BACKBernard Haitink, honoured by the VPO, has announced his retirement
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra has presented the conductor Bernard Haitink with honorary membership of the orchestra. The presentation was made during rehearsals in Austria ahead of concerts at the Salzburg Festival, the Lucerne Festival and at the BBC Proms when the programme will be Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto (with Emanuel Ax) and Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony. The announcement also contained the news that Haitink would ‘then end his active conducting career after 65 years’.
Zeit für etwas Neues beim DSO
Alexander Steinbeis gibt seinen Posten als Orchesterdirektor des Deutschen Symphonie Orchesters Berlin auf – nach 13 erfolgreichen Jahren. Zwölf Jahre lang hat er das Deutsche Symphonie Orchester durch bewegtes Fahrwasser gesteuert – jetzt will Alexander Steinbeis zu neuen Ufern aufbrechen. Der Orchesterdirektor gibt seine Position zum Sommer 2020 auf, wie er bereits jetzt bekannt gab, um den Musikerinnen und Musikern genug Zeit zu geben, einen Nachfolger zu finden. Dass gute Leute in der internationalen Klassikszene nicht kurzfristig zu bekommen sind, weiß Alexander Steinbeis aus eigener Erfahrung. Die schwierige, im Streit zu Ende gegangene Chefdirigentenzeit von Ingo Metzmacher hat er in Berlin mit dem DSO durchgestanden, und die glückliche, aber viel zu kurze Phase mit dem Klangmagier Tugan Sokhiev genossen, bevor der zum Bolschoi Theater abgeworben wurde. Zwei Mal musste Steinbeis die Suche nach einem neuen künstlerischen Leiter organisieren.
Alexander Steinbeis gives up his post as orchestra director of the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin – after 13 successful years.
For twelve years he steered the German Symphony Orchestra through moving waters – now Alexander Steinbeis wants to set off for new shores. The orchestra director is giving up his position in the summer of 2020, as he has already announced, in order to give the musicians enough time to find a successor. Alexander Steinbeis knows from his own experience that good people in the international classical music scene are not available at short notice. In Berlin, he got through Ingo Metzmacher’s difficult time as chief conductor, which had come to an end in a dispute, with the DSO, and enjoyed the happy but much too short phase with the sound magician Tugan Sokhiev before he was wooed away to the Bolshoi Theatre. Twice Steinbeis had to organize the search for a new artistic director.
Comment éduquer ses enfants à la musique classique?
Écouter de la musique classique n’est pas toujours quelque chose d’inné chez les enfants. Ça s’apprend et ça se travaille. Au Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, en Haute-Loire, on essaye d’intéresser les enfants à cet art de différentes manières.
Découverte de musique, des instruments, et même des danses, c’est l’objet de ce stage qui dure toute une semaine pour les enfants de 4 à 12 ans. Une manière pour les enfants de se familiariser avec la musique traditionnelle. “Il ne faut pas trop parler, il faut faire. Quand on parle de musique classique, ça ne parle pas aux enfants. Alors pour les intéresser, il faut passer par les instruments, écouter des œuvres qui stimulent leur imaginaire ou qui imitent les animaux, qui font penser à un paysage. Plus ils en entendent tôt, plus ils seront sensibilisés à ça. Il y a aussi des ateliers d’éveil dans les écoles de musique”, évoque Stéphanie Vouillot, une des professeures de musique.
How to educate your children in classical music?
Listening to classical music is not always something that children are born with. It is learned and worked on. At the Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, in Haute-Loire, we try to interest children in this art in different ways. Discovery of music, instruments, and even dances, this is the purpose of this week-long workshop for children aged 4 to 12. A way for children to familiarise themselves with traditional music. “Don’t talk too much, you have to do it. When we talk about classical music, it doesn’t mean anything to children. So to interest them, you have to go through the instruments, listen to works that stimulate their imagination or imitate animals, that make them think of a landscape. The sooner they hear about it, the more aware they will be of it. There are also early learning workshops in music schools,” says Stéphanie Vouillot, one of the music teachers.