Our Choices

The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites

Oliver Condy Editor

When I’m supposed to be working, I sometimes end up surfing Youtube instead for musical inspiration. Transcriptions of old jazz performances have held something of a fascination for me ever since I saw Andrew Litton bravely and brilliantly perform a selection of Oscar Peterson solos a few years ago. This time, my imagination has been caught by young American jazz pianist Eldar, whose performance of a transcription of Art Tatum’s Tiger Rag is quite spectacular. He even performs it on Tatum’s old Steinway B, which adds further magic to it all. Absolutely thrilling.

Jeremy Pound Deputy editor

For me, few experiences in this world are as traumatic as that of having a haircut. I have, therefore, found myself in empathy with tenor José Cura’s recently shorn title character as I revisit my 1998 recording of Saint-saëns’s Samson et Dalila. The exquisitely mournful aria ‘Vois ma misère, hélas’ fits my mood to a tee as I gloomily anticipate another encounter with the scissors of doom.

Rebecca Franks Managing editor

Who doesn’t love a really well-chosen encore? Pianist Richard Goode got it spot on at a recent recital he gave in BBC Music Magazine’s home city of Bristol. The programme included an intense performance of Berg’s Piano Sonata, along with Beethoven, Bach and Chopin. So there was something deliciously refreshing about his choice of music from an earlier epoch to round things off – a Pavan and Galliard from Byrd’s My Ladye Nevells Booke.

Michael Beek Reviews editor

I’ve been enjoying the music archive on BBC iplayer of late; it’s a bit of an Aladdin’s cave. There are BBC Proms (of course), other concerts and documentaries. I particularly enjoyed a 2001 broadcast from the Barbican of music by Philip Glass, in which the BBC Symphony Orchestra perform a pair of symphonies – including his brilliant Third – and his Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists & Orchestra.

Freya Parr Editorial assistant

As part of my pilgrimage following Marin Alsop around the UK’S concert halls in a mildly fanatical manner, I saw her conduct the LPO in a dynamic programme of premieres at Royal Festival Hall. Anders Hillborg’s Sound Atlas really stood out with its cinematic landscape and constantly evolving soundworlds. Stunning stuff. I admired his musical style and outstandingly wellcut suit in equal measure.