Page 4

CONTENTS

Volume 96 Number 1164

EDITORIAL Phone 020 7738 5454 Fax 020 7733 2325 email gramophone@markallengroup.com EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Martin Cullingford DEPUTY EDITOR Sarah Kirkup / 020 7501 6365 REVIEWS EDITOR Tim Parry / 020 7501 6367 ONLINE CONTENT EDITOR James McCarthy / 020 7501 6366 SUB-EDITOR David Threasher / 020 7501 6370 SUB-EDITOR Marija �uric´ Speare ART DIRECTOR Dinah Lone / 020 7501 6689 PICTURE EDITOR Sunita Sharma-Gibson AUDIO EDITOR Andrew Everard EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Libby McPhee THANKS TO Charlotte Gardner and Timmy Fisher EDITOR-IN-CHIEF James Jolly

ADVERTISING Phone 020 7738 5454 Fax 020 7733 2325 email gramophone.ads@markallengroup.com COMMERCIAL MANAGER Esther Zuke / 020 7501 6368 SALES EXECUTIVE Simon Davies / 020 7501 6373

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND BACK ISSUES 0800 137201 (UK) +44 (0)1722 716997 (overseas) subscriptions@markallengroup.com

PUBLISHING Phone 020 7738 5454 HEAD OF MARKETING AND DIGITAL STRATEGY Luca Da Re / 020 7501 6362 MARKETING MANAGER Edward Craggs / 020 7501 6384 GROUP INSTITUTIONAL SALES MANAGER Jas Atwal PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richard Hamshere / 01722 716997 PRODUCTION MANAGER Jon Redmayne CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Sally Boettcher / 01722 716997 SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Chris Hoskins / 01722 716997 EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Martin Cullingford PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Paul Geoghegan CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Ben Allen CHAIRMAN Mark Allen

www.markallengroup.com

GRAMOPHONE is published by MA Music Leisure & Travel Ltd, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB, United Kingdom. gramophone.co.uk email gramophone@markallengroup.com or subscriptions@markallengroup.com ISSN 0017-310X.

The August 2018 issue of Gramophone is on sale from July 18; the September issue will be on sale from August 15 (both UK). Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of statements in this magazine but we cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions, or for matters arising from clerical or printers’ errors, or an advertiser not completing his contract. Regarding concert listings, all information is correct at the time of going to press. Letters to the editor requiring a personal reply should be accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope. We have made every effort to secure permission to use copyright material. Where material has been used inadvertently or we have been unable to trace the copyright owner, acknowledgement will be made in a future issue. UK subscription rate £64. Printed in England by Southernprint. North American edition (ISSN 0017-310X): Gramophone, USPS 881080, is published monthly with an additional issue in September by MA Music Leisure & Travel Ltd, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB, United Kingdom. The US annual subscription price is $89. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by agent named Air Business, c/o Worldnet Shipping Inc., 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431. US Postmaster: Send address changes to Gramophone, Worldnet Shipping Inc. (see above). Subscription records are maintained at MA Music Leisure & Travel Ltd, Unit A Buildings 1-5, Dinton Business Park, Catherine Ford Road, Dinton, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP3 5HZ, UK. Air Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent.

© MA Music Leisure & Travel Ltd, 2018. All rights reserved. No part of the Gramophone may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the Publishing Director. Please read our privacy policy, by visiting privacypolicy.markallengroup.com. This will explain how we process, use & safeguard your data. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the editor or Gramophone. Advertisements in the journal do not imply endorsement of the products or services advertised.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

The 12 most highly recommended recordings reviewed in this issue

RECORDING OF THE MONTH 32 Bizet’s opera The Pearl Fishers is awarded the top recommendation, thanks to a superb cast directed by Alexandre Bloch and his Lille forces

ORCHESTRAL

Absorbing Adams from Scotland; a double dose of Gergiev’s Bruckner; Caroline Goulding plays Mozart and Korngold

CHAMBER

Yuri Bashmet’s Brahms; the Mori Trio play Dvo∑ák; Ilya Gringolts with more Stravinsky

INSTRUMENTAL

Francesco Piemontesi impresses in Liszt; Alexandra Dariescu’s unique Nutcracker

VOCAL

Bach’s bass cantatas; Łukaszewski from Tenebrae; Carolyn Sampson’s Schubertiade; De Profundis sing sacred music by Sebastián de Vivanco

OPERA

Bernstein’s A Quiet Place; Philippe Jaroussky sings Gluck; Verdi’s Otello with Kaufmann & Co

JAZZ & WORLD MUSIC

Reviews from our sister titles Jazzwise and Songlines

REISSUES

Anniversary boxes from the vaults of Harmonia Mundi; a boxed-up selection of Massenet operas

BOX-SET ROUND-UP

101

REPLAY

102

Leonard Rose; Alexander Borovsky; Emil Gilels

CLASSICS RECONSIDERED 104 Two critics have different takes on Sir Thomas Beecham’s 1959 EMI recording of Bizet’s Carmen

BOOKS

106

An anniversary round-up of books on Bernstein: an updated classic and two new titles

GRAMOPHONE COLLECTION 108 David Gutman surveys the recording history of Bernstein’s Plato-inspired Serenade

REVIEWS INDEX

128

FOR THE RECORD

The latest classical music news, and the next instalment of our new features: this month we tell the story of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and in our focus on musical genres, we explore the origins of the Divertimento

THE BERNSTEIN CENTENARY MAN OF THE THEATRE 16 Edward Seckerson paints a vivid picture of this genre-hopping composer who believed that music could tell any story, any which way it liked

AMBASSADOR FOR PEACE 22 Michael McManus explores Bernstein’s bold political outlook and how this made itself known in major works such as Songfest and Mass

PIONEER OF RECORDINGS 26 Rob Cowan takes as his starting point two anniversary box-sets from DG and Sony to celebrate Bernstein’s massive recorded legacy

THE MUSICIAN & THE SCORE 50 Gramophone’s Reviews Editor Tim Parry meets with pianist Steven Osborne to discuss the hidden complexity of Rachmaninov’s Études-tableaux

ICONS

Richard Fairman recalls his first, unforgettable encounter with the lyric soprano Julia Varady

CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS 72 Jed Distler on the music of his mentor, colleague and friend, the composer-pianist Frederic Rzewski

WHAT NEXT?

A musical journey inspired by Strauss’s Don Juan

PERFORMANCES AND EVENTS 114 HIGH FIDELITY 117 NOTES, LETTERS & OBITS 124 NEW RELEASES 126 MY MUSIC 130 Playwright Barney Norris on a life full of music

4 GRAMOPHONE AUGUST 2018

gramophone.co.uk