Category Archives: In concert

Elias String Quartet and Simon Crawford Phillips – Messages Old and New

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Messages old and new – the Elias Quartet give an Emily Howard world premiere, and are then joined by Simon Crawford Phillips for Schumann’s Piano Quintet

elias-quartet

Elias Quartet (Sara Bitlloch, Donald Grant (violins), Martin Saving (viola), Marie Bitlloch (cello), Simon Crawford-Phillips (piano) – Wigmore Hall, London, live on BBC Radio 3, 4 May 2015.

Listening link (opens in a new window):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05qypn8

on the iPlayer until 9 June

Spotify

In case you cannot hear the broadcast, here is a link to a recording of the Schumann (Howard’s pieces is a world premiere so not yet recorded). The Schumann is played here by Sviatoslav Richter and the Borodin String Quartet:

Spotify

What’s the music?

Emily Howard – Afference (2015) (22 minutes)

Schumann – Piano Quintet (1842) (32 minutes)

What about the music?

Emily Howard’s new piece Afference, a substantial work for string quartet, is based on a physiological term to describe the way in which the brain processes our experiences of the world. Howard herself has a degree in maths and computer science, something that might lead an audience to expect a very calculated approach to composing music. This is not entirely the case though, as the biography on Howard’s own website suggests.

Afference appears to be her first work for string quartet, commissioned by the Elias Quartet themselves. It joins a canon of pieces that range from large-scale orchestral works (Axon and a symphony called Magnetite) to smaller scale compositions for clarinet and piano.

Schumann’s Piano Quintet was written in 1842, when he was still giddy with love for wife Clara. She was the dedicatee of this work, but as the BBC Radio 3 announcer Georgia Mann details it was first performed with none other than the composer Felix Mendelssohn at the piano.

Performance verdict

A fine concert, with concentrated playing from the Elias Quartet of what is on two listens an engaging new work for string quartet. Emily Howard writes in a distinctive style that the Elias Quartet understand, and the colours she achieves are consistently interesting and imaginative. It helps to know the program for the piece, as there do indeed seem to be a lot of messages transmitted in 22 minutes. Some of them are very nervy, though ultimately the piece feels of a positive nature.

The Schumann receives an excellent performance, the happiness of the first, third and final movements a joy to behold – while the second movement, if a tiny bit slow in its central section perhaps, is uneasy and in need of consolation this ultimately provides. Simon Crawford-Phillips plays brilliantly, with authority but also ensuring the strings are heard at all times. His nimble finger work in the third movement scherzo is especially impressive.

What should I listen out for?

Emily Howard

1:20 – a busy start with all four instruments playing frenetically then cuts to a section with a very small voice, doing battle with the quartet.

5:55 – the instruments all take a melodic line that uses portamento (sliding from one pitch to another) before a more intimate phrase starts to dominate. At this point the instruments are close together in pitch.

8:09 – a much slower section, with an intense violin pitch that grows into what sounds like a sorrowful lament, while the other three instruments give softly breathed harmonies. This leads on to some feverish activity, Howard’s nervous messages transmitted at great intensity.

13:17 – As the second movement starts there is a large gap between the instruments – violins on high and cello down below. The lack of a key centre brings to mind some of the quartet writing of Schoenberg, though Howard’s writing has more pitch-related implications in the cello’s continual return to its low ‘D’.

16:50 – a striking passage for violin with upwards phrases, in which Howard seems to be reaching for higher plains

18:51 – the instruments stick closer together again, but at 19:53 the violin shoots out a much higher phrase. The harmonies still make the music sound quite uneasy, as if in a state of dread.

22:20 – a piercing line on the violin returns to the pitch of D, before the rest of the quartet finish the piece with a short series of comments.

Schumann

26:23 – the first movement begins with a wonderfully positive outpouring of music from piano and strings together. The theme itself is a surprisingly catchy one

27:35 – a lovely tune makes itself known on the cello, Schumann at his most romantic with the music flowing beautifully onwards. This tune is then picked up with a counter melody from the violin.

32:03 – now in the centre of the development section, the music gets more turbulent, the piano lines swirling around those of the string quartet, but then we switch to a triumphant reprise of the opening music at 32:45.

35:33 – the subdued second movement begins. This is a form of funeral march and it has a halting tune, played by both strings and piano with short notes. This is complemented by a much sweeter episode of music that begins at 37:19, still in the spirit of remembrance but with a positive approach. The sombre first theme returns once again at 38:56.

