Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2022 i BBC Music Magazine

In September 1992, 30 years ago this month, the first issue of BBC Music Magazine was published. Celebrating that magnificent milestone, some 377 issues later, presents the perfect opportunity to take stock of how far the classical world has come – from the streaming revolution to welcoming a more diverse and gender-balanced cohort of composers and performers. Underlying these developments has been a continued commitment to creativity and excellence on the part of musicians and composers – and how better to recognise that achievement than to celebrate some of the very best recordings of the past three decades. To that end, we’ve asked 30 of our reviewers to choose a personal favourite from the period, and the resulting list on page 26 is a fascinating snapshot of the great wealth…

‘A queer, mad work by an odd fellow from Chelsea.’ Herbert Brewer’s comment on hearing the premiere of Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis undoubtedly ranks as one of the more flippantly dismissive put-downs in music history. Brewer was the organist at Gloucester Cathedral, where the Fantasia was first performed on 6 September 1910 as part of the Three Choirs Festival. The new work was a Festival commission, and a large audience of 2,000 was present, mainly because Elgar was conducting his oratorio The Dream of Gerontius in the second half of the concert. While Elgar drew heavily on the orchestral palette of 19th-century composers such as Wagner and Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams looked much further back in time for his inspiration. As co-editor of The English…

Jennifer France Soprano In preparation for a concert in the autumn, I’ve been immersing myself in Dutilleux’s Correspondances, in a recording by Barbara Hannigan, and George Walker’s Lilacs, sung by Nicole Cabell – both are conducted by Simon Rattle. These pieces are new to me as a performer and are both really beautiful but very contrasting. They are such interesting works, as they are dense in their subject matter and emotionally very complex, and Lilacs isn’t like anything I’ve ever heard before. Shortly before we got married, my husband and I listened back to a lot of music that meant a lot to us, and one of our favourite songs is ‘Beyond’ by the American singer-songwriter Leon Bridges. It’s the perfect wedding song in that it’s about a man who…

When you subscribe to Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine today! Great Reasons To Subscribe Today Receive your first 3 issues for only £5* After your trial, continue to save 30% on the shop price when you pay by Direct Debit Build a library of expert family history advice and tutorials Never miss an issue of the UK’s bestselling family history magazine SUBSCRIBE ONLINE www.buysubscriptions.com/WHHA22 BY PHONE 03330 162120 QUOTE CODE WHHA22 *All savings are calculated as a percentage of the Basic Annual Rate. The UK Basic Annual Rate is £68.25 which includes event issues (issues charged higher than standard cover price) published in a 12-month period. This special introductory offer is available to new UK residents via Direct Debit only and is subject to availability. Offer ends on…

Composer of the Week is broadcast on Radio 3 at 12pm, Monday to Friday. Programmes in September are: 29 August – 2 September Buxtehude 5-9 September Schubert 12-16 September Bruckner 19-23 September Emilie Mayer (rpt) 26-30 September Weber Britten is widely celebrated for his profound connection with Suffolk’s flat, open landscapes, its coast and its rich birdlife of waders and waterfowl, one of which is celebrated in his opera (or ‘Church Parable’) Curlew River. It’s a curious paradox, then, that much of his music, even some that is most apparently rooted in that East Anglian region – including in his great ‘home coming’ opera of 1945, Peter Grimes – was profoundly inspired by music from even further East, virtually the other side of the world. It was not through travelling…

John DeMain (conductor) ‘The whole truth at last’ was one reviewer’s verdict when Houston Grand Opera’s epochal production of Porgy and Bess hit the stage in 1976. It was the first time the opera had been staged absolutely complete, and this cast recording crackles with theatrical energy. Donnie Ray Albert and Clamma Dale are excellent in the title roles, and conductor John DeMain’s swashbuckling players sound more like a Broadway pit band than a symphony orchestra. Slightly dry, occasionally harsh sound puts this just behind Maazel in the ratings. (RCA 88697985112) Simon Rattle (conductor) Simon Rattle’s Porgy derives from Glyndebourne’s classic 1986 production and has been widely lauded. Compared to Maazel, however, Rattle’s tempos are more extreme, at times over-excitable. Act I, for instance, scoots off at Keystone Cops velocity, sounding…

