Page 13 - BBC Music (January 2020)
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Royal Philharmonic Society Awards
and is renowned for her adventurous
programming. In fact, her debut recording The rest of the best
on Deutsche Grammophon wasn’t of
works by Beethoven or Brahms, but two The Royal Philharmonic Society Awards recipients in full
symphonies by the lesser-known Soviet
composer Weinberg. It won Gra!inyt"-Tyla Impact
and the CBSO a Grammy nomination, BSO Change Makers and Resound
as well as Recording of the Month in Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s
BBC Music Magazine. For her, it proved ‘vitally empowering’ scheme gives platforms
that there’s a case for Weinberg. ‘It’s a bit to disabled musicians and showcases a
like Mahler or even Bach,’ she insists. ‘remarkable organisation-wide commitment’.
‘Both were forgotten at some time before
Instrumentalist Alina Ibragimova
important rediscoveries of their work’. Violinist Alina Ibragimova is ‘a world
These ‘rediscoveries’ are something champion and devoted teacher’. The
Gra!inyt"-Tyla aspires to include in her jury celebrated her ability to explore
regular programmes with the CBSO. ‘It’s new depths of musicality in her
important to take risks’, she adds. ‘The partnerships with the Chiaroscuro
audiences are always with us in these Quartet and pianist Cédric Tiberghien.
lesser-known works – there’s always a Large-Scale Composition
sense of joy and excitement. At the end Rebecca Saunders Yes
of the day, that’s what music is all about’. This expansive 80-minute spatial
installation composition ‘atomises the
instrumental forces, creating a hypnotic
‘We are, first Landmark performance: soprano Nina Stemme and jewel-like intimacy’. Saunders was
commended by the jury for her persistent
and foremost, the Gamechanger originality in the soundworlds she
Chineke!
creates: ‘consistently conjuring music
orchestra for the Britain’s first majority-BME orchestra – that nobody else is dreaming of’.
marking its fourth anniversary this year
city of Birmingham’ – wins the RPS’s first ever Gamechanger Opera and Music Theatre
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk –
Award, which celebrates an ensemble
breaking new ground in classical music. Birmingham Opera Company
This epic and diverse staging of
But it’s not just new and undiscovered
RPS Gold Medal Shostakovich’s masterpiece featured
music that Gra!inyt"-Tyla brings to life. Sofia Gubaidulina over 150 Birmingham-based performers
Kate Suthers describes her ability to This year’s top prize went to composer across the CBSO and Birmingham Opera
create a sense of newness in works the Sofia Gubaidulina in tribute to her long Company, and took place in an iconic,
orchestra has played dozens of times: ‘she and illustrious career as one of the leading disused Edgbaston nightclub.
has the ability to see really classic scores representatives of new music in Russia.
like Beethoven’s Fifth – as if nobody’s Singer Nina Stemme
Chamber-Scale Composition The great Swedish soprano shone as
performed them before – and bring Tansy Davies Cave Brünnhilde in the Royal Opera’s staging of
something contemporary to them.’ A work of ‘haunting, dramatic beauty’, Tansy Wagner’s Ring cycle, giving ‘one of the all-
Of course, there’s a good deal Davies’s chamber opera was praised for time great performances of opera’s
more Gra!inyt"-Tyla plans to do in its ability to create an ingenious electronic most formidable role’.
Birmingham, with her extended contract soundscape from its minimal elements.
Storytelling Michael Tippett: The
running until 2021. When asked what Concert Series and Events Biography (Oliver Soden)
her plans for the next couple of years with
The Cumnock Tryst This was one of the most talked-about
the orchestra are, her answer isn’t which
James MacMillan’s Scottish festival took the biographies released in the last year, with
symphony she’d like to perform or which top prize, thanks to its utter inclusivity, with fascinating insights and lavish detail about
young composer she’d like to commission. equal focus placed on the local participating a 20th-century musical figure who ought
It’s an environmental wish. ‘I’d love people as on the visiting artists: ‘A brilliant to be celebrated more.
Birmingham to be greener than it is now – model from which we can all learn.’
Young Artists
we need to work out what we can do as the Ensemble Aurora Orchestra Castalian String Quartet
city’s symphony orchestra,’ she says. The limitless creativity of the Aurora The European ensemble are ‘truly
Her musicians embrace these constant Orchestra won the ensemble this prize, fused together as one’. They show an
challenges. ‘All you need to expect of for its commitment to ‘formidable immense dedication to whatever music
Mirga is the unexpected’, says Suthers. contemporary repertoire, theatrical they perform, across a broad repertoire
GETTY ‘You’ll always be happily surprised’. exploration and engaging young minds’. from Haydn to Thomas Adès.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 15
