The outstanding countertenor James Bowman will give his final Wigmore Hall recital on May 21. I have been listening to him there for half my life and I can’t believe I’ll never hear him there again, but James is pushing and that’s a wise time to go. Oh, my veni, veni, venis long ago…

With typical generosity, he is sharing his farewell with the fast-rising Iranian-American harpsichordist, Mahan Esfahani.

Purcell, Handel and Bach…mmm. Book here.

The BBC Proms have opened for business…. and, boy, is it busy.

All the seated tickets for Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra sold out within three hours.

Verdi’s Requiem and Havergal Brian’s gargantuan the Gothic Symphony have also all gone, says BBC News.

Here’s the booking link. And here’s the press release.

Royal Albert Hall - Plan Your Visit

The Royal Albert Hall is located in South Kensington, facing onto Hyde Park.

 


376 tickets sold every minute during first hour of BBC Proms booking

85,921 tickets sold in first day of booking shows that BBC Proms is as popular as ever

 

Booking for the BBC Proms 2011 opened today (Saturday 7 May) and 85,921 tickets were sold within the first 12 hours. This is a 7.39% increase compared with last year, when 80,000 tickets were allocated during the first day (which included one extra hour of booking).  39,348 individual orders for tickets were processed, compared with 36,406 in 2010, showing that more people than ever are being enticed by the broad range of concerts on offer at the Proms.

71,808 tickets were sold online, while the remainder were purchased by music-lovers who used telephone or postal booking, or went to the Royal Albert Hall in person.

The introduction of a new, fairer and fully integrated live booking system in 2010 helped the BBC Proms secure record attendances across last year’s festival. In total 313,000 tickets were sold in 2010.

Roger Wright: Director, BBC Proms and Controller, BBC Radio 3, says:
“The Proms remain the world’s largest music festival and the demand for tickets on the first day of booking has been extremely high. We’re delighted that so many people have been able to get their tickets successfully and look forward to welcoming them to the Proms this summer. It’s worth reminding people that there are still tickets available for the vast majority of events and also encourage them to try for returns, come and Prom on the day, or listen and watch on the BBC.”

All seated tickets for Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra (5 August) sold out within three hours, quickly followed by Verdi’s Requiem (24 July). Seated tickets for  Havergal Brian’s gargantuan The Gothic Symphony (17 July)  have also now sold out – though up to 1,400 £5 Promming tickets are released on the day of each concert. Tickets for the vast majority of other events are still available.

Jasper Hope, Chief Operating Officer, Royal Albert Hall said:
“After the incredible success of last year’s launch of the Hall’s online ticketing system for the BBC Proms, we are very pleased to see even more people this year having taken advantage of the opportunity to buy tickets on the first day.  The Proms has always been about bringing the very best classical music to the widest number of people and we’re delighted to have proved not only our ability to host the festival but also to facilitate the enormous undertaking of ticketing it in such a fair way and to so many.”

For further information, please contact:
Madeleine Castell
madeleine.castell@bbc.co.uk

Vladimir Krainev, who had a concerto written for him by Alfred Schnittke and trained many fine Russian pianists, has died in Hanover, aged 67. His class there was restricted, almost without exception, to international prize winners.

His wife, Tatiana Tarasova, won nine Olympic golds at figure skating and is a teacher of comparable repute on ice; she survives him.

Vladimir Krainev Vladimir Krainev, (Russia/Germany)

Here’s an interview he gave some years back in Kiev. And here’s him playing a Chopin Scherzo on Youtube.

Rest in peace.

The man who played trumpet in Penny Lane is no more.

David Mason was 84, leukaemia the cause.

George Martin signed him for the session after Paul McCartney saw Mason playing in Bach’s second Brandenburg Concerto on BBC TV.  Mason was principal trumpet in the Royal Philharmonic, among other London orchestras, and professor at the Royal College of Music.

The only obit so far is in the Los Angeles Times, here.

Brass Musician site has a comprehensive video report.

 

The Guardian is setting up to become a broadcaster. Tomorrow it relays a free concert from the hall beneath its offices at Kings Place, London.

Here are the details. There’s more, much more, being planned.

Aurora Orchestra performing Nico Muhly’s Seeing Is Believing – live stream

Nico Muhly Video, 3 May 2011:On 7 May at 7.30pm, the Guardian is live-streaming the Aurora Orchestra playing Nico Muhly’s concerto for electric violin,

 

 

I’d be interested to know if it can be accessed in other countries.

