The veteran composer-conductor, 86, is in sparkling form in conversation with Frank J. Oteri for NewMusicBox. To read the full text, click here.

Sample:

AP: My problem and my flaw, if I can pinpoint just one, is that I don’t re-write. I hate re-writing. Once I’m done, I put it away, and it’s over with for me except if I make a mistake in terms of the technical use of the instrument. I once wrote an impossible double stop for viola. I just suddenly wasn’t thinking; the player would have to cripple his hand. So then I’d re-write it—or leave it out; that’s even better! I can’t take myself that seriously. I love writing and I’m very serious about it, but when it’s over, it’s over. It’s not for the ages.

FJO: Really?

AP: Really.

FJO: Not for the ages?

AP: No.

FJO: So the reason you’re fighting against time to write all this music isn’t to ensure a legacy.

AP: Well, that’s an interesting point. When I say not for the ages, I can’t visualize anybody doing my pieces 50 years from now. I’m just glad if they do them Wednesday, which is why I can only write for someone specific. I don’t like to write into the void. I like to know who’s going to play it and where and all that. Then it helps me; it helps me a great deal. I wrote an awful lot for Anne-Sophie Mutter. I know her sound and I know what she can do best. That makes life much easier. I wrote a piece last year—a concerto for trumpet, horn, tuba, and orchestra, which was a commission from Pittsburgh because they had three big stars. That was great fun for me because I don’t play any one of those things. I couldn’t tell you the positions of the trombone and all that, but I have them in my ear, and it helps a great deal that I’ve conducted so much because the sound of instruments and the sound of the combination of instruments are not alien to me at all. I know what I’m doing at the piano, but I don’t write piano music very much.

andre previn at home

photo (c) NewMusicBox

At 83, the eminent American pianist Jerome Lowenthal, former head of piano at Juilliard and an international concert artist, has seen it all… and then some.

But he nearly opted for an academic career in romance languages after the death of William Kapell.

william kapell

Jerome talks about his life and career to Zsolt Bognar in the latest episode of Living the Classical Life, distributed exclusively by Slipped Disc.

Sample:

Mister, how do you get to Carnegie Hall? You sign a cheque… It’s a hall for hire.

Watch here:

jerome lowenthal

Negotiations are the Philadelphia Orchestra are deadlocked. The musicians don’t like the small pay increase on the table. And they especially don’t like the introduction of ex-Washington boss Michael Kaiser as an external consultant – along with the company’s refusal to show them his eventual recommendations. (UPDATE: The company has since clarified that the idea of hiring Kaiser was initiated by the musicians union.)

‘The biggest sticking point is, they don’t want to show us his report,’ one musician told the ever-reliable Peter Dobrin. ‘We were really close twice last night, and then it sort of fell apart.’

Read Peter’s full account here.

kimmel center philly

Just in from the celebrated Artemis Quartet:

Search for a New Member!

After a period of contemplation and mourning after the loss of our violist Friedemann Weigle, we would now like to look ahead and fill the missing position in the group.
Since Gregor Sigl is both a violinist and violist, we have decided to keep our options open by accepting applications for both the viola and second violin position.
In addition to a detailed resume, please send us a video with chamber music (string trio to string sextet).
Impresariat Simmenauer
Artemis Quartett
Kurfürstendamm 211
D-10719 Berlin
or
kontakt@artemisquartett.de

Artemis Quartett's photo.

Things got a bit out of hand at the Sendesaal Bremen, where Christian Tetzlaff and Lars Vogt had their pages fly off the stands. Not one of them. Both. Twice in a minute.

The saviour of the night was page-turner Anna Reszniak, normally concertmaster of the Nuremburg Symphony, who kept a cool head when two maestros were losing theirs. Just watch.

Anna richly deserved her curtain call.

anna rezsniak

h/t: Jessica Duchen’s blog.

The flautist Jessica Schmitz, whose instrument was cruelly beheaded by over-zealous security agents at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, has engaged this past week in productive talks with the TSA in an effort to ease the situation.

Jessica tells Slipped Disc:

‘Over the past few days, a manager from the TSA and I have spent several hours discussing the recent flute experience at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. He was professional, calm, and respectful, and was fully equipped with both the logic and objectivity necessary to explore the common ground between our fields. I’m thrilled that, as a result, the Office of Public Affairs at #TSA is researching an official blog.’

A small step, perhaps, for suffering humankind. We will keep you posted.

Studio portraits of Jessica Schmitz taken on April 24, 2009. Credit: ©Stephanie Berger

Carnegie Hall has installed Mercedes Bass as interim chair and announced a new governance committee to oversee the day-to-day running of the business.

Mrs Bass, a long-term Carnegie trustee, is also Managing Director of the Board of Trustees and Executive Board of the Metroplitan Opera. She is a huge donor to both companies.

Her appointment is both a stop-gap and an illustration that the number of super-rich who support classical music and opera in New York is diminished to a tiny handful. Carnegie is struggling to replace its former billionaire chairman, Ron Perelman, who accused the chief executive Clive Gillinson of exceeding his authority. Press release follows. This saga is not yet laid to rest.

carnegie hall interior

NEW YORK, NY—Carnegie Hall today announced that Mercedes T. Bass has been elected as Acting Chairman of Carnegie Hall’s Board of Trustees. Mrs. Bass has been a dedicated Carnegie Hall trustee for 26 years, having joined the board in 1989 and served as a Vice Chair since 2006. She succeeds Carnegie Hall’s outgoing board chairman, Ronald O. Perelman, and she will hold this post while a search process for a Chairman is completed. Mrs. Bass was elected at the Annual Meeting of Carnegie Hall’s Board of Trustees, held on Thursday afternoon, October 8, chaired by Carnegie Hall President Sanford I. Weill.

At the Annual Meeting, the trustees also elected its slate of officers to include: Kenneth J. Bialkin, Acting Secretary; Edward C. Forst, Treasurer; as well as Vice Chairs Clarissa Alcock Bronfman,Klaus Jacobs, Peter W. May, and Burton P. Resnick. Mr. May will continue to serve in his role as Chair of Carnegie Hall’s Board Development and Nominating Committee.

In addition, the Board approved the creation of a new Governance Committee, charged with overseeing policies and practices related to board stewardship, providing guidance and recommendations to the board at large. The new committee will be chaired by longtime trusteeRobert I. Lipp, who has served on the board since 2000. Mr. Lipp will be be joined by committee members: Carnegie Hall Chairman Emeritus Richard A. Debs; trustee Don M. Randel, board chair of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and former President of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation who was newly-elected as a Carnegie Hall trustee at the October 8 meeting.

 

Those of us who travel a lot can never be sure of the welcome that awaits on arrival – or what’s left of us after the airlines and airports have ruined our day.

Every once in a while, there is someone who greets us with a hug and a hot drink.

Musicians the world over regret the passing of Uli Schirmer, manager of the Munich Palace Hotel. Here’s a message from the pianist Igor Levit, and others:

 

uli schirmer

Dear friends, dear colleagues, yesterday a wonderful human being, a magnificent man, a closest friend passed away after a long illness. Uli Schirmer was a real Mensch. It’s an incredible loss. As director of the Munich Palace Hotel he supported artists like a father. As a true music lover he was part of all of our life’s…To mourn a close friend like him is an indescribable loss. A very sad day…I can’t tell how much I will miss him.Some tears may help…
Rest in peace,dearest Uli.

Michael Schade Dee McKee Christiane KargAnselm Cybinski Florian Ganslmeier Stephan J. Schlößer Michael JondralNicolaus Schreyer Alis Schlößer Henriette Kaiser