The tenor, annoyed about a spoiler remix put out by his former label, is telling fans on his Facebook page to wait for the new one on Sony. Summer storm in a hair-dryer? No, he feels caught between forces beyond his power.
Here’s the message:
Dear Friends,
Please do not let yourselves be deceived by the Decca release “Jonas Kaufmann – The Age of Puccini”. This compilation contains only 3 Puccini Arias – my recordings of “Che Gelida Manina” and “E lucevan le stelle” from 2007 and a scene from “La Rondine”, did I recorded with Renée Fleming in 2008 for the album Verismo. The remaining 18 tracks are Essentially my old recording “Verismo Arias” from 2010. THEREFORE familiar recordings- in new packaging. I was not Consulted in its making, this thing done without my knowledge and approval.
The “real” album Puccini Which I recorded with Antonio Pappano in Rome in Autumn last year is titled “Nessun dorma” and will be released on Sony in the middle of September. It Exclusively contains arias and scenes from Puccini’s operas Including Highlights from “Manon Lescaut”, “La Boheme”, “Tosca”, “La Fanciulla del West” and “Turandot”.
Jonas Kaufmann
It’s one of the biggest no-nos in classical music. Brahms represents form at its purest, Tchaikovsky represents raw emotion. They are polar opposites. To mix one into the other is anathema, right?
Last night at the Bristol Proms, Daniel Hope and friends played alterante movements of Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence and Brahms’ String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Opus 111.
It worked. Better than worked, it triumphed. The applause increased after each and every alternate movement.
Somehow, the expressionism of Tchakovsky added warmth to Brahms while the meticulousness of Brahms mitigated the excesses of Tchaikovsky.
There was some entertaining chit-chat between movements about the rivalry between the composers, but the music made the best argument.
The Cleveland Orchestra has to fill the principal clarinet seat, left vacant by Franklin Cohen’s retirement.
From the auditions, Ben Lulich of the Seattle Symphony emerged in first place. Ben will play next season as Acting Principal, while on leave from Seattle. He can be heard in Europe when the Cleveland comes on tour in October.
A couple of years ago, as a favour to a friend, I attempted to conduct a rare interview with the Greek composer Vangelis, famed for the Chariots of Fire score.
I should have known better.
Everyone in the music biz has a Vangelis story and none of them is filled with sweetness and light.
Early success can be a curse, breeding a sense of entitlement. Vangelis does what he does on his own terms. When I turned up at his Dorchester suite at the appointed hour of the afternoon, he was in his dressing gown and apparently disinclined to discuss any of the topics he had previously agreed to consider.
The next hour was, for me, excruciating. I came away thinking we had maybe got something new out of the encounter, but feeling in dire need of a large compensatory bar of chocolate.
Now, after intensive effort by a brilliant editor, the interview has finally been published.
The music audience is divided between those who do and those who don’t.
Myself, I’m an eyes-wide-open man, fascinated by body language as much as by musical expression.
Last night at the Bristol Proms, we heard Beethoven Opus 131 played in the dark. Not totally dark. There were some clever shafts of occasional light from above and below, giving a spectral appearance to the Sacconi Quartet, who bravely played one of the summits of the repertoire in conditions where visual communication between the players was impaired.
At best, the performance acquired an ethereal dimension, taking us by free association into Beethoven’s black world of deafness. These were transcendent moments.
The deficiency was the difficulty the players had adjusting to slippages of intonation – they needed to pause between movements at least once to retune – and to the loss of physical awareness of each other.
It was a fascinating experiment. Maybe it worked better for those who listen habitually with eyes closed.
Do you?
An Austrian project to collect all known Bruckner manuscripts in a single site appears to have reached completion.
The dominant Youtube pianist, an outspoken pro-Kremlin activist in the Ukraine conflict, has published a video titled ‘To Donbass with Love’. An English translation is added for worldwide fans.
Donbass is the part of eastern Ukraine that is torn by civil war between Putin-backed secessionists and Ukraine loyalists.
Valentina has nailed her colours to the mast.
A moment’s silence, please, in the timps.
Everett ‘Vic’ Firth, maker of the world’s most trusted drumsticks and friend to players and bangers everywhere, has died at 85.
The Dallas Morning News is under new editorship and talent is fleeing in droves (the official language is that they are accepting buyouts).
At the head of the exodus is music critic Scott Cantrell, a writer of international renown.
He may not be replaced.
UPDATE: Scott writes: Thanks for your very generous characterization of me. There is a new editor. The buyout was made available to 167 members of our 300-plus newsroom, and I gather more than 30 are taking it. No decision has been made on the classical music critic position going forward. We’ve agreed in principle that I’ll continue to cover the beat on a reduced freelance basis through the 2015-2016 concert season. That will give me the transitional year I’d really hoped for, and give editors time to consider how they want to cover classical music in the future. I’ve had a wonderful 15 years at the Morning News, but the timing of the buyout couldn’t be better for me.
