Posts

Showing posts from July, 2008

Lone voices - the lute

Image
The oud in my life is joined today by a lute. This instrument has already featured here many times but in this article I want to share with readers two outstanding super-low priced recitals of early music by a master lutenist. Paul O'Dette was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1954 and after dabbling with the electric guitar at high school went on to establish himself as one of the leading players and teachers of the lute. He has made more than one hundred recordings both as soloist as an ensemble member with musicians such as Jordi Savall and Nikolaus Harnoncourt and among O'Dette's many fine solo recordings are the complete lute works of John Dowland. In 2001 Harmonia Mundi reissued several of his CDs at super-budget price. They are still in the catalogue and are quite unmissable both for students of the lute and for readers who want an affordable introduction to this most intimate of instruments. The titles of the two recommended discs on which the lute is the lone voice a

BBC and Guyana - both sides now

Image
A week passes very quickly when you have an annual budget of more than £3.9 billion ($7.8b) to burn. After a reprimand for taking commercial sponsorship and a £400,000 fine for "unfair conduct of viewer and listener competitions" the BBC turned its attentions yesterday to telling us what a jolly nice country Guyana (seen in my header photo) is. Lost Land of the Jaguar is a three part extravaganza of prime time TV which the BBC website tells us "combines stunning wildlife with high octane adventure" . During the one hour first episode the script managed to namecheck the Guyanese president a few times and take a swipe at the British government for being slow to respond to a proposed Guyanese deal on carbon credits. Lost Land of the Jaguar comes from the BBC's Science and Nature division but for an educational programme a surprising amount was left untold. There was no mention that the interior of Guyana, which featured so prominently in the programme, is a c

This man is dangerous

Image
As I advance in years Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius touches me more and more. Elgar was a devout Catholic and the oratorio's chilling story of a soul's journey through death to judgement is, of course, a setting of Cardinal Newman's poem of the same name. Newman was the Anglican vicar of St Augustine's Oxford before converting to Catholicism in 1845 and he wrote his paen of praise to mystical Catholic theology, The Dream of Gerontius in 1865. Another of Cardinal Newman's work, his 1845 essay Development of Christian Doctrine in which he justifies his conversion to Catholicism, was a major influence on one of the least known and most fascinating religous figures of the twentieth-century, a figure whose progressive views on homosexuality, feminism and inter-faith communities could hardly have been more distant from the prim Victorian world of Elgar and Newman. Bede Griffiths was born Alan Richard Griffiths into a British middle class family at Walton-on-Tham

Very great composers still without recognition?

Image
' Emanuel Moór , Donald Tovey and Julius Röntgen (above). These are three very great composers still without recognition. But I feel sure their time will come' - Pablo Casals Now read about Furtwängler and the forgotten new 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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Different trains

Image
Norman Lebrecht can get it horribly wrong or horribly right. Back in 2006 he wrote that music blogs have 'nutritional value ... lower than a bag of crisps' . Which doesn't stop the Royal Academy of Music quoting this one in their 2009 prospectus . But Norman's interview with Steve Reich , which was aired on BBC Radio 3 last night, was a quite superb example of the interviewer knowing when to keep his mouth shut and letting the subject talk. These moments are rare in radio - listen to it on the BBC iPlayer or as a podcast . But hurry because it is only there until August 4. And talking of Norman here is an interesting website . Now playing - The Smith Quartet performing Reich's Different Trains . This Signum Classics CD also includes the composer's Triple Quartet which is recomended to readers who haven't yet 'got' Reich. Follow the Different Trains thread here and here. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use&qu

A sign of the Grimes

Image
£14.99 ($30) for the new recording of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes conducted by the delight of the classical music industry is a fantastic bargain. But £14.99 ($30) for the same musician's acclaimed accounts of Peter Grimes and Verdi's Falstaff on 5 CDs ? As the credit crunches that really is a sign of the Grimes . More a cava moment than a champagne moment ? 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

Classical music plays the generation game

Image
My link from today's An American in Berlin article points to a February 2007 article about the media ballyhoo over English National Opera partnering with Sony to install PlayStation 3 consoles into the ENO foyer. Can someone tell me what happened to this much-trumpeted initiative because a Google search can't - I can find no follow-up articles at all. But then I guess we've moved on to and Doctor Who Proms and newspaper reader offers . Header image shows how classical music should play the generation game . 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

An American in Berlin

Image
Barack Obama's recent visit to Berlin reminded me of a visit to that fine city by another American politician . Header photo is from my photo essay I am a camera - Berlin and is (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Back soon

Image
The Penguin Modern Classics edition of On the Road uses a detail from 'The Athletes Dream' by Larry Rivers from the Smithsonian Institution , Washington, D.C. More Kerouac here and 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

Royal Opera's stunt and storm

Image
Stunt 1 , stunt 2 and storm . Photo is from better days at London's Royal Opera House, the 1969 production of Berlioz's The Trojans which was conducted by the delight of the classical recording industry . Image credit Theatre Museum . 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

Lone voices - Arthur Honegger

Image
'It seems to me that Honegger is one of the contemporary composers of greatest musical value. In spite of his "modernism" he refrains from going beyond certain limits. He has been influenced by modern tendencies, but he knows how to select some innovations and not others, while remaining faithful to what he may define as the idea of music - something so many contemporary composers have just abandoned' - Pablo Casals Herbert von Karajan's recordings of Arthur Honegger's Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3 are the definite accounts and rank among the classics of the gramophone. The inlay above is from Alexander Rahbari's performance of the Symphony No. 3 which is committed but, hardly surpisingly, falls short of Karajan's searing account. But I am featuring the CD Rahbari made with the BRTN Philharmonic Orchestra in Brussels for its persuasive advocacy of the little heard Symphony No. 5 " Di Tre Re ". There are links between Rahbari and Karajan as the

Lone voices - Jewish composers

Image
This excellent new Harmonia Mundi release of music for viols played by Fretwork couples the loan voices of Jewish composers of the Tudor and Stuart courts with a distinctive contemporary voice. Although Jews were banished by edict from England in 1290 a presence remained in the form of marranos , or nominally converted 'New Christians', who traded between London, Antwerp and Lisbon. The practice of tolerating covert followers of the Jewish faith was further reinforced when Henry VIII recruited Venetian musicians from the Italian diaspora to form six-part consorts for his Private Music. The Venetian composers of the music on this CD for viols from the Duarte , Lupo and Bassano families are now thought to have been Jewish. Their music from the Tudor and Stuart courts is interspersed in true mixing-it style with the three movements of contemporary composer Orlando Gough's klezmer-based Birds on Fire . Particularly noteworthy are the Two Sinfonias in 5 parts by Leonora Du

BBC classical music sponsorship outlawed

Image
'When I drove off the cross-channel ferry last Monday I retuned the car radio to BBC Radio 3. Within an hour the presenter had plugged the BBC's New Generation Artists Scheme so many times that I concluded she was earning a bonus for every mention' - those were my words posted here on 30 Sept. 2007 . For a long time I have been a lone voice complaining about the incessant and gratuitous on-air plugs for BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme. This week I was joined by another voice. The BBC Trust , the body that works on behalf of licence fee payers to audit broadcast quality, has outlawed sponsorship of specific BBC activities including the New Generation Artists scheme which was funded by financial giant Aviva , the world's fifth-largest insurance group. The image above is from the BBC website . Of course it is vitally important that new musicians are supported and nurtured . But the BBC is a public body which is funded by license fee income to the tune of

Glenn Gould's search for the perfect free lunch

Image
Sponsorship of the BBC Proms receives a clear thumbs-down from the top this week. Commercial sponsorship and public service broadcasting definitely don't mix. But pianists have a very long history of being sponsored by piano manufacturers. Katie Hafner's hugely informative and entertaining book A Romance on Three Legs documents Glenn Gould's obsessive search for the perfect piano and his love/hate relationship with Steinway that resulted. There's lots of fun along the way including Gould suing Steinway for personal injury and the company dropping and wrecking his favourite piano. Gould even flirted with Yamaha, but it was a Steinway on the best damn record he ever made . 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

Fuguing great new music from Boston

Image
The story of this adventurous new CD of contemporary choral music starts early in the 19th century in the rural southern states of America. At that time shape notation, or 'fa-sol-la', was an important force in democratising music and it allowed Baptists and Methodists who were outside the education system to sight-read 'fuguing tunes' and simple chorales. Reforming academic musicians rejected shape-note singing but it continued in rural communities in Appalachia using old editions of hymn collections, the most widely used of which was William Walker's 1835 The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion . Almost one hundred and fifty years after William Walker's collection was published William Duckworth composed twenty vocal transformations of the hymns in a late 20th century take on 'shape-singing'. Duckworth's 1981 Southern Harmony may have sprung from an earlier century, but it certainly isn't a nostalgic look back to a vanished Appalachian

Where are the unplugged Proms?

