Tag Archives: Warner Classics

Talking Heads: Martin James Bartlett

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by Ben Hogwood

In this interview, the affable pianist talks about his new album of Bach, Mozart and Britten works for piano and orchestra, delighting in the opportunity he had to record it in Salzburg, and giving insight into the performance, recording and instrument he played.

Pianist Martin James Bartlett has joined Arcana to talk about his cleverly programmed new album of concertos. Bartlett, who won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2014, has since earned a regular contract with Warner Classics, recording themed solo albums, Rhapsody with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and now an album of works by J.S. Bach, Mozart and Britten, made with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and conductor Howard Griffiths.

When we speak, Bartlett has already had the pleasure of giving two enthusiastically received concerts at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2026 – a solo recital and a piano duo concert with his friend and label mate Mariam Batsashvili.

“It has been wonderful – twice in two months – but I’m not going to be there every month! John Gilhooly has invited me back again, but in 2029 – because they book so far ahead. There’s a great song history of the Wigmore Hall, which is fabulous, because you go into the backs and you see all the photos of pianists and singers!” He confesses to being more than a little unnerved by the pictures. “It’s terrifying! You’re warming up backstage in the room where there is a picture of Artur Rubinstein, and it is quite imposing because you are stepping onto hallowed ground. In the end, it comes down to thinking, “I love this music, and I know the audience are there to have a good time. People don’t buy tickets unless they want a good evening out, and you’ve just got to enjoy it and have fun with it, even in spite of the pressure from the previous greats who have trod the boards.”

Does he think he might venture onto record with Batsashvili, in the form of some two-piano repertoire? “Well, it would be lovely to do it”, he says. “It’s one of those ones where there can often be so much red tape about who you can record with. It really helps that we’re both with Warner Classics, and the lovely thing is that they came along to see us both at the Wigmore concert. I’m sure we would have a great time working together if the opportunity arose.”

Bartlett’s new album is a clever and sprightly walk through works that initially appear to have little in common, but which all enjoy a youthful disposition. That by Johann Sebastian Bach is the substantial Keyboard Concerto in D minor, BWV1052, and it is refreshing to hear this work back on the piano. “It’s one of those things”, says Bartlett, “that when you look back at the great composers they were all in favour of the progression of the instrument as well as the art form. Liszt himself was trying out all of these new instruments, and Bach was interested in cultivating the future form of the instrument. Whenever you record something that is a ‘period piece’, it’s always a choice of how historically informed you want to be, and how modern and individual you wish to make it. For me, playing on the piano is an amazing thing, because I have no doubt that Bach would have really loved the piano as well. I love the harpsichord too, and that’s the nice thing – I love all forms of today’s instrument. I love the clavichord, where you can do vibrato on each note because it holds the string. I love the organ works of Bach, too – it just so happens that I’m a pianist, so that’s the instrument I use!”

The versatility of Bach is a key helping factor, too. “You could play Bach on a hollowed-out carrot, and it would still move you! That music transcends everything, and when the intention is so strong, you can do what you like with it. There are so many recordings of people singing the First Cello Suite, and there’s the wonderful singer Angélique Kidjo, who has worked with Alexandre Tharaud – they do Bach together, and it works so brilliantly.”

The youthful thread through the album is enhanced by Mozart’s Piano Concerto no.9, the young composer’s first notable piano concerto success – and a daring piece of music for its time. Bartlett agrees. “It’s the piece that helped Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto come along, and that idea of there not being a huge opening ‘tutti’. The piano interrupts almost precociously, which would not be surprising given that it’s Mozart. I loved when I was thinking about the album how these pieces pushed classical music forward. Bach’s piece is one of the first keyboard concertos, and it takes so much from the past. It’s quite evidently inspired by Vivaldi – however it’s also pushing forward. That’s exactly the same with the Mozart, which really is such a beautifully conceived work.”

He goes into more detail. “I read some theories about the last movement, and the confusion around the name Jeunehomme. It was apparently misunderstood from Jenamy, the surname of the pianist Victoire Jenamy, and because Mozart had the most ghastly French accent, it had been noted down incorrectly! Her father was a choreographer, and ground breaking in the dance world. I surmise that’s why Mozart puts that minuet in the last movement, because it is ‘Presto’, and it’s moving quickly, and then suddenly there’s that breath of fresh air which is this little Minuet. I have no doubt it was written for her, or as side note to gain some favour with her father, who would have appreciated it. There is so much of a story in this music.”

The last movement, in fact, is almost a concerto in itself. “It has all those interlocking cadenza passages that get you back to that main theme that’s possibly bustling with energy. You have so many choices of what you can do there, and I just love that sort of creativity. It’s spontaneous music, written down!”

Was it helpful working with the experience of conductor Howard Griffiths? “I met Howard a couple of years back, and before we came up with this project, I was lucky enough to work with him in the Tonhalle in Zurich, and we did a beautiful concert where we played this concerto. It’s one of those relationships that you don’t come across very often, with artistic connection that is so easy. There are no laborious discussions about how to do something because you come to music from a similar perspective, and way of feeling it. That’s what I felt when I first worked with Howard.”

The rapport extends well beyond Mozart. “With the Bach concerto, how many different speeds is it possible to use to play the first movement well? You’ve got Glenn Gould on one hand, the slowest side, and then you have these harpsichord recordings, which are far more nippy and sprightly. Howard asked me to play the first beat, and he said “Brilliant, I was just hoping we would be able to move through it. For me the speed of these pieces dependent on the harmonic progression, and how quickly the harmonies change indicates the feel you want from it. Howard and I were on the same page, thank goodness!”

The pair were clearly having fun with Britten’s impetuous Young Apollo, too. “It’s interesting,” says Martin, “to choose a piano for an album like this. There are very different characteristics you might require for all three pieces, but this piano was just a dream. We got it from Bösendorfer, and I went to try it in Vienna. This one stood out to me, as it’s got such a beautiful tone – individual and characterful. I got a very nice message from Benjamin Grosvenor the other day, who had listened to the Bach, and he noted it was a Bösendorfer. It goes to show it has such an individual sound, that worked perfectly for this! What surprised me was I tried the beautiful bits of the Mozart and some of the sprightly bits of the Bach, and I thought, “Will it have the monumental sheer power to illuminate the sun god, Apollo? And my goodness, it did! When I crashed down on the bottom ‘A’ I thought it had was something of a ‘beautiful beast’, with the beauty and the power to work the Britten.”

His enthusiasm is contagious. “It has a capacity to do that “pearls on a string”, Rembrandt-esque thing, where you can see every facet of everything. At any speed, this piano provides the most gloriously rich sound in every note.” This works especially in the Mozart, with the dance being played out – to which the orchestra respond. “The perspective with Howard was that this was chamber music. Gone are the days where you have Mozart concertos that have a huge orchestral introduction but it is mismatched with the piano. We wanted it to feel like a piece of spontaneous chamber music where everybody is active in the production, and listening.”

The start of the Britten is indicative of this, with its bright colours. “It’s one of those works where I understand it musically very well, but I don’t understand the mystery behind it. It’s shrouded in mystery a bit for me, the love affair he had with this young German boy, and then Peter Pears. I only read recently that the man to whom it is dedicated, Wulff Scherchen, was discovered to be alive until very recently, and had been married 70 years – but still had all this incredible correspondence between him and Britten.”

The album’s tracklisting acknowledges the old form classical album, with full works and a linked programme, but also the new, where music streaming is key, and record labels look to release singles ahead of album release. “Again, it helps to have the versatility of Bach – that first movement especially. Playlisting is a double-edged sword – it’s wonderful, as it puts our music out there to so many more people. As an artist, though, I want my music to be on the ‘Wake Up’ playlist rather than the ‘Go To Bed’ one! I would rather my music thrill someone rather than put them into a lengthy snooze! However, when I think about the Bach first movement, it is perfect study music, because it is relentless in the way the harmony evolves. We came to this album from a slightly old-fashioned point of view, making it because it has incredible music – which hopefully means it will be on some playlists, which the first movement of the Bach already is, happily!”

The album was enjoyable to make, too. “The recording process for me was incredibly special, because I’ve never recorded anything in a different country to England. All of my albums so far have been recorded in London, but recording in Salzburg, where Mozart spent his youthful career working, was very special. To be able to get up every day, staying in the centre of Salzburg in those beautiful, crooked streets with cobblestones, get out of bed and know you’re going to record Mozart, walking down the streets that he would have walked himself, and in the snow too – it was so Romantic! If not a little hazardous and evocative.”

Bartlett immersed himself in the city. “I went into these wonderful restaurants, where they serve specialities like boiled dumplings. You feel close to being his friend, with a couple of hundred years in between! Then at the other end, the only place that was open late at night was a kebab shop across a river, across an icy bridge, about a 40-minute walk from my hotel. That brought me back to reality sharply!”

He is enjoying travelling after a concentrated period of work in England, with another visit to Bösendorfer in Vienna where the album was launched, “nestled into the Musikverein”. Thinking back to the Young Musician competition, was this what he hoped might happen as a result? “Every time something new comes up, it somewhat surprises me, as mentally I feel like I’m still the same person as when I was doing Young Musician! I feel incredibly grateful, especially with Warner Classics, who have allowed me to record whatever repertoire I want, and have really been on board when I’ve come with themes of Love and Death, you know? I’ve had such a wonderful opportunity, working with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for my Rhapsody, with their symphonic excellence, and now, with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, the most incredible chamber experience. To have that contrast has been wonderful, and it’s what I love about music. My albums are widely different to each other, as I’m a glutton for this amazing music! As Rachmaninov said, “Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime isn’t enough for music!” That’s how I feel, especially being a pianist!”

You can listen to clips from Martin James Bartlett’s new album, and purchase the recording, at the Presto Music website. You can read more about Martin at his website

Published post no.2,852 – Thursday 9 April 2026

Talking Heads – Alison Balsom

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interview by Ben Hogwood

We still think of Alison Balsom as a new artist, a breath of fresh air for the trumpet in and around classical music. Yet all of a sudden it is nearly 25 years since she burst onto the scene, winning the Brass Final of the BBC’s Young Musician competition in 1998. Since then her recording career has yielded no fewer than 15 albums, for EMI Classics and latterly Warner Classics.

Quiet City will be her 16th – and in many ways it is her most personal album yet, as Arcana found when we sat down for a chat with the trumpeter. Balsom has poured herself a cup of tea, and the chat is punctuated with comfortable silences as she sips tea and I write. An extremely affable presence, she clearly has as much enthusiasm for the music now as she did in 1998, if not more.

Quiet City, as you may have guessed, is named after the Copland composition for trumpet, cor anglais and string orchestra of 1939. A forward-looking piece, it became a popular pick for online concerts during lockdown, its scoring favouring smaller orchestras and its mood wholly redolent of the times. It has held a very significant place in Balsom’s life, too. “I didn’t know I was going to make an album like this”, she confesses. “Quiet City is one of the very first pieces that I fell in love with to a deeper level when playing the trumpet. Copland understands the trumpet’s qualities, the melancholy aspects of the instrument and how it could sing. It is a relatively short work, so it was interesting to think about what it should be programmed with. I don’t think of myself as a jazz trumpeter, yet there is a really interesting point where in America composers were writing ‘in the gap’, letting themselves experiment. It didn’t matter that it was classical or jazz, they were taking from both realms. I found that this made a coherent journey, and found the nuggets growing to album ideas.”

She recognises the relevance of Quiet City to the pandemic. “Copland was a visionary with what we needed.  We made this recording in November 2021, when we were just coming out of lockdown. We all had an intense feeling of gratitude to be able to play this music live with a feeling of stillness in the concert hall, a voice that said, “Aren’t we lucky to be here?!” It is such a powerful vision, evoking the atmosphere from the first section, looking between building in New York like an Edward Hopper painting. Even working with a piano reduction I was in a melancholy mood. With this music I think of a film like Lost In Translation, and of two people with a luxury life, going to very different places. There is an isolated melancholy but beauty too, like a friend. As a piece, though, it is technically and physically challenging to play.”

She elaborates further. “Sustaining the notes can be a physical struggle, but you need command of the sound, the articulated notes – and you somehow need to make them tentative and nervous. You want to convey someone practising in an apartment block or something, being wonderfully balanced with the cor anglais and communicating with your audience or listeners.”

The cor anglais part on this recording is taken by Nicholas Daniel, who Balsom professes undying admiration for. “He is such a great musician, and has such a strong feeling about that piece. It was inspiring working with him and getting his insight and thoughts. It was incredible working with the Britten Sinfonia as well, they have great integrity and are always minded for collaboration. I worked with them in 2017, when we did the Barbican’s Sound Unbound festival. We did Miles Davis and Gil Evans’ Sketches Of Spain, using transcriptions from the original studio recordings. I didn’t realise about the manuscripts, and there was a trumpet part revealed to me. He knew exactly what he wanted! I felt privileged to hear the players as at home playing jazz as they do classical.”

Also featured in the Sound Unbound concert was Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue, which appears on Balsom’s album in a very different guise – tastefully rejigged to bring the trumpet forward as a second soloist, alongside childhood friend Tom Poster on the piano. “I had a different hat on for this one!” she confesses. “I respect Tom so much, I think he’s the greatest pianist to play with. We met when I was ten, so we know each other really well. With the arrangement I phoned him up and suggested it, and he thought it was nuts but a good idea. We found that Rhapsody in Blue was out of copyright, but not in the Grofé arrangement. This made the job an enormous one for Simon Wright, who orchestrated it from scratch.  Any coincidences in the new version are Simon coming to the same conclusion as Grofé, and I think it is an amazing achievement. The piano part didn’t have to be set in stone, which gave Tom the opportunity to express himself even more. We did a concert in Norwich, when everything was closed, and we only had to get it right once to get it in the can.”

She may be 15 albums in, but Alison is keenly aware of how much the format has changed in that time, and how consumption habits are so different with streaming. “The greatest challenge has been finding my muse, making something that the world might want to hear”, she says, “and yet there is an amazing opportunity to pioneer. We put Quiet City with some things that we’re OK with, and some things that are more challenging, such as the Charles Ives piece The Unanswered Question, which I love, but Warner let me go for it. It’s a lucky situation to be in.”

Asking Balsom to cast her thoughts back, I ask who has been an influence on her career to date? “In terms of my teachers, I would say John Miller – an amazing teacher and trumpet guru. With him we focussed on sound, as the trumpet is all about the production of technique. I would compare him to Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid, he wouldn’t let me do the cool stuff but I’m so glad he did that! I then went on to work with Håkan Hardenberger, who taught me how to teach myself. Physically the trumpet is so challenging, but that’s not how you master it. Getting to Grade 8 is just the start! It has this incredible, multifaceted personality, it reflects who you are. We play our personalities through our instruments!”

Balsom’s husband, film director Sam Mendes, had a small hand in the album’s running order. “He suggested the use of Leonard Bernstein‘s Lonely Town”, she says, and was a good soundboard for how the album was fitting together.” Has she returned the compliment on any of his film scoring? “I have made a few suggestions!” – she smiles – “and of course he has got to know a lot of trumpet repertoire through me.”

She recognises a change of focus in the musical landscape since the pandemic, with much more emphasis on recorded music. In spite of that there are a couple of concerts planned for the rest of the year. “There was the launch concert at Snape, with full bells and whistles, which is quite a complicated affair but the only live version of the album we will be doing. After that it gets quite random, but on October I’ll be doing a recital with Anna Lapwood, the organist, and a lighting designer, at a school in Tonbridge. It’s going to be an immersive trumpet and organ recital. We know the music is amazing but how can we present it and immerse people in the music? I’m really looking forward to doing that, she’s a real force for good! I wanted an amazing acoustic and organ, and there will be a few new pieces for that one.”

Plans are afoot for a seventeenth album, too. “I have had a good chat with Trevor Pinnock about my next project. Over the pandemic we had to re-evaluate travelling and what we have a desire to do – and there are some exciting plans on the horizon!”

You can discover more on Alison Balsom by visiting her website – and you can hear more of Quiet City and purchase the album on the Presto website. Meanwhile for more information on her recital with Anna Lapwood, and to buy tickets, go to the Tonbridge Music Club website

On record: Kyung Wha Chung – Bach: Sonatas & Partitas (Warner Classics)

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Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Unaccompanied Violin, BWV1001-1006

Kyung Wha Chung (violin)

Summary

After 15 years out of the recording studio and a similar absence from concert halls in the West, Kyung Wha Chung begins a new chapter of a career dating back almost five decades with this first integral take on the Sonatas and Partitas for violin by Johann Sebastian Bach.

What’s the music like?

Written around 1720, when Bach was attached to the court of Anhalt-Köthen (a period giving rise to the many of his most important orchestral and instrumental works), these Sonatas and Partitas are to the violin what The Well-Tempered Clavier is to the keyboard.

