My album of the week on sinfinimusic.com is Daniil Trifonov’s new Rachmaninov release.

Read the review here. Watch exclusive video below, or here.

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In tomorrow’s Observer, Peter Conrad reports from Gothenburg where they are making a new opera out of the 1946 Hitchcock chiller, Notorious. The main part is written for Nina Stemme.

Interesting as that sounds, we’re not sure Notorious is the best candidate for a Hitchcock opera.

Our preferences:

1 Rebecca

2 Stage Fright

3 Psycho.

Yours?

Notorious_1946

 

Ivan Fischer has launched his new Konzerthaus season in Berlin with a special welcome to Syrian refugees whom he brought to the hall for their first concert. He criticised his own country, Hungary, for its anti-refugee policies.

Watch Ivan’s opening address, warmly received, by clicking here.

IvanFischer_3_Foto_Felix_Broede

photo: Felix Broede

The composers Wolfgang Rihm and Matthias Pintscher are takig over the artistic direction of the academy of the Lucerne Festival, with Pintscher assuming principal conducting duties as well. ‘I am very honoured,’ says Pintscher. Pierre Boulez is bedridden and can no longer attend the festival.

pintscher rihm

Kalevi Aho’s 16th symphony had its premiere in Helsinki this week.

Our correspondent writes: ‘
I was surprised, in general, by the meditative, nearly religious character of the 5-movement piece with a duration of around 52 minutes. The string sections are really superb. Occasionally we get reminders of Shostakovich and perhaps some Polish contemporary composers. Yet, there is no doubt about the sincerity of the emotional level involved here.

Climax is the final movement (starting at 40:00) – it starts and ends as a kind of a magical oriental ritual: the percussions are joined by the soprano that recites poetry of Gertrud Kolmar – first behind the stage, then on the stage, and finally behind the stage again.’

You can listen to the symphony by clicking here.

kalevi aho

 

Bill Palant was one of several high-profile agent departures from IMG Artists this year. He has just founded his own firm, Étude Arts.

The roster consists of sopranos Christine Brandes, Julia Bullock, Christiane Libor, Melody Moore, and Lauren Snouffer; mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor; tenors Michele Angelini, Paul Appleby, Joseph Kaiser, Sean Panikkar, Stuart Skelton, Nicky Spence, and John Tessier; baritones Alan Opie (pictured below in ENO’s Death of Klinghoffer) and Sean Michael Plumb; and basses Peixin Chen, Soloman Howard, and Bastian Thomas Kohl.

Bill says: ‘Étude Arts is dedicated to the holistic success of both performer and presenter; to health and well-being; to dynamic growth and career longevity; to progressive business practice; and to outstanding performance on a global stage. We are fuelled by integrity, and emboldened by the possibilities open to artists and the arts in the twenty-first century.’

Contacts: www.etudearts.com

 

UPDATE: We understand that some of these artists will continue to be shared with IMG London. Nicky Spence – IMG Artists remains General Manager (Stefania Almansi, Anna Ianni), Stuart Skelton – IMG Artists remains European manager (Peter Wiggins), John Tessier – IMG Artists remains European Manager (Stefania Almansi).

The Death of Klinghoffer

The San Francisco critic Robert Commanday, music and dance critic for the Chronicle from 1964 to 1993, has passed away. He was always a good read, sometimes severe. After retiring from the Chronicle, he helped found San francisco Classical Voice.

‘If we’re tough, it’s because we care,’ was his parting motto.

 

Commanday-MCA[1]

Vincent Sipprell, a sometime member of the Elysian Quartet and several rock bands, was found hanged in January while having treatment for depression.

Vincent, who was 35, had played in the London Schools Symphony Orchestra and studied at Trinity College of Music. He played in an historic performance of Stockhausen’s Helicopter quartet (1st right) in Birmingham.

A verdict of suicide was returned.

 

elysian quartet

Warner Music has got rich in court on protecting what it claims to be its copyright in the song.

Now an original copy has turned up at the University of Louisville.

The song, unearthed by librarian James Procell, was part of a songbook called Song Stories for Kindergarten, written by Louisville residents Patty and Mildred Hill.  That manuscript was later donated to the Louisville Dwight Anderson Memorial Music Library by a family friend in the 1950s, but remained buried and uncatalogued for decades.

Read more here.

Sadly, this is is not the version with the ribald words.

happybirthdaymanuscript2

With the transfer window closing, there’s no question which team has bought the most talent this summer.

Harrison Parrott yesterday completed a deal for the German-Italian pianist, Sophie Pacini.

Previously, they signed Thibaudet, Perianes and Francois Leloux, a canny midfielder.

Not much happening elsewhere on the agency front.

 

sophie pacini

Riccardo Chailly’s resignation appears to have been well-coordinated. We hear that a media conference will be called midweek to introduce his Gewadnhaus successor.

Meanwhile, at La Scala, the house cats are smiling. Chailly intends to devote more time to his opera job after next June, especially to its philharmonic orchestra.

riccardo-chailly-conducts-rossini-2

 

Riccardo Chailly is fining two jobs at La Scala and Lucerne as much as he can handle. So he has asked the city of Leipzig to let him go next summer, a couple of years ahead of schedule. Diplomatic press release follows.

chailly hand

The End of an Era

Riccardo Chailly, the Gewandhauskapellmeister for the past ten years, will end his work with the orchestra in the 2015/2016 season. He will direct his last concerts as the Gewandhauskapellmeister in mid June 2016.

In recognition of the exceptional accomplishments of Riccardo Chailly in furthering the artistic and international reputation of the Gewandhausorchester, Leipzig’s Mayo Burkhard Jung has conceded to the wish of the Gewandhauskapellmeister to end his obligation to the orchestra in June 2016.

Burkhard Jung, Mayor of the City of Leipzig: “The enormous international appeal Riccardo Chailly has developed with the Gewandhausorchester is precious and priceless for the city of Leipzig. I thank Riccardo Chailly for his musical passion he harnessed to lift the orchestra to astounding heights of artistic accomplishment, which has made him an exceptional ambassador for the city of Leipzig.”

During his era, Riccardo Chailly devoted himself to the core repertoire of the Gewandhausorchester and brought the orchestra to new interpretations garnering world-wide attention. In this context he gave the symphonies of Gustav Mahler a special place again in the repertoire of the Gewandhausorchester. Above all, his meticulous study of the sources brought forth interesting new discoveries even with seemingly well-known compositions. Above and beyond this, he led premiere performances of important commissioned compositions for the Gewandhausorchester.

The symphony cycles of Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, and Mahler as well as the three great oratorios of Johann Sebastian Bach were performed in Germany and abroad and met with great success; these were also released as CD and DVD editions which captured numerous international prizes.

“Riccardo Chailly is always primarily concerned with paying tribute to the thoughts and feelings of the composer and thereby making these accessible for us today. We treasure his exemplary seriousness in the formulation, in the precision of the shape and form, and in his unmistakable intuition for the deeper relationships in the music,” as Tobias Haupt, Chair of the Orchestra Board, states.

During Chailly’s tenure, cooperative ventures in guest performances were founded with the Vienna Musikverein, the Barbican Centre London, and the Cité de la musique Paris (Philharmonie or Salle Pleyel); these performances present music cycles comprising several days of concerts in these three cities.

Gewandhausdirektor Professor Andreas Schulz: “Last but not least, we are indebted to the ten year era of the Gewandhauskapellmeister Riccardo Chailly for confirming andsolidifying the Gewandhausorchester’s top ranking among the world-class orchestras, for impressively expanding the orchestra’s international reputation, and for regaining the orchestra’s reputation as an ensemble for world premiere performances. I am very thankful for these ten years of intensive artistic cooperation.”