Have you heard of Heino Eller ?

He is an Estonian composer who taught the likes of Tubin and Pärt. I was not aware of him until I heard his 3 symphonies on a radio broadcast.

These are strong works, superbly orchestrated and with a genuine sense of drama.

Unsurprisingly, he has a good wikipedia page which is linked to another page from the Estonian music center here.

His symphonies have not been recorded so let me know if you are interested. This is a major composer.

James Levine to resume conducting

Music-lovers of the world, but mostly from New York, rejoice, James Levine is due to come back to the Met on the 2013 - 2014 season for 3 runs of Berg's Wozzeck, Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte and Verdi's Falstaff. No Gargantuan Wagnerian evening but three masterpieces, the Wozzeck being one where he is second to none, actually, all three.

He will also be at Carnegie Hall on May 19 for a Sunday afternoon Met Matinee concert. His concert should include Beethoven's fourth Piano Concerto with E Kissin as soloist but also and mostly Sibelius's 4th Symphony.

Please, do not change the program, I just grabbed one of the last ticket ...

Blatant Self-Promotion

here ... this is on my day job ... but there is a reference to my work at Concertonet ... so this is not entirely unmusical ...

Also, in French and in Concertonet ...

• N Järvi's inaugural concert in Geneva
• and A Altinoglu's concert the week after

If the Economist says so ...

... Karajan was right ...

Back in Geneva ...

Behind this is incidentally the place where I park my car every day to reach my office

and if the day was sunnier, you could have seen the water jet from the lake.

These are for the upcoming concert for the start of the season which will include Das Lied von die Erde with P Groves and T Hampson, a review of which will naturally be in Concertonet.

Breaking news: OSR Site hacked

The web site of the Swiss Romande Orchestra has been hacked by the pro-Iranian groupe Ashiyane. The hacker group struck one of the French Socialist leader site as a previous victim.This is to the best of my knowledge the first strike on a classical music site.

I guess the real lesson is not artistic but is that all institutions should ramp up the security on their sites, which is not the case here and that Internet should become a primary vehicle treated very seriously.

Paavo Järvi's recording of Hans Rott works

... is out.

As quoted earlier, Jaarvi knows the piece and does a particularly great job of the scherzo.

The surprise here is the Suite, two movements which are clearly unfinished and the sign of work in progress of a major composer. The scherzo compares well with any of Bruckner's and the second, Sehr Schnell has some wonderful string writing.

Highly recommended.