News media in China are reporting the death of the international pianist Fou Ts’ong, having previously reported that he was hospitalised in London with Covid-19. He was 86.
Fou Ts’ong came to attention in 1955 at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw, taking third prize and a special Mazurka award.
He moved to London three years later, marrying Zamira Menuhin, daughter of Yehudi. Together they were prominent members of the Barenboim-Du Pré and Argerich-Kovacevich social circles. They had a son together and divorced in 1969. Fou Ts’ong later married the London-based Chinese pianist Patsy Toh.
UPDATE: The French pianist Francois-frederic Guy, who has spoken to the family, writes: The great FOU TS’ONG passed away this afternoon..He got COVID .
He was one of my mentors and a musical father to me ..
His Debussy, Chopin and MOZART remain legendary…
The Mozarteum-trained oboist John Howard Mercer has died in South Carolina. He was principal oboe of the New Orleans Symphony, later the Louisiana Philharmonic, for 34 years.
He was also principal with the Metropolitan Opera National Company.
Dienstag, 29. Dezember 2020, 19.00 Uhr Piotr I. Tschaikowski DER NUSSKNACKER (Vorstellung vom 27. Dezember 2018)
Musikalische Leitung: Kevin Rhodes
Choreographie: Rudolf Nurejew
Mit u.a. Natascha Mair, Robert Gabdullin, Solisten und Corps de ballett des Wiener Staatsballetts
Mittwoch, 30. Dezember 2020, 19.00 Uhr Engelbert Humperdinck HÄNSEL UND GRETEL (Vorstellung aus 2015)
Märchenoper in drei Bildern
Musikalische Leitung: Christian Thielemann
Inszenierung & Bühne: Adrian Noble
Mit u.a.: Daniela Sindram, Ileana Tonca, Michaela Schuster, Adrian Eröd, Janina Baechle
Donnerstag, 31. Dezember 2020, 17.00 Uhr (LIVE) Johann Strauß DIE FLEDERMAUS
Komische Operette in drei Akten
Musikalische Leitung: Cornelius Meister
Inszenierung: Otto Schenk
Mit u.a.: Camilla Nylund, Georg Nigl, Okka von der Damerau, Michael Laurenz, Regula Mühlemann, Peter Simonischek
Freitag, 1. Jänner 2021, 19.00 Uhr Johann Strauß DIE FLEDERMAUS (Vorstellung vom 31. Dezember 2011)
Komische Operette in drei Akten
Musikalische Leitung: Franz Welser-Möst
Inszenierung: Otto Schenk
Mit u.a.: Michaela Kaune, Kurt Streit, Zoryana Kushpler, Rainer Trost, Daniela Fally, Peter Simonischek
Samstag, 2. Jänner 2021, 19.00 Uhr
Richard Wagner DAS RHEINGOLD (Vorstellung vom 10. Jänner 2016)
Vorabend des Bühnenfestspiels
Musikalische Leitung: Adam Fischer
Inszenierung: Sven-Eric Bechtolf
Mit u.a.: Tomasz Konieczny, Norbert Ernst, Jochen Schmeckenbecher, Herwig Pecoraro, Michaela Schuster
Sonntag, 3. Jänner 2021, 19.00 Uhr
Gioachino Rossini L’ITALIANA IN ALGERI (Vorstellung vom 30. April 2015)
Dramma giocoso in zwei Akten
Musikalische Leitung: Jesús López Cobos
Inszenierung: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Mit u.a.: Anna Bonitatibus, Ildar Abdrazakov, Edgardo Rocha, Aida Garifullina, Paolo Rumetz
Montag, 4. Jänner 2021, 19.00 Uhr Piotr I. Tschaikowski DER NUSSKNACKER (Vorstellung vom 27. Dezember 2018)
Musikalische Leitung: Kevin Rhodes
Choreographie: Rudolf Nurejew
Mit u.a. Natascha Mair, Robert Gabdullin, Solisten und Corps de ballett des Wiener Staatsballetts
The Incorporated Society of Musicians has produced a list of visa and work permit requirements for musicians on all countries on the European continent.
It’s comprehensive, and it may not be as bad as you feared.
It looks like France and Finland are the best, Germany is uncertain, Spain and Hungary are the worst.
On the other side of the coin, EU artists performing or teaching in the UK will require a Permitted Paid Engagement visa costing £95.
That’s the price of Brexit.
In the Brexit agreement, musicians and entertainers were left off the list of workers not needing visas to work in EU member countries.
That means they will face visa costs of 139 Euros in countries such as Austria, a popular destination for British performers. For orchestras it will mean no more Eurostar tours, no more trips to Spain.
Tim Brennan has put up a petition, urging the Government and Parliament to redress the omission.
We would like the UK Govt to negotiate a free cultural work permit that gives us visa free travel throughout the 27 EU states for music touring professionals, bands, musicians, artists, TV and sports celebrities that tour the EU to perform shows and events & Carnet exception for touring equipment.
If the petition gathers 100,000 signatures, it will be considered by the Petitions Committee for a debate in Parliament. So far, it has 169,829 signatures and rising.
The latest issue of VAN magazine has a survey of the Beethoven year with combative statements by the feminist musicologist Susan McClary and the BLM music theorist Philip Ewell (pictured), who says: ‘”Beethoven” is like a metonym for the toxic combination that often happens when whiteness combines with maleness in the history of the United States.. At times, especially in terms of power and impact, whiteness plus maleness has more or less always equated with power. And, when that power gets challenged, it really can lash out in horrible ways—up to and including violence, rape, and murder.’
Got it? Beethoven is a poster boy for every evil ascribed by anyone to men with white skin.
This is what passes today for musicology.
It’s time to draw a line between music scholarship and 21st century ‘musicology’, and to strip the latter of its musical prefix. Musicology is no longer what it claims to be. Where it operates under false pretences, it needs to be renamed.
This is the great man in his most bell-like tones in a 1964 Moscow recital.
The pianist is Antonion Tonini.
Florence Badol-Bertrand died on Saturday in Saint-Etienne. Author of several works on Mozart, she was professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, at SciencesPo Paris and at the Conservatoire à Régional de Saint-Etienne.
She founded the Festival du Vivarais-Lignon.
‘One of the sweetest and most generous people I’ve ever been allowed to meet,’ says her brother-in-law, the pianist Pascal Amoyel. She was under contract to write the new Lafitte biography of Mozart, which will sadly never appear.
These are musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra lining up at safe distance for their first rehearsal for the New Year’s Day concert with Riccardo Muti.
The concert will be performed to an empty hall.
photo: Benedikt Dinkhauser
Andrew Litton, former music director in Dallas, Bournemouth and Bergen, became a father again on December 23.
Litton, who is presently music director of New York City Ballet, married its principal viola Katharina Kang in September.
The baby’s name is Anastasia Norma Litton.
The Arcadia music store at the front of the Vienna State Opera will not reopen in the New Year.
Located close to the artists’ entrance, it was a friendly hangout for singers and tourists in need of a score, a recording, a book or a CD cut-out at ridiculously low prices, Pavarotti for three Euros when I last looked.