40:10 – a faster episode begins, led by the piano, the strings with much heavier lines alongside – but still the tune persists from the viola at 41:00, picked up by the violin – and the sweeter theme also makes a reappearance (41:49).

44:16 – the third movement, a Scherzo, begins with fizzing interplay led by the piano. Schumann again finds music of great positivity and energy. At 45:34 a second section begins, in the far-removed key of F sharp major, before the main scherzo returns with just as much irrepressible energy at 46:16. At 46:58 a new section is introduced, again with plenty of energy! The main theme returns at 48:02, carrying through to an emphatic finish at 48:57.

49:04 – the last of the four movements begins, and again the energy levels are up – though here we begin in a minor key that briefly recalls the second movement march. Quickly the music moves to E flat major – the ‘home’ key of the piece. The music then becomes more reserved and secretive.

51:24 – the first theme comes back, though the music is still in a minor key and still feels a long way from ‘home’. Gradually though the music gets greater presence in the ‘home’ key, and by the time we get to 54:16 it is rooted here, and sweeps to a decisive finish by way of a fugue, instigated by the piano at 54:41 and rounding off at 56:28.

Want to hear more?

Following the contrasting nature of the two pieces in this concert, the suggested further listening looks to progress from the Howard with Schoenberg’s String Quartet no.2. This famously has a last movement that sets the text ‘I feel the air from another planet…’, sung by a soprano and said to consciously signal the composer’s move away from writing in a particular key (tonality). Here the words are sung by Susan Narucki, in conjunction with the Schoenberg Quartet.

After the Schumann a rewarding next port of call is the Piano Quintet by Dvořák, his second in the form – and once again played by Sviatoslav Richter and the Borodin Quartet. The playlist can be found on Spotify here:

For more concerts click here

A classical day in Tallinn, Estonia – with the Pille Lill Music Fund

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A day in Tallinn, 26 April 2015

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Tallinn skyline, viewed from the Baltic Sea

I haven’t mentioned this on Arcana before, but my day job is as Classical Repertoire Specialist with PPL (Phonographic Performance Ltd), working to ensure performers and record companies get properly paid for the public performance and broadcast of their recordings.

This job – which I am incredibly fortunate to have – leads me to different European destinations once a year as part of the IAMA Conference (the International Artist Managers’ Association). Here I meet classical artist managers, orchestra representatives and more in a chance to ensure their performers are registered with PPL and are receiving their monies.

This year the IAMA Conference was in Helsinki (see the previous entries on Lahti and the Sibelius house at Ainola) but as a considerable bonus we had a day in Tallinn, hosted by the Pille Lill Music Fund

Here we had an insight into Estonia’s extraordinary concentration of talented classical performers – both new and established – as well as a fascinating tour of medieval Tallinn, which comes highly recommended!

The Estonia National Symphony Orchestra and their artistic director and principal conductor Neeme Järvi are based at the Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn, where our visit began. The hall, a really attractive expanse suitable both for orchestral and chamber concerts, was the venue for a showcase of five up and coming Estonian classical acts the Music Fund looks after.

While all were impressive the standout performer, by a whisker, was Irina Zahharenkova, the unassuming but extremely musical pianist. I use ‘musical’ as a term because whether in solo Chopin or accompanying trumpeter Neeme Ots in a tango by Piazzolla, she had a great instinct for knowing when to hold back slightly or when to push on. Her Chopin – the second half of the Piano Sonata no.3 – was technically assured and deeply felt. Ots himself was also very convincing in the swing applied to Shchedrin’s Imitating Albeniz and Piazzolla’s Oblivion.

Cellist Andreas Lend lived up to his billing as one of Estonia’s rising classical music stars, leading a confident and convincing performance of the little known Suite for Solo Cello by Gaspar Cassadó, a piece from the mid-1920s taking its lead from the Debussy sonata. Lend, a member of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra until recently, played with a most attractive sound.

We also heard two singers. Soprano Arete Teemets lent wonderful clarity to an aria from Rameau’s Dardanus and a fulsome tone in a Rossini aria, where her accompanist, Ralf Taal, provided subtle humour and excellent definition to a crowded piano part. He also accompanied baritone Atlan Karp, whose rounded tones gave Aleko’s Cavatina from Rachmaninov’s Aleko great depth, before a bracing aria from Verdi’s Otello. Karp has a subtle but commanding stage presence lending authority to a formidable baritone voice.

First – and by a shade the most entertaining – were Hortus Musicus, Tallinn’s medieval past played out on stage in costume in front of us. I swear I could hear early house music at times in their set, but there was so much character, enthusiasm and technical accomplishment the group were a wonder to behold.

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Tallinn Town Hall

Yet even this did not come close to our next musical experience, at the Tallinn Town Hall, where we were wowed by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. It is no exaggeration to say I have never heard singing quite like it – and am unlikely to hear a better choir anywhere soon! Dressed in the Estonian colours of black and blue they put every fibre of their collective being into the music, singing the music of their countryman Cyrillus Kreek (1889-1962). His Psalm 104 was so beautifully sung, resolving into a chord of complete purity. We then had the considerable bonus of two short choral pieces from Arvo Pärt and Veljo Tormis, again sung with complete affinity with both text and music.

It was a day, then, to wonder at the sights of medieval Tallinn, but also to appreciate the raw talent within Estonian classical music at this time – and the just enthusiasm with which it is promoted. They have a lot of talent at their disposal!

-Ben Hogwood, with many thanks to the Pille Lill Music Fund for their hospitality and generosity

A golden week for Finnish orchestras

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The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Lahti Symphony Orchestra in concert, April 2015

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The Sibelius Hall, Lahti

This year the Association of Finnish Symphony Orchestras celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. In a country of five and a half million people that might not seem like a big deal, but the association currently has thirty member orchestras – a sign that classical music in the country is in rude health.

They are helped considerably by the stunning venues in which their music making takes place. The Helsinki Music Centre, for instance, is a miracle of sliding partitions and glass panels allowing shafts of sunlight to stream in up to 30 seconds before a performance begins – as if reminding us that classical music need not be dim and fusty.

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The main concert hall, Helsinki Music Hall

Lahti’s Sibelius Hall, situated on the edge of a lake, also enjoys a rarefied light, this time piercing the huge glass panels that frame the concourse, from which the audience are led to the spectacular wood panelled hall.

The resurgence of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in the last 25 years has seen it draw level with – and arguably pass – its compatriots in Helsinki, due largely to the remarkable leadership of Osmo Vänskä.

It was here, in the Sibelius Hall, that the Association officially blew out the 50 candles on the cake on 24 April. To do so they were aided by Lahti’s composers in residence present (Kalevi Aho) and past (Jonas Kokkonen), and Okko Kamu, now the orchestra’s chief conductor. He conducted Aho’s short 1982 piece Hiljaisuus (Silence), an atmospheric piece of mood music that swells into an angry climax before subsiding. Aho himself was visible in the interval, drinking a Sibelius beer in a wonderful demonstration of unity!

We then heard only the orchestra’s second performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, which was the relative disappointment of the evening. In the best performances this piece can be a frothy extravagance but here it sounded short on rehearsal time and humour. Soloists Réka Szilvay (violin), Marko Ylönen (cello) and Heini Kärkkäinen (piano) seemed disjointed, tending to look at their music rather than each other, while the elegant orchestral accompaniment, nicely shaped by Kamu, often disappeared behind the bluster of the front three.

This disappointment was quickly removed by some wonderful Sibelius to start the second half, a joyous Festivo from the suite Scènes Historiques Scene I. Then we heard a new commission, Arctic Light, from the orchestra’s principal bassoonist Harri Ahmas. This bold and descriptive piece effectively transferred the listener back outside to the lake, the shadows moving and the light dancing on the cold water. Perhaps unusually for a new piece of orchestral music the most effective music came at the end, a powerful resolution of quiet harmonic tension. Not a sound could be heard in the hall at the end.

Finally the Kokkonen; an elusive but attractive piece with lovely orchestral colours, a tight structure and an elegiac mood putting it close to late Vaughan Williams. The elegant melodies were beautifully teased out from the texture by Kamu, while the clarity of the orchestral sound was consistently impressive.


The Lahti Symphony Orchestra play the end of the Lemminkainen Suite under Okko Kamu at the Sibelius Festival 2013.

The previous night Helsinki’s Music Centre played host to the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Eivind Gullberg Jansen, in a concert whose first half featured clarinettist and composer Jörg Widmann in both his disciplines. Firstly Con brio took its lead from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, with fragmented motifs fired between sections of the orchestra like light sabres. This was a clever piece, but not for cleverness’ sake, Widmann communicating by striking orchestration, powerful dynamic variations and a number of quirks from the timpani.

