One year ago: Arthur Ferrante

Arthur Ferrante was one half of the piano duo Ferrante and Teicher that was popular in the 1960s for lush orchestral recordings of 1960s movie themes and for their onstage antics. He died a year ago.

Over the course of their 40-year partnership, they recorded 150 albums, earning 22 gold and platinum records and selling 90 million records worldwide, and performed 5,200 concerts before retiring in 1989.

"They made beautiful music, but they were not easy listening," said Ferrante's manager, Scott W. Smith. "They were very dynamic."

They became known as the Movie Theme Team after releasing themes from "One-Eyed Jacks" (1961), "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "Cleopatra" (1963) and others.

Showmen from the start, they weren't content to merely play notes from a sheet of music. They would add objects to their pianos and would pluck, pound or strum the strings to make alternative sounds. These "gimmicks," as they called them, landed them spots on the leading TV variety programs.

For more on the piano man, read Arthur Ferrante's obituary by The Times.

--Michael Farr

Photo: Arthur Ferrante, left, and duo partner Lou Teicher. Credit: Los Angeles Times

One year ago: Leon Kirchner

 

Leon Kirchner, a pianist, composer, conductor and Harvard music professor who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1967 for his String Quartet No. 3, died one year ago today at age 90. Describing Kirchner's music in a 2006 Times story, writer Allan M. Jalon suggested the reader "imagine an often rhapsodic yet unsentimental modernism."

Kirchner wasn't known for conforming to trends during his long career. He once wrote that "idea, the precious ore of art, is lost in the jungle of graphs, prepared tapes, feedbacks and cold stylistic minutiae."

Although born in New York City in 1919, Kirchner grew up in Los Angeles, where he was influenced by such European expatriate luminaries as Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. He studied at L.A. City College, UCLA and UC Berkeley and went on to teach for many years at Harvard. There he became a mentor to a new generation of musicians including cellist Yo-Yo Ma and composer John Adams.

Read more about Kirchner in a 2006 Times profile and in the obituary that appeared in The Times.

-- Claire Noland

 Photo: Leon Kirchner in 2006. Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

One year ago: Carleen Hutchins

Carleen Hutchins, the world-renowned violin maker who died one year ago, committed what amounted to blasphemy for many music traditionalists. She claimed that, with the help of science, she could make a violin that rivaled ones made by the fabled Stradivarius family, whose instruments are among the most prized possessions in classical music.

As far as some musicians and instrument makers were concerned, she might as well have claimed that, with enough study, any painter could reproduce the masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci.

"The old-time violin makers hate my guts," Hutchins told a reporter in 1999. "I've been at it since 1947, and there's a camp that still won't accept it. I'm putting numbers on their mystique."

She insisted that science, particularly the study of acoustics, explained what made a Stradivarius a Stradivarius, and that it could make her creations just as good. She put this theory to the test on more than 400 string instruments in her career.

Hutchins also was the innovator behind the violin octet, a set of eight instruments ranging from the tiny treble violin, which is tuned an octave higher than a standard violin, to a deep-voiced 7-foot behemoth. The octet shook the classical music world, which until then was accustomed to quartets and their more limited range of notes.

For more about the master violin maker, read Carleen Hutchins' obituary that appeared in The Times.

-- Michael Farr

Photo: Violin maker Carleen Hutchins, center, is flanked by Joe McNalley and his mother, Sharon, after the inaugural performance by the Hutchins Consort on Jan. 18, 2000. Credit: Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times

Sir Charles Mackerras, renowned conductor, dies at 84

Sir Charles Mackerras, a renowned conductor acknowledged as the leading exponent of Leos Janacek's operas, died of cancer Wednesday night in London, according to the management firm Askonas Holt. He was 84.

In Britain, Mackerras was associated with English National Opera and the Royal Opera, was formerly principal conductor of Welsh National Opera and principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra.

At various times he also held conducting posts in Germany, Australia, the Czech Republic, the U.S., Austria and France, and he made many highly regarded recordings.

"Charlie Mackerras' impact on the development of musical performance practice over the last 60 years has been enormous," Royal Opera music director Antonio Pappano said.

"He was a force of nature, a true man of the theater, who grappled with how to honor a composer's intentions with the utmost rhythmic flair, drama and enthusiasm."

Mackerras made his last appearance at the Royal Opera House conducting Janacek's "The Cunning Little Vixen," which the house staged at his request.

The conductor did pioneering work on historic performance practices. An early result was his 1959 recording of Handel's "Water Music," which challenged the then-conventional lush performances by using the forces Handel had in mind, including 24 oboes.

"We got every wind player in London to come for one session, in the middle of the night, and have a go at it," Mackerras recalled.

"It was all edited and issued very quickly, in just a few days, and I must say I was a bit frightened that it would sound horrible, but of course just the opposite occurred. It sounded marvelous."

Mackerras brought the insights of the authentic performance movement to his conducting, notably in his work on Mozart's music and music of the baroque. In 1966, he added ornamentation to the score of "The Marriage of Figaro" at Sadler's Wells, re-creating his understanding of performance practice in Mozart's time.

"I'm sure that we went too far in that Sadler's Wells Figaro, exaggerating in an effort to get people's attention, but there wasn't too much opposition," Mackerras said.

Born in Schenectady, N.Y., to Australian parents, Mackerras grew up in Australia and studied oboe, piano and composition at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music in Sydney.

In 1947, Mackerras won a British Council Scholarship to study conducting with Vaclav Talich in Prague, which led to his enduring interest in Janacek.

Mackerras became fluent in Czech and prepared new editions of Janacek's scores.

He was principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra from 1997 to 2003.

