The big unions are backing the incumbent Labour Party leader, but not the minnows. Press release:
The Musicians’ Union’s Executive Committee (EC) has today voted to endorse Owen Smith MP in the contest for leader of the Labour Party.
This was a majority decision based on what the EC believes would be best for its members, the music sector, and arts and culture more generally. It is an advisory recommendation only and individual Musicians’ Union (MU) members who are entitled to vote in the leadership election will be able to vote for whichever candidate they prefer.
John Smith, MU General Secretary, responds:
“I am pleased that the EC has voted to endorse a candidate who has been such a good friend to the Union over the past few years. Owen has met with us on a regular basis, and has supported the MU on issues such as protection of live music venues, copyright protection, fair pay for musicians and arts funding matters. He is also offering a second referendum based on approval of the terms of Brexit, which is undoubtedly an attractive option for many musicians concerned about what Brexit might mean. Jeremy Corbyn on the other hand called for article 50 to be invoked almost immediately after the Brexit vote was announced.”
Owen Smith MP, in a letter addressed to the MU, said the following:
“I understand the anger felt by many MU members following the EU referendum result. Open borders, European funding, protective copyrights and social dialogue on live performances are now all in jeopardy. Employment and health and safety rights derived from our membership of the EU are now threatened. I don’t trust the Tories to make Brexit work. That’s why, under my leadership, Labour will demand the final Brexit deal is signed off by the British people, either through a General Election or a second referendum.”
The Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award 2016, one of the best career springboards, was won today by Aziz Shokhakimov, 27, from Uzbekistan.
The losing finalists were Ciarán McAuley, 33, (Ireland) and Alexander Prior, 23, (UK).
Past winners are:
Lorenzo Viotti, Switzerland 2015
Maxime Pascal, France 2014
Ben Gernon, Great Britain, 2013
Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, Lithuania, 2012
Ainars Rubikis, Latvia, 2011
David Afkham, Germany, 2010
From an interview with Jordi in Platea magazine:
I was part of a group of artists who decided to take risks. And thanks to that, today, a variety of music has been recognized and has become part of the classical repertoire. This may have been possible because, at one point, someone like Leohardt decided he had to play with a harpsichord and not a piano; or someone like Harnoncourt who decided he would direct certain repertoire in a particular way. And I decided I would play the viola da gamba as I thought it should be played. I think I’ve been very consistent in my life and my way of making music. I started making music with Gustav Leonhardt when he created La Petite Bande, playing baroque repertoire with Anner Bylsma and Sigiswald Kuijken. I was in the creation of The English Concert, with Trevor Pinnock and Stephen Preston and I travelled every week from Basel to London to play with them. It was Nikolaus Harnoncourt who recommended me to substitute my teacher at the School Cantorum in Basel, in the subjects of chamber music and viola da gamba. It was a period in which each of us, in our own way, contributed to learn that music is not only important for what it means within the story but also has a value for what it can provide today.
It had been widely reported that she had been cast as Elsa in Lohengrin in 2018.
Forget it, she tells Eleanore Büning in a wide-ranging FAZ interview.
Why not?
‘I’ll tell you a secret,’ says Anna. ‘My brain refuses to memorise German.’
She sang Elsa in Dresden this year (pictured) and didn’t feel comfortable.
Jetzt verrate ich Ihnen ein Geheimnis: Ich kann keinen deutschen Text memorieren. Mein Gehirn ist vielleicht doch zu Russisch organisiert, es ist dazu einfach nicht in der Lage. Französisch, italienisch, das kann ich alles singen, aber deutsche Texte sind zu schwer für mich. „Einsam in trüben Tagen“, okay, bis dahin. Silenzio, Schluss, wie es weitergeht, kann ich mir nicht merken. Ich bekam einen Teleprompter für die Elsa in Dresden. Christian Thielemann hatte es mir eingebleut, dass es auf die Worte ankommt. Er sagte, er wolle keine musikalischen Linien von mir hören, er wolle Tttexssssttt hören! Vokale! Konsonanten! Elsa war wirklich hart.
Continues here.
So that’s that.
Maroine Dib is one of the livelier artists on display at the festival.
More striking caricatures here.
And one more for luck:
From a soft interview with ZealNYC:
Opera is an old art form, it is in foreign languages, and is typically longer than movies and plays. It is more challenging for an audience, particularly an audience that doesn’t already know about opera. With a lack of classical music education, it is very difficult to overcome those obstacles, those barriers.
On the other hand, it doesn’t stop us from trying everyday.
Realist or defeatist?
Read on here.
Pedro Kuczynski, who was sworn in last week as president in Lima, spent a year studying piano and flute at the Royal College of Music before he went up to Oxford.
Kuczynski, who is now 77, would have been in the class of ’56.
Anyone remember him?
He still plays.
An economist at the University of Southern Denmark, Karol Jan Borowieck, has conducted that composer write better when they are miserable.
He achieved this blinding insight by reading 1,400 letters written by Mozart, Beethoven and Liszt. The glum ones seemed to coincide with the greater works.
Using econometrics, he calculates that a 9.3 percent increase in negative emotions leads to a 6.3 percent increase in works created in the following year.
Oh, fff’s sake.
More here.
And further academic bunkum here.
They don’t waste time in Southern California.
The LA Phil have been in touch to confirm our report that David Rejano Cantero will be its new principal trombone.
Starting first thing next Monday.
David is presently principal at the Munich Philharmonic. He’ll barely have time to pack a bag.
The Russian pianist Nikita Mndoyants came first in the Cleveland International Piano Competition.
His prize is $75,000, a New York recital and US management.
The Italian Leonardo Colafelice came second; third was Dinara Klinton, of Ukraine.
photo: Roger Mastroianni
Mndoyants was a Van Cliburn finalist in 2013.
Marek Janowski, who is conucting Frank Castorf’s Ring at Bayreuth, has spoken out against the Regietheater trend which, he says, has no rightful place in modern opera.
Specifically:
Diese Art Regietheater ist ja aus der DDR gekommen. Das sind Nach-68er-Entwicklungen. Und dann ist ein nicht genau genug nachdenkendes deutsches Feuilleton auf den Zug aufgesprungen. Und die Dramaturgen der Opernhäuser haben das noch ein bisschen pseudo-intellektuell unterfüttert. Dabei wurde immer stärker negiert, dass Singen etwas anderes ist als Sprechen, dass es eine andere körperliche Disposition braucht – von seelischer Disposition gar nicht zu reden. Das ist mein Problem damit. Und davon wird mich nach diesem Bayreuther Ausflug auch in der Zukunft nichts abbringen.
Read the full interview here.
The Budapest conductor Ivan Fischer deconstructs the horrible melody and offers an upgrade.
