Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2018 i BBC Music Magazine

Helen Wallace Music journalist and critic ‘I first heard Steven Isserlis play in 1990 and he made an indelible impression. There’s been no let-up in the intensity of his focus since – it was great to catch up with him and find him just as passionately engaged.’ Page 24 James Naughtie BBC radio presenter ‘Back in July I spent an inspiring few days travelling to Romania with the Czech Philharmonic who were taking a group of young Roma singers on a bold journey to discover their rich cultural roots.’ Page 40 Jessica Duchen Music journalist and critic ‘We all live ridiculously busy lives these days, but just take a look at French composer Gabriel Fauré’s schedule –sometimes I wonder how he managed to write any music at all…’ Page 74…

To sing or not to sing? In your September issue (Letters), Paul Wilson takes Jessica Duchen’s Building a Library on Schumann’s Dichterliebe to task for eliminating singers who ‘cop out of the top notes towards the end of “Ich grolle nicht”’. Intrerestingly, if you check the end of ‘Ich grolle nicht’ in its most reliable editions, you’ll find that the high notes are printed in small type – ie they are optional – which casts an interesting light on what should and should not be acceptable in performance. Certainly it makes me queasy to think that singing them rather than the large-type version is now considered de rigueur, even for baritones who consistently seem to perform the song in its original ‘tenor’ key – which reminds me that, for all…

108 …hats. Welsh National Opera’s new production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace, launching on 15 Sept, will keep its costume department very busy. 10 …years young. Kings Place, London’s newest chamber music venue, and host of our annual awards, is celebrating its first decade. 100,000 …recordings sold, earning cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason a BRIT Certified Breakthrough Award for his debut Decca album, Inspiration. 15 …years of historical performance. But now conductor and harpsichordist Richard Egarr (above) has announced he is to step down as music director of the Academy of Ancient Music.…

On 11 June 1727, while visiting his native Hanover, George I, King of Great Britain and Ireland, died suddenly from a stroke, aged 67. London received the news several days later, and the late king’s son George Augustus was proclaimed George II. The coronation was originally announced for 4 October, but after several postponements the date was finally fixed for 11 October. Meanwhile, the official court composer, William Croft, had died in Bath on 14 August – not before, it seems, the new monarch had made quite clear that he did not want him to write the music for his coronation. Though the Bishop of Salisbury recommended Maurice Greene as Croft’s successor, it was Greene’s friend, George Frideric Handel, who received in effect a royal command to write new music…

On 20 July tenor Atalla Ayan, singing Rodolfo in La bohème at the Royal Opera House, developed vocal problems during Act II. Fortunately for him, Ekaterina Siurina, playing Mimì, happened to have her husband, tenor Charles Castronovo (left), in the audience; he saved the evening by singing the role from the wings while Ayan mimed on stage. The audience warmly applauded when Castronovo, in a denim jacket, appeared to take his bow. He was celebrated by the press as a hero, too, though in rescuing a performance at the very last minute he has some notable predecessors… Arguably even more heroic was baritone Ian Vayne, who in 2004 came to see Bizet’s Carmen in Linz. The singer playing Escamillo suffered a heart attack, and Vayne had 15 minutes to learn…

This month: YO-YO MA Cellist MY FINEST MOMENT Shostakovich  Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor Isaac Stern (violin), Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Emanuel Ax (piano) Sony MK44664 (1988) Isaac Stern introduced me to Leonard Rose when I was nine years old, and he became my main cello teacher. I really grew up listening to them and to the Stern Rose Istomin Trio. I knew Isaac as this really scary figure, when I was growing up; he had glasses on the top of his head and he’d stare at you – I would cower or run away! Of course, later on I knew him and he wanted to play chamber music with me. Occasionally we would play trios, with Emanuel Ax, and it was one concert that we played in Osaka,…

Karl A Bettelheim, London In June I heard Schoenberg’s cantata Gurrelieder. There were at least 300 musicians and choristers in the performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen (above) in the Royal Festival Hall. Then, in July, I heard Mahler’s Eighth Symphony at the BBC Proms, with a similar number of performers with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Thomas Søndergård. I consider myself privileged to have been given the chance to hear these two late masterpieces of Romantic music in one city, London, in under a month.…

As I sit down to talk to Sean Shibe, I notice a large music case under the table. But it doesn’t look as if it contains the acoustic guitar that I might have expected. ‘That’s my Strat,’ he says. Perhaps surprisingly, the shooting star of the classical guitar world spends a good deal of time with his Fender Stratocaster. You can spot it on the cover of his new recording softLOUD, sharing the space with classical guitar, lute and a set of drums any rocker would be proud of. The truth is simple. Shibe is a child of his time. ‘Life’s too short,’ he says. ‘We have to be ambitious. I want to be as adventurous as I can.’ “I’m still coming to the decision that I’ll always be a…

The political abuse of composer anniversaries was not a unique feature of the 1930s and 1940s, although the Nazis quickly became masters at utilising such events to their advantage. Coming to power in 1933, they successfully co-opted planned events honouring the centenary of Brahms’s birth and the 50th anniversary of Wagner’s death. They became elaborate homages to national icons, the Nazis presenting themselves as the true guardians of a rich cultural heritage. Two years later, they organised a spectacular festival linked to the births of Schütz, Handel and Bach. And in 1941, the regime poured huge sums of money into orchestrating a nationwide Mozart event on the 150th anniversary of his death. In 1950 another Bach celebration, in Leipzig, provided the backdrop for a bitter ideological dispute about the composer…

Defining ‘contemporary classical’ music is fraught with complications: should we include film music, for example, and what about music that uses amplification? From Adès to Zimmer, the canon is thrillingly diverse, and features various nooks and crannies within which exciting sounds emerge. It’s a soundworld that listeners are just as likely to encounter via curated streaming platforms as in major venues, on the small and silver screen, and in clubs as well as concert halls. And its music will be explored in a second BBC Radio 3 series Unclassified, presented by Elizabeth Alker (see p48), which will continue to shine a light on a contemporary genre that doesn’t fit neatly into pre-conceived boxes. Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons (2012) is a key example of this collision…

2 October 2018 The Tallis Scholars A feast of Renaissance music, including Cornysh, Browne, Sheppard and Tallis. 4 October Russian State Symphony Orchestra Vasily Petrenko conducts a Rachmaninov double: the First Piano Concerto, played by Barry Douglas, and Symphony No.2. 29 October Voices New Zealand The antipodean choir perform works ranging from Hildegard to Eric Whitacre. 31 October Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra Yutaka Sado conducts Angela Hewitt in Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto, followed by Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony. 5 November Mariinsky Orchestra Valery Gergiev conducts his acclaimed St Petersburg orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and excerpts from the Russian’s Sleeping Beauty. 3 December The Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Begin the festive season with a beautiful programme of choral…

Trios don’t come much better than Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos and Emanuel Ax: their opening concert sets the tone for a star-studded lineup. Pianists Evgeny Kissin and Khatia Buniatishvili, violinist Joshua Bell and classical music’s man of the moment – cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason – all perform solo recitals during the year, while the Vienna Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra are among a fine selection of visiting international orchestras. From Renaissance madrigals and Baroque opera to contemporary music and world premieres, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more comprehensive season. CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +44 (0)20 7638 8891 WEB: barbican.org.uk EMAIL: tickets@barbican.org.uk…