The contrast between this and Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto could hardly have been greater, though Widmann – now with clarinet in hand – negotiated the switch with ease. In the slow movement he was especially sensitive, and although he did not appear to be playing with a basset clarinet – which reaches lower notes in the concerto – the elegance and grace of the performance were really attractive.

Finally a Russian powerhouse, Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, showed the versatility of the Helsinki Philharmonic. There was a little in reserve here compared to Russian interpretations, but Jansen clearly loves the piece and knew what he wanted to do with it. A lovely clarinet solo enabled the famous Adagio to hit the emotional heights, but the second and fourth movements didn’t fully harness the power at Rachmaninov’s disposal.

From both these concerts, however, it was abundantly clear classical music is in very good health in Finland. Contemporary music is encouraged, orchestral players clearly enjoy their work and venues are – quite literally – blossoming. Go and visit if you can! And if you need any further convincing, watch this video to see just how good the Helsinki Philharmonic are at contemporary music…

The ever-flexible Bach – Antoine Tamestit at Wigmore Hall

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Antoine Tamestit performs two solo Bach suites and a new commission from Olga Neuwirth

antoine-tamestit

Antoine Tamestit (soprano) – Wigmore Hall, London, live on BBC Radio 3, 27 April 2015.

Listening link (opens in a new window):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05s3dhx

on the iPlayer until 28 May

Spotify

In case you cannot hear the broadcast, I have put together a Spotify playlist of the Bach suites played by Tamestit himself. Because the piece by Olga Neuwirth is so new – this was in fact the first performance – it has not been recorded yet. Here is the link to the Bach:


What’s the music?

J.S. Bach – Solo Cello Suite no.1 (arranged for viola) (1724, 15 minutes)

Olga Neuwirth – Weariness heals wounds (2014, 11 minutes)

J.S. Bach – Solo Cello Suite no.3 (arranged for viola) (1724, 19 minutes)

What about the music?

One sign of a great composer is surely the effectiveness of his music when heard on any instrument, not necessarily the one it was written for. J.S. Bach ranks among those whose music is incredibly versatile – Toccata and Fugue, Ave Maria and Sheep May Safely Graze just for starters! – and all have been successful in any number of guises.

So it is to a lesser extent with the solo cello suites, which transcribe for other stringed instruments – guitar and viola – very well.

The Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth has written for Tamestit before, in 2009 – a concerto for viola and orchestra. This much more private utterance, a response to the saturation posed by new media and some thoughts on how we can get away from that, takes a few quotations from the Concerto.

Performance verdict

These are excellent Bach performances, from a performer who is notable both for his technical command and expressive input. Tamestit ensures the Bach suites really dance, by taking pretty fast speeds but also giving plenty of air to the music. It suits the faster movements down to the ground, while the slower Sarabandes take time out for reflection.

The new piece Weariness heals wounds also gets a fine and concentrated performance. Tamestit clearly believes in this composer, and in the course of the ten minutes it is easy to hear the themes of frustration and saturation coming to the surface.

What should I listen out for?

Bach – Cello Suite no.1

1:37 – being up an octave from the cello original replaces the mellow sound of the lower instrument with a brighter viola. It works well as the dancing figures of the Prelude begin to work their magic. Towards the end an obsessive figure breaks out into a sunny finish.

3:42 – an Allemande, the first of the dance music, is relaxed and airy, and Tamestit adds to this feeling by slowing down at times in the more reflective passages. It is an effective technique.

7:50 – the Courante is a bit more lively, suggesting a quicker step in the dancing feet. Tamestit almost loses his way in the first half, with what seems like a memory lapse, but also adds some attractive ornamentation to Bach’s melodies, which is the performer’s prerogative here.

10:14 – the lovely Sarabande, a slower dance. Tamestit doesn’t let the bow rest on the string for too long, so the notes seem a bit shorter, and as a consequence they are lighter.

12:45 – the lively pair of Minuet begins, with a bracing first followed by a solemn second (beginning at 13:54 – and taken pretty fast by Tamestit here). As is customary in these suites, we hear the first Minuet again (14:45)

15:22 – the final movement in these Bach suites is always a Gigue, a dance of French origin in triple time that usually signs off the suite with some gusto. That is definitely the case here!

Neuwirth

18:33 – quite a biting start, with two strings playing pitches very close together that sound like quarter tones. The mood is tense and – as in the title – given with a certain weariness.

The jarring notes return again, suggesting that the new media is grating somewhat? Then a more aggressive section begins, where the bow is positioned near the bridge of the instrument to create a scratchy sound. Discomfort abounds!

At 25:15 a semblance of a tune begins, but it is uneasy. Then at 26:04 the ‘G’ pitch asserts its importance before a series of virtuosic and sweeping runs. Again the use of quarter tones is in evidence, and when the melodies get longer Tamestit makes the viola sound bluesy and mournful. The piece ends with a sharply plucked note.

Bach – Cello Suite no.3

31:19 – there is a nice and slightly mischievous approach in the stop-start Tamestit applies here, with grand gestures followed by quite hurried phrases. It works well as the Prelude progresses through a number of different but utterly logical keys, before going through a quick series of movements over a ‘pedal’ note, after which it works to a big finish.

34:11 – quite a bouncy Allemande this one, genial too.

37:47 – a Courante with plenty of energy, bounding out of the blocks. If you were dancing to this one – the cello suites do after all have dance movements – you’d have to be pretty quick on your feet!

40:24 – a grand Sarabande, which might not be as weighty in the hands of the viola as it is on the cello, but which still makes a strong impression. As so often in the slower dances there is time for intensely concentrated thought.

43:44 – a genial pair of Bourrées comes into view – another dance Bach used for some of his solo instrument works. Bach often writes one in a major key but contrasts it – as here at 45:07 – with a more reserved one in the minor key. Once again the first Bourrée is repeated, coming back at 46:22.

47:06 – the Gigue swings into action with an energetic burst. There is some quite dissonant double stopping too (more than one string played at once)

Encore

Kurtág – Perpetuum mobile, one of the Signs, Games and Messages

51:19 – this piece is little more than a gruff introduction and a few jarring notes lasting little more than a minute! Yet as always with Kurtág, whose pieces are famously brief but incredibly concentrated, it takes longer to write about his music than to listen to it.

Want to hear more?

Not many composers wrote for the viola on its own, but the composer Max Reger – for whom Bach was a hero and inspiration – wrote three suites. They can be heard on Spotify here as part of an album of his chamber music for viola, played by Nobuko Imai, who is accompanied by Ronald Brautigam in the substantial Sonata for viola and piano. The album can be found here

For more concerts click here

Miah Persson – songs for voice, violin and piano at the Wigmore Hall

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Miah Persson, Malcolm Martineau and Birgit Kolar perform works by Handel, Donald Waxman and Richard Strauss

miah-persson

Miah Persson (soprano), Malcolm Martineau (piano) and Birgit Kolar (violin) – Wigmore Hall, London & live on BBC Radio 3, 20 April 2015.

Listening link (opens in a new window):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05qypn8

on the iPlayer until 21 May

Spotify

In case you cannot hear the broadcast, I have put together a Spotify playlist of the songs sung by Miah Persson. She has not recorded any of them as yet, so I have selected suitable alternatives. The playlist can be found here:


What’s the music?

Handel – 3 German Arias (1724-1727) (17 minutes)

Donald Waxman – Lovesongs (1989) (14 minutes)

Richard Strauss – Violin Sonata, Second movement – inspiration (1887) (8 minutes)

Richard Strauss – September and Beim schlafengehen (from the Four Last Songs)(1948) (10 minutes); Morgen (1894) (4 minutes)

What about the music?

The combination of voice, violin and piano is not heard much in the concert hall these days, but here Miah Persson, Birgit Kolar and Malcolm Martineau constructed a program of compositions using the forces spanning 265 years. A little imagination was required on the part of the listener – particularly in two of the three Strauss songs where the violin was introduced – but otherwise the combination worked well.

Handel’s three German Arias are part of a group of nine he wrote while setting poetry by his friend Heinrich Brokes – and they are his only settings in the language. Each is scored for a singer, a treble instrument (the violin in this case) and ‘continuo’ – which is the group of people supplying either bass line, chords or both. In this case Malcolm Martineau’s piano comfortably fulfilled that discipline.

Donald Waxman celebrates his 90th birthday this year, inviting comparisons with Elliott Carter, the grandest of old men of American music. Waxman’s best known musical currency is the song, and this group of four love songs contains poems about love by Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Herrick, an anonymous author and Thomas Hardy.

