Karine Deshayes on line at 6pm sharp! (in France) from Moscow!

 LINK for the live from the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall at 6pm (French time).
 It is a demanding programme including Berlioz and Bellini and my favourite 'Nobles seigneurs, Salut! '



Before I flew to Berlin I spent two nights in Paris and one was dedicated to my favourite French mezzo Karine Deshayes who was peforming at the TCE under Daniele Gatti.

 (photo yvette blurred from my phone..it is possible to see the young and talented young first violiof the ONF)
She was singing along side the charming British soprano  Lucy Crowe in Mendelssohn 'A Midsummer night's dream' during an evening about  Shakespeare and musicians.
I was glad to be there to welcome the ONF after this long strike period and this concert was broadcast by France Musique just like in the good old days. I could see the young talented first violin too, Sarah Nemtanu.  Lucy Crowe gave her a bunch of white tulips (I think). I was in company of my Parisian friend and had a very enjoyable evening, meeting also friends and of course Karine Deshayes who is always so friendly with her intimate group of fans.
Here's the link
 broadcast and video until may the 16/10/2015
Karine sounded great on her duet with Lucy and we were told she was going to sing at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall soon.
This is the concert on line  at the end of the afternoon for French listeners: 6pm sharp at the top of the post!

For the celebration of this fantastic singer of the year, Anja Harteros!

I would have liked to see her live in this Mozart mad scene !
She is stunning !

Anja Harteros nominated Singer of the year 2015 !

When I read Anja Harteros received  this international award from Opera International I really felt happy yesterday !
This exceptionnal singer who has no mediatic aura out of the classical music field has now an international recognition, so much deserved !
I cannot compare her to  any other soprano in the opera star system because she never plays the game in the fashion, cosmetics or gossip fields.
But what is certain is the tremendous beauty of her voice whenever I managed to see her sing and act.
I have often tried to describe her way of singing: no doubt she is a great artist with an immense energy to tackle new roles and bring them to  such degree of perfection   with dramatic emotional strength which dazzles me anytime I am in the audience.
This season I have planned to see her as much as possible in her various appearances : the Verdi Requiem in Milan, then Aïda in Rome, her Marschallin in Dresden and just now her Elsa at the Deutsch Oper.  I will be at the Bayerische Staatsoper in July for her Arabella.
 Next season will come and hopefully I will see her in Paris !
Lohengrin has been in my childhood memory since the 50's. I cannot recall the exact moment when, but I remember the setting at  Marseille Opera House:
the Swan was   a cardboard white vessel where the Knight appeared pulled by a hidden rope as the swan was on rails.
When Lohengrin called his swan back, it came. Lohengrin boarded  but the mechanism got stuck and it lingered on stage too long... I felt a bit upset by the non magical effect of his departure, compared to

his arrival and the laughters around me that this situation stirred up. 
 It meant a lot for me to attend this Lohengrin  in Berlin on April the 19th with what was the best possible cast at the moment and  with  my elder granddaughter by my side!
Anja Harteros  has the looks for Elsa and the voice of course !

 Ortrud sung by Waltraud Meier confronted this frail Elsa !  They both acted and sang in the best possible way and I loved their contrasted roles. Elsa seemed to me more human, with more will power in some way.
 The  tall and blond Elsa  (yes indeed, Anja had a blond wig,  she hardly wears a wig, her hair beeing naturally so beautiful, in a Cecilia Bartoli's style actually!) was in white like a character out of a Medieval painting and she almost had the  gait of these medieval virgins with their large sleeves  flying around when they move) She was  facing a pagan sorceress who looked stronger and feline in her reddish long hair, a true witch with devilish powers to bring back Elsa on her side and make her her slave. She nearly won but lost her husband.  The summons of the trumpets were triumphant in the first act, and the violins exquiste when the Knight appeared and left. K. F. Vogt was really well matched with Anja Harteros. He has an angel voice in this role and ' Im fernem land' was a very soft romance.
Each act was applauded with warmth and the singers came at the curtain. But the end finsihed in dead silence on a terrible vision of a murdered baby in Elsa's arms. The fantastic Waltraud Meier had done pagan rites around the chalk traces of a child corpse, the murdered Duke, Elsa's brother I thought, and these traces were washed out during the wedding scene, this endless wedding which seemed to never happen. I did not quite understand the end actually.  Kasper Holten has imagined an ending of his own.
But when the curtain raised again, the applause thundered!
Now I rejoice for a soprano I admire an appreciate a lot for the beauty and elegance of her singing that night and all the nights I had the pleasure to listen to her in an opera house.

(photos@ Yvette Deutsch Oper Curtain calls 2015-IV-19)..

L'Orchestre National de France: Hold on !

