Innholdsfortegnelse for Christmas 2021 i BBC Music Magazine

My initial plan for this welcome letter was to tell you about my joy at recently returning to choral singing after a mere 36-year break since my chorister days. Sadly, however, just a few days before my MidLife ChoirSis colleagues and I were due to take to the stage for Mozart’s Requiem, our conductor emailed to reveal that she had got, you’ve guessed it, Covid-19. Mozart and I will now have to wait till March for our get-together. I imagine similar postponements will continue to happen over the next few months, but at least we are now in a position where exercising the vocal cords in public is at least a possibility. As well making a nice noise – well, usually – singing in a choir has been shown to…

5 … feet tall and scaring the life out of passers-by, a huge bust of Beethoven (above) has been hanging at Galleri, the arts centre in Caernarfon. 2,000,000 … euros, the value of Alexandra Conunova’s Guadagnini violin, seized then not returned by suspicious airport customs officials in Moldova. 42,000 … monthly search requests for tutorials on YouTube, as learning the piano enjoys a boom in popularity. 2 … new ambassadors on board at the London Music Fund, as saxophonist Jess Gillam and cellist Abel Selaocoe join the music education charity.…

‘A happy smile lit up the face of every listener, caused by the musical excitement of the wonderful waltz rhythms’. The reviewer’s comments refer to a ‘special concert’ mounted by the Vienna Philharmonic in the famous Golden Hall of the city’s Musikverein on the morning of 31 December 1939, a Sunday. Billed as a ‘New Year’s Eve Concert’, the event switched to 1 January in 1941, spawning an unbroken run of over 80 Vienna New Year concerts which continues to the present. The date of that first concert in 1939, the only one not to happen on New Year’s Day, is significant. Just four months earlier, the Second World War had erupted, so the intention was to lift morale among the German-speaking nations by broadcasting the Vienna concert on the…

As this issue goes to press, rehearsals are under way at Truro Cathedral for the premiere of Graham Fitkin’s Humphry Davy – The Age of Aspiration. Composed for soloists, chorus and orchestra, Fitkin’s large-scale work celebrates the life and work of the Cornish scientist (left), best known today as the inventor of the Davy lamp used by miners. It is not the first piece with a famous scientist as its subject… In the summer of 1976, Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach was premiered in Avignon, France. Lasting around five hours, the opera alludes to the German physicist’s theories within the wider context of his life rather than exploring them in depth. Another minimalist composer to tackle scientific matters in an opera is John Adams, whose Doctor Atomic was first…

In 1958 Leonard Bernstein made one of the most radical and controversial decisions of his life. And for once it had nothing to do with sex, drugs or conducting Mahler’s slow movements slower than anyone else. He decided that for one concert each week, on Thursday nights, he and the New York Philharmonic would ditch formal evening dress and wear something slightly more casual. Slightly more casual, but perhaps no less bizarre. The orchestra would dress up in blue trousers, blue shirts and the sort of collarless blue jackets popular in pre-war barbershop groups. The good thing was that the musicians no longer looked like a huddle of penguins. The bad thing was that the new look was just as strictly imposed, and just as certain to erase individuality, as…

Spare a thought for Thomas Tomkins (below). Had Elgar not appeared on the scene, the late-Renaissance composer would surely today enjoy the title of Worcester’s most famous musical son. Born in St David’s, Wales, in 1572, Tomkins was appointed organist of Worcester Cathedral in 1596, and continued to hold the post for nearly half a century. After studying with William Byrd as a young man, he would go on to hobnob with leading composers such as Thomas Morley and Orlando Gibbons (below). He also wrote a rejoicing anthem, Be strong and of a good courage, for James I’s coronation on 25 July 1603, and became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1621. His own ‘appointment’ as Master of the King’s Music in 1628, however, was nipped in the bud…

A carol composed exclusively for you! When I was invited to write a new carol for BBC Music Magazine, I started wondering about what makes Christmas carols so enchanting, how a modern carol might fit into the wonderful repertoire that already exists and, most importantly, what it is exactly that we love about them. When I asked my friends and family what their favourite carol might be and why, I was delighted to discover that the array of preferences was so vast. Christmas carols can elicit such a wide range of festive memories for us all, from singing in cold churches surrounded by snow to families huddled by warm fires and the welcome wishes of good tidings. My own favourite is Holst’s setting of Christina Rossetti’s In The Bleak Midwinter.…

