Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2025 i BBC Music Magazine

It’s not often that a single album wins BBC Music Magazine Awards in two categories – let alone that the album in question also walks away with our coveted Recording of the Year accolade. In fact, in 20 years of Awards, this is the first time that such a phenomenon has occurred. And that the artist at the centre of these three prestigious prizes should just have celebrated his 21st birthday is simply astonishing. But South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim is no ordinary artist. From his dazzling winning performance of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto at the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at the age of just 18, it was clear that his was an incredibly special talent. And it’s a promise that has more than been fulfilled in his…

6th: In response to Russia’s demands to be empowered to protect Orthodox believers in the Ottoman Empire, Britain sends a fleet to Besika Bay, near the Dardanelles Strait, by way of warning. Russia is not remotely worried, however, and invades the Ottoman territories of Moldavia and Wallachia. The stand-off will eventually escalate into the Crimean War. 7th: Italian soprano Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis dies, aged 53. In an illustrious career that began in her teens, Ronzi won admirers for her performances of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini, particularly as the latter’s Norma. A formidable character, she hit the headlines when, in 1834, she reportedly drew blood in a fistfight with fellow singer Anna del Sere during rehearsals for Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda. 25th: In front of an audience that includes Queen Victoria…

BBC Music Magazine Personality of the Year Errollyn Wallen The phone rang – the disruption was unexpected, as was the source. Errollyn Wallen agreed that she would accept a call from the Palace, excited at the thought of a potential function to attend. There have been a few of those lately. In November, the composer was inducted into the Academy Fellowship at the Ivors Classical Awards. It followed receipt of Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2007 Birthday Honours and Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2020 New Year Honours. But this time, the invitation was different: would Wallen consider becoming Master of the King’s Music? ‘You could have knocked me down with a feather,’ says Wallen, ‘and, of course, I said…

With one foot in the Renaissance and one in the Baroque, Orlando Gibbons united two golden ages of English music. While building on the polyphonic riches of William Byrd and Thomas Tallis, he also helped lay the foundations for the expressive new style of the 17th century, preparing the ground for his most distinguished successor: Henry Purcell. Gibbons was a musical thoroughbred. Born into a musical family in Oxford in 1583, he was introduced to the cut-and-thrust of local music-making by his father who ran the City Waits in both Oxford and Cambridge. His elder brother, Edward, who sang at King’s College, Cambridge, then smoothed a path for the young Orlando to join the choir in 1596. The Gibbons brothers prospered: Edward was master of the choristers, and in 1598…

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VOCAL CHOICE This complete Ravel song survey is a box of delights Paul Riley enjoys the latest foray into French vocal works by pianist Malcolm Martineau and friends Ravel Complete Songs Lorna Anderson (soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor) et al; Sacconi Quartet; Malcolm Martineau (piano) Signum Classics SIGCD870 133:12 mins (2CD) With sets devoted to the complete songs of Duparc, Fauré and Poulenc, pianist Malcolm Martineau has established formidable Francophile credentials, so it’s not surprising to find the Ravel anniversary sparking yet another completist mission – a mission enlisting nine singers and a determination to explore the legacy chronologically. Such a vocal plenitude might seem extravagant, but variety is ensured, and an instrumental ensemble anchored by the Sacconi Quartet breaches the piano near-hegemony for the groundbreaking Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé.…

SCREEN CHOICE Shore scores to the fore This Parisian tribute to the big-screen career of composer Howard Shore is a visceral delight Howard Shore Anthology – The Paris Concerts (Suites and themes from film scores) Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Ludwig Wicki; Le Balcon et al DG 486 6234 126 mins (2CD) If there’s any kind of homogenous quality to the music of Howard Shore, it’s in his ability to marry atmospheric darkness with great beauty. The Canadian composer’s career is as varied as they come, and this collection – recorded across three concerts in Paris – is a deep dive into some of Shore’s greatest works for the screen. There’s a thrilling immediacy to the performances, with conductor Ludwig Wicki no stranger to the repertoire having toured Shore’s music for…

With Michel Béroff – The Complete Erato Recordings (Erato 2173241938) comes an opportunity to enjoy a quarter of a century of great pianism. Béroff, who celebrates his 75th birthday this year, shone in the works of Messiaen and other modernists even as a teenager and went on to set new benchmarks of their repertoire on studio albums for what was EMI Classics and later Erato. Messiaen fills five of this 42-disc collection, with a cracking 1977 Turangalîla-Symphonie with the LSO and a 1968 Quatuor pour la fin du Temps just the tip of the iceberg. With many more discs here besides those, you quickly see just how prolific the French pianist was in the studio. From Bach and Brahms to Prokofiev and Debussy, it’s a timeless selection. A similarly generous…

Tom Service Writer and broadcaster ‘Meeting pianist Nikolai Lugansky had the quality of encountering a musical absolute: he’s someone you feel would have just as intense a relationship with music even without the trappings of career, concerts and recordings.’ Page 36 Claire Jackson Editor and journalist ‘When Erik Satie composed the Gymnopédies, he probably didn’t envisage the pieces would be used to calm dogs. But I have a feeling he would be satisfied that his music, like many others, has surprising benefits.’ Page 40 John Allison Editor, writer and critic ‘Seeing the restored Notre-Dame has been likened to time travel, but for a one-time South African music student, who once staked out Parisian organ lofts, meeting Vincent Dubois there felt like a personal time machine.’ Page 46…

Come and join a dinosaur choir! That’s an invitation that any music-lover would surely want to take up: who could give up the chance to sit next to a velociraptor or T-Rex and put together a Messiah from scratch? Which, admittedly, might get rather messy if the animals got bored with the Hallelujah Chorus and determined to do what they do best and started to devour their fellow singers. Thankfully, that’s not what musician and scientist Courtney Brown has dreamt up in her new instrument, the Dinosaur Choir – and not only because there are no Jurassic Park-style DNA resurrections in sight. It’s also because the animal whose skull it is based upon is Corythosaurus, a species of ‘lambeosaurine hadrosaur’ that only ate plants and the occasional crustacean, despite growing…

Despite living in Vienna, a city teeming with orchestras and composers, Sigmund Freud was intensely irritated by music. ‘Some rational or perhaps analytic turn of mind in me rebels against being moved by a thing without knowing why I am thus affected,’ he wrote. In other words, he resented music because he couldn’t explain in analytical terms its effects on us – as he could explain (or thought he could) our sexual urges or dreams. More than a century later, we still don’t understand how certain combinations of soundwaves trigger feelings of melancholy, exhilaration, wistfulness, love or a thousand other emotions too tangled to put into words. On page 54, Rebecca Franks looks at the complex and mysterious way in which mental illness affects musical creativity. But what fascinates me…

The phrases are long and unyielding; one note gently gives away to another. The drone music is made by sound bowls, large crystal forms in graduating size. The musician sits at the front of the darkened room, moving between the instruments. A chime calls; an audience member snores. It’s not as rude as it might be in other concerts: while sleep is not the objective during a sound bath, it is quite likely as the body moves into deeper relaxation. Settled on deliciously soft cushions, our focus is on the variety of vibrations. We’re free to close our eyes, to stretch, to breathe. I’ve attended several concerts where the audience is laid down (Morton Feldman’s fivehour epic For Philip Guston at Aldeburgh Festival; Christina McMaster’s Lie Down and Listen series);…

‘Mon nouvel orgue? C’est un orchestre!’ Franck’s famous exclamation on becoming organist at the Parisian church of Saint-Jean-Saint-François-au-Marais in 1853 encapsulates the significance of the great organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. When Cavaillé-Coll was born in Montpellier in 1811, organ music in France was virtually moribund, but by the time of his death in 1899, all the leading composers had written for his instruments, and it is no exaggeration to say that his organs changed the course of French music. Though the grand organ of Notre-Dame contains many pipes dating back to before the Revolution, it is essentially a Cavaillé-Coll instrument – with all the snarl and bite that implies. Vierne’s music could not have been conceived without it, but hardly any composer or town of any size was unaffected by…

‘No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.’ That was the view of Aristotle. It’s a powerful idea that has travelled down the ages. Tales of creative artists who have experienced mental illness are hardwired into western culture. ‘I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process,’ proclaimed Vincent Van Gogh, a quote that has been turned into a thousand internet memes. Look online and you’ll find quotes offering variations on the ‘mad genius’ theme aplenty, whether they’re words from Virginia Woolf (‘Madness is terrific, I can assure you … in its lava, I still find most of the things I wrote about’) or John Lennon (‘I can’t be mad because nobody’s put me away; therefore I’m a…

