Our pair of New York ingenus, Elizabeth Frayer and Shawn E Milnes, went to see Der Rosenkavalier for the first time. Hardened Marschallin fanciers may find their observations a tad naive. But they’ve found a useful way of getting i to the Met at weekends for little more than the price of a movie. You don’t want to read how they do it? Oh yes, you do. Read here. But be warned: you get what you pay for.

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MTT gets a Carnegie date after the Canadian fails to recover from persistent winter ailments. The San Francisco conductor comes with free lozenges. Press release below:

 

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Carnegie Hall today announced that conductor Michael Tilson Thomas has graciously agreed to step in for Yannick Nézet-Séguin, leading The Philadelphia Orchestra’s performance in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage this Friday, December 6 at 7:30 p.m.Mr. Nézet-Séguin has cancelled this appearance as well as concerts this week in Philadelphia on medical advice that he not travel for the next few weeks due to sinus-related problems. Pianist Hélène Grimaud is soloist for this performance; Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 will replace the previously-announced Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 at her request. The second half of the program, featuring Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, remains as announced.

The Purcell School has announced the death of a bassoon player, Toby Davies, who joined the school in September and was a popular member of several ensembles. He died in Addenbrooks Hospital, Cambridge, on Friday 22 November. We publish the announcement below. All thoughts and sympathies at this moment should be with Toby’s parents.

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We are sorry to announce the very sad death of Lower Sixth form bassoonist Toby Davies.

Toby, who joined The Purcell School in September from Reading School, was a member of the National Youth Wind Ensemble, Berkshire Youth Orchestra and the Acer Minor Bassoon Sextet. He studied bassoon with Sarah Burnett, piano with Daniel King-Smith and composition with Simon Speare. Toby was taken ill suddenly last week and sadly died in Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge.

Headmaster David Thomas said: “The whole school is extremely upset at Toby’s sudden death. He was a very popular and talented pupil, who brought a love of life, a love of people and a love of music to the school. In his short time here, he gave a great deal to the life of the school, and he will be much missed.”The school is planning various events to celebrate Toby’s life, more details of which will be published in due course.

Vasily Sinaisky, an excellent and experienced conductor, walked out today. No reason was given. A terse statement from Bolshoi general director Vladimir Urin said: ‘I decided to grant his request. Vasily Seraphimovich Sinai is not working at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia.’

The resignation came two weeks ahead of a new production of Do Carlo that Sinaisky was supposed to conduct.

The Bolshoi is plunged once more into chaos. UPDATE: Here’s why he quit.

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photo: Ria/Novosty/Lebrecht Music&Arts

The conductor Frédéric Chaslin has put together a pre-concert symposium with the Jerusalem Symphony on issues affecting Wagner and the Jews. From the lineup of eminent speakers, it promises to be a fest of free speech.

But in the concert that follows, not a note of Wagner will be played. The unofficial ban prevails.

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A draft communication, dropped into our box, appears to come from the terrestial celebrity. It is addressed to the former chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. We cannot vouch for its veracity, but it seemed worth sharing as a sign of our troubled times.

 

Hey Mae

So cool you totally liked my bathroom shots. I mean a big guy like you and little ole me. Wanna see some more? Like more, more?

Hey, listen, Mae. Things are a bit quiet for you’n’me right now in the runup to the holidays, right? Since we both big in social media, why don’t we, you’n’me, yunno, get it together like that other maestro, Hokey, and the majormajor Hollywood star, wasername, Greaser Garbo? (I got this from my new intern, Wuja, cool name, huh? Like, Wuja really do it?).

 

stokowski garbo

 

Yunno? Like we don’t have to do anything yukky…. Just make a few headies and break it off? Waddaya say, Mae?

 

 

 

Heart.

Kimmy

 

 

How’s this for cultural priorities? Chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted that Beethoven’s 250th anniversary in 2020 is written into the new coalition agreement with the SPD as a national spending priority.

Page 132 of the coalition agreement contains the following statement: “The 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven in the year 2020 offers excellent opportunities for profiling German culture at home and abroad. Preparing for this important anniversary is thus of national concern.”

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Does President Obama, we wonder, have plans for Bernstein 2018?

Or Phyllis Tine Cameron for Vaughan Williams 2022?

Yeah, right.

My album of the week on sinfinimusic.com is a recital of piano music by Hungarian composers, modern and contemporary. What they have in common is the knack of making you listen to the piano as if you’d never heard it before. Read the review here. Then try some.

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The viola player Maria Jose Igual has been robbed of her instrument.

She tells Slipped Disc:

On November 28 somebody broke into my apartment in Brussels and stole my new viola that I bought a month and a half ago.

Also there was two bows that I was trying, one from Cornelissen and the other one from Atelier Flagey-Bruxelles.

The viola is Gasparo da Saló model, 40.5 cm with the back in one piece and double purfling. The luthier who made the instrument is

Nikola Popara.

If you know something, please let me know:

mariajoip_82@hotmail.com

 

Christina Scheppelmann, former head of artistic operations at Washington National Opera, has accepted puritanical rules at her new job among the oil wells. No bare legs on stage, for starters. And Domingo conducting. Read here (auf Deutsch).

 

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photo: tedescavagabonda.blogspot.co.at 

Edward Kleinhammer, bass trombonist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1940 to 1985, standing head and shoulders above the rest, died on November 30, aged 94. Chicago born, he was taught at high school by two members of the CSO (does that still happen?).

Ed Kleinhammer was a mighty influence on generations of trombonists, both in person and as author of “The Art of Trombone Playing” and “Mastering the Trombone.” Full life story here.

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His name’s Callum Smart and he’s not yet out of high school, but he’s releasing his first record on Orchid Classics – the Grieg and Franck sonatas. The pianist is Gordon Back.

Callum plays a 1698 Antonio Stradivari violin, on loan from J & A Beare Ltd. He has an agent, Hazard Chase, after scoring a high placing in the 2010 Menuhin Competition in Oslo.

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