December 26, 2019 - Slippedisc

Christopher ‘Kiffer’ Finzi, who has died aged 84, was married to Hilary, the sister of Jacqueline DuPre.

In a scabrous history published in 1997 under the title A Genius in the Family he related how they slept three in a bed.

Jackie was, at the time, in a highly vulnerable state. Although she was dead by the time the memoir appeared, most who knew her felt Kiffer and Hilary had defiled her memory. The book was followed a year later by a movie, Hilary and Jackie.

Daniel Barenboim, who was Jackie’s husband, was deeply wounded by the book and the film but could do nothing about the film.

Kiffer had several children outside his marriage. The Times has a deftly balanced obituary.

German media have awoken to the death in Dresden of a great tenor, who became an equally reliable conductor. Schreier, who was 84, made his name in the former East Germany and was its most exportable talent. He sang for 25 consecutive seasons at the Salzburg Festival and appeared at many of the major opera houses in roles that ranged from Mozart to Wagner and beynd to his favourite, Pfitzner’s Palestrina.

He made multiple recordings.

2010 Singers Philip Langridge, Blanche Thebom, Bass Cesare Siepi, Anthony Rolfe Johnson,Giuseppi Taddei, Maureen Forrester, Joan Sutherland

Pianist Earl Wild

Conductors Charles Mackerras, Rudolf Barshai

Composer Henry Mikolai Gorecki

2011 Composer Milton Babbitt

Conductor Yakov Kreizberg

Pianist George Shearing

Singers Amy Winehouse, Dame Margaret Price, Robert Tear, Salvatore Licitra, Sena Jurinac

Violinist Josef Suk

2012 Soprano Lisa Connell

Baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Sopranos Evelyn Lear, Galina Vishnevskaya, Lisa Della Casa

Organist Carlo Curley

Composers Hans Werner Henze, Jonathan Harvey, Dave Brubeck, Richard Rodney Bennett, Elliott Carter, Jonathan Harvey

Sitar player Ravi Shankar

Conductor Gustav Leonhardt

Violinist Ruggiero Ricci

2013 Conductors Wolfgang Sawallisch, Colin Davis

Pianist Van Cliburn,

Composers Henri Dutilleix, Steve Martland, John Tavener, Wojech Kilar

Organist Marie-Claire Alain

Director Patrice Chereau

2014 Conductors Claudio Abbado, Christopher Hogwood, Julius Rudel, Frans Brüggen, Lorin Maazel

Composer Peter Sculthorpe

2015 Composers John McCabe, Ezra Laderman, Gunther Schuller, Ronald Stevenson

Conductors Kurt Masur, David Willcocks, Walter Weller

Tenor Jon Vickers

Violinist Joseph Silverstein

2o16 Pierre Boulez

Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Composers Steven Stucky, Pauline Oliveros, Einojuhani Rautavara, Peter Maxwell Davies

Conductor Neville Marriner

Cellist Heinrich Schiff

Pianist Zoltan Kocsis

Singers Daniela Dessi, Johan Botha

2017 Conductors George Pretre, Stanislaw Skrowacewski, Louis Fremaux, Jiri Belohlavek,

Singers Nicolai Gedda, Dmitry Hvorostovsky

Director Peter Hall

Harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková

2018 Activist: José Antonio Abreu
Conductors Jean-Claude Malgoire, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Jesus Lopez Cobos

Violinists Wanda Wilkomirska, Hermann KrebbersComposers Oliver Knussen, Noam Sherriff

Soprano Montserrat Caballé

Cellist Aldo Parisot

A detailed list of 2019 losses follows here.

AP quotes the rector of Notre Dame Cathedral as saying the bilding is so fragile from rescue work after the fire that there is a 50-50 chalnce it will collapse.

Monsignor Patrick Chauvet said: ‘Today it is not out of danger. ‘Today we can say that there is maybe a 50% chance that it will be saved. There is also 50% chance of scaffolding falling onto the three vaults, so as you can see the building is still very fragile.’