The exceptional Evgeny Mogilevsky, winner of the 1964 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, has died suddenly.
His competition triumph atb 18 saw him bracketed with Gilels and Ashkenazy, the two previous Soviet winners. He toured the US for a while as a Sol Hurok artist before retiring in 1992 to teach at the Brussels Conservatoire.
He was a pianist’s pianist.
The experienced conductor David Lockington is suing the Pasadena Symphony for religious discrimination after he was fired for refusing to accept Covid vaccination.
Lockington, 61, is a follower of Mary Baker Eddy’s Church of Christ, Scientist, which does not apparently approve of vaccination.
He has previously been music director at the Modesto Symphony, New Mexico Symphony and Grand Rapids Symphony in Michigan.
A branch of McDonalds in Wrexham, Wales, has begun playing Beethoven late at night to make gangs of bored youths feel uncomfortable and stay away (or so they say).
North Wales Live reports that police inspector Luke Hughes said they had received “multiple reports… of one particular group of youths, that at times numbered 20-30, roaming between locations”.
Have they considered that this might generate a new Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess’s dystopian novel of a sadistic gang leader who finds peace only in Beethoven?
You didn’t know there was such a thing?
Read on:
Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has received the 2023 ‘International Nordic Person of the Year Award’ from CoScan, the Confederation of Scandinavian Societies in the UK. The award recognises Ólafsson as “an extraordinary advocate for music across the generations,” and was presented by the Ambassador of Iceland, His Excellency Sturla Sigurjónsson, and Alexander Malmaeus, Chairman of CoScan, during a concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall on 28 January 2023, after Ólafsson performed the Schumann Piano Concerto with London Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner.
Chairman of CoScan, Alexander Malmaeus, continued: “Iceland might be the country with the smallest population in the Nordic region, but it is bursting with musical talent from which we are all greatly enriched. Víkingur reaches new audiences with diverse musical tastes, and he has an incredible ability to make us listen freshly and gain something new from his every performance. We are thrilled that he has accepted the award.’
Víkingur Ólafsson commented: “Thank you so much to CoScan for this award…. which I consider my love letter to the UK. The north is a state of mind above everything else, and so if I have brought Nordic culture to the UK and Ireland, then something has been achieved.’
Press release:
Welsh National Opera has announced that its Long-COVID programme Wellness with WNO is expanding across Wales. Six health boards in Wales will now be able to offer the rehabilitation service to patients, through direct referral to NHS Long-COVID Services.
The programme, which shares techniques and strategies used by professional opera singers to support breath control, lung function, circulation and posture, has been shown to reduce the severity of Long-COVID symptoms.
Wellness with WNO also focusses on patients’ emotional wellbeing. These sessions introduce participants to the joy of singing, even if they have no musical background. They are also provided with a means of interacting with others who may be experiencing similar challenges with Long-COVID symptoms.
Health Minister Eluned Morgan comments: ‘We are continuing to learn more about the long-term effects of COVID and we believe our approach of treating, supporting and managing people through our unique service model is the most efficient and effective way of achieving the best outcomes for people experiencing Long-COVID. It has been heartening to see the success of the Wellness with WNO project and the significant benefits it has provided for people’s health and wellbeing. I am glad this programme will be expanded so even more people can take up the project to support their recovery and rehabilitation.’
It’s the same ailment he suffered from last summer.
Daniel Harding will fly in.
We wish Kirill a swift recovery.
Press release:
Chief conductor Kirill Petrenko has to undergo routine follow-up surgery due to a previous foot injury. As a result, he has unfortunately been forced to cancel his concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker in February 2023. This affects both the subscription concerts as part of the Biennale of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 9 to 11 February 2023 and the Family Concert on 12 February 2023.
The Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko are very grateful to Daniel Harding for agreeing to take over these concerts. While the programme of the Family Concert will remain unchanged, there is an alteration regarding the commissioned work in the concerts from 9 to 11 February.
