Notes Par/by Michael Vincent & Réjean Beaucage
/ May 30, 2007
Pianist Aaron McMillan works on his
legacy
Following a career spanning 12 years
of music, and a second operation for brain cancer last September, the
young Australian concert pianist began compiling recordings into a single
source entitled The Aaron McMillan Piano Collection. “It came
about because of a scan I had of my head, which didn’t show great
things ahead,” says McMillan, who just celebrated his 30th birthday.
“I began to think about the things I’d like to tidy up in my life
if I didn’t have as much time ahead as I’d thought. I decided to
put together my life’s work and get it ready for the market so I could
leave something for the future that was organised.” With his performing
career now immortalised, he says: “I can go on to my life’s love
of composing. That’s what I absolutely
promised myself. This finishes and that starts, the same day, and let’s
see how many weeks or months it takes me.” MV
Dutoit Announces Second Major appointment
in two months
Former head of the Montreal Symphony
Orchestra, Charles Dutoit will become artistic director of the London-based
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO). This marks the second major appointment
announced for Dutoit in just two months, and has led to comparisons
with conductor Kurt Masur, who after his tenure with Leipzig, took on
the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra
and the Orchestre National de France. The RPO appointment starts in
2009, and should last longer than his four-year (2008-12) Philadelphia
Orchestra appointment. The Swiss conductor succeeds Daniele Gatti, who
will step down at the end of the 2008-09 season after 13 years in charge.
“I made my London debut with the [RPO] back in 1966 and have enjoyed
a long and happy relationship with the orchestra ever since,” said
Dutoit. Though the RPO announcement has been oddly ignored by much of
the news media, Dutoit will be the elder statesman in the most competitive
orchestral climate there since the 1950s, with Vladimir Jurowski Esa-Pekka
Salonen and Valery Gergiev. MV
Mstislav Rostropovitch (1927-2007)
On apprenait le 27 avril dernier le décès
de l’un des plus grands violoncellistes du XXe siècle : Mstislav
Rostropovitch. Il avait célébré le 27 mars dernier ses 80 ans à
Moscou, lors d’une grande réception organisée en son honneur par
Vladimir Poutine. Rappelons que le violoncelliste et chef d’orchestre
était tombé en disgrâce dans son pays natal après avoir donné asile
à l’écrivain dissident Alexandre Soljenitsyne en 1970. Ayant émigré
vers l’Ouest en 1974, il était privé de sa nationalité par les
autorités russes en 1978. Lors de l’effondrement du Mur de Berlin,
en 1989, Rostropovitch était là et jouait du Bach pour saluer la liberté
retrouvée. Il était réhabilité l’année suivante par un décret
de Mikhaïl Gorbatchev, mais il aura conservé jusqu’à la fin de
sa vie des relations tendues avec la Russie. Sa discographie est très
importante, et ne compte pas moins de six enregistrements officiels
du Concerto pour violoncelle en si mineur, op. 104, de Dvorak,
dont il faisait son cheval de bataille. Il jouait depuis 1974 sur le
« Duport », fabriqué par Antonio Stradivari en 1711. RB
Joshua Bell goes virtually unnoticed
Joshua Bell is one of the most famous
figures in the world of classical music, but this apparently had little
effect on the ears of commuters at a subway stop in Washington DC. In
a social experiment to test the perception and public taste of Washington
DC residents, the young-looking Bell, a Grammy-Award winner, wearing
jeans, a T-shirt and a baseball cap, played six classical pieces outside
a Metro station during the morning rush-hour. Bell says that after 43
minutes of playing he netted $32.17 in loose change, and only one of
1,097 people who passed by recognized him. “I was quite nervous and
it was a strange experience being ignored,” said Bell, a former child
prodigy who easily commands ticket prices of $100. Playing a $3.5
million dollar violin handcrafted in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari, Bell
said he expected that rush-hour commuters might not be open to listening
to music… “but it was still almost hurtful sometimes when somebody
just walked by when I really did try to play my best,” he said.
Ironically, two days after The Washington Post revealed that he had
failed to draw even a tiny crowd while performing in an anonymous setting,
the 39-year-old was honoured with one of the most coveted awards in
classical music — the Avery Fisher Prize. MV
Composition de l’année
C’est l’œuvre du compositeur montréalais
Denis Gougeon Clere Vénus, interprétée par Marie-Danielle Parent
(soprano) et l’ensemble de la SMCQ sous la direction de Walter Boudreau
(disque « À l’aventure », chez Centredisques), qui a été choisie
« Composition classique de l’année » lors de la remise des prix
Juno, décernés le 6 avril dernier à Calgary. Le compositeur inscrit
ainsi son nom sur une liste où l’on compte déjà ceux de Istvan
Anhalt, Michael Conway Baker, Malcolm Forsyth (3 fois), Christos Hatzis,
Chan Ka Nin (2), Alexina Louie (2), Andrew P. MacDonald, Colin McPhee,
Oskar Morawetz (2), R. Murray Schafer (3), Harry Somers, Donald Steven
et Bramwell Tovey. On note à la lecture de cette liste que le prix,
qui existe depuis 1987, était remis cette année pour la première
fois à un compositeur francophone ! On félicite bien sûr M. Gougeon,
mais on se demande un peu si on doit vraiment se réjouir... RB
Erratum
Nous désirons mentionner que, dans l’article
de Bruno Deschênes « Mísia et le nouveau fado », publié dans le
numéro d’avril 2007, l’information concernant un lien d’amitié
entre Amalia Rodrigues et Antonio de Oliveira Salazar est totalement
erronée. Nous tenons à nous excuser sincèrement pour cette malencontreuse
erreur. La rédaction
Some May Composer Birthdays
Infos
recueillis par Patricia Jean |
|
