The operetta composer Paul Abraham, a fugitive from the Nazis who returned to Germany in the 1950s, is to have a section of the Grindelberg park named after him.
Abraham, originally from Budapest and Berlin, died in Hamburg in 1960.
We would like to see something named after Bethold Goldschmidt, who was Hamburg born and bred.
From our diarist Anthea Kreston:
Clocking in at 54,462, it’s the largest westernmost city in the contiguous 48 States. Its Mayor is named Biff, and it was founded in 1845 by Joseph C. Avery, who arrived from the East in search of fortune and a new life. He built a log cabin, which he left soon afterward to try to find gold in California, which was totally unsuccessful, so he came back to his poorly constructed cabin with plans to open a store of some kind.
Nestled between two mountain ranges in a fertile valley filled with grass seed farms, Corvallis is home to Oregon State University and Hewlett Packard, and the yearly Da Vinci Days Festival, which features a kinetic sculpture race from sand mountain, through mud pit, to river. It’s also the home to several notable people, including Robert Cheeke (bodybuilder and vegan activist), Edmund Creffield (founder of the “Holy Rollers“ religious sect), John Krakauer (author, Into Thin Air), and Zlatomir Fung (winner of the Tchaikovsky International Competition for Cello, 2019).
How do people grow up in small towns and find a path towards international recognition as vegan activists, authors and cellists? Zlatomir was 9 when he moved away (that was 10 years ago) but his first 9 years, like everyone’s first 9 years, were very, very important. Let’s take a look.
I was able to track down his first teacher, who is actually a friend of mine, because I used to live in Corvallis and I hope my second child, who was born there, can somehow, some day make it onto that intriguing list of “Notable People from Corvallis”.
Her name is Ann Grabe. She is a suzuki teacher, and has had a pretty interesting path towards that little city which is currently rated as the #2,967th best place to live in America, according to Niche.com.
Anthea Question:
Hello, Ann! What was Zlatomir like when you met him? What was his first lesson like?
Ann:
Zlati had good focus at 3 when he began lessons. He had a strong bond with his mother which helped make lessons so positive. He brought his foot chart and correct sized stool to all lessons.
At his first lesson he learned about bowing feet, cello feet, how to sit without the cello, sitting with the cello, and how to bow. (bough)
His mom was very attentive and took copious notes and totally trusted me, they did EVERY assignment, every week. I think his mom taught middle school math, though with her good brain I think she could have walked into any place an gotten a fabulous job. She said such supportive and warm comments at just the right moments…she had a very good sense of timing when to ask question and to give compliments.
Anthea:
I know the Suzuki method is based on the idea that everyone is equally able to play an instrument (I was a suzuki child from age 2.5-7). Do you find this to be authentically true, or can you tell when one student or another might have a unique gift?
Ann:
The Suzuki method is based on the idea of teaching music with the same method that children learn to speak their mother tongue. Young children learn to speak their native language at such a high level at such a young age. All children learn to speak, thus all children can learn music. Dr. Suzuki does not say every child will become a concert cellist.
I personally strongly believe that talent is trained, Suzuki himself wanted his method to be called Talent Education.
Anthea:
If you do run into someone with an unusual talent, what do you do to foster that? Do you feel a particular responsibility to that family?
Ann:
If I run into someone who is ready to go, i.e. ready to learn (because of their very strong environment at home being surrounded with music, music games, warmth, support, etc.) I do not give them more attention than my other students. Everybody gets special attention. I teach skills as if every student will play the Dvorak Concerto. If they move slower, it won’t be because of my prejudgements limiting them. I both expect a lot and demand a lot from all.
If everybody plays well, the whole class improves.
When Zlati started lessons, there was another little boy 4 years old who also was ready to go, his mom took fabulous notes and they also came every week with every assignment well practiced. There wasn’t any competition between them, (such a destructive thing) but it was so helpful to have two kids of similar age start together and see each other at our bi-monthly group classes.
Anthea:
What was Zlatomir like as a cellist and person?
Ann:
Zlati was always a thoughtful, warm, and gentle soul. I think he learned this from both his mom and dad . I got to meet his grandfather at one of our recitals, that grandfather was so smart, respectful, and thoughtful; I loved watching his interaction with his grandson.
Anthea:
What are some of the challenges and benefits to living in a small town?
Ann:
I studied cello at the Hochschule fur Musik for five years in Stuttgart, Germany and received both an education degree and an Artistic Diploma (performance degree), I also taught cello for 7 years at L’institut Suzuki in Lyon, France. Both those cities had large populations, and one day I made a career choice to breath clean air, have access to the mountains and ocean, own a small house with a big back yard with a dog, and to live in a vibrant small town over art galleries, theatre, opera, world famous orchestras, and dirty air filled with coal smoke and diesel fumes. I was sick of all that pollution.
Anthea:
Could you have anticipated that Zlatomir would rise to this level?
Ann:
Absolutely
Here is what Zlatomir says in Symphony Magazine about Corvallis and Ann Grabe, his first teacher.
