When a Bach pianist turns to Beethoven, you can expect a lighter touch. Angela Hewitt is airily delightful in the earliest of these sonatas – the Op.2 No.2 which Beethoven wrote aged 25 after finishing his course of studies in Vienna. By no means an early work in the normal sense of the term, this sonata is imbued with, if anything, too much knowledge…
From my Album of the Week on sinfinimusic.com. Read the full review here.
From the Schott press release: ‘The Piano-Yoga® method is founded on a synergy between the Russian School of Piano Playing and Eastern Philosophies… Piano-Yoga® believes that, with a simple and holistic approach, which takes into account an individual’s physical, psychological and energetic state, one can learn faster and more easily.’
Release follows (you may read that any way you like).
Launch of Piano-Yoga® Club in London!
Due to popular demand, we are delighted to announce the launch of Piano-Yoga® Club in London! Described as ‘Something radical’ and ‘ The first entirely new technique to emerge in the last 50 years’ by Yoga & Health Magazine, the Club will give an opportunity to learn in-depth about the Piano-Yoga® method and get advice directly from its creator, ‘an outstanding musician’ (The Times), concert pianist and composer, GéNIA. Taking place in the heart of London at one of the oldest sheet music stores, Schott Music, the Club will run every first Wednesday of the month starting September 2015 at 7pm- 8:15pm using the beautiful Steinway B kindly provided by Steinway & Sons.
The activity of the Club will involve practical exercises for pianists and a short presentation from GéNIA (please see the schedule below), followed by a Q&A session. Participants will be able to discover specific details about piano technique, learn strategies for efficient practice, get tips on dealing with stage fright and how to keep relaxed during their practice amongst other things.
The Piano-Yoga® method is founded on a synergy between the Russian School of Piano Playing and Eastern Philosophies, especially Yoga, and is suitable both for professional musicians and amateur pianists. Whether one is an advanced pianist, teacher or just starting out, Piano-Yoga® has something to offer to everyone. The more advanced a musician is, the more they can benefit from the method.
Piano-Yoga® believes that, with a simple and holistic approach, which takes into account an individual’s physical, psychological and energetic state, one can learn faster and more easily. Strongly emphasising the uniqueness of each human being, Piano-Yoga® teaches musicians how to learn to play the piano utilising their strengths, while gently working on improving their weaknesses. Whether one has tight shoulders, tension in their arms, rhythm problems, performance nerves or the inability to organise piano practice efficiently, Piano-Yoga® can offer various solutions and teach musicians how to be in charge of their own progress.
Piano-Yoga® also pays a great attention to the musician’s environment, which can be a lonely existence, especially for pianists, and we believe that the Piano-Yoga® Club will attract like–minded people and become a great place for interactive, creative and noncompetitive music making.
Booking Information
Date: Every First Wednesday of the month starting 2 September 2015
Venue: Schott Music Shop, 48 Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7BB
Time: 7:00-8:15pm
Fees: £25 ticket per one visit to the club; £120 – pass for 6 visits to the club valid for a year until September 2016 (£20 per ticket), £187 pass for the whole year (£17 per ticket)
Bookings: In advance and on the door. Tickets can be purchased in advance via our website using telephone/online banking or on the day with card or cash.
Advance Booking: www.piano-yoga.com | info@piano-yoga.com | +44 (0)20 7226 9829
Danielle DeNiese, countess of Glyndebourne who opens in a Ravel double-bill this weekend, has been hobbling around the rehearsals on crutches. An ankle injury, apparently. Dani tweets: ‘Mortified to be on crutches, thought they blended best into gold 🙂 Very excited for Ravel.’
Last summer, the German soprano Christiane Karg sang out a Mozart run in excruciating pain with a dislocated kneecap. In 2010, David Shaw played the fox in Stravinsky’s Renard with the assistance of a crutch.
Opera in the countryside is all very glamorous, but one needs to be aware of fox-holes and things that go bump in the night.
Going to hear the National Youth Orchestra work on Mahler’s ninth symphony for this Saturday’s BBC Prom, I was more than a little anxious at how a group of 170 teenagers would address the composer’s struggle with death, let alone the technical complexities of that whispering finale.
I need not have feared.
