On An Overgrown Path

In the coming weeks there will be some much-needed silence between the notes as An Overgrown Path takes a summer break. Do support other music blogs here and here while I am away, or even better go to a live concert . ...listen, there's a hell of a good universe next door; let's go e.e. cummings Photo of detail in Musée de Marrakech , Morocco (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Avoid three kinds of Master: Those who esteem only themselves, For their self-esteem is blindness; Those who esteem only innovations, Without meaning; Those who esteem only what is established; Their minds Are little cells of ice. 'To A Novice' by Thomas Merton based on Sufi writings. My photos show the Ben Youssef Medersa in Marrakech , Morocco. A medersa is a Quaranic school attached to a mosque which is dedicated to the teaching of Islamic scripture and law. This example, with more than a hundred windowless student cells, dates from the 14th century. In 1998 it was used to represent the Algerian Sufic retreat in the film of Esther Freud's novel Hideous Kinky . Related listening - Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) miraculously captures the mystery of Islam in his setting of The Adhan (Call to Prayer) on his Footsteps in the Light CD. Stockhausen and Sufism may seem unlikely bedfellows but trumpeter Markus Stockhausen (son of Karlheinz) is one of the musicians o...

Yesterday's post about ArkivMusic's reissue of David Munrow's The Art of Courtly Love reminds me that there are also some fine re-issues in Teldec's Das Alte Werk's 50th anniversary series . Particularly notable is Troubadours, Trouvères, Minstrels from Thomas Binkley's (left) under-rated and pioneering Studio der Frühen Musik who also recorded for EMI Electrola's ground-breaking, but so far not re-issued, Reflexe series . Yet more evidence that the tills are alive with the sound of early music . Image credit Indiana University . 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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

News comes from Future Radio that one of the station's four salaried team members has lost his job because of funding pressures. Producer Dan Nyman has been a huge support for my various Overgrown Path projects and will be badly missed. Future Radio is a not-for-profit community station and the rest of the team (including me) are volunteers committed to exploring alternative programming and new media opportunities, and the impressive download figures for projects such as my podcast of the music of Peter Paul Fuchs show it is working. Donations to support the running costs of the station can be made via PayPal. Elsewhere comes news that the BBC's management has been accused of "poor financial accountability" by the BBC Trust after it emerged that the corporation went almost £36m over budget in its spending on bbc.co.uk in the past financial year. A review of bbc.co.uk published by the trust shows that the actual spend in the 12 months to the end of March 2008 on t...

The CD is fighting back by connecting with its inner child, the vinyl LP. Check out this wonderful list of budget-priced re-issues of vinyl classics from Everst which includes Carlos Chavez conducting his own symphonies , Barbirolli conducting Ravel and Boult conducting Hindemith , the latter CD playing for precisely 29 minutes 47 seconds; is that really a record ? Cue a tale of two Chavez. 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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Steinway Musical Instruments, Inc. has announced it has acquired ArkivMusic , LLC, an online retailer of classical music recordings. Specializing in the efficient delivery of a broad selection of classical music titles direct to the consumer, ArkivMusic sells over 90,000 titles, including thousands of previously out-of-print recordings produced "on-demand" through its ArkivCD program. The company's annual revenue growth rate has accelerated over the last four years, exceeding 30% in 2007, with sales last year of just over $8 million. ArkivMusic will continue to operate independently as a wholly owned subsidiary of Steinway. ArkivMusic has a business model that the struggling major record labels can learn a few things from as it combines the strengths of physical product with the benefits of a minimum inventory technology based business. An example is their licensing and making available "on-demand" EMI's David Munrow back-catalogue, the latest release being...

Glance at the retouched CD sleeve above from EMI's new budget priced American Classics series. What is the music? - Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite or, perhaps, Copland's Rodeo or Billy the Kid? No, as the original sleeve below shows, it is three masterpieces from that most cerebral of composers, Elliott Carter . The marketing trick of 'every cover picture tells a different story to the music' has been around since the dawn of the LP age. It continues today, in the twilight of the CD era, with, for example, the excellent Warner Apex budget reissues of Boulez resorting to soft focus library images of flowers. But if the cover image doesn't affect sales why not use typography, as HatHut do with their [now]Art label? And if it does affect sales why couple an easy on the eye photo of the Grand Canyon with an excellent CD containing what a perceptive sleeve note by Martin Cotton calls 'a tough listen'. Connecting with new audiences for contemporary music is qui...

