This Week in Classical Music

December 28, 2008

( Phoenix, AZ )
•Moscow Violinists assaulted
•Nordinger: No politics on Podium
•Wakin: The year in Classical music

This Week in Classical Music 12/28/08

It’s This Week in Classical Music”, an update on what’s happening in the Classical music world; I’m Randy Kinkel.

Two violinists from the Moscow Virtuosi were assaulted and robbed recently in separate incidents in Moscow. Gerogy Tsai, was robbed and assaulted Sunday night-- Attackers stabbed him in the stomach, slashed his hands and stole his bag near his home; and Denis Shulgin, also a violinist with the orchestra, suffered a fractured skull in an assault the following evening. Police are speculating that Mr. Tsai could have been the victim of a racist attack, as Neo-Nazi attacks on Asians and Africans are fairly common there. Moscow Virtuosi Director Grigory Kovalevsky told reporters it was possible the thieves just wanted the victim’s instruments, both of which are worth over $40,000 apiece.
Music Critic Jay Nordinger took offense to remarks made from the podium at a Carnegie hall Christmas concert; according to Nordinger in a recent blog post, “Shortly into the concert, the conductor turns to the audience and speaks about “the holidays.” This year, he says, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are overlapping with Christmas. then we have New Year’s Day. And “on January 20, there will be a new beginning for our country.” The crowd, of course, erupts into cheers. Then he says, “I see I’m not the only one who’s ready.” Nordinger, a conservative, said, in the National Review, “Politics aside, where are manners? Where is consideration for a minority of audience members? Where is a sense of public space, and what is appropriate and not?

In the hallowed year-end tradition of picking out highlights and lowlights of the preceding year, Daniel Wakin of the New York Times has compiled his own list of memorable moments in the classical music world; Here are just a few--Longest Road trip: goes to the New York Philharmonic, for their visit to North Korea;
The Homer Simpson “D’OH!” Prize—Phillippe Quint, for leaving his 4 million dollar Strad in a taxi; the driver later returned it; and “Most Predictable” goes to the Bayreuth Festival, for appointing two half sisters named Wagner to run the festival founded by their great-grandfather, Richard.

For more on these and other items and events, go to the website, kbaq.org; be listening each week at this time for another update, and join me every weekday at noon for “The Mozart Buffet”, an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries; I’m Randy Kinkel for 89-five KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.

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