I never sign collective letters.

I’ve made an exception this once because (a) the request came from someone who was in my class at school and (b) I agreed with every word he had written.

So did J K Rowling, Hilary Mantel, Melvyn Bragg and others of greater or lesser celebrity (Rachel Weisz, where are you?).

Here’s the letter (below) and here‘s the Guardian link:

 

RollingStonesIsrael

In February 2015 you published a letter from UK artists announcing their intention to culturally boycott Israel.

We do not believe cultural boycotts are acceptable or that the letter you published accurately represents opinion in the cultural world in the UK.

Therefore we are writing to declare our support for the launch and aims of Culture for Coexistence – an independent UK network representing a cross-section from the cultural world.

We will be seeking to inform and encourage dialogue about Israel and the Palestinians in the wider cultural and creative community. While we may not all share the same views on the policies of the Israeli government, we all share a desire for peaceful coexistence.

Cultural boycotts singling out Israel are divisive and discriminatory, and will not further peace. Open dialogue and interaction promote greater understanding and mutual acceptance, and it is through such understanding and acceptance that movement can be made towards a resolution of the conflict.

Ultimately we all believe in a two-state solution so that the national self-determination of both peoples is realised, with the state of Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security.

Cultural engagement builds bridges, nurtures freedom and positive movement for change. We wholly endorse encouraging such a powerful tool for change rather than boycotting its use.
Naomi Alderman
Shay Alkalay
Bennett Arron
Jonathan Aycliffe
Daniel Battsek
John Battsek
Guto Bebb MP
Gina Bellman
Michael Berg
Josh Berger
Bob Blackman MP
Neil Blair
Iwona Blazwick
Elli Bobrovizki
Gabi Bobrovizki
Melvyn Bragg
David Burrowes MP
Teresa Cahill
Colin Callender
Simon Chinn
Danny Cohen
Frank Cohen
Prof Susan Collins
Wendy Cope
Loraine da Costa
Marcus Davey
Oliver Dowden MP
Daniel Easterman
Ruth Dudley Edwards
Michael Dugher MP
Brian Elias
Yigal Elstein
Allie Esiri
Michael Etherton
Moris Farhi MBE
Niall Ferguson
Stanley Fink
Larry Finlay
Amanda Foreman
Michael Foster
Andrew Franklin
Nick Fraser
Mike Freer MP
Julian Friedman
Sonia Friedman
Jonny Geller
Adèle Geras
David Glick
Taryn Gold
Amanda Goldman
Richard Goldstein
Michael Grade
Maurice Gran
Linda Grant
Miriam Gross
Tom Gross
Stephen Grosz
Peter & Martine Halban
Jan Harlan
Ronald Harwood
Noreena Hertz
John Heyman
Lilian Hochhauser
Tom Holland
John Howell MP
Judy Ironside
David Japp
Andrea Jenkyns MP
Zygi Kamasa
Jack Kirkland
Evgeny Kissin
Michael Kuhn
David Kustow
Norman Lebrecht
Sam Leifer
Teddy Leifer
Camilla Lewis
David Levy
John Levy
Maureen Lipman
Andrew Macdonald
Hilary Mantel
Stephen Margolis
Dan Marks
Laurence Marks
Denis MacEoin
Charlotte Mendelson
Yael Mer
Ivan Moscovich
Maajid Nawaz
Anthony Newman
Gavin Newman
Hayley Newstead
Paula Noble
Tracy-Ann Oberman
Matthew Offord MP
Cosh Omar
Martin Paisner
Robin Pauley
Leo Pearlman
Daniel Peltz
Andrew Percy MP
Eric Pickles MP
Stuart Polak
Monica Porter
Gail Rebuck
Charlie Redmayne
Andrew Roberts
JK Rowling
Paul Ruddock
Prof Carol Rumens
Marc Samuelson
Charles Robert Saumarez Smith
Prof Robert Saxton
Joanna Scanlan
Kenny Schachter
Simon Schama
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Francesca Segal
Anthony Seldon
Rick Senat
Zaab Sethna
Jonathan Shalit
Bernard Shapero
David Shelley
Clive Sinclair
Daniel Silver
Lucy Silver
Dan Silverston
Chloe Smith MP
Karen Smith
Mark Smith
Prof Ashley Solomon
Claire Speller
Rob Suss
George Szirtes
Paul Trijbits
Kevin Tsjiuhara
Gabe Turner
Moni Varma
Rebecca Wallersteiner
Minette Walters
Zoë Wanamaker
Angela Watkinson MP
George Weidenfeld
Fay Weldon
Heather Wheeler MP
Robert Winston
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg
David Young
Toby Young

The First Lady of the People’s Republic of China, Madame Peng Liyuan, was awarded a facsimile of Mozart’s manuscript of the C Minor piano concerto, K 491, when she visited the Royal College of Music today. The original has been lodged at the College for more than a century.

Madame Peng Liyuan is a renowned traditional singer in China.

Madame Peng Liyuan
photo (c) Chris Christodoulou/Lebrecht Music&Arts

Trouble with London’s new Orpheus.

Mary Bevan who was due to star in Luigi Rossi’s opera, which opens tomorrow, has a throat infection and can’t sing.

So they are flying in the Australian coloratura soprano Siobhan Stagg, whom Christa Ludwig has the loveliest voice around.

Siobhan, 27, will sing from the gallery for the first two performances and on stage for the next four.

She hasn’t got that far to fly: she’s a member of the Deutsche Oper, Berlin.

We wish Mary a swift recovery.

siobhan stagg

Vladimir Fedoseyev, who walked out of Iolanta rehearsals this week, has agreed to conduct the opera next January. The veteran conductor has been unwell, says Bolshoi boss, Vladimir Urin.

Fedoseyev_compressed

The Liceu in Barcelona is being picketed by its musicians over unpaid wages from 2013

The company, which has been severely reduced in the Spanish economic crisis, faces threats of privatisation.

liceu

Here’s the union statement:


CONVOCADA HUELGA EN EL LICEU Y CANTADA EN LA PUERTA DEL TEATRO. Esta tarde a las 19:30, todos los trabajadores del Gran Teatre del Liceu (orquesta, coro, personal de escenario y administración) cantarán “Va Pensiero” en la puerta del teatro, antes de la última función de “Nabucco”, en defensa de salarios y convenios, y contra la privatización de la Cultura.
Salarios atrasados desde 2013 son causa de una convocatoria de huelga que prevé paros en todas las funciones de “Benvenuto Cellini”.

In a gift that leaves every small hall in the world with its tongue hanging out, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is cashing a check for $4 million left by a lady who used to attend its concerts.

She was Jane Kitselman, a passionate cellist. She died in March, aged 87.

Born Jane White in Muncie, Jane graduated Indiana University in music and art history, and set off to study cello in Salzburg and Vienna. Befriended by the Budapest String Quartet, she played at the Prades Festival that Pau Casals founded in France. She married Richard Kitselman, was widowed in her early thirties, and is survived by her companion Anne Dunn Moynihan.

jane kitselman

Adriana Ferreira, of the Orchestra National de France, has been named principal flute in the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Adriana, who is Portuguese, came second at last year’s Geneva Flute Competition,

Good call.

adrianna fereira

Now the Tchaikovsky and Chopin contests are over, the results can be assessed in cool comparison.

In Moscow, where judges fell out publicly over the result and President Putin acclaimed the competition as ‘the pride of Russia’, a reliable Russian was given the gold medal ahead of more exciting candidates.

In Warsaw, there was no nationalist fervour. A Korean and French-Canadian toughed it out for first place and several other finalists showed genuine individuality.

Time will tell which has yielded the greater talents but, on balance, we think Warsaw has won.

seong-jin_cho-325x217

The OUP has published a timeline of opera history full of the most elementary howlers.

The premiere of Tristan, for instance, is dated to 1845. Mahler’s Klagende Lied is not a opera. Nothing happened in opera between 1878 and 1900. An ‘electronic libretto system’ is supposed to have ‘revolutionised’ opera in 1983.

Oxford University Press calls itself ‘a leading music publisher’. On this evidence it knows nothing about opera.

Nothing.

paris opera garnier

h/t: Mark Berry

The Israeli Symphony Orchestra, based in Rishon LeZion, is is deep trouble. Years of underfunding, yoked to an under-performing Israel Opera and abandoned by philistine right-wing governments, have left the orchestra on the brink of insolvency.

Today, the music director James Judd took matters in his own hands.

Here’s his letter:

20 October 2015

To the Members of the Board, the General Director, and the musicians of the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion

I am shocked to hear of the financial situation in which the orchestra finds itself due to persistent situation of insufficient government budgeting, cuts of productions of the Israeli Opera, fees that haven’t been updated for years, and difficulty to raise sufficient funds within a (too) short period. All these threaten the very existence of this fine orchestra and the livelihoods of its dedicated musicians.

It was my proud honour to accept the position of Music Director of the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion in September 2014 and to dedicate myself to the continued growth and excellence of this fine ensemble. Since then I have been closely involved in the activities of the orchestra, its programming and planning. I had the pleasure of taking the orchestra to China in November 2014, where we were described in the media as great 0ambassadors of Israel and brilliant interpreters of the Chinese music which we performed. The music of Israeli composers has featured at home and abroad in our programming, our outreach to young people is exemplary.

It is sad that budgetary starvation is pushing this cultural treasure to the brink of extinction in a country so renowned for musicians and orchestras of such high quality with a public so appreciative of the music making.

At this critical time, I dedicate myself to the survival of our wonderful orchestra by foregoing with immediate effect my Music Director fee while nonetheless carrying on the many functions and duties which my position demands, and I urge the authorities involved in budgeting the orchestra to rethink the budgetary restrictions on the magnificent cultural heritage of the City of Rishon LeZion and the State of Israel.

With my greatest respect

james judd

James Judd

Last night’s episode of Law and Order: SVU (season 17, episode 6) came with the following synopsis:

A violinist is raped by her colleague, who doesn’t remember committing the crime and claims he was drugged and robbed by a hired escort.

Sound familiar?

Change the sex of the violinist and you have this: https://slippedisc.com/2015/04/the-naked-quartet-leader-is-innocent-ok/

Remember Stefan? He’s still awaiting due process in New York.

stefan arzberger

There’s a fine article by Peter G. Davis in the new Opera News about the quality of Maria Callas – the quality that grates on the ear, the quality that sets her apart from every other soprano before or since.

Attempts to communicate the Callas phenomenon have always posed a challenge, even to her most devoted admirers. Music critics struggle to find analytical terms that can describe any singing voice; the vocabulary of similes never seems sufficiently precise. And the Callas soprano is particularly elusive.

Peter is probably the best writer on voice in America. Read the full article here.

callas-mercedes.jpg