The Vienna Volksoper has announced the sudden and unexpected death on April 26 of Endrik Wottrich, a prominent German tenor who sang in many international houses.
photo (c) Royal Opera House
Originally from Celle in Germany, he graduated from Juilliard and was a member of the Berlin Staatsoper through the 1990s.
He sang the title part in Parsifal in Bayreuth in 2004 and Tannhäuser the following year at La Scala.
He worked often and recorded with Nikolaus Hanoncourt and was a regular at Covent Garden.
These are the singers and pianists selected for the 2017 Kathleen Ferrier Awards Final, which takes place at Wigmore Hall on Friday 28 April. Francesca Chiejina, of the ROH’s Jette Parker programme, is the only female singer.
James Way & Natalie Burch*
Daniel Shelvey & Dylan Perez*
Patrick Terry & Somi Kim*
Julien Van Mellaerts & Gamal Khamis*
Eduard Mas Bacardit & Dylan Perez*
Francesca Chiejina & Dylan Perez*
*accompanist prize contestants
The Eugene Symphony have just announced Francesco Lecce-Chong as the new chief, chosen from 250 applicants.
He starts in July, succeeding Danail Rachev, who has been there for eight years.
Francesco Lecce-Chong is assistant conductor at the Pittsburgh Symphony.
‘I had a wonderful time in Liverpool, both musically and personally. Just listen to our live recordings of the Mahler Symphonies to attest to the high musical and technical level of the orchestra. I also had a wonderful relationship with members of the Liverpool Jewish community – I write about that experience one page before I quote the Rockwell article. “We would also, on occasion, attend services at the Princes Road Synagogue, a very beautiful and very spiritual place where one can see and feel the history of the Jewish community in Liverpool.”
‘I certainly felt no anti-Semitism or anti-Americanism while I lived and worked there. It was never my intention in my book to give the impression to the contrary. I did quote John Rockwell’s article in The New York Times from August 2004, but the importance of the quote was his evaluation of British vs. American style music directors. When John asked me about anti-Semitism, I said I did not agree with that evaluation. In my memoir of 375 pages I devote ten pages to my years in Liverpool. I hope everyone might read those pages, and I also hope the impression they give is of a wonderful experience with a terrific orchestra in a fascinating city.’
Colston Hall in Bristol has decided to change its name in order to end the association with its original owner, a trader in slaves and sugar. Edward Colston founded a boys’ school on the site in 1708. It was rebuilt as a concert hall in 1867 and hosted many famous virtuosos in the first half of the 20th century.
Today, the Bristol Music Trust that runs Colston Hall, announced that the name will change when the hall reopens after major refurbishment in 2020.
They are looking to sell naming rights to a major donor.
The Trust says: ‘We are in no way trying to erase recognition of Bristol’s role in the slave trade, and we recognise the importance of remembering the part this city played in those events as a way of shaping our city for the better moving forward. We want to embrace our position at the centre of this naming discussion to work beyond the building and help lead conversations across Bristol about diversity and inclusivity.
However, as the South West’s flagship concert venue, we also see changing the name as part of our wider redevelopment plans as an opportunity to make a clear statement that Edward Colston does not represent the values of Bristol Music Trust.’
The innovative Claire Chase, recipient of the 2012 Macarthur grant (worth $625,000 over five years), has just been named winner of the annual $100,000 Avery Fisher award.
Chase, 38 and Brooklyn-based, has a 22-year scheme to commission new music for her instrument.
She is the first flute player to win the award, which has been running since 1975 and has been withheld in five of the past eight years.
The young Italian conductor Valentina Peleggi has signed with Marin Alsop’s agency, Intermusica.
Peleggi is conductor in residence at the Sao Paulo Symphony, where Alsop is music director. In 2016, she was named conductor of the year by the Sao Paulo music critics.
She wrote at the time: ‘Two years ago, while I was a student at the Festival do Inverno de Campos do Jordao, Marin Alsop and Osesp offered me a chance: to assist for one month the major orchestra in South America, Osesp. I could barely breath the first time I heard Osesp playing! And then a conductor cancelled, I stepped in at the last minute.. and it all started. Osesp opened a position of Assistant Conductor for the first time, and I had the chance to assist fantastic Maestros, rehearsing, conducting, preparing the choir, teaching the Academy, stepping in other times, conducting Sunday morning concerts and my own fantastic subscription week! And now this, I can’t believe it…’
In the turbulent history of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the five-year tenure of Gerard Schwarz as music director from 2002 to 2006 does not stand out among the more memorable.
Schwarz himself, in an approved biography to be published by Amadeus Press, admits that he was forced out. ‘I can’t say that my departure was my choice,’ he says. He goes on to blame the musicians for their resistance to ‘the American music director model’ and the management for not giving him enough support.
He then quotes, by way of background explanation, an August 2004 article by John Rockwell in the New York Times, linking Schwarz’s departure from Liverpool and Leonard Slatkin’s from the BBC Symphony to an unnamed London music critic ‘who spoke speculatively of a certain residual genteel anti-semitism in Britain.’
This is nonsense – lazy, offensive and dangerous nonsense. It is also easy to disprove.
I visit the Liverpool orchestra once a year and have never sniffed any whiff of Jew-hatred among them, then or now. Schwarz was the wrong choice for an orchestra that was going through a difficult transition. His successor, Vasily Petrenko, achieved an instant turnaround and an international revival by getting the music right.
As for other UK orchestras, if they were riddled with anti-semitsm or anti-American, how does Schwarz explain the long tenures of Andre Previn and Michael Tilson Thomas as principal conductors of the LSO? Let alone Otto Klemperer at the Philharmonia, Georg Solti at the Royal Opera, Rudolf Barshai in Bournemouth and others far too numerous to mention.
Rockwell admitted that his theory is both speculative and anonymous, yet Schwarz does not hesitate to cite it as a likely cause for his premature departure from Britain.
This, to my mind, is disgraceful conduct.
Let’s be clear: there is antisemitism in Britain.
It is not at all genteel and it is on the rise. The number of reported hate incidents, 1,309, was higher last year than ever before. Anti-semitism is a complex, disturbing phenomenon that crosses many parts of British society and most political parties. It is not, however, embedded in the ranks of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, or in the mindset of any other British orchestra at this time.
The NY opera festival opens this weekend with, among other rarities, Britten’s Phaedra in a Williamsburg gallery and the US premiere of Milhaud’s La Mère Coupable in a garage owned by fashion designer Kenneth Cole.
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has found its next concertmaster from within its own ranks.
A year after Dale Barltrop’s return to his native Australia, the orchestra has chosen Nicholas Wright, a British violinist, from a field of 12 applicants.
Wright, who takes up the front seat immediately, studied at the Royal College of Music and played in the English Chamber Orchestra, LSO and London Philharmonic before winning an audition in Vancouver six years ago.
He says: ‘I am thrilled to accept the appointment of concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. This is an exciting time for us, and I am looking forward to the upcoming seasons during which we will be celebrating Maestro (Bramwell) Tovey’s incredible legacy here in Vancouver as well as the orchestra’s centenary year. Since joining the VSO, I have found a constant source of inspiration in my colleagues and am fortunate to count among them some of my closest friends. Being part of this orchestra is also so special because of the enthusiastic support of our audience. Every orchestra needs the support of a great community on which to thrive, and I am proud to call this beautiful city my home.’
