The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites...
Charlotte Smith Editor
The announcement of this year’s Oscar nominations was the perfect opportunity to revisit Ludwig Göransson’s score for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Though an excellent film, my one complaint was with its sound mixing. In each scene, the music’s volume gradually increases so that important dialogue is lost in an epic crescendo – a pattern followed with infuriating consistency throughout. Outside this context, Göransson’s minimalist music is far more subtle and sophisticated.
Jeremy Pound Deputy editor
Not generally the biggest fan of music that spends a lot of time going nowhere, I found myself unexpectedly entranced by Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight while listening idly to Radio 3. Performed by organist Anna Lapwood and the Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge, its slow-moving, repeated chords and floating voices were the perfect match for looking out into a rain-soaked evening while somehow offering a sense of contemplative calm.
Steve Wright Acting reviews editor
I’ve been finding great peace and serenity in Edmund Rubbra’s symphonies. Rubbra tended to prioritise the melodic line when composing, meaning that many of his themes are very songlike. There’s also a calm solemnity to much of his music – like Bruckner, he was a deeply spiritual man, and his 11 symphonies often remind me of Bruckner’s nine, with their patient symphonic rigour and quiet awe at the universe.
Freya Parr Content producer
When the world is feeling a little bleak (and in a UK winter, when is it not?), I turn to Ichiko Aoba’s live album with 12 Ensemble, recorded at Milton Court. Dawn in the Adan is a favourite, with Aoba’s ethereal voice and Japanese folk lyrics shimmering above her plucked guitar and 12 Ensemble’s delicate strings. It’s a recording that takes you by the hand and doesn’t let go.