Words on twentieth-century music

Norman Lebrecht's book may may have bitten the dust. But there is always Alex Ross' new magnus opus and much more beyond if you are looking for words on twentieth-century music. My header image shows a personal favourite music, Michael Nyman's Experimental Music - Cage and Beyond (CUP ISBN 0521653835). It was written in 1974, and although the 1999 edition didn't update it there is a new, and valuable, discography.

Elsewhere Mark Grant recommends Albert Glinsky's Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage, (University of Illinois Press ISBN 0252025822) while on these pages composer and violinist Elaine Fine argued the case for Peter Conrad's Modern Times, Modern Places (Knopf ISBN 037540113X). I have recommended Paul Giffiths' A Concise History of Western Music (CUP ISBN 0521842948) to several readers, and fellow blogger Garth Trinkl bought it, and confirmed that the chapters on twentieth century music are thought-provoking.

Nicholas Kenyon's excellent 1981 book The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC ISBN 0563176172 OP) is the best guide to the golden age of new music in 1970s London under William Glock and Pierre Boulez. The appendix listing first performances is a who's who of twentieth-century music. How ironic that it was Kenyon himself, as director of the BBC Proms, who later masterminded the transition from the riches of Boulez to the wretchedness of Ball.

William Glock was controller of music at the BBC from 1959 to 1972, and his autobiography Notes In Advance (OUP ISBN 0198161921 OP) paints wonderful portraits of musicians from Igor Stravinsky to Elliott Carter. I have quoted him here on Bruno Maderna. Glock championed the music of Elisabeth Lutyens among others, and she features in the invaluable 1994 The Pandora Guide to Women Composers by Sophie Fuller (Pandora ISBN 004409362), together with Elizabeth Maconchy, Judith Weir, Thea Musgrave and other path regulars.

The very positive response to my recent post on the British music champion Maurice Miles, and to my webcast of Gerald Finzi's Cello Concerto, confirmed that interest in twentieth century composers extends well beyond the fashionable few who now feature at the BBC Proms and over on Sequenza21. If you want to explore beyond the fashionable few, here are two titles that you won't see mentioned elsewhere. Both are out of print, but well worth searching out.

Peter J. Pirie's The English Musical Renaissance - Twentieth Century British Composers & Their Works (Gollancz ISBN0575026790 OP) does what it says on the can, but doesn't bang on it. It was written in 1979, and takes the story up to Peter Maxwell Davies. Good coverage of composers who should be better known, including Frank Bridge (who was a major influence on Britten), Percy Grainger, John Ireland and Peter Warlock.

My other recommendation is The Music Makers - The English Renaissance from Elgar to Britten by Michael Trend (Weidenfeld ISBN 029778403 OP). This covers the same period as Peter Pirie's book, but read it for portraits of characters such as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Rutland Boughton (I feel a path coming on - see below), Ethel Smyth and Lord Berners. Their day will come, meanwhile other book recommendations are very welcome.

Now playing - the original Hyperion vinyl LPs of Rutland Boughton's opera The Immortal Hour. This magical work is a 'choral drama' in the style of Wagner. Everything about it is extraordinary. It became a major commercial success in London's West End between 1922 and 1932. The libretto is by William Sharp (1855-1905) who transcended his gender and wrote under the name Fiona Mcleod. The first performance of The Immortal Hour was at Boughton's newly founded Glastonbury Festival in 1914, and the Festival went on to become a preeminent rock event. Most extraordnary is that, despite this high profile, The Immortal Hour has been swallowed in the mists of time. But thankfully the Hyperion version lives on in a budget priced CD re-issue. If you don't know it, you are missing something very special.

Now read about a classical label whose owner DJ'd at Glastonbury.
The letters OP after an ISBN denote Out of Print. But copies are usually available from second-hand dealers. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Berlin Philharmonic's first woman conductor

In 2005 the appointment of a woman music director by a major American orchestra caused a storm of controversy. So, it is surprising to find that it was back in 1930 that the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was first conducted by a woman, and even more surprising to find she was an American. But the story doesn't have a happy ending. Despite receiving critical acclaim, Antonia Brico found doors closed to her when she returned to the US, and was forced to form her own orchestras to continue her conducting career. She is seen above conducting in New York in 1945. (Image credit Dr. Ralph Weizsäcker).

Antonia Brico was born Wilhelmina Wolthus in Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1902, and emigrated to California with her foster parents in 1908. She attended high school in Oakland where she gained experience as a pianist and conductor. She went on to study liberal arts at the University of California, Berkeley, and also worked at the San Francisco Opera as an assistant to the director, Paul Steindorff. After graduating she studied piano under a variety of teachers, most notably under Sigismund Stojowski.

In 1927 she travelled to Europe to study at the Berlin State Academy of Music and was the first American to graduate from its master class in conducting. She then studied for three years with Karl Muck, who was conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra. While studying with Muck she had the distinction of working as a coach at Bayreuth. In 1930 Antonia Brico became the first woman to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic. This was not a token appearance. After her debut the critic of the influential Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that she "possesses more ability, cleverness and musicianship than certain of her male colleagues who bore us in Berlin."

But this positive press did not help her when she returned to the US after her Berlin debut. She was well received when she conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, but was not appointed to a vacant post there. Following a tour of Poland and the Balkans, she returned to the US where she appeared as guest conductor of the Musicians' Symphony Orchestra in many major citiies. However, she failed to win an appointment with any of the established orchestras.

Rather than accept defeat Antonia Brico formed her own Women's Symphony Orchestra in 1934, with backing from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In a wonderful example of reverse equality the orchestra changed its name to the Brico Symphony Orchestra in 1939 when it opened its ranks to male musicians. This review in Time of their concert in Manhattan Town Hall in March 1935 illustrates the prejudices that the Women's Symphony Orchestra faced:

Miss Beatrice Oliver played the oboe as if she had never heard of the doctors' treatises which warn all oboe-players against congestion in the head. She sounded A. The other players took the pitch. Conductor Brico appeared in a severe black jacket, bobbed her bushy head and the concert was off. The strings played soundly and vigorously through Beethoven's Egmont Overture, his Second Symphony, a Chopin concerto in which Pianist Sigismund Stojowski. once Brico's teacher, soloed academically. Brico conducted with force but not affectation. The strings were rarely delicate but they caught her determination. The trumpets were strident, too, but knew their notes. Only the French horns soured continuously. The women who played them seemed completely baffled.


The photo above was taken and shows Antonia Brico in 1938 with Mayor La Guardia of New York and Mayor Angelo Rossi of San Francisco. (Image credit NARA/SPB). In 1938 she had became the first woman to conduct an opera performance by a major New York company when she took the baton for the New York Hippodrome Opera production of Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel". And in 1938 she added another male scalp to her collection when she became the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. But she was sanguine about these achievements, saying in an interview "I do not call myself a woman conductor, I call myself a conductor who happens to be a woman"; words which were later echoed by a great woman composer.

Antonia Brico went on to conduct the Federal Orchestra at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Her programmes included contemporary American music, and among the premieres she presented was Elinor Remick Warren's The Harp Weaver at Carnegie Hall in 1936. She also taught, and her pupils included the child prodigy pianist and composer Philippa Schuyler for a short time in 1939. Brico resigned as Schuyler's teacher before the child's notoriously ruthless mother could fire her. Perceptively, in view of later events, the teacher wrote the following about her pupil: "Too many highly gifted childrem disaappear into oblivion because they play too many concerts during the formative years".

European tours continued for Antonia Brico, both as a pianist and a conductor, and she was invited by none other than Jean Sibelius to conduct the Helsinki Symphony Orchestra. The photo below shows her conducting the San Francisco Bay Region Symphony Orchestra in 1938. (Image credit NARA/SPB)


In 1942 Antonia Brico moved to Denver, Colorado. Again she founded her own ensembles, a Bach Society and the Women's String Ensemble. She also conducted the Denver Businessmen's Orchestra. In 1948 this unfortunately titled ensemble was renamed the Brico Symphony Orchestra. In the same year she was appointed conductor of the Denver Community Symphony (later the Denver Symphony Orchestra), and continued to guest conduct orchestras around the world, including the Japan Women's Symphony.

She also became a respected teacher in Denver. Her students there included the folksinger Judy Collins. In 1974 Judy Collins made a documentary film with Jill Godmilow about the life of her teacher titled "Antonia: A Portrait of a Woman". This film created considerable interest. In 1975 Brico was scheduled to conduct a single concert at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. But this sold out so quickly that a second concert was hastily arranged, and CBS recorded the concerts for release on LP. She made her last New York appearance in 1977 conducting the Brooklyn Philharmonia. Antonia Brico died in 1989 in Denver, Colorado.

* Antonia Brico's Mozart LP is still available on a Sony CD.
* Another classical connection with Judy Collins is Joshua Rifkin. He wrote orchestral arrangements for three of her Collins' albums, In My Life, Wildflower and Whales and Nightingales. It was Rifkin's 1972 recording of the B minor Mass that pioneered the 'one voice per part' approach to Bach. In My Life includes a setting of Francesco Landini's Ecco la Primavera that uses sackbuts, viols, and a harmonium. Her 1967 version of Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now on Wildflower was a major chart hit for Judy Collins. On it Joshua Rifkind conducts his own arrangement and plays harpshichord.

Now read about the Berlin Philharmonic's first black conductor.
Sources:
- Trust Your Heart by Judy Collins, Houghton Mifflin ISBN 0395412854
- New York Times, August 5 1989
- Sony/BMG
- Time, March 5 1935
- Time, Feb 4 1935
- Music Web International, Elinor Remick Warren
- Composition In Black and White by Kathryn Talalay, Oxford University Press ISBN 0195113934
- New Deal Network
- DBH cultural event newsletter, June 26 2007
- Wikipedia entry
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Staying at home with Couperin

"My ideal day would be staying at home and playing the harpsichord works of Couperin - new inspiration on every page" said Thomas Adès, and François Couperin is a major influence on the music of Adès, including his Sonata de Caccia, a trio for baroque oboe, horn and harpsichord.

If you don't have a harpsichord at home all is not lost. Michael Borgstede (photo above) has recorded the complete harpsichord music of Couperin. The performances are excellent, and the the sound captured by engineer Peter Arts in three different Dutch churches is very good. The 11 CD box is on the Brilliant Classics label, and that means it's at budget price - I paid £30 ($62) in the UK.

Michael Borgstede's background is interesting. He lives in Tel Aviv, and is the Middle East correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung as well as being a highly regarded harpsichordist and organist. Follow this link for a wide range of MP3 downloads from his website.

No excuse now for not staying at home with Couperin. And follow this path for another big harpsichord box.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

More on Norman's pulped fiction

The UK press (and some bloggers) have been strangely reluctant to cover the Norman Lebrecht versus Klaus Heymann case which I reported here more than a week ago. But today's Independent on Sunday reports:

"This week Penguin agreed to pulp all copies of Lebrecht's book, which criticised Mr Heymann. Behind the scenes the victory has been greeted with glee by figures in the classical music world who have yearned for Lebrecht's wings to be clipped.

Mr Heymann said yesterday ... "The book made me look like a shit, so something had to be done," he said. "When Lebrecht talks to people he doesn't take notes so he confuses and confounds what people say."

(Lebrecht's) polemics on the music industry have also made him many enemies, which is why this humiliation has been met with glee. Such is his power as a critic that few are willing to speak publicly against him. One of the world's leading conductors, however, told the IoS that Mr Lebrecht has, "for years, been getting away with "pompous, preposterous judgment" and "inept research".

Lebrecht said he could not comment on the Naxos case, but added: "The book contains a handful of minor errors, as most books do. They are being corrected." He also denied not taking notes or confusing his facts.".

But while we are on the subject of errors and confusing people a couple of points for the Independent On Sunday.

Their headline - 'Music critic's book is pulped as Penguin loses defamation case' - is confusing. Penguin didn't lose the case, it was settled out of court.

And it is an error to say on Oct 28 that 'This week Penguin agreed to pulp all copies of Lebrecht's book.' The pulping announcement was made ten days ago, on Oct 18, and was reported on this blog more than a week before the IoS ran the story.

Which is, presumably, why I received this email last week:

..........................

Lebrecht v Naxos‏
From: A.Johnson at independent.co.uk
Sent: 24 October 2007 16:46:38
To: overgrownpath at hotmail.co.uk

Hi there. I'm a reporter for the Independent on Sunday and I'm writing an article for this week's paper about the Lebrecht book on Naxos being withdrawn. I'd really like to speak to someone (off record if necessary) about the rights and wrongs of the row, the standing of Naxos in the classical music world, and the standing of Lebrecht. My numbers are below.

Everything in confidence of course.

Thanks for reading this. Please do not post.

Andrew Johnson
The Independent on Sunday

................................

Sorry about posting Andrew. But as a journalist famous for his polemics once blustered -"Until bloggers deliver hard facts … paid for newspapers will continue to set the standard as the only show in town".

Follow the Lebrecht paper trail here.
Image credit KMX Shredding, who are doubtless rubbing their hands. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

More than Player Piano Studies

Conlon Nancarrow (above) was born ninety-five years ago today, on October 27, 1912. Why does everyone, including me, always write about his Player Piano Studies? His String Quartet plays as I write in the Kronos Quartet recording. Happy birthday music.
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The sound of silence

Tip to contemporary composers. If you want your music broadcast beware of the sound of silence. I've been running into problems with extended low level passages on my Future Radio programme. The culprit is the station's silence detector which monitors the studio output. If it senses silence the smart circuitry assumes there is a fault somewhere between studio and the transmitter/web stream, and reroutes the output to a secondary distribution circuit. This then drops the internet stream, and if the silence continues the whole process repeats itself in a loop. In a word - problems.

The silence detector is standard issue in the new breed of automated radio stations which operate with minimal staffing. While I was presenting my programme last week I was the only person in the studio complex, and the previous programme was pre-recorded and played by automation. And this kind of automation will become the norm as the long tail of radio grows longer.

The silence detector thresholds are variables set by the station staff. The team at Future Radio have tweaked the settings to a generous 30 second threshold. But even with this I was very surprised to find it kicking in last week in the not very silent Duruflé Requiem, despite judicous manual compression. The real problem is that the technology that runs these stations is specified for heavily compressed rock music, and contemporary music is way outside the standard deviations. I'm trying not to let this problem influence future programmes. But I have put Paul Hillier's new Stimmung on hold until I'm satisfied it won't be censored by the silence police.

Tomorrow's programme comprises forgotten cello concertos from the baroque composer Leonardo Leo and the late-romantic Gerald Finzi. The graphic plot of the two recordings (from BIS and Chandos respectively) shows very different energy levels. The Leo should be fine, but the Finzi, with its beautiful thirteen minute Andante quieto movement, is likely to cause problems. These will be compounded by the programme being pre-recorded, as I will be listening to some reassuringly quiet live music at Snape while the programme is on-air. The Snape concert has Masaaki Suzuki conducting the Academy of Ancient Music in Handel and Bach (Lauchzet Gott in allen Landen). Thank heavens that the Maltings doesn't have a silence detector.

So apologies if the audio stream plays up on tomorrow's Overgrown Path radio programme. And if you are a contemporary composer, not too much Andante quieto please. Or, perhaps, you should just follow a very good example, and ignore the dictats of technology.

* Listen to the Finzi and Leo cello concertos, uninterrupted I hope, via the audio stream here on Sunday Oct 28 at 5.00pm UK time. Convert Overgrown Path radio on-air times to your local time zone using this link. Windows Media Player doesn't like the audio stream very much and takes ages to buffer. WinAmp or iTunes handle it best. Unfortunately the royalty license doesn't permit on-demand replay, so you have to listen in real time. If you are in the Norwich, UK area tune to 96.9FM.

Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The art of the bad review

Long Road Out Of Eden
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Give me digital - but not BBC Radio 3

Technology is changing the way we listen to radio, but classical network BBC Radio 3 is struggling in the brave new digital world. 15% of all radio listening in the UK is now via a digital platform according to research for the quarter ending September 2007 released yesterday by RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Limited). The data also shows that digital listening showed a big increase over the previous quarter, and that 1.6% of all radio listening is now via the internet.

The number of adults who claim to have listened to the radio via a mobile phone also showed a marked increase, up to 9.2% in the last quarter. Unsurprisingly radio listening via mobile phone was most common in the younger age groups, with 23% of 15 to 24 year olds listening this way. 2.8 million adults used their mp3 player to listen to radio podcasts in the last quarter, up from 1.97 million in Q3 2006. Listening to digital only services (radio stations which are only available on a digital platform) also increased, up from 4.8 million listeners in Q3, 2006 to 6.2 million in Q3, 2007.

Analysis of radio audiences showed that both BBC Radio 3 and the commercial station Classic FM gained audience in the quarter ended September 2007, up to 1.938m and 5.844m respectively. But these figures are not as good news as they may seem at first glance. This quarter is historically strong for classical listening, with Radio 3 reaching an audience of 2.214m in the same quarter in 2003. The quarter ending September covers the BBC Proms season when the network benefits from huge amounts of free promotion, with virtually every programme in the schedules devoted to plugging the Proms. Charging the monetary value of that on-air advertising back to the Radio 3 cost centre using John Birt's 'internal market' formula would be a very interesting exercise.

Despite the massive 'Proms effect' Radio 3 only increased listener share from 1.10% to 1.20% from Q2 to Q3, whereas Classic FM, without the cross-benefit of the 'world's biggest music festival', increased listening share from 4.00% to 4.30%. The classical audience are not particularly heavy listeners either. Average hours per listener of 6.30 for Radio 3 and 7.30 for Classic FM compared with 10.20 for the the BBC's rock network Radio 1, and 12.30 hours for the talk based Radio 4.

Surprisingly the average hours per listener for Radio 3 did not increase in the last quarter despite the 'Proms effect', and actually showed a significant drop from 6.90 hours in the same quarter the previous year. Sadly this data simply confirms what has already been said here; the Radio 3 schedule changes are missing both the popular and serious music audiences, and the network is increasingly vulnerable to the long tail of internet radio and applications like the Radeo internet player.

RAJAR website is here, and the data tables are here.
Image credit Tom Scarff. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Blogs - the new wisdom of crowds?

Music blogs go respectable next Monday (Oct 29) when I give a talk at Cambridge University. My subject is Blogs - the new wisdom of crowds? and I will look at why music blogs are so successful, and what their impact really is. The conflict between traditional journalism and the new bloggers will be considered, and new media opportunities such as webcasting will also be discussed.

I will be explaining how On An Overgrown Path started, present some readership data, and give inside tips on how to create a successful blog. And, of course, no presentation from me would be complete without a scholarly mention of Norman Lebrecht and BBC Radio 3.

Full details of the talk at Pembroke College are available on the Cambridge University website, and there is limited space for visitors. Any other organisations interested in a similar presentation please contact me via overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk.

Now read how blogging is doing it for our time.
Wisdom of Crowds is a book by James Surowiecki - recommended. Picture credit Rocky Music. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Weaving the Web Wider

Diversity is the lifeblood of music. I was reminded of this when reading the following in Robert Maycock's thought-provoking, but opinionated, book Glass - A Portrait:

"Unfortunately the dream of twentieth century music became corrupted. With hindsight the corruption was inevitable, because there was never enough money for everyone who wanted it. The system required selection and the exercise of power. These were the factors that brought about the rise and fall of 'the twentieth century music' that became so familiar during the century's final decades, because in narrowing the field down to one that was financially supportable, it also narrowed down the musical options.

Judging the claims, making the choices, redirecting the money: traditionally these would be grounds for exercising a Solomon-like wisdom, purified by detachment from the circumstances. The trouble was that it was becoming hard for non-specialist officials or members of committees to grasp the musical issues, particularly when it came to new music as it burgeoned off into the intricate and unfathomable realm of post-war modernism. They needed guidance. They went to the people who knew this world best, the people it had trained. Experts in new music were invited into the system. And that was how the system came to be run by those who benefited from it."

Is Robert Maycock right? Just a few years into the new century is the cycle repeating itself? Are the musical options narrowing? Are the experts running the system?

If music blogs are an indication the answer is yes. The Blognoggle elite are getting bigger, and are now part of the system. And sure, I include On An Overgrown Path in that statement. I am frequently contacted, via the blog, by journalists wanting background on music news stories. Flattering, but also frightening.

Where are the new blogs? Where are the musical options? Where is the risk-taking? Where are the young Turks ready to challenge the so-called experts? Where is the diversity on the musical web? Please email me with more newcomers like this one, this one, and this one.

Photo credit Spiderz Rule! - diverse but definitely not for arachnophobes. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Understatement of the week

Norman Lebrecht has written a big piece about Korngold.
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A pilgrim's final progress

Ursula Vaughan Williams died on October 23 2007 aged 96. She married Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1953, and contributed to several of his later works, including the magical Serenade to Music which sets words from The Merchant of Venice. The photo above was taken at the 1971 sessions for Vaughan William's Pilgrims Progress, and shows Ursula Vaughan Williams on the extreme left.

The Guardian obituary reminds us that, as well as contributing to her husband's work, Ursula Vaughan Williams provided librettos to a veritable who's who of twentieth century composers including Gerald Finzi, Alun Hoddinott, Herbert Howells, Elisabeth Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy, Anthony Milner, Alan Ridout, Phyllis Tate and Malcolm Williamson.

So ends an important chapter in the history of modern music. Although, sadly, it may not be recognised as such everywhere.

... Soft stillness and the night
Becomes the touches of harmony.
The Merchant of Venice, Act V

Here's a topical mix of Vaughan Williams and Norman Lebrecht.
Photo credit Godfrey McDominic/EMI. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Serial music - exploring the labyrinth

Several interesting points came out of my 'In Conversation' event with Alina Ibragimova before last night's Britten Sinfonia concert. One of them was that, following her CD of Karl Amadeus Hartmann's music, Alina's next recording will be the two violin concertos of Mykola Roslavets. In his excellent A Concise History of Western Music (CUP ISBN 0521842948) Paul Griffiths writes that 'The past is not a path we and our predecessor's have travelled but a labyrinth, and a labyrinth forever in flux', and Mykola Roslavets is an excellent example of how we are still exploring the labyrinth that is serial music.

Received wisdom tells us that Arnold Schoenberg originated serial composition, but did he? Mykola (Nikolai) Roslavets (left) was born in Ukraine in 1881. Although he was influential in the early years of the USSR as a champion of progressive Western composers, his music was politically suppressed at the end of the 1920s. Due to this he spent most of the remainder of his career as a ‘non-person’, and died in Moscow in 1944. But post-perstroika his music is having something of a renaissance.

Roslavets is of more interest than the many minor Russian composer of the period. He used a form of serial composition, and it may have pre-dated Schoenberg. The two composers approached the new tonal landscape from very different directions. Schoenberg used serial techniques to create a horizontal thread through his compositions, whereas Roslavet aggregated them vertically in a manner influenced by his countryman Alexander Scriabin. Roslavet's output included orchestral. chamber and piano music, as well as the two violin concertos that Alina Ibragimova is recording.

But Nikolai Roslavets is not the only pretender to the serial music crown. The Austrian Josef Matthias Hauer (below) was indisputably working ahead of Schoenberg. In 1919 he devised a proto-serial composition technique using twelve-tone rows with variable tone sequences. Hauer lived from 1883 to 1959, and his compositions were branded 'degenerate art' by the Nazis. In a link to another path Hauer is thought to have been a model for characters in both Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus and Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game. There is much unpublished music by Josef Mattias Hauer, and all his compositions after 1940 are described by him as Zwölftonspiel or Zwölftonmusik - twelve-tone song, or twelve-tone music. A recording project there perhaps?

Another piece of received wisdom worth revisiting is that serial techniques were the sole preserve Central European. In 1956 the English composer William Alwyn (below) developed his own take on the new tonalities in the Allegro of his Symphony No. 3. This uses an alternation of eight note and four note groups in a pattern suggested to the composer by Indian classical music quite sometime before Philip Glass and others made such fusions fashionable. William Alwyn may not have the cachet of his American and Central European peers, but his music certainly deserves greater recognition.

But in the end it doesn't really matter who invented serial music. As Paul Griffith explains history is not linear, but is a labyrinth where change is constant. Within the labyrinth several composers independently developed their own serial languages, and they are all worth exploring. Alina Ibragimova's CD of Nikolai Roslavets' violin concertos is being recorded with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and will be released by Hyperion in 2008. And there is more on William Alwyn here.

* I am aware that 'serial techniques' and 'twelve-tone music' are terms that may not be familiar to all my readers. Here is a wonderfully lucid explanation from A Pilgrim Soul by Meirion and Susie Harris. Which also gives me an opportunity maintain the gender balance by linking to another English pioneer of serial techniques, Elisabeth Lutyens:

'Serialism, the twelve-tone method was a logical extension of the abandonment of tonality (the key system) which had begun long before the end of the nineteenth century. As music progresses towards dissonance and away from tonality, it became obvious that some other source of coherence would be needed, some alternative means of organising the material as effectively as the key system had done.

The key system gave automatic priority to certain notes in the scale; but to those using the serial method, all twelve notes of the octave, black and white, were equally important, and all were used as the basic material of any composition. In serial music the fundamental idea of the composition was presented in a series of the twelve notes in a characteristic order, with no note repeated until all the others had been used, to ensure that none had precedence. The whole piece was to be evolved from this basic set, by a process of continuous variation and development, so that every part of the work could in some way be related to the original idea.

Both the horizontal and the vertical dimension of the musical 'space' were penetrated by the basic idea, so that not only the melodies but also the harmonies were regulated by the order of notes within the series and the relationship between them. For variety, the series could also be played upside down, back to front, and transposed up or down the scale, as long as the order of the notes was preserved.

Those who used the serial technique felt it vital to explain that it was no more mechanical, no more a formula than the key system with all the rules it possesses. It was not a prescription, but a tool to help different composers express themselves differently, adapting the method to their own ends. 'I do not compose principles,' wrote Schoenberg angrily, 'but music'.'


Main images are, of course, by M C Escher. The header is Convex and Concave, the lower is Day and Night. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Remembering a forgotten maestro

Last Friday's BBC Radio 3 broadcast of Vaughan Williams' Fifth Symphony, played by the Ulster Orchestra conducted by John Lubbock, contained more beauty in one bar than was to be found in the whole of Riccardo Muti's recent London concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Why do we focus so much on a few 'star' conductors and orchestras? And why do we consign to oblivion the forgotten maestros and musicians who work away from the limelight, and who contribute so much?

The Ulster Orchestra was created as a full time professional orchestra in 1966, and its first conductor Maurice Miles (above) is one of those forgotten maestros. He was born in 1908, and was principal conductor of the Yorkshire Symphony from 1947 until 1954. The orchestra played many twentieth century works, including more than thirty by British composers in his first season alone. His repertoire was eclectic, and he gave a rare performance of Arthur Honegger's oratorio King David at the 1950 Leeds Triennial Musical Festival.

But the star system was setting the musical agenda more than fifty years ago, just as it does today. In 1954 Maurice Miles was replaced as conductor in Leeds 1954 by the mucher higher profile Russian Nikolai Malko, who had given the first performances of Shostakovich's First and Second Symphonies.

Maurice Miles' specialities were never likely to become fashionable. Arnold Bax, and Arthur Butterworth were among the composers he championed. He gave the first performance of Gerald Finzi's beautiful Dies Natalis in the Wigmore Hall in 1940, and conducted Geoffrey Bush's Symphony No. 1 at the Proms in 1958. As well as his work in Northern Ireland Maurice Miles was a frequent conductor of the BBC Welsh and Scottish Symphony Orchestras. He spent decades advocating unfashionable composers with unglamorous orchestras, before, finally, turning to teaching conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

In the early 1980s my wife and I bought our first house outside Dorking, in the shadow of Ralph Vaughan Williams' beloved Leith Hill, and we were living there when our first child was born. The house was modest but nice, and it was on the kind of housing development that young people with families lived on. But a charming old gentleman moved into the house opposite, and lived there on his own. He travelled on the train to London several times a week, and kept himself to himself much of the time. But my brief conversations with him told me that he knew a lot more about my musical heroes than I ever would.

Our son was young, and we were preoccupied with those transient things that preoccupy young parents. To my eternal regret I did not spend more time with our neighbour Maurice Miles before he died in 1985, aged 77. Today he is just one of many forgotten maestros. But the wonderful music that the Ulster Orchestra continues to make means I will not forget him.

* This Sunday (Oct 28) I will play Gerald Finzi's forgotten Cello Concerto from 1955 on my Future Radio programme at 5.00pm UK time, together with another forgotten cello concerto from an earlier time by Leonardo Leo.

* He may have hit the spot with Shostakovich, but not all of Nikolai Malko's repertoire became fashionable. He also conducted the first performances of Nikolai Myaskovsky's Symphony No. 5 and Vagn Holmboe's Symphony No. 7 - where are they now? In fact Owain Arwel Hughes, of all people, recorded a cycle of the Vagn Holmboe symphonies for BIS some fifteen years ago, and I have the Symphony No. 2 playing as I write. It was what my late, and lamented, EMI colleague Douglas Pudney would probably have described as 'a justly neglected masterpiece'.

* But do listen to the Finzi Cello Concerto via the audio stream here on Sunday Oct 28 at 5.00pm UK time. Convert Overgrown Path radio on-air times to your local time zone using this link. Windows Media Player doesn't like the audio stream very much and takes ages to buffer. WinAmp or iTunes handle it best. Unfortunately the royalty license doesn't permit on-demand replay, so you have to listen in real time. If you are in the Norwich, UK area tune to 96.9FM.

Photo credit Discovering Leeds. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Now playing - the Hallelujah Chorus

'Hang on a minute, and take a deep breath. Now take another. The Rest Is Noise is a great book, with loads of insights and a unique way of joining musical history to cultural history to political history, and I've said so. Ross is an exceptional writer, and his blog is the hub for a great deal of classical activity on the web and in the blogosphere. But "He is the answer to all the lamentations about who will build the new audiences"?

No one can live up to that, not even SuperAlex. It's a bit of a conceptual leap to believe that people with only a passing interest in classical music up till now will become avid concertgoers, or even occasional concertgoers, once they've read The Rest Is Noise.'

Thank you Marc Geelhoed.

Picture credit Northeastern State University. My preferred version of the Messiah is Christopher Hogwood's with the Academy of Ancient Music and Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, but it is now deleted I fear. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The Well-Tempered Concert

J S Bach Violin Concerto No 1
J S Bach arr. Tansy Davies Prelude and Fugue No. 20 in A minor (first performances)
Hartmann Concerto Funèbre
Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht

This programme is being given in Cambridge, Norwich and London this week by the Britten Sinfonia. The 22 year old Russian born violinist Alina Ibragimova (left) is soloist in the Bach and Hartmann concertos, and directs all the works. She has just released a CD of Hartmann's music on Hyperion.

Before the concert in Norwich Cathedral tomorrow, ( Tues 23 October) there is an 'In conversation' event at 6.30pm. In living proof that youth is not a time of life but a state of mind, this event features Alina Ibragimova in conversation with me. As well as discussing the two concertos with Ms. Ibragimova I will be following some recent paths with her. These will include the challenges of a programme spanning baroque and contemporary music, and how composers such as Karl Amadeus Hartmann are victims of music fashion.

I will also be asking Alina about her project with British rap star Lethal Bizzle, and how far she, Tansy Davies and their contemporaries can push the boundaries of classical music. If any of my far flung readers have questions for Alina Ibragimova, email them to me and I will try to include them in our discussion.

Now read about the Britten Sinfonia's inspirational work with new music. And the orchestra is also an inspiration on equality. After this week's concerts, which have Alina Ibragimova as soloist/director and a commission for Tansy Davies, their next two concert series have Imogen Cooper as soloist/director in one, and their leader, Jacqueline Shave, as soloist/director in the other. It's no longer jobs for the boys in this part of the world.
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Lebrecht is right - Naxos is not in same league

Thought-provoking email about the Naxos v Lebrecht case:

'Lebrecht is right in so far, as Naxos product is not in the league of a fine opera recording of the 60 to 80s with top cast, recorded by DECCA or even DG, Philips or EMI. Their product will still sell in 50 years, whereas Naxos product does not have this unique quality, neither sonically nor artistically. A recording with a top approved cast with a conductor like Karajan (above) is still a seller today, even if recorded "only" in Stereo. The 5.1 surround sound format is no quality asset, for classical music this is not the decisive feature. That is the great difference to Naxos or other label products.

Sincerely, L. Ruschin'

Now read another reader suggesting that Naxos dumbs-down production standards.
Header image shows Herbert von Karajan with Christa Ludwig during a playback at the 1969/70 sessions for Götterdämmerung, which, as L. Ruschin says, continues to sell today. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Hommage à Pierre Boulez

Entre 1952 et 1955, Pierre Boulez composait " le Marteau sans Maître ", une pièce pour voix d'alto et six instruments, sur un poème de René Char, qui allait révolutionner le monde musical. Plus de cinquante ans après sa création, je peux enfin vous prouver que le marteau a bien trouvé son Maître.


Reblogged from Le regard de James. Anyway, what's in a name?
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Brand new music for harpsichord

Jean-Philippe Rameau - Suite in D
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach - Fantasia in A minor
Franz Joseph Haydn - Sonata No 31 Hob XVI/46
Vicent Rodríguez Monllor - Sonata XXVII in C minor
Interval
Jeremy Peyton Jones (photo above) - In Memoriam Gát and Brodsky - first performance
Johann Sebastian Bach - Sinfonia No 8 BWV 794
JS Bach - Sinfonia No 9 BWV 795
György Ligeti - Passacagli ungherese
JS Bach - Invention No 13 BWV 784
Toru Takemitsu - Rain Dreaming
JS Bach - Invention No 14 BWV 785
G Ligeti - Hungarian Rock
G Ligeti - Continuum

This was the programme for last night's risk-taking harpsichord recital by Jane Chapman at the King of Hearts in Norwich. What a delight to see so much contemporary music in a thoughtfully compiled programme, and it was an even greater delight to attend the world premiere of a brand new work for harpsichord. Jeremy Peyton Jones (photo above) was born in Devon in 1955, and has worked with John Cage, Christian Wolff and the British pianist John Tilbury who is a leading exponent of Morton Feldman's music. Here are Jeremy Peyton Jones' programme notes for the new work:

In Memoriam Gát and Brodszky - When it was suggested that in order to fit with the rest of the programme this new piece for Jane Chapman might have a Hungarian theme, I was at first at a loss to know how to make the connection. However the combination of Hungary and the harpsichord led me to János Sebestyén's (right) fascinating brief history of the harpsichord in Hungary in which two of the key players are the pianist and harpsichordist József Gát, one time student of Béla Bartók, who taught piano and methodology at the Academy of Music and became interested in early instruments, and the eccentric Hungarian music scholar Ferenc Brodszky who owned one of the only two harpsichords in Hungary in the 1930s.

One of my main preoccupations in the creation of new music is how music both connects us to the past and also, as with any new creative endeavour pushes us forward into the future. A precedent of my approach here is Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin in which he both makes a homage to the sensibilities of the Baroque French keyboard suite while at the same time specifically making dedications in the music to friends and fellow sodiers who had died in the First World War.

In evoking the memory of József Gát (photo below) and Ferenc Brodszky (two people I know very little about) I am not so much evolking a personal memory of them as making a connection with two of those who have been closely connected with the harpsichord, its music and its history and who are therefore two links in the chain which connects us both across our cultural landscape and to our forebears. My piece is actually about the process of memory and connection in general, and could be dedicated to the memory of any person who is no longer with us through the specific connections of keyboard vituosity and the regular shapes and forms of much baroque keyboard music.

A programme such as tonight's is all about links - the links between baroque music, the music of Ligeti in Hungary, the history and legacy of harpsichord music in Hungary, which join periods and locations of creativity and human artistic activity.

My piece explores our relationship with the Western musical heritage through the use of virtuoso harpsichord techniques achievable by the simulataneous use of the two keyboards along with references to more contemporary contemporary music styles. There is another connection to József Gát who acquired an Ammer harpsichord and, assisted by an engineer friend, tried to install a discrete anplier that touched the strings - similar to the guitar - so that there was no need for a complicated solution with microphone.

In Memoriam Gát and Brodsky is in three sections. I Fast and Furious; II Calm and Measured; II Rocking and Rolling.

The János Sebestyén website really is worth visiting, there are music samples and wonderful photo albums. And take this path for a harpsichord recording I could not live without.
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Norman Lebrecht and unchecked trivia

'For years, the British critic Norman Lebrecht has been throwing firebombs in the world of classical music, denouncing what he sees as industry evils in a provocative style that has sometimes been described as accuracy-challenged.

On Thursday, in an unusually crushing act of contrition, his publisher agreed to recall his latest book, destroy it, say “Sorry” and promise not to do it again — all over a few pages discussing Naxos Records and its founder, Klaus Heymann.

The book, “Maestros, Masterpieces & Madness: The Secret Life and Shameful Death of the Classical Record Industry,” was released in Britain in July. Mr. Heymann sued the publisher, Penguin Books, in the High Court of Justice, saying the book wrongly accused him of “serious business malpractices” based on false statements. He cited at least 15 statements he called inaccurate.

Despite the suit, Mr. Heymann said he did not think the book had a “negative impact” on his reputation. “But,” he added, “I don’t think somebody like Lebrecht should get away with 20 or 30 errors in a five-page article" ' - Reports today's New York Times.

'Until bloggers deliver hard facts … paid for newspapers will continue to set the standard as the only show in town ... that is the real scandal and it could have been exposed had the blogger taken the trouble to check his scoop ... the supposed fraud shows up the flaws of a classical blogosphere that trades in unchecked trivia ... online blogs won't become required reading until they start focussing on the facts’ - Wrote Norman Lebrecht in the Evening Standard on 8 November 2006.

Don't say I didn't tell you. But read the alternative view here
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New music with a Benedictine habit

My love of Gregorian Chant started years back when I first stayed in L'Abbaye Sainte Madeleine at Le Barroux in France and heard the Benedictine monks singing the Holy Offices according to the scholarship of Solesmes. Once you've heard plainsong at 3.30 in the morning during Matins you never forget it! The two photos here were taken by me a few weeks ago when I visited the monastery again.

On this Sunday's Overgrown Path programme on Future Radio I will be playing a twentieth century Requiem which is closely based on the Gregorian original. Composers from Victoria to Ligeti have set the Requiem Mass, but the non-restored Gregorian funeral chants of the Roman Rite are rarely heard. To rectify this I am starting my programme with the Introit, Kyrie, Dies Irae, Sanctus and Agnus Dei from the Gregorian Mass for the Departed sung by the monks of l'Abbaye de Fontgombault in central France.

The recording I am playing is on the invaluable Art & Musique label. Unfortunately, their CDs are very difficult to find outside France. My copy was bought in the wonderful Abbey shop at Le Barroux the day I took the photographs here. You can buy the recording online from the shop. This is my sort of CD - the sleeve notes say the following: 'The recording sessions took place in the 12th century abbey church of Fontgombault on the cold and windy days of March 12-14 2001. One can hear a little of the windstorm in the background.'

Maurice Duruflé wrote his Requiem Op. 9 in 1947 for full orchestra and organ, and it is is closely modelled on the Gregorian original. In 1961 Duruflé made a revised version for reduced orchestra and organ, and it is this version I will be playing to give continuity from the austerity of the opening plainchant. In fact the transition from the plainsong to the Duruflé is so seamless the linking announcement almost seems an intrusion.

The programme will be broadcast at 5.00pm UK time on Sunday 21 October. Listen online in realtime only via this link. And after that windstorm in Fongombault it must be raindrops falling on my chant.


Listen to the Future Radio audio stream here. Convert Overgrown Path radio on-air times to your local time zone using this link. Windows Media Player doesn't like the audio stream very much and takes ages to buffer. WinAmp or iTunes handle it best. Unfortunately the royalty license doesn't permit on-demand replay, so you have to listen in real time. If you are in the Norwich, UK area tune to 96.9FM.

All photos (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

More of Martinu's music please

Very successful mixing of old with the new at Norwich's King of Hearts last night in a concert by the quartet of musicians who make up the London Handel Players. The programme included J.S and C.P.E Bach, Handel, Leclair and Barry Guy's admirably uncompromising 1985 "Whistle and Flute" for flutes and eight track tape which was played by the flautist it was written for, Rachel Brown.

But the highlight of an outstanding concert was Bohuslav Martinů's 1940 Promenades for flute, violin and harpsichord, with its angular rhythms and sparkling writing for the harpsichord. A little known gem, and one that had me revisiting some of the many Martinů recordings in my collection.

My love for Martinů's music was sparked by Václav Neumann four LP set of the symphonies with the Czech Philharmonic on Supraphon which dates from the late 1970s. When the CD age dawned I bought Bryden Thomson's Chandos set of the symphonies (now deleted) with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. But sadly that set doesn't have the Slovak 'edge' of the Neumann records, or is that wonderful analogue sound on the Czech LP pressings?

There is much other wonderful Martinů. The Cello Concertos are under-rated, while the Field Mass and opera The Greek Passion are both masterpieces. (The Greek Passion is based on Christ Recrucified [1951], a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, which opens up another path). Two personal favourites among Martinů's orchestral output can be found on an Erato double CD, the Double Concerto for string orchestra, piano and timpani, and the sublime Frescoes of Piero della Francesca. The Erato CDs are now deleted (which is probably a measure of how far Martinů has fallen out of fashion) but you can still find them.

2009 brings the fiftieth anniversary of Martinů's death. Hopefully this will mean more Martinů and less of some other composers. Meanwhile the King of Hearts' innovative Autumn Festival continues in a few minutes with more Bach, and on Saturday evening Jane Chapman's harpsichord recital includes music by Ligeti, Takemitsu and Jeremy Peyton-Jones, as well as by Rameau, W.F, Bach and Haydn. Thank goodness some concert promoters are still prepared to take risks.

My photo shows Martinů (right) with the American composer Frederick Jacobi and comes from an excellent article by Anton Wagner.

Now download some other Czech delights here.
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Echoes of Soft Machine

Profile in today's Guardian of Robert Wyatt. He was drummer with Soft Machine until he was fired in 1971. Soft Machine (above) played at the Proms in 1970 when risk taking was still in fashion, and I wrote about them disturbing my sleep here.
Photo of the Softs in 1967 from Hulloder. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Royal Opera House loses the plot

The advertisement above is from the Royal Opera House's current press campaign. Their production of Parsifal, which gets a tiny mention bottom left, is conducted by Bernard Haitink (age 78) and John Tomlinson (age 61) is singing Gurnemanz. Which makes it one of the musical events of the year in my book. But, sadly, Holy Fools don't have as much sex(ist), or age appeal, as a 29 year old soprano.

Below is an advertisement from the programme for another memorable musical event in London, Otto Klemperer's 1961 London Beethoven Festival. It is followed by part of the acceptance speech Maestro Klemperer made when he was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from Occidental College, Los Angeles.


'The lawyer fights for justice; his highest duty is to go and permanently fight for innocent people, to save their life against the attacks of their enemies. And what are we doing, we musicians? We fight for the innocent Lady Music. Is she not accused? I think she is. She is accused of being useless, a thing of luxury. And is she not innocent? Is there any reason to condemn music to death? I do not believe it. The contrary is true. We musicians have to protect this noble Lady, Music; we have to save her from the attacks of materialism'.

Attitudes towards Lady Music have changed very little in some parts since that speech was given on 24 September 1936. But recognition of her contribution is increasing. A wonderful book has just been published which chronicles an important contribution to twentieth-century music. It celebrates the life and work of Imogen Holst, who was an important influence on English music for more than three decades, and who worked alongside that great figure of twentieth-century music, Benjamin Britten, for twelve years.

The stereotype of Aldeburgh portrays it as an exclusively male domain. But the inclusiveness of that most musical of places is reflected in the location of Imogen Holst's grave, alongside that of Britten and Peter Pears in Aldeburgh churchyard. The words on her headstone, from her father Gustav Holst's Hymn of Jesus, deliver a message that is still not fully understood today:

The heavenly spheres make music for us
All things join in the dance

Now join in the dance here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here, and read about Britten's women here.
The Beethoven Symphonies advertisement comes from my own collection. The Occidental College speech is from Klemperer on Music (Toccata Press ISBN 0907689132) - highly recommended for advertising agencies everywhere. Imogen Holst - A Life in Music is published by Boydell & Brewer ISBN 9781843832966. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Monteverdi's genius deserves far better

Mixing early and contemporary music isn't always felicitous.

For better news from Westminster Cathedral (above) follow this path, and this one for some rather better Monteverdi.
Image credit EssentialArchitecture.com. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

New classical recording becomes hot property

A classical record label suffered a major setback when master copies of its debut projects were stolen during a burglary in London. The files were stored on a laptop belonging to Court Lane Music, which was taken during a break-in at an apartment near London's South Bank.

The material included a choral disc scheduled for possible release on the Naxos label, and the final edit of a world premiere recording of Imogen Holst's string chamber music Imogen Holst was daughter of Gustav Holst and assistant to Benjamin Britten. The photo above shows Holst and Britten together in the 1950s. The Holst disc, which had already been previewed on BBC Radio, was due for release on October 22nd to celebrate the composer's centenary, but will now be postponed.

Thomas Hewitt Jones, producer at Court Lane Music, said: "We are absolutely devastated. This recording represented several months of work. Thankfully,the intruders did not take all of our backup drives, so we're hopeful we can salvage most of the disc from the original source files of the Imogen Holstrecording session. But we will have to re-record the choral disc in early 2008."

Thomas, a songwriter and TV/Film composer, also lost many original compositions that were stored on the stolen computers. Despite the loss, a promotional live tour of music by Imogen Holst and Frank Bridge will still be going ahead in November, with performances at the Holst Museum, Cheltenham, and the Britten-Pears Library in Aldeburgh.

Imogen Holst minitour November 2007
Cheltenham - 2 November, St Andrew's Church (in association with the HolstMuseum)Swansea - 3 November, St Mary's Church
Aldeburgh - 4 November, Britten-Pears Library
London Hampstead - 7 November, Burgh House
All concerts start at 7.30pm. Tickets online or by phone 020 7060 0607. Cheltenham tickets (2 November) from the Holst Museum on 01242 524846

More on the Imogen Holst centenary here.
Picture credit Britten-Pears Foundation. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Aldeburgh has always been about the new

Contemporary music is flourishing in Aldeburgh. Thomas Adès is the Festival's artistic director, innovative programming is pulling in new audiences, traditional musical boundaries are disappearing, and an inspirational £14m ($28m) creative campus will make new music available to future generations.

Teamwork has played a vital role, but much of the credit for this success must go to Aldeburgh Music's chief executive Jonathan Reekie, who came to Suffolk in 1998 from Almeida Opera. The photo above shows Jonathan (left) talking to Bob Shingleton at Snape during this exclusive interview for On An Overgrown Path:

BS - What is 'Aldeburgh Music', and what is its remit?

JR - Aldeburgh Music was founded by the composer Benjamin Britten and singer Peter Pears in 1948, when they set up a Festival based in their home town of Aldeburgh. It’s remit draws on the original principles they established. These were to nurture talent by mixing established musical stars with emerging artists, to focus on the new, and to be rooted in the local community.

BS - How is Aldeburgh Music funded?

JR - In simple terms a third comes from box office income, a third by fundraising, and a third from the government via Arts Council England.

BS - How does the relationship between Aldeburgh Music and the Britten Pears Foundation work?

JR (below) - Aldeburgh Music looks after Britten’s “living” legacy – his Festival, the Britten–Pears Young Artist Programme, the education programmes and Snape Maltings concert hall. The Britten–Pears Foundation is our separate sister organisation, responsible for Britten’s music and archive and is based at the house in Aldeburgh where Britten and Pears lived for many years. The Foundation receives all of Britten’s royalty income, and some of it goes to supports us. We work closely together.


BS - Is Britten still an influence on contemporary festivals, and how do you decide how much of his music is programmed today at Aldeburgh?

JR- For the Festival his principles are arguably more important than his music. The principles, which I outlined previously, still guide us in what we do, and they give the Aldeburgh Festival its strong identity. The amount of his music performed depends on what feels right and fits with all the other things we want to do. There is no minimum or maximum.

BS - Looking back at the 2007 Aldeburgh Festival what do you view as the high, and low, spots?

JR - The high spots were undoubtedly Britten’s opera Death in Venice, the second Faster than Sound, and the multi-media opera Elephant and Castle. The low spots were the rain stopping the dress rehearsal of Elephant and Castle, which caused us technical problems on the first night

BS - How does your role as chief executive fit with that of Thomas Adès?

JR - Tom’s role as artistic director of the Festival is to help the programme, and to perform in the Festival in June. Mine is year-round and isn’t just artistic, but includes all the business side too. Several people contribute to the programming of the Festival including Tom and the Associate Director, John Woolrich. Aldeburgh Music’s work with young artists, residencies, and developing new opera all feed in ideas and possibilities for the Festival. I act as a gatekeeper to these ideas. Tom always has the final say.

BS - Your background includes opera at Glyndebourne and Almeida, and, as you have said, Yoshi Oida's new production of Death in Venice for this year's Aldeburgh Festival was highly acclaimed. Can more be done with opera, particularly contemporary opera at Snape? Will the new development plans help this?

JR - Opera is an artform that excites me greatly. When music, text, theatre & design combine effectively there is arguably nothing more powerful for an audience. Unfortunately it is an artform that is expensive, complicated and strong on tradition, so fewer and fewer opera companies are prepared or able to take risks. We are at the vanguard of trying to change this, and we put on more new opera than anywhere else in the UK. We also have one of the world’s only programmes for developing the opera writers of tomorrow. The new spaces we are building at Snape (below) will be great for this kind of developmental work and smaller scale opera.


BS - How do your audience demographics compare with other festivals such as the Proms and Glyndebourne.

JR- They are similar, possibly slightly older, because the population of the Suffolk coast is higher than average. They are a great audience, who listen and like to take risks.

BS - Talking of risk taking, you have pushed the boundaries into electronica, World Music and other genres. Is this a conscious strategy, and if so will it go further?

JR - Aldeburgh has always been about the new. Music is changing, boundaries between different genres are dissolving. What we are doing simply reflects this. For example the distance between the cutting edge of “contemporary classical music” (don’t you hate that phrase?) and electronica is arguably very small. They are both musicians trying to do something quite similar, just using a different set of tools.

BS - You talk about using a different set of tools. Does more extensive use of the internet figure in your plans, both for performance and promotion? And, I have to ask this question, do you read music blogs, and how do you see their role?

JR- The internet and other technologies are playing a growing part of our creative output and how we promote. We are doing quite of lot of R&D in this field, and it's just going to get more and more important. I do read blogs when I can but lack of time limits this. It's great that the stranglehold of the printed media is being released by blogs, which are bringing fresh blood to criticism and a new perspective on musical life. At last it feels we can escape the tired cynicism that traps many of the traditional media.

BS - Much has been written elsewhere about the death of classical music, yet Aldeburgh today seems to be flourishing. How do you explain this?

JR - Don’t believe what you read! Yes, in some places, where no-one takes risks, it is certainly stagnating. But at the end of the day if you only put on events that excite you, with a bit of luck they will excite an audience too. Good live music, performed by great artists, will never die. Keep a balance between the familiar and the new, and take risks.

BS - Any hints as to the direction that the 2008 Aldeburgh Festival may take?

JR - No major new directions. But highlights will include a new opera, Ocean of Rain by Yannis Kyriakides, our third Faster than Sound, lots of music by György Kurtag, and new works by Thomas Adès and John Woolrich. See you there!


Jonathan Reekie is seen above looking into the future of contemporary music. The new creative campus being built at Snape is one of the most exciting developments in classical music anywhere. Read about it here.
All photos and text (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Now - Joyce Hatto the book

I have been contacted by a journalist researching a book on the Joyce Hatto 'forgeries'. Presumably 'Joyce Hatto - the movie' will follow shortly. But deciding which pianists to put on the soundtrack album could be interesting.

Or will 'Joyce Hatto - the book' meet the same fate as a work in progress about a musician who has featured here several times? Reports suggest that biography may have been canned following threats of legal action from the musician's surviving spouse.

Before anyone asks, no I am not contributing to the Joyce Hatto volume. Photo, which is NOT Joyce Hatto is from Jans' piano page. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

BBC launches 'classical idol'

Here is the blurb from the BBC website - 'The hunt for the UK's next classical music superstar is on and for one exceptional young musician the opportunity of a lifetime is within reach. The winner of Classical Star will win a top record deal and the chance to launch their dream career.

Acclaimed musician and Classical Star Musical Director Matthew Barley is searching for a top class performer who has the ability to broaden the appeal of classical music. The winner must have that extra special something to impress the prestigious judging panel of top conductor Charles Hazlewood, Double Bassist Chi-chi Nwanoku, conductor Jason Lai and music industry mogul Steve Abbott.

Through nationwide auditions 18 candidates have been short listed but only the best nine will attend the Music Academy, where Matthew has devised a rigorous and demanding three-week residential programme.

In the first of the five part series, the 18 candidates battle for a place in the Academy over two intensive days in London. This is a nerve-wracking journey as the young players are asked to improvise, complete demanding interviews and perform to the best of their ability under the scrutiny of the judges. At the end the nine successful Academy candidates are revealed.'

The first programme is on BBC2 TV on Tuesday 16 Oct, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm UK time. But let's remember that the argument that this type of programme "broadens the appeal of classical music " often doesn't hold up. It is also worth noting that judge Steve Abbot's credits include "producing the music programme of Princess Diana's funeral service, and personally introducing Sir Elton John into the proceedings". So don't expect too much John Cage in that "top record deal".

Thank goodness for CDs and internet radio.

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The Rest Is Poise

Best wishes to fellow blogger Alex Ross on his book launch this week. Now read about the man who talked to cats, and listen to twentieth-century symphonies by Paul Creston and Malcolm Arnold on the Overgrown Path radio programme today.
Photo taken in Chalon sur Saône, France by me. (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The Glass Bead Game

Yet another interview with Philip Glass in today's Guardian. Appropriately the title is Play it again... A virtual prize for any reader who can send a link to a newspaper interview this weekend with a contemporary composer who is not Philip Glass.

Much more interesting is James Fenton's article on the electric harpsichord which refers to Wolfgang Zuckermann's 1970 book The Modern Harpsichord. Zuckermann was born in Berlin, and became an American citizen in 1938. He was one of the first harpsichord makers in the United States and in the late 1950's created a self-assembly harpshichord kit which sold in large quantities and revitalised interest in this neglected instrument.

In 1969, Zuckermann, in despair over US involvement in Vietnam, left New York to live first in England, and later in France. He sold his harpsichord business to David Jacques Way, who had been the publisher of The Modern Harpsichord. Although Zuckermann continued his musical activities, he became involved in the environmental debates of the 1970s and 1980s, taking an active part in creating small local collaborative projects in England that cut away from the values and patterns of the dominant consumer society.

In 1987 Zuckermann began his collaboration with The Commons, an independent non-profit policy research group based in Paris. He moved to France in 1994 and opened La Libraire Shakespeare in Avignon which is our local bookshop when we are in that part of the world. This gem of a bookshop featured here some time back.

I was in Avignon a few weeks ago. Among the books I came away with were Sophie Fuller's Pandora's Guide to Women Composers and Barry Miles' life of Allen Ginsberg. My copy of Thomas Merton's Seven Storey Mountain also came from La Libraire Shakespeare some years back when I was on my way to a retreat in L'Abbaye de Sainte-Madeleine at le Barroux, and that's a destination that will feature here again in the next few days. My photo shows Wolfgang Zuckermann in La Libraire Shakespeare - much more interesting than another picture of Philip Glass.

The Glass Bead Game is the title of Hermann Hesse's book that influenced many musicians including Karlheinz Stockhausen. And Hesse's poetry supplied the texts for Richard Strauss' Vier letze Lieder which were in the concert I wrote about on Sunday. More passion about books here.
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His Master's Voice and staff pensions

Dear pension fund member,

EMI Group Pension Fund

As you are probably aware, EMI Group plc has been taken over by Maltby Limited, a company set up by the Terra Firma group. The takeover was completed on 17 August 2007 and EMI Group plc has subsequently been delisted from the London Stock Exchange.

Despite its best efforts over a period of months, both preceding and immediately following the takeover, the Trustee Board of the EMI Group Pension Fund has not been able to reach agreement with the new owner regarding the funding of, and security available to, the Fund from 1 April 2006 (31 March 2006 is the date of the last funding valuation). Accordingly the Trustee has referred the matter to The Pensions Regulator who will initiate proper process for resolution under UK legislation. This is the normal procedure when a sponsoring company and trustees of a pension fund cannot agree the valuation basis and the contributions required.

We shall keep you informed as to developments and, in the meantime, please be assured that the Company is continuing to contribute to the Fund on the basis agreed with the Trustee at the previous valuation. This letter is for information only and no action is required on your part.

Yours sincerely
EMI Group Pension Trustees Ltd
3 October 2007

Photo taken in Vaison la Romaine market by Pliable, (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Building communities of new listeners

Email received from the developers of the Radeo internet player (above) in response to my post The day the music died:

Thanks Bob! A large part of our motivation to create Radeo comes from the belief that there a many important and significant audiences that are not being served by traditional radio. Terrestrial radio, due to costs and the requirement of geographic audience density, are economically driven to serve the mass market. But there are large audiences, geographically dispersed, that are looking for "more". Perhaps more focused on a style of music, perhaps more musically challenging pieces -- the personal motivations will vary.

We hope that Radeo can play a role in aiding the individual find and listen to radio that is meaningful to him/her. We also believe that a part of the historical success of conventional radio is that it gives shape and definition to "communities" of listeners -- that the radio listening experience, while an individual experience, is also an important link for listeners to a larger group that they identify with. Radio, in a very real sense, has always been a key component of social networks.

We hope that Radeo can help create and support new forms of communities or social networks around radio/audio content. Personally, we're not into the social networking in the style of MySpace with its millions of personal pages and probably 100's of millions of uninteresting stream-of-consciousness messages.

We value that which has historically always been of value -- quality content, matched to (and shaping) personal interests via thoughtful and informed "programmers". While Radeo will not get into the "programming" of specific content inside a stream, we are exploring ways that we might add more capabilities for "meta programming" that link/gather/repackage streams to help listeners find stations and listener communities that enhance their listening experience.

Best regards, Paul Cosway



Now click on the image above and listen to Bayern 4 and other fine classical stations while you read about those moments that are rare in radio.
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Secret symphonies on internet radio

My Overgrown Path radio programme on Future Radio on Sunday Oct 14 at 5.00pm UK time features two secret symphonies which are rarely heard either in the concert hall or in broadcasts. Fashion is as important as merit in contemporary music today. Which probably explains why the symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich and Henryk Górecki are heard so often, and why those of Malcolm Arnold and Paul Creston languish in obscurity.

Sir Malcolm Arnold (above) is, by far, the better known of the two composers. His film music, English Dances, and Guitar Concerto have already featured on my radio programme. But his gritty and uncompromising symphonies stay resolutely out of fashion, and out of performance, despite their considerable merit.

Arnold’s Eighth Symphony dates from 1978 when it was written to a commission from an American Foundation, and was given its first performance in the States by the Albany Symphony Orchestra. The critic John Amis described the symphony as the composer’s masterpiece. The three movements are pure Arnold with an Irish marching tune in the first, an elegiac slow movement, and an ambiguous finale.

The neglect of Arnold's symphonies is underlined by the fact that the 1991 world premiere recording of Malcolm Arnold’s Eighth Symphony is no longer available. But I will be playing it on Sunday, with that great champion of British music Vernon Handley conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.


After Britain’s Malcolm Arnold I am presenting music by America’s Paul Creston (above). Born in New York City in 1906, Creston was the son of a Sicilian house-painter. His musical abilities emerged at a young age, and he studied with the composer Henry Cowell, and received two Guggenheim Scholarships.

In the 1950s and early 1960s Paul Creston’s music was widely performed in America, and he achieved considerable success composing for television. But in the late 60s both the style of Creston’s music, and his right-wing political beliefs fell out of favour, and his compositions are rarely heard today.

I am trying to rectify that by webcasting his Second Symphony which dates from 1944. This is a work of considerable merit. In fact Grammy winning conductor John McLaughlin Williams has gone on record as describing this as the greatest ever American symphony.

That is considerable praise, and you can judge for yourself when I play a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine conducted by Theodor Kuchar. Paul Creston’s Second Symphony has two movements, the first is titled Introduction and Song, the second Interlude and Dance.

Click on the image below to listen to the secret symphonies in real time at 5.00pm UK time on Sunday Oct 14.



Listen to the Future Radio audio stream here. Convert Overgrown Path radio on-air times to your local time zone using this link. Windows Media Player doesn't like the audio stream very much and takes ages to buffer. WinAmp or iTunes handle it best. Unfortunately the royalty license doesn't permit on-demand replay, so you have to listen in real time. If you are in the Norwich, UK area tune to 96.9FM. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

More free Radiohead

On Friday October 12 pianist Richard Potter is giving a lunchtime recital at the Mumford Theatre in Cambridge. The programme is Ravel (Gaspard de la nuit), Couperin, Chopin, Liszt and Radiohead. Admission is free.

Not just Radiohead, but also Monteverdi in Cambridge.
Image is Atmospheric Skull Sodomizing a Grand Piano by Salvador Dali - yes, really. Well, can you think of a more appropriate image? Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Horizons Touched - The Music of ECM

This should be on everyone's Christmas gift list.
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If you will build it he will come

Doris Salcedo's new installation Shibboleth (above) at the Tate Modern looks set to become contemporary art's 4' 33". There is huge media coverage and massive interest from people who don't normally 'do' modern art. The only question is how long will the queues be?

Isn't there a lesson for contemporary music?

The installation doesn't have a cheesy introductory talk. It isn't surrounded by gilt framed Old Masters to soften the shock. The creator is the wrong side of 40. It isn't tucked away in a ghetto space. There are no worries about letters of complaint. It didn't need blogs to talk it up. It isn't even being given away free on the internet.

Doris Salcedo and Tate Modern built it. And the audience will come.

More interesting views on promoting contemporary music in today's Guardian letters. Picture credit Tate Modern. Before anyone shouts 'equality', the headline quote is from the 1989 film Field of Dreams, and is correct. It is often misquoted as 'If you will build it they will come'. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

A death not reported in Uzbekistan

'Mark Weil (left), who has died aged 55 after being stabbed on his way home from a rehearsal, was the founder and director of the first independent theatre in the Soviet Union - the Ilkhom, in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. To this day, the Ilkhom remains the only venue for original, uncensored drama in a country where freedom of expression is severely limited. An extraordinary man, he created an artistic space in which people could ask questions and explore their experience...

Mark was attacked on his way home from the dress rehearsal of Aeschylus's tragedy, the Oresteia. It was to have been a triumphal start of a new season, in the bleakest times, and he was thrilled by the production and its exploration of revenge and the rule of law. He is survived by his wife Tatyana and daughters, Julia and Aleksandra. His death has not been reported in Uzbekistan.'

From the obituary in today's Guardian.

The Ilkhom website says:

Master Mark Weil died around 2:00 am on September 7, 2007.
His last words were: «I'm opening a new season tomorrow, no matter what happens…»

Photo credit Tempsreel. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Gustav Mahler - the same difference

Over on the Guardian blog their arts correspondent Charlotte Higgins writes this about young conductors -'The loss is sometimes experience. It takes years for conductors to master the breadth and depth of the repertoire. Raw talent alone cannot get you round the Mahler symphonies'.

Is this the same Charlotte Higgins who recently wrote in praise of a certain young conductor's Mahler symphony on the website of a major record label?

Now read more on classical music and the paid-for media.
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New conductor - not so new music

The Latvian Andris Nelsons (above) has been appointed chief conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 2008. The press coverage makes much of the fact that Andris Nelsons is 28, has never conducted the CBSO in a public concert, has a repertoire encompassing Haydn, Wagner, Strauss and Mahler as well as Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky, and is not a specialist in contemporary music, which is traditionally a strength of the orchestra. The Guardian headline is typical - 'Young Latvian steps up to lead City of Birmingham Orchestra'.

No comment, other than this back-link.
Interview with Andris Nelsons here. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Best damn record he never made

Last year I wrote about the record which Glenn Gould (above) described as the 'best damn record we've ever made' - his LP of Tudor consorte music. Today I am writing about the best damn record he never made.

Zenph Studios' "re-performance" of Glenn Gould's 1955 Goldberg Variations was released a couple of months back. I didn't dream up the word "re-performance". Zenph Studios did, and here is their definition - 'A “live realization of the original interpretation.” Zenph Studios takes audio recordings and turns them back into live performances, precisely replicating what was originally recorded. Our software-based process extracts every musical nuance of a recorded performance, and stores the data in a high-resolution digital file. These re-performance files, represented in a computer as MIDI files, contain every detail of how every note in the composition was played, including pedal actions, volume, and articulations – all with millisecond timings.'

Glenn Gould in Re-performance has some big fans. They include Stereophile Magazine, who made it their recording of the month, the Glenn Gould Foundation, and Gould's recording producer Lorne Tulk. When the "re-performance" CD was released most of the coverage came from the audiophile press. The music media, including this blog, didn't get too excited. The view was that this was just an interesting technical exercise similar to the reprocessed stereo that was around when two channel LPs were launched. But we were wrong. Read this from the 'record labels and recording studios section of the Zenph website:

The Diversity of Copyright Laws

The USA has strong copyright laws; sound recordings essentially don't go into the public domain until well into the 21st century. But, in the European Union (EU), for example, recordings go into the public domain 50 years after their first release. Small recording companies in the EU already re-issue CDs of historical mono recordings in volume. That's been a small concern to the labels, but in 2006 the situation gets troubling. 1956 was the start of early stereo, which is how we still listen nowadays. Starting in 2006, the "good stuff" from 1956 forward starts going into the public domain. Year by year, labels will lose European rights to the most prized, profitable recordings in their archives. With global retailing, CDs made in the EU are readily available anywhere.

The way around this is to create new, highly-desirable music recordings, which establish a new copyright. A modern re-recording can be a premium product, protected with the latest Digital Rights Management (DRM). For a modern re-recording to be acceptable to discerning jazz, classical, and pop listeners, it must be faithful, note-perfect, and identical to the original performance. That’s our business."

And this from Zenph's Investors section:

"In our contracts we look like a cross between an artist and a record producer, receiving a combination of fixed fees and a portion of the royalty stream of the release."

Are Zenph Studios "an entertainment technology company that specializes in software and processes for understanding - and re-creating - precisely how musicians perform"?

Or are they a vehicle for "establish(ing) a new copyright ... protected with the latest Digital Rights Management (DRM) ... receiving a combination of fixed fees and a portion of the royalty stream of the release"?

The jury is out. But the copyright date on my CD of Gould's 1955 Goldbergs is 1956, which means it is among "the "good stuff" from 1956" which has entered the public domain in the EU. Today, here in the EU, the "re-performed" Goldberg's on the Sony Classical label retail for £14.99 ($30.52), and the original mono 1955 recording is available on Naxos for £5.99 ($12.20).

With thanks to IP detective extraordinaire Carol Murchie. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

BBC - balancing form and function

Architect David Chipperfield won the prestigous Stirling Prize 2007 on Saturday for his Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach, Germany. Chipperfield is best known for his work outside the UK, but I am showcasing today a new building from his pen in Scotland, which is seen in my two photos.

Pacific Quay in Glasgow is the new headquarters for BBC Scotland, and was officially opened last month. David Chipperfield won the commission in 2001. The new centre contains the UK's most advanced broadcast studios and production facilities. The main studio is the biggest TV recording space ever built in Scotland and the second largest TV studio in Britain. It uses a hi-tech ‘hover pad’ audience seating system which can be towed in and out of the studio. The audience capacity is 320 people seated, and it is the first high definition facility of its kind in Europe.

But, as with all things BBC, the story isn't a totally happy one. After a dispute the BBC removed David Chipperfield from project management of Pacific Quay in 2004, and his involvement after that was relegated to a consultany role, which resulted in his words in a "tense environment". My pictures are from the BBC Scotland, where you will find more details of the new building, but not too much about the relationship with the architect.


Now read about more creative tension at the BBC in Scotland.
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New music - right on the ball

Email received On An Overgrown Path.

Dear Bob Shingleton. Thank you for your rapid response.

I had a quick log at your blog and you are right on the ball, I will certainly look at it from time to time now that I know it's there.

You are doing a valuable service.

All best wishes, Geoffrey Burgon (photo above)

Listen to MP3 downloads of Geoffrey Burgon's music here, and read about contemporary music and strong enthusiasms here.

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New music - Snape Skyscape

The photo above was taken a few hours before last night's world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli's Snape Skyscape. Orford Church can be seen on the skyline. It was here that all three of Britten's Church Parables were given their first performances and recorded, as was his children's opera Noye's Fludde. Snape Skyscape was a commission from Aldeburgh Music, and it was premiered in Snape Maltings, which is just out of my picture to the left, by the Britten-Pears Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins. In his programme note the composer explains:

'The central idea of Snape Skyscape has nothing to do with 'descriptive' or 'programme' music. It's simply about impressions received during my stay in Aldeburgh, a place rich in history that has a special kind of energy. Snape Skyscape can be understood as a small musical fresco, in which the energies of the natural landscape and those of intellectual ceativity intetwine and feed into each other. It's a personal expression of what Aldeburgh means to me. The translation of colour, of the wind, of the sea, into fractal forms inevitably loses something, but it nevertheless conveys some form of meaning.'

Although Giorgio Battistelli distances the work from 'programme' music, Snape Skyscapes is a dazzling invocation of 'pure' Aldeburgh with fractals from Peter Grimes and the brutal North Sea coast. But this is not a backward-looking tribute to a dead master. Paul Griffiths has written 'the past is not a path we and our predecessors have travelled but a labyrinth, and a labyrinth forever in flux.' Britten's music was forever in flux, and post-Britten Aldeburgh, thankfully, remains in flux through Aldeburgh Music's visionary work with new music. Their latest commission, Giorgio Battistelli's Snape Skyscape, is a succession of shimmering musical fractals that are, again, forever in flux. It speaks with a unique voice. But it is a voice relevant both to Britten's own special soundscape, and that of other composers, such as Boulez and Cage, who were writing flux, in the form of chance, into their music elsewhere in the labyrinth.

Snape Skyscape is scored for large orchestra including a range of percussion (a fractal of Prince of the Pagodas), celeste and sampler. It was delivered with persuasive advocacy by the young players of the Britten-Pears Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins. Intelligent marketing resulted in a good, but by no means full, house in deepest rural Suffolk on an autumn evening. Thankfully no embarassing lectures from the podium to introduce the new work, and no Pastoral Symphony to soften the blow of new music. It is a comment on the power of Giorgio Battistelli's (right) new music that the core repertoire that followed seemed anti-climactic. Another work from the labyrinth, Walton's First Symphony from 1935, sounded with much circumference and little circle in the second half.

Now read more about that 'special kind of Aldeburgh energy'.
Programme note with thanks to Aldeburgh Music. Giorgio Battistelli's music is published by Casa Ricordi. Header photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

New music - the same difference

I asked Roger Wright, head of Radio 3, a few years ago why the BBC didn't broadcast more new music. We get too many complaining letters was his reply - composer Geoffrey Burgon writing in today's Guardian.

If my work is accepted, I must move on to the point where it isn't - John Cage

We are off in a few minutes to Aldeburgh for the first performance of Giorgio Battistelli's (above) Skyscape, which was commissioned by Aldeburgh Music, who, thankfully, aren't worried about complaining letters. Martyn Brabbins conducts the Britten-Pears Orchestra in a thoughtful programme which juxtaposes the new work with Strauss' Four Last Songs and Walton's ebulient First Symphony.

For the drive to Snape I'll slip Geoffrey Burgon's 1976 Requiem into the CD player. Sadly, Burgon's music isn't heard often enough to generate letters of complaint these days. This a genuinely forward looking work, wonderful scoring, and beautiful Kingsway Hall sound. Annoyed of Tunbridge Wells clearly won the day though, as this important Decca CD is now deleted. But hurry, you can still find it online.

Do read Geoffrey Burgon's letter, there is an alternative to new music in safe doses.
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The difficulty communicated in modern music

Read about the food, the champagne, the Dorchester, and the Gramophone Awards here. Then read this:

Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno (1903-1969)...believed in music's progress. In his view, composers, as members of society, could not avoid dealing in their music with society's tensions, and inevitably, in increasingly complex and divided societies, increasingly complex music would arise. Neoclassicism and restored Romanticism, in looking back to previous states of music and therefore of society, were efforts to disguise current tensions, and therefore betokened a failing of moral will.

Serialism represented music at its most advanced, and alone offered possibilities for authentic expression. The fact that this langauge had gained little support from performing institutions, radio and recording authorities or the public was not condemnation but a proof of its validity, for the commercial business of music was utterly unconcerned with composition and had seriously injured the public's capacity for musical experience.

A Beethoven symphony thus heard was loaded with the mollifying messages of those in control of society, insinuating that culture was available to all with no effort, that the great works all came from long in the past and had been duly sorted out, that music could be a home comfort. The difficulty communicated in true great modern music was its pride, in making it resistant to such appropriation.

From A Concise History of Western Music by Paul Griffiths (Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521842948).

Photo of Catherine Sternis (harpsichord), Jean-Pierre Phelippeau (violin) and Walter Grimmer (cello) taken by me in Chapelle St Alexis, Malaucène, France. Their recital included true great modern music by Isang Yun. The stunning murals are the work of the contemporary artist Michael Bastow. I will write the full story of this remarkable venue soon.

Now read more about industry awards here.
Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

A quieter splash

Music - John Cage ~ Complete Music for Prepared Piano.
Book - The Roaring Silence ~ John Cage A Life by David Revill.
Location - Les Gargoris, France. Photographer - Sorojini.
Swimmer - me. Now read about David Hockney's private passions, and John Cage's silence.
Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Kandinsky Klee and all that jazz

Paul Klee took the fugues of Bach as the model for his multi-layered paintings; Wassily Kandinsky's friendship with the avant-garde composer Schönberg encouraged the development of his free, expressive style; and later in the century, jazz became a model for artistic improvisation in the work of František Kupka, Alan Davie and others. The poster above is for the exhibition Eye-Music - Kandinsky, Klee and all that jazz which opened at Norman Foster's Sainsbury Centre, here in Norwich, this week.

I'll be talking to Sarah Bacon from the Sainsbury Centre about Eye-Music and other autumn exhibitions on our Community Chest programme on Future Radio tomorrow morning (Oct 5) at 10.00am. It looks to be a very interesting show. Other guests include the CEO of Norfolk's only whisky distillery and the opposing parties in a bitter dispute over plans to build a wind farm near our house on a former USAF airbase that featured here several years ago. We also have an item on last Saturday's Norwich Walk for Peace, plus music from Miles Davis and Joan Baez. (They wouldn't let us play Schoenberg, but read here about the first twelve-tone protest song). Click on the image below to listen in real time. 10.00pm UK time is very transatlantic unfriendly, but we're hoping to have podcasts available without the copyright music.



