Folks have been having fun with their fave conductors in extreme positions.

Click here. You won’t be disappointed.

valery-gergiev ossetia
The swallowed lozenge look

Do add some more.

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I’m gonna sneeze

The BBC is looking for video volunteers to take part in a Sound of Music montage on Last Night of the Proms.

The Proms want you to send in your take on Do-Re-Mi which, if selected, will be mixed into a video cut that will air on BBC One on Last Night of the Proms, and be shown at the Royal Albert Hall and at all four Proms in the Park.

Announcing the scheme on Radio 2, acting Proms director Edward Blakeman said: ‘Everyone who took part in our Mary Poppins challenge last year had such fun, and produced such a great range and variety of videos, that we couldn’t resist repeating the challenge with the Sound of Music. ‘Do, Re, Mi’ is one of the great show tunes, and it’s about music itself – so get creative!’

To send in a Do-Re-Mi video, visit the Radio 2 website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ew48gw

bbc proms plastic trumpets

This just in from Kentucky Opera:

It is with profound and unspeakable sorrow that we must inform you that our dear friend and Kentucky Opera leader, David Roth, died in a car accident last night. David was returning to Louisville after visiting family in Wisconsin. Few details are available at this time. As more information becomes available we will update our web site at KYOpera.org. David was a positive and powerful presence in the lives of many of us. He will be deeply missed. Please join us in extending our heartfelt condolences his family.

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David Roth became general director of Kentucky Opera in 2006, succeeding Deborah Sandler. He had been with Fort Worth Opera since 2000 as both Director of Production and Director of Finance. When the Louisville Orchestra locked out its musicians, David Roth maintained cordial relations with both sides of the dispute to enable Kentucky Opera’s season to proceed. He was also passionate about contemporary opera.

UPDATE: Kentucky Opera general director David Roth was found dead in his car on the side of a road in Iowa late Sunday, according to Randy Blevins, a spokesman for the opera. The cause of death has yet to be determined.

UPDATE2: From the Courier-Journal: An Illinois State Police report indicated Roth, who was wearing a seat belt, was traveling east on Interstate 74 in Piatt County in central Illinois about 9 p.m. when his Hyundai Elantra ran off the road, struck a ditch, became airborne and hit a tree. Roth was given CPR at the scene and was taken to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Ill., where he was pronounced dead.

David Whelton has been manager of the Philharmonia Orchestra since before some of its players were born.

Coming from the Arts Council, David was good at maintaining public funding and keeping stakeholders on side. He signed Christoph von Dohnanyi and Esa-Pekka Salonen as music directors and greatly expanded the orchestra’s touring portfolio.

The Philharmonia has been, for much of his time, London’s most refined orchestra – though never its most popular, innovative or transparent. We wish David a happy retirement. He will not be easy to replace. Press release follows.

 

 

whelton china

Philharmonia Orchestra Managing Director David Whelton to retire after 29 years

 

The Managing Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra, David Whelton, is to retire 29 years after he took up the post. Whelton will leave the Orchestra at the end of its 70th anniversary season, in summer 2016. The process to recruit his successor is underway.

 

David Whelton has created a programme that sees the Philharmonia Orchestra perform over 160 concerts a year, at its UK residencies – which include London’s Royal Festival Hall, in Bedford, Leicester, Basingstoke and Canterbury, and at the Three Choirs Festival – as well as overseas. His legacy includes the highly successful Théâtre du Châtelet residency in Paris, new music series Music of Today directed by Unsuk Chin, and more recently the critically-acclaimed Salonen series at the Royal Festival Hall. These include City of Light: Paris 1900-1950, its predecessor City of Dreams: Vienna 1900 -1935(2009), Bill Viola’s Tristan und Isolde (2010), Woven Words, a celebration of Witold Lutosławski’s centenary year (2013), and the Richard Strauss 150th Anniversary series, led by Christoph von Dohnányi (2014). Notable major symphonic cycles include Beethoven with Harnoncourt, Brahms and Schumann with Dohnányi, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev with Ashkenazy, and Mahler with Maazel. The Philharmonia’s award-winning digital projects including RE-RITE, Universe of Sound andiOrchestra are bringing the next generation to classical music.

 

David Whelton said: “My time as Managing Director at the Philharmonia Orchestra has been a great adventure and I will take with me so many wonderful musical memories. It has been a great privilege to work with such an inspirational group of musicians, conductors and soloists and of course an amazing admin team. I take great pride in the indispensable contribution that the Philharmonia Orchestra makes to British musical life.”

 

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, commented: “The Philharmonia is an extraordinary orchestra and David has been an extraordinary Manager Director. It has been a pleasure to work with him over the last nearly three decades, and to bring to fruition so many incredible projects, both in the Royal Festival Hall and across the world. He leaves at a time when the reputation of the Philharmonia has never been higher.”

 

Gideon Robinson, violinist and the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Chairman, said: “David is possibly the longest serving, and certainly one of the most respected, orchestra managers in the world. His contribution to the life and success of the Philharmonia over the last 30 years has been immense and his departure will be keenly felt by the players. We would like to wish him all the very best for the future.”

 

Michael Hoffman, Chairman of the Philharmonia Trust, commented: “It has been a great pleasure to work with David. His ability to realise the most ambitious artistic plans in London and internationally is legendary. His energy and vision has transformed the fortunes of the Philharmonia and we will be forever in his debt.”

 

 

A new account of the tenth symphony is my first five-star Album of the Week for months on sinfinimusic.com.

