Peter Quantrill

There’s a lot more than the Disney comforts of Frozen to Andersen’s Christmas stories in music, says Peter Quantrill, as he explores different settings of a timeless morality tale

A lifelong loner, unmarried and childless, Hans Christian Andersen was one of those authors for children who didn’t much care for children (or anyone else). Forget the image of Danny Kaye, in 1953, tip-tapping his way on to the silver screen with ‘I’m Hans Christian Andersen, I am’. The recollection of the poet Heine seems closer to the mark. ‘He is a haggard man with a hollow, sunken face, and his demeanour betrays an anxious, devout type of behaviour that kings love. He is the perfect representation of a poet, just the way kings want them to be.’

This month we review: Bavarian Radio Chorus/Peter Dijkstra, Castalian Qt, Bbc So/Thomas Kemp, Mahler Academy Orch/Philipp Von Steinaecker, and Sara Costa

English conductor Sir Andrew Davis stood in for his colleagues at the last minute and saved the day on many occasions, remembers Peter Quantrill. But who will be able to take his place?

On the 20th of August, there will be an empty space - spiritual, if not physical - at the centre of the Royal Albert Hall. At time of writing, the replacement for Sir Andrew Davis had not been announced, but whoever takes on the task, I hope they keep the programme unchanged. Rather than fulsome speeches of tribute, this would be the most humble act to perform in his memory.

Autobiography, revolution, angst and transcendence: music was never the same after the scandalous premiere of the Second Quartet. Peter Quantrill explores its history

There are pieces where you can hear the world - of music, of art, of human history - turning on its axis. Arnold Schoenberg's Second Quartet is one of those pieces. At the premiere in December 1908, one newspaper critic sensed and feared this (r)evolution in sound, saying it was 'like a convocation of all the neighbourhood cats'.