The originally planned premiere of Miroslav Srnka’s Superorganisms, a work dedicated by the composer to Kirill Petrenko and the Berliner Philharmoniker, will now be rescheduled for one of the next seasons. Instead, we will hear The Oceanides by Jean Sibelius and Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes.
One of this season’s Royal Opera flagship new productions was badly damaged on its first night by the inability of Stefan Vinke, cast as Tannhäuser, to sing. He walked the part whilst it was sung from the side by Austrian tenor Norbert Ernst. I don’t want to be too critical. Mr Ernst was clearly dragged in at the last minute, but it should be said he was not quite up to what is a very demanding role. The real question many people were asking is why didn’t they have an understudy for this major role? When Jonas Kaufmann went sick doing ‘Fidelio’, Michael Butt-Phillips did an excellent job as stand in and indeed appears on the video.
This was a great sadness, because this is a very good new production of Tannhäuser. It is directed by Tim Albery, designed minimally but tastefully by Michael Levine, with great choreography by Jasmin Vardimon and great dancing in the Venusberg scene. The orchestra were superb under Sebastian Weigle, and the chorus, including the children’s chorus, fabulous under chorus director William Spaulding.
All the other singers were excellent: Ekaterina Gubanova as Venus was sexy and dangerous, Mika Kares was imposing as Herman, Gerald Finley was outstanding as Wolfram, Olafur Sigurdarson was a good Biterolf, standing in for Michael Krause. Above all Lise Davidsen was superb as Elisabeth. She towered over the men in presence and in power. She is undoubtedly the Wagnerian soprano of her time. It is worth seeing this ‘Tannhäuser’ for her alone, in fact they could rename it Elisabeth for the rest of the run! Let’s hope that Stefan Vinke can sing the next one by Wednesday; if not a substitute brought in. Until then this first night will be remembered for ‘Tannhäuser’ without Tannhäuser!
Hugh Kerr, editor Edinburgh Music Review
From our man in the stalls:
First night of Tannhauser began disastrously with the news that Stephan Vinke the Tannhauser can’t sing and it was sung thinly from the side by Norbert Ernst while Vinke walked it though, The good news it was a lovely balletic orgy and Lise Davidsen was superb!
UPDATE: The good news is that the Tannhauser stand in was drowned out by Lise Davidsen the chorus and anyone else singing and the last line in the second act is “ on to Rome” and as someone said “ let’s hope he doesn’t come back”! It does beg the question does Covent Garden have no substitute for this major role?!
CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT:
Due to illness, Stefan Vinke had to withdraw from singing the role of Tannhäuser a few hours before the opening performance. The role was walked by Stefan Vinke and sung by Norbert Ernst from the side of stage. Ernst last performed for the Royal Opera in the 2015 production of Ariadne auf Naxos.
Everyone’s doing it, apparently.
Jonathan Sutherland reviews a new all-Hungarian production in Budapest.
Given Prime Minister Victor Orbán’s prolific pro-Putin proselytizing, it is surprising that the
first performance in Hungary of Prokofiev’s operatic epic was not retitled “Spetsyalnaya
voyennaya operazia i mir” (Special Military Operation and Peace).
This is a co-production between the Hungarian State Opera and the Grand Théâtre de Genève
(where it was first seen in 2021) and controversial Catalan director Calixto Bieito had
formulated his dismal Schopenhauerian/Buñuelian concept well before the Russian invasion
of Ukraine.
In fact the programme emphatically notes that “the production avoids concrete references to
recent and current political events.” At least we were spared the provocation of seeing
Napoleon costumed in army fatigues à la Zelenskyy. A huge red tarpaulin sufficed instead.
While mercifully minus the obsessive sadomasochism of Bieito’s Entführung aus dem Serail
for the Komische Oper Berlin or the gratuitous fellatio in his now cult-status ENO Carmen,
this was a study of unrelenting, manic, maudlin surrealism. Allegedly inspired by Luis
Buñuel’s Avenging Angel film, Bieito sees Scene 11 of the libretto, when lunatics and actors
escape from burning Moscow buildings, as the raison d’être of the production.
