The cello played by the late Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio was a 1707 Stradivarius.

Much rarer than the Master’s violins, it is one of about 60 surviving Strad cellos, and known as the “Paganini, Countess of Stainlein”. Of its particular ‘Forma B’ type Strad, there are exactly 20 in existence. They do not come up often for sale.

But at the request of Bernard’s family, his Strad will not be auctioned off in an overheated room like a superannuated Fabergé egg to a pack of Russian oligarchs. Instead, the firm of Reuning & Son are accepting sealed bids from prospective purchasers until December 1 and will finalise the sale in January.

 

Dismayed by the latest airline assault on a peripatetic instrumentalist, the far-flung soloist Lara St John has pointed me to her essential travel tips.

Read them here. They may not get you an automatic upgrade, but they’ll keep your instrument out of the hold and you out of jail.

Do feel free to share further tricks and refinements.

The chief executive has sent a memo to staff, telling them what happens next and trying to reassure them that all is not lost. Roger Faxon is no great stylist, but he manages to see the sunny side of the takeover, and he needs to prevent a talent drain until the last legal hurdles are cleared and the company is dismantled by Universal and Sony.

Read his memo here.

 

A debut album by Paul Mealor, whose anthem Ubi Caritas was chosen for the Royal Wedding in April, gives an unexpected insight into the origins of what some felt was the finest musical moment of the occasion.

Mealor, who has previously said that the invitation came completely out of the blue after the couple heard a track of his music, now confesses that the song was originally written to Tennyson’s poem, Now sleeps the crimson petal.

However, he adds, after some debate, it was felt that the Tennysons words weren’t appropriate for a religious service, so I suggested resetting them to the sixth-century Christian prayer ‘Ubi caritas’ and this piece was born.

And the nature of the objection?

Now sleeps the crimson petal is an erotic, sensual poem that compares human beauty to that of the rose and lily – the closing of the lily representing the union of two lovers.

Well, you can’t have that at an Abbey wedding, can you?

Listening to Ubi Caritas at the wedding, I was less impressed than many colleagues, finding the music synthetic and rather strenuously ingratiating. Listening to the two versions side by side on Decca’s new recording, I can see why. The music fits perfectly to Crimson Petal, more awkwardly to Ubi Caritas, not unlike some of the cousinly costumes seen on the great occasion by 2.5 billion people around the world.

The recording was made six weeks after the wedding, in St Jude-on-the-Hill church, Hampstead Garden Suburb. The performers on the album are Tenebrae, conducted by Nigel Short, and for one piece (the Stabat Mater) they are joined by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Norwegians may have backed down on their refusal to allow a cello in the cabin, but you don’t push an Aussie air crew over that easily. Oh no, you don’t, mate.

At least that’s what my mate Tor Fromyhr Tor Frømyhrexperienced  when he tried to hold onto his 1890s Degani violin, worth the price of a downtown apartment, during a flight from Canberra to Brisbane at the weekend. He was made to remove the instrument from its case and put it on the floor, underneath his seat, exposing it to serious risk of damage. Happily, the violin survived for Tor to play the Bartók concerto in Brisbane.

Tor, who is head of strings at the Australian National University, went to press with the story. Qantas refused to comment. I’d avoid booking with them until they do.

Every now and then, airlines start an anti-instrument campaign, usually under the guise of ‘security’or ‘anti-terrorism’. Mostly, they back down, once the bile rises in the passengers’ gorge. Come on, Qantas, say sorry and start again.

 

 

In the good old days, they would skip the coop while on tour – often in Paris or London.

Now the rising pair at Moscow’s Bolshoi, Ivan Vasiliev and Natalia Osipova, have announced they are seeking asylum – in St Petersburg.

Apparently, good order at the Mikhailovsky is preferable to Bolshoi chaos.

Here’s the Pravda version. No defection is official til you’ve read it Pravda.

Two lead dancers of Bolshoi Theater quit. 45854.jpeg

UPDATE: And here they explain why. Much better range of rep in St Pete, apparently.

I warned you, didn’t I?

This ghastly object rides above the Bärenreiter list of Christmas gifts – the complete organ works of Buxtehude in five volumes for a mere £96.50 ($150), for instance, or a facsimile of Elgar’s cello concerto for just £75 ($110).

Ah, that’s better.

 

I have received the following notice from a reputable supplier:

Welcome to Aquila Corde Armoniche – Early Music strings section

 


Caldogno, November 14- 2011

NOTICE

We regret to inform our customers that the production of gut strings is closed both for bad quality of raw material, that since some months is sold to us, and for the strict European legislation, and therefore also Italian, that forbids the production and use of gut  and prohibits not only the use of Italian or European gut , but also the import of raw material extra EU.
We are committed to look for new solutions; we cannot provide assurances, however, that the problem can be solved quickly.
Once we will be able to guarantee a quality that satisfies us, we will advise in our website.
Please be advised that we have already finished existing stock of gut strings and we are not able to meet any exemption request.
 In case you are interested, please note that the office in charge of applying above mentioned norms is :

Ministero della Salute, Dipartimento della Sanità per la Tutela  della sanità Pubblica e Veterinaria, della Sicurezza Alimentazione Ufficio III della DGSAN Dott. Serraino Tiziana

t.serraino@sanita.it
Thank you for being with us throughout all these years.
Mimmo Peruffo

 

It has to be true, because I read it in the Daily Mail. And she related it herself. But there’s something wrong with the description.

No self-respecting opera fan, obsessed or otherwise, would give more than a passing glance at Ms Jenkins who has never sang more than a three-minute aria without taking a break.

And no Katherine Jenkins fan, whatever his or her degree of obsession, would claim to be an opera buff. These are contradictions in terms.

Sadly, the English language is suffering a terrible defeat at the hands of synthetic singers who are marketed as opera divas.

 

The naive label, based in France, has a distinctive visual style that, while post-modern to a fault, often complements the classical music it presents in quaint and thought-provoking ways. I wear a soft spot for its design language on my Pierre Cardin and YSL sleeves.

This week, however, my tolerance failed. The cover of a Diotima Quartet recording of works by Reich, Barber and Crumb is a monochrome picture of a hand pointing a gun at a metal grille. The photograph is by Stanley Kubrick, taken from a 1948 Paddy Waggon TV show and licensed by the Museum of the City of New York. It is violent, shocking and inescapably banal.

But it has no contemporary relevance to the music on the disc, which dates from 1935, 1973 and 1987, and nothing to offer the prospective listener except shock value. It’s a cheap and nasty stop-right-there sleeve that cheapens the music and sours its impact. My review here.

Steve Reich has already had to replace this 9/11 cover

STEVE-REICH-WTC-9-11

with this: 

I wonder what he makes of the Diotima naive release. I don’t expect he or George Crumb was consulted. I’d be interested to hear their views. And perhaps someone at naive would like to offer an explanation?

Having puffed itself all year on the bicentenary of Franz Liszt, the town of Weimar was looking forward to building on its musical celebrity.

Dream on. The German Bundestag has shot down next year’s federal grant bid and the 2012 festival has been shortened by a week. Report here.

A parliamentary question to the culture minister in Berlin has revealed, in a 58-page bury-it-deep reply, that the federal government is not just subsidising high culture for the betterment of the nation.

It is also pouring tens of thousands of euros into elderly rock bands that perform a dubious diplomatic service with hissing, spitting,Die Toten Hosen

borderline-fascist acts in emergent nations in the former Soviet Bloc.

Die Toten Hosen – the dead pants in any other tongue – pocketed 68,000 Euros of taxpayers money for five gigs in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Read more here.

It’s not so much the money they took as the nature of the regimes they entertained. All three are hard-line authoritarian police states that jail people en masse for a mere hint of dissent. What appeals to them about dead pants? Maybe this.