The following statement has been sent to media by Charles Dutoit from the email address of his wife, Chantal Juillet: 23 December 2017
Charles Dutoit: Response to claims of alleged misconduct
“The allegations made against me are as shocking to me as they are to my friends and colleagues. I do not recognize the man or the actions being described in the media.
“Whilst informal physical contact is commonplace in the arts world as a mutual gesture of friendship, the serious accusations made involving coercion and forced physical contact have absolutely no basis in truth.
“I am taking legal advice and plan to meaningfully defend myself and I believe within this current climate, media accusations on serious physical abuse do not help society tackle these issues properly if the claims are in fact not true.”
The French government is to spend 20 million Euros ensuring that every school in the country has its own choir by 2019 and that music teachers are fully trained.
The Norwegian director Stefan Herheim has been named Intendant of the Theaters an der Wien.
He starts work in the second half of 2022.
Ridiculous.
press release:
Johannes Neubert, Intendant der Wiener Symphoniker, kommentiert: „Stefan Herheim gehört zu den kreativsten Köpfen des internationalen Opernbetriebs. Sein tiefes musikalisches Verständnis bürgt für eine wirkliche Einheit von Musik und Bühne. Es ist eine großartige Nachricht, dass Herheim nun eine feste Wirkungsstätte in Wien finden und hier kontinuierlich gestalten wird. Die Wiener Symphoniker freuen sich auf viele spannende Projekte und eine intensive Partnerschaft!“
Die Wiener Symphoniker arbeiteten erfolgreich mit Stefan Herheim bei dessen Inszenierung von Jacques Offenbachs Hoffmanns Erzählungen bei den Bregenzer Festspielen 2015 zusammen. Bereits seit 2006 treten sie regelmäßig als Opernorchester bei Produktionen des Theaters an der Wien in Erscheinung. Hochgebelobt war ihr Mitwirken unter Leo Hussain an Robert Carsens Neuproduktion von Alban Bergs Wozzeck. Ab 15. April 2018 spielen sie unter Antonello Manacordas Dirigat Benjamin Brittens Klassiker A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The fine US soprano Marilyn Tyler died on December 20 in New Mexico.
She worked with the leading US orchestras and was a favourite at the Holland Festival and Netherlands Opera, creating roles in new works by Hauer, Bandings and Sütermeister. She also appeared at the BBC Proms.
Invited to Iran in the late 1970s to set up a national opera, she was trapped by the revolution and had to make her way out nine months later through Pakistan.
In later years, she taught at the University of New Mexico.
I am on vacation, relaxing in a rental apartment in Copenhagen, hearing Jason read Harry Potter to the girls in the other room. This last set of concerts of 2017 with my Quartet have been particularly exhausting. The final concert, in Rotterdam, like the previous night at the Elbphilharmonie), faced a packed hall, an eager audience.
As a performer, I look directly out to the audience because I am in the second violin position, my body set parallel to the edge of the stage, on firmly placed feet, balanced yet ready to twist, even travel a bit towards one or the other of my colleagues. I often catch the eyes of individual audience members, and I look around to the faces closely when I come and go from the stage. Beyond the first several rows, or first balcony close to the stage, the eyes turn into glistening pricks – as if I am looking into a dark forest into the eyes of a large pack of wolves. The blinding glare of the stage lights – often from above, the sides, as well as spotlights aimed from afar – never fails to shock me – like the light they shine on you at the dentist – this adds to this surreal visual effect – my colleagues in extra sharp relief, with shadows that cut to their cheekbones like a cubist painting.
The final concert was a different program – instead of Mendelssohn, the concert began with a Haydn (76/1) and the Große Fuge, that night standing alone instead of attached to the rest of the Op. 130 Quartet.
We had tucked rehearsals of this work here and there during the week, but nothing can ever prepare performer or audience for this piece – monumental in the physical demands on the performers as well as the seemingly endless statements of chaotic, beautiful brutalism. This piece tests all of us in that room. The blocks of sound that the writing demands, with the relentlessness of the series of fortes – I imagine him dipping his goose-quill over and over again into his bottle of ink – dip, blot, F – dip, blot, F – dip, blot, F – dip, blot, F……that fugal theme, almost like a tone-row – the clash and then the calm – so much calm that you have to steady yourself every bit as much to sustain the pianissimo as you had to sustain the wall of sound before – but now your whole body is shaking, your eyes dry from lack of blinking, and you are only 1/3 through. Stravinsky once famously said of the fugue that it was “an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever”.
We played, making it through the treachery, the quiet solitude, the funny bits, the brutality, the intellectual stuff, but when we hit that final, soaring statement of quarter notes, Beethoven’s decision that goodness, in the end, wins; that after struggle is peace; that the chest fills not with anger or loneliness but with triumph and goodwill, I realized that all of us are here, as Beethoven was, and although he would never actually be able to hear the Große Fuge, he could send his deepest thoughts out to each and every one of us in this hall, almost 200 years after he put his quill down for the last time.
The firm that handles the RPO’s PR has just issued this statement:
Following media allegations of inappropriate conduct by Charles Dutoit, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) and Charles Dutoit have jointly agreed to release him from his forthcoming concert obligations with the orchestra for the immediate future.
As a leading international ensemble, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to the highest standards of ethical behaviour, which it expects from everyone that works with the RPO. The Orchestra takes very seriously its responsibility to maintain a safe working environment for all its artists, musicians and staff.
These accusations are taken very seriously by the orchestra and the RPO believes that the truth of the matter should be determined by the legal process. The immediate action taken by the RPO and Charles Dutoit allows time for a clear picture to be established. Charles Dutoit needs to be given a fair opportunity to seek legal advice and contest these accusations.
Dutoit is artistic director and principal conductor of the RPO, its figurehead for the past decade. The orchestra can ill afford to lose him. So they have hedged the statement with such terms as ‘for the immediate future’ and a statement that its expects Dutoit to ‘contest these accusations’.
Dutoit has not issued a response to the claims against him.
The pianist Jenny Q Chai has contacted Slipped Disc with an allegation that the Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit molested her in Philadelphia after a concert. She says that his daughter and ex-wife witnessed the incident.
Here is Jenny’s story:
‘When I was 17, still a student at Curtis, I went to see Charles Dutoit and (Martha) Argerich with Philadelphia orchestra, after the concert, I went back stage to see Argerich.
‘Instead of her, Dutoit greeted me with the utmost friendliness, wrote Love and big kisses and signed my program, then ran his hands all over my body and tried to kiss me and stick his tongue in my mouth.
‘Many schoolmates saw too.
‘I was grossed out and in fact quite traumatized, as a 17 year old musician. I think I’m ready to speak up openly only now, 17 years later.
‘Many male students just laughed and joked that they will see me making out with him the next day at Curtis. Which made me feel embarrassed. Like I did something wrong. So I didn’t say anything more about it.
‘My schoolmates’ reactions made me feel like it was all my fault. As if I was trying to climb the power ladder or something.
‘Argerich and their daughter was there. They saw it happening! They just gave a look. Like kind of a disgusted, but it’s normal kind of a look.’
Jenny did not report the incident at Curtis. She changed the way she dressed, went into therapy and is still oppressed by the sight of Dutoit, who is now 81.
US orchestras have swiftly ended their contacts with Dutoit. There has been no public response from the conductor.
Jenny Q Chai, who is based in Shanghai, Paris and New York, is a noted interpreter of late 20th century piano repertoire.
Coast guards have called off the search for Mark Tanner, principal cello of the New Wst Symphony, who made an emergency landing in a Cessna 210 eight days ago, northwest of Freeport, Bahamas.
Tanner, 57, had played in the California orchestra since 2001 and was an occasional concerto soloist. He gave the West Coast premiere of Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon concerto. His arrangement of the Barber Adagio is performed by international orchestra.
Mark was also v-p of medical technology company Xhale Inc.
His wife, violin professor Janna Lower of the University of Florida School of Music, was taken to hospital in Freeport before returning to the US.
Photo: Eugene Yankevich
Former Board Chairman Kern Wildenthal will act as Interim General Director and CEO without pay until a permanent general director is appointed.
The great violinist died on December 21, 1992, a ew days shy of his 89th birthday.
He was the mos immaculate individual, calm and reasoned in all he did, a positive fount of wisdom and experience. I learned from him more about life and music than I did from any other musician.
I once asked if he used to play many summer festivals.
‘Festivals?’ said Nathan, ‘what are they?’
‘So what did you do in the summer?’
‘Before the War, Horowitz and I used to spend six weeks with Rachmaninov at Senar, beside Lake Lucerne. In those days, a composer was an enlightened person who knew about all sorts of subjects – archaeology, lepidoptery… We would talk for hours and never get bored.’
‘He praised Horowitz as a great interpreter of his works…’
‘Yes, but he would spend more time with me at Senar. Maybe because I wasn’t a pianist.’
Marvellous man.
The tenor, who was supposed to attempted the Richard Strauss valediction, has pulled out of a performance with Antonio Pappano and the Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Kaufmann first cancelled the Songs in London last February. He has rescheduled to sing them at the Barbican in May.
A causa di una improvvisa indisposizione il tenore Jonas Kaufmann è costretto a cancellare il suo impegno per il concerto del 22 dicembre. Accanto al dispiacere per l’improvvisa defezione, il Maestro Pappano, l’Orchestra e il Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia intendono manifestare la loro riconoscenza nei riguardi del pubblico, che segue con affetto la programmazione dell’Accademia, offrendo un concerto gratuito alla città che si terrà venerdì 22 dicembre alle ore 20.30.
