Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2021 i BBC Music Magazine

No sooner does one worldclass pianist celebrate his 60th birthday than three come along at once. During the time that we have been working on this issue of BBC Music, Marc-André Hamelin (5 September) and Jean-Yves Thibaudet (7 September) have reached three-score years, and will be joined on 22 November by Stephen Hough. We are, of course, delighted to raise a glass to this trio of players, whose brilliance at the keyboard is matched by their eloquence and intelligence in interview – as Hough demonstrates amply in his conversation with Jessica Duchen on p26. When Leoncavallo’s largely neglected opera Zingari reached its 60th anniversary in 1972, I doubt even a single party popper was pulled. However, as George Hall reports on p46, this Pushkin-inspired tale of love and deceit is…

Roxane Elfasci Guitarist Born: Paris, France Career highlight: Recording my debut album, Hommage à Debussy, with Cosmos Music. It was the result of a long adventure with Debussy’s music, which began five years ago when I posted a guitar arrangement of Clair de Lune on YouTube. Musical hero: I have huge admiration for Debussy. Although he faced criticism by his contemporaries, he never made concessions. He only knew how to write with sincerity. His music is a reflection of his soul: modest and passionate, talented and dreamy. Dream concert: A concert with a chamber orchestra, in which the guitar plays an essential role. Kunal Lahiry Pianist Born: Florida, US Career highlight: This summer, I had a series of recitals with mezzo Fleur Barron at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, in a programme exploring…

The LGT Young Soloists premiered a new symphony by Philip Glass at the Royal College of Music in September. Before that they gathered at London’s Abbey Road Studios to record Symphony No. 14 ‘Liechtenstein’ alongside Glass’s Tirol Piano Concerto with Martin James Bartlett. Orange Mountain Music will release it soon. Composer and horn player Richard Bissellhas undertaken a series of recordings of his own works with students and professors from London’s Guildhall School. The project, recorded there, has given students valuable recording experience. Three World Records is scheduled to release the album, called Panoply, this month. Opera Rara and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra head to Fairfield Halls, Croydon in late November to record Leoncavallo’s 1912 opera Zingari. It marks the first ever studio recording of the opera, which will also…

Much as though we might like to pretend otherwise, music has always been as dependent on finance as any other walk of life, as Tom Service explains What are we really hearing when we listen to music? Instruments, voices and organised sound, for sure, but there’s something else that resounds when we stream that aria or – what nostalgia! – put on a CD. All of those sounds are mediated through technology: either the apparatus and architecture of live performance or the electronic media that allow us to access musical history from the comfort of our armchairs. And all of that costs money. A lot of money. When we’re listening to Mozart or Madonna, we’re really hearing the sounding fruits of a flow of capital that has created these musical…

Jeremy Pound Acting editor Back in my chorister days, seeing Josquin’s name on the upcoming Evensong list would be met with, at best, an apathetic shrug. Oh, how wrong. Today, I can’t get enough of the great Renaissance composer. Listening to meticulously crafted works such as his Alma redemptoris mater and Missa l’homme armé while sub-editing our Composer of the Month piece on him (see p60) has been a treat, as was Radio 3’s recent Composer of the Week series, in which presenter Donald Macleod and art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon explored his music in the context of the art of his era. Alice Pearson Cover CD editor Listening again to my CD of Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky playing Scriabin’s Romantic yet innovative Third Piano Sonata reminded me how overlooked the…

Hummel Piano Concertos English Chamber Orchestra/Bryden Thomson Chandos CHAN 8507 (1987) Made early in Hough’s recording career, his Gramophone Awardwinning accounts of Hummel’s concertos remain fresh and joyous. Mompou Piano Music Hyperion CDA66963 (1997) Hough’s identification with the Catalan’s meditative and haunting music was all the more striking after his vivid recordings of Beethoven and Britten, and won critical plaudits. Rachmaninov Piano Concertos Dallas Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Litton Hyperion CDA67501/2 (2004) Hough’s magisterial playing in these authoritative accounts of the concertos and the Rhapsody is matched by a superlative orchestra. In the Night Works by Chopin, Beethoven, Schumann and Hough Hyperion CDA67996 (2014) Including Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Schumann’s Carnaval, and Hough’s own Piano Sonata No. 2, this is one of his most imaginative and evocative programmes. Mendelssohn • Grieg • Hough…

Harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood founded this Cambridgebased orchestra in 1973 – predating Roger Norrington’s London Classical Players (formed 1978) and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (1986). Named after an early 18th-century London organisation, the AAM principally performs 18th-century repertoire on authentic or faithfully reproduced instruments of the period. Hogwood also researched original music manuscripts and treatises to discover as much as possible the composers’ original intentions. His 1980 recording with the AAM of Handel’s Messiah, with its lively tempos and translucent sound, seemed to strip centuries of portentous performance style to reveal the work in its original vibrant colours. Their recording of Mozart’s symphonies that followed redefined what period instrument performance was about, and Hogwood and the AAM proceeded to storm the Billboard Classical charts: their album Pachelbel Canon…

