A mutual friend has just informed me of the death on Friday of Raymond Cohen, the last leader appointed by Sir Thomas Beecham at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Raymond, who was 91, was the perfect concertmaster, leading by example and preserving corps morale through thick and – often in the RPO’s history – thin. He held the post for six years, 1959-65.

Raymond appeared often as a soloist with orchestras and in chamber music with his pianist wife, Anthya Rael. Their son is the cellist, Robert Cohen.
10697_Raymond Cohen giving cello.jpg
This is Anthya’s painting of Raymond teaching ((c) Lebrecht Music & Arts). 

Krzystof Chorzelski, viola player of the Belcea Quartet, has just messaged this tribute:
Raymond was an amazing man. His love for music and the violin was o the purest kind. My afternoons with him and his friends playing through Haydn, Mozart quartets were unforgettable. He was always kind and funny. Eternally young. Saw him for the last time in hospital the day before he died (I had an inkling that it was the last time) and his charm, wit and unfailing interest and love of music were all there in abundance…

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has appointed Peter Oundjian as its music director, succeeding Stéphane Denève.

Oundjian will job share with the Toronto Symphony, where he remains in charge.
A former first violin of the Tokyo String Quartet (and all-round nice guy, by most accounts), Oundjian gave up playing the violin after suffering focal dystonia. He will attemp a one-off comeback concert with Itzhak Perlman in April 2012.
The Scottish deal was negotiated for him by agents Harrison Parrott.
That makes two Canadian conductors now on the world stage – the other being Yannick Nezet-Seguin at Philadelphia and the London Philharmonic.
Press release follows:
——————————————————————————-

Peter Oundjian to be RSNO’s new Music Director

Oundjian succeeds Stéphane Denève in 2012 at the helm of Scotland’s national orchestra.

 

Peter Oundjian will become the next Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO). The celebrated British-Canadian musician succeeds Frenchman Stéphane Denève, who departs at the end of the 2011/12 Season. Peter Oundjian will officially take up his position for the start of the 2012/13 Season. 

Peter Oundjian has been Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) since 2004, a post he will retain in parallel with the RSNO Music Directorship. His initial contract with the RSNO is for four years. In the first year of the contract he will conduct six weeks of the season, rising to seven in the second and eight in the third and fourth. Additional weeks will see Oundjian and the RSNO recording CDs, touring internationally, and appearing at major UK venues.

Peter Oundjian was born in Toronto and raised in London, and following studies at the Juilliard School in New York came to prominence as the first violinist of the globally respected Tokyo String Quartet. Upon leaving the Tokyo String Quartet, he embarked on his highly successful conducting career. Oundjian has been Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Caramoor Festival. He has conducted major orchestras in Europe including the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich  and the Orchestre Philarmonique de Radio France, as well as visiting the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR), and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Peter Oundjian joined the TSO in 2004 and has been largely credited with turning around the fortunes of the organisation, increasing the subscriber base, welcoming new and younger audiences to live orchestral music, and playing a prominent and visible role as one of Toronto’s major cultural leaders and innovators. He counts many of the world’s greatest artists as his regular collaborators.

RSNO Music Director Designate Peter Oundjian:

“It is a great honour to have been invited to become the next Music Director of such a wonderful orchestra whose history is so rich and vital. I look forward enormously to this opportunity to build upon the magnificent tradition that my predecessors have created, and to being part of Scotland’s vibrant cultural life.”

RSNO Music Director St
éphane Denève:

“I am very happy indeed at the news that Peter Oundjian will succeed me as Music Director of this wonderful orchestra. I have been fortunate to conduct the Toronto Symphony on many occasions and I have seen the great creativity, imagination and dedication that Peter has brought to them. I am sure he will bring that same commitment to the RSNO, and with the RSNO’s passion and energy I think it will be an irresistible combination for the music-loving people of Scotland.”

