Just another mechanical performance

The Detroit Symphony's publicity stunt with Asimo the robot conductor reminded me of this review from the non-too happy period when their new music director was in charge of a leading London orchestra - 'The BBC Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin gave a vigorous, perhaps slightly mechanical performance of ... Alexander Goehrs' second musical offering (GFH 2001)'.

Alexander Goehr was a member of the Manchester School in the 1950s together with Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle, Elgar Howarth and John Ogdon, read the story here.
Photo of Leonard Slatkin from Thomsonian. 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

Body Mandala - a contemporary classic?

Why do we make life so complicated? Making a great recording is really quite simple. All you need is some outstanding music, an orchestra and conductor who thrive on risk taking, a first-rate recording venue and a visionary record label to release the result. Which is precisely what this new release of Jonathan Harvey's music delivers, and believe me it is a truly great recording.

69 year old Jonathan Harvey worked at both IRCAM in Paris and Stanford University, California before a period as Composer in Association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra from 2005-7. On this CD the BBC Scottish perform five of his compositions under their dynamic, and outgoing, young Israeli Chief Conductor Ilan Volkov. There is a transcedental theme to the programme, with the song cycle White as Jasmine, which is beautifully sung by Finnish soprano Anu Komsi, using Hindu texts and three of the four orchestral works reflecting the composer's preoccupation with Buddhism.

From the three Buddhist inspired works Body Manadala must surely become a contemporary classic. It is has its origins in Buddhist ritual music, and uses Western instruments to mimic the famous Tibetan low horns called tungschens seen on the excellent cover above. The opening of Body Mandala with its low horn calls echoes Philip Glass' 1997 score for Martin Scorsese's Kundun, but whereas Glass stays in his own stylistic comfort zone Harvey takes us post-Boulez and beyond. The sole work without religous connections is Timepieces which uses two orchestras and two conductors (Stefan Solyom conducts the second group) and three rhythms to pay homage to Gruppen, a seminal work by another Harvey influence, Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Everybody involved in this recording deserves credit, with special mentions for independent label NMC who continue to tread where the majors fear to go, and to BBC Scotland staff engineer Graeme Taylor for capturing the ravishing sound of the refurbished Glasgow City Halls. But the real heroes are the BBC Scotish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov who delight in music making on the edge while their compliant cousins in the BBC's London based BBC Symphony remain happy to provide a platform for Jiri Behlolavek's global ambitions. What a delicous irony that the BBC Scottish are now upping the ante on the BBC management in London who tried to disband them in 1980.

Highly recommended, particularly to those who are "tired of the Brits shoving their immature wunderkind composers down our throats". Lots more Jonathan Harvey resources here.
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New music - but Weir is BBC's chief conductor?

"While I thought Boulez, Stockhausen, Berio were all great composers - especially Berio, who had melodic poetry and eloquence that stood out for me - there was a sense that the postwar serial tradition was starting to fray at the edges. It was ripe for change, and for people to cock a snook a bit" - says 53 year old Judith Weir in a Guardian interview previewing the forthcoming BBC Symphony Orchestra composer weekend featuring her music. My header photo shows Judith Weir on the set of her 'A Night at the Chinese Opera'.

It's great to see some much needed adventurous programming from the BBC in the Judith Weir festival from January 17th to 20th. As well as talks and films there are seven concerts featuring many of her works, and all are to be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Full concert details here, broadcast details here, and a Judith Weir feature On An Overgrown Path here.

With the BBC Proms handed over to reality show winners these annual composers weekends are now the showpiece contemporary music event for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and they are playing in three of the concerts. Two are conducted by Martyn Brabbins, and one by André de Ridder. None are being conducted by the orchestra's chief conductor Jiří Bělohlávek. So where is the BBC's peripatetic maestro? Recording an unadventurous CD of Brahms with the BBCSO, and last seen on the podium in Amsterdam with the Concergebouw Orchestra conducting Dvorak.

Another contemporary opera composer from Scotland here.
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BBC Proms - new music in safe doses

Here are Pliable's personal picks for the remainder of this year's BBC Proms season. All Proms are available for seven days online, detailed programmes and broadcast times for every concert are available from the BBC web site.

