Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2019 i BBC Music Magazine

Jessica Duchen Writer and journalist ‘Clara Schumann’s bicentenary has at last brought her out from her husband’s shadow. I’ve loved delving into the life and work of the prodigy, pianist, composer, mentor, mother, muse and all-round powerhouse.’ Christopher Cook Writer and broadcaster ‘If Offenbach gave the cancan its musical pedigree, how did this wild dance-hall dance metamorphose in less than a century into a choreographed extravaganza and the essence of Parisian sex? Isha Ranchod Writer and journalist ‘When I first saw a production by the South African organisation Umculo, all of my expectations of opera and musical theatre were blown out the window. I was so proud of my South African heritage.’…

700 …tonnes of steel. Violinist André Rieu (below) has pledged large amounts of scaffolding from his Schönbrunn Palace tour set to assist with the rebuilding of Notre Dame in Paris. 140 …years old. To celebrate its birthday, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the oldest in Asia, is embarking on a three-week worldwide tour. 2 …voices at 35,000 feet. As it turns 100, British Airways has created a new piece of music based on Delibes’s Flower Duet. 5,000 …pounds to spend. That’s the reward for mezzo-soprano Eszter Balogh, winner of the 2019 Handel Singing Competition at St George’s, Hanover Square in London.…

Our regular readers will know that the relationship between music and drink is a subject that we enjoy exploring within these pages from time to time. And so it was with interest that we learnt that Mark Knopfler – the Dire Straits front man, guitarist and film composer – has recently launched his own brand of gin. As we order a review sample, reach for our tumblers and read all about Local Heroes No. 3’s ‘robustly ginny profile with strong spice flavour and heat’, we also take a look at other musicians who have indulged in similar alcoholic endeavours… History doesn’t relate whether Hildegard von Bingen brewed her own beer, but she certainly knew a lot about it. In her writings, the 12th-century nun, composer and polymath describes the preservative…

Oliver Condy Editor The stress of presenting the BBC Music Magazine Awards on stage is always offset by being able to sit so close to the performers as they play. This year, watching Víkingur Ólafsson delight us all with a Bach transcription was a genuine education; seamless finger substitution went hand-in-hand with beautifully judged pedalling to produce the most magical legato. A lesson for all of us keyboard players! Jeremy Pound Deputy editor One of my favourite classical music anecdotes is how Holst used to walk from Cheltenham to London, scaring the bejeezus out of the local livestock by practising his trombone as he went. Making the same journey recently, but by train not foot, I paid homage to the great man with the Ulster Orchestra’s recording of…

Liszt wasn’t the only composer to incur Clara’s wrath. She didn’t mince her words when it came to Wagner either. She went twice to both Das Rheingold and Die Walküre and gave credit where it was due – when possible. Of Das Rheingold she wrote: ‘I felt as if I were wading in a swamp the whole evening. The one good thing about the opera is that one is not deafened by the brass as one is in his other operas… The boredom that one must endure, however, is dreadful. In every scene the actors on stage are in a cataleptic trance in which they remain fixed for such a long time that one cannot look at them any more. The women have just a few measures to sing in…

Alma Mahler’s reputation as a serial, trophy-hunting adultress, alluring and then casting off one artistic giant after another, may be ineradicable but only partly justified. Certainly, in addition to her three husbands – the composer Gustav Mahler, the architect Walter Gropius and the writer Franz Werfel – she enjoyed the favours of a number of talented men. But too few commentators have tried to see things from Alma’s point of view, rather than portray her as an opportunistic social climber, neglectful of her wifely duties to a series of distinguished creative artists. Some of Alma’s character traits, combined with a penchant for anti-Semitic remarks (despite her various Jewish husbands and acquaintances), make her a complex, perplexing figure maybe hard to love yet worthy of our attention. But quite apart from…

Tunes Like Berlioz, Chabrier had the knack of writing long, supple tunes. One of the best is the second tune in the overture to his opera Gwendoline (pictured above), in the arch-Romantic key of D flat, where he pretends to get lost in the middle, then finishes gloriously. Piano He was a terrific pianist – the adjective is used advisedly, because owners of pianos went in fear of their instruments when he played. Lots of variety, huge differences between piano and forte, indeed between forte and fortissimo. In general, drama and ‘élan’. No rubato. Texture Always changing, with profuse decorations, on the lines of Art nouveau. Often it’s hard to distinguish decoration from substance, since they marry so perfectly. Harmony Chabrier has, with some reason, been dubbed ‘the first musical…

Though Bach’s Mass in B minor was one of his last works to be completed and never performed during his lifetime, its composition spanned much of his period living in Leipzig. Appointed Cantor at the city’s St Thomas Church in 1723, Bach’s extensive duties included training the choristers and writing music for services. He wrote more than 300 cantatas for performance in Leipzig plus the St John and St Matthew passions. He continued to remain employed by the church until his death in 1750, though his last months were dogged by ill health and blindness.…

You must be delighted with how this series has been received. I’m very pleased, and so is the orchestra. My joy is that, because of this, more and more people are simply listening to Shostakovich’s genius music. The orchestra hadn’t played the symphonies for a long time, and some of them hadn’t played them at all – like the 11th. What is most important is that we can put Shostakovich on the podium again and remind people how great his music is; I’m really excited about that. Tell us about your choices for this latest programme... The symphonies are very different. The Sixth starts like a confession, with the second and third movements grotesque, humorous and sarcastic. The Seventh is probably the most political; he’s writing about his love for…

Kurt Masur (1927-2015) One of the most distinguished conductors of his generation, Kurt Masur studied piano and composition in Leipzig, and became Kapellmeister at the city’s opera, with a tentative start with the Dresden Philharmonic. He returned to that orchestra as chief conductor from 1967 until 1972. Back in Leipzig he followed in the footsteps of Mendelssohn and Bruno Walter with a celebrated tenure as Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester from 1970 until 1996. In 1991 he became New York Philharmonic’s music director, holding that post until 2002. From 2000 until 2007 he was the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s chief conductor.…

