The music world loses two masters of their art

It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted a blog, and I apologize for that, but with the recovery from last month's surgery continuing, I find I still tire rather easily, and since I started back at work this week, it is even more so. So while the spirit was often willing, the mind was weak, and I found myself putting things off until I started to feel better. My apologies for that, but what can you do? The recovery is going well, all things considered, so thanks for asking!

That being said, the classical music world lost two masters of their respective art earlier this month, and I thought I would write about those two events today. The first comes from Tuesday, September 1st, when conductor Erich Kunzel, who led the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra since 1977, died of cancer at the age of 74. he had been suffering from cancer of the liver, colon and pancreas for several months, so perhaps it wasn't expected, but it was still very much a shock when I first heard the news a couple of weeks ago. The Cincinnati Pops without Erich Kunzel? It had never occured to me any more than the Boston Pops without Arthur Fiedler years ago.

Erich began his lengthy stay with the orchestra on the invitation of Maestro Max Rudolf, who asked Kunzel to conduct the Pops concerts for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the next year the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra was spun off from the main orchestra. I can't imagine that happening today, what with tighter budgets and such, but back in the 70s it made perfect sense. Ever since, Erich and the orchestra had played every conceivable venue, it seems, from New York's Radio City Music Hall to the Grand Ol' Opry. He recorded more than 85 albums for the Telarc label, almost all of them selling very well over the years. He just seemed to have the midas touch when it came to programming pops music.

What is perhaps less well known outside of Cincinnati was his love of opera, and he conducted Cincinnati Opera on many occasions since 1966. He had planned to return to his opera roots in 2006 to conduct The Tales of Hoffmann, but his hectic schedule prevented that from happening. Patricia Beggs, General Director and CEO of Cincinnati Opera, recalls riding in a cab one day in New York, and when the driver heard she was from Cincinnati, asked if she knew Erich Kunzel. It turns out the cabbie had several of his recordings in his collection; such was the wide-ranging popularity of the man!

Erich will be missed as a giant of pops music, but also as an ambassador for Cincinnati, a city he loved. I can't imagine anyone stepping into his shoes now and carrying on, but we'll see what happens in the months to come.

The second loss in the world of classical music was the untimely death of Fred Mills, a trumpeter who played for 24 years with the Canadian Brass, who died in an automobile accident at the age of 70 in early September. He died in an accident near Atlanta, where he had just returned from a concert date in Europe. Mills had left the Brass in 1996 to become a professor at the University of Georgia, but remained active as a soloist internationally.

Mills was born in Guelph, Ontario, and began his brass studies on a cornet purchased from a travelling salesman, of all people. One wonders if that salesman was ever thanked for the lucky break he unwittingly gave Fred Mills all those years ago! He studied at the Juilliard School in New York and was invited to join the Houston Symphony Orchestra as principal trumpet. he also performed under legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski when he formed the American Symphony Orchestra in 1961; Mills became a founding member of the ASO.

While most of the Canadian Brass recordings cannot be termed classical in the purest term, they knew how to entertain an audience, and seeing them in concert was always more fun than listening to a CD, although the CD usually better demonstrated their brilliant musicianship since you were not distracted by watching them perform onstage. I remember seeing them years ago several times, and the last time was with the Hamilton Philharmonic at the start of James Somerville's inaugural season, although by then Mills was long gone.

Mills, like Kunzel, was a consummate musican and an innovator. We won't likely see their like again, although hope springs eternal. For now, we can remember both with a wealth of CD releases still available. And needless to say, all recordings currently available by both Erich and Fred are available through my website, A Web of Fine Music, found at www.finemusic.ca.

September 19th, 2009.