* August 29, 10.00pm - important contemporary music is once again consigned to the bed-time ghetto. Works by Oliver Knussen, Anton Webern and Julian Anderson are performed by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

* August 30, 7.30pm - a rare opportunity to hear Artur Honegger's excellent 1946 Symphony No. 3 Symphonie liturgie played by the Bavarian Radio Symphony under Mariss Jansons . Herbert von Karajan's recorded legacy has dated somewhat, but his recording of this symphony is definitive. (Lovely Lauterwasser cover photo as well).

* August 31, 7.30pm - shout it from the rooftops - the world premiere of Thea Musgrave's Two's Company, a BBC commission. I wrote about Thea Musgrave's concerto for orchestra, Helios, a few weeks ago when I played the NMC recording of it on my Overgrown Path radio programme. The soloists for this premiere are oboist Nicholas Daniel, who also plays on the NMC recording of Helios, and Evelyn Glennie. For this Prom we have a rare sighting of chief conductor Jiří Bělohlávek on the podium with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, obviously finding out where the Albert Hall is before presiding over the Last Night on Saturday. Great to see a big dose of new music, but the BBC really does have a blockage about women composers at the Proms. At the time of writing Thea Musgrave's name is completely missing from the BBC's online listing of composers with performances at the 2007 Proms.

* September 4, 7.30pm - the Vienna Philharmonic and Daniel Barenboim serve up Ligeti in a digestible portion (Atmosphères - 9 mins), and a rather bigger serving of Bartók (Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta - 30 mins). No minimalist composers, but a distinctly minimalist programme - 30 minutes of music in the first half and 38 minutes in the second with top price tickets at £45. Did I hear anyone mention attracting new audiences?

* September 7, 7.30pm - is it a coincidence that this concert by the Boston Symphony and James Levine also contains exactly nine minutes of contemporary music in the form of Elliott Carter's Three Illusions for Orchestra? Or is nine minutes the maximum permissible duration for contemporary music before it is shunted off to the late-night graveyard slot? Safer Brahms and Bartók provide the other 86 minutes.

* September 8, 7.30pm - tokenism reaches its logical conclusion with just one contemporary work in this concert - a three minute excerpt from Thomas Adès' The Storm. Not enough to mar the whitewashing of the history of music.

Now read more about music history rewritten.
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Lots of fallout from Doctor Atomic Symphony

Length was also a problem in the brand new John Adams work. By default, this turned out to be the world premiere of the Doctor Atomic Symphony - the scheduled premiere in St Louis last March was postponed because the score had taken Adams longer than he anticipated.

But in creating a four-movement, 45-minute span by recomposing music from his 2005 opera, Adams seems to have trusted the original material too implicitly. Without the narrative and text to provide a spine, the result is all surface, lacking in rigour and any genuinely striking ideas, save for the trumpet solo that appears in the final section, which lingers in the mind through its sheer sentimentality.

It was no help to either of Adams's works that the playing of the BBC Symphony Orchestra left such a dreary impression of routine. The whole concert, beginning with a drab account of the suite from Aaron Copland's ballet Billy the Kid, was of a programme left one rehearsal short of a top-quality result.

Andrew Clements reviews the BBC Proms premiere of the Doctor Atomic Symphony in today's Guardian. Sounds like the BBC Symphony Orchestra needs a decent rehearsal facility

Header image shows the first Atomic explosion, July 16, 1945, Trinity Site, New Mexico; July 1945. Photo credit Yellowstone National Park. 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 Proms banish Bach to bedtime

Here are Pliable's personal picks for the coming week's BBC Proms. All Proms are available for seven days online, detailed programmes and broadcast times for every concert are available from the BBC web site.

