Our Choices The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites
Charlotte Smith Editor As head of music at a school in Somerset, my sister generally prepares the music for the students’ Wells Cathedral carol service during the summer holiday. This year she sought my opinion, and on the agenda were the likes of Gardner’s setting of Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day and Rutter’s Shepherd’s Pipe Carol. But new to me was Lully, Lulla, Lullay, Philip Stopford’s 2008 setting of the Coventry Carol. This beautiful lament for a child is definitely one to add to my Christmas list.
Jeremy Pound Deputy editor
Having bought The King’s Singers’ 25th Anniversary Jubilee! songbook (above) on a whim, I’m now happily working my way through it and singing – loudly – the baritone and/or
bass parts along to recordings by the group itself. Admittedly, I will never match Stephen Connolly’s glorious rumbling bass or be able to boast the baritonal agility of Chris Bruerton, but I can at least imagine I’m living the dream. And the family will simply have to put up with it.
Michael Beek Reviews editor Following John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London’s thrilling performance of Bax’s lustrous Tintagel at the BBC Proms recently (seen live on BBC Four), I was dying to discover some more of the British composer’s orchestral works. So I’ve very much enjoyed a walk through both The Happy Forest and November Woods (see the Cover CD) and have basked in some Summer Music too. The latter was aided by suitably soaring temperatures!
Alice Pearson Cover CD editor
If you’re looking for some lightish relief for that beach moment, Milhaud’s music for Le Train
Bleu might hit the spot. Set on Deauville beach and living up to Jean Cocteau’s vision of elegant frivolity, the one-act ballet centres around the antics of the ‘it’ crowd of the time, who often joined the stylish ‘Train Bleu’ from Calais. The music is very tonal and complements the subject matter with charming and playful appeal.
Rebecca Franks Freelance contributor
I recently attended the first rehearsals of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra in Poland, and I’ll never forget meeting these passionate musicians. On their stands were Dvoˇrák, Brahms and homegrown composer Valentin Silvestrov, and it’s inspired me to explore more Ukrainian music, including Lyatoshynsky’s vivid Third Symphony, played by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and its Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits.