Katharina Uhde and her father Michael Uhde have just posted the first modern performance of a lost score by the legendary violinist Joseph Joachim, who died in 1907.

The manuscript of this charming piece was found by Katharina in a Polish archive.

Robert Eschbach, the Joachim expert, thinks she may be the first since Joachim to play it.

The Fantasy makes its first appearance on social media via Slipped Disc.

And it’s as much Scottish as it is Irish.

Enjoy.

Extraordinary. His name is Nobuyuki Tsujii.

 

The moderate Chicago modernist Alan Stout died on February 1 after several years in a care home.

He received four world premieres from the Chicago Symphony and others from Baltimore (his home town) and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Among his students at Northwestern University were Augusta Read Thomas and Joseph Schwantner.

Stout was an enthusiast of Boulezian post-serialism, while maintaining a keen interest in Sibelius and other Baltic composers.

Tribute here.

 

Watch Evelyn.

 

Sign her, someone!

 

We have received several reports of flooding this month in the student accommodation at the Juilliard School.

One student writes:

It’s 2:30am right now!!!! My room literally is a water fountain!!!!! All my stuff are fucked up!!!!! BTW, this is the dorm cost people $7900 per semester. Thanks a lot Juilliard!!!

Update: The cause is the sprinkler burst out. Besides all my stuff are soaked, my phone and computer went weird, and I smell like ass while I only wear soaking wet underwear. Everything is good. No one got hurt. What a night!!

Another adds:

This is the second time there has been a flood in the Juilliard dorms during my brief time here. Of course, the day after last year’s flood, the administration (led by Todd Porter) sent out an email claiming that they were accountable for nothing, and would not be reimbursing anyone for damages, even to precious instruments. They will surely do this again today.

What’s even more shameful is that this flood comes a mere 3 weeks after winter break, when the dorms were controversially shut down completely, turning away even international students, in order to allow for “comprehensive, building-wide maintenance”.

A third posts:

I love how the Juilliard dorms shut down during winter break for “comprehensive, building-wide maintenance” and then less than 3 weeks into second semester, a huge pipe burst results in the flooding of entire suites and the destruction of what could be thousands of dollars worth of personal property…

On Thursday, the Director of Residential Life at Juilliard sent out a memo saying that the school will not be held responsible or pay compensation for damage caused by the floods.

Slipped Disc respectfully suggests that Juilliard should reconsider and would like to hear when they do so.

Here’s some video:


A loud cheer went up in the Semiramide chorus room yesterday when a representative of the performers’ union AGMA announced that his organisation was presenting John Copley’s case to Peter Gelb, the general manager, as ‘a wrongful termination’.

AGMA is also representing the chorister whose complaint led to the veteran director’s dismissal.

The joy was, however, short-lived.

The union proposed to Gelb that he should either reinstate Copley, or compensate him for unfair dismissal.

Gelb refused both requests.

The leader of another house union told Slipped Disc that Gelb’s position was ‘absolutely ludicrous’.

This is not over yet.

A number of musicians in the Orchestra Symphonique de Montréal have accused the former music director of ‘psychological harassment‘ and ‘humiliation’.

Some of these complaints were at the heart of the events that prompted Dutoit’s resignation in 2002, but the musicians say they were ignored by the organisation over several years.

They follow claims of sexual harassment against Dutoit, including rape, which he denies.

Lucien Bouchard, present chairman of the orchestra board, has issued the following statement:

‘We are very compassionate and moved by the suffering expressed in these recently published musicians’ testimonies, namely today in LaPresse+ and Le Devoir. They will serve to strengthen the OSM’s determination to ensure that the dignity and fundamental rights of its musicians and employees are respected at all times. Current administration has made considerable efforts to provide for a harmonious and collaborative working environment. In this regard, we will persist in taking every means to ensure that the climate of respect that has prevailed since the arrival of Music Director Kent Nagano in 2006 is maintained.’

The orchestra has commissioned a private investigation into the complaints by an unnamed individual.

OperaNotalgia reports the death of Karl-Heinz Stryczek, a much-recorded stalwart of the Semper Oper and Berlin Staatsoper. He died on January 24.

 

These are the finalists of the Singapore Violin Competition:

Chisa Kitagawa, Japan – a student of juror Takashi Shimizu
Sergei Dogadin, Russia – a student of juror Boris Kuschnir
Laurel Gagnon, USA
Oleksandr Korniev, Ukraine – a teaching assistant at YST Conservatory in Singapore and past student of Qian Zhou, chair of jury
Lisa Yasuda, Japan – a student of juror Takashi Shimizu
Xiaoxuan Shi, China – a past student of Qian Zhou, chair of jury

Qian Zhou, who is reported to have been taken ill, has been replaced by the Director of the YST Conservatory, Bernard Lanskey.

Dogadin (pictured) has been helped by Kushnir to win previous competitions.

Singapore carries a $50,000 first prize.

From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:

At the 15th song of the Winter’s Journey, a piano melody that seems to come from the nursery turns into a bleak anticipation of death. ‘The crow has come with me…. Flying ceaselessly above my head.’ Anyone listening will know that Franz Schubert will be dead within a year. But Schubert does not know he is going to die. He is thirty years old and feeling a bit low from various ailments, but he has no idea that he is writing his own requiem. Our knowing against his unknowing heightens the paradox …

Read on here.

And here.