Thomas Adès’s (pictured below) Dante ballet, choreographed by Wayne McGregor and with designs by Tacita Dean, will be staged 14-30 October at London’s Royal Opera House: tickets are available online at www.roh.org.uk. If you desire more for Dante’s anniversary year, the Oxford Dante Society in collaboration with TORCH (torch.ox.ac.uk) is hosting a Dante Festival in November, which includes a screening of Harry Lachman’s 1935 film Dante’s Inferno (pictured above) as well as public talks and recitals in the Holywell Music Room. In Italy, the Ravenna Festival’s 32nd edition is ‘Dedicated to Dante’ and features performances by Riccardo Muti, the Cherubini Orchestra and the Maggio Fiorentino Chorus in Florence – some events are available to stream via ravennafestival.org. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, meanwhile, has an excellent online exhibition, well worth…

Born in nearby Badminton in 1733, Thomas Linley the Elder made his fortune as the first musical director of the new Bath Assembly Rooms when they opened in 1771. Though a respected composer, teacher, tenor and harpsichordist himself, it was the musical talents of his children that really got the cash flowing in: both in Bath itself and, later, further afield, Linley would charge large fees for members of his family to perform in public. Said children included Thomas Linley the Younger, dubbed ‘the English Mozart’ but fated to die in a boating accident aged 22.…

c1450 LIFE: Gossequin, as he is christened, is thought to have been born around this year, possibly in or near Condé (today Condé-sur-l’Escaut), a town then under the House of Valois-Burgundy. TIMES: Francesco Sforza I besieges Milan, and becomes Duke of the citystate, founding the Sforza dynasty which will rule Milan for the next century. 1466 LIFE: After a stint as a choirboy in Cambrai, he becomes his uncle Gille Lebloitte dit Desprez’s legal heir. TIMES: The pioneering printer and bookseller Johannes Mentelin translates the Bible into German. The Mentelin Bible is the first to be printed in a vernacular language. 1497 LIFE: On the death of the composer Ockeghem, who may have been his teacher, he composes a lamentation Nymphes des bois. TIMES: The Catholic Monarchs of Spain issue…

Günter Wand (conductor) Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra RCA 09026685032 For some, Wilhelm Furtwängler’s 1942 Berlin Philharmonic recording remains a benchmark – it is fiery, impulsive and races home in just 68 minutes. In similar vein, though less headlong, Claudio Abbado and the Vienna Philharmonic provide a thrilling ride, just missing out on a top spot because of a strident edge to the recorded sound. Much better recorded is Bernard Haitink who, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, tells us we are in safe hands with his customary blend of musical intelligence and patience. And for a lighter, leaner Bruckner Fifth, Marek Janowski and his superb Suisse Romande Orchestra are a refreshing alternative. But best of all is Günter Wand. A lifetime Bruckner devotee, he nevertheless took his time before committing himself…

Beethoven Coriolan Overture; Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’ Ensemble Cristofori/Arthur Schoonderwoerd CAvi-music AVI 8553487 59:42 mins Between 2004 and 2008, the fortepiano specialist and conductor Arthur Schoonderwoerd recorded a set of Beethoven piano concertos variously regarded by pundits as a most refreshing earopener and the worst performances of the music ever issued. Why the divergence? Well, Schoonderwoerd is a ‘historical performance’ extremist, who strips down forces to one to a part in an effort to duplicate the numbers physically possible at Beethoven’s first performances. A decade and more later, he’s at the same game, offering an Eroica dispatched by 20 players and a Coriolan by 19, drawn as before from his own Ensemble Cristofori. The results are ‘different’, certainly, but with novelty gone from ‘authentic’ performances, Schoonderwoerd’s are only refreshing if…

Arvo Pärt Fratres (1992 version); Tabula rasa*†; La Sindone; Spiegel im Spiegel†; Summa; Silouan’s Song; Darf ich…; Für Lennart in memoriam *François Sochard (violin), †Guillaume Bellom (piano); Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne/Renaud Capuçon (violin) Erato 9029502957 66:16 mins Marking his arrival this autumn as artistic director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Renaud Capuçon has devoted their inaugural joint recording to the music of Arvo Pärt as a ‘first step toward new horizons.’ While never having met the Estonian, Capuçon’s professed ‘crazy admiration’ of him has yielded compelling performances of seven of his best-known works dated 1977 to 2006. Directing co-soloists François Sochard (violin), Guillame Bellom (prepared piano) and the orchestra strings from first solo violin, Capuçon throws down the gauntlet with a searingly intense performance of Tabula rasa…

Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes, Opp 52 & 65; plus various Lieder Mary Bevan (soprano), Fleur Barron (mezzo-soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), William Thomas (bass), Dylan Perez, Joseph Middleton (piano) Resonus RES 10286 67:03 mins Brahms’s lighter music has long prompted occasional doubts: can such a brandy-and-cream composer excel at ‘love song waltzes’ as well? The answer in his day, when the Liebeslieder-Walzer were immensely successful, was a resounding ‘yes’. Inspired by Schubert’s dances, to say nothing of Johann Strauss, Brahms wrote the two sets in the late 1860s. Scored for three pairs of musicians – four singers and two pianists – they were perfect for salon gatherings. This delectable recording makes a splendid case, if it were needed, for their worth. These four singers complement one another and blend effortlessly, seeming to…

