Our latest exclusive review from the CBSO100 season, feturing the UK debut of a rising conductor:
CBSO at Symphony Hall ★★★★
Bizet’s Carmen has an abundance of great melodies, the sort of tunes the milkman could whistle – when he had milkmen. So catchy and firmly embedded in our musical consciousness, that we don’t even require the singers, as the orchestral Suite No.2 showed. German conductor Anja Bihlmaier (pictured) has worked extensively in the opera house and was right at home here, coaxing some sparkling playing from the orchestra in the sultry Habanera and the whirling bacchanal of the Danse bohème. Alan Thomas’s cornet gave us the swaggering toreador Escamillo and guest leader Tamas Kocsis, a chaste but tenderly beautiful Micaela.
Gypsy music, of Hungary rather than Spain, was also the inspiration for Ravel’s Tzigane. What a performance from Renaud Capuçon. Dazzling, scintillating, coruscating – add further adjectives as required. The double stops whizzed by and the pizzicatos pinged as the Frenchman, supported with some lovely piquant orchestral touches, brought the fiddling wizardry of a bygone era back for ten minutes. Before the fireworks came Chausson’s Poème with Capuçon’s shimmering tone perfectly gauged for this study in silver-grey melancholy and restrained ardour.
Bihlmaier conducted a lively, colourful but oddly superficial performance of Dvořák mighty Symphony No. 7. Like a hasty charabanc trip through Bohemia we saw the sights – the woods and fields, a bit of folkloric dancing – but always glimpsed through a window. There was little of the symphony’s dark D minor depths. Bihlmaier needs to note that the furiant dance in Dvorak’s scherzo needs as much idiomatic rubato as does a Strauss waltz.
Norman Stinchcombe
The mezzo-soprano Giuliana Castellani has died in a head-on collision on an Austrian motorway.
Giuliana was 40.
Her dog, who was in the car, also died.
A cancer patient in her teens, Giuliana went on to a lively concert career, singing with Jose Carreras among others.
She is survived by her parents.
In somewhat heavy Dutch humour, the NY Philharmonic chief responds to a question as to whether he’s in the running for the vacant Amsterdam orchestra by referring to the original name for New York.
The Association of Teachers of Singing (AOTOS) has conveyed news of the death of Tina Ruta, a much sought after voice coach at Trinity College of Music and the Royal Opera House.
She set a high benchmark for singing standards.
The last of my DG videocasts on Wilhelm Furtwängler – ‘he was phenomenally well paid’.
‘He spent the last nine years of his life justifying himself with a tissue of myths and lies.’
From Caroline Wenbourne, a member of the Vienna State Opera ensemble:
What a crazy day… after an unexpected Call… I just sang my Amelia Boccanegra debut at the Wiener Staatsoper!
Out of such incidents big career are made.
The Metropolitan Opera has unveiled its lastest artwork, a sculpture by George Condo in the most exquisite nouveau-riche honey-trap taste.
It glitters, it’s gold and it’s about as thoughtful as a bunch of dollar bills from an ATM.
The Met’s website tells us this about its art policy: Conceived by General Manager Peter Gelb and Dodie Kazanjian, the founding director and curator, Gallery Met continues and reaffirms the Met’s long history of groundbreaking relationships with major visual artists—such as Chagall and Hockney—while fostering new opportunities for collaboration.
Just so you know where complaints should be addressed.
The Festschrift in honour of Siegfried Mauser is out today.
The volume of tributes, published by Verlag Koenigshausen & Neumann under the editorship of eminent scholars and composers, acclaims ‘the infectious spontaneity and inspiring vitality which have earned him some criticism…(die ansteckende Spontanität und begeisternde Vitalität haben ihm manche Kritik eingetragen‘.
Oh, really?
Not to mention his ‘world-embracing Eros.’
Have they taken leave of their senses?
Mauser, the highest court in the land has decided, was a perpetual groper who took physical advantage of women under his power.
Eastman School of Music has called off an orchestra tour of China after facing widespread criticism for agreeing to leave behind three South Korean students who were denied visas.
Last night, the Eastman Dean Jamal Rossi issued the following internal statement:
Dear Members of the Eastman Community,
I write with an update on the planned Eastman Philharmonia tour of China. I initially chose to proceed with this tour to preserve a transformative opportunity for eighty students. But even after I announced my decision last week, my colleagues and I continued to actively explore multiple avenues to obtain appropriate visas for every member of the ensemble. Ultimately, however, we were not successful. Therefore, in consultation with many individuals, including University and Eastman leadership and our Chinese tour organizers, we have decided to postpone the tour until all members of the orchestra can participate.
I am grateful to the many individuals who took the time to share their thoughts about this matter. Regardless of individual positions, the overriding message for which we can all be grateful was a deep appreciation and respect for Eastman and a commitment to the standards and excellence that have marked our school for nearly 100 years.
For many years, Eastman musicians have performed in venues around the globe to a wide variety of audiences. It is my priority and personal commitment to continue to provide opportunities for Eastman students to share their music with the world. But I believe that given the particular circumstances of this tour, the best course of action for the Eastman community and the values we share is to wait until the Philharmonia can perform as one.
Sincerely,
Jamal Rossi
This is an eminently sensible course of action, an honourable retreat in the nick of time. Dean Rossi is to be congratulated on changing his mind. Eastman is back on course, the music can continue.
