Mixing music and politics - 2


Croatia is a very musical place, as yesterday's presidential election result confirmed. Mixing music and politics -1 is here.

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Quite simply glorious music - and what is wrong with that?

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Classical music in the UK has become a silly and dangerous boxing match. In one corner are the virtue signallers who advocate any music which ticks the right boxes, irrespective of its merit . In the other corner is the growing anti-woke movement feeding off the click-bait power of alt-rightism . And enthusiastic support for this unseemly struggle comes from the blame-everything-on-Brexit claque . I was reminded of how this leaves much glorious and moving music relegated to the sidelines when listening last night to Nikolaus Harnoncourt's recording of Bach's Motets BWV 225-230 with his Concentus musicus Wien and the Stockholm Bach Choir. All the emotional power of the Passion's is contained in these relatively brief and overlooked masterworks. Great music like this can speak so eloquently when it is not drowned out by the unhelpful outpourings of our cultural commentators.  New Overgrown Path posts are available via RSS/email using the link at the top of the page. An
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This LP is dedicated to Richard Wagner

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Composer Klaus Schulze has said 'I still love my Richard Wagner, who influenced me heavily. The way Wagner’s music introduced me to the use of dynamics, subtlety, drama, and the possible magnitudes of music in general remains unparalleled to me. There can’t be any doubt about it'. Schulze's 1975 release Timewind seen above* carries the message 'This LP is dedicated to Richard Wagner', and the two tracks of truly Wagnerian proportions on the original vinyl release were titled Bayreuth Return and Wahnfried . So why doesn't the name Klaus Schulze mean anything to the vast majority of classical listeners? The answer is because Klaus Schulze, who also uses the the alias Richard Wahnfried, is a creative maverick who was a leading figure in the development of the kosmische musik  known popularly as Krautrock, which he then morphed into the proto-ambient Berlin School of electronica, and is today best known as the Godfather of Techno and the Pope of Electronic
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Philippa Schuyler - genius or genetic experiment?

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A child prodigy fêted by Leonard Bernstein and Virgil Thomson, performed by five leading American orchestras while still a teenager, accompanied by the New York Philharmonic at age 16, ranked alongside Aaron Copland and Marc Blitzstein, mourned with a Pontifical Requiem Mass in St Patrick's Cathedral, New York, and the rumoured subject of a Hollywood biopic. That is the executive summary of an American musical legend who was born eighty years ago tomorrow. Child prodigies, anniversaries and even executive summaries are the common currency of classical music today. But there are several reasons why the story that is going to be told On An Overgrown Path over the next two days is important. The first is that the legendary figure was a woman who had a black father and white mother. The second is that she experienced the barriers to musicians of colour that still linger on today. And thirdly, despite her legendary status, until the second part of this feature appears tomorrow h
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The Berlin Philharmonic's darkest hour

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Wilhelm Furtwängler was born on 25th January 1886. He was Music Director of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1923 to his death in 1954, and held this position for the twelve years that Hitler was in power. In January 1945 he was conducting in Vienna, and fled from there to Switzerland where he remained until the Battle of Berlin ended in the defeat of the Nazis. The musicians of his orchestra remained in Berlin during its darkest hour. Here is their story: On 28th March 1945 the Russian forces commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov were just twenty miles to the east of Berlin. A month previously Albert Speer had been replaced as Nazi armaments minister after trying to persuade Hitler that defeat was inevitable. Speer now turned his energies to preventing the musicians of his adored Berlin Philharmonic from perishing in the inevitable final battle. Reich Commisioner Dr Joseph Goebells, who was in charge of the defence of Berlin, had ordered the entire orchestra to be drafted into the Vol
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When Alfred Brendel's Steinway played jazz

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After Alfred Brendel  retired from the concert platform in 2008 the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation decided to auction the Steinway d-524780 piano kept for his appearances at the Philharmonie. The successful bidder was Siggi Loch , who after a successful career in producing and managing rock acts reached the position of President of WEA Europe. But in 1992 he moved away from rock music to fulfill his dream of creating his own independent jazz label. Over three decades ACT Music has become one of the most important and respected global jazz labels, and has nurtured the talent of many musicians including Nils Landgren and the sadly-departed Esbjörn Svensson . It is notable that ACT have not succumbed to the 'smooth jazz' virus. Instead, guided by Siggi Loch, the label has continued to probe the cutting-edge of jazz with, for example, Sufi Jazz  and Islam Blues CDs; this was the first World Music project that integrates the classical music of the Ottoman Empire with Western jaz
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Scott Ross and the paradox of genius

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On that sleeve for his 1985 recording of the Goldberg Variations , Scott Ross is seen standing in the grounds of Château d'Assas in Languedoc. It was here that many of his great recordings were made. Then, as today, the château dwelt in the twilight zone between grandeur and dereliction, and thirty years ago the recording sessions were regularly interrupted by the sound of rats scurrying across the floor. Scott Ross was born in Pittsburgh in 1951, and moved to France with his mother following the death of his father in 1964. He studied at the conservatoires in Nice and Paris, and first came to Château d'Assas in 1969 to give music lessons to the grandson of its owner Mme. Simone Demangel . When an early music academy was established at the château, the harpsichordist gave masterclasses and became a frequent visitor. At first he stayed in a room in one of the towers, but from 1983 he rented a small house across the road from the château. The photos below were taken by me on a
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Here come the old generation artists

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Interesting to see Simon Rattle's newly released cycle of the Brahms symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic selling today in leading independent retailer Prelude Records , who are not known for their discounting, for £19.99 . Presumably because the recordings were made at live concerts, EMI released the four symphonies on 3 CDs with no fillers, which gives a playing time of just 42 minutes for the CD of the Fourth Symphony on its own, which is short measure even for an LP! At £19.99 the price per Berlin Phil CD is just 80 pence more than a Naxos disc in the same store featuring the Camerata Transylvanica . I am trying to work out whether that is an example of reputation inflation or deflation . Talking of LPs, my header image is my 3 LP box of Bruno Walter's Brahms stereo cycle from the 1960s (He made an earlier mono cycle with the New York Philharmonic). My set contains Dutch pressings from the early 1980s, and, unlike the American Columbia pressings of the same period, the
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Classical music's biggest problem is that no one cares

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These photos were taken by me in 2008 at independent record retailer Prelude Records in Norwich. Jordi Savall's impromptu viol recital and signing session preceeded two performances at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. One was a solo recital by Jordi in Peter Mancroft Church ; the other was an immensely moving performance of his visionary Jerusalem multicultural project at the Theatre Royal*. As reported here Prelude Records closed earlier this year; it was a victim of predatory online retailing, and today its premises stand empty awaiting occupation by a mobile phone or E-cigarette retailer. The Norfolk and Norwich Festival has been the victim of savage funding cuts , but continues in a more modest form due to the dedicated work of its small management team. A few days ago I wrote about a two-thirds empty Snape Maltings concert and proposed that classical music's heartland is facing a perfect storm caused by the convergence of the shifts in consumer tastes and the r
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Gender has replaced merit as the measure of marketability

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When music becomes the property of the social media junkies it becomes devalued. Because what counts on social networks is not merit , it is how loud the message is shouted . Nowhere is this illustrated more vividly (sadly?) than in the case of female musicians. Of course gender equality must be rectified . But be careful what you wish for, it might just come true. Today social media noise means gender has replaced merit as the defining measure of marketability . Which means a number of justly neglected 'masterpieces' are no longer neglected, while fine music by deserving composers will remain overlooked until the science of retrospective gender change is perfected. So a heads up for the meritorious French-Canadian composer Claude Vivier who has featured here in the past. And a second heads up for the perceptive Brilliant Classics label which in January is releasing a budget priced disc of his chamber music. No review samples used in this post. Overgrown Path posts
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Presenting my thirty-three best CDs of 2020

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In 2020 the classical music industry proved the truth of Oscar Wilde's famous dictum that there are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. Those of us who were advocating classical diversity back when other 'experts' were still puffing Dudamel as classical music's saviour watched in dismay as gender and ethnicity replaced merit as a measure of marketability . Similarly, those who of us who two decades ago embraced what was then called 'citizen journalism'  sunk into despair as social media proved the foolishness of crowds , and the classical industry succumbed to the  malignant power of click bait . (Yesterday the industry's cultural commentator of choice demanded that musicians " stop orchestral touring ". Today click bait addiction dictates that the same commentator  urges musicians to sign a petition to make it easier for orchestras to go on "Eurostar tours" and "trips to S
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