From Elisabeth Wiklander, cellist in the London Philharmonic Orchestra:
We were playing Britten’s War Requiem in Royal Festival Hall when I first spotted you, my dear friend. You stunned me, sitting there in the audience. A stranger, but looking just like my beloved grandpa who had passed away only a few months before. You looked like a man who had memories from the war, and seeing you moved me to tears through the entire performance. Soon I spotted you in yet another concert. And then another one. You came regularly, always sitting on the end chair of the centre front stalls on row 3.
Soon it was my routine to always look for you when entering the stage. Two years of wondering who you were passed and I thought to myself that I must know you. One day your chair will be forever empty and I’d regret not saying hi to you, not knowing whom I’ve looked for every concert during those years. So one day I went to front of house where the audience dwell during interval. I found you and I introduced myself, sharing the whole strange story with you. We became friends. I became friends with your friends and there wasn’t one time you attended that we didn’t meet in the interval and talked.
For three years we did this and at 99 years old, you were still a faithful concert goer, always looking so presentable… and who went home from our concerts by bus to Dulwich! When you turned 98 I gave you a birthday card signed by many orchestra members, including the conductor Vladimir Jurowski.
You were so happy about that and I was so pleased you treasured it so much you even brought it to hospital when you broke some ribs from a fall, caught pneumonia and still lived it through and came back to concerts! You were bright, witty and passionate about symphonic music and opera.
You were so delightful, so lovely, so knowledgable and I think your memory was better than mine! I was looking forward to our lunch date with your friends in two weeks time to celebrate your 100th birthday, but it seems our Lord has called you home to have the big celebration in a better place. How empty your chair will be. How I’ll miss you. But I’m so privileged to have known you and so happy I went to make your acquaintance! You had an amazingly rich, long life. Rest in peace dearest Paul Steiner.
When Deborah Borda was prez of the LA Phil she also ran the Hollywood Bowl.
When she left, her deputy Gail Samuel ran the organisation in an interim capacity until the board named the next (wrong) boss.
Once he went, Chad Smith became CEO of the LA Phil, but today they split the jobs to Gail steps up as President of the Hollywood Bowl and Chief Operating Officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.
All clear?
Matthew Feargrieve, a hedge-fund lawyer who assaulted an underwear designer who was trying to climb into the neighbouring seat, was ordered today to pay £2,265 at Westminster Crown Court.
He was fined £900, plus £775 in costs, £500 to the victim and a £90 victim surcharge.
Cheap at the price. I might try it myself the next time someone farts beside me at the opera.
The Detroit Symphony has chosen an Italian of little renown, Jader Bignamini, as its next music director. Bignamini, 43, will start work in summer on a six-year contract. It appears he was picked by the players after an impressive Mahler fourth symphony last October.
He is an untested commodity. Bignamini has been assistant to Riccardo Chailly in Milan and has guest conducted extensively, but he has never held a music director position and his symphonic repetroire is limited.
His predecessor, Leonard Slatkin, was not involved in the prolonged search and was gently surprised at the outcome. Bignamini’s agents, Opus 3, were also taken aback. They were backing a different conductor for the job.
This is a tough one for Detroit. First they have to turn a total unknown into a household name in no time flat. Then they have to make the musical relationship strike sparks. Neither is a foregone conclusion.
Dress it up whichever way they like, this is a massive gamble.
But it also signifies the dilemma of US orchestra outside the top ten. Unable to afford a famous or accomplished conductor, they make the best they can out of slim pickings.
‘IMG Artists GmbH is delighted to welcome baritone Yngve Søberg to its roster for general management.’
Yngve?
If he ever makes the NY Times, they’ll take half a column explaining how to pronounce it.
He’s from Norway, by the way.
The eminent violinist and conductor will perform next week at the Pacific Institution Regional Treatment Centre in Abbotsford, British Columbia.
“It is a historic first for such an internationally renowned and high-caliber musician like Gidon Kremer to take the time out of his schedule to travel to Canada and present his artistry in a prison environment, which is also a first for him in his illustrious career,” said Dmitri Kanovich, founder and CEO of Looking at the Stars.
Good man.
The late Mariss Jansons was due to give three concerts with the Concertgebouw in March.
Gianandrea Noseda has stepped in.
The concerts will be dedicated in Jansons’ memory.
Noseda’s name will be added to the long list of possibles for Amsterdam’s unfillable vacancy.
Days after winning the inaugural Jeffrey Tate award, violist Timothy Ridout has signed with HarrisonParrott.
Not much work around for viola solo, but what there is he’ll he first in line.
The Times has published an eyebrows-raising piece on how much tax money each seat receives at the opera.
At Birmingham Opera it’s £173, Opera North £108, ENO £97, Welsh £60.
At the Royal Opera it’s only £34, despite the ROH receiving by far the largest subsidy – £24.8 million, twice that of ENO.
Work that one out.
Deborah Dugan has filed a lawsuit against the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Tuesday claimin sexual harrassment.
The former CEO says she was put on administrative leave after emailing the HR department with allegations against the organization and its ‘historically male dominated leadership.’
Dugan claims she was then fired after questioning the Grammys’ nomination process, alleging conflicts of interest ariding from a boys’ club mentality.’
The Polish composer has cancelled a week of concerts with Zurich’s Tonhalle orchestra.
His assistant Maciej Tworek will conduct.
The conductor Fabien Gabel, himself a former trumpet player, has informed us of the death of his father Bernard Gabel, principal trumpet of the Paris Opéra from 1967 to 2002.
He also played regular solos for Karl Richter and Karl Münchinger.
