The BBC has announced that 118,000 tickets were sold on the first day of booking, up 9 percent on last year.
Some 31,000 tickets were vended online in the first hour of Saturday box-office.
Top draws were Beethoven’s 9th symphony with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons (19 July), Bernstein – Stage and Screen with the John Wilson Orchestra and Maida Vale Singers (5 September), Yo-Yo Ma’s Late Night performance of Bach’s complete cello suites (5 September), a programme including Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 performed by Nikolai Lugansky and the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with Yuri Temirkanov (7 September), and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Sir Simon Rattle and the Vienna Philharmonic (11 September).
Yuri Simonov has been describing how, in 1968, he became the first Soviet conductor to win an international competition.
‘My Leningrad professor NS Rabinovich, knowing I had been selected as a substitute candidate, offered me a brisk farewell: “Just be happy to spend a few days in Rome, walking through the streets, conducting the Academy of Santa Cecilia, and return home full of unforgettable memories.” Seeing the surprise on my face Nikolai Semenovich repeated his homily, three more times.
‘He was a wise man. Unlike my two senior colleagues, I went into the competition not as a hazardous test, but as an unexpected vacation. Conducting one of the best Italian orchestras, I felt joy, boyish excitement and … no fear!’
The results were announced at midnight last night.
The finalists are:
Tobias Feldmann, 24, Germany
William Hagen, 22, USA
Kim Bomsori, 25, South Korea
Lee Ji Yoon, 22, South Korea
Lim Ji Young, 20, South Korea
Mohri Fumika, 21, Japan
Thomas Reif, 23, Germany
Kenneth Renshaw, 21, USA
Oleksii Semenenko, 26, Ukraine
Stephen Waarts, 18, Netherlands/USA
Wang Xiao, 28, China
Ching-Yi Wei, 20, Taiwan.
The pro-Putin tweeting pianist has suffered a concert cancellation in Jakarta ‘due to administrative permissions that cannot be secured’.
The causes of the cancellation are not yet clear.
Valentina has posted a message that ‘the authorities threatened to stop the concert with police and even take our documents away. It was decided to run away…’
Like three girlfriends on the go at the same time? A bit too much to handle.
The marathon man is Andriy Viytovych, principal viola of the orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the concertos he will be playing are by Walton, Bartók and Hindemith (Der Schwanendreher). The concert requires two conductors, Barry Wordsworth and Paul Wynne Griffiths.
Proceeds to St Mungo’s Broadway, a charity that helps people recover from homelessness.
It’s on May 25. Tickets here.
The actor Alec Baldwin joked at a New York fundraiser this week that he wanted to name his baby-on-the-way after the late music director of the New York Philharmonic.
According to Page Six.
Alice Coote’s thoughtful, irreverent, mind-and-body bending dissertation this week on performing out of your given gender is essential reading for everyone who sings mezzo, has dealings with mezzos, or is thinking of asking one out on a date.
It requires maximum suspension of certainties. If you haven’t read it already, do so here.
Teaser text:
And at the end of the day at least I can take my costume off and return to the certainty of myself and my own gender… Or can I? And which part of myself am I returning to? There have, I confess, been several occasions over the years when come tea break I have walked out of the rehearsal room straight into the men’s toilets. For the record I have immediately scuttled out blushing and shocked into reality when I am confronted by the apparatus on the walls. But it’s confusing …
A a 17 year-old Korean, Yubeen Kim, blew everyone away at last December’s Geneva flute competition, but the judges lacked the courage to give him outright first prize.
No such doubts in Prague today, where he stormed to victory.
Bookmark that name. Yubeen Kim.
Crisis at Dutch National Opera after Fabio Luisi pulled out of the season’s last big show on June 1, ‘due to private family reasons’.
Not many conductors have the complete three-act Lulu under their fingers and are free at short notice. The show is a co-pro with the Met.
Luckily Lothar Zagrosek, who has conducted the work at Stuttgart, was around to answer the call.
Panic over.
The Russian conductor committed himself this morning to leading around a dozen of the orchestra’s 35 programmes in their first season together. Speaking in Munich, he said he was looking for ‘the best combination’ of German music and Russian tradition.
UPDATE: Gergiev’s full statement, published by the Munich Phil:
„Munich is an important cultural and artistic center and the role of the Munich Philharmonic was always very important here. The City of Munich has a very generous atmosphere and a rich musical life. Munich’s flagship cultural institutions are the State Opera, BR Symphony Orchestra and Munich Philharmonic, making Munich a sucessfull diverse and rich cultural metropolis.“
„I have a long friendship with the Munich Philharmonic, we performed our first concerts together back in 2001. But I vividly remember our first ‘spark’ this magic moment, it was when we did the Shostakovich cycle. What I like about the orchestra is the tradition and warmth and I look forward to working together with this great orchestra and bringing together german music with russian tradition.“
„The uniqueness of this orchestra lies in the sound quality. This orchestra has kept its extraordinary sound, its own voice.“
„It’s clear that the orchestra is more than focused powerful, strong and sensitive. There are fewer and fewer orchestras that have kept their sonority. And this orchestra has succeeded, it has its own vioce and colors.“
Paul Pelkonen has the first review from last night’s Philadelphia concert:
At the start of the second half, Mr. Nézet-Séguin prepared to give the downbeat for the first solemn notes of the Symphony No. 3 by Serge Rachmaninoff. Then, stragglers entered Stern Auditorium, making for their seats. He stopped, turned, and regarded them for a moment. Then, he sat down on the side of the podium, knees drawn under his chin like a little boy on the stairs. As the latecomers trickled in, the audience muttered, murmured, laughed and applauded his decision. He stood up, looked behind him and sat down on the other side of the podium. Finally, he rose and got to work. As the first notes played, two more people tottered to their seats.
Those notes were worth the wait.
Read the full review here.
Bonhams have quit the instrument business after this week’s auction, where the top item was a 1700-ish Maggini (pictured).
Bonhams rank third in London instrument sales, but the general auction houses are facing pressure from online sales by Beare’s, Tarisio and other specialist dealers.
Philip Scott, the instrument buyer who is leaving Bonhams, should have no difficulty in finding an alternative post.
