Today's Birthday in Music: July 31 (del Mar)

1919 - Norman del Mar, London, England; conductor and biographer

Wikipedia
Obituary (N.Y. Times, Feb. 8, 1994)

Today's Birthdays in Music: July 30 (Louie, G. Moore)

1949 - Alexina Louie, Vancouver, Canada; composer

Wikipedia
Biography (Encyclopedia of Music in Canada)

"Bringing the Tiger Down the Mountain II", played by Stéphane Tétrault (cello) and Sasha Guydukov (piano) (semi-finals of the Montreal Symphony Music Competition, 2007)



1899 - Gerald Moore, Penn (Watford), England; piano accompanist

Wikipedia

Accompanied by Gerald Moore, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf sings Mozart's "Die kleine spinnerin"


"Not too loud but not too soft!" - Gerald Moore reminisces (clip from 1951 radio programme)

Today's Birthdays in Music: July 29 (Schreier, Theodorakis)

1935 - Peter Schreier, Meissen, Germany; opera and concert tenor, conductor

Wikipedia
Biography and pictures

Peter Schreier sings "Svegliatevi nel core" from Handel's Giulio Cesare (Munich Bach Orchestra, conducted by Karl Richter, 1969)



1925 - Mikis Theodorakis, Chios, Greece; composer

Wikipedia
Homepage

Excerpt from Zorbas, ballet-opera by Theodorakis (Arena di Verona, 1990)

Today's Birthday in Music: July 28 (Muti)

1941 - Riccardo Muti, Naples, Italy; conductor

Wikipedia

Riccardo Muti conducts the overture to Mozart's Don Giovanni (La Scala, 1987)

Today's Birthdays in Music: July 27 (del Monaco, Granados)

1915 - Mario del Monaco, Florence, Italy; opera tenor

Wikipedia
Homepage

Mario del Monaco sings "E lucevan le stelle" from Puccini's Tosca (1972)



1867 - Enrique Granados, Lérida, Spain; composer

Wikipedia

Jacqueline du Pré plays "Intermezzo" from Goyescas by Granados (1962)

Today's Birthdays in Music: July 26 (Hewitt, Koussevitzky)

1958 - Angela Hewitt, Ottawa, Canada; pianist

Biography (Encylopedia of Music in Canada)

Angela Hewitt plays Prelude and Fugue in f# minor, BWV883 from J.S. Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, Book 2.



1874 - Serge Koussevitzky, Vyshny Volochyok, Russia; conductor, double-bassist

Wikipedia

Today's Birthday in Music: July 25 (Forrester)

1930 - Maureen Forrester, Montreal, Canada; contralto, teacher, administrator

Biography (Enclycopedia of Music in Canada)
Je me souviens de Maureen Forrester (La Scena Musicale, February 2006)

Maureen Forrester sings:

"Urlicht" from Mahler's 2nd symphony, 4th mvt. (orchestra directed by Glenn Gould, 1957)

English folk song "Blow the wind southerly" with John Newmark at the piano (CBC broadcast, 1965)


"Che puro ciel" from Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice (Charles Mackerras directs the orchestra)

Letters from Munich: Jonas Kaufmann liederabend

Photo credit: Wilfrid Hoesl

Greetings from beautiful Munich! I arrived Tuesday morning for a week of wonderful music. With the Munich Festival in full swing, summer time here is a feast for opera lovers. This year is even more special because it is the 850th birthday of the city. Among the celebrations is the re-opening of the exquisite Rococo Cuvillies Theatre. We Canadian journalists are fortunate to have scheduled a private tour of this theatre, so I will have more to say in a few days.

Our Munich sojourn got off to a terrific start, with a lieder recital by the fast-rising tenor Jonas Kaufmann. It sold out days in advance. By six o'clock, there were quite a number of desperate people milling about outside the Prinzregententheater, with “suche Karte” signs in hand, hoping to get lucky. Those in possession of a ticket were treated to a remarkable display by an artist in his vocal prime.

