The dancer Christine DuBoulay Ellis, one of the last survivors of the Sleeping Beauty cast that reopened the Royal Opera House in London in 1946, has died of Parkinson’s at the age of 96.
She was married to Richard Ellis, one of Margot Fonteyn’s first dancing partners in The Royal Ballet.
Together, they established the Illinois Ballet in Chicago.
Obituary here.
Latest review by Christoper Morley from our CBSO100 series:
BEETHOVEN AND STRAVINSKY
CBSO at Symphony Hall *****
It’s said you can often tell who is conducting from the nature of the sound they draw from an orchestra. But what happens when their sound has multiple personalities, as revealed in this polarised programme (Beethoven and Stravinsky) under the young Spanish conductor Gustavo Gimeno?
The sheer weight of tone he produced from the CBSO at the start of Beethoven’s Egmont Overture was breathtakingly arresting, each chord attacked with the depth of an excavator, leading into an allegro irresistible in its forward momentum, unleashing energetic reserves of power, and ending in a coda where timpani thrilled and horns blazed.
More Beethoven followed, bringing more minor-key solemnity, Jeremy Denk the soloist in the Third Piano Concerto. Gimeno’s opening tutti was both sombre and athletic, Denk’s entry bringing a warmly-balanced piano tone and a sure sense of organic flow, culminating in a formidable cadenza.
Denk’s approach to the otherworldly slow movement was almost Chopinesque in the delicacy of the rippling right-hand thirds and the filigree of decoration, and the finale was crisp and fresh-faced.
What irritated, however, was his habit of frequently turning his head to conspire with the audience, as though to indicate “this is a good bit, isn’t it” — a mannerism far more appropriate to his brilliant encore, a jazzy, uproarious transcription of the Pilgrims’ March from Wagner’s Tannhauser. Was this Denk’s own?
Finally came the alter ego of Gimeno’s weighty tone, an ability via his elegantly expressive beat to deliver with glittering clarity all the multi-layered textures of Stravinsky’s Petrushka. Rhythmically incisive, sound-images swirling like collages, and clearing the way for amazing solos from every department — Ben Dawson’s fiendish piano, Jonathan Holland’s supremely secure trumpet outstanding.
But Gimeno also found amid this teeming pageantry (the final Shrovetide Fair a counterpart to the excitement of the final scene in Wagner’s Meistersinger) moments of lyricism, and a suspense of excitement which led to an ending which was genuinely tragic.
Christopher Morley
The BBC Concert Orchestra has just named Anna-Maria Helsing as its principal guest conductor.
She is Swedish-Finnish and has been, at the Oulu Symphony, the first woman to head a Finnish symphony orchestra.
There are now four Finnish conductors across the three main BBC orchestras –
Sakari Oramo as music director of the BBC Symphony
Dalia Stasevska principal guest conductor
John Storgårds Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic
and now Helsing at the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Plus a Dane, Thomas Dausgaard, at the BBC Scottish.
One might almost suspect nepotism.
Why is there not a single non-white conductor at the BBC?
Questions should be asked in the next Parliament.
UPDATE: The BBC have been in touch to say that Ryan Bancroft, recently appointed principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, is African-American.
Things are going down badly at Grand Teton, Wyoming, under CEO Andrew Palmer Todd.
Here’s what the musicians tell Slipped Disc:
This week, in a blatant and egregious attempt to silence its musician membership, the management at the Grand Teton Music Festival (GTMF) issued termination letters to three musicians and orchestra representatives on the grounds of “comportment” and “disruptive behavior”.
Two of the musicians, Kristen Linfante and Juan de Gomar, serve on the orchestra’s Players’ Committee. Linfante also serves as Chairwoman of the committee. The 10-member committee is chosen by election each year by the approximately 230 musicians that participate in the festival. Its role is to represent the collective voice of the musicians to the festival’s management and artistic leadership.
Juan De Gomar serves as bassoonist and contrabassoonist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and has been a member of the GTMF for 19 seasons. Linfante serves as Principal Violist of Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra and has been a member of the festival for 23 seasons. The third terminated musician, Jennifer Ross, is a recent musician representative to the Board of Directors at the Grand Teton Music Festival. Former Principal Second Violinist of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Ross has participated in the festival for the past 38 seasons. The commonality among these three musicians is that each openly expressed grave concerns of the musicians at weekly scheduled “town hall” meetings organized by the festival’s management this past summer.
While town hall meetings typically provide a safe and open forum for discussion, these meetingsappear to have done the opposite. The terminated musicians expressed collective concerns surrounding new directions that the festival appears to be going in at the direction of President and CEO Andrew Palmer Todd – a shift that places more focus on the festival as a presenting organization of outside, one-off performers, and less focus on the foundation upon which the festival was built nearly 60 years ago – its internationally recognized orchestra, made up of musicians from the nation’s top orchestras and learning institutions that come together each summer for the 7-week festival.
A gloomy press release from the Budapest Festival Orchestra:
Cutbacks at the Budapest Festival Orchestra
The Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO) has learned that it will only receive HUF 200
million in additional grant from the Hungarian government designed to replace the
discontinued corporate tax grant, which accounts for less than 50% of the average
corporate tax subsidy the orchestra was granted in previous years.
Having planned its next seasons in reliance on this compensation and based on the
average of the previous years, the BFO is now obliged to cancel several projects to be able
to maintain stable operation. The main consideration for selecting events to be cancelled
was the possibility of late cancellation.
As a result, new opera productions, a four-year-long collaboration with the Geneva opera
house, and a tour of the Baltic states will not take place from next year. Some of the
orchestra’s community outreach and educational programs in Hungary such as the
“Choose your Instrument” in schools, the See What You Hear! film competition for high
school students, the BFO Reaches Out! project, church concerts, chamber music concerts
at elderly homes and “Music Castle” concerts for underprivileged children will also be
discontinued.
In the absence of stable and predictable financial background, Martin Hoffmann, the
Budapest Festival Orchestra’s managing director, has resigned and the Board of Directors
is searching for a replacement. The BFO staff is also forced to make staff cuts.
All over the world, the Budapest Festival Orchestra is regarded as the pride and the most
successful cultural ensemble of Hungary, a unique ambassador of the country’s culture and
reputation. The BFO hopes that the restoration of its grants on previous years’ level will
facilitate the continuation of the programs suspended as of January 2020, in particular the
hugely popular outreach and youth programs.
Such is the excitement over Jonas Kaufmann in Die Tote Stadt that hardly anyone noticed Christian Gerhaher’s parallel run of performances as Wozzeck. The star pair are alternating on the same stage at the Bavarian State Opera.
Talk of luxury casting.
Here‘s a Wozzeck review.
And another.
No hype. Just epic singing.
Photo: Wilfried Hösl
Martin Hoffmann resigned today as managing director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra.
Hoffmannn, who enjoyed an amicable partnership with Simon Rattle at the Berlin Philharmonic, joined Ivan Fischer with a brief to tighten up finances at the somewhat ad hoc Budapest outfit.
He has lasted less than a year in the job.
UPDATE: A press release blames the Hungarian Government for cutbacks.
2nd UPDATE: In light of the budget cuts, we understand that Martin Hoffmann will stay connected to the BFO in a new capacity as International President.
Alexander Pereira has told the media in Florence that he will be putting up prices immediately on his arrival as director next month.
Even so, top price tickets will still cost only 200 Euros – less than half of what he charged when he was running the Salzburg Festival.
Pereira is renowned for his sunny managerial style.
Report here.
Readers of Pianist magazine – a generally quiet lot of pianophiles who crack open the mag to learn new fingerings – may be slightly alarmed when the Christmas issue of their favourite journal drops through the letterbox.
The cover personage is the flamboyant Lola Astanova, not previously associated with the drier pursuits of music education or the heights of concert stardom.
Anything else you’d like in your stocking?
See how she plays here.
UPDATE: Lola in teaching mode, this summer:
Fb page pic
