“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”
Leonard Bernstein ought to have known. He had only 72 years to become this country’s most visible, extraordinarily versatile classical musician, as a conductor, composer, pianist, Broadway luminary, educator, author, and humanitarian. (I’m sure I left something out.)
Happy birthday, Lenny. Thanks for making the most of the time you were given.
Bernstein talks Beethoven at the piano with Maximilian Schell – and ever-present cigarette
“Rhapsody in Blue” from the keyboard, with the fearless Stanley Drucker on clarinet
Bernstein conducts “Prelude, Fugue and Riffs” on “Omnibus” in 1955
Bernstein and Aaron Copland create demo record of “Fancy Free” for Jerome Robbins. Stick around for commentary at the end, with self-incriminating interjection by Copland!
Bernstein’s sensational eleventh-hour debut with the New York Philharmonic, at 25, in 1943
Bernstein’s European conducting debut, with the Czech Philharmonic in 1946
An entire playlist of Bernstein rarities!
Conducting Shostakovich in Tokyo
Conducting Haydn – with his face
Lauren Bacall sings “The Saga of Lenny,” lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (with apologies to Kurt Weill), for Bernstein’s 70th birthday celebration
Bernstein’s death reported on ABC News in 1990
Bernstein conducts his recently-composed “Candide Overture” on a televised Young People’s Concert in 1960
Bernstein conducts Mahler’s “Resurrection Symphony” as a memorial tribute, broadcast live, two days after the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963
The conductor Bramwell Tovey has died. Tovey was a popular guest in Philadelphia and New York, where he often seemed to conduct programs of lighter music (holiday pops, summer concerts), though he was certainly capable of much more. I first learned of him through his hypnotic recording of Jean Cras’ “Polyphème,” on the Timpani label. The opera is about a forlorn cyclops, unlucky in love, who wanders off into the sea. Beautiful stuff. In 2005, Tovey conducted the world premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Symphony No. 8 – definitely not light music. He was also a composer, who wrote concertos for viola and cello, a work for chorus and brass band, “Requiem for a Charred Skull,” and a full-length opera, “The Inventor.” He was principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Sarasota Orchestra, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Prior to that, he served as music director in Winnipeg and Vancouver. As a conductor and as a person, he was much beloved. Tovey turned 69 on Monday, the day before his death. The cause was sarcoma. R.I.P.
From “Polyphème”
Conducting Beethoven with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Colorado
Introducing Léhar with the New York Philharmonic
Talking Bernstein, with rehearsal footage of Tovey, Lenny, and the London Symphony Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy is 85 today. One of the great pianists, he was born in Gorky, now Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. He left the Soviet Union for London in 1963. From there, he and his wife, Dódý, moved to her native Iceland. The two met as students at the Moscow Conservatory. Ashkenazy has held Icelandic citizenship since 1972. In 1978, the couple relocated to Lucerne, Switzerland, where they remain.
In concert, Ashkenazy has been known to eschew neckties in favor of turtlenecks, and for running, as opposed to walking, on and off stage. Midway through his career, he decided to diversify and picked up the baton. He was principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1987 to 1994, chief conductor and music director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchestre Berlin from 1988 and 1996, and principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic from 1998 to 2003. He is conductor laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. He was music director of the European Union Youth Orchestra. Outside Europe, he served as music director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2007 and chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 2009 to 2013.
From 1987 to 1994, he was principal guest conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. The only time I ever saw him live was as a conductor, leading the Cleveland Orchestra at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music in works by Barber, Korngold, and Brahms. Perhaps a decade later, he was scheduled to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra in Liszt’s rarely-heard, 30-minute symphonic poem “Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne,” but at the last minute, the program changed, so I didn’t go. I’m sorry to say, I never saw him as a pianist.
On January 17, 2020, he retired without warning, effective immediately. No explanation was given. As far as I know, he is still healthy and enjoying his retirement. Happy birthday, Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Mussorgsky, “Pictures at an Exhibition” in concert
Rachmaninoff, “Etudes Tableaux” in concert
Rachmaninoff, “Corelli Variations” in concert
Mozart with Barenboim
Live Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 2
Conducting Sibelius, “En Saga”
As soloist in Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto No. 3
I am sorry to say, the conductor David Lloyd-Jones has died. A founder of and driving force behind Opera North (originally English National Opera North) and its orchestra (once identified as the English Northern Philharmonia), he made many fine recordings for the Naxos, Marco Polo, Dutton, Chandos, and Hyperion labels. His cycle of Arnold Bax symphonies received particular acclaim and his series of English string music recordings revealed many delights.
His discography also includes works by William Alwyn, Lord Berners, Arthur Bliss, Frederick Delius, George Dyson, Edward Elgar, John Gardner, Gustav Holst, Constant Lambert, Alan Rawsthorne, Charles Villiers Stanford, Arthur Sullivan, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and William Walton. In the opera house, he also earned respect for his outstanding performances of the Russian repertoire.
Sadly, solid, high-profile interpreters of English music are thin on the ground these days. Happily, Lloyd-Jones lived to a ripe age. He was 87 years-old.
How great a debt do we record collectors owe to Neeme Järvi?
Järvi must be one of the most prolific recorded conductors of all time. He certainly stands out in his choice of repertoire, thanks in no small part to enterprising and supportive independent labels like Chandos and BIS (the latter for which he recorded the complete works of Jean Sibelius, more or less).
Of course, Järvi also recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, but by then he was able to use his influence to gently nudge this most mainstream of classical music record labels closer to the fringes of the repertoire.
From Järvi, you could always expect first-rate performances of music relegated to the lower drawers. It was from him that I learned all the Prokofiev symphonies, when all anyone else wanted to record was 1 & 5. It was his performances that convinced me that Glazunov was actually a fairly decent composer. He’s the only conductor to persuade me that Joachim Raff’s Fifth Symphony can be a compelling work. He also managed a thrilling and idiomatic recording of Duke Ellington’s “Harlem.”
Frankly, there are too many composers who have benefited from Järvi’s advocacy to list them all here. Among those who are now much better-know internationally, thanks to him, are Arvo Pärt, Wilhelm Stenhammar, Niels Wilhelm Gade, and Eduard Tubin.
Järvi excels in music of the Romantic era and the 20th century, and appears to be able to assimilate scores fairly quickly. And the more opulent, the better. His set of orchestral music from the operas of Rimsky-Korsakov is another highlight. His Strauss tone poems mesmerize. His recording of Prokofiev’s “Alexander Nevsky” is a knockout.
How about his Beethoven? Who cares? Järvi is one of the rare talents in his field who managed to buck the tradition of having to prove his metal against the core Austro-Germanic repertoire. Frankly, I’m much more interested to hear his Halvorsen.
A native of Tallin, Estonia (he emigrated to the United States in 1980 and has been an American citizen since 1985), Järvi trained under the Soviet system. His teachers included Yevgeny Mravinsky and Nikolai Rabinovich.
He went on to helm such orchestras as the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (1963-79), the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (1982-2004), the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (1984-88), the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1990-2005), the New Jersey Symphony (2005-2009), the Resident Orchestra of the Hague (2005-12), and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (2012-15).
As a performer, he’s a real throwback. Aside from his superb recordings, he also frequently excels in concert. On a good night, when he catches fire, his performances are marked by a romantic spontaneity and passion. The results can be thrilling. No other conductor, at least since the days when Dennis Russell Davies was a presence, would have been able to sway the Philadelphia Orchestra to perform Hans Rott’s Symphony in E – on the second half of the program, no less.
Of course, the orchestra loved him for having stepped up to conduct Tchaikovsky on a joint concert with the New York Philharmonic during an orchestra strike in 1996. The program was prepared in one rehearsal. Jarvi donated his services for the concert and received no fee – an unpopular move with management, but one that made him a hero to musicians.
All his children have entered the family business. His sons, Paavo and Kristjan, are also conductors, and his daughter, Maarika, is a flutist. According to the most recent information, he resides with his wife in New York City.
While personally I never met him, he did respond to my request to sign some CDs of Estonian music to be used as “thank you” gifts during a radio membership drive for “The Lost Chord,” and into the bargain he also sent me a recording of Artur Kapp’s oratorio “Job,” with a very nice letter.
Is it possible everything he’s recorded can be considered “great music?” Of course not. But is it interesting and historically significant? You bet! It would be a very boring world indeed, and a less enlightening one, if all we ever heard was Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony.
Järvi is 85 today. Happy birthday, Maestro, and many, many more!
