FAREWELL TO…
Mirella Freni Born 1935 Soprano
As talented an actress as she was a singer, Mirella Freni’s 50-year career saw her become one of the most sought-after sopranos of her generation. Born in Modena, she grew up alongside Luciano Pavarotti, with whom she shared a wet nurse and whose mother worked with hers at a local factory. The pair’s operatic careers would go on to follow similar trajectories. Following numerous appearances on Italian stages, Freni’s international reputation was secured by her Glyndebourne debut in 1960’s Mozart Don Giovanni. Her most returned-to role was perhaps that of Mimì in La bohème, but she also took on many of the great Italian bel canto roles, either on stage or on record, doing so with characteristic grace and expression. An artist of great conviction, Freni knew her limitations and often turned down roles she felt didn’t suit her voice. She was also a committed educator and set up a centre for bel canto singing in Vignola, where she gave masterclasses with her second husband, the Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiaurov.
Hamish Milne Born 1939 Pianist
A champion of the music of Nikolai Medtner, Hamish Milne did much to bring the Russian composer’s music to a new audience. Indeed, his recorded survey of piano works for CRD Records in the 1970s was the most comprehensive since the composer’s own. Milne’s recorded and broadcast legacy is vast, with some 200 BBC appearances alone, and his discs for the likes of Hyperion waved the flag for other lesser-known composers such as Haydn Wood and Joseph Holbrooke. Born in Salisbury, the pianist’s studies began at the Royal Academy of Music where he became a fellow in 1978 and served as a professor of piano until his death. He travelled to Italy to learn from Guido Acosti, himself a one-time student of Busoni. As a writer, Milne championed composers in the articles he published, with his love of Bartók leading to a biography of the composer in 1982.
Reinbert de Leeuw Born 1938 Pianist, conductor, composer Complex musical language was a great passion for Reinbert de Leeuw and it informed his three musical lives. As a pianist in the 1970s he made notable recordings of music by Satie, Bartók and Ustvolskaya. As a conductor, he exposed audiences to experimental music, showcasing scores by Messiaen, Ligeti and Andriessen, as well as the composers of the Second Viennese School. And as a composer, his own music took its lead from those composers. De Leeuw penned orchestral, chamber and vocal works, plus an opera (Reconstructie) based on the life of
Che Guevara. A regular conductor in his home country of Holland, De Leeuw was also in demand around the world; he served as artistic director at Tanglewood Festival from 1994-98 and was guest artistic director at Aldburgh in 1992. He founded the Schoenberg Ensemble in 1974 and co-authored a biography of Charles Ives in 1969.