A happy mash-up from ABC News on the surprise selection of a diva to serenade the nation’s hard men.
That’s what Anne Akiko Meyers appears to do in the promo video for her new premiere release of Vivaldi’s triple concerto, RV551. Anne plays the Vieuxtemps Guarnerius, valued at $20 million. No way would she take it for a dip, she tells Slipped Disc. The other violin was a body double and she was using it to symbolise the three elements in the triple concerto: fog, water, ice.
It is the first time the instrument can be heard on a commercial recording.
The Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau is urging musicians to participate in the writing of a symphony by tweets.
The Tweetfonie, pieced together from submitted themes of fewer than 140 characters, will be performed this summer. How many notes in Surabaya Jonny?
Full story here.
H/t Simon Morgan.
Hilary Hahn’s In 27 Pieces was the top-selling classical album in the US this past week. It sold all of 341 copies, a new all-time low ( I feel I know half the people who bought it).
In second spot on the Nielsen Soundscan charts is Barenboim’s New Year concert from Vienna. Just 260 sales.
These are shocking stats. There is not much point in making records for so indifferent a market.
Monday has been designated Abbado commemoration day in Milan.
At 6pm, Daniel Barenboim will conduct the funeral march from Beethoven’s Eroica.
At 8pm, Myung Whun Chung will direct Beethoven’s 6th symphony and Brahms’s 4th.
Riccardo Chailly, the incoming principal conductor who was once Abbado’s assistant, will be present at both events.
Lunedì 27 gennaio la Filarmonica della Scala sarà doppiamente impegnata nel ricordo di Claudio Abbado, suo fondatore e per 18 anni Direttore Musicale del Teatro alla Scala.
Alle ore 18, nel Teatro alla Scala – con sala vuota e porte aperte – la Filarmonica eseguirà la Marcia funebre (Adagio assai) dall’Eroica di Beethoven, sul podio il M° Daniel Barenboim, Direttore Musicale della Scala. La Marcia Funebre verrà diffusa da altoparlanti nella Piazza.
Alle ore 20, sempre alla Scala, il M° Myung-Whun Chung, dopo la Prova Aperta di domenica 26 a favore di Auser, eseguirà la Sinfonia n.6 Pastorale di Beethoven e la Sinfonia n. 4 di Brahms nel quarto concerto della stagione della Filarmonica della Scala. Il M°Chung e i musicisti della Filarmonica dedicano il concerto ad Abbado, condividendo così con gli abbonati ed il pubblico il ricordo del fondatore.
Il M° Riccardo Chailly, che assumerà la carica di Direttore Principale del Teatro alla Scala dal 2015 e che era stato giovane assistente di Abbado negli anni scaligeri (fu proprio Abbado a chiedergli di debuttare venticinquenne nei Masnadieri) sarò presente a Milano sia alla commemorazione del Teatro alla Scala con il M° Barenboim e la Filarmonica alle 18 sia al concerto della Filarmonica diretta dal M°Chung alle 20.
Every winter, Tim Linhart makes an orchestra of ice instruments in Sweden’s northern town of Luleå, just below the Arctic Circle.
Tuesday night, Roberto Abbado, nephew of Claudio Abbado, conducted a performance of Parsifal in Bologna. Before the opera began, the entire audience and the orchestra stood still for a minute’s total silence.
This is, reportedly, the first sight of musical instruments on Iran TV in 30 years, following a religious ban. More here.
Anyone care to name the instruments?
Check this entertaining TED talk by robot maker Guy Hoffman, who thinks his machines can simulate a soul. The musical riff starts at around ten minutes in. Robots, says Guy, need to be a bit more like musicians.
You thought we had finished with the footwear theme? Think again.
These belong to the South Africa-born, US-based pianist Petronel Malan. They looked great in the window, but sadly she can’t play in them. We know one or two label PRs who would give their lunch account to walk out in those.
h/t Melanie Spanswick
The picture shows Mehta (l) and Abbado (r) with their conducting course teacher, Eleazar de Carvalho.
The Brazilian composer Jocy de Oliveira recalls:
I met Claudio Abbado in the late 1950s in Milan. Eleazar de Carvalho was conducting the Pomerigggio Musicale orchestra with Claudio Abbado as soloist in a Mozart concerto. His father was director of the orchestra . After many beautiful spaghetti dinners… Eleazar liked the musicality of his son and invited him to attend the conducting courses at Tanglewood, of which the Brazilian Maestro was the director and teacher… At the end of the course , Eleazar awarded Abbado with the Koussevitzky Prize as the best student in that season….After that we were a few times with Abbado in Italy, and his career still did not take off. Then there was a major Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in NY and Eleazar was invited to chair the Board. Abbado participated in the contest and Eleazar worked extensively with the panel so that he won first place. After this award, his career was definitely launched .
original in Portuguese:
Conheci Claudio Abbado em fins da década de 1950 em Milano. Eleazar de Carvalho foi reger a orquestra do Pomerigggio Musicale com o Claudio Abado como solista de um concerto de Mozart. Seu pai era o diretor da orquestra. Depois de muitos jantares e belos spaghetti seu pai solicitou ao Eleazar que apoiasse seu filho a ser regente pois ele tinha muito talento. Eleazar gostou muito da musicalidade do filho e convidou-o a participar dos cursos de regência em Tanglewood , os quais o Maestro brasileiro era o diretor e professor. Claudio Abbado tornou-se assim um dos 3 regentes ativos no curso juntamente com Zubin Mehta. No final do curso, Eleazar premiou Abbado com o Prêmio Koussevitzky como o melhor aluno daquela temporada. Isto deu `a Abbado um importante começo de carreira . Mas depois disto estivemos algumas vezes com Abbado na Itália, e ele continuava sem deslanchar. Foi quando houve um importante concurso de regência Mitropoulos em NY e Eleazar foi convidado para presidir a banca. Abbado participou do concurso e Eleazar trabalhou intensamente junto a banca para que ele ganhasse o primeiro lugar. Depois deste premio, sua carreira foi definitivamente lançada.
Esta é a história do inicio de sua carreira, mas, como perdura e sempre perdurará o preconceito, discriminação e esquecimento `aqueles que vem do hemisfério sul, e nossa midia ignora nossa história, nada foi dito no obituário de Claudio Abbado, dia 21 de Janeiro no O Globo.
O mundo perdeu sem dúvida um grande regente e a história merece ser contada.
Eleazar com seus alunos Zubin Mehta e Claudio Abbado em Tanglewood, USA — with Zubin Mehta and Claudio Abbado.
Jelena Dirks, who has played in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where her mother was a violist, will become principal oboe at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at the start of next season.
