April albums

If you follow me on Twitter (@benjammin22) you'll have noticed me chart a course through 100 albums in the course of April, and this blog aims to reveal the results and discoveries of the quest, which has proved rewarding and sometimes insightful. The idea for it came from a musicOMH writer Gareth Ware (whose own odyssey can be tracked at @musicismyradar) and from John Murphy (@john_murphy1) who personalized the exercise by listening to 100 albums that he either loved or which had pertinent lifelong memories.

Albums are like that, I suppose, and if they're good or meaningful have the potential to conjure up whole lifetimes in one listen. They act as vivid reminders like any good photo album, only with extra – for often the emotional link between the music and the life event is impossible to ignore. Either that or a good album acts as that alone, a marker of quality in an art form overrun with attempts to achieve legendary status in the form.

For my own quest through 100 April albums I decided that each should be new to me, and that each artist or composer could only be represented once in the exercise. I chose them pretty much as the mood took me, and didn’t include compilations or albums I heard that had already passed my ears before. It was a chance to catch up with some of 2012’s new releases, to try out completely new things on the strength of cover or reviews alone, or to take a lucky dip in to the CD collection and haul out something I'd not listened to before. And there are far too many of those examples!

The other rule was the once started, the album had to be completed there and then, and this wasn’t always as easy as it sounded. Sometimes when an ambient album was selected late at night it was easy, but when busy techno threatened to take over my head on a flight to Budapest (thanks to u-ziq), some flurries of instrumentation nearly compromised our neighbour relations (Au) or some particularly dark and vigorous vocal beat boxing marred my preparation for a suited and booted dinner one Saturday night, the exercise became one of endurance not enjoyment.

It showed me too that there are times – even in London – where silence, the music that has no sound or pitch, is underrated and even totally necessary. It reminded me of the need to actually step away from music now and again – which I will do when on holiday next week – so that the reacquaintance is fresh and involving once again.

So, enough of the personal aspects – what and who were the winners in the hundred? A difficult one to summarise, but there have been some wonderful moments which I will try and capture. The first was Lovelock's 'Burning Feeling', the massive and anthemic first track from his first album of the same name, booming through the headphones on my walk down the hill at 7am on a Monday morning. I had expected something far more chilled, but arrived at the bus stop with a smile on my face.

Secondly, in the middle of a busy office, the sleights of electronic instrumentation forming Pole's '1' – beautifully crafted techno that proved very easy to work to. Then the thrill of Van Halen rediscovering what made them so good in the 1970s, returning to their original sound and singer, closely followed by Whitesnake achieving something equally thrilling.

Classical music was embraced by April Albums too, and took up its familiar position in my life either at each end of the day or when seeking something to keep me alert at work. For some reason Czech music played a big part in the month, perhaps for the spring like qualities of the Novak, Dvorak, Janacek and Stamitz that I ended up listening to.

There were some forgettable albums too, but those tended to be the ones that were OK but didn't inspire a reaction. I’m afraid these included the new Best Coast album, We Have Band, Ellen and the Escapades and Neil Finn. But the beauty of this is that not all albums make their mark on first listen, and my favourite of all – Super Furry Animals' Guerrilla – was a grower that I didn't like to begin with. That experience has told me never to write off a long player on first listen, so I haven't dismissed those offerings yet.

April albums - the full list

The April albums list in full:

1. Lightships - Electric Cables
2. Lovelock - Burning Feeling (Internasjonal)
3. A Tribute to Erling Blondal Bengtsson (Danacord)
4. Popular Computer - Lite
5. Krazy Baldhead - The Noise In The Sky (Ed Banger)
6. Brian Eno - Discreet Music
7. Kasper Bjorke - Fool (hfn)
8. Simian Ghost - Youth
9. Gotye - Making Mirrors
10. Moby - Animal Rights (Mute)
11. Stamitz - Symphonies conducted by Matthias Bamert (Chandos)
12. Stravinsky - Miniature Masterpieces (Sony)
13. Diefenbach - Run Trip Fall ()
14. Neil Finn - One Nil
15. Yeti Boombox - Maplewood
16. Mendelssohn - Concerto for violin & piano played by Kremer, Argerich & Orpheus CO (DG)
17. Talking Heads - Little Creatures
18. Weber: Overtures conducted by Neeme Jarvi (Chandos)
19. Schubert: Piano Sonatas D845 & D894 played by Radu Lupu (Decca)
20. Villa-Lobos: Choros 1, 4, 6, 8 & 9 (BIS)
21. Mojave 3: Out Of Time (4AD)
22. Manuel Tur: Swans Reflecting Elephants (Freerange)
23. The Draymin: Should've Known Better
24. Pole: 1
25. Blockhead: Interludes At Midnight (Ninja Tune)
26. Ry Cooder: Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down (Nonesuch)
27. Battles: Dross Glop (Warp)
28. Fila Brazillia: Black Market Gardening ()
29. Killing Joke: Absolute Dissent
30. Au: Verbs
31. Julianna Barwick: Sanguine
32. Britten, Bach & Ligeti: Works for solo cello - Miklos Perenyi (ECM)
33. Van Halen: A Different Kind Of Truth
34. Whitesnake: Forevermore
35. Takemitsu: Complete Piano Works - Roger Woodward
36. Chopin: Waltzes - Zoltan Kocsis (Philips)
37. Ellen and the Escapades: All The Crooked Scenes
38. John Daly: Sunburst (Drumpoet Community)
39. Claro Intelecto: Reform Club
40. Barber, Nielsen & Hindemith: Chamber Works - Marlboro Festival Players (Sony)
41. Dave Aju: Heirlooms
42. Bill Ryder-Jones: If...
43. She & Him: Volume One
44. We Have Band: Ternion
45. The Cocteau Twins: Treasure (4AD)
46. Etienne de Crecy: My Contribution To The Global Warming
47. Ryan Teague: Field Drawings
48. Breton: Other People's Problems
49. Hayden: Moving Careful ()
50. Ambarchi & Brinkmann - The Mortimer Trap
51. Faith No More - Angel Dust
52. µ-Ziq - Lunatic Harness
53. Schumann - Piano Works played by Ronald Brautigam (Olympia)
54. Fat Jon The Ample Soul Physician - Lightweight Heavy
55. Kelley Polar - Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens
56. Morgan Geist - The Driving Memoirs
57. Brahms - Violin Sonatas played by Anthony Marwood and Alexander Madzar (Wigmore Hall Live)
58. Schoenberg - Complete Piano Works played by Maurizio Pollini (DG)
59. Jay Haze - Love For A Strange World
60. Schulhoff - Chamber Works played by Prazak Quartet and friends (Praga)
61. Tippett - Songs with Martyn Hill, Andrew Ball and Craig Ogden (Hyperion)
62. Szymanowski - Symphonies 2 & 4, Concert Overture conducted by Witold Rowicki
63. Stacey Pullen - Today Was The Tomorrow We Were Promised Yesterday
64. TJ Kong & Modular K - Dream Cargoes
65. Orkney - Symphony of The Magnetic North (Full Time Hobby)
66. The Shins - Port Of Morrow
67. Berg - Chamber Concerto, Clarinet Pieces & Clarinet Sonata - Boulez & Barenboim, Ensemble Intercontemporain (DG)
68. Schubert - Symphonies 8 & 9 - Berlin Philharmonic / Karl Bohm (DG)
69. Electric Guest - Mondo
70. Last Days of 1984 - Wake Up To The Waves
71. Dead Mellotron - Glitter (Sonic Cathedral)
72. Toro Y Moi - June 2009 (Car Park)
73. Tom Jones - Spirit In The Room (Island)
74. Dvorak - Zigeunerlieder - Songs & Duets with Genia Kuhmeier, Bernarda Fink and Christoph Berner (Harmonia Mundi)
75. Janacek - Choral Works inc Moravian Choruses - Cappella Amsterdam and Daniel Reuss (Harmonia Mundi)
76. Saint Etienne - Words And Music by Saint Etienne
77. Damon Albarn - Dr. Dee (EMI)
78. Jack White - Blunderbuss (4AD)
79. Slugabed - Time Team (Ninja Tune)
80. 2econd Class Citizen - The Small Minority
81. The Futureheads - Rant
82. Barber - Knoxville, Essays for Orchestra, Adagio with the Atlanta SO conducted by Yoel Levi (Telarc)
83. Best Coast - The Only Place
84. Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood Of Colour
85. Modern Jazz Quartet - Pyramid
86. Howells - Concerto for Strings, 3 Dances, Piano Concerto No.2 - Kathryn Stott, Malcolm Stewart, RLPO / Handley (Hyperion)
87. Danger In Paradise - General Strike
88. Pinch & Shackleton - Pinch & Shackleton (Honest Jons)
89. Beethoven - Bagatelles - Steven Osborne (Hyperion)
90. Purcell - Hail, Bright Cecilia! - Gabrieli Consort & Players / Paul McCreesh (Arkiv)
91. Joubert - String Quartets - Brodsky Quartet (Somm)
92. Nielsen - Symphonies 1 & 2 - Gothenburg SO / Neeme Jarvi (DG)
93. Rolf Hind - Country Dance (Factory)
94. Sidewinder - Resolution (Fenetik)
95. It Hugs Back - Laughing Party
96. Fennesz - Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56' 37 Minus Sixteen Degrees 51'08
97. Foulds - Indian Suite and other orchestral works - BBC Concert Orchestra / Ronald Corp (Dutton)
98. Ives - New England Holidays, Three Places In New England - Baltimore SO & Chorus / David Zinman (Argo)
99. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
100. Shostakovich - Symphonies 9 & 15 - SWR Symphony Orchestra / Andrey Boreyko (Hanssler)

On the Spirit of Schubert

BBC Radio 3 have just completed another of their music marathons, where they concentrate on the output of one composer alone for a week, maybe more. Previously I have blogged about the 'Genius of Mozart', but now Franz Schubert has had his ten days in the spotlight, with 'The Spirit of Schubert' showing precisely why he is an ideal figure to put under the spotlight.

It bears repeating that Schubert seems to have lived several musical lives in one. His published catalogue by Otto Deutsch runs to nearly a thousand, and the mature examples could almost have been written by a 70-year old, not one who died at the tragically young age of 31 as Schubert did.

Perhaps Schubert's biggest contribution to classical music lies in the world of song, or 'Lied', to name it correctly – yet that is not the focus of this blog, for those works received great advocacy morning, noon and night on the radio. Nor will this piece focus on other hugely important canons such as the symphonies, the string quartets and the choral music – again, music bordering on the revolutionary. No, for me at least, the works making most impact over the ten days were those for piano.

Even within that illustrious list the stars were not the acknowledged mature masterworks, though the last three sonatas once again made their case for being the equal of any Beethoven wrote in the genre. No, the surprise elements were those 'middle' piano sonatas, not often performed in the concert hall, but revealed in the ten days as works possessing great emotion, invention and often humour.

They also showed Schubert's harmonic cunning. Never has a composer shown the aptitude for blurring the distinction between major and minor keys as much as him. A great example can be found not just in the piano sonatas but in the first of the 'Moments Musicaux', a strange utterance that daydreams in its opening melody in C major, but adds a darker afterthought in the minor key, unable to decide which one is the more conclusive. It's that sort of writing that kept Schubert as a composer capable of both darkness and light in the same sentence, leading sometimes to contradiction but often to incisive and balanced thought.

In the later works these thoughts become more outlandish and manic, perhaps nowhere more so than in the second movement of the penultimate piano sonata in A major D959. It helped that BBC Radio 3 had such distinguished pianists as Imogen Cooper and Paul Lewis to help illustrate these points in live events, but the studio recordings were equally well chosen, communicating just what a remarkable composer for the piano Schubert was. Those are the overwhelming memories I shall take with me from the ten day festival, following which I have visited a number of these works again. And who next for Radio 3? Might I suggest a trio of English composers who died in the same year, namely Elgar, Delius and Holst?

A Schubert Spotify playlist, with my highlights from a week's listening, can be found here:

Dvořák string quintets from Berlin

The grainy sound of the double bass makes for a briefly mysterious start to Dvořák’s Op.77 String Quintet. This is a form that the composer mastered, the first to do so since Mendelssohn, and his first mature work in the form predates that of Brahms by seven years. Not only that, but Dvořák was able to work the possibilities of using five stringed instruments, using the conventional instrumenatation of two violins, two violas and cello in his first published work, the A minor quartet Op.1, and also in his later Op.97 work, shot through as it is with old American-inspired melodies.

Op.77, however, is more radical for its inclusion of a double bass, and this new recording from Berlin does it proud. It has all the attributes a successful Dvořák interpretation should have – vibrant rhythms, feeling but not too much sentiment in the slow movement, and a rugged texture in the first movement in particular, with the extra weight offered by the bass section fully exploited. It also inflects Dvořák’s melodies with authentic charm and resoluteness, meaning the performance carries some real substance.

As with much of this composer’s output, the melodies are the strong point, a facet the Berliners never fail to bring home. The motif of two chords that determines the music’s direction in the first movement is well played on each occurrence, the key to each of the sections that follow, while there are some beautiful moments of duet playing between the violinists Thomas Timm and Romano Tommasini. There is a nice heft to the chords in the Scherzo, too, though this is in part checked by a heavy pull on the breaks before the trio, which itself feels a bit slow to start with.

The accompanying pieces include the Nocturne, more often heard for string orchestra. Here it has a lovely weight and poise, not too much on the schmaltz but still beautifully romantic, with softly murmuring inner parts. It is well caught by the engineers, too – close but not too personal.

The only regret is that the quintet miss an opportunity to include Dvořák’s other masterpiece in the form, the Op.97 Quintet in E flat major. Instead we get the Scherzo which makes for a nice complement on the back of the Nocturne in the same key, but feels like short change indeed when the disc ends at just over 45 minutes. There would have been plenty of room to include the full work, despite its different instrumentation – but here the Scherzo is rather pointlessly arranged for the quintet with the bass. Well performed as it is, it feels like a loose end.

Hopefully the Berlin Philharmonic Quintet will redress this balance with a disc of that work and the Op.1 – both of which provide illustrations of an aptitude for string writing that served Dvořák well throughout his compositional career. All the quintets deserve more air time – so this new recording helps that cause!

All about chemistry - Borodin's String Quartets

Borodin is one of those composers whose body of work is small, but whose best known works have deserved status as repertoire staples for decades. That he managed to write at all remains a point of wonder, given his profession as a chemist, but the concert hall is richer every time the symphonies are performed, the opera house likewise in the case of 'Prince Igor' and the chamber music similarly for each hearing of his two string quartets.

Yet there is a real danger that his music could fall unless it is performed more often. In the 1970s and 1980s the Second Symphony was ubiquitous, but now it barely gets a look-in, and its charming companion the First, full of melodic joie de vivre, gets lesser still exposure.
The second string quartet now enjoys a position right at the top of the list, and if anything is now programmed too much by quartets in Britain. This is understandable, for there are so many richly rewarding melodies within its bars – not least for cellists – but it is a shame that the
First is overlooked at its expense, for this too is a rich mine of attractive music.

The lovely way that the Fitzwilliam Quartet captures the slightly demure opening on this reissue from Eloquence sets the tone, the music blossoming into a more assured first movement. Once the transition is made the musical outlook is a sunny, one, with not much weight applied by the Fitzwilliam at all, until the second theme comes in, the cello digging in a bit to its double stopped accompaniment. The theme is one of Borodin's most attractive, moving with chromatic subtleties in the way he is able to do.

The second movement is nearly as successful, though there is quite an uncomfortable noise at 5'19", with a pretty harsh outburst that sounds stretched, even if it does follow the directed ff dynamic. The quartet redeem this in the Scherzo's trio section with a lovely use of the harmonics in the trio, another great example of Borodin's imaginative writing for stringed instruments. The open textures of the finale’s introduction are nicely done too, appropriately rustic.

The second quartet is very well performed, and the balance keen between the players, an important aspect of this work, is secure. Only the recorded sound can compromise enjoyment, the 25 year old recording benefitting from the remastering process but not fully removing the surface area coarseness. Borodin's humour could perhaps come through here more, in the finale in particular where the stop-start nature is a little business like. The famous Notturno, mind, is ideally judged.

For a relatively modest outlay this is a useful pairing to acquire, especially for the first
Borodin quartet, which is a fine and underrated work indeed. While the Borodin Quartet, named after the composer, remain the last word in interpretations of these wonderful works, the Fitzwilliam slot in close behind.

A sight reading app for sore eyes

Picture the scene. You're taking your Grade 5 piano and the exam is going OK so far. You've played one baroque piece fairly monotonously, but probably well enough to pass. You've given the classical piano sonata movement a bit more flair but there were some quite nasty mistakes in the upper right hand. Then you've dashed off the final 20th century piece with an air of celebration totally missing from the first two pieces.

