Among the finalists is soprano Elbenita Kajtazi (27), who as a young girl was forced to flee her home in war-torn Kosovo with her family, and live as a refugee in Albania. She fell in love with opera after watching clips of Maria Callas on YouTube. Soprano Francesca Chiejina (27), born in Lagos, Nigeria, had first planned to be a doctor before she caught the singing bug, as had her fellow semi-finalist, Canadian tenor Charles Sy (26). American bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum (24) was a chef for six years before he decided to commit to his musical career.
The death has been announced of Maurice Cochrane, one of the finest harpsichord and early keyboard technicians. Maurice was the quiet but essential presence behind hundreds of recordings and thousands of concerts given by baroque orchestras, ensembles and soloists. That he was named on so many LPs and CDs was testament to the respect in which his skills were held.
Maurice was married to the harpsichordist Jill Severs. Two of their daughters are professional musicians.
Six weeks after his sudden, unexplained death, Deutsche Grammophon are bringing out today the final thoughts of Jóhann Jóhannsson.
‘Englabörn & Variations’ was completed days before his passing, at the age of 48.
From Geoff Brown’s Times review of Andes Orozco-Estrada’s concert with the London Philharmonic:
We started with another neo-classical object, Stravinsky’s suavely beautiful ballet score Apollon musagète, throbbingly played by the LPO strings with fancy dancing from Andrés Orozco-Estrada, their principal guest conductor, one of those endearing maestros who use the podium as their personal gym.
This is taken from the print version. The killer last phrase has been omitted from the paper’s truncated online review.
From Zsolt Bognar:
The fabled performance has finally surfaced: collectors in the 1990s used to beg, borrow, or steal this video of Pogorelich playing Balakirev in Carnegie Hall in 1992, where he created a legendary furore. My teacher Sergei Babayan was present, and said the whole performance felt like a gigantic limitless crescendo. Those present reported feeling pressed into their seats. I heard this performance in 2000 and it inspired me to learn and perform the piece across Europe; however, the difficulties are hazardous to the health and so I quickly retired it.
Kent Nagano has secured his Montreal Symphony Orchestra its first appearance at the Salzburg Festival – and the opening show, to boot.
From the press release:
On July 20, 2018, at the Festival’s Felsenreitschule, OSM will perform Krzysztof Penderecki’s epic St. Luke Passion, for chorus, soloists and orchestra. As part of the composer’s 85th birthday celebrations, this concert will also be performed in the context of the Ouverture spirituelle series dedicated to sacred music and religiously inspired works.
It will be the OSM’s festival debut.
Afte a five-year break, the music biz shabang is back with a change of name.
No more Classical Brits. It’s Classic.
Meaning?
Pop duo Michael Ball and Alfie Boe.
Signor Bocelli.
Hosted by Classic FM’s underwear model Mylene Klass.
Don’t miss it, will you?
press release:
The Classic BRIT Awards returns for 2018 for the first time in 5 years – reformatted and refreshed, exclusively broadcast on ITV and in partnership with Classic FM – to celebrate the growing appeal of classical and music from film, television, theatre and games. These musical genres are now enjoyed in more ways than ever before and 2018’s Awards will pay tribute to the brightest and the best, celebrate our classic legends and look firmly to the future. Announced today for the show on 13th June at the Royal Albert Hall are hostsMyleene Klass and Alexander Armstrong. Both are presenters on Classic FM and musicians in their own right and this will be Myleene’s 7th Classic BRIT Awards. Alexander is welcomed for the first time and is also one of the genre’s most popular acts with 2 top 10 albums to his name. Apple Music is the official music service for this year’s awards. The first performers for the Royal Albert Hall event are also announced today, proving that this music gives rise to global stars, national treasures and exciting new talent. Andrea Bocelli is Classic BRIT Awards’ royalty. The biggest selling classical artist of all time, he has performed for four U.S. presidents, two popes and the Royal Family, as well as at ceremonies for the Olympic Games and the World Cup. Known for opera and global crossover hits including ‘Time To Say Goodbye’, he recently scored a worldwide Number 1 with Ed Sheeran on the song ‘Perfect Symphony’ and has a very special performance in mind for this year’s ceremony.
Michael Ball & Alfie Boe are two great modern voices who came ‘Together’ for 2016’s best-selling album in the UK, achieving the Christmas Number 1 record. In 2017, their second album ‘Together Again’ went straight to Number 1 and two sold out arena tours cemented their position as two of Britain’s best loved entertainers and pushed their record sales over 1 million within a year.
