Deutsche Grammophon has posted a happy birthday page for the Chinese pianist, Yundi Li.

http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/artist/biography?ART_ID=LIYUN

Have they forgotten they fired him last year, at Lang Lang’s insistence? Only for Lang Lang then to walk out on them and join Sony on a $3 million handshake.

Does no-one in these giant corporations talk to one another?

Yundi, by the way, is now with EMI.

 

 

 

 

 (picture credit: DG)

Gustavo Dudamel has told the Los Angeles Times that he and his wife, Eloísa Maturén, are expecting a baby next spring. ‘I will be Papa!’ he cried. The paper then obtained confirmation from Deborah Borda, president of the LA Philharmonic – just in case he’d got it wrong.

Here’s the link and here’s the happy couple (Dude and Mrs, not Dude and Debs).

Photo credit: Susana Gonzales / Los Angeles Times

 

Dudamel

 

 

Gustavo Dudamel has told the Los Angeles Times that he and his wife, Eloísa Maturén, are expecting a baby next spring. ‘I will be Papa!’ he cried. The paper then obtained confirmation from Deborah Borda, president of the LA Philharmonic – just in case he’d got it wrong.

Here’s the link and here’s the happy couple (Dude and Mrs, not Dude and Debs).

Photo credit: Susana Gonzales / Los Angeles Times

 

Dudamel

 

 

The Bayreuth Festival has decided, at an emergency board meeting, not to send its artistic director, Katharina Wagner, to Israel after adverse reactions to her plan to engage the Israel Chamber Orchestra for next summer’s festival.

It seems odd she should have backed down after a few predictable howls from Holocaust survivors. What did she expect, rose petals?.

The whole plan was misjudged and miserably mishandled. There must be a reconciliation between Israel and Bayreuth some day, but this was not the way to go about it, through a network of backroom contacts (Katie is chummy with the ICO’s new conductor, Roberto Paternostro). 

By pulling out at the first hint of resistance, Katharina looks both indecisive and weak. Not a good augury for Bayreuth.

Here’s the Haaretz version.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/wagner-s-great-granddaughter-cancels-israel-trip-week-before-arrival-1.317505

The Bayreuth Festival has decided, at an emergency board meeting, not to send its artistic director, Katharina Wagner, to Israel after adverse reactions to her plan to engage the Israel Chamber Orchestra for next summer’s festival.

It seems odd she should have backed down after a few predictable howls from Holocaust survivors. What did she expect, rose petals?.

The whole plan was misjudged and miserably mishandled. There must be a reconciliation between Israel and Bayreuth some day, but this was not the way to go about it, through a network of backroom contacts (Katie is chummy with the ICO’s new conductor, Roberto Paternostro). 

By pulling out at the first hint of resistance, Katharina looks both indecisive and weak. Not a good augury for Bayreuth.

Here’s the Haaretz version.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/wagner-s-great-granddaughter-cancels-israel-trip-week-before-arrival-1.317505

Sir Colin Davis resumed conducting last night, leading the London Symphony Orchestra in the Mendelssohn violin concert (soloist: Sarah Chang) and Elgar’s second symphony. Next week he will conduct Dvorak’s violin concerto (with Anne-Sophie Mutter) and Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass.

Sir Colin, who is 83, pulled out of the BBC Proms this summer after suffering severe ill health and a close family bereavement.

Sir Colin Davis resumed conducting last night, leading the London Symphony Orchestra in the Mendelssohn violin concert (soloist: Sarah Chang) and Elgar’s second symphony. Next week he will conduct Dvorak’s violin concerto (with Anne-Sophie Mutter) and Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass.

Sir Colin, who is 83, pulled out of the BBC Proms this summer after suffering severe ill health and a close family bereavement.

Arts unions in the Netherlands are organising a mass rally in The Hague this Friday to protest a wave of government cuts that will abolish three orchestras and reduce several more.

Here’s the agenda, if you are in the area:

 Juliëtte Dufornee

Location: het Plein, Den Haag (naast het Binnenhof)
DRESSCODE: Concert dress

11.00 Meeting at het Plein 

11.30-12.30 Speeches and music (some stars are promising to play).

12.45

Petition presented to Parliament.

13.00-13.30
Mozart wind serenade played by students of the Royal Conservatorium whose future is being foreshortened.

