A plaque has been affixed to the Bristol home of Elsie Griffin, the opera singer who made ‘Danny Boy’ one of the most beloved songs of the First World War.
Written in 1910 by a US-based English lawyer, Frederick Weatherly, and recorded in 1915 by one of Mahler’s singers, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, ‘Danny Boy’ was then given by Weatherly to Griffin, who made it universally popular. Over time, it became an anthem for Irish expatriates.
We can’t find a recording of Griffin singing it; make do with the lovely Deanna Durbin.
Griffin went on to become a stalwart of English opera between the two wars. She died, aged 94, in 1989.
Here she is singing Yum-Yum in a 1926 Mikado.
It’s an original work by Marc-André Hamelin. Puts all imitations to shame. When you’ve heard it, check out the classical source.
Listen here:
He’s 87 next month and becoming frail.
Boulez is well enough to do the first half of three concerts this weekend, but not the Mahler symphony in the second half. That will be taken by David Robertson, standing in. More here.
This could be another of those musicians vs cheap media sagas. Watch this space.
The first victims of the Dutch givernment cull are about to sign off with a flourish. Here’s a last look at the web-page.
We reported last week that lawyers for two major German newspapers had run amok, demanding heavy fines and costs from artists who quoted from favourable reviews on their websites. It’s the newspapers’ valuable copyright, you see.
Well, it has just got one degree worse. According to a comment on a German chat site, the Frankfurt Opera is facing demands of 7,000 Euros for blazoning quotes from reviews in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. I have sought clarification, but none has yet come through.
Perhaps Roland Gerschermann, the newpspaper executive behind these measures, might like to come clean on Slipped Disc.
At a time when newspaper sales are going through the floor, one can hardly think of a cleverer way of alienating core users and readers.
(Here’s one where the quotes have already been blanked out)
One of the world’s leading conductor agents has received a major promotion, and the former editor of Gramophone is embarking on a significant career change.
Kathryn Enticott, head of conductors and instrumentalists at IMG Artists, has been appointed joint managing director of the company’s European division. An agent of rare dedication who regularly burns midnight oil for such clients as Franz Welser-Most, Joshua Bell, Alan Gilbert and Hilary Hahn, Kathryn has been the focus of some heated head-hunting in recent months. So IMG moved fast to lock her in to a new position.
We also hear that James Inverne, who left Gramophone abruptly in October and has been freelancing vigorously in various fields, has decided to enter artist management. His new agency, with several influential backers and clients, will go live in a couple of months. One of its key strategies will be to combine career guidance with professional image management (formerly known as PR). We wish him well.
Members of Boston’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, past and present, have posted a petition calling for the reinstatement of their conductor, Benjamin Zander, who was sacked by the NEC for employing a videographer with a sex-crime in his distant past. Zander has admitted his naivety and apologised.
The New England Conservatory has admitted no responsibility. Its president, Tony Woodcock, had fallen out with Zander before the videographer mater came to light.
The petition is up and running here. Anyone who believes in natural justice for Benjamin Zander is encouraged to sign.
Call to Reinstate Benjamin Zander as Conductor of YPO
David Conway has written a thoughtful book for Cambridge University Press about how Jews, long excluded, were admitted to the music profession in the early 19th century. It is called:
and it does what it says on the cover.
However, when David tried to post his new title as a page on Facebook, the Zuckerberg censor cut him off. ‘Jewry’ is a no-no word on fb, apparently. Like the Saxon words for certain body parts and things the Republicans call President Obama.
It’s an arbitrary thing, and there’s no getting around it. So David has been forced to call his page ‘JIM: Entry to the Profession from the Enlightenment to Richard Wagner’……..’
That seems ever so slightly mad.
‘It has taken 12 years of negotiation,’ said the Ukrainian agency that announced the great tenor-baritone’s engagement. I wonder what the sticking point was.
Repertoire, no doubt. PD doesn’t know that many Ukrainian arias.
Or maybe he wanted them to find two more tenors to join him. Whatever.
