Our Choices

The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites

Charlotte Smith Editor

At the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, there were arresting performances from Sheku Kannehmason in Leo Brouwer’s Cello Sonata No. 2 and from soprano Anna Dennis. But I was particularly taken by Manchester Collective, whose inventive, self-arranged programme morphed from Bach’s A minor Violin Concerto into the Danish String Quartet’s arrangement of the Nordic folk tune ‘Old Reinlender from Sonndala’. Barefoot and smiling, their pleasure at performing was a joy.

Jeremy Pound Deputy editor

An invitation to join in a charity cycle ride in the heart of the Three Choirs region later this year has provided the perfect excuse to compile a playlist that reflects the area as seen through the eyes of composers who knew it well. So, there’s Elgar’s Enigma Variations, of course, plus works such as Finzi’s haunting Severn Rhapsody and Harrison’s colourful Worcestershire Suite. And, while he was not from these parts, Alwyn’s Bicycle

Ride has to be in there too. Let’s go!

Michael Beek Reviews editor

Following a longer-than-planned siesta in Barcelona, I found myself channel hopping and landed on Orff’s Carmina Burana live from Madrid. It was performed in the presence of King Felipe VI, no less, and was more than enough to rouse me from my paella-induced slumber. That same evening, a different channel featured a programme about Clara Schumann, with piano performance excerpts. So much classical music on Spanish TV!

Steve Wright Content producer

I’ve been revisiting various recordings of Robert Schumann’s evocative Waldszenen for solo piano, and the 2008 version by Maria João Pires (above) still works its magic. Captivated right from the opening ‘Eintritt’ (‘Entry’), when Pires’s leisurely tempo and use of the sustain pedal create a wonderful sense of space and air, I feel I am stepping over the threshold into these cool, dark woods where various adventures (hunters, an inn, a haunted place and more) await.

Alice Pearson Cover CD editor

Tying in with our coronation theme this month, I’ve been enjoying the Choral Dances from Gloriana, Britten’s opera written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The opera itself had a rocky start and is rarely performed today,but the Choral Dances have enjoyed better fortunes, and rightly so – they display excellent choral writing, at the same time simple and intricate, ancient and modern.