From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:

Every line is inflected with drama, every cadence with a precise calibration of vibrato. Even without much understanding of the Russian language, the interpretation is compelling. Is there a better living singer of Russian Lieder?

Guess who?

Click here.

 

The American pianist Lara Downes has been named Innovator of the Year at the University of California, Davis, together with the wheat geneticist Jorge Dubcovsky, distinguished professor of plant sciences.

Jorge Dubcovsky is a leader in the field of plant memory – how crops adapt to weather cycles.

Lara Downes has released a timely album America Again, inspired by Langston Hughes’ 1935 poem, ‘Let America Be America Again’.

‘It has been a difficult time to be an artist in America,’ she says.

The Wrocław Philharmonic have named Giancarlo Guerrero as their music director.  He succeeds the US-Israeli Benjamin Shwartz, who has held the job for the past four years.

Guerrero, who is music director of the Nashville Symphony, will conduct four week in Wroclaw this year and eight weeks next. His opening concert takes place tonight.

The Dutchman Jochem Hochstenbach, first Kapellmeister in Bern, has been named Generalmusikdirektor at Theater Trier.

 

His compatriot Klaas Stok will take over next year in Hamburg as chief conductor of the NDR Chorus.

One other move: Leo Siberski starts in September as Generalmusikdirektor at Theater Plauen-Zwickau, that’s Schumann’s town.

The Iranian harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani made his Israeli debut last night in Jerusalem.

Here’s one we took earlier.

l-r: Haaretz critic Amir Mandel, Mahan, NL

And here’s Amir’s article on Mahan in Haaretz.

After an absence of quarter of a century, the Russian pianist has returned to Deutsche Grammophon with a new contract and a Beethoven sonata set.


photo: DG/Johann Sebastian Haenel

press release:

After a break of 25 years, legendary pianist Evgeny Kissin has signed a new exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. His discography already contains landmark recordings for the Yellow Label, critically acclaimed collaborations with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan and Claudio Abbado among them, and the association between artist and label resumes with the release of a new Beethoven album in August.

The double-disc set, its programme personally chosen by Kissin from recitals given over the past decade, includes Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas No. 14 Op. 27 No. 2, ‘Moonlight’, No. 23 Op. 57, ‘Appassionata’, and No. 26 Op. 81a, ‘Les Adieux’. It also comprises the evergreen 32 Variations in C minor WoO 80 and a profound exploration of the sublime two-movement Piano Sonata No. 32 Op. 111, the composer’s final work in the genre. The album, Kissin’s first solo recital recording in more than a decade, represents a major addition to his Beethoven discography and an essential document of his artistic development.

“These recordings were made in the moment of performance,” observes Kissin. “Live recordings always surpass studio albums for me, because I feel more inspired when playing for an audience. It means a lot to me to be able to share the spirit of that live experience with others.”

The French baritone Ludovic Tézier has openend a twitter account to assure the opera world that he is perfectly healthy and does not agree with Covent Garden’s decision to replace him in Otello.

 

 

Ludovic has posted a video in English in order to explain his position to the UK public.

English National Opera have tweeted news of the death of John Brecknock, a company star in the 1970s and 1980s.

He sang opposite Valerie Masterton in La Traviata and Janet Baker in Werther. He also played a number of roles in the US, notably Dandini in La Cenerentola with Marilyn Horne at San Francisco Opera.

He retired with a heart condition in 1992 and moved with his wife to Spain.

His autobiography, Scaling the High C’s – The Musical Life of Tenor John L. Brecknock”, was published by Scarecrow Press in 1996.

John died on May 30, 2017 at his home in Benissa, Alicante. He is survived by his wife Lore and daughter, Kim.

 

In a slightly macabre Czech ritual, the coffin containing the body of  Jiří Bělohlávek, who died last week of cancer, was displayed yesterday on the stage of the Rudolfinum concert hall, where thousands filed past to pay homage.

 

 

The funeral will be private.

photos (c) Petra Hajska

The Richard Wagner Prize of the city of Leipzig for 2017 has been awarded to Oswald Georg Bauer, former press chief of the Bayreuth Festival.

Bauer presided over a press office whose job was the keep the press out of Bayreuth as much as possible, except for a handful of trusted critics who would not ask awkward questions. His press office never obligingly picked up a phone or answered a reasonable inquiry. Or ever smiled.

 

He is a worthy winner of this year’s Wagner prize to add to his Slipped Disc award.

 

He’ll incorporate it in his Said Academy, he says, making the Pierre Boulez Saal the most important venue for Arabic music in Europe.

Report here.

Reports in St Petersburg have revealed an unusual cause of death for the great ballet restorer Sergei Vikharev, who died last week aged 55.

Apparently, he was given anaesthetic for cosmetic dental treatment in a private clinic. The anaesthetic used was Propofol, administered in some US states for the death penalty.

Vikharev never emerged from the artificially induced coma.

Awful.

Read here.