Alexander Sokolov, a Putinist former minister of culture (2004-08), has been given a third term as head of the Moscow Conservatoire after an internal election that he won by a 261-4 margin.

alexander sokolov

 

Insiders say Sokolov, 65, is trying to wrest the Tchaikovsky Competition back from Valery Gergiev into the hands of a professorial clique.

Peter Grote, the piano salesman who has been installed as the next competition’s artistic director, is said to be Sokolov’s place man. Gergiev, according to our sources, is being written out of the script.

The kind of cultural in-fighting that used to prevail under Soviet authority has been revived by the Putin regime.

 

 

We’ve been hearing rumblings of discontent for months, but our informants refused to be specific. Now, the rupture is now in the open.

The Rotterdam Philharmonic has a scattering of empty seats in the ensemble and some very discontented musicians. In the face of player complaints the chief executive, Hans Waege, has been – even by Dutch standards – uncommunicative.

Five weeks ago, Waege went on sick leave. Only his doctor knows when he’ll be back. The uncertainty is unsettling. Several players have been auditioning for other orchestras. The music director, Yannik Nézet-Séguin is believed to have had a falling out with Waege.

Here’s a report in Dutch.

Hans_Waege__c_John_Vane_klein

A quiz question: which music director of the Royal Opera House has played a recital at the Wigmore Hall?

Think back.

Not Bernard Haitink; never seen at a keyboard.

Not Colin Davis; he played clarinet.

Not Solti (we think)…. though he did revert to the piano late in life, playing four-hand Mozart with Murray Perahia.

Not Rafael Kubelik or Karl Rankl.

In that case…. drum roll… Sir Antonio Pappano will be the first serving chief at Covent Garden to play the Wigmore when he opens the new season with …. second drum roll…. Dame Joyce DiDonato (the damehood is in the mail).

Nice one, Tony.

In other news, tickets for the Wigmore’s new seasons, released this morning, are selling at 1,000 an hour.

pappano didonato

Season highlights include:

 

Joyce DiDonato and Sir Antonio Pappano in the opening concert

 

Maria João Pires Portrait Series

 

The Mozart Odyssey

 

Henry Purcell: A Retrospective celebrates the ‘British Orpheus’

 

Paul Lewis: A Celebration

 

Pavel Haas Quartet Bohemia

 

Introducing Igor Levit

 

Florian Boesch Residency

 

Composer Focus – Wolfgang Rihm

Zoe Keating, who took on Anthem Blue Cross in a media campaign after it refused to provide hospital treatment for her desperately sick husband, has won a stay of execution. ‘I also got a call from a women named Patricia at Anthem, who told me not to worry, my husbands hospital stay would be covered. I spoke to Patricia at length today. It’s a little hard for me to explain the reason they denied my husband’s hospital stay, because I found it hard to understand. But luckily I have an excellent memory and can type fast, so you can just read my transcription.’

Do read it. The language spoken by the insurers falls midway between George Orwell’s newspeak and Joseph Stalin’s sanitised encyclopedias. Amazing that an organisation designed to protect people in pain could wind up speaking in this sick way.

Zoe adds: Hopefully our situation is resolved and I can go back to focusing on my husband and son. I post this in the hope that it will help other people (people who do not have 1 million twitter followers or who’s stories don’t get covered in the the press) get their denied health insurance claims reversed. What should you do? Keep meticulous notes. Be persistent. Make noise. Do not take no for an answer. Tell everyone. Why this all has to be so convoluted, I do not understand. It makes me livid to think of how many families suffer needlessly because of corporate bureaucracy and greed.’

Our positive thoughts and good wishes go out to Zoe and her family in this difficult time. Here’s how you can help.

zoe cello

Dreadful tale from Mike Vincent on Musical Toronto.

The Bozzini Quartet, heading for the city by rail, faced demands from a train conductor to pay for an extra seat for the cello.

We are unaware of any such precedent. Let’s stop this before Richard Branson hears of it.

bozzini_.6655

 

David Weiss, principal oboe and photographer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 30 years, died last weekend at the age of 67. The LA Times reports, after talking to the Weiss family, that David collapsed while surfing off the Pacific Palisades. The cause of death has not been ascertained.

Far too soon, and deeply mourned.

David Weiss-Camera-1000px-785x520

The town of Linz is planning a September focus on some of the art that was banned by its most notorious son.

There will be an opera, Ulenspiegel, by Walter Braunfels, a concert of once-forbidden music, a reading from Ernst Krenek’s travel diaries and, most appealing, an exhibition of the dance music banned by the Nazis as being tainted by blacks and Jews. Swing was strictly verboten.

The Braunfels opera will be performed in a tobacco factory by the Israel Chamber Orchestra, conductor Martin Sieghart. Full info below.

swing tanzen

Tabakfabrik Linz // in Kooperation mit dem Internationalen Brucknerfest Linz 2014

 Ulenspiegel
Oper von Walter Braunfels
Termine: 10.9. um 19:00, 12.9. um 19:00, 14.9. um 16:00, 16.9. um 19:00

 Ausstellung
Swing tanzen verboten

Unterhaltungsmusik nach 1933 zwischen Widerstand, Propaganda und Vertreibung
Termin: 9.9. – 5.10.

Ausstellungseröffnung mit Vortrag und Führung
Swing tanzen verboten
Unterhaltungsmusik nach 1933 zwischen Widerstand, Propaganda und Vertreibung
Termin: 9.9. um 18:00; Eintritt frei

 Swing tanzen verboten
Konzert zur Ausstellung – eine musikalische Reise
Termin: 9.9. um 19:30

Schülervorstellung: 18.9. um 17:00

 Verbotene Klänge
Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen von Ernst Krenek
; Konzert mit Lesung
Termin: 11.9.um 19:00
Veranstaltungsort: Tabakfabrik Linz, Quadrom bzw. Dock und Studio Noir (Ausstellung)

 

The Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinski has told Izvestia that a bid of 17 million Swiss francs (US$19m) has gone in for the composer’s summer retreat on Lake Lucerne, known as Senar.

Medinski added that the purchase was being carried out by a group of anonymous wealthy men, following an instruction by President Putin to the Culture Ministry in October 2013. The building would be effectively state-owned and operated as a memorial to the late composer, who refused to return to Russia after the Bolshevik revolution. The estate was originally priced at 16 million francs. This may become a bidding war.

The villa, in Bauhaus style, was a haven for famous musicians during the ominous summer months of the 1930s. It was put up for sale after the death of Rachmaninov’s grandson Alexandre in November 2012.

villa_senar

It’s to do with the state treasury refusing to pay overtime. Performances have been called off in Kuopio (Finland), Granada and Badajoz.

Click here for story (in Spanish).

spanish ballet-nacional

This just in from Ed Henderson in Vancouver.

vancouver

 

AFM in NYC fines the entire Vancouver Executive Board 50K each

A letter from the New York based head office of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) arrived today. The postmark said it was sent two weeks ago. The International Executive Board (IEB) of the AFM charges me and eight other former board members (and one staff member) of the Vancouver Musicians Association (VMA), with a bylaw infraction. In two weeks we are to defend ourselves before the same IEB that is charging us, the same IEB will pass judgment upon us and, as the letter states, the same IEB promises the most extreme punishment possible: expulsion from the AFM (meaning no chance to work again on any AFM gigs: Symphony, CBC, Opera, Chilliwack band, record sessions, solo concerts, theatres across the country etc… – all of which have been my livelihood for the last 40 years) and a $50,000.00 fine for each of us. They will win (how could they lose in their own court?) and they see that as an easy 500K, which they desperately need.

Prosecutor, judge, jury, deliverer of punishments and collector of fines all in one body based in New York – a body that maintains full control of the Canadian Federation of Musicians offices and claims ownership of all Canadian locals. And they get most of our dues too.

Why are they so vicious? That Vancouver had the audacity to negotiate a contract. A contract based on an already existing Canadian film and TV contract, which had been in constant use for twenty years. The new members of the IEB want nobody to use the Canadian contract and added restrictions to it making it unusable. We negotiated a contract to replace what the IEB denied us and as a result: VMA trusteeship.

The VMA has been in trusteeship for almost one year. In the six months prior to the trusteeship VMA members working in film earned a combined total of about 175K – six months after… zero, nada, ziltch. It’s now just shy of one year and still… zero, nada, ziltch. The IEB granted itself its wish: that there be no union film work in BC.

Film is a serious industry in BC (around 1.5 billion a year) yet local musicians, prior to the trusteeship, accounted for less than 2 cents of every $1,000.00 spent on film in BC. With such wonderful musical talent in BC does this make any sense? Not to me but, the AFM told us they’d rather we worked non-union – to quote their lawyer speaking last month in the BC Supreme Court.

The AFM has gone from 300,000 members in the 1980’s to around 70,000 today (a greater proportion of those losses occurring in the USA). Could this be because of actions such as those current against Vancouver? Perhaps there are other reasons too. I don’t know a film producer today who will sign an AFM contract – I used to know some but now they all refuse to put their names on an AFM document and that is a shame for all Canadian musicians.

