Heartwarming story on a Welsh site about Mark Llewellyn Evans, who seemed to have lost his career when a generous friend paid for the operation that gave him the courage to continue. Click here.
Echoes of Harold Schonberg’s Times review that supposedly killed Claude Frank’s career in New York continue to resound.
Here’s how Harold began his review:
Claude Frank, who was a Schnabel student and in recent years has been active with Rudolf Serkin at the Marlboro Music Festival, can, on the basis of his Schumann performance last night, be described as a junior‐executive model of an American pianist. In one respect, his performance of the concerto was quite good—technically clean, musically and rhythmically dependable, textually faithful. It was efficiency personified.
But from another respect, the performance was disappointing. The A minor Concerto is nothing if not poetic; and Mr. Frank’s businesslike playing was skimpy in poetry.
However, a distinguished third party who was involved in these events informs us as follows:
‘Let it be known that George Szell ,who conducted that New York Philharmonic concert, was so annoyed by Schonberg’s review that he changed an already set Cleveland Orchestra program for the following season in order to have Claude play with him there. So actually Harold got Claude an extra and most elegant engagement.’
Good for Szell!
This is not a scientific survey of conducting technique.
Nor is it something you should try at home with the lights on. But I am sure some academic will follow up with funding for a five-year study.
1 The hand job…
classically executed by Riccardo Muti.
2 Brotherly love
Paavo Järvi, with sister Maarika
3 Just missed
Leonard Bernstein at IU
4 Karajan gets cuddly
5 The ear nibble
Daniel makes Martha laugh
6 Reach for it
Dudamel with Yuja
7 I will if you will
Try not to Rattle
8 Mind that jacket, it’s brand new
Eschenbach and friend
9 Did they: Didn’t they?
Stokowski with Greta Garbo
10 OK people, here’s how it’s done
The Greek soprano, Dimitra Theodossiou, was discharged today from hospital in Lecce where she was taken by helicopter from the burning ferry, Norman Atlantic. At least 10 people died in the disaster. Dimitra describes scenes of total horror:
‘I had a berth in the first class, I was asleep and woke up to the smell of burning. There was smoke in the cabin. I got up, put on a sweater, took money and identity cards and ran out. I knocked on all the other cabin doors, shouting: get out, get out there is a fire!
There were men – Iraqis, Turks, Pakistanis – who were sent below to give priority to children, the elderly and to women, but they climbed back up and beat people, tugging, pulling them away, pushed their way to safety. I, too, was beaten, but I reacted to reach the helicopter, I got into a great rage, I thought : now or never.’
Read full interview here (in Italian).
Luise Rainer, German born and in latter years London based, has died aged 104.
She won best actress Oscars in 1936 and 1937.
Arnold Schoenberg refused to write the score for her second winning film (below).
Life story here.
The Deutsche Oper – the one in west Berlin with Donald Runnicles as music director – has returned from a period of refurbishment with a series of record returns.
During its wanderings around town, tickets sales hit 98 percent.
For the full year of 2014, the average was 82 percent.
There may be troubles elsewhere – and no shortage of dissatisfaction with director-driven Regietheater – but opera is alive and thriving in Berlin.
The composer Galina Ustvolskaya was possibly the closest to Dmitri Shostakovich: he asked, at one point to marry her.
But Galina had her own voice and retreated progressively into religious contemplation. According to her website, he gave only three interviews in her life, one of them to the Dutch journalist, Thea Derks.
She flares up when asked about Shostakovich. Read here. A compelling snapshot of an essential personality.
Extraordinary documentary below.
h/t: DSCH Journal
Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall, was asked on the BBC’s Today programme about equality in orchestras. Here’s what he said:
My view is that the objective is to get the best player and to be fair, and so that’s what you’ve got to address. So the way we used to do it at the LSO, to be fair, was to make sure that we had a woman on the audition panel. We always had breadth of people on the panel so that one was absolutely looking after the fact that there could be no prejudice of any sort within the discussion.
Er, yes.
Gender imbalance is no longer much of an issue in UK orchs, but this may help explain why so few minority players, Asians excepted, are to be found in London orchestras.
Let alone the US.
Their voice is simply not heard.
