Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Francesca Dego
violinist
I recently saw Opera Rara’s worldpremiere production of Donizetti’s L’ange de Nisida at the Royal Opera ★ouse. I moved to London the day before, so this was my first outing as a Londoner. I was in the Royal Box, too, so that was exciting. I thought it was amazing that this opera was written but never performed, and then rediscovered so recently. It was an incredibly emotionallycharged night. I think Donizetti would have been absolutely electrified by it.
I’ve been listening to a lot of chamber music recently, particularly the Ligeti ★orn Trio. I’ve really fallen in love with it; it’s just so intense, deep and full of interesting things. It’s a homage to the Brahms Trio and Ligeti takes some of the atmospheres of that, which is also a very intense and dramatic piece. The last movement is really an experience, because the horn is playing incredibly long low notes, and the violinist is soaring to the top of its possibilities.
Castelnuovo-tedesco’s Concerto No. 2, ‘The Prophet’, is an amazing piece. ★e’s a very interesting composer – Italian of Jewish origins, as am I, so I feel a connection to his music. ★e wrote it in 1933, before he experienced in his own skin what was going to happen, and there are many Jewish themes – every movement has a title connected to one of these Prophets. It’s been very exciting to get to know this composer a bit better.
And also… I watch a lot of
Netflix and have lately enjoyed Black Mirror. I thought it was thought-provoking, brilliant and intelligent, with each episode tackling a different contemporary scenario and how technology is absorbing and controlling us. I try not to binge-watch – when you’re travelling it’s a good way to pass time – but I did binge-watch that; I watched the whole thing in about four days! Francesca Dego’s Suite Italienne is out now on Deutsche Grammophon
Gergely Madaras
conductor
I listen to Zoltán Kocsis and the ★ungarian National Philharmonic’s recording of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra often. I heard the piece as a child at a Budapest Festival Orchestra rehearsal, and that was when I decided to become a conductor. It was conducted by Georg Solti, although I didn’t know who he was then. ★e turned it into something very alive. This is the recording that is closest to that. It has joyful, playful colours, and everything is perfectly together.
A few weeks ago I was in Japan and I saw the ★okusai print of the wave that Debussy wanted to put on the cover of La mer. Memories resurfaced of Pierre Boulez’s recording with the Cleveland Orchestra. ★is conducting was so minimal and microscopic but everything was in it. The orchestra had to amplify those passions, emotions and feelings. Debussy’s music has to be so transparent, but when it’s measured with a jeweller’s precision, those layers begin to surface.
There’s a DVD of a 2004 concert that holds a strong memory for me – Mahler Symphony No. 9 performed by the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, the pinnacle of international youth orchestras, under conductor Claudio Abbado, at the ★ungarian Music Academy, where I was a first-year student. The concert seemed to go by in five minutes – the atmosphere was just so intense. Among many
Rachel Burden
emotions, the most memorable was the silence that followed after. For me, it was one of the most powerful musical moments.
And also… I’ve lived in London for six years, and my mentality is to make myself at home in the city and to enjoy all of its cultural offerings. I’ve been to exhibitions at the Tate Modern – Picasso and Giacometti, which was remarkable. I recently went to see The Book of Mormon on the West End. It’s hilarious! I’ve been a fan of South Park [by the same team] all my life. It’s so different yet so professionally done. Do go and see it! Gergely Madaras conducts the
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at Glasgow City Halls on 11 October Presenter, BBC Radio 5 Live
I learnt the piano and oboe until the age of 18, and went to the Royal College of Music junior department. Three of my children now learn the piano, including my daughter who has just learnt Chopin’s Sostenuto in E flat, which has reignited my appetite for listening to his music.
I’d love to have called my final child Mimì, but he turned out to be a boy!
My husband, who’s not really into classical music, also likes Chopin, and tries to get me to play his nocturnes whenever I sit at the piano. It’s lovely to have this music floating through the house again.
Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto is one of my favourite works, and one of the final things that I learnt when I was studying the piano. It is so much fun to play, and whenever I hear it, it transports me back to that time in life when I’d realised that I wasn’t going to take my studies any further but was learning things for sheer enjoyment. As well as being a reminder that I used to be quite proficient, it’s also a piece that is brilliant to play to children.
I love opera, though have fairly conservative tastes. During a family holiday a couple of summers ago, I went to see Puccini’s La bohème at the openair theatre in Macerata in Le Marche region of Italy. There’s nothing like hearing Italian opera in a warm, romantic setting such as that, and so I regularly listen to it at home – and particularly the aria ‘Che gelida manina’ – to evoke the scene. I’d love to have called my final child Mimì, but he turned out to be a boy!
And also… I went to the Bluedot festival at Jodrell Bank this summer. As well as many different sorts of music, it also features talks from scientists and interactive exhibitions – in fact, a lot of the musical acts that were on alluded to the themes of science, space, technology and new frontiers. All taking place in the shadow of the Lovell Telescope, it was wonderful!