Anthea Kreston’s weekly diary:
I am on a morning train to Frankfurt from Berlin – it has been bitingly cold here, the entire sky is solid, dark grey, and the brown, flat landscape outside my window is patchworked with snow, stagnant grey fog. I take the early train back home tomorrow, and meet directly at the University of the Arts for intensive rehearsals with my piano trio – our pianist is en route from Philadelphia now. What a pleasure it will be to dig in deeply to our program of all Brahms – and to work with violist Roberto Díaz for the Op. 25 Piano Quartet.
I am working on quartet repertoire – juggling pieces we are currently playing onstage with new repertoire we are learning, and keeping all of the repertoire for our upcoming US tour fresh and ready. In addition, the piano trio repertoire is being reworked – I find myself changed as a violinist since joining this Quartet – a mix of learning from my colleagues, observing concerts, and teaching European students.
What I learned from Isaac Stern in those intense Trio years – to play big, have huge phrases (as few as possible in each movement), to be bigger than life – this has been augmented, or changed. Trio playing is different from Quartet – my personality must be razor sharp, my communication radius larger, the subtle details and timing that are a necessary fabric of Quartet life are supplanted by large sections where we designate a leader and follow them, demanding from them total clarity of vision. Pre-planning (Quartet) is exchanged with spontaneity. Safe fingerings (for uniformity if sound, balance and intonation consistency) are thrown out the window for fingerings which bring contrast, virtuosity. And yet, as I have done some pre-rehearsing alone with Jason, I have tried to merge the two. The big playing I have brought with me to Quartet might work the other way – we can try to add much more subtlety into our gigantic phrase structure. Will it weaken the power of Trio? Or will it bring a new level of clarity and intellectual stimulation?
I have also become accustomed to sharing responsibility in Quartet – I am a bit of a brute with my intense musical personality in Trio – but now I ask Jason to lead more. We take turns leading a section, then decide to share the leadership once we have a basic agreement on the emotional plan. Feels good – can’t wait to try it with Amy Yang, our pianist.
The Fortnightly Music Book Club has its formal debut this Sunday, and I have been busy with planning, designing and negotiating specifics with our first guest, Eugene Drucker from the Emerson Quartet. As a former student of his (the hierarchy of the classical music world is deeply ingrained) I can hardly even manage to call him by his first name. I am particularly, obsessively and protectively worried about the comments section, which cannot be turned off for the book club. I have come to love that section, though, and it has brought me together with many new friends, rekindled old connections, and forced me to improve. Still – I lose sleep over the possibility of harsh comments reaching Mr. Drucker, who has agreed to the Club, and to do his own book, at my request. Please be kind.
So – just for fun, I dug up some of my favorite nasty comments from the Slipped Disk comment section – enjoy!
On being a bad mother:
“Clara Schumann was known as “raven mother”. She didn’t care much of her nine children. Piano career was first priority. Not a great role model for A. Kreston”
On being a terrible writer:
“Such cheap ad. There are millions of musicians who can tell much more interesting stories about their lives. It’s clear for me that she trying to make herlelf popular. Because without tjiis article nobody will know who is Anthea Kreston.”
“Can you please stop publishing this Kreston twaddle.”
And now some beauties from one of my all-time favorite commenters (and now a friend of mine) RW2013:
“The gepflegte Langeweile continues…”
“Just imagine if all musicians wrote their diaries here! Already wearing thin…”
“Read? More like the fascinating glance at road kill…”
‘I’d be lying if I said our industry was immune to it,’ she says. ‘In as far of the millions of stories I have heard, a lot of them are quite consensual, [people] willing to have a little fling with a maestro because it was beneficial to both… I’ve steered well clear of that.’ She thinks there was an unspoken protection of her when she was on the Met’s young artist programme: ‘They did a very good job at keeping certain kinds of people who might have had that lothario reputation away from me… maybe they were extra careful because I was just so young – I was 19, where everyone else was closer to 30.’
In 1957, at the age of 20, Dejan Bravničar was allowed to leave Yugoslavia to study in David Oistrakh’s class in the Moscow Conservatoire.
The experience was decisive, raising a provincial violinist to international standard and introducing him to such conductors as Kondrashin and Sanderling who would advance his career.
ButBravničar, concerned for his roots, returned to Ljubljana to teach at its Academy of Music and serve as its dean. He died this week a Slovene hero, largely forgotten abroad.