They set a level of compositional and artistic achievement seldom equalled in almost three centuries. The alternation between forms enables Bach to pursue a clear-cut while never inflexible trajectory, with the formal clarity of the sonatas thrown into purposeful relief by the more diverse yet no less integrated layout of the partitas. Allied to this is an expressive range which extends from the poise and vigour of those movements adhering to dance measures, to the cumulative power of those appropriating more abstract models in proto-symphonic terms.

Recorded around the time of her 68th birthday, these accounts confirm that time spent out of the limelight has been to the benefit of Chung’s interpretative insight and conviction. No-one who comes to these pieces for the first time could doubt the intensity of her commitment, and while her playing betrays occasional signs of tentativeness or imprecision, there is never any sense of her technique being inadequate for this music (as, for instance, was that of Mstislav Rostropovich when he recorded Bach’s Cello Suites towards the end of his seventh decade).

Nor is there any doubt that these recordings are suited to the concentrated listening necessary for taking in this music at a single, two-and-a-quarter-hour sitting. Those who might wish to sample individual movements should head to the wistful Siciliana from the First Sonata, the incisive Corrente of the First Partita, the winsome Andante from the Second Sonata, or the nonchalant Gavotte en rondeau of the Third Partita. These interpretations are at their best in the two most imposing works: hence the Second Partita, its closing Ciaccona rendered with implacable momentum; and the Third Sonata, its imposing Fuga rendered with unflagging energy. Comparison with Chung’s 1973 recordings (Decca) confirms that any falling-off of technique is more than outweighed by the sheer intellectual control here evinced throughout.

Does it all work?

Yes, inasmuch that Chung’s approach is always commensurate to the stature of the music at hand. Music which, of course, can take a variety of interpretations – though the present set is notable for the skill with which Chung navigates between the poles of authenticity and that more subjective approach often associated with earlier generations.

The point remains that she secures a cohesion and consistency across all six of these endlessly diverse pieces as is achieved by precious few exponents, and this can be felt to override all other considerations.

Is it recommended?

Indeed. The two discs are logically presented as a chronological sequence, with succinctly informative booklet notes from Julian Haylock and a brief statement of intent from Chung. Among recent accounts, hers needs to be heard for its formal rigour and expressive insight.

Richard Whitehouse

Listen here on Spotify:

Wigmore Mondays – Beatrice Rana: Bach Goldberg Variations

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beatrice-rana

Beatrice Rana (photo Marie Staggat)

J.S. Bach Goldberg Variations, BWV988

johann_sebastian_bach
J.S. Bach (1658-1750)

Listen to the BBC broadcast here

Written by Ben Hogwood

The famous Canadian pianist Glenn Gould made his first, famed recording of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the age of 23. Beatrice Rana has just completed hers at the very same age, as BBC Radio 3 presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch informed us just before this Wigmore Hall lunchtime concert began. Of course the interpretations would be wildly different, but there was plenty here to suggest Rana is going to be a wonderful pianist for many years to come.

She decided to use Bach’s marked repeats, a move that stretched the piece to 75 minutes and caused the BBC to extend their traditional hour – a move in favour of their Radio 3 New Generation Artists that suggests they too know exactly what she’s about.

Rana took her time with the opening Aria, setting the scene perfectly (from 1:49 on the broadcast link above). Bach’s timeless writing made the greatest possible impact because of this, in music of great, profound meaning, and whenever textures filled up later on there was always the knowledge this sublime music would return to wrap things up at the end.

Not that Rana gave us anything other than clarity, definition and musicality. Only once was her rhythmic profile noticeably challenged, as she took a while to get a definitive pulse for the seventh variation, a gigue, but elsewhere she was white hot, fingers skating over the keyboard in the toccata variations. In the slow variations she gave the music plenty of time to breathe, investing deep emotion into the minor-key sarabande (from 32:57) and similarly pained variation 25 (from 55:07) She also used helpful silences to signpost the music and give both her and the audience chance to take a breath and digest the music a bit, wondering at this great music.

On this evidence, her forthcoming disc of the Goldberg Variations for Warner Classics should be snapped up, and future concerts followed closely. She certainly did Bach full justice here.

Further listening

You can watch Beatrice in the opening bars of the Goldberg Variations, recorded last year:

…or you can take in Gould’s 1955 recording of the Goldbergs below:

Meanwhile if it’s more Bach that you fancy, this Glenn Gould album gives you access to the amazing world of the Italian Concerto, the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor and the Partitas for keyboard: