Jeffrey Arlo Brown, locked down in Covid with nothing better to do, put Schubert on the deck and set the timer.
It takes more than 40 hours, apparently, and many of the Lieder are, in his view, dire.
Like the one ‘featuring a shoe-addicted daughter – the misogynist proto-“Sex and the City” of Schubert lieder’.
Or: ‘This is sucking up in its purest form.’
In VAN magazine, Jeffrey gives them all a rating, from rotten to sublime.
Read here.
In the Dutch town of Hilversum, the Noord Nederlands Orkest had to cancel next Friday’s broadcast concert because conductor James Judd and soloist Daniel Kharitonov could not come to the Netherlands.
The Residentie Orkest has jumped in with conductor Jun Märkl and the world premiere of a ‘One Minute Symphony’ by a 25 year-old Italian composition student, Petra Cini.
I never knew this existed. Now I can’t live without it.
We hear from Vienna that the octogenarian’s birthday Nabucco, scheduled to start at 16:30 CET, has been pushed back at the last minute to 20:30 CET.
No reason given.
The Brno composer, pianist and writer Pavel Blatný has died at 89.
He worked at the interface of classics and jazz, was a frequent broadcaster and composed several film scores.
His poet brother Ivan died in British exile.
Reports that Gustavo Dudanel is to become music director of the Opéra de Paris are gaining credence.
He has just jumped in to conduct three weeks of Verdi’s Otello in March and April at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu.
It’s where his heart is set.
Operanostalgia.be has sad news of the death from Coronavirus of Marcella Reale, who sang opposite Domingo and Carreras on several great stages.
Unusually for a bel canto soprano, her favourite role was Katerina Izmailova in Shostakovich’s opera.
Our latest review of the centennial season from Christopher Morley:
FRENCH CONNECTIONS
CBSO streamed from Symphony Hall
“French Connections” is perhaps a tantalising understatement for this latest CBSO programme recorded at Symphony Hall early last December for online streaming.
We end with Haydn’s Symphony no.84, composed for the huge orchestra of the Concert de la Loge Olympique in Paris, an ensemble founded by Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de St-Georges.
This immensely fascinating character was born on Guadeloupe, the son of a former French politician and a native West Indian woman. The family eventually settled in Paris, where Boulogne became an expert horseman, swimmer, dancer, skater and, especially, fencer.
He was hailed as the finest swordsman in Europe, and was indeed summoned to England to give exhibition fencing matches, including for the Prince of Wales at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.
But above all this he was also a very fine violinist, composing many works for his instrument, including several sinfonie concertanti which may well have been the example for the greatest example of the genre, Mozart’s for Violin and Viola. Boulogne composed stage works as well, and this programme began with the Overture to his opera L’Amant Anonyme, premiered in Paris in March 1780.
Conductor Ben Gernon (an alumnus of Michael Seal’s CBSO Youth Orchestra conducting academy) introduced the piece charmingly, and it was delivered both alertly and intimately by the CBSO, but the fact remains that the music is something and nothing. Its chief virtue is the way it throws into relief how toweringly Mozart’s music rose above that of all of his contemporaries.
Though Haydn was a twin peak, and St-Georges was deeply involved in the commissioning and certainly performing in the premiere in Paris of his 84th Symphony. Composed for a large orchestra, its performance here on an extended Symphony Hall stage was socially-distanced (astute camera-work helped us scan around the orchestra as we used to a year ago), spirited, pointed and joyous under Gernon’s expressive hands, winds so eloquent in personality.
The strings had their own showcase in Britten’s Les Illuminations, settings of hallucinatory poems by Rimbaud, their response incisive and full of personality as they collaborated with soprano Mary Bevan. Bevan’s command of register was both magisterial and meltingly smooth as she slithered between the ranges, and her diction was of spitfire clarity.
Les Illuminations has long been one of the CBSO strings’ party-pieces, and indeed Louis Fremaux, the conductor who did so much to set the CBSO onto the world-class stature it now deserves, chose a performance with Britten’s partner Peter Pears as one of the highlights of his career with this resourceful orchestra.
Christopher Morley
The Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho will perform the recently rediscovered Allegro in D K626b/16 at the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation on 27 January 2021, Mozart’s 265th birthday.
It can be heard online on Deutsche Grammophon’s DG Stage, with a short version on DG’s YouTube channel.
How short we can’t say as the piece lasts just 94 seconds.
The resignation of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla as Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in mid-2022 will bring three job offers instantly to her inbox.
The London Symphony Orchestra, who need to replace Simon Rattle in 2023 if not sooner, loved working with her last month and will be first in with an offer, which she would sensibly refuse if her priotity is, as she says, to focus more on personal and musical matters. The LSO requires lots of touring, which is not compatible with raising a young family.
The New York Philharmonic will be on the phone the moment it wakes up today. Its president Deborah Borda worked with Mirga at the LA Phil and greatly admires her. New York needs to move on from its undistinguished Jaap Van Zweden era and a young woman at the helm would be a clear signal of renewal. Salary negotiations will start at $2 million. She could hold out for $3m – if she wants it.
The LA Phil are looking beyond Gustavo Dudamel, who now lives in Spain is angling for a European post. Mirga likes LA, LA likes Mirga. It could be a fit.
Closer to home, there are three or four German and French orchestras who will come bearing gifts.
Let’s see.
It has just been announced that Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla will end her term as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the summer of 2022. She will have completed six years in the job and has agreed to continue as principal guest conductor for one season more.
She says: ‘I have decided to give up my position of Music Director of the CBSO at the end of the 2021/22 season and have happily accepted the orchestra’s invitation to become Principal Guest Conductor in the 2022/23 season. This is a deeply personal decision, reflecting my desire to step away from the organisational and administrative responsibilities of being a Music Director at this particular moment in my life and focusing more on my purely musical activities. I have such admiration and great fondness for the musicians of the CBSO and I am absolutely delighted that we shall continue to make music together in the coming years.’
She means: Living in Salzburg, and with two small children, getting to and from Birmingham after Brexit will be a pain. In my mid-30s, I am ready for the next step.
photo: Chris Christodoulou
Mirga’s six years have been levitational for the CBSO. Every rehearsal has been fresh, uplifting and inspirational. She introduced a range of new music – notably Mieczysław Weinberg, winning Birmingham its first recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and a vista of new horizons. Like all the best artists, she leaves everyone wanting more.
UPDATE: We hear that Kazuki Yamada is extending as Principal Guest Conductor until the summer of 2023, giving the CBSO an added measure of continuity while it continues to develop local talent.
UPDATE2: Where next for Mirga?
In the Spectator this week, I have laid out some paths to artistic regeneration once the two great clouds have passed over.
Among other things, I warn that…:
… Not all of our orchestras will survive 2021. One chief conductor, nameless for obvious reasons, expects two to go bust in London and two more in the regions.
It’s imperative that we use the Covid down time to build for the future. No point in looking to the Arts Council, which inhibits more than it stimulates, or to arts boards, which are made up of honours seekers and the idle rich.
The arts think they will muddle through this crisis as they always do, but nemesis is knocking at the door. No Eurekas are coming out of Zoom conferences and no one has yet figured out how to make money from streaming concerts and opera. Two years’ revenues will have been lost before full performance is restored. What’s needed is a central figure, a musical tsar with Downing Street access, a new face who can water some green shoots and spread hope of revival.
Read on here,
