And we thought this was an assembly of classics scholars…

Michael Dugher, 42, Labour’s former shadow culture secretary, is stepping down as MP for Barnsley East to become chief executive of UK Music, a lobbying and promotional group.

He was sacked by Jeremy Corbyn in January for ‘serial disloyalty’.


Lior Shambadal, chief conductor of the Berlin Symphoniker, has informed us of the death this week, from cancer, of the orchestra’s long-standing director, Jochen Thärichen.

Thärichen, who was 73, was Berlin musical royalty.

The son of Werner Thärichen, principal percussionist of the Berlin Philharmonic under Furtwängler and Karajan from 1948 to 1984, Jochen played trumpet for 20 years in the symphony orchestra until he took over as its director in 1989. After his official retirement in 2004, he continued running the orchestra without pay. He underwent surgery for cancer last October, but remained in charge until the day he died.

Lior Shambadal will conduct a Berlin concert in Jochen’s memory on May 21.

From our string-quartet diarist, Anthea Kreston:

I am exhausted. Totally and utterly exhausted. My eyes feel like they need to be moisturized, and I could go for a full-body detox, or a week in Michael Jackson’s Hyperbaric Chamber (recently rediscovered in a storage unit).  

I am wrapping up the end of the season with quartet, and on Monday we head in to a modified six-month sabbatical, one which was planned three years ago, before the events which eventually lead to uprooting my family from our sleepy little town in the Pacific Northwest, and on three weeks notice beginning our lives anew in a new culture, a new way of life. After I joined, we decided to open the sabbatical on any mutually free days, and so we do meet occasionally, for a concert here or there – in Krakow, Brussels, or the Netherlands.  

When I learned of the sabbatical I thought to myself – goodness – what will we do in Berlin for six months?  We have no connections, we know no musicians or presenters. But, as the year progressed, we did begin to make connections – and to strengthen old ones in the United States. And now I find myself in a veritable tornado of concerts. A musician’s dream – a buffet of musical opportunities a person wouldn’t even dare to add to a bucket list. 

On Monday I begin putting together all 10 Beethoven Violin Sonatas for a concert series in Berlin. Amongst those rehearsals is the Mendelssohn Octet with an incredible cast of musicians, as well as the odd chamber music reading session with new friends. 

Then – I get to play as a substitute with the Berlin Philharmonic. Bucket list extraordinaire. I got a call also to be assistant concertmaster for an incredible Opera Orchestra, but I was already scheduled for Berlin. What???  Crazy, absolutely crazy. 

Then, I head to Italy for a tour with Performance Today – American Public Media’s  legendary and utterly charming and insightful host Fred Child leads four busses of classical music enthusiasts through Italy, by deluxe boat and bus, and has asked me to be the guest soloist for the tour. Vivaldi Four Seasons in Venice, three recitals, daily interviews, and I think I even get to be one of those people who hold the microphone in front of a bus and talk. Maybe I can have that super chair by the bus driver that folds up and down. I will also be leading a book discussion group – I love to do this. And of course answering questions about this Diary. 

A smattering of quartet concerts happen before our family heads to Northern Italy for two weeks with Amelia Piano Trio (yeah Amy Yang!  I miss you) – several concerts – and teaching old students from Oregon as well as new students we bring from Berlin, all in a small magical town in the Dolomites. 

Next – I will be teaching and performing at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.  And we return from the States just 2 days before school restarts. So there went the Sabbatical. It has disappeared before we even had a minute to catch our breaths.  

My late evening practice sessions with my hotel mute have taken a completely different bent – the Chaconne, Janacek violin sonata, Kreisler and Biber replace what was once the second violin parts of the major quartet literature. Am I a different violinist now?  Absolutely – my nuances are more varied, my commitment to emotional detail refined. Will I still get a little crazy and go too far sometimes?  I can’t imagine life and music without that!

Deutsche Grammophon today signed Camille Thomas, a Franco-Belgian artist.

She is, the label says, its first ever female cellist.

Broadway producer Roland Scahill has admitting in court to scamming nine of $200,000 to fund a non-extsitent play about the Met’s firing of soprano Kathleen Battle.

If he pays back the money, he will only do six months jail time.

Court report here.

Music director Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla has unfurled her second season with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. It is nothing if not ambitious.

Mirga, 31, will conduct 26 concerts, including Haydn’s Creation, Fauré’s Requiem, Mahler 1 and 4 and a two-weekend Debussy Festival.

She will also conduct the Birmingham Conservatoire orchestra at the opening of its new building, and the CBSO Youth Orchestra.

She’s making her mark on Britain’s second city.

The troubled English National Opera announced its next season this morning. Martin Brabbins, the new music director, will conduct two out of nine productions. A fifth new show, Britten’s Turn of the Screw, will be staged in June 2018 at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, a space not renowned for its sound quality.

Daniel Kramer, the artistic director, gets to direct La Traviata. The opening production, Aida, will be conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson, wife of the Metropolitan Opera boss, Peter Gelb.

Official highlights:

·         ENO’s 2017/18 season features four new productions and five revivals at the London Coliseum, supported by a number of projects in other venues

·         Daniel Kramer directs his first opera as ENO Artistic Director, a new production of La traviata starring Claudia Boyle in her role debut as Violetta

·         Martyn Brabbins begins his first full season as ENO Music Director, conducting performances of Marnie and The Marriage of Figaro

·         ENO presents the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s latest opera, Marnie, directed by Michael Mayer and conducted by Martyn Brabbins

·         A new production of Verdi’s Aida opens the 17/18 season, conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson. After sell-out performances of his Olivier Award-winning Akhnaten, Phelim McDermott returns to direct

·         Cal McCrystal directs a new production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe, starring ENO Harewood Artist Samantha Price in the title role alongside ENO favourites Andrew Shore and Yvonne Howard

·         Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and ENO present a new production of The Turn of the Screw, directed by multiple Olivier Award-winner and Artistic Director of the Open Air Theatre, Timothy Sheader. ENO Mackerras Fellow Toby Purser conducts

·         Revivals of audience favourites include Jonathan Miller’s The Barber of Seville, Richard Jones’s Rodelinda, Phelim McDermott’s Satyagraha, Robert Carsen’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Fiona Shaw’s The Marriage of Figaro

·         A raft of exciting British conductors new to ENO includes Leo McFall, Alexander Soddy and Hilary Griffiths. Keri-Lynn Wilson and Karen Kamensek return after acclaimed debuts in the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons respectively

·         Over 93% of cast and conductors in the 2017/18 season are British born, trained or resident. Rodelinda, Iolanthe and Satyagraha all feature casts that are entirely British born, trained or resident

Is this some kind of record? Two of next season’s 12 new shows are world premieres.

Full details here.

The small town of St. Georgen im Attergau will name a square next week after long-term resident Niklaus Harnoncourt, who died in March 2016.

The US wing of the British label, rebranded Decca Gold, has arranged to record all three medal winners at this year’s Van Cliburn Competition. The CDs will be out within a fortnight of the final.

In a separate development, Medici.tv has announced it will livestream the competition worldwide.

The German tenor spent yesterday at home in Berlin chatting to friends on the phone. He had a full schedule planned for today. At some point late in the day, he died – ‘of natural causes’, friends say.

UPDATE: We are told it was a heart attack.

He had collapsed a few times in the past year, but doctors could not find a cause. He is survived by a brother, an aunt and an uncle.

Endrik enjoyed life, loved shopping, cultivated friendships. The Berlin-based American soprano Laura Aikin, a close pal, offers this tribute:

Endrik Wottrich 1964-2017 😭💔

My dear friend of many years. We started out together at the Staatsoper Berlin. I was singing Papagena, he was erste Geharnischte. I remember hearing his voice for the first time. He saw the shock and awe in my face, winked and laughed knowing he had just blown me away.

We shared the stage countless times; were friends through thick and thin, drama and crisis. His voice was glorious, but for me perhaps his amazing laugh was his best opus. Dedicated to his students and never relenting from pursuing the incredibly high standards he set for himself, he knew both triumph and deep despair. Wrapped in his armor of muscle, he made battle with the world. His injuries were not few, but they were outnumbered by his many glorious victories. In his far too short life, he brought much beauty to this planet. I will miss him like a brother. Rest In Peace, you silly goose.