12 & 13 September 2018 Dvorˇák’s New World Symphony Dvorˇák’s symphony ‘From the New World’ sounds as fresh today as when it was first heard, 125 years ago in New York. Omer Meir Wellber conducts. 21 November Faithful Journey Roxanna Panufnik pays tribute to Poland’s history with a major new choral work – one whose beauty, sincerity and communicative power is sure to make it a modern classic. Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla conducts this landmark UK premiere. 20 February 2019 Yamada conducts Manfred Tormented by forbidden desires, Byron’s Manfred roams the mountains alone. When Tchaikovsky sensed a kindred spirit, the resulting Manfred Symphony contained some of the rawest, most personal and passionate music he wrote.…

Now celebrating its 40th year, the National Children’s Orchestras of Great Britain is fast becoming one of the most exciting music education organisations in the UK. From composing their own piece of music to curating short ensemble performances as a taster before their larger scale concerts, the talented young musicians from across the country have found a new creative voice to share with audiences and evoke a sense of joy. You can witness it for yourselves this winter in London at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, where two major concerts will feature works by composers including Dvorˇák, Prokofiev and Bernstein. CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +44 (0)1934 418 855 WEB: www.nco.org.uk EMAIL: admin@nco.org.uk…

6 November St. Andrews Hall, Norwich The National Symphony Orchestra is joined by pianist John Lenehan and soprano Grace Davidson for a ‘Genius of Mozart’ concert that will include the ‘Elvira Madigan’ Concerto No. 21. Go to theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk or call +44 (0)1603 630000 for tickets. 16 November Bromley Hall, Langley Park Centre for the Performing Arts Bromley welcomes the ‘Genius of Mozart’ (see above). Go to www.lpsb.org.uk/performing-arts/book-tickets or call +44 (0)20 8639 4652 for tickets. 1 February 2019 St Martin-in-the-Fields, London An evening of Beethoven, featuring the ‘Emperor’ Concerto, Egmont Overture and Symphony No. 5. For tickets, call +44 (0)20 7766 1100 or email BoxOffice@smitf.org…

Over the years, Brussels Philharmonic and music director Stéphane Denève have been a hit both at home in Brussels and abroad. Described as a ‘a class act’, they offer a personal blend of 21st-century music, a focus on French and Russian composers, and top soloists. In 2016, Deutsche Grammophon released the orchestra’s CD dedicated to the work of Guillaume Connesson, proving the value of this approach. Last year the orchestra released a disc of Prokofiev ballet classics, also on DG. In the 2018-19 season, the orchestra crosses the ocean to extend its success to the USA, with a tour (9-16 March) culminating in Carnegie Hall, New York. CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +32 (0)2 627 11 60 WEB: www.brusselsphilharmonic.be EMAIL: info@brusselsphilharmonic.be…

12-24 April, 2019 Dubrovnik Musical Spring A cycle of concerts with chief conductor Marc Tardue and Austrian pianist Jasminka Stancul. 7-14 June ‘Orlando Furioso’ – Baroque music cycle Featuring the Russian Baroque virtuoso violinist, countertenor and conductor Dmitry Sinkovsky. 28 June – 5 July 12th International Opera Arias Festival ‘Tino Pattiera’ Including an evening of Croatian opera and operetta, a Verdi Gala and recitals. 30 August – 20 September Late Summer Music Festival Thirteen symphony concerts, recitals, latino, jazz and film programmes.…

Thea Musgrave is one of the UK’s most prominent and respected composers. With her colourful and dramatic style, she has a rare ability to draw the listener in to her world. Now 90, she will attend Stockholm International Composer Festival in person. With the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at its heart, Konserthuset Stockholm’s huge annual festival was founded in 1986 and quickly became an essential element of both Swedish and international music scenes. Its fundamental idea – to feature a modern, established composer in detail – has proven to be successful both artistically and among audiences. CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +46 8 50 66 77 88 WEB: konserthuset.se/en/musgravefestival EMAIL: info@konserthuset.se…

25 Oct, 2018 Tsujii and Ashkenazy In a warm-up for the orchestra’s tour of Japan, pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy perform Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2. 20 & 21 Feb, 2019 Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring Daníel Bjarnason conducts Stravinsky’s masterpiece plus his own Violin Concerto, co-commissioned by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Finnish virtuoso Pekka Kuusisto is the soloist. 23 May Thibaudet and Beethoven French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet visits Iceland for the first time for James MacMillan’s Piano Concerto No. 3 under Osmo Vänskä, the ISO’s honorary and principal guest conductor.…

The 87-musician Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Singapore’s only national professional Chinese orchestra, showcases a spectacular line-up in its 2018-2019 concert season. Together with renowned international and homegrown artists, the SCO stages its concerts at the newly refurbished SCO Concert Hall, housed at the preserved historical national monument Singapore Conference Hall with its acoustically-enhanced Meyer sound system. Highlights of our wide array of concerts include acclaimed cellist Qin Li-wei and violinist Siow Lee Chin premiering a double concerto in Homecoming III. For a full list of concerts, visit our website or follow us on Facebook! CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS WEB: www.sco.com.sg EMAIL: sco@sco.com.sg…

3 Nov 2018 Debussy 100: La Mer Mount E’mei, a musical saga for violin, percussion and orchestra by Chinese composer Ye Xiaogang, is paired with Debussy’s La Mer and Jeux, two pieces that the SSO’s recordings on BIS have earned international acclaim. 25-26 Jan 2019 Lan Shui’s Farewell: Mahler Symphony No. 2 In his swansong as the SSO’s music director (since 1998), Lan Shui directs Mahler’s monumental Resurrection Symphony, with soprano Miah Persson and mezzo-soprano Anna Larsson. 10 May 2019 Beethoven: Missa Solemnis 1819 is the year Singapore was founded, and also the year Beethoven wrote the first notes of his Mass. Famed Japanese maestro Masaaki Suzuki, well-known for his choral direction, leads our combined forces in this grand season finale.…

Dan Cippico 22, BMus (Hons) Composition, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire ‘The college has constantly challenged me to push my abilities further. I leave both fearful and hopeful!’ Sten Heinoja 24, piano, Artist Diploma, Royal College of Music ‘I remember arriving thinking that I didn’t need college. Now I would say, take every opportunity it has to offer.’ Jonathan Radford 27, sax, Artist Diploma, RCM ‘It’s tough out there, but college has taught me to be adaptable.’ Richard Lines-Davies 21, oboe, BMus (Hons), RCM ‘Deciding whether or not to stick with music is a challenge. I just have to believe I can do it.’ Harriet Eyley 26, soprano, Artist Diploma, RCM ‘You have to accept that there is always going to be somebody better out there, but that doesn’t mean you can’t…

‘To my mind art, and above all music, consists in lifting us as far as possible above what is,’ Gabriel Fauré once wrote. The composer had good reason to wish to transcend reality. His difficult status as establishment ‘outsider’, a marriage of a few ups and many downs, an almost impossible work-life balance, and, in middle age, the onset of deafness: all made his compositional quest singularly hard won. Most of Fauré’s music emerged during summer holidays, away from Paris To achieve great things, Leonard Bernstein said, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time. For most of his life Fauré had not nearly enough time to compose; most of his music emerged during summer holidays, away from Paris, preferably amid lakeside landscapes. His output is considerable…

