Page 23 - BBC Music (January 2020)

The full score
by the BBC National Orchestra
of Wales that included the Vivace
from Krzysztof Penderecki’s
Sinfonietta for Strings. The work
came originally from Penderecki’s
String Trio which he then turned
into a big string orchestral
arrangement. I could really
feel how the idea of collective
music-making in a Classical
set-up was fused by Penderecki
with something altogether more
contemporary. It had a really dark
and ominous atmosphere and was
very impactful.
I am a very big fan of
Beethoven. What I really love
about the Berlin Philharmonic
and Herbert von Karajan’s
recording of his Pastoral
Symphony is that you can really
sense all the different naturistic
images that the composer was
trying to convey. That said, I later
learnt that Beethoven said that the
Sixth was more an expression of
a feeling than a painting, and that
really comes across here as well.
It’s very inspiring.
And also…
I recently went to the
Birmingham Museum and
Art Gallery which was very
interesting. It was fascinating to
find out about the various artists
Our Choices The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites
Oliver Condy Editor
Huge fun was had at the recent
annual classical music record
industry quiz, in aid of the Nordoff
Robbins music therapy charity.
Pitched against each another
were teams from across the
music world including, naturally,
BBC Music Magazine. Questions
GETTY, RAY BURMISTON, LOUISA SUNDELL, RODRIGO SOUZA it pains me to write this, we were
ranged from missing words to
female composers, anagrams to
historic premieres. And much as
beaten into second place by…
Gramophone magazine.
Jeremy Pound Deputy editor
I’ve lately been enjoying exploring the orchestral
music of Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi
(above) on a disc by the Vasteras Sinfonietta. In
this instance, ‘exploring’ seems a very apt term.
CRITIC’S CHOICE on display there and read how make music together. I have been
their life experiences affected to one jazz gig, in Berlin, but it’s
the way they interpreted various not easy to get out. Right now
things and put it onto the page. In it’s more about recordings, but at
a way, it mirrored my interest in some point I will give myself the
music in that you can make the chance to go to one of those big
same sort of connections between jazz festivals and forget that I am
composers’ lives and their art. an opera singer!
Kynan Walker is the leader of In general, I enjoy rediscovering
Erik Levi the National Youth Orchestra of old opera recordings. I’m trying
I’ve been absolutely Great Britain on its January tour of to learn from them, because I have
bowled over by the Warwick, London and Nottingham the feeling that I am still missing
Pavel Haas Quartet’s
something; I want to understand
new recording of
Shostakovich’s Elsa Dreisig Soprano more about the voice. I try to listen
Second, Seventh and I recently to really good quality recordings,
Eighth Quartets. What discovered the but when I’m travelling it’s more
really grips me about Argentine singer practical to listen on YouTube. I
these performances is Mercedes Sosa. She have an amazing sound system at
the ensemble’s ability
to get under the skin sang Spanish home, so when I’m there I try to
of the music and popular songs; buy as much on CD as possible;
their compellingly they’re really full of history and in otherwise I listen on the streaming
imaginative concept of her voice you feel where she comes service Qobuz.
texture, instrumental
balance and nuance. from. I really like it when a voice And also…
Indeed, such is tells us something. Billie Holliday I am learning to be as inspired by
the overwhelming and Maria Callas are my favourite art as I am by music, so I’ve been
intensity of the singers, because even if you can’t to a lot of exhibitions in London.
listening experience
compare the way they sing – they The Lucien Freud self-portraits
in this release that
I found it necessary don’t have the same style at all – show at the Royal Academy of
to experience each the purpose of singing, the need, is Art was amazing and I also
quartet separately, so vital in both of them. enjoyed Olafur Eliasson at the
rather than as I enjoy jazz, although it came Tate Modern; he is an artist
a continuous
late to me. Miles Davis, Bill who works with light, sculpture
programme.
Evans and John Coltrane are and architecture.
three of my favourite musicians Elsa Dreisig’s new album, Morgen,
and I’m inspired by the way they is out on Erato in January
In works such as the Highlands Michael Beek Reviews editor
Cello Concerto – played here I took myself to the Royal Albert Hall recently to
by Jakob Koranyi – Tarrodi’s see the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor
soundworld surrounds the listener Dirk Brossé take on John Williams’s massive
like a vast, mysterious landscape. score for The Empire Strikes Back. No easy feat,
Amid shimmering strings, there’s especially the epic ‘Battle of Hoth’ cue and the
an eerie sense of stillness as we thrilling chase through a perilous asteroid field.
head into the unknown. It’s one of the composer’s very best works, and it
Rebecca Franks certainly gave the musicians a thorough workout.
music. Just when you thought the A4 Brass rural Scotland, where I was able to dictate the
Managing editor
Freya Parr Editorial assistant
Late Autumn saw me running a bookshop in
One of my favourite parts of
this year’s Royal Philharmonic
shop’s soundtrack. Going for a Scottish theme,
Society Awards was the live
we spent a sublime afternoon digging into the
Quartet nimbly negotiating the Saltarello
recording archives of Peter Maxwell Davies,
whose music matched the Wigtown landscape
from Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony was
unexpected enough, along came the Hermes
to a tee. I was also introduced to the music
of Scottish composer Eddie McGuire, whose
Experiment’s blast of Meredith Monk. I also
Improvisations on Calderon was performed at a
enjoyed the spacious and witty Haydn played by
the Castalian String Quartet.
recital we held in the bookshop. Fiery and fun.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 25