Dr Christian Strauss, grandson of Richard Strauss, died on February 7 at the age of 87. He was former head of gynaecology and obstetrics at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen hospital in Bavaria.
His mother, Alice, was Jewish. His grandmother, Paula Neumann, was sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she died.
Dr Christian Strauss once told an Israeli official that he was entitled to citizenship, if he requested it.
Christian Strauss with Christa Ludwig at Strauss Festival in Garmisch
No sooner did Yannick Nézet-Séguin cancel a set of Berlin Phil performances that he was due to take to Baden-Baden than the festival announced he will compensate next year by bringing the Met Opera orchestra.
The tour wll take in London’s Barbican, the Paris Philharmonie and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in June-July 2021.
Joyce DiDonato will sing excerpts from Berlioz’s Les Troyens and there will also be act 1 of Walküre with Christine Goerke, Brandon Jovanovich and Günther Groissböck.
A new work by Missy Mazzoli is part of the package.
The Met and Philadelphia chief Yannick Nézet-Séguin has cancelled this week’s concerts of Mahler’s 3rd symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic.
No reason has been given, but with his workload it’s hardly a surprise.
His replacement with be Lorenzo Viotti, 29, making his Berlin Phil debut.
toi-toi.
The phrase, capturing the atmosphere of culture in the Weimar Republic and signifying the LSO’s new season, was ascribed by Simon Rattle this morning to the composer Alban Berg.
What Berg actually said, in a March 1, 1933 letter from Berlin, is this: The whole town and all its inhabitants are quite drowned in carnival din, masks and confetti. And on top of that the news of the Reichstag fire. Dancing on a volcano.’
So: nothing to do with culture, and no edge to it. The image falls flat without ‘the edge’.
So who said it first?
As far as I am aware it was a cultural historian – either George Steiner, Walter Laqueur or Peter Gay (in Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider (1968), p. xiv.
Does anyone know better?
LSO release:
Sir Simon Rattle, Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra launches ‘Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano’ – a two-year exploration of music written in the first half of the 20th century, when Europe lay on the cusp of fascism, an era of profound social, cultural and political upheaval.
Sir Simon Rattle said: “’Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano’ is a phrase Alban Beg and others used to describe the febrile atmosphere in Germany in the 1930s. It’s an extraordinary expression, one that inspires us to explore what was happening in the musical world in the first half of the 20th century. The era produced some of the darkest music possible. For example Webern’s Six Pieces, which we hear in the opening week, prefigure the future catastrophes: rich, but tiny and intense with the power of hydrochloric acid, they go to the heart of everything.”
Sir Simon Rattle begins by conducting two concert performances of Berg’s opera Wozzeck with Christian Gerhaher singing the title role for the first time in the UK, with Anja Kampe in the role of Marie. The next programme finds him pairing Ligeti’s Atmosphères with Wagner’s Prelude to Lohengrin, and the aforementioned Webern’s Six Pieces leading into Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde with Brahms’ Symphony No 2 following after the interval.
He investigates the 20th century theme further with four evenings in early December exploring the work of Hindemith, beginning with the Overture to ‘The Flying Dutchman’ as sight-read by a secondrate spa ensemble at the fountain at 7am for string quartet (1923), Kammermusik No 1 (1922) and his Mathis der Maler Symphony (1934) moving on to Symphonic Metamorphosis (1943) and his Symphonic Dances (1937). These Hindemith pieces are programmed alongside Beethoven piano concertos with soloist Krystian Zimerman, building to a climax of an extended evening concert of all five concertos on 17 December, the anniversary of Beethoven’s christening day.
