The all-rounder Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi will fly in for the first concerts of the New Year, replacing Mirga Gražinté-Tyla, who is on baby duties.

The program is unchanged – Dvorak cello concerto, Ravel Daph & Chloe.

 

Laura R. Walker will step down as president of NYPR in the New Year after 23 years in charge.

She said she and the Board “have agreed that the time has come for me to move on.”

There have been troubles.

She was paid $954,582 in 2016,

Read on here.

Following the highly-flagged ENO initiative, Michael Volpe has been in touch with results from Opera Holland Park:

Here are some stats from our 2017 scheme

The average age of the children from the written responses were between 10-13 years old (50%). Roughly 10% were between 14 and 16. There were none under the age of 8.
• Most of the children heard about the scheme through their teacher (23.1%). The next biggest result was from the Royal Borough (17.3%). Other popular answers were: the OHP website, the OHP brochure and family members.
• 70.6% of the children had seen between 1-5 operas before. 21.6% had never been to the opera before.
• For 42% of attendees, it was the first time they had been to OHP
• 55.8% had been to the opera before on the scheme (so coming back!)
• 77.4% of the children found the whole experience & enjoyment factor to be “very enjoyable” (the highest rating)
• 98.1% of the children would visit a production of an opera again in any theatre
• Finally, 96% of the children felt like they understood the opera

The Canadian singer and conductor has been named artist-in-residence at the next Aldeburgh Fest.

Headlines:

 Three Artists in Residence each curate a part of Aldeburgh Festival 2019: composer Thomas Larcher,
tenor Mark Padmore and conductor & soprano Barbara Hannigan
• Thomas Larcher’s acclaimed first opera The Hunting Gun opens the Festival and pianist
Paul Lewis gives the world premiere of Larcher’s Aldeburgh Festival commission
• Mark Padmore performs in seven concerts and explores the relationship between words and music
with leading poets
• Barbara Hannigan appears in five events, singing Satie, Grisey and Gershwin and conducting the
Ludwig Orchestra in several events including Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress
• Further residencies from Vox Luminis, Stephen Hough, Alisa Weilerstein, Ryan Wigglesworth and
Roderick Williams
• Further orchestral concerts include the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Karina Cannellakis and the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Edward Gardner
• Music by the late Oliver Knussen features throughout and the Festival presents the debut
performances of the Knussen Chamber Orchestra
• Britten–Pears Young Artist public masterclasses led by Antonio Pappano and Mark Padmore
• Seven world premieres by Charlotte Bray, Caterina di Cecca, Thomas Larcher, Joanna Lee, Nico
Muhly, Frederik Neyrinck and Freya Waley-Cohen

 

 

We’ve tried to keep you up to date with the confusion since the glitzy pianist Yuja Wang was dumped by her boutique agent for being too high maintenance, but the story won’t stand still.

First, Yuja put her Asian and French careers in the hands of Kajimoto.

Then she had it announced that she would be managed worldwide by Intermusica, based in London.

Only now she has changed her mind again.

As of this morning, Yuja is represented in North America by the been-there-done-that agent Earl Blackburn.

Her picture has been hastily added to his roster.

Elsewhere, she is with Kajimoto in Japan, and has separate arrangements in Spain and Italy. Full list here.

A mess?

You could say so.

We hear that Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla has pulled out of her January concerts with the New York Philharmonic ‘due to maternity/family leave following the birth of her first child.’

That sounds like childcare issues.

The NY Phil keen to reinstate her dates asap.

 

 

 

 

Anthea Kreston’s diary:

I have a procrastination problem. It is almost impossible to get me to hold off doing something – I am an incessant list-maker, and always have way too many ideas and things I am planning, and I have an obsessive pride in alway getting them done (which sometimes means hiring a helper or two, like I have done for the “Inside Music” tour in March – there are still a couple of openings, let me know if you want a space).

Jason, who has an interesting mix of do-er and procrastinator, is always encouraging me to be lazier. He has three methods – 1. during an emergency nap, he sneaks in and turns off my alarm, 2. he randomly hands me snuggly things like blankets or slippers, or alcoholic beverages, 3. he casually mentions a new video game – like, “did you catch that NYT article yesterday about Red Dead Redemption 2? It is supposed to have spectacular scenery, and you can use a bow and arrow…..“. Every birthday, he downloads a video game for me on the PlayStation, and every year or so, when I am nearing a burnout, I become weak and stay up really late at night for a week, playing until my eyes are as dry as sandpaper – and magically my glass of wine stays full and snacks appear.

