Top tweets for Tosca

In case you missed the fun, Tosca trended on Twitter yesterday when the Royal Opera House's production by Jonathan Kent hit BBC2, starring Angela Gheorghiu, Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel, with Tony Pappano conducting. Experience the power and the glory of this singular Christmas treat by reading a selection of the verdicts, commentaries, quips, observations and much more that spurred the stars on their way, from living rooms up and down the country... (BTW, this timeline goes backwards, so we start at the end.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS A TUTTI!

@richardwjones As good as Angela Gheorgiu was as Tosca, nobody will ever be quite as good as Maria Callas. #greatdivas #tosca #puccini

@talopine Being made VERY jealous by all the people in my timeline who are raving over #Tosca on the BBC with Kaufman and Terfel. #VERYjealous #sob

@Random_Opera After brilliance of #Tosca earlier, why are we being given repeats of f***ing Morecambe & Wise on BBC2 (and equal shit on other channels...)

@jonathanclinch Sooo true.... RT @Maroodiva #tosca is trending, c'mon #bbc don't just put decent opera on the tele at Xmas, people WANT to watch it!!!!!

@sanathaash1993#Tosca was awesome!

@Operazzi “@Gert: Is this really suitable viewing for a Saturday afternoon - torture, attempted rape, murder, execution, suicide? #tosca” ALWAYS!

@itsmao #tosca and now #E.T when am I going to stop crying?

@DanJamesWins #Tosca is trending, OPERA ISN'T DEAD!!

@DrPiffle It was amazing, wasn't it? Sublime leads, spec JK. Orchestra in fine form too. #tosca #stillsobbing

@BlueBaby #BrynTerfel was frightening enough from the amphitheatre.On TV he was terrifying #Tosca #don'thavenightmares

@stu_melling Tosca over: tears dried and the excitement of my first visit to@RoyalOperaHouse on Feb 11th kicks in now. #shakingwithexcitement #tosca

@amzenon It was amazing.. stunning.. captivating.. even on television.. I hope you can hear and see it sometime... #Tosca

@kittywhately Overwhelmed by #tosca at @RoyalOperaHouse. Terrifyingly good and incredibly moving. And Kaufmann and @Bryn_Terfel made it a total hunk fest!

@MelJD46 #Tosca an excellent production thank you @BBC2More please

@marcodemag Mario Cavaradossi's quite hot shirtless #Tosca

@Gert Shabby little shocker #tosca

@theviciouspixie Dear Santa, in my stocking I would like Jonas Kaufmann please. #tosca

@redragwork Wow - that #Tosca was heart-stopping

@SaraMohrPietsch: Ah Jonas, that was quite some Christmas treat. #swoon #tosca

@Popher Thank you BBC. #tosca was brilliant, a delightful change from the normal Xmas tv

@leboyfriend For me that was entirely satisfying and fulfilling. Bravi tutti!! #tosca

@Mark_Pullinger Ah, a Spoletta who milks the final moments! Excellent performance of #Tosca - so sorry I didn't get a ticket, but thanks Beeb for the relay.

@glittrgirl Gosh I feel knackered after watching that #tosca

@Irma0316 Magnificent! Fantastic! Stunning! Amazing! *stands up and applauds* #Tosca @RoyalOperaHouse

@David_CAA That #tosca bloke can sing a bit, but I couldn't understand a word he said

@amzenon #Tosca.. Grandiose !!! above all Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel.. Pappano & Orch. fantastic.. tremendous broadcast..@RoyalOperaHouse #BBC2

@hannahmmay pahaha, just watched Puccini's #Tosca from the Royal Opera House on BBC2! #FeelingCultured

@ivisbohlen Horrible, but great acting! RT @cazponty: It's horrible that we know that he knows......#Tosca

@glittrgirl I had goosepimples through nearly all of that #tosca *blows noes* *dabs eyes*

@tonyhatfield tears- end of #tosca #worththelicencefeealone

@John_Denny Anyone else think Scarpia looks like Ed Balls? #tosca

@clavdivs1 That was SUPERB! We need more opera on the telly! #Tosca

@_Joliffe FINALLY. Needn't of jumped, I'd happily of pushed. #tosca

@danny_blue2004 I've always had this image of her popping back up again #Tosca

@MahlerMad I HAVE NO MORE TEARS #TOSCA

@goldenavenger1 Only slight downside of watching opera on the telly is I can see Cavaradossi breathing when he's meant to be dead. #tosca

@MahlerMad SCARPIA! AVANTI A DIO! #TOSCA

@railtonrailton Don't worry, he's still breathing #tosca

@RuthElleson Yikes, I never like watching this bit... #Tosca...

@MahlerMad Presto, su. Mario! Mario! MARIO!!!! AAAAAAAH! #Tosca

@glittrgirl The good thing about watching opera at home is being able to bawl audibly. #tosca

@flumpmistress If he'd done that lip curl, I'd have probably fainted! #Tosca

@MahlerMad WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH #TOSCA

@greeboblackcat Humans yowling on tellybox. Staff bawling her eyes out. *nuzzles staff* #wlf #tosca

@MahlerMad *hugs cushion* #Tosca

@TimSim85 I'll call you by a thousand loving names. #Tosca

@Irma0316 I'm in absolute BITS. God, how I love Puccini :) #Tosca

@MelJD46 'Together in harmony our souls fly to the ecstasy of love' #Tosca

@lynnmb25 #tosca ..everything that's beautiful will find its voice in you...breaking my heart!

@findo I am in awe of JK right now #tosca

@millymelon Angela Gheorgiu's nipples: I can't understand why I can't see them in that dress #tosca

@chiller Guys, just get in the carriage and go. If you hang about like this it's not going to end well. #tosca

@Clavdivs1 No good plan starts with the line "You will be shot" #Tosca

@brendadada Jonas Kauffman's e lucevan is the most emotional I've ever heard. Domingo would be proud. #tosca

@AngharadLee 'I die in despair and I have never loved life so much' - Jonas Kauffman u have brought me 2 tears. Stunning performance #Tosca

@Cairnspolitics if you only watch 1 opera in your life then it should be Tosca. Terrific performances on BBC Two now #tosca

@EmilyOnsloe @angelagheorghiu just... WOW #Tosca

@leboyfriend e lucevan was exquisite #tosca

@amzenon Oh...Jonas... 'E lucevan le stelle' ..sigh... sigh... sigh... #Tosca

@Erastes #tosca - typical man, going to be shot and all he can talk about is shagging. # lucevanlestelle :D

@manx_maid Beautiful diminuendi - Jonas' trademark #Tosca

@dmartw Gibbering wreck after that #Tosca #goosebumps

@HorizonVA Jonas Kaufmann *sigh* #Tosca

@AngharadLee My 4yr old is loving #Tosca on #bbc2 Not sure I can cope with anymore 'why' or 'what's he doing' questions mind. She's transfixed #opera

@Gert You go girl! Kill the nasty bastard Scarpia #tosca #teamange

@brenbaritone @RoyalOperaHouse #Tosca being taped fr me at home.I saw the cast after queuing 16 hours over night.looking forward to reliving it:-)

@Becky_Todd We approve of #BrynTerfel. Blooming brilliant on the beeb in #Toscaas he is in everything. Loved my auditorium shifts when he was on.

@RachelWolseley Oh I do love you Ange, despite everything... #Tosca

@flumpmistress I'm not getting anything done, too enthralled! #Tosca

@brianbg OMG That @Bryn_Terfel really can play a bad bastard. #Tosca

@Clavdivs1 Don't trust the man you daft girl, he's spent the last act lip curling maliciously and squeezing your boyfriend's head in a vice! #Tosca

@DiveSciDiva Even though I'm female even I'm finding Angela Gheorghiu's low cut dress distracting #Tosca

@rob_f_1 @bbc2 never ever seen an opera before but current showing of #tosca is absolutely fantastic. Amazed. Thank you!

@raethepain Visi D'arte time! Unfortunate boob slippage there though. #tosca

@AngharadLeeThank God 4 #Tosca #bbc2.Relief fromXmas 4 a wee while.Terfel just head butted him @Bryn_Terfel Not classified as a fair fight in th valleys

@_widdershins Headbutt in an opera! Nicely done Bryn. #Tosca #BBC

@sensisuperstar It's all kicking off on BBC2, Bryn Terfel has just butted some bloke... #tosca

@malatrope Doesn't Bryn Terfel look like Meatloaf #Tosca #BBC2

@Paul_Anater There's hope! RT @jolocktov: RT @MahlerMad: #Tosca is trending :D This restores my faith in humanity

@cazponty For all the ladies drooling at Jonas...good....all the more Bryn for me!#Tosca

@CharlSkidmore Watching the same production of #tosca I camped outside the@RoyalOperaHouse for. SO EXCITED. BBC 2 you've made my day.

@patrickxwest Can't help wondering if Meatloaf wouldn't make a good Scarpia #tosca

@Gert Take your dirty hands off Jonas, you brutes! #tosca

@JackSullivan2 Right that's it I'm going to write an opera so I can marry Jonas Kaufmann #Tosca

@leboyfriend I'm a wreck already - and I have seen this more than any other opera so it's not like it's full of surprises. #tosca

@yourPollyanna Mother's just come into the room and asked if she's "chucked herself off the turrets yet?" #Tosca

@billybothwell68 #Tosca is even trending lol wow is this what happens when the x-factor finishes ? BBC HD folks its even better :)

@SophieBellaWiz Current trending topics are ridiculous. What is this fuckery? The only decent one is #tosca, which I hope is in referrence to Meerkat Manor.

