I am distressed to report the sudden death today of Noam Sheriff. We were friends for more than 25 years and shared untold amounts of laughter, dreams and creative conversation. Noam was 83.
Noam Sheriff was the first native-born composer to have a work performed by the Israel Philharmonic and the first to make an impact abroad.
His oratorio Resurrection was performed at the Salzburg Festival. Pasion Sepharadi was premiered by Placido Domingo.
Noam founded and conducted the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon lezion and was the teacher of two generations of Israeli composers.
His own teachers were Paul Ben Haim and Boris Blacher, both steeped in the German tradition.
I will write more later. The news right now is too raw.
…. The 11th is another matter, a revelation. Named ‘the year 1905’ after the first Russian revolution and intended to keep the commissars off the composer’s back, the symphony is widely misunderstood as his acquiescence to the posy-Stalin regime, when it was nothing of the sort. By taking the opening Adagio at a snail’s pace, Nelsons opens up the inner textures to expose trepidation in place of celebration, private humanity ahead of political bluster….
Aside from the upcoming Dutch blast, London’s South Bank has just announced a Karlheinz fest.
Here’s the small print:
The season culminates in the first UK performance of Stockhausen’s Donnerstag aus Licht since its UK premiere at the Royal Opera House in 1985. Recipients of the Fondation Stockhausen first prize in 2013, Le Balcon, and their founder and conductor Maxim Pascale make their UK debut with two performances of the opera, combining forces with London Sinfonietta, the New London Chamber Choir and the Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble in a new staged production directed by Benjamin Lazar (21-22 May 2019).
press release:
New York, NY—The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project announces the digital publication of the Leonard Bernstein Residence at the Osborne Apartments to its online map, a dynamic continually-evolving catalogue of geographic locations significant to LGBT history. This Saturday, August 25th, is the centennial of the great composer’s birth and an auspicious moment to consider his monumental contributions to American classical music.
Leonard Bernstein, the great American composer of classical and Broadway music, conductor, and educator, was born on August 25, 1918, to Jewish immigrant parents in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and grew up in Boston. While studying music at Harvard, he met three of the musical figures who would have a great influence on his work and career – conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos and composers Aaron Copland (a life-long friend) and Marc Blitzstein. Bernstein had brief affairs with both Mitropoulos and Copland.
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Located diagonally across from Carnegie Hall (another LGBT historic site), the Osborne Apartments has long been a popular home for people in the arts. Other significant LGBT residents have included:
Bobby Short, legendary cabaret artist (who lived in Bernstein’s former apartment)
Van Cliburn, pianist who won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow in 1958, at 23
Robert Osborne, actor and film historian best known for hosting prime-time films on Turner Classic Movies
Leo Lerman, editor and writer, along with his partner, artist Gary Foy
Fran Lebowitz, author
Fernando Sanchez, fashion designer best known for his provocative lingerie designs, including items worn by Madonna, Cher, Tina Turner, and Elizabeth Taylor
The finalists are:
Nancy Zhou, United States
Yun Tang, China
Diana Tishchenko, Ukraine
Jia Yi Chen, China
Chang Yuan Ting, Canada
Olga Šroubková, Czech Republic
The final starts next Thursday.
Thomas Stevens, former principal trumpet player with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, passed away on July 14, 2018, in Cambria, CA.
Thomas Stevens was appointed to the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1965 by then-Music Director Zubin Mehta, who named him principal trumpet in 1972, a position he held until 2000. He served in the same capacity with the World Orchestra for Peace, Sir George Solti’s hand-picked group assembled in Geneva for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, and the Casals Festival Orchestra in Puerto Rico.
In addition to his work as an orchestral musician, Stevens performed and recorded as a soloist and chamber musician with major organizations worldwide, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and in the early 1980s he was invited by Pierre Boulez to participate in a special new brass music project with the Ensemble InterContemporain in Paris. He was a founding member of the Los Angeles Brass Quintet and also maintained an active presence in the Hollywood recording studios for many years.
Stevens is perhaps best known for his activities in the promotion, performance, and premiere recordings of new music for solo trumpet. His efforts resulted in many works which have become staples of the genre, including Sequenza X by Luciano Berio, which was written specifically for him.
Press Release of the 2018 Salzburg Festival
Ground-Breaking Commitment from the Kühne Foundation
Kühne Foundation Becomes a Main Sponsor of the Salzburg Festival through 2021
Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler, President of the Salzburg Festival, and Prof. Dr. h.c. Klaus-Michael Kühne, President of the Kühne Foundation. Photos: SF/Anne Zeuner
(SF, 24 August 2018) From 2019, the Kühne Foundation will be a Main Sponsor of the Salzburg Festival. Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler, President of the Salzburg Festival, and Prof. Dr. h.c. Klaus-Michael Kühne, President of the Kühne Foundation, announced the signing of the contract at today’s press conference in Salzburg. The cooperation agreement initially spans three years, running through 31 December 2021. The Salzburg Festival and the Kühne Foundation thereby significantly extend their successful partnership of many years. Since 2013 the Kühne Foundation has supported the “Young Singers Project”, a high-carat platform for international young vocalists.
“For the Festival it is a great honour and pleasure to extend its circle of main sponsors by a foundation for the first time. I am deeply convinced that this partnership will give new impulses to both parties,” declares Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler.
Klaus-Michael Kühne adds: “Entrepreneurial success should always be linked to a responsibility towards society. In my opinion, the goal is not only to donate money, but to invest in the future of our community and offer that community new impulses with well-designed projects
The Ukraine Embassy in the UK has called out Brass Ensemble Wales for setting out on tour in parts of the country illegally ocupied by Russian fores.
The ensemble says it is performing in ‘a series of concerts across the peninsula, at Maykop, Sevastopol, Simferopol, Yalta, Feodosia, Kerch, Alushta and at the iconic Vorontsov Palace.’ Details here.
The Berliner Philharmoniker will open the 2018/2019 season under the baton of chief conductor designate Kirill Petrenko today, Friday, 24 August. One year before he officially takes up his post with the orchestra they will present key works of the orchestra’s repertoire: Symphony No. 7 in A major, op. 92 by Ludwig van Beethoven and the tone poems Don Juan op. 20 and Tod und Verklärung op. 24 by Richard Strauss.
The Berliner Philharmoniker will undertake their first tour with Kirill Petrenko from 26 August to 3 September, with concerts at the Salzburg Festival (26th/27th August), the Lucerne Festival (29th/30th August) and the BBC Proms in London (1st/2nd September). The programmes will include Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, op. 92, Richard Strauss’ tone poems Don Juan op. 20 and Tod und Verklärung op. 24, La Péri by Paul Dukas, Sergei Prokofiev’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 in C major, op. 26, with Yuja Wang as soloist, and Franz Schmidt’s Symphony No. 4 in C major.
