It’s not clear what has happened to the experienced Diego Fasolis, whose name is on the playbills, but Edinburgh’s Norma has called in Gianluca Capuano to conduct the three festival performances, starting tonight.

This is a very late replacement.

Capuano is a Milanese baroque scholar, founder of the ensemble Il canto di Orfeo,.

 

capuano

 

The weekly diary of Anthea Kreston, violinist of the Artemis Quartet

 

 

anthea bike

 

I am in full vacation mode – or at least as close to it as I can be. We have a 30 days together as a family – albeit with practice and prep for upcoming concerts. I have been enjoying the NYT “Intentional Summer” column, and we are doing 30 new things in these 30 days – trying to get out to all areas of Berlin, turning off the phone/directions – recognizing landmarks and exploring. From jumping in a lake to exploring a funky antiques market we have been having a blast.

I have missed cooking – I have been too busy – and in this past week my taste buds have become extremely nostalgic and needy. Jason has been telling his mom, and every day a package has shown up from her (she has apparently subscribed to Amazon.de Prime) – peanut butter, baking soda, brown sugar, vanilla, bisquick, chocolate chips. I have also decided to make the 5 new “Mother Sauces” from the NYT Cooking – and spent the morning today on my bike – going from one small ethic market to another searching out my ingredients (hint: nutritional yeast isn’t a known quantity). I have, on my fridge, a menu from Laughing Planet, an extremely creative organic restaurant in Oregon that we used to frequent – they have dinosaurs on the tables. I have been trying to recreate the menu, and the girls “order” their quinoa/sweet potato/tzatziki wraps from me. Also – a Cafe Yumm menu – and I have plans to recreate their signature sauce tomorrow. We pretend to be at one of these restaurants together, then talk through our pretend walk home in Corvallis – stopping at our favorite bakery and book store on the way.

I had a breakthrough this week. Well – I thought it was a fluke, but then it happened again. I spoke on the phone to the Internet company IN GERMAN.  Well – barely in German – but somehow – somehow – we understood each other. Then, a day later, I had to call to cancel a doctor appointment for my older daughter. Again in German. Such bad bad Germany. I was drenched in sweat by the end, and at one point I thought all was lost, and I started to walk towards Jason, eyebrows up, extending the phone, but he backed up and shook his head. I stuck to it. And I made it.

I just got off the phone with Fred Child from Performance Today (American Public Media). He has invited me on their Performance Today tour of Italy in May of 2017, as their guest soloist. A week in a gorgeous boat, and I will be playing concerts for them every couple of days – what an honor and a pleasure.

Tomorrow – Children’s Museum and a bike ride through Grunewald with the double in-line trailer for the girls. Staycation!

, arts editor of the contrarian Spectator and a notable advocate of advanced modern music, went to Salzburg for The Exterminating Angel.

His review breaks ranks with the massed British hallelujahs, attacking Ades for not being daring or modern enough in his score.

It is a fine review:

Such is the sadism of the vocal score, you don’t immediately realise this is an all-star cast (Christine Rice, Iestyn Davies, Thomas Allen, John Tomlinson…). The work prohibits showing off. It also shouts what is meant to be whispered. In the film, as the tale turns feral, the voices turn inward, so that by the end it is hard to know what is being said and what is being dreamed. No possibility of confusing the two in this production. Vocally everything is bellowed; visually too. Legibility — in Hildegard Bechtler’s set designs, in Tom Cairns’ direction for Salzburg Festival — flattens Buñuel’s subliminal hints and winks.

Worth reading in full, here.

It’s just one person’s view, of course, and Igor is a very good kicker against the pricks.

(Myself, I opted for the seaside rather than Salzburg, having been put off by Ades’s previous opera, The Tempest, which seemed to do all the things an opera ought to, without ever actually becoming an opera.

Also, one man’s view. I will see the Exterminator in London next spring.)

the-exterminating-angel-41-65533950

 

Spanish musicians are abuzz with the news that David Rejano Cantero has been chosen as principal trombone of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

David, who is principal trombone of Valery Gergiev’s Munich Philharmonic, has been freelancing of late with the Berlin Phil and LA. There has been no confirmation yet from LA.

Cool catch.David_Rejano-1

David_Rejano-1David_Rejano

Message from Gaetano Lo Coco, 20 years old and music director of the Rossini 2016 Young Artists’ Opera Festival in London:

On 12 September 2016 we will be putting on a spectacular staging of The Barber of Seville at Cadogan Hall, featuring some of the most talented young singers from across the world, who have already debuted in international opera houses including the ENO, Glyndebourne, La Fenice (Venice) and Cape Town Opera.

What is particularly exciting is that Rossini wrote his comic masterpiece when he was only 23 and all the musicians and artists involved in our festival, performing in our Barber, are just as young. 2016 is the 200th anniversary of the opera and we are daunted and honoured in equal measure to be performing it in such an historic year.

gaetano lo coco

Sir Nicholas Kenyon, leader of the Simon Rattle campaign for a new concert hall in the City of London, has returned to the fray after a period of quiet contemplation. He argues in the Telegraph today that, after the Brexit vote, ‘London and the UK will need standout projects: the sort of infrastructure that will help fuel our economy, and attract both visitors and artists who want to come or continue to work here because of our thrilling cultural scene.’

Which is exactly what he argued before Britain voted to leave the EU.

