Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i BBC Music Magazine

Kate Molleson Broadcaster and journalist  ‘I was apprehensive to meet the woman who floats so celestially in Abrahamsen, cuts so laser-sharp in Benjamin and does S&M Ligeti with alarming finesse. Was Barbara Hannigan scary in person? Nah – she was lovely.’ Page 34 Oliver Craske Writer and editor  ‘I knew Ravi Shankar well, but while researching his biography after he died I was frequently startled to discover just how much he accomplished and how widely he ranged. He cropped up everywhere.’ Page 38 Jeremy Pound BBC Music’s deputy editor  ‘Few ensembles project as much joie-de-vivre from the stage as do Cuba’s all-female Camerata Romeu string orchestra. Having the chance to see them on their Havana home patch was a privilege indeed.’ Page 48…

Sound and vision Two pairs of BBC Four programmes recently made me think about music associated with other art forms. The first was the wonderful production of the ballet Mayerling, with superb lighting, costumes and, above all, dancing. For me, Liszt’s contribution became merely background music, yet I know from past experience that his music stands alone, brilliant in its own right. This programme was followed by a BBC Prom featuring John Williams’s music for films, but here heard alone. Having seen some of the films and found his background music appropriate, hearing the music by itself was interesting but disappointing. The next double bill started with a documentary on the making of West Side Story in which Bernstein’s music is, of course, irresistible. On this occasion the Prom that…

Toilet humour Many readers will have experienced the dispiriting sight of empty supermarket shelves during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak. A big cheer, though, to composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad, who rose to BBC Music Magazine’s Twitter challenge to write a piece to reflect on this sorry state of affairs. Importantly, her Bog roll, bog roll, where is the bog roll? for solo piano (above) uses up just two sheets of lavatory paper. Doctor in the House Early March saw the Royal Opera House’s music director Antonio Pappano and tenor Jonas Kaufmann head over to the Royal College of Music in London, where they were presented with honorary doctorates by HRH The Prince of Wales. Also appearing at the ceremony were conductor Martyn Brabbins as well as composers Debbie Wiseman…

Julian Bliss has just recorded an all-Rachmaninov programme at Saffron Hall in Essex. The clarinettist performs an arrangement of the composer’s Cello Sonata with pianist Julien Quentin and the pair have also captured previously unrecorded arrangements of songs including the Op. 21 ‘Zdes Khorosho’. The album will be released by Signum Classics. There’s more Rachmaninov, this time from pianist Martin James Bartlett and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. They record the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in Liverpool later this month, under the baton of Joshua Borenstein. Warner Classics will release the recording later this year. Sarah Class is currently working on a new classical concept album called Natural High, which finds the British composer musing on Mother Nature in all her guises. It follows…

Here’s a crazily miraculous fact: our musicality is imprinted upon our tiny listening bodies even before we are born, because our hearing functions from our sixth prenatal month. And what are the first sounds we experience? As neuroscientist Laurel Trainor of McMaster University in Canada reveals, the soundscape of the womb is ‘like hearing underwater: babies hear sounds from the mother, her heartbeat, her voice. And they receive sounds from the outside world – mostly low frequencies, because that’s what will travel through the liquid medium’. Science also shows that there are parameters of music that babies find most energising and soothing. For stimulation, music needs to be sonorously rhythmic, and because babies’ heartbeats are faster than adults’ it needs to trip along at a speed that’s faster than most…

Alan Petrie Basildon Though we would all wish it had been in different circumstances, Radio 3’s enforced re-airing of highlights from its recent archive in the Radio 3 in Concert slot has provided us with some real treats. Having another chance to hear the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder’s performance of Vaughan Williams’s Sinfonia Antartica was a particular pleasure. For all its drama – and a magnificent organ part – this symphony can feel as if it lacks direction. Sir Mark, however, drove it along with exceptional force and terrifying energy. Monika Fülöp Kutná Hora, Czech Republic I’ve come across a very talented musician named Ros Gilman, who has recently released his recording of Tchaikovsky’s Melodie for violin and piano. His mind-blowingly beautiful playing is full of emotion…

“ For me, my voice is in a peak place right now. I’m hungry to use it ” Barbara Hannigan’s quantum career leap came with a wig, latex and Ligeti. 2011: the Canadian soprano-turned-conductor strode onto stage in thigh-high PVC platform boots, shushed the audience, opened her mouth, raised her arms and proceeded to sing, conduct and utterly inhabit ‘The Mysteries of the Macabre’ – a scene from Ligeti’s opera Le Grand Macabre in which a police chief inflicts S&M with brutal dexterity. It was Hannigan’s conducting debut, and she set the bar as high as her top notes. That performance explains why Hannigan became muse to the world’s major composers. She calls them her ‘gang’: Sciarrino, Dutilleux, Brett Dean. Some she refers to with first names only: Gerald [Barry],…

The name ‘sitar’ is derived from the Persian word ‘sihtar’, meaning ‘three-stringed’ – which gives an indication of how the instrument has developed since its early days. Today’s Hindustani concert sitars, of the type played by Ravi Shankar, consist of seven played strings plus, below the frets, ‘sympathetic’ strings that resonate for the sitar’s distinctive sound. The sitar’s origins can be traced back to the Muslim Delhi Sultanate in the 13th century, when Turkish and Persian musicians settled in the Indian subcontinent. The instrument started to take on its current form during the late Mughal Empire (1707-1857). The standard sitar is around 120cm long. At its base is the resonating chamber, usually made from a calabash gourd. From this extends a long wooden neck with 20 movable curved frets made…

