Forty-eight hours before the nation’s death by 1,000 cuts, members of Arts Council England had not yet been told the depth of pain and penetration. Apparently, the strategy was to go last to the Treasury in the hope of getting off lightly. By this time tomorrow, we shall know the results.
The puzzling bit is what the ACE has been doing during these past four months of preparation for major surgery. Performers and leaders of every art form have raised their voices in warning at the economic, political and social consequences of draining the arts of vital needs. Yet the ACE, which exists to speak for the arts, has been either pusillanimous or silent.
Its chief executive, lifetime civil servant Alan Davie, put up a stuttering showning before parliamentary committees, but then advocacy was never his strength. The real question is where was Liz Forgan, the diehard Labourite appointed as chairman under the last government and still clinging to her seat. Not a public peep has been heard from Dame Liz.
The word from within the Arts Council is that she is keen to keep her job. So is Davie. Have they stayed shtum to save their organisation at the expense of yours?
Deutsche Grammophon and Decca have signed the former Naxos head of marketing Barry Holden to manage their classical catalogues. The move, announced as part of ‘a significant expansion programme for (the) flagship classical labels’ is singular and significant.
Holden was putting cheap classics into gas stations while DG talked of price protection. He signed the England football manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, to front a classical album ahead of a World Cup campaign (inevitably, a loser) and he snapped up dead labels to boost the Naxos cat with high-quality English music of a prior era.
He’s a competitive animal. It could get hot in the bargain basement.
Other label signings – cellist Alisa Weilerstein and soprano Alexsandra Kurzak to Decca, violinist Mikhail Simonian to DG. Lut Behiels is the new director of classical marketing
The driving force behind the expansion is Universal Music Group COO, Max Hole.
Deutsche Grammophon and Decca have signed the former Naxos head of marketing Barry Holden to manage their classical catalogues. The move, announced as part of ‘a significant expansion programme for (the) flagship classical labels’ is singular and significant.
Holden was putting cheap classics into gas stations while DG talked of price protection. He signed the England football manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, to front a classical album ahead of a World Cup campaign (inevitably, a loser) and he snapped up dead labels to boost the Naxos cat with high-quality English music of a prior era.
He’s a competitive animal. It could get hot in the bargain basement.
Other label signings – cellist Alisa Weilerstein and soprano Alexsandra Kurzak to Decca, violinist Mikhail Simonian to DG. Lut Behiels is the new director of classical marketing
The driving force behind the expansion is Universal Music Group COO, Max Hole.
Vera Rozsa, one of the most important singing teachers of the modern era, has died in London, aged 93, her son informs me.
A mezzo-soprano who studied conducting with Zoltan Kodaly, she lost her first husband, Lazslo Weiner, in a wartime labour camp. After liberation she sang in both Budapest and Vienna opera houses until the loss of a lung to the after-effects of wartime pneumonia ended her stage career. Married to a British official, Ralph Nordell, she moved to London in 1954 and became the teacher of choice for two generations of soloists.
Among those who owe her a slice of their lives are Kiri te Kanawa, Ileana Cotrubas, Sarah Walker, Karita Mattila, Dorothea Roschmann, Anne-Sofie von Otter, Francois Le Roux and the late Anthony Rolfe Johnson. Such was her renown at repairing damaged voices that Maria Callas approached her when a planning a late comeback, but the lessons never happened.
A close friend of the conductor Georg Solti and a core member of London’s Hungarian emigre world, she exuded an irrefutable authority on all matters concerning voice production and artistic taste. A facebook memorial page has been started here. The funeral will take place in London tomorrow.
She is seen here with the devoted Sarah Walker.
More photographs a
nd further information to follow
Here’s Kiri, Anne-Sofie and other talking about her on a doc uploaded to youtube.
Vera Rozsa, one of the most important singing teachers of the modern era, has died in London, aged 93, her son informs me.
A mezzo-soprano who studied conducting with Zoltan Kodaly, she lost her first husband, Lazslo Weiner, in a wartime labour camp. After liberation she sang in both Budapest and Vienna opera houses until the loss of a lung to the after-effects of wartime pneumonia ended her stage career. Married to a British official, Ralph Nordell, she moved to London in 1954 and became the teacher of choice for two generations of soloists.
Among those who owe her a slice of their lives are Kiri te Kanawa, Ileana Cotrubas, Sarah Walker, Karita Mattila, Dorothea Roschmann, Anne-Sofie von Otter, Francois Le Roux and the late Anthony Rolfe Johnson. Such was her renown at repairing damaged voices that Maria Callas approached her when a planning a late comeback, but the lessons never happened.
A close friend of the conductor Georg Solti and a core member of London’s Hungarian emigre world, she exuded an irrefutable authority on all matters concerning voice production and artistic taste. A facebook memorial page has been started here. The funeral will take place in London tomorrow.
She is seen here with the devoted Sarah Walker.
More photographs and further information to follow
Here’s Kiri, Anne-Sofie and other talking about her on a doc uploaded to youtube.
