Visit Classical-Music.

com for the

very latest from the music world Radio 3
October ings
list
and TV

Contents
OCTOBER 2023
See p116

FEATURES
26 Cover: Sean Shibe
The groundbreaking guitarist tells Michael Beek how
collaborating with others keeps his creative fire burning
36 Wonder Woman
Author Clemency Burton-Hill has spurred an orchestra
to form its own book club, as Rebecca Franks discovers
40 For the masses
Clive Paget explores The English Concert’s vast project
to make all of Handel’s works available online for free
44 Walk of fame
Brian Wise gives a guided tour of Los Angeles, where
the likes of Stravinsky and Rachmaninov once roamed
48 A secret language
The improvisatory, instinctive world of Irish composer
Jennifer Walshe proves an inspiration for Tom Stewart
52 New Season Guide
Our 11-page look at the live treats in the months ahead

EVERY MONTH
8 Letters
12 The Full Score
The latest news and interviews from the music world 26 Sean Shibe
COVER: RICHARD CANNON THIS PAGE: RICHARD CANNON, MARCO BORGGREVE, ANDREA AVEZZÙ, TODD ROSENBERG

25 Richard Morrison
32 The BBC Music Magazine Interview
Pianist Kit Armstrong talks to Michael Church
Art editor Dav Ludford
74 Musical Destinations Picture editor Sarah Kennett
Senior digital editor Debbie Graham
Charlotte Smith heads to the Greek island of Spetses Listings editor Paul Riley
Subscriptions £64.87 (UK); £65 (Europe); Thanks to
76 Composer of the Month £74 (Rest of World) ABC Reg No. 3122 Claire Jackson, Jenny Price,
Let’s hear it for the neglected Stanford, says Terry Blain EDITORIAL Hannah Nepilova
Plus a work we’d like to hear arranged for MARKETING
82 Building a Library the guitar (see p26) Subscriptions director
Jeremy Pound on Orff’s riotous Carmina Burana Editor Charlotte Smith Jacky Perales-Morris
Vaughan Williams’s Six Studies in English Direct marketing manager Kellie Lane
114 Live concert and opera highlights Folksong
Deputy editor Jeremy Pound
Senior direct marketing executive
Joe Jones
116 Radio & TV Schumann’s Waldszenen
Reviews editor Michael Beek
ADVERTISING
Advertising sales director
120 Crossword and Quiz Rota’s Sarabanda e Toccata Mark Reen +44 (0)117 300 8810
Multi-platform content producer Group advertisement manager
122 Music that Changed Me Steve Wright Laura Jones +44 (0)117 300 8509
Beethoven’s ‘Waldstein’ Sonata Senior account manager
Actor Tim McInnerny Cover CD editor Alice Pearson Rebecca Yirrell +44 (0)117 300 8811

4 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


32 Kit Armstrong
Partnership manager
Rebecca O’Connell +44 (0)117 300 8814
Brand sales executives
Victoria Pointer +44 (0)117 300 8102
Jenny Allan +44 (0)117 300 8546
Inserts
Laurence Robertson +353 876 902208
SYNDICATION & LICENSING
Tim Hudson +44 (0)20 7150 5170
Richard Bentley +44 (0)20 7150 5168
PRODUCTION
Production director Sarah Powell
Production coordinator Emily Mounter
Ad coordinator Channing Lee
Ad designer Camilla Owen
Reprographics Tony Hunt, Chris Sutch
PUBLISHING
Brand leader Rosa Sherwood
Managing director
Andrew Davies
October reviews
Your guide to the best new recordings and books
Manfred Honeck
conducts Tchaikovsky
and Schulhoff
86 Recording of the Month
Tchaikovsky
Fifth Symphony
‘Returning to this work after many years,
48 Jennifer Walshe Manfred Honeck’s interpretation has, if
anything, become even more compelling’
Group managing director
88 Orchestral 92 Concerto 95 Opera
Andy Marshall 97 Choral & Song 100 Chamber 104 Instrumental
BBC STUDIOS, UK PUBLISHING
Chair, editorial review boards 107 Screen 108 Brief Notes 110 Books 111 Audio
Nicholas Brett
Managing director, consumer
112 From the Archive 113 Reviews Index
products and licensing
Stephen Davies
Global director, magazines
Mandy Thwaites
Compliance manager
Subscribe today to
Cameron McEwan
UK publishing co-ordinator
BBC Music Magazine
Eva Abramik Save money on
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Jack Furness, Janet Tuppen, Adam newsstand prices!
Barker, Philip Raperport
See p10 for our
This magazine is published by Our Media Company
Bristol Limited under licence from BBC Studios fantastic offer
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 5
 Letters

Have your say…

Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST
Email: music@classical-music.com Social media: contact us on Facebook and Twitter

L ET T ER Vintage voice: Best of British? recordings. A good example

of the John Shirley-Quirk
I suspect that there have been is Doreen Carwithen, whose
MONTH
(left) with Benjamin
Luxon, 1973 many disappointed readers Prelude No. 4 has particularly
– some may even be angry – impressed me. It is a shame
that their favourite was not that nobody voted for her
included or was placed low husband William Alwyn,
down on your list of the 25 best whose Third Symphony
British composers (August). surely deserves a place in the
This sort of list is good fun, schedules of British orchestras.
not definitive and should What I find astonishing is
not be taken too seriously. It that only two people voted for
was a pleasant surprise to see one of the most talented and
Walton placed so high and distinguished composers of
that Howells made the cut. I mostly choral music and
understand why Britten tops words that these islands are
the list. He is not my cup of ever likely to produce, and
tea, but is undoubtedly the he was not even mentioned
best British opera composer so in the accompanying
Songs to inspire far – I am not really an opera articles. What would
In the Archives reviews of your September issue, I came person, and personally, there several occasions, especially
across your comments about the first recording of Vaughan is a limit to how much angst Christmas, be without the
Williams’s Songs of Travel – the ‘incomplete’ version [minus over lost innocence I can take. works of John Rutter?
the as yet undiscovered final song] – and was intrigued. Having allowed Handel to be Ian Carmalt, Canterbury
Visiting Manchester around my birthday many years ago included, it is surprising that he
I was given two gifts: a first recording, by John Shirley- is not higher up the list. Maybe Max omission
Quirk, of the complete set (on the Saga label), in mono, it is because some participants, I was so surprised by the
accompanied by Viola Tunnard; and a ticket to hear a very didn’t realise he could be absence of Peter Maxwell
similar recital given by him in the Friends’ Meeting House. included? I would also have Davies from your list of 25
I had sung as a treble at school and had recently graduated expected that Delius would Greatest British Composers
to being a bass, and have been included. He is one and saddened that he did
WIN! £50 VOUCHER Shirley-Quirk’s singing so of the few British composers not even receive a mention
FOR PRESTO MUSIC impressed me that, some 50 to get a regular airing on in your editorial comments.
years later, I am still singing, European radio programmes. Can such a towering figure in
Every month we will award in the Beverley Chamber Brian Jaminson, British music be so easily left
the best letter with a £50 Choir and the Choir of Gislev, Denmark aside? From enfant terrible
voucher for Presto Music,
Beverley Minster. I have to instigator of the Queen’s
the UK’s leading e-commerce
site for classical and jazz now attained 65 continuous Rutterly mystifying Medal for Music while Master
recordings, printed music, years of choral singing and What an interesting first set of of the Queen’s Music, ‘Max’
music books and musical propose to continue as long responses (Letters, September) was a champion of music
instruments. Please note: the as my voice (such as it is) to your British composers education and amateur music
editor reserves the right to
shorten letters for publication.
holds out. I still have the feature! It was very good to see making, founder of the Orkney
Saga recording, though numerous votes being cast for Festival and bestowed with
GETTY, NICK RUTTER

archived onto MiniDisc! composers whose music has in multiple awards and honorary
Mike Dent, East Yorkshire. recent decades regained once doctorates. He was also a
lost favour in concert halls and committed environmental

8 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

campaigner – can there be a
more poignant and eloquent
protest piece than Farewell
to Stromness? As he himself
stated, ‘Ideally, the composer’s
function in society – apart,
obviously, from writing
decently crafted music – is to
bear witness, under whatever
circumstances, with work to
be heard at as many levels of
society as possible, and well
integrated into the life, or
lives, of the nation.’ Max was
completely true to his word – a
true British musical great!
Jan Sebestik, Weybridge
Melodious Ben
I can’t let Brian Axcell’s
assertion that ‘too many of
Britten’s compositions are
devoid of melody’ (Letters,
September) go unchallenged.
No end of examples of melody
in his music come to mind.
Here are just a few: the first
of the Sea Interludes from
Peter Grimes; the first vocal
number from the Serenade for
tenor, horn and strings; ‘Now
until the break of day’ from
A Midsummer Night’s Dream;
the opening of String Quartet
No. 2; the opening of the Violin
Concerto. I also enjoy Delius
and Rachmaninov, who your
correspondent mentions, but
I see absolutely no reason why
either of them should be used
as a stick to beat Britten with.
Mike Wheeler, via email
Britten grates
Well said, Brian Axcell! Britten
may appeal to professionals,
possibly because of the
‘cleverness’ of his music, but I
find this worship of him and
his music inexplicable. My wife
and I have often heard music
on the radio which we found
quite awful, to discover that it
was by Britten. I am sure that
if ordinary music lovers were
asked to name great British
Neglected composer:
should John Rutter have
been in our top 25?
composers, lots of the tuneless
brigade would disappear, to be
replaced by composers whose
music inspired enjoyment and
affection – Sullivan, Parry,
Stanford, Delius and others.
Douglas Hamilton,
Isle of Arran
The editor replies:
We have been inundated with
letters about our Great British
Composers feature and are
sorry that we cannot publish
all (well, most) of them. .
Applause for thought
Having just survived a great
symphony (Rachmaninov
Second) being applauded after
every movement, I was struck
with the thought that only a
couple of hundred people in
the hall get involved in this
activity. What do the other
4,000 people in the Albert
Hall think of it all? [Applause!]
They are most certainly
jerked backed to reality every
time this perfunctory sound
occurs. What do all those
radio listeners both here
and abroad think of this old-
fashioned clapping? [Applause!]
Maybe it has something to
do with the fact that Proms
Programmes now cost £6 all
over the house and Prommers
don’t buy one so they never
know how many movements a
particular work has. [Applause!]
These programmes, full of
advertising, cost £6 when the
Arena and Balcony places cost
only a pound or two more.
Why not sell programmes at
a special price in these two
areas? That would indeed be
cause for… Applause!
Christopher Mason, London
The editor replies:
Hmmm… It would be a brave
person to stand among the
Prommers and tell them
they don’t know how many
movements a symphony has.
Want to give it a try?
Keyboard joy
Your stimulating review of
Alexander Melnikov’s Fantasie
convinced me to buy it. His
superb choice of harpsichord
and pianos makes this my new
favourite disc. I sense a kindred
spirit in Melnikov due in part
to my Ruckers (Hubbard copy),
and two 1860s Broadwood
pianos – playing Beethoven
on my drawing room grand
feels as if the previous owners
had played them all countless
times. There’s something
magical about performing
music on instruments of the
same period, and your review
says it best.
Richard Rue, Kent, WA, US
Modern listening
I note in the past year or so
several features regarding the
topic of original instruments/
original practice vs modern
instruments and performance
techniques. It seems to me
there is a distinct bias toward
the former. How would the
composer have heard this work
performed? What was his
‘original intent’? And, I wonder,
what would Mozart think if
he had the chance to hear one
of his late symphonies played
by one of today’s symphony
orchestras? Horrified, or
pleased and perhaps a bit
envious, wishing that he
had similar resources at his
disposal? Would Beethoven
have approved if one of his
piano sonatas were presented
on a Steinway rather than
a fortepiano? I have an old
and treasured recording of
Bach’s Goldberg Variations by
Wilhelm Kempff, on which he
performs on piano with most
of the original ornamentation
stripped away, with light pedal,
and the pianist’s ability to
bring out various lines. The
interpretation is so pure, so
crystalline and uncluttered
that the underlying simplicity
shines through and never
fails to bring tears. This kind
of revealing and insightful
performance would be
impossible to experience on
period instruments.
Edmund Trafford,
Toledo, OH, US
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 9
Thefullscore
RisingStars TIMEPIECE This month in history
Three to look out for…
Juliette Journaux Pianist
Born: Paris, France Hall right on the night:
Career highlights: A Frank Gehry at the opening
Mahler lieder recital I of the Walt Disney Concert
Hall; (right) Dianne Reeves
gave with the baritone prepares for the inaugural
Liviu Holender at the concert; (below right) Lillian
Philharmonie de Paris. and Walt Disney, 1955
The last piece was
‘Revelge’, the story of a
drummer boy whose regiment falls in a trap
during the night. The boy’s fiancée discovers
him dead at dawn. The intensity of the piece
made this concert very special for me.
Musical heroes: Pianist Radu Lupu. His
Schubert Impromptus album tore me apart
as a child, and still does now. His piano
sound is from another planet: it’s powerful,
intense and dense but always with an infinite
poetry, even vulnerability.
Dream concert: Playing Fauré’s Piano Trio
in Monet’s garden in Giverny.

Matteo Hager Violinist

Born: Prague,
Czech Republic
Career highlights:
The performance of
a piece I composed in
response to the war in
Ukraine. I played with
the Ukrainian-Czech
Sinfonietta under Radek Baborák at the
Dvořákova Praha Festival.
Musical heroes: Violinists Lajos Sárközi
– the way he improvises is incredible –
Christian Ferras, Augustin Hadelich and OCTOBER 2003
Rodney Friend, my professor at the Royal
Academy of Music; composers Bach, Janáček
and Shostakovich; and I also love Thelonious
Monk, Jacob Collier, BB King and Radiohead.
Disney and Gehry give the
Dream concert: To start with Janáček’s
Violin Sonata and end with one of Ysaÿe’s. LA Phil a flash new home
Bella Adamova Mezzo-soprano

Born: Grozny, Russia
Career highlights:
Debuting at the Prague
Spring Festival with a
recital about cruelty and
tenderness, ranging from
Schumann to Srnka.
Musical heroes: Artists
who have dared to be their unique selves,
Maria Callas most of all. I also love German
soprano Christine Schäfer’s fragility and the
Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson just pulls
you into his world.
Dream concert: A concept recital
programme with orchestra, ranging from
orchestral song to a cappella improvisations
and everything in between. Created together
with light design and costumes, of course, for
a true Gesamtkunstwerk experience.
W
hen Walt Disney died in
1966, he was widely lauded
for his groundbreaking
animated movies and for his defining
contribution to 20th-century American
culture. But he had done his bit for
classical music too – in the classic 1940
film Fantasia, a brilliantly imaginative
gallery of characters, images and
animals disported to music by Bach,
Beethoven, Stravinsky and others. It
literally brought classical music to a
whole new audience.
Several decades later, in 1987, Disney’s
widow Lillian made an announcement
which would expand Walt’s legacy to
classical music further. Her plan was to
‘build a world-class performance venue
as a gift to the people of Los Angeles and
a tribute to Walt Disney’s devotion to
the arts’, and Lillian was donating $50m
to make it happen. The Disney family’s
lawyer requested ‘traditional touches
and brass handrails’ in the building,
suggesting that something fairly
conservative was expected.
Conservative is far from what the
family got. When the Walt Disney
Concert Hall opened 16 years and
$274m later, it was hailed a modernist
masterpiece and described as ‘a
gleaming clipper ship’, ‘gloriously
cartoon-like’ and ‘a musical ark with
silver sails that dance in the bright blue

14 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


California sky’. Cloaked in a seductive
steel-panelled skin, the building was,
one writer drooled, ‘so stunning that it
has been inspiring sexual metaphors’.
The designer of this gleaming edifice
was Frank Gehry, a Los Angeles resident
with a growing reputation as one of the
US’s most innovative architects. Gehry
was, though, a risky choice. ‘Nobody
had ever trusted him with a large public
building or a large budget before,’ one
commentator noted.
Gehry’s finished structure was,
however, a virtually unqualified
triumph. A symphony of elegant
curvature in LA’s generally featureless
downtown area, it cossetted concert-
goers with its soothing Douglas fir
and oak interiors. The 2,265-seat
auditorium, nestled within the hall’s
steely outer carapace, aimed to create a
warmly inclusive, intimate impression.
‘No chandeliers, no red velvet seats, no
special boxes for wealthy concertgoers,’
one observer wrote. ‘And no proscenium
stage that acts as an invisible curtain
between audience and performers.’
Crucially, the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert
Hall’s main occupants, loved what
OLIVIER LALANNE, IVA HAJ, GETTY
Gehry and his acoustician Yasuhisa
Toyota had created. Players raved about
how clearly they could hear one another,
compared to the sonic compromises
of their former home, The Dorothy
Chandler Pavilion. ‘I am totally happy,’
music director Esa-Pekka Salonen
reported, ‘and so is the orchestra.’
At the opening concert on 24 October
2003, the LA Times reported on ‘a black-
tie crowd of the powerful and socially
prominent’, with ‘a parade of stretch
limos and the sort of celebrity buzz that
Los Angeles usually reserves for Oscar
night’. A small group of demonstrators
protested the huge socio-economic
disparities they felt the hall highlighted.
‘Do something about people sleeping in
cardboard boxes a few blocks from here,’
one protester pointedly commented.
In the auditorium itself, however,
there was mounting anticipation as
jazz singer Dianne Reeves opened
proceedings with an unaccompanied
‘Nobody had ever trusted
Frank Gehry with a large
public building before’
rendition of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’.
Music by Bach, Ives, Gabrieli, Ligeti and
Mozart followed, before the evening
concluded with Stravinsky’s The Rite of
Spring – an appreciative nod, no doubt,
to the work’s inclusion in Disney’s
Fantasia over six decades earlier.
It was, the New York Times recorded, a
thrilling performance where ‘the sound
engulfed you as it should but kept the
intricacies audible’. Sadly, Lillian Disney
was not on hand to hear it. She died
aged 98, in 1997, six years before Gehry’s
masterly monument to her late husband
was completed. Terry Blain
Thefullscore
Just a drop: Jonny Wilkinson kicks for glory
Also in October 2003…
7th: Arnold Schwarzenegger is voted in as
governor of California in a recall election that
sees incumbent Gray Davis removed from
office. Despite having no political experience,
the Austrian actor and bodybuilder wins by
over a million votes. The papers have a field
day, with Schwarzenegger film-referencing
headlines including ‘The Running Man’, ‘Total
Recall’ and, finally, ‘The Governator’.
10th: The fifth Rugby World Cup begins in
Sydney, with host nation Australia enjoying
a 24-8 win over Argentina. The Wallabies
continue to enjoy a serene passage to the
final, including a world record 142-0 win over
Namibia and a 22-10 defeat of New Zealand,
but eventually meet their match in the final,
where they lose in extra time to a drop kick
from England’s fly-half Jonny Wilkinson.
17th: A 60-metre metal spire is added to the
top of the Taipei 101 tower, meaning that it
overtakes Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers as
the world’s tallest building. ‘I have no doubt
that it can bring Taipei to the world and bring
the world to Taipei,’ says the city’s mayor Ma
Ying-jeou about the 508m tall tower which,
due to open the following September, is built
to withstand major earthquakes and typhoons.
29th: The Napster music download site
relaunches, two years after closing down amid
legal challenges from the record industry.
Unlike its predecessor, where files could
be swapped by users for free, the new site
charges $0.99 for a single download or $9.95
for a monthly subscription.
29th: The Italian tenor Franco Corelli dies in
Milan, aged 82. Born in Ancona, Corelli forged
his early career in his home country, making
his debut at Milan’s La Scala in 1954. It was,
however, at The Met that he really became a
favourite, first appearing at the New York venue
in Verdi’s Il trovatore in 1961 and then singing
regularly there until 1974. He made his last
appearance on the opera stage in 1976.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 15
Thefullscore
StudioSecrets

Modern mixtape:
Dalia Stasevska
records for Platoon

We reveal who’s recording

what and where...
Tenor James Gilchrist is recording an album
of songs by the British composer Thomas
Pitfield (1903-99). Alongside pianist Nathan
Williamson, Gilchrist will record over
20 pieces (all in premiere recordings) at
Cobham’s Menuhin Hall in early November.
Divine Art plans to release the collection in
early 2024.
Gil Rose’s Boston Modern Orchestra
Project has championed contemporary
American composers for 26 years, and its
BMOP/sound label followed suit with a run of
great releases. Forthcoming albums include
works by Joan Tower, Tobias Picker and
Lukas Foss, ahead of its 100th album, out in
December, which features the complete ballet
music of John Alden Carpenter, recorded in
Boston and Worcester, MA in 2019/21.
Two Lully operas are to be recorded at
Versailles’ Opéra Royal. Atys, from Les
REWIND
Great artists talk about their past recordings
Talens Lyriques, will be captured live on
22 Jan, followed by Alceste on 30 Jan. The
latter comes from Les Épopées, with soloists
This month: PIETER WISPELWEY Cellist
including Véronique Gens and Cyril Auvity.
The Château de Versailles Spectacles label
will release the recordings later in the year.
MY FINEST MOMENT I’m just so happy when that sounds well
It’s ten years since Warner Classics Brahms Violin Sonata No. 2 in on the cello, and I think we managed
acquired the EMI and Virgin catalogues, and A major, Op. 100 etc it. In fact it was my second recording of
it’s about to release some gems in the shape Pieter Wispelwey (cello), Paolo Giacometti the piece with Paolo; we recorded it for
of the 1990-2010 recordings of Norwegian (piano) Onyx on gut strings and fortepiano, but
pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. The 36-disc Evil Penguin EPRC0022 this time it was normal strings and a
collection features his recording of Grieg’s (2016) Steinway. I’m also happy and proud how
Lyric Pieces, performed on Grieg’s own piano,
and a plethora of other repertoire. You can It’s hard to pick out the Op. 100 Violin Sonata by Brahms
SANNA LEHTO GETTY, CAROLINE SIKKINK, NICK RUTTER

discover its delights from 13 October.
Conductor Dalia Stasevska was at the
Maida Vale Studios recently to record a
special collection with the BBC Symphony
Orchestra. Dalia’s Mixtape marks a new
collaboration with Platoon which showcases
contemporary works. Ten tracks, including
those by Caroline Shaw, Anna Meredith
and Judith Weir, will be available to stream/
download monthly from March.
of 50 recordings,
but I’m going for
a relatively recent
one: the third in the Schubert/Brahms
series Paolo Giacometti and I did for Evil
Penguin. It has Brahms’s Second Violin
Sonata and Second Cello Sonata, and
the Schubert A major Duo; that last piece
is one of my favourite Schubert pieces.
turned out. I fully believe in it as a
meaningful endeavour and I think it can
work perfectly on cello.
Paolo and I go back a long long
time, about 30 years now, and so it is
a completely different dynamic; we’re
both open books to one another and we
don’t need many words, but we still love
to go deep into details and conceptual

18 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


A meaningful endeavour:
Wispelwey says Brahms’s
Op. 100 Violin Sonata works
perfectly on the cello
thinking. Of course, many of the pieces
we perform we’ve done so many times
before and if your career is going to span
a few decades you have to stay creative.
MY FONDEST MEMORY
Walton Cello Concerto
Pieter Wispelwey (cello); Sydney
Symphony Orchestra/Jeffrey Tate
Onyx ONYX4042 (2009)
Australia became very meaningful in
my career; I’ve toured there a lot – 30
years ago was the first time. Those tours
were always so
glamorous, because
of the hotels we
stayed in and the
food we ate. The
first few experiences
were with the
Australian Chamber Orchestra; I toured
all the capitals with them about four or
five times, the festival in the ’90s, and
then moved on to the big orchestras.
This release was not really planned.
I was doing concerts with the Sydney
Symphony under Jeffrey Tate about 12 to
15 years ago, and two of the concerts were
going to be recorded for radio broadcast,
so I talked to the orchestra, Jeffrey and
the management and said, ‘Can’t we just
make sure that we try to release this on
CD?’ All parties were happy to do it. We’d
worked together twice before and we
worked together afterwards as well; it’s
a lovely relationship. It’s very exciting to
perform in the Sydney Opera House and
catch the ferry across to work.
That piece is full of associations with
light and water, waves and foam and
wind, so it suited Sydney very well. I was
there with my two sons and my wife for
three months, and so it really was a very
happy experience.
I’D LIKE ANOTHER GO AT…
Elgar Cello Concerto
Pieter Wispelwey (cello); Netherlands Radio
Philharmonic/Jac van Steen
Channel Classics CCS12998 (1999)
There are many core repertoire pieces
that I have recorded twice or even three
times; I did the Bach Suites three times
and there will be more recordings. As
for what recording
I would like to do
of a piece that I
have done already,
I am thinking the
Elgar and Dvořák
concertos, but on
period instruments. I would love to do
the Elgar on raw gut, like it’s supposed
to be. I just want those colours there;
I want that radiancy in the sound,
those overtones.
I’m now in my fifth decade playing the
repertoire I play and it would be just too
sad to contemplate that you have nothing
to add, that you’ve said it in your thirties,
forties or fifties; I want to say it again! So
the Bach Suites will come again, because
there are characters that I want to bring
out in a different way and the same is
true for all repertoire.
I like to compete with my younger
self. Of course your body is not going to
stay the body of a 20 year-old, but the
mind should stay fresh a lot longer. So
that definitely plays a role, but I also still
want to improve; there are still tricks on
the cello that I want to develop now that I
never could before.
Pieter Wispelwey’s album ‘In Memoriam
II’ is out on Evil Penguin on 6 October
Thefullscore
One to remember: Dora Pejačević blazed a trail
MyHero
Pianist Alexandra
Dariescu on why we
simply must celebrate
the colourful and
exciting music of Dora Pejačević
Dora Pejačević has emerged into the
spotlight this year, as the centenary of
her death has drawn some long-overdue
attention to her remarkable music.
Born into a Hungarian-Croatian noble
family, Pejačević was the first Croatian
composer to write both a symphony and a
piano concerto. Her music is characterised
by its vibrant energy, rich colours and
an exceptional ability to develop and
sustain musical ideas over great lengths.
It is exciting, intriguing and deserves
to be heard! Pejačević wrote 58 works,
including the magnificent Symphony in F
sharp minor (performed at this year’s BBC
Proms), a piano concerto, the Phantaisie
concertante, over 20 pieces for solo
piano, several songs for voice and piano
and 16 pieces of chamber music. Her
musical language oscillates between
late-Romanticism and Impressionism, with
noticeable Slavic influences.
During my fascinating journey performing
piano concertos in equal numbers by
male and female composers, I discovered
her Phantaisie concertante, which I
will premiere in the UK this autumn. I
can’t describe how meaningful it will be
to witness such a brilliant piece finally
receiving the recognition it deserves after
years of neglect and obscurity.
In the face of significant historical
barriers, Pejačević’s music has finally found
its rightful place in the limelight.
Alexandra Dariescu performs Pejačević’s
Phantaisie concertante with the BBC
Symphony at the Barbican on 6 October.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 19
Thefullscore
Harking back:
tenor Karim Sulayman
explores his heritage
in Broken Branches
Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Gweneth Ann Rand Soprano
I’ve been listening a
lot to Broken
Branches, a recent
release by guitarist
Sean Shibe and
tenor Karim
Sulayman. The album mixes old
and new and delves into both of
their musical heritages. They are
such wonderful performers and
make a special team. It’s also
incredible what they’ve managed
to cover within one album. One
track in particular, ‘Li Beirut’, is
just beautiful.
I’ve also been enjoying another
recent album: Burnished Gold by
soprano Robyn Allegra Parton
and pianist Simon Lepper. The
music has been cleverly chosen
– it’s all associated with the
Viennese Secession art movement
and inspired in particular by
the burnished gold leaf used by
22 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Gustav Klimt. My favourite track
is ‘Sommertage’ from Berg’s song
cycle Sieben frühe Lieder (Seven
Early Songs). The playing and
singing are both wonderful.
I was taken to The Speakeasy in
Dalston to see the Solem Quartet
and singer Alice Zawadzki. The
Víkingur Ólafsson’s
playing brings out the
colour of the music
and its rhythmic clarity
first half was a performance of
Steve Reich’s Different Trains for
string quartet and tape, which
sent me down a Reich rabbit hole.
Then, the second half featured
songs by Kate Bush. The whole
evening was magical, but these
arrangements were something else
altogether. A unique occasion.
And also…
There is a Bounce ping pong bar
near my home, where you can eat,
drink and – most importantly –
play ping pong. My husband took
me a few weeks ago, and I have
been obsessed ever since. I want
to be one of those irritating people
who, when asked ‘Do you play ping
pong?’, answer ‘ooh… a bit’ – and
then proceed to thrash you!
Gweneth Ann Rand appears at the
Oxford International Song Festival
on 20 October
Zubin Kanga Pianist
I always enjoy
discovering new
and really beautiful
approaches to music
that I already know.
I’ve been listening to
pianist Víkingur Ólafsson’s
Debussy – Rameau album and I
really love his playing; it brings out
the colour of the music, the
rhythmic clarity and the fact that
there are so many Baroque
references in Debussy which relate
to Rameau. It shows how Rameau
is really playing with colour and
character study, things that relate
to a lot of later keyboard music.
Since I’ve been using
CRITIC’S CHOICE synthesizers I’ve been exploring a
lot of the synth pioneers, such as
George Hall
Ryuichi Sakamoto. I was listening
Car-listening recently
has been enlivened by to his album async from the mid
a boxed set of (mostly 2010s; it was around the time he
French) operettas was diagnosed with cancer and
recorded between it’s definitely more sombre and
the 1950s and ’80s
and featuring well-
introspective. And, going back,
known artists of there’s stuff like Thousand Knives,
the period in titles which is from the 1970s when he
familiar and little- was a student. It’s amazing and
known. It presents a
rare opportunity to
sounds so fresh and modern, so I
become acquainted
found that really inspiring.
I love composer Alex Paxton;
with extracts from
such titillating titles as I’ve commissioned him and I’m
Henri Christiné’s Phi- certainly going to commission
Phi and Dédé as well him again soon – he did a piece
as Francis Lopez’s
La Route Fleurie, for my last album called Car-Pig.
Méditerranée and Visa His new album, which is called
pour l’amour – from Happy Music for Orchestra, has a
which the ‘Cha-Cha lot of large ensemble music and
des égoutiers’ (Sewer-
combines so many elements;
workers’ cha-cha) has
become something of there are influences going from
a favourite! children’s music to John Zorn, free
jazz and Birtwistle to big band

music and traditional African
music. It’s just wonderful, very
dense but joyful music.
And also…
I don’t watch much TV, but I’ve
enjoyed Barry on Netflix. It’s a
series created by and starring
Bill Hader, a Saturday Night Live
alumnus – he was a very good
comedian and impressionist
on that. It combines comedy
and drama in an interesting
way, because he’s a hitman who
discovers an acting class and
decides he wants to be an actor
while still being a hitman. It
starts as a quirky comedy, but gets
darker and more involved.
Zubin Kanga’s new album, Cyborg
Piano, is out on 29 September
Catherine Larsen-Maguire
Conductor
My husband is an
opera singer who
has recently been in
Verdi’s Falstaff at
the Salzburg
Festival, and I have
been in Salzburg listening to the
rehearsals. I used to be a
bassoonist at the Komische Oper
in Berlin, and it was one of the first
pieces I played there – I adored it,
but lost touch with it. Since
rediscovering it, I’ve not been
able to stop listening to it! It’s so
full of life, and the music so
perfectly reflects the comedy
and characterisation.
Mozart’s music is the most
perfect there is, and for as
long as I have known about
classical music I have listened
to his piano concertos. If I am
tackling something difficult,
there is something amazing
about simply stopping and
listening to a movement of one
of the concertos to get everything
back into perspective. I range
Thefullscore
CRITIC’S CHOICE around various recordings, but I
particularly love Murray Perahia’s.
András Schiff’s are wonderful too.
I’ve been listening a lot to
Jennifer Higdon’s music recently,
and decided to do her Concerto for
Orchestra with the National Youth
Orchestra of Scotland so that we
could get to know her musical
Kate Bolton- language. It’s sort of in the style
Porciatti
As a ‘sorbet’ between
of Bartók, is in five movements
courses of classical and is incredibly virtuosic. What
music, I often turn really grabbed me about it is its
to the golden age incredible energy. It has all sorts of
of popular French colours and rhythmical drive, and
chansons – the 1950s
and ’60s. Iconic what Higdon may lack in terms of
singer-songwriter structure and form she more than
and storyteller makes up for with vibrancy.
Georges Brassens And also…
is a favourite: he
Over the summer I have been
sang, ‘as if for
friends’, of universal absolutely hooked by the Ashes
themes: of love and cricket test series, which has
death, injustice and stopped me doing as much work
hypocrisy. His music, as I should have been. It has been
at once simple and
sophisticated, speaks
such compelling entertainment at
to labourers and times, and the end could hardly
intellectuals alike, have been set up better. My
and his tobaccoey husband is German and I’ve even
voice – seductively managed to get him into it – he
accompanied on the
guitar – is a narcotic.
still doesn’t quite get the rules, but
he understands the excitement and
the drama!
Catherine Larsen-Maguire is the
first music director of the National
Youth Orchestra of Scotland