And that mention of wind farms allow me to ask, again, how green was your concert?
Listen to the Future Radio audio stream here. Convert Overgrown Path radio on-air times to your local time zone using this link. Windows Media Player doesn't like the audio stream very much and takes ages to buffer. WinAmp or iTunes handle it best. Unfortunately the royalty license doesn't permit on-demand replay, so you have to listen in real time. If you are in the Norwich, UK area tune to 96.9FM. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Echoes On An Overgrown Path

A reader has noted that BBC Radio 3 has been making some last minute additions to the published schedules for their Breakfast programme. Today a track by the German early music group Sarband was added at the end of the programme, and yesterday, at the same time, a recording of Buddhist chanting was added.

By complete coincidence, two days ago I uploaded an article about Sarband, and said I would be featuring them on this Sunday's Overgrown Path radio programme, while last week I wrote about the Buddhist inspired compositions of Alain Kremski.

My server logs have record several visits from the BBC IP address to my article about the Afro-French composer Le Chevalier de Sainte-George. Watch this space.

Picture is of an anechoic chamber, where, of course, there are no echoes. Credit National Metrology Institute of Japan. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The Pilgrim's Progress on internet radio

My two photos were taken at the sessions in November 1970 and January 1971 for Sir Adrian Boult's classic EMI recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams morality The Pilgrims Progress, which is based on John Bunyan's allegory of the same name. The recording was made in the Kingsway Hall, and Sir Adrian can be seen conducting the soloists, and London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir above.

The lower photo was taken in the control room during a playback, and shows from left to right, Ursula Vaughan Williams, Christopher Bishop (producer), Sir Adrian Boult, John Noble (The Pilgrim), Ian Partridge, Gloria Jennings, Christopher Parker (balance engineer), in front John Alldis (chorus master) and Sheila Armstrong. Photo credits Godfrey McDominic/EMI.


The theme of my Overgrown Path radio programme at 5.00pm UK time this Sunday (Oct 7) will be Pilgrims of the Soul, and I will be playing the Prologue and Act 1 of this recording of The Pilgrim's Progress in the second part of the programme. (Which means two Pliable will be taking part, with the singing role taken by the tenor Wynford Evans). Act 1 contains several of the themes that Vaughan Williams used in his Fifth Symphony, including the Romanza that begins the symphony's lyrical slow movement.

Preceeding The Pilgrim's Progress will be a sequence from the concert of medieval and traditional pilgrim songs by Sarband and the Osnabrück Youth Choir that I featured here recently. This should be a fascinating programme. The music I'll be playing is below. More details at the foot of the post, or listen in real-time only by clicking on this image:



From Pilgrims of the Soul - Jaro 4248-2

Dum pater familias Codex Calixtinus
Laudemus virginem Llibre Vermell de Montserrat
Salve virgo regia (instrumental) Codex Ripoll (Paris, BN lat. 5312)
Splendens ceptigera Llibre Vernell

Ya rai'i z-ziba Traditional: Al-Andalus
Salve Regina Codex Las Huelgas

Nani nani Traditional Sephardic
O successores fortissimi leonis Hildegard von Bingen - 21' 55"

From The Pilgrim's Progress by Ralph Vaughan Williams - EMI CMS 7642122

Prologue
Act 1 - Scene 1: The Pilgrim Meets Evangelist
Scene 2 - The House Beautiful - 26' 44"

More on The Pilgrim's Progress here.
Listen to the Future Radio audio stream here. Convert Overgrown Path radio on-air times to your local time zone using this link. Windows Media Player doesn't like the audio stream very much and takes ages to buffer. WinAmp or iTunes handle it best. Unfortunately the royalty license doesn't permit on-demand replay, so you have to listen in real time. If you are in the Norwich, UK area tune to 96.9FM. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Stranger music from Leonard Cohen

I'm a big fan of Leonard Cohen's words and music. There is an interesting article in today's Independent by Philip Glass about his settings of Cohen's poetry in his new work Book of Longing. And here is some inimitable Leonard Cohen prose:

ALL THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT ADOLPH EICHMANN



EYES:......................Medium
HAIR:......................Medium
WEIGHT:....................Medium
HEIGHT:....................Medium
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES....None
NUMBER OF FINGERS:.........Ten
NUMBER OF TOES.............Ten
INTELLIGENCE...............Medium

What did you expect?
Talons?
Oversize incisors?
Green Saliva?

Madness?

By Leonard Cohen, from his Stranger Music, Selected Poems and Songs (McCelland& Stewart ISBN 077102231).Now read about a Holocaust opera's rare performance.
Biography of Eichmann here. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Classical recording under different stewardship

“Far from being ‘on the verge of disappearing’, the classical recording industry is alive and well, but just under different stewardship" wrote Anthony Anderson, managing director Naxos UK, recently. Very true, but while Naxos, Hyperion and the larger independents are often in the spotlight the lesser known labels frequently don’t get the attention they deserve. One example is the Jaro label from Germany which is part of a small media group active in music publishing, artists bookings and live concert promotion, as well as recording. Among the eclectic list of artists on Jaro is the pioneering early music ensemble Sarband seen in my header photo, and their CD Pilgrim of the Soul is a great example of innovative programming and packaging from a small independent label.

Pilgrim of the Soul was recorded live at the Baalbek International Festival in the Lebanon. It features music from the three great religions which originated in the Middle East, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and focuses on the pilgrimage centres of Santiago de Compostela, Las Huelgas de Burgos, and Santa Maria de Montserrat. Sarband has featured on these pages before with their Bulgarian born director Vladimir Ivanoff, and they are joined on this CD by the Osnabrück Youth Choir and Lebanese contralto Fadia El-Hage. The single disc comes in a lovingly produced book format with excellent articles and beautiful colour photos. The packaging is a miniature work of art, but the downside is it won’t fit into your CD storage system.


This is an inspirational album which ranges from the sacred music of Hildegard von Bingen to the Arabic art-song genre called Muwashshah that originated in Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). This repertoire is virtually owned by Jordi Savall, but the atmosphere and electricity of the open-air concert is very different to the church ambiance that create the signature sound of Alia Vox. The recording venue for Pilgrim of the Soul was the great Roman Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek in Lebanon which is seen in my photos here, and the summer thunder rumbling in the background is a great test of loudspeaker bass response. Listen to music samples by clicking here.

Baalbek is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and is a wonderful venue for music celebrating the co-existence of Jews, Christians and Muslims in Al-Andalus. But since the recording was made in 1998 Baalbek has been at the centre of religious conflict, not co-existence. The town has a Shi'ite majority, and is a strategic, medical and educational centre for Hezbollah. The commandos who kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in July 2006, and triggered war between Israel and Lebanon, are reported to have been trained in the Baalbek area. While later, in August 2006, Israeli forces used helicopters to raid the Hezbollah hospital in Baalbek.

Pilgrim of the Soul is a very moving document, but sadly events have proved that religious co-existence in Baalbek remains a musical rather than practical concept. But this is music to share, and I will be featuring a selection from Pilgrim of the Soul on my Overgrown Path radio programme at 5.00pm UK time on Sunday October 7 coupled with a neglected 20th century masterpiece that also takes its cue from pilgrims - more details tomorrow.


Buy Pilgrims of the Soul online here, And now read about an Islamic setting of the Psalms that also features Sarband.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The next uber cool music distribution platform

Move over Radiohead. Here is the next über cool music distribution platform. I took the photo of the window of my local Oxfam charity shop on Saturday (left click to enlarge the sleeves), and the Guardian jumped on the bandwagon yesterday .....

Banish all thoughts of scruffy students rifling through the rails for the perfect vintage shirt and eccentric aunts picking up next year's Christmas presents. Starting tonight some of the coolest names in music will descend on a charity shop in east London for four evenings of intimate live appearances and DJ sets.

Shelves of Mills and Boon romances and 1980s cassettes will make way for The Kooks, Jamelia and Hot Chip, who will play to select audiences of just 100 competition winners at Oxfam's books and music store in Dalston.

Jarvis Cocker, the doyen of charity shop chic, will be playing records he has bought in their bargain racks over the years, and the series, which launches the charity's month-long Oxjam festival of 3,000 events in different venues across Britain, will culminate in a set by Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook.

Charity shops are only the latest off-beat venue to be commandeered for "boutique gigs". In recent years chip shops, forests, tube trains and prisons have all played host to leading artists.

But On An Overgrown Path had the story first.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Classical - the music of the Whites

October is Black History Month here in the UK when we celebrate African and Caribbean contributions to our society with a month long programme of events. We have celebrated classical musicians of colour On An Overgrown Path recently with features on the Guyanese clarinettist and conductor Rudolph Dunbar and the Afro-French composer Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and with contributions from John McLaughlin Williams. Today, to mark the start of Black History Month, here is the story of 32 year old Nigerian pianist Sodi Braide, with thanks to the excellent AfriClassical and Le Piano Bleu websites.

Sodi Braide (above) was born in 1975 to Nigerian parents in Newcastle, U.K. His parents were academics; both were scientists but music lovers as well. In December 1979, Sodi returned to Nigeria with his parents, where it was very difficult to find good teachers. At the time, there was no conservatory of music in the country, and he had to travel 60 miles for piano lessons, saying "When I think back on it, I tell myself it is a miracle that I became a pianist."

In 1987, as a result of a competition supported by the French Cultural Center in Lagos, Sodi Braide was awarded a scholarship to study in France with Françoise Thinat. He was successful in a number of high profile competitions, including Pretoria, South Africa (1996), Leeds, UK (2003) and the Van Cliburn (jury discretionary prize, 2005).

Sodi now lives in Paris where he has benefitted from the enlightened support of the Cultures France programme. This has allowed him to undertake a number of overseas tours, notably of Latin America, and he has recently recorded a CD of works of César Franck for the Lyrinx label (right).

The story of Sodi Braide is another resounding endorsement of visionary educational programmes, and his achievements provide a powerful role model for young people from ethnic minorities everywhere. His own words about the 1996 competition in Pretoria say it all in Black History Month:

“It was just after the end of apartheid, and some were really thunderstruck to discover that in fact there was not a cultural barrier due to skin color! ... I had already played one or two times in South Africa, and I remembered that most of the South Africans, at the time, had never seen seen a Black pianist of classical music, “music of the Whites”, what's more in the finals of such a competition. It was just after the end of apartheid, and some were really thunderstruck to discover that in fact there was not a cultural barrier due to skin color!"

Now read about the Berlin Philharmonic's first Black conductor.
The interview with Sodi Braide was originally published in French on Le Piano Bleu website, which is where my photos also come from. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Opera directors 2 - Composers 0

After the Michael Ball Kismet fiasco English National Opera (above) scores yet another own goal with Carmen..
Photo credit Arup Associates. Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk