Message received from the Paradisal Players, London:
Our friend Stephen Kennedy, the extraordinarily talented singer and viola player, suffered a serious stroke in January, and was in a coma for several weeks. Joyously, he is now making a steady recovery, and is learning to walk again. We are organising a special fundraising concert for him. Here he is as soloist with the celebrated choir Tenebrae.
Given how he has so many friends who are both singers and orchestral players, we thought the obvious piece to do would be Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 2, the ‘Resurrection’. The music depicts a journey from awful darkness to glorious light, the ultimate recovery if you will, and suits Steve’s situation rather aptly! Some of the funds raised will go to the Stroke Association, who will be supporting the event with publicity and marketing, and the rest will go directly to Steve.
The International Conducting Competition Rotterdam will launch in June 2021.
Jaap Van Zweden says: ‘The ICCR is an extremely relevant and necessary new initiative. It offers young conductors the unique chance to work with numerous major orchestras. An essential experience that nowadays is very rare.’
Oh, really?
Here’s more: ICCR introduces a complete new formula by using multiple well-known orchestras with strong artistic profiles. Each round highlights a different genre, ranging from romantic to contemporary music, as well as opera and oratorio.
Ho-hum.
The Hong Kong Philharmonic have announced a December performance of ‘Mahler Symphony no. 10: Adagio and Purgatorio (first performance since 1924 of Willem Mengelberg’s performing version)’.
Mengelberg had staged the first complete Mahler cycle in Amsterdam in 1920. He prepared the two near-complete movements of the Tenth but his score was discarded in favour of one by Ernst Krenek, a young German composer who was married at the time to Mahler’s daughter.
Hearing it will be a curiosity.
The conductor is fellow-Dutchman, Jaap Van Zweden.
The bounceback chief conductor of Rome Opera is parking his tanks of the piazza of La Scala with a new orchestra, launching in Milan on May 31.
Described as ‘a new concept of orchestra in which different generations of artists join in an innovative project for the dissemination of music’, the LaFil – Filarmonica di Milano will consist of musicians from Santa Cecilia, Teatro alla Scala, Bologna, La Fenice, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic and more.
Its launch soloists are Frank Peter Zimmermann and Jan Vogler. The financial backing comes from the wealthy publisher Luca Formenton.
This is Gatti reborn.
Press release:
UNA NUOVA ORCHESTRA CHE UNISCE GIOVANI PROMESSE E MUSICISTI AFFERMATI DELLE PRINCIPALI ORCHESTRE ITALIANE E INTERNAZIONALI
Debutto il 31 maggio a Milano al Palazzo delle Scintille a CityLife con Daniele Gatti sul podio
In programma nel 2019 l’integrale delle sinfonie di Schumann e Brahms e concerti di musica da camera presso le Gallerie d’Italia – Piazza della Scala
Solisti d’eccezione: il violinista Frank Peter Zimmermann e il violoncellista Jan Vogler
Milano – 31 maggio; 1 e 2 giugno; 25 e 27 ottobre; 1 e 3 novembre
Sestri Levante – 19, 20, 24, 27 e 28 luglio; Milano – Evento conclusivo di BookCity 17 novembre
www.lafil.com
Una concezione nuova di orchestra in cui generazioni diverse di artisti si incontrano e si riconoscono in un progetto innovativo di diffusione della musica. Giovani talenti in ascesa e musicisti affermati provenienti dalle compagini più prestigiose: Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra della Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste, Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker. Programmi di alto interesse artistico, affidati al direttore Daniele Gatti e a solisti come il violinista Frank Peter Zimmermann e il violoncellista Jan Vogler. È LaFil – Filarmonica di Milano, nuova orchestra che nasce dall’iniziativa dei quattro soci fondatori, Luca Formenton, Presidente del Saggiatore e della fondazione cui fa capo l’orchestra, Roberto Tarenzi, viola del Quartetto Borciani e docente al Conservatorio di Milano, Carlo Maria Parazzoli, primo violino di Santa Cecilia, Marco Seco, direttore d’orchestra italo-argentino, insieme alla Consulente strategica Marilù Martelli e all’avvocato Paola Tradati.
LaFil – Filarmonica di Milano debutta il 31 maggio al Palazzo delle Scintille di Milano: un edificio in tardo stile art nouveau, progettato dall’architetto Paolo Vietti Violi nel 1923 per l’ex Fiera della città, dove sono in programma la Sinfonia n. 1 in si bemolle maggiore, op. 38 e la Sinfonia n. 3 in mi bemolle maggiore, op. 97 di Robert Schumann, dirette da un interprete di riferimento del grande repertorio romantico come Daniele Gatti. Vincitore del Premio Abbiati, nominato in Francia Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, Gatti è l’attuale Direttore musicale del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. Il ciclo schumanniano da lui proposto per inaugurare le attività de LaFil – Filarmonica di Milano sarà completato il 2 giugno, sempre alle Scintille, con la Sinfonia n. 2 in do maggiore op. 61 e la Sinfonia n. 4 in re minore op. 120.
LaFil – Filarmonica di Milano, insieme al Comune di Milano e a tutti i sostenitori dell’Orchestra, ha deciso di festeggiare la nascita di questo nuovo progetto offrendo gratuitamente i concerti del 31 maggio e del 2 giugno, fino ad esaurimento dei posti.
Per partecipare è necessario iscriversi tramite l’apposito link presente sul sito ufficiale de LaFil – Filarmonica di Milano: www.lafil.com.
The composer of Palestrina was born 150 years ago this week, on May 5, 1869.
And no-one’s paying a blind bit of attention.
Pfitzner was respected by Mahler and Strauss, seduced (almost) by Alma Mahler and disavowed by the Nazis (though he was a card-carrying anti-semite).
He was a terrible misanthrope.
Music is a social occupation.
Talent isn’t everything.
Christopher Gabbitas, former King’s Singer, is to be the next Artistic Director at the Phoenix Chorale.
He succeeds Charles Bruffy, who led Phoenix for 20 years.
VAN magazine’s Art Director Alex Ketzer has been running his eagle eye down the current batch of season brochure.
The German Music Council is forming a national youth choir for singers aged 16 to 26 who live in Germany. Based in Bonn, it will have around 50 members and be affiliated to the BJO, the Federal Youth Orchestra, with full-scale government support.
‘This will create a choir that nurtures and promotes the German choral tradition, a choir that represents choral singing in Germany and is a figurehead for the German choral landscape, a choir that is an excellence ensemble and sets the highest quality standards. which promotes highly gifted young voices and is open to all with outstanding vocal achievements,’ said Franziska Giffey, Federal Minister for Family Affairs.
