The most famous Armenian in history turned 90 yesterday and is not ready to give up the stage.
Charles Aznavour is singing in Berlin this weekend. In the rain. Wherever. Whatever. On tour.
What a trouper.
For the record, he was bor in Paris 90 years ago as Shahnour Varinag Aznavourian to a pair of Armenian refugees, one of whom was a survivor of the 1915 Turkish genocide. Never to be forgotten. Perhaps that explains the singer’s persistence.
The 9 Cs man is replaced in Barber of Seville by a lucky young Uruguayan, Edgardo Rocha.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig have found that pregnant women demonstrate much stronger responses to music, both positive and negative, than those who are not expecting a child. The difference, they suspect, may be connected to blood pressure and oestrogen levels.
In the research, short musical passages, 10-30 seconds long, were played to sample groups. Some were then played backwards or with dissonances. In every instance, the pregnant listeners rated their reaction more powerfully than the others.
‘Every acoustic manipulation of music affects blood pressure in pregnant women far more intensely than in non-pregnant women’, concludes Thomas Hans Fritz, the research leader. And there is no obvious reason why this should be so.
Abstract: Given a possible effect of estrogen on the pleasure-mediating dopaminergic system, musical appreciation in participants whose estrogen levels are naturally elevated during the oral contraceptive cycle and pregnancy has been investigated (n = 32, 15 pregnant, 17 nonpregnant; mean age 27.2). Results show more pronounced blood pressure responses to music in pregnant women. However, estrogen level differences during different phases of oral contraceptive intake did not have any effect, indicating that the observed changes were not related to estrogen. Effects of music on blood pressure were independent of valence, and dissonance elicited the greatest drop in blood pressure. Thus, the enhanced physiological response in pregnant women probably does not reflect a protective mechanism to avoid unpleasantness. Instead, this enhanced response is discussed in terms of a facilitation of prenatal conditioning to acoustical (musical) stimuli.
The Philadelphia Orchestra will stream its Sunday concert from Shanghai…. opening a whole new world of possibilities. It’s the first time any concert has ever been live-streamed out of China. Press release follows:
The Philadelphia Orchestra to Live-Stream China Concert Worldwide
May 25 Concert is China’s First-Ever International Symphonic Webcast and Marks Another First in the Philadelphia Orchestra-China Relationship
Viewers Can Share Portion of the Concert through Social Media
(Philadelphia, May 22, 2014)—As a special tour gift for its fans across the globe, The Philadelphia Orchestra will be streaming its concert Sunday, May 25, from the Shanghai Grand Theatre during its 2014 Tour of Asia & China Residency. The concert, which takes place at 7:30 PM in China and will be streamed at 7:30 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST), is the first symphonic webcast from China to an international audience. The Orchestra will perform Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 (“Jupiter”) and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.
The concert will be broadcast on the internet and mobile devices by a-Peer Synergy Shanghai Culture & Technology Co., via their newly developed digital platform,yunbomedia.com. To watch the concert for free, viewers must pre-register at www.yunbomedia.com. They will also be able to share up to three minutes of a selection of the concert through social media.
The first symphonic webcast from China to an international audience is yet another “first” in the storied relationship between the country and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Since 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon asked the Orchestra to be the first U.S. orchestra to perform in China, the ensemble has enjoyed a unique and special relationship with China and its people. Twenty years after its first arrival in China, the Orchestra returned in 1993, 1996, 2001, 2008, and 2010, when it helped to open the World Expo in Shanghai, prior to its residencies in 2012 and 2013. The Philadelphia Orchestra’s visit to Changsha marks the first U.S. orchestra to perform in that city and its performance in the Shenzhen Concert Hall will be the first by an American orchestra.
The Orchestra’s 2014 Tour of Asia & China Residency marks Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s inaugural tour with The Philadelphia Orchestra and covers major cities in mainland China including Beijing, Shanghai, and Changsha. In addition, the Orchestra also makes a return trip to Macao for the second consecutive year before continuing on to concerts in Tokyo, Japan. The Orchestra concludes its 2014 Tour of Asia with a concert in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 6. The concerts in Chinahonor the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States.
Nézet-Séguin, who became the eighth music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra in the 2012-13 season, has taken the ensemble to new musical heights through concerts in Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C. The New York Times has called him “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton, “the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better.” He is music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, as well as principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles, and is recognized throughout Europe and North America as a musical leader of the highest caliber.
Kevin Smith, former head of Minnesota Opera, will step in as interim president when Michael Henson clears out in the summer. The post is short-term while the orch searches for a permanent leader. Smith headed the Minn Opera for 25 years, retiring in 2011. He’ll know most of the local donors and enough of the musicians to keep the ship on an even keel until the long, hard work of rebuilding can begin.
Not bad at all in the difficult circumstances, says New York Classical Review, always first on the scene. Click here.
The St Louis Symphony has opened the transfer season with a flush of midfielders.
Jonathan Chu, ex-Boston and Philadelphia, will be the new assistant principal viola (he is married to principal viola, Beth Guterman Chu).
The other two are Xi Zhang, from Hubei Province in China, and Chris Tantillo, a regular with SLSO since 2006.
St Louis now has seven married couple in the orchestra. Is that a record?
A Birmingham Post report by veteran music critic Christopher Morley suggests that all is not well at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Music director Andris Nelsons is leaving and there is no replacement in sight.
There are 14 vacant seats in the orchestra, some of them long unoccupied. Two trumpet players have left, along with a harpist and ‘the greatest tympanist in the country’ (according to Simon Rattle, himself a specialist timp).
Morale is poor, says Morley, adrenaline low.
There is also the possibility – unmentioned – that chief executive Stephen Maddocks may be lured back to the BBC.
Gloom all round. Read Morley here.
The following pianists have reached the final of the 14th Rubinstein competition in Israel:
Anthony Baryshevskii (Ukraine)
Steven Lin (USA)
Kolafeliche Leonardo (Italy)
Seong Jin Cho (South Korea)
Andrew Osokins (Latvia)
Maria Mazo (Russia)
At least two public favourites were eliminated and there were protests when jury chairman, Arie Vardi (pictured), announced the list. He responded: ‘I am very glad that you are so actively involved in the process.’
Don’t bother to search for results on the competition’s website. It’s useless.
Freak storms in London today pinged the newest landmark tower.
The Belgrade Philharmonic, clearing up after the worst floods in a century, is appealing to musicians and the music industry to join its appeal for Serbia’s homeless and dispossessed.
The musicians write:
Dear friends, colleagues and people of good will,
Serbia is facing the worst floods in more than a century.
The severe flooding has prompted the evacuation of at least 24,300 people. It’s the worst flooding Serbia has seen since the country began keeping records 120 years ago. Many cities and villages in western Serbia are completely under water. Тhe situation is critical and the authorities declared a state of emergency. Volunteers, soldiers and rescue workers have stacked sandbags in towns near rivers throughout the country. It is not just the human cost of flooded homes that is a worry there is an environmental concern as well. Sewage and industrial pollution may be washed back into the rivers when the waters fall.
Having in mind successful and above all friendly cooperation you devoloped with Belgrade Philharmonic, as well as with Serbian people, we most kindly invite you to send your contributions and support efforts which our country is making to reduce the consequences of the tragic floods. For this purpose the Serbian government opened foreign currency account for aid to victims of floods:
http://www.srbija.gov.rs/
http://www.floodrelief.gov.rs/
The refusal by soprano Karita Mattila to sing with conductor Valery Gergiev for supporting the annexation of Crimea has drawn an appalling response from an MEP candidate of the anti-EU Independence Party, a man by the name of Jon Hellevig.
In a post on Mattila’s Facebook page on Sunday, Hellevig wrote that the singer misunderstood the policies of Vladimir Putin, was a Nazi at heart and deserved to be raped. There was an outcry in Finnish media.
The post was taken down after legal pressure. Mr Hellevig was subsequently expelled from the party.
