Eight Songs for Aladdin Sane

Robert Matthew-Walker on the influence of Peter Maxwell Davies on David Bowie

Here we are, halfway through 2009, and within a few months we shall enter the second decade of the 21st-century, whereby the 1960s will be half-a-century away, fifty years ago for those who remember them, yet to hear some people talk, especially musicians, one might think it was only yesterday.

Why do we (and, occasionally, I admit I’m one of them) think that the music of the sixties is such a recent phenomenon, when in reality it was 50 years ago? The main reason, of course, is that it was decade of enormous change, and we don’t have to rehearse the historical ground covered in those ten years – in the USA, from President Eisenhower to the first moon landings – to grasp the essence of those changes, but for the emerging ‘baby bulge’ generation, then grown to early manhood, the relative freedom of that decade, so far as the United Kingdom was concerned, can be summed up in the greater preponderance of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, together with such visual personifications as fashion, the cessation of enforced National Service in the armed forces for all fit young men over the age of 18, with greater freedoms in the introduction of legal abortion, decriminalisation of homosexuality, the abolition of the death penalty, and so on.

But for musicians, the 1960s meant the arrival of what might be termed, without wishing to appear too highfalutin’, an intellectual aspect to popular music, the impact of which transcended purely musical aspects – at least in the work of people as varied (and as important in their lasting influence) as Bob Dylan and, of course, The Beatles. It was additionally an era of change in terms of the direction in which what then might still be regarded as ‘classical music’ was taking – the emergence and occasional domination of serial composition, largely brought about by the opening up, so far as – once again – the United Kingdom was concerned – of the hitherto shamefully neglected (and, therefore, misunderstood) repertoire and aims of the Second Viennese School and their immediate post-war successors in Europe.

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The 2009 Proms Previewed

by Hugo A Meynell

As may be well enough known, this year marks the second season of the BBC Henry Wood Proms under the directorship of Roger Wright, but as is rather less well-known (at least, to the general public) concerts are often planned some years in advance, with the result that – certainly in the case of visits by foreign orchestras – Roger will more than likely have to abide by decisions largely taken by his predecessor, Sir Nicholas Kenyon. None the less, Roger’s name appears on the prospectus as the Director of this, the 115th season and so must take the blame, alongside the plaudits, for what is on offer.

It should be clear, from even the most cursory glance at the Prospectus, that the undertaking is a full-time job, and not just for one person. There are, for the first time in a season, exactly 100 concerts, including 76 numbered concerts in the Royal Albert Hall, 19 chamber music concerts at Cadogan Hall and five Proms in the Park. The season runs over 58 days from July 17 – September 12, beginning and ending with the (by now) traditional first and last nights, and although the last night has retained – pretty much – a rather less serious atmosphere than the rest of the programmes, the nature and character of the first night has changed in recent years.

Following Sir Malcolm Sargent’s death in 1967? At the age of 76?, the then Proms Director, Sir William Glock, decided to begin the following season one night early, on the Friday, not the Saturday, and to open the Season with a major choral-orchestral work that would occupy the entire evening. Initially, this was to honour Sargent’s memory, but so successful was the innovation that Glock determined to continue with the single major work as an opener – to showcase just what the BBC could do, with as many of its musicians taking part at one time as were called for in the chosen piece, in the realm of broadcast classical music.

In this way, for decades the Proms always got off to a serious and impressive start, a plan that was continued under Glock’s successors, Robert Ponsonby and Sir John Drummond, as well as Nicholas Kenyon in his early period, but some years ago, after Leonard Slatkin had been appointed chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the single major choral work syndrome was abandoned, to the regret of many prommers and supporters of the BBC’s commitment to large-scale classical music, and replaced with what one might term an ‘ordinary’ programme. In this way, the undoubted special nature of the Proms and the launching of a new season in majestic style, was lost, and it has not returned. It is a pity, and one hopes that at some time the relatively recent tradition will be reinstated.

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Melbourne's New Concert Hall

John Amis on his travels

The capital of Victoria has a new music room, a large recital room seating a thousand, no proscenium, just a stage abutting the first of the audience. All wood: walls, ceiling, floor, even the chair backs. The walls seem to flow, with a two-inch indentation somewhat like diagrams of ocean charts. A leaflet tells us what to savour - a big bass response. True, a bit too big, supporting horns come at us overbearing. Our old friend Bill Lyne, who ran Wigmore Hall for so long with good taste and success, is quoted as saying: “the Elizabeth Murdoch Hall will inspire artists to give of their best.” Who is Elizabeth Murdoch? The mother of Rupert and a much loved lady in these parts, the opening of her hall coincided with her 100th birthday in late January.

In passing: although many are convinced that wood produces the best acoustic, note that our perfect chamber music venue in London, the Wigmore Hall, is not all wood but mostly plaster, combined with some wood and some plaster. My ears tell me that this new Melbourne hall will need quite a bit of tweaking before it meets the claims made for it. The sound is resonant to the point of crudity, almost, bathroom, that is, from the circle, from the back, stalls where I sat for two concerts. Only from the third row of the stalls, where I sat for the third concert, did I get a good sound, where the sound flowed naturally. Not only was the bass response too loud but there also seemed to be a favoured octave, A above middle C upwards to top A in the treble clef. Sometimes string sound disappeared.

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Martin & Mirandolina

Brian Hick in conversation with Martin Duncan

With all the fuss about Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn, the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Bohuslav Martinu has been somewhat overlooked. Garsington Opera has come to the rescue with a new production of Mirandolina directed by Martin Duncan, whom I spoke to recently.

He had worked with Garsington in 2007 on the highly successful production of Ariadne auf Naxos and I wondered what had drawn him back.

‘While I was working on Ariadne I was asked if I’d like to come back to direct Mirandolina as they thought it would be just up my street. I didn’t know the piece but was excited by the prospect as it combines a comedy by Goldoni with Martinu’s splendid score. I’ve directed Goldoni in the past, and have actually written a musical version of The Servant of Two Masters, so felt I had an understanding of what Martinu is doing. In many ways this is not a conventional opera – there are no arias – it is simply a setting of the play, and very funny at that. It was particularly because of the comic text that we knew we had to do the piece in English, and I’m glad to say we have a very witty and light translation from Jeremy Sams.’

Martin Ducan has had a very eclectic career. Trained as a stage manager at LAMDA he worked as an actor for 20 years before being appointed an Associate Artist of the Crucible Theatre Sheffield. He has directed widely in theatre, musicals and opera, with a number of ventures into the world of popular music – including The Pet Shop Boys’1991 Performance world tour. In 1994 he was appointed Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse and from 2002-05 was joint Artistic Director at Chichester Festival Theatre.

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62nd Aldeburgh Festival

June would never be the same without the Aldeburgh Festival, now in its 62nd year and the first under the new artistic director Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who will additionally have the use of the newly created rehearsal and performance studios at Snape. This means that the major part of the £16 million capital development will be complete, bringing to life the original vision of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears for Snape Maltings; to create a campus where the most talented emerging and established musicians could meet, be inspired and connect with the wider public.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s plans for his first Aldeburgh Festival bring music and musicians both familiar and unfamiliar, around major world premieres from such long-established figures as Harrison Birtwistle, Elliott Carter, Thomas Adès and George Benjamin.

Opening the Festival and celebrating the new buildings is the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s music theatre double bill, Semper Dowland, semper dolens: theatre of melancholy & The Corridor: a scena for soprano, tenor and six instruments which has been commissioned and produced by the Aldeburgh Festival and Southbank Centre, in association with the London Sinfonietta and Bregenz Festival. Semper Dowland, semper dolens: theatre of melancholy & The Corridor will be premiered on June 12th in the Britten Studio, the newly-opened 340-seat venue at Snape Maltings, with further performance on June 15, 17 & 18. A selection of Birtwistle’s chamber works will also be featured at Aldeburgh Church on Saturday, a Promenade concert exploring the spaces of the new building that afternoon, and on Monday evening Vladimir Jurowski conducting the London Philharmonic in Birtwistle’s An Imaginary Landscape for wind orchestra. Pierre-Laurent Aimard will give three performances at this year’s Festival, and Sunday sees the beginning of a three-concert exploration of all of Britten’s song-cycles for voice and piano, led by Malcolm Martineau and sung by many talented young singers who have recently benefited from the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme.

The second weekend will feature music by Elliott Carter, whose On Converging with Paradise, commissioned by the Aldeburgh Festival will received world premiere on June 20th performed by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group conducted by Oliver Knussen. Carter’s Fifth and Oboe Quartets will also be heard, alongside his Three Occasions for orchestra, given by the BBC Symphony under George Benjamin, who will also conduct his Duet for Piano and Orchestra with Aimard as soloist. There is a newly commissioned work for cello and piano from Thomas Adès, and the third weekend features the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with Masaaki Suzuki conducting Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra. New and old, as before. Details from: philipp@macbethmediarelations.co.uk

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The Complete Chopin on Hyperion

Robert Matthew-Walker assesses the new Garrick Ohlsson recordings

Since it was founded by the late Ted Perry, thirty years ago next year, Hyperion has established itself as one of the significant companies in the classical record business worldwide, building a reputation for recording composers’ complete works in a particular genre – alongside, of course, many other projects - yet their new release of every known work by Chopin in all genres carries the concept to its logical conclusion.

This is possible because every one of Chopin’s works requires a piano, and additionally his complete works can be covered in a manageable box of CDs. The recordings in this set were made for the Arabesque label; not being original Hyperion recordings, the project marks an additional departure for them, but the result deserves the highest praise. The pianist is Garrick Ohlsson, who in 1970 won the Chopin Competition in Warsaw outright. He also received a special prize for his playing of Chopin’s Mazurkas (the booklet shows an astonished Ohlsson being warmly congratulated by Emanuel Ax and Mitsuko Ochida). Ohlsson’s remarkable achievement arose from the fact thta he had studied Chopin’s music in depth for some years previously, as a pupil of Rosina Lhevinne and Olga Barbarini in the United States. Following his success in the Chopin Competition, he made many recordings for EMI and he remains a much admired artist, especially in Poland.

It is sometimes claimed that no one musician can reveal every aspect of a composer’s complete output, but it is equally true a consistent approach to such a body of music can be highly illuminating. When the composer was not greatly prolific, and if much of his work was written for just one instrument, the result of such an approach can shed much light on the music. It is essential therefore to engage an artist of notable quality, whose sympathy and understanding of the composer in question is widely acknowledged. For Chopin, it might be thought that only a Polish pianist could undertake such a task, but in Garrick Ohlsson the choice has surely been brilliantly made. Chopin was not just an early nationalist composer (after all, he left Poland aged 20 and never returned) but an international figure, as the early praise lavished upon him by his contemporaries Schumann and Liszt demonstrate.

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