Hakan Hardenberger, Akhnaten, Beethoven, ENO Chorus

English National Opera’s chorus have unanimously decided in favour of protest action – still to be determined – and a strike during the first act of the last performance of Akhnaten on March 18th. This is the culmination of months of protest at ENO’s plans to reduce the contracts of the chorus from 12 months to 9, and making 4 of their 44 members redundant; a potential move that has stirred a chorus of disapproval across the musical world in recent weeks. Richard Morrison, The Times’ Chief Music Critic gives his reaction to the news.

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ENO Chorus
Equity: Save the ENO

Tom Service meets trumpet virtuoso Håkan Hardenberger who recalls an audition for Pierre Boulez which might have seen his career go in a very different direction, and reflects on his career-long quest to create new repertoire for the trumpet, with a little help from the likes of Harrison Birtwistle and HK Gruber along the way.

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Håkan Hardenberger

Philip Glass's opera Akhnaten is set to open in a new production at English National Opera. Music Matters explores the story behind its creation in 1983, it was the last in Glass's trilogy of 'portrait' operas in which he looked at figures from the fields of science, politics and religion. We speak to director Phelim McDermott about his staging of the opera, plus countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo who is playing the title role, Rebecca Bottone who plays Queen Tye and Keith Potter who teaches at Goldsmiths University of London and was at the premiere performance of Akhnaten in Stuttgart.

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Akhnaten at ENO
Akhnaten will be broadcast in Opera on 3 on Saturday 26th March 

Edward Dusinberre discusses his new book ‘Beethoven for a Later Age: the journey of a string quartet’, which describes his experiences of joining the Takács Quartet as First Violin: a daunting task as the 24-year old Dusinberre replaced the Takacs’s previous leader, Gabor Takács-Nagy. Alongside that story is that of Beethoven’s late work for string quartet, about which the composer once said: ‘They are not for you but for a later age’.

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‘Beethoven for a Later Age’ from Faber & Faber
Takács Quartet