Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2024 i BBC Music Magazine

In the early 1950s, Neville Marriner (see April issue), pianist Antony Hopkins and violinist Alan Loveday travelled the country to play trios at local music societies. I recall the chairman of the Newport (Shropshire) Music Society announcing shortly before their concert was about to begin that there would be a late start but the Trio were ‘on their way’. After 45 minutes or so, Marriner came on to the platform to apologise. Their agent had told them their venue was Newport… but had sent them to Newport (Monmouth) in error. Quite how they managed to hurtle for a late start to the correct venue in the days before motorways goodness knows, but Hopkins had a reputation for driving fast cars so maybe he was at the wheel. During his apology…

Did Pythagoras get it wrong? In the 6th century BC, the great polymath showed that certain numerical ratios between sounds are what makes music sound pleasant to us – and dissonance occurs when there’s a deviation from such ratios. But scientists in the US and UK now suggest that imperfections are also attractive, especially when heard on instruments less familiar to Western ears. ‘With instruments like the bonang,’ says Dr Peter Harrison of Cambridge University, ‘Pythagoras’s special numbers go out the window and we encounter entirely new patterns of consonance and dissonance.’…

I was born and raised in Edmonton, Canada. I’m first-generation Canadian – my parents emigrated from Hong Kong after they got married. I grew up as any good immigrant family would, with eager parents who wanted their child to do well. I started piano lessons but didn’t want to practise, so I made stuff up. My first piano teacher was also a composer. She recognised what I was doing and instead of telling me to stop and focus on the lesson, she taught me how to notate it all. Winters are harsh in Edmonton and there was nothing to do, so that became my outlet and it blossomed. Songs for the Next Generation is a collaboration with tenor Nicholas Phan, the Jasper Quartet and pianist Myra Huang. I had the…

Alexandre Tharaud admires the unswerving integrity and unique sound of fellow pianist Piotr Anderszewski Singers are my most inspiring guides. They open the way for me; they are my true teachers. I also listen to many pianists, but I’m always on the lookout for the singer within them. A pianist guides me through their unique sound and song. The sound comes first – the late Rudolf Serkin and Emil Gilels, or Zhu Xiao-Mei and Arcadi Volodos today, all have a very distinctive sound. Then comes the song, which is about what is being woven and told. Marcelle Meyer, Sergio Fiorentino and Martha Argerich are among those who inspire me here. Piotr Anderszewski and I are the same age, and we play at opposite ends of the spectrum. At 20, Piotr…

‘It can be very irritating, being a composer,’ laughs Errollyn Wallen. ‘You’re always trying to solve these ridiculous problems that you’ve set yourself. And sometimes you just want a day off, but the music won’t let you.’ Be it going for a walk or doing the washing up, Wallen somehow always finds herself lost in composition: ‘I’m obsessed by music. I can’t help it. So, I’ll try doing something else but I find I’m still thinking about whatever it is I’m working on. I’m an untidy person so at least washing up fulfils two functions: I feel good that I’m actually tidying something, and I’m also thinking.’ Wallen’s obsession with music is borne out in her extraordinary catalogue of works and accolades. Her music is beautiful, communicative and instinctive, yet…

Glyndebourne Lewes, Sussex, 16 May – 25 August glyndebourne.com There’s more to Glyndebourne than black-tie picnics on the lawn and bosky evenings of operatic opulence: last December’s One Voice Festival of Singing convened some 2,000 schoolchildren; Glyndebourne Sinfonia and Chorus toured over 130 Sussex care homes; and a freshly configured autumn season juggled opera, recitals, masterclasses and concerts. Still, there’s no denying that the summer festival is at the heart of the Glyndebourne experience – and has been for 90 years (see p14). Five productions gild 2024, with Bizet’s Carmen opening the season in a new staging by Diane Paulus conducted by Robin Ticciati. The other new production, a house ‘first’, is Lehár’s The Merry Widow, spearheaded by Danielle de Niese as the widow. Among the revivals is a tercentenary…

Abu Dhabi Festival United Arab Emirates, year-long abudhabifestival.ae Not for Abu Dhabi the defining constrictions of time and place. It’s a festival with year-round global aspirations that, two decades since its foundation, boasts a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in Paris and, in December, new music inspired by the paintings of Bob Peak at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Co-produced recordings by tenor Juan Diego Flórez and violinist Yamen Saadi add a legacy to an anniversary edition that ends with the China National Symphony Orchestra. Weiwuying International Music Festival National Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, until 21 April npac-weiwuying.org As she ponders the third instalment of Taiwan’s flagship festival, composer-artistic director Unsuk Chin is in upbeat mood. With the capacious facilities of the world’s…

1856 LIFE: Sergei Taneyev is born on 25 November in the Russian city of Vladimir. He begins piano lessons at five, and at nine enters the Moscow Conservatory. TIMES: The Treaty of Paris is signed between Russia and France, Britain and the Ottoman Empire, ending the three-year Crimean War and re-opening the Black Sea to trade. 1875 LIFE: Graduating with distinction as the winner of the Conservatory’s Great Gold Medal, in December of the same year he gives the first Moscow performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto. TIMES: General Dmitry Milyutin’s widespread reforms to modernise the Russian military, which includes compulsory conscription for all classes but a reduction in the length of service, are formally made law. 1889 LIFE: After the death of his mother Varvara, a dynamic presence who has…

Mozart Piano Concertos Nos 6-8, K238; K242; K246 Robert Levin (fortepiano), Ya-Fei Chuang (fortepiano), Bojan Čičić (violin), Academy of Ancient Music/Laurence Cummings (harpsichord) Academy of Ancient Music AAM044 60 mins There’s backstory to enjoy with this Mozart, the penultimate instalment in the reboot of an abandoned 1990s cycle on Decca, coaxed back to life for the AAM’s own label during the pandemic. Robert Levin intends it to be an antidote to uniform, mass-produced Mozart, giving the life-spark back to this music. Production values are high, and there’s a delicious amount of connoisseur’s detail in the generous album booklet. But the main event is Mozart’s music itself – and the performance is constantly alive, alert and superbly done. In this 12th volume, it’s the turn of three concertos written in the…

Michael Finnissy Alternative Readings; Botany Bay; Wisdom etc Marsyas Trio, Lotte Betts-Dean, Joseph Havlat Divine Art MEX77102 76:00 mins As Michael Finnissy points out in the booklet notes, these compositions for voice (mostly) with small ensemble typify much of his as-yet sparsely recorded output, so this release (from a label that continues to serve the composer well) is particularly welcome. Anyone nervous of the so-called New Complexity could do far worse than ease into this style via this recording, where the foregrounded element is Finnissy’s profound respect for language, its cadences, how it conveys meaning and the ways in which its interaction with music can be expressed in terms of tension and reconciliation (and sometimes, but not necessarily, of musical and/or emotional resolution). His empathetic settings of poetry, biblical passages…

Sam Jackson, the controller of BBC Radio 3, selects three programme highlights for the month of May Best of Live Radio 3 showcases specially recorded live performances and session tracks from the BBC and around the world. May begins with a profile of one of the leading interpreters of French music, pianist Bertrand Chamayou, in concert at LSO St Luke’s. Classical Live, weekdays, 1pm Discussion and discovery This month, Jess Gillam’s newly extended programme features chats with a wide range of guests such as composer and The National guitarist Bryce Dessner, pianist Arsha Kaviani and songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Olivia Chaney, with music picks to set the mood for your Saturday evening. This Classical Life, Saturdays, 5pm A legendary duet Cellist Kate Kennedy revisits the location and story of the famous…