Kaufmann is that rare breed - a budding heldentenor with gorgeous tone and great technical facility, not the least of which is a completely secure top register. He has total command of his voice, from the tiniest pianissimo to full throat forte. Everything is executed with utmost taste and musicality. Being tall, dark and handsome doesn't hurt either. Born in Munich, Kaufmann mostly sings elsewhere – in Zurich where he lives, in Covent Garden where he is a big star, and in New York and Chicago where he has loyal fan bases. Munich is very proud of its native son and Kaufmann was vociferously applauded when he entered. The applause only grew throughout the two hour concert.

Kaufmann opened with Schubert's Die Burgschaft, D. 246, which showed off his story-telling skills. Only a native German speaker is capable of such clarity of diction, coupled with lively acting that comes with a full understanding of the text. The long aria is really a mini-opera, and he held the audience’s attention throughout.

He followed the Schubert piece with Sieben sonette nach Michaelangelo, Op. 22 by Benjamin Britten, written for the tenor Peter Pears, Bitten’s partner in life and in art. The tessitura is very high, designed to show off the best part of Pears' voice. From the words of the opening song, “Si come nella penna” Kaufmann's tone rang out, fully bringing out the dramatic nature of the text. His Italian may not have the incisiveness he had in the German songs, but it is still pretty darn good. His singing had great variety, with all the requisite chiaroscuro one could want. Kaufmann was unsparing with his high notes, particularly his remarkably secure pianissimi, but he never resorted to a falsetto like some dramatic tenors. The baritonal timbre of his sound recalls a young Jon Vickers, although unlike Vickers, Kaufmann never croons. He always incorporates the chest register into his head voice. Judging from his concert and his Don Jose from Covent Garden, he is the premier jugendlich dramatic tenor voice in front of the public today.

After a 30 minute intermission, Kaufmann returned for an all Strauss program, in keeping with the Festival theme. He began with a most expressive "All mein Gedanken" – what a joy to the ear! Similarly, his "Du meines Herzens Kronelein" had lots of lovely soft singing. He brought out the humour in "Ach weh mir ungluckhaftem Mann", and the audience responded with spontaneous applause - unusual in Germany where the ever respectful audience always waits until the end of a group to applaud. "Ich liebe dich" was sung in an unusually declamatory manner, a little unusual for a love song. The vocal line is very emphatic, and the piano accompaniment curiously echoes the introduction to the presentation of the rose in Die Rosenkavalier.

If there was a fly in the ointment, it was the over reverberant acoustics in the Prinzregententheater, accentuated by the fully opened piano lid. Sometimes Helmut Deutsh’s ever-excellent playing was a little loud. Deutsch was/is Kaufmann's teacher, and the two performed with great rapport, with much communication and mutual trust.

Of all the Strauss songs Kaufmann sang this evening, I have two favourites. One was "Heimliche Aufforderung". I know some women singers tackle this, but for me this is a man's song, and Kaufmann's singing here has a certain, full throated, 'let it rip' quality but also plenty of sensitivity. My other favourite was Sehnsucht: wonderfully sustained, high piano soft singing in the last verse. If I were to allow myself a third favourite, it would be Cacilie. This closed the formal concert, showing once again his thrilling top.

The evening ended in many, many shouts of bravo and the two were called back time and time again. The inevitable encores began with Breit uber mein haupt, delivered in a straight forward, honest fashion. I have a soft spot for Beverly Sills' singing of this with orchestra, in half voice only, and very, very slow. Not at all authentic, but still very beautiful. The name of the second encore escapes me, but the third was Nichts. Kaufmann even offered a fourth encore. He gave unstintingly and I count myself lucky to have had the opportunity to hear a wonderful artist at the height of his powers. As if a two hour concert wasn't tiring enough, Kaufmann signed autographs after the show. I didn't stay but one of my Canadian friends, a huge Kaufmann fan, lined up for autographs and photo ops, and I am sure I will get choice pictures from him soon!