@lucy_arch LOVELOVELOVE #tosca

@sbuttsoprano no queueing for interval g&t! Shuddering at @Bryn_terfel 's evil Scarpia.#Tosca

@quentinrayner Opera singers must go deaf, bellowing at such close range into each others faces #tosca #roh #bbb2

@ivisbohlen I'll keep an ear out for this. RT @Edward_George_: Here comes one of his best bits: diminuendo through the key change in same breath #Tosca

@bubblesmoloney I wonder if 33 is too old to become an Opera singer? I have the 'lungs'. #tosca

@manx_maid Lady tweeps who don't think they're into opera may like to look at Mr Jonas Kaufmann on BBC2 NOW. That is all. #Tosca

@thestorti I wish my life was narrated by the lead singer in #tosca would mean making toast would be so epic.

@RuthElleson Only #JonasKaufmann could wear THAT waistcoat and look hot. #Tosca

@JackyTarlton Watching Antonio Pappano's #Tosca on #bbc2 now. Thrilling start to Christmas. Great to have opera on tv:)

@Edward-George_ #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca #Tosca

Friday Festivities: Argerich and Freire play the Sugar Plum Fairy

MERRY EVERYTHING, EVERYONE! Enjoy this sliver of seasonal magic played by Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire.

Love & hugs from JDCMB

Buon natale, girls and boys

The other day someone at the paper rang up and asked if I'd write a short commentary about something called Il Volo. I thought at first that that meant "the thief", but it doesn't. Apparently it means "Flight". So I checked 'em out. And here's what I wrote. See if you agree? Note: if you are a hardline classical devotee, you might find that the video below is best viewed in the bathroom.

Not Messiah

It's not Handel's Messiah. It's a playlist from a very naughty music-lover.

I've been listening to the thing again - it's hard to avoid it at this time of year - and OK, yes, it does have that certain je ne sais quoi. It's a great piece. He wrote a good old tune or several. But just every so often, wouldn't you like to hear something else instead, or even as well? Leave aside obvious substitutes like Bach’s Christmas Cantata, Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols and much nice music by John Rutter; as for The Nutcracker or The Four Seasons – Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi are great, but enough’s enough. My list features some seasonal music that rarely gets a look in, having been shouldered aside by wall-to-wall Hallelujah Choruses.

Elizabethan Christmas music

If ideal Christmas music is decorative, celebratory and sumptuous on one hand, and intimate, domestic and fun on the other, then the Elizabethan era had it all. Families with space and cash tended to be musically literate in those days, and they might have gathered on winter evenings to sing madrigals or play music for viol consort. Red Byrd and the Rose Consort of Viols recorded their selection of Elizabethan Christmas Music in 1989, complete with a quirky attempt at ‘authentic’ pronunciation. Composers include William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Tomkins and more.

Recommended recording: Elizabethan Christmas Anthems, Red Byrd, Rose Consort of Viols, AMON RA CD-SAR46

Praetorius: Renaissance Christmas Music

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) was a Lutheran from North Germany. His works are characterised by rich and sympathetic choral writing, similar at times to his greatest contemporary, Claudio Monteverdi – but Praetorius’s music remains rooted in Lutheran chorales, so the effect is gentler, simpler and more streamlined than that of the musical lion of Venice. His most often-performed work is probably the gorgeous carol ‘Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen’, but I’ve picked a recording of some Christmas-friendly choral pieces that doesn’t include it.

Recommended recording: Viva Voce, BIS, BISCD1035

Bach transcriptions for piano

The term ‘Baroque’ was originally coined to evoke something extravagant, irregular, complex and extraordinary. If you enjoy musical pearls at their most baroque in every sense, then try transcriptions for solo piano of movements from Bach’s cantatas, violin works and concertos, made by some of the finest virtuoso composer-pianists of the 19^th and early 20th centuries. There are hundreds, and Hyperion has been releasing a substantial series of CDs of them. The latest disc features transcriptions by Saint-Saëns and Isidor Philipp: life-enhancing, high-spirited triumphs of virtuosity that would spice up any Christmas.

Recommended recording: Bach transcriptions, Vol 10: Saint-Saëns and Isidor Philipp, Nadejda Vlaeva (piano), Hyperion CDA76873.

