BBC Music Magazine

Music to my ears

What the classical world has been listening to this month

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Saskia Giorgini Pianist I’ve listened to Cécile Mclorin Salvant and Sullivan Fortner’s album The Window a lot lately. I often listen to jazz and blues and Salvant is such a great singer; Fortner is an amazing pianist too, but they are so good together. We always listened to classical music at home, but my dad would sometimes put on a jazz album. I was so fascinated by it; the whole idea of jazz was so mysterious, I never knew what was coming next.

I’ve always got music on – I listen on a little Bluetooth speaker and people make fun of me because I often just walk around with it. They can hear me coming! My absolute favourite is the overture to The Thieving Magpie by Rossini. It’s so full of life and the crescendos he creates are incredible. We used to have an LP of it at home when I was a child, and I would jump on the bed when it was on. Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus is so moving. He recorded birds in the very north of Finland, in the Arctic Circle, and he wrote music based on them. It’s three movements and when I first heard it, during lockdown, I cried because it really transports you. The second movement is incredibly beautiful, and he writes a sort of chorale on larks, which grows and fades away. It made me think about who we are and what we’re doing to the planet, destroying everything. And also…

I come from the countrysid­e, so I was very used to just being in nature. After I moved to Vienna I got distracted by things and stopped going on long walks. But since the lockdown I love going outdoors and I do it much more than before – I appreciate every tree I see. I can see one from where I live and I was thinking that if anything happens to it, I’m going to move!

Saskia Giorgini’s new album of Liszt piano works is out now on Pentatone

Pavel Sporcl Violinist

Jan Kubelík was a huge violin superstar before World War I, but never got the same attention after he stopped performing during the war. He was always compared to Paganini and played a lot of Paganini’s music. I have a wonderful live recording of him playing Paganini’s La campanella with his son Rafael on the piano at Carnegie Hall. His technique was incredible, and although the specific sound is hard to glean from recordings as old as this, you can hear his uniquely Czech style of playing.

I’m always trying to diversify my listening and have always loved the music of Jacques Brel, one of Belgium’s leading chanson singers. I have all his recordings in a box of about 25 CDS. It’s so incredibly melodic, which the French language definitely helps with. A couple of favourites are ‘Mathilde’, which has such rhythmic energy, and ‘Amsterdam’ from his younger years.

JS Bach’s Mass in B minor will always be one of my desert island discs. Whenever I hear the beginning of it, I have to slow down, close my eyes and find inner peace. It praises glory to God at a time when God was considered to be the most

 ?? ?? Formidable duo: singer Cécile Mclorin Salvant with pianist Sullivan Fortner
Formidable duo: singer Cécile Mclorin Salvant with pianist Sullivan Fortner
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