Beethoven Triple Concerto; Piano Concerto No. 2 Gordan Nikolitch (violin), Tim Hugh (cello), Maria João Pires, Lars Vogt (piano); London Symphony Orchestra/Bernard Haitink LSO Live LSO 0745 (hybrid CD/SACD) 66:52 mins I first reviewed the Triple Concerto recorded here about a dozen years ago – the performance is still available on LSO Live, coupled with an exceptionally exciting account of Symphony No. 7. It’s a bit stingy of the label to re-issue it at full price with the Second Piano Concerto featuring Maria João Pires from 2013, fine, indeed authoritative, as that is. The Second Concerto, actually the first that Beethoven wrote, is often thought to be the least interesting of the series and so is played less often; in such a warm account as this, it is in no…

Bellini I Puritani (DVD) Ana Durlovski, René Barbera, Gezim Myshketa, Adam Palka, Diana Haller, Roland Bracht, Heinz Göhrig; Stuttgart State Opera Choir; Stuttgart State Orchestra/Manlio Benzi; dir. Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito (Stuttgart, 2018) Naxos DVD 2.110598-99 191 mins You’ll need stamina for this DVD, which clocks in at 191 minutes. This production of I puritani, filmed at the Stuttgart Staatsoper in 2018, claims to be the first staging since the Parisian premiere to contain all of Bellini’s original music. Interesting in this respect as a historical document, the production also features some striking vocal performances. Most notable is the bright tenor of René Barbera as Arturo. His voice is consistently a delight to listen to, and he delivers the aria ‘A te o cara’ – staple of many a…

Berlioz La damnation de Faust Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano), Bryan Hymel (tenor), Christopher Purves, Gábor Bretz (bass); Tiffin Children’s Chorus; Guildhall School Singers; London Symphony Chorus & Orchestra/Simon Rattle LSO LSO0809 (hybrid CD/SACD) 125:68 mins This recording of Berlioz’s ‘légend dramatique’ is a disappointment, all the more distressing since it is one of the first fruits of the new entente between Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, which comes with such high hopes. The problems, as I hear them, are threefold. First, the acoustic. It is beyond my powers to understand why the ambience here is so much more resonant than for Colin Davis’s 2000 recording with the same orchestra in the same hall, the Barbican. This resonance (a little over three seconds by my watch) regularly removes the snap…

Alwyn • Carwithen Alwyn: String Quartet No. 3; Three Winter Poems; Carwithen: String Quartets Nos 1 & 2 Tippett Quartet Somm Recordings SOMMCD 0194 72:52 mins How much more music would Dorothy Carwithen have written had she not become her former teacher William Alwyn’s secretary and amanuensis in her late 30s? Quartet No. 1 dates from Carwithen’s 20s, when she was still a student at the Royal Academy of Music. Its technical fluidity suggests a much more mature composer, and the restiveness of its first two movements is only partly dispelled by the jittery syncopations and fugal sorties of the finale. The two-movement Quartet No. 2 dates from five years later, and the emotional intensity has heightened. Nervous tremolandos underpin the keeningly aspirant violin lines of the opening slow movement,…

JS Bach The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 Steven Devine (harpsichord) Resonus RES10239 (hybrid CD/SACD) 111:19 mins (2 discs) Harpsichordist Steven Devine enters a fiercely competitive field in tackling one of the most frequently played and recorded warhorses of the keyboard repertoire. Nonetheless, to the endless possibilities of Bach’s preludes and fugues, he brings many insights. Notable is his flawless, but rarely flashy, technique: lines are sharp as cut-glass and finely-weighted, ornaments are spruce and discreet. There are fleeting moments of fiery virtuosity, such as the C minor, G major, and B flat major Preludes – works whose improvisatory abandon was inspired by the Italian stylus fantasticus. But generally Devine’s approach is rather more sober, informed by a scholastic rigour – as, indeed, are his excellent disc liner notes. Tempos are…

June round-up Jazz traditionally relies on collective interaction, yet paradoxically the music’s development is always described in terms of the innovative statements made by individuals, from Satchmo to Coltrane and beyond. Each of this month’s discs carries the name of an individual performer, but they also neatly illustrate how such roles and the notion of leadership can be seen from a number of perspectives. Herlin Riley throws down a well-worn gauntlet with Perpetual Optimism. Usual expectations of a drummer-led album are that the drums will be heard too often and too loudly and that at least half the music on it will have been written by the leader in order to achieve this. Riley, it has to be said, rather lives up to this stereotype, but he’s forgiven due to…

Critical Lives – Arnold Schoenberg Mark Berry  Reaktion Books 978-1-789-14087-3 240pp (pb) £11.99 Appearing nearly 50 years after Malcolm MacDonald’s fine composer portrait, Mark Berry’s similarly concise volume complements rather than supplants it. Either is a ‘go to’ recommendation, with Berry’s perhaps having the edge in conveying the full range of the polyglot Mitteleuropa cultural, racial and political scene around Schoenberg, of which his work was such an extraordinary product. Berry’s perspective on the controversy (still) surrounding the composer is clear-eyed, empathetic, and pleasingly free of polemics of its own. The book spotlights how Schoenberg’s combative streak (understandably fuelled by sulphurous anti-Semitism around him) related to how the music turned out. As Berry says: ‘The difficulties listeners … continue to have with Schoenberg’s music are not entirely or even principally…

The Notre Dame fire could have been so much worse. Its structure appears to have been made safe, much of its medieval stained glass withstood the searing heat and the Cavaillé-Coll organ has somehow emerged unscathed, cocooned as it was within a colossal stone arch. It was hard to believe, watching the fire take hold live online, that anything would be left of this magnificent cathedral. Some of my best musical experiences have taken place there. In 1996, as a fresh-faced 21 year-old (with hair), I played the orgue de choeur for the Armistice Day service. Notre Dame was packed; I was suitably jelly-legged. There haven’t been any reports on the fate of the choir organ, incidentally – located just by the transept, it probably bore the brunt of falling…

The Royal Opera House (ROH) is facing a payout of well over £750,000 in compensation and legal fees after failing in its appeal to overturn a landmark High Court ruling concerning hearing damage suffered by one of its violists. In the long term, the case could have a significant impact on how orchestras and opera houses will have to take steps to protect the health of their players. Christopher Goldscheider, a violist at Covent Garden since 2002, sued the ROH after he suffered acoustic shock during a rehearsal of Wagner’s Die Walküre in September 2012. Sitting directly in front of the brass section, he endured noise exceeding 130 decibels – a level similar to that of a jet engine and greater than that of a pneumatic drill. His injuries meant…

Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha Soprano Born: Johannesburg, South Africa Career highlight: Winning the UNISA International Voice Competition in 2018 and being asked by the Royal Opera House to cover in my favourite opera, Verdi’s La forza del destino. During the latter I was able to perform and work alongside one of my idols, soprano Anna Netrebko. Musical hero: Soprano Jessye Norman’s singing is extraordinary, but she’s also intelligent and humble, which are the most important qualities that every singer should have to succeed in this industry. Dream concert: To perform in Verdi’s Requiem at the BBC Proms or in Aida at one of the big opera houses. David Fung Pianist Born: Hong Kong Career highlight: Performing one of my all-time favourite Mozart concertos (No. 21) with the Cleveland Orchestra,…

Christopher Simpson Ayres & Graces Cheyls Consort of Viols BIS-2153 Christopher Simpson is not a well-known composer. His pieces are real gems, full of grace, emotion and pathos. It has a real sense of elegance, but beneath that there’s a great deal of pain. You can interpret it on many different levels; it can be comforting and serene, but if you listen to it in more detail it covers the whole gamut of human experience in a very particular way that I find appealing. Valentin Silvestrov Piano Sonatas Simon Smith (piano) Delphian DCD34151 The quality, breadth and range of things Silvestrov has written for the piano is astonishing. The pieces here deal with themes of memory, loss and reconciliation. He also uses quite interesting sound effects. I often spend quite…

Recently I had a disturbing conversation with Alexis Ffrench. Not, I hasten to add, because the ‘grandmaster of piano chill’ is a disturbing character. Quite the reverse. Laidback, humorous, properly proud of his origins and achievements without being pompous, he struck me as a fine role-model for young minority-ethnic musicians trying to make their way in the classical world. But the incident he related was deeply disturbing. His best friend at specialist music school had been a brilliant youngster called Chris. They got up to all kinds of pranks together. Then Chris became ill. Mentally ill. He spent long periods in the Maudsley psychiatric hospital. At 21 he took his own life. As Ffrench told me this I felt a deep chord, more like a shudder, resonate in my own…

Marie Schumann (1841-1929) devoted herself to her mother, who relied heavily on her support, both personally and professionally – Marie was chief teaching assistant for her piano class in Frankfurt. Eugenie Schumann recalled: ‘Thanks to Marie, [Clara] could live entirely for her profession, untroubled by the onerous demands of everyday life, which were kept from her so as not to hinder her in the pursuit of her art… My mother fully repaid her devotion with tenderest love, to which gratitude gave a touch of pathos.’ Elise Schumann (1843-1928) also served as a teaching assistant to Clara and in 1877 married the businessman Louis Sommerhoff. After two years in the US, she settled in Frankfurt, teaching the piano. Julie Schumann (1845-72) drew the special affection of Brahms, to the point that…

After Mahler’s death, the Expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka had a four-year affair with Alma (pictured together in the portrait above by Kokoschka). He was so traumatised by their break up that he volunteered for the Austrian army, and suffered brain damage while on the Eastern front. In 1918 he commissioned Hermine Moos to make a full-sized life-like doll of Alma, constructed to his detailed specifications. The result, with its swanskin exterior and horsehair details, he dressed in custom-made underwear and clothing. He is said to have taken it to cafés and the opera, and he made several portraits of it. He finally decapitated it during a wild party.…

Dance of the Seven Veils from Strauss’s Salome Richard Strauss’s Salome scandalised audiences at its premiere in 1905, mostly due to its Dance of the Seven Veils. Hoping to claim John the Baptist’s head on a platter, the princess dances for her stepfather, Herod II, removing her veils one by one until she is naked. Strauss described the dance as ‘the heart of the plot’, and wrote languid, seductive orchestral music for it. Bacchanale from Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila Colourful and lively, the Bacchanale has become a standalone concert-hall favourite. In Act III of this biblical opera of 1876, the Philistines abandon themselves to a wild dance. Saint-Saëns depicts this world in the language of French orientalism, spicing western scales with augmented intervals and an improvisatory-style oboe solo. Polonaise from…

The founder of Umculo was initially inspired to set up the organisation after visiting Venezuela in 2005 and 2008. While there, she saw the impact of the music education programme El Sistema, which demonstrated how valuable a tool music could be for social development. And although she was schooled in Australia and is now based in Berlin, Germany, Apthorp was born in Cape Town. She is a music critic, writing for publications including the Financial Times . After travels round South Africa, Apthorp had a sense that music theatre and opera could fruitfully be used to help disadvantaged communities in tackling difficult subjects.…

Eight miles north of Tanglewood is Pittsfield, the region’s largest town. Herman Melville lived there from 1850-63 and it’s where he penned Moby Dick. Melville’s years as a seaman inspired a number of works; his early writing charted his own adventures at sea, including imprisonment in Polynesia. Billy Budd, Sailor was unfinished when he died in 1891, but the novel was published posthumously in 1924. Perhaps underappreciated in his lifetime, Melville is now considered one of America’s greatest writers.…

1841 LIFE: He is born in Ambert, a village in France’s Auvergne region. He shows promise at the piano at an early age, but his lawyer father is adamant he will pursue a legal career. TIMES: Adolphe Adam’s ballet Giselle is premiered at Paris’s Salle Le Peletier, with the Italian dancer Carlotta Grisi in the title role. It is an instant success. 1883 LIFE: After a trip to Spain he composes España, a rhapsody for orchestra. It is premiered at Paris’s Théâtre du Château d’Eau, conducted by Charles Lamoureux, the work’s dedicatee. TIMES: At the Battle of Paper Bridge in northern Vietnam, French forces under Henri Rivière are defeated by the local Black Flag Army. Rivière himself loses his life in the conflict. 1863 LIFE: He secures a position at…

John Eliot Gardiner (conductor) Monteverdi Choir SDG SDG722 Does anyone oxygenate Bach like John Eliot Gardiner? His rhythmic vitality and precisely etched immediacy are mesmerising. Of course, not everyone likes their Bach oxygenated to the max, but his is an instantly recognisable thumbprint, and the 1985 recording with the Monteverdi Choir set the bar for B minor Masses that followed. Thirty years on, however, Gardiner reassessed his own benchmark with often startling results. Gardiner’s second thoughts are flair-full, risk-taking and characteristically bold In the intervening years, what had seemed initially like a maverick sideshow had started to gain traction – bringing with it a revelatory clarity of texture, the one-to-a-part approach advocated by American conductor and scholar Joshua Rifkin was increasingly turning mainstream. And just as Gardiner’s stance against choral…

‘How do you choose what to review?’ is a question I’m regularly asked, and there’s no straightforward answer. The seemingly endless flow of fantastic releases from labels large and small, and the sheer volume of interesting and exciting recordings worthy of attention, are both heartening and challenging. If only we could cover it all. Some things just can’t be ignored, though, as is the case with Mahler who continues to inspire the conducting Fischer brothers. This month Iván’s take on the Seventh steals the top spot in Orchestral. There’s also a bounty of Beethoven, with symphonies, chamber works and two discs of sonatas to discover. Rare Rostropovich makes it into the second Historical round-up of the year, and in Books two divisive composers are under the spotlight… This month’s critics…

Beethoven Symphonies Nos 3 & 5 London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Kurt Masur LPO LPO-0112 83:02 mins In these dignified and at times grittily intense performances, it’s clear that Kurt Masur sees both these symphonies whole. If there’s a slight departure from the printed score – like the traditional enhanced trumpet parts in the Eroica’s first movement coda – it’s very much part of Masur’s dramatic overall conception. Nothing is done for passing effect. And few conductors have made the case for restoring the discarded long repeat in the scherzo of Symphony No. 5 so persuasively. That’s not to say that the overview always elbows out telling detail or the momentary play of light and shadow. There are some fine moments of dark introspection in the Eroica Funeral March, particularly towards the…

Brahms Symphonies Nos 1 & 3  Eloquence 482 5499 (1946/51) 74:02 mins Eduard van Beinum ’s highly-charged Brahms One benefits from superb orchestral playing from the Concertgebouw. The LPO is not quite so incisive in a murkily-recorded Brahms Three from 1946. ★★★ Haydn Symphonies Nos 44-49  Eloquence 484 0136 (1975/78) 129:01 mins Feisty expressive playing from the English Chamber Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim, but variable recorded sound which is too reverberant in the Trauer and La Passione, yet dry and airless elsewhere. ★★★ Martinů The Symphonist  Praga Digitals PRD 250 389 (1956-2000) 161:02 mins (2 discs) A cornucopia of devoted Martinu› interpreters, from Charles Munch and Rafael Kubelík to Karel Ancÿerl and Jirÿí Beÿlohlávek, feature on this generously-filled compilation of his finest orchestral works. ★★★★★ Rimsky-Korsakov Russian Easter Festival Overture;…

JS Bach Violin Concertos; Concerto for Two Violins; Trio Sonatas – in D minor, BWV 527; in C, BWV 529; Overture No. 2 in B minor; Sinfonias from Cantatas BWV 21, 174 & 182 Isabelle Faust (violin), Xenia Loeffler (oboe); Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/Bernhard Forck Harmonia Mundi HMM 902335.36 143:48 mins (2 discs) Isabelle Faust’s tone is both lean and exquisitely sweet This comprehensive collection of Bach’s music for concertante violin includes the two well-known concertos for violin in A minor and E major, and the D minor Double Concerto for two violins. They are joined by the C minor Double Concerto for violin and oboe – an arrangement of a work that has come down to us in a version for two harpsichords – and two other harpsichord…

Donizetti L’ange de Nisida Joyce El-Khoury, David Junghoon Kim, Laurent Naouri, Vito Priante, Evgeny Stavinsky; Chorus & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House/Mark Elder Opera Rara ORC 58 156:03 mins (2 discs) Mark Elder really understands how to let Donizetti breathe L’ange de Nisida is a genuinely lost opera, rescued now by the scholar Candida Mantica, but what a tangled web opera history weaves! Composed in 1839, it was intended for the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris (a story of a 15th-century King of Naples who kept a mistress was unlikely to find favour with the Neapolitan censor). Working against the clock as usual, Donizetti raided an unfinished opera, Adelaide. However, the French company went bust so Donizetti recycled some of what he had written for La favorite. Provenance…

Gabriel Jackson The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ Emma Tring (soprano), Guy Cutting (tenor); Choir of Merton College, Oxford; Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia/Benjamin Nicholas Delphian DCD 34222 69:01 mins Gabriel Jackson’s engaging score is richly colourful This outstanding recording of Gabriel Jackson’s retelling of the Passion story bursts with energy. Commissioned by Merton College Oxford in 2014, the piece celebrates the 750th anniversary of the foundation of the college, drawing on all four gospels alongside texts written by Mertonians ancient and modern, including Edward Reynold’s ‘General Thanksgiving’ from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and TS Eliot’s Four Quartets. Jackson’s engaging score is richly colourful and his instrumental writing proves a particular highlight. The ensemble features an appealing mix of strings, piccolo (doubling alto flute), saxophone, bass clarinet, horn, harp…

Arensky • Rachmaninov • Zemlinsky Arensky: Piano Trio No. 1; Rachmaninov: Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor; Zemlinsky: Piano Trio Smetana Trio Supraphon SU 4258-2 73:40 mins The Smetana Trio’s performances are totally compelling This deftly-compiled programme turns out to be an absolute winner. Although all three piano trios, composed within the space of four years, share similar musical characteristics, not least an intensely emotional language packed with swooning melodies and a propensity to clothe them in full-blooded quasi-orchestral textures, there are sufficient differences in each work’s musical orientation to provide ample variety of musical experience. Brahms is the obvious model for Zemlinsky’s 1896 Trio (originally conceived for clarinet, cello and piano), evident in the structural design and rhythmic ambiguity of Zemlinsky’s writing; yet there are also touches of…

Beethoven Piano Sonatas Opp 13, 14, 54 & 110 Jonathan Biss (piano) Meyer Media MM 19040 63:42 mins Rarely is pianistic virtuosity put to the service of such artistry This recording brings Jonathan Biss’s nine-disc survey of Beethoven’s sonatas to a triumphant close. He’s grouped them according to ‘themes’, and the theme here is the merging of disparate elements in a single work. All the regular elements of his pianistic style are here – the noble sound, the immaculate precision, the instinctive authority – and if there’s a surprise, it’s what he does with the modest little G major Sonata of Op. 14. But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised – nobody else in my experience has matched the delicate magic which this American pianist brings to the skeletal and exuberant…

Bernstein Piano Works Michele Tozzetti (piano) Piano Classics PLC10174 It’s a rare treat to hear Bernstein’s miniatures and solo piano works on disc – abrasive at times while also colourful and cinematic. The necessary soft touch is tactfully delivered here. (FP) ★★★ Braunfels Orchestral Works Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz/Gregor Buhl Capriccio C5354 Wonderfully colourful playing of Braunfels’s masterpiece Variations on a theme  by Berlioz, which sounds rather like Strauss on heat. (OC) ★★★★ Castelnuovo-Tedesco Works for Cello & Piano Enrico Dindo (cello), Alessandro Marangoni (piano) Naxos 8.573881 Chamber gems by the Italian composer who emigrated to LA. The lyrical Sonatina, composed there in 1946, receives a premiere recording here and is a delight among many. (MB) ★★★★ Cowell • Prokofiev Piano Works Wilhem Latchoumia (piano) La Dolce Vita LDV 54 Prokofiev…

THIS MONTH: OVER-EAR HEADPHONES BEST FOR VALUE AKG K245 £129 Big, light (295g) and comfortable, these semi open-backed headphones have a wonderfully spacious sound with very little colouring added to your music. Given how most headphones at this price tend to sound – bass heavy and pop oriented – the huge 50mm drivers are positively nuanced, letting you hear more of the music. The K245s fold down and, as they are not totally open-backed, you can use them in the office without distracting your colleagues. soundtech.co.uk BEST FOR ALL GENRES Grado SR 325es £269 While the distinctive look may appeal more to fans of Mingus than Mozart, these open-backed headphones sound sensational whatever you play through them, and will transform your home listening. Switching between jazz, pop and both full-orchestra…

22. Grand Opera House Where: Belfast Opened: 1895 Seats: 1,063 The Grand Opera House is on Great Victoria Street, next door to Belfast’s best known building, the Europa Hotel. It is hard to miss, with its name proudly spelt out in large letters on its red and cream frontage. There’s elegance inside, too, its auditorium an ornate display of red and gold. Designed by Frank Matcham, the opera house from the outset hosted an array of entertainment well beyond what its name implies – plays, ballet and comedy acts were also regularly on the bill. Famous names to have appeared on its stage include actress Gracie Fields in 1933 and a young tenor named Luciano Pavarotti who, in 1963, made his UK debut here as Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madam Butterfly.…

JUNE’S RADIO 3 LISTINGS Schedules may be subject to alteration. For up-to-date listings see Radio Times 1 SATURDAY 7-9am Breakfast 9am-11.45am Record Review 11.45am-12.30pm Music Matters 12.30-1pm This Classical Life Stephanie Childress (conductor/violinist) 1-3pm Inside Music 3-4pm Sound of Cinema 4-5pm Jazz Record Requests 5-6.30pm J to Z 6.30-10pm Opera on 3 from the Royal Opera House. Britten Billy Budd. Jacques Imbrailo (Billy Budd), Toby Spence (Captain Edward Fairfax Vere), Brindley Sherratt (John Claggart), David Soar (Mr Flint), Thomas Oliemans (Mr Redburn), Peter Kellner (Lieutenant Ratcliffe), Clive Bayley (Dansker), Alan Ewing (Bosun), Duncan Rock (Donald), Konu Kim (Maintop), Orchestra of the Royal Opera House/Ivor Bolton 10pm-12 midnight New Music Show 12 midnight-1am Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz 2 SUNDAY  7-9am Breakfast 9am-12 noon Sunday Morning 12 noon-1pm Private Passions 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert…

One of the world’s best-known harpists, Catrin Finch was set on the path to musical fame when, at the age of nine, she received the highest mark in the UK for her Associated Board Grade 8 exam. In 2000, she became the first Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales for over 120 years, and went on to make recordings for major labels including Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and Sony. Six years ago, she began collaborating with Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita. They play together at the East Neuk Festival on 29 June, and the following day Finch gives a solo recital of Debussy, Bach and Piazzolla. My parents took me to a harp concert when I five. It featured Marisa Robles, who is a fantastic Spanish harpist, a very flamboyant…

Vintage Brahms I enjoyed Stephen Johnson’s Building a Library article about the various recordings of Brahms Clarinet Quintet (May issue) and it gave me much food for thought. It made me listen yet again to this exquisite piece, so I picked out my 1962 LP of the work recorded by members of the Vienna Octet with Alfred Boskovsky playing the clarinet. It is a wonderful recording and a very cherished LP – and there were no scratches on it! At the end there is a bonus with the Adagio for Clarinet and String Quintet attributed to Wagner. So, thank you to Stephen Johnson for re-awakening my interest this sublime work. Brian D Freestone, Brent Knoll Welcome repeat Stephen Johnson’s Building a Library survey of Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet recordings reminded me…

Pedal power As this issue of BBC Music Magazine goes on sale, Roxanna Panufnik will be greasing her chain, pumping her tyres and adjusting her saddle. The composer is leading a sponsored cycle ride from St Albans Abbey to Westminster Abbey, where her son is one of the choristers (above), to raise money for The Diamond Fund for Choristers, which aims to keep Britain’s choral tradition flourishing. We trust that Panufnik and fellow riders will have something suitably rousing sung to them on reaching their destination. ENO exit Daniel Kramer is to quit as artistic director of English National Opera when the current season closes in July. The American’s sudden departure comes as something of a surprise, given that he has been in post at the Coliseum for less than…

Resonus Classics has launched its first ever sub-label. Inventa Records, which has a special focus on early music, will also be home to the choral group Alamire. The first release features them performing music by Hieronymus Praetorius with His Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts and organist Stephen Farr. This debut disc will be followed by an EP of ‘Tudor Miscellany’. Benjamin Bernheim has just been signed exclusively to Deutsche Grammophon. The 33-year-old French lyric tenor is one of the leading voices of his generation and his first album for DG looks to the classic young tenor roles. The autumn release will feature arias by Gounod, Massenet, Donizetti, Puccini, Verdi and Tchaikovsky. Is it too early to think about Christmas? Not for Regent Records, which has been in the studio recently…

We often take our musical icons for granted without considering the true basis of their greatness. Tom Service explores the fine line between talent and hype Are they born or are they made? With the BBC’s Icons series a few weeks ago, seeking out the greatest human of the 20th century (Alan Turing was the public’s choice), we got to thinking on The Listening Service about the names in the classical music world that have an ‘iconic’ aura. Did they attain this through sheer talent, or instead through the circumstances of when and how they lived? The question isn’t as heretical as it seems. Take an unquestioned embodiment of classical music fame, someone whose voice and image came to represent an entire genre: Maria Callas. Her performances changed the way…

Natasha Loges Listening has been revelatory recently, thanks to my regular teaching at the Royal College of Music bumping up against a Beethoven study day, a Clara Schumann festival and a talk on settings of the Persian poet Hafiz. Through the latter, I’ve discovered the classical Iranian musician Anoosh Jahanshahi alongside Sally Beamish’s exquisite songs. But it’s Clara Schumann’s wonderful solo piano music that I’m enjoying at home, at my own piano! Nicholas Anderson Bach allegedly walked some 250 miles to become acquainted with Buxtehude (pictured above) and his music. What was good enough for Bach certainly is good enough for me. Buxtehude’s sacred vocal music is richly varied and his skill at integrating concerto, aria and hymn is often sensuous. His cantata Alles was ihr tut (‘Whatsoever ye do…

In 1854 an English traveller named Mary Ann Evans – better known as ‘George Eliot’ – encountered a famous German pianist in Weimar. ‘An interesting, melancholy creature,’ she noted. ‘Her husband went mad a year ago and she is bringing up eight children.’ Clara Schumann was indeed suffering a harsh fate. Robert Schumann was in an asylum following a suicide attempt in February, so Clara was left to grapple with schooling and caring arrangements for the children (including baby Felix) so that she could earn her family’s living. Too often, though, she has been depicted as sidekick to Robert or as stoical widow after his death – at which time she was only 36. Yet she was famous throughout Europe long before he was. And as Europe’s ‘Queen of the…

Piano Concerto Howard Shelley (piano, conductor); Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra  Hyperion CDA 68240 Clara’s teenage concerto is the centerpiece of Vol. 78 of Hyperion’s popular Romantic Piano Concerto series in a performance that dances and dazzles. Piano Trio Antje Weithaas (violin), Tanja Tetzlaff (cello), Gunilla Sussmann (piano) Avi Music AVI8553294 This live recording of the Piano Trio by three leading musicians was named top choice in Radio 3’s Building a Library programme. They find an ideal balance between its classical elegance and impassioned Romanticism. Three Romances Tasmin Little (violin), John Lenehan (piano) Chandos CHAN20030 These miniatures for violin and piano pack a punch and Little’s soaring tone and nuanced performance brings out both their intensity and subtlety. They’ve also been arranged for cello by Steven Isserlis, which you can…

1949 Born in Worksop, Plowright begins to sing as a child. She goes on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music and at the London Opera Centre. 1975 As a soprano, she makes her debut in a Glyndebourne Touring Opera production of Weber’s Der Freischütz. 1984 Plowright replaces the lead soprano at the last minute to sing opposite Luciano Pavarotti in Verdi’s Aida, to great acclaim. That same year she records Verdi’s Il trovatore with tenor Plácido Domingo for Deutsche Grammophon. 1994 During a run of Puccini’s Tosca at English National Opera, Plowright realises that her voice is no longer suited to singing soprano roles. 1999 She makes her debut as a mezzo-soprano as Amneris in Aida with Scottish Opera. 2007 Plowright is awarded an OBE for services…

In 1899 Alma, aged 20, wrote Einsamer Gang after a passionate but unconsummated affair with the artist Gustav Klimt (pictured right). A known philanderer, Klimt was warned off by Alma’s stepfather Carl Moll (below). His response, that the ‘affair’ was not in any case serious on his side, deeply hurt Alma. ‘Now I know what it is to be betrayed,’ she wrote under a black cross in her diary on 15 May. But such expressions of sadness are interwoven with exclamations on the beauty of nature in which she takes solace: ‘Everything glimmered and shimmered in the light, and I was overcome with longing’ (22 July). Her diary describes walks, either alone or feeling lonely, in the consoling moonlight. Meanwhile, her mother Anna was giving attention to her new baby…

The racy world of late 19th-century Paris was epitomised by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s bright posters advertising Montmartre. Known for his depictions of performers and prostitutes, Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) had a rare ability to illuminate all facets of human life. Inspired by the Impressionists and Japanese prints, he also explored new lithograph techniques. Physically disabled, after his legs stopped growing when he was a teenager, Toulouse-Lautrec walked with a cane. He became an alcoholic, and died at the age of 36, leaving a prodigious legacy of over 5,000 drawings and 700 paintings.…

Neo Muyanga, as a composer and librettist, is an important voice in South African opera. His operetta The Flower of Shembe illustrates a Pan-African musical idiom, merging his own roots with influences from greater Africa. Clare Loveday is a composer at the forefront of advocacy for women in South African music. Particularly known for her saxophone works, her music is often performed in the UK. Her latest chamber work is to be premiered in Johannesburg late in 2019. Andile Khumalo, a student of George Lewis and Tristan Murail, is predominantly a spectral composer. He has been featured in South African and international festivals, including the Festival d’Automne. Amy Crankshaw, a London-based composer, pianist and French horn player, was composer-in-residence for the London City Orchestra’s 2016 Summer term, during which the…

Imagine you are the Princesse de Polignac in late 19th-century Paris, intent on an excellent dinner provided by your hosts. Your neighbour, a rotund gentleman of middle age, kindly passes you the asparagus – but accompanies it by saying, ‘Have some of this, Madame, but it does terrible things to your urine.’ Do you exclaim in horror? Go purple in the face? Retire to a fit of the vapours on the chaise longue? The princess seems to have accepted the advice, before duly inscribing it in the fund of upper-class gossip. It testifies at least that whatever was lacking in Emmanuel Chabrier – the gent in question – he had charm in abundance. ‘A generous father, always cheerful, with his pockets full of succulent goodies’ As does his music. In…

The work Bach became increasingly obsessed with what today would be called his ‘legacy’ Hiring George Bernard Shaw as a music critic for The Star in 1888, the newspaper’s editor advised him to ‘say what you like, but for God’s sake don’t tell us anything about Bach in B minor’. In truth, there’s an awful lot to tell. ‘The Great Catholic Mass’, as CPE Bach dubbed it (not quite accurately), raises countless questions yet ultimately silences them by dint of its all-conquering monumentality, the perfection of its myriad calculations, and the sheer humanity that informs every note. Haydn sourced a score from Hamburg; Beethoven twice requested a copy for himself – the second time with thoughts towards his Missa solemnis , whose scale and ambition owe something to Johann Sebastian’s…

Lars Ulrik Mortensen (conductor) With his Concerto Copenhagen forces, Lars Ulrik Mortensen embraces the one-to-a-part ethos but buttresses it with a five-voice ‘ripieno’ choir, enlarging the palette to consolidate a beautifully calibrated rapport between instrumentalists and singers. After more dramatic readings, the cool first Kyrie might seem understated, but it launches a powerfully organic view of the work, whose compelling flow rests on the over-arching unity of Mortensen’s tempo relationships. From the melting gravitas of the Et incarnatus to the cumulative grandeur of the Dona nobis pacem, small-is-beautiful Bach proves special indeed in this 2015 recording. (CPO 7778512) Jonathan Cohen (conductor) Although Jonathan Cohen’s Arcangelo forces in this 2014 recording equate more closely to those of Gardiner’s 1985 version, a greater spaciousness and instrumental sensuousness create an almost…

Shostakovich Symphony No. 6 in B minor; Suite from the incidental music to ‘King Lear’; Festive Overture; Symphony No. 7 in C major (Leningrad) Boston Symphony Orchestra/ Andris Nelsons DG 483 6728 131.62 mins (2 discs) Objectively speaking, the symphonies in Andris Nelsons’s fourth Boston Symphony Shostakovich instalment are a masterpiece (the Sixth) and a curate’s – or rather a commissar’s – egg (the Seventh). Yet this interpretation of the Leningrad pulls it all off with hyper-sophisticated playing and an alternation of tense atmosphere with electrifying release, the kind you usually only get in a live performance. And so these are, but with such a silent audience that some patching must have been inevitable. It never shows. Nelsons wins such beautiful phrasing, both collectively and individually, from his Boston players…

Mahler Symphony No. 7 Budapest Festival Orchestra/Iván Fischer Channel Classics CCS SA 38019 (hybrid CD/SACD) 75:17 mins Iván Fischer contrasts gracious dances with brilliant fanfares In a field graced by so many magnificent recordings of this hugely taxing symphony, where meticulous preparation must be the keynote, this has immediately become my ideal. Here, the younger Fischer – his older brother Adám is, of course, already pursuing a very different and equally fine Mahler cycle with his Düsseldorf orchestra – gets his Budapest players to believe in every bar of the Seventh Symphony’s night-to-day cavalcade. Right from the start, with the louring tenor horn’s guest appearance, brass give splendid promise of the great blaze at the other end of the Symphony. If Fischer ups the tempo quite swiftly, then he fulfils…

Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1984) Born Paul Frankenberger in Munich, Ben-Haim studied at the city’s Academy of Arts. Before fully embracing a career as a composer, he conducted opera at Augsburg and was assistant conductor to Bruno Walter at Munich Opera. Emigrating to Palestine in 1933 and changing his name, Ben-Haim began a creative path that would see him at the forefront of Israeli music-making, bringing together Western and Middle-Eastern musical sensibilities in his music. A committed teacher as well as composer, Ben-Haim was a professor at both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Conservatories.…

Donizetti L’elisir d’amore Warner 9029573590 (1958) 111:05 mins (2 discs) A handsome cast from the early stereo days with Luigi Alva’s Nemorino close to perfection. Rosanna Carteri is a winsome Adina and Rolando Panerai’s Belcore is full of musical swagger. Alas, Tullio Serafin makes the traditional cuts. ★★★★ Rimsky-Korsakov The Snow Maiden Eloquence 482 6913 (1955) 204:39 mins In this re-mastered stereo recording, Rimsky’s springtime tale is handsomely performed by the Belgrade Opera Company, a proper ensemble rather than a roster of stars ★★★ Tchaikovsky The Queen of Spades Eloquence 482 6903 (1955) 168:50 mins More than the sum of its parts. You forgive a noisy conductor and faltering top notes from Valerija Heybal’s Lisa. Belgrade Opera field a properly obsessive Hermann and a superb countess in Melanija Burgarinovic. ★★★…

Buxtehude Membra Jesu nostri Christophorus CHR 77436 (2008) 60:35 mins These fervent, sometimes fragrant, performances by La Chapelle Rhénane et al – dramatically contrasting tempos, timbre and texture – capture the mystical intensity of Buxtehude’s meditations. ★★★★ Ramhaufski Missa No. 23 Hochreither Missa ad multos annos Accent ACC 24358 (2006) 66:31 mins Crack instrumental playing under Gunar Letzbor brings to life these colourfully scored Masses, but the clipped articulation of the vocal lines is distractingly mannered. ★★★ Monteverdi Selva morale e spirituale Glossa GCD 920943 (2005) 207:44 mins (3 discs) La Venexiana recreate two Vespers and a Solemn Mass. Recorded live, complete with plainchant and church acoustic, the Italian ensemble sounds stylish and vibrant as ever. ★★★★★ Ludford Missa Benedicta Pan Classics PC 10403 (2007) 63:13 mins Despite a few…

Antheil Sonatas for Violin and Piano Nos 1-4 Avi 8553239 (2017) 78:49 mins Suitably physical performances by Alessandro Fagiuoli and Alessia Toffani as they hammer and scratch through disconcerting sonatas by the musical futurist Antheil. Heard singly, they’re fascinating; in bulk, exhausting. ★★★ Dodgson Piano Trios & Bagatelles Claudio CC5257-2 (2002) 63:50 mins Quick-witted, pungent, fanciful: just the intriguing music a distant relative of Lewis Carroll with a love of Janácÿek might have written. Persuasive performances from the Bernard Roberts Piano Trio. ★★★ Poulenc Chamber music Indésens INDE114 (2009) 105:09 mins (2 discs) Insouciance, melancholy and French charm bubble out of the ten sonatas, trios and whatnots superbly played by Orchestre de Paris musicians and pianist Claire Désert. A vivid recording, too. ★★★★ Rachmaninov Cello Sonata; Prokofiev Cello Sonata; Popper…

June Round-up The historical discs covered this month all feature truly outstanding performers. As the only one whose career is still ongoing, it is especially enlightening to encounter a live Recital of Mikhail Pletnev from 1979, the year after his triumph at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. From the commanding opening of JS Bach’s A minor Suite to an exquisitely controlled Chopin E minor Nocturne, this is playing that draws in the listener. Pletnev’s clarity as he rips through Scarlatti sonatas is breathtaking, yet it is the strength of musical vision that dazzles. If Beethoven’s early F major Sonata is too aggressive in Pletnev’s hands, Chopin’s Third Sonata mesmerises, the Scherzo bubbling with energy and the Largo a lesson in stillness (Melodiya MELCD 1002581 ★★★★ ). The curiously titled Abbado Rediscovered…

LONDON Il Pomo d’oro Milton Court Theatre, 1 June Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 8891 Web: www.barbican.org.uk Having accompanied Handel’s Agrippina (staring Joyce DiDonato as the eponymous Empress) the previous evening, Il Pomo d’oro swaps the Barbican stage for nearby Milton Court. In its more intimate surroundings, and with Handel and Corelli looking on, Edgar Moreau is the soloist in cello concertos by Boccherini, Tartini and Piatti. Pierre-Laurent Aimard Queen Elizabeth Hall, 1 & 2 June Tel: +44 (0)20 3879 9555 Web: www.southbankcentre.co.uk The Southbank Centre follows up Stockhausen’s Donnerstag aus LICHT with two further evenings – anchored by pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard – devoted to his music for piano, percussion, and electronics. Fellow pianist Tamara Stefanovich joins Aimard for Mantra; and the first concert sets Klavierstücke I-XI alongside Kontakte. The Multi-Story…

Alan Davey , the controller of BBC Radio 3, picks out three great moments to tune into this June Mark Simpson’s Clarinet Concerto  It must be a thrill for a composer to be able to write themselves into their music, and Mark Simpson – equally skilled as composer and clarinettist – has done just that. He will be performing the premiere of his Clarinet Concerto among an epic programme of Mozart and Mahler. Radio 3 in Concert; 18 June, 7.30pm BBC Cardiff Singer of the World The biennial competition that helped launch the careers of Jamie Barton, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Bryn Terfel (see Timepiece, p16) returns to BBC Radio 3 and TV this month for its 36th year. Singers from across the world compete for the top prizes. Radio 3…