Darius Milhaud died 50 years ago today. One of the most prolific composers of the 20th century, Milhaud’s list of works extends to several hundred published pieces for all manner of instrumental and vocal combinations, with works for the stage, concert hall, chamber music and piano all filling the list to bursting point.
More recently his music has been difficult to find, whether on concert programs or recordings – and we hope to redress the balance a little over the next month, exploring some of his works – including all 12 symphonies and five piano concertos. For now, here is a performance of one of Milhaud’s best-loved works, the jazz-inspired La Création du Monde:
The Elgar Festival (27 May – 2 June) is working with a 40% funding cut from Arts Council England
In this short film, Festival Patron Julian Lloyd Webber introduces the Fundraising Campaign:
The Festival is raising money to help deliver its 2024 iteration, due to a 40% funding cut from Arts Council England
Donations are valuable in helping to continue the legacy of one of England’s most revered composers. As the festival’s organisers say, “We believe Elgar is for everyone and our developing range of events are for people of all ages, interests, and lifestyles.”
This handsomely packaged volume, published late last year, comes billed as ‘the first full-length history of a British period instrument orchestra’. That orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music, was born just over half a century ago in a London pub not at all far from the Crown and Anchor on the Strand, where the original Academy of Ancient Music was formed in the 1720s.
What’s the book like?
Enlightening and thoroughly engaging – as are the musical performances and recordings that are discussed in its pages. Richard Bratby, one of the Academy’s ‘Hogwood Fellows’, is a compelling storyteller, fully qualified to put the events of the group’s formation in perspective with those around them.
First we have the ensemble’s formation, a helpful base illustrating the radical steps Christopher Hogwood, Decca record producer Peter Wadland and their associates were taking – all borne of enthusiasm for the music and a wish for scholarly respect and exploration.
As venues, record companies and sponsors switched on to the benefits of the ensemble’s existence a whole new movement was formed in front of their eyes. This, the ‘period instrument’ movement, gathered pace at a striking rate in the 1970s and 1980s, where concertgoers and record / CD buyers were compelled to consider accounts of Handel, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi and their contemporaries as they would have been experienced by audiences of the day.
Bratby tells of the Academy’s trailblazing cause, soon followed and challenged by rival ensembles, almost all to the good of Western musical life – and occasionally Eastern, thanks to the orchestra’s ambitious touring schedule – and the classical recording industry. Not everyone shared the enthusiasm of Hogwood and his charges, and there is a convincing inspection of the critical fallout and opposition, from Richard Taruskin in particular.
At every turn, Christopher Hogwood emerges as the character whose genial but passionate demeanour is the fulcrum on which the Academy turns, the spur behind the scholarly work with a public face. Even a BRIT award heads the Academy’s way! Wadland, too, is suitably credited for his part in the ensemble’s success, with a string of now legendary recordings detailed from the first – Overtures by Thomas Arne in 1974, to the more recent, imaginative offerings of Handel’s Brockes Passion and Dussek’s Messe Solemnelle on the ensemble’s own label. How the industry has changed in that time!
Does it all work?
At every turn. The wealth of authoritative sources gives the book real substance, and their input is judiciously managed. The ‘back office’ staff get the platform and credit they deserve, too, their valuable insight a reminder of the difficulties orchestras face from day to day. The impact of the Coronavirus pandemic is keenly felt, in what must be the first book of its kind to detail the impact of lockdown on every aspect of musical life.
The players, too, get their due credits – and there are frank and often amusing tales of life on tour and in the studio. What comes through more than anything is the love of the great music the group are performing and recording, and the desire to make these new interpretations available.
The only slight pang is the lack of a full discography, which would have helped illustrate just how hard these musicians and their colleagues worked to bring us symphonic cycles by Mozart, Beethoven and – almost – Haydn. To get that idea, however, the ensemble’s Discogs page has the vast majority of their recordings listed.
Is it recommended?