For a crash course in Cuban classical music history, I couldn’t ask for a finer set of guides. Sitting around a large antique table with me are four of the country’s leading composers – Roberto Valera, Jorge López Marin, Guido López-Gavilán and Juan Piñera – plus pianist and teacher Ulises Hernández. Everyone listens intently to each other and there is not a mobile phone in sight. Only the pouring and stirring of the umpteenth round of coffees is allowed to break the flow of conversation. At the top of the table, meanwhile, is the person who’s brought us all together today, conductor Zenaida Romeu. We’re at the HQ of Camerata Romeu, an all-female string ensemble that, founded by its namesake in 1993, has established itself as an important cog in…

In 2011, as part of the 150th-anniversary celebrations of Italian unity, Florence unveiled its brand new opera house, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Situated to the west of the city centre, the arts complex was designed by architect Paolo Desideri and houses three major venues: the opera house with 1,890 seats, a smaller auditorium seating 1,200 and a 2,000-seat outdoor amphitheatre. The new building houses Florence’s annual opera festival, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, directed since 2018 by Italian conductor Fabio Luisi.…

1935 LIFE: Acclaimed as a prodigy on the bandoneon, he turns down the chance to tour with tango legend Carlos Gardel. The decision saves his life, as Gardel is killed in a plane crash. TIMES: An investigation into corruption in the beef industry leads to a fight in the Argentinian senate. Senator Enzo Bordabehere is shot dead in the fracas. 1974 LIFE: Out of favour with Argentina’s military government, he moves to Italy. There he publishes and records Libertango, his most famous piece. TIMES: Three-times Argentinian president Juan Perón dies aged 78. First elected in 1946, his initial rise to power was aided by the cult popularity of his wife Eva, known as ‘Evita’. 1982 LIFE: He writes Le grand tango for cello and piano for Mstislav Rostropovich. The Russian…

Lawrence Foster (conductor) Gulbenkian Orchestra Pentatone PTC 518 6360 The music of Háry János is written with such sureness and panache that it is more or less impossible to perform it really badly. Recording choices therefore come down to issues of style and flair, and with that in mind, Hungarian musicians would seem to be in pole position. So it has been intriguing to find that the top choice that swims to the surface is performed by a Portuguese orchestra and an American conductor. It’s a situation spotlighting how, besides being a Hungarian national masterpiece, Háry János has also become a work that belongs to the world – and how that world, in turn, can open up fresh and appealing perspectives on the music. Lawrence Foster and the Gulbenkian Orchestra…

Whether it’s providing an insight into the life of a composer, or a deep dive into an area I don’t know so well, I find documentaries a great way of getting to know music and musicians. This month we have a page devoted to documentary DVDs, so if you need viewing as well as listening inspiration head to p91. In Choral & Song we have not one but two new releases showcasing the compositions of sisters Lili and Nadia Boulanger, so be sure not to miss our double review. Nadia Boulanger is perhaps most recognised for her educational legacy, having taught so many composers in Paris over the years, but her own music is well worth a listen. There’s contemporary music, too, with releases from Eric Whitacre and José Serebrier;…

Beethoven • Knecht Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral); Knecht: Le Portrait musical de la Nature ou Grande Symphonie Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/ Bernhard Forck Harmonia Mundi HMM 902425 66:14 mins Justin Heinrich Knecht (1752-1817) is a name that means nothing to anyone these days, but 20-odd years before Beethoven he wrote Le portrait musical de la Nature ou Grande Simphonie, a work in five movements with subtitles indicating storms, Nature rejoicing at the calm after them and so forth. The symphony, which lasts about 25 minutes, is not musically distinguished and is thematically almost non-existent, but it is agreeable and contains sounds from Nature much as Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony does. Beethoven knew at least the names of Knecht’s movements and clearly thought it a good idea to follow the…

Thomas Adès Piano Concerto; Totentanz Christianne Stotijn (mezzo-soprano), Mark Stone (baritone), Kirill Gerstein (piano); Boston Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Adès DG 483 7998 55:58 mins Thomas Adès’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra syncopates in and out of focus from its opening chords, lush, restless, unsettling yet familiar and somewhat ‘Romantic’, in form at least – a ‘proper piano concerto,’ as Adès called it – bookending a slow movement with two fast. It’s immediately compelling, conducted here by the composer with pianist Kirill Gerstein, who inspired it, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who then commissioned it, raucous in response. A frenzied, exhilarating first movement gives way to a second filled with washes of ecstatic piano glissandos before sink-staggering down a pianistic back stair and slumping into nothingness, then a busy third movement that…

While celebrated as a conductor, with some 150 recordings to his name, José Serebrier’s other life as a composer has seen him write over 100 original works. Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, it was his wish to conduct that saw Serebrier enter (and win) a young composer’s competition. Though he didn’t get to conduct his winning piece, he would go on to study composition with Martinu and Copland in the US, serve as a composer-in-residence with the Cleveland Orchestra and win numerous prizes for his music and commissions from orchestras across the globe.…

