January highlights from EMI and Virgin Classics

Spotlight release

Poesie: Strauss Lieder Diana Damrau Virgin Classics presents a treat for lovers of the soprano voice, Richard Strauss’ songs and his magnificent writing for orchestra. Favourites such as Ständchen, Wiegenlied, Allerseelen, Cäcilie and Zueignung feature alongside more rarely heard numbers, and six tracks recorded under studio conditions complement sixteen songs captured in concert with the Münchner Philharmoniker and conductor Christian Thielemann.

Also new this month

Handel: Cleopatra Arias Natalie Dessay Anticipating her role debut as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare at the Paris Opéra in early 2011, Dessay performs a selection of the Egyptian Queen’s arias with the periodinstrument orchestra Le Concert d’Astrée under Emanuelle Haïm.

Viva Domingo! Plácido Domingo EMI Classics celebrates Domingo Year - 70th birthday, 50 years on the stage, 20th anniversary of his Covent Garden debut - with a 4CD portrait, packaged in a luxurious, lavishly illustrated 58-page full-colour book. Also released is a 2CD set The Very Best of Plácido Domingo.

“ Above all else there’s Domingo: courageous, still eloquent, an artist in a million.”

The Times

The Great EMI Recordings Wilhelm Furtwängler EMI Classics celebrates the 125th birthday of the great conductor with three releases – a 20CD box which comprises a mix of live and studio recordings, a 3CD set The Legend and a repackaging of his historic recording of Wagner’s great opera Der Ring des Nibelungen.

20th Century Classics Elgar The popular series presents ten new titles covering the music of Stravinsky, Tcherepnin, Sibelius, Scriabin, Satie, Prokofiev, Elgar, Debussy, Lutoslawski and Berg, each presented as a 2CD set.

“Diana Damrau is the most thrilling high soprano of our day.” The Observer

“Probably the only soprano today who could alternate the parts of the Queen of the Night and Pamino to equal acclaim.” The Daily Telegraph

Essential Series Tchaikovsky Five new titles – Puccini, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Violin and Vivaldi – join this popular series of 2-CD budget price sets featuring best-loved works drawn from the EMI Classics and Virgin Classics catalogues, performed by the world’s leading artists.

Discover more… www.emiclassics.co.uk www.youtube.com/emiclassics www.facebook.com/emivirginclassics www.twitter.com/emiclassics Contents – February 2011

‘I doubt whether a pianist more finely attuned to every harmonic and rhythmic subtlety has existed since Lipatti’

Bryce Morrison on Murray Perahia’s first Brahms recording for 20 years, reviewed on page 77

Letters Batting for Beecham’s Magic Flute

8

editor’s choice James Ehnes’s compelling Mendelssohn Violin Concerto; Bizet discoveries from

Jean-Claude Casadesus

12

S o u n d b i t e S

m u s e u m i r t H P l a c e b

H o l s t

,

/ a l a m y l t d

P r e s s i a l i c t o r

P

:

p h o t o g r a p h y

For the record Andriessen wins Grawemeyer Award; ICA artist agency launches own label; Wellensian Consort crowned BBC Choir of the Year

14

a conversation with…

…soprano Kate Royal

19

diary

Pianist Stephen Hough on why the concert pianist’s life isn’t simply one long vacation

21

one to watch As he launches his international career and releases his debut recording, violinist Ray

Chen is in the spotlight

23

richard eyre The director on pianos he has known

25

PhiLiP Kennicott When Bach is the only balm

26

recordings on triaL Toscanini’s 1952 Beethoven Eighth is in the dock, as two Gramophone critics dispute the case

28

www.gramophone.co.uk

F e A t u R e S

Loving Liszt The great Hungarian exerted a profound influence on the music of his time and afterwards but we still misunderstand him

34

education suPPLement Music colleges’ junior departments; Jack Liebeck beyond Einstein; the crisis in youth brass playing; plus listings of summer courses

40

davis on hoLst As he records The Planets, Sir Andrew Davis muses on Holst’s forgotten music

50

the gramoPhone coLLection Rob Cowan seeks the finest recordings of

Dvo∑ák’s Cello Concerto

54

e n C o R e musicaL journeys Miami’s new concert hall; the 2010 Concours de Genève; Karabits in Bournemouth

107

PicK oF the musicaL month Kristjan Järvi conducts Candide in Munich, plus the pick of the month’s performances

111

audio and visuaL Music streaming from Marantz;

how to get connected

112

my music Harry Potter composer Alexandre Desplat on the music that influenced him

130

Franz Liszt, pianist, composer and a force for good in 19th-century music 34

The Planets and beyond: there’s much more to Holst than usually meets the ear 50

GRAMOPHONE February 2011 3