Shirmer new publications and performances

Schirmer is pleased to represent a plentitude of pieces that will receive their premieres this fall. You can check out the world premiere of Shostakovich's Orango Prelude (yes, the world premiere) on the West Coast. Kirke Mecham’s The Rivals entertains audiences in Milwaukee while we New Yorkers can hear the New York Philharmonic breathe life into One Sweet Morning, the most recent work from the pen of the venerable John Corigliano. Click below to see a full list of premieres this fall.

Schirmer Fall Premieres

Slatkin-still-music-director-for-DSO

An interview with Leonard Slatkin in the Sunday Los Angeles Times incorrectly reported that he had "relinquished" his title as music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the conductor says.

Slatkin, a native of Los Angeles, is back in his hometown this week to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday and Thursday nights. He was profiled in the Los Angeles Times in conjunction with those concerts.

In setting forth Slatkin's series of misfortunes in recent years, from his heart attack in November 2009 to the fiasco of attempting to conduct Verdi's "La Traviata" at the Metropolitan Opera last year, the interviewer turned to the DSO's six-month strike last season.

Slatkin is then quoted as saying, "I turned back four weeks of my own salary and relinquished my title as music director, in addition to taking an overall 34-percent cut — in hopes that people would get the message."

Asked in an email whether he had in fact resigned as music director, Slatkin replied late Sunday night: "I never relinquished the title. I relinquished a portion of my music director fee, which is separate from the salary I draw as conductor. In addition I contribute a generous sum to the annual fund."



From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110823/ENT01/108230310/Don’t-believe-L.A.-Times--Slatkin-still-music-director-for-DSO#ixzz1VqzziDDs

Tradition shattered by Israeli orchestra

A precedence-shattering concert: an Israeli orchestra playing the music of Wagner a notoriously anti-Semitic composer at Germany's Bayreuth Festival, once one of Hitler's favorite destinations.

Like all of Richard Wagner's music, performances of his piece Siegfried Idyll, is unofficially — but effectively — banned in Israel.

It's not just that Wagner was an anti-Semite. He wrote a notorious essay called "Jewishness in Music." And after his death, Wagner's family was close to Adolf Hitler. Hitler often attended the annual Bayreuth Festival, which is devoted to Wagner's music.

Audio and Video at NPR.ORG | MORE LINKS

conductor Richard Hickox dies suddenly

Opera Australia has been shocked by the sudden death of British conductor Richard Hickox, the company's music director. Hickox, 60, suffered a heart attack in London. The news was still filtering out tonight to members of Opera Australia. A shocked Murray Black, The Australian's Sydney opera and classical music critic, said one of Hickox's legacies would be his versatility as a conductor.

MORE - WEB - IMAGES - SHOP Richard Hickox

music critic Donald Rosenberg's being removed from his duties

Cleveland Plain Dealer music critic Donald Rosenberg's being removed from his duties covering the Cleveland Orchestra. But unlike many of my colleagues, I am not surprised. Ever since Franz Welser-Most became music director in 2002, Rosenberg has been a thorn in the Cleveland Orchestra's side. He apparently doesn't find the young Austrian conductor a suitable leader for what may be American's finest orchestra.MORE - Sources

Riccardo Chailly must bow out of CSO

Jaap van Zweden and Neeme Jarvi will replace Riccardo Chailly for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription concerts Oct. 9 through Oct. 21 at Symphony Center. According to Chailly's manager, the Italian conductor is to undergo tests for an ongoing heart condition following a tour with his Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and will be unable to travel to the U.S.

Van Zweden, the Dutch-born music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra, will make his CSO debut in the first week of concerts. His program for Oct. 9-14 holds Bruckner's Symphony No. 5, which Chailly was to have conducted the following week...MORE

Samuel Barber's Prelude and Fugue given its modern premiere

The musical world will be all ears when an organ work Samuel Barber wrote as a Curtis student is given its modern premiere in Philadelphia.

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Valery Gergiev, led a pro-Russian classical concert in South Ossetia

The principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev, led a pro-Russian classical concert in the ruins of the capital of South Ossetia to celebrate a crushing battlefield victory over Georgia. (Thursday evening, 21 August 2008).

MORE - NEWS - WEB - IMAGES - SHOP Valery Gergiev

Pianist Watts cancels SPAC appearances

Pianist André Watts, who was scheduled to perform Tuesday at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s Chamber Music Festival and then on Wednesday with The Philadelphia Orchestra, has had to cancel his performances because of tendinitis in his left forearm...MORE

WEB - SHOP Andre Watts

Elliot Carter

For more than a half century, the money sat largely untouched, accruing in a bank account managed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. This summer, the BSO has tapped into the now $2.4 million Horblitt Fund. The cause: composer Elliott Carter, who turns 100 this year. Carter's work has been championed by BSO music director James Levine for years. Now, drawing as much as $400,000 from the fund, the BSO is pushing to spread word of Carter beyond the close-knit symphony world.

MORE | ON THE WEB | IMAGES | SHOP Elliot Carter

Kahane stepping out of Colorado

Jeffrey Kahane, who recently completed his third season as music director of the Colorado Symphony, announced today that he is stepping down at the end of the 2009-10 season, following a two-year extension of his contract. MORE | ON THE WEB | IMAGES | SHOP Jeffrey Kahane

James Levine to have surgery this week

James Levine will have a kidney removed in surgery this week, causing the conductor to miss the remainder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood season.

The 65-year-old music director of both the BSO and the Metropolitan Opera will need six weeks of recovery time, the BSO said in a statement Tuesday. He is expected to be back on the podium for the start of the Met and BSO seasons in September. NEWS LINKS

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The Healing Power of Classical Music

From the classical music world come two stories of coping. The Philharmonie, home of the Berlin Philharmonic, reopened for concerts and tours on Monday, less than two weeks after a fire, and the Philadelphia Orchestra turned its Beijing concert into a benefit for rebuilding after the earthquake that devastated parts of Sichuan Province, China, last month.
NYTimes | The Philadelphia Orchestra on CD | The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on CD

Muti looks ahead to 'a new phase' with CSO

Riccardo Muti will assume the title of music director-designate in January, beginning to take on duties of auditions and artistic planning in conjunction with current podium leaders Bernard Haitink and Pierre Boulez. The 2009-2010 season will be his first as music director -- a position empty since the controversial departure of Daniel Barenboim two years ago.
WEB LINKS | IMAGES | Riccardo's recordings

Philadelphia Orchestra Returns to China

Monday night, the master will be in the audience at Beijing's Cultural Palace of Nationalities when the Philadelphia Orchestra performs the Yellow River Concerto, as it did in September 1973, when it made the first-ever visit by an American orchestra to Communist China.
MORE | Yellow River Concerto | Philadelphia Orchestra | SHOP Philadelphia Orchestra