Two iconic images from Lebrecht Music and Arts





112222_John Lennon Commemoration in   New York.jpg

The city of Syracuse, New York, will commemorate on Thursday the visit exactly 100 years ago by Gustav Mahler and his orchestra, with the consecration of a Mahler monument and a daylong Mahler broadcast on WCNY. It will include the program of his original concert.It might also serve as a reminder to the next manager of the NY Phil that it’s 100 years since they last ventured upstate.

Marie Lamb, the producer, has sent me these details: 

The commemoration was the idea of Mr. Hamilton Armstrong, who is from the Syracuse suburb of Fayetteville.  Mr. Armstrong loves the music of Mahler, and he brought it to the attention of our program director, Peter McElvein, that Gustav Mahler did a concert in Syracuse while touring with the New York Philharmonic on 9 December 1910.  It was in the Wieting Opera House, which stood from 1897 to 1932. In its day, the Wieting featured famous performers from all parts of the world, including many classical musicians. An office building called the Atrium is now on the site, on the south edge of Clinton Square, in the center of downtown Syracuse.  Mr Armstrong commissioned the creation of a permanent memorial bench in stone to be made by the Karl Lutz Monument Company of Syracuse and placed on the site of the Wieting Opera House.

 

To mark this important anniversary, WCNY-FM is doing a broadcast on Thursday, 9 December 2010.  It will start with Norman Lebrecht’s interview about his book Why Mahler?, which is hosted by Bill Baker.  We were originally going to start airing the interview at 12:15 P.M. Eastern time (1715 GMT). However, the complete interview ran to around 25 minutes, and frankly, we cannot bring ourselves to cut it down.


Thus, it will probably start airing at either 12:04 or 12:06 P.M., since there are two points where we can cut out of NPR top-of-the-hour news. The interview will run until just before 12:30 P.M., when we will cut to live coverage of the ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony in Clinton Square.  At 1:00 P.M. (1800 GMT), we will broadcast a re-creation of the program from the original Mahler concert.  Henry Fogel will be the host.  Mr. Fogel has a Syracuse connection as the owner and manager for many years of the former WONO-FM, a commercial classical station that was the predecessor of WCNY-FM.  Mr. Fogel has chosen recordings of the pieces that were played back in 1910.  They were:

 

1) Suite arranged by Gustav Mahler from J.S. Bach’s Second Suite in B minor and Third Suite in D Major

2) Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major

3) Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from “Tristan und Isolde”

4) Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

5) Wagner: Prelude to Act I of “Die Meistersinger”

 


I believe Mr. Fogel will use the Los Angeles Philharmonic recording of the Bach-Mahler suite, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. I don’t yet know which recording of the Beethoven 6th he plans to use.  However, for the Wagner pieces, he plans recordings with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Willem Mengelberg, who was a director of the New York Philharmonic in the 1920s and, thus, would have worked with many of the same musicians who toured with Mahler in 1910.  Also, according to Mr. Fogel, Mengelberg and Mahler had some similarities in conducting style, and so the Mengelberg recordings might give listeners some idea how those pieces actually sounded on that night in Syracuse in 1910.

 

For people in Central New York State, our broadcast may be heard in the Syracuse area on WCNY 91.3 FM; in the Utica/Rome area on WUNY 89.5 FM; and in Watertown, New York and the Kingston, ON/1000 Islands region of Canada on WJNY 90.9 FM.  The program is also available in Windows Media streaming audio at this URL:

 

http://www.wcny.org/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,128/

 

People who are not WCNY members may listen by scrolling down to the link that says “Lawn Seating.”

 

The city of Syracuse, New York, will commemorate on Thursday the visit exactly 100 years ago by Gustav Mahler and his orchestra, with the consecration of a Mahler monument and a daylong Mahler broadcast on WCNY. It will include the program of his original concert.It might also serve as a reminder to the next manager of the NY Phil that it’s 100 years since they last ventured upstate.