Cellist Zlatomir Fung salutes a series of teachers who have molded him. “Every teacher has been right for that moment in my life,” Fung says. “I’m really lucky and grateful.”
Cellist Zlatomir Fung, a Juilliard School undergraduate who already holds a fistful of prizes, says his good fortune with teachers began when he was 3 years old. “Somehow or other, the town where I was living—Corvallis, Ore.— happened to have this brilliant Suzuki cello teacher. And I just fell into her lap,” Fung says.
Ann Grabe, a cellist in the Eugene Symphony, devoted Fung’s first year almost entirely to such basics as the correct finger position and bow hold, and the thorough grounding paid off from there on, Fung says.
Here is Zlatomir on “Skip the Repeat”
The New York architect Steven Holl, working with Nagata Acoustic, today won the competition to build a 1300-seat concert hall in Ostrava, the eastern town where Leos Janacek died.
Completion is scheduled for 2024.
The money will be provided by the City of Ostrava, by the Czech Republic, and by the Moravian-Silesian Region.
Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen will tonight open the summer festival at Erl tonight, where the founder conductor Gustav Kuhn has departed amid a welter of abuse allegations, which he denies.
The French conductor Audrey Saint-Gil has been flown in for Aida which, she cheerfully admits, she has never done before.
Audrey yesterday announced her engagement to the British baritone Christopher Maltman. He will be singing to the title role in Salzburg’s production of Enescu’s Oedipe next month.
We wish them every happiness.
The tenor has been photoshooting his next Sony album, titled ‘Wien’.
The content looks like a tribute – is that the word? – to the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Day concert.
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Johann Strauss
EINE NACHT IN VENEDIG
Sei mir gegrüßt, du holdes Venezia
Komm in die Gondel
Lagungenwalzer (Ach, wie so herrlich zu schau’n)
Johann Strauss
DIE FLEDERMAUS Uhrenduett
Johann Strauss
WIENER BLUT Wiener Blut
Franz Léhar
DIE LUSTIGE WITWE Lippen schweigen
Emerich Kálmán
DIE ZIRKUSPRINZESSIN Zwei Märchenaugen
Jaromír Weinberger
FRÜHLINGSSTÜRME Du wärst für mich die Frau gewesen
Johann Strauss
DIE TÄNZERIN FANNY ELSSLER Draußen in Sievering
Robert Stolz Wien wird schön erst bei Nacht
Rudolf Sieczynski Wien, Du Stadt meiner Träume (Wien, Wien, nur Du allein)
Ralph Benatzky Ich muss wieder einmal in Grinzing sein
Robert Stolz Im Prater blüh’n wieder die Bäume
Peter Kreuder Sag zum Abschied leise Servus
Hans May Heut ist der schönste Tag
Hans May It is wird im Leben
Hermann Leopoldi In einem kleinen Coffee in Hernals
Georg Kreisler Der Tod, das muss ein Wiener sein
Jonas Kaufmann – tenor
Rachel Willis-Sørensen – soprano
Wiener Philharmoniker
Ádám Fischer – director
The richly accomplished and brilliantly communcative composer Michael Colgrass died this week at the age of 87.
His wife and son issued this bulletin: ‘Yesterday was Michael`s last day of a remarkable life. His health had been gradually failing, and he left us at age 87. As most of you know, he enjoyed life until the end, surrounded by friends and family and helped along by wonderful health care workers.”
‘Neal and I will miss him very much, as we are sure others will. He touched so many lives through his music and friendships. Thank you to all who sent greetings during his illness, came to visit from near and far and to play music in our house.”
‘Michael did not want any ceremonies after his death, nor did he want you to be sad. Instead, visit him by playing his music and feel his spirit soar.
Neal and Ulla Colgrass
A Chicago jazz musician, Colgrass won the 1978 Pulitzer for a symphonic piece Déjà vu, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. Boston, Minnesota, Detroit and others rushed in with further commissions. He wrote extensively for wind bands. His music was always warmly received.
In Canada, where he took citizenship, he worked closely with the Toronto Symphony and was an associate of the Canadian Music Centre.
We revealed yesterday that the city of Bonn would not have its concert hall ready for the 2020 Beethoven year.
Today, we hear that Nike Wagner will step down as director directly after next year’s Beethovenfest.
Like many others (including the federal Government), she’s had enough of Bonn.
One of the last visionary acts of the Belgian director Gerard Mortier was to create the Ruhrtriennale, a modernist festival in Germany’s rust-belt cities along the Rhine.
Since his death, the festival has faded.
A new director was announced today: Barbara Frey, director of the Schauspielhaus Zurich for the past decade.
Safety first.
Mortier would have thrown up.
I was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row last night for a response to the Brexit Party’s MEPs turning their backs on Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, which happens to be the EU anthem.
Aside from the calculated discourtesy, I pointed out that Beethoven’s ninth was the first great British symphony, commissioned by the Philharmonic Society from an office close to the BBC, from a composer who desperately needed the money and was touchingly grateful for the commission. George Bernard Shaw called it ‘”the only entirely creditable incident in English history’.
Be that as it may, the Brexit movement knows no history.
Listen to Front Row here.