Born in Deutz of Jewish heritage (his father being cantor of the nearby Cologne synagogue), Offenbach was taken to France as a child by his family. He attended the Paris Conservatory from 1833, initially studying cello, and in that period played in the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique. He began to compose stage works from 1853 and in 1855 took over the management of the Théâtre Comte, which he renamed Bouffes Parisiennes. There he produced a series of highly successful operettas, including Orphée aux Enfers (1858), which came to epitomise the French Second Empire.…

Alwyn String Quartets Nos 6-9; Seven Irish Tunes for String Quartet Villiers Quartet Lyrita SRCD.386 75:35 mins In his maturity, William Alwyn disowned his first 13 string quartets, presenting his 14th – dated 1953 – as ‘No. 1’. Undaunted the Villiers Quartet present four early ‘illegitimates’ all written in his 20s. It seems Alwyn’s Royal Academy of Music teacher John McEwen, a keen quartet writer himself, encouraged composing such works as a way of flexing muscles and exploring contrasting material in a shortish space. If so, the lessons were learned, but a little slowly and spottily. The Irish folk tune arrangements of 1923 offer an early and bright example of Alwyn’s deftness at crafting different moods (a knack vital for his subsequent film scores), though it takes the last two…

Brahms • Chopin • R Schumann Brahms: Intermezzo in E flat, Op. 117/1; Chopin: 24 Preludes; R Schumann: Theme and Variations in E flat, WoO 24 ‘Ghost Variations’ Eric Lu (piano) Warner 9029529234 63:28 mins Lu’s playing is in a rare class, sensitive and emotionally intuitive Eric Lu is a young pianist blessed with what sounds like an ‘old soul’. In his first studio recording since winning the 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition, he matches the Chopin 24 Preludes with Schumann’s heartbreaking final piano work, the Geistervariationen (Ghost Variations), preceded by the Brahms E flat Intermezzo from Op. 117, which the composer termed ‘lullabies of my sorrows.’ The programme is both effective and unsettling. Chopin’s Preludes, some written in Majorca under nightmarish conditions while he was seriously ill, can be…

JS Bach St John Passion Gaechinger Cantorey et al Carus 83.313  Hans-Christoph Rademann drives the action along in a punchy, pacey performance. There’s plenty of drama here, though some listeners might prefer a little more room to breathe. (JP) ★★★ Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos 2 & 5 ‘Emperor’ Martin Helmchen (piano) et al Alpha Classics ALPHA 555 Soloist Martin Helmchen really brings out the different approaches Beethoven took in these concertos. A sturdy, reliable recording of two great works. (FP) ★★★★ Bruckner Symphony No. 1 Philharmonie Festiva Profil PH19084 Most conductors prefer the Linz version, so here’s a rare and welcome chance to hear Bruckner’s First Symphony in its final 1891 ‘Vienna’ edition. Schaller pulls his orchestra along for a live performance full of energy and excitement. (OC) ★★★★ Chopin…

MAY’S RADIO 3 LISTINGS  Schedules may be subject to alteration. For up-to-date listings see Radio Times 1 FRIDAY 6.30-9am Breakfast9am-12noon Essential Classics12 noon-1pm Composer ofthe Week Kaija Saariaho: Making inroads into opera 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert2-5pm Afternoon Concert5-7pm In Tune 7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape7.30-10pm Radio 3 inConcert from the Barbican, London. Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, Ligeti Violin Concerto, Mahler Symphony No. 4. Camilla Tilling (soprano), Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), LSO/Simon Rattle 10-10.45pm The Verb10.45-11pm The Essay11pm-1am Late Junction 2 SATURDAY 7-9am Breakfast 9-11.45am Record Review11.45am-12.30pm Music Matters 12.30-1pm This Classical Life1-3pm Inside Music 3-4pm Sound of Cinema4-5pm Music Planet5-6.30pm J to Z 6.30-10pm Opera on 3 fromthe Metropolitan Opera, New York. Janácek Kát’a Kabanová. Susanna Phillips (Kát’a), Daniela Mack (Varvara), Dolora Zajick (Kabanicha), Pavel Cernoch (Boris), Stefan Margita (Tichon), Paul Appleby…

In the four weeks in March it took to compile this issue, everything changed. One moment we were enjoying concerts or attending rehearsals, the next we were house-bound, struggling to come to terms with this disconcerting new world. Thousands of cancelled concerts, operas and festivals have left the music world reeling, with months of preparation suddenly coming to naught. Many solo musicians, however, have turned to the internet to present free online performances, while the BBC is working to bring as many artists to your radios, TVs, computers and mobiles as it can. We’ll be sharing information of all of these brilliant, innovative ideas with you here (see p12), online at classical-music.com and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This issue, we’ve removed our live listings pages, but as more concerts…

Oliver Condy Editor Working from home has given me the chance to spend my lunchtimes practising the organ – I’m now glad I bought a two-manual digital instrument some years ago! This month’s goal is Tournemire’s improvisation on the plainchant Victimae Paschali, transcribed by Duruflé. Thanks to the wonders of Hauptwerk software, I’m playing it on a Cavaillé-Coll organ for those rich, French diapasons and bold, velvety flutes. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor One of the joys of my job is being invited to attend little-known operas. Favourites have included Verdi’s Jerusalem and Alzira and, best of all, Wolf-Ferrari’s The Jewels of the Madonna, a riveting tale of sordid goings-on by the south Italian coast. My recording of it, with Natalia Ushakova as the conniving Maliella and Kyungho Kim…