The pass or fail hangs in the balance, then – as it does after some frankly patchy scales and arpeggios. It's time for the bit we all hate – the sight reading. With piano for some reason sight reading is even worse, it being over two staves, and sure enough you're struggling early on and wanting to go back and correct things. How to improve this examination banana skin?

The answer, at long last, appears to have been found. Previously sight reading practice was restricted to a one minute glare at something on paper from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, followed by an attempt to get the two hands playing together in something you might call rhythm. But suddenly that sort of practice has become far more attractive due to a rather clever iPad app. You put the iPad on its side, on the piano music stand, cue up a piece of music according to your standard, set the metronome for the tempo you want to try and perform the music at – and then it counts you in.

Suddenly it all makes sense. The music disappears from the screen as you play it, which makes you think forward as a performer, a notion helped by the priceless Daniel Barenboim quote that "by definition, sight reading means playing bar one with your eyes while your brain is on bar five". The only disadvantage with this is not being able to go back at all and correct anything – naturally – but it means that over a few practice sessions that notion will probably be removed.

The man responsible for this innovation is Dr Christopher Wiltshire, who owns Wessar, the company releasing the app. Himself a former examiner, Wiltshire jokes that he initially developed the app to relieve the pain experienced by his colleagues in test conditions, but the benefits to pupils are obvious and immense, beyond the obvious short term gain of passing your exam.

Wessar will soon develop the app for other, 'single line' instruments, and can claim a comfortable victory with its first instrumental instalment. It's surprisingly involving, and sight reading – which was easily bottom of the class in the six exam 'movements' – moves strongly towards the top. It's an example of how music and technology can be used together for good – and those painful sight reading parts of the exam, which, as you may have guessed, was my own, could soon be consigned to the memory dump.

The Richest of 3-course Meals

For the second time, David McVicar's production of Richard Strauss's three act comedy Der Rosenkavalier comes to London and the ENO, bringing with it fantastically opulent sets, beautiful soprano singing and a grade one rogue in John Tomlinson. But what of the music itself, presented to London audiences for the first time a mere 99 years ago?

One thing is for certain - Der Rosenkavalier is one of the composer's most popular works, even when taking into account the symphonic poems. Its frequent use of the waltz is ironic, given the unrelated Strauss family and their unprecedented success with the form in 1860s Vienna, but here Richard works it very cleverly so that each use of the distinctive rhythmic form is incorporated into his own style.

For Der Rosenkavalier is musically rich, so rich that many people at last Saturday's first night were mentally exhausted by the time the three sopranos, Sarah Connelly, Sophie Bevan and Amanda Roocroft, floated in to the trio with which the opera closes. The reason for this is wholly down to Strauss, who fills his musical box of chocolates almost to saturation point. Often there will be two very different melodies going on at once, interweaving within the same range – so following them using the libretto proves very difficult as the similar voice types get tangled up. It's a mark of the composer's genius that he can work several tunes simultaneously without losing track of any of them, and even then if you were to remove the lines for voices altogether the writing for orchestra would suffice.

This, too, is rich, tapping in to the extravagance of the symphonic poems Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel. But although Der Rosenkavalier is seen as a light, frothy comedy, and the treble rich music bears that out, there is a certain heaviness to it, the sort that comes from too much champagne or an overindulgence on the cherry brandy liquors. The horns – brilliantly played on this occasion by the members of the ENO orchestra – have a lot of the best tunes, as they do in the symphonic poems – but Strauss's very particular kind of orchestral colouring means they are brought through at the top of the pile.

The only trouble with this densely packed music is listening to it for four hours – as the title of this post suggests, it is akin to eating the richest of three course meals in a fine hotel, and having chocolates afterwards. The head can only take so much – yet there is much to savour and recall at length afterwards. Moments such as when Sophie Bevan hits the high 'B' when the rose is presented to her – a floated note worth the evening's outing alone – or when Sarah Connolly and Amanda Roocroft declare their various passions in the opening act.

It's the first act this proves the most difficult where the movement of the plot is concerned, the story slow to catch fire, but the second act gathers pace and interest. The waltz scenes are delightful, helped by Tomlinson's ham-fisted dancing as the rogue, the Baron Ochs of Lerchenau, and the presentation of the rose itself from Connolly's Octavian to Bevan's Sophie is the most obviously, truly beautiful music here. For sure, Der Rosenkavalier is well worth seeing, but should come with a health warning of what musical overindulgence can bring. You'll be craving bread and water afterwards!