JOHN CAGE’S BRAVE NEW WORLD MILOŠ KARADAGLIĆ

How the visionary American composer changed music as we know it The guitarist goes on a Baroque adventure

The world’s best-selling classical music magazine

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Angela Full January

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Gheorghiu Leonard Bernstein

comes to the big screen
Why the iconic soprano’s Ship ahoy!
passion for Puccini burns The great composers
inspired by boats
as powerfully as ever

Also in this issue…

Sol Gabetta Strauss’s Second Horn
The music that shaped her life Concerto explored
Richard Morrison How Gustav Mahler
‘My hopes for a musical 2024’ wowed New York
Christophe Rousset Discover the untold story
His finest recordings of The Lark Ascending
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world’s finest critics
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SUBSCRIPTIONS ‘I need the great window of the

& BACK ISSUES stage – here I am at ease.’ Giacomo
Tel: 03330 162 118 Puccini’s admission in a letter to a
Web: buysubscriptions.com/contactus friend might very well have been
Post: BBC Music Magazine, PO Box 3320, spoken by Angela Gheorghiu,
3 Queensbridge, Northampton
one of the world’s leading
operatic talents, whose larger-
than-life personality was always
destined for stardom. And it’s no
Follow us on Twitter coincidence that Gheorghiu has
@musicmagazine
become associated with Puccini’s great heroines throughout
her 30-year career, from Tosca to Mimì to Butterfly. To
Like us on Facebook mark a century since the composer’s death, however, she
facebook.com/
classicalmagazine turns instead to recording his lesser-known songs – works,
she tells Christopher Cook on page 26, that explore the
Find us online range of human emotion with all the truth and power of his
classical-music.com
famous stage masterpieces.
If art imitates life with cinematic intensity in the
Subscribe to our podcast operas of Puccini, the life of Leonard Bernstein has been
explored with equal sincerity in a new film about the
composer-conductor, out now on Netflix. Starring Bradley
Cooper, who also directs, Maestro concentrates largely on
Subscribe today to the relationship between Bernstein and his wife Felicia.
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conducted the film’s soundtrack but also acted as Cooper’s
music advisor during principal photography.

Charlotte Smith Editor

THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS

Christopher Cook Michael White Nick Shave

Writer, broadcaster & lecturer
‘Talking to Angela Gheorghiu about
her new recording, I was struck
by her capacity to surprise – with
these often forgotten Puccini songs,
of course, but also her hints about growing up in
communist Romania.’ Page 26
Author, critic & broadcaster
‘To those of us who live down south,
the Scottish Chamber Orchestra
are a wonder more often heard
through recordings that in the flesh.
But their 50th anniversary offers a chance to catch
up with them at a key point in their history.’ Page 52
Journalist and author
‘I recently found myself stopping
mid-commute in a London
Underground station to record the
sounds of a rush hour. Writing about
John Cage can have that kind of effect on you: his
ideas are totally liberating.’ Page 62

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Contents
JANUARY 2024
See p100

FEATURES
26 Cover: Angela Gheorghiu
The soprano tells Christopher Cook how she is marking
100 years since Puccini’s death in suitably songful style
36 The Third Man
Andrew Green investigates how a wealthy mover and
shaker may have given flight to The Lark Ascending
40 All aboard!
Jeremy Pound sets off on a voyage around the famous
works inspired by boats, from skiffs to cruise liners
46 Maestro
A new film about Leonard Bernstein and his wife
Felicia hits all the right notes, as Michael Beek discovers
52 Great Scots
Michael White visits the Scottish Chamber Orchestra
which, at 50 years old, is enjoying life as much as ever
56 Spiritual rebirth
Simon Broughton on the thriving Mugham tradition

EVERY MONTH
8 Letters
12 The Full Score
The latest news and interviews from the music world 26 Angela Gheorghiu
25 Richard Morrison
32 The BBC Music Magazine Interview
COVER: JOHN MILLAR THIS PAGE: JOHN MILLAR, JASON MCDONALD/NETFLIX, CHRISTOPHER KŐSTLIN

Guitarist Miloš Karadaglić talks to Claire Jackson
60 Musical Destinations
Stephen Pritchard takes a trip to Lucerne, Switzerland
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EDITORIAL
The revolutionary world of John Cage, by Nick Shave Plus the famous musician whose life we’d
66 Building a Library like to see portrayed on film (see p46)
Editor Charlotte Smith
Owen Mortimer on Strauss’s Second Horn Concerto Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
Deputy editor Jeremy Pound
100 Radio & TV Composer & singer Barbara Strozzi
Reviews editor Michael Beek
104 Crossword and Quiz Pianist Glenn Gould
Multi-platform content producer
106 Music that Changed Me Steve Wright
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Cover CD editor Alice Pearson
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 Letters

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L ET T ER Mysterious chorus Moura Lympany’s reading

of the Missing talents
MONTH I nodded in accord
while reading
Tom Service’s
‘Finding Joy in the
Present’ column
(November issue).
Concert music is not
immune to economic
adjudication, and as
Service notes, ‘there’s
less room for the new
in the mausoleum
of classical
programming’ –
Worth a listen: Bach sells, Kaija
why is Moszkowski’s Saariaho does not.
music largely ignored?
People will flock to
hear Beethoven and
Vivaldi, and even Philip Glass and John Williams, but who,
exactly, is Jennifer Higdon? To augment Service’s polemic,
I would add that there are many lesser-known composers
in the ‘mausoleum’ that music directors and promoters
often ignore, such as Moritz Moszkowski, Gerald Finzi,
and – since we do not want devotees of Mozart running
for the exit during intermission – let’s add Antonio Salieri
to the list. Across the pond, we have historically informed
period orchestras and choruses such as Boston’s own
Handel & Haydn Society
WIN! £50 VOUCHER who, especially post-
FOR PRESTO MUSIC pandemic, have added
less celebrated composers
Every month we will award to their repertoire, some
the best letter with a £50 sequestered to virtual
voucher for Presto Music,
anonymity because of their
the UK’s leading e-commerce
site for classical and jazz race or gender. As listeners,
recordings, printed music, we need to pay to see the
music books and musical works of these composers
instruments. Please note: the as well if we hope for
editor reserves the right to
shorten letters for publication.
programmers to follow our
lead, as Service envisions.
John Tamilio III,
Beverly, MA, US
GETTY
I always enjoy your Music
To My Ears feature and
am intrigued to read of the
listening choices of a variety
of musicians and staff.
Particularly intriguing in your
Christmas issue was Michael
Berkeley’s praise of the chorus
in the recent Covent Garden
production of Wagner’s Das
Rheingold. What chorus? Was
he referring to the very brief
shriek of the Nibelungen slaves
as they scatter? Otherwise, it’s
a long wait to hear the voices
of the Gibichung vassals in
Götterdämmerung, the Ring’s
only true chorus. Nevertheless,
who can fail to endorse all he
says of how freelance singers
and players enrich our culture?
Paul Pascoe, Shrewsbury
Colin calms down
Patrick Hoyte (Letters,
Christmas) feels the ‘accolade’
for the most demonstrative
conductor should go to
Leonard Bernstein. May I
also suggest Sir Colin Davis in
his earlier years? Apparently,
his doctor told him that if he
continued to conduct like that
he would be dead by the time
he was 50! Fortunately, Sir
Colin took the advice, modified
his style and continued to give
us glorious performances well
into his eighties.
Eric Bareham, West Wittering
An unusual start
I was delighted to see praise
of Khachaturian’s Piano
Concerto (Building a Library). It
recalls to me a wet Wednesday
afternoon in 1967. Bored, I
decided to investigate my
father’s record collection.
I knew absolutely nothing
about music and picked out
a record entirely at random.
It was the Khachaturian
Piano Concerto with Moura
Lympany and with Anatole
Fistoulari conducting. I was
blown away by it. So I picked
out another record at random,
which turned out to be
Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony
(I don’t recall the recording,
alas). So began my life as a
music enthusiast. With such a
start, perhaps it is no wonder
that I have such wide tastes,
unfettered by the received
musical canon.
Roger Musson, Edinburgh
Water nice idea
In your November 2023 issue,
Nils Erik Berntzen mentions
the anniversary of the first
performance of Handel’s Water
Music. The first performance
was on 17 July 1717 (not 1715), so
the 310th anniversary will be
in 2027. I discovered this when
I was coming up to my 65th
birthday on 17 July 2017 which
was the 300th anniversary. I
thought a party on the River
Thames was rather ambitious,
so I hired a boat on the River
Ouse, where I live in York,
gathered together an orchestra

in your December issue for of 23 family and friends and

8 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


played two Water
Music suites
on a wonderful
sunny evening,
as we sailed
down the river
to Bishopthorpe
Palace and back. It
now leaves me to
wonder how I can celebrate my
75th birthday in 2017, when the
Water Music will be 310 years
old! Any ideas?
Jill Shepherd, York
The editor replies:
You seem to have done Handel
proud in 2017, so maybe
another boat-related musical
celebration is in order? If you
are stuck for ideas, we provide
a few in our feature on p40…
Taking a stance
I enjoyed reading about Grieg’s
bravery in Timepiece earlier
this year. Grieg’s belief in
upholding law and justice,
along with his intolerance of
anti-Semitism regarding the
Dreyfus affair, is laudable.
Another composer who spoke
out against the Dreyfus affair
was Shostakovich, who went a
step further in his Symphony
No. 13 – Shostakovich
addressed not only the affair,
www.classical-music.com
Symphonic protest:
Shostakovich in Moscow
in 1962; (below) poet
Yevgeni Yevtushenko
but anti-Semitism and
the oppression of Jews
GETTY, ROBIN CLEWLEY, MAT HENNEK, ANDY GOTTS, SATOSHI AOYAGI
throughout history,
using the poem ‘Babi
Yar’ written by 29-year-
old Russian poet
Yevgeni Yevtushenko
(1933-2017). The
symphony also
contains four other settings of
poems by Yevtushenko which
describe aspects of Russian
history and everyday life. The
symphony was premiered in
Moscow in December 1962
but was then banned by the
Kremlin until Yevtushenko The BBC Music Magazine newsletter
altered the text to suit the party Stay up to date!
line. Shostakovich, however,
did not change the lines in Sign up for the weekly BBC Music Magazine
the manuscript and today all newsletter, which is delivered to you direct via
performances use the original
lines. The arts are a mirror email every Tuesday. Each week, we give you
of history and an essay could the latest classical music news, a free download
be written about composers of a new recording, reviews of great new album
and performers who stood up releases, exclusive features from the BBC Music
to injustice and oppression,
including Beethoven, Rimsky-
Magazine team – and much more!
Korsakov, Janáček, Verdi and
Toscanini. I am grateful for
those among us today who use
their creativity to speak out
against tyranny and injustice
in our world.
Ron Winkler, Milwaukee,
WI, US
 Thefullscore
Our pick of the month’s news, views and interviews
David Pickard announces BBC Proms departure
Festival director to leave this coming October after ten eventful seasons in post
David Pickard has announced that he
is to step down as director of the BBC
Proms later this year, bringing an end to
a nine-season stint in charge. Pickard,
whose debut Prom as boss saw Sakari
Oramo conduct a First Night programme
of Nielsen, Mozart, Sibelius and Walton
in July 2015, will remain at the helm until
October. In the meantime, the search
will begin for the next person to steer the
world’s biggest classical music festival,
following in the footsteps of the likes of
CHRIS CHRISTODOULOU/BBC, GETTY
William Glock, Nicholas Kenyon and
Roger Wright.
Pickard, who was general director of
Glyndebourne before heading to the Royal
Albert Hall, has rung the changes during
his time in charge. This year, for instance,
12 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
was the first time that both the First Night
and Last Night were conducted by women
– Dalia Stasevska and Marin Alsop
respectively. The 2023 season also saw
not only the first ever weekend-long BBC
Pickard has rung the
changes during his time
in charge of the Proms
Proms festival outside London, with the
Glasshouse International Centre for Music
in Gateshead hosting six concerts in total,
but also concerts taking place in cities
ranging from Truro to Perth. In addition,
performers to have made their Proms
debuts over the last nine years include
Challenging times: unforeseeable events meant that
under David Pickard (above) the Last Night of the
Proms (left) has not always been happy and glorious
cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, soprano
Lise Davidsen and the Chineke! Orchestra.
Should, however, Pickard be seen
breathing a sigh of relief and pouring
himself a large beer in October, this will
doubtless be as he reflects on some of the
events that made an already demanding
job even more challenging. Not least
of these was Covid wiping out almost
the entire 2020 season and the death of
Elizabeth II in September 2022 leading
to the difficult decision to cancel the
Last Night. This year, too, brought its
trickier moments, including late bits of
reprogramming to accommodate both the
reversal of the decision to close the BBC
Singers and, in August, the decision of
John Eliot Gardiner to take a break from
conducting following a much-publicised
fracas in France.
‘It has been an immense honour and
privilege to run the world’s greatest
classical music festival,’ says Pickard about
his decision to call it a day, adding that,
‘It feels like the right time to move on and
explore new projects.’

Tabakova swarms to success at Ivors Classical Awards
A mix of familiar faces and first-time
winners took to the stage as 11 composers
were honoured at the Ivors Classical Awards
in London in November. Collecting their
first trophy were the likes of Dobrinka
Tabakova (above), whose Swarm Fanfares won
her the Best Community and Participation
Composition award, and Hannah Kendall,
who accepted the Best Large Ensemble
THE MONTH IN NUMBERS
100,000
…pounds estimated for the manuscript
of Mahler’s ‘Blicke mir nicht in die
Lieder!’, up for auction at Christies.
9
…in ten people want to broaden their
musical horizons in 2024, says a survey
by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
5
…northern-based music graduates
named by Manchester Camerata as the
recipients of the ensemble’s inaugural
Annual Training Fellowship programme.
Thefullscore
SoundBites
Regal additions:
the even more
Royal Albert Hall
Royal standing
Visitors heading to the Royal Albert Hall
for a concert may want to add a few minutes
to their schedule to allow time to admire
two new additions to the building’s familiar
exterior. In November, Charles III and Queen
Camilla unveiled statues of Elizabeth II
and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, which now
Composition award for Shouting forever proudly adorn the south porch. Crafted out
into the receiver. Return visitors included of bronze by sculptor Poppy Field, they each
Thomas Adès and Brett Dean, winners of, stand at two metres tall.
respectively, the Best Chamber Ensemble
and Best Orchestral Composition awards, Oxford blues
and John Rutter, who was presented with the Performers and composers across the UK
Academy Fellowship. Rutter joins an elite are among those to express dismay at the
list of just 24 Academians that also includes announcement by Oxford Brookes University
Elton John, Paul McCartney and Judith Weir. that it is to close its music department. The
decision, which the university says is due
to ‘increasing financial challenges due to a
range of external factors’ will mean that its
final music degrees will be awarded in 2026.
Students and staff alike have launched a
petition to try to reverse the move.
644,000 Regional thinking
The organisers of BBC Young Musician have
revealed changes to its format to ensure
…followers and 19.7m likes have led to a more even geographical spread among
organist Anna Lapwood (below) being entrants. For 2024, the opening stage of the
officially named as one of TikTok’s bi-annual competition will see the country
Breakthrough Artists of 2023. separated into eight regions, with performers
being asked to send in ten-minute films of
themselves playing. Two from each region,
plus 34 others, will then be invited to take
part in live auditions.
NICK RUTTER, ANDY PARADISE, HOGAN MEDIA/SHUTTERSTOCK
We are the champions
Talking of all things competitive, we feel
duty bound to report on the annual BPI
Classical Committee/PPL classical music
quiz, which took place in London in
November. Contested by teams from across
the music industry, the event raised more
than £6,500 for music-related charities and
was won by a certain Bristol-based classical
music magazine. Modesty prevents us from
revealing which magazine, exactly, it might
have been…
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 13
Thefullscore
RisingStars TIMEPIECE This month in history
Three to look out for…
Ian Niederhoffer Conductor
Born: New York, US Brand new start:
Career highlights: Gustav Mahler
Winning three prizes in found himself top of
the list in New York
the 2021 Khachaturian
conducting competition
in Yerevan, Armenia was
life-changing. Performing
with musicians who had
just undergone such national tragedy [the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict] made me a true
believer in music’s capacity to heal.
Musical hero: Leonard Bernstein. He didn’t
just make the audience listen, he taught them
how to listen.
Dream concert: Performing Britten’s War
Requiem. I gravitate towards repertoire that
intersects with historical memory, and this
piece is a powerful example of music’s ability
to make the past come alive.

Lucy Colquhoun Pianist

Born: London, UK
Career highlights:
Playing for baritone
Thomas Allen. The extent
of his experience and
the artists with whom he
worked closely must be
almost totally unrivalled.
Musical heroes: As a teenager I adored
pianist Martha Argerich. Nowadays I admire
a melting pot of many artists, in particular
pianist Murray Perahia. I have also felt
hugely inspired by many teachers, and by the
playing of other musicians alongside me.
Dream concert: Somewhere that truly
appreciates song – Wigmore Hall, perhaps –
with repertoire and singers I love. A curated
and themed series of recitals would be the JANUARY 1908
ultimate dream!

Lunga Eric Hallam Tenor

Born: Cape Town,
Mahler makes his hotly
South Africa
Career highlights:
Performing Count
anticipated New York debut
Almaviva in Rossini’s

The Barber of Seville with
Pittsburgh Opera, as
well as Don Ottavio in
Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
Musical heroes: Two operatic tenors, Franco
Corelli and Rockwell Blake. They are from
two very different musical eras, but their
technical work has inspired me to become
the singer that I am.
Dream concert: A solo recital at the BBC
Proms or the Royal Opera House. My
repertoire would encompass John Ireland
songs, bel canto aria repertoire – Donizetti,
Rossini and Bellini – some Baroque pieces
and some of my native folk songs.
T
he phrase ‘annus horribilis’
might easily have been invented
to describe the string of spirit-
weakening events that struck Gustav
Mahler in the year 1907. First, his
ten-year tenure as director of the Court
Opera in Vienna ended, crippled by
ongoing disputes with management
and performers and by a virulently
anti-Semitic campaign against him in
the press. Then, in July, his four-year-
old daughter Maria died of diphtheria.
Shortly afterwards, Mahler was
diagnosed with a heart defect, heaping
further anxiety on both himself and his
wife Alma.
These hammer blows of fate might
easily have felled the 47-year-old
composer and conductor. But Mahler,
a famously combative and dynamic
individual, was by no means ready
to capitulate. Anticipating his ouster
from the Court Opera, on 21 June 1907
he had signed a lucrative contract
with the Metropolitan Opera in New
York, earning over twice his Vienna

14 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


salary for a third of the work. On 12
December, Mahler and Alma set sail
from Cherbourg, arriving in Manhattan
nine days later.
The couple’s first impressions of
New York were mainly positive. The
Met’s management, keen to impress its
illustrious new recruit, had installed the
Mahlers in a lavishly appointed suite
at the Hotel Majestic, with views over
Central Park. ‘Many rooms, two grand
pianos, of course!’ enthused Alma. ‘So
we felt at home.’ When he went to the
opera house itself, however, Gustav was
somewhat less enthusiastic.
Minutes into his first rehearsal of
Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, he stopped
the players, distracted by the chorus
rehearsing close by in the lobby. ‘All
other rehearsals in this theatre must be
stopped,’ he declared. ‘I can’t hear my
orchestra.’ He was also unimpressed
with those who ran The Met on a
day-to-day basis. These ‘managers,
producers, stage managers etc.’ were, he
fumed, guilty of ‘absolute incompetence
and fraudulent activities’, making the
outlook for the Opera ‘bleak’.
The performance of Tristan und
Isolde which took place on 1 January
1908, just 11 days after
Mahler arrived in New
York, was an entirely
different proposition. The
Met had chosen wisely
in giving Mahler Tristan
Big Apple adventure: New York’s
Metropolitan Opera in 1908;
(right) Alma Mahler enthused that
she felt ‘at home’ in the city
ALAMY, GETTY, PATRICK ALLEN, REBECCA FAY, JACLYN SIMPSON
for his house debut: his 1903 staging in
Vienna, with modernistic designs by
Alfred Roller, had been sensationally
successful, redefining the art of
Wagner interpretation. Roller had not
accompanied Mahler to Manhattan,
but the musical power and expressivity
of Mahler’s interpretation still swept all
before it.
‘A performance remarkable in many
respects,’ was the New York Times’s
verdict. Absent, the review continued,
was the heavy, portentous style of
conducting which weighed down
many Wagner productions ‘with lead’.
Mahler’s tempos were, by contrast,
‘somewhat more rapid’, while remaining
‘elastic and full of subtle variations’.
Strikingly, Mahler also ensured the
The Met’s management was,
fumed Mahler, guilty of
‘absolute incompetence’
singers’ voices emerged with exceptional
clarity, though orchestral climaxes were
still ‘superbly effectual’.
The audience supplied a standing
ovation, and the path seemed clear for
a long, mutually beneficial
relationship to develop
between the Metropolitan
Opera and its newest star
conductor. In the event,
Mahler stayed just two years
with the company, his initial
positivity sapped by the
lower artistic standards he
encountered compared to
Vienna, and by the arrival of
Arturo Toscanini on the Met’s
conducting roster.
But Mahler was by
no means finished with the Big
Apple. In February 1909 he became
principal conductor of the New York
Philharmonic, leading a resurgent
orchestra to ‘new pinnacles of
achievement’. A Carnegie Hall concert
with the ensemble on 21 February 1911
was the last he conducted. Just three
months later he died of endocarditis
in Vienna, aged 50, leaving his Tenth
Symphony incomplete. Terry Blain
Thefullscore
Dyb dyb dyb:
Robert Baden-Powell
Also in January 1908…
13th: One hundred-and-seventy-one people
are killed when fire breaks out at the Rhoads
Opera House in Boyertown, Pennsylvania.
Caused when a kerosene lamp used for
stage lighting is knocked over, setting light to
gases emitted from malfunctioning theatre
equipment, the blaze is not taken seriously at
first by many, with fatal consequences.
21st: The Sullivan Ordinance, a municipal
law banning women from smoking at public
venues, is passed in New York City. The next
day, Katie Mulcahey is fined $5 for breaking
the ordinance then arrested when she refuses
to pay up. She will prove to be the only person
charged under the law, which is vetoed two
weeks later by mayor George B McClellan Jr.
23rd: American composer Edward
MacDowell dies in New York City, aged 47.
After beginning his career in Germany and
meeting with the approval of Liszt, MacDowell
returned in 1888 to the US, where his notable
works included two piano concertos and
four symphonic poems. His later years were
blighted by psychiatric problems, possibly
caused by being hit by a Hansom cab in 1904.
24th: The first instalment of Robert Baden-
Powell’s Scouting for Boys: A handbook for
instruction in good citizenship is published,
with the next five parts appearing fortnightly
thereafter. As well as offering advice on
practical skills like tracking and woodcraft, it
covers subjects such as self-improvement,
citizens’ duty and the British Empire.
26th: Sergei Rachmaninov conducts the
premiere of his Second Symphony at the
Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Though
the first performance of the composer’s First
Symphony proved a disaster in 1897, his
fortunes have since been restored by the
triumph of his Second Piano Concerto – the
new symphony follows suit, being warmly
applauded and going on to win a Glinka Prize.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 15
 WELCOMING THE NEW YEAR WITH EXCITING NEW RELEASES

PTC 5187 109

PTC 5187 184

“I remember the great and deep emotions that these
melodies triggered in me and I remember listening to
them laughing, crying, or both at the same time and,
above all, I remember the fervent desire to at some
point be the interpreter of these beautiful songs.”
Javier Camarena
“I am happy and excited to present the second
volume of my project Plucked Bach. While the
first volume focused on the cello suites, here I
have expanded the scope to include works for
the lute, organ, and violin. ”
Alon Sariel

www.pentatonemusic.com
Distributed
in the UK by
 Thefullscore
MEET THE COMPOSER
Jessie Montgomery

Salonen’s interpretation makes perfect scents

There will be something in the air
when Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts
pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and
the San Francisco Symphony in
Scriabin’s Prometheus, The Poem
of Fire in March. Quite literally
so. While the composer himself
planned for the 1910 work to have
a visual element by scoring it for
a clavier à lumieres – a colour-
projecting keyboard – for this
performance an olfactory element
will also be added, as various
scents are diffused around Davies String theory:
Symphony Hall. Masterminded ‘I use the violin
by Mathilde Laurent, perfumer a lot when I’m
and creative director at Cartier, it starting a piece’
should all be rather fragrant.

An award-winning composer and violinist, Jessie Montgomery is

composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and
enjoys partnerships with ensembles and organisations across the
DÉJÀ VU US. Her 2023 work Musings receives its New York City premiere on
18 January from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
History just keeps on repeating itself…
I grew up in an artistic If you come from New York it
Good news: the Dartington Summer
household. My dad ran his music becomes part of your identity.
School and Festival (left), which
studio out of our house, so I was Growing up in one of the most
had seemed in danger of folding,
always surrounded by music. I diverse places on Earth means
has been saved. From this summer,
took violin lessons, starting with you get exposure to all those
however, the 75-year-old event will
the Suzuki method and then different cultures and practices,
take place at Gresham’s School in
learning the traditional European music and dance.
Norfolk, a 330-mile drive away from
classical repertoire. My parents Musings was inspired by the
its old Devon home. It is, at least, by
were into super-avant-garde tradition of Bartók’s 44 Duos
no means the only music festival to
stuff, so it was an interesting for Two Violins. Those are
have upped sticks over the years…
juxtaposition. I think that somewhat graded, it seems, in
Should you buy tickets for this year’s Garsington Opera, don’t definitely filtered into my desire terms of technical difficulty;
make the mistake of heading to Garsington Manor to enjoy it. All to meld multiple styles of music. my work is not so much in that
you’ll find there is a fine house and the Oxfordshire countryside, I started composing when I was direction but more in the effect
as the festival itself moved to Wormsley Park in Buckinghamshire really young. My violin teacher of these simple ideas, melodies,
in 2011. Similarly disappointed will be those going to Iford Manor also taught improvisation, with phrases or textures being
near Bath for the Iford Arts festival, which in 2019 decamped these fun exercises and games, explored in a miniature style.
to Belcombe Court at nearby Bradford-on-Avon; and the city of and she encouraged me to start Playing the violin is like home
Cambridge no longer hosts Cambridge Early Music’s much- composing. She said if I could to me. I use it a lot when I’m
loved summer schools – these now take place 30 minutes away hear it and I could read it, I could starting a piece; I’ll do a fair
at Benslow Music in Hitchin. Even more confusingly, if you go to start writing it down; so I took it amount of improvising on it.
GETTY, JIYANG CHEN ILLUSTRATION: JONTY CLARK

Grange Park Opera at Grange Park in Hampshire, you will find on pretty quickly and excitedly.
opera there… but not Grange Park Opera. When said company I resisted calling myself a
moved to West Horsley Place in Surrey, it opted to keep its name composer for a long time. I had
while, at the same time, a new company called The Grange Festival such high esteem for that label
set itself up at its old home. Still with us? And finally, there’s the that it took me a long time to feel
BBC Proms, which in 1944 moved temporarily to Bedford. Having deserving of it. There was a point
seen its former home, the Queen’s Hall, destroyed by German in the early 2000s at which I
bombs in 1941 and with doodlebugs continuing to fall on London, started getting more commissions
somewhere a little safer was sought. Understandable, really. and began to feel like I was
participating as a composer.
I often use the term ‘captured
improvisation’ to describe
composing, and that was very
much how Musings was written.
Writing string music is my
comfort zone. But this year I’m
venturing out of it with a concerto
for the principal percussionist
of the Chicago Symphony. It’s a
whole new world!

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 17

Thefullscore
StudioSecrets
Flute improvisations:
Laura Chislett records
with Edward Cowie

We reveal who’s recording

what and where...
Bristol Choral Society gathererd at Clifton
College recently to record a new album
celebrating 20th- and 21st-century British
composers. Grace-Evangeline Mason and
Judith Weir were on hand to oversee the
choir’s takes on premieres of their works, A
Memory of the Ocean (Mason) and Praise Him
with Trumpets (Weir). The album, which also
features works by Poston, Vaughan Williams,
Holst and Cecilia McDowall, is scheduled for
release in July on Delphian.
Toronto Symphony Orchestra has
announced a new partnership with
Harmonia Mundi. It marks the label’s first
association with a North American orchestra,
and promises rich rewards. The first release
will be Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie,
due on 2 February, followed eventually by
Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and Bartók’s The
REWIND
Great artists talk about their past recordings
Miraculous Mandarin, each paired with new
works by Canadian composers Kelly-Marie
Murphy and Emilie LeBel. This month: CHRISTOPHE ROUSSET Conductor
NMC has acquired the back catalogue of
recordings produced by Psappha, the new-
music ensemble which ceased operations last
MY FINEST MOMENT illness and so on and, strangely enough,
year after some 32 years of music-making. Lully Isis instead of having the impression of
While it was a devastating blow, listeners can Chœur de Chambre de Namur et al; horror as a listener, you actually enjoy
rest safe in the knowledge that its recorded Les Talens Lyriques/Christophe Rousset it! It’s so funny – she’s tortured, she’s
legacy is in good hands. Psappha began Aparté AP216 (2019) suffering, but you
releasing its own albums in 2004, a natural It’s always a big journey to achieve a are laughing, smiling
extension of its long-standing commissioning
work, involving some 500 composers.
recording and get to a point which or whatever. And
Sticking with all things new, Métier pleases me. then in Act 5 you go
Records is busy with composer Edward Isis was a big discovery for me. It is back to the drama,
Cowie who has several recordings in the so exciting and so enjoyable in many with a fantastic
works. Australian flautist Laura Chislett aspects; especially in Act 3, because monologue from
joined Cowie at Whitby’s Ayriel Studios there is a performance in front of Isis. It’s quite an impressive piece and
recently to record his Seven Improvisations for
GETTY, PAUL MARC MITCHELL

Flutes and Piano, preceded there by a fourth
volume of the composer’s ‘Bird Portraits’
featuring Gerard McChrystal (sax) and
Richard Shaw (piano). The albums will be
released in February and Spring respectively.
one of the characters in the opera. It’s
probably the first example of having an
opera within an opera, and so it’s quite
unusual. I love Act 4, because it’s a series
of tortures for Isis – you have cold, heat,
I really loved doing it, plus I think the
cast is brilliant, so it’s probably one of
my favourites. I say one, because it’s just
so difficult to choose; it’s like choosing
between your babies.

18 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


Recording Lully’s Isis: (above) Christophe
Rousset conducts Les Talens Lyriques and
Chœur de Chambre de Namur; (left) bass-
baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer; (above left)
mezzo-soprano Ambroisine Bré
MY FONDEST MEMORY
Mozart Mitridate
Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo-soprano) et al;
Les Talens Lyriques/Christophe Rousset
Decca 460 7722 (1999)
Mitridate was a dream. There was just a,
let’s say very old-fashioned, version by
Leopold Hager in the ‘Mozart Complete
Works’ on Philips, so I thought it ought
to be redone with original instruments.
The first attempt never happened, but
when I met the head of Lyon Opera he
suggested we do it in a concert version
and record it. He also said that because
I was a Decca artist
we could surely
get Cecilia Bartoli.
I thought he was
crazy, but he was
convinced it could
happen. I had never
dreamt of working with such people, so
that was very special.
He saw to most of the casting, though
I had the idea of Sandrine Piau, because
we had a long-term musical relationship;
Brian Asawa was also my idea, and
strangely enough so was Juan Diego
Flórez, who was very young then. He was
actually a provincial tenor in Italy at the
time and a friend of mine suggested I
listen to him. So I went to a small opera
house in Italy, heard him and said, ‘I
think I have something for you!’
Working with Natalie Dessay was
completely special and unforgettable; the
same with Giuseppe Sabbatini. That was
the first time I worked with big stars and
I was very nervous, but I think it’s still
quite valid as a version.
I’D LIKE ANOTHER GO AT…
Lully Atys
Christophe Rousset (harpsichord); Les Arts
Florissants/William Christie et al
Harmonia Mundi HMC 901257.59 (1987)
This was done in 1987 for the Lully
anniversary and the Paris Opera wanted
a Lully opera to be properly staged. I
say ‘properly’ because there were some
attempts here and there, but Atys is
probably the first which really appeared
on stage with the Baroque aesthetics,
dancing, original instruments and an
expert like William Christie conducting.
It was a very rich
continuo group,
beautiful costumes
and so on. So it
was a dream, and it
created a movement
in France – all
the conductors of my generation were
actually in this production. I was not
dreaming of conducting at that point –
but it was a dream to participate in that
incredible project.
When I went back to this piece last
year, I had it very fresh in my memory
and yet I hadn’t listened to the old
recording. But I’m sure it’s so different;
I tried to have different options when
I had the choice, for instance in terms
of sources, and my view on the piece
has evolved too. It was absolutely
essential for me to come back to this
music as a conductor and give my own
view on it, also because after having
conducted all those other operas, I have a
different expertise and a way of treating
ornaments and continuo. The more you
do it, the more you understand it.
Christophe Rousset’s recording of Atys is
out on Château de Versailles Spectacles on
13 January
Thefullscore
A resilient man: Hahn endured great upheaval
MyHero
Pianist Martin James
Bartlett salutes the
songcraft of composer
Reynaldo Hahn
I first discovered Reynaldo Hahn’s music
through the exquisite songs ‘A Chloris’
and ‘L’heure exquise’. These songs inspired
me to research his other works. It’s been
a joy to discover and work on these
under-appreciated piano pieces with
Alexandre Tharaud.
‘Le ruban dénoué’ (The Untied Ribbon)
is a set of waltzes written for two pianos,
which remains relatively undiscovered. The
two waltzes that I selected from this for
my new album are full of great contrasts,
sultriness and vivacity, and I have enjoyed
playing with the tender dialogues and
conversational aspects that weave
between the two pianos.
Hahn’s collaborations and friendships
with the great poets – including a romantic
involvement with Marcel Proust – gave
his writing great emotive strength. It
was Proust’s very first love affair and,
when it ended, the author abandoned a
now famously unfinished novel – whose
protagonist was based on Hahn.
Some of the most beautiful music
emerges from hardship. At the age of three,
Hahn and his family fled political unrest
in Venezuela and headed for Paris. In his
forties, he fought in the trenches of World
War I and kept spirits buoyant by singing
his popular songs. Later, in 1940, Paris
was occupied by the German forces, and
Hahn fled again. Yet throughout these
devastating years of unrest he never failed
to write beautiful, charming music. This,
in my opinion, is a great affirmation of the
strength of human spirit in adversity – and
why Hahn resonates so strongly with me.
Martin James Bartlett’s album ‘Dances’ is
out on Warner Classics on 26 January
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 19
Thefullscore
THE LISTENING SERVICE

The personal touch

Bach’s 48 preludes and
fugues are much more
than examples of Baroque
brilliance – rather, they’re a
direct link to the man and his
mindset, says Tom Service

ILLUSTRATION: MARIA CORTE MAIDAGAN

T
he miracle of JS Bach’s Well-
Tempered Clavier isn’t just that
these 96 pieces – 48 preludes
and fugues in two books of 24, a pair
of pieces in all of the major and minor
keys – are the ‘Old Testament’ in music,
as Hans von Bülow called them. That
biblical symbolism turns them into
timeless embodiments of immortal
musical brilliance that find their
ultimate realisation not in any human-
scale performance but as part of NASA’s
Golden Record: Bach has been flying
into the interstellar medium on board
the Voyager spacecraft since 1977.
So if they’re not testaments of cosmic
musical law-making, what are the
48? They’re something more truly was made ‘for the profit and use of dancing joy, like the C sharp major
miraculous: a direct connection from musical youth desirous of learning’; Prelude in the first book, to the depths
our time to Bach’s, to the physicality of Wilhelm Friedemann and his younger of austere, tragic reflection, as in the
Bach’s fingers on the keyboard and the brother Carl Philipp Emanuel were the D sharp minor pieces that come just
intimacy of his family life. principal beneficiaries of the multi- a little later. Bach recognises that one
The first book of the 48 was dimensional ‘learning’ of these preludes moment you’re celebrating, and the
completed after the greatest tragedy and fugues. next – without warning – another world
of Bach’s personal life. Returning to opens up to consume you.
Cöthen from a trip with his employer Bach creates a compendium And if you can play even one bar of
Prince Leopold in July 1720, Bach found these pieces, you’re joining an infinite
that his first wife Maria Barbara had of characters and emotions, chain of keyboard players over the
died in his absence, leaving him with IURPMR\WRWUDJLFUHĠHFWLRQ centuries that starts with Bach and his
their three sons. Bach then met the family at home. You’re joining them in
soprano Anna Magdalena, and married So what did they – and everyone lessons that aren’t just about about how
her in December 1721. The compilation who’s ever tried to play any of these to write and play quintuple invertible
of the first book of the Well-Tempered pieces – really learn? Not only the counterpoint; they’re about how to
Clavier was finished in 1722. intricacies of getting your brain around voyage through the joys and tragedies
These 24 preludes and fugues all those fugues, but about touch: the of life, from your piano keyboard to the
include re-worked pieces originally physical touch of the keyboard, and how interstellar medium – and beyond.
written for the Klavierbüchlein, a ‘little to touch us emotionally through music.
piano book’, made for Bach’s eldest Bach’s gigantic cycles create a Tom Service explores how
son Wilhelm Friedemann. Bach’s title compendium of characters and music works in The Listening
explains that the Well-Tempered Clavier emotions, veering from glittering, Service on Sundays at 5pm

20 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

 FAREWELL TO…

A natural vocal talent:

Ryland Davies’s delivery
appeared effortless

Ryland Davies Born 1943 Tenor

Born in Cwm, South Wales, Davies’s first love as a teenager was rugby;
indeed, he didn’t enter formal musical study in Manchester until
his late teens. Blessed with a natural vocal talent, he was singing in
the Glyndebourne chorus before he was 20. His professional debut
came at the Welsh National Opera in 1964, in a production of The
Barber of Seville, with later debuts at the Royal Opera House (1969)
and Met Opera (1975). He will be remembered for his seemingly
effortless delivery and memorable character roles, not to mention solo
performances in a variety of sacred works and oratorios. A dedicated
teacher, Davies taught over the years at the Royal Northern College of
Music, Royal Academy and Royal College, and also in Madrid.

Colette Maze Born 1914 Pianist

Debussy was still alive when Maze was born in Paris, and his music
formed the heart of her music-making. Beginning lessons as a child,
Maze’s dream was to be a concert pianist, but it wasn’t to be, thanks to
the discouragement of her parents – and despite receiving lessons from
both pianist Alfred Cortot and composer Nadia Boulanger. Instead, she
devoted most of her professional life to teaching other aspiring pianists
at Paris’s Ecole Normale de Musique (where she herself studied) and
the conservatoire at Bagneux, Hauts-de-Seine. It wasn’t until she’d
passed her 90th birthday that she began recording; her seventh album
was released just this year after her 109th birthday, making her one of
the oldest ever (if not the oldest) recording artists.

Ann Rachlin Born 1933 Music educator

A much loved music educator, writer and performer, Ann Rachlin
studied piano with Fanny Waterman and Vera Lasker. Originally
destined to become a secretary, Rachlin blazed a trail with ‘Fun With
Music’, an immersive storytelling-and-music inititaive for children.
Indeed, her ‘Water Music on the Thames’ performances became the
stuff of legend. She founded The Beethoven Fund for Deaf Children.

Also remembered…
David Del Tredici (born 1937) was the gifted American composer
behind memorable works such as his various musical takes on Lewis
Carroll’s Alice stories, including 1975’s Final Alice.
The Swedish-born composer Catherine Christer Hennix (born 1948)
studied with Stockhausen and leaves an experimental music legacy
GET T Y

including works such as The Electric Harpsichord.

Thefullscore
No need to explain:
singer Nina Simone is
sublimely devastating
Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Andrew Armstrong Pianist
I can’t get enough of
the way the music
and words speak
to each other in
Richard Strauss’s
songs, sometimes at
odds, sometimes complimentarily.
In ‘Morgen’, it happens in such
fabulous ways, with the piano and
vocal line almost behaving as if
they have nothing to do with each
other, but they eventually line up
and interweave just at the moment
the words say, ‘We will be
re-united.’ In my favourite
recording, the comforting
tenderness of baritone Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau is miraculous,
and accompanist Gerald Moore is
one of the greatest ever.
When I was a little boy, we’d
go on family trips and my
parents would put on a lot of Ella
Fitzgerald. I was determined
22 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
I know you cheat’, but she makes
it clear that her love is with him
and there is no alternative. In the
space between the notes in the
piano accompaniment, you can
feel the clock ticking through those
moments and no-one hurrying
anywhere – she’s stuck here for the
long term.
And also…
Our youngest child, Gabriel,
is six years old, and there’s
nothing better than sitting on a
comfortable chair together and
reading. He’s still at that age when
he doesn’t know that learning is
supposed to make him furrow his
brow, and like a moth to a flame
he swoops on a word he doesn’t
recognise and asks me to explain
it. He’s currently in a massive
Roald Dahl phase, especially James
and the Giant Peach.
Andrew Armstrong’s new ‘In Blue’
recording of Gershwin, Still, Kernis
et al is out on 26 January
Jess Dandy Contralto & mezzo
I have been listening
to ‘Das Wirtshaus’
from Schubert’s
Winterreise so often
lately that I am no
longer sure where
READER’S CHOICE to marry her, because of the I end and it begins. My
perfection of her voice – it interpretation of choice features
Joshua Murphy
sounded like it was caressing you Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and
Boston, MA, US
I have been enjoying through the speakers, and her tone Gerald Moore. I feel the tender
reading about Karl was so smooth, full and loving. warmth of Moore’s surrender to an
Muck, the German No song exemplifies that more F major half-sound like the
conductor who made a than ‘Misty’, in which the singer is welcome pain of blood returning
name for himself here
in Boston in the early
helpless but is luxuriating in that to a frozen extremity. Soul-sick,
20th century, though Fischer-Dieskau whimpers like a
his time in the US was Ella Fitzgerald’s child looking for his mother – I
not completely without love his soft contours, the quietly
controversy. As he died
in 1940, the recordings
smooth voice sounds sore humanity he embodies.
we have by him are like it’s caressing you I’ve recently been watching The
Body Keeps the Score by movement
admittedly full of hiss
and crackle but still through the speakers artist Audrey Berger and
worth listening to, composer Alex Mills. A response
especially his Wagner helplessness. There’s a feeling that to the seminal text by psychiatrist
overtures with the
Berlin State Opera one is lucky to be in that state, and Bessel van der Kolk, the work
Orchestra. Maybe I’m hopes never to be rescued. viscerally explores the challenges
imagining this, but Nina Simone’s ‘Don’t explain’ is of living in the present moment,
these performances one of the most devastating songs when a traumatic past is still alive
have a gravity and
I’ve ever heard. Again there’s a in body and mind. At its centre are
deference befitting a
conductor whose life sense of helplessness, but in this intentionally distorted fragments
overlapped with that case it aches – she sings ‘I don’t of a 1955 field recording of keening
of Wagner himself. want to hear folks chatter because in Irish Gaelic.

I will never forget the first strike
of the odaiko to open the Shinto
ceremony at the Meiji Jingu shrine
in Tokyo last September. A giant
drum so low you feel it as much
as you hear it, it is used to invoke
the kami – the soul spirits of frogs,
waterfalls, rocks, trees, you and
me. I deeply resonate with the
idea of music as a form of sacred
technology, inextricably linked to
a natural world, alive and aware.
And also…
As a lapsed linguist with a
weakness for instant gratification,
I’m currently hooked on a
language learning app, which
makes grammar exercises feel
like computer games. I hear
‘Music’ is the latest addition to the
catalogue – perhaps I’ll learn some
counterpoint after all!
Jess Dandy performs in Julia
Perry’s Stabat Mater with the BBC
Philharmonic at Bridgewater Hall,
Manchester on 2 March
Jonathan Berman Conductor
My Franz Schmidt
recording project
has taken five years,
but it is really just
the start because it’s
actually the
composer’s 150th anniversary in
Thefullscore
2024. So, I’m still deep in the world READER’S CHOICE And also…
of early 20th-century Vienna, and I’ve been enjoying a book called
this week I’ve been listening to Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets by
Beethoven symphonies recorded the Scottish poet Don Paterson,
by conductor Franz Schalk. He which seems like a serious thing
was a great friend of Schmidt, and but it’s actually rather joyous and
these recordings are from 1929/30. quite funny. It’s a book of the
Of course, it’s not exactly Dolby sonnets, and after each one he
Surround Sound quality, but I critiques and talks about them.
think they’re absolutely gorgeous. It’s like sitting with an expert in a
I recently bought the complete pub over a pint, and it’s the sort of
Scarlatti keyboard sonatas by John Stevens commentary I would love to create
Scott Ross. They were recorded Spalding about music. Reading these has me
I enjoyed Alexandra
in the 1980s and he did it all Wilson’s Composer laughing out loud.
in a year, which was absolutely of the Month feature Jonathan Berman’s complete
extraordinary. I find in Scarlatti on Bellini (above) in Schmidt symphonies is out now
what I think a lot of people find the December issue. on Accentus Music
Rightly, Alexandra
in Bach, which is like a warm-
focused on his
up for the ears. The pieces are wonderful operas, but
five minutes long and there are how many readers
something like 555 of them! The know that the teenage
musical material is so simple, but Bellini also composed
an Oboe Concerto?
every single one is different. Like its composer’s
I was flying back from Lithuania own life, it is very
the other day and I put on one short but full of beauty
of the early albums by the funk – at the beginning, we
band Tower of Power. I found hear the sort of long
melodic lines from
myself dancing in the back of the the soloist that would
cab on the way home from the make the composer
airport! The album was Bump City, such a hit in the opera
from 1972, and the playing is just world. I’d recommend
breathtaking – they’re quite a big Heinz Holliger’s
recording from the
band and they play almost in front 1970s for those who
of the beat which gives the music want to give it a try.
this driving force. Bold in Beethoven: conductor Franz Schalk

Our Choices The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites

Charlotte Smith Editor
Researching French horn repertoire for our
forthcoming Podcast series led me to the
wonderful playing of Yun Zeng, winner of the
2019 Tchaikovsky Competition and the Berlin
Philharmonic’s recently appointed principal horn.
YouTube has a beautiful video of him performing
the Andante from Glière’s Horn Concerto in the
competition final – his rich, buttery sound soaring
over the orchestral forces. No wonder he’s been
snapped up by the Berlin ensemble!
Jeremy Pound Deputy editor
Quite how I managed to pull a muscle in my
GETTY, MARTIN CHERRY, CLARE PARK
image of hair drying gently in a
warm breeze… rather than being
clumsily assaulted by a towel-
wielding buffoon.
Michael Beek Reviews editor
I’ve really enjoyed the Sky Arts
series Musical Masterpieces. Each
of the three episodes highlights a
single work (Carmen, The Hebrides
Overture and The Four Seasons),
which is then explored through
engaging discussion by hosts Errollyn Wallen and
Myleene Klass, with help from notable fans and
The left hand of No. 1 paces restlessly,
reminding me of some of the darker
moments from Schubert’s sonatas,
while No. 2 has an airiness that points
towards Impressionism. Fauré was
unimpressed by virtuoso pianists,
saying ‘the greater they are, the worse
they play me’ – this music relies on
emotional intelligence rather than
lightning-speed technique.
Alice Pearson Cover CD editor
Having visited Big Sur on the Californian coast, I
can vouch for the fact that it fires the imagination,

shoulder drying my hair is anyone’s guess, but
suffice to say that days of discomfort and self-pity
followed. To remind myself of the gentler side of
all things follicular, I turned to Debussy’s The girl
with the flaxen hair in Colin Matthews’s orchestral
arrangement, recorded by the Hallé. Magically
light and airy, the orchestration conjures up an
experts. It’s all ably supported by sumptuously
performed excerpts by the likes of Opera North
and Sinfonia Cymru. A cracking bit of telly.
Steve Wright Content producer
I’ve been drawn into the fascinating world of
Fauré’s piano music – particularly his nocturnes.
as it did for John Adams who wrote The Dharma at
Big Sur. Scored for electric violin and orchestra,
the piece is about as evocative as it gets. I
recommend the world premiere recording with
violinist Tracy Silverman (above), for whom the
piece was written, with the BBC Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Adams himself.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 23


Richard Morrison
As we say goodbye to a tough year,
what do we hope for music in 2024?
I
suspect that most people in the
UK who make a living from
classical music, or who simply love
it, are glad to see the back of 2023. It
was a year when things upon which
you thought you could rely suddenly
seemed far from certain. Things like
opera being performed widely across
the UK. Or the people in charge of
dispensing public funding for culture
showing some enthusiasm for serious
artforms. Or well-regarded universities
continuing to teach music as well as the
other humanities and sciences. When
you realise that there are powerful
figures high up in politics and public
institutions who would not agree with
any of those propositions, you become
scarily conscious of how precarious the
future is for classical music.
On top of all that, 2023 also brought
chronic economic problems for the
arts – even more so than 2022 and 2021,
when the government’s culture recovery
fund was still cushioning the impact
of the pandemic. Local authorities that
once handsomely supported the arts,
such as Birmingham, effectively went
bust, leaving world-class institutions
hanging by a thread. And, despite what
government ministers claim about
their commitment to music education,
the subject still seems barely tolerated
in many state schools, while music
hubs – the organisations responsible
for delivering instrumental tuition and
running youth bands and orchestras –
face severe financial difficulties.
In such circumstances it’s easy to be
overwhelmed by gloom. Pessimism,
like Covid, is not only infectious but
lingering. When I feel it coming on, I
usually fortify myself by re-reading
Thomas Hardy’s great poem The
Darkling Thrush. You remember it? The
writer ventures outdoors on a bitter
winter’s day when ‘every spirit upon
earth’ seems ‘fervourless’, the very
landscape appears dead, and rebirth
is almost unimaginable. Suddenly,
however, he hears a thrush singing,
and this unexpectedly joyous burst of
sound sets him wondering if the bird is
conveying ‘some blessed hope, whereof
he knew and I was unaware’.
So where’s the ‘blessed hope’ for
classical music in 2024? I could natter
on about what a new government may
The main goal rests
on two old-fashioned
concepts: they are
tolerance and aspiration
or may not do for the arts, or what the
survival options are for English National
Opera, or what cultural riches I would
put into the national curriculum for
schools if I ruled the country. But these
specific things, though important, are
not the fundamental causes of classical
music’s problems. We need to step back
and look at the bigger picture. For me,
the main hope for classical music rests
on two old-fashioned concepts making a
belated comeback into British life. They
are tolerance and aspiration.
Tolerance means accepting that
there shouldn’t be one dominant way of
thinking. In theory everyone, whether
on the left or right of the political
spectrum, supports this. In practice,
we have become horribly dismissive
of people who have different attitudes
Opinion
to ours. These vindictive and vitriolic
‘culture wars’ need to stop. Supporting
grassroots music-making doesn’t have to
mean denigrating grand opera. Building
up the arts in Doncaster shouldn’t carry
a requirement to denounce the cultural
riches of London. Ensuring children
become literate, numerate and tech-
savvy ought not to necessitate trashing
the humanities. And, in every case,
vice versa. On all sides we have become
tribal and blinkered. Social media,
where circles of like-minded friends
and colleagues constantly reinforce each
other’s prejudices, hasn’t helped.
And, alongside that, aspiration has
become a dirty word. Even among those
who control the purse-strings of public
investment in the arts, the concepts of
excellence and expertise are now little
valued and sometimes even mocked.
Classical music, which does require
expertise and a lot of practice – even
at the youth and amateur level – will
always suffer in such an environment.
It is forced to engage in a race for the
lowest common denominator, the
quick fix that attracts a passing crowd
with a superficial gimmick, rather
than celebrating and building on the
stupendous levels of achievement you
can hear in our concert halls every week.
So that’s my blessed hope for classical
music in 2024 – that this dismal
denigration of other people’s cultural
tastes and anything resembling ‘elitism’
finally runs out of steam, and that
tolerance and aspiration once again
become the beacons by which we build
our civilisation. Is it too much to ask?
Perhaps, out in some frozen field, a
thrush is singing about it even now.
Richard Morrison is chief music critic
and a columnist of The Times
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 25
Angela Gheorghiu

Angela Gheorghiu has recorded

an album of Puccini’s little-known
songs to mark the centenary of
the composer’s death. The star
soprano speaks to Christopher
Cook about a lifetime dedicated
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PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN MILLAR

26 %%&086,&0$*$=,1(
 Living for art:
‘I feel the need
to sing Puccini,’ says
Angela Gheorghiu

%%&086,&0$*$=,1( 27
Making her mark:
Gheorghiu shot to fame
in 1994 when she sang
Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata
at Covent Garden; (below)
the ever-dapper Puccini
‘T
here’s something
cinematic about Puccini.
In a song or an aria of
perhaps no more than two
pages he can write a whole
story. He knew how to go to the heart of it.’
Angela Gheorghiu might well be
describing herself. On stage she has
the presence of a movie star and cuts
straight to the emotional chase. Strong
men have gone weak at the knees at her
Tosca confronting Baron Scarpia and
Gheorghiu’s Butterfly must have done
wonders for the sale of handkerchiefs.
Now, along with pianist Vincenzo
Scalera, she has made a recording
(for Signum) of Giacomo Puccini’s
songs. ‘I feel I need to sing Puccini.
I’ve been recording for 30 years
now, so I thought for the
centenary of Puccini’s death,
and because I recognise that
he is really suitable for my
voice, I would sing all of his
music, including the songs.’
28 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Not all of the extant songs for, as
Gheorghiu reminds me, the provenance of
some are now challenged by the Puccini
Foundation. The singer has selected 17 of
them. ‘To tell the truth, I adore everything
connected with the number seven! I was
born on the seventh,’ says Gheorghiu. ‘Of
course, this is a happy coincidence.’
Puccini wrote songs throughout his
composing life, from his student years in
Milan in the 1880s to his last days after
World War I, when he was acknowledged
as the Grand Old Man of Italian Opera.
It’s tempting to think of him as embracing
a tradition of song writing, which, by
the early-19th century, had become the
birth-right of every Italian composer.
But unlike Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti
and later Tosti, Puccini’s songs
are not really for the drawing
room or salon. He wrote them
for himself, for his friends and
sometimes as commissions,
which is not to say that they
are footnotes to the operas.
As musicologist Michael Kaye shrewdly
observes, ‘His songs reflect the stages
of development of his very personal
musical language’.
He wrote ‘E l’uccellino’, a beguiling
lullaby, for Memmo Lippi, the son of a
doctor friend who had died of typhus a few
days after his marriage; ‘Avanti, Urania!’
was composed two years earlier in 1896
to celebrate the purchase of Urania, a
179-ton iron screw steamer, by his friend
the Marchese Ginori-Lisci, an aristocrat
who invited the composer on his estates
to indulge his passion for hunting; ‘A te’,
a love song, dates back to when Puccini
was still a student in his hometown of
Lucca. ‘It’s the first song he ever wrote,’ says
Gheorghiu. ‘He was very young. What we
hear is that Puccini wrote a song when a
melody came into his head.’
Gheorghiu argues that the songs, which
she has been including in her recital
programmes for a while now, are not
always easy for the singer. There are ‘tough
aria-like numbers, including two that

‘It was quite an experience for me to be a
tenor and a soprano in a single recording’
would become tenor arias in the operas.
It was quite an experience for me to be a
tenor and a soprano in a single recording!’
Then there’s the balance between music
and words – often by admired poets
like Antonio Ghislanzoni, Luigi Illica
and Giuseppe Adami, who also turned
their hands to libretti. ‘Puccini is always
concerned with the words. He had a
history of fighting with his librettists to get
just what he wanted,’ explains Gheorghiu.
‘He wanted a beautiful relationship
between the text and the music. And the
accompaniment is very different from
Verdi and bel canto, where the piano and
the orchestra isn’t that important. [With
Puccini] it’s really a duet between me and
the piano and very theatrical in the setting
GETTY
of the words. This suits my character!’
Seductive seamstress:
Gheorghiu as Mimì in
Puccini’s La bohème –
alongside Tito Beltrán’s
Rodolfo – at the Royal
Opera House in 2005
And what are the particular challenges
for the singer who takes on these songs?
‘The tessitura is sometimes very high; in
some of them you need a vocal purity and
to be able to sing softly, which fits like a
glove for me! In each of the songs you have
to find a little drama. And you have to find
the right colour for your voice.’
Gheorghiu admits that singing a song
like ‘Mentia l’avviso’ (‘It was a false alarm’)
‘is like climbing Everest!’ It’s a recitative
and aria, a graduation exercise set by the
Milan Conservatoire in June 1883 with a
text by Felice Romani, who wrote libretti
for Bellini and Donizetti. Here, the captain
of an army of Moors sings of the woman
he both fears and yet longs to see. And it’s
him not her. ‘It’s a tenor aria! Throughout
my career when I have studied my roles,
Angela Gheorghiu
Rome, sweet Rome
Puccini’s public commission
Only two, perhaps three, of Puccini’s songs
can be counted as ‘public commissions’.
Among them is ‘Inno a Roma’ (Hymn to
Rome, above) which Angela Gheorghiu
has recorded. ‘I know about that kind of
song because in my country during the
communist period we were obliged to
sing songs composed for many different
public occasions,’ she says. Commissioned
in 1919 apparently to celebrate Italian
victories in World War I, the hymn was to be
sung by school children in the morning and
then in the theatre in the evening.
When Puccini disliked the original text,
it was rewritten and the piece finished in
March 1919. Puccini described the work to
his wife Elvira as ‘a fine piece of rubbish’.
The newspapers begged to differ: ‘an
exceptional artistic event’, declared one.
By April, rehearsals were underway
with some 4,000 schoolchildren and 400
soldiers ready to lead the audience in
the chorus. On the day of the premiere,
disaster struck: all the Roman orchestras
went on strike and the opera houses
locked their doors. Nevertheless, by five
o’clock in the afternoon a vast crowd,
including members of the royal family, had
made its way into the Piazza di Siena to
hear the schools’ performance. Then the
weather broke. As the hymn began, the
heavens opened and an almighty storm
engulfed the city. The show was cancelled
and everyone fled for cover.
‘Inno a Roma’ was re-scheduled for June
and given during the interval of The Royal
Gymnastic Competition at the National
Stadium. Before long, it would be hijacked
by the Italian Fascists to be played at public
parades and ceremonies.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 29

I have also studied the arias for the tenors.
And I’ve sung all of Puccini’s tenor arias
too, like “Nessun dorma”!’ Gheorghiu is
laughing now. ‘And “Mentia l’avviso” is a
long, long song, like an aria!’
With characteristic panache, Puccini
acknowledged that he was a theatre
composer in a letter to a friend: ‘I have
never written a lied or a romance. I need
the great window of the stage – there I am
at ease. When travelling I cannot see a
landscape or hear a word without thinking
of a possible dramatic situation.’
As you listen to Gheorghiu singing
Puccini’s songs, you begin to realise that
they too are a window onto the stage.
Wasn’t that the tenor aria from the revised
second act of La rondine? And surely there’s
more than a hint of Tosca’s entry in those
particular phrases? As for ‘Mentia l’avviso’,
it becomes an aria for Des Grieux in Manon
Lescaut. Never a composer to waste a good
tune, Puccini frequently borrows from
his own songs. When pressed on this he
30 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
‘I’ve sung all of
Puccini’s tenor
arias too, including
“Nessun dorma”!’
responded with a classic defence: can you
steal from yourself? ‘Let us speak the truth.
Where is the theft? I robbed myself. Am I
then the thief? I would be the victim too.’
So are these songs first thoughts for the
operas? Gheorghiu dismisses a suggestion
that they constitute a kind of ‘laboratory’ in
which Puccini experimented with musical
ideas. No, she says, Italian composers
always borrowed their own music. Rossini,
for example, was a master of such larceny.
Ever the practical artist, Gheorghiu says it’s
natural: ‘[In the theatre] you are working to
order. Like Verdi and the composers before
Window of the stage:
Gheorghiu has sung
nearly all of Puccini’s
operatic heroines
him, [you are] “commanded” by La Scala
or other houses to write for them: “On that
particular date we need to do that opera.”
If you have a deadline you have to work
quicker than when you have your own
time. And [suppose] you have [a] “library”
with ideas and melodies; you look in there.’
Gheorghiu has sung nearly all of
Puccini’s heroines on stage, from Manon
to Tosca, and her recording of Madam
Butterfly with Jonas Kaufmann was award
winning. Yet she has kept her distance
from Minnie in La fanciulla del West and
Turandot, roles that for half a century
now have been reserved for heavy-duty
dramatic sopranos.
‘I sang Turandot on one of my recordings
– the aria “In questa reggia” and the role of
Liù too. But I’ve never sung Turandot on
stage because in our time you cannot sing
the role with a beautiful voice. Generally,
you need a heavy sound for Turandot to be
bigger than the chorus, the orchestra and
the tenor. It’s like a continuing fight.’

There’s a conspiratorial laugh and
Gheorghiu continues, ‘I prefer to sing the
notes. Birgit Nilsson sang Wagner and
Turandot, but this is an exception. She
could do it in her way.’
Gheorghiu has always found a home
at the Royal Opera in London. Two of its
music directors have been her favourite
collaborators both on stage and in the
recording studio: Georg Solti and Antonio
Pappano. ‘When I first started to record
Puccini with Tony Pappano, I understood
his way of making music,’ she says. ‘He has
this knowledge about singers because his
father was a singer and before he began
to conduct, he was an accompanist. So I
could discuss with him how it has to be
conducting an orchestra for a voice.’
It was Solti who launched Gheorghiu’s
British career with a La traviata
that robbed critics and audiences of
superlatives. To this day, Gheorghiu
clearly remembers the first full orchestral
rehearsal in the opera house for her
colleague’s unusual approach. ‘Solti did
something I had never seen before from
such an important conductor,’ she says.
‘He left an assistant in charge in the pit
and during the entire rehearsal he was in
different places in the opera house right
to the highest level to hear how my voice
sounded with the orchestra. He made
some notes and then he told the orchestra
JOHN MILLAR, GETTY, NICK RUTTER
how to play for my voice. It’s not a fight.
The conductor needs to understand how
to play with his orchestra in partnership
with the voices he has in front of him.’
This January Gheorghiu returns to
Covent Garden to sing Mimì in Puccini’s
Long-time collaborators:
Gheorghiu and Pappano at the
ROH’s 2006 production of Tosca;
(left) the new recital recording
La bohème. In 1992, her
debut in the role there was
a compelling performance
– a Mimì who was more than the demure
seamstress from the upstairs attic who
mislays her key. She knew exactly what she
was doing when she was thrown together
with the poet Rodolfo after he had blown
out the most celebrated candle in opera.
With Gheorghiu, this was a knowingly
flirtatious Mimì.
Gheorghiu strives to make her
characters credible. And being credible
means knowing who they are – in the
case of Mimì, understanding hunger
and ambition. And Gheorghiu knew
both when she was growing up. ‘I was at
boarding school in Romania [during the
communist period]. I was living La Vie
Bohème. You have nothing, but you dream
that you are the king or queen of the world,
that you will become the most wonderful
artist. I remember we were eating cabbage
with sugar because we had no food. I know
that kind of situation.’
The final song on Angela Gheorghiu’s
new recording is ‘Melanconia’, a recently
discovered number that dates back to the
early 1880s. ‘The melody is very beautiful
but the atmosphere is sad and dark,’ she
says. Indeed – Antonio Ghislanzoni’s text
is suffused with melancholy:
When I shall be dead,
The swallows will still build
their white nests on my cottage…
And there, between the grasses
and the blackthorn,
Beneath the black cross,
The silence will be eternal, eternal the cold
With two exceptions, death is ever-
present in Puccini’s operas. The beautiful
do indeed die young. When his own time
came, the composer had planned for a
mausoleum in his house. As Gheorghiu
reminds us, ‘He was always interested in
death and that dark part of life. And I had
an answer to this when I saw that he had
built his tomb within one of his houses.’
Ars longa, vita brevis! Puccini died in his
sixties on 29 November 1924, but nearly
a century later his heroines are still very
much on stage – La bohème and Tosca are
two of the five most-performed operas
around the globe.
Angela Gheorghiu
Plentiful pianists:
Alexandra Dariescu
and (below) Radu Lupu
Bucharest and beyond
More legendary Romanian musicians
Gheorghiu’s native
Romania has
provided us with a
wealth of talented
performers,
composers and
conductors.
These include
the Romanian-
British pianist
Alexandra
Dariescu. Gheorghiu’s accompanist on
her 2019 song album Plaisir d’Amour,
Dariescu has also composed The
Nutcracker and I, a modern staging of
Tchaikovsky’s masterwork, featuring
piano, ballet and animation.
Next, another pianist: Radu Lupu (1945-
2022), famed for his uniquely sensitive
renditions of the music of Schubert,
Schumann, Brahms and others.
A third great Romanian pianist was
Dinu Lipatti (1917-50). An occasional
composer as well, Lipatti was known for
his perfectionism: he famously spent
four years preparing for a performance of
Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto.
Another great multi-tasking Romanian
was George Enescu (1881-1955). Enescu
conducted, taught music and played
the violin – but he is best known as a
composer of vivid orchestral, chamber
and solo piano music, often influenced by
the folk music of his native land. Indeed,
Enescu’s two Romanian Rhapsodies make
a great introduction to his colourful style.
And finally we can’t forget the great
Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache
(1912-96), perhaps best known for
his glacially slow – and, to the right
ears, profoundly spiritual – readings of
Bruckner’s symphonies.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 31
Miloš
While the world
outside was dark, the
place I could create
through my guitar
was as beautiful as
I wanted it to be
THE BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE INTERVIEW
Miloš Karadaglić
With the release of his
new album Baroque, the
Montenegrin continues his
quest to take the guitar to
hitherto unexplored genres,
writes Claire Jackson
PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRISTOPH KÖSTLIN
A
man in a powdered-white curled
wig takes his seat in the gilded
room. He adjusts the frilled sleeves
beneath a red velveteen jacket and begins
to play. The first piece in the suite unfurls
its contrapuntal fronds. Handel sits astride
the backless chair, gently strumming
and plucking his way through measured
phrases. Or at least, he does in the
imagination of Miloš Karadaglić, whose
latest album, Baroque, is a compendium
of works from that period, transcribed for
the guitar. Although Handel lived in the
same building that Jimi Hendrix would
occupy centuries later – a connection
celebrated through the recently opened
Handel Hendrix House in London’s
Brook Street – the composer wouldn’t
recognise the modern-day guitar, a very
32 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
different creature from the fretted stringed
instruments of the 1700s.
Playing Handel’s pieces for harpsichord,
among works by Vivaldi, Couperin,
Scarlatti and others, has been a long-held
ambition for Karadaglić. ‘There isn’t very
much in the Baroque repertoire for the
guitar except for one popular Vivaldi
concerto and a handful of sonatas,’ he
says. ‘There is no voice for the guitar in the
Baroque context that is distinctive and that
stands on its own.’
Karadaglić is used to giving the guitar a
voice in areas it has previously remained
unheard. With six studio albums to his
name, the Montenegrin has pushed
the instrument beyond its previous
associations with Iberian soundworlds.
These were nurtured by Andrés Segovia
(1893-1987), the Spanish guitarist whose
virtuosity and prolific commissioning
from the likes of Ponce, Villa-Lobos and
Rodrigo (including the iconic Concierto
de Aranjuez, which Karadaglić recorded
in 2014 with the London Philharmonic
Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin)
were bolstered by skilful guitarists like
Julian Bream (1933-2020) – who is the
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 33

Back to Bach:
Andrés Segovia
Changing Chaconne
Transcribing JS Bach
You’re just as likely to hear Bach’s
Second Partita for Violin BWV 1004
– a virtuosic solo piece that is a
cornerstone in the string repertoire
– as a transcription as you are in its
original form.
Bach began the piece, part of his
Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin,
shortly after his first wife died in
1720. Like the Goldberg Variations,
the Chaconne develops a chorale-like
theme using a sarabande rhythm and
an ostinato bass; the latter becomes
a feature, rather than a governing
structure. What sounds limiting is an
extraordinary exercise in creativity,
with the overall effect more profound
than the sum of its parts. The format
– as with the passacaglia – lends
itself to dignified, slowly developing
dance music, the Baroque ballad at
the disco.
It has inspired composers ever
since: Busoni’s complex 1893
piano transcription has been widely
performed and recorded, and
Brahms’s 1877 version for left hand
alone was taken up by left-handed
pianists, with a further arrangement
made by Géza Zichy. The Chaconne
has also been enlarged – Schumann
added a piano accompaniment
to the violin line and Leopold
Stokowski reimagined the piece for
full symphony orchestra. It was only
a matter of time before the piece
was transformed into a work for the
guitar. Andrés Segovia’s version takes
inspiration from Busoni, allowing
Bach’s rich harmonies to be fully
realised with detailed counterpoint.
34 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
dedicatee of Arnold’s 1958
guitar concerto, among
others – and John Williams
(the Australian musician
rather than the US film
composer). Karadaglić
continues to expand the
repertoire, commissioning concertante
works such as Joby Talbot’s Ink Dark Moon
and Howard Shore’s The Forest, and, for
Baroque, new transcriptions.
An aspect of Baroque’s success is,
paradoxically, the pieces you don’t hear.
‘I had to accept that certain pieces simply
wouldn’t work,’ smiles Karadaglić. ‘I had to
bring the unique quality of the guitar to the
original piece.’ In Rameau’s ‘The Arts and
the Hours’ from the opera Les Boréades,
delicate trills and filigree upper melodies
meet a light-footed walking bass, while
Weiss’s Fantasie in C minor – originally for
lute – is carved from intricate intertwined
parts. For the ensemble arrangements
such as the Vivaldi concertos and Trio
Sonata for violin, lute and basso continuo
and Boccherini’s Quintet No. 4 for guitar,
two violins, viola and cello, Karadaglić
is joined by Arcangelo and conductor
Jonathan Cohen. In the Adagio movement
of Marcello’s Concerto for oboe, strings
and bass continuo, Arcangelo’s strings
keep time with a recreation of the bass
part, an inhalation and exhalation that
came to define Baroque music.
It is one of the few threads that can
be followed throughout this collection
of otherwise varied pieces. In the New
Oxford Companion to Music, Denis Arnold
writes that during 1600 to 1750, ‘the only
common feature of “Baroque” music is
that virtually all of it uses a continuo part;
otherwise, this century and a half contains
Happy place: (left) Miloš Karadaglić performs with
the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at
Classic FM Live, held at London’s Royal Albert Hall;
(below) Karadaglić’s latest album, Baroque
such a variety of genres and styles that it is
difficult to detect any essential unifying
feature’. Indeed, the word ‘baroque’,
derived from the Portuguese barocco
–‘misshapen pearl’ – suggests irregularity.
It left Karadaglić with a quandary: how to
curate this delicious dolly mixture?
Sometimes the most obvious answer
takes a while to emerge. ‘At the beginning,
I was certain that I wanted to leave Bach
for another recording,’ says Karadaglić.
‘Every guitarist plays the transcriptions of
the suites and of course I had
always had Bach in my fingers,
but I thought that I should
focus on the Baroque without
Bach.’ Eventually, though, Bach
made his presence known. ‘It
was like the planets orbiting
the sun; I felt that gravitational
pull – the Chaconne binds the
programme together.’ Karadaglić’s mentor
Michael Lewin contributed many of the
arrangements on Baroque but the Chaconne
– the fifth movement from Bach’s Partita for
Solo Violin No. 2 in D minor (see box, left) –
is Karadaglić’s own version.
By the end of the Baroque period,
the guitar had overtaken the lute in
popularity. In the 19th century, Antonio
de Torres experimented with a larger size,
improving the guitar’s dynamic range.
As steel strings offered further increases
in volume, a brace was added to the body,
and the guitar grew in stature. What was
once considered an instrument to be
heard in moments of quiet contemplation
– and, if you were very unlucky, around
a campfire – could hold its own in the
concert hall. When Karadaglić became
the first classical guitarist to sell out a solo
performance at the Royal Albert Hall in
2012, it represented a milestone for both
instrument and instrumentalist.
‘As a child I had seen Pavarotti on TV,
singing in this magical space,’ remembers
Karadaglić. ‘It was incredible.’ The 1995
broadcast was a concert to celebrate the
125th anniversary of the British Red Cross.
The tenor sung with guests such as mezzo-
soprano Dolora Zajick in a performance
that captivated audiences, including
Princess Diana, who was photographed
off-stage with Pavarotti. But over in
Montenegro, where the young Karadaglić
was watching, there was a greater need for

escapism: the effects of the Bosnian War
were grim. ‘I thought the Royal Albert
Hall seemed like the most amazing place
of happiness,’ says Karadaglić. ‘That’s the
place I played at in my head before I ever
gave a concert. After I performed there, I
felt like even if I never played another note
in my life, I would still be happy.’
Since that first concert, Karadaglić has
performed at the Royal Albert Hall many
times, most recently in October for Classic
FM Live. But for a period he wondered
whether he would play there – or anywhere
else – ever again. A mysterious hand
injury in 2016 prompted several months
of recuperation, triggering a re-evaluation
of lifestyle, aims and ambitions. ‘The sheer
volume of work that I was dealing with
was stopping me from connecting with
the childlike joy of making music. I made
changes in my life and found my way out.’
CHRISTOPH KÖSTLIN, GETTY, ALAMY
Musically, that manifested in Sound of
Silence, a mixtape album of arrangements
of pop songs including Radiohead’s ‘Street
Spirit’, Portishead’s ‘Sour Times’ and
collaborations with saxophonist (and then
labelmate) Jess Gillam. The comeback was
‘I thought the Royal
Albert Hall seemed
like the most amazing
place of happiness’
marked with a concert at – where else? –
the Royal Albert Hall.
We’re sitting in Sony’s new offices
in Coal Drops Yard near King’s Cross.
Baroque is Karadaglić’s first release
through Sony, after a long association
with Universal (releasing under Decca,
Deutsche Grammophon and Mercury
Classics). Karadaglić perches on the
sofa. He’s articulate, forthcoming and
unflinching in his self-awareness. His
hand gives him away as a guitarist – there’s
the long thumb nail. He’s lived in London
for virtually the same amount of time as he
did in Montenegro – he left the country at
17 to study at the Royal Academy of Music
– but Karadaglić feels close connections
to his homeland. Keen to help others
Miloš
Looking forward:
‘I never lost that sense
of purpose and wonder’
benefit from his success, the guitarist has
set up the Miloš Karadaglić Foundation
to provide scholarships for four talented
people from the region.
The tiny country of Montenegro, now
a popular holiday destination, has a
small-but-developing cultural scene,
including Operosa, a classical music and
opera festival founded by Finnish mezzo-
soprano Katherine Haataja in 2006. But
the scars are visible to those who look
closely enough.
‘The violence of war marked the whole
period in my life before I came to London
in 2000,’ reflects Karadaglić. ‘But while
the world outside was dark, the place I
could create through my guitar was as
beautiful as I wanted it to be. And being
able to share that first with my family
and then in concerts was the reason why I
became a musician.
‘I never lost that sense of purpose and
wonder that I’m able to do something
that anyone can understand – no
matter where they’re from or what their
background is. That’s a driving force
behind it all for me.’
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 35
 Thethirdman
The genesis of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending can be traced
back to a meeting between the composer and violinist-dedicatee Marie
Hall. But, asks Andrew Green, who arranged this auspicious collision?

