Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, the German musical reference work, has announced it will go online, starting in 2017.
By which time, Wikipedia may have rendered it redundant.
Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, the German musical reference work, has announced it will go online, starting in 2017.
By which time, Wikipedia may have rendered it redundant.
Shocking news from Stockholm of the death of Malik Bendjelloul, director of Searching for Sugar Man, which won a 2013 first-timer’s Oscar. Malik was found dead. Stockholm police said there were no suspicious circumstances.
Searching for Sugar Man traces the life of Sixto Rodriguez, an impoverished American singer who, unawares, achieved celebrity status in South Africa. Bendjelloul, who came from Ystaad, also made TV documentaries about Elton John, Bjork and Kraftwerk.
Great loss.
Nobody knows more about the decade than Whispering John Schaefer of WQXR. His selection of ten electronic landmarks, faded and almost forgotten, is just impossible to resist. What’s stopping you? Click here.
William Salchow, America’s pre-eminent maker of bows for the stars, has passed away, aged 88. His son and grandson continue the craft.
The tenor was singing Tosca at Covent Garden when he took a blow to the face in the second act stage fight. Audience reports say he barely missed a beat, carried on singing and got stronger in the third act.
Brings tears to your eyes.
Let us know if you were there and noticed anything amiss.
The Colorado Symphony is on a high. It won’t back down to Denver’s demand that it cancel the roll-your-own marijuana concerts.
Instead, it has restaged them as invitation-only events, starting May 23.
The orchestra that lights up America. (They can have the slogan for free).
Talks open today with the stage unions. In a press statement overnight, they delivered the nub of their position:
Despite the increased workload, labor costs for IA members have only risen by 2.91 percent since 2007. Meanwhile the Met’s budget has grown
from $190 million to $311 million, a 60 percent increase.
“The Met’s management, even before contract talks have begun, has tried to place the Met’s financial problems on the shoulders of the opera company’s workers and performers,“ said Joe Hartnett, IA’s Assistant Director of Stagecraft. “This is misguided. We don’t have a labor-cost problem at the Met — we have a management-spending problem. We can save the Met — we all want to see the show go on — but it means all of us working together to bring the budget in line.”
The New York Philharmonic has offered its vacant principal clarinet seat to Anthony McGill, a luminous personality at the Metropolitan Orchestra who has played as a soloist at the White House and other high places. Brian Wise reports on WQXR that Anthony has accepted the NY Phil seat, held by Stanley Drucker from 1948 to 2009.
His departure will deliver a significant blow to morale at the Met and to Peter Gelb’s bid to hold onto talent while cutting the wage bill.
Musicians of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra voted unanimously to authorise a strike if talks failed over improved pay and conditions. Slipped Disc asked the lead negotiator, clarinet player Jessica Phillips Rieske, what they aimed to achieve in the talks. Here is her reasoned reply, principled and clear-sighted. It was written just as the Met’s principal clarinet, Anthony McGill, announced he was crossing the Lincoln Square courtyard to join the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. His defection is a blow to the Met. Jessica’s letter puts the onus on Gelb to restore confidence and demands to know why he shares information with the public that is kept secret from the musicians.
Read Jessica’s statement exclusively below.
Jessica Phillips Rieske, on behalf of Metropolitan Opera Orchestra musicians:
Tell me the point of this, please. In a tweet @NLebrecht. Or any other way you like. The other guy is Jun K, a Korean boy-band member.
The depression that brought about the death of Mark Flugge was connected to two years of suffering from ringing in his ears. A full account of the tragedy can be read here. There is a further posting on the university website here. Our sympathies to his family and friends.
And it comes with a behind-the-scenes video.