Eberhard Spree, a double-bass player in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, has uncovered a trove of Johann Sebastian Bach documents in an archive in the Freiberg district.
The papers reveal Bach’s investment activities in the last decade of his life in a local silver mine. The prevailing image of the composer is that of a municipal employee who served as Cantor of St Thomas’s. It may be that he was more shrewd than scholars have previously credited.
The first English performance of Mahler’s second symphony was played, according to Donald Mitchell*, on April 16, 1931 at Queen’s Hall, London, conducted by Bruno Walter.
The second performance took place, under the same conductor, on October 1, 1949. Eighteen years seems an awfully long time to wait for a repeat.
But see how times have changed. This Saturday night there will be two simultaneous concerts of the Resurrection symphony, one at the University of Bristol, conductor John Pickard, and the other, in south London, by the Philharmonia Britannica, conducted by Peter Fender.
Booking details:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/music/events/2010/concert20101204 – and
info@ph-br.co.uk.
I was supposed to be introducing the Bristol concert but find myself otherwise engaged, escorting a group of Guardian readers with Why Mahler? in hand to Vladimir Jurowski’s London Philharmonic performance of Mahler’s first symphony at the Royal Festival Hall.
Tastes have changed. Mahler’s time has surely come.
——
* in Mitchell and Nicholson, The Mahler Companion (Oxford University Press), 1999. p551
The first English performance of Mahler’s second symphony was played, according to Donald Mitchell*, on April 16, 1931 at Queen’s Hall, London, conducted by Bruno Walter.
The second performance took place, under the same conductor, on October 1, 1949. Eighteen years seems an awfully long time to wait for a repeat.
But see how times have changed. This Saturday night there will be two simultaneous concerts of the Resurrection symphony, one at the University of Bristol, conductor John Pickard, and the other, in south London, by the Philharmonia Britannica, conducted by Peter Fender.
Booking details:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/music/events/2010/concert20101204 – and
info@ph-br.co.uk.
I was supposed to be introducing the Bristol concert but find myself otherwise engaged, escorting a group of Guardian readers with Why Mahler? in hand to Vladimir Jurowski’s London Philharmonic performance of Mahler’s first symphony at the Royal Festival Hall.
Tastes have changed. Mahler’s time has surely come.
——
* in Mitchell and Nicholson, The Mahler Companion (Oxford University Press), 1999. p551
This warming tale was on my screen this morning from David Snyder, in Buffalo, NY:
My wife, who is of Polish Catholic ancestry, and is still an active Catholic, heard of an anti-semitic incident in an American neighborhood. A Jewish family put a menorah in their front window and had a brick thrown through it. The neighborhood response was to install menorahs in front windows up and down the street.
This wasn’t in our neighborhood, but she went out and bought a menorah, and every year (including this one) she displays it and lights the successive lights for Hanukah. I think this is a good answer to anyone who wonders about the appropriateness of holiday greetings. I hope you will wish her a Merry Christmas.
I will, indeed.
This warming tale was on my screen this morning from David Snyder, in Buffalo, NY:
My wife, who is of Polish Catholic ancestry, and is still an active Catholic, heard of an anti-semitic incident in an American neighborhood. A Jewish family put a menorah in their front window and had a brick thrown through it. The neighborhood response was to install menorahs in front windows up and down the street.
This wasn’t in our neighborhood, but she went out and bought a menorah, and every year (including this one) she displays it and lights the successive lights for Hanukah. I think this is a good answer to anyone who wonders about the appropriateness of holiday greetings. I hope you will wish her a Merry Christmas.
I will, indeed.
