It was 1959 when Albrecht Haupt took charge of the Ulm Camerata, in a town where Herbert von Karajan raised his first baton.

This week, at 88, Haupt called time on his career. Report here.

Some kind of record?

Photo (c) Matthias Kessler/SWP

The animation series Max & Maestro, conceived by Daniel Barenboim, has been taken up by France 4.

 

Here’s an early English trailer.


Et en francais…

The Seattle Symphony & Opera Players’ Organization (SSOPO) has announced a new four-year deal involving a 12 percent salary increase.

From the announcement:

Seattle Symphony musicians are employed for 47 weeks each year by the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. The current base salary is $98,100. The musicians’ base salary will increase by 3.9% in year 1, 2.5% in year 2, 2.4% in year 3, and 2.6% in year 4, reaching a final base salary of $109,745. The agreement also includes provisions to help contain cost increases on the health care plans.

This unique pension plan agreement came about when the parties agreed to explore alternatives to the pension plan design to reduce financial risk for the employer and increase benefits for musicians. 

 

A statement from Cambridgeshire Constabulary: ‘A 46-year-old man from Rochester was arrested last year on suspicion of gross indecency with a child. He has been released under investigation.’

The suspect is understood to be director of music at Rochester Cathedral. He has been suspended from duties.

 

Seo Min-Woo, known as Minwoo, has been found dead at home, apparently of cardiac cause.

He was one of the brand leaders of K-Pop, a field of high mortality.

Our sympathies to his loved ones.

We hear the new CEO is Matias Tarnopolsky, presently head of Cal Performances and past head of artistic planning for the Chicago Symphony and the New York Philharmonic.

An announcement is said to be imminent.

Tarnopolsky was due to succeed last year at the Philharmonia Orchestra in London but a last-minute hitch unravelled the deal.

Philadelphia were also considering Cressida Pollock, outgoing CEO of English National Opera.

UPDATE: Peter Dobrin reports from Philly that the orchestra has a verbal agreement with Tarnopolsky; all that remains is for the board to confirm it, which will probably happen today.

From the LA Phil:

 

 

Bremen Cathedral is putting on a performance of Brahms’s German Requiem on April 10, 150 years to the day since the composer conducted its first performance there.

Paavo Järvi will lead the Deutsche Kammerphilhamonie Bremen, with soloists Matthias Goerne and Valentina Farcas.

The French site ResMusica has announced it will no longer cover the Opéra de Lausanne after the company banned its resident Swiss critic, Jacques Schmitt, over an intemperate review.

Twelve days ago, Dutch National Opera withdrew press tickets from Olivier Keegel of the Belgian site operagazet.

Is this an issue of media freedom?

The case is not clear-cut. One UK opera house recently told me it gives press tickets to 40 – yes, 40 – online reviewers. Some are rank amateurs with a tiny following. But the opera press office, unwilling to provoke controversy, has been unable to decide which to retain and which to cull. At the opposite pole, a respected German site regularly complains that it is refused press tickets to Bayreuth and Salzburg.

Keegel’s review of DNO’s new season was extremely hostile with no balancing elements. Since the opera house knows his view before he crosses the threshold, it might be justified in withholding privileged access. Schmitt has reviewed some 60 Lausanne performances since 2005 without previously attracting adverse attention.

Your views?

We have seen a staff email from managing director Sophie Galaise announcing the mid-season departure of Ronald Vermeulen, director of artistic planning, ‘to pursue other career opportunities’.

She adds: ‘Interim management arrangements will be announced shortly.’

Quite a lot of that going on in Melbourne which has lost, in quick succession, its marketing team, its librarian and now its de factor artistic director. The music director, Sir Andrew Davis, is expected to leave next year.

We’re hearing some very unhappy noises from a very fine orchestra.

Ms Galaise, a Canadian was formerly in charge at Queensland and Quebec.

Friends are reporting the death of the oboist Dmitri Kotenok, principal of Yuri Bashmet’s Moscow Soloists Orchestra and a sought-after teacher. No cause is yet known.

The death has been announced of Buell Neidlinger, former principal bass of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra,  a versatile character who wrote songs for Barbara Streisand, conducted experiments for John Cage and earned his daily bread at the Warner Brothers studios.

His discography extends from a Trout Quintet with Peter Serkin to sets with Streisand and Frank Sinatra.

A musical life.