* August 7, 7.00pm - Mahler Symphony No. 10 in Deryk Cooke's completion and Britten's Sinfonai da Requiem. Two superb works, but in one programme? Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic dispense the double dose of death. Noseda and the BBC don't quite seem to have got blogging. The latest entry in his 'Life of a Conductor' blog on the BBC Philharmonic site is for April 2007. If you want to find out about chocolate in Torino it is a rivetting read

* August 7, 10.00pm - it is really good to see Nicholas Kenyon using the late-night Proms slot for fringe repertoire. The choral music in this late-night Prom is all from that little known composer J.S. Bach, and the performers are Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan. But let's count our blessings. The late-night Proms suffer less from the intrusive audience noises and disruptive inter-movement dribbles of applause that have sadly become a feature of the main concerts. When will a visiting conductor finally have the nerve to criticise the sacrosanct, and spoilt, Prommers? While Masaaki Suzuki plays Bach at bedtime the core repertoire in the main concert at 7.30pm the following day is John Dankworth and the BBC Concert Band. At least Aldeburgh got it right. Masaaki Suzuki conducted a life-affirming B minor Mass as the closing concert of the 2007 Aldeburgh Festival. While back in London all the Proms can offer is the cringe-inducing Last Night, which at least includes a token three minutes of music by Thomas Adès.

* August 10, 9pm - this not-quite-late-night Prom is exactly what the slot should be used for, with Nitin Sawhney bringing his cross-genre and cross-cultural music and a lot of friends. Check out his music here on YouTube.

* August 11, 6.30pm - one of the season's highlights is the young in mind Sir Colin Davis conducting the European Union Youth Orchestra in a programme ending with Sibelius' glorious Symphony No. 5. But why the 6.30pm start time for a Saturday evening concert? Could it be that the BBC2 live telecast has to fit in with the sacrosanct 9.00pm programme junction for BBC1 and 2 and their satellite channels?

* August 12, 4.00pm - the bright idea of a Proms Ring Cycle ends somewhat ambiguously with a 'pick-up' performance of Götterdämmerung. Donald Runnicles conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Christine Brewer is Brünnhilde and Stig Andersen Siegfried. The BBC Symphony's Vaughan Williams Fifth Symphony on July 26 with Andrew Davis showed they can play gloriously with the right music and the right conductor. But if they didn't have time to prepare Sam Hayden's new 15 minute work for the July 17 Prom what chance Götterdämmerung?

There was some very interesting discussion here on the music that wasn't in Marin Alsop's American Prom on July 17. This Sunday, August 5th I will be playing Americans symphonies in my Overgrown Path radio programme. The featured works will will be William Howard Schuman Symphony No.5 (Symphony for Strings), Aaron Copland Short Symphony (No. 2), and Alan Hovhaness Symphony No. 2 "Mysterious Mountain".

The programme is a test transmission, and will be broadcast between 5.00pm and 6.00pm British Summer Time on Sunday August 15, and is available on web radio. Convert on-air times to your local time zone using this link. Click here for the audio stream. Windows Media Player doesn't like the 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 happen to be in the Norwich, UK area tune to 96.9FM. Details of future webcasts are here.

Now, for more whacky JSB try Bach and modern technology.
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BBC Proms - a refreshingly adventurous week

Here are Pliable's personal picks for the coming week's BBC Proms. All Proms are available for seven days online, detailed programmes and broadcast times for every concert are available from the BBC web site.

* July 30, 7.30pm - a refreshingly adventurous week starts with the European premiere of Esa-Peka Salonen's Piano Concerto, the pianist is Yefim Bronfman with the composer conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The BBC Symphony has two guest conductors in two concerts this week while chief conductor Jiri Behlolavek picnics at Glyndebourne.

* July 31, 7.00pm - regular readers will know I am a big fan of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their young chief conductor Ilan Volkov. These days their music making often overshadows the flagship BBC Symphony, which probably has something to do with the fact that the Scottish band lives and works four hundred miles away from the London BBC Radio 3 offices. The BBC Scottish gives two Proms this week, and what concerts! Tonight's includes Britten's too rarely heard Piano Concerto with Scottish pianist Steven Osborne, and Varèse's Ecuatorial.

* July 31, 10.00pm - we could almost be back in the heyday of William Glock, with a late-night Prom of path man-of-the-moment Pierre Boulez's Dérive 2 (UK premiere in the revised version), and Birtwistle's Neruda Madrigales (London premiere). Susanna Mälkki conducts the London Sinfonietta and BBC Singers.