Marie Lamb, the producer, has sent me these details: 

The commemoration was the idea of Mr. Hamilton Armstrong, who is from the Syracuse suburb of Fayetteville.  Mr. Armstrong loves the music of Mahler, and he brought it to the attention of our program director, Peter McElvein, that Gustav Mahler did a concert in Syracuse while touring with the New York Philharmonic on 9 December 1910.  It was in the Wieting Opera House, which stood from 1897 to 1932. In its day, the Wieting featured famous performers from all parts of the world, including many classical musicians. An office building called the Atrium is now on the site, on the south edge of Clinton Square, in the center of downtown Syracuse.  Mr Armstrong commissioned the creation of a permanent memorial bench in stone to be made by the Karl Lutz Monument Company of Syracuse and placed on the site of the Wieting Opera House.

 

To mark this important anniversary, WCNY-FM is doing a broadcast on Thursday, 9 December 2010.  It will start with Norman Lebrecht’s interview about his book Why Mahler?, which is hosted by Bill Baker.  We were originally going to start airing the interview at 12:15 P.M. Eastern time (1715 GMT). However, the complete interview ran to around 25 minutes, and frankly, we cannot bring ourselves to cut it down.


Thus, it will probably start airing at either 12:04 or 12:06 P.M., since there are two points where we can cut out of NPR top-of-the-hour news. The interview will run until just before 12:30 P.M., when we will cut to live coverage of the ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony in Clinton Square.  At 1:00 P.M. (1800 GMT), we will broadcast a re-creation of the program from the original Mahler concert.  Henry Fogel will be the host.  Mr. Fogel has a Syracuse connection as the owner and manager for many years of the former WONO-FM, a commercial classical station that was the predecessor of WCNY-FM.  Mr. Fogel has chosen recordings of the pieces that were played back in 1910.  They were:

 

1) Suite arranged by Gustav Mahler from J.S. Bach’s Second Suite in B minor and Third Suite in D Major

2) Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major

3) Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from “Tristan und Isolde”

4) Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

5) Wagner: Prelude to Act I of “Die Meistersinger”

 


I believe Mr. Fogel will use the Los Angeles Philharmonic recording of the Bach-Mahler suite, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. I don’t yet know which recording of the Beethoven 6th he plans to use.  However, for the Wagner pieces, he plans recordings with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Willem Mengelberg, who was a director of the New York Philharmonic in the 1920s and, thus, would have worked with many of the same musicians who toured with Mahler in 1910.  Also, according to Mr. Fogel, Mengelberg and Mahler had some similarities in conducting style, and so the Mengelberg recordings might give listeners some idea how those pieces actually sounded on that night in Syracuse in 1910.

 

For people in Central New York State, our broadcast may be heard in the Syracuse area on WCNY 91.3 FM; in the Utica/Rome area on WUNY 89.5 FM; and in Watertown, New York and the Kingston, ON/1000 Islands region of Canada on WJNY 90.9 FM.  The program is also available in Windows Media streaming audio at this URL:

 

http://www.wcny.org/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,128/

 

People who are not WCNY members may listen by scrolling down to the link that says “Lawn Seating.”

 

Ruth Mackenzie has done a remarkable job in pulling together an all-star cultural programme for the London 2012 Olympics. The preliminary music list is particularly intriguing.

It includes the unbelievably belated premiere of Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach in Robert Wilson’s production; a 50th anniversary Coventry Cathedral/Britten War Requiem revisited by Scottish composer James MacMillan; new pieces by Damon Albarn, Rufus Norris and Jamie Hewlett; and a Peter Sellars co-production with Toni Morrison and Rokia Traoré.
And those are just the early headliners. I hear the BBC has been saving up its licence pennies for a 2012 Proms extravaganza and the Edinburgh Festival is also thought to have some fireworks up its sleeve – that’s apart from the usual Castle display.
I did not expect to have my appetite whetted by the culture show, but this is high-grade stuff. It may even put the runners and swimmers in the shade.
And here’s a new David Hockney to start it off:
MESSAGE FROM DAVID HOCKNEY.jpg

Ruth Mackenzie has done a remarkable job in pulling together an all-star cultural programme for the London 2012 Olympics. The preliminary music list is particularly intriguing.

