Have your say…
Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, Eagle House, Colston Avenue, Bristol, BS1 4ST Email: music@classical-music.com
Victorian splendour
Richard Morrison is certainly right to praise music in Victorian Britain (August issue, Opinion). However, he should not so easily dismiss the composers of that period and just single out Elgar. At the recent English Music Festival, we heard the world premiere performance of Stanford’s Violin Concerto of 1873. It is certainly more than good enough to stand beside any of the concertos written in Europe during that period, but has been totally neglected. It has been forgotten that, in his lifetime, Stanford’s symphonies were performed in Germany and also in New York, conducted by Mahler. Morrison also rings true with his comment that studying Elgar in the music schools of the 1970s would have seemed perverse. At the world premiere performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Davis of the reconstructed Elgar Third Symphony at the Festival Hall in 1995 all three commentators on the podium, Michael Kennedy, Anthony Payne (who reconstructed the symphony) and Mark-anthony Turnage – from three different generations – said that they were embarrassed to mention their liking of Elgar while at college! How much longer are we going to underrate our own composers?
David Green, Fakenham
Remembering Moeran
I loved your cover CD of Moeran’s Symphony in G minor (July issue). I think it is my favourite of the five I own. The fast sections were faster than usual, and the slower ones slower, which I think captures its nervous energy and power best. Two years ago, I went to Ireland. One of my goals was to visit the graves of Moeran and Bax, and to lay some flowers on both. It’s what we old romantics do. I wanted to see what moved Moeran to write his music, which has always moved me in the nearly 50 years since I first heard it. Moeran is buried in the nearderelict graveyard of Killowen Church, itself long abandoned. Two gardeners were there for the first time in six months, using gas-powered weed whackers. They could see that I was there to visit someone, and very politely moved as far away from me as they could. After about 15 minutes, even more kindly, they turned off their machines entirely. That famous Irish courtesy did not fail me!
Ben Janken, Oakland, CA, US
Super Sergiu
As a lifelong Sibelian, I was particuarly interested in Malcolm Hayes’s review of the best Sibelius Fifth Symphony recordings (Building a Library, July). Hayes didn’t mention a stunning live recording by a conductor who shunned the
recording medium, namely Sergiu Celibidache. The concert was given in March 1971 during the conductor’s final tenure with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In his hands, Sibelius’s masterly transformation of a colossally slow tempo into a Beethovenishly fast one in the huge first movement is, to quote composer Robert Simpson, ‘a basic, original achievement, and must be accounted one of the crucial discoveries in music’. In the wonderful middle movement, Celibidache brings out Sibelius’s vision to perfection, with the music flowering into moments of magic. And for me, in the finale Celibidache is unmatched for ‘swans and clear, cold water’. Peter Frankland, Bury
A good reed
I’m a bit surprised that you haven’t done an article, review, interview, or something of the sort with Calefax, the wonderful Dutch reed quintet. They are a bit unique and extremely talented, with a good number of recordings available. I especially liked their last effort, a collaboration with the trumpet of Eric Vloeimans in a ‘recomposition’ of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.
I look forward to seeing something about them in your wonderful magazine!
Michael Stroup, Hawaii, US The editor replies: I’m sure you’ll have been pleased to notice that we gave the Calefax’s Dido & Aeneazz CD five stars (Brief Notes, July)!
Strauss master
While Peter Phillips corrects Christopher Dingle’s remark that Richard Strauss’s
Death and Transfiguration was ‘far from central’ to Sir John Barbirolli’s repertoire (Letters, July), we can go much further with the help of Raymond Holden’s stunning Barbirolli – A Chronicle of a Career. Barbirolli actually gave 36 performances of the aforementioned work, and a staggering 175 performances of the Suite from Der Rosenkavalier as well as 16 performances of the entire opera. There were also 89 Till Eulenspiegels, 60 Don Juans, 25 Don Quixotes and 28 performances of the Oboe Concerto among many other Barbirolli-strauss performances listed by Holden. I feel increasingly privileged to have attended so many of these performances, in which the effect was always electrifying. Edward Mayor, Woodhall Spa
Totally tonal
I hope you can help me. Recently, I set up a Facebook group entitled ‘Concert Goers Choice’. The object was to highlight contemporary composers who are neglected by the current music establishment, presumably because their music is tonal. We are also aiming to promote these composers at a concert in 2021 to show the general public what they are potentially missing. We have no wish to usurp atonal composers and their works but to have tonal works included – something which at the present time does not appear to happen. As the premier music magazine, you may be interested in publicising our endeavours. Chris Powell, Bournemouth The editor replies: Consider it done. That said, a lot of the contemporary music currently enjoying premieres in concert halls and festivals around the UK is tonal and accessible – the scene is not quite as bleak as you set out!