The work Little more than 50 years ago, it was widely thought Mozart had composed eight violin concertos. Most notorious of all was the so-called Adelaide (‘No. 8’), which Marius Casadesus (uncle of pianist Robert) claimed in 1933 to have restored from an authentic two-stave manuscript. It was duly published, premiered by Jelly d’Aranyi and even recorded by Yehudi Menuhin before, in 1977, Casadesus confessed it was all a hoax and entirely his own work. ‘No. 6’ in E flat was claimed by Mozart’s near-contemporary Johann Friedrich Eck to have been played to him by the composer. Rigorous stylistic analysis and comparison with Eck’s own music in the late 1970s revealed the Mozart story was almost certainly a product of Eck’s colourful imagination. Leopold Mozart despaired at his son’s reluctance…

Pamela Frank (violin) No one conveys the uncontainable joy of Mozart’s zestful concerto series with such infectious vitality as Pamela Frank and David Zinman’s Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. Although played on an historically appropriate scale, they just can’t help but ‘magic’ phrases in a way more redolent of the golden age. This reaches its apex in the central Adagio of K216, with its muted strings and flutes emulating gentle summer breezes. The way Frank intuitively shapes the skin-tingling move into B minor and beyond is perfection. (Arte Nova G010001193190G) Arthur Grumiaux (violin) Like Augustin Dumay, whose recordings of Concertos Nos 2–5 for DG are required listening, Grumiaux plays with an enchantingly pure-toned cantabile radiance. Combining gently cushioned bow-stokes with medium-fast vibrato and tasteful portamentos, he never seems to stop ‘singing’ as…

Vivaldi Double Concertos for Oboes, Horns, Violin and Cello; Concerto for Oboe and Bassoon La Serenissima/ Adrian Chandler (violin) Avie AV2392 75:32 mins From La tempesta di mare to Il gran mogol, Il gardellino to La note, Vivaldi wasn’t averse to attaching eye-catching titles to some of his concertos. But Adrian Chandler has come up with the enigmatic mother of them all to round off La Serenissima’s latest dalliance with the ‘Red Priest’: Concerto per S.A.S.I.S.P.G.M.D.G.S.M.B. No one’s totally sure what the letters signify (an abbreviated dedication seems more than likely), but it’s not the only striking thing about RV574. Although the disc’s raison d’être is to explore some of the concertos for two instruments, the grand finale exuberantly brings all Chandler’s soloists together in a concertante extravaganza proudly brandishing…

Shostakovich Symphony No. 4; Symphony No. 11 (The Year 1905) Boston Symphony Orchestra/ Andris Nelsons DG 483 5220 127:06 mins (2 discs) The Boston Symphony responds with supreme virtuosity The Fourth is the sleeping giant of Shostakovich’s symphonies. Over an hour long and massively scored, it’s never quite recovered from the 25-year hiatus between the cancellation of its scheduled first performance in 1936, in the shadow of the official censure of the composer’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, and its eventual premiere in the post-Stalin era in 1961. But it’s significant that two of the Symphony’s three movements had been completed, in relatively calm circumstances, before that ominously critical Pravda article appeared. Andris Nelsons takes a hint from this by not winding up the intensity to screaming pitch…

Dussek Piano Concertos: in E flat, Op. 3; in F, Op. 14; in G minor Op. 49 Ulster Orchestra/Howard Shelley (piano/conductor) Hyperion CDA68211 73:39 mins Howard Shelley’s exceptional ability to make the byways of the concerto repertoire sound like bona fide masterpieces reaches new heights in this follow-up to his previous volume (CDA68027) of piano concertos by Czech composer Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812), which launched the Classical Piano Concerto series in 2014. Here are three out of Dussek’s 18 surviving piano concertos, carefully chosen in order to trace his creative journey from dedicated Mozartian, to an enthusiastic admirer of Weber’s and Hummel’s virtuoso derring-do, to his gentle embracing of Beethoven’s minor-key, early-period Sturm und Drang; by the time we reach his Op. 49 Concerto of 1801 one can even detect…

Mozart Lucio Silla (DVD) Kurt Streit, Patricia Petibon, Silvia Tro Santafé, Inga Kalna, María José Moreno, Kenneth Tarver; Chorus & Orchestra of the Teatro Real de Madrid/Ivor Bolton; dir.Claus Guth (Madrid, 2017) Bel Air Classiques DVD : BAC150; Blu-ray : BAC450 180 mins Mozart was 17 when Lucio Silla took Milan by storm in December 1772. The opera then disappeared for over 150 years – unsurprisingly, since this is an unreformed opera seria with the classic pattern of aria and recitative ping ponging its way through three acts. But the Overture, handsomely played by the Madrid Teatro Real orchestra conducted by Ivor Bolton, hints at another story; and as the opera unfolds you sense young Mozart straining at the bit with shorter arias and a remarkably…

Donizetti Poliuto Sony 19075807802 (1986) 106:18 mins (2 discs) Recorded live in Vienna, this decently conducted performance of Donizetti’s taut drama of the triumph of religious faith finds Katia Ricciarelli on uneven form but José Carreras in heroic mode. ★★★ Puccini La bohème Warner 9029573751 (1995) 101:41 mins (2 discs) Antonio Pappano announced his excellence as a Puccini conductor with this recording, which brings vitality to every bar of a familiar masterpiece. Striking casting throughout, led by Leontina Vaduva’s sensitive Mimì. ★★★★ Puccini La bohème Sony 19075810742 (1947) 94:35 mins (2 discs) Boxy sound in this studio recording made at the Met in 1947, sampling a representative local cast of the period, with Brazilian soprano Bidú Sayão a flavoursome Mimì opposite Richard Tucker’s wiry Rodolfo. ★★★ Verdi Rigoletto Warner 9029573588…

Julian Anderson Choral Music: Bell Mass; Nunc dimittis; Four American Choruses; O Sing Unto The Lord; Frescobaldi: Toccate, canzone, versi d’hinni, Book 2 Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge/ Geoffrey Webber (director, solo organ); Michael How, Luke Fitzgerald (organ) Delphian DCD34202 61:54 mins This is ravishing. Choral music has long been an important strand of Julian Anderson’s output, but until now it has only been represented on disc by his Four American Choruses, as recorded by the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus. From the relative simplicity of My beloved spake and ‘I’m a Pilgrim’, via the delicious stretched tunings in the ‘Benedictus’ from Bell Mass, to the extraordinary sustained mystery of the Nunc dimittis commissioned for this disc, Geoffrey Webber and the Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge,…

Lalande • Lemaire • Morin Petits Motets, etc Harmonia Mundi HAF 8901416 (1992) 67:40 mins Rameau’s music with French works that inspired him. Five of the six soloists of Les Arts Florissants admirably capture this programme’s many moods, from burlesque to melancholy. ★★★ The Art of Camille Maurane Works by Duparc, Fauré and Debussy Eloquence 482 4947 (1954-56) 83:24 mins Renowned for making French art song sound like recited poetry, tenor-baritone Camille Maurane was a definitive artist in his time but lacked evenness between registers. ★★★ The Art of Janine Micheau Works by Britten, Ravel and Debussy Eloquence 482 4769 (1952/55) 74:04 mins Janine Micheau, a soubrette-ish soprano, performs French-language symphonic song. Her expressiveness sometimes compensates for the mismatch of rich scoring with a thin-timbred voice. ★★ Le Jardin de…

