Alastair Willis is leaving the Illinois Symphony Orchestra midways through his contract in order ‘to balance the demands of his international performance schedule’.
Alastair, US born, was raised in Surrey and went to university in Bristol and Kingston. He now lives in Seattle.
It’s on sale next Monday in Monte Carlo. Details here.
Or so they say.
The 1862 Erard was in Liszt’s apartment in the Vatican at the time of his death in 1886. It lay untouched for more than a century until its rediscovery in the 1990s by the Italian pianist, Carlo Maria Dominici.
Newly restored, it is going on public display this week for the first time at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Nice.
Except the Liszt Museum at the Academy in Budapest is crammed with instruments that Liszt acquired and played after 1862 and up to the year of his death. Read more here. And the very last piano he touched is in Bayreuth, where he died.
Sorry, Vienna.
Jessica Duchen reports the death of her neighbour, John McCaw, at the age of 96.
Jack, a New Zealander, was principal clarinet of the New Philharmonia and the London Philharmonic in the glory days. He was old-school London muso, hard-working, unassuming, dazzling on his night. He played the first Nielsen concerto I ever heard.
Funeral details here.
We’re excited to report that, at the dress rehearsal of Katharina Wagner’s new production of Tristan und Isolde, the part of Isolde was sung by Linda Watson, deputising for an unwell Evelyn Herlitzius.
Linda had flown in just a day earlier from California.
Evelyn is expected to reclaim the role on opening night, but insiders tell us that Linda was absolutely stunning.
Linda is a previous Kundry, Ortrud, all Brünnhilde at Bayreuth.
We reported yesterday that a portrait of Gustav Mahler, inscribed by him to Arnold Schoenberg, had been put up for sale on ebay. The ownership looked a bit suspicious. It now appears to be decidedly questionable.
We have received the following message from Larry Schoenberg, the composer’s son:
‘It is clear to me that the photograph was taken from our father’s legacy. My father did not give it away, my father did not sell it, my mother did not give it away and she did not sell it. We, his children did not give it away nor did we sell it. My sister, Nuria Nono remembers it well in our father’s study and discovered that there were only empty frames at the Schoenberg Institute at USC. She disclosed this to the archivist and later again to the archivist at the Schoenberg Center in Vienna.
‘If someone had purchased it or received it as a gift would they not display it prominently rather than stuffing into a drawer?
‘Anyone interested can gather more information by reading Randy’s blog.
Randy is E Randol Schoenberg, a Los Angeles attorney specialising in restitution, and star of the Helen Mirren film, Woman in Gold (below). This file will doubtless be on his desk this morning.
There might be a case for charging ebay with the sale of stolen goods.
In Houston, it’s 19 year-old Simone Porter.
In Cincinnati, it’s Karen Gomyo.
In Montreal, it’s Ray Chen.
With the BBC Philharmonic, on a US tour, it’s Viktoria Mullova and Sarah Chang
Quite a range of talent.
The young English conductor Jonathan Berman has been asked to deputise at Tanglewood’s Gunther Schuller tribute for Oliver Knussen, who failed to get visa approval after five months of applications.
Berman has been in Tanglewood for the past week on standby as understudy.
JUL 23 2015 THURSDAY, 8:00 PM
Festival of Contemporary Music
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
JONATHAN BERMAN TO CONDUCT GUNTHER SCHULLER PREMIERE AT TANGLEWOOD
SCHULLER Magical Trumpets (world premiere; TMC commission)
MADERNA Serenata No. 2 for 11 Instruments-
CARTER A Sunbeam’s Architecture *
PERLE Critical Moments 1
SCHULLER Concerto da Camera
WUORINEN Megalith (TMC commission)
Jonathan Berman, conductor (Schuller, Maderna, Wourinen)
Peter Serkin, piano
Nicholas Phan, tenor
Thomas Rolfs, Benjamin Wright, Thomas Siders, Michael Martin, James Thompson, and Karen Bliznik, trumpets
The New Fromm Players
* Stefan Asbury, conductor (Carter)
Elementary school teacher Adriana Lopez was diagnosed recently with breast cancer.
So the student chorus of Public School 22 in Staten Island, N.Y, prepared her a little surprise.
A hard-up veterinary student is selling on ebay a portrait that Gustav Mahler inscribed to Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna in 1907. The provenance is complicated. It appears the portrait belonged to the student’s grandfather, Abraham Fraser, who obtained it from his teacher, Joseph Schmid, a friend of Schoenberg’s.
See the full story here.
The price? A mere $150,000.
A private donor has bought for the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation a book from which Leopold Mozart taught his little son how to write music. The manuscript copy made by the Mozarts of a work by Eugenio di Ligniville will go on display in the Mozart Residence during the Festival.
The item was auctioned on 28 May 2015 at Sotheby’s in London and bought by Salzburg’s benefactor for £167,000 (€ 237,000).
A sharp-eyed reader spotted that, in the opening-night programme for the ROH’s notorious rape-scene William Tell, the lead sponsors were Simon and Virginia Robertson. On the website, however, their names have been removed.
Sir Simon is a retired banker, Old Etonian and staunch Tory. The couple have been prominent supporters of the ROH for many years. We asked Covent Garden to explain the omission.
The response was: ‘Simon and Virginia Robertson were uncomfortable with the amount of attention this production received so we offered to remove their names. They have not withdrawn their support for the production and are long time philanthropists for the Royal Opera House and supported many new productions.’
Damiano Michieletto’s production was loudly booed, both at the dress rehearsal and on first night. The ROH later toned down the rape.
