Taking Sides - Art, Nazism and Wilhelm Furtwangler

The very title is an invitation to do it, to form a judgement on the protagonists and the rightness or wrongness of their actions. Certainly, there is no shortage of people willing to do so. One in particular sticks in my mind. It comes from a Gramophone discussion a few years back about art and politics between Rob Cowan, Tully Potter and violinist Tasmin Little*. Of course, the subject of Berlin Philharmonic music director Wilhelm Furtwangler's decision to remain in Germany until 1944 came up, and Little made what I regarded then, and still regard now, as a profoundly stupid comment:

If it got to the stage where things were changing so much for the worse in my country, as in Nazi Germany, I would go. For sure.

For sure? You know, know for certain that faced with an unpleasant government, you'd up and leave your life, your job, your friends and doubtless some of your family. Bearing in mind too that what we know now wasn't what was known then (how much exactly Furtwangler and others knew about what was taking place is one of many unanswered questions). Maybe you would. I don't know. I have no idea what I'd do. Certainly I'd like to think I'd do the right thing, but plenty didn't. As they play notes, Klemperer and Walter may have left, but as they were Jewish they had little choice: it was the only way they could continue to work. True Kleiber did take an admirable stand. Others, such as Jochum, remained and became somewhat sidelined through playing music that was disapproved of, others still such as Karajan and Schwarzkopf reamined and joined the party (twice in the case of the former).

I hope it's a choice I never need to make. I hope Little never needs to make it either (though I'll be interested to see if her money resides in the same place as her mouth should that day ever arise). As I said, I have no idea what I'd do and I don't honestly believe anyone really can until they're faced with the choice (except if they have so few ties to their home that they're contemplating leaving anyway).

Many then, of a musical disposition, will go into Ronald Harwood's Taking Sides, which tells of Furtwangler's attempts to pass through the deNazification process and regain his position at the Berlin Philharmonic, with their minds made up. To an extent, I fall into this category too. I'm a big fan of Furtwangler's recordings (many of my favourites were made live in Berlin during the war, some were gifts from a friend who couldn't bear to keep them after visiting a concentration camp). You may think, from the way I castigate Little, that I think Furtwangler did the right thing. I don't. I don't think he did the wrong thing either. I think he made very difficult choices in very difficult circumstances. Decisions which, since I don't feel he committed any crimes, it is easy to second guess with hindsight but harder to criticise. I think he didn't deserve the treatment he got.

That's a lot to say before getting on to the actual business of reviewing the play, but it needs to be said because I don't come into the theatre free from bias at these questions. I have already taken sides.

Set principally on two days in February and July in the office of Major Steve Arnold (the American charged with preparing the case against Furtwangler - it is not clear whether the character is real or fictitious). He is aided by secretary Emmi Straub and young Lieutenant David Wills. Arnold is determined to get Furtwangler, whereas Wills and Straub take the other view. As Arnold tries to build the case, it becomes steadily more apparent that there is no real evidence of wrongdoing.

Yet there are questions. Furtwangler has saved many Jewish musicians, helping them get travel papers to leave, even his own secretary. But as Arnold puts it to him, you only helped the artists, what about the others; all he cares about is art, not the race laws. This is underscored by the story of the widow of someone he helped - after hearing him play Beethoven's Waldstein sonato on an out of tune piano, only then did he choose to help.

Did he stay because he didn't want to give up the instrument that is the Berlin Philharmonic (as conductor Solti suggested), was he worried about being supplanted by Karajan (who was whisked through deNazification with disgraceful speed, who was allowed to conduct Wagner at Bayreuth afterwards and who went on to dominate the 20th century classical recording industry, despite, in my view, being not nearly the artist)? Arnold is, he claims, only interested in the truth. Yet, as another character points out, there is no such thing.

In the end, though, it strikes me that the play is a tragedy for its two central figures. On the one hand you have this great artist, who made some questionable decisions in difficult circumstances. On the other you have a man, profoundly damaged by what he's seen in the concentration camps, unable to countenance the notion that such a prominent figure could be blameless. Indeed, despite disliking Arnold for much of the play, especially as he lays into Furtwangler's personal life, one comes to sympathise with him.

This is aided by stellar performances from Michael Pennington as Furtwangler (not quite resembling but certainly inhabiting him) and David Horovitch as Arnold. The rest of the cast, which includes Martin Hutson as Wills, is fine too (though Sophie Roberts, who plays Straube, did seem to lose her accent a little at the start of the second act). However, the main focus is the confrontations between the leads, played out in the bombed wreckage of Berlin that constitutes Arnold's office.

It is, in summary, a powerful and profoundly moving piece. A must for anyone interested in Furtwangler, but also more generally. In the climactic moments, aided by a performance of Bruckner's seventh that I must track down, I was moved to tears. That doesn't happen all that often in the theatre, nor too do you find that, so fine is the work, you have to pay (the rather steep price) for the text.

Furtwangler's own recordings provide many of the musical cues - we open to the close of one of his Beethoven fifths, act one plays out to the opening bars of the eighth. The adagio from Bruckner seven features prominently in the second half, and Beethoven's ninth plays us out (I am a little curious which recordings were used - all the ninths I have date from the 50s and I find I don't have a Bruckner seven by him; I do have a wartime fifth, but this wasn't made available until comparatively recently).

Harwood himself is scrupulously fair about not taking a judgement one way or the other, leaving that to the reader or viewer. He says in the programme note that he does indeed have a view but, rightly, he'll never say. I have a hunch it may not be a million miles from my own, but only because I wonder if he did really fall at one extreme of the other, I think he would have written a different play. We'll probably never know though.

People have been taking sides on Furtwangler for generations, and will continue to do so. Menuhin chose to work with him again after the war; there was a vicious campaign against him when he was offered the Chicago Symphony. While writing the play, Harwood dispatched his daughter to Tower Records to buy some Furtwangler discs: "We don't keep Nazi recordings in this shop.". An impressive piece of ignorance, given he never joined the party, and, more to the point, their loss. But then, I would say that wouldn't I, I've taken sides.