Following his studies in Prague, Mackerras was associated with Sadler's Wells Opera -- later English National Opera -- where he conducted the first British performance of Janacek's "Kata Kabanova" and world premieres of Lennox Berkeley's "Ruth" and Benjamin Britten's "Noye's Fludde."

He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1972, leading Gluck's "Orfeo et Euridice," and the following year he conducted the opening performance at the Sydney Opera House.

Mackerras was first conductor at the Hamburg State Opera from 1966 to 1969, and chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 1982 to 1985.

He was music director of Welsh National Opera (1987-92), principal guest conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (1992-95), music director of the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York (1998-2001), principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia (from 2004) and principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.

Mackerras was knighted in 1979 and made a Companion of Honor -- reserved for 65 living persons of distinction -- in 2003.

Mackerras is survived by his wife, Judith, and their two daughters.

-- Associated Press

Photo: Sir Charles Mackerras in 2009. Credit: Associated Press

One year ago: Betty Allen

Betty Allen sang "with a glory of sound that would honor any performance," Washington Post critic Paul Hume once wrote. Allen, one of the first African American opera singers to reach international prominence, died a year ago. She was 82.

Allen was a mezzo-soprano -- her voice was lower than that of a soprano -- so she didn't get the glamorous female roles that tend to go to sopranos.  Mezzos are often cast in evil or brooding parts. She said Azucena, the raving gypsy in Giuseppe Verdi's "Il Trovatore," was her favorite role because "she's absolutely nuts."

Allen also was a distinguished teacher. She was the executive director of the Harlem School of the Arts and taught at the Manhattan School of Music, among other places.

Read more in the complete obituary for Betty Allen in the Los Angeles Times on July 27, 2009.

-- Keith Thursby

Photo: Betty Allen

One year ago: Ali Akbar Khan

Called a National Living Treasure in India, Ali Akbar Khan, who died one year ago today, was literally instrumental in bringing the music of his homeland to the West.

Khan recorded more than 95 albums, was nominated for five Grammy Awards and composed scores for both Indian and Western movies.

He was also awarded the National Endowment for the Arts' prestigious National Heritage Fellowship, the highest U.S. honor in traditional arts, in 1997.

Khan, who was born in Bangladesh, began playing music as a young boy. His father, Ustad Allauddin Khan, widely considered the greatest figure in north Indian music in the 20th century, vigorously trained his son, sometimes pushing his practice sessions to 18 hours.

But because of this sometimes brutal training at a young age, Khan felt his musical talent came effortlessly.

"I started to learn this music at the same time I began to talk," Khan told music writer Don Heckman in The Times some years ago. "So it is as natural to me as speaking. It's not something I have to think about any more than I have to think about the words I'm saying."

David Trasoff, a student of Khan's, was quoted by The Times saying this about Khan:

"What he attempted to do and, I believe, succeeded in doing was to transplant this very deep musical tradition by committing himself to a level of teaching that resulted in a number of proteges who have gone on to present this music throughout the world," Trasoff said.

Read Ali Akbar Khan's complete Times obituary for more information about his life.

-- Michael Farr

Photo: Ali Akbar Khan. Credit: Lawson Knight

Dr. Sherwin Sloan, the ultimate 'Ring nut'?

Even in the rarefied world of opera, Dr. Sherwin Sloan was known as perhaps the ultimate “Ring nut.” Since 1975, he had seen Richard Wagner’s four-opera cycle known as “The Ring” at least 90 times.
 
After witnessing his first production in Seattle in 1975, Sloan went on to co-found the Wagner Society of Southern California and often spent six months a year leading tours that traveled the world to see “The Ring.”
 
Sloan, who was an ophthalmologist, retired early, in 1998, to indulge his passion. He had served on the boards of both L.A. Opera and the Opera League.
 
One long-stated hope of Sloan’s: To see “The Ring” staged in Los Angeles. Over the weekend, L.A. Opera began unveiling the first complete performance of “Der Ring des Nibelungen” in L.A., but Sloan was too ill to attend. He died Monday at 72.
 
A complete obituary will follow.

-- Valerie J. Nelson

Photo: Dr. Sherwin Sloan often opened up his home in the Hollywood Hills to his fellow "Wagner crazies," as he called them. Credit: Perry C. Riddle / Los Angeles Times

Alan Rich memorial set for May 25

A public memorial for longtime music critic Alan Rich will be held at 7:30 p.m. May 25 at the Colburn School's Herbert Zipper Concert Hall, 200 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

Rich, who wrote for a variety of newspapers and magazines, died last month at 85. You can find his news obituary here.

-- Keith Thursby

Elisabeth Soderstrom in L.A.

Elisabeth Soderstrom, the Swedish soprano who died Friday, was not a frequent visitor to Los Angeles. According to stories in The Times, she made her local debut in 1986.

"For me it is more important to communicate than to sing a pretty note," she told The Times' Daniel Cariaga in a Feb. 19, 1988  story leading up to two local performances with Andre Previn, then music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. "This is one of the things I try to tell the young singers who attend my master classes. Try every experience, I tell them.… What you learn is never wasted — all knowledge is intertwined."

As for the 1988 performances, The Times' Martin Bernheimer called her "still one of the great singing actresses of our day" after watching her as a soloist with the Philharmonic at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. "The tone is still fresh and the intelligence that motivates and shades her phrasing remains a source of wonder."

Six days later, she teamed with Previn at the piano for a more intimate recital. Bernheimer again praised Soderstrom but thought the Pavilion was "much too big a showcase for her essentially fragile art."

--Keith Thursby

Photo: Elisabeth Soderstrom in 1997. Credit: EPA