It looks as though politicians are close to a deal to secure a future for the insolvent Ulster Orchestra.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that the present board, under chairman George Bain, will continue in office.
Bain and his board have been responsible for the arrival and departure of three managers and a welter of unfair dismissal claims.
Five more staff members have left since October, all stating privately that they can no longer work in the present set-up. We understand that local media are investigating the board’s activities but will not publish until the orchestra has fresh funding for fear of frightening the politicians.
Bain, a Canadian with a PhD in industrial relations (sic), is a former president of Queen’s University, Belfast.
What the orchestra needs is a new set of public-spirited faces around its board table.
Letter from a reader:
Dear Sir,
In order to ensure good tickets for an opera I have to book well in advance. How can I tell, prior to reviews, whether the production is a traditional one or one set in a modern setting?
He has a point. Opera houses should consider marking productions (T) for traditional or (R) for radical.
What do you think?
pictured: Bayreuth’s Lohengrin, with rats
Taylor Swift is tuned in to classical arts. She makes donations to her local orchestra and likes dressing up in a tutu.
What impresses about her video – apart from the viewing numbers – is the sophisticated, spot-on timing of the camera shots.
Puts much else in the shade.
He has pulled out of a pair of Philharmonic concerts in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem this week.
Nothing political.
Just a ludicrously overloaded schedule.
He’s conducting the Mariinsky in New York tomorrow.
UPDATE: Here’s the reason why.
Rafael Payare had barely lifted a baton in Belfast this season before his new orchestra was confronted with looming bankruptcy.
As light relief from the troubles of Northern Ireland, the young Venezuelan will conduct the Vienna Philharmonic this Saturday and Sunday at the Musikverein, and in Paris next Tuesday, substituting for the late Lorin Maazel.
The concert will include Maazel’s piece ‘The Giving Tree’, narrated by his widow, Dietlinde Maazel.
There are two symphonic cycles in progress, one from the New York Philharmonic, the other from the Royal Stockholm Phil.
Easy choice?
By no means. Check my Sinfini album of the week here.
We knew Jean Sibelius liked his booze. An official guide to the composer’s life tells us – in six languages – exactly where he knocked it back.
Free download here.
After a two-year break for certain local difficulties, Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesotans will resume recording the Sibelius symphonies for BIS.
Press release below.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (January 12, 2015)—Music Director Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra will resume recording for a Sibelius Symphonies cycle with BIS Records later this season in order to complete their survey of the Finnish composer’s seven symphonies. Following live performances, the Orchestra will record Sibelius’ Third, Sixth and Seventh symphonies in nine sessions at Orchestra Hall this May and June. A release date for this final album in the cycle is yet to be announced.
Mr. Vänskä and the Orchestra have previously released four Sibelius symphonies on the Swedish BIS label to accolades; an album featuring the stirring Second and Fifth Symphonies was issued in January 2012, earning a 2013 Grammy nomination, and a second CD, featuring the First and Fourth Symphonies, was released in February 2013 and won the 2014 Grammy Award for “Best Orchestral Performance.” The Sibelius recording project was put on hiatus during the Orchestra’s lockout; the planned 2015 sessions will mark the first recording sessions the Minnesota Orchestra has held since June 2012.
Russian media have announced the death of Countess Yoko Nagae Ceschina, a Japanese harpist who married a wealthy Italian businessman and spent much of his $190 million inheritance on classical music projects.
She provided the funding for the New York Philharmonic’s spectacularly ill-advised visit to North Korea in 2008 and she became one of Gergiev’s most reliable supporters. She also bought a violin for Maxim Vengerov. Two months ago, she received a state honour from Vladimir Putin.
photo (c) Lebrecht Music&Arts
We’re getting reports of the death of Elena Obraztsova. The great mezzo-soprano was 76.
She was having medical treatment in Germany.
Born in Leningrad during the siege, Elena came to attention in a 1963 Boris Godunov at the Bolshoi. She performed and recorded extensively abroad with Karajan and Abbado, for whom she opened the 1977 La Scala season in Don Carlos. In 1978, she filmed Carmen opposite Plácido Domingo in a Franco Zeffirelli TV production.
In 2007 Obraztsova she became artistic director of opera at the Mikhaylovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, resigning after a year though maintaining her links with the theatre.
Th violinist, who spoiled her London comeback with a verbal attack on a coughing child, has signed on to ICA for general management.
She began her career with Terry Harrison (at HarrisonParrott) but has been in retirement for several years with various physical issues.
Stephen Wright, who owns ICA, will have his work cut out to repair her image.
Message from one of our artist friends in a major opera house:
Rehearsal day one, with a stinker of a cold. I want to be a good colleague and respect that they might fear I’m still contagious, which I’m certainly not, and if I just sit quietly at the back and join in the bits I feel I can sing, they’ll tolerate me.
But what do you, oh good singer friends, think is the right thing to do? Stay away, or turn up? I have about an hour to decide.
