Staff favourites from the last five months

A few of the Chandos team would like to share some our favourites from the last few months. See what you think and let us know what your favourites are too!

Paul Westcott:

Foulds World Requiem (CHSA 5058(2)

This thrilling first recording of a ludicrously neglected work which seemed to, unaccountably, just slip out of fashion. It makes a triumphant return!

John Marsh: Symphonies (CHAN 10458)

There was so much music written during the time of Mozart, much of it eclipsed by that master. John Marsh’s music is fresh, elegant, tuneful and hugely enjoyable and deserves to be rescued from oblivion.

London Concertante - Gypsy Strings (CHAN 10453)

Here is some hugely enjoyable light music with a very appealing gypsy flavour, all served in exhilarating virtusoso performances – popular music with style!

Schubert: Mass in C – Hickox (CHAN 0750)

Schubert’s Mass in C has been recorded before, but never more imposingly than in this new Hickox recording, where the period instruments bring out an amazing range of colour and power to this magnificent score.

Mozart: Cosi fan Tutte (CHAN 3152)

Mozart’s great opera Cosi Fan Tutti works superbly well sung in English, but what makes this recording so special is the magnificent conducting of Sir Charles Mackerras and a superb cast of singers, fully in tune with Mozart style – exhilarating music-making

Bax: Tone poems Vol. 2 – BBC PO, Handley (CHAN 10446)

Vernon Handley is master of the Bax repertoire and this second volume of Bax tone poems is one of the conductor’s very best recordings: the highly romantic yet distinctive qualities of Bax’s music are vividly conveyed in this compelling music-making.

D’Indy: Orchestral music, Vol. 1 (CHAN 10464)

French music has always been a passion of mine, and the music of Vincent D’Indy is a favourite. Rumon Gamba brings out all the richly layered colours of this very seductive music out fully and one laments the music’s neglect in the concert hall.

Lambert/Berners film music (CHAN 10459)

As a classic film enthusiast, this CD has a particular appeal for me: these film scores, largely from Ealing films, fully convey the vivid scenes from the films, especially the wonderful faux musical hall song, written by Berners, ‘Come on Algernon’, from Champagne Charlie – wonderful stuff!

Debussy – volume 3 (CHAN 10467)

There have been many fine Debussy players over the years, but the playing of Jean- Efflam Bavouzet stands out. This is playing of the highest order – exquisite in detail as it is exciting in temperament, the stuff of legends.

Rachmaninoff: Symphony 1 (CHAN 10475)

The catastrophe which was the premiere of Rachmaninov’s First Symphony is well known and seems unaccountable when one listen to the symphony today. Noseda offers a blistering account of this red hot score, with equally compelling accounts of From the Isle of the Dead and the ‘Youth’ Symphony.

Our Press Officer let's off some steam following our attendence at the Classical Brits!

However one defines classical music, there was certainly little of it at the Classical Brits this year. Beginning, almost predictably, with a duet with Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman (who made Bocelli sound like Caruso), the show lurched on from one sloshy cross-over number to another. True, there were some hard-core classical contributions by Steven Isserlis, Anna Netrebko and Sir Colin Davis, but what on earth have artists like Josh Groban got to do with classical music? And where would all these artists be without microphones – I am referring to Jonathan Ansell, Blake, et al.

Once again, it is evidently thought that this is the best way to present classical music to the ‘masses’, so as not to scare them off. But does it really do classical music any good? (Or the presumed masses?) I do not think so. Presenting music in such a meretricious way induces nausea, more than anything else, in the true classical enthusiast and, frankly, makes it appear naff to everyone else.

Susan Tomes, talking about the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year, makes a similar point on her excellent Guardian blog:

‘There’s no point treating classical music as if it’s trivial, jokey, and easy. Let’s face it: playing this kind of music to this standard is serious work. It demands commitment and maturity. These young players had it in spades, but they hardly got a chance to show it, so intent was the BBC on making them look ordinary. Delivering classical music as lowest-common-denominator entertainment is never going to bring in new audiences.

‘Everyone who has tried popularising classical music will know there comes a point when you have to be honest. I belonged to a group, Domus, which gave informal concerts in our portable concert hall, a geodesic dome. We tried to make our audiences feel relaxed and at home, but we quickly realised we couldn’t play our beloved music in the right way unless the audience could approach it in the same thoughtful spirit. Pretending it was all tremendous fun was a tactic we had to give up when we realised it was leading people away from the heart of the matter.’

(blogs.guardian.co.uk)

How right Susan Tomes is: it is true that I first got interested in classical music as a teenager just by absorbing music pretty superficially, but it was programmes such as BBC Radio 3’s Record Review, and Building a Library in particular, which really inspired me and got me seriously interested in classical music.

I think classical musicians should have the courage of their convictions, present their music for what it is, which cannot be successfully disguised, and not try to make it appear something less or simpler or more superficial. Attempts to present it as something it is not are invariably embarrassing and patronising of the public. Even Classic FM, with its excellent Full Works programme presented by John Brunning, has realised that there is a need for presenting music complete, without any fluff and nonsense.

If the Classical Brits is to be taken seriously, the event managers will have to get back to basics. And by ‘basics’ I mean the imperative of honouring classical music and real classical artists. Only then will the event start doing the classical industry and the public a real favour.

Paul Westcott
Press Officer
Chandos Records

Sir Arthur Sullivan birthday

Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, was born today in 1842.

If you haven't had his works before two early endeavours are available on Chandos, Cox and Box and Trial by Jury, on CHAN 10321.

Richard Hickox directs a star-studded cast in this fantastic new recording of two early operettas by Arthur Sullivan. Cox and Box was first performed in 1866, when the composer was just twenty-four. It shared the bill with another operetta by writer W. S. Gilbert, and it is highly likely that this was how Arthur Sullivan and William Gilbert met. Trial by Jury, written as a commission for Richard D’Oyly Carte, was their second collaboration, and it was with this project that Gilbert and Sullivan discovered their joint creative voice. New and exciting, it took British musical theatre by storm.

Premiere recording of the original orchestration of Cox and Box which Arthur Sullivan approved for use at the Savoy performance in 1894.
The libretto of Cox and Box was an adaptation of Maddison Morton’s popular farce Box and Cox by the editor of Punch, Francis Burnard. Sullivan wrote the music and the piece received its first performance – in a benefit matinée at the Adelphi Theatre – in May 1866.The proposal to present Cox and Box in a professional run came from impresario Thomas German Reed, and the work entered the repertory of his Regent Street theatre in March 1869. Interestingly, another name on the first-night programme was W. S. Gilbert, whose show was also opening. Cox and Box did well, and gained further popularity from a subsequent tour. Credit for bringing Sullivan and Gilbert into partnership for the first time goes to John Hollingshead, manager of the Gaiety Theatre. Needing a new musical piece for his 1871 Christmas season, he offered them work. The result was Thespis, a two-act burlesque on Greek mythology (the score of which is now lost).Although Thespis was well received, it did not lead Gilbert and Sullivan to plan any future collaboration. It was Richard D’Oyly Carte who brought the two men together again. Looking out for a short piece to put together with a production of Offenbach’s La Périchole, he agreed with Gilbert that the legal skit the author had developed from a little piece published in the magazine Fun in 1868 would fit the bill perfectly. D’Oyly Carte liked Trial by Jury and proposed that Sullivan should write the music. The work’s enormous success encouraged ambitious plans. Guided by D’Oyly Carte’s sure business hand, a company was formed to produce the joint works of Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan, and from there the team went on to become one of the great theatrical partnerships.

http://www.chandos.net/CD_Notes.asp?CNumber=CHAN%2010321

'Coupling the best-known of Sullivan’s pre-Gilbert operettas with the first of their collaborations produces a programme that is not only entertaining but also shows just how essential Gilbert’s verbal coruscations were in enabling his comic genius to take flight…The performances are equally sparkling. Donald Maxwell takes the Judge’s Song at a cracking pace yet sacrifices not a jot of comic effect, and Matthew Brook’s gloriously mangled pseudo-aristocratic vowels as Counsel for the Plaintiff are guaranteed to induce helpless mirth.'
The Telegraph

'Regular readers will be aware of my deep-seated aversion to G&S; but this column is a broad church, public-spirited enough for me to have sat through these two half-hour works and recognise that they are performed here with character and conviction enough to recommend warmly. Tenor James Gilchrist and baritone Neal Davies shine in this recording of ‘Cox and Box’, the first of its original orchestration with linking dialogue. They are joined by the delightful soprano Rebecca Evans and the Chamber Choir of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama for a spirited version of ‘Trial by Jury’, led with authentic brio by Richard Hickox.'
The Observer

Philharmonia Orchestra begins the Vaughan Williams tour

Vaughan Williams: The Pioneering Pilgrim

The Philharmonia Orchestra is mounting the UK’s most significant commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). Under artistic advisor Michael Kennedy and conductor Richard Hickox the series includes choral works and a complete symphony cycle at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, two semi-staged performances of The Pilgrim’s Progress at Sadler’s Wells (directed by David Edwards) and concerts in Bedford, Leicester, Chichester, Truro and Tewkesbury.

Soloists include Susan Gritton and Gerald Finley (A Sea Symphony), Anthony Marwood (The Lark Ascending), Lisa Milne (Pastoral Symphony, and Dona nobis pacem) and Alan Opie (Dona nobis pacem). Roderick Williams (The Pilgrim) heads a brilliant cast of singers in The Pilgrim’s Progress including Matthew Brook, Neal Davies, Sarah Fox, James Gilchrist, Robert Hayward, Andrew Kennedy, Matthew Rose, Pamela Helen Stephen and Sarah Tynan.

Other resources and events in the Series include Study Days in London, Leicester and Bedford, exploring Vaughan Williams' life and times, pre-concert events and recitals by the Soloists of the Philharmonia.

For more information call FREEPHONE 0800 652 6717 or visit www.philharmonia.co.uk/vaughanwilliams

Richard Addinsell 'Composer of the Week' on BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 highlights the talents of Richard Addinsell in a 5-part series. Listen to the episodes for up to 7 days after broadcast

Part One

Listen to this episode for up to 7 days after broadcast

Monday 28 April 2008 12:00-13:00 (Radio 3)

Repeated: Monday 28 April 2008 20:45-21:45 (Radio 3)

Donald Macleod explores the music of Richard Addinsell and his close contemporary Noel Coward, who both composed songs and music for stage and screen from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Duration:

1 hour

Playlist

1/5. Addinsell: The Collaborationist

Together with Philip Lane, who composed and arranged many of Addinsell's film scores, Donald concentrates on Addinsell's most famous songwriting partnership - with Joyce Grenfell - as well as other artistic associations from which he benefited throughout his career.

The programme culminates with the one work which bears both Addinsell's and Coward's names - Addinsell's music to the film version of Coward's play Blithe Spirit, though how much they actually collaborated is not clear.

Addinsell/ Grenfell: Three Brothers
Joyce Grenfell/ studio orch cond by William Blezard
EMI 7 80552 2
CD 2 tr 14

Addinsell/ Gay: The Charlot Show of 1926
BBC Concert Orchestra/ Barry Wordsworth (cond)
BBC recording

Addinsell/ Dane: Moonlight is Silver
Gertrude Lawrence and Douglas Fairbanks Jr
MFP MONO 1245
LP side 2 tr 5

Addinsell: Isle of Apples
BBC Concert Orchestra/ Kenneth Alwyn (cond)
Marco Polo 8.223732 tr 6

Addinsell: Goodbye Mr Chips
BBC Philharmonic/ Rumon Gamba (cond)
CHAN 10046 tr 1-3

Addinsell/ Grenfell: Maud
Joyce Grenfell with Julian Orchard/ studio orchestra cond by Philip Green
EMI 7 80552 2 CD 3 tr 13

Addinsell: Blithe Spirit
BBC Philharmonic/ Rumon Gamba (cond)
CHAN 10046 tr 9&10

Chopin weekend on the BBC!

BBC Radio 3 is to broadcast every note written by Frederic Chopin during a weekend dedicated to the Polish composer, who died in 1849 aged 39.

The Chopin Experience, which runs on 17-18 May, follows similiar tributes by the station to Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. The weekend will explore how Chopin revolutionised piano music, as well as his troubled personal life. The weekend will also include the most famous recordings of Chopin's work.

His set of 24 Etudes will be aired in unbroken sequence featuring 24 different pianists.

Piano lessons

Dedicated programmes will look at the influence of Polish folk music on the composer - and how the composer continues to influence the Polish music scene.

Chopin settled in Paris in 1830 and died in the French capital from tuberculosis.

A child prodigy, his adult life was coloured by his volatile relationship with writer George Sand, the psuedonym of Aurore Dudevant, and his struggle with depression.

A dedicated website, launched as part of the Chopin weekend, will feature video piano lessons by pianist David Owen Norris, for those who want to try their hand at some of Chopin's more approachable pieces.

Why don't you download a selection of Chopin works from www.theclassicalshop.net to start the ball rolling?!

Classical Music's version of Guitar Hero!

Thanks to the Well-Tempered blog for this one! Check it out!!

Classical music attendees across the country are being treated to a videogame in concert halls that lets them conduct an orchestra through a rendition of the William Tell Overture, Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony or Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. The game is simpler than Guitar Hero; faster gestures increases the tempo, while slower ones have the opposite effect. Still, it looks like a fun way to interact with music that will have the side benefit of surreptitiously introducing the older demographic to the joy of music videogames.

The setup, sponsored by the bank UBS, consists of a 42-inch plasma television, a speaker, a podium area for conductors and a Wiimore control, according to USA Today. Assistant professor Teresa Nakra of The College of New Jersey in Ewing, who led the team of developers who programmed the interface, said that one difficult aspect was slowing down and speeding up the music without altering pitch, but that's a relatively simple problem to overcome.

Virtual Maestro is at the Philadelphia Orchestra Kimmel Center through April 15, the Seattle Symphony through April 28, the Cleveland Orchestra from May 2 through May 26 and the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois from June 23 through August 18. More dates will be announced later.