Stars when they were young (1): Mirga sings

Stars when they were young (1): Mirga sings

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norman lebrecht

September 04, 2020

Who’d have thought?

Comments

  • RW2013 says:

    “Stars” today are not what Stars used to be 🙁

  • Lady Weidenfeld says:

    It is fascinating to see and recognise here the future conducting star. If you watch her rehearsing, her melodious soprano speaking voice almost sings her requests to her players and when she does sing to show what she wants, it is a delight, unlike many of her colleagues who can’t sing for toffee!

  • rugbyfiddler says:

    Shortly after Mirga became CBSO’s Music Director, one of the violin players was celebrating either a birthday, or his final concert before retirement, and Mirga stood on the platform during the concert and sang (to him) the most beautiful song from her homeland, as a tribute to the player. She has a beautiful, clear soprano voice.

  • Ralph Bateman says:

    BTW, slight tangent but Yuja Wang has started conducting from the piano. She does it rather well:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rarpWoArV4Q

  • Petros Linardos says:

    Age appropriate quality child singing, especially choral, is arguably a fundamentally good start for music education. The list of Vienna Boys Choir Veterans who went on to become good musicians speaks for itself.
    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiener_S%C3%A4ngerknaben#Ehemalige_Pr%C3%A4sidenten,_Chorleiter,_Direktoren_und_Vorst%C3%A4nde
    Children pretending to sing opera arias like O mio bambino caro and Nessun Dorma is another matter.

  • Jason Lewis says:

    Who’d have thought? Anyone who has shown an interest in her.

  • DeepSouthSenior says:

    I thought of trying to upload my 1966 high school graduation photo. I don’t want to shut this site down, though.

  • jansumi says:

    And oddly she’s never performed on Lithuania’s Got Talent.. How lovely

  • Bostin'Symph says:

    Nice! Just seen her on the live YouTube stream of the CBSO’s Centenary Concert. Happy 100th, CBSO!
    Rattle’s downbeat almost exactly 100 years to the minute since their first concert.
    (And best wishes to Mirga – currently on maternity leave)

  • We privatize your value says:

    A sweet little girl full of mannerisms. And back in 1996, she was already like that!

  • Roman says:

    She used to be a much better singer then than a conductor now.

  • Peter Macklin says:

    Roman, how many times have you seen Mirga conduct? Very few I suspect…

    • John Rook says:

      Shouldn’t it be enough to listen to the orchestra?

    • Bruce says:

      Why go to some stupid concert if you already know what you think?

      • Appleby says:

        The haters always go silent when you ask them to justify their comments with actual musical points taken from live concerts she’s conducted. It’s almost as if their spite is nothing whatever to do with her artistry and is rooted in a wholly unmusical prejudice. What a surprise, eh?

    • Roman says:

      I have to admit that I am not into modern music, which she mostly do. Maybe she is good in conducting it – I don’t know. I still visit modern performances from time to time, including the ones by Mirga, mostly because I hope that maybe one day I’ll understand something in it and it is the problem with me, not with the music.

      So I almost exclusively judge based on two occasions when she conducted Bach and Mozart, not the most typical repertoire for her. Both times she literally ruined the pieces, she had totally no understanding of these composers. It was among the worst performances I’ve heard.

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