Finally three songs by Richard Strauss, introduced by the luscious, Romantic harmonies of the second movement of his Violin Sonata. Two of the composer’s last songs are chosen as well as an early song, Morgen, which was a wedding present to his wife.

Performance verdict

Miah Persson has a rather special voice, and heard in person at the Wigmore Hall it could easily melt the most stubborn heart.

This program was a slightly curious one, but made sense in the way it was presented. Handel’s word painting was brought to life by Persson in three of the Nine German Arias, which she sang beautifully – restrained but elegant. Meanwhile Donald Waxman’s rich Loveletters offered a more obviously Romantic view of the world and were passionately sung.

The violin was a helpful counterpart here, but was not always at its most useful in the Strauss songs, picking up elements of the orchestral part for which it was written, and ensemble with Martineau was just occasionally scrappy at the beginning and end of songs.

Two of Strauss’s Four Last Songs felt a bit bereft without the others, and despite Malcolm Martineau’s superhuman efforts there was too much going on in the piano version. Morgen, however, was a sumptuous finish to the program.

What should I listen out for?

Handel

1:49 Das zitternde Glänzen der spiegelden Wellen (The shimmering gleam of dancing waves)

This attractive aria begins with a bright violin solo, before a similarly bright entrance from the soprano. The two instruments Martineau’s very sensitive playing brings out the countermelodies when they are needed.

7:53 In den angenehmen Buschen (In these pleasant bushes, where light and shade intermingle)

A shadow falls over the music initially, with a solemn violin solo presumably painting the shade of the text. The bright soprano soars beautifully overhead, however, and finds a rather lovely major key at 9:01, then a brief but really stunning piece of virtuosity to close at 12:11.

13:00 Meine seele hort ihm Sehen (My soul hears through seeing)

‘How all things rejoice and laugh’ is the text during this aria, and Persson seems to be doing just that, her bright voice complemented perfectly by the relative restraint from Kolar and Martineau. This aria, as the BBC Radio 3 announcer Sara Mohr-Pietsch observes, is full of the joys of spring.

Waxman

20:07 Lovesong (Rainer Maria Rilke) – this piece is just for voice and violin and has a curiously exposed feeling, right from the opening notes from the violin. Kolar plays double stopped (more than one note at once) until Persson glides in, at which point she largely switches to a single note. The tonality is often elusive but the song is carefully thought.

23:57 The Mad Maid (Robert Herrick) – the two instruments begin with unhinged figures that threaten to settle into a busy, Stravinsky-like rhythm, with plenty of syncopations – yet the song feels beyond reach, rather like the mind of the maid, right through to its colder conclusion.

28:16 Nocturne (Anon) – a more obviously romantic song. The close interplay between violin and piano leads to a slow, sonorous melody from the singer. There is a much sweeter aftertaste to this encounter.

32:04 A Bygone Occasion (Thomas Hardy) – a festival air to the last song through the busy piano line, with some jazzy elements in the exchanges with violin. Again Persson’s voice is imperious, and joyful too.

Richard Strauss

35:20 – Violin Sonata, Second movement – an improvisatory and rapturous movement for violin and piano, exploring rich harmonies and melodies. The piano part is particularly full-bodied, as though Strauss were writing for a miniature orchestra. A choppy central section introduces some turbulence that rights itself for a return to the main theme.

43:37 – September from the Four Last Songs­ – this may be music of an old man (Strauss was 84 at the time of composition) but it is clearly a man who has enjoyed a good life. Persson sings with real passion, and the note where she comes back in at 45:07 is worth hearing several times!

48:06 – Beim schlafengehen (When falling asleep)­ – the sleep here of course is the ultimate, end-of-life sleep – but Strauss paints a contented picture, as does Persson – though the piano part has a job rendering all the orchestral detail with just two hands! The violin arrives to help at 49:44, upon which the soprano becomes more and more powerful, the vocal line sweeping upwards as though reaching for heaven.

Encore

54:09 – Morgen (Morning) – one of Strauss’s most celebrated songs, and in the intro the listener can almost imagine the sun hovering at the horizon, ready to break through and begin the day. With it comes an atmosphere of intense calm, taken up by Persson.

Want to hear more?

During the Waxman in particular I was put in mind of the songs of Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland, both found on a wonderful disc from the soprano Barbara Bonney, accompanied by none other than André Previn. It can be heard on Spotify here

For more concerts click here