Grover Wilhelmsen was being treated for Covid-19 at McKay-Dee Hospital in Utah when he asked his family to bring a violin and viola so that he could give something back to the medical staff.
The great US bass Arthur Woodley died yesterday at the age of 71. The conductor Stephen Lord mourns a friend:
The year 2020 started with such promise. But instead of giving, it has been a year of relentless taking, most recently one of the kindest, most generous, beautiful people and colleagues to grace the music business. Arthur Woodley. Arthur always greeted friends with a smile that gave off the warmth of his native islands.
We collaborated on so many projects it is hard to recall them all but recalling what he brought to them is simple. He was a champion. In a performance of I puritani, when his tenor colleague canceled and the cover was under the weather, Arthur, too, was suddenly unwell. Rather than sending his inexperienced cover on with the possibly of making an already impossible situation worse, he said “Never mind, I’ll do what I can” and the brave, unique soul tried to sing the second act and couldn’t. What did he do? He did a Rex Harrison and spoke his lines almost as eloquently as Bellini wrote them.
When the great bass Morris Robinson was starting his career, I set up a meeting for the two of them to discuss the business and the business of black men in opera. And in his Arthurian way, they became fast friends for life and Morris grew from their mentorship.
From Basilio to Publio to Giorgio, Sarastro to Emil Griffith in a world premiere (for which he was greatly praised), he not only embodied those characters, but imbued his colleagues and company with more of that island magic. When my world unfairly crashed, Arthur was one of the very first to call and send me all his love and unqualified support. As he said as Sarastro regarding Tamino in a beautiful Die Zauberflôte, “er ist Mensch.” Safe journey, friend, to the Island Sunshine.
The Philharmonia, lying low in Covid waters, has sold its name to a brand of gin.
I never had them down as a G&T orchestra.
More vodka and lime, with baton Finnish. Gin is more a Concertgebouw tipple (with advocaat?).
What does the Berlin Phil drink?
Official announcement:
The Queen has approved the award of Her Majesty’s Medal for Music for the year 2020 to Thomas Trotter, 15 years to the day since the very first winner was honoured at Buckingham Palace.
Awarded every year to an outstanding individual or group of musicians, The Queen’s Medal for Music was first presented to Sir Charles Mackerras on November 22nd 2005, the feast day of St Cecilia, patron saint of music. The award came at the suggestion of former Master of The Queen’s Music, the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
Previous winners include the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, jazz musician Gary Crosby and, most recently, pianist Imogen Cooper.
Mr Trotter is one of the world’s most revered concert organists, and is the sixteenth recipient of the award. He has been the Birmingham City Organist since 1983, and is also a Visiting Fellow in Organ Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music.
An independent inquiry into sexual abuse at the Royal Academy of Music has come up with a mild rap on the knuckles for an institution where a student was told to ‘get used to the casting couch’. According to the Sunday Telegraph, the report calls for ‘new practices to allow students to bypass powerful figures when making complaints’.
A search of Slipped Disc will find a pattern of such incidents down recent years.
Nothing much gets changed.
Here’s a link to the full report.
It’s a lullaby by Avrom Goldfaden, and very beautiful too.
Who knew?
From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
I chucked out a bunch of new releases this week, mostly solo recitals on esoteric instruments like the harp, the mandolin and the saxophone, though also viola, voice and harpsichord, some on so-called major labels. These recitals tend to be paid for by the soloist after a label decides they are uncommercial. Knowing that people are unlikely to buy it, why would I waste valuable time reviewing it and you reading about it? In these fragile times when every hour of life is doubly precious, artists need to think twice and think again before pushing out more and more of these promotional discs. The recycle bin is overflowing….
More here.
And here.
In Spanish.
In Czech.
The real pianist from Polanski’s film The Pianist.
The soundtrack.
‘Increasing homoerotic manifestations,’ concludes the Brazilian psychiatrist André Iorio from his recitation of the letters below.
The composer’s most recent biographer Alan Walker contents himself with one ‘passing homosexual affair’. It now seems likely there were more.
The latest documentary suggests finds quite a few more.
