Message from the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter:

I want you all to join me in a moment of silence, a moment of remembrance for one of the world‘s greatest musical leaders – Kurt Masur.

My wonderful friend and collaborator of over 35 years passed away in the night of December the 19th.

Kurt Masur stands for music in Schiller‘s philosophy expressed in his “ode to joy”. His love for people, the moral and humanistic dimension of his life in thought as well as in conduct will be deeply missed around the world.

I have lost a most noble and faithful friend to myself as well as to my children.

The world – my life, will have less exuberance of expressiveness without you, dear Kurt.

I miss you .

We all miss you …

——
The photo shows the unforgettable Maestro after a Carnegie Hall concert in February this year.

 mutter masur

From an interview with the brochure of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival (which she directs):

 

  1. What unites Cleopatra, Norma, Cenerentola, Iphigénie and Maria?

First of all, quite simply: they are women – just like the artistic director of the Whitsun Festival! As the first woman in this position, of course I am interested in highlighting certain aspects from that perspective. More specifically, each of these figures stands for certain facets of womanhood, and how these have been viewed and illuminated in different ways in the arts throughout the centuries. Since the artists were and are most often men, we find highly telling reflections and refractions – it often seems to me that we learn more about the male and his perspective than about the female model… For five years now, exploring these female figures and their surroundings within a few days and throughout very different artistic genres has been the programme of my Whitsun Festival.

  1. Ms. Bartoli, the programme book of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival quotes you as saying that you are looking forward with almost child-like glee to the role of Maria?

I find the piece and the music fantastic – to me, it is among the very greatest stage works of the 20th century! I love its energy, the rhythms, the infectious swing of it, the Latin temperament, the witty dialogue, the honest, moving grief… Perhaps it is my flamenco past coming through, even if we are moving into another style here… Since I have known the songs from West Side Story all my life, they are closer to me than a lot of other music. After all those queens, goddesses, heroines of antiquity and fairy-tale princesses, I am especially happy to be portraying a girl like you and me. The figure of Maria, the simple, warm-hearted, serious, dreamy and honest neighbourhood girl, is very close to me personally. I was like her once! And at the bottom of my heart, I am still like her…

bartoli

 

Among Kurt Masur’s many achievements in 26 years as Gewandhaus music director was to persuade the city and the state to restore the house where his predecessor, Felix Mendelssohn, had lived in the 1840s.

There was no official enthusiasm for the project. Masur drove it through by sheer force of personality, eventually establishing a foundation that maintains the museum and its projects to the present day.

mendelssohn haus

Masur was also personally responsible for getting the Honecker regime to build a new Gewandhaus concert hall, in place of the one that was bombed out.

Tomorrow, the city of Leipzig will open a condolence book for Kurt Masur in the foyer of the new Gewandhaus.

 

Kondolenzbuch für Kurt Masur (1927-2015)

Am Montag, den 21. Dezember 2015, 9:30 Uhr, tragen sich der Leipziger Oberbürgermeister, Burkhard Jung, Ehrendirigent Herbert Blomstedt, der Orchestervorstand, Gewandhausdirektor Andreas Schulz und der Vorsitzende des Personalrates, Konrad Lepetit sowie Jürgen Ernst, Direktor des Mendelssohn-Hauses in das Kondolenzbuch ein, das im Hauptfoyer des Gewandhauses ausgelegt wird. Das Kondolenzbuch ist ab dann auch außerhalb des Konzertbetriebs öffentlich zugänglich (Mo-Fr 10-18 Uhr, Sa 10-14 Uhr).

The former artistic director of English National Opera has written to the Sunday Times correcting a spate of inaccuracies and misapprehensions in its chief critic’s reporting of the crisis. Here’s his letter:

eno carmen
poster: Carmen at ENO

The article “Notes on a scandal at ENO” (Culture, last week) is based on incorrect assumptions. In light of the recent 30% funding cut to ENO, after years of standstill grants and cuts, the company’s grant is now close to what it was in 1994. This is equivalent to a small, regional European opera house and is just a fraction of the budget of large, international houses. 

Hugh Canning praises the 1989-90 season for offering 18 productions, six of which were new, yet criticises productivity during my tenure. My last season had 15 productions, nine of which were new. He also criticises what he calls “expensive” co-productions. 

By co-producing with international houses, I was able to secure multimillion-pound investment resulting in more than 40 productions, created and premiered by ENO, such as Terry Gilliam’s Benvenuto Cellini, Anthony Minghella’s Madam Butterfly and David Alden’s Peter Grimes — all applauded in your pages. ENO’s audiences would not have experienced any of this work without international investment. 

His criticism that the programming is “offbeat” and “esoteric” is misleading given that the majority of our awards were for mainstay repertoire such as Wagner, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Janacek and Britten. Over the past 10 years ENO has wonmore prestigious opera awards than any other UK opera company. 

Canning is inaccurate that Rupert Goold’s production of Turandot “struggled . . . at the box office”, since it was one of the biggest-selling shows, attracting more than 27,000 people. 

It was decided that rather than renting out Easter weeks to visiting dance companies, ENO would mount an annual musical, thereby utilising our orchestra and providing increased revenue. This was underwritten, at zero financial risk to ENO, by a commercial producer, and the first project, Sweeney Todd, was a huge success. 

I am delighted at the praise Canning heaps on Mark Wigglesworth, not only because I am proud to have hired him but because I endorse his passionate commitment to retaining his orchestra and chorus.
John Berry CBE, Former Artistic Director, ENO

 

 

The  Grand Théâtre was daubed last night in large dollops of paint – black, red and green – during an Occupy demonstration that turned violent.

Damage is said to be ‘spectacular’ and will take weeks to repair.

Reports here and here.

geneva grand theatre
photo (c) AFP

London is about to get its first affordable hotel for actors and artists.

The Green Rooms will, its developers say, be ‘an affordable space for artists, creatives, style enthusiasts and the wider community to stay, work, learn, play and collaborate… We are targeting people in the arts and creative industries coming to work in London’.

The hotel is in Wood Green, half an hour by Underground from the West End, and is being backed by the Mayor of London and the local authority

Read The Stage report here.

green rooms

Six months ago, Daniel Barenboim promised Luisa Mandelli, who sang Annina opposite Maria Callas’s Violetta in Luchino Visconti’s 1955 Traviata at La Scala, that she would reprise the role before Christmas in Berlin.

Sadly, it was not to be.

Graham Spicer reports at Gramilano that Luisa got sent home from Berlin  – apparently due to health-and-safety fears.

She is bitterly disappointed.

Read what happened here.

 

Luisa-Mandelli-with-Maria-Callas-in-La-Traviata-1955-403x500

 

From the rules of the Prague Spring Festival Competition 2016 – Piano – In Memory of Rudolf Firkušný:

Firkusny

 

Candidates who document that they have won the 1st prize in one of the following competitions need not submit a recording:

  • 2015 The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition
  • 2015 The Leeds International Piano Competition
  • 2015 The Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition
  • 2015 The International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition Moscow
  • 2014 The Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv
  • 2013 The International Paderewski Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz
  • 2013 The Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition
  • 2013 The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth
  • 2012 The Hamamatsu International Piano Competition

Well, that will greatly reduce the flood of applications…

Hugo Rinaldi, a conductor who worked with Leonard Bernstein on Candide and West Side Story while devoting much of his life to education, has died just short of his 96th birthday.

Hugo founded and conducted the San Rafael Chamber Orchestra, followed by the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra in 1955 and the Orchestra Piccola in 1970. He also conducted the short-lived Marin Opera. For 38 years he was resident conductor-violinist for SF Civic Light Opera performances. He liked to recall the week in 1972 when composer Leonard Bernstein brought Candide to the SFCLO and asked Hugo to conduct while Bernstein sat in the audience listening and making changes in orchestral scoring.

Hugo-Rinaldi

We have been reading the LinkedIn profile of Gary Smith, the HR consultant who has been hired by English National Opera to decimate its payroll – meaning, its chorus and orchestra.

Here’s his past form:

Notable Career Highlights:

HR Consultant
Royal Shakespeare company
December
2000 – July 2015 (14 years 8 months)

HR Consultant
Welsh National Opera
2003 – 2004 (1 year)

HR Consultant
Glyndebourne Productions
2004 – 2004 (less than a year)

HR Consultant
Scottish Opera
2005 –February 2011 (6 years)

HR Consultant
Scottish Ballet
2006 – 2008 (2 years)

HR Consultant
English National Opera
2006 – 2006 (less than a year)

Like the present ENO chief executive, he worked at McKinsey & Co last year, though just for two months. He also spent a year at Rentokil.

Interestingly, Gary does not post a profile picture. He does not like to be recognised at work.

coliseum eno

In addition to its fifth woman player this month, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on Friday elected a new second clarinet.

He is Gregor Hinterreiter, 27, from Linz. He has been playing in the Vienna State Opera stage orchestra since 2009.

Nothing in Vienna happens fast.

SONY DSC

I shared some memories of Kurt Masur on the BBC World Service last night.

You can listen here. It’s just five minutes.

kurt masur

photo (c) Lebrecht.co.uk