The death has been communicated of Pietro Spada, a highly regarded performer of classical masters who fell off the posterity rankings.
His recordings of the Irishman John Field and of Mozart’s rival Muzio Clementi were breakthroughs in their time.
From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
… The eighth quartet opens at a sepulchral pace, so slow here that it could only be either inept or perverse. As the performance unfolds it becomes apparent that the slowness is intended as protest, both as a reflection of the composer’s feelings and perhaps as a response to COVID constraints. Shostakovich confided in 1960 that he was writing the eighth quartet as his own obituary since no-one else would remember him after death. …
It’s a five-star cracker.
Read on here.
And here.
Message from American soprano Rebecca Nelsen:
Tonight, there were THREE people jumping in to the performance of La Bohème at the Vienna @volksoper! Mimi, Marcello, and Rodolfo were all sung by people who were not originally scheduled to sing tonight! The show went really well and we had a very receptive audience for our very unique performance even standing ovations at the end from the packed house! HUGE props to Jason Kim for jumping in on a huge role with one day’s warning and a single staging rehearsal. Also Orhan Yildiz sang the role of Marcello beautifully from the orchestra pit while Andrei Bondarenko, who is unfortunately under the weather today, acted the role convincingly onstage! I had a huge orchestra rehearsal yesterday and flew in from Mallorca landing at 3pm today before the show and am so happy and relieved at how well it went… HUGE thanks to conductor Carlo Goldstein for rolling so well musically with this unique evening! Happy and tired Mimi!.
Today’s list is low on classical big hitters.
There are CBEs (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for film composer George Fenton and Royal Northern College of Music principal Linda Merrick.
The bagpiper Stuart Liddell receives an MBE, as does mezzo-soprano Christine Rice.
ClassicFM presenter John Suchet is appointed OBE, together with saxophonist YolanDa Brown (pictured).
From the soprano’s instagram feed:
“An end of year finds us reflecting, as always. And I have to tell that despite all the hurricanes which passed over me, this year was very good one! The year was better than the previous one which left confusion and foreboding. Now, there is no foreboding – but there is Christmas Tree and the ladder! The dress will be ironed, the jewels will be put on, and – FORWARD! With coming New Year!
Manchester Collective: A Little Requiem – Wigmore Hall
Click here to watch
Artists have always been obsessed by endings. Whether it’s nightfall, a broken heart, fire or frost – there’s a savage beauty to impermanence. In A Little Requiem, two composers venture into the darkness to explore the end of life, while a third voice rejoices in the beauty, vitality and innocence of Spring.
From the softly rocking lullaby of Busoni’s ‘Berceuse’ to the grimly tolling bell of Górecki’s ‘Kleines Requiem’, these overcast bookends conjure up vivid and haunting musical worlds. It’s all very soft and unsettling stuff… until it isn’t. The stillness of Górecki’s first movement soon explodes into the thrilling mania of his furious Allegros. This is a music of total extremes.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Standing steadfast between these two meditations on mortality, Copland’s evergreen ‘Appalachian Spring’ is a long, cool drink. It’s special (and rare!) for us to perform this kind of music – pure, beautiful, and almost childlike. Listening to ‘Appalachian Spring’ feels like a return to a more innocent time.
The Manchester Collective describe themselves as “a new kind of arts organisation, built for a fresh and diverse musical world. We create intimate and intense human experiences inspired by the music that we love, for everyone.”“We are the true believers. We passionately believe in the power of music to move us and to excite us. It doesn’t matter to us if you’re a seasoned concert-goer, or if it’s your first time. All are welcome.”
Manchester Collective were invited to Wigmore Hall to explore the sound of the empty auditorium as an instrument itself. This concert is the result.
Annie Fischer was the woman pianist that Martha liked best.
From Daniel Poulin;
Television came late to Canada. The CBC first telecast originated in Montréal on September 6/1952. Two days later Toronto presented its premiere -a live, 3 hour extravaganza of speeches, news, drama and music, including Gould who performed part of a Beethoven concerto with orchestra. But Glenn Gould’s first Toronto complete concert happened in 1957, on February 20 where he conducted an orchestra in Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony (No.2) with Maureen Forrester (contralto) in the fourth movement. Also on the programme were three movements of Bach’s Partita No.5: Allemande, Sarabande and Courante. Even if the quality of the video is rather poor it is still worth preserving for the sheer value of the typical Gould playing. He was 24 years old.
The prolific film and television composer Eduard Artemyev has died in moscow after being hospitalised with Covid-19. He was 85.
One of the first electronic composers in the Soviet era, Eduard Artemjev was chosen to write the music for two Russian Olympic Games.
His films include the Andrey Tarkovsky masterpeces Solaris, Mirror and Stalker.
Tonight is the last London concert of the Albion Quartet, at the Wigmore Hall.
Formed in full optimism in 2016, the group have suffered like all others during Covid and Brexit. They have now decided to go their separate ways.
The members are Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Emma Parker, violins; Ann Beilby, viola; and Nathaniel Boyd, cello.
Last chance to hear them here.
Obituaries are appearing for Beryl Kimber, a London-schooled Australian violinist with an international career.
In London, she apeared often with the young Daniel Barenboim and the esteemed accompanist Gerald Moore.
In latter years, she taught for three decades at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide.