Folks have lately pointed out the merits of Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, which ‘presents world-class music for people of modest incomes in New York City’ (or so it says on the wrapper).
The series, founded in 1900, has been run since 1941 by just two 2 managers – Joseph Mann, for 32 years until his death in 1972 and Frank Salomon for the last 52 years. Is this a record?
Here’s another. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, presently undergoing a spell of turbulence, has got by for 63 years with just three managers:
Arthur Baker, 18 years
Ed Smith, 22 years
Stephen Maddock, 24 years
Any other comparable paragons of stability?
Christian Thielemann has told La Scala he has to undergo surgery next month and cannot conduct Das Rheingold, which opens on October 28. Simone Young and Alexander Soddy will step in.
Since he misses the beginning, Thielemann will withdraw from the whole Ring, directed by David McVicar. (Walkuere opens in February and no conductor has yet been assigned.
Starting with the 1982 best-seller A Feather on the Breath of God, the south London boutique label is bringing back some of its iconic hits on long-playing vinyl, it was rolled out today.
Along with Hildergard of Bingen, the first releases will be:
Alina Ibragimova’s Mendelssohn Violin Concerto – Paired with his early D minor Violin Concerto, and performed with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Vladimir Jurowski,
Sir Stephen Hough’s Complete Chopin Waltzes –
Marc-André Hamelin’s Shostakovich Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Andrew Litton
The death is being shared of Peabody graduate Eric Maul, a flutist well known among Baltimore musicians and in his adopted city, Boston.
No cause of death has yet been made public.
Social media are filling up with loving tributes.
Adam Workman writes: I will never forget the time in Miami that you were getting ready to perform in an early morning class for Marina Piccinini and you discovered that you had left your flute at the dorm with no time to retrieve it. I saw the panic in your eyes and realized that I had a special flute on my table. I said “here take this” and then snuck into the room behind you to hear you perform on this flute that you’ve never played. To this day that performance of The Lark Ascending is one of the most astonishing musical moments I’ve ever witnessed.
The Estonian composer, 89 this week, has been presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, an award dating back to 1871.
His son Michael outlined Arvo’s connection to English music:
‘Music is not just about sound, but a deep connection between the past and the present, between cultures and traditions, and between individual experiences. In my father’s work, this connection is embodied in the way he draws from early music traditions while creating something contemporary. And among the many traditions that have shaped his music, English choir music holds a very special place.
‘As a composer, my father’s journey towards his unique musical language – the tintinnabuli style – was not immediate. It was a journey of creative and spiritual exploration. His close connection with the sacred text, which is at the heart of his music, has been shaped by a profound reverence for choral and vocal traditions – traditions deeply rooted in the English early music. This bond becomes even more evident when we look at his collaborations with the renowned vocal ensemble, The Hilliard Ensemble, and their founder, Paul Hillier. Through their interpretations of Arvo’s music, a new dialogue was forged between old and new, past and present.
‘Paul Hillier has described how my father’s tintinnabuli style echoes the ringing of English church bells, with its subtle, evolving changes that create a sense of timelessness. This comparison highlights how my father’s music, though distinctly his own, resonates with the simplicity and spiritual depth found in early English music, returning to the fundamentals, to the beauty of a single note, a single word, or a single phrase.’
The Hungarian conductor Adam Fischer turned 75 this week.
By way of a birthday present, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker renewed his contract as chief conductor by five more years, to 2023.
Adam is the elder brother of Budapest Festival conductor Ivan Fischer.
The Hamburg Elbphilharmonie has just released artist details:
Against Silence. Against Anti-Semitism
Mon, 16 September 2024, 20:00, Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall Solidarity concert featuring Igor Levit (piano), Malakoff Kowalski (piano), Johanna Summer (piano), Alan Gilbert (violin), Antilopen Gang (band), Efrat Alony (vocals), Dirk von Lowtzow (vocals), Olli Schulz (vocals & guitar), Wolf Biermann (piano & vocals), Thees Uhlmann (vocals & guitar) alongside Michel Friedman, Tim Mälzer, Düzen Tekkal, Ronya Othmann, Giovanni di Lorenzo
Please note: this event takes place in German.
On the initiative of Igor Levit, the Elbphilharmonie is making an appeal to humanity with a solidarity concert on Monday, 16 September 2024. Numerous artists will gather on the stage of the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall to protest against the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany. The concert will be broadcast live in the Elbphilharmonie Mediatheque from 20:00 (CET) and will be available on demand afterwards.
An increasingly blatant anti-Semitism has also been observed in Germany since 7 October at the latest; hatred and incitement are booming. Since then, artists led by Igor Levit have intervened several times to counter contempt for humanity with the power of art and the spirit of cooperation. Now music will be played, spoken and read together on stage at the Elbphilharmonie. All the artists involved want to set an example that is not merely symbolic. The proceeds from ticket sales will go to OFEK e.V., a counselling service specialised in anti-Semitic violence and discrimination, and to the Stiftung Bornplatzsynagoge, a foundation whose new building of the Bornplatz Synagogue is a symbol of hope for the future of Jewish life in Germany.
The mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti was seen by millions singing in the rain a few weeks ago at the opening of the Paris Olympics.
Now she is getting personal about her prolonged struggle with cancer.
