His son, Adam, writes:

My sister and I just buried my father in Montreal. With only immediate family and a few lifelong friends present, he was lowered into the ground in an unadorned pine box, next to his mother and father. Exactly as he’d asked. As I write this I’m thinking of my father’s unique blend of self-deprecation and dignity, his approachable elegance, his charisma without audacity, his old-world gentlemanliness and the hand-forged tower of his work.

There’s so much I wish I could thank him for, just one last time. I’d thank him for the comfort he always provided, for the wisdom he dispensed, for the marathon conversations, for his dazzling wit and humor. I’d thank him for giving me, and teaching me to love Montreal and Greece. And I’d thank him for music; first for his music which seduced me as a boy, then for his encouragement of my own music, and finally for the privilege of being able to make music with him. Thank you for your kind messages, for the outpouring of sympathy and for your love of my father.

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This is Patricia Kopatchinskaya in the Konzarthaus Berlin last night. After playing the Schumann concerto, she offered as an encore a new suite written by the conductor Ivan Fischer – and from an unexpected position.

The audience seem happy. Ivan certainly was.

(Right-click on picture to enlarge)

The darkest symphony in the canon – that’s what the Baltimore Symphony conductor thinks America needs to hear right now:

Today, as we have become immune to shock, where nothing seems too extreme and where hyperbole rules, Mahler and his Sixth Symphony seem to fit right in…

In the Sixth, Mahler seems to be searching for meaning in a rapidly changing, complex world while worrying about potential annihilation by fanatical forces. Sound familiar?

Read on here.

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Soprano Joanne Burrow could not bear to leave her Yorkshire terrier at home.

So she got permission from producer Ellen Kent to walk the recovered stray through her role.

Puts a twist in the tail of La Bow-hème.

An opera by Poochini.

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More here.

The death has been announced of Sir Ralph Kohn, a pharmaceutical manufacturer who, among many other causes, financed John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantata series.

An enthusiastic baritone, he released recordings of Schubert and Schumann Lieder, accompanied by Graham Johnson.

He was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and chairman of the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition.

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Nico Segal, who used to appear as ‘Donnie Trumpet’, will appear in future under his own name because he does not want to be associated with the tone of the president-elect.

Nico writes:

We just came off the release of Coloring Book and The Magnificent Coloring World Tour, both huge successes. But all during the tour, something heavy was looming over me — Donald Trump — and the connection people are drawing between his name and mine.

What began as a joke, a silly play on words, is not funny anymore. I don’t want to be connected to Trump’s hateful tone or his hurtful message. I don’t want to be misrepresented or misunderstood. Trump’s beliefs are not mine.

From this point on, call me Nico. I am proud to be part of a multicultural family, from the great City of Chicago. I am grateful for the diversity of friends and family who have taught me and believed in me and encouraged me. I couldn’t stand to ever hurt them, or you.

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This could become a trend. Orchestras will soon be advertising for 2nd principal ****pet.

It is reported that two members of the group who performed on the night of the Bataclan massacre were denied entry at the reopening of the Paris venue last night.

One of the band, Jesse Hughes, had accused Bataclan staff of aiding the suicide gang. His partner was also exlcuded.

‘They came, I threw them out — there are things you can’t forgive,’ Bataclan boss Jules Frutos told Agence France-Presse.

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Erich Röhn was concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic during the Second World War and of the NDR symphony orchestra in Hamburg from 1945 to 1974. As Furtwängler’s soloist on January 12, 1944, he played the most ominous account of the Beethoven violin concerto that it is possible to imagine. It turned out to be the last concert in the old Philharmonie before it was flattened by British bombers on January 30, 1944.

Erich Röhn’s role model was Fritz Kreisler, composer of the most-used cadenza for the Beethoven concerto. Kreisler had been forced to leave Germany under the racial laws – but not before he gave the young man two vital (non-Beethoven) tips, as his grandson Daniel Röhn tells slippedisc.com:

Two tips that came my way via my grandfather have been particularly helpful.  One thing Kreisler did when he played was to turn over the left revers of his jacket to help support the hold of his instrument.  No-one else has ever suggested it to me, but it has been useful to know and something that I have done on more than one occasion. 

Also, in a conversation after a concert in America, Kreisler told my grandfather ‘I can never practice the piece I am about to play in concert the same day. It has to be somewhat new to me. If I practice it too much, I can’t play it.’ 

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Daniel, an international soloist, has a new release, The Kreisler Story, out this month on Berlin Classics.

From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:

If the print on this review goes blurry on your screen it’s because I’m still rubbing my eyes at the cast list on this astonishing trove of archive finds, unobtainable anywhere on line. The composer Dmitri Shostakovich was a capable pianist who sometimes participated in his own premieres. The people he played with were the elite of Russian music….

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Read on here.

And here.

The catch?

You have to be under 28 years of age.

Stéphane Lissner is very proud of the scheme. Read here.

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The death is reported of Raymond Stults, an American who wrote music criticism for the English-language Moscow Times.

A lawyer whose work took him to Russia, Raymond fell in love with the Bolshoi and covered its performances on a regular basis.

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Our weekly diarist Anthea Kreston, violinist of the Artemis Quartet, packs her diary in election week:

On the morning after the United States election, exhausted and emotionally torn, Jason and I find ourselves both in transit, me to Brussels for three days of teaching at the Queen Elizabeth Chapel (the Artemis Quartet is the resident chamber music faculty) and Jason off for a concert as a temporary member of the Eisler Quartet. A series of fortuitous events has landed Jason quickly into a busy performing schedule – beyond the Eisler, he continues his work with the Metamorphosen Berlin chamber orchestra and has just been hired (after the first orchestral audition of his life) by the Konzerthaus Orchester for a half-year position, including an extensive Asian tour. On my side, a thrilling call from the Curtis Institute of Music finds me as a guest teacher during part of our quartet sabbatical this coming year. Humboldt Streichtrio (with original Artemis violist Volker Jacobsen) rehearsals begin soon for a handful of concerts, and planing for USA concerts for Amelia Piano Trio is underway. 

As I wait for my flight, I realise how much our family has grown in these past 10 months. Now Jason and I are well-accustomed to both running an efficient and fun-filled home, as well as stepping on and off the international concert circuit. We can trade effortlessly between these jobs – now able to ask each other for help on any front – from how to stock a fridge for a babysitter to what best to pack for tour. Depending on who has the heavier day ahead, we trade off between the early-to-bed or early-to-rise parent, and the girls have become more independent with a flexible pick-up time from school. 

I have also come out of my social semi-hibernation.  We have hosted a number of parties – from our older daughter’s entire first grade class (parents only), where I piloted a “swap” of household goods and clothing (the remainder filled our car to the brim and was dropped off for refugee families), to our second “Bebersee first Monday of the Month” party.  Also in the mix, a reciprocated “grown-up” dinner party for eight (no musicians – just a mix of acquaintances from the media, literary and medical professions), which we somehow managed to pull off with a modicum of style and class, despite my slightly off-the-cuff cooking style. 

The Bebersee party was a lot of fun, and was a great opportunity for us to continue our friendships forged at the summer festival. Among the guests were Clemens Trautmann (president of Deutsche Grammophon), pianist Markus Groh and violinist Franziska Hoelscher.  Initially, Monday evening was the only day that this mix of touring artists could agree on, but we realised the fun part of a first Monday of the month is actually an early commitment to fun for the whole week, if not the month.

As ridiculous as it is to stay up very late, and spend Tuesday slightly hung-over, it has a sense of “devil-may-care” about it. I always introduce a non-healthy and silly American food – the first was nachos and the second was s’mores, with our marshmallows roasted over tea-candles. As was the case with Nachos, my hunt for ingredients was underestimated. Marshmallows I could find, and I substituted Hershey’s milk chocolate for Milka (even meltier!) but for the graham cracker sandwich, no luck. I realised the fundamental quality of the sandwich element was a crunchy, thin, and impossible to control crumbling. Part of the fun of a s’more is that it naturally falls apart in an unpredictable way, usually making the chocolate or marshmallows careen into your face or fall on your clothes. Licking fingers is a necessity, and laughing can’t be controlled, between the combustion of marshmallows and chocolate on your pants. I settled on a super crispy, thin waffle cookie. Worked like a charm, and we were all giggling and pointing out smudges on each other’s faces in no time.  I wish I had brought my twister game with me – I had been carrying around my original game for all of these years, pulling it out at parties, but it didn’t make the cut for the move to Berlin. 

Phones off for the airplane now – until next week!

anthea vineta