Walfredo Toscanini, the grandson, has died aged 82, according to Musical America.
An architect by profession, Walfredo set up in retirement an online shrine to his granddad. Who will tend it now?
Beat this – it’s coming out next month. So retro, it’s almost tomorrow.
dessay, debussy
Two of the most searched-for terms on Slipped Disc this past week have been ‘Martin Isepp’ and ‘Omus Hirchbein’.
The first was one of the most influential opera accompanists and teachers of our time, the second was New York’s most dazzling musical organiser.
Both died in the past ten days. Neither has received the decency of a newspaper obituary.
The Guardian announced before Christmas that it was cutting its death watch pages by half. That’s bad news – bad for social decency and bad for the Guardian, which loses social relevance and sales. I am exactly half as likely to buy a paper that has halved its obituary coverage.
Meanwhile, 15 tributes to Martin Isepp have been posted here on Slipped Disc, including a wonderful track of him accompanying Paul Austin Kelly in the Schumann Dichterliebe, in what may have been the last recital of his life. Listen up here.
As for Omus, the New York Times hardly noticed his work at the 92nd Street Y when he was alive. They have yet to report his death.
It does seem that print newspapers are collectively writing their own death warrant.
UOPDATE: The Times of London, which has not shrunk its obits coverage, today published a full-page appreciation of Martin Isepp. Unfortunately, it is behind a firewall so I can’t share it. Two snippets – Martin failed a music degree at Oxford because he was too fond of playong music, and the task of teaching the Marschallin to Montserrat Caballe was so arduous that he could never listen to her again.
It’s easy for audiences to overlook the soloist credentials of the person who takes the orchestra’s hot seat, especially when that person in a woman. So Slipped Disc is proud to present a forthcoming Orchid recording of the Ravel sonata, featuring Christina Åstrand, one of Scandinavia’s top violinists and leader, for the past 20 years of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Per Salo is the pianist. Here’s Christina’s CV.
Lamentably, she’d never get an audition in Vienna.
A pro-Pal news agency is trumpeting the year’s successes in persuading top musicians to cancel trips to Israel.
Among the scalps claimed are Jon Bon Jovi, Roger Waters, Pete Seeger, Natacha Atlas, Jonny Depp and Mireille Mathieu.
The campaign also boasts several disruptions of the Jerusalem String Quartet.
The boycotters’ #1 target for 2012 is Bruce Springsteen.
Here is the 2011 pro-Pal roll of honour:
It’s coming to Carnegie Hall on his 75th birthday at the end of the month, but the world premiere of Glass’s Ninth took place on New Year’s Day in Linz.
Why Linz?
Well Bruckner was born nearby and buried there. Two marks to anyone who got that right.
Anyone else born in Linz? Any other famous names spring to mind? Was this, perhaps, a well-meaning plan to lay local ghosts to rest with a ninth symphony by a nice Jewish boy?
Tell us, Phil. Quick, before they ask you tougher questions in New York. Funny that nobody mentioned Linz in the Carnegie Hall press release.
There is a wave of public outrage building up on several fronts against the exclusion of women from the Vienna Philharmonic, following yesterday’s New Year’s Day concert in which only two women were allowed on stage.
Here‘s an account of how an Austrian parliamentary committee equivocated its way last year around this blatant violation of European human rights law. And how it justifies giving more tax money to a group that practises sexual discrimination. The date of the hearing caught my eye – Mahler’s birthday.
So let me offer an open challenge to Franz Welser-Moest, who’s conducting the next show: on December 31 this year, Franz, demand to see at least 12 women in the orchestra, or cancel the 2013 New Year event. Deal?