Liszt: Weinachtsbaum (Christmas Tree Suite)

Franz Liszt’s bicentenary is nearly over, but not quite. It’s a good excuse to seek out his Christmas Tree Suite, a set of 12 short piano pieces based on carols and lullabies, including ‘In dulci jubilo’ and ‘Adeste Fideles’. Written in 1866, they are tender, charming and lyrical, far indeed from the barnstorming heft of the Hungarian Rhapsodies and the romantic tumult of his B minor Sonata. Instead, this is Liszt as besotted grandfather: he dedicated the suite to his five-year-old granddaughter, Daniela. Coincidentally, her mother – Liszt’s daughter, Cosima, who later eloped with Wagner – had been born on Christmas Eve in 1837.

Recommended recording: Alfred Brendel (piano), Regis RRC1378

Saint-Saëns: Christmas Oratorio

This is a real buried treasure. Possessing extraordinary gifts himself, maybe the 23-year-old Saint-Saëns, writing in 1858, also expected much from his performers: the solo parts are extremely demanding to sing, which might be why the ten-movement work doesn’t pop up often enough. Involving chorus, five soloists, organ and a small orchestra with prominent role for the harp, it strikes a lovely balance between Bach-inspired churchliness and the boulevardier charm that came so easily to Saint-Saëns. Christmas with the French bourgeoisie at its tasty best.

Recommended recording: Noël, French Romantic Music for Christmas – Bachchor Mainz, L’Arpa Festante München/Ralf Otto, Deutsche HM 88697366582

Honegger: Une cantate de Noël

The Swiss-born Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) was among Gabriel Fauré’s last pupils at the Paris Conservatoire. This short Christmas cantata was his final composition and has proved one of his most popular – not that that is saying much, since his works remain shamefully neglected. Written in 1953, it captured something of the spirit of the times. The opening section, on the words ‘De profundis clamavi’, seems a postwar evocation of an existential ‘dark night of the soul’. But from there the music opens out, as if candlelit by the succession of carol fragments that flicker through the musical fabric, weaving a spell of increasing enchantment. Combining texts in French and German, it’s perhaps a message of hope for lasting peace.

Recommended recording: James Rutherford (baritone), Robert Court (organ), Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum, Dean Close School Chamber Choir, BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales/Thierry Fischer, Hyperion CDA67688

Messiaen Vingt Regards sur l’enfant Jésus

Messiaen’s most famous piano work – 20 ‘regards’, or meditations, on the image of Baby Jesus – includes a movement entitled ‘Noël’, but there is far more to this pianistic tour-de-force than that; more, too, than the vivid colours, crunchy textures and dizzying intricacies of the French composer’s unmistakeable style. Messiaen, a devout Catholic, wrote these astonishing pieces for Yvonne Loriod, whom he later married: she was a virtuoso pianist whose abilities inspired him to new heights of invention. His passion for her, for God and for music unite in a kind of mystical celebration that has rarely been matched. Super-demanding yet also super-rewarding, Messiaen’s music can cast Christmas in a whole new light.

Recommended recording: Steven Osborne (piano), Hyperion CDA67351/2

Piazzolla: Cuarto Estaciones Portenas (Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)

Who needs Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons when you can have Astor Piazzolla’s? The Argentinian composer, who would have been 90 this year, studied in Paris with the eminent professor Nadia Boulanger. He aspired to haut-classical grandeur, but Boulanger spotted that his heart lay in the music of his homeland and advised him to go home to Buenos Aires and explore it. His personal sound-cocktail mingles sophisticated classical expertise with the sultry flavour of the tango.  His Four Seasons were inspired by Vivaldi’s; the ‘Winter’ Tango is a wonderful example of vintage Piazzolla.

Recommended recording: Tianwa Yang (violin), Nashville Symphony Orchestra/Giancarlo Guerrero, Naxos 8572271

Elgar: A Christmas Greeting

A gentle parlour song accompanied by a piano and two violins, this is the most intimate of all these Christmas suggestions: a setting by Elgar of a poem by his wife, Alice. It seems to conjure a cosy and very British type of Christmas in its domestic, hearthside greeting from one partner to the other and back again. And it is heartrendingly Elgarian, with those wonderful arched melodic contours and sense of yearning characteristic of his finest music.

Recommended recording: Worcester Cathedral Choir, Donald Hunt (conductor), Jeremy Ballard (violin), Robin Thurlby (violin), Keith Swallow (piano), Hyperion CDA66271/2

MacMillan: Veni, veni, Emmanuel

James MacMillan’s percussion concerto, taking its title from the medieval plainchant for Advent on which it’s based, was written for Dame Evelyn Glennie in 1991-1992. It is possibly the celebrated Scottish composer’s biggest hit, clocking up hundreds of performances. Structured in one arch-shaped movement, it lasts some 25 minutes, fills with mesmerising rhythmic trickery and marvellously imagined noises, with percussion instruments both pitched and unpitched, from vibraphone to cowbells. Impress your Christmas guests with your contemporary music savviness by playing it full blast.

Recommended recording: Evelyn Glennie (percussion), Scottish Chamber Orchestra /James MacMillan, RCA 828766428520

Candide for Sunday afternoon

Something to help cheer up anyone who is left on their own for reasons beyond their control on a cold winter afternoon just before Christmas: Bernstein's Candide, live on Broadway, from 2005. Complete, right here. Marin Alsop conducts, Thomas Allen is Dr Pangloss, Paul Groves is Candide, Kristen Chenoweth is Cunegonde, Patti LuPone is the Old Lady. Actually it'll probably cheer you up even if you haven't been left on your own for reasons beyond your control. Enjoy. Let's make our garden grow.

Farewell, Cesaria Evora

And now it's the wonderful, wonderful Cesaria Evora's turn to move on to the great concert hall in the sky.... (What's going on? Why are so many great people so busy dying this week?) Read her obituary from The Guardian here.

This is her most famous number: 'Sodade', a live performance in Paris, 2004. It reminds me intensely of my sister, whose great favourite Evora was. Claire died of ovarian cancer in 2000, aged 45. Posting this today in memory of them both.

Friday Historical: Claudia Muzio sings 'Ombra di nube'

Era il ciel un arco azzurro di fulgor;
Chiara luce si versava sul mio cuor.
Ombra di nube, non mi offuscare;
Della vita non velarmi la beltà.
Vola, o nube, vola via da me lontan;
Sia disperso questo mio tormento arcan.
Ancora luce, ancora azzurro!
Il sereno io vegga per l'eternità!

Please read this wonderful post by Aprile Millo about Claudia Muzio.

Farewell, Russell Hoban (1925-2011)

Very sad today to hear of the death of one of my favourite novelists. Russell Hoban may have been best-known for his children's books, but his adult fiction retained their sense of playfulness and fantasy - something most of us lose with the passing years. His Turtle Diary was the first that I read - about two lonely Londoners who set out to rescue the turtles from the zoo, but don't quite release themselves while they're about it. The Medusa Frequency is a virtuoso take on the Orpheus myth - again featuring a compassionate portrait of contemporary London, but with twists of fantasy that are by turns chilling and glorious in their audacity. Here is a full obituary from The Guardian.

But musicians might know Hoban best for his libretto for Sir Harrison Birtwistle's astonishing opera The Second Mrs Kong, written for Glyndebourne and premiered in 1994. Details of the plot and structure are here along with some excerpts; and the libretto was published by Universal Edition. Hoban plays with concepts, reality and imagery the way a circus performer might perform on the high wire. The only safety net is the term 'magical realism', except that there isn't much realism in there - it's slanted entirely to the magic. In the opera, The Idea of Kong falls in love with Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl Earring, aka Pearl. I still remember well the wild, high, shimmering voice of the singing mirror; and the deep-bronze, luminous tone of Philip Langridge, who sang The Idea of Kong in a gorilla suit...

I once went to Oxford to see the Glyndebourne Touring Opera's Kong with a writer friend who was also a big Hoban fan. That day there was a problem in the theatre and they couldn't get the set of the previous night's opera off the stage, so the cast delivered a semi-staged version in costume in front of the curtain. It was still fabulous. And we spotted Hoban in the bar so went up to him (my pal was braver than I was) to express our enthusiasm. We found him a charming, generous man, with the same twinkle in his eye that you can find in his glittery writing.

MIRROR: It is not love that moves the world from night to morning, it is not love that makes the new day dawn. 

PEARL: Not love?

MIRROR: No. It is the longing for what cannot be...

PEARL: The longing for what cannot be?

MIRROR: The longing for what cannot be. The world needs the power of your yearning, the world needs the power of your love that cannot be fulfilled.

Yehudi plays Handel in 1929

You know that feeling when the captain says "Cabin crew, ten minutes to landing," and they dim the lights...but 25 minutes later you're still reeling about over Stansted in high winds and for once the Ryanair staff have stopped trying to sell you burgers or scratchcards and are eerily quiet? Oh - you don't? Lucky you. Me, I thought we were all gonna die.

Glad to be alive the next day, so it seems a good idea to celebrate. I was looking for a nice historical clip of Handel's Messiah so that we can be suitably seasonal - also, I, er, gatecrashed a rehearsal of it in in Aarhus yesterday and, um, it's a really, really good piece, even without the singers. The adorable Maestro Giancarlo Andretta was filling in the vocal lines quite spectacularly from the podium.

