Wednesday, January 1, 2020

7 of the best pieces of classical music for reading

By Daniel Ross, ClassicFM

Reading with the right soundtrack is a fine art: which piece of classical music goes with your book?

Curling up with a great book and the perfect classical soundtrack: truly, can you name anything more enjoyable?

But choosing the right piece to accompany your literary experience is fraught with danger. Pick something obtrusive and well-known, and you risk losing focus. Pick something insufficiently active and you may as well not bother.

So here’s our list of perfect music to accompany your latest fireside read, all of it perfectly pitched to enhance your novelistic experience...

Samuel Barber: Violin Concerto

If you’re grappling with the literary boom that brought us what became known as the ‘Great American Novel’, you’ll need a suitably Yank-inclined soundtrack to aid your reading.

Whether it’s Fitzgerald or Baldwin or Bellow, it’s essential to listen to a piece which captures and crystallises an American state of mind.

There are of countless examples, but Barber’s violin concerto is a true American great: grandstanding and slick, but deeply emotional in its slower passages, it’ll bring out the lyrical zip of the right novel.
Joseph Haydn: Symphonies

Reading the classics? Need to feel the perfect mix of stately propriety and cheekiness to go with your subtly subversive comment on high society?

Haydn’s status as a mere courtly composer does him a bit of a disservice, and likewise, the true impact of greats like Jane Austen wasn’t truly appreciated until much later. And paired together, it really works.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 (second movement)

Taking in the complex and circulatory narratives of a classic crime thriller needs a contemplative soundtrack as you survey all the angles and try to work out whodunnit.

Cycling through the suspects in an Agatha Christie vignette means evaluating the options over and over, and Beethoven’s cyclical, haunting and tense motif will help you mull over the motives.
Howard Shore: The Lord Of The Rings

Absolute top tip: when you’re reading fantasy fiction – whether it’s George RR Martin or Ursula Le Guin – movie music can be distracting. But if you stick to the less hummable, more background-y bits of Shore’s mammoth compositions for Peter Jackson’s Tolkien movie adaptations, you’ll be surprised how immersive your reading experience becomes.

Now, you might be tempted to go a step further in this direction and try Wagner’s Ring Cycle for some extra depth and intrigue for your fantastical jaunt, but we must advise caution: Wagner and books only makes for torn pages and weeping.
Gerald Finzi: Eclogue

Almost imperceptibly melancholic, Finzi’s sweeping work is the perfect soundtrack to a winsome bit of nature writing.

Deeply imbued with the bucolic soul of the English countryside, his Eclogue is just the thing if you’ve got some Robert MacFarlane or Laurie Lee nestling on your bedside table. You are about to have your mind very gently and wholesomely blown.
Arvo Pärt: Berlin Mass

With his ‘tintinnabulation’ compositional technique to the fore, there is a hypnotic quality to Pärt’s Berlin Mass (Berliner Messe) which is suited to any book with an atmosphere to get lost in.

A Shirley Jackson novella, perhaps some engrossing and otherworldly science fiction like Frank Herbert’s Dune, maybe even an unsettling work like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale: all of these will take on a different character with a soundtrack like this.
Franz Liszt: Liebestraum

Take a novel with deep romantic themes and pair it with Liszt, the master of the romantic piano.

Sigh along with his indelible melodies as Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara fall (or fail to fall) into each other’s arms. Swoon as the aching right hand motifs draw you deeper into Love In The Time Of Cholera.

Or just pop it on while you’re reading Jilly Cooper, we’re not here to judge.

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason awarded MBE in New Year’s Honours

By Maddy Shaw Roberts

Sheku Kanneh-Mason has been recognized in the New Year’s Honors list 2020 alongside director Sam Mendes, broadcaster Humphrey Burton and Sir Elton John.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, 20-year-old cellist and Decca recording artist, has been made an MBE (Member of the British Empire) for his services to music.

After winning the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year, Sheku played to an audience of two billion people at the royal wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and quickly found international fame as a soloist.

He has since been outspoken about music education, and is a Junior Ambassador of London Music Masters, a music education charity that supports young musicians in classical music.

“To be awarded the MBE for services to music is amazing,” Sheku tells Classic FM.

“I was so lucky to have the dedicated support of my parents in giving me the opportunity to have specialist music lessons from a young child. I also had incredible support from the state schools I attended in Nottingham where music was promoted for its value in developing listening skills, teamwork, self-expression and hard work.

“The love and enjoyment for this great art is something that should be available to everyone, regardless of background.”

Sam Mendes and trumpet virtuoso Alison Balsom. Picture: Getty

Sheku is joined in the New Year’s Honours list by theatre and film director Sam Mendes CBE – married to trumpet virtuoso Alison Balsom (pictured above) – who is made Knight Bachelor for services to drama.

Humphrey Burton CBE, legendary broadcaster and Leonard Bernstein’s official biographer, is also made Knight Bachelor for services to classical music, the arts and media. Burton has recently presented two series on Classic FM, celebrating the lives and work of two great musicians: Yehudi Menuhin and Leonard Bernstein.

At the top of the honours list, Sir Elton John is awarded the Order of the Companions of Honour for his services to music and charity.

Last month, Sir Elton spoke exclusively to Classic FM about the “tragic” state of music education in the UK, saying: “A lot of schools [now] have taken music out of the curriculum and I find that really appalling, because music is so inspiring and for kids that have the ability or want to play music, there’s no outlet for this in schools anymore.”

Sir Elton John awarded the Order of the Companions of Honour for his services to music and charity. Picture: Getty

English composer and mezzo-soprano Judith Bingham, who is also a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music, has been appointed OBE.

Others made MBE for services to music include Scottish composer Helen Grime whose opus, Virga, was chosen as one of the best ten new classical works of the 2000s by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

For his services to dance, artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and former ballet dancer David Julian Bintley CBE is made Knight Bachelor.

Friday, December 27, 2019

Schumann: Piano Concerto, Op. 54 - Arthur Jussen and Residentie Orkest -...

Friday, December 20, 2019

Beethoven’s unfinished tenth symphony to be completed ...

... by artificial intelligence

By Maddy Shaw Roberts

Beethoven’s unfinished symphony is set to be completed by artificial intelligence, in the run-up to celebrations around the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

A computer is set to complete Beethoven’s unfinished tenth symphony, in the most ambitious project of its kind.

Artificial intelligence has recently been used to complete Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony No. 8, as well as to attempt to match the playing of revered 20th-century pianist, Glenn Gould.

Beethoven famously wrote nine symphonies (you can read more here about the Curse of the Ninth). But alongside his Symphony No. 9, which contains the ‘Ode to Joy’, there is evidence that he began writing a tenth.

Unfortunately, when the German composer died in 1827, he left only drafts and notes of the composition.

But can a computer really replicate Beethoven’s genius?

A team of musicologists and programmers have been training the artificial intelligence, by playing snippets of Beethoven’s unfinished Symphony No. 10, as well as sections from other works like his ‘Eroica’ Symphony. The AI is then left to improvise the rest.

Matthias Roeder, project leader and director of the Herbert von Karajan institute, told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung: “No machine has been able to do this for so long. This is unique.”

“The quality of genius cannot be fully replicated, still less if you’re dealing with Beethoven’s late period,” said Christine Siegert, head of the Beethoven Archive in Bonn and one of those managing the project.

“I think the project’s goal should be to integrate Beethoven’s existing musical fragments into a coherent musical flow,” she told the German broadcaster Deutshe Welle. “That’s difficult enough, and if this project can manage that, it will be an incredible accomplishment.”

Beethoven died before completing his tenth symphony. Picture: Getty

What will the symphony sound like?

It remains to be seen – and heard – whether the new completed composition will sound anything like Beethoven’s own compositions. But Mr Roeder has said the algorithm is making positive progress.

“The algorithm is unpredictable, it surprises us every day. It is like a small child who is exploring the world of Beethoven.

“But it keeps going and, at some point, the system really surprises you. And that happened the first time a few weeks ago. We’re pleased that it’s making such big strides.”

There will also, reliable sources have confirmed, be some human involvement in the project. Although the computer will write the music, a living composer will orchestrate it for playing.

The results of the experiment will be premiered by a full symphony orchestra, in a public performance in Bonn – Beethoven’s birthplace in Germany – on 28 April 2020.

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Gustav Mahler - His Music and His Life

Synopsis

Born on July 7, 1860, Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler served as director for the Vienna Court Opera from 1897 to 1907. He later led the New York Metropolitan Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra. He wrote 10 symphonies during his career, which became popular for their 20th-century techniques and emotional character. He died in Vienna on May 18, 1911.

Early Life

Gustav Mahler was born into an Austrian Jewish family on July 7, 1860 in Kaliste, Czech Republic. Mahler and his 11 siblings grew up in Jihlava, where pronounced ethnic divisions made him feel like an outsider. With music serving as an outlet, he began singing and composing on the accordion and piano at the age of 4 and gave his first recital at 10. When he was 15 years old, Mahler entered the Vienna Conservatory. During his years at the school, he began composing a piece where he felt he was able to truly develop his voice, Das klagende Lied. Ultimately, he turned to conducting after graduation, believing it to be a more practical career choice.

Mahler: Symphony No. 7 - Radio Philharmonic Orchestra led by Edo de Waar...

Thursday, December 5, 2019

André Rieu donates £360k to provide music lessons for 1,000 children

2 December 2019, 16:55

André Rieu donates £360k to provide music lessons for children. Picture: Getty

By Maddy Shaw Roberts

The Dutch violinist made the generous donation to a youth foundation, which provides music lessons for children whose families can’t afford them

André Rieu has donated €425,000 (£360,000) to provide music lessons for 1,000 children living in his hometown in the Netherlands.

The Dutch violinist and conductor donated the money to Jeugdfonds Cultuur Limburg, a culture and youth foundation in the province of Limburg.

With music increasingly disappearing from schools, Rieu says, children today are learning to make music far less than before.

“I would like to give these children the pleasure of making music,” said the maestro. “My orchestra members and I know how much fun it is to make music every day, and to make millions of people happy with music night after night.”

André Rieu playing a full-size violin as a child. Picture: Beeld Privéarchief Rieu

“We were all given the chance to have music lessons since our childhood and were fortunate to learn how to play an instrument,” he continued.

“So, we may understand better than anyone else what it means if you do not get that chance to be involved with music as a child.”

According to Jeugdfonds Cultuur Limburg, it costs €425 (£365) to provide one child with music lessons for a year. The foundation plans to use its recent generous donation to open an ‘André Rieu Fund’, which they hope to use to draw more sponsors.

Earlier this year, Rieu offered to replace €20,000 worth of stolen instruments, which were taken from an orchestra for the mentally disabled. He said: “My heart broke when I read [the news]. I want them to be able to perform again very soon.”

Klaus Döring's Classical Music/Klaus Döring's Klassische Musik

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