It’s in the Daily Telegraph, here:
The Guardian matched it with an inside-column obit, postage-stamp picture and no detail of his transformation of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Newspapers have fallen very long way behind the pace of life and death.
He has cancelled Rheingold and Trovatore at the Met.
Expects to be fit for Wozzeck and Walküre.
Terse press release just out. It’s little over a month since
he quit as music director in Boston.
The American Federation of Musicians has made a formal representation in the ongoing orchestral standoff in Rio during the hours of Barack Obama’s visit.
The AFM objects to the
reaudition process that is being forced on the OSB musicians and describes those in charge of the Brazil Symphony Orchestra – director Eleazar de Carvalho jr. and conductor Roberto Minczuk – as tyrants. That does not augur well for any tour or career plan they might wish to pursue in North America.
The same constraint may also apply to the foreign musicians who have been brought in as ‘evaluators’ in the audition process. Here’s the letter:
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF MUSICIANS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
1501 BROADWAY, STE 600
NEW YORK, NY 10036
March 18, 2011
Sr. Eleazar de Carvalho
President da Fundacao Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira
Av. Rio Branco, 135 sala 915
Centro Rio de Janeiro 20040-006
Dear Sir:
The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada stands firmly in support of our musical brothers and sisters in the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra!
Musicians throughout the world have learned of the unfortunate circumstances that now exist in the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra and are extremely disappointed to learn that members of the Orchestra have been issued an order to participate in “performance evaluations”. If Director Roberto Minczuk chooses to follow the path of histories dictatorial and tyrannical conductors he will be remembered as such and he will not be welcome in front of American orchestras. We do not believe that the famous Brazilian Symphony Orchestra is of the same character.
Tyrannical behavior is hostile, humiliating and intimidating. Daily we witness people, throughout the world, freeing themselves from dictatorial rule. It is disappointing to see professional musicians in Brazil being subjected to such devastating, unprofessional an inhumane treatment. There must no longer be fear of tyrants anywhere in the world and especially in the beautiful and creative world of the arts.
An orchestra is the living instrument of the conductor. He/she must treat such an instrument with respect and nurture it to perform well. Without such treatment the orchestra, regardless of the individual level of performer, will never perform to its highest potential. A successful mark of a Music Director is how he leads, and nurtures; not in how he dictates! Musicians are dedicated artists who train for many years. Their performance is reviewed every time they appear on stage. Musicians cannot be creative or fully expressive under duress.
We encourage you to do all in your power to halt such egregious action. Please engage the musicians in productive dialogue as they are the family within your musical community.
Most Sincerely and Respectfully;
CHRISTOPHER DURHAM, DIRECTOR
SYMPHONIC SERVICES DIVISION
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF MUSICIANS
1501 BROADWAY, SUITE 600
NEW YORK, NY 10036
212-869-1330 EXT. 1-220
646-269-3760 = CELL
CDURHAM@AFM.ORG
Glyndebourne opens May 21 with its first-ever realisation of the founder’s dream – a full Meistersinger with a crack team. Move over, Bryn Terfel. My money’s on the Canadian Sachs.
Creative
team:
Conductor
Vladimir
Jurowski
Director
David McVicar
Designer
Vicki
Mortimer
Lighting
Designer Paule
Constable
Movement
Director Andrew
George
Fight
Director Nicholas
Hall
Cast:
Hans
Sachs Gerald
Finley
Walther
von Stolzing Marco
Jentzsch
David
Topi
Lehtipuu
Sixtus
Beckmesser Johannes
Martin Kränzle
Eva
Anna
Gabler
Magdalene
Michaela
Selinger
Veit
Pogner Alastair
Miles
Fritz
Kothner Henry
Waddington
Kunz
Vogelgesang Colin Judson
Konrad
Nachtigall Andrew Slater
Balthasar
Zorn Alasdair
Elliott
Ulrich
Eisslinger Adrian
Thompson
Augustin
Moser Daniel Norman
Hermann
Ortel Robert
Poulton
Hans
Schwarz Maxim
Mikhailov
Hans
Foltz Graeme
Broadbent
A
Nightwatchman Mats Almgren
London Philharmonic
Orchestra
The
Glyndebourne Chorus
There are free tickets going to hear an orchestra of the best music students in London this Thursday with the brilliant cellist Guy Johnston.
Email
Rebecca@grangeparkopera.co.uk and she will reserve you TWO
FREE SEATS.
Here’s the blurb:
Orion Symphony Orchestra
Discovery!
