Here is a chance to highlight a composer not often covered in these (or any) parts – for today marks 145 years since the death of Polish violinist and composer Henryk Wieniawski.
While not a prolific composer, Wieniawski was one of the first in his country to write substantial violin concertos, and the two he completed are both tuneful and characterful. You can listen below, in performances from Gil Shaham, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Foster:
Program including songs by Robert and Clara Schumann, Richard Strauss. Full repertoire list at the bottom of this review
Bechstein Hall, London, 28 March 2025
by John Earls. Photo credit below (c) John Earls
Scottish tenor Matthew McKinney is the winner of the 2024 Kathleen Ferrier Awards and there was quite a sense of anticipation for this recital with pianist Roelof Temmingh at the suitably intimate Bechstein Hall.
Performance is of course the key element in voice and piano recitals such as this. But it is also exciting to be presented with a programme that has clearly been put together with such thought and care. Under the theme of Finding Freedom this programme consisted of two parts. The first was an alternating Clara and Robert Schumann affair, the second a more eclectic but no less engaging mix.
The Schumanns’ set consisted of rotating Clara and Robert Schumann songs neatly threaded together in a lovers’ exchange. It demonstrated not only the consideration and skill of the programming but the quality of Clara’s as well as Robert’s songwriting. McKinney’s singing was beautiful throughout.
The set also included two pieces of recited poetry, Afrikaans poet Breyten Breytenbach’s Red-breasted Dove and Rabindranath Tagore’s Unending Love, both of which deftly complimented the sentiment.
For the first half the audience was requested to save applause until the end of the set, entirely appropriate for the mood and respectfully observed. For the second half however McKinney advised “please do clap any time you want to”. And just as well as this was a much more varied affair including a couple of Robert Schumann solo piano pieces for Temmingh to shine.
Opening with Frank Bridge’s Love Went A-Riding it also included two Benjamin Britten songs, a forceful Batter My Heart (from The Holy Sonnets of John Donne) immediately followed by a tender Sonnetto XXX (from Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo), and a rendition of Tosti’s Marechiare that was full of brio and panache.
There then followed a lovely and affecting sequence. Rebecca Clarke’s I’ll Bid My Heart Be Still (originally composed for viola but ‘reimagined’ here for voice), Robbie Burns’ Ae Fond Kiss (McKinney unaccompanied) and Temmingh’s own Verjaarsdagbrief (Birthday Letter) based on a letter written by his grandfather to his grandmother and sang in Afrikaans by McKinney who then looped back to Ae Fond Kiss. The audience silence afterwards was marked and sincere.
The set concluded with a couple of well delivered Richard Strauss songs which led to the inevitable and deserved calls for an encore which McKinney admitted they didn’t have so we got a repeat of the magnificent Marechiare which was gratefully received.
Matthew McKinney and Roelof Temmingh performed the following repertoire:
Breytenbach Red-breasted dove Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann songs interspersed: Clara Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen Op.13/1, Liebeszauber Op.13/3, Volkslied, Lorelei, Robert Der Nussbaum Op.25/3, Volksliedchen Op.51/2, Zwielicht Op.39/10, Kreisleriana Op.16/8 (solo piano), Mondnacht Op.39/5 Tagore Unending love Clara Der Mond kommt still gegangen Op.13/4, Die stille Lotosblume Op.13/6 Robert Die Lotosblume Op.25/7, Widmung Op.25/1
Bridge Love went a-riding H.114 Weir Sweet Little Red Feet (from The Voice of Desire) Robert Schumann Ritter vom Steckenpferd Op.15/9 Auden What’s in your mind, my dove, my coney? Britten Batter my heart Op.35/2, Sonnetto XXX Op.22/3 Robert Schumann Vogel als Prophet Op.82/7 Tosti Marechiare Clarke I’ll bid my heart be still (reimagined); Trad Scots Ae fond kiss Temmingh Verjaarsdagbrief Richard Strauss Befreit Op.39/4, Zueignung Op.10/1
John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union. He posts on Bluesky and tweets / updates his ‘X’ content at @john_earls
Eight years after Blue Maqams, Anouar Brahem returns with a poignant project, titled after a line of verse by poet Mahmoud Darwish, which asks “Where should the birds fly, after the last sky?” Graceful chamber pieces for oud, cello, piano and bass subtly address the metaphysical question and its broad resonances in a troubled time. While drawing upon the traditional modes of Arab music, Brahem has consistently sought to engage with the wider world, too, and found inspiration in many sources from different cultures.