One final note, I don't find the Duchesss theatre to be a particularly brilliant space. To be sure, on a very hot day it was nicely air conditioned. But the seats were uncomfortable (I'm slim and I found them narrow with arms up so high I cannot readily imagine the physique they were designed for). Front of house management is also lacking, as a steady stream of latecomers, admitted up to thirty minutes into the first half, despite the lack of any suitable break, attested. Anyone looking for how to do this properly should visit the Royal Opera House where it's just tough luck if you can't turn up on time.

*On the off chance anyone from the Gramophone is reading this, I'd just like to thank you for how awful your website is. It took me about an hour and a half to find the article. Searching for articles mentioning Furtwangler in the last ten years did no good. In the end it was only by setting Google to your site and then searching for Nazi Germany that I finally tracked it down. I am especially annoyed that, when working through the issued chronologically and looking at the contents, I missed it because the awards issues are not included canonically.

Continued...

Zimmerman and Harding close the LSO season with Sibelius and Brahms

The last time I heard Daniel Harding conduct any Sibelius was at the start of this season, when he did the seventh, which didn't impress me. However, he was joined for the violin concerto by Frank Peter Zimmermann (whose name I realise I've been spelling with only one N on my tweets all evening - apologies). Last time I heard him was at the 2006 Edinburgh festival, appearing with Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic to playing Szymanowski's concerto, which was really quite exceptional (I can't link to a review because it predates the site and I haven't got round to uploading that part of my archive).

Together they made an excellent team. Harding was a superb accompanist, always bringing the orchestra low enough under Zimmermann so he was clear. Which, was a good thing, as it allowed us to appreciate his astonishingly virtuosic playing. However, Harding found plenty of force when Zimmermann wasn't playing; he also found the richness and drama of Sibelius's writing that was absent missing from his seventh and the tempi seemed much better chosen.

It was very well received, so much so that we got an encore. The eagle-eyed could have seen this coming because when Harding and Zimmermann came back out for the second time, the conductor didn't climb back onto the stage, instead nipping into the empty seat at the end of the second row. Zimmermann introduced it as some Paganini variations, written for a visit to England, on a theme we might recognise. Sure enough, the melody of the national anthem was easily detectable. Like many of the composer's works for solo violin, it did feel a little like they might have been written just to show off, especially with the fiendish mix of bowing and plucking. Still, Zimmermann was more than a match for it, and must surely win one of our irregular awards (so named for its first recipient: the Rachel Barton Pine Award for Encores that Alone Justify the Ticket Price*. Don't believe me, judge for yourself thanks to YouTube:




It should be noted that the Sibelius wasn't actually the first item on the programme. The concert began with Schumann's Manfred overture. In another interesting contrast with that earlier concert, where Harding gave a fine reading of a Schumann symphony, here it was a little different. They LSO played well enough, but the piece never really caught fire. However, I think this is more down to the composer, rather than any flaw in Harding's interpretation.

After the interval they finished with Brahms' second symphony. The second is in my view, and by some distance, the highlight of Haitink's recent LSO Live survey of the symphonies. Harding has, of course, studied extensively with Abbado (even now he's the principal conductor of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, which Abbado founded). This was apparent in his reading. I don't really care too much for most of the Abbado Berlin cycle (it's too pretty and laid back for my tastes, though I know plenty of others adore it, doubtless for this reason). You could hear a lot of the same traits from the London Symphony Orchestra last night in the slow and tranquil moments. However, Harding is his own man and there was also plenty of the yearning and turmoil that I so like Brahms. The final few bars were nothing short of electric. The orchestra got some of the best sounds I've heard from this year, which some especially fine wind playing (especially principal flautist Gareth Davies). In short, while it isn't my favourite Brahms (for that look to the first and fourth), nor quite my ideal interpretation (for that look to Mackerras or Jochum or Furtwangler), it was nonetheless a fine end to the season.

I look forward to hearing the LSO again, though I'm not sure when that will be. I'm trying to limit myself to one trip a month next season and all the Royal Opera stuff appears to be on Sundays not Saturdays (and I can't pass up Don Carlos and Tristan, even Runnicles himself would have trouble competing). My December trip is built around a visit by the Concertgebouw and I'm not sure I want to hear Gergiev after I've had a Mahler's second at three pm. That leaves only November, but perhaps that's a cue for me to give Michael Tilson Thomas another chance.

*Caveat: in case Mr Zimmermann, or anyone else interested, is reading this, where's Runnicles' awards carry no actual prize, physical or financial, save the glory or infamy (since they can be both positive and negative). They are awarded and created sporadically, whenever it seems appropriately, and are always named for their inaugural recipient.

Continued...

Aldeburgh 2009: A rather good year

As the train rattles its way towards Edinburgh (and I struggle to comprehend how National Express managed to brew quite such an awful cup of coffee), I'm struck that, overall, it's been a very good year. I've not been to anything I would describe as a turkey (though there have been one or two patchy things, and one or two things not to my taste).

Aimard has done well his first year, and I have high hopes for what he will go on to do in the future. There have been many interesting strands to this year's programme. There has also been some very compelling programming and some very good talks from the artistic director.

If I did have one note it would be this (and it is a general one, not simply for M Aimard, particularly since he did largely avoid it): why do we so often only celebrate composers in their anniversary years? Haydn is one of the great symphonists, his work should be found in programmes more frequently. I'm rather grateful that Aimard avoided the Mendelssohn celebrations, not because I dislike the composer, but because everyone else seems to be celebrating him like there's no tomorrow. Conversely, as a lover of Janacek, it seems a depressingly long time before we're due any sort of celebration. Let's celebrate composers because they're good, because we feel like it, and because it seems like they haven't been celebrated in a while. Programming by anniversary is lazy.

However, I want to highlight just a few things that really stand out for me. Coincidentally (and unusually), the BBC has chosen to broadcast almost all the things I have enjoyed most. Note, this list is mainly of use to people in the UK, since the links to the BBC's iPlayer service will not work for others.

