{"id":2265,"date":"2026-07-02T13:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/?p=2265"},"modified":"2026-07-02T13:54:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:54:01","slug":"issue-37-from-discovery-to-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/?p=2265","title":{"rendered":"Issue 37: From Discovery to Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome! Marking the ninth anniversary of Notes from the Podium<\/em>, and the beginning of its tenth year, this issue explores four different stages of the musical process: from the rediscovery of a forgotten composer and the recording of her music, to collaboration in the opera house, and finally to a musician\u2019s perspective from within the orchestra itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I introduce the issue\u2019s contributors, I would like to alert you to an academic podcast interview I did at the start of the year for Edinburgh University. It was part of their \u2018Melodic Minds\u2019 series \u2013 I was interviewed about the nature of the conductor\u2019s work and my interdisciplinary approach to its study. Dr Beth Mills and Dr Lynne Falconer were such great company. Available here<\/a>, or wherever you get your podcasts! Feel free to share far and wide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start us off we have a Notes from the Podium<\/em> first: an interview with an academic. Dr Graham Griffiths<\/a> kindly took the time to speak with me about his extraordinary discovery of the music of Leokadiya Kashperova \u2013 as fellow Stravinsky scholars, we have been in contact for a number of years. Only knowing Kashperova to be Stravinsky\u2019s piano teacher (Graham is himself a fine pianist) he dropped into the St Petersburg Conservatoire during a post-PhD visit to Russia. He casually asked whether they had any information about her, and the librarian came back a few minutes later with a score of her published symphony. Immediately recognising the music to be of the highest standard, Graham began a hunt for more information. This is a must-read for those interested in unearthing lost musical gems, and what is involved in spreading the word after a major discovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following on, Russian conductor, pianist and composer Anna Skryleva<\/a> joined me to discuss her recording of the first ever Kashperova CD, which features her Symphony in B minor and Piano Concerto in A minor. Anna managed to fit me in before jetting off to China \u2013 we discussed her approach to Kashperova\u2019s work and the difficulties encountered when preparing to conduct music with no performance history. Issues such as tempi, structure, preparation, collaboration with soloists, and orchestration were all included, as well as a little diversion into her experiences of music as a synaesthete. Her approach to this newly discovered music was very considered, matter of fact, and she is not afraid of making bold statements and difficult decisions \u2013 both in her conducting and in her answers to my questions!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the brilliant John Andrews<\/a> \u2013 a firm friend and favourite of the Notes from the Podium<\/em> project \u2013 expressed interest in writing an article on the collaboration between the conductor and director in opera, I jumped at the suggestion. This topic is one that has only been properly addressed once before by Notes<\/em> in the interview with director Jonathan Kent CBE in Issue 26. With decades of experience in this arena, John offers a practical view on what qualities make the collaboration work, covering issues such as addressing different perspectives, preparation, casting, set design and rehearsals. He offers great advice for anyone interested in, or new to this aspect of the field. I could quite happily read a book about this topic if John wrote one, and I hope you enjoy the read as much as I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, we have one more addition to the (almost complete) Matter of Principals series. It was such a pleasure to speak with Tania Mazzetti<\/a>, Principal Second Violin of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, in early May (just before the orchestra\u2019s annual Glyndebourne stretch began). Although the Notes <\/em>archive already includes an interview with a Concertmaster, the Principal Second Violin has a very different, and fascinating, role. They are in the thick of the action, a central part of the orchestra\u2019s engine, and in a position to really bring out the colour, taste and spice of the music. Tania said that as the second violin parts are sometimes less virtuosic, it can allow her more time to witness what\u2019s happening around her, and really appreciate her colleague\u2019s musical lines. She is also a conductor herself, and could therefore approach our discussion with an awareness of both the conductor and player\u2019s perspective.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As ever, huge thanks to Graham, Anna, John and Tania for their brilliant and enjoyable contributions. And thanks also to you readers for continuing to read and support this unique publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy Reading!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Hannah Baxter (Editor)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome! Marking the ninth anniversary of Notes from the Podium, and the beginning of its tenth year, this issue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public","pmpro-has-access","clearfix"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8YX8Q-Ax","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2265"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2280,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions\/2280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}