The singing by demonstrators against the police killing of a black young man took place as performers assembled on stage for a performance of Brahms Requiem. The singing in the protest was both musical and coherent. All the protesters were ticket-paying concertgoers. There were no arrests. The protest was both peaceful and poignant.
Watch.
And
I spent an elevating afternoon in Budapest with Ivan Fischer and his matchless festival orchestra around a performance of Mahler’s fourth symphony. I expressed a number of ideas about Mahler’s relationship with his childhood in a festival keynote lecture, unaware that Ivan in another room was outlining his own views. After the concert, the orchestra stood up and sang an encore.
Then we went off to Ivan’s house to play Chinese instruments.
This is an orchestra with an ambience unlike any other I have known.
Here’s Ivan.
The irrepressible Nana Mouskouri, 80 next week, has been performing new songs and old in Berlin.
The glasses are still black, as is the hair.
And to the White Rose of Athens, Harry Belafonte numbers and Verdi’s Va pensiero she has added ‘Love is a losing game’ – a tribute to Amy Winehouse with whom the austere Nana felt clear empathy.
Review here.
This is what thousands of Australians are watching right now on their screens – a pair of kangas slugging it out in the burbs.
It’s the closest most suburbanites will ever get to Wagner.
The cause of the dispute is unknown. Probably nothing to do with arts funding.
No need to watch to the end. The kangaroos, settling for a draw, are seen heading off to a bar for a 4X.
(No more stereotypes for the rest of the day. Promise.)
(If video does not pop up, please click on word ‘Post’ above)
John Turville writes: Of the things you expect on London Underground, one of them is probably not Bach’s violin concerto played on a mouth organ. This is why this is the best city in the world.
Roma coach Rudi Garcia was dismissed by the referee in the match against Juventus on Sunday after pretending to play a violin. He was thought to be disputing a dubious penalty decision.
Since when has violin playing been considered an offensive gesture?
(And what do we think of Rudi’s technique?)
Marian Seldes, who made her debut opposite John Gielgud in 1948 and was married for a decade to the playwright Garson Kanin, died last night in New York at the age of 86. The lights should dim tonight.
Among many legacies, she was the revered teacher of Kevin Spacey and Robin Williams. Report here.
On Monday, the theatre mourned the loss of Geoffrey Holder, 84.
Anna-Maria Hefele, a singer living in Munich, has mastered the art of overtone singing.
In the week since she has posted this video, it has received well over a million hits.
Watch. Be amazed.
It has floated at the edge of musical consciousness for decades in pirate releases of terrible quality.
It’s the only performance of a Mahler work ever given by the ultimate conductor, Carlos Kleiber, who spent a year thinking about it and a night deciding to eliminate the composer from his repertoire.
Now, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra have released a clean master-tape of the concert.
Must be heard to be believed.
It’s my five-star Album of the Week on sinfinimusic.com. Read here.
This just in from the young Viennese violinist, Daniel Auner:
Yesterday I was flying from Amsterdam to Sao Paulo with my violin. The KLM crew were very nice and took special care of my very old half Viennese- half Italian Violin from 1709. Afterwards they wanted to make a picture with it and hear me play.
David Gockley has announced he’ll retire in 2016, after ten years at the head of San Francisco Opera. Before that he ran Houston Grand Opera for 33 years. David Gockley will be 73 when he steps down.
Musicians at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France have called a second one-day strike this Friday to protest plans for a creeping staff merger with the Orchestre National and the departure of their artistic administrator, Eric Montalbetti.
Paris is heading for a winter of maestro discontent. Paavo Järvi has already handed in his cards at the Orchestre de Paris. Mikko Franck has said he won’t sign concert contracts this season until he has assurances for the future of the Philharmonique and Daniele Gatti is unlikely to last long at the National now he has been chosen as chief conductor at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