I will have more to report after the Ariadne tomorrow.

Joseph So
Munich

Letters from Munich: Arabella

Marlis Petersen (Zdenka) and Pamela Armstrong (Arabella)
Photo credit: Wilfrid Hoesl


My operatic feast here in Munich began last night with a performance of Arabella. We arrived at the theatre and found a dreaded white strip of paper in the program, signaling a cancellation. Soprano Anja Harteros was indisposed and Pamela Armstrong, an American, replaced her. I was so looking forward to hearing the much celebrated Harteros, a German soprano of Greek parentage and a Cardiff Singer of the World winner a few years ago. She sung to great success at the Met in recent seasons but I have not managed to catch her live. As for Armstrong, I only knew her as the Nozze Contessa and Rosalinda from Fledermaus – a well schooled, stylish singer with a beautiful sound.

The company has retired the 1977 production of Arabella, the one I was familiar with during the Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau-Julia Varady era. The "new" 2001 production is more symbolic than representational, more in keeping with modern-day theatre design and direction sensibilities. Call me a traditionalist - while I found that it had its moments, it didn't touch the heart like the old production.

The curtain opened to what looked like an attic. The stage floor was severely raked and covered in papers (unpaid bills!). An auctioneer began appraising the furnishings and workmen took pieces off stage. A quirk in the direction: the Adelaide-Fortune Teller scene had Arabella onstage observing the proceedings, something I’d never seen before. The Fortune Teller was costumed more like a "lady of the evening" than your conventional gypsy fortune teller. I am sorry to report that as Arabella, Armstrong sounded underpowered in the middle and lower registers and tentative in her delivery. I was in the 10th row, but I had trouble hearing her middle and lower registers. But she got stronger as the evening went along, in the end delivering a beautiful last act aria. Physically she is not ideal as the heroine, especially in this production. She has gained weight since the last time I saw her, a bit plump and short, looking rather matronly, especially compared to the tall and willowy Harteros. Physically Armstrong and Marlis Petersen (Zdenka) aren't the best match. Armstrong's voice sounded smaller than the fabulous Marlis Peterson as Zdenka, resulting in a musically unbalanced Act One duet Aber der Richtige. The conductor (Stefan Soltesz) stopped the orchestra afterwards for applause but there was none.

I don't want to give the impression that Armstrong was a bad Arabella. She is a fine singer with a lovely voice perfect for Strauss in the Schwarzkopf mode. But at least on this occasion, it lacked impact in the theatre, and her overall portrayal was under-energized. To her credit, she got better and better, and her finest moment was Das war sehr gut at the end. She opened the aria with really lovely, pure tones which finally won me over. But perhaps for some of the more critical members of the audience, it was too little, too late.

To my eyes, the unit set did not work all that well for Act One and lacked grandeur for Act Two. A bed was left in stage center. I suppose in post-modern deconstructionist discourse, Arabella is all about sex, but do we really need a constant reminder? Mandryka was Bavarian evergreen Wolfgang Brendel. I first heard him in the 1980s at the Met; he was in possession of one of the most beautiful baritone voices at the time. Now well into his third decade of singing, the voice is still in good shape, but inevitably it has lost a certain amount of vocal sheen and richness. His technique didn't have quite the freedom of the past, and his vocal production is a little stentorian, lacking a full palette of tone colours. But given the nature of Mandryka's character, I thought Brendel did well. Unfortunately, the audience didn't agree with me, and he was greeted with some boos. More shocking was the persistent booing of Pamela Armstrong, who didn't deserve such boorish behaviour from a small segment of the audience. She is a lovely singer and there was much to enjoy in her performance. Perhaps an announcement before the show would have curbed some of the boo-birds - afterall, she stepped in with a couple of days' notice to save the performance, and Arabellas don't grow on trees!

The rest of the cast was exceptionally strong, notably Alfred Kuhn as a wonderfully dotty Graf Waldner. His voice is typical of a comprimario, but it is steady and without the wobble one often encounters in superannuated house singers. And what acting! He pretty much stole the show. Marlis Peterson made a totally believable boy, and her soubrette sound was ideal as Zdenka. A strange quirk in the direction by Andreas Homoki: in the first encounter between Zdenko (Zdenka) and Matteo, he/she has her hands all over Matteo's body and he doesn't bat an eye. Perhaps this is the director's way of introducing a homoerotic element to the story? As Matteo, Will Hartmann, whom I only know from his Tamino, hit all the high notes. He sang everything without having to yell in his ridiculous Strauss tenor role. The other suitors (Elemer, Dominik and Lamoral) were all fine, as was the silly role of Fiakermili, sung with great flair by Sine Bundgaard.

The best part of the performance was the wonderful orchestral sound under the firm direction of Stefan Soltesz. The overall performance, though not quite up to festival standards, was good and I am glad I saw it.

Joseph So
Munich

Letter to the Editor: Classical Radio

Dear Mr. Wah Keung Chan,

Several years ago I wrote two articles that were published in your publication. Since then, I’ve witnessed the demise of classical music on both the CBC’s TV and Radio Networks. There is now precious little in the way of classical and jazz programming on the TV airwaves. Why aren’t there any live or recorded remotes from such events as the Montréal Jazz Festival and the Festival du Lanaudiere? I have read your articles concerning the CBC Radio Two in the May and June issues of your publication. I recall stating in one of my articles that in 1992, Ms. Margaret Lyons, then a manager of CBC Radio stated: “There is too much classical music on CBC Radio!” Her statement is rapidly becoming true, much to the chagrin of classical music lovers across this country. I confess that I am becoming annoyed at what is being executed by CBC Radio management. As a result I am tuning increasingly to WNED-FM at 94.5 MHX in Buffalo, New York, as well as the various classical and jazz channels on my XM satellite radio tuner. Additionally, I have re-discovered vinyl records. This January I started employment with a new CD re-issue company in Toronto, called Heritage Choice Records, founded by Marc Berstein. The company’s mandate is to re-issue cantoral, opera and classical 78 RPM recordings onto CDs, for sale to any interested parties.

While in Montréal for the Festival du Son et Image in April, I visited Le Colisée du Livre on rue Ste. Catherine E. Their second floor is a treasure trove of old LPs. In Kingston, there is a record shop called Brian’s Record Option at 382 Princess Street. They have more classical and soundtrack records than I’ve seen in a long time. I noticed that vinyl records and vacuum tube amplifiers are making a big comeback in Montreal. I counted no less than seven high-end audio retailers. Toronto electronics retailers seem more oriented to mass-market audio and home theatre installations. I like the warmer sound of vinyl and vacuum tubes, since they evoke memories of my childhood in Montréal. During that era, I started my serious listening habits with classical music. Even though I was bitten by the rock bug for a few years, I’m now returning to classical, jazz and blues music as much of the current popular roster has no interesting material (at least, not to me). Have you ever tried ‘returning’ to vinyl? If so, beware. It can become addictive.

Also, while in Montréal for this year’s Jazz Festival, I noted that Radio Couleur-Jazz had made tremendous improvement in its transmitter coverage. I can now receive a clear signal in Point Claire, about 15 miles from the transmitter on Mount Royal. I am also pleased the CJPX's sister station CJSQ-FM is on the air in Quebec City at 92.7. In Burlington, WVPR-FM 107.9 is now all news and talk programming from NPR and the BBC. This leaves Montrealers with no over-the-air access to NPR classical programming. NPR’s program, Music Through the Night, is always a welcome relief to nighttime listeners. Toronto readers can receive this program over WNED-FM 94.5 in Buffalo, New York. I would recommend that your readers investigate the XM Satellite Radio Service, as it really fills a void left by the demise of classical and jazz programming in CBC’s Radio Two and Espace Musique.

I still look forward to each new edition of your publication. It is still an important link in coverage of jazz and classical music events in Québec and Canada.

Dwight W. Pole
Toronto, Ontario

Today's Birthdays in Music: July 24 (di Stefano, Bloch)

1921 - Giuseppe di Stefano, Motta Sant'Anastasia, Italy; opera tenor

Wikipedia
Obituary (The Guardian, March 3, 2008)

Giuseppe di Stefano sings "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée" from Bizet's Carmen (1956)



1880 - Ernest Bloch, Geneva, Switzerland; composer

Wikipedia
Brief biography and pictures

Ernest Bloch's Concerto grosso No. 2, 3rd mvt., Allegro (Zuercher Akademie Kammerensemble, conductor Christopher Morris Whiting)


Violinist Yuri Beliavsky and pianist Daniel Beliavsky perform "Nigun" from Bloch's Baal Shem Suite (University of Wisconsin, 2004)

Today's Birthdays in Music: July 23 (Berwald, Cilèa)

1796 - Franz Berwald, Stockholm, Sweden; composer

Wikipedia

Berwald's Symphony No. 4 in E flat, 3rd mvt. (Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra)



1866 - Francesco Cilèa, Palmi, Italy; composer

Wikipedia
Pictures

Jan Peerce sings "È la solita storia del pastore" (Federico's Lament) from Cilèa's L'Arlesiana (Vienna Festival Orchestra, conducted by Franz Allers, 1965)

The Borrmeo Quartet performs in Vancouver

Although the Bartók String Quartets are securely placed in the standard chamber repertoire, complete performances are something special. In a poignant homage to the Vancouver Recital Society's now defunct Chamber Music Festival, the Boston-based Borromeo Quartet played on July 20, in circumstances as untypical as the project.

The venue was a large home on the edge of Vancouver's sprawling northeast suburbs. Most of the audience traveled an hour from the downtown core, listening to a pre-concert lecture aboard a motor coach. This almost rural setting and the perfect summer day held all hundred participants in a shared intimacy.

The music was impressive. The Quartet played in Tokyo last month and plans to record the works in the near future. First violinist Nicholas Kitchen followed the full score on a laptop but the rest of the ensemble opted for traditional parts. The Borromeo Quartet produced a suave, blended sound, which made the First Quartet sound all the more Romantic. By the time Bartók found his idiom, the players had adjusted to accommodate the raw energy and rhythmic drive of the composer.

Hearing all six quartets in six hours was demanding; such intense music packs an emotional wallop. The integral approach made Bartók's ideas and connections all the more powerful. The charm of the setting played its part as well. In the ‘night music’ movements of unsentimental evocations of nature sounds, it seemed like the Fraser Valley birds and bugs were counting bars and entering on cue.

David Gordon Duke
Vancouver, BC

Today's Birthday in Music: July 22 (Albanese)

1913 - Licia Albanese, Bari, Italy; opera soprano

Wikipedia
Profile (San Francisco Chronicle, 2004)

Licia Albanese sings:

The Letter Scene from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (1951, Leopold Stokowski conducting)


"Stridono lassù" from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (1951)

Today's Birthdays in Music: July 21 (Kuerti, Stern)

1938 - Anton Kuerti, Vienna, Austria; pianist, teacher, composer

Biography
Interview (La Scena Musicale, April 2008)


1920 - Isaac Stern, Kremenetz, Ukraine; violinist

Wikipedia
Obituary (NY Times, Sept. 2001)

Isaac Stern plays and conducts Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3, 3rd mvt. (1984)

Today's Birthday in Music: July 20 (Paik)

1932 - Nam June Paik, Seoul, South Korea; avant-garde composer and video artist

Biography

Unprotected music: Nam June Paik - "Solo for Violin" (Donaufestival, Krems, 2007)


Nam June Paik at the piano with Charlotte Moorman playing the cello

Today's Birthdays in Music: July 19 (Neel, Braun, Glennie)

1905 - Boyd Neel, Blackheath, England; conductor, administrator, educator


Biography


1965 - Russell Braun, Frankfurt, Germany; opera and concert baritone

Biography

David Pomeroy and Russel Braun sing "Au fond du temple saint" from Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de perles (Ottawa Under the Stars, 2007)



1965 - Evelyn Glennie, Aberdeen, Scotland; percussionist

Wikipedia
Homepage

Segment from Evelyn Glennie documentary

In a critical condition (3)

A friend in Charlotte, North Carolina, reports that their newspaper, the Observer, has shed two critics, music and movies. With the Los Angeles Times heaving bodies overboard and the Wall Street Journal on the verge of a cull, it looks like open season on the endangered critical species across the US print media.

And while I have no idea what Robert Thomson has in mind for Rupert Murdoch's WSJ, his editorship at the Times in London showed no understanding or personal sympathy for arts. If an editor doesn;t care about arts, the cost-cutters see a green light.

A surviving Charlotte staffer, Lawrence Toppman, says his paper will rely on 'wire-service reviews for movies', which is better than nothing - but not much. If a city paper cannot address events within its boundaries from a local angle, why should local people bother to read it?

What earthly point is there is agreeing or disagreeing with the artistic sensibility of an agency desk jockey who lives in another state, and maybe in another country? Newspapers that lose their resident critical faculty are effectively signing their own death certificate.

When the prolific Alan Brien died last month at the age of 83, it was reported that he was the first writer to be hired at the creation of the Sunday Telegraph, the editor taking the judicious view that once he had a theatre critic in place all else would sort itself out. And so it did.

Critics give a newspaper character. Sack 'em and you might as well publish press releases.

source: Artsjournal

In a critical condition (2)

Last night, I went to see Kurt Weill's Street Scene at the Young Vic, its first UK staging in 20 years which drew chief theatre critics from almost every national daily.

This morning, I addressed a dozen students, year 10-11, at corporate HQ on the prospects for arts careers in the media. Which would you think was the more excitable audience?

The students were terrific, sharp as buttons and receptive to early-morning stimulation (they laughed at my jokes). They were also media savvy, fully informed about the impact of internet usage on the print and record industries. They were not going to be fobbed off with bromides. What they wanted to hear was a range of fresh solutions to a familiar crisis. I did my best to give them hope.

The critics were in Thursday-night mood, worn out after too many late nights filing reviews for the last editions. But by the interval, the ones I chatted to were hopping and popping with the impact of the work. And by the end they (and I) were on a Weill high, totally blown away by the sensational mutations of 'Lonely House' leitmotiv with which the composer drives the piece.

Someone said this sort of excitement reminded him why he became a critic in the first place. I was struck more by the vital social function that performing arts critics perform, wading night after night through dullness and mire in the hope that something will light their fire, as Weill did ours last night.

That is why newspapers need critics - to protect readers from the routinely awful and the meretricious rubbish that masquerades as novelty, and to excite them with the blood-rush of the real thing. This is also why people read newspapers - to find a voice they can trust to lead them through the barren wilderness to a kind of promised land. Kurt Weill knew that, even as old man Kaplan ranted about 'the capitalist press'.

Every newspaper that sheds its critics, as so many are doing, loses a powerful reader magnet.

Source: Artsjournal

Today's Birthdays in Music: July 18 (Schafer, Viardot, Masur)

1933 - R. Murray Schafer, Sarnia, Canada; composer

Biography


1821 - Pauline Viardot, Paris, France; concert and opera mezzo-soprano; composer

Wikipedia

Cecilia Bartoli sings Pauline Viardot's "Havanaise"

1927 - Kurt Masur, Brieg, Germany; conductor

Official website

Kurt Masur conducting the NY Philharmonic in Schumann's Rhenish Symphony, 4th mvt. (1995)

In a critical condition (1)

There are two reasons why newspapers are getting rid of established critics. The obvious one is that newspaper revenues are caught in a double arm-lock by the internet and the credit crunch, neither of which is likely to ease in the forseeable future.

Less obvious is the internal perception, right or wrong, that certain forms of commentary and opinion forming are no longer central to what editors want and readers expect. As a sometime editorial executive, I have been party to some these discussions and that leaves me more than a little puzzled at the hysteria aroused by the recent layoffs. Nobody likes to see job losses but newspapers are a dynamic industry, quick to adapt to changes in public demand.

Take the role of television critic. Ten years ago, it was a high-profile spot in most papers, the generator of many water-cooler moments in the workplace. But television is not what it was. With hundreds of channels, there is not much likelihood that four people around the cooler will have watched the same programme the night before and, if they did, that they will want to read intelligent comment in the morning about dumb reality shows and talent contests.

If television is a mindless thing on the wall, why bother to write about it? Newspapers that have abolished TV reviews suffered no backlash from readers. The function had become redundant, except in the case of a few doyens - Nancy Banks-Smith in the Guardian, for instance - who developed a voice over many years that loyal readers would miss.

Radio criticism is a different matter. Radio has a distinct community, or set of communities. It is listened to by long-distance drivers, nursing mothers, menial workers and the elderly, among others. Many of them listent intently since, on a great many stations, content has been upheld at high level.

Radio columnists such as Gillian Reynolds in the Daily Telegraph provide a stimulating collage of inside information, listener guidance and incisive artistic criticism that serves, in turn, to keep producers on their toes and maintain original output. A loss of the radio signal would provoke outrage among the readership.

Neither of these forms of criticism has a direct bearing on arts reviews, which is where many of the cuts have lately been falling. It is, of course, impossible to generalise about critics. There are good arts critics and bad, as well as once-good critics who run out of things to say or hate everything in sight. But what is happening at the moment is that the axe is falling indiscriminately on critics good and bad - Lawrence Johnson in Miami is one of the best - and the tendency is growing in newspapers to regard arts criticism as peripheral to their purpose.

That would be both a disaster for newspapers and a danger to a free society, matters which I will attempt to reflect upon in a future comment. Your responses are, as ever, essential to the process.

Source: Artsjournal

Today's Birthdays in Music: July 17 (Upshaw, Steber)

1960 - Dawn Upshaw, Nashville, U.S.A.; opera and concert soprano

Biography & pictures
Interview

Dawn Upshaw sings "Gently, Little Boat" from Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress (with Gerry Hadley). Opéra de Lyon, 1996.



1914 - Eleanor Steber, Wheeling, U.S.A.; opera soprano

Wikipedia
Biography & pictures

Elanor Steber sings "Ist mein Liebster dahin?" from Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten (Carnegie Hall, 1958)

Today's Birthdays in Music: July 16 (Zukerman, Ysaÿe)

1948 - Pinchas Zukerman, Tel Aviv, Israel; violinist, violist, conductor

Wikipedia
A Gift for Music (La Scene Musicale, March 2002)

Schubert's "Trout Quintet", 4th mvt., played by Itzhak Perlman (violin), Daniel Barenboim (piano), Jacqueline Du Pré (cello), Zubin Mehta (bass) and Pinchas Zukerman  (viola) (1969)



1858 - Eugène Ysaÿe, Liège, Belgium; violinist, composer, conductor

Wikipedia

Ysaÿe plays "Mazurka" by Wieniawski (1912 recording)

Valeriy Sokolov plays Ysaÿe's Sonata No. 3 for solo violin (filmed by Bruno Monsaingeon at the Yehudi Menuhin School, 2003)

Letter to the Editor - Classical 96

Hello,

As a 15 year veteran of the radio station Classical 96.3, I read David Podgorski's article Classical Radio News (La Scena Musicale June 2008) with great interest. Yet at the same time, I take strong exception to the statement "the station was bleeding cash when Znaimer took over". The station was profitable long before Mr. Znaimer came along in 2006.

