Have your say…
Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, Eagle House, Colston Avenue, Bristol, BS1 4ST Email: music@classical-music.com
Grave concerns
In response to your interesting 50 Greatest Composers list (December), I note that 22 out of 50 are either still alive or have died since
1950. This reminds me of a recent BBC Radio 3 Music Matters broadcast, in which conductor-composer Odaline de la Martinez remarked that composers can be very easily forgotten after they die unless there is an admirer to champion and promote their oeuvre. For example, I would think Dvo ák might merit a special place given his significant advance of Czech music, while his countryman Janá ek is seen by many as difficult and limited largely to the opera house. But recently he was brought brilliantly to our notice by conductor Charles Mackerras. Do we really judge composers’ music on merit or just because they are in the public eye? Perhaps dying is indeed a bad career move.
Alan Nairn, Aberdeenshire
Serial shockers
Who do today’s leading composers rate as the finest? This was a fascinating, if ultimately negative exercise. It was a shock to the system to see certain composers that made the list, such as Stockhausen and several 12-tone serialists including Webern and Boulez, as from our perspective today, atonality is seen as something of a cul de sac. I was, though, particularly interested in the votes for the two key symphonists of the 20th century, namely Mahler and Sibelius. In looking at the achievements of both these great masters, I am reminded of a quote from the actor Constantin Stanislavski: ‘Celebrate the art in yourself, not the self in your art’. For me, Sibelius took the former path and Mahler perhaps the latter. Peter Frankland, Bury
Rhapsodic debut
I look forward to seeing the reaction from other readers to your 50 Greatest Composers features. There were quite some eye-openers, but it was also pleasing to see a good few that I didn’t expect to make the cut. I have no argument with Carl Davis’s advocacy of Gershwin, but the premiere of Rhapsody in Blue was not at the Carnegie Hall, but the equally respected Aeolian
Hall, on 12 February 1924. There’s a wonderful CD that recreates the somewhat bizarre programme of the concert, complete with Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No.1.
Kim Sargeant, High Wycombe The editor replies: Many thanks for your many letters regarding our December 50 Greatest Composers poll, all of which (well, most) we enjoyed reading. It is a subject that has certainly stirred up a few feelings!
Not a Scot
I was surprised to read myself described as a ‘fellow Scot’ of James Macmillan in Jeremy Pound’s review of Macmillan’s short book A Scot’s Song: A
Life of Music (November). While I can see the Scottish Borders from my home in north Northumberland, I have not yet been adopted by that fine country and I remain a Northumbrian Englishman. Or does Jeremy Pound have some inside information about Scottish ideas to reintroduce the borders of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria that the rest of us don’t know about? John Casken, Wooler, Northumberland
The editor replies:
We will be buying Jeremy, our deputy editor, a nice map of Great Britain for his Christmas present!
Artful wobble
Tom Service asked various questions in his article on vibrato (December), mostly suggesting that people don’t like it. He commented on the natural tendency for the voice to tremble and vary the basic pitch of a note. He could have suggested another reason for people’s reluctance to go to opera – the habit of singers to use a uniform vibrato. Please forgive my generalisation – with professionals and students alike there is a disposition to use the tremor in a somewhat relentless way. I see vibrato as another aspect of conveying the emotion of the music, to be varied, along with dynamics and tone quality. As a pianist I don’t have the luxury of this expressive vacillation. I’m not scared of it in others, simply frustrated when this communicative opportunity is missed.
Diana Ambache, London In the October issue, you announced that the following month a disc of music by
Heitor Villa-lobos was to be the cover CD. What happened to that? In its place was a Sibelius CD, and this month we had Bach. Will the Villa-lobos disc appear at a future date? Brian Thomas, via email
The editor replies: Our apologies to readers who were looking forward to the Villa-lobos CD with their November issue, only to be disappointed. For technical reasons we had to postpone it, but are looking forward to including it with an issue early next year.
Romanian great
Your reader’s letter about
Sergiu Celibidache’s recording of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony (‘Super Sergiu’) prompts me to recall another Romanianborn conductor of the same generation: Constantin Silvestri. Silverstri rose to international recognition in the late 1950s after his remarkable debut conducting the LPO – he had been recommended by Malcolm Rayment, who had seen him perform in Bucharest. He was also a composer, but one sharply criticised in his home country because his creations did not conform with the communist regime’s cultural policies. After defecting to France, in 1962 he was appointed principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. His recordings cover a broad repertoire, and many bear witness to the metamorphosis of the orchestra under Silvestri’s six-year guidance. His premature death, at 55, occurred 50 years ago this year. Ioana Voicu-arnautoiu, London