When we first reported that Riccardo Chailly was to be music director of La Scala, the maestro’s people texted us to say: not yet.
Well, La Scala has just announced it. We’ve texted him congratulations.
UPDATE: The terms are that he will be known as Direttore Principale in 2015-16 and Direttore Musicale from 2017 to 2022. Don’t bother your heads wondering why. It’s an internal Italian issue.
Read first commentary here.
Ave Maria, the new album by Vittorio Grigòlo, is emblazoned with testimonies of authenticity. The Italian tenor, we are told, ‘learned his craft as a chorister in the legendary Sistine Chapel, at the very source of western sacred music.’
‘I want to let people know where I come from,’ declares Vittorio. ‘It’s a tribute to all the people who helped me, to the hours we spent studying and practising in those little rooms inside the chapel.’
All well and good. But at the time Vittorio was learning his craft women’s voices were not permitted in the Sistine Chapel (the ban was eased in 2000). So what is he doing here singing O Holy Night with the American ex-child star, Jackie Evancho? What are her Sistine credentials?
It gets more complicated. Vittorio, you can read in the credits, was recorded in Rome with the Chapel chorus and a production team led by the estimable ex-DG man Chris Alder.
Jackie is recorded in Prague by Nick Patrick and William Hayward. The two tracks are apparently stitched together. The singers may never have met.
Then there are issues of style. Vittorio sounds at home in the Sistine Chapel. Jackie sounds at home in American popular media. They are scarcely on the same planet. The only tangible presence in this performance is that of Sony Classical executives, playing fantasy records.
Judge for yourselves. To my ears, the recording defies belief.
Oh, the news is so grim these days… Read here.
Marvin Rabin founded the Kentucky Youth Symphony in Louisville, followed by the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, which played for President Kennedy at the White House, and, in 1963, the enduring Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra.
He was the guide and inspiration for innumerable professional musicians in the US and beyond.
You may have read by now that Jennifer Grout, 23, a Boston-Irish student who’s had her voice trained for opera singing, came second in the Arabs Got Talent competition without speaking more than five words of Arabic.
What intrigued us, even more than her cross-cultural achievement, are the operatic melismas that she introduced to her performances. Just watch and learn.
Wir bedanken unsere Leserin, Midou Grossman:
Kategorie: Kultur, Musik, Regionales, Bayern
That’s the verdict of our New York neophytes, Elizabeth Frayer and Shawn E Milnes. Read on here. But don’t ignore prior health warning here, with plenty of horse fodder in the ensuing discussion.
The excellent Quatuor Voce are the latest group to suffer airline tyranny, this time at Orly Airport in Paris. They were forced to remove instruments from their cases and fly with them unprotected.
Cellist Lydia Shelley reports on their Facebook page:
Got to love the Vueling (Spanish airline) staff at Paris Orly who made my colleagues check their instrument cases into the hold and take their two violins and viola on board the flight without cases, and pay over €100 for the pleasure! Lucky I had enough space in my cello case (with the help of several scarves) to fit their bows in..!
Un grand merci à l’équipe de Veuilng à Paris Orly qui a forcé mes collègues de prendre leurs instruments dans l’avion sans leurs boîtes, qui devaient être enregistrées en soute pour plus que €100! Heureusement j’avais assez de place dans ma boîte de violoncelle (avec l’aide de plusieurs écharpes) pour en mettre leurs archets…!
She concludes: #musiciansneverflyvueling
The Strad has some more details.
Here are some clues:
– it does not feature the accordion,
– or the mandolin,
– or any electronic gimmickry;
– it was released as far back as January. And it got through the year unbeaten.
Click here for a record summary of 2013.
The pianist Barbara Hesse-Bukowska, who came third (to Bella Davidovich and Halina Czery, joint first) in the 1949 International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, has died at the age of 83. She enjoyed an international career, mostly in Soviet Bloc countries, and recorded for several labels, including Deutsche Grammophon. You can hear her competition performance here.
Message from the embattled head, David Thomas:
