A few weeks ago at a Steinway Hall press event, Yongmei Hu gave a small audience a tantalizing taste of the program she’ll be playing at her sold-out Alice Tully Hall debut this Sunday. Earlier this week…
The Great Fake Prominent International Orchestra Swindle
Daniel Wakin has the juicy details at the NY Times. The truth is that the “Great International Orchestra Swindle” is not a terribly well-kept secret – and arguably one of the biggest scandals – in the American classical music business.
It’s also worth noting that on more than one occasion I’ve seen fine local free-lancers padding out the ranks of a couple of legitimate “name” Russian orchestras performing in New York City. It might be a worthwhile topic for a follow-up article by Wakin, who has become a “must-read” music journalist.
Bernard Greenhouse, 1916-2011
Greenhouse was a giant of chamber music and a prominent cello pedagogue. Margalit Fox’s obituary has just gone live at the NY Times.
Another Look at the Philadelphia Orchestra Mess
“[W]hat we have here is a labor negotiation masquerading as a bankruptcy case” – especially given that the Philadelphia Orchestra’s assets are larger than their liabilities. The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Peter Dobrin has written a fact-filled backgrounder on the circumstances surrounding the orchestra management’s bankruptcy filing.
Busy Busy Busy Redux
It’s been a couple of unexpectedly busy weeks for me; blogging shall resume (almost) immediately
Portent of Continuing East Coast Symphonic Mess
Phenomenal clarinetist Ricardo Morales is leaving the Philadelphia Orchestra at the end of next season to become principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic.
Grab the popcorn: Temirkanov blasts use of Saint Pete Phil pix for “phantom” orchestra
Go read this story. One of my very reliable overseas contacts tells me that this is just the beginning of trouble for a certain quasi-omnipotent music management firm.
More Sad News — Peter Lieberson, 1946-2011; Max Mathews, 1926-2011
Lieberson, whose colorful music was greatly inspired by his devotion to the Vajrayana school of Buddhism, but is best known for the song cycles he worte for his late wiffe Lorraine. He was remarkably warm and easygoing the handful of times I would run into him in New York City, and had an amazing depth of knowledge about jazz. I never had the chance to meet Mathews, but he was an enormously important figure in postwar music as not only arguably the first computer composer but an innovator in the field of digital music creation and systems.
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson — Berlioz / Handel
Regular readers know that I’m a fan of the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. While she may have been gone nearly five years, a number of live recordings have been released since her untimely passing that strongly complement her studio output.
ATOS Trio @ The New School
Synaphaï welcomes Elizabeth Barnette as a contributing writer and critic.
Rachmaninoff: “Trio élégiaque” No. 1 in g minor
Dvorák: Piano Trio in g minor, Op. 26
Beethoven: Piano Trio in B-flat Major “Archduke”, Op. 97
ATOS Trio
Annette von Hehn, violin / Stefan Heinemeyer, cello / Thomas Hoppe, piano
Tishman Auditorium, The New School, New York City
Sunday, April 10, 2011
After starting their American tour in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center on April 7, the ATOS Trio came to New York to play two different programs on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.