October 2015 - Page 11 of 26

Andrew Rose of Pristine Classical has come up with a genuine find: the brilliant pianist Jascha Spivakovsky, whose musical career was overshadowed by his violinist brother.

Read this, by Mark Ainley.

Then try some of this.

Tonight, compare it to whoever wins the Chopin Competition.

h/t: Patricia Hammond

The music critics association of Moscow have chosen Dr Polina Efimova Weidmann as their musician of the year. She came top of a shortlist that included Vladimir Jurowski and a banned Wagner production in Novosibirsk.

A researcher at the Tchaikovsky House Museum, Weidmann said: ‘For me, this award is a complete surprise. And a bit embarrassing to come ahead of Vladimir Jurowski, who has supported us from the very beginning in exploring the unknown Tchaikovsky.’

source: ClassicalMusicNews.ru

Lev Sivkov, from Siberia, took the $15,000 first prize at the Naumburg 2015 International Cello Competition. A student of Jean-Guihen Queyras at Freiburg, Sivkov also wins two New York recitals.

Tied for second place were Juilliard’s Jay Campbell, 26, and Brannon Cho, 21.

The jury: Nicholas Mann, David Geber, Natasha Brofsky, Thomas Demenga, Norman Fischer, Bonnie Hampton, Marta Casals Istomin, Michael Kannen, Hei Yi Nei, and Richard Wernick.

The New York-based violinist Augustin Hadelich has been chosen as the first winner of the Warner Music Prize, worth $100 grand and a big career boost. Hadelich was chosen from 16 musicians aged 18 to 35 who played a solo at Carnegie Hall last season.

The others were mostly singers – Sarah Shafer, Jennifer Zetlan Jamie Barton, Rachel Calloway, Cecelia Hall, Alisa Kolosova, Peabody Southwell, Aubrey Allicock, Evan Hughes and Dominic Armstrong – plus violinist Itamar Zorman; cellist Brook Speltz; double bassist Roman Patkoló; harpist Sivan Magen; and pianist Behzod Abduraimov.

The run-up to the prize was soured by a boardroom bust-up between Carnegie Hall chairman, Ron Perelman, who later resigned; and the hall chairman Sir Clive Gillinson who had planned a gala with the prize founder, Len Blavatnik.

Hadelich, 31, is a popular artist who overcame severe burns and trauma in a family-farm fire in Italy when he was 15. He had to relearn the violin after a year’s enforced idleness.

We’re delighted for him.

After seven months of negotiation, the Philadelphia Orchestra has struck a one-year deal. This is not good practice.

Company press release:

(Philadelphia, October 19, 2015)—The Philadelphia Orchestra Association announces the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement with the musicians of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Local 77 of the American Federation of Musicians, effective September 14, 2015, through September 11, 2016. The agreement was ratified by the Board of Directors of the Association and by the membership of the Orchestra.

Under the terms of the ratified one-year agreement, annual salaries for the musicians will rise 3%. In addition, the musicians’ healthcare will move to a consumer-driven plan, with the Association investing in health savings accounts for each musician. This change, brought about because of national healthcare cost trends, both ensures that individual musicians will have equivalent access to health providers, and the Association will achieve meaningful savings. The Association will audition for one position during the course of this contract, reducing the hiring freeze implemented in 2010 from 10 to nine positions. Some changes have also been made to contractual rules governing travel to reduce costs and ensure the viability of future international touring.

Philadelphia Orchestra Association Chairman Richard B. Worley said, “We appreciate the tireless efforts of both parties in achieving this contract. We all share a commitment to assuring the future of The Philadelphia Orchestra and are working toward the same goal—to keep this institution healthy for the next generation to also enjoy.”

Scott Michael Ligocki played principal viola with Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. He also performed with the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera and many other ensembles.

A Curtis graduate, he is survived by his parents and sister, to whom we send condolences.

This happened on Saturday, 90 minutes before an orchestral concert in Frickingen, Germany.

Apparently the floor gave way after some recent extension work and the Steinway just flipped over.

But determination and efficiency got the show back on stage. Stefan Vladar went on to play the Brahms B-flat major concerto. Latest reports say the piano lid will have to be replaced, but the mechanism is undamaged.

UPDATE: And here’s why it happened.

A feasibility study for a new London concert hall has decided that the present Museum of London site is a viable option, according to Mark Boleat, the City of London Corporation’s policy and resources chairman.

The Museum itself would move to West Smithfield.

That’s a terrible decision on both counts.

1 The Museum, close to the Barbican concert hall has the same impediments of access, parking and high land cost.

2 Far from residential areas the concert hall will not attract a new public. The Museum failed to do so, either. The local amenities are miserable.

3 The cost of building in the middle of the Square Mile is prohibitive – half a billion pounds, at current estimates. Ridiculous amount compared to the general global cost of a concert hall.

4 A concert hall on the museum site would replace one concrete monster with another. London deserves a hall of beauty, something to please the eye.

5 If anyone is is using the Smithfield site it ought to be the new concert hall. That’s where the real public lives – in Islington and points north.

The present scheme is cack-handed, panicky and celebrity driven. More thought is needed. The next mayor of London needs to put a stop to this nonsense.

The debate widens here.

The German label CPO has released three recordings it made a decade ago with the incoming chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. These are virtually the only evidence on record of what the shy and retiring conductor can do in symphonic reprtoire.

It’s my album of the week on sinfinimusic.com:

When the Berlin Philharmonic named its new chief conductor four months ago, Kirill Petrenko had not worked with the orchestra in three years. Russian-born and of Jewish extraction, he was known for intense opera conducting at the Komische Oper in Berlin and the Bayreuth Festival. Unlike past Berlin maestros, he had a low media profile and no record label. Last week, he renewed his contract with Bavarian State Opera, delaying his Berlin chiefdom to the end of the decade. Petrenko, 43, is letting Berlin know he does things his way.