Bassist Dave Holland and pianist Django Bates are again part of the Tunisian oud master’s international quartet, joined now by cellist Anja Lechner. Brahem’s rapport with Holland – first established on the Thimar album of 1998 – is meanwhile legendary. “Dave’s playing gives me wings,” Anouar has said, an observation that materializes repeatedly across the record. Django Bates’ piano, an important supportive force throughout, contributes swirling solos.
The album marks the first time that Anouar has included a cellist in his group music. Anja Lechner, a leading voice in the recording, has long been conversant with Brahem’s compositions and included them in her own recitals. The cello is given the first and last statements here. After the Last Sky was recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in May 2024, and produced by Manfred Eicher. The album is issued as the Brahem quartet embarks on a European tour with concerts in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium.
Watch the title track below:
You can discover more about the album and explore purchase options at the ECM Records website
“If we’re dancing on the brink then we might as well make sure that the music is great.”
So reads the alarming and rather compelling sentence emphasising the point of Daniel Brandt’s Without Us album. Brandt began the record as an impassioned response to what he terms “the helplessness of the individual in the climate crisis and the apparent need to take radical global action to change the trajectory of the current threat of a climate disaster.”
What’s the music like?
Given the theme, it is not a surprise to report that Daniel Brandt’s music on Without Us is far from comfortable. He often veers between extremes, looking for comfort on one side while on the other realising that there is so little time left, it needs to be filled with music of the utmost urgency.
Paradise O.D. recognises this, taking shape quickly with a primal base to its bare rhythm and stripped back texture. Resistance follows the same outline, though under an ominous, synthesized cloud. Lucid does not stay true to its name, forms twisted beyond recognition as though wilting in a hot desert of inflamed temperatures. The fact Brandt wrote a good deal of this album in the Joshua Tree in California only adds to the atmosphere. PNK is a disquieting experience, with a lot of industrial activity taking place at a quick pace but with no apparent end goal other than to make people move quickly:
Yet there are moments of pure beauty to be found, too. Steady is an airy kickback, with some lovely open air textures given a freewheeling beat for company, while Soft Rains offers a comforting heat haze.
Does it all work?
Yes – on a brave and undeniably powerful album, Daniel Brandt hits the spot far more often than not.
Is it recommended?
It is. This is recognisably the work of a player from Brandt Brauer Frick, but Daniel Brandt has turned his beat making to serious means on this powerful piece of work. The importance of the dance is still there, but with the clock ticking there is an almost irresistible urgency to this music.
For fans of… Brandt Brauer Frick, Philip Glass, The Field, Pantha du Prince
Today marks 50 years since the passing of Sir Arthur Bliss, one of the most important composers in recent British musical history.
The Arthur Bliss Society sum up his contribution as “one of the most important figures in British musical life from the early 1920s (when he was regarded as an enfant terrible) through to his later years and his tenure of the office of Master of the Queen’s Music from 1953, following Sir Arnold Bax”.
If you are a regular Arcana reader you will have read about recent performances of A Colour Symphony, one of his most popular orchestral works, and also a revival for his masterful Temporal Variations, recorded by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and John Wilson for later this anniversary year.
For now, here is a Tidal playlist taking excerpts from some of Bliss’s most important works, as well as including the two orchestral works noted above:
To read about further concerts in Bliss’s anniversary year, you can visit the Arthur Bliss Society website – where you will find more information about the pieces above.
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