Welcome to Issue 6

 

Welcome to Issue 6. Well, I’m pretty sure there’ll be something for everyone here. We’re back in Europe (Germany/Austria to be precise) but the music could hardly be more varied. Professor John Butt OBE (Musical Director of Edinburgh’s Dunedin Consort and Principal Artist with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) speaks at length about Bach’s stunning and otherworldly Mass in B minor, a piece for which he also wrote the Cambridge Music Handbook. The following interview with George Jackson, Music Director of Kammeroper Frankfurt and Associate Conductor at Opera Holland Park, London, is on Mozart’s Così fan tutte. This was also published in June with free access. It proved extremely popular with readers, and is included again here to complete the trio (with a few musical details added).

 

Berg’s masterpiece Wozzeck is the focus of the fascinating interview with the Hans Graf, former Music Director of the Houston Symphony and Calgary Philharmonic. His Wozzeck recording (released in 2017, and highly recommended) won a Grammy and the ECHO Classic prize, and his passion for this piece is incredibly infectious. Lastly, a bonus interview has been included with Jakub Hrůša, Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra and Czech Philharmonic. I had the pleasure of meeting Jakub in 2015 at Glyndebourne Opera House, and we spoke about conducting opera and a selection of Glyndebourne productions, including Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Bizet’s Carmen and Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

 

There is such a wealth of wisdom in every interview here, I really hope you enjoy them. Huge thanks to John, George, Hans and Jakub for sharing their experiences and expertise.

 

Happy Reading!

 

Dr. Hannah Baxter