* August 1, 7.30pm - and it gets even better. Tonight's BBC Scottish Prom is an almost perfectly balanced programme of Kurtág's Stele and Mahler's Ninth Symphony conducted by Ivan Volkov. (For another interesting Mahler 9 pairing follow this link.) Not only is this concert my pick of the 2007 Proms, it also takes the Overgrown Path award for the shortest first half ever - 14 minutes.

* August 2, 7.00pm - the premiere of David Matthews' Symphony No. 6 is well worth catching. Matthews has a refreshingly low profile, but writes some fine music - catch it if you can. Jac van Steen conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. I think I am right in saying Jac is the brother of the pianist Jeroen van Steen who also featured here recently.

* August 4, 3.00pm - a fine programme of excellent 20th century music at a silly time in a silly place. Elizabeth Maconchy's Music for Strings and Gerald Finzi's Clarinet Concerto (plus Elgar and Grieg) are marginalised to an afternoon concert in the Cadogan Hall, to make way for what in the Albert Hall in the evening? - yet another Shostakovich symphony.

* August 4, 6.30pm - As well as that Shostakovich Leningrad symphony Mark Elder conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in Aaron Jay Kernis' New Era Dance. Kernis, who worked with John Adams, became known in the UK in the 1990s when Argo recorded several of his works, I have his Grammy nominated Second Symphony (Argo 4489002) which has the interesting coupling of his Musica Celestis for string orchestra; the composer cites Hildegard of Bingen as an influence on this work, but to my ears early Arvo Pärt also got into the mix. Aaron Jay Kernis' New Era Dance is very much in step with the new era proms, it lasts for just six minutes.

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Boulez - Rituel In Memoriam Maderna

Bruno Maderna was a close friend of Pierre Boulez. In 1958 Boulez and Maderna were conductors of two of the three orchestras in the fraught premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen, the third orchestra was directed by the composer. My picture above, from the Stockhausen archive, was taken at a rehearsal for the premiere in Cologne. Left clicking on the image will enlarge it. Stockhausen is conducting orchestra 1 on the left, Maderna orchestra 2 in the centre, and Boulez orchestra 3 on the right. The photo at the foot of the article shows Boulez, Maderna and Stockhausen in Darmstadt in 1956, and, interestingly, was taken by Hans Keller. .

Maderna's relationship with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was established before Boulez's period as the orchestra's chief conductor, and was one of the many fruits of William Glock's period as BBC Controller of Music between 1959 and 1972. Maderna made his debut with the orchestra in 1959 when he gave the first public performance in Britain of Schoenberg's Op. 22 Songs, together with the symphonic extracts from Berg's Lulu and Stravinsky's Les Noces.

Maderna conducted the BBC Symphony in the notorious premiere of Luigi Nono's uncompromisingly left wing opera Intolleranza at the 1961 Venice Biennale. Protests included stink bombs thrown at the orchestra in the first act, and after the interval Maderna turned up the volume of the pre-recorded chorus parts to drown out the dissenters. In those pre-Classic FM days the BBC relayed the performance live from Venice.

In his invaluable autobiography Notes in Advance (OUP ISBN 0198161921) William Glock writes ~ Maderna himself was one of the most sympathetic human beings I have known, a man of great warmth and amplitude, always generous to other musicians without being blind to their failings. A familiar sight (at Dartington) was to see him with a bottle of wine under each arm and a hamper of food, which he would then cook and devour with friends with the gusto that marked everything he did. As a conductor he achieved authority and friendliness together, and would congratulate individual players on some felicitous phrases in their performance. But, though he was a leader of the avant-garde to whom many others such as Luigi Nono owed a great deal, he did not shut himself away from the music of the past, and more than once I played the Mozart Sonata for two pianos with him, and saw the way he revelled in it".

In 1970 Maderna premiered his Quadrivium with the BBC Symphony, a performance that prompted a perceptive critic to describe the work as - "a large piece, around half an hour long, full of exuberant, romantic, well-wined music, expertly constructed, beautifully scored." Maderna was a regular guest with the orchestra while Boulez was chief conductor, and it was during this period that I was fortunate to see Maderna conduct. I have already praised his Mahler Ninth here which I heard in the 1972 Proms, an interpretation which critic Dominic Gill described as - "both convincing and moving. In human, dramatic terms often very impressive...the final pages were absolutely right." Maderna was also a champion of Elisabeth Lutyens, and programmed her Music for Orchestra 1 with the BBC Symphony.

