Here’s the Reuters story.

Here’s the Reuters story.

The stations on their tour will include Paris, Berlin, the Beethovenfest in Bonn and (yet to be confirmed) the BBC Proms. And the money is coming from the Pittsburgh region, which needs to raise its international profile.

What puzzles me is this. The tour is about the orchestra. The orchestra is in great shape. Why, then, pay a fortune for two of the most expensive soloists on the circuit – mesdames Anne-Sophie Mutter and Hélène Grimaud – neither of whom gets out of wraps for less than $30,000 and both of whom frequently appear in all the cities where the Pitts will appear?

Do Pittsburgh lack the confidence to play without an expensive dame on stage? Or is the music industry so chicken it won’t dare to present a good band without fancy dressing?

Form where I sit, booking star soloists who add no discernible value acts as a detriment to the orchestra and waste of its sponsors’ money. Agree?

Here’s the press release:

———————————————————————————————————————-

Manfred
Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in Europe 2011

 

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and his
Music Director Manfred Honeck are
returning to Europe from 23 August to 12
September 2011. They will be appearing at 12 concerts in 9 cities including
Rheingau Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Grafenegg Festival,
Musikfest Berlin, Beethovenfest Bonn, Lucerne Festival, Paris and Vilnius,
Lithuania. Additional performances in the UK will be announced at a
later date.

 

Violinist
Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianist Hélène Grimaud will be joining the
orchestra on tour. Programme highlights will include Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.
5, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Mendelssohn’s
Violin Concerto and Rihm’s Violin Concerto.

 

“Touring
Europe with our wonderful musicians is always a special experience for me,” says
Music Director Honeck. “It is fantastic to create music with our world-class
orchestra in some of the finest music halls in the
world.”

 

“I am
excited to return to the music capitals in Europe with the Orchestra and Manfred
Honeck, who both received tremendous accolades on their previous tour”, says
Lawrence Tamburri, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
“Honeck is a master of the core Austro-German repertoire, which historically is
part of the PSO heritage.”

 

The PSO
will also continue its partnership with the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance as an
ambassador for the Pittsburgh region in Europe. In 2006, the PSO and the
Pittsburgh Regional Alliance formed a partnership to leverage the world-class
reputation of the orchestra to market the Pittsburgh region to potential
investors. This first-in-the-nation model has resulted in positive business
investment activity for the region: The management consulting and IT company
SYCOR chose to locate their North American headquarters in Pittsburgh, Delta
Airlines decided to begin direct flights from Pittsburgh to Paris and several
other projects have emerged from the partnership.

 

 

26 August              

Rheingau Musik Festival, Wiesbaden

 

27 August                  

Schleswig-Holstein Musik
Festival,
Hamburg

 

29
August     

Vilnius

 

1/2
September       

Grafenegg
Festival

 

3
September 

Lucerne
Festival

 

7
September 

Paris

 

9/10
September      

Beethovenfest
Bonn

 

11
September        

Musikfest Berlin

 

 

PR² classic – Kreuznacher Str. 63 – 50968
Koeln

Tel: +49 221 38 10 63 – Fax: +49 221 38 39 55
office@pr2classic.de – www.pr2classic.de

 

Well, almost.

In the early years of commercial UK radio, stations were obliged to include educative and improving content, which could mean classical music. Capital, the London station, staged concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. That’s where Tom came in. 

Here’s his story (and don’t miss the conductor kick in the tail).

Margaret Price

 

On Sunday, March 15, 1981 I was rung at
home, Oakwood Court, by Martin Campbell White a Director of Harold Holt Concert
Management.  As it was a Sunday he
apologized but said he had an emergency. They were presenting a performance of
the Verdi Requiem at the Albert Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Claudio Abbado and the engaged mezzo, Lucia Valentini-Terrani had
just cancelled. Did I have an idea for a replacement?  It was a starry cast, Mirella Freni, Jose
Carreras and Nicolai Ghiaurov.

As it happened Margaret Price happened to be
visiting us that Sunday. I remembered Margaret had started her career as a mezzo
[she made her Covent Garden debut as Cherubino]. It was a crazy thought but as
it was with Claudio Abbado and Margaret had sung the Verdi Requiem often I
thought it was worth thinking about.  I
went into the kitchen and told Margaret the situation and asked if she was
interested.  She thought about it for a
few minutes and told me to see what Abbado would think about the idea. I rang
Martin and floated the idea to him and asked him to see what Claudio Abbado
thought.

After an hour or so Martin rang and said
that if Margaret felt comfortable Claudio was happy to have her sing the mezzo
part. So on Tuesday, March 17, 1981 Margaret sang for the first and last time
the mezzo part in Verdi’s Requiem. The concert was broadcast on Capital
Radio.

                                                 (in another Abbado requiem)

I remember two other occasions when Capital
Radio, primarily a ‘pop’ station broadcast serious classical concerts, also
involving last minute replacements.

The elusive and legendary conductor Carlos
Kleiber jumped in and replaced Claudio Abbado in a concert with the LSO on June
9, 1981.  The program was Weber Freichutz
Overture; Schubert Symphony 3 and Beethoven Symphony 7. It was to be Kleiber’s
only concert appearance in London. (Capital also broadcast the Covent Garden
Otello in 1980 when both Margaret Price and Carlos Kleiber were engaged at the
last minute when the opera was changed from Andrea Chenier).