The Brazil Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra plagued by controversy, has scrapped the rest of its season after admitting an eight-digit shortfall.

Twelve concerts have been cancelled. Next season is in doubt.

First report here.

rio teatro-municipal

For the last ten years of life Claudio Abbado rented a house in Bologna with a rood terrace and view over the city. He died there on January 20, 2014.

Last week, the owners opened a luxury Bed & Breakfast in his apartment, with four rooms (nine beds) of which the most coveted is the Abbado Room.

Luca Baccolini has broken the story in La Repubblica.

Would you stay there? Could you?

 

AbbaMemor-DCH_0

In case you missed it.

donald_trump_mm_150616_16x9_992

Cape Town Opera has dismissed 12 chorus singers from this summer’s Cosi fan tutte at the Aix-en-Provence festival, accusing them of theft and breach of contract.

The singers are counter-suing for unfair dismissal, arguing that they were financially exploited by the company and sacked when they spoke up against abuses.

The international SA baritone Njabulo Madlala speaks of ‘the harshest levels of exploitation & treatment. This has been going on for years unchallenged. Those who retaliate are sued immediately and a clear message is sent to all others who are thinking of ever challenging the system.’

Lawyers expect the case to set a major precedent for singers in SA. Report here.

cosi aix

Anthea Kreston, an American violinist in Berlin, is finding that life in the Artemis Quartet takes her to places other ensembles cannot reach.

artemis quartet3

 

One of the most enjoyable aspects of my position with the Artemis Quartet is traveling to beautiful or unusual locations. This week we met with our manager, and were given a list of concerts from now until 2020, which included Asia, North and South America, and extensive European destinations. What adventures await!

In addition to visiting new cities, the variety of venue is surprising.  From ultra-modern stages (I swear we played in the Death Star earlier this year) to stages steeped in history (such as Wigmore and Gewandhaus), each space has a special place in history – both as a building and as a place which has welcomed legendary performers.

This last week we spent much time in one of the most unusual concert venues I could have ever imagined. The concert hall is inside of what was once the largest military airfield in Europe. A former Soviet cold-war airfield – now home to both the largest thin-film solar plant in Europe and an auto park (including testing grounds for Audi and a race-track for sports cars). Originally built by the Soviets in the 50’s, the area was a blank spot on any map – heavily forested, secret, and impenetrable. It housed 80,000 Soviet military personnel in large flimsy beige monstrosities (the final 3 remain because they are inhabited by an endangered species of bat).  60 hangars are hidden throughout the woods – covered completely by trees and grass. It was in one of these former hangars that the Bebersee Festival is based. 4 other hangars have been reclaimed – inside are glitzy showrooms for Audi test cars. Directly outside of the hangars are racetracks and test driving courses, complete with built-in spraying water features and screeching brakes.  Our rehearsals were punctuated by the screeching of tires and gunning of engines.

Inside these hangars, until the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1994, were bombers, transporters, helicopters, fighters, and even a unit with nuclear tasking, able to bomb West Germany.  It was in this space that our quartet performed the Shostakovich 5th String Quartet.  Music and history intermingle in a tangible way here, making the mind race and heart pound during performance.

Jason and I stayed the rest of the week to play mixed chamber music – and we met new wonderful, funny, interesting friends and musicians. We all stayed together at a grand old hotel on a lake – our girls enjoying swimming and exploring the woods and watching cars race with the babysitter as Jason and I rehearsed. After-concert meals on the terrace with large steins of beer and traditional German food rounded out our last week of our first summer in Germany.

Tomorrow the Quartet plays a benefit concert for the Refugee Music Program in Berlin. 300,000 new refugees are expected in Berlin alone this year. So glad we can extend a musical hand to them.

Parkinson’s Disease has claimed the life of John Gibson, one of Ireland’s most prolific pianist-composers.

A Dubliner by birth, devoutly religious and a lifelong bachelor, he settled in Cork and applied himself to composing for national ensembles, often sourcing music of great beauty from Irish folklore.

