Cute. Watch here.
After the London Symphony Orchestra appointed a school-leaver as its co-principal trombone last week, we put out a call for the youngest-ever players in an international class orchestra.
Setting aside 14 year old Duaa Majid Azzawi who was appointed second oboe in the Iraq National Symphoy Orchestra in 2009, this is what our readers have offered by way of a definitive listing:
At 15 years old:
Barry Tuckwell, principal 3rd horn with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (later with LSO)
Gregor Piatigorsky, principal cellist in the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra (later at Berlin Philharmonic).
Raymond Cohen, violinist, Halle Orchestra.
Leon Goossens, oboist, Henry Wood’s Queens Hall Orchestra.
Charles Treger, violinist, Detroit Symphony (according to a 1976 newspaper report).
Gerd Seifert, horn player, Hamburg State Opera (later Berlin Philharmonic).
Gunther Schuller, horn, joined American Ballet Theatre orch at 15, moving at 18 to Cincinnatti.
Neville Marriner, violin, played in the LSO in 1939.
At 16:
Szymon Goldberg became concertmaster of the Dresden Philharmonic at 16 and of the Berlin Philharmonic three years later.
Peter Steiner, cellist, joined the Deutsch Oper Berlin in 1944, before spending 48 years in the Berlin Phil.
Stanley Drucker, clarinet, entered the the Indiannapolis Orch at 16 and the New York Phil at 19.
Lawrence Leonard, cellist, was 16 when he joined the LSO in 1939.
Michal Winfield may have become principal oboe of the Halle at 16.
Danilo Stagni became principal horn at La Scala when he was 16.
At 17:
Arthur Isadore Berv, horn, joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1923.
Bart Claessens joined Concertgebouworkest as 2nd trombone/basstrombone at 17.
Arnold Rosé was 17 when he took the concertmaster’s seat at the Vienna Opera in 1881.
Venezuelan double-bassist Edicson Ruiz entered the Berlin Philharmonic at 17, waiting three more years for tenure.
Roger Voisin became assistant principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 17 in 1935; he became #1 trumpet in 1950.
Walter Weller, violin, joined the Vienna State Opera orchestra.
At 18:
Conductor Ward Stare started out as principal trombone of Lyric Opera of Chicago, aged 18.
Michael Thompson was appointed Principal Horn of the BBC Scottish SO at 18.
Emmanuel Pahud was 18 when he was named principal flute at Basle Radio Symphony.
Mark Abbott was named assistant principal horn in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at age 18.
Paul Renzi became principal flute with the San Francisco Symphony in 1944 at age 18.
Jaap van Zweden, concertmaster at Concertgebouw at age of 18.
Not sure whether to laugh hysterically, or weep.
A man called Charles M. Goldstein is trying to raise money for a Ring cycle in Hartford, Connecticut. It’s an economy Ring with a digital orchestra. Says Goldstein: My digital instruments come from the Vienna Symphonic Library and are basically from the players of the Vienna Philharmonic and other Viennese orchestras.’
In whose dreams? Listen to this clip. If you think it sounds like Vienna, check in with the nearest ENT specialist.
So far, the project has raised exactly $0.00.
Press release:
Hartford Wagner Festival, Inc.- Newest Opera Company to Present Wagner’s Ring Cycle
The Hartford Wagner Festival, Inc. is pleased to announce its inaugural season of presenting Richard Wagner’s monumental “Der Ring des Nibelungen” with their new production of “Das Rheingold” on August 8, 9 & 10, 2014 at the Roberts Theater of the Kingswood Oxford School in West Hartford, Connecticut.
Utilizing a state-of-the-art Digital Orchestra, “Das Rheingold” will be the first production of the “Ring” of the new opera company. Following each year, the Hartford Wagner Festival will add the next installment of the “Ring” cycle until in 2017 they will begin presenting two complete “Ring” cycles each year.
Employing the talents of the Digital Orchestra’s creator, Charles M. Goldstein, the Hartford Wagner Festival has hired Jonathon Field, Head of the Opera Department at Oberlin College and a noted “Ring” Stage Director, to produce an entirely new multi-media production of the “Ring” for HWF. Eight artists from the Metropolitan Opera have been engaged to sing as well as giving young artists the opportunity to perform in some of the smaller roles.
Michael Chioldi, noted Metropolitan Opera Baritone, will make his first foray into Wagner as Wotan in “Das Rheingold.” Robert Brubaker will sing the role of Mime which he has sung for the Met. Sondra Kelly, also a Met alumnus, sings the role of Fricka and Adam Herskowitz (another Met artist) will sing Froh. Alberich will be sung by Met artist Philip Cokorinos and Cindy Sadler will perform as Erda. Joel Sorenson reprises his Met role of Loge. Newcomers Jeremy Milner (also a Met Artist) and Matthew Anchel sing Fasolt and Fafner with Met artist Ross Crolius as the second cast Fafner. Resident Artist’s Sydney Anderson, Caitlin Mathes and Ema Mitrovic’ will be the Rhinemaidens. Conducting will be Charles M. Goldstein.
Full Cast details can be found here.
We reported earlier that six players in the Budapest Festival Orchestra had their bows confiscated on arrival, on suspicion that they might contain ivory. This was an understatement. We are now informed it was seven players.
The bows were not returned and the players had to ring around friends and acquaintances to borrow bows for rehearsal and their first concert. Lincoln Center were helpful in providing bows for those who could not find them.
The orchestra flew into Newark. The instruments and bows were sent as cargo to JFK. Every single instrument and bow had a certificate (or passport) from Hungary. These were dismissed by Customs, who seized seven bows.
They are now demanding a $500 release fee.
This is, literally, highway robbery. Customs have clearly exceeded their authority, but they are a law unto themselves when musicians pass through, as demonstrated in the tragic case of Boujemaa and his flutes.
Beware of flying to New York with a musical instrument.
http://www.whopaysartists.com/ is appealing for information.
Inspired by Whopayswriters.com it hopes to lay bare the economic facts in music and other arts.
Most submissions so far are from the visual arts. Nothing classical.
Yet.
The price for landing the Stones in Tel Aviv was $6.7 million.
The backing singers get $57 a head, according to local media. That’s for three rehearsals and a concert.
The London Sinfonietta have made a big song and dance about being invited to play Steve Reich at the Glastonbury rock festival.
Turns out, they can’t afford the trip and have gone online to raise cash.
So far, without much success. Just £270 has trickled in out of a required £3,000.
Crowd funding is, in our long-established view, the wrong way for an orchestra or opera house to do business. It smacks of desperation – as it did with New York City Opera – and it encroaches on a device that exists to help individuals, not organisations.
The Sinfonietta have done themselves no favours, not least by appearing to fail.
Maybe they should just ring Metallica and ask for spare change.
Nathalia Milstein, 18, granddaughter of the great violinist’s brother, has won the first prize in the Youth Division of the 9th International Adilia Alieva Piano Competition in Gaillard, France. Judges thought she was outstanding.
She also appears as a duo with her sister, Maria, a violinist.
In an art where sex-equality is a fairly recent innovation, there have always been couples who ran parallel careers. Not many of them lasted the distance as travel and stress took their toll, but there is currently a growing pack of musical pairs with a lengthening track record.
Here’s the Slippedisc power couples list for 2014. Feel free to add more.
1 Daniel Barenboim, Elena Bashkirova
He: Berlin Staatsoper, East-West Diwan. She: Founder, Berlin Metropolis Ensemble, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival
2 Nikolaus and Alice Harnoncourt
Players and partners for over 60 years.
3 Simon Rattle, Magdalena Kozena
He: chief conductor, Berlin Philharmonic. She: international mezzo
4 Roberto Alagna, Aleksandra Kurzak
Power tenor and rising soprano, now with babe in arms
5 Sakari Oramo, Anu Komsi
He: music director Stockholm Phil, BBC SO. She: coloratura soprano, director West Coast Kokkola Opera
6 Andris Nelsons, Kristine Opolais
He: music director Boston SO. She: mightily successful soprano
7 Gus Christie, Danielle DeNiese
The Glyndebourne Festival founder married a soprano. So did his grandson.
8 Natalie Dessay, Laurent Naouri
Soprano-baritone couple, dominant in France
9 Peter Gelb, Kerry Lynn Wilson
He: general manager, Metropolitan Opera. She: international conductor
10 Nicola Benedetti, Leonard Elschenbroich
Outstanding soloists, together for eight years
Add-ons:
11 Composer Rodion Shchedrin, Ballerina Maya Plisetskaya (h/t: Dianne Winsor)
12 Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare
13 David Finckel and Wu Han
14 Russian Gennady Rozhdestvensky and pianist Viktoria Postnikova. Married since 1969.
15 Soprano Elina Garanca, married to British conductor Karel Mark Chichon.
16 Putinist pair: violinist Vadim Repin and ballerina Svetlana Zakharova.
We hear that six Hungarian string players were forced to surrender their bows on suspicion of ivory importation when the Budapest Festival Orchestra arrived in New York at the weekend.
The orch gave a stunning Dvorak concert Sunday night at Lincoln Center, so we assume the bows have been returned to their rightful owners, but the chaos created by Washington’s elephant protection ordinances has not abated yet at major airports, despite a slight easing of the rules.
Apparently, instrument passports are not enough to put you in the clear. It’s a jungle out there.
UPDATE: It took three days to get the bows released.
Michael Fine reports from the jury room of the 9th International Adilia Alieva Piano Competition in Gaillard, France, that the first prize winner, Lucas Debargue, has to play in bars around Paris and at the Gare de St Denis to pay for his tuition at the Cortot Conservatoire.
The prize is 8,000 Euros. It might earn him a few nights off.
Lucas should go far. And not just by train.
UPDATE: Michael Fine adds: The story I got was that his teacher ‘forced’ him to enter the competition. He seemed taken completely by surprise when he learned that he was the 1st Prize winner in the professional division. I must say that from the first notes he played, I was impressed. Of all the young candidates, he was one who knew how to voice and balance the music creating an orchestral timbre and found a range of colours which elude most young pianists. In the youth division, I was similarly impressed by Nathalia Milstein, the young granddaughter of the great violinist’s brother, also a fine musician but he suffered from crippling state fright, or so I was told. Anyone reading who would like to give two extraordinarily fine and interesting musicians a chance — please let me know.
The film director tried his hand at Cosi as the opening highlight of the Vienna Festival, at the Theater an der Wien. Did they love it?
Kurier, first out of the traps, calls it ‘a triumph’.
The production was commissioned by the late Gerard Mortier for Madrid and first seen there last year. Mortier’s partner Sylvain Cambreling conducted.
Cast: William Shimell, Kerstin Avemos, Anett Fritsch, Juan Francisco Gatell, Paola Gardina, Andreas Wolf.