Simon Woods, Chief Executive of the RSNO:

This is a tremendous appointment. I have known and admired Peter for over a decade, and I am in no doubt that he will bring very special qualities to the RSNO. He is a musician of enormous integrity whose performances are richly informed by his many years as a chamber musician. His love of making music together with others is something that is apparent in everything he touches, and the results are always deeply musical, communicative and incredibly involving. There are great times ahead for the RSNO and its audiences.”

RSNO Chair Brian Lang, who led the Search Committee in appointing Peter Oundjian: 

“This is a real coup for the RSNO. Peter Oundjian is not only a very fine conductor, but also a dynamic and proven leader who will bring enormous charisma and vitality to Scotland’s national orchestra. I am greatly looking forward to working with Peter in the years ahead. I would like to thank the members of the Search Committee most warmly for their hard work over the past year, and for this tremendous outcome”.

 

Peter Oundjian made his RSNO début in 2002 in a programme of Britten, Elgar and Rachmaninov, returning in March 2010 with a concert including performances of Vaughan Williams’ Fourth Symphony which was widely lauded by audiences, musicians and critics. He re-joins the Orchestra in April 2011 for three concerts: at the Caird Hall, Dundee (Thursday 14 April), the Usher Hall, Edinburgh (Friday 15 April) and at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (Saturday 16 April) with a programme comprising Christopher Rouse’s Rapture, Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Stephen Hough, and Brahms’ Symphony No3. Peter Oundjian will conduct performances of Martin?’s Fantasies Symphoniques and Mozart’s Requiem in the RSNO’s 2011-12 season, to be announced in March.

 

www.rsno.org.uk  www.tso.ca

For press enquiries, please contact:

Valerie Barber PR

Suite 2, 9a St John’s Wood High Street

London, NW8 7NG

Tel: 020 7586 8560, Fax: 020 7586 9246

camilla@vbpr.co.uk

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has appointed Peter Oundjian as its music director, succeeding Stéphane Denève.

Oundjian will job share with the Toronto Symphony, where he remains in charge.
A former first violin of the Tokyo String Quartet (and all-round nice guy, by most accounts), Oundjian gave up playing the violin after suffering focal dystonia. He will attemp a one-off comeback concert with Itzhak Perlman in April 2012.
The Scottish deal was negotiated for him by agents Harrison Parrott.
That makes two Canadian conductors now on the world stage – the other being Yannick Nezet-Seguin at Philadelphia and the London Philharmonic.
Press release follows:
——————————————————————————-

Peter Oundjian to be RSNO’s new Music Director

Oundjian succeeds Stéphane Denève in 2012 at the helm of Scotland’s national orchestra.

 

Peter Oundjian will become the next Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO). The celebrated British-Canadian musician succeeds Frenchman Stéphane Denève, who departs at the end of the 2011/12 Season. Peter Oundjian will officially take up his position for the start of the 2012/13 Season. 

Peter Oundjian has been Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) since 2004, a post he will retain in parallel with the RSNO Music Directorship. His initial contract with the RSNO is for four years. In the first year of the contract he will conduct six weeks of the season, rising to seven in the second and eight in the third and fourth. Additional weeks will see Oundjian and the RSNO recording CDs, touring internationally, and appearing at major UK venues.

Peter Oundjian was born in Toronto and raised in London, and following studies at the Juilliard School in New York came to prominence as the first violinist of the globally respected Tokyo String Quartet. Upon leaving the Tokyo String Quartet, he embarked on his highly successful conducting career. Oundjian has been Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Caramoor Festival. He has conducted major orchestras in Europe including the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich  and the Orchestre Philarmonique de Radio France, as well as visiting the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR), and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Peter Oundjian joined the TSO in 2004 and has been largely credited with turning around the fortunes of the organisation, increasing the subscriber base, welcoming new and younger audiences to live orchestral music, and playing a prominent and visible role as one of Toronto’s major cultural leaders and innovators. He counts many of the world’s greatest artists as his regular collaborators.