 

 

 

Aurora Orchestra

6 May 2011 Newsflash

 

AURORA TEAMS UP WITH GUARDIAN ONLINE  

FOR FIRST-EVER CONCERT LIVE STREAM

SATURDAY 7 MAY 2011 @ 7.30pm UK TIME

 

 

 

At 7.30pm tomorrow, Saturday 7 May, Aurora will be live-streaming a landmark concert from Kings Place marking the launch of the orchestra’s debut recording on Decca Classics.   Nico Muhly’s concerto for electric violin, Seeing Is Believing,  commissioned by Aurora in 2008 for its leader Thomas Gould, takes centre stage alongside works by John Adams, Thomas Adès, Paul Hindemith and Charles Ives.  The concert is the first ever to be streamed on the Guardianwebsite – click here to visit the page and bookmark it for tomorrow!

 

Described by The Daily Telegraph as ‘the hottest composer on the planet’, Nico Muhly has collaborated with Björk, Sigur Rós and Antony and the Johnsons. He also composed the score for The Reader, and has been jointly commissioned by ENO and the Metropolitan Opera in New York to create a new work, Two Boys, which premieres at the Coliseum at the end of June.

Live-streaming begins on this page from 6.30pm on Saturday 7 May 2011, with a pre-concert conversation between Nico and BBC Radio 3?s Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

The concert will also be available for 48 hours following the performance on the Aurora website for on-demand streaming.  So if you miss it first time around, you can still catch it on this page on Sunday or Monday.

 

SHARING

 

This stream uses groundbreaking software which allows live video to be shared in real time via social media.  We encourage Aurora supporters to help us reach the widest audience possible worldwide by sharing the stream on their Facebook walls between now and the start of tomorrow’s concert – simply click on the ‘Share’ icon in the bottom right corner of the stream, and post the link straight to your Facebook profile.

 

ONLINE Q&A with Nico Muhly

 

Famous for his inimitable online presence as a blogger and tweeter, Nico Muhly will be appearing live online during the concert interval to answer questions posted from online viewers.  To send a question, tweet on the hashtag #auroramuhly or emailinfo@auroraorchestra.com any time from now.

 

And finally: there are a (very!) few tickets left for tomorrow’s performance.  If you’d like to be here in person for one of Aurora’s most exciting projects to date, hurry across to the Kings Place website.

 

www.auroraorchestra.com

Twitter: #auroramuhly

 

Warner Music has been flogged off to the Russian-American investor, Len Blavatnik for $3.3 billion in what is being described as ‘a friendly deal’. Edgar Bronfman is expected to remain in charge.

It is supposed to clear the way for Warner to refinance sufficiently so that it can but EMI from its temporary owner, Citibank.

That deal, though, may be some way off. Here’s the FT and here the Guardian.  And here the BBC.

Go figure.

The embattled conductor is down to appear at an important piano competition. Not all the locals are happy.

From:
Kathryn Ananda-Owens
aok@stolaf.edu

Message:
Esther Honens International Piano Competition has announced that
Minczuk will conduct the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra of which he is
music director) in the competition’s finals. I have not heard anything
about a boycott, but I will certainly be discussing Minczuk’s actions
in Brazil with my students who are thinking about entering the
competition. I can’t imagine a piano competition in which all the
finalists boycott the finals, but that would certainly make a
statement.

Here’s a link to the Honens site.

Kathryn Ananda-Owens
Associate Professor of Music — Piano
aok@stolaf.edu

Kathryn Ananda-Owens, Associate Professor of Music: Piano.  B.A., Oberlin College (Phi Beta Kappa); B.M., Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Pi Kappa Lambda); M.M., Peabody Conservatory of Music; D.M.A., Peabody Conservatory of Music…

 

The playwright Arthur Laurents, who wrote West Side Story with Leonard Bernstein and three musicals with Stephen Sondheim, has died at the age of 93. I had a long conversation with him some years back about why Anyone Can Whistle was such a flop. You can read it here.

Arthur was full of life and laughter, and Sondheim continued to cherish his friendship.

He published a scintillating memoir, titled Original Story by Arthur Laurents.

Here’s the AP obit, a few minutes ago, just up on the CBC site:

West Side Story writer Arthur Laurents dies

The Associated Press

Posted: May 6, 2011 12:33 AM ET

Last Updated: May 6, 2011 12:33 AM ET

Read 0comments0

Director Arthur Laurents, centre, is flanked by actress Chita Rivera, left, and actress Karen Olivo while visiting 'West Side Story' At Palace Theater On Broadway on February 26, 2009 in New York City. Director Arthur Laurents, centre, is flanked by actress Chita Rivera, left, and actress Karen Olivo while visiting ‘West Side Story’ At Palace Theater On Broadway on February 26, 2009 in New York City. (Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)

And a quick cuttings job in the Mail.

