereo recordings issued by EMI – on ‘stereosonic’ tape – offering a slightly different set of takes from the mono version…

When Rubens was at the height of his powers in Antwerp, an English composer and keyboardist arrived in the city. Somerset-born John Bull became assistant organist of Antwerp Cathedral in 1615, and organist in 1617. He remained there until his death, and was buried in the Cathedral’s cemetery. It was while in Antwerp that Bull met the Dutch composer Sweelinck, and it seems likely that he introduced him to the lute songs of fellow Brit, Dowland. In turn, Sweelinck went on to teach several composers who paved the way for the organ music of JS Bach.…

Globally inspired Flamenco was not the only formative experience met by Debussy at the 1899 Exposition Universelle. He was enraptured too by the sound of the Javanese gamelan, its rhythms, its complex counterpoint and above all the pentatonic harmonies which, like whole-tone harmonies, liberated him from thinking in diatonic terms. Russian influences Debussy didn’t need to take a close interest in Russian music to discover the potential of the whole-tone scale (a scale of six notes, each a tone apart), even though it was the most likely source of his inspiration. He had a posthumous ally in Musorgsky (above), whose example is represented most clearly in Debussy's La cathédrale engloutie and most valuably in Pelléas et Mélisande . Across the Channel Debussy’s long-term…

MOZART Requiem; Vesperae solennes de Confessore; Tuba Mirum Sampson, Kielland, Sakurada, Immler; Bach Collegium Japan/ Masaaki Suzuki BIS 2091 74:34 mins ‘Suzuki’s recording of Mozart’s Requiem is based on a new edition of the score by his son, the harpsichordist and organist Masato Suzuki. The performance is notable for its super-clean orchestral edges and refinement.’ February 2015 JS BACH Cantatas, Vol. 55 Blazÿiková, Blaze, Türk, Kooij; Bach Collegium Japan/Masaaki Suzuki BIS BIS-2031 68 mins ‘Over 18 years Suzuki seems to have subtly changed his relationship with Bach, from a reverential approach to confident familiarity. The final Cantata of this series is uncannily apt: ‘Gloria in Excelsis’ indeed!’ December 2013 JS BACH Mass in B minor Sampson, Nicholls, Blaze, Türk, Peter Kooij; Bach Collegium Japan/Suzuki BIS SACD-1701-02 107:31 mins (2 discs)…

BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/ Daniele Gatti RCO Live RCO 16006 (hybrid CD/SACD) 57:30 mins I’ve previously enjoyed Daniele Gatti’s conducting, especially in operatic Strauss and Wagner, so his approach to Berlioz’s breakthrough work aroused real expectation. To keep his perceptions pure, he tells us in the booklet notes, Gatti avoided other interpretations but gave serious thought to the score, with its sometimes problematic instrumentation, and to its self-dramatising, theatrical character. It’s almost a wordless opera. The resulting performance is less convincing. Gatti’s reading is poised and energetic, lucid and detailed. Its unconventional emphasis on scene-painting over sweeping gesture yields some fascinating results in the opening movements, especially the ‘Scène aux champs’. But he’s less successful with the visionary elements, vigorous but insufficiently demonic; the ‘Marche au supplice’ is…

JOHN ADAMS Scheherazade.2 Leila Josefowicz (violin); St Louis Symphony/David Robertson Nonesuch 7559794351 47:35 mins Equalling the fabulous richness of Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite is a tall order, but John Adams has a twist in mind: the brutal situation of the wife who staves off execution by telling her bloodthirsty husband the tales of 1001 nights still resonates today. So this Muslim woman is at the mercy of zealots and bigots who pursue her until the final, miraculous ‘sanctuary’: three of Adams’s finest minutes as the soloist soars above queasily shifting multipart strings. The rest is more nebulous, sounding at times like film noir mood music. But the textures, with the extra spice of cimbalom thrown into the mix, are never less than beguiling, and violinist Leila Josefowicz throws herself into a…

BELLINI DVD I Capuleti e i Montecchi Joyce DiDonato, Olga Kulchynska, Benjamin Bernheim, Roberto Lorenzi et al; Zurich Opera Choir; Zurich Philharmonia/Fabio Liusi; dir. Christof Loy (Zurich, 2015) Accentus Music ACC 20353 139 mins Christof Loy’s Zurich staging of Bellini’s Romeo and Juliet opera pays the work the compliment of taking it seriously. In a central work of the bel canto canon, it is crucial that vocal values are scrupulously maintained – and here they certainly are, with an even and technically excellent cast, who understand the need for librettist Felice Romani’s text to be given its due as so expressively set by Bellini. Fabio Luisi’s conducting, too, is dynamic and dramatically conceived. Designer Christian Schmidt’s visualisation suggests the conflict of two sharp-suited Mafia families in the 1950s, and uses…

JS BACH Cantatas BWV 54, 82 & 170; Cantata BWV 52 & 174 – Sinfonia Iestyn Davies (countertenor); Arcangelo/Jonathan Cohen Hyperion CDA 68111 64:51 mins How consoling are Bach’s solo cantatas? Melodies curve over softly dancing bass lines, or are cradled in verdant counterpoint, yet the imagery in Vergnügte Ruh’, beliebte Seelenlust (BWV 170) is of visceral disgust. The laughing figures and extended trill that spring out from the ruminative chromatic exercise of the cantata’s second aria, ‘Wie jammern mich’, are not those of the poor Christian soul who seeks a godly path but those of ‘perverted hearts’ who engage in ‘Satanic scheming’. Even the cheerful resolve of the final aria, with its zippy little twiddles for obbligato chamber organ, is powered by revulsion for earthly frippery. There’s a curious…

