The latest data from Nielsen Soundscan make gloomy reading.
After a Christmas upturn, sustained into January, only one classical record – the Ultimate Bocelli sold more than 350 copies last week.
Behind Bocelli was André Rieu and behind him Mr Pants.
At number four was Sonya Yoncheva, with just over 200 sales in the biggest market in the world.
Grim.
Joyce DiDonato took a few friends to the Stonewall Inn, birthplace of the gay rights movement, to sing out against continuing prejudice. The song she chose was Dido’s Lament from Henry Purcell’s opera of doomed lovers. Watch.
I’m thinking of Andrew Patner, tears in eyes, as I watch. Andrew spoke of prejudice he suffered at early stages in his creative life. Joyce intends the video to honour the memory of Mark Carson, a gay man murdered nearby in a 2013 hate crime.
The history of Mahler’s song ‘Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen’ is particularly unhappy. A self-withdrawing ballad, Mahler gave the orchestral manuscript as a 50th birthday present to his oldest friend, the musicologist Guido Adler.
Stolen from Adler’s Vienna apartment in 1941 by a Nazi lawyer, it vanished for half a century until an Adler grandson, a US civil rights lawyer, tracked it down and sued for restitution. The manuscript was sold at auction and went once more into limbo.
Until now.
This weekend, a facsimile will be presented to the world by the Kaplan Foundation in New York. It is a thing of beauty, a joy to behold.
Press release follows.
The facsimile edition
More musical material tracking Mahler’s composing is available for “Ich bin der Welt” than for any of his other songs. The 92 page Kaplan Edition (37 x 29 cm.) reproduces not only the lost manuscript of the version for orchestra but also the piano version, preliminary sketches as well as pages from a copy Alma Mahler made for the printer. Both the orchestra and piano versions as well as Alma’s copy are reproduced in their actual sizes. All these sources are analyzed in a comprehensive essay by Stephen Hefling, America’s leading Mahler scholar.
In addition to the facsimiles and commentary, there are three additional features:
– A chapter documenting the six performances of “Ich bin der Welt” that Mahler either conducted or accompanied on the piano (by Knud Martner)
– A discography listing 155 recordings of the song (by Pèter Fülöp)
– A CD of two recordings sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the acclaimed interpreter of Mahler’s lieder. Fischer-Dieskau is accompanied in the orchestra version by the Berlin Philharmonic, led by Karl Böhm, and in the piano version by Leonard Bernstein.
So “I am Lost to the World” is no longer lost. With the publication of this stunning facsimile edition, the surviving documents of its gestation and perfection are now available to scholars and music lovers.
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Distributed by OMI – Old Manuscripts & Incunabula, New York
PO Box 6019, FDR Station
New York City 10150 USA
telephone (212) 758-1946
email immels@earthlink.net
$100.00
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Kaplan Foundation
This facsimile edition of the autograph manuscripts of “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” is published by the Kaplan Foundation, which for more than 25 years has been a leader in Mahler research, publications, historical recordings, exhibitions, and symposia. The Foundation has published facsimile editions of Mahler’s autograph manuscript of the Second Symphony and of the Adagietto movement of the Fifth Symphony. It has produced Mahler Plays Mahler, a recording using piano rolls that Mahler made of his own compositions. These rolls are the only documents that exist of Mahler as a performer. The Foundation has also published Mahler Discography (together with editor Pèter Fülöp), a definitive guide to 2,774 recordings of Mahler’s music; Mahler’s Concerts, by Knud Martner, a compilation of the 323 known performances led by Mahler as a conductor or pianist; and The Mahler Album (editor Gilbert Kaplan), an award-winning illustrated biography containing all known photographs and a selection of drawings and sculptures of the composer. Together with Universal Edition, the Foundation is co-publisher of two scores of Mahler’s Second Symphony: the New Critical Edition (editors Renate Stark-Voit and Gilbert Kaplan) and the arrangement of the symphony for small orchestra (by Gilbert Kaplan and Rob Mathes); and with C. F. Peters, co-publisher of the New Critical Edition of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony.