True enough, Classical 96 lost a lot of money during the early years in Cobourg, but with the arrival of Peter Webb as general manager in the mid '90s, all that changed. Not only did Webb alter the programming, but he also invested more heavily in advertising, and most importantly, moved the entire operation into Toronto where it became a major player in a very tough market. Almost from the beginning, we enjoyed far higher ratings then those of CBC Radio 2, and before long, we were solidly in the black.

Richard Haskell

Toronto

Today's Birthdays in Music: July 15 (Margison, Bream, Birtwistle)

1953 - Richard Margison, Victoria, Canada; opera tenor

Biography and pictures
Richard Margison - In Constant Motion (La Scena Musicale, 2002)

Richard Margison sings "Cielo e mar!" from Ponchielli's La Gioconda (Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, 2005)



1933 - Julian Bream, London, England; guitarest and lutenist

Wikipedia
Guitare Diffusion Biography

Julian Bream (self-duet) plays "Fandango" by Luigi Boccherini



1933 - Harrison Birtwistle, Accrington, England; composer

Wikipedia
New York Times on Harrison Birtwistle

Scenes from Punch and Judy, Act I, by Harrison Birtwistle (Rupert Bergmann as Punch, Hamburg 2001)

Today's Birthday in Music: July 14 (Finzi)

1901 - Gerald Finzi, London, England; composer

Wikipedia
Biography and more

"Fear no more the heat o' the sun" - song by Gerald Finzi


Finzi's "Eclogue" for Piano and String Orchestra (Chamber Ensemble Muenster, conductor & piano: Gregor Oechtering.  Rheine, Germany, 1994)

New kids on the blog

The Observer, a British Sunday newspaper, set up one of those self-fullling propositions today by asking: Critic vs Blog - is the art of criticism under threat from the web?

The article that explores these tensions is, so far as I can judge, fair, balanced and, insofar as it quotes my views, pretty accurate and to the point.

What skews it are the photographs which show the critics to be bursting with middle-age, while the bloggers portrayed are uniformly young, hip and street-wise.

The pictures, I can reveal, were posed. The critics were specifically asked to dress up in suits, while the bloggers are seen in gear that is generically casual. The meaning conveyed is simple. Critics = old and square, bloggers = young and cool.

That 's the sort of thing that gives journalism a bad name, the more so when it is palpably untrue, as it is here. Many of the bloggers I come across on-line are of pensionable age and crusty disposition. Many of the critics I meet in pursuit of my trade are young, unwaged and astonishingly open-eared and minded.

Nor are the two worlds mutually exclusive. Most arts bloggers get their juices flowing by what they in newspapers, print or on-line. More and more professional critics are alert to what airs on-line and, from time to time, assimilate and respond to it.

There are no hard and fast borders. Some bloggers strive for an impartiality worthy of the New York Times at its dullest. Some critics make polemic their passion, the rage at bad art increasing with the passing of years. That makes essential reading.

Some - I am not alone in this - inhabit both sides of the tracks. We write in newspapers for a living and feed a blog like this one with material we either can't or don't want to put in print - stuff that, in our judgement, has its most appropriate place out here, sparking instant responses and cutting more quickly than a newspaper page can with its cumbersome furniture and - in the Observer article - occasionally distorted view of the world.

One of the first laws of journalism is never make the facts fit the story. In the Observer, the story looks as if it has been commissioned to fit a fake picture.

Source: Artsjournal

Today's Birthday in Music: July 13 (Bergonzi)

1924 - Carlo Bergonzi, Vidalenzo, Italy; opera tenor

Wikipedia

Carlo Bergonzi sings:

(at age 65) "Una furtiva lagrima" from Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore (Newark. N.J., 1989)


"Ah si ben mio" from Verdi's Il Trovatore (Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, 1969)