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Something intriguing in the trees
Despite living not that far away from Nunhead cemetery, I missed Biped's Monitor which was presented in the cemetery by the Arbonauts. Described as a unique site-based theatrical experience merging highly-visual, surreal environments...Show More Summary
What is the Right Order for Listening to These Performances?
Chronologically? By conductor? By orchestra? By edition? By quality?
Alan Turning: the opera
The man who cracked the German enigma code is the subject of a work in progress, to be premiered in New York the week after next. Here are some press-release links to the background and the lead singer: Jonathan Estabrooks was selected from over 20 baritones heard by composer Justine F. Chen, librettist David [...]
A scream and an outrage - 2
A weekend music marathon at the
Barbican and other places: curated by Nico Muhly
The Sixteen
Session 4 began far LSO
St Lukes traversing music from the renaissance to present day
with The Sixteen, led by
Harry
Christophers, who wereShow More Summary
A formidable singing teacher is no more
Noelle Barker, a fine soprano in her day and later a teacher to many outstanding performers, has died aged 84. Aberdeen born, she studied with Hans Hotter and sang with Britten’s English Opera Group and other national copanies. She was professor at the Guildhall from 1977. Among her hobbies, she listed breadmaking and dressmaking. She [...]
He will be buried in a white t-shirt and jeans
The funeral of Steve Martland will take place in the East Chapel of Golders Green Crematorium at 10.30 am on May 31. Steve’s friend and publisher, Sally Groves, tells me that she is just about to choose a white t-shirt for his final appearance – the inimitable fashion statement that Steve proclaimed throughout his musical life. [...]
Tamara Volskaya Plays Mozart's Rondo alla Turca
What a thrill it is to hear Tamara Volskaya (and the rest of the Abaca String Band) play this piece! Before today I only knew her as a brilliant woman of mystery from somewhere in Russia, in black and white. Now, a generation later and in full color (I think it's appropriate that she wears red), she continues to be a real inspiration. Here are some more treats:
Another big change in Boston
For the first time in living memory, the BSO music director is not a client of Columbia Artists Management Inc. CAMI has not just held the baton in Boston, it has been responsible for a disproportionate number of guest conductors and soloists. Ronald Wilford, its director, had hoped to implant Roccardo Chailly in the role, [...]
What Boston can expect of Andris Nelsons
I was present when the young Latvian gave his first public concert with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Public concert? The only previous occasion he had conducted in Birmingham was a closed acoustic test for the refurbished town hall. The CBSO were losing Sakari Oramo that season and several respected contenders had been lined [...]
An Attenborough aims for the Gove-rnment jugular
Michael Attenborough, outgoing director of the Almeida Theatre, has launched a brilliantly coherent attack on Michael Gove’s attitude to education and the Tory Government’s downgrading of the arts. A member of one of Britain’s best-known media dynasties, he let fly in a letter last week to The Stage. The content is now going viral. Here’s [...]
Anne Frank opera premieres in France
The French premiere of Grigori Frid’s opera on the life and death of Anne Frank will be presented tonight to an audience of schoolchildren. The black-tie premiere is tomorrow. They’ve got their priorities right at Opéra Metz.
Tribute concert tonight to Frances Andrade
If you can’t be there, observe a minute’s silence for a brave musician whose tragic death may have helped save many young lives.
Another Minnesota musician floats away
Yun-Ting Lee, who only joined the first violins last summer, has won a seat in the second violins in Cleveland. That’s about a fifth of the ensemble gone during the course of the season-long lockout. We are witnessing, as never before in my experience, the player-by-player dismantling of a great orchestra. Well done, Michael Henson.
Berlin’s Akademie der Künste calls for reinstatement of Nazi-themed Tannhäuser
One of Germany’s oldest and most respected cultural establishments has intervened in the row over the Düsseldorf production of Tannhäuser, taken off after a single performance amid widespread public protest. About a dozen first-nighters...Show More Summary
Exclusive: Italian opera singers seek UNESCO protection
The financial crisis and the near-collapse of the Maggio Musicale in Florence have left opera singers fearing that their profession will be wiped out. A group of activists have written to the nations’s president, asking him to seek United Nations protection for an art that has brought the world such joy. We are proud to [...]
Friday Historical: Some amazing tales from Glyndebourne
Here's my piece from yesterday's Independent about what happened to Glyndebourne during World War II. It was transformed into a centre for children evacuated from London's east end - and that history has now inspired a new staging of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, which opens tomorrow. Show More Summary
22 May: Luke Bedford premieres
Luke Bedford
(c) Ben Ealovga
Luke Bedford's new piece Renewal will be performed twice by the London Sinfonietta at the concert on May 22 at the Purcell Room on London's South Bank. In between the two performances Bedford will talk about the work, giving the audience insight into the work before they are able to hear it again. Show More Summary
The Morningside Mysterium
What do the brothers Wesendonck, Guardian Life Insurance, Confucius Plaza, the Roerich Museum, Grant's Tomb, West Point, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the Temple of the Grail have in common? You guessed it — they're all part of "A Walking...
aworks listening log :: the day the music stood still
The Day the Earth Stood Still Philip Glass Ensemble. Music in Twelve Parts (Orange Mountain Music) Adele Anthony. GLASS, P.: Violin Concerto / Company / Prelude from Akhnaten (Naxos) Bernard Herrmann. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Classic Records) William...
Der Fluyten Lust (and amore) hof
In 1980 I came across a reprint of a volume of Jacob van Eyck's Der Fluyten Lust-hof in the Joseph Patelson Music House in New York. I was preparing to leave town (and country) with my modern flute and piccolo, and had really no idea...Show More Summary
