Tchaikovsky Museum

The Russian Ministries of Culture and of Economic Development plan to create a music and cultural center at the Tchaikovsky State Memorial Music Museum in Klin, near Moscow. The museum is located in the house, where the Russian composer spent the last 2 years of his life, since May 1892. Read More →

Olivier Ochanine

Over a year since its first concert, the Sun Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has proven a success, Viet Nam News has reported. Based in Hanoi, financed by the Sun Group, the orchestra is conducted by Music Director Olivier Ochanine, 39. The French conductor is currently preparing the launch of the 2019-2020 season. The SSO has 45 permanent musicians from 20 different countries, however in the near future, it should expand, Ochanine announced.

At the age of seventy-four, and after seventy years at the piano, Nelson Freire has won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Classical Music Awards, which he will receive at ICMA's Gala in Lucerne on 10 May. Child prodigy, endowed from his beginnings with an astonishing virtuosity, his trajectory has been built on freedom and interpretative class, with a combination of technique and intelligence like it can be found with very few pianists. Assuming that all this has come to him, and that his role has been limited to that of being faithful to those innate qualities, the conversation with the great Brazilian artist - who speaks in a very low voice, with a cadence that suggests both discretion and sharpness - runs, with warm calm, in a dressing room of the Palacio de la Opera de La Coruna, in full rehearsals of his concerts with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia. We publish an interview from the Spanish ICMA Jury member Scherzo, done by Luis Sunen.

Nelson Freire
(c) Fabrice Boissière

You are awarded with the ICMA Liftetime Achievement Award and yet, alongside your predecessors in the award, Menahem Pressler, still active, or Aldo Ciccolini, who played until almost the moment of his death, you are a child …
Well, a child… I remember my childhood often, I remember a lot of the past, but when it comes to music I always look forward. I have had several lives. I would say as many as seven different lives, each very recognizable, sometimes with radical changes and they are like a sum that gives a whole life, mine. One, but well divided into seven parts. Read More →

Bela Bartok: Streichquartette Nr. 1, 2 und 4; Ragazze Quartet (Rosa Arnold, Jeanita Vriens-van Tongeren, Violine, Annemijn Bergkotte, Viola, Rebecca Wise, Cello); 1 CD Channel Classics CCS 41419; Aufnahmen 04+08/2018; Veröffentlichung 04/2019 (80'55) – Rezension von Uwe Krusch

Die CD des Ragazze Quartet mit drei der Quartette von Bartok, den Nummern 1, 2 und 4, der auch die anderen folgen werden, fällt zunächst durch die farbenfrohe Gestaltung mit folkloristischen und anderen an Ungarn erinnernden Motiven auf. Dreht man sie um, benennt sie für jedes der Quartette eine Grundtonart, was ich noch nie gesehen habe. Insofern sticht diese Aufnahme schon heraus. Read More →

**** - Debussy: Rêverie + La plus que lente; Fauré: 8 Pièces brèves, No. 5 Improvisation & No. 8 Nocturne + 3 Romances sans paroles op.17; Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte + La Valse (Transkr. Fukuma); Satie: Gymnopédie No. 1 + Je te veux (Transkr. Fukuma); Poulenc: Improvisation No. 15 (Hommage à Edith Piaf) + 3 Novelettes; Weissenberg: 6 arrangements de chansons de Charles Trenet; Lenoir: Parlez-moi d’amour (Transkr. Fukuma); Kotaro Fukumi, Klavier; 1 CD Naxos 8.551414; Aufnahme 11/2018, Veröffentlichung 04/2019 (74'10) – Rezension von Remy Franck

Der Japaner Kotaro Fukuma hat eine große Sympathie für Frankreich, wo er studiert hat und auch lebt. Das Album France Romance hat er zwar in Japan eingespielt (auf einem sehr guten Bechstein-Flügel), aber aus der Musik klingt die Liebe des Pianisten zu den Stücken, die er ausgewählt hat und die alle, wie er sagt, mit einem wichtigen Ereignis in seinem Leben in Verbindung stehen. Read More →

The very first of ICMA's Composer Award goes to the Spanish composer Francisco Coll (*1985).Coll was formed in Valencia and Madrid, but in 2009 he became the only private student of British composer Thomas Adès. He completed his studies at the prestigious Guildhall School while beginning an impressive international career as a composer with commissions for the London Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain and the London Sinfonietta, among others. Pablo L. Rodríguez from the Spanish ICMA Jury member Scherzo made the following interview with the awardee in his current hometown Lucerne (Switzerland).

Francisco Coll

How does one become a composer today?
In reality, I never thought about being a composer. In my case it was completely irrational. I remember perfectly the first time I wanted to compose something. I was tired of hearing the same thing from my Walkman and I chose to record something created by myself with instruments that I could play. Read More →

Riccardo Minasi
(c) Julien Mignot

Der 41-jährige Italiener Riccardo Minasi, Chefdirigent des Mozarteumsorchesters in Salzburg, hat seinen Vertrag bis 2022 verlängert. Er ist seit 2016 auf diesem Posten. Bis 2016 war Minasi der Gründungs-Chefdirigent des Orchesters Il Pomo d’Oro.

 

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) and the musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) reached an agreement yesterday on a new five-year collective bargaining agreement. The musicians of the CSO, members of the Chicago Federation of Musicians (CFM), Local 10-208 of the American Federation of Musicians and the Board of the CSOA, both voted to ratify the new agreement, which is effective September 2018 through September 2023. The agreement comes after a seven-week strike and final negotiation sessions mediated by Mayor Rahm Emanuel on April 26. Read More →

Johan Halvorsen: Andante Religioso; Carl Nielsen: Violinkonzert; Johan Svendsen: Romanze; Lisa Jacobs, Bremer Philharmoniker, Mikhail Agrest; 1 CD Challenge Classics CC72799; Aufnahmen 11/2018; Veröffentlichung 04/2019 (55'35) – Rezension von Uwe Krusch

Die niederländische Geigerin Lisa Jacobs schlägt mit ihrer fünften Veröffentlichung wiederum einen neuen Weg ein und widmet sich nunmehr dem nordischen Klang. Neben dem Violinkonzert von Carl Nielsen hat sie Werke von Halvorsen und Svendsen eingespielt. Read More →

Josef Myslivecek: Complete Music for Keyboard (Klavierkonzerte Nr. 1 & 2; 6 leichte Divertimenti für Klavier; 6 leichte Etüden für Klavier); Clare Hammond, Klavier, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan; 1 SACD BIS 2393; Aufnahme 03/2018, Veröffentlichung 03/2019 (76'38) – Rezension von Remy Franck

Der Tscheche Josef Myslivecek (1737-1781) war vor allem in Italien mit Opern erfolgreich. Mozart sagte von ihm, er sei « voll Feuer, geistreich und lebenslustig ».Zwar gibt es auch symphonische Werke von diesem Komponisten auf CD, aber die Klavierkonzerte werden hier in Ersteinspielungen vorgelegt, für die die englische Pianistin Clare Hammond ihre eigenen Editionen erstellen musste. Read More →

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