In his lifetime, Saint-Saëns visited 27 countries across five different continents, and often found musical inspiration along the way. Among those countries were… Algeria: Saint-Saëns first visited Algeria in 1873 and made many visits thereafter, including what would prove to be his last ever trip abroad in 1921. His fascination with the country inspired his Suite algérienne, premiered in 1880. Egypt: Another of Saint-Saëns’s favourite winter vacation destinations most famously left its mark in his ‘Egyptian’ Piano Concerto No. 5 of 1896. Written during a stay in Luxor, the work’s exotic sounds include representations of Nile boatmen and the chirping of crickets. United States: Saint-Saëns made two very successful tours of the US in the early 1900s, as both composer and pianist. He celebrated his enthusiasm for the country with…

Flaring emotion How is it that the supposedly reserved Anglo-Saxon temperament responds so readily to the wild emotional extremes of Tchaikovsky’s style? Manfred (above) is reckoned to be a bit much, but the similarly high-octane Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies are crowd-pullers. Orchestral wizardry Tchaikovsky’s hyper-Romantic idiom is cross-braced by a remarkable sharp-focus and vividness of sonority, even in the biggest tutti passages. In quite early works like First Symphony and First Piano Concerto, this quality is already fully developed. Musical portraits Besides being an opera composer, Tchaikovsky was equally a master of the art of musical story-telling and characterisation without voices or staging. His empathetic portrayal of Francesca da Rimini in his symphonic poem is a vintage example. Painting in sound Some 20 years before Debussy and Ravel wrote…

When Ottorino Respighi wrote his Botticelli Triptych in 1927, the first two works of his Roman Trilogy – Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome – had already been premiered; the third, Roman Festivals, followed in 1928. Born in Bologna, Respighi began his career as a violinist and viola player, and in 1900 joined the Russian Imperial Theatre orchestra in St Petersburg. There, he took lessons from Rimsky-Korsakov, acquiring the Russian’s bright and transparent orchestration. In his own works, Respighi often drew inspiration from past centuries and, especially, Gregorian chant.…

Brahms • MacMillan Brahms: Symphony No. 4; James MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra Pittsburgh Symphony/Manfred Honeck Reference Recordings FR-744 (CD/SACD) 53:20 mins In this outstanding performance of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony, Manfred Honeck draws a wonderfully rich, almost Central European string sound from the Pittsburgh Symphony, matched by equally mellifluous and wonderfully blended colours from the woodwind and horns. Only the rather sharp-etched tone of the trumpets betrays the fact that we are in fact listening to an American orchestra. But there’s a thrilling immediacy to their playing which seems absolutely appropriate to the triumphant fanfares in the opening Allegro non troppo, or to the unbounded joviality of the third movement Allegro giocoso. As in his previous recordings for Reference, Honeck provides an extremely detailed and insightful booklet note explaining his interpretative…

Bartók • Beethoven • Berg Bartók: Violin Concertos Nos 1 & 2*; Beethoven: Violin Concerto**; Berg: Violin Concerto† Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin); Berlin Philharmonic/*Alan Gilbert, **Daniel Harding, †Kirill Petrenko, Berlin Phil BPHR 210151 118:36 mins (2 discs plus Blu-ray audio) It seems only recently that Frank Peter Zimmermann first emerged on the international scene, yet he has now been playing concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic for some 36 years. In celebration, the orchestra has released a three-disc set (two CDs plus Blu-ray audio) featuring typically commanding live performances of the concertos by Beethoven (2019 with Daniel Harding), Berg (2020 with Kirill Petrenko) and Bartók (2016 with Alan Gilbert). All this presented in a robust, hardcover jacket, containing a 64-page booklet with various essays, plentiful illustrations and card jackets for the…

Rameau Achante et Céphise Sabine Devieilhe, Cyrille Dubois, David Witczak; Les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles; Les Ambassadeurs – La Grande Écurie/Alexis Kossenko Erato 9029669394 112:36 mins (2 discs) A commercial recording of Acante et Céphise is long overdue. There’s just two issues. First, the spelling ‘Achante’, rather than the customary ‘Acante’, derives from the proofs of the engraved score, later corrected by the composer – a seemingly odd preference, therefore, inasmuch as the name is sung with a hard ‘c’. Secondly, the booklet claims this recording brings to an end the opera’s 270 year absence. Nonsense! In 1983, celebrating the 300th anniversary of Rameau’s birth, the present writer produced the opera for BBC Radio 3, with the English Concert directed by Trevor Pinnock, and with French…

CPE Bach Three Quartets; Sonatas, Wq 48/6 – Adagio; Wq 65/32 – Andante con tenerezza Nevermind Alpha Classics ALPHA 759 57:27 mins The quartet in this instance consists of Anna Besson on flute, Louis Creac’h on viola, Robin Pharo on viola da gamba and Jean Rondeau on harpsichord. They are dedicated to spreading the word about the available 18th-century repertoire for this unusual combination. CPE Bach wrote these quartets in 1788, the last year of his life, after a long and prolific career. He did not specify whether the keyboard should be harpsichord or piano, and his score doesn’t mention a string bass. The first thing that strikes the listener is the fact that the viola – not commonly used as a chamber instrument in CPE’s time – makes a…

JS Bach Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas Fabio Biondi (violin) Naive V7261 132:02 mins (2 discs) Those of us who have been waiting for Fabio Biondi to set down his thoughts on these timeless scores were recently offered a tantalising glimpse via a filmed recording of BWV 1002-1004. Now we have the entire set, recorded in June last year, captured in alluringly detailed sound, set against a warm ambient glow. One is immediately struck by Biondi’s trademark tonal opulence, warmth, cantabile phrasing and gently vibratoed intensity, virtually unique among players on period instruments. Although he microcosmically inflects dynamics and articulation with sleight-ofhand suppleness, one is engaged more by where the music is going than what is actually happening at any given moment. The resulting sense of structural and expressive imperative…

Arnold Chamber Works Peter Fisher (violin), Margaret Fingerhut (piano) SOMM Recordings SOMMCD 0640 A delightful showcase of Malcolm Arnold’s many faces, from nimble, childlike joy to intense darkness. The arrangements, many recorded here for the first time, offer plenty to chew on and enjoy for both performer and listener. Fisher and Fingerhut play with poise and much warmth. (MB) Enescu Works for cello and piano Rudolf Leopold (cello), Raluca Stirbat (piano) Paladino Music PMR0104 Spanning nearly 40 years, Enescu’s cello and piano works range in mood from edgy and darkly despondent to deeply romantic. The two instruments are accorded equal importance, which is well brought out in these recordings. (JP) Gavin Higgins Ekstasis; Ruins of Detroit etc Piatti Quartet; Fidelio Trio Nimbus NI 6421 The different works on this album…

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 367/Xmas, PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA to arrive by 22 Dec 2021 (solution in Mar 2022 issue). ACROSS 1 Contemporary of 20 exercises with effort involving contralto (7) 5 British composer was entertaining third of extended family (7) 9 A symphony by Bizet has peculiar charm (5) 10 Saw OK performing by secure harpsichordist (9) 11 Company rejected support, accommodating two tenors and a chamber group (7) 12 Song and dance in these days (6) 14 Prepare to travel to next venue, perhaps about to appear with group…

Grace-Evangeline Mason Composer ‘As carols can bring such joy at this festive time of year, I was delighted to write A Winter Carol for BBC Music Magazine’s readers! I hope singing it together might bring you some warmth this Christmas.’ Page 36 Jonathan Howard Bass, The King’s Singers ‘My colleague Pat and I got very excited about this December, as we remembered some of our favourite memories of festive touring – as well as what happened in a very special Christmas for us last year.’ Page 42 Roger Nichols Author and musicologist ‘It was lovely to find Saint-Saëns liking England and England liking him. The over-noisy welcome from Cambridge students told of enthusiasm, while the equally enthusiastic Henry Wood relished his playful side.’ Page 50…

Atlanta signing Nathalie Stutzmann has been named as the next music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The French conductor will begin her new role next autumn, taking over from Robert Spano, who has led the ensemble with distinction since 2001. She will become only the third woman to hold a principal conductor post at a major US orchestra, following JoAnn Falletta and Marin Alsop at the Buffalo Philharmonic and Baltimore Symphony respectively. Chopin star Congratulations to Bruce Liu, who has won First Prize at this year’s Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. The 24-year-old Canadian took victory in the 12-player final with a performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor for which he received a standing ovation. Alexander Gadjiev and Kyohei Sorita took equal second…

Violinist Jack Liebeck introduces favourite recordings from his own collection Headington Violin Concerto Xue-Wei (violin); London Philharmonic Orchestra/Jane Glover ASV CDDCA780 I met Christopher Headington when I was about 14; he actually died the year after we met. He gave me a CD of his Violin Concerto, which had just come out. At that age I didn’t really have much judgment on a good or bad piece, I just knew that I really liked it. I came across it again about ten years ago, and it is just the most fantastic concerto. It was written in 1956 and it’s got that 1950s post-war British sound – slightly austere, hopeful but sad. James Francis Brown String Trio Jack Liebeck (violin), Sarah-Jane Bradley (viola), Gemma Rosefield (cello) Guild GMCD7354 The only recording…

As she looks back at her career, the organist tells Oliver Condy that, for an ideal performance, matching instruments with repertoire is just as important as technical mastery at the console On 5 December 2012, Gillian Weir slid off the organ bench of Westminster Cathedral’s mighty Henry Willis and gave her final bow. Her spectacular concert marked her retirement from a 48-year concert career during which she gave over 2,000 recitals across the globe, made 40 recordings of a huge range of repertoire for a variety of labels, and was knighted in 1996 for services to music. In a cathedral packed to the rafters, the audience numbered important players, conductors, teachers, builders and tuners from the organ world. ‘It was a very emotional evening,’ the 80-year-old Dame Gillian tells me…

“Seeing the Northern Lights in Iceland and tasting stinky fish in Sweden has become part of what Christmas means to us” Picture this. It’s 20 December 2019, and back at home our friends and loved ones are (we imagine) swigging mulled wine in cosy English pubs, staring tipsily into the twinkling lights of a Christmas tree or wrapping gifts to the sound of carollers on their doorsteps. We, on the other hand, are in central Milan, squished into the corner of a loud Irish bar, sharing plates of fried potatoes while tearing through layers of photocopied schedules and Italian broadsheets to reveal our ‘Secret Santa’ gifts to each other. We are trying to keep a reasonably low profile: the pub is directly across the road from the hall where we…

Australian tenor Stuart Skelton is also a dab hand with the cocktail shaker. ‘I don’t generally drink when I have performances on,’ he says, ‘so cocktail making is associated with holidays, particularly Christmas. I’ve been tinkering with this blend for a while.’ Ingredients Vodka (or Bacardi)White CuraçaoPeppermint schnappsRegular pouring creamRed- and/or green-coloured sugar (optional)Lime juice (optional)Red and green food colouring Method 1. In a shaker, mix 1.5 measures of vodka or Bacardi, 1 of White Curacao, 1 peppermint schnapps (or a little less, according to taste), and 1.5 or 2 of cream. 2. If using sugar, dip the glass’s rim into lime juice, then into a coloured sugar. 3. Taste mixture. Once you’re happy that it tastes like a chocolate mint, pour into your martini glass. Do not overfill! 4.…

Neville Marriner (conductor) Academy of St Martin in the Fields Warner Classics 2435693585 Respighi’s trick was to capture the essence of Botticelli’s paintings. That’s also what makes the very best of a good bunch of recordings of the Botticelli Triptych stand out. The finest performances relish Respighi’s orchestration (he did study with the master, Rimsky-Korsakov, after all), the music’s wonderful colours and its descriptive qualities. Yet, just as Botticelli added layers of meaning to his paintings, so do the truly rewarding recordings also find something deeper below the surface. For spirit and a real joy in Respighi’s musical reinterpretations, look no further than Neville Marriner’s recording with his Academy of St Martin in the Fields, made back in 1976 in Abbey Road Studios for HMV, and repackaged since by Warner…

Christmas round-up When the King’s College Choir’s Nine Lessons and Carols service was cancelled due to Covid in 2020, a set of prerecorded performances was broadcast instead. Most of the tracks on In the Bleak Midwinter, the choir’s new recording, are drawn from that. They include seasonal favourites such as ‘Once in Royal David’s city’, ‘O come, all ye faithful’ and ‘Hark! the herald angels sing’, all sounding more affectingly intimate than usual in a chapel empty of the usual congregation. The voices are warmly blended by Daniel Hyde, director of music since 2019, and show the choir confidently developing a fresh identity in the post-Stephen Cleobury era. (King’s College KGS0060) Bells, bagpipes and hurdygurdy are among the instruments accompanying the three female singers in Boston Camerata’s Hodie Christus Natus…

Bartók Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/Susanna Mälkki BIS BIS-2378 (CD/SACD) 69:09 mins Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra could have brought the exiled Hungarian composer a new lease of life in the US. Commissioned by Koussevitzky for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, it was a riproaring success upon its premiere in 1944. But less than a year later, the composer was dead, after a long struggle with leukaemia. The Concerto has shone bright ever since, a magnificent showpiece with a dizzying range of emotional states, from dread and sorrow to graphically sardonic humour and, not least, elemental verve aplenty. The earlier Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta is its perfect companion piece, inventive at every twist, the unmatchably spooky timpani glissando effects ready to startle…

Telemann Violin Concertos, Vol. 7: Overture-Suites in A, TWV 55:A8 & TWV 55:A4; Violin Concerto in G, TWV 51:G4 The Wallfisch Band/Elizabeth Wallfisch (violin) CPO 777881-2 57:04 mins After an interim of five years comes Volume 7 of Elizabeth Wallfisch’s excellent survey of Telemann’s violin concertos. Wallfisch evidently is leaving no stone unturned since, as enthusiasts for the series already will know, she has been including not only the violin concertos but also the ouverturesuites that feature a solo violin and, in a single instance, one of Telemann’s handful of concertos for two violins. I hope this is not the final instalment, since there is still enough material for at least one further disc in which one or two violins play a prominent part. Telemann’s authorship of the two ouverturesuites…

Elgar Where Corals Lie: Sea Pictures, Op. 37; The Shepherd’s Song; A Song of Autumn etc Julia Sitkovetsky (soprano), Christopher Glynn (piano) Chandos CHAN 20236 63:38 mins This is my first encounter with Julia Sitkovetsky’s singing, so I take on trust her admired stage presence and ability to nail stratospheric coloratura, though neither quality is much called for in this recital of Elgar songs. What counts in this repertoire is not only character, but also an engagement with text combined with an ability to communicate. It was perhaps not wise to begin with the well-loved Sea Pictures, already embedded in people’s minds through such recordings as Janet Baker’s plangently expressive account with superbly atmospheric orchestral playing under Barbirolli’s baton. Furthermore, the cycle was originally intended for a contralto or mezzo…

Sebastian Fagerlund Oceano; Fuel; Transient Light; Clarinet Sonata; Scherzic; String Quartet No. 1 ‘Verso l’interno’ Christoffer Sundqvist (clarinet), Hervé Joulain (horn), Minna Pensola (violin), Atte Kilpeläinen (viola), Tomas Djupsjöbacka (cello), Paavali Jumppanen (piano), Meta4 String Quartet BIS BIS-2324 (CD/SACD) 70:33 mins Sebastian Fagerlund (b1972) first drew international attention with his colourful Clarinet Concerto (2006). The Finn’s natural outlet for his tautly robust, driving energy has been in opera and orchestral works. Yet his chamber music is no less compelling. These superbly performed duos, trios and quartets show the same forthright sensibility. Indeed, their material has sometimes emerged from orchestral projects while being completely distinct in exploring the dynamic unique to each chamber combination. With pianist Paavali Jumppanen, Clarinet Concerto dedicatee Christoffer Sundqvist offers an astonishingly vivid reading of the Clarinet…

Bach – The Art of Life Keyboard Works by CPE Bach, JC Bach, JCF Bach, JS Bach, WF Bach, Brahms and Stölzel Daniil Trifonov (piano) DG 483 8530 125:43 mins (2 discs) We don’t normally associate Daniil Trifonov with Bach, so this recording is a revelation, not only of his particular pianistic approach but also of the musical world as it continued through Bach’s sons. Trifonov himself describes Bach’s canons as ‘a masterful illustration of quantum entanglement’, the mirror fugues as ‘a description of matter-anti-matter theory’ and the diminished fugues ‘an analogy of gravitational timebending’. Bach’s entire output, he says, is ‘a sonic image of God’s natural laws’. Well, all that’s as maybe. But such ratiocinations are not the reason why this double album is such a delight. Trifonov shapes…

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THE 12 BEST FESTIVE PROGRAMMES St John’s Advent Carol Service Anticipating the festive season ahead, the Advent service from the Chapel of St John’s College, Cambridge will follow its traditional four-section format, with readings, prayers and music, led by director of music Andrew Nethsingha. Radio 3, 28 November, 3pm Music Matters: West Side Story celebrations To tie in with the release of Steven Spielberg’s Hollywood remake of West Side Story, Radio 3’s Music Matters looks at the cultural relevance of the original 1961 film, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Tom Service and Kate Molleson will explore how the film adaptations of Bernstein’s hit musical resonate in the world today. Radio 3, 4 December, 11.45am Handel’s Messiah The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor John Butt kick off…