 

Iceland’s creditors will be warmed to learn that the nation opened its grand new concert hall on Wednesday. Planning in an age of euphoria, it took four years to build, by which time the country was in hock to the rest of the world and refusing, by referendum, to cough up.

Vladimir Ashkenazy conducted the first concert. The acoustics are by Artec and the place looks pretty smart.

The official inauguration is not til August. Who pays? Who knows?

 

Harpa opens on 4 May 2011

Harpa Reykjavik Conference Centre launches in Iceland

MAGDA IBRAHIM, 04 May 2011

The Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre is launching a series of celebratory events today (4 May) in the run up to its inauguration on 20 August.

Harpa, Reykjavik’s new 28,000 sq m concert hall and conference centre, features four separate halls and is located on the harbour between the city centre and the North Atlantic Ocean.

 

The May issue of Das Orchester magazine, obligatory reading for musos with a smatch of German, contains an uplifting interview with a chap from Lufthansa who set up a five-year spnsorship deal with the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne, for no better reason than the declaration that he’s a Musikliebhaber (he likes the stuff) and so is his boss, Stephan Gemkow, the airline’s chief financial officer.

They can see a synergy in the operations of the two companies. They call it Zusammenklang, which you could translate as singing off the same hymn sheet. Lufthansa now brands itself ‘first golabl partner of the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne’. Nice, right.

Only in Germany, I fear. You couldn’t imagine the CFO of Continental Airlines breezing into the hard-pressed Houson Symphony and saying ‘we wanna be your global partner’. Or British Midlands offering in-flight puffs for ‘our partners at the CBSO’. Or Easyjet playing Brucknet in the lounge. Or Ryanair stopping treating every musician passenger like an appalling encumbrance.

But those boys at Lufthansa are no fools. There must be something in this for them. When I find out what it is, you’ll be the first to know.

A friend has sent me details of an upcoming event at the Philharmonie in Cologne, a date that has me quivering with excitement, among other emotions.

The concert is scheduled for July 2 and the cheapest tickets to be had will be charged to your credit card at… wait for it … 163 Euros. That’s $236. No doubt with a partial view and someone’s knees sticking in the small of your back.

If you can’t bear sitting in the Gods, there are better seats on offer at Euros 221, 278.50, 356.50 and 443.00. That’s $642 for a front seat.

I like those .50s. Show a lot of thought has gone into the pricing. Hands up, please, the little genius in the Cologne box-office. Here’s the link.

Now what do you get in return for this king’s ransom? An evening of arias from Mrs and Mrs Opera – no, not the newly reconciled Alagnas but the gloriously domesticated Anna Netrebko and partner Erwin Schrott, stars of stage and multiplex live relays.

It’s going to be a great night in July and I truly wish I could be there, but aren’t these two asking a little much for their services? I mean, even Pavarotti with pole-dancers in the park never cost this kind of fortune. Has no-one told Treb there’s a recession on?

Her agents at Universal must be overjoyed at the sting. Pass me the smelling salts. Make it O for Cologne.

No, let’s get serious. If you have issues about the pricing, Ask Anna (below) or donate direct to her charities.

 

In  the May issue of Standpoint, out now, I examine the public way that Gustav Mahler died, 100 years ago on May 18.

There had never been a death like this before, the details of what he ate, what he said and how he slept being pored over in newspapers, becoming the subject of middle-class dinner-table talk and at least one novel in progress.

The media response to Mahler’s death seems eerily familiar to those who have witnessed Princess Diana’s, Marilyn Monroe’s and Michael Jackson’s. The dynamic was set at the dawn of the media age.

You can read the essay here or, if you are a Chinese reader, here.

Here’s the opening….


Turning point in the fame game: Gustav Mahler’s death mask

The cast of characters could have walked out of the pilot for a television period serial. The great musician is dying, his trophy wife at the bedside with a letter from her lover. One of the doctors romances her. Another makes the cover of Time magazine….

The death of Gustav Mahler 100 years ago, at the dawn of the mass media age, marked the end of personal privacy for public figures and its replacement by a celebrity cult in which no medical confidence was sacrosanct and death itself was a springboard for survivor fame and media fortunes.

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