Greta Bradman, granddaughter of the greatest batsman that ever held willow, is on tour in India – not with the cricket team but with the Australian World Orchestra and Zubin Mehta.
Like her illustrious grandfather, she does things in her own time.
Watch.
From the Oklahoma City Philharmonic:
press release:
Nigel Weatherill FREng, Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) has been appointed Chairman of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, following approval of the recommendation by the Board of Directors of his appointment at the company’s AGM on 2 November.
Professor Weatherill takes the chair from Lorraine Rogers, Director, Royal & Diplomatic Affairs for Jaguar Land Rover, who stepped down at the AGM after nine years’ service to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
The Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik, whose alliance with chief exec Clive Gillinson at Carnegie Hall provoked the resignation of chairman Ron Perelman, has run into trouble at the University of Oxford.
The Guardian newspaper will tomorrow publish a protest by academics and Russian dissidents, calling on the university to stop work on the Blavatnik School of Government, by which it is ‘selling its reputation and prestige to Putin’s associates.’ The letter says Blavatnik belongs to ‘a consortium of Russian billionaires called Access-Alfa-Renova (AAR)’ which engages in harassment against western companies and anti-Putin individuals.
No evidence is brought in the letter to implicate Blavatnik in such activities. From the little we know, he seems to be a fairly benign oligarch, far less involved in pro-Putin activities than several prominent musicians and City bankers.
Universities, on the whole, are not choosy when someone offers them a few million. The letter is unlikely to have much effect.
Last week, Alan Gilbert took up a bet from Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony over which city would win the World Series. He lost. There’s a consignment of bagels and lox on its way to KC.
And much crow being eaten in Manhattan.
Gilbert concedes defeat below.
From my Album of the Week on sinfinimusic.com:
In the aftermath of the Chopin Competition, which takes place every five years, it’s hard to remember that the composer wrote for anything other than solo piano – two concertos excepted. The little cello-piano pieces of the great Pole don’t get heard often enough and this performance is pure pleasure.
Read full review here.
The pianist has issued a statement on his Chinese weibo account regretting his memory lapse in a Chopin concerto, played with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Korea. The failure provoked a social-media storm in Asia.
Yundi writes:
‘I apologize for our mistakes in the Seoul concert and would like to issue a sincere apology to our fans and friends and thank the conductor and the orchestra for their support and forgiveness.
‘As a pianist, I know that, no matter what, my performance on stage must be perfect. Any kind of explanation is insufficient.
‘Thank you for your comments.’
The trombonist Nat Peck, last survivor of Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force Orchestra, has died in England at 90.
After the war, Nat played in several German radio orchestras, married in Paris and finally became an orchestral contractor in London. He leaves a widow and two daughters.
Nat’s the one on the far left
From the press release:
Sunghee Choi (pictured) joined the Orchestra last week (October 26) for its U.S. tour, which included performances in Kansas City, MO; Ann Arbor, MI; and Chapel Hill, NC, with Muti. Before that Choi was a member of the viola section at Lyric Opera of Chicago, 2013–2015. A regular substitute with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Choi appeared as soloist in her native Korea with the Seoul and Sunhwa symphony orchestras.
Youming Chen joins the CSO’s viola section on February 1, 2016, from the Kansas City Symphony, where he has served as associate principal viola since 2013. He is also a member of the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra, and was principal viola with the Juilliard Orchestra in 2005, the year it made its centennial tour.
An annual leaf-vegetable festival in the Galician town of As Pontes has acquired a very different character after Google Translate renamed it ‘the clitoris festival’.
The particular vegetable, a local delicacy, is known as grelo. Google turned Feria do grelo into Feria Clítoris.
‘The clitoris is one of the typical products of Galician cuisine,’ proclaims the festival’s website, according to local media.
‘Since 1981, the festival has made the clitoris one of the star products of the local gastronomy.’
Let this be a warning to us all…
Photo: Laurel F/Flickr
It was the 75th birthday concert of Stephen Kovacevich. Who better to play four-hand with him than former wife and mother of his child, Martha Argerich. Erica Worth, Editor of Pianist magazine, tells us it was a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Stephen Kovacevich & Martha Argerich, Wigmore Hall, 2 November 2012
Last night, at London’s Wigmore Hall, Martha Argerich joined ex-partner Stephen Kovacevich for a ‘once in a lifetime’ concert. They played Debussy’s En blanc et noir followed Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances.
Even if these two giants of the piano are such very different pianists, it was apparent from the outset that they go back a long way (Kovacevich tells Jessica Duchen in the October/November issue of Pianist that they are indeed soulmates – and it shows). It was the way they walked on to the stage smiling at each other, the way they waited for each other to begin, the way they gave each other knowing looks throughout, how they knew to make the two-piano writing merge as one, and then the way that they laughed and chatted when exiting the stage. This was intimate music-making.
I noticed that Argerich used the services of pianist and long time friend Alberto Portugheis to turn her pages (I didn’t recognise Kovacevich’s page turner). It seems that even the page-turners were part of this very personal concert (and how important a good page-turner is, too, I may add).
It was in the Symphonic Dances that they shone the brightest. The opening was fiery, earthy and rhythmic – each pianist producing a myriad of colour from the perfectly in-tune Steinway pianos. This was Kovacevich’s first performance of the work (Argerich having played it countless times) and it was great to see him let himself go.
They were having fun! The Andante was tender and heartbreaking and the final Allegro vivace a sheer roller coaster of excitement (not to mention quick!).
After the interval – during which I manage to have a two-minute chat with Argerich while she was searching for her missing espresso (‘Stephen’s having tea though’ she told me) – Kovacevich came on to the stage to perform a work that has always been close to his heart, the Schubert D960 Sonata. There might have been the odd fluff here and there, but who really cares when we know we are in the presence of a great artist. Kovacevich gave us a real sense of the overall structure, he let the music speak without gushing or pulling around with tempos (as so many tend to do with this work) – and because of this subtle handing of Schubert’s late masterpiece, the poignancy was even more acute.
(c) Simon Jay Price
There was just one encore: Kovacevich called out into the audience for violinist Alina Ibragimova to join him on the stage – and they played a serene but heartfelt Vocalise.
(c) Erica Worth/Slipped Disc
The composer David Stock, much performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and others across the US, died Monday at the age of 76. The founder of Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, he leaves six symphonies, 10 string quartets and 12 concertos. tow of them written for the Pittsburgh SO concertmaster. Mainstream in his own tastes, he was open to many styles.