RSNO Music Director Designate Peter Oundjian:

“It is a great honour to have been invited to become the next Music Director of such a wonderful orchestra whose history is so rich and vital. I look forward enormously to this opportunity to build upon the magnificent tradition that my predecessors have created, and to being part of Scotland’s vibrant cultural life.”

RSNO Music Director St
éphane Denève:

“I am very happy indeed at the news that Peter Oundjian will succeed me as Music Director of this wonderful orchestra. I have been fortunate to conduct the Toronto Symphony on many occasions and I have seen the great creativity, imagination and dedication that Peter has brought to them. I am sure he will bring that same commitment to the RSNO, and with the RSNO’s passion and energy I think it will be an irresistible combination for the music-loving people of Scotland.”

Simon Woods, Chief Executive of the RSNO:

This is a tremendous appointment. I have known and admired Peter for over a decade, and I am in no doubt that he will bring very special qualities to the RSNO. He is a musician of enormous integrity whose performances are richly informed by his many years as a chamber musician. His love of making music together with others is something that is apparent in everything he touches, and the results are always deeply musical, communicative and incredibly involving. There are great times ahead for the RSNO and its audiences.”

RSNO Chair Brian Lang, who led the Search Committee in appointing Peter Oundjian: 

“This is a real coup for the RSNO. Peter Oundjian is not only a very fine conductor, but also a dynamic and proven leader who will bring enormous charisma and vitality to Scotland’s national orchestra. I am greatly looking forward to working with Peter in the years ahead. I would like to thank the members of the Search Committee most warmly for their hard work over the past year, and for this tremendous outcome”.

 

Peter Oundjian made his RSNO début in 2002 in a programme of Britten, Elgar and Rachmaninov, returning in March 2010 with a concert including performances of Vaughan Williams’ Fourth Symphony which was widely lauded by audiences, musicians and critics. He re-joins the Orchestra in April 2011 for three concerts: at the Caird Hall, Dundee (Thursday 14 April), the Usher Hall, Edinburgh (Friday 15 April) and at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (Saturday 16 April) with a programme comprising Christopher Rouse’s Rapture, Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Stephen Hough, and Brahms’ Symphony No3. Peter Oundjian will conduct performances of Martin?’s Fantasies Symphoniques and Mozart’s Requiem in the RSNO’s 2011-12 season, to be announced in March.

 

www.rsno.org.uk  www.tso.ca

For press enquiries, please contact:

Valerie Barber PR

Suite 2, 9a St John’s Wood High Street

London, NW8 7NG

Tel: 020 7586 8560, Fax: 020 7586 9246

camilla@vbpr.co.uk

Michael Tilson Thomas gets a rare draught of oxygen in the New York Times today, in a blog by its chief critic, Anthony Tommasini, which celebrates his ‘bi-coastality’. 

MTT has two orchestras, one in San Francisco, the other in Miami. Nothing new there, but the Times has not thought to feature it before. 

Despite many virtues and a strong international career, MTT was mysteriously not supported either by the Times or by many players to head the New York Philharmonic during its various regime changes. The Times, led by Tommasini, has led vociferous recent campaigns against Lorin Maazel and, more dubiously, on behalf of Alan Gilbert.
So what’s wrong with MTT? Nothing, says Tommo. We love him.
He’s just not for New York 

See also: Philharmonic proposes civil partnership to NY Times: http://bit.ly/ePV7hO

Michael Tilson Thomas gets a rare draught of oxygen in the New York Times today, in a blog by its chief critic, Anthony Tommasini, which celebrates his ‘bi-coastality’. 

MTT has two orchestras, one in San Francisco, the other in Miami. Nothing new there, but the Times has not thought to feature it before. 

Despite many virtues and a strong international career, MTT was mysteriously not supported either by the Times or by many players to head the New York Philharmonic during its various regime changes. The Times, led by Tommasini, has led vociferous recent campaigns against Lorin Maazel and, more dubiously, on behalf of Alan Gilbert.
So what’s wrong with MTT? Nothing, says Tommo. We love him.
He’s just not for New York 

See also: Philharmonic proposes civil partnership to NY Times: http://bit.ly/ePV7hO

Milton Babbitt, godfather of American ascetic music, has died aged 94. He was far more than his music let on. A mathematician and wit, he once taught Stephen Sondheim, who spoke of him ever after with warm appreciation.


In a 2004 interview, Sondheim said‘Babbitt taught me what long-line composition is about, how to organise music over a span of time. It has to be the musical equivalent of a plot in a play.’

Here’s a 2006 Babbitt interview.

And here’s his Composition for Four Instruments, with running score. More clips on his Facebook page.

Also gone is Margaret Price, the great Welsh soprano, at just 69. She was a heroine almost without honour in her homeland. Acclaimed in Germany and Austria for her Lieder as well as her opera roles, she was inadequately appreciated in London and insufficiently recorded by Decca, which gave its plum roles to Joan Sutherland and Renata Tebaldi, and later to Kiri te Kanawa.

I heard her last some 20 years ago in Salzburg, a memorable Schubert recital, wonderfully modulated and without the harsh edge that sometimes marred her microphone performances.

Soon after, she recorded for Hyperion’s complete Schubert edition.


It’s a sad day for music when two titans leave the scene.


And here’s an underrated Mahler’s Fourth she recorded with Jascha Horenstein.



And Strauss Four Last Songs on Youtube.

Milton Babbitt, godfather of American ascetic music, has died aged 94. He was far more than his music let on. A mathematician and wit, he once taught Stephen Sondheim, who spoke of him ever after with warm appreciation.


In a 2004 interview, Sondheim said‘Babbitt taught me what long-line composition is about, how to organise music over a span of time. It has to be the musical equivalent of a plot in a play.’

Here’s a 2006 Babbitt interview.

And here’s his Composition for Four Instruments, with running score. More clips on his Facebook page.

Also gone is Margaret Price, the great Welsh soprano, at just 69. She was a heroine almost without honour in her homeland. Acclaimed in Germany and Austria for her Lieder as well as her opera roles, she was inadequately appreciated in London and insufficiently recorded by Decca, which gave its plum roles to Joan Sutherland and Renata Tebaldi, and later to Kiri te Kanawa.

I heard her last some 20 years ago in Salzburg, a memorable Schubert recital, wonderfully modulated and without the harsh edge that sometimes marred her microphone performances.

Soon after, she recorded for Hyperion’s complete Schubert edition.


It’s a sad day for music when two titans leave the scene.


And here’s an underrated Mahler’s Fourth she recorded with Jascha Horenstein.



And Strauss Four Last Songs on Youtube.

Henry Meyer, second violin of the La Salle Quartet and a survivor of Auschwitz, is the subject of a new play to be staged in Cincinnati, where he spent the second half of his life.

I met Henry at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in the late 1990s and we became firm friends. He was charming, knowledgeable and receptive to most things, except contestants’ wrong notes – which drove him vertically up the wall with rage.
Here’s a page with his Holocaust history.
And here’s the news from Cincinnati. Thanks to Janelle Gelfand for the heads up.
The Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative is presenting a new play by Kalman Kivkovich and directed by Ed Cohen on the life of Henry Meyer, the late Holocaust survivor, violinist and founding member of the LaSalle Quartet, on April 26 at the Aronoff Center. Meyer’s harrowing escape from the Nazis and his survival of four Nazi death camps after losing his entire family is an amazing true story of courage. He went on to forge an international career with the LaSalle Quartet and as a distinguished professor of violin at CCM. Click here to read more.

Henry Meyer, second violin of the La Salle Quartet and a survivor of Auschwitz, is the subject of a new play to be staged in Cincinnati, where he spent the second half of his life.

I met Henry at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in the late 1990s and we became firm friends. He was charming, knowledgeable and receptive to most things, except contestants’ wrong notes – which drove him vertically up the wall with rage.
Here’s a page with his Holocaust history.
And here’s the news from Cincinnati. Thanks to Janelle Gelfand for the heads up.
The Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative is presenting a new play by Kalman Kivkovich and directed by Ed Cohen on the life of Henry Meyer, the late Holocaust survivor, violinist and founding member of the LaSalle Quartet, on April 26 at the Aronoff Center. Meyer’s harrowing escape from the Nazis and his survival of four Nazi death camps after losing his entire family is an amazing true story of courage. He went on to forge an international career with the LaSalle Quartet and as a distinguished professor of violin at CCM. Click here to read more.

In the February issue of The Strad, I discuss the declining status of the orchestral concertmaster – once as important a figure as the maestro but now increasingly invisible. Why is that?

Here’s a sampler:

There was a time when, woken in the middle of the night, I
could rattle off the names of concertmasters in great orchestras the way a
schoolboy recites his football team or a whisky priest his catechism.

At Karajan’s left knee in Berlin sat Michel Schwalbé, the
expressionless Holocaust survivor. In Vienna, it was Rainer Küchl, young before
his time. Hermann Krebbers personified the Concertgebouw. Michael Davis led the
flash-Andre mob of the LSO. Rodney Friend kept the New York Phil in tune for
Boulez and Mehta. Samuel Magad ruled the line in Solti’s Chicago.

And it was not just world leaders who gripped the
imagination. Malcolm Stewart two-timed in Liverpool and Toulouse. Haim Taub was
a national institution in Israel. Steven Staryk held sway in Toronto. Christopher
Warren-Green at the Philharmonia was always poised for a maestro to stumble so
he could take over. The concertmaster, 30 years ago, was almost as much the
public face of an orchestra as its chief conductor and generally more
responsible than him for maintaining morale and tone….


And who’s this on the cover?


In the February issue of The Strad, I discuss the declining status of the orchestral concertmaster – once as important a figure as the maestro but now increasingly invisible. Why is that?

Here’s a sampler:

There was a time when, woken in the middle of the night, I
could rattle off the names of concertmasters in great orchestras the way a
schoolboy recites his football team or a whisky priest his catechism.

At Karajan’s left knee in Berlin sat Michel Schwalbé, the
expressionless Holocaust survivor. In Vienna, it was Rainer Küchl, young before
his time. Hermann Krebbers personified the Concertgebouw. Michael Davis led the
flash-Andre mob of the LSO. Rodney Friend kept the New York Phil in tune for
Boulez and Mehta. Samuel Magad ruled the line in Solti’s Chicago.

And it was not just world leaders who gripped the
imagination. Malcolm Stewart two-timed in Liverpool and Toulouse. Haim Taub was
a national institution in Israel. Steven Staryk held sway in Toronto. Christopher
Warren-Green at the Philharmonia was always poised for a maestro to stumble so
he could take over. The concertmaster, 30 years ago, was almost as much the
public face of an orchestra as its chief conductor and generally more
responsible than him for maintaining morale and tone….


And who’s this on the cover?


Question from the Member for Clarity (S.) to the Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt.

Sir: Could the Rt. Hon. Member explain why the chief executive of Arts Council England, Alan Davey, cannot find the time to meet with the Head of Arts at Britain’s second largest city? Apparently, the arts boss at Birmingham City Council cannot get a date. 
Is this because
(a) the ACE is anti-Midlands?
(b) Mr Davey has a rare complaint of the right hand that prevents him from picking up a telephone receiver?
(c) the ACE is now inundated with 1,340 applications, a bureaucratic exercise of Mr Davey’s making that has paralysed the organisation and prevented it from doing an honest day’s work?

                                                                                      photo: ACE