The UA Blog

Discover the forgotten piano music of Richard Strauss

20/6/2018

Richard Strauss is famous for his great operas, orchestral tone poems and songs, but he also wrote a small amount of music for smaller groups and for solo piano. This is been neglected for years, and Ulysses Arts is delighted to present Canadian pianist Carson Becke performing Strauss' solo piano music, all gathered together in a single release.

The album features the three major piano works published during Strauss’s lifetime: Five Piano Pieces opus 3 (1880), the Piano Sonata opus 5 (1881), and Stimmungsbilder (Mood Pictures) opus 9 (1884). It also contains Becke's own transcription of the song Zueignung (Dedication), originally for voice and piano. Although Strauss performed and recorded at the piano throughout his long career, his solo works for the instrument have fallen into obscurity, and it is often forgotten that the piano is the instrument that features most prominently in his youthful compositions, most of which were first published only in 2008 by Schott Music.

The three works on this album were written in Strauss between the ages of 16 and 20, the same period as his youthful First Horn Concerto: they show the first flourishing of the distinct musical personality that he would sustain and develop through more than seven decades of composing.

Two Concerts in Istanbul: Young Musicians Demonstrate Excellence and Community

8/9/2017

Turkish National Youth Philharmonic Orchestra / Cem Mansur, Zorlu Centre, 25 August, and Music Foundation for Peace, Heybeliada, 27 August 2017

Turkey has a distinguished tradition of orchestral music, dating back to Guiseppe Donizetti, brother of the famous opera composer, in Ottoman times, but still too rarely does it receive international attention. Two remarkable concerts in late August in Istanbul proved the growing richness of the country’s orchestral life, and the enterprise, energy and vision of its musical leaders to give young people the best possible opportunities to perform. The first, played to a full house at the Zorlu Centre for the Performing Arts, proved the Turkish National Youth Philharmonic Orchestra’s quality; the second, on Heybeliada, brought together young musicians from across Istanbul, organised by the Music Foundation for Peace.

The TNYPO’s concert, conducted by its music director Cem Mansur, opened with Richard Strauss’ Don Juan – a test of individual and collective technique, responsiveness, flexibility and daring. To start a concert with this great tone poem makes a declaration of intent – and multiple opportunities for failure. Its opening requires a large dose of self-believe and mutual trust between orchestra and conductor: TNYPO and Mansur jumped in head first, made light work of all its difficulties, and gave a surging, sweeping performance, sustained into the empty darkness of its ending. The marathon concert, which would have tested even an experienced professional orchestra, also included Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with soloist and TNYPO alumna Hande Küden; Turkish music was represented by Ali Özkan Manav’s magnificent rhapsody on Ali Ekber Çiçek’s song Haydar Haydar, receiving its first performance. There was no hint of ‘cross-over’, amorphous ‘world music’ or contrived tokenism here, rather the song was transformed into a dazzlingly virtuosic modern orchestral showcase.

Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia, evokes, in the composer’s own words, ‘the silence of the monotonous steppes’ in which ‘a peaceful Russian song is heard’, then ‘from the distance, the melancholy notes of an Oriental melody’, before ‘the Russian and Asiatic melodies join in a common harmony’. Borodin’s father was Georgian prince and his mother was Russian: beyond the music’s hypnotic beauty, its symbolism, performed at the meeting point of Europe and Asia, could not have been stronger.

Dvořák’s Symphonic Variations is a symphony in miniature: full of contrasting but thematically related episodes wrapped into one concentrated movement. After Haydar, Haydar’s energy burst and Borodin’s static serenity, anything but the finest playing could have felt anti-climactic: instead, Mansur led the Orchestra in an account of assured conviction and elegant panache. This was the concert’s ‘official’ end, but then came Verdi’s overture to La forza del destino – probably the most substantial concert ‘encore’ you will experience – and finally the exuberant Farandole from Bizet’s L'Arlésienne Suite No.2. A concert programme that in lesser hands could have been a reckless test of endurance proved a triumph.

