Yu Long is music director of the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony and the Guangzhou Symphony, as well as being artistic director of Beijing Music Festival, Music in the Summer Festival and the Shanghai Symphony’s Orchestra Academy.
As of today, he is also principal guest conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic.
You read it here first.
The other guy is Jaap Van Zweden, Hong Kong’s music director.
The official response of the German Theatre Association to the Charlie Hebdo massacre:
Wir müssen auf der Hut sein vor der Schere im eigenen Kopf. Wo unsere Kunst religiöse Gefühle verletzt, sollten wir Widerspruch und Kritik aushalten und ihr begegnen, aber die Freiheit dazu uns nicht ausreden oder nehmen lassen.
We must be on guard against the scissors inside our heads. Where our art hurts religious feelings, we should face up to opposition and criticism but must not let them take away our freedom.
The stage performer Dieudonné was arrested today for expressing solidarity with the Islamist murderer of Jews in a Paris kosher store. On Monday, Dieudonné wrote on his Facebook page, “Tonight, as far as I’m concerned, I feel like Charlie Coulibaly”.
More here. Dieudonné has succeeded in popularising the quenelle salute, a coded form of anti-semitism.
For the first time since its meeting on 11 November 1918, at the end of the First World War, the French legislature burst into the Marsellaise after observing one minute’s silence for the 17 victims of last week’s attacks.
Watch here. The silence begins at 00:40 (broken only by numbskull photographers). It is not known who started the anthem.
Sir Jack Hayward, chairman of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football club, died today.
In August 2003, the Guardian newspaper was obliged to print the following priceless correction:
In our interview with Sir Jack Hayward, the chairman of Wolverhampton Wanderers, page 20, Sport, yesterday, we mistakenly attributed to him the following comment: “Our team was the worst in the First Division and I’m sure it’ll be the worst in the Premier League.” Sir Jack had just declined the offer of a hot drink. What he actually said was “Our tea was the worst in the First Division and I’m sure it’ll be the worst in the Premier League.” Profuse apologies.
Our indefatigable operavores went to see Tales of Hoffman. Elizabeth thought that ‘topless women (with pasties) definitely helped lift the mood’.
Shawn was concerned with more manly stuff: how do you get a $25 ticket?
Read both reports here.
The worry is, there’s no rush for those rush tickets.
David Lowe, now 61, taught English and music at Westminster Cathedral Choir School and at Ampleforth College. He was convicted of indecently assaulting boys under the age of 14, including one who had been picked to sing at his wedding. Lowe coached boys in singing and piano.
He was jailed today for 10 years.
Report here.
The great mezzo soprano will be laid to rest on Thursday.
The funeral will start at the Bolshoi at noon, proceeding to the Novodevichy Cemetery.
It has emerged that her cancer treatment in a German clinic (where she died yesterday) was paid for by the Russian Government, on the authority of deputy prime minister Olga Gorodets.
Click here.
More below.
The magnificent Frank Glazer, a Schnabel student who played well into his 90s, died today at 99. He went to Berlin i 1932 to study with the master, made his New York debut in 1936 and played the Boston Symphony under Koussevitsky two years later.
To the day of his death he held a position as artist in residence at Bates College in Lewiston.
You can watch him play and read an interview here.
We hear that he nipped over to Rome to conduct a memorial service for Countess Yoko Nagae Ceschina, a major patron of his projects.
The three prominent classical review sites in the French language, ResMusica (Fr), Crescendo (Belg) and Pizzicato (Lux), have been shut of of the opening of the new Paris concert hall. Apparently, too many tickets are required for government officials and foreign dignitaries.
Unwise.