But while I was looking for Messiah, I found this. It was recorded by the young Yehudi Menuhin in 1929. Let's have it instead, because it's to die for (only not in a plane...).

RIP Tony Fell (1931-2011)

Back in - well, never mind - I came out of a postgrad year at university, decided not to pursue a longed-for attempt at being a professional pianist and started looking for a job. I found one. It was at Boosey & Hawkes, the eminent firm of music publishers, and I spent a happy year there, mostly proofreading scale books, before an opportunity in music journalism seemed too good a chance to miss and I jumped ship. Boosey & Hawkes, though, holds some happy memories, among them the affection and respect the whole company held for its managing director, Tony Fell.

The news of Tony's death at the age of 79 is sad indeed. It was always lovely to run into him around the music world after his retirement from the company - he maintained a strong presence on the London scene and as chairman of the Royal Philharmonic Society he was a hands-on reformer and galvanising influence, always positive and energetic. He will be sorely missed. Here is Boosey and Hawkes' tribute to him, written by Helen Wallace. (Original here: http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Boosey-Hawkes-remembers-Tony-Fell-1931-2011/12353)

Boosey & Hawkes remembers Tony Fell (1931-2011)

(December 2011)

Boosey & Hawkes is sad to announce the death of music publisher Robert Antony Fell, on Tuesday 6 December, aged 79.

Tony Fell was Managing Director of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers from 1974-1996, and served on the company’s Board until 2000. Driven by an inexhaustible enthusiasm for music, he proved a positive, dynamic and clear-sighted manager, and was in large part responsible for modernising the company’s publishing business and positioning it at the heart of the international music scene in the latter part of the 20th century.  

Fell was a keen amateur cellist and pianist throughout his life, but his introduction to the music business came though his father, who had managed the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Scottish National Orchestras. After graduating from King’s College, Cambridge in English and Modern languages, he joined the London music agency Ibbs & Tillett, becoming assistant London concerts manager until, he used to say, ‘penury drove me to ICI’. In 1956 he moved to Johannesburg as a design and print buyer for ICI’s Publicity Department, before moving to Hortors Printers, during which time he founded and conducted the Johannesburg Bach Choir. In 1967, increasingly depressed by the political situation, he became director of the company publishing Drum, an outspoken political magazine for Africans. It was during a second stint at Hortors as MD that Boosey & Hawkes sought him out and invited him to interview for the post of Managing Director of the London music publishing business.

Fell had been looking for a way back to the UK, and this move was decisive, bringing together his interests in music, publishing and innovative management practice. He found a once-distinguished company in something of a time-warp, with no standard times for instrument-making, no coherent publishing policy, and nothing linking market intelligence with production strategy. 

He also found a deeply divided firm: the ‘toffs’ (music publishing staff) resided in Regent Street, while the printing and instrument-making staff considered themselves the ‘workers’ in Hendon and Edgware. Throughout his time in the company Fell fought continually to protect and develop the often lucrative publishing business from being bankrupted by the cash-hungry instrument firm that would ultimately be sold and outstripped by foreign competition. His task was hampered by a complex political situation on the Board involving hostile factions, with the representatives of the original Boosey and Hawkes families set against the more recent American majority shareholders. Fell became a Director of the parent company in 1977, but it was not until 1985 that he was finally made MD, Group Publishing, with an international remit that allowed him to create the cohesive team he’d initially envisaged.

One of his first and most influential decisions was to appoint a highly-informed Head of Contemporary Music, the scholar and writer David Drew, in 1975, who had been editing the contemporary music journalTempo. Fell recognised that the firm had lacked a figure with a finger on the pulse of contemporary music since Donald Mitchell’s brief appointment in the early 1960s; no new composer had been signed for a decade. ‘It was like running an atomic power station without any physicists!’, he recalled. Working with Drew, and, later, David Huntley in the New York office and Janis Susskind in London, close relationships were forged with an impressive list of composers. Under Fell’s watch, contracts were signed with European figures including HK Gruber, Robin Holloway, Kurt Schwertsik, Henryk Górecki, James MacMillan, Louis Andriessen, Unsuk Chin, Harrison Birtwistle and Detlev Glanert and Americans Leonard Bernstein, Steve Reich, Elliott Carter and John Adams.

He was particularly active in complex dealings with the Stravinsky and Copland Estates (Stravinsky remained his personal hero) and consummating agreements with Steve Reich and Leonard Bernstein. These two deals were made in dramatic circumstances when the current CEO had shaken confidence in the New York office by firing its much-respected Head. Thinking on his feet, Fell risked his own job by confronting his boss with the composers’ own lawyers when the latter arrived in Manhattan to reprimand Fell for disloyalty. His analysis was endorsed and the signings proceeded, proving to be a turning point for Boosey & Hawkes in the USA. 