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 Devastating dance Erik Levi’s excellent feature on the influence of Stravinsky on ballet (December) mentions the acclaim of The Rite of Spring as a virtuoso orchestral showpiece. He does not, though, mention the lost Nijinsky choreography or the later choreographies, of which perhaps the most dramatic is Pina Bausch’s, most recently performed in London by the English National Ballet. The sound of the excellent ENB Philharmonic performing in the Sadler’s Wells pit cannot fairly be compared with that of a symphony orchestra in an open concert hall, but the impact of the ballet, with Francesca Velicu as the Chosen One, was not just devastating but gut wrenching. Nigel…

Alim Beisembayev Pianist Born: Almaty, Kazakhstan Career highlight: Winning this year’s Leeds International Piano Competition was something I never expected. It’s a huge achievement I hope will open many doors for me, but I’ll have to proceed with great care. Musical hero: I would give anything to hear Chopin or Beethoven improvise. If what they wrote down is so ingenious, then the music they created spontaneously in the moment must have been priceless. Dream concert: An appearance at the BBC Proms is a dream for any young musician. I would also love to perform a cycle of Beethoven’s piano concertos as a challenge. Leia Zhu Violinist Born: Newcastle, UK Career highlight: My first comeback concert after the pandemic with the LSO and Simon Rattle at Trafalgar Square, before being appointed…

We reveal who’s recording what and where… Violinist Coco Tomita has recorded her debut album for Orchid Classics. Winner of the strings category at BBC Young Musician 2020, Tomita stepped before the microphone at the Menuhin School. Her album features works by Ravel, Poulenc, Lili Boulanger, Enescu, Debussy and Hubay. Orchid plans to release it early in the coming year. Another BBC Young Musician, cellist Laura van der Heijden (winner in 2012) has signed an exclusive recording contract with Chandos. Her first recording under the new contract is already in the can and sees her perform works by Kodály, Dvorák and Janácek with pianist Jâms Coleman. The album is out in February. The multi-talented Abel Selaocoe has been at work on a fascinating project for Warner Classics. The cellist, singer…

What great modernists struggled in vain to achieve has been quietly established by well-loved choral works; Tom Service explains their unheralded revolution There’s a genre of new music that’s loved and sung by millions, making sounds that are both searingly contemporary but resonantly timeless. It’s music whose power has been undimmed and even amplified in the months and years of lockdown. I’m talking about contemporary choral music, composed by musicians like Eric Whitacre and Cecilia McDowall, Morten Lauridsen and Judith Bingham. Why is their writing for voices so phenomenally popular, and why does it bring so many audiences to raptures, all in pieces that often last no more than a few minutes? I think it’s because they make us love dissonance in a way that generations of composers in the…

As the pandemic took hold in 2020, virtually all music making across the UK, and certainly that involving large numbers of performers, had to stop abruptly, placing the career of many musicians in jeopardy – not least, those working with cathedrals and their choirs. Not only did cathedral musicians lose their regular fees, but income for cathedrals decreased so radically that the future of their choirs was threatened even to the point of extinction. In the face of this, Friends of Cathedral Music (a UK organisation founded in 1956 by Revd Ronald Sibthorp in response to choirs having been decimated by World War II) joined forces with The Ouseley Church Music Trust and the Choir Schools’ Association to set up the Cathedral Choirs’ Emergency Fund. With the aim of providing…

This 22-CD collection (Eloquence 484 1435) really starts at the beginning, with Dame Gillian’s recital from St Alban’s Abbey recorded the day after winning the St Alban’s Competition, marking the start of her recording career. The set not only compiles her entire catalogue of recordings for Argo – including works by Renaissance and Baroque composers such as Bruhns, JS Bach and François Couperin – but it also includes no fewer than ten discs of previously unpublished BBC radio live broadcasts, selected by Weir herself. These include several performances at the Royal Festival Hall organ and her 1987 BBC Proms performance at the Albert Hall. There’s her five-disc cycle of the then-complete works of Messiaen, recorded in 1979 at The National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC, on the organ…

