That’s strangely what she does not say in today’s interview with the Strad, repeating the sanitised Wiki line that Erna Honigberger ‘fled Berlin during the War’.
‘I had only two violin teachers, both of them women.The first, Erna Honigberger, was a student of Carl Flesch.
‘She fled Berlin during the war, ending up in the tiny corner of the Black Forest where I happened to grow up. She was a fabulous woman who was already in her mid-seventies by the time I met her.
‘As she had a poodle and a giant tortoise in the living room and rabbits in the garden, arriving for a lesson at her house was like going to see Dr Dolittle’.
Elsewhere, in a book interview, Anne-Sophie is more forthcoming:
‘My first teacher was Erna Honigberger, who has been a pupil of Carl Flesch. She was half Jewish and had come to our little village from Berlin because of the War. As a concert artist she called herself Erna Mottl because she also played in coffee houses and probably did not want to be recognised.’
‘Probably’? If Erna had been recognised and denounced, she would have been arrested and deported to a death camp. Anne-Sophie Mutter would never have known her.
These are consequential issues.
The busy Mozart tenor Jeremy Ovenden has signed up with Helga Machreich’s boutique agency in Vienna.
Jeremy, who lives near Glyndebourne with his wife Miah Persson and their children, was previously with a small London agency.
A sign of Brexit times?
The Boston instrument maker Eric Haas has posted tragic news of the death of his wife Janet, a viola da gamba specialist and assistant professor at Berklee.
Janet studied viola da gamba with Laura Jeppesen and John Hsu, and performed with the Boston Baroque ensemble La Sonnerie, the viol trio Oriana, the Folger Consort of Washington, DC, and the El Dorado Ensemble.
Rebecca Miller has been named chief conductor of the Uppsala chamber orchestra.
American born and married to the pianist Danny Driver, she is presently Director of Orchestras at Royal Holloway, University of London and Associate Conductor of the Southbank Sinfonia.
From the press release:
Beginning in 2019, two grants will be awarded annually to composer-librettist teams. Each team will receive up to $12,500 to advance its work through workshops, readings or other developmental activities. OPERA America will also provide financial resources for each team to work with professional videographers and editors to create professional videos for promotional purposes. IDEA Opera Grant recipients will be introduced to leading opera producers through special presentations at OPERA America’s New Works Forum and annual conference, via social media, and in Opera America magazine.
“OPERA America is uniquely positioned as the field’s convener and connector to advance the careers of the most talented creative artists,” declared Marc A. Scorca, president/CEO of OPERA America. “IDEA Opera Grants enable us to identify and support the development of new works by emerging composers and librettists of color. By facilitating their work, we will help enrich the art form with new creative voices.”
The conductor has announced a touring production of Handel’s Semele this spring with his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists. They will visit Paris, Milan, Barcelona and Rome.
But the truly groundbreaking venue is the last one on the list, the Alexandra Palace Theatre in north London, which has reopened after restoration for the first time in 80 years. Built in 1873, the Ally Pally was once a major venue for comedy and music hall in a popular catchment area. Could it be the next chamber opera magnet?
Not for the first time, the entrepreneurial Gardiner appears to be ahead of the game.
photo: Building magazine
Much excitement at the Glenn Gould School, wing of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
They have secured Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka to be head of the vocal department this spring, a huge boost to the school’s professionalism and prestige.
Canada is making a lot of the running in the next generation of classical musicians.
Read here.
