Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i BBC Music Magazine

ON DISC Tasting notes Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli made his name as a wine merchant, alongside a career as a virtuoso violinist, but this month he’s celebrated as a composer. On its debut disc, the Illyrian Consort and Croatian violinist Bojan ∫icic give us a chance to sample and savour the Baroque composer’s delicious Sonate da Camera. Cheers! See p74 ON STAGE Canal plus With more miles of canal than Venice, Birmingham is proud of its watery heritage (pictured), celebrated this month by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group with the premiere of Serenade on the Canals by Ondπej Adámek, Richard Baker and Yannis Kyriakides. The music is played on three narrow boats, which converge where three canals meet. See p88 ON AIR Revolution rarity Prokofiev’s Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of…

DOUBLE TAKE Having been a subscriber to BBC Music Magazine since its inception, I have the honour of owning a complete collection of the accompanying cover CDs. I am therefore able to compare those released several years ago to those being issued today. Volume 9, No. 9 (May 2001) and Volume 25, No. 9 (June 2017) both feature performances of Nielsen’s Symphony No. 4, ‘The Inextinguishable’ – played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Petri Sakari and the Hallé under Sir Mark Elder respectively – but it was only after four or five listening sessions that I was able to hear that they are indeed the same work! In my opinion, each recording deserves a five-star rating, as the playing is incredible in each case. Yet, when I…

A crowdfunding campaign is underway to purchase Georges Bizet’s final home and dedicate it to his life and work. The house is part of a significant cultural complex situated in the small French village of Bougival, about ten miles from Paris, and was where the composer moved to in 1874. Alas, he did not enjoy a lengthy spell at the property, as he died there the following summer, aged just 36. However, a certain significance is added to the property by that the fact that this is where, in that short time, he wrote his opera Carmen. It is feared that should the purchase not go ahead, this historically important building might be developed for other purposes. The campaign, which has high-profile supporters in the form of mezzo Teresa Berganza…

Sir Andrew Davis is making the first studio recording of Bliss’s The Beatitudes. A large-scale work intended for Coventry’s re-consecrated Cathedral, it was sidelined by Britten’s War Requiem. The new Chandos recording features the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with soprano Emily Birsan and tenor Ben Johnson. Vasily Petrenko continues his series of Scriabin symphonies with the Oslo Philharmonic for LAWO Classics; they recorded No. 2 and the Piano Concerto with Kirill Gerstein last year in May, and this year have recorded the First Symphony. The rising German countertenor Benno Schachtner , having recorded Bach’s St John Passion with René Jacobs, has now recorded an album of songs by Purcell and Dowland, together with lutenist Axel Wolf and viol-player Jakob Rattinger, for Accent. René Jacobs himself has recorded a new…

While there are two sides to every story, as the saying goes, composers over the centuries have not exactly rushed to take the side of Judas Iscariot (above, kissing Jesus). Sally Beamish, however, believes that the much-maligned figure deserves reassessment, as listeners will hear when her oratorio The Judas Passion is premiered at Saffron Hall this month. ‘I wanted to look at certain questions,’ says Beamish about the new work, which will be performed by the OAE with tenor Brendan Gunnell in the title role. ‘What is unforgiveable? Did Judas believe himself to be God’s instrument in the fulfilment of the prophesies? Or was he truly and irredeemably evil?’ See p78.…

@PeterHDonohoe Just made it to 2500 followers. Time to measure up to Beyoncé again. Oh... Pianist Peter Donohoe (left) is closing in fast on the US singer’s 14,979,010 Twitter following @NickyBenedetti I just learnt the word avarice. Who’s got another good word for me I’m unlikely to know yet? (Airport fun) Violinist Nicola Benedetti knows how to make airport waiting hours simply whizz by @ben_hulett I. WANT. TO. TAKE. A. RED. PEN. TO. ALL. TWEETS. THAT. USE. THE. FULL. STOP. (PERIOD). INCORRECTLY. #FULLSTOP Tenor Benjamin Hulett. Is a stickler. For correct, punctuation. @MarcAndreHam Strawberry Fields For Heifer #CowSongs A rare, but vitally meaningful, visit to Twitter by pianist Marc-André Hamelin @JenniferStumm Ah, summer festival season, where violin soloists think the Schubert Quintet is a newly discovered concerto. Violist…

Oliver Condy Editor Autumn may be fast approaching, but I’ve been keeping myself in a summery mood, attempting to get to grips with the first movement of Ravel’ s Valses Nobles et Sentimentales for solo piano. The slow practice, however, has been worth it – it’s a joyous, carefree piece with the most luscious, spicy harmonies imaginable. And it’s only a minute-and-a-half long, so it’s manageable! Jeremy Pound Deputy editor An enforced last-minute programme change at this year’s Cheltenham Festival gave us the wonderful consolation of Eivind Holtsmark Ringstad playing Hindemith’s Solo Viola Sonata Op. 25 No. 1. It’s a stunning work that encompasses a wealth of different characters and colours, and Ringstad’s mastery of the fiendish fourth movement had me rather ruing all those viola jokes I’ve made over…

