Parents have been notified today that David Thomas is leaving because ‘he has found the role less enjoyable and satisfying’.

Outsiders might suspect that the prolonged culture of cover-up and civil war might have something to do with it.

Thomas will have spent three years at the Purcell. He leaves at the end of next August to become master of music at Winchester.

The chairman of governors says they are ‘very sorry to be losing David’.

Letter from the Chairman of Governors 2014-11-17 (1)

The Purcell School finds itself even deeper in the mire.

The quote comes from Jonathan Meese, the 2016 Parsifal director who has just been fired by the hereditary Wagner women.

They must be taken with a pinch of salt, given Meese’s own Nazified antics.

However, some of his comments cut close to the bone.

Meese tells Der Spiegel:

– Bayreuth has not been about art for a long time.

– It’s about self-preservation, power and the battle against declining relevance.

– The Wagner women are hypocritical and cynical.

“Es geht in Bayreuth schon lange nicht mehr um Kunst. Es geht um Selbsterhalt, Macht und den Kampf gegen die sinkende Relevanz”. In Bayreuth herrsche eine “Kultur von Befehl und Gehorsam”; Meese sprach auch von Einschüchterungsversuchen. Die Leitung der Festspiele sei “verlogen und zynisch”.

Song of the Lark has been taking a fine toothcomb to the Minnesota Orchestra tax returns.

Among the small print she finds that the organisation carried on selling concert tickets during the notorious lockout year (to whom? the Martians?) and that it paid the president, Michael Henson, a handsome bonus for running the orchestra without any musicians.

It’s an Alice in Wonderland story. Read here.

Reader’s question: Why do you publish only half of Henson’s face?

Slipped Disc: For his own protection.

Musicians in Buenos Aires have had it up to here.

At the Teatro Colon they have been stalled for months over wages and sit in real physical danger in a crumbling pit. This weekend, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra shared their sentiments with the audience before a performance of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.

Professor Monika Grütters is proving as clear-sighted as her predecessor in persuading politicians of the need to support the arts. She has won a significant increase from the Bundestag and says it should send ‘a political signal to cultural leaders in states and cities not to accept cuts in culture, even in financially difficult times’.

Carve those words in stone. The budget will grow by 118 million Euros to 1.34 billion.

Among institutions that will receive extra federal funding are the Beethoven House in Bonn, the Pina Bausch Centre in Wuppertal, the Bauhaus Archive and the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

Federal film funding, however, is to be reduced from 60 to 50 million Euros.

Jorma Panula is widely considered the most successful teacher of budding conductors.

He’s 84 and every year he gives a Nordic Masterclass for conductors with the South Denmark Philharmonic.

Here’s a short doc on this week’s course.

The DR Chamber Orchestra and Adam Fischer played a weekend concert titled ‘Farewell to Mozart’. Despite a parliamentary vote ordering the minister of culture to revoke the orchestra’s abolition, they are still waiting to hear that they do have a future beyond next month.

The concert can be heard online here. It includes a passionate speech by Nikolaj Znaider just before the interval.

M. C. Escher said in 1963: ‘I cannot help mocking all our unwavering certainties. It is, for example, great fun deliberately to confuse two and three dimensions, the plane and space, or to poke fun at gravity. Are you sure that a floor cannot also be a ceiling? Are you absolutely certain that you go up when you walk up a staircase?’

Solution here (in English).

The master of Wellington College, Sir Anthony Seldon, find one clear reason why under-privileged children cannot escape poverty:

‘The commentariat talk about stagnant social mobility but rarely look at why it is occurring – and I would contend that unequal access to an education in the arts is one important reason. In England, this is mostly limited to those already economically privileged. This is an unjust waste of national talent.’

Seldon goes on to say:

Why should students at independent schools enjoy such a rich education in the arts, whereas in most state schools – where it could be so effective and is most needed – it is a hit-and-miss business?…

I would argue that every single child in a state school should have access to the five forms of the arts to the same degree as pupils at independent schools.

Melody and rhythm lie deep in the soul of every human being. Every pupil should be taught a classical instrument. What other lesson can we draw from the wonderful El Sistema story than the powerful cultural and social impact on all young people of music?

The state should fund universal musical education. There are encouraging signs that the government is beginning to recognise this, and I welcome the additional money that has recently been made available to music hubs. But we need more – both financially and in terms of leadership, to get music and the arts up the educational agenda.

Every child should experience the thrill of playing in a musical ensemble. It will be one of the most profound experiences in their lives; they will learn about self-discipline, teamwork and trust. All young people should be taught to sing and have the chance to perform in concert. Schools should reverberate with music in their corridors and lunch halls.

Will politicians agree? Unlikely. We’ve just heard almost the exact opposite from the Education Secretary Nicky Morgan.

You can access the powerful Seldon article here.

Try not to get too depressed at the closure of political minds.

Sony’s two mega-stars paired off at the Bambi awards last week.

Lang Lang played some truly ugly notes and Jonas was some way off full vocal health. But millions of Germans loved it, and now so can you.

Ragin Wenk-Wolff opened her violin case yesterday and this is what she found.

She tells Slipped Disc: ‘Apparently this happens occasionally. No one is sure what caused it. It did not happen under any extreme conditions and not even while I was playing it or while it was manipulated. Thankfully not during a performance. The tail piece sure looks paper-thin where it broke. It is a 1689 Strad’.

Ragin has sent the instrument to a restorer and is awaiting diagnosis and a treatment estimate.

Has anyone else had this experience?

Here’s how the instrument sounds in action.

We have received news of the death of Armin Köhler, director of the Donaueschinger music festival since 1992 and, in parallel, head of new music, jazz and artistic affairs at SWR. He was responsible for the premiere of 400 new scores, among them works by Boulez, Ligeti, Lachenmann, Schnebel and Kagel.

Armin was just 62.

First obit here (auf Deutsch).