A favourite from the Golden Era.

Click here.

Lyrics below.

cohen owes me

 

 

IRVING BERLIN
“Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars”

[1st verse:]
Old man Rosenthal lay sick in bed
Soon the doctor came around and said
“No use crying, the man is dying. He can’t live very long!”
“Send my son here to my side,” they heard the old man say
“I’ve got something to tell him before I pass away”
Soon his son was sitting by his bed
“What’s the matter, Papa dear?” he said
The old man said, “My son, before my days are done
I want you to know:

[Refrain:]
Cohen owes me ninety-seven dollars
And it’s up to you to see that Cohen pays
I sold a lot of goods to Rosenstein and Sons
On an I.O.U. for ninety days
Levi brothers don’t get any credit
They owe me for one hundred yards of lace
If you promise me, my son, you’ll collect from ev’ry one
I can die with a smile on my face”

[2nd verse:]
Old man Rosenthal is better now
He just simply wouldn’t die somehow
He is healthy and very wealthy since he got out of bed
Such a change you never saw, he’s got such rosy cheeks
He picks up in just one week what should take weeks and weeks
Ev’ryone who knew that he was sick
Couldn’t tell how he got well so quick
They went and asked him to explain how he pulled through
Rosenthal replied:

[2nd refrain:]
Cohen owed me ninety-seven dollars
And my son went out and made poor Cohen pay
A bill was owed to me by Rosenstein and Sons
And they settled on that very day
What could my son do with all that money
If I should leave it all and say goodbye?
It’s all right to pass away, but when people start to pay
That’s no time for a bus’nessman to die

They’re ripping up the centre of Birmingham – again. So the CBSO has issued a new video of how to get there.

That’s if you ever manage to get out of the ripped-up station. Last time, I nearly gave up and took the next train home.

birmingham centre

At least that’s what he was asked to do by the French magazine, Diapason.

But for Gidon there is no such thing as best and no acceptance of the record industry’s repeated claims of perfection.

So he proceeds by way of Oscar Wilde and Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Lockenhaus and Leonard Cohen, to give a tour d’horizons of what goes on in an artist’s mind when preparing and considering an interpretation of great music.

He has sent us the English original of the article, which runs to 44 fact and anecdote filled pages.

Here’s the longlist he compiled.

1 Joseph Szigeti / Bruno Walter / British Symphony Orchestra, 1932

2 Bronislaw Huberman / George Szell / Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, 1934

3 Fritz Kreisler / John Barbirolli / London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1936

4 Jascha Heifetz / Arturo Toscanini / NBC Symphony Orchestra, 1940

5 Yehudi Menuhin / Furtwängler / Berlin Philharmonic, 1947

6 Christian Ferras / Karl Böhm / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, 1951

7 Zino Francescatti / Dimitri Mitropoulos / New York Philharmonic, 1955 (live)

8 Nathan Milstein / William Steinberg / Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, 1955

9 Jascha Heifetz / Charles Munch / Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1955

10 Leonid Kogan / Constantin Silvestri / Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, 1959

We will not reprint the whole essay – you can read it here. Nor will we give away Gidon’s final choice of his favourite recording of the Beethoven violin concerto. You may be in for a surprise. A shock, even.

But here are a couple of excerpts to whet the appetite until you curl up with the full article this weekend.

gidon kremer

A concerto should be a “conversation” and in no way a “competition” between a soloist and an orchestra that is controlled and led by a conductor – a genuine demonstration of concertare. It must be clear that in a major work such as Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, the protagonists should be equally important. What then becomes interesting for a listener (as well as for all participating musicians) is how (on what terms) the expected “conversation” takes place. An ideal performance should provide space for all participants to feel part of the presentation.

We can be sure that if a conductor were to decide that he were more important than the soloist, it would be considered an affront and an indication of profound disrespect for all the work by Gidon Kremer, Searching for Ludwig 8 the soloist to read the dots and strokes left by the genius creator (occasionally meaning months or even years of work to master the extremely difficult solo part).