In the 20 years since they started, Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble VOCES8 and their music charity the VOCES8 Foundation have brought music into the lives of people worldwide. On 8 June there’s a day of music-making in the Barbican, London, culminating in a sold-out concert by VOCES8. They’ll be joined by the VOCES8 Scholars, former ensemble members, the BBC Singers and violinist Jack Liebeck. The programme includes works by former and current composers-in-residence Ola Gjeilo, Jonathan Dove, Roxanna Panufnik and Ken Burton. The concert also celebrates the release of VOCES8’s new album on Decca, TWENTY, featuring two decades of audience favourites from sacred to jazz, and new commissions. Find out how VOCES8 brings voices together in communities and schools by joining a VOCES8 Big Sing from 5-6pm in the Foyer led…

JS Bach • Britten • Telemann • Shaw Telemann: Fantasia No. 1 in B flat major, TWV 40:14; Fantasia No. 7 in E flat major, TWV 40:20 (both Trans. viola); Caroline Shaw: in manus tuas (version for solo viola); Britten: Elegy for Solo Viola; JS Bach: Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 (Trans. viola) Timothy Ridout (viola) Harmonia Mundi HMM902750 61:08 mins From the shadows of chamber and orchestral music where it is so often eclipsed, the viola here emerges as a hero in its own right, the glorious sound of the unaccompanied instrument – apparently a Peregrino Di Zanetto of c.1570, though the booklet does not reveal this – resonating from the very first note and sustained throughout this exceptionally thoughtful and well-recorded collection. This is an…

ORCHESTRAL CHOICE A visceral insight into a great musical imagination Steph Power is left exhilarated by the LPO’s survey of operatic suites by the British composer Thomas Adès Thomas Adès Luxury Suite from Powder Her face; Five Spells from The Tempest; Inferno Suite London Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Adès LPO LPO0131 69:58 mins The orchestral suites in this compelling live release from the London Philharmonic Orchestra do far more than précis the stage works from which they originate. Effectively looking back over some 30 years of composer and conductor Thomas Adès, they offer a visceral, exhilarating insight into his brilliant musical imagination. Volatility is the watchword: from subtle delicacy to hedonistic excess; tender entwining to ironic parody – and scenes downright gruesome and terrifying. The combination of psycho-metaphysical enquiry with sheer virtuoso…

OPERA CHOICE A blood-curdling and brilliant Bartók Bluebeard Christopher Cook is chilled to the bone by a concert take on the composer’s nightmarish masterpiece Bartók Duke Bluebeard’s Castle Rinat Shaham (mezzo-soprano), Gábor Bretz (bass-baritone); Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra/Karina Canellakis Pentatone PTC 5187 225 60:28 mins A great performance of Bluebeard’s Castle banishes cultural speculation about Bartók’s only music drama. As Judith demands each of the castle’s seven doors be opened, who ponders if this is Symbolism or Expressionism, a dark folk tale or a Freudian fairy story? It’s about blood-spilling power and human disappointment – the passing of all things. And a man and his new young wife. Gábor Bretz as Bluebeard and Rinat Shaham, his Judith, are magnificent. Bretz a lyric bass-baritone, who in the Prologue seems to yearn…

CHAMBER CHOICE Radiant and whimsical Brahms Piano Quartets Krystian Zimerman and friends deliver a superb performance for this new album, says Jan Smaczny Brahms Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor; Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major Krystian Zimerman (piano), Maria Nowak (violin), Katarzyna Budnik (viola), Yuya Okamoto (cello) Deutsche Grammophon 486 4650 77:10 mins Brahms’s Second and Third piano quartets tend to be overshadowed by the First, not least in Schoenberg’s snazzy orchestral arrangement, but in their way, these two works offer a much broader picture of the composer. Written in happy circumstances, the A major Quartet is one of Brahms’s most open-hearted and immediately engaging chamber works. Zimerman and his colleagues deliver a superb performance capturing the outgoing qualities of the first movement, enjoying its expansiveness without…

At Large – Behind the Camera with Brian Large Brian Large and Jane Scovell VFMK 512pp (hb) £38.95 Brian Large took us to the opera in places we might never have visited. A master video director, he recorded the centenary Ring at Bayreuth, directed the all-in-a-day Tosca in its three Roman locations, and squeezed The Three Tenors onto the small screen. While there is little here about how Large developed his elegantly fluid visual style or coaxed singers into scaling down their stage performances, other than the sound advice to ‘look for the light’, there is a feast of gossip. Jessye Norman stamps her foot in Austria, Birgit Nilsson is overlooked and overheard behind the set for Tristan swigging a beer and breaking wind. Luciano Pavarotti is loved for all…

I came to the organ quite late, and I didn’t fall in love with it for a long time. There’s a chunk of my life, from about 15-18, that was all about orchestral music; I was playing harp in the National Youth Orchestra and in the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra. I remember an activation in my brain around that time with things like Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture, BRITTEN’s Four Sea Interludes – I’ll never forget playing them for the first time – and Shostakovich’s Fifth with that amazing harp solo at the end of the slow movement. I thought I was going to become an orchestral harpist; then I found the organ. I wrote a transcription of the Four Sea Interludes for organ during the first Covid…

Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST Email: music@classical-music.com Social media: contact us on Facebook and X (Twitter) LETTER of the MONTH A fine Finnish find The other day in Henry Bohn’s, our second-hand record shop, I came across a set of the six symphonies of Erkki Melartin. Who? A symphonist ten years younger than Sibelius; ‘one of Finland’s most significant national Romantic composers’ (Wikipedia) of the early 20th century. I took a punt and bought them. I’ve been a classical music fan for 50 years, and in that time I can safely say I have never seen another vinyl or CD issue of his music, nor a review of one. I’ve never heard a piece by him in the concert hall or on Radio…

Recording of the Year, Newcomer & Instrumental Yunchan Lim Chopin Études, Opp 10 & 25 Yunchan Lim (piano) Decca 487 0122 The BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Year typically goes to a grand-scale affair – a giant symphony, perhaps, or an all-star opera. This year, however, it is the remarkable debut on Decca by Yunchan Lim, whose recording of the Chopin Études Opp. 10 and 25, made when he was only 19, has swept all competition aside. ‘Given that 2024 saw the release of many outstanding albums, I did not expect this outcome at all,’ the South Korean pianist comments. ‘I am so grateful for it. It is truly an honour.’ When I interviewed Lim for the album’s booklet notes last year, the great eyeopener was the sheer scale…

Nikolai Lugansky, Russian pianist: that’s already enough to give Western audiences particular associations with what kind of player he might be. The special dark soul of Russian literature from Dostoevsky to Tolstoy; the sound of that darkness in musical action, from Mussorgsky to Tchaikovsky to Shostakovich; the brilliant piano playing whose power comes from a Soviet production line of virtuosity… But Lugansky keeps reminding me throughout our conversation that the diversity of Russian music defeats any cliché that the Western world has about Russian culture. Among Lugansky’s current obsessions are Alexander Glazunov, whose symphonies and ballets he adores, as well as his two piano sonatas – music that breathes a totally different air to Dostoevsky or Shostakovich in its clarity and lack of tortured subjectivity – and Nikolai Medtner, whose…

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5, ‘Emperor’ – Adagio un poco mosso As a violinist, there are plenty of contemplative middle movements of string concertos that I find soothing. But it’s the middle movement of Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ that really helps me to a state of muscle-relaxing peace: the warm, glowing strings of the opening, the plucked steps down in the cellos, and the entry of the cool piano, delicately tracing a scale-like passage from the top of the keyboard. For the most beautifully pure piano and velvety strings, look no further than Krystian Zimerman’s 2021 interpretation with the London Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle, recorded during the pandemic. Music to help us through dark days, then and now. Charlotte Smith Brahms Intermezzo, Op. 118 No. 2 Whenever I need to soothe churned-up…

When music journalist and cellist Hattie Butterworth was looking for a podcast to help her with mental health issues, she could only find shows featuring pop stars and actors. Classical musicians in general, it seemed, just didn’t want to talk about it. Why not? ‘I think there is a huge fear that if we were to talk in this way about an art form that’s a step removed from the worries of the modern world, which a lot of audiences view as an escape, it would take away from that escape,’ says Butterworth, who went on to set up her own podcast, Things Musicians Don’t Talk About, to explore the topic. ‘I feel like agents and PR people may have a lot to do with it. I was looking at…

How do you listen to music? Do you sit in a comfortable chair near some very expensive speakers? Do you use earphones, or a smart speaker? Maybe you listen in the car, or while jogging! While the quality of recorded sound still matters, we’ve decided to no longer give it a star rating, because people listen to music in so many different ways. So all our reviews will now have one overall star rating. This also makes things a little clearer, especially when we often refer to an album as a ‘recording’… That’s not the only change, with the addition of a ‘Vocal’ section to give Choral its own space. What hasn’t changed is the variety and quality of music covered – and in this issue it’s abundant, from double…

CONCERTO CHOICE A remarkable display of panache and precision Malcolm Hayes on why this flawless performance by violinist Lea Birringer is definitely one to remember Järnefelt • Sibelius • Szymanowski Järnefelt: Berceuse; Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor; Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 2 Lea Birringer (violin); Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie/Benjamin Shwartz Rubicon RCD1193 56:40 mins It’s becoming hard to remember that Sibelius’s Violin Concerto once used to be thought of as a notoriously difficult challenge for its soloist. Today’s playing standards are so high that the concerto has become a standard work for violinists, and one that can be approached in many different ways besides its reputation as a spectacular showpiece. Not that Lea Birringer falls in any way short in this department. She handles the finale’s near-fiendish passagework with a…

CHORAL CHOICE A blazing B minor mass from Pygmalion and co. Alexandra Wilson says this latest interpretation of Bach’s mighty work is exceptional and a must-listen JS Bach B minor Mass Julie Roset (soprano), Beth Taylor (mezzo-soprano), Lucile Richardot (alto) et al; Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon Harmonia Mundi HMM902754.55 107 mins (2CD) This new recording of Bach’s Mass in B Minor from Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon’s period-instrument band and choir, is an interpretation of tremendous variety, every movement distinctively crafted. Some (such as the two Kyries and the Qui Tollis) are strikingly slow, yet in a way that feels intense and introspective, never ponderous. Others, such as the Gloria and Credo, set off at a tremendous lick, almost inviting us to get up and dance. Elsewhere, Pichon gives us a spirited Cum Sancto…

Ravel Complete Works for Solo Piano Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano) Chandos CHAN 20287(2) 143 mins (2CD) Latest out of the traps for Ravel’s 150th anniversary is Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Do we need another set of the complete piano works, I hear you ask? It’s true that any Ravel fan can easily find a great recording of them already, including by The Bavouzet himself, back in 2003 for MDG. But there are sure to be plenty of fans queuing up to listen to the French pianist’s latest thoughts on the composer, crisply recorded and excellently produced by Chandos. Bavouzet brings his usual élan, so familiar from his complete recordings of Debussy, Haydn et al, to a programme that takes us from Ravel’s earliest surviving piano work (the spiky Sérénade grotesque, not the most…

JUNE’S RADIO 3 LISTINGS Schedules may be subject to alteration. For up-to-date listings see BBC Sounds and iPlayer 1 SUNDAY 6.30-9am Sunday Breakfast 9am-12pm Sunday Morning 12-1.30pm Private Passions 1.30-3pm Music Map 3-4pm Choral Evensong 4-5pm Jazz Record Requests 5-6pm The Early Music Show 6-7.15pm Words and Music 7.15-8pm Sunday Feature 8-9pm Brass Banding 9-10pm 20th Century Radicals 10-11.30pm Ultimate Calm 11.30pm-12.30am Unclassified 2 MONDAY 6.30-9.30am Breakfast 9.30am-1pm Essential Classics 1-2pm Live from Wigmore Hall 2-4pm Classical Live 4-5pm Composer of the Week Bizet 5-7pm In Tune 7-7.30pm Classical Mixtape 7.30-9.45pm Radio 3 In Concert from City Halls, Glasgow. Brahms Variations on a theme by Haydn, Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3, Haydn Nelson Mass. Yeol Eum Son (pf), Anna Dennis (sop), Katie Bray (mez), Anthony Gregory (ten), Neal Davies (bar), Scottish…