Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2020 i BBC Music Magazine

Richard Morrison Chief critic, The Times ‘Plenty of top musicians talk vaguely about the importance of music education, but Nicola Benedetti backs up her words with impressive deeds. It was inspiring to talk to her about her new Benedetti Foundation.’ Page 28 Daniel Moult Organist ‘Tracing the story of the English organ is like putting a mirror to our national history. I was thrilled by the sheer diversity of sound, feel and sight of instruments from across the centuries.’ Page 44 Steph Power Writer and composer ‘Relatively few works premiered in the last 30 years have attained instant classic status. Ligeti’s wild, sublimely challenging Violin Concerto is one such, with a growing catalogue of fine and inspiring recordings.’ Page 64…

By George, where’s Felix? Further to your 50 Greatest Composers article (December, UK), it is interesting, and a little sad, that neither Mendelssohn nor Handel are ranked highly by today’s composers – with the added piquancy that in the same issue you compare best recordings of the former’s wonderful ‘Scottish’ Symphony. In Handel’s case, perhaps his Jewish/ Christian oratorios seem like a dead end to our living composers, both in form and cultural expression. Felix, I think, still lives under ‘the curse of Wagner’, whereby a belittled reputation discourages exploration of his remarkable achievement across almost all musical forms; even his teenage operas probably contain enjoyable music. It would be interesting to hear further thoughts on these two notable omissions, and others. Alan Ross, Chingford WORTH £120 WIN TOP-QUALITY WIRELESS…

5 ...Beethoven concertos in one day. Pianist Howard Shelley (pictured above) has revealed that he will be marking his 70th birthday in March with a quintet of performances at St John’s Smith Square, London. 100,000,000 …streams on Spotify. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma is the first classical artist to reach the milestone with a single track: the first movement of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1. 3 …more years. Joshua Bell has agreed to stay artistic director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields until at least 2023. 150 … years to stage an opera by a woman. With the premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando , Vienna State Opera has broken its run of only programming male composers.…

Gamechanger Chineke! Britain’s first majority-BME orchestra – marking its fourth anniversary this year – wins the RPS’s first ever Gamechanger Award, which celebrates an ensemble breaking new ground in classical music. RPS Gold Medal Sofia Gubaidulina This year’s top prize went to composer Sofia Gubaidulina in tribute to her long and illustrious career as one of the leading representatives of new music in Russia. Chamber-Scale Composition Tansy Davies Cave A work of ‘haunting, dramatic beauty’, Tansy Davies’s chamber opera was praised for its ability to create an ingenious electronic soundscape from its minimal elements. Concert Series and Events The Cumnock Tryst James MacMillan’s Scottish festival took the top prize, thanks to its utter inclusivity, with equal focus placed on the local participating people as on the visiting artists: ‘A brilliant…

Oscar Strasnoy Orchestral Works Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra Aeon AECD1331 I first came to know Oscar Strasnoy’s music through his Ittingen Concerto, which takes inspiration from JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. My curiosity was sparked by the highly respectful, yet playful manner in which he treats Bach’s music, while staying true to his own musical language. This recording follows precisely this idea, forming a bridge between the earlier masterpieces and Strasnoy’s very personal contemporary tonal language. Gypsy Baroque Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra Alpha Classics ALPHA392 This embarks on a journey in the opposite direction, namely, to the origins of works whose tunes in some cases are still well known today. The gambist Vittorio Ghielmi researched the few surviving sources containing music of 18th-century gypsy bands, and wonderfully brings this music to…

Joana Carneiro Conductor  I’ve been listening to a very beautiful recording of Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs. It’s a new disc from Decca featuring the Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen with the Philharmonia, who premiered the work in the 1950s, and Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting. Davidsen’s voice has this depth – as soon as you hear her, there’s something very profound that connects with you as a listener. She has deeply studied the text and that really shows from the first note. There’s something very moving about it. There is something so pure about the way mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter sings ‘Urlicht’ There’s one recording that I always listen to constantly, and it comes with me everywhere I go. It’s Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, which is a piece that has been…

Oliver Condy Editor Huge fun was had at the recent annual classical music record industry quiz, in aid of the Nordoff Robbins music therapy charity. Pitched against each another were teams from across the music world including, naturally, BBC Music Magazine. Questions ranged from missing words to female composers, anagrams to historic premieres. And much as it pains me to write this, we were beaten into second place by… Gramophone magazine. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor I’ve lately been enjoying exploring the orchestral music of Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi (above) on a disc by the Vasteras Sinfonietta. In this instance, ‘exploring’ seems a very apt term. In works such as the Highlands Cello Concerto – played here by Jakob Koranyi – Tarrodi’s soundworld surrounds the listener like a vast,…

From 27 January to 1 February, BBC Radio 3 is marking the 20th anniversary of the BBC New Generation Artists scheme. Each day Essential Classics features an NGA alumnus, including mezzo Alice Coote, soprano Fatma Said and pianist Mariam Batsashvili. Lunchtime Concert on Monday 27 January is broadcast from Wigmore Hall and showcases violinist Jennifer Pike; from the Tuesday to the Friday, concerts by NGA Artists will come from the Birmingham Conservatoire. Radio 3’s Afternoon Concerts are featuring performances by violinist Lisa Batiashvili, pianist Paul Lewis, the Amatis Piano Trio, the Calidore Quartet and the Belcea Quartet. And Radio 3’s in Concert schedule includes French horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill performing Haydn and Mozart, plus pianist Benjamin Grosvenor in a programme of Schumann, Janácek, Prokofiev and Liszt. Finally, pianist Igor Levit…

Tucked away in the shadow of Mont Blanc in the French Alps – right on the border of Switzerland and Italy – is the charming town of Megève. In winter, it’s a haven of snow sports, with some of the best ski slopes in Europe and the largest indoor sports centre the Alps has to offer. In the summer months, however, the hustle and bustle die down. What’s left is a lush green mountain range with views up to Mont Blanc, a thriving hiking community and, as of 2018, a music festival with a bit of a difference. The peculiarly named Megève Festival Savoy Truffle is so called because of its region – Savoy – and takes its inspiration from the 1968 song of that title by The Beatles, a…

Instrumentation Feldman wrote some works for voice, but most of his output is chamber music. He often uses unusual instrumental combinations, such as alto flute, flute, horn, trumpet, violin and cello. Neither was his only opera. Slow and steady Much of Feldman’s music is contemplative and thinly textured with no discernible tunes – the focus is on each note and how it sounds in that particular bar at that particular point. The overall effect is meditative quietness. This is ‘mindful’ music before the term was even invented. Space and time Like his mentor Cage (pictured above), Feldman uses pauses and rests frequently. For him, the space in between the notes is as important as the melodic sounds. This became more extreme towards the later part of his career, when he…

Born in Romania in 1923, György Ligeti lived until his early 30s in his native Hungary. With restrictions imposed on his composing style by the country’s communist regime, he fled to Vienna soon after the Soviet repression of the Hungarian revolution in 1956. There, he emerged as a major figure of the avant garde, developing orchestral techniques that included, most famously, micropolyphony, as can be heard in works such as Atmosphères. It was, though, the use of his music in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey that brought wider fame. He died in 2006.…

Handel Samson Joshua Ellicott and Hugo Hymas (tenors), Jess Dandy (alto), Matthew Brook and Vitali Rozynko (basses), Mary Bevan, Sophie Bevan and Fflur Wyn (soprano); Tiffin Boys Choir/ James Day; Dunedin Consort/ John Butt John Butt has created the best Samson ever. He’s chosen the original 1743 version, star soloists with early-music chops and his band of top period instrumentalists. Above all, he’s beefed up the choir. The 1743 choir consisted of soloists alone, but these singers’ three separate dramatic roles – as the Israelites, the Philistines and a Christian congregation reflecting on the action – richly justify Butt’s adding to his soloists not just the Dunedin chorus, but boy trebles as well. These choral forces make for a vibrancy unique among Samson recordings. The story, based on Milton’s retelling…

Haydn Symphony No. 80 in D minor, Hob. I:80; Piano Concerto in D, Hob. XVIII:11; Symphony No. 81 in G, Hob. I.81 Lucas Blondeel (fortepiano); Le Concert d’Anvers/ Bart Van Reyn Fuga Libera FUG 755 62:06 mins Lucas Blondeel injects the keyboard part with expressive freedom The two symphonies recorded here were written in the early 1780s, immediately before Haydn’s famous series for Paris, Nos. 82-87. The D minor Symphony No. 80 kicks off in dramatic style – almost like a throwback to the turbulent Sturm und Drang style Haydn had cultivated more than a decade earlier. And yet the music’s seriousness is suddenly swept aside by a simple waltz tune which provides the main point of focus in the central portion of the movement. Bart Van Reyn stresses the…

Dreamtime Busoni: Divertimento, Op. 52; Mozart: Andante in C; Penderecki: Flute Concerto; Reinecke: Flute Concerto in D; Ballade, Op. 288; Takemitsu: I Hear the Water Dreaming Emmanuel Pahud (flute); Munich Radio Orchestra/Ivan Repušić Warner 9029539244 78:38 mins The extended phrases are perfectly paced by Pahud Emmanuel Pahud consistently delivers high-quality recordings with a twist, from a collection of rarities by Carl and Franz Doppler (Farao) to his 2018 double-disc Solo (Warner) that layered Telemann fantasies with 20th- and 21st-century works. Dreamtime is similarly creative, programming a wide selection of concertos and concertante pieces themed around different experiences of that state. Toru Takemitsu’s I Hear the Water Dreaming has the most obvious links to the topic, having been inspired by the Australian Aboriginals’ concept of ancestral space, which has come to…

Handel Sosarme Eloquence 482 8582 (1955) 148:05 mins (2 discs) An early enterprising recording of a still rare Handel opera makes a broadly positive impression, with magical countertenor Alfred Deller leading a mixed vocal team and good orchestral values. ★★★ Rameau Les indes galantes Harmonia Mundi HAX 8901367.69 (1991) 193:07 mins (3 discs) William Christie’s studio recording with his specialist ensemble of Rameau’s 1735 opéra-ballet offers stylish singing and playing from start to finish. ★★★★★ Margaret Price in Recital Arias by Bellini, Verdi, Rossini et al Eloquence 482 5237 (1969-89) 139:43 mins (2 discs) A wide-ranging selection of the pristine vocalism of the great Welsh soprano, stretching from Welsh folk songs through Schubert, bel canto and Verdi, to Ravel, Berg, Phyllis Tate and Alun Hoddinott. ★★★★★ Vienna, Women and Song…

John Corigliano (b1938 ) One of America’s most successful living composers, Corigliano has over 100 works to his credit. His First Symphony, which won him a Grammy (the first of four) in 1992, was written for the Chicago Symphony – Corigliano was its first ever composer-in-residence. His Second Symphony won him a Pulitzer Prize in 2001, just a year or so after taking home the Oscar for Best Original Score for The Red Violin . As a teacher, Corigliano continues to serve on the faculty at both Juilliard and New York’s Lehman College; his past students include Mason Bates, Nico Muhly and Eric Whitacre.…

