Performing two Mahler symphonies back to back promised to be more an athletic feat than an aesthetic one. By scheduling them at the BBC Proms in the same week as he conducted Salome at the Verbier Festival, Valery Gergiev seemed to be registering early for the triathlon in the 2012 London Olympic Games. A packed house awaited a record-breaking effort.

The fourth symphony was semi-coherent. Gergiev took the opening sleighbells at an artificial plod, promising a few surprises on the bends. But none of his effects seemed particularly interesting, or relevant to what Mahler had in mind. The redeeming facts were the rivetting solos of concertmaster Rainer Küchl, better known as leader of the Vienna Philharmonic, and the soaring, vibrato-free sololiquy of Swedish soprano Camilla Tilling in the finale, a clarity and innocence that seemed perfectly in tune with the composer’s intention. 

The World Orchestra for Peace, decorated for its efforts with a UNESCO title, is made of up of principal players from many of the great ensembles, playing without fee. In the fourth symphony, they lacked character and traction.

All changed after the break, when Gergiev led an authoritative account of the fifth symphony which proclaimed its urgency in the opening trumpet call from the Maryinsky’s Timur Martinov and proceeded, briskly and without sentimental indulgence, through the shifting moods of a composer at the turning point in his life. The ending of the third movement sounded emphatically Jewish and the Adagietto was taut with rigour. There was no slackening in the finale, where conductors often come unstuck, and the concluding silence seemed eternal.

This was, beyond doubt, one of the great performances of recent years, and some of the playing was sensational. Unfair as it is to single out a few, I have to mention the horn solos of Gail Williams (Wyoming), the harp playing of Valerie Aldrich-Smith (BBC National Orchestra of Wales), the three trombones – Randall Hawes (Detroit), Pierre Volders (Rotterdam) and Douglas Wright (Minnesota), the Chicago clarinet Larry Combs and every single one of the string players who played as if they had been together all their lives.

Two Mahlers in one night is probably too much for any conductor or audience, but this Fifth will resound long and warmly in my memory bank.

vinicius de moraes.jpg

 

This is the Brazilian Vinicius de Moraes (1913-1980) as you’ve never seen him before. Not sure about the glasses, but the rest seems true to life. He was known as ‘the little poet’ and he’s revered as one of the fathers of the Bossa Nova.

 

What’s he doing in the bath? Blame it on the bossa nova….

 

vinicius de moraes.jpg 

 

Thanks for the photograph are due to Fernando Novaes Duarte.

 

 vinicius de moraes.jpg

 

vinicius de moraes.jpg

 

This is the Brazilian Vinicius de Moraes (1913-1980) as you’ve never seen him before. Not sure about the glasses, but the rest seems true to life. He was known as ‘the little poet’ and he’s revered as one of the fathers of the Bossa Nova.

 

What’s he doing in the bath? Blame it on the bossa nova….

 

vinicius de moraes.jpg 

 

Thanks for the photograph are due to Fernando Novaes Duarte.

 

 vinicius de moraes.jpg

 

Diana Diaz has sent in three members of the rock band Menomena, classifying them as composers. Menomena are an indie band from Portland, Oregon. Its members are Brent Knopf, Justin Harris, and Danny Seim. Like Archimedes, they get many of their best ideas at bathtime. Enjoy. e. 

The Russian pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev, charged with paedophile offences in Thailand and released on bail, has cancelled his appearances at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh Festival later this month.

In a terse statement, issued through the Russian National Orchestra’s press office, Pletnev said he needed the time to deal with the accusations against him and repeated that he was innocent of the alleged offences.

Over the past week he has been seeking representation offers from London PR firms.

 

Press release follows:

Mikhail Pletnev decided today (August 5th 2010) that he will not be conducting the concerts of the RNO in London on August 18th and in Edinburgh on August 19th in order to have the necessary time to deal with the accusations against him. Andrey Boreyko, a former Member of the RNO Conductor Collegium, has been named as his replacement for both UK concerts. Pletnev commented on his decision: “I do not wish to overshadow the wonderful music making of the RNO and their tour in the UK with the current accusations surrounding my person. I will not comment on the ongoing investigation, but I hope the matter will be resolved speedily and it will be clear that I am innocent of the accusations against me. I look forward to returning to the UK with my orchestra soon”.
Any further questions or correspondence should be directed to the European press office of the Russian National Orchestra.
 
NEWS EXTRA: The BBC have just announced that Pletnev will be replaced on August 18 by Andrei Boreyko.

The Russian pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev, charged with paedophile offences in Thailand and released on bail, has cancelled his appearances at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh Festival later this month.

In a terse statement, issued through the Russian National Orchestra’s press office, Pletnev said he needed the time to deal with the accusations against him and repeated that he was innocent of the alleged offences.

Over the past week he has been seeking representation offers from London PR firms.

 

Press release follows:

Mikhail Pletnev decided today (August 5th 2010) that he will not be conducting the concerts of the RNO in London on August 18th and in Edinburgh on August 19th in order to have the necessary time to deal with the accusations against him. Andrey Boreyko, a former Member of the RNO Conductor Collegium, has been named as his replacement for both UK concerts. Pletnev commented on his decision: “I do not wish to overshadow the wonderful music making of the RNO and their tour in the UK with the current accusations surrounding my person. I will not comment on the ongoing investigation, but I hope the matter will be resolved speedily and it will be clear that I am innocent of the accusations against me. I look forward to returning to the UK with my orchestra soon”.
Any further questions or correspondence should be directed to the European press office of the Russian National Orchestra.
 
NEWS EXTRA: The BBC have just announced that Pletnev will be replaced on August 18 by Andrei Boreyko.

Reading left to right: Mark Adamo, Robert Spano, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon (it may take her a few years to live this down), Steve Reich (him, too) and John Mackey. You can read more about it – but not much more – on Mackey’s site: http://ostimusic.com/RubDub.html

composers in a tub

Reading left to right: Mark Adamo, Robert Spano, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon (it may take her a few years to live this down), Steve Reich (him, too) and John Mackey. You can read more about it – but not much more – on Mackey’s site: http://ostimusic.com/RubDub.html

composers in a tub

Bobby Hebb, who wrote the teenage hit Sunny – inescapable in my teens – has died. He was prompted to write it when his brother was knifed to death outside a Nashville nightclub, a day after the John F Kennedy assassination. Sunny was a girl who smiled at him. Jerry Ross produced the record.

Here’s the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbUl_E-R91Q

One of the oddest things about it is a resemblance to the Bond theme from Dr No (I think) that connects the first two verses.

Hebb later toured with the Beatles. He died in Nashville yesterday, aged 72.

 

Bobby Hebb, who wrote the teenage hit Sunny – inescapable in my teens – has died. He was prompted to write it when his brother was knifed to death outside a Nashville nightclub, a day after the John F Kennedy assassination. Sunny was a girl who smiled at him. Jerry Ross produced the record.

Here’s the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbUl_E-R91Q

One of the oddest things about it is a resemblance to the Bond theme from Dr No (I think) that connects the first two verses.

Hebb later toured with the Beatles. He died in Nashville yesterday, aged 72.

 

No-one who saw Radu Mihaileanu’s delightful rom-com The Concert will be startled to learn that the Bolshoi Theatre has a new music director. In the film, it is the office cleaner who grabs the baton and takes the orchestra to Paris.

In real life, the lucky loser, announced today in Moscow, is Vasily Sinaisky, a highly proficient conductor who has worked with the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, making several records for Chandos, and recently conducted the Shostakovich opera, A Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, in Berlin.

Sinaisky, 63, worked with the Bolshoi Opera in Dresden six weeks ago in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, after which his accession was rubber-stamped by the powers-that-be, though no-one knows if they will still be there next week, such is the chaos that prevails in Russia’s leading cultural icons.

Mihaileanu’s film tells more of the truth than today’s formal press release. It exposes a Russia where a gas oligarch decides who plays what and where, a gangster state where music is an occasional ornament to organised banditry. It is nothing short of amazing that music survives at all in such conditions, and everyone will be praying that Sinaisky can survive the dreadful conditions and transform them.

Seeing the film again on a large screen, as distinct from the cramped DVD I was shown for review, I was forcefully struck by the power of Sarah Nemtanu’s playing in the Tchaikovsky violin concerto. Some record label ought to get her into studio fast. She has a real feel for the piece and a highly personal expression. Maybe Sinaisky should conduct, bringing the life-art imitation to full fruition. 

No-one who saw Radu Mihaileanu’s delightful rom-com The Concert will be startled to learn that the Bolshoi Theatre has a new music director. In the film, it is the office cleaner who grabs the baton and takes the orchestra to Paris.

In real life, the lucky loser, announced today in Moscow, is Vasily Sinaisky, a highly proficient conductor who has worked with the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, making several records for Chandos, and recently conducted the Shostakovich opera, A Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, in Berlin.

Sinaisky, 63, worked with the Bolshoi Opera in Dresden six weeks ago in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, after which his accession was rubber-stamped by the powers-that-be, though no-one knows if they will still be there next week, such is the chaos that prevails in Russia’s leading cultural icons.

Mihaileanu’s film tells more of the truth than today’s formal press release. It exposes a Russia where a gas oligarch decides who plays what and where, a gangster state where music is an occasional ornament to organised banditry. It is nothing short of amazing that music survives at all in such conditions, and everyone will be praying that Sinaisky can survive the dreadful conditions and transform them.

Seeing the film again on a large screen, as distinct from the cramped DVD I was shown for review, I was forcefully struck by the power of Sarah Nemtanu’s playing in the Tchaikovsky violin concerto. Some record label ought to get her into studio fast. She has a real feel for the piece and a highly personal expression. Maybe Sinaisky should conduct, bringing the life-art imitation to full fruition.