Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2019 i BBC Music Magazine

Rebecca Franks BBC Music’s managing editor ‘It was utterly fascinating to meet the brilliant pianist Igor Levit, whose debut album of late Beethoven sonatas is one of my personal favourites. He’s clearly someone who lives, breathes and dreams Beethoven.’ Page 28 Erik Levi Lecturer and writer ‘I was aware of Shostakovich’s intense enthusiasm for football, but hadn’t realised how much it acted as a panacea from the difficulties and pressures he faced, particularly during the Stalin era.’ Page 46 Caroline Rae Lecturer and writer ‘One of the most popular composers in post-war Britain, Poulenc epitomised the quintessentially French while combining a depth of musical expression with a deceptive simplicity akin to Mozart.’ Page 66…

Great Leifs When BBC Music Magazine invited us to continue our musical journey after Haydn’s The Creation (September issue), I was delighted to see that Jón Leifs’s magnum opus Edda – Part I was one of the recommended works. I first came across Iceland’s best-loved composer when my daughter was at the university in Reykjavík for a year. At her recommendation, I began to explore his music. Leifs has created a soundworld unlike any other, which reflects the ice and fire of the Icelandic landscape and its people’s psyche. He grew up at a time when Icelanders who wished to pursue a university education had to go abroad and, having left, often saw no reason to return. Leifs, however, not only came back but was determined to develop the country’s…

Flight tragedy British composer Jonathan Goldstein and his wife Hannah, a leading saxophonist, have been killed along with their seven-month-old daughter in a plane crash. Jonathan, a qualified pilot since 2011, was flying the Piper Arrow IV aircraft himself when it came down in the Swiss Alps en route to Italy. The cause of the crash has yet to be identified. See Obituaries, p23. Critical change English National Opera is no longer giving out free ‘plus one’ tickets to newspaper and magazine reviewers who want to bring along a friend, choosing instead to free up the seats for its new ‘ENO Response’ scheme for budding young critics. The move has not gone down well with some reviewers, who complain that it will play havoc with their already patchy social life.…

Sony Music Masterworks has acquired Milan Records, the long-established soundtrack label. Milan’s back catalogue is impressive, taking in many critically acclaimed titles, and its purchase will only strengthen Sony’s place in the film, TV and games music arena. First releases include Nicholas Britell’s music for the HBO series Succession. Sony Classical will release a new disc by pianist Tedd Joselson next year, with recording taking place at Abbey Road this month. The centrepiece is a new piano concerto by Manu Martin, Fantasy of Companionship, based on Susan Lim’s concepts of future human/AI relationships. Performed by Joselson with the LSO (under Arthur Fagen), the recording will also feature piano concertos by Grieg and Rachmaninov. January sees the release of the first solo piano album on Decca by Norwegian-born composer/pianist Ola Gjeilo.…

It’s one of those things we take for granted: that so many musical works are composed in a particular key, from piano trios in F sharp minor to symphonies in C major. But why does it matter what key something is in? Imagine the keys of a piano: given that we live in an era of equal temperament, in which there is no functional difference between the way a tune goes, whether you play Happy Birthday in D flat or A flat major, what’s the point of starting in one key or another? But that’s precisely the point: we live in a relatively recent era in which the differences between all 12 of the major keys, and their dozen minor-key cousins, have been flattened out, thanks to our system of…

Angela Davies , Prestatyn I have recently come into the possession of two upright pianos. If I were an able pianist, nothing would give me more pleasure than to invite a friend round, pour us both a glass of wine and play through Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn together. I cannot think of a more joyous piece to share with a like-minded friend. Sadly, my keyboard skills are lacking, so I will have to make do with the excellent recording by Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire. Seth Blacklock , County Antrim One record label that never ceases to reward is Toccata Classics, from whom I have been enjoying Vol. 1 of orchestral music by the Swiss composer Heinrich Sutermeister – music that is accessible, characterful and masterfully…

“I didn’t think that anyone would care about my improvisation, but it is part of me” ‘It just happens. It’s immediate access, always. It never, never fails and I always explain it as a domino effect, once the first note falls. Everything else follows. And that’s it.’ Gabriela Montero is telling me about her gift for improvisation, which produces astonishing inventions that are never repeated in the same way. They apparently come to her in a natural flow as if they are operations of an unconscious spirit that bypasses all the usual processes of thought and composition. We are in the pianist’s home in Barcelona, looking across the city, and she is talking about two passions – the music that she says envelops every aspect of her life, and her…

Edward Elgar Elgar was a huge fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers, to whose games he would cycle ( see above ). He even paid tribute to Wolves striker Billy Malpass by writing a little tune, ‘He kicked the leather for goal’. Michael Nyman The Queens Park Rangers-obsessed Nyman also wrote music celebrating one of his favourite players – namely, 1970s QPR midfield and forward legend Stan Bowles in a 1991 set of variations called The Final Score . Mark-Anthony Turnage Turnage’s 1999 opera The Silver Tassie takes its title from a trophy that is awarded to the winners of a local football match. James MacMillan In 2005, MacMillan was commissioned to write a piece of music for the unveiling of a statue of Brother Walfrid, the founder of his beloved Celtic…

Price, per person: Two sharing: £1,990, or £1,790 without flights. Single occupancy: £2,290, or £2,090 without flights. Included: flights (economy class) with British Airways (Airbus 320); travel by private coach; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts; 3 dinners with 2 glasses of wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager. Performance: second category tickets to the Passion Play have been confirmed. Accommodation: Vienna House Easy, Munich (viennahouse.com): a 4-star hotel in the vibrant district of Neuhausen-Nymphenburg. Details of the 4-star hotel in Oberammergau are to be confirmed. Single rooms throughout are doubles for sole use. How strenuous is this holiday? This is a fairly strenuous tour with some long coach journeys and walking and standing in churches and galleries. A good…

The great 20th-century playwright Bertolt Brecht, born in Augsburg in 1898, is up there with Leopold Mozart as one of the city’s most cherished figures; a Brecht Festival takes place in the city every year. The house in which Brecht was born is now a museum, just a short walk from the town hall. It was at school in Augsburg that Brecht met Caspar Neher, with whom he had a long working relationship. Neher became a stage and set designer for theatre and opera. The pair worked together on Brecht’s Mahagonny Songspiel, featuring music by Kurt Weill.…

Antonio Florio (conductor) Maria Grazia Schiavo (soprano), Stéphanie d’Oustrac (mezzo); Cappella de’ Turchini Eloquentia EL 0505 There’s real intimacy and humanity to this chamber-like performance No other performers are as fully conversant with Neapolitan Baroque music as Antonio Florio and his Naples-based ensemble, the Cappella de’ Turchini (now re-named Cappella Neapolitana). Decades of experience researching and performing the city’s musical heritage gives them the edge when it comes to understanding the kaleidoscopic range of styles that inspires Pergolesi’s work, from chant-like hymns to popular songs, pastoral drones, dances, laments, light intermezzo-style airs and tragic operatic duets. Florio strikes a fine balance between soave lyricism and articulate rhetoric, while soprano Maria Grazia Schiavo turns from fresh-voiced innocent to impassioned tragedienne. Stéphanie d’Oustrac’s effortlessly straight-toned voice is nonetheless richly expressive. Both singers…

Artistic responses to tragedy can result in great beauty, and we have several examples included in this month’s review pages. Most outstanding is Donnacha Dennehy’s The Hunger, a striking new cantata based on the Great Irish Famine (see Choral & Song Choice). Peter Lindroth’s take on a selection of Wilfred Owen’s moving First World War poetry is another memorable listen this month, as is Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s performance of Karl Hartmann’s 80-year-old Concerto funèbre, written during the first months of the Second World War. We also see the long-awaited return to the recording studio for guitarist Miloš Karadaglic and a new incarnation of the Sinfonia of London (see opposite). Two reasons to be happy as the nights draw in! Michael Beek Reviews Editor This month’s critics John Allison, Nicholas Anderson, Terry…

Beethoven Egmont – incidental music Elisabeth Breuer (soprano), Robert Hunger-Bühler (recitation); Helsinki Baroque Orchestra/Aapo Häkkinen Ondine ODE 1331-2 52:26 mins Goethe’s play about freedom and oppression struck so many chords with Beethoven. His Overture, brief, furious and occasionally lyrical, with its devastating coda, is given a stupendous performance here by the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra under Aapo Häkkinen. It’s a relatively small orchestra, and the instruments are, to judge from the photograph, modern copies of early 19th-century ones, but they make a marvellously incisive sound, so thrilling that one wishes it was on a disc with something less debilitating than the rest of Beethoven’s incidental music, which is as awful as the Battle Symphony that it all too closely resembles. Four interludes and assorted other pieces, all brief, alternate with huge…

Debussy Nocturnes, etc. Cala Signum SIGCD2093 (1991) 66.49 mins Handsome Philharmonia playing of an assortment of orchestrated versions of Debussy’s piano music (including Grainger’s percussion-group scoring of Pagodes), plus a rather over-juiced interpretation of Nocturnes. ★★★ Debussy La mer; L’isle joyeuse etc Cala Signum SIGCD2092 (1991) 69:18 mins More Debussy arrangements from the Philharmonia , headed up by Stokowski’s technicolor La cathédrale engloutie; Bernardo Molinari’s scoring of L’isle joyeuse is more Debussyan. An excellent La mer. ★★★★ Ravel La valse; Shéhérazade, etc; Debussy La mer; Petite Suite Eloquence 482 5007 (1947/48) 71:12 mins Decently clear pre-LP sound reveals mint-condition Ernest Ansermet performances. Worth hearing alone for Suzanne Danco’s rapturous singing of Ravel’s Shéhérazade. ★★★★★ Ansermet Encores: Berlioz, Chabrier, Ravel, Debussy, Lalo et al Eloquence 482 6158 (1956-69) 80:06 mins Seventeen…

Cavalli L’Ipermestra Elena Monti, Gaelle Le Roi, Emanuela Galli, Marcel Beekman, Mark Tucker, Sergio Foresti; La Sfera Armoniosa/ Mike Fentross Challenge Classics CC72774 166:09 mins (3 discs) Too bad this is our only recording of Francesco Cavalli’s L’Ipermestra. Made live at the 2006 Utrecht Early Music Festival, the performance was super-charged dramatically, gorgeously sung by several of its principals, and strikingly led by music director Mike Fentross. But these positives are lost in transmission. Cavalli advanced operatic forms pioneered by his teacher Monteverdi. Out of arioso writing, he fashioned brooding monologues; out of two-party dialogue, he crafted terse, instrumentally-driven exchanges. His score for L’Ipermestra combines these innovations to probe its messed-up characters. Action circles around the trials of its title heroine: she saves her husband, whom her father demands that…

Donnacha Dennehy The Hunger Katherine Manley (soprano), Iarla Ó Lionáird (sean-nós singer); Alarm Will Sound/Alan Pierson Nonesuch 075597925159 45:07 mins Dennehy’s score is inventive, focused and beautiful ‘There’d be long, all-night sessions in my grandmother’s house with singing and poetry, and people remembering 30-stanza poems’ recalls composer Donnacha Dennehy of his childhood in Kerry. This immersion in the rich tradition of musical storytelling has clearly shaped Dennehy’s compositional style and The Hunger powerfully demonstrates his profound sensitivity in fusing music and text. Described as a form of ‘docu-cantata’, The Hunger explores the Great Irish Famine of 1845-52. Dennehy draws on American reformer Asenath Nicholson’s 1851 Annals of the Famine in Ireland, which includes a number of first-hand accounts of the famine. Alongside Nicholson’s text (scored for soprano), Dennehy also creates…

JS Bach Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord, BWV 1027-1029 Antoine Tamestit (viola), Masato Suzuki (harpsichord) Harmonia Mundi HMM 902259 44:40 mins Bach’s three Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord represent a high point in his trio-textured chamber music. Existing sources indicate a complex genesis – the G major Sonata, for instance, deriving from the Trio Sonata for two flutes and continuo, BWV 1039. Such matters beg the question as to how much music may have been designated by Bach for different instrumental combinations at different periods in his life. Taking this into account, a performance of these sonatas on a viola, as opposed to a viola da gamba, is at the very least plausible; and Antoine Tamestit makes a strong case for so doing. The masterpiece, the…

JS Bach Cello Suites Nos 1-6 Emmanuelle Bertrand (cello) Harmonia Mundi HMM 902293.94 134:24 mins (2 discs) Emmanuelle Bertrand spent 20 years playing a modern instrument, but two years ago encountered an 18th-century cello by Tononi, and wanted to return it to its original gut strings, A415 tuning, and to play it with a Baroque bow. This recording is the result. It’s a lively, characterful set, but the acoustic is slightly boomy and remote. This combines with the Baroque bowed texture to create a rather unfocused overall sound, which takes some getting used to. Bertrand lacks the ease and intimacy with the Baroque bow shown in David Watkin’s fine recording (on Resonus), for example, and the sinewy energy and detail which characterise Isserlis’s set (on Hyperion). Instead, she works in…

JS Bach Organ Works (Vol 3 ) Masaaki Suzuki (organ) BIS-2421 Suzuki’s latest Bach disc takes him to Freiberg’s great Silbermann, an instrument Bach may have played. The solo textures he elicits are magical – and the Passacaglia fugue roars mightily! (OC) ★★★★ Joanna Bailie Artificial Environments Plus-Minus Ensemble NMC D252 This is a fascinating recording; Bailie’s imagination knows few bounds. The music bends, shifts and dislocates, dancing and weaving in and out of real-world sounds. (MB) ★★★ Derek Bermel Migrations etc Albany Symphony et al Naxos 8.559871 What a melting pot of musical styles! Bermel’s endless invention initially ruffles your feathers but leaves you breathless in the end. Captivating and colourful. (MB) ★★★★ Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem Christiane Karg (soprano) et al Harmonia Mundi HMM 902635 Brahms’s Requiem is…

Iiro Rantala My Finnish Calendar Iiro Rantala (piano) ACT 9882-2 If a possible definition of a good jazz label is one that reflect the astuteness of its owners/producers while also underlining the individuality of its artists, here’s a fine example. ‘Hilarious’ is a word rarely used in connection with jazz unless the performer overtly draws on both humour and music, which could mean anyone from Spike Lee to Lea DeLaria. On his third solo album for ACT, however, Iiro Rantala squeezes in between Erik Satie and Carla Bley by letting most of the humour reside in the music itself, with a set of near-miniatures (each track is around four minutes) on the theme of the months of the year. The music affectionately and self-deprecatingly presents a take on traditionally Finnish…

Wi-Fi or Bluetooth? Bluetooth is the easiest way to stream your music wirelessly, but its range is limited to around 10m. Wi-Fi is higher quality and music continues to play if you leave the room with your phone. Most systems with Wi-Fi also have Bluetooth. What’s compatible? Sonos has 16 compatible products, so it’s easy to build a multi-room system. Not all brands are so generous, so check what each one has, especially if you want to add more speakers to your set-up. Which app? Check the speaker’s compatibility with your preferred streaming service. Spotify Connect and Apple AirPlay 2 use your home’s Wi-Fi, allowing you to stream to different compatible speakers. Roon is a new service that collates your digital music – from online to hard drives – and…

BBC Radio 3’s Classical Fix presenter Clemency Burton-Hill has taken the reins of another podcast. The Open Ears Project is a new daily programme for WNYC Studios, in collaboration with New York classical music radio station WQXR. Burton-Hill is joined by a mix of celebrities and regular New Yorkers for a few minutes every day for a month to discuss their favourite pieces of classical music, and how music has changed their lives. These bitesize episodes feature guests including novelist Ian McEwan, actor Jesse Eisenberg, soprano Jamie Barton, director Sam Mendes and comedian Eddie Izzard. Listen to actor and podcaster Alec Baldwin reflect on what he loves about Khachaturian’s Spartacus Suite and jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis tell the story of the first time he heard Beethoven’s String Quartet…

Alice Coote sings lieder, oratorios and opera, often as an interpreter of so-called ‘trouser roles’. Her solo discs have included Handel arias plus song cycles by Mahler and Schubert, and she has also recorded Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Hallé. In 2018, Coote was awarded an OBE. Upcoming performance highlights include singing Orfeo in the English National Opera’s new production of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice and a solo recital at Wigmore Hall on 12 December. Music filled the house when I was a child. My father was a painter and he used to play his hi-fi extremely loudly – the room used to shake – and he’d listen to a lot of jazz and classical music. Even as a tiny child I loved to hear Fred Astaire, especially in Cole…