Available from BBC Music Magazine is a must-read for anyone with a passion for classical music. Every issue brings the world of classical music to life, from interviews with the greatest artists and features on fascinating subjects, to all the latest news and opinions from around the music world. Have BBC Music Magazine delivered straight to your device when you take out a one month FREE trial* subscription to the digital edition. Simply return to the home page to subscribe. *After your one month trial your subscription will continue at £2.99 per month…

In January 1934, the Sussex Agricultural Express reported that two cows owned by ‘Captain Christie’ of Glyndebourne were trophy winners at a local show. On 25 May, the same journal raised readers’ sights a little higher by observing that John Christie’s new opera house at Glyndebourne ‘may… one day be the Mecca of opera lovers in this country’. A former Eton science teacher possessed of an inherited fortune, Christie was offering opera-goers a high-quality experience (in the wilds of Sussex) rare on the cash-strapped UK musical scene. Rumours of what was afoot were circulating the previous autumn, although baritone Roy Henderson recalled 50 years later that ‘everybody thought it was crazy’. Henderson nonetheless signed up to sing the Count under Fritz Busch’s baton in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro – Glyndebourne’s…

Charlotte Smith Editor In March, Bang & Olufsen hosted a celebration in Mayfair of the 2024 BBC Music Magazine Awards nominees. Performing at the event was last year’s Premiere Award winner Fenella Humphreys, who charmed the audience with solo violin works by Bach, Debussy, Peter Maxwell Davies and, to finish, a dazzling account of Seonaid Aitken’s The Mad Piper – a wistfully beautiful Scottish tune that becomes a whirling, fizzing reel. The gathering’s spontaneous cheer following the final flourish said it all. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor Good things came to those who wait at this year’s Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in Manchester. A speech of Mahlerian length from the BBC Singers – six movements plus coda – was followed by Jasdeep Singh Degun’s closing performance of his Veer for sitar,…

Elizabeth Maconchy’s 13 string quartets belong at the centre of our musical lives. They should be at the heart of every string quartet’s repertoire, and at the core of concert hall promotion. They are musical experiences that we listeners need in our lives: these quartets have an expressive intensity and an unflinching musical integrity, and as such they are a unique revelation of what the string quartet can do. Maconchy loved the string quartet as a medium because it represented a musical absolute, a way of composing in which there was nowhere to hide. Writing an essay on her 50-year relationship with writing quartets – from her first in 1933 to the 13th in 1984 – she asked the question: ‘What is it that has given [the string quartet] its…

RECORDING OF THE MONTH TIPPETT A Child of Our Time BBC Symphony Chorus BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis Sir Andrew Davis leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in this powerful new recording of Tippett’s pacifist oratorio, with soloists Pumeza Matshikiza, Dame Sarah Connolly, Joshua Stewart, and Ashley Riches. CHSA 5341 HAYDN PIANO TRIOS, VOL. 3 Trio Gaspard Trio Gaspard’s revelatory series of Haydn’s piano trios continues. Gramophone described Vol. 1 as ‘an album of joyous, imaginative music-making that whets the appetite for future instalments’. The première recording of Kit Armstrong’s Revêtements completes the album. SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY NO. 13; PÄRT: DE PROFUNDIS Albert Dohmen Estonian National Male Choir BBC Philharmonic | John Storgårds John Storgårds’s acclaimed series of Shostakovich symphonies continues with this recording of Symphony No. 13 Babiy…

You think you’ve got issues? Well, we’ve got 400 of them. Since September 1992, each month (plus, more recently, Christmas too) has been marked by the arrival of a new installment of BBC Music Magazine, with news, reviews, interviews, a cover CD of complete works… and much more. Staff and writers come and go, and BBC MM HQ has shunted from London to Bristol to various lockdown homes, but the essence of the magazine remains the same. If you have been with us from the outset, thank you! By way of a reminder – or, if you have joined us more recently, as an introduction – here is a look back at our journey so far, presented in eight installments… Issue 1 September 1992 On the cover: Anne-Sophie Mutter Cover…

