… according to Die Zeit….
Alitalia.
The Italian airline specifies: ‘All musical instruments less than 115 cm long and 8 kg in weight can be carried as hand luggage.
Full report here.
He’s with Oscar-winning composer, Alexandre Desplat.
Is there any party he doesn’t crash?
We received today a round-robin from a young British pianist whose talent is unquestioned. A Gramophone reviewer called his current series of recordings ‘a triumphant achievement’. Others, in Europe, have written of his ‘creative mastery’. We have heard his performances; they are of a very high order.
But this pianist is not getting a foot in the right doors. He has no agent and is not being offered the right dates. If the situation does not change soon, he will have to work full time as a barman. We publish a portion of his letter. If you are an agent who might be interested in hearing him, or can help this gifted young man in other ways, please contact Slipped Disc and we will make the connection.
Please share this post on social media in order to help prevent the loss of a real talent.
Extract from the letter:
The last two years have seen the release of five albums. The reviewers’ responses have been quite overwhelming and have given me much pleasure and encouragement to continue on my musical journey.
However, at this stage, most of my concert work does not pay well, if at all, and I am struggling to find teaching work. So, for the last two years I have had to work part time in a pub to help pay my bills. I have also had to rely on family handouts.
Unfortunately, in the summer things will change and if I cannot find more paid concert work and teaching, then the pub work will have to become full time. That means minimum 55 hour weeks. I am not afraid of the work at all, but I am afraid that my piano playing will inevitably have to be put on hold. I am also very aware of the risks to my hands.
So, if any of you have any ideas or are able to help, I would very much appreciate your thoughts.
Further to the interview we published last week…
(press release)
Montreal, Monday, February 23, 2015 – The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal is happy to participate in a special event reuniting the OSM and Maestro Charles Dutoit, produced and presented by Spectra Musique for the MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE in 2016. This announcement was made during a press conference held at noon today in the presence of Lucien Bouchard, President of the Board of Directors of the OSM, Alain Simard, President and Managing Director of Équipe Spectra, and Maestro Charles Dutoit. The event is a reunion between Charles Dutoit and the OSM, the maestro having held the position of Artistic Director of the Orchestra from 1977 to 2002, conducting for the last time in March 2002. The 24 years under the direction of Charles Dutoit constituted a chapter which saw the OSM rise to international recognition thanks to the completion of more than 30 tours and some 80 recordings…
‘We are delighted that Alain Simard was able to seize the opportunity to invite Charles Dutoit as a part of the MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE. That fruitful period when Charles Dutoit was at the helm of the OSM, as we all know, ended unhappily in 2002. There had to be a peaceful way forward. Charles Dutoit has contributed so much to our Orchestra. Since then the OSM has continued to develop, entering the 21st century in full command of its craft. Charles Dutoit’s efforts to secure a hall for the OSM which would befit the Orchestra’s reputation were taken up by Kent Nagano, resulting with the inauguration of the new concert hall in 2011. …With great enthusiasm, we all worked together to make the project of Charles Dutoit’s return to Montreal a reality. We hope that the Montreal public will be as happy as we are to reunite with him,’ stated Mr. Lucien Bouchard, President of the Board of Directors of the OSM.
‘It is surely a great moment in the history of the OSM to witness the return of Charles Dutoit as part of the MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE. Charles Dutoit and I have known each other for many years, and it was he who invited me to conduct the Orchestra for the first time; he is a great artist for whom I have a deep respect, and who has led an impressive career. He accomplished so much with the OSM…’ added Kent Nagano, Musical Director of the OSM.
Charles Kálmán, an operetta less feted than his father Emmerich, has died in Munich, aged 85.
He cmpleted his father’s las musical, Arizona Lady, in 1954 and has sme further success with a show called Quasimodo. Ute Lemper has recorded several of his songs.
The orchestra’s residency this month has left all sorts of legacies, outside the new concerthall campaign. Among the offshoots is a visiting professorship at the Royal College of Music for Berlin Phil principal horn, Stefan Dohr.
Read here.
Teodor Currentzis, 43 tomorrow, is a Greek conductor working in Perm, Russia, and the only baton left on the Sony Classical label.
We are saddened to hear that Barry Irving died last night, after a short illness, aged 69.
Barry was publisher of Gramophone in the boom times. When the magazine was sold to a corporate owner, he founded International Record Review (IRR) which he ran in a manner that he insisted was ‘true to the old Gramophone values, before the dumbing down’. He was an irresistible enthusiast for all things on record.
Barry will be missed by many friends in the record business. Our sympathies to his family.
Two early music ensembles that were founded and led by Philip Pickett – jailed on Friday for pupil rape at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama – have moved swiftly to sanitise their website of his image and his name. No trace of the founder can be found.
Pickett’s own joint website with the New London Consort, www.philippickett.com, has been taken down.
Pickett, 64, had arranged for the trial to be put back so that he could fulfil dates with the group. Even after he was convicted, he sought permission to arrange three music festivals. The judge castigated him for having ‘his head in the sand’.
How the ensembles will survive without his entrepreneurial energy remains to be seen.
Never thought I’d get excited again by old Viv. He’s my album of the week on sinfinimusic.com. Click here to read.
The federal government has upped its support for the Handel Festival at Halle from 50,000 Euros to 150,000.
A festival at Gottingen receives the same boost.
Small beer, but a significant signs of central approval.
Das Lied: International Song Competition in Berlin was won by mezzo-soprano Hagar Sharvit, who also took the audience prize.
Hagar’s accompanist, Ammiel Bushakevitz, shared the pianist prize.