It’s time to make the case for the impact that music can have on health and well-being One problem about living in a soundbite culture is that important social or health campaigns sometimes don’t get mentioned in the media because they won’t produce snappy headlines. ‘Miracle cure for Alzheimer’s’ would be a big story (even if it turned out to be based more on wishful thinking than solid evidence). But ‘painstaking research gradually helps us to understand the causes of mental illness’ won’t make the news pages, even in August. And if the campaign involves the arts in any way, you may as well forget about coverage in the mainstream media. That, at least, is my melancholy conclusion from the stunning absence of journalistic reaction to two recent reports which,…

THE VIOLONCELLO, meaning ‘little bass violin’, is the youngest member of the violin family. It was originally more bulky, often carried on a strap round the body, to be played in street processions and at dances, unlike its more delicate, aristocratic cousin, the viol (left). The oldest surviving cello was made by Andrea Amati in 1572, but its first ‘solo’ music wasn’t written until the 17th century, notably by a group of Bolognese composers, including Domenico Gabrielli (1651-90). This was partly because the thick, gut bass strings were so hard to articulate. A technological breakthrough in string manufacture, which allowed the gut to be twisted and wire-wound, resulted in a musical leap: works by Vivaldi, Geminiani, Sammartini, Barrière, Bréval and then Bach demanded violinistic speed and dexterity. For ages there…

If you’re taking a walk around Nuremberg, do make sure your route includes the statues of two local heroes. One is of Albrecht Dürer, the Renaissance painter extraordinaire. You’ll be first met by a huge image of the great man’s steely gaze when you arrive at Albrecht Dürer Airport, and thereafter you can’t avoid it – on posters, postcards, beermats, restaurant menus, you name it. He is best known today for painting hares and – as you’ll have already gathered – himself, but don’t go believing that his subject matter stretched no further than leporids and his own lovely mug. If you do, a browse around the immaculately presented Albrecht-Dürer-Haus, where he lived and worked, should give you a more rounded appreciation of this unique genius. The other statue is…

Erik Levi writer, musicologist Erik is visiting professor of music at Royal Holloway, University of London. Apart from researching German music from the Weimar Republic and Nazi eras, he is also a chamber musician, interested in politics, passionate about football, and loves taking his spaniel puppy Lucy for walks. Nicholas Anderson Baroque specialist Terry Blain writer, critic Kate Bolton-Porciatti lecturer, The British Institute; L’Istituto Lorenzo de’Medici Garry Booth jazz writer & critic Geoff Brown critic, The Times Anthony Burton writer, editor Michael Church , critic, Independent and The i Christopher Cook broadcaster, critic Elinor Cooper journalist Martin Cotton radio & recording producer Christopher Dingle professor of music, Birmingham Conservatoire Misha Donat producer, writer Jessica Duchen…

BRUCKNER Symphony No. 5; Te Deum Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Berlin Philharmonic/Eugen Jochum Praga Digitals PRD/DSD 350 114 (hybrid CD/SACD) (1964-65) 79:59 mins The Benedictine Abbey of Ottobeuren forms an imposing backdrop for this gripping account. Outstanding brass playing from the Concertgebouw and Jochum’s surefooted structural control creates a mesmerising experience. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★ LISZT Les Préludes; Tasso, Lamento e trionfo; Mazeppa; Die Ideale RIAS Berlin Symph Orch/Fricsay; Prague Radio Symph Orch/Macura; Berlin Phil/ Karajan; Bavarian Radio SO/Kubelík Praga Digitals PRD/DSD 350124 (hybrid CD/SACD) (1956-75) 79.59 mins Fricsay’s stunningly intense Les Préludes opens this stellar collection of Liszt performances. It’s particularly wonderful to have a previously unissued and exceptionally vivid radio recording of Die Ideale under Kubelík. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★ MAHLER • R STRAUSS R Strauss: Alpine Symphony; Mahler:…

DVORÁK DVD Rusalka Darina Gapicz, Dorota Sobczak, Ewa Banasiak, Jacek Greszta, Katarzyna Nowak-Stanczyk, Krystyna Nowak, Lidia Golinska, Maciej Figas, Magdalena Polkowska, Mariola Winkler-Ko√tys, Tadeusz Szlenkier; Opera Nova Bydgoszcz/Maciej Figas; dir. Kristina Wuss (Bydgoszcz, 2012) Dux DUX 8178 134 mins Rusalka has proved susceptible to multitudinous interpretations and settings. Productions have placed it variously in brothels, a Victorian nursery and even Josef Fritzl’s cellar. More conventional interpretations focus on the atmospheric world of the Bohemian forest which inspired some of Dvorák’s most ravishing music. Certainly, the mythology underpinning the story and the plight of Rusalka herself – in love with a human being but rejected by humanity and, most bitterly, even her sister water nymphs – unsurprisingly leads producers to all manner of flights of fancy. Kristina Wuss’s production for Opera…

JS BACH St John Passion Ditte Andersen, Lenneke Ruiten (soprano), Delphine Galou, David Hansen (alto), Lothar Odinius, Colin Balzer, Valerio Contaldo (tenor), Christian Immler, Yorck Felix Speer (bass); Les Musiciens du Louvre/Marc Minkowski Erato 9029585405 110:42 mins (2 discs) Marc Minkowski’s view of the St John Passion as a combination of theatre, meditation and prayer informs this memorable reading, which flits in a heartbeat from dramatic urgency to otherworldly serenity. The chamber-style chorus, with just two voices to a part, is lissom and detailed: reflective in the chorales, which comment on the Passion story, insistent to the point of being obsessive as the unmerciful crowd in the trial before Pilate – a scene which builds to insidious effect. Notable among the well-balanced soloists are Christian Immler, a noble Christ, the…

VISION OF PEACE Gregorian Chant The Monks of Ampleforth Abbey Alto ALC 1322 (1994-95) 72:30 mins Gregorian chant, as practised in North Yorkshire – over two dozen tracks, tracing the monastic life from vocational call to death and burial. Heartfelt singing, in an acoustically swimmy setting. PERFORMANCE ★★★ RECORDING ★★★ MUSIC & MUSICIANS AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY Works by Britten, C Gibbons, O Gibbons, Humfrey, Parsons, Purcell, Vaughan Williams and White Stile Antico; Fretwork; Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Romanesca et al Harmonia Mundi HMX 2908552.53 (1992-2012) 130 mins (2 discs) A nourishing anthology of music by composers associated with Westminster Abbey, ranging from White to Britten. Performances range from good to excellent. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★ VOICES FROM ANCIENT ABBEYS Plainchant and Polyphony Ensemble Organum; Deller Consort; Anonymous 4; Theatre…

JS BACH French Suites Nos 1-6, BWV 812-817 Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano) Decca 483 2150 82:52 mins Vladimir Ashkenazy’s late fascination with Bach has led him to make several recordings of the German composer’s work in the last decade: The Well-Tempered Clavier in 2006, the Partitas in 2010, the Italian Concerto and French Overture (2014), and now the French Suites, released to celebrate his 80th birthday in July. This series of fine performances places him among the ‘mighty handful’ of Russian Bach pianists alongside Samuil Feinberg, Leonid Nikolayev, Sviatoslav Richter and Grigory Sokolov. Bach’s French Suites, mostly composed between 1722-25, scale the expressive gamut and Ashkenazy responds with playing that ranges from exuberant to introspective. A hint of melancholy underlies these autumnal performances – a quality which suits the minor-mode works…

Ockelford was inspired by a blind, autistic and musically gifted pupil COMPARING NOTES: How we make music Adam Ockelford Profile Books ISBN 978-1781256039 344pp (hb) £20 In his Fundamentals of Musical Composition, first published posthumously in 1967, Schoenberg contends that repetition makes musical structure coherent and intelligible. What he doesn’t explain is how we perceive that structure, or why it can take on such powerful meanings. Fifty years on, music professor Adam Ockelford, picks up this line of inquiry in an audacious and thorough examination of music and meaning that draws on psychology, philosophy, musicology, linguistic theory and his personal experiences as a teacher working with children who are blind and on the autism spectrum. Why, he asks, when we listen to a piece of music, does…

Five key facts about a work being performed this month (Choice 15) • Musorgsky worked on the five-act opera Khovanshchina between 1872 and 1880 in St Petersburg but it was unfinished when he died in 1881. The work concerns the political unrest before the accession of Peter the Great in 1682, when vying factions rebel against regent Sophia Alekseyevna and the two young future Tsars, Peter and Ivan. One group, the Streltsy (guards), is led by Prince Ivan Khovansky, while another is headed up by Prince Golitsyn, and the Old Believers (a religious group), by Dosifey. • Rimsky-Korsakov completed the score and the opera received its first performance in St Petersburg in 1886. In 1913 Stravinsky and Ravel made their own arrangement, after a request by Serge Diaghilev for the…

LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS It’s the third time that Sakari Oramo has conducted the closing night of the BBC Proms, with the massed forces of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. This year he is joined by soprano Nina Stemme for the Prelude and Liebstod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and he weaves in anniversary tributes to Kodály and John Adams. Oramo salutes Malcolm Sargent – who died 50 years ago – by performing the conductor’s arrangement of Rule, Britannia!. Proms 2017; Prom 75: first half live on BBC Two, 7.30pm, second half live on BBC One MUSIC AND POWER In a new BBC TV series, Suzy Klein looks at how musicians and audiences in the 20th century were manipulated by political ideologies, including those of Nazi Germany and…

Richard Morrison Chief critic, The Times ‘I first met Simon Rattle in 1977 when he was a mop-haired 22-year-old rehearsing a London orchestra with wit and authority, and I was a young music critic astonished by this force of nature. Little seems to have changed...’ Page 22 Suzy Klein BBC Radio & TV presenter ‘The highlight of filming for my new TV series was getting to play Lenin’s piano in his dacha, followed by pancakes with Smetana, plum jam and tea made by the housekeeper. Completely delicious and very Russian!’ Page 42 Julian Haylock Music journalist and editor ‘One of the all-time violin greats, in addition to his dazzingly inventive set of solo sonatas, Ysaÿe produced no fewer than eight violin concertos, a series of beguilingly sensual poems…

I very much enjoyed Richard Morrison’s July column ‘Do talented musicians make cultured and benign politicians?’. He mentions Benjamin Franklin as a talented musician, but probably the finest American politician-musician of that time was fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was quite an accomplished violinist until an injury to his left hand put paid to his performing. Most people would agree that he was a cultured and benign political figure. Nearer to our own time and closer to home (yours, not mine), one might mention British prime minister Sir Edward Heath, a gifted organist. He was cultured, yes, but whether he was benign is for others to judge. Robert M Johnstone, Indiana, US  Every month the editor will award a SolarDAB 2 Roberts radio (retail value £80 –…

 ‘Though neither of my parents are musicians, they really love classical music,’ says George Li. ‘As long as I can remember I would fall asleep to the classical radio station my mum would turn on at bedtime. She often took us to see the Boston Symphony Orchestra play, and my older sister played the piano, so I was surrounded by music from a young age.’ ‘I was always fascinated by the range and depth of the piano’ Li started playing the piano aged just four-and-a-half (the half is important, he says), and quickly fell in love with the instrument. ‘I was always fascinated by the range and depth that the piano has, its ability to imitate so many other instruments, and the huge variety of music which has been written…

THIS MONTH Noriko Ogawa pianist The Japanese pianist is one of the world’s foremost interpreters of Debussy, while her discography also includes rarities such as concertos by Tcherepnin and Rimsky-Korsakov. Her latest volume of Satie piano works is out now on BIS, and will be reviewed next issue. My finest moment Debussy Préludes –›Book 2; Berceuse héroïque; Pièce pour l’oeuvre du ‘Vêtement du blessé’; Elégie; La boîte à joujoux Noriko Ogawa (piano) BIS BISCD1355 (2006) This recording was the second go at the whole CD. The first time, technical things went wrong, the piano went wrong and the piano technician injured himself! So we had to reschedule everything. But of all the recordings I’ve made of Debussy, this was in fact the happiest. These Préludes are…

Craxton Studios’ signed photographs surpass even those in the Green Room at Wigmore Hall We filmed the fifth series of Chord of the Week for the BBC TV Proms coverage at Craxton Studios again. The painter George Hillyard Swinstead built the house, not far from Hampstead Heath, in 1901, its dominant feature the studio with its enormous north window – and the original glass, as we discovered in a quiet moment between chords. One pane bears a short history of the First World War, scratched with a diamond and signed by Swinstead in a beautiful italic hand. The dates are slightly different from the ones I know but probably correspond to when various bits of news reached Hampstead. The last entry was news to me: Peace Day, 19 July 1919,…

Gerhard van Rooyen Amanzimtoti, South Africa I attended a symphony concert by the Kwa-Zulu Natal Philharmonic in Durban recently where Daniel Boico was the conductor and the French violinist Philippe Graffin the soloist. After a very fine performance of Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, they played Alan Ridout’s Ferdinand the Bull for speaker and violin as an encore. The conductor acted as the narrator and the audience enjoyed this humorous piece, which is not often heard. The concert was closed with a rousing performance of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony. Yvonne Smith Saddleworth The Whit Friday Saddleworth Brass Band Competition has been going since 1884 and is often known as the ‘Greatest free show on Earth’. Over 129 brass bands performed this year as they marched through the hill-side villages around Saddleworth. The bands range…

ULTRA-MARATHON RUNNING I got into ultra-marathon running by accident. I’d always thought of myself as being fairly fit, but then just before I turned 50, I ran a kilometre around the block and realised I wasn’t! That shamed me into doing it again, and I started increasing the distance – 3km, 5km, 10km and so on. I then did my first half-marathon, at which point I decided I was going to do a marathon and then an ultra-marathon. My first ultra-marathon, in 2014, was 56km (35 miles). The longest I’ve done was 86 miles, which involved starting at midday, running overnight and then finishing the following day. Today, I train once a week with my coach, and also have a team of people who help me, including a physiotherapist and…

With Nelson Goerner, whose performances in Romantic repertoire have attracted such worldwide attention in the last decade or so, it seems sensible to start at the beginning. With childhood. We’re sitting in his home overlooking Lake Geneva, the mountains wreathed in a heat haze and the boats whizzing over the water, talking about Argentina. He was born and grew up in San Pedro, about 150 miles from Buenos Aires, which is where his love affair with the piano began. ‘I always say that one of the very first records I ever had was a recording of the Chopin Nocturnes by Arthur Rubinstein. From the start, I thought it was incredibly beautiful. The piano was singing. There was a quality of tone that I had never heard before. Of course you…

It has become something a cliché of modern politics that world leaders court musicians, casually dropping the names of trendy bands in an attempt to appeal to young voters. Donald Trump professes to love everyone from Eminem to Toots and the Maytals. Vladimir Putin chose Moscow’s leading dance music guru, DJ Fenix, to kick off the party at his second inauguration. David Cameron apparently couldn’t get out of bed without listening to The Killers, and Tony Blair famously filled up the No. 10 diary with pop-star parties. But in the 20th century, music and politics intertwined in a much deeper, darker way, and those who wielded power used their influence to shape culture with hands-on, and sometimes catastrophic, results. In fact, it is almost impossible to name a 20th-century composer…

Eugène Ysaÿe broke the 19th-century Romantic virtuoso mould with a unique fusion of sleight-of-hand technique and profound musicianship. A larger-than-life character in every respect, he mesmerised audiences with his devil-may-care spontaneity, which extended to changing fingerings and bowings as the mood inspired him in mid-performance. There was something of the subversive renegade about him – he could run temporal rings around insensitive conductors – yet he excelled at whatever he turned his hand to. Ysaÿe’s impact as a teacher was incalculable. His pupils included Louis Persinger (Yehudi Menuhin’s first major tutor), Joshua Bell’s mentor Josef Gingold, composer Ernest Bloch and Nathan Milstein. Carl Flesch – whose pupils included Henryk Szeryng and Ida Haendel – considered Ysaÿe ‘the most outstanding and individual violinist I have heard in my life,’ while celebrated…

Schubert Symphony No. 6 Just as Schubert’s Ninth Symphony enjoys the epithet ‘Great C major’, his Sixth, written around ten years earlier, is often referred to as the ‘Little C major’. History relates, in fact, that when the Ninth was due to receive its premiere in 1828, it was replaced with the Sixth when the orchestra found the former too much to ask. No mere trifle itself, the Sixth pays a nod to two of Schubert’s contemporaries: Rossini, in the Italianate opening movement; and Beethoven, in the third movement Scherzo. In the finale Schubert interweaves thematic ideas seemingly on a whim before building up to an emphatic finish. It’s at this point that the ‘Great’ seems not a million miles away. Recommended recording: Northern Sinfonia/Thomas Zehetmair Avie AV2224 Bruch…

FARINELLI: A Portrait (Live In Bergen) Arias by Broschi, Giacomelli, Porpora, Giacomelli, Hasse, Leo and Handel Hallenberg; Les Talens Lyriques/ Christophe Rousset Aparte AP117 69 mins ‘Hallenberg’s swaggering fireworks culminate in a final aria of almost ludicrous velocity. Her lyricism is equally powerful, thanks partly to Rousset, who subtly makes space for her.’ March 2017 HANDEL Imeneo Staveland, Hallenberg, Piccinini, Beggi, Arcari; Europa Galante/Fabio Biondi Glossa GCD 923405 114:51 mins ‘Biondi shapes a performance that sounds entirely spontaneous. Hallenberg delivers Tirinto’s grave serenades and intricate passagework with unruffled ease and an alluringly mellow tone.’ May 2016 ARIAS FOR LUIGI MARCHESI Works by Cherubini, Cimarosa, Mayr, Myslivecek, Pugnani, Zingarelli et al Hallenberg, Cassinari; Stile Galante/Stefano Aresi Glossa GCD 923505 71:45 mins ‘Hallenberg’s rich timbre, the evenness of her register and…

BEETHOVEN JOST • DVD Beethoven: Symphony No. 9; Coriolan Overture; Jost: Fanfare for 9 Brass Players, ‘An die Hoffnung’  Camilla Nylund (soprano), Elena Zhidkova (mezzo-soprano), Klaus Florian Vogt (tenor), René Pape (bass); Vienna Singverein; European Union Youth Orchestra Alumni; Tonkünstler Orchestra/Yutaka Sado C Major DVD : 740208; Blu-ray : 740304 105 mins This concert celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Grafenegg Festival, in Lower Austria. It was given last August outdoors, with the Tonkünstler Orchestra playing under a hideous and threatening construction of concrete, glass and metal. Unfortunately the cameramen found it irresistible at crucial points in the music to divert to shooting the local countryside, and the castle which spans German architectural history from the early Middle Ages up to Ludwig II-style. Even so, under the Japanese…

J ADAMS C MCPHEE •  • POULENC Poulenc: Concerto for Two Pianos; C McPhee: Tabuh-Tabuhan; John Adams: Grand Pianola Music GrauSchumacher Piano Duo; Trio Mediaeval; Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/Brad Lubman Neos NEOS 21703 71:02 mins The music of Bali has long captured the imagination of Western composers. The whirling sound of gamelan – an ensemble comprised primarily of gongs and metallophones – has, since its arrival on European shores, inspired numerous works with its insistent rhythm and dizzying melodic patterns. This splendid disc offers three works which directly or indirectly owe something to Balinese gamelan. Poulenc’s Double Concerto in D minor (1932) bristles with wit and fire, referencing everything from Mozart to Spanish paso doble alongside a glistening evocation of Balinese gamelan, as heard by Poulenc at the 1931 Paris Colonial…

The Act I Nocturne casts its inimitable spell over the whole work BERLIOZ DVD Béatrice et Bénédict Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Paul Appleby, Philippe Sly, Sophie Karthäuser, Lionel Lhote, Frédéric Caton, Katarina Bradic; Glyndebourne Chorus; LPO/ Antonello Manacorda; dir. Laurent Pelly (Glyndebourne, 2016) Opus Arte DVD : OA 1239 D; Blu-ray : OA BD7219 D 129 mins Béatrice et Bénédict, Berlioz’s last work for the stage, was his final homage to his beloved Shakespeare. So where does this production place the composer’s quick-witted quarrelling lovers? Not Shakespeare’s Renaissance Sicily that’s for sure – not even Sicily. This is Pellyland, a deeply satisfying comic world with its own style conjured up for Glyndebourne by one of the most assured opera directors at work today. It’s a study in grey. Field grey…

Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater exudes mountain-air mysticism SZYMANOWSKI Stabat Mater; Litany to the Virgin Mary; Symphony No. 3 (The Song of the Night) Aleksandra Kurzak (soprano), Agnieszka Rehlis (mezzo-soprano), Dmitry Korchak (tenor), Artur Rucinski (baritone); Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir/Jacek Kaspszyk Warner 90295864507 61:07 mins Few conductors today are more steeped in the music of Karol Szymanowski than Jacek Kaspszyk, music director of perhaps no more ideal an orchestra for exploring that composer’s work, the Warsaw Philharmonic. All three works on this new CD also involve the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, and this huge ensemble is captured in brilliant sound – essential for appreciating the composer’s luxuriantly detailed soundworld. The disc opens intimately, though, with the Litany to the Virgin Mary, from the early 1930s and the last…

BARTÓK String Quartets Nos 1-6 The Heath Quartet Harmonia Mundi HMM 907661-62 157:34 mins (2 discs) The six quartets Béla Bartók composed between 1907 and 1939 may have been outdone long since in technical complexity by the quartets of Elliott Carter and Brian Ferneyhough and, some would argue, been rivalled in spiritual depth by the 15-quartet cycle of Shostakovich. But they retain a unique intensity and have done remarkably well on disc, all the way from the pioneering mono LP cycles by the Juilliard, Vegh and Hungarian Quartets back in the 1950s, to such much-praised CD versions by the Tokyo, Emerson, Keller and Takács Quartets of more recent decades. The young players of the Heath Quartet in this latest cycle yield little to any of their distinguished peers in virtuosity…

Though Muggsy Spanier may not appear in 2017’s rich crop of anniversaries, it’s been 50 years since the doughty cornettist’s death, after a lifetime devoted to the joys of Dixieland jazz. Indeed, he was a bulwark of a genre often plagued by condescension, seen as a jolly, retro exercise not to be taken too seriously. For Spanier, however, the style inadequately dubbed ‘Dixeland’ was the very essence of jazz, the law and the prophets, which he had imbibed first hand from King Oliver, whose Creole Jazz Band brought the holy fire of New Orleans to Chicago in the early 1920s. Spanier remained true to the King’s example throughout his career, making his name with a hot, clean attack that led a band without overpowering it. His solos had the same…

 Never let it said that BBC Music Magazine isn’t an international publication. This issue appears to have something of a travel theme to it: Sir Simon Rattle’s imminent arrival in London; James Naughtie’s journey to meet pianist Nelson Goerner on the shores of Lake Geneva; Guy Johnston’s odyssey to Rome to discover the true roots of his 300-year-old David Tecchler cello; and Suzy Klein’s Europe-wide search for the link between 20th-century politics and music… We even sent the deputy editor to Nuremberg, although somehow he managed to find his way back. Rather closer to home, however (and I think this counts as travel), we ventured a mile or so down the road to a local school with a photographer and a pair of headphones to see what a group of…

Saluting Sir Simon As Simon Rattle picks up the LSO’s music director’s baton, LSO Live is releasing three major recordings to mark the occasion. Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande was recorded at the well-received Barbican performances in January 2016. Magdalena Kozená and Christian Gerhaher play the doomed lovers, with Gerald Finley as the jealous husband Golaud and Bernarda Fink as Geneviève. It’s out on 1 October as an SACD-hybrid and Blu-ray set. In November follows a Blu-ray/DVD of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, coupled with Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre and Berg’s Three Fragments from Wozzeck, both with soprano Barbara Hannigan, and Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra. And another Blu-ray/DVD package mixes Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2 with works by Dutilleux and a rarity by Delage, Quatre poèmes hindous,…

MICHAEL VOLLE Baritone Last April, I was in New York and managed to see two concerts in one day! The first was to see Woody Allen play with a Dixie band in the Carlyle Hotel. It was an incredible thing to see these living legends perform, and it was the most beautiful thing to see how the music affected Allen himself. At the start he was shy, and struggled to play his clarinet, but as the concert went on the music seemed to free him. Just before that, I saw a poster for a concert by guitarist José Feliciano . His music was such a big part of my childhood, and I knew I had to see him. It’s such melodic music, and – perhaps because he is blind…

OPERA CRITIC Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie enjoyed a star-studded evening when, during the G20 summit, Chancellor Angela Merkel invited world leaders including Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron and Theresa May to enjoy a concert there. ‘Everybody walked in to see the opera,’ was President Trump’s report on the performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. ‘Then the opera ended.’ GOING FOR GOULD The Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, has paid tribute to his late countryman Glenn Gould, describing the pianist as ‘a giant’. ‘He was someone who, at a time when Canadians didn’t really feel they had a cultural imprint on the world, he was it,’ explained Trudeau in a BBC radio interview with the pianist James Rhodes. NEW LABAN Still on the subject of musical politicians, Harriet Harman has been named the new…

Early years: Goerner was born in San Pedro, Argentina in 1969. After being inspired by the playing of both his grandmother and sister at a young age, he began his piano education at the Buenos Aires Conservatory. Growing recognition: In 1986 he won First Prize in the Franz Liszt Competition in Buenos Aires which secured him a scholarship to work with Maria Tipo at the Geneva Conservatoire. Four years later, he won First Prize at the Geneva Competition. Recordings and performance: Demonstrating a flair for Romantic music, Goerner’s discography boasts critically acclaimed interpretations of Brahms, Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninov. He has also collaborated with chamber musicians such as Steven Isserlis and Martha Argerich.…

16th century – Reformation rulings Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church in the 1530s disturbed many aspects of English life, and music was no exception. The monarch ordered churches to do away with elaborate pre-Reformation polyphony in favour of simpler didactic settings of the liturgy, with the intention of forcing the changed religion into the lives of an unsuspecting congregation. 17th century – When in Rome… Italian opera in the 1600s was as much a political tool as an artistic one. Pope Urban VIII in particular was an enthusiastic patron of the arts, seeking to turn Rome into a cultural centre. As well as commissioning works by great sculptors, painters and architects, the pope poured money into extraordinary operas, which dazzled the diplomatic and aristocratic audience. 18th century –…

THE LIFE 1858 THE TIMES 1858  Eugène Ysaÿe is born in LIÈGE , Belgium. He is taught the violin at an early age by his father before entering Liège Conservatory. 1874  The winner of Liège Conservatory’s silver medal, he also secures a bursary that enables him to study with the composer-violinists Henryk Wieniawski and HENRI VIEUXTEMPS in Brussels and Paris. 1886  On the morning of Ysaÿe’s marriage to Louise Bourdeau de Courtrai, César Franck gives him his new Violin Sonata as a wedding present. He plays it that same day. 1896  He forms a duo with the pianist and composer RAOUL PUGNO . They perform together for many years, premiering important new works. 1918  He is made conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a post he holds until 1922, when…

Recording of the Month Mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg and Il Pomo d’Oro evoke the heyday of the Venetian carnival season, 1729, with electrifying and eloquent first recordings of long-forgotten opera arias, p56 Great musical moments Our Recording of the Month whisks us back to Venice in 1729, a snapshot of a glorious creative era. When and were would you like to go, if you had a musical time machine? One fascinating stop might be Pauline Viardot’s famed salons in Paris in the 1870s. She was one of the great operatic mezzos of her age, an inspiration to Berlioz, Brahms and Fauré, among others, and a fine composer herself – turn to p73 for a review of her songs. Imagine what it would have been like to hear Viardot sing Schubert’s Erlkönig…

How did you come up with this captivating programme? Actually, it’s a little bit unexpected. I was looking at those cheap CDs you can buy at the petrol station, ‘Summer rock’ or ‘Greatest hits of 2017’ or whatever. I started thinking about what a Baroque recording from a particular year would have looked like, and if there was a special season. I had a few manuscripts at home already, and thought this Venice Carnival season seemed to be really special, with all these composers and artists there at the same time. So that’s how it started. Almost all of these recordings are world premieres. How did you track down these pieces? I’m lucky enough to be married to a musicologist! So that’s very handy. I said to him [Holger Schmitt-Hallenberg] that…

Slatkin rightly tilts Copland’s Symphony towards nobility COPLAND Symphony No. 3; Three Latin American Sketches Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Leonard Slatkin Naxos 8.559844 45:09 mins Leonard Slatkin is a highly experienced conductor of Copland, so it’s no surprise that his new reading of the Third Symphony (he previously recorded it with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra) should pack its punch so impressively. Pacing can be tricky in the Molto moderato opening movement, but Slatkin’s astutely pitched tempo allows both a coherent sense of forward momentum and adequate elbow-room for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra strings to phrase eloquently. Heavy brass and timpani make their solemn impact, without pummelling the rest of the orchestra to inaudibility. The Scherzo is rich in incident, Slatkin’s incisive but unhectic approach ensuring that the quick-fire percussion and…

WAGNER Extracts from Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Parsifal, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdammerung; plus Beethoven: Fidelio; Weber: Die Freischütz Ticho Parly (tenor); Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin/Peter Maag Eloquence 482 2867 (1966) 66:57 mins In his career Danish-American Parly won more plaudits for his acting and appearance than his vibrant but sinewy voice. Yet in this programme he makes many modern heldentenors sound mediocre. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★ ELINA GARAN∫A Aria Cantilena: Chapí, Massenet, Offenbach, Rossini, Villa-Lobos, Montsalvatge & R Strauss El¯na Garanca (mezzo-soprano); Dresden State Opera Choir; Staatskapelle Dresden/Fabio Luisi DG 477 6231 (2005) 58:16 mins An attractive reminder of the glamorous Latvian mezzo’s bright-voiced versatility in roles she has increasingly abandoned for the Romantic repertoire. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★ FRITZ WUNDERLICH Romantic arias: Cornelius, Verdi, Kienzl, Smetana, Nicolai, Lortzing & Puccini…

 Sony’s budget white boxes are usually devoted to big name soloists and conductors, so it’s an eye-opener to find one dedicated to a German academic and conductor and the chamber choir he created (Sony 88985439412; 15 CDs). Frieder Bernius founded the Kammerchor Stuttgart in 1968 to sing a cappella 19th- and 20th-century music; but by the end of the 1980s when they signed to Sony, their focus had shifted to historically-informed performance of Renaissance and Baroque music. The ethereal beauty of Michael Chance’s Orfeo is memorable Their Schütz Symphoniae Sacrae, Op. 12, a pioneering recording in 1988, now sounds a little ponderous compared to a more recent recording like Cantus Cölln and Konrad Junghänel, the intricacies of Schütz’s inspiration slightly obscured by the choir’s size. Schütz’s Historia of Christ’s Birth…

DEMESSIEUX Complete organ works; plus Labric: Hommage à Jeanne Demessieux Pierre Labric (organ) Solstice SOCD 346/7 (1971-74) 141:20 mins (2 discs) Jeanne Demessieux (1921-68) was a star of the organ who blazed brightly and died tragically young, but her own music, most of it theologically grounded, is probably best appreciated by organists. PERFORMANCE ★★★ RECORDING ★★★ DE GRIGNY Complete organ works: Messe pour orgue; Les cinq hymnes André Isoir (organ) La Dolce Vita LDV 149.0 (1972) 128:20 mins (2 discs) The great organist André Isoir, who died last year, was a versatile player. With virtuosic flourish, he captures the austere grandeur of a French Baroque master on organs ideal for this repertoire. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★ FRANCK Complete organ works: Grande Pièce Symphonique in F sharp minor, Op. 17; Prélude,…

OREGON Lantern Paul McCandless (sax etc), Ralph Towner (guitar, piano, synthesizer), Paolino Dalla Porta (bass), Mark Walker (drums) Camjazz CAMJ 7916-2 63 mins Allowing for the occasional hiatus, Oregon has been a going concern for more than four decades. This is the group’s 30th album, and while it’s a fine piece of work, both allusive and elusive in its hard-to-pin-down synthesis of jazz, folk, world and classical elements, it’s hard to isolate it from all that has gone before. Did the group’s music actually become more predictable after the untimely passing of co-founder and multi-instrumentalist Collin Walcott in 1984? Have subsequent changes of personnel and instrumentation significantly affected the group’s music? It seems lazy to present these contentions as open questions, but comparing this sonically immaculate landmark release with the…

EVGENY KISSIN: Memoirs and Reflections Evgeny Kissin ed. Marina Arshinova; trans. Arnold McMillin Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 978-1-4746-0310-2 190pp £20 There’s something miraculous about the Israeli-Russian-British pianist Evgeny Kissin. A sickly child whose phenomenal musical gift declared itself when he was 11 months old, he grew up in a small Soviet apartment; other children mocked his Jewishness, but he was cocooned by his family (plus his live-in tutor) who gladly sacrificed their lives on the altar of his genius. That genius was hailed unanimously when, aged 12, he made his debut at the Moscow Conservatory. And throughout the ensuing 33 years, with a dip in his thirties when his performances became driven and didactic, he’s played Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, and Rachmaninov like a god. And indeed this…

For detailed concert listings visit www.classical-music .com/whats-on 1 ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA Royal Albert Hall, London, 1 & 2 Sept Tel: 0845 401 5040 (UK only) Web: www.bbc.co.uk/proms Hot on the heels of visiting orchestras including the Filarmonica della Scala, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic, the Proms enters its last week brandishing the Vienna Philharmonic and Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Conductor Daniele Gatti (below) presides over two programmes with the latter. The first pairs Wolfgang Rihm’s In-Schrift with Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9; the second, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with Haydn’s Symphony No. 82. 2 EXAUDI & LONDON CONTEMPORARY ORCHESTRA Tate Modern, London, 6 Sept Tel: 0845 401 5040 (UK only) Web: www.bbc.co.uk/proms The last of the BBC Proms excursions crosses the…

IVO VAN HOVE Theatre director BRAD MEHLDAU ‘Bard’ from Elegiac Cycle Brad Mehldau (piano) ‘I have always been interested in jazz. It relaxes me. I can listen to jazz in the morning, noon, afternoon, evening and at night. Pianist Brad Mehldau is a master in layering sounds. He looks at jazz in a new way, making it also sound like symphonic music.’ JS BACH Pedal-Exercitium, BWV 598 (arranged by Eric Schleichan) Bl!NDMAN ‘This piece is a rarity. It is arranged for saxophones by Eric Schleichan but was originally composed by Bach for organ. I have worked with Eric on many productions and he plays in a sax quartet. If you listen to it you will be addicted.’ WEBERN String Quartet, Op. 28 (1st mvt: Mässig) LaSalle Quartet…

HARRIET HARMAN IS the UK’s longest-serving female MP, which recently earned her the new title of ‘Mother of the House’ in the Commons. A solicitor who became MP for Peckham, now Camberwell and Peckham, in 1982, she has held many offices of state, including Solicitor General, Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Women. She has been Deputy Leader and Chair of the Labour Party. She was recently appointed Chair of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. I’ve always loved music. At home we had old 78s – those huge half-an-inch thick black records. We had South Pacific, Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, and I used to listen to them over and over. I loved OKLAHOMA! as a child, and conductor John Wilson is doing…