In March 1972 Boulez conducted Maderna's Aura in place of a new work of his own which was unfinished. In the autumn of that year Maderna was to have conducted a BBC Symphony concert including his Third Oboe Concerto, but he fell seriously ill and withdrew. In November 1972 Maderna died, and this tragedy provided the inspiration for Boulez to complete his unfinished commission.


Rituel in Memoriam Maderna is one of a series of musical memorials by Boulez, which include the Tombeau added to Pli selon pli for Prince zu Fürstemberg, ..explosante - fixe... for Stravinsky, and Messagesquisse for Paul Sacher. Rituel is scored for eight separate groups of instruments, including double percussion in one group. The clarity of structure and Eastern sounding percussion makes Rituel one of the most accessible of Boulez's compositions, and William Glock described it as "the majestic processional in memory of Bruno Maderna". The photo above shows Pierre Boulez at the BBC Maida Vale studios in 1969, before a rehearsal for the premiere of Pli selon pli with the BBC Symphony.

The premiere of the BBC commissioned Rituel in Memoriam Maderna was given by Pierre Boulez and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in April 1975. In November 1976 Boulez and the orchestra recorded the work for CBS in the Henry Wood Hall, London. The fine recording, produced by Paul Myers and Roy Emerson and engineered by Bob Auger, is still in the catalogue at mid-price. It still sounds wonderful, and is highly recommended both as a valuable document of Pierre Boulez the composer, and a moving tribute to Bruno Maderna the musician. The CD couplings of Eclat and Multiples were recorded with Boulez and the Ensemble InterContemporain at IRCAM in Paris.

Staying with Pierre Boulez, IRCAM and the Ensemble InterContemporain, Deutsche Grammophon has just re-released important recordings of three of his later works, Sur Incises (1996/1998), Messagesquisse (1976-1977) and Anthèmes (1997). The CD was recorded in Paris in 1999 with the composer conducting the Soloists of the Ensemble InterContemporain in the first two works. Wonderful music, wonderfully recorded, and in today's crazy music market it is retailing in the UK for just £6.99 ($13). Both this re-release and the CD of Rituel In Memoriam Maderna are musts, both for card carrying Boulez fans, and for any readers who haven't yet been fortunate enough to discover his special sound world.


For more Bruno Maderna resources follow this path,
Picture credits. Pictures 1 and 3 Stockhausen archive, picture 2 BBC. Nicholas Kenyon's excellent book The BBC Symphony Orchestra contains invaluable listings of the premieres given by that great orchestra. 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 Prom evokes memories of 'Glorious John'

Here are Pliable's personal picks for the coming week's BBC Proms, plus a wonderfully meandering path which leads eventually to Sir John Barbirolli (photo above) and the topical New York Philharmonic. All Proms are available for seven days online, detailed programmes and broadcast times for every concert are available from the BBC web site.

* July 25, 7.00pm - Marin Alsop and Bournemouth Symphony in a programme of Beethoven's Leonore No. 3, Barber's Violin Concerto, Copland's Symphony No. 3. Worth a listen. But if you had a top conductor, top orchestra, and top concert hall for the evening, not to mention a few million radio, TV and internet listeners, would you really give them that programme?

* July 25, 10.00pm - Hummel's Alma virgo and Schubert's Mass D950 with Richard Hickox and Collegium Musicum 90. Shouldn't have been bumped into the late night slot by that Fanfare for the Common Man.

* July 26, 7.30pm - a classic British music Prom including Tippet's neglected Triple Concerto, and Vaughan William's luminous Fifth Symphony, which for my money is one of the great twentieth century symphonies. Exactly the kind of programme the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony should be performing. Only problem is he isn't. Jiří Bĕlohlávek will be pursuing his operatic career fifty miles away in Glyndebourne, and rehearsing the London Philharmonic in Tristan. Which means Andrew Davis conducts. Which is probably not such a bad thing.

* July 27, 7.30pm - yet another bizarre "find me three works that together last for 90 minutes" programme from Nicholas Kenyon - R. Strauss Macbeth, Britten Our Hunting Fathers and Nielsen's Symphony No. 4. The justification for the programme is a 'Shakespeare and Auden theme', which leaves me struggling to find the connection with Nielsen 4. Suggestions for suitably bizarre encores on a postcard to On An Overgrown Path please. Anyway, the performance should blaze with Marc Elder conducting the Hallé Orchestra, and the Nielsen is the second truly great twentieth century symphony in the week.

At least we should get to hear these works complete. Which is more than happened with the BBC Proms commission Substratum from Sam Hayden on Tuesday this week. Immediately before the first performance it was announced the BBC Symphony under David Robertson would only play the last three of the new works seven movements. The official reason given by the BBC was inadequate preparation time. But I wonder if the real reason was some audience participation in the unperformed part of the score?

Writing about Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 5 in D prompted me to play the CD of Sir John Barbirolli's classic account (EMI CDM 5651102) of that masterpiece. What a wonderful convergence of paths. Barbirolli's is one of the great readings of VW5, and 'Glorious John' was permanent conductor and music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1936 to 1941. Barbirolli was 37 when he took up the post, and the New York Philharmonic this week announced the appointment of the currently 40 year old Alan Gilbert to lead the orchestra from 2009. Sounds like a great decision, and a great antidote to the current round of complacent jet set maestros. But it won't all be plain sailing in New York, as Glorious John found out.

More on Barbirolli, Vaughan Williams and Bax's Tintagel (which is the coupling on the VW5 CD) on this overgrown path.
Sir John Barbirolli photo from 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

How green was my concert?

As the G8 leaders discuss a global target for reductions in greenhouse gases in Heiligendamm perhaps it's time to ask how green was my concert? This year's BBC Proms features the premiere of Rachel Portman's The Water Diviner's Tale. As her publisher says, Portman is "known for her incredibly lush movie scores", and for writing the score for the film that launched Hugh Grant's career. If we forgive her that, the The Water Diviner’s Tale is billed as "a fresh and innovative production exploring the hot issue of climate change." Great to see the BBC putting climate change on the classical music agenda. But shouldn't we be more concerned about the greenhouse gases that are produced by a season like the 2007 BBC Proms?

Here are the ensembles that will be flying, or bussing into London this summer for the eight week BBC Proms season, with their points of departure in bold. Chorus and Orchestra of the Academy of Santa Cecilia, Rome, Bach Collegium Japan, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, BBC Philharmonic (Manchester) and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Norway), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Black Dyke Mills Band (Bradford), Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia (Cambridge), Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble (South Africa), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Compagnie Roussat-Lubek (Paris), Ensemble Sequentia (Germany), European Union Youth Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (Germany), Grimethorpe Colliery Band (Yorkshire), Hallé Orchestra (Manchester), Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, Henschel Quartet (Germany), Lahti Symphony Orchestra (Finland), Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Les Musiciens du Louvre–Grenoble (France), Lucerne Festival Orchestra (Switzerland), Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Berlin), National Youth Choir of Wales, Orchestre National de France, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam), Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester), San Francisco Symphony, Scottish Ensemble, Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, Tanglewood Festival Chorus (Boston), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Plus there is the roster of international soloists and conductors who will be flying in separately.

On An Overgrown Path has always stressed the importance of an international and inclusive approach to music making. But this orgy of travel is counterproductive, both in terms of environmental impact and music making. Of the six ensembles travelling to London from outside Europe, only two (Boston and San Francisco Symphony) are performing more than one concert. Of the eighteen European ensembles only two (Bavarian Radio Symphony and Vienna Philharmonic) are playing more than one concert.

Just who is this serving? I've already written here, and here, about the routine performances that result from "these London today, Germany tomorrow" tours by the 'brand name' orchestras. As an example, in just two weeks the Boston Symphony are crossing the Atlantic twice, and performing in seven cities in four European cities. That kind of frantic musical chairs isn't doing audiences, the musicians or the environment any favours. But it is great for the income of music agents who book these whirlwind itineraries, and its great for the BBC who are targetting an international audience in their strategy of global digital domination.

There are constructive answers. The BBC needs to re-establish its own BBC Symphony Orchestra as the core Proms ensemble. This year the BBCSO is playing in just twelve of the seventy-two concerts (that is only five more than the Manchester based BBC Philharmonic), and just four of the BBC Symphony dates are being conducted by its absentee chief conductor Jiří Bĕlohlávek. Of the four concerts Bĕlohlávek conducts, one is Beethoven 9 (astonishingly the first of two in the season), one is Mahler 1 (albeit with a Thea Musgrave premiere), and one is the Last Night. Where is the authority and diversity that Pierre Boulez and Colin Davis established when they headed the BBC Symphony? I suspect the BBC management no longer considers the BBC Symphony to be 'box office' for their global and digital markets.

We, of course, still need to welcome international ensembles to London. But let's welcome fewer, and let's establish longer term residencies where the musicians can really get the measure of the difficult Albert Hall acoustics and its idiosyncratic audience. And let's make the programmes enterprising, instead of yet another Brahms 1 (Boston Symphony Prom 71 - with a token nine minutes of Elliott Carter, and with misspelling of Elliott Carter on the composer index page), Shostakovich 5 (San Francisco Symphony Prom 64 with a token nineteen minutes of Ives), and Beethoven 9 (Bavarian Radio Symphony Prom 62 - with a decent thirty minutes of Honegger).

Global warming is forcing everyone to rethink the way they live. Why not the classical music community?

Now read how Mahler's music sent an important environmental message to the German parliament.
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Twentieth century music on an overgrown path

My article on the Berlin Philharmonic's darkest hour told how the 23 year old violinist Gerhard Taschner (photo above) played in the orchestra's final concert before the surrender of Berlin in 1945. DG Archiv has just released a CD of Taschner's playing which combines the Bruch Concerto with two lesser known 20th century violin concertos by Hans Pfitzner (1869-1949) and Wolfgang Fortner (1907-1987).

Elsewhere my centenary tribute to Elizabeth Maconchy lamented that two important Lyrita CDs of her orchestral music had not been transferred to CD. Well, forget the complaint, the new owners of Lyrita have now combined the music from the two CDs onto a single CD which includes Maconchy's gorgeous Symphony for Double String Orchestra, and Manoug Parikian playing the Serenata Concertante for Violin and Orchestra. No excuse now not to get to know the music of this scandalously neglected composer.

Another outstanding CD of twentieth century music from the path is the BBC Legends release of Bruno Maderna conducting Mahler's Ninth Symphony. This recording dates from 1971, and I was fortunate to hear Maderna conduct this work at a Promenade Concert shortly before his untimely death in 1973. That evening was one of the most profound musical, and emotional, experiences of my life. This CD of Mahler Nine is one that I will return to repeatedly; a reviewer described it as 'an incandescent performance of a masterpiece'. I can add nothing more to that other than to express the hope that we may see a revival of interest in Maderna the composer as well as Maderna the conductor.

For more musical memories read The Year is '72
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Another bad day in the office

"Some say it was the later of Mahler's nine symphonies that pushed the form to its very limits, but his Third, a six-movement evocation of nature and Nietzsche, had already done that. It begins with a solo horn melody which, seemingly picking up from Brahms, is an evil twin of the joyous theme from the finale of that composer's First Symphony; it ends, 95 minutes later, in a haze of rapt spiritual arrival. Or, as played by the BBCSO under Jiri Belohlavek, it ends a good 105 minutes later. That may conjure ideas of a conductor wallowing Karajan-like in glorious swathes of sound, but here it had more to do with sluggish orchestral playing.

It began and ended well. The huge first movement came over best: Belohlavek brought out Mahler's vivid tricks of orchestration and, with resonant trombone solos from Helen Vollam, wound up the springy, major-key march into euphoric climaxes.So far, so good. But the second and third movements did not provide the buoyant counterbalance required, Belohlavek taking Mahler's "unhurried" instructions a little too much to heart. It felt as if half the players wouldn't believe that the second beat of the bar would follow the first until they saw it with their own eyes. And in the song that forms the fourth movement, Jane Irwin's lightweight mezzo made Nietzsche's poetry sound pretty rather than portentous.

