Michael Buchmann, a viola player in the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, was catching a U4 Karlsplatz train home at midnight when he smelt smoking.
He pointed out to three young men, reportedly of Middle Eastern appearance, that smoking was forbidden on public transport. One of them responded with a karate kick aimed at his hand, breaking his ring finger.
He will be out of action for at least a month.
Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers stepped up to open the Detroit Symphony’s Mozart season.
Then he got familiar with the music director, Leonard Slatkin.
Watch here.
The Partners has designed the visual identity for the London Symphony Orchestra’s (LSO) 2017/18 season, to coincide with conductor Sir Simon Rattle becoming its music director in September this year.
Inspired by the consultancy’s original identity for the orchestra, which features a logo representing a conductor, the new identity depicts the conductor’s movements and is designed to reflect “the emotional power of music through colour, texture and motion…”
Read on here.
And this is the designer-made video.
The opera company of Eugene, Oregon, struggling with accumulated debt, has scrapped the rest of its season. It will hold town hall meeting to see what the public really want and whether they can sustain an opera season.
The two operas cancelled are West Side Story and Peter Brook’s adaptation of Carmen.
The current deficit has not been disclosed. It was last estimated at $90,000. The company has been producing opera for 40 years.
From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
When I first started writing about Weinberg quarter of a century ago, there was no consistent western spelling of his surname (mostly printed Vainberg) and his first name was given as Moisei (pronounced Moshe), consistent with Soviet policy of identifying racial minorities. As for the music, it was unknown beyond the Soviet bloc, where it was more familiar to musicians in private performances than it was to public audiences. Today, thanks largely to proselytism by Gidon Kremer and his friends, Weinberg is no longer obscure but a musical giant, waiting to be discovered….
Read on here.
And here.
Or here.
The Sinfonia Varsovia have been assured by the city that their new hall will open in 2022.
It will look something like this.
More pics here.
The Sinfonia is smaller than the Warsaw National Philharmonic, which has its own premises.
From a Slippedisc.com correspondent:
At Friday’s Carnegie Hall performance of Bruckner’s Second Symphony with the Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim gave a lengthy and impromptu political speech from the stage immediately after the conclusion of the symphony.
In an address that was received with cheers and a standing ovation, he remarked that ‘America has the power to make the world great’ if its politicians emphasize culture. He noted that ‘politicians have difficult lives; however, they must not make culture their last priority’, and that culture is not and does not have to be elitist. Though he did not refer directly to Donald Trump (except for the punchline and his emphasis of the date 20 January, 2017), his speech was clearly aimed at the priorities not just of the new president but of the country in general.
One conductor has mildly called it the worst national anthem in American history.
Some low notes are unreached, other are just missed. There are cracks near the top.
Here’s the link to Glen Roven’s counter-inauguration, featuring many of America’s top opera singers.
And here’s an intelligent response from a bunch of Juilliard students, led by Will Healy:
You see it here first.
Or just stare at the 2009 inauguration picture, and weep for lost innocence.
Oliver Knussen called in sick, which is sad.
But couldn’t they find a replacement, even if it meant dropping the one new work on the programme – the world premiere of Philip Cashian’s piano concerto?
Show must go on, and all that.
The Nuremburg Symphony has named Kahchun Wong as its next chief conductor, starting September 2018.
Wong, a Singaporean, won the Gustav Mahler conducting competition in Bamberg, in May last year.
Aged 30, Wong is a Kurt Masur protégé. He is managed by Masur’s former assistant, Stefana Atlas.
The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande has blown millions of francs over the past four years, compensating four managing directors who were unfairly sacked by a dilettant board.
That has not stopped Jonathan Nott from assuming office last night as music director.
He said: ‘It is with huge anticipation and pleasure that I take up this appointment with the distinguished Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Why anticipation? Because nothing can give a greater sense of freedom to a Music Director, about to embark on a long journey with his orchestra, than the total commitment of his players. So, I enter this relationship knowing that I have their overwhelming support to work long and hard together, exploring familiar and new repertoire, and ensuring that this fine ensemble is recognised as one of the foremost in the orchestral scene.’
We hope he didn’t write that all by himself.
