Max Greger, master of 150 recordings and stage partner of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, has died of cancer in a Munich hospital.
He ran the house band for the ZDF television network.
The composer, starting recording sessions for The Force Awakens, talks to his union website about the Los Angeles musicians who are playing on his next soundtrack.
‘This group is made up of a pool of freelancers in Southern California. I’ve worked with them for decades now on a variety of films, and I am friends with most of them. They consistently come together to form a fabulous orchestra, and I’m always happy and proud to be reunited with them for these projects.’
After six previous film soundtracks being recorded in the UK with the London Symphony Orchestra, The Force Awakens marks the first Star Wars soundtrack to be recorded on American shores, utilizing musicians from AFM Local 47. ‘With this new film, the schedule has evolved to the point that I’ll need to be working with the orchestra continuously for several months, and that’s obviously easier for me to do here in Los Angeles, than it would be in London.’
Full interview here.
The conductor has criticised national attitudes on the migrant crisis. In an interview with B-Z Berlin he calls for a unified policy and says people should consider taking asylum seekers into their own homes.
Asked about the Berlin Philharmonic election of Kirill Petrenko, he calls the decision ‘brave’ and ‘wonderful’.
Full interview here (auf Deutsch).
The Chinese pianist, who never cancels, has dropped out of tomorrow’s birthday concert in Neumünster, Germany, for his mentor Christoph Eschenbach, who turns 75.
Also out of the gala event is Midori, who is unwell.
Our series on Hollywood stars and their classical pals has turned up many a bizarre connection but none so unlikely as the passionate obsession formed by the great comedian for the austere master of the Spanish guitar.
Read the full story here.
h/t: Tim
The German film director Günter Atteln has followed the composer in Estonia, Japan, Germany, Italy and Vatican. Pärt is said to be the world’s most performed living contemporary composer.