T Inspiration
o mark the 100th anniversary of violin cadenzas). The ever-popular work was
the first performance of The Lark subsequently written for Hall (just before the
Ascending (in Vaughan Williams’s followed Vaughan First World War) and is dedicated to her.
violin/piano arrangement of the However, is there a wider narrative to uncover
Williams’s
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, VAUGHAN WILLIAMS FOUNDATION

orchestral original), I recounted evidence in
these pages for the work’s origins (See Dec
2020 issue). An episode in January 1914 seems
pivotal – an occasion in Italy when Vaughan
Williams heard the playing of the brilliant young
British violinist Marie Hall (1884-1956). Hall
was on a concert tour; Vaughan Williams was
over wintering with wife Adeline at the Italian
Riviera resort of Ospedaletti. Apparently, Hall
played unaccompanied Bach on this occasion
(echoed, perhaps, in The Lark Ascending’s
beyond this isolated incident? Curiosity is stirred
by the longest of several mentions of this Italian
appreciation of encounter in the press, late in 1928. In reference
Hall’s delicacy to a London performance by Hall of The Lark
Ascending, the Musical Standard journal stated
and brilliancy of that the work was ‘an inspiration following Mr
Vaughan Williams’s appreciation of [Marie
playing in Italy Hall’s] delicacy and brilliancy of playing during
an evening spent with a friend in Italy.’
Someone in the know had let slip the story.
So, who was this ‘friend in Italy’? What was the

36 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


Musical triangle: (left) it’s likely that Philip Napier Miles
facilitated the birth of The Lark Ascending; (right) Vaughan
Williams with his wife Adeline Fisher in Barton Street, 1917;
(below) composer, philanthropist and probable fixer Miles
venue? Does it matter? This article doesn’t trawl
through the life-stories of Vaughan Williams
and Hall for possible candidates (certainly, no
names leap out at you). Rather, the evidence
below constitutes the persuasive argument in
favour of composer-philanthropist Philip Napier
Miles (1865-1935). If Miles was the ‘friend’, his
role in The Lark Ascending story does indeed
matter. It could even be suggested that without
Miles, the now legendary work might never have
come into existence.
Miles’s money is the thread running through
this storyline. His family’s wealth stretched back
across the generations (including, it has to be
said, income associated with slavery). His father,
Philip William Skynner Miles, was a major
player in the development of Avonmouth docks,
situated close by the Kings Weston Estate on the
edge of Bristol, which Napier Miles inherited.
Kings Weston House still stands. Here, as a
youngster, Miles attended concerts staged by his
parents and honed his piano skills.
How Miles spent his inheritance is integral
to this narrative. Firstly, he donated land from
the Kings Weston Estate in 1902 to enable
the building of a public hall for the local
community of Shirehampton – also contributing
a meaningful sum towards the venue’s
construction. Among the musical events held
here were concerts featuring the Avonmouth
& Shirehampton Choral Society, conducted by
Miles himself.
Marie Hall was an occasional guest artist
at the choir’s Shirehampton concerts. As a
prodigious teenage talent, she had benefited
hugely from Miles’s largesse, vital given her
impecunious family background. Crucially,
Miles supported Hall’s studies at the Prague
Conservatoire and then set up the London
concert, in February 1903, which launched the
18 year-old, almost literally overnight, on an
international career. The entire programme for
that St James’s Hall performance (with Henry
Wood conducting) consisted of demanding
works for violin and orchestra.
Beyond the matter of financial support, Hall
clearly became close to Miles and to his wife,
Sybil Marguerite. When the violinist married
her manager, Edward Baring, in January 1911,
Miles gave her away. When Hall’s only child was
born in late 1911, she was named Pauline (Marie’s
middle name) followed by Sybil Marguerite.
Clearly the relationship with the Mileses had
something familial about it. Was Mrs Miles
Pauline’s godparent? (The baptismal record
allows for no mention of godparents’ names).
The Lark Ascending
So, might Hall’s relationship with Napier Miles
translate into his being the ‘friend in Italy’?
Certainly, he owned properties successively in
the Italian Riviera resorts of Paraggi – on the
far side of Genoa – and at Alassio. Significantly
for this tale, Alassio was closer than Paraggi to
Vaughan Williams’s chosen resort of Ospedaletti
during that 1913-14 winter.
Where, though, did Miles own property
in January 1914 – Paraggi or Alassio? The
manuscripts of Miles’s compositions lodged
at the University of Bristol provide significant
clues. Miles adopted the practice of regularly
noting on his scores the locations where they
were completed and when. The last Paraggi Philip Napier Miles
attribution comes from 1910. A Villa Costa Miles studied composition
Bella residence at Alassio is first referenced as in Germany (as did Vaughan
early as 19 May 1919, the date on a Sword Song Williams) and with Hubert
manuscript. Confusingly, the earliest date – May Parry (ditto). He never
attained distinction as a
1914 – for an Alassio-related composition (apart
composer, but his output
from an outlier in 1898) has as its completion was not inconsiderable.
location a property by the name of Casa The power of words was
Montagny. Was Villa Costa Bella perhaps Miles’s a constant inspiration,
subsequent re-naming of Casa Montagny? Or expressed in quantities
was he simply a visitor at Casa Montagny? A of songs and several
puzzle maybe to solve. operas – among them
The interruption of the First World War surely Westward Ho! (1913) and
prevented Miles from visiting Italy. This suggests Markheim (1919), winner
a tight timeframe for a 1919 move into Villa Costa of a Carnegie Award.
Miles failed ultimately in
Bella before that 19 May Sword Song dateline –
his ambitions to create a
especially given the evidence that Miles was in the regular opera festival at
UK in January and early February 1919. One way Shirehampton, mirroring
or another, it seems we must conclude that Miles Rutland Boughton’s
was resident in Alassio – likely, at Villa Costa Bella efforts at Glastonbury,
– before the conflict. and distantly inspired by
Crucially, what is certain is that Miles was Wagner’s Bayreuth Festival.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 37
The Lark Ascending
in Italy with his wife in January 1914, adding
weight to the idea that he could have met – and
hosted – Hall and Vaughan Williams (the latter
coming from relatively nearby Ospedaletti)
during their Riviera visits. Cast-iron evidence
comes from an innocuous-looking document
tucked away in the University of Bristol’s Napier
Miles archive. This takes the shape of a letter to
Miles, dated 25 January 1914, from his friend and
musical collaborator EH Fellowes (remembered
today as a pioneer editor of Tudor church music).
Fellowes signs off thus: ‘I hope you are both
flourishing and enjoying the sun and warmth of
Italy…kindest regards to Mrs Miles.’
Given Miles’s longstanding connections with
the Riviera it has to be assumed that this is
where he was at this time. The coastline was a
favourite winter haven for many of his wealthy
compatriots – a veritable colony. It would thus
have been entirely natural for the Mileses to play
host to Marie Hall during her Riviera concert
tour – and also to Vaughan Williams, a friend of
Miles by this time.
Compelling evidence here comes from Hall’s
typescript autobiographical sketches, lodged
in her archive in Gloucester. These feature the
detail that Hall’s daughter, Pauline – barely
two years old at the time – came on this Riviera
concert tour. The toddler’s father remained in
the UK. Even if a nurse looked after Pauline, it
seems extraordinary that one so young should be
taken on such a long and convoluted rail journey,
starting out (presumably) from the family home
in Cheltenham at the dead of winter. Pauline
Sybil Marguerite Baring and her mother were
surely travelling to stay with those close friends,
Napier and Sybil Marguerite Miles, resident on
the Riviera at this time and able to offer a home
GETTY
away from home.
38 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Marie Hall
Especially before the First
World War, Marie Hall was
recognised as a dazzling
talent both in the UK and
abroad. She toured in
North America, Australia,
New Zealand and South
Africa as well as in Europe
and India. Her astonishing
technical facility can be
witnessed in a 1916
recording of extracts from
Elgar’s Violin Concerto, with
the composer conducting.
Despite the hiss you can
make out the special
quality of her playing, and
of her beloved 1709 Strad,
which Hall played until
her death and was the
instrument featured in The
Lark Ascending premiere.
It seems likely that Hall
met Vaughan Williams in
1908 (if not before) when
both appeared in the same
Cambridge concert.
Unassuming star: (left) Shirehampton Public Hall, whose
existence owed much to Miles, hosted the premiere of
The Lark Ascending in 1920; (below) soloist Marie Hall
As for a possible spur to Vaughan Williams
joining them on that auspicious evening,
there’s the information from press reports that
the composer conducted at an Avonmouth &
Shirehampton Choral Society concert, with
Miles in attendance, at Shirehampton Public
Hall in November 1913. Given that Vaughan
Williams was shortly to head off for Ospedaletti,
it’s entirely believable that the two discussed
their respective forthcoming trips to the Riviera,
and that plans were made for a rendezvous there.
Circumstantial but convincing evidence,
then, for Napier Miles to be considered as the
‘friend in Italy’ in whose company Marie Hall
played and so impressed Vaughan Williams.
We cannot know whether ideas for The Lark
Ascending were already in the composer’s mind.
Did Vaughan Williams promise a work actually
on that evening (following a request from Hall or
Miles?) or keep the notion secret for the moment?
Whatever, The Lark Ascending was written
specifically for Hall.
The final – and significant – piece of the
evidential jigsaw is the fact that Hall premiered
The Lark Ascending – on 15 December 1920 – not
in a major venue, but at Shirehampton Public
Hall, whose construction owed so much to Miles.
His Avonmouth & Shirehampton Choral Society
staged the concert. Vaughan Williams was
there to conduct his own Fantasia on Christmas
Carols. The eye-witness account of EH Fellowes
indicates that Hall and Vaughan Williams
worked on adjustments to The Lark Ascending
violin/piano arrangement just before the concert
at Miles’s Kings Weston House.
Maybe Miles was granted – or even requested
– the premiere of The Lark Ascending precisely
on account of his role in its genesis. Perhaps,
additionally, Shirehampton offered the perfect
out-of-the way location for Vaughan Williams
to reassure himself of the work’s merits. The
weight of all this evidence suggests that it does
matter who was ‘the friend in Italy’. If that
individual was indeed Napier Miles, we have
the broad arc of a satisfying narrative in which
he’s a pivotal player – from his key role in Marie
Hall’s emergence as a star and the development
of their friendship to that evening in Italy and
its sparking of Vaughan Williams’s intent and
imagination, and on to the first public hearing of
The Lark Ascending in the Shirehampton venue
so closely attached to Miles. Would the work
have been written without his agency? Who can
say? But if the above is essentially correct, Napier
Miles surely deserves his share of The Lark
Ascending limelight at last.
 1 9 / 0 1 / 24
E ARTHCYCLE HIGHLIGHTS
THE 21ST CENTURY’S
G R E AT E ST C O N C E R N W H I LST
C E L E B R AT I N G N AT U R E A N D
OUR PLACE WITHIN IT.

ORCHESTRAOFTHESWAN.ORG
All aboard!
Jeremy Pound invites you on deck to discover how boats, from river
barges to ocean liners, have inspired many composers across the ages
F
elix Mendelssohn liked boats. Or,
rather, he liked the places that boats
could take him to. When, in August
1829, he made his famous journey
over the waves to the isle of Staffa off the west
coast of Scotland, he could scarcely contain his
excitement. Jotting the opening theme of what
would become his Fingal’s Cave overture on a
postcard to sister Fanny, he wrote: ‘In order to
make you understand how extraordinarily the
Hebrides affected me, I send you the following,
which came into my head there.’ Whether he
enjoyed the journey there is another matter.
Implying that the composer spent much of
the time looking green and leaning over the
side of the ship, his travelling companion Karl
40 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Klingemann reflected that Mendelssohn ‘is on
better terms with the sea as a musician than as
an individual with a stomach’.
Joseph Haydn, on the other hand, was
evidently made of sterner stuff. Stoutly
remaining on deck throughout the stormy
finale of his crossing of the English Channel on
New Year’s Day 1791, he found himself blown
by gale-force winds and watching, in his own
words, ‘the monstrous high waves rushing at
us’. Yes, he admitted in a letter to his friend
Maria Genzinger, he was a little frightened,
‘but I overcame it all and arrived safely, without
vomiting, on shore’.
Haydn’s tempestuous maritime experience
would have given him plenty to draw on when,

seven years later, he depicted the sea in the
‘Rolling in foaming billows’ bass aria in The
Creation (1798) – as, nearly half-a-century after
that, did a similar voyage for Richard Wagner,
whose fraught journey from Riga to London
sowed the seeds for his The Flying Dutchman.
Fleeing his creditors with wife Minna but
without a passport, the German composer
probably hoped that the eight-day journey on
board the Thetis would provide a quick-and-easy
escape from the mess his life was in. Eight days,
however, soon became three storm-tossed weeks,
including an enforced period at anchor off the
coast of Norway – a fate also suffered by Daland
the sea captain in Wagner’s 1843 opera.
Contrary type that he was, Claude Debussy
actively welcomed a rough sea ride off the
Brittany coast while ideas for La mer were
forming in his mind in the early 20th century.
Though accounts vary, local historian Dr Petit
GETTY
de la Villéon describes how, as dark clouds
Music and boats
Able seaman:
Haydn braves the
English Channel in 1791
Naval gazing: (above) Fingal’s Cave, Mendelssohn’s
destination in 1829; (main picture) Puccini enjoys a spin
in Ricochet, his speedboat; (opposite bottom) bass Paul
Bender as Daland in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, 1905
gathered, the composer chose not to travel the
short distance from Cancale to St Lunaire by car
– as his sensible friends did – but instead board a
bisquine (an oyster boat) for the journey. Debussy,
says Petit, ‘saw and drank in the storm; around
him the sea bellowed, the wind whistled around
the mast and howled in the rigging… He listened.’
Depictions of maritime storms crop up fairly
regularly in music, but sounds associated with
boats – of all shapes and sizes – go well beyond
howling winds and crashing waves. For instance,
in his symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead,
inspired by a painting by Arnold Böcklin, Sergei
Rachmaninov’s lopsided 5/8 time signature
conjures up an image of the rower’s oars going in
(three beats) and out (two beats) of the water as
he ferries the deceased to their destiny, while in
Maurice Ravel’s ‘Une barque sur l’océan’ for solo
piano, a boat of similar size bobs gently up and
down on the waves. Both are a world away from
the urgency of Malcolm Arnold’s 1966 march for
brass band Padstow Lifeboat, the subject of which
Crossing the is heard heading out on a mission to the sound of
signals from the lighthouse.
English Channel, Edward Elgar, meanwhile, had a much larger
vessel in mind in Variation XIII of his Enigma
Haydn found Variations where, courtesy of the timpani and
lower strings, we hear the throb of an engine
himself blown by as an ocean liner heads slowly out to sea
gale-force winds (accompanied by a quote from Mendelssohn’s
Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage in the clarinet),
and watching, in and thoughts of holidays afloat also pervade
the central movement of Camille Saint-Saëns’s
his own words, ‘Egyptian’ Piano Concerto No. 5 (1896), whose
‘the monstrous soundscape is one of crickets, frogs and the song
of Nubian boatmen as a dahabeah (a passenger
high waves boat) sails peacefully along the Nile.
Boatmen’s songs in general have, as one might
rushing at us’ expect, provided a rich source of inspiration
for composers. Sea shanties, in particular, were
among the folk music collected in the early 20th
century by Percy Grainger and Ralph Vaughan
Williams, whose take on them can be heard
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 41
Music and boats
All hands on deck:
Billy Budd, with Nathan Gunn
in the title role, at the New York
Met, 2012: (below) the opera’s
composer, Benjamin Britten
in, respectively, their Two Sea Shanties and Sea
Songs. Arnold would follow suit in 1943 with
his Three Shanties for wind quintet, and let’s not
forget – try as we might – the Last Night of the
Proms regular that is Henry Wood’s Fantasia on
British Sea Songs.
Heading riverwards, meanwhile, there’s the
sturdy ‘Yo, heave ho!’ of the ‘Song of the Volga
Boatmen’ which, collected and published by
Mily Balakirev in 1866, subsequently found
its way into works by the likes of Alexander
Glazunov (the symphonic poem Stenka Razin;
1885), Manuel de Falla (Canto de los remeros del
Volga for solo piano; 1922) and Vítězslav Novák
(May Symphony; 1943). Altogether less strenuous
is the barcarole, the song of the Venetian
gondoliers, represented perhaps most sublimely
in Clara Schumann’s 1848 song ‘Gondoliera’ and,
sharing the same title, the opening movement of
Liszt’s Venezia e Napoli for piano.
Human voices are not the only ones regularly
heard by boat passengers, as Nielsen twigged
in his orchestral overture An Imaginary Trip to
the Faroe Islands of 1927. ‘I begin by describing
the sea, as you feel it during the crossing,’ he
explained. ‘It is quiet, but I think that it is
precisely when the sea is calm that you most
42 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
strongly sense its terrible depth... its depth
and endlessness at the same time. During the
voyage, we suddenly hear a bird cry that makes
us think that we are near land.’ That raucous
cry is represented by a high-pitched clarinet,
joined soon after by the flute. Fifteen years
earlier, an altogether more terrifying effect had
been employed by the Danish composer in his
1912 wind band piece Paraphrase On ‘Nearer My
God To Thee’ to indicate that, on one particular
voyage, land would never come into sight at
all. Midway through a muted version of the
eponymous hymn tune – thought to have been
played by the salon orchestra upon the Titanic
Britten loved – an enormous, shattering crash tells us that the
ship has struck an iceberg.
water, so it is of Benjamin Britten may have feared that he,
similarly, might not reach his destination when,
no surprise that in 1942, he crossed the Atlantic in the other
boats, or allusions direction on the cargo ship MS Axel Johnson, a
journey made perilous by being a potential target
to them, appear for German U-boats. Being stuck on board did, at
least, allow a lot of time for composing, resulting
regularly in in his choral works A Ceremony of Carols and
his operas Hymn to St Cecilia. His partner Peter Pears,
meanwhile, complained of the stuffiness and
boredom on the ship, and one wonders if Britten
 Different strokes:
the King’s College
‘Choir VIII’, 1965

Choral oarsmen
When King’s got bumped
Music is not short of those
who enjoy messing about on
Cruise company: (above) Venetian gondoliers, inspiration Wagner likewise made more than one return the river. Few, however, can
for Liszt and others, in the 1860s; (above right) John visit to the water after The Flying Dutchman. The have brought as much joy
Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer at ENO, 2012; to it as the choral scholars
(below) Barge Haulers on the Volga by Ilya Repin, 1873 eponymous hero of Lohengrin (1848) makes
of King’s College, who, in
his entrance on a boat pulled by a swan, while 1965, formed a ‘Choir VIII’
had this in mind when masterfully conjuring up Tristan and Isolde (1861) begins on board Tristan’s rowing crew to take part
the claustrophobia of life on HMS Indomitable, ship on a crossing from Ireland to Cornwall… in the Cambridge ‘May
the 18th-century 74-gun warship that is the and ends with him back home, mortally Bumps’ college races – with,
setting for his opera Billy Budd. wounded and waiting for Isolde’s boat to appear admittedly, limited success.
Britten loved water – as shown in his 1934 on the horizon. ‘I for one had never rowed
Holiday Diary for piano, with movements called By and large, in fact, operas set on boats before,’ recalls alto Alastair
‘Early Morning Bathe’ and ‘Sailing’ – so it’s of no don’t tend to end well. Take, for instance, John Hume. ‘Mucking about on
surprise that boats, or allusions to them, make Adams’s 1991 The Death of Klinghoffer – there’s a lake is one thing, wielding
regular appearances in his operas. Though Peter a clue in the title – which takes place on board an oar constantly at speed
for what seemed like an
Grimes (1945) is set on land, at the heart of the the hi-jacked cruise liner Achille Lauro; or,
eternity was quite another.’
tale is speculation over what may or may not downsizing a bit, Il Tabarro (The Cloak), where Over four days, the Choir VIII
have happened on board the title character’s a Parisian working barge is the backdrop for got ‘bumped’ (i.e. lost) three
fishing boat which, at the very end, we learn arguably Giacomo Puccini’s grittiest, most times, but at least did so
has probably been lost at sea. Elsewhere, we get downbeat work. And an even smaller craft keeps with a song. ‘We would sing
an Ark in Noye’s Fludde (1957) and passengers afloat the protagonists of Hans Werner Henze’s “Forth in Thy Name, O Lord,
being ferried across 1964’s Curlew River, while 1971 oratorio The Raft of the Medusa, depicting We Row” on the towpath
in Britten’s last opera Death in Venice (1973), he the blood-stained wreck of a French frigate that before the race,’ says Hume,
bows out by briefly setting the action on two inspired the famous 1819 painting of the same ‘and had a lament or song
different modes of waterborne transport: a title by Théodore Géricault. But at least we have of triumph for afterwards,
depending on what
passenger ferry and a gondola. those Victorian purveyors of jollity Gilbert
happened. Sadly, we got a lot
of practice singing Gibbons’s
Drop, Drop Slow Tears.’
As bass Brian Kay points
out, a new influx of talent
saw him and the Choir VIII
(but, alas, no Hume) do much
better the next year, bumping
other crews on all four days.
And more significantly,
perhaps, two years later five
of the crew of ’65 – Hume,
Kay, bass Simon Carrington,
tenor Alastair Thompson and
alto Martin Lane – would join
fellow choral scholar Richard
Salter in forming The King’s
Singers. The rest is choral, if
GETTY

not rowing, history.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 43

 Worth a punt: Joy Boughton, 1951
Notes on the water
Performances afloat
From the aulos keeping
rowers in sync on Ancient
Greek triremes to crooners
on cruise ships, there is a
long history of music being
performed on board boats.
Perhaps the most famous
floating performance of
all took place on the River
Thames on 17 July 1717
when, travelling on a barge
from Westminster to Chelsea,
George I enjoyed the
premiere of Handel’s Water
Music, played by around 50
musicians on another barge.
A large flotilla of other boats
joined in the spectacle… just
as they did on the same river
295 years later. On this latter
occasion – a very wet 3 June
2012 – it was Elizabeth II
being entertained as she
celebrated her Diamond
Jubilee, courtesy of barge-
borne performances by the
Academy of Ancient Music
and London Philharmonic
Orchestra, in new works
by Graham Fitkin, Debbie
Wiseman and others.
On a much smaller scale
was the premiere of Britten’s
Six Metamorphoses after
Ovid at the Aldeburgh Festival
on 14 June 1951. In this
instance there was just the
one performer – oboist Joy
Boughton who, standing
in a punt on Thorpeness
Meare lake, was joined by
an audience that had also
GETTY, BRITTEN/PEARS ARCHIVE
headed over in punts to listen
to her. The piece was not
heard again at the festival
until Nicholas Daniel gave it a
second outing in 2017, again
playing from a boat.
44 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
and Sullivan to raise a smile on
the deck of HMS Pinafore – and, of
course, celebrate boatmen of very
different hues in The Pirates of
Penzance and The Gondoliers.
When not portraying boats
on the stave, the likes of Britten,
Rachmaninov and Puccini
also enjoyed playing about in
them, and in the Italian’s case
this involved spending a fair
proportion of his considerable
income. Puccini’s first navigable purchase was
a state-of-the-art speedboat called Ricochet,
spotted by the composer in a shop window in
New York then transported home so he could
hare around Lake Massaciuccoli and impress
the locals. A series of steam yachts, all named
Cio-Cio San after the heroine of Madam Butterfly,
followed. Rachmaninov also splashed the cash
on a craft – though less lavishly so – when in the
1930s he bought a motorboat with which to take
himself on trips from his villa on Lake Lucerne
(see p60). However, for Parry, whose Songs of
Farewell include ‘Never weather-beaten sail’, the
joy of boats lay not in on-board motors but in
harnessing the power of the wind – the owner of
a yawl called The Latois and a ketch called The
Wanderer, the British composer was elected a
member of the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1908.
The association between composers and boats
is not always a happy one, though. Take Nicolas
Gombert, whose glittering career in the court of
the Holy Roman emperor Charles V came to an
abrupt halt in 1540 when, found guilty of sexual
All at sea: (above) Théodore Géricault’s
The raft of the Medusa, also depicted in
a 1971 oratorio by Henze; (left) Gilbert &
Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance
impropriety, he was sentenced
to hard labour in the galleys. It
is not clear how long Gombert’s
sentence was, and it seems he did
at least continue to compose to an
extent while carrying it out, but
he was never the same thereafter.
Even more terminal was the fate
of Thomas Linley Jnr, the ‘English Mozart’,
who drowned in a boating accident on a lake
in Lincolnshire at the age of just 22 in 1778.
Ditto the Spaniard Enrique Granados, who lost
his own life when trying to save his wife from
drowning after their passenger ferry, the SS
Sussex, had been torpedoed by a German U-boat
in the English Channel during World War I.
Even in peaceful times and without dangers
lurking beneath the surface, the unpredictability
of the wind and waves can make travelling on
water a perilous occupation, as vividly set out in
one of the more recent works depicting life on the
ocean: Sally Beamish’s 2012 Seavaigers for harp,
fiddle and orchestra. With a title that means
‘Seafarers’, the piece’s three movements take us
in turn through a ‘Storm’, a ‘Lament’ in memory
those lost at sea, and ‘Haven’, in which a sense of
exhilaration is felt as the ship steers towards the
safety of home. And relax. For all the wonderful
sights and sounds and the many thrills and spills
of being on a boat, sometimes disembarking onto
dry land can be the best feeling of all.
 Vienna Rome
1–5 April 9–13 September
· 2024 · · 2024 ·

New York Tel Aviv

27–31 May 22–26 September
· 2024 · · 2024 ·
Maestro
Maestro: love,
life and music…
Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Jamie
Bernstein talk to Michael Beek about bringing her
family’s story, and her father’s music, to the screen
‘T
he emotionality of it is so intense,’
Jamie Bernstein begins. ‘I noticed
that the people who were coming
up to my sister and me to talk about
the film (after screenings) all had this same
gesture of putting their hands over their hearts
as they spoke.’ I realise I’d done the exact same
thing when my conversation with the eldest of
Leonard Bernstein’s three children began, just
an hour after seeing Bradley Cooper’s Maestro.
Such is the disarming, emotional impact
of this film, a beautiful and very cinematic
chronicle of Leonard Bernstein’s marriage to
actress Felicia Montealegre. The pair met in
1946, eventually marrying in 1951, and their
years together saw many moments of great joy
and happiness, with no small amount of chaos,
and some sadness, as Bernstein navigated not
just his rise to stardom but his many loves –
both artistic and personal. Despite all that, they
gravitated toward each other, needed each other,
and when Montealegre was diagnosed with the
cancer that would ultimately take her life in 1978,
Bernstein was by her side.
It was way back in 2018 when news first
JASON MCDONALD/NETFLIX
broke that Bradley Cooper was to embark on
a Bernstein biopic, fresh from his acclaimed
directorial debut A Star is Born. The project,
with an original script by Josh Singer, had in fact
already been on the boil in Hollywood for some
46 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
ten years, but as Jamie Bernstein shares, Cooper
was surprisingly well placed to take it on and
finally see it to fruition.
‘We didn’t realise that he was quite as much Breathing life into Bernstein:
the New York Philharmonic
like our father as he turned out to be,’ she says. 1943 debut scene; (below)
‘He didn’t have to be like Leonard Bernstein recreating a US television
to play Leonard Bernstein; he’s an actor. But it interview; (below right) the
film’s poster artwork
turned out that his whole approach to creativity
and performance were so similar to our dad’s
and we were very touched by that. His enormous
‘Bradley would send us
pictures from his
phone, sitting in the
make-up chair’
open-heartedness was the really essential
similarity, and we didn’t see that coming; he was
the perfect guy for this project.’
Cooper used the time to immerse himself
fully in Bernstein’s world, his life and his music
– I recall him being present at the Bernstein
Centennial celebration concert at Tanglewood
in August 2018, which I was lucky enough to
attend. He also used the time to get to know the
family and made sure they were involved every
step of the way. ‘The minute he had the project
 to himself, he was of shock, but then burst out laughing when she
not obligated to realised it was Bradley pulling a fast one on her.’
discuss anything The actor/director worked for many hours
with us ever again,’ with make-up designer Kazu Hiro to get the
Jamie Bernstein various ages of Bernstein’s look just right, and
tells me. ‘But it while Cooper’s use of a prosthetic nose made
was his choice to headlines, it was a non-issue for the family who
involve us in his were quick to put out a statement in support of
process, and it him and the offending piece of latex. Indeed,
was just our lucky Cooper’s visceral character portrait of their
break that we got father gets a thumbs up from the Bernstein
to be part of his siblings. ‘It is a version of him that we recognise,
journey.’ That included getting their father’s look yes,’ says Jamie Bernstein, and they were equally
just right, as she recalls. ‘Bradley would send us taken aback by Carey Mulligan’s take on their
pictures from his phone, sitting in the make-up mother. ‘We were floored,’ she tells me, ‘because
chair: “What do you think of this?” And then the thing about our mother is that she was such
one time, my sister said that her phone rang a nuanced person, very private, very subtle, very
and it was an unknown number FaceTiming hard to explain. Carey had a million questions
her; she took it and there was her dad, with his for us about our mother, and we would really
glasses and his cigarette! She had such a moment struggle to find words to explain her, because

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 47

 HANDEL and PEPUSCH

ACC 24398 ACC 24397

WONDROUS MACHINE Johann Christoph Pepusch: CHANDOS ANTHEMS

Margret Koell (triple harp)
Ensemble Between the Strings
Margret Koell programmatically places the title “Wondrous Machine”
above a project that presents the mutability of the triple harp.
The programme focuses on George Frideric Handel:
the Concerto Op. 7 No. 1 for harp, lute and orchestra
is Koell‘s arrangement of the original organ concerto.
The Concerto Op. 4 No. 6 is presented here for the first time in the original
version from 1736 for harp and lyrichord (viola organista) - the latter,
a bowed keyboard instrument, is based on sketches by Leonardo da Vinci.
s
The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen
Robert Rawson
The name ‘Chandos anthems’ is most frequently associated with Handel,
but he was not the only composer in the household of the Duke of Chandos.
Working concurrently with Handel at Cannons, was the Berlin native,
Johann Christoph Pepusch.
Having previously demonstrated to the public Pepusch’s masterful approach
in several award-winning recordings, Robert Rawson and his ‘Tickle-Fiddle
Gents‘, joined by the Girl Choristers of Canterbury Cathedral, return with
a stunning and richly-scored programme for this recording of world premieres.

s
s


s

˒˒˒ेʰʦɔ˗ʰɷʦʁ े ʁ
 Now and then: Jamie Bernstein and Yannick Nézet-Séguin
at the BFI screening of Maestro in London, October 2023;
(right) Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre with
their first two children, Jamie (right) and Alexander, 1956

she was so unusual. And then somehow Carey A walk in the park:
was able to convey some essence of our mother Bradley Cooper
that we recognised as totally authentic. I don’t and Carey Mulligan
filming in New York
know how she did it; it was a magic trick, truly.’
Mulligan’s portrayal shines a light on a
remarkable woman who was a gifted artist in her
own right, with a strength of heart and mind that
galvanised her (for the most part) in the midst of
a marriage that was sometimes far from easy. It’s
a story that will be largely familiar to readers of
Humphrey Burton’s great Bernstein biography
and Jamie Bernstein’s own terrific 2018 memoir,
Famous Father Girl. The publication of the latter
meant the Bernstein siblings were well prepared
for this very public airing of their parents’
marriage, as Jamie Bernstein shares.
‘In the process of writing that book I told my
brother and sister that I was going to show them
every word I wrote and that they had total veto
power, and if there was anything they didn’t like,
or were uncomfortable with, or didn’t want me to
talk about, I would take it out,’ she says. ‘But my
siblings were so supportive and in the end, they
It had to be ‘We were absolutely committed not to have
Bradley becoming Bradley Cooper the conductor,
never vetoed anything. So I told a very honest believable and not but solely being Lenny as a conductor,’ Nézet-
story and in a way that was preparation for what Séguin reveals. ‘Therefore my role was not to
we went through with the film.’ just an impression start from scratch and teach him how to conduct,
Bernstein’s music-making of course plays a but to create very believable gestures, especially
significant role, from his last-minute New York
of a conductor, in the right hand, to make sure that the baton and
Philharmonic debut in 1943 (standing in for a
poorly Bruno Walter) to what would be his very
ZLWKRXWVDFULğFLQJ the beats were the right ones, in the right place
and at the right moment. It had to be absolutely
last conducting appearance, at Tanglewood in all the emotional believable and not just an impression of a
1990. Getting under the skin of Bernstein the conductor, without sacrificing all the emotional
musician was integral to Cooper if he was to not impact that made impact that made Lenny Lenny.’
only look like the man, but look like the man
conducting. Enter conductor Yannick Nézet-
Lenny Lenny That really is Bradley Cooper conducting
Mahler in Ely Cathedral, among other scenes,
Séguin, to whom Cooper turned to hone his though, and that was the result of lots of hard
GETTY

baton technique. work on the actor’s part – and no small

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 49

Maestro
Safe hands: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Listening pleasures
The music of Maestro
As well as being a treat for
the eyes, Maestro is a feast
for the ears. Whether it’s
on screen or pushing our
emotional buttons on the
soundtrack, there is a lot
of music in the film, and
much of it by Bernstein.
But not all. Schumann’s
Manfred Overture makes
an early appearance in
the New York Phil debut
scene, and there’s a bit of
Beethoven 8 later on, not
to mention a snippet of ‘Sir
Beelzebub’ from Walton’s
Façade (performed by Carey
Mulligan) and an emotionally
intense Mahler 2 filmed with
the LSO in Ely Cathedral. The
film’s timeline takes in the
composition of Bernstein’s
Fancy Free, Candide,
Mass and the ‘Kaddish’
Symphony, while the score
features extracts from
Anniversaries, Facsimile, On
the Waterfront, West Side
Story, ‘The Age of Anxiety’
Symphony and more. The
LSO performs the majority
of the music under Yannick
Nézet-Séguin, and featured
soloists include soprano Ann
de Renais and young treble
(and Britain’s Got Talent
finalist) Malakai Bayoh.
JASON MCDONALD/NETFLIX, GETTY
50 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Recreating the past:
Bradley Cooper (as
Bernstein) conducts
the LSO in Mahler 2
at Ely Cathedral
amount of help from Nézet-Séguin, who was
on hand during the last five years. ‘I did a lot
of commentary on videos of Bernstein to help
Bradley prepare for it,’ he tells me. ‘I would be
commenting on the beat, why he was looking
left and right, why he was closing his eyes.’
The conductor was also present on set. ‘I was
there for every conducting scene. I prepared
the groups, whether it was the choruses or
the orchestra, in front of Bradley; we crafted
‘He’s so connected with
us, and we with him,
that it was not like a
normal piece of work’
a Lenny interpretation of things and I let him
sail, sometimes completely alone, sometimes by
comments in between, or other times with an
earpiece while he was conducting. I didn’t need
to tell him everything he needed to do, because
he knew it, but it meant I could leave him free to
be the actor, playing Lenny, while helping him to
secure the technical aspects.’
The emotionally charged Mahler 2 scene in
Ely Cathedral is one of many memorable musical
moments in Maestro, the LSO performing
on screen as well as on the wider soundtrack
conducted by Nézet-Séguin. The use of
Bernstein’s own music in place of an original
score is a wise move and the new renderings are
stunning, amping up the emotional impact.
‘It had to strike the right balance in key
moments,’ says Nézet-Séguin. ‘I had watched the
different edits of the film, so I could understand
what was important to Bradley, the best way to
convey the intentions through the orchestra, or
what was happening when they were playing
excerpts from “Jeremiah” or from Anniversaries.’
The director’s musicality and cinematic eye
shines through in the scoring choices made
and in any number of beautiful scenes. It was
noticeable for Nézet-Séguin on set too. ‘He
always knew exactly what to ask of the director
of photography, and from everyone, in order to
get “that” shot or “that” angle and the beauty. But
it was always beauty at the service of expression
which is, in my mind, the most musical
description of things. He’s very much like the
best of conductors in that way.’
So Cooper’s film is at once a celebration of
music made, lives lived and a love endured, and
for Bernstein and Montealegre’s children it has
been a source of great joy and a few surprises,
as Jamie Bernstein concludes: ‘The first time
we saw the final cut was at Bradley’s home, and
he said, “I want you to listen to the music at the
very end of the credits.” This was a ruse, because
it was the Candide overture – and we were fine
with that. He wanted us to watch it to the end
because the very last thing you see on the screen
is “To Jamie, Alexander and Nina”. We were
gobsmacked and we just came apart; it was so
emotional. He’s so connected with us, and we
with him, that it was really not like a normal
piece of work. It was so intimate; it was a gift.’
Maestro is out now on Netflix
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Great
Scots
For 50 years, the Scottish
Chamber Orchestra has
been making its mark –
under Maxim Emelyanychev,
the future looks bright too,
writes Michael White
I
t’s a grey, damp afternoon in Edinburgh,
but brighter (and considerably warmer) in
the Usher Hall, where there’s an orchestra
onstage rehearsing Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’
with vigour, though something – or rather
someone – is missing. Where is the conductor?
I look around and spot a figure dancing
down the back rows of the stalls – waving his
arms at no-one in particular and staring into
space, but somehow in control of matters on the
platform. The magic is conjured up by Maxim
Emelyanychev, the charismatic 35 year-old who
serves as principal conductor to the Scottish
Chamber Orchestra (SCO) and is about to
take the ensemble into what will be a major
anniversary season.
Emelyanychev has only been in charge since
2019, which makes him a relative newcomer.
But the orchestra itself has been in business for
50 years: founded in 1974, it has ridden high in
public estimation, with few of the mishaps that
commonly befall arts organisations.
52 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
As one of Scotland’s five ‘national’ performing
companies, the SCO enjoys privileged funding
direct from government, bypassing arts-
council vagaries and allowing for better-than-
average working conditions. Its artistic record
through the years has been exceptional – with
a distinctive profile as an intellectually curious
ensemble that on the one hand explores period-
style playing, but on the other champions new
composers. It has a happy knack of making good
relationships with interesting conductors, of
whom Emelyanychev is the latest. And though
all orchestras think of themselves as a ‘family’
thriving on mutual respect and happiness, the
SCO comes closer to that ideal than most – with
an uncommonly stable membership.
Many SCO players have been with the
orchestra for decades. And if that sounds like a
recipe for stagnation or complacency, you only
have to talk to them to find the opposite. The
genuine (I’m tempted to say childlike but will
settle for humbling) degree of delight in music
With the band: (clockwise from main) conductor Maxim
Emelyanychev; violinist Rachel Smith; cellist Donald Gillan;
oboist Katherine Bryer; double bassist Nikita Naumov

played, artists engaged and projects pending is

impressive. When I ask Su-a Lee (cellist with the
SCO for 30 years) what she’s looking forward
to in the anniversary season, she says ‘All of it:
we get a choice of nights we can take off, but I
don’t want to miss anything.’ And Alison Green
(bassoonist, 33 years) goes into comprehensive
raptures about the ‘genius’ of Emelyanychev,
the joys of touring remote Scottish islands, the
‘excitement’ of Telemann (yes Telemann) and the
‘thrill’ of brand new repertoire. She isn’t reading
from a script. It’s real.
Behind all this enthusiasm lies a simple thing
called quality of life. The SCO may have an
international membership but the overwhelming
majority of players live in Scotland, enjoy being
there, and lead more agreeable/less stressful
existences – based in Edinburgh and Glasgow,
though with regular trips out to Perth, St
Andrews, Aberdeen and other pleasant places

At this scale of
operation, individual
players don’t disappear
into anonymity
– than their counterparts could hope for down
south. But another reason has to do with the
nature of a chamber as opposed to symphony
orchestra. The SCO is relatively small, with a
core membership of around 37. And at that scale
of operation, individual players don’t disappear
into anonymity. They count for something, with
more say in decision making. Their photos and
biographies all feature on the orchestra’s website.
And reading through it, you discover what a
fascinatingly distinguished bunch they are.
Stephanie Gonley, the leader, also leads the
English Chamber Orchestra. Marcus Barcham
Stevens, principal second violin, guest leads the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Max Mandel,
principal viola, is also principal viola of the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Philip
Higham, principal cello, has a high-profile solo
career. And so it goes on…
‘Everyone has interests beyond the orchestra,’
says Su-a Lee, ‘and it means they bring
something special to the mix. But, at the same
time, this isn’t somewhere you can drop in
and out. There’s a full season, plus tours in the
summer, which we’re contractually committed
to; so, the orchestra is the main job for nearly

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 53

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Northern soul: (right) Charles Mackerras conducting the SCO
back in 2002; several musicians have been members of
the ensemble (far right) for many years, such as cellist Su-a
Lee (below right); (below left) SCO’s 2008 Mozart recording

all of us, extending beyond concerts to the

educational and community projects we do. I go
into a day-care centre every week, working with
people with dementia, and it’s an important part
of my life: different to being on stage at the Usher
Hall but fantastically rewarding, and something
else I wouldn’t choose to miss.’
That said, the history of the SCO is loaded
with unmissables; and it goes back to when the
band was first established – modelled on the
pre-existing English Chamber Orchestra – by
that undeservedly forgotten conductor Roderick
Brydon. Based north of the border (where he
worked with the Scottish National Orchestra and
Scottish Opera before relocating to Australia), he
had been a pupil of Sergiu Celibidache. He had
vision. And he wanted an ensemble that, above
all, would play Mozart stylishly.
The plan didn’t embrace period instruments
– this was 1974, when such things were only just
emerging – but it involved serving the classical
repertoire with care. And that ideal survived
into the agendas of his successors: Jukka-Pekka
Saraste in the 1980s/90s, Ivor Bolton in the mid-
90s, Joseph Swensen in the early 2000s, and
Robin Ticciati until the arrival of Emelyanychev
in 2019.
But if the ethos of the orchestra was defined
by one person, it was Charles Mackerras, who recordings – Mozart operas/symphonies/piano
was never principal conductor but nonetheless concertos and other symphonic works from
built a powerfully determining relationship Beethoven to Brahms – that opened ears, as well
with the SCO from the early 1990s through to as hearts and minds.
his death in 2010. Mackerras was a maverick: To the mind of Waters, the SCO under
Australian, plain-speaking and a scholar whose Mackerras played Mozart ‘at least as well
interests were wide, ranging from Gilbert & as any orchestra in the world’. And he hears
Sullivan to modern British music (he had Emelyanychev as ‘in many ways a natural heir’
worked extensively with Britten in the 1950s) – which helps explain the speed with which the
and Janáček. And central to it all was an abiding young Russian was appointed in 2018.
love for Mozart – to which he brought the Little-known in Britain at the time, he stepped
thoroughness of someone who would turn up to in at short notice to replace an indisposed
rehearsals with his own, meticulously marked Mackerras’s Ticciati in a performance of Schubert’s Ninth
orchestral parts, able to explain and justify every that proved so memorable he was invited a
last accent, slur or tempo indication. rehearsals were week later to be Ticciati’s successor, starting the
As James Waters, the SCO’s then concerts following year. And though his tenure would
director, recalls, ‘His rehearsals were like lecture-
like lecture- soon be hit by the pandemic, things went well –
recitals, which nobody minded because he was recitals, which to the point where his contract is now extended
spellbinding. There was no one like him. And to ‘at least’ 2028.
the SCO was lucky that he found it an orchestra nobody minded Like Mackerras, he favours period style with
he could work with, moulding it to his purposes.’ a mix of old and new instruments – though
What he wanted in classical repertoire was a because he was there’s been some experiment of late with gut
particular kind of sound that followed period
practice – lighter textures, faster speeds etc – but
spellbinding. strings. Like Mackerras, he’s keen to take the
SCO into heavier repertoire, with plans for
without the blanket use of period instruments. There was no Tchaikovsky and Sibelius on the horizon, and
There would be natural horns and timpani but a Mendelssohn Elijah (first heard at the Proms
modern strings. And with that hybrid agenda he one like him last year) scheduled to reprise as a grand finale
steered the SCO through a series of celebrated to the anniversary season. Also like Mackerras,

