It’s been a while since the Deutsche Oper last saw Rienzi, and April 20 seemed a good date to launch the house’s centennial season.

But then someone remembered that Wagner’s first opera used to be Hitler’s favourite, and April 20 was his birthday.

Oops. Seriously oops. More here.

The harpsichordist Janos Sebestyen – a national treasure – has died at 80.

A student of Zuzana R?ži?ková, Sebestyen established the first harpsichord class at the Academy of Music in 1970 and taught there until 2009. He made 80 recordings, was a senior producer at state radio and wrote the biography of the film composer Miklos Rozsa.

Here he is, playing Prokofiev on the harpsichord:

 

 

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/01/shit-conductors-say.html

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/01/ring-alert-munich-goes-for-men-and-women-in-their-underwear.html

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/01/how-gustavo-dudamel-spends-his-sunday.html

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/01/criticising-the-critics-5-pianist-says-no-one-should-write-about-music.html

5  http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/02/crisis-orchestra-beset-by-mystery-of-missing-artistic-v-p.html

5


Rodolfo Cazares, 35, conductor of the Municipal Theatre in Bremerhaven, was kidnapped last July by a drug cartel in Mexico.

Although a ransom has been paid – apparently four times over – the abducted conductor has not been returned and his wife has gone public on the case. Latest here in Die Welt. UPDATE: here.

The young French conductor Lionel Bringuier, just 25, has been standing by through old-man Dudamel’s Mahler cycle in Los Angeles, ready to help out with anything from score markings to full-scale, stand-in performance.

I’m seeing him in London next week, when he conducts a Rebecca Saunders premiere with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Before leaving Los Angeles, Lionel, wrote a short reflection on the Mahler experience with two very different orchestras.

The Brahms Albumblatt that caused so much media fuss the other week was no world premiere. The piece had, in fact, known about for a couple of years and received its first known performance in Germany in 2011.

But the conductor Christopher Hogwood, who started the fuss, is continuing to assert ownership of the story.  Scholars are unhappy. He ought to back off.

Read on. UPDATE: The whole truth here.

Be first to watch.

Sources close to the Indianapolis Orchestra, which parted with its British president last night, suggest that Simon Crookall’s resignation may be linked to the strange disappearance of artistic administrator, Martin Sher.

A well-liked industry figure, Sher is listed in his job by the LOA, but has vanished from the Indy site. His tweet last night may express satisfaction at Crookall’s departure. Here’s what he wrote:

‘!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’

My source says that music director Urbanski objected to Crookall firing Sher and that this move may have precipitated Crookall’s departure.

One way or another, Indy has an unhappy orch.

UPDATE: An orchestra official who was insistent that Crookall resigned of his own volition and was not fired, refused to respond  on the case of the missing Sher.  ‘As a policy, the ISO does not comment about matters related to personnel,’ emailed Tim Northcutt, Assoc. Dir. of Communications with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

No comment, I guess, unless it’s the prez that has skipped off.

SECOND UPDATE: Martin Sher has been in touch with a tweet: ‘my exclamations were actually in celebration of a family matter, nothing to do with anything else.’

The Hungarian airline Malev ceased trading this morning. It had been ordered to pay back loans from the EU and could not meet the deadline. Here‘s the BBC report. All planes are grounded. Those abroad may be held against debt. Here‘s Bloomberg.

This may be one more sign of pressure mounting on Victor Orban’s proto-fascist regime.

Has this guy auditioned yet for Paul Mealor? He can do the low C, if his youtbe performance can be believed. A little stretch might take Paul David Kennamer Jr right down to E, which is what Decca are looking for.

Thanks to Tristan Jakob-Hoff for the tip.

He’s touched the keys again, masterclassing in Barcelona.

 

Apparently he’s quite busy on the lecture-demo circuit. Next stop: Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, Feb 24.

If you can, Decca want to hear from you. Will-and-Kate wedding composer Paul Mealor has written something that goes right off the scale and needs a latterday Chaliapin to bring it off. Please do not try this at home.

Read on here.