Have your say…

Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, Eagle House, Colston Avenue, Bristol, BS1 4ST Email: music@classical-music.com

Costume drama

Geoff Brown’s 15 cinematic nights out (August) brought back many pleasant memories of movies from my childhood, particularly Charlie Chan at the Opera. In his first book,

A Smattering of Ignorance, Oscar Levant wrote with wit – as he always did – about composing the make-believe opera: Boris Karloff’s character sang as Mephistopheles because 20th Century Fox had clothing left over from a movie starring Lawrence Tibbett. ‘I had heard of music being written around a singer,’ recalled Levant, ‘but never for a costume.’ Years later, Boris Karloff happily remembered the ease with which he ‘sang’ in synch with the pre-recorded Italian libretto by mouthing the names of California cities: ‘Sacramento, Santa Barbara, San Diego…’.

Preston Neal Jones, CA, US

Let’s communicate

Your Sound of Silents feature (August) came as a lovely surprise. I will watch and listen to Charlie Chaplin’s music with fresh ears. I loved his silent emotive eloquence as a child as much as Harpo Marx’s mute musical magic, but had no idea he was the composer too. The power of music to support communication for those who don’t speak is becoming a regular aspect of my work as a speech and language therapist. Many children, some with autism, some very young, have responded very powerfully to the use of sound and music to communicate where expressive language is not an option. A boot-sale xylophone, Chinese baoding balls, a treble recorder, triangles and a sea drum have all intrigued and been irresistible tools and focuses for shared attention and communication. Alexander Mcmillan, Hastings

A tender point

I was surprised that in your Composer of the Month article on Copland (September) there is no mention of his opera The Tender Land. I think this is one of the most neglected 20th-century opera masterpieces, absolutely full of beautiful music, as the oft-recorded orchestral suite attests. I was lucky enough to tape a complete performance of the entire work directed by Leonard Slatkin at the Barbican off the radio some years ago but, sadly, commercial recordings are rather difficult to come by. Such a pity Naxos hasn’t yet recorded it in its valuable American Classics series.

John King, Bexley

The editor replies: There is a recording of the full opera, made in 2000 by the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre and Bohuslav Martin Philharmonic under the baton of Kirk Trevor (Albany TROY482/483).

Dream Puccini

The performance of Puccini’s La bohème that soprano Samantha Clarke describes as her ‘Dream Concert’ (Rising Stars, August) is one that I was fortunate enough to have attended with my wife, 27 years ago at The Met in New York City. It was one of the most special of our opera-going lives. The scene outside the tavern with the snow falling is probably my favourite in all of opera and Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni performed it so beautifully and tenderly. Freni’s voice was mellifluous and Pavarotti’s was still very strong at that time.

Harry Carrel, Cos Cob, CT, US

Not the Ninth

I was delighted to find a fellow enthusiast for Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy (Raphaele Gromes in Music to My Ears, September), as I have loved the piece since singing in the chorus way back in the 1960s for a recording conducted by Otto Klemperer with the young Daniel Barenboim as pianist. Having recently conducted the work myself I was concerned when Raphaele referred to the glittering choral finale as ‘The Ode to Joy theme from his Ninth Symphony’. This is not so. The big tune is very similar – clearly a forerunner, or a practice run, if you like – for the Ninth, but the text, written by a local poet, was set to an earlier unpublished Beethoven song called Gegenliebe. The result is indeed a joyful ode, though an Ode to Music rather than Beethoven’s subsequent Ode to Joy.

Brian Kay, Burford

Symphonic cities

Your September cover disc (including Vaughan Williams’s A London Symphony) calls to mind an interesting puzzle. Musically, which of the following cities is the odd one out: Oxford, Cambridge, London, Norwich or Nottingham? The answer is Oxford. They all have symphonies named after them, but all are second symphonies except for the ‘Oxford’ Symphony, which is Haydn’s 92nd! The other four are by Parry, Vaughan Williams, German and Bush, respectively. Incidentally, are there any other English cities with symphonies named after them? I can only think of a Scottish example: there is an Edinburgh symphony by Julius Röntgen (his Seventh).

Roger Musson, Edinburgh

A wheel pleasure

I was interested to read in September’s The Full Score that BMW has commissioned Hans Zimmer to create sounds for its new electric model, so that people can hear the otherwise silent car. I wonder whether other manufacturers might consider installing pre-set buttons so that drivers can choose their own sounds. For instance, if you are in a hurry, Rossini’s William Tell Overture; when setting off on a romantic liaison, the 18th variation from Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody; or if wanting to make a dramatic entrance, the opening chords of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

Peter Brookes, Jersey

And an udder thing…

Given its bovine theme, shouldn’t your Déjà Vu news piece (September) have been rebranded as ‘Déjà Moo’? And why was there no mention of composer Henry Cowell? Clinton Jones, via email

The editor replies: Ho ho. Very a-moo-sing.