File photo of Vladimir Putin clapping for prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow

 

Reuters file photo shows Russian President Vladimir Putin welcoming prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya before a performance at Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on November 20, 2000. Plisetskaya died yesterday in Germany of a heart attack, at the age of 89. Putin expressed ‘deep condolences’ to her family.

Maya’s father was murdered in Stalin’s bloodlust of 1938; her mother was sent to Siberia.

From WQXR:

Join us at 1 pm for a live broadcast of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ballroom Dance) from the Metropolitan Opera.

Ricardo Tamura plays the self-destructive King Gustavo III of Sweden in this afternoon’s performancereplacing Piotr Beczala, who is ill. Sondra Radvanovsky is Amelia, the woman the King loves. Dmitri Hvorostovsky is Anckarström, Gustavo’s friend and Amelia’s husband; Dolora Zajick is Ulrica, the fortune-teller who predicts the king’s murder; and Heidi Stober is the pageboy Oscar.

piotr beczala2

Allan “AJ” Nilles, formerly violist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, has won the audition for tutti violist of the Berliner Philharmoniker.

He has been living in Berlin since January and announced the move in a San Diego interview. He was added today to the Berlin Phil roster.

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A correspondent in Vancouver reports:

yo yo ma exchannge
On Friday night (May 1) Yo-Yo Ma filled in for a cellist in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra who threw out his back.

It is not unheard of for Yo-Yo to join the section after he plays the concerto, but in this case, he played in the cello section in the first half of the concert, and then performed the Dvorak Concerto in the second half.

yo yo ma

During the extended ovation, Yo Yo took a selfie with conductor Bramwell Tovey.

 

There were two Germans and a Taiwanese in the final. Here’s what happened.

 

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Press release: 317 aspiring conductors applied for entry to the 2015 Malko Competition. Two dozen made it through

pre-selection. After five intense days at DR Koncerthuset the victor was crowned in Copenhagen tonight.

 

HRH Prince Henrik, the patron of the competition, was able to announce Tung-Chieh Chuang, 32, from Taiwan as the winner of this year’s competition. David Niemann from Germany won second prize, and third prize went to Jesko Sirvend also from Germany.

Tung-Chieh Chuang will receve a €20,000 cheque and have jury president Sakari Oramo as his mentor for the next three years. The title also brings engagements with twenty-seven of the leading European orchestras, including the Stockholm Phiharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, and the Munich Philharmonic, and of course with the competition hosts, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

 

President of the Jury, maestro Sakari Oramo commented: “The competition has a thoroughly high level, every single one of the 24 original contestants hold a professional ability to conduct. The differences are in their respective ways to lead, inspire and enthuse the orchestra, as well as in the many nuances of their musicianship. Feedback sessions that all contestants have spent with every jury member have been the most valuable and important element of this competition. I am very much looking forward to working as a mentor for Tung-Chieh Chuang.“

 

About the winner: Tung-Chieh Chuang

The breakthrough for Tung-Chieh Chuang, 32, from Taiwan came in 2013 when he won the Mahler Competition. Since winning 2nd prize and audience prize at the most recent Solti competition (1st prize not awarded), Chuang has attracted numerous worldwide engagements. He has worked with Die 12 Cellisten der Berliner Philharmoniker, Bamberger Symphoniker, National Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan), Taipei Symphony Orchestra, among others.

 

The composer Rodion Schhedrin has reported the death of his wife, the legendary dancer Maya Plisetskaya, aged 89.

She died of heart attack in Germany. ‘The German doctors did their best, but she could not be saved,’ said Shchedrin.

Plisetskaya-Shchedrin-

Born into a Jewish family whose father was murdered by Stalin in 1938, Plisetskaya first danced at the Bolshoi when she was 11. She inherited Ulanova’s title as prima ballerina assoluta in 1961. Among the roles she created were Moiseyev’s Spartacus (1958), Grigorovich’s The Stone Flower (1959), Aurora in Grigorovich’s The Sleeping Beauty (1963), Alberto Alonso’s Carmen Suite (1967), written especially for her, and Bejart’s Isadora (1976).

Her supremacy was inviolable. She once received a half-hour standing ovation at the Metropolitan Opera.

Here she is, dancing at 61:

sibelius funeral

Christopher Russell, who has come across this footage, wonders if this was the last time a nation paid full honours to a dead composer.

Was any of our readers present at the ceremony?

Geek Out! at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford reminds us that Mahler’s first symphony was the original trial work on a network of ZX Spectrum computers in the mid-1980s. Why Mahler?

why mahler

Invented by Lady Gaga’s accompanist,  Brockett Parsons.

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He’s calling it Pianoarc.

Would you believe this is the subject of academic research? How do these people justify their jobs?

inflatable-arm-man-orchestra-conductor

 

 

Perceptions of gender in orchestral conducting

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Page 1: Introduction

This survey seeks to discover whether the gender of a conductor can be determined by listening alone. And, by extension, whether our visual perception plays a part in how we understand gender in orchestral conducting. It is not a quick survey. However, it presents the issue in an innovative way and should be of interest to anyone involved in orchestral performance as participant, observer or both.

If you are interested in taking part, you should allow up to 45 minutes in order to complete the survey. As well as open-ended questions, the survey asks you to listen-to and watch two recordings of orchestral performances. Ideally, the survey should be completed in one sitting. However, it is possible to take a break from the survey at any point.

The survey falls into four sections:

  1. Some open-ended questions about your experience of observing women and men conductors. (approx. 5 minutes to complete)
  2. Identifying the gender of conductors in a short audio-only recording of seven excerpts, each conducted by both a woman and a man. (20 minutes)
  3. Watching and listening to the same recording with vision added, and noting your reaction to this experience. (15 minutes)
  4. A few demographic questions and space for further comments. (5 minutes)

Many thanks for your participation.

Nicholas Logie MA, PhD (Open)

Honorary Associate at the Open University (music department)

 

More here

 

 

Stefan Arzberger, leader of the Leipzig string quartet, has pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court to charges of attempted murder, assault and strangulation.

He is alleged to have forced his way naked into a fellow-guest’s room at the Hudson Hotel and tried to choke her.

Arzberger’s lawyer said he had been drugged and robbed by a transsexual prostitute. The violinist, 42, was supported by his wife who had flown out from Germany for the hearing.

New York Post court report here.

stefan arzberger

 

Montreal instrument maker Francis Beaulieu has sent us this picture of a viol he made for a client, who took it on the DL1870 Delta flight last Saturday from Atlanta to Montreal.

broken viol

Somehow, the instrument was manhandled to such an extent that its neck was broken in transit. Francis says this ‘is typical of what happens when an instrument in its case is dropped, or receives a violent shock. As a viol maker and restorer, I have seen that kind of damage many times after airplane incidents.’

The owner tells us: ‘It was a checked baggage and was traveling in a big flight case (that has done several other trips before). The case shows signs of a big impact on the side of the head. The neck was broken and the body of the instrument was damaged (it chipped) by the impact of the neck breaking.’

Beware the brutal Delta.