Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Emmanuel Despax Pianist My grandfather died recently and my grandmother has given me his amazing vinyl collection which I’ve been organising while remembering the times we listened together. I’ve discovered lots of gems: one is a 1928 recording of Beethoven’s Archduke Trio by pianist Alfred Cortot, violinist Jacques Thibaud and cellist Pablo Casals. They blend so well as a trio and yet their individual personalities really shine through. It’s played with such nobility. It’s so contagious – it never lets you go.
I’m a big fan of conductor Bernard Haitink and, also among my grandfather’s collection, I discovered his recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 with the Concertgebouw Orchestra from 1965. Right from the start you hear the classic Concertgebouw sound with those shimmering strings and a distant horn call. You immediately escape into it, which is something we all need at the moment.
Pianist Dinu Lipatti’s 1950 recording of Chopin’s 14 Waltzes is pure elegance and poetry. Chopin is a hybrid composer with colliding cultures and backgrounds, something that’s very hard to get right as a pianist – on the one hand you have his Polish origins, but there’s also the fact that he loved Italian opera and Bach. His music is a marriage of all these things. The legato and lyricism of the more operatic side of Chopin is rendered beautifully in Lipatti’s recording.
And also…
I’ve been watching lots of operas from The Met on TV and have been trying to go on long walks, which has been really important in trying to get a sense of space and calm. I also have a two-year-old daughter who I’ve been gradually trying to move from the music from Frozen onto Beethoven! Emmanuel Despax’s ‘Spira, Spera’ is out now on Signum Records Sophie Rosa Violinist
The late Ivry Gitlis was simply one of the greatest violinists who ever lived. For me, what was so inspirational about his playing was that it was always both meaningful but also free, which is something you can hear on Violin Melodies, his twovolume recording of short encore pieces with pianist Shigeo Neriki. These types of pieces are some of the most personal you can play, but also some of the hardest in terms of getting the expression – the knowledge of phrasing and vibrato – just right.
I keep a CD of Jascha Heifetz playing Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy in my car, and I listen to it with my husband, who is also a violinist, whenever we venture out on a road trip. It’s a work that goes very well with any rugged scenery! The music particularly
Cortot, Thibaud and Casals blend so well in Beethoven’s Archduke Trio
Oliver Condy Editor
Moving house in a pandemic was always going to be stressful. So this month, to calm the nerves, I’ve been revisiting an old favourite – those marvellous recordings of Mozart piano concertos made by Daniel Barenboim and the English Chamber Orchestra in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Fifty years later, they sound as fresh as any performance today, and they make perfect accompaniments to wallpaper-stripping.
Jeremy Pound Deputy editor Putting together a pub quiz music round based on a theme of ‘hammers’ gets me listening to The Beatles and Peter Gabriel, Mahler symphonies and Wagner operas. But once I’m onto Igor Levit’s recording of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier my research gets derailed – from the exuberant opening fanfare, I’m thrilled and delighted by Levit’s command of this greatest of piano sonatas. The rest of the quiz can wait.
Alice Pearson Cover CD editor I’ve been listening with great pleasure to works by the ‘Spanish Mozart’, Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, who died at the age of 19 but still managed to produce a significant number of great pieces. I highly recommend his Symphony in D, an interesting mix of styles but with an individual stamp. His gift for melody, dramatic sense and warm harmonic style make this a very attractive work – what a shame he didn’t live long enough to reach his full potential. Michael Beek Reviews editor It’s 80 years since the original release of Walt Disney’s Fantasia, but the film remains a thing of beauty. I was delighted to get to know it again recently on the Disney+ streaming service. Mickey Mouse’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice segment was always my favourite as a child, but this time I was more engaged by the rest, and rather less scared by Musorgsky’s Night On Bare Mountain.
Freya Parr
Editorial assistant
Tiktok has always intimidated me, what with its youthful aesthetic, cultlike dance challenges and pop culture references I never understand. This month, though, I finally found my Tiktok home, thanks to Nathan Evans, the Scottish postman who went viral with his rendition of the 19th-century sea shanty ‘Wellerman’. Before long, other singers had joined in and added harmony. Then there were fiddles, and even a club remix. Sea shanties are finally getting their deserved moment in the spotlight.