On Thursday night, the French pianist Pascal Rogé walked off the jury of the Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition saying the result was being rigged in favour of Italians.
Pascal wrote:
I am betting 2 magnums of Chianti that this is going to be the final result on Saturday: 1st Prize Fiorenzo Pascalucci 2nd Prize Federica Bortoluzzi 3rd Prize Atsuko Kinoshita.
The result was announced tonight.
It is: 1st prize Fiorenzo Pascalucci; 2nd prize Federica Bortoluzzi, 3rd prize Atsuko Kinoshita.
Just as Pascal predicted.
However, all is not as it seems. Apparently, several of M Rogé’s marks were disqualified under the competition’s rules because they were too extreme, in either direction. The individual judges markings will (unusually) be published tomorrow to show that there was no fixing.
The competition has posted a statement on its own site and on Slipped Disc, strongly repudiating M Rogé’s ‘opinion’ and threatening legal action.
The light we shed on Air Canada has yielded prompt results.
Here’s their response to our complaint that they discriminate against violas:
Air Canada Official: Thanks for the feedback. We are aware of inconsistencies with the current viola baggage policy which has not changed in some time. We are making changes and in the coming days it will be aligned with the policies for violins and guitars; our website will be updated when this is completed.
The great pianist made few concessions to the regime and was prevented from travelling abroad long after many of his friends were permitted.
This 1960s Gostelradio footage marks a rare collaboration with state media, after his world fame was established.
Salzau, 1988: Leonard Bernstein rehearses Strawinsky’s The Rite of Spring with Schleswig-Holstein Orchestra.
‘The conductor must not only make his orchestra play – he must make them want to play. He must exalt them, lift them, start their adrenaline pouring, either by pleading or demanding or raging. But however he does it, he must make them love the music as he loves it.’
Thousands of you read and many responded to Simon Wallfisch’s titanic struggle to get a Fach.
Here’s his take on the bigger issues that face a jobbing singer.
He could be the new Flanders and Swann, 2-for-1.
It’s…. Gatti!
Daniele Gatti will take over from Mariss Jansons next year.
The Italian conductor, 53, was being pursued by two Italian opera houses, but probably took the view that he had served his time there as music director in Bolgona in the 1990s. He was also one of the candidates to take over at the Vienna State Opera.
The Concertgebouw have moved unusually fast to secure his signature.
Gatti is presently chief of the Orchestre National de France, an ensemble destabilised by political changes at Radio France. Amsterdam could be his escape route.
Among the leading conductors of his generation, Gatti has never yet led an orchestra of acknowledged world rank. This is a big step up for him. And for the Concertgebouw it is a return to the sunny atmosphere it enjoyed with a previousl Italian, Riccardo Chailly. Whether Gatti will, like Chailly, become a fluent Dutch speaker remains to be seen.
He has guested with the Concertgebouw over the past 10 years.
UPDATE:
press release:
Daniele Gatti has been appointed the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s new chief conductor, a post he will assume in 2016. The Italian maestro will thus be the seventh chief conductor in the orchestra’s history. He will be succeeding Mariss Jansons, who announced in April 2014 he was relinquishing the post of chief conductor; Maestro Jansons will be leading the RCO in that capacity for the last time on 20 March 2015.
Daniele Gatti gave an astounding first performance as guest conductor with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2004 with works by Richard Strauss and Wagner. He has since been invited very regularly to return. Maestro Gatti’s concert performances are characterised by highly individual interpretations of the traditional orchestral repertoire and a fondness for less common works. Daniele Gatti has made several tours abroad with the orchestra. In 2013 he conducted Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 on several important European festivals. A CD featuring works by Berg performed by the RCO and Maestro Gatti has been released on the orchestra’s in-house label, RCO Live. He last appeared with the orchestra conducting Verdi’s Falstaff in a June 2014 production at the Dutch National Opera, garnering both public and critical acclaim.
The Executive Board, the Board of Directors and the musicians of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra are delighted that Maestro Gatti was willing to fill such an important position. Managing Director Jan Raes says, ‘The musicians and the management of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra look forward to a long and inspiring collaboration with the renowned conductor Daniele Gatti. It is with great conviction that the orchestra has chosen a partnership with a conductor embodying such passion, dedication and experience. This was readily apparent from the keen involvement ofthe orchestra members in the rigorous selection process.’
Chief-conductor Designate Daniele Gatti: ‘I am deeply honoured to receive this invitation from one of the greatest and oldest orchestras in the world. I will do my very best to deserve it and to serve the music with the support of the musicians and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra family.’
CONCERTS
On 27, 28 and 30 November 2014, Daniele Gatti conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 6.
On 3, 4 and 6 December 2014, Daniele Gatti leads a concert programme with Artist in Residence Leoninas Kavakos as the soloist in Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto.
On 15 and 16 January 2014, Daniele Gatti conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn.
We published yesterday an independent ranking of what are said to be the best music colleges in the US. More authoritative than any list we had seen before, its top three choices seemed pretty much non-contentious – except to some who study within them
Overnight, we received an email from an individual at the top-ranked college, requesting anonymity. This person writes:
The most basic, and troubling concerns I have with the school is the health risks, and complete inadequacy of the facilities. I have seen black mold, mice, leaking urinals. Small appliances have remained unfixed for years, and the bureaucracy is completely unworthy of running this school, let alone for it to be ranked as No.1!!
Here is some evidence:
Any comment from the college concerned?
The American violinist has given an interview of rare candour to our friend Zsolt Bognar, at Living the Classical Life.
He has got nothing to sell, nothing to plug. He talks, musician to musician, about growing up in a family of therapists, about playing 150 concerts a year, about the struggle to raise funds for his first instruments… and his present playing tools.
