Showing the new Mahler statue and Mahler park, on the site of the desecrated synagogue. More details here and here (or here).
Yeah, I know, these things happen.
In his last blog of the year, the London Symphony Orchestra’s principal flute, Gareth Davies, notes his surprise on tour this year at seeing a well-known conductor come on stage with a gun in his hand, aiming it at the heart of the audience.
The conductor in question has had anger management issues in the past (don’t they all?) and the concert was taking place in Palermo, Sicily, where men with guns may be a more common sight than in Chelmsford, England, and are taken with deadly seriousness.
I won’t ruin the story: read it for yourselves in Gareth’s blog.
As I said, these things happen. Among the many reminsicences shared of Maurice Murphy, the LSO’s principal trumpet player who died last month, was the one when, faced with a waffly rehearsal conductor in a contemporary symphony, no-nonsense Maurice pulled a replica Colt 45 from his trumpet case and fired at the conductor. ‘That’ll shut him up,’ said Maurice. And so it did.
That’s Maurice above, at full blast (credit: Suzie Maeder/Lebrecht Music & Arts).
The new issue of Classical Music magazine takes the tale one stage further with a picture from Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival of Isabelle Bozzini, cellist of the Quatuor Bozzini, aiming a pistol at one of her violinists. That’s her below, I think, ducking from retaliation.
My advice to musicians: wherever you’re playing next year, do be careful.
Or you could end up like this, fish food:
Yeah, I know, these things happen.
In his last blog of the year, the London Symphony Orchestra’s principal flute, Gareth Davies, notes his surprise on tour this year at seeing a well-known conductor come on stage with a gun in his hand, aiming it at the heart of the audience.
The conductor in question has had anger management issues in the past (don’t they all?) and the concert was taking place in Palermo, Sicily, where men with guns may be a more common sight than in Chelmsford, England, and are taken with deadly seriousness.
I won’t ruin the story: read it for yourselves in Gareth’s blog.
As I said, these things happen. Among the many reminsicences shared of Maurice Murphy, the LSO’s principal trumpet player who died last month, was the one when, faced with a waffly rehearsal conductor in a contemporary symphony, no-nonsense Maurice pulled a replica Colt 45 from his trumpet case and fired at the conductor. ‘That’ll shut him up,’ said Maurice. And so it did.
That’s Maurice above, at full blast (credit: Suzie Maeder/Lebrecht Music & Arts).
The new issue of Classical Music magazine takes the tale one stage further with a picture from Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival of Isabelle Bozzini, cellist of the Quatuor Bozzini, aiming a pistol at one of her violinists. That’s her below, I think, ducking from retaliation.
My advice to musicians: wherever you’re playing next year, do be careful.
Or you could end up like this, fish food:
The bicentenary of Chopin’s birth changed none of my perspectives. There have been some interesting recordings, not least by the miraculously restored Janina Fialkowska, and some teeth-gritting horrors from various former winners of the Chopin competition, not to mention some ear-tweaking interpretations on creaky pianos of the composer’s time. None prompted me to regard Chopin from a fresh aspect.
There were, however, hidden gems and whispered secrets, one of which was Leon McCawley’s account of the Fantaisie Impromptu on the Somm label, which is today’s exclusive free download on Slipped Disc. Click here:
A runner up in the Leeds piano competition, McCawley is a young British pianist with exceptional tone control; he teaches at the Royal College of Music in London.
Somm is a one-woman boutique label run by record industry veteran Sika Oke, who chooses artists and rep that she feels have something different to convey. One of my records of the year was her pairing of the Copland and Finzi clarinet concertos, with Sarah Williamson and the Orchestra of the Swan, based in Shakespeare’s birthplace town.
Enjoy your farewell to Chopin…. there’s Mahler to come.