April 4, 2011 - Slippedisc

The premier Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire has announced his withdrawl from concerts with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, which has sacked half its musicians in a reaudition dispute. His withdrawal follows that of Cristina Ortiz yesterday.

The soloists appear to be starting a solidarity movement with the orchestral musicians.

I received the following note indirectly from Freire’s office:

This morning, pianist Nelson Freire cancelled his concerts in August 2011 with Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira. “Having followed the sad news about mass dismissal of musicians, Nelson Freire has cancelled his appearance in August with Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira”.

Nelson, whose first appearance with OSB was in 1956, arrived this morning in Paris, where he plays three times this week – on Wednesday, in a benefit concerto for Japan; an two times at Salle Pleyel.

http://www.deccaclassics.com/ontour/?ART_ID=FRENE

Nelson Freire, o pianista com a mais longa história com a Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira: 55 anos ( com a orquestra pela primeira vez em 1956) acaba de cancelar os concertos desta temporada.

Tendo companhado as noticias através de todos os jornais, o pianista Nelson Freire decidiu cancelar os compromissos com a OSB em 2011, chocado com a demissão em massa dos músicos. Ele chegou hoje (4/4) a Paris, e se apresenta três vezes nesta semana – na quarta, num concerto em benefício das vitimas do terremoto no Japão; dia 8, um concerto na Salle Pleyel (tocando o Concerto n. 2 de Chopin) e dia 11, um recital na mesma Salle Pleyel; e nas próximas semanas em Genebra, Grenoble, Lyon e na Itália.

It looks like it …

According to this breaking story, they could be playing again as soon as next weekend.

The reporter’s name, by the way, is Stryker. He is studiously neutral.

LATE EXTRA: This from the Detroit musicians’ site within the past hour

MDSO wishes to announce that it has reached tentative agreement with DSO management. The orchestra will meet to discuss the offer and take a ratification vote in the next few of days. Please stay tuned.

LATE EXTRA: This from the Detroit musicians’ site within the past hour

The reconstituted Classic (formerly Classical) Brits have announced their first award.

The Artist of the Decade is… sound of envelope ripping …. Il Divo!!!!!

Apparently they have sold 25 million records worldwide and are signed to Simon Cowell’s label.

Cowell pulls most significant strings in the sad old music business these days.

So the four boys in bland are crowned as epochal artists.

Emigrations to another planet are expected to rise exponentially.

The Salzburg summer festival is suffering the first of its annual embarrassments with a spate of allegations linking the man invited to give its opening lecture, Swiss sociologist Jean Ziegler, to the tottering Libyan dictator.

Ziegler, an anti-globalisation activist who was invited to speak at Salzburg on the topic of hunger, founded the Gaddafi Human Rights Prize in 1989 and was awarded it himself in 2002.

Ziegler, 76, describes the attacks on him as slanderous and linked them to the festival’s major sponsors, Nestlé and Credit Suisse. ‘That’s how fat cats operate,’ he told Austrian Radio.

Ziegler now describes Gaddafi as a psychopath and mass murderer.

The invitation, however, has been withdrawn.

Given the past record of the two Swiss sponsors, hunger might not have been the cleverest theme for Salzburg to choose. And given Ziegler’s pronounced anti-Americanism, he was pretty much guaranteed to infuriate an influential audience sector.

Sound like a complete collapse of curatorial intelligence in the festival office.

This is Mr Ziegler.

This is the Salzburg audience.

And this is what they won’t be discussing.