I know this photo will be a shock for a lot of you. This photo was taken 5 years ago by my dear friend Aurelie Raidron while I was fighting cancer. First of all : it’s a battle I won, I’m 100% recovered now, cancer free since several years, and so grateful about it. Most of you don’t know that part of my story because I kept it secret, mostly out of fear : fear of loosing my jobs as an opera singer, fear of being judged, fear of becoming “unreliable” or “weak” in the eyes of many (mostly professionally). I can see those who have cancer around me being sometimes isolated and scared (even ashamed!) to talk about it aswell, and I have decided that I had to be brave and go public about it, hoping it can give strenght and support to many of you who are fighting it or have people you love fighting it. Why is it the cover of Melankhôlia “In darkness through the light” ? Because this album has been the “track list” of my journey through cancer, it has been the only music I could sing, and in which I found a form of peace and acceptance, facing darkness through the light. This is why this album is so personal and dear to me. I share some of my experience in a diary that is part of the album booklet, and I’ll share some more in the next few weeks before the album release.
Our agony aunt has freelanced in the Berlin Phil and knows the situation from the inside.
Dear Alma,
I am a young musician trying to get a foothold on a career. I am still in a post-school program, have been taking auditions, and have won a number of competitions. I was very inspired, 18 months ago, when Vineta Sareika won the position of first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic. I stayed up late drinking with my friends, we were so happy that she had broken through the strongest glass ceiling, and it gave us confidence that we could do so as well. And now, she has left the job. I have been very sad these past days, trying to make sense of it. Can you help me understand it, Alma?
Crushed
Dear Crushed,
I too have been feeling quite blue since the announcement. She lifted us up, showed us it could be done, and through concerts (if we are lucky enough to see one live), and the Digital Concerthall, we could (and can) see that she deserved that job and was more than rising to the occasion. We can never know the true reason she decided to leave, but we can know it took a tremendous amount of strength to decide to do so. This is the same strength that got her to this job, arguably the best orchestra job on the planet, and which took her through her childhood, excellent training, competition wins, and leading a major string quartet. It is that strength which allowed her to say “no more”.
There is no doubt in my mind that the job of concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic is demanding beyond compare, and that the judgment of peers is crushing (think of all of the colleagues she beat to win the position from
inside the orchestra). The press and audience are unforgiving. The sexism which lead to the 141 year block on having a woman concertmaster is both within and without that orchestra, woven through the tapestry of classical music.
Was it that pressure that took its toll? Was it the balance of home and work – being the mother of a young child? Or something else.
Crushed – the glass ceiling that Vineta Sareika punched through is now open. It is splintered, jagged, dangerous and has the blood of those who had pounded on it for all of those years soaked into it. But it is open. You can also push through. We all can. And together will clean that opening in the ceiling, creating a glorious stairway to it and above it. And one day we will look down at it, and thank Vineta for paving the way.
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
Charles Haupt was barely shaving when the San Antonio Symphony signed him as concertmaster back in the day. Lukas Foss swooped in 1966 to bring him to the Buffalo Philharmonic, where he served for 37 years. His subsequent music directors were Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, Semyon Bychkov, Max Valdes and JoAnn Falletta.
Haupt was also concertmaster for 21 years at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival.
When Leonard Bernstein conducted his DG last recording of West Side Story, Charlie Haupt was leader of the orchestra.
Haupt died in Buffalo on August 18, 2024,aged 85.
She was half-French, half-Italian, spoke six languages and sang in twice as many.
The mega-hits of Caterina Valente, who has died in Switzerland at 93, came mostly in the 1950s.
She made her breakthrough in Germany with such German Schlagers as ‘Ganz Paris träumt von der Liebe’ and ‘Spiel noch einmal für mich, Hababero’. She topped those with a German version of Ernesto Lecuona’s ‘Malagueña’.
Perry Como booked her on his TV show. Sinatra was a fan. She had a decade in the sun.
Slippedisc, courtesy of OperaVision, is streaming Die Fledermaus today. Johann Strauss II’s comic operetta in three acts premiered in 1874 and has become a synonym of the operetta genre. In only six years, the operetta was staged in more than 170 theatres in the German-speaking regions and, by the 1890s, was performed all over the world. The libretto was written by Richard Genée and Karl Haffner after the burlesque The Prison by Julius Roderich Benedix and vaudeville piece Le Révellion by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. The emblem of Viennese refinement, here the new production from Opéra de Lille returns Die Fledermaus to these origines with song and dialogue in French. The staging is entrusted to the colourful imagination of Laurent Pelly. A master of comedy – as seen in his recent Meistersinger from Madrid – Pelly is able to indulge his taste for zany situations with precision, elegance and charm. This is sparkling Chauve-Souris turned on its head… which, as it were, is the Bat’s most natural position.
Sung in French with subtitles in English and French.
The Plot: the most brilliant of Austrian operettas takes us to the outskirts of romantic Old Vienna. It’s New Year Eve and we are in the company of Caroline, who is determined to teach her philandering husband Gaillardin a lesson, even while she is being pursued by her former beau, the operatic tenor Alfred. At the centre of the action is the extremely wealthy, eternally bored Prince Orlofsky, whose lavish masked ball brings everything to a most delicious boil. But what if the whole plot has been a cunning plan masterminded by someone just to get back at Gaillardin?
Streaming on Friday 13th September 1900 CET / 1800 London / 1300 New York