The case for a new hall on the site of the Museum of London has some merits in a sunny economic climate, which is a thing of the past. In present conditions it will (a) cost half a billion pounds, (b) be furiously resented by the rest of the UK, specifically those parts that voted for Brexit and (c) lack any kind of political backing now that the former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, its chief nodder and winker, has been sacked from the Theresa May government.

To make the case now for a new hall displays woeful timing and an astonishing lack of emotional intelligence. Mrs May is unlikely to be amused.

Museum_of_London

Message from the incoming music director of the Metropolitan Opera:

I accept the challenge of my friend Weston Sprott from the MET Orchestra. 22 push-ups for 22 days, in support of the U.S. Veterans who commit suicide every day as a result of post traumatic syndrom.
I am challenging my friend Joseph Conyers from the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Day 1 of 22: Push up challenge!
I have been challenged to do 22 push ups for 22 days by: Weston Sprott

I’m doing push ups every day for 22 days to bring awareness to the tragic fact that 22 VETERANS COMMIT SUICIDE EVERY DAY. The goal is to raise awareness of our Service Members who are battling this disorder.

Once you are nominated your 22 days starts the following day.
* Every day you record yourself doing 22 push-ups, try your best to reach 22. If that means doing assisted (from your knees) push-ups or that you have to stop and take a break that’s fine but try to get them all done in one video.
* Every day you must nominate a different person (even if you don’t have 22 friends), try to choose people you think will want to do this and/or have the ability to do it.
* And finally, this is a simple way to get the word out about a matter that more people need to be aware about. These brave men and women put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms only to get out and feel lost. It’s sad that so many good veterans feel that suicide is the only way out.
How it works:
Video yourself executing 22 push ups.
Post video to social media using hash tags below. Tag friends to continue to spread the word. Copy and Paste after editing who nominated you and who you are nominating?

Please spread the word that veteran suicide is not the answer.
A new video will be posted each day for the next 22 days, each with someone new being challenged. Take the time to reach out to a veteran you know today. And if you’re a veteran who’s struggling, call 1-800-273-8255 or text at 838255. I am challenging Joseph!!

 
 
 

The Louis Spohr violin competition in Weimar, hardly the most famous, has received 189 applications from contenders aged 14 to 20, many flying in from Asia to audition.

They have been whittled down to 107 starters.

No previous winner has gone on to make a major career.

This particular contest is fairly transparent, all judges marks being made public. But the competition industry as a whole feeds off unrealistic expectations and delivers little glory in return for so much hope.

louis spohr

 

German tabloids have been following Stefan Arzberger, former first violin of the Leipzig String Quartet, since his return last month from New York, where he had been detained after an incident in a hotel.

Stefan, 43, was accused of rampaging naked through the hotel and attempting to strangle a fellow-guest in another room. He was granted bail but could not leave the country. Friends, colleagues and his wife, Doreen, raised funds for his upkeep and preserved his morale until the case was settled.

Now Bunte magazine has published an interview with Doreen saying their marriage is over.

arzbergers

Stefan’s former colleagues in the Leipzig Quartet have tweeted: Very romantic to finish a marriage by a simple Whatsapp message.

Clearly, all is not well in that relationship either.

UPDATE: Stefan Arzberger has requested us to clarify that the article was not authorised and his wife had not informed him of it. We are happy to oblige.

Coming up at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf) in November:

 

Surely the most visually arresting work of hcmf//’s first weekend will be the World Premiere of Claudia Molitor‘s hour-long Walking with Partch performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik. In 2012, Musikfabrik set out to re-build the visionary American composer Harry Partch’s unique micro-tonal instruments; and for their continuing ‘pitch 43_tuning the cosmos’ project they have commissioned new works by European composers for these impressive instruments in order to give them a life beyond historic reconstruction.

HarryPartch

Harry Partch (c) Betty Freeman/Lebrecht Music&Arts

 

Voice coach Christianne Roll finds that many of her students have begun to slouch as a result of their texting habits. That, she warns, could kill the singing voice:

Voice teachers and singers understand that physical posture directly affects the quality of the singing voice.  Posture is usually addressed in the first voice lesson, and in this age of more casual stances, singers typically need numerous reminders about this issue.

In my first years of voice teaching, I often noticed the slumped and rounded shoulders of my musical theatre singers. Their physicality could be fixed by suggestions such as “stand up straight,” “shoulders back,” and “keep the sternum lifted.” Proper alignment usually appeared, and overall singing ability improved.

Millennial Forward Head Posture 

However, in the past few years, I realized that those suggestions of “shoulders back” were no longer completely effective….

Read on here.

texting

 

The conductor has been cleared of all wrongdoing by a police investigation in his home country, South Korea, having been wildly accused of expenses fraud and defamation by a sacked orchestra manager. He leaves the country completely innocent, despite a campaign by motivated print and broadcast media.

This morning he issued the following statement:

‘I am happy that after a thorough investigation all the accusations against myself and the SPO have proven to be groundless.

‘It is a pity that so much damage has been done to myself and the SPO over the last year and a half.

‘What I have learned from this experience is how easy, specially in our country, it is to tear down and destroy something that has been built with such hard work.

‘I hope that in the future I can be of help to other people who have suffered through such hardship caused by completely fabricated accusations.

‘I have worked tirelessly and honestly on behalf of SPO over 10 years. I am just sad for all the damage that has been done to the SPO and I hope you will all join me in supporting them in the future.

chung

 

Myung Whun Chung