Remember Shulem Lemmer?
He’s Decca’s new Hasidic star.
Catch this.
And this is Lady Gaga.
And there’s more:
Bavarian State Opera has announced the death of Hildegard Hillebrecht-Stöhr, a member of the company who enjoyed a varied international career.
She sang in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bayreuth, Berlin, Bordeaux, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Dresden, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Edinburgh, Freiburg/Breisgau, Geneva, Hamburg, Helsinki, Köln, Copenhagen, London, Los Angeles, München, New York, Niederlande, Nizza, Paris, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Salzburg, San Francisco, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Tunis, Venedig, Vienna, and Zürich.
From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
There was a year or so when it was touch and go whether Gianandrea Noseda or Simon Rattle was going to be the next music director of the London Symphony Orchestra. In the end, the LSO got the best of both worlds, with Rattle as #1 and Noseda, now in Washington DC, flying in three or four times a year with hair-raising performances.
This account of Shostakovich 8…
More here.
And here.
The House of God that is Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue has replaced one British music director with another.
Daniel Hyde lasted the barest twinkling of an eye before he was called back to King’s College, Cambridge, as heir to the retiring Stephen Cleobury. Hyde’s predecessor was another Englishman, John Scott, who died suddenly at 59.
The new Organist and Director of Music at Saint Thomas, to be announced later today, will be Dr Jeremy Filsell.
Filsell, 54,has worked with the BBC Singers and as repetiteur for John Eliot Gardner. He is presently director of music at the Episcopal Church of St. Alban in Washington DC, Artist-in-Residence at Washington National Cathedral, and Professor of Organ at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.
His response: ‘Honoured, delighted and humbled.’
We have been notified of the death of Randolph H. Hokanson, widely recorded pianist and professor emeritus at the University of Washington, Seattle.
Born in the state of Washington in June 1915, he studied with Harold Samuel, Myra Hess and Carl Friedberg and performed as a soloist with Thomas Beecham, Pierre Monteux, Arthur Fiedler, Walter Susskind and more.
On the eve of his 100th birthday, Hokanson gave a recital of Bach, Mozart and Chopin in Bayview Manor Albertson Hall, Seattle.
Lovely artist.
Paul Dowbekin, 67, who taught across the south of England, admitted 14 offences against boys under the age of 14.
Investigating officer DC Vicki Edwards said: ‘Dowbekin is every parent’s worst nightmare – he carried out abhorrent attacks on children left in his care.
‘Under the guise of improving their breathing during singing lessons, he would ask his victims to lie down and close their eyes. He’d then sexually assault them as they lay innocently on the floor.’
The Teatro Communale has been notified – at the end of its financial year – of a 900,000 Euros cut from central government to the present budget.
There is little time left to make savings.
Story here.
Françoise Nyssen resigned this week, dogged by tax accusations at her family-owned publishing house. It’s a shame. She invested heavily in music education.
Her successor Franck Riester has gone on record saying he wants to merge France Télévisions, Radio France and France Media Monde into a ‘BBC à la française.’
Immediately at risk are the radio orchestras. We hear nothing but alarm and despondency.
I have written an analysis for the Spectator of our recent revelation that the Berlin Philharmonic conductor claimed he never knew any Nazis.
Imagine that. Furtwängler had been made vice-president of the Reichsmusikkammer in 1933 by Joseph Goebbels and had conducted often in Hitler’s presence. I have a photograph of him extending a hand to be shaken as Hitler approaches him after a concert, and another of him standing with the Führer at Bayreuth. ‘Never known any Nazi’? Take it from the top, Willi.
Schnabel hears his guest complain that ‘millions of Germans are now murdered daily, and that the whole world shows its decadence by its total lack of charity’. Furtwängler goes on to admit ‘without having been asked, that he has had quite a good time during the “regime”.’
Read the full article here to see how this affects the authority of the German symphonic tradition.
I won’t say another word. Just read.
media release:
(Friday, 19 October 2018) Josepha Madigan TD, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht today announced a €1m capital grant for the National Opera House, in advance of the opening of the 67th Wexford Festival Opera, which opens tonight with a ceremony and fireworks display on Wexford’s quay front. The National Opera House on High Street, is home to the internationally acclaimed Wexford Festival Opera. Minister Madigan will be in Wexford this evening to officially open the Festival.
Speaking ahead of the official opening ceremony of Wexford Festival Opera 2018, Minister Madigan said, “I am conscious that we are celebrating this year, the 10th Anniversary of the opening of this magnificent Opera House. And while this auditorium looks as good as the day on which it opened, we all aware that every house requires continued investment to keep it in shape. So I am delighted tonight to announce that my Department will be investing €1m in necessary updating and refurbishment works over the next 3 years to protect the State’s significant investment in this building and to ensure that National Opera House continues to operate at the highest quality levels for many years to come.”
“In opera, Wexford is a global leader. In the arts, Wexford is a national example. This Government is deeply appreciative of this and is strongly supportive of the arts and Ireland’s arts community. The Taoiseach has made a public commitment to double funding for culture and the arts by 2025. Last week in Budget 2019 I was delighted to increase funding for arts and culture by over €22m. This includes doubling the increase in funding for the Arts Council by €6m to €75m.”
The Austrian tenor Andreas Schager, a huge hit at Bayreuth this summer, is to sing his first Lohengrin next Tuesday at the Vienna State Opera.
Move over Jonas and Klaus Florian.
Make room for this guy.
That’s the view from Justin Doyle, coming to the end of his first year as conductor of Berlin’s Rias chamber choir. He’s about to premiere a new work by the baritone Roderick Williams.
Justin says: In England, the focus is less on sound than on interpretation and musicality. And because there are far fewer rehearsals in England than in Germany, there is a high level of professionalism in terms of sight reading But then it is not so deep.
Read on here.