54 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


he’s not afraid of stepping away from period
performance altogether, jumping into the
contemporary repertoire that has always
featured in SCO’s concerts.
CHRISTOPHER BOWEN, ANDREJ GRILC, GETTY
With a special brief to programme composers
who qualify as Scottish, the orchestra has
commissioned some 150 works in its lifetime,
forging close relationships with people like
Peter Maxwell Davies (whose ten Strathclyde
Concertos were all premiered by the SCO during
the 1980s/90s) and James MacMillan (whose
A perfect start:
‘Music was in my blood’
Born to conduct
Maxim Emelyanychev
Maxim Emelyanychev made
his conducting debut at
the age of 12, directing
an orchestra in his native
Russia. It survives in film
footage – he looks born to it.
And with musician parents
– his father a trumpeter,
his mother a singer – he
effectively was. As he says,
‘This was in my blood.’
Studies took him to the
Moscow Conservatoire where
he had ‘great teachers like
[Gennady] Rozhdestvensky.
But there were other teachers
landmark percussion concerto Veni, Veni
too – John Eliot Gardiner,
Emmanuel was similarly premiered in 1991). Harnoncourt, Mackerras –
Altogether, says Emelyanychev of his from whom I learned much,
orchestra, ‘our aesthetics are close. We think though I never met them.
alike. It’s comfortable’ – although one of the You listen, it goes into your
(many) things the orchestra values about him is mind, it transforms you.’ And
the way he stretches their comfort zones with a so it was that Emelyanychev
flexibility that extends to changing seating plans found his way out of the
from one night to the next. ‘He makes every grand Russian tradition into
project, every concert a different experience,’ period performance, building
experience with ensembles
says Su-a Lee. ‘He’s constantly listening,
as a keyboard player.
re-evaluating, absolutely in the moment. The Keyboards still feature in
music is so primary with him; it’s electric.’ his life: the SCO’s anniversary
And so it appears to be in the mercurial season includes Mozart’s
manner of his ‘Eroica’ rehearsal as he skips along Concerto for Two Pianos
the back rows of the auditorium: unassuming, K365 with Emelyanychev
unselfconscious and without the power-gestures as one of the soloists. But
that conductors (even the most genial ones) his conducting destiny was
adopt when they’re required to tell orchestral confirmed in 2013 when he
players what to do. As he likes to say, ‘I don’t need took charge of the period
to play at being a conductor.’ So he doesn’t. For band Il Pomo d’Oro, winning
multiple awards.
his Beethoven at Usher Hall he has no podium,
Although the SCO works
no baton: just the waving hands, the slightly with a wide range of guest
awkward dancing footwork. And the magic – directors – this season
inexplicable but definitely present – that will see includes Thomas Adès and
the SCO through its momentous anniversary. Richard Egarr – it’s clear a
‘It’s going to be good,’ he says (a man of few words lasting bond has formed
other than on music). I believe him. with Emelyanychev.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 55
Spiritual rebirth
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the mugham tradition is
thriving in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, finds Simon Broughton
G
oing down into an underpass to
cross the busy boulevard that runs
along the Caspian Sea in Baku, I
hear a delicate-but-piercing twangy
sound echoing in the passageway. It is a busker
with his music case open for donations. It’s only
in Azerbaijan that you’re likely to see a street
musician playing a tar – a plucked lute with a
distinctive figure-of-eight shaped body. One of
the reasons he’s playing here is probably because
this subway leads towards the International
Mugham Center, the main venue for mugham
music in which the tar plays an important part.
Mugham is Azerbaijan’s home-grown
‘classical’ or ‘art’ music. In its traditional form
it features a singer accompanied by a small
ensemble, usually comprising the plucked tar
and bowed kamāncha (spike-fiddle) plus a daf
56 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
In the frame: Nezaket Teymurova
or gaval (frame drum), generally played by the
singer. These core instruments are depicted
on the Azeri one manat note. Sometimes, the
ensemble is expanded with a reedy, oboe-like
balaban, a clarinet, lute or qanun zither. Slower
vocal sections alternate with faster instrumental
ones. You can compare the genre’s textures with
the interwoven threads of a handmade carpet –
another artform in which the country excels.
Azerbaijan is where the Turkic and Persian
worlds overlap. Most of its poems and songs are
in Azeri, which is close to Turkish – they are
often devoted to love, or are Islamic Sufi songs
about love of the divine. The accompanying
instruments mostly come from the Persian world
and are used in neighbouring Iran, although the
Azeris have taken tar playing to a high level and
it is frequently heard as a solo instrument. There

Go with the flow: the
Heydar Aliyev Cultural
Center; (below) father-and-
daughter duo Alim and
Fargana Qasimov’s
2007 album
are 10 million Azeris in Azerbaijan, but up to a
further 17 million living as the largest minority
in Iran.
The word ‘mugham’ comes from the Arabic
word maqam, meaning a musical mode or scale.
The names of the various modes are shared in
the Arabic, Turkic and Persian worlds, although
the specific details often vary from country
to country. In mugham there are rules and
traditions to be followed, but plenty of room
for personal expression and improvisation
as well. It’s a fine balancing act requiring
memorisation of repertoire and extemporisation
in performance.
The most-famous mugham singer is Alim
Qasimov, who has toured widely – several times
in Britain – and these days generally performs
with his daughter Fargana. There are many
younger singers, too, including Gochag Askarov
(who performed mugham at the BBC Proms in
2013), Nezaket Teymurova and sisters Gülyaz
and Gülyanaq Memmedova.
‘Perhaps only one per cent of people at a
concert will understand the real meaning of a
poem,’ says Alim Qasimov, rather to my relief.
GETTY
‘The poem is just a vehicle – the music itself
Mugham music
A whole new world: (main pic) Alim Qasimov sings
mugham from a flying carpet during the Opening
Ceremony for the Baku 2015 European Games; (left)
Azerbaijani musician Mutalim Damirov performs
traditional mugham music at a Baku café in 2009
carries the meaning and the impact. Mugham
is not something you understand; it is something
you feel.’ He tells me one of his favourite lyrics
refers to the ritual washing before prayers:
‘My tears are my ablutions, my prayer is
my mugham.’
‘Are you a believer?’ I ask. ‘Yes, of course,’ he
says emphatically and laughs. But he is opposed
to Islamic restrictions and fundamentalism.
‘Religion isn’t a cage, it is freedom. You have
to be relaxed about it and use religion to open
the mind.’
In Soviet Azerbaijan the religious, Islamic side
of mugham was repressed. That has changed
in recent years. A lot of the lyrics are Sufi in
character with an ambiguity in the texts between
mortal and divine love and the music elevating
both performers and audience onto a heightened
spiritual level. Qasimov and his daughter
recorded secular and religious mughams with
the Kronos Quartet for the 2010 album Spiritual
Music of Azerbaijan.
The best place to hear mugham in Baku is
at the International Mugham Center, a small
purpose-built venue that opened in the heart of
town in 2008. The bowl-shaped hall seats 350,
which suits the intimate nature of the music
very well. It’s said to be based on the shape of
a tar and was constructed on the initiative of
Mehriban Aliyeva, the First Lady of Azerbaijan
who is a genuine fan of mugham. Since 2009
there has been an International Festival of
Mugham held every two years, except for Covid
disruption, although the title keeps changing.
The last edition in June 2023 was called Space
of Mugham with Alim Qasimov appearing in
the opening and closing concerts. The festival
featured a 24-hour mugham marathon in the
Shirvanshah Palace at the heart of Baku’s old
city, plus concerts in the Mugham Center and
venues throughout the capital.
Mugham is When Azerbaijan was a Soviet State,
mugham was performed, albeit marginalised in
not something preference to Russian and Western music. Since
you understand; independence in 1991 things have moved on:
within days of the collapse of the Soviet Union,
it is something the parliament voted to switch its language to a
modified form of Latin script. In 2003, Unesco
you feel added mugham to its ‘Intangible Cultural
Heritage’ list and it has now become Azerbaijan’s
signature music. ‘Before independence there was
an attitude that mugham was something old-
fashioned and out of date,’ says Qasimov. ‘That
has now changed, and people understand it’s an
art that deserves respect and appreciation.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 57
Mugham music

Mugham magic:
the Azerbaijan State
Symphony Orchestra
performs Hajibeyov’s songs
from operetta Arshin Mal
Alan (The Cloth Peddler)

Pioneer: Hajibeyov in 1945

Uzeyir Hajibeyov
Father of mugham opera
Hajibeyov (1885-1948)
is considered the first
composer of Azerbaijani
classical music and the
creator of mugham opera.
He wrote Leyli and Majnun
in 1908, based on a Romeo Listening to mugham for the first time can be seen singers playing Leyli aged 50 and I don’t
and Juliet-type love story difficult, but I think if you play and perform with like it. So, I may stop acting in mugham opera on
by 16th-century Azeri poet soul you can take people with you, and it sounds stage, but I won’t stop being a khanande.’ Baku’s
Fuzuli. It’s Donizetti-like in good. That’s true not just of mugham, but of Opera and Ballet Theatre was opened in 1911
style, but includes tar and all music.’ and is a landmark building. Its plush interior is
kamancha alongside the In addition to traditional mugham, there’s clearly the place to hear mugham opera, but it is
orchestral instruments. He also mugham jazz, which was pioneered by currently undergoing restoration.
wrote three more mugham Vagif Mustafa-Zadeh in the 1960s, and mugham Mugham, in a way, can be seen as a metaphor
operas based on Azeri and
opera, which was developed by Azerbaijan’s of the city of Baku. It is a musical form that
Persian poems, although
only Leyli and Majnun and
goes back to deep historical roots and has been
Asli and Kerem (1912) In addition to rejuvenated in recent decades. Baku, likewise, is
a handsome city with a striking mixture of old
are regularly performed
today. The latter is a love
story between a Christian
traditional mugham, and new. At its heart is the compact medieval
old city, then handsome 19th-century buildings
girl and a Muslim boy – it
doesn’t end well. He also
there’s mugham jazz from when the Russians developed it for its oil
and gas reserves, and now it has some iconic
composed Azerbaijan’s
national anthem, which
and mugham opera pieces of modern architecture too, notably the
three flame towers on the hill behind the old city.
was re-adopted after first classical composer, Uzeyir Hajibeyov (see Various forms of mugham are sometimes
independence in 1991.
box). His Leyli and Majnun was the first opera performed in the elegant Philharmonic Hall,
The composer was born
in Shusha in Nagorno- in the Islamic world. At that time, female roles the main venue for orchestral music. Italianate
Karabakh, often dubbed in operas were sung by men due to Islamic in style, it opened in 1912 for banquets and
the ‘conservatoire of the sensibilities. In 1912, the young Shovkat entertainment and only became the venue for
Caucasus’ because of the Mammadova sang on the opera stage and orchestral music in 1936. Larger orchestral
number of mugham singers received death threats, although Russian and concerts can be held in the Heydar Aliyev
who came from there. other non-Muslim singers could take the roles. Center, which opened in 2012. Designed by Zaha
Hajibeyov settled in Baku in It was only after Azerbaijan joined the Soviet Hadid, it has no straight lines and has become a
his twenties and founded the Union in 1920 that female singers were able to symbol of the city. During the Space of Mugham
music conservatoire in 1928. perform, the first being Hagigat Rzayeva (1907- Festival it hosted a concert of mugham-
Koroghlu (1936),
69) in 1927. Nezaket Teymurova is an excellent inspired orchestral music, including the Fourth
Hajibeyov’s last opera,
won a USSR State Prize in
contemporary mugham singer who sings both as Symphony ‘Mugham’ by Mammad Guliyev
1941. Ironically, its overture a traditional khanande (singer) and in mugham (1936-2001). Written in 1980, it’s a colourful
became popular in the opera. ‘It’s like two different branches of the art one-movement score, rather in the shadow of
independence movement in of khanande singing,’ she says. ‘On stage you are Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, but a fine
the late 1980s and is still a living a role and the emotions keep changing, example of symphonic mugham, a genre started
GETTY

popular concert piece today. but you can’t go on singing the same roles. I’ve by Azeri composer Fikret Amirov (1922-84).

58 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

 THE KIRKER JAZZ FESTIVAL AT THE STAR
with Gwilym Simcock and friends
A THREE NIGHT HOLIDAY | 12 FEBRUARY 2024
Our second Kirker Jazz Festival will be held at Alex Polizzi’s stylish hotel,
The Star, in the picturesque and historic village of Alfriston, and stars the award-
winning pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock. One of the finest and most
respected jazz artists performing today, Gwilym was hailed by the late, great jazz
pianist Chick Corea as a “creative genius”, and is currently pianist for the great US
jazz guitarist Pat Metheny. Gwilym will be hosting our exclusive and intimate jazz
festival with concerts in the beautiful Hope Chapel in Alfriston, in the company
of three of modern jazz’s brightest stars: drummer Martin France, bassist Laurence
Cottle and harmonica player Hermine Deurloo. Each contrasting set will offer
something original and irresistible, beginning with a solo piano concert performed
by our host, followed by jazz trio and, to finish, the beguiling combination of
harmonica and piano.
Price from £1,686 per person (single supp. £390), including three nights’ accommodation with breakfast,
including three dinners and three concerts
Speak to an expert:
020 7593 2284
www.kirkerholidays.com

Alfred Brendel Patron

Sir András Schiff President
Marios Papadopoulos Artistic Director
CHAMBER MUSIC MINI-TOURS IN
DORSET AND SOMERSET — 19TH SEASON — 2024

BRIDPORT — CREWKERNE — ILMINSTER — PENDOMER — SHAFTESBURY

Oxford Piano Festival • 16-17 FEBRUARY

• 15-16 MARCH
THE PERKS ENSEMBLE
AYAKA SHIGENO PIANO

SARA TRICKEY VIOLIN

IVANA GAVRIĆ PIANO
Saurday 27 July – Sunday 4 August 2024
• 19-21 APRIL GILDAS QUARTET

• 17-18 MAY POCKET SINFONIA

Sergei Babayan Vikingur Ólafsson • 21-22 JUNE LARA MELDA PIANO

Kevin Chen Marios Papadopoulos • 19-21 JULY LUMAS WINDS

Barry Douglas & Kathryn Stott • 6-8 SEPTEMBER MĒLA GUITAR QUARTET
the Carducci Quartet Marilyn Engle • 4-5 OCTOBER HILARY CRONIN SOPRANO
Jayson Gillham ASAKO OGAWA PIANO
Stephen Kovacevich
• 15-16 NOVEMBER BERKELEY ENSEMBLE
Dmitri Ishkanov Noriko Ogawa

Please visit our website for information on all the performers,

venues, dates and how to book for Season 2024.
CATHERINE MADDOCKS DIRECTOR — concertsinthewest@gmail.com
oxfordpianofestival.com www.concertsinthewest.org
MUSICAL DESTINATIONS

Lucerne Switzerland
The stunning lakeside city attracted Rachmaninov and Wagner, and
is now home to a premier piano festival, writes Stephen Pritchard

Feeling the force:

Martha Argerich performs
in the KKL concert hall,
February 2023; (right) Lucerne
Symphony Orchestra artistic
director Numa Bischof Ullmann

S
peed excited Rachmaninov. The
composer and pianist’s solemn
presence on the concert platform
hid a personality that rejoiced in the roar
of the combustion engine. Beneath that
famously austere exterior lurked a love for
shiny new saloons, elegant sedans and fast
aeroplanes. And when in 1934 he moved
his family into their new villa on the
north shore of Lake Lucerne he added an
additional thrill – a sleek new speedboat.
Like so many other musicians,
Rachmaninov was drawn to the beauty
of Lucerne and its majestic
lake. He honeymooned here
in 1902 with his new wife
Natalia, and 30 years later,
during his restless lifetime
exile from his beloved Russia,
Lucerne seemed the ideal
place to put down roots. He
bought a lakeside estate on the Hertenstein
promontory, pulled down the old house
and built a fine modernist replacement.
Today, marking the 150th anniversary of
its illustrious owner’s birth, the Bauhaus-
style Villa Senar is open to the
public for the first time (its
name combines the first two
letters of Sergei and Natalia,
with the ‘r’ for Rachmaninov as
a final flourish).
As Fiona Maddocks records
in Goodbye Russia, her new
book on Rachmaninov’s exile, a fine grand
piano stands in his studio, a room at the
far corner of the building, down three
steps and somewhat out of earshot of the
rest of the house. It was a magnificent

60 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


The ultimate waterside view:
Lucerne at sunset; (below)
Rachmaninov in Lucerne with
his grandchildren, 1936
60th-birthday present to the composer
from Steinway & Sons.
He was to compose his Rhapsody on
a Theme of Paganini at this instrument,
and it’s a cause of immense pride to
Numa Bischof Ullmann, the charismatic
artistic director of the Lucerne Symphony
Orchestra, that the composer’s grandson,
Alexander, gave permission for the
piano to be moved to the orchestra’s
KKL concert hall in 2019 for a special
performance and recording of the piece
by Behzod Abduraimov, conducted by
James Gaffigan. The programme included
Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony, also
written at Villa Senar.
Ullmann is the prime mover behind
the city’s newest winter festival, ‘Le
Piano Symphonique’, a celebration of the
instrument he describes as ‘the navel of the
world of music’. The festival proclaims that
‘symphonies are written on the piano, even
operas and pious masses. Or chamber
music. Nothing works without the piano.’
Surely, all those distinguished musicians
associated with Lucerne would agree.
After her triumphant performance of
LUZERNER SINFONIEORCHESTER/PHILIPP SCHMIDLI, SYLVAIN GELINEAU, GETTY
the Schumann Piano Concerto at last
year’s festival, Martha Argerich has agreed
to become Pianiste Associée and promises
‘surprises and much joy for everyone’ at
this January’s festival (see panel).
From high up in Dreilindenpark, the site
of the Lucerne’s first conservatoire, this
city of music is spread out before you. On
the right of the lake is Tribschen, Wagner’s
villa; just out of sight on the other shore
is Villa Senar; down in the city by the
lake is the modern glass and steel KKL
concert hall, right next to the imposingly
ornate 19th-century railway station, a key
element in bringing visitors and prosperity
to this stylish destination. Liszt took the
train to visit Wagner and Cosima here,
Scriabin to enjoy his holidays, Toscanini to
escape the Nazis.
Like many musicians,
Rachmaninov was
drawn to the beauty
of Lucerne’s lake
Tribschen, now a museum open to the
public, is where Wagner finished Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Siegfried
and began Götterdämmerung. It’s where he
set up an orchestra and woke Cosima on
Christmas morning 1870 with the ultimate
birthday gift, his Siegfried Idyll.
MUSICAL DESTINATIONS
Exciting young talent:
14-year-old Arielle Beck
Fabulous festivities in 2024
Le Piano Symphonique
As a Pianiste Associée, Martha
Argerich welcomes an illustrious circle
of pianists from 16-21 Jan – among
them Maria João Pires, Elisabeth
Leonskaja and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
The next generation is represented
by Benjamin Grosvenor and Kit
Armstrong, and rising star Yoav
Levanon performs Liszt’s two piano
concertos with the Lucerne Symphony
Orchestra. Pires joins Matthias Goerne
for Schubert’s Winterreise; 14-year-
old French ‘discovery’ Arielle Beck is
featured, and two commissions from
Marc-André Hamelin and Brett Dean
receive their world premieres.
Mendelssohn loved to visit Lucerne with
his painting kit, attempting several views
in 1847 of the graceful twin spires of the
Hofkirche, close to the little church where
Wagner was to marry Cosima. Schumann,
Brahms and Bruckner were frequent
visitors; Rimsky-Korsakov came for his
honeymoon. Today, dotted around the
wooded hillsides are the homes of Herbert
Blomstedt, James Galway and Vladimir
Ashkenazy; Bernard Haitink and Rafael
Kubelík also chose Lucerne as their home.
And what became of Rachmaninov’s
speedboat? Alas, it is no longer cutting
through the stillness of the lake, but
the Sergei Rachmaninov Foundation
knows that taking his daughters and
grandchildren out on his boat was one of
his favourite activities and is planning to
buy a replacement for Villa Senar.
Further info: sinfonieorchester.ch/
klavierfestival-le-piano-symphonique
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 61
 Composer of the month
Composer of the Week
is broadcast on Radio 3
at 12pm, Monday to
Friday. Programmes in January are:
1-5 January Caroline Shaw
8-12 January Elgar
15-19 January Felix Mendelssohn
22-26 January Offenbach
29 Jan – 2 Feb Stravinsky
Cage’s style
Chance Using complex methodology,
Cage found different ways to generate
numbers that could be translated
into his music and art. Whether using
the I Ching, tossing coins or using a
specially written computer program,
his basic aim was always the same: to
remove his intention from the work,
so as to produce something that more
closely resembles an act of nature.
Avant-garde If ever a composer
challenged and critiqued the aesthetic
conventions of the time, it was John
Cage. Notions of instrumentation,
performance, composition, music
itself: all were scrutinised and
redefined. His influence is far-reaching
– felt across movements from Neo-
Dada to Fluxus to Conceptual art.
Interdisciplinary Whether working
in dance, music, painting, writing or
printmaking, Cage moved across
the arts, forming collaborations with
artists such Merce Cunningham,
Jasper Johns (below) and Robert
Rauschenberg, so as to interrogate
the boundaries between them.
Electroacoustic In the 1940s, Cage
created works out of randomly
assembled snippets of audiotape.
In 1951, he organised the Project of
Music for Magnetic Tape, working
with Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman
and David Tudor to explore the
possibilities of the new electronic
medium. Later, he worked with
contact microphones, and
electronic circuits among other
devices – Brian Eno and
Aphex Twin are among
electronic composers
who have paid homage to
GETTY
him in their work.
62 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
John Cage
Nick Shave explores the nuts and bolts of an
avant gardist whose creative genius goes well
beyond his famous 4'33" of not-quite-silence
ILLUSTRATION: MATT HERRING
O
n 29 August 1952, David Tudor sat
down at the piano at the Maverick
Concert Hall near Woodstock,
New York, set a stopwatch running and
quietly lifted the lid. He then performed
nothing for precisely four minutes and 33
seconds. Or rather, he made no sound, only
lifting and lowering the lid so as to signal
the beginning and end of each movement.
What the audience heard, then, was not
the piano but the ambient sounds in the
hall – of people shuffling, breathing,
whispering – and the wind and the rain
outside: far from being silent, the premiere
of Cage’s 4’33” was full of noises, to be
appreciated by anyone who cared to listen.
Smacking of a chaotic rebellion, Cage’s work is
one of the purest examples of minimal music
The beauty of 4'33" – the work for which
Cage is best known and from which he
continued to draw inspiration throughout
his life – is that it can be interpreted
on so many different levels: anarchic,
democratic, playful, profound, absurd and,
yes, ultimately beautiful, it challenges the
very notion of what we perceive as ‘music’.
Conceived at a time when, in Europe,
influential composers such as Pierre
Boulez were composing complex, tightly
controlled musical structures, Cage’s
silence smacks of a chaotic rebellion: it
strips music back to nothingness in a way
that opens the door to an appreciation of
the infinite variety of sounds around us.
As such, it is one of the earliest, and purest,
examples of minimal music – by which
the smallest means give rise to the
maximal effects – that would soon find
its various outgrowths in the works of
composers such as La Monte Young, Steve
Reich, Terry Riley and Philip Glass.
What Cage shared with these American
composers was an appreciation of non-
western ways of listening, though his
oeuvre is too varied to group him in with
the minimalists. Rather, in the history
of music he follows in the footsteps of
pioneers Henry Cowell (with whom Cage
and his early collaborator Lou Harrison
studied) and Charles Ives. As one of the
great American experimentalists, he
paved the way for Fluxus – a revolutionary
artistic movement that thrived in
downtown New York in the 1960s, where
artists gathered in galleries for events, or
so-called ‘happenings’, that broke down
the boundaries between life and art.
Cage’s 1952 Black Mountain piece – an
untitled event involving dance, poetry,
music and the ‘White Paintings’ of Robert
Rauschenberg that took place in the dining
hall of Black Mountain College in North
Carolina – is often referred to as the first
60s-style happening.
Also a painter and writer, Cage worked
across the arts. It was Rauschenberg’s
series of modular canvases, painted
entirely white to reflect changes in light
and shadow in the surrounding space, that
gave Cage the idea for 4'33". He was also
friends with Jasper Johns and the sculptor
Marcel Duchamp: just as Duchamp
exhibited everyday ‘found’ objects, most
famously showing how a urinal was ‘art’,
so Johns exhibited the American flag in a
series of iconic paintings. (Duchamp
COMPOSER OF THE MONTH

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 63

COMPOSER OF THE MONTH
also taught Cage how to play chess – in the
late 1960s they played a match in public
using a specially constructed chessboard
on which each move triggered different
electronic compositions.) Meanwhile,
in the sphere of dance, it was Cage who
inspired Merce Cunningham, one of
the great choreographers of the 20th
century, to start his own company: Cage
toured with the company as composer,
accompanist and music director, and from
1945 on the two were partners as much in
life and love as in their work.
So how to summarise the musical
achievements of a composer who so
radically transformed the concept of
music? It’s one the many conundrums that
Cage’s work throws into the musicological
mix. Some have attempted to characterise
him as a theorist, as a composer primarily
of ideas; but this does little justice to the
musical voice that emerged during the
first half of the 20th century. Born in
Los Angeles in 1912 to an eccentric and
brilliant inventor father and journalist
mother, he took piano lessons from an
early age. But he had no aspirations to
become a composer. Rather, he initially
followed his dreams of becoming a writer
before travelling to Europe in 1930 to
pursue his passion for painting and his
interest in architecture and poetry.
After returning to the US the following
year, he took up lessons first in New York
– with Henry Cowell, in contemporary
composition and non-western music – and
GETTY
then returned to Los Angeles to learn with
64 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
his idol, Arnold Schoenberg.
With their rigorous focus on
counterpoint, grounded in
the Austro-German musical
tradition, lessons became
a source of frustration
for Cage. According to
Schoenberg, Cage had no
feeling for harmony, and
it’s true that Cage’s first love in music
was percussion, but listen to the exotic-
sounding gongs and drums of his 1940
‘In all of my pieces
between 1935 and ’40,
I had Schoenberg’s
lessons in mind’
Second Construction in Metal, for example,
and you’ll also hear a novel take on the
fugue. As Cage himself later said: ‘In all
of my pieces between 1935 and ’40, I had
Schoenberg’s lessons in mind.’
What interested Cage was the aesthetic
qualities of sound itself, the pleasing noises
he could produce from the things he found
in the kitchen or picked out of a scrapyard.
In the ’40s, and inspired by the extended
techniques of Cowell, who would reach
inside the piano to pluck and thrumb the
strings themselves, Cage began to explore
the musical possibilities of the prepared
piano, attaching everyday household
items – nails, screws, bits of rubber and
What makes him tick?: (clockwise from left)
John Cage with his partner, the choreographer
Merce Cunningham, in 1963; maverick forebear
Edgard Varèse; Cage sets up telephones in
preparation for his Variations VII in New York, 1966
plastic – to the
strings. The result
was a kind of one-
man percussion
section. Originally
conceived in 1938
as a space-saving
exercise for his
six-minute dance
piece Bacchanale,
Cage’s prepared
piano opened
up new soundworlds
and gave his early
works a subdued,
exotic character,
similar to the sound of
Indonesian gamelan.
Without the goal-
orientated structures
of harmony – and the
gravitational pull of
one key leading to the
next – his compositions
such as Music for Marcel
Duchamp (1947) took
on a meditative, static
quality, one he would return to in his late
works, the Number Pieces (1987-92).
Cage was not, of course, the first
western composer to take an idiosyncratic
approach to musical time, nor to
appreciate the quietly subversive nature
of ambient music. Long before 4'33",
Satie had promoted the idea of ‘furniture’
music – his 1893 Vexations, featuring
four phrases to be repeated 840 times,
was revived by Cage with a relay team of
pianists in Manhattan in 1963; it took
them 18 hours and 40 minutes to perform.
Meanwhile, that other French maverick
Varèse had ushered noise into the concert
hall: you’ll hear the sounds of Manhattan
– its honking foghorns and wailing sirens
– in his 1920s masterpiece Amériques.
And following in the footsteps of Varèse,
Cage’s delight in the endless possibilities of
‘organised sound’ would lead him into the
world of electronic music: you’ll find him
employing 12 radios (24 performers and a
conductor) in Imaginary Landscape No. 4
(1951); 42 phonograph records in Imaginary
Landscape No. 5 (1952); and a collage of
thousands of pre-recorded tape fragments
in Williams Mix (1952).

Fist impressions:
Cage’s teacher,
composer Henry Cowell
But Cage arrived at his concept of
music as ‘a way of waking up to the very
life we’re living’ via his immersion in
eastern philosophy. In the late 1940s he
embarked on a cultural exchange with
the Indian musician Gita Sarabhai: he
gave her lessons in counterpoint and
she taught him about Indian music. For
Sarabhai, music offered a way to ‘sober
and quiet the mind, making it susceptible
to divine influences’. Cage embraced this
principle with impressive results in his
late-1940s Sonatas and Interludes, a cycle
for prepared piano consisting of 16 sonatas
and four more freely structured interludes.
Another formative influence on Cage was
Zen Buddhism. Inspired by the lectures of
philosopher Daisetz T Suzuki, he would
consult the I Ching to make decisions
about what went where in his works – such
as in his 1951 Concerto for Prepared Piano,
for example, or in the Music of Changes, a
43-minute piece for solo piano.
That Music of Changes took Cage the best
part of a year to write highlights another
irony that runs through his career: the
more he attempts to free himself from the
act of composition, the more exacting and
rigorous he becomes in his methods. With
their detailed instructions, Cage’s scores
become works of art in themselves – not
only challenging to decipher but fiendishly
difficult to play. Look at the 1974-5 Etudes
Australes for solo piano, in which the notes
have been discovered through consulting
star charts and the I Ching: with its duets
for independent hands, reaching across
the entire keyboard, the performer has
to adopt a specific technique and even to
sit in a certain way. Far from laissez-faire
chaos, then, this is music that demands
extraordinary patience on the part of those
who attempt to play it, and a sign of just
how much Cage wants us to listen.
CAGE Life&Times
1935
LIFE: He joins a
course on music
analysis given by
Arnold Schoenberg,
with whom he goes
on to study for two years and whom
he later describes as ‘marvellous,
indescribable as a musician’.
TIMES: Designed by local engineering
professors Holger George Thuesen and
Gerald A Hale, the world’s first parking
meter – the ‘black maria’ – is installed
in Oklahoma City.
1965
LIFE: With his fame
on the rise since
the publication of
his book Silence,
he receives a new
annual grant for
living expenses, set
up by philanthropist Betty Freeman.
TIMES: Muslim minister and human
rights activist Malcolm X is shot dead
by Nation of Islam members at an
Organization of Afro-American Unity
public meeting in Manhattan.
1992
LIFE: Following a long period of ill
health, he suffers a stroke while
making tea for himself and partner
Merce Cunningham at home in New
York. He dies the next day, aged 79.
TIMES: Tennis legend Arthur Ashe
reveals that he is HIV-positive. Doctors
believe that he contracted the virus
from blood transfusions received
during heart surgery in 1983.
1912
LIFE:John Cage is born on 5 September in
Los Angeles to John Cage Snr, an inventor,
and Lucretia Harvey, a journalist. He is
taught the piano from a young age.
TIMES: Woodrow Wilson enjoys a
landslide victory in the US Presidential
election, carrying 40 of the 48 states.
Incumbent William Taft carries just two
states, and Theodore Roosevelt six.
1952
LIFE: Murmurs of discontent among the
audience at the premiere of his three-
movement 4'33" in Woodstock, NY,
emphasise Cage’s point that there is ‘no
such thing as silence’.
TIMES: The Today Show is broadcast
for the first time on NBC. It is hosted by
Dave Garroway, who is later joined by a
chimpanzee named J Fred Muggs as his
regular ‘co-host’.
1978
LIFE: Invited to a residency at Crown
Point Press in California, he takes up a
new interest in printmaking, and later
also goes on to
paint a number of
watercolours.
TIMES: At the
Winterland
Ballroom in San
Francisco, the Sex
Pistols perform
for the last time,
with singer Johnny
Rotten announcing
the group’s break-
up four days later.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 65
 Building a library
Richard Strauss
Horn Concerto No. 2
Owen Mortimer enjoys the finest recordings of a late masterpiece that
shows the ageing German composer at his most melodious, affable best
The composer
When, in 1870, the six-year-old
Richard Strauss wrote his first ever
piece of music, the course of his life
effectively fell into place. By the time
he was 18, he already had over 100
works to his name. Over the following
decades, Strauss’s music traversed
characterful, vividly painted tone
poems such as Till Eulenspiegel and
Don Quixote to the fiery dissonance
of the operas Salome and Elektra,
and the wistful reflection of his final
masterpiece the Four Last Songs. The
German composer’s output was as
varied as his life, which encompassed
parallel careers as conductor and
Salzburg Festival founder.
Building a Library
is broadcast on Radio 3
at 9.30am each Saturday
as part of Record Review. A highlights
podcast is available on BBC Sounds.
66 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
The work
The sound of the horn is integral to the
music of Richard Strauss. He more-or-less
began his composing career with the First
Horn Concerto, written for his father Franz
in 1883, and signed off with the heart-
rending horn solo in ‘Going to Sleep’ (Four
Last Songs), completed over six decades
later. Along the way, the horn is a constant
presence in Strauss’s orchestrations,
from his early tone poems Don Juan, Till
Eulenspiegel and Ein Heldenleben to his late
operas Daphne and Capriccio.
This devotion to the horn is matched by
a deep understanding of the instrument’s
character, qualities and technical
The devotion to the horn is matched by an
understanding of the instrument’s character
challenges. Strauss’s horn-playing father
exerted enormous influence over the
composer’s early musical development
and the lessons he learned stayed with him
throughout his life. This included a love
of Mozart that led him to comment, ‘The
most perfect melodic shapes are found
in Mozart; he has the lightness of touch,
which is the true objective.’
The Second Horn Concerto dates from
1942 and marks the beginning of Strauss’s
‘Indian summer’, a period that also saw
the creation of his Oboe Concerto and
Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings. All
three are substantial instrumental scores
that followed in the wake of Capriccio,
yet Strauss modestly dismissed them
as mere ‘exercises for my wrists’ with
‘no significance whatsoever from the
standpoint of musical history’.
Stylistically, these works mark a return
to Strauss’s classical roots seen through the
lens of his long career as a master of late
Romanticism. The charm of the Second
Horn Concerto is that it harks back to
his youth, but with all the wisdom of an
old man living through unprecedented
changes in the world.
The Second World War was a time of
great turmoil for Strauss, both artistically
and personally. Eager to advance the
cause of German culture while protecting
his family, he temporarily aligned
himself with the Third Reich – only to
end up getting badly burned. A stint as
president of the Reich’s Culture Chamber
ended abruptly due to Strauss’s ongoing
association with his Jewish librettist Stefan
Zweig, and from 1941 the composer’s
Jewish daughter-in-law and grandchildren
lived under constant threat of deportation.
Despite this, the Second Horn Concerto
is a joyous, playful work that embodies the
Mozartian ‘lightness of touch’ Strauss so
admired. Only occasional passing clouds
darken the sunny mood and remind us
this is a war-time concerto. Scored for a
smallish orchestra of double winds, horns,
trumpets and timpani – an ensemble
that would not have been out of place in
Mendelssohn’s day – the piece follows
a traditional three-movement format.
Textures are generally light and clear, and
much of the writing has a concertante-like
quality. The wind parts are particularly

Light touch: Eric Ruske performs
Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 2
in 2006; (below) the composer
with his grandchild; (below right)
librettist Stefan Zweig, a regular
Strauss collaborator
soloistic, which Strauss was to take further
in the two Sonatinas for wind ensemble he
composed in 1943-45.
What makes this concerto modern
is its harmonic language and flexible
approach to form. Right from the off,
Strauss announces this is going to be a
very different piece from his First Horn
Concerto. The opening theme is an
upward-surging arpeggiated horn call
that begins in the home key of E flat before
passing through D flat, G and B flat, then
back to E flat – all within the first six bars.
This sets the scene for a work that contains
numerous surprising tonal shifts, allowing
Strauss to exploit the full range of the
horn’s colour palette.
The opening Allegro movement can at
first seem meandering, but on repeated
listenings its taut thematic design
gradually emerges. Built around a series of
motifs that keep recurring and evolving,
it is perhaps best considered as a set of
rondo-like variations. Following on from
the initial horn call, Strauss introduces a
plangent melody that builds via a series
of arpeggiations to arrive at the first
GETTY, ALAMY
orchestral tutti. The horn re-enters with
a darker, more heroic melody that swiftly
morphs into a semiquaver figure and
develops into a fugal trio with clarinet
and first violins. A new grace-note motif
introduced by the oboe gradually becomes
more dominant and is picked up by the
horn. Strauss continues to alternate and
combine all these thematic elements in a
shifting kaleidoscope of keys. The music
comes to rest in the A flat major of the slow
movement, marked Andante con moto.
BUILDING A LIBRARY
A sensuous legato
melody introduced by
oboe and bassoon is
gently taken up by the
horn and continues
to be passed around.
Suddenly, the mood
darkens with a
surprising harmonic shift from A flat
to D major: a pair of wistful horn calls
punctuate this brief middle section before
we return to the home key of A flat.
The Allegro molto finale is a boisterous
hunting rondo with a fiendishly tricky
triplet theme and soaring legato melody,
while the contrasting interludes are by
turns rustic and cartoonish. The main
theme’s final appearance is given to
the orchestral horns and echoed by the
trumpets and timpani in an exciting coda
that carries us to the concerto’s breathless
conclusion. It’s certainly not a challenge
for the faint-hearted, but plenty of great
players have tackled it over the years…
Turn the page to discover our
recommended recordings of
Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 2
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 67

The best
g Bright, clear and full of passion
recordin
Barry Tuckwell (horn)
London Symphony Orchestra/
István Kertész
Decca E460 2962
The catalogue is not short of recordings of
Strauss’s Second Horn Concerto, which
has proved a draw to many of the finest
soloists of the late-20th and early-21st
centuries, not to mention conductors
including the likes of Herbert von Karajan,
André Previn and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
For those wishing to explore different
versions, the choice is rich indeed.
Two of those recordings were made
by the late Australian horn virtuoso
Barry Tuckwell, the first of which dates
68 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Brassy and rounded:
Barry Tuckwell, the
LSO’s principal horn
from 1966 and is still the finest account
available. Tuckwell was at that time the
principal horn of the London Symphony
Orchestra (LSO) and he enjoys a palpable
rapport with this ensemble, which is on
fabulous form under the baton of the
Hungarian conductor István Kertész.
Tuckwell is equally at home
in the music’s hunting calls
and flowing melodies
This was a vintage era for the LSO,
which had been transformed under the
leadership of the French conductor Pierre
Monteux during the last three years of
his life. Kertész took over the reins when
Monteux died and was renowned for his
hot-blooded podium style that resulted
in some excellent recordings, including
the legendary account of Bartók’s opera
Bluebeard’s Castle with mezzo Christa
Ludwig as Judith.
Three other
great recordings
Dennis Brain (horn)
Brain may not have
been the first horn
player to record this
concerto but it was
his rendition that
established it in the repertoire. Captured
shortly before his tragically early death in
1957 – with the Philharmonia conducted
by Wolfgang Sawallisch – this recording
has largely stood the test of time despite
its dated mono sound. Brain’s tone is
less rich than Tuckwell’s but his playing
exudes joie de vivre and the ‘sunny
radiance’ that beguiled producer
Walter Legge. Orchestra and soloist are
at their best together in the concerto’s
breathlessly scampering finale.
(Warner Classics 747 8342)
Marie-Luise
Neunecker (horn)
Fabulously recorded
with the Bamberg
Symphony under Ingo
Metzmacher in 1996,
Marie-Luise Neunecker offers the best
modern performance of this concerto.
Her sound is even bigger than Tuckwell’s,
though features the occasional hint of
vibrato that may not be to everyone’s
taste. She is nicely matched by the
Bambergers’ orchestral sound, which is
rich in colour and detail. The highlight is
the slow movement, where Neunecker’s
lyrical gift comes to the fore.
(Warner Classics 723 5472)
Tuckwell’s tone is the perfect balance
of brassy and rounded in his intelligent
reading of Strauss’s score. He is equally
at home in the music’s hunting calls and
flowing melodies – and knows just when
to project and when to fall back to let other
players speak. His conception of the first
movement is particularly impressive,
with Strauss’s frequent tempo changes
sounding very natural. Tuckwell’s own use
of rubato is sparing and tasteful.
Soloist and orchestra sound gorgeous
together in the second movement’s
opening melody and the transition to the
central section in D major is beautifully

David Pyatt (horn)
Pyatt played this
concerto for his
winning performance
at BBC Young Musician
of the Year in 1988.
His recording with the Britten Sinfonia
under Nicholas Cleobury came seven
years later and differs from most other
versions due to the smaller forces it
employs. The result emphasises the
concertante character of Strauss’s score
and is captured in nice, bright sound.
Pyatt gives a clear, strong performance
with a particularly beautiful entry in the
slow movement. He also manages to
knock a few seconds off the finale,
which features a joyously raucous horn
section in the closing bars.
(Warner Classics 2435655815)
And one to avoid…
The recording by
Gottfried von Freiburg
is interesting from a
historical perspective,
as he gave the
work’s premiere
at Salzburg Festival in 1943. Sadly,
however, his performance is marred
by quite a number of fluffs, and the
Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Böhm
sounds tinny when compared with later
recordings. To be fair to von Freiburg,
his instrument was a single Vienna
horn, which made the challenges of the
concerto even more extreme than for
players of the double horn. His rendition
of the slow movement is particularly
leisurely, allowing the sound to bloom.
dovetailed, as is the return to the home key
of A flat. Tuckwell takes only a moment
after the final chord of the slow movement
has faded away before setting the finale
in motion with his beautiful piano
entry. His playing here has an infectious
energy, underpinned by the nicely judged
détaché articulation of the LSO strings.
The rest of the movement proceeds
with similarly irrepressible momentum
while saving enough in the tank for an
GETTY, KAUPO KIKKAS
exhilarating coda.
Decca’s sound is ideal – neither too
close nor too roomy – and the balance is
excellent. A magnificent recording!
BUILDING A LIBRARY
Horn of plenty:
Ben Goldscheider plays
Ruth Gipps’s Concerto;
(below) Penderecki heads
into the wintery woods
Continue the journey…
We suggest five works to explore after Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 2
A
gap of a mere 60 for Dennis Brain in 1949. A
years lies between lopsided work consisting of
the premieres of two lively blink-and-they’re-
Richard Strauss’s gone movements followed by
First and Second horn a slower, meditative third, its
concertos. Written when knotty musical language is a
the composer was 18, No. 1 mile away from the lyricism of
pitches the soloist straight Strauss’s work. (Dennis Brain;
in with a joviality reminiscent Philharmonia/Paul Hindemith
of the finales of Mozart’s Warner Classics 567 7822)
concertos. A hauntingly Moving forward another
beautiful Andante follows 20 years, we have the Horn
before the Allegro Concerto by Ruth
finale invites us to A bewitching atmosphere Gipps, composed for
come out hunting – as is created by Penderecki in her son to perform
is often the case with
horn music of this
his ‘Winterreise’ Concerto –she given its difficulty,
clearly had
era. (Alec Frank-Gemmill high expectations
(horn); Scottish CO/R Ticciati Linn CKD506) of her offspring, though she does give
One of the most admired horn players him a chance to display the beauty of
of his age, Franz Strauss – Richard’s his playing in a soaring moment in the
father – was, according to many central movement. Listen out, too, for
accounts, a surly blighter. But if so, that the bewitching duet between the soloist
disposition is not reflected by either the and celeste in the finale. (Ben Goldscheider
affable first movement nor the upbeat (horn); Philharmonia/Lee Reynolds
final flourish of his own Horn Concerto Willowhayne Records WHR068)
in C minor of 1865. There is, however, Also bewitching is the atmosphere
plenty of wistful brooding in both the created by Krzysztof Penderecki in his
central Andante and the beginning of ‘Winterreise’ Horn Concerto of 2008.
the finale, and, as befits someone who The winter journey of the title is into a
knew he was much better at the horn deep, dark wood as the Pole harks back
than anyone else around, his technical to childhood hunting trips with his uncle.
demands are often fiendish. (Samuel At first, all is fearful and foreboding with
Seidenberg (horn); Frankfurt Radio SO/ who-knows-what lurking in shadows.
Sebastian Weigle Pan Classics PC10312) Gradually, though, confidence and
A near-contemporary of Richard excitement builds towards a fanfare-filled
Strauss’s Second is the Horn Concerto by climax. (Jennifer Montone (horn); Warsaw PO/
his compatriot Paul Hindemith, written Antoni Wit Naxos 8.572482)
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 69
 Reviews
Recordings and books rated by expert critics
Welcome
And so begins another
year. As such, my
thoughts turn to what
delights 2024 may
bring us – of course, I
have something of an
idea already, but my
lips are sealed. Suffice to say, I think it’s
going to be another fruitful 12 months.
As for January, there is something for
everyone, and if the New Year has you in
the mood for new music, look no further.
There’s an oratorio from Philip Sawyers,
a thrilling percussion crossover album
from Ayanna Witter-Johnson, a cheeky
little Tango from Richard Blackford
and a whole set of commissions from
the CBSO. In the top spots is a thrilling
mix from Penderecki and Lutosławski
to Brahms concertos, a Delibes Lakmé,
glittering French song, Schumann
chamber works and a bit of Granados on
the piano. Happy New Year!
Michael Beek Reviews editor
This month’s critics
John Allison, Terry Blain, Garry Booth, Kate
Bolton-Porciatti, Geoff Brown, Michael Church,
Christopher Cook, Martin Cotton, Christopher
Dingle, Misha Donat, Jessica Duchen, Rebecca
Franks, Andrew Green, George Hall, Malcolm
Hayes, Claire Jackson, Stephen Johnson, Berta
Joncus, John-Pierre Joyce, Nicholas Kenyon,
Ashutosh Khandekar, Erik Levi, Natasha Loges,
Andrew McGregor, David Nice, Roger Nichols,
Ingrid Pearson, Steph Power, Anthony Pryer, Paul
Riley, Jan Smaczny, Anne Templer, Sarah Urwin
Jones, Kate Wakeling, Alexandra Wilson, Barry
Witherden
KEY TO STAR RATINGS
+++++ Outstanding
++++ Excellent
+++ Good
++ Disappointing
+ Poor
70 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
RECORDING OF THE MONTH
A truly radiant survey
of Penderecki jewels
Christopher Dingle enjoys the precision
and emotional heart of this set of sacred
choral works from the Latvian Radio Choir
Penderecki
Sacred Choral Works
Latvian Radio Choir/
Sigvards Kļava
Ondine ODE 1435-2
60:46 mins
Sumptuous, passionate and
uplifting, Penderecki’s sacred
choral music spans his career.
From the early avant-garde
outbursts to the refreshed
traditional sounds of his
maturity, these expressions
of often defiant piety are
central to his output. Rarely,
though, have they received
such assured and lovingly
committed performances as
on this ravishing album from
the Latvian Radio Choir and
conductor Sigvards Kļava.
The same performers’ recent
collection of choral music
by Cage rightly received
numerous plaudits, but this
new recording is, if anything,
even more impressive. These
utterly fearless unaccompanied
singers bring precision to the
most complex textures while
retaining a palpable grasp of
the music’s emotional heart,
imbuing it with an engaging
sense of wonder.
Their formidable skills are
most apparent in ‘Miserere’ and
‘In pulverem mortis’, the two
movements for unaccompanied
choir taken from the St Luke
Passion (1966), Penderecki’s
astonishing provocation to
the totalitarian atheism of
Poland’s communist era. The
Latvians perfectly capture
the slowly blurring opening
textures of the ‘Miserere’ before
the incandescent anguish of
its central climax. They are
unflinching at the challenges
of ‘In pulverem mortis’, with its
juxtapositions of otherworldly
passages of disjunct beauty
and vividly present, pungently
thick harmonies. The only
frustration is the impossibility
of having a recording of the
entire St Luke Passion with all
its disparate forces performing
at this exalted level.

Ravishing readings:
the Latvian Radio
Choir proves itself to
be utterly fearless
These qualities also underpin
the performance of the largest
work here, the concluding
Missa Brevis, written piecemeal
across two decades before being
brought together by Penderecki
in 2012. The upper parts were
intended for children’s choir,
but only the churlish would
object to this performance,
the fresh-voiced sopranos
and altos giving the Sanctus
and Benedictus an exquisite
glowing radiance suggestive of
suitably wide-eyed amazement.
With its spirit of amenable
joy, the album’s opening work
O Gloriosa Virginum (2009)
typifies later Penderecki, its
VALTERS PELNS, JANIS DEINATS
directness of expression having
a timeless quality. Nonetheless,
a look under the compositional
bonnet soon reveals this could
only be the work of recent
times. The build-up of textures
in the latter stages with no loss
of clarity reflects the integrity
of the composer’s expression,
no matter the changes to his
aesthetic mood. Notions of
progressive or traditional are
simply irrelevant.
These works have
rarely received such
lovingly committed
performances
The recorded sound is also
marvellous, its judicious
balance of detail and bloom
supporting the atmosphere
of active devotion in all the
music’s diversity. The decorated
sustained lines of Veni Creator
(1987) recalling medieval
organum hang effortlessly in
Recording of the Month Reviews
CHO
ICE
the air, yet the searing climax to
the 1981 Agnus Dei has fervent,
spine-tingling immediacy.
The choir’s technical control
is stunning throughout. The
restrained disquiet of De
profundis (1996) somehow
never loses its appropriately
spartan quality despite
blooming at times into vocal
abundance while they combine
ecstatic luminosity with ardent
urgency in the Song of Cherubim
(1986) until the intense
stillness of the final period of
repose. Ultimately, though,
for all the vocal skill, it is the
performers’ vibrant humanity
underpinning the spiritual
conviction of Penderecki’s
remarkable music that makes
this so compelling.
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING +++++
Performer’s notes
Sigvards Kļava
How much time did you spend
with the music before recording?
I try to have the first rehearsals
early on in the process so that
we can plan accordingly. We also
plan concerts prior to recordings
so that also serves as a rehearsal.
What are you looking for when
thinking about new projects?
There isn’t always a rational
explanation. Often imagination
and feelings are the things
determining the choice – be it
what music, what recording is
appropriate for this time or what
surprises or novelty it brings.
What was Penderecki’s
approach to choral writing?
He had a magnificent knowledge
of choir specifics and there is
always room for imagination. I
believe that his pieces open up
major room for musical fantasy – I
don’t believe this music sets any
kind of boundaries or rules. It is
the responsibility and choice of
each musician who performs it
to find that musical freedom. I
believe that Penderecki himself is
trying to prove this.
Tell us about working with these
wonderful singers. You must
have developed a close bond
with them by now?
I have worked with this choir
for more than 30 years and
the singers are truly amazing.
Such a long-term collaboration
allows us to reach a result that
cannot be predicted or thought
of beforehand, because we all
challenge one another towards a
kind of openness – and freedom
knows no boundaries. When
creating the ensemble it is
important for me not to diminish
any singer’s talent. We embark on
the final result together; the trick
is to know when to sing more and
when to listen more.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 71
Orchestral
ORCHESTRAL CHOICE

A virtuosic take on early and late works

This is a compelling account of Lutosławski’s evolving style, says Steph Power

retaining a distinctive directness

of expression.
Collon’s Concerto is crisp and
Lutosławski cogent at every turn, its textural
Partita for Violin and Orchestra*; contrasts playfully alive with
Concerto for Orchestra; Novelette a tactility that veers from fairy
*Christian Tetzlaff (violin); Finnish lightness to roiling turbulence via
Radio Symphony/Nicholas Collon nervy, almost militaristic angular
Ondine ODE 1444-2 60:17 mins gestures. The urgency is more
The Concerto for Orchestra (1950- quicksilver than weightily ominous,
54) sealed Lutosławski’s arrival as a with a slow-burn subtlety that
vital voice in postwar Europe – and erupts in a trice into blazing chords
it remains his most beloved work. Yet and passages of unstoppable, richly
stylistically it represented an ending polyphonic momentum.
for the composer, The approach
who left behind The Concerto veers maximises
‘folk stuff’ to
explore ideas more
from fairy lightness to the orchestra’s
virtuoso flair and
associated with the roiling turbulence deftly carries its
avant-garde. musicians into
This compelling release from partnership with soloist Christian
conductor Nicholas Collon and Tetzlaff (joined by pianist Jouko
the Finnish Radio Symphony Laivuori) for a stunning rendition
Orchestra makes clear the of the Partita in its version for violin
evolutionary exuberance of and orchestra (1988).
Lutosławski’s creative development. Commissioned by Rostropovich, Poised and playful:
Building on the Bartók- and Novelette (1979)’s five, tautly Nicholas Collon has a
very clear viewpoint
Stravinsky-inspired cross-rhythms concentrated movements draw
and neo-baroque structures of the on balanced sonorities in a joyous
Concerto, he hones its lithe motivic celebration of possibility.
You can access thousands of reviews from our extensive archive on
detailing in complex rigorous forms, PERFORMANCE +++++
the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
embracing aleatoricism, while RECORDING +++++

Bacewicz
Orchestral Works, Vol. 1:
Symphonies Nos 3 & 4; Overture
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/
Sakari Oramo
Chandos CHSA5316 (CD/SACD)
59:50 mins
‘Nervously
jagged shreds of
motifs, artificial
dirt patches,
stubbornly
dissonant
harmonies,’ was one early verdict
on Bacewciz’s Symphony No. 3. It
should be noted that this listener
had an agenda – considering
whether the Polish composer’s
music fitted the demands of Soviet
socialist realism, a test he thought
the piece failed – but there’s a
shred of truth in his description
of the music. The nervy mood is
certainly there – the end of the
Drammatico first movement has
the bitter edginess of Walton’s First
Symphony, while the uneasy Finale
is a sibling to Shostakovich.
Seventy years later, we listen
to Bacewicz with different ears, a
different agenda. Her music has
been at the forefront of record
labels and performers opening up
the repertoire to include female
composers. Chandos already has her
string quartets and violin concertos
to its name; now it’s started a series
exploring her orchestral works,
beginning with two symphonies
that have also been recorded and
released earlier this year by the recording is a superb showcase of
CPO label. her work. Rebecca Franks
These are two symphonies that PERFORMANCE ++++
show off the Polish composer at the RECORDING +++++
height of her orchestral powers: in
the early 1950s, when her writing Beethoven
was resolutely abstract, sombre at Symphonies Nos 2 & 7
heart, serious in purpose and fuelled National Symphony Orchestra/
by a powerful drive and propulsion. Gianandrea Noseda
The BBC Symphony Orchestra and NSO NSO0011-D (digital) 70:26 mins
conductor Sakari Oramo bring the The already-
vigour and dynamism it needs. established,
If that all suggests something propulsive
rather dour, think again. There’s Beethoven cycle
plenty of liveliness and sparkle: the by Gianandrea
Vivace of the Third dances along Noesda and his
and the Scherzo of the Fourth bustles National Symphony Orchestra in
and bristles. And the 1943 Overture Washington (based at the Kennedy
for Orchestra sweeps the listener Center) continues with two major-
along with irresistible energy. This key symphonies well suited to

72 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


his forceful, high-energy style:
the Second in D and the Seventh
in A. Noseda drives the Second
Symphony with unconcealed
glee, and his players are equal to
the speeds he sets (these often
approach Beethoven’s controversial
metronome marks). This doesn’t
exclude eloquence: I especially
liked the coda of the second
movement, with its gently rising
flute arpeggios. That said, it does
create some balance problems: in the
first movement Allegro con (plenty
of) brio, the blaring brass in bar 52
drown the swirling strings (to pick
just one example). On the other
hand, as the climax approaches,
you surely need to hear more of the
dotted rhythms from the horns in
bar 166 onwards.
Noseda cultivates admirably
sharp sforzandos, though – as in
previous instalments – there is
a tendency to over-deliver early
in the movement, so that here
the thrilling climax from bar 325
onwards cannot quite have its full
impact. But all the wit of the finale is
captured, creating surprises without
any need to overdo the pauses.
If the Second Symphony unwinds
like a coiled spring, the Seventh is
spendidly drawn in bold gestures
and strident rhythms, which
have momentum even through
the tensest passages of the first
movement. It’s worth highlighting
the fine solo wind playing from
bassoon and flute (though oddly
missing grace notes in the flute’s
opening of the Vivace). The
Allegretto is a little rhythmically
staid, with not enough feeling of
longer expressive phrases, and in
the Trio of the third movement the
eerie repeated low horn phrases
are underplayed. But Noseda caps
it with an electrifying finale, with
the NSO strings virtuosically active.
Crucially, for once, enough is kept in
reserve for the tumultuous coda.
Nicholas Kenyon
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Howard Blake
Orchestral Music: Symphony
No. 1 ‘Impressions of a City’;
Concert Dances for piano and
orchestra; The Court of Love;
JIM HINSON, HEATHER BELLINI
A Month in the Country*
Philharmonia Orchestra/Howard
Blake (piano); *English Northern
Philharmonia/Paul Daniel
SOMM Recordings SOMMCD0678
61:31 mins
The haunting
song ‘Walking
in the Air’, from
the popular
animation
The Snowman,
is far from Howard Blake’s only
composition. Three years ago, the
opus numbers of this versatile
musician had reached an impressive
730 (still some way off Villa-Lobos’s
formidable work total, supposedly
around 2,000). Quality in such a
large output, whether light or serious
in mood, must inevitably vary.
Released to mark the composer’s
85th birthday, this album presents
previously unreleased recordings
dating back to 1991 and 1993.
Pride of place definitely goes to
the eloquent string orchestra suite
derived from music written for the
1997 film A Month in the Country,
a thoughtful drama centred on
two soldiers in a Yorkshire village
recovering from the First World
War. The score’s vintage English
stamp (early 20th century) is
unmistakable; so is the strength of
feeling conveyed in movements that
encompass moods that vary from
martial to elegiac – with multiple
shades inbetween.
The 14-minute symphony, a
musical response to London life
and landscapes, bustles along nicely
enough, with a particularly striking
scherzo section featuring pizzicato
strings. But the rewards elsewhere
on the album are thinner. The nine
sections of the piano-and-orchestra
Concert Dances, riffing on popular
styles from waltz and ragtime to
boogie and cha-cha-cha, prove at
least four too many, while the suite
extracted from his score for the 1977
ballet The Court of Love only proves
that the original reviewer who
complained about the number of
clichés in each bar was only partially
exaggerating. Performances are
enthusiastic rather than ultra-
refined, and the recordings by
today’s standards are more mid-fi
than hi-fi, but there’s still easily
enough string lustre about to make
A Month in the Country stand tall.
Geoff Brown
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING +++
Kodály
Háry János Suite; Summer
Evening; Symphony in C major
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra/
JoAnn Falletta
Naxos 8.574556 68:04 mins
Zoltán Kodály
is best known as
the creator of the
Kodály method, a
popular musical
education tool.
But he was also a prolific composer:
any survey of Kodály’s orchestral
music has to include the three
magnificent works featured here,
and given the quality of these
performances from JoAnn Falletta
and the Buffalo Philharmonic,
it must be hoped they’ll return
to the composer for a second
volume. These are early and late
orchestral scores, and the album
opens fittingly enough with the
Háry János Suite (1926). Probably
Kodály’s best-loved work– it’s a
pity that the opera from which
this music is drawn remains much
less well known – it includes such
numbers as the Viennese Musical
Clock, dreamt up by the quixotic
simpleton Háry Janós. Falletta
draws vivid performances from her
orchestra, not just in the set-piece
exuberance but also the suite’s more
contemplative moments.
The conductor Arturo Toscanini
is the link between the other two
works. It was the great Italian
maestro who persuaded the
Hungarian composer to dust off
Orchestral Reviews
Cracking Kodály:
conductor JoAnn
Falletta delivers a
top-notch reading
and reorchestrate his early tone
poem Summer Evening, unheard
between Kodály’s graduation
concert in 1908 and the New York
Philharmonic re-premiere in 1930.
Modal pastoralism characterises the
opening, which may – or may not –
evoke the Hungarian plains; it
was actually composed in the
Croatian resort of Crikvenica,
just down the coast from Rijeka.
The Buffalo players are warm
and reflective in the music, and
bring neo-Classical clarity to the
Symphony in C major, dedicated
to the memory of Toscanini and
premiered in 1961, four years after
the conductor’s death. It may be
structured as a symphony in three
movements (Allegro; Andante
moderato; Vivo), but as played with
such buzzing astringency as it is
here, the opening immediately
signals the ever-present folk-music
roots of Kodály’s art.
John Allison
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Felix Mendelssohn
Symphonies Nos 3 ‘Scottish’ &
5 ‘Reformation’
Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Maxim
Emelyanychev
Linn Records CKD667 64:56 mins
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 73
Orchestral Reviews
Probing Prokofiev:
Gianandrea Noseda
and the LSO create a
thrilling atmosphere
Mendelssohn’s
‘Reformation’
Symphony,
composed to
mark the 300th
anniversary of
Luther’s Augsburg Confession,
has generally not had a good press.
Following its first performance in
1832 Mendelssohn himself became
increasingly dissatisfied with
it, and it wasn’t published until
some 20 years after his death. It’s
true that its scherzo is a bit four-
square and unadventurous, but the
first movement, with its solemn
introduction culminating in the
‘Dresden amen’ phrase (also invoked
in Wagner’s Parsifal), followed by
an Allegro in Mendelssohn’s most
tempestuous vein, is an impressive
piece; and the finale – largely based
on the Lutheran chorale ‘Ein feste
Burg ist unser Gott’ – finds him
revelling in a wind section that
has the contrabassoon doubled
throughout by a serpent. Most
performances make do without
that rare and curiously shaped
instrument (Mendelssohn also
called for it in his Calm Sea and
Prosperous Voyage overture), but the
Scottish Chamber Orchestra has
rustled one up for this recording –
the rich sonority is striking.
Maxim Emelyanychev is a
conductor whose music-making
exudes spontaneity and flexibility.
The slow introduction of the
ANDY PARADISE
‘Scottish’ Symphony sounds as
hauntingly desolate as it should,
and Emelyanychev coaxes some
74 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
admirably hushed pianissimo
playing out of the clarinet and
strings in the main subject of the
following Allegro. The movement’s
stormy final pages are tremendously
impressive, too, while in the finale
(whose original tempo marking was
‘Allegro guerriero’) Emelyanychev
keeps the rhythm tautly sprung
throughout. A pity, though, that he
indulges in an accelerando for the
symphony’s closing moments, with
their new theme in the major. The
result piles on the excitement, but at
the expense of the music’s rightfully
majestic character.
Misha Donat
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING +++++
Mozart
Symphonies Nos 36 ‘Linz’
& 38 ‘Prague’
Ensemble Resonanz/Riccardo Minasi
Harmonia Mundi HMM902703
71:56 mins
With period-
instrument
performance, as
with any other
approach to
Mozart’s music,
there are plenty of different options
– all are valid, if they convince.
Ensemble Resonanz and Riccardo
Minasi have decided that giving a
pair of symphonies a wall-to-wall
playthrough isn’t sufficient in
itself, and this is to their credit. Yet,
unfortunately, these interpretations
show what can happen when you go
to an opposite extreme.
The overall idea seems to be to
search out the groundbreaking side
of Mozart’s genius – the music’s
phenomenal, even subversive
level of expression and invention.
But these qualities are innate,
and don’t need to be obsessively
spotlit as they are here. From the
very start of the ‘Linz’ Symphony,
both in the first movement’s slow
introduction and main Allegro
spiritoso, there is constant fussy
and exaggerated phrasing, point-
making accentuation to match, plus
over-forceful orchestral tone. The
underlying tempo in one movement
after another shifts so often that the
line and flow is broken; there is an
especially exasperating tendency
to speed up when the music gets
louder and slow down again when
it quietens. This happens less in the
Presto finales of each symphony,
and here the superfast precision
of the playing excels. Minasi likes
to include the repeated sections
indicated within the movements;
with material of this quality, that’s
fair enough, and helps to convey the
immensity of Mozart’s mastery in
the ‘Prague’ Symphony. Meanwhile,
the graceless approach to moment-
to-moment interpretation doesn’t let
up. Malcolm Hayes
PERFORMANCE ++
RECORDING ++++
Prokofiev
Symphony No. 5
London Symphony Orchestra/
Gianandrea Noseda
LSO Live LSO0379-D (digital) 44:02 mins
The London
Symphony
Orchestra
(LSO) has form
in Prokofiev’s
most popular
big symphony – before this, under
Previn, Tilson Thomas and Gergiev.
It’s valuable that Gianandrea
Noseda’s performances have come
under the aegis of a complete
cycle like Gergiev’s; the former is
altogether more probing and, in this
work, atmospheric. I tend to think of
Noseda as a scherzo-ish conductor,
and so he is in the incisiveness of
the second and fourth movements,
but he gives full breadth and space
for between-the-lines ambiguity,
like Tilson Thomas, in the first
movement. LSO woodwind are
shyly bucolic at the start – going
on to give some lovely solos in the
finale, which only makes the first
theme’s steady arming in the brass
all the more tragic. Trumpet work
is brilliant here and, most crucially,
as the scherzo gears up for a grim
whirlwind at its return. If the third
movement is more Andante con moto
than Adagio, Noseda’s restraint with
soft dynamics and what’s behind
them makes it moving as well as
keeping it on the move – an asset
when the central rites can falter in a
patchwork of ideas; not here, where
the funeral march steals in quietly,
as it should. The giant machine that
mashes up the finale’s optimism at
the end is typically hard-hitting,
though the live recording in the
Barbican sounds a little cowled on
 Orchestral Reviews
this (so far) digital-only release. All
the more reason for bringing it out
on CD, along with the rest; Noseda’s
Prokofiev 6 live was superlative.
David Nice
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING ++++
Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 4
Cleveland Orchestra/Franz
Welser-Möst
Cleveland Orchestra TCO0009-D
(digital) 39:07 mins
Franz Welser-
Möst’s recording
career spans
well over three
decades, yet this
seems to be his
first-ever album of Tchaikovsky.
Recorded live at the Cleveland
Orchestra’s hometown base in
2021, it makes an undeniably
powerful impression.
Punctilious articulation in all
sections of the orchestra marks the
opening movement, with phrasing
more precisely etched than in most
rival performances. There’s no
sense of pedantry, however, more a
satisfying feeling that one is hearing
the intricacies of Tchaikovsky’s
writing in revealing detail.
Interpretively, Welser-Möst’s
approach to the Fourth is fatalistic
rather than fevered, and may
disappoint those who like this
symphony to be on the boil
emotionally. The second movement
is balletically pointed, and at no
point milked for melancholy. Again
the Cleveland players relish detail:
the woodwind decorations of the
recapitulated opening melody are
tinglingly present.
The Scherzo’s pizzicato strings are
exquisitely balanced and sharply
responsive to dynamic markings,
while brass and wind chording in
the Trio is immaculate. Tempo-wise
the movement is perhaps a touch
relaxed, but it’s easy to feast aurally
on playing of this technical calibre.
The Finale is appropriately
exciting, and exudes a formidable
corporate virtuosity. Those who
hanker for a hint of hysteria and
instability amid the superficially
high spirits of this movement will
find it largely missing. But such is
the interpretation’s clarity of texture
and magisterial level of accuracy
that it scarcely seems to matter.
Terry Blain
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING +++++
Sounds New
Works by Ben Nobuto, Héloïse
Werner et al
City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra/Clark Rundell
NMC NMCDL3054 (digital) 88:20 mins
The West
Midlands has a
long association
with new music:
in 1987 City of
Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra (CBSO)
musicians Simon Clugston
and Ulrich Heinen founded
Birmingham Contemporary Music
Group (BCMG) with Simon Rattle
– then CBSO music director – as
patron. The parent ensemble has
continued to support rather than
silo music by living composers,
and commissioned 20 small-scale
pieces (alongside 20 larger works) to
mark its centenary in 2020. These
were intended for performance
throughout the anniversary season,
but, as we all know, that year didn’t
go exactly to plan. Instead, the short
works appeared in a single concert,
which was recorded.
Of the 20 ‘emerging composers’
– a strange descriptor conjuring
images of musical insect pupa –
Héloïse Werner is the best known.
As an upcoming associate artist at
Wigmore Hall, and with an album
that comprises five of her own
compositions (Phrases, Delphian,
2022), Werner is entering the imago
stage. Like Confessional, crossings is
written in the soprano-composer’s
distinctive language, splattered
with colourful timbres. The vocal
part (sung by Werner) laps against
the CBSO strings, which alternately
swell and settle. Sighing vocalise
moves into punchy staccato and
upper-octave notes that are picked
up and mimicked by the orchestra;
Werner chases and catches the
phrase into her signature Lear-like
expressivo. Ryan Latimer is another
composer with a clear style (see
Antiarkie, NMC, 2021): Bellwether
is topped with percussion sprinkles
as it shapeshifts from abstraction to
pastoral scenes, taking inspiration
from its shepherding title. There
is wonderful variety within this
programme, from the glittery
Glisk by Aileen Sweeney to Anna
Appleby’s song without words
Sonnet 43, all beautifully realised by
the CBSO. Claire Jackson
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Concerto
a
CONCERTO CHOICE
A must-have showcase for
any Brahms collection
Pianist Simon Trpčeski and co’s performance of these
concertos is truly indispensable, says Jessica Duchen
Glitter and grandeur:
Simon Trpčeski has
the Midas touch in
Brahms’s concertos
Brahms
Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2
Simon Trpčeski (piano); WDR Sinfonieorchester/
Cristian Măcelaru
Linn Records CKD732 95:15 mins (2 discs)
You might think you don’t need another recording of
the Brahms piano concertos.
Well, you need this one. It is It sounds as if the
a splendid showcase, not just
for the performers, but for the
performers
music: it has such a pleasing, time of their lives
expansive warmth and sense
of relish. Apart from anything else, it sounds as if the
performers are having the time of their lives.
Simon Trpčeski’s playing has always had a touch
of brilliance, which has ample chance to glitter, but
he doesn’t stint on the requisite grandeur of sound.
Granitey octaves often alternate with rounded
legato; and his sense of rubato is superb, with a subtle
holding-back at key moments, as in the second theme
of the D minor’s first movement. There’s a beautiful
sense of balance and line, phrased with a natural ebb
and flow while bringing out the songfulness. He and
76 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Măcelaru seem to bounce ideas off one another as the
character of the themes emerges and gels.
That vivid characterisation is deeply rewarding:
an extra dug-in expansiveness to the big, sweeping
string melodies, for instance, but also a magically
hushed atmosphere to the dreamlike exchange
between piano and clarinets
near the end of the B flat slow
movement. Key players make
are having the the most of spotlit moments,
including an eloquent cello
soloist in that same movement;
more unusually, the orchestral fugato in the D minor’s
finale is a treat in itself, being so clearly balanced and
elegantly expressed, as if finished with silken ribbon.
The recorded sound is as deep and as warm as you
could wish for Brahms.
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING ++++
You can access thousands of reviews from our
extensive archive on the BBC Music Magazine
website at www.classical-music.com
Mozart
Mozart 1791 – Clarinet
Concerto; Arias etc
Pierre Génisson (clarinet); Karine
Deshayes (mezzo-soprano); Concerto
Köln/Jakob Lehmann
Erato 5419773233 57:20 mins
This is
interesting,
and sometimes
much more
than interesting
– though it’s
probably best to draw a veil over
the grim Requiem adaptation
for multi-racked clarinets and
what sounds like a jumbo-sized
electronic celesta. When Mozart
heard clarinettist Anton Stadler, it
was the vocal quality of his playing
that impressed him as much as
Stadler’s agility and virtuoso élan.
Hearing arias from The Marriage of
Figaro and Così fan tutte arranged
for clarinet, finely played by
Pierre Génisson, is a reminder of
how close to the human voice this
instrument can come, to the point
where it’s almost possible to forget
the originals – almost, that is.
Then, in the three numbers from
La clemenza di Tito, the clarinet
competes so effectively with mezzo
Karine Deshayes that in the more
restrained passages it more or less
steals the show.
Hearing the Clarinet Concerto
in this context is a quite a refresher.
Like the piano concertos, it’s full
of quasi-operatic solo writing,
yet one can also sense how much
Mozart appreciated its greater
sustaining power (pretty limited
in 18th-century pianos). Génisson
plays it beautifully: shifts in colour,
light and shading and the wonderful
contrasts in tone and character
when the clarinet leaps from shining
heights into dark, chocolatey depths
and back again – this version really
is as good an advert for the deeper
‘basset’ clarinet (Stadler’s preferred
instrument) as any available today.
The feeling one sometimes gets with
basset versions, that the gain in the
deeper registers comes at the cost
of some ‘clarino’ brightness, isn’t
conveyed here. In fact, Génisson
and his instrument sound fully in
command throughout its range.
It’s a beguiling, but also a touching
performance, and sympathetically
recorded. Stephen Johnson
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++

Mozart
Piano Concertos Nos 6 & 25
Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano);
Freiburger Barockorchester
Harmonia Mundi HMM 902333
68:57 mins
When Mozart
settled in
Vienna he went
into creative
overdrive,
asserting both
his independence of his father and
his position as the finest keyboard
player in town. He also became
a successful impresario, greatly
increasing the number of concerts
featuring himself as both composer
and soloist, thus reaping maximum
profits. He gave subscription
concerts in unconventional venues,
and frequently performed in
aristocratic salons. ‘I must play
new works – and therefore I must
compose,’ he wrote excitedly to his
father. ‘The whole morning is taken
up with pupils, and almost every
evening I have to play.’
The first of the two concertos on
this album was composed in 1776,
and its designation as a ‘Concerto di
Cembalo’ indicates that he saw it as a
harpsichord concerto. This is borne
out by liner-note writer Andreas
Friesenhagen, who points out
that the keyboard part in the solo
passages of the first two movements
has no dynamic markings at all;
moreover, Mozart had not yet
gravitated to the fortepiano. It is
pleasing, if not on the level of his
finest works from this period, and
despatched gracefully.
The second concerto, composed
ten years later, works on a much
grander scale, although I have to
agree with Friesenhagen’s view that
its first movement ‘radiates a cool
neutrality’, and that its Andante
may not ‘fulfil most listeners’
expectations’ of its emotional
impact. Nevertheless, this album
– the fourth in a series from
Bezuidenhout and the Freiburger
Barockorchester – is brightly and
engagingly played. Michael Church
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING +++
BENJAMIN EALOVEGA, JULIA WESLEY, GETTY
R Strauss
Oboe Concerto in D; Horn
Concerto No. 1 etc
Andreas Fosdal (oboe), Jakob Keiding
(horn); Copenhagen Philharmonic/
Toshiyuki Kamioka
Orchid Classics ORC100261 77:38 mins
Virtuosity and variety:
Anne-Sophie Mutter
joins her own talented
young ensemble
If you substituted
the Second for
the First Horn
Concerto, this
would be a
programme of the
most subtle delights, capturing the
mature Strauss at his most relaxed
and intimate. But the performances
still wouldn’t quite carry it, because
the interpretation of the Oboe
Concerto proceeds in fits and starts.
At first you admire the care Andreas
Fosdal takes to articulate the long
opening paragraph. But there’s a
sluggishness in later stages of the
first movement, the Andante and
part of the finale which gets in the
way of what ought to be a pretty
flow. Whose fault? I’d be inclined
to blame Toshiyuki Kamioka,
chief conductor of the Copenhagen
Phil – yes, they really are called
that – when this recording was
made. But it’s hard to fault the
pacing of the other works. The
amiable First Horn Concerto, an
accomplished, characterful early
work, makes a perfect showcase for
the suavities of another orchestral
principal, Jakob Keiding, and the
delicious suite from the incidental
music Strauss provided for
Hofmannsthal’s adaptation(s) of
Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme
shows no want of vivacity. All the
woodwind solos are character-
perfect, the swagger of fencing-
master and tailors has full focus,
the neoclassical style of the Minuet
and Act 2 Intermezzo is inflected
with perfect character, and the
Dinner, with its wry quotations
from Meyerbeer, Wagner, Verdi
Concerto Reviews
given in the Vienna Musikverein
in June last year shows off their
talents. Virtuosity is certainly the
order of the day in Vivaldi’s F major
Triple Concerto, which sets off at
a furious lick, with Mutter and
two of her protégés attacking the
music with unanimity and vigour.
But the tempo is on the fast side,
and some of the detail becomes
blurred, especially in the orchestra.
The Bach A minor Concerto is less
breathless in the first movement,
and Mutter brings a variety of
tonal sophistication to the solo
part, although in the Andante she
sometimes becomes cloying and
sentimental, and the performance
seems to come from another world.
It’s a world she and the group as a
whole inhabit more successfully in
Previn’s Nonet, especially in the lush
tone in the more romantic passages,
and Strauss himself, is tasty in all and in the wide range of dynamics
courses. Warmer sound might have and colour. The many tricky
helped the Oboe Concerto, but it’s rhythmic sections come across with
fine for the other works. David Nice confidence and flair, and special
PERFORMANCE +++ praise goes to double bass Dominik
RECORDING ++++ Wagner for his cadenza.
Back to Bach for the Third
Anne-Sophie Mutter Brandenburg Concerto, so fast as to
be perfunctory, especially in the
& Mutter’s Virtuosi first movement. I really couldn’t
Vivaldi: Concerto, RV551 etc; enjoy this, but there’s greater poise
JS Bach: Concerto, BWV 1041 etc; in the A major Concerto by Joseph
plus works by Bologne, Previn Bologne, the contemporary of
and John Williams Mozart better known as Chevalier
Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin); de Saint-Georges, even if Mutter’s
Mutter’s Virtuosi playing style is coming from the
DG 486 5256 79:03 mins Romantic end of the spectrum in its
Mutter’s Virtuosi smooth phrasing and use of vibrato.
is a string All of which suit her two John
orchestra made Williams encores (including ‘Nice
up of alumni to Be Around’ adapted from the film
from Anne- score for Cinderella Liberty) to a T.
Sophie Mutter’s Martin Cotton
Foundation for young musicians, PERFORMANCE +++
and this live recording of a concert RECORDING ++++
BACKGROUND TO…
Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto
The origins of this concerto, one of the most
beloved of Mozart’s works, can be found in the
composer’s unfinished 1787 concerto for basset
horn. He plundered that unused piece when he
decided to write this work, inspired by his friend,
the basset clarinet virtuoso Anton Stadler.
Mozart had already composed a clarinet quintet
for Stadler in 1789 and hearing that his pupil
Süssmayr was to work on a concerto for the basset clarinettist, Mozart set
about beating him to it. The work was completed in the Autumn of 1791 and
premiered by Stadler in Prague just a few weeks before Mozart’s death.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 77
Opera
OPERA CHOICE

If you think you know Lakmé, think again

This Paris production of Delibes’s classic is a head turner, says Christopher Cook

where a banished Brahmin and his

priestess daughter Lakmé keep faith Striking a chord:
with their religion. Pelly’s Europeans, Sabine Devieilhe is
Delibes refugees from Offenbach perhaps, a fearless Lakmé
Lakmé (DVD) are giggling girls and men with upper
Sabine Devieilhe, Frédéric Antoun, lips as stiff as cardboard. No wonder
et al; Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon; the young officer Gérald falls for the
dir. Laurent Pelly (Paris, 2022) exquisite Lakmé, the allure of the
Naxos 2.110765 (DVD); orient made flesh.
NBD0177V (Blu-ray) 135 mins Frédéric Antoun is a handsome
For many listeners Lakmé is no more Gérald, though the high tessitura of
than the sum of two of its parts, ‘The the role takes its toll in the last act.
Flower Duet’ and ‘The Bell Song’. Sabine Devieilhe’s Lakmé is superb,
This thoughtful production, which with silvery tone and jewel-like
began across above the stave.
several stages at the Raphaël Pichon She is fearless in
Opéra Comique, ‘The Bell Song’
shames any who
relishes Delibes’s which she turns
may have wrinkled lush orchestration into her own story
their noses. with Gérald, and
Laurent Pelly transforms her final aria as she sacrifices herself
Delibes’s opera into an exploration for her English lover touches every
of colonialism and cultural emotional chord.
appropriation on a set that appears to Raphaël Pichon, conducting
feature artfully cut paper – origami Pygmalion on original instruments,
perhaps – with stage hands in black, relishes Delibes’s lush orchestration,
as in Kabuki. Hints of Butterfly here, and in the final act stresses the
as Pelly also references operatic souvenirs of Parsifal which Delibes
Orientalism from The Pearl Fishers to had seen at Bayreuth while finishing
Le Roi de Lahore. his own opera.
You can access thousands of reviews from our extensive archive on
The colonisers are British barging PERFORMANCE +++++
the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
into a sacred Hindu forest space RECORDING ++++

Puccini This new interpretation of at anyone willing to challenge him, Rodwell

Tosca
Melody Moore, Ştefan Pop, Lester
Lynch; Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
Berlin/Carlo Montanaro
Pentatone PTC 5187 055 (CD/SACD)
109:48 mins (2 discs)
Pentatone has
been on a roll
lately with
Puccini. In recent
years it has given
us a Fanciulla, a
Butterfly and a Tabarro, all featuring
the American singers Melody
Moore and Lester Lynch, with a
variety of tenors. On this occasion,
the pair are joined by the Romanian
tenor Ştefan Pop, who is a former
Operalia winner.
a familiar work is noteworthy
for two things. First, the close
attention to the details of Puccini’s
orchestral writing by conductor
Carlo Montanaro and the Berlin
musicians is captivating, the strings
deliciously light and playful in the
opening scene, the brass snarling
and blazing in the Te Deum, the
sense of swagger in the fake shooting
scene. Second, this is a performance
high on drama, as all the best Toscas
should be. There were times when
I wanted more chest register from
Moore and her ‘Vissi d’arte’ begins
somewhat tentatively, but she
certainly brings all the requisite
hysteria to the role. Lynch’s Scarpia
is a taut ball of anxiety, ready to snap
with a nasty sneer but occasionally
also – interestingly – a hint of
vulnerability. Pop’s ‘Recondita
armonia’ has a sob in the voice
that seems a little overstated, but
the singer works himself into the
role with utter conviction as the
performance goes on, his ‘Vittoria’
electrifying and his ‘E lucevan le
stelle’ touchingly introspective.
Exchanges between the characters
have a real sense of urgency and
psychological tension, as all
involved work hard to bring out the
vivid, grand-guignol-esque quality
of Puccini’s work. Thrilling stuff.
Alexandra Wilson
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Jack Sheppard
Simon Butteriss, Charli Baptie,
Peter Benedict, Emily Vine, Daniel
Huttlestone (soloists); Stephen
Higgins (piano)
Retrospect Opera RO010 68:01 mins
Although it was a
popular genre in
its 19th-century
heyday, the
melodrama is
sadly now pretty
much forgotten.
As David Chandler’s notes
accompanying this release inform
us, this example was one of the most
famous. It is based on the story of
real-life thief and multiple prison
escapee Jack Sheppard (born in

78 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


1702, and eventually executed in
1724), and his nemesis, ‘thief-taker’
Jonathan Wild – their tale was
turned into a novel by Harrison
Ainsworth, from where this piece
also takes it lead.
First staged at the Adelphi
Theatre in 1839, it held the boards
for 18 years until effectively banned,
presumably due to its perceived bad
influence on public morals: because
Sheppard (a trouser-role, here
characterfully delivered by Charli
Baptie) is undoubtedly the hero, and
Wild the dastardly villain.
Sharing some territory with
Oliver Twist (1838), the piece is
set among the criminal classes
and concerns their adventures
and reverses, and their fictitious
connections to the highborn.
The original was a long piece
– perhaps as much as four hours
– here reduced to manageable
proportions by means of cuts and
a narrator, a role taken by national
treasure Simon Butteriss, who
also assumes another five parts,
including that of Wild himself.
The play was the work of one
John Baldwin Buckstone, the score
by G. Herbert Rodwell (1800-52).
There’s not a great deal of music, just
a handful of songs – some of them
drawing on pre-existing melodies
and apparently long popular – plus
some incidental music drawn by
musicologist Valerie Langford from
surviving fragments of another of
Rodwell’s operatic successes, The
Flying Dutchman.
Musically, the result is no great
shakes but the whole thing fills
up an hour or so very nicely as an
example of a once hugely popular
entertainment. George Hall
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING +++++
Verdi
I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata
Nino Machaidze, Piero Pretti et al;
Bavarian Radio Choir; Munich Radio
Orchestra/Ivan Repušić
BR Klassik 900351 101:26 mins (2 discs)
This is the latest
exploration
by the chorus
JEAN BAPTISTE MILLOT, GETTY, TATYANA VLASOVA
and orchestra
of Bavarian
Radio and their
conductor Ivan Repušić of Verdi’s
early operatic works. I Lombardi
was Verdi’s fourth opera, staged
in Milan in 1843. The programme
notes to the recording – made at a
concert performance in Munich’s
A Rolls-Royce voice:
Marina Rebeka
dazzles in a set of
miniature scenes
Prince Regent Theatre in April
2023 – rather do the opera down,
pointing to a weak libretto, lack of
characterisation and uninspired
plot dynamics.
With such low expectations, it is
a pleasant surprise to discover that
I Lombardi has so many strengths.
Choruses are vivid, key arias are
melodic and the orchestration shows
Verdi’s increasing sophistication.
The plot concerns the exploits of the
Lombards during the First Crusade
in the late 11th century. Pagano falls
out with his brother Arvino and
ends up a hermit in the Holy Land.
Arvino’s daughter Giselda goes on a
pilgrimage, is captured in Antioch
and falls in love with the Muslim
ruler’s son, Oronte. The pair elope,
helped by Pagano, who is eventually
reconciled with his brother just as
the crusaders prepare to take the
city of Jerusalem.
Soprano Nino Machaidze takes
on the principal role of Giselda with
vocal power and panache, although
her phrasing can be angular and her
top range is a little harsh at times.
Tenor Piero Pretti brings Italianate
lyricism and sensitivity to the role
of Oronte, while Galeano Salas
and Michele Pertusi lend muscle
to the roles of Arvino and Pagano.
The Munich chorus is vigorous
and expressive in the rousing
and reflective choruses, and Ivan
Repušić energetically propels the
orchestra forward. Sound editing
cuts out audience and background
noise but leaves the theatrical
Opera Reviews
vigil is sung here with a touching
insight into the plight of a girl whose
romantic dream is about to be
shattered. ‘La mamma morta’ from
Cilea’s Andrea Chénier is delivered as
a piece of gripping storytelling with
the voice colouring every horrifying
twist and turn. There’s charm and
poise in Nedda’s lilting ‘Stridono
lassù’ from Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci,
and flirtatious mischief in Musetta’s
‘Quando m’en vo’ soletta’ from La
bohème… Each miniature scene has
its own distinctive drama.
There’s the occasional misstep.
The lugubrious pace of Tosca’s ‘Vissi
d’arte’ sounds too studied: Rebeka
certainly has the breath-control
to slow things down, but here it
interrupts the flow of the character’s
innermost thoughts.
On the whole, though, this is
Rolls-Royce singing, the voice
a finely tuned engine whose
expressive powers go from zero
to off-the-dial in seconds as an
ambience feeling a touch flat and introspective pianissimo builds to
empty. John-Pierre Joyce an outburst of unleashed emotion
PERFORMANCE ++++ in a single phrase. Rebeka floats her
RECORDING +++ high notes beautifully and sustains
astonishing control over tone and
Essence dynamics in the longest of the
Arias by Puccini, Tchaikovsky, melodic lines.
Dvořák, Boito, Cilea, Giordano As if being a terrific singer
and Catalani wasn’t enough, Rebeka is also an
Marina Rebeka (soprano); Wrocław entrepreneur. Prima Classic is her
Opera Orchestra/Marco Boemi own label founded in conjunction
Prima Classic PRIMA013 57:18 mins with her recording-engineer
From the opening husband Edgardo Vertanessian,
phrase of who has masterminded this
Puccini’s ‘Un bel project. Here, they collaborate
di’ we know we with the estimable Wrocław Opera
are in safe hands. Orchestra from Poland, sensitively
Latvian soprano conducted by Marco Boemi. A
Marina Rebeka’s latest recital fine recording by a stellar artist.
album is so much more than a pat Ashutosh Khandekar
trawl through 13 operatic lollipops. PERFORMANCE +++++
Butterfly’s heartrending all-night RECORDING +++++
BACKGROUND TO…
Delibes’s Lakmé
The French composer had already scored a
hit with his 1870 ballet score for Coppélia and
penned two full-length operas (1873’s Le Roi
l’a dit and 1880’s Jean de Nivelle) before his
most famous opera came along. Composed
in 1881/82, Lakmé is based on both Pierre
Loti’s autobiographical novel Le Mariage de
Loti and Théodore Pavie’s story Les babouches
du Brahmane and is set in mid-19th-century India. It received its world
premiere at the Opéra-Comique in April 1883, and went on to enjoy
success on a par with Bizet’s Carmen.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 79
Choral & Song
a CHORAL & SONG CHOICE
An exquisite collection of
remarkable song treasures
Kate Wakeling is enraptured by Katharine Dain and
Sam Armstrong’s album of French and Polish works
Light and shade:
Dain and Armstrong
are an appealing duo
Forget This Night
Works by Bacewicz, L Boulanger, Szymanowski
Katharine Dain (soprano), Sam Armstrong (piano)
7 Mountain 7MNTN-046 70 mins
This excellent duo’s last album was rightly praised
for its thoughtful programming and elegant
performances. Forget This Night
is every bit as appealing in its The solo vocal music by
repertoire and execution, with
Dain and Armstrong bringing
Lili Boulanger is a rare and ‘Pochyl
a terrific sense of light and special thing to experience a chilling lullaby that invites
shade to an expertly curated
collection of French and Polish songs.
At the heart of the album is Clairières dans le
ciel (Clearings in the Sky), the only song cycle by
Lili Boulanger. Her music shimmers with luscious
harmonies, delicate textures and an intense sense
of atmosphere, and this cycle, a study of romantic
obsession from the ecstatic to the desolate, is among RECORDING
her finest work. The piece receives an exquisite
reading from Dain and Armstrong, who offer
everything from the ethereal to the earthy in this
assured performance.
80 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
There is also an unexpected highlight: a previously
unrecorded fragment of music for solo voice from
Boulanger’s very last notebook. Dain renders
this magical snippet of music with extraordinary
tenderness and intimacy. It is a rare and special thing
to experience. The Polish elements of the album are no
less captivating. Among many
treasures are Szymanowski’s
się cicho nad kołyską’
(Lean silently over the cradle),
us to find peace at the bottom
of ‘the black, black pond’, and a setting of Tagore by
Bacewicz in ‘Rozstanie’ (Parting), which brims with
fiery passion.
This is altogether a remarkable release: beautiful,
intelligent and utterly heartfelt.
PERFORMANCE +++++
+++++
You can access thousands of reviews from our
extensive archive on the BBC Music Magazine
website at www.classical-music.com
Beethoven
Missa Solemnis
Lina Johnson (soprano),
Olivia Vermeulen (mezzo-soprano),
Martin Platz (tenor), Manuel Walser
(bass); La Capella Nacional de
Catalunya; Le Concert des Nations/
Jordi Savall
Alia Vox AVSA9956 75:15 mins
Is the Missa
Solemnis the
greatest opera
Beethoven never
wrote? Theatrical
through and
through, there’s something
positively Promethean about its
quest to reconcile the divine and the
human. And like JS Bach’s equally
all-encompassing B minor Mass,
it’s more a personal statement writ
large than a practical contribution
to the liturgical repertoire – even
though Op. 123 started life as a
work to mark the consecration
of Beethoven’s patron and pupil
Archduke Rudolf as Archbishop of
Olomouc. Considering it his greatest
work to date, Beethoven famously
inscribed ‘from the heart – may it
return – to the heart’ ahead of the
Kyrie, an injunction Jordi Savall has
clearly heeded.
Nonetheless, the recording is a
bit of a mixed bag. Both disturbed
and disturbing, the Agnus Dei is
beautifully paced as glowering
disquiet is ambushed by terrifying
military interjections; and the
poised opening of the Sanctus is
haunting, its ‘pleni sunt caeli’ bright
and explosive, the Benedictus – with
its sublime violin solo – ethereal.
But, besieged by a reverberant
acoustic and somewhat congested
recording (the opening of the Gloria
particularly so), it’s not always easy
to follow Savall’s vision of the piece.
The Kyrie is short on ‘presence’,
the choral attack at the outset a
little limp, and the responding
soloists are unfavourably recessed
in the sound picture. For all Savall’s
manifold insights – foreshadowings
of Brahms and Bruckner intrigue
the ear – there are more consistently
compelling period-instrument
versions available – the last
recording by Nikolaus Harnoncourt
with Concentus Musicus Wien, and
John Eliot Gardiner’s live second
recording among them.
Paul Riley
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING +++

Delius
A Mass of Life
Roderick Williams (baritone);
Bergen Philharmonic/Mark Elder
Lawo Classics LWC1265 92:17 mins
Delius’s Eine
Messe des Lebens
(A Mass of Life)
was completed
in 1905, and this
is just its fifth
commercial recording. It is a very
good one. The sessions took place
immediately after the Norwegian
premiere of the work in September
2022, and have a palpable sense of
fresh discovery about them.
If there’s a single hero of the
performance it’s undoubtedly
Mark Elder, who though an
experienced Delian had not
previously conducted Eine Messe des
Lebens. Elder is more urgent than
Beecham, Groves, Hickox or Hill
in the opening chorus (the original
German text is used), catching not
just the thrill of the writing, but also
a destabilising sense of the danger
it channels.
That said, Elder’s interpretation
is never merely about cheap
excitement. In the Mass’s third
section, ‘The Song of Life’, he
carefully avoids lavishing too much
Wagnerian lushness on the Tristan-
like exchanges of the tenor, soprano
and alto soloists, and imparts a
Mendelssohnian lightness to the
choir’s impish ‘dance over dale
and hill.’
In the central part of Zarathustra,
baritone Roderick Williams brings
a degree less heroic grit than some
rivals, but compensates richly by his
intelligent pointing of Nietzsche’s
headily symbolic text, and his
generously lyrical tone. Both he
and the excellent Bergen choirs are
at their sensitive best in the ‘Night
Song’, and in the hazy sensuality of
the ‘Midday’ section. But it’s Elder’s
astute conducting that really stands
out here, lending a work that easily
overheats a satisfying measure of
nuance and dignity.
Terry Blain
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Ferrandini • Handel
EVELIEN VAN RIJN, THEO WILLIAMS
Handel: Dixit Dominus; Ferrandini:
Il pianto di Maria
Sophie Rennert, Deborah Cachet et
al; Vlaams Radiokoor; Il Gardellino
Orchestra/Bart Van Reyn
Passacaille PAS1130 56:26 mins
Nuanced Nietzsche:
Roderick Williams has a
generously lyrical tone
in Delius’s Mass of Life
This studio
recording, made
during a tour,
packs more
punch than
most readings of
these two works. Conductor Bart
Van Reyn masterfully exploits the
contrasts between Dixit Dominus,
Handel’s plush psalm setting of
1707 requiring a double five-voice
choir, soloists and string band with
continuo, against the lean 1739
solo cantata Il pianto di Maria, once
wrongly ascribed to Handel as
HWV 234 but actually by Giovanni
Ferrandini. Through her luminous
performance of the cantata, young
mezzo-soprano Sophie Rennert
takes her place among foremost
Baroque music interpreters.
In Dixit Dominus, the 22-year-old
Handel, newly arrived in Rome,
mixed dazzling counterpoint, super-
charged affect and sublime choral
movements to wow listeners and
attract patrons. Van Reyn seizes on
the opportunities Handel provides,
his abrupt entries and pulsing
tempos creating a quivering tension
in fast movements. No ‘Dominus a
dextris tuis’ is more serene, as Van
Reyn blends the distinctive hues
of Rennert and soprano Deborah
Cachet with great artistry. The
conductor sensibly retreats from
Cachet’s solo aria, leaving her to
glory in the vocalism of Handel’s
line. The Flemish Radio Choir’s
performance is bold and intense,
Choral & Song Reviews
though the polyphonic lines in the
final movement – where, to show
his chops, Handel reset the first
movement’s cantus firmus even more
densely – do get a bit muddled.
In Il pianto di Maria, Rennert
movingly dramatises Mary’s grief
at the death of Jesus. Her sustained
chest notes are like moans, and
her searing leaps like protests,
drawing us into the darkest corners
of despair; at the whispered end of
one recitative she seems to expire
along with her son. As Mary’s
desperation grows, the playing of
Baroque orchestra Il Gardellino
becomes increasingly wild, with
stabbing chords and tumbling scales
brilliantly foregrounded by Van
Reyn. Berta Joncus
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Mozart
Exsultate, jubilate etc
Karine Deshayes (soprano);
Les Paladins/Jérôme Correas
Aparté AP327 52:12 mins
There is life
injected into
every corner of
this recording
of largely early
Mozart, from
the incisive playing of period
instrument ensemble Les Paladins,
under conductor Jérôme Correas, to
Karine Deshayes’s highly expressive
mezzo-soprano. This is Deshayes’s
first recording of Mozart, and it is a
hugely enjoyable one, showing not
only a range of Mozart arias and
vocal scores for mezzo (originally
castrato, in some cases), but also
the range and agility of Deshayes’s
voice, whether in the dramatic ‘Quel
nocchier che in gran procella’ from
La Betulia Liberata, or ‘Lungi le cure
ingrate’ from Davide Penitente.
Under Correas, Les Paladins are
energetic partners and, loosened
from Deshayes for Symphony No.
17, give dashing pace and élan; the
second movement conversely rich
and poised. Elsewhere, they launch
a full attack – perhaps too full at
times – on the Church Sonatas, with
more than a tinge of the secular,
each sonata treated to the full vim
of absolute belief in the drama of
the moment. Occasionally it sounds
a little too harried, and certain
similarities of pacing in the works
mean that these individual sonatas
perhaps wear a little thin when you
reach the third in a row. Deshayes
singing the Agnus Dei from the
Coronation Mass restores calm.
The Exsultate, jubilate is
brilliantly joyful and dramatic:
Deshayes is always a highly fluid
and expressive exponent, with
absolute beauty of vocal line,
with Les Paladins alongside in
joyous tapestry. The only slight
downside throughout, if listening
on headphones, is that – perhaps
through microphone placement –
Deshayes’s voice occasionally swirls
rather abruptly from ear to ear in the
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 81
Choral & Song Reviews
Centenary selection:
Carolyn Sampson’s
100th album celebrates
her joy in music-making
midst of those lines in a recording
that is otherwise full of clarity.
Sarah Urwin Jones
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING +++
Philip Sawyers
Mayflower on the Sea of Time
April Fredrick (soprano), Thomas
Humphreys (baritone) et al;
English Symphony Orchestra &
Chorus/Kenneth Woods
Nimbus NI 6439 58:57 mins
Is the oratorio
a dead form?
Certainly not
in Britain. Only
recently we’ve
had a recording
of Emily Howard’s powerful work
The Anvil (Delphian), written
to commemorate the 200th
anniversary of Manchester’s
Peterloo massace. Now comes Philip
Sawyers’ Mayflower on the Sea of
Time, captured in its Covid-delayed
premiere last summer in Worcester
Cathedral. It was composed to
mark another milestone, the 400th
anniversary of the Mayflower’s 1620
voyage to Plymouth Colony in New
England. Contemporary oratorios,
however, are not easy to bring off,
and one of the lingering problems
here is the wobbly tone of Philip
Groom’s libretto, absent from the
booklet but accessible by scanning
82 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
the ubiquitous QR code. The text is
inspired by the surviving diary of
William Bradford, the Colony’s first
Governor, with a clump of clotted
Walt Whitman poetry arriving at
the end.
Awkward or banal phrases like
‘making outsiders of the insiders’
and ‘Cape Cod, thank God’ aren’t
the best gifts for any composer,
especially an arduous one like
Sawyers, who churns through
an Atlantic ocean of changing
harmonies and recurring motifs but
whose ambitious score only reaches
piercing eloquence when directly
quoting a Thomas Tomkins motet.
Cast as different characters in
the voyage’s story, the two soloists,
particularly April Fredrick,
sometimes lose out to the work’s
symphonic trappings and the
orchestra’s heft, but there’s no
doubting the jubilant unity of
every participant, including the
newly formed English Symphony
Chorus, in the oratorio’s finale. As
a champion of Sawyers’s music,
Kenneth Woods conducts with
all the passion, precision and
devotion we might expect, though,
at the end of the day, it wasn’t
enough to convert this listener into
a believer.
Geoff Brown
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING +++
There’s nothing at all reverential
about Jeremy Sams’s translations
of the 21 songs here. They are witty,
fit the music like an expensive
glove and tell good stories, but,
importantly, they are essentially
versions of the original poems –
and not translations. So, in ‘An
der Musik’, ‘Often a sigh, escaping
from your harp, a sweet, celestial
chord/has revealed to me a heaven
of happier times’ becomes ‘A simple
phrase, a half-remembered love-
song, An age-old melody that’s
somehow new …’ We’re only a step
away from Eric Maschwitz’s ‘These
foolish things remind me of you.’
No matter. Roderick Williams is
in fine voice here: racing through
‘The Child of the Muses’ (Der
Musensohn) at breakneck speed,
darkening the voice for the bitter
truths of ‘Love has lied’ (Die Liebe
hat gelogen) and beautifully
nuanced in the final verse of ‘The
Wanderer’ with an almost defiant
drop into the lower chest register
on the phrase ‘Happiness is always
far away’.
Rowan Pierce, his partner, is a
Schubert young English soprano with a light
Schubert in English, Vol. 4 – lyric voice well suited to Mignon
Lieder (translated by J Sams) in the duet ‘Longing’ (Mignon
und der Harfne). A tendency
Rowan Pierce (soprano),
towards ‘breathiness’ is perhaps
Roderick Williams (baritone),
the consequence of what sounds
Christopher Glynn (piano)
like close mic-ing of both singers
Signum Classics SIGCD770 73:48 mins
with the piano almost in their laps
Purists may at times. However, Glynn is never
wrinkle their less than thoughtful as the third
noses. Why member of this Schubertiade,
record Schubert playing a tender postlude for ‘In
in English? Spring’ (Im Frühling) that perfectly
As the pianist embraces Schubert’s gift of mixing
Christopher Glynn writes in the sunlight and shadows.
booklet that accompanies this Christopher Cook
album, it makes the atmosphere PERFORMANCE +++
‘a notch less reverential’. RECORDING +++
BACKGROUND TO…
Delius’s A Mass of Life
This large work was something of a labour of
love for Delius. An obsession with the musings
of Nietzsche meant the philolsopher-poet’s
1883 novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra was the
perfect starting point for an ambitious secular
work, Delius turning to German conductor Fritz
Cassirer to compile only the most lyrical and
rapturous passages for him to set to music. This
he did, completing A Mass of Life in 1905. Though he previewed sections
of the work as early as 1899, it wasn’t until 1909 that Thomas Beecham
conducted the official premiere at London’s Queen’s Hall.
 Choral & Song Reviews

but I like to sing…
Songs by Wolf, Brahms,
Schubert, Parry, Bernstein et al
Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph
Middleton (piano)
BIS BIS-2673 (CD/SACD) 68:47 mins
Carolyn Sampson
has shifted from
an early music
specialist to one
of Britain’s finest
recital singers.
This latest album showcases her
radiant soprano in classic German
lieder, recherché French chansons
and 20th-century Americana.
The collection can feel
haphazard, but there’s a reason: it’s
highly personal. This is Sampson’s
100th recording as a named
soloist, so she’s allowed a little
self-indulgence. The album brings
together 22 songs that, as Sampson
explains in her booklet note, ‘reflect
some of the ways in which music
heightens our emotions, eases our
pain, deepens our love’.
Pianist Joseph Middleton has
become Sampson’s duo partner
of choice and their easy rapport
envelops you, whether in the
timeless stillness of Strauss’s
‘Morgen’, enhanced by Jack
Liebeck’s solo violin, or in the
effervescent rapture of Joseph
Marx’s ‘Nocturne’ with its virtuosic
piano writing bringing Middleton
to the fore.
Elsewhere, there are consummate
performances of old favourites
such as Schubert’s ‘An die Musik’,
the Bach/Gounod ‘Ave Maria’
and Mendelssohn’s ‘On Wings of
Song’, interspersed with less well-
known contemporary gems such
as Saariaho’s feverish, hypnotic
‘Parfum de l’instant’ and Deborah
Pritchard’s awestruck setting of
Siegfried Sassoon’s ‘Everyone Sang’.
The French songs lie at the heart
of the collection. Sampson and
Middleton revel in three beguiling
songs from Rita Strohl’s ‘Bilitis’
(1898), while Émile Paladilhe’s
gorgeous setting of Corneille’s
‘Psyché’ demonstrates why he was
an influential figure in late-19th-
GETTY, FLORIAN HUBER, MARCO BORGGREVE
LICHT – 800 Years of
German Lied
Works by Vogelweide, JS Bach,
Rihm, Mozart, Haydn, Eisler et al
Anna Lucia Richter (mezzo-soprano),
Ammiel Bushakevitz (piano)
Challenge Classics CC72965 73:44 mins
This is a sequence
of songs in
German ordered
as if a spectacle
of dawning
light from
the medieval ‘Dark Ages’ to the
Enlightenment and beyond. Our
guides here are the accomplished
mezzo-soprano from Cologne,
Anna Lucia Richter, and the South
African Ammiel Bushakevitz who
demonstrates his considerable
skills by accompanying the songs
successively on the hurdy-gurdy,
harpsichord, clavichord, fortepiano
and piano.
In the medieval song ‘Wer ist, die
da durchleuchtet’ by Oswald von
Wolkenstein (d1445) we are treated
to Richter’s impressive dramatic
style, though purists might be a
bit startled by the anachronistic
Monteverdian ‘trillo’ ornaments
at various points (she did release an
arresting Monteverdi recording in
2021). Mozart’s ‘Abendempfindung
an Laura’ (K523) looks simple on
the surface but is artfully through
composed, and Richter leads each
phrase into the next with subtle
vocal shading and seamless breath
control. In Schubert’s ‘Der Zwerg’
there is an exchange between a
dwarf and a Queen which she nicely
differentiates with her astute vocal
characterisations, though the hurt
felt by the dwarf (Schubert originally
called the song ‘Treubruch/Perfidy’)
could have attracted a little more
tenderness. The most famous of
Schubert’s ‘sunset’ pieces is ‘Im
Abendrot’, though here the unusual
stability of the home key calls not
only for tranquillity but also for a
tinge of hidden joy. Happily, the
often neglected lieder composer
Hugo Wolf is represented here by
his ‘Der Feuerreiter’ with its
spectacular accompaniment
Our Indifferent Century
Works by Britten, Finzi, William
Marsey, Joanna Ward
Francesca Chiejina (soprano),
Fleur Barron (mezzo-soprano),
Natalie Burch (piano)
Delphian DCD34311 64:33 mins
We begin with
Britten’s On this
Island. Chiejina’s
and Burch’s
compelling
performance is
richly mature and painstakingly
coloured. Despite occasional vocal
vulnerability, Chiejina’s luxuriant
voice always holds our attention.
William Marsey’s 2022
Removal and other powers flows
naturally from Britten, hypnotic
and unmoved, were it not for the
women’s compassionate voices. The
text, from an immigration bill, is
set in disconnected stretches, the
word ‘Home’ for instance (in Home
Secretary) echoing endlessly, the
final triumphant ‘Rights’ (from
Human Rights) resounding before a
closing tintinnabulation.
Finzi’s Before and after Summer
dates from the years surrounding
the Second World War. Barron’s
enunciation is pinpoint precise.
Her account of ‘Channel Firing’ is
heart-breaking, while ‘He Abjures
Love’ is turbulent and unsettling.
That said, the cycle loses focus (in
‘Amabel’, both Finzi and Hardy
lapse into silliness), and I would
have welcomed a smaller selection.
The opening of Joanna Ward’s
SUMMER DRESSES / STRANGER-
FRIENDS (bean piece 5) could be
more vocally tranquil, to match the
piano. This perfect counterpart to
Marsey is unnerving, hallucinatory
and exquisitely played, offering sun-
drenched shards of memory.
Burch evokes countless, varied
pictures and moods while always
supporting and balancing the
singers, despite many dense
textures. She is a gifted sound-
painter, breathing life into every
detail, such as the random fall of
leaves which opens ‘The Too Short
Time’. Together with clear texts,
fine recorded sound (despite the
occasional untidy edit) and Lucy
Walker’s eloquent liner notes,
this album is thought-provoking,
beautifully executed and timely.
Natasha Loges
RECORDING ++++
PERFORMANCE ++++
Lieding the way:
Anna Lucia Richter and
Ammiel Bushakevitz go
on an 800-year journey

century France. (adroitly handled). Also, Weill’s

The line ‘but I love to sing’ from ‘Berlin im Licht’ brings out Richter’s
Bernstein’s satirical ‘I Hate Music’ flair even for the brassy popular
gives the album its title. And sure style. For reference, the booklet has
enough, this celebration of song is some of the texts in German but
infused with heartfelt joy. there are no translations.
Ashutosh Khandekar Anthony Pryer
PERFORMANCE ++++ PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++ RECORDING ++++

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 83

Chamber
CHAMBER CHOICE

Sheer enjoyment in this Schumann set

The artistry on this all-star album makes for genuine pleasure, says Misha Donat

contrasting trio sections. Only

R Schumann
Piano Quartet; Piano Quintet*
Isabelle Faust (violin), *Anne
Katharina Schreiber (violin),
Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello),
Antoine Tamestit (viola), Alexander
Melnikov (piano)
Harmonia Mundi HMM902695
54:42 mins
Schumann composed his Piano
Quintet and Piano Quartet in quick
succession in
the late autumn The finale of the
of 1842, a year
in which he was
quartet is played with may
preoccupied with dazzling virtuosity but the lightness
chamber music.
The quartet has always lived in
the shadow of its more popular
companion, but in many ways it’s
a more subtle and original work.
Its themes are more flexible and
rhapsodic than the sometimes four-
square ideas in the quintet, and
they’re generally developed more
inventively and less repetitively.
The Scherzo is a highly original and
seamless piece in which fragments
invade the territory of both the
the somewhat sentimental slow
movement disappoints, but even here
Schumann conjures up a fascinating
idea for the closing moments, where
the cello, which has tuned its bottom
string down by a whole tone, sustains
a low octave while the remaining
players anticipate in slow motion the
main subject of the finale to come.
Hearing these pieces played
with such consummate artistry is a
genuine pleasure. The translucent
quality of the 1851 Pleyel piano
Alexander
Melnikov uses
take a bit of
getting used to,
of its tone enables
the string parts to come through
with exceptional clarity. The finale
of the quartet, with its fleeting
contrapuntal figure seeming to recall
the concluding fugue in Beethoven’s Translucent sound:
‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata, is played Alexander Melnikov’s
with dazzling virtuosity, but there’s piano has an appealing
lightness of tone
a real sense of enjoyment about the
music-making that makes itself felt
throughout these performances.
You can access thousands of reviews from our extensive archive on
PERFORMANCE +++++
the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
RECORDING +++++

Benjamin Attahir •
Debussy • Ravel
Debussy: String Quartet in G minor;
Benjamin Attahir: Al Asr;
Ravel: String Quartet in F major
Quatuor Arod
Erato 5419775230 78:18 mins
I find it hard to
decide which I
enjoyed more: the
performances of
the three works
or the DVD
providing background information
about the players and their attitude
to their task. The latter first. For
those of us who’ve never been part
of a professional quartet, the DVD
made by the wonderful Bruno
Monsaingeon is an eye-opener to
the labour, sensitivity, intelligence,
tact, humour, concentration and
self-awareness required to keep
everything alive and well. Before
every gig, they all lie on the floor
on their backs and meditate; and
from time to time they have sessions
with a psychotherapist – not just
anyone, but Novak Djokovic’s
psychotherapist. Another notable
marker of their professionalism is
the electrical gizmo invented by the
cellist, which is clipped on to their
stands and gives them feedback on
intonation: the example given was of
an E which, as the third in a C major
chord, was decided on as needing to
be infinitesimally flatter than in the
preceding E major chord. The close
recording may not be to everyone’s
taste, though I’m happy with it.
But the variety of colours and the
dynamic range from enchanting
delicacy to furious abandon offer
us both the Impressionist and more
modern aspects of the Debussy and
the Ravel, the wildness of Ravel’s
finale being breathtaking. The five-
movement piece Al Asr by Benjamin
Attahir, a French composer in
his mid-thirties, is a fine work,
very exciting and obeying Ravel’s
recipe for good form: ‘continuity of
interest’. The balance between long
ostinatos and freewheeling melodic
lines, using patterns from the music
of the Middle East, is kept with a
masterly hand. Roger Nichols
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING +++++
JS Bach
Bach Transcriptions –
Sonatas etc (transcribed for
Flute and harpsichord)
Julien Martin (flute),
Olivier Fortin (harpsichord)
Alpha Classics ALPHA939 69:22 mins
Amidst the
works by Johann
Sebastian
Bach which
utilise wind
instruments,
his music for the transverse flute
is revelatory and idiomatic for
players, and transformative for
listeners. The flute appears across
solo, chamber, choral and orchestral
works, traversing both the sacred

84 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


and the profane. In stark contrast,
Bach’s music for the type of flute we
now call the recorder lamentably
eschews the sonata genre. Seeking
to redress this situation through
the art of transcription are two
long-standing musical partners:
recorder-player Julien Martin and
harpsichordist Olivier Fortin. In
so doing, they present a selection
including sonatas for transverse
flute, violin and organ as well as
the D minor violin Chaconne, the
chorale prelude Nun komm der
Heiden Heiland and the C minor
Lute Suite. The duo are responsible
for all but one of the transcriptions.
Most successful are those tracks
where the transcription retains the
timbral world of the work’s earlier/
first incarnation. In the E major
Flute Sonata, BWV 1035 Julien
Martin uses tempo rubato stylishly
to inflect melodic lines. Bearing in
mind the fluidity with which Bach’s
music moved between genres and
across different performing media
in his own lifetime, the selection
here is a little uneven. A less
convincing offering is Nun komm
der Heiden Heiland for recorder
and harpsichord which fails to
capture the necessary gravitas and
solemn grandeur of this chorale
prelude. Similarly Pierre Gouin’s
transcription for solo harpsichord of
the famous violin Chaconne seems
unnecessary given the existing
richness of Bach’s keyboard music.
Ingrid Pearson
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING +++++
Beethoven
Violin Sonatas Nos 3, 7 & 8
Antje Weithaas (violin),
Dénes Várjon (piano)
CAvi-music AVI8553535 63:49 mins
A significant
point is made
in the liner note
to this album,
pertaining to
the fact that
part of these works’ originality
lay in their balance between the
instruments. Publishing an early
violin composition by Beethoven,
Artaria included the phrase ‘avec
un Violino ad libitum’, reflecting
JULIEN MIGNOT, BENJAMIN EALOVEGA
the then-conventional view that the
string part was dispensable. The
composer’s response, on seeing a
proof, was an irate instruction that
‘as the violin part is inseparably
connected with the pianoforte
part… this should be worded “avec
un Violon obligate”.’ In other words,
there should be parity of importance
between the instruments – as there
emphatically is in the scoring.
Antje Weithaas and Dénes Várjon
are releasing their complete set of
Beethoven’s violin sonatas in an
order which allows each album to
reflect the composer’s development,
hence the seemingly random order
here. The Allegro con spirito of the
Third Sonata – Op. 12 No 3 – is
permeated by a bounding optimism
which this pair nicely catch, and
they bring out the poetry of the
Adagio, darkening the piano’s
bass to let the violin sing out in
a ghostly manner.
The two Op. 30 works emerged
while Beethoven was wrestling with
his growing deafness – he wrote
his Heiligenstadt Testament a few
months later – and the temper of
the opening movement of Op. 30
No 2 is a testament of a different
kind – heroic and confident – which
these musicians handle nicely. But
their rendition of the tender Adagio
is ponderous, with the intricate
interlacing of the instruments
insufficiently smooth; and in the
Scherzo the piano sometimes almost
drowns the violin.
Is that the fault of the sound
recordist? The second movement
of the Eighth Sonata has more
than a touch of the same problem.
Here Weithaas and Várjon left me
wanting more than they gave – more
poise, colour and character; they
didn’t touch my heart. Afterwards I
went back to the historic recording
made by Yehudi Menuhin and Louis
Kentner in 1956, which possessed
all those qualities in abundance.
Michael Church
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING +++
Müller-Hartmann
String Quartet No. 2 etc
ARC Ensemble
Chandos CHAN20294 69:16 mins
The ARC
Ensemble’s
exploration of
chamber music
by 20th-century
composers that
were marginalised as a result of Nazi
persecution has certainly uncovered
some fascinating repertoire. This
latest release is no exception with
world-premiere recordings of works
by Robert Müller-Hartmann (1884–
1950), a German-born composer
based in Hamburg who left his
A musical melting pot: Ayanna Witter-Johnson and the LSO Percussion Ensemble
native country in 1937 to settle
permanently in England.
If Müller-Hartmann is
remembered at all these days,
it’s largely as a result of his
close association with Vaughan
Williams, rather than on the basis
of his reputation as a composer,
which in this country is frankly
non-existent. Yet in Germany, his
orchestral music was championed
by influential interpreters including
Richard Strauss and Carl Schuricht,
and he was widely admired as a
pedagogue, securing a prestigious
teaching position at the University
of Hamburg until his resignation in
1933 following Hitler’s rise to power.
Judging by the works featured
here, all of which were composed
prior to his emigration, Müller-
Hartmann pursued a largely
conservative style with little
reference to the more fashionable
modernisms of the 1920s and
1930s. The early Violin Sonata,
dedicated to Artur Schnabel, is
an attractive example of German
Late-Romanticism which in its
constantly fluctuating tempo
changes and emotive musical
language, seems in certain passages
to be surprisingly close to the
soundworld of César Franck. In
contrast, the highly effective Three
Intermezzi and Scherzo for solo piano
takes the late works of Brahms as its
starting point.
But the strongest and most
absorbing music comes in the
melodically appealing Sonata for
Two Violins and particularly in
the emotionally probing Second
Chamber Reviews
String Quartet. As always, the
ARC Ensemble’s committed
performances make the best
possible case for a re-evaluating this
neglected composer. Erik Levi
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Duo
Martinů: Cello Sonata No. 1;
Poulenc: Cello Sonata; Hindemith:
3 Pieces for Cello and Piano
Nuala McKenna (cello),
Robert Kulek (piano)
Cobra COBRA0090 65:17 mins
Paul Hindemith
famously wrote a
prolific number
of sonatas,
including for
instruments that
other composers seemingly forgot
(among them double bass, tuba
and alto horn), and of course he
composed several for cello. On this
new album from Nuala McKenna
and Robert Kulek, sonatas by
Martinů and Poulenc are followed
by a Hindemith work that isn’t
technically a sonata, the early
Three Pieces for Cello and Piano, yet
functions much like one in three
movements. Though he would
later disown most of his music
from the time of World War I,
Hindemith made an exception for
this 1917 work, and the arresting
performance here proves he was
right. McKenna and Kulek bring
crisp attack to the opening Capriccio
before finding lyricism in the
central Phantasiestück; the closing
Scherzo excitingly anticipates
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 85
Chamber Reviews
the abrasiveness of Hindemith’s
expressionist period.
Opening the recording, Martinů’s
Cello Sonata No. 1 (1939) receives
a reflective performance, with less
of the nervous energy that some
interpreters bring to it. This more
spacious-sounding approach not
only works well on its own terms but
recalls the style of Pierre Fournier,
the work’s dedicatee. The German-
Irish cellist’s notably warm, singing
tone draws the listener in right from
the start of the first movement.
Poulenc also wrote for Fournier
in his Cello Sonata, a postwar work
(1948) that may seem to lack (at
least in the opening movement)
the composer’s most distinctive
fingerprint. But there is nothing
anonymous about the dialogue
between McKenna and Kulek,
and by the time they reach the
beautiful Cavatine it’s clear that
they are delivering a compelling
performance. John Allison
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Fathers & Daughters
Works by Tchaikovsky, Kugel,
Scriabin, Fedorov, Zemtsov
Dana Zemtsov (viola), Mikhail
Zemtsov (viola), Anna Fedorova
(piano), Borys Fedorov (piano)
Channel Classics CCS44523 68:07 mins
This
imaginatively
planned and
vividly recorded
album celebrates
two strongly
connected musical dynasties in
the shape of the Fedorov family of
pianists and the Zemstov family
of violists. Bringing these hugely
talented musicians together results
in some exceptionally insightful
playing. Furthermore, the way
this enormously eclectic recital is
arranged has an immediacy that
replicates the kind of spontaneous
music-making that might well take
place in one of their homes.
The programme opens with
Borys Fedorov’s charmingly
nostalgic two-movement Amarcord,
Childhood Memories for viola and
piano which is followed by Yevgeny
Zemstov’s melancholic Melodie im
alten Stil for the same instrumental
combination. A beautifully played
Chopin Nocturne forms the perfect
musical hors d’oeuvre for the more
BERTIE WATSON
substantial First Viola Sonata
by Nikolai Roslavets, its highly
charged post-Romantic language
86 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Light and shade:
Solem Quartet impress
in commissioned works
owing much to the later works
of Scriabin.
Resourceful arrangements of
jazz-inflected, Jewish and Mexican
folk music for two violas precede
the rarely heard Scriabin Fantasy
in A minor for two pianos and
Glazunov’s Elegy for viola and piano.
Finally, all the instrumentalists
join forces to perform Zemstov’s
engaging Tango Suite which explores
many of the musical styles that
featured earlier in the recital.
Given the outstanding nature
of the performances, it’s perhaps
a little frustrating that with
the obvious exception of the
Chopin, the programme contains
no unassailable masterpieces.
Hopefully the sheer quality of
ensemble that Borys Fedorov and
Anna Fedorova achieve in the
Scriabin Fantasy might persuade
Channel Classics to record them in
some of the high points of the piano
duo repertoire, such as the Mozart
Sonata for Two Pianos or Debussy’s
En blanc et noir. Erik Levi
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING +++++
Ocean Floor
Works by Ayanna Witter-
Johnson and Gwilym Simcock
LSO Percussion Ensemble
LSO Live LSO5122 51:02 mins
Percussionists are
arguably the most
well-rounded
of all musicians
with their
feet in several
musical camps – they have to
be; it’s almost impossible to be a
working player without knowledge,
chops and experience in several
genres – and this album underlines
their versatility. The LSO players
have a multitude of genres at their
fingertips, and this collaboration
with composer, cellist and vocalist
Ayanna Witter-Johnson brings out
these qualities, together with the
classy pianistic and compositional
touch of Gwilym Simcock.
Witter-Johnson’s album Ocean
Floor could broadly be described
as ‘jazz’ but draws on all paths
leading to that; African, soul,
funk and spiritual. She has a
way of accompanying herself
that is both strongly rhythmical
and understated; there are
sometimes pizzicato, obviously
bass line grooves and other times
bowed countermelodies with
bouncing percussive interjections.
Underneath all of this the mix
of marimba, vibraphone, piano
and unpitched percussion is
simultaneously understated and
energetic with magical touches of
ocean drum, talking drum and
caxixi (small basket-like shakers
with flat bottoms).
Despite clear references to
West-African grooves – most
notably in Forever – perhaps the
most honestly prayerful of the
album’s pieces is Chariot – a gospel
tune with Witter-Johnson’s voice
reminiscent of a sunny Motown
mood, warm harmonies and tasteful
accompaniment by Simcock.
There is however a huge amount of
integrity in all the pieces and this
one, along with Falling made this
reviewer’s eyes water.
This is an immersive dip into the
histories of Africa, The Caribbean,
the ocean and the musicianship of
some top-class performers.
Anne Templer
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Painted Light
Works by L Boulanger, Edmund
Finnis, Camden Reeves, Ayanna
Witter-Johnson et al
Solem Quartet et al
Delphian DCD34308 57:39 mins
The title suggests
a link between
music and light,
but applies to
only some of the
pieces. Edmund
Finnis’s Quartet No. 3 is a spacious
work in eight short movements, and
the subtitle ‘Devotions’ defines its
character. Much is slow, and even
when there is rhythmic activity, it
doesn’t affect the stately harmonic
progress, tonally based, with a
quasi-religious feeling and echoes of
plainsong. It was commissioned by
the Solem Quartet, who completely
inhabit the idiom.
Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne, better
known for violin and piano, works
well for string quartet, although the
link between early- 20th-century
French music and Impressionist
painting, now baked into musical
discourse, is a convenient fiction.
Henriëtte Bosmans gives us the
first fast music of the album in the
outer movements of her 1927 String
Quartet, where there is more sinew
in the writing and the playing.
‘The Blue Windows’ by Camden
Reeves, another Solem commission,
is most definitely visually inspired
– by Chagall’s stained-glass America
Windows. It may be slow, but it
couldn’t be more of a contrast with
the Finnis: textures are more sparse,
there’s far greater use of silence to
punctuate phrases and tonality is
more fractured. Again, the patient
pacing of the performance produces
something of real power.
Silences also have a place in
Ayanna Witter-Johnson’s Earth,
where her words and music use
rests to inflect her vocals. Finally,
an arrangement of Joni Mitchell’s
‘Both Sides Now’ takes the song
into regions which compromise
its simplicity, but it’s very
sympathetically performed.
Martin Cotton
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING +++++
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Instrumental
INSTRUMENTAL CHOICE

