One day in December 1981 the German Chancellor was flown in by Luftwaffe jet to record a Mozart piano concerto at the fabled studios – and all traffic in the neighbourhood went into logjam as the cops came out in force.
Schmidt, who died today aged 96, played third Steinway to Christoph Eschenbach and Justus Franz in a dare-you recording of Mozart’s triple concerto with the London Philharmonic.
On hearing the edit, the Chancellor said he had no idea he was such a good pianist. He wasn’t; EMI had great editors in those days. I think Peter Andry was executive producer.
But he was a tremendous music lover and supporter of the arts. No major artist ever played in Bonn or Cologne while he was Chancellor without being invited to dinner.
May he rest in peace.
Watch Schmidt play here (at 4:20), followed by comments from Kurt Masur and Henry Kissinger.
UPDATE: And here’s more about the session and who made off with Helmut’s hat.
From my album of the week on sinfinimusic.com:
The marvel of …’s interpretation is the way he reflects each step back, each emotion, in vocal colour alone, without having to add emphasis by changing volume or syllabic stress. His diction is so clear you could teach Russian from it and his pitch is pin-perfect. I cannot imagine a finer recital of these introspective, lonely contemplations.
The question is put coherently by Sylvain Fort, editor of Forumopera, which is leading a campaign to stop the unsightly removal of partitions between boxes at the historic Palais Garnier.
The director of the Opéra, Stéphane Lissner, is spending 300,000 Euros to remove the barriers, with the aim of making 300-600,000 a year from about 30 extra seats.
That’s peanuts in real terms, says Sylvain. The bull in the recent production of Moses und Aron cost 50k, the strike two months ago left a 400k budget hole.
Leave the boxes alone, says Sylvain. Focus on running an efficient opera house.
Negin Khpolwak, 17, is the rising star at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul (which we have reported on before), the country’s only music school.
Negin plays stringed instruments and piano. Sometimes she stands in front of the class and conducts.
Two concerts at the Liceu in Barcelona, November 13 and 15, have been called off after conductor Riccardo Muti called in sick. We wish him a swift recovery.
Barcelona, 9 de novembre de 2015. Riccardo Muti cancel·la els dos concerts previstos al Liceu pel 13 i 15 de novembre per problemes de salut del mestre. El Teatre està buscant noves dates per reubicar aquests dos concerts tan esperats de Muti que congreguen sobre un mateix escenari a dues orquestres tan reputades com l’Orchestra Giovanile “Luigi Cherubini” -fundada per ell mateix el 2004-, i la pròpia Orquestra del Liceu. El pianista barcelonès Ignasi Cambra també forma part d’aquest concert que inclou peces de Beethoven, Schubert i Mozart.
El concert es posposa fins a nova data, que s’emplaçarà inicialment dins d’aquesta temporada -2015/16-. Les entrades adquirides o els abonaments que incloguin qualsevol dels dos dies de concert seran vàlids per a les noves dates que el Liceu plantegi properament. Si algun dels assistents té incompatibilitats amb aquest canvi, el Teatre retornarà íntegrament l’import de l’entrada –amb les despeses de gestió incloses-, que també es podrà bescanviar per a un nou espectacle. Tots els canvis s’efectuaran a les taquilles del Teatre. Els costos de qualsevol gestió fruit d’aquest canvi seran gratuïts.
Roy Harper, a guitarist and songwriter who has worked with Paul McCartney, Led Zeppelin and Kate Bush, has seen all charges against him dropped by prosecutors at the start of a retrial today.
Harper, 74, has always proclaimed his innocence.
He said today: ‘The psychological and personal cost to my wife and myself has been enormous and the financial cost hugely unfair. I lost my livelihood and I spent my savings … and more, on my defence.’
Briot (pictured) has been swiped from Rayfield/Allied. Wilde and Berg are shared with HarrisonParrott.
Alex Ross has been running his eye down the candidates who are likely to succeed Alan Gilbert as New York’s music director, based on current guest trials. He doesn’t seem too excited. (Nor are we.)
+ Esa-Pekka Salonen has been there, done that, doesn’t seem too keen.
+ Manfred Honeck has enjoyed some success at Pittsburgh. Modest success.
+ Jaap Van Zweden is big in Dallas. Not big enough.
The question has to be: why is New York not trialling the names who might really make a difference? Such as:
+ Petrenko. Anyone called Petrenko.
+ Järvi. Ditto.
+ Jurowski. The older bro.
+ Chailly, who might have been interested up to a couple of months ago.
+ Lionel Bringuier, the Zurich whizzkid.
+ Antonio Pappano.
+ Jansons.
+ Noseda.
Each and every one would make a likelier difference than those on Alex’s shortlist.
Next question: why no women? (Very good question.)
But then, ever since Bernstein, NY Phil has always got it wrong.
Boulez was picked as Lenny’s polar opposite and lasted six years, leaving an unhappy band.
Zubin Mehta was brought in to apply balm and stayed six years too long.
Kurt Masur, hired to wake the orchestra from its stupor, retired when it got too rucous.
Alan Gilbert’s parents were members of the Philharmonic.
Get the picture?
This is an orchestra that has long forgotten what it wants in a chief conductor.
A terrible thing happened to British clarinettist Emma Johnson on her way to last Friday night’s concert. ‘My clarinet fell out of the back of the car,’ she told friends. ‘I arrived at the venue with no instrument…..nightmare.’
Emma had driven to Gatwick Airport to pick up the Engegard Quartet, her concert partners. The car boot was jam-packed full of the quartet’s instruments, with Emma’s clarinets on top. After driving about five minutes they realised the boot was not fully shut so they stopped to secure it. When they reached the venue, at Ringwood, in Hampshire, Emma realised that the case containing her clarinets had fallen out of the back of the car.
The quartet played the first half of the recital without Emma while Peter Eaton, her clarinet maker, raced in with a clarinet he had just finished. Peter arrived, saving the second half, but Emma was distraught at the loss of two clarinets (B flat and A) as well as her treasured mouthpiece and a box of reeds.
Late that night she drove back to Gatwick to look around – in vain. ‘Losing an instrument is like losing your voice!’ she says. Nothing doing.
On Saturday, she tried phoning Gatwick.
What do you know? The clarinets had been handed in to Lost Property.
‘Restores your faith in humanity!’ cries Emma.
For once, an airport story with a happy ending.
A little treat for a gloomy Monday: Marc-André Hamelin playing Eric Wild’s arrangement of Gershwin’s Liza, first release on Slipped Disc in Stewart French’s Fly on The Wall video series.
Enjoy.
Reversing the Edinburgh Festival recruitment trend from below the Equator, the Melbourne Festival has hired Kath Mainland as its new executive director.
Kath, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society for the past seven years, will work with artistic director Jonathan Holloway.
