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Calming Bach
In a recent BBC Music Magazine newsletter, you asked for recommendations of music to help people through difficult times. I find JS Bach always helps calm me down in situations such as this pandemic. I have long felt that I would like to own a complete recording of the Well-tempered Clavier, so a few days ago I decided that now would be a good time to buy a set – I find there is something timeless and ethereal about these pieces that transcends current fears and concerns. After a little research and listening to sample tracks, I fixed on Angela Hewitt’s earlier recordings, and eagerly await the arrival of the four-cd set. Interestingly, there is an excellent article on Hewitt in the April issue of the magazine. I now wonder whether this influenced my choice of artist. Neville Dean Cambridge
Musical convalescence
As I currently self-isolate with what appears to be a mild form of the coronavirus, music has become even more important.
What I listen to depends on my mood – the likes of Dave Brubeck and Oscar Peterson can lighten the day along with a wide range of musicals. My CD collection of the latter contains many that are obscure, leading me to revisit some of my book collection on the subject. I am also taking the opportunity to listen to works previously either ignored or put aside for later, including Ivanhoe by Sullivan and the works of Mahler and Shostakovich, as well as more popular classics. Having been a subscriber since Day One, I now have a considerable collection of classical music along with other genres to enjoy. Michael Shaw St Albans The editor replies:
We have enjoyed reading your recommendations of music to help cope with the coronavirus crisis. Please keep them coming.
Too many strings
Your brief guide to the sitar that accompanies my feature on Ravi Shankar (May issue) implies that Ravi’s sitar design
had seven main strings. Though most Hindustani concert sitars today consist of seven played strings, Ravi’s actually had six, because he removed one, while retaining the seven tuning pegs. One peg was empty.
Oliver Craske London
Late learning
Like many other youngsters back in the mid-1960s, my musical education was finished by my teacher at high school where I was reduced to sitting on a corner table along with a group of no-hopers, slowly and painfully copying old, yellowing, torn sheet music. I was selected neither for the choir – not able to carry a tune – nor for the orchestra, as I was unable to count to 46 before ringing the triangle three times. So at 13 I became a musical outcast.
But then at the ripe old age of 55 – about seven years ago – I discovered the joy of the ukulele, an instrument I could play! Now coronavirus is giving me the chance of buying a small keyboard to try and learn while in self-isolation, although my partner insists I keep the headphones plugged in. I’m also undertaking the long trek into an OCA Music Foundation course where, instead of jotting notes and lyrics on scraps of paper, I now use musical notation software. And all this while undergoing chemotherapy for stage 4 cancer!
Barry Milford Staffordshire
Let there be love
In April (Editor’s letter), you wrote that ‘I suspect that the key to loving music is largely down to the person who introduces you to it in the first place, whether a teacher, parent, or friend’. That is the case with me, at least for classical music. Although I already liked jazz as I started college, I knew nothing about classical music when I first dated my hoped-for wife,
Rusti. She loved it, having gone to the renowned Interlochen Summer Arts Camp in Michigan for many summers growing up. She played the oboe and sang in musical theatre. So I tried to learn as much and fast as I could because I already loved her and wanted to please her. I even took a classical music class at the University of Michigan and got an A grade. I hoped that impressed her!
Over time, and also with the help of publications like BBC Music Magazine, I can say that I love classical music almost as much as jazz, but that I love my wife of 51 years most of all.
H Steven Moffic Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US
Plucky choice
In your interview with Sharon Isbin (April issue), the accompanying box recommended five other female guitarists. One leading classical guitarist you omitted that I feel deserves a mention was Elena Zucchini, who I had an opportunity to hear last summer in Tuscany. Zucchini has a passion for Latin American music, which she performs both as a soloist, and with Cuban guitarist Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas – as the Habana Suite Duo. She also partners with flautist Claire Overbury as the Rouge Duo. She has been described by Classical Guitar Magazine as ‘a versatile and imaginative performer whose elegantly structured programme showed flair as well as virtuosity’.
Lucien Karhausen Brussels, Belgium