His cunning streak (he was known by some of his colleagues as Machiafelli) was tempered by a ready sense of humour and an infectious, boyish enthusiasm for music. He never ceased to discover new qualities in old scores, or explore contemporary music that excited him. His commercial decisions were coolly made, but his overriding aim to serve the composers whose music he genuinely loved came to define the whole ethos of the music publishing team. One of his key strengths was in recognising those of others, as his legacy of appointments and acquisitions proved. 

On leaving Boosey & Hawkes, Fell took on the Chairmanship of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1997-2005), and successfully modernised and refocused its role to support new music, young musicians and to recognise excellence in the live music arena. He was Chairman of the British Piano Concerto Foundation (2000-2) and from 2006-8 he took on the honorary Directorship of the charity Future Talent, which seeks out and supports young musical talent in socially deprived areas. In 2011 he was appointed Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society for his services to music, an honour rarely bestowed. His delight in playing chamber music – and tennis – with friends never waned. 

Tony Fell is survived by three daughters, a son and seven grandchildren from his marriages to Katinka Mullins and Patricia Blackwell and by his wife Janis Susskind (Publishing Director of Boosey & Hawkes).

Helen WallaceAuthor of Boosey & Hawkes: the Publishing Story (2007)


A private funeral will take place and donations to the Royal Philharmonic Society and Marie Curie Cancer Care are encouraged in lieu of flowers.

A memorial celebration for Tony Fell is planned at the Wigmore Hall in London at 11 am on Saturday 28 January.

Apart from the Sarah Lund sweater...

...Aarhus is a rather civilised place where the arts are concerned. I returned with a green Sarah Lund sweater from the Christmas market, having passed a pleasant weekend with someone who is finding life and atmosphere there pretty agreeable.

The town has a state-of-the-art concert hall with Artek acoustics that seats about 1,200 and was opened only a few years ago. This to supplement its older (though not much older) hall, which now houses opera. The new building includes a specially built pop auditorium and a chamber music hall. Have a look at some more designs here. Next door is a museum of modern art on the top of which is a "rainbow" promenade: you walk round in a circle admiring the panorama of the beautiful old seaside city, enwrapped by a succession of different colours.

The orchestra, when I arrived, was in the middle of an unusual Italian concert featuring a lot of Respighi and a piano concerto by Nino Rota (Benedetto Lupo was soloist). This programme was given twice. The orchestra rarely rehearses more than four hours a day and many weekends are free, the principal concert evening being Thursday. Taxes and prices are high in Denmark, but the orchestral salary is higher after tax than comparable jobs in the UK, which would entail many more hours and more antisocial ones, though fewer allocated to each programme. The orchestra is state-funded, so need not be in thrall to a dictatorship of sponsors or the fear/loathing of them (contrast, for example, with India and the 2012 Olympic Games - they have been burning an effigy of Lord Coe over this - or Alice Oswald and the TS Eliot Prize) and the job carries with it conditions that British musicians barely dream of, such as pensions. Backstage, there's a succession of soundproofed practice rooms and a comfy common room with tea and coffee on tap as long as you wash up your own mug, and many of the players stick around for a drink after the show. They seem to get along with one another quite well.

The town's conservatoire is also accommodated in the new concert hall complex. Students attend free of charge. European students, indeed, can all attend free of charge, assuming I have understood this correctly. It's hard to get your head around it when you reflect that our British conservatoires, along with all arts courses in the country, have just been wiped off the face of the state-funded map.

Owning a car in Denmark is exceedingly expensive, so the city is not at all congested. There's a goodish network of buses and people cycle a lot, with a succession of properly planned and well-organised cycle lanes. The city centre, around the gorgeous and very ancient cathedral, is full of little cafes and ancient timber-framed buildings with deep window casements. Generally the interiors are very well heated and properly insulated from the cold climate.

You can walk through the beech woods by the sea and enjoy a cup of fabulous hot chocolate in the old restaurant in the forest. There's a set of exercise equipment by the side of the path which you can use for keeping fit - go for a run, do some weights exercises and move on. The equipment has not been stolen and remains unvandalised.

It's not London. It is cosy, calm and contented. Staggering degrees of contrasted wealth, poverty and greed don't seem to apply. There isn't all that much going on in terms of cultural adventure, but family time is a major priority. Parents might even take their children to the modern art museum on a Sunday, or go for a walk together. They mightn't be obliged to work 24/7 leaving their kids to fend for themselves at the local fast-fat takeaway. People seem happy.

