Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Kati Debretzeni Violinist
Life would be a lot poorer if we didn’t have Bach’s cantatas and Mozart’s operas, and one conductor who really conveys the essence of what both composers are about is John Eliot Gardiner. His 1991 recording of Mozart’s Idomeneo has an incomparable cast that includes, in the title role, Anthony Rolfe Johnson – his beauty and lightness of tone plus the absolute sincerity and unaffectedness of his singing make him almost unmatched in this repertoire.
My admiration for the pianist András Schiff is limitless. He has a total command of his instrument which he then marries with an intellectual rigour – he really thinks about the music, its composer and its context, and also the stylistic and emotional boundaries of a piece that one has to know to find the freedom within it. At Wigmore Hall, he gave a series of lecture-recitals on Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas that I love to listen to whenever I want to unwind, especially after a concert. He really draws you into his world.
One of my great regrets is that I don’t play in a professional string quartet, as the repertoire is so fulfilling and varied. I listen a lot to ensembles from the past such as the Busch, Rosé and, more recently, Alban Berg quartets. And then there are the new kids on the block: the Consone Quartet, a period instrument group. They have really broken new ground and wow audiences who wouldn’t give historical performance a lookin. The playing on their first CD, of Haydn and Mendelssohn, is both exciting and expressive.
And also…
This summer I took my daughter and one of her friends to Matilda the Musical. It was spectacular! The accomplishment of the children in it – most under
12 years old – was absolutely phenomenal, as was the production itself. It was like watching a sleek and very beautifully produced video production, except it was live.
Kati Debretzeni’s new disc of
Bach Violin Concertos is out now Aled Jones
Singer
I’m on tour at the moment, which means at least three hours in a car every day. So I tend to have the radio on constantly, because it changes all the time. I’ve also just put up my own choral playlist on Spotify. I’m a massive fan of choral music, especially contemporary composers such as Morten Lauridsen, Ola Gjeilo, Eric Whitacre, Bob Chilcott and John Rutter. I like music that touches the soul instantly and those composers have that ability.
My family has been bitten by the Hamilton (below) bug and I’ve actually been to see the musical
András Schiff marries a total command of his instrument with an intellectual rigour
three times in the last two months. My son used to rap every single word from it during the school run, and I was like ‘what is this stuff?’ – typical middle-aged father – so we went. It’s probably one of the greatest musicals I’ve ever seen. We also went to see the musical Dear Evan Hansen in Canada, which is equally brilliant. So since then the music on our school runs has been that and – thankfully – 1980s music.
I’ve been educated by the kids, so my listening is now all about Spotify and Apple Music. I tend to listen to everything from rap to pop to jazz to classical to choral… anything. I love that if you’re listening to something, immediately underneath it will be suggestions of something else you might like. I’ve come to appreciate lots of different new artists, people like the American singersongwriter John Mayer, and I think that’s a really good thing. And also…
There’s an amazing new cinema at what used to be the old Olympic Studios, where I recorded as a kid. We tend to go there a lot; I’m a founder member because I wanted so much for that space to be used for something else, and the husband and wife behind it have done an amazing job. They’ve opened a little record shop opposite and all they sell is vinyl records of the artists who recorded there over the years. It’s incredible. Back In Harmony, Aled Jones’s new disc with Russell Watson, is out now Bruno Philippe Cellist
I was on a train in Germany recently and my iphone was on shuffle mode in a playlist – I discovered a wonderful album by the French pianist Alexandre Tharaud dedicated to Rameau’s suites. Playlists are great for this, because it allows you to discover music and be surprised by it. I’ve known Alexandre Tharaud for a while, but have never heard this recording, which I think is one of his absolute best.
I’ve long been a fan of Trio Zimmermann and have recently enjoyed their new recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
It’s their own arrangement for string trio and they have done such a great job in adapting it for such forces. Bach’s writing is so well written for piano, but their interpretation and the way they’ve shaped the music is exactly the way I wish I played Bach.
Thom Yorke, the lead singer of Radiohead, recently released a new album called Anima. I’ve loved Radiohead since I was a child, and all their individual projects are so interesting. Whatever style of music they pursue, they always do it in their own unique way. So many artists try and reinvent themselves by exploring different repertoire and trying to do things in unusual ways, but often fail. Radiohead never fail. Thom Yorke is building his own sound – he and guitarist Jonny Greenwood are inspired and open-minded. And also…
I’ve recently been quite ill and have had to stay in bed, so I took the opportunity to get out my Nintendo to play video games for a couple of days. I was impressed to see how the technology has improved since I stopped playing about ten years ago. There’s now something quite brilliant about them – you’re in between states of being a spectator and creating the story yourself.
Bruno Philippe’s new disc of Prokofiev cello works is out now on the Harmonia Mundi label