This Week in Classical Music 2/11/18

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Hewitt Injured before Concert;

Spano retires in Atlanta

 

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

 

The Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt took a tumble down a flight of stairs before her concert in Oxford recently, twisting her ankle. But she still managed to carry on with the show. There is a picture of her online in a wheelchair.  Hewitt explained that she had been doing publicity photos during a rehearsal and was carrying her bags and she simply did not see the stairs and fell.

By that time the audience was arriving, and Hewitt decided to go on with the concert, using a wheelchair provided by the college.

The concert itself was a milestone in that Hewitt was playing the well tempered Clavier by Bach, a piece she had not performed onstage in 10 years.  She wasn’t able to use the pedals of the piano the way she wanted to, but the rest of the performance went off without a hitch.   “It’s Funny,” She says, when the  adrenaline gets going a lot of the pain just goes away” and you don’t feel it until after the performance. “I hope to get my foot X-ray-ed just to make sure it’s not broken—I don’t think it is, but it’s best to check.”

Robert Spano, the music director and conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, announced that he plans to step down at the end of the orchestra’s 2020–21 season, marking his 20th year in Atlanta.

Spano is one of only four music directors the ASO has had in its  73 years of existence. He said, “After these many years of great personal and artistic fulfillment, this is an institution that I deeply love and I look forward to many return visits in the years ahead.”

Spano has mentored a number of assistant conductors who have gone on to become artistic leaders. More than 40 percent of current ASO musicians joined the orchestra during his directorship, and he remains one of the longest-tenured music directors of a major US orchestra.

 

For more on these and other items and events, go to the website, K-B-A-C-H dot org; Be listening each week at this time for another update. Follow us on Facebook and twitter, and also listen every weekday at Noon for the Most Wanted Hour with Linda Cassidy, playing your top 100 classical hits.  I’m Randy Kinkel for KBACH’s “This Week in Classical Music”; Member supported 89.5 KBAQ Phoenix and HD, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.