Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2024 i BBC Music Magazine

LETTER of the MONTH Holst’s chosen instrument I enjoyed September’s cover CD (above) featuring some of Gustav Holst’s lesser-known works. As a fellow trombonist, it was good to read about his career playing the instrument which, as you say, provided a source of income and helps to explain why he wrote so well for brass. The article did not mention that his reasons for choosing the trombone related to his frail health. He started playing to improve his asthma, and he also suffered nerve pain in his right hand, which frustrated his ambition of becoming a professional pianist. He therefore pursued the trombone, which does not require the use of the fingers. As far as I’m aware, it is the only instrument that has this distinction, unless readers have any…

Charlotte Smith Editor My first trip to the 2024 BBC Proms was a real treat. Mark Elder’s swansong as music director of the Hallé, after a quarter-century in the role, was always going to be an emotional affair, but add Mahler’s heartfelt Fifth Symphony to the mix and you’d be hard pressed to find a dry eye in the house. And what a house it was – the Royal Albert Hall was full to bursting, from enthusiastic Prommers to those high up on the balcony. Sensational! Jeremy Pound Deputy editor Midway through the Olympic Games, how appropriate that the BBC Proms should feature the most Olympian of piano concertos, namely Busoni’s five-moment epic from 1904. The focus is naturally on the extraordinary demands made of the soloist – here, Benjamin…

Forget New York’s Studio 54 in the 1970s. For the heart of the disco revolution, head back to Bach, Handel and Rossini in the 18th and 19th centuries, says Tom Service Disco sounded a clarion call of liberty, sexual freedom and the pleasure principle as political protest in the 1970s, a generous invitation to collective delirium that took over the world. And in the sounds that disco made – trance-like rhythmic repetition, some of the most lavish instrumental arrangements ever created and its commitment to keeping the moment of ecstasy going as long as possible – it was a new sound of irresistibility in musical action. But in 1970s New York, there was something in the air in disco’s musical ideas, and not only in music made for the clubs:…

I must be one of the few journalists still alive who interviewed, at different times, four of the five men who created West Side Story – Leonard Bernstein, the composer; Jerome Robbins, the choreographer; Stephen Sondheim, the librettist; and Arthur Laurents, who wrote the dialogue. The fifth man, a fellow called William Shakespeare who worked a bit on the plot, never got back to me. So, I defer to nobody in my appreciation of the genius that goes into making the great musicals discussed elsewhere in this magazine. But may I be permitted to play devil’s advocate and put this shocking thought forward? Although the musicals genre has given us the most joyous entertainments humanity has known, it is also responsible for some of the worst evenings spent in the…

Last century, some critics assumed music by women would sound pretty, not gritty. ‘There were lots of examples in reviews,’ Nicola LeFanu says. ‘I remember Priaulx Rainier, a South African woman, being described as a “young Frenchman”.’ These preconceptions seem mercifully unlikely today. Yet if some composers have been whooshed into the spotlight, others are being whooshed out again. Possibly some senior, modernist composers have been sidelined as minimalism and influences from ‘world’ music take the ascendent. A swing against modernism has not disturbed the reputations of Saariaho, Gubaidulina and Ustvolskaya. But other ‘difficult’ voices, including Erika Fox and the late Rainier, are proving harder to keep in view than they deserve. Even in an era preoccupied with ‘identity’, composers’ individual voices are the deeper ‘diversity’ that is the lifeblood…

‘You get a massive laser focus on what it is that you should and shouldn’t be spending your time doing’ If you’ve seen War Horse or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the theatre then you’ll have heard the music of Adrian Sutton. Emerging from a career composing for adverts, Sutton found himself creatively entangled with the Morris brothers. Music for Chris Morris’s Radio 1 show Blue Jam brought the composer to the attention of director Tom Morris, who roped Sutton in to contribute to his brilliantly satirical Newsnight: The Opera in 2003, followed by the 2005 play Coram Boy. The rest is theatre history. With Seize the Day, a new album of Sutton’s orchestral works performed by the BBC Philharmonic, we’re invited to discover another…

