In the new issue of Standpoint, I take a drive on the wild side to assess whether classical music can do much to address  a city’s social crisis. In other words, to see where the universal El Sistema remedy hits a brick wall.

orchkids1

The school, as we arrive, is in lockdown. Lockdown? “It’s what we do when there’s been a shooting,” says the young man who eventually lets us in. “Today, it’s just a practice drill.”

The last shooting was two weeks before, a drive-by burst that wounded five parents as they waited to collect their kids. No arrests were made. The police in Baltimore are themselves in lockdown since the death of an unarmed suspect. The city, briefly the nation’s capital after the British burned down Washington in 1812, is a tinderbox of racial tensions, a gaping black hole in the American dream.

I’m in West Baltimore, ten minutes’ drive from the Washington Memorial, and 40 from Barack Obama’s White House. It’s late afternoon. The streets are deserted, most houses derelict, barely a soul to be seen. The school I’m visiting is built like a high-security prison, with massive gangways for crowd control, neon lighting and steel shutters. It is after school hours and the students who have stayed behind, which is most of them, are playing stringed instruments or singing in a choir.

Sweetly, and incongruously….

Read on here.

orchkids

If your first language is Chinese, you can read an authorised translation of the essay here.

A first tribute to the lamented Luc Bondy from Valerio Tura, former artistic administrator at La Monnaie.

luc bondy1

 

I have just read about the premature passing away of Luc Bondy. I had the privilege and the pleasure of working with him on three different occasions, during my days at Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, in Brussels.

Twice it was on operas written by his friend Philippe Boesmans, a revival of “Wintermärchen”, from Shakespeare, and the new production of “Julie”, a chamber opera based on the Strindberg play, for both of which Bondy also worked on the libretto. The third time was on a co-production of Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw”.

His renditions of these three operas were three masterpieces in the staging of musical theatre. Bondy was a very demanding artist, determined, sometimes stubborn and even whimsical, but always very rigorous, painstaking, severe, stern, starting with himself. But he was intimately imbued and steeped in theatre, top to bottom, instinctive, spontaneous and improvisatory.

With Bondy, after Chéreau and Ronconi, we have lost one of the greatest and most genuine stage directors of the last decades: a true innovator, but never, ever gratuitously provocative. Not all of his productions were fully successful. I found his controversial “Tosca” and his “Clemenza di Tito” not completely convincing. But I also recall his outstanding production of Haendel’s “Hercules”, in Aix-en-Provence, which was absolutely breathaking.

It was immediately very easy for me to get in a good and warm relationship with him, maybe also because he sort of liked speaking with me a bit of Italian, a language that he somehow smattered charmingly. He was a cultivated, well-mannered, gentle and witty man. In some free moments, at dinner, we could speak of many things, not only about theatre and music. I have a nice memory of one night when, with the help of a good bottle of Chianti provided by the “Roma” restaurant, just off La Monnaie, we had quite a long chat about modern Italian writers: Bondy wanted to know more. We spoke about Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose work he knew, mostly on the cinema side, and we spoke about Italo Calvino, whom he did not know.

The following day I gave Bondy a little present: a little wrap with a couple of Calvino’s books, in a French translation. Some time later, when we incidentally met again, he was curious to know if Calvino had ever written some theatre play… Last time I spoke to him it, I called him because I wanted to ask if he could find time for meeting an Italian composer, a dear friend of mine, who wanted to let him know about a certain project he was working on. Bondy made himself immediately available… “Give him my phone number, tell him he can call me when he wants…” Sit terra levis.

luc bondy1

We have been notified belatedly of the death last month of Susan Webb, assistant conductor at the Met for two decades until her retirement in 2003. Susan was 73.

She began her career with 13 years on the music staff of the San Francisco Opera, joined Dallas Opera for one season, Chicago Lyric Opera for two. Then James Levine took her onto the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera. Off-season, she worked for Opera Australia and at Bayreuth.

Susan was much appreciated by singers at every stage in her life.

susan webb

Le Testament de Villon, an opera written in 1920s Paris by the American poet as a revolt against musical impressionism, can be seen in London next month as part of Igor Toronyi-Lalic’s contemporary music festival. The production is billed at the UK premiere of the original version, though the piece does not have much of a performance history.

Its rhythms are said to be more complex than Rite of Spring.

Igor writes:

Le Testament had its first complete premiere on BBC radio in 1933, Antheil converting the “two tins and washboard” into a small orchestra. Not that Pound was enthusiastic about the results: “The god damn bastard who sang Villon has no savagery whatsoever. Vegetarian.”

The music for Testament is gruff, untutored and wild, and all the more compelling for it. The ferocious aria of the ancient prostitute Heaulmiere, her lips withered, breasts shrivelled, hits you right between the eyes. Pound called it the “fireworks” of the piece. It wasn’t to be his only operatic attempt. He began two other operas, Cavalcanti and Collis o Heliconii. They were never completed.

Tickets here.

ezra pound

(c) Lebrecht Music&Arts

The distinguished pianist and teacher on how competitors are prepared for international competitions:

Some young pianists succumb to superficial rivalry and choose fast, showy pieces in order to try to win over others. When I encounter a performance that reflects this, I am disappointed and wonder what the pianist is going to achieve. Even if the work is by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert or Chopin and has profound content, it has no meaning unless the pianist can convey a message to the audience through the work. I can easily tell which contestant is just trying to win the competition and which truly loves the music. The prize money in musical competitions does not compare with that given in major sports events, so it does not mean much for a musician’s life.

I think true “competition” begins at the end of the competition. It is in their everyday living that musicians are tested as to whether or not they are a true artist and able to create music which can touch the audience’s hearts.

Full interview here.

Daniil Trifonov and Sergei Babayan - Cleveland Institute of Music, Kulas Hall
Babayan, pictured with his student, Daniil Trifonov

One of the most prolific and popular directors of opera and theatre productions, Luc Bondy, has died suddenly at the age of 67.

Luc Bondy

Swiss born, of Jewish parents, he stepped in 30 years ago as director of Berlin’s Schaubühne after Peter Stein’s resignation, earning widespread respect for both his imaginative and administrative brilliance.

He went on to work at Salzburg and headed the Vienna Festwochen until two years ago.

At the time of his death he was director of the Odean theatre in Paris.

A statement from President Hollande’s office said: ‘Although ill from his early years, he gave up nothing, working tirelessly, suffering but still tirelessly at work. He exemplified by his personal story and his outstanding work the culture of Europe.’

Luc’s opera journey started with a Vienna Don Giovanni conducted by Claudio Abbado in 1990. His Salome lit up Salzburg and Covent Garden and he was soon in demand the world over. His Tosca at the Met, loudly booed in 2009, was a cornerstone of the house’s move to modernise its production style.

His last opera premiere was Marc-André Dalbavie’s Charlotte Salomon at Salzburg in summer 2014.

May he rest in peace.

 

 

luc bondy1

(c) Betty Freeman/Lebrecht Music&Arts

UPDATE:

A colleague’s tribute here.

2nd UPDATE:

Message from Dominique Meyer, Vienna State Opera:

„Mit Luc Bondy verband mich eine sehr vertrauensvolle Freundschaft. Sowohl als Mensch als auch als Künstler und Kollegen schätzte ich ihn sehr. Er war ein vielseitiger, universalgebildeter Theatermann mit einer ausgeprägten künstlerischen Bandbreite. Seine Inszenierung von „The Turn of the Screw“ etwa, die wir 2005 als Koproduktion des Théâtre des Champs-Elysées und des Festivals von Aix-en-Provence herausgebracht haben, ist eine meiner schönsten beruflichen Erinnerungen. Meine tief empfundene Anteilnahme gilt in diesen Stunden vor allem Lucs Frau Marie-Louise.“ Dominique Meyer

 

A Viennese son of Hitler refugees, Hans Breuer has been shpherding Syrians to safety across his country, all the while teaching them to join in singing his Yiddish heritage.

The video went up on Youtube a couple of months ago and is gathering a global audience.

hans breuer

The words of the song are:

By the roadside stands a tree;
All the birds have flown.
Turn to the west, turn to the east,
And the rest–turn toward the south,
And the tree is abandoned to the storm.

I say to mama–“Listen, If you don’t stand in my way,
Then, one–two, I’ll quickly become a bird.
I’ll sit in the tree and lull it during the winter,
Comfort with a lovely tune.”

One of the British Museum’s hidden treasures. You won’t want to miss this.

 

irving finkel british museum

irving finkel british museum

She has recorded for DG, sang Ermione at Glyndebourne and performed many times at the Kennedy Center.

But Linda Maguire was also training as a neuroscientist. She had just published a paper on how ‘Participation in active singing leads to cognitive improvements in individuals with dementia’.

In an interview with ET she says:

‘I’m a performer, that’s how I come to this work. Performance is the greatest teacher and my job was to hold audiences on the tip of my little finger from 45 minutes to three hour operas. I know how to control an audience, but I was just dumbfounded that the Alzheimer’s patients all stopped. And I barely did anything.

It got me very interested in the power of music in dementia patients, and within in 10 years I had a master’s degree in neuroscience. I realized that the brain was responding to music. I learned how you could wield music as a precision tool to change and transform different parts of the brain.’

Read full interview here.

linda maguire

 spanish christmas ad

It’s for the Spanish Lottery.

Anyone know who wrote the music?

Sounds like Einaudi.

The Berlin Staatsoper conductor has sent this letter to the Copenhagen Government, urging it not to dismantle the Royal Danish Orchestra. 

To whom it may concern:

I am deeply concerned about the cuts at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. We live in a difficult time for art, not only in Denmark but throughout Europe. Finding the means to create and exercise art is becoming increasingly difficult.
It is for this reason of utmost importance to protect that which cannot be replaced. The core of an opera house is its orchestra. Especially in a house like the Royal Theatre where the Kapelle play not only opera, but also ballet and symphony concerts, three of the four arts at the Royal Theatre.

Denmark can be proud to have the oldest orchestra in the world with over 500 years of tradition of excellence.
To reduce such an orchestra to a size where it is not able to play regularly in full size will have devastating long-term consequences for the Royal Theatre. I would urge the management at the royal theatre that reconsider their plans to reduce this national treasure – the Royal Chapel. There are alternatives.

Daniel Barenboim

barenboim's letter

 

 

Today’s impressive national commemoration of the 130 victims of the Paris terror attacks was dignified by four pieces of music, appropriate to the occasion.

The first was Jacques Brel’s Quand on n’a que lamour, delivered by four popular singers.

Then came the Marsellaise, performed by the orchestra and chorus of the French army. It was given in the beautiful orchestral version by Hector Berlioz, introduced by television commentators as ‘the best known French composer in the world’.

Third was Natalie Dessay singing Perlimpinpin by Barbara.

Last came Verdi’s Va, pensiero – a statement that an attack on France is an attack on European civilisation as a whole.

Amour from Brel, attack from Berlioz, tendresse from Barbara.

France’s three Bs.

hommage national