BBC Music Magazine

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BBC Music Magazine1 min read
Welcome
When Marin Alsop appeared at the BBC Proms in August with her Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, she was greeted like a returning hero, such was the warmth of the audience’s response. It’s this ability to forge genuine emotional connections that has ma
BBC Music Magazine1 min read
This Month’s Contributors
Feature writer and author ‘For her Moons Symphony Amanda Lee Falkenberg boldly recruited Marin Alsop and the LSO for the mission. I sat in on the recording, and quizzed Alsop about exploring new worlds and where her career goes from here.’ Musicologi
BBC Music Magazine1 min read
BBC Music Magazine
Plus our favourite night-inspired music (see p42) Editor Charlotte Smith ‘Ondine’ from Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit Deputy editor Jeremy Pound Debussy’s Nocturnes Reviews editor Michael Beek Ludovico Einaudi’s Nightbook Multi-platform content producer
BBC Music Magazine4 min read
Have Your Say…
Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST Email: [email protected] Social media: contact us on Facebook and Twitter A concert I missed but would have loved to have attended was in 2000 when, as part of his Bach P
BBC Music Magazine1 min read
FREE ONE MONTH TRIAL To The Digital Edition
BBC Music Magazine is a must-read for anyone with a passion for classical music. Every issue brings the world of classical music to life, from interviews with the greatest artists and features on fascinating subjects, to all the latest news and opini
BBC Music Magazine3 min read
The Fullscore
The controller will step down from his role next March Alan Davey has announced that he is to step down as controller of BBC Radio 3 next March. After eight years in the highprofile post, he says that he now wishes to concentrate on his academic acti
BBC Music Magazine1 min read
SoundBites
Laurence Kilsby enjoyed a bubbly moment in early September as he was named as the winner of the Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition. The 24-year-old British tenor is no stranger to competition success, although he was a few inches s
BBC Music Magazine2 min read
RisingStars
Three to look out for… Composer and accordionist Born: Glasgow, UK Career highlight: Writing my first large orchestral piece, Above the Stars, for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. I spent six months on it, so hearing it come together, played amazin
BBC Music Magazine5 min read
Georg Solti Rounds Off His Monumental Ring Recording
Late in the afternoon of 19 November, 1965 – a Friday – the Hungarian conductor Georg Solti steered the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra through the placid concluding measures of Wagner’s Die Walküre, the final downbeat landing at precisely 5.30pm. It w
BBC Music Magazine2 min read
Meet The Composer
A move to Dubai in 2007 saw British-born Joanna Marsh found both the Dubai Opera Festival Chorus and ChoirFest Middle East, while establishing herself as a much-admired composer of choral music and song. The United Strings of Europe and Gandini Juggl
BBC Music Magazine1 min read
StudioSecrets
Linn Records had recordings at Perth Concert Hall and Glyndebourne in September. The latter was Smyth’s opera The Wreckers, conducted by Robin Ticciati, while in Scotland the Dunedin Consort recorded motets by CPE Bach and Mozart’s Mass in C minor. B
BBC Music Magazine3 min read
Rewind
This month: EUGENE DRUCKER Violinist, Emerson String Quartet Beethoven String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130 – Cavatina Emerson String Quartet DG 449 5052 (1996) We had a slight disagreement the day we recorded this. I wanted to begin with o
BBC Music Magazine2 min read
BuriedTreasure
Violinist Nemanja Radulović shares a selection of his most treasured recordings Yuval Yaron (violin); Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Klaus Tennstedt Profil Medien PH05004 This concerto is known, but not so much this recording. We all know so many
BBC Music Magazine2 min read
Sounds Of Our Lives
Often dismissed as not ‘real’ music, television theme tunes are in fact succinct snippets of musical magic, capable of capturing a time and mood, says Tom Service They’re the pieces of music, miniature mandalas of memory and meaning, that we’ve all h
BBC Music Magazine6 min read
Music To My Ears
Pianist & musicologist To come across Armenian Gayane Chebotaryan was very exciting, as I do a lot of work on women composers. She wrote a set of Six Preludes, each one of which is based on an Armenian folksong. I have been listening to Hayk Melikyan
BBC Music Magazine3 min read
Richard Morrison
The American newspaper columnist Don Marquis once observed that ‘an optimist is a guy that hasn’t had much experience’. I disagree. Experience can make you more optimistic. Being able to look back decades reminds you that what seems terrible now woul
BBC Music Magazine11 min read
Lunar Tunes
Marin Alsop is looking a little tired. So am I. I’ve been pursuing her since May when she was in London to give a masterclass (sic) for female conductors at the Royal Festival Hall (it was riveting), to make her debut with the Philharmonia (their Sho
BBC Music Magazine7 min readMusic
‘I’m Immersed In Music And Forget About Everything – But Then One Melodic Line Can Move Me To Tears
Shortly before his death in early September, the pianist spoke to Jessica Duchen about living with cancer and grabbing every chance to record, perform and conduct while he could About a week before this issue went to press, there came the news we had
BBC Music Magazine8 min readWorld
Protect And Survive
‘Riding under fire and rockets is a very interesting experience, but I do not wish it on anyone.’ So Yurii Chekan of the Kyiv Conservatory wrote to me earlier this year, recalling his fraught experience of escaping under Russian fire from his home in
BBC Music Magazine7 min read
Through the Night
The day is done, the sun has set. Imagine it sinking majestically in the sky, as depicted by Richard Strauss at the end of his vivid Alpine Symphony. Perhaps the end of daylight gives rise to a languid mood, evoked nowhere better than in Delius’s Son
BBC Music Magazine8 min read
Britten’s Got Talent…
In October 1976, the tenor Peter Pears was in Canada to perform music by Benjamin Britten, his partner of 37 years. Midway through a newspaper interview, the phone rang. The news from Suffolk was bad: Britten, just 62 but with a failing heart, was fa
BBC Music Magazine13 min read
Looking Forward Live Music Guide 2022/23
Little Missenden Church, Amersham, 9 October Web: www.marianconsort.co.uk Currently touring a subversive Tudor programme bookended by settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah by Tallis and Osbert Parsley, the Marian Consort includes Byrd’s pointed ‘W
BBC Music Magazine5 min read
USA & Canada
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, 6-9 October Web: www.laphil.com Whether nurturing the Pan-American Music Initiative or conducting four concert performances of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, music director Gustavo Dudamel is all over a season tha
BBC Music Magazine2 min read
Rest Of The World
Mayfair Theatre, Dunedin, New Zealand, 12, 13 October Web: www.nzopera.com Given its world premiere last May, Kenneth Young’s The Strangest of Angels gets a second outing in October as part of the Dunedin Arts Festival. But it’s not the only new work
BBC Music Magazine4 min read
Sun Valley Idaho, US
Flying into Friedman Memorial Airport, the gateway to Sun Valley, is a truly dazzling experience. The Bald and Dollar Rockies slowly rise up to dominate the skyline – and if you’re lucky enough to be touching down during a summer sunset, the pink- an
BBC Music Magazine8 min read
Doreen Carwithen
Composer of the Week is broadcast on Radio 3 at 12pm, Monday to Friday. Programmes in November are: 1-4 November Coleridge-Taylor 7-11 November Verdi 14-18 November The Harlem Renaissance 21-25 November Carwithen 28 Nov – 2 Dec Chopin When visitors c
BBC Music Magazine4 min read
William Walton Cello Concerto
‘You know I failed my composition exam at Oxford University,’ laughed William Walton when he appeared on Desert Island Discs in 1982. But Walton had the last laugh, penning one of the most glorious cello concertos of the 20th century. He had already
BBC Music Magazine3 min read
An Ideal Blend Of Energy And Magic
The best recording Daniel Müller-Schott (cello) Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra/André Previn Orfeo C 621061A During the 20th century, the nature of virtuosity changed, eschewing superficial display in favour of more timbral effects. Part of this is an el
BBC Music Magazine3 min read
Mozart’s Music As He Would Have Known It
Complete Piano Sonatas Robert Levin (fortepiano) ECM ECM 2710-16 377:11 mins (7 discs) Robert Levin, fortepianist, professor emeritus at Harvard and much more besides, is one of few people who have ever been granted access to play Mozart’s own forte
BBC Music Magazine2 min read
Continue The Journey…
Piatigorsky wrote to Hindemith in 1940, ‘I believe your concerto is the greatest and most brilliant ever written so far.’ Its totally idiomatic cello writing and supreme control of motivic texture and structure is complemented by its clear orchestrat
BBC Music Magazine1 min read
An Interview With
What it was like to sit at this fortepiano the first time? My acquaintance with the instrument goes back many years, so this project was a reunion with a cherished friend, but the first time was an uncanny feeling. As you look at the concavities of t
BBC Music Magazine10 min read
This One-of-a-kind Fourth Is A Triumph
Symphony No. 4 (1878-81) – plus alternative Allegro moderato (1878); Andante quasi Allegretto (1878); Scherzo (1874, rev 1876); Finale (1881 unabridged) London Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle LSO Live LSO 0875 126:37 mins (2 discs) Bruckner has now b
BBC Music Magazine7 min read
Handel’s Genius Shines In This Unforgettable Show