So much more than a composer, Michael Nyman is also a performer, conductor, librettist and filmmaker. One of the fathers of minimalism, his musical style truly set him apart in the 1970s. His Michael Nyman Band, established in 1977, continues to tour the world and Nyman himself has become something of an icon whom other artists have clamoured to work with. His composing output is vast, comprising chamber works, opera, songs and film scores. A fruitful collaboration with the director Peter Greenaway brought about some of his most familiar works.…

January round-up ECM has been able to nurture adventurous artists like Kit Downes for the last 50 years thanks largely to the global sales of improvising galactico Keith Jarrett. The pianist’s new album for the illustrious German imprint, Munich 2016, is the latest in a series of live solo recordings made over the years. It’s a supernatural performance, even by Jarrett’s peerless standards. The simply numbered 12-part suite is a standing wave of harmonic and melodic imagination that draws on folksong, blues and classicism. There’s no sign that it’s the final date on the tour’s European leg, such is Jarrett’s focus and energy; even the quieter pieces have a profound intensity. A gentle reading of three tin-pan alley standards, including his signature ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, seals the deal beautifully.…

does cover, however, it covers very neatly and informatively. Beginning with guides to musical notation and the main instruments of the orchestra, we move onto a period-by-period history of classical music, including potted descriptions of the most important composers and their major works. Clearly and concisely set out, those descriptions pack an impressive amount of detail into a relatively small space, making this a valuable first point of reference. This, in fact, is an updated edition of a book that was first published in 2012, though someone on the editor’s desk seems to have briefly fallen asleep at the wheel in the meantime – the composers Maxwell Davies, Sculthorpe, Harvey and Tavener have all sadly left us since the first edition was published, but are presented here as being still…

Open or closed back? ‘Open-backed’ headphones give music room to breathe, and emphasise the scale of the performance, whereas ‘closed-back’ models are more intimate, but keep the noise inside the headphones so you can use them in public. Bluetooth Bluetooth is convenient, but it compresses the quality of your music significantly. If you want a better streaming experience, you’ll need aptX headphones and a compatible player or smartphone. Want even better? Look out for aptX HD which plays 24-bit, better-than-CD quality. Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) These headphones reduce background noise such as everyday traffic, train and plane engine rumble by using miniature microphones in the earpiece. They work by creating a soundwave opposite to the ambient noise, effectively cancelling it out. Superb for plane journeys. THIS MONTH: THE LATEST HEADPHONES…

Alan Davey , the controller of BBC Radio 3, picks out three great moments to tune into this January Beethoven Unleashed To kick off our year-long celebrations of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Welsh National Opera recreate the composer’s epic 1808 Vienna concert when several major works received premieres, including his Fourth Piano Concerto and Symphonies Nos 5 & 6. Radio 3 in Concert: 19 January, 7.30pm New Year New Music In this special edition of the New Music Show, we’re bringing in the new year by asking 11 of our presenters to name their favourite pieces of music composed in the last decade. Choices include works by John Luther Adams, Dobrinka Tabakova and Rebecca Saunders. New Music Show: 4 January, 10pm New Generation Artists…

In the space of just a few weeks at the end of 2019, we learned of the deaths of Mariss Jansons and Stephen Cleobury. Jansons was a maestro who, without showboating, transformed the Concertgebouw and the Bavarian Radio Symphony orchestras with his unparalleled ear for exquisite detail. His recordings of Mahler, Strauss and Beethoven find few peers in any record collection. Stephen Cleobury possessed similar gifts; in his 37 years at King’s College, Cambridge, Cleobury took the choir to even greater heights than had his predecessor Philip Ledger and, before him, David Willcocks. In recent years, I got to know Cleobury quite well and will never forget his generosity in letting me have a go on the King’s chapel organ during a break in rehearsals for a recording of Fauré’s…

Mikhail Timoshenko Bass-baritone Born: Kameykino, Russia Career highlight: Winning the Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera International Song Competition and being able to enjoy Wigmore Hall’s wonderful acoustic. Musical hero: When I was 16 and before I’d thought about becoming a musician, I heard Dmitri Hvorostovsky singing Russian songs. He was my inspiration to be a singer. Dream concert: A recital at Wigmore Hall, combining words and music in a way that brings out the humour in the music. For example, everyone thinks that Der Zwerg is just a horrible story about a murderous dwarf, but in fact it’s Schubert’s most wonderful love song! Lara Deutsch Flautist Born: Ottawa, Canada Career highlight: Releasing my debut album with my flute and harp duo. I learnt a great deal from the process of…

A Clara victory Following our December issue 50 Greatest Composers poll, voted for by today’s leading composers and topped by JS Bach, we opened up the debate by running a ‘Composers World Cup’, voted for by our followers on Twitter. In this instance, it was won by Clara Schumann who, interestingly, had not gained one vote among the 870 cast by the composers in the magazine itself. Chordal Finn Anna-Maria Helsing has been appointed as the principal guest conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra. Helsing became the first ever female chief conductor of a major Finnish orchestra when she took over at the Oulu Symphony in 2010, and now joins a veritable flurry of Finns who have taken up posts at British ensembles in recent years, including Sakari Oramo at…

Conductor Eduardo Portal and the RSNO feature on the premiere recording of Spanish composer Gustavo Díaz-Jerez’s seven-movement piece Maghek. Each section is a symphonic poem inspired by the landscape and natural beauty of the Canary Islands and includes solo turns by clarinettist Cristo Barrios and pianist Riccardo Descalzo. Signum Classics will release the album at the end of February. Talking of beautiful landscapes, Scotland’s Crear is surely one of the most dazzling recording locations in the world, with its amazing studio vistas of the Isle of Jura. Pianist Mhairi Hall was there recently to record her new album of solo works inspired by Scottish songs and folktunes. Airs, which also features original works by Hall, is set for release at the end of January. Also coming in the early part…

It’s the ultimate way to serve steak: to make Tournedos Rossini, find the finest slices of brioche, place your filets mignons on top, and consecrate the meat with meltingly warm foie gras and sliced truffle. Voilà! Your one-way ticket to a food coma, as well as gastronomic and quite possibly literal heaven. But this steak reveals Gioachino Rossini’s reputational problem. It shores up his image as a composer of worldly appetites rather than superhuman compositional achievement. Yes, he gave his name to epicurean indulgence, but most importantly he wrote 39 operas in half as many years; he was the most famous composer of the early 19th century; he was envied by Beethoven and Wagner; and he was adored by audiences wherever his music conquered the opera house, whether in Naples,…

Alexandra Wilson As a Puccini scholar, I hear an awful lot of Toscas and La bohèmes. So I relished listening to Opera Rara’s release of his first opera, Le Willis. Puccini is in supernatural vein here but his trademark passionate style is already discernible and conveyed exuberantly by the LPO under Mark Elder, with Ermonela Jaho as a suitably vulnerable jilted fiancée. I was also enchanted by a delicately etched Die Zauberflöte at Covent Garden, the sympathetic cast led by Benjamin Hulett as Tamino and Elsa Dreisig as Pamina.…

Modest chap, Kanye West. Over the course of his eventful 42-year life the rapper, producer, fashion designer and husband to Kim Kardashian has compared himself to Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Michelangelo, Picasso, Shakespeare and Socrates. Now he declares that his recent embrace of evangelical religion is at least as helpful to Jesus Christ as to himself. ‘Jesus has won the victory because the greatest artist that God ever created is now working for him,’ he told a church congregation last month. Oddly, however, the list of geniuses whom West considers his forerunners doesn’t include Giuseppe Verdi. Why is that a surprise? Because Verdi wrote a rather good opera called Nabucco, while West has just premiered, in a blaze of pomp and publicity in the Hollywood Bowl, his…

Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto; Fiddle Dance Suite Decca 485 0013 (2019)  The jazz trumpeter and composer’s expansive and eclectic concerto was written for Benedetti. She premieres it on disc here with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Cristian Macelaru. Arlene Sierra Butterflies, Remember a Mountain Bridge BRIDGE9506 (2018) Benedetti joins cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk for the American composer’s second piano trio, described by The Times as ‘a small wonder’. Shostakovich & Glazunov Violin Concertos Decca 478 8758 (2016) This powerful disc journeys from late Romantic Russia to the 1940s Soviet Union, with Kirill Karabits conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Homecoming: A Scottish Fantasy Decca 478 6690 (2014) Benedetti paints a picture of Scotland’s musical landscape. She’s joined by folk singer Julie Fowlis for traditional song, and the BBC Scottish…

To make sense of the collection of young composers who in January 1920 were given the label Le Groupe des Six, we have to go a little back in time. In the late 19th century, French composers were facing the Wagner problem. Letters of the time from composers such as Chabrier, Chausson and Debussy groan under complaints of how the German’s musical vocabulary, what Debussy called ‘the ghost of old Klingsor’, dominated their efforts, try as they might. But ignoring him, while not easy, could be done, as two younger composers, Maurice Ravel and Erik Satie, showed with considerable success. The compositional path Ravel marked out for himself led to masterpiece after masterpiece. But the pre-war group of Jeunes Ravélites never amounted to much, largely because, as Alexander Goehr has…

The Wetheringsett Organ (Goetze & Gwynn, 2001) This fascinating reconstruction (see main feature) tours around the UK and is a window onto the Tudor soundworld. Adlington Hall, Cheshire (Anon, c1680) Played by Handel, this instrument is as close as we can get to a post-Restoration experience for the music of Purcell and his generation. Christ Church, Spitalfields, London (Bridge, 1735) This impressive, elegant organ, restored in 2015 by William Drake, epitomises the 18th century. Ideal for Handel and Stanley. Truro Cathedral (Willis, 1887) From a seemingly different musical universe, the confidence and engineering prowess of the 19th century is abundantly clear in this excellent organ. The Caird Hall, Dundee (Harrison & Harrison, 1923) Instruments reached their apogee in the 19th-century orchestral style of organ, such as the fine example in…

1926 LIFE: Morton Feldman is born in Queens, New York to Irving and Frances Breskin Feldman, both émigrés from Russia. His father runs a business making children’s clothes. TIMES: Representatives from the Soviet Union and Germany sign the Treaty of Berlin, agreeing their nations will remain neutral if either is attacked by a third party in the next five years. 1941 LIFE: He begins lessons with Wallingford Riegger, a 12-tone composer and champion of Schoenberg. Feldman disagrees with his teacher’s views and they spend their lessons arguing. TIMES: In December, Japanese aircraft attack the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii, killing 2,400 Americans and prompting the US’s formal entry into the Second World War. 1960 LIFE: Having experimented with different types of notation, he begins writing Durations, a series of…

Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin) Ensemble Modern/Peter Eötvös Naive V5285 The stars quite simply align in this stupendous 2012 recording by Moldovan violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja with Ensemble Modern and Peter Eötvös – the ensemble and conductor who had premiered the five-movement Violin Concerto in 1992. Of course, the soloist then was Ligeti’s dedicatee, Saschko Gawriloff, whose subsequent premiere recording with Ensemble InterContemporain and Pierre Boulez continues to set an eloquently high bar. But Kopatchinskaja takes things into altogether new dimensions, conjuring a performance that feels wrought from her very nerves and sinew. Kopatchinskaja and Eötvös maximise Ligeti’s extreme dynamics and articulation Wonderfully precise and controlled, she and the ensemble still manage to convey the sense of spontaneity and risk inherent in a score full of startling gestures and unusual sounds. The result…

These choral forces make for a vibrancy unique among recordings of Samson The score is baggy, the time pressure under which it was prepared having led Handel to borrow from no fewer than eight other composers. Butt’s deep grasp both of Handel’s rhetoric and of large-scale structure turns the work’s patchwork quality into a virtue, bringing intimacy to each character’s reflections and urgency to crowd reactions. Soloists and band have the space for extended silences, super-soft pianissimos and leisurely pulses, which give terrific tension to the moments they carry. As Samson, Joshua Ellicott is wonderful from his first air, ‘Total Eclipse’, which he infuses with a whispered despair, to the swelling nobility of his last, ‘Thus when the sun’. As Samson’s male confidante Micah, Jess Dandy gives constant succour, soothing…

Why did you choose to enlarge the choir for this recording? I’m trying to show the range of what 18th-century choruses could have been. In the case of Samson there’s reasonably strong evidence that Handel didn’t have access to the large cathedral choirs he would normally have had for his oratorios. The single voice chorus was, perhaps, perfectly adequate for his interests, but I think he possibly found the spectacle of a massed chorus preferable in terms of giving an extra magnificence. We actually recorded both chorus sizes; the ‘smaller’ version is available as a digital download. Why was Samson so pivotal? I think Handel probably saw it as a challenge, if not a risk, in terms of setting a very long libretto that had virtually no action. He was…

Nielsen Symphonies Nos 3 & 5 Eloquence 482 8570 (1971/75) 75:28 mins Edge-of-the seat virtuosity from the LSO/Huybrechts (No. 3) and haunting atmospherics from the Suisse Romande/Kletzki, captured in thrillingly impactful sound. ★★★★ Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 BR Klassik 900104 (2009) 45:38 mins A live recording from the Bavarian RSO and Mariss Jansons, whose lithe intensity provides a telling contrast with the plusher opulence of his Oslo studio account, if not much spontaneous excitement. ★★★ Clair de lune Works by Debussy, Elgar, Massenet etc Eloquence 482 7339 (1970/72) 140:35 mins (2 discs) Sourced mostly from Decca’s ‘World Of’ series, this treasure trove features top London session musicians conducted in spectacular style by Raymond Agoult and Douglas Gamley. ★★★★★ The London Cello Sound Works by Bernstein, Saint-Saëns etc Cala Signum SIGCD2007…

Gervais Hypermnestre Katherine Watson, Mathias Vidal, Thomas Dolie, Chantal Santon-Jeffery, Manuel Núnez-Camelino, Juliette Mars, Philippe-Nicolas Martin; Purcell Choir; Orfeo Orchestra/Gyorgy Vashegyi Glossa GCD 924007 145:59 mins (2 discs) The music of Charles-Hubert Gervais (1671-1744) has been unjustifiably ill-served on disc. Apart from a splendid Te Deum, the grand motet Exaudiat Te and petit motet O sacrum convivium, recorded in the 1950s, there has been virtually nothing until the appearance of this fine performance of his most successful opera Hypermnestre. Gervais, a contemporary and friend of Campra, enjoyed the patronage of the music-loving Philippe of Orleans who became Prince Regent on the death of Louis XIV in 1715. Hypermnestre, with its greatly admired libretto by Joseph de la Font, was premiered in Paris in 1716, revived in 1717 with a new…

Grieg Booth and Glynn render Haugtussa a masterpiece Songs and piano works: Haugtussa (The Mountain Maid), Op. 67; Lyric Pieces – Op. 12 Nos 1 (Arietta), 5 (Folktune) & 6 (Norwegian); Op. 43/1 (Butterfly); Op. 47/3 (Melody); Op. 54 No. 6 (Bell Ringing); Op. 62 Nos 1 (Sylph), 5 (Phantom) & 6 (Homeward) etc Claire Booth (soprano), Christopher Glynn (piano) Avie AV2403 71:59 mins ‘Edvard Grieg: Lyric Music’ is the perfect title, since the piano sings as much here on its own as it does when joining the voice. Claire Booth and Christopher Glynn take their cue from the mixed programmes of the composer as pianist with his beloved singer wife Nina; more, they build a three-parter that makes this a very special Grieg recital. You’d think Booth’s bright, youthful…

Julian Anderson Poetry Nearing Silence; Van Gogh Blue; Ring Dance; Bearded Lady; Prayer; Another Prayer; The Colour of Pomegranates Nash Ensemble/Martyn Brabbins NMC NMCD256 78:06 mins This scintillating collection of chamber works is aptly titled after Julian Anderson’s eight-movement suite, Poetry Nearing Silence – while its cover depicts a telling art-cum-poetry fragment from the Tom Phillips book that inspired it. ‘Unpack/ delight/ savour/ the old/ adventure’: in effect, these words – and the erased words or ‘silence’ part-visible around them – embody what Anderson does in music through seven, strikingly cogent pieces dating from 1987 to 2015. Stylistically impossible to pigeonhole, each vividly evokes its extra-musical foundations while springing from Anderson’s urge to explore the stuff of music. Form and expression, colour and character become adventures in sound and association…