Grace and flavour in this fine Goyescas

Pianist Javier Perianes elicits charm, control and elegance, says Michael Church

tonadilla, the theatrical jacara and

fandango dances and Valencian folk Granados grandeur:
song. And in this deeply pondered Javier Perianes
Granados account, Javier Perianes catches the plays with delicacy
Goyescas, Op. 11 flavour of all these modes. and dynamism
Javier Perianes (piano) He brings grace and elegance to
Harmonia Mundi HMM902626 the opening number ‘Los requiebros’
64:56 mins (The Compliments). This is followed
With Goyescas, Granados hoped to by a delicately shaded ‘Coloquio en
help create a new form of Spanish la reja’, a persuasive conversation in
art music, and the work did just that. which his characters seem to have all
Claire Fraysse’s liner note to this the time in the world to achieve their
superb album helpfully expands sensual goal. Perianes lets several of
the context, explaining how Goya’s the numbers start with a slow burn,
paintings inspired and he gives plenty
the composer. The Perianes gives plenty of space in which
majos and majas the ornamentation
were young people
of space for the can flower. His fine
from working- ornaments to flower control of dynamics
class districts of allows him to
late- 18th-century Madrid, ‘whose simultaneously suggest both intimacy
principal attributes were their elegant and distant perspectives. And the
garb, courteous manners, provocative dainty musical portrait he creates of
charm, and romantic ardour’. El pelele (The Straw Manikin) has all
When these modes and manners the charm of the painted rustic scene.
also became adopted by the upper He’s quoted as saying he felt nervous
classes, majismo became a marker for about invading the territory of his
national identity. great compatriot Alicia de Larrocha,
Granados’s palette ranges from but this recording shows he needn’t
the punteo guitar effect to echoes of have worried.
You can access thousands of reviews from our extensive archive on
Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas, and the PERFORMANCE +++++
the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
styles he employs include the satirical RECORDING +++++

JS Bach
Cello Suites Nos 3 & 4
Sonia Wieder-Atherton (cello)
Alpha Classics ALPHA1009
56:33 mins
Bach’s six years
as director of
music at Prince
Leopold’s court at
Cöthen between
1717 and 1723 saw
him produce some of the Baroque
era’s finest instrumental music.
In the case of the Suites for solo
cello – along with the Sonatas and
Partitas for solo violin – these works
remain at the heart of the repertoire
three hundred years later. The
outward form of the cello suites –
with the familiar French dances
each introduced by a Prélude – is
conventional enough, but within
these confines Bach explored a
range of sonority demanding a
technical expertise and expressive
understanding that has challenged
the finest soloists from all over the
world for nearly a century.
According to her accompanying
note, Sonia Wieder-Atherton’s
approach to these works is shaped
by visual stimuli: the tactile
qualities of Giacometti’s sculpture
and the meditative photography of
Sarah Moon. In the Préludes the
result is broadly expansive, which
suits the preparatory function of
their opening gestures, but later
undermines their sense of direction.
The succeeding dances have more
poise and a much stronger feeling
for line. The Bourrée of the C major
suite and the concluding Gigue
of the E flat suite are delightful,
and the Sarabandes in both are
elegant and richly expressive. The
resonant acoustic of the refectory
of Noirlac Abbey where the
performance took place is faithfully
captured on the recording and
certainly adds atmosphere, but it
also obscures some of the detail
in faster movements. While these
highly personal performances have
much to offer, their occasionally
portentous tendencies will not suit
every listener.
Jan Smaczny
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING +++
Chopin • Rachmaninov
Chopin: Piano Sonatas Nos 2 &
3; Rachmaninov: Variations on a
Theme of Chopin
Peter Donohoe (piano)
SOMM Recordings SOMMCD0679
81:35 mins
Death stalks
Chopin in this
recital. It’s in the
funereal chords,
unyielding as
gravestones,
of the Prelude in C minor, which
opens Rachmaninov’s Variations
on a Theme of Chopin. Through
the tolling rhythms and heavy
tread of the ‘Marche funèbre’ and
the whirling-chill of the Finale of

88 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


the Second Piano Sonata, Peter
Donohoe taps into darkness with
playing that’s full of passion, in a
programme that brings together
three Romantic masterpieces.
Fate was never far from
Rachmaninov’s thoughts, so perhaps
it’s no surprise that he found kinship
with the Polish composer – and
after he’d finished his Second Piano
Concerto, he embarked on writing
his 22 variations on that C minor
Prelude. They evolve so naturally
that it feels as if Rachmaninov could
have written the theme himself –
perhaps it takes one genius, exiled
pianist to know another.
Throughout, Donohoe’s approach
has a robust honesty and an
appealing straightforward feel,
with an instinct for the emotional
rises and falls. Perhaps, though,
there could have been a greater
emphasis on the bel canto line, those
uncomplicated singing melodies.
Yet the two Chopin Sonatas
pour out with impassioned energy,
particularly the wild Second, written
after the composer was on the cusp
of death thanks to tuberculosis and
a bone-chilling winter in Mallorca.
The Third Sonata is less radical,
but nonetheless full of riches – and
Donohoe is alert to its myriad
moods. Rebecca Franks
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Büşra Kayıkçı
Places
Büşra Kayıkçı (piano)
Warner Classics 5419776288 44:38 mins
Büşra Kayıkçı
channels Goethe’s
assertion that
‘music is liquid
architecture;
architecture is
frozen music’: having trained as
an interior architect, the Turkish
pianist-composer says that she
approaches a score in the same
way as a building. In Places, some
of the rooms have an Escher-like
quality; many of the solo piano
pieces undulate without an obvious
destination. Unrooted, as the title
suggests, evokes a circling journey,
with repeated rippling piano motifs
and a subtle walking bass. Into
the Woods shimmers, the layered
melodies and looping electronic
ŞEYMA TUNA, IGOR STUDIO
effects simple but neatly deployed.
Some of the locations on the album,
Kayıkçı’s second solo release
following on from Eskizler (2019),
are less figurative. ...Nowhere has a
plaintive feel, its harmonic palette
bringing a Middle Eastern flavour to
the now-ubiquitous pop-minimalist
piano genre.
Like previous pianist-composers
working in what is sometimes called
‘post-classical’ music, Kayıkçı
uses well-trodden prepared piano
techniques to adapt the keyboard’s
timbre. The piano hammers are
padded to create gently abstract
tones (gaining a cult following
through Nils Frahm’s 2011 album
Felt) and strategic mic placement
captures sounds that would usually
be undesirable on a solo piano
recording – creaks, squeaks and
pedal displacement are all part of the
charm (Quba; L’inno). This Cageian
approach runs in the same vein as
Stephan Moccio (Tales of Solace,
2020), a trend that was consolidated
during lockdowns when artists
were forced to self-record. There’s
not much to distinguish Kayıkçı
from Einaudi, Joep Beving, Yiruma
et al – except one thing: Places is
released via Warner Classics rather
than a Universal imprint, suggesting
the label is hoping for a bite of the
meditative-piano apple.
Claire Jackson
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING ++++
Felix Mendelssohn
Piano Rarities – Songs Without
Words; Early Sonatas
Christopher Williams (piano)
Naxos 8.574509 75:19 mins
There seems
to be no limit
to the Felix
Mendelssohn
discoveries that
are still coming
to light and enjoying their first
publication nearly 215 years after
his birth. Composing prolifically
from childhood onwards, he was
a tremendous perfectionist and
carefully selected the works he
wished to publish, often reworking
them obsessively time and again.
This means two things: first, plenty
was not issued and so is ripe for
discovery; but secondly, there’s a
good chance that he had left it in
manuscript for a good reason and it
may not take a form that he would
actually have allowed to go to print,
given the chance.
Having said that, there’s no such
thing as too much Mendelssohn.
Everything can tell us something
about him that we still need to know
– especially given the accumulation
Instrumental Reviews
of myth and slander that still blight
his reputation even today – and this
collection of little-known piano
works is no exception. His driven
personality and bubbling creativity
emerges in pieces like Wie die Zeit
läuft! (How time flies), with its
endless and tireless passagework;
his love of Beethoven’s early sonatas
is clear in both his own that open
the album, written when he was 11
(and before Beethoven had written
his late sonatas); and many pieces
show his penchant for twinkling
dexterity, clear harmonies, skilful
counterpoint and, often, a good tune.
The collection will be of most
interest to aficionados; the pieces
are not exactly on a par with the
Violin Concerto, and do not offer
miraculous revelations. But praise to
Christopher Williams for pursuing
this worthwhile project and
generally playing it very well. There
can’t have been many teenaged
composers who made life quite so
difficult for their pianists.
Jessica Duchen
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING ++++
Rachmaninov
Rachmaninov Reflections
– Symphonic Dances (arr.
Barnatan); Moments musicaux;
14 Romances – No. 16;
Preludes – No. 12
Inon Barnatan (piano)
Penatone PTC 5187 113 73:07 mins
Well prepared piano:
Büşra Kayıkçı takes
us to meditative and
minimalist places
The inspiration
behind Inon
Barnatan’s
contribution to
the Rachmaninov
anniversary year
lies in a chance encounter with a
bootleg recording of the composer’s
piano playthrough of his Symphonic
Dances to Eugene Ormandy.
(Ormandy duly conducted the
premiere shortly afterwards in
January 1941). Garlanded with a
running commentary and various
illustrative vocal interjections,
it enshrines Rachmaninov’s
thoughts about how his orchestral
swansong should ‘go’; and,
intrigued, Barnatan resolved to
make his own transcription of Op.
45 for solo piano to complement
Rachmaninov’s two-piano version.
The result is largely persuasive
even if corralling an opulent
orchestral score (including an alto
saxophone) presents formidable
challenges. Although its soundworld
is somewhat lost in translation,
Rachmaninov’s compositional
processes are laid bare with
unflinching clarity, and as a
performer Barnatan’s fundamentally
intellectual approach probes them
with fascinated scrutiny.
The crisp articulation at the outset
engorges into thunderous, though
tightly controlled, plenitude without
allowing Rachmaninov’s thematic
obsessiveness to overpower. And the
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 89
Instrumental Reviews
wistful second main idea is imbued
with a luminous soulfulness that
never trespasses into mawkishness.
The tempo di valse middle
movement, however, is sometimes
a little po-faced, but Barnatan’s
incisiveness ensures that the finale
is despatched with trenchant
(sometimes tintinnabulatory) élan.
Offsetting Barnatan’s own
transcription of the evergreen
Vocalise and the G sharp minor
Prelude from the Op. 32 set is
something from Rachmaninov’s
youth: the Moments musicaux, Op.
16. There’s perhaps more poetic
light and shade in Steven Osborne’s
2022 release on Hyperion, but
if the Chopinesque tempest of
No. 4 sounds a little muted, the
rustling fretfulness of No. 2 and the
measured gravitas of No 3 prevail;
while No. 6’s ‘Moment’ signs off with
a magisterial firestorm. Paul Riley
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
French Music
for Two Pianos
Works by Poulenc, Debussy
and Milhaud
Charles Owen,
Katya Apekisheva (piano)
Orchid Classics ORC100270 70:41 mins
Two pianos and
an album of two
parts. The three
composers here
may be French,
but Poulenc
and Milhaud inhabited a different
musical world from their older
countryman Debussy. Moreover,
whereas the younger composers’
works were written specifically
for piano duo, Debussy’s Three
Nocturnes are in Ravel’s bravura
arrangement, the latter’s superior
ability to create orchestral colour
from piano originals also working in
the opposite direction.
Charles Owen and Katya
Apekisheva have plenty of spirit
to their playing, whether in the
quirkiness of Poulenc’s Capriccio
or sublimities of his Sonata for Two
Pianos. The latter has a magical hush
to the conclusion of the Andantino
lyrico and gorgeous moment of calm
in the final Epilogue. A breezy jollity
pervades Milhaud’s Scaramouche,
even if it lacks the swift precision
of the Labèque sisters’ version.
The outer movements of Poulenc’s
KAT NOCKELS
head-banging, youthful four-hand
Sonata have plenty of vim. More
questionable, though, is Owen
90 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
and Apekisheva’s tempering of
the cockiness in the otherwise
restrained middle movement.
Pianos are notoriously
challenging instruments to record.
The poetic moments are captured
here with alluring warmth, but
some livelier moments, such as the
outer movements of Scaramouche,
are hard-edged. Similarly, while
Poulenc’s L’embarquement pour
Cythère has an appropriately
insouciant charm, there is a
brittleness to the decorating chirrups
and a glassy stridency to the sudden
exclamation at the end of the Élégie.
There are no such concerns with
Debussy’s Nocturnes, which also
finds Owen and Apekisheva at
their best. ‘Nuages’ is appropriately
languid, the central ‘Fêtes’ has
a driving exuberance, and the
murmuring, floating textures
of ‘Sirènes’ make an evocatively
seductive conclusion to the album.
Christopher Dingle
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING +++
Letter(s) to Erik Satie
Works by Cage and Satie
Bertrand Chamayou (piano)
Erato 5419769644 70:43 mins
It seemed
inevitable
that Bertrand
Chamayou
would be drawn
to the twin,
enigmatic worlds of arguably the
most significant precursors of
present-day experimentalism. Yet
Beat poet:
Pat Posey shares
the sound of the
remarkable Tubax
the French pianist has only recently
come round to Satie, initially
merely charmed by the composer’s
trademark haunting softness,
and suspicious of a ‘popular
infatuation with certain pieces’. Real
interest was only prompted when
Chamayou discovered Cage’s later
artistic identification with Satie,
leading to this dual celebratory
recording of solo works.
Those popular certain pieces – the
Trois Gymnopédies and, to a lesser
extent, Gnossiennes 1-7 – are duly
included. But their placement is
particular, largely scattered among
less familiar Satie miniatures,
and framed by Cage works often
composed in direct homage to Satie.
The result is not so much a viewing
of Satie though a Cageian lens,
but a viewing of the two through
the distinctive, brilliant lens of a
sensitive pianist, newly converted.
The opening piece is only
circumstantially attributed to Cage,
but formed Chamayou’s immediate
prompt. All Sides of the Small Stone,
for Erik Satie and (Secretly Given to
Jim Tenney as a Koan) was discovered
in 2016 inside a score by James
Tenney – the Cage mentoree whose
ear-tickling 3 Pages in the Shape of
a Pear (in celebration of Erik Satie)
makes a fleeting guest appearance.
Between them, ahead of Cage’s
final, elusive Dream, Chamayou
also performs selections from Satie’s
piano cycle Sports et Divertissements
and more – each rendered with
elegant nuance and occasionally
forthright, dramatic splashes.
These have a more natural recorded
resonance while much of the Cage
is lent a reverberating halo, imbuing
A Room, Swinging and especially In
a Landscape with an otherworldly
intensity. Steph Power
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
they/beast
Works by JS Bach, Philip Glass,
Shelley Washington, Pat Posey
Pat Posey (tubax)
Avie AV2638 68:55 mins
The beast in
they/beast is the
tubax, a modified
contrabass
saxophone
developed
by German maker Benedikt
Eppelsheim that has been
around since the early 2000s.
Pat Posey has played the tubax
on various recordings (including
the soundtrack to the 2023 film
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts);
this is the debut solo album for both
instrument and instrumentalist.
The growling, guttural timbre and
harmonic overtones are perfectly
showcased in Mo’ingus, the 2019
piece by Shelley Washington.
Deep bass notes splinter, a groove
fractures; the upper register flutters
its eyelashes, broken by a climatic
vocalisation. Posey displays
colossal lung power and technique
– presumably self-developed, given
the newness of the tubax.
Almost everything here takes the
listener into unchartered territory:
the instrument appears well suited
to multiphonics, including the more
dissonant spectral multiphonics
that are produced when notes
drawn from one overtone series are
sounded simultaneously (the tubax
behaves more like a clarinet than
saxophone in this aspect). These
are central to Hymn, the fiendishly
virtuosic 2021/22 piece by Posey.
It’s rather like hearing Liszt play
his early pyrotechnic works for
the then newly invented piano – a
dazzling, unsettling spectacle by
a musician pushing the creative
envelope. More familiar is Philip
Glass’s 1995 Melodies for Saxophone:
on the tubax, the compact, varied
micro-series are spoonfuls of
chocolate mousse. It’s perhaps too
rich for Bach’s Suite No. 3 in C, which
is virtually unrecognisable in this
transcription. Claire Jackson
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Jazz
Barry Witherden’s selection this month takes in the genre’s many eclectic facets
January round-up
JAZZ CHOICE Jazz has almost always been a
broad church and Get the Blessing
One hot night of be-bop have been contributing to it since
1999. Like many
others during the
This 1953 live recording features a quintet of pandemic, the
band was forced
jazz titans in a fiery gig you’ll want to relive into new working
methods, and
Pallett grew out of improvisations
Audacious playing:
Charlie Parker was
between bassist Jim Barr, trumpeter
on memorable form Pete Judge and saxophonist Jake
McMurchie, recordings of which
were sent to Clive Deamer to add
the drum parts. The album that
emerged has a foundation of cyclical
riffs over which float beguiling
ethereal melodies, with fine work
from McMurchie. Somewhat
unusually these days none of the
tracks outstays its welcome: indeed,
I think most of them could support
more extended versions. (All Is Yes
AIY 002) ++++
Tomos Williams’s Riot! Suite
is prefaced by Eädyth Crawford’s
hauntingly beautiful performance
of the Welsh folk-tune ‘Aderyn
Du’ (Blackbird) but things soon get
agitated, unsurprisingly given the
subject matter: this second episode
of Williams’s project dealing with
Welsh culture commemorates
Hot House –The Complete riots and unrest including the
Jazz at Massey Hall Recordings Merthyr Rising (1831) the Cardiff
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Race Riots of 1919 and protests over
Max Roach, and Bud Powell the 1952 killing
Craft Recordings 7253076 (1953 live recording) of Mahmood
115:31 mins (2 discs) Mattan,
With a one-off line-up of four be-bop spotlighting
founders and a bass player soon to become racial prejudice
one of the greatest composer/band-leaders in jazz history this and injustice
release, presenting every performance from a legendary concert, in Welsh history. Alongside
(including those by the Powell, Mingus and Roach trio) had to be the Crawford’s soulful vocals there
lead Choice this month. is passionate playing, especially
The evening seemed destined to be a disaster: only a third of from saxophonist Soweto Kinch
the tickets were sold because the concert coincided with a world and Orphy Robinson (vibes), both
heavyweight boxing clash. Gillespie kept leaving the stage to check of whom have addressed parallel
on the fight’s progress. Parker had pawned his sax and borrowed issues in their own projects. (Ty
a plastic one. Powell was suffering mental health issues, was Cerdd TCR043) +++++
evidently under the influence of illicit substances and seemed to be in It says ‘eclectic’ on the tin
argumentative mood. Despite, or because of, these issues the music and it doesn’t lie. Bars Without
really caught fire, presenting be-bop at its peak. In particular Parker Measures by Eclectic Maybe Band
and Gillespie, close friends and intense rivals, goad each other into covers plenty of stylistic territory.
ever-increasing audacity. Instigator Guy Segers aimed to bring
Mingus taped the concert on his own recorder but somehow his together musicians he had long
playing was not captured. He subsequently dubbed in the bass lines. admired and others that he feels
This release includes all the tracks from that night both with and deserve a push, hoping listeners
GETTY
without Mingus’s overdubs. +++++ will discover someone new to them.
92 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Job done. Using a methodology not
uncommon since the pandemic,
Segers assembled
studio recordings
and real-time
improvisations
by individual
players to create
the finished pieces. The mood is
often dark but the effective use of
sonic and emotional crescendos
prevents the music from becoming
depressing or overbearing. (Discus
159CD) ++++
Trumpeter Ambrose
Akinmusire says of Owl Song, ‘This
is my reaction to being assaulted by
information … wanting to create a
safe space.’ I know the feeling. I’m
also with him in his affinity for
owls, though he stresses that his
chosen titles were placeholders that
stuck: the main inspiration was the
musical character of trio colleagues
Bill Frisell and
Herlin Riley.
As you might
expect from
this line-up, the
music is generally
restrained, controlled and
emotionally low-key but certainly
never devoid of feeling, and there
are passages where it somehow
manages to be simultaneously
sensuous and austere. (Nonesuch
7559790185) ++++
Where the Branches Begin
by the David Duffy Quartet
abounds with elements recalling
minimalism, African rhythms and
Eastern sonorities with even (perish
the thought) slight hints of prog-
rock. Whichever label you burden it
with (and jazz seems as appropriate
as any) it’s a
thoroughly
captivating
set with much
sensitive
playing, not
least from pianist Marc Martin
and saxophonist Emil Nerstrand.
Duffy’s background is in electronic
and digital art but the inspiration
for these compositions came from
various healing therapies and I’d
say he’s passed some of the benefits
on to the listener. (Jazzville Records
Jazzv004CD) ++++
 WHO
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Brief notes
This month’s selection has myths, tales, tango and a double dose of Mozart
Andy Akiho Sculptures
Andy Akiho; Omaha Symphony
Aki Rhythm Productions ARP-R2004
Akiho responds
to nine pieces of
oversize sculpture
by Jun Kaneko and
in many instances
plays the artworks percussively.
The results are striking, though the
handful of live orchestral recordings
are sometimes a little overbearing.
The vital visual element is obviously
missing, but Bronze I and Cylinders
rather captivate. (MB) ++++
Beethoven
String Quartets, Opp 74 & 130
Chiaroscuro Quartet BIS BIS-2668
The Chiaroscuro
Quartet continues
its journey through
Beethoven’s quartets
in two masterpieces
from the composer’s middle and
later periods. The group’s hallmark
delicacy, poise and attention to
minute detail are there in spades,
with all the range and inventiveness
one could wish for. But occasionally
I miss a gutsier sound in the more
passionate passages. (CS) ++++
94 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Richard Blackford
Clarissa’s Tango
Clarissa Bevilacqua (violin), Thomas
Hoppe (piano) Nimbus NI1580 (single)
You can tell Richard
Blackford got a kick
out of writing this,
imbuing it with so
much of what makes
a classic Tango set the heart ablaze.
Whether it is particularly distinct
from any other of its ilk is besides
the point when the playing is this
good. This teasingly short, but very
spirited, single leaves you wanting
more. (MB) +++
Copland • Creston • Kay • Piston
The Tender Land Suite etc
National Orchestral Institute Phil/
JoAnn Falletta Naxos 8.559911
A mixed orchestral
bag, but none the
worse for that. As
well as echt Copland
in The Tender Land,
we get glimpses of, say, Prokofiev
and Khachaturian in Piston’s The
Incredible Flutist. The premiere
recording of Paul Creston’s lively
Saxophone Concerto may well be
the highlight for some. (JP) ++++
Art music:
Andy Akiho plays
on artworks by Jun
Kaneko in Sculptures
Philip Glass
Signature – Works arr. strings
Angèle Dubeau (violin); La Pietà
Analekta AN28755
This is a wide-
ranging portrait
of Glass, spanning
decades and taking
in music written for
theatre, the concert hall and film.
Dubeau’s personally curated playlist
is performed with her usual flair
and artistic integrity, every note
adorned with obvious love for the
music. Highlights include a suite
from the Candyman film score.
(MB) ++++
J Kuusisto Symphony, Op. 39 etc
Helsinki Symphony Orchestra/Pekka
Kuusisto BIS BIS-2747
Jaakko Kuusisto’s
impactful two-
movement
symphony was
poignantly
completed by his brother Pekka
(with Jari Eskola) after Jaakko’s
death in 2022. Fragmentary in
nature, it is filled with echoes and
memories, punctuated by moments
of despair and beauty. Its pairing
with the longer Birthday Variations
for M.C.B. by various composers for
conductor Martyn Brabbins’s 60th
birthday feels incongruous. Sibelius
would have sat better. (MB) +++
Mozart
Piano Concertos Nos 20 & 23
Charles Richard-Hamelin; Les Violins
du Roy/Jonathan Cohen
Analekta AN29026
This second Mozart
collaboration
between Charles
Richard-Hamelin
and Les Violons du
Roy is a thoroughly joyful listen.
The soloist is elegant in two of the
composer’s best-loved concertos.
His delicate touch draws out a
golden, bell-like resonance that
contrasts beautifully with the
chamber strings, whose period bows
ensure the texture is never too rich
or Romantic. (CS) +++++
Mozart Requiem; Ave verum
corpus; Exsultate, jubilate
Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne/John
Nelson et al ICA Classics ICAC5175
Recordings of
Mozart’s Requiem
are hardly in short
supply, but this live
version is a welcome
addition, featuring a gloriously full-
voiced choir, top-tier soloists and
crisp orchestral articulation that
contrasts well with the otherwise
resonant sound. The real highlight,
though, is the Ave Verum Corpus,
sung with warmth, subtlety and
aching beauty. (CS) ++++
Schumann
Missa sacra in C minor etc
Swedish Radio Choir/Kaspars Putniņš
BIS BIS-2697
Schumann’s choral
music tends to get
overlooked which,
as these elegant
performances amply
demonstrate, is something of a
pity. Accompanied by organ, the
Missa sacra is by and large a work
of gentle restraint, lit up by a central
Offertorium for solo soprano.
The unaccompanied Four Songs
for Double Choir, meanwhile, are
simply delightful. (JP) ++++

1883
Works by Fauré, R Strauss, Grieg
Christoph Croisé (cello), Oxana
Shevchenko (piano) Avie AV2632
1883 was a good year
for the cello, as this
clever concept album
highlights. The Grieg
and Strauss sonatas,
plus Fauré’s evergreen Élégie, each
draw upon the instrument’s capacity
for pensiveness and passion, and
Croisé is an accomplished advocate.
But there is sometimes a muted
quality to his tone, which prevents
his instrument from truly singing.
(CS) +++
Classical Tranquillity Works by
Satie, Delius, Ravel et al
Manchester Camerata/John Rutter
Collegium CSCDS402
You can’t really fault
an album called
Classical Tranquillity
for doing exactly
what it says on the
tin. However, aside from being
put at ease, there’s not a great deal
for the avid listener to latch onto
here – except, perhaps, the fine
craftmanship of John Rutter’s
orchestral arrangements. (JP) +++
Double Bass Rhapsody
Works by JS Bach, Bruckner et al
Dominik Wagner (double bass) et al
Berlin Classics 0302932BC
Performing Bach’s
Cello Suites on the
double bass has been
done before, but here
Dominik Wagner
goes a step further in self-penned
arrangements ranging from Barber’s
Composer portrait:
Angèle Dubeau
celebrates Glass
AESTHETICIZE MEDIA, ANDY STAPLES, LUC ROBITAILLE
Adagio for Strings and Bach’s
Chaconne to Queen’s ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’. The bass quartet tracks
are sometimes an intense listen,
but Johan Strindberg’s take on ‘The
Final Countdown’ is a delight.
(CS) +++
Fairy Tales Works by Ole Bull,
Halvorsen, Kreisler et al
Elena Toponogova (piano), Elisabeth
Turmo (violin; hardanger fiddle)
Quartz QTZ2157
There’s a captivating
earthiness to
Elisabeth Turmo’s
playing, and a
satisfying sense of
abandon in the folk-infused tunes
of Ole Bull and Halvorsen. But
she’s equally compelling in works
by Kreisler and Zimbalist, moving
effortlessly from lyricism to fiery
passion. Pianist Elena Toponogova
is a good match, and her solo
Medtner Fairytale provides a poetic
interlude. (CS) ++++
Haven Works by Byrd, Monte, Ola
Gjeilo, Polevá et al
Apollo5 VOCES8 Records VCM151
Immaculately sung
one-to-a-part, the
movements of Byrd’s
Mass for Five Voices
are interwoven with
works by other composers ranging
from Byrd’s contemporary Monte
to the likes of Undine Smith Moore
and Ola Gjeilo from more recent
times. Everything here is faultless,
from the perfectly balanced pace
and imaginative choice of repertoire
to Apollo5’s exceptional cohesion
and effortless style. (JP) +++++
Music old and new:
Apollo5 are as impressive
as ever in Haven
Idylle Works by Hahn, Debussy,
Satie, M-A Charpentier et al
Lea Desandre (mezzo-soprano),
Thomas Dunford (lute)
Erato 5419775146
Desandre and
Dunford enjoy
more than a musical
partnership, and
they share their love
for each other and French song in
this rather enticing selection. You’d
think items written 300 years
apart wouldn’t sit so well together,
but through Desandre’s gorgeous
vocalism and Dunford’s expressive
playing, connectivity is more than
achieved. Too many highlights.
(MB) +++++
A Most Marvellous Party
Works by Noel Coward et al
Mary Bevan (soprano), Nicky Spence
(tenor), Joseph Middleton (piano)
Signum Classics SIGCD737
Trotting out the
obvious line that the
three performers
are having great
fun at this party
would be to sell this album short –
though they clearly are. Ambling
easily between English and French
in composers from Coward to
Poulenc, Bevan and Spence bring a
supreme lightness of touch without
descending into irritating tweeness,
all superbly accompanied by Joseph
Middleton. (JP) +++++
Brief notes Reviews
Myths Contested Works by
JS Bach and Trevor Weston
Washington Bach Consort
Acis Productions APL53752
It’s a long time since
we’ve heard from
this US ensemble,
so Myths Contested
is a welcome return.
Starting as they mean to go on,
soloists and ensemble go for Bach’s
The Contest between Phoebus and
Pan with much abandon, while
Trevor Weston’s A New Song sits
comfortably alongside in its period-
instrument skin and rather sober
delivery. (MB) +++
Overture! Works by Gershwin,
Verdi, Borodin et al
The Philharmonic Brass/
Tugan Sokhiev Decca 485 4171
Featuring the cream
of the Vienna and
Berlin Philharmonic
brass sections, The
Philharmonic Brass
hits the ground running in its debut
recording. The overtures in question
vary in style from the graceful lines
of Verdi’s The Force of Destiny to the
Caribbean party that is Gershwin’s
Cuban Overture, all presented in
deft arrangements and stylishly
performed. In all, it’s a very likeable
album. (JP) ++++
Reviewers: Michael Beek (MB),
Jeremy Pound (JP), Charlotte Smith (CS),
Steve Wright (SW)
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 95
Books
Our critics cast their eyes over the latest selection of books on all things music
Music of Exile
Michael Haas
Yale 400pp (hb) £25
This hugely important book
explores the vast array of musical
talent from
Central Europe
that was forced
into exile after
Hitler came to
power in 1933.
Inevitably,
much of its focus
centres around
the experience that émigré
composers faced in the United
States and in Great Britian. But
Michael Haas casts his net much
wider, highlighting the stories of
those musicians who relocated to
completely unexpected parts of the
globe such as New Zealand, China
and South America.
Whether he is dealing with a
relatively familiar composer, such
as Kurt Weill or Erich Wolfgang
Korngold, or someone, such as
Richard Fuchs or Hans Winterberg
who for the most part have been
overlooked, Haas approaches each
case study with fair-mindedness,
insight and perspicacity. Given the
vast amount of information at his
disposal, it would have been all too
easy to present us with a series of
disconnected biographical studies.
But Haas’s cogently argued yet wide-
ranging chapters triumphantly
avoid this trap, and his vivid
descriptions of unfairly neglected
works will hopefully inspire
enterprising performers and record
producers to bring them into the
public domain. Erik Levi +++++
Philip Glass Piano Etudes –
The Complete Folios 1-20 &
Essays from Fellow Artists
Various Writers
Artisan 136pp (hb) £125
How’s this for itch-inducing
tactility? Ease open the lusciously
smart container to find inside,
nestling in the bespoke packaging,
sheet music for each of Philip Glass’s
piano Études plus an accompanying
volume, Studies in Time: Essays on the
Music of Philip Glass. The cover of
each of the (freshly engraved) Études
GETTY
features a facsimile page from
96 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Historically well-informed:
the story of the Academy
of Ancient Music is told in a
fascinating new book
Glass’s manuscript for that piece.
Cute idea. So, a further boost to our
awareness of these magical, highly
personal Études which started
life decades ago merely as private
exercises via which Glass challenged
himself to
sharpen his
keyboard
skills.
The added
genius of
the concept
for this
publication
(jointly overseen by Glass’s one-time
tour manager, Linda Brumbach)
was to gather essays from Glass
aficionada in a variety of creative
fields, not merely the world of
music. Featured are the likes of film
director Martin Scorsese, champion
figure skater Nathan Chen, star
chef Alice Waters and British artist
Jenny Saville – all relating to (and
using) Glass’s music in different
ways. Martin Scorsese finds it ‘so
rich in colors, like a garden endlessly
blooming’. All in all, this is an
irresistible package. Andrew Green
+++++
Puccini in Context
Edited by Alexandra Wilson
OUP 350pp (hb) £90
There was a time, Leon Botstein
reminds us in his essay on ‘Puccini’s
Legacy, Influence and Meaning’,
when the Italian composer,
like his Russian contemporary
Rachmaninov, would have scarcely
received the serious treatment
accorded him in recent decades
and emblemised
in this expertly
assembled book.
In her
summatory
conclusion
‘Puccini and the
Canon’, the editor
broadly concurs
while sounding warning notes about
the composer’s current and future
standing in the light of criticisms
of elements in his popular operas
relating to gender and race: Madama
Butterfly and Turandot are the most
often cited and contemporary
concerns addressed elsewhere.
Wilson herself brings an
insightful and above all fair-minded
approach to these and other matters
in collecting together a group of
writers to explore many aspects
of the man, his complex cultural
setting and his equally complex
works of art.
Puccini’s extensive travels, his
relationships to his contemporaries
and to women, librettists, singers
and conductors, are all dealt with. In
the chapter on Puccini and Religion,
though, his church music and
religious views are left unexplored.
Elsewhere, is Giorgetta in Il tabarro
actually murdered? Does she even
die? But as a whole there’s lots to
think about and fascinate.
George Hall ++++
Refiner’s Fire –
The Academy of Ancient
Music and the Historical
Performance Revolution
Richard Bratby
Elliott & Thompson
256pp (hb) £25
From the 1970s
onwards a great
change took place
in performance
style, a movement
known first as ‘authenticity’
and then ‘historically informed
performance’. Richard Bratby gets
right in among the cogs of a central
engine of those changes by focusing
on The Academy of Ancient Music,
its founder Christopher Hogwood
and the partnership with Peter
Wadland of L’Oiseau Lyre records.
He vividly illustrates the daily
hazards of those unfamiliar changes
with a string of amusing anecdotes,
including playing delicate music to
the accompaniment of industrial
pile drivers and howling dogs in
Kowloon, and the puzzlement of
the Musicians Union who couldn’t
understand how Hogwood could
be both the conductor and the
keyboard player at the same time.
The style changes are explained
by analogy with removing the
grime of ages from a painting. Of
course, that action might uncover
the intended work by the painter,
but with music you reveal only the
early notational implications, not an
actual, living ancient performance.
In music the menu is never the meal.
Anthony Pryer ++++
 Audio choice
Chris Haslam chooses the best hi-fi equipment for your classical music listening

THIS MONTH: KITCHEN RADIOS

Streaming sensation:
Ruark’s R1S has
added Wi-Fi

BEST IN TEST
Ruark R1S £299
British audio brand Ruark has an almost
faultless track record producing premium
products that look and sound beautiful. And
BEST BUY with the R1S they’ve finally added Wi-Fi
streaming and internet radio alongside FM,
DAB, DAB+ and Bluetooth to their most popular product.
PORTABLE VALUE If you don’t want to be able to play content from internet stations,
Spotify, Amazon Music or Deezer platforms, the R1 MK4 sounds just
Roberts Mini Rambler £69 as good and costs £60 less. But for me, aside from the initial tedium
No article about ‘radio’ is complete without Roberts. Founded in of inputting passwords using the dial, it is worth the extra, especially
1932, the brand is responsible for some of the most iconic transistor as it can now be controlled via the OCTIV app (iOS and Android).
designs. Here, they’ve distilled that unmistakably British look into Thanks to the acoustically tuned polymer casing and NS+
a compact portable radio with Bluetooth streaming as well as DAB, neodymium full range driver, this streaming system shines,
DAB+ and FM tuning. Measuring effortlessly cutting through any kitchen clatter, making itself heard
just 18cm x 11cm, and in four in some style. DAB and streaming stations sound gloriously rich, and
fashionable colours, it’s an eye- while this isn’t a speaker for parties, it’s easy to get lost in the music as
catching accessory. No, it’s not you chop veggies.
as impressive-sounding as the App control, Wi-Fi streaming and bright colour display means
others on test, but it’s affordable, the Ruark R1S is now so much more than a basic (but flawlessly
has battery power convenience, made) DAB radio. I wish there were Alexa or Google voice controls,
and projects with assurance especially for more convenient use in the kitchen, but it’s a minor
despite its size. robertsradio.com grumble. ruarkaudio.com

NEED TO KNOW Do I need internet radio? What is DAB+?

Why DAB?
Introduced in the 1990s, Digital Audio
Broadcasting provides hiss- and crackle-free
listening. FM stations will still broadcast for the
next decade, but Radio 4 LW (198 kHz) is being
switched off this year.
Streaming stations using your home broadband
gives you access to local, national and many
thousands of international stations. If you want
to listen to Baroque from the heart of Italy, you
can. Some also support streaming services
such as Spotify, Tidal and Deezer.
DAB+ is an improved version of the regular DAB
digital radio signal. It is more efficient, provides
better sound quality and offers more stations
for you to listen to. Not every station broadcasts
in DAB+ yet, but it is a handy feature to have to
ensure you get the best signal in the future.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 97

From the archives
Andrew McGregor looks over this month’s set of reissued and archival recordings
January round-up
ARCHIVE CHOICE Born in 1890, Canadian violinist
Kathleen Parlow was just 14
A bit of Mozart magic when she became the first foreign
student at the
St Petersburg
Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s visits to Salzburg are Conservatory. She
stepped back as a
the focus of this rather fascinating new release soloist in the late
1920s, celebrated
on both sides of the Atlantic, but
Thrilling tension:
exhausted by relentless touring,
Harnoncourt’s 1980
‘Haffner’ is a standout and most of these recordings are
from her early years. Despite the
limitations of acoustic recording, it’s
impossible not to be impressed by
Parlow’s virtuosity, her sweet tone
and fluid phrasing. The recordings
date from 1909-1916, mostly
miniatures, plus later broadcast
recordings of the Mendelssohn
Concerto and solo Bach. A Parlow
collection that’s overdue. (Biddulph
85036-2) ++++
Marie Antoinette had a harp
in her luggage when she arrived at
the French court in 1770, and she
made it fashionable at Versailles,
inspiring a golden age when young
society women played the harp,
Paris had hundreds of harp shops
and composers wrote delightful
music like this. For La Harpe Reine,
Xavier de Maistre plays a restored
18th-century instrument, and Les
Arts Florissants supplies the period
Nikolaus Harnoncourt Debut colour and style to match. If you’ve
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte – Overture; never heard of
Symphony in C major, K338; Oboe Concerto in Krumpholtz,
C major, K314*; Symphony in D major ‘Haffner’ his Concerto
*Werner Herbers (oboe); Concertgebouworkest is a sparkling
Amsterdam/Nikolaus Harnoncourt et al highlight,
Belvedere BVE08071 185:29 mins (3 discs) alongside Haydn’s
When Nikolaus Harnoncourt died in 2016, Symphony No. 85 ‘La Reine’.
among the tributes was a startling admission from the Salzburg Sheer delight. (Harmonia Mundi
Festival that Herbert von Karajan had insisted Harnoncourt didn’t HAF8932276) +++++
appear there while Karajan was still alive. But Harnoncourt made his Polish-American conductor
Salzburg debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra at ‘Mozart Week’ Stanisław Skrowaczewski
in 1980, and that’s the concert released here. There’s characteristic seems to have spent his career on
tautness and discipline in the Magic Flute Overture, Symphony No. 34 record under the radar, without
and Oboe Concerto, but you can tell the players are still feeling their the attention he deserves, but
way into Harnoncourt’s bracing period style, a tension that makes this set of Beethoven Overtures
the ‘Haffner’ Symphony even more thrilling. By 2006, Harnoncourt and Incidental Music with the
was firmly established as Artist-in-Residence for Mozart’s 250th Minnesota Orchestra from 1980
anniversary year, and the two bonus CDs allow us to eavesdrop on is an absolute joy. In athletic and
Harnoncourt in open rehearsal with Camerata Salzburg in the G minor muscular playing, the orchestra
Symphony No. 40. Even non-German speakers can appreciate how appear to strain at the leash, ready
well Harnoncourt works with the players (and audience), and moulds
the performance with wit and insight. Bookends of a fascinating Andrew McGregor is the presenter of Radio 3’s Record Review,
journey in historically informed performance in Salzburg. ++++ broadcast each Saturday morning from 9am until 11.45am
98 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
to explode with exuberance. Phyllis
Bryn-Julson and the Minnesota
Bach Society
are an excellent
match in the vocal
numbers, and
the recording is
as vivid and rich
as the performances. (Vox Classics
VOX-NX-3026CD) ++++
Adrian Boult conducts Alban
Berg’s opera Wozzeck. Surprised?
You shouldn’t be, Boult was a
champion of new music with
the BBC Symphony Orchestra,
and conducted Wozzeck’s British
premiere in 1934. Fifteen years
later they brought it to the Proms,
and the broadcast recording is
released here for the first time. You
can still feel the shock of the new
that listeners experienced, with
razor-sharp playing and lacerating
performances from Heinrich
Nillius and
Suzanne Danco
and a gritty but
atmospheric
recording. It
sits alongside
Stravinsky’s Capriccio with
pianist Noel Mewton-Wood and
Vaughan Williams’s 4th Symphony
at the Proms in 1965. (SOMM
ARIADNE5024-2) ++++
Elisabeth Leonskaja’s recent
set of Schubert Sonatas has been
acclaimed for its wisdom and
maturity. Here’s her period-
instrument Schubert from two
decades ago, a recital built around
the A major Sonata, D664, a
pivotal piece between the worlds
of Beethoven and Chopin. The
historic Steinway from 1901 offers
an immediacy
of attack and
characteristically
mellow tone,
and Leonskaja
is inspired to be
impulsive and spontaneous, with
more rhetorical gestures and pauses
than her later recordings. But her
Schubert always sings, and the
piano is beautifully recorded. (MDG
MDG94311946) ++++
 Reviews Index
Andy Akiho Sculptures 94 Piano Quintet 84
Benjamin Attahir Al Asr 84 R Strauss Horn Concerto No. 1 77
Bacewicz Overtures 72 Oboe Concerto in D etc 77
Symphonies Nos 3 & 4 72 Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 75
JS Bach Cello Suites Nos 3 & 4 88 Various
Works Transcribed for Flute Birthday Variations for M.C.B. 94
and Piano 84 Verdi
Brahms I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata 79
Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2 76 Tomos Williams Riot! 92
Beethoven Missa Solemnis 80
Overtures & Incidental Music 98 COLLECTIONS
String Quartets, Opp 74 & 130 94 1883 Christoph Croisé,
Symphonies Nos 2 & 7 72 Oxana Shevchenko 95
Violin Sonatas Nos 3, 7 & 8 85 Anne-Sophie Mutter & Mutter’s
Richard Blackford Virtuosi Anne-Sophie Mutter,
Clarissa’s Tango 94 Mutter’s Virtuosi 77
Howard Blake Concert Dances 73 Bars Without Measures
The Court of Love 73 Eclectic Maybe Band 92
Listen closely: A Month in the Country 73 but I like to sing... Carolyn
Arvo Pärt’s music Symphony No. 1 73 Sampson, Joseph Middleton 83
demands attention Chopin Piano Sonatas Nos 2 & 3 88 Classical Tranquility
Copland The Tender Land Suite 94 Manchester Camerata 95
Creston Saxophone Concerto 94 Complete HMV & American
Debussy Columbia Recordings
Unboxed String Quartet in G minor
Delibes Lakmé
Delius A Mass of Life
84
78
81
Kathleen Parlow et al
Double Bass Rhapsody
Dominik Wagner et al
98

95
With a new home, our round-up this month takes Ferrandini Il pianto di Maria 81 Duo Nuala McKenna,
in choral gems, Klemperer and a feast of Flamenco Philip Glass
Works Arranged for Strings 94
Robert Kulek
Essence Marina Rebeka et al
85
79
Granados Goyescas 88 Fairy Tales Elena Toponogova,
Deep listening is required for Arvo Pärt – Essential Choral
Handel Dixit Dominus 81 Elisabeth Turmo 95
Works (Harmonia Mundi HMX2904087.90), a new four-disc Kay Pietà 94 Fathers & Daughters Anna
celebration of the Estonian composer’s (mostly) sacred Büşra Kayıkçı Places 89 Fedorova, Dana Zemtsov et al 86
works. This feast for the ears is as much a celebration of Kodály Háry János Suite 73 Forget This Night Katharine Dain,
Paul Hillier’s long association with the composer’s music, of Summer Evening 73 Sam Armstrong 80
Symphony in C major 73 French Music for Two Pianos
which he has been an advocate since the early 1980s. Hillier
J Kuusisto Symphony, Op. 39 94 Charles Owen, Katya Apekisheva 90
conducts the Theatre of Voices in these intimate and detailed Lutosławski La Harpe Reine
recordings, captured between 1996 and 2012 in the US, Concerto for Orchestra 72 Xavier de Maistre 98
the UK, Denmark and Estonia. Crowning the set are Pärt’s Novelette 72 Haven Apollo5 95
major works for voices such as the Berliner Mass, Missa Partita for Violin and Orchestra 72 Hot House – The Complete Jazz at
Mendelssohn Early Sonatas 89 Massey Hall Recordings Charlie
Syllabica and Stabat Mater, but there are many shorter gems
Songs Without Words 89 Parker, Dizzy Gillespie et al 92
to enrapture, including I Am the True Vine and two different Symphonies Nos 3 & 5 73 Idylle
takes on Solfeggio. Mozart Arias etc 76 Lea Desandre, Thomas Dunford 95
Sacred works form part of Warner’s Otto Klemperer – Ave Verum Corpus 94 Letter(s) to Erik Satie
Complete Recordings, Vol. 2 (Warner Classics 5419752899), Clarinet Concerto 76 Bertrand Chamayou 90
Exsultate jubilate etc 81 & 94 LICHT... Anna Lucia Richter,
though the great conductor’s spiritual side is balanced
Piano Concertos Nos 6 & 25 77 Ammiel Bushakevitz 83
out by his more theatrical side thanks to a wedge of late Piano Concertos Nos 20 & 23 94 A Most Marvellous Party
opera recordings. Klemperer was well known as an opera Requiem 94 Mary Beven, Nicky Spence,
conductor, but these recordings were made in his twilight Symphonies Nos 36 ‘Linz’ Joseph Middleton 95
years (1960-71) when he enjoyed something of a second wind & 38 ‘Prague’ 74 Myths Contested
Müller-Hartmann Washington Bach Consort 95
on the podium and in the studio. The more glittering drama
Chamber Works 85 Nikolaus Harnoncourt Debut
of Mozart, Wagner and Beethoven is tempered by choral Arvo Pärt Choral Works 99 Concertgebouworkest et al 98
works by Beethoven, Brahms and JS Bach. The Philharmonia Penderecki Sacred Choral Works 70 Ocean Floor LSO Percussion
Orchestra and Chorus do the honours with notable soloists. Piston Ensemble et al 86
This is a sumptuous 29-disc follow-up to the first volume. The Incredible Flutist Suite 94 Otto Klemperer – Complete
Prokofiev Symphony No. 5 74 Recordings, Vol. 2
In Los Romeros – The Mercury Masters (Decca 485 4015)
Puccini Tosca 78 Various Artists 99
we’re treated to ten discs of music from ‘The Royal Family Rachmaninov Our Indifferent Century Francesca
of the Spanish Guitar’. Celedonio Romero and his three Moments musicaux etc 88 Chiejina, Natalie Burch et al 83
sons, Celin, Pepe and Angel made magic in the 1960s after Prelude No. 12 88 Overture!
moving to the US from Spain. Adept in the folk songs of their Romance No. 16 88 The Philharmonic Brass 98
Symphonic Dances (arr. piano) 88 Owl Song Ambrose Akinmusire 92
homeland, they also turned their hands to Baroque and
Variations on a Theme of Chopin 88 Painted Light Solem Quartet 86
contemporary works. This cherishable collection takes in Ravel String Quartet in F major 84 Pallet Get the Blessing 92
all their recordings for Mercury, made between 1962 and Rodwell Jack Sheppard 78 Los Romeros – The Mercury
’67, plus earlier cuts on Contemporary Records. Highlights Philip Sawyers Masters Los Romeros 99
come thick and fast, but include Vivaldi guitar concertos and Mayflower on the Sea of Time 82 Sir Adrian Boult Conducts...
Schubert Lieder (in English) 82 BBC Symphony Orchestra et al 98
Rodrigo concertos with the San Antonio Symphony, and a
Piano Works 98 Sounds New CBSO et al 75
brilliantly atmospheric and celebratory album – with dancers R Schumann they/beast Pat Posey 90
and all – called World of Flamenco. Michael Beek Missa Sacra in C minor etc 94 Where the Branches Begin
GETTY

Piano Quartet 84 David Duffy Quartet 92

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 99


TV&Radio
Your guide to what’s on BBC Radio 3 this month, plus TV highlights
JANUARY’S RADIO 3 LISTINGS
Schedules may be subject to alteration. For up-to-date listings see BBC Sounds and iPlayer
Three to look out for 1 MONDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-10.15am
In the groove: Essential Classics
jazz singer CHOICE 10.15am-
Bobby McFerrin 1pm New Year’s
Concert from Vienna
1-2pm Composer of the Week
Caroline Shaw
2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
4.30-5pm New Gen Artists
5-6.15pm In Tune
6.15-8pm Radio 3 In Concert.
2023 BBC Proms: Prom 60
(rpt). Weill Threepenny Opera
Suite, Adès Piano Concerto,
Rachmaninov Symphony No. 3.
Kirill Gerstein (piano), Berlin
Radio Symphony Orchestra/
Sam Jackson, the controller Vladimir Jurowski
of BBC Radio 3, selects three 8-9.25pm New Generation
Artists
January station highlights 9.25-10.45pm Radio 3 In
Concert. 2023 BBC Proms:
A glittering tradition Proms at Perth (rpt). Haydn
I’ll be tuning in to the Vienna Philharmonic’s String Quartet in E flat major
annual New Year’s Concert in the Golden Hall of Op. 9 No. 2, Tippett Piano Sonata
the Vienna Musikverein. Conducted by Christian No. 2, Shostakovich Piano
Thielemann and featuring swirling waltzes, rousing Quintet. Steven Osborne (piano),
marches and uplifting polkas, the programme Heath Quartet
mixes old favourites with new discoveries. CHOICE 10.45-11pm
New Year’s Concert from Vienna, 1 Jan, 10.15am-1pm The Essay
Secret Admirers
Make it personal 11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
Five Radio 3 presenters share their connections
2 TUESDAY
with a particular composer. For Georgia Mann it’s
6.30-9am Breakfast
the ‘big hair, big tunes and driving beats’ that put
9am-12pm Essential Classics
Antonio Vivaldi up there with the ’80s pop of her 12-1pm Composer of the Week
childhood, while Linton Stephens is inspired by Caroline Shaw
Florence Price, and Kevin Le Gendre celebrates the 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
multifarious creativity of Bobby McFerrin. 2-5pm Afternoon Concert
The Essay: Secret Admirers, 1-5 Jan, 10.45-11pm 5-6.15pm In Tune
6.15-7.50pm Radio 3 In
New Year, new music Concert. 2023 BBC Proms:
During the first week of January, Radio 3 daytime Prom 65 (rpt). Bruckner
presenters share their favourite pieces by such Symphony No. 8 (Nowak
contemporary composers as Caroline Shaw, 1890 edition). BBC Symphony
Dobrinka Tabakova, James MacMillan and many Orchestra/Semyon Bychkov
more. Tune in every day to hear the choices of 7.45-9.10pm New Generation
Hannah French and Petroc Trelawny (Breakfast), Artists
Georgia Mann (Essential Classics), Ian Skelly 9.10-10.45pm Radio 3 In
(Afternoon Concert) and Katie Derham (In Tune). Concert. 2023 BBC Proms:
Proms at Truro (rpt). Schubert
1-5 Jan, daytimes
‘Trout’ Quintet, Coleridge-
Taylor Nonet in F minor, Op. 2,
100 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Welcoming the New Year:
Christian Thielemann
conducts the Vienna
Phil’s NY Concert in 2018
Gershwin (arr. Tom Poster)
Songs. Kaleidoscope Chamber
Collective
CHOICE 10.45-11pm
The Essay
Secret Admirers
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
3 WEDNESDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm Composer of the Week
Caroline Shaw
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-4pm Afternoon Concert
4-5pm Choral Evensong
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-9.10pm Radio 3 In
Concert. 2023 BBC Proms:
Prom 49 (rpt). Schumann
Das Paradies und Die Peri.
Magdalena Kožená, Lucy Crowe
(sopranos), Andrew Staples
(narrator), Florian Boesch (bass-
baritone), Linard Vrielink (second
tenor/young man), Jeanine de
Bique (second soprano/young
girl), London Symphony Chorus,
London Symphony Orchestra/
Simon Rattle
9.10-10pm New Generation CHOICE 10.45-11pm
Artists The Essay
10-10.45pm Free Thinking Secret Admirers
CHOICE 10.45-11pm 11-11.30pm Night Tracks Mix
The Essay 11.30pm-12.30am
Secret Admirers Unclassified with Elizabeth Alker
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
5 FRIDAY
4 THURSDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
6.30-9am Breakfast 9am-12pm Essential Classics
9am-12pm Essential Classics 12-1pm Composer of the Week
12-1pm Composer of the Week Caroline Shaw
Caroline Shaw 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert 4.30-5pm The Listening Service
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape (rpt from previous Sun)
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert. 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
2023 BBC Proms: Prom 19 (rpt). 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert.
Mendelssohn Elijah. Carolyn 2023 BBC Proms: Prom 50 (rpt).
Sampson (soprano), Helen Handel Samson (1743 version,
Charlston (mezzo-soprano), ed. Novello). Allan Clayton,
Andrew Staples (tenor), Roderick Jacquelyn Stucker, Joélle Harvey,
Williams (baritone), Scottish Jess Dandy, Brindley Sherratt,
Chamber Orchestra Chorus, Jonathan Lemalu, Philharmonia
Scottish Chamber Orchestra/ Chorus, Academy of Ancient
Maxim Emelyanychev Music/Laurence Cummings
10-10.45pm Free Thinking 10-10.45pm The Verb
 January TV&Radio

CHOICE 10.45-11pm 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert rpt Werner For Mira, Shostakovich 10.45-11pm The Essay
11 THURSDAY
The Essay 2-3pm The Early Music Show Cello Concerto No. 1, Schubert That’s Entertainment 6.30-9am Breakfast
Secret Admirers 3-4pm Choral Evensong Symphony No. 9 ‘Great’. István 11pm-12.30am Night Tracks 9am-12pm Essential Classics
11pm-1am Late Junction 4-5pm Jazz Record Requests Várdai (cello), Finnish Radio 12-1pm Composer of the Week
5-5.30pm The Listening Service Symphony Orchestra/
10 WEDNESDAY Elgar (rpt)
6 SATURDAY 5.30-6.45pm Words and Music Nicholas Collon 6.30-9am Breakfast 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
7-9am Breakfast 6.45-7.30pm Between the Ears 10-10.45pm Music Matters 9am-12pm Essential Classics 2-5pm Afternoon Concert
9-11.45am Record Review Island of the Seals 10.45-11pm The Essay 12-1pm Composer of the Week 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
11.45am-12.30pm 7.30-9pm Drama on 3 That’s Entertainment Elgar (rpt) 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In
Music Matters Bacon in Moscow 11pm-12.30am Night Tracks 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert Concert (EBU) from Royal
12.30-1pm This Classical Life 9pm-11pm Record Review Extra 2-4pm Afternoon Concert Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
Fleur Barron 11pm-12am Sunday Night 9 TUESDAY 4-5pm Choral Evensong Mahler Symphony No. 3.
1-3pm Inside Music Series 6.30-9am Breakfast 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape Jennifer Johnston (mezzo), Royal
3-4pm Sound of Cinema 12-12.30am Classical Fix 9am-12pm Essential Classics 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert Concertgebouw Orchestra/
4-5pm Music Planet 12-1pm Composer of the Week (EBU) from DR Concert House, Klaus Mäkelä.
5-6.30pm J to Z 8 MONDAY Elgar (rpt) Copenhagen. Debussy Prélude 10-10.45pm Free Thinking
6.30-10pm Opera on 3 from 6.30-9am Breakfast 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert à l’après-midi d’un faune, 10.45-11pm The Essay
Metropolitan Opera, New York. 9am-12pm Essential Classics 2-5pm Afternoon Concert Strauss Violin Concerto in That’s Entertainment
Verdi Nabucco 12-1pm Composer of the Week 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape D minor, Op. 8, Chausson 11-11.30pm Night Tracks Mix
10pm-12am New Music Show Elgar (rpt) 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert Symphony in B flat, Op. 20. 11.30pm-12.30am
12-1am Freeness 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert (EBU) from La Scala, Milan. Renaud Capuçon (violin), Danish Unclassified with Elizabeth Alker
2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert Mozart Symphony No. 38 National Symphony Orchestra/
7 SUNDAY 4.30-5pm New Generation ‘Prague’, Messiaen Turangalîla- Tugan Sokhiev 12 FRIDAY
7-9am Breakfast Artists Symphonie. Yuja Wang (piano), 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Sunday Morning 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape La Scala Philharmonic/ 10.45-11pm The Essay 9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm Private Passions 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert Simone Young That’s Entertainment 12-1pm Composer of the Week
GETTY

Nina Stibbe (EBU) from Musiikkitalo, Helsinki. 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 11pm-12.30am Night Tracks Elgar (rpt)

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 101

January TV&Radio
A whole new world:
Ben Gernon conducts Bartók in Belfast:
the BBC Phil in Dvořák Ukrainian pianist
Vadym Kholodenko is
at Ulster Hall, 17 Jan

TV CHOICE
By the Bruch
BBC Four’s Inside Classical series features two
exciting new arrivals during January. First, we’re Merlin Sheldrake Michel De Souza (baritone), BBC
19 FRIDAY
off to Salford’s MediaCityUK, where soloist 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert rpt National Orchestra of Wales/ 6.30-9am Breakfast
Jennifer Pike performs Max Bruch’s much-loved 2-3pm The Early Music Show Ryan Bancroft. 9am-12pm Essential Classics
Violin Concerto No. 1, the ‘richest’ and ‘most 3-4pm Choral Evensong 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 12-1pm Composer of the Week
seductive’ of all concertos for the instrument, 4-5pm Jazz Record Requests 10.45-11pm The Essay Mendelssohn
according to the 19th-century virtuoso Joseph 5-5.30pm The Listening 11pm-12.30am Night Tracks 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
Service 2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
Joachim. That’s followed by a performance of 5.30-6.45pm Words and Music 17 WEDNESDAY 4.30-5pm The Listening Service
Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, ‘From the New World’, 6.45-7.30pm Sunday Feature 6.30-9am Breakfast (rpt from previous Sun)
composed during the composer’s sojourn in Classical Africa 9am-12pm Essential Classics 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
America and featuring themes from spirituals 7.30-9pm Drama on 3 12-1pm Composer of the Week 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
and roots music. Ben Gernon conducts the 9pm-11pm Record Review Extra Mendelssohn live from Glasgow City Halls.
BBC Philharmonic. 11pm-12am Sunday Night 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert Elena Langer Suite: Figaro gets a
Series 2-4pm Afternoon Concert Divorce, Mozart Concerto for Two
Then it’s off to Cardiff’s Hoddinott Hall for 12-12.30am Classical Fix 4-5pm Choral Evensong Pianos, Haydn Symphony No. 94
an evening of magic, storytelling and pianistic 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape ‘Surprise’. Maxim Emelyanychev
fireworks. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales 15 MONDAY 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert (piano), Dmitry Ablogin (piano),
and conductor Lionel Bringuier kick off with Paul 6.30-9am Breakfast from Ulster Hall. Dohnányi Scottish Chamber Orchestra/
Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a vivid piece 9am-12pm Essential Classics Symphonic Miniatures, Bartók Maxim Emelyanychev
of musical scene-painting about an enchanted 12-1pm Composer of the Week Piano Concerto No. 3, Schumann 10-10.45pm The Verb
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 ‘Rhenish’. 10.45-11pm The Essay
broom and the chaos that ensues. They end the 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert Vadym Kholodenko (piano), 11pm-1am Late Junction
evening with Rimsky-Korsakov’s seductive tale 2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert Ulster Orchestra/Elena Schwarz
of adventure, Scheherazade. Between these two 4.30-5pm New Generation 10-10.45pm Free Thinking
20 SATURDAY
flights of fancy, pianist Zee Zee gives us Grieg’s Artists 10.45-11pm The Essay 7-9am Breakfast
folk-inspired Piano Concerto. Delicious stuff. 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape 11pm-12.30am Night Tracks 9-11.45am Record Review
BBC Four, Jan tbc; BBC iPlayer thereafter 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert 11.45am-12.30pm Music
(EBU) from Utrecht Early Music 18 THURSDAY Matters
Festival. Purcell The Fairy-Queen. 6.30-9am Breakfast 12.30-1pm This Classical Life
Les Arts Florissants/ 9am-12pm Essential Classics 1-3pm Inside Music
William Christie 12-1pm Composer of the Week 3-4pm Sound of Cinema
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 9-11.45am Record Review 10-10.45pm Music Matters Mendelssohn 4-5pm Music Planet
2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert 11.45am-12.30pm 10.45-11pm The Essay 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 5-6.30pm J to Z
4.30-5pm The Listening Service Music Matters 11pm-12.30am Night Tracks 2-5pm Afternoon Concert 6.30-10pm Opera on 3 from
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape 12.30-1pm This Classical Life 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape Metropolitan Opera, New York.
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert Robert Ames 16 TUESDAY 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert Jake Heggie Dead Man Walking
(EBU) from Arturo Toscanini RAI 1-3pm Inside Music 6.30-9am Breakfast from Barbican. Monteverdi 10pm-12am New Music Show
Auditorium, Turin. Beethoven 3-4pm Sound of Cinema 9am-12pm Essential Classics Lamento d’Arianna (arr. Ryan 12-1am Freeness
Piano Concerto No. 1, 4-5pm Music Planet 12-1pm Composer of the Week Wigglesworth), Wigglesworth
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5. 5-6.30pm J to Z Mendelssohn Magnificat, Schumann 21 SUNDAY
Martha Argerich (piano), RAI 6.30-10pm Opera on 3 from 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert Symphony No. 2. Sophie Bevan 7-9am Breakfast
National Symphony Orchestra/ Metropolitan Opera, New York. 2-5pm Afternoon Concert (soprano), BBC Symphony 9am-12pm Sunday Morning
Fabio Luisi. Puccini La bohème 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape Chorus, BBC Symphony 12-1pm Private Passions
10-10.45pm The Verb 10pm-12am New Music Show 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert Orchestra/Ryan Wigglesworth Lorna Dawson
10.45-11pm The Essay 12-1am Freeness from Hoddinott Hall. Stravinsky 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert rpt
That’s Entertainment Pulcinella, Satie Ragtime, 10.45-11pm The Essay 2-3pm The Early Music Show
11pm-1am Late Junction 14 SUNDAY Stravinsky Ragtime, Falla The 11-11.30pm The Night 3-4pm Choral Evensong
7-9am Breakfast Three-Cornered Hat – Suite Tracks Mix 4-5pm Jazz Record Requests
13 SATURDAY 9am-12pm Sunday Morning No. 2. Katharine Dain (soprano); 11.30pm-12.30am 5-5.30pm The Listening Service
7-9am Breakfast 12-1pm Private Passions Jorge Navarro Colorado (tenor), Unclassified with Elizabeth Alker 5.30-6.45pm Words and Music

102 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


6.45-7.30pm Sunday Feature
Bayard Rustin: Activism and
Early Music
7.30-9pm Drama on 3
9pm-11pm Record Review Extra
11pm-12am Sunday Night
Series
12-12.30am Classical Fix
22 MONDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm Composer of the Week
Offenbach
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
4.30-5pm New Generation
Artists
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
EBU
10-10.45pm Music Matters
10.45-11pm The Essay
Working Boats
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
23 TUESDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm Composer of the Week
Offenbach
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
from Barbican. Andrew Norman
Unstuck, Stravinsky Violin
Concerto, Sibelius Symphony
No. 1. Vilde Frang (violin), BBC
Symphony Orchestra/
Sakari Oramo
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
Working Boats
Stravinsky sounds:
Vilde Frang joins the
BBC Symphony at the
Barbican, 23 Jan
JEAN BAPTISTE MILLOT, MARCO BORGGREVE, CHRIS CHRISTODOULOU, JANE HOBSON
VISIT WWW.CLASSICAL-MUSIC.COM FOR THE VERY LATEST FROM THE MUSIC WORLD
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
24 WEDNESDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm Composer of the Week
Offenbach
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-4pm Afternoon Concert
4-5pm Choral Evensong
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
from Royal Festival Hall. Strauss
Don Juan, Ravel Piano Concerto
for the Left Hand, Leon Horizons
(UK premiere), Strauss Death
and Transfiguration. Cédric
Tiberghien (piano), London
Philharmonic Orchestra/
Karina Canellakis.
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
Working Boats
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
25 THURSDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm Composer of the Week
Offenbach
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
live from Glasgow City Halls.
Stravinsky Four études, Parsons
Layers for Orchestra (world
premiere), Skempton Piano
Concerto, Stravinsky Petrushka.
Joanna MacGregor (piano), BBC
Scottish Symphony Orchestra/
Ilan Volkov.
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
Working Boats
11-11.30pm The Night Tracks
Mix
11.30pm-12.30am
Unclassified with Elizabeth Alker
26 FRIDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm Composer of the Week
Offenbach
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
4.30-5pm The Listening Service
(rpt from previous Sun)
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
from Bridgewater Hall. Copland
Fanfare for the Common
Man, James Lee III Shades
of Unbroken Dreams (BBC
commission; UK premiere),
Sebastian Fagerlund Helena’s
Song (BBC commission; UK
premiere), Nielsen Symphony
No. 4 ‘Inextinguishable’.
Alexandra Dariescu (piano), BBC
Philharmonic/John Storgårds.
10-10.45pm The Verb
10.45-11pm The Essay
Working Boats
11pm-1am Late Junction
27 SATURDAY
7-9am Breakfast
9-11.45am Record Review
11.45am-12.30pm Music
Matters
12.30-1pm This Classical Life
Johan Dalene
1-3pm Inside Music
3-4pm Sound of Cinema
4-5pm Music Planet
5-6.30pm J to Z
6.30-10pm Opera on 3
10pm-12am New Music Show
January TV&Radio
12-1am Freeness
28 SUNDAY
7-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Sunday Morning
12-1pm Private Passions
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert rpt
2-3pm The Early Music Show
3-4pm Choral Evensong
4-5pm Jazz Record Requests
5-5.30pm The Listening Service
5.30-6.45pm Words and Music
6.45-7.30pm Sunday Feature
7.30-9pm Drama on 3 Under
Milk Wood
9pm-11pm Record Review Extra
11pm-12am Sunday Night
Series
12-12.30am Classical Fix
29 MONDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm Composer of the Week
Stravinsky
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
4.30-5pm New Generation
Artists
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
10-10.45pm Music Matters
10.45-11pm The Essay
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
30 TUESDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm Composer of the Week
Stravinsky
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
from St David’s Hall. Parry
Elegy for Brahms, Higgins Horn
With open arms:
Karina Canellakis
conducts the LPO at Royal
Festival Hall, 24 Jan
Concerto (world premiere),
Brahms Symphony No. 2.
Ben Goldscheider (horn), BBC
National Orchestra of Wales/
Jaime Martin
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
31 WEDNESDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm Composer of the Week
Stravinsky
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-4pm Afternoon Concert
4-5pm Choral Evensong
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
from Bridgewater Hall. Tippett
The Rose Lake, Humperdinck
Hansel and Gretel – Vorspiel
und Zweite Bild, Beethoven
Symphony No. 8. Siena Licht
Miller (mezzo soprano), Olivia
Boen (soprano), Jennifer France
(soprano), BBC Philharmonic/
Andrew Davis
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
by The Shamen
10. Ebeneezer Goode
9. John Williams
8. Percy Bysshe Shelley
Emerson Quartet)
7. Ralph Waldo Emerson (the
6. No. 22
5. Immanuel Kant
4. Plato
hand only
3. It is written for the left
2. Puccini’s La bohème
1. Also sprach Zarathustra
QUIZ ANSWERS from p 104
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 103

THE QUIZ
It’s time to put your classical
music knowledge to the test
1. Name the 1896 symphonic poem
by Richard Strauss inspired by a
philosophical novel by Friedrich
Nietzsche.
2. The philosopher Colline is a
character in which much-loved
opera, also dating from 1896?
3. Commissioned in 1931 by pianist
Paul Wittgenstein, brother of
philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein,
what is distinctive about
Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 4?
4. Which Greek philosopher
described music as ‘a moral
law’ which ‘gives a soul to the
universe, wings to the mind, flight
to the imagination… and life to
everything’?
5. In contrast, which German
philosopher in his The Critique
of Judgment (1790) dismissed
instrumental music as the lowest of
all artforms?
6. Which of Haydn’s symphonies is
nicknamed ‘The Philosopher’?
7. A world-famous string quartet
that started up in 1976 and retired
last year was named after the poet
and philosopher pictured above.
Who is he?
8. Set in song by Delius and Quilter
among others, Love’s Philosophy is
by which Romantic poet?
9. Who composed the filmscore for
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone (2001)?
10. Which 1992 UK number 1 hit
single begins with the line ‘A great
philosopher once wrote “Naughty
naughty, very naughty’’’?
See p103 for answers
104 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
The BBC Music Magazine
PRIZE CROSSWORD NO. 394
Crossword set by Paul Henderson
The first correct solution of our crossword
picked at random will win a copy of
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by 23 Jan 2024 (solution in Apr 2024 issue).
Your name & address
NOVEMBER SOLUTION NOVEMBER WINNER
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ACROSS
1 Conflict to engage pseudonymous
composer (7)
5 Holst movement or Mozart
symphony? (7)
9 Something pulled out by performer
making patrons go wild (5,4)
10 Prepared to shoot new staging
of Dream? (5)
11 Initially we are testing every recorder
on which Handel’s music was
played? (5)
12 Listener around Italy getting one
taboo item from Italian composer (5,4)
13 North-East retaining popular links
when Britpop emerged? (8)
15 Leading contralto beginning to hate
formality (6)
18 English enthralled by Solomon,
without accompaniment (6)
20 Religious figure bringing in leader of
church to note English theatre
composer (8)
23 Miss a cue, sadly, having stored
concert’s opening score in here? (5,4)
24 New version of inane musical (5)
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maker (5)
26 Not facing limitations like a wind
quintet? (2-7)
27 Creator of Amadeus: singular
Mozart symphony will yield name (7)
28 Odd elements from King, American
senator and English composer (7)
DOWN
1 Proms founder twists part of
the orchestra (9)
2 Bass leaving Sussex resort?
Absolutely correct (5,2)
3 Someone having depressed feeling,
losing Schubert piece (5)
4 Ferrier, say, enthusiastic, seen around
outer parts of Albert Hall (8)
5 Place in merger for American
composer (6)
6 Stretching keyboard technique: is it
panic developing? (9)
7 Millions accepted by Bill to get
our drum (7)
8 American ballet travelled overseas,
originally (5)
14 American ballerina, remarkable
with leading role (9)
16 American songwriter needs horn
in arrangement (9)
17 Czech composer creating fuss
with joke? (5,3)
19 Scoundrel heading off into the
French opera house (2,5)
21 Changes of direction not right for
orchestral standards? (7)
22 Just including odd bits of fine
Wagner role (6)
23 Tight-fisted soprano shows way (5)
24 Arrived with a University pianist
from Chile (5)
Please note: Because of BBC Music
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BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 105

 Music that changed me
Sol Gabetta
Sol Gabetta is an award-winning
soloist who plays with ensembles from
the Berlin Philharmonic to the Hagen
Quartet. She collaborates with violinist
Patricia Kopatchinskaja and tours with
regular recital partner, pianist Bertrand
Chamayou. The duo’s latest recording,
of Mendelssohn works for cello and
piano, is out on Sony Classical on 19 Jan.
I
was born in Argentina to a Russian-
French mother and an Argentinian
father with Italian roots, who
introduced us to music very early. When
I was nine, my mother looked for a music
school in Europe for me and my older
brother, who plays the violin. I went to
the Reina Sofia school in Madrid, where
I became a student of Russian cellist Ivan
Monighetti. While my father stayed in
Argentina with my other two siblings, we
flew back and forth for holidays. Finally
when Monighetti, my mentor and musical
‘father’, moved to the Musik-Akademie in
Basel, the family moved to Switzerland. I
loved my life there and fitted in so well. My
head today is probably more European, but
my heart is very much connected with my
lovely birth country of Argentina!
I’ve just been touring with my good
friend, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja,
and we were remembering the pianist
MIHAELA URSULEASA, with whom we
played a lot in our twenties. Mihaela was
an inspiration to me. She was an incredible
musician – she was a little bit extreme,
she had a softness of sound, but she was
also like a tiger on the keyboard. You can
hear the contrast in her Enescu recording
with Pat, one of the few she made. Sadly
she died at 33 and we have never found a
partner like her. Pat and I are already like
sisters, so it would be difficult for another
pianist to come into this relationship.
I’ve also been playing with Giovanni
Antonini, another long-time friend. I
JULIA WESELY
heard him first when he came to record
the BEETHOVEN symphonies with the
106 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Cellist
The choices
Enescu Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor
Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), Mihaela
Ursuleasa (piano)
Naïve V5193
Beethoven Symphonies Nos 1 & 2
Kammerorchester Basel/Giovanni Antonini
Oehms OC605
Robert Schumann Symphonies Nos 1-4
Staatskapelle Dresden/Christian
Thielemann
Sony Classical 19075943412
Anner Bylsma Collection
Anner Bylsma (cello); The Smithsonian
Chamber Players,
Sony Classical 88843010662
Kammerorchester Basel. Coming from
a Baroque background, this Beethoven
project was a new language for him
and he was bringing so many ideas –
transparency in the music, extremes in
dynamics and articulations – and he was
taking everything out of the score and
reconstructing it. After years of playing
Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with him,
Isabelle Faust and Kristian Bezuidenhout,
I was influenced by this approach. Fifty or
60 years ago, Romantic German repertoire
was interpreted quite heavily, then the
revolution of Harnoncourt and Hogwood
happened. Not everywhere – I played a
Beethoven sonata in the US about 15 years
ago, quite transparently and using vibrato
just where needed, and one reviewer wrote
‘probably in Europe they didn’t learn
vibrato on the cello’!
Christian Thielemann is a conductor
I admire enormously, so I was excited to
receive the Herbert von Karajan prize from
him in 2018, which included a concert
with the Staatskapelle Dresden. He wanted
to play the Schumann Cello Concerto,
and I arrived in front of this German
orchestra, which has a huge, very warm
sound, thinking I would have to adapt
very quickly. But Thielemann told the
orchestra, ‘The approach of our soloist is
completely different, and we need to
listen and adapt.’ Within two minutes
they were playing it like chamber music.
When you have this quality of conductor,
they can change you, not only the
orchestra, and it can make the difference
between a good concert and a magical
one. I love his recordings of the ROBERT
SCHUMANN symphonies.
The cellist ANNER BYLSMA affected a
lot of people of my generation. He had such
creativity and the ability to do whatever
he wanted. He discovered repertoire other
people weren’t playing, like the Belgian
Adrien-François Servais, who was to the
cello what Paganini was to the violin.
Servais wrote a lot of Souvenirs, which are
the most technically difficult repertoire
for cello. Bylsma was a huge personality
– I didn’t get to meet him but I knew his
wife quite well. I have had the chance to
play with his bow, which is like having
a part of him in my hand. He used it to
record many of his albums, including the
wonderful Servais Souvenir de Spa and I am
developing a new project along those lines!
Interview by Amanda Holloway
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