I’m in awe of anyone who records complete works by a single composer, particularly one that requires super-human feats of memory and stamina – and faith on the part of the record label. There’s a renewed optimism in the industry now that streaming has opened up fresh audiences, and artists are again being encouraged to set down, for instance, Mozart’s 18 piano sonatas, Haydn’s 104 symphonies, all 20 hours of Bach’s organ music, even all 555 Scarlatti keyboard sonatas. Phew. Some are recorded over several years, such as Mazaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan’s Bach cantata cycle which crossed the finishing line in 2013 after 18 years. And organist Peter Hurford’s Bach was captured between 1977 and ’86, albeit on instruments in both hemispheres! But some are recorded in…

DONG HYEK LIM MARTHA ARGERICH Dong Hyek Lim takes two pianistic roles on this all-Rachmaninov album: soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Alexander Vedernikov in the much-loved Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor, and duo partner to his mentor, the great Martha Argerich, in the composer’s two-piano transcription of the enthralling and enigmatic Symphonic Dances. QUATUOR AROD ELSA DREISIG With this album of works by Schoenberg, Zemlinsky and Webern, the Quatuor Arod honours the woman who became Arnold Schoenberg’s wife in 1901. Mathilde was Zemlinsky’s sister and the dedicatee of her husband’s String Quartet No 2, an innovative work in both its tonal language and its integration of a soprano – here Elsa Dreisig. LUCIENNE RENAUDIN-VARY Trumpeter Lucienne Renaudin Vary makes a musical transatlantic crossing with her second…

104 …bars of Gershwin (above), previously unheard. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has recorded a version of An American in Paris that includes four passages crossed out by the composer in the original score. 2 …additional years, at least, in Norway. Conductor Edward Gardner has extended his contract with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra to 2023. 3 …manuals, played well. Ivan-Bogdan Reincke has won the 2019 Northern Ireland Organ Competition at Armagh Cathedral. 193 …miles of motorway, celebrated in music. On 27 October, the BBC Philharmonic premieres Alex Woolf’s M1 Symphony, composed to mark the road’s 60th anniversary.…

What is it about JS Bach’s 1748 portrait that somehow looks a little different from other composers of his generation? While Handel, Scarlatti, Telemann and others rest an arm on their harpsichords – a nod to their immense skill – Bach simply holds out the manuscript for a six-voice perpetual canon. ‘Look what I can do in my head,’ he seems to say, with a gaze that somehow manages to be both stern and ever so slightly cheeky. It’s an expression that hints at a person with not a just a serious intellect, but also a strong awareness of his own genius – characteristics that wouldn’t have made the German composer an easy employee to satisfy. And, indeed, he seemed constantly dissatisfied with his lot throughout his career. This had…

A US soprano has taken a German reviewer to task for criticising her physical appearance. When Manuel Brug of Die Welt described Kathryn Lewek (left) and fellow cast members in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld as ‘fat women in tight corsets spreading their legs’, Lewek hit back, calling his comments ‘derogatory’. The brouhaha that subsequently blew up was not the first occasioned by such a subject… When, in 2014, Tara Erraught played Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at Glyndebourne, newspaper critics labelled the Irish mezzo ‘stocky’, ‘dumpy’ and ‘a chubby bundle of puppyfat’. Angered colleagues took to social media on her behalf, and battle raged. ‘I have big hips and Covent Garden has a problem with them,’ rued Deborah Voigt when, in 2004, she was sacked by the Royal Opera…

Oliver Condy Editor Matins at the Edington Festival in rural Wiltshire this summer was glorious. The early morning sun gleamed through Edington Priory’s ancient stained glass – the perfect counterpoint to the atmospheric plainchant, sung with consummate fluidity and subtlety by festival’s Schola choir. Could there possibly be a more perfect start to the day? Jeremy Pound Deputy editor Whether reading his new book (see p111) or researching his love of football (p46-50), I’ve enjoyed spending time in the virtual company of James MacMillan this month. This provided an excuse to revisit my favourite recordings of the Scottish composer’s music, including his own version of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie with the BBC Philharmonic. In turns sinister and startling, MacMillan’s tone poem narrates its tragic story with extraordinary…

Beethoven’s piano works have been a decade-long focus for Jonathan Biss, who is in the process of recording a complete series of the composer’s sonatas. Biss appears at the Wigmore Hall throughout 2019-20 as part of that venue’s celebrations for Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, where he will perform the sonata cycle. The second instalment takes place on 19 December and includes the Appassionata; Biss will be on hand to answer Beethoven-related questions in a post-recital talk on the same day. Boris Giltburg plans to learn and broadcast videos via YouTube of all 32 sonatas throughout the commemorative year, and will play a selection at St Johns Smith Square on 27 February. Giltburg also features in a three-part BBC TV documentary about Beethoven, due to air in April, and will play the…

Gabriela Montero’s own music has featured on several of her albums. Recorded for EMI, her eponymous debut recital disc (2005) and Solatino (2010) include her improvisations alongside works by other composers. Between those, and on the same label, came Bach and Beyond (2006) and Baroque (2008), both of which consist entirely of the pianist working her improvisatory magic on the greats of the early 18th century. In her first release for Orchid Classics in 2015, however, the pianist revealed a new string to her bow – alongside Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 was Montero’s own Opus 1: Ex Patria. Composed in 2011 and performed on a number of occasions before the recording, this 13-minute tone poem for piano and orchestra is both a haunting lament for her home country and…

Invited to play and conduct in England in 1829, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (above) then headed north to Scotland to explore the country’s sights. After visiting Edinburgh he took a steamer tour among the Inner Hebridean islands off Scotland’s west coast. Correspondence to the family back home includes a musical sketch named Zur einsamen Insel (To the Lonely Island), which he says ‘came into my head there’. But exactly where? When the steamer stopped by the isolated and uninhabited island of Staffa with its spectacular Fingal’s Cave, Mendelssohn was below decks, flattened by seasickness, and almost certainly saw none of this for himself. Other candidates for his inspiration are Lismore or Mull, neither of which is obviously ‘lonely’. Perhaps one of Mendelssohn’s equally cultured travelling companions described Staffa to him, or sketched…

Day 1: Munich Fly at 12.40pm from London Heathrow to Munich (British Airways). After an introductory lecture and discussion, there’s a chance for everyone to meet over a dinner in the hotel restaurant. Day 2: Munich The day begins with a walking tour of key city sights: the glittering Baroque interior of the Asamkirche, the soaring nave of the Frauenkirche, and the Ohel Jakob Synagogue. The afternoon is devoted to the spectacular palace of the Wittelsbach dynasty – the Residenz. Here, the Cuvilliés Theatre houses one of the most wonderful Rococo interiors in Europe – its carvings were removed for safe keeping during World War II. Day 3: Munich, Oberammergau Free morning in Munich. En route to Oberammergau, we visit the loveliest of Ludwig II’s palaces, the Linderhof, before arriving…

Few composers of the last century achieved the lifetime success enjoyed by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), who was celebrated as one of the leading composer-pianists of his day, both in his native France and in the UK, where his music was considered the epitome of French culture. Poulenc started to receive attention in Britain where his music was admired for its charm However, when Poulenc emerged as a composer during the final years of the First World War, he needed to overcome the handicap of being perceived as a bourgeois dilettante lacking conventional musical training. The only son of a prosperous Parisian businessman, Poulenc was expected to join the family’s successful chemical-pharmaceutical firm, later Rhône-Poulenc, and was forbidden from entering the Paris Conservatoire. Fortunately, his outstanding musical abilities were recognised by…

Rinaldo Alessandrini (conductor) Alessandrini illuminates the relationship between words and music in this acclaimed Concerto Italiano recording from 2007. Single strings sketch a stark backdrop – throwing the text into high relief – and tempos veer from the ponderous opening to the breathless Quae moerebat, reflecting the work’s emotional extremes. Gemma Bertagnolli’s silvery soprano lightens the burnished tones of Sara Mingardo’s contralto; the two voices creating a chiaroscuro to rival the Neapolitan Caravaggisti. Though Alessandrini occasionally sacrifices line to focus on detail, the account never lacks drama. (Naïve OP 30441) Philippe Pierlot (conductor) The Ricercar Consort’s sound is at once lustrous and intimate in this 2005 recording, wrapping the listener in a velvet shroud. The voices of Núria Rial and Carlos Mena have real fervour, and they’re so…

Korngold Symphony in F sharp; Theme and Variations; Straussiana Sinfonia of London/John Wilson Chandos CHSA 5220 59.17 mins At long last, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Symphony in F sharp has the recording it deserves. Written between 1947 and ’52, this work is emblematic of its time, place and composer. Korngold, who started out as a child prodigy par excellence, grew up in the musical melting-pot of Mahler’s Vienna, but was forced into exile in Hollywood due to the Nazi invasion, surviving by writing film music; he credited Warner Brothers with saving his life and those of his family. The Symphony is a furious, bitter, grief-stricken work, full of remarkable harmonic sleight of hand and technicolour orchestration; and it makes tremendous demands on its performers. Wilson and his Sinfonia of London bring…

Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä BIS BIS-2346 56:45 mins Whatever else, this remarkable new version demands to be heard This must be about the most accurate reading of Mahler’s First Symphony to have appeared in years, in the sense that every dynamic marking, every nuance of rubato is scrupulously adhered to. The mysterious opening seven-octave A in the strings is so quiet in BIS’s slightly recessed recording that one has to bump up the volume to hear that the music has begun. The ensuing woodwind figures are genuinely pianissimo, the trumpet fanfares sound as though coming from miles away, while much of the vernal ensuing body of the movement, taken relatively gently by Osmo Vänskä and exquisitely nuanced by the Minnesota Orchestra’s wind and strings, seems…

Beethoven • Sibelius Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61; Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 Christian Tetzlaff (violin); Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/Robin Ticciati Ondine ODE 1334-2 71:22 mins A fresh approach to core repertoire pieces is always welcome, and I found this one genuinely thought-provoking and sometimes quite invigorating. But convincing overall? That’s another matter. One problem with this performance of the Beethoven, at least, is that it’s not so much one fresh approach as two. On the one hand we have a modern orchestra – the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the very capable Robin Ticciati – playing period style, with what sounds like early 19th-century trumpets and drums (the timpani in the opening solo are delicious). On the other we have a highly individual soloist who, though…

Monteverdi L’incoronazione di Poppea (CD + DVD) Sonya Yoncheva, Kate Lindsey, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Dominique Visse; Les Arts Florissants/William Christie; dir. Jan Lauwers (Salzburg, 2018) Harmonia Mundi HAF 8902622.24 195:41 mins (3 discs, plus DVD) Sonya Yoncheva’s Poppea embodies spontaneity This performance of L’incoronazione di Poppea is a star-studded, multimedia extravaganza from the 2018 Salzburg Festival. Conductor William Christie worked closely with director-choreographer Jan Lauwers to fold experimental dance, live video projections, and off-kilter sets and costumes into Monteverdi’s score. Cognitive dissonance reigns as gorgeous music engulfs a drama about moral implosion. This production is best watched, rather than listened to. Writhing half-naked bodies show inner torture; protagonists’ back-stage antics are projected onstage from a hand-held camera after they’ve gone off. The cruelty of the action is horribly persuasive: driven by…

Prism II JS Bach: Fugue in B minor, BWV 869 (arr. Förster); Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B flat; Schnittke: String Quartet No. 3 Danish Quartet ECM 481 8564 74:16 mins It is the ‘Grosse fuge’ that inspires the most insightful playing of all As Paul Griffiths describes eloquently in his exemplary booklet annotations, there are profound familial connections here between the contrapuntal intensity of Bach’s B minor Fugue from Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier (heard here in an inspired arrangement by Beethoven’s friend, Emmanuel Aloys Förster), Beethoven’s ‘Grosse Fuge’ (presented, as originally intended, as the finale of the Op. 130 Quartet) and Schnittke’s Third Quartet. The quartet refers overtly to the ‘Grosse Fuge’ as the music’s virtual progenitor and (almost subliminally) to the Bach fugue. Fascinatingly, in…

R Schumann Arabeske, Op. 18; Fantasie, Op. 17; Papillons, Op. 2; Faschingsschwank aus Wien Joseph Tong (piano) Quartz QTZ 2134 74:47 mins This recital collects four works from the 1830s, including the magisterial Fantasie. The pieces are well-known but Tong’s playing revealed Schumann to me as a thrilling new love rather than a familiar old friend. The explosive central movement has fire and passion Schumann’s numerous musical personalities – the heartfelt, the madcap, the enraged, the scholarly – are each given time to materialise before evanescing. The Fantasie, a work which has left generations of pianists in fear and trembling, is virtuosic, but never obtrusively so. The poignant, searching cadences which close the first movement feel open-ended and mysterious. The explosive central movement has fire and passion but is never…

Critical Lives: Dmitry Shostakovich Pauline Fairclough Reaktion Books 978-1-789-14127-6; 192pp (pb) £11.99 Few composers have been subjected to such long-standing distortions regarding their music and political outlook as Shostakovich. Pauline Fairclough acknowledges these minefields, and in this vivid and lucidly expounded study manages to steer a pragmatic course through the many controversial issues that blighted his career. Her fair-minded approach and scrupulous attention to detail, supported by references to newly discovered or previously unpublished archival material, combines cutting-edge scholarship with tremendous insight into Shostakovich’s complex personality. The picture that emerges is far more rounded and I dare say more human than has been the case with previous biographies of the composer. In this respect, Fairclough is particularly sensitive in dealing with Shostakovich’s often problematic relationships with women. There’s a real…

London Concert Choir One of London’s leading amateur choirs, London Concert Choir performs a wide variety of classical, commissioned and contemporary music concerts, from unaccompanied church music to large-scale choral works. LCC’s 60th Anniversary season opens on 7 November with a concert performance of Purcell’s semi-operatic masterpiece King Arthur at Cadogan Hall, conducted by Music Director Mark Forkgen. info@londonconcertchoir.org www.londonconcertchoir.org Edinburgh Royal Choral Union ERCU has contributed significantly to Scotland’s musical landscape since 1858 by performing the established choral repertoire, including Messiah every new year in the Usher Hall. Recent commissions from Judith Bingham, Thea Musgrave and, in planning for 2020, New England-based Thomas LaVoy, ensure that ERCU continues to develop and extend its offering. admin@ercu.org.uk www.ercu.org.uk The Daleian Singers North Staffordshire's Daleian Singers, voted Best UK Choir at the Cornwall International…

Starting points At the end of your First Impressions feature (October) you ask us to share the first piece of classical music that inspired us as children. At the age of 11, having collected a few 78s of popular music, I switched on the wireless one day and was transfixed by what I heard – a piece of music that I wanted to go on forever. It was La mer by Debussy and it changed my life. That was 65 years ago and I’ve been exploring symphonic music ever since. Richard Howard, Banstead The editor replies: We would love to hear from readers about the pieces that first got you into classical music. Drop us a note, and we’ll print the best next month. American pioneer Your Composer of the…

Will Thomas Bass Born: Harpenden, UK Career highlight: Performing Nicholas, the Major-Domo in Barber’s Vanessa at Glyndebourne. Although it was a small role, I learnt so much from being on stage with such fantastic performers and working with director Keith Warner. Musical hero: The Italian bass Cesare Siepi’s voice was so warm, rich and powerful. And also John Tomlinson, another bass, because he really cares about text, language and character. He is a singing actor rather than just a singer. Dream concert: The Three Tenors have dined out long enough – it’s time for The Three Basses! How about John Tomlinson, Cesare Siepi and George London singing the Bass and Heldenbaritone hits? Idunnu Münch Mezzo-soprano Born: Munich, Germany Career highlight: Being part of the English National Opera Porgy…

c.1st: Following the fall of Cagliari, Alghero and Castellaragonese, Spanish forces complete the capture of Sardinia from the Holy Roman Empire. The attack on the island leads Spain into the War of the Quadruple Alliance against Britain, France, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic. 9th: French composer André Campra’s opera Camille, reine des Volsques is performed for the first time at the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris. The libretto by Antoine Dachet is based on the story of Camilla, the heroic Volscian warrior and leader who fights Aeneas’s Trojan forces in Book XI of Virgil’s The Aeneid. 13th: Prince George William, the second son of the future George II of Britain and Caroline of Ansbach, is born at St James’s Palace, London. Events surrounding the prince’s baptism…

