Rub your ears and believe.

 

From Friday, said President Macron, everyone must stay at home until the end of November.

The only exceptions are essential work or medical reasons.

He’s still speaking, but it’s the end for concerts and opera.

 

Members of the Boston Symphony re-entered their hall today for the first time in months to film a distanced video with former associate conductor Ken-David Masur.

The concert will be streamed in mid-Novembet.

Gabriele Jaenecke, one of Germany’s most respected costume and stage designers, has died at 68.

She contributed to more than 150 opera productions, working with directors worked with directors Andreas Homoki, Johannes Schaaf, Ludger Engels and, latterly, Nadja Loschky. She also taught design at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler academy.

 

 

 

The Tonhalle has called off all concerts until the end of November.

First to go is Friday’s performance with Paavo Järvi and Leonidas Kavakos.

The Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich announced this evening that all further concerts will be cancelled until further notice, due to new government regulations that limit audience numbers to 50, commencing 29 October.

Ilona Schmiel, Director General of the Tonhalle Society Zürich, writes: “Closing the Tonhalle Maag until further notice is not only financially difficult but also emotionally challenging. We have put all our energies into maintaining operations at the best possible level in recent months, even under constantly changing conditions. We have reprogrammed, helped develop and implement protection concepts and have been good hosts in difficult times. Uncertainty wears thin. But we also see ourselves as an important part of society and do everything we can to improve times for everyone, even if they mean the opposite for us at the moment.”

The English pianist Eric Parkin, much favoured by the BBC for his championship of British composers, has died at a great age. From his radio debut in 1948 to his very late years he was hardly ever off the radio, whether in studio, at the Proms or with his highly successful recordings on the Chandos label.

Parkin, who came from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, won renown as the leading champion of the music of John Ireland. He also played works by Arnold Bax, Geoffrey Bush, Peter Dickinson, David Gow, Kenneth Leighton, E J Moeran and Richard Stoker.

He was a very good pianist who let himself be pigeonholed too easily by BBC producers.

 

press release:

Lucerne, 28 October 2020. The “Beethoven Farewell” Fall Festival, which was supposed to take
place from 20 to 22 November, has had to be canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. This
decision has been taken by Lucerne Festival with the greatest regret as a result of the restrictions
on events that the Swiss Federal Council communicated this afternoon. The new regulations make
it impossible to hold these concerts at the end of November 2020. The Festival is currently
examining all possible ways for rescheduling the events that had been planned with violinist Patricia
Kopatchinskaja and pianist Igor Levit to another date next year. To this end, the Festival is now in
close contact with the artists.
“Having to cancel concerts again is a deep blow to us,” says Executive and Artistic Director Michael
Haefliger. “After the successful realization of the 10-day ‘Life is Live’ Festival at the end of August,
which was held in lieu of the large-scale Summer Festival, we were hopeful that we would be able
to bring this difficult year to a gratifying close with the Fall Festival ‘Beethoven Farewell.’ The
decision by the Swiss Federal Council now leaves us with no choice but to cancel the concerts at
the end of November. We will make every effort to offer new dates next year to catch up. Eager to
move full speed ahead, we are now keeping our gaze directed towards the future and are very
much looking forward to presenting our wonderful plans for the coming year to you soon.”

 

Details are still being announced by the Chancellor, but here’s the first report:

“The federal and state governments want to get a grip on the drastically increasing corona infection figures with massive contact restrictions over the course of November — and this throughout Germany as early as next Monday, 2nd November. The goal: to be able to track infection chains again. At present, 75 percent of infections can no longer be traced, said Angela Merkel.
 
“There are further restrictions on contact. From Monday on, private meetings will only be permitted for members of one’s own household and one other household with a maximum of ten people. Tourist overnight stays within Germany are to be prohibited in November. According to this measure, trips only for non-touristic purposes such as business travel may be made.
 
“Events that serve entertainment purposes will be prohibited. Catering establishments are to close from November 2 for the rest of the month. The delivery and collection of food for consumption at home will be exempted from this rule, canteens will be allowed to remain open.
 
“Schools and kindergartens are to remain reliably open in November despite the sharp rise in Corona numbers. The same applies to wholesale and retail. According to DPA information, no more than one customer per ten square meters should be allowed to stay here.” 
UPDATE: The lockdown starts on Monday.

Igor Levit has just announced at the Heidelberg Festival press conference that the centrepiece next March will be the Sequentia Cyclica by the English composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, to be played by Jonathan Powell.

The Sequentia, written in 1948-49, consists of 27 variations on the Dies irae and lasts about eight hours. It was premiered by Powell in Glasgow in June 2010.

Sorabji (1892-1988) is a closed book to most music lovers.

More here.

Brian Newhouse hosted the Minnesota Orchestra’s Friday night concert on Classical MPR for 25 years.

He retired early this year.

Only for the orchestra to call him back as associate vice president of individual giving. You know his voice: now give us your money.

Could this be a new career path for all those weary voices on BBC Radio 3?

 

The German-born soprano Édith Selig-Papée has died in Paris, where she taught for 30 years at the École Normale de Musique.

She appeared on a recording of Mahler’s 2nd symphony in 1958, long before it was profitable to do so, but she was best known for singing Bach and Gluck.