Negociations are going on.
Tomorrow could be the day of an agreement.
Meanwhile this morning there was  a short programme of La Matinale  (one hour) which gave hope in the future of our Radio.
 Vincent Josse invited the lead  of ONF, the young violinist Sarah Nemtanu who is the first violin 'concert master'. She explained her choice to stay in this orchestra and her pride to play with this particular orchestra  with a 'mission'.
 I felt reassured by her feelings and thoughts very similar to mine although she is very young. She gave me hope for the future !
Tonight I was particularly happy to listen to this podcast because I missed the live broadcast this morning.
I was in Aix, where I attended two concerts at the Festival de Pâques ( last night Mahler 2nd Symphony at the GTP and tonight Leçons de Ténèbres: Charpentier and Couperin at the Cathedral.
But no podcasts of the live broacast of the 2nd  can be found on Radio Classique, and this is one major point between France Musique and Radio classique, which does not have a cultural 'mission' and therefore does not give other opportunities to share the events after the live braodcast.
Sarah Nemtanu gave us an Easter musical offering and I taped it because it is utterly moving, and must be kept as a token of generosity and HOPE among my 'treasures'.

Ravel: Kaddish
Sarah Nemtanu (violon)
en direct du studio 141
Here is the story of an eighty  year old orchestra. 
(photo from Naïve records) 

Could my 'Radio Days' be over?

Programmes perturbés sur France Musique à compter du jeudi 19 mars

le 10 Février 2015, mis à jour le 20 Mars 2015 à 08:21

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France Musique has been on strike for too long now!
The reasons are rather simple:
 Radio France which is the  National French  radio for which we pay taxes must make profits.
I do not understand why as we, citizens,  give full supply for what we get.
But this is how it goes in this money -minded world.
So the negociations between the Head of this national enterprise and the employees ' trade unions are at a stand still.
  I quite understand them as the negociations aim to  approve the drastic cuts in order to spend less and make money by increasing the concert ticket prices at Radio France,  by getingt rid of one orchestra out of two, by diminishing the number of technicians and journalists who can retire and will not be replaced. This is the  usual steps towards privatisation because  somehow these days the State cannot face keeping Culture going or else the entreprise Radio France spent too much at one point.
Radio Classique is a private radio  with commercial broadcastings and seems to be flourishing.
Because you have to put up with silly advertising in the middle of a talk or a music piece I have never been a listener of this 'robinet à musique' (music tap) as we call it.
`I find them rather light in their comments and they cannot be bothered to name  the composer and  piece of music  at its end.
 Moreover France Musique has so many live concert broadcasts and deep rooted programmes which cannot be simply forgotten just for the sake of drastic cuts.
Throughout my listener's years I have recorded wonderful programmes which made me understand Don Carlo and Don Carlos (for instance) with jean Michel Damian.
 My favourite reviewer is the philosopher and writer André Tubeuf: he used to take part  in Lionel Esparza's morning programmes and make us listen to singers of the past.(mostly from his own records) He had also  his  programme once  on Richard Strauss ' women singers and I learnt a lot on the composer, the period and his women singers including his wife! I also remember spending an afternoon lsitening to Christa Ludwig talking with him on very friendly terms. He invited her on a programme dedicated to Regine Crespin.
 I have not spent a day without listening to France Musique.
 Now  I listen to the podcasts which show how rich this radio still is.
Do we have to be ruled by money makers?
France Musique has evolved introducing new trends in the music world. But it does not mean it has to become a second  Radio Classique with hardly any broadcats from the major concert halls and opera houses in Franc.
What is going to happen to the broadcasts from ' Le festival de Montpellier 'for instance which is le Festival de Radio France?
I feel really sad and deprived of one of the best cultural tool, open to us all in our diversity.
 Who can tell if one day, someone, not used to classical music, will not be overwhelmed and deeply moved by the power of some classical tune on France Musique,  catching his attention late at night?
How can a bunch of bureaucrats and a Culture Minister  put up with such a situation?
 Of course I signed a petition for the sake of France Musique.  But is it going to be efficient?
Here is what is being done by some artists and journalists.
There are so many quotes about  France Musique in this blog ! I have been a France Musique radio listener for years...  I am backing Radio France against going private for all sorts of reasons, mainly to keep the quality of this radio, which must keep on resisting the trends of easy listening with no cultural background.

Easter interlude with....

 The Scottish Chamber Orchestra  sextet at the top of  the Cours Mirabeau, just in front of the  Roi René statue. Gusts of strong wind  were blowing  the scores away under the  bluest  sky you can imagine!
They were serenading with Mozart, it was most enjoyable!(Serenade Mi bemol majeur K 375).
They gave us an encore (C. M Von Weber, short and vivid ending)
Among the listeners were some Scottish visitors who follow the  Scottish Chamber Orchestra for this festival in Aix (they told me) and this is a real mark of love and faith!
( April 1st at 17.15 pm)