Ivan Martin Jirous, known as ‘Magor’ (or ‘Loony’) was artistic director of a psychedelic rock group that challenged Czech communism. An art historian by training, he was jailed in 1973 for singing an anti-Russian song in a pub and eating a chunk of an official newspaper. The gestures may have seemed futile but they kindled hope in a silent generation.

Magor’s death has been announced in Prague, aged 67. Vaclav Havel, a close friend, said ‘I am glad he lived to see better times, for which he contributed a lot.’

Plastic People of the Universe were the unseen heroes of the 2006 Tom Stoppard play, Rock n Roll. When the play transferred to Prague’s National Theatre in February 2007, the original group was reconstituted to give live performances of the opening and closing songs.

 

Good to have news of Simon Estes, one of the first Afro-American regulars on the international opera circuit.

Estes broke into the Met in 1982 for a belated debut and was busy ever after. Now 73 and still singing concerts, he  has founded a Simon Estes Youth Chorus in South Africa and is a leading voice in Aids awareness. This week, he’s in Iowa, dispensing money, aura and wisdom.

Nice.

Read it here.

 

 

 

 

 

Daniele D’Ercole had talent, ambition and a new CD. She was walking on the Upper West Side Friday night when an SUV ended her life.


Here’s the Daily News report. And here’s her website and a recent video of her on youtube. Requiescat in pace.

Someone sent me a video of a senior lecturer at Hunter College. Senior? She’s 100 years old.

Her name is Belle Kaufmann and she’s a granddaughter of the foremost Yidish storyteller, Sholom Aleichem. 

Watch her here.

 

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/11/exclusive-youtubes-most-popular-pianist-goes-solo-in-the-royal-albert-hall.html

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/11/major-label-drops-its-boss.html

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/11/have-orchestras-reached-the-end-of-their-arab-spring-or-is-this-just-the-beginning.html

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/11/grooming-the-girl-at-the-opera-it-makes-me-feel-queasy.html

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/11/a-composer-blacklisted-for-adultery-and-necrophilia.html

 

 

Having gobbled up the poor old dog-and-horn, Universal Music Group has confirmed a previous pledge that it will make half a billion euros worth of  ‘disposals’ of EMI assets.

There are two reasons for this decision: (a) to recoup part of the purchase price and (b) to head off anticipated objections to the deal from independent labels, represented by IMPALA. The indies lack the power to crash the deal, but they can keep it dragging through various courts and legislatures for several years, as they did with the Sony-BMG tie-up and pile up huge legal and PR costs. UMG does not want that to happen.

So which assets is it going to sell off?

Classics, perhaps?

There is, to my knowledge, one good bid on the table for the classical division from a former executive and his financiers and I’m hearing that one or two more may be in the offing. Given that UMG bought the recorded music division for the Beatles and Blur, not Beecham and Boult, it might make sense at some level to divest of the classical archive and focus on the future.

That, at any rate, is the pitch from would-be purchasers. But I don’t think it will wash.

Lucian Grange, the UMG chairman and ceo who announced the successful bid for EMI, has been a conspicuous supporter of classics within his own company. He respects its role, albeit shrunken, within a global music group and will not lightly lose the prestige that it bears. His victory statement pretty much confirms that intention:

“This is an historic acquisition for UMG and an important step in preserving the legacy of EMI Music. For me, as an Englishman, EMI was the pre-eminent music company that I grew up with. Its artists and their music provided the soundtrack to my teenage years. Therefore, UMG is committed to both preserving EMI’s cultural heritage and artistic diversity and also investing in its artists and people to grow the company’s assets for the future. As a result, we will be better positioned to fully capitalise on the many new and exciting opportunities in the current marketplace, and also able to better serve our artists, songwriters and business partners, while offering fans even more choice”.

So, for better or worse, EMI Classics will – after a decent interval – get crunched into Deutsche Grammophon and Decca. Sad, but inevitable.

The day the bank foreclosed on EMI’s hedge-fund owner, a source at Universal told me ‘we’ll carve it up between us and Sony.’

Which is exactly what happened.

Outside bidders were discouraged from the outset by Citigroup’s $4 billion price tag and Warner Music, despite its Len Blavatnik billions, lacked the bluff and experience to play ball with the big boys. They walked away from the table last week, around the same time as Universal did. But Universal were just bluffing. In their mind, the outcome was never in doubt.

So what does that leave?

Just two majors left in the music industry – Universal and Sony – with Warners, Bertlesmann and anyone else rubbing their noses on the windownpane from the outside.

And what does that mean for you and me, the consumers?

A source at Universal tells me that they will to continue treat EMI as a competitor until the deal is cleared by the monopolies authorities. After that, it’s crunch down and merger. EMI, 120 years of music history, will disappear.

The EMI brand, which had a certain distinctive value, will vanish into a corporate maw.  The music we get from Universal and Sony will become safer and more homogenous. Given that the two have cooperated in this deal, they will find new ways to work the market to their advantage, not ours. EMI had been badly run for decades but its disappearance is a loss for all who care for independent music voices.

 

The bank wanted $4 bn. It got 4bn – half from Universal for the record side, the other half from Sony for the publishing.

Deal almost certain to close today. Here‘s the hot stuff.

The mood music from both camps is that Universal is about to buy EMI’s recorded music division for just under $2 billion, while Sony walks away with the music publishing for the same amount. Nothing’s final yet, but it looks like today’s the day.

Universal already owns Decca, the last UK major to find itself unable to play on the big field.

UPDATE: More from WSJ.  More commentary here.

The new Festival boss Alexander Pereira will give the Israel Philharmonic its first showcase at the elite event, as part of a new series of annual engagements with different faiths, starting with Judaism.

I’m not sure if it was announced this morning, but I hear that the Israel Phil under Zubin Mehta are expected to perform Mechaye Hametim by Noam Sheriff, a Holocaust memorial oratorio originally premiered by Placido Domingo (video clip here).

On the opera front, the big, bold departure is Bernd-Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten, with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Ingo Metzmacher and no big stars in the cast. Box office might take a while to catch fire.

Cover (Zimmermann: Die Soldaten:Michael Gielen)

Here’s Der Standard‘s summary

 

A salutory story from our courts correspondent.

A New York accountant has pleaded guilty to stealing $75,000 from Kansas City music director Michael Stern

– as well as $1.4 million from NBC actress Tamara Tunie  – in order to fund his private passion for Broadway musicals, such as Legally Blonde.

He’ll be sentenced in January.

“He accepts responsibility and wants to move on with his life,” says the lawyer.

The new Salzburg Festival intendant, Alexander Pereira, will be laying out his plans today.

Before he gives details, he has told Die Welt that he has raised an extra five million Euros in sponsorship and will be running more new productions than ever before – seven operas next summer, all to run just a single season, then off to the scrapyard.

Pereira talks a good show. He has a kind word for the new Peter Alward-Christian Thielemann axis at Easter, but he makes no mention of his former Zurich ally, Franz Welser-Möst, now head of the Vienna State Opera and openly critical of Pereira’s plans. Watch the space grow between those ex-pals.