The next music director of the Czech Philharmonic will be a conductor first appointed under communism, thrown out by the players in an act of free market madness and standing ever since as a living reproach to the orchestra’s collective misbehaviour.
It has been announced in Prague that Jiri Belohlavek will resume his duties in September 2012 at the helm of the only Czech cultural institution of international standing. He will succeed the Israeli, Eliahu Inbal, the last of a long run of fix-it conductors who fixed nothing.
Belohlavek, meanwhile, founded a rival Prague Philharmonic and earned worldwide acclaim as the foremost living Czech conductor. He presently heads the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
His return is outstandingly good news for music in the Czech Republic. He is clean of all political connections and corruption, past or present, and he ought to raise the Czech Phil from deepening demoralisation. Earlier this year the orchestra launched legal action against the country’s culture minister, its own former manager, alleging criminal misuse of funds.
It speaks volumes for Belohlavek’s integrity that he is prepared to stake his reputation on so murky an enterprise. Czech reports say he will quit the BBC after the 2012 Proms to devote the greater part of his work to rebuilding the national orchestra. The BBC has not confirmed his departure.
Photo credit: C Christodoulou/Lebrecht Music & Arts
This one forced little girls to strip and held their heads under water while acting out some bizarre fetish. He’s a London choirmaster, 73 years old, and he was jailed yesterday for seven years at Snaresbrook Crown Court, the full details appearing in The Daily Telegraph (and why is it always the Telegraph that is first to the sleaze?).
And then ask why it always has to be music teachers, and why so often in Britain. Is it because music, like sport, has tactile teaching elements that attract perverts? Or does music grant a license to perverts to act out their fantasies?
I have no statistics to hand, but it’s Don Giovanni to a string quartet that there are ten times as many music teachers who are caught molesting pupils as chemistry or geography beaks. Now why is that? Does music, in some obscure way, attract sadists and corrupters?
This one forced little girls to strip and held their heads under water while acting out some bizarre fetish. He’s a London choirmaster, 73 years old, and he was jailed yesterday for seven years at Snaresbrook Crown Court, the full details appearing in The Daily Telegraph (and why is it always the Telegraph that is first to the sleaze?).
And then ask why it always has to be music teachers, and why so often in Britain. Is it because music, like sport, has tactile teaching elements that attract perverts? Or does music grant a license to perverts to act out their fantasies?
I have no statistics to hand, but it’s Don Giovanni to a string quartet that there are ten times as many music teachers who are caught molesting pupils as chemistry or geography beaks. Now why is that? Does music, in some obscure way, attract sadists and corrupters?
The BBC has just reported that the zebra crossing outside Abbey Road studios have been listed by English Heritage as a site of supreme cultural importance. They cannot now be altered in any way without massive bureaucratic procedure.
The
studios themselves will probably be up for sale next month when EMI is broken up by Citibank in pursuit of its heavy loans.
The BBC has just reported that the zebra crossing outside Abbey Road studios have been listed by English Heritage as a site of supreme cultural importance. They cannot now be altered in any way without massive bureaucratic procedure.
The
studios themselves will probably be up for sale next month when EMI is broken up by Citibank in pursuit of its heavy loans.
Another two indy labels, impressed by the download rush here over the past two days, have asked me to put up free tracks for your leisure and pleasure over the holiday period.
Before they roll out, here’s free classical download #3 featuring British violinist Matthew Trusler in the concerto that matters more to him at the moment than any other – Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s intricate and subtly anguished interweaving of movie themes into a Heifetz showpiece.
This is the glorious finale, played by Matt with the Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra (Schumann’s old band) under conductor Yasuo Shinozaki. Unlike some starrier recordings, this one is played with much forethought and deep feeling.
Here’s my original www.scena.org review:
Korngold violin concerto
(Virgin/Orchid)
***/****
Like London buses, you can wait years for a Korngold concerto and then four turn up in a row. Nikolai Znaider (RCA) was sulky and Philippe Quint (Naxos) I haven’t heard, but both Renaud Capucon on Virgin and Matthew Trusler on Orchid bring fresh qualities to the work and good reason to reconsider its virtues. Capucon pitches the opening sweetness to perfection and underplays the finale’s recycled movie themes. Trusler takes a more nostalgic route, finding exquisite love and pain in Korngold’s yearnings for a vanished Vienna.
Both are thoughtful, distinctive and engagingly personal. Capucon is disadvantaged by his paring – a solid account of the Beethoven concerto, conducted in Rotterdam by Yannick Nezet-Seguin – while Trusler in Dusseldorf (cond. Yasuo Shinozaki) offers the stunning and apt concerto by another film composer, Miklos Rozsa, as well two prime Heifetz encores. In Korngold, though, I cannot choose one over the other: I’m keeping them both.
