Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Marianne Beate Kielland
Mezzo-soprano
I have recently discovered Bernstein’s last major composition, which is for two singers and orchestra or piano, called Arias and Barcarolles. It’s a great discovery, but amazing I didn’t know it before. He composes music with so much meaning, describing many parts of life. And this piece has so many different styles: it crosses over to cabaret and almost jazz, as well as contemporary music and melodic tunes. I’ve been listening to a recording by baritone Christian Immler and mezzo Anna Stéphany, and they are just great.
I listen to a lot of vocal music. There’s a Latvian Radio Choir recording of the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov called To Thee We Sing, and it’s so atmospheric. In a way it sounds as if it’s sent from heaven – it’s not earthly. When I want to relax or take my mind away from my work, it’s a great recording just to space out to. It’s the most beautiful recording I know.
I’m a big fan of the contralto Kathleen Ferrier, and I have just rediscovered her voice. I don’t listen much to the music I work with in general as I try to find my own way, but lately I listened to her performing a couple of songs of Schubert I was going to sing. She’s
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Silvestrov’s music is so atmospheric – it sounds as if it’s been sent from heaven
Brian Mcguire
Hove
Though I expect the British weather will have returned to raincoats-and-boots by the time this issue of BBC Music Magazine is published, I am currently sitting in 30-plus temperatures and enjoying the sunny sounds of Canteloube’s Chants d’auvergne. Though most people are familiar with the famous ‘Baïlèro’, Canteloube works his folky, seductive magic through the whole set. And no-one is more charming in this work than my favourite soprano, the late, great Victoria de los Ángeles. so worth listening to – even better than I remembered. I rediscovered her way of using her sound to go through the lines and words – her German diction is absolutely fantastic. She is an idol.
And also…
I enjoy hiking and this summer I spent a week of vacation up in the East Tyrol, close to the highest mountain in Austria. I used to live in the archipelago of Lofoten in Northern Norway, which is famous for its mountains and beauty, whereas now I live in Oslo. Being in the mountains, with the flowers, the air and the streams – just like in The Sound of Music – connects a lot with being an artist, for me.
Marianne Beate Kielland’s Sibelius Orchestral Songs is out on Lawo Classics on 23 September
Joby Burgess Percussionist
I love opera. Recently, I went to Glyndebourne to see
Puccini’s La bohème, with Gabriella Reyes as Mimì, and the production was simply incredible. The set and costumes were very monochrome, with every shade of grey, and they had the tenor Christopher Lemmings cast as a silent Death – thin, gaunt and wearing a tall Victorian hat and long overcoat – who moves ever closer to Mimì throughout the entire production. It brought a truly dark and sinister edge to it.
Eddie Henderson’s Mahal is a supercool album, and perfect for the hot, dry summer days we’ve been having recently. It’s on that jazz-funk tip leading into the disco era, and the band on it is simply fantastic. I grew up listening to Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters, and this album has quite a few of the same players, but it’s expanded so there are about ten or eleven of them. It’s upbeat, beautiful and perfect for either driving or for lounging around the pool.
The British rapper Little
Simz’s fourth album, Sometimes I Might be Introvert, was released
late last year and has just been nominated for the Mercury
Music Prize. It is produced by the brilliant Inflo, who comes from an R&B background and has this incredible ear for what he wants in terms of colour and little bits of reference. The album is like a long journey, with some longer tracks and very short tracks that are almost like orchestral interludes, and it is all beautifully woven together.
And also…
I often like to read novels in the setting where the story takes place. And so, while I’ve been in the south of France, I’ve been reading F Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the night. It’s the most gorgeous story of tortured love and reminiscing about all those places on the French Riviera. It’s a beautiful read and not too heavy, and went perfectly with a chilled French white.
Joby Burgess’s ‘Percussionist’s Songbook’ is out on Signum on 30 September
Jodie Devos Soprano
I’ve been listening to an album called Violetta y el Jazz by Emiliano González Toro. He’s a great tenor and works a lot in Baroque music, but he also does crossover projects with Thomas Enhco – who does all the arrangements and plays the piano. So that has been a great album for me to discover. Most of the time I listen to non-classical music; I grew up with rock and pop, and classical music came to me late in my life.
Ben Mazué is a great French singer and I’ve been listening to a lot of his music, especially an album called Paradis. He’s written for other musicians in France; he’s more a lyricist, but he can also sing. It’s a bit like rap, but we call it ‘slam’ in France – actually, it’s more like recitative in classical music in that you have the music and he speaks the text. He creates beautiful texts about love; he’s quite a storyteller.
Music always brings me back to a memory, and something I’ve been listening to quite recently is Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21. I heard it for the first time in a ballet – Ballet for Life by Béjart, which featured music by Queen and Mozart. It’s also how I discovered ‘You Take My Breath Away’, which was on the English album I did. So that ballet has been very important in my life.
And also…
I read a book recently that I’ve been really passionate about; it’s called Betty by Tiffany Mcdaniel. It’s the story of this Cherokee girl born in 1960s America and how it has been difficult for her family to find their place in the world and in society. I like to read before bed – it’s one of the only times I have to focus; but I live in Paris, so I also enjoy taking my book to a café and just sitting and reading.
Jodie Devos’s ‘Bijoux perdus’ is out on Alpha Classics on 23 September