Rudolph Tang has sent us this fascinating dispatch from Beijing:
The China National Symphony Orchestra presented a concert as part of its 2013-14 season on December 10, 2013 at Beijing Concert Hall, commemorating the centenary of veteran music critic turned orchestra executive Li Ling. Mr Li was the founding president of Central Philharmonic when it was formed on July 10, 1956. Central Philharmonic Orchestra was renamed China National Symphony Orchestra in 1996.
The podium was shared by Han Zhongjie (93), Liangkun Yan (90), Chen Xieyang (74) and Shao En (60), all closely associated with Central Phil. The concert made headlines all over China when the First Lady appeared in the auditorium and queued with the audience for her seat. Mrs Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi of China, is a famed soprano and a disciple of Mr Li Ling.
The privileged class in China usually enjoys direct access to the reserved seats with no need to queue. The official news agency released two photos of the First Lady waiting in line for her seat together with Mr Guan Xia (man in barehead), president of CNSO.
Mr Li Ling was born on December 6th, 1913 in southern China. A loyal party member and activist, he was instrumental in founding the Central Phil which used to be China’s premiere league orchestra. He was criticized in 1962 for advocating “light music” and subsequently removed from office in 1963 amid political upheaval. He was vindicated in 1977 and reinstalled as President of National Opera and Dance Company in 1978.
During the last decade he was more than ever active in writing reviews, commentary and criticism. He was the founding editor of monthly journal New Music (now deceased) and has since published dozens of books. He died in 2003 at 90.
Sinfini have put together my selection of the most important albums of the last 12 months. All you have to do to have a chance to win is click the link at the foot of the page, here.
Amid the ghastly mess in certain states beginning with M, there is some cause for Christmas cheer in other corners of the Union.
1 Cleveland last week announced a break-even budget of $48.2 million, almost half of which – $22m – came in increased revenues. Some of this money has trickled up from 13,000 students who responded to a cheap-ticket offer and 11,5000 schoolkids whose seats were paid for by donors.
2 Detroit is about to announce a small surplus, the first in years. It raised $18.9 million in gifts and drew in thousands of students to its $25 season ticket scheme.
Lessons to be learned? Start ’em, young. Simple, really.
Coming in behind the first five, at number….
6 Ilona Schmiel
New-broom Intendantin at Zurich’s wealthy Tonhalle, with rising maestro Lionel Bringuier
7 Ruth Mackenzie
Incoming director of the Holland Festival, formerly head of London’s Cultural Olympics
8 Katharina and Eva Wagner
Clinging onto the composer’s wreckage at Bayreuth
9 Kathryn McDowell
Managing director of the London Symphony Orchestra since 2005, hired Gergiev, now wooing Rattle…
10 Susanna Mälkki
Ex-music director at IRCAM Paris, queen of contemporary music
So who have we missed?
These are the worst covers of the year. The top one sold almost twice as many copies last week – just under 2,000 – as any other classical album on the market. That includes humming nuns and Angels Sing Christmas in Ireland.
Short skirt works wonders. Old proverb.
We know the old brute suffered from disabling headaches. So did many other composers – Beethoven, Schumann, Mahler, Jimi Hendrix.
But new research in the British Medical Journal suggests that Wagner translated his migraines into music. For instance,…
Siegfried opens with a pulsating thumping which gradually becomes more intense until it reaches an “almost painful pulsation”. At the climax, the main character cries out “Compulsive plague! Pain without end!” which the researchers believe is a representation of a “painful, pulsating sensory migraine episode”.
Hmmm….Agree? Read on here.
You’ve met the American power women. Here are the top five Euros.
1 Helga Rabl-Stader
President of the Salzburg Festival since 1995, has seen off several directors
2 Anne-Sophie Mutter
The Angela Merkel of the concert circuit. Always gets her way.
3 Jude Kelly
Artistic director of London’s South Bank, Europe’s biggest arts centre.
4 Kathryn Enticott
Top-drawer conductors’ agent, running the diaries of Welser-Möst, Alan Gilbert, Semyon Bychkov and more.
5 Anna Netrebko
Poster girl to the Russian kleptocracy, Austrian citizen by choice.
Five more coming up right here.
Paris Match reports the death of Kate Barry, daughter of the Bond composer John Barry and the actress and singer, Jane Birkin.
Kate, 46, fell from her fourth-floor apartment in the 16th district of Paris. She was a gifted photographer, working for many French publications. We extend sympathies to her son and family. John Barry died in January 2011.
The heart sinks to receive yet another waste of time and money jabbering on cultural value, rather than teaching arts in schools. Will they never learn? Read this latest bout of academic seat-warming.
A year ago, pianist Tamar Halperin and her husband Andreas Scholl took out a keyboard and a voice to see how many New Yorkers knew Schubert’s Ave Maria.
She writes: ‘Most people shook their heads and walked on. Other people looked annoyed and walked on. And then there were those, who quickly fixed their hair, smiled from ear to ear, and sang “Ave Maria” at the top of their lungs.’
There’s only one voice on the vid, however.
