Peter Norris, one of the best-loved teachers at the Yehudi Menuhin School, has died after a degenerative illness, his pupils report. The Canadian son of New Zealand parents, Peter was a much-cherished coach in a school where pupils have decidedly mixed experiences.
This page has some background on his life and work. If you have personal photographs and tributes, do post them below.
Gareth Malone’s motley collection of army wives has beaten the X Factor contender by a 5-1 margin to top the UK singles charts.
Gareth, former youth choir leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, makes television programmes in which he teaches communities how to express themselves in song. In the latest series, he immersed them in a new song by Royal Wedding composer Paul Mealor.
X Factor produces a crude simulacrum of a Simon Cowell pop formula, dehumanising all who engage in it.
Trivial as the charts may be, I am so happy that Gareth has triumphed.
The Guardian‘s obituary of John Gardner failed to mention his greatest claim to fame – that, as first reported here, he contributed the E minor chord that closed Paul McCartney’s ambitious song, Eleanor Rigby. All three of Gardner’s children have since confirmed the episode to me.
Lucy Gardner writes: My father certainly did teach Paul M in the 1960s; I can remember being incredibly excited when he told us the news. Paul M also mentioned it in a newspaper article at the time. My father told me that he had composed the last chord, as my sister states, but my understanding from the way he spoke about it was that by this he meant the last two bars, the notes of which essentially form a broken chord.
Down the years, I have repeatedly tried to impress on politicians that the economic success of British pop was founded on low-key state investment in the classical skills that few pop musicians ever bother to acquire. Gardner was a modest classical composer and teacher. He was introduced to McCartney by Jane Asher’s mother when the singer-songwriter needed to upgrade his technical knowledge and he happened to be around when Paul got stuck on a song.
Without Gardner, Eleanor Rigby might never have sounded the way it does, achieving a formal perfection. So the next time a philistine politician grudges cash for the arts, just play the song.
1 http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/12/opera-singer-hits-back-at-chauvinist-web-critic.html
3 http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/12/exclusive-classical-music-magazine-to-shut-down.html
4 http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/12/death-of-a-fine-pianist.html
5 http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/12/purse-your-lips-its-the-year-of-the-flute.html
Roger Steptoe has lived in Uzerche in the French Limousin since 1999. ‘From this small medieval hill-top town, his creative output has been renewed,’ according to his website. Here’s a Christmas Eve French interview.
Instead of wasting the day on Christmas television, watch this hour-long German documentary on the mystery of the most perfect conductor of modern times.
In yesterday’s review of the new Carlos Kleiber biography-with-correspondence in the Wall Street Journal, I made passing reference to a conductor who caught Kleiber’s eye in the 1990s and aroused his unqualified respect.
Here’s what he had to say:
I don’t love Mahler, but this time I succumbed, thanks to Tenn. He is a most sympathetic conductor, never “clever” or perfunctory, never self-conscious, his love for the piece makes it irresistible (the piece), there are plenty daemonic ghosts around him (as there were around Gus Mahler), nerve, lilt and grit, body language sans exhibition, it’s all there, GENUINE, enough of it for other “eminences” to cut bug pieces off without diminishing Tenn’s funds.
In short: at last someone to admire! … I hate going overboard like this) (Corresponding with Carlos, page 211)
I so wish Inge were still alive to read this.
Yevgeny Kutik, a young Russian violinist living in Canada, raised the money for his debut album through a kickstart campaign, helped on its way by Slipped Disc. Yevgeny, 24, fascinated by the persistence of faith in times of adversity, has titled his album Sounds of Defiance. It contains works by Shostakovich, Schnittke and Pärt – as well as this astonishing Hebrew Lullaby by Joseph Achron. The pianist is Timothy Bozarth.
The disc is out next month on Marquis Music label. Here’s the free download. Enjoy.
Laia Martin is a pianist, studying at the Conservatoire in Barcelona. She is 26 and, by all accounts gifted but her ex-neighbours are taking her to court for ‘psychological damage’ caused by her playing and their lawyer is asking for a seven and a half year jail sentence.
Unbelievable? Read on….
Johannes Heesters has died, aged 108.
The Dutch actor and operetta singer never recanted his Nazi sympathies, and was never short of work. Read on here.
Roberto Szidon, the Brazilian pianist whom I first heard playing on the most verdant cover ever issued by DG
has died in Germany, aged 69. Obituary here.
I’ve been waiting all year to run that headline.
We’re talking, of course, about
and the Natale is not a new girlfriend. It’s his Christmas release, In Festo Trium Regium Muttetum Natale.
Apologies if you thought it might be someone else. Listen up here.
