Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Iveta Apkalna Organist Symphonic music is very special to me as an organist, because there is so much to learn from the different layers and the drama and colours of the performance. The orchestral sound helps me choose registrations and stops on the organ. Conductor Robin Ticciati’s recording of Debussy’s La mer and Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande is constantly on my CD player. I saw Robin in his inauguration concert with the Deutsches Symphonieorchester, and it was the first time I saw him conducting live. He has an authentic, magical approach to being on stage and makes you forget where you are, and I have only experienced a similar reaction to Claudio Abbado.
I don’t always listen to classical music at home, however. I love classical music, but it’s so nice to get inspired by other styles of music. Prince is someone whose music I am listening to all the time in any mood, particularly his Musicology album, with songs such as ‘Call my Name’ and ‘Cinnamon Girl’ on it. It’s so funky, colourful, and really percussive.
There’s a Latvian pop/rock band called Brainstorm, who are well known in Europe. I think of them as the U2 of Latvia! Their recent album Par to zēnu, kas sit skārda bungas is particularly good, and I’m listening to it a lot at the moment. I know the band really well and we’ve even been doing some projects together working with organ music, which shows how versatile they are.
And also… I was completely taken by the Christian Dior exhibition at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris last year. I was overwhelmed, and kept thinking I’d seen it all and then the next room would be even more beautiful! It was all such fragile work set in such a stunning museum. These couture dresses belong in Paris, so it felt very special having it there.
Iveta Apkalna gives a solo recital at the BBC Proms on 22 July
Joshua Weilerstein Conductor I’ve been conducting Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony, and discovered this clip on Youtube of Leonard Bernstein teaching it to a student at the Schleswig-holstein Festival in the late 1980s. He simply takes over by conducting about five minutes of music, shouting out instructions and pointing out bits that are difficult as he goes along, never once looking down at the score. It’s very thrilling, as I think the students in the orchestra might be sight-reading it, and yet he somehow makes it all work.
I’ve really fallen in love with the Partita for 8 Voices by a young American composer called Caroline Shaw, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013. It’s such a
masterful combination of classical music mixed with other influences including pop music, and it’s great fun to listen to. My recording of it is by Shaw’s own a cappella group, Roomful of Teeth, and is simply fantastic – the level of vocal talent they display is simply stunning.
I don’t love Wagner, who is one of very few composers I don’t relate to. However, online there are excerpts of from a 1975 Bayreuth performance of Tristan und Isolde conducted by Carlos Kleiber, who is filmed on a ‘conductor cam’ that focuses on just him. It’s quite a ghostly image, but the first time I saw it I thought ‘Wow!’. It’s all overwhelmingly wonderful – the singing, the sound, the way that Kleiber moves. You can tell every nuance from his hands.
And also… I was on holiday in Iceland with my wife recently and fell in love with the country. While there, I read Haldor Laxness’s Independent People. It’s a great book that gives a really good idea as to how people lived there in the past, so when you see the old turf houses in which they lived, the sense of history is just amazing. Joshua Weilerstein conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the BBC Proms, 26 August Helen Callus Violist
Following a house move, I recently came across violinist Henryk Szeryng’s recording of Bach Sonatas and Partitas and I fell in love with it all over again. He plays deliciously in tune, expressively so – it’s telling you a story even in the choices he makes with intonation. You don’t even notice that you’re being seduced in this way; he has just a remarkable way of hiding all
Conductor Riccardo Muti’s charisma reaches the far corners of the hall
the mechanics but yet touching you deeply.
Another thing that really caught my attention recently was an edition of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola that rather cleverly disperses the music amongst the solo sextet, so everybody gets the line and it’s not just the violin and viola who are the stars. The recording I really enjoy is by the Uppsala Chamber Soloists: it’s happy, bubbly and joyful. They also swap the second cello part for a double bass, which is a nice touch.
I was fortunate to be invited to hear the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Riccardo Muti conducting. Muti’s charisma reaches the far corners of the hall, yet you feel as though he is communicating in a very personal way. There is no better piece to hear the renowned brass section of the CSO than Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, but I also enjoyed Hindemith’s Konzertmusik for string orchestra and brass. I was touched to see so many old friends from college now sitting in the orchestra.
And also… There’s a marvellous book called Stroke of Insight by
Jill Bolte Taylor. After a family member suffered a massive stroke, I was looking to educate myself how the brain the works, and so unlock some form of language to aid our communication. Not only did it help with interaction with them, it also changed how I see almost everything around me, including performing.
Helen Callus’s British Music for Viola and Orchestra is available now on Naxos