Monday Morning Violin Gossip, Op. 2, No. 3

By Darcy Lewis

Well, Mozart watchers, get ready. As befits the hoopla surrounding the composer’s 250th birthday, the Internet is already brimming with Mozart news.

First up, the teaser given us last week by the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg that DNA testing on skull fragments would reveal them to belong to Mozart has, well, fizzled. Scientists have failed to determine whether a skull they tested is that of Mozart. Voice of America reports, "The scientists hoped to match its DNA to genetic samples taken from what they believed are the skeletons of Mozart's grandmother and niece. The scientists said on Austrian television Sunday that the skeletons do not match the skull, and that the skeletons are also unrelated - creating a whole new mystery of who is buried the Mozart family crypt." See the end of this column for more Mozart news.

What is happening at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio? According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Oxford String Quartet faces an uncertain future. As quartet-in-residence for Miami University for 60 years, the group has long been regarded as a trailblazer among college quartets as its members have long been tenured, full-time faculty, giving the group an enviable stability. Well, no more.

Now that former first violinist Emma Rubinstein resigned and moved out of state, the group planned a national search, but budget constraints and lack of tenure-track positions are interfering. The Dean, Jose Antonio Bowen, suggests finding part-time players, or finding a donor to endow the quartet, which could cost up to $4 million.

Bowen, apparently unmoved by appeals from fans and alumni around the world, “thinks it's a non-issue, and that eventually the school will want to emphasize other areas, such as world music.” He says the school wants to preserve the Oxford String Quartet. But the School of Fine Arts no longer has a tenure-track position available, after the hire of an ethnomusicologist. "We had a triple whammy," he says, pointing to a university-wide budget pinch, less state money and a decline of incoming freshmen. (This year, the music program, which has 220 students, had a drop from 69 to 40 incoming freshmen.) To attract new students, the school may eventually have to shift its focus away from traditional Western music, he says. "It's conceivable that the number of students wanting to study the violin goes down, and the number wanting steel drum and gamelan (Indonesian ensemble music) goes up," he says.

If you think this decision is misguided, it couldn’t hurt to voice your concerns as a string player to Dean Bowen at his office, 513-529-6010 or to e-mail him at http://www.bowenja2@muohio.edu

Musician News

1/22/06 - The Tokyo String Quartet will perform in San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre. Clarinetist Sabine Meyer will join them for Mozart’s K. 581 Quintet.

1/20/06 - Cellist Alisa Weilerstein will perform Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Weilerstein, a 23-year-old American, has already performed this work with the Cleveland Orchestra.

1/13/06 – The Emerson String Quartet will perform an unusual program of Nielsen, Sibelius, and Grieg at Stanford Lively Arts in Palo Alto. As San Francisco Classical Voice opines, “It's uncommon repertoire for that quartet. If they believe in it, they will likely make you believe in it as well.”

1/12/06 - Jung-Ho Pak was unexpectedly hired by the San Diego Chamber Orchestra as music director. The group had been in the middle of music director auditions when it suddenly cancelled the rest of the candidates in favor of Pak, the San Diego Symphony's former artistic director, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.

1/11/06 - The New York Times is reporting that an anonymous donor has come forward with $200,000 to help members of the Audubon String Quartet pay a judgment against them and avoid having to sell their instruments. “Former quartet member David Ehrlich won the judgment last year: ‘Why am I settling at this point? It's bothersome to me. I don't want them to lose every little thing that they had. If they can come out of this with something, then I would feel better about it too.’ He has said he never wanted the other members to lose their instruments but needed the funds from the judgment to pay lawyers.”

1/11/06 - Pinchas Zukerman has finally broken his silence regarding his decision to pull out of his obligations to his National Arts Centre Orchestra for the current season. According to the Orange County Register (CA), Zukerman calls the journalists questioning his decision "mediocrities," but he admits to what has long been rumored within the industry: NACO is a troubled environment. "In every orchestra, in every institution that has climbed to prominence quickly there's always going to be a few rotten apples. And they have created an atmosphere that has to be eradicated, quite frankly."

1/11/06 – Cal Stewart Kellogg has been named music director of Arizona's Mesa Symphony Orchestra. A bassoonist and composer, Kellogg was formerly the principal conductor of Arizona Opera.

1/10/06 – Violinist Lisa Batiashvili has had a busy week. Last weekend, she gave a “superbly played” performance of Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Then, later in the week, she played Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the San Francisco Symphony.

Orchestra News

1/9/06 – The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that Amichai Hendel, former president of the Renaissance Chamber Orchestra which disbanded in October, "has resurfaced with a new group called the Renaissance Classical Orchestra ... (with) veteran composer-conductor David Amram signed on as artistic director ... Hendel said the Renaissance Classical Orchestra is a completely distinct entity with 'new faces and new musicians.'" The paper notes, "Former Renaissance musicians and audience members are reacting to the new venture with emotions ranging from disbelief and consternation to intense anger ... Notwithstanding the slightly different name, new players and a new corporation, with this venture Hendel is clearly hoping to capitalize on the old Renaissance Chamber Orchestra's success. For several days the new ensemble's Web site posted reviews of the former group, as well as photos of its musicians, none of whom are affiliated with Renaissance Classical Orchestra." The South Florida Musicians Union has "filed for arbitration with Hendel in an attempt to get back wages of $25,000 still unpaid to its musicians for three of last summer's concerts."

Other Mozart News

1/16/05 – Check out this week’s issue of TIME Magazine for an interesting article on the “Mozart Effect,” in all its variations, from pop culture, let’s-make-our-babies-smart to serious medical science. The article cites John Hughes, a neurologist at the University of Illinois Medical Center who specializes in epilepsy; Hughes tells the reporter that "80 percent of the time [playing Mozart for patients] has a beneficial effect on seizures." The article continues, "Mozart's musical sequences tend to repeat regularly every 20-30 seconds, which is about the same length of time as brain-wave patterns and other functions of the central nervous system. [Hughes’] conclusion is that the frequency of patterns in Mozart's music counteracts irregular firing patterns of epilepsy patients."

1/12/06 - The British Library has reconnected a Mozart manuscript that was torn apart by the composer's widow, reports the Guardian (UK). "The single sheet of music was produced by Mozart when he was 17. On one side of the manuscript are two piano cadenzas and on the other a minuet for string quartet. But in 1835, 44 years after her husband's death, Constanze carefully cut up the manuscript so that the two cadenzas ended up on separate sheets - bar one note that she lopped off the upper piece by mistake."

1/12/06 - The British Library has also put a digital version of Mozart's musical diary online to help celebrate 250 years since the composer's birth. The digitized diary lets people click on and hear music from the opening bars of many of the works it mentions. One featured composition is "Little March in D" that, the library says, has almost never been performed. Mozart filled in pages in the Catalogue between February 1784 and his death in December 1791. In total it contains details of 145 of the composer's works. On the left hand side of each double-page spread Mozart wrote about five compositions and entered the date each was finished; the title and which instruments should be used to play it. Often also included were the names of singers who performed it, where it was composed and who commissioned the work. On the right-hand side of each double page was written the opening bars of the work. For its version the British Library recruited members of the Royal College of Music to perform the introductory bars so visitors can hear what each featured composition sounds like. See the catalog here

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