Image
Today's media section of the Independent devotes its front page and two inside pages to the party line on the Proms from BBC Radio 3 controller and Proms director Roger Wright . Today's arts section of the Independent carries no review of yesterday's BBC Prom, nor has the newspaper carried a review of any concert in the 2008 season. In the days when newspapers took classical music seriously and Promenade Concerts were more than a media circus a reviewer described a Prom given by the conductor in my header photo as '... both convincing and moving. In human, dramatic terms often very impressive ... the final pages were absolutely right' . I was in the Albert Hall for that unplugged Prom and it was an evening I will never forget. Read more here. Header image from Bach Cantatas . 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 o

Small is sonically beautiful

Image
Is gnat-sized the new minimalism ? One of the few critics who hasn't been down-sized writes about the gnat-sized attention-span of multi-media audiences, a best selling book describes how the internet is chipping away the capacity for concentration and contemplation and back in 2006 I revealed how the stopwatch was dictating BBC Proms programming . Bring on the Webern revival. But how long is long enough ? Image of toy piano is from Schoenhut website . Many fine contemporary composers from John Cage onwards have written for the toy piano. E.F. Schumacher's book Small is Beautiful is a must-read, especially for the BBC. 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

Great Prom - shame about the music

Image
'It was lucky that ( Scriabin's Poem of Ecstacy) was ecstatic, because I could detect few in the audience who were. To me it seemed that this odd compendium of mostly unrelated short pieces was designed more to hold the presumed gnat-sized attention-span of the BBC Two (TV) audience than to launch the world’s greatest classical-music festival in suitably memorable style' - writes Richard Morrison in the Sunday Times about Friday's opening Prom. Another case of music getting in the way of the BBC Proms ? 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

Free classical music on the internet

Image
'Where to find the cheapest music on the internet' is the promise in today's Independent . But, on the weekend that the BBC Proms start , the Indie forgets that there is such a thing as classical music to download. To redress the balance, here is an alternative guide to the digital revolution in the form of twelve 'wild cards' of classical downloads. All but one (thanks Bernard) have been supplied from the States by the indefatigable Walt Santner whose complete download detective work can be found down this path . Walt and I must bracket these wild cards with a major health warning. We can't guarantee the quality or copyright status of the files which the links point at. We are not hosting these files, they are not recommendations but rather suggestions for exploration. Feedback from readers on Aces and Jokers and other recommendations via Comments will be very much appreciated. * American works for winds with Howard Hanson - Card 1 * Transfers of Victor Red Se

BBC Proms and the art of music promotion

Image
'Everything you wanted to know about the Proms (but were afraid to ask)' is the screaming headline for a double-page spread in today's Independent by fellow blogger Jessica Duchen . Now something I wanted to know is why there is not a single note of Benjamin Britten's music in the 2008 Proms season, and, yes, the answer is in the Indie. The article helpfully explains that he wrote, and I quote, 'music of chilly glumness'. Like The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and Noye's Fludde presumably? Fortunately we are spared an explanation as to why Peter Maxwell Davies' music is another notable absentee. Elsewhere in the article Leonard Bernstein's Mass , which is represented at the Proms by three short excerpts, gets the treatment - 'this isn't the place to explain the whole Mass - be glad they're only doing the best bits'. But I did benefit from some of the other Proms insights in the article which include 'Wear comforta

Lone voices - Carlos Mena

Image
This year, for the first time since I started the blog in 2005, I will not be posting personal previews of the BBC Proms , which start tomorrow evening (18 July). My decision is of no great importance as there is no shortage of coverage of the concerts elsewhere. The reason for dropping the previews is that I write best when I am passionate and enthusiastic about a subject, and, sadly, my passion for the Proms has failed to survive their remorseless corporate marketing as a BBC brand. For me at least, the message has been drowned out by the medium. There are some very fine compositions and very fine performers in this year's Proms and I will be listening to some of them on BBC Radio 3 and maybe posting a few thoughts. But as the promotional hullabaloo reaches fever pitch let's reflect on the fact that the core values of the Proms, which are so celebrated today, date from 1895 when the Promenade concerts were founded by Sir Henry Wood . The BBC did not become involved in the

Twilight of the art director?

