Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i BBC Music Magazine

ON STAGE Romantic Oxford Could one imagine a mistier, more mellow example of autumnal music-making than the ‘The Last Romantics’ in the city of dreaming spires (pictured)? This year’s Oxford Lieder Festival has Mahler and his contemporaries at the heart of a programme that features singers such as soprano Sylvia Schwartz, tenors Ian Bostridge and Mark Padmore, and mezzo Dame Sarah Connolly. See p107 ONLINE Access all arias As we’re talking all things operatic, here’s where you can see a free performance or two. The Opera Platform live-streams productions from opera houses all over Europe, and documentaries about the art form. Current highlights include a history of opera across 400 years, and Puccini’s Madam Butterfly with soprano Ermonela Jaho in the title role. See www.theoperaplatform.eu ON DISC Intimate Vespers If…

GREAT LIBERTIES Readers of Erik Levi’s Building a Library (September) may be interested in an aside on a version of Schubert’s ‘Great’ C major Symphony in the ‘great recordings’. Nikolaus Harnoncourt, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, interprets Schubert’s marking on the symphony’s last note as a diminuendo, not an accent. To make this work he has to extend that last note to twice its written length – and he disguises that (in advance) by slowing the tempo to lengthen the rests between the two previous chords. Schubert wrote no ritardando here, any more than he asked for an accelerando at the end of the first movement’s introduction into the Allegro, thus surely confirming uniformity of pulse with the foregoing Andante. He was also punctilious in indicating the precise length of…

Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel has come under fire from his country’s president for turning his back on the regime that he used to champion. Nicolas Maduro, whose four years in charge of the South American country have been marked by increasing levels of lawlessness, corruption and violence, has criticised the maestro for spending time in the US and Europe rather than in his homeland – Dudamel is the music director of both the Los Angeles Philharmonic and, in Venezuela itself, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra (SBSO). ‘I hope God forgives you,’ said Maduro on TV. ‘Welcome to politics, Gustavo Dudamel. But act with ethics, and don’t let yourself be deceived into attacking the architects of this beautiful movement of young boys and girls.’ The president was referring to the government-funded…

French pianist Julien Brocal is to follow his five-star Chopin debut CD with a disc of Mompou and Ravel. Recorded for Rubicon Classics at Tippet Rise, Montana, Reflections features Mompou’s Paisajes and Charmes, and Ravel’s Miroirs and Sonatine. Chandos continues to record Richard Rodney Bennett’s music, with a new disc featuring the late British composer’s Marimba Concerto, Third Symphony and Sinfonietta. Colin Currie is the soloist, joining the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor John Wilson. The London Symphony Orchestra and JoAnn Falletta headed to Abbey Road this August for an album showcasing the American composer Kenneth Fuchs. This Naxos recording features three new concertos: Spiritualist (with pianist Jeffrey Biegel); Rush (with alto saxophonist Timothy McAllister); and Glacier (with electric guitarist DJ Sparr). Violinist Arabella Steinbacher recently headed to the…

A new programme devoted to organ music is to begin on Radio 3. Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch, The Organ will be broadcast one Sunday in every four, exploring the world of pedals and pipes in the company of some of the greatest players and instruments. On the other three Sundays, the 4pm slot will be filled by The Choir. Both programmes will be supported by extensive online material. Other changes announced for the autumn see a slight rescheduling of the afternoon programming and, at 7pm each evening, the introduction of the In Tune Mixtape, half an hour consisting of an unbroken sequence of music, with no speech. See p110 for full Radio 3 listings.…

@jamesmacm I’ve found the perfect antidote to all this talk of nuclear war, neo-nazism, neo-Marxism etc. I’m composing a jig. Escapism, as perfected by composer Sir James MacMillan (left)… @fatboyclayton At this point of the house move, rum seems like the wrong decision. …while tenor Allan Clayton clearly rejects a more conventional approach @ifagiolini Fear of long words: hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliaphobia That’s easy for you to say, conductor Robert Hollingworth @LizWattsSoprano Listening to Mahler 2 whilst peeling onions is a bit heavy on the ole tear ducts. Can’t wait for next week! @bbcproms The floodgates in the kitchen open as soprano Elizabeth Watts multi-tasks @houghhough The Stinking Bishop has been banished to a secure tupperware container in our house. Domestic discord Pianist Stephen Hough (right) avoids a diplomatic cheese crisis…

Oliver Condy Editor In August, I saw a ravishing performance of Messiaen’s all-too-relevant Quartet for the End of Time in the 13th-century Kvinnherad Church as part of Norway’s Rosendal Chamber Music Festival. Francesco Piemontesi, Martin Fröst, Christian Tetzlaff and Tanya Tetzlaff displayed astonishing dynamic colour and impeccable ensemble – the audience held its silence for over a minute after the final chord had died away. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor When recently interviewing the King’s Singers ahead of the group’s 50th-anniversary year, I was put on the spot by being asked by one of the group to name my favourite of their many discs. A tough question. The Beatles Connection, from 1986, has always enjoyed regular airtime in the Pound household, but 2006’s Landscape and Time, a meticulously crafted album of…

The Church of England stands for the benign acceptance of many different levels of faith In a move that evokes the Puritan repressions of the 1650s, a group of evangelical Christians is attempting to banish concerts from one of the biggest and most historic churches in the City of London. To add irony to injury, the building is widely known – or has been known until now – as the National Musicians’ Church. It is the place where the ashes of Sir Henry Wood are buried (the founder of the Proms learnt the organ there as a boy), and where stained glass windows commemorate the Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba and the composers John Ireland and Walter Carroll (who wrote the charming little pieces you play when you are…

Zandonai Francesca da Rimini The music styles of Richard Strauss, Debussy and Puccini and the odd bit of medieval pastiche unite in this Italian composer’s 1914 melodrama of arranged marriage, doomed love and cold-blooded murder. Zandonai’s skill for orchestration and verismo vocal writing is abundantly clear – his teacher Mascagni (see p78) clearly made his mark. Alagna Le dernier jour d’un condamné With music composed by David Alagna to a libretto by his brothers Frédérico and tenor Roberto, Le Dernier jour, setting Victor Hugo’s novella, keeps it in the family. Written in 2007, the music bears the hallmarks of traditional Italian verismo opera, with dramatic orchestrations, speech-like vocal lines and a post-Romantic tonal style. Rossini Maometto II Set at the fall of the Byzantine Empire, this invasion-turned-love-story has the usual…

Felicity Lott Soprano Figaro has got such sublime and such well-drawn characters. The whole opera veers from one dramatic situation to another, but it’s absolutely perfectly constructed. I sang the Countess a lot, but I never got tired of the role – there’s so much in it. She’s a fascinating character, and she goes through this big change from the rather dreary and hopeless character who sings ‘Porgi amor’ at the start of the second act into becoming someone who, galvanised, takes action, rather than having things done, or not, to her. She plays a dangerous game, but it’s worth it because at the end she’s regained her power. Gerald Finley Bass-baritone The Marriage of Figaro is a rite of passage for most singers – there’s a role…

Early life: Born in Munich in July 1969, Kaufmann began piano lessons aged eight. Education: He began his vocal training at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich in 1989, graduating in 1994 with distinction. Whilst studying he sang some small roles with Bavarian State Opera. Early fame: In 1994, Kaufmann began his professional career at the Staatstheatre in Saarbrücken. His debut with the New York Met in 2006 opened doors to leading international companies including Vienna State Opera and Paris Opéra. Roles: Kaufmann tends to specialise in powerful and dramatic ‘spinto’ tenor roles, including Don José in Bizet’s Carmen , Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca , and the title role in Verdi’s Otello .…

Musical memories are stored in a ‘safe’ area of the brain Many years ago, I heard a very touching story at the memorial service for my PhD supervisor, Professor Alan Parkin. Towards the end of her tribute, his wife recounted the moment that their baby had been born. Long before the due date, the couple had decided that they wanted Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending to be playing during the birth, but in their rush to leave the house they’d left the CD behind. A kind nurse dashed around to find an alternative soundtrack but in the end, the doctor suggested they go with whatever BBC Radio 3 had to offer. Fate must have been smiling on them that afternoon because just as the baby emerged, the first gentle violin…

‘OUR LEARNING PROJECTS are inspired by the intimate, shared experience of chamber music, where every voice is equally valued,’ says John Gilhooly. ‘Everyone is welcome to take part. That’s the ethos of Wigmore Hall and of our education work. People say we appeal to an old audience. But that’s a myth. Our concert audience is changing. We’re reaching out to younger people and connecting with the under-35s. Learning is a vital part of that. Most of our education work culminates in a performance at the Hall, but we’re taking chamber music and song to all parts of the community. Although some may sniff about it, we make no apology for placing Learning at the heart of Wigmore Hall.’…

THE LIFE 1863 Pietro Mascagni is born on 7 December in LIVORNO , Italy, the son of a baker. Against his father’s wishes, he pursues a musical career from an early age. 1881 He achieves recognition as a composer with the cantata In filanda. It wins him financial support to attend the Milan Conservatory where he shares a room with Puccini. 1888 His Cavalleria rusticana wins the Sovogno one-act opera competition, its contemporary subject matter spearheading a new style of opera known as verismo. 1901 At the height of his popularity, Mascagni is surprised by the failure of LE MASCHERE . Only the performances that he himself conducts receive a decent reception. 1915 With his music for Nini Oxilia’s Rapsodia Santanica, he makes his first and only step into film…

Jan Smaczny Musicologist, critic Jan Smaczny is emeritus professor of music at Queen’s University, Belfast. He writes, reviews and lectures avidly on a wide range of musical subjects, in particular the Czech musical tradition. No longer in full-time academia, he has ample opportunity for culinary and horticultural experiment. 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 critic,…

Rattle explores the mysterious corners of Le tombeau de Couperin RAVEL • DELAGE • DUTILLEUX DVD Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin; Daphnis et Chloé – Suite No. 2; Dutilleux: L’arbre des songes; Métaboles; Delage: Quatre poèmes hindous Julia Bullock (soprano), Leonidas Kavakos (violin); London Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle LSO Live LSO3038 96 mins (2 discs) How good to know that Rattle will be conducting concerts like this for the foreseeable future, and if the audience’s final acclamation didn’t actually raise the roof, it was surely not for want of trying. My only cavil is that the box bears the name Ravel in large capitals, whereas the concert in January 2016 formed part of the international celebrations of Henri Dutilleux’s centenary – not that he would have supported or even condoned my complaint:…

The late works seem more an occasion for celebration than sorrow CARTER Interventions; Dialogues; Dialogues II; Soundings; Two Controversies and a Conversation; Instances; Epigrams Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano); Colin Currie (percussion), Isabelle Faust (violin), Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello); Birmingham Contemporary Music Group; BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Oliver Knussen Ondine ODE 1296-2 74:42 mins A composer’s late works can become imbued after their death with a poignancy not always reflected by the music itself. In the case of Elliott Carter (1908-2012), while his loss remains keen, the late works seem more an occasion for celebration than sorrow. Indeed, astonishment seems the most natural response to the seven pieces in this retrospective; five recorded for the first time, and each not merely composed between the ages of 90 and 100-plus, but brimming with youthful energy…

 STRAVAGANZA D’AMORE: The Birth of Opera at the Medici Court The production has all the sumptuousness of a Medici spectacle Music by Allegri, Brunelli, G Caccini, Buonamente, Cavalieri, Fantini, Gagliano, Malvezzi, Marenzio, Orologio, Peri and Striggio Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon Harmonia Mundi 902286-87 202:38 mins (2 discs) This lavish new release celebrates the gestation and birth of opera in Florence around the year 1600. Director Raphaël Pichon has cherry-picked some of the highpoints from the musico-dramatic extravaganzas associated with sundry Medici weddings and celebrations. There are extracts from the first operas by Jacopo Peri, Giulio Caccini and Marco da Gagliano, along with highlights from the 1589 intermedi (multi-media ‘interludes’ performed between the acts of a play during one of the many knees-ups for the nuptials of Ferdinando I de’Medici and Christine of…

Nicky Spence sings ‘Cäcilie’ with an ardour verging on the heroic R STRAUSS Cäcilie; Wenn…; Bruder Liederlich, An Sie; Die Ulme zu Hirsau; Fünf Gedichte; Junggesellenschwur; Wer wird von der Welt verlangen; Hab’ich euch den je geraten; Wanderers Gemutsruhe; Der Pokal; Sie wissen’s nicht; Vier letzte Lieder etc Rebecca Evans (soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), Roger Vignoles (piano) Hyperion CDA 68185 64:23 mins Only the first song, ‘Cäcilie’, and the Four Last Songs will be familiar to most listeners here. Hyperion goes beyond the strict bounds of voice-and-piano songs only in this eighth and final instalment of a magnificent and never predictable Strauss series. But when you have as classy a soprano as Rebecca Evans to hand, it’s well worth recording the Vier Letzte Lieder in a piano version (not by…

The rapid-fire twists and turns are deftly handled by these musicians BUXTEHUDE Trio Sonatas, Op. 1 Arcangelo: Sophie Gent (violin), Jonathan Manson (viola da gamba), Thomas Dunford (lute), Jonathan Cohen (harpsichord, direction) Alpha 367 56:13 mins ‘The most free and unrestrained manner of composing… that one can imagine,’ wrote theorist Johann Mattheson of Dietrich Buxtehude’s 1692 Op. 1 Trio Sonatas. The Hamburgian combination of violin, obbligato viola da gamba, and harpsichord certainly gave the seasoned Marienkirche organist an opportunity to push the conventions of sonata writing for his Lübeck Abendmusiken audiences. The multi-sectional trios ingeniously pit strict counterpoint against the theatrical stylus fantasticus, a battle of wits brilliantly engaged by Arcangelo. This exquisitely balanced recording instantly captures the sense of conversation between the instrumental parts, highlighting the egalitarian approach of…

Shibe takes the listener into an unsettling, fantastical soundworld DREAMS & FANCIES Walton: Five Bagatelles; L Berkeley: Sonatina for Guitar; Arnold: Fantasy for Guitar; Dowland: Praeludium; Forlorn Hope Fancy; Fantasia; Britten: Nocturnal after John Dowland Sean Shibe (guitar) Delphian DCD34193 66:30 mins A key touchstone for classical guitarists in Britain and beyond is the extraordinary legacy of Julian Bream who, through determined commissioning, transformed a repertory otherwise ‘stuffed with unnourishing bon-bons,’ as Wilfred Mellors tartly – but accurately – observed in 1968. The results not only engaged a wider audience for the guitar, but established the instrument as an exciting resource for contemporary composers. In his debut solo album, following an enticing compilation of his recordings for the cover disc of this magazine in February 2016, Sean Shibe performs with…

Over his 25-year career, Bill Evans attracted a worshipful legion of global fans and made scores of records, but the collection that probably still defines his special eminence in the pantheon of jazz piano is his classic session Live at the Village Vanguard, from 1961. It was also his first Jazz Starter No. 25 (May 2003), acknowledging his role as the godfather of a new poetic conception of the piano trio. Evans’s subtle, quicksilver interplay with bass genius Scott LaFaro, enhanced by Paul Motian’s sensitive drums, invested the trio format with a lyrical impressionism which was the ideal medium for the pianist’s unique gifts, the singing touch and iridescent, fluid harmonies that made him ‘the Chopin of jazz’. Evans thought the Vanguard group was his best, so it was a…

Jonas Kaufmann, Tenor for the Ages BBC Four is showing a fly-on-the-wall documentary by John Bridcut, a film-maker who has made a name for his profiles of composers including Elgar, Britten and Vaughan Williams. In his latest project he follows the tenor Jonas Kaufmann over two years in his career, including his triumphant return to the stage following a five-month break to allow his vocal cords to recover. The film combines concert footage with candid interviews and a rare chance to see the tenor off-stage as he prepares for his roles. BBC Four; 15 October, time tbc Lucy Worsley’s Nights at the Opera The BBC TV opera season also features a two-part series in which historian Dr Lucy Worsley travels to different cities across Europe to discover the locations –…

George Hall Writer and editor ‘Because of its meshing together of music and drama, and its concentration on character, action and ideas expressed through music, opera is endlessly fascinating for those of us who have the joy of writing about it.’ Page 22 Catherine Loveday Lecturer, Westminster University ‘As a musician and memory researcher, I have long been intrigued by the very powerful and intimate way that music attaches itself to significant people, places and periods across the course of our life.’ Page 44 Terry Blain Writer and reviewer ‘Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony does much more than simply describe the sea. Walt Whitman’s poetry hymns the spiritual power of the natural world, and VW matches it with music of visionary insight and intensity.’…