Before the concert, Mansur and the musicians gave a lucid exhibition of how an orchestra functions as a ‘Laboratory of Democracy’. It showed how orchestra members must go beyond individual playing technique to tackle the fundamental challenge for an orchestra: constantly to listen, anticipate and respond to one another. The conductor acts as a conduit, offering leadership but also helping the musicians to listen intently to their colleagues. For long stretches of music, a good orchestra is capable of playing on its own, but at crucial moments direction is essential. Without the conductor, leadership from another musician – most often the principal violinist – emerges spontaneously. Mansur showed how an orchestra’s success and relationship with its conductor could be presented as a microcosm of human society. It offers an instant demonstration of human interaction, demanding a deep combination of individual excellence, respect for others, flexibility and sense of mutual responsibility to function harmoniously.

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Two days later, Heybeliada was the setting for a very different concert by young Turkish musicians. The Music for Peace Foundation, in collaboration with the Princes Islands Council under its president Sinan Özbek, presented a concert in the tranquil grounds of the historic Ruhban School, which crowns Heybeli’s highest peak. Three instrumental ensembles with over 100 musicians and chorus joined forces under the direction of three young charismatic South American volunteer conductors for a heartfelt joyous evening of music.

The Music Foundation for Peace, founded in 2005 and part of the international El Sistema network, is based in Istanbul’s Edirnekapı district, offering free music education for children and young people with limited opportunities. It has now developed parallel projects on the Princes Islands, Bursa and Izmir, with support from the Istanbul Culture and Arts Foundation.

The concert included arrangements of classical works and Latin music, which played to the conductors’ strengths. Starting with the most experienced musicians, ever increasing numbers of children joined the ensemble as the night progressed. All performed with conviction, rhythmic energy, standing confidently for solos, and with much exuberant clapping and twirling of instruments to the audience’s delight, including numerous parents taking justified pride in their children’s achievement. Towards the end, a choir joined for a short excerpt from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Even in simplified form, the music and its timeless message of common humanity shone through: at the concert’s end, my neighbour and I both admitted afterwards to being profoundly moved.

These outstanding concerts were a demonstration of musical excellence, social enterprise and community. In their contrasting ways, they proved without a single word being uttered, how orchestras bring together people from different places and backgrounds in a shared endeavour where for success and harmony, the only option is an openness to listen to one other and a spirit of collaboration.

CANADIAN ARTISTS RELEASE STRAUSS LIEDER RECORDING ON ITUNES

8/8/2016

Ulysses Arts is delighted to announce the launch today of Canadian mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta and pianist Carson Becke's debut recording of Richard Strauss Lieder. An iTunes and Apple Music exclusive, it can be downloaded at https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/richard-strauss-lieder/id1140917604 and corresponding sites worldwide.

The Lieder were all recorded in the beautiful rural venue of Venturing Hills Concert Studio, north of Ottawa. They are some of Strauss earliest mature songs, written between 1885 and 1887, when in his early 20s - his Opus 10, 15 and 17. They include all-time favourites 'Zueignung' and 'Allerseelen', both from Opus 10, amongst a treasury of impassioned songs.

Lyric mezzo Wallis Giunta is a company soloist at Oper Leipzig, singing roles including Cenerentola, Cherubino and Siébel. In 2016/17, she will debut with Opera North, performing the title role in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, concerts with Munich Radio Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia and the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, and will make her recital debut in Vancouver. Wallis will also return to Toronto’s Opera Atelier to debut the title role in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and to the Toronto Symphony for a new production of Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins.

Pianist Carson Becke performs as a soloist and chamber musicians, including in Canada, where he is Artistic Director of the Festival Pontiac Enchanté, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland (Verbier Festival), Poland, Latvia, Malta and the Caribbean. He has lived in the UK since 2005, studying at The Purcell School, Royal Academy of Music (Tatiana Sarkissova) and Oxford University, writing a D.Phil on the music of Richard Strauss. This recording is the first of a multi-album project to record Strauss's early piano, chamber and vocal music, including some works for the first time.

DE-COMPOSED

3/8/2016

Breaking News: COMPOSED, the classical streaming service promoting recordings by Universal-owned Deutsche Grammophon and Decca in partnership with Classic FM, is closing abruptly on 31 August 2016.

What went wrong? Did a 'tied pub' business model lead COMPOSED to lack critical independence, sufficient musical range and lack of distinctive content needed to attract paid subscribers, and distract them from the huge free access repertoires of YouTube, IDAGIO or Spotify? Did Classic FM have insufficient in-depth musical knowledge and critical judgement to provide the right editorial content, and was a more integrated broadcasting and live performance strategy with artistic partners needed? Where was the growth model beyond music streaming, and aspiration to become a wider classical music and affiliate platform?

These are questions other classical streaming services need to answer quickly to survive and succeed.

https://www.composed.com/

Apple Set To Unveil New Streaming Service To Stop Spotify & TIDAL

8/6/2015

London, Monday 8th June 2015

Apple will today unveil a completely revamped iTunes in an effort to, in one play, own the streaming music market field.

Expected to be launched at the Company’s developer conference in California, the service will combine the existing iTunes framework with a new reincarnation of Beats Music which is acquired at great cost last year. The new service will place streaming at its core, leaving behind the old iTunes ownership model which has flourished and flatlined since 2001.

With 800 million account holders and gazillions of device owners, Apple can get straight into the pockets and inside the pedestrian white headphones of hundreds of millions of already engaged music consumers and could blow Spotify and its 15 million paying subscribers out of the water.

The new music service will incorporate new streaming technology with editorial content from high profile artists and DJs like former Radio 1 frontman Zane Lowe. Expect some smart watch integration and absolutely no U2.

You can stream Apple’s WWDC live here from 18:00 GMT.

BBC's Ten Pieces Extended into UK Secondary Schools

20/5/2015

Works by Verdi, Wagner and Bach to be played in UK secondary schools.

The BBC today announced it is extending its successful 'Ten Pieces' music programme into UK secondary schools. The original project aimed to expose more primary schools students to classical music, and after a successful pilot engaging over half of UK primary schools, it is rolling out the programme into UK secondaries.

Here's (almost all of) the playlist on Spotify. One exception is Gabriel Prokofiev's Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra which isn't on the streaming service but can be found here at https://nonclassical.bandcamp.com/album/gabriel-prokofiev-concerto-for-turntables-and-orchestra.

Watch out for our curated list of recommended recordings of all the secondary school 'Ten Pieces' on YouTube to follow.

Spotify
BBC Ten Pieces (Secondary) playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/user/joe_kenyon123/playlist/69WuRL4mYck3j4BgnQtNT6

YouTube playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3vaJLcZtmPgtPEGHlg1Nx9zAwoqh61IU

Spotify Rival TIDAL Re-Launches Under Jay-Z's Ownership

2/4/2015

Article originally published at kenyonarts.com

TIDAL, the new subscription streaming service owned by Jay-Z, Chris Martin, Daft Punk, Kayne West, Arcade Fire, Alicia Keys and more, launched Monday night from New York.

What did we learn? Very little. The service, which has been operating for over a year, offers CD quality streaming and HD video and is owned by famous people.

Touted by its star-studded shareholders as a “new movement in music”, the launch of TIDAL offered no insights into….anything about the service.

So, let’s look at what we got from last night’s unveiling (what we already knew):

- There will be no free tier.
TIDAL want you to pay for your music, to value it and so compensate the rights holders for it. To a business like TIDAL, advertising revenues bring in 10% of what subscriptions do (according to Spotify’s numbers) so eliminating the free tier is a more robust model. The problem being of course that Spotify’s number one marketing tool is its free tier, so how will TIDAL get its users? Which brings us onto:

- High resolution audio and video.
Ignoring the endless debates over the discernible improvement in fidelity of high resolution audio, especially when the majority of listeners are doing so on garbage white headphones, TIDAL will offer CD quality streams and offline playback.

- Artist owned.
This is where TIDAL differs from Spotify. Whereas the latter is owned, in part, by the major labels, TIDAL will be owned by the host of artists mentioned above. Although many of the super-wealthy included in this venture own labels themselves. So maybe it’s no different after all.

