• From ancient to modern at the flick of a switch: with music from over two millennia ago and music written yesterday, our sonic choices are disorientingly diverse. There is little in common between Apollo & Dionysus, the last product of the European Music Archaeology Project (Delphian) and the 12 Ensemble’s Resurrection (Sancho Panza), except that they are both creative responses to their material. Commendably, Apollo & Dionysus does not claim to be reconstructing the sounds of classical antiquity, but aims to create something more ambitious, “an idea of what it might have sounded like to be in the past”. I bet it wasn’t quite as pure as this.
The reconstructed instrument technology is impressive, from the growling trombone-like lituus and the eloquent twin-piped aulos, to the water-driven hydraulis organ. (You have to be careful using the originals, as the trumpets from Tutankhamun’s tomb fell apart when played.) The actual music is so speculative as to remain puzzling: I was convinced by Stef Conner’s Delphic Paean, while the duet aulodia is pure Steve Reich.
• It is equally bold to curate a new disc based on an unquestioned masterpiece, but the 12 Ensemble does that with Lutoslawski’s 1958 Musique Funébre, one of his most expressive 12-note pieces. Reduced to a small-scale performance, it has a deep impact which makes a challenge to the succeeding pieces. John Woolrich’s beautiful response to Monteverdi, Ulysses Awakes has already acquired contemporary classic status; Kate Whitley’s wispy, floating Autumn Songs (without voice), and Bryce Dessner’s Réponse Lutoslawski (with an impressive Warsaw Canon) add their heartfelt responses.
• Amid the Leonard Bernstein centenary celebrations it was refreshing to see both the BBC and Sky Arts stepping up for this landmark. Unbeatable was the man himself, captured in Leonard Bernstein at the BBC (BBC4, now on iPlayer) in all his magnetically extrovert musicianship, chain-smoking at the piano through interviews, losing his patience with José Carreras, and showing why he was one of the most articulate and compelling artists of our time. The BBC has a vital job to do in making available these historically fascinating archive compilations to a wide new public.