It includes the unbelievably belated premiere of Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach in Robert Wilson’s production; a 50th anniversary Coventry Cathedral/Britten War Requiem revisited by Scottish composer James MacMillan; new pieces by Damon Albarn, Rufus Norris and Jamie Hewlett; and a Peter Sellars co-production with Toni Morrison and Rokia Traoré.
And those are just the early headliners. I hear the BBC has been saving up its licence pennies for a 2012 Proms extravaganza and the Edinburgh Festival is also thought to have some fireworks up its sleeve – that’s apart from the usual Castle display.
I did not expect to have my appetite whetted by the culture show, but this is high-grade stuff. It may even put the runners and swimmers in the shade.
And here’s a new David Hockney to start it off:
MESSAGE FROM DAVID HOCKNEY.jpg

Hugues Cuénod, who sang professionally for 66 years, had died in Switzerland, aged 108. He was part of the original 1951 cast of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and was a perennial at Glyndebourne for many years. He will probably remain unbeaten as the oldest tenor ever to make a Metropolitan Opera debut, appearing there as the Emperor in Puccini’s Turandot at 84.

I once took a long ride with him on the London Underground in which he tried, for no obvious reason that I can recall, to persuade me of his robust heterosexuality (perhaps he thought 1980s London more repressive that it really was). It came as no great surprise to learn, four years ago, that he had entered a civil partnership with his long-term companion, Alfred Augustin.

Hugues Cuénod, who sang professionally for 66 years, had died in Switzerland, aged 108. He was part of the original 1951 cast of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and was a perennial at Glyndebourne for many years. He will probably remain unbeaten as the oldest tenor ever to make a Metropolitan Opera debut, appearing there as the Emperor in Puccini’s Turandot at 84.

I once took a long ride with him on the London Underground in which he tried, for no obvious reason that I can recall, to persuade me of his robust heterosexuality (perhaps he thought 1980s London more repressive that it really was). It came as no great surprise to learn, four years ago, that he had entered a civil partnership with his long-term companion, Alfred Augustin.

I heard Mahler’s first symphony last night with the discarded Blumine movement re-inserted as the original second movement. It is not attempted often, and with good reason. Mahler dropped it after three unhappy performances, it was never published with the symphony and was not heard of again until it turned up in an auction room in 1959.

Benjamin Britten performed it as an Aldeburgh curiosity and it has since turned up from time to time in concert, seldom within its original context. I have never heard Blumine before as Mahler first performed it in Budapest, in 1889.

So it there a case for reinserting Blumine? Not from what I heard at the Royal Festival Hall. Vladimir Jurowski, ever experimenting, set off the symphony with a dexterously balanced kaleidoscope of ambient sounds, the trumpets distantly placed offstage, and built up a complex set of tensions for the movement to end on a whip-crack.
That’s when Blumine almost ruined the show. The movement belongs, in a literal sense, to incidental music that Mahler wrote in 1884 for Die Trompeter von Sakkingen and, in a textural sense, to the plangent atmospherics of the third and fifth symphonies. Mahler is, in other words, reaching both back and forwards. He is both behind and ahead of himself. Nothing in the passage relates to the autobiographical narrative of the first symphony. It is both distracting and disruptive. When the orchestra returns after the Blumine episode to the familiar scherzo, it feels as if an intruder has been removed from the premises.
Jurowski took care to observe Mahler’s original break between the scherzo and the funeral-march movement, its macabre ironies dangerously under-characterised, before redeeming the performance with a dazzling finale that had the London Philharmonic players at the edge of their wits and the audience at the edge of its seats. It was one of those hair-raising concerts where too many risks were taken without coherent necessity. Blumine unbalanced the show. It needs to be put back in its drawer. To Blu, or not to Blu? It’s not much of a question.
Here’s a comprehensive paper on its origins and its place on Mahler literature. Enjoy.
And here’s a caricature of Mahler conducting it.

I heard Mahler’s first symphony last night with the discarded Blumine movement re-inserted as the original second movement. It is not attempted often, and with good reason. Mahler dropped it after three unhappy performances, it was never published with the symphony and was not heard of again until it turned up in an auction room in 1959.

Benjamin Britten performed it as an Aldeburgh curiosity and it has since turned up from time to time in concert, seldom within its original context. I have never heard Blumine before as Mahler first performed it in Budapest, in 1889.

