BBC Radio 4 programme: 'Tail(e)s of the Stave' J.S.Bach B-minor Mass
Broadcast last December and voted 'pick of the week' by listeners.
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Some thoughts on travelling to Novosibirsk to sing Purcell and Handel with Musica Aeterna and the New Siberian Singers......
Berlin, 14th February 2010
When I first heard that a group of enthusiastic musicians were exploring the music of my fellow countryman Henry Purcell on period instruments in Siberia I was frankly quite amazed. But after a moment’s pause I thought, why not?
As a young girl growing up in the industrial north of England I had been absorbing an eclectic selection of music from an early age. I had the great fortune of having a father who played the piano wonderfully (his teacher was the brilliantly eccentric Arnall Oscroft, a recital pianist in the 1940's who had been taught by a pupil of a pupil of Liszt and specialised in the big Russian repertoire) and much of my exposure to music came from listening to him play his way through a wide range of composers from Bach, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Debussy, Mozart and Satie and Liszt through to jazz.
In fact, whatever we could get our hands was thrown into the mix. We explored the classical song literature together and I introduced him to Byrd, Gibbons, Faure and Spanish renaissance songs. We went to hear the Hallé Orchestra every fortnight when they visited Sheffield. I played percussion in the local schools orchestra and brass band. On top of that there were the weekly evolving Top of the Pops charts and dads‘ record collection -Maria Callas, Galli-Curci, Ella Fitzgerald, Verdi, Mahler, Victoria de los Angeles and Doris Day! If we liked something it was ours. If we didn’t , it was alien. Alien to me, for example, were the romantic english composers. Britten aroused my curiosity with his english folksong arrangements, but I thought then, and still do, they are better unaccompanied.
The point about music is that it recognises no national boundaries. It is an international, human language of the most persuasive kind and it is all out there for us to discover, enjoy and be changed by.
Such a creative spirit of enquiry, an almost childlike joy in new discoveries and the courage to take some risks infuses the music making of Musica Aeterna and the New Siberian Singers and it is worth travelling over 5000 kilometres from Berlin to Novosibirsk to sing with them. Happy 3rd birthday!
