All over the country, local authorities will be promoting the cello throughout 2018.
Hundreds more kids will learn how to play.
As if it wasn’t tough enough out there already…
‘That’s what the people want: the noise that comes out of the box.’
Elisabeth Braw reports in the FT that cuts are planned for the best drilled musicians in the world:
The British Army has 22 ensembles: eight symphonic wind bands, one other wind bands, six multi-capacity wind bands, three brass bands, three pop bands and one string orchestra.
A country’s military music-making matters and reflects its military prowess. In countries such as France, Britain and the US, military music is not an afterthought but a bona fide career for accomplished musicians. Although they are trained soldiers, the musicians spend most of their time rehearsing and performing…
Read on here.
From our string quartet diarist, Anthea Kreston:
I recently reconnected with an old friend, a Turkish violinist I studied with many years ago with the Emerson Quartet. Here we both were, years later in Munch, with partners, kids, a host of musical and life experiences behind us, and yet the comfort and security I have found is far from the upheaval and trauma my friend had been through, as a musician in Turkey.
As we sat opposite one another, in a Vietnamese restaurant with my other friend, the incredible Argentinian pianist José Gallardo, we were like the beginning of a bad joke – “so, a Turk, Argentinian and American walk into this Vietnamese joint in Munich….”. What always struck me about my friend – his easy, low laugh, his funny observations and irrepressible optimism, was still there, but as the events of the past 10 years unfolded before us, I wondered how he had managed to come out of it all so seemingly intact.
He had arrived in Munich three weeks before, having sent his American opera-singer wife and two small children ahead one year ago. Things had turned so intensely to the worse that their very safety was in question. He picked Munich because it had a daily flight from their city in Turkey. My friend stayed behind for a year, living like a hermit, sending everything he earned to his family. His wife in the meantime found some work tutoring English.
What he described to me resembled something out of an old black-and-white movie. Showing up one morning to have the entire management of the University replaced by government appointments, teachers summarily fired, children of well-connected officials given degrees, new sets of random, crazy rules enforced daily – entire departments removed in 24 hours.
In 2013, my friend participated in the Gezi Park Protests, a peaceful protest which spread across Turkey even as riot police trained water cannons and tear gas on thousands of people. What began as an outcry against the razing of a park to make way for urban development quickly turned into public rage against increasingly authoritarian rule.
From here on, my friend walked a tightrope of protecting his family, his income, continuing to inspire and create musical communities, until one day a dreaded brilliant yellow envelope was delivered to his door. These envelopes contain official government complaints against citizens, and have to be fought tooth and nail with every resource available. The allegations are without proof, and run the gamut from implausible to ridiculous. His days were filled with defending and disproving these accusations, pulled from thin air but with the deadly bite of an alligator. Day after day these envelopes arrived, until one day, one arrived for his wife.
It was at this moment that they decided that they were in real, tangible danger. Soon after this, one of his students, a young violinist of only 20 years, was killed by a stray bullet.
One of the most incredible things is that, during this whole time, my friend was creating musical sanctuaries for students and professionals – sitting concertmaster for Turkish orchestras, conducting, teaching, spreading his love of music, and was even named Musician of the Year in 2016. What I always knew about him in Connecticut – his creativity, work ethic, desire for learning and collaborating – this he carried back with him to his home country. That is what he gave back, sharing without thought for himself, until he could no longer ensure his safety.
My friend had a heart attack in Munich two weeks ago. A young man, he was rushed to the hospital. His family immediately sent an SOS out to the local Turkish community, which responded with care and support.
As I sat across from him, days out of the hospital, he was grateful to be there, happy to meet new friends, to come hear my Quartet play. He had his first gig – sitting in the pit for a local high-school production of Pirates of Penzance, and grateful for it.
Last night, I spontaneously bought a flight to Munich to go see the Emerson Quartet with Kissin. I missed them here in Berlin last year, and am determined not to miss them this tour. I texted my friend and asked if he wanted me to get a ticket for him, and guess what – he is busy playing Lohengrin! Things are hard for him now, but I have every expectation that he and his family will once again thrive. With a heart as big as his, there is no other option.
From the first Lebrecht Album of the Week review of 2018:
It just got a whole load tougher out there for young cellists.
The first release batch of the New Year contains no fewer than four cello-piano recitals, all of them estimable. In a shrinking media environment, none will get the full-length attention they deserve. The best I can give them here is short Schrift….
Who does best?
Read on here.
Time to update last year’s rankings, based on reader reports to Slipped Disc.
Here’s the 2018 roll of shame:
1 Ryanair
Still the unchallenged leader in a shocking field.
2 Vueling
3 British Airways
Rising levels of callousness and misinformation
4 United Airlines
5 American Airlines
6 KLM
7 ANA Japan
They have a thing about violas
8 WestJet
9 Brussels Airlines
10 Alitalia
The ultimate guide.
Can you name them all?
Give up?
Andrei Gavrilov, Friedrich Gulda, Van Cliburn, Mitsuko Uchida, András Schiff, Daniel Barenboim, Emile Naoumoff, and Chad Heltzel
Shocking pics and message from Myrna Herzog, music director of Ensemble Phoenix:
This is how Alitalia delivered to me my original 17th century Lewis viola da gamba, after ensuring to me that it would be TAKEN BY HAND into the plane and out of it! It was savagely vandalized, it and it seems that a car ran over it. So, far no luck in contacting any human being at Alitalia, and the only answer got so far is that the company takes no responsibility!
I posted two pictures on Alitalia facebook and they REMOVED my post.
The airport seems to be Ben Gurion, Israel. No response yet from Alitalia.
UPDATE: Alitalia regrets…
The new regime at the NY Philharmonic is putting the incoming music director Jaap van Zweden into the social media spotlight.
Van Zweden will conduct two concerts on February 14 and 15 – a New York premiere of John Luther Adams’s Dark Waves together with a semi-staged with Act I of Wagner’s Die Walküre, with Heidi Melton and Simon O’Neill.
The second concert will be broadcast lives and free on Facebook. Bookmark here.
Smart move.
Our pals at Texas Classical Review have the exclusive: Alice Viroslav quit last night as chair of the troubled San Antonio Symphony, which will give its last scheduled concert this weekend. Read here.
There is no clear plan for the Symphony’s future after the collapse of a rescue bid by a local consortium.
Who are the consortium. Minnesota writer Emily E. Hogstad has been digging 18 years into their back story. What she reveals is not for the faint-hearted. It’s to do with an attorney called J. Bruce Bugg and it’s a gripping read.
A pilot scheme has begun in Croydon.
It will spread soon to other areas.
Among other reasons, they are testing a new public address system.