Grieg Slåtter Knut Buen (hardanger fiddle), Einer Steen-Nøkleberg (piano) Simax PSC1040 This piece shows such a different side to Grieg to the one we already know. Slåtter, a collection of Norwegian dances, has wonderful, dissonant harmonies and a different way of writing for the piano. What’s great about this recording is that you hear the folk tune first followed by Grieg’s take on it; the folk and classical versions are completely different, but they both have the same principal melodic make-up. Ascending Amira Medunjanin (voice); Trondheim Soloists Croatia Records CD 6083251  The Trondheim Soloists are a sensitive yet energetic and spirited group. This recording features a folk singer I’m very fond of, also from Bosnia, and a jazz pianist. It’s a bit of a weird and wonderful combination, but it…

At the risk of writing a column of interest to about 12 people, I am applying my raddled old brain to the question of why English National Opera has decided to give opera critics just one complimentary ticket, rather than two, to its first nights. The second ticket, known as a plus-one, is undoubtedly a perk, but a very long-established and widespread one. I could live without it. Indeed, I often turn down the second ticket, miserable loner that I am. But I accept it’s a courteous gesture, a recognition that even critics have the right to a social life – especially as, in these constrained times, they have probably come straight from a full-time day job. And the fact is that every other opera house, theatre and orchestra in…

Artur Schnabel Warner Classics 9029597505 Recorded between 1932 and ’38, this first ever recording of the complete sonatas has remained a classic account. Wilhelm Kempff DG 477 7958 The German pianist recorded the cycle several times; DG’s remastered stereo version was released in 2008 Friedrich Gulda Orfeo C808109L The Austrian pianist made three recordings of Beethoven’s sonatas. This is the first, recorded for Austrian Radio. Ronald Brautigam BIS BIS2000 Swedish keyboardist Ronald Brautigam’s fortepiano recordings of the Beethoven sonatas for BIS made between 2004 and ’10 are now gathered together in one box. Brautigam plays on Paul McNulty’s replicas of original instruments dating from 1788-1819. Stephen Kovacevich Warner 9029586922 Kovacevich gets to the heart of the sonatas with playing that teeters on the edge of sanity, roars with ferocious power…

In the 18th century, several family horn ensembles formed, including Joseph, Wensel and Jacob Ziwiny, the Boeck brothers and the Nisles family. In the mid-19th century, brothers Joseph and Constantin Lewy pioneered the valve horn, and of course Franz and Richard Strauss constitute two key names in the repertoire. The French horn evolved out of early hunting horns, and was first used in 17th-century hunting scene fanfares. In 1814, Stölzel and Blühmel produced a valve horn, which nullified the need for several crooks to play chromatically. Not everyone took to this evolution: Weber found its sound ‘intolerable’, while Brahms’s Horn Trio was written for natural horn, as was Mendelssohn’s Ein Sommernachtstraum nocturne. But in 1898, Kruspe developed the double horn in F/B-flat; various versions were played during the 20th century,…

Divertissement Poulenc’s early works epitomise the light-hearted style of 1920s ‘Esprit nouveau’, triggered by Satie’s Parade (1917) and Cocteau in Le Coq et l’arlequin (1919, above). The faux-naïve simplicity of Poulenc’s music led him to be considered a mere ‘divertissement’ composer, but, with the rediscovery of his Christian faith during the 1930s, he produced a succession of religious works that rival those of Messiaen in their eloquence and profundity. Neoclassicism Poulenc’s music is characterised by economy of means, the use of traditional forms and allusions to music of earlier periods. Although he adhered to the tonal system, his harmonic language features the piquant spice of bitonality and playful juxtapositions of disjointed tonalities. His penchant for percussive figurations and ostinatos owes much to Stravinsky. Curiosity Poulenc was as curious about the…

Though the tragically short-lived Pergolesi (1710-36) inevitably features in the list of classical music’s ‘what might have beens’, he nonetheless packed a lot into his short time on this earth. Pergolesi moved to Naples from the Marche region in 1725, where he became the toast of the town, composing eight operas for the city’s stages, plus one for Rome. His output also included a number of chamber and choral works, including the Stabat Mater, which was written while the composer was dying from turberculosis in a Franciscan monastery in Pouzzuoli.…

Why did you choose Korngold for this Sinfonia of London return? It’s one of those records that I felt I really had to make. I think the Symphony is a masterpiece; it’s the last great Austro-Germanic Romantic symphony and very often misunderstood. Even though there were ten existing recordings of it, we’ve arrived at a greater understanding of Korngold as a composer. So I think that piece was ready for a different take, and a much leaner one. It’s very easy to pour chocolate sauce over Korngold and it’s the last thing that he needs. It’s a demanding work for the players, but what are the challenges for you? It’s one of the hardest things you’ll ever play; it’s terrifying! It needs major string discipline – it has to be…

Born in Jamaica, Cowen (originally Cohen) moved to England when he was four years old. Two years later he was a published composer, and by the time he was eight he had written his first operetta, Garibaldi. He went on to compose symphonies, chamber works, cantatas and opera. He held conducting tenures with the Hallé (until ousted by Hans Richter), the Scottish Orchestra and London’s Philharmonic Society orchestras, but was sacked from the latter for apologising for the quality of a performance before it had taken place.…

Time & Eternity Works by Anon, JS Bach, Fišer, Ikonnikov, K Hartmann, Machaut, F Martin, Zorn & Sygietynski Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin); Camerata Bern Alpha Classics ALPHA545 77:00 mins This is a programme that keeps listeners on their toes Concept programmes are meat and drink to the Moldovan-born violinist’s boundless musical curiosity. And she’s not one to duck the big issues. In its string orchestral reincarnation, Schubert’s Death and the Maiden Quartet is spliced with Dowland, Kurtág and Byzantine chant. She’s tackled the biosphere and global warming; and in ‘War ‘n’ Chips’, aspects of contemporary detachment – the latter her first ‘staged concert’ with Camerata Bern, who accompany her here on this latest foray into the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Two works stand at the centre of Time…

Brahms • Schubert Brahms: Vier ernste Gesänge; Schubert: Schwanengesang Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano) Hyperion CDA68288 73:21 mins This recital from Gerald Finley and Julius Drake presents ‘last words’ by Schubert and Brahms. Schwanengesang is a collection of songs cannily marketed under the title Swansong after Schubert’s early death by his astute Viennese publisher; and Brahms’s Four Serious Songs was composed shortly before the death of Clara Schumann, one of his dearest, lifelong friends. Nevertheless, these are two very different works. Schwanengesang is really two cycles plus a bonus song. Its discontinuous moods range across the ebullient, lachrymose, romantic and bleak. But in this performance, bleakness and slow tempos dominate. And Brahms’s serious songs tend to be sung at a dirge-like pace anyway, because musicians rarely trust his marking…

When you come from a musical family like the Wallfisches, it’s hardly surprising you might have more than one string to your bow. Indeed, Simon Wallfisch studied both cello and singing at the Royal College of Music. It’s the latter, though, for which he is in demand. A passion for German lieder led him to continue studies in Berlin and Leipzig and today he is establishing himself as an operatic leading man and talented recitalist. A keen activist, Simon is also involved in ongoing work to preserve works by musicians and composers exiled or murdered during the Second World War.…

Franck Piano Quintet; String Quartet; Chausson Piano Quartet; String Quartet MDG 644 2145-2 (2005-06) 77:09 mins The Spiegel Quartet and Jan Michiels give a superb account of Franck’s ardent Piano Quintet and beguiling renditions of Chausson. ★★★★★ Mondonville Pièces de clavecin avec voix ou violon Harmonia Mundi HMM 931045 (1980) 52:54 mins  Judith Nelson’s pure soprano and unfailingly stylish accompaniments from William Christie do this repertoire rich justice. ★★★★ Sound The Trumpets Albinoni, JS Bach, Buxtehude, Charpentier, Handel, Purcell, etc Eloquence 482 8629 (1969-91) 80:17 mins (2 discs) In this wide-ranging anthology of works featuring the glory of the Baroque trumpet, mostly in arrangements, the Läubins’s virtuosity impresses. ★★★ Tribute to John Cerminaro Bernstein, Doppler, Glière, Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, Scriabin & R Strauss Crystal CD775 (1981-96) 51:23 mins John Cerminaro was…

An outspoken and influential figure, Balakirev was a composer, pianist and conductor at the very heart of Russian nationalist music. His devotion to establishing and maintaining a national style led him to encourage composers like Borodin, Musorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. His obsession and heavy-handed approach to coaching those he took under his wing led to them turning their backs on him. His own composing took a back seat and many works took years to realise. A nervous breakdown was a big knock and despite returning to public life his star was much dimmed.…

November round-up  You wait for a Finnish pianist who stretches the boundaries of jazz and then two come along at once. While Iiro Rantala (see Jazz Choice) looks into other corners of the piano tradition for inspiration, Aki Rissanen counts electronic music among his interests, which has an intriguing effect on the music presented on his CD Art In Motion. Artists such as the UK’s Neil Cowley have also been chipping away at this area for a while; Rissanen takes some of the more subtle aspects of the genre and, like Cowley, applies them to that most traditional of jazz groupings, the piano trio. Realising that there’s now more to beat-driven electronica than the thump and clang of house and techno, he delves instead into the murky, shifting sounds of…

This year saw Greenland lose so much of its cool that there were rumours of its imminent sale to Donald Trump, and huge tracts of the Amazon rainforest destroyed by fire in the name of agribusiness. So the appearance of Spell Songs – a ‘musical companion piece’ to The Lost Words, a book by British natural history writer Robert Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris – seems very timely. It began with a series of rapturously received concerts arranged by Folk By The Oak, which metamorphosed into a full-scale BBC Prom this year and this deluxe CD/book, featuring Scottish luminaries Kris Drever, harpist and Gaelic singer Rachel Newton, Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis and Senegalese kora maestro/singer Seckou Keita. This all-star ‘folk group’ creates music to match the ‘spells’ cast against…

27. Turner Sims Where: Southampton Opened: 1974 Seats: 365-400 Nestled in the gardens attached to Southampton University’s Highfield Campus, the Turner Sims concert hall was initially built to accommodate the University Concert Society as well as provide the local community with a venue for chamber music. The building was made possible by a bequest in 1967 from its namesake, Margaret Grassam-Sims. Since its opening in 1974, the hall has rapidly grown to become a hugely popular venue that now hosts over 70 concerts each year and welcomes celebrated performers such as Courtney Pine, Nicola Benedetti, Alison Balsom, Mitsuko Uchida and the Vienna Piano Trio. The Turner Sims acoustic design benefited from the input of Southampton’s own Institute of Sound and Vibration Research. The hall’s assets are put to good use…

Blue hills beyond blue hills In a concert celebrating the joys of the natural world, the BBC Singers take us from the foothills of Peru to the skies of Estonia with a selection of songs by Messiaen and Erkki-Sven Tüür (see Meet the Composer, p19). A new work for choir and string quartet by Master of the Queen’s Music Judith Weir will also receive its premiere. Radio 3 in Concert: 12 November, 7.30pm Jazz Generation Radio 3 pays a visit to the London Jazz Festival this month with a specially commissioned cello concerto by bass player and jazz composer Misha Mullov-Abbado performed alongside new and existing arrangements of works by Duke Ellington. Radio 3 in Concert: 29 November, 7.30pm NCEM Young Composers Award Viol player Liam Byrne is joined by…