The Dame, 71, had a cameo at the Royal College of Music’s year-end Die Fledermaus, sung in English by students.

kiri te kanawa rcm

Looking good.

kiri te kanawa rcm2

photos (c) Chris Christodoulou/Lebrecht Music&Arts

Nikolaus Hanoncourt, who will be 86 on December 6, has been poorly in recent months. He has cancelled a pair of pre-Christmas birthday concerts at the Vienna Musikverein next week.

He will be replaced by Erwin Ortner, conductor of the Arnold Schoenberg choir.

We wish Nikolaus Harnoncourt a full recovery. He is scheduled to conduct Fidelio in Vienna, mid-January.

harnoncourt portrait

The judges have spoken. The Helsinki 6 are:

Tjeknavorian, Emmanuel Austria

Yoshida, Minami  Japan

Zhou Nancy USA

Kanagawa, Mayumi USA

Lee, Christel USA 

and Starkloff, Friederike Germany, concertmaster of the NDR Philharmonie.

friederike starkloff

No Koreans in the final, and no Finns.

A Starkloff rising?

UPDATE:

Vesa Siren adds: The big surprise: amazing Kerson Leong took our breath away today but did NOT make to the the final round of Sibelius violin competition.

So, why not?

We are receiving, from pupils and friends, news of the death of George Hadjinikos, a much revered pianist and thinker about music whose students included the conductor Theodore Currentzis. George, who divided his time between Athens and London, died this morning in Athens of a heart attack. He was 92.

 

george Hadjinikos1

 

A student of Carl Orff, George became an influential figure in Manchester from the 1960s, teaching at the Royal Northern and conducting orchestras around the county. His signature pieces as a soloist were concertos by Schoenberg, Skalkottas and Bartók, an unconventional offering. He wrote three books: on Skalkottas, Mozart recitatives and ‘The Essence and Origins of Musical Interpretation’.

He touched the lives of many thousands of musicians.

George Hadjinikos

A polite video on English law and good manners in respect of sexual consent, issued by the Thames Valley Police.

Suitable for all ages. Essential for most.

cup of tea

This is what was done to Eli Gilbert’s banjo this week.

eli gilbert's banjo

Eli writes:

It’s a lonesome feeling, when you’re traveling and American Airlines makes you gate check your instrument and then destroys it. So far I’ve been told that American Airlines may not be liable for the damage because there is no damage to the case. Obviously this is a refusal to acknowledge basic laws of physics. This instrument was obviously dropped or thrown, which is outside the realm of standard care. Furthermore, I was told my damage claim will take 10-12 weeks to process, meaning I can’t repair or replace the neck without voiding the claim. This puts me in an unreasonable position, with gigs to play and and album to finish recording.

American Airlines is refusing to accept responsibility for their employees and has left me in an untenable position as a professional musician.

 

eli gilbert's banjo2

It’s to do with a culture of bad baggage handlers. See here for immediate evidence.

A performance by the Iran Symphony Orchestra at a sporting event was cancelled after organisers refused to allow women onto the stage. The chief conductor, Ali (Alexander) Rahbari, said he was informed of the ban 15 minutes before the start of the World Wrestling Clubs Cup competition.

‘The chairs were laid out and everything looked fine,’ said Rahbari. ‘But before performing the national anthem, all of a sudden they announced women cannot play on stage. ‘I was offended and said it was impossible for me to accept such an insult. We either play all together or we leave’.

rahbari teheran

Our dear friend Tim Page is the new subject on Zsolt Bognar’s series, Living the Classical Life.

Tim is a Pulitzer-winning music critic, the leading authority on the American author Dawn Powell, an omnivorous consumer of music in all forms, a film buff and a professor at the University of Southern California.

He is also an articulate, acutely self-aware struggler with Asperger’s Syndrome, a symbiotic biographer of the late Glenn Gould, and a lovely man who collects friends with the greatest of ease.

If you watch only one interview this week, let this be it.

timpage

The video is published first on Slipped Disc.

Hey, Jonas, watch your back.

rufusrufus_verdi

Unusually for a major tournament these days, the 20 semi-finalists of the Sibelius violin competition in Helsinki include just two contenders from the Asian talent hothouse. There are also two local favourites.

Our observers have been impressed in the early stages by  Friederike Starkloff, 25, who earlier this year became concertmaster of the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover.

friederike starkloff

Full list, in alphabetical order:

Sarah Christian, Germany
Sara Etelävuori, Finland
Anna Göckel, France
Mayumi Kanagawa, USA
Bomsori Kim, South Korea
Christel Lee, USA
Kerson Leong, Canada
Zeyu Victor Li, China
Richard Lin, USA, Taiwan
Kyung Ji Min, South Korea
Pekko Pulakka, Finland
Fedor Rudin, France
Friederike Starkloff, Germany
Elly Suh, USA
Stephen Tavani, USA
Diana Tishchenko, Ukraine
Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Austria
Xiao Wang, China
Minami Yoshida, Japan
Nancy Zhou USA

An inquest in Wakes has been told that a successful and influential musician was killed after her husband of 55 years pressed the wrong pedal upon leaving a concert.

Jean Hywel Williams, 79, founder of the Llanelli Proms, engaged Bryn Terfel and Rebecca Evans for her series and was known herself the world over as a pianist and choral conductor.

The inquest heard that her husband, the conductor John Hywel Williams, said at the accident scene: ‘I put my foot on the brake but it didn’t work.’

Full report here on Wales Online.

Jean Hywel Williams

Nine months after the city council decided to spend millions on a refit of the irredeemably unsightly Gasteig (pictured), it has now responded to a campaign led by Anne-Sophie Mutter to build what the city has lacked since 1945 – a decent-sized concert hall with a world-class acoustic.

gasteig

 

There are two favoured sites one behind the Ostbahnhof, an area presently occupied by factories, and the other west of the Hauptbahnhof, where the postal sorting office sits.

Possibly not the best choice. But it’s a start. Mariss Jansons and his radio orchestra will be delighted.

London, meanwhile, has miserably failed to publish Sir Nicholas Hytner’s report, submitted two months ago, on whether there should be a new hall in the heart of the City to replace the inadequate Barbican.

While the Bavarians have a transparent, public debate, the Brits make decisions behind closed doors. There has been no testing whatsoever of London opinion on whether a new hall should be built, and where.