Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Raffaele Pe
Countertenor Couperin’s Leçons des Tenèbres, sung by Gérard Lesne, was the first Baroque recording that I listened to when I was at school. At the time I was playing the organ and singing baritone in the choir in my home town and was very much into sacred music. It was love at first sight – both with with Lesne’s countertenor voice and with French Baroque music – and gave me the idea that this might be the artistic path that I’d take in life.
I love Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations’ L’orchestre du Roi Soleil disc of music by Lully. When I first heard this it was like a miracle of what could be done in terms of sound and expressive possibilities with historical instruments. There are other recordings of this music that are probably more accurate musicologically, but the imagination that Jordi shows here makes it, for me, one of the most meaningful Baroque discs of the last 30 years.
‘I’m very old school and love to zoom around in my sports car and put on a CD’
Kenneth Gilbert’s disc of Rameau’s works for harpsichord is an interesting recording for all musicians, including singers and even jazz players. Gilbert showed how to create something different out of a piece that everyone knows, and he did it not just with smart musicianship but with an intelligent and precise approach to keyboard technique. So on one side, there’s the freedom of Savall, and on the other the geometry and organisation of Gilbert.
And also…
London’s National Portrait Gallery is one of my favourite museums in Europe. I’m quite obsessed with people’s faces – the way they look has a relevance to the way they do things. For me, walking around the gallery’s rooms has also always been a way to feel closer to British culture. If I had to choose one favourite painting, it would be Thomas Barker’s
The Secret of England’s Greatness depicting Queen Victoria giving a bible to an African.
Raffaele Pe performs the title role in Handel’s Tamerlano at The Grange Festival, 10 June – 3 July
Anne Akiko Meyers Violinist I’ve been obsessed with Morten Lauridsen’s music, especially his sacred choral music. I recently performed ‘O magnum mysterium’ with the LA Master Chorale, which was a tremendous experience for me. To hear a symphony of voices, as opposed to instruments, was so transcendent. Lauridsen has been such a big influence in my life, with his singing qualities and soulful, pure melodies, and his sound really resounds with other singers as well – everyone from Roberta Flack to Kathleen Battle.
I like to try and find things that really inspire me to feel happy. I love Arturo Márquez, so I’ve been playing a lot of his music. The
‘ Fandango’ Violin Concerto is an extraordinary experience of dance rhythms and crazy Mexican folk themes. And that’s really apparent in his Danzón No. 2, too. Whenever I play his music, it’s tremendously inspiring; there’s such spirituality and soulfulness.
I’m very old school and I still listen to CDS. I love to zoom around in my sports car and put in a CD. It’s not just classical music, but also soul, blues and jazz. I’m
blasting Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett half the time, as well. I would love to go back in history and work with Duke Ellington; he wrote thousands and thousands of scores and his approach was so fresh and risk-taking.
And also…
My life thrives on non-musical things. Recently we were at the Van Gogh immersive exhibition in New York and I was staring at his Starry Night. Its story is so extraordinary; how he spent the last year of his short life in an insane asylum. He painted it in his room, and it comes completely from his imagination. To go to a museum is just so soul nourishing; it’s great that we can finally go back and admire art.
Anne Akiko Meyers’s album ‘Shining Night’ is out now on Avie Alex Heffes Composer Like many people I have followed pianist Benjamin Grosvenor’s career for a long time. I’ve been listening to a lot of great pianists recently and his Liszt album on Decca is fantastic. The piece I particularly like is Liszt’s Berceuse. Many pianists can play lots of notes very fast, and Grosvenor can certainly do that, but actually the Berceuse is very simple. For me, a pianist who can find the space in between the notes and make it come alive is something really great.
I’ve been listening again to a beautiful orchestral score that I used to love when I was much younger, which is Elmer Bernstein’s music for The Age of Innocence, a Martin Scorsese film. It’s infused with Brahms and is very reminiscent of his Third Symphony – anyone who knows that piece will hear and feel this. It’s not that Bernstein is cribbing from it, but it’s a homage. It’s so different to anything you hear on film now.
One of my favourite records is Joni Mitchell’s orchestral version of Both Sides Now. What I’ve been doing recently, which has been quite fun, is going back to the original 1969 version she recorded on her album Clouds and comparing that to the version she did with full orchestra, with wonderful arrangements by Vince Mendoza, released around 2000. Her voice has dropped almost an octave-and-a-half since she first recorded it, and she has this incredible husky tone. It’s such a powerful and magical piece of music.
And also…
I’m alone in the studio a lot as a composer and sometimes I need to take my mind off things. I’ve dipped back into the world of the Rubik’s Cube. I’m pretty good at completing the cube quite fast, but now I’m trying to stretch myself. My family gave me a treat recently which is a Rubik’s Cube without colours. It’s all silver, except all the pieces are slightly different shapes. It’s become a bit of an obsession and it really keeps my brain twisting.
Alex Heffes’s solo piano album ‘Sudden Light’ is released on Silva Screen Records on 6 May 2022