Quartet concerts have wrapped up for the year, I have only a couple of days left teaching at the University, and I am neck-deep into Red Dead, which does actually have amazing scenery. I spend as much time as possible in my PJ‘s, and I want to eat only popcorn and cookies. I wore my slippers to the dentist today. Life is good.

Here is a story.

I have several relatives who play in the studios in Los Angeles (movies, tv, commercials, shows). Those LA people make obscene amounts of money, and live good lives, but of course, kindof like switching from violin to viola, you have to sell your soul to the devil. Gone are the days of emotional satisfaction through music making, toiling over a measure for weeks with the metronome; hello whole notes with fermatas, interspersed by incredibly difficult but emotionally vapid pyrotechnics, a healthy dose of ponticello, all while in the comfort of your own personal clicktrack, delivered via headphones, and a back-stage buffet that would give any carb-sensitive individual whiplash.

And so, apparently, any opportunity to play chamber music in this environment is a major carrot-dangler. Rare and tantalizing. These musicians are the top of their field, and incredible sightreaders, and have become accustomed to making music with very little rehearsal, and no personal involvement. Just lay it on down, babycakes. And, of course, with chamber music‘s slow boil, and need for almost ridiculous emotional and technical psychoanalysis, it is like backwards day when they get a chance to play Chamber. Just turn your sweater right on around.

My relative had a chance several years ago to play a chamber concert with some really top-name LA musicians. The rehearsals were hilarious – some people rolling in over an hour late, a smattering of drinking problems, everyone sightreading, but nailing it, and just basically chaos. The concert was in a huge hall, packed, and right before going on-stage, when your typical chamber group would be individually collecting themselves, or offering final tidbits of supportive advice to their colleagues, a member of my relative’s group turned to the other members as he walked on stage, pumped his fist, and said “WINNER TAKES ALL!”

My relative was in such shock, not knowing if this was either: A. serious, or B. the best-delivered straight-faced joke they ever witnessed. The mystery was never solved, but the gift just keeps on giving – it has become a standard part of my chamber music teaching. Win the concert!! It’s you against them – crush your opponents and win, win, win! And now, it is my gift to you. Also – try Red Dead Redemption 2 – you can wander around on your horse for days, and the mountains are so lovely…..

 

 

The troubled Mexican/French tenor has undergone what is described as a gastro-enterological procedure.

He has cancelled tonight’s recital of Hispanic songs at the Grandes Voix Salle Gaveau in Paris.

This is about money, not music, so if you’re not interested click somewhere else.

Christian Reister, a former asset manager at a major Fankfurt bank, has set up a fund based on pedigree violins whose value, he says, can appreciate by 8 per cent a year. His firm, founded in 2014, has sold several dozen instruments to private investors, endowments and family offices.

Now he has started a new fund based on ‘the alternative asset class’. Wassat?

“A Stradivarius can contribute to the diversification of a portfolio due to the low correlation with other asset classes,” Mr Reister said.

Er, and?

Mr Reister and his business partner, Jost Thoene, generate income by either finding instruments themselves and then trying to sell them at a profit, or purchasing them on behalf of clients in return for a fee.

But he wants someone else to put up the money first. That’s banking for you.

Here’s his cv:

Christian Reister, born in 1972, has worked in the field of high net worth investments for more than 20 years. He has many years of extensive experience in both wealth management and asset management. In the past 10 years he worked for M&G Investments, a part of Prudential plc. in London, and for Metzler Asset Management, part of the 340 year-old Metzler Bank in Frankfurt. As Prokurist and Director of Business Development, he was responsible for large institutional clients in international markets

I regret to report the death yesterday of Gerald Larner, northern music critic for the Guardian  1965–93 and the Times 1993-2001. He was 82.

A slightly prickly character on first acquaintance, Gerald was a perfect professional when it came to writing about music. I am proud of having commissioned his biography of Ravel, in which he delved further than anyone had gone before into the deeply private life of that elusive composer.

Gerald enjoyed a conspicuously happy partnership with the broadcaster and theatre critic Lynne Walker, whom he married in 1989. Lynne died, aged 55, in 2011, having first supplied the obit desks with details of Gerald’s life.

Bless them.

 

 

 

Evelyn Glennie’s in the thick of it all this morning.

A BBC journalist showed the deaf percussion player TV footage of Jeremy Corbyn muttering something unpleasant at the prime minister:

“I just showed Evelyn Glennie, the famous percussionist, the footage of Jeremy Corbyn in the Commons. She’s deaf and can lip read.

“She wasn’t aware of the story and her interpretation of what he said was “stupid woman”.

“She says she’s very certain.”

 

Take a look.