He also mentions a gambling streak in the family that pushes him to take risks. And ‘the most beautiful sound I have ever heard on a violin’.
Watch at the weekend. It’s 44 minutes. Right here.
Diva DiDonato is gigging tonight in darkest Brooklyn and streaming live to a worldwide audience on her website. the idea is to reach out to a young, non-opera crowd.
Can she do it? Yes she can.
Gig starts 2100 Brooklyn time, 0200 London, but the show will be stay on her site for a month.
Or get down there. It’s at the Gowanus Ballroom, a warehouse performance art space in Brooklyn, located above Serett Metal Works.
(We’ve been to Brooklyn. Once. But never to the metal works.)
Judges have been notified that the 4th international Hong Kong piano competition, due to take place October 10-27 at City Hall, has been cancelled ‘due to events’.
The competition was to have been chaired by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Several top musicians are busily having to reorganise their Asia travel diaries.
Tony Woodcock, former manager of the Liverpool and Bournemouth orchestras, has endured a rocky US career. He left the Minnesota Orchestra in a financial quagmire and has been dogged by turbulence through his tenure at the New England Conservatory.
From reading his resignation statement, however, you’d think it was all a bed of roses. Seldom have we seen a departure letter so full of self-praise. There ought to be a royal band of guards out to welcome him on his homecoming. Here’s the letter, circulated last night among trustees and faculty. As a measure of the prevalent climate of fear at NEC, all those who sent us the letter have begged to remain anonymous. Woodcock calls it ‘a golden period in the history of the NEC’.
Dear NEC Trustees
I hope you have all had an opportunity to read my recent Board Update containing some exciting news about the achievements of our amazing students. This is becoming routine for us at NEC, but their successes never cease to amaze me. Our triumphs at the Indianapolis Violin Competition with 2nd, 4th, and 5th places going to NEC students, at the Kreisler Competition in Vienna, and at the Casals Competition in Spain where cellist Taeguk Mun won first place, all speak to the vitality and artistic energy of this great institution, and like you, I couldn’t be more proud.
Many people have referred to the last several years as a golden period in the history of NEC. Gunther Schuller recently stated that NEC has never been better. As I reflect on these years, I’m moved to remind you of some of the most significant ideas and developments we have advanced, including:
– the Orchestral program under the inspired direction of Hugh Wolff, now considered to be the finest program in the country,
– the Sistema Fellows program which has launched 50 outstanding leaders into the field with stunning results,
– the reinvestment in our Opera program, which has repositioned NEC as a destination for outstanding young singers,
– the contribution that Entrepreneurial Musicianship is now making to the thinking and lives of our students as they begin to manage their careers,
– the celebration of our Jazz and CI 40th anniversaries as cutting edge programs nationally,
– the creative spirit that abounds throughout NEC as a result of our very real focus on chamber music,
– and our thriving Preparatory School which now attracts more students than ever.
I am pleased with the substantive improvements we have made to our financial wellbeing; and I am grateful for the support that all of you have provided for this astonishing organization.
Leading NEC is a privilege. Indeed, it is a position I have always described as the best job in the world. My motivation as President of NEC comes from my real love of the students, my deep respect for our faculty, and my passion for education, for music, for the quality of the student experience and the very real need for scholarship support. I am, after all, a musician, and I see NEC first through this prism. I would like to think that this has contributed to the joyfulness that spills out from classrooms and concerts throughout NEC on a daily basis.
What has become very clear to me in recent times, however, is that NEC is at a moment in its history when it needs a different type of leader as its President. The pressure to balance budgets in the face of scholarship demand and changes in philanthropic support , especially in the years that followed the world’s economic financial collapse, tests every one of us in ways, frankly, I never imagined when I took the reins at NEC. So much so, in fact, that I have come to the conclusion that I have for many years, subjugated my passion for classical music and performing arts to meet the demands of the rest of the job.
As I have shared with Board Chair Ken Burnes, I feel strongly that it is time for me to return to my roots, if you will, and find an outlet where my creative, teaching and musical talents are better tapped. I am therefore announcing my intention to step down as NEC president at the end of the academic year in June 2015. I have communicated this to Ken and I am pleased that he supports me in what has been a very difficult decision.
My intention is to ensure that this transition is as seamless for the Conservatory as it can be. I love NEC very much and I will work through the period of this transition to support you in every way I can as you enter into a search process for my successor. I will do this with the same devotion and commitment I have always demonstrated at NEC.
Sincerely,
Tony Woodcock
When I lunched this week with Stephen Roe, Sotheby’s head of books and manuscripts, he had to swear me to silence over his latest find.
Now all can be revealed.
A portrait of Mozart, never seen in public before, is coming up for auction next month.
One of only a dozen authentic images of the composer, it was sent by Mozart to his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart (known as the Bäsle) in exchange for one from her. Mozart and Maria Anna had a lively correspondence in their teens, full of dirty words and thoughts, before drifting in different directions. The picture apparently remained in the cousin’s family for two centuries.
Here’s the picture, as copied by Sotheby’s. It has never been reproduced in colour before. Prepare to adjust your image of teenaged Mo.
Dr Stephen Roe, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Books & Manuscripts, says: “One of only two authentic paintings of Mozart remaining in private hands and one of only a dozen or so authentic paintings and drawings of the composer, this object’s significance is virtually unparalleled. What is particularly exciting is that the portrait has never been reproduced in colour in the standard Mozart literature, and it is only now that the miniature’s special qualities can be more widely appreciated. Mozart’s features come as a revelation when viewed in the flesh; the detail in the face is remarkable, formed by the tiniest dots of gouache applied with the utmost precision and delicacy, and a marvellous luminosity pervades the entire image. The artist, though unknown, has caught the essence of the composer.”