‘Ishall never forget,’ wrote Saint-Saëns in middle age, ‘how I was received when I first came to London, a refugee from Paris during the siege of 1871. It was to England that I naturally looked later on as the field for my choral works. One likes to be appreciated in the home, par excellence, of oratorio.’ Urged to escape from the Commune by his mother and great-aunt, the 35 year-old had jumped on almost the last train to leave the Gare du Nord with only a few francs in his pocket. Although he was not alone in London – other escapers included Gounod, Pauline Viardot and her lover Turgenev, and the artists Monet and Pissarro – he had had to make his own way, writing a few songs to English…

Chamber-scale Composition Laura Bowler: Wicked Problems A setting of Timothy Morton’s Dark Ecology, performed by flautist Ruth Morley and composer and vocalist Laura Bowler, Wicked Problems premiered in October 2020. Ensemble Dunedin Consort Under music director John Butt, the Scottish ensemble, which specialises in Baroque repertoire, receives this year’s award as it celebrates its 25th anniversary. Gamechanger Bold Tendencies Since 2007, Bold Tendencies has held events at a multi-story car park in Peckham, south London. This open-air venue really came into its own with the pandemic, including a performance of Brahms’s piano concertos. Impact ENO Breathe English National Opera’s nationwide project has offered practical therapy and support to Long Covid sufferers, including our own Rebecca Franks who wrote about its work in the November issue of BBC Music Magazine. Inspiration…

Composer of the Week is broadcast on Radio 3 at 12pm, Monday to Friday. Programmes in December are: 29 November – 3 December Emilie Mayer 6-10 December Mark-Anthony Turnage 13-17 December Saint-Saëns 20-24 December Mozart 27-31 December Puccini Tchaikovsky is one of those composers the classical music world reckons it knows about. During his lifetime and ever since, much of his music has been popular with audiences everywhere, its appeal to pundit and punter alike making nonsense of the idea that ‘barriers’ need to be ‘broken down’ between supposedly different musical worlds. Very few other composers – perhaps only Beethoven and Verdi – have achieved this as Tchaikovsky did. His ‘hall of fame’ numbers at least a dozen much-loved masterworks. In the ‘high art’ category are the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth…

Tamás Vásáry (conductor) The now disbanded Bournemouth Sinfonietta, a chamber orchestra sibling of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, is on sparkling form for Respighi, with excellent recorded sound. The bright colours and rhythmic drive of ‘Spring’ seem to come from the same world as Stravinsky’s Petrushka in conductor Tamás Vásáry’s hands, while he draws out the lyricism of ‘Adoration of the Magi‘. And while his ‘The Birth of Venus‘ is fast, none of the detail or delicacy is lost. The great hymn to beauty truly seems to emerge from a swirling sea. (Chandos CHAN 8913) Richard Hickox (conductor) Richard Hickox relishes the rich colours of Respighi’s writing in this performance, and overall takes a more expansive view compared to Marriner. There’s an almost luxurious quality to the City of London Sinfonia’s…

Take a seat and glance at the menu, for this issue’s reviews section is quite the feast! For starters, there’s a glittering selection of Handel from La Nuova Musica and some fabulous star soloists (see opposite). There are six options for the main course, including meaty Bartók orchestral works, a rare Rameau opera and an appetising solo piano exploration of the music of JS Bach and sons. For dessert, we have a smorgasbord of bite-sized items to choose from (aka Brief Notes), while on the side you can sample some seasonal fare in our usual round-up of Christmas recordings – taking you from Oxford to Belfast, via medieval carols. Finally, if you’d like an extra helping, we are delighted to share not one but two pages of book reviews. Happy…

Gerald Barry Alice’s Adventures Underground Claudia Boyle, Clare Presland, Hilary Summers, Gavan Ring, Peter Tantsits, Stephen Richardson, Alan Ewing; Irish Chamber Orchestra/André de Ridder Signum Classics SIGCD 695 53:25 mins Few novels have had the impact of Lewis Carroll’s two books devoted to his young heroine Alice, which have inspired works by Salvador Dali, the 1951 Disney animation and a fancy-dress theme that shows no signs of slowing. (The V&A’s ‘Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser’ – which runs until 21 December – brings together some of these cultural artefacts.) Musically, Alice has recently been represented in ballet (Joby Talbot, 2013) and a 2007 opera by Unsuk Chin, both of which follow the plot of Carroll’s first book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, Gerald Barry combines the best…