Beethoven Violin Sonatas Nos 3, 6-8 Michael Foyle (violin), Maksim Štšura (piano) Challenge Classics CC 72861 78:38 mins Every recording of Beethoven’s violin sonatas possesses its own unique personality and it is fascinating to compare established duo team Michael Foyle and Maksim Štšura in their second release of the series with some established complete sets. They are a degree or two cooler than the indomitable, impassioned Perlman and Ashkenazy (Decca), for example, more Classically contained than Kremer and Argerich (DG), better musically balanced than Menuhin and Kempff (also DG) and less interventionist than Faust and Melnikov (Harmonia Mundi). Yet this is one of those cases where ‘less’ proves to be more in the long run. By avoiding any hint of big player rhetoric or selfconscious interpretative tinkering, Foyle and Štšura…

Strings Attached – the Voice of Kannel Works by Byrd, L Couperin, Dowland, Frescobaldi, Machaut, Rameau, Tulve and S Weiss Anna-Liisa Eller (kannel, psaltry) Harmonia Mundi HMN 916110 54:17 mins This recording showcases Estonia’s national instrument: the kannel – said to have been played by the gods and bards of legend. Similar in its origins to the Biblical psaltery, the kannel also bears a faint resemblance to a clavichord but brags all the resonance of a harp. Originally used for Estonian folk music, it has evolved into a sophisticated concert instrument whose fully chromatic, four-octave range and ample dynamic spectrum make it strikingly versatile. Conceived as ‘an audio voyage’, this programme makes associations between diverse repertoire through timbre, texture, colour and ‘affect’. Highlighting the connections between the traditional kannel and…

Kalevi Aho Solo works Sharon Bezaly (flute), Bram van Sambeek (bassoon), Samuli Peltonen (cello), Hiyoli Togawa (viola) et al BIS BIS-2446 Some of these solo pieces started life as competition works, and it’s easy to see why. They are extremely technically demanding, which may not make for a wholly pleasant listening experience, but the playing is exemplary, particularly of bassoon and flute. (FP) Sergio Azevedo Hukvaldy Cycle Ensemble Darcos/Nuno Côrte-Real Naxos 8.579079 The Portuguese piano quartet commissioned these five pieces from Azevedo, many of which are self-referential, taking inspiration from Janáček. The writing is colourful, the playing often thoughtful and well shaped. (FP) Brahms • R Schumann Brahms: Seven Fantasies, Op. 116; Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79; R Schumann: Kreisleriana Elena Fischer-Dieskau (piano) Delphian DCD34255 With a name like Fischer-Dieskau, this…

Northern Drift Unclassified presenter Elizabeth Alker turns her hand to another late-night series for Radio 3: an exploration of northern arts, culture and music. Over the course of 12 weeks, Alker will meet a northern musician and writer on stage at the Trades Club. An intimate music venue in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, the club was built in 1924 as a home for local trade unions when Hebden was a thriving centre for the cotton industry. As well as discussions with northern creatives, the series will also include live music and poetry readings. Weekly from Monday 25 October, 11pm Music’s Inner vision Singer Victoria Oruwari explores the concept of blindness in music, and how it may impact learning, composition and performance. With music by blind composers including Rodrigo, Antonio de…

The Carpenters – Richard and his younger sister Karen – were the biggestselling group of the 1970s, with hits like ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ and ‘Top of the World’ charting worldwide. After Karen’s death in 1983, Richard released a handful of solo albums as well as compilations of the Carpenters’ legacy. On his latest original album for Decca, Richard Carpenter’s Piano Songbook, he plays his new arrangements for piano of some of their classic hits. It is released on 22 October. For me, it’s hard to pick out key pieces – I inherited my love for music from my father and he loved just about every style, save country and western! He had a huge collection of 78s and I listened to everything from Dixieland to classical. When Karen was…

Jessica Duchen Author and journalist ‘What a delight that my first face-to-face interview since the pandemic began was with the great Stephen Hough. He speaks the same way he plays: insights galore, without one dull note or word.’ Page 26 Rebecca Franks Classical music journalist ‘After falling ill with Covid myself, I was particularly fascinated to find out how opera has been helping people recover from the virus. It’s been wonderful to explore English National Opera’s Breathe programme.’ Page 38 Kate Bolton-Porciatti Academic and journalist ‘Exploring the works of Josquin Desprez transports one into a world of abstract beauty, where music is – to borrow the words of Galileo Galilei – “written in the language of mathematics”.’ Page 60…

47 … years of playing at the top level by 2023. And at that point, reveals the Emerson Quartet (above), it plans to call it a day. 89 … year-old David Watts, who runs CD retailer Penny Post Classic, has announced his retirement. 1 … Isolde but two Tristans in one Prom, as tenor Simon O’Neill lost his voice, and Neal Cooper took over in Act III. 250 … years old this year, an anniversary being celebrated in style by The Royal Swedish Academy of Music, the oldest such institution north of the Alps.…

