From the office of the Hungarian Prime Minister, Victor Orban:
Spanish opera singer, conductor and arts adminstrator Plácido Domingo congratulated Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on his election victory in a letter, Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister’s press chief informed the Hungarian news agency MTI on Friday.
Mr Domingo expressed hope that during the next term of government he would have the opportunity to visit Hungary and to continue his cooperation with talented Hungarian musicians and artists many of whom he ranks among the world’s best.
“The Hungarian people must be happy to have a leader like you who is such a great supporter of the arts and culture”, the opera singer wrote to Mr Orbán.
One of Mr Domingo’s other good friends:
The wonderful German baritone who retired from the stage at the age of 52 is about to release his first album since 2010.
Sooooo good to have him back.
Here’s a reminder of the finest Lieder singer of his time:
Mariusz Kwiecień was supposed to sing the role at Dallas Opera.
When he failed to show on Friday, Craig Verm made the most of his chance.
UPDATE: We hear that Mariusz has recovered extra fast and will resume the role tonight (Weds).
Professor Helena Gaunt is to be principal of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
She is presently vice principal and Director of Innovation at the Guildhall, as well as an oboist in the Britten Sinfonia.
She succeeds George Caird, who has been holding the fort for a year since Hilary Boulding got upgraded to Trinity College, Oxford.
The Minnesota Orchestra has named Michelle Miller Burns as its next President and CEO, starting in September.
Michelle is COO of the Dallas Symphony and, briefly, its interim CEO.
She succeeds Kevin Smith, who is retiring this summer after turning the orchestra around from its disastrous lockout.
Mark Stephenson, a conductor with several recordings to his credit, has been named as the originator of a shell-like performance space for the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.
A former cellist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, where he was picked at 21 by Riccardo Muti, Mark went on to found the London Musici with whom he made important recordings of the music of Andrzej Panufnik and Malcolm Arnold.
He has also taken a strong interest in music making in Iran.
Press release below.
The San Diego Symphony Orchestra has appointed Soundforms to design a bespoke Performance Shell to be permanently installed as the open-air stage for its new San Diego Symphony Bayside Performance Park. Soundforms is a UK based consortium that was founded by Mark Stephenson (Classical Musician and Conductor). The consortium includes Flanagan Lawrence (Architects), ES Global (Staging Company & Project Manager), Expedition (Structural Engineers) and HarrisonParrott, the Artist & Project Management Agency that introduced the Soundforms Performance Shell to the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.
Soundforms is a UK based consortium that was founded by Mark Stephenson (Classical Musician and Conductor). The consortium includes Flanagan Lawrence (Architects), ES Global (Staging Company & Project Manager), Expedition (Structural Engineers) and HarrisonParrott (Artist Representation & Project Management Music Agency), which introduced Soundforms to the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.
The Soundforms Performance Shell is a scaled up version of the product used on the London 2012 Olympic Park. The stage will accommodate an orchestra size of up to a 150 musicians and choir, with a front of stage width of 32M, a depth of 20M. The roof cantilevers 15M from the front of the stage and can carry a payload of up to 50T. The stage will incorporate a state-of-the-art ‘Constellation’ sound system, designed and engineered by Meyer Sound. This system will provide an exemplary sound environment on stage for the musicians of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, whilst also providing the technical flexibility required for a variety of other performances, including Pop, Jazz and Film.
The Academy of Ancient Music has promoted its principal second violin, Bojan Cicic, to concertmaster, as of yesterday.
It is dated Vienna, 1907, so just before Mahler lit off for America.
The seller wants $75k.
First the Notos Quartet, then the pianist Igor Levit, objected in the strongest possible fashion to Germany’s ECHO award being given to an act that cracks an Auschwitz joke.
Now, two more classical artists have joined the rejectionists – conductors Enoch zu Guttenberg and Andreas Reiner.
Here’s their message:
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren des Vorstandes Bundesverband Musikindustrie, sehr geehrter Herr Drücke,
im Jahr 2008 wurden dem Orchester KlangVerwaltung und mir für unsere Einspielung der vierten Symphonie von Anton Bruckner ein Echo Klassik verliehen. Meine Kolleginnen und Kollegen des Orchesters und ich haben uns über diese Auszeichnung sehr gefreut und haben bis heute in unseren jeweiligen Viten mit Stolz darauf verwiesen.
Nachdem solch ein Preis nun im Jahr 2018 auch Verfassern von widerwärtigen, antisemitischen Schmähtexten verliehen und noch dazu vom „Ethikrat” Ihres Verbandes bedenkenlos freigegeben wurde, würden wir es als Schande empfinden, weiterhin diesen Preis in unseren Händen zu halten. Das einstige Symbol für gute künstlerische Arbeit hat sich in ein schmutziges Menetekel für eine Entwicklung in unserem Land verwandelt, die uns mit tiefster Sorge erfüllt.
Mit diesem Schreiben teilen wir Ihnen die Rückgabe unser jeweiligen Echopreise mit.
Enoch zu Guttenberg Andreas Reiner
UPDATE: Musician Marius Müller-Westernhagen has returned all seven of his ECHO awards.
And Professor Christian Höppner, President of the Deutscher Kulturrat (German Cultural Council), has resigned from the Echo Prize Ethics Commission after finding a further song by the rappers calling for ‘another Holocaust’.
Jessica Pratt came on for the last two performances of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera this week.
She had been on standby for Olga Peretiatko, who was not outstanding.
This is what happened at Jessica’s curtain:
Jessica is a British-born Australian. In some quarters, comparisons were being drawn with Joan Sutherland, who owned the role.
That big.
The German pianist has come out in support of the Notos Quartet, who gave back their 2017 Echo prize after the 2018 award went to a pair of rappers with an Auschwitz line. Igor has returned the ECHO he received in 2014.
He tweets: ‘It is unbearable that antisemitic slogans are heard on such a platform and an award. It is impossible for me to keep the Echo Klassik, which I received with great pride in 2014.’