JS Bach Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 538; Prelude & Fugue in G, BWV 535; An Wasserflüssen Babylon, BWV 653; Fantasia super ‘Jesu, meine Freude’, BWV 713a/1 & 713/2 etc Kei Koito (organ) Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 19075915582 67:52 mins A Baroque specialist and noted Bach player, Japanese organist Kei Koito brings intellectual rigour to a programme covering all the main genres of organ composition in Bach’s day. She plays the Arp Schnitger organ in the Martinikerk in the northeast Dutch city of Groningen, an instrument dating back to Bach’s childhood and one of the most famous – and precious – of all Baroque organs surviving today. Her recital of ‘Famous Organ Works’ offers an attractive survey, yet not actually any of Bach’s most famous works: it opens with…

Babajanian • Tchaikovsky Piano Trios Yevgeny Sudbin (piano) et al BIS-2372  Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio can sometimes feel baggy, but the intensity of sound, emotion and purpose turn this into a gripping, charged performance. Arno Babajanian’s Trio is an excellent companion. (RF) ★★★★ JS Bach Magnificat La Chapelle Harmonique et al Chateau de Versailles CVS009  Splendidly alert, life-affirming musicianship here, particularly the brass playing in the opening minutes of the Magnificat and the thrilling final moments of BWV 63. (OC) ★★★★ Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 etc Baibe Skride (violin) et al Orfeo C 950 191  Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto is paired with two rhapsodies here, performed with real bite. Skride’s characterful playing is matched by the orchestra’s sturdy sound. (FP) ★★★★ Bon Six Flute Sonatas Vladimir Soares (recorder) et al…

Kit Downes Dreamlife of Debris Kit Downes (piano, organ), Tom Challenger (sax), Lucy Railton (cello), Stian Westerhuis (guitar), Sebastian Rochford (drums) ECM 2632 Kit Downes follows 2018’s Obsidian album, an idiosyncratic solo exploration of the pipe organ, with this quintet work of other-worldly beauty. Although largely improvised around pre-written themes (the pieces are named after galaxies), studio edits and overlays were used to heighten the sound’s celestial textures. Downes stays at the centre of the music and, while sax player Tom Challenger is never far away, the other players move in and out of orbit. ‘Sculptor’ sets the scene, Downes’s limpid piano figures combining with Challenger’s piping tenor lines, all set against a diaphanous organ drone. ‘Pinwheel’ has a creepy theme spelled out by the piano, haunted by Railton’s cello…

Hans Keller Plumbago 978-0-993-19836-6; 224pp (pb) £19.99 Hans Keller (1919-85) was one of the most influential musical thinkers of his time. Blessed with a first-rate analytical mind and charismatic presence, he would often argue a point simply for the sheer intellectual exhilaration of doing so. I was lucky enough to see him deliver an illustrated talk with the Dartington Quartet in the mid-1970s, shortly after he gave the four hour-long lectures on Beethoven’s Op. 130 String Quartet at Leeds University on which this publication is based. Despite being pitched originally at undergraduate level, such is their profound quality of thought they were broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in 1975 and repeated in 1990. Derived in essence from Schenkerian theory, Keller’s basic premise is that music of high quality offsets a…

The Metropolitan Opera’s podcast Aria Code – produced in collaboration with WQXR and WNYC Studios – has returned for a second season, telling the story of a different aria each episode, with operas ranging from Philip Glass’s Akhnaten to Verdi’s Macbeth . Performers and experts discuss the aria, which is then heard in full performed by a leading opera singer from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. For anyone wanting to stay up to date with the latest news from the world of opera, Northern Opera Group has created Operacast. Each episode – released on a monthly basis – features reviews and interviews with leading singers and conductors. Meanwhile, over in the Radio 3 archives on BBC Sounds is a series of Opera Guides. Released in 2014 but still available…

Unflappable Alfred In response to your Bah! Humbug feature on concert-hall gripes (Christmas, UK), many years ago I went to a recital at the Royal Festival Hall. I sat in the choir stalls looking straight across the stage at the soloist, who was Alfred Brendel. Halfway through a Schubert sonata, a mobile phone rang down in the body of the hall. Brendel had of course heard it all before. He made eye contact with me, shook his head, rolled his eyes, and carried on without any perceptible change in his exemplary performance. What a true professional… Patrick Hoyte, Wootton Courtenay A new Messiah A recent worthy addition to Paul Riley’s list of Handel Messiah revisions (Christmas, UK) is Sir Andrew Davis’s 2010 version (available in a 2016 Chandos recording). The…

The world premiere of Kanye West’s opera Nebuchadnezzar at the Hollywood Bowl in late November understandably generated quite some interest. What, people asked, would the rapper and songwriter make of his first venture into the artform? OK, so admittedly the critics’ reaction was decidedly mixed, but West can at least now add his name to the list of notable popstars who have trod the operatic path… When Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters wrote and recorded his French Revolution-inspired opera Ça Ira in 1988, the work had a high-profile fan – French president François Mitterand, no less. Opera houses proved less enthusiastic, however, and it wasn’t until 2005 that, with a rewritten libretto, it enjoyed its first performance on stage. That same year saw Elvis Costello also take the operatic plunge, when…

This month: PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA Violinist MY FINEST MOMENT Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin); MusicAeterna/Teodor Currentzis Sony Classical 88875190402 (2016) I’m not ‘proud’ of anything but I am very thankful to do what I adore and what my heart beats for. The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with MusicAeterna and Teodor Currentzis was a unique recording experience. While most recordings must obey brutally tight time constraints, here there were no limits to rehearsals or recording time, or to the competence, patience and enthusiasm of the ensemble; nor to the imagination and ability of the conductor to get the desired results. Teodor never constrained me but instead supported, elaborated and enhanced my fantasies, and together we crossed new frontiers. We accumulated new energies. From Teodor I also learned how important it is to…

Mariss Jansons Born 1943 Conductor An absolute master of, above all, Mahler, Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss, Mariss Jansons (pictured left in 2015) was one of the most revered and beloved conductors of his era. Born in Riga, his talent was spotted by Herbert von Karajan who invited Jansons to study with him, an offer initially thwarted by the Soviet authorities. Jansons eventually made it to Salzburg to study with Karajan, who then offered him an assistant post at the Berlin Philharmonic. History repeated itself, though, and the invitation never reached Jansons, who cut his teeth with the Leningrad Philharmonic. It was with the Oslo Philharmonic that he made his first big impact, serving as music director from 1979-2000, then with the Pittsburgh Symphony (1997-2004) and Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (2004-15).…

Erik Levi I’ve been absolutely bowled over by the Pavel Haas Quartet’s new recording of Shostakovich’s Second, Seventh and Eighth Quartets. What really grips me about these performances is the ensemble’s ability to get under the skin of the music and their compellingly imaginative concept of texture, instrumental balance and nuance. Indeed, such is the overwhelming intensity of the listening experience in this release that I found it necessary to experience each quartet separately, rather than as a continuous programme.…

‘What is the point of a conductor?’ is a question that is often asked. And a daft question it is too. While it’s true that most half-decent orchestras and choirs can get comfortably from one end of a piece to the other without someone waving their arms in front of them, the huge range of interpretations that have emerged over the years tells us exactly what a conductor is there for. And think just how dull the musical world would be if conductors didn’t exist. From the showy to the shy, the fierce to the friendly, the manic to the mundane, all help to bring their own bit of colour to the concert hall. Here, in our brief guide, we present 15 varieties of this fascinating beast… 1 Tyrants In…

Like Wagner, Feldman was fascinated by the potential scope and scale of music There are few pieces of music that will attract an audience to a concert that starts at 4:30am, but Morton Feldman’s For Philip Guston is one of them. The 1984 work is an example of Feldman’s infamous experiments with duration – at over five hours long it is a feat of endurance for both performers and listeners. For that reason, the piece, which is scored for flute, piano and glockenspiel, is rarely programmed. It was thanks to the enterprising Ensemble Vide, who brought the work to the 2019 Aldeburgh Festival, that Feldman fans recently had a chance to experience its hypnotic soundworld – all 300 minutes of it. And, in honour of Feldman’s unconventional approach to time…

Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin) Zimmermann’s masterly rendition was recorded in 2002 under the composer’s watch. Conductor Reinbert de Leeuw and the Asko/Schönberg Ensemble create sublimely balanced sonorities through which the violin sings with supple elegance and an unerring sense of purpose and direction. Ligeti’s extremes of tessitura – ultrahigh horns, piccolo and percussion contrasting laconic low flutes, cellos and clarinets – are delivered with unrivalled otherworldly clarity. The resulting tensions are thrillingly pushed to the limits of bearability. (Teldec 8573876312) Jeanne-Marie Conquer (violin) Brilliantly teamed with Ensemble InterContemporain and Matthias Pintscher, Conquer’s 2015 disc brings rich warmth and resonance, allied with adventurous spirit. Contrasting modes of attack are thoughtfully, edgily delivered, conveying the impression, for example, of the violin grappling for a hold within a skittering Aria –…

A new year is upon us, and with it the anticipation of what might be in store over the coming months. This month, though, we traverse the ages, with the likes of Rippe, Sweelinck and Gesualdo taking us way back, while Michael Nyman, Bryce Dessner and Julian Anderson bring us up to date. One conductor scores two five-star reviews: Maxim Emelyanychev presides over a Schubert ‘Great’ Symphony with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and accompanies Jakub Józef Orlinski (another bright young thing) with Il Pomo d’Oro in a dazzling set of countertenor arias. Beyond that we’ve a pair of Bach organ discs, Jonathan Biss’s final instalment of Beethoven sonatas and an enchanting recording of Grieg songs. Happy New Year! This month’s critics John Allison, Nicholas Anderson, Kate Bolton-Porciatti, Gary Booth, Geoff…

JB Bach JL Bach • JS Bach JS Bach: Orchestral Suites Nos 1-4, BWV1066-1069; JB Bach: Suite No. 3 in E minor; JL Bach: Overture in G Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini (harpsichord) Naïve OP 30578 129:52 mins (2 discs) Historically-informed period-instrument performances these may be, but, as one might expect from the vivacious past performances and recordings by Rinaldo Alessandrini and his Concerto Italiano, nothing sounds doctrinaire. Each of the stately openings of JS Bach’s four Orchestral Suites, or Overtures as the composer called them, is taken differently. While Alessandrini unfolds the woodwind and string scoring of Suite No. 1 with a suave elegance, he draws out the plaintive expressiveness of the flute-led Suite No. 2. And, of the trumpet-dominated Suites in D major, No. 3 goes at a brisk French-style…

JS Bach Violin Concertos Nos 1 & 2; Concerto in E, BWV 1053 (arr. Debretzeni); Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052 (arr. W Fischer Kati Debretzeni (violin); English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner Sol Deo Gloria SDG732 70:15 mins Listening to these deftly phrased, acutely sensitive, engagingly supple performances from Kati Debretzeni and 12 members of the English Baroque Soloists is to be reminded how far we have come in just a few decades regarding our understanding of this extraordinary music. Even as comparatively recently as the 1960s and ’70s, Bach’s concertos were invariably sounded with a well-upholstered, espressivo cantabile derived from the 19th-century tradition. It was this bold interpretative approach that seemed to define at the time how all canonic masterpieces (whatever their cultural provenance) should sound, and which proved…

Facce d’amore Countertenor arias by Cavalli, Boretti, Bononcini, A Scarlatti, Handel et al Jakub Józef Orliński (countertenor); Il Pomo d’oro/Maxim Emelyanychev Erato 9029542338 73:55 mins Breakdancer, model, acrobat, and James Dean lookalike, Jakub Józef Orlinski is also emerging as one of the finest countertenors on the musical scene today. Facce d’amore paints the volatile faces of love in Italian Baroque opera, threading together one pearl after another. Alongside some of Handel’s most poignant and dramatic arias are eight world premieres – ravishing works by all-but-forgotten composers who give Handel more than a run for his money. The disc is a masterpiece of sleuthing and programming. Orlinski whirls effortlessly through this vocal breakdance Orlinski vaunts an impressive technique: intonation, diction and breath-control are nigh flawless, and he breezes through the vocal…

Buxtehude • Campion • Milano • Purcell Vocal and Instrumental Works Eloquence 484 0518 (1954/55) 72:21 mins Alfred Deller’s distinctive countertenor lends a period hue all of its own to Buxtehude and Campion. Once past the arthritic opening, Purcell’s ‘artful’ ode dispenses resolute pomp and circumstance. ★★★ The Purcell Album Songs and arias Alto ALC 1402 (1957-9) 79:20 mins Church and theatre collide in an enjoyable anthology surfing some of Purcell’s most popular works. Poised and plangent, Alfred Deller’s unmistakeable voice is, unhelpfully, the only one credited! ★★★ Handel Cantatas for Saint Cecilia, etc  Eloquence 482 4753 (1962/70) 65:57 mins An instinctive nobility informs Helen Watts’s firmly-contoured Cecilian cantatas; by way of postscript, the intimate Neue Deutschen Arien find Robert Tear operatically full-on. ★★★★ Family Connections Songs by Mendelssohn, Spohr,…

Weinberg Piano Trio; Cello Sonata No. 1; Two Songs Without Words for violin and piano; Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes Trio Khnopff Pavane ADW 7590 71:32 mins The Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes is a real showstopper After suffering decades of neglect, Mieczys›aw Weinberg’s astonishing Piano Trio is at last getting the due recognition in the concert hall and the recording studio that it surely deserves. This year alone, there have been as many as six new recordings of the work to add to the two or three that have already been in the catalogue for some years. Making a choice as to the most satisfying version of the Trio might depend as much on the rest of the programme offered in these recordings as on the respective merits of each performance.…

Tales From Russia Musorgsky: Night on Bare Mountain; Prokofiev: Tales of an Old Grandmother; Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade Simon Trpceski (piano) Onyx ONYX 4191 65:31 mins How typically idiosyncratic of Simon Trpceski to begin his latest recorded recital quietly, intuitively, with Prokofiev’s Tales of an Old Grandmother. These elliptical pieces, the first Prokofiev completed after leaving post-revolutionary Russia for what he thought would be a short tour of America, conjure nostalgia through their singular lyricism and mysterious refrains. Trpceski gilds them with perfectly-judged tone, matched by a recording which is as full and lovely as any I’ve heard for a pianist as good as this. The Tales are also the only pieces intended for the keyboard, though curiously Prokofiev ‘recorded’ a player-piano pot-pourri of themes from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade. Here is the whole…

BEST FOR HOME COMFORT Cleer NEXT £699 Cleer Audio is a new brand in the UK, with a range of mass-market designs, but my magpie eye was drawn to these wired open backed home-listening headphones. Made from leather and aluminium, they have all the winning traits of pairs costing three times as much, and although they’re quite heavy, I could happily lounge in them all day. Avoid compressed music formats and you’ll find that the 40mm ironless magnesium drivers will delight, with acres of space, exceptional detail and plenty of natural flair. harrods.com BEST FOR BUDGET AUDIOPHILES Shanling ME100 £99 From the aluminium body and gold-plated connectors to the high-quality detachable cables and custom 10mm dynamic driver, there’s no reason why this pair of in-ear monitors should cost so little.…

30. St David’s Hall Where: Cardiff Opened: 1983 Seats: 2,000 When, on 19 January, Beethoven’s famous concert of December 1808 is recreated at St David’s Hall (see right), it will be one of the longest in the Cardiff venue’s 37-year history. But while undoubtedly eye-catching, it will have to go some way to match some of the drama witnessed on stage here over the years. The architects Seymour Harris had their work cut out when commissioned to design a new concert venue for the Welsh capital in 1977 – with space in the city centre at a premium, it had to be constructed above a shopping complex. The challenge was successfully met and five years later, in September 1982, St David’s Hall staged its first public concert. The official opening,…

The son of cellists Paul and Maud Tortelier, Yan Pascal Tortelier began his career as a violinist before turning his attention to conducting. A former principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic, for the last three years he has been chief conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (ISO). He will be joining the ISO for its 70th anniversary tour of the UK in February 2020. My parents were both cellists and my sister and I started to learn the piano and violin very young. Maud was as good a cellist as my dad. In fact, he fell in love with her when he first heard her play at the Paris Conservatoire. As a result I spent nine months in the womb pressed against the cello, and must…