A notice on the website of the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra:

Season opening concerto of the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra scheduled for today, October 10, 2015, is cancelled due to the atrocious terror attack in Ankara today.

At least 85 people were killed in two explosions at a peace rally in the city.

The opening concert, conducted by Avi Ostrowsky, was to have included a John Adams saxophone concerto.

The winner of the 9th Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition in Hannover is Sergei Dogadin.

He leaves with 50,000 Euros and Naxos recording and a stash of concert dates. Dogadin, 27, came joint second at the 2011 Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow (the first prize was not awarded).

The awards in full:

1. Sergei Dogadin
2. Shion Minami, 26 (Japan)  €30,000
3. Prize: Richard Lin, 24 (Taiwan)  €20,000
4. Prize: Benjamin Marquise Gilmore (US/Netherlands)  €8,000
5. Prize: Ayana Tsuji (Japan)  €8,000
6. Prize: Amalia Hall (New Zealand)  €8,000

Judges: Salvatore Accardo, Boris Kuschnir, Rudolf Koelman, Silvia Marcovici, Lucie Robert, Kaija Saarikettu, Takashi Shimizu, Weidong Tong, Ingolf Turban.

Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863-1938) was a director who decisively influenced how theatre and opera is presented. He is remembered today outside Russia as the man who said if you see a gun in the first act it will go off in the third.

And that’s about it.

Few theatre professionals would recognise his face, let alone the sound of his voice.

In this 1981 Soviet video, we see rare film of Stanislavsky discussing his method (at 2’15” to 4’32”) and rehearsing “Tartuffe”.

Enjoy.

Wonderful piece by Marcus Berkmann who is walking away after 27 years as pop critic of the Spectator. Savour him one last time here.