Slipped Disc

Musicians from the Athens scrapheap have wrapped their heart-breaking final performance with suggestions of how the world can help to save their country from the end of civilisation. Watch. … [Read more...]

It's a set of Slipped Disc silver spoons to the lovely London pianist Ana Sinkovec and her groom Sam Burstin, viola player in the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor of the Paradisal Players. Lots of happiness to them. … [Read more...]

More troubles in Columbus, Ohio. They dragged the orch back from the brink of collapse and appointed a buzzy Canadian baton. But now they say he's not spending enough time in town, and they're looking for a replacement. We hear the concertmaster's seat is short-term, too. Read more here. UPDATE: We've altered the headline verb after the conductor's agent pointed out that the termination was by mutual agreement (it usually is, eventually at least). But ending a contract halfway through … [Read more...]

Hopes that the national orchestra might be saved after a superior court ordered the government to reopen state broadcasting were dashed this morning. Here's a report from our Athens correspondent:   The situation becomes worse. Late yesterday evening the Council of State decided that ERT should continues its program until the day the new carrier will be ready with less employees. BUT the magazine of ERT "Radiotileorasi" and the three musical ensembles are not in the list of the … [Read more...]

The things you learn from an obituary: jazz guitarist Johnny Smith, who composed the Ventures' greatest hit, once played Schoenberg with the New York Philharmonic under Dmitri Mitropoulos. Opus 24, perhaps? UPDATE: Yes it was. Here's his discography (h/t Simon Thacker). Events like that can shape a life. Johnny Smith has died, aged 90.   … [Read more...]

It's getting a lot of continental airtime, but we can't identify either the actor or the soundtrack in this advertisement for Swiss software. Is he a real pianist? Who's playing here? … [Read more...]

The Galliard Ensemble is marking its 20th anniversary with some tricksy stuff. Luvvit. Kathryn Galloway is also the flautist in a rock band, Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate (www.reverbnation.com/itsadequate). They will appear in a Save The Children fundraiser at Camden’s Fiddler’s Elbow(London, UK) on Thursday 4 July. … [Read more...]

The US writer and critic Michael Johnson followed the piano competition from his home in Bordeaux. So did thousands more on computer screens around the world. Their responses hit the fan long before those of professional newspaper critics. How does that affect the future of competitions? And criticism? Read Michael's reflections here. … [Read more...]

The translators of the King James Bible were not lacking in a sense of humour. When they came to Psalm 42, they coolly departed from the metric Hebrew of כאיל תערג על אפיקי מים and rendered it as.... pants. As pants the hart, to be precise, punning away at the seat of emotion (the heart) and the urges of the nether parts (pants). It's a brilliant piece of double entendre, extending and amplifying the original text. Handel, in his anthem, rather robbed it of desire. … [Read more...]

In an exclusive interview last night with Andrew Patner, the Chicago music director, 71, says he wants to renew his contract beyond 2015 and talks of having found 'the natural instrument for me'. He adds: 'There is no reason at all to stop this musical relationship.' Objectively, he's right. It is by far America's most effective traditional maestro-musician alliance. Read on here. … [Read more...]

Martin Messier, a Canadian artist, loves old sewing machines. So much so that he has made an orchestra out of them. The event is coming to Ireland this Friday. Watch. Sew. Go. … [Read more...]

Richard Marlow, who was director of music at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1968 to 2006, has died, at the age of 73. He appears on numerous recordings as organist, conductor and chorus director. … [Read more...]

Jalil Shahnaz died today, aged 92. Here's a report in the Tehran Times:   The doyen of Iran's ancient and sophisticated classical music tradition, Maestro Jalil Shahnaz, died today in Tehran at the age of 92. A virtuoso of the tar and setar, he was born in Iran's cultural capital, Esfahan, in 1921 and first came to national attention in the 1940s. Alongside such figures as Nour Ali Boroumand, Ali Naqi Vaziri, and the kemanche virtuoso Asghar Bahari, Shahnaz spent his life in … [Read more...]

Alpaslan Ertüngealp is a Tukish conductor and pianist who has worked as Claudio Abbado's assistant for the past two years. At the Istanbul International Music Festival last week, he conducted a concert with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. The concert was warmly received and Alpaslan was called back to lead an encore. Here's what he did: I conducted Mozart KV587 as an encore and put on a surprise T-shirt just for the encore to promote peace and send a message to the crowds and … [Read more...]

In these days of glammed-up artist mug-shots, any cover that looks like someone has expended on it two seconds of original thought usually goes to the top of my pile. That's what caught my eye with the new Alexandra Dariescu release, reimagining a Renoir portrait. What held my attention was a musical idea - the complete preludes of Chopin and Dutilleux. It's my album of the week on sinfinimusic.com. Read the review here. … [Read more...]