This made the vibrant entry of the BBC Symphony Chorus and the boy choristers of Westminster Cathedral in the fifth movement all the more welcome. But after an evening of willing the orchestra forward, it felt as if we had all worked unusually hard to reach it."

Erica Jeal gives two stars out of a possible five in today's Guardian. It all started so positively, but then .....
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The adventures of Mr Belohlavek

This week saw a rare London appearance by the peripatetic new chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Jiří Bělohlávek (above) flew into town to conduct Janacek's obscure opera The Adventures of Mr Broucek with an imported Czech cast. Many of us wondered what prompted the visit? Now all is revealed. The concert performance was recorded for commercial release by Deutsche Grammophon. I wonder if anyone negotiated a royalty for the BBC license payers?

Forthcoming dates for maestro Bělohlávek include Dvorak with the BBC Symphony later in March, Jenufa with the Washington National Symphony and Opera in Washington in April, Brahms with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in May, and Tristan at Glyndebourne in August while the BBC Proms are in London. But while the BBC Symphony Orchestra awaits rejuvenation after the dismal reign of Leonard Slatkin, their new chief conductor is promoting an 'ecologically sound' hotel in the Czech Republic. Do you really want to read more about jet-set maestros?
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New BBC chief takes conducted tour

A few weeks ago I asked - 'Where is Jiří Bělohlávek? I was one of many who welcomed Bělohlávek back in July 2006 after the dark days of Leonard Slatkin. But as this review confirms the BBC Symphony's new chief conductor (right) has made little impact to date.'

Today fellow blogger Alex Ross provides the answer as to where the BBC Symphony Orchestra's new chief conductor is making an impact, and it certainly isn't in London where his orchestra's home for more than seventy years faces an uncertain future.

Now read about another shuffle maestro for the iPod audience.
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Musicians and terrorism

What is the musician’s role in times of war, or in times of terrorist attacks such as we recently experienced in London?

Is it to perform close to the front line to show that art will win over terror? That was the choice of the young Daniel Barenboim and Jacqueline du Pré when they performed close to the front line shortly after the Six Day War in June 1967. It was also the choice of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1939 to 1945 when it continued to perform live concerts in defiance of German air raids on London, Bedford and Bristol. And somewhat less ingeniously it was the choice of Leonard Bernstein who hosted a fund raiser for the Black Panthers from the front line of his Park Avenue apartment in 1970.

Or is the musician’s role to keep his skills safe well away from the front line, and to use them only when things are again settled and calm?

Last night there was a concert in the Church of St Peter and St Paul deep in rural Norfolk. This glorious, and isolated, church can claim to have world famous acoustics as it was the venue for many of the Tallis Scholars best selling recordings. It is 120 miles, several hours difficult travelling, and a few time warps, from central London. The announced artists for the concert were Hungarian flautist Janos Balint and Argentinian pianist Eduardo Hubert. On the evening the performer was Janos Balint with a totally different (and very fine) programme for solo flute. The programme book said…….

"There has been a change in programme in that the distinguished pianist, Eduardo Hubert, currently in Argentina, has felt that he cannot come to England until events here become more settled and calmer. We believe that there will be some understanding and even sympathy for that view."

The BBC Promenade Concerts are currently taking place in the Royal Albert Hall in London. This is the front line. 56 people people were killed and 700 were injured in London one week before the start of the Proms season. One of these bombs exploded one mile north of the hall on a train at Edgware Road station. (See photo above). The UK media predicts that further terrorist attacks in London are inevitable.

The night before Eduardo Hubert played the no-show sonata in Norfolk, the Danish National Girls Choir together with their compatriots in the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (photo to right) courageously decided that staying at home wasn't an option. So they delighted us with the world premiere of Bent Sørensen's The Little Mermaid at the Albert Hall.

Thankfully great musicians like them, from all round the globe, continue to perform every night close to the front line at the BBC Proms, and in other London music venues. Their selfless actions will guarantee that art will win over terror.

If you enjoyed this post take an overgrown path to Dresden 1945 - London 2005