‘They’re such nice numbers!’ It’s an unusual observation from a singer – but then Carolyn Sampson is the daughter of two maths teachers, so perhaps she appreciates more than most the beauty of the numerical coincidence that has taken place in her life. Sampson will turn 50 on 18 May. Meanwhile, she has celebrated the release of her 100th album, but I like to sing…. And crowning a career of accolades, this January she was awarded an OBE for services to music.
Her new album, released on BIS, takes its title from a line in Leonard Bernstein’s song ‘I Hate Music!’, a tongue-in-cheek commentary on concert going and the snobbery that exists around it (‘…A lot of chairs with a lot of airs’). The sentiment suits Sampson’s quietly irreverent, down-to-earth nature. Launched at a recital at Wigmore Hall in London last December, but I like to sing… shows off her extraordinary range, inventiveness and stylistic versatility, from classic German lieder to unfamiliar (but stunningly beautiful) French chanson and contemporary song. It all feels very personal, but with a forward-looking thrust. ‘There are songs that have meant a lot to me through my life, but it isn’t intended as a “career retrospective”. There are new discoveries and some fresh thinking that I hope will point the way for my future.’
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 2024-Ausgabe von BBC Music Magazine.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 2024-Ausgabe von BBC Music Magazine.
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FESTIVAL GUIDE 2024
It's that time of year again... Spring has finally sprung, and along with the promised sunshine we welcome a brand-new season of glorious summer music.
The mighty Sampson
As soprano Carolyn Sampson turns 50, she tells Ashutosh Khandekar about the development of her voice through a remarkable catalogue of recordings
Music to die for
From wrathful Verdi to ethereal Fauré, there are many different ways to compose a Requiem, as Jeremy Pound discovers
Avian anthems
From Vivaldi to Messiaen, composers have often been inspired by birdsong. But accurately mimicking chirrups and tweets in music is far more difficult than it sounds, finds Tom Stewart
THE BIG 400!
BBC Music Magazine has reached its 400th issue! To celebrate, we look back over eight milestone issues since the very firstin 1992
Northern light
From her first piano lesson, composer Errollyn Wallen has lived and breathed music; and though inspired by a range of styles, her composing is a deeply personal expression, as she tells Kate Wakeling
Felix Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor
Jo Talbot celebrates the Mozart of the 19th century’ as she searches out the finest recordings of this masterful work for piano, violin and cello
Antonio Salieri
Forget the hate-filled murderer of Mozart, says Alexandra Wilson; the real Salieri was an opera composer of considerable standing
Aix-en-Provence France
Rebecca Franks breathes in the spring air in the popular southern city, where the music making sparkles and the sun always shines
Composing is like breathing. It's just something I do, like a hobby, really...or an addiction
The world's most performed classical composer, a small, black-suited figure with a mop of white hair and mutton-chop whiskers, stands on the huge Brucknerhaus stage, almost invisible among the sea of musicians.