Part of being a conductor is commanding respect from your musicians, so an understanding of an orchestra’s string section is an advantage. No wonder, then, that so many top violinists have gone on to stellar conducting careers. In his thirties and forties, Neville Marriner was a successful orchestral and chamber violinist including stints in the Philharmonia, LSO and London Mozart Players. His experience stood him in good stead for directorship of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and by his death in 2016, many had even forgotten about his playing. Principal conductor of the New York Phil and Hong Kong Phil, Jaap van Zweden studied violin at the Juilliard before becoming concertmaster of the Concertgebouw at 18 in 1979, the youngest ever holder of that role. Period violinist…

Gerald Barry La plus forte (2007) Based on Strindberg’s play The Stronger, Barry’s 20-minute opera has a cast of one. ‘Hannigan rattles off the machine-gun word-setting with aplomb,’ enthused The Guardian about her mastery of Barry’s hugely testing monologue. George Benjamin Written on skin (2012) Benjamin’s darkly disturbing opera won the BBC Music Magazine Premiere Award back in 2014. Reviewing the work’s UK premiere, our critic Helen Wallace described Hannigan, playing Agnès, as ‘mesmerising’, adding that the soprano ‘generates, controls and luxuriates in her own eroticism’. Hans Abrahamsen Let me tell you (2013) The Danish composer made full use of Hannigan’s extraordinary range in writing this song cycle, which tells the story of Shakespeare’s Ophelia from the character’s own perspective. ‘Hannigan embodies Ophelia with unconditional claim and leads her soprano…

Ever since Dvorák (right) arrived in 1892 to head the National Conservatory of Music, famous composers have streamed into New York City. With its sublime intensity, glamour and grit, New York has nourished generations of foreign-and native-born luminaries, serving their music with some of the world’s greatest venues including Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera. A young composer in today’s New York might opt for a neighbourhood like Jackson Heights, Queens or Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, yet in the age of Mahler, Rachmaninov and Copland – not to mention of Scott Joplin, Stephen Foster and any number of Broadway, film and jazz composers – it was still possible for most musicians to afford a Manhattan address. There’s plenty to see on this relatively compact urban island, so allow us to take you…

Esteban Salas (1725-1803) Organist at the cathedral of Santiago de Cuba, Salas specialised in choral works for two, three or four parts. Regarded as Cuba’s first classical composer, his music shows Neapolitan influences, in particular. Manuel Saumell (1817-70) Many of the Cuban dance forms familiar today can be first heard in Saumell’s contradanzas for piano, including the habanera, the danzón and the criolla . He also planned an opera, but never completed it. José White (1836-1918) The son of a Spanish father and Afro-Cuban mother, White was also a fine violinist. In 1855, he moved to Paris, where his admirers included Rossini. His works include a violin concerto and the habanera La Bella Habana . Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963) A fine pianist, Lecuona’s fame lies primarily in his music for stage…

Some people might claim only Finns can understand Sibelius, or only the English can appreciate Vaughan Williams. Astor Piazzolla, who reshaped the tango during the 20th century, must have felt that only an Argentine could genuinely detest Piazzolla. One of his many bands, his quintet redefined the national genre, elevating it from brothels and cabaret dives to the world’s concert halls. But Pablo Ziegler, the quintet’s pianist, lamented that while the classical world embraced Piazzolla’s music, it was often resented at home. Tango had become the national cultural icon – and you messed with it at your peril Piazzolla doesn’t understand tango, said writer Jorge Luis Borges; Borges doesn’t understand music, retorted Piazzolla. In concerts, audience jokers shouted ‘Bravo! Now, maestro, play us a tango…’. The quintet’s guitarist, Horacio Malvicino,…

Iván Fischer (conductor) Fischer’s Háry János with the Budapest Festival Orchestra is deft and enjoyable, with soulful depth in the ‘Song’ third movement and coruscating virtuoso detail in the ‘Emperor’s Court’ finale. There’s also an imaginative choice of additional material, all sparklingly performed – the orchestral Dances of Marosszék and Dances of Galánta, some superbly sung children’s choruses (a legacy of the composer’s lifetime of teaching activity), plus excerpts from the original Háry János opera score. (Philips 462 8242) Ádám Fischer (conductor) Recorded in 2007, Ádám Fischer’s interpretation is entirely different from his brother Iván’s – broader and more probing, with spacious recorded sound to match and handsome, grand-manner playing by the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra. The ‘Song’ third movement’s lyrical sadness is wonderfully conveyed, with magnificent clarinet and oboe…

Brahms • Schoenberg Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77; Schoenberg: Violin Concerto, Op. 36 Jack Liebeck (violin); BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Andrew Gourlay Orchid Classics ORC100129 77.15 mins Propaganda, hostile or otherwise, regarding Schoenberg’s 12-note method of composition has been a major distorting mirror around his music for almost a century now. So a release of this quality, while welcome in its own right, also amounts to a useful corrective in the sense that it enables each listener to assess the contents without someone else’s agenda trying to influence the situation. Completed in 1936, a few years after its composer’s self-exile from Nazi Germany to the US, Schoenberg’s Violin Concerto is a radical but far from over-strident attempt to fuse together classical tradition and his personally evolved 12-note idiom.…

