Blog Archives

Gustav Alink is Watching!

8/31/2011

Nothing gets past Alink.

A propos of nothing – have you ever heard of Gustav Alink? I met him a few years ago, in The Hague (where he lives), when I was doing some research on music competitions for a magazine article.

Music competitions – specifically, piano competitions – are Alink’s passion. For years he has scrutinized competitors, tabulated results and analyzed trends. And some years ago, he talked Martha Argerich into lending her name to his “Argerich-Alink Foundation,” which provides information and advice to both competitors and competitions.

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Music on the Edge of Toronto

8/28/2011

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Lorin Maazel.

It takes a certain kind of audacity to fly the London Symphony Orchestra across the Atlantic Ocean for an outdoor concert in Toronto, Canada. Such a gesture challenges the weather gods to either bless or hurl their wrath at the organizer.

But fortune favours the bold – and impresario/convicted fraudster Garth Drabinsky (of Livent fame) is nothing if not bold. Evidently, on Saturday night the gods were impressed by his initiative: as New Yorkers hunkered down for Hurricane Irene, Torontonians enjoyed a perfect summer night, with gentle breezes and a starry sky.

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This is Not an Interview with Roberto Minczuk

8/25/2011

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Minczuk declines to comment.

I’ll be making a little trip to Calgary, Alberta, in about ten days. And while there, I was hoping to interview the music director of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Roberto Minczuk.

The name may be known to some readers, in another context. Maestro Minczuk is also the principal conductor of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra (OSB), based in Rio de Janeiro. In January, the OSB announced that all the players in the orchestra would be “evaluated,” on an individual basis. Clearly many OSB musicians felt their job-security was threatened by this – as far as they were concerned, they were being asked to re-audition for their positions – and a number of the players refused to comply. As a result, about three dozen were let go. In order to replace them, the OSB held international auditions in New York and London, in the spring.

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The Thing About Opera

8/19/2011

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Monteverdi knew.

I must confess that I’d never heard of British fashion designer Gok Wan before I saw this video posted on the Guardian newspaper’s website. But he seems like a nice chap, and I’m glad he likes opera so much.

In the video, he’s plugging England’s Glyndebourne Festival – not just at the theatre in bucolic Sussex, but also the festival’s broadcasts, which can be seen in cinemas and online. In his view, this is “exactly what opera should be.” Unfortunately, I don’t share his enthusiasm for opera in non-live contexts.

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Still Dancing About Architecture

8/17/2011

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Hummel benefited from the Effect.

Well, here I am, stuck in Toronto in the middle of August. Since Toronto Summer Music wrapped up, there hasn’t been much to write about. So I’ll just reach into my “blog bag” and pull something out from days gone by.

Here’s something I wrote for the Classical Voice America blog last year, around Christmas time. It’s just the sort of thing that should make a good “summer re-run.”

Talking about music has been famously compared to dancing about architecture – the point being that the two media have nothing in common. But of course musicians talk about music with each other all the time. And for this purpose they have developed their own specialized vocabulary.

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Technique to Burn

8/15/2011

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Joo is not on the list.

Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times has written a feature article about how there are so many technically astonishing pianists in the world today. He puts forward an impressive list: Yuja Wang, Lang Lang, Yundi Li, Kirill Gerstein, Danil Trifanov, Nicolai Lugansky, Alexander Romanovsky, Piotr Anderszewsky, Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida, Andras Schiff, Garrick Ohlsson, Leif Ove Andsnes, Martha Argerich, Krystian Zimerman, Marc-André Hamelin, Evgenyi Kissin and Stephen Hough.

Tommasini also said that Jean-Yves Thibaudet is “probably” on the list – which leaves the unfortunate pianist in a state of limbo, neither included nor excluded. (Pull up your red socks, man, and get to work!)

Personally, I think the musical world would be better served by more pianists with truly distinctive musical personalities than with technique to burn.

Hyung-ki Joo seems to have plenty of both. See below for a distinctive and formidable technique!

© Colin Eatock, 2011

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The Future is Freelance

8/12/2011

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John Terauds of the Toronto Star.

Today, the Toronto Star’s classical music critic, John Terauds, announced on his blog that he’ll no longer be writing about music for the paper. Apparently, he’s been reassigned to the business section.

I emailed him to ask what was going on at the Star. Does this mean that Canada’s largest daily newspaper is eliminating classical music coverage? “I think, but I'm only guessing, that the future is freelance,” he replied.

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About Those Big Screens

8/11/2011

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Who ARE these people?

Over at Montreal’s Gazette, my friend Arthur Kaptainis recently wrote about the big screens at Quebec’s Lanaudière festival. His encounter with the screens, and their simultaneous images from concerts, seems to have left him perplexed. “I can say unambiguously that I am not sure what to think,” he said.

Kaptainis continued, asking a very pertinent question: “But what will be gained? An opinion on the dye job of a second violin? The addition of big screens leads me to recast the question posed by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 U.S. presidential debates: ‘Are you better off than you were a year ago?’ Maybe by next year I will have an answer.”

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Addressing Little Dresses

8/9/2011

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Wang: concert or clubbing?

I recently found an interesting item on the blog Life’s a Pitch about the rising star pianist Yuja Wang. The blogger (a publicist named Amanda Ameer) chose to talk about the pianist Yuja Wang. She wrote:

“The last two reviews that I’ve seen of 24-year-old pianist Yuja Wang‘s performances mention her concert dresses. Or lack thereof, more accurately.”

I don’t know if Ameer read my Globe and Mail review of Wang’s performance with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on June 7. In it, I mentioned the pianist’s “skimpy red dress that looked suitable for a little post-concert clubbing.” Wang’s wardrobe (and critical response to it) has generated quite a few posts on the blog – and I decided to jump in to the debate. Here’s what I wrote:

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Standing Up for Shostakovich

8/6/2011

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NZSQ standing, with cello platform.

I just got back to Toronto from the Festival of the Sound, in Parry Sound, Ontario. There, I heard three fine string groups: the Lafayette, Penderecki and New Zealand quartets.

The New Zealand String Quartet has a unique appearance on stage: the three upper strings stand, and the cellist, Rolf Gjelsten, sits in a chair on a small platform. (You can see it in the photo above.) It’s a portable, folding contraption that looks a like a small parade float, and its purpose is to bring the cellist to eye-level with the other three players.

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Gustav Alink is Watching!

Music on the Edge of Toronto

This is Not an Interview with Roberto Minczuk

The Thing About Opera

Still Dancing About Architecture

Technique to Burn

The Future is Freelance

About Those Big Screens

Addressing Little Dresses

Standing Up for Shostakovich

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