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Write to: The editor, BBC Music Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST Email: music@classical-music.com Social media: contact us on Facebook and Twitter

A great Victorian wit

The deluge of puns and Gilbertian references in Tom Service’s eloquent article (September) testifies to the impact this incomparable librettist has had on the English language. The brassy splendour and haunting drone accompaniment that bring down the curtain on Act I of The Yeomen of the Guard (poster pictured above) are rightly singled out for praise, fully worthy as they are of the continental-style ‘Grand Opera’ that Arthur Sullivan yearned to write. Another example of ‘serious’ messages hidden among the hilariously witty slapstick is the Nightmare song from Iolanthe, in which unrequited love produces traumatic psychological menace. And it should not surprise us that G&S were threatened with lawsuits when some of their well- aimed barbs against nepotism and incompetence struck home. Even Parliament was not immune: ‘The House of Peers, throughout the war, did nothing in particular, and did

it very well’, while in

WIN! 12 MONTHS the luckless Commons,

OF PRIMEPHONIC ‘If they’ve a brain and

cerebellum too, They have Every month we will award

to leave that brain outside the best letter with a year’s

And vote just as their Platinum subscription to classical music streaming leaders tell ’em to.’ It seems site Primephonic, giving you that much-derided pillars of lossless 24-bit FLAC access the Victorian Establishment to hundreds of thousands of

turn out to be more complex recordings – worth £149. The

than has been generally editor reserves the right to shorten letters for publication. appreciated. And aside from their exquisite satire, G&S remain a lot of fun.

John Charles, London

Mahlerian revelation

Thank you for the cover CD of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 on your September issue. It is revolutionising my life. For years I’ve been trying to listen to and appreciate Mahler’s music, only without success. The music has always seemed larger than life, sprawlingly over-the-top, formless. Now, thanks to this performance by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Dausgaard, I think I’m at last learning how to listen to Mahler. A large sound, yes, but through this performance, handled with such humble delicacy, subtlety and a real understanding which is revelatory and infectious, I have found a way in, at last, to a soundworld which has escaped me for so long. The complementary track on the CD, Klez’mahler, is another part of my ear opening. Thank you. Who knows, I might yet learn to hear Bruckner’s and Wagner’s music, too!

David Yabbacome,

Downham Market

The Price is not right

Thank you for reviewing my book The Monster I am Today: Leontyne Price and Life in Verse in your September issue. The accompanying image you chose, however, is not of Price. Although it’s mislabelled in the Getty catalogue, I’m surprised no one at an esteemed classical music publication such as yours caught that. This is especially concerning because she is a Black artist. Take special care, please, when covering people of colour. Kevin Simmonds, via email The Acting editor replies:

We apologise for this mistake, and have also notified the picture library in question.

Golden Strauss

Terry Blain’s Building a

Library piece on Richard Strauss’s Symphonia Domestica (September) suggests Zubin Mehta’s recording with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1968) is the best, but no mention is made of a later Mehta recording with the Berlin Philharmonic (1985). Strauss, that gloriously life-affirming master of late-romantic music easily fell into the trap of notespinning, simply refusing to end a piece because he and his listeners were enjoying themselves so much – and never more so than in the finale of the Symphonia Domestica.

In Mehta’s 1985 recording, the horn section play what is just part of a descending scale in sequence, a much-used Straussian thumbprint. But in this instance, the thrilling splendour of the sound makes you feel that conquering the Alps or winning several Gold medals at the Olympics is within reach. No other composer makes you hear or see the dazzle of the sun, the wonders of nature and the

Glories of Ancient Greece all at the same time.

Ian France, Penrith

Falling standards

Maybe Richard Morrison was being diplomatic in his September column (‘Better times ahead for music education’), when he failed to mention that standards are also being whittled down by examination boards.

The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music has introduced Performance grades where candidates have just to perform four pieces of music. They make limitless recordings and then submit the one they consider to be the best. There are no scales, no sightreading or aural tests but the qualification is being regarded with equal weight as exams which do.

It is an easier option with no sense of occasion, or objective scrutiny by a person unknown to the pupil. Ambitious parents, pupils and teachers see these as an opportunity to speed through grades, possibly at the expense of rounded musical development. Examinations should be pleasant experiences, but they must not be devoid of challenge. Performance grades have been a solution to the problems of lockdown, but if they continue, concerns may be raised about our exam standards both at home and internationally.

Pauline Carter, Witney

Not so expensive

‘It’s sad that you usually need to spend hundreds of pounds to take your family to watch Hansel and Gretel in an opera house’ wrote Richard Morrison in his August column. What a shame to see this old fallacy about live opera – that it is unaffordable – perpetuated by someone who should know better… unless, of course, Morrison is talking about a very large family indeed. I have attended opera in many places over many years and have never paid more than £75 for a ticket (La Scala – of course). Usually, much, much less. With two adults and two children, that only barely creeps into the ‘hundreds of pounds’ description. How much would I have to pay to take a family to see their favourite Premier League football team, or the latest pop music sensation? Hundreds of pounds. But folk do it all the time. People afford what they want to afford. It’s just that there are no public warnings about sport or the pop world that they are unaffordable. Only opera and ballet suffer from this snobbery. Robina Dexter, Grange-over-sands

The Acting editor replies:

A fair point about the affordability of opera tickets, but the Premier League’s exclusion of many fans through overpriced tickets has been the subject of countless newspaper articles and radio debates too. The barbs are aimed not just at opera.

A little für play

I feel your magazine could do with a little bit of verse…

Who was the Elise

Beethoven wrote it für?

Was it Fräulein Röckel,

The umlauted soprano he met on tour?

Or Fräulein Barenfeld,

The piano prodigy who lived next door?

Or Lud’s pupil Malfatti,

With her fortune the lure? In the end, the amorous composer proposed to a pair,

But both of them concluded he had too much Herr.

Stephen Bertman,

Ontario, Canada