Headphones adjusted, the conductor raises his arms. Strings twist and turn, the sound swells; electronic vocals ride the crest of the wave. The beat drops. Then, as lights flash across the Royal Albert Hall, glockenspiels duet over a keyboard motif. The short phrase is repeated, with metronome precision, for several minutes – but it’s not Reich or Glass, it’s Fatboy Slim and Eric Prydz. When the BBC Proms hosted an Ibiza-themed programme in 2015, it wasn’t the gimmick that it first appeared: not only does an instrumental performance of dance music – a largely electronic genre – require impressive technical skill, the Prom recognised the continuing cultural mystique associated with the Balearic island. Over the past two decades, Ibiza has become renowned for its nightclubs that attract the world’s best…

The work Anyone visiting Venice today with deep pockets and a reservation at the Danieli Hotel might not necessarily know that in 1624 the then Palazzo was host to the birth of a remarkable musical moment. A theorbo’s throw from the Doge’s Palace and Basilica of San Marco, it was home to Monteverdi’s patron Girolamo Mocenigo; and for the carnival celebrations, San Marco’s illustrious maestro di capella had something special up his sleeve. With Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda he was, he declared, ‘the author of the first experiment and of the first convincing example of a style indispensable to music’. ‘I found the conflicting passions I wanted to set to music: war, supplication and even death’ In a nutshell, he claimed to have rediscovered the ‘agitated style’ described…

Though Monteverdi may have proudly claimed the credit for reinventing the ‘agitated style’ in music, the subject – and lively depiction – of battles had been popular for some time. For instance, from the 1580s we have La battaglia by Monteverdi’s Venetian forebear Andrea Gabrieli. Scored for eight wind instruments, it’s a jaunty affair – all triumphant fanfares rather than the cut and thrust of combat. (The King’s Consort Hyperion CDD22072) The French liked to celebrate a good fight too, as evidenced by Clément Janequin’s 1528 La Guerre, which raises a goblet to Francis I’s victory over the assembled forces of Duke Ercole Sforza of Milan at the Battle of Marignano 13 years earlier. In this instance, five voices plus instrumental accompaniment call us to arms in the first half,…

Bertin Fausto Karine Deshayes, Karina Gauvin et al; Les Talens Lyriques; Flemish Radio Choir/Christophe Rousset Bru Zane BZ1054 119:38 mins (2 discs) The first recording of a long-lost operatic score by Louise Bertin (1805-77) is an important event. Set to the composer’s own libretto based on Goethe, Bertin’s Fausto went through various versions intended for different casts and theatres – and even in different languages – prior to a brief premiere run at the French capital’s Italian-language house, the Théâtre Italien, in 1831, thereafter disappearing until a Parisian revival in June 2023. Given other options, what has been recorded here is an Italian opera in the semiseria genre with a mezzo lead. From the sternly dramatic overture onwards, the impact of Bertin’s ambitious orchestral scoring suggests a kinship with Berlioz.…

Bach The Complete Cello Suites Henri Demarquette (cello) Evidence EVCD115 131:00 mins (2 discs) Best-known for his performances of contemporary music, French cellist Henri Demarquette has also spent a lifetime with Bach, having played the Cello Suites since his early childhood. He first recorded them in 2002 and now returns to them seasoned with life’s experience. His approach here has a debonair confidence – just as fresh and vital as the youthful version but the sound now is fuller, riper, and more present in the recorded perspective. One perceives the lingering influences of the great French cellists: the finesse, lyricism and poetry of Pierre Fournier; the richly shaded tone and articulate phrasing of Paul Tortelier. His reading of the G major Suite encapsulates the flexibility and variety of his approach.…

