BBC Music (January 2020)

MUSICAL DESTINATIONS




Mountain music:
Lucero Tena plays the
castanets with harpist
Xavier de Maistre











Raise a glass:
sample some
tasty local wine



Food, glorious food
Megève’s delicacies

Megève is a gastronomic haven,
with 89 restaurants – three of
which have Michelin stars – and 23
farms and producers. With dishes
centred around local cheeses
with consistently starry line-ups – Savoy ‘Megève’ comes from the Celtic name
such as Emmental and Raclette,
Truffle refuses to limit itself to one genre. ‘Mageva’, meaning the village on water.
baked potatoes, wild plants from
Alongside more traditional recitals are All in all, it’s a very peaceful place to host the mountains and meat cooked
concerts combining music with dance, a music festival. on hot rocks, traditional Savoyard
poetry and drama. The first concert on Savoy Truffle makes use of the ancient cooking is highly calorific, to keep
last year’s festival programme features two Alpine town and its historic architecture, people warm during the harsh Alpine
singers, an actor, bass clarinet, drums and experimenting with its venues as much winters. Blueberries flourish in
an organ grinder, blending experimental as its programming. Although many these colder climates, so are often
music with performance art and physical concerts take place in a conference room in used in fruit tarts, another Megève
delicacy. The region’s vineyards are
theatre. In another, an artist paints during Megève’s enormous sports complex (with
also renowned, so you can round
the concert, reacting to the music.
off your meal with a chilled glass of
Between events, do take the opportunity Haute-Savoie white wine.
to venture up to the mountains and take You’ll pass cascading
in the spectacular views from as many
vantage points as possible. In summer, waterfalls and vast
a few cable cars are still running, so you
can cover quite a lot of ground without lakes on your walks many of those are just a series of concerts
breaking a sweat. The landscape is driven by big-name artists, rather than a
diverse: you’ll pass streams, cascading between concerts themed programme.’ Before an evening
waterfalls, grassy plains, vast lakes and of tango, for instance, the 1998 musical
fields of sheep, horses and cows on your the sound of cheering ice hockey film Tango is screened in the town’s very
walks between concerts. A mountaintop fans often leaking through the walls), the own cinema. The movie’s visual aesthetics
picnic lunch can be enjoyed alongside the festival also hosts concerts in pretty set the scene perfectly for the evening’s
calming sound of distant cowbells. local churches. One venue, though, is concert: a selection of vibrant works by
The town itself is a simple but particularly idyllic. ‘We held a concert Argentinian and Mexican composers,
welcoming place to return to after an right next to an artificial lake, which accompanied by two dancers who
afternoon of hiking. Once a popular ski harpist Xavier de Maistre performed in afterwards put on a simple tango class for
destination for the French aristocracy, front of with the flamenco dancer Lucero audience members.
Megève still has an affluent feel, with Tena, who played the castanets,’ Houben It’s rare to find a festival with such an
designer shops making up most of its high tells me. ‘The scenery was amazing – there eclectic programme across the arts – not
street. But it’s still more relaxed than the was a sunset over the lake.’ least one in the middle of a spectacular
bigger resorts – a network of winding Each year, an overarching theme ties Alpine mountain range. For those wanting
paths and narrow roads join up various the fortnight together. Most recently, to step away from the familiarity of the big
medieval-style town squares, which are the festival celebrated Latin America European festivals, Megève might just be
home to local bars, restaurants and cafés, with events scheduled throughout the perfect place to see off the last weeks
all of which are understandably quiet at the day. There are daily lunches with of summer.
Further information:
this time of year. The silence is broken only visiting artists and film screenings that
GETTY, ALAMY by the sound of rivers flowing through complement the music. ‘There are quite a For details of the 2020 Megève Festival
few festivals in this area’, says Houben. ‘But Savoy Truffle, visit www.savoytruffle.fr
the centre of the town – in fact, the name


BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 53

Composer of the month








Composer of the Week
is broadcast on Radio 3 Morton Feldman
at 12pm, Monday to
Friday. Programmes in January are:
30 Dec – 3 Jan Tchaikovsky
6-10 Jan George Walker The American composer has a cult following,
13-17 Jan Beethoven
20-24 Jan Szymanowski
27-31 Jan Beethoven says Claire Jackson, thanks to his radical
experiments with musical time and form


ILLUSTRATION: MATT HERRING




here are few pieces of music duration of Feldman’s works became
that will attract an audience to a more extreme, they were increasingly
Feldman’s style T concert that starts at 4:30am, but impractical for traditional events. And

Instrumentation Morton Feldman’s For Philip Guston is one who would want to listen to or perform a
Feldman wrote of them. The 1984 work is an example of five-and-a-half-hour string quartet?
some works for Feldman’s infamous experiments with Quite a few people, as it turns out.
voice, but most duration – at over five hours long it is a Feldman developed a cult following during
of his output feat of endurance for both performers and the 1960s that has continued into the 21st
is chamber
music. He often listeners. For that reason, the piece, which century. His work has had a particular
uses unusual is scored for flute, piano and glockenspiel, impact on experimental approaches to
instrumental is rarely programmed. It was thanks to the composition and use of graphic scores –
combinations, such as alto flute, enterprising Ensemble Vide, who brought pictorial or alternative versions of staff
flute, horn, trumpet, violin and cello. the work to the 2019 Aldeburgh Festival, notation (notes on a stave). Feldman’s
Neither was his only opera. that Feldman fans recently had a chance pioneering music centres around
Slow and steady Much of Feldman’s to experience its hypnotic soundworld – asymmetric patterns, sparse minimalistic
music is contemplative and thinly all 300 minutes of it. And, in honour of motifs (very different to the later
textured with no discernible tunes –
the focus is on each note and how it
sounds in that particular bar at that Like Wagner, Feldman was fascinated by
particular point. The overall effect
is meditative quietness. This is the potential scope and scale of music
‘mindful’ music before the term was
even invented.
Feldman’s unconventional approach to Minimalism movement characterised
Space and time Like his mentor time and the format in which live music is by the music of Philip Glass and Steve
Cage (pictured above), Feldman
uses pauses and rests frequently. experienced, the concert was scheduled to Reich) and a slowly developing singular
For him, the space in between the coincide with sunrise. melody. Broadly speaking, Feldman’s
notes is as important as the melodic Like Wagner, Morton Feldman (1926- music is slow and meditative, with free
sounds. This became more extreme 87) was fascinated by the potential scope rhythm and an economic use of dynamic
towards the later part of his career, and scale of music: ‘Up to one hour you marking, ornamentation and accents
when he began composing works think about form but after an hour and (Extensions 3 being a notable exception). If
that were free from the constraints a half it is scale. Form is easy – just the that sounds boring, think again: Feldman’s
of ‘normal’ duration, resulting in division of things into parts. But scale is work intrigues and compels, and live
stark, expansive music.
another matter. You have to have control performances can be revelatory.
Avant garde Don’t confuse of the piece – it requires a heightened For performers, Feldman’s music can
‘mindful’ with ‘relaxing’: Feldman’s kind of concentration.’ Feldman’s be physically and mentally exhausting.
approach is artistically provocative. approach to music was philosophical and Because much of the work is scored for
There is some irony over his individualistic. ‘Before, my pieces were chamber ensemble, there are few (if any)
comment, directed at serialists,
that: ‘The preoccupation with like objects; now, they’re like evolving breaks for the musicians, unlike operatic
making something, with systems things,’ he mused, reflecting his belief that or orchestral writing of a comparable
and construction, seems to be the creation of music should be never be duration. Feldman was intrigued by
characteristic of music today. It has reduced to established rules. Composing more than just scale. He also explores the
become, in many cases, the actual in this way meant freeing himself from extremities of an instrument’s capabilities.
subject of musical composition.’ GETTY the constraints of public concerts; as the The solo piano work For Bunita Marcus



54 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

COMPOSER OF THE MONTH



























































































































BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 55



COMPOSER OF THE MONTH




Abstract thoughts: (clockwise from right)
the influential painter Jackson Pollock;
Morton Feldman off-duty; Rothko 1955
‘Untitled’; pianist Marc-André Hamelin’s
2017 recording of For Bunita Marcus



(1985) – dedicated to the composer,
conductor and academic with whom
he regularly collaborated – is marked
at ppp, with not a single crescendo to
indicate a change in volume. On the
face of it, the score seems fairly stark;
like most of Feldman’s music, the
emphasis is on space and the importance
of individual notes. But the 36 movements
(or pages, as they are referred to here)
gently build a resonant, characterful work
that is highly meditative. The piece was
last recorded, for Hyperion, by Marc-
André Hamelin, who underlines the
beauty of each minute theme.
The piano features heavily in Feldman’s
oeuvre; he wrote a vast array of solo piano
pieces and included it in several of his
chamber works. Many of
Feldman’s works have generic
titles and reference their
instrumentation, such as Work Buffalo in 1972. He learned and hint at Feldman’s ongoing interest in a
for Two Pianists (1958); Piano the piano from a Russian new harmonic language, one that diverged
Piece (1964) and Bass Clarinet aristocrat who earned her from the serialism in vogue at that time.
and Percussion (1981). This living after the revolution The post-war musical landscape
was a way of underlining the by teaching music and in Europe was shaped by Boulez and
sparse ‘otherness’ of the music. playing piano in a trio Stockhausen, whose aleatory ‘chance’
Others refer to their dedicatees, such as the with her husband and brother-in-law. music and serial techniques were seen as
above-mentioned For Philip Guston, which Madame Maurina-Press (to whom the the basis for modernism. Over in the US,
was a memorial piece Feldman wrote after 1970 work Madame Press Died Last Week however, Cage, Wolff and Feldman were
the death of his estranged friend, plus For unimpressed. ‘Boulez has neither elegance
Stockhausen, Cage, Stravinsky and Mary nor physicality,’ complained Feldman;
Sprinson (1972) and For John Cage (1982). Feldman particularly ‘his sound consists of a million gestures,
The latter was an important figure in all going upward (certainly not to heaven)
Feldman’s life. The two met at a Webern admired the clarity – an etude, a caricature of our times, a
performance in 1950 and Feldman, homage to Artaud and Franz Liszt.’
moving into the second floor of Cage’s of Mondrian’s black- In fact, Feldman’s music is as theoretical
building, became part of a group of artists as Boulez’s and, although more tonal, it’s
later described as the New York School. lined paintings not exactly easy listening. Feldman and his
The collective comprised the likes of colleagues were as committed as Boulez
Christian Wolff, Jackson Pollock, Mark at Ninety is dedicated) was a close friend to pushing the envelope – they just took a
Rothko and Willem de Kooning. Cage’s of the Scriabins and studied with Busoni; different approach.
rejection of traditional composing styles, both pianists’ work featured heavily in In much of his writing, Feldman
as well as the new ones being proposed Feldman’s education. Feldman – ‘Morty’ to refers to paintings and painters to justify
by Boulez et al, helped shape Feldman’s his friends – claimed the period instilled and elucidate his compositional style.
approach, which centred around pitch. in him ‘a sort of vibrant musicality rather He especially admired the clarity of
In For Philip Guston, who Feldman met than musicianship’. His early works such Mondrian’s now iconic black-lined
through Cage, there’s even an incipit based as Piano Piece (1952) demonstrate the paintings, as well as the rhythmic vitality
on Cage’s name (C-G-A-flat-E-flat). composer’s preoccupation with space in Jackson Pollock’s action brushwork.
Feldman was born in New York to and placement of notes, something that Rothko Chapel, a work for soprano, alto,
choir, percussion, celesta and viola was
dominated his style for the rest of his
Russian-Jewish parents. His family
GETTY, BRIDGEMAN worked in textile manufacturing, and career (see ‘Feldman’s style’, p66). These finished in 1971, a year after Rothko’s
suicide. The stillness, brought to life on
Feldman worked in the business until he
pieces are significantly less tonal than
a large scale, is evocative of Rothko’s
later works (such as Palais De Mari, 1986),
gained a professorship at the University of
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 57

COMPOSER OF THE MONTH





FELDMAN Life&Times



monolithic visual art. Feldman was also
1926 interested in alternative types of musical

notation and created his own graphic

LIFE: Morton Feldman is born in scores. He experimented with grids as
Queens, New York to Irving and a form of depicting rhythms, as well as
Frances Breskin Feldman, both incorporating space for improvisatory
émigrés from Russia. His father runs work for the performer. Examples of these
a business making children’s clothes. include Intersection III (1953), a piano piece
TIMES: Representatives from the written as a ‘graph score’ and Projection
Soviet Union and Germany sign the IV for violin and piano (1951), which look
Treaty of Berlin, agreeing their nations a little bit like a bird’s eye view of a room’s
will remain neutral if either is attacked layout. As a note on the score explains:
by a third party in the next five years.
‘Duration is indicated by the amount of
space taken up by the square or rectangle’.
This dalliance with unorthodox rhythms
1941 1950 and melody had ended by the 1970s, when
precision becomes an enduring feature of
LIFE: After meeting composer John Feldman’s music.
LIFE: He begins Cage at a New York Philharmonic
lessons with
concert he moves into the same
Wallingford
building as him. Through Cage he
Riegger, a 12-tone meets various well-known artists, Two decades a!er
composer and
sculptors and composers.
champion of his death, Feldman’s
TIMES: The Soviet detonation of
Schoenberg.
Feldman an atomic bomb the previous year music continues to
prompts President Truman to order
disagrees with his teacher’s views and
the creation of a grow in stature
they spend their lessons arguing.
hydrogen bomb.
TIMES: In December, Japanese aircraft Albert Einstein warns
attack the Pearl Harbor naval base in
that nuclear war Feldman described the permissive
Hawaii, killing 2,400 Americans and
may bring mutual environment in which he worked in
prompting the US’s formal entry into the destruction. as ‘a frontier atmosphere in which an
Second World War. extraordinary laissez-faire prevailed.

1960 1972 Men worked and talked with the
recklessness of the Forty Niners, and a
LIFE: He becomes vote of confidence was given to all.’ It is
LIFE: Having experimented with the Slee Professor in no small part down to the collegiate
different types of notation, he begins
of Music at the State University of support of Cage and the New York School
writing Durations, a series of chamber New York at Buffalo where, despite
pieces, in which he specifies pitch and insisting that composition cannot be artists that Feldman felt able to compose
tempo but not note duration. in his highly distinctive, unparalleled
taught, he lectures in composition.
TIMES: At the 32nd Academy Awards, style. In 1987, Feldman became ill with
TIMES: At the Olympic Games in
the epic film Ben-Hur, starring the Munich, Black September terrorists a particularly aggressive form of cancer.
American actor Charlton Heston in He married Canadian composer Barbara
enter Israeli athletes’ apartments
the title role, wins a record-breaking Monk shortly before his death at 61, just a
and take hostages. Eleven people are
11 Oscars, including Best Picture. few months after his diagnosis.
killed during a failed rescue attempt.
Two decades on, Feldman’s music
1987 continues to grow in stature – with
performances recently given by the

LIFE: He marries Canadian composer American Composers Orchestra at New
Barbara Monk, three months before York’s Carnegie Hall, pianist Alexander
dying from cancer at home in Buffalo, Melnikov at London’s Wigmore Hall and
New York. He is buried in Beth Moses the Arditti String Quartet at (somewhat
Jewish Cemetery on Long Island. ironically) the Boulez Saal in Berlin. While
TIMES: The Simpsons family is the greater emphasis tends to be given
introduced to US TV viewers for to his colleague Cage, there is no doubt
the first time, as a series of short of Feldman’s place in the history of great
GETTY cartoons on The Tracey Ullman Show. American composers.




58 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

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Musical





Travels






2020 MUSICAL TRAVELS 2020











Where to experience world-class musical performances in 2020













Have passport, will travel National Philharmonic Choir and the are some extra-special events to mark
In a seasonal slump? Look ahead to Mixed Choir of the Bulgarian National the occasion, including premieres of
lighter days and musical nights as we Radio for a not-to-be-missed performance works by Roderick Williams. Artistic
round up our top picks of places to visit of Penderecki’s Seventh (11 June), in director Kathryn Stott has curated this
in 2020. the presence of the legendary Polish year’s programme around the theme
Whether it’s a chamber music festival composer-conductor himself. of ‘Carnival’, which she describes as the
by the beach or an operatic soirée in ‘most joyous potpourri encompassing
the city, there’s a cultural holiday to Baden-Baden, Germany the most celebrated chamber music
suit all tastes. From weekend breaks to The spa town of Baden-Baden, nestled repertoire ever written’. In addition to
long-haul adventures, musical-based in Germany’s Black Forest, is beloved the concerts on the mainland, there is
excursions are on the rise. And while for both its scenery and its music. also a trip to a neighbouring tropical
there are plenty of options to immerse This year, the annual Easter Festival island for a one-off recital by didgeridoo
yourself in, say, a week-long festival, (4–13 April) features the excellent super-star William Barton.
it’s just as acceptable to dip in and out Berlin Philharmonic under the baton
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Sofia, Bulgaria Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, while the Third starting in Amsterdam and taking in
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mountains and ancient monasteries, world-class concerts in a glorious setting. and Strasbourg, ending in Basel. The
Bulgaria offers the visitor a perfect blend experience includes onboard concerts, a
of nature, history and art. The capital Townsville, Australia visit to Beethoven’s house in Bonn and
city of Sofia is home to the Bulgaria Hall, North Queensland’s Townsville is introductory talks by Antonella Placheta.
which regularly hosts internationally blessed with practically year-round An alternative route begins and ends
renowned musicians such as Sharon cloudless skies, making it the perfect in Passau, taking in the beautiful Duna
Kam. The clarinettist will perform retreat for sun-seeking music fans. The Palace in Budapest and the Brahms Hall
Weber’s concerto alongside the Sofia city’s annual ten-day chamber music in Vienna, and accompanied by on-board
Philharmonic Orchestra (13 February). festival (31 July – 8 August) celebrates music expert Humphrey Burton.
The orchestra is later joined by the its 30th anniversary in 2020, and there

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Bui!ing a li"ary






Violin Concerto






György Ligeti






Steph Power is entranced by all manner of dazzling soundworlds as she


explores the best recordings of this 20th-century virtuoso showstopper







The work
György Ligeti’s wild, radiantly paradoxical in its Bartókian appeal. Full of outlandish
Violin Concerto has captured the timbres, abrupt swerves and expressive
imagination like few other modernist extremes, the piece is an extraordinary feat
works of the last 30 – even 50 – years. of imagination – and it requires just that
The piece was composed between 1989 from its virtuoso soloist, conductor and
and ’93 for the German violinist Saschko 22-piece chamber orchestra.
Gawriloff. Initially in three movements, it Indeed, every player becomes a soloist as
was premiered in that form by Gawriloff Ligeti draws on a kaleidoscope of sounds
and the Cologne Radio Symphony and techniques: from medieval hocket to
Orchestra under conductor Gary Bertini renaissance ostinato and Baroque chorale;
in 1990. Ligeti then revised the first Eastern European folksong to Congolese
movement and added a further two – a polyrhythm; Romantic lyricism and
version premiered by Gawriloff in 1992 modal tonality to complex dissonance



Every player becomes a soloist as Ligeti draws

on a kaleidoscope of sounds and techniques
The composer

Born in Romania in 1923, György
Ligeti lived until his early 30s in his with Ensemble Modern, conducted by and untempered tunings; ethereal
native Hungary. With restrictions Peter Eötvös. Subsequent re-orchestration dreamworlds to profound melancholy
imposed on his composing style by of the third and fourth movements and surreal humour; sometimes all at
the country’s communist regime, produced the definitive, five-movement once, and saturated with an underlying
he fled to Vienna soon after the work heard today. ambivalence. With self-borrowing thrown
Soviet repression of the Hungarian The rigorous composition process into the mix (there’s a melody from his
revolution in 1956. There, he was characteristic of Ligeti. In the 1990 1951-3 Musica ricercata, for instance), it
emerged as a major figure of the programme booklet he wrote: ‘I compose all amounts to a virtual compression of
avant garde, developing orchestral very slowly, destroying ten or 20 attempts Ligeti’s career within one brilliantly taut
techniques that included, most before attaining the final score … the piece. Multiple contrasts are not simply
famously, micropolyphony, as creation of art is not an everyday task and juxtaposed, however, but integrated within
can be heard in works such as
Atmosphères. It was, though, the I must achieve, without compromise, the the context of recent discoveries in ways
use of his music in Stanley Kubrick’s end result which is my imagined ideal.’ He quietly as radical as those he pioneered in
2001: A Space Odyssey that brought was 66 when he began the concerto, and earlier years.
wider fame. He died in 2006. long recognised as one of Europe’s greatest In the 1960s, colour-packed works
living composers. He was also a strong such as the Lux aeterna (1966) – famously


Building a Library individualist who had come to occupy purloined by film director Stanley
Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey – had
a unique position at the core, and yet
is broadcast on Radio 3
at 9.30am each Saturday GETTY, ARENA PAL, ALAMY sceptical, of the avant garde – a seeming established Ligeti at the vanguard of new
as part of Record Review. A highlights contradiction that his Violin Concerto techniques and soundworlds. However,
podcast is available at bbc.co.uk/radio3 richly encapsulates while transcending while peers like Stockhausen and Boulez



