The Cappella della Pietà dei Turchini, one of Italy’s most widely toured baroque ensembles over the past three decades has slipt in two after a row between its drector Antonio Forio and another man who owns the band’s name.
Florio, its appears, has gone off with most of the players to form a Capella Neapolitana while the other guy gets left with the name and no musicians.
media release:
CAPPELLA NEAPOLITANA: ANTONIO FLORIO SCEGLIE UN NUOVO NOME PER L’ENSEMBLE CHE HA FATTO LA STORIA DEL BAROCCO MUSICALE NAPOLETANO Alla soglia dei trent’anni di attività nuovi progetti con il rigore e lo slancio di sempre. In origine era la Cappella della Pietà dei Turchini, fondata da Antonio Florio nel 1987 dopo un decennio di studio e sperimentazione, portata a notorietà internazionale con programmi rari, produzioni di opere e oltre 40 incisioni discografiche e divenuta emblema della riscoperta della musica napoletana tra il Quattrocento e l’Ottocento. Oggi – alla soglia dei trent’anni di attività – quel gruppo di “coraggiosi pionieri” assume la denominazione di “Cappella Neapolitana Antonio Florio”, mantenendo intatto organico e collaboratori storici che da sempre portano avanti questo progetto musicale.
All the big beasts are lined up for the opening year of the Elbphilharmonie – Muti, Chailly, Rattle, Barenboim, Bychkov – but it’s Gustavo Dudamel who wins the honour of conducting the first Beethoven cycle, all nine symphonies in five nights with his Bolivar band.
Media announcement below:
Today the Elbphilharmonie & Laeiszhalle Hamburg’s upcoming 2016/17 season was presented to the public. In the presence of the city’s First Mayor Olaf Scholz and the Director of NDR (North German Radio) Lutz Marmor, theGeneral and Artistic Director Christoph Lieben-Seutter gave a succinct overview of the programme. The Elbphilharmonie officially opens in January 2017, thus the press conference was held on the third level of the car park. Projected onto the walls of the spiral car ramp were large artworks – examples of the Elbphilharmonie’s current street art project. This project accompanies the launch of the upcoming programme and will remain visible throughout the city leading up to the opening in nine months. A Hamburg-based group of street artists has worked intensely over the past few days, painting, spraying and designing adventurous and catchy artworks that promote selected events from the new season, for example, the »Salam Syria« festival and »Viva Beethoven« – a series that features Gustavo Dudamel and his Orquesta SSB. They perform all of Beethoven’s symphonies on five consecutive evenings.
The grand opening of the Elbphilharmonie is the unrivalled highlight of Hamburg’s 2016/17 concert season. The inaugural concerts performed by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock on 11 and 12 January 2017 form the prelude to an intense programme that demonstrates the new concert hall’s musical aptitude over a period of five months. The target audience comprises music lovers and classical music connoisseurs from far and wide, and people who have awakened their curiosity of music through interest in Hamburg’s new architectural landmark. Elbphilharmonie aims to be a »Concert Hall for Everyone«: the publicly accessible Plaza opens on 4 November 2016 already and the Elbphilharmonie’s concert programme appeals to all due to its carefully structured design, quality and accessibility. The season begins on 6 September 2016 with a guest performance by theLucerne Festival Academy in the Laeiszhalle, continues there for four months and from 11 January 2017, runs parallel in both concert halls.
What violinist Arnaud Sussman does while waiting to board.
Click on Arnaud’s name if video does not appear automatically.
We reported last month the decimation of the Zurich Festival.
Today we report the demolition of the City of London Festival.
The two wealthiest business hubs Europe have decided that they can’t be bothered with culture. Or that culture is not relevant to the summer months, when bankers are out of town. Or that culture no longer adds the kudos it once did.
Whatever the case, the bell is tolling for big-city jamborees.
Vienna still has an adventurous event in June and Berlin a top-heavy fest in September.
But that’s about it for capital cities. The Prague Spring and Warsaw Autumn fests have faded. Paris, Rome and Madrid draw a blank. What future for summer in the city?
Festival of Britain (c) Wolf Suschitzky/Lebrecht Music&Arts
We have received official confirmation of the closure of the City of London Festival, effective immediately:
A statement from the City of London Festival:
“In 2014 a new direction was sought for the Festival which saw new initiatives, introduced new audiences and raised the profile. This was received with great acclaim; however, over the years the fundraising landscape has become ever more competitive and despite achieving support from a range of valued sponsors and supporters it has become increasingly difficult to attract the level of funding required to stage the annual Festival.
After consultation with the Corporation of London (the Festival’s single largest donor) it is with great sadness that we have had to take the very difficult decision to close the Festival.
The Corporation of London has undertaken to assist with all aspects of the closure.
We would like to thank all the brilliant artists and performers that have taken part in the Festival, our generous supporters, the wonderful City venues, not to mention our loyal volunteers and audience members who have supported the Festival for so long. This support for the Festival has been appreciated enormously. Most importantly we are extremely grateful to all the Festival staff that have contributed during the 53 year period to creating such a positive impact and animating the City with arts and culture each year.”
We understand that the City of London Festival has shut down after 53 years.
Two months before opening night, no programme has been announced and the website is bare of events. No corporate sponsors have been flagged up for 2016.
We hear that the director, Paul Gudgin, has departed. His Facebook page describes him as ‘former director at City of London Festival’. A source says he left some months ago.
There will be no festival this summer and the board is about to announce that the organisation is to be discontinued. A source tells us that ‘the fundraising landscape became too difficult’.
More follows.
UPDATE: The closure is officially confirmed.
Wolfgang Sobotka, who replaces the anti-immigrant hardliner Johanna Mikl-Leitner, studied cello at the Vienna Music University and conducting at the Bruckner University in Linz.
While he is likely to maintain his predecessor’s hard line on border control, Sobotka might have more sympathy for those who are struggling for the right to fly with their instruments.
Austrian Airlines, we hear, are now demanding that musicians call after booking a ticket. They will then either allow a violin on board – or insist you purchase an extra seat.
From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
Most composer reputations subside in the generation after their death. It’s as if posterity calls time out while deciding its final judgement.
Witold Lutoslawski is a notable exception to this hiatus rule. Since his death in 1994, performances of his music have become more frequent and his status has risen steadily among both modernists and conservatives…
Read on here and here. Or here.
Another new release from our one-track friends at Urania Records.
Sergei Roldugin, whose Panama fortune has come to light, says he begged the money off rich men to help musical causes in Russia. Roldugin went on state television yesterday to talk about his efforts to create a House of Music in St Petersburg.
‘I went around begging for this and that from anyone I could find,’ he said. ‘Everything is expensive, instruments are expensive, professors are expensive… Everything is outrageously expensive.’
A narrator added that ‘sponsors’ eventually gave him a ‘small share in business… so that he can stop begging’.
Valery Gergiev appeared on the programme to asset that the Panama Papers leak does not harm Russia.
We are sorry to learn of the death of Jeremy Siepmann, a civilised man who played many roles in piano music, most effectively as a propagator on the BBC.
A New Englander who studied with Rudolf Serkin, Jeremy became head of music at the BBC World Service in 1988 and, later, editor of Piano magazine. He was a frequent broadcaster on BBC channels and a gentle reviewer in music magazines.
He also produced and presented a get-to-know composer series for Naxos.
A boy of 14 claims his eye was damaged when a tuning peg broke free from his violin and was hurled into his eye by force of the string it had held in place.
His mother is suing the school.
Story here.
