π Sunday Culture Crunch π
For all your weekend culture needs
Good morning all, hello to new subscribers, and welcome to the Sunday Culture Crunch β my weekend roundup of thought-provoking listening/reading, new music, upcoming events, and recommendations for general culture stuff to look out for over the next few weeks. Happy browsing, and do comment if thereβs anything youβd like to see featured in the Crunch. Want more/less fiction? Non-fiction? Old recordings? Let me know!
Iβm speaking twice in London this coming week β at Arts Richmond on Wednesday 1st, and then at the Barbican on Sunday 5th to give a Quartet concert with Fenella Humphreys and Nicola Eimer. I canβt wait for these, and as always please do come and say hi!
Julian Lloyd Webber proposed scrapping one-to-one tuition at conservatoires because of misconduct β I wrote for Opera Now about why this is the wrong way forward.
What Iβm Reading
HonorΓ© de Balzac, Old Man Goriot. A friend bought this for me because they were convinced it would be right up my street, and they werenβt wrong. Balzacβs observations are deliciously malicious. Has some strong writing-out-a-bad-relationship energy.
Tarjei Vesaas, The Ice Palace. Been stuck in bed this fortnight with Covid (boo), so Iβve been revisiting some comfort classics. The Ice Palace remains one of my favourite novelsβ¦ever? If you donβt know Vesaasβs writing yet then you are in for a treat. His prose is sparse and unforgiving, and yet so beautifully formed. It really stays with you.
Hjalmar SΓΆderberg, The Serious Game. This is the quintessential Swedish fin-de-siΓ¨cle novel. Itβs a love story about Arvid StjΓ€rnblom and his childhood sweetheart Lydia Stille, but itβs also a book about Stockholm, about a world in transition, about moral conflict, and about love and deception. It really deserves a wider readership.
βI hope that wherever you are these memories are as precious to you as they are to meβ β Letters of Note from WWII
Some great music suggestions in Night After Nightβs roundup
Sarah Ditumβs Toxic: Women, Fame and the Noughties published this week, so Iβm looking forward to getting stuck into that.
New Recordings
Eros: Bridge, Grime, ErΓΆd & Ginastera. The debut album from New Generation Artists the Mithras Trio, and itβs a corker.
Garuta: Apple Tree. Sigvards Klava leads the Latvian Radio Choir in the premiere recording of choral works by Lucija Garuta.
Philharmonica. This is a really delightful recording of music from seventeenth century London, including works by a composer curiously named βMrs Philharmonicaββ¦
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5. A fabulous recording of this work by the London Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda.
Brazilian Women Composers: Music for Viola. Rafaell and Ana Lucia Altino present a varied programme of viola music by Brazilian composers.
Ravel: Daphnis et ChloΓ©. A sumptuous rendition from John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London & Sinfonia of London Chorus.
Enigma. A really eye (ear?)-opening disc from soprano Sarah Aristidou.
Brahms: Piano Concertos. Simon TrpΔeski takes on the Concertos with the WDR Sinfonieorchester and Christian MΔcelaru.
Louis Wayne Ballard. Orchestral music by Native American composer Ballard β look out in particular for The Four Moons ballet.
Franz Benda: Symphonies & Concertos. This is the extremely perky disc I needed this week. Great fun.
Palmgren: Complete Piano Works Vol. 7. I love Palmgrenβs music, so itβs a good thing he wrote so prolifically for the piano. Up to volume 7 (!) in the complete piano works now.
Schubert & Beethoven: 14th String Quartets. If youβre going to make ANOTHER recording of βDeath and the Maidenβ, do it like the Sacconi Quartet.
Christmas Eve. The Christmas album you never knew you needed β Rimsky-Korsakov takes on Gogol!
β¦and the more traditional take on the Christmas album, Bob Chilcottβs Christmas Oratorio from the Choir of Merton College Oxford led by Benjamin Nicholas, with soloists Sarah Connolly, Neal Davies and Nick Pritchard.
An oldie and a goodieβ¦
The Gryphon Trioβs rendition of Clarke and Ravelβs Piano Trios. This remains my favourite recording of the Clarke Trio, and the pairing with Ravel is just perfect.
Live Music
BBC National Orchestra of Wales are performing Grace Williamsβ Symphony No. 2 with Kaija Saariaho and Sarah Lianne Lewis on the 2nd November.
The Fourth Choir are having an Ethel Smyth celebration at the Barbican on the 4th November.
Stile Antico are giving the world premiere of a new work by Kerry Andrew inspired by William Byrd, in Birmingham on the 8th November.
Terje Isungetβs Ice Quartet is touring the UK from 7-12th November.
Fiona Maddocks is in conversation with Vasily Petrenko about her new Rachmaninoff book, at The Bindery on 13th November.
The London Symphony Orchestra are performing Carpenter, Barber, and BartΓ³k with cellist Abel Selaocoe at the Barbican on the 16th November (for which yours truly wrote the programme notes).
The BBC Symphony Orchestra are performing Alice Mary Smith, Ravel and Beethoven on 1st December.
And for something completely differentβ¦
Something I have learned while performing with Fenella Humphreys is that not only is she a spectacular violinist, but sheβs also a prolific knitter with her own Etsy store. She makes THE cutest gloves and arm warmers, so if you are thinking ahead to Christmas presents for a friend who might appreciate a musician-knitted garment, her store is here.
Thank you again. I canβt keep up with you... All fascinating!