Friday in Oaxaca

 I'm not at home, but traveling in Oaxaca state, Mexico. Yesterday I flew from Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca in this plane:

This is a De Havilland Twin Otter, I think. Manufactured by De Havilland Canada

It seats fifteen, not counting the pilot, but for the first leg I was the only passenger. Now on to our regularly-scheduled program.

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In the Gramophone classical music awards:

Rising star María Dueñas, 22, was named young artist of the year. The Spanish violinist, who won first prize at the Menuhin competition in 2021 and records for Deutsche Grammophon, also took the instrumental category for her album of Paganini’s 24 Caprices.

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Also:

 The recording of the year was awarded to the French conductor Raphaël Pichon and his choir and period-instrument orchestra Pygmalion for their recording of JS Bach’s Mass in B Minor on the Harmonia Mundi label. Gramophone hailed the performance as one “that gleams at the cellular level, radiating outwards with devotional warmth; in short, it is alive”.

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High-Tech Sensors Expose the Secret Tricks of Piano Masters

A team led by Dr. Shinichi Furuya at the NeuroPiano Institute and Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc. has provided the first scientific evidence showing how pianists’ touch on the keys can actually change a piano’s timbre—the tonal character of its sound.

Artistic creativity in music, painting, and other forms of expression depends on the ability to shape how an audience perceives what they experience. Yet, until now, scientists did not know whether musicians could truly alter a piano’s timbre while performing, or what kinds of physical movements would make that possible.

The headline oversells the article, as always. No, no secret tricks are revealed. And every single sensitive listener has heard how pianists (and harpsichordists) can shape timbre. So this isn't actually news, just confirmation. It has a lot to do with the velocity of attack.

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Over at Slipped Disc, Norman Lebrecht is complaining about a new box of ten CDs of the harpsichord music of Louis Couperin.

Now not many things make me happier than an hour or so of solo harpsichord. Even two hours, at a push.

But ten hours of it, and by a composer who’s mostly known by the piano suite Ravel wrote at his tomb.

Can anyone sing a single tune by Louis?

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Wow, I thought Mexico was mostly free from this sort of thing: CONDUCTOR IS SACKED ‘FOR GENDER PARITY’

Members of the Mexico City Tipica Orchestra (OTCM) yesterday condemned the dismissal of their artistic director, Alberto Torres Xolocotzi, after authorities from the Mexico City Ministry of Culture, headed by Ana Francis López Bayghen, summoned the musician to inform him of the decision, citing “gender parity.”

“Yesterday, June 24, in a meeting with the Orquesta Típica and Mariana Gómez Godoy, director of Artistic and Cultural Heritage of the SC, I informed the members of the group that the artistic director’s contract was terminated,” meaning that “a female director will be appointed in her place, without holding a competitive examination as has been the case since 2017,” the musicians detailed in a document shared with Excélsior.

The musicians lamented this decision and expressed their dissatisfaction: “We express our condemnation of policies that discriminate against gender, that promote gender intolerance, and that violate the human and labor rights of our members.”

In the second paragraph, the quote should read “a female director will be appointed in his place" probably a translation error.

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Which brings us to our envois for the day. Let's start with Spanish violinist Maria Dueñas playing the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso by Saint-Saëns:

Here is Raphaël Pichon conducting the Sanctus from the Bach B minor mass:

The most remarkable color change I have ever heard on piano was achieved by Arthur Rubinstein in a concert in Spain in 1974. When he got to the major section of the Bach Chaconne, I swear the entire color of the piano changed--as striking as if it were blue then green.

Now I think we need some Louis Couperin. This is a prelude played by Jean Rondeau. Sorry, Blogger won't embed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1D9QcI8rkA

Enjoy and have a great weekend!