Our Choices The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites

Charlotte Smith Editor
Despite the rail and tube strikes, I made it to the
‘Impressions of Spain’ BBC Prom where I heard
rising violin star María Dueñas, in a shimmering
red dress, give a magnificent performance of
Lalo’s fiendishly virtuosic Symphonie espagnole.
Notwithstanding a slightly nervy start, by the time
JON WES, CHRISTA HOLKA, RAPHAEL NEAL, DAVID BEECROFT, JULIUS SILVER
window illuminated by the setting The Ghost Machine Treatise.
sun, and reflect on how lucky I was. It’s an eerie, unsettling work,
with movement titles such as
Michael Beek Reviews editor ‘Concerning the Transmutation of
A recent summer’s evening was Souls’ and ‘Concerning Ectoplasmic
anything but (wind, rain… you get Residue’. Martynas Levickis played
the idea), so we decided to seek out with virtuosity and a sense of

she hit her stride this talented 20 year-old was
almost certainly channelling the great Sarasate,
the work’s dedicatee. Fabulous stuff!
Jeremy Pound Deputy editor
Singing bass in the new Festival Voices choir at
the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral
was an experience I will cherish for a long time.
With its 7/4 time signatures and frequent fiendish
intervals, Graham Fitkin’s The Age of Aspiration
was an exercise in rapt concentration, but during
Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs I was able
to take a moment to enjoy the beautiful sound
around me, look at the cathedral’s glorious west
some warmth on BBC iPlayer and
found it in the form of this year’s
Summer Night Concert from Vienna.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin perked us up, conducting
a programme of operatic bon-bons, and the
sight of the beautiful Schönbrunn Palace brought
back memories of a lovely evening spent there
ourselves, enjoying Mozart in the Orangery.
Steve Wright Content producer
I found myself in Toblach, Italy, for the Gustav
Mahler Music Week. My highlight was a concert
from Germany’s national youth orchestra – and,
in particular, Daniel Nelson’s accordion concerto
theatre, and the accordion’s many
moods were captivatingly explored.
Alice Pearson Cover CD editor
I’ve enjoyed seeing violinist Maxim Vengerov in
recital a few times. I remember the spectacular
encores he would reel off and was particularly
impressed by his note-perfect rendition of the fast
and furious La Ronde des Lutins (Dance of the
Goblins) by the 19th-century violinist-composer
Antonio Bazzini. The piece’s dazzling virtuosity
makes it a brilliant track to round off Virtuoso
Vengerov (above), a magical album that includes
many of his other party pieces.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 23

Sean Shibe

With Sean Shibe you can always expect

the unexpected, but there’s nothing
frivolous about this boundary-pushing
musician, as Michael Beek discovers
PHOTOGRAPHY: RICHARD CANNON

t’s quite the mixed crowd at St George’s Bristol, but that’s nothing unusual
for a Manchester Collective gig, and even less so for the young man sitting
centre-stage, electric guitar in one hand, cello bow in the other. Yes, you
read that right. To refer to Sean Shibe just as a guitarist is to do the Scot an
injustice, however sublime his skills with the instrument. He’s an artist,
plain and simple, with a magnetism and intellect to match. That said, there’s
nothing grand about him, his adventurous creative streak being just part and
parcel of what drives him as a musician. When we
meet by the canal outside Kings Place in London,
that driving force is something I’m keen to get to
the bottom of, and it seems collaborating with an
ensemble like Manchester Collective is a big part of it.
‘I think I’m interested in anyone who wants to
engage in a really collegiate and collaborative way,’
he tells me. ‘The atmosphere that Rakhi (Singh) and
Adam (Szabo) have fostered through the Collective
is absolutely that; they’re fleixible and open minded,
and they have a youthful optimism and energy. I think that’s essentially what I’m
looking for in all my collaborations.’
And he’s not short of friends who want to join him, from tenor Karim Sulayman
– with whom Shibe recently released the album Broken Branches (above left)
– to mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska (performing Dowland and Britten) and
composer-turntablist Shiva Feshareki (with whom Shibe returns to Kings Place
on 2 December as part of the venue’s ‘Sound Unwrapped’ series). Then there’s A new musical threshold:
Sean Shibe is opening
flautist Adam Walker and violist Timothy Ridout, who just recently performed doors to fresh repertoire for
with him at a Shibe-curated night called ‘Utter Filth’ at Snape Maltings. acoustic and electric guitar

26 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 27
Sean Shibe
THE GUITAR IS WELL PLACED FOR
collaboration, according to Shibe. ‘If I
was a violinist, or something else,’ he
says, ‘like if I played an instrument with
a clearer trajectory, I might be tempted to
be less collaborative. But the guitar is an
instrument that is probably more suitable
for it because there’s less distinct a pathway
to a career if you choose to avoid the solo
Spanish stuff.’
Not that he avoids core repertoire
entirely – he performed Rodrigo’s
Concierto de Aranjuez with the Hallé in
June – but he did decide to branch out
beyond it early on in his career. ‘I think
when I was younger it was definitely a
conscious effort. But it’s a bread-and-
butter thing. Playing the Rodrigo is
a route into doing other things, like
commissoning. I think a lot of people do
the Spanish arrangement thing very well;
it just wasn’t something that compelled me
that much. It compels me more these days,
but I’m glad that I did a few things that
were off the wall early on.’
28 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
‘If I played an instrument with a clearer
trajectory, I might be less collaborative’
Commissioning new works is another
important aspect that drives Shibe, keen
to expand the repertoire and push his
instrument into new territory. He is set
to premiere a new work by Thomas Adès
in October, commissioned as part of the
European Concert Halls Organisation’s
‘Rising Stars’ series, followed by a new
concerto by Cassandra Miller – for
Shibe jointly with the Dunedin Consort
and Australian Chamber Orchestra.
He’s excited about both pieces and
the opportunity to work closely with
composers interested in the guitar.
‘Cassandra is very collaborative, and
there’s a lot of time spent engaging in deep
listening exercises and that sort of thing.
With Tom (Adès), the collaboration is more
about sending snippets back and forth to
Perfect partners:
Shibe with Manchester
Collective at St George’s
Bristol in May 2023
each other; I’ve been mailing him a lot of
guitar pieces that I think are instructive,
even if they’re not similar to his writing,
and then he’ll video message me with
comments and I’ll message him back with
demonstrations of why this does or doesn’t
work. I think it has aroused a genuine
curiosity in him about the guitar; it’s his
first work for a solo instrument aside from
the keyboard stuff, which is exciting.’
When it comes to new music, Shibe is as
passionate about the electric guitar as he is
about the acoustic, for both offer different
possibilities, as he explains. ‘A classical
guitar is essentially a small-c conservative
instrument; it’s about reserve, it has these
deficits of colour, volume and sustain,
and that deficit itself is an asset. But you
have to use the palette that we have at our
 Embracing the guitar: composers Thomas Adès
(above left) and Cassandra Miller (above right) are
working closely with Shibe on new commissions
disposal to create the impression of there
being more – that’s the kind of smoke
and mirrors. Whereas the electric guitar
is much more literal; you add on another
pedal and turn on the volume and this
kind of thing.
‘One of the great things about playing
the electric guitar as well is that there are
composers who totally want to write for it,’
he continues, ‘and who the classical guitar
doesn’t resonate with – and vice versa.
Francisco Coll is maybe the exception,
in that he thinks the electric guitar is an
amazing sonority that makes it even more
suitable for the necessary sonorities of the
orchestra than a piano. Tom (Adès) thinks
of the classical guitar a lot more; in some
ways he’s quite old school. And then there’s
a composer like Mark Simpson, who heard
the electric guitar and immediately said,
“This is an extraordinary vehicle that I
must write for!”’
That brings us back to that cello bow at
the Manchester Collective gig. It featured
in a work by Emily Hall called Potential
Space, which saw roles reversed – Shibe
bowed his guitar like a cello while the
string players held their instruments like
guitars, picking and strumming. It was a
memorable moment.
‘Emily is a meticulously prepared
composer,’ Shibe recalls. ‘Everything that
was in that piece was totally possible and
EVAN DAWSON, BEN EALOVEGA, GETTY
very well researched, which is quite rare!
We didn’t have much back-and-forth;
she delivered it nine months before the
premiere, and I think she found it strange
to have submitted it and then have this
hiatus before we all set about learning it.’
Another memorable moment from
that performance was Julius Eastman’s
hypnotic Buddha, which the musicians
performed in an arrangement by Shibe
himself, based on the composer’s unusual
egg-shaped score. Arranging is another
string to Shibe’s proverbial bow, but an
important one.
‘It’s always a necessary thing for
guitarists to do, and I do a fair amount of
it; in fact most of my arrangements are
about to be published by Faber Music. The
Eastman represented a unique challenge
because the score is 22 lines of almost
illegible writing and it’s very hard to
understand. A lot of the performances on
YouTube are either too ambient or have a
lack of direction. So a lot of it was about
trying to find what the critical moments
of the score are, or how I can create critical
moments, or amplify them. I find I’m quite
neurotic about that side of things, so it’s all
very rigidly organised.’
If you’re expecting anything original for
the guitar from Shibe himself, don’t bet on
hearing it any time soon. He tells me it’s
not fit for public consumption and ‘more
of an itch that needs to be scratched’. His
recordings, though, are very much fit for
public ears and with six albums under his
belt (the seventh is incoming), we’ve had
plenty of opportunities to discover what
makes this artist tick, from the sublime
(Camino) to the more esoteric (softLOUD).
His first three albums were on Delphian,
but he parted company with the Scottish
label and signed with Pentatone; his
recordings with the latter have showcased
Shibe’s creative spark, from the set-lists to
the photography – he memorably shaved
his head for the cover of 2021’s Camino,
his Pentatone debut. Such artistic
Trailblazer: Bream popularised the guitar and lute
In Julian Bream’s footsteps
But not riding his coat tails...
‘I always find it funny when labels come
out with a new guitarist and say they’re the
inheritor of the legacy of Bream or Segovia,’
says Sean Shibe, ‘regardless of whether
or not the guitarist wants to be riding on
their coat tails, but posing them in this
way for the market. Legacies are not really
inherited, they’re made. I always found
Bream’s work really inspirational in many
ways, but I never felt like I was part of his
legacy; I was just a fan of what he did.’
Part of it or not, Bream’s story certainly
chimes with Shibe’s. The English guitarist
(1933-2020) persevered with the
instrument when all around him said he
shouldn’t – even the
Royal College of Music
asked him to leave
it at home when he
began studies there
in the early 1950s.
His passion paid
off, proving not only
the guitar’s place
in classical ensembles and as a solo
instrument, but also its worth as a voice
for new music. Indeed, during his 50-year
career he would be the dedicatee of
masses of new guitar music, from Britten
to Birtwistle, Arnold to Walton (above). Even
after his retirement, he was committed to
creating new repertoire and opportunities
for the next generation of guitarists via the
Julian Bream Trust. ‘I devoted my life to
music for a reason,’ he once said, ‘and the
reason wasn’t because I wanted to get on
or make money, but to try to fulfil myself
and also to give people pleasure.’
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 29
Sean Shibe
Standing out from the crowd:
Shibe traverses a varied
musicscape; (opposite above)
playing kick drum in David
Lang’s Killer, and recording
Villa-Lobos (opposite below)
control makes all the difference for him, as
he explains.
‘I’m just delighted with the autonomy
I get from Pentatone. I feel like I have the
right partners now; I don’t have to argue
with them in the way that I used to have
to defend my decisions. So that has really
helped, and I think that when I was coming
up with the more curiously flavoured
projects in the past, there was a lot of
justifying why you were doing what you
were doing, and I think that those early
stages are often the most difficult.’
With such a free rein to his creativity,
Shibe is also keen to remind listeners that
he’s not only about taking them on walks
on the wild side. ‘Sometimes albums
contexualise themselves, but sometimes
if I feel like something has been more
“out there” for too long I want to put
out something that is establishing my
approach to the guitar canon. And I want it
30 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
‘I take the stuff
that seems weird
DVbVHULRXVO\DV,GR
WKHRWKHUVWXIIł
to be clear that I take the stuff that seems,
on the face of it, weird as seriously as I do
the other stuff. I see them as essentially
symbiotic; there’s a balance.’
His next album for Pentatone focuses on
guitar music by Barrios, Villa-Lobos and
Ginastera, so it is musically a little more on
the straight and narrow. ‘It’s repertoire that
the guitar is very known for,’ he reveals,
‘despite being – historically speaking –
quite recently discovered and only really
championed by John Williams. Of course,
South America has a very strong colonial
history with the instrument, but the
general trajectory of this album is that the
Barrios is highly Chopin-esque and there
are a couple of allusions to Bach, but he is
essentially a conservative in his own time,
compositionally speaking.’
At the heart of the recording, due for
release in November, is Villa-Lobos’s 12
Études for Guitar which might seem like
bread-and-better music for a guitarist, but
actually takes us on something of a trip.
‘What Villa-Lobos does over this cycle
of 12 études is gradually move from the
inspiration of other composers – Chopin,
Paganini, Shostakovich, Rachamaninov
– through to developing a much stronger
sense of his own style, with hallucinations
of rainforest sounds and birdcalls or
distant drums,’ Shibe shares. ‘He operates
this move from Barrios to Ginastera
– Ginastera is, of course, even more

hallucinatory, even more violent, by even
the standard of the last three Villa-Lobos
pieces, which are pretty brutal.’
It’s an album Shibe admits he has
wanted to realise for ten years, only now
finding the time needed to devote to it.
But, he says, it may be the last solo album
for a while. ‘I probably will step back from
recording so much solo guitar stuff and
do more things that are collaborative, like
this programme in Aldeburgh with Tim
(Ridout) and Adam (Walker); I’d love to
record that – I mean, I’ve no idea if it will
EVAN DAWSON, IGA GOZDOWSKA, KAUPO KIKKAS, GETTY
get to that stage, but that would be a bit of
a dream.’
Whatever he chooses to do next, there’s
no doubt that it will be driven by passion,
curiosity, serious thought and the simple
need to make music with others. That’s
just how Sean Shibe rolls.
Sean Shibe’s new album ‘Profesión’ is out on
Pentatone on 17 November
Sean Shibe in the studio
The first six album recordings
‘I’ve always been driven to make sonic
experiences that people want to listen
to from beginning to end as a 50-minute
process’, says the guitarist. Here are the
experiences Sean Shibe has created
thus far…
Dreams and Fancies
Delphian DCD34193 (2017)
Sean Shibe’s debut album was a portrait of
English music for guitar, his curatorial flair
already on display with works
by Dowland meeting those by
Britten, Arnold and Walton.
softLOUD
Delphian DCD34213 (2018)
Acoustic and electric guitars
faced off in this thrilling
juxtaposition of music ancient
and modern. This is the album
through which Shibe really set out his stall.
BACH
Delphian DCD34233 (2020)
Three Bach lute suites made up this
engaging album, Shibe wringing every
ounce of emotional and interpretative
nuance out of Bach’s scores, seemingly
made for the modern guitar.
Camino
Pentatone PTC 5186 870 (2021)
In his debut for Pentatone, Shibe dug deep
to deliver this introspective pilgrimage
Bald moves:
Shibe shaved his head
for Camino; (below) going
electric with the albums
softLOUD and Lost & Found
along the musical border of France and
Spain, with enchanting music by Mompou,
De Falla, Satie, Poulenc and Ravel.
Lost & Found
Pentatone PTC 5186 988 (2022)
In his second recording for Pentatone,
Shibe turned to the electric guitar in order
to shine a light on sidelined or forgotten
composers, such as Julius Eastman. The
result was both exquisite and profound.
Broken Branches
Pentatone PTC 5187 031 (2023)
Shibe teamed up with tenor Karim
Sulayman for this enticing
album exploring identity and
roots, both their own and those
of the very wood that goes into
making a guitar.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 31
 I would like
machines to understand
humans better, and
music is a wonderful
way to start
THE BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE INTERVIEW
Kit Armstrong
The former piano prodigy’s
career is defying expectations
to encompass AI development,
urban regeneration and a new
opera about Machaut, as he
explains to Michael Church
PHOTOGRAPHY: JF MOUSSEAU
I
t was the end of term in 2003 at the
Royal Academy of Music, and some
young hopefuls were going through
their paces. On walked a tiny boy with a
wide smile, luminous gaze and hands that
could barely stretch an octave. But there
was nothing boyish about the way this
pianist of British-Taiwanese origin
played the first movement of Beethoven’s
First Piano Concerto – he radiated a
finely nuanced expressiveness and coolly
relaxed authority.
At 12 years old, Kit Armstrong was
already being talked about in tones
of reverential wonder, so I decided to
interview him. Sensing something
mysterious, I got a pre-emptive briefing
from his economist mother. ‘As a baby he
didn’t sleep much,’ said May Armstrong.
32 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
‘And he had ultra-sensitive hearing. The
slightest sound in the next room would
wake him up. I first became aware of his
mathematical talent when he was one, as he
started counting apples.
‘And in our household we spoke several
languages: I speak to Kit in Chinese and
to my parents in Taiwanese, and we had a
Tibetan maid. And he began to speak them
all – he wasn’t confused. He even began to
sing back the Japanese songs my father sang
to him. He was so smart that I decided to
give him music as a hobby.’
So Kit started lessons on an electronic
keyboard. ‘But by the third lesson he began
to ask such sophisticated questions that the
teacher couldn’t answer them. And after
a month he started to compose on paper.’
What sort of music?
Here Kit broke in: ‘I first composed
monophonic music, just one single line of
notes, and not even particularly melodious.
But for some reason I got excited about
it – I liked making strings of notes. And at
one point I realised I had to make it sound
good, so I had to discover what those strings
sounded like. Then we got a piano.’ ‘From
the moment it arrived,’ said May, ‘he was
 Kit Armstrong

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 33


Guiding hands: Alfred Brendel, a fine tutor
Essential lessons
Armstrong on Alfred Brendel
‘He lives in a world he has created
for himself, a world where culture
engenders worth and beauty,’
reflects Kit Armstrong about his
teacher, pianist Alfred Brendel. ‘I am a
scientist by training, growing up in the
Californian outdoors, and to be able to
also spend time in his world has been
incredibly enriching.
‘What specific lessons did I draw
from him? Watching us together, one
might notice at first a wealth of small
things: to accent the note before
the climax of a phrase; or playing a
legato melody as detached notes with
the pedal depressed, which helps
him realise his ideal of a touch that
simultaneously sings and speaks.
‘These aren’t the most important
things, but they are examples. In an
analogy to cooking, you could say that
it’s like cutting carrots in a certain
way. But what working with him is
really about is coming to understand
his aesthetic through his live reactions
to what he hears, more than the
instructions themselves taken out
of context.
‘One essential lesson he has given
me has been the allergy he has for
things which sound “technical”.
I have to balance this important
key to expressiveness against the
temptation of over-compensating
by making something sound more
difficult than it actually is.’
34 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Combined studies: Kit Armstrong (right) is seeking
to bring together his expertise in music and maths;
(below) receiving a commemorative medal at
Steinway’s 150th anniversary in New York, 2003
on it every single minute. It drove me mad,
but I couldn’t say a word. I had to grab him
away and say “eat!”’ Kit continued: ‘Then
it built up exponentially, and I started to
write melodies with harmonies. I worked
out my own primitive version of harmony,
and theory, and voice-leading.’
At seven, he became the youngest
maths scholar at Chapman University
in California, and at nine was a full-time
undergraduate, but his musical creation
kept pace. He transcribed Mozart
symphonies for his own two-finger piano
rendition before being taught to play with
all his fingers. And when he came to study
in London in 2003, his compositional
talent developed
phenomenally fast. Yet
in some ways he was
still very much a child,
delighting in designing
his own complex
origami – including
a paper rhino with
wings, commissioned
by the concert hall
in Dortmund whose
emblem it was – and
showing off his dexterity
in juggling balls. But
even that became the prowess on the tennis
occasion for rules within court, in the origami
rules: his clear intellect puzzles and computer
showed through in everything he did. games he designed, and in the amused,
Encountering Armstrong at this time, sadistic pleasure he derived from watching
pianist Alfred Brendel saw him as a ‘born his chamber-music partners struggle with
Bach player’, and was moved to break music he had written as a challenge for
one of his own cardinal rules. ‘I normally them. The film also showed him getting
shy away from dealing with children,’ he career advice, including a warning about
said, ‘but a recording he had made was so interviews: avoid big ones with unexpected
extraordinary that I decided to give him questions if possible, said Brendel, with
as much time as possible.’ Thus began a Armstrong nodding sagely. (As this article
tutelage which continues today, and which is the fruit of conversations stretching over
was the subject of a documentary by Mark 20 years, I’ve clearly been lucky.)
Kidel entitled Set the Piano Stool on Fire – Brendel’s most significant comments
Brendel’s phrase – made when Armstrong came at the end of the film: first, that
was in his late teens. Armstrong should preserve his childlike
That film was full of pointers, above side; and secondly, that although he has
all, to Armstrong’s superlative pianism the technique to be a virtuoso, ‘his
– sweetly expressive Schubert and concerns lie in a different direction’.
Bach’s majestic Chromatic Fantasia Brendel spoke truer than he knew, because
played like the wind. It also testified to nobody could have predicted the direction
his facility in composing pieces which that Kit Armstrong has taken over the
were at once seriously Bartókian and past ten years.
also elaborate musical jokes. His creative Though his parallel studies in algebraic
competitiveness came out too, in his geometry and topology had earned him a

master’s degree at the Pierre et Marie Curie
University in Paris, he renounced the
scientific career he could have prospered
in, and looked about for something
different to do. He bought a disused art
nouveau church in Hirson, a down-at-
heel town in northern France, and turned
it into what is a now a thriving concert
hall-cum-artists’ colony; this was a
quintessential urban regeneration project.
But his current big project represents a
quantum leap. He’s joined a project at the
National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan
which is investigating the possibility of
collaboration between AI and humans.
‘I look forward to a world where we as a
species can communicate in a meaningful
way with things which are not our species,’
he says. ‘After all, it’s long been the dream
of humans to speak with animals.’ I say
I would love to speak with my cat, but
MARCO BORGGREVE, GETTY
I can’t see the attraction of conversing
with a machine. He bridles at that: ‘You
are speaking from the point of view of
humanism. I don’t want to believe
humans are so special.’
‘AI is the idea that
we can create an
environment which
thinks for itself’
There follows a philosophical argument
which reaches a point where he relates his
new credo to something practical: ‘AI is the
idea that we can create an environment
which thinks for itself. It’s the sum of what
we put into it, plus its own observations of
nature. For this is how we ourselves came
about – this is how our own consciousness
arose. I would like machines to understand
humans better, and music is a wonderful
way to start.’
Beginning with a piece of music for
voice and piano, he and his colleagues
are attempting to train an AI creation
to play the accompaniment, to a point
where someone listening blind cannot
distinguish between the AI performance
Kit Armstrong
and a musician’s. ‘To put it crudely,’ he
says, ‘if something behaves like a human,
and can’t be told apart from a human, it
deserves to be treated as a human.’ But it’s
invisible and intangible, I protest. ‘Yes, just
as our thoughts are invisible!’
Meanwhile, he is advancing on several
other fronts. Last year he released a CD of
music for DG by 16th-century composers
William Byrd and John Bull, whose
keyboard music he regards as being of
seminal importance. He is now preparing
an opera about Guillaume de Machaut,
which will focus on the unconsummated
love affair the 14th-century poet and
composer is thought to have had after
surviving the Black Death.
Another of his projects will focus on the
music of Alkan. Armstrong is preparing
a programme of the music which would
have influenced him, including Haydn
and Mendelssohn. I tell him how
impatient I get with the latter composer’s
repetitiveness, and we jokingly agree that
Mendelssohn himself may have been a
figment of AI.
If all this were not enough, he is at
present busily touring Europe as a soloist
and leader of chamber groups. And
in the latter guise, early next year he
will lead some star German orchestral
instrumentalists in a chamber music
series travelling through France, Germany
and Austria entitled Expedition Mozart.
Considering his sure-footed and
dazzlingly successful career, I get no sense
that Armstrong has ever encountered
failure. And that may explain why he
brushes off as a ‘media trend’ the widely
expressed fear that AI may become a threat
to humanity. But he is concerned that it
should be kept in perspective: ‘It’s neither
the solution to all our problems, nor the
doom of our culture. I am working on it
because the research needs to be done –
because humans need to know more about
the universe. But there are more pressing
questions for musicians. Every day a huge
amount of music is being made, which is
looking for a public.’
Is this a cue for his next big project? He’s
no longer interested in what he calls the
‘puzzle-solving satisfaction’ of origami,
and he’s too busy to juggle five balls as he
used to. ‘But I’m sure I will go back to that
at some point – it’s so beautiful.’
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 35

Broadcaster Clemency Burton-Hill’s
Year of Wonder series is inspiring a whole
range of devoted listeners through a new
book club run by the Boise Philharmonic;
Rebecca Franks joins one of their sessions
36 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Between the covers: the Boise
Phil Book Club (left) features a
wide range of pieces (far right),
including Fantasie nègre by
Florence Price (below), taken
from Year of Wonder by
Clemency Burton-Hill (right)
S
ometimes a book changes your life. That
was the case when Amy Granger came
across Year of Wonder, written by the
broadcaster and journalist Clemency
Burton-Hill. Featuring a single, short piece of
classical music for every day of the year, this
treasury offers a personal guide through the
art form across the centuries. ‘My aunt found
it in the library, grabbed it – and she became
enamoured. She bought copies and sent them to
everybody. My mum got one, and it sort of grew,
and we now have this huge network of people
in my family who have this book,’ says Granger.
‘When I read the introduction, honestly, it was
like stars, rainbows and lightning bolts were
shooting out of the book into my brain.’
That’s lovely, you might be thinking, but what’s
the wider significance? Well, Granger works for
one of the oldest cultural institutions in Idaho,
the Boise Philharmonic – or Boise Phil, as it’s
known – and oversees the audience’s experience
with the orchestra. ‘Clemency’s introduction
is everything I want to do in terms of engaging

with the public,’ she says. After getting the book
for the Boise Phil’s staff and board directors,
the next steps seemed logical to her: ‘Maybe
we should have a book club? And then, why
wouldn’t we invite the public?’
And so began ‘The Big Listen’, an in-person
and online book club whose members are
working their way through Year of Wonder, and
meeting every few months to share their
thoughts, discoveries and feelings about the
music. It is, says Granger, ‘a grand experiment’,
but with nearly 100 people signed up to the email
list and a good turn-out for the meetings, it’s
already shaping up to be a success.
The project kicked off in January – with the
Sanctus from Bach’s B minor Mass. ‘On this first
day of a new adventure, let us begin with a great
big drumbeat and a choir singing their hearts
out,’ writes Burton-Hill. ‘Irrespective of your
religious leanings, whoever you are, wherever
you come from, this is five or so minutes of music
to gladden the heart and lift the soul and say:
GETTY
“Come on then, new year, let’s be having you.”’
Year of Wonder
A couple of months later, at the start of March,
I drop into the group’s second meeting, via Zoom.
There are the usual online quirks we’re all used
to – speaking while on mute, cats wandering by
on screen, some people with cameras on, some
off – but across the hour, the discussion is lively
and wide-ranging. Granger is joined by the Boise
Phil’s musicologist, Bradley Berg, and librarian,
Melissa Wilson, to lightly guide the discussion
and to answer any questions. Some of the
members have ‘zero experience’ with classical
music, while at the opposite end of the scale, one
reader used to be a high-school music teacher
and another has a degree in piano pedagogy.
The idea is that both the book and the club offer
something for everyone.
Although Year of Wonder is written to
provide a daily fix of classical music – and the
Boise Phil has created a playlist on its website
for each month – the book-clubbers have all
approached The Big Listen in different ways.
There’s the woman who listens as part of her
calm-down routine before bed: ‘I read the day’s
description, then I play the piece, then I read
again while listening to it.’ One man tucks into
the music during his midday lunchbreak, while
Granger makes it the first job before tackling
her work to-do list in the morning. Someone
else powers through a week’s worth of music at
a time on a Sunday afternoon, while another
Clemency’s spent a whole day listening, taking notes, going
back and forth between the pieces. They all agree
introduction that Burton-Hill has struck on a ‘genius format’,
allowing the reader plenty of freedom.
is everything I The Boise Phil book-clubbers have come
want in terms of armed with their musical discoveries to share.
‘On 4 February, we heard the Fantasie nègre by
engaging with Florence Price, described as “the first African-
American woman symphonist whose music
the public was considered worthy of being performed by
a major orchestra”,’ says one reader. ‘You can
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 37
Year of Wonder
Wonderwall
Inspirational books
It’s 1 January, and you’ve
just finished reading Burton-
Hill’s Year of Wonder. But
you’d still like a fresh fix of
classical
music this
year, to
expand your
listening
and
discover
new
composers and pieces.
Where do you turn?
Well, there is, of course,
Another Year of Wonder,
the 2021 sequel (Headline
Home, above), and Journal
of Wonder is due out at
the end of December.
‘I have chosen pieces I
love, or think historically
interesting, or which have
some
resonance
for me
personally or
in the world,’
explains
Burton-Hill.
‘But what
matters is what you think;
how they make you feel as
you listen.’
Or you could try Music
for Life by Fiona Maddocks
(Faber & Faber, above),
music critic of The Observer,
which arranges 100
pieces of classical music
into assorted categories,
including ‘Childhood, Youth’,
‘Change’, ‘Love, Passion’ and
‘Time Passing’.
Historian
Tim Bouverie
also picks
100 classical
masterpieces
in his
book, Perfect
Pitch: 100
pieces of classical music
to bring joy, tears, solace,
empathy, inspiration (and
everything in between) –
Short Books Ltd, above
– a book that critic Rupert
Christiansen described as
‘sharply insightful and
vividly imaginative’.
38 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
On the nature of listening: (below) author Clemency
Burton-Hill; (far right) composer Max Richter, whose
music Burton-Hill sought during her recovery; (below right)
Amy Granger, creator of the Boise Phil Book Club
feel her struggles in the piece at the beginning
and her triumphs at the end – I really enjoyed
that.’ There’s some back and forth as two
members try to recall which piece was ‘super-
atmospheric and funky’ (Ola Gjeilo’s ‘The
Spheres’ from his Sunrise Mass, 19 February),
while Berg’s Piano Sonata No. 1 (9 February) is
deemed both ‘unsettling’ and a ‘reminder to be
open to new sounds’.
For one reader, Steve Reich’s Electric
Counterpoint (19 January) was the highlight. ‘It’s
my favourite piece of his, and it cross-pollinated
with a lot of rock bands I liked growing up. It
was a good entry point into guitar music and
performing with pedals.’ Granger was ‘stopped
in her tracks’ by Poulenc’s Mélancolie (17
February), leading her down a Spotify rabbit
hole for an hour or two to listen to more of the
French composer’s music, while another reader
enjoyed the story of Saint-Saëns’s ‘The Swan’ on
25 February. ‘I am personally a procrastinator
sometimes and I thought it was pretty funny that
Saint-Saëns was such a big procrastinator that
he wrote 14 movements of The Carnival of the
Animals instead of what he was supposed to do.’
(Which was write his Third Symphony.)
Connecting with and inspiring readers in
this way was just what Burton-Hill hoped to do
when she embarked on her book, now the first in
a series (the third is due out later this year). ‘The
main objective that I had in mind in writing Year she writes in an email to me. ‘I have always
of Wonder was to open up the so-called “classical maintained that classical music is timeless
music” genre itself and let people feel welcome,’ and universal, and yields us gifts that could
potentially resonate with anyone, everyone.
Gifts in the form of sonic treasures, from the
tiniest sliver of an acoustic solo movement
to polyphonic vocal canvases to massive
symphonies. It’s incredibly moving to me that
the Boise Phil are running a book club for their
local Idaho community, almost 5,000 miles
away from where I wrote the first book, and more
than five (almost unimaginable) years later, after
it was originally published in the UK.’
During the years since Year of Wonder first
came out, not only has the world experienced
the Covid pandemic, but in early 2020 Burton-
Hill suffered a catastrophic brain haemorrhage.
‘I survived, just about,’ she wrote in a recent
article in The Times. ‘But it took many months
of intensive speech and language rehabilitation
before I could even form a basic sentence, in
verbal words or on a screen. (I still can’t hold
a pen.)’ At a certain point, she wanted to hear
music again. ‘I remember how obsessively I
started to indicate to the nurses in my hospital
ward that I needed to listen to Max Richter’s On

