I have received a short memoir of the great Soviet pianist from the Israeli conductor, Uri Segal. Unlike his great rival, Sviatoslav Richter, little is known of Gilels (1916-85) outside of the official version – that he was a loyal servant of the system. Segal adds a personal dimension:

It was in 1982, in Helsingborg, Sweden that I had the great fortune of collaborating with Emil Gilels, conducting Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto Nº1 in Bb minor  for him. This encounter which turned to be a memorable one for me in more then one way, was a  “miracle” in itself: At that time no Soviet musician was allowed by the Soviet régime to perform with Israeli colleagues, and so the collaboration between Mr. Gilels and myself should have been forbidden. Anyway, to my great amazement it was allowed to happen.

After the first rehearsal with the Helsingborg Symphony Mr. Gilels asked me to join him for lunch at the hotel bistro and a conversation ensued between us (Gilels’ wife Lala, was not feeling very well and preferred to rest in the room upstairs).

 

Gilel: “Have you ever been to Russia”?

Segal: “No”.

Gilels: “Have you ever been to a communist country”?

Segal: “Yes. I have been to Poland (touring the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra in 1972)

Gilels: “And what was your impression”?

Segal: ” Well, it was mixed. However, when I took my seat on the plane back to the West I felt a great relief”.

Gilels: “I want to show you something”.

 

At that point Gilels drew out of his purse a piece of yellow newspaper cutting in which a few words were underlined in red. It was a cutting of the New York Times from 1962 describing the press reception given to Stravinsky on his returne back to the US from his visit to Russia, his first visit in 48 years. To the question by the press was there anything he liked about the USSR Strvinsky replied there were indeed two things he did like about it, namely “the vodka and the exit visa” (Stravinsky was regarded as an “émigré traitor to the Motherland” by the Soviet régime).

 I was touched to the core of my heart. Gilels was keeping this piece of newspaper all those years in his purse as a kind of “secret motto” and at a tremendous risk to himself, and what’s more, he trusted me enough to unravel it to me (at a time the harsh Brezhnev régime is still raging).

That evening I was invited by the Gilels to their room for tea and Mr. Gilels was very interested to hear my view on Schoenberg. He was very happy and proud about a recent trip to Vienna where he played and recorded Mozart Double Concerto with his daughter Elena and the Vienna Phiharmonic under Karl Böhm. He said there was nothing better in life.

 The evening of the concert Gilels and I were supposed to meet at a certain time in the hotel lobby to be driven to the concert-hall together. I came down at the appointed time and Gilels was not there. I waited and waited and then tried to call his room but the phone was constantly busy.

Finally he came down. He looked pale and  extremely shaken, trembling all over he said “They are killing me. Look, my hands are shaking. How do they want me to play a concert now”. It was the KGB harassing him. It was pretty awful.

emil-gilels

Dilettante.com, a ground-breaking enterprise in classical music and social networking, has been taken down. Founder Juliana Farha said the site was not generating enough revenue in the present climate to make it viable.

Launched in January 2008, Dilettante was an edgy, innovative offering, pitched at under-40 culture vultures who would not be seen dead in a stuffed-shirt subscription concert. With its own composer in residence and a range of social concerts at offbeat venues, Dilettante’s editorial supporters included composers Nico Muhly and Jennifer Higdon, conductor Charles Hazlewood and the London Sinfonietta.
Based in central London, it had more than 5,000 members, its own radio outlet and a virbant ideal, dedicated to breaking down barriers between classical musicians and young audiences. In 2009, it was shortlisted in the Good Web Guide for website of the year.
‘The most exciting aspect for me,’ said Farha at launch, ‘is that people from all over the world are using the site to form relationships through a mutual love of classical music.’
But the enterprising Farha was thwarted by a tough economic climate, corporate record label self-interest and the timidity of classical institutions that declined to move out of pre-digital positions. The decision to close was taken in the past few days and members are presently being informed. This may not be the end of the party – there are talks afoot to explore a Dilettante revival – but it will be a sad New Year for many who hoped that classical music might be persuaded to drag itself out of the dark ages.
 
Juliana Farha, in pensive mood. Photo: Kevin Baxter, The Times.

Dilettante.com, a ground-breaking enterprise in classical music and social networking, has been taken down. Founder Juliana Farha said the site was not generating enough revenue in the present climate to make it viable.

Launched in January 2008, Dilettante was an edgy, innovative offering, pitched at under-40 culture vultures who would not be seen dead in a stuffed-shirt subscription concert. With its own composer in residence and a range of social concerts at offbeat venues, Dilettante’s editorial supporters included composers Nico Muhly and Jennifer Higdon, conductor Charles Hazlewood and the London Sinfonietta.
Based in central London, it had more than 5,000 members, its own radio outlet and a virbant ideal, dedicated to breaking down barriers between classical musicians and young audiences. In 2009, it was shortlisted in the Good Web Guide for website of the year.
‘The most exciting aspect for me,’ said Farha at launch, ‘is that people from all over the world are using the site to form relationships through a mutual love of classical music.’
But the enterprising Farha was thwarted by a tough economic climate, corporate record label self-interest and the timidity of classical institutions that declined to move out of pre-digital positions. The decision to close was taken in the past few days and members are presently being informed. This may not be the end of the party – there are talks afoot to explore a Dilettante revival – but it will be a sad New Year for many who hoped that classical music might be persuaded to drag itself out of the dark ages.
 
Juliana Farha, in pensive mood. Photo: Kevin Baxter, The Times.

A small craft advisory for New Year’s Eve: keep your critical faculties alert when the news is on.

