Bram Wiggins was assistant principal trumpet in the London Symphony Orchestra for 11 years before migrating to Canada. He returned to play in other London orchestras and teach at the Royal Academy.
He is internationally known as an author of instrument tuition books and a composer of brass pieces.
The English director Tom Morris, who staged The Death of Klinghoffer at English National Opera and the Met, has given an interview today to The Hollywood Reporter about the emotions aroused by the work.
He says: Obviously we had no idea when we started planning this production that there was going to be a bitter conflict this year in Gaza. That fact that there was, [reminds us] of the underlying problems that inform and motivate the crime in The Death of Klinghoffer.
He adds: One thing that’s happening already is that people are coming to the show because they’re heard it’s interesting… rather than just because it’s an opera. When you have an opera that is able to engage publicly in that way, it’s a good thing. The quality of conversation that can happen once people have seen the production, is obviously far superior to the quality of conversation that is happening amidst the demonstrations right now. But the opera is complex — it’s not an easy-to-interpret drama. And some people will think one thing about it, and others another. It’s about to spark extraordinary conversation. But this work of art does not try to persuade an audience of any point of view; it invites an audience to think. Its value will be in the diversity of response.
Read the full interview here.
Ljova Zhurbin introduces …. a short experimental video project that we’ve just uploaded — young filmmaker Chris Shimojima commissioned me to write a composition for 11 NYC subway buskers, who would be connected via the newly-established wifi network to play a song together.
The instrumentation was too good to pass up — musical saw, theremin, accordion, guitar, beatbox, as well as the more common instruments like trumpet, viola, cello and bass, and percussionists from Jamaica and Trinidad. Chance of a lifetime — and, I was conscripted to conduct.
Did it work out?
Take a look at this video, freshly uploaded this morning:
Larry Johnson on South Florida Classical Review reports that ‘Michael Tilson Thomas told a woman sitting near the stage with a child in her lap that she was distracting him and asked her to leave…. The child was apparently sleeping noiselessly on the woman’s lap.’
Full report here.
UPDATE: We have received this clarification from a player in the New World Symphony, who asked for anonymity:
MTT was distracted by the woman and child during the second movement (not sure on details – I know that it was more than the mother caressing her sleeping daughter’s hair) and kindly asked them to move to one side before the slow movement started.
This might not be a problem ordinarily, but in this particular hall, the portion of the audience that is behind the orchestra is in direct sightline for the conductor. They did not realize he was talking to them at first, but then other audience members made them aware. They got up and proceeded to take a very long time to find another seat – the noise from their shoes made it seem like an eternity. It ended with an applause from the audience and a beautiful return to concerto.
2nd UPDATE: Read the conductor’s story here.
This is Renaud Capucon’s idiosyncratic new promo for his Easter Festival at Aix.
Very stylish, but what exactly is he selling?
The awards season has hit Holland, and it seems they’re shutting out the major labels.
DG comes in with one modernist curiosity and Decca with one artist (pictured) who has since left them.
Curiously, the jury is chaired by a former Universal executive, Stef Collignon.
Read the list here. In Dutch.
UPDATE: DG have found a bonus entry – archived Boulez, in the historical category.
Donald Runnicles will step down as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in 2016. He will have held the reins for seven years.
Like all good conductors, he shows perfect timing. BBC Radio 3, which operates the orchestras, is getting a new bureaucrat in January and he has been charged with making cuts across the classical board. No orchestras can consider its position secure, although the trims are likelier to be attritional than abolitionist. Either way, Runnicles has picked a good moment.
Press release follows.
DONALD RUNNICLES TO BECOME BBC SSO’S CONDUCTOR EMERITUS
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has announced that Donald Runnicles will become its Conductor Emeritus in September 2016, when he will step down from the post of Chief Conductor.
Runnicles has been at the helm of the orchestra for the past five years, but has worked with the BBC SSO since 2001. The Emeritus role means that he will continue to appear annually with the orchestra from the 2016/17 season onwards.
Donald Runnicles commented:
“Since the beginning it has been my great privilege to lead and work with this remarkable group of musicians. I’ve always been struck by their extraordinary passion for and commitment to a phenomenal range of repertoire – and the relationship continues to blossom. I am honoured and gratified to assume this new role, which enables me to deepen the artistic bond with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.”
Ken MacQuarrie, Director of BBC Scotland, said:
“Any of the countless number of people who have seen or heard the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform under Donald Runnicles over the past years can be in no doubt about the special connection between them. It’s one of the great success stories in classical music, and I’m thrilled it’s happened here in Scotland. This new appointment will continue that very special relationship, and means that Donald will stay at the heart of the BBC and of Scotland’s cultural life for many years to come.”
Laura Samuel, Leader of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra said:
“Donald is an incredibly generous musician and I am so pleased that we will continue to build upon the relationship with the orchestra that has formed during his years as Chief Conductor. He always brings fascinating works to challenge and inspire us – individually and as an ensemble – and we look forward to many more years of thrilling concerts together.”
Since assuming the role of Chief Conductor, Donald Runnicles has regularly toured with the BBC SSO across Scotland and the UK, as well as in Europe, including a successful tour of Austria and Germany in 2010. Highlights of his tenure include acclaimed performances of Mahler’s symphonies at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival, Brahms’s A German Requiem, James MacMillan’s St John Passion, concert performances of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Tannhäuser, a commercial recording of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, and a number of world premieres.
This week he conducts a concert staging of Berg’s Wozzeck at Glasgow’s City Halls, featuring an international cast, and which will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Watch Jonathan Levin’s desperate new video. Personally endorsed by the President of the USA. Pain is good.
Like a visit to the dentist’s.
The Memphis Symphony has been in trouble a long time. Now the waters have risen above chin level.
The musicians, facing oblivion, have agreed to take a reported 38% cut for the next year in the hope of keeping the struggling ensemble alive.
It’s the biggest employer of musicians in the city. It’s looking grim.
Mei-Ann Chen, music director
Slowly, date by date, Vienna is filling the 32 holes left in its season by Franz Welser-Möst’s spetacular walkout as music director.
This morning it announced Mikko Franck has agreed to take over most of next April’s new Elektra, with a cast of Nina Stemme, Anna Larsson, Anne Schwanewilms and Falk Struckmann. Franck had a hit last season with Lohengrin.
Box ticked. Next…
Our publisher friend Martin Anderson has been producing for Toccata Classics in Évian, at the Grange au Lac, built in 1993 for Mstislav Rostropovich in the manner of a massive Russian izba, peasant house – entirely constructed of wood, and sitting in a natural woodland.
However, there was a price to pay. Martin found that while ‘an all-wood building provides a marvellous acoustic, as you’d expect, it also came with an unexpected drawback: on several occasions during the recording we had to wait until a woodpecker had finished trying to drill holes in the top of the building. Lesser spotted, before you ask – I went outside afterwards and caught it having another go.’
This may be the first recorded instance of a woodpecker – Picoides minor halting a recording session. The outcome will be heard – or unheard – on Toccata’s production of Vadim Repin and Murad Hüseynov recording the Violin Sonata and 24 Preludes by Kara Karayev.
Knock, knock…
The League of American Orchestras has just announced pairing grants for 12 composers and orchestras. Good idea. Helps get the new music out there. But the amount is just $7,500 per orchestra. Barely enough to pay for one extra orch rehearsal and a new outfit for the composer… Is that going to make a difference?
The ‘lucky’ comps and orchs are:
press release follows