the Nature of Daylight and his reworking of
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. When I was isolated and
cut off from my usual life and former ways of
communicating, this music seemed to reach me
somehow. It felt like a miracle. It still does.’
The everyday miracle of music was, and still
is, at the heart of Burton-Hill’s philosophy.
‘Listening to music every day is as vital as
eating, drinking water, sleeping and hugging
my children; no exaggeration!’ Burton-Hill tells
me. ‘Whether I am lonely, confused, wretched,
exhausted, grief-stricken; or joyous, curious,
grateful, exhilarated, peaceful, I generally find
music is not far away from the essential truth
of the matter.’ And her enthusiasm spoke to
the Boise Phil book-clubbers. Asked what they
thought ‘classical music’ was, one member
summed it up: ‘It’s real people, who suffered,
enjoyed, celebrated the same kinds of things we
GETTY, BROOKE BURTON, ANDY STAPLES
do. Clemmie made this real: real people, real
music, real-life experiences. It makes the music
come alive.’
For the Boise Phil, this kind of interaction
with its audience is gold dust. Like so many
other orchestras across North America, the
ensemble has seen a gradual decline in ticket
sales and subscribers over the years. Yet this is
in the largest city and state capital of Idaho, a
boom town. There should be plenty of potential
listeners at hand, and along with Opera Idaho
and Ballet Idaho, the Boise Phil is one of the city’s
key cultural organisations. ‘Tens of thousands
of people have moved to Boise recently during
and after the pandemic and the city is really
Cultural cornerstone: hopping,’ says Granger. ‘We’re always on the lists
Idaho’s Boise Phil,
conducted by Eric Garcia of best places to live. One of my main jobs is to
make sure that we’re reaching out to newcomers.’
Tasked with increasing audience numbers,
Granger began to feel like ‘a robot on repeat,
saying “Buy a ticket, come to a concert”,’ she says.
‘But without having much of a conversation.
I was wondering how to grow demand. And I
thought, maybe I need to see what people are
interested in and what they want to talk about.’
Put like that, it sounds simple. Granger realised
that, with around 20 concerts across the season,
there were plenty of free days when the orchestra
could engage with the public in other ways. Year
of Wonder was the last piece of the puzzle,
offering the antithesis of technical, jargon-filled
analysis which, as the prevailing wisdom goes,
can be off-putting to newcomers. It also aims to
empower listeners, helping them decide what
With Year of music they do and don’t like.
Wonder, you’re Fundamentally, Granger believes its ethos is
the secret to a healthy classical music industry. ‘I
in charge of your think if I could get Year of Wonder into the hands
of people and orchestras across the US it could
own classical
be a game-changer to say, guess what, you’re in
music journey charge of your own classical music journey,’ she
reasons. ‘I want to build authentic listeners with
– it’s a game- a personal connection to the music. I think if
we do, we’ll have no problem with ticket sales in
changer the future.’
www.boisephil.org
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 39
Handel For All
For the masses
Conceived during the pandemic, The English
Concert’s Handel for All project aims to make all
of the composer’s works freely available online,
as music director Harry Bicket tells Clive Paget
W
hen Handel died at his London
home in 1759, the whole nation
mourned. Three thousand
people turned out for his
full state funeral and to see him buried in
Westminster Abbey. Unlike JS Bach, Handel’s
music remained in circulation, a staple of
coronations and choral societies. A performance
of Messiah at the Crystal Palace to celebrate the
centenary of his death attracted an audience of
10,000. Hardly a composer in need of special
pleading, you might think.
Not so, says Harry Bicket, artistic director of
The English Concert, who makes a compelling
case, not just for more Handel, but for Handel for
All. ‘Here’s this guy living in Brook Street, who
was so much a part of the cultural life of England
in the 18th century,’ says Bicket. ‘This is the
person Mozart worshipped, who Beethoven said
is the best of all of us, and yet he has this B-team
status in some people’s eyes.’
Our interview is taking place surrounded by
cameras and mixing desks amid the crumbling
plaster and peeling paintwork of Battersea Arts
AGATHE POUPENEY/ONP, GETTY, PAUL MARC MITCHELL
Centre’s Grand Hall. With its faded Victorian
grandeur, it’s an atmospheric location to record
Handel’s Solomon, the latest instalment in The
English Concert’s daringly completest project.
Their aim: to film every note Handel wrote and
make it available online – for free.
In a speech the night before, Bicket, a modest,
approachable man as well as a practical,
hands-on musician, described Handel for All
40 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
as a ‘crazy ambition born out of adversity’. The
idea gathered momentum, he explained, as
companies were clawing their way out of the
pandemic. ‘If our work – if our whole industry –
is that fragile, we thought, what would we most
regret not having done? So, let’s just do it.’
The project is off to a headstart thanks to the
orchestra’s ongoing relationship with New York’s
Carnegie Hall. The sheer quality of the playing,
along with dream casts where established singers
‘We’re trying to record
in interesting places,
like Samson in
Handel’s own church’
rub shoulders with rising stars, have earned
them worldwide recognition.
‘One of the most-asked questions has always
been, “Why aren’t you recording all this?”’ Bicket
says. ‘The way people consume music now is
very different, so filming performances seems
like a good idea. Previously, we thought the
costs were too huge, but we’ve started to do
a lot of streaming and now we have our own
camera equipment.’
They have their work cut out. Handel
composed an eye-watering 42 operas (although
two are lost and three are pasticcios). Then
there are 25 oratorios, 120 cantatas, trios and
 Handel it: (clockwise from far
left) Ariodante at the Paris
Opera earlier this year; the
composer pictured in his early
40s; Harry Bicket conducts The
English Concert, the ensemble
of which he is artistic director

duets; numerous arias,

odes and serenatas;
solo and trio sonatas; 18
concerti grossi; and 16
organ concertos. Bicket
himself will helm the
annual Carnegie Hall
event, but the Handel for
All website will include
performances like last
year’s Edinburgh Festival
Saul, conducted by John Butt. Principal guest
conductor Kristian Bezuidenhout will
also contribute.
‘Someone worked out that if we do three or
four major works a year it’s going to take about
15 years,’ Bicket explains. ‘I don’t expect to be
finishing the project myself – unless I’m
there with my Zimmer frame,’ he adds with a
rueful smile.
Although he has four decades of Handel under
his belt, Bicket came to the composer almost
by accident. ‘I was an organist at Westminster
Abbey,’ he recalls. ‘I’d just come to London and
was finding my way freelancing for John Eliot
[Gardiner] and Chris Hogwood,’ he recalls. ‘I
got a phone call from the then manager of The
English Concert saying, “We’re doing Solomon
at the Proms; would you come and play second
harpsichord? Trevor [Pinnock] now realises that
jumping up the whole time to conduct the chorus
means he could do with somebody covering
the joins.” I said, “Well, I don’t really play the
harpsichord.” And I remember him saying, “It
doesn’t matter – we’re desperate!”’
This total immersion in music with a period
orchestra, which back in 1983 was still a
relatively new thing, opened Bicket’s ears. ‘By the
end of the week, I was like, “Oh my God, this guy
Handel!”’ he beams.
The Handel for All website already includes
Saul, a white-hot Armida abbandonata with
soprano Mary Bevan and a complete Samson
(check out Rachel Redmond’s ardent ‘Let the
bright Seraphim’). They’ve also filmed Ariodante
at Opéra de Paris, Amadigi, Chandos Anthems
and organ concertos, many of the trio sonatas,
and some of the early vocal duets and trios.
‘We’re trying to record in interesting places, like
Samson in St George’s Hanover Square, which
was Handel’s church,’ explains Bicket.
The only house rule is not to film anything
they haven’t played in front of audiences. ‘With
an orchestra like this, if we have a run of five

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 41

Composers’ LA houses

Walk of Fame
From Beverly Hills to Brentwood – passing Palm
Springs – Brian Wise reveals the former famous
musical inhabitants of California’s City of Angels

A
s Europe’s artistic luminaries
flocked to Los Angeles after
Hitler came to power in 1933, they
found themselves in a thriving, if
sometimes incongruous, cultural landscape.
Drawn by the climate, Hollywood industry and
the promise of creative freedom, they purchased
homes in Beverly Hills and on the mountainous
lanes of Laurel Canyon. They rubbed shoulders
with movie moguls and starlets. They learned
how to drive and play tennis.
The writer Thomas Mann dubbed this
environment ‘German California’. It was
where Schoenberg and philosopher Theodor
Adorno met up while grocery shopping, where
Stravinsky discussed a film project on Charlie
Chaplin’s patio, and where Rachmaninov
applied his large hands to gardening.
father’s annoyance, the more famous Schoenberg
at the local tennis club.
Esa-Pekka Salonen
12000 Saltair Place
In the decade that Esa-Pekka Salonen owned
this airy, six-bedroom, five-and-a-half-
bathroom house, he added some touches from
his native Finland including a sauna with a
musical inscription from Sibelius’s Finlandia.
Built in 1993 and designed by LA architect Ted
Tanaka, the 4,700-square foot house provided
a generous space for Salonen and his family

Brentwood
Arnold Schoenberg
116 North Rockingham Avenue
A faculty post at UCLA in 1936 prompted Arnold
Schoenberg and his wife Gertrud to buy this
Spanish revival house in leafy Brentwood, just
across the street from Shirley Temple. Musicians
came from afar to study with the Austrian
master, who hosted Sunday afternoon gatherings
with Viennese pastries and performances from
the Kolisch Quartet and pianist Artur Schnabel.
Schoenberg composed works including Kol
Nidre and his Piano Concerto here, sometimes
between rounds of tennis with George Gershwin
and Harpo Marx. His athletic son Ronnie
GETTY

became a junior tennis champion and, to his

44 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

 Serial thriller:
the Schoenbergs (right)
regularly hosted Sunday
concerts in Brentwood
(below); (below right) the site
of the Hollywood mansion
owned by Alma Mahler and
Franz Werfel (below)
during his directorship of the Los Angeles
Finnishing touch: Philharmonic. He sold the home in 2011
Esa-Pekka Salonen (left) after accepting a post with London’s
added a sauna to his LA
family home Philharmonia Orchestra.
Beverly Hills
George Gershwin
1019 North Roxbury Drive (demolished)
Brothers George and Ira Gershwin rented a
Spanish colonial revival house in 1936-37,
having migrated west after the commercial
failure of Porgy and Bess. Here, they focused
on writing for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
musicals; songs included ‘A Foggy Day,’ ‘Shall We
Dance’ and ‘They Can’t Take That Away From
Me’. The stately residence, with its pool, tennis
court and chauffeur’s quarters, was built in 1928
for the silent film star Monte Blue and was later
home to the singer Rosemary Clooney. Despite
protests by preservationists and Gershwin
admirers, new owners razed the
house in 2005.
Alma Mahler
610 North Bedford Drive
(demolished)
Alma Mahler and her third
husband, Franz Werfel, moved
into gold-plated Beverly Hills
in 1940, a mark of the latter’s
growing success as a playwright and author. In
their lush garden, the couple hosted composers
Schoenberg and Korngold, and conductors Otto
Klemperer and Bruno Walter, their next-door
neighbour. Werfel died of a heart attack in 1945
and Mahler moved back to New York in 1951.
André Previn
304 S. Bedford Drive, 1454 Stone Canyon Road
André Previn and his family were exiles from
Nazi Germany when they arrived in Los Angeles
in 1938, and he would spend large stretches of
his life in Beverly Hills. While still at Beverly
Hills High School, Previn began working as an
arranger and orchestrator at MGM and went
on to compose more than 50 Hollywood scores.
Previn was never drawn to trendy addresses,
and told the New York Times in 1986 that he was
appalled by the ‘geographical caste system’
of Los Angeles.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 45
Composers’ LA houses
Truck-load of tunes: John Adams
Golden State sounds
Capturing California
Sally Beamish’s Opus
California (1999) was
inspired by the state’s
beaches, boardwalks and
bridges, while Esa-Pekka
Salonen’s LA Variations
(1996) is a splashy
salute to the ‘virtuosity
and power’ of the Los
Angeles Philharmonic, and
John Adams’s Hallelujah
Junction (1996) is named
after a truck stop near the
California-Nevada border.
Adams has portrayed his
adopted home state in other
pieces including The Dharma
at Big Sur, a jazzy electric
violin concerto composed for
the opening of Walt Disney
Concert Hall, and Girls of the
Golden West, an opera that
upends the romantic myths
surrounding the California
gold rush.
California’s colonial past
has inspired at least two
works: Mexican composer
Gabriela Ortiz’s D’Colonial
Californiano (2021) and Lou
Harrison’s Pacifika Rondo
(1963), which includes
a movement titled ‘In
Sequoia’s Shade’.
Finally, California’s flora
and fauna has prompted
several recent pieces,
including Gabriela Lena
Frank’s Contested Eden,
Gabriella Smith’s Breathing
Forests and Robin
Holcomb’s Paradise, about
the town of the same name
that was consumed by
wildfire in 2018.
46 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Rite at home: Igor
Stravinksy in Los
Angeles, 1962
Sergei Rachmaninov
610 North Elm Drive
‘It’s true, I’ve bought a house,’ a frail Sergei
Rachmaninov wrote to a friend in 1942, about
his seventh and final home. ‘[It is] a small, neat
house on a good residential street in Beverly
Hills. It has a tiny garden with lots of flowers
and several trees: an orange tree, a lemon and
a nectarine.’ In the months before he officially
moved in, Rachmaninov began planning a
garden and planting a row of trees in the front for
privacy. His time here was brief. But before his
death in 1943, the composer played piano duets
with neighbour Vladimir Horowitz and dined at
the home of the Stravinskys.
Bruno Walter
608 North Bedford Drive
After a period of tragedy marked by the deaths
of his daughter and wife, Bruno Walter moved
into a five-bedroom home that became his base
from 1945 until his death in 1962. Next door was
Alma Mahler – whose late husband’s works he
assiduously championed – and joining him were
his surviving daughter, Lotte, and her husband,
actor Karl Ludwig Lindt. Though slowing down
after a heart attack in 1957, Walter continued to
make recordings, some in a nearby studio with
the Columbia Symphony Orchestra.
West Hollywood, Laurel Canyon
Igor Stravinsky
1260 North Wetherly Drive
Up a twisting street from the Sunset Strip
is a white stucco house where Igor and Vera
Stravinsky settled from 1941 to ’63. The couple
often socialised with other European émigrés
(including neighbour Aldous Huxley) but their
home itself was not designed to impress. One
guest, conductor Georg Solti, remarked on the
modest furniture and spartan study where
the composer’s desk was kept ‘in impeccable
order’, complete with rows of coloured pencils.
While the home today is mostly shielded by
a thick hedge, the alert passer-by can glimpse
the birthplace of the Symphony in Three
Movements, The Rake’s Progress and Agon.
Franz Waxman
8201 Mulholland Terrace
The Bride of Frankenstein, Rebecca and Sunset
Boulevard were among the 144 film scores
that Franz Waxman completed during his
three-decade stay in Los Angeles. Many scores
came to fruition in this house, set high in the
Hollywood Hills with commanding views of
the San Fernando Valley. Guests, who included
Shostakovich, described a studio stuffed with
scores and books, Academy Award nominations,
a piano, a large desk and a drafting table. The
composer also contributed to the local music
scene, managing and underwriting the Los
Angeles Music Festival for nearly 20 years.
Central Los Angeles
William Grant Still
1262 S Victoria Avenue
Soon after moving to Los Angeles in 1934,
William Grant Still conducted the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, making him the first African
American to conduct a major US orchestra.

Five years later, he married pianist Verna Arvey
and moved into this bungalow in the Oxford
Square neighbourhood, where the couple raised
two children. From his studio, Still juggled
symphonic commissions with Hollywood studio
projects – many uncredited. Two years before his
death in 1978, the city of Los Angeles designated
the home a historic-cultural monument.
Toluca Lake, Glendale
Erich Korngold
9936 Toluca Lake Avenue
Korngold moved into a three-bedroom house
in the elite Toluca Lake development after
accepting a position at Warner Bros in 1938. The
waterfront house, formerly owned by actor Boris
Karloff, was a short walk to the studio’s offices. ‘I
feel very happy as an artist here,’ he said. ‘No one
tells me what to do. I do not feel part of a factory. I
take part in story conferences, suggest changes in
the editing when it is dramatically necessary to
coincide with musical structure.’
John Cage
2708 Moss Avenue
As an LA native, Cage moved frequently as a
boy, but the one home that he remembered most
fondly was a bungalow that his parents owned
GETTY, ALAMY
in the Eagle Rock neighbourhood near Glendale
in the 1920s. Built ‘on an elevated lot’, it was
Home sweet home: (clockwise from left) A plaque
commemorating Krenek; Lou Harrison’s final resting
place; the Korngold family's arrival in LA; Rachmaninov’s
tree-lined home; William Grant Still’s neglected studio.
‘covered with vines and rose plants’,
the composer later recalled. During this
period, the young Cage began creating collage
art projects, inspired by his grandfather’s
wallpapering business.
Palm Springs, Joshua Tree
Ernst Krenek
623 W Chino Canyon Road, Palm Springs
In 1966, when Palm Springs was a playground
for the Rat Pack, Ernst Krenek and his wife
Gladys moved from Los Angeles to this
mid-century modern abode. Perched among
cactuses and palm trees, the home offered
views of the surrounding Coachella Valley
and space for mementos of his native Austria:
cookbooks, postcards and a small flag. Krenek’s
studio contained a Buchla synthesiser and
tape-recording equipment while the den was
dominated by a Bösendorfer grand piano. In
a town where streets carry names such as
‘Frank Sinatra Drive’ and ‘Gene Autry Trail’,
Krenek is honoured with a small plaque
set against a collection of stones beside his
former driveway.
Lou Harrison
6881 Mt Lassen Ave, Joshua Tree
Though long associated with Northern
Stravinsky’s California, Lou Harrison actually spent his
final days in the mystical desert landscape near
desk was kept Joshua Tree National Park. An 84-year-old
LQbLPSHFFDEOH Harrison built his dream home here, a straw
bale structure with a vaulted main room that
RUGHUFRPSOHWH functioned as a custom sound environment.
The composer died a year later, and the
with rows of home was christened the Harrison House,
FRORXUHGSHQFLOV a monument to his work in music and
environmental activism. It is now home to the
nonprofit Joshua Tree Foundation for Arts
and Ecology, which offers classes and artist
residencies.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 47
Jennifer Walshe
A secret language
With her disparate range of inspirations, from sean-
nósbVLQJLQJ to artificial intelligence, composer
Jennifer Walshe is at once an ancient and modern
advocate for all things Irish, as she tells Tom Stewart
W
hat’s the most beautiful sound
in the world? When an old Irish
chieftain asked each of his men
for an answer, the legend goes,
they replied with some pretty standard stuff: the
song of a lark, the laugh of a maiden, the clash
of spear and shield. The free-thinking chieftain
was having none of it. For him, the most
beautiful sound was ‘the music of what happens’.
Irish composer and performer Jennifer Walshe
has used this story as an introduction to her own
work. Her bold, good-humoured multimedia
performances draw from the dreams and
detritus of the everyday, often featuring
improvisation, electronics and Walshe’s own
amplified voice. Despite her frequent journeys
into her country’s real and imagined pasts, she
is a fantastically 21st-century artist whose often
surreal work holds up a mirror to our own hyper-
saturated lives.
‘All you need to do is give me 200 of their
likes, then I know them better than their
girlfriend, or boyfriend, or whatever,’ croons
DER VISAGIST.COM, LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA/ANDREA AVEZZÙ
Walshe in The Site of an Investigation, a 2018
piece she performed alongside the BBC Scottish
Symphony Orchestra at last year’s BBC Proms.
She delivers this line about the supposedly all-
knowing ‘algorithm’ with bubble-gum banality,
but by the end of the piece, written as a memorial
to her friend, she’s meditating on the possibility
of using AI to reconnect with the dead: ‘We
already have the technology to do this in our
heads. We do it all the time. Just take a nap, bro.’
48 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Hitting the spot:
Walshe’s music uses
free improvisation; (far
right) the composer at the
Venice Biennale, 2021
For more examples of the fluent and funny
ways Walshe weaves the world around us into
tapestries of sound and text, head to her recent
exploration of artificial intelligence on RTÉ
Radio or, on BBC Radio 4, her ‘21st-Century
Relaxation Tape’, a look at the ways music might
or might not help us to switch off. ‘I’m lucky,’
she tells her listeners, ‘because my students at
the University of Oxford keep me, Jen W,
informed about the music that they, Gen Z, use
to rela-a-ax.’
‘Free improv is all
about giving agency
to the people you
are playing with’
Walshe was appointed the university’s
professor of composition in 2021 and brought
with her a different style of doing things. Among
the many ways you can learn to create new music
are some that formed part of my own studies as
an undergraduate at Oxford a decade-or-so ago
– and wouldn’t have been out of place 400 years
before that.
When we meet, however, Walshe is fresh from
leading a class in free improvisation, the practice
of following your instincts and listening to the
people around you to create a coherent piece of
music. ‘I love teaching it; it’s brilliant,’ she says,
explaining that her students often have some
‘un-learning’ to do first. ‘They’re so in their
heads when they arrive; we start with physical
warm ups that are closer to things you might find
in theatre or dance. Free improv is about giving
agency to the people you’re playing with, as if you
were all sitting around a ouija board. Someone
is moving it a tiny bit, but you all let yourselves
believe it’s happening by itself.’
One student, a violinist, arrived at the second
session with two electric kettles. ‘He put his
fancy violin playing to one side, set up the
kettles on the table in front of him and sat there
listening,’ Walshe says. ‘Then at just the right
moment he would boil one of them, or take
a glass of water across the room and place it
somewhere. The whole class just got it right away.
Those moments make it really magical.’
Free improvisation is the definition of
‘winging it’, right? Wrong. ‘Imagine you had a
swimming exam,’ she says. ‘If you tried to cram
for that the night before you’d sink. It’s about
going back to the concepts of listening and
being open to possibilities. Letting go of muscle
memory is the hardest thing.’ But professor
Walshe takes a suitably non-traditional view of
the assessment process. ‘I make a deal with them.
I say that if they turn up to the classes and get
together with their friends to improvise between
them, we won’t talk about grades, we’ll just talk
about the music they’re making.’
Walshe began her journey into free
improvisation when she was studying at
Northwestern University in Chicago. ‘I was 25
and just had the space to experiment; it was
totally organic,’ she says. ‘I got together with a
friend, who also had no idea what he was doing,
and we taught ourselves. I started with my
trumpet, he with violin, but six months later I
was doing extended vocal techniques and he
was doing electronics.’ Chicago is home to a
thriving free improvisation scene that gave its
newest members a warm welcome, if not always
a crowded one. ‘Even if there are only five people
in the room you always learn something.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 49

LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24

Southbank Centre’s
Royal Festival Hall

Explore the burning inspiration and the living emotion behind

iconic masterpieces with Music Director Vasily Petrenko.
Sun 29 Oct 2023, 7.30pm Wed 27 Mar 2024, 7.30pm Sun 9 Jun 2024, 3pm
Elgar’s Symphony No.1 Elgar’s Symphony No.2 Rachmaninov’s
Lera Auerbach Icarus Ethel Smyth Rhapsody on a
Rachmaninov The Wreckers: Overture Theme of Paganini
Piano Concerto No.2 Rachmaninov Rachmaninov
with Nikolai Lugansky Piano Concerto No.3 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Elgar Symphony No.1 with Yunchan Lim with Alexander Malofeev
Elgar Symphony No.2 Elgar Falstaff
Thu 8 Feb 2024, 7.30pm
Thu 11 Apr 2024, 7.30pm
Rachmaninov’s Discover more and
Symphony No.2 Rachmaninov’s The Bells
Elgar In the South (Alassio)
book online at
Elgar Cockaigne Overture
R. Strauss Weinberg rpo.co.uk/icons
Six Songs After Poems by Brentano Cello Concerto
with Jennifer France with Sheku Kanneh-Mason MBE
Rachmaninov Symphony No.2 Rachmaninov The Bells

52 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24
UK
Tale, Janáček’s Jenůfa and Bartók’s Duke
Bluebeard’s Castle.
Rachel Podger
Kings Place, London, 21 September
kingsplace.co.uk
In a season bristling with lively initiatives
including a ‘Composer Focus’ on Oliver
Leith, I Fagiolini and guitarist Sean
Shibe illuminate the continuing ‘Sound
Unwrapped’ strand. And there are
recitals by soprano Danielle de Niese and
the Chiaroscuro Quartet. Artist-in-focus
Rachel Podger takes a moment alone
with her violin for a September soliloquy
spanning Westhoff and JS Bach to
Chad Kelly.
Welsh National Opera
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff,
from 21 September & touring
wno.org.uk
David McVicar’s production of Puccini’s
Il trittico signals summer, while spring
EVA VERMANDEL, ESTHER HAASE, BEN EALOVEGA
pairs Mozart’s bitter-sweet Così
fan tutte with Britten’s operatic
swansong Death in Venice. And
having fired the starting pistol on
autumn with Osvaldo Golijov’s sultry
Ainadamar, later in September it’s the
turn of Verdi’s La Traviata, with Stacey
Alleaume as Violetta.
54 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
All for one:
Chiaroscuro Quartet
come to Kings Place;
(right) Miloš Karadaglić
plays Cadogan Hall
Ulster Orchestra
Ulster Hall, Belfast, 22 September
ulsterorchestra.org.uk
Chief conductor Daniele Rustioni takes
his leave of the orchestra next May with
Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony, but
not before welcoming violinist Francesca
Dego as inaugural artist-in-focus. He
also joins forces with cellist Alban
Gerhardt for Prokofiev’s Sinfonia
Concertante in a September season
curtain-raiser that includes Ravel’s
Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2.
Stile Antico
St David’s Cathedral, St David’s,
22 September
stileantico.co.uk
Ahead of a US tour, the vocal ensemble
salutes Byrd in the surroundings
of Pembrokeshire’s 12th-century
Cathedral. Byrd is revisited in a Marian
programme for Bath Mozartfest in
November while next March Dante is
in the frame as, from Palestrina and
Guerrero to Lassus and Victoria, Stile
Antico probes The Divine Comedy.
Glasgow Cathedral Festival
Glasgow Cathedral,
28 September – 1 October
gcfestival.com
Including Simeon ten Holt’s extended
Canto Ostinato to music for voice and
electronics in the crypt, the seventh
edition of the cathedral’s late-autumn
festival also celebrates Dovzhenko’s
classic movie Earth with a new
accompanying score for guitar and
piano. Emma Abbate, meanwhile,
teams up with the Sacconi Quartet for
Shostakovich’s imposing G minor
Piano Quintet.
English Touring Opera
Hackney Empire, London,
from 30 September & touring
englishtouringopera.org.uk
It’s all change at the top as Robin
Norton-Hale presides over her first
season as the company’s general director.
She rolls up her sleeves right away,
directing Monteverdi’s The Coronation
of Poppea in a special arrangement by
Yshani Perinpanayagam. It tours in
tandem with Rossini’s Cinderella; and,
biding her time in the wings for spring,
is Puccini’s Manon Lescaut.
Music in the Round
Upper Chapel, Sheffield, 30 September
musicintheround.co.uk
The Sheffield-based promoter plants its
flag nationwide, but nurtures a vigorous

series divided between the Crucible
Theatre and Upper Chapel in its home
city. Come May a chamber festival holds
court, while pre-Christmas, The Hermes
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
St David’s Hall, Cardiff, 5 October
bbc.co.uk/now
Conducted by Ryan Bancroft and
UK
a 17th-century masque. Irresistible
levity must be currently endemic in the
northern air: January brings Britten’s
Maupassant-derived Albert Herring.

LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24

Experiment and Leonora Piano Trio can
be found alongside Ensemble 360 – who
in September swaddle Lutosławski and
Farkas in anniversary Ligeti.
Basel Chamber Orchestra
Cadogan Hall, London, 3 October
cadoganhall.com
Some dozen orchestras as far-flung
as Hungary, India, China and the
Czech Republic throng Cadogan Hall’s
upcoming orchestral series. The period
instruments of Arcangelo are united with
guitarist Miloš Karadaglić for a palate-
cleansing Baroque evening, while at the
start of October pianist Angela Hewitt
directs the Basel Chamber Orchestra in
concertos by Bach and Mozart.
City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 4 October
cbso.co.uk
Birmingham will be on song as the
CBSO’s chorus notches up its half-
century and is rewarded with a choral-
rich season opened by the Verdi Requiem
and including Berlioz’s The Damnation
of Faust as well as the UK premieres
of works by Caroline Shaw and John
Luther Adams. During his first full
season as music director, Kazuki Yamada
remembers Rachmaninov’s anniversary
in October, while former music director
Sakari Oramo returns in February with
Sibelius and Strauss’s Four Last Songs
(performed by his wife Anu Komsi).
featuring mezzo-soprano Christianne
Stotijn, Mahler’s massive Symphony
No. 3 opens a new season that positions
Grace Williams’s Symphony No. 2 within
an all-female line-up including a suite
from Saariaho’s Émilie. December’s
‘Playing Picasso’ takes its cue from
the artist’s designs for ballet, while in
January, BBC NOW – NOW! unveils a
raft of world and UK premieres by Tan
Dun, James MacMillan, Ross Edwards
and Gavin Higgins.
Opera North
Grand Theatre, Leeds,
from 6 October & touring
operanorth.co.uk
Verdi’s Falstaff got Opera North off
to a ribald start in September, and it
continues with October’s premiere of
David Pountney’s Purcellian mash-up
Masque of Might, promising music,
dance and spectacle in the spirit of
Bath Mozartfest
Assembly Rooms & Forum, Bath,
10-18 November
bathmozartfest.org.uk
Mozart might have the first word
(courtesy of Cuarteto Casals) in Bath’s
2023 edition, but the last falls to Brahms
and the Hallé under Mark Elder. La
Nuova Musica and soprano Lucy Crowe
are nearly single-minded in their pursuit
of Salzburg’s most famous son; and
bending the Mozartian knee are
the Sitkovetsky Trio, soprano Elizabeth
Watts, pianist Eric Lu and the
Jerusalem Quartet.
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 12 October
sco.org.uk
It’s 50 years since the orchestra’s debut
and, true to form, it assembles a lustrous
anniversary season kickstarted by the

Bournemouth Symphony
Orchestra
Lighthouse, Poole, 4 October
bsolive.com
After a decade-and-a-half as chief
conductor, Kirill Karabits masterminds
his final season before becoming
conductor laureate. Time to indulge a
few fond memories as well as consolidate
his revelatory ‘Voices from the East’
strand. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with
dance and a concert performance of
Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta follow October’s Key player:
launch, which includes a suite from Eric Lu is a
featured artist at
fellow Ukrainian Thomas de Hartmann’s Bath Mozartfest
ballet The Scarlet Flower.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 55

LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24
GEORGE ARCHER, ROBERT WORKMAN
56
UK
Benslow bows: the Coull
Quartet combines Kodály
with Beethoven and Dvořák;
(below) Piotr Anderszewski
brings Bach to the Barbican
premiere of Jay Capperauld’s The Origins
of Colour paired with Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’
Symphony. Erstwhile music director
Richard Egarr returns for two October
performances of Bach’s B minor Mass;
and in the offing lie Steve Reich with DJ
Dolphin Boy and the world premiere of a
Thomas Adès orchestral arrangement.
Britten Sinfonia
Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden,
14 October
brittensinfonia.com
In November, in the company of tenor
Guy Cutting, Britten Sinfonia is on a
musical journey through five centuries.
October, meanwhile, finds soprano
Elizabeth Watts premiering Richard
Blackford’s Songs of Nadia Anjuman in
Saffron Hall – a return visit in December,
this time alongside saxophonist Jess
Gillam, celebrates the Essex venue’s
tenth birthday.
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Festival Hall, London, 25 October
lpo.org.uk
Edward Gardner opened the orchestra’s
91st season with Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’
Symphony, and in October it’s principal
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
guest conductor Karina Canellakis’s
turn as Strauss and Ravel frame the
UK premiere of Tania León’s Horizons.
In November, Robin Ticciati tackles
Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, while March’s
‘The Music in You’ festival embraces
Haydn’s The Creation and Weill’s The
Seven Deadly Sins.
Hallé Orchestra
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester,
26 October
halle.co.uk
After nigh-on a quarter-of-a-century as
music director, Sir Mark Elder is bowing
out next June (with a new piece by
James MacMillan and Mahler’s
Symphony No. 5). But he leaves an
orchestra in adventurous mood,
brandishing several new initiatives.
Thomas Adès is welcomed as artist-
in-residence and introduces himself
conducting an October programme
including three of his own works. Next
March is headlined by a three-day
Steve Reich jamboree.
Piotr Anderszewski
Barbican, London, 2 November
barbican.org.uk
With the London Symphony
Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra
and Academy of Ancient Music
among its resident ensembles, the
Barbican musters some formidable
homegrown instrumental firepower. But
‘Barbican Presents’ welcomes visiting
orchestras and ensemble such as the
Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Europa
Galante and the Kronos Quartet, which
marks its 50th birthday. In November,
Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski
plays Bach’s Overture in the French Style,
Bartók’s Bagatelles and Szymanowski’s
Selection of Mazurkas.

