The composer Rand Steiger reports the death of János Négyesy, at 75. A friend of John Cage, Négyesy premiered works by many composers, most notably Attila Bozay, Vinko Globokar and Isang Yun.
Here is Rand’s appreciation on his Fb page:
It is with deep sadness that I write to inform you that the great violinist János Négyesy passed away today due to complications that arose during cardiac surgery. Professor Négyesy was 75 and had been a member of the UCSD faculty since 1979. He is survived by his wife, Päivikki Nykter. No plans have been made yet for a memorial service, but I will keep you informed.
János Négyesy was born in Budapest, Hungary and studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and later at Detmold in Germany. He left Hungary in 1965 and from 1970-74 was concertmaster of the Berlin Radio Orchestra. He lived and worked in Paris, Vienna and New York before joining the UCSD faculty in 1979. Long an advocate of new music, Mr. Négyesy appeared at major festivals throughout the world. In addition to performing, recording and teaching he wrote a definitive study of contemporary violin techniques, and was an innovative visual artist working with computer graphics.
Some of Négyesy’s landmark recordings included the first European recording of the complete Violin and Piano Sonatas of Charles Ives with pianist Cornelius Cardew and recordings of works specifically dedicated to him by important contemporary composers such as Attila Bozay, Carlos Fariqas, Vinko Globokar, Hans Otte, Isang Yun and his UCSD colleague Roger Reynolds.
Négyesy had a long friendship and collaboration with John Cage, who dedicated his piece One6 to him. Négyesy gave the world premiere of Cage’s Freeman Etudes I-XVI in Torino, Italy in 1984 and XVII-XXXII in Ferrara, Italy in 1991. He then produced a double CD of the complete Etudes in 1995 on Newport Classics Records. The complete Bartôk Duos for two Violins – with Päivikki Nykter – was released by Neuma Records in June 1993. Dedications – with solo works written especially for Mr. Négyesy by current and former UCSD students was released in June ’96 and a CD with solo compositions by Bartôk, Berio and Xenakis was released in Winter 2000, on Aucourant Records and Neuma Records, respectively.
This is the trailer for the forthcoming movie, Grand Piano, in which a soloist is warned he’ll be shot by a sniper if he plays a wrong note.
Can you see anything credible in this?
We are receiving reports that Shi-Yeon Sung, associate conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, has been named chief conductor of the Gyeonggi Philharmonic. Shi-Yeon, 38, won the 2006 Sir Georg Solti International Conductors Competition and was assistant conductor to James Levine at the Boston Symphony.
She is the first woman to take charge of a Korean orchestra, a small but not insignificant step in the world’s keenest market for classical music.
It’s no secret at Yale University that the president, Peter Salovey, plays bass in a bluegrass band. They don’t lecture much about music in the psych department, where Professor Salovey plies his trade, but the prez has given a relaxed interview here. Watch.
Watford shopping centre, north of London, has installed a six-metre-long curved piano for shoppers to tap-dance their favourite tunes while strolling from one outlet to the next. Someone, please, play misty for me.
And send a video to Slipped Disc.
The pop pianist has given his prized piano to Stony Brook University on Long Island, his alma mater.
It’s the second piano he has given to the campus and it’s an unusual one, with 97 keys, valued at $250,000.
Here’s Billy Joel talking about not being Beethoven.
The radical feminist attack on an act of Christmas worship in Cologne Cathedral should dismay readers of all persuasions. Freedom of religious worship is a human right as sacrosanct as freedom of speech. When one is attacked, so is the other. The Femen group damaged their cause by denying the people of Cologne the peace of Christmas Mass.
Any attempt to justify this attack by reference to the Pussy Riot demonstration in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in February 2012 is misplaced. Pussy Riot were protesting against the church’s support for the Putin regime. They did not disrupt an act of worship. Their protest was staged at a relatively quiet time in the church day as the basis for a video titled ‘Punk Prayer – Mother of God, Chase Putin Away!’
It was crass, misguided and offensive to the church and the regime but it made a legitimate political point and it did not attack the rights of any other individual. The punishment inflicted on the protestors was out of all proportion to their alleged crime. Pussy Riot’s protest was redeemed by the over-reaction of an authoritarian state.
Femen conducts its guerrilla tactics in the impunity of free societies. Its attack in Cologne was odious. The group needs to rethink its modus operandi if it is to gain any semblance of civilised support.
An activist of the Femen group climbed half-naked on the altar of Cologne Cathedral during Christmas Mass. The words ‘I am God’ were painted on her body.
photo: yle.fi
photos: Femen
Cardinal Meisner asked for the 20 year-old woman to be peacefully removed. Clerics covered her in their cloaks and the service proceeded without further disruption.
