Wanda Wilkomirska, Poland’s outstanding post-War violinist, died today at the age of 89.

She achieved US fame as a Sol Hurok artist and was highly popular in the UK.

In 1983 she refused to return to Poland while it was under martial law.

From 1999 she taught at the Sydney Conservatorium in Australia.

Can you identify all the musical themes on this cover?

 

(right-click on image to enlarge in new window)

The pianist has spoken up for one of her early mentors, accused by other women of sexual abuse.

In an interview with Platea she says:

‘Hay tanta hipocresía en todo esto… En mi propia experiencia, he trabajado en varias ocasiones con Charles Dutoit y siempre tuvimos una buena conexión musical, sin ningún problema.’

‘There is so much hypocrisy in all this … In my own experience, I have worked several times with Charles Dutoit and we always had a good musical connection, without any problem.’

 

A statement from Shure Products:

For more than 90 years, Shure has been committed to manufacturing and delivering products of the highest quality, reliability, and value.  This commitment requires consistency in materials, processes, and testing, as well the capacity to react to fluctuations in demand.

In recent years, the ability to maintain our exacting standards in the Phonograph Cartridge product category has been challenged, resulting in cost and delivery impacts that are inconsistent with the Shure brand promise.

In light of these conditions, and after thorough evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue production of Shure Phono products effective Summer 2018. 

Given our decades-long history of participation in the Phono category, we recognize that this decision may come as a disappointment to our channel partners and end users. 

 

From a 2016 article by Jeff Simon of the Buffalo News, reprinted with his permission:

The most dramatic thing I ever covered for this newspaper was a shocking explosion of temper and bewilderment by Cage at a seminar during Morton Feldman’s first “June in Buffalo” festival. What enraged Cage was a performance of some pieces from his “Song Books” by the S.E.M. Ensemble in which ensemble member Julius Eastman “brought out a young, blond man and a young black woman and proceeded to spiel out a broadly funny new ‘system of love’ with virulent homosexual overtones. At the end of it, the young man was undressed and the subject of the performer’s (Eastman’s) gay advances.”

That’s my description of the event according to Renee Levine Packer in her new book with Mary Jane Leach, “Gay Guerilla: Julius Eastman and His Music” (University of Rochester Press, 246 pages, $34.95). I had reviewed that concert.

“Cage was furious,” Packer writes in her biography of Eastman. “In his seminar the next morning, he was visibly agitated, stamping around the room, breathlessly raising his voice in an uncharacteristic way, even pounding the piano with his fist. He expressed disappointment and immense frustration that his work could have been so misunderstood, especially by such experienced performers, and in a place where he thought surely he could rely on a knowledgeable and sensitive reading.”

His work, Cage said at the seminar I later wrote about, called on performers’ huge freedom but only if what they did was in the philosophical spirit of Henry David Thoreau. Eastman’s improv sex comedy in provocative comic service to gay liberation was hardly that.

Anyone who had marveled at Cage’s writings in his books “Silence” and “A Year from Monday” couldn’t help being shocked that a man who had devoted so much of his life to contemplative equanimity, could explode so helplessly in such rage. The emotional distance between what I knew of Cage’s philosophy and his fury that day was the most dramatic gap I have ever witnessed after encountering a major cultural figure. I was witnessing in Cage the dark side of the moon….

Read more here.

 

Jane Chu will step down in June, apparently exhausted at battling President Trump’s plans to scrap the National Endowment for the Arts. She has done well to keep it up that long.

Report here.

 

The baritone Michael de Costa has been placed under a sexual risk order for five years, banning him from being alone in his academy with a female pupil under the age of 18.

De Costa, 78, whose real name is Michael Patterson, was not charged with any offence.

Claims on his website that he sang leading roles at English National Opera are unfounded.

Court report here.

Spare a thought for the Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecień, engaged at Dallas Opera to sing Don Giovanni. Sick through much of the rehearsal period, he seemed fine by the dress rehearsal but then missed the opening night.

His understudy Craig Verm scored a career-altering debut in the role.

Mariusz was then faced with singing the rest of the run in the shadow of his triumphant understudy.

Well, what would you do?

 

The Buffalo Philharmonic concertmaster Dennis Kim is switching to the Pacific Symphony.

Anyone figure out why?

This is Kim’s fifth orchestra. He has previously been concertmaster with Tucson, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Seoul and Tampere (Finland).

 

Only two Russians in the 24. The youngest contender is Eric Lu, 20, from Curtis.

Evelyne Berezovsky, daughter of Boris and one of the new faces lining up for this September’s contest in Leeds.

Full list here.

We hear from Zurich Opera that Sonya Yoncheva has cancelled tonight’s recital.

Her replacement is Piotr Beczala.

Brave chap.

 

Five new productions and four revivals is the sum of slim pickings, announced this morning.

One of the five new shows is a staging of Britten’s War Requiem. Is that what the composer had in mind?

Another is The Merry Widow, an operetta of seriously vintage humour.

There is a world premiere for Iain Bell and Emma Jenkins’s Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel.

The Australian director Adena Jacobs makes her UK debut with Salome.

And there’s a co-production of Porgy and Bess with the Met and Dutch National Opera. John Wilson conducts. Two Americans in the title roles –  Eric Greene and Nicole Cabell.

That’s what makes it English National Opera.