Coull Quartet
Benslow Music, Hitchin, 10 November
benslowmusic.org
With over 200 residential music courses
a year, Benslow Music’s mission to
explain, share and inspire extends to
afternoon and evening concert series.
String quartets proliferate – between
September and December, the Bingham,
Tedesca and Primrose Quartets among
them. In November, the Coull Quartet
surrounds Kodály with early Beethoven
and Dvořák.
Wimbledon International
Music Festival
Wimbledon, London, 11-26 November
wimbledonmusicfestival.co.uk
There are anniversaries galore as
Wimbledon celebrates its own 15th
birthday. At 75-not-out the veteran
Juilliard Quartet ventures Beethoven
and Schubert; the Tippett Quartet turns
25 with Mendelssohn and Brahms;
and the centenary of Charles Mingus
isn’t forgotten. Armonico probes ‘The
Sir Antonio Pappano conducts
Strauss, Beethoven & Ravel
Soloists Patricia Kopatchinskaja,
Alice Sara Ott, Alison Balsom,
Abel Selaocoe & Kirill Gerstein
Sir Simon Rattle conducts
Janáček, Shostakovich & Adams
Book just two or more concerts
to save on your tickets
lso.co.uk
Forgotten Scarlatti’ (Francesco), while
Brecon Baroque bestrides Bach.
BBC Scottish
Symphony Orchestra
City Halls, Glasgow, 16 November
glasgowconcerthalls.com
Mahler’s Fourth Symphony opens the
orchestra’s new season alongside the
piano concerto by its chief conductor
Ryan Wigglesworth. There’s more
Mahler in November: Das Lied von der
Erde is paired with music from Strauss’
Die Frau ohne Schatten. There’s a complete
performance of David Fennessy’s
Conquest of the Useless – a decade on from
its first appearance. In March, associate
conductor Alpesh Chauhan takes the
Ninth Symphony to the Big Bruckner
Weekend at Sage Gateshead.
Huddersfield Contemporary
Music Festival
Town Hall, Huddersfield,
17-26 November
hcmf.co.uk
A new LSO season begins
UK
Dublin-born, Oxford-based, Jennifer
Walshe (see interview over on p48) is this
year’s composer-in-residence, and her
PERSONHOOD for accordionist
LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24
Andreas Borregaard and the Oslo
Sinfonietta gets under way a festival
that also includes the debut of Ireland:
A Dataset, with an appearance from
Baltimore’s electronic duo Matmos.
Dunedin Consort
Northesk Parish Church, Musselburgh,
23 November
dunedin-consort.org.uk
The Dunedins consolidated their
reputation with ear-opening recordings
of the Bach Passions, and Bach remains
a gilt-edged calling card. Countertenor
Hugh Cutting joins the Consort for
late-November all-Bach programmes
built around Cantatas 54 and 172.
But October’s Heiner Goebbels speaks
to more contemporary concerns,
enshrined in 2024’s performances
of composers Tarik O’Regan and
Cassandra Miller.
LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24

LIGETI 100: Celebrating the genius of György Ligeti in his centenary year
Sat 7 Oct | 12pm Sat 7 Oct | 3pm Wed 11 Oct | 7.45pm Thu 16 Nov | 8pm
Ligeti: The Devil’s Ligeti Masterclass Diotima Quartet Ligeti: Lux Aeterna
Staircase with Danny Driver Ligeti String Quartets VOCES8 &
Piano works with London Piano Festival No. 1 & 2 VOCES8 Scholars
5-8 Oct Master Series Sound Unwrapped
Danny Driver,
Clare Hammond,
Charles Owen &
Katya Apekisheva
London Piano Festival
5-8 Oct

Photo: Diotima Quartet © Lyodoh Kaneko

Book tickets at kingsplace.co.uk The cultural pulse

90 York Way, King’s Cross, London N1 of King’s Cross

58 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

 ST LUKE’S

LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24

MUSIC SOCIETY
is proud to announce details of its 21st season

21 October Opera Gala

Students of the National Opera Studio
From early music ensembles and string quartets The next generation of rising opera stars will open
to folk recitals and jazz nights, Benslow Music our 21st season with a selection of opera favourites.
hosts a range of evening concerts throughout the
year by internationally renowned artists. 18 November Angela Hewitt
Piano Recital
Continuing St Luke’s tradition of world class recitals
Tickets are available to purchase in advance and,
with a programme of Bach and Mozart.
with the support of the CAVATINA TRUST,
those under 27 can enter for free.
16 December Pasadena Roof Orchestra
And now for something completely different - a
BOOK AT BENSLOWMUSIC.ORG/CONCERTS
foot stomping evening of 1920s and 30s dance
Benslow Music, Benslow Lane, Hitchin, Hertfordshire SG4 9RB
info@benslowmusic.org I 01462 459446
and swing to get in the Christmas spirit!
Benslow Music is a company limited by guarantee Registered in England 408404.
Registered Charity No. 313663
20 January Lucy Crowe (soprano)
with Anna Tilbrook (piano)
In Nature’s realm
Songs by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann,
Alban Berg’s Seven Early Songs and Judith Weir’s Natural
Cuarteto Casals History culminating with Richard Strauss Four Last Songs.
La Nuova Musica
David Bates, conductor
with Lucy Crowe, soprano 10 February Ben Goldscheider Trio
Stile Antico Violinist Ben Baker and composer / pianist Huw Watkins
WƚȆȍűǒƚǛ
øűȆȗƚȗ join Ben Goldscheider for Mozart’s Trio arrangement of
ˏƚ
Dűǒǒƛ

the Horn Quintet, Brahms Horn Trio and Huw Watkins own
Sir Mark Elder, conductor Trio written for Ben Goldscheider.
10 –18 NOVEMBER 2023 Just some of the artists
ASSEMBLY ROOMS & FORUM performing this year 13 April Maxwell Quartet
2QHRIRXUƓQHVWTXDUWHWVSUHVHQW+D\GQōV6WULQJ
4XDUWHWLQ(ŴDWDQG%HHWKRYHQōVODWH2S
Quartet interspersed with their own arrangements
of Scottish Folk Music.

18 May The Sixteen An Old Belief

Ending our season with an eclectic programme
built around Hubert Parry’s glorious Songs of
Farewell and medieval carols and music by
Thomas Campion, Howells and Cecilia McDowall.

All concerts start 7.30pm with pre-concert talk at 6.30

Tickets from www.slms.org.uk
7LFNHWVDYDLODEOHIURP%DWK%R[2I¼FH
7KH)RUXP%DWK%$8* 01225 463362
St Luke’s Church,
EDWKER[RI¼FHRUJXNSURPRWHUVPR]DUWIHVW Thurleigh Road, SW12 8RQ

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 59

LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24

2023:24
Concert
Season
on sale
now
rsno.org.uk The RSNO is supported by
the Scottish Government

60 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

 LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24
BEACON
2023/24 REOPENING

Discover the full season at bristolbeacon.org/orchestral

â
CONCERTS IN MANCHESTER
2023/24 SEASON
MUSIC DIRECTOR SIR MARK ELDER
ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE THOMAS ADÈS

‘THIS IS WHAT PEAK PERFORMANCE

SOUNDS LIKE,
AND IT TAKES DECADES TO ACHIEVE.
SAVOUR IT WHILE YOU CAN.’
THE SPECTATOR

halle.co.uk

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 63

 LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24
Ainadamar Golijov
La traviata Verdi
9 September – 25 November
Touring to: Caerdydd | Cardiff, Llandudno,
Bristol, Plymouth, Birmingham,
Milton Keynes, Southampton

Book now wno.org.uk/operas

Rhif Elusen Gofrestredig | Registered Charity No 221538

/03U)&S/
Season 2023/24
Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh

$)".#&3
& Across Scotland

03$)&453"
ŕœŕŖƠŕŗÜÜÊÅ

Ŕś\ŧÊÙ¨ââ ¿
ÊÅ ÙâÜ ÙÊÜÜâ¬
>ÊÙâ¬ĀÜâ
B âÊ ÙŕœŕŖƠ=Ćŕœŕŗ
MUSIC
œŔřŔŚœřŔŜŜœ bbc.co.uk/ Ryan Wigglesworth
ĀĀĀƎÅ ÊÙ ¬Ǝ ÊƎå½ bbcsso Chief Conductor

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 65

 LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24

66
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
 LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24
1 – 7 OCTOBER 2023 20 – 26 NOVEMBER 2023
DUBLIN GAIETY THEATRE DUBLIN BORD GÁIS ENERGY THEATRE

3 – 16 MARCH 2024 17 – 31 MAY 2024

WEXFORD NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE WEXFORD NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE
DUBLIN BORD GÁIS ENERGY THEATRE DUBLIN GAIETY THEATRE
CORK CORK OPERA HOUSE

TICKET FROM €15

Booking fees may apply. For start times and booking details see our website.
irishnationalopera.ie

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 67

LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24

Beethovenfest 31. 8.–24. 9. 23

Bonn

Mu
sic
on

il fe
ets at
d tick
e an
gramm
Pro

beethov
enfest.d
e
Founded in 1845 by Franz Liszt, the festival in Beethoven’s birthplace Bonn is one
of the oldest and most renowned festivals in Germany. This year’s edition is
thematically dedicated to »life« with more than 70 concerts in Bonn and the region,
and featuring artists such as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich & Paavo Järvi, the Mahler
Chamber Orchestra, Sasha Waltz, Pekka Kuusisto, Manchester Collective & Abel
Selaocoe, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Christian Tetzlaff, Brooklyn Rider and many more.

68 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24
USA & Canada
production of Anthony Davis’s X: The
Life and Times of Malcolm X and a revival
of Kevin Puts’s Virginia Woolf-inspired
The Hours. Receiving its Met premiere in
September is Jake Heggie’s Dead
Man Walking.
Tafelmusik
Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul’s
Centre, Toronto, Canada,
13, 14, 15 October
tafelmusik.org
Celebrating 45 years of music-making
with period instruments, the Canadian
ensemble spans Purcell and Marais
to a ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ with an
18th-century twist. October proclaims
vive la difference as French and Italian
styles are contrasted in works by Lully
and Corelli.
Seattle Opera
McCaw Hall, Seattle, WA, US,
LISA-MARIE MAZZUCCO, HENRY DOMBEY, RYAN SCHERB
14-28 October
seattleopera.org
To launch its 23/24 season the company
opted for Das Rheingold, the first part of
Wagner’s Ring tetralogy. October falls
under the spell of Handel’s sorceress
Alcina, conducted by Christine Brandes.
Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of
Malcolm X ushers in February.
70 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
San Francisco Opera
War Memorial Opera House, San
Francisco, CA, US,
15 October – 1 November
sfopera.com
Notching up its centenary, San Francisco
Opera is a company that prides itself
on ear-opening eclecticism. Verdi’s Il
Trovatore and Mason Bates’s The (R)
evolution of Steve Jobs sit cheek-by-jowl
in a season boasting Saariaho’s Innocence
and Handel’s Partenope.
Zemlinsky Quartet
Playhouse, Vancouver, Canada,
17 October
friendsofchambermusic.ca
Vancouver’s chamber music ‘friends’ are
evidently drawn to the string quartet.
The lion’s share of ten concerts is
devoted to the medium and assembles
a distinguished roster of exponents
including the Takács and Karol
Szymanowski quartets. First up is the
Zemlinsky Quartet with Tailleferre,
Beethoven and its namesake’s Op. 4.
Apollo’s Fire
David Geffen Hall, New York, NY, US
25, 26 October
apollosfire.org
With series in north-east Ohio and
So long, farewell:
David Finckel joins the
Emerson Quartet’s final
concerts; (left) Valerie
Coleman’s new concerto
premieres in Philadelphia;
(below left) Christine
Brandes conducts
Seattle Opera’s Alcina
Chicago, Apollo’s Fire also offers watch-
at-home streams. Christmas heralds an
Irish-Appalachian fusion, while March
undertakes a Spanish-Mexican musical
journey. In October, director Jeannette
Sorrell takes Handel’s Israel in Egypt to
the New York Phil.
Emerson Quartet
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center,
New York, NY, US, 21, 22 October
chambermusicsociety.org
After nearly half a century, the Emersons
take their leave with two concerts for
Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society,
an organisation with which they’ve
long been closely identified – artistic
director David Finckel was the quartet’s
sometime cellist. He joins them for the
Schubert C major Quintet which follows
signature Beethoven: the Quartet Op. 130
and its original Grosse Fuge ending.
Le Poème Harmonique
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA, US,
27 October
bemf.org
Boston’s enticements include Dutch
Renaissance merriment, Jordi Savall
and Hespèrion XXI, plus Stile Antico
on the trail of Dante. In late November,
with Lully and Charpentier, the French

ensemble Le Poème Harmonique serves Wagner’s Das Rheingold – conducted by
up ‘Music for a Young King’. Gustavo Dudamel with designs by Gehry
himself. In November, the California
Roomful of Teeth Festival includes a recital by cellist
USA & Canada
epics, music director Andris Nelsons
is up for the challenge – this season he
conducts Shostakovich’s opera Lady
Macbeth of Mtsensk and Messiaen’s

LIVE MUSIC GUIDE 2023/24

Meany Hall, Seattle, WA, US,
2 November
roomfulofteeth.org
Recently returned from a European
tour, music’s Grammy-winning gift to
dentistry makes its first appearance at
Seattle’s Meany Hall with a new work by
Gabriel Kahane. There’s more Kahane
in January when the cutting-edge vocal
ensemble pays a visit to San Francisco’s
PIVOT Festival.
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles,
CA, US, 9-19 November
laphil.com
It’s 20 years since the Walt Disney
Concert Hall threw open its doors (see
Timepiece, p14), and architect Frank
Gehry is saluted with a Gala, the
premiere of a fanfare by Esa-Pekka
Salonen, and January’s performance of
Alisa Weilerstein.
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera House, Chicago, IL, US
12-26 November
lyricopera.org
Having already weighed anchor with
Wagner’s Flying Dutchman and taken
up arms alongside Donizetti’s The
Daughter of the Regiment, the Lyric
Opera’s November highlight is Janáček’s
Jenůfa. Luxury casting showcases
sopranos Lise Davidsen in the title role
and Nina Stemme as the Kostelnička
in a production by Claus Guth that is
conducted by Jakub Hrůša.
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA, US,
16, 17, 18 November
bso.org
When it comes to 20th-century musical
Turangalîla-Symphonie. But other
centuries are available, and he ends the
season with Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette.
Thomas Adès conducts his own Tevot
in November alongside works by Ligeti,
Liszt and Stravinsky.
Opéra de Montréal
Centre Pierre-Péladeau, Montreal,
Canada, 18, 19 November
operademontreal.com
Before 2024’s new operas – Julien
Bilodeau’s La Reine-garçon, and Patrick
Burgan’s Enigma – are unveiled, Opéra de
Montréal makes the case that emotions
were just as intense and conflicted
throughout the 17th century as they are
today. Soprano Emma Fekete and
mezzo-soprano Ilanna Starr are the
scheming lovers in two November
performances of Monteverdi’s The
Coronation of Poppea.

New Ross
Piano20th–24th
Festival
72ND WEXFORD FESTIVAL OPERA
24 OCTOBER | 5 NOVEMBER 2023

‘A laugh
is a terrible
weapon’
Kate O’Brien
2023 September SAVE
THE
DATES

ěȃȈɰˎʤljӸǁƃʰɥȈƃljɰɽȈʤƃɽƃljɰɥƃƺljȈɽȃljƹljƃʍɽȈʍɰljɽɽȈǼ
ÇljʥĄɰɰӗ:ӝŚljɨǁӗʍǁljɨɽȃljƃɨɽȈɰɽȈƺǁȈɨljƺɽȈɥȈƃȈɰɽ
Finghin Collins. yljƃɽʍɨȈǼɽǁƃʰ ɰ!ɰɽljƺȈɽȈǼ!ʍɰȈƺȈƃɰӗ
ɥʍɰƃʥȃljǁƃʰǁljǁȈƺƃɽljǁɽ"ƃ˃˃ɥȈƃәyɨ!ɨljǁljɽƃȈɰӗʤȈɰȈɽӖ

newrosspianofestival.com

WEXFORDOPERA.COM

KINDLY SUPPORTED BY
MUSICAL DESTINATIONS
Spetses Greece
Charlotte Smith visits the island paradise with a proud naval history,
newly enhanced by a Music Academy for young performers
T
o appreciate fully all that the
island of Spetses has to offer, it’s
important to see it from the back of
a moped. It’s from this vantage point that
I find myself taking in clear, azure waters,
fragrant pines, bright white sailing boats,
and the many intimate coves and beaches,
as my guide – architect and president of
the Anargyrios and Korgialenios School
of Spetses (AKSS), Petros Petrakopoulos
– nimbly races around sharp bends and
up steep hills, all the while pointing out
interesting landmarks. As my very real
74 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
terror gives way to wide-eyed
wonder, I understand why
it’s crucial that this small
island, just two miles off the
coast of the Greek mainland,
prohibits cars – bar the odd
delivery van and taxi – and
why a whopping 42 per
cent is owned by the AKSS
Foundation, which seeks
to protect its historic vegetation and
architecture, and discourages all but the
most discreet building.
Water slides:
a choir of trombones
performs in the harbour;
(below) Music Academy
head Leni Konialidis
In fact, the town of Spetses
is the only large settlement
on the island. Here affluent,
mainly Greek, tourists enjoy
fine dining in the many
glamorous outdoor bars and
cafés, centred around two
main harbours, each paying
testament to the island’s
naval history. In the main
dock is a statue of Laskarina Bouboulina,
admiral and heroine of the Greek War
of Independence. Further along, the

Old Harbour forms the
backdrop every September
to a commemoration of the
victory of 1822, in which a
Turkish flotilla was torched
by bold Greek revolutionaries.
At the centre of the town
is the Poseidonion Hotel,
built in 1914 in the style of
its French counterparts
by Sotirios Anargyros,
descendant of a great shipping family and
tobacco tycoon in his own right. Anargyros
was responsible for re-introducing pine
seedlings to the hills of the island – at
the time in danger of extinction due to
excessive logging – and for founding the
AKSS, a premier boarding school for boys
based on the British models of Eton and
Harrow and attended for a time by the
composer Iannis Xenakis. Though closed
in 1983, the school’s buildings are today
used for conferences and events – and for
the last three years by the Music Academy
of AKSS, the brainchild of Leni Konialidis.
Establishing a ten-day programme
of masterclasses in multiple disciplines
alongside year-long ‘music initiation’
workshops for local children, not to
mention free public performances, is
difficult under any circumstances. But
Konialidis managed the feat during the
first year of the pandemic, with full testing
and masks. So, this third edition, running
YANNIS DRAKOULIDIS/NETFLIX
from 24 July to 2 August and welcoming
64 students aged 12 to 30 from all over the
world, seems a walk in the park.
Attending a selection of masterclasses
– all open to the public – during my first
Group dynamic:
a trombone class
rehearses at AKSS;
(below) flute teacher
Stéphane Réty
full day at the Academy,
I encounter numerous
nuggets of wisdom from
the professors instructing
students in seven disciplines:
voice, flute, trombone, violin,
cello and – new additions
for this season – clarinet
and viola. ‘It’s too beautiful;
it needs to be drier,’ says
violin tutor Bartek Niziol as
a student performs with an undeniable
sweetness of tone that nevertheless lacks
The Academy is
providing so much
for its students and
the wider community
dramatic conviction. Meanwhile, in the
flute class, instructor Stéphane Réty is
giving a lesson in communication, as a
welcome sea breeze drifts through the
open windows. ‘We need to understand
your text like a singer,’ he says. ‘This music
is full of love, hope and tenderness.’ Viola
professor Jean-Eric Soucy describes a
lesson from earlier in the day in which a
chamber ensemble of two flutes and viola,
formed for the course, came to understand
the value of working together. ‘The only
way to learn music is to play with better
people than yourself and to grow,’ he says.
That lesson is demonstrated in spades
as the trio play with great sensitivity at
MUSICAL DESTINATIONS
Life’s a beach:
Olivia Colman in
Spetses in The
Lost Daughter
Inspiration island
Spetses in fiction
Unsurprisingly, Spetses has provided
the setting for several elegant novels
and movies, among them John
Fowles’s 1965 novel The Magus,
which describes many real-life
locations on the island, including the
AKSS, at which he himself taught
English, and which he renames the
‘Lord Byron School’ in his fictionalised
version. The island is also the
backdrop for Catherine Lind’s 2014
novel Unexpected Journeys, and for
director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 2021
film The Lost Daughter, as well as
Rian Johnson’s 2022 murder mystery
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,
starring Daniel Craig.
one of three performances I attend during
my stay – in the Poseidonion Hotel, in
the beautiful courtyard of the Church of
Agios Nikolaos and, finally, an appropriate
send-off in the outdoor amphitheatre of
AKSS. Performing for tourists and locals
in interesting locations around the island
is a hallmark of the Music Academy – I’m
reliably informed that an outdoor harbour
concert, given by a large ensemble of
trombones, attracted a lot of interest!
And in the end, the Academy is
providing so much, not only for its
students, but for the wider community. As
the sun sets behind the pines at the closing
concert, the full contingent of students
appears on stage together as 2023’s newly
formed chamber orchestra and chorus for
a performance of ‘Time to Say Goodbye’
– for this year, at any rate, as here is an
initiative that is set to grow and grow.
Further info: maakss.com
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 75
 Composer of the month
Composer of the Week
is broadcast on Radio 3
at 12pm, Monday to
Friday. Programmes in October are:
2-6 October José Mauricio Nunes Garcia
9-13 October Fauré
16-20 October Errollyn Wallen
23-27 October Lalo
30 Oct – 3 Nov Beethoven
Stanford’s style
Tradition Vaughan Williams once
wrote of Stanford that ‘the feeling
of a great tradition is never absent’
from his music. Above all, Stanford
venerated Brahms, to whose example
his own burnished orchestration, taut
approach to thematic development
and implicit humanism owe much.
Irishness He spent his formative
years in Ireland and was steeped in its
fertile legacy of folk music. The tunes
of his native country, both jaunty and
melancholy, feature in works such as
his Symphony No. 3 and the six Irish
Rhapsodies for orchestra, and strongly
influence his opera Shamus O’Brien.
Church Including his uniquely inventive
Magnificat in G (1902), depicting
Mary at her spinning wheel (above),
his music for the Anglican liturgy is
rich in warmly reassuring melodies.
The symphonic thinking he brought to
his settings raised a niche genre to ‘a
worthy object of artistic invention’.
Understatement Stanford’s music
is seldom explicitly emotional, with
extreme expression avoided in classic
Victorian fashion. But his immaculate
craftsmanship is a pleasure in itself,
and works such as the Requiem show
GETTY
he was capable of deep feeling.
76 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Charles Villiers Stanford
The man who taught many of Britain’s finest
talents deserves greater far recognition as a
composer in his own right, says Terry Blain
ILLUSTRATION: MATT HERRING
W
eeks after his 50th birthday
in September 1902, Charles
Villiers Stanford went to
Buckingham Palace to be knighted, as
part of Edward VII’s coronation honours
list. He already had seven operas, five
symphonies, important choral works and
a multitude of other compositions to his
credit; a professor at both the Royal College
of Music, London and the University of
Cambridge, he was also in high demand as
a conductor. As a new century opened, his
standing within the British musical scene
could scarcely have been higher.
A hundred years later, we encounter a
very different verdict on his achievement.
While he is recognised as a mover and shaker,
his music has become a byword for fustiness
‘Posterity has not so much neglected
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford,’ wrote the
Australian musicologist Robert Stove in
2003, ‘as derived malicious satisfaction
from ostentatiously yawning in his
face.’ Stove’s pithy words pinpoint an
uncomfortable truth about Stanford: while
he is recognised as a key mover and shaker
of his era, his music has gradually become
a byword for Victorian fustiness, worthy
if ultimately inconsequential. How fair
is this? Has the time come for a root-and-
branch Stanford reappraisal?
One problem of assessing Stanford is
the sheer quantity of music he wrote –
well over 200 works, including operas,
symphonies and large-scale choral pieces.
These flowed from his pen prodigiously
from an early age. Born in 1852 to a well-
off Dublin family, he was surrounded
by music in his infancy. His father, a
prominent lawyer, had ‘a magnificent
bass voice of unusual compass’ and sang
the title role in the Irish premiere of
Mendelssohn’s Elijah in 1847. His mother
was an excellent amateur pianist, and
noted down her four-year-old son’s first
efforts at composition.
By the age of 18 Stanford, though feted
in Dublin cultural circles, was ready to
broaden his horizons. In 1870 he went
as an organ scholar to Queens’ College,
Cambridge, immediately plunging himself
into music-making activities there. He
conducted choirs, joined committees
and became the driving force behind
a rejuvenated Cambridge University
Music Society (CUMS). Demonstrating
an ‘extraordinary stimulating power’ as
a conductor, he led numerous concerts at
CUMS and opened the way for women to
join its choir. He also made several trips
to Germany for further study, at one point
meeting his idol Brahms.
Behind this ceaseless flurry of public
activities, Stanford was now also
producing substantial compositions. In
1876, when he was 23, his First Symphony
came second in a competition mounted by
the Alexandra Palace, London. Schumann
and Brahms are obvious models, but the
score’s many deftly individual touches
and its tender slow movement place it well
beyond accusations of slavish imitation.
A year later came The Veiled Prophet, his
first opera, an exotic romance set in Persia
and completed soon after his marriage in
1878. Stanford was also beginning to
COMPOSER OF THE MONTH

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 77

 Building a library
Carl Orff
Carmina Burana
Frolics on the lawn and a rowdy pub session entertain Jeremy Pound
as he hunts for the best recordings of Orff’s characterful choral work
The composer
Born into a military family in Munich
in 1895, Carl Orff showed an aptitude
for music at an early age. After serving
in, and only narrowly surviving, World
War I, he then worked at opera
houses in Mannheim and Darmstadt.
In the mid-1920s, he co-founded
the Günther-Schule for gymnastics,
music and dance in Munich and in
1930 shared his education methods
in the publication Schulwerk. Though
he said Carmina Burana in 1937
marked the start of his career as a
composer, that was as popular as
he ever got. Following denazification
after WWII, he then lived in relative
peace until his death in 1982.
Building a Library
is broadcast on Radio 3
at 9.30am each Saturday
as part of Record Review. A highlights
podcast is available on BBC Sounds.
82 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
The work
‘I’ve amused myself making a list of
composers who became famous for the
least amount of music,’ shared the pianist
Marc-André Hamelin recently on Twitter.
‘So far my winners are Orff (about 3
minutes, and y’all know which)…’ One
could, of course, respond that Orff also
wrote the widely familiar ‘Gassenhauer’
from Schulwerk; however, for all the
millions that might recognise this cheery
xylophone and timpani piece from its
appearance in the films Badlands, True
Romance and countless TV programmes,
Many of the world’s great conductors over
the years have been drawn to Carmina Burana
few know what it is called, let alone who
wrote it. So perhaps Hamelin has a point?
The ‘3 minutes’ he is referring to is the
shattering ‘O Fortuna’ chorus that appears
at the start and end of Carmina Burana.
Whether you picture its belted-out chords
and pounded timpani accompanying an
intrepid surfer in an Old Spice advert or
Simon Cowell and co striding onto the
X Factor stage may well depend on your
age. Others may recognise it from Enigma’s
1999 song ‘Gravity of Love’, though those
associating it with The Omen are victims
of popular misconception – it never in fact
appears in the 1976 thriller’s score.
The rest of Carmina Burana’s hour-or-
so of music for soloists, choir, children’s
choir and orchestra may not share the
same level of familiarity as ‘O Fortuna’,
but has nonetheless proved enduringly
popular since its hugely successful
first performance as a choreographed
stagework at the Oper Frankfurt in June
1937. Orff knew he’d hit the jackpot,
writing to his publisher Schott soon
afterwards that ‘Everything I have written
to date, and which you have, unfortunately,
printed, can be destroyed. With Carmina
Burana, my collected works begin.’
That said, one wonders if, among the
applause and cheers, there were also a
few scratched heads at that Frankfurt
premiere, as Carmina Burana is an
idiosyncratic beast. Take, for a start, the
libretto which, drawn from a collection of
11th-, 12th- and 13th-century poems found
in a Bavarian monastery in 1803, is in a
mix of Latin, Medieval German and Old
French. Assisted by a young student called
Michel Hofmann, Orff ordered 24 of the
poems into a structure that, in between the
opening and closing ‘Fortuna Imperatrix
Mundi’ (Fortune, ruler of the world)
sections, falls into three main parts: ‘Primo
vere’ (Spring); ‘In Taberna’ (In the tavern);
and ‘Cour d’amours’ (The court of love).
‘Primo vere’ goes through the traditional
vernal routine of saying farewell to winter
and welcoming birds, bees, flowers and
all before taking us onto the lawn (‘Uf dem
anger’) where our thoughts are directed
towards what young, testosterone-filled
people like to get up to as the warmer
weather arrives, a theme explored in
lascivious detail in ‘Cour d’amours’.

Swan song: tenor John van
Kesteren is served for dinner in a
1975 TV production of Carmina
Burana; (right) Carl Orff at the
filming; (below right) a poster for
the premiere in Frankfurt, 1937
In between, ‘In Taberna’ begins with
the solo baritone’s folk-inspired ‘Estuans
interius’before we are presented with the
aria ‘Olim lacus colueram’, in which a swan
that is being roasted on a spit reflects how
it once swam gracefully on a lake – sung
either by a very high tenor, often switching
in and out of falsetto, or by a countertenor,
it’s intentionally gruesome, full of squawks
and hoots. Presumably, the swan is on
the menu of the Abbott who, introducing
himself in the baritone’s chant-like ‘Ego
sum abbas’, explains that he enjoys the
company of drunkards and gamblers. ‘In
taberna quando sumus’, a drinking chorus
par excellence, follows.
Quirky solos and a large performing
forces aside, however, there is surprisingly
little for a conductor to play with in
Carmina Burana. Forget intricate
polyphony, for a start. Much of the music
GETTY, ALAMY
consists simply of a single vocal line plus
orchestral accompaniment, and even
Sound waves: the Orff-adorned Old Spice advert
when the chorus does sing in harmony, the
various parts often double up – even in
those grand opening ‘O Fortuna’ chords,
the second sopranos and tenors sing the
same line, as do the altos and basses.
Orff can be ruthless with his singers,
meanwhile, pushing both soloists and
chorus members to the very tops of their
range. Having being required to scale a
BUILDING A LIBRARY
top C (two above middle C) in the closing
bars of ‘Primo vere’, the sopranos are
probably glad of the break as the male
singers alone head into the pub for the
entirety of ‘In Taberna’.
Though there are more restrained
moments – the baritone’s seasonal ‘Omnia
sol temperat’ solo and the soprano’s
deliberations between love and chastity in
‘In Trutina’, for instance – subtlety is not
something one immediately associates
with Carmina Burana. For that reason, plus
the unescapable fact that the work enjoyed
cult popularity in Nazi Germany, it has as
many detractors as it does devotees. Many
of the world’s great conductors over the
years have been drawn to it, however, and
the number of available recordings is vast…
Turn the page to discover our
recommended recordings of
Orff’s Carmina Burana
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 83

The best
g A scintillating Orff experience
recordin
Seiji Ozawa (conductor)
Stanley Kolk (tenor), Evelyn Mandac (soprano),
Sherrill Milnes (baritone); New England
Conservatory Chorus and Children’s Chorus,
Boston Symphony Orchestra
RCA 82876594172
How did Orff himself think his Carmina
Burana should sound? For this, we can
turn to two versions that we know had the
composer’s personal stamp of approval –
Eugen Jochum’s from 1967 (see above right)
and Herbert Kegel’s refined MDR Leipzig
Radio Symphony Orchestra recording
from 1960, complete with background
birdsong (presumably intentionally
included) at the start of ‘Primo vere’.
84 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Give it some stick:
Seiji Ozawa
unleashes awesome
orchestral power
Both Jochum and Kegel display the keen
sense of rhythm that is of vital importance
in Carmina Burana – it is always worth
remembering that Orff wrote it intending
dance to be part of the mix. Similarly,
there also needs to be a feeling of forward
momentum or, given Orff’s penchant for
repetition, the attention can so easily start
The contrast between
pianissimo and forte in
‘O Fortuna’ is hair-raising
to drift. The large orchestra should thrill,
frolic and beguile in equal measure, while
the soloists need to strike a fine balance
between being characterful and hamming
it up. Very few of the many recordings
available are duds and several – including
the likes of André Previn, Christian
Thielemann, Riccardo Muti and Richard
Hickox – vied for the shortlist here. It is,
though, the 1970 recording by Seiji Ozawa
Three other
great recordings
Eugen Jochum
(conductor)
The German Eugen
Jochum was, in
1952, one of the first
conductors to record
Carmina Burana, and then returned
to the work in 1967 for this superb
recording with the Deutsche Oper
Berlin. Full of urgency and considerable
orchestral heft but also tenderness
where necessary, it boasts dream
soloists in soprano Gundula Janowitz
and baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,
whose ‘Omnia sol temperat’ radiates a
feeling of spring warmth like no other.
Tenor Gerhard Stolze’s swan errs on the
side of sinister, however. (DG 447 4372)
Simon Rattle
(conductor)
As might be expected
from a conductor who
himself used to wield
the timpanist’s sticks,
Simon Rattle’s 2004 live New Year’s Eve
recording with the Berlin Philharmonic
and an admirably agile Rundfunkchor
Berlin makes the most of the raw,
percussive side of Carmina Burana –
this is a literally hard-hitting, fast-moving
rendition. If baritone soloist Christian
Gerhaher strays a little on the sharp side
in ‘Estuans interius’, he makes up for it in
riotous conviviality, while tenor Lawrence
Brownlee is a convincingly anguished
swan and Sally Matthews a gorgeously
and the Boston Symphony Orchestra that
above all compels from start to finish.
And what a start – in ‘O Fortuna’, the
contrast between pianissimo and forte as
Ozawa’s chorus and orchestra unleash
their full might at ‘Sors salutis’ is hair-
raising. Both here and elsewhere, the
New England Conservatory Chorus gain
extra points for their immaculate diction.
Though listeners with a firm command of
Latin plus Medieval French and German
are probably few and far between, it is still
nice to be able to hear all the words clearly.
The Japanese conductor also has a
first-rate team of soloists at his disposal.

warm-voiced soprano, especially in ‘In
Trutina’. (Warner Classics 557 8882)
Rupert Huber
(conductor)
Though the vast
majority of Carmina
Burana recordings
are with orchestra,
there is also an arrangement for soloists,
choir, percussion and two pianos, made
in 1956 by Wilhelm Killmayer at Orff’s
request. As revealed by this polished
performance by the SWR Vokalensemble
and GrauSchumacher Piano Duo, it’s a
surprisingly effective version, bringing
out elements within the score that
tend to get lost in the vast sound of the
original. Being lighter in number than
usual also allows the immaculately
disciplined choir to be a little more
nuanced. (SWR Music SWR19516)
And one to avoid…
One would imagine
that Carmina Burana
would have suited
conductor Leopold
Stokowski, the
great showman of
the podium, to a tee. However, the
ropey recorded sound in this live 1954
performance from Boston doesn’t give
him and his performers a fair hearing.
The chorus sounds distant while, in
contrast, various individual instruments
– particularly in the woodwind and brass
– stick out like sore thumbs. Some of the
Boston University Symphony Orchestra’s
string playing is a little ragged too.
One’s appetite for roast swan can start to
wane after repeated listenings, but Stanley
Kolk stands apart – singing at the top
of his tenor range without ever heading
into falsetto, he paints the very picture
of despair. Soprano Evelyn Mandac is
floatily seductive in ‘Amor Volat Unique’
and hits the top D in ‘Dulcissime’ with
effortless elegance, while baritone Sherrill
Milnes is equally effective basking in the
sun in ‘Primo vere’ as he is as a debauched
abbot in the tavern. Could he perhaps be
a little less prim and precise in ‘Estuans
interius’? Possibly, but it’s a small blip in an
GETTY
otherwise very enjoyable experience.
BUILDING A LIBRARY
Seals of approval:
Kristjan Järvi’s recording of
Schmidt is one to explore;
(below) Ray Manzarek offers
a different take on Orff
Continue the journey…
We suggest five further works to explore after Orff’s Carmina Burana
F
ew listeners know Unaufhörliche (The One
that Carmina Perpetual) is no surprise.
Burana is one third Setting a philosophical
of Trionfi, Orff’s poem by Gottfried Benn that
trilogy of cantatas that also addresses the inevitable
includes Catulli Carmina and futility of challenging the
Trionfo di Afrodite. The former principle of perpetuality,
sets texts by the Roman poet much of the music is
Catullus – master of bawdy typically knotty, but there
repartee – in a sequence are moments of drama
that tells of his fraught and beauty too. (Soloists;
relationship with Lesbia. Its Berlin Radio Chorus, Rundfunk-
introduction and finale Sinfonieorchester
are unusually scored Schulhoff’s Communist Berlin/Lothar Zagrosek
for an accompaniment Wergo WER66032)
of four pianos and
Manifesto is, at times, The following year,
percussion, while the surprisingly martial Erwin Schulhoff
three central ‘acts’ turned to Marx and
consist of vocal soloists and chorus Engels for inspiration, setting their words
alone. (Soloists; Munich Radio Orchestra/ in his Communist Manifesto. Scored for
Franz Welser-Möst Warner 555 5172) double choir, four soloists, children’s
For a large-scale contemporary of choir and large wind orchestra, the Czech
Carmina Burana, try Franz Schmidt’s The composer’s work was never performed
Book with Seven Seals from 1938. For in his lifetime. Revived in the 1970s, it is
his libretto, Schmidt took texts from the gutsy, brassy and, at times, surprisingly
Book of Revelation – given the piece’s martial. (Soloists; Prague Radio SO and
date, its apocalyptic theme seems Chorus/František Vajnar YouTube)
rather prescient. In contrast to Orff’s Finally, for a different take on Orff,
rhythmically driven score, Schmidt’s work head for the 1983 rock reimagining
is late-Romantic in style, with significant of Carmina Burana by Ray Manzarek,
passages for solo organ. (Soloists; former keyboard player of The Doors.
Tonkünstler Orch Niederösterreich, Wiener Not all of it comes off – the opening
Singverein/K Järvi Chandos CHSA5061(2)) ‘O Fortuna’, for instance, morphs into
Paul Hindemith shared Orff’s something akin to a comedy camel
enthusiasm for musical education, so dance from a TV sketch show – but
the appearance of a children’s choir Manzarek’s inventive keyboard work
alongside the soloists, chorus and makes it worth exploring. (Ray Manzarek
orchestra in his 1931 oratorio Das (keyboards) et al A&M Records 394 945-2)
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 85
 Reviews
Recordings and books rated by expert critics

RECORDING OF THE MONTH

Welcome
If you’re like me then
you’ll turn to music as
Pittsburgh electrifies
a distraction from the
woes of the world. It’s
lovely to escape into a
in Tchaikovsky’s Fifth
symphony, lose yourself
in a string quartet or
Manfred Honeck gets under the skin of
get embroiled in an opera. Sometimes, a familiar work and conjures a rich and
though, music directly responds to
global issues too large to ignore, and compelling performance, says Erik Levi
I applaud composers who attempt to
make sense of war, social injustice or
the warming planet. Whether the likes dynamic range and a wonderful
of this month’s Songs for Our Times richness of sound.
(Orchestral) or Karl Jenkins’s One World As before, Honeck’s
(Brief Notes) actually have a discernible overriding objective has been
to revivify a work that in
impact remains to be seen, but the very
lesser hands can easily lose its
least we can do is listen. freshness and originality. To
Also this issue we’ve double helpings achieve this, he has followed
of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, a sparkling Tchaikovsky’s carefully
Instrumental Choice from violinist Schulhoff O
delineated performance
Bojan Čičić and a Barbie/Oppenheimer- Tchaikovsky instructions to the letter,
free visit to the movies. Schulhoff: Five Pieces (arr. investing every musical phrase
Michael Beek Reviews editor Honeck/Ille); Tchaikovsky: with a wealth of insight, detail
Symphony No. 5 and colour. From the outset,
Pittsburgh Symphony Honeck’s infinitely varied
This month’s critics Orchestra/Manfred Honeck texturing creates a huge amount
Reference Recordings FR-752 of suspense and uncertainty
John Allison, Nicholas Anderson, Michael Beek,
Terry Blain, Geoff Brown, Michael Church, (CD/SACD) 59:04 mins in the gloomy lower string
Christopher Cook, Martin Cotton, Christopher harmonies that underpin the
Dingle, Misha Donat, Jessica Duchen, Rebecca Manfred Honeck began clarinet’s first statement of the
Franks, George Hall, Malcolm Hayes, Claire his long association with fate motif. The ensuing Allegro
Jackson, Berta Joncus, John-Pierre Joyce, Nicholas the Pittsburgh Symphony con anima, taken at a fast and
Kenyon, Erik Levi, Natasha Loges, Andrew
Orchestra way back in 2006 driving tempo, has plenty
McGregor, David Nice, Freya Parr, Ingrid Pearson,
Steph Power, Anthony Pryer, Paul Riley, Jan by conducting a critically of forward momentum, but
Smaczny, Anne Templer, Sarah Urwin Jones, acclaimed performance of Honeck adopts a sufficiently
Alexandra Wilson, Barry Witherden Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony flexible approach in the
that was subsequently released contrasting second idea to
on CD on the Exton label. ensure the more reflective
Returning to this work after moments have that necessary
KEY TO STAR RATINGS many years, his interpretation feeling of repose.
+++++ Outstanding has, if anything, become even As you’d expect, the
++++ Excellent more compelling and here Pittsburgh Symphony responds
+++ Good
++ Disappointing enjoys the benefits of a far with phenomenal virtuosity
+ Poor superior recording with a wide to all the twists and turns in

86 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


Winning interpretation:
Honeck and the Pittsburgh
musicians retain the work’s
freshness and originality
Honeck’s interpretation. The
swooning string melodies are
delivered with the same degree
of warmth that you’d find in
the great central-European
orchestras, while the brass, in
particular the quartet of horns,
bring thrilling urgency to the
big climaxes. But perhaps the
most startling passage comes at
the end of the movement, where
for once the murky descending
line in the double basses is
strikingly audible. With this
particular sound image lodged
in your mind, there’s an almost
seamless transition into the
resonant chords that open
the slow movement, and this
provides a wonderful cushion of
sound for the magical horn solo.
There are many other
JULIE GOETZ
moments in this performance
that made me sit up and
appreciate Tchaikovsky’s
inventiveness in a completely
new light. A good example
comes in the third movement,
where the isolated notes on
the muted horn cut through
the texture, casting dark
shadows over the elegant
As you’d expect, the
Pittsburgh Symphony
responds with
phenomenal virtuosity
mood of the Waltz. Likewise,
Honeck’s finely attuned
concept of orchestral balance
and brilliantly choreographed
control of tempo brings
tremendous dividends to the
Finale. The roaring timpani
roll that unleashes the Finale’s
Allegro vivace section is simply
Recording of the Month Reviews
CHOIC
E
electrifying and what follows,
with the raucous, almost
Stravinksian dialogue between
wind and strings imitating the
sound of balalaikas, is even
more arresting.
There’s plenty of energy and
imagination in Schulhoff’s
Five Pieces for String Quartet,
an unexpected coupling
performed here in a resourceful
full orchestral arrangement
by Honeck and Tomáš Ille.
Schulhoff’s sequence of dances,
ranging from a distorted Waltz
and a sultry Tango to a frenzied
Tarantella, is a typical product
of the roaring 1920s, and in this
new version should certainly
gain more admirers for this
fascinating and immensely
talented composer.
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING +++++
Performer’s notes
Manfred Honeck
Do you have new insights into the
Fifth since you last recorded it?
It was the first symphony I
conducted when I was young, and
every time I open the score there’s
something new to discover. I think
it’s a lifetime process; if I have the
chance to live in 20 years it might
change again. I am extremely
detail oriented; I want to find out
the secrets and the mysteries in
every piece.
Why did you choose to arrange
the Schulhoff Five Pieces?
I heard it in a concert by the
Clarion Quartet and I was blown
away. I immediately felt that this is
a piece that Schulhoff might have
loved to hear in an orchestral
version. There are wonderful
colours in it, but it’s also full of
surprises, sarcasm and irony!
Tell us about working with your
Pittsburgh musicians…
It’s just a joy to work with them.
This orchestra does not only
consist of fantastic musicians,
technically; they have a
willingness to go into detail and
they’re interested in the mystery
and depth of the work, which is
remarkable. That gives me the
opportunity, as music director,
to do something special; you
can ask for anything. I have now
planned to stop, but that is one
of the reasons why I extended my
contract till 2028, because this
orchestra is so marvellous. I must
also say that my predecessors,
André Previn, Lorin Maazel and
Mariss Jansons, established this
culture of high-profile energy and
understanding of what is needed
to be extremely well prepared, to
look into the detail and help to
create a special moment every
time, whatever piece they are
playing. So I am very thankful to
those wonderful conductors.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 87
Orchestral
ORCHESTRAL CHOICE
Higdon hits, scrapes, shakes
and stirs in this fiery show
Anne Templer is wowed by the percussive prowess on
display in two memorable works by the US composer
Challenges aplenty:
Jennifer Higdon really puts
the Houston musicians
through their paces
Jennifer Higdon
Duo Duel*; Concerto for Orchestra
*Matthew Strauss, *Svet Stoyanov (percussion);
Houston Symphony/Robert Spano
Naxos 8.559913 59:59 mins
Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra forms
the bulk of the music on this virtuosic recording,
featuring full symphony
orchestra with a huge percussion The whirlwind opening
section, harp and celeste. Using
instantly sets the
challenging techniques, she
makes specific demands on the high-energy mood
percussionists, producing lovely
colours such as bowed vibraphone.
The whirlwind opening in the first movement
instantly sets the high-energy mood, though is
anticipatory rather than menacing. After the string-
based jig of the second movement, the piece really
settles in the third, and here the orchestration is
spectacular; harmonics on the upper strings, coupled
with glockenspiel and tubular bells, lovely ‘falling
away’ sounds in the violins and, later, a vibrant use
of different timpani timbres, with sonoric hints of
Britten’s Sea Interludes.
88 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
The segueing of movement four into the fifth is
placed in the hands of the Houston percussionists,
and the initial transcendental Eastern soundworld
develops into an urgent, rhythmical groove,
eventually emerging into a breathless, fugue-like final
movement. This thrilling, massive landscape ends
with wonderful bell-like sounds in the brass section
and a Bernstein-style swagger.
Higdon’s obvious delight in
anything hit, scraped or shaken
is exemplified in the other work
on this recording; the fiendishly
difficult and fiery Duo Duel for
two percussionists and orchestra. Here she draws on
clock mechanism sonorities, shimmery marimba
chords, and – towards the end of the piece – sniffs of
Japanese culture with the timpani sounding like taiko
drums. A spectacular recording and performance.
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING +++++
You can access thousands of reviews from our
extensive archive on the BBC Music Magazine
website at www.classical-music.com
Bruckner
Symphony No. 8
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/
Paavo Järvi
Alpha Classics ALPHA987 81:36 mins
The partially
becalmed
segment of music
at the heart
of the Eighth
Symphony’s
opening movement tells you much
of what you need to know about
Paavo Järvi’s Bruckner. Wind and
brass solos interleave eloquently,
string pizzicatos commentate
and every bar seems fresh with
necessary communication.
There’s no sense that the Tonhalle-
Orchester Zürich’s excellent players
are in any way marking time or
waiting for the next big tutti, as
sometimes happens in Bruckner.
That sense of corporate buy-in
pervades Järvi’s performance,
and makes it tingle with interest
and excitement. The Scherzo darts
and jibes restlessly, the string
accents sharp and primed with
nervous energy. String playing of
chamber-like sensitivity graces
the magnificent Adagio, where
Järvi’s patient, humane probing
of Bruckner’s lengthy paragraphs
unearths both rare tenderness and a
raw emotional vulnerability. Every
thread and line of argument seems
fully assimilated by the players,
and Järvi’s overall shaping of the
27-minute movement is masterly.
The Finale is a triumph of cogency
and focus, with foundational
contributions from the lower
strings and imperious brass at the
conclusion. Very few Bruckner
outings compel from start to finish,
but this one does. It marks out Paavo
Järvi as one of our greatest living
Bruckner interpreters. Terry Blain
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING +++++
Haydn
Symphonies Nos 93-95
Danish Chamber Orchesta/
Ádám Fischer
Naxos 8.574516 60:27 mins
In his
introduction
to the album’s
booklet, Ádám
Fischer points
out that Haydn’s
‘London’ symphonies were greeted
at their first performances by the

sort of wild enthusiasm that’s
reserved nowadays for rock
concerts. He aims to recreate some
of that excitement in the performing
style he cultivates with the Danish
Chamber Orchestra, with its
crisply articulated string playing
and strongly contrasted dynamics.
His approach pays dividends in
a piece such as the great finale of
the ‘Surprise’ Symphony No. 94,
with its scurrying string passages
and its distinctive phrasing. The
famous joke in the same symphony’s
slow movement, which Fischer
takes at a curiously swift tempo,
is as explosive as could be; and
there’s another characteristically
Haydnesque witticism in the
otherwise much more serious
Largo cantabile of Symphony
No. 93, where, just as the music
reaches a peak of serenity, a rude
fortissimo bassoon note shatters
the atmosphere. Fischer uses the
prescribed solo string quartet at
the beginning of the movement,
and perhaps he could have done so,
too, at the various reprises of the
opening subject during the course of
the piece.
Symphony No. 95 is alone among
the 12 ‘London’ symphonies in being
in the minor, and doing without a
slow introduction. Fischer and his
players bring out the full drama of
its first movement, and the great
fugal passages in the Finale are
done with exemplary clarity. The
recorded balance tends to favour the
winds at the expense of the strings:
the first violins, in particular, would
generally have benefitted from
greater presence. Misha Donat
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Liszt
A Faust Symphony; Mephisto
Waltz No. 3
Airam Hernández (tenor); Male
voices of the Weimar Theatre Opera
Chorus and Thüringen Youth Choir;
Staatskapelle Weimar/Kirill Karabits
Audite 97761 77:51 mins
‘What would
the history of
music look like
if Goethe had
not written his
Faust dramas?’
J D SCOTT, ALBERTO VENZAGO
It’s a good question, posed at the
beginning of the liner notes to
this new release, but the writer
could equally have been asked
where music would be without the
phenomenon of Liszt. Wagner (and
all the long shadows he cast) would
have been impossible without the
music of his father-in-law Liszt, and
what might be called ‘Wagnerian’
harmonies (and Leitmotifs) make
their presence strongly felt in the
Faust Symphony, premiered under
the composer’s own baton in
Weimar in 1857.
Liszt’s connections with the
city ran deep, so it is hardly
surprising to hear how even
today the Staatskapelle Weimar
sounds steeped in his music. The
orchestra’s former music director
Kirill Karabits has immersed
himself in Liszt too, also completing
Alfred Reisenauer’s orchestration
of the Mephisto Waltz No. 3 and
recording it for the first time. In
the Faust Symphony, he handles
the sprawling and discursive first
movement impressively, moving
between rumination and headlong
energy in this character sketch of
Faust. Portraits of Gretchen (full
of delicacy) and Mephistopheles
follow, and the added apotheosis
with male chorus and tenor
soloist (Airam Hernández singing
with heft) makes for a grandly
affirmative ending. John Allison
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Mozart
Serenade No. 4 ‘Serenata
Colloredo’, K203; Serenade
No. 6 ‘Serenata Notturna’,
K239; March in D, K237
Mozarteumorchester Salzburg/
Roberto González-Monjas
Berlin Classics 0302997BC 51:24 mins
Serenades like
the two recorded
here were
written during
Mozart’s years as
a frustrated court
composer in his native Salzburg.
This was music designed literally to
be talked through, or over, as part
of a festive or ceremonial occasion.
Yet even in situations like this,
the young Mozart was incapable
of working at anything less than
top level. The three-movement
‘Serenata Notturna’, included here
as a starter before the main course,
is a sparkling take on the Baroque-
era concerto grosso, with a group
of four solo strings deployed in
deft interplay with a larger string
orchestra and timpani.
The ‘Serenata Colloredo’ is a
much larger work, named after the
Archbishop who was Salzburg’s
A sublime Eighth:
Paavo Järvi proves
himself to be a
leading Brucknerian
ruler and Mozart’s detested
employer. Here there are eight
movements, with three of them
amounting to a centrally placed
and self-contained violin concerto.
Gorgeous instrumental colours
are conjured from a standard line-
up of string orchestra with pairs
of oboes and horns, plus one-off
contributions from a bassoon and
pair of flutes. Also included is the
March which would have been
played by the musicians processing
into the Episcopal Palace (and
out again afterwards, although
it only features once here). The
Mozarteumorchester players
convey a real sense of delight as they
work their way through one musical
marvel after another (the Andante
sixth movement, with its flickering
muted strings, is exquisite). And
while Roberto González-Monjas’s
solo playing is a touch severe in its
non-vibrato approach, he leads and
directs proceedings with flair and
style. Malcolm Hayes
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 5; Romeo and
Juliet – Fantasy Overture
Orchestre Philharmonique de
Strasbourg/Aziz Shokhakimov
Warner Classics 5419753851 65:30 mins
Orchestral Reviews
It goes without
saying that any
new recording of
such a well-worn
masterpiece as
Tchaikovsky’s
Fifth Symphony has to have
something special to say about
the work if it is to warrant serious
consideration in such a crowded
field. First impressions of this
generally well-played performance
are however decidedly mixed.
Unfortunately, the slightly clipped
phrasing of the darkly scored
string chords that accompany the
clarinet’s fate motif at the beginning
of the slow introduction robs the
music of its feeling of impending
doom. Yet the purposeful tread set
by conductor Aziz Shokhakimov
for the ensuing Allegro con anima
manages to build up a real head
of steam before a somewhat
perfunctory concluding quiet
passage which should sound far
more sinister than here.
A similar problem arises at the
opening of the slow movement with
the rather blandly phrased low
string chords. But there are some
beautiful moments too, especially
in the affectionately shaped and
gentle coda. It’s a pity, however,
that Shokhakimov underplays the
impact of the two most dramatic
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 89
Orchestral Reviews
Deeply expressive:
Sphinx Virtuosi impress
in Songs for Our Times
passages in the movement where the
Fate motif brutally interrupts the
lyrical progress of the music.
The second half of the Symphony
is far more engaging, as is the
atmospheric and dramatically
projected account of Romeo and
Juliet. There’s some deftly balletic
phrasing in the central episode of
the Symphony’s third movement
and a really dynamic forward-
thrusting Finale. Nonetheless, I can’t
understand why Shokhakimov felt
it necessary to inflate the impact of
the final climax in this movement
by adding a cymbal crash where
no such instruction exists in
Tchaikovsky’s score. Erik Levi
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING +++++
Tubin
Kratt – Suite; Music for Strings;
plus works by Bacewicz
and Lutosławksi
Estonian Festival Orchestra/
Paavo Järvi
Alpha Classics ALPHA1006 70:20 mins
This fourth
release from
Paavo Järvi and
his peerless
Estonian Festival
Orchestra – think
along the lines of Claudio Abbado’s
KEVIN KENNEDY, GETTY
last ten years in Lucerne – follows
the previous two in featuring music
from his native Estonia. The first
full-length native ballet score, by
90 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
the always impressive symphonist
Eduard Tubin (1905-82), deserves
to be heard at least in part, and the
three-movement Suite has plenty
of vibrancy. Maybe the manner is
more impressive than the matter –
though Tubin had recourse to native
folk-music, not much sticks in the
memory, but the scoring is always
colourful and reflects the tale of the
fireblazing goblin (Kratt) in thrall
to Satan. The playing is as vivid as
we’re ever going to get, with brass so
impressive in the outer movements
– the trombones especially so in
the visceral ‘Dance of the Exorcists’
– and strings ushered in by leader
Florian Donderer bringing rustic
charm to the central ‘Peasant Waltz’.
An ideal framing would have
been to have the orchestra’s
electrifying performance of
Lutosławski’s Concerto for
Orchestra at the end, but that
might have gone just beyond the
85-minute max. The rest, instead,
is string music from the 1940s, ’50s
and ’60s. So much from Eastern
Europe had a grey pall, and you
need to be in the mood to take
the grittiness of Tubin’s Music for
Strings and the tritonal harrowing
of Lutosławski’s Musique Funèbre
(the composer’s name is misspelled
twice). Grażyna Bacewicz’s Concerto
for String Orchestra has it all,
though: rhythmic variety, concerto
grosso solo stretches and genuine
energy – a little masterpiece and,
like everything else here, stunningly
played. David Nice
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING +++++
Overtures from Finland
Works by Sibelius, Klami,
Melartin, Madetoja, Järnefelt,
Mielck, Palmgren, Kajanus
and Kaski
Oulu Sinfonia/Rumon Gamba
Chandos CHSA5336 (CD/SACD)
71:32 mins
The Overtures
here come with all
sorts of qualifying
words attached by
their composers:
dramatic,
comedy, lyrical, concert, symphonic.
Only a couple could be called
familiar outside the boundaries
of Scandinavia. There is Armas
Järnefelt’s slight, deft and catchy
Praeludium, once a popular
orchestral ‘lollipop’; and Sibelius’s
stirring Karelia Overture, a separate
item from the Karelia Suite, but
drawn from the same source
material, a nationalistic theatrical
spectacle held at Helsinki University
in 1893. Several others have
theatrical roots in this refreshing
selection of late- 19th and- early-
20th century items, pulled together
by Rumon Gamba, the new chief
conductor of the Oulu Sinfonia.
Unfamiliarity, however, proves
no bar to listening pleasure, and
performances throughout are
polished and sympathetic. Apart
from Sibelius’s contribution, the
three most obviously striking
items are Uuno Klami’s hurtling
and mischievous Nuumisuutarit,
inspired by a famous 19th-century
satirical play, and the newest item
here (well, 1936); Ernst Mielck’s
meaty Dramatic Overture; and an
action-packed Comedy Overture
from Leevi Madetoja, an inspired
symphonist and one of Sibelius’s
few pupils. The level of quality dips
a little in two pieces: Järnefelt’s Lyric
Overture, unusually ponderously
orchestrated for the composer of
Praeludium, and the late-Romantic
waffle of Robert Kajanus’s Overtura
sinfonica. All in all, though, the
album is a welcome reminder
that Sibelius, with his genius
acknowledged, never existed
in isolation; and that Chandos
continues to make some of the most
well-presented and best-engineered
albums in the world.Geoff Brown
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Pas de bourrée
Works by JS Bach, Telemann,
Campra, Roman, Vivaldi
and Purcell
Camerata Øresund
Channel Classics CCS45823 65:15 mins
Pas de bourrée
serves as an
umbrella or, more
appropriately
perhaps, parasol
under which are
gathered dance movements from
orchestral suites and concertos of a
predominantly sunny disposition.
Rameau’s older contemporary
André Campra is generously
accommodated with movements
from his 1697 opéra-ballet, L’Europe
galante, while the father of Swedish
music, Johan Helmich Roman,
contemporary of Bach and Handel,
is hardly less so with dances from
his Golovinmusiken. This was music
arranged in 1728 to commemorate
the coronation of Tsar Peter II.
Danish Ensemble Camerata
Øresund brings charm to some
unfailingly attractive music and
deserves credit for airing Roman’s
too-often-overlooked compositions.
With Bach’s Concerto in A major
for harpsichord and strings, and
Vivaldi’s Concerto in E minor for
four violins from L’estro armonico
the overtly dance element implied
by the album’s title is pushed into
 Orchestral Reviews
the background. Marcus Mohlin’s Rengel (arranging Beethoven).
solo harpsichord playing in the Bach Abels’s Global Warming, a
concerto is lively and in its outer response to the 1991 fall of the
movements the music sparkles in its Berlin Wall, layers Irish, African
A major clothes. and Persian musical material in
A suite from Purcell’s The Fairy an evocation of shared musical
Queen and selected dances from globalism. Romero’s ‘Fuga con
Telemann’s Ouverture des Nations Pajarillo’ synthesises fugue with
anciens et modernes complete Venezuelan pajarillo in a slightly
an imaginatively constructed less harmonious marriage, since the
and incisively executed musical fixed harmonic pattern of the dance
sequence. It seems odd, though, that jars against a fugue’s structural need
the ouverture itself is omitted from for modulation. Artfully mixing Baroque repertoire with experimental electronics,
the Telemann suite. It is arguably Valerie Coleman’s Tracing AFTER delivers a stirring mix of antiquity & modernity from one of
the finest of the movements and Visions, premiered in 2022, is Newfoundland’s most in-demand violists.
one of which the composer thought infused with African-American
well enough to provide the overture rhythms, and draws on various UK TOUR with The Fitzwilliam String Quartet from
of his opera Der geduldige Socrates. string textures to generate both October 13-27th 2023; details at kateread.ca.
That apart, the characterisation of energy and lyric expression. Price’s
the dances here and throughout is Andante Cantabile from String
infectious under Peter Spissky’s Quartet No. 2 hails audibly from an AVAILABLE ON ALL
direction. Nicholas Anderson earlier time, though her evocation of
PERFORMANCE ++++ African-American songs resonates YOUR FAVOURITE
RECORDING ++++ well with other works. STREAMING SERVICES!
Montgomery’s Divided is the
Songs for Our Times expressive core of the album, leaf-music.lnk.to/lm258
Jessie Montgomery: Divided; eliciting urgent and heartfelt
Michael Abels: Global Warming; playing, and revealing unexpected
plus works by Beethoven colours and dense textures. Herz’s
(arr. Rubén Rengel), Price, Sisifo na Cidade Grande – a ferocious
Romero, Valerie Coleman, rhythmic challenge written in
Ricardo Herz, and 25/16 – returns to ideas of cultural
Carlos Simon fusion in jazz improvisation and
Sphinx Virtuosi West African and Brazilian rhythm.
DG (digital only) 61:34 mins Rengel’s virtuosic arrangement
This album of the final movement from the
offers intriguing misnamed ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata is
insights into
Black and Latinx
a well-chosen close, honouring
the biracial violinist George
Penny Post Classic
musical voices, Bridgetower for whom Beethoven The UK Postal Budget Classical CD Specialist
with works from wrote the work.
established figures like Price to More brightness and
important contemporary figures spaciousness of sound would
including Jessie Montgomery
and Valerie Coleman, and many
lift this exciting album, with its
committed, often deeply expressive
Closing Down Sale
names new to me such as Michael playing. Natasha Loges The owner, aged 91, is retiring!
Abels, Ricardo Herz, Carlos Simon, PERFORMANCE ++++
Aldemaro Romero and Rubén RECORDING +++
Most new CDs £3 to £7
10 CD Sets £20
Complete Mozart, 170 CDs £170
BACKGROUND TO… Complete Beethoven, 100 CDs £120
Haydn’s ‘Surprise’ Symphony Stocks of EMI and over 100
Symphony No. 94 in G major remains one of the other extinct labels.
composer’s mosts familiar and popular – in fact
it was greeted with no small amount of joy when it
premiered at the Hanover Square Rooms, London UK only... Post charge £1.50
in March 1792. Written in 1791 while Haydn was Please ask for free lists, stating particular interests.
enjoying his first extended visit to the city, the
symphony gained its nickname thanks to the
sudden fortissimo which appears in the otherwise sedate Andante second
movement. Some say Haydn instructed it at the last minute in order to wake 01646 692752
up a sleeping audience member, though the composer himself is said to have
admitted he added it in to give the audience a premiere to remember. pennypostclassic@aol.com
The business is for sale. Enquire if interested.
Concerto
CONCERTO CHOICE

A great celebration of musical kinship

Ingrid Pearson applauds Robert Levin and friends in this marvellous Mozart

England’s 1760 instrument, housed

in a south London church) for the Versatile virtuoso:
K175 D major concerto assists his Robert Levin wows
Mozart enchanting reimagining of Mozart’s on historical organs
and harpsichords
Piano Concertos, K107†, K175*; first newly composed keyboard
Church Sonata No. 17, K336*; concerto. AAM are on top form
Concerto Mov’t in G major† with lean string lines and uplifting
Robert Levin (harpsichord, organ); wind and brass sonorities. For the
Academy of Ancient Music/*Laurence three K107 concertos Mozart recasts
Cummings; †Bojan Čičić (violin) half of JC Bach’s Op. 5 Sonatas from
AAM AAM042 62:33 mins 1776. Existing interpretations are
The tenth of 13 releases marking the equally divided between fortepiano
long-standing collaboration between (Bilson, 1993; Brautigam 2015) and
the Academy of Ancient Music and harpsichord (Mortensen, 2008;
soloist Robert Guglielmi 2014)
Levin ventures Levin’s reconstruction but Levin’s incisive
further into the
enchanting milieu
brings a depth to this harpsichord, after
Silbermann, and
of historical very early work the warmth of
keyboards. We AAM’s strings
hear Levin, not as fortepianist, but make for a more enriching listening
on harpsichord and organ. The experience. The K336 Sonata is a
repertoire affirms Mozart’s musical welcome addition to the catalogue,
bonds with his father and sister, and again demonstrating the profundity
his admiration for JC Bach, whom he of the Levin/AAM association.
first met in London in 1764. Mention must be made of the
First up, Levin’s reconstruction generous booklet notes, including
of No. 51 from Nannerl’s notebook fulsome details of instruments, and
brings a depth to this very early an insightful contribution from
work, which Florian Birsak’s solo recording engineer Neil Hutchinson.
You can access thousands of reviews from our extensive archive on
version (Decca, 2009) cannot reveal. PERFORMANCE +++++
the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
Levin’s choice of organ (George RECORDING +++++

performed it with the composer under-differentiated, Glazunov’s Locatelli

and twice recorded it, but Koelman
pays double homage to his teacher
by coupling it with the Saint-Saëns
Concerto No. 3, a work Heifetz
reportedly regretted never having
recorded. As if with nothing to lose
by way of comparison, uninhibited,
it’s ironically the Saint-Saëns that
comes off best.
Sleeves rolled up and business-
like, the opening of the Glazunov
finds Koelman sounding a little
CLIVE BARDA, MARCO BORGGREVE
challenging cadenza proves pre-
eminently assured, and is neatly
dovetailed into a concluding section
in which Koelman gleefully rips
into its all’s-right-with-the-world
rusticity. But he’s even more rugged
and energised in the Saint-Saëns, its
contrasts more tellingly observed,
and the espagnolerie of the last
movement powering ineluctably
towards the bright and breezy
B major close. Orchestral support at
Il Virtuoso, il Poeta – Concerto
Grosso in C minor; Violin
Concerto in A major; Concerto
Grosso in E flat major; Violin
Concerto in C minor etc
Isabelle Faust (violin); Il Giardino
Armonico/Giovanni Antonini
Harmonia Mundi HMM902398
68:22 mins
The dizzy,
virtuosic world

reserved (especially in comparison the beginning of the Barcarolle-like of the Italian

with Heifetz); but he discerns the
overarching line that runs through
the piece from the impassioned
Moderato to the dance-inflected
finale. If the ebb and flow is
sometimes under-characterised and
slow movement is a touch laboured,
but conductor Paul K Haug generally
holds ensemble together with a
seasoned efficiency. Paul Riley
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING +++
Baroque is not
accustomed
territory for
Isabelle Faust, who is better known
for her explorations of the grounded
traditions of Bach, Mozart and

