Our Choices The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites
Oliver Condy Editor In June I led a group of Bach fans to towns and cities where the composer worked, giving recitals on the organs in his churches as we went. It was a rewarding and thrilling week, although not without its challenges… Playing the A minor Prelude and Fugue BWV 543 at Arnstadt’s awkward console proved somewhat scary!
Jeremy Pound Deputy editor
When you find yourself listening for pleasure to the demonstration CDS provided with the piano grade exam scores, you know the ABRSM has chosen a good selection of pieces. Inspired, I am now trying to get my fingers round Cheryl Frances-hoad’s characterful Commuterland, while Pound Jnr is taking on Brahms’s Wiegenlied.
Rebecca Franks Managing editor
If Liszt had written harpsichord music, it might have sounded something like Royer’s La Marche des Scythes. A great performance of this flamboyant piece, shrunk down to keyboard size from an opera, will have the harpsichordist sweating and the audience hanging on to every note. Hats off, then, to Bertrand Cuiller who played it in recital in Arles, France with staggering virtuosity.
Michael Beek Reviews editor I recently watched Christopher’s Music, Diane Kern’s documentary about composer Christopher Gunning (pictured right).
I’m now working my way through his symphonies and other concert works, which are characterful, fanciful and adroit. I’m particularly enjoying the Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra and the Concertino for Flute and Small Orchestra, which were recorded by the RPO with Craig Ogden and Catherine Handley.
Alice Pearson Disc editor
Ibert’s The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a threemovement orchestral piece based on Oscar Wilde’s grim though realistic poem, originally written as a symphonic poem but later turned into a ballet. Elements of Debussy and Ravel abound but it has a strong individuality too – listen out for the ‘Harry Potter’ moments in the second movement…
Freya Parr Editorial assistant
It has to be a director’s worst nightmare when a musician fails to show up for a sell-out performance. These fears were realised at Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake at the Royal Opera when the harpist was missing minutes before curtain-up. Instead, we heard the harp solo played offstage on an upright piano. It actually made a nice change.