Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Claire Booth Soprano
If I could transport myself to any era, it would be 1900-40. While I love the whole of Janá ek’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen, I particularly enjoy listening to the orchestral suite, played by the Vienna Philharmonic under Charles Mackerras. The suites are beautifully orchestrated and almost complete works in themselves and, dare I say it, they almost show that you don’t need singers to have a good time listening to this music.
I’ve been listening to The Streets’ A Grand Don’t Come For Free regularly since it came out in 2004 and it has stayed with me. Each track on the album represents a different story in a man’s life – they’re cleverly crafted little poetical vignettes all written in very different styles. There are ballads, drug-inspired rave music, going-to-ibiza-on-holiday music, and falling-in-love-with-yourgirlfriend music. It’s all rather ridiculous but so beautiful.
I just love jazz pianist Jason Rebello’s 2016 album Held. In a funny sort of way, if you listen to his compositions, you might even think you were listening to Ligeti. His way of managing harmonic movement and working through different keys is extraordinary to those of us who can’t be that free with our piano playing, but his melodies are also wonderful. The
music has a sense of space to it – he develops his ideas fully rather than new ones crashing in the whole time. And also…
Though slightly late to the party, when somebody sent me a copy of Anthony Doerr’s novel All the Light We Cannot See I rushed headlong into reading it. I found all the characters in this book incredibly harrowing and chilling, and Doerr has that ability to make every side of the story seem quite beautiful yet also hopeless. The novel made me think back to works by Hans Fallada, another author that I love.
Claire Booth and pianist Christopher Glynn’s new disc of music by Grieg is out now on Avie Paul O’dette Lutenist
The opening concert at the Boston Early Music Festival this year was an amazing performance of
JS Bach’s St Matthew Passion by the Dunedin Consort, with Kristian Bezuidenhout directing from the keyboard. It was the most moving performance of that piece I’d ever heard. Bezuidenhout’s way of shaping and moulding the phrases was absolutely incredible. He captured the essence of every moment. There are so many good performances of this piece, but to hear one where everyone in the audience walked away with their jaws on the ground was really very magical – something to remember forever.
This detailed shaping of every phrase and musical gesture also features in Sébastien Daucé’s new Harmonia Mundi recording with the Ensemble Correspondances of Charpentier’s Histoires Sacrées, 20-minute oratorios that are rarely performed today. Daucé, however, really makes the case for them, and he and his ensemble have developed such a beautiful, fluid way of performing these late-17thcentury works. You’re completely drawn into their world.
Everyone in the audience walked away with their jaws on the ground
Elizabeth Kenny recently recorded a theorbo album called Ars Longa, which I think is a great accomplishment. She not only raises the bar in terms of the quality of playing and exploring the expressive possibilities of the instrument, but it’s such a wonderfully designed programme. It features the three great 17th-century composers for the instrument, interspersed with contemporary works – including pieces by Benjamin Oliver and Nico Muhly – written especially for Kenny. Ars Longa presents a different image of an instrument that people are accustomed to seeing hidden at the back of a Baroque orchestra.
And also…
I often play works from the 16th and 17th centuries, so I want to have images in my mind when
I’m playing. I’m a great art lover, so whenever I’m abroad I always try to carve out time to go to galleries and museums. I went to the National Museum of Musical Instruments in Rome, which was astonishing. It has the earliest known surviving harpsichord and fortepiano.
Paul O’dette’s new recording on Harmonia Mundi of
Fantasias by Albert de Rippe will be reviewed next month Angèle Dubeau Violinist
I always like finding new works and composers. One recent discovery is the British composer Alex Baranowski. He writes beautifully and intelligently – his music is well suited to the violin. I have already recorded Margot from his soundtrack to the film Nureyev.
Last weekend I listened to the pianist Charles Richardhamelin’s new recording of Chopin’s Ballades and Impromptus. Richard-hamelin’s playing style is contemplative, yet also impressively powerful – within the first few notes of the opening Ballade, you find yourself completely mesmerised. The piano, meanwhile, resonates with a richness that makes these performances quite stunning. I am very proud of Charles, as we both come from the same region in Quebec.
I have always been a big fan of the Icelandic indie band Of Monsters and Men. Their newest album, Fever Dream, came out this summer and it has been played quite a bit at our cottage at weekends. While I’ll admit that I still prefer the group’s older, more acoustic folk albums, this new one is worth a listen for its completely different and eclectic sound.
And also…
I was really impressed recently by a dance show called The Thread that I saw in the Ancient Greek theatre at Epidaurus. To hear music by Vangelis paired with choreography by Russel Maliphant, while sitting in the birthplace of theatre – where shows were presented well over 2,000 years ago – was pure magic! Pulsations, Angèle Dubeau’s new album, is out now on Analekta