BARTÓK • DVORÁK • MOZART Mozart: String Quartet No. 2; Bartók: String Quartet No. 3; Dvoπák: String Quartet No. 3 Juilliard Quartet Orfeo 927 161 B (1965) 77:01 mins In the 1965 Salzburg Festival, the Juilliard’s Mozart K499 is overripe though surprisingly fresh, while Bartók third is a tour de force. Dvorák No. 11 is a touch congested, rescued by a mercurial Scherzo. PERFORMANCE **** RECORDING **** BEETHOVEN • BRAHMS • MOZART Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 9 (Kreutzer); Brahms: Violin Sonatas Nos 1-3; Mozart: Violin Sonata in B flat Kulenkampff (violin), Solti (piano) Eloquence 480 6582 (1948-50) 116:50 mins (2 discs) The noble Georg Kulenkampff with a sensitive young Solti. An initially tame Kreutzer turns tautly penetrating. Kulenkampff comes into his own in Brahms’s Sonatas of long-reaching vision. PERFORMANCE **** RECORDING ***…

The chief delights in this R∞zicková set are the Bach sonatas One of the most charismatic harpsichordists around now is drawing attention to a pioneering harpsichordist we ve been in danger of forgetting. Zuzana R∞zicÿková turns 90 in January, and Mahan Esfahani still visits her in Prague, saying that she’s responsible for whatever is good in his playing – turn to p48 to read about her remarkable story. R∞zicÿková’s was first to record the complete keyboard works of JS Bach, whose music helped her transcend the adversity she’s faced, and here are those records made for Erato over a decade from 1965 (9029593044; 20 CDs). They are newly remastered for modern ears; ears that Esfahani observes in his introduction may be surprised by interpretations that stand apart from current historically-informed…

KEITH JARRETT A Multitude of Angels Keith Jarrett (piano) ECM 2500-03 300 mins (4 CDs) Keith Jarrett has made around 30 solo recordings for ECM since 1971, but a new release from the 71-year-old enfant terrible of modern jazz still makes people sit up. This four-CD box set is more important than most because it covers the last concerts of long form improvisation Jarrett ever played with no breaks within each set. Succumbing to chronic fatigue syndrome, he didn’t perform again in public for another two years after these 1996 dates. Jarrett himself describes the concerts as the pinnacle of his career. The pieces are epic: half hour-long movements of intense music that’s made in the moment. It’s a kind of jazz performance that transcends jazz, with the pianist subconsciously…

SOUNDSCAPES: A Musician’s Journey through Life and Death Paul Robertson Faber & Faber ISBN 978-0-571-33188-8 272pp (hb) £15.99 rrp ‘I felt myself die,’ recalls Paul Robertson, sometime leader of the Medici Quartet and a man intrigued by the neurological, scientific and ethical basis of music. ‘Beautifully, ecstatically, transcendentally. I saw eternity and shed the whole of myself joyfully in order to become unified with it’. In the event the ruptured aorta didn’t kill him. Rather, the intense visions that accompanied a prolonged period of coma provided a wellspring of fertile material, which informs this book confronting the essence of music and what it is to be a musician. Crucially, that operating table epiphany surely mirrors, with unassailable eloquence, most people’s response to great music communicating at…

PORTABLE HI-FI SPEAKER DALI KATCH £329 DALI is known for its high-end, monolithic hi-fi speakers, but over the past couple of years it’s begun to redefine its output, making it more in keeping with the way millions of us listen to music these days. The KUBIK FREE wireless player and KUBIK ONE soundbar are two examples of DALI s new direction. It was pretty clear from the moment it was announced that the DALI KATCH hi-fi speaker was going to be something special. From the aluminium chassis to the stunning, slimline design it certainly looks good, but the key question, given its compact size, is whether it can hold a candle to DALI’s more familiar products in terms of sonic performance? The short answer is that it does. The KATCH…

NEW YEAR’S DAY IN VIENNA As Radio 3 begins the New Year with a survey of the Second Viennese School, it also pays a visit to the Austrian capital (joining in the fun with BBC TV) for the annual celebration of ‘waltz king’ Johann Strauss II and family. This year’s New Year’s Concert welcomes Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel to the podium to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. At just 35, Dudamel is the youngest conductor to have appeared in the 75-year history of the concerts. Up until 1980 the concert was only conducted by Austrian conductors, with the American Lorin Maazel being the first to break the tradition. BBC Two will be covering all the musical action from the glittering Golden Hall of the Musikverein, in a traditional programme packed with…

Anna Maria Barry Writer and academic   ‘I’ve spent the last four years researching male opera singers of the 19th century for my PhD. It’s been a real adventure finding out about these colourful men, who I’ve tracked down traces of in archives around the world.’ Page 38 Gerald Larner Writer and biographer   One joys of writing about Debussy is that it offers the perfect excuse for getting lost in the always fascinating complete Correspondance (1872-1918) published (in French) by Gallimard in 2005.’ Page 48 Daniel Jaffé Journalist and author   Rimsky- s Sheherazade has been part of me from a very young age, and it has been wonderful to get to know it all the better through several recordings, making some surprising discoveries along the way.’ Page 52…

‘Being known gives you the freedom to explore more repertoire’ The final of the Honens Piano Competition in Calgary, Canada, on 8 September 2015 was something of a Prokofiev piano concerto shoot-off. Taking the stage that evening were Henry Kramer, who performed the Second Concerto, and Luca Buratto and Artem Yasynskyy, who both played the Third. Buratto emerged victorious. Life has not been quite the same since for the Italian, now 23. When you win an important competition, everyone starts to recognise you more,’ he says, ‘and being known gives you the freedom to explore more in terms of repertoire. You also get big support from the competition itself, which provides concert engagements and looks after small things such as travel, visas and so on. On the other hand, you…

THIS MONTH Joanna MacGregor pianist  British pianist Joanna MacGregor has made over 30 solo recordings, in repertoire ranging from Bach and Scarlatti to Jazz and John Cage. She is currently artistic director of the Dartington International Summer School, which will run from 29 July – 26 August 2017. My finest moment Messiaen Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus Joanna MacGregor (piano) SoundCircus BL1393693 (digital) (1996) Recording this piece was a bit like scaling Mount Everest – the piece is so technically and spiritually huge and, at two hours 20 minutes, the length of it is enormous. It was also one of the first recordings I made at Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh. It’s quite a big hall for a solo piano, but the space fits the huge, transcendental nature…

How familiar are you with the music of Maddalena Casulana? Or how about Adele aus de Ohe (left)? These are just two of many female composers whose cause BBC Radio 3 is planning champion a new project research and record their music. Beginning this month, the project, which is being conducted in collaboration with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, aims to bring people’s attention to music by women which deserves to be heard but has somehow become forgotten. ‘Through researching for Composer of the Week, we discovered that there were composers it was not possible to feature because the performances or recordings to play to our listeners just didn’t exist,’ says Radio 3’s Edwina Wolstencroft.…

@cargillmezzo Today I am discovering the heady heights of bathroom showrooms Sounds like mezzo Karen Cargill (left) clearly has plans to sing Ravel’s Sink Mélodies @Richard_Uttley Birds started (weren’t doing it before) twittering at Schumann ‘Vogel als Prophet’ in Cornwall yesterday. Dread to think what they told us. As pianist Richard Uttley plays, the Cornish birds log onto Twitter. Cripes. Clever birds. @jbartonmezzo You know what? Hugs... hugs to all of you, for whatever reason you’d like or need. There can always be more hugs. We expect Gershwin’s ‘Embraceable You’ to feature in mezzo Jamie Barton’s next recital @hugorifkind People who go to musicals deserve everything they get. The Times columnist Hugo Rifkind is evidently feeling brave… @RolfHind Why don’t we have a Prime Ministerial…

Oliver Condy Editor A trip to the German capital to hear the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle in November opened my ears to the sensuous, intricate beauty of the Second Viennese School. Although our musical journey, from Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra to Webern’s Six Pieces and, finally, Berg’s Three Pieces, took us gently towards the starkness of pure Serialism, the orchestra never failed to revel in the music’s Romantic roots. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor I’ve long been interested in the life and work of the ill-fated Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, but was previously unaware of his musical talents. A new disc of his arrangements of Spanish folk songs, superbly performed by flamenco singer Estrella Morente and pianist Javier Perianes, is fascinating to listen to. His style is, on…

HAMLET SHAKESPEARE Royal Shakespeare Company “This is a landmark production: Paapa Essiedu is the first black actor to play Hamlet for the RSC in its 55-year history. He is charismatic, capricious and compelling: an impulsive, arresting presence at the heart of a production that reframes the dilemmas in the play by setting it in an unnamed African state.” (The Financial Times). DVD | BLU-RAY GURRE-LIEDER SCHÖNBERG Dutch National Opera This setting of the mediaeval Danish legend of Gurre Castle – a love triangle between King Waldemar, his mistress Tove and a jealous Queen – gains an innovative new dimension in this first-ever staging of the work, directed by Pierre Audi. DVD | BLU-RAY ELIZABETH Royal Opera House Choreographer Will Tuckett and playwright and librettist Alasdair Middleton co-direct this special performance,…

BACK IN JANUARY 1997 , BBC Music Magazine was still very much in its infancy, yet to reach its fifth birthday. Much has changed since then, but three regular features – Composer of the Month, Building a Library and Music That Changed Me – are still going strong in 2017. As, too, is baritone Sir Thomas Allen, who graced our January 1997 cover and, inside, told readers about his love of acting. Particularly intriguing, however, is the ‘What’s Hot in 1997’ feature, within which we tipped musicians including young conductor Daniel Harding, pianist Arcadi Volodos, 19-year-old violinist Leila Josefowicz and Canadian soprano Valdine Anderson to be the ‘Fast movers in the year ahead’. In the news pages, meanwhile, we raised the thorny subject of Cardiff’s proposed new opera house, whose…

Early years: Born in 1963, Egarr started his training as a choirboy at York Minster, and Chetham’s in Manchester. He was organ scholar at Clare College, Cambridge, before going on to study at London’s Guildhall. Development: Egarr’s interest in historical performance was piqued while studying with harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. In 1988 he won the International CPE Bach Fortepiano-Clavichord-Harpsichord Competition, and in 1991 became the harpsichordist of leading early music ensemble London Baroque. Current: In the 1990s his career as a harpsichordist flourished, but he quickly became known as a conductor. In 2006 he was made music director of the Academy of Ancient Music, a post he still holds today.…

‘She taught me that I’m not as certain as I thought I was’ ‘YOU OCCASIONALLY GET the feeling that a lot of harpsichord playing happens in spite of how deeply emotional Bach is, rather than being inspired by it. Professor R∞zicÿková is quite the opposite of this. ‘What I’ve learnt from her, first of all, is that having a set interpretation damages music. It’s scary to walk out on stage thinking: “OK, I have ten interpretative choices for every bar to select from tonight.” It’s much easier to know exactly what I’m going to do. It’s intimidating, not knowing, but much more liberating. ‘One thing that she’ll say occasionally is: “Don’t forget to do X or Y, otherwise your colleagues will think you’re an idiot!” You do it because other…

Beethoven s Eroica and Royal Flemish Philharmonic (19 May) turning to the Choral Ninth Symphony. elisabethcenter.be Handel’s Agrippina Swedish mezzo Ann Hallenberg (above) takes the lead in this Opera Vlaanderen co-production (23 March – 4 April). Drawing inspiration from the world of soap operas, Mariame Clément directs this tale of power and greed. operaballet.be Plantin-Moretus Musuem This fascinating museum houses the oldest surviving printing presses. Its collection includes various musical volumes plus an unusual instrument: a two-manual harpsichord/virginal hybrid. museumplantinmoretus.be Vleeshuis Museum This listed building (formerly the Butchers’ Guild) is now devoted to the history of sound, music and dance in Antwerp; an exhibition of instruments illustrates the city’s soundscape over the years. museumvleeshuis.be…

THE LIFE 1862 Achille-Claude Debussy is born on 22 August in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris. His father owns a china shop and his mother is a seamstress. 1873 Making rapid progress as a pianist, he enters the PARIS CONSERVATOIRE AT 11 . While there, Tchaikovsky’s patron Nadezhda von Meck employs him as a teacher to her children, and introduces him to music by Russian composers. 1884 His cantata L’Enfant prodigue wins him the prestigious Prix de Rome, leading to a period of study in the Italian capital, where he meets Liszt and Verdi. 1894 His orchestral work PRÉLUDE À L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN FAUNE proves a major success at its premiere, but also raise eyebrows due to its groundbreaking lack of musical structure. 1904 He causes a scandal by abandoning his wife, Lilly…

BEECHAM FIRST CONDUCTED Sheherazade, at the impresario Diaghilev’s invitation, for the Ballets Russes’s 1912 London season. His affection for the work remained keen as ever, 45 years later, when he made this recording with his own Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. With both conductor and orchestra fully engaged with the music’s drama, this recording is the most consistently engaging of any available. For an idea of its quality, try The Young Prince and the Young Princess – too many performances overload its opening melody with yearning ardour, giving it nowhere further to go expressively; Beecham’s restrained and flowing account enables one to appreciate the love theme’s beauty. Only with the theme’s repetition, now played by expressive cellos and cor anglais, does he allow the pace to linger ever so slightly to suggest…

Recording of the Month Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan record Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor with stunning success, paired with a dazzling account of the solo motet Exsultate, jubilate, p56 A tribute to Peter Maxwell Davies In his last two years, the terminally ill Sir Peter Maxwell Davies spent much of his creative energy writing a children’s opera, The Hogboon, premiered last June by Sir Simon Rattle. But like many other composers facing personal difficulties, Maxwell Davies also continued to explore the more private domains of chamber and instrumental music. His final work, in early 2016, was a movement for string quartet, which vanishes into silence. This month’s Instrumental Choice features the disc premiere of the Sonatina for Violin Alone, Op. 334, from 2014, performed by its…

After many years recording JS Bach, you’re now on your second disc of Mozart. How have you changed your approach? Well, actually, I have kept exactly the same approach. Mozart’s music obviously sounds completely different from Bach’s, but it’s equally beautiful, equally interesting. The Requiem and C minor Mass are some of my favourite works. I’m curious to follow the tradition of Christian music, the line from Machaut. We’ve recorded Monteverdi’s Missa In illo tempore, Bach’s B Minor Mass, this Mozart and we’re recording Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis next year. It’s a fascinating line. What is Mozart’s musical language like in this Mass? It’s very interesting. Mozart composed this Mass for quite a personal reason, it seems, to persuade his father to accept Constanze. She was a wonderful soprano, and the…

Schreker combines Wagnerian passion with Debussyan subtlety SCHREKER Der Schatzgräber – Symphonic interlude; Die Gezeichneten – Prelude; Das Spielwerk – Prelude; Der ferne Klang – Nachstück; Vorspiel zu einer grossen Oper Royal Swedish Orchestra/ Lawrence Renes BIS BIS-2212 (hybrid CD/SACD) 68:30 mins Few 20th-century composers have suffered more from the vicissitudes of fashion than Franz Schreker. Hailed in the period following the First World War as the most significant figure in German opera since Wagner, Schreker and his voluptuous, erotically charged music quickly fell out of favour as the artistic environment in the Weimar Republic moved towards a more austere and objective mode of expression. Thereafter, Hitler’s accession to power dealt the final blow to any possible revival of interest in his work, and the composer was now branded as…

The musicians respond to this wonderful music with passion VIVALDI Concertos for two violins, RV 505, 507, 513, 527 & 529 Giuliano Carmignola, Amandine Beyer (violin); Gli Incogniti Harmonia Mundi HMC 902249 70:01 mins Some years ago Giuliano Carmignola joined Viktoria Mullova in a dazzlingly virtuosic disc of six concertos for two violins by Vivaldi. But for this release featuring six more Vivaldi double violin concertos, he’s joined by the more naturally inclined French violinist Amandine Beyer. The Italian composer wrote more than 25 double violin concertos with string accompaniment, and they are especially rewarding both for the high quality of their material and for their frequently advanced virtuosity. While many of the extended passages for the solo protagonists progress in parallel thirds there are other highly original passages…

draws Jaap airy van , luminescent sounds from his players WAGNER Die Walküre Matthias Goerne, Michelle DeYoung, Stuart Skelton, Heidi Melton, Petra Lang, Falk Struckmann; Hong Kong Philharmonic Orch/Jaap van Zweden Naxos 8.660394-97 236:32 mins (4 discs) Naxos’s recent Rheingold featured exceptional cast and recording. I was less impressed with Jaap van Zweden’s conducting, a decent first stab but lacking detail, and Matthias Goerne’s surprisingly stolid Wotan. Not so this Walküre. Like many conductors, Van Zweden seems to respond more naturally to this richer, more passionate score, better suited to his sweeping approach. Drawing airy, luminescent textures from the Hong Kong players, he drives the drama excitingly – missing telling nuances, still, but avoiding Pierre Boulez’s glibness and the lumpen Teutonicism currently reigning at Bayreuth. His singers respond superbly, although…

Davis’s percussion includes marimba and sleigh bells HANDEL Messiah (arr. Andrew Davis) Erin Wall (soprano), Elizabeth DeShong (mezzo), Andrew Staples (tenor), John Relyea (bass-baritone); Toronto Mendelssohn Choir; Toronto Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis Chandos CHSA 5176(2) (hybrid CD/SACD) 114:25 mins (2 discs) The search for authenticity in performing Messiah is so firmly established that it seems quite perverse to regress to what the composer certainly didn’t intend. Yet numerous examples exist, following two principles – retaining but re-orchestrating Handel’s original harmonies and, secondly, elaborating and enriching them. Mozart chose the latter – the chromatic clarinets displaying ‘a great light’ in ‘The people that walked in darkness’ is truly unforgettable. Andrew Davis adopts the expansive model: almost 150 voices and orchestral forces of 55 strings, wind from piccolo to contrabassoon, and…

The players catch just the right balance of poise and profundity SCHUBERT Piano Trios, Opp. 99 & 100; Nocturne, D897 Daniel Sepec (violin), Roel Dieltiens (cello), Andreas Staier (fortepiano) Harmonia Mundi HMC 902233-34 90:24 mins (2 discs) It’s the use of period instruments that makes this recording stand out from other excellent accounts of Schubert’s two late piano trios. Andreas Staier plays a modern copy of an 1827 Viennese fortepiano that would have been brand spanking new when Op. 100 (D929) was composed. Along with the astringent, gut-stringed tone of violinist Daniel Sepec and cellist Roel Dieltiens, this lends the performance a revealing transparency. More importantly, the players catch just the right Schubertian balance of poise and profundity, bringing a light touch to the opening of Op. 99 (D898)…

BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3: Opp. 54, 57, 78, 79, 81a, 90, 101, 106, 109, 110, 111 Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano) Chandos CHAN 10925(3) 211:40 mins (3 discs) After recording an accomplished Haydn sonata cycle, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has now completed a Beethoven one. And if this latter provides a suitable outlet for his virtuosity, it also gives great scope to his artistry. Presenting the last 11 sonatas in chronological order, his final three-CD release begins with a sweetly unassuming account of Op. 54, the first movement capriciously playful, and the perpetuum mobile pellucid. As Bavouzet uses very little pedal, his characteristic sound is clean and dry, and when he gives us histrionics they are Beethoven’s own; there’s nothing vain or pretentiously ‘original’ in these interpretations. The first movement of his Appassionata…

LIBERATION MUSIC ORCHESTRA Time/Life (Song for the Whales and Other Beings) Charlie Haden, Steve Swallow (bass), Carla Bley (piano), Chris Cheek, Tony Malaby, Loren Stillman (sax) et al Impulse/Decca 479 8480 54 mins Double-bassist Charlie Haden founded the Liberation Music Orchestra (LMO) in 1969, when idealism seemed to be on its way out. Over the next 40-plus years his group gained legendary status for turbulent live shows that celebrated political consciousness and social justice. But in all that time they only made four albums, including one live recording, so this valedictory disc is especially welcome. With just two numbers in the can at the time of Haden’s death in July 2014, long-time LMO arranger Carla Bley stepped up to pen startling new arrangements for three of her own compositions. Recorded…

GHOST VARIATIONS Jessica Duchen Unbound ISBN 9778-1-78352-982-7 306pp Available as an e-book from unbound.com  and amazon.co.uk A ouija board, a long-lost manuscript, a free-spirited heroine and a continent in the grip of political upheaval: Jessica Duchen’s gripping new novel, Ghost Variations, explores a truly intriguing episode in musicological history. For many years, Schumann’s Violin Concerto lay gathering dust in the Prussian State Library. Completed in 1853 when Schumann’s health was already failing, the concerto was deemed unworthy of the composer’s name by its dedicatee, Joseph Joachim, so was omitted from Schumann’s Complete Edition and thence all but vanished from the world. Ghost Variations narrates the true story (give or take one’s belief in spirit voices beyond the grave) of Jelly d’Arányi, the Hungarian violinist and great-niece of Joachim,…

EDWARD GARDNER WAS born in 1974 in Gloucester. After Eton and Cambridge, he studied conducting at the Royal Academy, was a repetiteur at the Salzburg Festival, then assistant to Mark Elder at the Hallé for three years from 2004. That year, he also became music director of Glyndebourne on Tour and in 2006 was made music director of English National Opera. Gardner is now principal conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic and tours the UK with them in Jan. Visit harmonien.no/english I was a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral and sang in that wonderful building for a couple of hours every day – choral and organ music were a big part of my life. I remember being obsessed with MESSIAEN, which is weird for a kid of eight. I made my parents…

We still mumble about the lack of young people at concerts Twenty years ago, almost to the day, I clocked off for good from Cardiff’s Virgin Megastore. Serving customers in its mammoth classical music section, the largest of any record store outside London, I got my first taste of the record industry, and introduced hundreds of (hopefully) happy punters to music they would otherwise have never listened to. Today, record stores – if you’re lucky enough to have one near you – are smaller, leaner affairs, but no less valuable in their expertise, enthusiasm and advice. But how the scene has changed in two decades. I remember the shop having a decent MiniDisc section, a format we all assumed would last rather longer than it did. But the humble CD…

Cédric Tiberghien has been recording Chopin at Henry Wood Hall in London. The French pianist’s recital, for Hyperion, brings together the 24 Preludes and two of the composer’s works in B flat minor – the Second Piano Sonata and Second Scherzo. Conductor Pablo Heras Casado’s new recording for Harmonia Mundi is an all-Bartók affair. He conducts the Munich Philharmonic in the Concerto for Orchestra, and is joined by Javier Perianes for the Third Piano Concerto. Juanjo Mena and the BBC Philharmonic have reached the third volume of their Ginastera series. Recorded in Manchester, there’s a piano theme with Xiayin Wang appearing as the soloist in the First Piano Concerto and Concierto Argentino. The Variaciones Concertantes for chamber orchestra complete the picture. Howard Skempton’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner was premiered…

Third Coast Percussion: Reich FREE so the opportunity to be really creative is comparatively limited. One for Reich fans and music students only. Elinor Cooper Made by Third Coast Percussion, an ensemble based in Chicago that has recently released a disc of music by Steve Reich, this app is unashamedly a marketing enterprise. It allows users to explore Reich’s music, customise it to create their own tracks, then share the result (and the album cover) on Instagram. There are three different sections – ‘phasing’, ‘additive’ and ‘canons’ – each based on a specific Reich work. Users can record their own sounds to overwrite what already exists, or simply play around with the timing of the existing tracks. It’s all very stylish but, sadly, also designed in such a…

Grieg dominates the nearby city of Bergen to an extent that makes the natives uncomfortable The sun shone dazzlingly on the ice around the little jetty on the fjord – most unusual for Bergen, but in fact it shone dazzlingly most of the time we were there. We marched up the frosty Valley of the Trolls (marching quite unconsciously, but then we all knew that piece), pausing to pay our respects to the forbiddingly sealed cavern in the cliff above, where Edvard Grieg was laid to rest in 1907, and wife Nina joined him nearly 30 years later. Then to the top of the hill – named Trolls’ Hill by Nina, when some inventive farmer, keen to sell off a precipitous bit of shoreline with no agricultural value, told her…

Michael Thorn Helston The music of Steve Reich (above) becomes alive and accessible when played live, and was my experience a concert by the Britten Sinfonia with Synergy Vocals at Colston Hall, Bristol. Seeing the dynamic complexity of a string quartet playing over a pre-recorded performance tape in Different Trains greatly enhanced the impact of the music, and the fusion of images, vocals and orchestra in the video opera Three Tales made a powerful impression in the concert hall. I admired the concentration and stamina of the performers: it makes me appreciate the recordings more. Frank Stack Southampton Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires were an concert given recently by són, Southampton’s new professional orchestra, conducted by Robin Browning. Violinist Daniel Rowland’s physical energy and…

GARDENING I grew up in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia and spent so much time out in the paddocks and garden. Since I’ve had my children, my passion for gardening has been reignited. My husband and I live in inner-city Melbourne with a front yard that’s tiny really, but there’s something lovely about being surrounded by roses and plants. I love things that either have a really beautiful fragrance or are edible, or ideally both. I have a big herb garden, with pots and a wooden crate packed with tomatoes, capsicums and cucumbers, and a salad garden where I harvest lettuces, spring onions and silver beets. I get a ridiculous amount of joy from being able to wander into the garden and grab things to have for dinner. I…

In the whole of January, there will be just 12 classical concerts in the Royal Festival Hall Looking back, looking forward – that’s what columnists do at Christmas. Well, this cut-price Janus has been thinking what he would have written if he’d been hacking out this article exactly a century ago. By December 1916, the news of the shattering death-toll at the Battle of the Somme would have filtered through even the censored British newspapers. So would the growing turmoil in Russia, leading to revolution two months later. Those cataclysmic events affected every family in Europe and cast a shadow over most of the 20th century. In the great scheme of things, the havoc wreaked on musical life was perhaps less important – but that, too, was changed forever, and…

FOR EVERY BRIGHT new idea that sticks around, there are always countless others that are here today, gone tomorrow. Here are four current fads we believe might not last the course of time. Club-style concerts You can take informality too far. Yes, we should be encouraging a relaxed atmosphere at concerts, especially if it helps to bring in new audiences. However, once people start to eat, drink and chat away during the music, the performance itself becomes little more than an accompaniment, and the point is lost. The format itself may stick around, but the really top performers will surely avoid it. Concert Tweeting The idea behind encouraging audience members to tweet from a concert is a well-intentioned one: spread the word, share the excitement of occasion and so on.…

Today, stereo comes at us from all directions: TV, car radio, the CD player, as well as our own personal ‘stereos’. We take it for granted, just as we do colour film and wide-screen cinema – technology which has brought us ever-higher definition and realism. Back in the 1930s it was the search for a more realistic cinematic experience which got the British scientist Alan Blumlein thinking. His son Simon recalls that ‘my father was at a film with my mother and asked her to imagine that if a blind man was sitting next to her, he’d have no idea where the characters were on the screen because all the sound was coming from one direction – a single, mono loudspeaker. But my father reckoned he could develop a system…

MANY OF THESE SINGERS wrote autobiographies, containing tantalising tales of adventure and valuable insight into 19th-century musical life. Here are three excerpts… Michael Kelly Reminiscences of Michael Kelly (1825) Kelly on his friend Mozart: ‘He was a remarkably small man, very thin and pale, with a profusion of fine fair hair, of which he was rather vain. [...] He always received me with kindness and hospitality. He was remarkably fond of punch, of which beverage I have seen him take copious drafts. He was also fond of billiards, and had an excellent billiard table in his house.’ Henry Phillips Musical and Personal Recollections During Half a Century (1864) Phillips describes the infamous Niccolò Paganini: ‘[He was a] ghostly figure, thin, rather tall, pale as death, with black glossy…

