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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.
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
Mahler 9. Circuit training’ll be a dawdle after this. What a play. What a play-fest. Ilan (Volkov) (above left) skippered us through it in Glasgow and Leeds last week. The last time the band played it was 1976 – that’s the year Ilan was born. Christopher Adey conducted that time. It was one of his last gigs with us during his tenure as ‘Assistant Conductor’. He was desperate to do the piece, the producer couldn’t really budget for it, so they agreed (i.e. they forgot to discuss it with us down at the coal face) to do it on half the rehearsal time.
The next ‘Assistant Conductor’ was Simon Rattle, and he tried the same trick with Mahler 7, but he programmed two studio recordings instead of the quick bash for one. Surprise, surprise: when we got to the first recording he announced that we weren’t ready and cancelled the recording in favour of a day more rehearsal before the second session. And they docked his pay! Which didn’t leave much, considering the pay those assistants got. In his two year tenure, Simon introduced us to a number of the big expensive orchestral showpieces – fantastic times.
The Assistant Conductor post has disappeared now. It was a good enough institution for the likes of Simon, Alex Gibson, Bryden Thompson, Christopher Seaman, Andrew Davis and many others. As young conductors they got to do a whole load of stuff that wouldn’t be available to them on the open commercial conductor circuit. Can you imagine the auditions for the post? We had a day in which six hopefuls would turn up with the same repertory excerpts and an hour in which to prove their worth.
There’s a grim side to any audition process, but if the hopeful can’t keep his cool under that pressure, then he’d best find that out quickly. ‘Lesson one’ would be: can they beat through a series of complicated time-signature changes, e.g. the slow movement of Stravinsky’s Symphony in C? We knew the answer by the second bar, but we had to be very professional for the rest of the hour!
Nowadays, many young composers sit at their computers, having left their brain in the bathroom, and unthinkingly use the computer to churn out the most ridiculously complicated sequences of time-signatures, further complicated by speed changes at every bar and notation within those individual bars that contradict the time-signature anyway. We have to take this in our stride now, though you will have gathered from my tone that we might get a tad irritated. But a conductor who can’t take this in his stride – he’s a no no.
When do conductors get to ‘practise’ their instrument – which is a skilled professional band that can actually play the piece? Bear in mind that we, the players, don’t want to appear in public as cannon fodder for inexperienced or weak conductors. What’s the answer?
Cellist Anthony Sayer tells it like it is on the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra blog, and as I've said here several times before, they are a band on a roll, after a near-death experience. My header photo, from NMC. shows Ilan Volkov, composer Stuart MacRae and violinist Christian Tetzlaff at the recording sessions in Glasgow City Halls in 2006 for MacRae's Violin Concerto, which was a BBC Proms commission. I hasten to add I am sure Anthony Sayer's comments about young composers don't apply to Stuart MacRae, it just happened to be a nice shot that fits the story!
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
Postcard from Igor Stravinsky to his mother in 1911. The message says 'From Beaulieu where your son is working on Petrouchka.'
This afternoon I was returning from a business meeting by car, and caught the last few minutes of a performance of the 1947 suite from Petrouchka on BBC Radio 3. I didn't know who the performers were, but it was very clear that there was some pretty amazing chemistry between the conductor and orchestra, and the sound they were producing was equally impressive. After a well deserved ovation I heard that the band was the BBC Scotttish Symphony under the Russian conductor Alexander Titov, and the concert was relayed live from the orchestra's superb sounding new home in Glasgow City Halls. The BBC Scottish revel in Stravinsky, and I have already enthusiastically praised an earlier performance by them of the Firebird here.
Nothing delights me more than to praise a BBC orchestra and broadcast, and the very fact that the BBC can produce such great live music making is the very reason why I feel so strongly about the Corporations current financial policies which threaten essential resources such as the Maida Vale home of the BBC Symphony. The threats are very real, and the BBC Scottish still carry the scars from an earlier round of budget cuts. So I offer no apologies for repeating the story here.
A financial crisis that had simmered at the BBC for several years flared up in February 1980 when a large package of economies were proposed to save £130m ($235). The proposal involved disbanding five orchestras, including the BBC Scottish, in a move aimed at saving £500,000 ($900,000) a year, or eight per cent of the BBC's music expenditure. On May 16 1980 the Musician's Union voted to strike against the BBC, and two weeks later the musicians of the BBC Symphony, and all other BBC musicians, stopped work. The dispute was not just about job losses, the musicians suspected a hidden agenda of a move away from contract orchestras to freelance arrangements.
The 1980 Proms season was at the centre of the dispute, and the Managing Director of BBC Radio publicly said the concerts were of 'less consequence than the music policy of the orchestras for the future'. The dispute was extraordinarily bitter, and for the first time ever in the history of the series the First Night was cancelled. The BBC broadcast a recording of the scheduled work (Elgar's The Apostles) while the BBC Symphony 
Orchestra played a protest concert in an alternative venue under the baton of that musician's musician par excellence Sir Colin Davis. As plans for more protest concerts gathered momentum, including one conducted by another musician with experience of the barricades, Pierre Boulez, the BBC began to back down. On July 24 a compromise solution was reached, and the BBC caved in to the Musician's Union demands and withdrew all the notices of dismissal. The BBC Scottish Symphony was thankfully saved, although long term damage was inflicted on it by limiting the number of musicians, but two other orchestras were disbanded with many job losses.
Twenty concerts were lost from the 1980 Proms season which resumed on August 7 with a programme of Ravel, Messiaen and Mahler's Fourth Symphony conducted by Sir John Pritchard. The 1980 autumn season was in full swing for the fiftieth anniversary of the BBC Symphony on 22 October which was dutifully attended by many of the BBC Governors who just months before had tried to drive a dagger through the hearts of the same BBC musicians. The dispute was settled, but we should not forget that this very week in 2007 'the BBC board will once again start deciding where to swing the axe.'
