July 18, 2011 - Slippedisc

You couldn’t make it up.

Der Spiegel has a story of a rare colony of monkeys, Nomascus leucogenys, living near the Vietnam border with Laos, and singing quite accurately to one another, sometimes in duets.

They are threatened with extinction. Conservationists are studying them to death. Followed, no doubt, by musicologists who would not recognise a mortal specimen if it was alive. The monkeys are reported to have doubled their fees and are looking to vultures for representation.

Whatever. Here‘s the story, in German.

Another six musicians have been co-opted onto the BBC New Generation list, probably the best fast-track scheme around. You won’t have heard much of them yet, but you will. The lucky six are:

Christian Ihle Hadland (Norway – piano) Clara Mouriz (Spain – mezzo soprano) Igor Levit (Russia – piano) Jennifer Johnston (UK – mezzo soprano) Ruby Hughes (UK – soprano) Signum Quartet (Germany).

These musicians join violinists Veronika Eberle and Alexandra Soumm; the Escher Quartet; cellist Nicolas Altstaedt; pianist Benjamin Grosvenor; tenor Ben Johnson and jazz artist Shabaka Hutchings who are now starting their second year as Radio 3 New Generation Artists.

Artists’ biographies:

Christian Ihle Hadland – Piano

Widely recognized as one of Norway’s most exciting young piano talents, Christian made his Norwegian debut with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra/Eivind Aadland at the age of 15. He has since gone on to perform with all of Norway’s leading orchestras, including several appearances with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has also received invitations to perform with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and the Czech Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as having appeared with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Armenian Philharmonic and Lithuanian Symphony Orchestras.

Clara Mouriz – Mezzo Soprano

Spanish born Clara Mouriz is rapidly establishing herself as one of the most exciting mezzo sopranos of her generation. She has recently been distinguished with an Independent Opera/Wigmore Hall Voice Fellowship for a promising career committed to both opera and song.

Clara’s latest projects include a critically acclaimed debut as Rossini’s Cenerentola at Malmö Opera; Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Opera St Moriz; Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été’ at Padova’s Auditorium Pollini under Alexander Shelley; and Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ at the Tokyo Opera-city under Daniel Harding

A committed recital singer, Clara is a Kirckman Concert Society Artist and made her debut in Wigmore Hall in 2007.

Igor Levit – Piano

Twenty-four-year-old Igor Levit is already working with orchestras such as the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Düsseldorf and Lucerne Symphony Orchestras and the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover. He has toured several times with the English Chamber Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Vladimir Jurowski.

Debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Philharmonic of Russia are to follow. He also makes debut recitals in Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Vienna, Salzburg and Beijing, and returns to Milan.

Jennifer Johnston – Mezzo Soprano

Jennifer is the recipient of numerous awards, including Second Prize in the Montserrat Caballé International Singing Competition and two Susan Chilcott Scholarships.

Named as the “Face to Watch in Opera” by the Financial Times, Jennifer has appeared in opera at the Salzburg Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Opera de Lille, the Aldeburgh Festival and Scottish Opera, in roles such as Suzuki, Dido and Hansel.

Ruby Hughes – Soprano

Winner of both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2009 London Handel Festival Singing Competition, Ruby Hughes has sung the title role in Atalanta and Cleofide / Poro with Laurence Cummings at the London Handel Festival, Euridice / L’Orfeo at the Aix-en-Provence Festival with René Jacobs.

Concert engagements have included Handel with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, Handel Ode for Queen Anne’s Birthday with Stephen Cleobury and the Academy of Ancient Music.

Signum Quartet

The Signum Quartet are Kerstin Dill (violin), Annette Walther (violin), Xandi van Dijk (viola) and Thomas Schmitz (violoncello). Their energetic and lively interpretations have established them as one of the most exiting young ensembles of their generation.

Prize winners at the Premio Paolo Borciani (2008), and the London International String Quartet competition and the ICMC Hambourg (2009), the Signum Quartet was inspired musically by György Kurtág, Walter Levin and Jörg Widmann, among others.

Concert performances have taken the Signum Quartet to numerous international stages including the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Liederhalle Stuttgart, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele, the Oberstdorfer Musiksommer and the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

Stephanie Hardwick

Acting Publicist, BBC Radio 3 & Classical Music TV

d/l 020 7765 4934

stephanie.hardwick@bbc.co.uk

Room 122 Henry Wood House, 3-6 Langham Place, London, W1B 3DF

www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice

Some heart-warming news: the city of Moscow is putting up a statue to Mstislav Rostropovich.

It’s close to the Resurrection Church

and it will be unveiled on March 27 next year, which would have been Slava’s 85th birthday.

Mstislav Rostropovich Monument to be Set up in the Centre of Moscow

Here‘s the source.

Every few weeks, I hear of another break-up or bust-out in the troubled classical music industry. Usually, it’s a young agent leaving home with his or her artists, leaving the agency owner reaching for his lawyers, or the bottle.

Some remain permanently aggrieved. I know one man who, 20 years later, cannot hear the names of his defectors without turning puce.

So some weeks ago, when I heard that one of the larger Vienna agencies was splitting up, I expected the usual spitting of teeth and issuing of writs. Not a bit of it. What’s happened is that an agent called Helga Machreich-Unterzaucher, who looks after some of the best singers in the world, decided after giving birth to her second child that it was time to move on.

She discussed the matter with her employers, Raab & Böhm, and a valuation was quickly agreed. Helga raised the cash and left the old firm last month with all of her artists and kisses all round. Everyone, it appears, behaved like perfect English gentlemen – in German. Why can’t English agents do the same?

Here’s a select list of Helga’s headliners. How many can you name?

The new series of Lebrecht Interviews kicks off tonight on BBC Radio 3 with a head-to-head with Semyon Bychkov, a conductor who rejected the traditional career route and is now one of the most sought-after in his profession.

Raised in tough conditions in Leningrad, he describes the contradictions of the Soviet system without bitterness, followed by the camaraderie of musical exiles when he left the country penniless, his family held behind.

Bychkov also talks for the first time about the difficult relationship with his brother Yakov Kreizberg, who died earlier this year.

It’s tonight at 2145 UK time after the Prom concert, and streamed online here for a week.

Arguably his country’s most popular actor, John Kraaijkamp died yesterday, aged 86.

Starring in anything from King Lear to Irma La Douce, he achieved his biggest audience as the old lag Fletcher (Ronnie Barker’s role) in the Dutch adaptation of the BBC TV serial, Porridge. Dutch title: Laat maar zitten