By the time the French musician Louis Vierne arrived in England for a short recital tour in January 1924, he was already a well-known figure. Titular organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris since 1900, Vierne was also a celebrated composer, with four organ symphonies and a clutch of other pieces to his credit. One of the recitals Vierne played in England was at Westminster Cathedral in London, where a new organ was being built in stages. Its designer, Henry Willis III, was at the concert and at one point he apparently hummed a tune to Vierne – who, severely sight-impaired since birth, would have been unable to read it on paper – and waited for the master organist to weave an imposing improvisation on it. The tune Willis provided was…

A recent podcast with the poet laureate Simon Armitage saw HRH Prince Charles talk about his love of Wagner. ‘The Ring cycle, for me, is something very important,’ he said. ‘[There’s] the ash tree in the Ring which eventually dies and causes the terrible destruction – I’ve felt for a long time that Wagner’s Ring is actually an allegory on man’s arrogance towards the environment and the divine.’ He is just one of many famous Wagner fans, from various walks of life… Friedrich Nietzsche was, at first, both an enthusiast of Wagner’s music and also a friend of the composer himself. But, alas, the philosopher’s admiration would eventually turn to ambivalence and then outright hostility. Half-a-century later, Adolf Hitler fell under the Wagnerian spell and, infamously, adopted music from the…

It’s surely not just fussy critics who get fed up with the same 20-odd operas being endlessly recycled. Opera houses lapse into that lazy form of programming, of course, because they regard Carmen, Bohème, Figaro, Traviata and the others in that magic circle as box-office bankers – all the more necessary for improving finances after the disruption of the past 18 months. Yet I believe that regular opera audiences as well as critics welcome the chance to see rarities. Elsewhere in this issue, George Hall previews the latest project from the excellent Opera Rara company: a live London performance and recording of Leoncavallo’s 1912 opera Zingari (see p46). Opera Rara clearly has a following for its work, as do those festivals bold enough to specialise in reviving pieces that have…

Hough the composer Stephen Hough regularly performs his own compositions in recital – usually choosing to play them from the score rather than from memory. He has also recorded several of them. His composing is not all about the piano, however, and he has written works for various other instruments, plus choral and vocal music too. Performers who have recorded his music include violinist Matthew Trusler, baritone Jacques Imbrailo and Hough’s regular recital partner, cellist Steven Isserlis. Hough the author In 2018, Hough won high acclaim for his first novel, The Final Retreat, in which a priest who is sent on silent retreat explores various aspects of his rapidly imploding life, including his sexual addiction. He has also written regularly for newspapers and magazines and in 2020 his book Rough…

In March 2020, I caught Covid-19. Fever, loss of taste and smell, profound fatigue, dry cough: the works. My life as a classical music journalist went on hold. Walking up stairs left me out of breath. Though unpleasant, I thought the illness manageable. Then, after a few weeks, it got worse. All I could do was lie utterly still in a dark, silent room, concentrating on breathing. Inhale, exhale. The paramedics and doctors eventually said I was over the worst: just rest, drink water, take paracetamol. Still, I was left with ongoing, often strange symptoms. It sometimes felt as if my body had forgotten how to breathe. That was terrifying. Cue English National Opera (ENO). This is a story about artists and medics who pooled their skills in a new…

Emerge from Leicester Square Tube Station in the centre of London, and you will see rising above you at one of the four corners of the crossroads a substantial building, on top of which stands an enormous iron statue depicting a Roman charioteer, sword aloft, drawn by two horses. This is the London Hippodrome, now a supercasino, which opened in 1900 as a variety palace. The Greek words ‘híppos’ and ‘drómos’ come together to indicate a racecourse – a form of entertainment that might have been beyond the practicalities of ambitious original impresario (later Sir) Edward Moss’s nevertheless multifariously employed establishment. Though only just, because spectacular entertainment – circus included – was certainly performed in an arena that could also accommodate a genre known as aqua-drama. “The London Hippodrome’s last…

Perhaps opera’s most widely remembered graveyard scene is in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, when the anti-hero and his servant find themselves in the cemetery where the Commendatore, murdered by Don Giovanni, is buried. Giovanni defiantly invites the Commendatore to dinner – with literally fatal consequences. Ancient catacombs have since featured in music, including those of Paris in Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, or those conjured by Respighi’s tenebrous orchestration in Pines of Rome. There are also dozens of songs with graveside settings, including Berlioz’s spooky ‘Au cimetière’ (from Les nuits d’été), and similarly titled songs by Fauré and Hahn. Darker and yet touching are Schubert’s songs including ‘Schwestergruss’ (Sister’s greeting), and those in Winterreise where the spurned lover longs for the grave, only to find in the metaphorical ‘Das Wirtshaus’ (The…

Composer of the Week is broadcast on Radio 3 at 12pm, Monday to Friday. Programmes in November are: 1-5 November Sofia Gubaidulina 8-12 November Cherubini 15-19 November Carla Bley 22-26 November Sibelius 29 November – 3 December Emilie Mayer ne of the few certainties about Josquin Desprez’s life is that he died 500 years ago, on 27 August 1521. After a lifetime of travel, he had retired to Condé in the county of Hainault – a much-disputed territory (straddling the modern-day borders of northern France and Belgium) that had been passed like a parcel in the political games of medieval Europe. He was buried before the high altar of Notre Dame de Condé, an honour that bears witness to his status not only as provost of the church but as…

The work No less a luminary than the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, when speaking at the German Bruckner Society in 1939, remarked that Anton Bruckner, a lifelong devout Catholic, ‘did not work for the present; in his art he thought only of eternity and he created for eternity…’ His masses and symphonies are indisputable testament to that judgment. Born in 1824 in Upper Austria, the son of a village schoolmaster and organist, Bruckner showed distinct musical talent from an early age. On the death of his father, he entered the monastery school at St Florian as a choirboy at the age of 13. He left only temporarily to train as an elementary schoolteacher in Linz, returning to St Florian in 1845 to teach for ten years before he became the abbey…

Rémy Ballot (conductor) For ‘cathedrals of sound’, try this 2016 live recording made at the composer’s final resting place in the monastery church at St Florian, where he is buried immediately below the organ. At a staggering 90 minutes, Celibidache protégé Rémy Ballot seems to be replicating his mentor’s fondness for very slow tempos. Ballot’s radical approach sometimes veers close to the grandiose, but it is heroically executed by the Altomonte Orchestra St Florian, which sounds entirely convinced. The ambience of the vast venue is superbly captured by the Gramola engineers. (Gramola 99162) Otto Klemperer (conductor) Of Otto Klemperer’s three recordings of the Fifth, his 1967 Royal Festival Hall performance with the New Philharmonia Orchestra is more galvanised in the finale than the studio version set down a week earlier…

One of the most memorable musical moments of 2020 has given rise to a wonderful new recording. The Jukebox Album (see our Chamber Choice), is a great keepsake of Tom Poster and Elena Urioste’s pandemic pick & mix project. The pair’s eclectic programme sees some unexpected bedfellows, which is rather like the reviews section. Pop a coin in our jukebox this month and you might choose one of three fabulous Mozart recordings, a Paderewski opera or Jonas Kaufmann singing Liszt. If you’re a solo piano fan, you might want to select our cover star Stephen Hough’s latest recording, or perhaps new music by Scottish composer Craig Armstrong. We’ve also our occasional World round-up, a dose of jazz highlights and a page of books, which includes even more Mozart. This month’s…

Six Degrees of Separation S Conner: Hymn to a Head; C Drew: See Slow Blue; PJ Jones: The Fun Will Never End; C McCormack: Silver Traces; E-K Matthews: Remote Overlap; A Paxton: Dadd’s Fairies Members of the London Symphony Orchestra/Darren Bloom NMC NMCDL3046 (digital only) 36:25 mins The pandemic struck at a particularly cruel time for these six emerging composers embarking on the LSO Panufnik Scheme. With typical creative flair, the scheme’s director Colin Matthews devised a new project in response: each composer would write a short ensemble piece to be performed and recorded under lockdown conditions. The resulting works fizz with creative energy. Patrick John Jones’s The Fun Will Never End is an intricate, nervy dance that slips constantly between the playful and sinister with deadpan wit. In See Slow…

Behzad Abdi Hafez Mohammad Motamendi, Hossein Alishapour, Babak Sabouri, Eshaq Anvar, Mohommad Zakerhossien; Credo Chamber Choir; National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine/Vladimir Sirenko Naxos 8.660426-27 105:27 mins (2 discs) Little is known for certain about the life of Hafez (c1315-1390). Revered far beyond his native Persia, his mystic lyrical poetry has touched generations of ordinary people as well as writers and intellectuals – including Goethe, who considered him ‘divine’. Following Ashura (utilising poems by Mohtasham Kashani) and Rumi (on his great 13th-century predecessor), Iranian composer Behzad Abdi and librettist Behrouz Gharibpour have woven an opera about Hafez’s life and times from his and others’ poetry. Utilising a striking marriage of Russian-tinged western and Persian classical forms and techniques, they recount tales of political oppression and struggles for justice that make clear…

Telemann Cantatas for the Hanoverian Kings of England – TWV 1:621, 4:15, 12:11, 13:9b & 13:21 Hanna Zumsande (soprano), Dominik Wörner (bass); Barockwerk Hamburg/Ira Hochman CPO 555 426-2 70:16 mins Among composers of his generation Telemann’s international contacts were second to none. Three of the five cantatas featured on this recording were written for British monarchs. Two of them, for George II, date from 1760, the year of his death. Bleibe, lieber König is probably connected with the Seven Years’ War, while Lieber König, du bist tot is funeral music for the king who died later in the year. Grossmächtigster Monarch der Briten is birthday music for George III and dates from 1761 or 1762, by which time Telemann was in his early 80s. All of the music belies the…

The Jukebox Album Works by L Boulanger, Chaminade, Frances-Hoad, Kern, Piaf/Louiguy, M Simpson et al Elena Urioste (violin), Tom Poster (piano, cello etc) Orchid Classics ORC 100173 54:27 mins If necessity is the mother of invention then surely love, laughter and hope give it wings. Upon lockdown in March 2020, violinist Elena Urioste and pianist Tom Poster faced unemployment. Initially aiming simply to keep motivated, their response became an online phenomenon and has birthed this wonderfully life-affirming album. With daily posting of a new video with the hashtag #UriPosteJukeBox, requests for their genre-busting performances flooded in, creating a huge digital community and spreading the joy of music far and wide. Captured here are 17 of those performances. From lyrical arrangements by Poster of classic songs by Piaf and Porter to…

November round-up Comorian’s We are an island, but we’re not alone is No. 8 in Glitterbeat’s ‘Hidden Musics’ series. It’s also the latest work of American producer Ian Brennan – celebrated for recording musicians in isolated, unlikely locations, often under difficult circumstances. This album showcases musicians he recorded outdoors on Grande Comore, the largest of the Comoros islands, northwest of Madagascar. What’s surprising is how much artistic expression these supposedly naïve artists wring from passionate songs in the Comoros’s Bantu language, played on local stringed instruments and hand drums. Brennan delivers the goods with real bravura here. (Glitterbeat GBCD109) There’s starkly contrasting production on the third outing from Brazilian cellist, singer, songwriter, producer and composer Dom La Nena. Tempois essentially a charming album of chamber folk, sung in Portuguese, Spanish…

Your complete guide to what’s on Radio 3 this month, plus TV highlights 1 MONDAY 6.30-9am Breakfast RPS Awards coverage 9am-12 noon Essential Classics 12 noon-1pm Composer of the Week Sofia Gubaidulina 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-5pm Afternoon Concert 5-7pm In Tune RPS Awards coverage 7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape 7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert 10-10.45pm Feature 10.45-11pm The Essay Sounds of Isolation: South Pole. Sound recordist Chris Watson shares the quests he has made in search of isolation and wild sounds 11pm-12.30am Northern Drift from the Trades Club, Hebden Bridge with Elizabeth Alker 2 TUESDAY 6.30-9am Breakfast 9am-12 noon Essential Classics 12 noon-1pm Composer of the Week Sofia Gubaidulina 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-5pm Afternoon Concert 5-7pm In Tune 7-7.30pm In Tune Mixtape 7.30-10pm Radio 3 in Concert 10-10.45pm Feature 10.45-11pm The…

Crossword set by Paul Henderson The first correct solution of our crossword picked at random will win a copy of The Oxford Companion to Music. A runner-up will win Who Knew? Answers to Questions about Classical Music (see oup.co.uk). Send answers to: BBC Music Magazine, Crossword 365/Nov, PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA to arrive by 28 Oct 2021 (solution in Jan 2022 issue). AUGUST SOLUTION No. 362 AUGUST WINNER Tim Vick, Suffolk Immediate Media Company Limited, publisher of BBC Music Magazine, may contact you with details of our products and or to undertake research. Please write ‘Do Not Contact’ if you prefer not to receive such information by post or phone. Please write your email address on your postcard if you prefer to receive such information by e-mail. ACROSS…

Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST Email: music@classical-music.com Social media: contact us on Facebook and Twitter A big hitter I first met Ruth Gipps (Composer of the Month, August) when she delivered some horn music to my home – I was most impressed that she was driving a white Triumph TR drophead sports car. I saw her some years later when I went to a performance by the Purley Philharmonic Orchestra and others in deepest South London suburbia. There was a familiar figure in the percussion section, and so I made enquiries. Ruth told me that she had had a long and successful career, as your excellent article set out, but there was one unfulfilled ambition: to knock the heck out of a big…

Golden Vlad Conductor Vladimir Jurowski has been awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal. The Moscow-born maestro received the prestigious honour on stage at the BBC Proms, where he was leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra in his last ever concert as its principal conductor, a post he has held since 2006. In receiving the medal, he follows in the footsteps of luminaries such as Brahms, Elgar, Jessye Norman and, last year, composer John Williams. Popular choice Talking of the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, this year’s event, to be held at Wigmore Hall in November, will see a prize decided by public vote for the first time. There are six shortlisted candidates in the Inspiration Award, which will be presented to a non-professional ensemble. We will present full details of all…

Violinist Chouchane Siranossian introduces us to some of her favourite recordings Biber Mensa Sonora Pars III Musica Antiqua Köln/Reinhard Goebel (violin) DG Archiv 477 5001 I first heard this a few years ago, because I was interested in Reinhard Goebel, and I was really fascinated by it. There are five quite short and very beautiful movements, but the Sarabanda and the Ciacona are incredible. Those two movements are actually one of the reasons I became a Baroque violinist. There are some dances in the music, and there are effects which are very strong. When you listen to it you are in a kind of trance; it really touches you very deeply. Johan Christoph Bach Meine Freundin, du bist schön – Ciacona Clematis/Leonardo García Alarcón Ricercar RIC323 This is actually a…