• The Quator Diotima playing Janacek's second string quartet, Intimate Letters, broadcast here (available until Thursday lunchtime), full review here.


• Thomas Ades and Steven Isserlis playing his new cello sonata, from the Ades/Isserlis/Marwood recital, broadcast here (available until Tuesday evening), full review here.


• Aimard and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra playing Beethoven's Emperor concerto
, to be broadcast on Monday evening (see here), full review here.

• Tamara Stefanovich playing Bartok's 14 Bagatelles, op.6 (sadly this was not taped by the BBC), full review here.
  

Of course, there was much more than this, and much of it was broadcast. (A full list of Aldeburgh broadcasts can be found here, iPlayer listen again streams remain available for seven days afterwards.)

It has been a great privilege to have the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at Aldeburgh for two concerts, marking a rare UK visit. I hope we'll hear them again soon, and since Aimard does work with them elsewhere, doubtless this may be the case. I also tentatively hope we might hear them in Edinburgh. Also in the audience last night, Edinburgh International Festival director Jonathan Mills could be spotted. Let us hope he was there to book Aimard, the MCO, or both for next year. Perhaps their performance might also temper his apparent aversion to the orchestra's ancestor, the superb Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. A comment to a post here a while back indicated that the Edinburgh festival has turned them down for the past three years. A request for comment to their press office has gone unanswered (without even the civility of a no comment).

I also find I can't help but end on the slightly smug note that, having written about no fewer than fourteen concerts at this year's festival, where's Runnicles can boast the most comprehensive review coverage of any media outlet. Indeed, for a significan number of concerts we appear to have provided the only reviews. I may take a brief break (though the Edinburgh festival is just round the corner and I have one or two CDs that need reviewing......)

Ten days seems to have gone very quickly. Hopefully the same will be true of the next 350 or so.

Continued...

Aldeburgh 2009: Aimard and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra PLAY (Part II - Haydn, Stockhausen and Beethoven)

It's funny the way things work out. I started this holiday musical holiday with one Emperor concerto and have managed to end it with another, and one that was superb in different ways. Interestingly, and quite correctly, Aimard had chosen, somewhat unconventionally, to end with the concerto and start a symphony.

That symphony was the last bit of the festival's celebration of Haydn. So, naturally, Aimard had chosen the 45th, or the Farewell, If you prefer. A little different from some of his other compositions, perhaps, sadder in tone, as opposed to the boundless joy which infects so many of his works. Aimard conducted a tightly controlled, if somewhat solemn reading, marked by the superb playing from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Until the end. Of the four Haydn symphonies I've heard here, three have featured prominent musical jokes (90 had a false end and 60 played with tuning), this was perhaps the most dramatically executed. Throughout the finale the instruments drop out one by one until just two violins are left, climbing softly into the upper registers. With theatrical flourish, as each player finished, they got up, took their instrument, walked away and leant against the baffle at the back of the stage. With just six strings remaining, Aimard himself ceased conducting and joined them. It was a lovely touch (which sadly won't come across on the broadcast, save perhaps with the louder shoes). Afterwards they lined up along the front of the stage for well deserved applause.




This was followed by Stockhausen, and once more Aimard gave one of his fine talks, illustrated with examples from the players. At the start I had wondered why, in contrast to Thursday's programme, the Haydn was placed before the modern work rather than after. It turned out that the Stockhausen linked not only to the Haydn, in terms of it too having its players drop out, one by one, but also to the Emperor. Kontra-Punkte, featured a small force comprised of, from left to right, harp, cello, violin, trombone, trumpet, piano (interestingly not Aimard, who conducted, but Florian Muller), bassoon, bass clarinet, clarinet and flute. Throughout the piece, not only does a melody pass between the instruments, but each has a series of mini cadenzas which, he explained, link it with the Emperor, which itself never has a proper full cadenza but only a series of small ones. Stockhausen uses this to play with polyphony, before whittling his forces down to piano alone. They played the piece superbly, and while one felt one or two minds might have wandered slightly during the talk, people seemed to listen all the more closely as a result. I certainly hope this is something he continues as it has made the modern pieces he has done much more rewarding. True, some can be conveyed in a programme not, but an illustrated talk is clear in a way words alone are often obtuse.

They had, however, saved the best for last. You might think that, in a season where I've managed to schedule four performances of the Emperor, I would be mightily sick of it by now. But, for whatever reason, I'm not. Perhaps because they seem to have got progressively better each time. We began in October with Trpceski and the SCO, then in April came Vogt and the Philharmonia. A mere eleven days ago it was the turn of Paul Lewis and the LSO. Now, I will confess that I had expected this to fall a little short after Lewis, but it didn't, not at all. Of course, Aimard has a decent Beethoven pedigree in his series of recordings with Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, which don't exhibit the conductor's annoying habit of pulling a score about (and which puts me off many of his recordings).

Aimard directed from the Keyboard (interestingly using a different piano to the one used for the Stockhausen, leading me to wonder if some slightly different tuning had been used or whether, perhaps, he was using his own piano). Now, this is something I tend not to like. Too often it leads either to wrong notes at the piano, as too much focus is lost to direction, or less tight orchestral playing (certainly, of the three cycles of Mozart concerti I have heard featuring the English Chamber Orchestra, I find the only one with a conductor has the best orchestral playing). It doubtless helps when you have an ensemble as fine as the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Certainly their playing was little short of exceptional. However, this did not come at much cost to Aimard (though there were one or two wrong notes they were few and far between). What it did mean, however, was that there was not the slightest gulf in interpretation between conductor and soloist, as too often happens; Davis and Lewis had a touch of this problem.

Furthermore, Aimard's description of the work in terms of a series of brief cadenzas helped me see the piece afresh, and had me listening anew for things that haven't jumped out at me in the past, such as piano and drum cadenza at the end (heightened by the use of natural timpani). Similarly, he toyed with the slow lead into the finale brilliantly, slowing down more than usual, so that when he thundered in with the opening notes it made you start, despite the fact you knew they were coming and were waiting.

Of course, I do still find Lewis's pianism slightly more too my taste, he has a slightly greater delicacy to his playing and gets his power in a way that I prefer, which is somehow less percussive. Lewis also made so many of the cadenza parts feel fresh in different ways. But, for the sheer unity of vision, this probably pips that to the post as a better performance.

A large part of that was down to the exceptional and wonderfully rich playing of the orchestra. It's usually a mark a greatness when it's difficult to single out any one section, so uniformly high was the standard or the playing: at one moment the strings were talking your breath away, at another it might be the winds (especially flautist Chiara Tonellis, probably, the orchestra list in the programme is not 100% accurate, I know for a fact that Ursula Leveaux, the fine former principal bassoon of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, was subbing in but isn't listed; someone on the SCO's blog tipped me off on Thursday, and knowing what I was looking for, recognised her easily last night). I gather the orchestra recently recorded Fidelio with Abbado, probably one to add to the purchase list. Actually, one thing I was thinking a lot during the performance was that someone should lock Daniel Harding in the Maltings along with the MCO and not let them out until they've recorded all nine of the Beethoven's symphonies. After all, the first time I came across Harding it was in this very hall, with a blinding reading of the seventh.

It was a stunning note to end on, and makes me slightly glad I didn't elect to stay for tonight's Bach, since I can't see it topping this. It also leaves me most impressed with Aimard as a director and looking forward to seeing what he will put on for us next year.

For the benefit of those unable to attend, and those of us who'd be very happy to listen again, Radio 3 will be broadcasting it on Monday.

Continued...

Aldeburgh 2009: Not a review of Ian Bostridge

I've only been to one thing at Aldeburgh today, Ian Bostridge's recital, and this isn't going to be a review of it. At least, not a proper review anyway. Why then, you might reasonably ask, write about the concert at all. Well, the short answer is that I've written about everything else I've been to at Aldeburgh this year and my compulsive side just won't let this one slide.

So why isn't this a proper review? Well, for two reasons. Firstly, I am not the world's greatest lieder fan and don't know the area as well as I do other things (though that doesn't normally stop me). More importantly however, Ian Bostridge just doesn't do it for me. I know there are a lot of people who admire him greatly, but he tends at best to leave me cold; at worst I find he overacts and over-emotes horribly and I have to avert my eyes. I also don't think his diction and pronunciation are what they could be. The upshot is that I don't think I can give an objective or, frankly, terribly helpful opinion about his concert. You might well ask why, given that, I was even at the concert. The answer is that I honestly don't know.

In fairness to Bostridge, it has been a good few years since I last heard him live (I think that was also at Aldeburgh but with Ades). His voice is now less boyish and altogether more pleasant for it. Similarly, his mannerisms are slightly less (though I still can't quite be doing with all the swinging about).

The programme consisted of Schumann songs in the first half and Brahms in the second. I will confess that I found the Schumann a little samey and during the Brahms I found myself rather enjoying the piano part (and wanting to hear some solo piano recitals of his work) and largely ignoring the voice. As often in lieder, I also wondered why they didn't choose to set better poetry (or, I suppose I should say, poetry rather more to my taste).

Even if I did feel in a position to write a proper review, I still might not be able to. The accompanist was to have been Graham Johnson (well regarded and the mastermind of the complete Hyperion Schubert lieder survey), but he was replaced at short notice by Roger Vignoles and it did appear that they would have benefited from more rehearsal time together; but it's tough to step in at the last minute, especially with less common repertoire.

Nonetheless, for those who like Bostridge, and there are plenty, it was clearly an enjoyable evening. He was well received and they gave us two encores, one of which someone sitting next to us identified as from Schumann's Dichterliebe (I don't know what the second was).

If you like Bostridge you probably would have liked it, if not, you probably wouldn't. Moral of the story: note to self, don't book him next time and let someone who'll get something from it have the seat.

Continued...

Aldeburgh 2009: The Mahler Chamber Orchestra PLAY (Part I - Haydn, Ligeti and Birtwistle)

I will never cease to be astonished by what sells and what doesn't. On Wednesday, some rather dull Georgian choral music was sold out; last night there was no shortage of spare seats as one of the world's great chamber orchestras came to town for the first of two concerts. One wonders if the rest of the people of Suffolk had any idea what they were missing. Perhaps the Mahler Chamber Orchestra is not a household name, but it certainly should be.

Its origins lie with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, which itself was founded in 1986 by none other than Claudio Abbado with the aim of brining together young musicians (up to the age of 26) from both eastern and western Europe. Today it holds auditions in twenty-five European cities and the result is an astonishingly fine ensemble (as I expect they'll show in Prom 45 in September). The Chamber Orchestra was formed in 1997, under the guidance of Abbado, by former members who wanted to carry on playing together after having reached the age limit. Abbado still regularly works with them. Indeed, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, augmented by players from the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, forms the backbone of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra which Abbado has led in some acclaimed recordings and a recent Proms performance of Mahler's third symphony. Since 2003 their music director has been Daniel Harding. The last time I encountered them it was at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival with Abbado conducting them as they played Mozart's Magic Flute. Despite having only been going a little over a decade, they have managed to notch up 14 prize winning CDs.

I don't normally begin a review with such gushing praise and the history of an ensemble. I merely do so here to underscore how baffling it is that this was not a sell out. This is their only UK appearance this season (indeed, the only one showing on their website which covers from August 2008 to May 2010) and consequently something of a coup for Aldeburgh. Perhaps, though, more people needed to be told this, and it has to be said that while the festival brochure really sold last night's Georgian's, they didn't really sell the MCO. That's a pity. Still, on with the review.


The first thing to note about the concert is that Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the new artistic director of the festival, really impressed me. That's more of an achievement given he only played in one piece. However, at the start of each half he gave a brief talk (something that often annoys me). What became clear was how carefully he has programmed some things, and it made me feel that the festival is in good hands. He explained that because Haydn's 60th symphony, which was to follow, contains a joke wherein Haydn makes it seem as though the orchestra has got out of tune, Ligeti's Ramifications therefore made a perfect coupling. He used the orchestra to illustrate how the two halves of the twelve piece string ensemble were a quarter tone out of tune with each other. This sort of thing can be annoying when discussing a well known work, however it is fascinating when shedding light on something you've never heard before, and makes it easier to appreciate a new piece. Of course, there are often pre-concert talks, but when you've been to an afternoon performance as well, they often aren't manageable. I hope this is a taste of things to come. The piece itself was fascinating, containing some interesting effects as the two sections rubbed up against one and other. Most of the time the playing was exquisitely light and delicate, and yet there were some impressive climaxes too. On the podium Suzanna Malkki was unassuming yet exerted tight control.

This was followed by Haydn's 60th symphony, slightly unusual with its six movement structure. The first three were played nicely enough, with a controlled bounce and joyfulness. However it was with the fourth movement presto that Malkki brought real drama. Then in the fifth came some stunning playing as brass fanfares rang out over pizzicato strings. After the tuning joke one might think there was nowhere left to go, but they found an extra degree of energy for a thrilling close.

During the interval the stage was rearranged and the piano moved into place. Once again, Aimard turned to the audience to introduce the Birtwistle. He spoke about opening the festival with clocks (how many more times is it going to be rubbed in that I missed Ligeti's metronomes?) and that celebrating Haydn as they have been, how could his clock not feature? Before that, however, Slow Frieze for piano and ensemble. Again, illustrating with examples, he showed how the four sections: piano, strings with brass, percussion and winds were each doing their own thing (so much so that at times percussion had to cue winds rather than the conductor). I found it a fascinating work, not too jarring, as his compositions can sometimes be. It was too easy to focus completely on what one section was doing before realising something else interesting was going on somewhere completely different. The person I went with (not a regular attender of classical concerts) likened it to being in the corridor outside four practice rooms. Actually, this is a pretty apt description (and some probably wouldn't like it as a result). However, it did mean that there never really was any sense of conversation or any unifying theme.

They had, though, saved the best until last with Haydn's 101st symphony, The Clock, long one of my favourite of his works, indeed one of my favourite symphonies. Malkki took the introduction slowly before launching furiously into the main theme. And yet there was no shortage of playfulness or delicacy when called for, the latter especially in the way they brought out the clock theme in the slow movement. Malkki's was an interesting take on Haydn: joyful, but not quite the boundless joy of Bernstein; weighty, yet never being too heavy or rich in the way I find Davis's Concertgebouw readings to be. Nor was this the Haydn of Jochum, with everything turning on the minuet. It was something of her own, and a joy to hear too. She brought the work to a thrilling close.

Throughout the playing of the orchestra was really quite exceptional. The quality of their quiet playing, and their ability to vary volume or tempo on a knife edge, is the stuff great orchestras are made of and always a privilege to witness. For those that were not there, the BBC was on hand with its microphones and the results can be heard on Performance on 3 tonight.

Their next concert on Saturday (which features the Emperor concerto and more Haydn) is sold out. If you haven't got a ticket and are anywhere near the area, for goodness sake do everything legally possible to obtain one, who knows when you'll get the chance to hear this band again.

Continued...

Why are music download stores so useless? (If you're a Mac/iPod user)

The music industry, we are told daily, is dying. High street shops are vanishing and custom is moving online; the future will, apparently, be all downloading. Well, I don't think the future is quite ready yet.

Of course, we all know that there have been problems due to the fact that the music industry took so long to realise that people wanted to download, and then did everything they could to cripple early efforts with DRM (or digital rights management) that made it harder to use certain downloads on certain players, or remix and burn CDs. However, DRM is absent from every site I will consider in this post. None offers an entirely satisfactory user experience. It's worth noting that for those who do not demand CD quality or better, that is not true.

Let us start with the big beast of online downloads, Apple and their iTunes store. This being Apple, everything is easy and works. Search works fairly well and typing, for example "Ravel Abbado" will bring back Abbado's recordings of Ravel (not the case on all sites). Often you are not allowed to download every individual track, but since I'm only interested in complete classical works this restriction doesn't bother me. Buying is simple and the download goes straight into your iTunes library (and then straight onto your iPod when you plug it in). True, it wasn't always DRM free, but it is now. It's simple. It is perfect, it's exactly what music downloading should be. Why would you want to buy anywhere else? The answer, of course, is that there is a but, a very big but: sound quality. 256kbps AAC is not really good enough (especially when using the Amazon marketplace it is often possible to source the CD cheaper). With the exception of a live Mackerras concert from Sydney (where there was no way to get the music losslessly) or for some Radio 4 comedy, I have therefore never used it, and will not until they address this. It is a shame, because with every other download site, once the music is on your computer, you then have the extra step of importing it into iTunes. Verdict: iTunes FAIL (due to sound quality). I would note that this verdict applies to any store I haven't tried but that doesn't offer lossless CD quality downloads.

The lossless factor rules out various other sites too. I have used the Philharmonia Orchestra's online shop, which offers 320kbps MP3, and it's decent enough (but again, only for recordings there's no other way to get). It's worth pointing out that when I bought a Wagner overture, conducted by Mackerras, they were very quick to address the fact that it was at less than the stated bitrate. Good service then. However, Verdict: Philharmonia Fail (decent sound quality but still worse than CD).

I have also used eMusic which for £10 a month gives me 40 downloads at 192kbps MP3. Not good quality, but if you're buying symphonies, especially, say, Mahler, it's very cost effective (so long as you make sure you use all your downloads; it's very easy to forget about them). I do find it good for buying things I'm curious about but am unwilling to pay full price for (Vanska's Beethoven cycle being a good example) but I refuse to use it for anything I really want and am going to listen to a lot. Their search is pretty useless, there's no easy way to see everything involving, say, John Barbirolli, and a compound search such as "Barbirolli Sibelius" is useless. Emusic also will not (unless you use their own software, and why would I want to) allow you to download a whole disc in one click, instead you must laboriously download each track one at a time. In fact, it's worse than that because the way they have it set up, my browser opens the track in a window rather than downloading it. Verdict: eMusic FAIL (sound quality again, poor value if you don't remember to use your downloads, and poor user experience).

But, you may well be crying, there are download sites that offer lossless downloads. Indeed there are, but they have their problems. Take first Chandos, or rather, their classical download store. Obviously it's mainly Chandos discs, but other labels such as Signum can also be found there (see here for a full list). At first this seems perfect, you can download an MP3 (at 192kbps) if you so wish, or you can download losslessly. I first played with them last Christmas to get this disc of rather nice, yet slightly different, carol arrangements. Less than £5, bargain. There's plenty of choice of format (windows WMA, AIFF, FLAC and WAV). There's just one problem: actually getting the music from the store onto your computer once you've paid for it takes ages and is frustratingly akin to banging your head against a brick wall. Yes, there exists an option to tick everything and download it as one handy file but this only applies for WMA or MP3: message, if you're a Mac user and want lossless downloads you can get stuffed, we don't care.

Of course, you can still download AIFFs (which will import fine into iTunes and onto the iPod) but you have to click each track, then a little window pops up with a link for you to right click and save. Then it tells you to wait until this is finished before moving onto the next (actually, you don't need to do this, and can speed things up by telling it you're down and moving onto the next - still, my browser won't allow more than 8 concurrent downloads). Bafflingly, each time you close the small window, the download list page reloads, taking longer still. It is a profoundly unpleasant user experience. It might be okay with a super-fast internet connection, but otherwise you need to be able to click once and leave the computer to download everything while you get on with more interesting things. My father, a Mac user and prolific buyer of CDs, flat out states he will never use the site again. This should worry Chandos. I had a similar reaction at Christmas. I had forgotten, though, by the time I decided to buy a two disc set of Louis Lortie playing Ravel from them this morning (with over 30 tracks to download the experience was excruciatingly and not worth the couple of pounds saved over CDs - my time is worth more to me than that). Verdict: Chandos FAIL for Mac users. (However, they have only to streamline their downloading process, which surely is very simple to do, and it would be a good site and one I'd use and recommend. Chandos, if you're reading this, take note. Note also that if you are happy with MP3 at 192kbps or are a PC user, Chandos is a good site.)

I will make one final point: I take a dim view of Chandos's customer service. I e-mailed them over Christmas politely pointing out these flaws and that they might wish to address them. I have never received a reply. (Update 26/6/09: an e-mail response from Chandos is reproduced at the bottom of this post.)

What then, of Passionato. It claims to offer 320kbps MP3 and lossless FLAC, Mac and PC compatibility and a wide range of record labels. It should therefore be ideal. It isn't. Firstly, quite a lot of stuff, especially from Universal, is not lossless. Certainly buying is much less painful than with Chandos (at first). Their search is okay, though it has an annoying bias towards compilations in its results. Purchasing too is straightforward and all three tracks from the Marwood/Ades/COE recording of Ades' violin concerto were on my desktop as one zip file nice and neatly. Then there's compatibility, and everything falls apart. Their site claims:

You can use a PC or Mac with a broadband connection and any of the following browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Opera.

Now, I suppose this is technically true. After all, I was able to download the tracks. The trouble is they use the FLAC format. It's an open source (and by all accounts, very fine) format. There's just one problem: Apple don't like it, and if you try to import them into iTunes, nothing happens. Of course, there are other media players that you can use (such as Videolan) which will play the files without issue. However, I just don't care: I, like a huge number of other people, use iTunes. I have nearly three months worth of music in there, it talks to my iPod and iPhone and I have no desire to use anything else. That means that if the FLAC files won't get into iTunes, I'm going to be very cross and Passionato are going to get a stiffly worded e-mail demanding a refund. Of course, in these days of high technology it should be doable, and with my degree in engineering, I'm a pretty tech savvy guy I should be able to do it.

And, I can indeed report that it is doable. It just isn't easy (or at least, finding a way that's reasonably easy takes some searching). At the very least it is exceptionally misleading of Passionato not to include some kind of disclaimer on their site to this effect. While I was able to solve the problem, I can well imagine most others not doing so and getting justifiably very angry. (Since this won't be of interest to everyone, I will save details of how this can be done until the end.) Furthermore, Passionato's description of getting music onto your iPod, while accurate for MP3s, is just flat wrong for FLACs. This is staggeringly stupid. While Mac users may only represent a small share of the market, iPod users do not; it's the most successful device of its kind on the planet and building a store that isn't iPod friendly is a bit like building a petrol station that only serves three wheeled vehicles.

However, the net result is a big fat FAIL for Passionato too (for compatibility and misleading statements on their website). However, like Chandos, it's a fairly easy fix - just offer a format that works with Macs and iPods and is lossless. They could also try to persuade Apple to just support FLAC, but I suspect the former will be easier. Note, if you are happy with MP3 at 320kbps, Passionato is a good site (similarly, now I have gone through the steps detailed below, it is okay for lossless for me).

The FLAC problem also exists with other stores I haven't tested, such as Linn Records (a shame since they also offer studio master quality). FAIL for them and anyone else not offering high quality Mac/iPod friendly downloads.

There may be an online store out there I haven't mentioned, one that has a good catalogue, CD quality downloads or better, and is fully and easily Mac/iPod compatible. If it exists, I haven't found it; if you have, please let me know.

You may think I've been a little unfair. Certainly, it is true that if you're happy with below CD quality, then Passionato, Chandos and iTunes all offer a decent and easy service (though Chandos's data rates are on the low side for MP3). It should also be noted that while Passionto is 320kbps MP3 and iTunes is 256kbps AAC, AAC is a more efficient codec and so probably sounds as good or arguably better.

However, I feel it's not unreasonable to expect download sites to offer at least the sound quality of the CDs they aim to replace and ease of use at the same time.

Finally, since I now have a fairly simple way of converting FLACs into AIFFs (see below), I may use Passionato again as the experience should now be fairly painless. However, in terms of the average user, the time it took me to get them working and the misleading statements on their website, the verdict for them remains a fail.


The Technical Bit - FLAC into iTunes will go (ish)

PLEASE NOTE: these instructions are for Macs only (I'm running an Intel Mac, OS 10.5.7 with Quicktime 7.6.2 and iTunes 8.2).

So, after much Googling, tearing out of hear, and banging my head against a brick wall, I did in the end manage to get FLACs playing in iTunes and my Passionato downloads onto my iPod. However, someone less tech savvy would long since have given up and gone home (so too someone who didn't have anything better to do with his afternoon).

The first question is do you have to keep the files as FLACs? If you're happy to turn them into something else, this is by far and away the simplest solution (and the only way you will get them onto your iPod*). Simply download xACT, install it by dragging it into your applications folder, then launch it. Select the decode tab (furthest left), choose between AIFF and WAV output, click add (bottom left) to choose the FLAC files, and then click decode. The AIFF files produced can then easily be imported into iTunes (you can then put them into Apple Lossless format to take up less space).

However, what if you want to get the FLACs themselves playing in iTunes? This can be done, but it is far from simple. After much googling I found this explanation from one Napoleon12. I think the below sets out his instructions slightly more clearly:

• 1. Install the XiphQT plugin. Go here to download it. To install simply follow the instructions contained in the readme file (the folder it asks you to copy the file to may not exist, if so create it).


• 2. Then go here. Download the first file (flac_import_0.5b1_p0.1.dmg) and install it following the instructions in the readme file. Once you have done this, you will be able to play the FLACs in Quicktime but not yet iTunes.


• 3. From the same site download the third file (set-OggS-0.1.dmg). This contains two applications Set OggS and Clear OggS. Copy them to your applications folder.


• 4. Restart both iTunes and Quicktime (in fact, for good measure, you should probably restart the whole computer).


• 5. Select the FLAC files and drag them onto the Set OggS app. (A window will pop up to tell you it's done this and you can then click quit).


• 6. You should now be able to add the files to iTunes in the normal way.


• 7. Should you want, you can then put the FLAC files back to normal by dragging them over the Clear OggS app.

This gets the FLACs into iTunes and they will play. However, funny things do happen when you try to change track names or alter other tags. I am also told they will not send wirelessly to Airport Express or suchlike. They will also not play on your iPod. It is also entirely possible that future releases of iTunes and Quicktime will render all of this useless.

There you go - clear and simple: what more could you ask for! (Note to self, excessive sarcasm is not helpful.)

*This isn't quite true. Apparently some iPods can be rigged with 3rd party firmware and made to play FLACs, but I don't want to go there.


Update 26/6/09 - Response from Chandos

I have had a response from Chandos which I reproduce below:

I thought it would be useful to drop you a line.
It's great that blogs such as yours offer the opportunity for debate and user opinion. It is a shame that you were unhappy with the experience at The Classical Shop. We are constantly working to improve the quality of the site, by widening the labels on offer and also working to improve the usability of the site so we always welcome customer comments. We were aware that we needed to offer mac users the opportunity to download AIFF files and have recently added these to our offer. It is interesting to hear your experience of downloading in this format and I will pass your comments on to my colleagues. If it is possible to make this process smoother then we will certainly aim to do so. I'd also like to apologise that nobody from the company replied to you over the Christmas period. We were closed down over the break and it would have said so on the site, but of course somebody should have replied to you on our return. We regularly receive commendation for our customer service so this is very much out of character.

We have a growing database of users and in the main there is nothing but praise for the site and our content but if you have any further recommendations for improvements you feel should be made to the site then please do not hesitate to contact me.

I should further note that if you are using a PC, iTunes should import the lossless WMA files which you can, according to the Chandos site, download as one zipped file. I haven't tried this, but if this is the case, Chandos would be highly recommended for PC users. Mac users who are also running Windows on their machine therefore have a reasonable, if somewhat cumbersome, workaround.

Lastly, I would like to stress my negative comments about Chandos are purely in relation to the user experience offered to Mac users interested in high quality downloads and not a comment on the label more generally (which I greatly admire and which has produced some exceptional recordings).

Continued...

Aldeburgh 2009: A tale of two very different choirs

Today at Aldeburgh the theme was very much choral music and, save the odd harpsichord and lute, largely unaccompanied.

At Blythburgh church this afternoon the choir of Caius (pronounces keys) College Cambridge was on hand for a traditional but very pleasant programme. (They earn this review a Shameless Plugs tag since my second cousin May Robertson was singing with them, hence a potential conflict of interest in the writing of a review.)

The first half featured works by Haydn and Debussy as well as two English psalms. The choir chopped and changed around a bit too, varying from full forces down as low as trios, which provided a nice variety in sound and texture. At full force in the opening Haydn Danklied zu Gott they had a wonderful richness. However, pared down to a quartet for Der Augenblick and Alles hat seine Zeit, they were less successful because the soprano had a significantly more powerful voice than the others, slightly unbalancing the ensemble.

After the interval came a particularly nice setting by Joye, bookended with two harpsichord pieces by Bedyngham. Then the whole ensemble moved to the very back of the church to sing Durufle's Quatre motets sur des themes gregoriens. This provided another interesting shift in dynamics.

They finished up with some Britten settings, showing how much better he was a writing for a whole choir than setting songs for just one person: we got Chorale after an Old French Carol and Five Flower Songs, op.47. These were nicely coloured but it would've been nice to have the texts as the multi-part nature meant it wasn't always possible to hear all the words (though they did try their best by giving us the Ballad of Green Broom again as an encore).

They were ably directed by Geoffrey Webber, with harpsichord accompaniment provided by David Ballantyne and Matthew Fletcher. Some of these singers will be making their way up to Edinburgh this August to do the Magic Flute at the Fringe. (However, having just checked and discovered the venue is located seven miles out of Edinburgh, and remembering I no longer own a car, I'm wondering if my promise to attend was a little rash.)