TV CHOICE Gareth Malone’s Passion First performed by Bach in Leipzig on Good Friday 1724, the St John Passion has been close to Gareth Malone’s heart ever since he played the iconic Evangelist as a young music student – a somewhat propitious role for the nation’s much-loved choirmaster, who could well be described as an evangelist for the power of singing itself. In this two-part series, he celebrates its 300th anniversary through the eyes and ears of eight untrained singers who set about tackling this demanding choral work. Participants come from all walks of life – including a drag artist from Port Talbot and a footballer-cum-flautist from Cardiff – but share a common desire to find their voice. Collaborating with a stellar band of professional singers including Roderick Williams and…

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has announced Mark Wigglesworth as its new chief conductor. The 59-year-old will begin the role from the start of the 2024/25 season, taking over from the Ukrainian Kirill Karabits, who has proved a hugely popular figure in his 15 years in charge of the south-coast ensemble. Wigglesworth will be no stranger to his new orchestra, having been its principal guest conductor since November 2021. He also comes with a wealth of experience, with previous positions including principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (1996-2000) and principal guest conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (1998-2001). Also a regular in the pit at the opera, he was appointed music director of English National Opera in September 2015 but resigned just six months later, reasoning that…

23rd: Gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are shot dead when police open fire on their Ford V8 on the Louisiana State Highway 154. When the vehicle is searched, a large number of rifles, handguns and sawn-off shotguns are found, along with thousands of rounds of ammunition and 15 sets of license plates. Parker’s family later refuse to allow the pair to be buried side by side. 25th: The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Wireless Singers give the first ever performance of Bartók’s Cantata Profana. The three-movement work, which also features tenor and bass soloists, sets texts which, discovered by the composer in Transylvania 20 years earlier, tell of nine sons who, while out hunting, find themselves turned into stags and have to beg their father not to shoot them. 25th:…

This month: KARINE DESHAYES Soprano MY FINEST MOMENT Mozart Exsultate, jubilate Karine Deshayes (soprano); Les Paladins/Jérôme Corréas Aparté AP327 (2023) I have done so many recordings now, from Baroque to contemporary – I don’t know exactly how many but it’s over 50 which is amazing – and this is my first Mozart recording so it’s really important for me. I have performed his music many times on stage since 1999 – I began with Cherubino and Zerlina, and now I can sing Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, and even Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro, so I’m happy to be able to record Mozart. I love the Exsultate, jubilate and I listened to it so many times when I was young, especially Kiri Te Kanawa’s version. I’ve known Jérôme Corréas…

Maurizio Pollini Born 1942 Pianist and conductor ‘That young man can play the piano better than any of us,’ enthused Arthur Rubinstein on hearing an 18-year-old Maurizio Pollini play his way to victory in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1960. That victory set in motion a career that would last a full six decades, covering repertoire ranging from JS Bach to Webern, Boulez and Stockhausen, all played with a meticulous attention to detail and uncanny ability to bring out detail that might pass other pianists by. The Milan-born son of architect Gino Pollini, Maurizio briefly put his ambitions on hold for a period of intense practice before touring worldwide from the mid-1960s onwards. In 1971, he recorded Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka and Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata for…

It’s the end of an era in Manchester. And at the centre of their last season together – the 24th year of one of the most successful and long-running partnerships in British orchestral history – conductor Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé are playing one of the monuments of the repertoire: Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. It’s a symphonic cosmos that’s a revelation of the emotional and expressive depths that they can reach together, and which displays every aspect of the Hallé’s collective and individual virtuosity. The orchestra distinctively combines long, singing lines – the slow movement unfurls as a superhuman stretching of time and feeling, in which the strings’ bows realise Bruckner’s infinitely long phrases with breathtaking conviction – with an absolute clarity of articulation, as the brass players sound clarion…

Consider the song of the nightingale. Clangorous, bizarre and almost psychedelic in its complexity, this small brown bird’s voice is truly remarkable but really nothing like the sweet, mellifluous crooning you might imagine if you’d never heard one for yourself. But few people these days have: the UK nightingale population, which now stands at around 5,000 pairs, has declined by half in the past three decades alone. Without a real-life reference point, the cliché of the nightingale’s superlative melodiousness seems destined to persist. Composer Alexander Liebermann first encountered a nightingale returning home from a night out in Berlin. It would be many years before he began to incorporate birdsong in his music, but the experience stayed with him. I came across Liebermann on Instagram, where he posted a video of…

Long Play Festival Brooklyn, NYC, 3-5 May bangonacan.org Before August’s eclectic Long Weekend and July’s Summer Festival, there’s the small matter of a May prequel – Bang on a Can’s Brooklyn bonanza of some 60 concerts of new and newish music. Corralled into three exuberant days, premieres world, US and New York come thick and fast. Included are the Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith, Anna Meredith’s Nuc and, performed by Ensemble Klang, Peter Adriaansz’s Environments. But contemporary classics are not airbrushed. The Ligeti Quartet salutes its namesake; the music of Steve Reich re-echoes; and Ekmeles illuminates David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion. May Festival Cincinnati, OH, 17-25 May mayfestival.com It’s all change in Cincinnati. Last year’s 150th-birthday celebrations concluded, the choralfest steps out with a new festival director at…

Rachmaninov All-Night Vigil PaTRAM Institute Male Choir/Ekaterina Antonenko Chandos CHSA 5349 (CD/SACD, 2 discs) 70:13 mins Deep bass notes are one of the most striking features of Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil, and a pianissimo scale down to a bottom B flat led the conductor of the first performance to ask, ‘Where in the world will you find such basses? They are as rare as asparagus at Christmas.’ Rachmaninov replied that he knew his Russian peasants. Choral basses have doubtless cursed him ever since. In this new recording from the Patriarch Tikhon Russian-American Music Institute (PaTRAM), a group dedicated to the promotion of Russian Orthodox liturgical singing, male vocal timbres both low and high are celebrated in a special arrangement for tenors and basses. Preserving Rachmaninov’s harmonies and textures as far as…

Shabaka Hutchings Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace Shabaka Hutchings (flutes), Jason Moran (piano), Nasheet Waits (drums), Carlos Niño (percussion) plus guests Esperanza Spalding (bass), Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (strings) et al Impulse! 602465050356 46:45 mins Hearing last year that Shabaka intended laying down his sax in favour of the flute came as a shock. The 39-year-old was defined by the ferocity of his horn playing as leader of Sons of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming. His conversion to non-western (keyless) flutes like the Japanese shakuhachi, Andean quena and Slavic svirel was the result of practising in open spaces and connecting with nature, he said. To retain the natural vibe in the studio for this flute-forward session, Shabaka invited a diverse selection of friends to jam together, with no headphones or…

GREAT VALUE Anker Soundcore AeroFit £99 Designed primarily for sport, but great for anyone who wants to enjoy their music and remain connected to the world around them, the AeroFit weigh a mere 8.2g each and the ear-hook design is most comfortable. Easy to connect, they have a partner app that lets you assign touch controls for each ear, and boast an 11 hr (42 hrs total) battery life and incredibly fast charging. The 14mm drivers do a good job directing music into your ear canal with little sound leakage and there’s an enticing fullness to the performance. They’re a good-value buy that should help you stay alert and entertained. soundcore.com FIT FOR SPORT JBL Soundgear Sense £129 At 13g each, these are hefty for wireless earbuds, but the flexible…

On your FREE CD Schoenberg Violin Concerto Brahms Serenade No. 2 Performed by violinist Ernst Kovacic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra PLUS! Claire Jackson interviews composer Anna Clyne about her many influences, from dance to poetry; Michael White looks back at the scandalous premiere performance of Walton’s Façade; Simon Broughton celebrates 50 years of the Kronos Quartet; and Isaac Albéniz is our Composer of the Month Competition terms and conditions Winners will be the senders of the first correct entries drawn at random. All entrants are deemed to have accepted the rules (see opposite) and agreed to be bound by them. The prizes shall be as stated and no cash alternatives will be offered. Competitions are open to UK residents only, except employees of Our Media…