The musicians, singers and staff of Brussels Philharmonic and the Flemish Radio Choir are, just like the whole world, shocked by the dramatic events of last Tuesday in ‘their’ Brussels. Our hearts go out to the many victims, their families, close ones, and everyone who has been affected directly and indirectly.
We sympathize deeply as human beings, but also as a Flemish art institution that has her home in Brussels, but also not in the last place as musicians. We cannot help but make our voice heard. A voice that, as a result of the more than 18 different nationalities in our orchestra and choir – every one of them having made Brussels their home – sounds in many languages. But the one language we all speak, that unites our voices, is music…
“What we can offer in these times of unspeakable sorrow, torn apart lives, growing distrust and distance between people, is that music. Music bonds, helps with healing, with dealing and overcoming, bringing people together. The idea arose spontaneously with the musicians. Minister of Culture Sven Gatz and Mayor Yvan Mayeur were immediately interested. Thus we managed to create this moment at the steps of the Bourse on short notice,” says Gunther Broucke, general manager of Brussels Philharmonic and the Flemish Radio Choir.
On Friday March 25 at 15h the musicians and singers of Brussels Philharmonic and the Flemish Radio Choir will come to the heart of ‘their’ city, the Bourse Square, where so many have gathered already in a spirit of togetherness and healing. The orchestra and choir will bring “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony: not only the European anthem, but also a call for peace, a hymn of hope for the future. We call on everyone to let your voices be heard together with ours.
Date & location
Brussel – Bourse Square| Friday March 25 2016 – 15h00
The viola stolen from Greg Falkenstein’s car in Miami has been brought into a specialist dealer and offered for sale. The dealer, Duffy Violins, recognised the instrument from online alerts and called the cops.
Greg has been reunited with his viola.
He writes: ‘I shall tell more about the experience at some point in the days ahead. For the moment, I must acknowledge the true heroes of yesterday’s miraculous recovery of my beloved viola: Barbara and Marci Duffy. I would not have it back in my hands now were it not for this dynamic mother/daughter duo’s bravery, quick thinking, and above all else, their astounding humanity. They knew that someone loved the viola that had come to them, and before they even knew the identity of its owner, they resolved that it would not leave their hands, and they did so despite putting themselves at risk of harm. I will never be able to thank them and everyone at the Duffy shop enough for restoring to me my life, and frankly, my will to live. It truly was a second birth. Cheers to Barbara Duffy! Angels are real–and this from a great skeptic. Love always wins in the end.’
The plight of the San Antonio Symphony has deepened to the point where the musicians have agreed to waive three weeks’ wages to keep the band alive.
They will get paid for 27 weeks this season instead of the contracted 30.
UPDATE: A response from Sarah Silver, Assistant Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony:
“The Musicians of the San Antonio Symphony have agreed to a potential furlough of 3 weeks of the 2016/17 season in order to help retire accumulated debt. If the debt is retired before next season then no furloughs will occur. Although the orchestra has indeed had many challenges over the past several decades, it thrives as the cultural heart of the city of San Antonio. Furthermore, the Musicians of the San Antonio Symphony fervently believe that this great city can and will support us. We have recently made many exciting strides, including our move into the new Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. The unfortunate slogan, “Let Yourself Go,” is one of years past. All one needs to do is go to the Tobin Center and hear us play. You’ll soon agree that we are here to stay!”
Günther Theuring, founder of the Wiener Jeunesse Chor, has died at 86.
His youth choir recorded the complete vocal works of Leonard Bernstein. He went on to establish the Ensemble Contraste, specialising in the Second Viennese School.
In the 1950s, he was an energetic Mahler revivalist.
It’s a sleazy sex thriller by an Oxford historian, being marketed as the new 50 Shades. It has nothing to do with music, except that the author was once married to an Italian composer.
You really don’t want to address anyone by its title.
In January, Dresden cancelled a concert with the audience already streaming in after the venerable Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky, 84, suffered a fall.
But tonight’s Orchestre de Paris concert has just been cancelled after he called in sick.
Communiqué
Le concert de l’Orchestre du Paris
du jeudi 24 mars est annulé
Guennadi Rozhdestvensky, souffrant, a dû renoncer à diriger le concert du mercredi 23 mars. Il n’est malheureusement pas rétabli aujourd’hui pour pouvoir diriger le concert de ce soir.
Greek media gave issued a missing persons alert for a German viola player, Elisabeth Schaefer, who has not been seen since she walked out of a Camerata Atenea rehearsal six days ago.
Elisabeth apparently returned home after the row, but left again without taking her instrument, money or ID.
Her husband notified the police who, days later, called in the media.
Elisabeth Schaefer is 1.80m tall, with straight, red hair. She was wearing jeans, agrey sweater and a blue jacket with white flowers.
She played in the Schlierbach chamber orchestra and the Kaiserslautern radio symphony orchestra before, in 1991, becoming a permanent member of Camerata, the friends of music orchestra in Athens Megaron concert hall.
The Chicago music director has been out for six weeks after a fall at home put him in hospital for a hip op.
He’s back now.
You can watch him on free stream tonight (and for a while after) in a rare TV appearance with the French pianist David Fray, who is married to the maestro’s daughter, Chiara.
It’s 8pm Paris time (3pm New York) on Arte. Schumann concerto. Click here.
The Boston music director has been talking about what he has learned in the job. He tells Boston Classical Review:
‘Years ago I conducted like, ‘I want you to play this, and I want you to play this,’ because of my ego. That way doesn’t work, and I think it’s just an absolutely wrong way for expressing honestly and deeply what the composer wants to express.
‘I still think the communication with music, and with the orchestra, mostly happens in the rehearsal, but actually the miracle, or the mystical part, happens in the concert. And that happens through this kind of, you know, energy flow–what I pass through my hands and toes and through my body. And still, every individual [in the orchestra] is a great musician, and everyone has maybe a little different approach to what that means, and it all creates this great variety of sound and direction.
‘Of course, there is a lot of discipline required. Von Karajan said, ‘In two places there is no democracy: the army and music.’ I agree, in the sense that the dictatorship comes from the composer.’
A U.S. appeals court yesterday confirmed an increase in Vilar’s jail sentence from nine years to ten.
But the court ruled that Vilar, who is doing time for securities fraud, money laundering and fraudulent investments, did not have to pay a $10 million fine. He has been let off with a $25,000 charge.
Vilar, now 75, was the biggest cash donor ever seen at the Met, Salzburg, Covent Garden and the Mariinsky.
The Zurich Festival, founded 20 years ago in a bid to add summer lightness to a somnolent city, is undergoing what bankers call a re-evaluation.
As of now, the festival will cease to be an annual event. It will take place in June every other year. The artistic director Elmar Weingarten (once of the Berlin Phil) is being shuffled off into retirement. He’ll be replaced by Alexander Keil, who once worked at Bayreuth.
There will be less money.
Although Andris Nelsons takes on 15 concerts in the interim season before he becomes Kapellmeister, a larger part of the season rests upon the shoulders of Herbert Blomstedt, who conducts 20 concerts in the season.
Blomstedt, now 88, was Gewandhauskapellmeister from 1998 to 2005.
We hear that he does not use a chair at work. He is on his feet for four hours in rehearsal.