Beethoven Piano Trios Nos 1-3, Op. 1 Trio Goya Chandos CHAN 0822(2) 96:07 mins (2 discs) As William Drabkin observes in his liner note, these piano trios, written in Beethoven’s early twenties, mark the real beginning of his career, and their grouping reflects one of his favourite strategies: by issuing works in threes he tripled the effectiveness with which he hit his public. And as with the early solo piano works, their slow movements – particularly that of the G major trio – prefigure the expansive and exploratory slow movements of the symphonic works to come. There are other pre-echoes: the piano figurations in the theme of the second movement of Trio No. 3 resurface nearly thirty years later in the second of the Op. 119 Bagatelles. These trios’ first…

Paganini Sonatas for Violin and Guitar Fabio Biondi (violin), Giangiacomo Pinardi (guitar) Glossa GCD 923410 66:30 mins The Paganini who emerges on this disc is not the tortured, Mephistophelian figure painted by Delacroix and luridly described by his contemporaries as ‘the devil’s spawn’, but rather a graceful, Classically-trained chamber musician of sparkling wit and brio. The seven Sonatas for violin and guitar recorded here span the first three decades of the 19th century: charming, felicitous, sometimes teasing works, variously inspired by bel canto opera, Boccherini and Locatelli, Italian and Hispanic dance rhythms, and by the caprice and acrobatics of the Commedia dell’arte. Fabio Biondi is sensitive to Paganini’s quixotic moods Playing a refined 1767 Neapolitan violin by Ferdinando Gagliano, Fabio Biondi brings his long experience in Baroque violin technique to…

Looking back just 20 years, the career guidance I got after my degree was no more useful than Baz Luhrmann’s advice at the time to ‘wear sunscreen’. I seem to remember my parents even forked out for one careers expert to recommend that I either become an actuary or a librarian. Not that I knew what an actuary was. Today, however (and thankfully), things have moved on a little – faced with the complexities and challenges of a modern career, it’s essential that students are at least given a picture of what’s actually out there, even if they’re left ultimately to fend for themselves. The music world, far from becoming an impoverished desert of opportunity, needs talent in many more ways than even ten years ago thanks to the proliferation…

Richard Gowers organist Born: Cambridge, UK Career highlight: Playing the huge Royal Albert Hall organ at the 2016 BBC Proms with King’s College and the OAE was exciting. I always listen from the arena, so it was special to be onstage in that distinctive atmosphere. Musical hero: Soprano Barbara Hannigan’s voice is mesmerising, but what I find most admirable is how she has promoted so much work by living composers. I don’t think enough prominent musicians do that. Dream concert: I once conducted the second suite from Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé , so I would love to go back and perform the whole thing and achieve my best interpretation of its staggering craftsmanship. Matilda Lloyd trumpeter Born: Guildford, UK Career highlight: Winning the Eric Aubier International Trumpet Competition…

Babadzhanian Piano Trio in F sharp minor Arno Babadzhanian (piano), David Oistrakh (violin), Sviatoslav Knushevitsky (cello) Doremi DHR 7820  Arno Babadzhanian was an Armenian composer and he wrote a fantastic Piano Trio. I first discovered and performed it with two extraordinary Armenian musicians, pianist Marianna Shirinyan and cellist Mika Hakhnazaryan, which was a great privilege not least because they grew up with the music. It is deeply passionate, visceral and heart-breaking in its melancholic intensity. Tchaikovsky Valse Sentimentale Ivry Gitlis (violin), Shigeo Neriki (piano) Eastworld TOCE-9065 This arrangement for violin and piano is not particularly well known, and it’s hardly ever played. It’s one of the gems of violin miniature repertoire, and for me it’s one of the most beautiful, exquisite pieces that exist for violin and piano. It’s also…

Francesca Dego violinist I recently saw Opera Rara’s world-premiere production of Donizetti’s L’ange de Nisida at the Royal Opera House. I moved to London the day before, so this was my first outing as a Londoner. I was in the Royal Box, too, so that was exciting. I thought it was amazing that this opera was written but never performed, and then rediscovered so recently. It was an incredibly emotionally-charged night. I think Donizetti would have been absolutely electrified by it. I’ve been listening to a lot of chamber music recently, particularly the Ligeti Horn Trio. I’ve really fallen in love with it; it’s just so intense, deep and full of interesting things. It’s a homage to the Brahms Trio and Ligeti takes some of the atmospheres of that, which…

Oliver Condy Editor A visit to the Cromford Steam Rally in August proved a surprisingly musical affair, with several fairground organs blasting forth (including a steam-driven carousel organ and one built into the boot of a car). Over in the marquee, meanwhile, the Chapeltown Silver Prize Band’s selection of arrangements and original works went marvellously with a burger and beer. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor The recent news that conductor Vasily Petrenko is to leave the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 2021 has had me revisiting some of the highlights of his 12 years there so far. Their 2010 recording of Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony is, for me, the stand-out moment: from the hair-raising assault of the second and third movements to the unsettlingly mysterious stillness of the fourth, it’s…

1958 Born on 19 December, in London, into a musical family 1972 At the age of 14, Isserlis moves to Scotland to study with cellist Jane Cowan 1976 Studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Ohio with Richard Kapuscinski 1984 Makes his debut recording, of Brahms’s Cello Sonatas, on Hyperion 1990 Records Tavener’s The Protecting Veil with the London Symphony Orchestra and Gennady Rozhdestvensky, the year after he premiered the piece 1997 Becomes artistic director of the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall 1998 Awarded a CBE for services to music 2001 Publishes his first book for children, Why Beethoven Threw the Stew, closely followed by its sequel, Why Handel Waggled his Wig 2016 Appointed visiting cello professor at the Royal Academy of Music, whose Stradivarius cello he…

Thibaut Garcia This Franco-Spanish guitarist took up a place on the BBC New Generation Artists scheme last year. In 2016 he signed a contract with Warner and Erato, releasing the album Leyendas, which we described as an ‘outstandingly played, well-balanced, well-thought selection’. Tengyue Zhang ‘One to watch,’ we said last issue after this Chinese guitarist released his debut recital of Bach, Scarlatti and others on Naxos. TY, as he’s known, was five when he was first learnt the guitar; he went on to study with Sharon Isbin at the Juilliard. Andrea González Caballero This Spanish guitarist made her UK debut two years ago, after being chosen by the International Guitar Foundation. She won first prize at the XIII Alhambra International Guitar Competition, and released her first CD, also on Naxos,…

Elizabeth Alker’s BBC Radio 3 series Unclassified returns to the airwaves on 16 September. Over six Sundays, from 23.30 to 00.30, Alker (above) will be exploring music that doesn’t fit into neat boxes. ‘I’m especially looking forward to introducing listeners to brand new music, soundworlds they might not already be familiar with and musicians who are operating under the radar,’ she says. The second series will build on the themes of the first, which included music by the likes of Gabriel Prokofiev and Hannah Peel.…

22-24 Oct, 2018 Australian Chamber Orchestra The ACO performs Mozart’s last three symphonies, music old and new from Hildegard to Sufjan Stevens, and accompanies a screening of the breathtaking film Mountain featuring Richard Tognetti’s beautiful score. 20 Feb, 2019 Vienna Philharmonic Ádám Fischer conducts Mahler’s own orchestra in the Austrian composer’s Ninth Symphony, his great farewell to life that wrings every last drop of love, terror and sweetness from a life devoted to the human spirit. 31 May Joyce DiDonato The American mezzo-soprano is the star, as Game of Thrones meets imperial Rome in Handel’s first operatic masterpiece, Agrippina. With her husband – and Emperor – supposedly dead, Agrippina sets out to install her son Nero on the throne...…

Having performed with Britten at Queen Elizabeth Hall’s opening concert in 1967, it’s fitting that the ECO launches its 2018/19 London Concert Series in the newly refurbished hall. This opening concert renews the orchestra’s partnership with pianist Christian Zacharias in a programme including Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht. Other guests over the season include horn-player Ben Goldscheider and clarinettist Michael Collins in music ranging from Vivaldi to Bartók. The season concludes with Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, played by the brilliant Behzod Abduraimov. CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +44 (0)20 8840 6565 WEB: www.englishchamberorchestra.co.uk/concerts…

9 December, 2018 America! – Bernstein Centenary At Queen Elizabeth Hall, the NCO’s Under 13 Orchestra pays homage to music inspired by American people and places. The programme includes Justin Hurwitz’s La La Land Concert Suite, Dvorˇák’s Symphony No. 9 and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. 9 December NCO Winter Concert Violinist Nicola Benedetti, the breathtaking international soloist, 2004 BBC Young Musician winner and former NCO member, takes centre stage at Queen Elizabeth Hall with the NCO’s Main Orchestra for what should be a stunning rendition of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2. The programme also includes Shostakovich’s Festive Overture and Debussy’s La Mer.…

As the centre-piece of its 40th-anniversary season, New Sussex Opera stages the first professional production since 1935 of Stanford’s fairytale opera, The Travelling Companion: an exciting re-discovery featuring a mysterious stranger, a princess, a riddle, a wizard and haunting Romantic music. Stanford’s last opera was written in 1916, based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen and with a libretto by Henry Newbolt. In a production directed by Paul Higgins, Toby Purser conducts the NSO Chorus and Orchestra and a cast including David Horton, Julien van Mellaerts, Kate Valentine, Pauls Putnins, William Robert Allenby. CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +44 (0)1273 471851 WEB: www.newsussexopera.org EMAIL: mail@newsussexopera.org…

14-15 Sep 2018 Stravinsky & Connesson Brussels Philharmonic gives the brand new Violin Concerto by Guillaume Connesson its world première. Less controversial than Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring was at its premiere, perhaps, but at least as intense and gripping… 30 Nov-1 Dec 2018 Beethoven & Brahms Beethoven’s timeless and universal Fifth Symphony is here combined with Brahms’s Violin Concerto. The Brussels Philharmonic is joined by the talented and passionate soloist Leonidas Kavakos. 31 Jan-1 Feb 2019 Strauss & Bernstein The devastation of war affected Strauss so deeply that he wrote one of his most gripping works: Metamorphosen. The Age of Anxiety shows ‘the real genius of Bernstein’, according to pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet who has played it many times.…

During the reconstruction of the Budapest Opera House, the Hungarian State Opera heads to the US for the first time to bring Erkel’s Bánk Bán plus other Hungarian operas and a gala concert to New York’s David H Koch Theater, followed by a week of international productions by the Hungarian National Ballet (30 October – 11 November). The Opera Orchestra has also accepted an invitation to the Carnegie Hall to a concert in memory of composer Aldo Finzi before the season resumes in earnest in Budapest (see left). Tickets for the US tour can be bought at davidhkochtheater.com and www.carnegiehall.org CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +36 1 332 7914 WEB: www.opera.hu EMAIL: info@opera.hu…

22, 23, 24, 25 Nov 2018 Stockholm International Composer Festival A total of 17 pieces by Thea Musgrave will be performed at the four-day festival. Among them will be Loch Ness – A Postcard from Scotland, a characterful orchestral picture of one of Scotland’s most famous residents. Of very different character is Night Windows, originally composed for oboe and piano, now receiving its world premiere in a new version for oboe and 15 Strings. Also featured are Turbulent Landscapes, Concerto for Orchestra, Songs for a Winter’s Evening, The Seasons, Helios (Oboe Concerto), From Spring to Spring for marimba, Threnody for cor anglais and piano and Snow for soprano, cor anglais and viola. Participants include the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, oboist Nicholas Daniel, violist Ellen…

The pioneering Live in HD series of cinema transmissions brings the magic of New York’s Metropolitan Opera to music-lovers around the globe. The 2018–19 season includes ten exciting productions, sweeping visuals and thrilling close-ups that give viewers a front-row seat to the outstanding artistry of opera’s biggest stars, such as Anna Netrebko, Elina Garanca, Diana Damrau, Roberto Alagna, Jonas Kaufmann and Juan Diego Flórez. Cinema audiences also enjoy exclusive behind-the-scenes access, including backstage interviews with artists as well as the theatrical wizards who make the Met’s breathtaking stagecraft possible. CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +1 212 362 6000 WEB: www.metopera.org/hd…

18 & 19 January, 2019 Rhapsodies of Spring 2019 The SCO’s branded spring festive concert, Rhapsodies of Spring will showcase a myriad classic pieces and feature the famous vocalist Fang Qiong. 27 April Homecoming III Renowned Singaporean violinist Siow Lee Chin performs with acclaimed cellist Qin Li-wei and the SCO, conducted by music director Tsung Yeh, in the third series of the SCO’s Homecoming concert series. 8 June Eternal Blossoming of the Red Flowers The SCO’s closing season’s concert will feature acclaimed Chinese female composer Wang Danhong’s Eternal Blossoming of the Red Flowers in a concert that promises to tug at your heartstrings.…

‘‘Where will we find the next generation? People will say ‘talent will out’ but that’s not necessarily true anymore” Just days after one of his students, the 16-year-old pianist Lauren Zhang, won the final of BBC Young Musician 2018, Julian Lloyd Webber (pictured left), cellist and principal of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, is in typically defiant mood. ‘There was hardly a thing in the press about the final,’ he says. ‘The Eurovision Song Contest, which happened a few days earlier, got massive coverage. It’s part of an unfortunate trend in the West. The classical music stars of the future will come from China.’ It’s a familiar refrain, but as a former world-class musician – he retired from performing in 2014 – Lloyd Webber is perhaps more qualified than most to…

Beautiful lines Fauré’s early compositions reveal a special instinct for beauty and balance. In works such as the choral Cantique de Jean Racine and the solo piano Romances sans paroles, he perfectly blends melodiousness, restraint and sensuality. Early influences included Gounod, Mendelssohn and Saint-Saëns (pictured below). Plain and pure At the Niedermeyer School, Fauré studied Renaissance and earlier church music. He retained considerable fondness for these styles, once declaring he thought the church should use only plainsong. Their impact may partly account for his incantatory lines and modal inclinations. Where’s Wagner? Fauré didn’t succumb to Wagner’s spell, but he did use Wagnerian techniques if and when he needed to – for instance, leitmotifs in his opera Pénélope. He visited the Bayreuth Festival and particularly admired Parsifal; his late style bears…

As well as composing masterpieces in almost every genre, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart also performed to the highest level on both the violin and keyboard. Born in Salzburg in 1756, in his early years it became clear he was a prodigy, as was his sister Nannerl. Their violinist-composer father Leopold capitalised on their gifts, taking on them on long concert tours. Mozart began to compose at the age of five, penning his first symphony just three years later. After completing his five violin concertos of 1775, he then turned his attention to the piano concerto – of which he eventually wrote 27.…

Why was Vivaldi drawn to the double concerto genre? It’s a bit of an enigma really – he appears to be the only Italian that composed for that sort of combination of instruments. It first turns up in L’estro armonico. There was nothing really before it, though to somebody such as Vivaldi it was probably sort of a fairly obvious thing to do; if you’ve got the soloists then why not do it? Then if you’ve done it for two violins then why not two oboes, two horns, and then mixtures of instruments? Concerto per S.A.S.I.S.P.G.M.D.G.S.M.B is quite a title... It was probably written for somebody he was hopeful of gaining patronage from. There are four or five concertos with that instrumentation, and I think possibly they were all written…

Mendelssohn The Hebrides Overture; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Symphony No. 4 Eloquence 482 5515 (1949-56) 58:39 mins An attractive programme with particularly incisive wind ensemble in the Midsummer Night’s Dream Scherzo. Eduard van Beinum’s Italian Symphony is genial and fleet-footed with wonderful clarity of texture. ★★★★ Mendelssohn String Symphonies Nos 9-12, etc Eloquence 482 5111 (1962-74) 135:12 mins (2 discs) I Musici revel in the spontaneity, exuberance and good humour of Mendelssohn’s early string symphonies. Their Octet is no less enjoyable, impeccable ensemble matched by refined musicianship. ★★★★ Rachmaninov Symphony No. 1, Isle of the Dead Alto ALC 1360 (1966) 68:10 mins Evgeni Svetlanov’s no-holds-barred account of the First Symphony has you on the edge of your seat, the Finale’s rollercoaster journey to the abyss captured in vivid yet appropriately…

Beethoven • Brahms Violin Concertos Doremi DHR-8025-8 (1943-62) 292:28 mins (4 discs) A sparkling collection of previously unreleased live performances discovered in Tossy Spivakovsky’s private collection, which confirm him as one of the leading players of his generation. ★★★★ Boccherini • Elgar • Haydn Cello Concertos Biddulph Recordings LAB 144 (1945/51) 78:39 mins That old Pablo Casals magic still weaves its spell via these expert Ward Marston transfers, making any concerns regarding the outmoded editions used for the Boccherini and Haydn gloriously irrelevant. ★★★★ British Music for Viola and Orchestra Works by Vaughan Williams, Howells, etc. Naxos 8.573876 (2005) 77:35 mins Issued originally on ASV, this outstanding programme from British virtuoso Helen Callus features one of the finest-ever accounts of the Walton Concerto, alongside Howells’s haunting Elegy. ★★★★★ Sergei Zhukov…

A former student of John Corigliano, Mason Bates shares with his teacher a mastery of orchestral colour. The American composer has been most notable for extending the resources of the symphony orchestra, making electronic sounds responsive to the fluctuations of a live performance by use of an laptop: for instance, in Liquid Interface (2007). Appointed Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s composer-in-residence alongside Anna Clyne, he wrote several works premiered by that orchestra including Anthology of Fantastic Zoology (2015), based on Luis Borges’s book of magical realism. His first opera, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (2017), was premiered by Santa Fe Opera.…

Sacred sax I hope none of your readers has been searching for a recording of Berlioz’s beautiful Chant sacré in his own arrangement for Sax’s instruments (Cover feature, September), as the score has been lost. Berlioz’s fuller orchestration, however, uses two bass clarinets to good effect – he was of course aware of Sax’s recent improvements to that instrument. At a recent 19th-century music conference in Huddersfield, I enjoyed a modern transcription of Chant sacré finely played on saxhorns. I think both composer and inventor would have enjoyed it too. Julian Rushton, Huddersfield I’ll get my Coates Your September issue cover CD featuring the saxophone was enjoyable and reminded me of my very favourite saxophone piece, Saxo-Rhapsody. It was written by Eric Coates for the German-born virtuoso Sigurd Raschèr in…

When, in 2007, a company of piano movers unceremoniously dropped a £26,000 Bösendorfer into a ditch, the organisers of the Two Moors Festival in Devon, who’d saved up for two years to buy the unfortunate instrument, had probably wished they’d added a helicopter to their budget. Mind you, the boggy hills of south-west England are a good deal less treacherous than the mountainous landscape of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Hunan, south-east China where, in August, a red Blüthner grand piano was airlifted to the top of the park’s 1,098m-high Tianzi Mountain by Écureuil helicopter. Once the piano had been safely winched into place, pianist Yuan Jie (see above left) gave a performance that was beamed back to a stage in Huanglong Dong (Yellow Dragon Cave) back down the mountain.…

A call for carols It’s time to start turning your thoughts Yulewards, as BBC Radio 3 launches its Christmas Carol Competition. This year, budding composers are invited to write a carol for four-part choir setting words by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Entries will be judged by composer Bob Chilcott, with the six best performed on air by the BBC Singers and listeners voting for the overall winner. Go to the Radio 3 website for details. Poston found The score of a lost work by Elizabeth Poston has been tracked down at Northamptonshire Record Office. The composer’s Festal Te Deum was commissioned by St Matthew’s Church, Northampton in 1959 but disappeared soon after that. Dogged detective work by enthusiasts of Poston – herself a former spy – has located the…

We reveal who’s recording what, and where… London-based string group 12 Ensemble is the first signing for a new label called Sancho Panza Recordings, the brainchild of artist manager Steve Abbott. While classical music will be a core focus for the label’s output, it will specialise specifically in contemporary music that represents the times we live in. The signing coincides with the ensemble’s first UK tour and, of course, its debut album. Manchester Camerata is in the studio for Chandos ahead of the first concert of its new 2018/19 season and a five-date tour in China. The recording, at Stoller Hall, marks the beginning of a five-year performance and recording project that will take in all of Mozart’s piano concertos. Decca is seemingly on a mission to gather together…

When I was at university, back in the now-unimaginable pre-internet days of the mid-1990s, there was a difference between courses called ‘music’ and ‘music technology’. It seemed to stand to reason at the time: ‘music’ meant musical history and theory, performance and composition with pens and paper; ‘music technology’ was computers and software, wires and recording. How wrong we were. The idea that you can separate ‘music’ from ‘technology’ is a profound fallacy. The vast majority of our musical traditions are the result of a symbiotic dance through the centuries of music and technology, the one inspiring and feeding off the other to create new ideas, languages and kinds of expression. That story began when we started to shape the environment around us to make new sounds millennia ago, turning…

Heike Matthiesen, Frankfurt, Germany I have been listening to a wonderful piano recital given by Igor Levit in Salzburg. He played an intelligent and super-challenging programme: excerpts from Wagner’s Parsifal in the transcription by Liszt, a Busoni version of a Liszt organ fantasy and Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, the piece Liszt famously performed in 1836. Levit brought structural intelligence to his playing, superb melodic phrasing, haunting sounds and a stunning technique. A fascinating lesson in art!…

There should be a special phrase for this time of the year. ‘Early autumn’ doesn’t quite do it. At universities and colleges around the country, freshers’ weeks will soon be in full, intoxicating swing, initiating another batch of fresh-faced teens into the manifold joys and occasional woes of student life. Meanwhile, their older peers, the ones who graduated this summer, will have returned from their chill-out weeks in Thailand and be embarking on their first ‘proper’ jobs. Or, more likely, starting to realise that those jobs are scarcer than they thought. It should be a season of high hopes, but I can’t remember a time when the intrinsic value of higher education has been under so much sceptical scrutiny. And that scepticism is multiplied many times for courses such as…

Historically, the Roma or Romani people find their roots in Northern India. Centuries ago many Roma travelled to Europe and are thought to have first settled in the Balkans, before migrating to Spain and the rest of Europe. Music-making has always been an important part of Roma culture; musicians gathered for weddings, funerals, feasts and parties. Their vibrant music picked up the flavour of the places in which they lived. In turn, Roma music tinged what they encountered. Now it’s sometimes hard to separate the two. Spanish Flamenco is essentially Andalusian Romani music, for instance, while what’s often seen as quintessentially ‘Hungarian’ music owes much to the country’s Romani heritage. Gypsy music has had a huge influence on both classical and jazz over the years, and although instruments vary from…

Cadogan Hall welcomes concert-goers to two uniquely wide-ranging seasons, including symphonic masterpieces with international names and choral delights from the Renaissance to the present day Cadogan Hall’s Zurich International Orchestra Series, regarded as the largest and most comprehensive season of international concerts in the country, welcomes to London ten of the world’s most distinguished orchestras across 13 concerts. The 2018/19 season opens in October with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Vasily Petrenko, chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (and soon to join the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra). Later on in the season there are debut visits from orchestras from India, Japan and Canada. Another cornerstone of the venue’s programme, the Choral at Cadogan series celebrates some of the finest choral ensembles from around the world.…

20 September, 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition In a special partnership, the winner of this prestigious competition will perform at the Opening Night concert, with the second- and third-prize winners giving lunchtime recitals earlier in the week. 23 Sept, 18 Oct, 15 & 18 Nov Petrenko’s Brahms Vasily Petrenko shares his passion for Brahms, conducting and introducing all four symphonies. 10 November Britten’s War Requiem A poignant and special tribute to the WWI centenary, as orchestra and choir members from Liverpool and Hanover are brought together by conductor Andrew Manze in Liverpool Cathedral. October and December Films with Live Orchestra Enjoy a wide range of films, with glorious scores performed live by the orchestra, including the iconic On The Waterfront (13 October),…

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra gives over 150 concerts each year in Birmingham, the UK and around the world. A highlight of the 2018-19 season is ‘Baltic Way’, a celebration of the music and culture of the Baltic region; plus, there’s a weekend with Kremerata Baltica exploring the music of Weinberg, UK premieres, the popular Friday Night Classics series including the music from Harry Potter to Nat King Cole, and concerts for families. The orchestra also welcomes Kazuki Yamada as its new principal guest conductor and the great Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer as artist in residence for the season. CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +44 (0)121 780 3333 WEB: cbso.co.uk EMAIL: information@cbso.co.uk…

29 October 2018 Christian Zacharias At Queen Elizabeth Hall, Christian Zacharias opens the ECO’s London Series with Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. He also directs Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht and movements from Beethoven’s The Creatures of Prometheus. 2 December 2018 Christmas with Vivaldi The ECO is joined by Michael Collins and the Choir of the 21st Century at Cadogan Hall for festive favourites including Gloria, ‘Winter’ from the Four Seasons with leader Stephanie Gonley and ‘The Goldfinch’ Concerto for Flute. 22 May 2019 Behzod Abduraimov Described by The Times as the ‘master of all he surveys’, Behzod Abduraimov closes the London Series with Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. Stravinsky’s Concerto in D and Mozart’s ‘Prague’ Symphony also feature.…

The internationally revered violinist Rimma Sushanskaya was the last pupil of David Oistrakh, studying with the legendary Russian at the Moscow Conservatoire. More recently, she has embarked upon an impressive conducting career, building a close relationship with the National Symphony Orchestra and making her acclaimed London debut at Cadogan Hall. Joined by pianist John Lenehan, this autumn she conducts works by Mozart, including the ‘Elvira Madigan’ Concerto, in Norwich and Bromley, and then, in February, an all-Beethoven programme at St Martin-in-the-Fields that will include the ‘Emperor’ Concerto. CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +44 (0)208 690 1768 WEB: www.nso.co.uk EMAIL: justin@nso.co.uk…

21 November, 7pm Lewes Town Hall 22 November, 7pm Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne 30 November, 7pm Cadogan Hall, London With pre-performance talks by leading English music expert Professor Jeremy Dibble, Stanford’s The Travelling Companion enjoys performances in two venues in Sussex and then at one of London’s most prestigious halls. Sunday 2 December 3pm Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden Recorded live, this performance of The Travelling Companion will be preceded by a talk at 2.15 pm. Season highlights in 2019 Autumn tour Tour to include performances at Lewes Town Hall and the Bloomsbury Theatre.…

Founded in 1924, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra is an important part of the rich and varied cultural heritage of Croatia. With programming by new chief conductor Marc Tardue, the 2018/19 season includes festivals, international masterclasses and educational programmes, plus many well known national and international artists such as conductors Nicholas Milton, Uroš Lajovic, Christoph Campestrini, and soloists Martina Filjak, Dmitry Sinkovsky, Monika Leskovar, Jasminka Stancul and others. Highlights include concerts of Croatian opera and operetta, a Verdi gala and a year-long Mozart cycle. CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +385 (0)20 417 110 WEB: www.dso.hr EMAIL: sales@dso.hr…

1 December, 2018 Puccini’s La fanciulla del West Hungarian State Opera returns to Budapest’s Erkel Theatre for a new production of this unusual love story. 22 February, 2019 Ponchielli’s La Gioconda Enjoy Ponchielli’s masterpiece in a new production by newly appointed artistic director András Almási-Tóth. 22 March OMG The Hungarian National Ballet in three new contemporary choreographies by Harald Lander and George Balanchine: Czerny’s Études, Tchaikovsky’s Theme & Variations and Delibes’s Sylvia Pas de Deux. 18 May – 10 June Puccini Festival A three-week festival featuring all eleven of Puccini’s works for stage plus two significant contemporary operas and two interestingly related ballets.…

The season ahead sees a host of outstanding artists performing with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in music from Bach to Bernstein as well as new works by ISO composer-in-residence Anna Thorvaldsdottir. The season at Harpa Concert Hall opens with violinist Renaud Capuçon performing under principal conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier. Other artists joining the orchestra include conductors Eva Ollikainen and Klaus Mäkelä, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter. In November, the ISO embarks on a three-week tour of Japan with pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii and conductor laureate, Vladimir Ashkenazy. CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +354 528 50 50 WEB: www.sinfonia.is EMAIL: sinfonia@sinfonia.is…

6 October, 2018 Verdi’s Aida Anna Netrebko makes her much awaited Met role debut as the title character. 20 October Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila Roberto Alagna and Elina Garanca star in a glorious new staging of the biblical epic. 27 October Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West Jonas Kaufmann makes his heralded return to the Met, opposite Eva-Maria Westbroek as the gun-slinging heroine. 10 November Nico Muhly’s Marnie Nico Muhly unveils his second new opera for the Met, with Isabel Leonard in the mysterious title role. December 15 Verdi’s La Traviata Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Flórez are the passionate couple at the heart of Verdi’s classic. For a complete schedule…

Established in 1979, Singapore’s flagship orchestra was born just 14 years after Singapore’s independence. The SSO celebrates its 40th anniversary season with a spread of 66 performances, 36 debuts and three premieres. Besides crowd-pleasing, familiar favourites, the SSO’s new Red Balloon Series explores music of our times, from Steve Reich to Heitor Pereira, Frank Zappa to Daft Punk. Our guest artists this season include Sofi Jeannin, Eímear Noone, Bruno Weil, Hannu Lintu, Lionel Bringuier, Augustin Hadelich, Ray Chen, Piotr Anderszewski, Lars Vogt, Sabine Meyer, Miloš Karadaglić and Xavier de Maistre. CONTACT DETAILS/BUY TICKETS TEL: +65 6602 4245 WEB: sso.org.sg EMAIL: ticketing@sso.org.sg…

Like other colleges, the Royal College of Music operates a careers advice and development centre. We ask Diana Roberts (left), its manager and the college’s entrepreneurship tutor, about the kind of future students leaving in 2018 will face. How has the careers landscape changed in the past 20 years? New career opportunities have emerged, including the creation of performance venues beyond the traditional concert hall. Meanwhile, it’s now possible to self-promote through online platforms and reach audiences by recording, publishing and distributing your music. How has the RCM responded? Our Creative Careers Centre supports graduates for up to five years after they leave. Services include sessions in CV and biography writing, promotion, website creation and career development. It also gives them performance opportunities at over 40 venues, including concert halls,…

Julian Yu (61) was born in Beijing and has lived in Australia since 1985. His teachers included Joji Yuasa in Tokyo and, at Tanglewood, Hans Werner Henze and Oliver Knussen. He’s the recipient of a great many composition awards, including Australia’s highest such prize, the Paul Lowin Award – twice. Yu’s music is finely wrought, poetic, elegant and detailed, putting emotion and intellect into perfect balance, and western and Chinese influences likewise. He prefers not to be constrained by national or stylistic boundaries, declaring: ‘If a composer can be brave and not be limited by known sounds and styles, his composition may reveal new and beautiful worlds of sound.’…

Henryk Szeryng (violin) New Philharmonia Orchestra/Alexander Gibson Decca 478 4271 (1966/69) Henryk Szeryng was one of the great aristocrats of the violin, for whom purity of interpretative thought was paramount. His outstanding qualities – musical eloquence, precision, elegant phrasing, virtuoso ease and a tantalising combination of technical sophistication and expressive simplicity – were tailor-made for Mozart’s lucid soundworlds. Time and again throughout his transcendent Mozart concerto series from the 1960s, with a devoted New Philharmonia Orchestra under Alexander Gibson, Szeryng turns phrases with such naturalness and understanding that it is as if Mozart were thinking out loud. Like Mozart’s music itself, Szeryng’s playing always feels alive and responsive So how exactly does Szeryng achieve his miracles? The short answer is by a series of exquisite, microcosmic inflections, so subtle one…

The cello features in a number of our reviewed recordings this month, most notably in concertos by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Franz Reizenstein and Berthold Goldschmidt. The latter names may not be familiar, but like Castelnuovo-Tedesco, both composers were forced to flee their homes because of anti-Semitic feeling in the lead up to World War II. Another Jewish émigré covered this month is Hans Gál, who fled his native Austria and made a life and career for himself in Edinburgh. Whether their work bears the emotional influence of such experiences we cannot say for certain, but that they continued to write after going through such personal trauma is testament to music’s ability to provide solace, or even a much-needed distraction from otherwise testing times. This month’s critics John Allison, Nicholas Anderson, Michael…

Richard Rodney Bennett Symphony No. 2; Serenade; Partita; Concerto for Stan Getz Howard McGill (tenor saxophone), Scott Dickinson (viola); BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/ John Wilson Chandos CHSA 5212 (hybrid CD/SACD) 69:25 mins The second volume of Chandos’s series devoted to the orchestral works of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012) consists of music from four of the ‘compartments’ into which his prolific creative life can be divided. The fluent, confident young master of 12-note technique is represented by the dramatic single-movement Second Symphony, which was written in 1967 for the New York Philharmonic; the imaginative composer of music for young performers is revealed by the 1976 Serenade for small orchestra, with its closing Nocturne full of Latin-American rhythms. The 1990 Concerto written for the saxophonist Stan Getz (though he sadly died…

Bruch Scottish Fantasy; Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor Academy of St Martin in the Fields/ Joshua Bell (violin/director) Sony 19075842002 55:39 mins Though Max Bruch only died in 1920, he strikes one as a typically mid-19th century composer. And so he was, though his compositions mainly belong to its last years. His output was huge, and it is perplexing that he produced three works, the two on this disc and Kol Nidrei for cello and orchestra, all bursting with memorable tunes, luscious harmonies, and easy-to-follow structures, yet anything else one might hear by him seems undistinguished. This recording does both the Violin Concerto No. 1 and the Scottish Fantasy proud, and Joshua Bell, now in charge of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, proves a capable…

Mason Bates The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs Kelly Markgraf, Edward Parks, Adelaide Boedecker, Adam Bonanni, Kristen Choi, Thaddeus Ennen, Andrew Maughan, Corrie Stallings, Tyler Zimmerman, Sasha Cooke, Wei Wu; Santa Fe Opera/Michael Christie Pentatone PTC 5186 690 (hybrid CD/ SACD) 94:15 mins (2 discs) Orson Welles turned the life of a corporate monster into drama but Mason Bates’s Steve Jobs is no Charles Foster Kane. Indeed Mark Campbell’s libretto is as flat as an iPhone, wrapping itself around that ancient tale of a bad man saved by the love of a good woman. Bates’s Jobs, a supremely selfish perfectionist, is rescued by his wife Laurene with the help of a Buddhist monk with a gift for spiritual platitudes. As you might expect the Apple that falls from Bates and Campbell’s…

Benevolo Missa Si Deus Pro Nobis; Magnificat a 16 voci Le Concert Spirituel/Hervé Niquet Alpha Classics ALPHA 400 (hybrid CD/ SACD) 60:31 mins Take eight four-part choirs. To six of these choirs, allot a simple accompaniment, a regal perhaps, or a five-string bass violin. To the remainder, something a little more ambitious: a choir of dulcians and chest organ for one; sackbuts and a cornett to bedeck the other… Welcome to the sumptuous 17th-century surround-sound world of Missa Si Deus Pro Nobis composed by Franco-Italian composer Orazio Benevolo (1605-72), and to a journey that began two decades ago when Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel released a disc of Benevolo’s Missa Azzolina (still available on Naxos) – until now the only disc entirely devoted to the composer’s music available in…

Growing up in London, Dale completed her first musical aged ten, and a piano concerto aged 15. She studied at New College, Oxford, Bristol University, and the National Film and Television School. Dale has written extensively for film and television; she has also composed for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the London Mozart Players and was associate composer with the London Symphony Orchestra. She was commissioned by Canterbury Cathedral Girls Choir for their debut album and was 2017-18 composer in residence for the London Oriana Choir as part of its five15 project.…