—-

 

Meanwhile the pricipal horn player of the radio chamber orchestra, Laurens Otto, has issued an international solidarity appeal

 

Dear music friends around the world,

The new Dutch government announced that it is their intention to close down ENTIRELY the Muziek Centrum v/d Omroep, which includes Het Metropole Orkest, Het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, De Radio Kamer Filharmonie, Het Groot Omroepkoor en de Muziekbibliotheek. The proposal is not been passed as of this moment, but if it does, 3 orchestras and a professional choir will become unemployed. This is not a reduction in salary or other contractual issues, it is a decision that will close the door on the entire Radio orchestra organization and forever harm the entire cultural sector both here, and in other countries.This is a very serious concern for us here in Holland, but should be also a concern for those of you who value the arts, and tradition all across the globe. These politicians care very little for the “Left-wing hobbies” and wish to see these luxuries (so named) removed from their “progressive” society. Please, in any way possible, support the musicians here in Holland and be extra vigilant with the preservation of your own orchestral and musical culture. WE CAN’T LET THIS HAPPEN!! Please support the orchestras in any way possible and follow them on Facebook and on the web.

please let yourself hear and react on the following page:
http://www.mco.nl/mco_page/laatuhoren

and join the facebookgroup:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150694624965839&ref=ts

Kind regards,

Laurens Otto
Principal Horn Radio Kamerfilharmonie
Muziekcentrum van de Omroep – Laat u horen!
www.mco.nl
Muziekcentrum van de Omroep
Teilen

Arts unions in the Netherlands are organising a mass rally in The Hague this Friday to protest a wave of government cuts that will abolish three orchestras and reduce several more.

Here’s the agenda, if you are in the area:

 Juliëtte Dufornee

Location: het Plein, Den Haag (naast het Binnenhof)
DRESSCODE: Concert dress

11.00 Meeting at het Plein 

11.30-12.30 Speeches and music (some stars are promising to play).

12.45

Petition presented to Parliament.

13.00-13.30
Mozart wind serenade played by students of the Royal Conservatorium whose future is being foreshortened.

—-

 

Meanwhile the pricipal horn player of the radio chamber orchestra, Laurens Otto, has issued an international solidarity appeal

 

Dear music friends around the world,

The new Dutch government announced that it is their intention to close down ENTIRELY the Muziek Centrum v/d Omroep, which includes Het Metropole Orkest, Het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, De Radio Kamer Filharmonie, Het Groot Omroepkoor en de Muziekbibliotheek. The proposal is not been passed as of this moment, but if it does, 3 orchestras and a professional choir will become unemployed. This is not a reduction in salary or other contractual issues, it is a decision that will close the door on the entire Radio orchestra organization and forever harm the entire cultural sector both here, and in other countries.This is a very serious concern for us here in Holland, but should be also a concern for those of you who value the arts, and tradition all across the globe. These politicians care very little for the “Left-wing hobbies” and wish to see these luxuries (so named) removed from their “progressive” society. Please, in any way possible, support the musicians here in Holland and be extra vigilant with the preservation of your own orchestral and musical culture. WE CAN’T LET THIS HAPPEN!! Please support the orchestras in any way possible and follow them on Facebook and on the web.

please let yourself hear and react on the following page:
http://www.mco.nl/mco_page/laatuhoren

and join the facebookgroup:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150694624965839&ref=ts

Kind regards,

Laurens Otto
Principal Horn Radio Kamerfilharmonie
Muziekcentrum van de Omroep – Laat u horen!
www.mco.nl
Muziekcentrum van de Omroep
Teilen

Katharina Wagner, co-director of the Bayreuth Festival, plans to visit Israel next week. She intends to sign up the Israel Chamber Orchestra to perform at the Wagner shrine next summer, according to an orchestra spokesperson. Bayreuth has yet to confirm.

Katharina was openly angling for an invitation to Israel in an interview she gave last month to the Tel Aviv newspaper Yediot Aharonot. Bayreuth has much to gain from reconciliation and Israel may be more inclined to deal with a new generation of Wagners, one that had no hand in the active promotion of Nazism.

Nevertheless, whichever way you look at it, the rapprochement is a crude piece of real-politik, equally cynical on both sides.

Katharina Wagner, co-director of the Bayreuth Festival, plans to visit Israel next week. She intends to sign up the Israel Chamber Orchestra to perform at the Wagner shrine next summer, according to an orchestra spokesperson. Bayreuth has yet to confirm.

Katharina was openly angling for an invitation to Israel in an interview she gave last month to the Tel Aviv newspaper Yediot Aharonot. Bayreuth has much to gain from reconciliation and Israel may be more inclined to deal with a new generation of Wagners, one that had no hand in the active promotion of Nazism.

Nevertheless, whichever way you look at it, the rapprochement is a crude piece of real-politik, equally cynical on both sides.

Fascinating statistic just in on the wires. Germany has abolished state subsidies to 35 orchestras since 1992, leaving 133 still in funds out of an original 168. The figures comprises opera houses, symphony orchestras, radio bands and chamber ensembles.

The number of musicians employed in state-funded orchestras is down by 18 percent from 12,159 to the present 9,922. The source is the German Orchestral Association (DOV). 

This sensible, gradual rationalisation, a part of the reunification process, contrasts starkly with the latest government plans in Holland to shut down classical radio, with the consequent abolition of three salaried orchestras. Read De Volkskrant for details (in Dutch). 

The amount saved would be 31 million Euros.

See here for further planned cuts.