Iris Wagner, eldest daughter of Wieland, disenfranchised by her uncle Wolfgang, has died, too soon, at 71.
Unlike most Wagners, she made a life for herself away from music and Bayreuth. Iris was the distinguished translator into German of the letters of Sylvia Plath and the later novels of Doris Lessing. Living in Berlin, Iris was also a photographer and film maker.
She had little to say about her great-grandfather, or about Bayreuth. Her only published comment: ‘I’m ashamed of it. Bayreuth burns in every nook and cranny.’
UPDATE: The FAZ has piblished an appreciaiton of Iris Wagner here.
The Chinese composer’s Earth Concerto will receive its US premiere next week by the New Jersey Symphony at Richardson Auditorium in Princeton. ‘The glazed pots have the purest tones,’ says the enterprising percussionist. ‘It asks questions of the audience.’ Sounds like fun. Watch.
The outgoing mayor, R. T. Rybak, who did his best to shame the Minnesota Orchestra Association into taking back their musicians, has been rushed to hospital with a cardiac event. His successor, Betsy Hodges, will be sworn in on Saturday with full gay men’s chorus, a beat boxer, hip-hop star, improvisation theatre and more… but no orchestra. Minneapolis is no longer on the orchestra map.
Mayor Betsy should make it her priority to put it back.
He’s in Vienna to sing the elderly Doge in Verdi’s early opera, I due Foscari.
Asked about his role as a father who ruins his son’s romance, Domingo, 72, let slip a rare regret about his change of register. ‘The good thing about being a tenor is that you’re always the good guy. Now I’m the nasty one. I really like being the hero who got the girl in the end.’
Sic transit….
The curtain has fallen with terrible finality on Opera Hamilton, one of the most deep-rooted companies in Canada. The organisation cannot pay its bills and decided to lock the doors three days before its annual fund-raising gala. Details here.
Founded in 1980, OH expanded to incorporate Opera Kitchener-Waterloo. Its close leaves a large swathe of Canada without lyric diversion.
The general and artistic director for the past ten years has been David Speers, formerly head of Calgary Opera and Arizona Opera.
Sad way to start 2014.
You thought the footwear theme was finished? Far from it.
These exotic images have been sent to us from Florida by the Naples Philharmonic, a memento of their Boogie Night.
Eat your hearts out, Berlin Phil. You just don’t know the ground beneath your feet.
Sania Whitaker – violin
Matthew Sonneborn -principal trumpet
Matthew Sonneborn and Aaron McCalla – Tuba
An ensemble of 52 children from the Raploch estate, where Gustavo Dudamel conducted just before the 2012 Olympics, are being flown to Caracas to show off the music they make. More than 450 children and 50 adults on the deprived estate in Stirling have benefited from Sistema education. Here’s a BBC report.
We’ve been asked to circulate this appeal for a new college of music in East Jerusalem. Al-Quds University is an apolitical campus, founded by Mohammed Nuseibeh and enjoying close partnerships with Brandeis and Bard in the US.
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Together with Al Quds University we are developing a new College of Music for Palestine. In the past two years we have been grateful for a lot of support and for many wonderful artistic contributions of artists from around the world.
Our project aims for excellence in musical education, allowing young talentedmusicians to have access to a level of learning and professional advancement hitherto unavailable in the country. It operates within a network of Palestinian and international academic music institutions and offers talented students from all backgrounds the chance to develop their knowledge, musical skills, understanding and artistic expression which will help them to contribute to musical life in Palestine and abroad.
What is still very much needed is an academic infrastructure including spezialized literature, scores and recordings. Thanks to the Czech Representative Office in Ramallah we were able to found the first Palestinian Music Library, open to students as well as professional musicians in Palestine. The purchase of a broad range of books and CDs was a first step to develop this very much needed infrastructure.
In case you would have any spare or old books on music, CDs, DVDs or scores that are not needed anymore, we would be deeply grateful for any donations which would help to offer our students the chance to study and discover the world music.
If you would be willing to contribute to the first Palestinian Music Library please send the items you wish to donate to:
Petra R. Klose
K und K Wien
Marc Aurel Strasse 2a/6/8
1010 Wien
Austria
We will make sure that all donations will safely reach the new Al Quds College of Music in Jerusalem.
I am at your disposal for any further information.
With many thanks and kind regards
Petra
Angela Dixon, a lifer at the London arts centre who has held the top music job for just over two years, is moving to the country to run a bijou, bucolic new concert hall.
Press release here.
We hear from Russian musicians that the fabled pianist Grigory Sokolov is in mourning for the death of his wife. Revered by his peers, the despair of promoters, Sokolov, 63, last performed in August and has no concerts presently scheduled.
Little is known of his domestic circumstances except that his wife was also his cousin’s widow.
We send him our condolences.
UPDATE
We have been sent this account of the Sokolov family connections:
Grigory Sokolov’s grandfather was Hirsh Sokolov.
His elder son was Ilya Sokolov, who married Sofia Zviagina and their son was Alexander Sokolov (1932-1996).
His younger son was Lipman Sokolov, who married Galina Zelenetzkaya and their son is the famous pianist Grigory Sokolov, born in 1950.
Thus Grigory and Alexander are cousins.
Alexander Sokolov married Inna Shtutin (daughter of Yakov Shtutin and his wife Ida Richterman) and their daughter Marina Sokolov was born in 1959.
Alexander Sokolov died in 1996 and his widow Inna married much later the famous pianist Grigory Sokolov, her late husband’s cousin.
You can find all the information about the family trees in internet here:
Grandfather Hirsh Sokolov: http://www.rogev.com/berner/124.htm
His first son Ilya: http://www.rogev.com/berner/122.htm
His second son Lipman: http://www.rogev.com/berner/125.htm
Grandson Alexander Sokolov, son of Ilya: http://www.rogev.com/berner/53.htm
Grandson Grigory Sokolov, son of Lipman: http://www.rogev.com/berner/130.htm
Inna Sokolov, neé Shtutin: http://www.rogev.com/berner/54.htm
Christian Tetzlaff was planning to warm up for his Los Angeles date with a Mendelssohn workout at the Naples Philharmonic. But then he cancelled the trip at short notice.
The LA Phil had to change its concerto amid much fuss, but managed to find a player of international calibre. Naples booked a local unknown. Read on here.
Tetz is due to tour Europe next week with the Vienna Phil. Wonder who they’ve got in reserve.
Nielsen Soundscan, the trusted indicator of US record sales, reports that LPs rose by 30.4 percent in 2013 to six million. That’s the biggest number since LPs were phased out almost quarter of a century ago. It was the only physical recorded format to register an increase.
source: digitalmusicnews.com