“Period performance is not about finding truth so much as finding a way to move the soul of the listener” The new music director of the legendary Academy of Ancient Music tells Daniel Jaffé how Handel changed his life, and of the vibrancy and continuing relevance of 18th-century music Most musicians, one imagines, would be content with being recognised as a world leading specialist in a composer such as Handel. Laurence Cummings, however, who has just become artistic director of one of the most celebrated of period instrument orchestras, is eager to achieve more. ‘The nice thing about starting with the Academy of Ancient Music is that it’s not a Handel outfit – it does a very broad repertoire,’ he says. ‘And I would like to remind everyone else that…

“The rhythm in the main melodies of Liszt’s Symphony often reflects the way Dante’s text is spoken” In Mills & Boon’s The Playboy of Rome, Dante is the dangerous Lothario (‘Dante might be hotter than the Italian sun, but he’s as cool as ice towards Lizzi’); in the Devil May Cry video games, he is a devil pursuing his brother Vergil, while his alter ego Dan Teal is the murderer in Matthew Pearl’s novel The Dante Club. In the seven centuries since his death, writer Dante Alighieri has become inextricably linked to his fictional persona, a legacy that is preserved in literature, art, popular culture and, of course, music. Alighieri – generally referred to by his first name, Dante – was born in Florence in 1265. He began writing his…

Today, Leoncavallo is known chiefly for his one-act opera Pagliacci, first performed in Milan in 1892. Together with Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, with which it is often coupled in a ‘Cav and Pag’ double bill, it launched Italian opera’s ‘verismo’ movement, defined by gritty, real-life plots and strong emotional scenes. Born in Naples in 1857, Leoncavallo forged his early career in Egypt and Paris before returning to Italy where, soon after being inspired by attending Cavalleria, he created his own major hit with Pagliacci, writing both the music and the words. That opera would prove the peak of his popularity, though he did also enjoy more limited success with his version of La bohème, premiered in 1897 (thus a year later than Puccini’s), and with Zazà (1900), the backstage story of…

One fact that Bath’s otherwise informative Jane Austen Centre isn’t overkeen to stress is that the Georgian city’s most exalted resident wasn’t a huge fan of the place. She may have set two novels there, but Austen’s correspondence tells of her ‘happy feelings of escape’ on leaving Bath for Clifton. What she was escaping was a town so dedicated to relentless pleasure in the form of gambling, parties, balls, romance and an attendant undertone of sleaze, it seems a precursor of Las Vegas. Two centuries on, Bath’s decadence gets airbrushed out of how we think of it. With its immaculately ordered gardens, terraces and crescents, the city stands for elegance, civility and beauty. And its history as a ‘destination’ means that it knows how to make a show for visitors…

Wistfulness: In his songs and laments, Josquin’s longspun melodies are vapourous and wistful. He often turns to the Phrygian mode, whose plangent initial semitone lends a quality of yearning, as in the chanson Mille regretz, the Credo of the Missa L’Homme armé super voces musicales and the Miserere. Lucidity: Perhaps rubbing shoulders with the greatest humanists of the Renaissance left its mark on Josquin’s lucid vocal idiom. His rhetorical settings follow the text’s structure, syntax and meaning, often using syllabic (one note per syllable) declamation and translucent textures so the words cut through. Canons: Double canons, crab canons, mensuration canons, retrograde canons – you name it! Yet far from sounding purely cerebral, they can be poignant – playing by turns with memory and expectancy – or sublime. In this, Josquin…

Described by the conductor Hans von Bülow as ‘half genius, half simpleton’, the oft-maligned, desperately self-doubting Anton Bruckner is remembered today almost entirely for his symphonies and his sacred choral works. The Austrian’s nine numbered symphonies – he also wrote two un-numbered symphonies, in D minor and F minor – range from 1865, when he was in his early 40s, to 1896, when he left his Ninth incomplete at his death. Nearly all of them were subject to significant subsequent revisions by their rarely satisfied composer.…

Mozart Piano Concertos Nos 20 & 25; Rondo in A minor, K511 Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra/Jeremy Denk (piano) Nonesuch 7559791687 69:33 mins In a lengthy programme note, Jeremy Denk offers a very personal description of each work’s narrative, albeit with solid technical information. The performances themselves avoid self-indulgence, yet there’s plenty of engagement and affection. No. 25’s opening tutti immediately establishes clean lines and a sense of purpose. Denk picks up the mood, and is alert its sometimes mercurial changes of direction. His rubato, usually tasteful, is stretched a bit in the Andante, perhaps owing to the spontaneity of the live recording; but the blended sound of soloist and orchestra reinforces its warm character. We’re back to clarity and momentum in the finale, which makes a striking contrast with the…