What will set TIDAL apart with the big name backers is exclusive content – this is where it can drag users from other services and keep them. New content from big names and curated playlists can be to TIDAL what collaborative playlists are to Spotify.
--
TIDAL isn’t new, just its owners are. We will have to wait and see if the good intentions of its creative shareholders will affect, in any way, the struggling artists and indies who feel currently underserved by the streaming market.

Orchestre de Paris Live from the Philharmonie - out now!

10/3/2015

Download exclusively from iTunes

Ulysses Arts is proud to present their latest release: Orchestre de Paris: Opening Concerts Live from The Philharmonie. The album is available now exclusively from the iTunes Music Store at https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/opening-concerts-live-from/id969976791

Featuring works from Borodin, Ravel, Berlioz, Varèse and Thierry Escaich, the performances were recorded live on this historic occasion at the magnificent new Hall's opening concerts in Paris on 13th and 14th January 2015.

The digital booklet includes stunning images from inside the new Hall and comprehensive liner notes written by Ulysses Arts.

On The Salonen iPad Advert

23/10/2014

Much has been commented on the impressive Apple iPad advert, featuring the Finnish-born Philharmonia maestro, Esa-Pekka Salonen. In the series of videos, the principal extolls the virtues of composing orchestral pieces on the Apple tablet, making clear the immediacy with which one can capture moments of inspiration, whenever and wherever they may occur.

The lofty Apple production values, slick editing in line with the score, Salonen’s leading performance and the featured iPad App, Orchestra, have all drawn enamoured reactions from across industries, including tech, classical, advertising and mainstream press.

“I would be delighted if someone discovers classical music through the app… that alone would justify the existence of the app.” Esa-Pekka Salonen

Plaudits are being offered for not only the creative execution of the advert and Salonen’s composition, but also for the presentation of classical music as the new, cool art form, one which is embracing new technologies and not afraid to blow its own trumpet (or at least compose its own trumpet part on an iPad).

A Bite of the Apple
The classical industry as a whole is glowing from an endorsement from Apple, especially since the latter has so cosily courted the mainstream industry for so many years. It is refreshing, also, to see a contemporary composer shoved centre-stage. No wigs for miles. Alas, dodgy hair persists.

Much of the credit should go to the developers of the Orchestra App in conduction with Salonen, featured in the spot, namely; Touch Press. If you haven’t yet, check out their Deutsche Grammophon Beethoven’s 9th effort too, which employs a lot of the same functionalities as the Orchestra platform.

The Problem
As with anything exposed to Apple’s huge consumer base, there are many rejoicing in the fact that classical will now have hoards of new, younger fans, most of whom are invested in paying for downloads from iTunes and “have taste” (whatever that means).

There persists a problem, however, which the mainstream success of the advert has ironically illustrated poignantly. Namely, the length of classical records.

That the adverts have been viewed on YouTube over half a million times does not indicate half a million new, digitally-savy classical consumers, eager to buy tickets and recordings. It means that three minutes is still long enough to tell a good story, and short enough that it holds the pop attention span.

I am not surprised the campaign has been a hit, and have seen many non-classical fans sharing it online. However I doubt many of those same new admirers have taken the time to listen, in its entirety (just shy of half an hour), to the FREE recording of the concerto previewed in the advert. I would love to see the metrics on this (but am not holding my breath, Apple).

Amidst the progressive moves in the classical industry to widen the art to a new, younger audience, the problem that cannot be solved is the fact that mainstream audiences are used to short bursts of artistic gratification, and classical composers tend not to believe that their story can be told in such a short amount of time.

It is an impasse which requires a change in listening attitudes of music fans and a change in composition attitudes on the part of classical composers. Neither of these things will be achieved without long term commitment and some compromise.

If classical is interested in getting back to a revenue positive model to nurture future talent, it can take confidence that it clearly has extremely marketable facets for the modern, tech age, including Salonen and his Orchestra App. But the product needs to be right for the audience.

You can download the Violin Concerto composed by Esa-Pekka Solonen in the advert for free at iTunes