Composer of the Week is broadcast on Radio 3 at 4pm, Monday to Friday. Programmes in October are: 30 Sept – 4 Oct Dorothy Howell 7-11 October To be confirmed 14-18 October Ives 21-25 October Margaret Bonds and her circle 28 Oct – 1 Nov Liszt On 7 May 1824, Beethoven directed the premiere of his monumental Ninth Symphony, with its famous Finale setting Schiller’s Ode to Joy, in Vienna’s Kärntnertor Theatre. Fortunately, a second conductor had been engaged, because the performance taking place in Beethoven’s mind had only a tenuous connection with what was happening on the stage. As the symphony came to an end, the deaf composer still had his head buried in the score, and he had to be turned round by one of the solo singers…

Building a Library is broadcast on Radio 3 at 3.30pm each Saturday as part of Record Review. A highlights podcast is available on BBC Sounds. The work Nearly every country can boast at least one work that somehow embodies the spirit of that nation. Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Chopin’s mazurkas, for example, easily conjure up distinct aspects of England, the United States or Poland. Only a handful of works, though, have acquired almost anthemic status in their homelands – pieces that not only depict composers’ countries but which have become central pillars in their cultural identity. Finlandia by Sibelius is one example. Another is Má Vlast, (My Homeland), Smetana’s cycle of six orchestral tone poems from the 1870s. It was during self-imposed exile that Smetana realised the…

We can’t seem to move for composer anniversaries lately, from Holst and Schoenberg’s 150th in September to Bruckner’s 200th in October. The latter’s Seventh Symphony has been treated to a glorious live recording by the Pittsburgh Symphony, as you’ll discover opposite, while Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande takes the lead spot in Orchestral. He does share the podium with Fauré’s take on the story, but that’s also timely as we’re creeping up on the centenary of the French composer’s death in November. In fact, this issue is a bit of a Fauré feast, with new releases scattered throughout, including those from Renaud Capuçon, Le Concert Spirituel, Robin Michael and Daniel Tong, Aline Piboule and the figure humaine kammerchor. This month’s critics John Allison, Nicholas Anderson, Michael Beek, Terry Blain, Kate Bolton-Porciatti,…

Fauré • Schoenberg Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande; Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande Frankfurt Radio Symphony/Paavo Järvi Alpha Classics ALPHA1058 58:55 mins Having only recently nominated this release as my benchmark version of Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande (see Building a Library, Aug 2024), I was apprehensive that a second encounter would somehow temper my initial enthusiasm. Any doubts were immediately swept aside by the sheer conviction and intensity that Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony bring to the music. What makes this performance especially persuasive is Järvi’s ability to control the constantly fluctuating tempo changes in Schoenberg’s score without losing sight of the music’s structural cohesion. Many other performances fall down on either one of these aspects, disrupting the natural ebb and flow of the musical argument by applying too much rubato…

Ryuichi Sakamoto Opus Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano) Milan 19802835112 36:50 mins Just months before he died, Ryuichi Sakamoto sat at a piano in Tokyo’s NHK 509 studio. Recording just a few pieces a day, due to its physical demands, the Japanese artist (for he was an artist) reflected on a life in music with a handpicked selection of moments from his career on and off screen. Opus is the title of the album, but also the film of what is a most intimate and personal set of recording sessions, directed by Sakamoto’s son Neo Sora. From the first notes of Lack of Love through to the powerful themes from The Last Emperor and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence there’s the feeling of a man letting every thought and emotion out into the…

OCTOBER’S RADIO 3 LISTINGS Schedules may be subject to alteration. For up-to-date listings see BBC Sounds and iPlayer 1 TUESDAY 6.30-9.30am Breakfast 9.30am-1pm Essential Classics 1-4pm Classical Live 4-5pm Composer of the Week Dorothy Howell 5-7pm In Tune 7-7.30pm Classical Mixtape 7.30-9.45pm Radio 3 In Concert from Barbican, London. Szymanowski Concert Overture, Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2, Mahler Symphony No. 1. Yuja Wang (piano), London Symphony Orchestra/Antonio Pappano 9.45-10pm The Essay 10-11.30pm Night Tracks 11.30pm-12.30am ‘Round Midnight 2 WEDNESDAY 6.30-9.30am Breakfast 9.30am-1pm Essential Classics 1-3pm Classical Live 3-4pm Choral Evensong 4-5pm Composer of the Week Dorothy Howell 5-7pm In Tune 7-7.30pm Classical Mixtape 7.30-9.45pm Radio 3 In Concert live from Barbican, London. Anna Lapwood (organ), Abel Selaocoe (cello), BBC Singers & SO/Sofi Jeannin/Owain Park/Bob Chilcott 9.45-10pm The Essay 10-11.30pm Night…