The young musicians, aged 13 to 19, played with as much seriousness and application as any of the world’s great orchestras I have seen in rehearsal. The concentration on Mark Elder’s comments was absolute. The final pages of the symphony sounded like a feather on the breath of God.
Mahler himself could not have imagined it more sensitively realised.
The same seriousness and concentration was in evidence when I talked to the group about meaning in Mahler and what his music has to say about the darkest moments in our lives. I have seldom stood before a smarter, hungrier, funnier, more responsive audience – the ideal audience that lets you know where you’re going wrong before you even go there. Every question I was asked was testing and to the point. Every interaction was thought-provoking.
Members of the National Youth Orchestra come from all kinds of backgrounds and every part of the country. Levels of general education were varied, so far I could tell. Only one had read Kafka, none knew their way around a paintbox. But almost all had played something by Shostakovich.
The young musicians meet three times a year for an immersive experience in a musical masterpiece. To see them explore and embrace the elusive ambiguities of the late-life preoccupations of Mahler’s Ninth was a tremendous affirmation of the work’s many-layered meanings. It was a supreme pleasure for this hard-bitten Mahler searcher.
More than a pleasure: it was a privilege.
Shira Banki, who died yesterday from wounds inflicted by an anti-gay Orthodox fanatic, was just 16 years old. A passionate and talented musician, she played this concerto at the Bet Hakerem music school six years ago.
No words can express humanity’s contempt for her murderer.
We are delighted to report the weekend wedding of John Summers, chief executive of the Halle Orchestra, to Hilary Boulding, principal of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
We wish them much harmony and happiness.
The jury at thewell-endowed international Paloma O’Shea piano competition have announced a homogenous set of finalists: all male, and all but one of them Asian. Here‘s the pack:
Jinhyung Park (Korea, 18) Juan Perez Floristán (Spain, 22), Kazuya Saito (Japan, 25), Akihiro Sakiya (Japan, 26), David Jae-Weon Huh (Korea, 28) and Jianing Kong (China, 29).
The Cleveland Orchestra has announced a successor to its retiring executive director, Gary Hanson. Gary, a Canadian, is a Cleveland lifer – almost 30 years inside during which time he has won the orch unprecedented residencies at the European high spots.
He’s to be succeeded by André Gremillet, a Quebecois who has previously managed the symphony orchestras of New Jersey and Melbourne, Australia.
He is the second Melbourne manager in succession to win a Big Five US orch, the previous one being Matthew Van Besien, now at the New York Philharmonic. Press release follows.
Cleveland – The President of the Board of Trustees of the Musical Arts Association Dennis W. LaBarre today announced that Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Managing Director André Gremillet will succeed current Cleveland Orchestra Executive Director Gary Hanson. At the time of his retirement, Mr. Hanson will have served the institution for more than 27 years, with almost 12 years in his current position.
Dennis W. LaBarre said, “André Gremillet has an impressive artistic background, corporate leadership experience and has successfully enhanced the fiscal health of two symphony orchestras. Our international search firm, Spencer Stuart produced a strong group of potential candidates, several of whom were interviewed extensively, by our Trustee Search Committee. Franz Welser-Möst, Senior Staff and the Orchestra Committee met with André and all had positive reactions. Following those meetings, the Search Committee was unanimous in its decision to offer Gremillet the position. I am delighted that André has accepted our offer and I look forward to working with him to extend The Cleveland Orchestra’s strong record of achievement. Beginning in October 2015, Hanson and Gremillet will work together on transitional matters until Gremillet assumes his full time responsibilities.”
“André’s leadership qualities together with his artistic sensibilities are a great match for The Cleveland Orchestra. I spent a substantial amount of time getting to know André and I’m very enthusiastic about our choice,” stated Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. “Combining the long-term partnership that the musicians and I already have developed, together with André’s international experience along with the extraordinary support and commitment of the Board of Trustees, will help further develop innovative and thoughtful programming as we look to our centennial in 2018 and build into the Orchestra’s second century.”
“I can think of no individual better suited to take the executive reins of The Cleveland Orchestra,” stated Gary Hanson. “I’m confident that André will feel, as I do, that serving this great Orchestra is a true privilege. With his broad experience and record of achievement, André is an ideal leader to pursue ever-greater institutional goals in a time of immense change and challenge for symphony orchestras.”
“The Cleveland Orchestra represents the brightest example of what a great orchestra should be in the 21st century,” stated André Gremillet. “It truly is an honor to be appointed its next Executive Director and to succeed Gary Hanson, who has had a remarkable tenure. I look forward to working with the superb artists that are Franz Welser-Möst and the Musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as with a Board and Staff who are leaders in the orchestra world to extend the Orchestra’s achievement in musical excellence, commitment to community, and financial strength.”
About André Gremillet
André Gremillet has been Managing Director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since November 2012. During his tenure, the MSO greatly deepened its engagement with the Melbourne community, resulting in a significant increase in ticket sales and fundraising, and completed a highly successful European Tour with performances at the BBC Proms in London, the Edinburgh Festival, and the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, among others. Under his leadership, the MSO recently extended the contract of its Chief Conductor Sir Andrew Davis, with whom it has made several critically-acclaimed recordings including the first installment of a Charles Ives orchestral works cycle on Chandos. Other highlights under Gremillet’s tenure also feature initiatives such as the MSO’s Chinese New Year concerts and the introduction of MSO Connect, a partnership between the Orchestra and several of Melbourne’s secondary schools.
From 2007 to 2012, André Gremillet was President and CEO of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) where his tenure marked a financial turnaround for the organization. Under Gremillet’s leadership, the NJSO appointed Jacques Lacombe as Music Director, strengthened its Board of Trustees, and greatly increased its national visibility and artistic reputation.
Prior to joining the NJSO, Mr. Gremillet served for four years as President of the internationally-renowned pipe organ building company Casavant Frères. A native of Québec, Canada, and a conservatory-trained pianist, André Gremillet holds a Master’s degree from the Mannes College of Music and an MBA from McGill University.
Andris Nelsons may have waited until the Berlin Philharmonic post was finally sorted out before agreeing, this weekend, to a three year extension to his Boston Symphony contract.
Press release below.
Boston, August 4, 2015: The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons have reached an agreement to extend Mr. Nelsons’ contract as BSO Music Director through the 2021-22 season, following his extraordinary first year in that role, having received virtually unanimous praise and universal enthusiasm for his work with the orchestra from critics and audiences alike. Mr. Nelsons’ initial five-year contract with the BSO will be replaced with an eight-year contract, with an evergreen clause in place reflecting a mutual desire for a long-term commitment between the BSO and Mr. Nelsons well beyond the eight years of the new contract.
This news about Andris Nelsons’ contract extension with the BSO takes place just as Mr. Nelsons returns to Tanglewood to lead six programs, including a performance and webcast of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the BSO’s acclaimed summer music academy; Mr. Nelsons also embarks on his first tour with the BSO as its music director to Europe’s major summer music festivals and concert halls, August 22-September 5.
…
“I am so very honoured and incredibly excited by this new chapter in my musical life with the Boston Symphony Orchestra,” said BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons. “This is a significant opportunity for me and the orchestra to work together on deeper levels, artistically and musically. And it is particularly through this kind of closeness in our work together that we will be able to go much further in our growth, in the hope to realize inspirational performances and embrace new audiences with wonderful music. The fact I am so thrilled over furthering our future together is tied with our passionate commitment to our wonderful patrons, generous donors and supporters, dedicated staff and management team and of course our fantastic audiences. I so look forward to sharing the remarkable beauty of this orchestra with music fans in Boston, throughout the country, and around the globe, and we extend our warmest invitation for you to come and hear us soon.”
Lilly Jørstad, a student at the La Scala Academy, made her debut this weekend in Barber of Seville opposite Leo Nucci and Ruggero Raimondi. Graham Spicer tells s all about it here.
But nota bene: Lilly is 29. Leo and Ruggero are both 73, with a lifetime’s experience behind them.
The beauty of opera is that age need not matter at all.
A transformation has been wrought in deepest Hampshire. Read here.
Before.
After.
The last music store on the block of 48th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues has announced it’s closing down.
The strip used to be a mecca where you went to buy, upgrade or repair and instrument, not to mention meet musicians of every calibre from all corners of the world. But rising rents, typically tripled to $12,000 a month, have put the music stores out of business. New York is killing another part of its character.
More here.
