When Friends Fall Out

One heavily hyped anniversary year out of the way and the BBC embarks on another. I don't think that it will be such blanket coverage but the first BBC music magazine cover disk of this year is a 200th anniversary offering for Schumann. There are two works featured, the Konzertstuck for Four Horns and Symphony No 4. The performance of the Konzertstuck is from a 2007 Proms concert given by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras with horn soloists David Pyatt, Michael Thompson, Martin Owen and Cormac O Haodain. Schumann originally wanted a pair of valveless horns and a pair of what was then the newly invented valve horn. I'm not sure if this performance complies with that but it is a lively enough interpretation. Symphony No 4 ( Performed here by the BBC Phil this time under Gianandrea Noseda ) was heavily revised by Schumann, it would have been his second symphony but was withdrawn, worked on and eventually submitted as the fourth. These revisions were to some extent at the behest of Clara and when many years later Brahms sanctioned a publication of the original ( which he preferred ) it led to a spectacular falling out with Clara. This performance is of the familiar revision. I find it a powerful suymphony ( this is the only recording I have of the work ) and don't understand the dismissal of most of Schumann's orchestral output in many circles.

Deserving Of A Wider Audience

Tin Pan Ballet is a disk of music from the mid-nineties by British composer Martin Butler and performed by the ensemble Lontano conducted by Odaline de la Martinez. Butler noteably studied with Berio but other influences on his music style have been folk and particularly jazz. The title piece is for the unusual lineup of flute, trombone, piano, cello, synth and percussion. It is a dance piece that shows jazz tinges and the cohesion of a string quartet. Bluegrass Variations is for solo violin, played here by Ruth Crouch. The bluegrass style is buried but discernible in this piece, which was written as a test piece for a violin competition with the aim of being stylistically as opposed to technically challenging. Jazz Machines is more overtly jazzy than the title work and is for flute, clarinet, piano, cello, viola and vibraphone. Perhaps just a touch of Zappa in there somewhere. A standout piece for me is On The Rocks, for solo piano and played here by the composer himself. Butler is an accomplished pianist when time allows and this work he describes as an attempt at a synthesis between cocktail jazz and Debussy. The final piece on the disk is a kind of marimba concerto entitled Going With The Grain, in which the core Lontano lineup of flute, clarinet, violin, viola and piano are joined on marimba by Richard Benjafield. Part of the aim is for the whole ensemble to sound like one giant marimba. With the marimba being the instrument of choice for certain American minimalists, there is a danger of that influence coming through but it is only really discernible in the brief final movement. A varied and enjoyable introduction to an approachable and worthwhile contemporary composer's work.

Old Timey But Fit For Our Times

In simpler times it would have been folk or country. Now things need rebranding so is it Americana or Old Timey ? I would label it simply as homely, honest and sincere. What I am talking about is a disk by Kim Beggs called Wanderer's Paean. Kim Beggs hails from the Yukon region of Canada and there is that feel of wide open spaces and the urge to travel, with the bittersweet melancholy that often carries. She has an affecting and unusual voice, a world weary and wise sounding little girl. Most of the material on the disk is self written with a couple of bluegrass standards. The instrumental lineup is largely acoustic with a few tasteful amplifications to slide and pedal steel guitar on a couple of tracks. Important to the project is producer and multi-instrumentalist Bob Hamilton. Banjo, dobro, mandolin and violin are also prominent. The title track is a standout as is Lips Stained Red. Lay It All Down is more poppy with a great hook, Heartache Shoes is bluesy and moving. The bonus track Shipyards' Song is politically and environmentally motivated decrying big business and globalisation. You'll get a good warm feeling from giving the disk a try.

Urbane Before It Was Fashionable To Be Urban

It's fair to say that while Lonnie Johnson is not exactly neglected these days, he does not really have the stature in the blues hierarchy that he deserves. My guess as to why would be that he is a little too sophisticated, urbane before it was fashionable to be urban and willing to mix styles and genres outside of a strict twelve bar. The four disc box set "Lonnie Johnson The Original Guitar Wizard" is a real bargain. Johnson was a native New Orleanian who also spent much time in New York and Chicago during the musical part of his career. So he isn't in any way country blues, despite being an early exponent and playing largely acoustic guitar. There is much solo work here, the songs often have a misogynistic bent like much blues but the lyrics are clearly sung and easily understood. They return often to common themes like the cheating woman, the lazy woman, the venality of pimps and natural weather related disasters. The guitar fills and solos are jazz inflected and pre-shadow much of Django as well as later electric bluesmen like T-Bone Walker. Johnson's much more raw violin style features on a couple of tracks and he is often accompanied by piano. There are some songs backing lady masters of the double entendre such as Victoria Spivey and also sides which feature him as a member of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five era combo. Perhaps the most rewarding tracks are the duets with white jazz guitarist Eddie Lang which showcase masterful interplay. Towards the end of the final disk, Johnson has turned to an electric guitar in an early version of an r'n'b band though the amplification is used purely for volume and not to investigate any special effects. The box set doesn't feature anything from Lonnie Johnson's sixties re-discovery but it provides much enjoyment and justifies the title.

Distinctive Take On A Choral Tradition

The BBC Music magazine Christmas edition boasts a cover disk with seasonal connections, the main work being Britten's choral piece St Nicolas. This was a commission for Peter Pears's old school Lancing College and this recording is from a live concert given back in the chapel at that venue last year. The forces concerned are the BBC Singers, Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral and the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Paul Brough with tenor soloist Daniel Norman. The instrumental scoring is distinctive for strings, piano and percussion and creates an evocative sound world. Britten weaves small elements of exoticism in with spare characteristically spiky sections and settings of two familiar old style straight ahead hymn tunes. Apart from the traditional connection of St Nicolas with cuddly old Santa, there isn't anything particularly Christmassy here, the libretto seems to be based on the life story of the saint; his calling, works and death. There isn't a libretto with the booklet however ( well, it is a freebie after all )and the notoriously plummy intonation of the BBC Singers makes it difficult to discern what is being sung. That drawback also applies to the filler where Andrew Carwood directs them in Howells's Three Carol-Anthems. These are attractively tuneful but the singers might just as well be singing wordlessly, I could just make out the word lullaby in the second setting since it is repeated so often.

An Unearthed Premiere

An important archive recording on this month's BBC Music magazine cover disk. It is a vintage recording from 1936 of the British premiere of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 2 played by the French violinist for whom it was written, Robert Soetens, with the BBS Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Henry Wood. As would be expected the sound isn't great, the worst aspect being the balance with the orchestra playing somewhere in the middle distance while the soloist is up close and personal. But the main point of interest is Soetens's interpretation and this is heard to advantage. No longer a name that stands out in the recorded history of the music, he nevertheless shows the abilities that encouraged Prokofiev to dedicate the work to him. I have a contemporary version of the piece by Nickolaj Znaider in clear modern sound which I would turn to in future if I wanted to hear Prokofiev's Violin Conerto No 2 but I'm pleased to have heard this premiere. The disk also contains a recent Wigmnore Hall concert recording of Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No 2 by James Ehnes on violin and Andrew Armstrong on piano. This was a transcription that Prokofiev made of an earlier flute sonata and had stellar advocates in Oistrakh and Richter. Ehnes and Armstrong make a strong current case for the work in fine sound.

Live "Lied"

This month's BBC Music magazine cover disk is another that duplicates repertoire I already have and so limits what I can post about it. It features Mahler's Das Lied Von Der Erde and is a live recording from a Prom concert of 2008 given by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under new principle conductor Donald Runnicles with soloists mezzo Karen Cargill and tenor Johan Botha. The performance has rather a ragged and uncertain start with problems of tempo but gains in confidence and authority as it goes on. Whether Das Lied is a symphony in al but name or an orchestral song cycle is of secondary importance since it remains one of Mahler's great achievements and is to be considered at least the equal of his other output.