Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Jan Vogler
Cellist
I have recently come back to Strauss’s Four Last Songs, sung by Jessye Norman with the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra under Kurt Masur. When this recording was made, East Germany, where I’m from, was a very isolated world, into which came Norman, a black singer from the US with her incredible ability to sing long legato lines. The orchestra must have been in awe of her, while she was probably inspired by the modest, simple way they played Strauss. This idea of cultural exchange is one of the great things that music can bring.
Since lockdown, everybody seems to have had their own COVID-19 composer, with many choosing Bach. Mine is Robert Schumann. He seems to fit my mood very much – he is often very optimistic, as I am, but also has his mood swings. I would go for his Dichterliebe sung by tenor Fritz Wunderlich with pianist Hubert
Giesen. More than any other singer, Wunderlich boldly brings out the emotional power of love in these songs, which really rings a bell with me at the present time.
Another love song, but from a totally different genre, is ‘I will always love you’, sung by Whitney Houston. There is an element of melancholy here about losing people which, collectively, we have had to face up to a lot in recent weeks. When I was younger, I focused on the likes of Pavarotti and Callas to inspire me, but now I like the softer textures in voices very much, and both Wunderlich and Houston are absolutely masterful in that respect.
And also…
I’ve been enjoying reconnecting with nature. During lockdown, New York City has been very quiet and I have never before seen the plants on my roof-garden grow so well and be so happy – It must have something to do with the cleaner air. Being able to get out of town and go walking around the Catskill Mountains has also been extremely important to me. Let’s hope we can all start to appreciate more the incredible magic of nature in years to come.
Jan Vogler’s new album, Songbook, is out now on Sony Classical Pekka Kuusisto Violinist
My friend introduced me to Phoebe Bridgers’s 2017 album Stranger in the Alps, which is, for the most part, tremendously sad. We have a word in Finnish that means an extreme sadness that makes you feel good – a beautiful, gorgeous misery. The beautiful string arrangement for the opening track ‘Smoke Signals’ uses countermelodies and harmonics and is really delicious: it shows such restraint. I’d love to collaborate with her – something tells me she might have the right kind of mind to co-invent a new sort of concert.
If Phoebe Bridgers puts me in a slightly melancholic mood, the music of Swedish folk band Väsen makes me so happy – it’s soothing and homely. They have so much punch and swing that you feel like you’re listening to a rock trio. A few decades ago, there was a revival of trad music in Sweden, and it’s remained quite a big deal in Nordic countries. I play a lot of
This idea of cultural exchange is one of the great things that music can bring
trad music for encores and find it really grounding.
Trad music was important for getting me out of my teenage moods, and Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances were important for me in those teenage moods. The only recording I owned was by the St Petersburg Philharmonic under Mariss Jansons, so I know every nuance inside out. I then reached a saturation with it and didn’t listen to it for decades, but recently rediscovered it.
And also…
I’m staying with my parents-inlaw who have a sauna. Sometimes you go alone and figure out what’s going on in the world; sometimes you go with a friend and sit there in quiet. You’re naked and it’s 90 degrees: it’s beautifully absurd. Pekka Kuusisto plays Thomas Adès’s Violin Concerto on Aurora Orchestra’s ‘Music of the Spheres’ Melody Moore Soprano
My wife Nicole and I recently got into a deep rabbit hole of Stephen Sondheim musicals. I don’t think I realised how much I already knew of his work, words and productions – I found myself rattling off specific productions with the ‘quintessential artists’ that made them famous. Now we’re on a roll and have been going through his works one by one, finding what we can watch online.
Since beginning working fulltime at home, I’ve needed music in the background more than usual. I’m typically someone who does a lot of errands and chores when I’m on contracts. I also typically visit people and family more than I realised. So, I’ve really enjoyed Spotify channels like ‘This is Disco’ and ‘This is New Orleans’. I love Hawaiian music as well and have been finding compilations online to soothe away the repetitive clicking of the computer keys.
A go-to artist for me right now is Celine Dion. Typically, my music choices are a bit more indie and alternative, but I have found myself reminiscing about a very wonderful trip Nicole and I took to Vegas. She was working at a music festival and I was learning my next opera in the hotel room. I started looking at things to do and we got tickets to Celine’s show at Caesars Palace. She waved right at us and blew a kiss as we hugged tightly watching her artistry. I love her voice and expression. I’ll never forget that night.
And also…
Another surprise lately was the discovery that Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games, released a prequel to that series in late May. I love all her writing and think she uses children’s literature to impart greater messages about society and the strength of united voices. I’ve been enjoying that book greatly and will be sad when it’s finished.
Melody Moore sings the role of Santuzza in Marek Janowski’s new recording of Mascagni’s opera Cavalleria rusticana, out now on Pentatone