His last years were clouded by malignant illness.

The one on the house in Plas Gwyn, Hereford, where he lived in the fertile years of 1904 to 1911, got nicked.

Hereford Council has quickly replaced it.

Call the council if you’re offered it for sale.

elgar

The musicians’ contract expires tonight.

‘We’re not very close at the moment, but are going to allow some time to let both parties figure out how to get close, and we are optimistic we can be closer in a couple of weeks,’ said cellist John Koen, chairman of the members’ committee.

Peter Dobrin reports that the deadline has been pushed back indefinitely. The first concert is on September 21.

philadelphia hall

First prize at the ARD goes to Quatuor Arod.

ard-musik
The 2nd prize goes to the Aris Quartett (Germany) as well as the Audience Award.
The 3rd prize goes to the Amabile Quartet (Japan) who also got the Special Prize for best interpretation of the commissioned piece.

 

Gianpiero Mastromei died on September 8 and was buried today in his home town, Camaiore.

He sang Scarpia opposite both Pavarotti and Domingo and was recorded in Lohengrin with Christa Ludwig and Victoria de los Angeles.

His greatest success on record was a 1975 Philips album of Verdi’s Il Corsar, with Jessye Norman, Monserrat Caballe and Jose Carreras.

The BBC have just released audience figures for this summer’s Proms, which end tonight.

Average attendance for the main evening Proms in the Royal Albert Hall this year was 88% with 45 of 75 concerts in the Royal Albert Hall selling out.

That’s not bad, but not good, either.

Between 2009 and 2013, uptake was consistently above 90 percent, peaking at a record 95%.

In 2014, a penny-pinch year after Wagner-Verdi-Britten extravagances, it fell back to 88%. The Proms director Roger Wright left shortly before the season began.

Last year, under interim management, audiences rose marginally to 89%.

Now, with David Pickard installed as boss, the uptake has settled again at 88%.

In another setback, fewer first-timers bought tickets than in 2015.

The heavily spun BBC press release follows its presenter-driven promo picture.

bbc proms plastic trumpets

Tonight the BBC Proms concludes with the world famous Last Night of the Proms led by conductor Sakari Oramo and starring Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez. Once again more than 300,000 people attended the Proms demonstrating that classical music is in rude health.

The fantastically rich display of world class music making this summer has included some standout moments from Daniel Barenboim and Martha Argerich performing Schubert’s Rondo in A major together as an encore; Quincy Jones conducting the finale of a Prom celebrating his life and work, and the Ten Pieces II Proms which brought the innovative BBC project bringing classical music to school children to life.

From Bernard Haitink marking his 50th anniversary conducting at the Proms by leading Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the London Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla making her Proms debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim and Christian Thielemann bringing a trio of world class German orchestras in the final week, the orchestral offering has been truly outstanding.

For the first time in 2016 an innovative new series Proms At… went to four new corners of London: the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe in Southwark, The Chapel, Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, the Roundhouse in Camden and the Bold Tendencies Multi-Storey Car Park in Peckham – the first Prom to take place in a car park!

Average attendance for the main evening Proms in the Royal Albert Hall this year was 88% with 45 of 75 concerts in the Royal Albert Hall selling out.

More than 35,500 people bought tickets for the first time. Over 10,000 under 18s attended concerts across the season. A record 57,000 tickets sold in the first hour of booking. 

David Pickard, Director, BBC Proms 2016, says: “It has been a thrill to be part of this extraordinary festival for the first time and I’m delighted that the 2016 BBC Proms has once again seen audiences embracing the huge breadth of music on offer throughout the eight weeks of the festival, from the Royal Albert Hall to a car park in Peckham. I am delighted that thanks to the ongoing commitment of the BBC, the Proms remains true to Sir Henry Wood’s founding vision to bring the best music to the largest possible audiences”

 

From a speech in the Concertgebouw by the ever-relevant philosopher, referencing Aristotle and Furtwängler: