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 CONTENTS
© ELENA DIJOUR/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

24 34 65

© PHOTOPLAYERS STUDIO
© NICK RUTTER

IN THIS ISSUE
OCTOBER 2017 ISSUE 1037

57 NEW GENERATION ARTISTS 20 ARTIST MANAGER NEWS 82 CD REVIEWS

The musicians of the future Manager with strings
attached 84 BOOK REVIEWS
62 RENAISSANCE OF
THE ORGAN 23 INSIDE VIEW 87 BROADCASTING
The king of instruments The Brexit Proms BBC’s opera season

65 OPERA IN THE 1920S OPINION 88 ENIGMA

The art form as popular 24 Andrew Mellor: location, Cryptic crossword and
© BENJAMIN EALOVEGA

entertainment location, location quiz

26 Orchestras Live
90 EXTENDED INTERVALS
FEATURES 29 PREMIERES Michael White’s critic’s
34 MY PASSION FOR Tom Green, Laura Bowler month
CM1017_001_Cover.indd 2 18/09/2017 11:04:27

OPERA and Aaron Jay Kernis

Hamish Mackay, artistic
COVER STORY director of Opera Story 68 AUDIOFILE
38 TASMIN LITTLE The benefit of a higher
Three decades on stage 36 LONDON PIANO FESTIVAL bit rate
Keyboard party returns
74 Q&A: ANNABEL ARDEN
RADIO 3 71 V&A EXHIBITION The opera director on
45 EDITORIAL Putting opera on display upcoming projects
A welcome from guest
editor Alan Davey 76 MEET THE MAESTRO
REGULARS Bridget Cunningham REGISTER WITH
51 MAKING THE BEST OF 5 EDITORIAL RHINEGOLD
RADIO 3 79 RECORDINGS Create an account
Networking the network 6 LETTERS & HORNBLOWER  Bach Players to receive our free
 Skani newsletters, download free
54 BACH WALK 9 NEWS  National Youth Choirs resources and enjoy our
Recreating the composer’s of Great Britain interactive content
journey from Arnstadt to 15 BARLINES  Signum Records www.rhinegold.co.uk/registration
Lübeck News in brief
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 3

CM1017_003_R_Contents KW edit 1809 KC DDP OK.indd 3 18/09/2017 14:01:24

 Angela Brownridge
‘One of the world’s finest pianists’ – New York Times

ST. JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE.

Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA.
Friday, November 3rd. 2017 at 19.30.
Beethoven Piano Sonata in E major Op. 109.
Chopin Ballade no. 2 in F major Op. 38.
Ballade no. 4 in F minor Op. 52.
Debussy 12 Preludes from Book 2.

Beethoven Piano Sonatas 3, 23, & 30.

Challenge Classics CC 72707
‘This new Beethoven disc by the wonderful pianist Angela Brownridge is absolutely superb. She plays with a
combination of amazing subtlety and dynamic control right down to very nuanced pianissimos, paired with a
ferocious strength and lightning fast virtuosity. This combination makes her perfectly suited to giving us incandescent
performances of these sonatas. Like Solomon, Brownridge focuses so precisely on what the music is doing that she
makes you hear what she hears and guides you through the music so masterfully that it seems totally new.’
Alice Artzt, Princeton New Jersey

Chopin 4 Ballades, Sonata no. 2 & F minor Fantasy.

Challenge Classics CC 72728
‘From the first bars I was completely under the spell of her playing. This is Chopin at his best. What I hear is phenominal,
brilliant, the piano sound remaining noble even in the most intensive bursts. The colours of her touch are ones seldom
heard, with legato and staccato marvellously woven, and accelerandi and rubati perfectly in line with the story she is
telling. Anyone who can play Chopin like this has the world in their hands.’
Opus Klassiek, Netherlands

‘One of the finest Chopin interpreters I have heard. her flawless, brilliant technique and clarity of texture provide unalloyed
pleasure to the ear and food for the emotions and the mind. Hers is exceptionally satisfying Chopin with a beauty of sound
and absence of conventional mannerisms which invite repeated listening.’
Michael Graubart. The Piano Journal

‘...velvety keyboard touch, stunningly beautiful tone and extraordinary command of nuance. Her Debussy Preludes were
brilliantly brought to life in one of the finest, most riveting performances I have ever heard.’
Daily Telegraph

REPRESENTATION: WWW.MARYKAPTEIN.COM MANAGEMENT.MCKAPTEIN@PLANET.NL

CM1017.indd 4 18/09/2017 15:18:48

 GUEST EDITOR’S LETTER

MANAGING EDITORS
Ashutosh Khandekar
Owen Mortimer
DEPUTY EDITOR
Katy Wright
CONSULTANT EDITOR
Keith Clarke
HEAD OF DESIGN & PRODUCTION
Beck Ward Murphy
DESIGNER
Daniela Di Padova
PRODUCTION
Gordon Wallis
© GUY LEVY/BBC

ADVERTISING MANAGER

Welcome
George Slater-Walker
ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE
Andrew Brandon
MARKETING MANAGER

I
Alfred Jahn
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE ’m delighted to be the guest editor of Classical Music magazine’s October edition, just as
AND OPERATIONS
Tony Soave Radio 3 brings into effect some significant changes and initiatives in its programming.
PUBLISHER In this issue I wanted to explore the role of a public service radio station in the modern
Derek Smith
PRINTED BY
economy of classical music, and how we are trying to realise that role at Radio 3. We feature
HALSTAN UK a brief guide (starting on page 51) to some of the ways in which Radio 3 fulfils this role and
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BUCKINGHAMSHIRE with our online services, anytime of your choosing.
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At Christmas on Radio 3 we will be reliving the walk of the young Bach from Arnstadt to
Rhinegold Publishing Ltd Lubeck: Lindsay Kemp and Horatio Clare will tell us what to expect from this unique ‘slow
Rhinegold House
20 Rugby Street radio’ event that rises magnificently to the challenge of capturing a journey purely in sound
London WC1N 3QZ (page 54). Emma Bloxham introduces our Radio 3 New Generation Artists – some of the
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T: 020 7333 1733 exciting new talent of tomorrow who we will be supporting and nurturing over the next two
F: 020 7333 1736 years (page 57). We will celebrate the music of the organ, as producer of The Choir Chris
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Taylor introduces a new strand on Sunday afternoons (page 62); and we’ll take a look at the
EDITORIAL raucous and risqué opera scene in London in the 1920s with Dr Alexandra Wilson (page 65).
T: 020 7333 1747
E: classical.music@rhinegold.co.uk
Finally, Sir John Tusa will tell us about how he discovered opera as a serviceman in post-war
W: www.rhinegold.co.uk. Germany (page 67).
Telephone calls may be monitored I firmly believe that BBC Radio 3, and radio stations like us the world over, have a key part
for training purposes
Classical Music Subscriptions
to play in the future of classical music: in helping innovation, finding talent, and satisfying
800 Guillat Avenue the hunger and curiosity of young audiences. From my own experiences in my current role –
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Sittingbourne going to the Proms, hearing concerts in unusual and unexpected places, and seeing the talent
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of tomorrow – I am sure that there is a healthy future for classical music, if all of us who are
E: classicalmusic@servicehelpline.co.uk passionate about the art form work at it together. That’s what Radio 3 is all about!
Classical Music tries to avoid So, a very warm welcome to Classical Music magazine. I hope you enjoy this issue and
inaccuracies. If readers believe that
an error has been made they should
everything that Radio 3 has to offer through its new autumn schedules.
contact the editor before taking
any other action. The presence of
advertisements in Classical Music ALAN DAVEY
does not imply endorsement. CONTROLLER, RADIO 3
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3
Editorial and image research
services for Classical Music are
provided by C Sharp LLP

© Rhinegold Publishing Ltd 2017

SUBSCRIBE TO CLASSICAL MUSIC – SEE PAGE 86

OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 5

CM1017_005_R_Edit 1809KC DDP OK.indd 5 18/09/2017 14:05:48

 LETTERS AND DIARY
LETTERS
PRACTICAL ACTION IS NEEDED
Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with just about
everything said by Paul Harris, Sir Barry Ife
and Julian Lloyd Webber in their articles
in support of the ISM Campaign for music
to be included in the curriculum, I can’t
help feeling that this whole campaign is
slightly misdirected.
None of these three distinguished
musicians mentioned exams as being integral
(or even relevant) to their formative musical
experiences or development. All their
comments attest to the fact that, as we all
know, the enormous educational benefits of
music derive from participation in musical
activities: singing in choirs, learning to play
instruments and then being involved in
making music in orchestras, chamber music,
bands and other ensembles.
I’m happy to do all I can to persuade
the government to forget about EBacc
but GCSEs and A Levels are not much
HORNBLOWER’S
DIARY
Cool cats: Soprano Lauren Fagan admires
feline friends – but is it mutual?
This keeps us awake at night too
6 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
CM1017_006_R_Letters & Diary 1509KC DDP OK.indd 6
WRITE TO: The Editor, Classical Music, Rhinegold Publishing Ltd,
better. It would help a lot if all these exams
included a strong practical element, but
the only real solution is to make music a
compulsory element in the non-academic
and un-examined curriculum and to insist
that Ofsted should report and grade schools
on the qualitative aspects of their musical
activities. If any school’s position in the
abominable ‘league tables’ that dominate
educational policy these days depended on
the quality of their choirs and orchestras,
the numbers of children learning to play
instruments (and the numbers giving up at
certain age levels) then we might actually get
somewhere. Will it happen? I doubt it!
Xenophon Kelsey
Ripon
PLANE SENSE
Whilst I sympathise with the lady and her
viola (bit.ly/2xbae5y), the total safety of
See also: Leonard Bernstein’s Elegy
for Mippy II, George Gershwin’s Walking
the Dog
We sense that the airport might not be
this baritone’s happy place
CONTACT US
EMAIL: letters@rhinegold.co.uk
20 Rugby Street, London, WC1N 3QZ
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK: Classical Music Magazine
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @ClassicalMusic_
all passengers on an airliner is the prime
concern of the crew.
It is not unknown during turbulence,
particularly when crossing the pond, for
aircraft to suddenly jerk 10,000 feet upward
or downward – then overhead lockers can
snap open and contents come out. Whilst a
bag or case may give a bump, a sharp pointed
object can cause injury. I am sure if she had
asked for assistance the crews would have
helped, but please remember there is a cabin
crew dispute going on currently, and other
operators are working on BA routes. Air
safety has been an interest all my life, as also
music.
The fact that she was contacting other
passengers and taking photographs would
have classed her as a trouble-maker – next
stage would have been to remove her from
the flight.
Mark D Jameson
Via email
As the opera director turns 70, those at
Welsh National Opera lovingly recreate
one of his defining features. It seems that
authoritative poses come naturally to
those with sideburns...
19/09/2017 11:01:21
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 IMG Artists Congratulates its 2017
Gramophone Award Winners & Nominees
VASILY PETRENKO MURRAY PERAHIA
Artist of the Year Instrumental Album

Baroque Vocal Orchestral

Stéphane Degout, baritone Thomas Dausgaard, conductor Vasily Petrenko, conductor Semyon Bychkov, conductor
Couperin: Ariane consolée Mahler: Symphony No. 10 Tchaikovsky Symphonies Nos 3, 4 & 6 The Tchaikovsky Project, Vol. 1
par Bacchus (Aparté) (Seattle Symphony Media) (Onyx) (Decca)

Concerto Solo Vocal

Vasily Petrenko; Omer Meir Wellber, Alexander Vedernikov, Benjamin Appl, baritone Gerald Finley, bass-baritone
conductors; Lalo: Symphonie espagnole; conductor; Rachmaninov: Heimat (Sony Classical) Sibelius: In the Stream of Life
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto (LPO) Piano Concerto No 2 (Erato) (Chandos)

...and warmest congratulations

to the one and only
DAME KIRI TE KANAWA
on being honoured with the
Lifetime Achievement Award www.imgartists.com
@IMGArtistsUK
Semyon Bychkov is managed in association with Enticott Music Management www.enticottmusicmanagement.com. Alexander Vedernikov is managed in association
with Bridge Arts Management www.bridgeartsmanagement.com; Photo credits from Top Left: All VP: Svetlana Tarlova; SD: Julien Benhamou; TD: Thomas Grøndahl;
SB: Michal Sváček; OMW: Felix Broede; AV: Marco Borggreve; BA: Lars Borges; GF: Sim Canetty-Clarke

CM1017.indd 8 18/09/2017 15:18:49


Radio 3 reveals autumn/winter 2017 season
© JUDE EDGINTON
Katie Derham returns with Sound of Dance
R adio 3 controller Alan Davey has
announced the station’s autumn/
winter 2017 programming, which includes
new programmes, schedule changes and a
presenter reshuffle.
Suzy Klein has joined Rob Cowan on the
presenting team for Essential Classics, and
Sarah Walker will become the sole presenter of
Sunday Morning from 1 October.
The station is also introducing a weekly
Wednesday afternoon programme 4.30-5pm
dedicated to BBC New Generation Artists.
The New Generation Artists for 2017-19
are violinist Aleksey Semenenko, mezzo-
soprano Catriona Morison, pianist Mariam
Batsashvili, double bassist Misha Mullov-
Technology helps brain-damaged violinist to make
music again
R osemary Johnson, a violinist who suffered
severe brain damage in a car accident, has
played in an orchestra for the first time in
29 years.
Ms Johnson had dreamed of becoming a
professional violinist from an early age, and
was appointed as fourth violin of the Welsh
National Opera Orchestra at the age of 22.
However, a car accident in 1988 caused
such severe brain damage that she lost speech
and movement.
She is finally able to compose and make
music again thanks to a ten-year collaboration
CM1017_009-014_R_News 1509KC DDP OK.indd 9
Abbado, guitarist Thibaut Garcia, trumpeter
Simon Höfele and Quatuor Arod (see page 57
to find out more).
In Tune will move to a later time
(5-7.30pm), and the last half-hour of the
programme will feature a new Mixtape
segment, a continuous stream of music which
will be easily downloadable.
Afternoon on 3 will become Afternoon
Concert and will be extended by an additional
30 minutes (running 2-5pm), and the station
will launch Choir and Organ, a new weekly
show presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch,
with additional supporting material
available online.
Hear and Now will introduce a new
mini-series, Sound of the Week. Each week,
a composer will discuss a particular sound
which has caught their imagination, inspired
them or stimulated their creative process.
The station has announced its most
ambitious Slow Radio broadcast yet, with
Horatio Clare tracing Bach’s famous journey
from Arnstadt to Lübeck. This will be
broadcast in five episodes, with the full
2.5-hour experience available for download as
part of a special Bach Christmas celebration.
Other Slow Radio broadcasts on Radio 3 this
autumn include a broadcast binding together
the voices of people living with dementia and a
series following the course of a monastic day.
In addition to a number of broadcasts as
part of the BBC opera season throughout
October, Radio 3 will offer a two-week
Russian focus in November which will explore
between Plymouth University and the Royal
Hospital for Neurodisability in London.
Wearing an EEG cap (electrodes that read
electrical impulses from her brain) which
is wired up to a computer that uses brain-
computer interfacing software, she selects
notes and musical phrases using thoughts
and retina control, and can adjust their
intensity, timbre and tempo. A musician then
views the resulting phrases on a screen and
performs them.
Remembering the first time the experiment
worked, project leader Professor Eduardo
NEWS
Russian and Soviet music and art from 1917
to the present day. Highlights include a Late
Junction examining Russian experimental
music, and a Composer of the Week discussing
the lives of Russian composers against the
backdrop of the revolution.
Other programming highlights include the
50th-anniversary concert of the European
Broadcast Union’s regular music exchanges;
an edition of Between the Ears which will
use binaural sound to take 93-year-old
mountaineer Gwen Moffat climbing again; a
new three-part Sunday feature, Select-Copy-
Paste, which will see Clemency Burton-Hill
explore the impact of technology on creativity;
the second series of Sound of Dance, presented
by Katie Derham; and a special edition of
Late Junction in which musician Charles
Hayward will face off against a computer code
programmed to be the ultimate composer.
Announcing the season at a press
conference, Alan Davey said: ‘We’re more
than just a radio station – we’re a curator and a
creator, a commissioner, and an innovator. We
connect our audiences with the very best of
music and culture from outstanding classical
concerts to full-length radio dramas, Slow
Radio to sound art innovations, from world
premieres to lost and forgotten gems.
‘It’s our distinctive cultural offering which
sets us apart. We are a cultural powerhouse
and a committed contributor to today’s
classical music and arts landscape.’
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3
Miranda said: ‘We were all in tears. We could
feel the joy coming from her at being able to
make music.’
The technology is in its infancy but as it
develops it could provide patients with the
ability to express their feelings without having
to speak or move.
Ms Johnson, who is to receive an MBE in
recognition of her services to music, featured
in the documentary Music of the Mind, which
was broadcast on Sky on 29 August, and will
be available on Sky On Demand for
12 months.
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 9
18/09/2017 17:38:44
 NEWS
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa quits public performance
D ame Kiri Te Kanawa has announced her
retirement from public performance.
The 73-year-old soprano, who retired from
operatic roles in 2009, said she had stopped
performing a year ago, but has only just
revealed her decision. Her final performance
was a concert in Ballarat, Australia in
October 2016. ‘Before I’d gone on, I said,
right, this it. And that was the end.’
She told the BBC it took her five years
Gramophone honours Te Kanawa with lifetime
achievement award
© BENAJMIN EALOVEGA
A sensational career: Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
D ame Kiri Te Kanawa has been
presented with Gramophone’s
lifetime achievement award. Te Kanawa
was presented with the award at the
ceremony on 13 September, just hours after
confirming she would not sing in public
again. The award honours ‘a sensational
career that has spanned nearly 50 years, as
well as for her work nurturing young singers
with the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation’, and
comes 25 years after she won Gramophone‘s
artist of the year award.
A number of other awards were also
announced at the ceremony, which marked
10 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
CM1017_009-014_R_News 1509KC DDP OK.indd 10
‘to say the goodbye in my own mind’, but
says she has no regrets and doesn’t miss
singing. ‘I’ve had such an amazing career,’
she said. ‘I don’t want to hear my voice – it
is in the past. When I’m teaching young
singers and hearing beautiful young fresh
voices, I don’t want to put my voice next
to theirs.’
She has pledged to continue working with
her foundation, which provides financial
the 40th anniversary of the Gramophone
awards. The recording of the year was
awarded to German violinist Isabelle Faust
for her ‘refreshing collection’ of Mozart
violin concertos with Il Giardino Armonico
and conductor Giovanni Antonini on
Harmonia Mundi. Italian pianist Beatrice
Rana was crowned young artist of the year;
Vasily Petrenko was voted artist of the year
in the only publicly-chosen award; and
Signum Classics, currently celebrating its
20th anniversary, was announced as label of
the year.
Colin Matthews received a special
achievement award in recognition of his
contribution to British musical life over the
last 40 years. Although Gramophone noted
that his work as a composer, arranger
and orchestrator is impressive in its own
right, the citation stated that ‘it is as
founder and executive producer of NMC
Records that Matthews has made arguably
his greatest contribution to the UK
contemporary scene.’
Classic FM also received a special award
in honour of the station’s 25th anniversary,
highlighting the role the station plays in
promoting classical artists, their recordings,
partnerships with orchestras across the
country and its dedication to making
classical music accessible to as broad an
audience as possible.
The ceremony also saw awards presented
to this year’s recording category winners.
These are:
XXBaroque instrumental – The Italian Job:
La Serenissima/Adrian Chandler (Avie)
support and mentoring for singers from her
native New Zealand.
Te Kanawa shot to fame after she was cast
as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro
at Covent Garden in 1971. Her five-decade
career saw her perform at leading opera
houses and concert halls across the world,
receiving numerous accolades. She was
closely associated with the music of Mozart,
Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini.
 aroque vocal – Bach: Cantatas BWV
XXB
54, 82 & 170: Iestyn Davies/Archangelo/
Jonathan Cohen (Hyperion)
XXChamber – Bacewicz: Complete String
Quartets: Silesian Quartet (Chandos)
XXChoral – Mozart: C Minor Mass: Bach
Collegium/Masaaki Suzuki (BIS)
XXConcerto – Mozart: Violin Concertos
Nos 1-5: Isabelle Faust/Il Giardino
Armonico/Giovanni Antonini
(Harmonia Mundi)Contemporary –
Benjamin/Ligeti/Murail: Orchestral
Works: Pierre-Laurent Aimard/BRSO
(Neos)
XXE arly – Dowland: Lachrimae or Seven
Tears: Phantasm (Linn)
XXI nstrumental – Bach: French
Suites: Murray Perahia (Deutsche
Grammophon)
XXOpera – Berg: Wozzeck (DVD): Zurich
Opera/Gerhaher/Luisi (Accentus)
XXOrchestral – Haydn: Symphonies Nos
12, 60 & 70: Il Giardino Armonico/
Giovanni Antonini (Alpha)
XXR ecital – In War and Peace:
Joyce DiDonato/Il Pomo d’Oro/
Emelyanychev (Erato)
XXSolo Vocal – Brahms: Vier ernste
Gesange; Songs Op 32: Matthias Goerne;
Christophe Eschenbach (Harmonia
Mundi)
Winners of many of the category awards
were at the ceremony to collect their prizes,
and there were performances by winners
past and present.
Gramophone.co.uk/awards/2017
18/09/2017 11:51:43

New Birmingham Conservatoire
opens doors
B irmingham Conservatoire has
opened the doors of its new home,
which principal Julian Lloyd Webber, has
predicted will be the ‘last-ever’ performing
arts institution of its kind to be built in
this country.
The £57m building boasts five new public
performance spaces, including a 500-seat
concert hall, a 150-seat recital hall and a
100-seat organ studio. It also contains The
Lab, a flexible black-box studio; more than
70 teaching practice rooms; and the 80-seat
Eastside Jazz Club, the first permanent jazz
space in any UK conservatoire.
The first purpose-built music college
to be constructed in the UK since 1987,
the conservatoire is located alongside
Millennium Point, adjacent to Jennens
Road in the Eastside region of the city.
Designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
and constructed by Galliford Try, the
main performance venues are comprised
of independent ‘box in box’ structures and
built on dedicated acoustic foundation
bearings for optimum noise control.
The inaugural season of the
conservatoire’s public programme will
begin on 11 March 2018 with a royal
gala concert, with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla
Settling in: Birmingham Conservatoire
© TOM BIRD
CM1017_009-014_R_News 1509KC DDP OK.indd 11
conducting the Birmingham Conservatoire
Symphony Orchestra.
‘The new Birmingham Conservatoire
emerges during a difficult time for arts
funding and music education, meaning
our role in training the world’s next great
musicians and actors is more vital than ever,’
said Professor Lloyd Webber.
‘Of course, a building is only as effective
as the people inside it, and my team and I
will continue our work to ensure that the
future arts industry is not dominated by the
wealthy elite. Our programme of learning
and widening music participation benefits
thousands of children, young people and
their families from diverse communities
across England, and our new home will
become the central hub of all of these crucial
activities.’
Professor Philip Plowden, vice-chancellor
of Birmingham City University, described
the new building as ‘a significant investment
for the university, the city and, indeed,
the country as a whole, and one in which
will certainly set a new global benchmark
for music and drama education and
performance.’
www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire
NEWS
Vienna State
Opera appoints
music director
OWEN MORTIMER
P hillipe Jordan, music director of the
Paris Opera, has been appointed as
the next music director of the Vienna
State Opera. Jordan, who will take up
his post in time for the 2020/21 season,
was chosen for the job by Bogdan Roščić,
who will become general director of the
Vienna State Opera in 2020, succeeding
Dominique Meyer.
Mr Jordan’s appointment will mean
that Vienna State Opera will have a music
director for the first time since 2014,
when Franz Welser-Möst abruptly handed
in his resignation citing ‘differences of
artistic opinion’.
Mr Jordan, who has also held the
post of chief conductor of the Vienna
Symphony Orchestra since 2014, recently
conducted the new production of
Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
at Bayreuth. His post at the Vienna State
Opera will make him the musical chief
of one of the biggest opera companies
in the world, with an annual budget of
more than €100m a year, presenting 350
performances of opera and ballet
a season.
Born in Switzerland, the son of Swiss
conductor Armin Jordan, 42-year-old Mr
Jordan held the post of chief conductor
at Graz Opera from 2001 through 2004,
and served as a principal guest conductor
at the Berlin State Opera from 2006 until
2010. He made his UK debut in 2010,
conducting Carmen at Glyndebourne. His
contract at the Paris Opera was recently
extended to 2021.
In a statement made on his
appointment, He said: ‘For every
musician dedicated to the theatre, the
Vienna State Opera […] is one of the most
exciting tasks and challenges that the
opera world can offer. I won’t wait until
the 2020/21 season to make this job the
focus of my work. From today and in close
cooperation with the director designate I
will work towards preparing the future of
the theatre.’
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 11
18/09/2017 11:51:57
 NEWS
Outrage as St Sepulchre’s stops taking bookings
from musicians
© OVIDIU@PACURA.RU
Controversial decision: St Sepulchre-without-Newgate
S t Sepulchre-without-Newgate, known as
the National Musicians’ Church, is to stop
taking bookings from musicians.
The central London church, where Sir
Henry Wood is buried, is regularly used by
ensembles such as The Sixteen, the London
Youth Choir and City Chorus, but recently
announced that it would close its hiring
programme from 2018.
Reverend David Ingall wrote to musicians
on 9 August, stating that ‘competing pressures’
from church activities meant that there was no
longer sufficient room for them, despite the
church’s website stating that it is ‘filled with
music and musicians throughout the week’.
The news was supported by an online
statement, which reads: ‘An increasingly busy
programme of worship and church activities
has led to ever higher demands on the church
space, and the hire space is also shared with the
church administration office.
‘We remain committed to our ministry
as the National Musicians’ Church. In the
coming weeks we will reflect and pray, and
consult with members of the musicians’
community about how best to fulfil that
ministry moving forward.
‘Finally, we are committed to our ongoing
programme of weekly choral worship, and
our on-going programme of choral and organ
scholarships. We will maintain and develop
our excellent professional choir, which recently
recorded a new album to be launched in the
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autumn.’ The statement notes that hiring will
continue as planned for the rest of 2017, and all
existing bookings for 2018 will be honoured.
Upon joining the church in 2013, Rev
Ingall promised in a letter to maintain the
church’s reputation as a ‘hub of musical
excellence and enjoyment’, continuing: ‘I hope
that this facet of the life of St Sepulchre’s will
remain strong and vibrant going forward.
I recognise though that there are concerns
surrounding the impact of new ministries
on this part of St Sepulchre’s life. There will
need to be some rebalancing, as some times
that were previously allocated to concerts
and rehearsals will now be used for worship
and ministry. However, I believe that the two
streams are fundamentally compatible, and
hope and think that they can both thrive
going forward.’
More than 50 leading figures from the
classical music world have signed a letter
urging St Sepulchre’s to reverse its decision.
Sir James MacMillan, John Rutter, Suzi
Digby, Julian Lloyd Webber and Judith Weir
are among signatories of the letter, which was
published on the Guardian website on
23 August.
The letter notes that the decision to close
its hiring programme was made ‘without
consultation and contradicts assurances given
when the church was taken over in 2013’.
Quoting Rev David Ingall’s statement that
‘[St Sepulchre’s] ministry as the National
Musicians’ Church continues to be a core part
of our church’s identity and vision’, it says:
‘We don’t understand how excluding musicians
and listeners who regularly visit the church
during rehearsals and concerts would further
this goal.’
The letter continues: ‘We understand that
churches are principally places of worship
and sympathise with the challenges faced in
achieving a sustainable balance of activity.
However, the unique “mission” for St
Sepulchre’s has been to musicians, providing
a welcoming space and encouraging them to
be involved in running the parish. That its
custodians are now willing to abandon this
unique national cultural remit is difficult to
understand and harder to accept.’
It concludes: ‘We urge a reversal of
this ban on external hirers, followed by
open consultation with a range of music
stakeholders on a way forward to ensure
that the mission of the National Musicians’
Church is assured.’
St Sepulchre’s issued a further statement,
saying: ‘We have been greatly moved by the
concern expressed for the musical life of the
church […] In the coming weeks we will reflect
and pray, and consult with members of the
musicians’ community about how best to fulfil
that ministry moving forward.’
More than 7,750 people have now signed a
petition demanding the parish council reverse
its decision.
18/09/2017 11:52:10

