Her name is Sirkka Lampimäki and she is singing with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. It happens at 0:50 on this video right here.

 

I know the individual concerned and cannot bring myself to comment on the shocking case. The man has been jailed for 32 months.

Read the court report here and here.

Christa Wolf, whose death has been announced today aged 82, was loyal to the ruling party in East Germany until the state disappeared. At one point, she spied for the Stasi.

Christa Wolf in 1973

But her novels are early milestones in German feminism, especially The Quest for Christa T, and her respect for the individual was absolute. Where did she really stand on human rights under totalitarianism? I guess we’ll never know.

Yesterday, Malmo Opera appointed Father Christmas to replace Joseph Swensen as music director.

Today it’s the Royal Opera at Stockholm. The new man is Lawrence Renes.

Royal Swedish Opera appoints Lawrence Renes as their next Chief Conductor and Music Director

Here’s the agent blurb.

Lawrence Renes’ first production in his new role will be in the 2012/13 season, conducting Die Walküre. Initially contracted until 2016/17, he will lead four to six productions per year. He will also be involved in artistic planning with immediate effect.

With a wide-ranging opera repertoire encompassing Mozart, Wagner, Richard Strauss and John Adams, his DVD with De Nederlandse Opera of the Peter Sellars production of Doctor Atomic was released in 2008 and received widespread critical praise. His new post builds on his success in the Royal Swedish Opera’s production of Das Rheingold in April 2011.

Renes has been engaged at many of the most prestigious orchestras and opera houses in the world including the Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, BBC Symphony Orchestra, La Monnaie, English National Opera, Seattle Opera, Den Norske Opera and the Hamburgische Staatsoper. He makes his debut at San Francisco Opera in June 2012.

My report yesterday on the oldest working orchestral player brought a rejoinder from the Finnish soprano Anu Komsi that her singing teacher, Vera Froloff, gave her last recital at the age of 82. When I asked for more information, Anu’s husband, the conductor Sakari Oramo, sent me an account of Vera – a memory of one of the formative personalities who helped make Finland a world leader in classical music. Here it is:

Vera Froloff
Born 1913 Minsk, Belarus
Died 26 December 2008 Kokkola, Finland

The Froloff family emigrated to Finland in the turmoil of the October Revolution. Vera initially wanted to become a dancer, but the staff at the
Helsinki Music Institute (later Sibelius Academy) got her mind set on singing studies.

The Winter War 1939-40 drove Vera from Helsinki to the relative safety of Kokkola on the Finnish West Coast, as far from Russia as you can
possibly get in Finland. After finishing her studies there, she gave a Debut recital in Helsinki in 1945. The reviews were enthusiastic, her
coloratura singing was compared to birdsong in its natural ease and beauty.

In the 1950´s Vera performed at the Finnish National Opera as Gilda, Violetta and Queen of the Night.

On one occasion, Vera got ill on the eve of a premiere which created a stir in Helsinki. This abruptly ended her career at the
Finnish National Opera. “I should have told them one month in advance about falling ill, and one year in advance about
imminent death!”, she reminisced in her usual witty manner.

In Helsinki, Vera performed with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and sang Lied concerts both with George de Godzinsky (also
Shaljapin´s accompanist) and with her permanent pianist Ellen Nyberg (she also was from Kokkola; Anu and Sakari now own her grand piano, a beautiful Blüthner from 1935!)

Vera had a lyric coloratura voice with a placid, clear sonority and unfailing technique in figurations and highest tones.
She had a graceful, aristocratic appearance and was always impeccable, whether on stage or out in town.

As late as in 1995, at the age of 82, she sang coloratura arias in front of an enthralled audience with a bright youthful voice at a concert in Kokkola
especially organized to celebrate the publication of a CD compiled of her recordings through the decades.

Vera was a towering personality in Kokkola. She taught and influenced younger generations of singers (the Komsi sisters!!!) and influenced
greatly the cultural life in the area. In the early 70´s she directed and produced with her husband Vova in Kokkola a couple of opera performances .

Not the kind of Lieder you and I practise in the shower. More the folk, world, pop type.

Here’s the list, compiled by Folker magazine (the ‘l’ is not silent) and with easy play links to the top tracks.

I like it that Germany’s #1 current Lied is called Absurdistan.

Die neue CD / DVD / LP

Die Top 10 Dezember 2011

1. Konstantin Wecker (Vormonat Platz 1)
Titel: Absurdistan
CD: Wut und Zärtlichkeit
Sturm & Klang (www.wecker.de)

2. Ernst Molden (Vormonat Platz 2)
Titel: Es Lem
CD: Es Lem
Monkey (www.monkeymusic.at)

3. Lüül (Vormonat Platz 9)
Titel: Tourkoller
CD: Tourkoller
MIG Music (www.mig-music.de)

4. Wenzel (Vormonat Platz 4)
Titel: Ich bin der Wind
CD: Seit ich am Meer bin
Matrosenblau (www.matrosenblau.de)

5. Ape & Feuerstein (Vormonat Platz 5)
Titel: Politikwissenschaft
CD: Da steckt doch irgendwas dahinter
Ruhrfolk Records (www.ruhrfolk.de)

6. Sabrina Ascacibar (Vormonat Platz 5)
Titel: Schön
CD: Wo bist du?
Bear Family Records (www.bear-family.de)

7. Rainald Grebe & die Kapelle der Versöhnung (Vormonat Platz 3)
Titel: Aufs Land
CD: Zurück zur Natur
Versöhnungsrecords/Broken Silence (www.brokensilence.biz)

8. Die Bandbreite (neu, Vormonat Platz 18)
Titel: Was ist los in diesem Land?
CD: Reflexion
Lärmquelle Records (laermquelle-records.de)

8. Christof Stählin (neu)
Titel: Dank an die Akkorde
CD: Aus freien Stücken
Nomen + Omen (www.christof-staehlin.de)

10. Axel Prahl & das Inselorchester (neu)
Titel: Bla Bla Bla
CD: Blick aufs Mehr
Buschfunk (www.buschfunk.com)

Riccardo Chailly has withdrawn from January’s long-planned concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He had been front-runner to occupy the vacancy left by James Levine’s decline and told me last year that he was attracted by the possibility.

But unspecified ‘health reasons’ have prompted his withdrawal. He had a heart scare three years back. I hope it’s  not a recurrence. He was certainly looking fit and well in London last month.

Where does that leave Boston? With a near-bare cupboard. The remaining candidates to be seen this season are Stephane Deneve, Ludovic Morlot, Jiri Belohlavek, Myun-whun Chung and … one other. The Czech and Korean are overcommitted elsewhere and the two French guys possibly undercooked. That leaves Andris Nelsons, who wowed the orchestra last season when he stepped in for Mahler Ninth.

Right now, the Latvian is on paternity leave. When he gets back, he’ll have a big decision on his plate.