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JAZZ CHOICE Ayler in blistering form Now released in full, this 1970 gig in France shows the avant-garde saxophonist’s full range Albert Ayler Revelations – The complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings Albert Ayler (saxophones, musette, vocals), Mary Maria (saxophone, vocals), Cal Cobbs (piano), Steve Tintweiss (bass), Allen Blairman (drums) Elemental 5990443 (4 discs) Ayler was arguably the most controversial member of the generation that developed the ‘New Thing’ in the early ’60s. Towards the end of his life he introduced elements of rock and soul on albums like New Grass (1969), but here his ‘purer’ style dominates, with echoes of gospel music and New Orleans marching bands. These performances, available in full for the first time and handsomely packaged, were taped at the arts complex a few miles outside Nice…

SEPTEMBER’S RADIO 3 LISTINGS Schedules may be subject to alteration. For up-to-date listings see Radio Times Three to look out for Alan Davey, the controller of BBC Radio 3, picks out three great moments to tune into this September Philadelphia Sound The Philadelphia Orchestra performs Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ at the Royal Albert Hall, and star soprano Angel Blue joins them for two contrasting depictions of America: Samuel Barber’s nostalgic Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and This is Not a Small Voice, a new song cycle by Valerie Coleman. Prom 70: 8 September, 7.30pm Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder It’s a rare treat to hear Edward Gardner lead the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Choir and team of world-class soloists in Schoenberg’s colossal cantata – one of the most ambitious choral works of all time. Opera on 3:…

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 376/Sept 2022, PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA to arrive by 6 Sept 2022 (solution in Dec 2022 issue). Your name & address JUNE WINNER Rosie Wilton, Morpeth 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. We abide by IPSO’s rules and…

Cellist Now 23, Sheku Kanneh-Mason first drew widespread attention by winning BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2016. In 2018 he played at the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle, and in 2020 he was awarded an MBE for services to music. As well as solo albums, he has made recordings with his talented siblings, whose extraordinary story has been told in several TV documentaries. Sheku’s solo album, Song, comes out on Decca in September, and on 10 September he plays at the Last Night of the Proms. I started playing the cello at six and ELGAR’s Cello Concerto was the first classical music that I fell in love with and felt I understood. Of course, my feelings towards the piece have changed as I’ve got older –…

LETTER of the MONTH Doubly important One influential practitioner of the double bass (Déja vu, July) was Paul Simon’s father, Louis. When the future pop star was growing up, Louis was a professional musician, playing double bass in nightclubs and in the studio during the taping of TV variety shows like The Garry Moore Show. Paul and his brother Eddie would stay up past bedtime and watch, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of their dad in the background. Louis grew disenchanted with the lot of a freelancer, so went back to school, eventually becoming a professor of education. He is no longer with us, but his double bass stands in the corner of Paul Simon’s office. Paul’s path took a different direction, but having a musician for a…

With Covid continuing to create havoc in China, the organisers of the 2020 Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition have finally given up on trying to find a winner. Two years on, the six players who reached the final will instead share the prize money and take part in a special concert. It is not the first time a well-known competition has ended in a draw… Probably the most famous contest in classical music history took place in Vienna on 24 December 1781, when Joseph II of Austria challenged Mozart, the home favourite, to take on the visiting Italian virtuoso Clementi in a keyboard duel. But evidently, the Emperor was all mouth and no trousers, as when it came to naming a winner, he declined to do so. Nearly two…

Can music without words ever be funny? Joseph Haydn’s music suggests it can be. Haydn is the acme of the wittiness of late-18thcentury music in the way he soothes and startles his audience from one moment to the next, as in the contrast between the nursery-rhyme banality of the tune that opens the slow movement of his Symphony No. 94, lulling the audience into a false sense of security before a fortissimo thwack shocks us out of our reverie. But all I’ve ever really heard that piece do to an audience – and it’s the same with the the stop-start ending of Haydn’s so-called ‘Joke’ Quartet – is produce a smattering of cleverer-than-thou tittering, as some people want to show the rest of us that they’re frightfully clever for getting…

Charlotte Smith Editor As head of music at a school in Somerset, my sister generally prepares the music for the students’ Wells Cathedral carol service during the summer holiday. This year she sought my opinion, and on the agenda were the likes of Gardner’s setting of Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day and Rutter’s Shepherd’s Pipe Carol. But new to me was Lully, Lulla, Lullay, Philip Stopford’s 2008 setting of the Coventry Carol. This beautiful lament for a child is definitely one to add to my Christmas list. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor Having bought The King’s Singers’ 25th Anniversary Jubilee! songbook (above) on a whim, I’m now happily working my way through it and singing – loudly – the baritone and/or bass parts along to recordings by the group itself.…

BBC Music Magazine A year-by-year guide September 1992 Weeks after becoming a mum, editor Fiona Maddocks (left) takes the reins for the first ever issue(above) of BBC Music Magazine. Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is chosen to grace the cover. April 1993 A 20-page Choral Music Guide takes readers through its history and greatest works, plus introduces the finest choirs, conductors and recordings. Further guides soon follow. September 1994 Author Germaine Greer’s ‘Why don’t women buy CDs?’ feature evidently gets under the skin of several male CD collectors – The BBC Music post bag subsequently bulges. January 1995 In what would have been her 50th-birthday month, Jacqueline du Pré is remembered by her brother and sister, and her artistry celebrated by fellow cellist Steven Isserlis. November 1996 Actor Simon Callow is guest…

At some point over the next couple of weeks, we will be heading to some where in Bristol that serves nice beer and raising a pint or two to 30 years of BBC Music Magazine. That’s 378 issues, 46,872 pages (or thereabouts) and Lord-know-show-many words and pictures in the can. But before we go slapping ourselves on the collective backs, maybe we should put our achievement into context with a look back over history. By the time of their 30th birthdays, where along life’s path had some of the best known composers got to? Here are 15 notable examples… 1 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart By the time he reached his 30th birthday on 27 January 1786, Mozart had already racked up, among many other works, 37 symphonies, 22 piano concertos, 19 string…

You’ve recorded a lot of Polish music. Do you have an affinity with these composers? I have lived in Poland for a very long time and have long been fascinated by Polish culture. Since I first came to Poland I tried to enter into the mentality of the people, the country and its history. Aspects of the music depend on history and the conditions the government created for composers. The Dobrzyński symphony and overture were prohibited from being played, because there was no Poland on the map. The symphony really stands out among the selection… When I started to work with the orchestra, I had the impression that the musicians liked the music very much; it was very clear for them to understand the compositional form of the piece, and…

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Claiming Wagner for France – Music and Politics in the Parisian Press, 1933-44 Rachel Orzech Rochester 272pp (hb) £80 Wagner’s humiliating experiences in Paris, not least the debacle surrounding the 1861 revised version of Tannhäuser, undoubtedly prompted his strong aversion towards France. Yet by the early 1920s, any hostilities between composer and nation were long forgotten, and in 1933 Wagner’s popularity at the Paris Opéra appeared so unassailable that performances of his music-dramas accounted for 28 per cent of the season’s entire repertoire. However, the threat to Wagner’s reputation posed by Nazi appropriation of the composer provoked French critics into presenting their alternative universalist claim to his legacy. Inevitably, this position would be subverted after the Germans marched into France during the Second World War. Rachal Orzech’s fascinating book traces…

1. Which composer’s Op. 30 is a set of four mazurkas, written in 1837? 2. Beginning with a famous ‘Sunrise’, Richard Strauss’s Op. 30 is a tone poem named after a novel by Friedrich Nietzsche. What is it? 3. Who performed the world premiere of his own Third Piano Concerto Op. 30 at the New Theatre in New York on 28 November 1909? 4. In a well-known opera from 1911, the character pictured above, played here by Renée Fleming, mourns that in her early 30s her youthful looks are fading fast. Name the character and opera. 5. Starting upwards from the bottom A, what is the 30th note on a piano? 6. What word links Haydn’s Symphony No. 30 and a 1984 single by Leonard Cohen? 7. Which conductor had…

First, congratulations to all those who have worked on this magazine over the 30 years that we celebrate with this issue. When I told my university tutor that I was aiming to become a classical music journalist, he said: ‘Forget it. Those jobs will disappear in five years.’ That was in 1976. Somehow, we stagger on. People still want to read about music, thank goodness, as well as perform and listen to it. They still want to be stimulated, provoked, amused, perhaps even annoyed. Over the decades I have certainly learnt more from readers’ comments, encouraging or vitriolic, than they have ever learnt from me. The day this dialogue around classical music ceases is the day I will worry seriously about the future of the artform itself. How has the…

‘Where does my voice come from? I don’t know– I’m a farmer’s son from North Wales‚ As for every musician, it’s been a rollercoaster last couple of years for Sir Bryn Terfel. I’m speaking to him during a run of performances as Balstrode in Britten’s Peter Grimes at Covent Garden, in which he was a standout star turn; and it’s just a few weeks after he received one of the awards that means the most to him even in his glittering career, after singing the same role at the Vienna Staatsoper. He was made an Austrian Kammersänger, effectively a Mastersinger of Austria, and he’s still glowing with pride. After three decades walking the corridors of Vienna’s opera house, looking at photographs of previous winners, he knew there was only one…

The work The year was 1926, and it had been a busy day for George Gershwin. His new musical comedy Oh, Kay! was in rehearsal, and when the composer went to bed that evening he reached for some light reading material to lull himself to sleep. Instead he picked up Porgy, a recently published novel by the American writer DuBose Heyward. Heyward’s wife Dorothy reported that, far from dozing off swiftly, Gershwin ‘read himself wide awake’ that night, gripped by her husband’s dark, gritty tale of African American life in the tenements of Charleston, South Carolina. By four in the morning, Gershwin knew the story was ideal for an opera, and dashed off a letter to Heyward suggesting a meeting. Murder, race issues, domestic violence and substance abuse all feature…

The likes of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart tend to hog the limelight, so it’s really nice when we’re able to give lesser-known and overlooked composers a moment in the sun. That’s not to say this issue doesn’t feature Johann, Ludwig and Wolfgang, because they’re very much accounted for, but spare a moment for the likes of Polish composers Dobrzyński, Kurpiński and Wieniawski (our Recording of the Month stars opposite), or Ferdinand Ries, who is dragged out of Beethoven’s shadow to become our ‘Chamber Choice’. We’ve also got music by Hans Winterberg, Johann Wilhelm Wilms, a couple of Schmitts and a whole disc of shiny new Estonian Premieres to discover. And if you’d prefer something more vintage, then don’t miss our Reissues page. This month’s critics John Allison, Nicholas Anderson, Michael…

Luke Bedford Besilvering Holst-Sinfonietta et al Bastille Music BM019 There’s quiet ferocity and unusual beauty to be found in these pieces by the British composer, written from 2002-19. Explorations of texture and timbre are wrought in a variety of chamber combinations, some – like that for bass drum and piano – unexpected and rather captivating. (MB) Peter Boyer Balance of Power LSO/Peter Boyer Naxos 8.559915 Boyer’s broad-brush cinematic works have the orchestral buoyancy of John Williams and the absorbing emotionalism of the late James Horner. The LSO sparkle in items like the rousing Fanfare for Tomorrow, written for President Biden’s inauguration last year. (MB) Richard Blackford Mirror of Perfection; Vision of a Garden Philharmonia Orchestra et al Lyrita SRCD.406 Blackford’s 1996 Mirror of Perfection is a big-boned and breathtaking opener,…