A typically wry provocation from Ivan Fischer in, of all places, the Lufthansa flight magazine.
Here’s another:
‘Conducting is a very easy job. I don’t understand why people think it’s difficult. Of course, I sometimes see conductors who are totally stressed out and sweating … That amuses me. And then, yes, then I do feel some sympathy. But only a bit.’
Read the full interview here.
The latest benefit concert thrown in Munich by the retiring tenor José Carreras on behalf of leukaemia research, raised just under 3.3 million Euros.
Among the performers were Jonas Kaufmann and the violinist David Garrett.
Carreras said: ‘Jonas Kaufmann is one of the most important singers of our time.’
At the foot of the Royal Opera House memo instructing singers how and when to appear for curtain calls, a new advisory had appeared in bold lettering.
It reads: Please note: It is House policy to request that singers do not applaud each other onstage. Thank you.
(signed) Emma Turner, Stage Manager
Now why would they do that?
Are they scared that Diva Joyce would ovate one bari-hunk at the expense of another?
Do they fear Mourinho-like bad losers in the backstage?
Has somebody complained to the management?
We really ought to know….
Among many testimonies that have been sent to Slipped Disc since the breaking of the James Levine allegations is one from a well-established music administrator.
Our contact was on the music staff at the Met as a young man in the 1980s. He was approached one day by the music director, who ‘stuck his hand down my pants’. Our contact indicated that he was not interested, and that was it.
No big deal, you might say. Everyone was above the age of consent. What followed, however, is indicative of the corrosive atmosphere at the Met and how careers could be made or broken at one man’s whim.
From the moment he declined the sexual proposition, our contact became invisible in the building. No-one wanted to work with him. If he asked why, he would be told he ‘was not good enough’. A clique around the music director was there to enforce his wishes.
In music in particular and the arts in general, competence can be hard to prove if you are not given the opportunity. The Met was an impossible place to work if you did not play the music director’s way.
Our contact got out fast and made a successful career outside New York. He has no regrets. Others who stayed on saw their lives and their talents whittled away past the point of recovery.
That destructive element is part of the James Levine legacy. It will not go away until the Met decides to come clean about the past and put its house in order.
The Teatro Colon ins Buenos Aires is muscling in on La Scala’s triumphant opening night with Andrea Chénier by streaming the same opera – live and free – this weekend.
José Cura sings the title role.
Streaming link here.
Is it that time already? Time for the Lebrecht Album of the Year award….
In these diminished times, any year that yields a couple of releases that can rank with, and perhaps displace, the legends of recording history must be counted a good one. On these terms, 2017 was a pretty good vintage. There was an impressive Berlioz Les Troyens from Erato, a Hänssler retrieval of the last known recital of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the first in a promising Chandos series of the orchestral works of Richard Rodney Bennett and, at the opposite end of the scale, a Jonas Kaufmann assault on both tenor and mezzo parts of Das Lied von der Erde – a Sony production of such epic awfulness on every front, including sound quality, that it will stand the test of time in my cabinet of deathless horrors.
Not a bad year, then, and for the piano absolutely epic….
Read on here to discover the album of the year.
And here.
The Deutsche Oper am Rhein has announced the death of Bruce Rankin, an ensemble member for almost 20 years.
Bruce, who died on Monday of an unidentified cause, was 65.
He is described as ‘an outstanding character tenor.’
‘The sudden death of Bruce Rankin strikes us deep in the heart,’ said Generalintendant Christoph Meyer.
Nataliya Kovalova (Sylva Varescu), Bruce Rankin (Edwin Ronald); at Düsseldorf Airport.
photo (c) Hans Jörg Michel
Alison Balsom is to be Artistic Director of Cheltenham Music Festival from next summer.
The trumpeter, who is married to the film director Sam Mendes, withdrew from concerts earlier this year to have a baby.
This is her bounce-back moment.
Czech Radio has announced a new Chief Conductor and Artistic Director to succeed the veteran Ondrej Lenard.
It’s Alexander Liebreich, head of the Richard Strauss Festival at Garmisch. He starts in September 2018.
A youngish Czech, Marek Sedivy, 30, was named Principal Guest Conductor.
press release:
BE PHIL Orchestra at the Open House in the Philharmonie on 21 May 2018 – a large amateur orchestra plays Brahms’ First Symphony, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle
The Education Programme of the Berliner Philharmoniker calls on all interested amateur musicians to apply for the BE PHIL Orchestra, which will perform during the Open House in the Philharmonie on 21 May 2018. Johannes Brahms’ First Symphony will be presented together with members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Karajan Academy under the baton of chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle. Stanley Dodds and other members of the Berliner Philharmoniker will conduct the rehearsals.
We are looking for 100 amateur musicians from all over the world to participate in this event. Applications must be submitted by video from 3 to 10 January 2018 on the project website. A jury made up of musicians from the Berliner Philharmoniker will select the members of the BE PHIL Orchestra from the first 1,000 entries. The successful applicants will be announced on 1 February 2018.
The rehearsals and concert will take place in the Berlin Philharmonie from 17 to 21 May 2018. The concert will be broadcast live in the Digital Concert Hall. Complete information is available on the project website: www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/bephil
A music professor and conductor named in the Boston Globe allegations of sexual misconduct at music colleges has lost his positions at three schools.
Eric Hewitt has left the Boston Conservatory and Boston College High School and is on leave from Phillips Exeter Academy.
According to the Globe, four former Boston Conservatory students accused Hewitt of sending them unwanted text messages, making rude phone calls, bullying them and sexually assaulting one of them.
More here.
Hewitt is a protégé of the late composer Gunther Schuller.
Three international string quartets announced changes of personnel this week, always a massive disruption in any tight-knit group.
It so happens that our diarist Anthea Kreston, violinist in a celebrated Berlin-based quartet has been furrowing her brow over these very issues as the winter break approaches. Here are her hard-earned survival tips:
How does one flourish in a string quartet? The obstacles are numerous – there are so many different levels of quartets, and each face innumerable stresses – from technical to financial to personal. When a group is very successful (as mine is), the pressure of stepping onto a stage at the top of our abilities, despite the rigors of the road and a bundle of repertoire that stresses even the strongest of arms, is great and never abates. But at the base of it all is the ability of four stubborn and opinionated people to come to agreements while maintaining cordiality.
The first step is to try to be as flexible as possible with both your technique and opinions. No one gets into a professional quartet without years of training, during which time your personality and opinions become more and more distinct and individual. Then, next step – try to play with three other people who have just as deep a feeling as you do about every detail – from the shape of your right-hand pinky to how audible your breath is. Not to mention the accent continuum and your deep thoughts of every composer and style of playing. Can of worms is the understatement of the century. Maybe vat of scorpions is more like it.
So – first – some quotes by former teachers, colleagues and friends that help keep it all in perspective. These are always cycling in my head.
1 – “In classical music, the slow notes are the melody” (truism)
2 – “Any bowing can sound like Shit” (anonymous- this by a curmudgeonly coach from a famous quartet after a protracted conversation on the merits of a particular up and down bow)
3 – “Those aren’t the 4 notes I am worried about being out of tune!” (Ida Kavafian – after one of those endless “let’s check our g and c string” sessions)
4 – “Honesty without tact is cruelty” (Nina Lee, Brentano Quartet)
5 – “Don’t lead, don’t follow, play with” (David Soyer, Guarneri Quartet)
And now some basic “how-to” advice. Before you say something, take a moment and double check this basic list. Is what you are about to say:
1 – the truth or an opinion
2 – necessary
3 – kind
Take a deep breath. Nothing is as important as it seems to you right at that heated moment.
