According to a decision by the International Federation of Musicians (FIM), it’s … Air Canada.

Here’s the announcement picture from the FIM’s fourth international orchestras conference in Montreal.

 

We have no idea how this decision was reached.

Maybe they were just being nice to the hosts.

Slipped Disc has received many complaints about Ar Canada, most recently this shocker.

Oh, and this.

Whatever Air Canada are, they are not cello friendly.

Or guitar, either.

From our weekly diarist, violinist Anthea Kreston

I am on the 29 bus on the way home from my first rehearsal with the Berlin Philharmonic.

I love the 29 – it cuts through Berlin from the funkiness of Kreutzberg, through the middle of town (Checkpoint Charlie), and onto Charlottenberg, with the glitter and glam of K-Damm and the Michael Kors and dogs wearing Chanel.  It is a double decker, and in this way, feels like a free sight-seeing tour through Berlin. I have my favorite seat – top front window. 

This week I was busy preparing my part for Heldenleben, on the viola. I wanted to arrive with the part well-in-hand so I could get maximum enjoyment from every part of this amazing experience. I had a “check-up” lesson with my brother-in-law, and I got the green light.  

I have been very nicely asked to refrain from comment about my time while in my seat at orchestra – and so I will talk a little about my preparation and about the most hilarious standpartner I have ever had. I will say, however, that I feel as if I have just taken a four-hour bath in the most glorious Bouillabaisse in the world. Each instrument, each section has a full-bodied character, and the broth – oh, the broth…….

In my mid-20’s I experienced my one-and-only injury which was caused by playing (the others were just silly knife slippages or random sports injuries).  I had been playing viola in the Avalon Quartet for 4 years, and in the mean time had met Jason and begun the Amelia Piano Trio. There was a sweet time when Quartet and Trio were both running with full pistons, which of course meant that I was doing double duty and playing two different instruments. My right forearm started to burn and have consistent pain.  I went to Dr. Alice Brandfonbrener, one of the foremost classical music doctors in the country (who happened also to be a family friend and neighbor from my childhood).  She asked me to bring my instruments. I played for her – and she said – “Anthea, there is nothing wrong with your position, but I have something to say to you that you won’t want to hear”.  I told her to go ahead. She said, “I have been watching you play since you were a little girl, and I know you love to play both instruments. But, you are on a collision course, and I must advise you, as your doctor, to pick one instrument over the other, and you and I both know that the instrument you have to give up is viola”.

Well, I certainly didn’t want to hear this. My whole personality is based on the word “yes”, and I knew I could do it. That day I began to experiment, knowing I had to try to find a solution. And, indeed I did – I continued in the quartet for another three years before committing to Trio full-time. And here is what my solution was. 

I made a mandatory down-time between instruments of four hours. And I couldn’t switch back the same day. This was an absolutely firm line – if I pushed it, my arm would react. But then, what to do if I ended the day on viola but had to practice violin for the next morning?  I made the mistake before of switching back – it didn’t work. So – I decided to practice all rep on the final instrument, no matter which instrument or what rep. So – I practiced violin parts on the viola, learned Bartok quartet viola parts on the violin. Then I would just switch back to the right instrument when the time came. 

Because the amount of playing I am doing these days is so intense, and because I am 20 years older, my arm is more fragile. Now I only play one instrument per day. So – that is how I learned Heldenleben this week. On the violin. Then, I switched to the viola permanently the night before the first rehearsal, and the violin will go dark for five days. I will practice my violin rep on the viola in the mean time. Strange, I know, but it works. It totally works. 

Funny Standpartner Story:

Dennis Kim was my standpartner at Curtis. He is from Toronto, and has a mischievous look about him, but only if certain people look at him – to most people he looks serious and well-intentioned. He plays it close to the vest, and he was quiet during rehearsals. At Curtis, at least when I was there, they would have two orchestra rehearsals per week with a full program, then have an open concert on Saturdays.  New rep every week. That is a pretty quick turn-around, and so everyone’s sightreading chops became honed quickly, because there was no other choice. To pick up a pencil during rehearsal was embarrassing – and let’s not even mention those poor unfortunate souls who would dare to bring their music home to practice. Oh my goodness. 

So – a couple of weeks into school, we are playing our Saturday concert, and a subito FF appears, and I go for it. But, I am the only one in the orchestra. Dennis doesn’t play the FF and doesn’t even look at me. Deadpan. Then I play a couple of really strange notes – again, Dennis seems to play the ones everyone else is playing. I am mortified. 

I take a close look at the part after orchestra, and notice that those markings are made in a very fine hand, to look just like printed markings, but done with a pencil. Dennis denies any wrong doing, and I notice he never takes the part home. The next week I am on guard to notice anything different in the part during the concert that wasn’t there in rehearsal. I catch a couple of things, but still lay down a couple of real dosies – surprise solos. He never really admitted any wrong-doing, and these “mystery marking” continued for my entire time as his standpartner – this was a crafty sly fellow with a big laugh and a twinkle in his eyes. 

He has gone on to be concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and now is concertmaster of Buffalo. I asked him the other day if I could talk about what a terrible standpartner he was on the Diary, and if I could use his name, and he said – “of course you have to use my name – I finally need credit!”.  Ha ha. Greetings Dennis! 

Owain Park, a British hopeful, signed this week to the Hazard Chase agency, which only represents male conductors. Look here.

In this day and age…

Here’s a rant on the subject.

Szymon Nehring was declared winner tonight of the 15th Artur Rubinstein Competition in Israel.

In addition to the $40,000 first prize, he won five other supplementary awards.

In second place was the Romanian, Daniel Petrica Ciobanu.

Third was the American finalist, Sara Daneshpour.

Aged 21, Nehring is regarded as Poland’s finest young pianist. In the 2015 Chopin competition in Warsaw, he came sixth.

Peter Donohoe, one of the judges, says the jury vote was almost unanimous.

Two London events:

Oedipa collaborates with the extraordinary female baritone Lucia Lucas (Wuppertaler Bühnen, Deutsche Oper, Chicago Opera Theatre) on an evening of song in transition: from masc to femme, classical to queer and oppression to freedom. Singing Bizet, Britten, Wagner, Purcell and Adams, flirting with Sarah Vaughan and Rocky Horror, Lucia draws on her experience singing classical repertoire across the world to tell her incredible story and celebrate the fluidity and plurality of gender in opera.

Tickets here.

 

The New Haven Symphony Orchestra is losing its concertmaster. Ani Kavafian, 69, says she wants to go well before the music director, William Boughton, steps down in 2019, allowing the right successor to be chosen.

‘It’s been a really good career,’ she tells the local paper. ‘It’s gone the way I hoped.’

You don’t hear that very often.

Read full report here.

Before the last night of Rosenkavalier, the diva sent a package of goodies to the Met orchestra musicians, together with a letter thanking them for their collaboration across many years.

 

She did the same, too, for the chorus.

That’s class.

 

Right-click on the letter to enlarge in new window.

 

Marie Stultz, founding director of the Treble Chorus of New England and author of ‘Innocent Sounds, has died.

 

The conductor Joseph R. Olefirowicz writes:

I am heartbroken to learn of the passing of teacher and mentor Marie Stultz. Her vibrant and uncompromising energy honed and shaped the musician, conductor, and vocal pedagogue I am today. From training of seamless transition between vocal registers, to a love of fine choral and operatic repertory, to even the wonders of organ and orchestra with choirs: this woman shaped my, and countless other journeys, through her work with the Treble Chorus of New England in its days as a first-call ensemble for classical music in the Boston region.

My first operatic debut was with her at the tender age of 11 as treble soloist with Boston Musica Viva, my first baritone soli and so many other milestones came through her nurturing. Even working administration during high school for her annual Singers’ Workshop, helped hone who I am today as a professional musician.

Her methods may not have been understood by all, but I thrived, learned and growed from them. As a female conductor in days where this was still an emerging concept, she pioneered her way with tough love and a strong will that only old school training can give. And I carry on much of that today.

Although sporadically in contact the last years, we welcomed her to Nashua, when our Pergolesi Magnificat, opened with her first movement of “Suite Nativität” (the original name of Suite on the Nativity) in a new orchestration. She simply beamed. I will hold that visit forever in my memory.

RIP Marie. TIme to teach the angels some “tee tee tah tah tah”…

 

 

Joachim Kaiser is no more.

He was 88.

An East Prussian who lived in Stuttgart, he wrote a popular guide to pianists.

Valdimir Askenazy said of him: ‘ His tendentious but impressively presented utterances tend to be treated as gospel by large sections of the German music world’.

Laura Berman, adventurous head of Theater Basel in Switzerland, has been named intendant of Hannover Opera.

Laura, 58, from Boston, studied at Juilliard, Princeton and Hamburg.

 

A notice has been posted of the death of Hanna Scholl-Völker, a high soprano who sang in Florence, Frankfurt and Munich and later became an influential and sympathetic teacher.

She married the baritone Georg Völker.

Her American student Helen Donath once said of her early years in Germany: ‘ I went through difficult years, even to the verge of losing my instrument. Thanks to the great bass-baritone George London, I met Paola Novikova, the teacher of Nicolai Gedda and many other stars, and then, Hanna Scholl-Völker, daughter in law of the legendary tenor Franz Völker and wife of Georg Völker, the best Beckmesser of his time. They and my husband conductor saved me.’

The Israeli government this week abolished the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA).

Among the collateral casualties of this authoritarian, totally political decision is the IBA’s orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, which has been a radio ensemble since its foundation in 1936. As of today, it is no longer a part of the broadcast spectrum.

The orchestra is struggling to find ways to stay alive and keep its musicians in work.

Bolshoi photo (2016): Sputnik/Kremlin/Mikhail Klimentyev