An interesting new pair of chiefs has been chosen to succeed Luc Bondy at the head of the Vienna Festival next year.

Markus Hinterhäuser, formerly concerts programmer at Salzburg, is a professional chamber musician who used to be Brigitte Fassbaender’s accompanist. He’s right up-to-the-minute in contemporary music, building big audiences in Salzburg for esoteric composers like Sciarrino, Furrer and Scelsi.

His co-director is even more interesting. Turkish born, Shermin Langhoff is one of the most out-there directors in German theatre, working in a multicultural district of Berlin with an intense focus on immigrant issues.  Here’s a Deutsche Welle video on her.

Dull it won’t be.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has announced its first post-James Levine season.

The next music director is likely to be chosen from these debut visitors:

Riccardo Chailly

Jiri Belohlavek

Andris Nelsons

Jaap van Zweeden.

Chailly has a full two weeks of performances. As I reported two years ago, he’s the favourite and, for Boston, the natural choice.

The outstanding countertenor James Bowman will give his final Wigmore Hall recital on May 21. I have been listening to him there for half my life and I can’t believe I’ll never hear him there again, but James is pushing and that’s a wise time to go. Oh, my veni, veni, venis long ago…

With typical generosity, he is sharing his farewell with the fast-rising Iranian-American harpsichordist, Mahan Esfahani.

Purcell, Handel and Bach…mmm. Book here.

The BBC Proms have opened for business…. and, boy, is it busy.

All the seated tickets for Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra sold out within three hours.

Verdi’s Requiem and Havergal Brian’s gargantuan the Gothic Symphony have also all gone, says BBC News.

Here’s the booking link. And here’s the press release.

The Royal Albert Hall is located in South Kensington, facing onto Hyde Park.

376 tickets sold every minute during first hour of BBC Proms booking

85,921 tickets sold in first day of booking shows that BBC Proms is as popular as ever

Booking for the BBC Proms 2011 opened today (Saturday 7 May) and 85,921 tickets were sold within the first 12 hours. This is a 7.39% increase compared with last year, when 80,000 tickets were allocated during the first day (which included one extra hour of booking).  39,348 individual orders for tickets were processed, compared with 36,406 in 2010, showing that more people than ever are being enticed by the broad range of concerts on offer at the Proms.

71,808 tickets were sold online, while the remainder were purchased by music-lovers who used telephone or postal booking, or went to the Royal Albert Hall in person.

The introduction of a new, fairer and fully integrated live booking system in 2010 helped the BBC Proms secure record attendances across last year’s festival. In total 313,000 tickets were sold in 2010.

Roger Wright: Director, BBC Proms and Controller, BBC Radio 3, says:
“The Proms remain the world’s largest music festival and the demand for tickets on the first day of booking has been extremely high. We’re delighted that so many people have been able to get their tickets successfully and look forward to welcoming them to the Proms this summer. It’s worth reminding people that there are still tickets available for the vast majority of events and also encourage them to try for returns, come and Prom on the day, or listen and watch on the BBC.”

All seated tickets for Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra (5 August) sold out within three hours, quickly followed by Verdi’s Requiem (24 July). Seated tickets for  Havergal Brian’s gargantuan The Gothic Symphony (17 July)  have also now sold out – though up to 1,400 £5 Promming tickets are released on the day of each concert. Tickets for the vast majority of other events are still available.

Jasper Hope, Chief Operating Officer, Royal Albert Hall said:
“After the incredible success of last year’s launch of the Hall’s online ticketing system for the BBC Proms, we are very pleased to see even more people this year having taken advantage of the opportunity to buy tickets on the first day.  The Proms has always been about bringing the very best classical music to the widest number of people and we’re delighted to have proved not only our ability to host the festival but also to facilitate the enormous undertaking of ticketing it in such a fair way and to so many.”

For further information, please contact:
Madeleine Castell
madeleine.castell@bbc.co.uk

Vladimir Krainev, who had a concerto written for him by Alfred Schnittke and trained many fine Russian pianists, has died in Hanover, aged 67. His class there was restricted, almost without exception, to international prize winners.

His wife, Tatiana Tarasova, won nine Olympic golds at figure skating and is a teacher of comparable repute on ice; she survives him.

Here’s an interview he gave some years back in Kiev. And here’s him playing a Chopin Scherzo on Youtube.

Rest in peace.

The man who played trumpet in Penny Lane is no more.

David Mason was 84, leukaemia the cause.

George Martin signed him for the session after Paul McCartney saw Mason playing in Bach’s second Brandenburg Concerto on BBC TV.  Mason was principal trumpet in the Royal Philharmonic, among other London orchestras, and professor at the Royal College of Music.

The only obit so far is in the Los Angeles Times, here.

Brass Musician site has a comprehensive video report.