The International Wimbledon Music Festival is pleased to announce that actor Benedict Cumberbatch will join oboist Nicholas Daniel to narrate a performance of Benjamin Britten’s Six Metamorphoses after Ovid on November 18th at Trinity Church in Wimbledon.

The concert is a celebration of music for the oboe, and also features works by Mozart and Elisabeth Lutyens. Daniel was awarded the Queens Medal for Music in 2011 and will also be joined by the Britten Oboe Quartet for this exciting concert.

Dedicated to programming international artists of the highest calibre, this year’s festival also features a performance from Patricia Routledge accompanied by pianist Piers Lane;  as well as world-class musicians including Christine Brewer, Mikhail Rudy, Alina Ibragimova, Mark Padmore, Xuefei Yang and more.

The festival opens on November 10th with A Purcell Pageant and runs until November 25th.

For more information visit www.wimbledonmusicfestival.co.uk

(Written on November 1, 2012 )

The Telegraph

Online piano star Valentina Lisitsa gets Royal Albert Hall debut

YouTube star and and virtuoso pianist Valentina Lisitsa signs record deal and will play a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

Jessica Duchen

A Music World Fair

This year’s International Wimbledon Music Festival is ‘A Music World Fair’ – a tremendously international job, lighting up South West London with performances by the Kopelman String Quartet, Alina Ibragimova, Nicholas Daniel and Sam West, Christine Brewer, Zuill Bailey, Cristina Ortiz, Mark Padmore and many more.

NY Times

Philadelphia Orchestra Submits Plan to Cut Debt

The Philadelphia Orchestra has laid out its plan to erase debts and cut costs in a major step toward exiting bankruptcy court.

The Guardian

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Half a century after its first showing, Michael Tippett’s libretto based on the lliad is a fitting work for today.

Fischer-Dieskau’s 12 best recordings

Martin Kettle’s pick of the great baritone’s recorded output.

LA Times

Glenn Dicterow leaving New York Philharmonic, joining USC faculty

Glenn Dicterow, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic for more than 30 years, will be leaving the venerated orchestra and joining the faculty of the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles.

New West Symphony names Marcelo Lehninger as new music director

Marcelo Lehninger, the young Brazilian German maestro who serves as an assistant conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has been named music director of the New West Symphony, which is based in Thousand Oaks.

Classical Music Magazine

Classical singles chart greeted with scepticism by industry

The launch of a weekly classical singles chart, the first of which will be released on 28 May, has been greeted enthusiastically by crossover artists but more sceptically by the core classical sector.

Gramophone

Anne-Sophie Mutter receives Distinguished Leadership Award

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter has been awarded the Atlantic Council’s 2012 Distinguished Artistic Leadership Award, recognising her as ‘one of the most significant leaders of our society’.

(Written on May 25, 2012 )

New Yorker

My Favourite Records: Alec Baldwin.

The eminent actor and New York Philharmonic announcer lists his favourite music.

Washington Post via the LA Times

La Scala Manager Says 7-Year Streak Of Balanced Budget Difficult To Hold In 2012.

La Scala general manager Stephane Lissner’s first goal when he arrived at the renowned opera house in 2005 was to balance the budget, which he did that year and every year since. This year could be different, he warned Tuesday.

The Independent

Sir Thomas Allen Is Still Fresh, Four Decades On.

Thomas Allen talks about his role as ‘Don Alfonso’ to Michael Church.

The Guardian

Jonathan Harvey: Touching The Void.

Jonathan Harvey’s music has always contained visions of the beyond. As he faces death himself, he talks to Tom Service.

Gramophone

Nicholas Daniel To Receive Queen’s Medal For Music.

Oboist and conductor is the seventh winner of the award.

Must We Witness Denmark’s Great Operatic Decline?

Tough Decisions Face The Royal Danish Opera But It Doesn’t Have To End In Tragedy.

Telegraph

The Opera Novice.

Until last year Sameer Rahim had little interest in classical music – but now he is hooked on opera. In a new column he offers a novice-eye’s view of this seemingly forbidding but truly magical art form.

New York Times

Carnegie Hall’s 2012-13 Season Includes A Latin American Festival.

An Arab-Israeli orchestra, a Latin American festival and the crowning ensemble of Venezuela’s music program aimed at helping the poor will be major presences at Carnegie Hall next season, examples of the growing urge to make classical music socially relevant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/arts/music/gustavo-dudamel-part-of-carnegie-halls-2012-13-season.html?_r=1&ref=classicalmusic

(Written on January 27, 2012 )