Lutoslawski Symphonies Nos 2 & 3 Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Hannu Lintu Ondine ODE 1332-5 (hybrid CD/SACD) 61:40 mins Lintu makes sense of Symphony No. 2’s elusive qualities Eagerly awaited ever since Ondine’s previous Lutoslawski release from the same Finnish team, this magnificent new recording completes a strong symphonic portrait of the Polish modernist master. If it doesn’t offer quite the same wide-ranging view of the composer that one inevitably gets from the First and Fourth Symphonies plus Jeux vénitiens, this is a potent and logical pairing of works both written on a two-movement scheme. The Third Symphony comes first here in a coruscating performance. Hannu Lintu conducts with lucidity and rigour in a work exploring Beethovenian notions of tension and release. His musicians respond with brilliant, punchy playing but…

Vivaldi I colori dell’ombra: Cello Concertos RV405, RV416, RV424, RV788, etc; Double Cello Concerto in G minor, RV531; Concerto for Cello & Bassoon, RV409; arias, etc Ophélie Gaillard, Atsushi Sakai (cello); Lucile Richardot (mezzo-soprano) Delphine Galou (contralto), Javier Zafra (bassoon); Pulcinella Orchestra Aparté AP226 89:28 mins (2 discs) Venice’s labyrinth of lagoons inspires an imaginative journey The title, ‘the colours of shadow’, is apt. It captures that uniquely seductive, dark energy driving Vivaldi’s Double Cello Concerto in G minor, or the sharp chiaroscuro effect created by a dazzling sheen of violins against mournful bassoon and cello in the Concerto in E minor. Inspired by the labyrinth of lagoons in Venice, Gaillard creates an imaginative journey through Vivaldi’s cello and ensemble music, taking in cello and multi-instrumental concertos as well as…

Donizetti Enrico di Borgogna (DVD) Anna Bonitatibus, Levy Sekgapane, Sonia Ganassi, Luca Tittoto; Donizetti Opera Choir; Academia Montis Regalis/Alessandro De Marchi; dir. Silvia Paoli (Bergamo, 2018) Dynamic DVD: 37833; Blu-ray: 57833 160 mins Recorded live at the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo, this is apparently the first performance of the opera to be released on DVD or Blu-ray; in fact it was the prolific composer’s first opera to reach the stage, at the Teatro San Luca in Venice in 1818, when he was just 18 years old. Granted its early position in Donizetti’s output, one should perhaps not expect too much; yet while inevitably there’s a good deal of Rossini in the mix, there’s already something in the style which one might regard as Donizetti’s own. At its best – the…

L Boulanger • N Boulanger Fauré: Lydia; L Boulanger: Reflets; Clairières dans le ciel; Attente; N Boulanger: Versailles; Heures ternes; Cantique; La mer est plus belle; Soleils couchants; Soir d’hiver Nicholas Phan (tenor), Myra Huang (piano) Avie AV2414 53:17 mins L Boulanger: Quatre Chants; N Boulanger: Écoutez la chanson bien douce; Priere; Poème d’amour; Versailles; Le Couteau; Soir d’hiver; Élégie; La mer; Heures ternes; N Boulanger/Pugno: Les heures claires Cyrille Dubois (tenor), Tristan Raës (piano) Aparté AP224 65:09 mins Two sisters, two promising compositional careers cut short, two discs celebrating their talents. A harsh self-critic, Nadia Boulanger stopped composing a few years after the death, aged just 24, of her harmonically more daring younger sister Lili. With just six songs in common, these new discs complement each other in…

The Early Horn Anon: Concertos – in E; in E flat; CH Graun: Trio in D; Concerto for Concertant Horn and Oboe d’amore in D; Haydn: Divertimento, Hob. IV:5; L Mozart: Sinfonia di camera in D; WA Mozart: Horn Quintet; Telemann: Trio in F, TWV 42:F3 Ursula Paludan Monberg (horn); Arcangelo/ Jonathan Cohen Hyperion CDA 68289 78:32 mins Monberg produces a miraculously smooth and agile line This is a celebration of the 18th-century natural (valveless) horn, played with varying positions of the hand inside the bell to produce notes other than the restricted selection available as natural harmonics. The most familiar work is Mozart’s Quintet – though even that is played in a rarely-heard version from an early printed source with cuts and changes probably devised for the convenience of…

Buxtehude Harpsichord Works Danacord DACOCD 852 (1986) 73:31 mins Purists may question the use of particular stops or couplings, yet Ulla Kappel’s sparklingly natural musicianship convinces. Plus previously unreleased organ recordings by János Sebestyén. ★★★★ New Nordic Piano Music Works by Kuosma, Sonstevold, Malmloff-Forssling etc Danacord DACOCD 854 (1986) 74:08 mins Captivating performances by Elisabeth Klein of recent piano works, including Petersen’s Nocturne in Daylight and Rasmussen’s Aria Grigia. ★★★★★ Schubert Piano Sonatas Nos 16 & 17, etc Alto ALC 1415 (1956/57) 78:54 mins Melodiya originals find Sviatoslav Richter on top form, making Schubert’s awkward hurdles sound effortless, even if the muscular, Beethovenian trajectory tends to over-inflate on occasion. ★★★ Segovia – Guitar Fantasia Rodrigo, Ponce, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Villa-Lobos & Albéniz  Alto ALC 1395 (1952-58) 75:00 mins Andrés Segovia’s alluring coupling…

Big number anniversaries are a media gift, a chance to turn an artist into an icon, to magnify a historic talent into a must-have brand. But they can also offer an incentive to sidestep the media rush and return to the original essence of the art and talent, to rediscover the unique character of a voice which still speaks to us today, across the decades. That’s the happy experience I’ve been having listening to a four-disc set on the Craft label, issued in honour of the centenary of alto genius Charlie Parker, the immortal ‘Bird’. The Savoy 10-Inch LP Collection ( Craft CR00010 ) reproduces the set of recordings Parker made for the Savoy label in the mid and late 1940s, including his first epoch-making session under his own name,…

Discovering Berlioz – Essays, Reviews, Talks David Cairns Toccata Press 978-0-907-68958-4 400pp (hb) £39.50 David Cairns has devoted a lifetime to increasing our knowledge of and insight into Berlioz, and those who love his music will always be in his debt. Here the contents of what announces itself as ‘Volume One’ have previously appeared elsewhere in the form of books – including the writer’s acclaimed two-volume biography of his subject – various symposia on the composer, the Sunday Times, the Berlioz Society Bulletin and CD liner notes, as well as talks delivered on various Berliozian occasions. Everything is worth reading. He’s particularly good on the extraordinary alteration in the composer’s reputation and frequency of performance driven by such events as the landmark 1957 production of Les Troyens at the Royal…

Beethoven Roots Festival Over the course of a week, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra will perform a full Beethoven cycle in honour of the great composer’s 250th anniversary. Alongside the symphonies is music by Beethoven’s contemporaries and those who inspired him, including his teacher, Haydn. Radio 3 in Concert: 18-21 May, 7.30pm Janáÿcek’s Jenufa  The Royal Opera continues its series of Janácek operas with the tragic Jenufa, conducted by Glyndebourne’s former music director Vladimir Jurowski. Influenced by traditional folk music, this dramatic opera is utterly captivating. Opera on 3: 16 May, 6.30pm Playing the Game Video game music has recently been in the spotlight, courtesy of Jessica Curry’s Radio 3 programme Sounds of Gaming. Now this exciting new genre is set to get the BBC Concert Orchestra treatment. Bramwell Tovey…

Beethoven beaten Like many of your readers, I suspect, I was inspired by the BBC Sports Relief’s recent ‘Beat Beethoven’ run to have a go myself. In my mid-fifties I may be, but there’s plenty of life left in these legs of mine (if, admittedly, a few too many inches around the girth as well). I couldn’t help but notice that on the day the BBC Philharmonic took the music at quite a lick – the conductor must have had a bit of a sadistic streak to him – so I hunted for something a little slower to download and pace my 5km run to. Coming in at almost exactly 35 minutes, Otto Klemperer’s recording with the Philharmonia fitted the bill nicely. Though the landscape round my neck of south…

Delyana Lazarova Conductor Born: Plovdiv, Bulgaria Career highlight: Working with the wonderful Hallé orchestra at the Siemens Hallé International Competition this year – and winning! Musical hero: I adore conductor Carlos Kleiber for his incredible musicianship and clarity of expression, and Nadia Boulanger for being the ‘complete musician’ as a composer, conductor and teacher. From the present, though, it would be conductor Kirill Petrenko. Dream concert: Every future performance is my dream concert. I don’t have just one – I have many. Marcin Patrzalek Guitarist  Born: Kielce, Poland Career highlight: Despite how experimental my playing is, I’ve still managed to reach a wider, more mainstream audience. My videos online have so far amassed over 120 million views. Musical hero: I’m inspired by Chopin’s originality, Beethoven’s dynamism, Stravinsky’s experimentation and…

Achron Hebrew Melody Josef Hassid (violin), Gerald Moore (piano) Opus Kura OPK2110 This is beautiful and gets a little bit left behind compared to Bloch’s Jewish lament. It’s not technically difficult, but it has a gorgeous melody. Fritz Kreisler said a violinist like Heifetz is born every 100 years and a violinist like Josef Hassad is born every 200. Hassad was supposed to become the greatest of them all. To think that he was about 15 when he did this, and it is his only recording… Dobrinka Tabakova Insight ASCH Trio ECM 4764826 This is one of Dobrinka’s earliest pieces and one of my favourites. I’ve played it a couple of times – it’s incredibly difficult to play and technically very challenging. I guess she thought that the ASCH Trio…

Art always survives. That much we can learn from history. I don’t know how you have been filling your lockdown time, but I’ve spent some of mine reading up on what happened to music during the great pestilences and plagues of the past. Oh yes, I know how to cheer myself up! I was motivated by an irritating remark from a friend. When I confessed I was finding it difficult to write while cooped up in my flat with a two year-old constantly clamouring for attention, he retorted: ‘Oh really? Shakespeare managed to write both King Lear and Macbeth when he was in lockdown during the plague of 1605.’ Well, futtocks to that, as Lady Macbeth never quite said. First, we don’t know exactly when Shakespeare wrote any of his…