So it there a case for reinserting Blumine? Not from what I heard at the Royal Festival Hall. Vladimir Jurowski, ever experimenting, set off the symphony with a dexterously balanced kaleidoscope of ambient sounds, the trumpets distantly placed offstage, and built up a complex set of tensions for the movement to end on a whip-crack.
That’s when Blumine almost ruined the show. The movement belongs, in a literal sense, to incidental music that Mahler wrote in 1884 for Die Trompeter von Sakkingen and, in a textural sense, to the plangent atmospherics of the third and fifth symphonies. Mahler is, in other words, reaching both back and forwards. He is both behind and ahead of himself. Nothing in the passage relates to the autobiographical narrative of the first symphony. It is both distracting and disruptive. When the orchestra returns after the Blumine episode to the familiar scherzo, it feels as if an intruder has been removed from the premises.
Jurowski took care to observe Mahler’s original break between the scherzo and the funeral-march movement, its macabre ironies dangerously under-characterised, before redeeming the performance with a dazzling finale that had the London Philharmonic players at the edge of their wits and the audience at the edge of its seats. It was one of those hair-raising concerts where too many risks were taken without coherent necessity. Blumine unbalanced the show. It needs to be put back in its drawer. To Blu, or not to Blu? It’s not much of a question.
Here’s a comprehensive paper on its origins and its place on Mahler literature. Enjoy.
And here’s a caricature of Mahler conducting it.

The authorities in Thailand have dropped all proceedings against the Russian conductor and pianist, Mikhail Pletnev, who had been accused of procuring under-age boys for sexual purposes and one instance of alleged rape. Pletnev, founder and conductor of the Russian National Orchestra denied the accusations, but was forced to cancel international engagements during the second half of this year while living on bail in his Thai home. He was never formally charged.

A short statement today from his orchestra’s PR agency (below) says the case was dropped two months ago and Pletnev resumed his public career earlier this month in Moscow, and is about to embark on a European tour with the violinist Gidon Kremer.
The case has been clouded by rumours of Russian mafia vendettas and Thai military corruption, none of which could be substantiated. Local newspapers report that the police are continuing to make arrests in a child prostitution ring allegedly uncovered by the investigation of the Pletnev case.
 
Here’s today’s press release:
Investigation into the accusations made against Mikhail Pletnev closed
without
charge by Thai authorities
The Thai authorities informed us that the investigation surrounding the
founder and music director of the Russian National Orchestra, Mr Mikhail
Pletnev, was terminated on September 28 2010 and no charges were made to the
Thai Court. Mr. Pletnev?s bail was lifted in October, and returned to him in
late November.
Mr. Pletnev has always refuted the accusations made against him. He has
been fully cooperative during Thai authorities? investigations. Under the
conditions of his bail he returned to the Thai beach resort of Pattaya (where
Mr. Pletnev has owned a property for over a decade) numerous times since early
July, to show his presence as instructed by the Pattaya District
Court.
Russian National Orchestra celebrates its 20th anniversary
On November 5th 2010
the Russian National Orchestra celebrated its 20
th anniversary with a gala
concert in Moscow, conducted by Kent Nagano and Mikhail Pletnev. This December
the RNO embarks on a large tour of Europe under the baton of Mikhail Pletnev,
and with soloist Gidon Kremer. The tour will take the orchestra to Budapest,
Baden-Baden, Paris, Essen, K?ln, Brussels and other European
cities.
The RNO is renowned for its work with today?s leading conductors and
soloists and is recognised as being amongst the world?s top orchestras. About
half of the orchestra?s annual concerts are performed by accomplished conductors
such as Kent Nagano, Ingo Metzmacher, Charles Dutoit, Semyon Bychkov,
Vladimir Jurowski, Vasily Petrenko or Vassily Sinaisky. For further information
please visit the RNO?s official website (www.rno.ru).

The authorities in Thailand have dropped all proceedings against the Russian conductor and pianist, Mikhail Pletnev, who had been accused of procuring under-age boys for sexual purposes and one instance of alleged rape. Pletnev, founder and conductor of the Russian National Orchestra denied the accusations, but was forced to cancel international engagements during the second half of this year while living on bail in his Thai home. He was never formally charged.

A short statement today from his orchestra’s PR agency (below) says the case was dropped two months ago and Pletnev resumed his public career earlier this month in Moscow, and is about to embark on a European tour with the violinist Gidon Kremer.
The case has been clouded by rumours of Russian mafia vendettas and Thai military corruption, none of which could be substantiated. Local newspapers report that the police are continuing to make arrests in a child prostitution ring allegedly uncovered by the investigation of the Pletnev case.
 
Here’s today’s press release:
Investigation into the accusations made against Mikhail Pletnev closed
without
charge by Thai authorities
The Thai authorities informed us that the investigation surrounding the
founder and music director of the Russian National Orchestra, Mr Mikhail
Pletnev, was terminated on September 28 2010 and no charges were made to the
Thai Court. Mr. Pletnev?s bail was lifted in October, and returned to him in
late November.
Mr. Pletnev has always refuted the accusations made against him. He has
been fully cooperative during Thai authorities? investigations. Under the
conditions of his bail he returned to the Thai beach resort of Pattaya (where
Mr. Pletnev has owned a property for over a decade) numerous times since early
July, to show his presence as instructed by the Pattaya District
Court.
Russian National Orchestra celebrates its 20th anniversary
On November 5th 2010
the Russian National Orchestra celebrated its 20
th anniversary with a gala
concert in Moscow, conducted by Kent Nagano and Mikhail Pletnev. This December
the RNO embarks on a large tour of Europe under the baton of Mikhail Pletnev,
and with soloist Gidon Kremer. The tour will take the orchestra to Budapest,
Baden-Baden, Paris, Essen, K?ln, Brussels and other European
cities.
The RNO is renowned for its work with today?s leading conductors and
soloists and is recognised as being amongst the world?s top orchestras. About
half of the orchestra?s annual concerts are performed by accomplished conductors
such as Kent Nagano, Ingo Metzmacher, Charles Dutoit, Semyon Bychkov,
Vladimir Jurowski, Vasily Petrenko or Vassily Sinaisky. For further information
please visit the RNO?s official website (www.rno.ru).

The mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly has opened a new line of defence for Alma Mahler in today’s Guardian newspaper. 

Avoiding the feminist argument that Alma was the victim of male tyranny when she agreed to stop composing as a precondition for marrying Mahler, Connolly accepts that Alma was complicit in suppressing her creative urge. She could have refused the demand and sent Mahler packing. But so keen was her desire to be hitched to celebrity that she would have given up anything – almost – in order to become the first and only Mrs Mahler.
Connolly’s perception accords with the vivid truths to be found in Alma’s raw diaries, a far cry from the victim model that she presented in her Mahler memoirs, an image perpetuated by Ken Russell’s Mahler biodoc and many uncritical studies.
Alma’s urge to compose was not strong – she never wrote music again after Mahler died or when he, still alive, encouraged her to start again, as I describe in Why Mahler? She openly questions her need to compose in the diaries. Connolly takes the view that Alma’s cessation was unfortunate, not tragic. But she finds that the songs – which she will sing Sunday at the Barbican in orchestrations by Colin and David Matthews –  possess ‘a rare gift of melody.’ The are, she writes, ‘voluptuous, coquettish, Wagnerian in intensity and harmony yet intimate, sensual, charming and surprising’.
That’s quite a heavy load for these simple numbers to bear. Many hands have worked on her material, starting with her teacher (and lover) Zemlinsky, followed by Mahler, Schoenberg and Berg (who did not, as Connolly suggests, join Alma’s list of sexual conquests) and finished off with great skill and polish by the Matthews brothers whose faith in Alma’s powers is, I suspect, as qualified as my own.
There is no genius at work here. Alma’s gift is small and imitative. I struggle to find a phrase of striking originality in any of the 14 extant songs. She owes much to the underrated Zemlinsky and more to the decadent Zeitgeist. Connolly makes a careful case for her work, hedged with ambivalence. And that takes us close to the heart of the Alma problem.
Alma took a bilateral position on everything she touched, whether it was love, life or death. Her diaries often yield contradictory responses, as if she were both inside and outside a situation, unable to resolve her feelings. It was the ambiguity of her emotions that first drew me into Mahler’s world, a counterpoint to his emotional pile-drivers.
I shall listen to Connolly’s latest exhumation of her musical relics with intense, albeit sceptical, interest.