In my own experience of having played a large variety of works, I have also seen “disrespect” assuming a different guise. Nowadays (although I wonder if it really was different in the past), some conductors – even some truly gifted ones – have no compunction about turning up at the first rehearsal shamelessly underprepared. It is as if the ability to “manage” rehearsals efficiently and quickly, not to mention the following concerts, takes precedence over matters of artistry.

I recently witnessed an artist (who is best left unnamed) literally sight-reading Alban Berg’s mysterious violin concerto – with absolute ease … but zero meaning. Cases like that reinforce the necessity of establishing a “pact” for a harmonious reading of any great score. In the selected recordings of Beethoven’s masterpiece, I had to consider relationships between famous “names” such as Menuhin and Furtwängler, Szigeti and Walter, Kreisler and Barbirolli, Ferras and Böhm, Francescatti and Mitropoulos.

 

*

It has been one of my life’s privileges to have played with many wonderful partners (some of them conductors, such as Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Carlo Maria Giulini and Nikolaus Harnoncourt). I learned to distinguish between those who spoke “my language” (or let’s be more modest, “whose language I tried – while I was still ‘learning the ropes’ – to understand and speak”) and those who, for all their greatness or mastery, remained “estranged” from me.

They included some of the members of the “Premier League” (Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado and Pierre Boulez, for example) – and possibly the feeling was sometimes mutual! My search for the most genuine and intense dialogue became one of the parameters of my comparison. I wanted to find a recording that would demonstrate an ideal “partnership”. Did I actually need to look further – wasn’t it bound to be Heifetz and Toscanini?

 

heifetz set 59

*

I recalled how, when I was a student, David Oistrakh reflected on my rendering of the very romantic “Poème” by Ernest Chausson. I was seriously in love for the first time and indulging my emotions. My teacher interrupted me soberly with a comment on my glissandi. “Gidon, you can’t use so many slides – that’s how violinists played 30 years ago.” Somehow, though, many youngsters still seem to feel that they have to fill in shifts between notes and that greater effect is produced by introducing slides. I am tempted to comment, “80 years too late.”

Interestingly, in his study of even more archive recordings of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Professor Mark Katz also observes that less use is generally made of glissandi these days; the emphasis is more on letting music “speak for itself”.11 Now that’s a point I agree with! But what does it really mean in connection with Beethoven’s concerto?

To sum it up – times have changed. Bearing in mind that the late twentieth century accentuated the absolute need to focus on published manuscripts, what was permissible (or even “in”!) some decades ago has left us with many examples of glissandi – albeit employed with sincerity, great authority and full technical command – which have turned out to be slightly … wrong.

menuhin-yoga

Berlin-based and not much performed in Britain, Juliana Hodkinson has been named winner of the annual Carl Nielsen Prize. Tomorrow in Copenhagen Julia will collect a statue and 80,000 Euros.

Go, Julia.

Julia Hodkinson

At the Opéra, superstar tenors Jonas Kaufmann and Roberto Alagna, appearing in different productions, asked to be framed in a show of solidarity.

kaufmann alagna

Thanks to Roselyne Bachelot for the tweeted picture.

The American heldentenor Stephen Gould has let it be known he is taking an immediate break for family reasons and on doctor’s advice. ‘I must take some time out to regenerate,’ he said in a statement. He will be gone at least two months.

Stephen has pulled out of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung at the Vienna State Opera in January 2016, followed by the new production of William Bolcom’s McTeague in Linz.

We wish him a full recovery.

Stephen-Gould-Siegfried-Act1
Photo (c) Enrico Nawrath

The violinist Philippe Quint took his video out for a stroll in Manhattan. The results of his impromptu survey are sometimes surprising, even shocking. Watch. Think about it.