Image
Dear Pliable, Lovely album cover . Above is another from Westminster that really takes the biscuit! An all-time favourite of mine. Never heard the recording. Michael Richards, Sydney Thanks Michael, knowing the wonderful piece you contributed about Stravinsky's Tibetan connection I thought it was an LP of music by George Crumb . Read here how Crumb was an influences on another vastly underrated contemporary composer. 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

High art - high prices

Image
Frank Gehry's temporary Serpentine Gallery Pavillion , seen above, is currently the hot thing in London high art. It opens on July 19 with a concert by another priest of high art, Thomas Adès . Despite the photo on the Gallery's website of Adès with baton in hand the event is, in fact, a chamber music recital. The music by Adès and Conlon Nancarrow should be stunning. But high art comes at a price - the cheapest seats are £45 ($90). For which concert goers are warned 'The Pavilion is an open structure, so please dress accordingly. Due to the unique architecture some tickets may have restricted sightline'. High prices - best music by any twentieth century composer ? Picture credit Serpentine Gallery © Gehry Partners LLP 2008. 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 -

Talking of reaching new audiences

Image
Even the Berlin Philharmonic started as a beer-hall orchestra . Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Now for something a little more contrived

Image
'There seems no denying the widespread opinion that photos of an orchestra performing are visually very dull. In the days when LPs were a wonderful canvas for art directors, except for putting the conductor on the cover, a classical music album with an image of orchestra on the cover was much rarer than one with something else more contrived' - is the opening of a well-researched piece on the use of photos of orchestras by newspapers. The article appears on the personal blog of Nat Bocking whose day job is with the estimable Aldeburgh Music . Nat's well-researched piece agrees with Julian Bream that novelty and transient fashion are the preferred currency of today's media and he concludes that if you want the newspapers to cover your music story with a picture you need a visual stunt as bait, like the one above which is linked from his article . Now take this path to another classic misunderstanding from the conductor of those visually contrived Planets . Any copyr

Critics 1 - Composers 0

Image
'A British composer was told to go bankrupt yesterday after he unsuccessfully tried to sue the London Evening Standard for libel. Keith Burstein ran up legal costs of £67,000 defending a test-case libel action against Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Standard, over a critical review of one of his operas' - reports today's Independent . But here's one that fooled the music critics . Beckmesser image from apeth.org . 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

Happy birthday Julian Bream

Image
Mutual friend Johnnie Warrack went with Julian Bream to the Royal Academy one year and they went into one room dominated by a large nude. Julian exclaims in loud astonishment, 'Christ, I know 'er!' Silence in that room and the bystanders wait for more. 'What a smashing pair of plonkers!' Julian once lent his flat to the South American singer Ana Raquel while he was out of the country. She said she found eighteen pairs of evening shoes under the bed, all worn right down at the heels, likewise a cupboard containing forty-seven dirty evening shirts and a whole room full of unopened letters and telegrams. His Dartington masterclasses were instructive and fun. On the first day one year he tried to correct one lad, playing the same passage on his own guitar and saying, 'Go on, more like that. See wot I mean?' At which the lad replied, ''S all very well for you. You've got a good box to play on. Mine's a soap box.' Julian conceded he had a po

Playing the music anniversary game

Image
'About twenty years ago ... a like-minded friend introduced me to a profound and wonderful book on Ancient Chinese philosophy called I Ching or the Book of Change. It is based on the teachings of Confucius , and was used in Ancient China as an oracle. The pith of this book is about nature and humankind's place within it. There are many references to our personal ancestors, a preoccupation reflected in an almost ritualized devotion and respect to their evocation. This is in contradistinction to the present mode of thought in the Western world whereby we hanker after novelty and transient fashion - where maturity of age , and with it the possibility of insight and wisdom, is not only neglected but has been regrettably made redundant. It seems to me that to have the gift of access to an ancient spirit may very well be the most important influence on the artist's soul, though they must never underestimate the predominance of the cultural ambience that encompasses their life.&#

The oud in my life

Image
There has been an oud in my life for some time , but just recently there have been three. The Trio Joubran are three Palestinian oud playing brothers, who were all born in Nazareth in Galilee and are now based in Paris. Their fans include composer John Adams who brought them to Carnegie Hall in 2006 after seeing a documentary about them at the Sundance Film Festival . The Joubran brothers are seen above on the cover of their second album Majâz , on which they are joined by percussionist Yousef Hbeisch . This is a wonderful CD which is complemented by refreshingly imaginative artwork, although you do need to know your Beatles Abbey Road to appreciate the imagery. All the music on Majâz is composed by the Joubran brothers who develop it in extended improvisations around traditional Arab maqâms . In 1948, after the creation of the State of Israel, their family remained in Nazareth, which effectively became an Arab city inside Israel. The Palestinians who live there have passports wit