92 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


their successors. But as the album’s
title suggests, Faust seeks to draw
attention to Pietro Locatelli’s gifts
as a ‘poet’ of the violin as well as his
fame as a virtuoso performer.
The central work is the
astonishing Concerto Grosso in
E flat, Op. 7 No. 6, titled ‘Ariadne’s
Lament’, which combines a
reflective violin solo part with
chamber orchestral responses to
produce a semi-programmatic,
opera-style scenario in which
the Cretan princess laments her
abandonment on Naxos by Theseus.
The Concerto Grosso, Op. 1 No. 11,
is more straightforwardly cast in
rhythmic dance movements, while
the two violin concertos show the
composer’s experimentation with
stylistic innovations and quirky
changes of mood.
Faust brilliantly masters the
high-wire acrobatics of Locatelli’s
writing, which includes almost
ear-piercingly high playing
positions, extreme left-hand
extensions, double stops and all
manner of awkward bow strokes.
Yet her playing somehow lacks the
natural swagger and exuberance
of the so-called ‘Devil’s violinist’.
Il Giardino Armonico, under
Giovanni Antonini’s direction,
play with energetic fizz and a keen
sense of Locatelli’s place in the
development of Italian Baroque
music. This is most evident in their
rustic rendition of the Pastorale
from his F minor Op. 1 No. 8
Concerto Grosso – a nod to Corelli’s
‘Christmas Concerto’ of 30 years
earlier. The recorded sound is clear
and well balanced. John-Pierre Joyce
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Mozart
Piano Concertos Nos 11, 13*†;
Oboe Concerto**
*Roman Borisov (piano), **Gabriel
Pidoux (oboe); †ORF Radio-
Symphonieorchester Wien;
Mozarteumorchester Salzburg/
Howard Griffiths
Alpha Classics ALPHA991 68:44 mins
The sixth in
a series of
recordings
devoted to gifted
young soloists,
this release
certainly means well. Its featured
youngsters are the pianist Roman
Borisov and the oboist Gabriel
Pidoux, the first in two of Mozart’s
smallish-scale masterpieces K413
and K415, and the second in the
gorgeous K314. Both soloists give
finely wrought performances with
crystalline touch (the pianist),
mellifluous legato (the oboist),
unfailingly musical phrasing
and seamless ensemble with the
conductor Howard Griffiths.
Imagine, however, that these
concertos are precious relics
being carefully unwrapped from
cotton wool, and you get some
idea of the general approach; these
seem primarily reverential and
obedient interpretations, possibly
even refining Mozart to a degree
that goes beyond what’s in his
best interests. Dynamics chiefly
vary between mezzo-piano and
mezzo-forte, while the ORF Radio-
Sinfonieorchester Wien plays so
modestly in the piano concertos that
it approaches prudishness. Even in
the oboe concerto with the slightly
livelier Mozarteumorchester
Salzburg, there’s little to suggest the
exuberance of the youthful Mozart,
and while everything is in place, the
performances rather fail to ignite.
Compare the piano concertos,
for example, to Robert Levin’s
recordings with the OAE and
Christopher Hogwood, and the
contrast comes bowling out; perhaps
it is the difference between playing
our respect for Mozart and playing
the life-force that powers it behind
the notes on the page.
That’s not to blame the young
soloists, however – both richly
deserve plaudits – or the recorded
sound quality, which is excellent.
Jessica Duchen
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING ++++
Bach Minimaliste
Works by JS Bach, Górecki,
Nystedt, Alain, John Adams
Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas
(harpsichord); La Tempête;/Simon-
Pierre Bestion
Alpha Classics ALPHA985 76:01 mins
Bach and certain
minimalist
composers
have often been
successfully
juxtaposed, since
they can share driving energy and
momentum. But if this attempt at
presenting Bach as a minimalist
looks less likely on paper – despite a
lengthy and self-justifying note by
the founder-director of the period
ensemble La Tempête, Simon-
Pierre Bestion – in performance
it fails mostly due to playing that
lacks that necessary drive. Bestion’s
starting point is Bach’s Harpsichord
Concerto in D minor, yet curiously
in dispersing the movements across
a sort of playlist format he omits
the central Adagio altogether. Its
steady tread could have fitted the
‘minimaliste’ agenda well, but
perhaps we are not missing much;
the performance of the outer
movements (featuring Louis-Noël
Bestion de Camboulas as soloist) is
pretty average, and an arrangement
for these forces of the Passacaglia in
C minor is similarly uninspiring.
The most successful performance
is Henryk Górecki’s two-movement
Harpsichord Concerto, a short
and spiky work that shares its D
minor tonality with the Bach and
which ripples along nicely here. The
four movements of John Adams’s
Shaker Loops are also split up, but
at least the work is given complete
and hearing it on gut strings is a
novelty. Two arrangements – one
instrumental, one choral – of Knut
Nystedt’s Immortal Bach seem
unnecessary; a meditation using
Bach’s ‘Komm, süsser Tod’, even
in Bestion’s version for voices it
sounds less hypnotic and beautiful
than Nystedt’s original choral
writing. The greatest casualty is
Jehan Alain’s celebrated organ piece
Litanies, where the harpsichord and
strings lack supplicatory intensity.
John Allison
PERFORMANCE ++
RECORDING ++++
Concerto Reviews
High-wire act:
Isabelle Faust masters
Locatelli’s acrobatics
Dependent Arising
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto
No. 1; Earl Maneein: Dependent
Arising – Violin Concerto
Rachel Barton Pine (violin); Royal
Scottish National Orchestra/
Tito Muñoz
Çedille CDR 90000 223 67:39 mins
Rachel Barton
Pine delivers
an absolutely
superb account
of Shostakovich’s
First Violin
Concerto. Technically her playing
is beyond reproach, and she has all
the necessary reserves of energy to
sustain and enhance the urgency
of the musical argument to the very
end of a hugely demanding work.
More crucially, she demonstrates
complete empathy with the different
states of mind projected in each of
the Concerto’s four movements.
Her glassy sound in the violin’s
upper registers perfectly conveys
the chilling sense of foreboding
that underpins the opening
Nocturne. She then takes the bull
by the horns, presenting a violent
and demonic interpretation of the
ensuing Scherzo. A combination
of tenderness and defiance
characterising her shaping of the
long melodic lines in the Passacaglia
is followed by a brilliantly
choreographed Cadenza. This builds
up to a fever pitch of intensity before
launching us into the fireworks and
frenzy of the concluding Burlesque.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 93
Choral & Song Reviews
It starts with a stirring
performance of the resplendent
motet Ecce sacerdos magnus, the
eight-part vocal writing spaciously
shaped by conductor Andrew Lucas,
with sonorous underpinning from
three trombones and the organ. A
fourth trombone is added for Inveni
David where, writing for a four-part
male voice ensemble, Bruckner
explores a darker palette of textures.
The St Albans choir has boy
trebles, and they blend beautifully
with a divided alto line at the
beginning of Bruckner’s beatific
1861 setting of Ave Maria. Lucas
again moulds the piece eloquently,
savouring its strong melodic content
without allowing the rhythmic
pulse to falter. The same is true of
Locus iste, where there is excellent
clarity of voice parts within a
warmly blended overall tone.
Philip Salmon is the moving tenor
soloist in Tota pulchra es, an obvious
emotional highlight of the recital.
Here, and in Bruckner’s 1884 setting
of Christus factus est, the choir’s alert
responsiveness to dynamics is a
major factor in the communicative
success of the performances. Two of
Bruckner’s small number of organ
pieces – the Prelude and Fugue
in C minor and the Postlude in D
minor – punctuate the programme,
imposingly played by Dewi Rees.
They are a welcome bonus in this
valuable overview of the lesser
known Bruckner. Terry Blain
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING +++++
Tan Dun
Buddha Passion
Zhu Huiling (soprano), Shenyang
(bass-baritone) et al; Orchestre
National de Lyon and International
Choir Academy Lübeck/Tan Dun
Decca 485 4221 94:10 mins (2 discs)
Since Tan Dun
crashed onto the
scene in 2000
with his Oscar-
winning score for
Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon, he has continued
to bring his trademark fusion
of eastern and western musical
traditions to the masses. Buddha
Passion is his latest offering in this
vein. Tipping its hat to the musical
tradition of the liturgical Christian
Passion, this epic work roots itself
in the stories of Buddhism. Dun was
inspired by a visit to the vast ancient
caves in the Dunhuang desert,
which were bedecked with musical
98 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
murals depicting musicians,
orchestras and instruments. His aim
was to ‘transcribe’ these murals into
sound through six evocative stories
that tell the life of Buddha.
The work received its UK
premiere in January this year to
great acclaim, but this recording
predates that performance, captured
live at the Shanghi Oriental Art
Center in 2019. It’s Dun’s debut
on Decca Classics, in a release
coordinated with a performance
at the opening of the Edinburgh
International Festival this summer.
With Tibetan singing bowls
and Chinese symbols seamlessly
set against vibrant brass and
lush string textures, Dun travels
across cultures and historical
eras. Choirs are set against the
Mongolian vocal techniques
of indigenous singers. This is a
work of significant scale, with
massed choirs, a large orchestra,
six percussionists and a range
of soloists including traditional
Chinese instrumentalists and a
dancing pipa player.
This is a feat of musical
storytelling: broad in scope and
style, but clear in its narrative,
direction and impact. Freya Parr
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING +++
Stuart MacRae
Earth, thy cold is keen
Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano);
Sequoia
Delphian DCD34297 77:02 mins
What’s in a voice?
In the case of
mezzo-soprano
Lotte Betts-Dean,
qualities that
prompted a rich
compositional seam from Stuart
MacRae upon hearing a 2008
recording of her singing his setting
of the Middle English verse ‘The Lif
of this World’. While a haunting new
version appositely concludes this
new album, the other ten pieces are
the fruits of the past two years.
Betts-Dean’s voice is the focus,
at times ethereal, others bracingly
earthy, and often featuring agile,
decorative curlicues. There is great
intimacy, with generally light
accompaniment from violin-and-
cello duo Sequoia or the composer
on harmonium, alongisde extended
solo passages, notably the hypnotic
central unfolding of The Captive.
This music is clearly modern, yet
permeated by a folk sensibility and
medievalism that imbue it with a
timeless quality.
Sequoia’s grounded playing
comes judiciously to the fore
for two short pieces, the ebb and
Haroldswick. ‘Stond wel, Moder,
under rode’ is a remarkable alternate
Stabat Mater, the medieval text
being a dialogue between the dying
Jesus on the cross and his mother,
Mary, MacRae’s setting being all
the more powerful for its intense
restraint. The remarkable ‘wodwo’
is at the album’s heart. Recorded
birdsong seemingly elicits Betts-
Dean’s gentle ululations in a piece
of stunning, melancholic beauty.
Christopher Dingle
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING ++++
Mahler
Rückert-Lieder; Lieder eines
fahrenden Gesellen etc
Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano),
Joseph Middleton (piano)
Signum Classics SIGCD741 61:12 mins
What evidence
there is suggests
that the Lieder
eines fahrenden
Gesellen (Songs
of a Wayfarer)
were orchestrated some time after
they first appeared, while the other
two song series were conceived
instrumentally. So while we’d be
grateful to hear them in any form
live, is there room for a recording
like this? Well, just as Mahler
intended most of his songs for a
male voice, but stated that there
were special exceptions where
the interpreter came first, Sarah
Connolly is too fine a Mahler singer
not to let us relish this collection.
Better stlll, her rapport with top
lieder pianist Joseph Middleton
allows for some very special
interchanges, and his playing of
what has to be ‘the most beautiful
song in the world’, ‘Ich bin der Welt
abhanden gekommen’ (‘I have
become lost to the world’) is up there
for top artistry.
Connolly recording Mahler at
this stage in her career brings gains
and losses. I love the operatic nature
of the Kindertotenlieder, where the
chest voice is especially impressive.
On the other hand transpositions
downwards don’t always work: the
Wayfarer’s meadow jaunt sounds
wrong, too heavy, at a lower pitch
than the D major with which it
shares its role in the First Symphony.
And why not run the earliest songs
first? Then you can juxtapose two
very different experiences of the
ubiquitous linden tree if you go
straight on to the Rückert-Lieder?
Otherwise, well worth having if you
love this mezzo – and who doesn’t?
David Nice
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Angelus
Works by Vierne, Franck,
Büsser, Langlais, Messiaen et al
Sarah Fox (soprano), Rupert Gough
(organ), Cecily Beer (harp)
Ad Fontes AF009 69:58 mins
The Angélus
makes a
fascinating
theme for this
exquisite recital.
The thrice-daily
act of Catholic devotion prompts
soprano Sarah Fox and organist
Rupert Gough to explore some
intriguing corners of (mostly)
French sacred song from Franck to
Messiaen, encompassing figures
such as Caplet, Langlais and both
Boulanger sisters en route. Vierne’s
Les Angélus sets the scene, its three
songs evoking the feelings of praying
at morning, noon and evening
respectively, and the tolling Angelus
bell depicted in the organ. This is
balanced at the album’s conclusion
by Flor Peeters’s striking Speculum
Vitae (Mirror of Life), which follows
a similar path, but preceded by a
song depicting night that is itself a
journey from dark to light and back.
Fox is splendid throughout,
bringing expressive directness
to Roger-Ducasse’s Ave Regina
cælorum, while her rich vibrato
and burnished radiance are on
display in Chausson’s harmonically
quirky Pater Noster. Gough’s
judicious playing and choice of
registrations lifts the voice, enabling
Fox to soar, yet remain intimate.
The delectable performance of
Messiaen’s O Sacrum Convivium! in
its soprano and organ incarnation
is a genuine rarity (though not a
premiere recording as erroneously
claimed in publicity). The simple
reverence of Langlais’s Ave Maria
is especially touching, as is Büsser’s
heartfelt Le sommeil de l’enfant Jésus,
one of several songs to feature the
impeccable harpist Cecily Beer.
Overall, a rewarding recital to enjoy
at any time of day.
Christopher Dingle
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++

All in a day’s work:
anthems are bread and
butter for The Choir of
Trinity College
Anthems
Works by Elgar, Howells, Paul
Spicer, James MacMillan et al
The Choir of Trinity College,
Cambridge/Stephen Layton
Hyperion CDA68434 76:23 mins
Broadly defined,
anthems are
English-language
choral pieces
typically
composed for
use in Anglican church services,
and they come in many shapes and
sizes. Eight are sampled in this first
volume of a new series from The
Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge
and their conductor Stephen Layton.
Anthems are bread and butter
in the Trinity choir’s weekly
diet of chapel services, and their
consummate grasp of idiom
energises the opening item, Elgar’s
‘Great is the Lord’. Moving with
a symphonic sweep across its
ten-minute span, it also boasts an
excellent bassist in Florian Störtz.
Störtz is joined by four other
soloists for Samuel Wesley’s
expansive ‘The Wilderness’
(1832), to a text from the Book of
Isaiah. In essence a mini-oratorio,
Wesley’s setting features the
soloists both individually and
combined, in addition to the choir
and a characterful part for organ.
A rumbling fugue is impressively
marshalled by Layton, and Sumei
BENJAMIN EALOVEGA
Bao-Smith’s gleaming soprano
adorns the peaceful coda.
Five of the eight anthems featured
postdate 1950, an emphasis
one hopes will be repeated in
future volumes. Of these, James
MacMillan’s ‘O give thanks
unto the Lord’ is predictably
a highlight, its vaulting organ
writing athletically dispatched by
Jonathan Lee, and matched by the
Trinity choir’s thrilling delivery
of MacMillan’s declamatory
vocal lines.
Paul Spicer’s ‘Come out, Lazar’
is equally dramatic, eliciting a
searingly committed performance
from the Trinity singers. Followers
of British church music will snap
this refulgently sung recital up, and
await eagerly its successors.
Terry Blain
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING +++++
Sanctissima
Plainchant; plus works by
David Bednall, Julian Anderson,
James MacMillan et al
ORA Singers/Suzi Digby
Harmonia Mundi HMM905334.35
85 mins (2 discs)
Suzi Digby is a
force of nature.
She is a champion
of youth choirs,
an international
competition
judge, a conductor and has made
television programmes. In 2016
she formed the ORA Singers who
specialise in commissioning and
recording new works that draw
their inspiration from music of the
Renaissance period. There are five
such pieces on this two-disc release,
Choral & Song Reviews
and they appear alongside their
early music models. Their texts
have been planned so that together
they form a Vespers service for
the feast of the Assumption of the
Virgin Mary.
The choir is very good, though
with 20 members its forces are
heavier than is now usual with
earlier music, and the slightly
echoey acoustic very occasionally
‘solidifies’ the texture (for example
in Palestrina’s ‘Assumpta est Maria’).
Even so, these are fine performances
of new works. Julian Anderson’s
riveting Magnificat is texturally
inventive with an exquisite soprano
solo part in verse three, Quia
respexit – very effectively sung (by
whom?). Another highlight is David
Bednall’s ‘Assumpta est Maria’ with
its lithe rhythms and interestingly
harmonised plainsong in the
second section. James MacMillan’s
finely judged declamations of the
hymn text ‘Ave maris stella’ are
perfectly poised as ever. In some
contemporary liturgical works the
harmonies tend towards a kind of
Marks and Spencer atonality,
soupy rather than gritty and
expressive. There are patches of
that here, and some plainsongs
are delivered with oddly clipped
phrasing (‘Laudate pueri’), but
this very enterprising collection
presents some excellent new music
which will doubtless be gratefully
purloined by many choirs.
Anthony Pryer
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING ++++
You Did Not Want for Joy
Works by Nico Muhly, Britten,
Purcell, Dowland, Campion
and Hildegard
Carolyn Sampson (soprano),
Matthew Wadsworth (lute)
Deux-Elles DXL1192 50:51 mins
In their third
collaborative
album, the
soprano and
her attendant
lutenist/
theorboist have assembled an
appealing collection, lightly themed
– nature, love and the human
condition all feature – whilst
covering a range of periods from
Hildegard through to Nico Muhly.
These two figures, in fact, appear
together in the title-track, a laid-
back piece commissioned from
Muhly and setting a new translation
of ‘O viridissima virga’; its original
form is the album’s closing item.
In between there’s a mix of folk
song, lute songs by Campion and
Dowland, three Purcell items and
Wadsworth’s own arrangements
from Britten’s folk-song collections.
Sampson’s approach to the
folk material is straightforward
but eloquent, her light, graceful
vocalism perfectly supported by the
lutenist – though maybe a rougher
manner could have been essayed
for the scurrilous broadside ballad
‘Packington’s Pound’.
Campion’s ‘Never Weather-
Beaten Sail’ is clean and direct, the
gloomy ‘The Cypress Curtain of
the Night’ moving in its purposeful
artistic intent, ‘It Fell on a Summer’s
Day’ wittily erotic.
Purcell’s melancholy ground bass
‘Crown the Altar, Deck the Shrine’
(from the birthday ode Celebrate
This Festival, Z 321), is sensitively
done, while Sampson’s young
Scottish woman character (with
appropriate accent) is wise to the
blandishments of blabbermouth
Sawney. The two musicians draw an
attractive picture of sad Damon and
his interconnection with birdsong in
‘Amidst the Shades.’
Dowland’s ‘A Shepherd in a
Shade’ is pragmatic, even sceptical,
while the mood of mourning in
‘Weep You No More’ is perfectly
captured and the Britten/
Wadsworth ‘The Soldier and the
Sailor’ pure entertainment.
George Hall
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 99
Chamber
CHAMBER CHOICE

Mayer’s quartets reveal a creative spirit

Constanze Quartet paint a rich and dramatic portrait, says Rebecca Franks

its best, with sensitive, handsome

E Mayer
String Quartets in G major,
A major and E minor
Constanze Quartett
CPO 555600-2 71:41 mins
A ‘diary, the story of his soul’, was
how Shostakovich’s string quartets
were once described, and so often
the quartet is where composers
turn to explore something personal.
Emilie Mayer (1812-83) had eight
symphonies to
her name but, The Constanze’s
after finding
that her gender
sound is warm and the
hampered her well-blended
orchestral music
gaining public performances, she
turned to chamber music. The string
quartet offered, perhaps, a place
for her to forget the restrictions of
19th-century society.
Whatever the impulse, the result
is a joy to discover. Mayer is thought
to have written seven quartets, three
of which, from the 1850s, appear
on this wonderful recording. The
Constanze Quartett has done a
fine job in showing this music off at
playing, beautifully recorded by
CPO, a record label that has long
championed rare repertoire.
The programme opens with
the uplifting G major Quartet,
her answer to Beethoven. Mayer,
meanwhile, had a soft spot for her
A major Quartet, whose ‘appealing
melodic character’ was praised by
the Neue Berliner Musikzeitung.
And it is a thoroughly appealing
work, not least thanks to its Adagio
which contrasts serenity with
bittersweetness.
In both works,
Constanze’s
sound is warm and
well-blended, with
plenty of space for
individual lines to shine.
Yet it’s the E minor Quartet which
reveals Mayer at her most striking.
Two versions exist; it’s the second
played here. In its handling of motifs Sensitively handled:
and harmonic shifts, it sits alongside Constanze Quartet’s
Beethoven and Schubert, and the first volume of Mayer
Constanzes treat it as pure drama. quartets is a winner
Terse and melancholic, it’s a quartet
that reveals a powerful creative spirit.
You can access thousands of reviews from our extensive archive on
PERFORMANCE +++++
the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
RECORDING +++++

Chaminade • Poulenc
• R Schumann
Poulenc: Cello Sonata*;
R Schumann: Papillons;
Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor†;
Chaminade: Piano Trio No. 1*†
Martina Consonni (piano), †Sarah
Jégou-Sageman (violin),
*Jeein You (cello)
Erato 5419764269 70:09 mins
Gautier Capuçon’s
foundation for
emerging young
musicians is
an admirable
initiative
which includes the opportunity to
record an album; this instalment
presents three graduates of the 2022
programme. Bringing them together
is Chaminade’s Piano Trio No. 1, a
substantial and dramatic work in
the Brahmsian mode which shows
off their virtuosity to the full, and
shows what Chaminade might have
achieved in larger forms had she
not been diverted into (albeit highly
successful) miniatures.
Here it’s the leaping arpeggios of
the first movement and the brightly
dancing scherzo that give the work
its character; cellist Jeein You
intones the melody of the Andante
sonorously, but sometimes gets
overwhelmed in the busy exchanges
for violin and piano. Martina
Consonni’s luminous piano playing
is outstanding, as it is throughout
the recording, accompanying You in
Poulenc’s witty but rather thin Cello
Sonata, and Jégou-Sageman in the
much more substantial Schumann
Violin Sonata No. 1, strongly driven
and articulated by both players.
Consonni comes across as
the highly promising star of this
trio, especially in her solo work,
Schumann’s ever-fresh Papillions.
She has a delightful flow and
momentum to her playing, though
with a tendency to pause slightly
over the first beat of the bar.
Schumann’s characters here are
vivid and well sculpted.
A doubtless unintended
consequence of this waltz-
dominated set is a slight excess of
triple-time! Nicholas Kenyon
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Grime • C Schumann •
R Schumann • Watkins
Helen Grime: Whistler Miniatures;
R Schumann: Six Studies in
Canonic Form; Huw Watkins: Piano
Trio No. 1; C Schumann: Piano Trio
in G minor
Odysseus Piano Trio
Ty Cerdd TCR041 75:13 mins
This is a vivid
programme from
an expressive
British ensemble.
The Odysseus
Piano Trio have
matched works by Robert and Clara
Schumann with two contemporary
pieces by notable UK composers,
Helen Grime and Huw Watkins.

100 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


Grime’s Three Whistler Miniatures
were inspired by the artist’s chalk
and pastel works in a Boston
museum. Her programme note
explains: ‘I was taken by the subtly
graduated palette and intimate
atmosphere suggested by each.’
You might not guess this, however,
from the Odysseus’s playing, which
throughout the recording sounds
distinctly forthright. While their
extrovert, rather full-on approach
brings out the warmth and passion
in Robert Schumann’s Six Studies
in Canonic Form – originally for
‘pedal-piano’, these come into their
own in Kirchner’s trio arrangement
– the Grime pieces possibly sound
here more dramatic in nature than
the composer intended. There’s a
tendency from the violinist to use
overpressed fortes and low-vibrato
whispers without quite enough
mid-range sonority (a current trend,
rather frustratingly so, among
today’s string players).
The Clara Schumann Trio, new
recordings of which are currently
achieving floodlike numbers,
receives a likewise impassioned
performance, though sometimes
it could use moments of more
rigorously shaded contrast.
Watkins’s Trio seems to suit the
ensemble best: they give his terrific
imagination and unashamed
virtuosity its head, especially in
the headlong finale, which slightly
evokes a kind of late Vaughan
Williams after too much caffeine.
Recorded sound quality is warm
but somewhat over-resonant.
Programme notes are provided with
Welsh translation. Jessica Duchen
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING +++
Mozart
Piano Quartets in G minor and
E flat major
Federico Colli (piano), Francesca
Dego (violin), Timothy Ridout (viola),
Laura van der Heijden (cello)
Chandos CHAN20179 68:18 mins
The story goes
that the composer
and publisher
Franz Anton
Hoffmeister
commissioned a
series of three piano quartets from
Mozart, but he was disconcerted
by the unruly nature of the first
of them, and its sales figures were
RORY ISSEROW
poor, so he terminated their contract
before the second quartet was fully
engraved. Certainly, the opening
movement of that first work,
K478, in Mozart’s very personal
key of G minor, is one of his most
impassioned utterances, and the
players on this new recording seem
determined to bring out every
ounce of its drama. They do so,
unfortunately, to a fault, attempting
to wring maximum expression out
of every phrase in a manner that’s
stylistically at odds with the music.
The start of the opening movement’s
central development section, for
instance, is so languid that the
music is in danger of losing all
impetus, while the acceleration
in its closing bars may whip up
the excitement, but perhaps at the
expense of good taste.
The second quartet, K493, fares
better, though the first movement’s
coda is again much too freely
handled, and the pianissimos
introduced in the slow movement
sound exaggerated. And while it’s
fashionable these days to decorate
the repeats – no doubt Mozart
would have done so when playing
the pieces himself – unless you do so
very sparingly the twiddles become
tiresome, as they do here. These
are clearly talented players, and if
only they had allowed the music to
speak for itself their performances
would have been a good deal more
satisfying. Misha Donat
PERFORMANCE ++
RECORDING ++++
Penelope Thwaites
Gardens, Fables, Prisons,
Dreams – Chamber Music
Benjamin Frith, Penelope Thwaites
(piano); Tippett Quartet
SOMM SOMMCD0672 65:14 mins
Fables and Dreams:
composer Penelope
Thwaites showcases
her chamber music
Penelope
Thwaites has
long supported
Antipodean
composers, but
recent projects
have served as a reminder that the
British-Australian pianist’s own
work deserves greater attention.
This compendium of chamber
music follows on from her 2020
collection of choral music and songs
(also on SOMM). Planted spaces
are the inspiration behind the two
major pieces, mirroring Delius’s
In a Summer Garden, arranged by
Thwaites for two pianos. Orchestral
depictions of nodding blooms and
fluttering butterflies are transferred
to delicate upper-octave melodies
and shimmering accompaniments.
Here and in A Lambeth Garland
– originally conceived as a song
cycle for a 1986 fundraising concert
at Lambeth Palace – Thwaites
performs with Benjamin Frith; the
duo wallows in the frothy melodies.
The Selfish Giant, also reworked for
the same format, is more ambitious,
conveying Oscar Wilde’s titular
character through rhythmic octave
passages and a hymnal closing
movement. The remaining short
pieces cover rather disparate topics.
The Tippett Quartet is quietly
introspective throughout For Irina,
a piece dedicated to gulag-
imprisoned Russian writer Irina
Ratushinskaya; that restraint is
carried over through To the Hills, an
instrumental version of Thwaites’s
1964 choral setting of Psalm 121.
Claire Jackson
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING +++
Chamber Reviews
An Invitation at
the Schumanns’
Works by Brahms, C Schumann,
R Schumann, JS Bach, Gade,
D Scarlatti, Mendelssohn
Samuel Hasselhorn (baritone), Jorge
González Buajasan (piano);
Trio Dichter
Harmonia Mundi HMM902509
79:19 mins
Careful thought
underpins
Trio Dichter’s
invitation to
an imaginary
soirée chez the
Schumanns. Eavesdropping on the
domestic music-making, we’re not
just seduced by their own music –
Robert’s Op. 80 Piano Trio at the
heart of the programme. Friends
such as Brahms, Mendelssohn
and Niels Gade drop in. And the
Schumanns’ enthusiasm for the
18th century is referenced, even
if the modest little prelude hardly
conveys the creative stimulation
they found in the music of JS Bach;
and the Scarlatti sonata isn’t exactly
from Domenico’s top drawer. The
mid- 19th-century soundworld is
important too. Violin and cello are
gut-stringed, while the piano is an
1890s Bösendorfer, manufactured
three decades after Robert’s death.
Nit-pickers might snipe at
the latter; but no matter. It gets a
rigorous workout in Mendelssohn’s
Op 92 piano duo whose finale
fairly fizzes as the trio’s pianist
Fiona Mato is joined by Jorge
González Buajasan. Another guest
singing for his supper is Samuel
Hasselhorn whose supple baritone
triumphs in Brahms, though is
not ideally balanced with the
rather forward piano sound in
Robert’s wedding present to Clara:
‘Widmung’. Other miniatures are
adroitly incorporated to illuminate
or reinforce mood, though the
concluding trio arrangement of
Kinderszenen’s ‘Der Dichter spricht’,
while engineering a touching
farewell, is a little over-reverently
indulged. Not so the F major Piano
Trio itself. Its first movement
smoulders with protean restlessness,
the counterpoint (as in the finale)
purposefully incisive, and the wry
lolloping gait of the inscrutable third
movement is expertly judged. A
compelling centrepiece to a skilfully
conceived album. Paul Riley
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 101
Chamber Reviews
From the Airwaves
Works by Ireland, Gipps, Kell,
Swepstone, Curzon, Carse et al
John Bradbury (clarinet),
Ian Buckle (piano)
MPR MPR117 72:51 mins
Images of old
radio sets and
microphones
don’t usually
adorn album
booklets, but then
not many albums offer a programme
of clarinet pieces inspired by music
broadcast by the BBC over its radio
stations in the late 1920s and ’30s.
The lighter clarinet repertoire
was most favoured, but that didn’t
automatically mean flimsy artistry,
and some of the items resurrected
by John Bradbury and his piano
accompanist Ian Buckle please
the ears as much by their technical
skill as their charming manner.
Highlights include Harold Samuel’s
deftly graceful Three Clarinet Solos,
Adam Carse’s Happy Tune (the
title tells all), Edward German’s
unassuming Andante and Tarantella
and Frederic Curzon’s winningly
humorous Clarinetto con moto. The
weaker pleasures include four items
by Frederick Kell and the tearful
Victoriana of Edith Swepstone’s Une
larme, a piece that doesn’t get any
better because its title is in French.
To vary the diet and add extra
fibre two longer pieces are also
included, John Ireland’s 1943
Fantasy-Sonata and Ruth Gipps’s
Clarinet Sonata of 1954. This
was wise. The Ireland especially
proves an excellent showcase for
the performers, with Buckle given
enough room to display his panache
and poetic touch, while Bradbury’s
dexterity at the extremes of his
register are strikingly displayed in
the Gipps, a substantial creation
(18 minutes) alternately sprightly,
pensive and muscular. Both are
significant works, easily strong
and characterful enough to make
any radio audience put the tea and
biscuits to one side, sit back and
really listen. Geoff Brown
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING +++
London circa 1740 –
Handel’s Musicians
Works by Handel, Sammartini,
Castrucci, Oswald, Weidemann
La Rêveuse/Florence Bolton et al
Harmonia Mundi HMM902613
68:57 mins
102 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Szymanowski showman:
James Ehnes brings out
the light and shade of the
composer’s Mythes
In an earlier
release La
Rêveuse focused
on Corelli’s legacy
in a London of
the 1720s. The
ensemble has moved forward a
couple of decades for this issue,
assembling a motley gathering of
composers of whom Handel and the
elder Sammartini alone qualify as
household names.
First on the menu is a flute
concerto by Carl Friedrich
Weidemann, a flautist in Handel’s
opera orchestra where he was
known as Charles Weideman.
Stylistically forward-looking, it is
an attractive piece, variously calling
to mind Vivaldi and Telemann yet
retaining a character of its own,
above all in its alluring Amoroso
conclusion. Olivier Riehl’s solo
traverso playing is a delight.
Handel, himself, is represented
by the Fifth Trio Sonata from his
Op. 2 for two violins and continuo
and by a catchy Hornpipe composed
for a concert at Vauxhall Pleasure
Gardens. The string playing is
gratifyingly airy and sympathetic.
Giuseppe Sammartini was principal
oboe in Handel’s orchestra as well
as being an effective composer,
above all for recorder. The F major
Recorder Concerto featured here is
his best-known work and is played
with fluency and ornamental
panache by Sébastien Marq.
Next up is a Sonata for viola da
gamba by Pietro Castrucci who
led Handel’s opera orchestra for
over 20 years. Florence Bolton,
one of La Rêveuse’s directors gives
an eloquent account discreetly
accompanied on an archlute by her
fellow director Benjamin Perrot.
Music by Scots composer James
Oswald completes a carefully
researched and imaginative
programme. Among disparate
pieces of fluctuating interest lies
an attractive trio sonata based on
Scottish melodies.
Nicholas Anderson
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Much Ado
– Romantic Violin Masterpieces
Works by Achron, Bloch,
Brahms, Korngold, Wagner,
Hubay, Dohnányi et al
Danbi Um (violin), Amy Yang (piano)
Avie AV2615 61:38 mins
For this album,
Danbi Um has
chosen pieces
which, she says,
‘have shaped me
in becoming the
artist that I am today’. Whether they
are masterpieces is a moot point, but
they suit her technically assured,
passionate, involved playing – to
a degree. Sometimes she lets her
enthusiasm get the better of her, and
digs in too hard, leading to harsh
attack and coarse tone, not helped
by the close recording. The four
extracts from Korngold’s incidental
music for Much Ado About Nothing
show these pluses and minuses:
there’s always a good feeling for
the shape and direction of the
melodic lines, but louder passages
become overwrought, especially
in the ‘March of the Watch’ and
the ‘Hornpipe’; and the ‘Garden
Scene’ lacks the charm that Heifetz
memorably brought to it.
Her approach works better in
the pieces based on the central-
European folk tradition: Brahms’s
Hungarian Dance No. 17, or
Hubay’s Maros vize, for instance.
And in the ‘Gypsy Andante’ from
Dohnányi’s Ruralia Hungarica she
gives an involved and well-shaped
performance. She’s not always
helped by Yang’s piano playing,
which also tends towards the
aggressive in forte: in the group
of pieces from Jewish composers,
the opening chords of Achron’s
Hebrew Dance have an in-your-face
quality which isn’t at all attractive.
The quieter passages in Bloch’s
Avodah draw intensity and tonal
allure from both players, and Um’s
use of portamento is idiomatic and
fetching. But, ultimately, it’s that
lack of charm which fails to draw
you into the music. Martin Cotton
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING +++
Mythes
Works by Szymanowski, Suk,
Handel, Grainger, Tchaikovsky,
Rimsky-Korsakov et al
James Ehnes (violin), Andrew
Armstrong (piano)
Onyx ONYX4234 50:51 mins
A strange
mishmash of a
programme, with
two substantial
works followed
by a succession
of what Ehnes frankly describes as
encores. The album takes its title
from Szymanowski’s suite, each
of its three movements inspired
by a Greek myth: the ‘Fountain of
Arethusa’ is the most familiar, and
Ehnes shapes its sensuous, winding
line with a plethora of shade and
colour, over the watery curlicues of
Armstrong’s piano. ‘Narcissus’ is
more overtly passionate, and has
greater homogeneity of texture,
with some impressive double-stops
and a winning flow to the rubato
and dynamic build-up; whilst
‘Dryads and Pan’ contrasts skittish
and impulsive moments with an
underlying erotic charge.
If you like your Handel with a
romantic veneer, the performance
of the D major Sonata, HWV 371
will appeal. Full-toned, with vibrato
always in evidence – although it
does have a wide variety – it barely
acknowledges the influence of the