Sources: The BBC Symphony Orchestra 1920-1988 by Nicholas Kenyon (ironically), publisher BBC (out of print), and Is the Red Light on? The story of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra by John Purser, publisher BBC Scotland (out of print).
Listen to the BBC SSO concert until 1st Feb here, read the BBC Scottish Symphony blog here, and see Stravinsky's apartment in St Petersburg here, and, incidentally Alexander Titov was born in that wonderful city when it was called Leningrad. 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
As other orchestras lurch from crisis to crisis it is great to see the BBC Scottish Symphony on a winning streak. The orchestra is playing better than ever, in Ilan Volkov they have one of the hottest young conducting talents as Chief Conductor, and they have just moved into a superb new concert hall in the centre of Glasgow.
The BBC Scottish was formed in 1935, and is first and foremost a broadcasting and recording orchestra. Almost all its performances are aired on BBC Radio 3 or Radio Scotland, and it has recorded for record companies including Hyperion and BIS. 27 year old Israeli born Ilan Volkov is the youngest conductor ever to lead a BBC orchestra, and his first concerts with the orchestra drew superlative reviews from the notoriously cynical Scottish critics. Volkov has already guested with the New York, Boston, Detroit and Gothenburg orchestras, and he follows a distinguished line of conductors who have worked with the orchestra. These include Simon Rattle who was their Associate Conductor at the start of his meteoric career.
Can it get better? Yes, it does - the BBC Scottish has just moved into the totally refurbished Glasow City Halls, built in 1841 and located in the city's historic Merchant City. The old building has been rebuilt as a major music performance and education centre. There are three main performance spaces all linked to the BBC's sound and vision production suites. The largest auditorium seats 1100, and has thankfully retained the glorious, and justifiably famous, acoustics of the original building. Adjacent to their new home is The Old Fruitmarket which can be used for jazz and contemporary music.
I listened last night to the BBC Scottish's first live broadcast from their new home. The programme was designed to showpiece both the superb acoustics of the hall and the talents of the orchestra and its Chief Conductor, and it certainly succeeded in doing this triumphantly. The complete score of Stravinsky's Firebird sounded quite magnificent, crystal clear orchestral lines, bass only when it was in the score, and huge open climaxes. This is broadcast music as good as it gets, and was in sharp contrast to the lacklustre playing and poor technical values from other 'star' orchestras who contributed to the European Broadcasting Union's recent New Year's Day music schedule.
I have to confess to being a great fan of the BBC Scottish. When I lived in Scotland I attended many of their concerts at the MacRoberts Arts Centre in Stirling and elsewhere, and have written about them here before. They are among the unsung heroes of the musical world, turning out top class performaces day after day when the only visible audience is a red light, and they have doggedly championed contemporary music - last night's concert opened with the first performance of a work commissioned from Jonathan Harvey. But there is an even better reason why I love the BBC Scottish, and I suggest all the fans of free MP3 file downloads from the BBC and Danish Radio read the following carefully.
The BBC are a major, and vitally important, supporter of classical music. But they have a "love them, hate them" attitude towards the arts. In Februrary 1980, under increasing pressure to balance its budget, the BBC proposed (with the support of the Scottish Broadcasting Council) a package of drastic cuts to save £130 million ($235m). This involved the closing of five BBC orchestras, including the BBC Scottish Symphony whose players were to be given dismisal notices. These cuts would save £500,000 ($900,000) a year, or 8% of the BBC's total expenditure on music. Please note this, the BBC maintained it could get enough live broadcast music out of freelance players, independent orchestras, and a reduced number of house orchestras (eleven down to six).
In May 1980 the Musician's Union voted to strike against the BBC, and the support of the London based BBC Symphony Orchestra meant that the 1980 Proms season was cancelled - something that even Hitler's bombs had failed to achieve. There was fantastic support for the beleagured Scottish orchestra both from within the UK and overseas. Among those sending letters of protest and support, and even money, were the Berlin Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonc and Carlo Maria Giulini. The dispute dragged on damagingly and painfully until a compromise settlement was reached on 24th July 1980. The compromise involved the disbanding of three BBC orchestras (although their members were to be offered freelance work), the BBC Scottish Symphony was to be spared, but suffered swinging budget cuts from which it took years of total commitment from the players and management to recover.
Now, if there are any takers, here is the link to those free Mozart symphony file downloads supplied by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation and played ironically by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Or why not support musicians who have really proved that Music will rise from the wreckage and click over to the most excellent BBC Listen Again service to hear two hours of the wonderful BBC Scottish Symphony and Ilan Volkov playing their hearts out in their new concert hall? (This audio file will only be available until 26th Jan 2006, so don't miss it)
Sources: - Is the Red Light On - the story of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra by John Purser. (Published by BBC Scotland but takes the musicians side in the 1980 dispute, ISBN 0563205202). Out of print and difficult to find.- The BBC Symphony Orchestra 1930 - 1980 by Nicholas Kenyon (Published by BBC and toes the party line about the 1980 dispute, ISBN 0563176172) In print.* Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
* Image credits - all from the photo galleries on the BBC Symphony's excellent web site where there are lots more excellent pictures. But the header picture isn't of the new City Hall (it is the Music Hall Aberdeen). The City Hall redevelopment is so new there aren't any good performance pictures available yet.
* Image owners - if you do not want your picture used in this article please contact me and it will be removed. If bandwidth is a problem with your permission I will host your image.
If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Farewell to Stromness