In a fascinating hourlong interview with Sibelius expert Vesa Siren, the Berlin Phil conductor describes the symphony that is least suited to his orchestra.
‘To do an accelerando at all with Berlin Philharmonic is really quite hard! It is a very heavy, Germanic truck that has it’s feet on the ground and part of what is extraordinary is how the sound comes out off the ground. And often with Sibelius, you have to really move. It is not that we can’t rush, because we can rush like hell particularly when we don’t want to. When it is necessary to get faster in a controlled way it is very difficult. It requires the same kind of trust as when you stand up and someone says I will catch you when you fall. To actually do this accelerando without going off the rails requires an incredible amount of trust. I would say that fifth symphony this orchestra found the hardest, by far. The symphonies I found tremendously difficult with other orchestras – 4 and 6 – were absolutely no problem here at all. Berlin Phil knows about the sound and line and how to go through silences with the meaning. I look forward to work incredibly hard (with the fifth) — with enough time to work incredibly hard.’
Rattle goes on to discuss the Sibelius work of several other conductors. He runs through a critical discography. Watch the interview here.
The Royal Opera House has announced five additions to the Jette Parker programme, which trains young singers and pays them a salary for two years.
The five are a Russian soprano Vlada Borovko, Irish soprano Jennifer Davis, Australian mezzo-soprano Emily Edmonds, Korean tenor David Junghoon Kim and a British bass David Shipley (pictured). They were picked from some 370 applicants from 59 countries.
The five join a second-year set of three Australians, a Ukrainian and another Brit. What stands out? Jette Parker does little for the locals.
The ROH is funded by UK taxpayers. We have an election coming up. This is unfortunate.
Let’s not pre-judge, but if it comes to choosing sides… here’s the full story in the Times of India.
Never a cross word between these guys in the picture.
Northern Ireland Opera has sent out an email to people who have bought tickets to its forthcoming Richard Strauss opera, advising them of a late change in the production: ‘The dancer playing Salome will now appear nude for the last 10 seconds of the Dance’.
NI Opera added: ‘This change represents Salome in an image of stark vulnerability. We believe it adds significantly to the artistic value of the performance.’
Clergy are leading a thunder of protest. The Rev David McIlveen said: ‘The attempt by the production team to sensualise the story through the inclusion of a nudity scene is in my view designed to deflect the minds of the audience away from a most solemn truth.’
Look away now.
Cast:
Salome: Giselle Allen
Herod: Michael Colvin
Jokanaan: Robert Hayward
Herodias: Heather Shipp
Narraboth: Adrian Dwyer
Page: Carolyn Dobbin
We regret to share news of the death of Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill’s official biographer, an advisor to prime minister Tony Blair, and an energetic historian of the Holocaust.
He was 78 and had been in poor health for several years.
Gilbert was a member of the ongoing Chilcott Inquiry into the Iraq War.
Just in from the Gothenburg Symphony:
On 1-2 February, the German film director Wim Wenders was in Gothenburg to record the music to his new 3D-movie Everything Will Be Fine (starring James Franco and Charlotte Gainsbourg), composed and conducted by Alexandre Desplat, a leading Oscar contender for The Imitation Game and Grand Budapest Hotel.
After the recording with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, director and composer hurried off to an Oslo studio for a cutting and mixing session. The movie will be premièred at the Berlin Film Festival on 10 February.
Here’s a video from the recording including interviews with Wenders and Desplat:
Wolfram Christ, principal viola in Berlin for 20 years, has been gathering conducting dates for the past decade.
Now, he’s got an agent.
Conducting’s becoming a bit like brain surgery. After you’ve seen a few good ones, you think anyone can do it.
Gianluca Marcianò, the highly rated young Italian conductor, has walked out on the State Opera in Tbilisi, Georgia.
His team explain why, below.
1. Gianluca Marcianò arrived in Tbilisi to conduct a charity concert in April 2010. After an inspirational meeting with David Sakvarelidze (general manager of Tbilisi State Opera and Ballet) agreed to become music director and principal conductor. The project was to create an international opera hub for the entire ex-Soviet Union area which would become the bridge between east and west. Right now, the Georgian operatic school is leading in the world. Tbilisi State Opera Orchestra had wonderful tours in China, Italy, at Al Bustan Festival, in Estonia.