Share.
philippe quint interviews

Stefan Arzberger, first violin of the Leipzig Quartet, has been on bail in America for the past eight months since he was charged with attempted murder after an incident in a Manhattan hotel.

Yesterday he made another court appearance but the case seems no closer to coming to trial. Meantime, Stefan is dependent on support from friends who have responded to his FundRazr appeal.

Here’s his current situation:

arzberger2

 

Liebe Freunde, dear friends,
A short statement by my lawyers about the hearing today:

We were in court today, doing everything we can to move the case forward.
The judge said he would be away until January 14 and so we adjourned the case to that date to avoid any unnecessary delay.
The judge denied our request that Stefan is being permitted to return home for the holidays, but directed the prosecutor to do everything possible to assure that its expert psychiatrist prepares his report by the adjourn date.
We are hopeful that on January 14 the judge will set a trial date.
Richard Levitt & Nicholas Kaizer

Ich bin nun mehr als 8 Monate in diesem Land – ohne wirkliche Perspektiven und absehbare Zeiträume. Ich darf nicht arbeiten und muss alles vermeiden, was eventuelle Schwierigkeiten verursachen würde.
(I am more then 8 months here in the US without any perspectives and timelines.I am not allowed to work and I have to avoid anything getting me and others in any trouble.)

Ich danke allen für die wunderbare Unterstützung und kann nur sagen – es ist noch lange nicht vorrueber…
(I want to say Thank you for all the support and – there is no end in sight …)

Eine schöne Vorweihnachtszeit wünscht – a wonderful Christmas time –

Stefan Arzberger

 

There were disappointed customers at the Royal Festival Hall last night when the soloist, Johannes Moser, failed to show up for the customary meet-and-greet with buyers of his new CD.

One of them wrote to Slipped Disc:

Some thirty concertgoers were left twiddling their thumbs after last night’s otherwise superb RFH concert. It was announced over the tannoy while we were filing out that the soloist, German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser, would sign copies of his CDs at the usual place.

Purchasers of the CD spent a half hour waiting patiently in an orderly queue before a table set up for the purpose. Then, a highly embarrassed official appeared to apologise profusely that the soloist  had left the building. I actually found out that he had gone to dinner with the conductor (Andrés Orozco-Estrada ) and orchestra manager at an onsite restaurant… 

Those ex-fans won’t be coming back any time soon.

johannes moser

UPDATE: Alerted by Slipped Disc, Johannes issued a fulsome apology before the day was out.

We have received news of the death today of the Hanoi-born French composer Nguyen Thien Dao, a favourite pupil of Olivier Messiaen’s,

He was 75.

Arriving in France as a boy of 15, Dao won first prize in composition in 1967 at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse in Paris, followed by the Olivier Messiaen prize in 1974.

His works include an opera My Châu-Trong Thuy and an opera-oratorio, Les enfants d’Izieu.

dao messiaen

photo source: Jeff von der Schmidt

Instagram message from the band’s drummer, Julian Dorio:

julian dorio

November 13, 2015. I, along with my bandmates @eodmofficial, had the privilege to play to one of the most energetic crowds of our tour when, nearly half way through the show, the unimaginable occurred. Absolute and unnecessary evil turned our world on its head. I am beyond grateful that I was able to find a way out of the venue, but I am mourning those who did not, including our mate, Nick Alexander. My thoughts are with their families. I’m home safe. And now I have a new family abroad. To Arthur, who ran for his life right beside me and selflessly put us in a taxi before himself, thank you. To Fabrice, a fan who lent me his phone later that night so I could call @emilydorio and attempt to put her at ease, thank you. To everyone who, in the face of unrelenting evil, went toe to toe using courage, compassion, and love as their weapons. You all are my heroes. Last but certainly not least, the outreach and support back home is appreciated more than you’ll ever know. I will never forget it. I am forever changed but hold fast to the love around us. I’m counting down the days until I get to finish that concert. Peace & love.✌?️❤️?? #prayforparis #bataclan #eodm