Giovanni Boldini

A story on Yahoo! has it that a recently discovered (and untitled) painting by Giovanni Boldini was auctioned for nearly 3 million dollars. Nobody seemed to know much about the artist until the discovery. Now, he is quite popular - at least for a while. It seems that the best part of the story concerns the apartment where the painting was found. It had not been used in seventy years - since about 1940. The tenant was simply paying the rent while the apartment remained unoccupied. The absent tenant was the granddaughter of the woman who probably posed for the artist - Marthe De Florian. Stories like this are still unfolding and they seem - to most people - very romantic.

Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy recently announced that he would give French farmers strong financial support - they deserve it as much as the financiers he said. I agree with that 100%. The future of the EU rests with its farmers and its ties to Russia. The more I read about Sarkozy the more I believe he understands politics well. This topless woman might agree with that too.

Cars burning up

Who cares about climate change??? Nobody. It looks like people who were celebrating the new year on new year's eve burned a total of 1137 cars in France. That created a lot of smoke, of course - polluting smoke. There were 45,000 police out on patrol but they could not stop the burning. The revelers caused an estimated $8,000,000 in damage. I'm assuming all the cars were insured, no??? This topless woman does not know anything - she wasn't even there.

Moving to the right

From a story on the internet: "PARIS – President Nicolas Sarkozy said the Muslim burqa would not be welcome in France, calling the full-body religious gown a sign of the "debasement" of women. In the first presidential address to parliament in 136 years, Sarkozy faced critics who fear the burqa issue could stigmatize France's Muslims and said he supported banning the garment from being worn in public. "In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity," Sarkozy said to extended applause at the Chateau of Versailles, southwest of Paris. "The burqa is not a religious sign, it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement — I want to say it solemnly," he said. "It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic."

It appears that there is movement towards the political right behind the scenes. With either France or Germany taking the lead, Europe will go radically towards the right, while the U.S. moves left. What do I know? Nothing. I'm just guessing.

Russia and Europe

From Yahoo! News: “WASHINGTON – A standoff over an obscure air base in a Central Asian country few Americans could find on a map is becoming an opening salvo in a new kind of Cold War with Russia. The prize is not military mastery or the global supremacy of ideas, but the defensive protection of resources and security. Each of the 20th century’s nuclear superpowers wants say-so over the decisions the other has reserved the right to make, and with a new U.S. administration signaling possible compromise with Russia on a missile-basing plan detested by Russia, Moscow is using U.S. dependence on the base for the Afghan war to drive a hard bargain. Security officials in Kyrgyzstan said Friday the United States must quit the Manas air base, but U.S. officials said they have not gotten any official eviction notice and that negotiations to stay are under way.” Let us not forget the Russians are expert chess players. Caught in the middle of all this are Germany and France, as always... somewhat amusing if it weren’t such serious stuff.

Bertha Canta

Bertha, lyric soprano, is in Spain right now - Bilbao Spain. She is both a singer and an actress. Her picture is to the left of you (as if you hadn’t already noticed). She sings both Zarzuela and Opera, just like Placido Domingo, her countryman. Bertha makes her home in Bilbao – about 220 miles north of Madrid and about fifty miles from the French border. Bilbao is the home of the famous Guggenheim Museum. She loves the seashore and studies voice diligently. Understandably, her favourite composers are Verdi, Puccini, and Mozart, but she loves the blues as well and has even composed a number of modern songs. Among her favourite singers are Luciano Pavarotti, Renee Fleming, and Maria Callas. She would like to very soon travel to Paris, Vienna, or New York to pursue her career. She has a very popular page on MySpace.
Bertha ahorita se encuentra en España, mas precisamente en Bilbao. Ella es cantante y actriz. Su foto esta a la izquierda de este blog. Ella canta zarzuela y opera, como lo hace su paisano, Placido Domingo. Bertha vive en Bilbao. Bilbao es donde se encuentra el famosísimo Museo Guggenheim. A ella le gusta la playa y estudia canto con mucho esmero. Por supuesto que sus compositores favoritos son Verdi, Puccini, y Mozart, aunque a ella también le gustan los “blues.” Entre sus cantantes favoritos están Raneé Fleming, Luciano Pavarotti y María Callas. Pronto le gustaría viajar a Viena, Paris, o Nueva York para desarrollar su carrera. Bertha tiene una pagina popular en MySpace.

Pretty horses

Well, if I have enough pictures handy I can post one with every blog. Why not? I received a forwarded email from my trusted friend this afternoon. She thought it was good. All it showed was a guy riding several horses and doing odd tricks. No thanks. Las Vegas has plenty of those. Washington, D.C., too.

Gitlis

Well, now that I've started this, here's something about one of my favorite fiddle players:

ATribute to Ivry Gitlis

I must confess that until recently, I had never heard of this phenomenal artist – so far removed is he from the present generation of violin players. His playing style – so expressive, charming at times, fierce at others, always vigorous, often freewheeling - is also of another, more individualistic generation, a generation not embarrassed by conscious displays of high-tension emotion – the epitome of singing with the violin. There is an astonishing recording of the Tchaikovsky Vals Sentimentale by Gitlis which, in my estimation, will never be equaled. Simply stated, nobody plays like that anymore. His stupendous technical prowess aside, with Ivry Gitlis, there is no doubt about the utmost dedication, conviction, and wisdom of the man behind the playing. As has been said before, the violin doesn’t play itself.
Ivry Gitlis was born on August 22, 1922, in Haifa, Palestine (now Israel), to Russian parents. He received his first violin at the age of five and gave his first concert five years later, at age ten. When violinist Bronislav Huberman heard him play, he encouraged him to study at the Conservatoire de Paris, where, at age thirteen, he won a first prize. After graduation from the Conservatoire, he studied with Carl Flesch, Georges Enesco and Jacques Thibaud, among others – almost the same teachers under whom Henryk Szeryng studied a few years before him. In 1939, just before the war, he went to England, and when World War II broke out, worked in a British munitions factory and in the entertainment unit of the British army. After the war, he made his European debut at the Royal Albert Hall. In 1951, he made his debut in Paris – which was later to become his main residence - and has since gone on to give concerts all over the world. Ivry Gitlis is considered one of the most gifted musicians of his generation, and many of his recordings are now classics.
During his long career, Gitlis has performed with the most prestigious orchestras in the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Leningrad, Tokyo, Paris, Concertgebouw, etc., etc. and the most famous conductors, including Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim, Charles Dutoit, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Being a supporter of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Ivry Gitlis played at the Oslo gala commemorating the first anniversary of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Accords. In 1990, Gitlis was designated UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and, as a consequence, has graciously performed at numerous UNESCO fundraising galas for educational and cultural projects.
In addition to being a violin virtuoso, he writes and composes and is the author of the autobiographical L’âme et la Corde, which was published in 1981 to critical acclaim. His first recording, "Le Concerto à La mémoire d'un ange" (Concerto to the Memory of an Angel), Alban Berg’s violin concerto, won the Grand Prix du Disque (Grand Recording Prize) in France. In 1968 he participated in John Lennon's Dirty Mac project on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus program (on a track called "Whole Lotta Yoko"). In 1971, Bruno Maderna wrote "Piece for Ivry" for him, and in 1972, he premiered "Mikka" by Xenakis. Subsequent recordings, many of which until their recent re-releases had become sought-after collectors’ items, have included the concertos of Paganini, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Stravinsky, Bruch, Sibelius, Wieniawski and the Bartok Concerto and Solo Sonata for which he received the Best Record of the Year award from the New York Herald Tribune. Although less widely known as a chamber player, Ivry Gitlis has made music with a wide range of artists - Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky, William Primrose, Isaac Stern, Leonard Rose, Stephen Isserlis, Gary Hoffman, Mischa Maisky and Martha Argerich, with whom he recorded the Franck and Debussy Violin Sonatas.
Gitlis is also a well-known and respected teacher, giving master classes all over Europe and beyond, regularly spending summers at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and in France, where he has created many classical music festivals. A frequent contributor to films as a composer as well as an actor, he has worked with the likes of Truffaut and Schlondorff. In 2001 he was one of the featured commentators (along with Itzhak Perlman and Hilary Hahn) in Bruno Monsaingeon’s film, “The Art of the Violin”. Tony Palmer’s 2004 documentary film on Ivry Gitlis was premiered at the Prague Spring Music Festival where it was praised by the Oscar-winning director Andrea Anderman as "the best artist's profile I have ever seen". Most recently, at the Louvre Museum in Paris, he was honored (in 2004) as part of the Festival devoted to great violinists of the 20th century. Based in Paris since the end of the sixties, Ivry Gitlis still performs throughout the world. His return to the London stage in 1996 after a long absence marked the 50th anniversary of his Wigmore Hall debut and was quite a sensational experience - critics and audience alike agreed on the great impact of his unique personality and extraordinary interpretations, many of which can now be seen or heard on the YouTube website. The depth of his expressive powers can hardly be exaggerated. He plays the "Swan Song" Stradivarius of 1737 (the year of Stradivari’s death).