The two most avid concertgoers among world leaders, Angela Merkel and Emanuel Macron, came together at the Philharmonie in Paris on Friday night to inaugurate the centennial year for Claude Debussy, who died within earshot of German gunfire in March 1918.
Daniel Barenboim opened the ceremonies with a performance of the Préludes.
The Debussy year is the French president’s pet project. It is being curated by an Express music journalist, Bertrand Dermoncourt, and will involve the creation of a new festival at Debussy’s birthplace, Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
Of all the people that I have worked with, throughout my life, both professionally and otherwise, there is one person who always stood out.
Her name is Benedicte Pesle; she was a visionary, she was capable of envisioning large-scale works and thinking over long periods of time. She had the best critical eye I ever met. She was severe in her dress and taste. She had a great sense of humor. She alone was more responsible than anyone else in bringing American artists to Europe and elsewhere: Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Philip Glass, Lucinda Childs, Trisha Brown, Alan Lloyd, Andy De Groat, my work, and many others. She worked for Alexander Iolas Gallery and often made selections of paintings, sculptures, and drawings for important collections. Especially for John and Dominique De Menil and other members of her family.
She alone helped engineer my 24-hour long Overture at the Opéra Comique, in the first production of the Festival d’Automne and engineering the following work, the seven-day play KA Mountain and Guardenia Terrace: the story about a family and some people changing. She was a driving force behind Rolf Liebermann in commissioning a full evening with Merce Cunningham, John Cage Un Jour ou Deux with sets and costumes by Jasper Johns at the Opéra Garnier. She went with me in 1973 to ask Michel Guy to commission Philip Glass and myself to create Einstein on the Beach, a 5-hour opera. It was Glass’ first commissioned opera. She was the driving force for Michel Guy, who was the Minister of Culture, in all the projects he did in the performing and visual arts. She was always direct and modest and worked behind the scenes. Often no one knew that she had been involved. She was a great friend of the surrealists Matta, Ernst, Tinguely and Magritte. She believed very much in having cultural exchange programs between the US and France and no one accomplished more in the last half of the 20th century than she did with her cultural exchange programs. Often using her own very limited money, she would support events without any mention of her name. Of all the people that I have worked with, professionally and otherwise, I always say again; she was the wisest, she was best. There was no one like her.
Bénédicte Pesle died last week, aged 90.
Here’s a tribute from the cultural section of the French Embassy in Washington:
When you know Bénédicte Pesle’s name, it is generally for her outstanding commitment to the work and career of Merce Cunningham since the 1960s, or that of Robert Wilson since the 1970s. People rarely know that she worked at the bookstore La Hune, in Saint Germain, in the 1950s and 1960s before running the Iolas Gallery for a long time. There she worked with Max Ernst, Magritte, Brauner, Matta, Tinguely, Nikki de Saint-Phalle, Martial Raysse, among others.
Having attended the debut of the Merce Cunningham Company in New York in 1953, at the Theater de Lys, Bénédicte Pesle devoted herself to make known, and then promote and circulate the choreographer’s work, first only operating with a close circle of friends and art loving patrons.
She collaborated with Michel Guy on starting Festival d’automne in Paris – in the first brochure of the festival, her title was “assistant to Michel Guy”. Her action and influence soon reached all of Europe, and beyond.
In addition to Merce Cunningham and Robert Wilson, she has made it possible for the European public to discover Richard Foreman, Philip Glass, Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, Meredith Monk, Stuart Sherman, Robert Ashley, Douglas Dunn, Viola Farber and other luminaries of the American avant-garde in theater, music and dance, first while working at Iolas, then from her own office founded in 1972, Artservice International. She described her activity as “Artists’ secretarial office”, and she never qualified her work differently, refusing to be considered an agent, an impresario or a producer.
She chose not to be tied to any institution; she always cherished her independence. She liked to convince others, spread her passions, while working behind the scenes.
Tenor Maximilian Schmitt and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn called in sick shortly before Thursday’s Cleveland Orchestra concert of Haydn’s The Seasons.
What to do?
Cut out the male solos, leaving a truncated score with just orchestra, soprano and all the big choruses.
It seemed to work and people got home half an hour sooner than expected.
Conductor Franz Welser-Möst explains the cuts to Cleveland audience. Photo: Roger Mastroianni
The Chinese news agency Xinhua has exclusive pictures of ‘an advance team’ from a North Korean orchestra that is due to combine with South Koreans at the Winer Olympics.
Caption: Hyon Song-wol (R), head of a delegation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, arrives at the customs, immigration and quarantine office in Paju, South Korea, on Jan. 21, 2018. The DPRK sent an advance team of orchestra Sunday to South Korea for concerts during the South Korea-hosted Winter Olympics. (Xinhua/South Korean Unification Ministry)
UPDATE: Hyon Song-wol is the leader of Moranbong, a girl band.
In a quiet news month, the Times – both of London and New York – alighted last week on the story of the violinist Daniel Hope reaching for his lawyer to take down a video shred of one of his performances.
The video maker, Arno Lücker, was fired from his duties at Berlin’s Konzaerhause despite deleting the video and making a private apology to Daniel Hope.
Last night, the pair published a reconciliation picture.
Arno writes:
We went to the Philharmonie Essen, where Daniel Hope played tonight. After his concert we met him, we apologized and we made this nice pic together as a sign of respect! We all agreed to put this behind us and return to music.
Never sampled Georg Philipp Telemann? It’s like Vivaldi with added carbs, or Bach at a gentle walking pace. That Telemann (1681-1767) was a significant composer is indisputable. Handel held him in high esteem and Bach named his son Carl Philipp Emanuel after his good friend. Both were happy to receive his scores and both expressed concern for his irregular personal life. Telemann’s music is well written, sits easily beneath the fingers and does not last too long. So why do I find it so hard to thrill to?….
Jo Watts, a violinist in the English National Opera orchestra, is at it again.
Jo spends her spare time and cash in East Africa improving conditions for children with cancer.
She has rallied her friends across the London orchestra to give an inaugural charity concert at Crystal Palace on February 11.
If you can attend, or help Jo in some other way, this is an incredibly worthy cause. She says: ‘This incredible charity has not only sent local cancer survival-rates skyrocketing through brand new treatment facilities, expertise and medical supplies, but given those kids laughter and fresh hope through entertainment and education.’
The Italian easy-listening composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi has been signed by the Hollywood talent agency, CAA, Billboard reports.
Einaudi is the first classical composer this century to achieve top 15 album sales.
He records exclusively for Decca.
A concert pianist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed late last year after identifying his son on social media in the course of a custody battle involving local social services.
The pianist is now said to be starving himself to death.
Concerned about a possible miscarriage of justice, campaigners are calling for the courts to release more public information about the distressing case.
The pianist is of Ukrainian origin and may not be fully conversant with English law.
Tomorrow is the centenary of Antonio Janigro, legendary cellist and revered founder of the Zagreb Soloists.
The ensemble put out a call for 100 cellists to play at a celebratory concert, one for each year of the master’s life.
But 155 have already registered and more are threatening to turn up.
