Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Samantha Ege 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’s recording of them obsessively – they are a snapshot of this folk sound which I am not that familiar with but somehow draws me in and inspires me to learn more.
My favourite performance of Doreen Carwithen’s Sonatina is by the British pianist Daniel Grimwood. Carwithen’s piano writing is so captivating – she is a real story-teller – and there is so much energy in Daniel’s performance. He really brings her voice to life. Carwithen is an incredible composer. I play some of her pieces myself, and she understands the geography of the instrument and the fingers so well. She writes perfectly.
Coleridge-Taylor’s Three-Fours Suite is a piece I feel should be in every pianist’s repertoire – though embarrassingly, it’s not actually in mine! It is so beautiful and the second movement in particular always makes me want to cry. Coleridge-Taylor often brought a lot of African-American folk themes into his music, but in this suite he doesn’t draw on that at all,so what we hear is where he fits more broadly within the Romantic tradition. It shows he’s not a composer to be pigeon-holed.
And also…
I started kickboxing a couple of months ago and I really enjoy it. Taking part in something at which I am a complete beginner keeps me grounded and reminds me just how long the journey to reaching a high level of performance is. Plus, at the classes I go to they have a playlist of heavy metal and rock, and it’s great to re-connect with the music I used to listen to when I was younger!
Samantha Ege’s new album ‘Homage: Chamber Music from the African Continent and Diaspora’ is released this month
Mahan Esfahani Harpsichordist
I’m biased, because I wrote the notes for it, but I love pianist Marc-André Hamelin’s CPE Bach album. People forget that CPE Bach was a game-changer for keyboard technique, and who better to show that than the person with practically the most impeccable technique on the planet? I also never thought piano sound could be recorded so beautifully. I’d recommend the whole album.
Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s recordings of Monteverdi’s operas were like a lightning bolt to me at high school. I’ve been listening again to his 1973/74 recording of L’incoronazione di Poppea, with Ottavia sung by Cathy Berberian. Harnoncourt had a technicolour approach to Monteverdi – he reorchestrated it and used the whole range of Baroque and Renaissance instruments – but Ottavia’s final scene, ‘Addio, Roma!’, is accompanied by a single harpsichord. It’s an amazing scene.
I love the music of composer George Lewis, who wrote me a piece four years ago, but I didn’t know – because he’s so modest – that a small outfit in Canada put an album out called The Solo Trombone Record back in 2001. It is a really cool album of his trombone improvisation and the first track, called Toneburst, is for three trombones simultaneously (which he probably overdubbed). It’s a brilliant track. One forgets that he was one heck of a trombonist and improviser.
And also…
We’re living in an amazing time for the French-language novel. I’m a big fan of Laurent Binet. He wrote HHhH, which is about the Czech Anthropoid operation against the Nazis, but I’ve just been reading his latest book, Civilisations (right). It’s an imagined scenario where instead of Columbus being successful and then Pizarro conquering the Incas, the Incas and the Aztecs conquer Europe. It’s been a real joy.
Mahan Esfahani performs Scarlatti Sonatas at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 14 October
Simone Menezes Conductor
Recently I was listening to Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, trying to discover what he had in mind when he wrote it, because even in very good recordings it’s hard to find unity of thought between the three soloists. Then I understood that he composed it at the same time as his opera Fidelio, and now I see it as three personalities in dialogue. One of my favourite recordings is with pianist Nicholas Angelich, violinist Gil Shaham and cellist Anne Gastinel.
I encountered the music of Rachel Portman through film, especially her score for Chocolat, but then I had the opportunity to meet her recently at the Venice Film Festival in a masterclass around music and images. At that moment, I realised how much of the film music that I love was composed by her. She has a chamber music soul, and through her music she brings the characters on screen very close to us. She has this deep British lyricism too.
One day I was driving in my car listening to some music. I thought it was Beethoven, but then I thought, ‘I don’t know this symphony.’ I was very excited to discover it was Louise Farrenc’s Third Symphony. I was really surprised to learn how important she was in her time. One of the first places her music was rediscovered was in the UK – the Aurora Orchestra did a very good concert – and now orchestras are programming her more and more.
And also…
I’m interested in neuroscience and the books of Caroline Leaf. Through her I came across neurological research about the effect that music has in our brain and how our brains can keep expanding as we age. The most interesting thing I learnt is that basically our brains have two emotions: fear and love. All bad things come from fear because we use the primitive part of our brain. All the good comes from love.
Simone Menezes debuts with the LA Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall on 8 November
Reader choice
Helen Cross Newton Abbot
Though it was a shame to lose the end of the Proms, we have at least been treated to some exceptional concerts over the course of what I believe was a vintage season. Among the many highlights, I have to single out Pekka Kuusisto’s magical, folk-like Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending, Yuja Wang playing Liszt’s First Piano Concerto and, above all, the LSO’s Mahler ‘Resurrection’ Symphony conducted by Simon Rattle. Has there ever been a more exciting, life-affirming Prom than this?
Michael Dubowsky Buffalo, NY, US
If your readers haven’t yet discovered the thrills of American composer Julius Eastman, may I give them another gentle push in his direction? After being mainly ignored since his death in 1990, he is at last getting noticed again, and last year’s recording of his Femenine by the Wild Up ensemble was a big step in the right direction. Sometimes mesmerising with its repetitive rhythms, sometimes bubbling over with joy, it’s a piece I simply can’t stop listening to. Please go ahead and try it!
OUR CHOICES
The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites
Charlotte Smith Editor
A trip to the BBC Proms in September afforded me the opportunity to hear the Berlin Philharmonic live for the very first time – and what a performance it was! Conducting Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony was Daniel Harding (below). The work’s rumbling chords showcased a string sound of astonishing richness and a superbly balanced brass section. And in Harding’s hands, Bruckner’s epic architecture was never less than transparent.
Jeremy Pound Deputy editor
Given it was the beginning of the school year, for the Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral to appear at short notice at the live-televised service of reflection and prayer for Queen Elizabeth II on 9 September was a case of jumping in at the deep end. And to sing with such poise and balance was exceptional. Harris’s unaccompanied anthem Bring Us O Lord God was a perfect choice – restrained, reflective and sublimely beautiful.
Michael Beek Reviews editor
I took a trip to Wolf Hall recently, in music and words at least! The Locrian Ensemble of London, which recorded Debbie Wiseman’s original score for the 2015 BBC drama, performed selections with the composer on piano. Actor Anton Lesser performed riveting readings from Hilary Mantel’s texts which, added to Wiseman’s music, left the The Hurlingham Club audience enraptured.
Steve Wright Content producer
The last three Dvořák symphonies get most of the attention, but I’m an admirer of their predecessors. I’ve been returning to the Fifth – such a sunny, beguiling piece – as the nights draw in. The opening clarinet motif is the perfect curtain-raiser to the first movement’s high spirits. Later, Dvořák shows off his gift for a good Scherzo, setting off on a streak: all his symphonies from now on will have a belter of a fast movement.
Alice Pearson Cover CD editor
Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony accompanied me on a chilly journey from the Isle of Skye to London a couple of years ago. I remember repeating the second movement ‘Land of gloom, land of mist’ many times – I find it one of the most heartfelt of slow movements. The rest of the symphony is packed with enchanting melodies. A favourite recent recording is by the Tonhalle Orchestra under Paavo Järvi.