historically authentic brigade in
terms of dynamic shaping, which
makes the Affettuoso and Larghetto
sound old-fashioned. The piano is
a further anachronism, but tempos
are lively in the fast movements and
rhythms tight, even if the smooth
legato playing tends to rob the music
of some of its edge.
The encores, including Suk’s
Burleska, show off the soloist’s
virtuosity and sensibility, with
Armstrong a worthy accomplice.
Martin Cotton
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING +++++
Nature romantique
Weber: Trio in G minor, Op. 63;
Schubert: Schäfers Klaglied, D121
(trans. Hurel) etc; Introduction and
Variations on ‘Trockne Blumen’, D802;
Reinecke: Flute Sonata ‘Undine’
Juliette Hurel (flute), Hélène Couvert
(piano), Emmanuelle Bertrand (cello)
Alpha Classics ALPHA982 69:31 mins
Surprisingly
enough, of the
three main
works in this
intelligently
planned
programme it’s Schubert’s Trockne
Blumen variations that is the
weakest. It begins promisingly
enough with a sombre introduction,
but after the hauntingly beautiful
song melody itself (taken from the
Die schöne Müllerin cycle) there’s
a series of increasingly virtuosic,
but musically vacuous, variations
culminating in a cheerful march,
which, if anyone else had composed
it, would have been regarded as
sacrilegious. It’s a relief afterwards
to turn to the simplicity of the
song, which is offered here in a
straightforward transcription for
flute and piano.
More satisfying is Weber’s
skilfully written G minor Flute
Trio, whose Finale is particularly
impressive. The attractive slow
movement, headed Schäfers
Klagelied (‘Shepherd’s Lament’), is
based on a melody similar to that
of Schubert’s Goethe setting of the
same title, which is also included
on the album in an arrangement.
The well-known ‘Undine’ sonata by
Carl Reinecke is an impassioned, if
musically somewhat conservative,
BEN EALOVEGA, ALAN KERR
piece, and again it’s the finale that
leaves the deepest impression.
Juliette Hurel’s warm-toned gold
flute provides much pleasure
throughout, and she is well
supported by the pianist Hélène
Couvert, and, in the Weber, by the
cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand.
Misha Donat
PERFORMANCE ++++
RECORDING ++++
Neon
Eastman: Joy Boy; Hannah Peel:
Neon; Lyra Pramuk: Quanta;
Steve Reich: Double Sextet
Manchester Collective
Bedroom Community HVALUR43
48:47 mins
Pioneering
label Bedroom
Community
has worked
wonders to bring
contemporary
classical music – composer Nico
Muhly is among its founders – to
the experimental, cross-genre realm
that was born online at the turn of
the century. Manchester Collective
treads the same path: Neon follows
a ‘mix-tape’ programme, combining
popular composers (Steve Reich)
with newer ones (Lyra Pramuk;
Hannah Peel) and those who are
enjoying posthumous success as
part of the zeitgeist to reinstate
unfairly overlooked individuals
(Julius Eastman).
In the album’s title track, a
repeated rhythmic piano motif
forms a dotted line along which
related melodies are drawn. The
flickering shapes evoke restless
cityscapes. Peel weaves field
recordings from Tokyo’s Shinjuku
Station into the instrumental
cloth; these are heard in the final
movement ‘Vanishing’, which
combines intriguing timbres –
Neon glows:
Manchester Collective’s
album offers moments
of quiet euphoria
contorted electronics, piano and
strings. The piano ostinato is
reminiscent of Reich – his Double
Sextet is a natural companion.
The 2007 piece can be played
by 12 musicians or six playing
against a recording of themselves;
Manchester Collective opts for
the latter, rendering the pointillist
patterns with crisp accuracy.
Quanta, like Neon, is a Manchester
Collective commission. It uses
Carlo Rovelli’s The Order of Time
as a dive board into a murky pool
of sound: free-flowing strings are
contrasted with chiming percussion
and bird-like woodwind. There is
joy to the melee; this polyrhythmic
freedom is quietly euphoric – and
the very antithesis of the ticking
grandfather clock that opens the
piece. Julius Eastman’s vibrating Joy
Boy is a delightful addition to this
release. Claire Jackson
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING ++++
Spanish Light
Works by Turina, Sarasate,
Granados, Toldrà, Manen
and Casals
Francisco Fullana (violin), Alba
Ventura (piano)
Orchid Classics ORC100250 60:31 mins
Francisco Fullana
is a violinist
of thrilling
expressive range
and touch,
most recently
in the excellent album, Bach’s
Long Shadow. His latest, with the
excellent pianist Alba Ventura, takes
its inspiration from the classical
music of Spain (his homeland –
Chamber Reviews
Fullana is from Majorca) in a subtle
interrogation of Spanish inflections
from Granados and Sarasate to
Toldrà and Turina, that subverts
any preconceptions the title might
suggest. There is an insistence, too,
on Catalan composers – Ventura is
herself from Barcelona.
Any sense that an album of
Spanish music is going to start in
recognisable vein is immediately
tripped up by the stark entry of the
violin in Turina’s Violin Sonata
No. 2, an intense work given suitably
intense styling by Fullana and
Ventura. But Fullana’s style changes
effortlessly for Sarasate’s Romanza
Andaluza. Folkish, smooth, the
subsequent wild virtuosity of the
well-known Zigeunerweisen and
its invocation of Hungarian/gypsy
sounds is full of insistently legato
bowing and flamboyant panache
before the virtuosic finale.
There is more contrast with
Granados’s Violin Sonata – the low-
key opening of gentle piano chords
is evocatively judged by Ventura as
Fullana sings the line above. The
Manén Caprice with its mournful
opening, is played with sweet tone
on the violin and hints of a more
melancholy depth in Ventura’s
sensitive piano. Fullana and
Ventura finish with the hauntingly
beautiful traditional Catalan
Christmas song, ‘El Cant dels Ocells’
(the Song of the Birds) adapted by
Fullana from the arrangement made
famous by cellist Pablo Casals. It is
a beautiful, almost elegiac ending to
this very rewarding recital.
Sarah Urwin Jones
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING ++++
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 103
Instrumental
INSTRUMENTAL CHOICE

Bojan Čičić makes his mark in solo Bach

The Baroque violinist’s Partitas & Sonatas are masterful, says Ingrid Pearson

technique in the Double II, and

thoughtful fluency in Partita two’s
Courante and Gigue. Čičić gifts
JS Bach the monumental Chaconne with
Partitas & Sonatas, an authoritative spontaneity – the
BWV 1001-1006 demisemiquaver section is thrilling
Bojan Čičić (Baroque violin) and compelling. Partita three’s
Delphian DCD34300 146:01 mins (2 discs) Prelude is timbrally bright and
In 1754 Carl Philipp Emanuel rhythmically arresting, and subtle
Bach first documented the ornamentation in the Gavotte and
importance of his father’s Partitas Rondo is stylish and never indulgent.
and Sonatas to those intent on On disc two Čičić portrays the
mastery of violin. Composed in 1720, breadth of the three sonatas with
these works are now synonymous aplomb. His instinct for Bach’s
with artistic textural innovation
and technical Čičić’s instinct for is superb, not least
virtuosity. After in sonata two’s
Sergiu Luca’s
Bach’s textural fiendish Fugue.
pioneering 1977 innovation is superb Cleverly utilising
recording major the medium of
figures in historical performance recording Čičić gives listeners, his and
followed suit, including Kuijken, Bach’s, a chance to encounter fugue as
Schröder, Huggett, van Dael, a lived experience.
Wallfisch, Podger, Holloway, Čičić balances intimacy and
Beznosiuk, Ibragimova and Biondi. the need for projection, always a Breathtaking technique:
Bojan Čičić rightly joins such challenge when recording. This Bojan Čičić brings his
release must surely become a own virtuosity and sense
distinguished company, and his
of spontaneity to Bach
interpretations are both visceral reference recording, particularly for
and thoughtful, underpinned by the next generation to whom Čičić is
a magisterial virtuosity. Disc one very deeply committed.
You can access thousands of reviews from our extensive archive on
displays commanding immediacy in PERFORMANCE +++++
the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
Partita one’s Allemande, breathtaking RECORDING +++++

Mozart
Mozart Recital – Gigue in
G major, K474 ‘Eine kleine
Gigue’; 12 Contredanses for
Count Czernin (Nos 1, 2, 3 &
12), K269b; Sonata No 9 in D
major, K311; Sonata No. 12 in
F major, K332
Su Yeon Kim (piano)
Steinway STNS30211 68:35 mins
In 2021, Su Yeon
Kim won the
Concours Musical
International
de Montréal.
Recording this
album was part of her prize. Yet it’s
the listener who is the real winner
here. The South Korean pianist’s
playing is a joy, and this album,
which is simply titled Mozart
Recital, reveals her as a Mozartian
through and through.
It’s a beautifully constructed
programme, full of contrasts:
serious, playful, extrovert,
introspective, dancing, operatic. On
the one hand, there’s the rustic joy of
four of the 12 Contredanses for
Count Czernin; on the other, the
sombre profundity of the Adagio
in B minor. The very first piece, the
quirky Kleine Gigue in G, barely
sounds like Mozart at all. Its subject
darts all over the place, like a Bach
fugue on fast forward, and Kim
captures its quicksilver essence. Rare
gems like this are a sign, too, that this
album has been put together with
great thought.
In her booklet introduction, Kim
writes that she subscribes to pianist
Artur Schnabel’s wisdom that the
sonatas are ‘too easy for children
and too difficult for artists’. Yet
she reconciles that paradox here in
two sonatas, Nos 9 and 12. Supple
phrasing, sparkling fingerwork,
natural tempos: Kim’s playing
delights and illuminates. Does
Liszt’s transcription of Mozart’s
Ave Verum Corpus, rather more
resonantly recorded than everything
else, feel like an unexpected lurch
into the 19th century? Perhaps – but
it is also a heartfelt way to end what
really is a winning debut.
Rebecca Franks
PERFORMANCE +++++
RECORDING ++++
Tailleferre
The Flower of France –
Piano Works
Quynh Nguyen (piano)
Music & Arts MACD1306 78:38 mins
The Flower of
France is a suite
of children’s
pieces by
Tailleferre, whose
significance
to 20th-century French music is
gradually being acknowledged. She
wrote appealing music throughout
her life, rejecting – like many – the
modernist tendencies which would
dominate art music. But ‘appealing’
doesn’t mean ‘vapid’: many of
these pieces are harmonically and
texturally innovative.

104 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


Though the pieces are presented
chronologically, they offer
many possibilities for creative
programming. The eponymous
Fleurs de France, technically
accessible miniatures, are an
attractive enrichment to the
repertoire, though perhaps not one
after the other. We see Tailleferre’s
widely shared interest in non-
European cultures, eg the Pastorale
inca and Chant chinois, as well as
the European musical past in her
Minuet in B flat. The Berceuse from
1936 is simply gorgeous.
There is much musical wit and
elegance, from the lyric opening
Impromptu to the hilarious – and
surely unique – playfulness of
Chiens and the love of the absurd,
even surreal, in the ‘umbrella fugue’
(Fugue du Parapluie) from 1950. The
1952 suite L’aigle des rues is by turns
sun-drenched, tender, humorous,
learned and spiritual.
I would have welcomed
more substantial liner notes to
contextualise the music, but
nevertheless learned much from this
account, which includes selected
transcriptions and excerpts from
ballet and film scores. To my ear,
the music demands a more
colouristic, yielding and flexible
approach, as well as a more generous,
soft-edged recorded sound, but
Nguyen has nevertheless produced
a valuable document of Germaine
Tailleferre’s piano works.
Natasha Loges
PERFORMANCE +++
RECORDING +++
Mystique
Works by Tárrega, Albéniz,
Mompou and Carlo Domeniconi
Krzysztof Meisinger (guitar)
Chandos CHAN 20278 72:30 mins
BACKGROUND TO…
Mompou’s
Instrumental Reviews
‘The time of the
self-deprecating Sound and silence:
“classical” guitar lutenist David
is over. It is time Bergmüller enchants
to see the guitar in French works
as it really is: a
strong, sonorous instrument with
a richness of colour that knows
no equal.’ These defiant words by
Italian guitarist-composer Carlo
Domeniconi could serve as a
manifesto for this ebullient album
from his distinguished Polish
colleague, Krzysztof Meisinger.
Domeniconi is one of four
composers featured on the guitarist’s
second Chandos release, spanning
nearly a century of eastern- and
dance-inflected passion. There are
some repertoire stalwarts here but,
brought to life with technical ease
and swagger, the combination of
their placement alongside lesser-
known works and Meisinger’s
brooding volatility ensures freshness
and a gathering dramatic intensity
which shapes the whole.
Tárrega’s Capricho árabe sets the
evocative tone, balancing tenderness
and an as-yet-understated
flamboyance through a plethora
of Christian-Arab influences. Its
major-minor swerves are echoed combined with percussive effects guitar music composed for French
throughout in different ways – as in Domeniconi’s Variationen royal and aristocratic patrons from
is the boldness of its contrasts über ein anatolisches Volkslied around 1620-1700. It includes
in Meisinger’s hands as that – and especially his wild, Turkish- movements from Robert de Visée’s
flamboyance lifts off via Albéniz’s influenced Koyunbaba; its drones familiar suite in A minor, and
ensuing Malagueña and rasgueado- and detuned, virtuoso flourishes also pieces by relatively unknown
driven Prélude (‘Asturias’). spectacularly realised by Meisinger, composers – including the premiere
In their wake, the searching, who adds his own, improvised recording of an Allemande by
song-inspired modal harmonies introduction. Steph Power François Dufaux. Bergmüller
of Mompou’s Suite compostelana PERFORMANCE ++++ himself contributes two of his own
are invested with nobility as well RECORDING ++++ lightly textured Preludes.
as pathos before galloping to a All the music on the album was
festive finish. Here and elsewhere Rhétorique du Silence intended for private performance,
Meisinger is unafraid to dip into Works by Gaultier, Gallot, Visée, and Bergmüller holds the listener’s
harsher, more brittle tone colours, Dufaux and Mézangeau attention by virtue both of his
but they come into their own David Bergmüller (lute) skilled playing on modern copies of
Berlin Classics 0303039BC 40:31 mins a Baroque lute and theorbo and his
In his first solo ability to highlight tonal contrasts
album, lutenist of light and dark and to exploit
David Bergmüller suspenseful moments between
explores the musical movement and rest. The
delicate balances close positioning of the microphones

Suite compostelana between sound

Mompou’s only original work for guitar was written
for Andrés Segovia; indeed, the guitarist advised
Mompou during its composition in the early
1960s. Published in 1964 and recorded for the
first time, by Segovia, that same year, the Suite
compostelana is a gorgeous six-part evocation
of Spain’s Galicia region – specifically the ancient city of Santiago de
Compostela, a hallowed destination for pilgrims. Indicative of Mompou’s
THERESA PEWAL
and silence through the medium
of 17th-century French music. As
with a number of recent recordings,
the idea came from the isolation
enforced by the pandemic, when
Bergmüller was holed up in a cabin
in rural Austria with just his lute, a
microphone, a camera and a distant
online audience for company.
in the recording made in the abbey
church of Seitenstetten near Linz
adds to the sense of contemplative
focus and intimacy. It also picks
up and amplifies Bergmüller’s
sharp intakes of breath, which can
be disconcerting and distracting.
The monastery bells, on the other
hand, are more of a welcome and
atmospheric intrusion.

style, the work’s movements (Prelude, Chorale, Lullaby, Recitative, Song, The hand-picked programme John-Pierre Joyce
Galician Dance) bring together sounds and modes ancient and modern. for his recital draws on the vast PERFORMANCE ++++
repertoire of solo lute, theorbo and RECORDING +++

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 105

Brief notes
This month’s selection features creatures, quartets and a call for world peace
Antheil Violin Sonatas Nos 1-4
Tianwa Yang (violin), Nicholas Rimmer
(piano) Naxos 8.559937
Often associated
with wackier
tendencies, Antheil
plays a more
orthodox game in his
four violin sonatas. The angularity
of, say, Bartók is here, but there’s also
lyricism, folksiness and even a hint
of jazz. Tianwa Yang and Nicholas
Rimmer are expert guides to these
fascinating works. (JP) ++++
Beethoven The Creatures of
Prometheus (Beethoven for Kids)
Freiburger Barockorchester
DHM G010005048797X
The Freiburger
Barockorchester
delivers a deliciously
transparent,
dramatic rendition of
Beethoven’s only ballet, punctuated
by spirited narration. A sense of fun
and mischief pervades the whole
enterprise, as it should. A fruitful
classical gateway for younger
audiences. (SW) +++++
Dirk Brossé Seven Nocturnes
Daniel Blumenthal (piano) et al
Etcetera KTC1785
Blumenthal recorded
Brossé’s meditative
solo piano cycle in
2011 and that original
take precedes an
enlarged vision of the same for
chamber orchestra. I am rather
taken with both versions, though
I particularly enjoy the drama
and pathos Brossé creates with his
orchestral palette. (MB) ++++
Haydn
String Quartets Op. 33, Nos 1-3
Chiaroscuro Quartet
BIS BIS-2588
Following recordings
dedicated to Opp
20 and 76, the
Chiaroscuros turn
their finely attuned
gut strings and Classical bows to
Haydn’s ‘Russian’ Quartets. This
lively batch is performed with
elegance and flair, and the Scherzo
from ‘The Bird’ chirrups away
merrily. (CS) ++++
108 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Karl Jenkins One World
World Choir and Orchestra for Peace/
Karl Jenkins et al Decca 483 9748
The world was in a
sorry enough state
when Jenkins wrote
his 1999 ‘Mass for
Peace’, The Armed
Man, so it’s no wonder he’s had to dig
even deeper for this latest attempt
at promoting global oneness. It’s a
massive, at times unwieldy, work
but not without emotional impact.
Lovely vocal solos. (MB) ++++
Tõnu Kõrvits The Sound of Wings
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber
Choir/Risto Joost et al
Ondine ODE1417-2
With movements
such as ‘The Sky and
Beyond’, ‘Lighthouse’
and ‘The Star
Stream’, The Sound
of Wings is an effective exercise in
atmospheric scene-painting for
choir and chamber orchestra. Like
various of his Baltic contemporaries,
Kõrvits’s style is spare and simple,
with interesting bitonality part of
the mix. (JP) ++++
Leighton Every Living Creature
Londinium/Andrew Griffiths et al
SOMM Recordings SOMMCD0667
The choral music of
Kenneth Leighton
(1929-88) deserves
to be enjoyed
well beyond its
traditional ecclesiastical confines.
Vigorously sung, spearheaded by the
substantial Laudes Animantium and
containing five premiere recordings,
this is a highly recommendable way
to get to know it. (JP) ++++
Montgeroult Piano Sonatas
Simone El Oufir Pierini (piano)
Brilliant Classics 96247
Hélène de
Montgeroult was the
Paris Conservatoire’s
first female teacher,
and her prodigious
composing skill is well showcased in
these nine sonatas. Performed on a
warm-toned fortepiano, these often
virtuosic works tread an interesting
line between stately Classicism and
stormier Romanticism. (CS) +++
Prokofiev • Shostakovich
Violin Duos
Julia Fischer, Kirill Troussov (violin)
Orchid Classics ORC100234
It’s a treat to hear two
such tonally matched
soloists in these rare
Russian duos. The
Prokofiev is the more
convincing, while the Shostakovich
occasionally feels too close and
intensely vibrated – but there’s no
denying the players’ strength and
character. (CS) ++++
Constantinos Y Stylianou
Viola Sonatas Nos 1 & 2
Máté Szűcs (viola), Nicolas Costantinou
(piano) Odradek ODRCD437
Constantinos
Stylianou’s two viola
sonatas share many
similarities: upbeat
introductions,
songful slow movements, not overly
adventurous but filled with winning
folk-derived motifs. Piano (which
often assumes hypnotic, Einaudi-
esque duties) and viola are well
balanced. (SW) +++
Debbie Wiseman Signature
CBSO/Debbie Wiseman
Silva Screen SILCD1725
A nicely curated
selection of
Wiseman’s
effortlessly
atmospheric music
for TV, film and special occasions.
Highlights include ‘Myrtle’ and
‘Water Lily’, set to poems about the
joys of the garden; and the haunting
concert suite from the 1997 biopic
Wilde. (SW) ++++
Borrowed, Not Stolen...
Works by Bach, Telemann et al
Woodpeckers Recorder Quartet
Lawo Classics LWC1261
Though the likes of
Bach’s Art of Fugue
forms the heart of
what this quartet is
about, and works
rather beautifully on their various
recorders, it’s the selection of soulful
and occasionally bouncy folk tunes
– Swedish, Scottish, Norwegian
etc – which make this album most
enjoyable. (MB) +++
Conciertos Romanticos
Works by Castro, Ponce et al
Jorge Federico Osorio (piano) et al
Çedille CDR 90000 221
An all-Mexican
affair, featuring
arresting takes on
two lush, big-boned
piano concertos.
The mood is somewhere between
Schumann and Rachmaninov, but
its lilting rhythms remind us that
we are far from the Rhine forests or
Russian steppes. (SW) ++++
Gregorian Blue Notes
Chant and Improvisation
Ensemble Officium; Jürgen Seefelder
(sax) Christophorous CHE02302
Gregorian chants
with sax, in a
cathedral acoustic:
it’s been done before
(Jan Garbarek/
Hilliard Ensemble) but never
more beautifully than this. The
timbral and temporal differences
combine to provide a meditative
spaciousness. (SW) ++++
Hidden Treasures Works by
Milhaud, Krenek, Tailleferre et al
Anna Castellari (harp)
Da Vinci Classics DVC00710
This selection of
20th-century works
for solo harp is a real
box of delights, the
likes of Tailleferre
and Hindemith seemingly
discovering anew the instrument’s
qualities. Castellari is a captivating
soloist, taking our hand in exploring
the harp’s sonic possibilities.
(MB) +++
Shatter Works by Reena Esmail,
Julia Adolphe, Michael Gilbertson
Verona Quartet
Bright Shiny Things BSTD-0186
A thought-provoking
trio of works here,
each seeking to
find balance in an
increasingly chaotic
world. Reena Esmail’s ‘Ragamala’
String Quartet is a thing of great
beauty, the addition of Hindustani
vocals (Saili Oak) only increasing
its transportive quality. Captivating
playing, too. (MB) +++++
 Brief notes Reviews
Soaked in Colour Works by
Purcell, Queen, Adele et al The month in box-sets
Isabel Pfefferkorn (vocals) et al
Fuga Libera FUG797
The combination
of mezzo-soprano The shock of the new:
and four cellos is an composer Mauricio
Kagel features in DG’s
unorthodox one but, new Avantgarde set
thanks to some deft
arrangements, works rather well.
Isabel Pfefferkorn’s impressive vocal
versatility ensures that a similarly
unlikely range of repertoire, from
Purcell to Adele, never sounds
contrived. (JP) +++

Tales of the Sea Works by Bloch,

Bridge, MacDowell et al
Lydia Maria Bader (piano)
Ars Produktion ARS38617
A beautifully
programmed and
played album that
explores the sea in all
its moods, from calm
and reassuring to tempestuous.
With its thrillingly stormy finish,
the Debussy-like Le chant de la mer
by the French composer Samazeuilh
(1877-1967) is a particularly
welcome discovery. (JP) ++++

Unbounded Works by Beach,

Jennifer Higdon et al
Dawn Wohn (violin), Emely Phelps
(piano) Delos DE 3599
Introducing little-
known black
composers Dorothy
Rudd Moore and
Irene Britton
alongside established names Amy
Beach and Jennifer Higdon, these
attractive and varied visions of
America are performed by Wohn
with a joyful sense of freedom, and a
pure, unencumbered tone.
(CS) ++++
A Violin’s Life, Vol. 3
Works by Grieg, Maier, Tartini
Frank Almond (violin), Adam Neiman
(piano) et al Avie AV2612
This third volume
recorded on the
‘Lipiński’ Stradivari
features composers
with direct links to
the instrument. All well and good,
though there is little linking the
works stylistically, and the ‘Lipiński’
sound, while intriguingly deep, feels
forced in moments of high drama.
(CS) +++
Reviewers: Michael Beek (MB),
Jeremy Pound (JP), Charlotte Smith (CS),
GETTY
From the Baroque to the Avant-Garde
Our monthly round-up takes us from Mexico to France and Germany
If ever there was a perfect way to The music of Marc-Antoine
get to know the music of Carlos Charpentier hasn’t found better
Chávez, then The Complete champions than William Christie
Columbia Album Collection (Sony and Les Arts Florissants and some
Classical 19439977412) is it. The of their earliest recordings are
Mexican composer and conductor now available in a treasurable set
sought to create music imbued (Harmonia Mundi HMX890405764).
with his country’s own traditions At the heart of this eight-disc
and did so very successfully, as collection are the operas
this set reveals. At the heart of Medée and David et Jonathas
this seven-disc collection are (recorded 1984 and ’88), taking
Chávez’s complete symphonies, up five discs. These, not to
performed by Chávez’s own Disc six features a little- the mention the Magnificat,
Orquesta Sinfónica de Mexico known trumpeter called Actéon and other works, are
under his baton in 1966. And benchmark recordings, many
that’s just the start, for most of Ennio Morricone long out of print; so this is a
what’s here is new to CD. welcome reappearance.
The Avantgarde Series (DG 483 5677) is 55 Another great champion of Baroque choral
years old this year. DG blazed a trail in 1968 when music is German conductor Helmuth Rilling, the
it began showcasing collected recordings of new first to record the complete Bach cantatas. Those,
music coming out of Europe, and occasionally the too, are benchmarks and so any reissue of his
US. This 21-disc set brings together just about work with his Gächinger Kantorei is worth seeking
everything it released between then and 1971, out. Bach – Secular Cantatas (Hänssler Classic
with music by the likes of Vinko Globokar and HC23011) is an eight-disc set of recordings made
Mauricio Kagel, plus more familiar names like by the choir, with their regular orchestral partners,
Ligeti, Lutosławski, Penderecki and Holliger. On the Bach Collegium Stuttgart, between 1994 and
disc six is a little-known trumpeter called Ennio 2000. Unsurprisingly it’s a feast, with solo turns
Morricone, performing improv with the ensemble from the likes of Mathias Goerne, Michael Volle,

Steve Wright (SW) Nuova Consonanza in 1969. Christine Schäfer and Thomas Quasthoff.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 109

From the archives
Michael Church looks at this month’s set of reissues and archival live recordings
October round-up
ARCHIVE CHOICE Vox’s ‘Elite Recording’ of Gershwin
Works for Piano and Orchestra
A benchmark Requiem – from 1974 – is a reminder of
better times
in the record
Herreweghe and La Chapelle Royale’s 1988 industry. Not just
in the freshness
Fauré remains the definitive take on the work of the playing
under Leonard
Slatkin’s baton, but also in the
Happy deliverance: quality and sumptuous length of its
Philippe Herreweghe’s is
a pristine recording commentary: Edward Jablonski’s
excellent liner note is reprinted
from the original LP cover. Jeffrey
Siegel stands in brilliantly for the
composer at the keyboard, bringing
out the sly charm of the ‘I Got
Rhythm’ variations, and showing
how close the piano writing is to
classical pianism in the Concerto
in F. No wonder Gershwin’s fans
included Ravel, Bartók, Berg,
Schoenberg and an unlikely
Vaughan Williams. (VOX-NX-
3018CD) +++++
SOMM’s Mahler Pioneers
brings the first commercial releases
of Das klagende Lied, Symphony
No. 4 and the Adagio of the Tenth
Symphony, and listening to them
through the mists of time we have to
remind ourselves of the philistine
climate they had to contend with.
Four decades after the composer’s
death it was still considered ‘brave’
Fauré to programme his music; a Times
Requiem; Messe des Pêcheurs de critic said there
Villerville (with Messager) was something
Agnès Mellon (soprano), Peter Kooy (baritone); disablingly
La Chapelle Royale; Ensemble Musique ‘immoderate’
Oblique/Philippe Herreweghe about it. This
Harmonia Mundi HMM931292 56:15 mins release includes
To those who asked about the genesis of two fascinating interviews: one
his Requiem, Fauré replied that it was composed ‘for no particular with Leopold Stokowski, who
reason – for sheer pleasure, if I may venture to say so’. He wanted it recalls Mahler’s rehearsal habits,
to express his personal concept of death as a happy deliverance, ‘not and the other with timpanist Alfred
a painful passing away’. And this recording by the Chapelle Royale Friese who describes the composer’s
under Philippe Herreweghe remains as definitive now as it was when obsession with exotic forms of
it was made in 1988. Its orchestration was so original (no violins or drumstick. (ARIADNE5022-2)
woodwind) that Fauré’s publisher assumed it was unfinished, and it ++++
spent several years in limbo before being re-orchestrated by Roger- Rossini wrote little chamber
Ducasse. This release follows an early version of the orchestration music, but his instrumental
(plus a single violin), and with Agnès Mellon and Peter Kooy as quartets were very popular in his
soloists it emerges in its austere pristine form. day. They went through a variety
The Messe des Pêcheurs de Villerville is a lighter and very tuneful of forms including string versions
affair. It was jointly composed by Fauré and his fellow composer (in which he played second violin),
Messager to support a charitable association for local fishermen in and this release of Wind Quartets
Normandy, and it was premiered in a church by a group of ladies who for flute, clarinet, French horn and
GETTY
were there on holiday. +++++ bassoon reflects their final form.
112 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
These recordings were initially
released on LP in 1986, and they are
being reissued
now thanks to
the excellence of
their performance
by top-flight
instrumentalists
from the veteran German chamber
group Consortium Classicum. The
music is quintessentially Rossinian
– frisky, sunlit and polished to
a high sheen.(MDG 102 2291-2)
+++++
For Wagnerites with a
trainspotting cast of mind,
Richard Wagner: Parsifal –
Bayreuther Festspiele 1955 makes
its appearance in a four-disc set.
Its liner-note is in German, and
English listeners without German
may like to know two facts: that this
production by Wieland Wagner
was staged at Bayreuth every year
from 1951-73, and
that it provided
the Sunday Times
critic Ernest
Newman with
one of the most
moving spiritual experiences of his
life. By 1955 the cast were veterans
in their role, with one glowing
exception – 30-year-old Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau, making his
debut as Amfortas. For info on the
conductor, Hans Knappertsbusch,
see below. (PH23002) ++++
Knappertsbusch (1888-1965)
was one of the greatest German
conductors, who spent his youthful
summers at Bayreuth as assistant
to Siegfried Wagner, and went on to
direct the Bavarian State Orchestra
for which he invited Strauss and
Beecham to
conduct. The
Nazis kicked
him out of
Munich because
he was rude
about them, and because Hitler
hated his slow tempos. But those
tempos are the reason why these
Wagner orchestral excerpts are so
treasurable. Lohengrin’s Prelude has
seldom sounded so exquisite, nor
the Liebestod so ecstatic; his Walküre
ride is a sedate and dignified affair.
(WS 121.411) ++++
 Reviews Index
Antheil Violin Sonatas Nos 1-4 108 Penelope Thwaites
Bacewicz Concerto for Orchestra 90 Chamber Works 101
JS Bach Partitas & Sonatas 104 Tubin Kratt – Suite 90
Beethoven Music for Strings 90
The Creatures of Prometheus 108 Vaughan Williams
Fabrice Bollon 49th Parallel 107
Twelve Lilies for Leoš 95 Wagner Orchestral Works 112
Brahms Lieder 97 Parsifal 112
Dirk Brossé Seven Nocturnes 108 Huw Watkins Piano Trio No. 1 100
Bruckner Motets 97 John Williams Indiana Jones and
Symphony No. 8 88 the Dial of Destiny 107
Chaminade Piano Trio No. 1 100 Christopher Willis
Tan Dun Buddha Passion 98 Lamya’s Poem 107
Michael J Evans A Fine Agitation 95 Debbie Wiseman Signature 108
Fauré Requiem etc 112
Gershwin Concerto in F etc 112 COLLECTIONS
Weighty interpretations: Glazunov Angelus Sarah Fox et al 98
Klemperer’s Mahler is Violin Concerto in A minor 92 An Invitation at the Schumanns’
especially memorable Gluck Écho & Narcisse 96 Trio Dichter et al 101
Helen Grime Anthems Choir of Trinity College 99
Whistler Miniatures 100 Bach Minimaliste
Grosz Achtung, Aufnahme!! 96 La Tempête et al 93

Unboxed Haydn
String Quartets, Op. 33 Nos 1-3 108
Symphonies Nos 93-95 88
Borrowed, Not Stolen...
Woodpeckers Recorder Quartet 108
Chevalier Various Artists 107
Andrew McGregor lifts the lid off of a remastered survey Jennifer Higdon Cinema Esther Abrami et al 107
Concerto for Orchestra 88 Conciertos Románticos
of Warner recordings conducted by Otto Klemperer Duo Duel 88 Jorge Federico Osorio 108
Janáček Dependent Arising
When German conductor Otto Klemperer was The Cunning Little Vixen 95 Rachel Barton Pine et al 93
recruited by EMI producer Walter Legge as the Šarká 95 Eastwood Symphonic Various 107
Philharmonia Orchestra’s first principal conductor, Karl Jenkins One World 108 From the Airwaves
he was embarking on a post-war Indian summer, Tõnu Kõrvits John Bradbury, Ian Buckle 102
The Sound of Wings 108 Gregorian Blue Notes Ensemble
and a new phase in a recording career that began Leighton Every Living Creature 108 Officium, Jurgen Seefelder 108
in the 1920s (Warner Classics 5419725704; 95 Liszt Faust Symphony 89 Hidden Treasures
discs). I didn’t know his career began with Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Mephisto Waltz No. 3 89 Anna Castellari 108
Symphony when a student friend recommended a recording of Locatelli Violin Concertos etc 92 L’invitation au voyage
it. Klemperer was 20 in 1905 when he conducted the offstage Lutosławski Musique Funèbre 90 Dmitry Smirnov et al 94
Stuart MacRae London circa 1740 – Handel’s
band, delighting Mahler, whose testimonial opened doors for Earth, thy cold is keen etc 98 Musicians La Rêveuse 102
him. I’m delighted that his early ’60s ‘Resurrection’ is as craggy Mahler Mahler Pioneers Various Artists 112
and uncompromising as I remembered, with a gloriously moving Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen 98 Martin Owen plays Strauss,
apotheosis. The only change is sound quality; all recordings have Rückert-Lieder etc 98 Schumann, Weber
been remastered for this edition, from the original master tapes or E Mayer String Quartets in G major, Martin Owen et al 94
A major and E minor 100 More Bach Jürgen Gross et al 94
original 78s, and the results are the best-ever to my ears: greater Montgeroult Piano Sonatas 108 Much Ado Danbi Um, Amy Yang 102
tonal depth and breadth, quieter and clearer, with vocal and piano Mozart Church Sonata No. 17 92 Mystique Krzysztof Meisinger 105
solos pulled into focus, and better orchestral detail. Concerto Movement in G major 92 Mythes James Ehnes,
It really matters in Klemperer’s uncompromising Mahler 9, the March in D, K237 89 Andrew Armstrong 102
Fourth with its sunnier orchestral playing, and soprano Elisabeth Oboe Concerto 93 Nature romantique Juliette Hurel,
Piano Concertos, K107, K175 92 Hélène Couvert et al 103
Schwarzkopf at her most beguiling in the finale. Start with the Piano Concertos Nos 11, 13 93 Neon Manchester Collective 103
Mahler, then, but maybe not the Seventh – it’s bleak, over-long, Piano Quartets in G minor and Overtures from Finland
and confirmation for those that think the hallmarks of a Klemperer E flat major 101 Oulu Sinfonia 90
recording are slow speeds and weighty interpretations. That’s Piano Works 104 Pas de bourrée
unfair, although the Beethoven Piano Concertos with Barenboim Serenades Nos 4 & 6 89 Camerata Øresund 90
Musorgsky Boris Godunov 96 Rhétorique du Silence
don’t help his case, and neither do the Mozart Symphonies, or the Poulenc Cello Sonata 100 David Bergmüller 105
strange speeds in some Bruckner, while his Bach is irredeemably Prokofiev Violin Duo 108 Sanctissima ORA Singers 99
old-school. Klemperer did tend to get slower later; compare his Puccini Il Trittico 95 Shatter Verona Quartet 108
electrifying 1950s Beethoven with the later remakes. Schumann Rossini Wind Quartets 112 Sirens’ Song The Sixteen 97
and Brahms are satisfying, and his Strauss is better the darker it Saint-Saëns Soaked in Colour
Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor 92 Isabel Pfefferkorn et al 109
gets: Tod und Verklärung, and especially Metamorphosen. Schulhoff Five Pieces (arr. orch) 86 Songs for Our Times
There’s a great Brahms Violin Concerto with Oistrakh, a less- C Schumann Sphinx Virtuosi 91
satisfying Beethoven Concerto with Menuhin, and a wait for a Piano Trio in G minor 100 Spanish Light
box of Klemperer’s vocal, choral and opera recordings, which is R Schumann Papillons 100 Francisco Fullana, Alba Ventura 103
coming soon. Until then, end with Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde: Six Studies in Canonic Form 100 Stillpoint Awadagin Pratt et al 94
Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor 100 Tales of the Sea
Klemperer, the Philharmonia, Christa Ludwig and Fritz Wunderlich Shostakovich Violin Duo 108 Lydia Maria Bader 109
at their memorable and moving best. Constantinos Y Stylianou Unfounded
Violin Sonatas Nos 1 & 2 108 Dawn Wohn, Emely Phelps 109
Tailleferre Piano Works 104 A Violin’s Life, Vol. 3
Andrew McGregor is the presenter of Tchaikovsky Romeo & Juliet – Frank Almond, Adam Neiman 109
Radio 3’s Record Review, broadcast each Fantasy Overture 89 You Did Not Want for Joy Carolyn
Saturday morning from 9am until 11.45am Symphony No. 5 86 & 89 Sampson, Matthew Wadsworth 99

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 113

Live choice
Paul Riley picks the month’s best concert and opera highlights in the UK
IMS Prussia Cove
St John’s Church, Truro,
1 October
i-m-s.org.uk
Violinist Erich Höbarth leads
a distinguished ensemble in
celebration of autumn’s Prussia
Cove chamber music seminar.
Devised by artistic director Steven
Isserlis, the programme combines
Schumann and Beethoven with
Enescu and Mozart.
Scottish Ensemble
Marryat Hall, Dundee, 4 October
scottishensemble.co.uk
East meets West as the ensemble
collaborates with sitarist-
composer Jasdeep Singh Degun
– the lynchpin of Opera North’s
recent reimagining of Monteverdi’s
L’Orfeo. As well as his concerto
Arya, there’s music by Terry Riley
and Hildegard of Bingen.
London Piano Festival
Kings Place, London, 5-8 October
kingsplace.co.uk
Rachmaninov bookends this
year’s festival, curated by pianists
Katya Apekisheva and Charles
114 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Owen. Other anniversaries apply:
Ligeti’s centenary prompts a
masterclass from Danny Driver
plus an exhilarating four-pianists
evening weaving Nancarrow and
Unsuk Chin around works by the
Hungarian for two and four hands.
Cumnock Tryst
Cumnock, Ayrshire, 5-8 October
thecumnocktryst.com
Star soprano Danielle de Niese
opens this year’s Tryst with
Poulenc’s one-act opera La voix
humaine. There are premieres,
too, of works by festival director
James MacMillan. Tenebrae offers
motets by JS Bach and, as well
as the triple-decker Promenade
concert in Dumfries House,
Barony Hall resounds to Lambert’s
Rio Grande.
Roomful of Teeth
Milton Court Concert Hall,
London, 7 October
barbican.org.uk
Hot-footing it from a concert at
Saffron Hall, the ‘vocal band’
returns to the capital for a
traversal of the new and nearly
Leading the charge:
Sarah Connolly
opens the Oxford
International Song Festival
new. Caroline Shaw’s The Isle
prefaces the European debut
of Leilehua Lanzilotti’s On
Stochastic Wave Behavior, and
Alev Lenz’s Seven Planets receives
its world premiere.
Joby Burgess
Lakeside Arts, Nottingham,
11 October
lakesidearts.org.uk
For his ‘Percussionist’s Songbook’,
Joby Burgess commissioned a
set of ‘songs without words’ from
composers ranging from Tunde
Jegede and Dobrinka Tabakova
to Gabriel Prokofiev and Graham
Fitkin. The result mixes percussion
and electronics.
Ulster Consort
Good Shepherd Church, Belfast,
12 October
ulsterconsort.org
Matthew Owens’s consort
launched its first full season in
September with Mendelssohn
and Schubert. Now it slims down
to soprano Ali Darragh and the
Consort Players for an all-Handel
evening pairing the German Arias
with the Violin Sonata in F, HWV
370. (See ‘Backstage with...’, right)
Royal Scottish
National Orchestra
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh,
12 October
rsno.org.uk
Just before it heads to Salzburg
for a residency at the Grosses
Festspielhaus, the orchestra
teams up with members of the
Dunedin Consort for Heiner
Goebbels’s 2007 Songs of Wars
I Have Seen, a work enmeshing
spoken extracts from Gertrude
Stein’s wartime diaries with
a musical commentary by
Matthew Locke.
Le Concert Retrouvé
Castle Hill, nr South Molton,
13 October
twomoorsfestival.co.uk
Castle Hill hosts a two-pronged
salon concert inspired by Proust
and punctuated by high tea!
Soprano Ailish Tynan, pianist
Christopher Glynn and the
Sitkovetsky Trio apply themselves
variously to Franck, Wagner-Liszt,
Poulenc and Venetian songs by
Fauré and Reynaldo Hahn.
Mid Wales Opera
Gregynog Hall, Newtown,
14 October and touring
midwalesopera.co.uk
Beatrice and Benedict, Berlioz’s
scintillating take on Shakespeare’s
Much Ado About Nothing, is
Mid Wales Opera’s latest foray
and marries Amanda Holden’s
English translation with input from
the Bard. Produced by Richard
Studer, with musical direction
from Jonathan Lyness, it features
Monica McGhee and Huw Ynyr as
the initially reluctant lovers.
Oxford International
Song Festival
Oxford, 13-28 October
oxfordsong.org
Now rebranded, the erstwhile
Oxford Lieder Festival fields
over 70 events across nearly 20
venues. And from Schubert’s
Winterreise with dance to a

perfumed fashion-themed day, it’s
out to cut a dash. Singers include
Christopher Maltman, Miah
Persson and Benjamin Appl, while
leading the charge on opening
night is Sarah Connolly, who sings
Schumann, Duparc and Mahler.
Ligeti 100
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London,
14 October
southbankcentre.co.uk
Before Ligeti’s centenary slips
its moorings, the Southbank
Centre convenes pianist Pierre-
Laurent Aimard and the London
Sinfonietta for a celebratory day
corralling two concerts and a
‘deep-dive’ session of talks and
events. It culminates in works
by Unsuk Chin, Nancarrow and
Ligeti’s Piano Concerto.
Britten Weekend
The Maltings, Snape,
14, 15 October
brittenpearsarts.org
English song provides the
backbone of this year’s weekend
celebrating Snape’s founding
genius. Buttressed by Holst and
Elgar, Allan Clayton, Martin Owen
and the Britten Sinfonia perform
the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and
Strings – 80 years to the day since
its premiere.
The Belfast Ensemble
Grand Opera House, Belfast,
17 October
belfastinternationalartsfestival.com
Belfast International Arts Festival
is bringing Conor Mitchell’s
Abomination: A DUP Opera home.
A provocative combination of
satire, cabaret and drag, it’s
conducted by Mitchell himself with
Rebecca Caine reprising the role
of Iris Robinson.
Mullova Ensemble
Turner Sims, Southampton,
19 October
turnersims.co.uk
Schoenberg’s string sextet
Verklärte Nacht is the starting
point for the Mullova Ensemble’s
delve into nocturnally enchanted
worlds including music by
Debussy, Strauss, Bartók and
Janáček. A multi-sensory staging
features choreography by Joshua
Junker plus electronics by
Jasmine Morris.
Brecon Baroque Festival
Brecon, 20-23 October
CHRISTOPHER PLEDGER
breconbaroquefestival.com
JS Bach is rarely far away in
violinist Rachel Podger’s Welsh
baroquefest. Soprano Joanne
Lunn sings the exuberant Cantata
BWV 51 on opening night, and the
finale sets the evergreen D minor
Double Violin Concerto between
Telemann and Hasse. Byrd isn’t
forgotten: soprano Ruby Hughes
and viol consort Fretwork salute
the 400th anniversary of the
English composer’s death.
Manchester Collective
Future Yard, Birkenhead,
20 October
manchestercollective.co.uk
The Collective’s new season
climaxes next May with four
world premieres plus Feldman’s
tribute to Mark Rothko. The
US also anchors this month’s
project, which partners Steve
Reich’s Electric Counterpoint with
Julia Wolfe’s coruscating LAD.
JS Bach and Hildegard of Bingen,
meanwhile, encounter violinist
Rakhi Singh and the electric guitar
of Alan Keary.
Philharmonia
Corn Exchange, Bedford,
25 October
philharmonia.co.uk
The Philharmonia’s ‘Let Freedom
Ring’ series takes the pulse of
American music between Dvorák
and Wynton Marsalis. Framed
by Copland’s Fanfare for the
Common Man and complete ballet
score for Appalachian Spring,
Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto
is performed by Renaud Capuçon
alongside Caroline Shaw’s Haydn-
inspired Entr’acte.
BBC Philharmonic
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester,
28 October
bridgewater-hall.co.uk
One of a set of works inspired
by childhood dreams and
epiphanies, Rautavaara’s ‘Angel
of Light’ Symphony concludes
a programme conducted by
John Storgårds. It opens with
Sibelius’s tone poem Pohjola’s
Daughter and, in between, Tobias
Feldmann is the soloist in Sofia
Gubaidulina’s violin concerto In
Tempus Praesens.
Monteverdi Choir
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London,
31 October
stmartin-in-the-fields.org
The 80th-birthday celebrations for
the choir’s founder and conductor
John Eliot Gardiner continue
apace with Handel’s L’Allegro, il
Penseroso, ed il Moderato, an
allegory setting words by the
young John Milton. The paths
of ‘mirth’ and ‘melancholy’ are
trumped by ‘moderation’ in a
vibrant score gilded with bells.
October Live
BACKSTAGE WITH…
Matthew Owens Conductor
Moral maze: ‘These beautiful
pieces reflect Handel’s
personal faith and spirituality’
The Ulster Consort’s ‘Morality, Nature and Love’ concert with
soprano Ali Darragh on 12 October includes Handel’s Nine
German Arias HWV 202-210, which don’t appear on concert
programmes very often. Can you tell us a little about them?
These beautiful pieces are thought to date from around 1725,
and reflect Handel’s personal faith and spirituality. They’re very
intimate in nature, in terms of the scoring (soprano, violin, cello,
organ) and also through the interplay between music, text and
the performers themselves. The poems are by the composer’s
contemporary Barthold Heinrich Brockes, whose Passion text
Handel set a few years earlier shortly after moving to London.
Is soprano Ali Darragh a familiar face, or is this a new working
relationship for you?
Yes, very familiar – she’s my wife! We met when she was a
doctoral student at St Andrews University. She had just come
back from a tour of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Collegium
Vocale Gent under Philippe Herreweghe and was singing
frequently with the Dunedin Consort. One of my favourite
recordings of hers is a folk song, ‘Lowlands’, arranged by film
composer Richard Mitchell for the 2011 Moby Dick mini-series.
Given that this is the Ulster Consort’s first ever full season, it
will be an unfamiliar ensemble to most. Can you describe the
group in terms of size, instrumentation and repertoire?
The Ulster Consort is a flexible group of professional musicians,
almost exclusively from or based in Northern Ireland. It can range
from just a few performers to a group of 40 or more; it all depends
on the music being performed.
Handel looms large in your first full season, but you also pay
visits to the likes of Mendelssohn and Duruflé. How does
one go about programming a season that will effectively be
introducing a brand-new group?
In this first season we’ve programmed a diverse mix of choral,
solo vocal, chamber and instrumental music to introduce both
ourselves and new repertoire to audiences across Northern
Ireland and beyond. We’ve had a fantastic response to music
including Pärt, Messiaen, Brahms, Schubert, Renaissance
polyphony, Elgar, Vaughan Williams and – in May – the music of
Neil Hannon (of The Divine Comedy), which we performed with the
Ulster Orchestra and recorded for BBC Radio 3. There’s a really
exciting future for us, including recordings with Resonus Classics.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 115
TV&Radio
Your guide to what’s on BBC Radio 3 this month, plus highlights

OCTOBER’S RADIO 3 LISTINGS

Schedules may be subject to alteration. For up-to-date listings see BBC Sounds and iPlayer

9am-12pm Essential Classics 11-11.30pm Night Tracks Mix

Three to look out for 12-1pm Composer of the Week 11.30pm-12.30am Unclassified
José Maurício Nunes Garcia with Elizabeth Alker
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
Sam Jackson, the controller 2-5pm Afternoon Concert 6 FRIDAY
of BBC Radio 3, selects three 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape 6.30-9am Breakfast
station highlights for October 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert 9am-12pm Essential Classics
from Bridgewater Hall. Janáček 12-1pm Composer of the Week
Jess listen Sinfonietta, Alma Mahler orch. José Maurício Nunes Garcia
Saxophonist and Radio 3 presenter Matthews Six songs, Tchaikovsky 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
Jess Gillam is the soloist for the Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathétique’. 2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
UK premiere of Anna Clyne’s new saxophone Sarah Connolly (mezzo), BBC 4.30-5pm The Listening Service
concerto, Glasslands – broadcast live from the Royal Philharmonic/John Storgårds 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
Concert Hall in Nottingham alongside Ravel’s 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
Mother Goose Suite and Beethoven’s Symphony 10.45-11pm The Essay live from Barbican. Ligeti
Rainsong in Five Senses (rpt) Concert Românesc, Pejačević
No. 5, with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks Phantasie Concertante, Mahler
Mark Wigglesworth.
Symphony No. 5. Alexandra
Radio 3 in Concert, 5 October, 7.30pm 4 WEDNESDAY Dariescu (pf), BBC SO/Oramo
6.30-9am Breakfast 10-10.45pm The Verb
Sound and vision 9am-12pm Essential Classics 10.45-11pm The Essay
Film composer Rachel Portman, whose titles 12-1pm Composer of the Week Rainsong in Five Senses (rpt)
include The Cider House Rules, Chocolat and Never José Maurício Nunes Garcia 11pm-1am Late Junction
Let Me Go, joins BBC Radio 3’s Tom McKinney for 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
7 SATURDAY
a special edition of Sound of Cinema – with many 2-4pm Afternoon Concert
of Portman’s famous (and Oscar-winning) scores 4-5pm Choral Evensong 7-9am Breakfast
performed live by the BBC Philharmonic. 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape 9-11.45am Record Review
Sound of Cinema, 14 October, 3pm 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert 11.45am-12.30pm Music
from Royal Festival Hall. Matters
Giving voice Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2, 12.30-1pm This Classical Life
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4. 1-3pm Inside Music 9am-12pm Essential Classics
Choral conductor Suzi Digby – founder and director Christian Tetzlaff (violin), LPO/ 3-4pm Sound of Cinema 12-1pm CotW Fauré
of the award-winning ORA Singers – is the guest Edward Gardner 4-5pm Music Planet 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
host of Inside Music this week. Expect a range of 10-10.45pm Free Thinking 5-6.30pm J to Z 2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
choral favourites alongside some new discoveries. 10.45-11pm The Essay 6.30-10pm Opera on 3 from 4.30-5pm New Gen Artists
Inside Music, 28 October, 1pm Rainsong in Five Senses (rpt) ROH. Wagner Das Rheingold. 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks 10pm-12am New Music Show 7.30-10pm In Concert EBU
12-1am Freeness 10-10.45pm Music Matters
5 THURSDAY 10.45-11pm The Essay
6.30-9am Breakfast 8 SUNDAY To Odessa
1 SUNDAY 2 MONDAY 9am-12pm Essential Classics 7-9am Breakfast 11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
7-9am Breakfast 6.30-9am Breakfast 12-1pm Composer of the Week 9am-12pm Sunday Morning
9am-12pm Sunday Morning 9am-12pm Essential Classics José Maurício Nunes Garcia 12-1pm Private Passions 10 TUESDAY
12-1pm Private Passions 12-1pm Composer of the Week 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert rpt 6.30-9am Breakfast
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert rpt José Maurício Nunes Garcia 2-5pm Afternoon Concert 2-3pm The Early Music Show 9am-12pm Essential Classics
2-3pm The Early Music Show 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape 3-4pm Choral Evensong 12-1pm CotW Fauré
3-4pm Choral Evensong 2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert CHOICE 7.30-10pm 4-5pm Jazz Record Requests 1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
4-5pm Jazz Record Requests 4.30-5pm New Gen Artists Radio 3 In Concert 5-5.30pm The Listening Service 2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-5.30pm The Listening Service 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape live from Royal Concert Hall, 5.30-6.45pm Words and Music 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
5.30-6.45pm Words and Music 7.30-10pm In Concert EBU Nottingham. Clyne Glasslands, 6.45-7.30pm Sunday Feature 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
6.45-7.30pm Between the Ears 10-10.45pm Music Matters Ravel Mother Goose Suite, 7.30-9pm Drama on 3 from RFH. Sibelius Symphony
I Remember Joe Brainard 10.45-11pm The Essay Beethoven Symphony No. 5. 9pm-11pm Record Review Extra No. 6, Shostakovich Symphony
7.30-9pm Drama on 3 The Rainsong in Five Senses (rpt) Jess Gillam (saxophone), BBC 11pm-12am Sun Night Series No. 6 ; Concerto for Piano,
Brummie Iliad (rpt) 11pm-12.30am Night Tracks Phil/Mark Wigglesworth 12-12.30am Classical Fix Trumpet and Strings. Seong-Jin
9pm-11pm Record Review Extra 10-10.45pm Free Thinking Cho (pf), Jason Evans (tpt),
11pm-12am Sun Night Series 3 TUESDAY 10.45-11pm The Essay 9 MONDAY Philharmonia/ Rouvali
12-12.30am Classical Fix 6.30-9am Breakfast Rainsong in Five Senses (rpt) 6.30-9am Breakfast 10-10.45pm Free Thinking

116 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

 October TV&Radio
Sparkling sax:
Jess Gillam premieres
Clyne’s Glasslands; (right)
Suzi Digby journeys Inside
Music; (below right)
Rachel Portman guides us
through her film scores

10.45-11pm The Essay
To Odessa
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
11 WEDNESDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm CotW Fauré
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-4pm Afternoon Concert
4-5pm Choral Evensong
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
live from Bridgewater Hall.
Sibelius The Oceanides,
Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Ravel
Daphnis et Chloé. Roberto Ruisi
(vn), Hallé Choir, The Hallé/Elder
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
To Odessa
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
ROBIN CLEWLEY, GETTY
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
live from Glasgow City Halls.
Beethoven Leonore Overture
No. 2, Turnage Your Rockaby,
Chin Subito con forza, Stravinsky
Orpheus. Martin Robertson
(saxophone), BBC Scottish SO/
Ryan Wigglesworth
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
To Odessa
11-11.30pm Night Tracks Mix
11.30pm-12.30am Unclassified
with Elizabeth Alker
13 FRIDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm CotW Fauré
live from Symphony Hall,
Birmingham. Verdi Requiem.
Evelina Dobračeva (sop), Karen
Cargill (mez), Dmytro Popov
(ten), Ashley Riches (baritone),
CBSO/Kazuki Yamada
10-10.45pm The Verb
10.45-11pm The Essay
To Odessa
11pm-1am Late Junction
14 SATURDAY
7-9am Breakfast
9-11.45am Record Review
11.45am-12.30pm Music
Matters
12.30-1pm This Classical Life
1-3pm Inside Music
CHOICE 3-4pm
Sound of Cinema
4-5pm Music Planet
5-6.30pm J to Z
15 SUNDAY
7-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Sunday Morning
12-1pm Private Passions
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-3pm The Early Music Show
3-4pm Choral Evensong
4-5pm Jazz Record Requests
5-5.30pm The Listening Service
5.30-6.45pm Words and Music
6.45-7.30pm Sunday Feature
7.30-9pm Drama on 3
The Al-Hamlet Summit
9pm-11pm Record Review Extra
11pm-12am Sun Night Series
12-12.30am Classical Fix
16 MONDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm CotW Errollyn Wallen
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
10.45-11pm The Essay
Five Cellos: Lost and Found
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
17 TUESDAY
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm CotW Errollyn Wallen
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-5pm Afternoon Concert
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
from Barbican. Hannah Kendall
New work, Liszt Totentanz,
Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra.
Alice Sara Ott (pf), LSO/Pappano
10-10.45pm Free Thinking
10.45-11pm The Essay
Five Cellos: Lost and Found
11pm-12.30am Night Tracks
18 WEDNESDAY

1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
12 THURSDAY 2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
6.30-9am Breakfast 4.30-5pm The Listening Service
9am-12pm Essential Classics 5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
12-1pm CotW Fauré 7.30-10pm Radio 3 In Concert
6.30-10pm Opera on 3 from
Royal Opera House. George
Benjamin Picture a day like this
10pm-12am New Music Show
12-1am Freeness
2-4.30pm Afternoon Concert
4.30-5pm New Gen Artists
5-7.30pm In Tune plus Mixtape
7.30-10pm In Concert EBU
10-10.45pm Music Matters
6.30-9am Breakfast
9am-12pm Essential Classics
12-1pm CotW Errollyn Wallen
1-2pm Lunchtime Concert
2-4pm Afternoon Concert

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 117


THE QUIZ
It’s time to put your classical
music knowledge to the test
1. The title character of which
Puccini opera sings the famous aria
‘Vissi d’arte’?
2. Which is the only one of
Beethoven’s nine symphonies not
to consist of four movements?
3. Consisting of six movements
and taking around 100 minutes
to perform, which is the longest of
Mahler’s completed symphonies?
4. Better known today as a
conductor, who is the double bassist
pictured above?
5. Who, at the turn of 17th century,
said he would publish (but never
did so) a Seconda Pratica, overo
Perfettione della Moderna Musica
(The Second Style, or Perfection
of Modern Music) to explain his
composing method?
6. Which Romantic poets’ words
are set in the following works:
a) Parry’s Good night; b) Finzi’s
Intimations of Immortality; c) ‘Ode to
a Grecian Urn’, the third movement
of Holst’s Choral Symphony?
7. Doreen Carwithen was the wife
of which other British composer?
8. To which fellow composer
did Shostakovich dedicate his
Symphony No. 14, premiered in
Leningrad in September 1969?
9. Premiered at Opera Holland
Park over the summer, Jonathan
Dove’s opera Itch is based on the
children’s novels by which former
Radio 1 DJ?
10. What did Lorin Maazel do
11 times, Mariss Jansons three
times, Claudio Abbado and Carlos
Kleiber twice each and Herbert von
Karajan just once (in 1987)?
See p117 for answers
120 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
The BBC Music Magazine
PRIZE CROSSWORD NO. 390
Crossword set by Paul Henderson
The first correct solution of our crossword
picked at random will win a copy of
The Oxford Companion to Music. A
runner-up will win Who Knew? Answers
to Questions about Classical Music (see
oup.co.uk). Send answers to: BBC Music
Magazine, Crossword 390/October 2023,
PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA to arrive
by 3 Oct 2023 (solution in Xmas 2023 issue).
Your name & address
JULY SOLUTION JULY WINNER
No. 387 JR Osborne, Eastbourne
Immediate Media Company Limited,
publisher of BBC Music Magazine, may
contact you with details of our products
and/or to undertake research. Please
write ‘Do Not Contact’ if you prefer not to
receive such information by post or phone.
Please write your email address on your
postcard if you prefer to receive such
information by e-mail.
We abide by IPSO’s rules and regulations.
To give feedback about our magazines,
please email editorialcomplaints@
immediate.co.uk, visit immediate.co.uk,
or write to the editor at the address above
(opposite, top right)
ACROSS
1 Be undecided about a new name
for authentic band (7)
5 Various claims about you,
ultimately, in description of this
magazine’s readers (7)
9 Recalled standard in modern
genre (3)
10 A bitterness possibly arising
from source of the blues? (5,6)
11 Excitedly claps a USA cellist (3,6)
12 Stravinsky performances, perhaps,
having some spirit, essentially (5)
13 Literary-agricultural overture? (4,3,7)
17 Concertante work reinterpreted
by lush red piano? (8,2,4)
21 Old soprano is held back by a
musical alternative (5)
23 Old person writes single review,
initially about finale of Rossini (9)
25 Broadway musical – vehicle, we hear,
for Scottish folk-song (5,6)
26 Tune of reasonable quality,
not forte (3)
27 Arnold film score: part recalled
with facility, we hear (7)
28 Music, say, right for being used
in the morning (3,4)
DOWN
1 Titanic composer all but adopting
high-pitched sound for dance (8)
2 Writer picked up melody in
Holst movement (7)
3 Big shot welcoming composer,
dropping manuscript, with Arab
percussion instrument (9)
4 Reggae fan, perhaps, giving some
singer a start (5)
5 Source of Gregorian chant tenors
may corrupt (9)
6 Top performer around India
displays this instrument (5)
7 Others coming in to study
American composer (7)
8 String player with strong desire
to hold it up (6)
14 To pedal or otherwise? What may
indicate music-teacher’s
position? (4-5)
15 Living to embrace music, primarily,
as emotional response (9)
16 US composer about to engage in
modern arrangement (3,5)
18 Victim of Don’s surprised comment
upset part of hymn? (7)
19 Ligeti piece, Ligeti’s first working with
beat, ending in pianissimo (7)
20 Market swamping Australian
composer (6)
22 Pop star in performance led
audience to the heights (5)
24 Standard opening for aria
in opera (5)
Please note: Because of BBC Music
Magazine’s limited office access
following the Covid-19 pandemic, there
may be a delay in receiving your prize. We
apologise for any inconvenience caused.
 Volume 31 No.13 BBC Music Magazine
(ISSN 0966-7180) (USPS 018-168) is
published 13 times a year by Our Media Ltd
(An Immediate Group Company) under
licence from BBC Worldwide, Eagle House,
Bristol BS1 4ST, UK.
© Our Media Ltd, 2023
Printed by William Gibbons & Sons Ltd,
Willenhall, West Midlands, WV13 3XT. Not
for resale. All rights reserved. Unauthorised
reproduction in whole or part is prohibited
without written permission. Every effort
has been made to secure permission for
copyright material. In the event of any
material being used inadvertently, or where
it proved impossible to trace the copyright
owner, acknowledgement will be made
in a future issue. MSS, photographs and
artwork are accepted on the basis that
BBC Music Magazine and its agents do not
accept liability for loss or damage to same.
Views expressed are not necessarily those
of t he publisher. ISSN 0966-7180. GST
Registration No. 898993548RT
Distributed in the US by Circulation
Specialists, Inc., 2 Corporate Drive, Suite
945, Shelton CT 06484-6238. Periodicals
postage paid at Shelton, CT and additional
mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send
address changes to BBC MUSIC, PO Box
37495, Boone, IA 50037-0495.
Our Media Company is working to ensure
that all of its paper comes from well-
managed, FSC®-certified forests and
other controlled sources. This magazine is
printed on Forest Stewardship Council®
(FSC®) certified paper. This magazine
NEXT MONTH on sale from 3 October (UK) can be recycled, for use in newspapers
and packaging. Please remove any gifts,
samples or wrapping and dispose of them
at your local collection point.

The Tallis Scholars

Jeremy Pound meets members of the vocal ensemble as they celebrate 50
years of bringing Renaissance music and more to the world’s great stages Subscriptions and back
numbers. Faulty CDs
Online subscriptions
Robert Schumann classical-music.com
Subscription prices for one year (13 issues):
ur Symphonies Nos 3 & 4 UK £77.87 Europe/Eire £82.99 US $99
On yo CD Canada $131.40 Rest of World £84.99
Performed by the BBC National Orchestra
F R EE
UK, Europe, Rest of World
BBC Music Magazine, 3 Queensbridge,
of Wales conducted by Ryan Bancroft Northampton, NN4 7BF, UK
Orders/enquiries/back issues
Tel: 03330 162 119
PLUS! US composer Jake Heggie talks to Tel (Europe): +44 1604 973 721
Web: buysubscriptions.com/contactus
Kate Wakeling about Intelligence, his new
opera premiering this month in Houston; US/Canada, Online subscriptions
Clive Paget speaks to conductor François- Orders/enquiries/back issues
BBC Music Magazine, PO Box 37495,
Xavier Roth about Les Siècles, the Boone, IA 50037-0495
ensemble he founded 20 years ago; Simon Toll-free order line: 1-866-461-4730
Web: buysubscriptions.com/contactus
Bold gestures: Broughton looks at the ARC Ensemble’s
GETTY, HUGO GLENDINNING, BEN EALOVEGA

Ryan Bancroft
conducts BBC NOW
Music in Exile series; and Jan Ladislav South Africa
Dussek is our Composer of the Month BBC Music Service, Jacklin Enterprises,
Private Bag 6, CENTURION, 0046
For sales prices:
Tel (+27) 011 265 4303;
Competition terms and conditions Winners will be the senders of the first correct entries drawn at random. All entrants are deemed to have accepted the rules
Fax (+27) 011 314 2984;
(see opposite) and agreed to be bound by them. The prizes shall be as stated and no cash alternatives will be offered. Competitions are open to UK residents only,
except employees of Our Media Company Limited, the promoter and their agents. No purchase necessary. Only one entry per competition per person. Web: buysubscriptions.com/contactus
Proof of postage is not proof of entry. Our Media Company Limited accepts no responsibility for entries lost or damaged in the post. Entrants agree to
take part in any publicity related to these competitions. The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Entrants’ personal details
will not be used by Our Media Company Limited, publisher of BBC Music Magazine, for any other purpose than for contacting competition winners. Jan-Dec 2020 – 25,734

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 121