May 10, 2013   |
| | | Thought of the Day | We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone. --Ronald Reagan |
| Quote of the Week | | Rules and models destroy genius and art. --William Hazlitt |
| | Nazi-themed Tannhäuser Cancelled |  Deutsche Oper am Rhein has cancelled Burkhard C. Kosminski's production of Tannhäuser. The cast will perform the remaining dates in concert. In a statement on its web site, the company acknowledged that it had not anticipated the profound impact the use of Nazi imagery would have on some patrons. Which seems odd, given, for example, the murder scene, in which Tannhäuser, dressed in an SS uniform (he is intended by Wagner to be a medieval traveling minstrel) shaves the heads of and executes an entire family by shooting them individually in the neck. Attempts by management to convince Kosminski to tamp down some of the excesses were fruitless. "He refused for artistic reasons," the company reports on its website. |
The New Mariinsky, Part I |  Three nights, three theaters, one orchestra in three iterations, two choruses, one ballet company fortified with apprentices, countless Important Artists, one Important conductor: Such were the artistic ingredients of the opening weekend of the new Mariinsky Theater (Mariinsky II) in St. Petersburg, May 2-4. Opening night also marked, not so coincidentally, the 60th birthday of Artistic Director Valery Gergiev, the project's prime mover whose capacity for musical multitasking is outpaced only by his appetite for it. "I've been wanting to do this for 20 years," he told a press gathering on day 1. Since taking the helm in 1988, he said, he has had two primary goals: "One, to survive as a company and two, to get the support of the State." Under his tutelage, the Mariinsky Theater company and all of its components (encompassing an artistic and administrative work force of 2,500) has moved well past survive into thrive mode, and the $700 million cost of the new building is but one testament to State support, further strengthened by the alleged personal bond between Gergiev and Russian President Vladimir Putin. |
| | | | |  Not only is the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra finally getting back to work this week after a near season-long lockout, it is also getting back its much admired president and managing director, Bruce Coppock, forced to step down after nine years in 2008 for health reasons. The rare form of cancer that felled him at the time has since gone into remission. A onetime professional cellist and co-founder of the Boston Chamber Music Society, Coppock is among the most highly regarded and innovative orchestra managers in the field. It was his idea to drop the music director position for the SPCO and instead use a number of "artistic partners" while deepening the musicians' role in artistic decisions.
Coppock, 62, starts in June, taking over from Dobson West, who has been acting as both president and board chair since March of 2012, when Sarah Lutman exited the former role.
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| Minnesota Orchestra Cancels Rest of Season |  Minnesota Orchestra has cancelled the remainder of its season, which ends June 2, citing "the musicians' refusal to negotiate during a lockout," as the reason for the continued impasse between the two sides, which has now caused the cancellation of an entire season. At the same time, the administration has proposed three meeting dates, May 20-22, for continued negotiations, as well as placing three programs of two performances each on the summer schedule, presuming, apparently, that by that time a contract will have been signed. In the meantime, the orchestra's principal clarinet, Burt Hara, in the orchestra for 25 years, has won the audition for associate principal of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And Music Director Osmo Vänskä has threatened to quit should the dispute not be settled by the orchestra's Carnegie Hall date in November, 2013. Contract talks began on April 12, 2012. Musicians rejected management's proposal to cut base salaries by 32 percent and so have been locked out since Oct. 1. They have yet to come up with a counterproposal. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| Competitions, Going and Coming |  New York City Opera is accepting submissions to VOX, the Contemporary American Opera Lab, until June 30. Composers should submit an excerpt of 15 minutes or less in duration, from either a completed work or a work-in-progress.... The Geneva International Music Competition, this year dedicated to composition, has selected five finalists; the winning piece will be a mandatory part of the repertoire for Geneva's 2014 International Flute Competition.... Canadian violinist Maia Cabezza, 21, took home first "Mozart" prize from the Leopold Mozart International Violin Competition in Augsburg, Germany; the competition, triennial since 2003, was founded in the name of Augsburg-born violinist, composer, and father of Wolfgang Amadeus. |