Debussy disliked the term ‘impressionism’. He apparently still associated it with its original use by the art critic who in 1874 had taken the title of a sunrise painting by Monet, Impression: Soleil levant, and had used it as sarcastic evidence against the artist: ‘Impression … what freedom, what ease of workmanship! A preliminary drawing for a wallpaper pattern is more finished than this seascape.’ When the artists themselves quite happily adopted the term, however, it lost its pejorative sense. We are less clear about what it means when applied to music rather than visual art, but we have a useful general idea and we certainly would not accuse Debussy’s ‘impressionist’ works of being perfunctory, sketchy, ill-defined or unfinished. There is no more vivid demonstration of the precision of his…

Préludes Alexei Lubimov (piano) ECM 476 4735 Lubimov thrills and beguiles in these hugely characterful performances of Debussy's famous solo piano works. Orchestral works Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Stéphane Denève Chandos CHSA5102(2) From La Mer to Images, this is a sumptuous, seductive Debussy orchestral set. Pelléas et Mélisande Jacques Jansen, Irène Joachim etc; Choeurs Yvonne Gouverné, Orchestre Symphonique/ Roger Désormière Warner 345 7702 For shimmering atmosphere, Désormière's 1941 recording remains unsurpassed. Violin Sonata Kyung-Wha Chung (violin), Radu Lupu (piano) Decca 421 1542 A gloriously fresh and energetic performance, recorded in 1977.…

Fritz Reiner (conductor) Sydney Harth (violin); Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1960) Sony 88697700362 Reiner’s performances can appear meticulous and rather unyielding, but his account of Sheherazade is both entertaining and touching, qualities appropriate to the original stories. ‘The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship’ is swift, yet Reiner’s purposeful account makes it cohere into a compelling and almost symphonic piece while also conjuring the sensation of a vast ocean. He also finds unexpected humour in ‘The Kalender Prince’: after a build-up of tension, Reiner’s sudden change of gear to a slower tempo – marked in Rimsky’s score – heightens the pompous swagger of the march that follows. The young lovers are touchingly portrayed, the string tone hushed and artfully hesitant, and the theme’s lingering return after the procession poignant in its effect.…

Misha Donat producer, writer Misha Donat spent several years as a composer, writing music for films and for the theatre, before joining Radio 3 as a music producer. Among the many programmes he produced there were the Lunchtime Concerts at St John s, Smith Square. He now works as a freelance writer, lecturer and producer. Rob Ainsley critic, writer John Allison editor, Opera; critic, Sunday Telegraph Nicholas Anderson Baroque specialist Terry Blain writer, critic 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 Elinor Cooper journalist Martin Cotton radio & recording producer Christopher Dingle…

BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos 1 & 7 Vienna Philharmonic/ Nikolaus Harnoncourt Orfeo 924 161 B (2003) 69:46 mins The chief surprise of these Salzburg performances is how unsurprising they are, almost free of Harnoncourt’s usual idiosyncrasies or perversities. Really rather dull. PERFORMANCE *** RECORDING **** BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos 3, 5 & 7 SCHUBERT Symphony No. 5 Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic/Georg Solti Eloquence 480 6596 (1959) 147:36 mins These recordings from the end of the 1950s are characteristic of Solti’s tense hard-driven style, in the case of Schubert’s Fifth ridiculously so. Beethoven’s Eroica and No. 7 fare better, but No. 5 is aggressive to a fault. PERFORMANCE ** RECORDING **** SCHUMANN Symphony No. 3 (arr. Mahler) TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 2 Philharmonia/Carlo Maria Giulini Praga Digital PRD 350 135 (1956-58) 75:28 mins…

BEETHOVEN • BRUCH Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 Salvatore Accardo (violin); Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Kurt Masur Pentatone PTC 5186 237 (1966/69) 71:22 mins Salvatore Accardo may lack the volcanic intensity of Isaac Stern in the Bruch and Wolfgang Schneiderhan’s divine spirituality in the Beethoven, yet he produces a ravishing sound of captivating tonal finesse. PERFORMANCE *** RECORDING ***** BRAHMS Violin Concerto; Double Concerto Salvatore Accardo (violin), Heinrich Schiff (cello); Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Kurt Masur Eloquence 482 5085 (1979) 78:26 mins Although beautifully played and immaculately paced, Accardo sounds less engaged by the solo concerto than the double, in which he is partnered by an inspired Heinrich Schiff on peak form. PERFORMANCE *** RECORDING **** HENZE • MOZART Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5; Henze: Violin Concerto; Martin: Magnificat Wolfgang Schneiderhan…

GRANADOS María del Carmen Soloists; Wexford Festival Opera Chorus; National Philharmonic Orchestra of Belarus/Bragado-Darman Naxos 8.660144-45 (2004) 143:21 mins (2 discs) A poetic prelude introduces an opera of slender substance and monotonous pacing, despite passages of genuine charm. Decent singing and playing, apart from Diana Veronese’s wobbly Maria. PERFORMANCE **** RECORDING **** KRENEK Orpheus und Eurydike Hamilton, Vejzovic, Lindsley, ORF Chorus & SO Wien/Steinberg Orfeo C 923 1621 (1990) 105:30 mins (2 discs) Festival concert performance, with exceptional singing from Dunja Vejzovic and Celina Lindsley. PERFORMANCE **** RECORDING **** ORFF Die Kluge Falewicz, Büchner, Lorenz, Stryczek, Leipzig Radio SO/Kegel Berlin Classics 030074BBC (1976-80) 83:29 mins (2 discs) You’ll find this 1942 stage work (part music hall, part fairytale) either wacky entertainment, or a trashy nadir of German musical culture. Excellent…