Toby Purser conductor
Guy Johnston cello
Robert Poulton baritone
Programme:
Britten: Four Sea Interludes, from Peter Grimes
Elgar: Cello Concerto
Attrib. Stravinsky: Song of the Volga Boatmen (world premiere)
Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances Op. 45
Mussorgsky, orch. Landers: On the River (world premiere)
A Stravinsky premier – we think! Orion performs a long-lost orchestration of the Song of the Volga Boatmen, believed to be by Stravinsky, but still awaiting authentication. Conductor Toby Purser is totally convinced, but we want your opinion – come and be part of an audience vote saying whether you agree. The concert also launches Orion’s Great Young Soloists Series with Guy Johnston, BBC Young Musician of the Year 2000.
SAPPORO SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA ANNOUNCES
BENEFIT CONCERT FOR
JAPAN EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS
SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
LONDON 23 MAY 2011 7.30pm
21 March 2011: The Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, supported by Askonas Holt Ltd and Southbank Centre, announced today that its London concert is to be a benefit event for the victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on 11 March. The entire proceeds from ticket sales will go directly to the Japanese Red Cross Society and the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund, both of which are distributing aid to help people in the affected areas.
The London concert is part of the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra’s 50th anniversary tour this May under the baton of its longtime Principal Conductor Tadaaki Otaka with a programme of Takemitsu’s How low the Wind, Bruch’s Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor – with celebrated Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai – and Shostakovich’s Symphony No 5 in D minor.
Tadaaki Otaka commented: “It was an unforeseen and terrible disaster, from which all Japanese people are working extremely hard to recover. We, the musicians, wish to turn our London appearance into a charity concert in aid of the vital relief efforts in our country. Please join us and help Japan.”
Toshio Miyazawa, General Manager of the Orchestra added: “Japan has faced the most disastrous earthquake ever experienced, and we would like to express our sincere appreciation to people in the UK and all over the world for their encouragement and sympathy. With the goodwill of all people concerned, our London concert is now a benefit event for the victims. We appeal to music lovers to support us in this; with deepest gratitude for their generosity, we will perform our very best.”
Not only is this a rare opportunity for London audiences to hear one of Japan’s leading orchestras, they can now show their support for the people of Japan tragically affected by this huge natural disaster.
ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Tickets £10-£35 Box Office T.0844 875 0073 www.southbankcentre.co.uk
The soprano Anna Netrebko has added an interactive feature to her website by which fans can ask all the things they really want to knowl like
– what really happened between you and Rolando that made him crash out?
– do you ever get, er, really hot on stage?
– have you got a Sam Cam handbag? what, not yet?
– do you bank offshore in Panama, like Placido?
– do you ever listen to those idiots at the record company who are paying for this website?
Ah well, dream on.
The permitted questions are of stultifying banality:
“Which songs do you sing most often to your son as a lullaby? And what does Erwin sing? Do you sometimes both sing to him together?” -Pedro Ciarlini, Brazil
“Which opera would you recommend to attract young people to this art form? And why? Or is it not possible to give a single suggestions?”-Tomas Piesl,
“Which place on earth do you like the most?”-Rado Radic, Slovakia …
And so on….. Anna answers each of them with thoughtful consideration, occasionally glancing aside to check with an invisible media advisor in her kitchen.
This is celebrity culture at its most stainless.
Nothing has so magnetized serious attention in the television room as the Danish cop serial The Killing – well, nothing really since the Swedish cop serial Wallander, and nothing before that since the Swedish cop film serial Stieg Larsson. The Killing has had such sensational success in Europe that it is being remade for US TV, shot in Vancouver and airing April 3.
What is it about writers from the northern latitudes? Simple, they write serially.
The craft of writing, both words and music, is geared not to the one-off that is the staple of Anglo-American culture and entertainment but to an idea that can be explored around many angles week by week, year by year, through the endless winters.
It not just cops and crime. Composers write strings of symphonies and build an audience through their lives. The Fiin, Kalevi Aho, is about to premiere his 15th in Manchester this coming Saturday (tickets
here).
Each symphony, for Aho, is a building block. We may never find out whodunnit but we are richly engaged by the process. Aulis Salinnnen, his compatriot, has written eight.
Among the Danes, Per Norgaard has written seven, Poul Ruders four. The Swede Allan Pettersson wrote 16. Leif Segerstam, the indefatigable Finn, has written no fewer than 239 symphonies at the last count.
A symphony is like a novel: it take at least a year out of your life (Segerstam excepted). It is a massive undertaking.
Nowhere on earth are symphonies being written with such persistence as in the northern latitudes. They call on many of the same ingredients – patience, structure, tension – as cop serials. If The Killing has got you gripped, try Kalevi Aho’s new symphony on Saturday.
