The Berlin Senate has decided that leading personalities in the cultural field will have their earnings made public, the Berliner Zeitung reports today.

That should include the likes of Daniel Barenboim, Robin Ticciati and Vladimir Jurowski. Not all of them will be happy.

We’ll keep you posted.

From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:

…. Only Patricia Kopatchinskaya would have made these connections, and no other violinist could bring them to life with such wildfire exuberance, verging on madcap abandon. The Russian pianist Polina Leschenko, rather than offering a steadying hand with big, bold chords, is a subtle provocateur, forever daring barefoot Pat Kop to do something really wicked….

Read on here.

 

Watch sample here:

Marcia Hansen Kraus’s recent book George Szell’s Reign, published by the University of Illinois Press, covers the great conductor’s years in Cleveland with the orchestra he created.

But early on, she reveals, while Szell was conducting the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow from 1936 to 1938, he came into a heated collision with John Barbirolli, who was soon to become conductor of the New York Philharmonic.

Szell, turning 40 and still unmarried, had his head turned by the Scottish Orchestra’s principal oboe, a young Englishwoman called Evelyn Rothwell. Szell wrote a romantic piece for oboe and piano for them to play together and took her out to the most expensive restaurants. ‘He asked me to marry him and gave me an ultimatum,’ said Evelyn, who was 25. ‘If I didn’t accept his proposal within three months he was going to marry someone else.’

Unknown to Szell, however, Evelyn was involved with his predecessor, John Barbirolli, who was waiting for his divorce to come through. When JB came back to Glasgow and found Szell’s little romance on her music stand, he threw a tantrum and ripped the score to shreds. JB went on to marry Evelyn, while Szell laid siege to a married woman in Prague, enticing her away from her husband.

All ended happily.

I knew Evelyn late in life and never suspected her of having been any kind of femme fatale.

Barbirollis in Hollywood

The French conductor Sylvain Cambreling is to be the next chief of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, it was announced this morning.

He succeeds Sir Jeffrey Tate, who died last June.

 

Nelson Cooke, who has died at a great age, was Australia’s first cellist of international standing.

He played in various London orchestras in the 1950s before being named principal cellist of the LSO in 1963, a seat he held for just five years. Amid the London turbulence of the time, he moved on to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, then returned home to Australia, where he became the country’s foremost cello teacher.

Working far into his 90s, Nelson was decorated with The Order of Australia AM in 2011 and published a memoir,  Beyond the Bow.

The following tribute is by his wife, Anna Cooke:

Nelson Cooke was an Australian National Treasure and one of the world’s finest cellists and mentors to hundreds of dedicated students. He grew up in the coal mining district of NSW but went to study cello in Europe, ultimately with Pablo Casals. Following his debut at Wigmore Hall, he was appointed to the Philharmonia Orchestra under Herbert von Karajan. In 1959, Cooke joined the London Symphony Orchestra as Principal Cellist, and subsequently, the London Philharmonic.

His distinguished teaching career commenced in 1969 at the University of South Florida, then as Chair of Cello at the Canberra School of Music, and later at the University of Melbourne. He founded the Riverina Summer School for Strings in 1988. At ninety years of age he decided it was time to retire, and a year later received the high honour of becoming a Member of the Order of Australia. He will be deeply missed by his family, students, colleagues, and many friends.


He is survived by his wife, Anna, his two sons, Peter and Tony, three grandchildren and four great grandchildren. A book about his musical life, “Beyond the Bow” by Song Mei Lee-Wong, is available through Amazon.
The back stage opening night photo below was taken at the Florida International Music Festival in Peabody Auditorium in July 1968 with LSO Principal Cellist Nelson Cooke and student orchestra Principal Cellist Barbara Hedlund (nee Smith). In memory of Nelson Cooke and deep appreciation for his teaching and example which helped inspire me to become a professional cellist. Sending condolences to his family.

 

 

 

I once saw Susanna Mälkki conduct a concert made up entirely of world premieres by unknown composers. It was in Stockholm, and very bracing, too. The audience was small, but curious.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that a US orchestra would invite Susanna to repeat the feat – a concert made up of nothing but new sounds without a single familiar name on the billboard. And not one American.

That’s what the Los Angeles Philharmonic has just done.

Here’s the lineup:

Francesco FILIDEI: new work for organ (world premiere, LA Phil commission)*

Arnulf HERRMANN: new work for chamber ensemble (world premiere, LA Phil commission)*

Lotta WENNÄKOSKI: new work for ensemble (world premiere, LA Phil commission)*

Miroslav SRNKA: new work for ensemble (world premiere, LA Phil commission)*

Yann ROBIN: Übergang II (world premiere, LA Phil commission)*

Inon Barnatan has been named music director of La Jolla’s SummerFest.

He succeeds Cho-Liang Lin, who has been in charge for 18 summers.

 

A&R went rather quiet at Harmonia Mundi front after the label was bought out by Pias.

But there are signs of life again.

This week, Pias/HM signed the Russian-based Nikolas Lugansky.

He has previously recorded for, deep breath, Erato, Melodiya, Warner, Pioneer, DG, Onyx, Pentatone and Naive.

So not exactly a new artist. But a good one.

His first release will be the Rachmaninov Preludes.

 

Distressing as it was to get dismissed by the Metropolitan Opera ‘in a moral panic‘, John Copley’s distinguished career is serenely unaffected by Peter Gelb’s hasty misjudgement.

It has been announced that Copley, 84, will direct a new production of Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio at the Grange Festival in June.

Jonathan Lemalu sings Osmin, Kiandra Howarth is Konstanze.

The production will sell out on a wave of solidarity.

We have been informed that Yamaha terminated its artist relationship with Bradley Garner, as of yesterday.

Garner, 61, has been allowed to resign from the University of Cincinnati after nine students accused him of sexual misconduct and a colleague said he shared videos of himself having intercourse with students.

He was later deleted by New York University and Juilliard pre-college.

He continues to teach, apparently, at Mannheim Hochschule für Musik.