A stash of private letters coming up for sale at Christie’s suggests that the greatest tenor of his age was paralysed at times by performance anxiety.
Sensibly, he used herbal remedies.
Acker Bilk, the English jazz clarinettist and singer, has died at the age of 85.
His trademark hit scored a rare pre-Beatles British #1 in the US charts in 1962.
Tim Page, who writes far too little these days, has contributed a beautiful profile of Chou Wen-chung, composer and inspirational composition teacher at Columbia to generations of gifted musicians.
Chou, now 91, came to the US in 1946 and studied with Luening and Ussachevsky, Columbia’s electronic music pioneers.
But it was as assistant and interpreter to the aged Edgard Varèse that he entered music history. ‘I knew,’ said Chou, ‘that I would either be a composer or have a very unhappy life.’
Read Tim’s piece here.
Photograph by Karli Cadel
Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) Orchestra opens its US tour tonight in Chicago, reaching New York midweek. Its chief conductor, Lü Jia, has been telling our friend Elijah Ho how his ensemble went from zero to full houses in four years.
Lü Jia: The NCPA orchestra does not pay (its musicians) quite as much as some orchestras in China, but it is 100% funded by the government, and we never do any commercial concerts. We perform the operatic and symphonic repertoire, and have no time to earn extra money on the side. But I think that’s alright for us.
Just two years ago, the NCPA started its symphonic season. Concerts were then only 60% full, but now, it’s very difficult to get even a single ticket. China is getting stronger, economically, and every major city – even the smaller cities – is building concert halls and opera houses. It is a commitment to the future.
Click here for full interview.
The Croatian pianist Dejan Lazic has asked Google to take down a 2010 Anne Midgette review in the Washington Post, claiming it has harmed its reputation by popping up first on all searches. Lazic, who is based in Europe, is applying to Google under the EU’s ‘right to be forgotten’ directive.
The review, as it happens, is neither vicious or unadmiring. Anne plainly states: ‘It’s not that Lazic isn’t sensitive – or profoundly gifted. The very first notes of Chopin’s Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante at the start of the program signalled that he can do anything he wants at the keyboard, detailing chords with a jeweler’s precision, then laying little curls of notes atop a cushion of sound like diamonds nestled on velvet. Again and again, throughout the afternoon, he showed what a range of colors he could get out of the instrument, switching from hard-edged percussiveness to creamy legato, crackling chords to a single thread of sound. The sheer technical ability was, at first, a delight.’
Until the magic wore off.
Mr Lazic may, by this application, have earned the right to be forgotten until he grows a thicker skin and receives better advice.
