Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Katie Bray Mezzo-soprano
I tend to listen to other genres of music while I’m out and about, saving classical music for when I’m cooking or relaxing at home. Recently I’ve been listening to Massenet’s Werther, which isn’t performed all that often. Stefano Secco’s performance in the title role is particularly glorious and gutsy. Listening to an opera is a different experience to having the visuals, but it can be better because you can have your own interpretation. I prefer to get to know an opera as a piece of music first.
I’ve loved Edith Piaf since childhood. She had the most incredible, soulful sound which you can recognise instantly. Plus, I like the fact that she came from nothing – she was picked up on the streets and rose to fame by being a natural talent. I’ve always admired how strong and fiery she was. One particular recording I listen to over and over is Les trois cloches – it feels as though the sound is coming from the core of the Earth.
Another masterpiece I love is Kurt Weill’s Je ne t’aime pas. I try to get it into recitals whenever I can. It’s about an utterly tragic story of two lovers who break up, and the story is expressed in such a brutal, harrowing way, progressing to the point that she ends up shouting at him. I think we should take more risks in classical music, and this song encourages that.
And also…
Recently, I finally found how I need to feel as strong and active as I possibly can be in my life as a performer. I live in London and don’t like going on the Tube, so I walk everywhere. My mental health has transformed, and I get to learn so much more about the city by walking. You get more space, and it gives you time to think, which is so rare.
Katie Bray won the Audience Prize at this year’s BBC Cardiff Singer of the World
Stephen Waarts
Violinist
The first thing I noticed when I listened to my recording of Mozart’s complete string quintets performed by the Grumiaux Trio with violinist Arpad Gérecz and viola player Max Lesueur is the tonal perfection and togetherness of the whole ensemble. Beyond that, I like the way that they let the music speak for itself – this repertoire is so perfect that you shouldn’t try to do too much to it. There’s a very selfless quality here in the way that the players approach the music.
Most of the music on Es war einmal, a recording by Tabea Zimmermann, Jörg Widmann and Dénes Várjon, is late Schumann, but there are also two works written by Widmann himself for this trio combination of viola, clarinet and piano. I love Schumann in general and these three performers are the best in their field at the moment, so it’s amazing to hear them working together on this disc. A lot of late Schumann has very dense writing that can be very difficult
Mozart’s quintets are so perfect that you shouldn’t try to do too much to them
to understand at first, but the way they play the music it makes it crystal clear.
I would say the majority of what I listen to in my spare time is piano music – I just love the instrument. I adore the playing of both Martha Argerich and Sergei Babayan, and it’s thrilling when they come together on their Prokofiev for Two album. They take such risks, and there’s a real sense of virtuosity that comes through. The music is astounding too. Babayan himself made the arrangement of Romeo and Juliet that they play together, and it has all the colours and joy of the original ballet.
And also…
A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Hindemith Institute in Frankfurt. There, you can see copies of the German composer’s original scores and sketch books – there are little details to see which are fascinating for those who study his music. There are also a lot of his drawings and paintings, especially of his beloved lions, plus possessions such as his viola d’amore. It’s definitely the place to go if you like Hindemith!
Stephen Waarts performs at Wigmore Hall on 17 September
Raphaela Gromes
Cellist
I recently went to see Verdi’s Otello in Munich. It’s one of my favourite operas – one that I have loved since childhood – and this was a totally epic performance, starring tenor Jonas Kaufmann and conducted by Vasily Petrenko. The singers were totally free and yet somehow always so together with the orchestra. Kaufmann was amazing in the title role, and it was clearly a special night for him as it was his 50th birthday – so the audience sang him ‘Happy Birthday’.
A recent discovery has been Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, which an orchestra I was touring with played in the second half of our concerts. I listened to every performance of theirs in the second half, and always looked forward to it. The piece was originally written for string sextet but it has been arranged for string orchestra, and with these bigger forces it became like a huge wave of sound.
Another piece that’s not played often but which I love is Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. The piece starts with a big piano solo, which is like an improvisation – it’s said that Beethoven played the piano himself in the first performance and he didn’t have anything written before he went on stage. It sounds like that still; it’s so free. When the orchestra joins, it becomes like a piano concerto or symphony. Ultimately, the choir joins in the end with the ‘Ode to Joy’ theme from his Ninth Symphony. It’s such a perfect combination of styles.
And also…
I’ve been reading Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey. This 1927 novel tells the story of an Inca rope bridge in Peru which collapsed, and of all the people who died on the bridge. The author tries to find a reason why those people had to die; he tries to find a higher meaning. I find it deeply touching. Raphaela Gromes’s new CD, ‘Offenbach’, is out now on
Sony Classical