Alfred Music have announced the death of Dr Maurice Hinson, author of ten books, including the iconic Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire and editor of more than 70 editions of piano music.

Hinson was professor of piano in the School of Church Music at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky

maurice hinson

Which?

st petersburg

Stats courtesy Sasha Makila

The sought-after tenor has pulled out of Carmen this weekend with a viral infection, he tweets.

He was only due to sing two performances and he may not be back before 2017.

His replacement is the Italian tenor, Andrea Carè.

jonas kaufmann1

Lucy Robinson, virtuoso and Cardiff teacher, says she cured her depression in her 20s by giving up meat and grains. She grows her own food and has been enthusing students with her recipes, now collected.

Read more here.

lucy robinson

Next episode: Lutenist loves lamb chops.

The young Irish mezzo Tara Erraught, who was grossly targeted by London critics for her body shape, will make her Carnegie Hall debut on December 4. Go, Tara!

Details below.

tara erraught munich

Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught returns to the United States this December for series debut recitals at Celebrity Series of Boston and New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Weill Hall, following her acclaimed US opera debut with Washington National Opera in Washington, DC this past May.  The recitals also mark her official performance debuts in each city.

 

DECEMBER  2, 2015 at 8:00 pm

Celebrity Series of Boston, Longy’s Pickman Hall

and

DECEMBER 4, 2015 at 8:00 PM
Carnegie Hall (Salon Encores)
Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York
Tara Erraught, mezzo-soprano
Henning Ruhe, piano
Program
JOHANNES BRAHMS:
“Juchhe!,” Op. 6, No. 4
“Vergebliches Standchen”
“Wie Melodien zieht es mir”
“Meine Liebe ist grun”
“Da unten im Tale” from Deutsche Volkslieder, No. 6
“Die Mainacht”

“Wiegenlied”

FRANZ LISZT:
“Die Loreley”
“Der Alpenjager” from Drei Lieder aus Wilhelm Tell
“Mein Kind, war ich Konig”
“O komm in Traum”

“Jugendgluck”

FREDERICK DELIUS:
“Twilight Fancies”

“Love concealed”

ROGER QUILTER:
“Blow, blow, thou winter wind”
“Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal”

“Love’s Philosophy”

RICHARD STRAUSS:
“Allerseelen”
“Zueignung”
“Die Nacht”
“Standchen”
“Morgen”
“Cacilie”
(Please refer to links below for recital program order.)
The recitals follow autumn performances in the singer’s native country: in September Ms. Erraught served as one of 11 honorary ambassadors and performed at RTE Arena in Meeting House Square for Ireland’s Culture Night 2015, a significant national all-island cultural event involving over 900 venues throughout Ireland celebrating culture, creativity and the arts; she then made her recital debut in October at Wexford Festival, and in November gave recitals at Dublin’s National Concert Hall, and Music For Galway (series debut).
This autumn Ms. Erraught also made her debut with the Sonderjyllands Symfoniorkester (South Denmark Philharmonic), appeared in recital at the United Kingdom’s Wigmore Hall, and sang the role of Rosina in performances of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Bayerische Staatsoper, where she has been a resident principal soloist since 2010. Also with Bayerische, she will sing the role of Despina in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte  in late November prior to traveling to the US.

The French streaming and download service, a huge player in the classical market, was placed in receivership on Monday by the Commercial Court of Paris. The company had been forecasting turnover of 7.4 million Euros in the current year.

Its founder Yves Riesel says there is no Plan B and he’s looking for a buyer before November 16.

He has issued the following reassurance message to subscribers:

L’équipe de Qobuz est confiante quant au fait qu’une solution sera retenue suite à la présentation d’offres au Tribunal, dont les animateurs auront à cœur de respecter les engagements pris par Qobuz envers ses clients.

Read more assurance here and reportage here.

qobuz

Qobuz: holed in the heart

 

The French conductor Frédéric Chaslin went into the Vienna pit last night to conduct Massenet’s Werther.

Before dropping a downbeat, he took as selfie – as one does – with the Vienna Philharmonic’s concertmaster of the past 30 years, Reiner Honeck (l.).

chaslin honeck

Honeck quietly ran through his working day:  three hours stage orchestra of Hansel und Gretel with Thielemann in the morning, Mahler’s ninth symphony rehearsal with Barenboim in the afternoon and three hours of Massenet in the main house before bedtime.

‘My fingers are warm,’ he told the night’s conductor.

chaslin barenboim garanca
Aftershow pic: Barenboim, Garanca, Chaslin

The distinguished opera director Graham Vick (l.), staging a contemporary piece at Covent Garden this weekend, is alarmed that companies are being pushed to rely more on private money than public subsidy.

‘Opera companies are [being] forced more and more to rely on any private money they can raise,’ he told the (public-funded) BBC. ‘Inevitably, a theatre like the Royal Opera House is able to raise more than smaller, less attractive companies. That’s why we’re seeing the extraordinary explosion of country house opera – Grange Park, Longborough, Glyndebourne and so on – and the shrinking of regional opera.

‘All our marvellous regional opera companies are in real trouble and struggling.’

Discuss.

grahamvick

The American choreographer John Neumeier has pocketed the Kyoto Prize, worth $350,000.

Neumeier, 73, has been head of Hamburg Ballet since 1973, as well as director of ballet at Hamburg State Opera.

Looks like he’s won a supplement to his state pension.

John Neumeier

The Royal Opera in Copenhagen has announced savage cuts to help it meet the cost of maintaining a swanky new building, imposed on the company by ambitious politicians.

Copenhagen is having to lay off one in six staff members, including musicians, over the next four years. The Royal Opera will also stop making its own sets.

All in order to show off a showpiece of vanity architecture.

London Symphony Orchestra, are you reading me? Beware of what you want most.

royal-danish-opera

 

First, Kirill Petrenko put Berlin Phil on hold.

Now Andris Nelsons has told the Leipzig Gewandhaus he can’t start as music director in May 2017, as planned. Too busy in Boston, and elsewhere.

The earliest he can pick up the baton is February 2018, with a first tour in May 2018.

That leaves two major German orchestras twiddling their thumbs in a lengthy interregnum.

Not good for business. Or music.

andris nelsons bayreuth

Andris the Unready

UPDATE from Professor Andreas Schulz, Gewandhausdirektor:

It was with great joy that we announced the appointment of Andris Nelsons as Gewandhauskapellmeister from the 2017/2018 season at our press conference on September 9. Having carefully assessed our respective commitments in the 2017/2018 season together with Andris Nelsons and his management, we have mutually taken the decision to celebrate his inauguration in February 2018, together with the 275th birthday of the Gewandhausorchester. We anticipate this exceptional anniversary season will create a widespread artistic and public impact, setting the stage for many exciting years to come. We are more than happy to welcome our new Gewandhauskapellmeister after such a short interim. Andris Nelsons will begin his tenure in Leipzig with several weeks of concerts, a tour through Europe and two extraordinary open air concerts. We are very much looking forward to having him with us at the Gewandhausorchester.