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Showing posts from March, 2016

How two corporate record companies got it completely right

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As a founder member of the corporate label knocking movement it is somewhat chastening to be writing yet again in praise of releases from corporate record companies. A few swallows may not make a spring, but it seems that Universal Music's corporate rivals have learnt the lesson from the Sinfini fiasco that it is the music and not the egos around it that really matters. So in our celebrity-fixated age it is a delight to see Warner Classics devoting a 24 CD retrospective to an outstanding conductor from the pre-Rolex years . There are too many riches in Sir Charles Groves: British Music to list here; but they include the stunning in every way - including the artwork - Walton disc seen above, Delius' Koanga (complete) and Mass of Life, Bliss' A Colour Symphony and Morning Heroes, Elgar's Caractacus and The Light of Life, and Vaughan William's Hugh the Drover, and as the icing on a very delicious cake Havergal Brians Sixth and Eighth symphonies - listen to Hav

Is the music really that sacred?

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Before technology proliferated, composers used the only available technology of the orchestra to deliver imaginative interpretations. Mahler reinterpreted the ländler - a Carinthian folk tune - in his symphonies, and Berg introduced a ländler into the first movement of his Violin Concerto. Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony reinterprets Mahler, Wagner, Glinka and Rossini, while the composers Berio remixed in his Sinfonia - which was written in 1968 on the cusp of media proliferation - are too numerous to list here . Despite these auspicious precedents, and despite quantum leaps in digital technology, Western classical music has suffered a technology seizure. Which means technology is being used as a tool to defend an unsatisfactory status quo , instead of being used to implement much needed change. I use the moniker Western classical music deliberately; because although this it is often difficult to believe, there are other classical musics, and as is often the case the Western a

With new media comes new prophetic channels

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Going to Mecca doesn't settle the matter, Even if reciting hundreds of prayers there.> Going to the Ganges doesn't settle the matter, Even if one is hundred of times immersed in her. Going to Gaya doesn't settle the matter, Even if reciting hundreds of precepts. What settles it, Bulleh Shah, Is when I erase ego from my heart. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan declaimed that lyric*, and Varun Soni's Natural Mystics: The Prophetic Lives of Bob Marley and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is an expanded doctoral dissertation that studies the two great musicians as prophetic mediators of religion, politics and popular culture. The importance of erasing ego from the heart is a message that is resolutely ignored by Western classical music . But there is much else in Varun Soni 's thesis that classical music should take to heart, not least his assertion that music is a prophetic tradition. He then proposes that prophetic traditions rely upon technology to disseminate their messages, and tha

From post-modern to post-everything

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There has been a flurry of interest on social media in Belgium composers, so I am giving a heads up to a composer who is unlikely to feature elsewhere. Jean-luc Fafchamps was born in Brussels in 1960, and his music is topically relevant because of its transcultural sub-agenda and its brutally contemporary idiom - one reviewer has described him as writing in an "appealingly post-everything style, with diatonic minimalist gestures butting up against wheezy microtonal drones and so forth". Jean-luc Fafchamps is not a Sufi or a Muslim, but his quest for a compositional system based on analogue correspondences led him to the symbolic charts known as Sufi Words created in 16th century Mughal India . He uses Sufi symbology as a compositional tool in much the same way as John Cage and his circle used the I Ching , and my 2012 post gives more details of his composing system. Lettres Soufies is envisaged as a vast network of cycles, two of which have been recorded by the Brussels

Sacred path of the cello warrior

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'The way of cowardice is to embed ourselves in a cocoon, in which we perpetuate our habitual patterns. When we are constantly recreating our basic patterns of habits and thought, we never have to leap into fresh air or onto fresh ground' - Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche , Shambala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior The fresh ground in Warner's super-budget 9 CD Rostropovich box includes Cristóbal Halffter 's Cello Concerto No. 2, André Jolivet 's Cello Concerto No.2, Norbert Moret 's Cello Concerto, Darius Milhaud 's Cello Concerto No. 1, Alun Hoddinott 's Noctis Equi , Krzysztof Penderecki 's Cello Concerto No. 2, Arthur Honegger 's Cello Concerto, and works by Renaud Gagneux , Rodion Shchedrin , Marcel Landowski and Alexander Knaifel . No review samples used in this post. Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also on Facebook and Twi

Can classical music learn from Rumi?

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Coleman Barks ' books of Rumi's poetry have sold more than half a million copies worldwide, and in 1994 Publishers Weekly announced that Rumi was the bestselling poet in America. Poetry like classical music is a minority artform; yet Rumi has opened up a new market for poetry, the size of which classical music would die for. So can classical music learn from the Rumi success story? What is little-understood is that the bestselling volumes of Rumi's poetry from Coleman Barks are not actually his translations, but are in fact very skilled creative interpretations. Coleman Barks makes it no secret that he does not speak Farsi (Persian), the language of Rumi, or that his versions are populist re-writes of scholarly translations. In Rumi: Soul Fury he explains that: Of course, as I work on these poems, I don’t have the Persian to consult. I literally have nothing to be faithful to, except what the scholars give... What I do is a homemade, amateurish, loose, many-stranded

Lesson 1: don't trash plan A before checking plan B works

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That creative work for Sinfini Music came from Studio Output . This creative shop's client list numbers a slew of BBC brands including the BBC Symphony Orchestra , and J.K. Rowling's personal company Pottermore . Studio Output's credentials presentation features its work for Sinfini , but makes no mention of the project's failure and closure. Presumably because the Sinfini work is considered a success by the creative shop; which would have received a generous non-performance related fee for its work paid from the millions that were squandered on the aborted website. Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream nailed it in a recent interview : I have zero expectations for the music industry. [Labels] beholden to shareholders... only invest in Ellie Goulding or puppet girl singers or boybands they know they can make a killing on. They'll never invest in art, they're not artistically driven people... It's impossible to earn a living from making records unless you

Beginning to become faint

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"Beginning to become faint" What an apt phrase that could describe the fate of many composers of "notated music" as Alex Ross would describe it. The lights dim for us all one day, but the miracle of recorded performances, now stretching back 100 years and more, preserves a tiny glimmer of light in may composers or musicians darkness as the memories of the living pass into oblivion. We must not forget that many small, independent, records labels (some, no doubt, akin to cottage industry) preserve music for us. Or should that be "curate"? Just last night I was listening to a Lyrita release of two long forgotten symphonies by William Wordsworth taped off air by the late Richard Itter and released with the co-operation of the BBC. Interesting stuff composed by an interesting man who, I guess, will never be performed live ever again and certainly not by Mr Dudamel and his all-star orchestra. These small (and not so small in the case of Chandos & Hy

What a difference two words make

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What does "under-represented" mean in this context? Because some minority group doesn't have "representation" in some profession it's assumed to be evil? Perhaps it's simply not part of the culture and it is a self-selecting group. After all, "classical" music is male in origin and culture, so why should there be a lot of women "represented"? It is disturbing that a comment like that should be made in 2016, even if such sentiments are now - quite rightly - greeted with vociferous protests and Twitter firestorms. That comment was added to a recent Overgrown Path post, but clarification is needed. I have changed two words, and the comment greeted with neither vociferous protests nor a Twitter firestorm. Here is the original wording : What does "under-represented" mean in this context? Because some minority group doesn't have "representation" in some profession it's assumed to be evil? Perhaps it's simpl

Thoughts on the death of another great musician

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Recently I made a resolution not to write a knee-jerk tribute every time a great musician died. Of course the passing of a towering talent must be appropriately marked. But classical music lives in the age of the next big thing , and in our 24/7 connected world the half-life of those next big things is getting shorter and shorter. Yes, let's pay our respects, but we must avoid the untimely death of a great musician becoming nothing more than today's big thing, to be replaced by whatever new big thing breaks tomorrow. We need to remember Peter Maxwell Davies and the others that we have lost recently. But we need to remember them in perpetuity. That means rising to the difficult challenge of keeping their music alive and introducing it to new audiences long after the animated echo chamber of social media has stopped resounding to tweets of 'RIP Max'. Header illustration is my 1985 LP of Max's Third Symphony with the much-missed Edward Downes conducting

You have to question everything that is accepted

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Richard Alpert was together with Timothy Leary the public face of the so-called Harvard psychedelic club in the early 1960s. As academics at Harvard, Leary and Alpert championed the enlightenment enhancing potential of LSD. Leary's career went into a tail spin when his tenure at Harvard was terminated for providing LSD to students and he was subsequently jailed. However Richard Alpert's later career was more auspicious; he travelled to India in 1967 and met his guru the Hindu mystic Neem Karoli Baba , who gave him the name Ram Dass . In 1971 Ram Dass wrote Be Here Now, a book that became one of the most influential counterculture texts and has sold more than one million copies. Hallucinogens have many connections with classical music, starting with Berlioz’s opium inspired Symphonie Fantastique . Aldous Huxley, whose circle included Igor Stravinsky, Christopher Isherwood, and Charlie Chaplin, told a colleague that ; "If you ever use mescaline or LSD in therapy, to tr

£1 million and counting.....

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Yesterday's post about the failure of Sinfini Music clearly struck a nerve and has prompted some illuminating discussion. In my article I estimated that Sinfini burnt through around £1 million of funding. This exchange in the public domain on Facebook between two knowledgeable people is particularly illuminating: A - Loving the supposedly bold estimate of the cost of the thing. Way to go yet. B - Indeed. It burnt through that before it had even been launched. Just think what our financially challenged performing ensembles could do with the millions that Universal Music flushed down the toilet at Sinfini - the English National Opera chorus immediately springs to mind. The tragedy of all this is that very little of the wasted money reached the musicians at the bottom of the food chain, but instead went to consultants and other middle feeders . Sinfini's stated aim was to help its audience "discover the very best of classical music", which is precisely what ENO

There are lessons to learn from the failure of Sinfini Music

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When a high profile project goes belly-up there is usually much public debate about why the project failed and what lessons can be learnt. But not so with the Sinfini Music website which was launched with much fanfare, and promised to 'cut through classical', but which has now quietly disappeared . Readers will know that Sinfini divided opinions sharply , but that should not be a barrier to discussing what went wrong. The website was financed and controlled by Universal Music; this group has an annuual turnover of £3.5bn , and not only controls more than 50% of the recorded classical music market , but also through vertical integration controls the classical supply chain from music publishing through to concert promotion . Sinfini was funded for three years at a level other websites would die for, it recruited top media professionals from BBC Radio 3 and the Royal Opera House , and commissioned modish writers including Norman Lebrecht , Jessica Duchen and Paul Morley . A sm

George Martin - 'the finest album I ever made'

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The production credits of George Martin, who had died aged 90 , include all the Beatles' masterpieces except Let It Be . He worked with other artists ranging from the Mahavishnu Orchestra to Celine Dion and Elton John. So ask any rock fan to name the finest George Martin album and the answer is very likely to be Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or another classic from the charts. But legend has it that the man himself chose as the finest album he ever made a little known LP recorded by a pioneering American ensemble five years after Sgt. Pepper *. Despite the celebrity endorsement the Paul Winter Consort's 1972 Icarus remains almost unknown. Yet you only need listen to the first few tracks - audio sample here - to realise that not only is this a truly great album, but it is also the fountain from which flowed some influential music trends that are still around today. George Martin's production credit coupled with this personnel listing gives an idea of the she

Just listen to this CD artwork

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A chance online mention that Sergei Prokofiev died on March 5th 1953 set me listening to Mstislav Rostropovich's accounts of the Prokofiev symphonies over the weekend. These passionately committed interpretations are enhanced by the exceptionally lifelike sound captured in 1986/7 by Erato in the Grand Auditorium, Radio France, Paris. Like many of these reissue boxes, this 4 CD set can be bought for a stupidly low price if you shop around. And in addition there are erudite notes by David Nice who started a recent thread On An Overgrown Path , plus that evocative artwork. A post back in 2012 explained how sleeve artwork changes the sound of CDs, and this Prokofiev box is yet more proof of that perplexing phenomenon . No review samples used in this post. Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also on Facebook and Twitter .

One of the most imaginative talents in 1940s America

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John McLaughlin Williams writes ~ Your recent post on Bruno Walter and Samuel Barber is very interesting, particularly your mention of Daniel Gregory Mason. He is utterly forgotten today despite his having notable performers and performances. This is due in part to his second tier compositional abilities, and also to his espousing of uncomfortable views about ethnic influences in (then) contemporary music. While not as openly virulent a racist as John Powell , Mason did promote the notion of "purity" in American music, as in its being more properly derived from Anglo-Saxon sources rather than the folk music of former slaves and Jews. Bruno Walter did what he could for Mason, but he was far more enthusiastic about John Alden Carpenter. As a composer Carpenter was a much more imposing figure than Mason, and Walter did his music many times. [ BS - Walter performed Carpenter's First Symphony with the LA Phil in 1940, and premiered his Second Symphony with the NY Phil in

It's not just the audience that is shouting

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Any disruption of a concert is unacceptable, but the media brouhaha - "people were reportedly seen crying in their seats" - over the disruption at harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani's recent Cologne concert is disproportionate. Esfahani, who was born in Tehran but - Independent headline writer please note - grew up in America where he attended high school and university, is signed to Universal Classics. At Universal one of his labelmates is pianist Valentina Lisitsa, who famously rewrote the book on using brouhaha as a promotional tool . Both artists have received copious coverage on brouhaha central, aka Slipped Disc  and featured prominently on the little-lamented Sinfini website , and the Steve Reich work at the centre of the Cologne controversy is on Esfahani's recently released Deutsche Grammophon CD . There is no doubt that Mahan Esfahani is a very talented musician, and it is regrettable that his concert was disrupted. But there is an old advertising adage that s

Samuel Barber - more than an adagio

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In Sony's invaluable 39 CD Bruno Walter The Edition there is just one work composed after Mahler's Ninth Symphony, Samuel Barber's First Symphony in a 1945 recording made with the New York Philharmonic - Barber is seen in the photo above. Walter's tastes in contemporary music during his later years in America favoured the neoclassical and neoromantic. In particular he championed the compositions of Daniel Gregory Mason , and we are fortunate that archive recordings ripped to YouTube of Walter conducting the New York Philharmonic in Mason's Second Symphony and the NBC Symphony in the Suite After English Folk Songs allow us to sample this now forgotten and deeply unfashionable composer. Samuel Barber's music also found favour with Walter, and following his successful championing of the composer's First Symphony Walter planned to programme the Second Symphony. This had been commissioned in 1943 by the United States Air Force as a tribute to aircrews, a