Georgia in 2010 was full of potential and perspective in many fields. Now, sadly, there is deep stagnation. David Sakvarelidze, was dismissed after an oligarch came into power. His dismissal was not the only politically motivated decision taken by the new government.
2.The law that regulates theaters in Georgia was changed. Under the new law, there is an artistic director with full power over opera and spoken theatre, and some committees (soviets). The Artistic Director in the Opera House, because of this law, is also Music Director. The last two artistic directors (Davit Kintsurashvili and Giorgi Jordania) are both conductors. They employed themselves as conductors in the theatre, which can create conflict with the principal conductor. The conflict between the former artistic director and Marcianò ended in a massive demonstration at the Ministry of Culture with a huge national media exposure, a kind of revolution which brought back some hope (for a little while).
Mr Kintsurashvili sent Marciano several emails to inform him that he took some strategic decisions which usually would need the approval of the principal conductor. Marciano was informed after the decisions were taken, like removing the leader of the orchestra from her position, planning auditions which would include principal players of the orchestra, changing the titles for next season and deciding at the last moment to cancel the agreement with a guest conductor (Alessandro Benigni) who was invited to perform Lucia di Lammermoor.
After all this, he was obviously very concerned. Being in Leeds, conducting La Traviata at Opera North, Marciano couldn’t go back to Tbilisi, but he was constantly in touch with musicians and singers. Just before his planned return, Marciano was informed that because of the Georgian law his position had been changed to Principal GUEST Conductor as he doesn’t spend enough time in Georgia.
He was given two options: a contract by performance or a 1 year contract paid only for the days that he would spend in Georgia. The position of Principal Conductor in the theatre is not existing anymore and he would be in any case be Principal GUEST. He accepted the first option , so that he could conduct a Rossini’s Stabat Mater and 2 concert performances of Lucia di Lammermoor till Jan 30 2015 and discuss with the management his role in the theatre for the future.
3. When he joined Tbilisi State Opera, under general manager Sakvarelidze, planning was done month by month while any artist’s or any theatre’s schedule in the world is at least 1, when not 2/3 years in advance. He was able to plan his work in Tbilisi very well, but now he can’t wait till the last moment when he is booked elsewhere. Marciano requested to tell how many performances per year he should conduct as principal conductor but the answer was that they cannot say.
4. He tried to explain his concerns to the Minister of Culture, Mikheil Giorgadze, but never got a chance to meet him. He mentioned to the Minister what should be done urgently for Opera and it is not done, but…… The above mentioned are the reasons why Gianluca Marciano could not continue his relationship with Tbilisi State Opera. He will be back in Georgia to conduct a big concert which will celebrate Paata Burchuladze’s 60th birthday. Many Georgian and international opera stars will sing and it will be the best possible farewell concert for him!
He would like to say that he loved being in Georgia and had wonderful time there, meeting wonderful artists, friends, colleagues. They wrote to him extraordinary moving messages after they heard about his decision and he is really happy.
He is hoping that one day the situation in Georgia will change, that the great plans, perspectives and projects which he found when he arrived in 2010 will be back. He hopes that the stagnation will end and it will be possible again to work properly. In that case he will be available for Tbilisi State Opera and Ballet and they will know how to find him. Until then he will continue to work elsewhere and enjoying music.
The music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has issued the following statement:
‘I am very sorry to learn of the passing of Andrew Patner this morning. I had enormous respect for him as a man of great culture and deep humanity. We had a sincere friendship and his death is a tragic loss to the cultural life of Chicago. My profound condolences to all his family and friends.’
Salzburg, summer 2011
The CSO adds: ‘The entire Chicago Symphony Orchestra family expresses its deepest sympathy to the family and friends of longtime Chicago journalist Andrew Patner. A regular and welcome presence at CSO concerts here at home and around the world, Andrew had a unique way of communicating his deep knowledge and passion for classical music to audiences of all ages and walks of life, creating new fans for this art form. He was a champion for all arts in his beloved Chicago, and his voice – both on the air and off – will be sorely missed.’