That's not to say there are no problems. I know there are problems, having met people from ethnic minorities who were experiencing them, while other friends have been made redundant and jobs are in short supply. There are cuts, too: the bus timetable, for instance, seems to have been decimated, and one friend tells me there's a lot of knife crime, though matters like "a lot" are relative and I am a Londoner. Nevertheless, the contrast between there and here hammers home quite how far we have travelled down some very silly and self-destructive paths indeed.

Music students, if you don't want to enter your adult life in debt up to your back teeth, you could do worse than start learning Danish. I find the language pretty difficult - it is so "swallowed" that relating what's written to what you hear is kind of awkward, though we could try watching The Killing with Danish subtitles as good way to get started. Someone tells me it's really quite easy. Just like English, only 1000 years out of date.

Debussy and friends aid Japan

I've just been to see the pianist Noriko Ogawa about her Debussy festival in Manchester in January. Together with the BBC Philharmonic and friends, she is exploring the cross-currents between Debussy and Japan - the influence of oriental culture on the composer and his influence, in return, on Japanese composers of the 20th century and today. Fascinating stuff and I'll be explaining it all at more length soon. But Noriko was in Japan at the time of the earthquake on 11 March - you may have seen her speaking about it from Tokyo on Newsnight - and she has been hard at work fundraising via concerts and other means for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami, which left vast numbers homeless and deprived of their livelihoods. She has had some Black Cat greetings cards specially designed - each one costs £2 and all profits go to the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund. If you haven't done your Xmas cards yet, here's the purrfect chance. Right, one of the four images. You can buy them online here. Debussy, by the way, used to frequent the club Le Chat Noir in Paris.

The End of Time: 9 January 2012

No, it's not another bleak economic forecast, nor an attempt at the Rapture... Actually it's my Messiaen project, which has undergone a surprising rapture of its own, being resurrected by a dynamic concert manager, a superb team of actors and a quartet drawn from the creme-de-la-creme of young British musicians. Please book soon for our showcase performance at Bob and Elizabeth Boas's beautiful salon in central London on the evening of 9 January. All details below.

The End of Time

Monday 9th January 7pm

22 Mansfield Street W1G 9NR

THE END OF TIME is a unique project, matching drama and music:
a one-act play, A Walk through the End of Time, written by Jessica Duchen  and read by Susan Porrett and Patrick Drury

presented before a performance of Olivier Messiaen's great Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps with:

Viv McLean - piano
Tamsin Waley-Cohen - violin
Gemma Rosefield - cello
Matthew Hunt - clarinet

The performance starts at 7.30 pm with drinks at 7pm.
There will be drinks and canapes afterwards at about 9.30pm
Tickets are £25 (£5 for students) with all the proceeds going to the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust.

 Seating is strictly limited in this intimate venue so you are advised to get your tickets early.
TO BOOK:
1. Contact Mr. Robert Boas by email:
boas22m@btinternet.com
(Payment to: The Nicholas  Boas  Trading Co. Ltd)

2. Alternatively you  can book through Yvonne Evans: 07889 399 862

You may also wish to make a separate donation to The Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust
 

Top of my Liszt: Roger Daltrey...

Someone was away, so guess who landed the column The Week in Culture for today's Independent...?

It was the perfect excuse to do a music-film equivalent of one of the "literary smackdowns" that are so popular on Twitter right now. Pick your Russell: Ken, or Simon R Beale? Now, I love Simon dearly. And Sir Mark. And Dr Deathridge, whose lectures at Cambridge were absolutely the best back in 1986. But just try watching an episode of BBC4's Symphony series back to back with Lisztomania. Just try it...

Who would ever come up with a thing like this now? But of course, nobody would have done so before Ken Russell, either. Here's one of the milder episodes for this week's Friday Historical: Liszt and Marie a la Charlie Chaplin and Edna, in a recollection of love's young dream and its gradual destruction, while the great song 'O lieb, o lieb' is sung by Roger Daltrey. A Friday Historical that is only 36 years old, with a singer who is very much still with us. But historical because it's unlikely that any comparable thing will ever happen again.

It's all going nuts at the ballet

Wall-to-wall Nutcrackers this year, left, right, centre, north and over the Pond too. I mean, how many do we need? My article asking this is in today's Independent (and this morning it has made it to the front page of the Indy website): http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/the-nutcracker-its-all-going-nuts-at-the-ballet-6270098.html

Meanwhile - with impeccable timing - my dear friend "Entartete Musik", aka Gavin Plumley, has started a Nutcracker advent calendar today. It's wonderful! Find it here.

Overkill? Let's add to it. Please welcome those gorgeous former Royal Ballet stars, Lesley Collier and Anthony Dowell, in the great pas de deux.