Jerry Leiber’s gone, overnight reports confirm.

He’s seen below with partner Mike Stoller and some other guy. Among other hits, the pair wrote Hound Dog and Jailhouse Rock, Ruby Baby, Yakkety Yak and Charlie Brown.

 

Three times she was passed over for the top job, never considered, not even asked to apply.

On the fourth occasion, they turned to Monica Mason in desperation. She pulled the company out of a downward spiral and, over ten years, restored it to the creative heights last attained when Fonteyn and Nyreyev were in residence.

How did she do that? On the Lebrecht Interview, tomorrow, on the eve of her final season, Dame Monica tells all.

Expect the truth, whole and unvarnished. In the 1990s when I was writing Covent Garden: The Untold Story, Monica was the one person I could rely on for plain facts, free of self-advertisement. She is a genuine heroine of the arts. Listen for yourselves and see if you don’t agree.

Mon & Me.

Here’s a first – a classical violinist launching his new album at the point of delivery, one of London’s big Apple stores.

He’s Charlie Siem, already known as the face (or body) of Alfred Dunhill attire. He’s playing Apple at 7pm Thursday.

charlie siem

Daniel Harding was  just 22 when he conducted the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in its breakthrough Don Giovanni at Aix-en-Provence.

Now, a week before his 36th birthday, he has been named conductor laureate – for life.

Sic transit harmonia mundi, they used to teach us at school.

 

Here’s the press release.

MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA  PRESS RELEASE

MCO honours Daniel Harding with the lifetime title of Conductor Laureate

Alongside Claudio Abbado, Daniel Harding is undoubtedly the conductor who has had the greatest influence on the MCO’s young history: first as Principal Guest Conductor, then as Music Director and since 2008 as Principal Conductor, he has been closely tied to the orchestra since its founding in 1997. Now, the orchestra has decided unanimously to give him the permanent title of Conductor Laureate.

Berlin, 19 August 2011 – At the age of 22, Daniel Harding shared with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra its international breakthrough only a few months after its founding with Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the opera festival in Aix-en-Provence. Since then, he has conducted numerous concerts and operas – most recently the complete cycle of Brahms symphonies and Mahler’s Fourth symphony on an extensive tour in Europe and Asia in summer 2011, Verdi’s Otello and Berg’s Wozzeck – and he has stood on the conductor’s podium with the MCO on a total of 342 evenings. Numerous CD and DVD recordings document the longstanding collaboration.

After almost 15 years of artistic partnership, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra has decided unanimously to give him the honorary lifetime title of Conductor Laureate. The orchestra expresses its deep gratitude to Daniel Harding for his friendship and dedication to the MCO and is happy to preserve the long-term bond with the new title. Several collaborations are already in planning for the years 2012 and 2013.

Born in Oxford, Daniel Harding began his career assisting Sir Simon Rattle at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with which he made his professional debut in 1994. He went on to assist Claudio Abbado at the Berlin Philharmonic and made his debut with the orchestra at the 1996 Berlin Festival.

In addition to his work with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, he is the Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Music Partner of the New Japan Philharmonic. Previous positions include Principal Conductor of the Trondheim Symphony in Norway (1997-2000), Principal Guest Conductor of Sweden’s Norrköping Symphony (1997-2003), and Music Director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (1997-2003).

He is a regular visitor to most renowned orchestras such as Bayerischer Rundfunk, Dresden Staatskapelle, the Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouworkest, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. Other guest conducting engagements have included the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées. Among the American orchestras with whom he has performed are the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

In opera Daniel Harding conducts new productions at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and at la Scala Milan where he is a regular guest. In 2002 he was awarded the title Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.

This Sunday, 21 August, Daniel Harding conducts the MCO at the LUCERNE FESTIVAL in Switzerland in a concert performance of Mozart’s Magic Flute. The sold-out performance will be recorded by Swiss Radio DRS2 (broadcast on 22 August, 21:05).

 

Word reaches me from Toronto that John Terauds, the only fulltime classical music critic in English-speaking Canada, has been switched to the business desk of the Star. The paper has also shut down his music-world blog, SoundMind.

A sign of impoverished times, perhaps, but also a significant step in the closing of Canada’s cultural mind.

Here’s John with his school piano teacher Vesta Mosher in his last musical post.

 

Meandvesta

 

No kidding, it was Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.

Why? Because the Guardian ran a free live relay from Glyndebourne on its website and thousands who had never entered an opera house were moved to share their experience in less than 140 characters.

Those who watched may well have enjoyed a view of my right ear. My daughter and I sat before a bank of cameras, which is often an uncomfortable experience. But no extra lighting was required and the cams were silent and unobtrusive.

The show was tremendous, brilliantly sung, acted, played and directed, the tension rising notch by notch to an ambiguous, unsettling conclusion. Miah Persson was a suitably bewildered Governess, Toby Spence a chilling Quint. On design alone, Paul Brown’s set may be the finest Britten production I have seen – with the possible exception of  a claustrophobic Peter Grimes on the cramped stage of the old Glyndebourne house. omehow, none of the press pictures quite capture its ever-shifting ingenuity.

Turn of the Screw: Turn of the Screw performed by Glyndebourne Opera

I’ve had an email from Lake Placid, telling me that the bassonist who joined in 1947 has just hung up his instrument.

Has anyone, anywhere, played longer?

Here’s the mail:

Mr. Lebrecht

I am Music Director of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta (NY), which has
been in operating since 1917 and is now a 6 week Summer festival
orchestra. Our Bassoonist David Van Hoesen just retired last Saturday
(performing a solo no less) and he has been in the group every year
since 1947 which could be the longest orchestra tenure ever? He was a
legendary teacher at Eastman having taught many of todays leading
Bassoonists including Judith Leclair and Roger Nye of the NY Phil. I
have a blog but your readership is huge and would do pointing out this
incredible career the justice it deserves. I am happy to provide more
information if you wish
Best wishes
Ron Spigelman

The soprano Hila Baggio has asked me to clarify Italian reports that she walked out of Graham Vick’s festival production of Mose in Egitto on the grounds that it was ‘dangerous and offensive.’

On the contrary, she was never part of the cast, and never left any performance in the middle.

In an email she adds: ‘I actually saw the production two days ago and I found it not Anti-Israeli and not Anti-Jewish. I found it very emotional and a sad reality of a conflict that exists forever between Israelis and Arabs and Grahm Vick showed it in a very intelligent way. ‘

Hila can be seen at the Rossini Festival in “La scala di seta”.

I’m heading to Glyndebourne this afternoon with a daughter to see Britten’s version of the Henry James story. The conductor is Jakub Hr?ša, the director Jonathan Kent.

The same performance will be beamed live on the internet to anyone who cares to click on the Guardian website.

So why shlepp all the way down to Sussex to see something I could enjoy in the comfort of my home? Simple.

Opera, like sex, is not something you can properly do alone. You need the sense of sharing it with others, even the comfort of strangers.

I’m also intrigued to see whether the live relay affects, in any way, the perception of the audience and performers.

If it does, I’ll report back.

Universal renewed her record contract this summer, then fired her manager as co-head of its artists agency.

Will Anna follow her dearly beloved Jeff?

Unlikely. Jeffrey Vanderveen is trying to get a job with Opus3 artists agency, but it’s fairly low-level. Not even head of vocal, I hear.

Universal fired him partly for an earlier embarrassment (all can now be revealed) and partly because it needed to make a move to Berlin, where IMG has started a vocal agency with two very smart cookies, David Blackburn and Thomas Channel.

Anna won’t follow Jeff because she can’t face the hassle and it doesn’t matter that much to her any more. She’s got her exit strategy in place – a restaurant in Vienna, she tells everyone. She won’t be singing arias for the rest of her life.

If there had been a risk she was going to leave, Universal would never have dumped Jeff, I’m told.

But to make assurance doubly sure, it granted a swift promotion to Judith Neuhoff, who works part-time for Daniel Barenboim and enjoys a girlie-talk relationship with Trebs. She is now co-director of the agency with one specific task: Keep Anna Happy.

LATE ADD: Internally, she is credited with saving Rolando Villazon from the depths of despond and getting him booked again at the Met on the strength of his recent Onegin in Japan.

A few days ago I reported – exclusively, since none of the music media dared to touch the story for fear of losing label ads – that EMI had sacked the head of Classics, Eric Dingman. The euphemism used in the convoluted internal email was that he’s ‘moving on’.

It could be that nobody has told Eric yet, since his Facebook page still lists him as head of EMI Classics, but I guess he’ll read slipped disc when he tries to get back to work, and find he’s got no work to get back to. Tough old world, the music biz.

The big news this morning is that Universal Music have got rid of half of their classical artists’ agency. One of the two founding partners, Jeffrey Vanderveen, has been fired as foretold exclusively here.

No, not fired. He has been totally whitewashed out of the company, which is changing its name to Centre Stage Management under the direction of his former co-conspirator, Manfred Seipt, and a woman, Judith Neuhoff, who works part-time for Daniel Barenboim. Here’s the internal email:

We are very pleased to inform you about some imminent changes at Universal Music Classical Management & Productions (UMCMP).Over the past 12 months, we have seen a renewed, dynamic commitment to classical music by the Universal Music Group.  This new spirit extends to UMCMP, and we continue to improve and advance what we do. One important change concerns our name and structure.  In future, the company will operate under two distinct, independent identities. CENTRE STAGE ARTIST MANAGEMENT (CSAM) will manage some of the finest classical artists in the world, such as yourself. 
UNIVERSAL MUSIC ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT (UMAE) will produce and promote live events worldwide. 
Centre Stage Artist Management (CSAM) will provide comprehensive management to leading artists in the field of classical music, tailored to suit their individual needs. Our philosophy is to support each individual client in building and maintaining the best career possible, according to their ambitions.  Through our in-depth collaboration with opera houses and concert halls worldwide, record labels, PR companies and promoters, we are able to offer unique perspective and guidance to artists.Centre Stage Artist Management (CSAM) will operate from Berlin and continue to build an artist roster of supreme excellence.Judith Neuhoff has been appointed Managing Director of Centre Stage Artist Management.  She also continues her work as Special Assistant to Daniel Barenboim. Jonathan Letts, Associate Director, Margit Weber, Artist Manager, and Maria Mot, Managerial Associate, complete the CSAM managerial staff, and the entire team is looking forward to continuing their work with you.

Quality, transparency and accountability will be the guiding principles of our work for the future. 

We remain fully committed to our artists, our business partners and our staff.  We – and you – have the full support of our parent, Universal Music Group.

Universal Music Arts & Entertainment has built possibly the only true pan-European touring circuit for classical music over the last three years, and we intend to round off our efforts with new subscription series in Amsterdam, Lyon, Marseille, Geneva, Madrid and Barcelona in the 2012/13 season.Our production and promotion business is a strong partner to the labels, and to many of the Universal Music operating companies, fulfilling its brief to create synergies between the recorded music and live arms of Universal Music.  UMAE will continue this success story for years to come.We hope this gives you a clearer view of our goals, and who at our two companies is helping to achieve them. Please don’t hesitate to contact either of us for further information about these realigned, rebranded businesses, and the opportunities which lie ahead.

Judith Neuhoff
Managing Director, Centre Stage Artist Management
Manfred Seipt
Managing Director, Universal Music Arts & Entertainment

A friend who saw the new Rossini Festival production in Pesaro stood, for the first time in his life in the middle of an opera, and booed.

The production of Mose in Egitto by the British director Graham Vick featured several elements that he (and I) find deeply offensive.

Moses is presented as a Bin Laden-type fanatic, the Jews are Kalashnikov-toting terrorists and – most insensitive of all, while the Egyptian first-born are killed by clouds of gas, the Jews walk around in masks.

Not having seen the production myself I cannot make further comment. However, any conjunction of gas and Jews is a terrible stereotype… a hint of the very worst kind of Holocaust caricature or denial. Leading Italian Jews have called it ‘a crude provocation’.

 

If you saw the show, please comment below. Graham, send me your justification and I will publish it.