Breaking: Rattle's rival grabs his Salzburg slot

Christian Thielemann and the Dresden Sattaskapelle will replace Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic at the Easter Festival from 2013, the Mayor of Salzburg has announced.

That’s terrific news for Salzburg and its resourceful director Peter Alward. It’s also a kick in the teeth for the Berliners, who were beaten out of sight by Thielemann and Dresden in the TV ratings at Christmas and have now yielded them an important stronghold.

It’s also not bad news either for slipped disc, which broke the Thielemann-Salzburg negotiations exclusively here on May 25.

The deal was made possible, Der Standard has just reported, by the Vienna State Opera releasing Thielemann from a Lohengrin he was due to conduct in the spring of 2014. Alward must have called in some heavy favours, but he comes out of this a big winner in the eyes of Salzburg’s audience and major sponsors. Thielemann is hugely popular in German speaking countries.