With the hot weather continuing in the UK, here is a delightful few minutes spent in the company of Samuel Barber – his only work for wind quintet:
Published post no.2,572 – Sunday 22 June 2025
Summer music – Barber: Summer Music
Reply
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Summer music – Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
It’s a hot summer evening here in the UK – and thoughts have turned to the wonderful score Mendelssohn completed as incidental music to Shakespeare’s play.
Here it is, with Walter Weller conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra:
In concert – Anne Queffélec @ Wigmore Hall: Mozart and a French ‘musical garden’
Anne Queffélec (piano)
Mozart Piano Sonata no.13 in B flat major K333 (1783-4)
Debussy Images Set 1: Reflets dans l’eau (1901-5); Suite Bergamasque: Clair de lune (c1890, rev. 1905)
Dupont Les heures dolentes: Après-midi de Dimanche (1905)
Hahn Le Rossignol éperdu: Hivernale; Le banc songeur (1902-10)
Koechlin Paysages et marines Op.63: Chant de pêcheurs (1915-6)
Schmitt Musiques intimes Book 2 Op.29: Glas (1889-1904)
Wigmore Hall, London
Monday 28 April 2025 (1pm)
by Ben Hogwood picture of Anne Queffélec (c) Jean-Baptiste Millot
The celebrated French pianist Anne Queffélec is elegantly moving through her eighth decade, and her musical inspiration is as fresh as ever. The temptation for this recital may have been to play anniversary composer Ravel, but instead she chose to look beneath the surface, emerging with a captivating sequence of lesser-known French piano gems from the Belle Époque, successfully debuted on CD in 2013 and described by the pianist herself as “a walk in the musical garden à la Française.”
Before the guided tour, we had Mozart at this most inquisitive and chromatic. The Piano Sonata no.13 in B flat major, K.333, was written in transit between Salzburg and Vienna, and the restlessness of travel runs through its syncopation and wandering melodic lines. Queffélec phrased these stylishly, giving a little more emphasis to the left hand in order to bring out Mozart’s imaginative counterpoint. She enjoyed the ornamental flourishes of the first movement, the singing right hand following Mozart’s Andante cantabile marking for the second movement, and the attractive earworm theme of the finale, developed in virtuosic keystrokes while making perfect sense formally.
The sequence of French piano music began with two of Debussy’s best known evocations. An expansive take on the first of Debussy’s Images Book 1, Reflets dans l’eau led directly into an enchanting account Clair de Lune, magically held in suspense and not played too loud at its climactic point, heightening the emotional impact.
The move to the music of the seldom heard and short lived Gabriel Dupont was surprisingly smooth, his evocative Après-midi de Dimanche given as a reverie punctuated by more urgent bells. Hahn’s Hivernale was a mysterious counterpart, its modal tune evoking memories long past that looked far beyond the hall. Le banc songeur floated softly, its watery profile evident in the outwardly rippling piano lines. The music of Charles Koechlin is all too rarely heard these days, yet the brief Le Chant des Pêcheur left a mark, its folksy melody remarkably similar to that heard in the second (Fêtes) of Debussy’s orchestral Nocturnes.
Yet the most striking of these piano pieces was left until last, Florent Schmitt’s Glas including unusual and rather haunting overtones to the ringing of the bells in the right hand. Queffélec’s playing was descriptive and exquisitely balanced in the quieter passages, so much so that the largely restless Wigmore Hall audience was rapt, fully in the moment. Even the persistent hammering of the neighbouring builders, a threat to concert halls London-wide, at last fell silent.
Queffélec had an encore to add to her expertly curated playlist, a French dance by way of Germany and England. Handel’s Minuet in G minor, arranged by Wilhelm Kempff, was appropriately bittersweet and played with rare beauty, completing a memorable hour of music from one of the finest pianists alive today.
Listen
You can listen to this concert as the first hour of BBC Radio 3’s Classical Live, which can be found on BBC Sounds. The Spotify playlist below has collected Anne Queffélec’s available recordings of the repertoire played:
Published post no.2,517 – Tuesday 29 April 2025
In concert – Viktoria Mullova & Alasdair Beatson @ Wigmore Hall: Beethoven & Schubert
Viktoria Mullova (violin), Alasdair Beatson (fortepiano)
Beethoven Sonata for piano and violin no.6 in A major Op.30/1 (1802)
Beethoven Sonata for piano and violin no.8 in G major Op.30/3 (1802)
Schubert Rondo brillant in B minor D895 (1826)
Wigmore Hall, London
Monday 7 April 2025 (1pm)
by Ben Hogwood
Violinist Viktoria Mullova and pianist Alasdair Beatson have been exploring Beethoven’s works for piano and violin for a while now, and this concert demonstrated the rapport they have built with the music – and the Wigmore Hall audience.
On a bright March day in London the Spring Sonata might have been the most appropriate choice – more of which later – but instead we enjoyed an unsung gem among Beethoven’s works for this combination. This was the Sonata for piano and violin no.6 in A major Op.30/1, the least heard of the trio published as Op.30 and a work brimming with good spirits in this performance.
As our BBC Radio 3 host Andrew McGregor informed us, Alasdair Beatson was playing a fortepiano copy of a Conrad Graf instrument, and it brought a wide range of tonal colour to the hall, with mottled treble and a wonderfully grainy lower register. Beatson and Mullova played as one, finishing each other’s sentences, or joining in unisons which could not be split. Op.30/1 warmed to this treatment, its bursts of energy complemented by tender, charming asides. Mullova’s intonation took a little while to settle, but once secured her phrasing was a delight. The soft centred, sweetly toned second movement was followed by an Allegretto con variazioni finale with terrific energy, driving up to and through a sparkling finish.
The Sonata for piano and violin no.8 in G major Op.30/3 followed – a charming work, especially in a performance such as this. Mullova and Beatson were on the edge, justifying a daringly fast tempo choice for the first movement with tight ensemble and drive, Mullova exaggerating the louder notes to put the listener in mind of the sort of sound Beethoven himself would surely have loved. The bubbly first movement was charming, its confidential asides well worth savouring, the togetherness between the two musicians truly admirable. The Tempo di minuetto explored darker moods, notably its brief passage in the minor key which cast a shadow over the return of the previously sunny first theme. The irrepressible finale enjoyed its humourous ‘wrong’ notes, recalling Haydn’s ‘Bird’ string quartet in their impudence.
It is hard to imagine a better performance of Schubert’s Rondo brillant, with which the concert ended. Here the two performers were like dancers in hold as they explored the composer’s unusual rhythmic terrain, bringing a sense of occasion to the introduction and an attractive sway to the dance rhythms as Schubert’s abundant melodies unfolded. A strong central section set up a series of virtuoso heroics towards the end, falling comfortably under Mullova’s fingers, while Beatson prompted with equal dexterity. The performance was a thrill from start to finish. As an ideal encore we did finally hear from Beethoven’s Spring Sonata – the beautiful second movement Adagio, given a charming lilt from Mullova’s phrasing and Beatson’s flowing accompaniment.
Listen
You can listen to this concert as the first hour of BBC Radio 3’s Classical Live, which can be found on BBC Sounds
Published post no.2,499 – Wednesday 9 April 2025
Storms in music – Sibelius: Tapiola
by Ben Hogwood
With the UK braced for the arrival of Storm Éowyn today, it got me thinking of successful portrayals of storms in music.
The first piece that came to mind was Sibelius’s masterpiece Tapiola, a remarkable and vivid orchestral poem written late in his compositional career about Tapio, the spirit of the forest. Its depiction of a storm is like no other.
Listen here, in a particularly incendiary account from the Berliner Philharmoniker and Herbert von Karajan, keeping an ear out for the storm as it begins around the 16:50 mark:
Published post no.2,421 – Friday 24 January 2025
Arcana.fm 