Music to my ears
What the classical world has been listening to this month
Jubilee String Quartet
Tereza Privratska (violin): Recently I re-listened to Nigel Kennedy’s 1992 take on Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. I heard him playing it live in 2008 in Prague and I remember being fascinated but also overwhelmed – as a student, I almost couldn’t process all that was happening on stage. Now I can finally put words to it. This playing is just so fresh! It all makes so much sense and I feel refreshed by the broken convention – no prejudicial approach to music, yet respecting all that needs to be respected.
Lorena Cantó Woltèche (viola): It is possibly due to my obsession with Mozart that I was initially attracted to the recording of his Sonatas for four hands, K521 & K497 by pianists Ferenc Rados and Kirill Gerstein, but ever since I heard the exhilarating first arpeggios of the C Major Sonata, it has been in my player. Through their uncomplicated playing, Gerstein and Rados make Mozart’s music sound improvised and alive.
Toby White (cello): I spend so much time on the road these days that it’s hard to keep track
Nigel Kennedy’s Beethoven was both fascinating and overwhelming
of everything I listen to, from podcasts to playlists. One thing in particular I have enjoyed lately is an album of Ravel’s music arranged by the jazz bassist Dieter Ilg. These are jazz trio arrangements of familiar compositions, including the first movement of the String Quartet. It’s very rare to find oneself in a state of complete familiarity and yet utterly lost at the same time, but I’ve enjoyed it very much.
And also…
Julia Loucks (violin): I recently read Oh William! by Elizabeth
Strout, whose language is incredibly concise and moving. I was instantly immersed in a world of relationship turmoil and familial love, and I considered how Strout’s writing is similar to an elegant interpretation of a classical piece. As performers, we strive to grab the listeners’ attention from the first note, and we have found that the simplest interpretations are often the most convincing.
This is very much the case in Strout’s beautifully touching novel. The Jubilee Quartet’s new recording of Schubert’s String Quartets Nos 10 & 15 is released on 25 November
Toks Dada Head of Classical Music, Southbank Centre
As a viola player myself, I am drawn to Walton’s Viola Concerto. It is such stunning music in that it shows off the virtuosic side of the instrument while you also get that beautifully rich sound that is its USP. The last 50-or-so seconds of the first movement are particularly sublime – there are very expressive double stops in the higher register and it almost sounds like the viola is crying out. Whenever I hear it, it reminds me of my childhood. I came across Snorri Sigfús
Birgisson’s Where Life and Death May Dwell on pianist Víkingur Ólafsson’s new album, From Afar.
I was on holiday in Iceland, and Víkingur recommended I do a hike to the top of Mount Esja, from the top of which you can see the entire Icelandic landscape in front of you. In that moment, I felt complete calm and stillness and wanted to celebrate with a bit of music. This folksong encapsulated that moment absolutely beautifully.
I have a bit of an obsession with Scandinavian TV dramas
and their soundtracks. Called ‘Power and Glory’, August Fenger Janson’s title track to Borgen tells you everything you need to know – it really sums up the drama, the power and the tension of the show. Janson uses some kind of vocal treatment which sounds like part-whisper, part throat-singing. I’ve yet to figure out exactly what sort of technique it is, but the music itself just grabs you.
And also…
I am currently enjoying A Visible Man, the recently released memoir of Edward Enninful, the editorin-chief of British Vogue (above). I can really relate to his desire to tell a story about what fashion means today and how that story can be for everyone. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do with classical music at the Southbank.
Emily White Sackbut
I recently played Cavalieri’s Portrayal of the Soul and the Body with Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini in Italy. When you look at the score it’s basically just two lines: continuo and a vocal line. He turned it into an entire stave full of trombones, plus eight continuo instruments, dulcians and violins. He made it into this incredible drama – in other hands this could be an incredibly dull oratorio, but it was spine-tingling with him jabbing at us and leaping around.
I love family chamber music. In the summer we finally performed a piece that was written for us by Rachel Stott: Three Idylls, which Dad commissioned years ago. Because I play violin and trombone I always have to compromise, so she wrote a piece where I play both, with Dad’s viola and Mum’s French horn. We invited a cellist friend round to be part of it, so we did that and Mozart’s Horn Quintet. It was a really special moment.
I’ve been coaching Slide Action, which is a quartet of young trombone players, as part of the Britten-pears young musician scheme. They’ve been completely pushing the boundaries of what a trombone can do, and they did a recital of a new piece by Alex Paxton. I love contemporary music and I’d never heard sounds like it. If I hadn’t had my own concert, I would have driven the 450-mile round trip to hear them when they premiered it.
And also…
I’ve always loved my garden, and when I’m on tour I like to take a bit of it with me – the apples and pears in my suitcase, or lavender in my pocket. I’m really into amateur environmentalism, so I tend to re-seed from my own plants. I have a shelf full of books inherited from my Gran, who was a top gardener.
Emily White’s ‘A Cry Was Heard’ is out now on the Deux-elles label