Video: Copenhagen Philharmonic Surprises Subway Riders with Grieg – WQXR.

Totenberg was a legend in his own time. Born in Lodz, Poland in 1911, he grew up in Moscow during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution before returning to Warsaw, where he gave his first concert as a child prodigy of eleven. Later, he worked closely with the greatest composers of the 20th century, from Barber to Szymanowski, and premiered works that became part of the classical canon. He gave concerts for the King of Italy (when there was a king of Italy) and for Franklin Roosevelt when he was president.

He was an ardent advocate of chamber music, teaching every summer at The Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in Blue Hill, Maine, a place I studied at for three summers in the early 1990s. And I might add, he was a panther on the tennis court into his 80s.

“A remarkable death:” Roman Totenberg’s last bow – Phlog.

Many orchestras have gone out of business, thus flooding the freelance market in those cities. And with an orchestra’s demise, so goes a musician’s health care plan. Not only is this disastrous for the music world in general, as less and less people enter the profession, thus diminishing the quality of music and arts overall in this country, but it is devastating for those musicians that are near retirement or are at an age where it is too late to make a career change.

NPR has an interesting report of a health clinic in New Orleans that treats musicians in the area. It’s not much, just two exam rooms and some office space at the LSU medical school. That’s not a lot of coverage for the number of people they need to treat, not to mention treatment that may be needed for more serious diseases and conditions.

Many of the performers don’t have health insurance, so when they need a tuneup, they get care from the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic. It’s one of a few health centers in the country that provide care exclusively to artists.

The clinic is really just two exam rooms and a couple of offices within Louisiana State University’s medical school. But through grants and donations, and with the support of the larger hospital, the facility helps 2,400 New Orleans musicians with everything from the flu to slipped discs to, well, work-related injuries.

If the Supreme Court allows the Obama health care law to stand, more options may be on the way for these musicians. If not, it could be many more years in the wilderness.

In New Orleans, A Health Clinic For Working Musicians : The Record : NPR.

Adding a new member of a long-performing chamber group is sort of like replacing a leading cast member on a TV show after its eighth season. The replacements are always stellar players, but something doesn’t seem right when seeing a new member of an ensemble sitting next to other members twice their age. I can’t imagine how difficult it’s been for the Juilliards and bringing in two new first violinists over the past two and a half years.

The Tokyo String Quartet Will Bid Farewell : Deceptive Cadence : NPR.

(RARE!) Voice of Tchaikowsky & Anton Rubinstein On Edison Cylinder ! (1890) – YouTube.

Glenn Gould plays Bach – YouTube.

At last we know more about those brave fellows, the Titanic’s musicians, who in their firm belief in the power of music to avert or allay panic kept at their appointed task until almost the last moment, if not, indeed, until the all-engulfing wave swept over the wreck. Hartley was the bandmaster, or leader of the orchestra, and he had seven associates, including John, or “Jock,” Hume, a violinist, who had been in the White Star service for many years. Hume was a young Scot of musical ancestry, a lighthearted but ambitious fellow, who was to have been married after the return of the Titanic to England. The others war Taylor, pianist; Fred Clark, bass viol player; Woodward, ‘cellist, Brailey, Krins, and Breicoux.

Mr. Hartley, the leader, was held in high esteem by all who knew him as a man of great presence of mind. The music they played on the sinking ship does not so much matter. It is the custom of the hour among the musically uninformed to call all lively airs “rag time.” probably they started with the liveliest airs they knew, changing to the hymn associated with the tune called “Autumn” -

Hold me up in mighty waters,
Keep my eye on things above,

when the end seemed near. They were as brave men as any in that splendid and immortal company, and it is a privilege to know their names and be able to set them down in type. They served to the last, and we are not to doubt that their service was effective, that they cheered drooping spirits, and helped many of their comrades in disaster to meet their fate nobly.

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is this Sunday, April 15.

The New York Times: The Titanic’s Musicians (April 22, 1912)

Additional reading:

• Interview of Harold Bride with the New York Times: April 19, 1912
• Snopes: Last Song On the Titanic

With this week being the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, stories, photos and other bits of trivia have been flying around the internet. Eight musicians famously went down with the ship, and as legend has it, playing while the ship was on its way down. One story being reported on WQXR is how the London Symphony Orchestra, who was about to embark on their first tour of the United States, came close to going down with the ship. Luckily due to a series of scheduling changes, the orchestra ended up sailing on another ship instead.

Gareth Davies, the LSO’s principal flutist, explained in an interview that the change began when another ship, the RMS Olympic, collided with a British naval warship off the coast of England in Sept. 1911. The Olympic was badly damaged and in order to get it back into service as soon as possible, workers who had been finishing the Titanic were called off their jobs to assist. This delayed the Titanic’s maiden voyage from March 20, 1912 to April 10, 1912.

“Obviously with such a big liner, it was their flagship and they had to get it back into service as quickly as possible,” said Davies. But the LSO’s concert dates were already in place and the orchestra was not about to upend its tour.

“So they had to go on the Baltic instead, which was the real reason they never got on the Titanic,” said Davies. “It was really because the White Star Line changed it and not because the LSO schedule changed.”

The orchestra’s timpanist, Charles Turner, kept a diary of his trip and is being tweeted out by the orchestra.

How the London Symphony Narrowly Avoided the Titanic – WQXR.

The performance is as close to an opera as you’ll get by Bach and the staging is certainly unconventional. The stage direction is by Peter Sellars and the orchestra is of course conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, the orchestras’s director. NPR’s ‘Deceptive Cadence’ describes the performance:

Director Peter Sellars doesn’t consider what he’s done with Bach’s version of the Passion story narrative theater. Instead, Sellars thinks of his “ritualization” as more of a prayer or a meditation. He had the chorus, vocal soloists and even some of the Berlin Philharmonic players memorize the piece, freeing them from their sheet music to become actors in the story.

The musicians “aren’t performing out, but they’re performing in — to each other,” Sellars says in an video interview. “And what you’re getting is a community engaging with itself, and you’re watching a community work through issues together.”

As Bach’s opening waves of sound pour out with a double chorus singing “Come ye daughters, share my mourning,” the choristers themselves are walking dejectedly about the stage, heads lowered in grief. In the aria “Gebt mir meinen Jesum wieder,” there’s a face-off between bass Thomas Quasthoff, who pleads “Give me back my Lord,” and violinist Daishin Kashimoto, whose agitated runs mimic Quasthoff’s frustration.

via Bach’s St. Matthew Passion: Ritualized and Riveting : Deceptive Cadence : NPR.

Old Man In Nursing Home Reacts To Hearing Music From His Era – YouTube.

I think it’s safe to say that there are no major journalists today that interview high profile classical musicians with any regularity any more. Johnny Carson had musicians on all the time and of course Mike Wallace. But I can’t recall anyone today young enough that actively pursues interviews with, say, Hilary Hahn (Conan O’Brian excepted), Yo-Yo Ma, Gustavo Dudamel and so on.

Here is the 1977 interview with Horowitz:

Here are some more Wallace interviews with other musicians:

• Victor Borge & Franz Liszt (comedy routine, circa 1960)
• Oscar Hammerstein II (1958)
• Maria Callas part 1 | part 2 (1973)
• Luciano Pavarotti (2003)

A much larger collection of Mike Wallace interviews can be found at The University of Texas School of Information’s website The Mike Wallace Interview.

When Mike Wallace Interviewed Classical Musicians – WQXR.

SPIEGEL Interview with Singer Thomas Quasthoff: ‘There Was Certainly a Bonus for Being Disabled’

One of the big misconceptions of what conductors do is they stand there and beat time. Most orchestras don’t need anyone to keep time … In the end it must be remembered that the art of conducting is more than just semaphore. It is a two-step between body and soul, between physical gesture and musical personality.

I just love when someone says a conductor’s job is easy since all they do is beat a stick and anyone can do it. I would like to see them try. A conductor is a force of nature, a walking encyclopedia, a (often complex) personality, maybe even an ism. While it may not be obvious to the casual listener why the conductor is so important, it is the conductor who gives a concert its soul and sense of mystery. Perhaps it is cliché to say, but great conductors are varieties of the best vintage wines, each with their own sense of color, texture, rhythm, all based on a lifetime of experience.

It is true that an orchestra does not have to have a conductor. Musicians are highly trained individuals who can rely on each other when performing a work, particularly when being led by a bad conductor. But preparing for a concert without a conductor is a much different experience than being led by an individual. Playing with a great conductor is often an experience that will stay with a musician for the rest of their life, something an average conductor could never accomplish. The reasons for this may vary, but a great conductor’s vision of a work and their ability to clearly execute that vision passionately, along with the cult of personality, lead to an experience a musician cannot experience with a leaderless orchestra. Perhaps the era of the “Great Conductor” is a thing of the past. Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Leopold Stokowski, Carlos Kleiber, all felt like gods who descended from Mount Olympus and forever appear in our memory as majestic statues. It is hard to think of someone today who would fit that mould.

After reading this article, it’s a good idea to read a recent article in New York Magazine that further breaks down of the conductor’s role in a performance.

Breaking Conductors’ Down by Gesture and Body Part – NYTimes.com
Further Reading: New York Magazine: What Does a Conductor Do?

Bernstein, Vienna Philharmonic in Haydn’s Symphony no. 88, in G Major (last mvt) – YouTube.

Culture Desk: Audio Slide Show: The Future of Concert Halls : The New Yorker.

Example: