Alexander Gussev

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Jelly D'Aranyi and the Schumann Violin Concerto

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When will the film industry wake up and make a biopic of the life of Jelly D'Aranyi?  She inspired some of the greatest violin music of the first third of the 20th century. Born in Budapest 1893, she died in Florence in 1966, but spent most of her life in Britain. Joseph Joachim was her great-uncle and Jenő Hubay her teacher. Bartók fell in love with her. The elderly Elgar adored her. Ravel’s virtuoso showpiece Tzigane is dedicated to her. Delius wrote his Double Concerto for her and her sister Adila. She worked with Pablo Casals, Dame Myra Hess and Sir Adrian Boult, among other musicians also as legendary as she was. A painting of her by Charles Geoffroy-Dechaume hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0POrTYPT80 In March 1933, Baron Erik Kule Palmstierna – Sweden’s ambassador to London and an avid psychic researcher – was hosting a séance with his intimate circle of friends. Among them were two flamboyant musicians: the succulent...
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Isaiah Berlin: Testifying to the reliability of our memories.

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                                               When the young and the middle-aged say, as they often do,  that it is a common illusion of the old that there were better  singers and performances in the days of their youth, this is not  always so: gramophone records (and even some memories) do  not delude. The recorded ensembles towards the end of the  second act of Figaro , in the scene of parting in the first act of   Così , or the unmasking of Leporello in Don Giovanni , are  there to testify to the reliability of our memories.  
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Ettore Panizza

The name Ettore Panizza was unknown to me until I bought CDs of various live performances from the Met including Aida, Simon Boccanegra, Un ballo in maschera, La Gioconda, Norma, Otello, Rigoletto, La Traviata and Boris Godunov.  It should not be surprising that he also conducted Elektra (to Strauss's complete satisfaction - see below), Khovanshchina and other non-Italian repertoire. He was Toscanini's junior colleague for many years and Toscanini's influence can be found in his conducting style to a very great extent. There is even a book on him titled 'The other Toscanini.' If you have the option of buying or listening to anything conducted by Panizza, take it immediately. You will not be disappointed. Naxos biography Ettore Panizza’s parents were Italian: his father was a cellist as well as a composer and it was he who gave his son his first music lessons. Ettore travelled from Argentina to Italy to enter the Milan Conservatory, where he studied piano, composi...
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