64 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

BUILDING A LIBRARY

























































Orchestral page-turner:
Ligeti draws on a multiplicity
of sounds and moods;
(below) Gary Bertini conducted
the premiere of the Violin
Concerto’s first version







craved freedom from the past, Ligeti bass, creating an eerie effect heightened by
found himself seeking freedom from natural horns and wobbly ocarinas.
the orthodoxy they themselves came to Similarly, complex matrices inspired
represent. An exile from Soviet-dominated by the discovery of Conlon Nancarrow’s
Hungary, he loathed dogma and ultimately player piano studies, and of ‘marvellous,
refused to reject a heritage that included polyphonic, polyrhythmic’ African
diatonicism and indigenous traditions. music, push asymmetric folk tunes and
Yet Ligeti was also far from the nostalgic counterpoint into unexpected realms
that some hearing his Brahms-dedicated across bars and polymetres, creating dense
Horn Trio in 1982 feared he might have yet intricate, volatile textures.
become. On the contrary, he was driven Through and above all this the soloist
by a modernist impulse to interrogate soars, skitters and laments in ways that
the past through the present and vice are as unleashed as they are ultimately
versa. This he did with great curiosity and grounded in familiar concerto traditions.
skill, savouring ‘irregularities’ and the With co-creative spirit, Ligeti invites
‘disorganised’, as he put it, from within ‘a the player to compose their own final
set of rules adequate to the idea’. Tellingly, much taken by 1980s theories of chaos and cadenza if they so wish, or perform the
he noted of his Piano Etudes: ‘In my music, fractal mathematics, and the piece reflects one originally written by Gawriloff using
one finds neither that which one might call a corresponding, almost synaesthetic discarded early material.
the “scientific” nor the “mathematical”; but fascination with colour, pattern and form.
rather a unification of construction with Incorporating ancient and non-Western Turn the page to discover
poetic, emotional imagination.’ microtonality, an orchestral violinist and the best recordings of
The Violin Concerto wonderfully violist tune their instruments to an ‘out of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto
showcases these principles. Ligeti was tune’ natural harmonic from the double



BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 65

Three other

great recordings



Frank Peter
Zimmermann (violin)
Zimmermann’s
masterly rendition
was recorded in 2002
under the composer’s
watch. Conductor Reinbert de Leeuw
and the Asko/Schönberg Ensemble
create sublimely balanced sonorities
through which the violin sings with
supple elegance and an unerring
sense of purpose and direction.
Ligeti’s extremes of tessitura – ultra-
high horns, piccolo and percussion
contrasting laconic low flutes, cellos
and clarinets – are delivered with
unrivalled otherworldly clarity. The
resulting tensions are thrillingly pushed
to the limits of bearability.
(Teldec 8573876312)

Jeanne-Marie Conquer
Moldovan magician: (violin)
Kopatchinskaja combines Brilliantly teamed
technique with passion with Ensemble
InterContemporain
and Matthias
The best A truly phenomenal experience Pintscher, Conquer’s 2015 disc brings
recording rich warmth and resonance, allied
with adventurous spirit. Contrasting
modes of attack are thoughtfully, edgily
altogether new dimensions, conjuring a delivered, conveying the impression,
performance that feels wrought from her for example, of the violin grappling for a
very nerves and sinew. hold within a skittering Aria – Hoquetus
Wonderfully precise and controlled, – Choral. The ensuing, embattled
she and the ensemble still manage to Intermezzo gives way to a compellingly
convey the sense of spontaneity and risk schizoid Passacaglia and Appassionato,
inherent in a score full of startling gestures
and unusual sounds. The result is a kind
Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin)

Ensemble Modern/Peter Eötvös Kopatchinskaja and Eötvös In the Praeludium, Kopatchinskaja’s
Naive V5285 initial, open-fifth arpeggios are blurred
The stars quite simply align in this maximise Ligeti’s extreme with particular immediacy by ‘mis-
stupendous 2012 recording by Moldovan dynamics and articulation tunings’ as the ensemble joins her,
violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja with indicating the simultaneous tension and
Ensemble Modern and Peter Eötvös – of transitional space in which technical enchantment to come. Ligeti described
the ensemble and conductor who had brilliance and playful theatricality the character of this first movement as
premiered the five-movement Violin exist to serve mercurial, deeply felt ‘glassy, shimmering’ and its diaphanous
Concerto in 1992. emotions. Crucially, this underlines the harmonics as ‘the expression of fragility
Of course, the soloist then was Ligeti’s distinctly eastern European sensibility and danger’. And so it exquisitely proves,
dedicatee, Saschko Gawriloff, whose from which the concerto springs: where leading to a second movement Aria –
subsequent premiere recording with microtones and complex cross-rhythms Hoquetus – Choral rich with the molten
Ensemble InterContemporain and Pierre are customarily part of music’s expressive yearning of its central folk melody.
Boulez continues to set an eloquently high fabric – and where folk traditions are not The movement scheme of the concerto
bar. But Kopatchinskaja takes things into just part of history, but a lived reality. is broadly fast-slow-fast-slow-fast, and



66 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

BUILDING A LIBRARY





Concerto collaborators:
composer Unsuk Chin
and conductor Kent
Nagano, 2007
the energy almost but not quite
carried through into the cadenza.
Nonetheless, the harmonics here are
exquisitely unsettling. (Alpha ALPHA217)


Augustin Hadelich
(violin)
Supported by the
Norwegian Radio
Orchestra, Hadelich
delivers a passionate,
highly personal account. Combining
swashbuckling drama with whistling
insouciance, he locates the off-kilter
serenity in Ligeti’s chromatic lyricism,
finding ways through generous
glissandos and vibrato to an elastic
yet focused sense of pitch and rhythm.
The principal interest of this 2019
recording, though, is Thomas Adès’s
cadenza: a homage to Ligeti that’s at
once touching, urbane and wonderfully
absurd. (Warner 9029551045) Continue the journey…

And one to avoid… Further works to enjoy after listening to Ligeti’s Violin Concerto

There are many
beguiling aspects to redating Ligeti’s Violin Concerto windows to both older and more
this 2000 recording by five years is his Piano contemporary classical forms, very
from Christina P Concerto, which he himself much in the style of her tutor in his own
Åstrand with the described as his ‘artistic credo’. work for the instrument. (Viviane Hagner
Danish National Radio The two works have a similarly vivid (violin), Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal/
Symphony Orchestra, not least their orchestral colour, achieved through Nagano Analekta AN 2 9944)
bold enjoyment of the spectral smudge the inclusion of instruments such One of the most accomplished
afforded by Ligeti’s non-tempered as the slide whistle and ocarina. cadenzas written for Ligeti’s Violin
tunings, lotus flutes and ocarinas. But Polyrhythms, shifting accents and Concerto was by Thomas Adès (see
the overall conception doesn’t quite changing tempos also feature in the ‘Three Other Great Recordings’, left),
come together, and some curiously Piano Concerto, making it a truly who went on to compose his own
executed ensemble does nothing to kaleidoscopic composition. (Joonas Violin Concerto. Subtitled ‘Concentric
dispel the impression of a patchwork Ahonen (piano); BIT20 Paths’, Adès’s work
of textures. Ensemble/Bröoniman Adès demands the soloist opens in a similar
BIS BIS2209) to play at the extremes of way to Ligeti’s and
Ligeti’s use of he also demands
ocarinas in the the instrument’s range the performer to
chorale-like passage play at the extremes
Kopatchinskaja and Eötvös create a of his Violin Concerto has strong of the instrument’s range. There are
ferocious intensity that links each to echoes of the soundworld conjured up energetic rhythms aplenty in a concerto
the other, maximising Ligeti’s extreme in Berg’s Violin Concerto. Berg’s work that ends with a bang. (Anthony Marwood
dynamics and articulation while making also opens with the four open strings (violin), Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Adès
sense of sudden interruptions and hiatuses of the violin, which he then integrates Warner 457 8132)
on the very brink of disintegration. into a 12-note tone-row. The result Ligeti once said that Shostakovich’s
A macabrely spectral Intermezzo is a shifting pattern of tones, rather writing for xylophone, where it doubles
becomes a helter-skelter ride from which than recognisable tunes. (Isabelle Faust the melody, profoundly influenced the
the Passacaglia calmly unfolds. But most (violin), Orchestra Mozart/Abbado Harmonia way in which he himself wrote for the
Mundi HMC902105)
instrument. A prime example of this is
astonishing is how every contradictory
Between 1985 and ’88, Unsuk found in the Russian’s Violin Concerto
aspect of Ligeti’s invention is gathered Chin studied composition with Ligeti No. 1, where the xylophone’s hard
into the final Appassionato. The cadenza
JULIA WESELY, GETTY is Kopatchinskaja’s own, an outpouring of it was under his mentorship that she movement and the mad, virtuosic
at the Hamburg Conservatoire, and
clatter is prominent in the wild second
developed her own distinctive style.
unbridled virtuosity that celebrates like no
finale. (Maxim Vengerov (violin), LSO/
Mstislav Rostropovich Teldec 92256)
Her Violin Concerto, however, opens
other this passionately enigmatic work.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 67

Reviews








110 CDs, Books & DVDs rated by expert critics










RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Welcome




A new year is upon Epic vision makes this
us, and with it the
anticipation of what Samson the best yet
might be in store over
the coming months.
This month, though, Berta Joncus delights in a glorious new take
we traverse the ages,

with the likes of Rippe, Sweelinck and on Handel’s oratorio from John Butt, the
Gesualdo taking us way back, while Dunedin Consort and a legion of singers
Michael Nyman, Bryce Dessner and
Julian Anderson bring us up to date.
One conductor scores two five-star
reviews: Maxim Emelyanychev action – richly justify Butt’s
presides over a Schubert ‘Great’ adding to his soloists not just the
Symphony with the Scottish Chamber Dunedin chorus, but boy trebles
as well. These choral forces
Orchestra and accompanies Jakub Józef
make for a vibrancy unique
Orli!ski (another bright young thing)
among Samson recordings.
with Il Pomo d’Oro in a dazzling set of
The story, based on Milton’s
countertenor arias. Beyond that we’ve a
retelling of the Old Testament
pair of Bach organ discs, Jonathan Biss’s original (Judges: 13-16) in his
final instalment of Beethoven sonatas poem Samson Agonistes, begins
and an enchanting recording of Grieg near the end: imprisoned,
songs. Happy New Year! blinded and weak, the Israelite
Michael Beek Reviews Editor Handel hero Samson laments his
Samson humiliation, and his marriage
Joshua Ellicott and Hugo to Dalila, who brought him
This month’s critics Hymas (tenors), Jess Dandy down by betraying the secret of
(alto), Matthew Brook and Vitali his super-human strength to the
John Allison, Nicholas Anderson, Kate Bolton- Rozynko (basses), Mary Bevan,
Porciatti, Gary Booth, Geo! Brown, Anthony Philistines. Samson’s exchanges
Burton, Michael Church, Christopher Cook, Sophie Bevan and Fflur Wyn with other characters are broken
Christopher Dingle, Misha Donat, Jessica Duchen, (soprano); Tiffin Boys Choir/ up by choir numbers, often
George Hall, Malcolm Hayes, Julian Haylock, James Day; Dunedin Consort/ snapshot crowd scenes. The
Claire Jackson, Daniel Ja!é, Erica Jeal, Berta John Butt work climaxes with Philistines
Joncus, Stephen Johnson, Erik Levi, Andrew John Butt has created the best crying for help as they are
McGregor, David Nice, Roger Nichols, Bayan Samson ever. He’s chosen the
Northcott, Jeremy Pound, Steph Power, Anthony crushed by the temple that
Pryer, Paul Riley, Jan Smaczny, Michael Tanner, original 1743 version, star Samson, his strength divinely
Sarah Urwin Jones, Kate Wakeling, Helen Wallace soloists with early-music chops restored, pulls down on top of
and his band of top period them all. Stuffed with pathos,
instrumentalists. Above all, he’s poetry, epic scenes and frank
beefed up the choir. The 1743 misogyny – we’re told that ‘self-
KEY TO STAR RATINGS choir consisted of soloists alone, love does rule’ women generally
HHHHH Outstanding but these singers’ three separate – Samson was Handel’s oratorio
HHHH Excellent dramatic roles – as the Israelites, breakthrough, and its success
HHH Good
HH Disappointing the Philistines and a Christian made him devoted to this sacred
H Poor congregation reflecting on the English genre.


68 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

Recording of the Month Reviews








An interview with
CHOICE John Butt





















Why did you choose to enlarge
the choir for this recording?
I’m trying to show the range of
what 18th-century choruses
could have been. In the case
of Samson there’s reasonably
strong evidence that Handel
didn’t have access to the
large cathedral choirs he
would normally have had for
his oratorios. The single voice
chorus was, perhaps, perfectly
adequate for his interests, but
I think he possibly found the
spectacle of a massed chorus
preferable in terms of giving an
extra magnificence. We actually
recorded both chorus sizes; the
‘smaller’ version is available as a
digital download.
Brilliantly Handel’d:
John Butt has a deep Why was Samson so pivotal?
grasp of this music I think Handel probably saw
it as a challenge, if not a risk,
in terms of setting a very long
libretto that had virtually no
The score is baggy, the time Micah, Jess Dandy gives despairing, the ensemble’s action. He was of course a very
pressure under which it was constant succour, soothing kaleidoscopic character and experienced dramatic composer,
prepared having led Handel Samson’s hot curses with colours make this ‘closet but here one has to think of the
to borrow from no fewer mellifluous responses. Sisters drama’ – that is, a theatre drama as taking place within
than eight other composers. Sophie and Mary Bevan make imagined rather than enacted the minds of the characters and,
therefore, within the minds of the
Butt’s deep grasp both of a rare joint appearance: on – riveting. The choir declaims
listeners. It’s striking how popular
Handel’s rhetoric and of hearing Sophie as Dalila, we as if one person, caressing or
the piece actually was; it must
large-scale structure turns the expectorating words in perfect have keyed into an aspect of
work’s patchwork quality into These choral forces euphony, even in imitative meditative thought in the 18th
a virtue, bringing intimacy to passages. Ratcheting up the century that was becoming more
each character’s reflections and make for a vibrancy tension, the band jostles to widespread, this idea of the
urgency to crowd reactions. unique among compete wherever the score personal drama.
Soloists and band have the recordings of Samson allows. This recording leaves Was the use of Milton’s poem
space for extended silences, in no doubt why Samson sealed part of its success?
super-soft pianissimos and can forgive Samson for yielding Handel’s reputation for oratorio, I imagine the Milton text was
leisurely pulses, which give to such lush lyricism, and the and why he never looked back. pretty well known and Newburgh
terrific tension to the moments sprightliness of Mary’s voice PERFORMANCE HHHHH Hamilton’s adaptation of it is
they carry. As Samson, Joshua give us ears to hear the lessons RECORDING HHHHH quite brilliant. Apart from biblical
Ellicott is wonderful from his which her various walk-on text there’s really nothing like it in
Handel. L’Allegro is of course also
first air, ‘Total Eclipse’, which characters deliver. Milton, but that’s less of a drama
he infuses with a whispered The choir’s performance is as such, although really up there
ANDREW MCCOY despair, to the swelling nobility this production’s crowning with the top of the Handel canon.

of his last, ‘Thus when the sun’.
glory. Alternately sublime
It’s difficult to find anything
As Samson’s male confidante
and mocking, haughty and
better than Samson.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 69

Orchestral









ORCHESTRAL CHOICE JB Bach
JL Bach • JS Bach
Haydn symphonies with JS Bach: Orchestral Suites
Nos 1-4, BWV1066-1069;
JB Bach: Suite No. 3 in E minor;
bags of character and wit JL Bach: Overture in G
Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo
Alessandrini (harpsichord)
Bart Van Reyn and his musicians relish the playful Naïve OP 30578 129:52 mins (2 discs)
Historically-
inventiveness of these works, says Misha Donat informed period-
instrument
performances
these may be,
but, as one might
expect from the vivacious past
performances and recordings
by Rinaldo Alessandrini and
his Concerto Italiano, nothing
sounds doctrinaire. Each of the
stately openings of JS Bach’s four
Orchestral Suites, or Overtures as
the composer called them, is taken
differently. While Alessandrini
unfolds the woodwind and
string scoring of Suite No. 1 with
a suave elegance, he draws out
the plaintive expressiveness of
the flute-led Suite No. 2. And, of
the trumpet-dominated Suites
in D major, No. 3 goes at a brisk
French-style clip, whereas Suite
No. 4 is far more ceremonious
Tongue-in-cheek: in its tread. The ensuing dance
Bart Van Reyn gives sequences are equally varied in
point to Haydn’s humour their characterisation.
Those used to hearing these
works with a substantial string
body may initially be disconcerted
Haydn The first movement of the G major Symphony by Alessandrini’s line-up of just
Symphony No. 80 in D minor, Hob. I:80; No. 81 finds Haydn experimenting with the five solo strings – the room in
Piano Concerto in D, Hob. XVIII:11; recapitulation, effectively presenting his themes in Zimmermann’s Coffee House
Symphony No. 81 in G, Hob. I.81 reverse order. The trio of that symphony’s minuet where Bach gave his concerts,
Lucas Blondeel (fortepiano); Le Concert d’Anvers/ offers another waltz-like theme, which this time after all, was not large. But with
Bart Van Reyn unexpectedly fetches up in the minor, casting a glow strings clearly disposed to the left
Fuga Libera FUG 755 62:06 mins of melancholy over the music. side, woodwind to the right and
The two symphonies recorded More familiar than the trumpets and drums across the
here were written in the early Lucas Blondeel injects symphonies is the D major Piano back, the ear quickly adjusts to
1780s, immediately before the keyboard part with Concerto, with its irresistible the balance.
Haydn’s famous series for gypsy-style finale. Lucas Works by two of Bach’s second
Paris, Nos. 82-87. The D minor expressive freedom Blondeel is the brilliant soloist, cousins, which he is known to
Symphony No. 80 kicks off injecting the keyboard part have performed, round out the
in dramatic style – almost like a throwback to the with just the right amount of expressive freedom. He picture. The Ouverture in E minor
turbulent Sturm und Drang style Haydn had cultivated provides his own stylish cadenzas, and even manages by Johann Bernard Bach (1676-
more than a decade earlier. And yet the music’s at one point to quote a few bars from Mozart’s D minor 1749) is quite extensive, slightly
seriousness is suddenly swept aside by a simple Fantasy K397. Performances of all three works are old-fashioned in style, but not
waltz tune which provides the main point of focus lively and compelling, and the recording is first-rate. without surprises. The Ouverture
in the central portion of the movement. Bart Van Haydn-lovers should definitely indulge. HHHHH in G minor by Johann Ludwig Bach
MARCO BORGGREVE, TOBIAS SCHULT by pulling back the tempo slightly and giving it an RECORDING its ideas. All said, though, neither
PERFORMANCE
Reyn stresses the tune’s tongue-in-cheek character
(1677-1731) is crisp and succinct in
HHHHH
additional lilt. Haydn’s wit is very much to the fore in
approach the richly inventive
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of
the finale, too, where the main theme’s repeated-note
memorability of the great Johann
this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine
syncopation makes it impossible for the listener to
Sebastian himself. Bayan Northcott
website at www.classical-music.com
register where the beat falls.
HHHH
PERFORMANCE
70 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE RECORDING HHHH

Orchestral Reviews








Beethoven
Symphonies Nos 5 & 6
WDR Symphony Orchestra/
Marek Janowski
Pentatone PTC 5186 809 73:04 mins
In music of this
time-honoured
humanity and
greatness, there
are bound to
be aspects
that almost any given line-up
of performers will respond to.
Here we have a German radio
orchestra which, while not in
the absolute top-flight Berlin or
Viennese league, is (merely!) very
fine in every department – plus Fierce energy:
Ensemble Resonanz
a long-experienced conductor
resonate with Dessner
whose liking for brisk-ish pace and
unexaggerated delivery means, at
the very least, that he won’t get in
the music’s way. (Janowski also, Masaaki Suzuki Bryce Dessner of flight and passage’ in honour
excellently, includes all the repeat and Bach of the composer’s grandmother,
sections indicated in the scores.) Collegium are Tenebre*; Aheym; Skrik Trio; a Jewish immigrant, and bristles
This collective approach works best known Lachrimae with restless energy. Lachrimae
well in large stretches of the Fifth for their epic *Moses Sumney (vocals); (2012) offers a wonderfully warped
Symphony – as in the second recorded survey Ensemble Resonanz reimagining of Dowland’s work
movement, whose Andante con moto of JS Bach’s complete sacred Resonanz Raum Records RRR 002 of the same name, and includes
pace is beautifully judged, catching cantatas. In recent years, though, 58:03 mins some particularly imaginative and
the music’s quizzical streak while they’ve branched out further afield Bryce Dessner arresting uses of harmonics across
also allowing warm lyrical contrast, into the choral repertoire, not only has won critical the string ensemble. The recording
in a way that really does have you with Mozart’s Requiem, but also acclaim in both throughout has a closeness and
listening to the interplay between a version of Beethoven’s Missa the worlds of crispness which well matches both
the two as if for the first time. The solemnis released a couple of years contemporary Dessner’s tightly-wrought works
finale blazes along impressively, ago. Now we have Suzuki and his and popular and Ensemble Resonanz’s taut
without needless turbo-charging. forces tackling Beethoven’s Choral music. Long established as the performances. Kate Wakeling
But a similar approach doesn’t Symphony – and making a fine guitarist and songwriter of the PERFORMANCE HHHH
work so well in the Pastoral showing of it. American rock band The National, RECORDING HHHH
Symphony, where Janowski’s What’s particularly impressive is Dessner has recently returned to
trademark restraint seems to hold the high standard of the orchestral the realm of classical music (he Finger
back too much of the music’s sense playing, and not least the virtuosity is a classically-trained guitarist), Music for European Courts and
of wonderment. In the ‘Scene by of the horns and the spot-on winning recognition with his Concerts: The Mourning Bride –
the Brook’ – whose indication accuracy of the string intonation. vigorous and exciting post- Incidental Music; Fantasia etc
Andante molto mosso is admittedly Suzuki may not quite plumb all the minimalism works for both screen The Harmonious Society of Tickle-
a conundrum – the pace feels too depths of the slow movement, but and concert hall. Fiddle Gentlemen/Robert Rawson
hurried for the mood of underlying his is a highly intelligent reading Dessner’s muscular works are well Ramée RAM 1802 66:47 mins
rapture to come across as it wants to, and one that seldom fails to convey paired with Germany’s Ensemble The itinerant
and the same is true of Janowski’s the music’s atmosphere. Resonanz who play with a fierce career of Gottfried
view of the finale’s Allegretto Beethoven wasn’t altogether but precise energy. Highlights Finger (c1660-
tempo marking. Nothing offends; clear about the question of repeats include the title work, Tenebre 1730) took him
then again, you aren’t left with the in the scherzo second movement, (2011), originally composed for the from his native
required feeling that this is one of but it’s generally thought he meant Kronos Quartet but heard here Moravia to
the greatest musical masterworks the da capo to be done without in an arrangement for full string Austria, England, Germany and
ever written down. Malcolm Hayes any repeats. Suzuki does include orchestra. The work reverses the Italy. The miscellany of works on
PERFORMANCE HHH a repeat of the first half here; and structure of the Tenebre Holy Week this disc, then, offers a musical
RECORDING HHHH since his tempo for the movement as Mass, travelling not from light to travelogue, from the colourful
a whole is on the fast side, the repeat dark but from gloom to radiance: instrumental traditions of central
Beethoven works well enough. hesitant shivers of sound gradually Europe, to virtuosic Italian music
Symphony No. 9 (Choral) He fields a fine team of soloists, grow in force and complexity, before (which Finger regarded ‘the best
Ann-Helen Moen (soprano), though the baritone Neal Davies the work softens in its final section, in the world’), balletic French and
Marianne Beate Kielland (mezzo- could have been more au fait introducing some glorious vocals popular English and Scottish styles.
soprano), Allan Clayton (tenor), Neal with the conventions of recitative from Moses Sumney. We hear hypnotic Chaconnes
Davies (bass); Bach Collegium Japan/ notation. Misha Donat Also premiered by the Kronos redolent of Lully and Purcell, a
Masaaki Suzuki PERFORMANCE HHHH Quartet, Aheym (2009) was written brilliant and quirky Fantasia,
BIS BIS-2451 66:28 mins RECORDING HHHHH as a ‘musical evocation of the idea incidental music – by turns airy and


BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 71

Orchestral Reviews







Musical influences aren’t hard to L’Ascension (1932-33). Järvi and his
Reissues Reviewed by Julian Haylock spot: the anguished compositions of Zurich forces convey the passion,
his friend Giya Kancheli; Poland’s but occasionally lack a little heft and
‘sonorists’ of the 1950s and ’60s; impetus when Messiaen brutally
Nielsen Symphonies Nos 3 & 5
the plaintive contours of Armenian unleashes the orchestra’s full power.
Eloquence 482 8570 (1971/75) 75:28 mins folk music, instrumentally spot-lit What is remarkable about
Edge-of-the seat virtuosity from the LSO/Huybrechts during Symphony No. 3 by the zurna these scores, though, is the young
(No. 3) and haunting atmospherics from the Suisse
and duduk wind instruments (the composer’s fully-formed, radical,
Romande/Kletzki, captured in thrillingly impactful last also featured in two separate slow-moving evocations of the
sound. HHHH
improvisations). But the chief divine. Strings predominate,
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 shaping forces in these desolate providing the ever-rising radiant
BR Klassik 900104 (2009) 45:38 mins mosaics are clearly personal, from harmonies at the end of L’Ascension
A live recording from the Bavarian RSO and Mariss the wounding death of Terterian’s as well as the beatific conclusions to
Jansons, whose lithe intensity provides a telling younger brother Herman, a Les Offrandes and Le Tombeau. Järvi
contrast with the plusher opulence of his Oslo studio conductor, to the national tragedy gives a masterclass in controlled
account, if not much spontaneous excitement. HHH of the Armenian genocide following movement within stillness,
Clair de lune Works by Debussy, Elgar, the First World War. sustaining the long-breathed
Massenet etc Eloquence 482 7339 (1970/72) Pairing two symphonies lyrical chorale of the Mozart
140:35 mins (2 discs) previously issued on disc by ASV tribute Un Sourire (1989) across the
Sourced mostly from Decca’s ‘World Of’ series, this in 1997, Kirill Karabits and his perky birdsong interludes. Ideally
treasure trove features top London session musicians Bournemouth orchestra plunge into another underplayed early work,
conducted in spectacular style by Raymond Agoult Terterian’s strange world with total Hymn au Saint Sacrement, would
and Douglas Gamley. HHHHH commitment and vivid instrumental have been included showing the
colours, supported by the usual young Messiaen’s more upbeat side.
The London Cello Sound enveloping Chandos sound. It all Overall, though, this disc augurs
Works by Bernstein, Saint-Saëns etc
helps give thrust and mournful well for Järvi’s partnership with his
Cala Signum SIGCD2007 (1993) 23:01 mins purpose to the Third, dedicated new orchestra. Christopher Dingle
Never mind the short measure! In these unique to Herman, but to my ears leaves PERFORMANCE HHHH
recordings, the top 40 cellists from the early ’90s LPO, the more extreme Fourth, heard in RECORDING HHHH
RPO, BBCSO and Philharmonia are on sumptuous its original, unbarred version, too
form under an inspired Geoffrey Simon. HHHH Schubert
thinly stretched to be plausible. That
shouldn’t stop musical voyagers Symphony No. 9 (The Great)
exploring this remarkable composer; Scottish Chamber Orchestra/
many more symphonies are Maxim Emelyanychev
dramatic – to William Congreve’s makes an important contribution available online. Geoff Brown Linn CKD 619 54:30 mins
play The Mourning Bride, multihued to our understanding of European PERFORMANCE HHHH Maxim
sonatas and concertos for woodwind, music around the turn of the 18th RECORDING HHHH Emelyanychev
brass and strings – some polychoral, century. Kate Bolton-Porciatti inspires the
others with flashing solos. PERFORMANCE HHHH Messiaen excellent Scottish
Concerto No. 6 is a Brandenburg- RECORDING HHHH Le Tombeau resplendissant; Chamber
like confection; Sonata No. 9 is Les Offrandes oubliées; Orchestra to
an instrumental arrangement of Komitas • Terterian L’Ascension; Un Sourire give the most thrilling account of
an air from Purcell’s King Arthur. Komitas: Shoger Jan (Dear Shoger); Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra/ Schubert’s last symphony (known
The collection is bookended by Terterian: Symphonies Nos 3 & 4; Paavo Järvi as No. 7, alternatively No. 8,
vocal works, ending with a dreamy Trad: Noobar-Noobar Alpha Classics ALPHA 548 64:48 mins alternatively No. 9) that I have heard
sleep-scene quartet (seductively Tigran Aleksanyan (duduk), For his first disc in many years. The amount of noise
accompanied by pastoral recorders) Vahe Hovanesian (duduk, zurna); as chief conductor this ‘chamber’ orchestra can make
from the semi-opera Alexander Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/ of the Tonhalle- is amazing, and so is the propulsion
the Great. Throughout, Finger’s Kirill Karabits Orchester Zurich, of which they are capable under
polychrome scorings, suave Chandos CHSA 5241 (hybrid CD/SACD) Paavo Järvi has inspired direction. This symphony
melodies and dancing rhythms 58:56 mins brought together is primarily, and surprisingly for
make for very felicitous listening. These two three works written before Messiaen Schubert, a work predominantly
The unforgettably-named symphonies, was 25 and one from his 80s. The rhythmic rather than melodic, with
Harmonious Society of Tickle- written in the symphonic poems Les Offrandes even the slow movement becoming
Fiddle Gentlemen specialises in mid 1970s by oubliées (1930) and Le Tombeau a terrifying stampede before an
the byways of Baroque music, and the modernist resplendissant (1931) contrast violent awestruck silence. And as for the last
a combination of scholarship and Armenian passages of extreme savagery with movement, one can only compare
historically-informed performance composer Avet Rubent Terterian serene depictions of celestial ecstasy. it to a Bruckner scherzo, in which
practice produces laudable results. (1929-94), are extraordinary, often In fact, the turbulent sections of Le there is nothing jovial and a lot that
Here, they offer discreet singing and uncomfortable creations. The Tombeau give a rare glimpse of public is savage. It’s not possible to listen to
generally neat yet spirited playing music, severely dislocated, mostly despair from Messiaen – maybe any of Schubert’s finest works and
(particularly on the fiendishly tricky proceeds in isolated strands and why it was all but withdrawn for not feel that his early death is the
natural horns and trumpets). The extreme dynamics: timpani tattoos, about 50 years. Fingerprints of the greatest of all artistic losses, a feeling
recorded sound is open but detailed. a tolling bell, slithering brass, tutti composer’s influences, notably especially reinforced by this great
With Robert Rawson’s liner notes shrieks, the faintest harpsichord. Stravinsky and Dukas, abound in performance. Michael Tanner
offering a thorough background to Lament, despair, mockery: those are the faster music of both these works PERFORMANCE HHHHH
‘the ingenious Mr. Finger’, the disc the dominant emotions stirred. as well as the four-movement cycle RECORDING HHHHH


72 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

Edition
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Concerto









CONCERTO CHOICE JS Bach
Violin Concertos Nos 1 & 2;
Pahud’s is a dream you Concerto in E, BWV 1053
(arr. Debretzeni); Concerto
in D minor, BWV 1052 (arr.
won’t want to wake from W Fischer
Kati Debretzeni (violin); English
Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner
Claire Jackson finds much to enjoy in this creative Sol Deo Gloria SDG732 70:15 mins
Listening to these
programme of flute concertos and other works deftly phrased,
acutely sensitive,
engagingly supple
performances
Well turned out: from Kati
Emmanuel Pahud Debretzeni and 12 members of the
is a class act English Baroque Soloists is to be

reminded how far we have come
in just a few decades regarding our
understanding of this extraordinary
music. Even as comparatively
recently as the 1960s and ’70s,
Bach’s concertos were invariably
sounded with a well-upholstered,
espressivo cantabile derived from the
19th-century tradition. It was this
bold interpretative approach that
seemed to define at the time how
all canonic masterpieces (whatever
their cultural provenance) should
sound, and which proved perhaps
the greatest obstacle to the initial
acceptance of historically-informed
practice (HIP). When played on an
appropriate scale and in a manner
closer to the kind of sounds Bach
originally envisaged, the emotional
impact of his music sounded
Dreamtime engineering achieves an awareness of the breath (ironically) to many as though it had
in some way been diminished.
Busoni: Divertimento, Op. 52; without marring the overall effect of the music. As One of the unfortunate
Mozart: Andante in C; Penderecki: Flute Concerto; is the idea behind Dreamtime, sometimes it is the ‘in tendencies of HIP on modern
Reinecke: Flute Concerto in D; Ballade, Op. 288; between’ moments that are the most revealing. instruments is to take everything
Takemitsu: I Hear the Water Dreaming Through seven movements, Penderecki’s Flute at breakneck speed, yet Debretzeni
Emmanuel Pahud (flute); Concerto (1992) flutters and flies, moving through and John Eliot Gardiner
Munich Radio Orchestra/Ivan Repušić luxurious expansion (the Andante movements) demonstrate that the music dances
Warner 9029539244 78:38 mins to repeated quaver motifs (Allegro con brio) and a more freely and engagingly at more
Emmanuel Pahud consistently virtuosic display of jumping lines, moderate tempos, with bass lines
delivers high-quality recordings The extended phrases bent notes and double tonguing kept as lithe and agile as their upper
with a twist, from a collection of are perfectly (Poco meno mosso). The Munich counterparts. And that is not all.
rarities by Carl and Franz Doppler Radio Orchestra handles the Listen to the central Andante of
(Farao) to his 2018 double-disc Solo paced by Pahud extremities in dynamics and the A minor Concerto (No. 1) and
(Warner) that layered Telemann textures well. you will hear Gardiner hold those
fantasies with 20th- and 21st-century works. Reinecke’s Concerto (1908), first recorded in 1967, magical suspended harmonies
Dreamtime is similarly creative, programming a wide is a relative newcomer to the repertoire. Both this and with radiant affection. Debretzeni
selection of concertos and concertante pieces themed his Ballade are neo-Romantic in style; the Concerto’s plays throughout with a naturalness
pastoral opening is almost filmic. Mozart’s Andante in
around different experiences of that state.
FABIEN MONTHUBERT, LISA-MARIE MAZZUCCO most obvious links to the topic, having been inspired PERFORMANCE HHHHH of the BWV 1053 harpsichord
and disarming simplicity – most
C provides the perfect ramp to Busoni’s Divertimento.
T!ru Takemitsu’s I Hear the Water Dreaming has the
notably in her skilful transcription
HHHHH
RECORDING
by the Australian Aboriginals’ concept of ancestral
concerto – that makes most
space, which has come to be referred to as ‘dreamtime’.
other recorded versions feel
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of
Like Takemitsu’s Air, I Hear the Water Dreaming
decidedly effortful by comparison.
this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine
contains extended phrases; these are perfectly paced
Julian Haylock
website at www.classical-music.com
by Pahud. Here and elsewhere in the recording, the
HHHH
PERFORMANCE
74 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE RECORDING HHHHH

Concerto Reviews







Beethoven – direct in expression and
unashamedly Romantic – rapidly
Piano Concertos Nos 1-5
became established in the
Ronald Brautigam (fortepiano); 20th-century repertoire. Barton
Die Kölner Akademie/Michael Pine delivers another terrific
Alexander Willens performance blending high energy
BIS BIS-2274 (hybrid CD/SACD) with exquisitely focused tone that
157:13 mins (2 discs) is often reminiscent of the work’s
These are highly dedicatee, David Oistrakh. Teddy
individual Abrams directs with understanding
performances and involvement and the
of extremely orchestra’s woodwind soloists
familiar works, shine particularly in the first
and even if the two movements. A slightly more
actual sounds made by these copies ambient sound would have helped
of instruments contemporaneous the orchestral detail, but as a whole
with their composition don’t these performances are extremely
always sound agreeable, they are accomplished. Jan Smaczny
fresh and life-giving. Speeds are PERFORMANCE HHHH
mainly traditional, though the RECORDING HHHH
fortepianos on which Brautigam
Exquisite focus: Ginastera
plays lack sustaining power, so the Rachel Barton Pine
slow movements tend to be on the digs deep with Dvorˇák Harp Concerto; Variaciones
brisk side, but not disconcertingly. concertantes
In the orchestra the winds, Sidsel Walstad (harp);
especially the woodwinds, sound Norwegian Radio Orchestra/
prominent and sometimes like Brahms and Dvo!ák • Khachaturian Miguel Harth-Bedoya
assiduous woodpeckers, while Schumann’s most Dvorˇák: Violin Concerto; Lawo Classics LWC1182 48:52 mins
the brass is positively uproarious, misunderstood Khachaturian: Violin Concerto Alberto Ginastera
with the strings recessive and concertos make Rachel Barton Pine (violin); was one of
easily drowned. Nonetheless, the an unusually Royal Scottish National Orchestra/ the foremost
overall impression is of energy and effective coupling. Teddy Abrams 20th-century
sometimes fun, and the Fourth Knowledge that Schumann’s Avie AV2411 73:14 mins composers of
Concerto, which I expected to Violin Concerto was the last major Composed in the Americas. A
fare worst from this treatment, work he finished before his final 1879, and revised mentor to Piazzolla in the 1940s,
offers a combative account of the psychotic breakdown has coloured thoroughly over Ginastera himself later studied
relationship between soloist and its reception. Joachim, who was to the next three with Aaron Copland and went on to
orchestra, rather than the usual have premiered it, might have made years, Dvo!ák’s co-found the Argentinian League
collaborative one. some helpful suggestions – as he Violin Concerto of Composers. Much of his music is
The Fifth is adequately did with Brahms’s Violin Concerto; is both conservative and radical. yet to receive the acclaim it deserves,
imperial, though Brautigam – or but he could hardly have made it On the one hand, it clearly displays but these two dazzling orchestral
his instrument – doesn’t have the more poetic or moving. Schumann the influence of his mentor Brahms pieces have become justly popular
power to make the huge climax of described it as his ‘path to joy’, which in the first movement and also concert works.
the first movement as thrilling as it under the circumstances seems makes spirited use of his ‘Slavonic Ginastera’s Harp Concerto (1965)
can be. All told, the early concertos painfully ironic. Antje Weithaas dance’ manner in the finale; on the combines fierce rhythmic energy
sound best, as if for once Haydn had is sensitive to the music’s fragile other, there is real originality in the with passages of ethereal beauty and
written a decent keyboard concerto. emotional ambiguity, its tendency expressive link between first and calm. It is fiendishly demanding for
These discs make clear how much (like so much Schumann) for the second movements, and placing the the soloist – harpist Sidsel Walstad
Beethoven had the sonorities of the mood to turn and turn back again in cadenza at the start of the work was describes its performance as akin
instruments he was writing for in seconds. So too is Andrew Manze, an audacious move that five years to ‘climbing a mountain’ – but she
mind, even if one can’t help thinking who makes the best case I’ve heard later Brahms adopted at the start of makes light work of the Concerto’s
that if he had heard a modern piano for the much-criticised orchestral his Double Concerto. technical rigours in this wonderfully
he would have forgotten about the writing. Above all, Weithaas and This is an excellent performance. spirited and sensitive interpretation,
ones available to him, at any rate for Manze convey a sense that this work At times the accompanying in the well-supported throughout by the
such miracles of beauty as the slow does follow a ‘path’, if an unusually first movement might seem a little Norwegian Radio Orchestra.
movements of the Third and Fifth circuitous, even maze-like one. indulgent, but it is well within Composed 12 years earlier,
Concertos. Michael Tanner And here’s a performance of acceptable limits. Rachel Barton the Variaciones concertantes is a
PERFORMANCE HHHH Brahms’s Double Concerto that Pine’s playing is superb with splendid showstopper for orchestra,
RECORDING HHHH has purged the music of much outstanding purity of tone and a showcasing each instrument of
of its accustomed heaviness and sense of passionate involvement the ensemble across ten colourful
Brahms • R Schumann astringency, offering instead that will certainly repay repeated variations. Ginastera sought to
Brahms: Double Concerto; something that at times feels more listening. Where the performance conjure an ‘Argentinian mood’ in
R Schumann: Violin Concerto like a chamber concerto – especially falls short is in the first half or so of the work, and the score’s pentatonic
Antje Weithaas (violin), in the lovely dialogue at the heart of the finale, which is a touch staid and harmonies, rhythmic dynamism
Maximilian Hornung (cello); NDR the slow movement. Stephen Johnson lacking in fun. and echoes of the open strings
Radiophilharmonie/Andrew Manze PERFORMANCE HHHHH Composed in 1940, of a ‘gaucho’ guitar all warmly
CPO 555 172-2 63.25 mins RECORDING HHHHH Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto evoke the music and landscape


BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 75

Concerto Reviews







of the composer’s homeland. of all these works and despite a tip-top form the programme’s Italo- help thinking how much more
With a further fine performance slightly thin sound in the upper German entente proves cordiale even exciting they would sound in their
here from NRO, this disc offers registers of the strings, the Szczecin when compositional inspiration original context. Anthony Burton
an accomplished and exuberant Philharmonic under David Robert sometimes flicks to cruise control. PERFORMANCE HHHHH
celebration of Argentina’s vibrant Coleman offer sterling support Paul Riley RECORDING HHHH
musical culture. Kate Wakeling throughout. Erik Levi PERFORMANCE HHHH The Symphonic
PERFORMANCE HHHH PERFORMANCE HHHH RECORDING HHHHH
RECORDING HHH RECORDING HHHH Euphonium II
Royal Fireworks M Ball: Euphonium Concerto;
Weinberg The Godfather – Masters JS Bach: Christmas Oratorio – Gregson: Euphonium Concerto;
Flute Concertos Nos 1 & 2; 12 of the German & Italian Baroque extracts; Handel: Music for the Paul Mealor: Euphonium Concerto;
Pieces for Flute and Orchestra; Concertos by JS Bach, Royal Fireworks (arr. S Wright); Vaughan Williams: Tuba Concerto
5 Pieces for Flute and Piano Brescianello, Fasch, Pisendel, Purcell: Sonata No. 2 in D; Funeral (arr. for euphonium)
Claudia Stein (flute), Elisaveta Telemann and Vivaldi Sentences for the Death of Queen David Childs (euphonium); BBC
Blumina (piano); Szczecin La Serenissima/ Mary II; Telemann: Trumpet Philharmonic/Ben Gernon
Philharmonic Orchestra/ Adrian Chandler (violin) Concerto, TWV 51:D7 Chandos CHAN 10997 70:06 mins
David Robert Coleman Signum SIGCD602 66:09 mins Alison Balsom (trumpet); The euphonium,
Naxos 8.573931 68:32 mins There’s Balsom Ensemble the tenor member
We have to thank something a Warner 9029537006 51:83 mins of the tuba family,
Russian flautist little odd about A celebrated is familiar in
Alexander the title of La soloist on modern brass bands,
Korneyev Serenissima’s trumpet, Alison but a rarity in
for inspiring debut on the Balsom is also orchestral music. David Childs,
Mieczys!aw Signum label. True it opens with a superlative brought up in the Welsh band
Weinberg to compose a substantial Telemann who was CPE Bach’s exponent of the tradition, has been active in
number of works for his instrument. Godfather. But the relationship valveless Baroque instrument. broadening the appeal of his
This enterprising release, featuring isn’t pursued. Perhaps director Her performances on this disc instrument through performances
Claudia Stein, who plays in Daniel Adrian Chandler has something of Purcell’s Trumpet Sonata and and commissions. This disc pairs
Barenboim’s Berlin Staatskapelle, less literal in mind? For if Vivaldi Telemann’s only surviving Trumpet him with the BBC Philharmonic
brings almost all of them together on might be said to stand godfather Concerto are exemplary: clean, and its principal guest conductor
disc for the first time. to the high Baroque concerto, he clear and supremely confident Ben Gernon in three concertos
A sequence of miniatures, dating also took a ‘godfatherly’ interest on their ascents into the extreme written specially for the euphonium
from 1947, covers almost half the in his pupil Pisendel’s concerto upper register. and one adapted for it.
programme. The Twelve Pieces for movement in A minor, offering Unfortunately, those are the only The adaptation is of Vaughan
Flute and Piano, which Weinberg corrections to a work smuggling in works presented in their original Williams’s genial Concerto for
later orchestrated in 1983, is nods to the Red Priest’s Op. 3 L’estro scoring. Handel’s Music for the Royal bass tuba, written in 1954 in the
particularly attractive – a series of armonico. Then there’s Pisendel Fireworks is arranged by Simon composer’s lively old age. In his
short and succinct character studies himself whose famed virtuosity Wright (who also directs it from helpful notes, Paul Hindmarsh
that cover a surprisingly wide on the violin possibly exerted an the harpsichord) for trumpets, reveals that a reworking of the piece
range of moods, from the playful influence on JS Bach’s solo Sonatas timpani and strings, which removes a fourth higher for euphonium was
‘Burleske’ and the technical high- and Partitas, not to mention the interplay between choirs of approved by Vaughan Williams,
jinks of the ‘Etude’ to the perfumed an ebullient multi-instrument trumpets, oboes and horns that’s but not carried out in the absence
elegance of the ‘Waltz’ and the concerto movement composed some such a feature of the original. In the of a publishing agreement. The
nostalgic warmth of the ‘Nocturne’. time after Bach’s 1741 trip to Dresden festive choruses which make up transposition, now effected by
In contrast, the Five Pieces, only (where the violinist led the court most of the similarly scored suite Childs and Rodney Newton, has the
discovered relatively recently, are orchestra). Add in Brescianello, an from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, effect of lightening the orchestral
conceived on a more ambitious Italian working in Stuttgart who the trumpet section is joined by a sound, enabling the solo instrument
scale, featuring three rhythmically stitched German ideas into his second group, picking up whatever is to stand out more clearly against
incisive dance movements, as well as native concerto inclinations and playable on their instruments from it. The more recent concertos by
touching allusions to Debussy’s La it’s clear that here is a disc about the oboe parts and the choral lines. Edward Gregson (2018), Paul Mealor
fille aux cheveux de lin in the opening inter-connectedness. Intelligently Purcell’s music for Queen Mary’s (2017) and Michael Ball (2002 with
movement, appropriately entitled planned; eager to stray from the funeral, written for a quartet of slide brass band, 2004 with orchestra)
‘Landschaft’ (Landscape). tried and tested. trumpets, is performed by straight all effectively balance lyricism
Of the two flute concertos, the Bookending the line-up, and with trumpets and a single sackbut – with virtuosity; the Mealor makes
First (1961) is undoubtedly the most a show-stopper halfway through, though it’s good to hear a vocal striking use of extended techniques,
direct, with rhythmically dynamic are D-major works revelling in quartet singing Purcell’s Funeral including glissandos and chords.
fast outer movements framing a three-trumpets-and-drums Sentence ‘Thou knowest, Lord’. Childs plays with richly
reflective Largo, whereas the Second ebullience bolstered by winds and, Make no mistake, everything is expressive tone (using the
(1987) is largely restrained and in two cases, solo violin. Nothing, of superlatively played, in a supportive customary brass band vibrato)
austere, despite the unexpected course, quite matches the intricate, church acoustic. Several tracks – and is fully on top of all the
quotations from the ‘Dance of the dancing exuberance of the Bach, including Bach’s famous ‘Jesu, joy works’ technical demands. He is
Blessed Spirits’ from Gluck’s Orfeo ed Chandler’s direction customarily of man’s desiring’, with the chorale responsively supported by the
Euridice and the famous ‘Badinerie’ punchy and to-the-point. And on trumpets – will surely win a orchestra, although it is relegated
from Bach’s Suite No. 2 in B minor Peter Whelan is a conspicuously lot of airplay. But when I hear, for slightly to the background of the
that find their way into the Finale. suave companion in Brescianello’s example, Alison Balsom’s dazzling recording. Anthony Burton
Stein delivers charismatic and Concerto for violin and bassoon. performances on the top trumpet PERFORMANCE HHHH
strongly expressive performances With La Serenissima on incisively lines of those Bach choruses, I can’t RECORDING HHH


76 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

FIRST

EDITION

MAY 21 – JUNE 4 2021

De Doelen, Rotterdam













































PARTICIPATING ORCHESTRA’S

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchechestra
Budapest Festival Orchestra

De Doelen Ensemble
Orchestra of the 18th Century
Sinfonia Rotterdam






JURY MEMBERS

Michel van der Aa Ed Spanjaard
Roberta Alexander Maxim Vengerov
Anja Bihlmaier )LUQHTPU >HSSŏ ZJO

Deborah Borda Elmar Weingarten
Martyn Brabbins Xian Zhang
Jonathan Darlington

Sian Edwards
APPLICATIONS
Iván Fischer
OPEN
Jane Glover JANUARY 1

Ara Guzelimian JULY 1 2020
Antony Hermus
Ton Koopman

Sophie de Lint
James MacMillan
Wayne Marshall LEADING

Kenneth Montgomery THE WAY FOR
CONDUCTING
Alexei Ogrintchouk
TALENT
Franck Ollu
Lahav Shani www.iccr.nl

Opera









Berta Joncus Gervais
OPERA CHOICE
Hypermnestre
Vocal fireworks light up Katherine Watson, Mathias Vidal,
Thomas Dolie, Chantal Santon-
Jeffery, Manuel Núnez-Camelino,
this feast of Baroque arias Juliette Mars, Philippe-Nicolas
Martin; Purcell Choir; Orfeo
Orchestra/Gyorgy Vashegyi
Kate Bolton-Porciatti is wowed by countertenor Glossa GCD 924007 145:59 mins (2 discs)
The music of
Jakub Józef Orliński’s technique and versatility Charles-Hubert
Gervais (1671-
1744) has been
unjustifiably
Flawless performer: ill-served on
Jakub Józef Orlin´ski disc. Apart from a splendid Te
is simply captivating
Deum, the grand motet Exaudiat
Te and petit motet O sacrum
convivium, recorded in the 1950s,
there has been virtually nothing
until the appearance of this fine
performance of his most successful
opera Hypermnestre. Gervais,
a contemporary and friend of
Campra, enjoyed the patronage
of the music-loving Philippe of
Orleans who became Prince Regent
on the death of Louis XIV in 1715.
Hypermnestre, with its greatly
admired libretto by Joseph de la
Font, was premiered in Paris in 1716,
revived in 1717 with a new fifth act
libretto by Simon-Joseph Pellegrin,
and subsequently on several
occasions, until 1766. The recording
adheres mainly to the 1717 version
but further includes the original
1716 fifth act.
Facce d’amore this disc, though, lie in the arias by Bononcini, Conti The plot of this tragédie en
Countertenor arias by Cavalli, Boretti, and Predieri. To the drifting melody of Bononcini’s musique is pretty gruesome, leading
to the massacre of the 50 sons of
Bononcini, A Scarlatti, Handel et al ‘Infelice mia costanza’, Orli!ski brings a hauntingly Aegyptus on their wedding night
Jakub Józef Orliński (countertenor); stark tone. He bewitches in Predieri’s ‘Finché salvo’,
by their wives, the daughters of
Il Pomo d’oro/Maxim Emelyanychev casting lyrical lines over a throbbing accompaniment. his brother and enemy Danaus.
Erato 9029542338 73:55 mins Originally written for the virtuoso castrato Antonio Only Hypermnestra disobeys her
Breakdancer, model, acrobat, and James Dean Bernacchi, for whom Handel also composed, the father in order to spare her spouse,
lookalike, Jakub Józef Orli!ski is also emerging as one aria shows off Orli!ski’s resonant lower range. Lynceus. Though Lully-like in its
of the finest countertenors on the Then there’s Conti’s furious prologue – introductory, rather
musical scene today. Facce d’amore Orli!ski whirls vengeance aria ‘Odio, vendetta, than honorific – and five acts, the
paints the volatile faces of love in effortlessly through amore’ – a vocal breakdance, with music frequently sounds forward-
Italian Baroque opera, threading athletic leaps from high to low, looking, even anticipating Rameau
together one pearl after another. this vocal breakdance which Orli!ski whirls through at times, and especially in the
Alongside some of Handel’s most effortlessly, backed by gutsy many imaginative instrumental
poignant and dramatic arias are eight world premieres playing. By way of an interlude, Nicola Matteis’s dances. The strengths of the piece,
– ravishing works by all-but-forgotten composers who Ballo dei Bagaltellieri is a colourful instrumental described by his biographer, Jean-
give Handel more than a run for his money. The disc is romp complete with exotic percussion, flamboyantly Paul Montagnier as the best opera
a masterpiece of sleuthing and programming. realised by Il Pomo d’oro. The whole sequence is of the Regency period, lend weight
Orli!ski vaunts an impressive technique: simply captivating. to this timely rehabilitation of
intonation, diction and breath-control are nigh PERFORMANCE HHHHH its composer. The performance
JIYANG CHEN, HUGO BERNARD While his voice is intimate, its expressive range is website at www.classical-music.com invigorating and responsive to
flawless, and he breezes through the vocal fireworks.
HHHHH
RECORDING
under György Vashegyi is stylish,
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of
ample: he rends the heart in Handel’s ‘Pena tiranna’
the demands of text and music.
this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine
and vacillates from dark fury to lucid tenderness
Nicholas Anderson
in the mad scene from Orlando. The revelations of
HHHHH
PERFORMANCE
HHHHH
78 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE RECORDING

Opera Reviews







Handel Ten years ago, a
list of recordings
Rodrigo
of La Traviata
Erica Eloff, Fflur Wyn, Anna Dennis, reached a total
Jorge Navarro Colorado, Russell of 253 – an
Harcourt and Leandro Marziotte; indication of how
Göttingen Festival Orchestra/ competitive this particular field is.
Laurence Cummings Marina Rebeka’s Violetta is
Accent ACC 26412 167:40 mins (3 discs) vocally confident and expertly
Written in 1707 articulated, offering a clear dramatic
when Handel was understanding of the role. She’s
22, Rodrigo was at her most effective in the big
his first Italian scene with Germont in Act II, but
opera. After while there’s plenty of personality,
its premiere it there’s also a distinct edge to the
disappeared until its revival in 1984, tone at times: more dynamic
since when it’s only had a handful variety and nuance would give her
of productions, the latest of which is interpretation additional quality.
this one with the FestspielOrchester Charles Castronovo’s Alfredo is a
Göttingen under Laurence buoyant, nicely scaled account that
Cummings’s expert direction. As Expressive soprano: again could do with greater sense of
Katherine Watson
this is a live recording, there are character and finesse; he comes over
sings French Baroque
inevitably moments when the as a likable young man – but rather
microphones aren’t ideally placed, ordinary. George Petean’s Germont
and the voices are out of focus. is notable for its vocal largesse on a
Rodrigo may not be Handel at Rossini Araby’ style with more glitter than grand scale; yet again, more subtlety
his most sublime – it reflects the a night of the stars at the London is required to humanise the role,
Ricciardo e Zoraide (DVD)
influence of Alessandro Scarlatti – Palladium. If this is supposed to be which becomes something of a
but it was enthusiastically received, Pretty Yende, Juan Diego Flórez, a knowing exercise in post-modern standard ‘big sing’. All the secondary
and the composer was rewarded Sergey Romanovsky, Victoria kitsch, it takes itself far too seriously. roles are decently done.
with ‘100 sequins and a service of Yarovaya, Nicola Ulivieri, Xabier What matters is a magnificent This is the first recording of
plate’. And as the recitatives and arias Anduaga, Sofia Mchedlishvili; Coro cast. Sergey Romanovsky as an orchestra founded in 2015
pour out of Handel’s cornucopia it del Teatro Ventido Basso; Orchestra Agorante may flash his pecs à which ‘combines a select group of
bowls along with compelling grace. Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI/ la Vladimir Putin, but he’s that musicians from various Latvian
The longer version of its original Giacomo Sagripanti; rare thing: a bel canto tenor with symphony and chamber orchestras’;
title – Vincer se stesso e la maggior dir. Marshall Pynkoski (Pesaro, 2018) a pronounced baritonal timbre. they are more than capable, as is
vittoria (‘To overcome oneself is the C Major DVD: 752608; Victoria Yarovaya as his jealous wife their conductor. The chorus – not,
greater victory’) – sums up the plot: Blu-ray: 752704 176 mins Zomira has a chest register that could after all, an operatic ensemble – is
the Visigoth king Rodrigo cheats on Ricciardo e Zoraide curdle cream, and the young South dull in tone. The sound is a little
his wife Esilena and sires a son by is frankly the American tenor Xabier Anduaga, as too bright, the chorus placed too
Florinda, whose brother Giuliano least successful of Ricciardo’s best friend Ernesto, is a far back in the overall picture, the
seeks revenge; enemy prince Evanco Rossini’s Naples voice to watch. Best of all is Flórez as offstage band too far forward. It’s
is also in love with Florinda; war is operas, with an Ricciardo. The voice may have lost a perfectly adequate performance
the backdrop, but everyone proves a exotic plot that its youthful bloom, but it remains but, given that so many others are
good egg in the end. must have seemed in fine form and as faultless as ever. available, hardly a special one.
Vocally the work is almost all in old-fashioned He is magnificently matched by George Hall
the top register, with three sopranos, even in 1818. Ricciardo, a Christian his Zoraide: Pretty Yende produces PERFORMANCE HHH
two high countertenors, and one knight, loves Zoraide, the daughter a stream of unforced tone, elegant RECORDING HHH
tenor. Moreover, this imbalance of a Middle Eastern potentate who decorations with an enviable legato
is compounded by the fact that has been vanquished by the Nubian to her phrasing. The duet for the Wagner
one of the countertenors – Russell King Agorante who, of course, also lovers is not only gloriously sung, Tristan und Isolde
Harcourt, singing Evanco – has such lusts after Zoraide. You wonder how it’s also the best thing in the score. Stuart Skelton, Gun-Brit Barkmin,
an exquisitely feminine sound that far Rossini’s heart was less in setting Briefly and magically Rossini is at Ekaterina Gubanova, Boaz Daniel,
when he duets with Fflur Wyn’s Franceso Berio di Salsa’s libretto, one with his libretto and its exotic Ain Anger, Angus Wood, Paul
Esilena it’s hard to tell their voices rather than seizing an opportunity to plot. Christopher Cook O’Neill, Andrew Foote; WASO
apart. Likewise, you might not know extend his musical style. The result PERFORMANCE HHHH Chorus; St George’s Cathedral
whether it’s Wyn or Erica Eloff’s is somehow a ‘work in progress’. PICTURE & SOUND HHHH Consort; West Australian Symphony
Rodrigo when they sing together, If only Marshall Pynkoski’s Orchestra/Asher Fisch
unless you follow the libretto. But production for the 2018 Pesaro Verdi ABC Classic 481 8518 222:01 mins (3 discs)
no praise could be too high for the Festival was progressive. Discretion La Traviata And not before
musicianship of this brilliant sextet, and restraint are completely Marina Rebeka, Charles Castronovo, time! At last
or of Cummings’s instrumental banished, with Pynkoski seemingly George Petean, Elizabeth Sergeeva, Stuart Skelton’s
ensemble: there’s ravishing continuo unaware of how opera production Gideon Poppe, Isaac Galán, Rihards Tristan is on disc.
playing and a warm tutti sound. has developed in the last 40 years. Mo!anovskis, Kri"j#nis Norvelis; And lucky the
Michael Church Apparently painted sets wobble and State Choir Latvia; Latvian Festival audience who
PERFORMANCE HHHH Michael Gianfrancesco’s costumes Orchestra/Michael Balke sat and stood – and cheered – in
RECORDING HH are in Hollywood’s best ‘Sheikh of Prima PRIMA003 121:18 mins (2 discs) the Perth Concert Hall in Western


BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 79

Opera Reviews







Niccolò Conforto, Geminiano in the voice throughout which some
Reissues Reviewed by George Hall Giacomelli and Giovanni Battista may find appealing.
Mele, as well as Anon (possibly Less appealing is Kovaleska’s
Handel Sosarme Farinelli himself in one case, plus diction. There’s impenetrable
Eloquence 482 8582 (1955) 148:05 mins (2 discs) some of his own decorations). French in ‘Dis moi que je suis belle’
An early enterprising recording of a still rare Handel Fascinating for their historical from Massehet’s Thaïs, and you
opera makes a broadly positive impression, with associations, the arias are less do wonder what language Gluck
magical countertenor Alfred Deller leading a mixed exceptional purely as music. chose to set in Euridice’s aria ‘Che
vocal team and good orchestral values. HHH Mezzo Ann Hallenberg’s tone is fiero momento’. Is it lèse-majesté to
mature, but her voice is still fluent suggest that Maija Kovaleska needs
Rameau Les indes galantes and her technique skilful, with
Harmonia Mundi HAX 8901367.69 (1991) a solid range from the top to the to work on her language skills?
Christopher Cook
193:07 mins (3 discs) bottom of her voice and an effective HHH
William Christie’s studio recording with his specialist trill; diction could be clearer, and PERFORMANCE
ensemble of Rameau’s 1735 opéra-ballet offers stylish her medium-scale mezzo doesn’t RECORDING HHHH
singing and playing from start to finish. HHHHH L’Opéra du Roi soleil
always ride the orchestra, but she’s
Margaret Price in Recital Arias by Bellini, able to negotiate the programme’s Arias by L Lully, JB Lully,
Verdi, Rossini et al fabled technical difficulties Marais, Campra, Desmarest,
Eloquence 482 5237 (1969-89) 139:43 mins (2 discs) with confidence, if perhaps less Stuck & Monteclair
A wide-ranging selection of the pristine vocalism of virtuosically than the singer of Katherine Watson (soprano);
the great Welsh soprano, stretching from Welsh folk legend once did. Les Ambassadeurs/Alexis Kossenko
songs through Schubert, bel canto and Verdi, to Ravel, The playing of the 12-piece Aparte AP209 73:25 mins
Berg, Phyllis Tate and Alun Hoddinott. HHHHH orchestra is colourful and For those worried

Vienna, Women and Song Arias by J Strauss II, immediate, with particularly that a recording
Millocker, Suppe, Kalman et al brilliant horns, while the music entitled ‘The
Eloquence 484 0156 (1971/74) 149:44 mins (2 discs) moves very nicely under Stefano Opera of the
Stylish renditions by singers imbued with the Austro- Aresi. Vital sound. George Hall Sun King’ might
German operetta tradition, including a substantial PERFORMANCE HHHH imply lashings
selection from Kálmán’s Countess Maritza, all RECORDING HHHH of Lully, there is much more variety
conducted by the idiomatic Anton Paulik. HHHH on offer here in an imaginatively-
Majesty – Operatic Arias assembled programme, including
Arias by Gluck, Mozart, Puccini, Eurydice’s lament from Orphée by
Massenet and Tchaikovsky his son Louis. While undoubtedly
Australia in August 2018. Skelton born with Wagnerian silver spoons Maija Kovaleska (soprano); Liepaja expressive, Louis’s writing is a
gave them a performance that ran in their mouths! Fisch understands Symphony Orchestra/Atvars little foursquare; Marais’s lament
the full gamut of this impossibly about partnering his singers but he Lakst!gala for Ariane offers far more passion
demanding role: coldly alienated never forgets that the psychological Odradek ODRCD372 52:16 mins and variety. To say that the artistic
in Act I when Isolde demands him drama of this extraordinary work is Majesty is hardly peaks on this disc are represented
to attend her; softly romantic in the played out in the pit quite as much as a modest title for by Lully’s successors and the
extended love duet in Act II, and on stage. Christopher Cook a debut recital troughs by Lully himself would
agonised as the dying hero unravels PERFORMANCE HHHH disc. But after verge on the unjust, but the ear is
his history in the final act. Skelton RECORDING HHHH being crowned inevitably drawn to the superb
combines power and lyricism with The Farinelli at the 2006 lightness of Campra’s Chaconne
a remarkable stamina. And his Operalia competition, the Latvian from Idoménée or the elegance of
attention to detail is matchless. Manuscript soprano Maija Kovalevska has his Sarabande from Télèphe. And
But Tristan und Isolde needs Arias by Latilla, Conforto, been greatly admired at home for those enervated by a surfeit of
more than a Tristan. While some Giacomelli, Mele and Anon. and abroad. Hers is a big voice, lamentation, the Italianate jollity of
may have doubts about Gun- Ann Hallenberg (mezzo-soprano); and with her conductor Atvars Stuck’s trumpet-accompanied air
Brit Barkmin’s Isolde, wanting a Stile Galante/Stefano Aresi Lakst!gala she has assembled a big from Thétis is a complete delight as
fuller rounded tone, there is no Glossa GCD 923521 72:04 mins programme that begins with Gluck is Marais’s rollicking Sailors’ March
questioning the dramatic power Illustrated and and ends with Tatiana’s letter scene from Alcyone.
of her voice. In her Act I narration described by the from Eugene Onegin. There’s Mozart Katherine Watson is an
you hang on her every word; and conductor within too – a somewhat unsatisfying ‘Mi excellent guide in this repertoire.
when she spits out the word ‘vassal’, an excellent tradi ...’ from Don Giovani in which The abundant ornamentation
describing what she has become booklet, the Kovalevska rather ambushes the required is always integrated into
as a trophy bride, the venom is manuscript the aria after a thoughtful reading of her seamless and highly expressive
palpable. Ekaterina Gubanova legendary castrato sent in 1753 the recitative. vocal line. Unfortunately, the
is a rich and ripe Bragäne and to the Empress Maria Theresa of However, Puccini is the beating, rather resonant acoustic militates
Boaz Daniel a deeply satisfying Austria contains six arias and two throbbing heart of this recital. If against enjoying every nuance in
Kurwenal; and then there is Ain recitatives which the singer had Kovalevska’s Mimì in both ‘Mi her performance and some details of
Anger’s Mark, not a well-aged bass sung ‘to the private comfort of my chiamano Mimì’ and her Act III the accompaniment are sometimes
but somehow younger, making endearing sovereigns’ in Spain – farewell to Rodolfo is a little too obscured, a pity since the playing
his incomprehension in the Act II though as Stefano Aresi explains, beefy for a woman marked for a of Les Ambassadeurs directed by
monologue all the more affecting. their story is not quite the one that young death, the arias from Gianni Alexis Kossenko is flexible and
All honour, too, to Asher Fisch most of us know. Schicchi and Turandot are well done, expert throughout. Jan Smaczny
and the West Australian Symphony Also unfamiliar are the names though she is clearly not one of PERFORMANCE HHHH
Orchestra who sound as if they were of the composers – Gaetano Latilla, nature’s Lius. There’s a slight rasp RECORDING HHH


80 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

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Co-funded by the
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Choral & Song









CHORAL & SONG CHOICE Bliss
The Enchantress; Meditations
Heart-melting music and on a Theme by John Blow;
Mary of Magdala
Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano),
revelatory performances James Platt (bass); BBC Symphony
Orchestra/Andrew Davis
Chandos CHSA 5242 (hybrid CD/SACD)
David Nice is bowled over by the perfect fusion of 76:58 mins
A quasi-operatic
voice and piano in this impressive Grieg recital scena conceived
for Kathleen
Ferrier, and a
sacred cantata
Pure white notes: with ‘Three
Claire Booth is a Choirs Festival’ written all over it,
versatile soprano
frame a stand-out set of orchestral
variations as Chandos’s Bliss
odyssey with Sir Andrew Davis
and his BBC forces notches up
a third instalment. The music
straddles roughly a decade whose
halfway point is marked by the
1955 Meditations on a Theme by
John Blow, an essay in variation
form interpretatively engineered
around the verses of the 23rd
Psalm. It’s a work that finds Davis
in his element, pacing the whole
with an impeccable assuredness,
coaxing ravishing wind playing in
the Introduction, expansively at
home in the first variation which
elaborates ‘He leadeth me beside the
still waters’, and bitingly trenchant
in the variation that follows.
Throughout, Davis is scrupulously
solicitous of Bliss’s carefully
Grieg by the impressionist bells of a late Lyric Piece, and calculated play of orchestral
Songs and piano works: Haugtussa (The there are telling conjunctions between songs proper colour, and a warm surround-
sound recording is the icing on the
Mountain Maid), Op. 67; Lyric Pieces – Op. 12 and piano pieces throughout. expressive cake.
Nos 1 (Arietta), 5 (Folktune) & 6 (Norwegian); The centrepiece is the song-cycle Haugtussa (‘The The sacred cantata Mary
Op. 43/1 (Butterfly); Op. 47/3 (Melody); Op. 54 Mountain Maid’); this pair renders it a masterpiece. of Magdala is perhaps a more
No. 6 (Bell Ringing); Op. 62 Nos 1 (Sylph), The familiar trajectory of love and rejection is made problematic work, sometimes
5 (Phantom) & 6 (Homeward) etc special by the characterisation of a rustic Norwegian hidebound by its English choral
Claire Booth (soprano), soul, who sings in her own voice in five of the eight pedigree; but Davis believes in
Christopher Glynn (piano) songs. The links with the natural it and enjoys the unassailable
Avie AV2403 71:59 mins Booth and Glynn world are delightful, even support of Sarah Connolly in
‘Edvard Grieg: Lyric Music’ is the render Haugtussa humorous – note how Glynn uses the title role, and James Platt as a
perfect title, since the piano sings a single piano note to represent consummately dignified Christ.
as much here on its own as it does a masterpiece the crack of a birch-club on a Indeed Connolly is similarly Rolls-
when joining the voice. Claire Booth threatening wolf’s jaw – and the Royce casting for The Enchantress,
and Christopher Glynn take their cue from the mixed amorous moments heart-meltingly lovely. A perfect a Theocritus-derived disquisition
programmes of the composer as pianist with his fusion between voice and piano – the piano’s opening on love, abandonment and sorcery.
beloved singer wife Nina; more, they build a three- wistfulness is matched by the soprano’s in ‘The Spurred on by Davis who seizes on
parter that makes this a very special Grieg recital. Princess’, for instance – is perfectly served by an ideal the cantata’s muscularity, felicities
You’d think Booth’s bright, youthful soprano with recording. Revelatory. of detail and filmic immediacy, she
its mix of fast vibrato – as distinctively part of the PERFORMANCE HHHHH savours to the full its declamatory
personality as those of Lucia Popp or Barbara Bonney RECORDING HHHHH fervour, sometimes twisted rapture,
– and pure white notes would be best suited to the and fleeting tenderness.
spring-like happiness of the early songs; but she turns Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of For fans of Sir Arthur, let Bliss be
this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine
SVEN ARNSTEIN ‘At the Grave of a Young Wife’. It’s poetically redeemed website at www.classical-music.com unconfined! Paul Riley HHHHH
in well-weighted tragedy, too, in the penultimate song,
HHHH
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING


82 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

Choral & Song Reviews







Debussy Gesualdo Reissues Reviewed by Paul Riley

Trois Nocturnes; Première Madrigals – Books I and II: Baci
Rhapsodie*; Marche Écossaise soavi e cari; Madonna io ben
sur un theme populaire; Les vorrei; Com’esser può ch’io viva Buxtehude • Campion • Milano • Purcell
soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du se m’uccidi; Gelo ha Madonna il Vocal and Instrumental Works
charbon; La Damoiselle élue seno; Mentre Madonna il lasso Eloquence 484 0518 (1954/55) 72:21 mins
Sophie Bevan (soprano), Anna fianco posa; Se da sì nobil Alfred Deller’s distinctive countertenor lends a
Stéphany (mezzo-soprano), *Sergio mano; Sì gioioso mi fanno i period hue all of its own to Buxtehude and Campion.
Castelló López (clarinet); Upper dolor miei; O dolce mio martire; Once past the arthritic opening, Purcell’s ‘artful’ ode
Voices from the Hallé Choirs; Hallé Tirsi morir volea; Mentre, mia dispenses resolute pomp and circumstance. HHH
Orchestra/Mark Elder stella, miri; Questi leggiadri The Purcell Album Songs and arias
odorosetti fiori, etc
Hallé CD HLL 7552 64:56 mins Alto ALC 1402 (1957-9) 79:20 mins
This is an Les Arts Florissants/Paul Agnew Church and theatre collide in an enjoyable anthology
album to delight Harmonia Mundi HAF 8905307.08 surfing some of Purcell’s most popular works. Poised
students of 81:43 mins (2 discs) and plangent, Alfred Deller’s unmistakeable voice is,
Debussy’s work Usually unhelpfully, the only one credited! HHH
who wish to hear recordings of Handel Cantatas for Saint Cecilia, etc
exactly all the Gesualdo’s Eloquence 482 4753 (1962/70) 65:57 mins
ingredients to his orchestration and madrigals An instinctive nobility informs Helen Watts’s firmly-
how he deploys his instruments. concentrate on contoured Cecilian cantatas; by way of postscript,
Though compiled from four the later books the intimate Neue Deutschen Arien find Robert Tear
different sessions, Mark Elder’s where the harmonies get truly weird operatically full-on. HHHH
vision here remains constant: the and opportunity opens up to link Family Connections
playing is cool-headed, precise the music to the composer’s tortured
and sonically beautiful with soul (he famously murdered his Songs by Mendelssohn, Spohr, Hahn et al
carefully calibrated ensemble, all wife). This by contrast is a welcome Nimbus NI 6395 (1993) 64:14 mins
A scion of the famous banking dynasty explores a
sympathetically recorded with just attempt to record the early books
enough acoustic not to obscure and glimpse for once the basis of unique family album. Charlotte de Rothschild’s poise
any detail. Gesualdo’s style in the basic skills and impeccable phrasing are matched by aristocratic
pianism from Malcolm Martineau. HHHH
Yet this is truly a case of being common to most madrigal writers.
faithful to the letter rather than the Paul Agnew’s group comprises
spirit of the music. There is little a mix of female and male voices
or none of that chemistry required singing just one to a part. This spare
not just by Debussy but also many texture helps the clarity of line and, Haydn the unprecedented setting of the
composers at the turn of the 20th in a work such as ‘Bella Angioletta’ Mass in B flat Benedictus as a breathless Allegro;
century, who expected certain (Book I), fosters coordinated (Harmoniemesse); and the invocation of the sounds
effects to be lovingly burnished, phrasing and dramatic drive. The Symphony No. 99 in E flat; of war preceding the prayer for
and others to be ever so slightly singers also manage nicely the Mireille Asselin (soprano), peace of the Dona nobis. This last
blurred or approximate: under Elder dance rhythms in ‘Danza le ninfe’ Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo- inspiration was one that Beethoven
everything, without exception, is (Book I) and in ‘All’apparir di soprano), Jeremy Budd (tenor), took to still greater heights in his
precisely delineated – which largely quella luci’ (Book II). Mostly these Sumner Thompson (baritone); Missa solemnis.
accounts for the almost total lack performances are quite fast. ‘Sento Handel and Haydn Society Chorus; No less opulently scored than
of any sense of place or atmosphere che nel partire’ (Book II) for example Handel and Haydn Society the Mass is the Symphony No. 99
that Debussy intends his music is moderately chromatic and can Orchestra/Harry Christophers – Haydn’s first to include clarinets.
to conjure. One is always aware drift aimlessly when performed CORO COR16176 68:24 mins Unusually, it even uses the trumpets
foremost of a performance by a slowly – as it does slightly on The and drums in its slow movement,
disciplined group of musicians. the Naxos complete Gesualdo Harmoniemesse which also contains two extended
Elder does not even allow a degree madrigals, and catastrophically on not only marked passages for winds alone. Harry
of excitement to spoil the pristine the Quinto Vocale Italiano complete the end of Christophers takes the minuet at
perfection of ‘Fêtes’ in Nocturnes, recording on Newton Classics. The the series of quite a lick and has to slow down
taken at a steady pace as reliable as a Arts Florissants group is framed Masses Haydn drastically for the ländler-like trio
ticking grandfather clock’s. by a distinct soprano at the top composed for Princess Esterházy’s section. But since the trio is in a
Elder’s sturdy and well-defined and sonorous bass – but they are name-day, but was also his last distant key from the minuet, Haydn
way with this music offers its not always centred enough on the significant composition. Certainly, provides a modulating link back to
own insights: one may hear how pitch to make the best of this music, it’s a monumental piece, and an the da capo, and Christophers’s shift
Debussy’s Marche écossaise took either harmonically or in terms of altogether appropriate way for him of gear here is rather disconcerting.
inspiration from Balakirev’s agility (as in ‘Gelo ha Madonna’ to have bowed out. Still, these are highly convincing
tone poem Tamara, and what from Book I). Some of the pieces Its nickname arises out of the accounts, with a fine line-up of
precisely Vaughan Williams took have been transposed to make the richness of its wind section – soloists in the Mass. These ‘live’
from Debussy’s soundworld. But singers more comfortable, and ‘Harmonie’ being the German performances may not be without
something essential is missing: to this has produced some pleasingly for a wind-band. Among its their occasional blemishes, but their
misquote the French Marshal Pierre controlled, widely ranging dynamic startlingly original features are warmth and their affection for the
Bosquet, ‘C’est magnifique, mais ce contrasts (‘Mentre mia stella’, the way the chorus first enters, music are everywhere in evidence.
n’est pas Debussy’. Daniel Jaffé Book I). Anthony Pryer on a dramatic discord; the fusion Misha Donat
PERFORMANCE HHH PERFORMANCE HHHH of the opening Kyrie and Christe PERFORMANCE HHHH
RECORDING HHHH RECORDING HHHH sections into a continuous whole; RECORDING HHHH


BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 83

Choral & Song Reviews







Monteverdi touches he elsewhere applies,
Cantatas in the can: Vespro della beate the chant makes these Vespers a
Masaaki Suzuki Disney-like invention, rather than a
records JS Bach Vergine (1610) persuasive re-think of Monteverdi’s
Claire Lefilliâtre (soprano), Fiona vision. Berta Joncus
McGown (mezzo-soprano), Eugénie PERFORMANCE HHH
de Mey (alto), Francisco Mañalich, RECORDING HH
Sébastien Obrecht, Pierre-Antoine
Chaumien (tenor), Renaud Bres, R Schumann
Arnaud Richard (bass); La Tempête/ Myrthen, Op. 25
Simon-Pierre Bestion Camilla Tilling (soprano),
Alpha Classics ALPHA 552 Christian Gerhaher (baritone),
142:07 mins (2 discs) Gerold Huber (piano)
Simon-Pierre Sony 19075945362 52:09 mins
Bestion has In August 1840
radically altered a court ruling
Monteverdi’s paved the way to a
Vespers. His aim long-anticipated
is immersion: union. The
not in Monteverdi’s music, but in following month
what Bestion imagines to be the Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck
religious fervour of c1600. Pushed were joined in matrimony, and
to their limits, the project’s superb on the eve of the nuptials Robert
From the archives musicians deliver moments both presented his bride-to-be with the

ultimate wedding present: Myrthen,
glorious and ludicrous. Silliness
Andrew McGregor basks in a collection of JS Bach’s comes when Bestion pumps up 26 songs exploring the nature of love
Monteverdi with putative ‘Eastern’ across four volumes. The binding
secular cantatas in the hands of Masaaki Suzuki practices – imagined to stem from, was deluxe, unlike the partnership

for instance, Persia, Armenia and itself which, in due course, would be
Bach’s secular cantatas were mostly written Turkey – that he holds to have sundered by Robert’s descent into
for specific occasions – patrons’ birthdays and influenced music-making in madness – prefigured by Gerhaher
weddings; social, academic and political events
17th-century Venice. No matter that with forensic prescience. At one
– and that’s probably the reason there are so few Monteverdi composed his Vespers point in the Byron-setting ‘Aus den
of them: a mere 20 or so cantatas out of the 200
in Mantua. Instead of period hebräischen Gesängen’ he conjures
he composed. Or at least that survived – after insights based on research, Bestion a cold spectral shiver that chills to
the function for which they were written, they’d be shelved, even samples 19th-century musical the bone; and what a contradictory
discarded. Unlike the sacred cantatas a repeat performance
Orientalism, pushing the singers to shock when ‘Räthsel’ – again to
would be highly unlikely, so who knows how many have been lost? scoop, add ornamental loops, sing words by Byron – steals in as if
As these performances from Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki piercingly and race forward; in tutti butter wouldn’t melt in its mouth.
Suzuki (BIS 2491; 10 CD/SACDs) consistently show, the music is
sections they sound rather like the Those familiar with the first
so good it often transcends the texts, which is why Bach often Bulgarian State Television Female instalment of Gerhaher’s complete
recycled it, and cantatas we don’t know suddenly seem strangely Vocal Choir. Claiming to ‘conjure’ Schumann project will take the
familiar. Bach knew how to write a celebration: check out the
lost traditions, Bestion in fact lards heightened characterisation in their
magnificently uplifting opening of Tönet, ihr Pauken!, BWV 214 for Monteverdi’s score with a Western stride. Nothing is ever ‘generalised’,
the birthday of the Prince-Elector’s wife. The Hunt Cantata, BWV fantasy of Eastern abandonment. and Gerhaher’s command of every
208 for a royal birthday party is more widely appreciated because The recording includes some facet of nuance (be it vocal colour
of the aria we know as ‘Sheep may safely graze’, and Joanne brilliant tracks. In more intimate or psychological insight) never
Lunn’s performance is a highlight, alongside Roderick Williams
sections, notably the Dixit Dominus, compromises the overarching
as Pan. Bach’s Coffee Cantata BWV 211 was on the first volume Laetatus sum and Duo Seraphim, narrative. In this his resolve is
Suzuki recorded in 2003, with a fresh-voiced Carolyn Sampson the licence Bestion grants his immeasurably strengthened
as deliciously energising as a double espresso. Then there’s the
performers accommodates ravishing by pianist Gerold Huber whose
Peasant Cantata, with its rustic comedy embraced by Bach, to the effects. The instrumentalists strut chromatic probing, for example,
obvious delight of singers Mojca Erdmann and Dominik Wörner. as persuasively as they wax lyrical; in ‘Mein Herz ist schwer’, forges a
The soloists are almost universally excellent, the BCJ’s experience
the vocalists, when soft, blend searing union with the baritone’s
pays dividends, and they’re not above letting their hair down in the gorgeously. Extemporisation by both anguished vocalisation. Together
lighter, wittier pieces. players and singers is often stunning. they energise the least promising of
A few dubious attributions are included, plus an incomplete To turn Monteverdi’s isolated material so that the hymnic calm of
Wedding Cantata, and they’ve made space for Bach’s movements into a full service of ‘Zum schluss’ contrives journey’s end
arrangement of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. The recording quality
worship, Bestion adds 17th-century with no hint of anti-climax. Soprano
is consistently fine, and they’ve remastered the first volume in fauxbourdons – that is, lines added Camilla Tiling ravishes in ‘Burns’,
surround sound to match the rest. They gave Sampson the solo in parallel fourths and sixths below and floats ‘Die Lotusblume’ with a
Cantata 204 to end the series, 13 years after she began it: ‘Ich
the bass – into which the musicians sumptuous languor, but never quite
bin in mir vergnügt’ – I am content in myself. So should they all be. drills down as deeply as Gerhaher.
MARCO BORGGREVE tuck some ear-tickling noodles. But The result is an imbalance, or
Bestion’s chant selection, sourced
from the standardised Catholic
seductive foil. You decide! Paul Riley
Andrew McGregor is the presenter of
Radio 3’s Record Review, broadcast each chant collection used today, is PERFORMANCE HHHH
Saturday morning from 9am until 11.45am ahistorical. Like the ‘Eastern’ RECORDING HHHHH


84
84 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

From January to June 2020,
Manchester’s symphony orchestras,

the Hallé and BBC Philharmonic,

celebrate the 250th anniversary
of Beethoven’s birth with a complete

cycle of the composer’s symphonies

at The Bridgewater Hall.



THURSDAY 30 JANUARY, 7.30PM


BEETHOVEN’S ODE TO JOY



Beethoven
Symphony No.9, ‘Choral’
Leonore Overture No.3
Elegischer Gesang
The Ruins of Athens: Overture
Christ on the Mount of Olives: Angel’s Chorus



Sir Mark Elder CONDUCTOR
Giselle Allen SOPRANO
Sarah Castle MEZZO-SOPRANO
www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk • 0161 907 9000 David Butt-Philip TENOR • Neal Davies BASS
The Hallé

≥ CONCERT SPONSORED BY Hallé Choir • Hallé Youth Choir • RNCM Chorus
MUSIC DIRECTOR
SIR MARK ELDER

Chamber









CHAMBER CHOICE Julian Anderson
Poetry Nearing Silence; Van
Weinberg wins the heart Gogh Blue; Ring Dance;
Bearded Lady; Prayer;
Another Prayer; The Colour
with emotional poetry of Pomegranates
Nash Ensemble/Martyn Brabbins
NMC NMCD256 78:06 mins
The programming of these post-war works paints This scintillating
collection of
an affecting picture of the composer, says Erik Levi chamber works is
aptly titled after
Julian Anderson’s
eight-movement
suite, Poetry Nearing Silence –
while its cover depicts a telling
art-cum-poetry fragment from the
Tom Phillips book that inspired it.
‘Unpack/ delight/ savour/ the old/
adventure’: in effect, these words
– and the erased words or ‘silence’
part-visible around them – embody
what Anderson does in music
through seven, strikingly cogent
pieces dating from 1987 to 2015.
Stylistically impossible to
pigeonhole, each vividly evokes its
extra-musical foundations while
springing from Anderson’s urge to
explore the stuff of music. Form and
expression, colour and character
become adventures in sound and
association while at the same time
Less-travelled road: reflecting on what that might mean.
Trio Khnopff make The Nash Ensemble prove
enterprising choices exceptional collaborators,
variously joined by conductor
Martyn Brabbins. Ring Dance
Weinberg Fanning in his illuminating booklet notes, inflects the is immediately arresting, its

Piano Trio; Cello Sonata No. 1; performance which has a real edge and encompasses violin duo an erotically-charged
Two Songs Without Words for violin and piano; the Trio’s troubled emotional trajectory, from the rumination on dance and
Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes anguished declamatory recitatives of the ‘Poem’ to the resonance, while the ensuing
Trio Khnopff brutal war machine of the ‘Toccata’ and the relentless The Bearded Lady (clarinet,
Pavane ADW 7590 71:32 mins fugal episode in the Finale, with devastating impact. piano) morphs from knockabout
After suffering decades of neglect, Mieczys!aw Inevitably the rest of the programme can’t reach to a lament for mistreated
Weinberg’s astonishing Piano Trio is at last getting the same levels of intensity. Nonetheless, Romain perceived ‘others’.
the due recognition in the concert Dhainaut and Stéphanie Salmin Throughout, psychological and
hall and the recording studio that The Rhapsody on deliver an eloquent and poetic musical nuance go hand-in-hand;
it surely deserves. This year alone, Moldavian Themes is a account of the First Cello Sonata. the parsing of Prayer (viola) being
there have been as many as six new Violinist Sadie Fields also makes to the point in both quiet homage
recordings of the work to add to real showstopper a strong impression, shaping and urgent struggle, thoughtfully
the two or three that have already the recently discovered Two re-visited in Another Prayer (violin).
been in the catalogue for some years. Songs without Words with tenderness and subtlety of The Colour of Pomegranates (alto
Making a choice as to the most satisfying version phrasing. She ends the disc on a high with a brilliant flute, piano) offers a sensuality
of the Trio might depend as much on the rest of the performance of the Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes, extended and quixotically critiqued
in Poetry Nearing Silence (septet)
a real showstopper that would make an excellent
programme offered in these recordings as on the
PHILIPPE BEHEYDT, HANYA CHLALA/ARENAPAL coupling is Shostakovich’s Second Piano Trio, PERFORMANCE HHHHH whole. Most beguiling of all, Van
where, as in Philips’s work, what
companion piece to Ravel’s Tzigane.
respective merits of each performance. An obvious
is unsaid serves to underscore the
HHHHH
completed a year before the Weinberg. However, the
RECORDING
Gogh Blue (octet) explores the colour
Trio Khnopff are far more enterprising, placing the
that encapsulates like no other that
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of
work alongside other compositions that Weinberg
this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine
intensely public-private artist.
wrote following the end of the Second World War.
website at www.classical-music.com
Steph Power
This autobiographical context, highlighted by David
HHHHH
PERFORMANCE
86 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE RECORDING HHHHH

Chamber Reviews







Beethoven with the grandeur, anxiety and
quietly changing colour he adored in
Violin Sonatas Nos 1-3; abstract expressionist painting and,
Variations on Mozart’s ‘Se vuol’
latterly, Anatolian rug design.
ballare’, WoO 40
Patterns in a Chromatic Field
James Ehnes (violin), (1981) is perhaps the most
Andrew Armstrong (piano) rhythmically active of these
Onyx ONYX 4177 68:25 mins famously long, static pieces,
Beethoven which showed his increasing
published the preoccupation with matters of
first three of form, scale and musical memory.
his sonatas for Cellist Mathis Meyr and pianist
violin and piano Antonis Anissegos bring their
aged only 28, improvisor’s sensibility and rigour
yet what abundance and vitality of to the score, etching its subtleties
invention they display! And what note by note into a tapestry of ever-
variety of character: there’s the evolving present.
broad unfolding of Sonata No. 1’s Abstraction is key in the
first movement, proclaiming his relationship of local moment to the
intention to work on the largest whole – whether it be a single, soft
formal scale; then the burlesque harmonic or a chord sustained to the
fun and games of the opening point of disappearance; a sudden
Exceptional collaborators: the Nash Ensemble works well with Julian Anderson
movement of No. 2 in A major with pizzicato flurry or an obsessively
its unexpected lapses into shadowy repeated motif. No note or gesture
minor keys; and the intimacy of has a meaning beyond itself, yet all swings over a pizzicato safety net, celebrates its 50th anniversary
the deeply expressive Adagio of are essential within the patterns is done with what in context is just with this release, chronicles it
No. 3. Evidently, he was determined which continually shift and change, the right amount of levity. These all eloquently in Linn’s generous
to raise the elegance, pathos and grasped as if from the air to create, are very much modern-instrument presentation. He also gets to kick
formal perfection found in Mozart’s in Anissegos’ words, ‘a floating and performances, yet while a juicy off with a meditative solo, since the
violin sonatas to an altogether more breathing architecture’. vibrato is never far away it’s not 13th was dedicated to the Beethoven
elaborate and comprehensive level. Overall it’s a captivating account, unthinkingly applied. Tempos are Quartet’s first viola player, Vadim
James Ehnes and Andrew beautifully recorded with a dry steady yet nicely sprung, with the Borisovsky, and Shostakovich gives
Armstrong have already released a immediacy that places the listener exception of the racing finale of him the lead (in the 14th, the cellist
recording of Violin Sonatas Nos 6 inside the sound. Steph Power the Divertimento, which is a bit of dominates, going expressively
and 9 to much praise, and this new PERFORMANCE HHHH a scramble. above the first violin at crucial
disc in what will, presumably, be a RECORDING HHHHH Listened to straight through, the points). The other players then take
complete Beethoven cycle, is hard disc feels a little relentless. Perhaps us into even more rarefied realms;
to fault. Ehnes’s virtuosity, and the Mozart that has something to do with the with this group, and thanks to the
distinctive sweetness of his tone in String Quartet No. 14 in G, empty-hall resonance, closeness dynamic and tonal range of Linn’s
more lyrical passages, is perfectly K387; Divertimento in F, K138; and forward nature of the recording; engineering, pianissimo has a cusp-
complemented by Armstrong’s String Quartet No. 15 perhaps the balance lacks a little of-silence significance.
sensitively-graded pianism and the in D minor, K421 subtlety; or perhaps, despite those There’s no doubt that the spirit
irresistible ‘lift’ his left hand imparts Quatuor Van Kuijk springy tempos, the Van Kuijks are is still embodied by the current
to the bouncier passages. The Alpha Classics ALPHA 551 67:24 mins relishing each note and spelling Fitzwilliams, though I’d like a little
recorded balance is about as good Three years after out every phrase when it would be more lightness and colour-palette in
as one will get, given the weightier, their last Mozart wiser to let a few of them just flow. the 14th’s first movement; again, its
thicker tone of the modern grand disc, rising stars Still, even if they are enjoying all this interior monologues have all
compared with the fortepianos the Van Kuijk a little, that doesn’t mean we can’t the power of Shakespearean
Beethoven knew. The early set of Quartet tackle enjoy it too. Erica Jeal soliloquy. Fierce pizzicatos keep
Mozart variations make an engaging two more of the PERFORMANCE HHH the normally tranquil F sharp
fill-up. Bayan Northcott half-dozen quartets that Mozart RECORDING HHHH major close on the rack until the
PERFORMANCE HHHH dedicated to Haydn in the early very end; conversely, warm vibrato
RECORDING HHHH 1780s. In between comes the F major Shostakovich makes the opening movement of
Divertimento written when the String Quartets Nos 13-15 the 15th Quartet more poignant
Feldman composer was just 16, a simpler Fitzwilliam String Quartet and personal than the deadpan

Patterns in a Chromatic Field but no less effective piece that here Linn CKD 612 85:61 mins delivery, like an impersonal chant,
Mathis Mayr (cello), gets just as rich-toned and meaty For the of interpreters like the Borodin
Antonis Anissegos (piano) a performance. Fitzwilliam Quartet. Shostakovich’s famous
Wergo WER 7382 2 79:42 mins Throughout, one is aware Quartet, the comment about playing it ‘so that
Morton Feldman that here are four outstanding adventure began the flies on the ceiling drop dead
has proved one of musicians, playing four outstanding in 1972 when of boredom’ certainly doesn’t
the 20th century’s instruments. The sound is warm Shostakovich apply here, and I think I prefer the
most influential and vibrant, the atmosphere visited them in York around the humanity; there’s enough harrowing
composers. Yet he focused and intense, although first performances in the west of in the later stages of the work.
remains one of its not exclusively so: the trio in the his 13th Quartet. Alan George, the David Nice
most enigmatic, and his late works Menuetto of K421, where the first only remaining member of the PERFORMANCE HHHH
retain an aura of mystery steeped violinist sketches graceful trapeze original group, which nominally RECORDING HHHHH


BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 87

Chamber Reviews







subtle and many-shaded pieces, rich Biographical
in harmony and quietly engaging; fact: Mathilde,
Maximum tension: John Corigliano’s Soliloquy is a
Tesla Quartet bring Schoenberg’s
colour to Corigliano searingly emotional work written in first wife and
1995 in memory of the composer’s Zemlinsky’s sister,
late father. Carolina Heredia’s Ius had an affair with
in Bello, which dates from 2014, is a a young painter, Richard Gerstl, who
politically-inspired work (the title committed suicide when she finally
means ‘law of war’) driven primarily rejected him. While Schoenberg’s
by events in Venezuela, but it works Second String Quartet of 1908 was
convincingly as ‘pure’ music. written while all this was happening,
The performances sometimes the booklet note honestly concedes
live up to their promise. Both the that there’s no clear evidence of a
contemporary pieces are well served, similar connection in Zemlinsky’s
the ensemble finely navigating (later) Second Quartet, let alone in
their pace, offering plenty of colour Webern’s (earlier) Langsamer Satz
and achieving maximum tension (Slow Movement). The justification
in the agonising Soliloquy. The isn’t needed anyway: Schoenberg’s
Mozart, though, suffers from an quartet, with a soprano voice in
imbalance between the unshakable its last two movements, is one
clarinet and the wispy first violin of his supreme achievements,
– one suspects from conflicting while Zemlinsky’s 40-minute,
interpretations rather than the single-movement creation is a
placement of microphones. Imagine neglected masterwork.
the line of a blue felt pen beside It’s therefore unfortunate that
Telemann Telemann’s anthology Essercizii that of a 2H pencil. It is fine to play the playing style here – technically
Telemann’s Garden: Fantasia musici, long thought to have been Mozart in what might for some superb as such, but also insistently
No. 7 in A minor – Lentement; published in about 1740 but now reason be considered an idiomatic hard-edged, with exaggerated,
Suite No. 5 in A minor; Fantasia known to belong to an earlier 18th-century style without any effect-conscious contrasts of volume
No. 9 in B minor – Siciliana; period, c1726. strength of tone, but not if a strong and tone – is so inappropriate to
Paris Quartet No. 3 in G; The remaining pieces are modern clarinettist is doing strong the music itself, with close and dry
Fantasia No. 1 in A minor; Trio movements from the Fantasias modern clarinet playing alongside. recorded sound making the situation
Sonata No. 10 in A minor; for solo harpsichord, solo violin, This performance remains as a worse. Of course convincing
Solo Sonata No. 9 in E minor – solo flute, and another for viola whole rather earthbound. The Finzi alternatives can be found to the
Recitativo & Arioso da gamba from Essercizii musici. is more convincing and is presented soft-grained, pliable Viennese sound
Elephant House Quartet The warm rapport of this Quartet with a more homogeneous tone, but the composers themselves knew
Pentatone PTC 5186 749 58:56 mins with Telemann’s deftly crafted and here the two violinists have switched and reckoned on. The in-your-face
The title of this idiomatic instrumental writing places. Sound recording is warm manner of these performances isn’t
disc salutes ensures an hour of uninterrupted and clear. Jessica Duchen one of them. A non-vibrato-then-
Telemann’s love of pleasure. Regrettably three of these PERFORMANCE HHH vibrato mannerism, replicated in
flowers. In August four solo items have been limited RECORDING HHHH phrase after phrase to the point
1742 he wrote to a to a single movement. Why not let of cliché (as at the start of the
fellow musician, us hear the complete works? They The Mathilde Album Zemlinsky), is especially dislikeable;
Johann Friedrich von Uffenbach, are not long and there was plenty of Schoenberg: String Quartet it also detracts from Elsa Dreisig’s
expressing his passion for hyacinths, space for them. Nicholas Anderson No. 2*; Webern: Langsamer Satz; beautiful soprano tone and fine
tulips, ranunculi and in particular, PERFORMANCE HHHH Zemlinsky: String Quartet No. 2 technical control. Malcolm Hayes
anemones. Elephant House Quartet RECORDING HHHH *Elsa Dreisig (soprano); Quatuor Arod PERFORMANCE HH
have chosen a programme to reflect Erato 9029542552 80:26 mins RECORDING HH
the imagined colours and fragrances Joy & Desolation
of Telemann’s garden. Corigliano: Soliloquy; Finzi: Five
The music is drawn from the five Bagatelles; C Heredia: Ius in Bello;
collections of instrumental music Mozart: Clarinet Quintet
that Telemann published in a period Alexander Fiterstein (clarinet), BACKGROUND TO…
between c1726 and 1738. It need not Tesla Quartet John Corigliano (b1938)
worry us, unduly, that two of the Orchid Classics ORC 100106 63:38 mins
works here were written expressly Rather than One of America’s most successful living
for the transverse flute, since Bolette splitting hairs composers, Corigliano has over 100 works to
Roed is an outstanding recorder on whether the his credit. His First Symphony, which won him a
player. Her accomplished technique Mozart Clarinet Grammy (the first of four) in 1992, was written
and musical empathy ensure Quintet is really for the Chicago Symphony – Corigliano was its
first ever composer-in-residence. His Second
joyful, let’s
fluency and stylistic propriety in the leapfrog over this album’s slightly Symphony won him a Pulitzer Prize in 2001, just
DARIO ACOSTA, J. HENRY FAIR et Six Suites of 1734 and the G major misleading title and note that Original Score for The Red Violin. As a teacher, Corigliano continues to
A minor Suite from the Six Concerts
a year or so after taking home the Oscar for Best
Fiterstein and the Tesla Quartet have
Quartet from the Parisian Nouveaux
serve on the faculty at both Juilliard and New York’s Lehman College;
assembled an unusual programme
Quatuors of 1738. The third piece
his past students include Mason Bates, Nico Muhly and Eric Whitacre.
of substance is the A minor Trio
of highly contrasted works that is
Sonata for recorder and violin from
very effective. Finzi’s Bagatelles are
88 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

www.lofotenfestival.com





















12 concerts | 7 lectures | + several other arrangements | in the midle of Lofoten

Christian Ihle Hadland, artistic director | Polina Leschenko, piano | Denes Varjon, piano | Ryoma Takagi, piano
| Yevgeny Sudbin, piano | Ann-Helen Moen, soprano | Engegård Quartet | Wolfgang Plagge, lecturer & pianist

Sponsored by:

Instrumental









INSTRUMENTAL CHOICE


Simon Trp!eski paints a magical picture




David Nice relishes the pianist’s mastery and love for these Russian classics



themes from Rimsky-Korsakov’s
Sheherazade. Here is the whole thing,
and though you sometimes miss
Tales From Russia the orchestral master’s allocation
Musorgsky: Night on Bare of instrumental solos, Trp!eski
Mountain; Prokofiev: Tales of ‘conducts’ his own interpretation
an Old Grandmother; so magnificently towards a series
Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade of towering climaxes that you
Simon Trp!eski (piano) understand his special love for this
Onyx ONYX 4191 65:31 mins music. The big sea-swells are hair-
How typically idiosyncratic of raising – the last one in the finale so
Simon Trp!eski to begin his latest massive that it almost sounds as if a
recorded recital quietly, intuitively, third recorded hand had been added;
with Prokofiev’s Tales of an Old but the biggest surprise is the time
Grandmother. These and atmosphere
elliptical pieces, Trp!eski gilds Trp!eski allots
the first Prokofiev Prokofiev’s Tales with to the mood-
completed after conjuring, starting
leaving post- perfectly-judged tone with those
revolutionary mysterious chords
Russia for what he thought would Rimsky-Korsakov acknowledged
be a short tour of America, conjure as indebted to Mendelssohn’s
nostalgia through their singular Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture.
lyricism and mysterious refrains. The same is true of the Night on Bare
Trp!eski gilds them with perfectly- Mountain, Konstantin Chernov
judged tone, matched by a recording transcribing Korsakov re-ordering Epic and intimate:
which is as full and lovely as any I’ve Musorgsky: where a mere virtuoso Simon Trpcˇeski performs
with power and mystery
heard for a pianist as good as this. might rush through the demon-
The Tales are also the only pieces banishing dawn, Trp!eski makes it a
intended for the keyboard, though most magical tone painting.
curiously Prokofiev ‘recorded’ PERFORMANCE HHHHH Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices
a player-piano pot-pourri of RECORDING HHHHH on the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com






JS Bach Martinikerk in the northeast Dutch comparison with the later ones, Fantasy & Fugue on the theme BACH;

Toccata & Fugue in D minor, city of Groningen, an instrument she makes you hang on every note. Fantasy & Fugue on the the Choral ‘Ad
BWV 538; Prelude & Fugue in dating back to Bach’s childhood Highlights among the chorale nos, ad salutarem undam’; Widor:
G, BWV 535; An Wasserflüssen and one of the most famous – and preludes include a wonderfully Bach’s Memento No. 5 – Sicilienne;
Babylon, BWV 653; Fantasia precious – of all Baroque organs registered ‘An Wasserflüssen Organ Symphony No. 5 – Toccata
super ‘Jesu, meine Freude’, surviving today. Her recital of Babylon’ and an exhilarating Jae-Hyuck Cho (organ)
BWV 713a/1 & 713/2 etc ‘Famous Organ Works’ offers an ‘Komm, Gott, Schöpfer, Heiliger Evidence EVCD058 72:27 mins
Kei Koito (organ) attractive survey, yet not actually Geist’, played with a bravura seldom It may have been
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 19075915582 any of Bach’s most famous works: found here; the modest, manuals- built as a temple
67:52 mins it opens with a Toccata and Fugue only Fantasia super ‘Jesu, meine to Napoleonic
A Baroque in D minor – not ‘that’ one, but the Freude’ sounds superbly ethereal. glory, but the
BENJAMIN EALOVEGA, DANIEL MUSTER, GETTY rigour to a programme covering registrations of bright transparency and blazing close. John Allison has had a remarkable musical
The Prelude and Fugue in D major,
Madeleine
‘Dorian’, BWV 538. Played with
specialist and
noted Bach
Church in Paris
BWV 532, brings things to a brilliant
almost dancing lightness and using
player, Japanese
and bite, the performance has all the
history – having witnessed such
HHHHH
organist Kei Koito
PERFORMANCE
HHHHH
hallmarks of Kei Koito’s artistry and
events as Chopin’s funeral and
brings intellectual
RECORDING
the tenure of organists including
it sets the tone for interpretations of
JS Bach • Liszt • Widor
unfailing clarity and colour.
Saint-Saëns and Fauré. You might
all the main genres of organ
JS Bach: Toccata & Fugue in D minor,
expect anyone recording a recital
Even in a couple of quite early
composition in Bach’s day. She
plays the Arp Schnitger organ in the
90 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE preludes and fugues, compact by BWV 565; T Kim: Pahdo; Liszt: on its great Cavaillé-Coll organ to

Instrumental Reviews







show some awareness of this, but with great spirit. Nor is he afraid
nothing is disclosed in the brief ‘The to add touches of individuality,
Organ: My Story’ that replaces any lingering a little at key points in
programme note in this new release. the more lyrical undulations of the
Nor is there much shape to the 11th piece. The very close recording
mélange of (mostly) recital staples creates a great sense of presence,
played by the Korean organist Jae- but also magnifies the few strained
Hyuck Cho, who begins – where passages. Nonetheless, Spruill is an
else? – with Bach’s Toccata and engaging and convincing advocate.
Fugue in D minor, treating it to Christopher Dingle
an old-fashioned performance in PERFORMANCE HHH
which rhythmic instability makes RECORDING HHH
the Fugue sound rushed.
Widor inevitably means the Rippe
ubiquitous Toccata, given an over- Fantasias and intabulations of
enthusiastic workout; unusually, it vocal pieces and dances
also means one of the movements Paul O’Dette (lute)
from his seldom-heard Bach’s Harmonia Mundi HMM 902275
Memento (No. 5, the Sicilienne). 75:56 mins
Liszt, no less predictably, means Court lutenist
the Fantasy and Fugue on BACH, of François I in
Bach with bite:
where the turbulence turns muddy, the first half of
Kei Koito shows
and although Cho does show a colour and clarity the 16th century,
temperamental affinity for the Albert de Rippe
composer in the Fantasy and Fugue was a musical
on ‘Ad nos, ad salutarem undam’ his innovator and hugely renowned in
accomplished and virtuosic playing movement there are questioning in 1993 for a fashion show by his lifetime. Before he died – kidney
still doesn’t put this version near upbeats; beneath the pretty surface Yohji Yamamoto. The only other stones, we are told – in 1551, his
many other accounts of the work. of the mercurial Rondo Biss draws recording, by Alexander Balanescu, supreme skill had acquired him
The recording at least introduces out what he describes as a ‘festival only had a limited release, so this land, wealth and an apparent total
a specially-commissioned piece, of questions’. And he invests the spritely new version from Chase artistic control over his output,
Pahdo, in which the composer strangely sighing fifths which open Spruill is the first to be widely resulting in only three works being
Texu Kim makes good use of the No. 18 with a diffident tenderness, available. It is a pity, then, that the published in his lifetime. The
Madeleine instrument to produce going on to progressively darken simple cardboard sleeve contains no remainder, filling six books, were
beautiful washes of sound and the mood and colouring. All the information whatsoever about the published posthumously by his
incorporates traditional Korean effects are delicately calibrated, and piece beyond its name. student Guillaume Morlaye.
melodies to evoke the ‘ocean wave’ the pedalling is very discreet; the The music will be familiar A selection of these complex,
of its title. John Allison Scherzo is thrilling in its airborne to anyone who knows Nyman’s ornamented and virtuosic works,
PERFORMANCE HH weightlessness, the Menuetto has String Quartet No. 4, as it was used from his intricate and rich Fantasias
RECORDING HHH ineffable grace. in its entirety as the first violin to his popular intabulations of vocal
Biss’s analysis of Op. 111 is part. As usual with Nyman, short pieces – you can hear the choral
Beethoven provocative yet persuasive. ideas are repeated, varied and effect in his innovative multi-

