Contents – May 2011

‘At moments Hamelin comes at you with all guns blazing – a quality to enthral and stupefy. This is a pianist to trump all aces’

Bryce Morrison on Marc-André Hamelin’s playing of Liszt’s Piano Sonata and other works, reviewed on page 99

Letters

Film music figures; tribute to Margaret Price

8

editor’s choice Riccardo Chailly’s terrific Gershwin outing;

the making of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony;

a new top-rank Monteverdi Vespers

12

S o u n d b i t e S

A r t s

&

i C

M u s

/ l e b r e C h t i o n

C o l l e C t i v A t e

P r

:

p h o t o g r a p h y

For the record Petrenko, Alsop and Frühbeck de Burgos take up new jobs; John Wilson signs to EMI; Who will succeed James Levine in Boston?

14

a conversation with… …Dame Emma Kirkby, the queen of early music, on the longevity of her voice and her three new discs

19

diary

Julian Lloyd Webber on his 60th birthday present from composer Eric Whitacre and how he loves sparring with his audiences

20

one to watch Albanian violinist Alda Dizdari explores Enescu and the pulsing heart of Eastern

Europe in her debut recording

21

biography oF an instrument Fleet Street’s mightiest organ is a cathedralsized Compton in St Bride’s Church

30

who am i? Pit your wits against the Gramophone team and identify a magnificent Renaissance portrait of early music-making

31

www.gramophone.co.uk

F e A t u R e S

the worLd’s worst aLbum covers

From a biblical Bryn Terfel to a Buck Rogers-inspired The Planets, we present our top 15 record sleeves from hell

32

summer FestivaLs guide Your 25-page guide to the season’s best music events around the world

37

der rosenKavaLier A century since its composition, Strauss’s opera is still a sparkling achievement. Mike Ashman writes on the genesis of a masterpiece

62

the gramophone coLLection Who is the finest Marschallin of them all? David Patrick Stearns surveys the sopranos who have reaped Der Rosenkavalier’s riches

68

e n C o R e

Clearly a contender for worst record cover! 32

musicaL journeys Anna Nicole brings a brash new world to Covent Garden; Mahler in Singapore

121

picK oF the musicaL month From a Steve Reich weekend in London to Bernard Haitink in Chicago

125

audio and visuaL New receivers from Onkyo and the latest advances in music streaming

128

my music Will Gregory of the electronic duo

Goldfrapp on his first opera

146

Lotte Lehmann was Strauss’s Marschallin in Berlin but whose is the best recording? 68

GRAMOPHONE MAY 2011 3