THE QUIZ Go with the flow and answer this month’s tricky questions 1. By what nickname is Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 often known?2. In which German cities were the following composers born: a) Beethoven (1770); b) Mendelssohn (1809) and Brahms (1833); c) Richard Strauss (1864)? 3. Premiered in St Petersburg on 7 February 1907, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya is a snappily titled opera by whom? 4. Bernstein’s 1944 musical On The Town depicts the happy antics of three sailors enjoying 24 hours’ shore leave in which city? 5. Whose opera A Village Romeo and Juliet was premiered at the Komische Oper Berlin on 21 February 1907? 6. Whose Overture-Fantasia Hamlet enjoyed its first performance in St Petersburg on 24 November 1888? 7.…

Daniel Handler is an American author, musician, screen and TV writer, and producer. He’s known by millions as Lemony Snicket, tormented narrator of the children’s novels A Series of Unfortunate Events, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. His new memoir And then? And then? What else? is published by Oneworld. My parents were big opera fans; they actually met in a box seat at the San Francisco Opera when they were both with other dates. They really wanted to expose my sister and me to opera and San Francisco had a free series of opera in the park. The first one they took us to was BIZET’s Carmen, and I have a very distinct memory of my mother taking some Fisher Price toy figures and using them to act…

James Inverne Journalist, playwright & author ‘As someone who grew up with both Il trovatore and Les Misérables, and didn’t see all that much difference between them, I’m fascinated by the symbiotic relationship of musicals and opera. So diving into that subject is a delight!’ Page 24 Stephen Johnson Writer and composer ‘At several sticky points Bruckner has reminded me to be patient and listen out for something deeper than dread and despair. I realise that I don’t just love and admire him – there’s also profound personal gratitude.’ Page 38 Jessica Duchen Journalist, librettist & author ‘It’s easy to think that music written by women has finally achieved due prominence in the past decade, with increased awareness. But is the change more than skin deep? I’ve been trying to…

THIS MONTH Alison Balsom trumpeter CONCERT HEAVEN Wynton Marsalis Trumpet Concerto London Symphony Orchestra/Antonio Pappano Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg (April 2024) It might sound far fetched, or unsurprising, but you know how musicians say, ‘You’re only as good as your last gig’? Well, my last gig happened to be one of the best gigs I’ve ever done. It was a personal journey that’s been coming since I was 15 years old, when I took part in the Shell LSO Competition. I absolutely hero-worshipped the players in the London Symphony Orchestra; they were like the supersonic jets of the trumpet world. As a soloist, I’ve played with many orchestras but I’d never played with the LSO, so when the opportunity arose to play Wynton Marsalis’s new Trumpet Concerto with them on tour with…

Moonlighting at the musicals has long been a favourite pastime of opera singers. Here are five of the best recordings featuring classical singers: South Pacific, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack RCA Victor, 1958 It was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s great innovation to cast their dashing continental leading man with charismatic Met heartthrob Ezio Pinza, but even better was Giorgio Tozzi on the film soundtrack, with gorgeously honeyed singing. Oliver! Jay Productions, 1991 It might seem a strange notion to populate Lionel Bart’s music-hall-infused Dickens retread with opera singers, but Josephine Barstow is a brilliant Nancy, gritty and Cockney to her fingertips. Alongside her, fellow ENO star Richard Van Allan is a Bill Sykes of your dreams – or nightmares! Porgy and Bess Warner Classics, 2016 Slightly cheating, as Gershwin’s ‘folk opera’ is…

Like other music students, JoAnn Falletta used to be content to immerse herself in Mozart and Brahms. Then, one day, she got a call from the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco. This is how she tells it: ‘“We’d like you to come out for a week and do a programme with us,” they said, “but we only perform music by women.” I’m embarrassed to say it, but I said to Miriam Abrams, the wonderful executive director, “What music by women?” Luckily, she didn’t hang up, but said, “Just come out and we’ll show you.” ‘So, I went, and their library was unbelievable. Not only were they playing music from the past, they were playing a lot of world premieres by women. That’s where I met Joan Tower and Libby Larsen…

Just months after Felix Mendelssohn’s statue was ripped down in Leipzig, Bruckner was accorded quite the opposite treatment by the Nazi regime. On 6 June 1937, a new, swastika-emblazoned bust of him was unveiled at the Walhalla Temple – a shrine dedicated to all things German – in Regensburg. Among the first to visit it was Adolf Hitler (above), who laid a wreath at its base. The Führer’s admiration was echoed by Joseph Goebbels. Bruckner, said the minister of propaganda, was the ‘son of the Austrian soil… that unites the entire German people’, thus worthy a place alongside German greats Beethoven, Bach and Brahms, and just the sort of wholesome composer who should be promoted above the decadent and degenerate pedlars of modernism. His music, accordingly, was a regular on…

Bach Collegium Japan Opera City Concert Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 27 September bachcollegiumjapan.org Fresh from a European tour marking the 300th anniversary of Bach’s St John Passion, the Collegium reconnects with its ongoing celebration of the chorale cantatas as well as Mendelssohn’s rapport with the composer. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony amplifies a nod to Bruckner’s bicentenary, while September returns Masaaki Suzuki to the platform for Bach’s mighty B minor Mass. New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Town Hall, Christchurch, New Zealand, 27 September nzso.co.nz From Kerikeri to Invercargill, the orchestra dispenses a moveable feast. Across September, and concluding in Christchurch, Stephen De Pledge gives four performances of Lyell Cresswell’s new Piano Concerto. In November, conductor Gemma New spearheads the New Zealand premiere of Saariaho’s Asteroid 4179. Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Jaguar Symphony Hall, Shanghai, China,…

Slow introductions Each of the first three late quartets begins with a slow introduction, which returns at crucial points during the main body of the first movement like punctuation marks, giving the piece greater weight and seriousness and underlining its unity. Multi-movement forms Among the late quartets, only the first and last are cast in a traditional four-movement form. The others have between five and seven movements, providing Beethoven with a larger canvas to work on, and lending the music an almost modular aspect. Variations During the last dozen years or so of his life, Beethoven became increasingly attracted to variation form. In all but one of his five late string quartets the centrepiece is a set of variations – not a display piece, but a serene interlude that forms…

Colin Davis (conductor) Although this live 2005 performance doesn’t enjoy the full breadth of orchestral colour that recent studio recordings offer, the sound quality is not at all bad, and any shortcomings are more than compensated for by the playing. The LSO is perfectly crystalline in the moonlight music of ‘Vltava’, the folk dances that appear throughout the work are tenderly crafted, and the dark orchestral tuttis of ‘Šarka’ and ‘Blaník’ are both clinical and devastate with an energy that only a live concert can produce. (LSO Live LSO0061) Jiří Bělohlávek (conductor) Jiří Bělohlávek, the late chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, is buried only a few graves away from Smetana at Vyšehrad, the high castle of the ancient Czech kings. This, from 2014, is one of Bělohlávek’s final recordings,…

RECORDING OF THE MONTH Pittsburgh pitches a blinding Bruckner 7 Terry Blain enjoys the synergy between Manfred Honeck and his orchestra in this meticulous and eloquent performance Mason Bates • Bruckner Bruckner: Symphony No. 7; Mason Bates: Resurrexit Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck Reference Recordings FR-757SACD 77:02 mins Manfred Honeck has already released Bruckner’s Fourth and Ninth symphonies with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, to widespread acclaim. This new Seventh ups the ante further: it’s undoubtedly one of the best recordings of the symphony in the digital era. The Pittsburgh cellos exude a wonderfully reassuring confidence in the expansive opening theme, and the violins display a similar savoir-faire on taking it over a page later. This is an orchestra by now deeply acculturated to the Austrian conductor’s essentially old-school style of Bruckner interpretation,…