Baritenor Arias by Adam, Donizetti, Korngold, Lehár, Leoncavallo, Méhul, Mozart, Offenbach, Orff, Ravel, Rossini, Spontini, Thomas, Verdi, Wagner Michael Spyres (tenor); Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra/Marko Letonja Erato 9029515666 84:30 mins The 18th century and the early Romantic period rarely worried themselves about labeling voices, and Michael Spyres argues that nearly two centuries on we are finally catching up. ‘I believe the baritenor is a forgotten vocal phenomenon,’ he writes, ‘which has been hiding in plain sight within compositions throughout the entirety of opera’s existence.’ And he intends to prove it. It’s a deeply satisfying proof too: Spyres has a remarkable vocal range from the high tessitura demanded for Rossini’s Otello and those fearsome nine high Cs for Tonio in Donizetti’s aria ‘Ah! mes amis’ for La fille du régiment to the…

Craig Armstrong Nocturnes – Music for Two Pianos Craig Armstrong (piano) BMG/Modern 5053867119 44:09 mins From Chopin’s Nocturnes to Max Richter’s Sleep, composers have long been fascinated by the night. During the 2020 lockdowns, darkness took on a particular significance for Craig Armstrong as it became the only time he was able to work. All 14 Nocturnes on this recording were created during that period and are intended to comfort the listener – as they did the composer. In her new book The Piano: A History in 100 Pieces, Susan Tomes writes in ‘Today’s piano styles’ that ‘the more popularly successful recent piano music has been concerned with evoking a peaceful, dreamlike state of “flow”.’ Armstrong’s Nocturnes certainly fit that description: the rippling, repetitive melodies (for example Nos 1, 4,…

Nau Mai EKā Hua Ariana Tikao & Al Fraser Rattle RAT-D106 Nau Mai E Kā Hua is the first recorded collaboration between singer/composer Ariana Tikao and Al Fraser, who furnishes her vocals in te reo (the Māori language of Aotearoa/New Zealand) with a cornucopia of Taonga pūoro (‘treasured sounds’), from traditional Māori music and ceremonial practice, which she also contributes. Hence the opening blast of pūtātara (trumpet shell) is the first and most salient example, but other sounds include pūrerehua, the eerie ‘bull roarer’ gourd aerophone, gently sounded percussion and various flutes – such as pūtōrino kōauau. One of the greatest pleasures arises from Tikao’s rich enunciation of words like ‘Papatūānuku’ (‘Earth mother’) and ‘Kōauau’ in her Kāi Tahu dialect. There’s also visual pleasure to be had gazing into Tony…

From Silence – Finding Calm in a Dissonant World Franz Welser-Möst Clearview Books 184pp (hb) £25 This book is something of a hybrid. Part of its material is purely autobiographical, charting the Austrian conductor’s steady rise to prominence as music director in the opera houses of Zurich and Vienna and at the Cleveland Orchestra. Just as significant is the focus on the ways in which he has managed to surmount a number of serious setbacks including a near-fatal car accident at the age of 18 and a particularly torrid experience at the helm of the London Philharmonic in the 1990s. Alongside this narrative are various other layers of his worldview: these include reflections on the role of the conductor in today’s musical world, and passionate appeals in support of music…

November round-up Andrew Cyrille’s labelmate (see Jazz Choice) Marc Johnson has recently added to the microtradition of solo bass albums with the excellent Overpass. The bass is an instrument that an imaginative player can almost literally dig into for solo material, exploiting its size, range and resonance. Johnson does all this and more with this mixture of original and sourced pieces, covering every aspect of the instrument’s inherent potential and adding a brief visit to overdubbed looping to create some sprightly multi-part statements. (ECM 381 0819) It’s yet another testament to the variegated nature of the music that the above album and Arturo O’Farrill’s …dreaming in lions… both belong under the jazz umbrella. The son of the legendary Chico, O’Farrill has clearly picked up his father’s baton as a fine…

Alan Davey, the controller of BBC Radio 3, picks out three great moments to tune into this November Up for Grabs Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new football-inspired work will include highlights of Arsenal’s famous 1989 match against Liverpool projected behind the orchestra. The concert will be followed by a discussion with former Arsenal defender Lee Dixon and members of the 1989 team. Radio 3 in Concert: 5 Nov, 7.30pm EFG London Jazz Festival Radio 3 returns to the London Jazz Festival, broadcasting various concerts from the Southbank. As well as the opening night celebrations, you can tune into a Late Junction special, as well as a performance by visionary trumpeter Yazz Ahmed. Radio 3 in Concert: 12 Nov, 7.30pm Emilie Mayer With the help of musicologist Katy Hamilton, Donald Macleod will dig…

1. Under what collective title are Richard Strauss’s ‘Frühling’, ‘September’, ‘Beim Schlafengehen’ and ‘Im Abendrot’ usually known? 2. ‘Veni, creator spiritus, Mentes tuorum visita’ sings a huge chorus, accompanied by orchestra and organ, at the beginning of which symphony, premiered in 1910? 3. Which composer attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Rhine on 27 February 1854? 4. And on 29 July 1826, which composer’s nephew Karl also tried to kill himself, this time by pistol, and similarly survived? 5. Sketched out from 1926-29, The Fall of the Leaf is an orchestral elegy by which British composer? 6. In 2016, the soprano pictured above sang at the Met in New York for the first time in 22 years in a concert of spirituals. Who is she? 7. What are the…