Musorgsky Unorthodox Music: The Nursery, songs and piano works Claire Booth (soprano), Christopher Glyn (piano) Avie AV2457 65:22 mins A Swedish pianist, top choice for many international singers, told me recently that agents didn’t want piano solos in a song recital. But isn’t that what every intelligent duo should be aspiring to, on disc as well as in the recital hall? Claire Booth and Christopher Glynn have been pioneering this kind of presentation on Avie with three discs to date, putting the composer first: Grainger, Grieg and now Musorgsky, the most maverick of them all. The surprises come thick and fast: after the very quirky-grotesque Prologue, a song about a demure young girl shocked by a dirty, Satanic billy-goat but unconcerned about marrying his human counterpart, we move through the…

Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht Composed in three weeks while holidaying at an Austrian lake resort in 1899 with Mathilde von Zemlinsky, Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) was written for string sextet. Inspiration came from a controversial Romantic poem by Richard Dehmal, and his burgeoning feelings for Mathilde. The work divided opinion when it premiered at Vienna’s Musikverein. It was also rejected by the city’s Music Society for its use of an unauthorised chord – an ultra-modern inverted ninth. The work was arranged for string orchestra in 1917 and further revised in the 1940s.…

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Monthly round-up The American pianist Craig Taborn is an elusive character. Unlike alpha improvisors such as Keith Jarrett or Cecil Taylor, Taborn seems to haunt the jazz scene rather than tower over it. An active collaborator, he rarely makes solo albums like this. His aptly titled Shadow Plays, produced by Manfred Eicher, was recorded live in the Mozart-Saal at the Wiener Konzerthaus. It’s an ethereal tour de force. Across seven pieces, tart phrases are expanded on through insistent repetition; meandering lines look anxiously for a direction; the left and right hand do call and respond, but then agree to differ. Sometimes he gives the impression of playing backwards. It’s sonic poetry in its purest form. (ECM 2693) A seductively rich baritone that can extend over four octaves combined with a…

The Cambridge Companion to Music and Romanticism Ed. Benedict Taylor Cambridge 404pp (pb) £22.99 As its editor Benedict Taylor points out in his introductory article, this book is not so much an account of a musical style, as an exploration of the way music crosses paths with other aspects of Romanticism, notably in literature, painting, philosophy and politics. Romanticism is notoriously difficult to define, particularly when it comes to music – that most romantic of all arts, as ETA Hoffmann called it. Hoffmann’s famous review of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is invoked by several of the contributors, but not his article on the composer’s Op. 70 piano trios, where, in the slow movement of the Ghost Trio, he heard ‘floating sounds that embraced the soul like shadowy dream figures, and enticed…

York Early Music Christmas Festival York, 3-11 December Web: ncem.co.uk For nearly a quarter of a century, York’s seasonal festival has signalled the countdown to Christmas. Prisma dive into the world of the seicento, Siglo de Oro heads to Mexico, cornetto and violin are challenged to a pan-European duel, and 2021 ends in a blaze of Bachian glory with the B minor Mass performed by The Yorkshire Bach Choir and Baroque Soloists. Gothic Voices Stoller Hall, Manchester, 3 December Web: stollerhall.com Sharing its yuletide bounty between Manchester and London’s Wigmore Hall, the vocal quartet observes a medieval Christmas. Gregorian chant is threaded through a programme featuring Mass movements by Queldryk and Leonel Power, motets by Dunstable and Walter Frye and a generous helping of ‘Anon’. London Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir…

1. Which famous festive work was performed in its entirety for the first time at the churches of St Nicholas and St Thomas in Leipzig from 25 December 1734 to 6 January 1735? 2. And which popular carol was sung for the first time at the church of St Nicholas in the Austrian village of Oberndorf on 24 December 1818? 3. ‘Wolcum Yole’, ‘That yongë child’ and ‘As Dew in Aprille’ are all movements from which 1942 Christmas choral work? 4. Whose 1906 setting of In the Bleak Midwinter is named ‘Cranham’ after the Gloucestershire village in which he wrote it? 5. Who, in 1843, furiously interrupted a rendition of God rest ye, merry gentleman ‘with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror’? 6. The composer pictured…

The first time I was struck by music, it was the theme tune of the 1957 television adaptation of The Railway Children. This tune, the second of GRIEG’s Symphonic Dances, is so haunting and beautiful that it summed the experience of the book up for me. Bizarrely, my latest book is a kind of reimagining of The Railway Children and when I was thinking about how I could take on this rather impertinent task, somebody mentioned that theme music. I tracked it down and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up to remember just how much it meant to me. The television company ran a painting competition based on The Railway Children and I’d just been given a painting set, so I got to work.…