Beethoven • Mozart Beethoven: Symphonies Nos 4 & 8 (arr. Scharwenka); Mozart: The Magic Flute Overture (arr. Busoni) Tessa Uys, Ben Schoeman (piano) SOMM Recordings SOMMCD0687 This fifth volume of Scharwenka Beethoven arrangements for piano four hands showcases the talents of South African duo Uys and Schoeman, who have performed all nine symphonies live. Although we miss the heft of full orchestral forces, the duo bring a pleasing cleanness to the works – and Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture is a real bonus. (CS) Bliss Works arr. Brass Band Black Dyke Band/John Wilson Chandos CHSA5344 I’m a sucker for strings, so it takes an ensemble as brilliant as the Black Dyke Band to convince me that brass and percussion alone is enough. And it really is in this sublime selection of…

A blazing bit of Mozart Karajan’s 1970 Don Giovanni from Salzburg is energetic, atmospheric and ripe for discovery Mozart Don Giovanni Nicolai Ghiaurov, Victor von Halem et al; Vienna Philharmonic/Herbert von Karajan Orfeo C230113 171:39 mins (3CD) Now this is a welcome discovery. I’m not a fan of Karajan’s 1985 recording of Mozart’s Don Giovanni for DG, finding it over-controlled and lacking life and spontaneity, but this 1970 production from the Salzburg Festival blazes into life with all the pace and conviction missing from its ‘studio’ counterpart. And what a cast! Nicolai Ghiaurov radiates menace as a dangerously seductive Giovanni, relishing the recitative. Geraint Evans is an excellent foil as Leporello – no danger of confusing master with servant here. Karajan favourite Gundula Janowitz as Donna Anna is touchingly vulnerable,…

What’s the difference between Puccini’s Tosca and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel? Less than you might think, according to conductor John Wilson, who two-stepped away with the Opera prize for his recording of Oklahoma! at this year’s BBC Music Magazine Awards. In fact, says Wilson, 20th-century stage musicals, from Bernstein’s West Side Story to Loewe’s My Fair Lady, are as musically sophisticated as any popular opera of the previous century – works with equally singable melodies and similarly widespread appeal. The argument becomes stronger still when you start delving into the origins of musicals. Yes, they’re sung in the vernacular – often with wonderfully astute lyrics – but their best composers almost invariably come from a classical background. On page 24, James Inverne investigates the relationship between so-called ‘high art’ operas…

1st: In a radio address, Winston Churchill, Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty, assesses the situation across Europe one month after Germany’s invasion of Poland. ‘I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia,’ says the future prime minister. ‘It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.’ 2nd: A pan-American conference establishes a 300 mile-wide neutrality zone around the coast of the continent, excluding Canada and European colonies. Among the stipulations that will be applied to the zone is US president Franklin D Roosevelt’s insistence that no submarine of any countries currently at war – including Germany, France and the UK – will be allowed to enter ports in US territorial waters. 12th: John Barbirolli…

‘I wanted to be an opera singer until I heard West Side Story,’ says Rebecca Caine, ‘but I didn’t really differentiate; it was just this fantastic music-theatre drama.’ The Canadian soprano’s career has taken in both opera and musical theatre, from the Glyndebourne chorus and the Canadian Opera Company to leading roles in original productions of Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera. Most recently, she has dazzled in Conor Mitchell’s opera Abomination and a concert performance of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel. But despite success in both fields, she’s encountered more than her fair share of raised eyebrows along the way. ‘All along people kept saying, “You can’t do both, you won’t be taken seriously”,’ she says. ‘I was just trying to earn a living. I did Phantom here and…

Carmen Jones (1954) Escamillo becomes prize-fighter Husky Miller and Carmen works in a parachute factory in Hammerstein’s smoky reworking of Bizet’s Carmen. Miss Saigon (1989) Boublil and Schönberg turned to Puccini’s Madam Butterfly to provide the basic plot for their visceral, Vietnam-set megahit. Rent (1986) Jonathan Larson’s Puccini La bohème for the AIDS era had people queueing around the block – a sensation that, sadly, Larson did not live to see. Aida (1998) This Elton John musical wasn’t The Lion King, but it’s a very enjoyable remake of Verdi’s masterpiece that won four Tonys and fans around the world. Moulin Rouge (2018) Baz Luhrmann’s flamboyant stage show, from his 2001 film, is high on Verdi’s La traviata, Puccini’s La bohème and life.…

