The pianist Yevgeny Kissin announced tonight that he would travel in future only on his new Israeli papers. He also issued this statement:
“I am a Jew, Israel is a Jewish state – and since long ago I have felt that Israel, although I do not live there, is the only state in the world with which I can fully identify myself, whose case, problems, tragedies and very destiny I perceive to be mine. If I, as a human being and artist represent anything in the world, it is my Jewish people, and therefore Israel is the only state on our planet which I want to represent with my art and all my public activities, no matter where I live. When Israel’s enemies try to disrupt concerts of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra or the Jerusalem Quartet, I want them to come and make troubles at my concerts, too: because Israel’s case is my case, Israel’s enemies are my enemies, and I do not want to be spared of the troubles which Israeli musicians encounter when they represent the Jewish State beyond its borders. I have always deeply despised chauvinism and have never regarded my people to be superior to other peoples; I feel truly blessed that my profession is probably the most international one in the world, that I play music created by great composers of different countries, that I travel all over the world and share my beloved music with people of different countries and nationalities – but I want all the people who appreciate my art to know that I am a Jew, that I belong to the People of Israel. That’s why now I feel a natural desire to travel around the world with an Israeli passport.
photo (c) Slipped Disc: At Mishkenot Sha’ananim in Jerusalem with Absorption Minister, Sofa Landver, Natan Sharansky and his mother
The concert was dedicated to Vladislav Tornovoi, a 23-year-old gay man tortured to death in southwest Russia in May.
The Finnish soprano Hanna Rantala pays tribute to her teacher Tom Krause, who has died, aged 79.
photo: Marion Kalter/Lebrecht Music&Arts
Tom Krause was one of my voice teachers. I attended numerous master classes and learned to know his gentle, humorous and wise way of teaching and living. He wasn’t only a great singer and artist, he was a warm-hearted human being and a wonderful teacher. In the beginning of each master class he would often state, that we’re all together on an exiting adventure towards learning how to sing.
I had a tendency of using too much air when I sing. His solution went as follows: he told me to imagine Martti Talvela (big and hairy Finnish bass) standing behind me with a huge club in his hands. Every time I let out too much air, he would smack me in the head with the club. I learned to keep air to myself and give instead my voice to the listeners. He would often refer to his colleagues. For example when singing high notes he would often say “You must always take it from above, like Auntie Joan says”. With auntie Joan he meant Dame Joan Sutherland. It was quite an experience for a Finnish country girl like me to work with someone who had actually worked with such esteemed singers.
His goal was to find freedom in the voice. He often said “the universe is expanding, so let’s join and expand with our breath”. He would often say that a singer’s worst enemy is the brain. A singer must be like a happy village idiot, who doesn’t have a care in the world. One of his favorite vocal exercises was to the words “Hallo, mein Freund”. He was the one who taught what I think every singer should know: a singer is a medium of music, nothing more. Singer’s ego must never come between music and the listener. I remember vividly one lesson I was listening to. He was teaching a baritone Escamillo’s aria and suddenly he burst out into song. He had one hand in his pocket in a non-chalant fashion and he sang the first phrases of “Votre toast”. Never have I seen or heard a more convincing Escamillo, and this from a 75 year old man. He hadn’t lost his charisma or voice and I will always remember and cherish that moment. I am infinitely grateful I got to study with him. I wouldn’t be the singer I am now without his help. He will be greatly missed and mourned by scores of students from all around the world.
(c) Hanna Rantala/Slipped Disc
British jazzman Stan Tracey has played his last. Jamie Cullum tweets: ‘He played like a demon right up until his last days on earth as an Eightysomething.’ His best-known work is a score for Dylan Thomas’s radio play.
photo: Lebrecht Music&Arts
Our shrewd judge Steve Rubin feels let down by the Met’s new show:
photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
Robert Carsen’s Met debut was an evocative and beautiful production of EUGENE ONEGIN, which this season was summarily replaced by Fiona Shaw’s drab, conservative interpretation of the Tchaikovsky masterpiece. Now the tables have been turned as Carsen’s new production of FALSTAFF has caused the scrapping of Franco Zeffirelli’s universally adored 50-year-old take on Verdi’s final opera.
Carsen is much too intelligent and interesting a director for this undertaking to be dismissed in the manner Shaw’s was. But his FALSTAFF is a very mixed bag. Most perplexing is why he reset it in post World War II England. The sets don’t look particularly English; the final scene in Act II in fact looks like a Fifties American suburban kitchen.
His design team has a field day with flamboyant and often funny costumes, but why else we are the 20th century eluded me. Carsten always seems to favor walled-in sets and that’s the case here, where the unit sets goes kerflooey in Act III: outside the Garter Inn is nothing but a drab room where the prime attraction is a very hungry live horse munching away and upstaging poor Ambrogio Maestri as a sodden and defeated Sir John. The magical final scene is Windsor Great Park has stars in the heavens a aplenty, but the walls just don’t cut it.
He worked wonders with the cast, all of whom threw themselves into the often frenzied proceedings with abandon. The merriment reaches antic heights in the hamper scene, but flawed timing totally wrecked what could have been a very funny finale.
Musically, the surprise of the evening was that James Levine would have allowed such pedestrian casting. Nanetta, Fenton and Ford were all two sizes too small for the Met, and the amply endowed Angela Meade’s resplendent soprano was not nearly bright enough for Alice, although Meade was so likable and funny as an actress one forgave her.
Maestri was a wonderful Falstaff, singing with a gigantic voice and even larger bearing. He lacks the subtlety to pull off his little ditty about being a page to the Duke of Norfolk, but it was thrilling hearing his robust baritone sail through this glorious music. Stephanie Blythe, also blessed with a voice that matches her girth, was in great form as Dame Quickly. All the secondary characters were terrific.
The beloved Levine is incapable of turning in a lackluster performance, but something was off last night. There were joys and new insights in abundance, particularly the accompaniment to Ford’s Act II solo, but, despite gorgeous orchestral playing, the endeavor felt earthbound.
The audience seemed to have had a fine time.
This just in from a conductor who’s watching the live stream on a screen a few hundred metres from the theatre:
Diana Damrau missed her entrance in Act II, party scene in Traviata. The orchestra went on without singing and almost stopped for a really long embrarassing time. This is at La Scala Opening night, with Traviata, conducting, live streaming worldwide. Apparently, she just did not reach the stage on time. Daniele Gatti, conducting, will want to know why.
UPDATE: Despite the lapse, Damrau was greatly applauded at the end. Our observer writes: She has sung a very convincing performance, the incident should tell more about the stage personnel at La Scala than about her. Both the conductor and producer were booed.
Somethig to cheer them in this bleak midwinter. Read here.
The German conductor received a kicking in Vienna for a lacklustre Magic Flute. Now he’s being savaged for poor Mozart with his own orchestra. This is not the year of the Christoph.
Read Anne Midgette here.
A Slipped Disc reader writes: As a longtime NSO subscriber who witnessed all of our Music Directors from Dorati, Rostropovich, Slatkin, Ivan Fischer, Mr. Eschenbach’s concert this week was the worst from a Music Director this orchestra has ever had. It is alarming if the level of the orchestra will really go down under Mr. Eschenbach’s leadership.
Photo: Masterclass 2011, photo (c) Marion Kalter/Lebrecht Music&Arts
Tom Krause, one of the first post-War Finns to conquer the world stage, died on December 5, aged 79.
After a spell as a member of the Hamburg State Opera, he made a 1963 Glyndebourne debut at the Count in Richard Strauss’s Capriccio and bookings followed at the Met, Salzburg, Paris and Milan.
He was highly esteemed for Mozart roles. UPDATE: Read an exclusive tribute by one of his pupils here.
This message just in from our friend David Conway in Kiev:
A stark warning was issued this weekend. The MSO, which had been thought to be in recovery, has suffered a terrible financial year. A press release said it is ‘in danger of running out of money and faces possible extinction if additional pledges cannot be secured to fund the MSO’s much more modest, prudent budget and business plan for the future.’
The musicians, already reduced from 88 to 79, are facing a further drop into the 60s. Executive director, Mark Niehaus, a former trumpet player in the orchestra, said: ‘In this critical time in the existence of the MSO, we have reached an unprecedented level of collaboration among the key players in the organization: the musicians, the music director, administrative staff, and partners.’
With Edo de Waart as music director, Milwaukee seemed to have negotiated itself out of a Minnesota-like existential crisis. Now the future looks less certain.
The Ukrainian-US violinist Oleh Krysa is in hospital recovering from injuries he received in a road crash that killed his wife, Tatiana Tchekina, assistant professor of accompanying at Eastman School of Music.
Their Volkswagen was hit by a driver coming at them on the wrong lane of the eastbound interstate highway.
Tchekina, 69, was a member of a well-known Moscow family of musicians. Krysa, 71, is a professor of violin at Eastman and an international soloist.
We extend sympathy to their family and wish Oleh a full recovery.
A statement from Eastman: Professor Tchekina was a valued member of our faculty who influenced the lives of the many students with whom she collaborated on performances and competitions. As a world-class musician, she had an international career both as a solo pianist and in collaboration with Professor Krysa. Our thoughts are with Oleh, and their family and friends at this very difficult time.