| Catching up on the Opera Scene... |  From Berlin Times by Rebecca Schmid The Deutsche Oper's Tischlerei, a new wing for alternative music theater, hosted the results of Neue Szenen--a competition for composition launched by the Hans Eisler Conservatory--on April 8. Three young composers, Evan Gardner, Stefan Johannes Hanke and Leah Muir, emerged from a pool of 52 applicants with their musical settings of a monologue about the Russian journalist Anna Politkowskaja, who was held hostage in 2002 while reporting about the war in Chechnya. The topic seems slightly less hackneyed following the bombings in Boston (maybe Sarah Palin should have to sit through all three versions so that she doesn't confuse the republic with former Czechoslovakia). |
| Student Visas: A School for Scandal? | | To submit a question to GG Arts Law write to Dear Law and Disorder: May a non-resident alien (Russian) musician here for an advance graduate school degree on an F-1 visa be paid for playing some off-campus recitals? Are they considered "Curricular Practical Training" which is supposed to be allowed, if approved by the Designated School Official? (Of course, 30% of the gross fee would have to be withheld unless a CWA is obtained.) Thanks for your advice! Read the full story |
| A Healthy Approach to Competitions |  From Ask Edna by Edna Landau 'Tis the season to perform in a competition. A little over two weeks ago, the American Pianists Association announced that pianist Sean Chen is the winner of the 2013 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship, valued at over $100,000. As I write this column, 63 candidates are performing in the first round of the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition in Brussels. And just a little over two weeks from now, 30 candidates who have qualified for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition will give their first performances in Ft. Worth, Texas. I have written before on this blog about the pros and cons of competitions and have written a Musical America Special Report called Choosing the Best Competition for YOU". Still, the topic continues to interest me. In looking at the brief bios of the candidates on the Van Cliburn Competition website, I was struck by the fact that most of them had entered a significant number of competitions in the past and very few had won a first prize in a major international competition. |
| |  From Why I Left Muncie by Sedgwick Clark Evgeny Kissin Two pianistic superstars played two days apart last weekend at Carnegie Hall. I had avoided their recitals for years but thought I should try again since I was in town for the weekend. The first was Evgeny Kissin, 41. His prodigious prowess is documented from his earliest years at the keyboard, and in 1995 he became Musical America's youngest Instrumentalist of the Year. For a time he seemed to grow with each concert, but by the end of the decade his playing had become fussy and self-regarding. Not so last Friday night, however. Perhaps most impressive throughout was Kissin's knowing sense of rubato, a depth of emotion without a hint of calculation. He began with Haydn's E-flat Sonata, No. 49--the one with the repeated da-da-da-duh motive in the first movement that Beethoven would later "borrow" to open his Fifth Symphony. The pianist's approach vacillated between classical and romantic, and maybe he'll make up his mind someday. But there was no doubt of Kissin's emotional identification with Beethoven's final sonata, Op. 111. Demonic in the first movement and with a superbly sustained adagio molto semplice e cantabile in the second, the maturity of his insight left me breathless and, with the final trills, shaken. No performance I have heard from him in concert or on record quite prepared me for this reaction. Read the full story |
| Latest Roster Changes |  Musical America is helping presenters keep up with its advertisers! Managers whose rosters appear in the 2013 edition of the Musical America Directory should write to listings@musicalamerica.com with the names of artists and attractions that have been either added or removed, and please be sure to indicate "added" or "removed." Cash, Rosanne, singer/songwriter, added, Opus 3 Artists Chen, Mei-Ann, conductor, added, Opus 3 Artists
Coburn, Sarah, soprano, added, Fletcher Artist Management
Michaels-Moore, Anthony, baritone, added, Fletcher Artist Management (North American management) |
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