In the evening it was over to the Maltings for some very different choral work: the Ensemble Basiani of Georgia (playing to a sold out hall). It was certainly very impressive as the twelve men took to the stage in their traditional dress, complete with daggers. It's also true that they're a talented group and produced some very nice and interesting (and sometimes strongly contrasting) sounds in their multipart harmonies. And yet, it was all much of a muchness. Twenty minutes would have been very nice, and a good exposure to something a little different. An hour and a half with, bafflingly, no interval, was just far too much (and given each song lasting a few minutes pretty well stood by itself, there was no logical justification to this). True, every now and again they would sing something a bit different, but there wasn't enough of that to justify the length. As ever, you can have too much of a good thing, and in this case we did by some margin.

Having said that, in the interests of fairness, I should stress that they were cheered loudly and widely and got comfortably the warmest reception of anything I've been at this festival. True, this isn't as puzzling to me as when the crowds cheer the past-it Deborah Voigt, at least I can appreciate this ensemble as singers, I just can't understand why the crowd seemed to still want more.

Tomorrow what promises to be one of the highlights of the festival as the Mahler Chamber Orchestra roll into town.

Continued...

Aldeburgh 2009: Louis Lortie's Night Fantasies (by Schumann, Holliger, Carter and Ravel)

When I'm not doing my day job, or writing reviews, I also find time to help manage Venue 40 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (which is run largely by volunteers and for charity). Throughout the day during the festival, theatre companies will come up to the box office and ask how their show is selling. One of the nicest things is to be able to tell them they have sold out, or are close to doing so; one of the worst is to have to tell them they're still in single figures. Thus I felt for Louis Lortie this evening as he played to a bafflingly undersold Maltings. This was not a difficult programme by Aldeburgh standards (or even more generally) and he's a very fine pianist. It made you wonder if there was some major event going on in Suffolk to which we had not been invited. Still, those that were there more than made up for it with enthusiasm and those that stayed away, well, more fool them, quite frankly.

The programme had been very well chosen too, with four out of the five works having a nocturnal theme. The first half started and closed with two Schumann pieces, his Vier Nachtstucke, op.23 and Drei Fantasiestucke, op.111. From the outset Lortie showed his fine pianism - there was both wonderful delicacy and clarity, but also plenty of power when called for, and achieved without recourse to thumping. His rich sound was especially clear in the Fantasiestucke which he shaped beautifully.

Sandwiched between these was Heinz Holliger's Elis: drei Nachtstucke fur Klavier. These three pieces were subtitled Annunciation of death, Mortal fear and mercy and Journey to heaven. Of these, only the second seemed to completely capture its subject, being nicely atmospheric, possessing a 'things that go bump in the night' quality to it. The third was more successful than the opening movement, and faded away nicely and tantalisingly at the end. In the second and third some nice effects were employed, bringing Lortie to his feet to reach into the piano to strike the hammers directly.

Overall, though, the second half was more compelling (partly because Schumann isn't among my favourite composers of solo piano music). It began with Carter's Night Fantasies, an extended single movement work, episodic in nature. This turned out to be one of Carter's works that has impressed me most this year. There was a good flow between each section and it never felt disjointed. There was too plenty of fine weighty playing from Lortie.

The best, however, was saved to last (or nearly so), with Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit. His playing was exceptional as he brought out the shimmering opening and sliding glissandos of the first movement and also the powerful climaxes with equal skill. So too the haunting delicacy of the second movement and the tolling of the distant bells. Unfortunately, and this is Ravel's fault rather than Lortie's, there is nothing in the finale, nicely played though it was, that quite lives up to what has come before. Still, it contained some nice climaxes and the quiet ending was brought off well.

It was just a shame that more people weren't there to appreciate it.

Continued...

Aldeburgh 2009: Britten Song Cycles

Yesterday's young artists theme continued this afternoon at Aldeburgh church with the second in a pair of programmes comprised entirely of song settings by Britten. The four singers, each of whom took a set of songs in turn, were all alumni of the Britten-Pears programme.

Given they were probably giving their first nationally broadcast solo recitals, some nerves were understandably on show. That said, for the most part I think the problems lay more with the works which are not, in my view, among Britten's greatest compositions. Throughout, Malcolm Martineau, veteran of many an Edinburgh festival, provided solid accompaniment at the piano.

First up was baritone Philip Smith singing a collection entitled Tit for Tat (that they date originally 1931, when the composer was just 18, probably explains the lack of an opus number). He had a nice clean voice and good diction, with every word being clear (something all to often not the case).

He was followed by soprano Katherine Broderick, who is a little hard to judge properly for a couple of reasons. First, she has a very powerful voice indeed, one that would have no trouble filling the Coliseum; as such, sitting in the second row, it was overwhelming. This was exacerbated by the chosen settings, The Poets Echo, op.76 (words by Pushkin) which too often required loud piercing notes. That said, she appears to be one to watch, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear her in Wagner in a few years time.

After the interval came tenor Ben Johnson singing Holy Sonnets of John Donne, op.35. Sadly, he seemed to be having trouble with his voice, tiring rather quickly as the cycle went on; it was a shame to have caught him on what appeared to be an off day. Donne's poetry, in my view, is the finest of any of the settings in the programme. Certainly, it can be set to superb effect: witness John Adams in his recent opera Dr Atomic (review of ENO production), who used the 14th, which Britten also set. Gerald Finley's repetition of "Batter my heart, three-person'd God" was devastating. Here's the thing though: Donne's language is quite dense and there's so much in each poem that the way Britten just rushes through so many means they can't be properly appreciated. Contrast with Adams who dwelled on one poem, allowing its full impact to be felt.

Finally came a second tenor, Nicky Spence. He had a good voice, sadly he too was hobbled by the poems he was trying to sing: Who are these children, op.84. This time the problem was that a large proportion of these twelve poems, by William Soutar, feature a lot of Scotch words and phrases. To work they need to done in a good Scottish accent, and while he tried very hard, almost always it just didn't sound quite right. A good dialect coach was clearly needed. Then again, given the songs were written for Pears to perform, I dread to think how silly that performance must have sounded.

In many cases then, it would have been interesting to hear the singers in other repertoire; however, Broderick seems to be the one to watch.

Continued...