Amadigi di Gaula Tim Mead, Mary Bevan, Anna Dennis, Hilary Summers, Patrick Terry; Early Opera Company/Christian Curnyn Chandos CHSA 0406(2) (CD/SACD) 157:16 mins (2 discs) Handel took a less-is-more approach to his Amadigi di Gaula. Christian Curnyn
BBC Music Magazine11 min read
Here’s A Deft Display Of The Many Faces Of The Recorder
Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances; Hungarian Folksongs from Csìk; Maxwell Davies: Farewell to Stromness; Debussy: Syrinx; Parker: Ornithology; Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango – Café 1930 etc Stravinsky: Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet (arr. recorder); Chanson
BBC Music Magazine10 min read
Brahms With Character And Chemistry
Lieder Anna Lucia Richter (soprano), Ammiel Bushakevitz (piano) Pentatone PTC 5186 986 58:08 mins It takes a brave soul to release an all-Brahms song recording – Brahms himself discouraged the performance of more than a few of his songs in a concert
BBC Music Magazine9 min read
An Irresistible Showcase Of Abel Selaocoe’s Talents
Works by JS Bach, GB Platti and Abel Selaocoe Abel Selaocoe (cello, vocals) and guests incl. Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Elizabeth Kenny (theorbo) Warner Classics 9029622433 55:18 mins Sincegraduating in2018fromtheRoyalNorthern College of Music, following stu
BBC Music Magazine11 min read
Magical Debussy from Steven Osborne
Suite bergamasque; Images oubliées; Deux arabesques; Pièce pour l’oeuvre du ‘Vêtement du blessé’ etc Steven Osborne (piano) Hyperion CDA68390 71:04 mins Any recital recording that programmes only shortish pieces runs a risk, and even more so when the
BBC Music Magazine3 min read
Celebrating Yunnan
Various Artists World Music Network RGNET1421CD Sometimes the opening cut from a classic album announces its importance like a light being switched on. So it is with that from The Rough Guide To The Music Of Yunnan as Gen Dequan’s ‘Ancient Melody of
BBC Music Magazine5 min read
Brief Notes
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 etc Lauma Skride (piano) et al MDG 9012216 Lauma Skride gives a poetic reading of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto – although the balance in the orchestra-piano dialogue in the second movement is misjudged. It’s surrou
BBC Music Magazine2 min read
Bach, Beethoven and La Belle Époque
Aside from his duties in Philadelphia, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has been making beautiful music with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Beethoven – The Symphonies (DG 486 3050) is the third of their composer-focused recording projects, as recorde
BBC Music Magazine3 min read
Books
Jerusalem – Blake, Parry and the Fight for Englishness Jason Whittaker Oxford University Press 256pp (hb) £25 When my schoolmates and I belted out ‘Jerusalem’ in the 1950s, we knew instinctively what it purveyed: a simple socialist message. But as Ja
BBC Music Magazine2 min read
Audio Choice
Technics EAH-A800 £299 With grown-up looks, premium materials, hi-res-loving Bluetooth 5.2 and a neat, folding design, these headphones are a treat. And with a 50hr battery life, they should appeal to anyone who travels, or simply forgets to charge t
BBC Music Magazine3 min read
A Memorable Reunion
LongGone Joshua Redman (tenor saxophone), Brad Mehldau (piano), Christian McBride (bass), Brian Blade (drums) Nonesuch Records 75597910032 When the Joshua Redman Quartet made its debut in 1994 with MoodSwing, the 20-something year olds were not your
BBC Music Magazine2 min read
Take Five
You could stick a ‘jazz’ label on Butcher Brown, but the five-piece collective are likely to have peeled it off by the time you next hear from them. Downbeat magazine described their 2014 debut, All Purpose Music, as ‘groove buoyed and genre subversi
BBC Music Magazine4 min read
Live Choice
Music at Tresanton Methodist Chapel, St Mawes, 4-6 November Web: musicattresanton.co.uk Beethoven spearheads this year’s festival in the handsomely refurbished chapel. Pianist and artistic director Noam Greenberg anchors four concerts and four cellis
BBC Music Magazine2 min read
Backstage With…
Your recital in Leeds on 22 November ranges from Vaughan Williams to the present day. How did you put it together? It is based around Robert Louis Stevenson and his travels. He was a Scot, and James MacMillan’s Three Scottish Songs are very much part
BBC Music Magazine3 min read
The Quiz
1. Which composer’s Second, Third and Fourth symphonies are nicknamed, respectively, ‘The Four Temperaments’, ‘Sinfonia Espansiva’ and ‘The Inextinguishable’? 2. A solo on which instrument opens Debussy’s Prélude à l’aprèsmidi d’un faune? 3. Who succ
BBC Music Magazine3 min read
Lang Lang Pianist
Chinese pianist Lang Lang has won plaudits for his mastery of the classical repertoire, performing with conductors including Daniel Barenboim and Simon Rattle. But his extrovert performances of works ranging from Chinese folksongs to Metallica and He

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