Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2019 i BBC Music Magazine

Michael White Writer and critic ‘My idea of paradise would be the opening weekend of the Aldeburgh Festival in perpetuity – but it wouldn’t work in perpetuity because by definition festivals are something that you can’t have every day.’ Page 26 Lucie Skeaping Presenter, BBC Radio 3 ‘Purcell lived in one of the world’s most exciting cities, in one of the most remarkable periods of English history; and what a variety of music he left us before, all too soon, he was “laid in earth…”’ Page 114 Mervyn Cooke Writer and academic ‘Exploring Gershwin’s Piano Concerto is a great introduction to the exciting creative tensions in American music in the 1920s: jazz and Romanticism fused in a heady mix that was highly provocative for its time.’ Page 118…

Heavenly Bruckner In response to your excellent Timepiece article on Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony (February issue), there is, I think, a school of thought that argues that the Adagio third movement is the most suitable ending. He sketched out a ‘proper’ final movement, but he was never the most confident at breaking the rigid four-movement structure. He was constantly dismayed at criticism from the establishment – witness the withdrawal of the symphony ‘0’ and the rewrites of Symphonies Nos 3, 4 and 5. And we shall never understand Bruckner without a recognition and respect for the fact that his faith was the wellspring of his inspiration – he declared once that when he was called to judgement by his Maker, and was asked what he had done with his life, he…

40,000,000 …fewer wild birds in the UK than 50 years ago. To highlight this fact, the RSPB is releasing Let Nature Sing, a track of pure birdsong for people to download or stream. 34 …storeys. The London Mozart Players celebrated 70 years in February with a concert on the 34th floor of London’s Shard, the UK’s tallest building. 6 …generations. Birmingham Conservatoire hosted the great-great-great-great-grandson of Boccherini at a recent concert. 90 …years young. Decca is celebrating a milestone this year, with a ‘Decca Day’ on the first Friday of each month and, in the pipeline, a film about Luciano Pavarotti, directed by Ron Howard.…

On a recent trip to Austria, British hockey player Samantha Quek (left) was enjoying a performance of Donizetti’s Lucia Di Lammermoor at Vienna State Opera. Until, that is, she coughed a couple of times and was asked to leave. The Olympic gold medallist had to watch the rest of the opera on a screen in a different room, a turn of events she tweeted to her 111,000 followers. A spokesperson later said that staff wouldn’t send someone out for coughing. But it wouldn’t be the first time a concertgoer has had to leave… Conductor William Christie was so riled by a mobile phone going off in a concert in 2016 that he ordered the audience member out of Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional. The offending ringtone interrupted a performance of Handel’s Messiah…

MY FINEST MOMENT Ives Songs Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano) Hyperion CDA67516 (2005) I heard Thomas Allen sing ‘Tom Sails Away’ in one of his recitals at Wigmore Hall earlier in my career, and it was a soundworld that spoke to me. I felt it was really worth looking at, so it was a question of combining a sense of what the music is and discovering that it was a treasury. Hyperion felt it was a part they could play, in putting as much of Ives’s catalogue for male voice out there as possible. Julius Drake and I really enjoyed putting together the programme and mining the songs that are available. It was a wonderful voyage of discovery and I felt a tremendous connection with the music; it gave…

Oliver Condy Editor At the end of February, I headed to Catherine Ennis’s organ recital at the Royal Festival Hall where she gave a rare – and very welcome – airing to the whole of Vierne’s Symphony No. 1, with its famous Marseillaise-inspired final movement. The recital also marked the launch of the Society of Women Organists, with its aim of improving the gender balance of Britain’s currently very male-heavy organ scene. A worthwhile cause indeed! Jeremy Pound Deputy editor The eclectic programme of Ensemble Esperanza’s new Western Moods disc initially had me raising a quizzical eyebrow – with composers ranging from Victor Herbert in the 19th century to the likes of Barber, Gershwin, Duke Ellington (right), Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, it’s a real melting pot…

Yehudi Menuhin Bath In 1966, the violinist officially became the Bath Festival’s artistic director, having already been involved with it for a few years. His introduction of Indian music proved a hit, but he soon hit obstacles – his opera programmes, despite critical praise, were criticised as a ‘gimmick’ and accusations of esotericism crept in. Aung San Suu Kyi Brighton When, in 2011, the Burmese politician was invited by the Brighton Festival to be its guest artistic director, she was not allowed to travel there in person. She did, however, send a message of support, recorded in secret, pointing to the city’s freedom of expression as an example for her own oppressed society. Peter Maxwell Davies St Magnus The Salford-born composer set up and directed the St Magnus Festival from…

Do your research: All travel providers have different policies regarding musical instruments, so find one that’s flexible. Speak to your travel company: Before you book, ask your provider about their policies. Have the dimensions of your instrument and case, and any other details, to hand. Pack your instrument securely: Use a robust and lockable case, and label it with your contact details in case your instrument is misplaced. Prepare your instrument for travel: Remove any accessories and pack gaps in the case with something soft. Tune strings down a tone or two to allow for temperature fluctuations. Arrive early and be prepared: Arrive early so you can speak to staff and iron out any potential issues; you may also need to have your instrument searched by security. And do keep…

RadioTimes.com What makes a film theme iconic? Last month we conducted an online poll in partnership with RadioTimes.com (see news, p14), selecting for our long-list, 40 of the very best examples from across the decades. The list needed to cover as wide a period as possible and be representative of both classic and contemporary cinema. That the final, voted top ten would feature John Williams was inevitable, given the quality and popularity of his music, but the fact his themes took six of those ten places truly marks him out as the master of movie melodies. Williams’s music transcends the screen, the themes taking on a life of their own in the concert hall, on the radio and in our memories. It’s likely that even if you haven’t seen Star…

Proms at St Jude’s 22-30 June Late night comedy leavens a Hampstead Gardens Suburb season in which The King’s Singers, guitarist Milo› Karadaglic and operatic Mozart blossom. Tel: +44 (0)20 3322 8123 Web: www.promsatstjudes.org.uk Voices of London Festival 22-30 June Professional ensembles to community choirs, the Paddington-based Festival celebrates the voice in all its diversity. Web: www.voicesoflondonfestival.com Guildhall Chamber Music Festival 5-7 July After last year’s debut, Milton Court Concert Hall welcomes back a festival including violinist Leon Chilingirian, flautist Philippa Davies and cellist Richard Lester. Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 8891 Web: www.barbican.org.uk BBC Proms 19 July – 14 September The BBC Proms launch at on 17 April will reveal all – until then, all details are strictly under wraps! Tel: 0845 401 5034 (UK only) Web: www.bbc.co.uk/proms Tête à…

Iford Arts 18 May – 7 September Iford is on the move. Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus flaps its wings in Bath’s elegant Guildhall, while Belcombe Court in Wiltshire glugs Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. Tel: +44 (0)1225 463362 Web: www.ifordarts.org.uk The Grange Festival 6 June – 6 July Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Verdi’s Falstaff and, from The Sixteen, Handel’s Belshazzar. Add a dash of Hollywood glitz and a vintage Grange summer is guaranteed! Tel: +44 (0)1962 791020 Web: www.thegrangefestival.co.uk Neville Holt Opera 12 June – 2 July Opened in 2018, Nevill Holt’s new theatre basks in the heat of Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Tel: +44 (0)115 846 7777 Web: www.nevillholtopera.co.uk Dorset Opera Festival 24–27 July After 2018’s British premiere of Massenet’s Le Cid, the Bryanston Festival returns…

Maggio Musicale 2 May – 26 June Aribert Reimann’s Lear headlines Italy’s oldest festival, which also stages Bellini’s La straniera alongside more popular fare. Tel: +39 (0)55 200 1278 Web: www.maggiofiorentina.com Holland Festival 29 May – 23 June Amsterdam mounts a generous portion of Stockhausen’s seven-opera cycle Licht, plus choreographs Bach’s Brandenburgs. Tel: +31 (0)20 523 7787 Web: www.hollandfestival.nl Festival of Saint-Denis 3 June – 3 July Antonio Pappano conducts mezzo Joyce DiDonato and Rome’s St Cecilia Orchestra in Rossini’s rare cantata Joan of Arc. Tel: +33 (0)1 4813 0607 Web: www.festival-saintdenis.com Istanbul Music Festival 11-30 June ‘Darkness of Being, Lightness of Being’ is 2019’s leitmotif. Turkish delights include Akademie für alte Musik and Shanghai Phil. Tel: +90 (0)216 556 9800 Web: www.muzik.iksv.org/eng Granada Festival 21 June – 12 July…

Blossom Music Festival 29 June – 1 September The Cleveland Orchestra’s summer season includes guitarist Pepe Romero in Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, Gautier Capuçon in Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto No. 1 and Andrey Boreyko conducting Zemlinsky’s Die Seejungfrau. Tel: 216-231-7493 Web: www.clevelandorchestra.com Grand Teton Festival 3 July – 17 August Music director Donald Runnicles conducts such towering works as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Mahler’s Fourth. Soloists include cellist Alisa Weilerstein, violinist Hilary Hahn, pianist Yefim Bronfman and saxophonist Branford Marsalis. Tel: 307-733-1128 Web: www.gtmf.org Glimmerglass Festival 6 July – 24 August A new production of Jerome Kern’s musical Show Boat joins Verdi’s La traviata, Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and the premiere of Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s Blue. Tel: 607-547-2255 Web: www.glimmerglass.org Marlboro Festival 13 July – 11 August…

Think Baroque. Think Restoration drama. Think early English opera and ‘semi-opera’, regal birthday odes and funeral laments, religious hymns and anthems, instrumental pieces and a plethora of songs, snatches and catches both sacred and profane. In a short but extraordinarily versatile and productive life, Henry Purcell contributed mightily to all the musical forms popular in his time. He was regarded as England’s foremost composer, and his reputation as such was unrivalled until the 20th century. Dido’s Lament became one of the most celebrated airs in English vocal music Purcell was, it’s worth noting, lucky with his timing. Born in 1659 on the eve of the restoration of the monarchy, he lived during a period of rich cultural and artistic activity. It was a period when, in the wake of the…

The work Easy-going, memorably tuneful and replete with catchy syncopations and vivid orchestral colours, works such as George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F (1925) and other examples of 1920s symphonic jazz have long been popular staples of the mainstream concert repertoire. That they can today so easily evoke a sense of comfortable nostalgia for the era in which they were written has, however, meant that we need to remind ourselves how deeply controversial the concept of combining elements of jazz with classical music was at the time such works were launched. The Concerto turned out, in fact, to be not quite as jazzy as might have been expected Gershwin was, of course, in the vanguard of this initiative with his Rhapsody in Blue, written for the bandleader Paul Whiteman and…

Peter Donohoe (piano) Simon Rattle’s direction of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in this 1990 recording elicits a luminosity that brings the European influences on Gershwin’s music to the fore with great clarity, while Peter Donohoe’s playing is alternately muscular and sensitive. Of special note is the wonderfully sultry trumpet solo in the slow movement: its bluesy smears may be a shade over-the-top for some tastes, but the effect is to transport the listener to those dark urban settings with which jazz has long been indelibly associated in the movies. (Warner Classics 5089952) Oscar Levant (piano) There’s a wonderful sequence in MGM’s musical extravaganza An American in Paris (1951) in which Oscar Levant fantasises that he’s performing the third movement of Gershwin’s concerto in a prestigious concert hall –…

Spring is definitely in the air and, in line with the burgeoning season, this issue finds both colourful new growth and plenty of hardy perennials. There’s the highly anticipated first volume of Mozart sonatas from pianist Peter Donohoe, which doesn’t disappoint (see our Recording of the Month), and a memorable disc including premiere recordings of new protest piano music. We continue last month’s Berlioz celebration with a full page on bountiful box sets of the composer’s music and then, popcorn in hand, we take a look at the best of recent releases of music for the screen. Plus, there’s Florence Price symphonies, Hugo Wolf lieder, a Puccini classic on DVD and a new recording of Beethoven’s Ninth conducted by Seiji Ozawa. Enjoy! This month’s critics John Allison, Nicholas Anderson, Michael…

Musorgsky • Tchaikovsky Musorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition; Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 London Symphony Orchestra/Gianandrea Noseda LSO Live LSO0810 (hybrid CD/SACD) 74.18 mins Noseda knows exactly how to land the big climaxes When did Tchaikovsky 4 become more of a lure than Ravel’s peerless orchestration of Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition? That’s how the cover of this latest LSO Live release sees it, with ‘Tchaikovsky’ in giant letters and ‘Musorgsky’ in tiny ones. Yet the top interpretation of these two is unquestionably Noseda’s vivid tableaux, all connected as they should be with little or no slack in between. It’s what I was looking for when I presented a Radio 3 Building a Library on all versions other than the piano original some years back; Mariss Jansons’s Oslo Philharmonic recording…

Hvidtfelt Nielsen Toccata*; Ophelia Dances; Symphony No. 3 (Watching Life) Bjarke Mogensen (accordion), Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen (organ); Aarhus Symphony Orchestra; Aarhus Sinfonietta/Henrik Vagn Christensen, *Ari Rasilainen Dacapo 8.226581 64:56 mins His music is performed with impeccable clarity This engaging disc offers beautifully-recorded performances of three substantial works from contemporary Danish composer Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen (b1958). Hvidtfelt Nielsen’s scores are renowned for their mesmerising delicacy of sound amid highly complex textures, and his music is performed here with impeccable clarity by the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and Aarhus Sinfonietta. Ophelia Dances (2012), a concerto for accordion and chamber ensemble, takes flight from the composer finding himself suddenly able to ‘hear the dancing’ of Shakespeare’s famously fragile character. Not to be confused with Oliver Knussen’s superlative 1975 work of almost the same name,…

Verdi Stiffelio (DVD) Luciano Ganci, Maria Katzarava, Francesco Landolfi; Bologna Theatre Chorus/Guillermo García Calvo; dir. Graham Vick (Parma, 2017) Naxos DVD : 2.110590; Blu-ray: NBD0084V 119 mins Graham Vick’s production of Stiffelio is a triumph. This orphan amongst Verdi’s early operas, lost to that music drama is something that happens to other people across the footlights. When two gay men are beaten by priests, rabble roused by pastor Stiffelio, are they actors or audience? This is music-drama with an equal stress on both words Luciano Ganci is a splendid Stiffelio, a conflicted hero torn between revenge for his wife’s adultery and a belief in forgiveness. Francesco Landolfi is a useful Stankar but it’s the Mexican soprano Maria Katzarava as his daughter Lina, married to the…

Hugo Wolf Italienisches Liederbuch Diana Damrau (soprano), Jonas Kaufmann (tenor), Helmut Deutsch (piano) Erato 9029565866 76:10 mins Damrau’s is a delightfully extrovert performance Who can resist Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch? These charming miniature dramas from the 1890s showcase the composer’s emotional range through countless exquisite vocal and pianistic details. Paul Heyse’s lyrical translations from different regions of Italy present a succession of characters who are in turn sensual, ardent, tender, humorous, teasing, bored and reflective. As the composer put it, the songs’ ‘heartbeat’ is German, even if the sun shines ‘in Italian’. The male characters are often lusty or amorous, but the female characters are sympathetic and varied. Diana Damrau evokes each scenario magnificently, savouring every word in a delightfully extrovert performance which sparkles and thrills. Slightly more subdued, Jonas…

Hoffmeister • Rossini Hoffmeister: Double Bass Quartets Nos 3 & 4; Rossini: Sonata a quattro Nos 4, 5 & 6 Minna Pensola (violin), Antti Tikkanen (violin, viola), Tuomas Lehto (cello), Niek de Groot (double bass) BIS BIS-2318 (hybrid CD/SACD) 76:38 mins This music is much more than a mere prentice effort This recording has both musical and musicological interest. When Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868) was 12 he was asked by a rich Italian patron, Agostino Triossi – who was also a keen double bass player – if he would write some chamber music for him. Six quartets and sundry other pieces were the quick result, scored for the specific instrumental combination to hand, with Rossini himself playing second violin. In later life he dismissed the quartets as ‘terrible’ (and played…

Amy Beth Kirsten (b1972) With an interest in physical performance and theatricality, Amy Beth Kirsten is not your average composer. While she turns her hand to more traditional concert works, she is perhaps better known for her boundary-bending creations and this has marked her out as one of America’s most innovative and visionary composers. For Amy Beth, the instrument, voice and body are equal performing partners. As a composer in residence for London’s Riot Ensemble, she enjoyed numerous UK premieres, while in the US she has written regularly for her own ensemble (HOWL), not to mention musicians from the Chicago and New World Symphonies.…

April round-up A Day In The Life: Impressions Of Pepper is a rather tardy entry in the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ 1967 album. The Various Artists included in this compilation, following the track order of the original LP, offer impressions that range from rock, fusion and dub to abstract without necessarily paying much attention to the songs’ structures, let alone their lyrics or moods. With artists like Mary Halvorson, Cameron Graves and Shabaka Hutchings, to name only some of the highlights, there is rarely a dull moment. (Impulse 770 8576 ★★★★ ) Will Todd made something of a stir in 2006 with his Mass In Blue, leavening choral music with elements of jazz. He uses a similar approach on Passion Music/Jazz Missa Brevis. As…

Good Music – What It Is & Who Gets to Decide John J Sheinbaum University of Chicago Press 978-0-226-59338-8 320pp (pb) £22.50 Someone recently said: ‘We are living not in an era of change, but a change of era.’ Patterns of thought long taken for granted are coming into question, and the value judgments we place on music are no exception. Why do we admire music that is ‘deep’ over things that are simply fun? Why is it good to be ‘good’? John J Sheinbaum’s book is simultaneously essential, fascinating and slightly maddening. A fundamentally academic study, its style is potentially indigestible for the general reader ploughing through the intriguing content. In other ways, too, the ivory tower is close by. For example: ‘Long-standing valorisation of seemingly heroic figures who…

20. Music Hall Where: Aberdeen Opened: 1859 Seats: 1,300 When Aberdeen’s Assembly Rooms opened amid much pomp and ceremony in 1822, the building was intended to provide a place for the Scottish city’s great and good to meet, mingle and be entertained by famous names such as Charles Dickens and the magician John Anderson. Someone later came up with the idea of staging large-scale musical events, but radical rebuilding was needed to create a space large enough to do so – walls were removed, and the banqueting hall replaced by a concert hall, complete with Henry Willis organ. Renamed Music Hall, the new venue was opened in 1859 by Prince Albert, who made his way down from Balmoral to cut the ribbon. Situated on the corner of Union Street and…

BBC Proms Dubai The BBC Proms return to the Dubai Opera House this year for another global celebration of classical music. The First Night features the world premiere of a work by British-Lebanese composer Bushra El-Turk, alongside Korngold’s stunning Violin Concerto. Radio 3 in Concert; 1 April, 7.30pm This Classical Life In our exciting new programme, rising star saxophonist Jess Gillam is joined by friends and contemporaries to discuss their favourite works and perspective of the music industry as young performers. It will also be available as a podcast on BBC Sounds. Saturdays, 12.30pm Easter Oratorio It wouldn't be Easter without hearing Bach's spectacular Easter Oratorio . The BBC National Orchestra of Wales is combining this great work with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Festival Overture , based on canticles from the…

News of André Previn’s death broke the evening we went to press with this issue. Previn was the most incandescent of musical stars – a musician whose prodigious talent touched just about every genre: a brilliant jazz pianist in the mould of Oscar Peterson; an Oscar-winning film score composer; a classical pianist of exceptional skill; a conductor whose repertoire expertise knew no bounds (he was a fervent champion of British 20th-century music, for instance). And that’s not even mentioning his extraordinary flair for communication. Coincidentally, Previn features this month as our Building a Library choice for his blistering performance, as pianist and conductor, of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto (p118). There’s a Previn link in our celebration of film themes, too (p50) – our online poll with RadioTimes.com in February crowned John…

Lauren Fagan Soprano Born: Sydney, Australia Career highlight: Singing Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata at Opera Holland Park last summer. It took such an incredible amount of preparation, so it was so exciting to eventually share it with an audience. Career highlight: I continually turn for inspiration to sopranos Lucia Popp for Mozart and Mirella Freni for Romantic repertoire. Conductor Antonio Pappano also has the most ridiculous schedule but never gives less than 100 per cent to the music. I strive to be that committed! Dream concert: Watching Lucia Popp sing Mozart arias, followed by the final trio from Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Jessye Norman would finish with Strauss’s Four Last Songs. Gerard Aimontche Pianist Born: Moscow, Russia Career highlight: Playing with the Chineke! orchestra at the Royal Festival…

Gál Cello Concerto, Op. 67 Antonio Meneses (cello); Royal Northern Sinfonia/Claudio Cruz Avie AV2237 My first serious encounter with Hans Gál’s music came when I was asked to read through the cello concerto with Antonio Meneses the night before he recorded it. Playing the orchestral reduction immediately drew me in to Gál’s fine craftsmanship and precision. Meneses is a wonderfully expressive soloist in this rich concerto and I find the tender Andante one of the all-time great cello concerto slow movements. Rubbra Piano Concerto in G, Op. 55 Denis Matthews (piano); BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sir Malcolm Sargent Warner Classics 0290062 This concerto, influenced by the improvisations of Eastern music, has the feel of very large scale chamber music – the piano and orchestra at many times playing almost equal roles. The…

I have some sympathy for the people running the Southbank Centre in London. Over the 40-odd years that I’ve been reporting on music, Britain’s biggest and most highly subsidised arts centre has made numerous attempts to renew, refresh, repurpose, regenerate or whatever the current buzz-verb is. Somehow, the results always fall short. The £100m refurbishment in the 1990s, for instance, never achieved its primary aim: fixing the Royal Festival Hall’s dry acoustics. Then the grandiose plan to overhaul the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery, concealing its much-reviled brutalist-concrete outlines, fell apart because a bunch of skateboarders whizzing around the venues’ grungy undercroft mysteriously acquired enough legal savvy to halt the scheme. And now? In the long term, the Southbank faces the prospect of being overshadowed by the…

When, in late 2017, Cheltenham Music Festival announced that it was appointing a new artistic director, those in the know were fairly sure it would be someone with the initials ‘MB’ – after all, the three previous holders of the post had been Michael Berkeley (1995-2004), Martyn Brabbins (2005-07) and Meurig Bowen (2007-17). As it turned out, Alison Balsom fulfilled half of that criterion. The renowned trumpeter, who has played at many of the world’s leading festivals herself, was in post in time for the 2018 Cheltenham Festival, though most of it had already been programmed. This year, however, the line-up is all her own handiwork, as she explains to us… The role of artistic director is not for the faint-hearted, especially at one of the UK’s most famous music…

St Luke Passion (1962-66) Penderecki’s epic work for three solo voices, narrator, three choirs, boys’ choir and orchestra is undeniably dramatic. Its power comes partly from a bold mix of styles, from the avant garde to its nods to the traditions of Bach and Palestrina. Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1960) This nine-minute scream doesn’t make for easy listening, but its clusters, almost nausea-including pitch changes, and thudding pizzicato and knocking effects are frightening evocations of nuclear annihilation. Original and brave. Symphony No. 7 Seven Gates of Jerusalem (1996) The composer’s most ambitious symphony calls for tubaphones – percussion instruments made from gigantic horizontal pipes. Its Carmina Burana -esque opening gives way to music of great beauty, including the breathtaking choral De profundis. String Quartets Nos 1 & 2…

Saturday 5 October, 1957. 6.30pm. A transatlantic telephone connection links the legendary American bass-baritone Paul Robeson to an adoring audience of 5,000 South Wales miners gathered in Porthcawl’s Grand Pavilion. ‘My warmest greetings to the people of my beloved Wales,’ they hear Robeson declaim. He speaks of their common striving ‘for a world where we can all live abundant, peaceful and dignified lives’. Down the line, the great man sings one of his trademark spirituals, Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel? In return, the Treorchy Male Voice Choir thunders out Y Delyn Aur (‘The Golden Harp’). There you have it in a nutshell. Robeson mixing music and a long-standing identification with one of the many social groups around the world he saw suffering at the hands of politicians and political systems.…

Brighton Festival When: 4-26 May Tel: + 44 (0)1273 709709 Web: www.brightonfestival.org Storytelling is at the heart of guest director Rokia Traoré’s festival, where boundaries are there to be pushed and old friends revisited. Glyndebourne opens its doors to András Schiff’s Bach and Ensemble Correspondances’ evocation of Court life under Louis XIII. The British Paraorchestra is pondering ‘The Nature of Why’; Stile Antico and oud player Rihab Azar reflect on exile and Ensemble Variances tackles transatlantic slavery. Tippett’s A Child of Our Time is in good company! DON’T MISS: Miah Persson 8 May Under the lotus chandeliers of the Royal Pavilion’s opulent Music Room, the Swedish soprano joins tenor Jeremy Ovenden and pianist Malcolm Martineau for a song recital spanning Purcell to Britten. Salisbury International Arts Festival When: 24 May…

Cambridge Festival of the Voice 9-11 May From Renaissance Florence via the Spanish Golden Age to the Italian madrigal, this mini-fest is small but exquisitely formed. Tel: +44 (0)1223 357851 Web: www.cambridgeearlymusic.org Bury St Edmunds 17-26 May Bury’s handsome architecture resounds to an eclectic line-up including Chineke!, Nigel Kennedy and The Tallis Scholars. Tel: + 44 (0)1284 758000 Web: www.buryfestival.co.uk Harwich Festival 20-30 June The visual arts are a Harwich speciality, but feeding attentive ears will be pianist Noriko Ogawa and the Piatti Quartet. Tel: +44 (0)7425 145022 Web: www.harwichfestival.co.uk Cambridge Summer Music Festival 13-27 July Bach blossoms in the Fens, what with the complete Brandenburgs from Florilegium, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani’s Goldbergs and, on opening night, the St John Passion. Tel: + 44 (0)1223 357851 Web: www.cambridgesummermusic.com Holt Festival 21-27…

Happy Days 2–5 August Enniskillen’s Samuel Beckett festival marks the 30th anniversary of the writer’s death with choreographer Mark Morris and Schubert’s Winterreise. Tel: +44 (0)28 6632 5440 Web: www.artsoverborders.com Absolute Classics 2-11 August The Dumfries and Galloway festival includes the Sacconi Quartet, pianist Peter Donohoe and cellist Christoph Croisé among others. Tel: + 44 (0)1387 253383 Web: www.absoluteclassics.co.uk Clandeboye Festival 14-24 August Stately Clandeboye welcomes back pianist Barry Douglas, Camerata Ireland and their guests for an annual rendezvous that includes a young musicians’ Academy. Tel: +44 (0)28 9024 1919 Web: www.camerata-ireland.com Festival of Voice 29 August – 1 Sept Northern Ireland Opera decamps to the beautiful Antrim coast, where a vocal workout including recitals, a competition, masterclasses and a gala finale await. Tel: +44 (0)28 9027 7734 Web: www.niopera.com…

French and Italian In his string writing, Purcell shows familiarity with direct, florid Italian style. The elegant features of the French, with its characteristic dotted rhythms, were also part of his palette, particularly in overtures and dances – which no doubt satisfied Charles II’s demand for ‘something he could tap his foot to’! ‘We have found an Englishman equal with the best abroad,’ wrote playwright John Dryden (pictured below). Ground bass Purcell set some of his most exquisite melodies over a ground bass – the repeated note-pattern so effective in songs such ‘When I am laid in earth’ and ‘Music for a while’. Henry Playford, who published Volume One of Purcell’s Orpheus Britannicus, noted the composer’s ‘particular genius to express the energy of English words, whereby he mov’d the passions’.…

The son of Russian immigrants, George Gershwin began his musical career in New York as a ‘plugger’ for Jerome H Remick & Co, playing the publisher’s songs on the piano to potential performers. Though his talents as both a pianist and composer had already attracted attention, it was the premiere of Rhapsody in Blue in February 1924 that turned the 25 year-old into a major star. A rapidly swelling bank balance enabled the purchase of smart Manhattan apartment, and he became a familiar figure in New York’s social and artistic circles. His Concerto in F followed the next year. Building a Library is broadcast on Radio 3 at 9.30am each Saturday as part of Record Review . A highlights podcast is available at bbc.co.uk/radio3…

Why record solo Mozart now? I was playing Messiaen’s Vingt regards all over South America, and doing them on a daily basis was really quite a strain. I felt I needed to do something else and it was as if Mozart visited me at that point. I’m being fanciful, but it felt like a light went on, that this was the right time. I actually went to the Medellín library that day and got the Mozart volumes and just refreshed my memory by playing them all in that afternoon. He’s been there all my life, though, going back to when I was a child. You seem to have reinvigorated the pieces somehow… It was probably subconscious, but I’m always aware that there’s a problem with tradition – not just in…

Mendelssohn Overtures Schubert Rosamunde  Eloquence 482 4955 (1954/58) 69:41 mins Carl Schuricht delivers vibrant, forceful interpretations of Mendelssohn Overtures with the Vienna Philharmonic, while grace and charm are of the essence in Pierre Monteux’s affectionate accounts of the Rosamunde excerpts. ★★★★ Alexander Moyzes Symphonies Nos 5 & 6  Naxos 8.573652 (2001) 62:11 mins These Slovakian post-war symphonies juxtapose busy folk-inflected rhythmic energy with nostalgic Romantic expression. Committed playing from the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra under Ladislav Slovák ★★★★ Schubert Symphony No. 8 (Unfinished) etc Nimbus Records NI 7098 (1990) 77:42 mins Spirited period instrument performances from the Hanover Band under Roy Goodman. Unfortunately, the recording balance obcures textures, placing the woodwind too far in the background. ★★★ Favourite Suppé & French Overtures Alto ALC 1372 (1959/62) 74:07 mins Paul Paray…

It’s 150 years since the death of the radical, revolutionary, sometimes tortured self-taught composer, who picked up the baton of Beethoven and took it to Romantic music places his contemporaries considered inconceivable. But when it comes to recordings of Hector Berlioz’s music, maybe we should remember another anniversary; 50 years ago in 1969, Sir Colin Davis conducted Berlioz’s operatic epic Les Troyens at Covent Garden and went on to record it, cementing its rehabilitation and bringing Berlioz’s genius to a new generation of listeners. Berlioz Odyssey Colin Davis LSO Live LSO0827; 10 CDs + 6 hybrid SACDs Davis was seemingly Berlioz’s chief disciple on earth, and this was the glorious late flowering of his love for the composer in live recordings with the LSO made between 2000 and 2013. Les…

Musorgsky Boris Godunov Erato 9029573551 (1987) 212:75 mins (3 discs) Rostropovich’s recording of the revised version uses amateur choral forces and Galina Vishnevskaya is past her best; Ruggero Raimondi’s Boris and Vyacheslav Polozov’s Grigory disappoint. ★★ Musorgsky Boris Godunov Sony 19075811172 (1993) 200:05 mins (3 discs) Abbado had a great affinity to Musorgsky and gives a more stylish account – though again a non-operatic chorus. Anatoly Kocherga is a limited Tsar; Sergei Larin’s Grigory and Marjana Lipov›ek’s Marina are exciting. ★★★★ Verdi La forza del destino Warner 9029573592 (1987) 163:17 mins (3 discs) Riccardo Muti delivers a white-hot interpretation, if one a little driven at times. Raw sound, but engaged performances from Freni as Leonora, Domingo as Alvaro and Giorgio Zancanaro as Carlo. ★★★★ Verdi La traviata Warner 9029573587 (1972)…

Chant of the Templars Harmonia Mundi HMO8905302 (2006) 74:23 mins An extraordinarily hypnotic account of music from 12th-century Jerusalem associated with the Templars, sung with vigour by Ensemble Organum. ★★★★ Machaut Messe de Notre Dame Harmonia Mundi HMO 8901590 (1997) 56:40 mins This is a compelling, richly ornamented account of the earliest known polyphonic mass by a named composer; exquisite, otherworldly harmonies and eternal words, delivered with clarity, passion and immediacy by Ensemble Organum. ★★★★★ Secular vocal music from 16th-century Spain Juan del Encina, Francisco Guerrero etc Glossa GCD C 80025 (1995) 60:19 mins Although there’s plenty of stylistic variety in this compilation of four-part, secular vocal works from the ‘Golden Age’ of 16th-century Spain, the performance by La Combina is a little one-dimensional. ★★★ The Wagon of Life Songs…

Brahms • Schumann Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117; 6 Klavierstücke, Op. 118; Schumann: Papillons; Kinderszenen Sarah Beth Briggs (piano) Avie AV 2398 80:54 mins This recital combines early Schumann with late Brahms: the former’s mercurial, playful Papillons Op. 2 and Kinderszenen Op. 15 sandwich two much-loved collections of miniatures from late in Brahms’s life. Briggs’s approach to the literature-inspired Papillons is wonderfully persuasive, exaggerating each fantastical characterisation, with a generous, flexible approach to tempo. She draws out some magical, delicate colours to the quieter passages, contrasted with an exuberant, full sound for the more extrovert characters. Her Brahms left me ambivalent. These much-loved late piano pieces given to Clara Schumann offer a powerful contrast after Papillons. I often loved Briggs’s fluid, flexible approach and her unusually expansive pace. On the…

JS Bach Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin Doremi DHR-8065-6 (1974) 130:22 mins (2 discs) These newly remastered archival recordings by violinist Theo Olof were made at the start of his decade-long leadership of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Warmly recommended. ★★★ François Couperin Premier livre de clavecin, Ordres I, II, III Harmonia Mundi Gold HMG 50351-52 (1970) 132:40 mins (2 discs) Canadian keyboardist Kenneth Gilbert is a doyen of early music; his pioneering recording of Couperin’s Pièces de clavecin deserves its revival – these first three books shimmer. ★★★★ Crumb Metamorphoses (Book 1); Five Pieces for Piano Mode mode 303 (1985/2017) 53:53 mins In Crumb’s Metamorphoses dedicatee Margaret Leng Tan embraces every extended technique demanded – including cawing in Wheatfield with Crows (Vincent Van Gogh). ★★★★★ Dodgson Piano Sonatas Nos 2,…

Beethoven Mass in C minor etc Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir/ Mariss Jansons et al BR Klassik 900170 Thrilling playing and solid singing from a reliable crack team – the superb recorded sound brings Beethoven’s liturgical work to almost operatic life. (OC) ★★★★★ Blackford Seven Hokusai Miniatures etc Solem Quartet et al Nimbus NI 6379 Whether writing for quartet or children’s choir, Blackford’s take on oriental themes is often engaging. A shame that some of the playing is a little ragged. (JP) ★★★ Cardoso Requiem etc Cupertinos/Luis Toscano Hyperion CDA68252 Dubbed ‘the national team of Portuguese polyphony’, Cupertinos’ debut disc showcases their fellow countryman Manuel Cardoso (1566-1650). Beautifully sung by unaccompanied voices, this programme of devotional music is built around the contemplative Requiem. (RF) ★★★★ Hoppstock • Willcocks Guitar Works…

THIS MONTH: PORTABLE SPEAKERS BEST FOR TRAVEL Bose Soundlink Micro £100 Bose has created an impressive travel companion that’s waterproof, tiny and tough. A kindly voice talks you through the Bluetooth connection, there’s an app you can use to link to other Soundlink speakers, and you can pause and skip tracks without getting your phone out. As for sound, I was pleasantly surprised by the vibrant quality, even at volume, but the six-hour battery life is hardly long-haul. bose.co.uk BEST FOR SOUND Tivoli Go Andiamo £180 There’s no voice control or smartphone app here, but what this nicely made aluminium and leather (silver or black) Bluetooth speaker lacks in extraneous features, the 2.5-inch, 20W full-range driver and a three-inch passive driver make up for with exceptional sound. Fresh, full-bodied and…

Making the grade Music exams (Grade Britain, February) have been a big part of my life for over 50 years, both as a pupil and more often as a teacher and accompanist. Examiners have a very difficult task. They are human and are also excellent musicians with a deep love of the art. They hear all sorts of things but cannot react as they would often like. On one occasion, I was playing for one of my Grade 5 singing pupils. After a difficult start, she had made amazing progress. And following A Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square the examiner told us that her performance was wonderful and had made his whole week. Unprofessional, I know, but we were very happy! Philip Chant, Monmouth That human touch I started getting…

Close encounters London’s Southbank Centre has recruited a number of leading performers to act as personal guides to individuals attending their first ever classical music concerts. The venue’s ‘Encounters’ scheme will involve the likes of pianist Stephen Hough, violinist Nicola Benedetti and conductor Marin Alsop accompanying newcomers to performances and giving them expert advice as to what’s going on. See Comment, p25. Wimbledon dreams But might the Southbank soon have another rival concert hall vying for customers just a few stops down the District Line? Plans have been released for a proposed 1,250-seat venue to be built in Wimbledon on a site currently occupied by a supermarket carpark. Around £100m from private donors needs to be raised if the plans, which have been drawn up by Frank Gehry, the architect…

We reveal who’s recording what, and where… Decca has revealed details of Jess Gillam’s debut album. The BBC Young Musician finalist (2016) recorded Rise with the BBC Concert Orchestra and it’s set to be released on 26 April. Showcasing Gillam’s diverse talents, the disc features works by Marcello, Shostakovich, Kate Bush and David Bowie, plus an arrangement of Dowland’s Flow My Tears featuring Miloš Karadaglic on guitar. The 2014 winner of BBC Young Musician, Martin James Bartlett, has been signed by Warner Classics. The pianist, aged 22, followed his win with continued study and recitals in the UK and abroad – including a couple of appearances at the BBC Proms. His debut album, titled Love and Death, is scheduled for release in May and features works by JS Bach, Schumann,…

Did our ancestors speak or sing first? Or are music and language more closely intertwined than anyone ever previously thought, asks Tom Service It’s one of the greatest scientific chicken-and-egg questions out there, and there’s no definitive answer in sight: which came first, music or language? Was music the primordial sonic soup out of which the infinite variety of human-made languages emerged – so music wins? Or is language the root of our success as a species, in which case music-making is a subset of linguistic competence, and language is the winner? With these philosophical holy grails at stake, celebrated thinkers have devoted time and energy to these dilemmas. Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Charles Darwin imagined language emerging from the music-like sounds of the animal kingdom, so that our communicative universe…

David Nice Master horn-player Radek Baborak transforms even minor Mozart. His latest recording makes concertos out of one-off movements, and in between he duos deliciously with fellow horn-player Radovan Vlatkovic. The culminating Sinfonia Concertante for wind sounds like a masterpiece. Plus, after being hypnotised by Georgian mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili’s Rachmaninov songs at the Royal Opera House, I turned to her operatic excerpts disc, which confirms a versatile voice in a million, ranging from inward Rimsky-Korsakov to a refined Carmen and blazing Verdi drama.…

BBC Proms, UK As an eight year-old who’d just started playing the trumpet, my life’s ambition was to play as a soloist at the Last Night of the Proms – not a very realistic goal, but one of my main dreams nonetheless! It was an experience that, when it actually happened, nothing will ever beat. I just loved the electric, joyous, concentrated but celebratory atmosphere in the Royal Albert Hall, and performing with the peerless BBC Symphony Orchestra and my new friend, mezzo Sarah Connolly. Festival de Inverno Campos do Jordão, Brazil Spending a few days at Campos do Jordão was certainly a career highlight. One hundred miles from São Paulo, into the jungle and up a mountain, following the smell of wood smoke and listening to the exotic birds…

Waiting at the airport baggage carousel for your luggage is a strangely thrilling experience. Identifying your black suitcase among the procession of similar black suitcases shuffling by is a game of ‘now you see it, now you don’t’ until – gotcha! – you spot your case and, with a lunge, grab it from the conveyor belt. But what if you’re a classical musician waiting for something rather more precious than a change of outfit and a washbag; something like a 17th-century viola da gamba, for example? That’s the position in which Myrna Herzog, director of Ensemble Phoenix, found herself one January day in 2018. Standing with her fellow passengers fresh off her Alitalia flight she peered at the bags emerging from the gloomy sorting area into the bright lights of…

There are plenty of Paul Robeson compilation albums to choose from, and you can find him both as a singer and as an actor on disc. Try The Essential Paul Robeson, a generous collection featuring highlights of his performances for Vanguard Records. You could also head to the recordings he made for his own Othello label in the 1950s. On my journey, a blend of spirituals and folk song, was reissued by the Smithsonian’s African American Legacy Recordings series in 2007, with a 34-page booklet featuring historical photos. For a landmark in Robeson’s life, turn to Live at Carnegie Hall – May 9, 1958 (Era, 1992). This captured his sell-out penultimate concert at the legendary venue, almost 30 years after he had first performed there. In 2013, the Digital Gramophone…

Newbury Spring Festival 11-25 May With a Gabrieli Consort debut, Tenebrae in Douai Abbey and Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony, Newbury has lots to sing about! Tel: 0845 521 8218 (UK only) Web: www.newburyspringfestival.org.uk Chipping Campden Festival 11-25 May 2019 is looking chipper as cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Robert Devine offer the full Beethoven, mezzo Sarah Connolly sings Berlioz, and biblical Handel thrills. Tel: + 44 (0)1386 849018 Web: www.campdenmusicfestival.co.uk Bath Festival 17-26 May From the Georgian Assembly rooms to the tented literature lounge, Bath’s venues witness pianist Piotr Anderszewski wrestling Beethoven and Chineke! greeting Gershwin. Tel: +44 (0)1225 463362 Web: www.bathfestivals.org.uk English Music Festival 24-27 May There are first-night premieres aplenty in Dorchester Abbey – step forward Lord Berners, Stanford and Vaughan Williams – while Dowland delights in Sutton…

Sheffield Chamber Festival 10-18 May Ensemble 360 is the mainstay of a festival concerned with story-telling. Death haunts Stephen Hough’s piano recital, and Schubert’s Trout is hooked. Tel: +44 (0)114 249 6000 Web: www.musicintheround.co.uk English Haydn Festival 5-8 June ‘Haydn’s Friends, Patrons and Colleagues’ populate Bridgnorth’s nod to the Austrian composer curated by Steven Devine. Tel: +44 (0)7547 289704 Web: www.englishhaydn.com Northern Aldborough Festival 13-22 June After-show sessions in The Shed punctuate a Yorkshire jamboree that prefaces Courtney Pine with Handel’s Semele. Tel: +44 (0)1423 900979 Web: www.aldboroughfestival.co.uk Gower Festival 1-13 July The Welsh peninsula’s ancient churches welcome pianists Llyr Williams and Ji Liu plus the Carducci Quartet and London Conchord Ensemble. Tel: +44 (0)1792 475715 Web: www.gowerfestival.org Lichfield Festival 5-13 July A Midlands midsummer brings Shostakovich from the BBC…

Festival de Lanaudière 12 June – 4 August The Montreal Symphony and the Orchestre Métropolitain are in residence at this festival in scenic Joliet, Quebec. Kent Nagano conducts the former ensemble in Mahler’s Third Symphony. Tel: 800-561-4343 Web: lanaudiere.org/en Grant Park Music Festival 12 June – 17 August Music director Carlos Kalmar leads this ten-week season with a healthy mix of off-the-beaten-track repertoire, set in the Frank Gehry-designed pavilion at Chicago’s Millennium Park. Tel: 312-742-7638 Web: www.grantparkmusicfestival.com Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival 15-23 June Among the noted headliners of this Detroit-area festival is the Emerson String Quartet, which presents a six-concert cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets. Tel: 248-559-2097 Web: www.greatlakeschambermusic.com Off the Hook Arts Festival 17 June – 12 July Themes of perception and illusion are the focus of…

1659 LIFE: Henry Purcell is born in London, c10 September. Records suggest that his father is Henry Purcell Snr, a singer and Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. TIMES: Growing pressure from the army compels Richard Cromwell to dissolve Parliament and resign as Lord Protector of Enlgand, Scotland and Wales. 1679 LIFE: He succeeds composer John Blow as organist at Westminster Abbey, where he has already been closely involved in the music. He will hold the position for the rest of his life. TIMES: Led by Charles II’s son, the Duke of Monmouth, government troops decisively put down a rebellion by Presbyterian Covenanters at The Battle of Bothwell Bridge. 1689 LIFE: Records later suggest that his Dido and Aeneas is performed for the first time this year, possibly at Josias Priest’s…

André Previn (pianist/conductor) London Symphony Orchestra Warner Classics 2435668912 André Previn’s tenure at the helm of the LSO (1968-79), during which he became something of a celebrity on British TV with his popular series André Previn’s Music Night, resulted in a host of fabulous recordings of the repertoire he’s always done best, including a wide range of seminal works by Russian, American and British composers. His charismatic showmanship and witty on-screen raconteuring belied an extraordinary musicianship which is fully reflected in this Gershwin album, recorded in the same year (1971) as his legendary appearance on the Morecambe and Wise Show as hapless conductor ‘Andrew Preview’, who attempts to steer Eric Morecambe through Grieg’s Piano Concerto. The immediacy of Previn’s playing suggests the music has come hot off the press Before…

Mozart Piano Sonata No. 6 in D, K284 ‘Dürnitz’; Fantasia in D minor, K397; Piano Sonata No. 17 in B flat, K570; Piano Sonata No. 2 in F, K280 Peter Donohoe (piano) Somm Recordings SOMMCD 0191 69.05 mins It is very easy to tie oneself in musicological and historiographical knots when attempting to find a convincing way through the potential minefield that is Mozart’s solo piano music. Even when employing a modern concert grand, few pianists have avoided a sense of recreating a tasteful, rose-tinted vision of 18th-century Classicism. Yet Mozart was a flesh-and-blood creature intent on pushing the relatively primitive instruments of his day to their expressive limits. As a result, well-intentioned attempts to contain his music within certain interpretative and colouristic parameters can stifle its emotional range. Peter…

Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Choral) Rie Miyake (soprano), Mihoko Fujimura (mezzo-soprano), Kei Fukui (tenor), Markus Eiche (baritone); Tokyo Opera Singers/ Toshiaki Murakami; Mito Chamber Orchestra/Seiji Ozawa Decca 483 4431 68:39 mins The use of a chamber orchestra, and a chamber choir in the finale, might suggest that what’s on offer here is going to be ‘historically informed’. Instead what emerges is a dignified, rather old-fashioned performance – ‘historical’ in a different sense. It can be quite beautiful, expressively speaking, and technically the playing of the Mito Chamber Orchestra and the singing of the choir and soloists are excellent – wonderful to hear such clear intonation in the final solo quartet. At times it’s surprising how much depth and richness of sound Seiji Ozawa gets from such relatively modest forces. But…

Corelli Concerti grossi, Op. 6/4, 8 & 9; Violin Sonatas, Op. 5/4 & 7 Marco Scorticati (flute); Estro Cromatico Arcana A112 57:38 mins In the first decades of the 18th century, English publishers, sensing money to be made from the recorder’s growing market, had several of Corelli’s popular Op. 5 violin sonatas and concerti grossi ‘Fitted for the Flutes’. Downsized to just two recorders and continuo, an alluring liquid intimacy animates the opening Adagio of the F major Concerto Op. 6/4, while the following Allegro is quiveringly up on points. Slow movements breathe; fast ones twinkle; and the ensemble rings the continuo changes, ranging from a single harpsichord for the Op. 5/7 Sonata to cello, theorbo, harpsichord and organ which lend extra festivity to the Christmas Concerto. Perhaps the rich…

Benjamin Lessons in Love and Violence (DVD) Stéphane Degout, Barbara Hannigan, Peter Hoare, Samuel Boden, Gyula Orendt; Royal Opera House Orchestra/George Benjamin; dir. Katie Mitchell Opus Arte DVD : OA1221D; Blu-ray : OABD7199D 88 mins Playwright-librettist Martin Crimp and stage director Katie Mitchell seem content to revisit old formulae with – as shown here in George Benjamin’s latest opera – diminishing returns. Once again they have turned to a medieval story (albeit one disguised in Vicki Mortimer’s modern-dress setting) and clothed it in wrong-note Debussy, all of which does nothing to advance the cause of contemporary opera. Of course, it is impossible for new opera always to break new ground, yet the safety-first aspect of Lessons in Love and Violence is dispiriting. It’s less successful than…

Brahms German Requiem, Op. 45 Carolyn Sampson (soprano), André Morsch (baritone); Cappella Amsterdam; Orchestra of the 18th Century/Daniel Reuss Glossa GCD 921126 70:26 mins The German Requiem – Brahms’s largest and perhaps most moving composition – inhabits a dark soundworld. Its opening movement does without violins altogether, and they appear muted at the start of the next movement. The score features two soloists, but their contribution is brief, both finely sung on this new recording by Carolyn Sampson and André Morsch. The booklet makes much of the fact that the performance follows the metronome markings noted down by Carl Reinthaler, who was Brahms’s assistant at the work’s first complete performance, but the resulting tempos are not markedly different from those found in more traditional performances. The booklet also contains a…

Beethoven • J Strauss II • Weber/Kuffner Beethoven: Septet in E flat, Op. 20; J Strauss II (arr. E Johnson): Frühlingsstimmen; Perpetuum mobile; Weber/Küffner: Introduction, Theme & Variations Emma Johnson (clarinet), Peter Francombe (horn), Philip Gibbon (bassoon), Christ West (double bass); Carducci String Quartet Somm Recordings SOMMCD 0190 57:38 mins The pros and cons of recording live concerts are evident in these performances given in Southampton’s Turner Sims Hall in October 2017. On the plus side, you get the benefit of eavesdropping on outstanding professional musicians communicating enthusiasm and enjoyment for the works they are playing. In this respect, the Minuet, Variation and Scherzo movements from Beethoven’s Septet, as well as Emma Johnson’s highly effective arrangements of Johann Strauss’s Frühlingsstimmen and Perpetuum mobile, really stand out, projecting all the charm,…

(Speak to me) New Music, New Politics Gershwin: Three Preludes; M Gould: Boogie Woogie Etude; Kirsten: (speak to me); Malone: The People Protesting Drum Out Bigly Covfefe; Rzewski: Four North American Ballads Adam Swayne (piano) Coviello COV 91818 63:25 mins Protest piano music is enjoying a resurgence in popularity Amid snowballing political turmoil, protest piano music is enjoying a resurgence. A blistering account of Frederic Rzewski’s rarely heard Four North American Ballads (1978-9) is the cornerstone to Adam Swayne’s intelligently curated programme (Speak to me). The ballads begin with a simple, plaintive, bluesy melody, and gradually become entirely abstract. Throughout, Swayne subtly underlines the popular protest song elements (such as ‘Down by the Riverside’), which are often hidden within fleeting atonality. The titular work by Amy Beth Kirsten receives its…

April round-up A notable entry in the annals of European film music history is Finnish composer Armas Järnefelt’s original score for the silent romp Song of the Scarlet Flower (1919). This resplendent recording by Jaako Kuusisto and the Gävle Symphony Orchestra is a faithful restoration of the work, based on the composer’s original manuscripts. Though at the time the technicalities of synching the music to the picture caused Järnefelt a headache, his music manages to go beyond mere musical decoration – so often the case with silent scores. This is lushly orchestrated music with dramatic flourishes that occasionally paint quite an emotional picture. (Ondine ODE 1328-2D ★★★★★ ) The sound of silents continues in Chaplin’s Smile, a celebration of Charlie Chaplin the composer in what is his 130th birthday year.…

APRIL’S RADIO 3 LISTINGS  Schedules may be subject to alteration. For up-to-date listings see Radio Times 1 MONDAY 6.30-9am Breakfast 9am-12noon Essential Classics 12 noon-1pm Composer of the Week Poulenc 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert live from Wigmore Hall, London. Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1, Rachmaninov Vocalise (arr. for piano trio), Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor. Benjamin Beilman (violin), Narek Hakhnazaryan (cello), Louis Schwizgebel (piano) 2-5pm Afternoon Concert 5-7pm In Tune 7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape CHOICE 7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert  from the Dubai Opera. BBC Proms Dubai. First Night of the Proms. Bushra El-Turk Tmesis (world premiere), Korngold Violin Concerto, Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet – excerpts. Karen Gomyo (violin), BBC S0/Ben Gernon 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 10.45-11pm The Essay New Generation Thinkers 11pm-12.30am Late Junction 2 TUESDAY  6.30-9am Breakfast…

Exeter Cathedral Pilgrims, tourists or visitors; we welcome you this Easter to a full programme of services, concerts, activities and lectures all set within one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture anywhere. Musical highlights: Bach’s St John Passion, 14 April at 4pm with Exeter Cathedral Choir, Charivari Agreable Baroque Orchestra and professional soloists. 01392 285 983 www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/tickets Manchester Cathedral Join us for some world-class music in the heart of Manchester’s medieval quarter, including organ recitals by students from Chetham’s School of Music, as well as traditional services for Holy Week, Easter and more. For musically-talented children, there’s the chance to experience life as a chorister at our next ‘Be a Chorister for a Day’ event. 0161 833 2220 www.manchestercathedral.org Southwell Minster This Lent and Easter, visit Southwell Minster, home…