After a week of talks, Ali (Alexander) Rahbari today confirmed his resignation as music director of the Tehran Symphony Ochestra.
In his letter to the Culture Minister he writes:
‘After all these months I have arrived at this point where I cannot continue my cooperation with this unprofessional [Rudaki] foundation and I cannot tolerate the irresponsibility of the foundation. They want me to collaborate as a guest conductor so that I would not disturb their unprofessional and cruel behaviors, but I will not accept this…
‘How can one continue to work with these people and still produce international performances? They have disturbed our activities with their erroneous decisions. These people are the main reasons for my resignation…
‘Today is one of the bitterest days of my working life, when I have been forced to cancel concerts in China and Austria. I hope there will be a day when I can resume my work with the orchestra without these inefficient individuals.’
Allan Kozinn, the Beatles biographer, on the death of George Martin:
One of the most inventive, intensely musical men ever to sit at a mixing board, and a crucial part of the Beatles’ chemistry. So many of his arrangements — “Strawberry Fields,” “In My Life,” “Something,” side two of “Abbey Road,” not to mention “Yesterday” and “Eleanor Rigby” — were pure genius, but probably his most important contribution was not insisting on the traditional producer/artist relationship. Where most producers would have kept the Beatles on the other side of the glass, he let them learn how it was done, and gave them the reins when they they needed them. He was also an incredibly decent man. His death diminishes the world in a very tangible way.
Here’s Allan’s obit in the NY Times.
Sir George Martin, who has passed away at 90, was either sharper than all his rivals or a very lucky man. He signed the Beatles for Parlophone, the smallest of EMI’s labels, after they were rejected by Decca and couldn’t get a hearing elsewhere.
He then tweaked them in studio into a world-changing ensemble.
Much nonsense has been, and still is, spouted about him. The BBC’s arts editor Will Gomperts has just said on the Today programme that he was a conductor to their orchestra, without him they couldn’t play together. Pure tosh.
Martin was a trained oboist and pianist who knew what worked. Once he had speeded up Please Please Me and got the Beatles into the charts, he introduced them to other possibilities. It was Martin who suggested a string quartet for Yesterday and a piccolo trumpet for Penny Lane.
London orchestra players were often hanging loose at Abbey Road and happy to help out. Here’s a list of the classical players Martin hired.
As a person – he lived locally, I interviewed him twice – he was quiet, modest, discreet, a family man. He wore a tie. He gave the impression he never took a second drink, let alone tried a drug.
Martin left EMI to become an independent studio producer. But the Beatles had overturned music perceptions and he never broke another mega-band.
His death was announced on Twitter by Ringo Starr. May he rest in peace.
UPDATE: A crucial part of Beatles chemistry.