British recorded music exports at highest level since 2000
B ritish recorded music exports have risen
to their highest levels this century,
the BPI (British Phonographic Industry)
has announced.
They have grown by over two thirds this
decade and contributed nearly £4.4bn to the
UK’s overseas earnings since 2000.
Figures compiled by the BPI based on an
annual survey of its record label members
reveal that overseas earnings from recorded
music rose by 11.1% to £364.6m in 2016, up
by £36.4m from £328.2m in 2015.
This is the strongest performance since
the BPI began its annual survey in 2000.
It represents an increase of £153m on the
£211.6m recorded at the start of the decade
and a rise of 72.3% since 2010.
Orchestras urged to reflect on diversity and inclusion
T he president and CEO of the League of
American Orchestras (LAO) has called
on orchestras to increase their engagement
with issues of diversity and inclusion.
In a statement published on the LAO’s
website on 24 August, Jesse Rosen questioned
the role of orchestras in this ‘volatile and
raw moment’, in which ‘divisiveness and
intolerance […] threaten America’s founding
principles of equality’, adding: ‘I don’t think
our response can be a simple affirmation of the
power of music to connect.’
He emphasised that ‘sustained, deep
institutional and artistic engagement in the
issues of our time will be necessary’, and
continued to affirm the league’s conviction
‘ that the orchestral experience is most
rewarding for all when there
Kaufmann and du Pré featured in BBC autumn tv season
C lassical music highlights on BBC
television this autumn include a
documentary on tenor Jonas Kaufmann and
a programme marking the anniversary of
Jacqueline du Pré’s death.
BBC Four will broadcast a number of
programmes as part of a pan-BBC opera
season, including Jonas Kaufmann, Tenor
for the Ages, a 90-minute documentary by
John Bridcut.
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British music exports are strongest in
North America and across Europe, although
fast-emerging markets in Asia are becoming
increasingly significant. The top five
international territories for UK labels in 2016
were USA, Germany, France, Australia and
Canada. BPI members are reporting gains in
developing markets including China, Turkey
and South American territories, and India
and South Korea have the potential to become
important overseas markets in future.
UK artists account for one in every eight
albums purchased around the world in 2016
and the UK remains the world’s largest
exporter of recorded music after the US.
Announcing the rise in overseas music
exports Geoff Taylor, chief executive of BPI,
are diverse participants at every level,
inclusive environments all around, and
equitable conduct internally as well as
across communities.’
The statement continues: ‘Our best
judgment now, as we observe the trends and
forces at play in America, is that orchestras’
long-term artistic and institutional health, and
their capacity to deliver their full potential
service to communities, will depend on their
engaging fully with the opportunities inherent
in an ardent and sustained commitment to
diversity, equity, and inclusion.
‘This effort must go from the inside out; in
other words, organisations must do the hard
work of examining their own behaviours and
values, and consider that barriers to diversity
and inclusion may lie within.’
BBC Four will also air recorded
performances of Keith Warner’s new
production of Otello at the Royal Opera
House, conducted by Antonio Pappano
and starring Mr Kaufmann in the title role,
and Brett Dean’s new opera, Hamlet, which
features Sir John Tomlinson, Sarah Connolly
and Barbara Hannigan, with Allan Clayton
as Hamlet. BBC Two offerings include Lucy
Worsley’s Nights at the Opera, presented in
NEWS
said: ‘With Britain leaving the EU, the UK
needs businesses that are true global superstars.
The global digital streaming market represents
a huge new opportunity. Government can
help to seize that opportunity by making sure
our artists can tour freely post-Brexit and that
third countries robustly protect music rights.’
Matt Hancock, minister of state for digital at
DCMS, said: ‘This fantastic economic success is
a huge testament to the UK music industry and
the wealth of talent and creativity underpinning
it. Not only is music a crucial factor in bringing
international investment to our shores but it
is also the introduction to British culture for
many people around the world.’
www.bpi.co.uk
Drawing attention to the League’s
Diversity and Inclusion Resource Center,
Rosen continued: ‘I hope that orchestras will
see this moment as a crucial opportunity
to double down on their authentic and
meaningful engagement with the issues
before the nation and its communities. This
means engaging in challenging and often
uncomfortable discussions within orchestras
and with community stakeholders, and taking
action. That is what makes orchestras living,
breathing institutions and our art form have
meaning in today’s context.’
Mr Rosen concluded by citing a few
examples of what taking action might look
like, and asking readers to let the league know
‘what you are learning, what you are doing,
and what you need to know.’
collaboration with the V&A’s forthcoming
autumn exhibition, Opera: Passion, Power
and Politics.
The BBC will also mark the 30th
anniversary of the death of cellist Jacqueline
du Pré, who died on 19 October 1987, with
an hour-long programme featuring archive
footage and tributes of friends and colleagues,
and a recently re-discovered performance of
Dvořák’s cello concerto from August 1968.
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 13
18/09/2017 11:52:28
 OBITUARY
Sir David Tang KBE
An appreciation by Margaret Steinitz, artistic director of the London Bach Society
Sir David Tang at China Exchange
B usinessman, entrepreneur,
philanthropist, socialite, bon vivant:
these are all epithets that were applied
regularly to Sir David Tang, KBE, who
died on 29 August. In the many obituaries,
much comment was made about Sir David’s
celebrity lifestyle and extraordinary social
connections. What hasn’t been emphasised
enough, however, was his role as a leading
patron of the arts. As well as his numerous
and generous philanthropic gestures to
music, he served as adviser to the London
Symphony Orchestra and was a trustee of the
Royal Academy of Arts.
Among the positions that Sir David
treasured most highly, however, was as
president of the London Bach Society. His
appointment came completely by chance
at a time when the LBS was in the throes
of reinventing itself for a new millennium,
a decade after the death of its founder
and guiding light, my late husband Paul
Steinitz. Lord Weinstock, a longstanding
LBS supporter, introduced me to a certain
David Tang, OBE, who was ‘carving a unique
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niche in British society’. Since he came
recommended by someone who knew exactly
what the LBS was about, a letter was written
and within 48 hours Sir David had warmly
accepted our invitation to be president.
His appointment was timely. At the
start of the new millennium, the 250th
anniversary of Bach’s death proved the ideal
occasion to celebrate the composer’s life
and to push the boat out for his music. In
January 2000, we found ourselves in the State
Apartments at St James’s Palace for David’s
specially devised Bach and China recital
and dinner, given before Prince Charles
and a Who’s Who of guests, ranging from
the Chinese ambassador to David Frost,
Michael Caine and Joan Collins. Among
the performers were violinist Vanessa Mae,
harpsichordist Melvyn Tan and the guest
narrator for the evening, actor Jeremy Irons.
The whole occasion typified the kind of
public relations work every arts organisation
now must undertake in the 21st century to
enable our voices to be heard and, above all,
to continue to influence, inspire and reach
out to audiences today. This was the first
such event, and a typical example of the
new and exhilarating dimension Sir David
brought to the London Bach Society.
Promoting our artistic activities a stage
further, he supported an early Bach Club
concert, this time given by pianist James
Rhodes at London’s Foundling Museum.
The audience, mainly aged 18 to 30, acquired
their tickets via Twitter and all were taken up
in one evening. Last year, as part of the LBS
70th, the Bach Club concert was held at Sir
David’s latest creation, China Exchange in
Gerrard Street, a bustling Chinese Cultural
Centre in the heart of London’s China Town.
Sir David was a doer and will be best
remembered for his many spectacular
deeds, along with a preference for the
finest of everything. He possessed the best
contact book in town and anyone who was
seemingly ‘off-limits’ or ‘out of reach’ posed
an irresistible challenge, viz his meeting
with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin earlier
this year. He rarely, if ever, took ‘no’ for
an answer.
18/09/2017 11:52:44
 barlines@rhinegold.co.uk 
Classic FM reveals best-selling iTrump creator
classical albums of the past 25 years defeats Trump
Organization in
legal battle
Chart-topper: James Horner’s score emerged in first place
James Horner’s score for Titanic is the
number one selling classical album of the last
25 years, according to the Ultimate Classic
FM Chart.
Commissioned to mark the station’s 25th
anniversary, the chart covers the sales of
the top 300 classical albums released since
Classic FM launched in 7 September 1992.
Released in 1997, Titanic: Music from
the Motion Picture has sold more than one
million copies in the UK alone, was certified
triple platinum by the BPI and was number
one album in 20 countries.
Mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins is the
number one classical music artist of the
past 25 years, selling more than 2.7 million
albums in the Ultimate Classic FM Chart,
and Russell Watson is the most popular male
artist, with almost 2.5 million albums sold.
The biggest international classical artist is
André Rieu, with nearly 2.3 million album
sales. Rieu also has more albums in the chart
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BARLINES NEWS & LISTINGS
The creator of the iTrump app has won
a trademark battle against the Trump
Organization.
San Francisco-based musician Tom
Scharfield created the trumpet simulator app
in 2011. Shortly afterwards, he was contacted
by Donald Trump’s lawyers, who demanded
that he change the name of the app, as it falsely
suggested a link to the now US president.
Mr Scharfield won the legal battle – a
particularly impressive feat given that he
represented himself.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Mr Scharfeld said
that President Trump’s lawyers ‘didn’t seem to
respect that I could do this’.
Demonstrating that ‘trump’ is commonly
used as a substitute for ‘trumpet’, the app
designer also forced the Trump Organization
to withdraw some of its trademarks.
‘We won all the claims and defeated those
against us,’ Mr Scharfeld said, adding: ‘They
just wanted to waste my time and disrupt
my business.’
Coming up trumps: The iTrump app
than any other artist – 11 in total – and his
albums were the biggest sellers released in six
out of the past nine years.
Seven out of the top 20 albums are by
Welsh artists, while six out of the top 20 best-
selling artists are from Wales – more than
any other nation. Charlotte Church, the Fron
Male Voice Choir, Sir Bryn Terfel, Aled Jones
and Sir Karl Jenkins are all in the top 20 list,
alongside Katherine Jenkins.
The best-selling living composer is
Howard Shore, followed by Ludovico
Einaudi in second place, John Williams in
third, and Sir Karl Jenkins in fourth.
Music from the top 300 albums in the
Ultimate Classic FM Chart was played on-air
over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The
chart was commissioned by Classic FM and
compiled by the Official Charts Company
based on UK music sales data.
halloffame.classicfm.com/ultimate-chart/
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 15
19/09/2017 14:19:37
 BARLINES NEWS & LISTINGS
Season previews
XXThe fourth season of Hull’s year as UK
City of Culture has been announced.
‘Tell the World’ will run from October
to December, comprising theatre and
live performance, literature, visual art,
festivals, spectacle and more.
Hull City Hall’s Classics Season will
include Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s
Last Night of the Proms, conducted by
Hilary Davan Wetton, and a ‘Myths and
Fairytales’ programme under conductor
Alexander Shelley. Hull Philharmonic
Orchestra presents an all-Russian
programme to mark the centenary of the
1917 Revolution.
The University of Hull’s Middleton
Hall will host recitals from pianist
Yegevny Subdin; ‘Nightports’ with
Matthew Bourne; and ‘Tell the World’, a
recital by the Ellipsis Ensemble and tenor
James Gilchrist, featuring Bach, Handel
and Vaughan Williams.
Opera North will perform five works
from its Little Greats season in the Hull
New Theatre, following its £16m rebuild.
The company will present short works by
Bernstein, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Ravel,
and Gilbert and Sullivan in double-bills.
www.hull2017.co.uk/
XXThe theme of the 2017 Bloomsbury
Festival (18-22 October) is independence.
This idea will be explored in terms
of business and publishing, living and
vitality, society, politics, science
and technology.
The five-day festival will feature
science, literature, performance, music,
poetry, theatre, dance, discussion and
reflection, with more than 200 events
taking place across the area.
This year marks the 70th anniversary
of the Indian Independence Act, 100
years since the Russian Revolution, and
50 years since the decriminalisation of
homosexuality; all three anniversaries will
be marked through a number of events.
Musical highlights will include the UK
premiere of Belle Chen’s Mademoiselle,
a performance blending classical piano,
improvisation, dance, electronica, and
visual projections against the Parisian
soundscape, and the latest instalment of the
Bloomsbury Songs project, which will see
local adults and children develop songs with
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Michael Henry and Emma Barnard, before
performing them throughout the festival.
bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/
XXThe 2017 Cambridge Music Festival
will take place 14-22 November.
Highlights of this year’s event include
Beethoven from Joshua Bell and the
Academy of St Martin in the Fields;
Paul McCreesh conducting the Gabrieli
Consort and Players in their recreation
of a Venetian coronation; and Chineke!
Orchestra with works by Mozart, Joseph
Bologne, Errolyn Wallen and Tchaikovsky.
The festival also includes performances
from Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Mahan
Esfahani, BBC New Generation Artists
and ensemblebash.
www.cambridgemusicfestival.co.uk/
XXThe Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
has announced its autumn/winter 2017
season, which will include a programme
of symphonic last works from Christian
Kluxen and the RCS Symphony Orchestra
and performances of Prokofiev’s The
Fiery Angel in collaboration with the
professional soloists and orchestra of
Scottish Opera.
The Big Guitar Weekend will
feature José Antonio Escobar as part of
Fridays at One, the inaugural Scottish
Schools Guitar Ensemble Competition,
showcase events, and Finnish-Scottish
Connections, a double bill with Royal
Conservatoire graduate and lecturer Ian
Watt and Finland’s Otto Tolonen.
The conservatoire’s bi-weekly
lunchtime concert series will focus on a
different department, instrument or guest
artist each week, and Sunday mornings
will see the return of the Hilary Rosin
Coffee Concerts with a focus on Russian
masterworks.
rcs.ac.uk/boxoffice
XXThe Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s
2017/18 season will feature Vladimir
Ashkenazy, Valery Gergiev, Anne-Sophie
Mutter and Maxim Vengerov.
Highlights include Messiah with the
Schola Cantorum of Oxford; Steven
Isserlis in Elgar; and two all-Vivaldi
performances featuring mandolinist
Avi Avital.
It is 15 years since the Oxford
Philharmonic became orchestra in
residence at the University of Oxford; the
partnership has recently been extended
for a further five years. The university and
orchestra will mark the occasion with a
concert at the Sheldonian Theatre.
The 2017/18 season also includes a
multimedia lecture-concert featuring
Marcus du Sautoy, a series of chamber
concerts, and the culmination of an
ongoing collaboration with the
Choir of New College and conductor
Robert Quinney.
www.oxfordphil.com
XXPsappha’s 2017/18 season includes two
UK premieres and 13 world premieres.
Highlights include a tour of the
Whitworth Art Gallery through music
and art, a collaboration with guitarist
Mike Walker, a performance of Boulez’s
Le Marteau sans maître under Jamie
Phillips, and a concert with the BBC
Philharmonic. The season also includes
the launch of a new series of pre-concert
events, in which audiences can learn
more about the programme through film
portraits and composer talks.
www.psappha.com
XXSoundfestival 2017, which will
take place between 26 October and
11 November, will comprise 40-plus
performances in venues across Aberdeen
and Aberdeenshire, as well as a number of
pop-up events, talks, workshops and
open rehearsals.
Beginning with ‘Sounding the North’, a
three-day event which will consider whether
there is a distinctive northern musical voice,
the festival will also include the second Out
of the Box opera weekend and the launch of
a five-year project celebrating endangered
musical instruments.
Other highlights include In Place, a
new song cycle by Colin Riley; a recital
by pianist Christina McMaster; a
collaboration between musician Mark
Lyken and ceramicist Kevin Andrew
Morris; and a collaboration between
cellist Rohan de Saram, percussionist
Suren de Saram and pianist Kausikan
Rajeshkumar.
www.sound-scotland.co.uk
18/09/2017 11:54:03

OBITUARIES
SIR PETER HALL
22 NOVEMBER 1930 - 11 SEPTEMBER 2017
Theatre and opera director Sir Peter Hall has
died at the age of 86.
A leading figure in theatre, Sir Peter
founded the Royal Shakespeare Company at
the age of 29 in 1960 and led it until 1968.
He then became director of the National
Theatre in 1973, overseeing its move from
the Old Vic to the purpose-built complex
on the South Bank, before forming the
Peter Hall Company in 1988. He became
the founding director of the Rose Theatre
Kingston in 2003.
Sir Peter also made a significant
contribution to opera. He created numerous
productions for Glyndebourne over a 35-year
period; he was the company’s artistic director
from 1984 to 1990, and he played a key role in
its decision to build a larger theatre, resulting
in the creation of the new opera house.
He said of the company in 2005: ‘I’ve
always been happy at Glyndebourne because
the theatre man is given as much weight as
the music man.’
Sir Peter created 19 productions for
Glyndebourne, beginning with 1970s
La Calisto. An enduring favourite is
his production of Benjamin Britten’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream; first staged in
1981, it has received five revivals.
Sir Peter made his Royal Opera House
debut in 1965 with the UK premiere
of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron, in
collaboration with music director Georg
Solti. He was made joint director of the
Royal Opera with Colin Davis in 1969,
but resigned before officially assuming
the post.
Tributes have flooded in since Sir Peter’s
death was announced. A statement issued
by the Royal Opera House noted that he
‘brought to all his opera direction a deep
understanding of the music, much clarity and
profound dramatic insight’. Gus Christie,
Glyndebourne’s executive chair, described Sir
Peter’s tenure as ‘a golden era’, adding: ‘He
was loved by both audiences and artists. The
productions he created were timeless – as
you can tell by the many occasions we have
revived them.’
Sir Peter was diagnosed with dementia
in 2011.
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FREDELL LACK
19 FEBRUARY 1922 - 20 AUGUST 2017
The American violinist and pedagogue Fredell
Lack has died aged 95.
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Lack received her
first violin lessons from soloist Tosca Berger
at the age of six. She developed quickly, giving
public performances by the age of eight.
When she was 12, Louis Persinger – whose
other students included Yehudi Menuhin
and Isaac Stern – accepted her as a student.
She moved to New York, leaving her family in
Houston, Texas, and later won a scholarship to
Juilliard School to continue her studies with
Persinger, graduating in 1943.
After receiving the bronze medal and the
Prix de Liege in the 1951 Queen Elisabeth
Competition, she moved back to Houston.
She lost the tip of the fourth finger on her left
hand from a dog bite, forcing her to take a
break from the instrument.
Her teaching career began in 1959 when she
was appointed as a professor at the University
of Houston. She taught part-time from 1988,
but remained there until her retirement in
2008. Celebrated pupils include Frank Huang
and Luke Hsu.
DEREK BOURGEOIS
16 OCTOBER 1941 - 6 SEPTEMBER 2017
English composer Derek Bourgeois has died
aged 75.
His output included 116 symphonies – the
first written at the age of 18 – as well as 17
concertos, several other extended orchestral
works, seven major works for chorus and
orchestra, two operas, a musical, and a
considerable amount of music for television.
He was a prolific composer for brass bands and
wind bands. His work in this genre comprised
15 extended works for brass band and seven
symphonies for symphonic wind orchestra.
Bourgeois graduated from Magdalene
College, Cambridge before continuing his
studies at the Royal College of Music, studying
composition under Herbert Howells and
conducting with Sir Adrian Boult.
From 1970 to 1984 he was a lecturer
in music at Bristol University. He was the
conductor of the Sun Life Band (now the
Stanshawe Band of Bristol) from 1980 until
1983; during the same period, he was chair of
the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain, and
barlines@rhinegold.co.uk
a member of the Music Advisory Panel of the
Arts Council.
In September 1984 he gave up his university
post to become musical director of the
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
In 1988 he founded the National Youth
Chamber Orchestra of Great Britain, and in
1990 he was appointed artistic director of the
Bristol Philharmonic Orchestra.
He left the National Youth Orchestra in
August 1993 to become director of music at
St Paul’s Girls’ School in London, a position
previously held by Gustav Holst and Herbert
Howells. He retired to Mallorca in July 2002.
JOHN MAXWELL GEDDES
1941-2017
Composer John Maxwell Geddes has died
following a short illness. His music was
often informed by his interest in history,
archaeology, astronomy and science fiction.
His best-known works include Voyager, Alley
Cat and A Castle Mills Suite.
According to the Scottish Music Centre,
‘Geddes [was] essentially a composer in the
symphonic tradition, and his most impressive
work [was] written for orchestral forces,
although not necessarily in symphonic form
or length. His early work revealed a rather
tense, almost nervous undercurrent but he has
subsequently grown more expansive, while his
latest works foretell a growing suggestion of a
near-mystical sense of serenity.’
Born in Glasgow in 1941, Geddes studied
at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music under
Gordon Cameron and Frank Spedding. He
won the RSAM Prize in composition and a
scholarship which enabled him to study at the
Royal Danish Conservatoire.
Geddes lectured on his work widely and was
composer -in-residence for World Brass and
the Internationales Jugend Symfoniorchester.
His association with BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra spanned more than 50 years,
producing works including his first symphony
(1975) and An Ayrshire Suite (2012).
He was the recipient of many commissions
and awards, including the Goethe Institute
stipendium (1986) and PRS’s Composer
in Education Award (1991). He was made
a Fellow of the RSAMD in 2002, and in
2007 became one of the few composers to be
presented with the Creative Scotland Award.
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 17
18/09/2017 11:54:17
 BARLINES NEWS & LISTINGS
IN BRIEF
MUSICAL CHAIRS
XXViolinist Esther Yoo has become
the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s
first artist-in-residence, and artist-in-
residence for the classical series at the
Cambridge Corn Exchange.
XXThe Royal Scottish National Orchestra
has appointed two new members to its
senior management team. Bill Chandler,
currently associate leader of the
orchestra, becomes director of artistic
planning and engagement, and Angela
Moreland joins as the new director of
finance and administration.
XXThe Llangollen International Musical
Eisteddfod has announced Vicky
Yannoula as its eighth music director.
She succeeds Eilir Owen Griffiths, who is
stepping down after six years in the role.
XXTony Hales CBE has been appointed
as chair of the Associated Board of
the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).
He replaced Dame Colette Bowe in
September 2018.
XXThe Philharmonia Orchestra has
appointed Tom Blomfield, aged 22, as
joint principal oboe. He will share the
position with Gordon Hunt.
XXMeurig Bowen is to step down as
director of Cheltenham Music Festival
after ten years in the role. He is leaving
in December 2017 to take up the post
of artistic planning manager at the BBC
National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales.
XXThe Royal Northern College of Music
has appointed Graham Vick, Alberto
Menéndez and Professor Denis Herlin
as international chairs in opera, horn
and musicology respectively. Le Yu
joins as international visiting tutor in
marimba; contralto Hilary Summers
and tenor Toby Spence as principal
study vocal tutor and visiting tutor
respectively; Gabor Varga and Thomas
Rüedi as international tutors in clarinet
and euphonium respectively; Bing Bing
Li and Ashley Wass as tutors in piano;
Jennifer Langridge as tutor in cello; Janet
Richardson and Jenny Hutchinson as
tutors in piccolo; Stephane Rancourt
as tutor in oboe; Gretha Tuls as a tutor
in bassoon; Katy Jones and Christian
18 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
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Jones as tutors in trombone; and Wayne
Ellington as a principal study vocal tutor
for the popular music degree.
AWARDS
XXAnne Luisa Kramb (violin), Alexey
Melnikov (piano) and Michele Angelini
(tenor) have won the second Manhattan
International Music Competition. They
each receive $2,500 and will perform at
a joint Carnegie Hall recital.
XXCanadian violinist Marc Djokic has
received the 2017 Prix Goyer. The
prize, which is presented biennially to a
‘collaborative emerging musician’ under
the age of 33, is worth CAD $125,000.
XXSebastian Heindl, aged 19, has won the
senior section of the Northern Ireland
International Organ Competition. The
intermediate category was won by Jan-
Aurel Dawidiuk, and the junior category
was won by Michael Nevin.
XXPianists Wei Luo and Elliot Wuu have
been named as recipients of the 2018
Gilmore Young Artist Awards. Each
receives $15,000, an engagement at
the 2018 Gilmore Keyboard Festival,
and a commission for a new piano
composition.
XXTurkish pianist Can Çakmur has
been named as the 11th winner of
the Scottish International Piano
Competition. The 20-year-old receives
£10,000, the Sir Alexander Stone
Memorial Trophy and the Frederic
Lamond gold medal, and will perform
with the Royal Scottish National
Orchestra in its 2018/19 season.
XXBasca has announced the winners of its
2017 Gold Badge Awards. They are: Gary
Crosby OBE, Susanna Eastburn, Michael
Gibbs, Tim Ingham, Sarah Liversedge,
Paulette Long OBE, Steve Parr, Maggie
Rodford, Emeli Sandé MBE, George
Vass, Martyn Ware and Jon Webster.
XXBaritone James Newby has been named
as the 2017 recipient of Glyndebourne’s
John Christie Award, an annual
scholarship given to a promising young
singer to fund private study.
XXSouth Korean tenor Seung Ju Bahg
has won this year’s Queen Sonja
International Music Competition. He
received €40,000 and a diploma with
original artwork created by Her Majesty
Queen Sonja.
XXBaritone Julien Van Mellaerts has won
first prize at the 2017 Wigmore Hall/
Kohn Foundation International Song
Competition. The £5,000 pianist’s prize
went to Ian Tindale; the Jean Meikle
duo prize went to soprano Gemma
Summerfield and pianist Sebastian
Wybrew; and the Richard Tauber Prize
for the best interpretation of Schubert
lieder went to mezzo-soprano Clara
Osowski.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
XXThe King’s Singers will join Intermusica
for general management from January
2019.
XXEnglish National Opera has announced
four new Harewood Artists. Bass-
baritones David Ireland and Božidar
Smiljanić, mezzo-soprano Katie
Stevenson and tenor Elgan Llŷr Thomas
will join the programme for two years,
beginning in the 2017/18 season.
XXComposer Jessica Curry has signed an
exclusive publishing agreement with
Faber Music.
XXTido has added an Educational Piano
collection to its iPad app. The collection
features a range of music, from
compositions created to help pianists
to build on their technique to fun pieces
which students will enjoy playing, and
new pieces will be released each week.
XXResearchers have developed
the concept of ‘Media Device
Orchestration’, which enables users
to enjoy immersive audio experiences
by using all available devices in a
typical living room. Developed at the
University of Surrey in collaboration
with the Universities of Salford and
Southampton, and BBC Research
& Development, it shows that 3D or
‘spatial audio’ experiences can be
achieved by utilising everyday home
devices such as a laptop, smartphone or
wireless mini-speaker.
XXThe British Library is to celebrate its
18/09/2017 11:54:35

sound archive, which contains more
than 6.5 million recordings, with a
Season of Sound. Comprising a free
exhibition and events programme, the
season will reflect on over 140 years of
recorded sound.
XXSheku Kanneh-Mason has donated
money to his former school to ensure
that cello teaching continues. The
18-year-old cellist donated £3,000
to Trinity Catholic School in Aspley,
Nottingham after hearing that budget
cuts could bring an end to cello teaching.
The money, which was earned through
playing engagements, will ensure that
lessons continue at the school for the
next three years.
XXScottish Opera has announced a
new group of emerging artists for the
2017/18 season: Catherine Backhouse,
Samuel Bordoli, Alexey Gusev, Patrick
Milne, Ellen Murgatroyd, Alex Otterburn
and Laura Zigmantaite. The programme
offers young artists a period of full-time
work with the company to help them
launch their careers.
XXThe Take it away scheme, which offers
interest-free loans for the purchase of
musical instruments, will now support
musicians of all ages. It can now be
used to purchase any item or items
from a participating music retailer, and
retailers have the option to offer interest-
free finance up to £25,000.
XXNYMAZ has received £273,000 from
the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Education
and Learning Through the Arts Fund
to extend its digital music education
project Connect: Resound over the next
four years. A live broadcast programme
will launch in early 2018.
XXSir Karl Jenkins has signed a multi-
album deal with Decca, beginning
with the release of his new album,
Symphonic Adiemus, The label will
acquire his catalogue of recordings from
31 December 2018.
XXTenebrae has selected soprano
Bethany Partridge, alto Elizabeth Paul,
tenor James Robinson and composer,
conductor and singer Owain Park for its
2017/18 associate artist scheme.
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XXThe Schubert Ensemble is to disband
after the 2017/18 season. It will give
around 50 concerts in the UK and
abroad before returning to its London
home for a farewell concert at Wigmore
Hall on 21 March 2018. Three members
of the group will have played together for
all 35 years, and the ensemble has been
unchanged for the last 23 years.
XXThe Philharmonia Orchestra has
released its second piece of virtual
reality content to celebrate the 40th
anniversary of the launch of the
Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, and the
Golden Records that each carried.
Beethoven’s Fifth features Esa-Pekka
Salonen conducting the orchestra in
the first movement of Beethoven’s fifth
symphony – which was recorded by
Klemperer and included on the ‘Golden
Record’ mounted to Voyager 1.
XXWarwick Music Group, the company
behind pBone, pTrumpet and pBuzz, has
been selected as one of the 50 most
innovative businesses in the Midlands.
OPPORTUNITIES
XXThe Noted Fellowship is inviting
applications from young innovators in
the arts administration and creative
fields. Applicants should be aged 22-35.
They should live in Germany or the UK
and should have a secure idea for a
project, but require support in order
to realise it. The successful applicant
will receive one year of support and
assistance through an individually
tailored mentoring programme and will
receive a grant of €5,000 (£4,400)
towards a project. www.wearenoted.com
XXThe tenth International Competition
Franz Schubert and Modern Music
takes place 19-28 February 2018 in
Graz, Austria, with categories for voice
and piano duo (Lied), piano trio and
string quartet. Applicants must have
been born after 28 February 1982, and
must submit the online application form
by 5 October 2017. bit.ly/2jpa1cT
XXThe National Youth Orchestra is inviting
applications for the 2018 intake of its
Inspire scheme. Young musicians who
barlines@rhinegold.co.uk
play at Grade 6 or above should submit
the application form by 9am on 23
October. bit.ly/2x0BDtI
XXRadio 3 has launched its Breakfast
Carol Competition, with amateur
composers invited to create a new
carol for SATB choir (a cappella or with
piano accompaniment) set to the words
of Sir Christemas. The winning carol,
which will be decided by public vote,
will be announced live on Breakfast on
22 December, and played throughout
Christmas day on Radio 3. The deadline
for submissions is 1 November.
XXApplications for the Glyndebourne
Opera Cup are open between 2 October
and 24 November. The inaugural
competition, culminating in March 2018
at Glyndebourne, will focus on Mozart
and is open to singers of any nationality
aged between 21 and 28 who are in the
early stages of their professional career.
XXYamaha has announced details of its
annual piano upgrade promotion, which
offers the company’s best ever part-
exchange deals. Customers who trade
in any 88-key digital or acoustic piano
for a Yamaha Silent or TransAcoustic
piano will receive Yamaha’s best ever
guaranteed upgrade price, which
combines with any additional part-
exchange value offered by participating
dealers. http://uk.yamaha.com/
pianopromotions
EVENTS
XXThe Little Missenden Festival will
take place 13-22 October. Highlights
include Schubert, Skempton and
Beethoven from the Albion Quartet,
newly discovered Telemann from viola
da gamba player Robert Smith, and a
British programme from clarinettist Mark
Simpson and pianist Richard Uttley.
little-missenden.org/
XXSingers and players are invited to
participate in a performance of Messiah
to aid those affected by the Grenfell
Tower fire. It will take place at 7pm in
Holy Trinity Church, Prince Consort Road,
South Kensington on 8 October. www.
ticketsource.co.uk/messiah4grenfell
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 19
18/09/2017 11:54:49
 ARTIST MANAGER NEWS BY ANDREW GREEN
Manager adds strings to bow
International Classical Artists now has a celebrated violin maker on its books
© PINEGATE
The Sherlock Holmes of violin authentication: Florian Leonhard
A
s I often point out in this column,
the portfolio of activities in which
artist managers involve themselves
has markedly diversified over recent
decades. Now I note that the International
Classical Artists office has just taken on the
representation of London/New York-based
violin maker and restorer, Florian Leonhard.
With the background of an international
reputation as ‘the Sherlock Holmes of violin
authentication’, Leonhard is renowned for
his copies of great instruments.
The fact that violinists of the stature of
Leonidas Kavakos, Maxim Vengerov and
Daniel Hope are among Leonhard’s clients
tells its own story. ICA stepped in when
its chairman/head of artist management
Stephen Wright witnessed one of the artist
management office’s ‘more discerning
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violinists’ try out Leonhard’s copy of the
1742 ‘Lipinski’ Guarneri del Gesù. ‘I saw
first-hand the initial scepticism melt into
disbelief upon playing the instrument.
That was when it became clear to me that
Florian, like any other artist, should have
representation in order to best spread word
of the quality of his work.’
German-born Florian Leonhard dates his
obsession from childhood, to the morning
when over breakfast he happened to closely
scrutinise his mother’s violin and very
swiftly saw where his future should lie.
After intensive studies at the Mittenwald
violin-making school, he came to London
at the age of 22 to work with industry
giant W E Hill & Sons, becoming head
restorer. Leonhard has been making violins
since student days, but only in more recent
years has he been willing to sell. He sees
his strengths as a maker stemming in large
part from the fact that his violin-making
is grounded in an all-round expertise ‘as a
restorer, authenticator, owner and trader of
quality historic violins. Few violin makers
have that sort of access to great instruments
… it takes you far beyond what you can tell
just by working from photographs.’
As for the new relationship with ICA?
Leonhard is ‘Delighted. The warmth
of Stephen Wright’s personality and his
ability to open doors convinced me to agree
to work with him. For ICA I think it will
be much like representing any artist. It’s all
about targeting musicians who may like to
have one of my violins. Clearly I especially
want the best players to get their hands
on one.’
19/09/2017 12:07:08
 ARTIST MANAGER NEWS BY ANDREW GREEN

Leonhard is also passionate about loaning

quality instruments to solo performers, TAPPING WISDOM
the challenge being to find a really good A spot of lunch in the ever-welcoming chief executive Atholl Swainston-
match – a process he’s described as ‘a bit like surroundings of London’s Garrick Harrison a key aim was to debate
running a dating agency.’ Club in mid-September brought ways in which senior members of the
Leonhard’s manager at ICA, Alexandra together a string of International association can make available to
Knight, is herself a violinist by training. Artist Managers’ Association elder the profession the multi-faceted
Her excitement at the ‘look, feel and statespeople. Among them such wisdom of their accumulated years in
sound’ of a Leonhard copy meant that honorary life members as Harold the business.
she was instantly engaged by the thought Clarkson, Virginia Braden and John ‘The event will in part have the
of representing a very different kind of Willan; recipients of the prestigious nature of a think-tank/brainstorming
client ‘both so that the quality of these IAMA award in Jonathan Groves session which we hope may then
new instruments could be better known, and Alfonso Aijon; plus past chairs be developed in the longer term.
and also that violinists who’d long dreamt of the IAMA conference, Cornelia There are many significant questions
of owning a Stradivarius were able play on Schmid and Stephen Lumsden. In facing artist managers that will
something just like it. I have regular, direct short, a classy, cosmopolitan line-up benefit from being examined in detail,
access to string players of all levels – from drawing on Spain, Germany, France, not least the long-term sustainability
leading soloists, chamber and orchestral Finland and Australia as well as the of artist management itself into
players to conservatoire professors and UK. The occasion recognised their the future. Senior members of the
students. So there’s a great synergy between achievements, but was also designed profession often comment that
my work, the work of my clients, and the to pick their brains. they’d be keen to pass on expertise
work of Florian and his team. I’m excited CM deadlines don’t permit a report gained over the course of their
to begin our relationship!’ CM here on the detail of the discussions careers. We’ll be looking to facilitate
undertaken, but according to IAMA that aspiration.’
www.florianleonhard.com

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OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 21

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CM1017.indd 22 18/09/2017 15:18:51


KEITH CLARKE
CONSULTANT EDITOR
And there was
music, too
A
s the Royal Albert Hall settles
down to a diet of Tori Amos
and the National Brass Band
Championships the BBC Proms team will be
mulling over the ups and downs of what will
probably become known as the Brexit Proms.
It certainly helped with the column inches
that many performers took the opportunity
to express a view, subtly or otherwise. Daniel
Barenboim set the ball rolling. ‘Fury as BBC
Proms hijacked by conductor’s anti-Brexit
rant,’ screamed the normally restrained Daily
Express. When Barenboim sets out to share his
thoughts on anything we are usually in for a
long ramble with very few signposts, as witness
Comeback queen: Dame Nellie Melba
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his byzantine Reith lectures in 2006. But his
heart is in the right place and the more people
who speak out against the damage that Brexit
is likely to do to music, the better. The BBC
is understandably squeamish when politics
puts in an appearance at concerts, and there
was more hand-wringing over extra-musical
arrangements for the Last Night. ‘Brexiteers
furious over thousands of EU flags handed
out at Last Night of the Proms,’ declaimed
the Independent, which has clearly learnt that
when you stop printing actual newspapers you
can have really long headlines.
It must be frustrating for the Proms team to
get so much publicity for what it would see as
the wrong reasons. At a press reception before
the penultimate night Proms director David
Pickard and Radio 3 controller Alan Davey
did a sturdy re-balancing act, bringing music
back into the equation. As Davey said, it was
pretty impressive to sell out a Prom where
the main work was Hindemith’s Mathis der
Mahler. Anyone in need of a blast of sanity
amid the clamour should catch up with
András Schiff’s late-night performance of the
Bach 48 before it disappears into the ether
round about 7 October.
It is a hugely difficult decision for any
musician but sooner or later the time comes for
a swansong. Kiri Te Kanawa has done well to
bring down the curtain on public performance
while she is still ahead. Janet Baker was equally
disciplined. Anyone who heard Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf or Luciano Pavarotti in their
prime would have been saddened by the reality
of later performances. The temptation to
agree to one last hurrah must be considerable,
whether for reasons of ego or a need to pay
a tax bill. It was probably Nellie Melba who
sparked the expression ‘more comebacks
Early start: First notes
INSIDE VIEW
than Lazarus’. And there will always be fans,
listening with their memories rather than
their ears, spurring singers on long after the
instrument has begun its decline. A sudden
retirement brings disappointment, but that’s
why they invented the gramophone.
My happiest purchase from Amazon in
ages is the first part of the all-time classic
Me and My Piano by Fanny Waterman and
Marion Harewood, a gift for five-year-old
granddaughter Olive. After much time
sitting on the old man’s knee at the piano,
producing a kind of Stockhausen meets Peppa
Pig, she is lucky enough to be starting proper
piano lessons. And lucky is the word, as state
schools increasingly sideline music tuition,
so three cheers for St Peter’s School in South
Weald for continuing to make this golden
opportunity available. The place of music in
school looks increasingly dark, with a cloth-
eared government ignoring entreaties to add
the subject to the EBacc. Bacc for the Future
is running a brilliant campaign and you can
still add your name to the petition at www.
surveymonkey.com/r/ebacc2
Music education was still a vital part of the
mix at my school, and having just missed the
recorder generation we were inducted into
the wacky world of the Hohner melodica.
The principal memory is of queuing up to get
a foul-smelling mouthpiece out of a bucket
of Dettol in order to make a tinny noise that
must have put a lot off music for life. So we
must take our hats off to Tristan Clarke
and Joe Buono, who have taken the little
instruments into new realms of glory. Who
needs an orchestra for The Rite of Spring?
Check out www.melodicamen.com and gape
in wonder. CM
Reed all about it: Melodica Men
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 23
18/09/2017 11:59:32
 OPINION
The three biggest problems facing London’s
new concert hall: location, location, location
ANDREW MELLOR
W
hat do Hamburg’s
Elbphilharmonie, Manchester’s
Lowry and Oslo’s Opera
House all have in common? That’s right: all
three are deemed fit to adorn postcards of
their respective towns.
What a triumph for the performing arts
in those cities that auditoria – alongside
bridges and piazzas – have come to represent
them visually.
© CHRISTIAN MUELLER/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
24 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
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None of those buildings became so
emblematic by accident. Nor did the opera
houses of Sydney and Copenhagen, or the
concert halls of Lucerne and Liepāja. All
were positioned to make a statement
about the importance of the arts in their
respective metropolis.
London has been rightfully positioning
itself as the worldwide capital of art music,
mainstream and fringe, for the last decade or
more. A concert hall in a central location with
the presence of a Tate Modern, a Royal Festival
Hall or even a Palace Theatre would amplify
and justify that position. Short of a miracle, a
concert hall around the corner from Moorgate
Station won’t.
The chosen location for London’s new
music centre is environmentally cluttered,
surrounded by soulless monoliths, way
too congested with traffic on weekdays
(pedestrian and vehicular) and totally dead at
weekends. If good contemporary architecture
is about complementing the immediate urban
environment and elegantly channelling
natural light, the shortlisted firms have their
work cut out.
Don’t take my word for it. The Architect’s
Journal recently warned firms off the project,
claiming that the Corporation of London was
‘focused on getting a bargain’ under restrictive
circumstances and had cobbled together a
limited brief riddled with ambiguities.
Even with the likes of Renzo Piano and
Snøhetta on board – the latter responsible
for Oslo’s Opera House – it seems highly
unlikely that the building will achieve
iconic status given the environmental and
procedural circumstances.
I sincerely hope I am proved wrong, but
the chances of London getting a building
that shouts adequately loudly about the city’s
extraordinary musical life are slim indeed.
But let’s suppose, for a moment, that it does.
An architecturally progressive new concert
hall or opera house is the best possible tool for
attracting new audiences to non-commercial
music, as witness those projects in Hamburg
and Oslo.
But will audiences be attracted to this
corner of the City – particularly weekend
visitors? When I walked from Finsbury
Circus to the site of the new concert hall
one Sunday in June, I encountered the
sum total of three other pedestrians. Even
McDonalds was closed.
‘Inaccessible’: The proposed location of
the Centre for Music. (Below): Out of town
winner, the Philharmonie de Paris
19/09/2017 16:53:17

A triumph for Hamburg: The Elbphilharmonie
That, ironically, is why the site has become
available to the Corporation of London in the
first place: its erstwhile occupants – another
organisation dependent on getting creatively
hungry punters through the door, the
Museum of London – quit because the place
was too inaccessible.
Perhaps the biggest failure of imagination
when it comes to the new hall (and there
have been a few, not least from the current
government) has been the decision to position
it on a site vacated by another arts organisation
that couldn’t stand the non-creative vibe of
the place.
Either way, in the time London has been
discussing the new hall, Latvia has opened two
impressive orchestra-sized concert halls and
Paris has opened three.
One of the latter, the Philharmonie de
Paris, is a striking-enough piece of architecture
to overcome its out-of-town status and, in
fact, incubate its own mini cultural quarter.
Another, the concert hall of Radio France,
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OPINION
© THIES RAETZKE
is slap-bang in the middle of the city, part of
the broadcasting complex that pings out of
the city’s landscape almost as much as Notre
The chances of
Dame and the Eiffel Tower.
The third, La Seine Musicale, sits
London getting a
gregariously and splendidly on the river. Much building that shouts
like, in fact, the proposed riverside concept for
the London concert hall that was blown out of adequately loudly about
the water.
Why? It looked an awful lot like the the city’s extraordinary
Corporation of London wanted to keep the
structure on its own turf. musical life are slim
Fair enough: the project is only alive because
of the Corporation’s willingness to stump
indeed
up the cash. But for an organisation that has
shown so much commitment to the arts over
the last three-quarters of a century – vision,
you might even say – it seems lamentable that
the corporation has chosen not to look beyond
its own nose.
For the sake of all it has done for music and
continues to do, it should be praying for that
architectural miracle too. CM
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 25
18/09/2017 12:00:55
 OPINION

Aging gracefully
Music has been shown to make a significant contribution to living happily and
healthily in old age. Orchestras Live has been at the forefront of creating projects
that address the concerns of an aging population in the UK, as well as spearheading
research into the impact of music on the lives of the elderly. Jane Macpherson
highlights the latest work in this field

T
his autumn sees a further
groundswell in the recognition
that the arts and culture play a key
role maintaining health and wellbeing –
especially in the latter stages of life. August’s
introduction of Age Friendly Standards,
Age of Creativity’s first arts festival for
older people this October, and the recent
addition of a sector support organisation,
the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance
(CHWA), to Arts Council England’s
national portfolio fund demonstrate the
increasing intersection between performing
arts and the health sectors.
Significantly, July 2017 saw the report
from the All-Party Parliamentary Group
on Arts, Health and Wellbeing Inquiry,
Creative Health: The Arts for Health and
Wellbeing, call for recognition of the
powerful contribution the arts can make
to our health and wellbeing. According to
its findings, the arts can keep us well, aid
recovery and support longer lives better
lived, as well as helping to meet major
challenges facing health and social care:
aging, long term conditions, loneliness and
mental health.
Music has long been heralded as holding
physiological benefits, and Orchestras
Live believes that live orchestral music
has the power to inspire people for a
lifetime. As well as developing bespoke
projects in response to that demand at a
local and regional level, Orchestras Live
is contributing to further evaluation
and research that will improve overall
understanding both of the impact of this
work and principles for success. The success
of its projects around the country in the last
ten years has demonstrated the demand for
life-enriching well-being projects, especially
for those in the later stages of life.

Essex Folk: Celebrating a creative music project in four residential nursing care homes in north Essex
© PAUL STARR

26 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017

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Building on a highly successful pilot
project (Essex Folk, 2015), Orchestras Live
and Sinfonia Viva will be collaborating this
month with older people, care staff and
local communities in Brentford to compose
songs celebrating aspects of their lives past
and present. The project will culminate in
a public performance of their new songs
alongside the orchestra.
A strand of academic evaluation by
Anglia Ruskin University is embedded
in the project, supported by a research
grant from Arts Council England, and
will focus on the benefits of the arts in
developing relationships between older
people, care workers and their surrounding
communities.
The daughter of an Essex Folk participant
writes to the project team, ‘A thank you
seems simple, but thank you for including
mum in your musical extravaganza. It
was all she’s talked about she enjoyed it so
much. She was so stimulated, something
I’ve not seen for years.’ In the words of
another correspondent: ‘Elderly people
have little or no chance of live orchestral
music, and to be part of the team producing
such an experience is truly uplifting, as
well as stimulating and unforgettable …
The atmosphere today was one of warmth,
camaraderie and passion, and I sincerely
hope you will be able to do many more of
these events to help elderly people make the
most of their latter years.’
HOME COMFORTS
We’ve all known moments when enjoying
music with others creates a sense
of shared experience that prompts
conversation and interaction. This simple
social engagement is something that
many older people miss. In Withernsea,
a remote rural coastal town in the East
Riding of Yorkshire, Orchestras Live is
producing the At Home project to address
this issue for East Riding of Yorkshire
Council. In partnership with Manchester
Camerata, Orchestras Live is providing
culturally and socially enriching music
experiences with residents in care homes.
Using the power of music to unlock
memories and kick-start the grey
matter is becoming a key feature of
care programmes, particularly for
those living with dementia. A growing
CM1017_026-027_R_Opinion 2 1509KC DDP OK.indd 27
Not alone: Hear and Now project in Bedford
T
en years ago, Orchestras Live forged
an alliance with the Philharmonia
and through the Hear and Now
project introduced an orchestral dimension
to activities with music groups working
with people with dementia and their carers.
Many participants have previously played
instruments, as described by a member of the
Music for Memory group who attends with
her husband: ‘We have always enjoyed music,
both of us performing and participating in
music, all our lives and then when dementia
strikes you think, How can we still do that?
We now have that opportunity again ... and we
can do that together – that’s quite the best bit
about it.’
Linking ideas of memory and music, music
base of academic research shows that
the personal and social benefits of
engagement in music may reduce the
need for medication. A central element
of the At Home project has been to
ensure that participants are involved in
the music-making, adding their individual
creative voices. This returns a sense of
control that is often lost when living in a
care home. As part of this engagement,
participants make musical choices,
decide on lyrics, or write the melody
themselves. Residents with limited
mobility or verbal skills can choose from
a range of percussion instruments to play
and add to the musical soundscape of the
newly composed songs.
Manchester Camerata has a strong
track record of delivering music-making
OPINION
© CACHA PHOTOGRAPHY
leader Tim Steiner has likened the role of music
to a ‘superpower’, with the ability to reach into
the deepest recesses of the mind and rediscover
memories that were thought to have been lost
forever. Music brings the past to the surface,
where, says Steiner, ‘it flourishes, dances, lives
and breathes. It might be the intense emotion
of a first kiss, the memory of a special event,
or a seemingly unimportant moment which
suddenly becomes very real and present’. The
social care benefits of this project have been
strong. As one Hear and Now participant
affirmed: ‘It has made me happy coming here,
I’ve felt much more “not-alone”.’ CM
More information on these projects and other work at
orchestraslive.org.uk
sessions with older people and people
living with dementia. The orchestra is
working in partnership with the University
of Manchester to develop an ‘in the
moment’ evaluation toolkit to measure
the positive impacts that music can
have on quality of life: enhanced mood,
communication, new relationships, as well
as decreased agitation.
New work inspired by At Home participants
and workshops activity will feature in two ‘Tea
with the Camerata’ concerts taking place in
October 2017 and March 2018. At Home is part
of the Classically Yours programme, developed
in partnership with Orchestras Live, Manchester
Camerata and Sinfonia Viva, in East Riding until
March 2018. Visit www.orchestraslive.org.uk for
more details
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 27
18/09/2017 12:01:53
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PREMIERE CHOICE
TOM GREEN – THE WORLD’S WIFE
© CATHY PYLE
Celebrating women: Tom Green
T
aking its name from Carol Ann
Duffy’s 1991 poetry collection, which
examines the actions and stories
of historical and mythical men from the
perspective of their spouses, Tom Green’s new
opera places women centre stage. ‘Duffy looks
at how we use stories in the past to understand
ourselves in the present,’ the composer says.
‘She’s not just made that clear, but she’s also
shaken up our understanding of how we do
that, and who gets to be part of our stories and
who doesn’t.’
Green selected 11 of the 31 poems in the
collection, taking care to ensure their themes
were complementary. ‘Throughout the cycle
of 11 I’m trying to construct contours within
them, but I’m not trying to force a narrative
on them; for example, the first poem is about
adolescence and losing your virginity, and
the final poem is about motherhood. I chose
poems which are of quite different lengths:
some of them are long epics, and others are
quick, comedy gag poems, solely meant to
get their own back on the patriarchy. The
CM1017_029-032_R_Premiers 1509KC DDP OK.indd 29
poetry itself is very musical; she’s a poet who’s
not scared of rhythmic vibrancy within her
words. Her rhythms are in no way predictable
or boring, but she really embraces it when
she wants to give a phrase an almost musical
bounce. I really appreciated that when I was
setting it.’
The composer turned to technology to
bring the characters together on stage: ‘The
loop pedals allow the soprano to play multiple
characters at once. She can sing one character
and store it in the loop pedal, then duet with
it in the guise of another character, then make
a trio. She uses the loop pedal to multiply how
many characters she can represent; that also
allows me as a composer to have more than one
character on stage at once, and to start creating
a dialogue between them.’
As well as bringing the narrative voices
of women together, the piece is written
exclusively using material by historical women
composers. ‘The World’s Wife is about how
we’ve written women out of our mythical
and historical narratives; a similar thing has
NEW MUSIC BY KATY WRIGHT
happened in terms of how we understand our
musical canon. Ask anyone and they’ll name
you many dead male composers; how many
dead female composers can the average music-
lover name? It’s not because they weren’t there;
it’s because they weren’t prioritised in the way
we understand music history. Once I realised
that, I explored all these brilliant past female
composers, some who are on the fringes of our
consciousness and some no one has heard of.
But they deserve to be heard.
‘It can be as small as a three-note motif
which I then develop into something, all the
way up to a complex quote of many bars which
will pepper the whole sound-world for many
minutes. It’s still very much my music, but I
wanted to have them represented there, and
to celebrate their work. But then equally, that
in itself is part of the contradiction – someone
could accuse me of stealing women’s work for
glory, another guy going off the backs of all
of these women who came before me. Maybe
that’s true, but if I can actually get people to
ask that question, that’s positive in itself.’
Green clearly signposts the material by
historical women: ‘There will still be moments
when a 21st-century score will melt into what
sounds like a 17th-century baroque figuration
and back again. Those moments will tell the
audience that someone is being referenced and
cherished. Even if they don’t know exactly who
that is, they’ll still know it’s a female composer,
because that will be clear in the programme.
I’ll also be giving a few pre-performance talks
where, in the lightest way possible, I’ll try to
extract some of these processes and walk them
back to where I started with the material and
how they ended up in the piece.’
The composer says he wanted the work to
confront the issues of gender, representation
and identity. ‘I wanted the work to make it
very clear that there are profound questions
that we still haven’t really addressed, and that
we’re quite good at ignoring, even though they
confront us in our daily lives. But this isn’t a
polemic crusade – it’s more of an exploration
of these ideas, and along the way it’s a brilliant
excuse to explore some unusual music with
simultaneous loops and all sorts of other
interesting musical objects.’ ►
XX 15 OCTOBER
Tom Green The World’s Wife (Amanda Forbes,
soprano, Mavron String Quartet, Millennium
Centre, Cardiff; also 19 October, Theatr
Brycheiniong, Brecon; 21 October, Taliesin
Arts Centre, Swansea; 28 October, Ucheldre,
Holyhead; 1 November, Aberystwyth Arts Centre;
2 November, Galeri, Caernafon; and 3 November,
Torch Theatre, Milford Haven)
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 29
18/09/2017 12:03:48
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CM1017.indd 43 19/09/2017 13:10:12

 NEW MUSIC BY KATY WRIGHT

October 2017
PICK OF THE REST
PREMIERES

© RICHARD HAUGHTON
IN THE UK & IRELAND
World premieres unless otherwise stated. Full listings at www.classicalmusicmagazine.org

XX 1 OCTOBER
Mark-Anthony Turnage Prussian Blue (Savitri
Grier, violin, Benedikt Schneider, viola, Mikayel
Hakhnazaryan, cello, Matthew McDonald, bass,
Tom Poster, piano, St John’s Church, Truro, 3pm;
also 2 October, Cedar Hall, Wells Cathedral School,
Wells, 7pm; 3 October, Stowe School, 7pm; 4
October, West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge; 5
October, Wigmore Hall, 7.30pm)
XX 3 OCTOBER
Patrick Nunn Cryptograms I-VIII Tomas Peire
Serrate Toccata Sam Hayden Becomings (José
Menor, piano, St George the Martyr, Borough,
London, 1pm)
XX 4 OCTOBER
Mauricio Sotelo New work UK prem (Cuarteto
Casals, Wigmore Hall, 7.30pm)
Jörg Widmann Babylon Suite English prem (City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Mirga Gražinytė-
Tyla, conductor, Symphony Hall, Birmingham,
2.15pm; also 5 October, 7.30pm)
XX 5 OCTOBER
Mark-Anthony Turnage Quintet for piano and
strings London prem (Wigmore Hall, 7.30pm)
XX 7 OCTOBER
Kevin Volans L’Africaine (Melvyn Tan, piano, Kings
Place, 2pm)
XX 8 OCTOBER
Derek Smith Sonatine (Mark Bebbington, piano,
Hellens, Much Marcle, Ledbury, 3pm)
XX 10 OCTOBER
Yuanfan Yang New work (Yuanfan Yang, piano,
Royal Academy of Music, 1.05pm)
XX 11 OCTOBER
Gregory Rose The Melodic Thread UK prem;
Mizmor Kaf Gimmel; The Song of Solomon; Hymn
to Aphrodite (Janet Oates, soprano, Alison Read,
harp, Vurl Bland, cimbasso, Holywell Music Room,
Oxford, 1pm; also 12 October, St John’s Smith
Square, London, 1.05pm)
Richard Miller Nighthawks (Ensemble 10/10, St
George’s Hall, Liverpool, 7.30pm)
XX 15 OCTOBER
Philip Sawyers Concerto for trumpet, timpani
and strings (Simon Desbruslais, trumpet, English
String Orchestra, Kenneth Woods, conductor,
Huntingdon Hall, Worcester, 3.30pm)
Malcolm Arnold Kensington Gardens (Claire
Thompson, soprano, Scott Mitchell, piano, Royal
& Derngate, Northampton, 3.30pm)
Malcolm Arnold Suite from Heroes of Telemark
(Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, John Gibbons,
conductor, Royal & Derngate, Northampton,
Sees the world differently: Thomas Larcher
7.30pm)
XX 19 OCTOBER Inspired by colour blindness, from
Howard Skempton Preces and Responses which the composer suffers mildly,
(Choir of Wells Cathedral, Matthew Owens,
the piece considers how those
conductor, Wells Cathedral, 5.15pm)
without the condition see the world.
XX 23 OCTOBER The two movements are different,
Édith Canat de Chizy New work (Quatuor Van yet interlinked, with elements of one
Kuijk, Birmingham Town Hall, 7.30pm) present in the other.
XX 26 OCTOBER XX 4 OCTOBER
Thomas Larcher Red and Green UK prem
Rebecca Bruton, Jason Doell, Lawrence
Dunn, Sarah Lianne Lewis New works (Quatuor (BBC Symphony Orchestra, Alexander
Vedernikov, conductor, Barbican, 7.30pm)
Bozzini, King’s College Chapel, Aberdeen, 6pm)
Molly Joyce Rave Sarah Kirkland Snider
Penelope (Jessica Walker, vocalist, Psappha
Ensemble, Richard Balcombe, conductor, Hallé
St Peter’s, Manchester, 7.30pm)
XX 27 OCTOBER
Gunnar Andreas Kristinsson Moonbow
(Quatuor Bozzini, St Machar’s Cathedral,
Aberdeen, 1pm)
Gemma McGregor Strange Fish (Lesley Wilson,
bassoon, The Bothy, Glenbuchat Village Hall,
Aberdeenshire, 4pm)
XX 29 OCTOBER
Guy Barker Onyx Noir London prem Simon
Lesley Time Out Peter Fribbins Brass quintet
(Onyx Brass, Kings Place, 6.30pm) Centenary celebrations: Elena Langer

XX 13 OCTOBER
Howard Skempton Expectancy London prem
Laurence Crane, Morgan Hayes, Gabriel
Jackson, Andrew Toovey New works (Esther
Cavett, Morgan Hayes, Matthew Hough, Thalia
Myers, John Tilbury, piano, Jack McNeill, clarinet,
Gildas Quartet, Addison Chamber Choir, David
Wordsworth, conductor, Kings Place, 7.30pm)
Elis Pehkonen Beautitudes (Ex Cathedra,
Jeffrey Skidmore, conductor, Holy Trinity Church,
Blythburgh, Suffolk, 7.30pm)
XX 14 OCTOBER
Krzysztof Penderecki Capriccio for solo violin
UK prem Paulina Załubska New work (Jennifer
Pike, Thomas Gould, violin, Guy Johnston, cello,
Elizabeth Kenny, theorbo, Mahan Esfahani,
harpsichord, Petr Limonov, piano, Wigmore Hall,
11.30am)
XX 30 OCTOBER
Roman Rutishauser Tenebrae UK prem (former
Hilliard Ensemble members, St John the
Evangelist Church, Oxford)
Gabriel Jackson Nightingale Fragments (Vigala
Singers, Joy Hill, conductor, St James Piccadilly,
London)
George Tsontakis New work (Mobius, Wigmore
Hall, London, 7.30pm)
XX 31 OCTOBER
Paul Ayres Danket dem Herren denn er ist
sehr freundlich (Tom Bell, organ, St Laurence
Upminster, 7.30pm; also 17 November, Richard
Brasier, organ, Reid Concert Hall, University of
Edinburgh, 1.10pm)
Marking the centenary of the Russian
revolution, Elena Langer’s RedMare
takes its inspiration from Kandinsky’s
paintings of the period. The composer
describes the works as ‘colourful and
bold, but also strange and unique’,
adding: ‘None of them actually depicts
the revolution, almost as if it weren’t
happening! I would like my piano piece
to achieve something similar in spirit.’
XX 7 OCTOBER
Elena Langer RedMare (Katya Apekisheva,
Charles Owen, piano, Kings Place, 7pm)
►
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 31

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 NEW MUSIC BY KATY WRIGHT
LAURA BOWLER – NAVIGATING THE DOG WATCH
© BRAD KRATOCHVIL
 voking an indescribable experience:
E other ships, so it’s quite an experience.’
Laura Bowler
When approached with a new commission
from the Crouch End Festival Chorus,
Laura Bowler had a specific subject in
mind. ‘I was reading a book called Atlas of
Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky, and
I had this idea about travelling to two of
the most remote islands that I could get to
somehow, then capturing that in musical
form,’ the composer says. ‘I’ve always
been incredibly interested in landscape,
and I thought going to two of the remotest
islands and going on a tall ship would be
a very evocative experience. I knew doing
something like this would push me in a
different way.’
AARON JAY KERNIS – LEGACY
© BRAD OLIPHANT
Affected by current events: Aaron Jay Kernis
Inspired by the ‘uneasiness’ and ‘highly
conflicted feelings’ which Aaron Jay Kernis
has experienced since the last American
election, his new concerto is a series
of variations on Amazing Grace, which
Barack Obama sang at the memorial
service for the victims of a church
massacre, then to conclude his farewell
speech in Chicago. ‘It’s this British tune
which became an essential part of the
Southern hymnody. It can be taken a lot of
32 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
CM1017_029-032_R_Premiers 1509KC DDP OK.indd 32
Bowler opted to visit St Helena and
Ascension Island, both part of British
Overseas Territory and located in the
South Atlantic. ‘The experience sailing
there is almost indescribable,’ Bowler
says. ‘You get this feeling of remoteness,
because you have no access to
technology at all for three weeks in the
middle of the ocean. You barely see any
The piece – whose title refers to
the four-hour ship’s watch in the late
afternoon and at dusk – incorporates
video footage shot by Bowler on her
journeys. ‘I’m very interested in using
video performance anyway, but what was
key was trying to capture the closeness
to nature, and the awe-inspiring feeling of
being in the middle of the ocean; of not
being able to contact anyone or see any
sort of commercial life. I really wanted to
create a visceral and raw experience.’
The piece is wordless, with the choir
treated ‘as an extension of the orchestra,’
Bowler says. ‘The choir functions very
texturally, and they have a lot of extended
techniques; very specific vowel placements
different ways, but it means a lot of things
to a lot of people.’
Although the piece originated as
a commission for French horn player
Timothy Jackson, Kernis’s decision to
use percussion changed the nature of
the piece. ‘It was originally going to be
quite lyrical, but it became harsher,’ he
says. ‘As the piece developed, the timpani
became very important, to the extent that
it was nearly a double concerto between
horn and timpani. It’s actually a perfect
instrument because the whole solo line
stands out really well, and balances really
well with the horn. It’s a natural feeling
instrumentation without having to use a
large orchestra.’
It is only at the end of the work that
Amazing Grace is heard in its original form.
At this point, the horn player begins to
walk into the audience and the orchestra
vanishes. ‘If there’s anything that’s
and things like that. They also have
physical things to do to create sounds,
like body percussion.’ These extended
techniques depict specific aspects of the
experience of being on the tall ship, such
as flapping sails and water dripping into
a bucket.
Fittingly enough, the piece is structured
in waves. ‘I was on the ship with an
ocean surface specialist, so we talked
a lot about how waves form and travel.
That became an idea for how the piece
would function, so structurally it’s in
these blocks of waves which expand
and decrease in length depending on
the closeness to the island; we get to
Ascension Island at the end of the piece,
and the texture changes. The piece is
made up of a small amount of harmonic
material which is constantly moving, so
it’s this idea of a huge mass which is
constantly reforming itself, like the ocean.’
XX 20 OCTOBER
Laura Bowler navigating the dog watch (Crouch
End Festival Chorus, Inner Voices, London
Orchestra da Camera, David Temple, conductor,
Barbican Centre, 7.30pm)
symbolic in the piece it’s that; it’s offering
that melody directly to the audience and
leaving the stage,’ Kernis explains. The
piece then fades into nothing.
The piece is not without precedent in
Kernis’s oeuvre in engaging with current
events: his second symphony is the result
of reflection on the Gulf War. ‘I can be
very emotionally affected [by current
events], then I start to think about ways
of incorporating that into my work,’ he
says. ‘It’s very much who I am. There are
moments where I feel it’s important for my
work to reflect my inner emotional world
and the outer picture or sense of world
events – and this is one.’
XX 19 OCTOBER
Aaron Jay Kernis Legacy for solo horn, harp,
percussion and strings UK prem (Timothy
Jackson, horn, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra, James Feddeck, conductor, Liverpool
Philharmonic Hall, 7.30pm)
18/09/2017 12:04:36
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 COMMENT

ONCE UPON
A TIME…
Hamish Mackay is a young impresario who has founded his own company,
The Opera Story, to explore how contemporary opera can address classic narratives
and fairy-tales for modern audiences. He explains why he is so passionate in his
support of powerful storytelling using music

us to anywhere in the world, and to escape into
alternative worlds, if only for a short while.
Sometimes we forget to let our inner child out
to play, to let go and enjoy ‘the now’. I founded
The Opera Story to be a company entirely
devoted to new opera. I wanted to take us back
to the time when we were read stories by our
parent, to the escapism of childhood, but with
a darker twist. I feel that living in a fast-paced
world, and in a city like London, the need to
find escape from daily life is more important
than ever.
Emotion is key: Hamish Mackay There are many aspects to what makes
a story enjoyable. One that particularly
interests me is the psychological journey of
of Snow, our inaugural production. It was
financed with just over £7,000 that we raised
through crowd funding. We performed the
work in February at the Bussey Building,
an old cricket bat factory in South London.
The new work is based on the story of Snow
White, but we wanted to tell the story from a
fresh, and darker, angle.
To do this, we looked into the folk tales
that were circulating around Europe many
centuries before the tale of Snow White that
we know was created. The libretto, the starting
point of the opera, was created by J L Williams
on that basis, and woven into a beautiful text
that brings out the darker undertones in those

T
here are so many different steps to
creating an opera, each as exhilarating
as the next: from choosing the story,
to finding the right creative team, to hearing
and seeing your vision come to life, it is as
much a steep learning-curve as a magic act.
Earlier this year, the boss of Welsh National
Opera David Pountney spoke at the National
Opera Studio’s presentation of Contemporary
Scenes about his personal experiences of
contemporary opera. He explained how
important it is to choose the right story – one
that will be enhanced by music rather than
where the music merely confuses or intrudes. I
agree completely. Some stories lend themselves
well to music and others leave you asking why
anyone bothered setting them. Making the
right choice of narrative is one of the most
enjoyable aspects of commissioning a new
opera. I have spent hours reading story after
story, trying to imagine what it would be like
brought to life through opera.
I believe great stories have the ability to take
34 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
the characters, and the emotions generated by tales. Since we had started with three different
the relationships that lift the narrative off the tales, we asked three different composers
page. It is the intensity of these emotions that
connects audiences collectively to a story and
keeps us all invested throughout a piece. This
concentration of emotion is at the forefront of
my thinking when I am choosing a story as a
starting-point for a new commission.
Finding the right composer (sometimes
more than one) is among the more
challenging elements of commissioning a new
work. Sometimes I feel that our familiarity
with cinema leads us to compare and contrast
our experience of a contemporary opera
score with the overtly dramatic soundtrack
to a film. Certain living composers such
as John Adams, Philip Glass and Jonathan
Dove achieve a real dramatic impact with
their music, and in my eyes they are paving
the way for a new generation of composers
who are embracing a more traditional, tonal
style and extending it. This is along the lines
of what I briefed for the commissioning

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 COMMENT

(Lewis Murphy, Lucie Treacher and Tom

© NICK RUTTER
Floyd) to give each act its own musical
language. The point was to have music that
doesn’t distract or detract from the story, but
really enhances the themes and gives them
another exciting and attractive dimension.
The process of hearing and seeing an opera
come to life for the very first time is unique.
Creating a finished product that combines so
many people’s thoughts, ideas, expertise, and
unending effort, is what contemporary opera is
about. This kind of collaborative project is an
exceptionally trying and tiring process, but the
results more than justify the laborious process.
Opera is so much more than one person’s
creation. So much passion and talent, as well
as blood sweat and tears, all become worth it
when that seed of an idea you had three years
ago turns into a reality that exceeds even your
own expectations. CM

The Opera Story’s next new commission will be based

on the Goldilocks story, performed from 26 February
to 8 March at the Copeland Gallery in Peckham,
South London. Visit www.theoperastory.com Dark undertones: A scene from Snow

A Centre for Advanced Training of

the DFE Music & Dance Scheme
Centre for Young Musicians
(incorporating the London Schools Symphony Orchestra)

is now taking applications for entry

in September 2017 for both the
Full Programme (from age 8 to 17)
and the Primary Years Programme
(from age 5).
As a key provider of instrumental
& ensemble tuition for the capital.
Our Saturday School and holiday
courses offer a sustained and
progressive route from the early
stages of learning through to music
college entrance.
Application forms are available
from adagg@cym.org.uk.
Deadline for receipt of
application is
28th February 2017.

