In the good old days, they would skip the coop while on tour – often in Paris or London.

Now the rising pair at Moscow’s Bolshoi, Ivan Vasiliev and Natalia Osipova, have announced they are seeking asylum – in St Petersburg.

Apparently, good order at the Mikhailovsky is preferable to Bolshoi chaos.

Here’s the Pravda version. No defection is official til you’ve read it Pravda.

UPDATE: And here they explain why. Much better range of rep in St Pete, apparently.

I warned you, didn’t I?

This ghastly object rides above the Bärenreiter list of Christmas gifts – the complete organ works of Buxtehude in five volumes for a mere £96.50 ($150), for instance, or a facsimile of Elgar’s cello concerto for just £75 ($110).

Ah, that’s better.

I have received the following notice from a reputable supplier:

Welcome to Aquila Corde Armoniche – Early Music strings section

Caldogno, November 14- 2011

NOTICE

We regret to inform our customers that the production of gut strings is closed both for bad quality of raw material, that since some months is sold to us, and for the strict European legislation, and therefore also Italian, that forbids the production and use of gut  and prohibits not only the use of Italian or European gut , but also the import of raw material extra EU.

We are committed to look for new solutions; we cannot provide assurances, however, that the problem can be solved quickly.

Once we will be able to guarantee a quality that satisfies us, we will advise in our website.

Please be advised that we have already finished existing stock of gut strings and we are not able to meet any exemption request.

 In case you are interested, please note that the office in charge of applying above mentioned norms is :

Ministero della Salute, Dipartimento della Sanità per la Tutela  della sanità Pubblica e Veterinaria, della Sicurezza Alimentazione Ufficio III della DGSAN Dott. Serraino Tiziana

t.serraino@sanita.it

Thank you for being with us throughout all these years.

Mimmo Peruffo

It has to be true, because I read it in the Daily Mail. And she related it herself. But there’s something wrong with the description.

No self-respecting opera fan, obsessed or otherwise, would give more than a passing glance at Ms Jenkins who has never sang more than a three-minute aria without taking a break.

And no Katherine Jenkins fan, whatever his or her degree of obsession, would claim to be an opera buff. These are contradictions in terms.

Sadly, the English language is suffering a terrible defeat at the hands of synthetic singers who are marketed as opera divas.

The naive label, based in France, has a distinctive visual style that, while post-modern to a fault, often complements the classical music it presents in quaint and thought-provoking ways. I wear a soft spot for its design language on my Pierre Cardin and YSL sleeves.

This week, however, my tolerance failed. The cover of a Diotima Quartet recording of works by Reich, Barber and Crumb is a monochrome picture of a hand pointing a gun at a metal grille. The photograph is by Stanley Kubrick, taken from a 1948 Paddy Waggon TV show and licensed by the Museum of the City of New York. It is violent, shocking and inescapably banal.

But it has no contemporary relevance to the music on the disc, which dates from 1935, 1973 and 1987, and nothing to offer the prospective listener except shock value. It’s a cheap and nasty stop-right-there sleeve that cheapens the music and sours its impact. My review here.

Steve Reich has already had to replace this 9/11 cover

with this: 

I wonder what he makes of the Diotima naive release. I don’t expect he or George Crumb was consulted. I’d be interested to hear their views. And perhaps someone at naive would like to offer an explanation?

Having puffed itself all year on the bicentenary of Franz Liszt, the town of Weimar was looking forward to building on its musical celebrity.

Dream on. The German Bundestag has shot down next year’s federal grant bid and the 2012 festival has been shortened by a week. Report here.