Piano Sonatas Nos 7, 18 & 32 Discussing what he regards as its developed in his own engaging stranded chords – are presented here
Jonathan Biss (piano) inability to end, he suggests that its brand of minimalism, with neither by American lutenist Paul O’Dette,
Orchid Classics ORC 100109 67:56 mins subtext is both the desire to live for the individual movements nor who makes abundant sense of de
This album ever, and the impossibility of doing the work as a whole outstaying Rippe’s complexities. Interspersed,
concludes so, with its final bars representing its welcome. Spruill’s energetic and lightening the mood somewhat,
Jonathan ‘a heartbeat that simply stops’. approach is well-suited to the are a number of pavanes and
Biss’s recorded His performance – smooth and prevalence of motoric movements galliards by anonymous ‘bons
cycle, and it’s exquisitely expressive when it soars
exceptionally into the empyrean – conveys exactly
felicitous. Having devoted most of that. Michael Church
his energies to Beethoven over the PERFORMANCE HHHHH BACKGROUND TO…
last ten years – writing and talking RECORDING HHHHH Michael Nyman (b1944)
as much as playing – he’s carved out
a niche as the leading interpreter of Michael Nyman So much more than a composer, Michael
the sonatas. Yamamoto Perpetuo Nyman is also a performer, conductor,
The sonatas he’s chosen to Chase Spruill (violin) librettist and filmmaker. One of the fathers
of minimalism, his musical style truly set him
juxtapose are each the last of a set Supertrain Records STR 008 40:08 mins
of three; each, he argues, represents A welcome yet apart in the 1970s. His Michael Nyman Band,
a culmination, and through the frustrating established in 1977, continues to tour the world
questions they raise, they reflect the release. Yamamoto and Nyman himself has become something
composer’s vulnerability as much as Perpetuo is a of an icon whom other artists have clamoured
his strength. No. 7 may begin with 12-movement to work with. His composing output is vast, comprising chamber works,
a Presto which hurtles ahead – on work for solo opera, songs and film scores. A fruitful collaboration with the director
the page so bare-looking, but here violin lasting about 40 minutes, Peter Greenaway brought about some of his most familiar works.
so rich in texture – but even in this initially written by Michael Nyman


BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 91

Instrumental Reviews







Autheurs’; de Rippe (I paraphrase Saram’s potent musical personality
O’Dette here) had a bit of a blind spot shines through. Helen Wallace
A life’s work:
when it came to composing high- Rohan de Saram PERFORMANCE HHHH
quality dance music. celebrates his 80th RECORDING HHHH
This is a fascinating, well-
structured interweaving overview American Rage
of de Rippe’s musical world, Copland: Piano Sonata; Rzewski:
immaculately played by the North American Ballads – Which side
expressive O’Dette, from the are you on?; Winnsboro Cotton Mill
evocative L’Eccho, in which the Blues; Julia Wolfe: Compassion
lutenist ‘echoes’ him/herself Conrad Tao (piano)
by switching position on the Warner 9029535477 57:85 mins
fingerboard to produce a sound Conrad Tao’s
akin to an offstage echo, to the biography
anonymous, touching Pavane from creaks under the
Morlaye’s Premier Livre de Tabulature weight of awards
de Leut. These are the works which (Gilmore Young
really sing, and O’Dette brings this Artist; Avery
same moving, introspective quality Fisher laureate): at 25 he’s already
to the Fantaisie II, the scordatura an acclaimed pianist-composer
tuning giving it its unusual chordal (and occasional violinist) and has
tonalities, while the clarity of sound been on every ‘one to watch’ list
is throughout matched by that of the for years. This is his third release
recording. Sarah Urwin Jones for Warner; a recording that once
RECORDING HHHH again demonstrates Tao’s jaw-
PERFORMANCE HHHH appealing, at the same time bringing composer friends and colleagues dropping pianism and aptitude
to mind the English virginalists. The over his six-decade-long career. His for programming.
Sweelinck Toccatas and Fantasias, on the other is a distinctive legacy, with several The inspiration behind American

Praeludium Toccata; Phantasia hand, perhaps more often recall the works referencing his Sri Lankan Rage is thinly veiled. The disc is
à 4; Paduana Lachrimae; late 16th-century Italian composers. heritage as well as exploiting his bookended by two works from
Toccata Primi Toni; Fantasia Egarr’s playing is full of fearless technique. Rzweski’s North American Ballads
cromatica; Toccata; Est-ce energy and insight, his rhythmic The Calcutta-born John Mayer’s and the opening ‘Which side are
Mars; Fantasia; Mein junges sense is invigorating and his Sannyasin was inspired by the you on?’ sets out key themes of
Leben hat ein End; Ut re mi fa enjoyment of the music evident Hindu ritual of renouncing the moral struggle and solidarity. For
sol la in his often exuberant virtuosity. world, appropriate for this artist the extended improvisation at the
Richard Egarr (harpsichord) The full-bodied sound of his who has dedicated his life to the end of the piece, Tao uses a riff from
Linn CKD 589 76:13 mins harpsichord, a copy after Ruckers, road less travelled. It’s perhaps the Pete Seeger’s 1967 recording of the
Sweelinck’s music is sympathetically captured, and most conventionally rhetorical work song from which Rzweski’s
does not enjoy Sweelinck’s almost ever-present of all the works, inflected with ballad takes its name. The result
the frequent counterpoint is argued with clarity Mayer’s indo-jazz fusion style. Hilda is a brilliant, slightly bewildering
appearances on and an assured feeling for the Paredes’s pungent, tightly-focused outpouring of cross rhythms and
disc that it merits. idiom. My only regret is that, in the essay Zuhuy Kak incorporates stacked melodies that rise to a fury,
He was one of course of an engaging essay, Egarr Khandyan drumming patterns from before reaching clattering snippets
the most celebrated organists of his has managed to avoid any mention the ‘Elephant Vannam’, a Sri Lankan of tune – and an abrupt stop.
day, as his recitals at Amsterdam’s at all of the pieces he plays so well. entertainment. De Saram, a long- That hint of resolution is
Oude Kerk testify. Additionally, Nicholas Anderson time exponent of the Khandyan explored throughout Copland’s
he was a noted teacher, numbering PERFORMANCE HHHH drum, delights in its expressively craggy Sonata, a work written
Samuel Scheidt among his pupils. RECORDING HHHH dragged pizzicato and ghostly during the Second World War, when
Of greater note, in the context of 20th Century British cantilenas, though the martial both domestic and international
Richard Egarr’s harpsichord recital, rhythms could be more elastic. humanitarian crises were on
is Sweelinck’s fluent knowledge Works for Solo Cello This piece vies with James Dillon’s the composer’s mind. Tao draws
of English styles, partly acquired J Dillon: Eos; Drakeford: Cello Eos as my favourite discovery here: out the contrasts, his Gouldian
through his acquaintanceship with Suite No. 2; D Matthews: Songs and Dillon sustains a taut, expressive vocal expressions clearly audible
John Bull and Peter Philips, both of Dances of Mourning; John Mayer: trajectory, whose muscularity and in this recording. Although
whom lived in the Netherlands. This Sannyasin; H Paredes: Zuhuy Kak poise is beautifully realised by initially distracting, with repeated
influence can be felt, intermittently Rohan de Saram (celllo) de Saram. listening they become part of the
throughout Egarr’s programme, First Hand FHR045 70:03 mins Perhaps not surprisingly David phrasing. Julia Wolfe’s Compassion
which consists of a well-contrasted Rohan de Matthew’s Songs and Dances of is exquisite; in Tao’s hands the
miscellany, including Toccatas Saram, former Mourning (1976/98) evokes Britten’s repeated dissonant fragments
and Fantasias. cellist of the cello suites, written as they were become meaningfully ferocious.
The best-known pieces on the Arditti Quartet in the year of his death: a poignant The closing Winnsboro Cotton Mill
disc are the Fantasia cromatica, and a tireless lament, scurrying presto a chaconne, Blues (Tao’s reading benefits from
the Pavana Lachrimae based on adventurer in new and even a final flowering of motifs. neater sound than Ralph van Raat’s
Dowland’s song ‘Flow, my teares’ music, marks his 80th birthday with It’s well done. These recordings were 2007 library favourite) sounds an
and the Est-ce Mars variations on a very personal collection, almost made in 2015 and are perhaps not as historic alarm. Claire Jackson
a secular song. The art of variation a musical ‘This is Your Life’. Each effortless as they might have been PERFORMANCE HHHHH
often reveals Sweelinck at his most of the works was written for him by in earlier years. Nevertheless, de RECORDING HHHH


92 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

“…this truly remarkable




instrument has a pure,



even, beautiful tone…”



Corinna Smith,

Violinist, Adam Ezra Group

























Photo © Michael Sparks luisandclark.com
617-698-3034



















Throughout 2020




NATURE Brumel



Earthquake Mass
Bach
Peasant Cantata
Beethoven Tamara Stefanovich © Olja Radmanovic
Pastoral Symphony
Sounds of Life Vaughan Williams
The Lark Ascending
Grace Williams
Sea Sketches
Messiaen
Tamara Stefanovich Feinstein Ensemble Catalogue d’Oiseaux
Theatre of Voices London Sinfonietta John Luther Adams
Among Red Mountains
Vox Luminis Västerås Sinfonietta
GF Haas
I Fagiolini Instruments of Time & Truth
Solstices
The Sixteen Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Max Richter
Albion Quartet Aurora Orchestra Four Seasons Recomposed
12 ensemble and many more Anna Meredith

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Brief notes








Our monthly selection of shorter reviews has new works and forgotten gems






Babajanian • Tchaikovsky Franck Redemption Juris Karlsons Sacred Choral Flor Peeters Organ music
Piano Trios Flemish Radio Choir et al Works Latvian Radio Choir et al Roberto Marini (organ) Brilliant 95637
Yevgeny Sudbin (piano) et al BIS-2372 Musique en Wallonie MEW 1994 Ondine ODE 1342-2 Flor Peeters’s organ
Tchaikovsky’s Piano The music contains From quiet music doesn’t set
Trio can sometimes some longeurs, but contemplation to the world alight,
feel baggy, but the there are some lovely raw emotion, the but there are one or
intensity of sound, moments scattered representation of two gems lurking
emotion and purpose throughout Franck’s prayer lies at the here: Suite Modale, the Aria and the
turn this into a gripping, charged Berliozian oratorio. Playing and heart of this Latvian composer’s Toccata, Fugue and Hymn on Ave
performance. Arno Babajanian’s singing are top notch. (OC) HHHH Adoratio for choir and orchestra. Maris Stella. (OC) HHH
Trio is an excellent companion. (RF) It’s powerful stuff, passionately
HHHH Gesualdo Madrigali performed. (JP) HHHH Chang Ping
Exaudi Vocal Ensemble Oriental Wash Painting
JS Bach Magnificat Winter & Winter 9102592 Aaron Jay Kernis China National Symphony Orchestra
La Chapelle Harmonique et al This programme Flute Concerto etc Naxos 8.570627
Chateau de Versailles CVS009 of 19 remarkable Marina Piccinini et al Naxos 8.559830 If you’re looking
Splendidly alert, madrigals by the The 2015 Flute for gently ambient
life-affirming Italian composer, a Concerto is the chinoiserie, these
musicianship here, horrifying character headline work here four concertos are
particularly the with a lurid biography, is sung with (and it’s a cracker), the wrong place to
brass playing in the blazing intensity and total precision but the much earlier turn – Chang Ping’s style is often
opening minutes of the Magnificat by Exaudi. (RF) HHHHH Second Symphony (1991) leaves dramatic and hard-hitting, aided
and the thrilling final moments of the biggest impression, packing an by thrilling solo performances. (JP)
BWV 63. (OC) HHHH Gesualdo emotional punch. (MB) HHHH HHHH
Secondo Libro Di Madrigali
Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 etc La Compagnia del Madrigale Magnard Symphonies Nos 3 and 4 Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky etc
Baibe Skride (violin) et al Orfeo C 950 191 Glossa GCD 922809 Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra Utah Symphony Reference FR-735
Bartók’s Second The distinctive Naxos 8.574082 This knocked my
Violin Concerto timbres of individual The ghosts of Wagner socks off! Some of
is paired with two voices bring and Bruckner Prokofiev’s most
rhapsodies here, intimacy to La haunt the final thrilling music,
performed with real Compagnia del two symphonies of performed by
bite. Skride’s characterful playing Madrigale’s latest volume of Albéric Magnard, a massive orchestral and choral
is matched by the orchestra’s sturdy Gesualdo, which turns to the second French composer who pretty much forces in a sublime recording. (MB)
sound. (FP) HHHH book of madrigals. It’s sensitively spanned the late Romantic period. HHHHH
recorded. (RF) HHHH Vivid performances. (RF) HHH
Bon Six Flute Sonatas Rahbari My Mother Persia (Vol. 2)
Vladimir Soares (recorder) et al Karl Jenkins Miserere Marchand • Guilain Organ Works Mohammad Motamedi (tenor) et al
Drama Musica DRAMA007 Polyphony et al Decca 481 8580 David Ponsford (organ) Nimbus NI 6390 Naxos 8.574065
Eighteenth-century Jenkins’s vision of Played on a largely Eastern flavours
Italian composer peace and unity authentic French abound in Rahbari’s
Anna Bon has since in the Middle East organ, these symphonic tributes
disappeared into inspires a masterful collections of late to his Iranian
relative obscurity. blend of musical 17th- and early heritage which take
The young prodigy’s first set of styles and a typically sumptuous 18th-century Pièces d’orgue radiate influences from Rimsky-Korsakov
flute sonatas – performed here on soundworld. And what a line-up! a stately, often melancholy beauty. and Borodin among others. (OC)
recorder with purity and control Iestyn Davies captivates. (MB) Seek out Marchand’s Dialogues in HHH
– suggests that this is entirely HHHH particular. (OC) HHHH
undeserving. (FP) HHH Sibelius Kullervo
Lydia Kakabadse Moniuszko • Zarebski The Polytech Choir et al
John A Carollo Symphony No. 3 Choral and Vocal Works Chamber Works Ondine ODE 1338-5
LSO/Miran Vaupoti! Navona NV6250 Clare McCaldin (mezzo) et al Plawner Quintet CPO 555 124-2 The Finnish
There are Divine Art dda 25188 Juliusz Zarebski’s orchestra pays
invigorating Kakabadse’s Odyssey Piano Quintet homage to the great
moments of lyrical for choir and harp is immediately Finnish composer’s
drama in this work, wends its Homeric grabbing, a far bolder symphony, deeply
itself jam-packed way in pleasant if creation than the rooted in Finnish culture. A win
with themes and colourful ideas. not particularly nonetheless engaging pair of string all round. Despite a slightly muted
There’s some disconnect between memorable style. The songs for quartets by his Polish compatriot, start, the orchestra springs into
movements perhaps, but great mezzo and piano that follow are Stanis!aw Moniuszko. An enjoyable action when the voices join. (FP)
GETTY playing from the LSO. (MB) HHH more characterful. (JP) HHH album all round. (RF) HHHH HHH



94 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

Vivaldi Airs & Concertos The month in box-sets
Jupiter Alpha Classics ALPHA 550
This Vivaldi is vital
and exciting in the
hands of Thomas
Dunford’s new
starry supergroup.
Ferocious and fizzing, mezzo Lea
Desandre is a force to be reckoned
with. (MB) HHHHH


Evensong Live 2019
Works by Parry, Byrd, Walton et al
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
King’s College KGS0038
Recorded at various
Evensong services,
this mix of choral
music old and new
is as glorious as you’d
expect, and with superb programme
notes to boot. (FP) HHHH

Forgotten Treasures
Works by Schmidt, Weiner et al
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
Beau Fleuve Records 605996-998531
A lovely disc, Quite the character:
Raymond Lewenthal
imaginatively
had stage presence
programmed
and aptly titled.
Martucci’s exquisite
Notturno is perhaps the pick of the Classic piano recordings from the past
gems revealed, though Weiner’s
sprightly Hungarian Folkdance This month’s round-up also includes box-sets of music by Edvard Grieg
Suite is also good fun. (JP) HHHH


Homage to Women Composers Her command of the keyboard was, The Edvard Grieg Edition (Brilliant
Works by Thea Musgrave et al for many, beyond compare and in Classics 95914) is a generous
Ruth Lomon & Iris Graffman Wenglin Cécile Ousset – The Decca France release, delivering 25 discs of
(piano) Navona Records NV6254 Recordings (Decca 482 7395) we the Norwegian composer’s works.
The culmination of are treated to the French pianist’s Conductor Bjarte Engeset oversees
years of research, debut releases. The seven-disc proceedings on eight discs of
this disc uncovers set features recordings made orchestral works and works for
piano duos by female from 1971-76, all remastered and voice and orchestra; under his
composers from the appearing on disc for the baton are both the Royal
Romantic period through to the late very first time. Beethoven Scottish National Orchestra
20th century. Synchronicity could dominates with the complete Ousset’s 1970s and the Malmö Symphony.
be tighter, but the project is seriously piano variations taking up recordings appear on Beyond that we’re treated
commendable. (FP) HHH four discs; an ambitious disc for the first time to three discs of chamber
undertaking, it would be music, seven discs of piano
Souvenirs of Spain & Italy Ousset’s last takes in the music performed by Håkon
Works by Vivaldi, Turina et al studio for the label. Austbø and another seven of songs, featuring
Sharon Isbin (guitar) et al Raymond Lewenthal – The Complete RCA soprano Marianne Hirsti – among others.
Cédille CDR 9000 190 and Columbia Album Collection (Sony Classical If you’d prefer to focus on Grieg’s orchestral
You can almost hear 19075853642) charts the American pianist’s music, and in super high-quality sound, then
the fizz of prosecco mid-late 1960s recordings. A late starter at you might want to plump for Edvard Grieg –
and cava as Isbin and 15, natural ability foreshadowed a precocious Complete Symphonic Works (Audite 21.439).
the Pacifica Quartet talent and – eventually – an extrovert Presented across five Super Audio CDs, the
enjoy each other’s performer. His championing of overlooked set takes in the likes of the Peer Gynt suites,
company in this Mediterranean- Romantic piano repertoire is well represented Symphonic Dances, Norwegian Dances, the
inspired disc. A ray of sunshine to across these eight discs, with solo works and Symphony in C minor, Piano Concerto in A
brighten winter days. (JP) HHHH concertos by Alkan, Rubinstein, Scharwenka minor and orchestral songs. Eivind Aadland
Reviewers: Michael Beek (MB), and Henselt. There’s Liszt, too, with the conducts the WDR Symphony, with solo
Oliver Condy (OC), Rebecca Franks (RF), premiere release of the pianist’s archived 1966 support from soprano Camilla Tilling, baritone
Freya Parr (FP), Jeremy Pound (JP) recordings of Années de pèlerinage (I & II). Tom Erik Lie and pianist Herbert Schuch.


BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 95

Jazz








Garry Booth savours new discs from Keith Jarrett, Darius Brubeck and more







January round-up Thirty years on,
JAZZ CHOICE
ECM has been able to nurture leading her own
adventurous artists like Kit Downes quintet, Rayner
Heavenly sounds for the last 50 years thanks largely still makes bright,

to the global sales of improvising open jazz music
galactico Keith Jarrett. The pianist’s that rejoices
Kit Downes uses the organ and a galaxy of new album for the illustrious in human experience without
stars to push back the boundaries of jazz German imprint, Munich 2016, sentimentalising it. Short Stories, a
is the latest in a series of live solo collection of eight perfectly formed
recordings made over the years. It’s originals, makes the most of three
a supernatural performance, even standout soloists: Cartwright, along
by Jarrett’s peerless standards. The with wily two-handed pianist Steve
simply numbered 12-part suite is Lodder and lithe saxophonist Diane
a standing wave of harmonic and McLoughlin. I especially liked the
melodic imagination that draws on affectionate ‘A Braw Boy’, lovingly
folksong, blues articulated by McLoughlin, and
and classicism. Cartwright’s ‘Life Lived Wide’,
There’s no sign whose rising wave of energy
that it’s the final channels the late Esbjorn Svensson
date on the tour’s (Blow The Fuse BTF1914 HHHH).
European leg, Like Alison Rayner, the young
such is Jarrett’s focus and energy; Belgian horn player Jean Paul
even the quieter pieces have a Estievenart sprinkles a little Latin
profound intensity. A gentle reading flavour over his writing for Strange
of three tin-pan alley standards, Bird. But his quintet’s sound isn’t
including his signature ‘Somewhere at all spicy. An understated soloist,
Over the Rainbow’, seals the Estievenart’s
deal beautifully. (ECM 2667/68 restrained
HHHHH) lyricism
Pianist Darius Brubeck has reminds me of
always celebrated his famous the American
Flowing pipes: trumpeter Tom
Downes experiments father’s life and legacy, rather than
with the pipe organ be put in the shade by it. His latest Harrell. The original number ‘Con
quartet recording, Live in Poland, Pasion’ is anything but passionate
commemorates Dave Brubeck’s – though Estievenart articulates
Kit Downes historic tour behind the Iron feeling beautifully through fluent,
Curtain in 1958. This beautifully deft phrasing. The introduction
Dreamlife of Debris produced recording made in of guest altoist Logan Richardson,
Kit Downes (piano, organ), Tom Challenger Poznan’s Blue Note Club – four whose attacking style on ‘Henri’, a
(sax), Lucy Railton (cello), Stian Westerhuis original pieces and three associated spiky bebop piece and two other
(guitar), Sebastian Rochford (drums) with Brubeck numbers, is a clever touch to
ECM 2632 Snr – is a straight- contrast Estievenart’s cool approach
Kit Downes follows 2018’s Obsidian ahead treat. (Out Note OTN 630 HHHH).
album, an idiosyncratic solo exploration There’s no There’s no law that says a
of the pipe organ, with this quintet work of other-worldly beauty. grandstanding Hollywood superstar can’t front a
Although largely improvised around pre-written themes (the from the leader, big band for fun, nor put out CDs
pieces are named after galaxies), studio edits and overlays were just an easy swinging facility that whose cover shows him sitting at
used to heighten the sound’s celestial textures. Downes stays at aims to please, like the lilting South a white grand piano that’s in the
the centre of the music and, while sax player Tom Challenger is African-hued ‘Nomali’. British middle of a palm-fringed swimming
never far away, the other players move in and out of orbit. saxophonist Dave O’Higgins is pool. Indeed, Jeff Goldblum is to
‘Sculptor’ sets the scene, Downes’s limpid piano figures magisterial, blowing pure-toned be encouraged:
combining with Challenger’s piping tenor lines, all set against a lyricism on ‘Earthrise’. The set I Shouldn’t
diaphanous organ drone. ‘Pinwheel’ has a creepy theme spelled closes with the rhythm section given Be Telling
out by the piano, haunted by Railton’s cello accompaniment and free rein on a version of ‘Take Five’ You This is a
Rochford’s rustling cymbals. The segue into ‘Bodes’ passes (Ubuntu Music UBU0033 HHHH). swinging affair
PAULA RAE GIBSON, GETTY launches steely sheets of sound and deep space reverberation. already a mainstay of the UK jazz of tunes – Herbie Hancock, Wes
and his choice
Bassist Alison Rayner was
almost unnoticed until Norwegian Stian Westerhuis’s guitar
scene when she co-founded the
Montgomery, Joe Henderson – show
The programme is consummated by ‘Blackeye’, Rochford’s
he’s got musical taste at least. (Decca
snare and splashing ride cymbals assailing the organ’s grandiose
Guest Stars in London, alongside
guitarist Deidre Cartwright in 1989.
00602508060519 HHH)
edifice of sound. It is jazz – but not as we know it. HHHHH
96
96 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