Please contact us for further information.

CYM • Morley College • 61 Westminster Bridge Road
London • SE1 7HT • Tel: 020 7928 3844 • Fax: 020 7928 3454
www.cym.org.uk • adagg@cym.org.uk

OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 35

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 FESTIVAL PREVIEW

RED
OCTOBER Following its successful launch last year, the London Piano Festival is back for round
two, with a focus on Russian works and artists with roots in Russia, marking the
centenary of the October Revolution in 1917. Colin Clarke unveils this year’s exciting
line-up at Kings Place

T
he inaugural London Piano Festival
(LPF) established its credentials
at Kings Place in autumn 2016,
generating enthusiasm and critical acclaim.
The festival returns this year, from 5 to 8
October, promising an even greater depth
and breadth of repertoire and a high calibre of
guest artists.
The theme this year, devised by LPF’s
artistic directors Charles Owen and Katya
Apekisheva, is Russia. Perfectly timed to
reflect the centenary of the October 1917
Revolution, the choice of territory for the
festival reflects not only Apekisheva’s roots,
but also that she and Owen share a teacher
in the Kiev-born, Moscow-trained Irina
Zaritskaya, who spent her final years before
her death in 2001 living and teaching
in London.
Repertoire highlights this year include
Rachmaninov’s second suite (performed by
Owen and Apekisheva); Weinberg’s second
sonata (Apekisheva); and Rachmaninov’s
Sonata No 1, played by Russian-born New
York resident Ilya Itin, winner of the 1996
Leeds International Piano Competition.
Apekisheva was a finalist in that very
competition, and she admires Itin for his
‘dignity, depth and beautiful tone’. The
Weinberg sonata is particularly significant
since, in spite of attempts to revive his
© SIM CANETTY-CLARKE

popularity (most notably perhaps, ENO’s

L PF artistic directors Katya Apekisheva and

Charles Owen

36 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017

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© ROBERT WORKMAN
 omposer Elena Langer is writing a new work inspired by
C  imon Callow adds some star power to Prokofiev’s Peter
Petrov-Vodkin’s RedMare
staging of his opera The Passenger in 2011),
his music still does not have the place in the
repertoire it deserves. Apekisheva was asked
to play the second sonata for the Brundibár
Arts Festival in Newcastle in January this year.
‘From the moment I started learning this piece
I realised what a powerful work it is,’ she says.
‘Weinberg deserves serious attention.’
Meanwhile, the Austrian-Russian pianist
Lisa Smirnova will play works by Scarlatti,
Mozart and Handel. Smirnova has been
likened to Glenn Gould by the press
(though my own first impressions brought
to mind Tatiana Nikolayeva). Smirnova,
like Apekisheva, studied with Anna
Pavlovna Kantor, an influential teacher at
the Gnessen School for Gifted Children in
Moscow. Smirnova is not very well-known
in the UK, though, and this fact was part of
the impetus to include her. She has recorded
the Handel Suites for ECM.
Premieres are important to the London
Piano Festival: a YouTube video shows
the stirring, exciting premiere of Nico
Muhly’s Fast Patterns last year (youtu.be/
aZng4NfXziY). The Russian-born British
composer Elena Langer, perhaps most famous
for her acclaimed opera Figaro Gets a Divorce
(a ‘must-see’, says Apekisheva), offers a new
piece. Apekisheva and Langer are long-
time friends and Apekisheva is unstinting
in her praise for Langer’s music: ‘She is an
extraordinary composer with a unique voice,
her music is so vibrant and varied.’
Although Langer’s original intention was
to base her new piece on 1917 paintings by
CM1017_036-037_F_Preview_London Piano Festival 0609KC DDP OK.indd 37
S
and the Wolf
Kandinsky (with images projected, on
stage), the recent Royal Academy exhibition
Revolution led Langer to a painting by
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, RedMare (from which
her new piece takes its title). We may still
get some Kandinsky projected as part of the
experience, or even a collage of Kandinsky,
Malevich and RedMare. Langer describes
the painting as ‘realistic and surreal at the
same time’, while the tension between the
horse moving forward and the person looking
backwards provides an impetus for the energy
of the piece: ‘It will be fast,’ Langer says,
‘short and virtuosic’. Her own musical voice
has become ever more approachable over her
composing life (‘I am writing A Tune a Day,’
she admits, with a smile).
Melvyn Tan was one of the stars of the
recent All About Piano! festival at the
French Institute in Kensington. He presents
another world premiere for the London
Piano Festival, Kevin Volans’ L’Africaine in
a programme entitled ‘Dances and Mirrors’,
including music by Ravel (Miroirs and
Valses nobles et sentimentales) and Weber
(Introduction to the Dance).
The festival sees the return of the popular
two-piano marathon, when a group of
pianists plays in different combinations over
a three-part evening. Adams’ Hallelujah
Junction will provide an intense starting
point; the high-jinks of Lutosławski’s
Paganini Variations should end the evening
on a high. It’s good to see London-born
Danny Driver participating, after his
successful St John’s recital.
FESTIVAL PREVIEW
Once more, there is an event for children.
Last year saw delightful Sunday concerts for
young people with the UK-based Japanese
pianist Noriko Ogawa; this year, Apekisheva,
Owen and Driver participate in Prokofiev’s
Peter and the Wolf and Poulenc’s Babar the
Elephant (with the sonorous acting luminary
Simon Callow as narrator).
‘Charles and I both feel it is essential to
bring music to children in a fun and accessible
way. And it’s so great to have Simon Callow
on board with us to narrate these exciting
stories,’ says Apekisheva.
Another popular strand that returns for
year two is the final jazz concert. Jazz legend
Julian Joseph’s turn last year set the bar high.
This year’s event features the highly talented
Jason Rebello, who cites Herbie Hancock and
McCoy Tyner as influences.
A classically-trained jazz pianist, Rebello
has made a name for himself in the pop world,
touring with the likes of Sting and rock
guitarist Jeff Beck. Apekisheva says: ‘Neither
Charles nor I are jazz experts but we both
love listening to it and want to include a jazz
concert in each festival. It was the fantastic
Julian Joseph who highly recommended
Jason Rebello to us. We have listened to
and explored Jason’s work and we’ve been
fascinated by his playing.’ CM
Visit www.londonpianofestival.com for this year’s
complete programme.
View the festival’s YouTube channel for a taster of
what to expect: youtu.be/O8UyidD7j34
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 37
19/09/2017 11:13:58
© BENJAMIN EALOVEGA

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Dream
job
As she approaches her fourth decade on the stage, Tasmin Little’s enthusiasm
for classical music remains boundless. She tells Amanda Holloway about her
new Szymanowski recording, her love for lesser-known repertoire – and why she
continues to challenge herself
A
n hour with Tasmin Little will
restore your faith in the future of
classical music. Her dedication
to composers, audiences and the violin is
undimmed after nearly 30 years on the concert
platform – and she still loves what she does.
Just back from adjudicating the ARD Music
Competition in Munich, having left her
Guadagnini untouched for three weeks, she
feels energised and full of new ideas.
Her long association with the violin
repertoire gives her performances a depth that
(and she would never say this herself) new
stars in the classical music firmament cannot
match. ‘I feel that right now is probably my
best time. I’ve got all this experience from
all these years of playing and the people I’ve
worked with, all these fantastic conductors,
have given me so much in terms of ideas and
insight into how they think.’
Little is known for championing music
that she thinks deserves to be heard, wherever
she finds it. It’s often by composers that
lurk on the fringes, straddling centuries or
musical categories – composers like Moeran,
Haydn Wood, Coleridge Taylor, Delius and
recently Szymanowski. ‘Even now I have a
big pile of music sitting on my music stand
At her best: Tasmin Little
CM1017_038-042_F_Cover Feature_Tasmin Little 1509KC DDP OK.indd 39
that I’m currently learning,’ she says, rushing
off to find the latest score. ‘Amy Beach,
Rawsthorne, Alwyn, Ethel Smyth – my
career has been marked by a desire to play
pieces that people haven’t bothered to play …
or just don’t know about.’
It’s a bit of a Szymanowski moment for
Little. She first came across his music when
she was about ten, on Radio 3. ‘It was his
I want to do things
that stretch me
Romance (Op 23), the most fantastic piece.
It’s a bit like a Polish Lark Ascending in places,
but with a lot more overt passion in the
middle! You have to float on top of a cushion
of sound.’ She has just released her second
Szymanowski recording for Chandos: his two
violin concertos paired with a little-known
concerto by his countryman Karłowicz. She
worked with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
and Edward Gardner, whose handling of
orchestral colour is thrilling. ‘What he can do
to balance an orchestra and to bring out just
one line somewhere that you’ve never heard
before – it’s breathtaking.’
The recording team at Chandos also
COVER STORY
contribute to the success of this recording,
which is best listened to in a quiet room
because of the extraordinary dynamic
extremes. ‘In the first concerto I am often
finely balanced on top of this panoply of
orchestral colour. This is music that has to be
overwhelming at some points; there can be a
huge rush of sound and passion to knock you
off your feet and then suddenly it disappears.
There I am, still hovering, right at the top of
the instrument, just hanging in there!’
‘The second concerto is particularly
virtuosic. You’ve got a huge showcase cadenza
in the middle of it: marvellously, awkwardly,
difficult but beautifully written by the violinist
it was intended for, Paul Kochański.’ Little fell
in love with it thanks to a recording by Wanda
Wilkomirska. ‘She really gives it some welly! I
love that strong passionate playing of hers, just
like I’ve always loved Ida Haendel’s playing.
I adore it when you get that very incisive
rhythmic playing from a strong woman.’
Little herself is capable of forthright,
powerful performances, but she’s also
remarkable for the delicacy and transparency
of her top notes. Vaughan Williams’s The
Lark Ascending has been her calling card,
on disc and in concert. Szymanowski revels
in these almost otherworldly, hovering high
notes, which must be fiendishly difficult to
produce. ‘You have to let your arm and wrist ►
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 39
19/09/2017 13:09:18
CM1017.indd 43 18/09/2017 15:18:57
 COVER STORY

undulate in a very natural way otherwise the

© BENJAMIN EALOVEGA
strings crossings, especially in Lark Ascending,
are going to sound very jerky. It’s got to be
seamless. When you are learning the violin
you are taught how to maximise your sound,
to use your muscles to draw the sound out of
the violin. This is almost the complete reverse
of that. I had to discover it for myself when I
played Delius, which needs a lot of fragility in
the sound.’
Her earlier recording of Szymanowski
instrumental music with Piers Lane included
his show-stopping Op 28. ‘He combines a
very smoky atmospheric ‘Notturno’ with a
demonic ‘Tarantella’. We’re doing it in our
Rhinegold LIVE recital, along with part of
Szymanowski’s Sonata, an early piece that has
the most beautiful slow movement and a rip-
roaring last movement. I hope it gives people a
taste of what these works are like.’

I’m like a magician

with a hat of tricks that
I pull out

Away from the concert hall, she’s visiting

Scotland as part of her RPS-award-winning
project ‘The Naked Violin’, which she started
in 2008 to demonstrate the huge range of
styles and expressions that a single, unadorned
violin can produce. In the past she has visited
schools, hospitals, community centres and
prisons. ‘I go to places where they don’t either
have a lot of music, or it’s a small venue with no
piano. I talk about the violin, the music, and
I tell people how I’m doing various technical
tricks … they really enjoy it. I’m like a magician
with a hat of tricks and I pull out whatever is
appropriate for the venue.’
She recalls being in a prison hospital in
Ireland, where she talked and played for 40
minutes with no reaction from the men in
the audience. ‘Finally I said “If you don’t ask
me something I’m going to be forced to play
some Bartók’, which was more of a joke to
myself. But I did play the slow movement of the
sonata, and when it ended, a guy raised his head
from his hands and said, “That was absolutely
beautiful”. You should never make assumptions
about what people are going to like.’ ►

Challenging herself: Tasmin Little

OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 41

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 COVER STORY


Speaking out for music: ‘Luckily I’m not a
© BENJAMIN EALOVEGA

lone voice’

Little puts a lot of herself into these solo

events, giving up her time in a way most
international soloists would hesitate to do. ‘It’s
part of my desire not to stay still. I want to do
things that stretch me, in terms of repertoire
and in terms of what I do and who I play for.
That’s why I still love my career, although it
makes for quite a lot of hard work at times.’
Travelling the world she can see that
audiences for classical music are growing,
particularly in Asia, where a number of great
performers are emerging. ‘In the UK we are
woefully inadequately supported, hence the fact
that in many international competitions you
will see very few, if any, British soloists. It is a
source of huge sadness to me, particularly since
I am only in this profession because I went to a
state primary school in London that allowed me
free music education and there was a full-time
violin teacher in the school at the time.’
She is doing her best to bang the drum
for music, making speeches in the House
of Commons and writing articles in
newspapers. ‘Luckily I’m not a lone voice.
Julian Lloyd-Webber, Nicky Benedetti,
they’re fantastic, but we never seem to get
through to the right people.’
Someone should lock culture secretary
Karen Bradley in a room with the irrepressible
Tasmin Little for just ten minutes. I guarantee
music would be back on the agenda. CM

Tasmin Little will appear at Rhinegold LIVE at Conway

Hall on 14 November. Reserve your free ticket at
bit.ly/2xCZm4H

Symanowski and Karlowicz Violin Concertos, Tasmin

Little, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner is
out on Chandos. www.chandos.net

42 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017

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 Rhinegold
live
RECITAL SPONSOR

Free rush hour concerts in the heart of London

© BENJAMIN EALOVEGA

Tasmin Little
Tuesday 14 November 2017 | 7pm recital
Conway Hall, London
Tasmin Little has firmly established herself as one of today’s leading international violinists. Joined at this recital
by pianist Piers Lane, the pair will present a programme linked to their forthcoming disc of Violin Concertos by
Szymanowski and Karlowicz on Chandos Records, for which Tasmin is an exclusive recording artist.
This concert is followed by an informal Q&A which will be conducted by Katy Wright, deputy editor of Classical
Music magazine.

RESERVE YOUR FREE TICKETS AT RHINEGOLDLIVE.CO.UK

RGLIVE_1117_FP
CM1017.indd 30 ad.indd 1 13/09/2017
18/09/2017 17:12:47
15:18:54
 SHOSTAKOVICH 12
Thursday 12/10/17, 7.30pm
Conductor Thomas Søndergård
Piano Igor Levitt

Part of Russia 17
russia17.wales

VERDI & RESPIGHI

Friday 10/11/17, 7.30pm
Conductor Xian Zhang
Mezzo Chiara Taigi

ELGAR &
RACHMANINOV
Thursday 7/12/17, 7.30pm
Conductor Tadaaki Otaka
St David Hall, Cardiff Cello Stephen Isserlis

0800 052 1812 bbc.co.uk/now

@bbcnow @bbcnowcymraeg

London Bach Society’s

27th Bachfest
Bach and Luther: Masters & Servants
14 October – 10 November 2017
featuring

Nigel Short & Tenebrae

Elizabeth Kenny
Steinitz Bach Players/Jane Gordon
6th Bach Singers Prize
18-30 Bach Club
St John’s Smith Square
Gresham Centre, Wax Chandlers Hall
St Bartholomew-the-Great, Temple Church

Full Programme, Singers’ Prize Entry Details/Forms & Booking

www.bachlive.co.uk or email lbs@lonbachsoc.demon.co.uk

CM1017.indd 44 18/09/2017 15:18:59

 BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS GUEST EDITOR ALAN DAVEY

MUSIC IN THE AIR

© GUY LEVY/BBC

Younger audiences
are prepared to put in
the time for something
that’s worthwhile
Alan Davey

This month’s guest editor of Classical Music is Alan Davey, controller of

BBC Radio 3, who looks at the importance of a public service network that has
classical music and culture at its core, with programming that sets out, in the best
BBC traditions, to inform, educate and entertain ►
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 45

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 BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS GUEST EDITOR ALAN DAVEY
© GUY LEVY/BBC
Opening minds: Ten Pieces has reached more than four million schoolchildren
© BBC
BBC NOW: The home orchestras and choirs record many hours of music specially for the network
R
ecent issues of this magazine have
dwelt on the future of classical music
in various guises – whether of the
recording industry or of musicians’ ability to
make a living while following their musical
calling. Of course they are all related.
On Radio 3 we recently had John Adams
– a contemporary composer whose work
certainly attracts audiences – saying that he
was concerned about the future of classical
music, citing the poor state of music education
and the conservative taste of audiences. He
implied that ours is an industry that fuels the
conservatism that, to an extent, is leading
to creative stasis and the ultimate death of
classical music as a living, vibrant art form.
I’m an optimist. Yes, things are changing;
yes, old business models and ways of doing
46 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
CM1017_045-049_F_Guest Editor Alan Davey 1809KC DDP OK.indd 46
things will be challenged and forced to change
further. However, with vigilance and courage
from people prepared and able to take a risk,
classical music (as well as other art music) can
continue to hold a sway over the imagination
of those who respond to its possibilities. After
all, classical music represents the opposite of a
globalised, homogenised cultural production.
Though access for all is an important factor
that the arts industry must continue to strive
towards, it’s telling that music education and
facilities thrive in privately funded schools.
Such institutions know what a knowledge of
music can do for young people: learning music
and playing instruments at school is a gift that
will last a lifetime, no matter what young
people go on to do.
These days, many young people are
finding their own way to music, but are still
capable of expressing and absorbing rhythmic
and musical complexity even with no formal
training. As we’ve shown through the BBC
Proms this year, with an audience more
than half of whom are under 54, we can sell
6,000 tickets for complex and not necessarily
populist works, with programming that
includes challenging symphonic music such
as Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler as the
main piece. And we can attract an audience
of more than 400 mostly under-30s for some
cutting-edge contemporary music in Tate
Tanks. Clearly, we patronise our audience
at our peril. As other pioneers have shown
(Gabriel Prokofiev with his Nonclassical club
nights and record label for instance), highly
complex new classical music can attract an
audience in more informal venues, with new
approaches to presentation. For all the talk
of technology shortening young peoples’
attention spans we can see time and again
that younger audiences are prepared to put in
the time for something that’s worthwhile –
whether it be Max Richter’s Sleep or podcasts
with lengthy narratives that sustain over a
long period.
And as the BBC has shown through its Ten
Pieces initiative – reaching over four million
schoolchildren – if you can get young people
to engage with classical music and you don’t
try to dumb it down, they will listen and
respond to it. I will never forget a Ten Pieces
concert by the BBC Concert Orchestra in
a school in South London where the focus
was Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending.
What stood out was the skill of the orchestra
leader who played the solo part with incredible
beauty, introducing the children to the
sound of the violin; then there was Roderick
Williams, singing so brilliantly without
amplification. You could see minds being
opened to the expressive possibilities of music.
For me that’s one of the roles of a modern
public service broadcaster of classical music
– you shouldn’t assume knowledge from any
audience, but you can assume, from a millennial
audience in particular, an innate openness to
music, a curiosity for the unfamiliar, a desire
not to be short changed by the inauthentic,
and a possibility of seriousness that means that
classical music is near the top of the list of things
an audience could be curious about.
B
BC Radio 3 is a culture channel
– 80% pure classical music, with
‘contemporary classical’, and
contemporary music that defies description.
19/09/2017 15:10:45

We also feature world/roots and jazz as well as
drama, culture and ideas. We are also part of
a family that includes the Proms and the BBC
orchestras and choirs. The Proms provides a
focus on live music daily throughout its eight-
week summer season; the BBC orchestras
and choirs provide many hours of specially
recorded music for the network, as well as
being a key part of the classical music ecology
of the country. As a set of resources for classical
music, that is quite a collection.
One of the things we have been trying to
do recently is making sure all the parts work
together, so that themes explored on Radio
3 feed into and out of themes in the Proms.
We also ensure that all of the BBC orchestras
and choirs concentrate on different aspects of
these themes, while devising programmes that
together make an interesting whole. If you
caught any of our resident ensembles at the
Proms this year, you will be aware of the BBC
orchestras and choirs’ distinct and different
qualities and the exceptionally high standards
they display. Another example of joined up
thematic thinking is the way the Ten Pieces
initiative has fed through the orchestras and
choirs, the Proms and Radio 3.
Using all of these resources for the greater
CM1017_045-049_F_Guest Editor Alan Davey 1809KC DDP OK.indd 47
BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS GUEST EDITOR ALAN DAVEY
good of classical music is what being a modern  ew talent: BBC Young Musician winner
N
Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Below: BBC Singers
public service broadcaster should be about.
We are funded by a licence fee and, through
that source of income, we should ensure that
we help to fulfil the mission of the BBC – in
the words of its founding father Lord Reith,
to ‘inform, educate and entertain’. And as Sir
Henry Wood ordained, we must democratise
the message of great music. It is important
that we reflect our musical cultural across the
length and breadth of the country, allowing
the best concerts to be heard in the best
sound-quality we can manage. After all, Radio
3 listeners fill the equivalent of more than 250
concert halls a week.
Given all the resources we have, we should
also be thinking of how we use the licence
fee as venture capital to ensure that the music
our audiences love has a future. So we help to
find new talent – through initiatives such as
BBC Introducing, the BBC Young Musician
of the Year, and our annual intake of Radio
3 New Generation Artists, the new crop of
whom we have just announced. Every year,
we invite on to the scheme seven or eight
promising young artists or small ensembles
who are at the early stages of their careers
© BBC
and give them opportunities: recording and ►
© JOHN WOOD/BBC
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 47
19/09/2017 12:13:10
 BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS GUEST EDITOR ALAN DAVEY

learning to use the studio; playing with the

© BBC

BBC orchestras and choirs, performing with

each other. The NGA artist receive two years
of support in which to grow. Benjamin Appl,
Igor Levit, Katherine Rudge and Fatma Said
are examples of current and past member of
the scheme who are enjoying considerable
success in their careers. When they’ve left us
they may take up contracts with big labels or
get new opportunities – and I hope they’ll
always remember Radio 3 fondly. Meanwhile,
our listeners will have heard the tremendous
potential of young talent as it blossoms.
As well as new talent, it’s also important
we support new music. Our Proms ‘Inspire’
composers scheme gives young composers
a chance to get their work heard. We also
Composer of the Week presenter Donald Macleod commission more than 30 pieces of new
music a year, as well as participating in
the Resonance scheme funded by PRS for
Music, make sure new works are heard
© FM PHOTOGRAPHY

again. Our programming includes shows

such as Hear and Now, where the newest
works are broadcast; but we are increasingly
introducing new works throughout the
schedule. An example of this was when we
embedded young composer Matthew Kaner
in the network, asking him to produce a
new work a week for ten weeks, which he
introduced on Breakfast on Monday, and
which we played every day that week. Our
‘New Year New Music’ season tries to take
that further, introducing out listeners to
new classical music across the schedule for a
week in the New Year. Our BBC orchestras
and choirs can take risks in introducing new
works to audiences in the concert hall.

A
Making a name: Former New Generation Artist Fatma Said
s I write this, the Proms are finishing
and we are about to celebrate the
Pioneer: Nonclassical’s Gabriel Prokofiev
career of Sir Simon Rattle as he arrives
in London. It’s all go at Radio 3, as ever, and
no rest for the expert staff who are passionate
to bring the best music to the widest possible
audience. We are not elitist, but offer good
music, available to anyone, anytime.
That’s the role of a radio station in the 21st
century: to curate great music for a wide range
of audiences, to collaborate, commission and
explore new things. We have to ensure that
we offer something of great authenticity in
its interest that is the best it can be – never
to short change or patronise the existing and
future audience.
© ALICIA CLARKE

There are intelligent and curious people

we can attract to classical music if we all work
together, and I am proud of Radio 3’s role in
this modern broadcasting age. CM
48 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017

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A DAY IN THE LIFE OF RADIO 3
© BBC
Sunday service: Tom Service makes music approachable in The Listening Service
Radio 3 aims to attract the ‘classical
curious’ and take them on a journey,
giving anyone who stumbles across us
an appetite to seek more, as well as
appealing to people who know a great
deal about classical music and allowing
them to explore deeper. We do this via
traditional broadcasting and online.
We know young people are
increasingly getting their music from
streaming services rather than linear
radio, so we also have to demonstrate
to them the power of curation, showing
them how what we can present is
unique, innovative, interesting and
worth discovering. Our strategy for
bringing good music to people is set out
in the new autumn schedule that we
announced recently.
To describe a typical day: in the
mornings, people are busy and moving
around – so we play shorter (not
necessarily very short, though) carefully
curated and presented by people who
are trusted guides such as Petroc
Trelawny, Clemency Burton-Hill, Suzy
Klein and Rob Cowan.
We then have an in-depth hour of
Composer of the Week, looking at a
composer and his works with Donald
Macleod, followed by an hour’s concert
of chamber music – a live recording
from these isles or beyond. Then we
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BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS GUEST EDITOR ALAN DAVEY
have our Afternoon Concert – which we
have just extended by half an hour, to
allow us to play longer complete works,
usually specially recorded by the BBC
orchestras and choirs or orchestras
from abroad.
On Wednesdays, we have the
contemplation of Choral Evensong
followed by a focus on New Generation
Artists. Then we have our drivetime
show, In Tune, which features live
music in the studio, presented by
Sean Rafferty and up to now by Suzy
Klein (watch this space for Suzy’s
replacement), a daily marvel with some
exhilarating informal performances
that are simply special. For the last half
hour of In Tune, we are introducing,
from this month, an innovation:
We will broadcast half an hour of
carefully chosen music without any
presentation, which will be available
for a 30-day download separately, and
which we hope will appeal to younger
audiences who are used to mixtapes
and carrying music in their pocket.
Then our live or ‘recorded live’ concert
– one every evening featuring not just
the BBC orchestras and choirs but all
major UK orchestras and sometimes
ensembles from abroad.
We then go into our late zone
at 10pm, a zone of discovery and
exploration. This starts with a
discussion of ideas on Free Thinking,
or our documentary music programme
Music Matters, a 15-minute Essay, the
latest jazz in Jazz Now on Mondays,
world music in World on Three on
Fridays, and the hard to describe
experimental music of Late Junction
from Tuesdays to Thursdays.
Listen live and you will come across
experimental and innovative sounds at
that time, so prepare to be stimulated
and intrigued.
At half past midnight is our best-kept
secret: Through the Night offers six
hours of lightly presented full works in
unique recordings from orchestras and
radio stations all around Europe and
America, via the European Broadcasting
Union, a programme taken by many
European countries. If you are not an
insomniac, you can download it and you
will have six hours of great music to see
you through your day.
That’s our normal sort of day,
enhanced by Record Review on
Saturdays, Opera on Three on Saturdays
as well as Thursday afternoons, Early
Music programmes, a new programme,
Choir and Organ, on Sundays, and Tom
Service with The Listening Service
also on Sundays – a programme
that explains musical concepts in an
approachable way that draws on wide
musical examples.
So we have a journey in the day to
give our listeners plenty of choice and
allow different points for entry.
Because we are a cultural network we
can create events on the radio that might
pique the interest of listeners in new and
unexpected ways. Hence our upcoming
residency at the Wellcome Foundation
looking at music and memory.
Then we have our Bach Walk –
recreating the young Johann Sebastian
Bach’s walk from Arnstadt to Lübeck to
hear famed organist Buxtehude. Events
like these attract interest, and will draw
in listeners with an open and curious
mind who may not know what we do.
You can read more about these
highways and byways of our
programming on Radio 3 in the pages
that follow.
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 49
19/09/2017 12:14:01
 Birmingham International Piano Festival
27 Oct – 4 Nov 2017
We are thrilled to present the 2017 Birmingham International Piano Festival – where we bring some of the world’s finest pianists
and keyboard players to Birmingham. Performances will take place in the University of Birmingham’s world class concert halls in
the Bramall Music Building and The Barber Institute of Fine Arts between Friday 27 October and Saturday 4 November 2017.

27 October 1.10pm Kenneth Hamilton piano

27 October 7.30pm Syd Lawrence Orchestra
with Steven Devine
28 October 7.30pm European Union Chamber Orchestra harpsichord

1 November 7.30pm Benjamin Grosvenor piano

3 November 1.10pm Ksenija Sidorova accordion
4 November 2pm Songs About Us family concert

Admission: Free - £22. See website for details.

Tickets + Info birminghampianofestival.com

CM1017.indd 50 18/09/2017 15:19:01

 BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS MAKING THE MOST OF RADIO 3

Pick and mix

Edward Blakeman, head of music at Radio 3, provides some useful tips on how to
make the most of his channel’s 24-hour broadcasting, in real-time and at any time

O
nce upon a time there was radio.
It came in a big, heavy box.
You plugged it into the mains
electricity and gathered around it to listen
with family and friends.
Fast forward to today and radio has evolved
out of all recognition. It has slimmed down
and embraced new technology, so that we can
easily carry it around and even download
programmes on to phones, tablets and
computers. Radio – that most personal
medium speaking to us most directly – can
now accompany us whenever and wherever
we want.
At Radio 3 we know that many people
listen in real-time, as the programmes are
being broadcast, and we want to encourage
more people to listen in their own time as
well: anytime. Every programme is available
for listening online, or downloading, for 30
days after broadcast at bbc.co.uk/radio3.
In the bustle of daily life it’s all too easy to
miss programmes. Real-time and any-time
Radio 3 is the answer. It’s an invitation to
catch some things as they happen and catch
up with others later – to design your own
schedule and listen to exactly what you
want, when you want. Each of us has our
own favourite programmes, but here are
some particular highlights to listen out for
this autumn.
Unless you rarely sleep you may not hear
much of Through the Night as it’s being ►

Edward Blakeman: Radio is the medium that speaks to us most directly Tuning in: Radio 3 is available whenever and wherever
© BBC CHRIS CHRISTODOULOU

© AMMAK

OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 51

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 BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS MAKING THE MOST OF RADIO 3
broadcast. It is Radio 3’s hidden jewel.
Each night of the week between the hours
of 12.30am and 6.30am (1am and 7am on
Sundays) we offer six hours of specially
recorded orchestral, choral, chamber and
instrumental music from radio stations
across the European Broadcasting Union
and from Radio 3’s own archive: rich
pickings of classical music and definitely
worth exploring. It’s a prime contender for
anytime listening.
So too is Composer of the Week. This
is a real lean-in programme for reflective
listening: an in-depth look at a composer’s
life and works. From the beginning of
October it will be broadcast just once each
weekday, at noon. If you can’t hear it then,
you can of course choose a more convenient
time. It will be specially highlighted on the
Radio 3 online homepage, so accessing each
week’s programmes couldn’t be easier.
Audio guides
Some of Radio 3’s most familiar voices tell us how they tune into their
favourite programmes
© ADRIAN WEINBRECHT/BBC
52 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
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The music never stops
and it’s all available
anytime
Choir and Organ is a new programme for
this autumn and we are making the online
aspect a really vital part of it. It is broadcast
each Sunday afternoon at 4pm and if you
go online afterwards you will find not only
the programme but also a range of extra
resources to listen to or download, expanding
and complementing your appreciation of
choral and organ music. Choir and Organ
will also be highlighted on Radio 3’s online
homepage; do look out for it.
Then there is In Tune. From the
beginning of October, Radio 3’s flagship
afternoon drive-time programme will
move into a slightly later slot, from
5pm to 7.30pm. The last half hour each
weekday will be a brand-new feature: the
In Tune Mixtape. This is a continuous,
unpresented sequence of music. It aims to
surprise and delight listeners by juxtaposing
all sorts of works. Take a break in real-
time as an engaging start to the rest of the
evening on Radio 3, or listen anytime at
your leisure. Each mixtape will be available
on the BBC Music App as well as on the
Radio 3 website.
There’s also the new-look Essential
Classics and Sunday Morning programmes,
and a new weekly slot on Wednesday
afternoons for Radio 3’s New Generation
Artists. The music never stops and it’s all
available anytime. It’s your Radio 3 – just
how and when you want it. Enjoy!
SOMETHING FOR THE
WEEKEND, SIR?
Rob Cowan
Casting my mind back to the mid-1960s
when I cut my critical milk teeth with help
from the great record reviewers of the day
(William Mann, Deryck Cooke, Edward
Greenfield and Robert Layton and the like),
weekends and Radio 3 (previously ‘the Third
Programme’) always had my pulse racing,
even when I had no funds to act on mouth-
watering recommendations. Now with a
veritable plethora of new releases jostling for
attention and online facilities available to
sample them, Andrew McGregor’s weekly
Record Review has me glued to my computer.
And there’s ‘Building a Library’ where experts
are allocated individual works and recordings
thereof, their task to sort the ‘silver’ wheat
from the chaff, which they do with sovereign
skill. Jazz is another Saturday highlight, with
Alyn Shipton’s Jazz Record Requests and –
for some late-night musical gold – Geoffrey
Smith’s Jazz always worth a listen.
18/09/2017 17:31:41
 © ADRIAN WEINBRECHT/BBC
Sundays are hardly less memorable,
especially Sunday Morning and the
exploratory Listening Service – truly a source
of knowledge, learning and thinking ‘on the
slant’ (as Emily Dickinson might say), having
you listen afresh, going back to what you
thought you knew as if you’d never heard
it before.
PERMISSION TO SLOW DOWN
Sarah Walker
If people ever ask me how to gain a good
introduction to classical music, I always
recommend tuning into Radio 3 at random.
Simply switch on at any old time of day,
and see what comes up: sooner or later, your
attention will be arrested and you’ll discover
something you really like. Radio 3 broadcasts
such a huge variety of music that you will
quickly start to build up a familiarity with the
repertoire. I enjoy listening this way myself
– tuning in without looking at the clock, so
I’ve no idea what to expect – but there are
certain times of day when I will tune in more
purposefully. My career as a presenter for
Radio 3 began in contemporary music, with
an eclectic show we called Midnight Oil. I still
enjoy interesting juxtapositions and hearing
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BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS MAKING THE MOST OF RADIO 3
© JUDE EDGINTON/BBC
things I’ve never heard before, so I like to catch
Late Junction and Hear and Now.
Afternoons on Radio 3 have a very special
peacefulness which I also enjoy. If I took
the afternoon off to listen to my own music
collection, I think I’d feel a bit guilty, but radio
is a different beast. Knowing that someone
has put together a selection of recordings
(and that someone is sitting there presenting
it) somehow gives me permission to slow
down – to just lie around listening instead of
buzzing around trying to be productive. My
concentration waxes and wanes, but part of
the fun is missing the introduction to a huge
symphony then trying to identify it for the
next half hour.
AFTERNOONS AT HOME
Petroc Trelawny
Presenting Breakfast each weekday morning
on Radio 3 means that my time for ‘proper’
listening is often in the afternoon. And
what riches are on offer. Chamber music
has always been at the core of what we do,
and our daily lunchtime concert offers a
perfect showcase for emerging musicians,
our New Generation Artists and established
names and ensembles. There is something
thrillingly exciting about the moment we go
live to Wigmore Hall each Monday; that’s
something no streaming service will ever be
able to replicate.
The rest of the week offers the perfect
opportunity to reflect on arts around the
country – series from great musical cities
including Manchester, Sheffield and Belfast,
and Radio 3 residences at rural festivals from
west Wales to Lincolnshire to Fife.
And then there are the daily afternoon
concerts; sometimes series from great
European or American ensembles, but often
our own brilliant BBC performing groups.
It’s great to catch up with concerts from
their international tours, when they are fine
ambassadors for both the BBC and the UK,
and it’s always interesting to hear them at work
in their creative hubs, their studios in London,
Cardiff, Glasgow and Salford. Hearing
an orchestra champion unjustly neglected
repertoire, or work on a masterpiece with a
young conductor is equally as important as
the big, starry galas we hear at night. Our
afternoon output is clear proof of Radio 3’s
role as a national cultural patron. It’s also
brilliant radio, best heard lying back on the
sofa with a cup of tea. CM
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 53
18/09/2017 17:32:24
 BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS BACH WALK

Winter odyssey
In 1705, the 20-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach walked across northern Germany
to meet his musical idol Dieterich Buxtehude. Author Horatio Clare retraces the
composer’s footsteps for a special series of Slow Radio broadcasts during this year’s
Radio 3 Bach Christmas season

54 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017

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F
or a composer of such colossal stature,
we know surprisingly little about Bach’s
private life. Accounts of his early years
are particularly sketchy, but one story that
has filtered down provides some sense of the
young man’s strong personality: in 1705-06 he
walked from Arnstadt to Lübeck – a distance
of more than 240 miles – to hear the playing of
Buxtehude. ‘At that stage in his life [he] must
have regarded his expedition as an adventure,’
says Horatio Clare, ‘following his own star
across a swathe of northern Germany, over
farmland, through mountains and forests,
over the Elbe and all the way to Lübeck’.
This November, Clare and his BBC
producer Lindsay Kemp will follow in Bach’s
footsteps to record five programmes for Radio
3’s ongoing Slow Radio initiative – broadcasts
that allow listeners to take time out from
today’s frenetic world. The idea of the Bach
Walk itself follows the success of Clare’s
four-hour Sound Walk along the English-
Welsh border to Hay-on-Wye in May 2017.
Photos from that project show Clare as a lone
figure in the landscape, a Romantic image
It’s a great way of chasing ghosts and trying to
find where they’ve been
perhaps inspired by Casper David Friedrich’s
Wanderer, but the reality is somewhat
different: ‘The sound engineer walks along
behind me with two microphones that
point left and right, plus a third microphone
directed at my feet. I’m only hearing natural
sound, but the two of us together create a
composite sound-picture of our environment.
They’ll be joined by Kemp to make a trio of
travellers for the Bach Walk.
Each of the five programmes will focus
on a different section of Bach’s epic journey,
combining environmental sounds, Clare’s
musings and music chosen by the producer.
‘Given that Bach did the walk at the age of
20 before he had written most of the pieces
we know, it will be impossible to choose
music that’s historically accurate,’ says Kemp.
Instead, his choices will be ‘inspired by the
sounds that we encounter’.
Bach’s exact route is also unknown, so the
team will be navigating by intuition as much
 anderer fantasy: Horatio Clare on his
W 9 November 2017.
Sound Walk to Hay-on-Wye
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BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS BACH WALK
as by maps or GPS. ‘It’s tremendous fun to
reconstruct Bach’s journey, taking into account
the weather conditions he would have faced, the
geography of the countryside and the location
of the towns,’ says Clare. ‘If Bach was travelling
in the winter he’d have gone in as straight a line
as possible, staying in inns along the way. Most
villages are laid out a day’s walk apart – that’s
how the landscape was shaped by our ancestors.
Overall, it’s a great way of chasing ghosts and
trying to find where they’ve been!’
Inspiration for Clare’s spoken narrative
comes from what he describes as ‘the better
biographies of Bach’, all recommended to him
by Kemp: John Eliot Gardiner’s Music in the
Castle of Heaven, Christoph Wolff’s Johann
Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician,
Malcolm Boyd’s J S Bach and Peter Williams’
Bach: A Musical Biography. According to
Kemp, these are books ‘that go beyond what
we know and speculate on matters behind the
mere facts of Bach’s life’.
Clare’s interest in the project has a strong
personal angle too: ‘At university I hit what
would later be wrongly diagnosed as bipolar
depression. My father gave me a recording of
Bach’s cello suites, which got me through my
Shakespeare paper. It’s sublime art, isn’t it?
Both Bach and Shakespeare make a mortal
advance for sensibility and humanity, and
will presumably last as long as we do.’ Claire
is particularly attracted by the fact that Bach
undertook his journey at such a young age: ‘He
didn’t really tell anyone, he just set off. It really
was the first thing he’d set up for himself.’
The five Bach Walk programmes will be
broadcast in late December and promise a
gentle feast for the ears and mind. ‘The result,
I’m sure, will be unique,’ says Kemp. ‘It’s a
chance to ponder at a slow pace in the middle
of Germany – as well as being a great radio
programme, of course!’ CM
Owen Mortimer
Horatio Clare is an author and former producer
of BBC Radio 3’s Night Waves and The Verb. His
latest book Icebreaker: A Journey to the Far North
will be published by Penguin Books on
www.horatioclare.co.uk
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 55
19/09/2017 13:19:40
 ALBAN NOTES ONLY
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Malcolm G Bury, a St Alban ex-chorister himself, examines the unique
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Illustrated throughout with colour and black and white photographs.
Includes personal recollections from the author, choristers, masters and more.

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CM1017.indd FP.indd 1 12/04/2016
18/09/2017 11:44
15:19:03
 BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS NEW GENERATION ARTISTS

WHEN
OPPORTUNITY
KNOCKS
How does a BBC New Generation Artist stand out from the crowd among a plethora
of hopeful young musicians entering a competitive profession? Emma Bloxham, lead
producer of the NGA Scheme, explains how the best talent is brought to the fore in a
challenging but supportive initiative

F
ounded in 1999 to nurture and
promote some of the best young musical
talents in the world at the start of their
international careers, the New Generation
Artists scheme has gone from strength to
strength and now numbers well over 100
musicians in its distinguished list of alumni.
From pianists to string quartets, via
just about everything else, the list of
musicians the scheme has supported over
almost 20 years reads like a who’s who of
classical music: trumpeter Alison Balsom,
harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, viola player
Lawrence Power, the Belcea, Jerusalem,
Ebene and Pavel Haas quartets, pianists
Paul Lewis, Igor Levit, Pavel Kolesnikov and
Beatrice Rana, mezzo Alice Coote, sopranos
Ailish Tynan and Ruby Hughes. Add to  eeting of musical minds: NGAs Benjamin Appl and Pavel Kolesnikov at the
M
Edinburgh International Festival this summer
those the jazz musicians who’ve graced
the NGA studio – jazz trumpeter Laura
Jurd leaves us at the end of this year with a they’re in a position not only to meet the NGA scheme is one of the things we’re most
Mercury-nominated album to her name – significant demands of the scheme, but also to proud of.
and it’s easy to see why membership of the benefit from our help and support. It was in the NGA recording studio that
scheme is considered by many to be one of You need a lot of music under your fingers violinist Alina Ibragimova and pianist Cédric
the best opportunities out there. to get the most out of being an NGA; we Tiberghien first met; more recently baritone
How do we select our NGAs? My colleague don’t allow any of our artists to repeat pieces Benjamin Appl and Pavel Kolesnikov hit it
Peter Thresh and I are always on the lookout whilst they are with us. So, we’re looking for off to such a degree that they performed at the
for potential artists, and every January we musicians with open minds, a willingness Edinburgh International Festival together this
invite agents and promoters worldwide to to explore new repertoire – and hopefully summer; and I was thrilled when a brand new
nominate up to two musicians they feel are to collaborate too! The list of great musical disc of trios by Dvořák and Brahms landed
at that particular point in their careers when meetings-of-minds that have occurred on the on my desk a couple of weeks ago, performed ►
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 57

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 BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS NEW GENERATION ARTISTS

team of producers and studio managers on

 GAs Zhang Zuo (piano), Esther Yoo (violin) and Narek Hakhnazaryan (cello) have merged to
N during the Proms, or to be able to invite them
form the Z.E.N. Trio
by the Z.E.N. Trio – former NGAs Zhang
Zuo (piano), Esther Yoo (violin) and Narek
Hakhnazaryan (cello). You’ll be hearing more
of them, I’m sure.
Membership of the scheme is for a period of
just over two years and, for the right musician,
offers a fantastic set of opportunities. It’s fair
to say that no two people have exactly the
same experience on the scheme – we’re in
the fortunate position of being able to tailor
things to suit the individual – but there are
certain things that we offer everybody: the
chance to come into our studios at Maida
Vale at least twice a year to work with our
recordings for Radio 3 (which as well as
providing a wealth of fantastic material for
broadcast is also the first time many of these
young musicians get to experience working
in a studio environment), a concert in our
prestigious Monday lunchtime series from
Wigmore Hall, concerto dates with the
BBC orchestras, appearances at some of the
UK’s most important venues and festivals
(including the BBC Proms), and, if you’re
lucky, a brand new work written specially
for you.
It’s by no means all over after two years – in
fact, we like to think of a musician’s time on
the NGA scheme as just the beginning of their
relationship with Radio 3. We follow their
progress with a healthy degree of proprietorial
interest, and we’re always delighted to bump
into them backstage at the Royal Albert Hall
back to give a Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert,
say. I find myself picking their brains on a
very regular basis about all sorts of things,
but equally I – and the rest of the team – are
always here to answer questions, catch up
over coffee, or put them in touch with other
musicians. We’re a family that continues to
grow, and I for one can’t wait to welcome our
new members.

MEET THE ARTISTS

This year’s selection of BBC Generation Artists share their hopes and
aspirations with Classical Music readers

MARIAM BATSASHVILI
© ATTILA KLEB

BBC is going to broadcast many of my live

Piano
The BBC NGA scheme has given a lot
of support and encouragement to young
musicians who are willing to reach larger
listeners, so the fact that I have been chosen is
something I am really happy about.
My childhood dream was to become a
pianist: I started playing piano at the age of
four. Over the past six years I have developed
my personal goals as a musician: I always
try to reach the listener’s soul and awaken
thoughts and feelings in them through
 ariam Batsashvili: ‘The audience has an
M my playing. For me, the audience has an
important role in any music-making’ important role in any music-making. The
58 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
performances, and that means that I will be
able to reach a much larger number of people
than would be possible in a concert hall.
I’ll also be recording for the radio, which
has some challenges for me. I have played in
full concert halls for more than 2,000 people
without a proplem, but when you’re in a
studio with a red sign that reads ‘ON AIR’…
that makes me little nervous! Even without
the sign, knowing I am playing live and that
my performance can be accessed again and
again in the future is something that I’m
hoping I will be able to get used to over the
next couple of years.

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 © MARCO BORGGREVE
© SEBASTIAN HECK
T hibaut Garcia: ‘The BBC is a big platform
and this is a great place for classical music’
THIBAUT GARCIA
Guitarist
My friend the guitarist Sean Shibe was
a BBC New Generation Artist between
2012 and 2014. He told me it was a
wonderful programme and that I should
consider being part of it.
One of the reasons I applied was the
exposure offered by the scheme. The BBC
is a big platform, and the UK is a great
place for classical music – especially
for the guitar. Whenever I think about
the classical music in Britain, I always
think of Julian Bream. It’s also a country
where contemporary music is taken
seriously.
I’m really thrilled to be part of the
BBC’s New Generation scheme, and
can’t wait to show everyone my vision of
music. I think it will help my career a lot,
not least because I will have opportunities
to play with other musicians: I will
record with the mezzo-soprano Kathryn
Rudge in November; I also hope to
record with Quatour Arod, who are
close friends as well as being fellow
NGAs his year; and there will be a solo
project too.
I think being a New Generation Artist
will increase my audience. I’ve only played
once in the UK – in London – and I
want to keep playing here even after the
scheme, so it’s great for me to reach new
listeners in this country. I was recently
speaking to a violist and cellist studying at
the Royal College, and when I told them
I was on this programme, they said, ‘Oh
yes, of course we know!’ In Britain, it’s a
big thing, and everyone seems to know
about it!
CM1017_057-060_F_Guest Editor New Generation Artists 1509KC DDP OK.indd 59
BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS NEW GENERATION ARTISTS
© CLAUDIA SCHEER VAN ERP
 imon Höfele: ‘It will give me the chance to
S  atriona Morison: ‘Meeting new colleagues will
push my limits a bit more’
SIMON HÖFELE
Trumpet
There are so many great musicians, so in a
competitive business, the chance to be one
of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists
will definitely help to get broadcast and as
a result, recognised. The BBC has so many
different experiences which help develop
your career as well as your own personal
qualities as a musician. I’ll get to play at
great classical music festivals, with the BBC
orchestras, and the opportunity to make
recordings and interviews (especially in
English) will give me the chance to push
my limits a bit more and to explore all that
music has to offer.
I really don’t know why I was selected
to be an NGA, but I guess – or at least
I hope – it’s because the BBC’s panel
liked my recordings. One of the main
things I’m looking forward to is all the
live concert debuts that are coming up
next season. For example with the RSB
Berlin in the Berlin Philharmonie and the
BBCSSO, both under Matthias Pintscher.
I’ll also be working with the SWR
Sinfonieorchester, Konzerthaus Orchester
Berlin, Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg and
Sinfonieorchester Aachen.
I hope the next couple of years will be a
journey of discovery and of finding myself:
I’m open to everything.
CATRIONA MORISON
Soprano
My invitation to become a New Generation
Artist came through exposure during
Cardiff Singer of the World 2017, which
I applied for as a way to start exploring
opportunities of singing in the UK again.
C
also let me discover new areas of expression’
(I had moved to Germany soon after I
graduated to start my career there.)
As I am still based in Germany, I’m
particularly looking forward to having
regular opportunities to work on home
soil via the NGA scheme. From a career
point of view, the possibilities already
arising through the scheme will provide me
with exciting and inspiring music-making
opportunities. Meeting and working
with new colleagues will also let me explore
and discover new areas of expression
and teamwork.
Some of the challenges in a singing career
aren’t always related to music. I think
balancing my time between the UK and
Germany and all the travelling required is
something I’ll have to adjust to.  
My first New Generation Artist project
will be in the recording studio working with
Malcolm Martineau, which I am hugely
looking forward to. I’m excited to have
the opportunity of regular studio work,
which will allow me to explore and expand
my repertoire.
MISHA MULLOV-ABBADO
Double Bass
I can only assume that my selection as
an NGA has been due to my reasonable
success as a bandleader as that is probably
what I’m most known for. I don’t consider
myself to be a world-class double-bass
player, however I think the way I have
brought together my different skills as
a performer, composer, improviser and
leader is what has got me this far.
The scheme is already it is encouraging
me to think more about what sort of music
I want to be making and which musicians I ►
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 59
18/09/2017 15:13:34
 BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS NEW GENERATION ARTISTS
© TOMASZEK
© VERENA CHEN
 ischa Mullov-Abbado: ‘It will be good
M  uatuor Arod (with Samy Rachid, far right): ‘For French
to expand my creativity’
would like to work with, given that I now
have this huge opportunity to record with
just about whoever I want. Until now, I have
channelled all my energy into my own band,
and while that will always be my main focus
it will be good to expand my creativity and
drive for other projects. That said, I also hope
that being an artist on the scheme will enable
me to continue promoting my band and have
opportunities to continue writing new music
and performing it at prestigious venues.
I have often found it hard to motivate
myself to think up my own creative projects, as
opposed to waiting for things to come my way
and get involved. I hope that the scheme will
encourage me to approach people and properly
voice what I would like to create in the future.
I am already looking forward to having
a large amount of time in a good recording
studio and being able to make small
recordings that are for gradual release
and airing, rather than recording for a
full album straight away. I am excited to
have the resource of the studio available
throughout the entire two-year period,
rather than just at the end.
If I had one wish, it would be that I might
play a part in bridging the gap between
different genres. In an ideal world I might be
known as being an all-round musician taking
many things from jazz, classical, folk, and
of course from musical cultures from other
parts of the world. I’d like to make recordings
of straight jazz and also some more
experimental and free improvisation. I’ve
been playing with some fantastic musicians
from Israel over the last few years, exploring
a mixture of local and original music. And I
am already thinking about whether I would
60 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
CM1017_057-060_F_Guest Editor New Generation Artists 1509KC DDP OK.indd 60
Q  leksey Semenenko: ‘I love that you
artists it’s not very easy to perform in the UK’
like to write something – I have some ideas
of an ensemble involving me with mainly
percussion. So watch this space!
SAMY RACHID
Cellist, Quatuor Arod
The Quatuor Arod works in the same
place as the Van Kuijk Quartet in Paris, so
we heard about the BBC New Generation
Artists scheme through their connection
– we knew it had opened up a lot of
opportunities for them.
My colleagues and I have never played in
public in the UK, so we were very excited
when we heard we’d been selected – even
more so when we saw the sort of things
we would be doing, such as masterclasses
and concerts.
One of the things we’re most excited
about is making our UK debut. We’re
going to perform in cities such as London,
Manchester and Birmingham – that’s an
enormous opportunity for us. For French
artists it’s not very easy to perform in the
UK because the market is very different
from here – it’s much easier to find work in
Germany or Austria.
Recording for the BBC will be a great
opportunity – we want to do some stuff
like Bartók and Schubert. We’ll give
masterclasses at Birmingham Conservatoire,
which will be a big challenge as we’re still
very young and still learning, and we’ll be
giving advice to other young musicians. So
there are big opportunities ahead, but also
big challenges!
We won a big competition in Munich
last September, so that certainly helped
to draw attention to us, but Radio 3 will
© ALEXANDER BASTA
A
always have to play different programmes’
definitely put us in the spotlight in the UK
and across Europe. We’ve already received
congratulations from musicians we know in
big cities like Vienna, Berlin and Paris (of
course), and can’t wait to get started.
ALEKSEY SEMENENKO
Violinist
I was told by my manager, Monica Felkel
from the Young Concert Artists Trust, that
the NGA scheme great thing. She told me to
look it up, and I thought I might as well go
for it! I asked previous artists – Esther Yoo,
Nicolas Altstaedt and Maxim Rysanov –
what they thought, and they all said it really
gives your career a boost.
I hope it will help me forge contacts in
the United Kingdom, bring me to a wider
audience, give me the chance to record
things and expand my repertoire, and give
me opportunities to play with other great
musicians who are also on the scheme. I
also hope I will receive more attention from
the UK music world, particularly from
managers; I’ve heard that English managers
are among the best in the world.
I’m looking forward to doing everything
that the scheme has to offer: recordings,
collaborations with other artists, performing
at festivals, playing with BBC orchestras, and
giving recitals. I love that you always have to
play different programmes, so it’s pushing me
to learn lots of new things and that will really
expand my repertoire.
My first project will be a studio recording
in October which will be broadcast over
Christmas. My plan is to give the scheme my
all, and do everything I can to get the most
out of the next couple of years. CM
19/09/2017 11:09:27
 The Bridgewater Hall
International Concert Series 17|18

VOICE TRIALS
for boys aged 7 & 8
11th November 2017

Enquiries are welcome at any time

Substantial scholarships are awarded

and choristers benefit from an all-round
Highlights include excellent education at St Edmund’s
Czech Philharmonic School Canterbury.
Orchestra The Master of Choristers, David Flood,
John Rutter’s is always pleased to meet and advise
Christmas Festival parents and their sons.
Sir András Schiff
Murray Perahia
Joshua Bell
The Sixteen
For further details please telephone
Orchestra of the
Age of Enlightenment 01227 865242
davidf@canterbury-cathedral.org
Box Office: 0161 907 9000
www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk @No1Cathedral

ST GEORGE’S CHURCH, PENANG, MALAYSIA

St George’s Church in Georgetown, Penang was built by the East India Company in
1818 and was designed in the Georgian-Palladian style common for public buildings of
the period. The church has had organs in the past, but none following the partial
destruction of the building in WWII.
The new organ, completed in June, was designed to complement the building and is an
entirely mechanical action instrument of two manuals and pedals, with 17 stops. It is
sited in the liturgical north east corner of the church.

GREAT ORGAN SWELL ORGAN PEDAL ORGAN

Open Diapason 8 Gedackt 8 Bourdon 16
Stopped Diapason 8 Salicional 8 Principal 8
Principal 4 Voix Celeste 8 Trumpet 8
Fifteenth 2 Principal 4 Great to Pedal
Fourniture IV 11/3 Chimney Flute 4 Swell to Pedal
Trumpet 8 Recorder 2
Swell to Great Sesquialtera II 22/3
Oboe 8
Tremulant

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MANDER ORGANS
www.mander-organs.com

CM1017.indd 61 19/09/2017 10:16:56

 BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS CHOIR AND ORGAN
PULLING OUT THE STOPS
Radio 3 is adding an organ strand to its successful weekly broadcast series, The Choir.
Lindsay Thomson finds out why the instrument deserves special attention
F
or organ fans, the Noughties may have
felt like lean years on Radio 3: those
with long memories fondly recall the
network’s 1980s organ series, Music for the
Iron Voice, followed in the 1990s by Music
for Organ, not to forget Dame Gillian Weir’s
complete Messiaen cycle which was recorded
and broadcast by Radio 3 before going on to
commercial release.
The network’s subsequent move away from
super-specialised programming of this type
may have denied the organ its anchor point
(critics might say ‘ghetto’) in the schedule,
but Radio 3’s sense that organ music should
be treated like any other musical genre has
found it popping up regularly in mainstream
programming such as Breakfast, Essential
Classics, Through the Night and in occasional
celebrity recitals. Although nothing in Radio
3’s latest schedule alterations suggests that
this will change fundamentally, there is a new
beacon of light on the horizon: The Choir is
to morph into Choir and Organ.
© PAWEL HORAZY
62 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
CM1017_062-063_F_Guest Editor Renaissance of the Organ 1509 KC DDP OK.indd 62
Chris Taylor is a senior producer at BBC
Wales Network Radio which, under the
BBC’s competitive tendering process, won
the contract to produce the new strand. One
of The Choir’s launch producers, and an
organist himself, Taylor is ideally placed to
usher in Choir and Organ, which retains its
regular presenter, Sara Mohr-Pietsch, and
aired first on 17 September. ‘There are a lot
of organ fans out there, and they are both
passionate and knowledgeable,’ says Taylor.
‘Radio 3 has heard them and said, yes, this
is an important part of our musical heritage
which deserves a sharper focus.’ That focus
will come in the shape of a monthly one-
hour programme on Sunday afternoons.
‘We felt it should be a stand-alone slot: if
we’d mixed it up, it would not receive the
attention it deserves.’
The other significant difference, which
will also impact on the choral episodes, is
that the strand will develop a two-pronged
approach: a carefully crafted playlist for
the broadcast programmes, with written
features, full-length streamed interviews
and – eventually – videos going online. ‘We
want both the choral and organ element to
feel like the same programme, in the sense
that listeners will have fantastic music from
the very best recordings to accompany
their Sunday afternoons, introduced by
a familiar, friendly and knowledgeable
presenter. We hope this will be an
irresistible combination.’
The music sequencing is important,
and requires care: in the schedule, the
programmes always come to air off the
back of Choral Evensong – how will it
follow an organ voluntary recorded live in
a church or cathedral with a commercial
disc? ‘In the past with The Choir,’ says
Taylor, ‘one approach has been to make a
compete change of gear: go in with all guns
blazing, something very different, such as
a cappella jazz or barber shop. In the new
choral programmes, we’ll go for a gentler
19/09/2017 15:13:24
 BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS CHOIR AND ORGAN

transition over the first two or three items, in singing,’ Taylor concludes. ‘Rather fewer,
then move people into the wider world of
choral music; with the organ, we always
of course, are involved in the organ, but in
programming terms we see this as a useful
Our job is to help the
know what Choral Evensong’s concluding
voluntary is, and I see it as the organist
link: we have all this fantastic content, and
through the broadcasts and the website we
general listener to find
finishing up, then perhaps reaching for
something else from the music shelf and
want to engage with this huge potential a way into the kind of
audience, bringing them to Radio 3 and
going on to play that. Choir and Organ.’ CM music the organ can
‘Music sequencing is a tricky thing to do,’
he adds. ‘It’s not just about putting on pieces Choir and Organ is broadcast on Radio 3 on Sundays at produce
you like: it’s thinking hard about mood 4pm and is available on BBC iPlayer Radio
and tone, retaining existing listeners and
capturing the attention of people who might
switch on halfway through.’
No doubt focusing on organ repertoire
as – in a sense – ‘just music’ will address
the oft-voiced criticism that the organ can
be technical and geeky: in its extreme form,
that criticism going so far as to deny that
the organ is even a ‘real’ instrument. ‘I do
get irritated when discussion of the organ
focuses on the number of pipes and how
many tons it weighs,’ Taylor admits. ‘If the
voice is the most human of instruments, the
organ is the most mechanical, but our job is
to help the general listener to find a way into
the kind of music the organ can produce;
we want to reach out to those who don’t yet
know that they love organ music, and share
its amazing musical story with them.’
Taylor sees Choir and Organ’s new online
presence as holding the key to this, for
both elements of the strand. ‘Every week,
an article which might bounce off a piece
in the programme will open up an area of
music: for instance, a performance of the
Credo from Bruckner’s Mass in E minor
might suggest a discussion of the difficulties
of setting texts from the Mass, and how
various composers tackle it; a performance
by the Latvian Radio Choir could be
followed by an exploration of choral singing
in the Baltic states. For the organ we might
use the kind of lists which are so popular
online and can be thought-provoking as well
as generating user engagement: Six Great
American Organs, World’s Five Top Organ
Builders, Vote for Bach’s Greatest Prelude
and Fugue. On video, we might visit an
organist at their instrument, letting them
show us around and talking us through how
they use it to realise the notes on the page.
‘A recent survey suggested that upwards of
© JUDE EDGINTON/BBC

two million people in the UK are involved

Sara Mohr-Pietsch: a familiar voice introducing

a new strand on Sunday afternoons

OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 63

CM1017_062-063_F_Guest Editor Renaissance of the Organ 1509 KC DDP OK.indd 63 19/09/2017 11:11:15
 Choral & Organ
Scholarships
2018-19
 Superb opportunities for gap-year or postgraduate musicians to gain
substantial experience in a busy Cathedral setting
 Competitive bursaries, including accommodation in shared housing
 Singing lessons provided / a bursary provided for organ lessons
 Excellent transport links: London Liverpool Street: 35 mins;
Stansted Airport: 30 mins; Ebbsfleet International Station: 41 mins
Application deadline: Thursday 5 October 2017

For further information telephone 01245 294481 or

email stephanie.brasier@chelmsfordcathedral.org.uk

chelmsfordcathedral.org.uk

CM1017.indd 64 19/09/2017 10:17:14

 BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS OPERA TALKS

Flappers and friends: A snapshot of the heady mix of musical culture in the 1920s

FOR THE PEOPLE

The 1920s were a heady time for opera in London: in the aftermath of the Great War,
class barriers had broken down and the social and cultural mix of people engaged in
the arts was at its most diverse. Cultural historian Dr Alexandra Wilson looks back
to an era which saw the first stirrings of mass entertainment, when opera in Britain
rubbed shoulders with jazz, music hall and film

O
ver the last few decades, certain
sectors of the media have
repeatedly perpetuated the idea
that opera is elitist. Stereotypes about
expense, class and exclusivity not only
misrepresent the diversity of contemporary
opera-going but actively do harm to the
cause of artistic accessibility. While opera
is undoubtedly sometimes performed in
glamorous contexts, this does not represent
the full picture. Indeed, if we look back
at the history of opera we can see that its
social meanings have varied enormously
in different places at different moments in
time. Even in Britain – where there has been
a long tradition of scepticism about opera
as a rather strange foreign import – opera
has not always been regarded as elitist. If we
flash back by almost a century to the 1920s,
we find that the term was never used, and
that opera was more comfortably accepted as
just another form of popular entertainment.
So who went to the opera in the 1920s?
There was, of course, an ‘elite’ audience
at Covent Garden – going to the opera
remained a fixture in the aristocracy’s
summer social season – but it was
declining. The royals attended with less
regularity, the theatre was struggling
to attract the world’s best singers, and
fashionable nightclubs and sporting
events offered tempting alternative forms
of entertainment. ►
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 65

CM1017_065-067_F_Guest Editor Opera in the 1920s 1509KC DDP OK.indd 65 18/09/2017 15:24:25
 BBC FOCUS RADIO 3 OPERA TALKS
The opera singer/film actress Geraldine Farrar as Carmen
A theatre audience in London’s West End, 1922
As formerly strict definitions of class
membership began to blur after the first
world war, so the audience at Covent
Garden began to change, for good or ill
depending on one’s perspective. Although
a formal dress code was still in place for
the expensive seats, it was laxly enforced:
Nellie Melba complained about men in
the stalls wearing shabby tweed coats. Up
in the gallery, meanwhile, you could find
earnest, lower-middle class clerks from the
suburbs, a rowdy crowd of Soho Italians,
and a regular contingent of ardent opera
lovers from the East End.
66 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
CM1017_065-067_F_Guest Editor Opera in the 1920s 1509KC DDP OK.indd 66
© VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM
There was even greater diversity in the
opera audience beyond Covent Garden. At
the Old Vic, Lilian Baylis was determined
that the opera should explicitly not be
‘fashionable’ and was successful in creating
a genuine sense of community among a
primarily working-class audience. The
atmosphere here was overwhelmingly one of
fun: there was no dress code and applauding
arias was encouraged. Audiences felt that
they knew the members of the regular
repertory cast personally and this fostered
considerable loyalty to the troupe.
Vital to the 1920s opera scene were
Sense of community: Lilian Baylis
touring companies such as the Carl Rosa
and the British National Opera Company,
which travelled extensively around the
country putting on performances of
opera in English, often in multi-purpose
venues also used for variety acts or film
screenings. Such companies’ trademark
was their policy of putting on ‘popular
operas at popular prices’. (It is interesting
to note that ‘popular operas’ included the
works of Wagner, which were guaranteed
to sell out in music-loving cities such
as Leeds.) The financial success of the
operation depended upon attracting a wide
audience: factory workers as well as their
bosses. Contemporary accounts abounded
of office boys or typists hearing snippets
of opera on the wireless or gramophone
records, and subsequently seeking out
performances by the touring companies.
People who might not even consider
themselves part of the formal audience for
opera had opportunities to hear operatic
music in a variety of non-theatrical spaces.
For example, the Carl Rosa Company
performed operatic scenes in a West
End branch of the Lyon’s Corner House,
entertaining diners more used to listening
to jazz bands. Opera singers also regularly
performed in cinemas, before or during
screenings of the many early silent movies
that were based on operas. And some of the
biggest international opera stars of the age,
such as the American soprano Geraldine
Farrar had already, by the 1920s, crossed
over on to the silver screen.
18/09/2017 15:25:01

There was considerable concern in
the 1920s about audience members
abandoning traditional forms of theatre
for the cinema. But some commentators
believed that silent film – which had
borrowed its melodramatic acting aesthetic
from opera – might actually make opera
more popular. Those invested in opera
today are sometimes equally anxious
about the challenge posed to live operatic
performance by cinema relays from Covent
Garden or the Met. But this development
NOW AND THEN
Distinguished broadcaster and former director of the Barbican Centre John Tusa revisits some of
the German cities in which he had some of his most memorable experiences of opera as a young
serviceman abroad in the mid-1950s
In 1955 I was posted to an anti-aircraft
regiment in a town called Celle, only 40km
from Hanover, and I quickly discovered
that Hanover had an opera house, so
I started to go there and went several
times. I’d already seen a bit of opera and
I had no doubt that this was an art-form I
wanted to get to know better; and there I
was close to an affordable opera house.
The extraordinary thing about Hanover
only ten years after the war was that you
would hardly have realised that it had
been fought over and destroyed; but the
opera house had been spared and they
CM1017_065-067_F_Guest Editor Opera in the 1920s 1509KC DDP OK.indd 67
is merely a logical step in a long and
reciprocal relationship between the two
art-forms, surely an opportunity rather
than a threat.
Indeed, there is much to be learnt from
early 20th-century attitudes towards
opera. It is rare, today, for public figures
such as politicians to admit to liking
opera, fearful of being dismissed as elitist.
In the 1920s their counterparts were open
about their enjoyment of opera and not
afraid to make the case for it. The 1920s
got it back into operation very quickly.
It was a medium-sized classical building
that had been redone internally in a
1950s modern style, with pleasant foyers
and public spaces where in those days
everybody solemnly processed anti-
clockwise in the interval. The standard
struck me as pretty good – more than
adequate for someone like me.
I saw my first Rheingold there and I
saw Eugene Onegin. Then one day, looking
through the schedule I discovered that
there was a Verdi opera which I’d never
heard of – Die Macht des Schicksals – La
forza del destino. I thought, well if it’s by
Verdi, that good enough for me. I’d never
before heard the ‘Rataplan’ chorus, which
brought the house down.
When I was planning my recent trip
for my BBC Radio 3 feature, I discovered
that Hanover was doing Die Macht des
Schicksals on one of the available dates –
and I thought this was too good to be true!
While I was on my youthful visit to
Germany, I discovered that Essen was
doing Idomeneo. I knew it a bit from
recordings but I thought, this is such a
rarity, so I must go to see it. The whole
work was a revelation – one of those
moments of really special experience.
During my visit this time round, I
discovered that Essen was presenting La
clemenza di Tito – another comparative
Mozart rarity, staged in Essen’s modern
architectural marvel, the Aalto Opera
House which opened in 1988.
One time, I was working on firing ranges
BBC RADIO 3 FOCUS OPERA TALKS
model reminds us that opera need not
be siphoned off as some form of rarefied
activity, that it is just drama with great
music, which really can be enjoyed in
much the same way as a film, a good
novel or a football match. The key to
popularising it is by simply presenting it
as a part of everyday life. CM
Dr Alexandra Wilson’s Sunday Feature in Radio 3s
opera season is entitled The Flappers’ Guide to
the Opera, broadcast on 22 October 2017
by the Baltic. I discovered that the city of
Kiel (a city akin to, say Portsmouth in the
UK) had an opera house with a permanent,
fully professional ensemble, and that it was
presenting a production of Wagner’s Die
Meistersinger. Wagner, for obvious
reasons, wasn’t too popular in Britain in
the aftermath of the second world war,
but by the time we got to the quintet, I
thought that this was the most wonderfully
satisfying music one could hear.
Ten years after Allied bombs had
plastered Kiel, one of the fist things its
citizens did was to make sure that the
opera was up and running. In Germany,
opera is part of the community, a
source of pride for a city and its people.
Germans insist on this now, just as
they did in the 1950s. Hanover’s opera
house gets €70m a year in public
funding – pretty good for a regional
capital, considering that it’s much more
than double the amount Covent Garden
gets from the British government. On
my recent trip we kept on asking our
German friends, ‘Why does your state
fund the opera to this extent?’. The reply
came, ‘It is part of our identity, and we
couldn’t dream of not doing it.’ That
certainly had an effect on what I thought
it was possible for a great cultural
centre to be, in a city or a community
that takes itself seriously.
As told to George Hall
John Tusa’s Opera Journey will be broadcast on
Radio 3 on 8 October. Visit www.bbc.co.uk/radio3
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 67
19/09/2017 12:16:24
 AUDIOFILE BY RAFAEL TODES

Home comforts
Is the Royal Albert Hall really fit for purpose when it comes to the enjoyment of great
music-making? Rafael Todes finds that staying at home with your radio and investing
in good audio equipment can give you a far better listening experience

I
am fortunate to live across the park
from the largest festival of music in the
UK and possibly the world: the Proms.
I was invited to a concert at the Royal
Albert Hall (seated in a corporate box)
earlier this season to hear Barenboim’s
first appearance this year – the one where
he played Land of Hope and Glory as
an encore, but not where he delivered
his speech calling for an end to divisive
nationalism!
The programme included Elgar’s Symphony
No 1 and the Sibelius violin concerto. From
the box, facing the orchestra, I struggled
to hear the timbre and energy of Lisa
Batiashvili’s violin. There was a faint almost
colourless sound, which was extremely hard
to discern in the hall. I listened back on the
BBC iPlayer when I had returned home
and heard a performance of greater beauty,
shape and detail – to which I was completely
oblivious some hours earlier. To my ears, the
Albert Hall is one of the most inadequate
concert venues anywhere in Europe.
A recent development, or indeed so-
called innovation, is the relay of Radio 3
broadcasts of the Proms in high-definition
FLAC sound, at 550kbit/s. (CD quality
is 1411Kbits/s so this is roughly a third
of the CD rate.) To receive this, you need
to be well versed in the art of geekery:
you need to use a Firefox browser and
plug your computer into a suitable DAC

Staying in can offer the best listening of all

© SIRTRAVELALOT

68 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017

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 AUDIOFILE BY RAFAEL TODES

(digital-to-analogue converter) connected

© BBC
to a Hi-Fi system. If you manage to follow
the instructions on the Radio 3 website,
you will feel like an audio-hero – a true
pioneer braving the wilds of cutting-edge
technology. Definitely something to do
with a stiff drink by your side.
I have one of the best DACs in the
market, a Chord ‘Dave’. As I write, I have
just been listening to a Proms concert of
Mahler’s fourth symphony with the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra and Daniele
Gatti. Even with this advanced piece of
equipment, on the hi-res internet stream
the performance sounds rather flat and
uncommitted sonically.
There is very little sense of a sound
stage, which is something I can hear
several seconds earlier through my FM
tuner. The digital relay is not bad; it just
sounds processed – like tinned meat, a
shadow of the real thing.
I think if Radio 3 really wants to shout The Proms at the Royal Albert Hall: Great atmosphere; shame about the acoustics
about high-definition audio, the engineers
need to beef-up the bit rate to a level

© S-F
where the results sound outstanding.
Ideally a 24-bit/192kHz file should be
transferred at a rate of 9,216kbps, that
is 18 times more information than the
current temporary effort.
This technology has more than 40
years’ march on the FM radio, yet it
sounds a great deal worse!
I have my preferred way of enjoying the
Proms, and that is listening to concerts on my
1960s, all-valve Leak FM Tuner, as modified
by one of the great eccentric geniuses of
the audio world, Baron Tim de Paravicini.
Listening to a Prom in a live FM broadcast,
I can hear each colour and texture of this
world-class orchestra-fest in minute detail.
Clever Radio 3 engineers have found a
way to boost the players, circumventing
the huge inherent problems of the hall’s
acoustics. This is thanks to good old-
fashioned FM, which politicians are
trying to close down so that they can sell
the family band-width silver to mobile The ancient Greek theatre at Epidaurus: sound technology at its finest, more than 2,000 years ago
phone companies.
Every few years, FM is granted a stay of
execution, one of the reasons being that century BC, and its acoustics put the Albert better concert hall. This, and a higher bit
the alternative, DAB, doesn’t work well Hall to shame. I could hear every word and rate, could make the Proms a truly world-
in cars and a huge proportion of radio- note of this epic tale, un-amplified. How is it class series of events for audiences in the
listening takes place while driving. that 2,200 years ago, the Greeks knew more venue and at home. CM
I was recently on holiday in the Peloponnese, about acoustics than the Victorians? Why is
where I went to a performance in the ancient the UK’s largest music festival staged in such Rafael Todes is a member of the Allegri String
theatre of Epidaurus of Medea by Euripides. an acoustic wilderness? Quartet and regularly reviews hi-fi in a range of
The amphitheatre dates from the fourth I am of the belief that London needs a specialist publications

OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 69

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RHINEGOLD
BRITISH MUSIC & DRAMA
EDUCATION YEARBOOK
2017-18
The ESSENTIAL guide to music and drama education
HIGHER EDUCATION CHOICES
Higher education
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For talented music students wishing for a career in music, there is no
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Studying at a conservatoire
If your child intends to pursue a career as the scope for improving technically
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are likely to be equally talented or more
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and creating cross-genre collaborations
Trinity Laban’s music faculty is housed at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich
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Junior Schools United Kingdom
© PUMPKIN INTERACTIVE
Independent Schools Birmingham Conservatoire
Part of Birmingham City University,
programme, at least two thirds of
the credit of each year is focused on
academy provides ‘pre-professional,
u/g and p/g music training of the
Buchanan, Dir of Professional
Studies; Michelle Phillips, Head of
LONDON Paradise Place, Birmingham, B3 3HG principal study. highest standards; to engage in Undergraduate Programmes; Fabrice
e admin@ashbournecollege.co.uk fees: £2,493 (reception); £2,765 (jr); Awards: Music scholarship
t 0121 331 5901 f 0121 331 5906 concert, operatic and research Fitch, Head of the Graduate School.
w www.ashbournecollege.co.uk £3,456 (sr). Age range: 3–18. awarded at 11. 16 music Leeds College of Music
Alleyn’s School e conservatoire@bcu.ac.uk activities related to the educ of the Courses: BMus Hons perf/comp
Contact Ms Shaheena Teeluck, head scholarships may be awarded plus Leeds College of Music, 3 Quarry
Townley Road, Dulwich, London Blackheath High School w www.conservatoire.bcu.ac.uk institution; to create and perform (4); BMus Hons Popular Music
of admissions awards which pay for inst tuition Hill, Leeds, LS2 7PD
SE22 8SU GDST Contact David Saint, acting new music; and to preserve and (4); GRNCM/MusB Hons – ‘Joint
Awards: Music scholarships in the 6th Form. Music Scholars t 0113 222 3416 f 0113 243 8798
t 020 8557 1500 f 020 8557 1462 Vanbrugh Park SE3 7AG principal; Joy Krishna, mktg enrich national and international Course’ (4); MMus/MPerf (1 or 2);
available Music activities: must pass the entrance exam and
clear-cut path to take in regards
e music@alleyns.org.uk to
Ashbourne’s annual Revue – a t 020 8853 2929 f 020 8853 3663 & communications mgr; Janet e enquiries@lcm.ac.uk music’. Music Facilities: 110 teaching Advanced PGDip (1); PhD perf/
audition. Candidates audition w www.lcm.ac.uk
a university-leveltwitter.com/
w www.alleyns.org.uk; course is inperformance
order, at Christmas of Drama, e info@bla.gdst.net Halfyard, dir of undergrad studies; & practice rooms, The Sir Jack Lyons comp/musicology/mus psych
on two insts with min standard Contact Philip Meaden, principal;
alleynsmusic w www.blackheathhighschool. Shirley Thompson, dir of postgrad Theatre, Concert room, recital room, (3). Course Details: The principle
degree
Contact or doing
G Savage, a degree in
Headmaster; another
Music and Fashion involving most
gdst.net
of Grade 4/5 at 11 (Grade 6 at
studies. Lis Parry, head of classical music & electronic studios, creative tech lab, aims of the undergraduate and
Ashbourne students. Ashbourne 16 ) on main inst. Outstanding jazz; Charlotte Orba, head of popular
C Dearmer, DoM; L Mawer, Choir, regular trips to the concerts, Contact Lisa Laws, head. candidates on one inst considered.
Courses: BMus Hons(4); BMus jazz library. postgraduate taught programmes
Admissions (4 Hons, 5 with PGCE); GradDip jazz mus & mus production. are to develop performance or comp
operas and theatres of London. Awards: Scholarships for music Music facilities: 9 practice rooms
Alleyn’s is a co-educational (1); PgCert music (1 p/t); MMus/ Courses: BA Hons music – jazz/ Royal College of Music to the standards appropriate to the
Music facilities: Large music are awarded at 11; bursaries are 2 teaching rooms, octagonal recital
independent day school in South PgDip music (1 f/t, 2 p/t); AdvPgDip classical/popular music/music Royal College of Music, Prince demands of the music profession,
classroom available to top up the value.
is increasing all the time. Not to mention musicians whopupils
have aged
similar goals. And and practice area with room, school hall with Grotrian
music (professional perf). Course production/combined (3); also Consort Road, London SW7 2BS and to develop the portfolio of skills
Schools
London with over 1000 pno, kb and state of the art computer No of pupils: 650. Termly fees: Steinweg grand pno, 2 iMac Music
whenScholarships
11–18. Music they do graduate,
and they are likely Details: The Conservatoire offers BA Hons music (accelerated) (2). t 020 7591 4300 f 020 7589 7740 necessary to sustain a career in the
software, inc recording facilities. No £3,005–4,693. Age range: 0–11 Tech Suites. No of pupils: 900
and musically in an intensely creative Bursariestoare have the best
available uponpossible
entry access to the u/g and p/g courses to about 500 Foundation certificate in music. PG e info@rcm.ac.uk profession.
of pupils: On average 200. Termly (co-ed); 11–18 (girls). day. Termly fees: Jr £4,285 and Sr
into Y7, Y9 and Y12. students. Music Facilities: A member Dip, MA, MMus – performance/ w www.rcm.ac.uk
environment. Previously non-traditional network of Exhibitions
performers and performing
fees: £6900. Age range: 16–19. £5,314. Age range: 4–18. School
are also available, offering free Bromley High School of the Association of European comp. Music Facilities: 350-seat Contact Colin Lawson, dir; Kevin Royal Welsh College of
organisations they will need toSchool
develop
Further & Higher Education
type: Co-ed type: Girls purpose-built concert venue Porter, deputy dir. Music & Drama
GDST Music Conservatoires. Each student
from around the world are now well instrumental theirtuition.
career.Typical Award for student and professional Courses: BMus Hons (4); BSc(Hons) Castle Grounds, Cathays Park,
Bromley High School, Blackbrook is supervised by a personal tutor.
other two
hand, this mayBishop
be a lessChalloner School Buckingham College
performances; extensive library in Physics and Music (4). PG: Cardiff, CF10 3ER
instruments; at entry into Y7/Y9, 228 Bromley Lane, Bromley BR1 2TW Purpose built building. Facilities inc
The type of education offered by suitable path for those who have not fully Rd, Shortlands, t 020 8781 7000; 020 8781 7061
School
the Adrian Boult Hall, Recital Hall, a inc jazz archive; recording studios Masters programmes in Perf and t 029 2034 2854; 029 2039 1361;Learning your audition pieces inside out means you can perform in front of the panel with confidence
the principal instrument would be Bromley BR2 0BS Hindes Road, Harrow HA1 1SH
on what
andthey want to do within the (mus school) f 020 8781 7002 specialist library, 50 practice rooms, offering high quality analogue and Comp (1–2); Artist Diplomas in Perf; 029 2039 1422
So you want to go to
5–6 standard, for Y12 t 020 8460 3546 f 020 8466 8885 t 020 8427 1220 f 020 8863 0816
to students with the right temperament: music
grade 7–8. Visitindustry,
the schoolorwebsite
those who do not have e c.daniel@bro.gdst.net; bhs@bro. 4 recording studios and a lecture digital recording consoles, digital Opera; Comp (1–2) and Chamber e press@rwcmd.ac.uk; admissions@
e office@bishopchallonerschool.com e enquiries@buckcoll.org;
theinfomation
for further potential onto be exceptional w
musical performers. gdst.net theatre. A variety of scholarships are edit suites; digital audio workstation Music (1); MSc in Performance rwcmd.ac.uk
www.bishopchallonerschool.com/ bcsoffice@buckcoll.org
opportunities. w www.bromleyhigh.gdst.net available for ugs and pgs. rooms with Logic, ProTools, Reason Science (1); PhD (3–4). Masters The Royal Welsh College of Music &
Contact Karen Barry, head. w www.buckcoll.org
Contact Angela Drew, and Ableton Live, plus several Mac programme applicants may Drama, the National Conservatoire
career and, not forgetting, exceptional raw Awards: Music scholarships are Contact Simon Larter, head.
Ashbourne Independent Headmistress; Mrs A M Drew, Bristol Pre-Conservatoire labs; learning resource centre; large graduate with PGDip, MComp, of Wales, and part of the University
drama school?
talent. Students may have the opportunity Studying music at universitybased on a pupil reaching at least Termly fees: £3,315–3,845.
e bristolpreconservatoire@gmail. collection of musical insts. MPerf or MMus; depending on the of South Wales Group, competes
Sixth Form College grade 3who
and passing an audition BA, MBA; Mrs C Dickerson, BA
to meet and befriend generation- For those students with high grades
17 Old Court Place, Kensington, com options taken. Course Details: The alongside an international peer group
held by the Head of Music; most (Anglia), Head of jr school; Ms C Channing School
defining performers at an early stage of London W8might4PLbe considering a career in music w www.bristol-preconservatoire.com London College of Music college provides educ and training of conservatoires and specialist
Daniel, MA (London), dir of mus, The Bank, Highgate, London
3858 or research,
f 020 a BA fromare
7937 2207
worth up to 25% of fees. Termly
a university sr school. N6 5HF An evening school for young University of West London, St Mary’s to advanced levels for those who arts colleges for the best students
experience, and form alliances with other rather than the more specialised BMus classical and jazz musicians, offering Road, Ealing, London W5 5R aspire to be performers, whether globally, enabling students to enter
small ensemble training, creative t 020 8231 2220 instrumentalists, singers, orch and influence the world of music,
players, conductors or comps. AtDiscover some andwords
related of wisdomOur from the people involved in the application process, both auditionees and
BROMLEY HIGH SCHOOL
workshops, visiting artists and e Sara.raybould@uwl.ac.uk PG theatre professions.
sessions on developing general w www.uwl.ac.uk/academic-schools/ level, practical work is enhanced by ambition is to make an ever more
music. auditioneers, who can offer you great tips for success and advice on how to avoid some of the common pitfalls …
musicianship. scholarly study up to doctoral level. central contribution to the cultural
‘EXCEPTIONAL’ (ISI 2016)
Currently offering training in the Contact Sara Raybould, Director life of Cardiff, to Wales, and through
following strands: strings and piano, of LCM; David Henson, Head of Royal Conservatoire of our graduates, to the international
woodwind, vocal and jazz. Subject – Performance, Composition Scotland So, you’re taking
arts the plunge: you’ve
industry. very different, and what is the difference training – but what kind of candidate are
& Performing Arts. 100 Renfrew Street, Glasgow, G2decided you’d like to train at drama school. is the culture of the organisation. And drama schools in search of? The Liverpool
Conservatoire for Drama London College of Music (LCM), part 3DB Royal
It’s a hugely Welsh College
competitive sector toof enter ultimately the only way you can find out Institute of Performing Art’s (LIPA) senior
and Dance of the University of West London, t 0141 332 4101 f 0141 332 8901 – even the Music & Drama
education and training side of about that institution is to go to the place,’ lecturer in acting Stephen Buckwald says:
Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, is the largest specialist music and e musicadmissions@rcs.ac.uk;
things – Castle Grounds, Cathays Park,
but there’s no need to worry if says Giles Auckland-Lewis, principal of the ‘We’re not looking for finished products.
London WC1H 9JJ performing arts institution in boxoffice@rcs.ac.uk Cardiff, CF10 3ER
t 020 7387 5101 the UK. The University includes w www.rcs.ac.uk/
you’re not a fully fledged stage star as of
t 029 2039 1361
Institute of the Arts Barcelona (IAB). If you were a finished product, you have
e jason.clarke@cdd.ac.uk; denis. undergraduate & postgraduate At the Royal Conservatoire of yet: ‘Theeaudition process is not based on
admissions@rwcmd.ac.uk Paige Round, BA (Hons) acting (musical no need for drama school – go out there
jones@cdd.ac.uk courses in classical, pop and jazz “tingle factor”,’
Scotland we offer a very wide variety assures Geoffrey Colman,
w www.rwcmd.ac.uk theatre) graduate from Central, says: ‘As and do it in the industry. We’re looking for
w www.cdd.ac.uk/ performance, composition, music of vocational degree programmes. head of acting
Contact at Admissions
the Royal Central School
Department. an actor, when you go to one place you get diamonds in the rough: people who have
technology, musical theatre, theatre Everything you need to find out of Speech Acting,‘One
and Drama.
Courses: StageofMgt,
the Design
primary that feeling – wherever you are, whichever the potential of being great actors, but with
Guildhall School of Music & production, music management and about the programmes is right here. for Performance; BA Hons;
things we’re looking for at drama school is 3 years. drama school you’re at – that you’re kind a bit of training we’ll be able to fine-tune
Drama acting for students, all delivered Remember you can contact us tosomeoneActing, Musical Theatre, Stage and
who we can train.’ of supposed to be there.’ And with varying them in a way that they’re going to be able
Silk Street, Barbican, London EC2Y by expert practitioners of national clarify any information or ask any Event Mgt, Design for Performance;
8DT
cultures and outlooks, an acting course to be prepared to go into the industry.’
and international renown. Music questions. MA, 2 yrs. Music (perf or comp);
t 020 7628 2571 f 020 7256 9438 delivered by one institution will be a very Drama schools are in search of students
Facilities: Teaching & video suites, To study here, we need you to be BMus Hons, BMus Hons Jazz; 4
e registry@gsmd.ac.uk halls, digital recording facilities, exceptionally talented, dedicated,
Finding the school and course
yrs; PGDip, 1 yr or 2 yrs; MA; 1
different experience from studying acting with great potential, but they also want
w www.gsmd.ac.uk 30 rehearsal & practice rooms, TV for youyr or 2 yrs; MMus, 1 yr or 2 yrs;
hungry – and ready. Many applicants at another, so it’s important to look at people with the right attitude who will
Contact Jennifer Kay, asst registrar studio, labs, 2 radio stations & 18 It may beMPhil/PhD,
are unsuccessful on the first or even the case that you’re
3 yrs. entirely
Arts Mgt, MA; the composition and make up of a course. appreciate the experience. Nick Moseley,
(admissions & enrolment). computer labs. second occasion, but they work so decided upon
1 yr orwhat
2 yrs.area of drama
Facilities: World-training ‘When I was choosing a drama school to course leader for acting at Central, says:
Courses: BMus (4) (validated by City hard in the meantime that they grow, classinterested
you’re most facilities inc
in:450-seat recital
your heart apply for, I was researching really heavily ‘We need to firstly know that that person
OPEN MORNING
University). MPerf/MMus/PGDip Royal Academy of Music develop and eventually succeed. might behall, 160-seat theatre, acting and
set on pursuing musical theatre, into the course structure and what they is going to work hard; that they really
in music perf (specialisms in strs, Marylebone Rd, London, NW1 5HT movement studios,
or following your dream ofand exhibition
becoming a set taught there,’ says Frankie Payne, a former want the training and they haven’t just
ww, br, perc – advanced inst studs t 020 7873 7373 f 020 7873 7374 Royal Northern College of
or orch studs; kb – advanced inst e registry@ram.ac.uk Music designergallery. Performance Opp: Annual
– but when applying for a course, foundation student from IAB. ‘I also find come along to pick up a few additional
performance calendar encompassing
Saturday October 7th 2017 studs or pno accomp; vocal studs, w www.ram.ac.uk 124 Oxford Rd, Manchester, M13you’re also making an important decision
over 300 public perf inc orch
it really appealing to look at the alumni vocal skills in order to support what
9.30 am - 1.00 pm opera studs, hist perf, chmbr music Contact Philip White, registrar & 9RD about the kind ofrecitals,
concerts, institution you’ll
dramas, be
operas, from that school, to see if there’s actors/ they can already do. The second thing we
Co-educational excellence for boys and girls aged 11-18. studs, jazz studs. MComp/MMus/ head of international affairs; Edward t 0161 907 5200 f 0161 273 7611 studyingmusical
at. ‘Drama schools, on the surface actresses that I aspire to be like, or who
theatre. need to know is that they are generous
A PPLY O NLINE
PGDip in comp; MLead/MMus/ Kemp-Luck, admissions offr & e info@rncm.ac.uk; kaman. when you look at what is written about are in work that I’m interested in doing.’ and very good at working in a team
Dedicated Hooper Music School, regular performance admissions@bro.gdst.net
PGDip in leadership; MA music international co-ord. parkinson@rncm.ac.uk them, allThe
appearConservatoire
to broadly cover the same You may have a very strong idea of collaboratively, that they’re supportive of
opportunities and an extensive range of ensembles and choirs. www.bromleyhigh.gdst.net
therapy; DMus/PhD (all validated Courses: BMus (4). MMus in w www.rncm.ac.uk The Conservatoire,
sort of material – but they19–21are allLee Road,
actually what you’re looking for from drama their other actors.’ 
Financial assistance is available. Visit our website for details. by City University). Course Details: performance (2); MMus in comp Contact Linda Merrick, Principal; London SE3 9RQ
Girls 4-18 Years
Music Scholarships available in the Senior School Principal study and performance lie (2); MA in performance (usually Martin Harlow, Vice-Principal t 020 8852 0234
Alleyns.org.uk l @alleynsmusic PBBRITISH
RHINEGOLD RHINEGOLD
MUSICBRITISH
& DRAMAMUSIC & DRAMA
EDUCATION EDUCATION
YEARBOOK at the 11
YEARBOOK
2017–18 core2017–18
of the learning experience 2); PGDip (musical theatre); MPhil (Academic); Paul Goodey, Vice- e info@conservatoire.org.uk RHINEGOLD BRITISH MUSIC & DRAMA EDUCATION YEARBOOK 2017–18 13
020 8557 1500 l Dulwich, London SE22 8SU Blackbrook Lane, Bickley, Bromley Kent BR1 2TW at the Guildhall School. In the UG (2); PhD (3). Course Details: The Principal (Performance); Kate The Conservatoire is Blackheath’s
30 RHINEGOLD BRITISH MUSIC & DRAMA EDUCATION YEARBOOK 2017–18 120 RHINEGOLD BRITISH MUSIC RHINEGOLD
& DRAMA EDUCATION YEARBOOK
BRITISH MUSIC 2017–18
& DRAMA EDUCATION YEARBOOK 2017–18 RHINEGOLD BRITISH MUSIC & DRAMA EDUCATION YEARBOOK 2017–18
18/09/2017 14:21
15:19:09
 V&A EXHIBITION

MAKING
AN EXHIBITION
Opera: Passion, Power and Politics is the first attempt by a public museum to present
opera in the context of a major, wide-ranging exhibition. Robert Thicknesse finds
that the exhibits on display make a convincing case for opera as a continuing force in
our cultural life

K
asper Holten had a bumpy ride
as an opera producer and an
administrator during his time as
director of opera at London’s Royal Opera
House (he left to return to his native
Denmark earlier this year). In fact, his most
influential legacy may be less the result of
any shows that he put on in Covent Garden
than of the unique and ambitious exhibition
of operatic history which has just opened at
London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in
South Kensington.
Opera: Passion, Power and Politics is the
fruit of an approach Holten made to the
then director of the V&A, Martin Roth, in
the opera director’s first flush of idealistic
engagement with London’s opera scene. It
can seem that opera rarely escapes from its
own largely self-constructed ghetto into the
wider public domain, existing in a separate
universe from the other arts – film, theatre, ►

‘Milano’, from a series of photographic prints

entitled Fratelli d’Italia by Matthias Schaller,
first exhibited at the Venice Biennale’s
International Architecture Exhibition in 2008

 va Gonzalès, A Box at the Théâtre des Italiens

E
(c1847), from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris
© MATTHIAS SCHALLER

© BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 71

CM1017_071-073_F_V&A Exhbition 1509KC DDP OK.indd 71 18/09/2017 12:36:18

 V&A EXHIBITION

T he Viola da Gamba Player, by

Bernardo Strozzi (1581-1644), from the
Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

visual arts – that are broadly regarded as

more mainstream; so this show builds
positive propaganda around opera that
will reach large numbers of the non-opera-
going public.
The mission of all great museums is to
bring the world together through their
collections and exhibitions, to elucidate how
everything concerns everyone, to position
the arts as an intrinsic, vital part of social
history. Opera is far from the only art form
to have started life as a preserve of money
and the aristocracy, and the exhibition
makes the point that, despite its baleful
reputation, it has travelled a good way in
terms of social inclusiveness from those days
at the end of the 16th century.
Kate Bailey, the show’s curator, realised
early on that the big issue was going to be
how to present an art whose essence lies in
aural attention in the form of a basically
visual format. ‘An opera is something
you listen to and watch for three hours.
How can we replicate that experience in a
museum?’ Bailey wondered. The answer,
inevitably, is a shift in emphasis away from
the music, but nonetheless the show is
heavily interactive: not one of those normal
© PHOTO SCALA, FLORENCE BPK

museum experiences where you can take

or leave the headphones – here, they will
provide the essential soundtrack to what you
are seeing, with proper excerpts from all the
featured operas and more.
The show is organised in a highly original
way, too: it will be the first exhibition in

Costume design for The Executioner by

Salvador Dalì, for the Royal Opera House’s
production of Strauss’ Salome by Peter Brook
that outraged London audiences in 1949

 draft of Cherubino’ aria ‘Non so più cosa

A
son’ from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro
(1786), from the autograph score of the aria
held by the British Library
© FUNDACIÓ GALA-SALVADOR DALÍ, DACS 2017
© BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

72 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017

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the vast (1,100 sq m) new subterranean
Sainsbury Gallery, part of architect Amanda
Levete’s stunning redevelopment of the
museum whose most immediately striking
aspect is the new colonnaded entrance on
Exhibition Road leading on to a piazza of
blinding porcelain tiles, equipped with
futuristic café, in the V&A courtyard. Most
exhibitions move from room to room: this
one will be a journey around a huge hangar,
which means that full-size opera sets can be
used to create the various worlds the show
takes us through.
These are dual worlds: images from the
time of the particular opera’s creation, and the
world recreated by a particular opera. There
are seven main stages, plus an eighth which
follows opera’s fragmented courses in recent
decades. The issue of course was to choose
those seven without leaving out anything
central, so if anyone can be said to miss out it’s
the Americans, with the final main exhibit
being the premiere of Shostakovich’s Lady
Macbeth of Mtsensk in Leningrad in 1934.
(Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach does get a
look-in as part of the final exhibit.)
The exhibition starts in Venice, with
the boisterous baroque buzz of the city in
the mid-17th century when Monteverdi’s
CM1017_071-073_F_V&A Exhbition 1509KC DDP OK.indd 73
Coronation of Poppea appeared, the
prototype of the carnival spirit of Venetian
opera that would have such wide influence.
Being the V&A, of course, the museum
can bring out a vast array of decorative arts
from all periods, so here we have glasses,
dresses, games, jewellery and musical
instruments of the time, as well as one of
the two existing scores of the opera and
a blowsy portrait of the composer Barbara
Strozzi as multi-tasking gamba player
and courtesan.
On we proceed, through Handel’s
London, Mozart’s Vienna, Milan for the
premiere of Nabucco (1842), Paris for
Tannhäuser (1861) and Dresden for Salome
(1905). Since the exhibition’s artistic
director is Robert Carsen, and the Royal
Opera’s Kasper Holten and John Fulljames
were heavily involved in consultancy, you
might perceive a slight air of propaganda
in the whole affair, with the aesthetic of
the contemporary productions featured
tending to that glossy, camp Carsen look.
I don’t think this a nugatory quibble:
there are so many marvellous designers
working in opera today – think of Bieito’s
regular collaborator Rebecca Ringst, to
name just one – and directors working at
© VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
V&A EXHIBITION
the real forefront of radical theatre, the
preponderance of this aesthetic doesn’t
really give an idea of the breadth and
ambition of the modern opera world.
Never mind: this marvellous exhibition
and its equally excellent catalogue (plus
a concurrent BBC TV documentary and
broadcasts of all seven operas) will make a
great case for opera as a continuing force, as
well as what Holten calls ‘the soundtrack to
European history’. And (despite inevitable
attempts by some to make it all about
Brexit) it’s not political: opera has little to
do with squabbles about the EU; Russia and
American loom large in its past and present.
Opera has been there at the high points and
crises of our social and cultural past, and has
reflected and pondered them in its own way.
This exhibition – the first and only one of
its kind anywhere – positions it right at the
heart of that history. CM
The V&A’s Opera: Passion, Power and Politics,
in collaboration with the Royal Opera House and
sponsored by Société Générale, runs until 25
February 2018. vam.ac.uk/opera
A CD with excepts from operas to accompany the
exhibition is available from Warner Classics.
 egas’ The Ballet scene from Meyerbeer’s
D
Opera ‘Roberto Il Diavolo’ (1876)
 avel Filonov’s response to Shostakovich’s
P
first symphony (1935), from the State
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
© BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 73
18/09/2017 12:37:09
 INTERVIEW

Q&A ANNABEL ARDEN

The director speaks to Katy Wright as she prepares new productions for
Opera North and her Barber of Seville is revived for the Glyndebourne tour

Tell me about Opera North’s Little

© OPERA NORTH

Greats season.
[Planning director] Christine Chibnall
was thinking that her priority this season
was to really try and reach out to people
who would like to go to the opera, but
perhaps haven’t. She’s put together this
season with that in mind, with the most
enormous variety you could imagine. It’s
got everything from Cav & Pag to Gilbert
& Sullivan.
We’re doing everything with very little
so we can say to people: ‘Opera is not about
the trappings. It’s about performance,
it’s about storytelling, and it’s also about
a community of people’. We’re hoping
people will come to more than one
opera and see the same singers being
unbelievably versatile.

Why did you choose Osud and L’enfant et

les sortilèges?
I could equally as well have chosen Cav
& Pag, because I’d love to do those. I
love Janáček – I’m always leaping at the
opportunity to do more, and Osud is a real
discovery. It’s the fourth opera Janáček
ever wrote, and his daughter had died
the year before, aged 20. This trauma
found expression in this piece, which is
very difficult. The curious thing is that
it’s an opera about a composer who can’t
finish his opera because his wonderful,
inspirational wife has died. The opera
itself is unfinished – it just ends. It’s an
interesting thing working on Janáček; it’s
very difficult to catch the right tone.
L’enfant isn’t often done because it’s
quite difficult. It really is an enigmatic
piece, and it’s the most exquisite score –
it’s extraordinary. Whenever I’ve seen it,
I’ve always thought ‘It’s a series of little
numbers, but what does it really mean?’
and ‘Do we really feel for the enfant?’ It’s a
riddle of a piece.

 pera is not about the trappings:

O
Annabel Arden

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This season introduces people to opera;
what was your own introduction?
I was a lucky child; I had parents who loved
opera, and they took me and my brother
to English National Opera as a child. My
mother would buy the box over the corner
of the pit; you couldn’t see the whole stage,
but it was cheap, and exciting for children
because you could see the orchestra. We went
to see everything. Mum always had a blanket
at the back of the box, and if we got bored
we were allowed to crawl under it with our
torches to read and eat. I never thought I
would work in the opera, but when Christine
Chibnall asked me to direct my first opera
(which was The Magic Flute in 1993), I
thought, ‘Why not?’ I’d never dreamt of
directing opera, but I’d seen an awful lot.
It was lucky because I didn’t feel remotely
intimidated by it. I remembered it with
pleasure – partly because it was just a treat.
Do you think opera today could be
more accessible?
The difficulty with opera is that it has a
completely undeserved reputation, in my
opinion, for being posh and elitist. In this
country that image is particularly strong.
Opera is about absolutely raw emotion. It’s
Arden’s staging of I barbiere di Siviglia returns to Glyndebourne for this year’s autumn tour
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incredibly accessible drama, and I think
once people start to go they realise there’s
nothing to be afraid of. But you do need
to crack that barrier. We all have to say to
people, ‘Come, come and see!’
I often bring friends of mine who’ve
never been before, and tell them they
mustn’t worry if they don’t understand
every word. You must read the synopsis
before you go in – that’s a sensible thing to
do – then you sit back and let it take you
away. You may see something different
from your neighbour and that’s absolutely
fine. I also say if you fall asleep in the
first 15 minutes, that’s excellent, because
you’re supposed to let go and go into some
interior, subconscious space where the
music can touch you. I think people who
perhaps don’t want to go to opera like
going to classical concerts because they can
be free in their own imagination – you can
respond and have an emotional experience
which is yours.
I’m a big fan of semi-stagings – I’ve
just done Turandot here in Leeds. The
great advantage of those productions is
that you can see the orchestra. I think
that really helps lots of people, because
they’re watching an orchestra, a story,
INTERVIEW
and people singing. I suppose that was
my first experience, because I could see
the orchestra.
How have you found returning to your
production of the Barber of Seville for the
upcoming Glyndebourne tour?
Sinéad O’Neill, who worked with me
on the first production and is a brilliant
director in her own right, is directing
the revival. She and I met last week, and
we went through every single bar, pretty
much, watching the video of what we did
and talking through how it could be better
and how we wanted to develop it. I feel
absolutely empowered by her.
We did have to make changes in a way
for the tour. The luxury of working at
Glyndebourne is that you can have these
fantastic sets, but you can’t take it all with
you so we’ve had to make adjustments. CM
Opera North’s Little Greats season runs
between 16 September and 18 November, and
Glyndebourne’s Il barbiere di Siviglia tours
between 8 October and 2 December.
www.operanorth.co.uk/littlegreats
www.glyndebourne.com/tickets-and-whats-on/
events/2017/il-barbiere-di-siviglia/
© BILL COOPER
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 75
19/09/2017 12:37:07
 INTERVIEW

MEET THE MAESTRO

Bridget Cunningham
The conductor and harpsichordist discusses her work with London Early Opera, and
tells Toby Deller about her ventures into contemporary repertoire

L
ondon Early Opera (LEO) may still
To conduct baroque be in its first decade – even if only
just – but under director Bridget
opera well it is very Cunningham it is already five recordings
into an ongoing survey of Handel’s music
important to play the for Signum Classics. Founded in 2008, the
group has just released a second volume
harpsichord of Handel at Vauxhall, two volumes of
Handel in Italy and the first volume of
Handel in Ireland. A second is on its
way, as are recordings focusing on the
composer’s operas, under the title Handel
in London.
‘The idea of the series was to capture
a musical snapshot at a moment in time
in Handel’s life to tell us more about
Handel the man, his life and his travels.’
says Cunningham. ‘We’ve released two
recordings of Handel in Italy because he
was there early in his life and was inspired
by the music of Italy. And then we’ve
released Handel at Vauxhall volumes one
and two: these contain music that would
have been performed at Vauxhall Pleasure
Gardens. At this time, the 1740s, this was
a place where English secular music was
performed: wonderful music by Handel
and other English composers such as Arne,
Hebden, Gladwin. Their music would be
performed every night in the summer.’
Beyond this project, Cunningham says
the aim of LEO is ‘to look in depth at the
music. We work regularly with historians
and musicologists to really get a fuller
picture of the music because I believe that
the word and the deed go together: the
deed as in the performance and the word as
in the musicology that goes with it.’
The process is as much practical as
scholarly, she says, reflecting that her
own training is in performance: she
studied harpsichord and organ, as well as
© MARTIN BRIGGS

 fuller picture of the music:

A
Bridget Cunningham

76 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017

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 INTERVIEW

conducting; these are skills that she brings
to her role at LEO since she frequently
conducts from the keyboard.
‘I studied conducting from the podium
at university, and then at the Royal College
of Music I continued this but also studied
the harpsichord and continuo. I had lessons
with everybody, with lots of people who led
from the harpsichord. I shadowed people
like Christopher Hogwood – you go to
rehearsals and watch and listen. It very
much helps if you can play the harpsichord
very well because you need to be able to
lead occasionally with your hand, with
your head, with eye contact, and you have
to breathe together.’
But even then, she does not see
conducting early music as predominantly
a technical exercise in keeping players
together, say. ‘To be able to conduct
baroque opera well, it is very important
to be able to play the harpsichord,
read scores and figured bass fluently,
and understand the nuances of all the
instruments and of the different voice
types. It is fascinating how Handel writes
arias for individual voices focusing on
the strengths of particular singers he
worked with at the time. For example, he
wrote for the 18th-century Italian diva
Margherita Durastanti’s strengths such
as entering in awkward moments, pauses
and great leaps, and also wrote exquisitely
for the pathos of the 18th-century
English soprano, Susannah Maria Cibber.
Baroque dance also plays a big part in
Handel’s compositions, and it is useful to
understand the different dance forms
and patterns.’
Although she has until now worked
predominantly in baroque music,
Cunningham is beginning to conduct
more in the modern manner. But she gently
corrects the suggestion that, contrary to
most conductors interviewed for Meet the
Maestro, contemporary music might not
feature in her work.
‘Well, actually, no because 17 July was the
300th anniversary of Handel’s Water Music
and we had a new piece written for us by
BIOGRAPHY
XX1973 Born in Colchester
XX1996 Graduates with BA in music
from Southampton University
XX1998 Advanced diploma in music
RCM; prizes include Tankard Prize,
Ruth Dyson Prize and Lofthouse
Award
XX2002 MMus from Trinity College,
London
XX2006-08 Junior fellowship Royal
Collge of Music
XX2008 Founds London Early Opera as
musical director
the former BBC Young Composer Grace-
Evangeline Mason that we premiered on the
Thames on a boat.’ Mason’s piece, River, was
co-commissioned by Radio 4’s Front Row
and the BBC Proms. CM
bridgetcunningham.org.uk

My ISM is

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 ISM MEMBERSHIP OFFER

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CM1017_078_F_Advertorial 2 ISM OK.indd 78 18/09/2017 13:13:45


Baroque beginnings
The Bach Players return to their roots to mark their 20th anniversary
Back to the beginning: The Bach Players
I
n several ways, the Bach Players’
celebration of their 20th anniversary
is a back-to-beginnings schedule. The
latest and last of 12 albums released by
Hyphen Press is titled Bach and before, and
features works by Bach’s three predecessors
as Kantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig
– Schein, Schelle, Kuhnau – and the master
himself. The three anniversarial concerts,
in Norwich, Hampstead in north-west
London, and Kenardington, Kent, have, as
ensemble founder and violinist Nicolette
Moonen says, ‘the sort of programme we
did in the beginning – just Bach’. Soprano
Rachel Elliott, who has performed with the
ensemble throughout those 20 years, is the
vocal soloist.
Before that beginning, Moonen in her
native Netherlands joined towards the
end of Gustav Leonhardt and Nikolaus
Harnoncourt’s project to record all of Bach’s
cantatas. ‘People felt bereft when it was over
so started a concert series in Amsterdam to
play one Bach cantata every weekend.’
When she moved to the UK, she felt
similarly bereft ‘because not much Bach was
played here’.
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RECORDING NEWS FROM THE STUDIOS BY PHILLIP SOMMERICH
‘I naively thought I could mimic what
was happening in Amsterdam, and as we’ve
gone on what I wanted to do with this group
revealed itself.’
In summary, that revelation is that to
communicate with an audience, you don’t
talk down to them from the stage but
interact with them. At their Hampstead
base, the players perform in the centre of
the church, surrounded by the audience,
with children always in the front row.
‘Parents are free to take their children
home at the interval but the children beg
their parents to stay. They love it because
they are so close to us. We had an eight-
year-old in floods of tears listening to the
Pergolesi Stabat Mater. Children are so
open, they are the best audience.’
The ensemble is in the church before
the audience arrives, as if welcoming the
listeners, rather than making a ritual
entrance to expected applause. Audience
members can sip drinks while listening
and at interval the players mingle with
them. Moonen talks about each work
being played.
The recordings began with a work that
fascinated Moonen, Bach’s arrangement of
Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater (BWV1083). ‘Then
I thought, if we were going to record Bach’s
take on Pergolesi, why not Mozart arranging
Bach on the same disc? That became my
passion, taking Bach off his pedestal – not
to diminish him but to show he did not
come out of nothing, that there was a whole
world around him.’
One of her favourite albums was of the
‘audition cantatas’ that contenders for the
Leipzig post – Graupner, Telemann and
Bach – submitted. Bach came third and
Moonen was intrigued by her audience’s
reaction to Graupner’s winning work:
‘They lapped it up. He does not have the
depth and complexity of Bach but he was
forward-looking and it is very effective and
affecting music.’
Moving on from that, the ensemble
presented what the three contenders were
doing a year later – cantatas they composed
for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany in
their respective posts.
The Bach Players enter a new decade
with a new recording project. With the
German label Coviello they will explore
French chamber music, particularly works
by his contemporaries noted down by the
composer and musicologist Sébastien de
Brossard, beginning with an album focusing
on Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and then
one on Clérambault.
www.thebachplayers.org.uk ►
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 79
19/09/2017 13:25:33
 RECORDING NEWS FROM THE STUDIOS BY PHILLIP SOMMERICH

Hidden gems
Skani aims to introduce Latvian composers to a wider audience

O
ne of the abiding memories of the Choir – which received a rapturous reception of the better legacies of the Soviet era. ‘There
collapse of the Soviet Union in at its Proms debut in August – are due next were a lot of bad things during the Soviet
the late 1980s is of the Singing year, along with performances by the Latvian occupation but the music education system
Revolution, the armies of people from Latvia Academic Choir, which Jansons often was very strong and we inherited that. We still
and Baltic neighbours who battered down the brings to Germany for his Bavarian radio have music schools, music high schools and the
Iron Curtain by assailing military occupiers performances and which also featured in the conservatory, and the artists who are now on
from barricades with patriotic songs. BBC’s tv dramatisation of War and Peace. the world stage had their beginnings here.’
Yet while Latvian performers such as Šēfers says Latvia’s plethora of professional With its National Symphony Orchestra,
Mariss Jansons, Gidon Kremer, Andris and amateur choirs stems from the birth of opera orchestra and Liepaja Symphony
Nelsons and Elīna Garanča are well known a choral festival tradition in the late 19th Orchestra, three professional choirs, the
in the west, the country’s composers are century which is at the core of national continuing stream of world-class performers
not. That thought came to clarinettist Egīls identity. To this day the singing festival and a century of yet-to-be-discovered
Šēfers when he was digging into Latvian attracts up to 30,000 amateurs who perform composers (Pēteris Vasks is an exception to
radio’s archives to review recordings of in massed choir, and many of them also that obscurity), Skani plans a showcase of a
classical works. ‘Radio has a large database enter fiercely competitive auditions for other small nation’s rich musical tradition that will
of concert recordings and old Melodiya LPs, performing slots. continue after the last sounds of the centenary
but they are not available to the public,’ he But Latvian instrumentalists and composers celebrations fade away.
says. ‘Something had to be done about that are also queuing to record for Skani. That
so Latvian listeners and listeners around the richness of music talent is, Šēfers admits, one www.skani.lv
world could discover Latvian composers.’
What he has done is launch the label Skani
Bringing Latvia to listeners: Egīls Šēfers
(which means ‘resound’), just in time for
Latvia’s centenary celebrations next year. He
aims to release up to half a dozen albums a year
under three strands: centennial celebrations,
archive reissues and Latvian composers.
One of the first is Nature and the Soul,
with the Latvian Radio Choir under Kaspars
Putniņš showcasing four of Latvia’s choral
composers: Jāzeps Vītols, founder of the
Latvian Conservatory of Music, Emīls
Dārziņš, and folklorists Jēkabs Graubiņš
and Emilis Melngailis. Putniņš describes the
album as ‘a love letter to Latvia, a return to
a collective musical heritage, [and] a kind of
childhood home of imagery, sound and colour
for this small nation’.
The next release is what Šēfers describes as
a dynastic recording: father and sons Georgijs,
Andrejs and Sergejs Osokins performing a
double CD of various piano works. That will
be followed by Reinis Zariņš and the Latvian
National Symphony Orchestra performing
the piano concerto and miniatures by Lūcija
Garūta, one of Latvia’s first female composers,
Jānis Ivanovs’ Symphonies nos 5 and 21 from
the National Symphony Orchestra under
© JĀNIS DEINATS

Andris Poga, and Sinfonietta Riga performing

chamber symphonies by Tumševica, Leimane
and Dzenītis.
Further releases from the Latvian Radio
80 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017

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Monthly music
The NYCGB digital record label celebrates its second anniversary
T
he National Youth Choirs of Great
Britain’s first effort at releasing a
recording was not encouraging.
‘We thought that, with 700 members, they
would all want to buy CDs, but they all
either downloaded or streamed just the
tracks they sang on,’ says artistic director
Ben Parry.
But with the arrival two years ago of
Julian Forbes as marketing manager, with
years in the recording industry under his
belt, a strategy for the digital era emerged.
‘When I arrived there was a stockpile of
tracks which didn’t have any theme or
rationale,’ he says. Forbes’ solution was
a digital-only label that released one track
a month.
The NYCGB venture is a far cry from
Plugged in
As it enters its second decade, Signum Records remains a firm advocate of streaming
Streaming is essential: Steve Long
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RECORDING NEWS FROM THE STUDIOS BY PHILLIP SOMMERICH
a commercial label. The aim of recording,
Parry says, is to introduce young members to
repertoire they will perform at its residential
courses. ‘They come together just twice
a year and when they record something
they are desperate to hear it,’ Forbes says.
‘With the CD model it can take six or eight
months to come out,’ Parry adds. ‘Now they
can go to Spotify or iTunes each month and
there is something new to listen to.’
Some tracks have attracted audiences
beyond the choirs, though. Tallis’ Spem in
alium, recorded last spring, has had 48,000
streams, while Parry’s work Flame is a close
second. ‘I could never imagine a piece I had
written would attract 40,000 listens,’ Parry
says. ‘That’s the power of the digital domain.’
NYCGB has released 28 tracks, and
T
homas Tallis provided inspiration for
many fellow composers during the
renaissance, but in the 1990s he did
the same for the recording industry.
Alistair Dixon’s Chapelle du Roi wanted
to record the complete works of Tallis on
nine CDs but had no funds; production
house Floating Earth, faced with record labels
shrinking release schedules as sales fell, was
using spare capacity to make recordings which
it licensed to labels.
The result was the launch of Signum
Records in 1997 with the release of the first
three Tallis CDs on a revenue-sharing basis,
which rapidly became a model for other
producer-artist partnerships and labels such
as Avie.
Signum rapidly acquired marketing and
PR skills, initially seeing itself as an early-
music label but, with artists such as the King’s
Singers and Tenebrae knocking on its door,
soon embraced all genres.
Today, with 520 releases, sub-labels for
the Philharmonia, Paul McCreesh’s Gabrieli
works due for recording include a work by
Mark Armstrong of the National Youth Jazz
Orchestra, with instrumental contribution
from the Fellowship Octet, and three
YouTube videos include America composer
Ethan Sperry’s Balleilakka, based on themes
from a Bollywood film.
Marking the venture’s second anniversary
is Jaakko Mäntyjärvi’s Canticum Calamitatis
Maritimae, an intense eight-part memorial to
the sinking of the ferry Estonia.
For now, this is a label without a CD,
but with a growing catalogue of tracks,
and tours of the US and New Zealand in
prospect, the temptation to offer a physical
souvenir to audiences is pressing.
www.nycgb.org.uk
Consort and others, and many awards, it long
ago shrugged off the vanity-label tag.
‘Some people assume that if you have
the money you can be on any label,’ says
managing director Steve Long. ‘It doesn’t
work like that. It needs to fit with our A&R
policy and certainly has to hit the quality
threshold, and these days musicians need
to be out there giving concerts and embrace
social media.’
Revenue sharing means the artists get
money even if Signum makes no profit. But
not having to bear artist overheads has allowed
Signum to be an early adopter of downloads
and streaming in the 1990s.
Long sees the latter as an industry saviour,
pointing out that with record industry revenue
rising this year for the first time this century,
50% of that flow comes from streaming. ‘If
you are not streaming, you are not reaching
your audience, you are not in the music
business anymore.’ CM
www.signumrecords.com
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 81
18/09/2017 13:17:21
 REVIEWS BY GUY WEATHERALL

CDs
Beethoven: The Symphonies
EDITOR’S CHOICE Gewandhausorchester, Herbert Blomstedt
Purcell: Royal Welcome Songs for King James II Accentus ACC80322 (5CD)
The Sixteen, Harry Christophers     

Coro COR16151
    
Purcell’s substantial, richly inventive welcome songs were
written to celebrate the return from holiday of the court of
King James II and Queen Mary. Almost operatic in scale and
ambition, both deserve to be heard more especially in
performances as poised and well-executed as here. Inevitably
Sound the trumpet, beat the drum is more dramatic, more
rousing than Ye tuneful Muses, raise your heads, but they
make an apt coupling, generously filled with songs, instrumental items and a fine,
lithe take on the famous Chacony in G minor. Singing, playing, recording and
presentation are exemplary.
Royal welcome: Harry Christophers
Blomstedt’s
Beethoven seems
’right’: tempi are
never too fast or too
slow, but never
staid, and phrasing
is alive with rhythmic
energy and cumulative momentum. His
Leipzig players give their all – the strings in
particular have a glorious burnished gold
sonority – and, in the masterfully paced
ninth, Mihoko Fujimura and Christian
Gerhaher are especially noteworthy.
Economically priced and packaged, this
CD release makes a viable alternative to
Accentus’ ongoing DVD and Blu-ray cycle
of the same performances, albeit without
the latter’s commendably straightforward
camera work and textbook surround
sound.

Telemann: Fantasias, TWV40:26-37

Robert Smith (VdG)
Resonus Classics RES10195
    

Rediscovered as
recently as 2015 in
a collection in
Osnabruck,
north-west
Germany, this
substantial
collection now stands alongside the 36
fantasias for harpsichord and the
(relatively well known) 12 for flute. Smith
writes about the privilege of coming to
these works as a ‘clean slate’ without the
vast interpretative history of, say, the Bach
cello suites. This freshness and excitement
are tangible on the current disc, well-filled
and beautifully recorded, such that at no
point does the ear tire of a solitary viola da
gamba. Even if they were never meant to
be performed as an extended sequence
(they were published in pairs, cleverly
encouraging players to collect the set), this
release is a considerable achievement.
82 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017

CM1017_082-083_R_Reviews Cds 0609KC DDP OK.indd 82 18/09/2017 13:18:03


Maxwell Davies: The Last Island –
late chamber music
Hebrides Ensemble
Delphian DCD34178
    
This valuable
collection
alternates recent
miniatures with
four substantial
works from Davies’
last years. The Last
Island, which opens the disc, is a fine,
evocative essay for string sextet from
2009; similarly impressive is the oboe
quartet of four years later, with Heinz
Holliger pupil Emanuel Abbuhl here on
fine form. If the 2008 violin sonata is not
quite on this level, these are
nonetheless stand-out, definitive
performances, beautifully recorded by
this enterprising Scottish label.
Eisler: Lieder Vol 1 – Songs and
Ballads, 1929-1937
Holger Falk (ba), Steffen Schleiermacher
(pf)
MDG 61320012
    
Hanns Eisler,
acerbic Brecht-
collaborator and
doyen of East
German
composers, left
some 500 songs on
his death in 1962, many of them written
for theatre and film. In fact, all but two in
the current collection are settings of
Brecht, and their symbiotic relationship
reflects and is defined by the political
climate of the time. Falk is as persuasive
in the bitter political agitprop of
Einheitsfrontlied (The United Front Song)
as in the seductive Lied der Nanna, with
Schleiermacher an incisive and flexible
fellow-traveller. Texts are given in
German only and, provided MDG are
selective in its selection of songs to
record, this promises to be a worthwhile
project.
CM1017_082-083_R_Reviews Cds 0609KC DDP OK.indd 83
Beethoven: Quartet in F minor, Op
95; Schubert: Quartet in G, D887
Oslo String Quartet
2L 2L135SABD (hybrid SACD & pure
audio blu-ray)
Fine exponents of
Scandinavian
music on disc, this
is the quartet’s
second release for
the enterprising 2L
audiophile label.
That first disc coupled Schubert with
Grieg: this pairing is more satisfying and
draws playing of great depth and
character from the Oslos. The sound is
fresh and supple, ensemble cohesive
and exquisitely balanced. The recording
is astonishingly realistic in all formats
and, if the album’s title (Minor:Major) is
trite, more of this repertoire from these
players would be very welcome.
Zelenka: Chamber and orchestral
works
Pasticcio Barocco; Auvergne Chamber
Orchestra
Label-Herisson LH16
    
Delightful and
inventive in equal
measure, this
makes a splendid
single disc
introduction to the
composer, with
deft ensemble playing (oboist David
Walther and violinist Harumi Ventalon
stand out in particular) and a real sense
of style. Two substantial trio sonatas
(ZWV181 nos 1 and 2) are played with
real panache, but the core of the
programme is the Simphonie a 8
Concertante (ZWV189), which receives a
nimble reading that can hold its own
alongside earlier recordings by
Camerata Bern (Archiv) and the Freiberg
Baroque Orchestra (DHM). Sound is
excellent and an earlier disc of sonatas
from the same team is also worth
seeking out.
REVIEWS
Walton: Viola Concerto; Sinding: Suite
im Alten Stil
Eivind Holtsmark Ringstad (va); Oslo
Philharmonic Orchestra, Joshua
Weilerstein
Lawo LWC1133
    
Just 22 years old
when these
recordings were
made, Ringstad’s
CD debut makes a
very powerful
impression indeed.
His tone is both warm and clear, with a
fine sense for rhythm and line; indeed the
Walton is the finest new version since
Lawrence Power (Hyperion) and that was
ten years ago. Ringstad is matched by
superb playing from his compatriots
under Weilerstein’s dynamic, flexible
conducting, while sound is demonstration
quality. It is a pity that the coupling is so
slight, bringing the total duration to less
than 42 minutes – but do investigate this
disc for a very special reading of the
Walton.
Dvořák: Symphony no.1, Op.3
Staatsphilharmonie Nurnberg, Marcus
Bosch
Coviello Classics CDV91718 (hybrid-
SACD)
    
Bosch completes
his Dvořák cycle
with a disc that
exemplifies the
strengths and
weaknesses of the
earlier releases. If
his Nuremberg orchestra lacks the last
word in finesse, there is a compensating
freshness vividly caught in this live SACD
recording. Bosch is a force of nature on
the podium and there is no want of
excitement – he sometimes leaves too
little in reserve – but quiet passages are
beautifully moulded. Even without a
coupling, The Bells of Zlonice have rarely
rung out with such verve. CM
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 83
18/09/2017 13:18:25
 REVIEWS

BOOKS
Beethoven’s 32 Piano
EDITOR’S CHOICE Sonatas: A Handbook for
Nation and Classical Performers
Music: From Handel to Stewart Gordon
Copland Oxford University Press
Matthew Riley and Anthony Hardback, £64
D Smith Paperback, £18.99
Boydell Press     

Hardback, £25
     Stewart Lynell Gordon, a
distinguished professor
This excellent book is a of keyboard studies at
collaboration between the University of Southern
music historian Matthew California, has a wide-ranging
Riley and the late Professor discography to his name
Anthony D Smith, who and, half a century ago,
lectured in nationalism founded the William Kapell
and ethnicity, and International Piano Competition, which he directed for 15 years.
explores how and why listeners come – over time – to ‘feel the He has also published an edition of Beethoven’s sonatas with
nation’ through particular musical works. There is no better Alfred Music, based on his experience as a pianist and teacher
illustration of the adaptability of music than Barber’s Adagio, This friendly, helpful, refreshingly non-doctrinaire guide to
a work entirely independent of any ‘national commemorative performing Beethoven is quite far from what appears to be a
associations’ when it was originally written as a string quartet hornet’s nest atmosphere in American musicology today.
movement. Similarly, during early performances of Nabucco, It is addressed to thinking pianists who wish to make up
there was, according to contemporary reports, no special their own minds about what Beethoven may have wanted in his
audience excitement at ‘Va, pensiero’. The image of Verdi the sonatas. It is a book of choices, reasonably argued.
Italian patriot was ‘a much later construction’. In a tone readers may find familiar from Gordon’s previous
Common to many composers’ handling of national idioms – books from Oxford University Press (Etudes for Piano Teachers,
folksong or flamenco – is their bending of the original sources Reflections on the Teacher’s Art and Mastering the Art of
to their own purposes. Thus Bartók assimilated elements of the Performance), hints are offered that when in doubt about
folk music of, not merely Hungary but several other countries, fine points such as staccato, indications from editions and
into his own language, while ‘Albéniz and Falla transformed manuscripts may vary.
Spanish folk modes into more chromatic systems, rather in Examining Beethoven’s sketchbooks can be helpful, though
the manner of Bartók.’ Often the composer’s synthesis and they are incomplete and never meant as definitive statements:
sophistication take us a very long way from the supposed purity ‘Sketches sometimes clarify contradictions between the
of folk-music. Also, the potent influence of Stravinsky upon manuscripts and early
composers such as Falla and Copland further modified their editions, and studying the
‘national’ character. evolution of the music offers
The authors’ impressive breadth of reference is indicated insights into the composer’s
by the inclusion of the relatively unfamiliar, such as Stanford’s creative process.’
six Irish Rhapsodies, Bliss’s Morning Heroes and d’Indy’s If the prose style is
Symphonie cévenole. I like the description of Sibelius’s ‘static at times stately, the
effects’ as ‘soundsheets’, but I don’t agree that the gloomy observations are usually apt,
ending of his fourth symphony underlines ‘his characterisation as in this comment on the
of the Finnish landscape as desolate and unforgiving.’ Isn’t the Hammerklavier sonata: ‘It
fatalistic character of this piece rather more connected to the is as if Beethoven included
composer’s throat cancer? pages from his sketchbook
Minor blemishes are the indecision about the spelling of in the body of the sonata
Granada (pp 128-9) and the omission of several composers itself and a musical
from the index, but generally the production of this intriguing description of the awakening
study is as good as we expect from Boydell Press. of inspiration as the fugue
subject dawned.’ CM
PHILIP BORG-WHEELER
BENJAMIN IVRY
84 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017

CM1017_084_R_Reviews Books 1 page 1809KC DDP OK.indd 84 19/09/2017 12:44:40

 New music books from

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My Life in Twentieth-Century Music
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CM1017.indd 85 18/09/2017 15:19:11

 SUBSCRIBE TO
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FESTIVAL PREVIEW
RED
OCTOBER Following its successful launch last year, the London Piano Festival is back for round
two, with a focus on Russian works and artists with roots in Russia, marking the
centenary of the October Revolution in 1917. Colin Clarke unveils this year’s exciting
line-up at Kings Place
T
he inaugural London Piano Festival
(LPF) established its credentials
at Kings Place in autumn 2016,
generating enthusiasm and critical acclaim.
The festival returns this year, from 5 to 8
October, promising an even greater depth
and breadth of repertoire and a high calibre of
guest artists.
The theme this year, devised by LPF’s
artistic directors Charles Owen and Katya
Apekisheva, is Russia. Perfectly timed to
reflect the centenary of the October 1917
Revolution, the choice of territory for the
festival reflects not only Apekisheva’s roots,
but also that she and Owen share a teacher
in the Kiev-born, Moscow-trained Irina
Zaritskaya, who spent her final years before
her death in 2001 living and teaching
in London.
Repertoire highlights this year include
Rachmaninov’s second suite (performed by
Owen and Apekisheva); Weinberg’s second
sonata (Apekisheva); and Rachmaninov’s
Sonata No 1, played by Russian-born New
York resident Ilya Itin, winner of the 1996
Leeds International Piano Competition.
Apekisheva was a finalist in that very
competition, and she admires Itin for his
‘dignity, depth and beautiful tone’. The
Weinberg sonata is particularly significant
since, in spite of attempts to revive his
© SIM CANETTY-CLARKE
popularity (most notably perhaps, ENO’s
LPF artistic directors Katya Apekisheva and
Charles Owen
36 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
CM1017_036-037_F_Preview_London Piano Festival 0609KC DDP OK.indd 36 18/09/2017 12:20:17 CM1017_036-037_F_Preview_London Piano Festival 0609KC DDP OK.indd 37
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CMSUBS.indd 86
© ROBERT WORKMAN
Composer Elena Langer is writing a new work inspired by
Petrov-Vodkin’s Red Mare
staging of his opera The Passenger in 2011),
his music still does not have the place in the
repertoire it deserves. Apekisheva was asked
to play the second sonata for the Brundibár
Arts Festival in Newcastle in January this year.
‘From the moment I started learning this piece
I realised what a powerful work it is,’ she says.
‘Weinberg deserves serious attention.’
Meanwhile, the Austrian-Russian pianist
Lisa Smirnova will play works by Scarlatti,
Mozart and Handel. Smirnova has been
likened to Glenn Gould by the press
(though my own first impressions brought
to mind Tatiana Nikolayeva). Smirnova,
like Apekisheva, studied with Anna
Pavlovna Kantor, an influential teacher at
the Gnessen School for Gifted Children in
Moscow. Smirnova is not very well-known
in the UK, though, and this fact was part of
the impetus to include her. She has recorded
the Handel Suites for ECM.
Premieres are important to the London
Piano Festival: a YouTube video shows
the stirring, exciting premiere of Nico
Muhly’s Fast Patterns last year (youtu.be/
aZng4NfXziY). The Russian-born British
composer Elena Langer, perhaps most famous
for her acclaimed opera Figaro Gets a Divorce
(a ‘must-see’, says Apekisheva), offers a new
piece. Apekisheva and Langer are long-
time friends and Apekisheva is unstinting
in her praise for Langer’s music: ‘She is an
extraordinary composer with a unique voice,
her music is so vibrant and varied.’
Although Langer’s original intention was
to base her new piece on 1917 paintings by
CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG
Simon Callow adds some star power to Prokofiev’s Peter
and the Wolf
Kandinsky (with images projected, on
TASMIN
stage), the recent Royal Academy exhibition
Revolution led Langer to a painting by Kuzma
Petrov-Vodkin, Red Mare (from which her
new piece takes its title). We may still get some
LITTLE
Kandinsky projected as part of the experience,
or even a collage of Kandinsky, Malevich
and Red Mare.. Langer describes the painting
as ‘realistic and surreal at the same time’,
while the tension between the horse moving
forward and the person looking backwards
My passion for
provides an impetus for the energy of the
piece: ‘It will be fast,’ Langer says, ‘short and
virtuosic’. Her own musical voice has become
Polish music
ever more approachable over her composing
life (‘I am writing A Tune a Day,’ she admits,
with a smile).
Melvyn Tan was one of the stars of the
recent All About Piano! festival at the
French Institute in Kensington. He presents
another world premiere for the London
Piano Festival, Kevin Volans’ L’Africaine in
ON LOCATION
a programme entitled ‘Dances and Mirrors’,
(Miroirs and
including music by Ravel (Miroirs
How radio can
Valses nobles et sentimentales)
sentimentales and Weber
Introduction to the Dance).
(Introduction Dance
conjure a sense
The festival sees the return of the popular
two-piano marathon, when a group of
of place
pianists plays in different combinations over
a three-part evening. Adams’ Hallelujah
Junction will provide an intense starting
point; the high-jinks of Lutosławski’s
Paganini Variations should end the evening
AGING
on a high. It’s good to see London-born
Danny Driver participating, after his
GRACEFULLY
successful St John’s recital.
The impact of
music on the
elderly
CM1017_001_Cover KC OK.indd 2
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OCTOBER 2017 £5.50
PRINT & DIGITAL
FORMATS
Once more, there is an event for children.
NEW MUSIC BY KATY WRIGHT
Last year saw delightful Sunday concerts for
young people with the UK-based Japanese
pianist Noriko Ogawa; this year, Apekisheva,
Owen and Driver participate in Prokofiev’s
PREMIERE CHOICE
Peter and the Wolf and Poulenc’s Babar the happened in terms of how we understand our
OPERA
Elephant (with the sonorous acting luminary musical canon. Ask anyone and they’ll name
Simon Callow as narrator). you many dead male composers; how many
‘Charles and I both feel it is essential to
TOM GREEN – THE WORLD’S WIFE
SEASON
dead female composers can the average music-
bring music to children in a fun and accessible lover name? It’s not because they weren’t there;
way. And it’s so great to have Simon Callow it’s because they weren’t prioritised in the way
From stage
© CATHY PYLE
on board with us to narrate these exciting we understand music history. Once I realised
stories,’ says Apekisheva. that, I explored all these brilliant past female
to screen
Another popular strand that returns for composers, some who are on the fringes of our
year two is the final jazz concert. Jazz legend consciousness and some no one has heard of.
Julian Joseph’s turn last year set the bar high. But they deserve to be heard.
This year’s event features the highly talented
Jason Rebello, who cites Herbie Hancock and
and beyond ‘It can be as small as a three-note motif
which I then develop into something, all the
McCoy Tyner as influences. way up to a complex quote of many bars which
will pepper the whole sound-world for many
A classically-trained jazz pianist, Rebello
minutes. It’s still very much my music, but I
has made a name for himself in the pop world,
wanted to have them represented there, and
touring with the likes of Sting and rock
to celebrate their work. But then equally, that
guitarist Jeff Beck. Apekisheva says: ‘Neither in itself is part of the contradiction – someone
Charles nor I are jazz experts but we both could accuse me of stealing women’s work for
REVIEWS BY GUY WEATHERALL
love listening to it and want to include a jazz glory, another guy going off the backs of all
concert in each festival. It was the fantastic of these women who came before me. Maybe
Julian Joseph who highly recommended
CDs
that’s true, but if I can actually get people to
Jason Rebello to us. We have listened to ask that question, that’s positive in itself.’
and explored Jason’s work and we’ve been Green clearly signposts the material by
Beethoven: The Symphonies
fascinated by his playing.’ CM historical women: ‘There will still be moments EDITOR’S CHOICE Gewandhausorchester, Herbert Blomstedt
when a 21st-century score will melt into what Purcell: Royal Welcome Songs for King James II
Accentus ACC80322 (5CD)
The Sixteen, Harry Christophers     
Visit www.londonpianofestival.com for this year’s sounds like a 17th-century baroque figuration Coro COR16151
     Blomstedt’s
complete programme. and back again. Those moments will tell the Beethoven seems
Purcell’s substantial, richly inventive welcome songs were ’right’: tempi are
audience that someone is being referenced and written to celebrate the return from holiday of the court of never too fast or too
View the festival’s YouTube channel for a taster of cherished. Even if they don’t know exactly who King James II and Queen Mary. Almost operatic in scale and slow, but never
ambition, both deserve to be heard more especially in staid, and phrasing
that is, they’ll still know it’s a female composer,
performances as poised and well-executed as here. Inevitably is alive with rhythmic
what to expect: youtu.be/O8UyidD7j34 Celebrating women: Tom Green Sound the trumpet, beat the drum is more dramatic, more energy and cumulative momentum. His
because that will be clear in the programme. rousing than Ye tuneful Muses, raise your heads, but they Leipzig players give their all – the strings in
I’ll also be giving a few pre-performance talks make an apt coupling, generously filled with songs, instrumental items and a fine, particular have a glorious burnished gold
T
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 37 lithe take on the famous Chacony in G minor. Singing, playing, recording and sonority – and, in the masterfully paced
aking its name from Carol Ann poetry itself is very musical; she’s a poet who’s where, in the lightest way possible, I’ll try to presentation are exemplary. ninth, Mihoko Fujimura and Christian
Gerhaher are especially noteworthy.
Duffy’s 1991 poetry collection, which not scared of rhythmic vibrancy within her extract some of these processes and walk them
BBC RADIO 3
Economically priced and packaged, this
Royal welcome: Harry Christophers
CD release makes a viable alternative to
examines the actions and stories words. Her rhythms are in no way predictable back to where I started with the material and
18/09/2017 12:20:39 Accentus’ ongoing DVD and Blu-ray cycle
FOCUS of historical and mythical men from the
perspective of their spouses, Tom Green’s new
or boring, but she really embraces it when
she wants to give a phrase an almost musical
how they ended up in the piece.’
The composer says he wanted the work to
of the same performances, albeit without
the latter’s commendably straightforward
camera work and textbook surround
sound.
With guest editor opera places women centre stage. ‘Duffy looks
at how we use stories in the past to understand
bounce. I really appreciated that when I was
setting it.’
confront the issues of gender, representation
and identity. ‘I wanted the work to make it
Alan Davey
Telemann: Fantasias, TWV40:26-37
ourselves in the present,’ the composer says. The composer turned to technology to very clear that there are profound questions Robert Smith (VdG)
Resonus Classics RES10195
‘She’s not just made that clear, but she’s also bring the characters together on stage: ‘The that we still haven’t really addressed, and that     
shaken up our understanding of how we do loop pedals allow the soprano to play multiple we’re quite good at ignoring, even though they
SEE PAGE 45 that, and who gets to be part of our stories and characters at once. She can sing one character confront us in our daily lives. But this isn’t a
Rediscovered as
recently as 2015 in
a collection in
who doesn’t.’ and store it in the loop pedal, then duet with polemic crusade – it’s more of an exploration Osnabruck,
north-west
Green selected 11 of the 31 poems in the it in the guise of another character, then make of these ideas, and along the way it’s a brilliant Germany, this
substantial
collection, taking care to ensure their themes a trio. She uses the loop pedal to multiply how excuse to explore some unusual music with collection now stands alongside the 36
were complementary. ‘Throughout the cycle many characters she can represent; that also simultaneous loops and all sorts of other fantasias for harpsichord and the
(relatively well known) 12 for flute. Smith
of 11 I’m trying to construct contours within allows me as a composer to have more than one interesting musical objects.’ ► writes about the privilege of coming to
these works as a ‘clean slate’ without the
them, but I’m not trying to force a narrative character on stage at once, and to start creating vast interpretative history of, say, the Bach
cello suites. This freshness and excitement
on them; for example, the first poem is about a dialogue between them.’
10>
are tangible on the current disc, well-filled
XX 15 OCTOBER
adolescence and losing your virginity, and As well as bringing the narrative voices Tom Green The World’s Wife (Amanda Forbes,
and beautifully recorded, such that at no
point does the ear tire of a solitary viola da
the final poem is about motherhood. I chose of women together, the piece is written soprano, Mavron String Quartet, Millennium gamba. Even if they were never meant to
Centre, Cardiff; also 19 October, Theatr be performed as an extended sequence
poems which are of quite different lengths: exclusively using material by historical women Brycheiniong, Brecon; 21 October, Taliesin (they were published in pairs, cleverly
269105
encouraging players to collect the set), this
some of them are long epics, and others are composers. ‘The World’s Wife is about how Arts Centre, Swansea; 28 October, Ucheldre, release is a considerable achievement.
Holyhead; 1 November, Aberystwyth Arts Centre;
quick, comedy gag poems, solely meant to we’ve written women out of our mythical 2 November, Galeri, Caernafon; and 3 November, 82 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
get their own back on the patriarchy. The and historical narratives; a similar thing has Torch Theatre, Milford Haven)
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OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 29
MEMBERSHIP
SEE PAGE 78
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19/09/2017 10:24:13
BUNDLE : FROM £44.49
12 print issues + 12 digital issues
a year
Promotion code: CMSUB17B
19/09/2017 10:26:00

LISTEN OUT FOR
7 OCTOBER
XXClassic FM Two hours celebrating
the 50th birthday of award-winning
composer Michael Giacchino, best
known for such scores as The
Incredibles and Star Trek
8 OCTOBER
XXR3 Continuing the operatic theme
of much of this month’s scheduling
on Radio 3, John Tusa reflects on his
experience of discovering opera while
stationed with the British army in mid-
1950s Germany
9 OCTOBER
XXR3 Composer of the Week is devoted
to Puccini. Donald MacLeod is joined
by Sir Antonio Pappano to discuss one
of the composer’s opera each day
13-15 OCTOBER
XXR3 Why Music? The Key to Memory
sees Radio 3 broadcast from Wellcome
Centre. The weekend features a
number of programmes which explore
the relationship between music,
memory and the mind
14 OCTOBER
XXR3 Sound of Cinema presenter
Matthew Sweet is joined at the
piano by composer Neil Brand as
the duo help uncover tricks of the
trade composers use to engage and
manipulate cinema-goers’ memories
14 OCTOBER
XXR3 Tom Service presents the Music
Matters Lab with the help of an
audience and teams of psychologists
from the Music, Mind and Brain
masters programme at Goldsmiths,
University of London. He explores how
our short term memory processes
melodies and rhythms, and also
explores the techniques musicians use
to perform from memory
15 OCTOBER see eight major opera houses come together
XXR3 The Early Music Show features
harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani
CM1017_087_R_Broadcasting 0609KC DDP OK.indd 87
BROADCASTING BY RICHARD FAWKES
Big stage to small screen
The BBC is celebrating opera on radio, TV and online
this autumn
T
hree years in the making, an operatic the Opera will see historian Lucy Worsley
collaboration between the V&A travel to six different cities across Europe
Museum, the BBC and the Royal to explore how opera plays a key role in the
Opera House has finally come to fruition. history of those cities. And then there’s a
This autumn at the V&A, a new exhibition real treat: the latest documentary from John
focusing on opera will open to the general Bridcut, which focuses on super-star Jonas
public, and all sorts of BBC programmes Kaufmann. Bridcut followed Kaufmann for
will be broadcast in the museum throughout a two-year period at a time when the singer
October, as the BBC embarks on a season was trying to decide in which direction his
of opera programmes featuring new films, career ought to go. The programme, which
documentaries, performances and special will air on BBC Four, will give audiences
projects. The aim is to engage with as many unprecedented access to Kaufmann
new listeners as possible and bring forward alongside intimate performance segments,
a shared vision of wanting to engage more concert footage and candid interviews. It
widely with opera itself. should not be missed. If you then want to
Audiences will be taken behind the scenes see Kaufmann on stage, Radio 3 is airing the
in the exploration of the social, political and Royal Opera’s production of Manon Lescaut
historical context of major works. First-class close to the documentary.
performers will take centre stage on screens The V&A exhibition, Opera: Passion,
and radio, and give new insights into the Power and Politics, opens on 30 September
form, while exploring opera’s emotive power. and runs until 25 February. The BBC
Seven operas are featured in the V&A opera season begins on 30 September
exhibition, including Handel’s Rinaldo, with exciting broadcasts continuing
featuring Cecilia Bartoli, David Daniels, into November. It’s a season well worth
Bernarda Fink and Gerald Finley with watching. CM
Christopher Hogwood conducting
the Academy of Ancient Music, and a
 een on screen: Jonas Kaufmann as
S
production of Verdi’s Nabucco from the Chevalier des Grieux in Manon Lescaut
Royal Opera House, starring Plácido
Domingo and Liudmyla Monastryka, and
conducted by Nicola Luisotti.
But there is so much more to this kind
of season than simply running a recording,
which is what Radio 3 does so well anyway,
airing some 90 complete productions a year
drawn from such houses as the Met in New
York, Glyndebourne and Wexford.
In an attempt to pass on his love of opera,
John Tusa recalls being introduced to the art
form while serving as a soldier in mid-1950s
Germany, and several other public figures
explain how their love of opera began. On
8 October there’s even a Flapper’s guide to
opera, looking at the art form in the 1920s,
and an Opera Passion day (19 October) will
for a day of live streaming, with each
© BILL COOPER
company curating an hour of content.
There are two major television
documentaries in the season. Nights at
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 87
19/09/2017 12:45:21
 ENIGMA
D Take your time! The closing date is 15 October
ACROSS
1 The mobled queen (6)
4 Scenes mignonnes sur quatre
notes (8)
9 Accidental cancelling
previous accidentals (7)
11 Our Lady’s is perpetual (7)
12 Edith Wharton’s Mr Frome (5)
13 Three-stringed Russian
instrument (9)
14 Ear-shaped (10)
16 A skylark never was one,
according to Shelley (4)
19 Broken queen accomplished
nothing (4)
20 Setting of Così fan tutte (10)
22 ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’
was his campaign song (9)
23 Matilda’s dance (5)
25 Type of melodic motion (7)
26 Figaro will provide one (7)
27 What 19 across did (8)
28 I dance stumblingly in the
liturgical side of the church (6)
SEPTEMBER SOLUTION
This month’s winner is
James Foy from Durham
88 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
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WIN a CD GOODIE BAG
Send completed crossword to Enigma, 20 Rugby Street, WC1N 3QZ
or email a scan to classical.music@rhinegold.co.uk
QUIZ
1. When was Birmingham Conservatoire founded?
2. Whose seventh symphony received its first public performance that
same year?
3. The premiere was conducted by Hans Richter; of which British
orchestra was he the first principal conductor?
4. Which composer famously died after conducting with a large staff?
5. In which city was this composer born?
6. Cherubini (pictured below), who was born in Florence, wrote two
Requiems. One commemorated the anniversary of the execution of
King Louis XVI of France; for whom was the other?
7. For what occasion was Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem commissioned?
8. Which opera was Britten commissioned to write specifically for
television?
9. Who wrote a one-act opera for Channel 4 inspired by the Apollo 11
moon landing?
10. Which composer claimed to come from a planet orbiting the star Sirius?
© HERBERT ROSE BARRAUD
SET BY FUSTIS
DOWN
1 Opera based on a
Netherlands legend, without
end (6,3,6)
2 Round (5)
3 Handel’s Queen of Egypt (8)
5 Touchable tips give you a
good ear (8,5)
6 Ms Benedetti ______ (6)
7 _________ and her metier (9)
8 Ms Anderson, soprano (5)
10 Offenbach opera had a
dessert named after it (2,5,6)
15 Could be X-ray image, as well
as musical furniture (9)
17 Composer added it twice to
3 6
dozen in different order (9)
18 Rough guide to recorder
© BBC
playing? (4,4)
21 French artist is rained off (6)
24 She features in one of 17’s
operas (5)
QUIZ ANSWERS
 arlheinz Stockhausen
10 K
9 Jonathan Dove
8 Owen Wingrave
Japanese Empire
of the founding of the
 he 2,600th anniversary
T 7
The composer himself 6
Florence 5
Jean-Baptiste Lully 4
Orchestra
 ondon Symphony
L 3
Bruckner 2
1886 1
8
18/09/2017 13:22:30
 MA NEW
NC TO
REGISTRATION
NOW OPEN!
Following five successful years in
London, Music & Drama Education
Expo comes to Manchester on
4 October 2017 for a one-day
celebration of CPD!
Held at Hilton Deansgate in
Manchester’s iconic Beetham Tower,
the conference will offer over 20
seminars, workshops and debates,
the chance to meet and browse the
services of over 40 key exhibitors,
and the opportunity to network
with 500 of your peers in music
and drama education.
BOOK YOUR FREE TICKET AT
www.mdexpo.co.uk
CONFERENCE SPONSORS SUPPORTERS
ALL PHOTOS © RHINEGOLD MEDIA & EVENTS
CM1017_089_R_Next issue OK DDP.indd 89
HES
TER NEXTNOVEMBER
ISSUE 2017
© MARCO BORGGREVE
 ORCHESTRAL FOCUS
Guest edited by Mark Pemberton, director of the
Association of British Orchestras
ABO Conference 2017: what’s on the agenda
in Cardiff ?
Host nation: orchestras and venues in Wales
The ABO at 70: how things have changed
A view from the top: Kathryn McDowell on her
three years as ABO chair
Tomorrow’s orchestral musician – by Catherine
Arlidge, director of the National Children’s Orchestra
 COVER FEATURE: JOHN NELSON
Fulfilling a lifelong ambition to conduct Berlioz’s
epic Les Troyens
 FATMA SAID
The 25-year-old Egyptian soprano who is attracting
ORGANISED BY
worldwide attention
 MEET THE MAESTRO
Tomáš Hanus looks back on his first year as music
director of Welsh National Opera
OCTOBER 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 89
19/09/2017 14:38:20
 MICHAEL WHITE
Extended Intervals
Our roving music critic visits a new festival in Switzerland, enjoys an operatic insight
into a chaotic morning, and takes in some Proms premieres
W
hat does a man do when he’s run
the Philharmonia Orchestra
for 30 years and finally retires?
Answer: he goes off to the mountains, not to
contemplate the view, but to start a festival.
At least, that’s what he does if he’s the
admirable David Whelton, who has started
a new festival in Klosters, the exquisite (and
exquisitely expensive) skiing village where
Prince Charles and other royal persons go
off-piste during the winter.
As with so many a Swiss mountain haven,
people only tend to go there when it snows;
so, following the lead of Gstaad and Verbier,
Klosters has discovered music in the summer
months. It’s built itself a venue, called the
Festival Hall to make David W feel at home.
The programme-book for the inaugural week
carried a photo of the off-piste prince looking
encouraging. And it would all have felt
expatriately English had the music not been
overwhelmed by Scandinavians.
The Malmö Symphony came out, with
trumpet virtuoso Håkan Hardenberger
playing and conducting (sometimes both
at once, which isn’t necessarily advisable,
although he just pulled it off). And there was
the University of Lund choir, which is like a
Nordic variant on an Oxbridge chapel choir
but better turned-out: in immaculate white-
tie-and-tails that actually fitted (as musicians’
tailcoats rarely do) and made the wearers
look like 1940s film stars. Specialising in the
Swedish classics, they went down particularly
Music in the mountains: Klosters, Switzerland
© CLAIRE SHOVELTON
© MARCO JOERGER
90 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2017
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well in a close-harmony account of Abba’s
greatest hits.
In truth the Klosters festival got off to an
impressive start, its only problem – and an odd
one for a nation that makes watches – being
punctuality. Nothing began on time, though
that was sometimes down to God. Before one
concert in a church we waited 20 minutes
while the bell tolled to announce the death
of a parishioner: something, of course, that
can’t be helped – except by fervent prayer that
when the festival runs next year every Klosters
resident is in robust health.
The health of cutting-edge contemporary
opera isn’t easy to assess, but you get some idea
from the Tête à Tête Festival that bounced
back to life this year after a no-show in 2016;
and as usual, the message was mixed. Some
of the things I saw were such pretentious
navel-gazers, without any sense of how to
win an audience’s interest, that they felt
like suicide notes. That said, there was one
entirely unpretentious piece whose charm you
wouldn’t have expected from the title.
Called She Said the F-Word, it was written
by the maverick composer/singer/jobbing
builder Daniel Gillingwater, whose last
lyric offering, The Homosexual Necrophiliac
Duck Opera, is a piece I dearly wish I’d seen.
Because the F-Word was an off-the-wall
joy: riotous, direct and funny, based around
the breakfast-table traumas of a family
getting a child ready for school. The text
‘An off-the-wall joy’: She Said the F-Word
© CHRIS CHRISTODOULOU/BBC
was sitcom-sharp, the music clever, and the
story evidently autobiographical – directed
as it was by the composer’s wife, and with
their real-life son (a natural) playing himself
onstage. The Family Gillingwater has
collective comic genius; tv awaits.
It can’t be easy to sing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little
Star’ in Japanese, but people do out in Japan;
and they were doing it last month in London at
the Proms, as part of a new oratorio by Mark-
Anthony Turnage. Written to commemorate
the victims of the recent Japanese tsunami,
Hibiki came saturated with the standard
cinematic glamour that composers everywhere
adopt these days to pull an audience, but
the use of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle’ as a statement
of fragility and innocence was wonderful:
a master-stroke delivered by two English
children’s choirs which had presumably worked
hard on their pronunciation. It was certainly
among the best new scores I heard in this
year’s Proms – alongside James MacMillan’s
mischievously titled European Requiem,
Julian Anderson’s perversely but profoundly
un-concerto-like piano concerto, and the
dazzling metamorphosis of landscape into
sound that was Andrea Tarrodi’s Liguria.
In the old days of the Proms such things
were labelled ‘novelties’, but that’s too light a
word for scores that need to serve as a beacon
for the struggling, undervalued art that is
contemporary music. Thankfully they shone.
And brightly. CM
Proms highlight: Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Hibiki
18/09/2017 13:25:00
 Telemann
Complete Trio Sonatas with Recorder and Viol
DA CAMERA
Emma Murphy recorders
Susanna Pell viols
Steven Devine harpsichord
The specialist early-music ensemble Da Camera
marks the 250th anniversary of Telemann’s death
with this unique recording of original trio sonatas
involving recorder and viol. These are among
the greatest pieces Telemann ever composed.
The ingenuity and variety of music, structures,
and instrumental ensemble, combined with
fascinating notes by the recorder player Emma
Murphy, make this album a must-have for
everyone, from Telemann’s many enthusiasts to
those curious about early music.

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