Vincent Dubois, artist in resident at the University of Michigan, has been named organist of Notre-Dame in Paris, succeeding Jean-Pierre Leguay, who retired at the end of last year.
Our chers confrères at resmusica note that Vincent, 35, will join Olivier Latry and Philippe Lefebvre at the seat of the grand orgue.
The man who lost all his possessions in Portland, Oregon, when the car he lived in caught fire was (we have been informed by a Slipped Disc reader) one of the musicians who was forced out of the Minnesota Orchestra during its brutal lockout regime.
David Wright said at the time: ‘I played with the Minnesota Orchestra, and I was a career musician for 29 years. I heard from [MOA board member] Jim Davis last year, and I knew that this was not going to go well, so I left and took a severely reduced pension, with a cut of 11 percent.’
This was David then.
And now.
We’re trying to find a way to contact him and raise help.
The great violinist and his wife Toby are giving a joint talk at Princeton. The title: ‘My Goal is to Not Be Bored by What I Do’.
It’s at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9, in Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall.
A team from Munich University has found that the city’s opera house was pretty much left alone by the Nazis. Once Jewish staff and artists had been evicted early in 1933, the theatre suffered less interference than most others. It was never obliged to fly a swastika flag on the roof, or to engage in other acts of propaganda.
Hitler did plan to replace the historic building with a more grandiose model.
‘The best thing is, there is no scandal,’ said a relieved intendant, Nikolaus Bachler, on publication of the report.
That may well be, but I can’t help remembering Georg Solti telling me that, in 1946 when he was appointed music director, the orchestra of Bavarian Opera was ‘full of Nazis, of the worst kind’.
Bayreuth has, meanwhile, refused to grant access to its Nazi-era archives.
UPDATE: A reader points out that every document issued by Bavarian State Opera from February 1933 bore this stamp:
The Général Dupont Stradivarius (1727), wrongly reported to have been left on a German train, is about to return to the concert circuit.
The instrument, once owned by the celebrated virtuoso Arthur Grumiaux, has been loaned by its Chinese-German owner to the German soloist Frank Peter Zimmermann. He will play it for the first time in the German premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s second concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic tomorrow (January 21).
The violin that was left on a train by an American soloist was a lower pedigree Strad.
A year ago, Frank Peter was forced to return his previous Strad to the foundation that owned it.
from the press release:
The “Dupont, Grumiaux” Stradivarius is lent to Frank Peter Zimmermann by Mr. Yu, a Chinese-German entrepreneur and philanthropist. [Mr. Yu, who studied and lived in Germany for many years, revolutionized the Chinese paint market over 20 years ago with the introduction of imported German water-based, environmentally friendly paint. He is dubbed in China as the ‘father of environmental paint’].
Mr. Yu is an avid art and rare instruments collector, with over ten fine Italian and French violins and bows in his current collection, and plays the violin since his childhood. The “Dupont, Grumiaux” Stradivarius was purchased in February 2015 at Rare Violins of New York, and has since been lent to leading Chinese musicians for concerts in Mainland China. This Stradivarius violin is the first of its kind to be brought to China, allowing Chinese violinists for the first time to perform with an outstanding Strad in their home country.
This Stradivarius instrument was played by Arthur Grumiaux for his iconic recordings of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, which formed part of the ‘Golden Record’ sent into space by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1977.
A fortuitous and unexpected meeting between Mr. Yu and Frank Peter Zimmermann on 19 October 2015, during which Zimmermann played on this violin for less than five minutes, led to the highly unusual decision by Zimmermann to relinquish his violin at the time and choose the Dupont Grumiaux Strad for his performance in Shanghai the next day. Zimmermann’s enchantment with the Dupont Grumiaux Strad and his last-minute decision of switching instruments was reported by the Shanghai Morning Post the next day as a major headline.
Since then, Mr. Yu has agreed to lend this instrument to Zimmermann for a couple of years. Mr. Yu is in the process of establishing the Yu Art Foundation, a philanthropic foundation dedicated to strengthen Western classical music in China and support Chinese musicians through scholarships, instrument lending, and the convening of music festivals. He has attracted much interest from both the private and public sector with his project. China’s largest real estate developer Wang Shi, the president of Vanke, agreed to serve as honorary president of the Yu Art Foundation, as well as Xu Xiaoping, China’s number one investor of start-up businesses.
This just in from Ari Vilhjalmsson, principal second violinist in the Helsinki Philharmonic:
About 2 hours ago, I was refused to board flight DY 3160 from Copenhagen to Helsinki, because I would not agree to put my violin in cargo. I’m a professional violinist, and was travelling with my instrument valued at EUR 200,000.
At check-in, the attendant said that I had to buy a ticket for the violin. I replied that I’ve been flying for 25 years with my instrument and never had a problem. She called the gate and was told to let me up, and they would see whether I could board or not. Then, she put a comment in the computer system about my violin. When I reached the gate, my boarding pass would not let me through the scanner (due to the comment, I’m sure), and the gate agent told me that I would have to put my violin in cargo. Since I would not, he said that I couldn’t fly. When I asked if he or someone could check if there was room on the plane, he just said no.
I have flown many times with Norwegian in the past, and have never had trouble with my instrument. Many of my friends and colleagues regularly fly with Norwegian with their instruments and have not encountered problems either. I don’t know why this was such an issue this evening. Honestly, I felt as if the check-in attendant and gate attendant were on a crusade not to let me board the flight with my violin.
When buying this ticket, I had the option to fly SAS or Finnair. I chose Norwegian because the departure time was convenient and the price was lower. But due to the seemingly arbitrary action of your employees, I will certainly NEVER fly with Norwegian again, and I will encourage all of my musician friends and colleagues to do the same. Every day, thousands of violinists and violists get on planes. Our instrument cases fit perfectly well in the overhead bins, even when orchestras go on tour and there are 30-40 violin/ viola cases on board. This policy, which obviously is only enforced depending on which employee is working, is completely ridiculous and in essence discriminatory to the unlucky few who are refused to board.
I paid DKK 400 / EUR 50 in overweight fee for my suitcase. I would at least like a refund of that.
As far as we are aware, Norwegian was in contravention of EU law. There may be other remedies open to Ari. But in the meantime, beware of flying Norwegian.
This was Frank Almond’s hand last night after he had finished playing the second Shostakovich trio in Milwaukee, where he is concertmaster of the symphony orchestra. We asked Frank what happened. Here’s what he says:
I was playing a concert last night with the outstanding musicians William Wolfram (piano) and David Requiro (cello). The first half was substantial, a Rachmaninov trio and the Prokofiev F min. Sonata (violin and piano). Everything felt really great, full house, great colleagues, etc.
We started the Shostakovich Trio (No. 2) and early on my fingerboard felt a little….sticky. We finished the first movement and there was blood all over my index finger (and the fingerboard). All I can surmise is that a small cut had somehow opened on the tip and things went from there. We stopped briefly while I tried to clean things up a little, then gave as impassioned a concert as I can remember, although I’d occasionally wipe off my finger or the board when I had a moment.
The photos probably look worse than it actually was, since my other fingers ended up pretty dirty as well. I’ve never had this experience before, although I’m told the weather can contribute; it was about 3 degrees outside, and fairly dry. On the other hand, stranger things have happened at that venue (scene of the crime, so to speak).
It was at this hall that Frank was brutally attacked two years ago by two men, who stole his Stradivarius. He got the violin back. Now, he says, ‘my biggest issue today is to figure out how to practice….’
Share your own violin injuries below.
Else Marie Pade, imprisoned under the German occupation, became an electronic music pioneer after a 1952 meeting in Darmstadt with the musique concrète inventor, Pierre Schaeffer.
Her 1959 breakthrough work, ‘Symphonie magnetophonique’, is composed entirely of everyday sounds.
More here (in Danish).
The Israel Philharmonic with conductor Omer Meir Wellber, 34, has been named orchestra in residence at the 2016 Dresden Music Festival in May-June.
Other ensembles involved in the festival’s Israel-Germany theme are the Jerusalem Quartet and the German-based New Jewish Chamber Philharmonic, which performs works banned by the Nazis.
press release:
For its 39th festival programme, the Dresden Music Festival has taken as its motto “Time”, whose various facets will be examined from 5 May to 5 June 2016 in 52 concerts given by some of the most renowned figures in the international classical music scene such as Leonidas Kavakos, Andris Nelsons, Kristine Opolais, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Daniil Trifonov, Arabella Steinbacher and Semyon Bychkov, to mention just a few of the performers who have been invited.
“A good concert always also provides us with a magical intellectual discourse between the past and the future,” festival director Jan Voglersays of the motto for the 39th Dresden Music Festival. And such a discourse seems particularly vital at the moment, in view of current problems such as xenophobia, hostility towards refugees and resurgent racism. Vogler, a committed humanist, is convinced that the 2016 festival can make a significant contribution here: “Music always has a strong connective effect. Confucius said that music can prevent wars and guarantee peace in society. I think society still very much underestimates what music can achieve.”
The US composer David Lang is writing a major new work, Memorial Ground, for massed singers which will be premiered on 2 July 2016 at the East Neuk Festival and then taken up by choirs all over the country around 11-13 November for commemorations of the Battle of the Somme.
Lang is the composer of the score of the new Sorrentino film, Youth, starring Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz and Jane Fonda. Its theme song, (Simple Song #3) is nominated for an Oscar.
Jane Stuart Smith, who has died aged 90, had a flourishing career in the 1950s in Italy, France and Germany. After a striking debut at La Fenice, she sang Turandot and Norma. The Italians called her Gianna Smith, or the Yankee Doodle Diva.
Then her plane nearly crashed in the Alps. She had already met Francis Schaeffer, founder of a Swiss evangelical Christian organization, and decided to dedicate the rest of her life to God. Her last performance was Brünnhilde at San Carlo, Naples, in 1959. Jane spent the rest of her life singing and composing hymns.
‘I felt the Lord saved me for this work,’ she said.
In a belated bid to cull his top-heavy management team, Tony Hall has scrapped the roles of BBC1 and BBC2 controller, as well as head of BBC4.
Charlotte Moore, presently in charge of BBC1, will run all three channels, as well as I-Player content.
BBC2 chief Kim Shillinglaw, who lost out on the top job, will leave the BBC.
Absurdly, the BBC still maintains an extra role of (acting) director of television.
Our W1A swingdoor correspondent adds: Remember, they’ve also saved Danny Cohen as “Director of TV” and Yentob as “Creative Director” salaries. But this is also in line with their worrying strategy about seeing BBC as less ‘channel’ driven and more a producer of ‘content’ which they’ll curate online… hence the very worrying threat of the closure of the BBC News Channel.