French flair:
Petrucciani on
stage in 1994































From the archives


Geoffrey Smith on the exuberant French pianist Michel

Petrucciani who never let his disability cast a shadow


Right up to his death 20 years ago, in 1999,
Michel Petrucciani was a unique phenomenon on
the jazz scene. Crippled by a congenital illness,
the diminutive pianist had to be carried on to
the stage by his star companions, who vied for
the honour of bearing him to the keyboard like
a precious gift. And that’s certainly how he was received by
audiences, to whom he was not just a sympathetic oddity, but
one of the stellar musicians and communicators of his time, a
byword for virtuosity, originality and wit.
Those qualities come shining through Colors (Dreyfus Jazz
5385626830) a new Petrucciani compilation drawn from the years
before his sad demise at the age of just 36. Though his physical
condition meant he was never likely to make old bones, the joie
de vivre of every track gives the lie to any hint of encroaching
fatality. He obviously loved to play, and exuberance is always
ready to break in, allied to prodigious technique, imagination,
sure-footed swing and a passion for melody.
All the pieces on these two CDs are Petrucciani originals, in
a wide array of moods and a variety of line-ups. But the chief
glory of the set is the leader’s pianistic command, evoking
the styles of his keyboard peers with his own distinction. His
impressionistic harmonies may bring to mind his hero Bill Evans,
but touched by Petrucciani’s warmth and freshness; he can
be as rhapsodic as Keith Jarrett, though freed from Jarrett’s
histrionics, and his technique equals the dazzlement of Oscar
Peterson, without Oscar’s urge to overwhelm.
But it’s Petrucciani’s spontaneous pleasure in performance
that distinguishes these discs. On the infectious, two-beat
vamp of ‘Cantabile’, for instance, he brings the house down
with a pulsating lick that goes on for almost a minute. ‘Trilogy
in Blois’ is a long, three-part meditation, full of shifting moods
and colours, while his post-modern boogie-woogie tour de
force ‘She Did it Again’ fizzes across the piano’s full range. The
informative notes convey the reverence in which the pianist was
held by such luminaries as Ahmad Jamal and Charles Lloyd, and
they’re entertaining too: ‘She Did it Again’ turns out to have been
inspired by the bottom-burps of Lloyd’s dog. Twenty years on, this
joyous set confirms Petrucciani’s stature in the pantheon of jazz.

Books








Our critics cast their eyes over this month’s selection of books on classical music








Beethoven’s String Quartet home of Brendel’s essay on Ian
in B flat major, Op. 130 – Charismatic: Bostridge’s book on Schubert’s
Four Lectures musicologist Hans Winterreise. But what we are left
Hans Keller Keller in 1961 with is a handful of essays reflecting
Plumbago 978-0-993-19836-6; Brendel at his literary best; it’s
224pp (pb) £19.99 studded with insights into his art
Hans Keller (1919-85) was one and the mysteries of performance.
of the most influential musical With graceful economy he
thinkers of his time. Blessed with celebrates his pianistic heroes
a first-rate analytical mind and Edwin Fischer, Alfred Cortot and
charismatic presence, he would Wilhelm Kempff, and explains
often argue a point simply for the why Haydn is his composer hero;
sheer intellectual exhilaration of Schumann’s Piano Concerto and
doing so. I was lucky enough to printers’ habits with Schubert’s
see him deliver tempo markings become the
an illustrated occasion for fruitfully provocative
talk with the ruminations. Michael Church HHH
Dartington
Quartet in the Music behind the Iron Curtain
mid-1970s, – Weinberg and his Polish
shortly after Contemporaries
he gave the Daniel Elphick
four hour-long Cambridge University Press
lectures on Beethoven’s Op. 130 978-1-108-49367-3 ; 318pp (hb) £75
String Quartet at Leeds University This sheds new light on Weinberg
on which this publication is based. by exploring the tangled political
Despite being pitched originally at context surrounding the reception
undergraduate level, such is their of his work and the fraught stylistic
profound quality of thought they challenges that faced Eastern bloc
were broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in does cover, however, it covers very The Lady from Arezzo – composers during the second half
1975 and repeated in 1990. neatly and informatively. Beginning My Musical Life and of the 20th century. Special focus is
Derived in essence from with guides to musical notation Other Matters placed upon Weinberg’s problematic
Schenkerian theory, Keller’s basic and the main instruments of the Alfred Brendel relationships with his native Poland
premise is that music of high quality orchestra, we move onto a period- Faber & Faber 978-0-571-35372-9; and the Soviet Union, where he
offsets a thematic foreground by-period history of classical music, 136pp (hb) £14.99 sought permanent sanctuary as a
against background harmonic including Since his withdrawal from victim of Nazi persecution. In this
fundamentals. In Beethoven’s potted performing as a pianist in 2008, respect, the composer was isolated
later music (especially) this often descriptions Alfred Brendel has been busy as from the country
creates a sense of psychological of the most a lecturer and teacher; this slim of his birth,
conflict when what the ear expects important volume represents his farewell as while at the same
in confounded by what actually composers a writer. One of his key principles time remaining
happens. Reading these profusely and their has long been the guiding duality of somewhat
illustrated lectures alongside a major works. sense and nonsense, the rational and detached from the
recording is guaranteed to change Clearly and the absurd, and its manifestations in Soviet musical
not only the way you listen to concisely set out, those descriptions music, literature and art; hence the establishment.
Op. 130, but to music in general. pack an impressive amount of juxtaposition here of essays, poems Daniel
Julian Haylock HHHHH detail into a relatively small space, and pictures which celebrate that. Elphick probes Weinberg’s
making this a valuable first point of The poems, complex sense of identity through
The Complete Classical reference. This, in fact, is an updated sadly, are extensive consideration of his
Music Guide edition of a book that was first infinitely less 17 string quartets. These are placed
Ed. John Burrows published in 2012, though someone satisfying, being alongside the quartets of his mentor
and Charles Wiffen on the editor’s desk seems to have impenetrable Shostakovich, as well as significant
Dorling Kindersley 978-0-241-42298-4; briefly fallen asleep at the wheel nonsense by long- Polish contributions to the genre
352pp (hb) £18.99 in the meantime – the composers dead members from Lutos!awski, Penderecki,
The ‘complete’ classical music Maxwell Davies, Sculthorpe, of the European Bacewicz, Meyer and Szyma"ski.
guide? That’s setting the bar Harvey and Tavener have all sadly avant garde. The Elphick’s writing style remains
ambitiously high – there’s only so left us since the first edition was pictures illustrate a felicitous essay consistently engaging, and he draws
GERTI DEUTSCH much that can be covered within published, but are presented here as on Dadaism which first appeared upon an impressively wide range of

being still very much alive. A curious
documentary sources to illuminate
in The New York Review of Books;
352 pages, after all. Joking aside,
that magazine was also the original
error. Jeremy Pound HHHH
his arguments. Erik Levi HHHH
what this nicely-presented book
98 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

Audio choice








Chris Haslam recommends the best hi-fi products for your listening pleasure







THIS MONTH: THE LATEST HEADPHONES





Sennheiser Momentum
2019 £349
BEST BUY This is my third pair of Sennheiser


Momentum wireless noise
cancelling headphones, and thankfully they’re the best yet,
boasting decent upgrades while staying true to the sound
quality that made them so popular in the first instance.
They look good and fold easily, plus they turn off as soon
as you remove them from your head and pair when you put
them back on. It’s almost unnervingly convenient. There
are also three noise-cancelling modes: ‘Max’, ‘Anti-Wind’
and ‘Anti-Pressure’ that complement your commute, café
and office environments. Sennheiser has also partnered
with Tile, a Bluetooth tracking service, which means you
can find your headphones via a smartphone app. But all
these features, while considered and useful, do hamper
battery life, which at 17 hours is behind the curve.
But what about the performance? Well, they’re
wonderful, capable headphones. Rest assured, everything
sounds great, with a full-bodied, lively performance that
never pushes too hard, allowing you to enjoy a choral motet Classic sound:
the Sennheiser
one minute and a thrilling orchestral finale the next.
Momentums stay
sennheiser.com
true to their roots




BEST FOR HOME COMFORT BEST FOR BUDGET AUDIOPHILES
Cleer NEXT £699 Shanling ME100 £99

Cleer Audio is a new brand From the aluminium body
in the UK, with a range and gold-plated connectors to
of mass-market designs, the high-quality detachable
but my magpie eye was cables and custom 10mm
drawn to these wired open dynamic driver, there’s
backed home-listening no reason why this pair of
headphones. Made from in-ear monitors should cost
leather and aluminium, they so little. Eighteen earbud
have all the winning traits size variations, and some that
of pairs costing three times as actually offer enhanced bass
much, and although they’re quite and improved vocals, ensure a
heavy, I could happily lounge in snug fit for all, and once plugged
them all day. Avoid compressed music into my Astell & Kern Kann
formats and you’ll find that the 40mm ironless magnesium drivers hi-res player, I enjoyed wonderful
will delight, with acres of space, exceptional detail and plenty of instrument separation and an
natural flair. harrods.com expansive sound. en.shanling.com





NEED TO KNOW Bluetooth Bluetooth is convenient, but Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) These
Open or closed back? ‘Open-backed’ it compresses the quality of your music headphones reduce background noise such
headphones give music room to breathe, and significantly. If you want a better streaming as everyday traffic, train and plane engine
emphasise the scale of the performance, experience, you’ll need aptX headphones rumble by using miniature microphones in the
whereas ‘closed-back’ models are more and a compatible player or smartphone. earpiece. They work by creating a soundwave
intimate, but keep the noise inside the Want even better? Look out for aptX HD opposite to the ambient noise, effectively
headphones so you can use them in public. which plays 24-bit, better-than-CD quality. cancelling it out. Superb for plane journeys.



BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 99

Reviews Index
BACK ISSUES



Julian Anderson Bearded Lady 86 Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky etc 94
The Colour of Pomegranates 86 Rahbari My Mother Persia (II) 94
Poetry Nearing Silence 86 Rameau Les indes galantes 80
Prayer 86 Rippe Fantasias etc 91
Ring Dance 86 Rossini Ricciardo e Zoraide 79
Van Gogh Blue 86 Schubert Symphony No. 9 (Great) 72
Babajanian Piano Trio 94 R Schumann Myrthen 84
JB Bach Suite No. 3 in E minor 70 Violin Concerto 75
JL Bach Overture in G 70 Shostakovich
JS Bach Orchestral Suites Nos 1-4 70 String Quartets Nos 13-15 87
Magnificat 94 Sibelius Kullervo 94
Organ Works 90 Sweelinck Harpsichord Works 92
Violin Concertos Nos 1 & 2 etc 74 Tchaikovsky Piano Trio 94
Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 etc 94 Symphony No. 5 72
Beethoven Telemann Chamber Works 88
Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 5 75 Terterian Symphonies Nos 3 & 4 72 NOVEMBER 2019 DECEMBER 2019 CHRISTMAS 2019
Piano Sonatas Nos 7, 18 & 32 91 Verdi La Traviata 79 Igor Levit shares his We asked 174 living The story of Messiah, a
Symphonies Nos 5, 6 & 9 (Choral) 71 Vivaldi Airs & Concertos 95 passion for Beethoven’s composers to vote on carol written for you by
Variations on Mozart's Wagner Tristan und Isolde 79
'Se vuol' ballare' 87 Weinberg piano sonatas, plus who they believe to be Owain Park plus the
Violin Sonatas Nos 1-3 87 5 Pieces for Flute and Piano 76 three superb Sibelius the greatest composer choir of The Queen’s
Bliss The Enchantress 82 12 Pieces for Flute and Orchestra 76 tone poems on your free of all time. Here, we College, Cambridge
Mary of Magdala 82 Cello Sonata No. 1 86 cover disc. reveal the results! sing on your free CD.
Meditations on a Theme Flute Concertos Nos 1 & 2 76
by John Blow 82 Piano Trio 86
Bon 6 Flute Sonatas 94 Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes 86
Brahms Double Concerto 75 Two Songs Without Words 86 UP TO 30% OFF
John A. Carrollo Symphony No. 3 94 Zarebski Piano Quintet 94
Debussy La Damoiselle élue 83 FOR SUBSCRIBERS
Marche Écossaise... 83 COLLECTIONS
Premiere Rhapsodie 83 20th Century British Works for n We’re sorry, but issues of BBC Music
Trois Nocturnes 83 Solo Cello Rohan de Saram 92 published more than 12 months ago are
Bryce Dessner Aheym 71 American Rage Conrad Tao 92
Lachrimae 71 Bach, Liszt, Widor no longer available.
Skrik Trio 71 Jae-Hyuck Cho 91 n BBC Music Magazine and CD slipcases are
Tenebre 71 Clair de lune Raymond Agoult,
Dvo!ák Violin Concerto 75 Douglas Gamley et al 72 perfect for storing your collection. Subscribers
Feldman Dreamtime Emmanuel Pahud 74 can save up to 30% when ordering both together.
Patterns in a Chromatic Field 87 Evensong Live 2019 The Choir of
Finger The Mourning Bride etc 71 King's College, Cambridge 95
Franck Redemption 94 Facce d'amore
Gervais Hypermnestre 78 Jakub Józef Orli!ski et al 78
Gesualdo Madrigals 83 & 94 Family Connections To order call
Ginastera Harp Concerto 75 Charlotte de Rothschild et al 83
Variaciones concertantes 75 The Farinelli Manuscript
Grieg Songs and Piano Works 82 Ann Hallenberg & Stile Galante 80 03330 162 118
Guilain Organ Works 94 Forgotten Treasures
Handel Cantatas for St. Cecilia 83 Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra 95
Rodrigo 79 The Godfather La Serinissima 76 BACK ISSUE PRICES
Samson 68 Hommage to Women Composers
Sosarme 80 Ruth Lomon SUBSCRIBERS NON-SUBSCRIBERS
Haydn Mass in B flat 83 & Iris Graffman Wenglin 95 n UK – £4.48 per copy n UK – £5.60 per copy
Piano Concerto in D 70 Joy & Desolation Tesla Quartet 88 n Europe – £5.28 per copy n Europe – £6.60 per copy
Symphonies Nos 80 & 81 70 The London Cello Sound
Symphony No. 99 83 LPO, RPO, Philharmonia strings 72 n Rest of world – £6.08 per copy n Rest of world – £7.60 per copy
Karl Jenkins Miserere 94 Majesty Maija Kovaleska et al 80
Lydia Kakabadse Choral Works 94 Margaret Price in Recital SLIPCASE PRICES
Juris Karlsons Choral Works 94 Margaret Price et al 80 t SUBSCRIBERS
Aaron Jay Kernis Flute Concerto 94 The Mathilde Album
Khachaturian Violin Concerto 75 Quatuor Arod et al 88 LOCATION MAGAZINE MAGAZINE CD
Komitas Shoger Jan 72 L'Opéra du Roi soleil & CD HOLDER HOLDER HOLDER
Magnard Symphonies Nos 3 & 4 94 Katherine Watson et al 80 Save 30% Save 20% Save 20%
Marchand Organ Works 94 The Purcell Album
Messiaen L'Ascension 72 Alfred Deller et al 83 UK £11.50 £6.80 £6.40
Les Offrandes oubliées 72 Royal Fireworks Europe £14.00 £8.00 £7.15
Le Tombeau resplendissant 72 Alison Balsom et al 76
Moniuszko String Quartets 94 Souvenirs of Spain & Italy Rest of World £16.20 £9.15 £8.75
Monteverdi Vespro della beate Sharon Isbin & Pacifica Quartet 95
Vergine (1610) 83 The Symphonic Euphonium II t NON"SUBSCRIBERS
Mozart Divertimento in F 87 David Childs 76 LOCATION MAGAZINE MAGAZINE CD
String Quartets Nos 14 & 15 87 Tales from Russia & CD HOLDER HOLDER HOLDER
Nielsen Symphonies Nos 3 & 5 72 Simon Trp"eski 90
Michael Nyman Vienna, Women and Song UK £16.50 £8.50 £8.00
Yamamoto Perpetuo 91 Anton Paulik et al 80
Flor Peeters Organ Works 94 Vocal and Instrumental Works Europe £20.20 £10.00 £9.00
Chang Ping Orchestral Works 94 Alfred Deller et al 83 Rest of World £23.25 £11.50 £11.00



100 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

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Live choice







Paul Riley picks the month’s best concert and opera highlights in the UK







The only way is Essex:
Portuguese conductor
Joana Carneiro heads
to Saffron Hall



Venue of the month
The UK’s best concert halls


30. St David’s Hall
Where: Cardiff
Opened: 1983
Seats: 2,000
When, on 19 January,
Beethoven’s famous concert
of December 1808 is recreated
at St David’s Hall (see right),
it will be one of the longest in
the Cardiff venue’s 37-year
history. But while undoubtedly
eye-catching, it will have to go
some way to match some of the
drama witnessed on stage here
over the years.
The architects Seymour
Harris had their work cut
out when commissioned to LONDON Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, past: Berg’s Violin Concerto,
design a new concert venue Stephen Hough David Fennessy’s Rosewood and played by Lisa Batiashvili.
for the Welsh capital in 1977 Wigmore Hall, 6, 7, 11 January the unsparing keening of Julia
– with space in the city centre Tel: +44 (0)20 7935 2141 Mahler Chamber Orchestra
at a premium, it had to be Wolfe’s LAD.
constructed above a shopping Web: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk Royal Festival Hall, 31 January
complex. The challenge was Brahms is resolutely stitched Baroque at the Edge Tel: +44 (0)20 3879 9555
successfully met and five years into the January instalment LSO St Luke’s, St James Web: www.southbankcentre.co.uk
later, in September 1982, of pianist Stephen Hough’s Clerkenwell, 10-12 January The enthusiastically peripatetic
St David’s Hall staged its first Wigmore Hall residency. On Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 8891 ensemble fields artistic partner
public concert. The official 6 January, he is joined for the Web: www.baroqueattheedge.co.uk Mitsuko Uchida as soloist and
opening, by Queen Elizabeth clarinet sonatas by Michael Where else would Purcell meet director in two of Mozart’s most
The Queen Mother, took place Collins, who also performs Lou Reid and Joy Division, congenial piano concertos:
the following February. the Clarinet Quintet with the or electric viols wrap Irish No. 17 in G and the E flat K482.
It was in July of that year, Castalian String Quartet. traditional music around Marin They frame Jörg Widmann’s
however, that St David’s Hall Then, having dispatched the Marais? This innovative three- Chorale Quartet (his String
was really placed on the map, Piano Quintet in the middle day festival returns, brandishing Quartet No. 2) in its reincarnation
when it staged the first BBC concert, Hough is joined by a new concert-play saluting for string orchestra.
Cardiff Singer of the World Renaud Capuçon to conclude Galileo plus Bach’s cello suites
competition, won by Finnish this Brahms minifest with the reimagined with a Finnish twist. SOUTH
soprano Karita Mattila. Eagerly complete violin sonatas. Joanna MacGregor
anticipated, the bi-annual London Symphony Turner Sims, Southampton,
competition has since helped Sean Shibe Orchestra and Chorus 16 January
to launch the careers of singers
such as Bryn Terfel, Katarina Hayward Gallery, 10 January The Barbican, 19 January Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 5151
Karnéus and Jamie Barton. Tel: +44 (0)20 3879 9555 Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 8891 Web: www.turnersims.co.uk
Outside competition time, Web: www.southbankcentre.co.uk Web: www.barbican.org.uk Schubert’s piano sonata
the hall’s season includes Complementing the Hayward Beethoven’s seldom-performed swansong, D960 in B flat,
concerts by the Cardiff-based Gallery’s retrospective of painter oratorio Christ on the Mount of looms large over a programme
BBC National Orchestra of Bridget Riley, the Scots guitarist Olives is unexpectedly ubiquitous including the Prelude and
ALAMY, DAVE WEILAND from internationally renowned from his softLOUD album celebrations kick in. And Simon und Isolde as transcribed
as the 250th anniversary
Wales, plus frequent visits
Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan
plunders some of the repertoire
conductors, soloists, choirs
by Zoltán Kocsis and Liszt
Rattle is an early adopter. He
exploring rhythm and patterning.
and orchestras.
pairs it with something from
(respectively), plus a selection
Scottish lute music from the
from Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata.
17th century prefaces Steve
Vienna’s more recent musical
102 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE