If you to know the meaning of hubris, watch this new interview with the Metropolitan Opera manager by a fawning host on a college site. It’s a classic of post-modern sycophancy and myopic self-regard. This is a man who has learned nothing in 2014.

For an instant refutation, see here.

She will reprise a role she played at Williamstown last summer. AP reports:

NEW YORK (AP) — Opera star Renee Fleming will make her Broadway debut this spring, playing – what else? – an opera star.

The four-time Grammy Award-winning soprano will star in the comedy “Living on Love” at the Longacre Theatre beginning April 1.

“I’ve spent my life singing tragic characters, so to be able to make people laugh is an extraordinary joy,” said Fleming.

The comedy was written by two-time Tony Award winner Joe DiPietro (“Memphis”), adapted from “Peccadillo” by Garson Kanin (“Born Yesterday”) and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. Marshall and DiPietro worked together on Broadway’s “Nice Work If You Can Get It.” The play was seen this summer at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

In it, Fleming plays an opera diva whose conductor-husband starts to fall for a woman hired to ghostwrite his long-delayed autobiography. She retaliates by hiring her own ghostwriter, but also gets romantically attached.

We can now name the string quartet on a New York subway station that has been getting lots of plays today.

It was violinist Eliano Braz, with the Brazilian Arts Ensemble.

But Eliano tells us had no idea he was being filmed, let alone that a ballet troupe would leap onto the screen. In fact, he never saw the film until he clicked on Slipped Disc.

So who shot the video without the players’ permission? Own up now.

After a Tel Aviv shootout in the Brahms concerto between four finalists, Zubin Mehta has just announced David Radzynski, a graduate student at Park University, as the new concertmaster.

More here.

10 Floundering orch landed super-maestro

9 Super-manager went to Washington

8 Harpsichordist signs to DG

7 Left-field fiddle is NY Phil’s artist in residence

6 Centennial composer got heard again

5 The Met’s soprano of choice

4 Germany’s brilliant new culture minister

3 Most-improved orch of the decade

2 Opera is saved from extinction

1 The walkout king who taught maestros how to quit. He is hereby named Mr My Way, 2014.

For the year’s losers, see here.

Franklin Cohen has called it quits after 38 seasons. Press release below.

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra today announced that Franklin Cohen, Principal Clarinet since 1976, will retire from the ensemble in the summer of 2015.  After 39 seasons, Mr. Cohen will have had the longest tenure of any solo clarinetist in the orchestra’s history.  The title of Principal Clarinet Emeritus will be bestowed on Mr. Cohen next summer upon retiring.  He will be the first Cleveland Orchestra musician officially recognized with this honor.

Mr. Cohen joined The Cleveland Orchestra at the invitation of Music Director Lorin Maazel.   In 1968, he gained international recognition as the first clarinetist to win the First Prize at the prestigious Munich International Music Competition.

Mr. Cohen is one of the few musicians of his time to combine a world class solo, chamber, and orchestral career.   He is widely considered among the great musicians of his generation.   Acclaimed for the strength, passion and beauty of his playing, he is one of the most frequent concerto soloists in the history of The Cleveland Orchestra, appearing as soloist at Severance Hall, Blossom Music Center, Carnegie Hall, and on tours throughout the United States, Asia and Europe to critical acclaim.

Over the span of Mr. Cohen’s career, he has been heard in many thousands of concerts and broadcasts.   His commercial recording credits won a Grammy Award and much critical acclaim.  His unique, expressive sound and musicianship have brought a distinctive voice to The Cleveland Orchestra for many years.   He has earned glowing praise for his poignant musicality and technical mastery.  Mr. Cohen has performed with many of the great string quartets of the 20th Century.

He has taught and performed at virtually all the major American music festivals and has served as Department Head at the Cleveland Institute of Music for 39 years.

You may have recovered by now from the news that Alan Rusbridger is stepping down after 20 years as editor of the Guardian.

You may be wondering how his successor will be chosen. At a time when the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and many other ensembles are contemplating the same critical decision, here’s now the next editor will be chosen.

So here’s how:

Liz Forgan, the chair of the Scott Trust, which is the ultimate owner of the titles, has outlined the procedure for choosing the successor to Alan Rusbridger – including an indicative ballot which would guarantee the winner a place on the shortlist for the job.

Get that? The journalists are allowed to vote on the next editor, but their decision won’t count.

‘The Scott Trust retains the right to choose a candidate irrespective of the result of that vote,’ Forgan said.

So, the musicians choose a new conductor, but the board overrule them. That’s 21st century enlightenment for you.

Philippe Graffin fears he is about to lose the festival he co-founded at Saint-Nazaire in 1990.

Jessica Duchen says it’s the least elitist festival she has ever attended.

It has certainly attracted major talent on friends-rate fees. But that means little to local politicians who have a budget to balance. The mayor has decided to stop funding the festival.

Philippe has issued this 11th-hour appeal:

Nobuko Imai, Philippe Grafin, Henri Dutilleux
“Il y a quelques jours, lors d’un concert que je donnais à Londres, une jeune violoniste américaine en se présentant me dit qu’elle allait souvent sur le site internet du festival Consonances pour s’inspirer des programmes pour le festival qu’elle vient de créer à la Nouvelle Orléans.

Si la musique et les concerts sont par essence éphémères, il n’en reste pas moins que nous ne savons pas jusqu’où ils résonnent. Pour ma part, le soutien et l’écoute croissante du public de Saint-Nazaire font partie intégrante de la réussite et du succès de cet événement, qui revenait chaque début d’automne.

Ce pari du mariage improbable de la musique dite “élitiste”, dans le contexte du “tintamarre contemporain”, selon l’expression de Joël Batteux, a été la marque de Consonances qui affirmait ainsi ses valeurs. Mais, finalement, que reste-t-il de tous ces sons, de tous ces concerts, de ces espoirs mis dans la musique, de ces milliers d’heures à préparer l’accueil des musiciens, du public, lorsque le festival prend fin?

Il en reste avant tout une expérience inoubliable d’avoir réussi à marier, chaque année pour quelques jours, ce patrimoine de l’humanité que représente la musique dans cette ville, fleuron de la plus haute industrie. Consonances s’est associée aux différents événements qui ont marqué cette période, par exemple, lors de la construction du Queen Mary 2, ainsi que du drame qui a précédé son lancement.

Au fil de ces années, j’ai eu l’occasion de découvrir une ville merveilleuse et unique, de lier des amitiés fortes et d’inviter une partie du monde musical à prendre le chemin de Saint Nazaire et à la découvrir.Des images me viennent à l’esprit, des moments forts comme la présence pleine de charme d’Henri Dutilleux à Saint-Nazaire, celle de Rodion Schedrin et Maya Plissetskaya, artistes russe ô combien légendaires, ou celle d’Ivry Gitlis ou Stephen Kovacevich avec sa chaise plus basse. Pour moi Consonances, au détour d’un concert particulièrement réussi, fut bien le centre du monde, ne fusse-t-il que musical. Ces “rencontres” ont porté ainsi, bien au-delà de nos frontières, le drapeau de Saint Nazaire.

Elles ont été d’abord exportées dans des salles prestigieuses, Au Wigmore Hall à Londres, pour toute une semaine autour de la musique française, reprise du festival Consonances précédent, ainsi qu’à La Haye, avec l’Orchestre Philharmonique sur le même thème deux ans plus tard, puis nous fûmes invités au festival Présence de Radio France, à Paris, à de nombreuses reprises.

Consonances c’est, au cours des 24 éditions, à peu près 450 concerts, donnés non seulement dans les salles que vous connaissez mais aussi dans les chantiers, les hangars d’Airbus Industrie, les hospices, les hôpitaux, dans la rue parfois, sous des préaux improbables, des écoles diverses ou dans des quartiers où la musique dite “classique” aurait pu paraître inadéquate. À chaque fois, ce fut organisé et joué comme si il s’agissait du Théâtre des Champs Elysées ou de la Salle Pleyel, avec la plus grande passion et simplicité.

Consonances a reçu plus de 300 artistes venus du monde entier, souvent fidélisés, et comptant parmi les plus recherchés. C’est aussi plus d’une vingtaine d’oeuvres commandées et publiées à des compositeurs d’origines diverses et de tendances différentes. Consonances à fait renaître de nombreuses oeuvres oubliées de compositeurs du passé, romantiques ou classiques. Nous avons repensé à maintes reprises le rapport de la musique à la jeunesse en cherchant de nouvelles formules. Il reste aussi de nombreux enregistrements, traces de ces recherches et moments inoubliables.Comme en témoigne cette critique du magazine Diapason, pour notre disque Chausson, qui commençait par ces mots : “Merci à la ville de Saint Nazaire…”

Au nom de mes amis musiciens, je tiens à remercier tous les Nazairiens pour nous avoir accueillis généreusement pendant 25 ans dans leur ville. Ce fut un réel port d’attache pour nous tous. Je souhaite très sincèrement bonne chance à la nouvelle équipe municipale, à mes collègues du conservatoire, au Théâtre, à la Meet ce projet extraordinaire, au Théâtre Athénor, à Christophe Rouxel du théâtre Icare. Je voudrais dire un grand merci, du fond du coeur, à tous mes amis de l’association Atempo, à commencer par Patrick Perrin, qui, je le sais, a oeuvré pour Consonances sans relâche, ainsi que Claire Dupont. Consonances s’efface, certes, mais je reste et resterai toujours un ambassadeur de Saint-Nazaire et un fidèle ami”.

We hear that slave-state, terror-sponsoring Qatar is offering a tax-free £66,000 plus apartment and car to British musicians who are prepared to train up its bands in preparation for the 2022 World Cup, which Qatar obtained through alleged bribery.

According to one press report, more than 60 UK musicians have signed up and more are being sought. We have heard so far of one London player who has taken the equivalent of two years’ earnings in exchange for imagined luxury, excruciating boredom and a sacrifice of moral principles.

Has any of our readers declined the Qatar shilling?

At a time when the rest of the record industry is trimming costs and frills, the French have gone barking up the counter-intuitive route.

William Christie has launched an Arts Florissants own-label with Music for Queen Caroline. It comes furnished with two booklets, the second containing a bi-lingual short story by the best-selling novelist Douglas Kennedy. It weighs a ton. The  music is feather-light. Bulk is the new CD.

Another new Paris label, La Dolce Volta, proclaims that it ‘wants to change people’s perceptions of the CD so that they see them as luxury items’… Each release will be designed as a work of art.’

Er, yes, and takes up four times the shelf space of a normal CD – not an obvious selling point to space-poor collectors. What’s more, much of the added heft is made up of multilingual interviews with artists who have little to say.

Despite these irritations, I have chose a Dolce Vita release as my Album of the Week on sinfinimusic.com. Click here to find out why.

Does anyone prefer heavy CDs to light?

Wonder where it can be?

Read here.

How many pirouettes can you manage between trains? Start counting now.

They are playing a clip of Brandenburg concerto – that much we know. But we have not yet managed to identify the musicians, or the subway station. Can anyone help?