Word is coming in that David Pountney, once of the Powerhouse trio (with Peter Jonas, Mark Elder) that ran English National Opera in the 1980s, is being called back as chief executive and artistic director of floundering Welsh National Opera.

Pountney has been doing great things of late on the lake at Bregenz, quite the most spectacular opera fest in the world. But whether he has the energy and innovation to raise Welsh from the mire of poor funding and weak ideas …. well, it’s going to be a big challenge.
The news broke here in German. More follows.
David Pountney verlässt Bregenzer Festspiele in Richtung Cardiff
photo: ©VOL Live / Klaus Hartinger

Pountney is due to direct Lulu in Wales in two years’ time. He recently wrote the Libretto for Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ chamber opera Kommilitonen, which was staged last month at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

It began with a press release early this week, informing me that a Latvian composer of considerable obscurity has been appointed Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge.

His name is ?riks Ešenvalds and his picture appears below. 

The appointment is effectively that of composer in residence. Recent incumbents include Nicholas Maw, Judith Weir, Thomas Adès, Richard Causton and Tarik O’Regan, all fairly well known in Cambridge and around the UK.
So why Eriks?
It so happens that Stephen Layton, Trinity’s director of music, has just released a disc of his music on the Hyperion label. I guess they must get along quite well. Nothing wrong with that.
The choir on the Hyperion recording is Polyphony. Its agent, Paul Nicholson (he runs the group with his wife, Rachel Proud), has been hired as head of the music office at Trinity College. Nothing wrong with that, although some say the job was not advertised.
Trinity College has just built a recording studio in its chapel. Nothing wrong with that, either.
All of this is open, above board and a matter of public record if you care to delve deep enough. But something about it looks a bit cosy. And when Trinity next publishes its accounts there may be a few people who will look very carefully to see that all is as it should be.
As I am sure it is.

The young and very gifted Elias String Quartet are getting ready for the big one – Beethoven, the complete quartets.

But how does a young group get the word out in a market that is half competitive, half indifferent, and when so many other brands are far better known?
Start with the website, launched yesterday. www.thebeethovenproject.com
Get a few heavyweights to blog on it, kicking off with the Lindsay Quartet’s Peter Cropper.
Keep the thing refreshed with new features. Shoot a short film.
Build an audience online. Look and learn.
That’s how. I like these guys. They’re thinking creative.

Press release below.
STARTING – AND SHARING – A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
Now it’s time for Beethoven. Not only is this highly acclaimed quartet
embarking on a three year journey to perform the complete cycle of Beethoven
string quartets, but it is also inviting the public to share the experience with
them via a dedicated interactive website, supported by the Borletti-Buitoni
Trust.
The website, which is launched 30 March 2011, has been conceived by the
Elias String Quartet to encourage a wider audience appreciation of these
masterpieces, some of the most profound works in the string quartet repertoire.

< div>Rather than just hear the finished result on the concert platform, the Elias

players are willing to share their immersion in study, analysis and discovery of
Beethoven in a bid to demystify both the music and how they are preparing for
this huge undertaking.
As well as regular blogs, recordings, video diaries of coaching sessions,
rehearsals and concerts and an interactive forum (Your Beethoven), there will
be contributions from seasoned professionals of the string quartet world. The
Lindsay Quartet’s Peter Cropper, who has played each quartet more than 200
times over the last 30 years, launches the guest contributor page with a highly
personal introduction to this remarkable body of work. Martin Saving, the Elias
viola player, has launched the blog page with How Fast Shall We Play?, a
considered view on the controversial subject of tempi and the metronome.
From 2012 the Elias String Quartet will begin performances of the complete
Beethoven Quartets cycle at venues across the UK including Brighton,
Southampton and Tonbridge, culminating in London for the 2014/15 season. In
the meantime, forthcoming Elias String Quartet concerts featuring some of the
early and middle period Beethoven works within recital programmes include
London’s Wigmore Hall on 19 April, venues in Barnsley, Doncaster, Liverpool,
Portsmouth and Whitehaven throughout May and June and the East Neuk
Festival 2 and 3 July. Beethoven’s later quartets also feature in the 2011/12
season including Wigmore Hall and a Scottish tour.
An introductory film is featured on the website, made by the Borletti-Buitoni
Trust team of camera/editor Graham Johnston and producer David Hoskins,
along with individual video diaries from each of the players about their first
encounters with Beethoven’s works.
Sara Bitlloch, violin: “Along with Haydn, this is the body of work that
encompasses the biggest development in composition.”
Donald Grant, violin: “We’d love our audience to get to know us through this
process of learning these quartets.”
Martin Saving, viola: “You need to approach it with quite a bit of analysis and
study of harmony and structure and form, to get a better understanding.”
Marie Bitlloch, cello: “The Beethoven quartets are like the bible to the string
quartet repertoire …throughout all of them there is every emotion you can go
through. “
Have your say: Go to www.thebeethovenproject.com
Website design: Miles Essex www.milesessex.com
Press information:
Debra Boraston
DBPR
T. 020 7483 1950 M. 07989 434 388
E. debra@henrymoorestudio.co.uk
W. www.bbtrust.com

Alan Davey, the harassed ACE chief executive, faced readers questions online at the Guardian.

One of the readers asked about the attack on ACE allocations by a senior orchestral manager, posted yesterday on Slipped Disc.
Davey’s reply? He dodged every single issue with a classic splash of Whitehall waffle. That must be why he was awarded a 16 percent pay rise last year.
Here’s the question:
Q. I would like to ask Alan Davey some questions posed anonymously by one of our leading orchestra managers on Norman Lebrecht’s blog, Slipped Disc this morning.

The Arts Council promised not to salami slice, though that’s exactly what it did to all the major Symphony orchestras.

1. Where’s the evidence of any real orchestral strategy for the country?

2. Now that the Arts Council have set the grants for the next four years, what’s the point of employing a Music Department? What’s it going to DO?

3. How many more years of monitoring and assessing are there to be without any real change in structure of the orchestral scene which has been fundamentally the same for half a century.

Now stand by for Davey’s reply. Here’s what I posted earlier, whch was a reply to a different question (not that you could tell).

We fund all kinds of art forms and we’re not ashamed of it. We fund everything from symphony orchestras, opera and the National Theatre to small local groups and ensembles, who are the life blood of the arts in this country. They all connect, they are all important, they are all about the integrity and excellence of the art form involved. And it is this ecology of national, local, small and large that we have tried to preserve. London is the home to many of our national arts institutions, whose reach extends to audiences across the whole country, but I agree we need to strike a balance and we have tried to do just that.

And here’s Davey’s double fudge on the orchestras:

It’s important to realise that there is more to our orchestra strategy than the eight symphony orchestras. In respect of them, we have had 8 strong bids from 8 orchestras performing really well at the moment. This hasn’t always been the case. National Council debated this and decided that now was not the time to make major change in the number of orchestras we fund, particularly as they are all working at full capacity and on a very lean business model, that means we get a lot out of the money we put in. I do want to look, over the next four years, at how we realistically fund them to be the best they can be. Change for change’s sake wouldn’t be a good thing to do, as we would be in danger of wrecking a rich inheritance that forms the backbone of musical life in this country.


Et ici Le Monde sur l’ ACE. Quelle horreur!