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An assortment of short news items, plus 'Seven Deadly Sins', Classical Music Daily's December 2020 Newsletter, just published in a new audio podcast format

 

Classical Music Daily publishes a monthly newletter, normally on the first day of each month. For the first time, Seven Deadly Sins, our December 2020 newsletter, has been published in MP3 audio podcast format. It runs for just over fifty-one minutes and you can listen to it here:

Listen — December 2020 Classical Music Daily Newsletter :

Here are timings for the various sections of the newsletter, and, because we can't publish links in an audio podcast other than reading them out, here too are links to (hopefully) everything mentioned:

Start Author Details
 
00:00 Jenna Orkin Emile Naoumoff's 'Chronicles With Nadia Boulanger'
 
Jenna's review
Emile Naoumoff's book
Emile Naoumoff's website
 
06:03 Gerald Fenech Some interesting recent CDs
 
Gerald's review of Beethoven: Symphony No 5 - Les Siècles on harmonia mundi HMM 902423
Gerald's review of Sibelius: Kullervo on BIS-2236
Geoff Pearce's review of Hans Rott Orchestral Works Vol 1 on Capriccio C5408
Gerald's review of Christmas Carols - SWR Vokal Ensemble on SWR Classic SWR19094CD
Hans Rosbaud conducts Mahler on SWR Classic SWR19099CD
 
18:52 Julian Jacobson Celebrating Beethoven's birthday
 
The Beethoven Piano Society of Europe
The Jacobson-Brown Piano Duo
Halida Dinova
 
22:03 Mike Wheeler Weill/Brecht: The Seven Deadly Sins at Opera North
 
Mike's review of The Seven Deadly Sins
Opera North
 
26:05 Giuseppe Pennisi Lockdown in Italy
 
Opera Roma
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
 
29:18 Maria Nockin and John Paleiden Drive in opera
 
San Diego Opera
Pacific Opera Project
 
41:31 Keith Bramich There's more online
 
Classical Music Daily's newsletters page
Anett Fodor's interview with Leon McCawley
Our latest CD reviews
Our latest concert and opera reviews
November 2020 classical music obituaries
Our latest news items
Contact Classical Music Daily
 
42:35 Patric Maxwell Lennox Berkeley piano music
(This section was added on 18 December 2020)
 
Patrick's review of Lennox Berkeley: The Complete Piano Works - Douglas Stevens on Hoxa HS1806-18
 

The podcast can also be downloaded as a 69Mb MP3 file by following the link below:

DOWNLOAD THE NEWSLETTER PODCAST

To read our previous newsletters, please visit the newsletters page. To register to receive an email every month, when each newsletter has been published, please visit the updates page.

Here is a round-up of other recent news:

Canada's Gryphon Trio will perform Beethoven's six most celebrated piano trios in a live performance streamed from the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada on 10 and 11 December 2020, both at 19:30 ET (16:30 PT or 11/12 December 00:30 UCT/GMT). The interactive livestream event will be hosted by CBC and NPR broadcaster Eric Friesen and will will include commentary from composer, conductor and author Rob Kapilow. The event, presented by a consortium of classical music presenters, will bring together chamber music organisations and audiences from all corners of North America, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birthday. Both concert events will have an approximate two hour duration, including a twenty minute intermission for discussion and a post-concert Q&A session with the trio. Ticket buyers will also be sent an invitation to participate in a Zoom party hosted by the Gryphon Trio on 17 December 2020 at 19:00 ET (16:00 PT, 18 December 00:00 UCT/GMT). Information: ourconcerts.live

The Gryphon Trio. From left to right: Roman Borys, cello, Jamie Parker, piano and Annalee Patipatanakoon, violin. Photo © Bo Huang
The Gryphon Trio. From left to right: Roman Borys, cello, Jamie Parker, piano and Annalee Patipatanakoon, violin. Photo © Bo Huang

France's Orchestre des Pays de Savoie has announced its Christmas musical calendar, in partnership with French TV station France 3, to make music accessible to everyone. Throughout the month of December, discover short musical sequences that will bring notes of beauty, sweetness, joy and emotion for young and old. Masterpieces of the classical music repertoire will be performed by the orchestra's musicians, plus guest soloists Geneviève Laurenceau, violin and Philippe Bianconi, piano. Hip-hop, classical dance and contemporary dance are also part of the project. The festive project will also include children - the orchestra's young musicians at the school of Seynod - who will also join in these musical sequences. From 1 December 2020, the orchestra will offer a daily musical surprise, each morning on its social networks - YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc, plus the Concertclassic website and on the networks of France 3 - and then each evening that day's video will be broadcast on France 3 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes at approximately 18:50 CET (17:50 UCT/GMT, 12:50 ET, 09:50 PT), before the evening television news. Information: orchestrepayssavoie.com

In the UK, Birmingham Opera Company's project Going for Gold has been chosen as the winner of the FEDORA Education Prize 2020. Selected from a shortlist of four outstanding and innovative projects in opera and ballet from companies across Europe, Going for Gold has won this year's award for Education, plus prize money of 50,000 euros. Also, the company's 2019 production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk has been nominated in the Opera category of The South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2020, alongside Opera Holland Park's Iolanta and the Royal Opera House's Katya Kabanova. Finally, Birmingham Opera Company celebrated this year's Beethoven anniversary and World Opera Day by launching a stream of its 2002 production of Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, a story of personal, political and social lockdown, was originally transmitted to celebrate the launch of the UK's BBC Four TV channel in 2002 and it won the South Bank Show Award for Opera. The production is available free on the OperaVision website operavision.eu until the end of February 2021. Information: www.birminghamopera.org.uk

Italian conductor Michele Mariotti will conduct Verdi's Falstaff for the first time at Munich's Bayerische Staatsoper (Bavarian State Opera). The cast includes German baritone Wolfgang Koch as Falstaff, Ailyn Pérez as Alice Ford, Boris Pinkhasovich (Ford), Judit Kutasi (Quickly), Galeano Salas (Fenton), Daria Proszek (Meg Page) and Elena Tsallagova as Nannetta. The new production, staged by Slovenian director Mateja Koležnik, will be live-streamed on Wednesday 2 December 2020 at 19:00 CET (18:00 UCT/GMT, 13:00 ET, 10:00 PT) on staatsoper.tv

Following his Falstaff in Munich, Michele Mariotti will be conducting the Christmas Concert at Milan's Teatro alla Scala, traditionally broadcast in Italy by RAI, and Aida at the Paris Opéra in February 2021 with Jonas Kaufman, Sondra Radvanovsky, Elīna Garanča, and Ludovic Tézier. Information: mariotticonductor.com

Daniil Trifonov's latest album for Deutsche Grammophon, recorded with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra, recalls a time when Russia's composers, poets, artists, dramatists and star performers were among the most original anywhere in the world. Internationally released in November 2020, Silver Age illustrates the artistic audacity and brilliance of a turbulent era in the country's history with works by three of its most pioneering composers. The Russian pianist's new album, which will be available in double disc and e-album formats, includes Scriabin's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in F sharp minor Op 20, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor Op 16 and Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka. The tracklist also includes Stravinsky's Serenade and excerpts from The Firebird (arranged for piano by Agosti), together with Prokofiev's Sarcasmes Op 17, Piano Sonata No 8 in B flat major Op 84 and the 'Gavotte' from 3 Pieces from 'Cinderella', Op 95 No 2. Information: daniiltrifonov.com

Posted 1 December 2020 and updated 18 December 2020 by Keith Bramich

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