Heartily. Refiner’s Fire does what the best books on music should do – and has you scuttling for the stereo to bring the music off the page. When you do, you will realise just what an important part the Academy of Ancient Music have played – and continue to play – in how we now hear the music of the past.
Listen and Buy
To stress the points above, here is a playlist of just some of the recordings mentioned in the book:
Finally, a disclaimer – as the author of this review I can confirm I am (unfortunately!) not related to Christopher Hogwood. It is a question I am often asked, being also from the East of England!
Oil painting of Beethoven by Isidor Neugass in the collection of Prince Lichnowsky, 1806
32 Variations in C minor WoO80 for piano (1806, Beethoven aged 35)
Dedication unknown Duration 11’30”
Listen
by Ben Hogwood
Background and Critical Reception
1806 was proving to be an extremely productive year for Beethoven. So much so that Jan Swafford, in his biography of the composer, talks of it as a ‘minor work’, which Beethoven ‘dashed off and forgot about’. He failed even to recognise them in public when the daughter of the piano maker Streicher played them.
For Lewis Lockwood, the variations ‘belong to a group of ‘heroic’ works written in 1806’. He describes the ‘standard Baroque passacaglia theme’, and how ’every variation except the last is equally brief, making the work a parade of short, brilliant pianistic transformations in the same rigorously maintained length and form.’ Beethoven’s contemporary, Carl Czerny, was impressed, who recommended that ‘since the theme is short, this work is best performed in public for a thinking public’.
32 variations was an inordinately high number of variations, almost certainly the most any composer had used in a single piece at that time. Lockwood notes that this may have acted as a spur when Beethoven outdid himself by one more variations when writing his great Diabelli opus later in life.
Thoughts
This certainly doesn’t sound like a minor work, at any point!
Beethoven casts an imposing theme, in spite of its brevity, sharply dotted like the beginning of a baroque overture. Stabbed, repeated notes means we fly through the first variations (1-3), and Beethoven almost gestures for the listener to keep up as he proceeds on his way with incredibly fluent composition, the variations easily but indelibly linked.
The massive seven-note chords to Variation 6 show the scale on which he was thinking for the pianist, though after a flurry of notes there is a rare note of calm as C major arrives for Variation 12. The next four variations proceed in the major key, as the compelling arguments continue – before we return to the minor key and some remarkable outbursts and figurations, straining at the link with almost unbridled fury.
The whirlwind of inspiration includes passages reminiscent of the Pathétique and Waldstein sonatas, before the variations finish almost as quickly as they arrived, signing off with a cheeky pianissimo for the last two chords.
Recordings used and Spotify playlist
Cécile Ousset (Eloquence) Rudolf Buchbinder (Teldec) Ronald Brautigam (BIS) Emil Gilels (EMI) Olli Mustonen (Decca) Angela Hewitt (Hyperion)
There are some very fine recordings of these variations, from Angela Hewitt, Mitsuko Uchida and Rudolf Buchbinder. Two, however, stand proud – the magisterial Emil Gilels, typically masterful in performance and execution, and Cécile Ousset, a performance of great character and flair as part of her wonderful collection of Beethoven variations. The work is much-loved and a great concert piece, too.
Four Tet has an album ‘coming soon’, as announced on his Instagram page today (10 January) The first track released from it is Loved, presenting his first new original material in eight months. As regular followers will know this is a relatively long period of inactivity for the producer – real name Kieran Hebden – but suggests the start of a busy year.
What’s the music like?
Languid – and enjoyably so. This is a contented side to Four Tet that picks up where previous track Three Drums left off, though this time there is a leaner texture and even more dreaminess. Both pieces of music suggest he is in a better place where music is concerned, a year and a half after his legal wranglings with former label Domino were resolved.
A slow beat, borne of hip hop and not far from the likes of early DJ Shadow, sets a relaxed backing over which cool and airy keys spin their magic. It is a blissful listen.
Does it all work…and is it recommended?
Yes indeed. Hebden is known for his consistency while always forging ahead or taking interesting paths – and this is no exception. Loved bodes well for the new album.
Arcana.fm 