 ‘My first ever role was Anna Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with Welsh National Youth Opera (WNYO),’ remembers soprano Natalya Romaniw. ‘And gosh, I loved it so much. I thought to myself – if I’m lucky enough to do something I love this much as my job, I’ll be luckier than most people.’ ‘You’ve got to think about your career in terms of longevity’ Soon after that stunning debut performance with WNYO, Romaniw won the 2008 Welsh Singers Competition, and was automatically entered into the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World as the Welsh representative. ‘Other singers in that competition had already sung at La Scala in Milan, or the Metropolitan Opera in New York, while I was only 22. I shot up a bit more than I should…

THIS MONTH Kronos Quartet Violinist David Harrington founded the Kronos Quartet in 1973. Eclectic and creative, the American group thrives on collaborations with composers and performers from around the world. The Kronos Quartet’s latest CD Ladilikan with Trio Da Kali is out on 15 September. My finest moment Early Music Works by Machaut, Tye, Partch, Dowland, Pärt, Body, Cage, Kassia, Perotin, Purcell, Bingen, Schnittke With Marja Mutru (harmonium), David Lamb (bagpipe), Wu Man (zhong ruan, da ruan), Olov Johansson (nyckelharpa), Huun-Huur Tu (vocals etc) Nonesuch 7559794572 (1997) The idea for Early Music came from a thought about how music can perfectly describe the web of time that surrounds us: the past, the present and what you imagine of the future. Some contemporary composers sound like they could have…

Nancy Storace went to Vienna and had the good fortune to become Mozart’s first Susanna Premieres possess a strange cachet. The extent to which they outnumber second performances is perhaps magnified by the fact that second and even subsequent performances can be described as ‘modern premiere’ or ‘British premiere’. That’s the sort of premiere I’ve been giving lately, as part of Chawton House Library’s conference on Reputations. 1817 saw the deaths of two novelists, one world-famous, the other parochial and obscure. The latter was Jane Austen, the former, Madame de Stael. We decided to adorn the conference with a musical tribute to another woman who died in 1817: Nancy Storace, a London-born singer of Italian origin. She went to Vienna with her brother Stephen, a composer, and there she had…

Leighton Jones Dundonald, N Ireland The Ulster Orchestra recently gave its annual short summer series of concerts, recorded for Radio 3, with a focus this year on tone poems. As well as perennial favourites such as Dvoπák’s rousing Carnival Overture and Smetana’s lyrical Vltava, rarities included a beautiful performance by Leon McCawley of Ireland’s Piano Concerto, with its echoes of Ravel, and Tasmin Little’s astounding performance of Syzmanowski’s demanding Second Violin Concerto. Stephen Llewellyn Ipswich, Suffolk I am not usually a fan of semi-staged opera performances, feeling that they are neither fish nor fowl. Opera North’s production of Britten’s Billy Budd at Snape Maltings, however, was of a different order – red meat from beginning to end! A dream cast, including tenor Alan Oke, baritone Roderick Williams…

CHEESE Around seven or eight years ago, I started working in a cheese shop in Cardiff while doing my PhD. Before that, I only knew run-of-the-mill supermarket cheeses, but when I started tasting cheeses from across Europe, I started to get enthusiastic about them. I still work in the shop today, and have learnt over the years about the sheer variety of cheeses and the lengths to which producers go to achieve quality. Encouraged by fellow composer Hannah Kendall, I recently used my love of cheese as inspiration for Three After-Dinner Pieces for trombonist Peter Moore. In it, the way I have tried to capture the essence of each of three cheeses has depended on visual and structural cues inherent in them – for instance, in ‘Stilton’ I saw the…

 Opera is a musical and a dramatic form combining visual, aural and intellectual elements together into one experience greater than the sum of its parts. Opera stimulates our thoughts and feelings at the very deepest level After four centuries, it continues to fascinate some of the greatest creative minds – not only composers and librettists, but also visual artists, singers, musicians and film and stage directors – and audience members as well as practitioners have found in it the most complete and involving aesthetic experience the performing arts has to offer. This is partly because opera works on several levels simultaneously. The narrative alone, even at its simplest, carries an emotional and intellectual charge. Many notable writers have created words through which the protagonists express themselves: apart from obvious opera…

MOZART AND DA PONTE. Strauss and Hoffmansthal. And now Panufnik and muggins? Creating an opera is like driving a lorry across a continent – as I discovered recently, working with Roxanna Panufnik on Silver Birch for Garsington Opera – and the composer-librettist team is its engine. For Silver Birch , a ‘People’s Opera’, we had just two-and-a-half years from initial team meeting to premiere. Everyone had a say: Garsington wanted Siegfried Sassoon to be central; and our director, Karen Gillingham, who is experienced in working with community and youth companies, was our guiding light. The process involved continual emails, consultations, try-outs, modifications and cuts, cuts and more cuts. If you’re wondering which comes first, words or music, it’s words. More or less. Give and take is everything. I suggested writing…

FROM 13-15 OCTOBER, Radio 3 and the Wellcome Collection are teaming up for ‘Why Music?’, a weekend of lectures, discussions and performances broadcast from the Wellcome Collection in London. This year, music’s dramatic impact on memory and the mind will be the focus during the weekend, with programmes on how performers memorise scores, Tom Service’s exploration of ‘earworms’ in his Sunday programme, The Listening Service and, in The Early Music Show, a look at how music helped monks remember huge swathes of prayer. Lesley Garrett will choose a selection of music recalling people and places and there will be a performance by Singing with Friends, a community choir for families living with dementia. Igor Levit will play Beethoven’s Diabellis and the Aurora Orchestra will perform Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 –…

How important are these quartets in the history of the genre? Incredibly important. Haydn’s Op. 20 is the real basis of quartet repertoire. In these six pieces there are so many different ways to use a string quartet. Haydn was the real master of that. You can hear in Op. 20 how to bring out the solos, how to make the voices talk to each other and laugh with each other. They were called the ‘Sun’ quartets, but that was so they would sell better at the time. There really is everything here. The second movement of No. 4 is really devastating, probably one of my favourite movements in the set. It’s a real spectrum of emotion in Op. 20. It’s not only sunshine. Listening to this CD, it really…