And here’s Jessica Duchen’s lyrical biography of the composer:
Downloads
#1 and
#2 are live and running. Enjoy.
Another two indy labels, impressed by the download rush here over the past two days, have asked me to put up free tracks for your leisure and pleasure over the holiday period.
Before they roll out, here’s free classical download #3 featuring British violinist Matthew Trusler in the concerto that matters more to him at the moment than any other – Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s intricate and subtly anguished interweaving of movie themes into a Heifetz showpiece.
This is the glorious finale, played by Matt with the Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra (Schumann’s old band) under conductor Yasuo Shinozaki. Unlike some starrier recordings, this one is played with much forethought and deep feeling.
Here’s my original www.scena.org review:
Korngold violin concerto
(Virgin/Orchid)
***/****
Like London buses, you can wait years for a Korngold concerto and then four turn up in a row. Nikolai Znaider (RCA) was sulky and Philippe Quint (Naxos) I haven’t heard, but both Renaud Capucon on Virgin and Matthew Trusler on Orchid bring fresh qualities to the work and good reason to reconsider its virtues. Capucon pitches the opening sweetness to perfection and underplays the finale’s recycled movie themes. Trusler takes a more nostalgic route, finding exquisite love and pain in Korngold’s yearnings for a vanished Vienna.
Both are thoughtful, distinctive and engagingly personal. Capucon is disadvantaged by his paring – a solid account of the Beethoven concerto, conducted in Rotterdam by Yannick Nezet-Seguin – while Trusler in Dusseldorf (cond. Yasuo Shinozaki) offers the stunning and apt concerto by another film composer, Miklos Rozsa, as well two prime Heifetz encores. In Korngold, though, I cannot choose one over the other: I’m keeping them both.
And here’s Jessica Duchen’s lyrical biography of the composer:
Downloads
#1 and
#2 are live and running. Enjoy.
In the January 2011 issue of The Strad I discuss drink and drug use among string players, especially in symphony orchestras. It’s a problem that no-one wants to address in public and the more it is swept under the carpet the worse it gets. Here’s a taster:
Between us, we know what’s what. We have colleagues who hit
the bar before, during and after a concert, others whose nerves are so shot
their bathroom cabinet looks like a medieval apothecary’s and their nostrils
are in need of relining. The intonation goes and the family disintegrates. We stand
by as children suffer. And we say nothing. We deny that drink and drugs are
every bit as prevalent in classical music as they are in recovering members of
the Rolling Stones. We live a flagrant lie.
Why is that? Why does our particular form of music maintain
a pretence of Victorian rectitude under Sicilian vows of omerta while others
let it all hang out. Why does classical music gasp in shock-horror when there’s
a drugs bust in Nigel Kennedy‘s Bavarian hotel room and a few innocent players
are disturbed at their alleged spliffs.
Face the facts. American orchestras had their fastest growth
spurt during Prohibition because they were the best place to get a drink. The
Berlin Philharmonic served beer during concerts when they started out. Music is
culturally inseparable from light refreshment. We play, we listen, we drink,
sometimes to excess. No big deal.
I maintain we need more openness. Your views, please?
In the January 2011 issue of The Strad I discuss drink and drug use among string players, especially in symphony orchestras. It’s a problem that no-one wants to address in public and the more it is swept under the carpet the worse it gets. Here’s a taster:
Between us, we know what’s what. We have colleagues who hit
the bar before, during and after a concert, others whose nerves are so shot
their bathroom cabinet looks like a medieval apothecary’s and their nostrils
are in need of relining. The intonation goes and the family disintegrates. We stand
by as children suffer. And we say nothing. We deny that drink and drugs are
every bit as prevalent in classical music as they are in recovering members of
the Rolling Stones. We live a flagrant lie.
Why is that? Why does our particular form of music maintain
a pretence of Victorian rectitude under Sicilian vows of omerta while others
let it all hang out. Why does classical music gasp in shock-horror when there’s
a drugs bust in Nigel Kennedy‘s Bavarian hotel room and a few innocent players
are disturbed at their alleged spliffs.
Face the facts. American orchestras had their fastest growth
spurt during Prohibition because they were the best place to get a drink. The
Berlin Philharmonic served beer during concerts when they started out. Music is
culturally inseparable from light refreshment. We play, we listen, we drink,
sometimes to excess. No big deal.
I maintain we need more openness. Your views, please?
I’ve just had a press release announcing that Mark-Anthony Turnage’s anti-Thatcher opera, Greek, is to have its first revival for ten years in the English heartland festival at Cheltenham.
I wonder what they’ll make of it in the shires.
Also on the cards is the concerto debut of wild-lad pianist, James Rhodes, and a kooky little sub-theme on the connections between maths and music from Pythagoras to Steve Reich.
Press release follows:
Cheltenham Music Festival, one of the UK’s most established and well-loved music festivals, announces its programme for 2011. The programme features top-notch performers, mainstage classics and cutting-edge contemporary music – all in a variety of stunning locations in and around this beautiful Cotswolds town.
Highlights of this year’s festival include:
- Evelyn Glennie gives the world premiere of a new percussion concerto by Joseph Phibbs that celebrates cocktails from around the world – a cocktail shaker will inevitably be part of the proceedings!
- From Pythagoras to the avant-garde, the Festival delves into the connections between music and maths, building on the success of the Science Festival tie-up, Sound Mind, in 2010.
- A special percussion weekend features not just Evelyn Glennie, but Graham Fitkin’s new band Fitkin and Steve Reich’s minimalist masterpiece from 1971, Drumming, played by the Colin Currie Ensemble.
- Other premieres include a new saxophone quartet by Gavin Higgins, Martin Butler’s Nonet, Edward Rushton‘s new twist on the popular mythical story of Pandora, and a piano quartet by RPS Composition Prizewinner Charlotte Bray
- Performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage‘s controversial debut opera Greek by Music Theatre Wales. A startling yuppy era retelling of the Oedipus story, in its first production in the UK for ten years.
- A taste of renaissance Spain in Gloucester Cathedral with award-winning Stile Antico. Music by Victoria, Morales, Guerrero and Palestrina will mark the 400th anniversary of thedeath of composer Tomás Luis de Victoria.
- Performances by exciting young artists including pianist James Rhodes in his concerto debut, a Dvo?ák chamber music double-bill featuring cellist Natalie Clein, and a performance from one of classical music’s hottest new properties, guitarist Milos Karadaglic.
- Wagner, Brahms and Strauss’ Four Last Songs from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski and Amanda Roocroft, and an all-Russian programme from theBournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Karabits and pianist Boris Giltburg.
The full programme will be announced in the spring. More information can be found at www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/music/
Ends
I’ve just had a press release announcing that Mark-Anthony Turnage’s anti-Thatcher opera, Greek, is to have its first revival for ten years in the English heartland festival at Cheltenham.
I wonder what they’ll make of it in the shires.
Also on the cards is the concerto debut of wild-lad pianist, James Rhodes, and a kooky little sub-theme on the connections between maths and music from Pythagoras to Steve Reich.
Press release follows:
Cheltenham Music Festival, one of the UK’s most established and well-loved music festivals, announces its programme for 2011. The programme features top-notch performers, mainstage classics and cutting-edge contemporary music – all in a variety of stunning locations in and around this beautiful Cotswolds town.
Highlights of this year’s festival include:
- Evelyn Glennie gives the world premiere of a new percussion concerto by Joseph Phibbs that celebrates cocktails from around the world – a cocktail shaker will inevitably be part of the proceedings!
- From Pythagoras to the avant-garde, the Festival delves into the connections between music and maths, building on the success of the Science Festival tie-up, Sound Mind, in 2010.
- A special percussion weekend features not just Evelyn Glennie, but Graham Fitkin’s new band Fitkin and Steve Reich’s minimalist masterpiece from 1971, Drumming, played by the Colin Currie Ensemble.
- Other premieres include a new saxophone quartet by Gavin Higgins, Martin Butler’s Nonet, Edward Rushton‘s new twist on the popular mythical story of Pandora, and a piano quartet by RPS Composition Prizewinner Charlotte Bray
- Performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage‘s controversial debut opera Greek by Music Theatre Wales. A startling yuppy era retelling of the Oedipus story, in its first production in the UK for ten years.
- A taste of renaissance Spain in Gloucester Cathedral with award-winning Stile Antico. Music by Victoria, Morales, Guerrero and Palestrina will mark the 400th anniversary of thedeath of composer Tomás Luis de Victoria.
- Performances by exciting young artists including pianist James Rhodes in his concerto debut, a Dvo?ák chamber music double-bill featuring cellist Natalie Clein, and a performance from one of classical music’s hottest new properties, guitarist Milos Karadaglic.
- Wagner, Brahms and Strauss’ Four Last Songs from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski and Amanda Roocroft, and an all-Russian programme from theBournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Karabits and pianist Boris Giltburg.
The full programme will be announced in the spring. More information can be found at www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/music/
Ends
Sending up the BBC’s reluctance to perform this year’s Christmas hit on its pop station, the Dutch asked composer Reinbert de Leeuw to perform it on prime time TV.
Here’s the masterpiece, in full and unedited:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-YFadXlw68
