Question from the Member for Clarity (S.) to the Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt.

Sir: Could the Rt. Hon. Member explain why the chief executive of Arts Council England, Alan Davey, cannot find the time to meet with the Head of Arts at Britain’s second largest city? Apparently, the arts boss at Birmingham City Council cannot get a date. 
Is this because
(a) the ACE is anti-Midlands?
(b) Mr Davey has a rare complaint of the right hand that prevents him from picking up a telephone receiver?
(c) the ACE is now inundated with 1,340 applications, a bureaucratic exercise of Mr Davey’s making that has paralysed the organisation and prevented it from doing an honest day’s work?

                                                                                      photo: ACE

Most soloists would just go home, or off to a bar, when their concert hall is hit by snow or a power failure. Not Josh Bell.

Here’s what happened at Strathmore (whose website is still down) when the hall pulled the plug and the punters were left wanting more.
There’s a video clip, too.

Most soloists would just go home, or off to a bar, when their concert hall is hit by snow or a power failure. Not Josh Bell.

Here’s what happened at Strathmore (whose website is still down) when the hall pulled the plug and the punters were left wanting more.
There’s a video clip, too.

The Norwegian cellist Truls Mork is back, The Strad reports.

He’s been off for 18 months with a rare encephalitis that paralysed his shoulder.
Norway has just awarded him the Sibelius Prize.
Can’t wait to hear him again, part of a terrific crop of Norwegian artists.

                                                                                                   photo:EMI

The Norwegian cellist Truls Mork is back, The Strad reports.

He’s been off for 18 months with a rare encephalitis that paralysed his shoulder.
Norway has just awarded him the Sibelius Prize.
Can’t wait to hear him again, part of a terrific crop of Norwegian artists.

                                                                                                   photo:EMI

The wonderful Brigitte Fassbaender, once a famous mezzo soprano and now Intendant of a medium-size opera house in Innsbruck, has been appointed an honorary Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur by the French Government.

That, for some reason, has made by day. All too often singers get forgotten once they step off into retirement, even if they continue to play an active role in theatre management (this may be one why Placido Domingo, now 70, tries to do both). Fassbaender had a unique timbre and was part of the extraordinary 1960s ensemble at Bavarian State Opera in Munich before taking up an intenational career.
She talked to me with great candour three years ago about her parents’  happy times with the Nazis, about difficulties with colleagues and about her own sexuality. I have seldom met a singer who was more at ease with herself, more at home in her skin.
She deserves every gong that’s going. Viel Spass, Brigitte!
Brigitte Fassbaender ist jetzt Ehrenlegionärin.<br />
Foto: dpa

                                         

The wonderful Brigitte Fassbaender, once a famous mezzo soprano and now Intendant of a medium-size opera house in Innsbruck, has been appointed an honorary Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur by the French Government.

That, for some reason, has made by day. All too often singers get forgotten once they step off into retirement, even if they continue to play an active role in theatre management (this may be one why Placido Domingo, now 70, tries to do both). Fassbaender had a unique timbre and was part of the extraordinary 1960s ensemble at Bavarian State Opera in Munich before taking up an intenational career.
She talked to me with great candour three years ago about her parents’  happy times with the Nazis, about difficulties with colleagues and about her own sexuality. I have seldom met a singer who was more at ease with herself, more at home in her skin.
She deserves every gong that’s going. Viel Spass, Brigitte!
Brigitte Fassbaender ist jetzt Ehrenlegionärin.<br />
Foto: dpa

                                         

Arts Council England, which can do little right at the moment, proudly announced yesterday morning a new partnership with News International, by which arts organisations could obtain press sponsorship and preferential coverage in such great publications as The Times, The Sun and The News of the World.

It seemed too good to be true.
Later that day, News International sacked an assistant editor at the News of the World over his alleged involvement in phone hacking. It also handed ‘significant’ new evidence to the police.
Almost immediately, the ACE put out the following statement on its website:

Statement regarding Arts Council and News International

  • Date: 26 January 2011
  • Region: Arts Council England

The Arts Council apologises for any confusion that has been caused by its posting about News International. There was no partnership with News International and there has never been approval for a partnership between the Arts Council and News International on either side.

You really couldn’t make it up.


Arts Council England, which can do little right at the moment, proudly announced yesterday morning a new partnership with News International, by which arts organisations could obtain press sponsorship and preferential coverage in such great publications as The Times, The Sun and The News of the World.

It seemed too good to be true.
Later that day, News International sacked an assistant editor at the News of the World over his alleged involvement in phone hacking. It also handed ‘significant’ new evidence to the police.
Almost immediately, the ACE put out the following statement on its website:

Statement regarding Arts Council and News International

  • Date: 26 January 2011
  • Region: Arts Council England

The Arts Council apologises for any confusion that has been caused by its posting about News International. There was no partnership with News International and there has never been approval for a partnership between the Arts Council and News International on either side.

You really couldn’t make it up.


The Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in Germany has filed for insolvency.

A press release from the foundation in Düsseldorf says it has been forced to suspend trading after a government report criticised its annual submission and accounting procedures. The government has also asked for a full breakdown on the spending of a Euro 3 million grant.
The Foundation, set up in 1999, provides music tuition and events for 11,000 school children across north and west Germany.
Yehudi would have been so sad.
Here’s a local report.

                                                                            photo: Life

The Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in Germany has filed for insolvency.

A press release from the foundation in Düsseldorf says it has been forced to suspend trading after a government report criticised its annual submission and accounting procedures. The government has also asked for a full breakdown on the spending of a Euro 3 million grant.
The Foundation, set up in 1999, provides music tuition and events for 11,000 school children across north and west Germany.
Yehudi would have been so sad.
Here’s a local report.

                                                                            photo: Life

Two years ago, I reported the death of Decca, one of the last major classical record labels. My column drew hysterical reactions from toadies of the music industry, prompting one of them to write a web article proclaiming that Norman Lebrecht was dead. 

Well, not quite.

What happened at Decca was that Chris Roberts, then head of classics and jazz at Universal, decided in a late act of spite to wind down the label and leave in in the hands of one executive and a receptionist. Roberts was fired last summer by the Universal chief operating officer, Max Hole. Costa Pilavachi, a former head of Decca, was brought back in a senior role, and the pair have been re-assessing the business top to bottom.
An announcement will be made in the next few days, I hear, that Decca is to be relaunched next month as Decca Classics, hinged to Universal Music UK and no longer governed from afar. Paul Moseley will remain as managing director of a reinforced team and new signings are on the cards.
This is a rare shaft of exceptionally good news for the classical music business, and an even rarer instance of a corporation admitting it made a really bad move and making swift amends.
It does not mean the rebirth of classical recording, but it does mean the decline will be managed in future with a good deal more sensitivity and commonsense.
Decca was declared dead by Universal (and not by me). It is now risen again.