I’ve only ever met one person who said he hated Bruckner’s choral music, and that seemed more for reasons of anti-religious prejudice There’s a conversation I’ve had regularly, with slight variations, throughout my career. It runs something like this: Other person: ‘You like Bruckner, don’t you?’ Me: ‘Yes.’ Other: ‘I can’t stand him – those interminable/heavy/boring symphonies…’ Me: ‘What about the choral music: the masses and the motets?’ Other: ‘Oh, those are rather beautiful. I like those.’ Me: ‘Then it isn’t Bruckner you don’t like, just one aspect of him.’ Other: ‘Well, I suppose so…’ Strange, isn’t it? I can honestly say that I’ve only ever met one person who said he hated Bruckner’s choral music, and that seemed to me more for reasons of anti-religious prejudice than because he…

Curtis students hone their craft through 200 public orchestral, opera, solo and chamber performances per year, held in the school’s Field Concert Hall, Opera Studio, and in venues throughout Philadelphia. Through Curtis on Tour, students, alumni and faculty also perform throughout the US and in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Alongside the flagship Curtis Opera Theatre and Curtis Symphony Orchestra (in which all but the very youngest students participate), all instrumental students take part in chamber music, and Curtis offers more than 100 student recitals each season. The Curtis New Music Ensemble specialises in repertoire from the 20th and 21st centuries, including by the school’s own student composers, while Curtis Presents features a diverse collection of alumni, faculty and students in recital. Many performances are also recorded and broadcast through…

Manfred Honeck Do you prefer to record live? I don’t like studio recordings very much. It’s always my intention to get the sound on the recording as close as possible to what you would hear in the hall. I think the sound engineer did a wonderful job setting the microphones, so that you really feel that you are sitting in Heinz Hall and listening to the orchestra. Fortunately, Heinz Hall sounds great, with a lot of great resonance; it’s perfect for Bruckner and his world. What do you bring to Bruckner? I have conducted Bruckner a lot, and I sang all the motets as a choirboy, so I would say I was very familiar with Bruckner in childhood. He has a reputation of being very religious, and so the sacred…

Langgaard Antikrist Valeriia Savinskaia, Flurina Stucki (soprano) et al; Orchestra and Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin/Stephan Zilias; dir. Ersan Mondtag (Berlin, 2023) Naxos 2.110764 (DVD) 102 mins There’s been a belated surge of interest in Rued Langgaard (1893-1952), a Danish composer almost entirely neglected in his lifetime, including when the Royal Danish Opera repeatedly turned down Antikrist (1921-23) despite Langgaard offering revisions to make it more palatable. It is not hard to see why it was refused. Langgaard called Antikrist a ‘church opera,’ by which he meant not one to be performed in church, but a religious and indeed apocalyptic work: his alternative title was Scenes from the Last Judgment. In effect it is Langgaard’s attack on contemporary Western civilisation from his own spiritual point of view and might…

Born by the Thames Ed. Oliver Chandler & Thomas Hyde de la Porte 297pp (pb) £12.99 Some will remember Stephen Dodgson (1924-2013) as the broadcaster who graced Radio 3 for many years from 1957. Others may know of his significant – even transformative – contribution to the guitar repertoire. But the extensive work list in this heartfelt and thoughtful centenary tribute reveals the degree to which his prodigious, beautifully crafted output is yet to be discovered by audiences. The appetite to learn more is thoroughly whetted through remembrances, interviews, essays and more – including transcriptions of Dodgson’s broadcasts in all their direct, affable appeal. As a composer and man he’s shown to have been pragmatic and ‘modest to the core’, beloved by performers who valued his sympathetic writing for an…

If you’re looking for the perfect set to listen to in celebration of Bruckner’s 200th anniversary, then Deutsche Grammophon’s new collection of Bruckner Symphonies Nos 1-9 (DG 484 5606) is very much the gold standard. The music is in the experienced hands of the Vienna Philharmonic, an orchestra that has enjoyed a long history with Bruckner – premiering his Fourth and Eighth Symphonies, as well as revised versions of the First and Third. Each is presented under a different conductor here, so we’ve a First from Abbado, a Fourth from Böhm, a Seventh from Karajan… then there’s Giulini, Stein, Maazel, Haitink, Boulez, Muti; it really is an impressive list. And with a trove of archive materials in the booklet, this is a Bruckner box to mark the occasion in style.…