Which recording?

This wonderfully sensitive and evocative interpretation of the Tenth is all about storytelling, about voices and wilderness, about hope eternal.

Check it out here.

shostakovich_smoking

Marcelo Kayath is head of Latin American Securities at Credit Suisse in Sao Paolo. That’s big in banking, we’re told.

UPDATE: He’s been promoted to managing director of Credit Suisse in Brazil.

Before he climbed behind a desk, Marcelo was Brazil’s bright hope on the classical guitar. He was pretty good, we hear.

To stay in touch with his past, and to promote the instrument’s future, Marcelo has now launched an online launchpad for new guitar talent – such as Naumburg winner Jorge Caballero – and international guitar events.

Check the new site here.

Read Marcelo’s thoughts on guitar history (‘Julian Bream’s appearance was nothing short of spectacular’) here.

Marcelo still teaches a bit on the side. As one would.

marcelo kayath

The 2015 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition in Hanover has announced 39 successful contestants, chosen from submitted videos. The list is here.

Violinists aged 16 to 27 compete for €140,000 in prizes and the loan of a Guadagnini violin.

Three of the contestants are lists as half-US, which usually means they are studying at a US college.

joachim1

The absence of Brits is unsurprising. Do we still teach violin in the UK?

We are told that the Opéra Côté Jardin, built around a production of Gounod’s Faust, has been called off at the eleventh hour, apparently for lack of funds.

The artists have been notified, but there has been no formal announcement.

The organiser is the French baritone Norbert Dol.

festival-opera-cote-jardin

Intended cast:

Marguerite………………………..Nathalie Manfrino
Faust……………………………… Jean-Noël Briend
Méphistophélès…………………..Rubén Amoretti
Valentin……………………………Norbert Dol
Siebel ……………………………..Judith Gauthier
Wagner…………………………….Frédéric Leroy

Direction musicale …………………Geoffrey Styles
Mise en scène …………………………Norbert Dol
Eclairage ………………………………Marc-Antoine Vellutini
Régie générale ……………..…………Claudine Garcia

Chœur et orchestre Région Paca

Gabriella Swallow turned up at London’s Heathrow airport this morning with two flight tickets, one for herself and the next for her cello.

Only to find that the airline had given her cello’s seat to a passenger they had bumped from last night’s flight.

What to do? Should she take tonight’s flight and miss rehearsal, or put her cello in the hold?

gabi's cello

Gabi made a fuss at the desk. The harassed staff allowed her to go with the cello to the gate and, in her words, ‘beg for someone to change for later flight.’

To the airline’s disgrace, a couple agreed to give up their seats so that Gabi and cello could fly side by side. She is now flying thanks to the kindness of strangers.

gabi's cello2

The airline is Air Malta. It likes to pretend is is friendly to the arts.

Its global ambassador is the opera tenor Joseph Calleja.

Unless Air Malta promptly apologies to Gabriella Swallow and assures us that this misconduct will not happen again, we expect Joseph Calleja to withdraw his patronage and will advise musicians to fly another flag carrier.

UPDATE: Air Malta has apologised, to Gabriella Swallow in person and on Slipped Disc (below). However, it managed to lose her luggage, which contained the scores she needs for rehearsal in Malta. Back to square one.

The signature American violinist, presently awaiting the birth of her first child, has written a beautiful piece about her two teachers, in Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Klara Berkovich was fresh out of Leningrad. Jascha Brodsky had come from Kharkiv, via Tbilisi and Paris.

Hilary writes: We musicians can chart our lineages like family trees. How our teachers lead us, much like how our parents raise us, defines our earliest self-identities, whether we follow or reject what we are shown. Thus, while continuing to define my own trajectory, I felt a strong desire to take a look back at where I began and what formed my awareness of what I might be able to accomplish in my lifespan.

Read the full story here.

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photo courtesy Hilary Hahn

The French pianist Lucas Debargue, the Moscow audience favourite at the Tchaikovsky finals, received ‘a storm of applause’ on his St Petersburg debut, with a recital of Beethoven, Medtner and Ravel. After five encores, he ended with a jazz improvisation.

Report here (in Russian).

lucas debargue st pete

In September 1984 Placido Domingo, still a tenor, sang his first German role – Lohengrin – at the Met. The New York Times chief critic, Donal Henehan, thought ‘he faced up to the challenge extremely well’.

Far better than the lower voices, at any rate: ‘Franz-Ferdinand Nentwig’s quavering and bleating baritone, annoying in the opening act, did not actually smooth out later on,’ wrote Henehan.

A stalwart of the Hannover Opera, Nentwig was one of Germany’s most trusted Wagner singers. He took major roles in Vienna every year from 1976 to 1987 and was booked in Paris, Monte Carlo and Aix. But something about his voice irritated US critics. Six months ahead of his Telramund, Martin Bernheimer wrote in the Los Angeles Times:

‘The current revival of “Die Meistersinger” at the Metropolitan Opera doesn’t have a Hans Sachs.

‘It only has Franz Ferdinand Nentwig, who strikes amiable poses, approximates the vocal line with thick, dark, coarse, often off-pitch mutterings, and runs out of voice long before the 5 1/2-hour marathon reaches its bombastic, Deutschland-ueber-Alles climax on the festival meadow.’

What satisfied the Germans was not necessarily for export.

Franz Ferdinand Nentwig died on July 14 at his home in Portugal, aged 85.

nentwig