Gramophone Magazine October 2020

I’d missed the news about Julian Bream’s death. When this great figure of classical guitar, who had done so much to champion the instrument at a time when it was far from fashionable, died, I was in rural Scotland. After many months surrounded by concrete and the background buzz of a city never truly quiet regardless of what lockdown threw at it, it was a calming joy to be reconnected with the rhythms of the day, the space of the surrounding countryside and the expansive sky. There was no phone or Wi-Fi signal – which swiftly reminded me how dependent I’d become on instant-access streaming services (though rather movingly in hindsight, of the only two albums I gratefully found downloaded on my phone, one was Dreams & Fancies, Sean Shibe’s beautiful…

‘I’ve played through the odd Goldberg variation in my time’, says LINDSAY KEMP, our cover story author, ‘but the only time I’ll ever play them all will be in a dream. How wonderful, then, to be able instead to talk to four of the world’s great pianists about their personal relationships with this masterpiece.’ ‘I’ve long admired Ermonela Jaho as a powerful performer on the operatic stage’, writes HUGO SHIRLEY, who interviews the soprano this issue. ‘So it was fascinating to see her in action in the recording studio, and to discuss her new recording project, inspired by one of her great predecessors, Rosina Storchio.’ ‘I first heard Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings when I was 12’, recalls GERAINT LEWIS, who explores the recorded history of this extraorindary work in…

RECORDING OF THEMONTH BRITTEN Peter Grimes Sols incl Stuart Skelton; Bergen Philharmonic Choirs and Orchestra / Edward Gardner Chandos MIKE ASHMAN’S REVIEW IS ON PAGE 32 A powerful new recording of Peter Grimes from Stuart Skelton, one of today’s leading interpreters of the title role, and a conductor, Edward Gardner, who perfectly understands Britten’s music. BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No 4 Kristian Bezuidenhout fp Freiburg Baroque Orchestra / Pablo Heras-Casado Harmonia Mundi Kristian Bezuidenhout delivers a thrilling performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto, alive to all its details. REVIEW ON PAGE 34 DOWLAND A Fancy Bor Zuljan lute Ricercar A reflective, introspective and highly personal performance of Dowland’s music from Bor Zuljan, a lute player who draws deep emotions from both the music and his dark-toned instrument. REVIEW ON PAGE 59 ‘PORTRAITS DE LA FOLIE’ Stéphanie d’Oustrac mez Ensemble Amarillis / Héloïse Gaillard Harmonia Mundi ‘A typically…

ulian Bream, who has died aged 87, was a towering figure in the 20th-century classical guitar world, a musician whose dedication to his instrument left its reputation and repertoire infinitely stronger than it was when, aged 11, he first took it up. His legacy can be found in many modern works commissioned from some of the era’s leading composers, in a richly rewarding recording catalogue, and arguably in the number of young soloists whose path today is much smoother thanks to Bream’s dogged determination to forge the instrument the place in classical music it deserves. Yet it was on piano that Battersea-born Bream won a junior exhibition to the Royal College of Music, with cello as his second instrument – the guitar wasn’t yet taught there. National Service was spent mostly…

Podcasts The Gramophone Podcast continues with interviews with Robin Ticciati, Alondra de la Parra and Eric Whitacre. Ticciati, Principal Conductor of the DSO Berlin, has just released a Richard Strauss album that couples two tone-poems, Don Juan and Tod und Verklärung, with the six songs, Op 68, often called the Brentano songs, sung by Louise Alder. As Ticciati rehearsed at Glyndebourne for the much reduced 2020 season, James Jolly caught up with him to talk about the new album. Alondra de la Parra, keen to raise money to support charities in Mexico working to help women and children suffering abuse and violence during the pandemic, has created The Impossible Orchestra. With musicians from 14 different countries and recorded for video as well as audio, the orchestra is a stellar line-up of…

Parker Ramsay Harp It’s unusual for a harpist to feature in this slot, although in truth Parker Ramsay is a man of many talents. At the age of 17 he was awarded the Organ Scholarship at King’s College, Cambridge – the first American to hold this post – where he served under the direction of the late Stephen Cleobury. As well as a degree in history, he has master’s degrees in historical keyboards (Oberlin Conservatory) and harp performance (Juilliard). The son of a harpist and a trombonist, Ramsay grew up in rural Tennessee, where he studied the harpsichord, organ and harp. In his role as Organ Scholar at King’s he has featured on various King’s College Choir recordings, but his first solo album is as a harpist, and is a very particular…