POULENC • SAINT-SAËNS Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals; Poulenc: Les animaux modèles; Les biches; Milhaud: La création du monde Aldo Ciccolini, Alexis Weissenberg (piano); Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire/Prêtre Erato 9029589513 (1962/67) 79:52 mins The highlight is Poulenc’s Les animaux modèles. There’s joie de vivre in Les biches suite and La création du monde, but Carnival of the Animals has heavy-handed passages. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★ ROUSSEL Suite in F*; Symphony No. 3**; Bacchus et Ariane†; Symphony No. 4 *Detroit Symph Orch/Paray; **New York Phil/Bernstein; †Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire/ Cluytens; Philharmonia/Karajan Praga Digitals PRD 350 138 (hybrid CD/ SACD) (1949-63) 79:59 mins Karajan’s early account of Symphony No. 4 exudes finesse, Bernstein has compelling swagger allied to poetry in the Third, while Paray…

BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 5 Andor Földes (piano); Bamberg Symphony Orchestra; Berlin Phil/Leitner Eloquence 482 7048 (1959-60) 76:09 mins Földes brings considerable Beethovenian heft to the First Concerto. His interpretation of the Emperor is solid, but not especially riveting. Both orchestras offer sturdy and committed support. PERFORMANCE ★★★ RECORDING ★★★★ BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto; Violin Sonata No. 9 Bronislaw Huberman (violin); Vienna Phil/Szell; Ignaz Friedman (piano) Warner 0190295895167 (1930/34) 69:60 mins Huberman’s charismatic playing mitigates Szell and the Vienna Philharmonic’s rather four-square accompaniment. Sparks fly in the propulsive account of the Kreutzer Sonata. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★ MOZART Concerto No. 10 for two pianos; Concerto for flute and harp in C; Horn Concerto No. 3 Theuns (flute), De Haer (harp), Hübner (horn), Kaneko (piano); Anima Eterna/ Jos Van Immerseel…

DOWLAND Lute songs Damien Guillon (countertenor), Eric Bellocq (lute) Alpha ALPHA 334 (2009) 60:17 mins Guillon’s honeyed countertenor has many echoes of Deller, notably his ethereal floating of the voice in the upper register. These are intimate, internalised readings, sensitively accompanied. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★ ALFRED DELLER ‘O Ravishing Delight’ – English Songs David Munrow, Richard Lee (recorder); Desmond Dupré (lute and viola da gamba); Robert Elliot (harpsichord) Harmonia Mundi HMA 190215 (1969) 66:10 mins This selection box of English songs showcases one of the most memorable countertenors of the century – Alfred Deller, here joined by gifted early music pioneers David Munrow and Desmond Dupré. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★ THE TUDORS I Love, Alas: Elizabethan Life in Music, Song and Poetry Robert Spencer (lute), Jeremy Brett (reader), Purcell Consort…

BEETHOVEN String Quintet in C; Piano Quartet in E flat; Grosse Fuge Budapest Quartet; Walter Trampler (viola), Mieczys√aw Horszowski (piano) Praga Digitals PRD 250 381 (1961-65) 74:17 mins By the 1960s when these recordings were made, the Budapest Quartet was no longer the high-precision outfit of yore, yet their soaring musical intensity still grips the imagination. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★ BEETHOVEN Complete works for cello and piano Pablo Casals (cello), Rudolf Serkin (piano) Praga Digitals PRD 250 372 (1952-53) 160:37 mins (2 discs) When these Prades studio recordings were captured in mono in the early 1950s, Serkin was in his prime and Casals was a youthful 75, playing with an elfin lightness of touch that rejuvenates the mind. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★ MOZART Piano duets, K 358 & 381; German…

JS BACH French Suites Blandine Rannou (harpsichord) Alpha Classics ALPHA 328 (2001) 101:13 mins (2 discs) Serious and spirited playing, with plenty of characterisation in the various dance idioms, performed on a bright-toned harpsichord, a copy after an instrument roughly of Bach’s time, with resonant and sustaining sound. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★ JS BACH Partitas Nos 2-4 Cédric Tiberghien (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMA 1901869 (2005) 77:40 mins Tiberghien shines in strong-minded performances of the C minor and A minor partitas, with attentive voicing and poetry in plenty. The grand-scale No. 4 fares less well, its meditative Allemande losing some crucial energy. PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★ BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas Nos 8, 15, 17, 21, 23, 26, 28 & 30 Andor Földes (piano) Eloquence ELQ 482 7053 (1959-63) 153:35 mins (2 discs)…

JACO PASTORIUS Truth, Liberty and Soul Jaco Pastorius (bass, vocals), Bob Mintzer (sax etc), Randy Brecker (trumpet) et al, Musicians from the Word of Mouth Big Band Resonance HCD 2027 132 mins The doyen of the fretless bass guitar has been poorly served by shoddy posthumous releases since his passing in 1987, so it’s nice to have this 1982 New York concert issued for the first time with good, clean (if slightly flat-sounding) audio quality. The set itself certainly captures the atmosphere of a star-studded occasion, but as ever the music is something of a curate’s egg. Pastorius could deploy his remarkable technique in ways that took his instrument to entirely new places, but he could just as easily play too many notes too fast and at tone-destroying volume. We…

THE THREE CHOIRS FESTIVAL: A History Anthony Boden, Paul Hedley Boydell & Brewer ISBN 978-1-78327-209-9 475pp (hb) £25.00 rrp Newly revised and updated in collaboration with Paul Hedley, Anthony Boden’s scrupulously detailed history of The Three Choirs Festival is part chronicle of concert life over 300 years, part social record, and, given the cathedral backdrop in triplicate (step forward Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester), a real-life story of ecclesiastical manoeuvring to rival Trollope’s Barchester Chronicles. It’s a festival whose content inevitably attracted fierce doctrinal scrutiny. Even Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, that latter-day iconic staple, could only initially be admitted to the fold with references to the saints and the Virgin Mary discretely airbrushed. And as recently as the late 1990s, Delius’s Mass of Life was frozen out…

1 IMS PRUSSIA COVE Hall for Cornwall, Truro, 1 Oct Tel: +44 (0)1872 262466 Web: www.i-m-s.org.uk The International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove has been sharing its deliberations nationwide for 40 years, and to celebrate, Mark-Anthony Turnage (below) has been commissioned to write a quintet for piano and strings. Premiered in the company of Mozart’s G minor Quintet, K516 and Schubert’s Trout Quintet, Turnage’s Prussian Blue journeys from Truro to Wigmore Hall via Wells, Stowe and Cambridge. 2 BOURNEMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Lighthouse, Poole, 4 Oct Tel: +44 (0)1202 280000 Web: www.bsolive.com Embarking on its 125th anniversary season, the Bournemouth Symphony is thinking big. Enlisting the seasoned expertise of ondes-martenot doyenne Cynthia Miller and pianist Steven Osborne, Kirill Karabits conducts Messiaen’s…

DAME VIVIEN DUFFIELD philanthropist RAVEL ‘Kaddish’ from Two Hebrew Melodies Dalton Baldwin (piano), Jessye Norman (soprano) ‘My father loved Jewish cantor singing, and when he died there was an enormous pile of records of liturgical singing. This is Ravel’s 1914 setting of the ‘Kaddish’ from the Jewish prayer book, an Aramaic text that glorifes God, with soprano Jessye Norman singing. The first time I heard it I was absolutely blown away.’ CHARLES DUMONT ‘Je ne regrette rien’ Edith Piaf (singer) ‘My mother loved Edif Piaf and I was brought up with these songs. I remember going to see Piaf perform in the late 1950s. She was minute and had a wonderful, deep husky and powerful voice. It was unforgettable.’ PUCCINI ‘Visi d’arte’ from Tosca Maria Callas (soprano), Orchestra…

 Opera is the art form to unite all art forms, created out of drama, music, poetry, literature and art… In its relatively short 400-year history, opera has come to dominate classical music in its ambition, scope and expense – the grandest of operas will employ thousands. It creates heroes out of its artists, attracts unwelcome – and often unfair – accusations of elitism, and is the ultimate symbol of a progressive society, evidenced by the number of brand new opera houses springing up from China to Oman. But opera is also intensely intimate, individual members of a 2,000-strong audience undergoing a personal experience, the composer communicating directly and uniquely with each of us. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to compare the power of an operatic performance with a religious ceremony.…

Project Argerich ends Warner Classics is to release the last ever ‘Martha Argerich & Friends’ recording from the Lugano Festival. Progetto Martha Argerich came to a close in 2016, after funding was withdrawn from the 15-year-old festival. As on previous albums in the series, this triple-disc set features a wide variety of composers and performers, including pianists Steven Kovacevich, Sergio Tiempo and Karin Lechner, violinist Renaud Capuçon and viola player Lyda Chen. ‘Lugano is about the idea of having fun playing music,’ Tiempo once told BBC Music Magazine. ‘Martha is the glue that holds the whole thing together.’ The release also includes a rare new solo recording by Argerich herself, of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. Sounds like Satie He’s best known for his impressions of today’s powerful and famous,…

MARINA REBEKA soprano Massenet’s Thaïs is one of my favourite operas and I particularly enjoy the recording conducted by Yves Abel, with Renée Fleming as Thaïs and Thomas Hampson as Athanael. Thaïs suits Fleming’s voice perfectly and this recording really gets you into the atmosphere without you seeing anything – through her voice, through the sounds of the wind and the desert, you can kind of imagine it all. Abel definitely gets the right approach, and the performance is so touching and sensual. The mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig is an amazing artist, and I like the way that she interprets Schubert Lieder on her disc with pianist Irwin Gage. Ludwig expresses her personality through the songs. This is not opera, this is not a story – she actually brings…

DUTOIT STRIKES GOLD Charles Dutoit has been awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal. The Swiss conductor, who is currently artistic director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (no relation), is the 103rd musician to receive the award, following in the footsteps of maestros such as Bruno Walter, Arturo Toscanini and Adrian Boult. FUTURE STARS Romanian soprano Adela Zaharia and South African tenor Levy Sekgapane have won Plácido Domingo’s high-profile Operalia competition, held this year in Astana, Kazakhstan. Each of them receives a $30,000 prize and, more importantly, a significant boost to their respective careers. WE ALL RING TOGETHER They may have found themselves on opposite sides of the Brexit debate, but Michael Gove and George Osborne appear to have been reunited by their love of Wagner. The two – one…

BARBARA COOK Born 1927 soprano Barbara Cook (pictured left in 2003) came to prominence in the 1950s with lead roles in the premieres of several Broadway shows. These included Candide (1956) in which, as Cunégonde, Cook sang the showpiece aria ‘Glitter and be Gay’, tailor-made for her voice by Bernstein. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, daughter of a travelling hat salesman and a telephone operator, Cook fell in love with opera from listening to the radio. ‘We were so poor we didn’t have a record player of any kind,’ she recalled; ‘The radio was my lifeline. I didn’t even know anybody who liked opera or classical music.’ Determined to make a career as a singer, she moved to New York in 1948, eventually making her Broadway debut in Flahooley (1951). After…

 WHEN IT WAS invented in Florence in the 1590s, opera – which means ‘works’ in Italian – involved an attempt by a group of leading artists and intellectuals to revive the theatre of ancient Greece, which they understood to be sung rather than spoken. Opera was the Renaissance’s final great artistic creation This inspired leap of the imagination was the final great artistic creation of the Renaissance, yet at the same time opera was able to benefit from the novel gestures of what we now refer to as the Baroque period, especially what came to be known as ‘recitar cantando’ – the art of speaking and acting in song. What distinguished opera from such closely related predecessors as the Italian intermedi, the French ballet de cour or the English masque…

Mozart’s miraculous score shines with a rich sense of humanity As usual, Mozart introduces his opera with an overture, and while it uses none of the opera’s subsequent material, it perfectly defines the general mood of the piece with its Presto tempo marking and busy, bustling orchestral writing suggesting the constant whispering and intrigue during the course of what Beaumarchais’s full title – La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro – calls a ‘crazy day’. All of the main characters are given memorable arias, including Bartolo’s furious ‘La vendetta’, in which he swears vengeance on Figaro in Gilbert & Sullivan-like comic patter; Cherubino’s ‘Non so più’, in which the rapid fluttering of his vocal line indicates his constant emotional and sexual excitement; the Countess’s sorrow-laden ‘Porgi amor’, whose shapely…

Danger is a word that keeps popping up in conversation with Jonas Kaufmann. Danger on the stage, and danger for opera companies. He talks about the thrill of performance. ‘Anything can happen. Everyone feels it – the thrill, the adrenalin, the presence of the unexpected.’ But also the plight of many opera companies far away from London, Vienna, Munich, Milan. ‘Many of the people in our art form struggle, I’m sorry to say. And in some places it is about to die. It’s a tragedy.’ Yet this is not a singer who is moping, and not one who seems prone to introspection. Before we turn to his worries about where the next generation of singers will learn their craft, we discuss at length his preparations for a new role, and…

‘I am not a very good singer but I have a loud voice’ Your series focuses on particular cities at particular moments and how they inspired specific operas. How important is historical context in understanding opera? Looking at opera through the lens of time and place is what fascinates me as a historian. Opera is a valuable record of what was happening in a given period, as well as being a wonderful creative art form. I like to bring a historical tinge to musical territory such as when I presented Mozart’s London Odyssey for BBC Four back in 2016. Are you an opera fan? I like opera, although I don’t know that much about it. In the documentary, I talk about the historical context, and Antonio Pappano, the music director…

The Teatro Costanzi in Rome was no more than half full on the evening of Saturday 17 May 1890 for the first performance of a new opera by an unknown 26-year-old composer. Pietro Mascagni – who was currently working as a local musician in the small town of Cerignola in south-eastern Italy – was one of three obscure figures who had made it through to the final round of a competition for a one-act opera organised by the publishing firm of Sonzogno. Word from the jury-room was positive, but the important verdict would be that of the public. In the event, the reaction of the Roman audience to Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana exceeded anyone’s wildest dreams – Mascagni’s included. ‘You cannot even have the barest idea of what happened in the…

Vaughan Williams Toward the Unknown Region A Sea Symphony was not the only work in which Vaughan Williams set Walt Whitman, a poet whom, he said towards at the end of his life, ‘I’ve never got over, I’m glad to say’. Three years before the symphony’s premiere at the Leeds Festival, VW had scored a major success at that same festival with Toward the Unknown Region, a setting for choir and orchestra of Whitman’s ‘Darest thou now O soul’. The poem shares much of its imagery and atmosphere with the text of ‘The Explorers’, A Sea Symphony’s visionary concluding movement. Beginning with a cautious tread, VW’s 12-minute work ends in a blaze of excitement. Recommended recording: Corydon Singers and Orchestra/Matthew Best Hyperion CDA 66655 Delius Sea Drift Vaughan Williams…

MOZART String Quartet No. 19 SCHUBERT String Quartet No. 13 Chiaroscuro Quartet Aparté AP022 67:06 mins ‘This is an impressive debut recording, and the light and shade of the playing fully justifies the name the group has chosen for itself.’ December 2011 MOZART String Quartet No. 15 MENDELSSOHN String Quartet No. 2 Chiaroscuro Quartet Aparté AP092 58:06 mins ‘This Mozart Quartet No. 15 doesn’t attempt to sound gratuitously beautiful, but digs into the tragic substance of the music, and the players aren’t afraid to bring flexibility to the pulse.’ June 2015 HAYDN String Quartets, Op. 20 Nos 1-3 Chiaroscuro Quartet BIS BIS-2158 (hybrid CD/SACD) 74:34 mins ‘The Chiaroscuro Quartet play on gut strings with little vibrato and incline to fastish tempos. Where they surpass those earlier “period” performances is in…

BRUCKNER Symphony No. 9 Chicago Symphony Orchestra/ Riccardo Muti CSO Resound CSOR 901 1701 62:20 mins There are many valid ways of performing Bruckner’s last, unfinished symphony. At the very least there should be powerful apocalyptic and devastating passages, with others of uneasy calm and possibly of consolation. Of the innumerable accounts now available disc, I would say that Michael Gielen’s most recent recording (SWR Music), Carlo Maria Giulini’s with the Vienna Philharmonic and Wilhelm Furtwängler’s with the Berlin Philharmonic (both on Deutsche Grammophon), provide the most complete and indeed overwhelming accounts, though there are many other very fine ones, if you aren’t in the strongest frame of mind. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has recorded the symphony several times, from Daniel Barenboim’s first account onwards, and its familiar virtues, above…

GUBAIDULINA In tempus praesens* SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto No. 1 Simone Lamsma (violin); Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra/James Gaffigan, *Reinbert de Leeuw Challenge Classics CC72681 (hybrid CD/SACD) 73:21 mins Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma, whose few recordings have been of Romantic or late-Romantic works, now ventures into contemporary repertoire with Gubaidulina’s extraordinarily evocative concerto, In tempus praesens. This makes richly imaginative use of a large orchestra (including Wagner tuba and amplified harpsichord), and in this live performance casts its spell under the baton of Reinbert de Leeuw. There are two previous recordings of this work, both better recorded although there is little to choose between Lamsma’s performance and Vadim Gluzman’s equally fine account (on BIS). Yet neither match the wild strangeness of the premiere recording by its dedicatee, Anne-Sophie Mutter, partnered by Valery…

Covent Garden revives John Schlesinger’s sumptuous Tales of Hoffmann; Valery Gergiev conducts a lively new production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel; and Daniel Behle shines in rare Schubert GRAUN Opera Arias: L’Orfeo – ‘Sento una pena’, ‘Il mar s’inalza e freme’, ‘D’ogni aura al mormorar’; Silla – ‘Parmi…ah no!’, ‘No, no, di Libia fra l’arene’; Iphigenia in Aulis – ‘Sforzero’; Coriolano – ‘Senza di te, mio Bene’, Armida – ‘La gloria t’invita’, ‘A tanti pianti miei’; Il Mithridate – ‘Piangete’; Britannico – ‘Mi paventi il figlio indegno’; plus Rodelinda, regina de’Longobardi – Sinfonia Julia Lezhneva (soprano); Concerto Köln/Mikhail Antonenko Decca 483 1518 65:12 mins If you want to hear coloratura faster than you’ve ever heard it, buy this recording. And if you want to discover the opera output of…

Mark Padmore makes a striking impression in Jonathan Dove’s song cycle In Damascus; John Butt and Dunedin Consort give a glowing account of Monteverdi’s Vespers; and Cardiff prize-winning soprano Louise Alder makes her radiant recording debut singing Strauss Lieder BEETHOVEN Missa solemnis Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Marianne Beate Kielland (alto), Thomas Walker (tenor), David Wilson-Johnson (bass); Cappella Amsterdam; Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century/Daniel Reuss Glossa GCD 921124 75:03 mins The Missa solemnis is Beethoven’s most demanding work, both for its performers and for its listeners. Partly that is because it defies all the expectations we have of a Mass; it struggles to believe, and it’s hard to say whether it succeeds. All settings of the Mass end with a cry for peace, but Beethoven’s is a terrified whimper, after a graphic…

BEETHOVEN Violin Sonatas Nos 6-8, Op. 30/1-3 Susanna Ogata (violin), Ian Watson (fortepiano) Coro COR 16154 69:38 mins There are by now countless recordings of Beethoven’s sonatas for piano and violin. Indeed it is hard to think of an important or famous violinist who hasn’t recorded them, usually with an equally distinguished pianist. Some of those recordings are classics and will remain so as long as anyone listens to these great works, Clara Haskil’s and Arthur Grumiaux’s, to name just one. What makes this new series interesting is the combined sound of the fortepiano and a violin of the same period, different from any other recording or performance I’ve heard. The sound is far brighter, which means, among other things, that the violin tone is less songful, and that the…

JS BACH Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 – Prelude No. 1; Cello Suites Nos 1 & 3; Solo Violin Sonatas Nos 1-3 Kuniko (marimba) Linn CKD 585 157:04 mins (2 discs) More often than not, Bach will prevail on practically any instrument you care to throw at him. The message, so often, transcends the medium; and if the sound of the harpsichord reminded Sir Thomas Beecham of two skeletons copulating on a tin roof, Kuniko’s voluptuous marimba evokes the happy couple sharing a post-coital cigarette. Warm, enveloping, it cloaks the music in an all-consuming glow that isn’t itself problematic, save that it lures her into a fantasy world where, as her liner notes tell us, the G major Cello Suite suggests ‘jumping up and down like fish in the womb of…

This is musical, technological and social history in the making THE ART OF SOUND A Visual History for Audiophiles Terry Burrows Thames & Hudson ISBN 978-0-500-51928-8 343pp (hb) £35.00 rrp This fascinating exposé on the history of recorded sound is worth the price of admission for the rarity of the illustrations alone. Immaculately reproduced on high quality paper, there is truly something here for everyone, including for the technically-minded several sets of blueprints that trace the development of sound-reproducing equipment from the phonograph to the iPod. The hardware that was used to record sound and the domestic equipment manufactured to reproduce it naturally takes pride of place, ranging from early cylinder mechanisms, through the acoustic and electric eras to the digital devices of today. It is…

• Composed by Rameau in just eight days, Pigmalion is a one-act opera in a form known as acte de ballet which includes songs, duets, choruses and pageant-style dance episodes. Becoming popular in the later part of the Louis XV’s reign, these brief operas were ideal for summer performances. Pigmalion received its first performance in August 1748 in Paris, becoming one of Rameau’s best-loved works. Although many of these small operas were incorporated into larger works, Pigmalion remained a one-act masterpiece. • The opera has a libretto by Sylvain Ballot de Sauvot and is based on the myth of Pygmalion from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The opera’s libretto revolves around the sculptor Pigmalion who creates a beautiful statue and falls in love with it. Despite his girlfriend Céphise’s pleas for attention, he…

DAME FELICITY PALMER has enjoyed a long a varied career, firstly as a soprano and then as a mezzo, in repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary works. After studies at the Guildhall, she sang with leading choirs before developing a career in opera that has seen her perform in major venues across the globe. Particularly acclaimed in French repertoire, she was knighted for services to music in 2011. Her new recital album, Two Little Words, is released on Resonus Classics this month. My father was an organist who also composed. He left quite a lot of music including songs, two of which I recently sang. Sadly, he went into music teaching as his only option to earn money – I feel he should really have gone to the Royal College…