JS BACH Missae Breves Cantus Cölln/Konrad Junghänel Harmonia Mundi HMY 2921939-40 (2007) 111:32 mins (2 discs) A couple of under-involving solos aside, beautifully recorded, executed with the lightest of touches; there’s an easeful rapprochement between voices and instruments at one with Bach’s suave intimacy. PERFORMANCE **** RECORDING ***** HANDEL Solomon Soloists; RIAS Kammerchor; Akademie Für Alte Musik Berlin/Daniel Reuss Harmonia Mundi HMY 2921949-50 (2007) 154:31 mins (2 discs) With Sarah Connolly and Caroline Sampson appearing for the prosecution, it doesn’t require the judgment of Solomon to predict a favourable outcome even if the chorus sometimes trades commitment for mere efficiency. PERFORMANCE **** RECORDING **** MENDELSSOHN Paulus Soloists; La Chapelle Royale; Collegium Vocale; Orchestre de Champs-Elysées/ Philippe Herreweghe Harmonia Mundi HMY 2921584-85 (1996) 128:36 mins (2 discs) Matthias Goerne’s noble Paulus…

Lera Auerbach (b1973) Born in Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains, Lera Auerbach seized an opportunity the Soviet Union when touring New York as a pianist in 1991: she has lived in that city ever since. She subsequently attended the Manhattan School of Music, then the Juilliard School where she studied piano under Joseph Kalichstein, and composition under Milton Babbitt. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2002, performing her own Suite for violin, piano and orchestra with Gidon Kremer conducting the Kremerata Baltica.…

In Ysaÿe s Third Sonata she yields nothing to the finest recordings BACH 2 THE FUTURE, VOL. 2 Sutton: Arpeggiare Variations; Ysaÿe: Solo Violin Sonata No. 3 (Ballade); Beamish: Intrada e Fuga; JS Bach: Solo Violin Sonata No. 3 in C; Maxwell Davies: Sonatina for Violin Alone; Stravinsky: Elégie; Sibelius: En glad musikant Fenella Humphreys (violin) Champs Hill CHRCD 118 72:02 mins Last year, I enthusiastically welcomed this project’s first volume. This sequel is also impressive, both in the quality of the playing and the variety of music. Sutton’s Variations uses arpeggiated figures, its intensity matched by Humphreys’s strong, focused playing, especially in the lento movement. In Ysaÿe’s Third Sonata she yields nothing to the finest recordings in her accuracy and passion, the recording capturing the full range of…

One of the notable anniversaries of 2017 is bound to be the 100th birthday of Ella Fitzgerald, the shy, awkward street waif who became the global queen of jazz and pop. Her first Jazz Starter (No. 22, Feb 2003) surveyed the brilliant trajectory of her career, from teenage stardom in the swing era to international celebrity in the 1950s and after, combining scat-singing virtuosity with a skill for making the lyrics of a song gleam like new, and delivering both with a spontaneous, unaffected joy which captured every audience. Hardcore jazz fans preferred Fitzgerald’s exuberant side, throwing caution to the wind like the eminent horn players who regarded her as a formidable equal. But just as distinctive was her way with the Great American Songbook, that canon of standards created…

DAB & CD PLAYER SonoroCD 2 £349 German manufacturer Sonoro is little known in the UK, but it’s starting to make a name for itself for high quality hi-fi kit. The compact CD 2 system (above) has been designed specifically for the bedroom and, alongside its music-playing abilities – which include CD playback, FM and DAB and Bluetooth streaming – it comes pre-loaded with a variety of relaxation settings. By combining it with the optional SonoroLIGHT dimmer control, for £39 (which plugs into a mains socket) the CD 2 will even wake you gradually from your slumber with a simulated sunrise. Sonoro’s 360-degree speaker technology claims to distribute sound evenly around the room, in contrast to the ‘sweet spot’ delivered by traditional speakers. While it’s not perfect, there’s definitely a…

• Semele is a musical drama in three parts that Handel composed in ‘the manner of an oratorio’. It was premiered on 10 February 1744 at Covent Garden. Handel adapted a libretto by William Congreve, from 1705, which had been used in an opera by English composer John Eccles. The story is from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and concerns Semele, the daughter of the Theban King, and her adulterous affair with Jupiter. • It took Handel just over a month to write the work. In the legend Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, has the affections of the god Jupiter – who sends an eagle to fetch her. But Jupiter’s wife Juno tricks Semele into getting her husband to reveal himself in his immortal form – as the bringer of thunder – which…

GRAYSON PERRY Artist GLASS Metamorphosis 2 Nicolas Horvath (piano) ‘I went to see Godfrey Reggio’s film Koyaanisqatsi (1982) which is based on Hopi Indian prophecies. It was my first encounter with Glass and I was completely addicted to the soundtrack. I went out and bought it and looked into his other works, including his operas and piano pieces. When I was making a time-lapse film, many years later, my first choice of music to accompany it was Glass and this was the piece I used.’ TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 (1st mvt: Allegro moderato) Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin), Berlin Philharmonic/Karajan ‘This record, the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, was on repeat when I was in my first year at college. It was on an old Dansette…

MUSIC CHOICE Messiaen Vingt Regards Yvonne Loriod (piano) Apex 2564699865 JS Bach St Matthew Passion Covey-Crump, Kirkby, Chance et al; Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Brandenburg Consort/Stephen Cleobury Brilliant Classics 93941 Wagner Tristan und Isolde Heinz Zednik, Catarina Ligendza et al; Bayreuth Festival Orch/Carlos Kleiber Opera dOro OPD1457 (3 discs) Walton Symphony No. 1 LSO/André Previn RCA Red Seal Available online Britten Sinfonia da Requiem New Philharmonia Orchestra/Benjamin Britten Decca E425 1002…