And, all I can say is Oh, Canada – my home and native land! I want my CFM back in control of Canadians who are interested in Canadian concerns and not in pleasing the IEB. As I said, the IEB will win in their court and see it as an easy 500K. I see this as the end of the AFM for which, all musicians will lose.

 

UPDATE: Ed adds on his FB page: Dues from Canada go to New York and they pay the staff and expenses of the Canadian office (and NY rules the CFM staff as well). Canada is the only country in the world with a musicians association controlled by people in another country – that is crazy. If I had known that when I joined, in 1973, I would not have joined.

Scientists at the University of Eastern Finland have come up with an alarming hypothesis: those with the highest level of cynical distrust have higher risk of dementia than those who tend to accept things on trust. At least among elderly Finns (pictured).

Musicians, beware.

Research summary here.

old finn

Social media are abuzz with our news of the London Symphony Orchestra’s appointment of an 18 year-old co-principal trombone.

He’s the youngest principal in LSO history, that’s for sure. But there must have been some younger players in the ranks.

Neville Marriner, 90 last month, was playing in the LSO second violins at 15 in 1939 when senior players were called up to war. And there must have been more his age in other combatant countries.

So who was the youngest player ever to have won an appointment in a major orchestra?

Nominations, please.

Peter Moore MG_7700

UPDATE: The ball has started rolling.

Barry Tuckwell, principal 3rd horn with Melbourne Symphony at age 15 (h/t: Kylie Long)

Gregor Piatigorsky, at 15, was principal cellist in the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra.

Raymond Cohen, a violinist of 15, was the youngest ever to join the Halle Orchestra.

Oboist Leon Goossens joined Henry Wood’s Queens Hall Orch at 15, according to Wiki; some say 17.

Szymon Goldberg became concertmaster of the Dresden Philharmonic at 16 and of the Berlin Philharmonic three years later.

Peter Steiner, a 48-year vet in the Berlin Philharmonic, started at 16 in 1944 as a cellist at the Deutsch Oper.

Stanley Drucker, clarinet, entered the the Indiannapolis Orch at 16 and the New York Phil at 19 (H/t Andrew Condon).

Arthur Isadore Berv, horn, joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1923, when he was 17.

Bart Claessens joined RCO as 2nd trombone/basstrombone at the age of 17. (h/t: Harry Boom)

Michael Thompson was appointed Principal Horn of the BBC Scottish SO when he was 18 (h/t Anthony Kershaw).

Lynn Harrell and Josh Smith joined the Cleveland Orch at 19 (h/t Jeffrey Levenson)

Gunther Schuller was 17 when he was named principal horn with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1943–5). Before that he played two years with American Ballet Theater. (h/t: Harold Braun)

Emmanuel Pahud was 18 when he was named principal flute ay Basle Radio Symphony.

Arnold Rosé was 17 when he took the concertmaster’s seat at the Vienna Opera in 1881.

Mark Abbott was named assistant principal horn in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at age 18. (h/t: Mark Stryer)

Charles Treger, according to a 1976 newspaper report, joined the Detroit Symphony violins at age 15, which puts him in the lead.

Venezuelan double-bassist Edicson Ruiz entered the Berlin Philharmonic when he was 17, the second youngest player in its history. He had to wait three years for tenure.

The youngest Berlin Phil player was a harpist, back in the 19th century.

Conductor Ward Stare started out as principal trombone of Lyric Opera of Chicago, aged 18. (h/t: Holly Mulcahy)

Michal Winfield may have become principal oboe of the Halle at 16 (awaiting confirmation)

Lawrence Leonard joined the LSO in 1939 as a cellist. He was 16.

Roger Voisin became assistant principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 17 in 1935; he became #1 trumpet in 1950.

Paul Renzi became principal flute with the San Francisco Symphony in 1944 at age 18.

Manuel Huber, horn, joined the Vienna Opera orchestra at 20. He remains the youngest member of the Vienna Philharmonic.

Keep ’em coming…

 

Message from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra:

Frank [Villella, CSO archivist] said you had a query.  According to Frank, on our current roster, bass Mark Kramer was 19 when he was hired in 1974, and clarinet John Bruce Yeh was 20 when he was hired in 1977.

 

Adds Frank, “But since we don’t have birth records for all of our members (particularly from the earliest part of our history), it’s impossible to ever definitively say who was the youngest.”