Korngold countdown begins

The amount of excitement surrounding the forthcoming Korngold celebration at the Southbank is absolutely fantastic. Latest news is that BBC Radio 3 is to feature Korngold in 'Music Matters' on 20 October and will be talking to people who were close to the composer in person; and on 26 October 'In Tune' will be interviewing musicians involved in Korngold Day on 27th, including Anne Sofie von Otter and Bengt Forsberg.

Here's a link to the details of 27th. (Not sure how/why he has been transformed into 'Eric' on this page, since his name is, was and always will be Erich Wolfgang...)

And here are links to the LPO's Korngold Focus concerts:

2 November: Film music, alongside works by Waxman, Newman, Rozsa, Williams etc. Includes the UK premiere of Korngold's 'Tomorrow' from The Constant Nymph. John Wilson conducts.

14 November: Orchestral programme conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, with Nikolai Znaider as soloist in the Violin Concerto. Programme also includes Zemlinsky's Sinfonietta and Shostakovich's Symphony no.6.

21 November: UK premiere of Das Wunder der Heliane, concert performance conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

And finally, here is Renee Fleming singing 'Ich ging zu ihm' from the Prom on 6 August, on Youtube. Listen, watch and marvel. Heliane lives! (The embedding function is not available for this video.)

NB

In case anyone was hoping to come to my Alicia's Gift reading at The Red Hedgehog in Highgate tomorrow (it was flagged on my permasite), please note that it's been cancelled due to circumstances beyond my control. Hopefully the one on 8 December, linked to the recital by Peter Donohoe, will go ahead.

Meanwhile in Vienna...

...Opera Chic is having a lorralorra fun. Following on from the more daring inspirations named after Mozart and Tchaikovsky, I hope that the shop she's been frequenting might consider creating a special gadget for the Korngold anniversary? It wouldn't be inappropriate to certain bits of Das Wunder der Heliane...

On a slightly different note, Solti the cat, while somewhat 'indisposed', has discovered some Youtube video footage of Richard Tauber, whose voice conveys the essential spirit of Vienna. And the home movie passage shows him cuddling some lion cubs.

Myra Hess Day at the National Gallery

...It's today, and I'm not there. I should currently be listening to Piers Lane and the Doric Quartet playing the Elgar Piano Quintet on the spot where Dame Myra and her musicians sat during the years of the Second World War, when the gallery was cleared of most of its paintings and Hess moved music in instead to raise Londoners' spirits. Last year's day devoted to her memory - the first ever, unbelievably - proved so popular that someone listened to our calls for it to become an annual event, and Piers intended today's concerts to be a tribute in a wider sense, to music as a consolation in times of war.

They opened at lunchtime with a concert of Bach transcriptions for one and two pianos; at teatime, Anita Lasker Wallfisch gave an interview about her wartime experiences; and this evening the concert featuring the Elgar Quintet was to end with the Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time.

Annoyingly, I pulled a tendon in my leg at the gym earlier today and am hobbling about. So instead of being there, I am watching Dame Myra on Youtube. You can too. Here she is playing the Appassionata at the National Gallery in 1945.

Cheers

As from yesterday, our friends in the Netherlands can read Alicia's Gift in Dutch under the title Wonderkind.