Bob Dylan's first muse, who has died aged 67, was the girl with the golden hair in the Freewheelin Bob Dylan album - a picture taken by the great Don Hunstein without serious intent and transformed overnight into the defining image of a liberated generation. Hunstein was a CBS studio photographer who seldom saw daylight. A decade older than Dylan, he struck up an easy rapport with the rough kid from Duluth and caught him in poses of uncommon informality. Hunstein's work is archived and … [Read more...]
Death of a great jazz trumpeter
February 28, 2011 By
Jens Winther, the meditative Danish master, has died in Geneva, aged 50. He appears to have suffered a stroke, while asleep.This obituary from Dagbladet translates into comprehensible English.Here's the biographical text from his website:Jens Winther was born in Denmark in 1960 and started to learn the trumpet at age 10. In 1978 he became a professional freelance trumpet player in the jazz area. In 1982 Jens was appointed solo trumpet player in the Danish Radio Big Band which he began … [Read more...]
The brains at the top of the record business
February 28, 2011 By
Dickon Stainer, head of the Decca Records Group, has been telling Billboard why he brought the label back from the dead and what he plans to do with it.No more crossover, says Dickon: "We're not decrying the attraction of crossover but we need to pay attention to the classical music which is filling concert halls the world over."And no quick-fix solutions, either: "Building a career like Pavarotti's takes decades. That long-term planning can't exist within the mentality of … [Read more...]
Why Arsenal and Spurs are more thrilling than the Berlin Philharmonic
February 28, 2011 By
The Guardian has raised the Berlin noise another notch by asking, on its op-ed page, why London (among other great cities) can't have an orchestra like Berlin. The question has been rumbling for almost 50 years - ever since Lord Goodman at the Arts Council tried to bang heads together and form a super-orchestra. Charlotte Higgins yearns for much the same.The point is, there is no point. Berlin has a Mercedes of an orchestra that is driven smoothly and with little apparent friction by Simon … [Read more...]
Kafka Prize winner dies
February 27, 2011 By
Arnost Lustig, author of Night and Hope, has died in Prague, aged 84.A prisoner of the Nazis in Terezin, he jumped off a train to Dachau and reached Prague in time to take part in its liberation. He quit the country after the Soviet invasion in 1968, returning after the fall of Communism in 1989. He received the Kafka award three years ago, in the footsteps of Philip Roth, Harold Pinter and Haruki Murakami.Much of his fiction is Holocaust-related. The most recent novel was Lovely Green … [Read more...]
Bach goes Sephardic – with super-rare Domingo video
February 27, 2011 By
The Bochum Symphony Orchestra is presenting a double performance on March 18 of Bach's St John Passion with the Sephardic Passion by the Israeli composer Noam Sheriff, originally premiered in 1992 with Placido Domingo as lead tenor. The concerts are being given as part of an extended theme on relations between German and Jewish musicians, led by conductor Steven Sloane. Here's the Bochum website, which does not give much away (in German). But here, as bonus, is Domingo singing the … [Read more...]
Levine in Boston – it’s gone beyond a joke
February 26, 2011 By
Reports of indiscipline in the Boston Symphony Orchestra after James Levine's latest health withdrawal need to be taken very seriously indeed. According to the Boston Herald players were seen giggling and sniggering during Mahler's Ninth Symphony, under substitute conductor Sean Newhouse. There's no excuse for that.Levine's brother says he may scale back his Boston involvement in future, but it's too late for half-measures if the orchestra cannot play a an end-of-life symphony with a … [Read more...]
Lenny’s sidekick is gone
February 26, 2011 By
The composer Jack Gottlieb, who was Leonard Bernstein's assistant at the New York Philharmonic and later publications director of the Bernstein Office, has died aged 79. He was halfway through a year of his appointment as Leonard Bernstein Scholar in Residence at the New York Philharmonic.Deatails of his life at his website. photo: Brandeis … [Read more...]
Superquick recovery on the Sheffield Cure
February 25, 2011 By
Graham Sheffield, who quit as head of Hong Kong's arts development last month on urgent health grounds, has just popped up as director of arts at the British Council. Must be the wonderful Manchester climate that has restored him to full function. They should bottle it and sell it in health shops.Seriously, he's a great catch for the British Council, which has been in poor shape.Here's the story, in Classical Music mag.And here's the British Council press release. … [Read more...]
Music from Egypt – coming your way
February 25, 2011 By
Try this. Couldn't be more topical. I'm in the northeast that night, otherwise I'd be there.-------------------Four UK premières from the new generation of Egyptian composers and music from Egypt's first School of Composition.This latest concert in the Al Farabi Concerto series presents new music from Egypt, juxtaposed with works from the first Egyptian school of classical composition, connecting past and present.The Composers Ensemble perform music byGamal Abdel-Rahim Piano … [Read more...]
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