Editorial I
n common with a large number of Gramophone readers I grew up on what is now being called core repertoire. Guided by the experts I soon stocked my LP collection with great music in great interpretations by great performers. For someone of my generation that meant, say, Gilels's Beethoven, Karajan 's Bruckner and Mackerras's Janacek among the then-new issues which have since become firm friends on CD as well. A love of classical music, I would have thought, invariably starts with the undisputed masterpieces of the repertoire and grows outward. And i t is the foundation of a collection, built on the great interpretations , that allows exploration of new versions and then new musics to take place. Today we are constantly being told that there are not the musicians of real interpretative stature to provide readings of the central repertoire that can take their place alongside, . let alone supersede, the Klemperers, Szells and Walters in the core repertoire. Of course , the quirky, and the ephemerally attractive will always have a place, however short lived - Mozart piano concertos from Chick Corea a nd Bobby McFerrin may well be a justifiable alternative for mid-1990s man , but they will never take the place of the acknowledged masters in that particular field (and you don't have to go back too far in time to encounter the series by Murray Perahia which, for many, represents a high point oflate-twentieth-century interpre- . tation). Gimmicks will always be with us and on their own terms make a timely change from the earnestness with which we are all too often faced . But time and time again we return to those tried and trusted recordings of our 'musical adolescence ' (either literally or figuratively). I t is notoriously difficult to shake off the
Editor James Jolly Deputy Editor Harriet Smith Assistant Editor Mark Wiggins Editorial Assistant Vivian Stewart
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Publisher Anthony Pollard Photo Gramophone/Bay ley expectations of the first version we ever came to know: ' in Beethoven's Ninth I long for those almost chiming BPO cellos in the slow movement from Karajan's 1962 version , or the incredible sense of discovery in Carlos Kleiber's Beethoven Fifth (and for older or younger readers those examples can be altered infinitely to match individual musical encounters) . Where the cinema seems to have rediscovered the classics (Jane Austen, the Brontes, even Shakespeare, are suddenly au courant) let us hope that the classical record industry can do the same - and as convincingly.
The core repertoire is not dead as some would have us believe. What is now needed, though, is more convincing (and convinced) A&R that is prepared to take the risk of matching the best of today's performers with the greatest works of the repertoire. And it doesn't have to be the established repertoire: I well recall the extraordinary reception Tavener's Protecting Veil received at the Proms, an exciteinent transferred to the subsequent recording and then on to the work's acceptance into the concert repertoire. Great A&R is not about coming up with enough ideas to fulfil an artist's contractual obligations but rather having the vision and taste to bring together music and performer to the maximum effect, be it Franz Welser-Most and Korngold or Valery Gergiev and Borodin or, let's admit it, Bryn Terfel and Rodgers and Hammerstein. That's inspired A&R ~
Editor's choice James Jolly selects ten outstanding CDs from this month's reviews
Haydn
Sch6pfungsmesse. Missa Rorale coeli desuper etc Soloists; Collegium Musicum 90/ Hickox Chandos Choral and song reviews Page 87
BLISS CriJu Ceonorl o ~"'"*,,,·h'.""'" -..... - '.....- -'--'-
Bliss Cello Concerto. Music for Strings etc Hugh; English Northern
Philh I Lioyd-Jones Naxos Orchestral reviews Page 56
Dvorak Piano Trios - F minor; Eminor
Florestan Trio Hyperion Chamber reviews Page 73
Grainger Piano Works
Hamelin Hyperion Instrumental reviews Page 79
Knussen Orchestral Works
SolOists; London Sinfonietta / Knussen DG Orchestral reviews Page 64
Mozart Idomeneo
Soloists; The Met Chorus and Orchestra / Levine DG Opera reviews Page 100
Telemann Oboe
Sonatas Goodwin; North; Sheppard; Cranham; Toll Hamnonia Mundi Chamber reviews Page 76
Gabriell Music for San
Rocco, 1608 Gabrieli Consort and Players / McCreesh Archiv Produktion Choral and 80ng reviews Page 96
Mahler Symphony No. 1
Berg (orch. Verbey) Piano Sonata RoyalConcertgebouw Orchestra / Chail/y Decca Orchestral reviews Page 64
Tormis Casting a spell .. .
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir / Kafjuste Virgin Classics Choral and 80ng reviews Page 93
Gramophone January 1997 1