Here’s free classical download #12 – Matthew Trusler and Wayne Marshall playing the violin transcription of the Gershwin classic.
Click here for instant pleasure:
http://www.orchidclassics.com/downloads/ORC100002-blues.mp3.zip

www.orchidclassics.com/blu.htm

ORC100002 – BLUES
Gershwin/Heifetz: Porgy and Bess Suite. It ain’t necessarily
so 
Matthew Trusler (violin), Wayne Marshall (piano)
More subversions follow:







A small craft advisory for New Year’s Eve: keep your critical faculties alert when the news is on.

Here’s free classical download #12 – Matthew Trusler and Wayne Marshall playing the violin transcription of the Gershwin classic.
Click here for instant pleasure:
http://www.orchidclassics.com/downloads/ORC100002-blues.mp3.zip

www.orchidclassics.com/blu.htm

ORC100002 – BLUES
Gershwin/Heifetz: Porgy and Bess Suite. It ain’t necessarily
so 
Matthew Trusler (violin), Wayne Marshall (piano)
More subversions follow:







This is not an admonitory New Year’s column on the dangers of alcohol to orchestral players.
It’s the continuation of an occasional series on musicians in the bath, the ones here being three of the most gifted violinists who ever put bow to string – Jascha Heifetz, Efrem Zimbalist and Fritz Kreisler. Good to see them keeping heads above water.
Their hostess, Alma Gluck, was one of Mahler’s singers in New York.
It was retrieved by David Schoenbaum from an article in the Columbia Digital Collections: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_6309312_026/ldpd_6309312_026.pdf
This is not an admonitory New Year’s column on the dangers of alcohol to orchestral players.
It’s the continuation of an occasional series on musicians in the bath, the ones here being three of the most gifted violinists who ever put bow to string – Jascha Heifetz, Efrem Zimbalist and Fritz Kreisler. Good to see them keeping heads above water.
Their hostess, Alma Gluck, was one of Mahler’s singers in New York.
It was retrieved by David Schoenbaum from an article in the Columbia Digital Collections: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_6309312_026/ldpd_6309312_026.pdf

First Riccardo Muti, the music director, crashed out of his concerts with what turned out to be nothing more serious than a tummy ache. Now Yannick Nézet-Seguin, the upwardly mobile Canadian, withdraws at short notice from his debut concerts next month for what are described, in the usual classical equivocation, as ‘personal reasons’.

To lose one conductor in a season may, as Oscar Wilde might have put it, be regarded as a misfortune. Two starts to look like a trend. I think we ought to be told why Yannick finds a date he booked three years ago to be suddenly and irrevocably incompatible. Hurt feelings, or something worse? He’s playing Philadelphia the week before, so he can’t be unwell.
The industry speculation is doing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra no good at all. And it won’t help Yannick’s future career if he can’t be more open about his likes and dislikes. Here’s Andrew Patner’s local take on the cancellation.
http://viewfromhere.typepad.com/the_view_from_here/2010/12/n%C3%A9zet-s%C3%A9guin-cancels-in-chicago-quest-ce-qui-se-passe-.html

First Riccardo Muti, the music director, crashed out of his concerts with what turned out to be nothing more serious than a tummy ache. Now Yannick Nézet-Seguin, the upwardly mobile Canadian, withdraws at short notice from his debut concerts next month for what are described, in the usual classical equivocation, as ‘personal reasons’.

To lose one conductor in a season may, as Oscar Wilde might have put it, be regarded as a misfortune. Two starts to look like a trend. I think we ought to be told why Yannick finds a date he booked three years ago to be suddenly and irrevocably incompatible. Hurt feelings, or something worse? He’s playing Philadelphia the week before, so he can’t be unwell.
The industry speculation is doing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra no good at all. And it won’t help Yannick’s future career if he can’t be more open about his likes and dislikes. Here’s Andrew Patner’s local take on the cancellation.
http://viewfromhere.typepad.com/the_view_from_here/2010/12/n%C3%A9zet-s%C3%A9guin-cancels-in-chicago-quest-ce-qui-se-passe-.html

Tomorrow night sees a new ritual launched on German television, After the ineluctable Dinner for One, a 1920 British comedy skit that somehow feels traditional to Germans, the main channels split for a smackdown New Year’s ratings race.

ARD, the first channel, will carry a live concert from Simon Rattle’s orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. ZDF, the second channel, will transmit live from Dresden, with Christian Thielemann. Classical music, which rarely gets a main-channel look-in, will saturate the screens at high cost to both channels and no strategic benefit. This battle is all about bruised egos.
It used to be ZDF that carried the Berlin concert while ARD got on with public revelries. Last year, Berlin demanded more money for a contract renewal and ZDF pulled out – only for the premier channel to pay up and take over for three years. Rattle’s media managers rejoiced.  
That went down in Mainz, where ZDF lives, like a keg of stale beer. Barely was the ink dry on the Berlin-ARD deal than ZDF signed a five-year agreement with national hotshot Thielemann at his new post in Dresden. With one of those arm-twists by which TV schedulers earn their pay, Berlin kicks off at 5.15 pm, quarter of an hour ahead of Dresden. Which channel is paying most has not yet been disclosed.
Die Welt calls the contest absurd – the more so since both channels will lose out massively next morning to the Vienna Philharmonic, whose New Years Day concert is watched by 45 million people in 71 countries. There is an added frisson to this year’s Vienna event since it is conducted by the new Vienna Opera chief, Franz Welser-Möst. A fourth New Years concert will be beamed from Venice, conducted by Daniel Harding. By the time that glut is over, music lovers will be reaching for sugar-free Schoenberg and Xenakis.