Legendary hornist Dale Clevenger has died. Clevenger played for the American Symphony Orchestra (under Leopold Stokowski) and the Kansas City Philharmonic (where he was principal), before finding a permanent roost with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He served as principal there from 1966 to 2013. Music directors and principal conductors during that time included Jean Martinon, Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink (who died in October), and Riccardo Muti.
Clevenger shared a Grammy Award with his colleagues in the brass sections of the Chicago Symphony and Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, for their now-classic 1968 collaboration “The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli.”
In 2003, he gave the world premiere of John Williams’ Horn Concerto. He was also acclaimed for his performances of Mozart and Richard Strauss.
Clevenger died yesterday in Italy. He was 81 years old.
In Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel”
From Mahler’s Fifth Symphony
Playing Haydn
Benjamin Britten’s “Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings”
The world mourns, as Mikis Theodorakis has danced his last. Theodorakis, one of Greece’s best-known musical exports – world famous for his score to the film “Zorba the Greek” (1964) – died this morning at the age of 97.
Theodorakis also composed dozens of concert and dramatic works, even as he continued to attract international attention with his over one thousand songs. All the while, he remained politically active, variously jailed, exiled, and elected to the Greek Parliament.
Never afraid to speak his mind, Theodorakis was a controversial figure. No one can deny that he also brought a lot of beauty into the world.
He certainly did his best to live up to his surname. “Theodorakis” derives from the Ancient Greek “Theódōros,” composed of “theós” (divine, deity, god) and “dôron” (gift). Essentially, “God’s gift.” Unquestionably, he gave generously of himself.
Theodorakis may be gone, but his dance goes on. R.I.P.
In the words of Strauss’ Marschallin, “With a light heart and light hands, hold and take, hold and let.”
The great mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig has died.
In a career that spanned four decades, Ludwig was a fixture in the world’s major opera houses.
She was a principal artist at the Vienna State Opera during a golden age at mid-century. With the company, she sang 769 performances in 42 roles. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1959. There she sang 119 performances in 15 roles.
She was a versatile and remarkably consistent performer. Her repertoire embraced Amneris (“Aida”), Brangäne (“Tristan und Isolde”), “Carmen,” Charlotte (“Werther”), Dido (“Les Troyens”), Dorabella (“Così fan Tutte”), Eboli (“Don Carlo”), Klytämnestra (“Elektra”), Kundry (“Parsifal”), Ortrud (“Lohengrin”), Ulrica (“Un ballo in maschera”), and Waltraute (“Götterdämmerung”), to name a few.
Her technique and upper register were such that she was able to tackle the Marschallin in “Der Rosenkavalier” and the Dyer’s Wife in “Die Frau ohne Schatten,” parts almost exclusively sung by sopranos. Among the roles she created was that of Claire in Gottfried von Einem’s “Besuch der alten Dame” (“The Visit of the Old Lady”).
Her voice graced dozens of treasurable recordings. She sang Fidelio for Klemperer, Fricka in Solti’s landmark “Ring,” and Octavian in Karajan’s “Der Rosenkavalier,” with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. She was Adalgisa opposite Maria Callas in “Norma.”
She was a frequent collaborator of Leonard Bernstein. Together, they recorded much Mahler. On a lighter note, she also sang “I Am Easily Assimilated,” as the Old Lady in Bernstein’s “Candide,” in what the composer considered to be the work’s definitive recording.
I only saw her live once, at Carnegie Hall, but it was a memorable occasion. She sang the lamentations in Bernstein’s “Jeremiah” Symphony, under the composer’s direction. (The two recorded the work for Deutsche Grammophon.) Also on the program was Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5.
Ludwig died on Saturday at her home in Klosterneuburg, Austria. She was 93 years-old.
“Das Abschied” (“The Farewell”) from Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde”
I’ve been silent about celebrity deaths recently – otherwise, I’d never be off Facebook!
But I have to acknowledge, I am very sorry to learn of the passing of Christopher Plummer. A seasoned veteran of stage of screen, Plummer had one hell of a career, and he was much-decorated and acclaimed for it.
Even so, Oscar remained standoffish. He received his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for “Beginners,” only in 2010. At 82, it made him the oldest person ever to be so recognized in an acting category. Six years later, he was nominated again, at 88, for “All the Money in the World.” He was now the oldest actor ever to receive a nomination.
Whether he was Iago, Cyrano de Bergerac , Sherlock Holmes, or Georg von Trapp, Plummer was a virtuoso, always in command of his instrument. That’s not to say he undertook everything in the service of art. In 1978, he appeared as the Emperor of the Galaxy in “Starcrash,” an Italian knockoff of “Star Wars,” because it allowed him a free trip to Rome. The film achieves its delirious apotheosis when Plummer assumes an authoritative stance and intones, “Imperial Battleship! Halt… the flow of time!”
In 1956, he essayed the role of Henry V at Ontario’s Stratford Festival. However, for one performance, he was laid low by an attack of kidney stones. This opened the door for his understudy, a struggling young actor by the name of William Shatner. Shatner and Plummer would later face off, with Plummer as a Shakespeare-spouting Klingon, in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.”
Here’s a fine recording of William Walton’s music for the Laurence Olivier film of “Henry V” (1944). Plummer supplies the big speeches, and then some.
The Stratford Plummer-Shatner “Henry” story is recounted here:
Constance “Connie” Weldon has died. She is believed to have been the first female tubist to attain a principal position with a major symphony orchestra.
Weldon turned down an offer from the Rio de Janeiro Symphony in the early 1950s to continue her studies in Miami. Soon, she was touring with the Boston Pops. She also played at Tanglewood under Leonard Bernstein.
Later, she became a member of the North Carolina and Kansas City Symphonies. During studies abroad, she served as principal tubist with the Netherlands Ballet Orchestra and acting principal tubist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam.
Back home, she joined the Miami Philharmonic and became an influential teacher at Miami University. From 1972 to 1991, she served as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies at University of Miami School of Music (now the Frost School).
