Lovely piece in the LA Times today by a reporter who rushed round to the house earlier this year just as the wreckers moved in.

The great cellist died in 1976, his chess-playing wife in 2012.

Click here.

… yawn … Wolfgang Rihm.

The prolific German composer, 62, was awarded $100,000 today for IN-SCHRIFT, a 15-minute work for which he has already been handsomely rewarded when commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic for the 50th anniversary of their concert hall.

Rihm is probably the busiest living German composer, with commissions to last him three lifetimes.

There must surely have been a more exciting work of new music premiered somewhere during 2013-14 for the Grawemeyer judges to consider.

Nominations for the alternative Grawemeyer?

Gene Kaufman is an architect and developer who makes hotels that look like this.

Not pretty.

But Kaufman has another side. He’s married to a pianist, Terry Eder, and he sits on the board of Glimmerglass Opera.

When not throwing up concrete matchboxes in the air, he wants to take over the remains of City Opera and bring it back to life.

City has been given until December 18 by a judge totalk itself out of bankuptcy with a revival plan. Kaufman persuaded the judge that, if it fails, its assets will be sold off.  This is Kaufman. He’s counting the days.

Here’s the press release.

 
Today, the legendary Pete Townshend announces that he has created a “classical” version of one of The Who’s landmark albums – ‘Quadrophenia’ – for symphony orchestra, opera singer and choir.

The new “symphonised” version of ‘Quadrophenia’, an album originally released by The Who in 1973, was orchestrated by the composer, orchestrator and singer-songwriter Rachel Fuller, who is also the partner of Pete Townshend.

The recording will be released by the Deutsche Grammophon label, internationally renowned for its repertoire of classical and opera music, and launched next summer by U-Live with the World Premiere concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Both the recording, which took place in October of this year at London’s Air Studios, and the world premiere feature the nation’s leading tenor, Alfie Boe, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Oriana Choir, conducted by Robert Ziegler, with Townshend himself on electric guitar and performing cameo vocal roles. Tickets go on sale this Friday (5^th Dec 2014).

The project, announced in The Who’s 50^th anniversary year, is the latest chapter in Townshend’s lifelong mission to break the three-minute mould of the traditional pop song and take rock music to a higher artistic level. In the 1960s he defined the concept of the “rock opera” with ‘Tommy’, taking it a stage further with ‘Quadrophenia’. Conceived and written by Townshend in 1973, ‘Quadrophenia’ went on to become a feature film and a theatre production, and was performed in its entirety on The Who’s most recent live tour.

The rock superstar, who turns 70 next year, began work on the project as part of his plan to leave a legacy of all his work arranged for orchestra as sheet music, for future generations to enjoy. Townshend hopes the new work will go on to become a regular part of the orchestral repertoire and boost attendance at classical concerts.

“A lot of major symphony orchestras are in trouble because their audience is getting old and the younger audiences prefer softer stuff, such as film soundtrack music,” he explains. “I think that Quadrophenia would reinvigorate their audiences and bring in people who might not otherwise go to see a symphony orchestra perform without lights and fireworks and a movie screen.”

Alfie Boe, who sings the parts originally sung by Roger Daltrey, was born the year ‘Quadrophenia’ was originally released, but has been listening to it for years. “It’s in my blood. I’ve always thought the classical voice can lend itself to this type of repertoire. It’s harder than opera, but thrilling to sing. The music is so full of excitement, positivity and strength – I wouldn’t separate it from a symphony by Beethoven or Mozart.”

Commenting on Alfie Boe taking the “lead” role, Townshend says: “Alfie is a true star, who gives every performance his all. He reminds me of Roger Daltrey in that – he’s also a real pleasure to work with. I never thought I’d hear a classical tenor singing my songs, and for them to work so well – but Alfie makes it happen. He’s a funny man too, and good looking. The girls like him. I can’t wait to be on stage with him. I’m going to push him into the orchestra pit.”

La Monnaie in Brussels has issued the following advisory:

From 2/12 at Brussels’ La Monnaie, Krzystof Warlikowski’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni is not suitable for children under 16 because of sexual explicit content.

That’s where we’ve arrived at the end of 2014.

Streaming information:

La Monnaie lets you discover all of its opera productions for free on the internet. For up to three weeks following the last performance of a show, you can watch or watch again our operas for free on this website.

Cast:

Lovely new film in a London series about freelance clarinettist, Peter Cigleris.

A note from the latest accounts of IMG Artists (UK) Limited:

The value of the purchased artist management list (…) is capitalised and amortised on the following basis:

Artist management – straight line basis over ten years.

Artists are expected to have a working life of at least ten years and are unlikely to change managers, thus are amortised over ten years.

So now you know.

pictured: Pirgu and Gheorgiu with the Wissmans of IMG

This has not been a red-letter year for the concert sector.

Aside from Boston and Houston, with exciting new music directors, the rest of the orchestral league worried about a rash of industrial disputes and trod water on the creative side.

With one notable exception.

An orchestra with a best-selling album of contemporary music, with challenging programmes and a healthy budget.

An orchestra with stable internal relations, a conductor who’s going places, a supportive board and an audience that’s not half-dead.

Hmmmmm …. lemme think. Hint: Its latest release is my album of the week on sinfinimusic.com. Click here.

We’ve been reading the IMG Artists accounts for the year ended 31 December 2013 and it looks like the company is getting ever deeper into mire.

Turnover is down from £8.6 million to £7.2m and there’s a pre-tax operating loss of £341,914.

The company is carrying almost £3 million of debt due within a year and appears to be living off credit from its joint owners, the American fraudster Barrett Wissman (l. below) and the Russian Alexander Shustorovich.

In an extraordinary note to the accounts it is stated ‘The company has taken advantage of the exemption available in FRS 8 ‘Related party disclosures’ whereby it has not disclosed transactions with the parent company or any wholly owned subsidiary undetaking of the group.’

Smoke and mirrors, in other words. What you see is not what you get.

It gets worse. The main company, IMG Artists (UK) Limited, trading in several European countries, is owned by a parent company incorporated in Cyprus.

Under the heading ‘turnover’ we read: ‘In the opinion of the director the disclosure of the geographical analysis of turnover would be seriously prejudicial to the interests of the company’.

How interesting…. the more so when much of its business appears to be funneled through Italy.

Read these account whichever way you like, but they are far from transparent. Artists with IMG might wish to demand greater clarity.

Casting has been announced for the Broadway musical version of Boris Pasternak’s novel and it’s full of surprises.

Tam Mutu, long running in London’s Les Miz, gets to carry the stethoscope through revolutionary snows. Kelly Barrett from ‘Wicked’ will sing Lara, Tom Hewitt (‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ is the aristo Victor.

The composer is Lucy Simon. Lyrics Michael Korie and Amy Powers.

Previews begin towards the end of March.

The 2014 Philip Parsons Memorial Lecture by Sydney theatre director Ralph Myers has been widely trailed for its attack on foreign conductors and its defence of the independent role of artistic directors. Myers’ main complaint is that general administrators are taking over as artistic directors – at least as far Australia is concerned. He wants to disqualify businessmen and MBAs from running festivals.

In one par:

Our theatre and dance companies, our festivals and orchestras are what we have left. We cannot surrender them to the markets. We can’t let the businesspeople and their managers take charge. They’ve got their hands on pretty much everything else in our lives, but we must fight to keep the dreamers in charge of the arts.

We find Myers’s argument weak and generalised,  but some consider it the most important challenge to the arts in Australia for years.

Read the full text here.