"This is music of a metallic nightmare" wrote a reviewer of the music of Alexander Mosolov . Born in Kiev in 1900 Mosolov wrote "socialist realist" music in the USSR during the 1920s including the work recorded on the shellac 78 above which is variously described as coming from A Symphony of Machines or a ballet called Steel . More information from the excellent webrarian.co.uk or listen online to the record here . The "B-side" of the disc features a work evocatively titles "the Dnieper Water Power Station". This is scored mainly for percussion and celebrates the building in 1932 of what was the largest single hydro-electric plant in Europe on the Dnieper River in Ukraine. The composer is Yuli Meytus who was born in 1903 in Elisavetgrad . Again more at webrarian.co.uk and listen online to the music of a water power station here. Many thanks to prolific 'path finder' Walt Santner for uncovering the musical gems, enjoy more of Walt...

AfriClassical reports that in a last minute change African American conductor James DePreist , who is director of conducting and orchestral studies at the Juilliard School and nephew of Marian Anderson , will not, as previously announced , be leading the Juilliard Orchestra in their imminent tour of China which takes in Beijing and Shanghai. Instead the concerts will be led by Chinese conductor Xian Zhang. Elsewhere in an unrelated news item leading artists agency Harrison Parrott has just announced the opening of a Shanghai office and says about its new Chinese venture - 'Harrison Parrott's programme for the future includes orchestral tours, artists and special projects as we build on our collaboration with the presenting halls and orchestras ... From an artist management perspective we are proud to represent conductor Xian Zhang with her rapidly accelerating international career.' More music behind the great firewall of China here . Any copyrighted material on these p...

On 29 September 1958 John Barbirolli conducted Part 1 of Gerontius with the Dublin Choir in the presence of Pope Pius XII at Castel Gandolfo, only a few days before the Pope's death. 'I have often wondered', he wrote, 'what the feelings of Newman and Elgar would be if they could know that the last music [the Pope] heard had been Elgar's setting of Newman's words "Go forth upon thy journey, Christian soul". As Barbirolli knelt before him, the Pope said: 'Figlio mio, questo e un capolavoro sublime' ('My son, that is a sublime masterpiece'). The header photo shows Sir John Barbirolli recording The Dream of Gerontius in 1964 in the Free Trade Hall , Manchester. No CD collection is complete without Barbirolli's Manchester account or Benjamin Britten's version which was recorded in Snape Maltings , the latter is now, thankfully, back in the catalogue - grab it while you can. Also noteworthy is the recent first-ever CD release ...

My photos show textiles and other artefacts from a wonderful collection that celebrates the art of the Sahara. A major geographic and cultural barrier, the Sahara is the world's largest hot desert and the second largest desert of any type after Antarctica. Following the Islamic conversion of West Africa in the seventh and eighth centuries important trade routes opened-up across the Sahara connecting North Africa and Europe with sub-Saharan Africa using Berber guides who also supplied camels. One of the earliest trading routes connected the Senegal and Mali regions south of the Sahara to Sijilmasa in southern Morocco and then on to Marrakech and to European Moorish al-Andalus . As well as transporting gold and slaves north the route also became a very early communications channel along which cultural influences travelled and my photos show exhibits in the remarkable museum recording the multi-cultural development of the Sahara region which was created in Marrakech by the Dutch ...

I don't want to write about it and I'm sure not many want to read about it, but here's the link if you must. Or you could ... Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

'My favourite music is the music I haven't heard' - John Cage. Try some music I'm pretty certain you haven't heard tonight at 0.01am May 26 UK time (Sunday afternoon or evening North American, find the local time here ) when Future Radio webcasts a complete African trance ritual together with a minimal trance set as a contribution to cleaning the ears of the musically educated . Header image was photographed by me at an exhibition of contemporary graphics inspired by Islamic typography in the Badii Palace, Marrakech , and I'm sorry but I don't have a note of the artists name. Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008.Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

He has set up his own highly successful record company and is an acclaimed instrumentalist, composer, conductor, musicologist and intercultural ambassador for the European Union . He has received two Grammy nominations for his film soundtracks, his album of music from the film Tous les matins du monde has sold more than a million copies and last year he performed 182 concerts. Jordi Savall is 67 . You can hear him in conversation with me at 5.00pm May 25 and 0.50am May 28 UK time on Future Radio . Now read why youth is a state of mind, not a time of life . Header photo is from Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI's Orient-Occident CD which will feature on my Future Radio programme. 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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

'Had Sigi been able to pursue his education without interruption in Austria he might have followed a profession other than that of a musician. He has an excellent mind and says he would have liked to have been a scientist; but he is also a gifted linguistic and competent in many fields. He once called himself a frustrated footballer. The cellist William Pleeth , with whom the Amadeus frequently played, summed up his relationship with Sigi in these words: "I feel I can talk to Sigi all day and night. When you have an affection for someone, then you are contetedly alive with that person, there are no reservations spiritually, humanity-wise and intellectually, and you play ping-ping non-stop".' Muriel Nissel writes of her husband Siegmund Nissel (far right in photo above), second violin of the Amadeus Quartet, who died on May 21, 2008. The last time I heard the Amadeus play was in the Philharmonie in Berlin shortly before the death of their viola player Peter Schidlo...

'If something is boring for one minute try it for two, and if it is still boring, try it for four minutes; eventually one discovers it is interesting' - Zen saying. Find out whether the Zen masters are right this holiday weekend when my Future Radio programme scores another first with the broadcast premiere of a complete African trance ritual recorded in the Medina of Marrakech , Morocco. The performance is by traditional gnawa musicians (photo above) and has been made possible by a collaboration between the Norwich community station Future Radio 96.9FM and KamarStudios who are based in Marrakech and New York. Marrakech is known as the Gate of Black Africa and gnawa music came to Morocco from sub-Saharan Africa with the slave trade. For centuries gnawa has only been played in secret spirit-possession and healing ceremonies called lilas that evolved from ancient African animistic and Islamic Sufi rituals. In these religious rites healing spirits are said “to mount” the po...

Jordi Savall's office in Spain was quite certain, he really wanted to give an interview On An Overgrown Path when he was in Norwich. The maestro (above) even phoned me back from his home in Barcelona to say yes, he would definitely find time. I couldn't raise him again on his mobile phone after he arrived in England, but on the morning of the concert I met him at his signing session and he told me to come to the concert venue of St Peter Mancroft at the end of the sound-check at 6.45pm, and he would do the interview between the rehearsal and the 7.30pm concert start. But I arrived at St Peter Mancroft at 6.30pm to find a disaster. The taxi sent to collect him had arrived at his hotel 30 minutes late. So everything was behind schedule and the event manager thought an interview was unlikely. But a message came back from the maestro, he would do the interview after 7.00pm. The sound-check finished late at 7.05pm and as the capacity audience started to fill the church a charm...

'Neglected genius' and 'undiscovered masterpiece' have become devalued marketing-speak following the John Foulds World Requiem debacle last year. And yes, I know I've used those words myself enough times. But recently both here and on Future Radio I have tried simply to present the music, irrespective of how well or little known the composer is. The music itself is the best advocate of a composer's powers and the listener is the best judge. So as presenter I now try simply to be a conduit for the artist's genius, or otherwise. In that spirit I am discussing a composer today who will probably be as unfamiliar to most readers as he was to me until recently, and my best introduction is to say I was very surprised I had not come across him before. Maurice Ohana's musical influences are truly multi-cultural. He was born in Casablanca , Morocco in 1913 one year after the Treaty of Fès imposed French rule on the country. He came from Sephardic-Jewish stoc...

The Berlin Philharmonic has a close encounter with fire . Some, but fortunately not too much, damage to the Philharmonie (above), so it wasn't the orchestra's darkest hour . But moving their concerts to alternative venues must bring dark memories . And close encounters with fire reminds me it happened not once but twice to the Philadelphia Orchestra. But the inferno at Britten's Snape Maltings was music's greatest tragedy and triumph . Image credit Wikipedia . 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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

" Herbert Eimert , who was a critic of Kölnische Rundschau , was a gentle patriarchal figure whom many people found rather unapproachable. In the following years he was to become Stockhausen's paternalistic sponsor, paving his way for his first performances and employment at WDR (West German Radio). Eimert himself had dabbled in composition. The bases of his musical thinking were measure and number; he was deeply impressed when he later found these features in the construction of the Moorish Alhambra Palace in Southern Spain (above), describing it as 'serial music in terms of architecture'" - from Stockhausen - A Biography by Michael Kurtz (Faber ISBN 057117146) . Which is also where the graphic below from Stockhausen's score for Zyklus came from. The recent release of Stimmung by the Theatre of Voices directed by Paul Hillier has been spending a lot of time in my CD player. This is the first recording of this work for more than twenty years, and foll...

For the first time ever, the legendary centenary production of Wagner's The Mastersingers , conducted by Reginald Goodall (above) and broadcast live from Sadler's Wells Theatre on 10 February 1968 is being released by Chandos on CD as a commercial recording . The 4-CD set is currently being re-mastered from the tapes of a BBC Radio 3 live broadcast from Sadler's Wells Theatre and is scheduled for July release. The cast includes Alberto Remedios as Walther von Stolzing, Norman Bailey as Hans Sachs, Derek Hammond-Stroud as Sixtus Beckmesser and Gregory Dempsey as David, and those of us who were privileged to see this production will remember it as a life-enhancing and life-changing experience. As I recounted in an earlier article the resounding success of the 1968 Mastersingers brought Reginald Goodall in from the musical wilderness and led to his conducting an 'English' Ring at the London Coliseum in the 1970s. This Ring Cycle was commercially recorded and releas...

This visual celebration of different cultures starts a week of cultural diversity On An Overgrown Path . I took the photos in the Majorelle Gardens in Marrakech , Morocco . These famous gardens were created in North Africa in the 1930s by two generations of French artists, Jacques and Louis Majorelle and are now owned by Yves Saint Laurent who was born in Oran, French Algeria. My week of celebration will culminate with two exclusive Future Radio programmes over the coming holiday weekend. At 5.00pm UK time on Sunday May 25 I will present an interview I recorded with Jordi Savall minutes before he went on stage last night with Hesperion XXl for the rapturously received closing concert of the 2008 Norfolk & Norwich Festival . Hear Jordi Savall talking about the relationship between early, contemporary and world music, about the music of Arvo Pärt , about the shortcomings of major record labels and about music as a humanitarian force in this exclusive interview. Jordi Savall...

Dear Bob, I just listened to your brilliant program on composers in exile. Bravo to you and to Future Radio . Thank you for playing Peter Paul Fuch's music (photo above). I do hope that you will have some interesting feedback. Thank you also for helping me discover Karl Weigl's music. I must admit that I really knew nothing of it, and it's wonderful. I must now run to rehearsal this evening, we're an hour later here. Bravo, et à bientôt.. Adrian McDonnell , Orchestra de la Cité International , Paris Hear Composers in Exile repeated tonight at 12.50am UK time May 19 (that is Sunday evening North American time, convert to local time zones here ) or download Peter Peter Paul Fuchs' music on An Overgrown Path podcast . We may not be BBC Radio 3, but strong enthusiasm really can change the world. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Tinkle, tinkle, pi-a-no, Only thirty-six hours to go Just one timbre all weekend How we wish this stuff would end Drive the listeners away Gone to CFM to play. The few listeners that BBC Radio 3 has left are resorting to doggerel on the station's website to deride this week-end's ill-conceived Chopin Experience . Instead of opting for more of the same on Classic FM why don't they try some Chopin therapy 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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

A great independent artist in a great independent record store - Jordi Savall performs and signs in Prelude Records , Norwich today. Read about another great independent record store here . Photos (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk