Gramophone Magazine January 2022

I’ve been reflecting a lot this month on the impact of technology on classical music, a train of thought sparked by being asked to talk on the subject at the Beijing Forum for Symphonic Music. One of the areas I celebrated was the streaming of online concerts and events, and my observations found a resounding echo in talks by several orchestra executives, from Cleveland to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, on their recent endeavours in this area. (The event itself neatly illustrated this too – I attended from London and, straight after speaking, received messages from industry colleagues watching on three different continents.) Then last week I enjoyed a particularly creative demonstration by Apple of the notation app StaffPad. Wielding with dexterity Apple’s digital pencil, the app’s designer arranged and adjusted a…

‘The French-Danish soprano Elsa Dreisig brings a wonderfully fresh perspective to Mozart,’ says our cover feature author NEIL FISHER. ‘What pleased me most about talking to her is that she doesn’t just see Mozart as the preserve of young singers – these roles “are part of the path”, she says.’ ‘I’m always happy to talk Haydn with people,’ says LINDSAY KEMP, ‘but with Giovanni Antonini’s radical, imaginative and lovingly presented Haydn symphony series shaping up into one of the great modern-day recording projects, it was a pleasure to get a taste of his insight and enthusiasm at first hand.’ ‘Having watched Michael Collins perform Brahms’s Clarinet Sonatas with Stephen Hough at Wigmore Hall before lockdown, it was great to talk to him about the recording they made together,’ MARK PULLINGER recalls. ‘It…

MESSIAEN Orchestral Works Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Kent Nagano This superb collection of large-scale works by Messiaen, including Poèmes pour Mi and a remarkable La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, is brilliantly recorded. REVIEW ON PAGE 42 SAINT-SAËNS ‘Chamber Music with Winds’ Soloists of the Orchestre de Paris Indésens A truly delightful contribution to Saint-Saëns anniversary events – a survey of his chamber music for wind instrument, from the players of the Orchestre de Paris. REVIEW ON PAGE 53 MONTEVERDI ‘Daylight – Stories of Songs, Dances and Loves’ Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini Naïve A sequel to Concerto Italiano’s 2017 album of nocturnal-themed madrigals again spans Monteverdi’s life to build an inspired recital. REVIEW ON PAGE 71 DVD/BLU-RAY DVOŘÁK Rusalka Sols; Orchestra of the Teatro Real, Madrid / Ivor Bolton C Major Entertainment A stylish production and a superb lead in soprano Asmik Grigorian makes for a highly recommendable Rusalka on DVD. REVIEW ON PAGE 80 ARENSKY. SHOSTAKOVICH Piano…

Two major signings were announced by Sony Classical this month. Just as we were going to press, the label revealed that Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing was joining its roster. The first fruits of their exclusive partnership will have already been released by the time you read this – a single called ‘Winter Meditation’, an arrangement based on Vivaldi’s Largo from The Four Seasons, which was released on December 17, following Hemsing’s performance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo the previous week. Hemsing’s first full album for Sony will be released in autumn of 2022. Born in Valdres, Norway, Hemsing had been a well-known child prodigy in her homeland, giving her first performance with the Bergen Philharmonic aged just 11. Her previous releases have been on the BIS label, and…

American conductor Ryan Bancroft has been appointed Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The 32-year-old will begin his tenure from the 2023/24 season, though prior to that he can be heard with the orchestra in March conducting music by Elgar and James MacMillan, and at the opening of the 2022/23 season, with Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. He succeeds Sakari Oramo, who stepped down from the role this year, assuming the title of Conductor Laureate. ‘It’s incredibly difficult to put into words what it means to be appointed Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra: moved, elated, overjoyed, and all other superlatives in between,’ said Bancroft. ‘This is an orchestra that knows how to set a gold standard of music-making and takes very seriously music’s ability to communicate to people…

Olga Neuwirth is to receive the 2022 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for her opera Orlando. The Austrian composer’s work is based on Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel, Orlando: A Biography, which tells of a young male poet in 16th-century England who becomes female at the age of 30 and lives until the early 20th century; it is commonly regarded as a classic work of feminist literature. Likewise, Neuwirth’s opera embraces several centuries in its music, drawing on styles from Tudor-era ballads to modern electronic sound-layering. ‘I wanted to reflect the wonderful diversity of life and evoke a subtle form of sexual attraction that cannot be pigeonholed into a single gender,’ Neuwirth said. Orlando was commissioned by Vienna State Opera and premiered in 2019; a film of the opera is set for release…