Not every composer has thrived on metropolitan living. Several have established roots in neighbouring areas, now all within a couple of hours’ drive from New York City. Most prominent is Copland’s former property in Cortlandt Manor, NY. The composer bought the prairie-style house in 1960, and it would be his home for the remaining 30 years of his life. Today it is a National Historic Landmark and hosts composer fellowships and a ‘Music at Copland House’ series. From 1943-73, Barber and Menotti (pictured above) lived in Capricorn, an unassuming house in suburban Mount Kisco, NY. Barber wrote the opera Antony and Cleopatra here, and his Capricorn Concerto was named after the sun-filled home. Ives grew up in a wood-framed house in Danbury, Connecticut, and in 1914 moved to nearby West…

Rhythm and tempo Piazzolla’s music is high-power tango. Often it’s in 4/4 split as 3-3-2 – perhaps slow, bittersweet (Milonga del Angel) or urgent and anxious (Libertango) with jabbing dissonances. Titles often reference tango itself (Tanguedia, Histoire du Tango etc) or Buenos Aires (Cuatro estaciones porteñas, ‘Four Seasons in Buenos Aires’). Melody and harmony Piazzolla starts from popular minor-key styles, chord sequences and phrase shapes, but his jazz-influenced harmonies can be subtle and his writing complex and erudite (with Bach-like fugato, as in Fuga y misterio). Instrumentation Piazzolla’s arrangements vary from solo instruments to orchestra. Prominent is the bandoneon (above), a wheezy, soulful type of accordion, the ‘voice of tango’. He favoured a quintet: violin, piano, double bass, guitar and, of course, his bandoneon. Extra sounds There’s more than one…

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) was more than just a composer. In August 1905, he headed out on a tour of Hungary, recording local folksongs as he went. His findings not only informed his PhD thesis – ‘The stanzaic structure of Hungarian folksong’ – but were also incorporated into his compositions. His Psalmus Hungaricus of 1923, composed to mark the 50th anniversary of the union of Buda and Pest, was his first major success, followed soon after by Háry János. He took a keen interest in children’s music education, establishing the ‘Kodály Method’ in the 1940s.…

Tell us about your reasons for doing this album. I’m coming up to 40 and I’ve started to think about where my musical heritage comes from, something I’ve not thought about before. I come from an immigrant family – I’m a first-generation Brit – and my grandfather was a very good amateur violinist, but he died before I started playing. He fled the Nazis in 1934 to go to South Africa and his favourite concerto was Brahms’s Violin Concerto. It’s a piece I’ve always adored, wanted to play and wanted to record. Why did you couple it with the Schoenberg Concerto? I started looking for pieces that would complement my grandfather’s story; the obvious choice was Korngold, but everyone’s done that. I realised that Schoenberg wrote his Violin Concerto a…

Beethoven Symphonies Nos 4 & 6  Alto ALC 1388 (2005/06) 74:22 mins Wonderful live recordings from Bernard Haitink and the LSO, beautifully shaped and paced and full of dramatic power where needed. The Pastoral Symphony’s ‘Storm’ movement is a thriller. ★★★★★ Elgar Symphony No. 2; Marches Alto ALC 1407 (1988/2005) 72:12 mins Elgar’s Second is performed with bleak and haunting magnificence by Colin Davis and the superlative LSO. Barry Tuckwell conducts the two Marches. ★★★★★ Liszt Prometheus, etc; Wagner Siegfried Idyll  Eloquence 482 8427 (1952-56) 68:54 mins Karl Münchinger draws hyper-vivid, memorably expressive playing from the Paris Conservatoire and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras. Recessed, but decently clear period sound. ★★★ Mahler Symphony No. 1 R Strauss Der Rosenkavalier – Concert Suite Wagner Tannhauser Overture and Venusberg Eloquence 484 0184 (1970/72) 94:56…

What an extraordinary life Wilhelm Backhaus (Decca 483 4952; 38 CDs) had on record, from his first acoustic recordings in 1908 to his final Decca LPs in 1969, the year he died. Born in Leipzig in 1884, Backhaus began studying at the Leipzig Conservatory aged six. Aged 11, he heard Brahms conduct both his piano concertos with Liszt pupil Eugen d’Albert and became d’Albert’s pupil aged 15. When he started touring in 1900 the critics noticed a young man who was already dedicated to music rather than to self-promotion, a seriousness of purpose that’s a hallmark of his six decades of recordings. From 1908 to 1948 Backhaus was on HMV; his relationship with Decca began in 1950 with their first cycle of Beethoven Sonatas. They’re still a window into the…

Offenbach Maître Péronilla Véronique Gens, Antoinette Dennefeld, Chantal Santon-Jeffery, Anaïs Constans, Diana Axentii, Éric Huchet, Tassis Christoyannis; Radio France Choir; Orchestre National de France/Markus Poschner Bru Zane BZ 1039 100:09 mins (2 discs) Conductor Markus Poschner encourages the bubbles to rise Maître Péronilla only managed 50 performances in 1878. A fickle public taste for Charles Lecocq’s confections probably did it for Offenbach’s rollicking story of a Spanish chocolatier with social ambitions who accidentally marries his pretty daughter to two husbands. (Of course it all ends happily when Manoëla the daughter is united with her beloved Alvarès.) Despite its disappearance from the stage, hindsight suggests that this opéra bouffe marks the beginning of the composer’s return to public favour after his glory days during the Second Empire. And if it’s not…

JS Bach St John Passion, BWV 245 Dorothee Mields (soprano), Damien Guillon (countertenor), Maximilian Schmitt, Robin Tritschler (tenor), Krešimir Stražanac (bass-baritone), Peter Kooij (bass); Collegium Vocale Gent/Philippe Herreweghe Phi LPH 031 107:08 mins (2 discs) This is a symbiotic entwining of voice and instruments It seems to be the season for revisiting Bach Passions. Hot on the heels of Masaaki Suzuki’s second recording of St Matthew comes Philippe Herreweghe’s third of St John. While Suzuki’s is essentially a ‘replay’, Herreweghe’s is more of a rethink: after 2001’s flirtation with the 1725 ‘second thoughts’, it reverts to the 1724 original he recorded back in 1987, this time with slimmed-down though not ultra-minimalist forces. The result is not only the ‘best of three’, but a recording that leaves most competitors floundering. Herreweghe’s…

JS Bach • Busoni JS Bach (arr. Busoni): Chaconne aus der Partita, BWV 1004; Zehn Choralvorspiele; Busoni: Fantasia Contrappuntistica Jan Michiels (piano) Fuga Libera FUG 760 69:40 mins To say that Busoni was multi-talented would be a rank understatement. As a pianist he began as a child prodigy and had a wide-ranging career as a soloist and accompanist, but his questing mind also led to landmark writings on aesthetics and the future of music. His compositions were similarly audacious, including five operas and a vast piano concerto with male chorus. Central to his self-image as a creative artist was his veneration of Bach, whose work he viewed as fundamental to European music. Reflecting his own abilities and enthusiasms, the Ten Chorale Preludes by Bach for piano are less an arrangement…

The Belgian composer studied at the Liège Conservatory, receiving premier prix for each of his academic subjects as well as for piano and organ. In 1897 he won the Belgian Prix de Rome. He met and consulted with Richard Strauss in Berlin and d’Indy in Paris. Following the outbreak of World War I, he emigrated to London where he performed as an organist, and also formed a piano quartet known as the Belgian Quartet (which included the English violist Lionel Tertis). He returned to Belgium in 1919 and taught at the Brussels Conservatory, becoming its director in 1925.…

May round-up The piano trio (see Jazz Choice) is a traditional vehicle for jazz, but at the same time the elasticity of the notional ‘jazz band’ has long been an attribute of the music. Guitarist Pat Metheny is never short of ideas – From This Place is a serious personnel carrier of an album for quartet, guests and orchestra that goes for maximum stretch. Over the years the whole orchestral jazz thing has commuted between the inspired and the abysmal via the overrated, but the arrangements here astutely draw on the best things such forces can offer jazz, which are texture and sheer presence. There’s plenty of variety here, from limpid balladry to churning rhythmic drive, often in the same piece, and while all the guest contributions work well, pianist…

May round-up The English Organ is a mammoth set, with the first DVD alone containing three 70-minute documentaries taking us from 1500 to the present. There’s duplication and omission, and the lack of captions to identify the often rapid changes of location (and the music being played) can be frustrating, although some organs are dealt with in depth. The organist and presenter Daniel Moult and his experienced interviewees come across as knowledgeable enthusiasts, but the same is expected from the viewer: technical terms are taken as read, and sometimes there’s a geekish feel to the enterprise. More approachable to the layman are the three remaining DVDs, where Moult gives a brief description and demonstration of each organ before playing a piece: most are included on the bonus audio CDs. (Fugue…

THIS MONTH: HEADPHONES FOR HOME LISTENING BEST ALL-ROUND SOUND Audeze LCD-1 £399 With a plush black executive finish, folding design and luxury case, Audeze’s most affordable headphone look like an alternative to Bose. With a huge 90mm planar magnetic driver behind each earpad and an open backed design, however, they manage to offer so much more for your ears. Handmade in Southern California, the large drivers deliver a rich bass performance and immaculate level of detail that’s further enhanced by a strikingly wide stereo imaging. In practice this means, when listening to Elgar’s Romance Op. 62 (from The Lyrical Bassoon on the 2L label), that piano, bassoon and orchestra are crystal clear in the audio mix but alongside an astonishing amount of room, allowing the sound to breathe. Given the…

Nitin Sawhney has collaborated with everyone from the London Symphony Orchestra and pianist Hélène Grimaud to Paul McCartney and Anoushka Shankar. His influences span jazz, flamenco, rock and Indian classical music and he performs, produces and composes for artists, films and TV series. The single ‘Down the Road’ from Immigrants, his first recording for Sony Masterworks, is out now. My dad had a great vinyl collection; he loved music from all over the world. He was a hi-fi freak, passionate about sound quality, which helped me get into listening for the beauty and tonal qualities of music. If you’re listening on a great hi-fi system to someone like Segovia who was very into tone, you can appreciate that a lot more. My mother had studied classical dance in India and…