Both Tolstoy, Prokofiev and even Zhdanov considered the characters of War and Peace to be
literal as well as historic, and despite the endless revisions of the opera, the consequence of
fatalistic self-destruction is far from what the composer and novelist had in mind.
Updated to the present, all 13 scenes took place in an imposing single room set with plush
imperial furnishings. The mis-en-scène became a bordello for bored bacchanalian aristocrats
who emerge from plastic coverings as if in a robotic experiment by Christo and Jeanne-
Claude. The elegant St. Petersburg town house of Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky was turned into
a sleazy Swingers Club complete with take-away pizza.
Natasha and friends incessantly made abrupt spasmic gestures for no reason as if cartoon
characters responding to an electric shock. Only Andrei remained languid. The Tsar appeared
on a video screen in the form of a large brown bear loping along a stream. It seems Bieito
takes the term ‘Russian Bear’ literally.
The war scenes of Part Two were achieved by turning the furniture upside down and piling
sofas and chairs on top of each other. The stoned or comatose characters played war games
with pretend rifles and sabres. A model of the Bolshoi was cleverly constructed from wooden
blocs then smashed to pieces with only the statue of the four horsemen left in the paws of a
peeved Napoleon.
The opera ended with now white-clad asylum-like characters holding fluorescent strips as
Kutuzuv strokes Natasha’s head with hopefully only avuncular intentions.
While the direction of the iconoclast Catalan was utterly lacking in charm, nuance or textual
verisimilitude, the musical side was not without merit.
Kazak conductor Alan Buribayev managed to keep the large orchestral forces from
overwhelming the singers. Whilst his reading could have had a bit more Prokofiev rhythmic
punch, the more lyrical sections of the score drew some dulcet playing from the Hungarian
State Opera strings.
Vocally it was more a mixed bag as one would expect from a cast of over 70 named
characters.
All singers were Hungarian.
At times the Natasha of Andrea Brassói-Jőrös sounded more like Elektra but she produced
some agreeable mezza voce singing in the reunion with Andrei in Scene 12.
The leading male baritone roles of Andrei Bolkonsky (Csaba Szegedi), Field Marshall
Kutuzov (Péter Fried) and Napoleon (Zsolt Haja) were adequate without being particularly
memorable.
The tenor distribution was generally more successful.
Zoltán Nyári was a powerful, vocally secure and suitably loathsome Anatole and Szabolcs
Brickner an excellent Pierre Bezukhov with clear, impressive projection and convincingly
sympathetic characterisation – despite having to sit mute in a chair for most of the war scenes
holding a bunch of flowers.
In the smaller parts of Dolokhov and Jacquot, young baritone Krisztián Cser displayed
considerable vocal promise and excellent acting skills.
The next new production of this fascinating and unjustly neglected opera will be at the
Bayerische Staatsoper in March in an all-Russian undertaking conducted by Vladimir
Jurowski and directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov.
The young Australian musician Harry Ward has won a position in the first violinis of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He was recruited from the training orchestra, the Karajan Akademie.
In an interview with David Gajdos intended for an Austrian newspaper, Alsop is extraordinaly frank about her mentoring enterprise.
‘Out of 60 young female conductors in the Taki Alsop Fellowship we have 19 music directors now, they hire each other. Which is great!“
‘If you get in, you get 20 000 Dollars, but it is more about exposure and opportunities. You get the chance to work with me, I give workshops, also online. During lockdown some colleagues joined too, the late Bernard Haitink and Iván Fischer for example.’
The tenor says he was feeling rotten when he received an honorary doctorate at the Royal College of Music from its president, the heir to the throne on March 3m 2020.
But British doctors assured him it was more likely to be malaria than Covid, so he went ahead with the investiture. Only when he returned home was the disease identified.