The orchestra has just rolled out its 20/21 season. Among the highlights:
Next season, the Concertgebouworkest will be placing a strong emphasis on home-grown music. It will be performing three works by the Dutch composer Alphons Diepenbrock, who died in 1921. The orchestra will also be paying tribute to Theo Verbey, who recently passed away. Finally, Christiaan Richter has written his second composition to be commissioned by the orchestra. As part of the Horizon theme Play Dutch with me, presented in collaboration with the conservatories of Amsterdam and The Hague, the orchestra is devoting a whole week exclusively to Dutch music. In addition to a number of chamber music concerts, the Concertgebouworkest – under the baton of Antony Hermus – will be performing new orchestral works by Celia Swart and Bram Kortekaas alongside compositions by Theo Loevendie, Louis Andriessen and Tristan Keuris. Harpist Remy van Kesteren, soprano Katrien Baerts and percussionist Dominique Vleeshouwers – who won the Nederlandse Muziekprijs (Dutch Music Prize) in January – are making their Concertgebouworkest debut as guest soloists.
New guest conductors include: Han-Na Chang, Nuno Coelho, Philippe Jordan, Klaus Mäkelä, Riccardo Minasi and Kristiina Poska.
The excellent reviewer Jean Luc Macia, chief critic of La Croix for 30 years, has died of a heart attack.
After retiring from the paper in 2007, he continued to review for Diapason and Opera magazine.
He published a biography of J S Bach.
The pianist was supposed to be playing Beethoven sonatas 24 to 28 in Tel Aviv, in a recital organised by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Without any announcement of a change of programme, he came on and played sonata 12, followed by 24 and 26, according to audience members.
The second half opened with the Waldstein sonata, followed by opus 109 and two Bach encores.
The Philharmonic management told Haaretz: This was a mistake on our part, arising from a misunderstanding. It’s won’t happen again.
The Halle orchestra has appointed Delyana Lazarova music director of its youth orchestra, and assistant to music director Mark Elder.
She was declared winner last night of the first Halle Siemens conducting competition, with a £15,000 first prize.
From Plovdiv in Bulgaria, Delyana studied violin at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and has been a conducting fellow at Aspen.
The latest Slippedisc review from the CBSO100 season:
CBSO YOUTH ORCHESTRA
Symphony Hall *****
Every member of the CBSO Youth Orchestra plays with a technical skill way beyond their years; that’s a given. Add an unjaded freshness of approach, and the result is performances of extraordinary vitality and exhilaration. And add to the podium Kazuki Yamada whose enthusiasm is infectious, and whose respect for his young charges is palpable, and the outcome is something very special.
Yamada is the popular Principal Guest Conductor of the parent CBSO, whose players coach these rising stars during an intensive week-long residency, and the chemistry between him and these youthful instrumentalists brought about a memorable concert on Sunday afternoon.
Dreamtime, by Yamada’s Japanese compatriot Toru Takemitsu, is an absorbing work originally written for dance, and indeed shows the influence of the composer’s great role model Debussy’s Jeux.. Its reflections on barely-formed images from Australian aboriginal myths come in the shape of disparate incidents dovetailed into place much as in the intricacies of a Japanese garden, yet there is also a discernible sense of a forward-moving structure.
It brings beautiful washes of sound, confidently delivered here, preceding a totally different handling of the sound-spectrum from Richard Strauss in his Till Eulenspiegel.
This young man’s tone-poem is all cheeky instrumental interventions, vivid narration, and one-in-the-eye satire, and the CBSOYO took full advantage of its opportunities for virtuosic display, not least from the impressive horn phalanx. And the sight of Yamada and orchestra bopping along during one of the work’s cheekiest cock-snookings will stay with me for a long time.
Elgar used exactly the same kind of musical language, but sublimated it to impressive effect in his First Symphony. This is a work, thematically-integrated through all four movements, which takes the long view, and though there were a few tiny lapses of concentration along the way, the players responded with a sustained maturity which might well have been the envy of many a senior orchestra.
Maturity came in the gloriously and subtly nourished string sound (especially in the sweetly floated melody towards the end of the finale), in immaculate intonation from the woodwind (not least in the opening announcement of the motto-theme), and in the discipline of the brass (when I was a student, brass-players were the notoriously awkward squad). And a word for the two harpists, busier than ever as the ending approached, their contributions making their points in the perennially amazing acoustic of Symphony Hall.
Christopher Morley
The Canadian conductor Tania Miller has issued an apology for accusing Yuja Wang of disrespecting her audience by performing in sunglasses in Vancouver on Friday night. In response to about 100 hostile comments, she now writes:
Ok folks. I do want to apologize. First to Yuja Wang who is an extraordinary, deeply talented and beautiful musician. Second to all of you who I drew into a negative experience with this comment that I wrote. I believe that we all have a role to play. As audience we are asked to respect the music, to be quiet, not to cough, to clap in respectful places. As performers, we are asked to warmly share the experience of the music and to find ways to connect people to the music, and through the music to us. My comments have been taken into a variety of directions, but overall, I just wish you all great and meaningful experiences in life and music.
UPDATE: Several hours later, she issued a second apology on Twitter:
Tania Miller, Conductor: To Yuja Wang & all her fans, I am truly sorry for the shock & the terrible traumatic experience that you had at the border coming into Vancouver, and truly sorry for adding in any way to that terrible experience. Please accept my very sincere apologies.
She has also taken down the original post from her Facebook page.
The Vancouver Recital Society issued this statement:
We are so grateful to Yuja Wang for being the consummate professional during her all too brief time in Vancouver on Friday evening.
We have received so many comments from patrons who attended the recital, glowing about how wonderfully she performed and asking for her return.
It saddens us to read all of the mean-spirited commentary online and we want to make it known that the VRS has nothing but the highest regard for Yuja as a person and an artist.
All too often, people forget that musicians too, are human. We all have good and bad days and it is a testament to her strength and character that she chose to press on despite the terrible treatment she received.
We are sharing her words describing her experience, and ask that everyone take a step back and try to imagine how they might have handled a similar experience.
The US-Chinese pianist has offered an explanation on social media for performing in sunglasses on Friday night in Vancouver, an appearance that surprised an disappointed many in her audience. Here’s what Yuja writes on her Facebook page:
It is difficult for me to share this with all of you, but given the circumstances, and harmful speculation and criticism being shared online and elsewhere, I feel it important that the following is made public.
On arrival at Vancouver International Airport on Friday, I was detained for over an hour and subjected to intense questioning which I found humiliating and deeply upsetting. I was then released, giving me very little time to travel to the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. I was left extremely shaken by this experience.
When I was dropped off at the venue for my recital that evening, my eyes were still visibly red and swollen from crying. I was in shock. Although I was traumatized by what happened, I was determined not to cancel the recital, but to go ahead with the performance and not to let the audience down, which included my dear teacher Gary Graffman. I decided that wearing sunglasses was the only way to prevent my distress from being seen, since I wasn’t yet prepared to make a statement about what happened.
My main concern in that moment was to give the best performance I possibly could, and not to allow the audience to be distracted by my swollen eyes or visibly shaken demeanor. It would never be my intention to snub or disengage with an audience. Everything I do on stage is about connecting with people. My audiences and fans sustain and nourish me as an artist.
I am deeply grateful to Leila Getz and her team in Vancouver, and to the audience there with me in the hall for their support throughout the day and evening.
My recital tour will continue, and I look forward to bringing my program to the audience in San Francisco tonight, and on to New York.
Thank you to everyone who has sent or shared words of support during this difficult time. I know that I am unfortunately not the only person to have had this kind of traumatic experience, which has shaken me to my core. My heart goes out to anyone else who has, and my hope is that by sharing what happened to me, there can be a much needed conversation and change in protocol to ensure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.
This is the picture she appends.
This is a picture of her, taken on stage at the end of the Vancouver recital.
photo: Mark Ainley
And here’s an Instagram clip from the recital:
