An impassioned op-ed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung today call for a halt to the forced merger between the southwest radio orchestra in Stuttgart and its more adventurous rival in Baden-Baden (where Pierre Boulez has a home).

The petition is an extraordinarily public outburst in the private, consensual world of German orchestra management. Public demonstrations are planned tomorrow in Baden-Baden and elsewhere. The SWR boss, Peter Boudgoust, is being depicted as the archetype bureaucratic philistine.

Here’s the list of signatories (more maestros than you’ve ever seen on one sheet since Ronald Wilford gave up active management):

David Afkham

Guido Ajmone-Marsan

Gerd Albrecht

Marc Albrecht

Alain Altinoglu

Stefan Asbury

Moshe Atzmon

Roland Bader

Hermann Bäumer

Serge Baudo

George Benjamin

Hans Michael Beuerle

Herbert Blomstedt

Pieter-Jelle de Boer

Fabrice Bollon

Ivor Bolton

Pierre Boulez

Martyn Brabbins

Alexander Briger

Sylvain Cambreling

Carmen Maria Cârneci

Robert Casteels

Friedrich Cerha

Gabriel Chmura

Myung-Whun Chung

David Robert Coleman

Denis Comtet

Teodor Currentzis

Joshard Daus

Thomas Dausgaard

Dennis Russell Davies

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

Jacques Delacôte

Andreas Delfs

Kasper de Roo

Jean Deroyer

Christoph von Dohnányi

Klaus Donath

Charles Dutoit

Christoph Eberle

Sian Edwards

Titus Engel

Roger Epple

Peter Eötvös

Asher Fisch

Ádám Fischer

Thierry Fischer

Tilo Fuchs

Hortense von Gelmini

Michael Gielen

Johannes Goritzki

Clytus Gottwald

Konstantia Gourzi

Eivind Gullberg Jensen

Leopold Hager

Friedrich Haider

Michael Halász

Johannes Harneit

Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Olaf Henzold

Pablo Heras-Casado

Peter Hirsch

Heinz Holliger

Rupert Huber

Eliahu Inbal

Pietari Inkinen

Neeme Järvi

Marek Janowski

Johannes Kalitzke

Kirill Karabits

Peter Keuschnig

Bernhard Klee

Roland Kluttig

Bernhard Kontarsky

Ton Koopman

Kazimierz Kord

Gérard Korsten

Dieter Kurz

Franz Lang

Yoel Levi

Alexander Liebreich

Wolfgang Lischke

Brad Lubman

Michael Luig

Susanna Mälkki

Othmar M. F. Mága

Diego Masson

Mark Mast

Farhad Mechkat

Cornelius Meister

Jacques Mercier

Ingo Metzmacher

Alicja Mounk

Rainer Mühlbach

Christoph-Mathias Mueller

Uwe Mund

Kent Nagano

Günter Neuhold

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Ulrich Nicolai

Grzegorz Rafael Nowak

Arnold Östman

Gabor Ötvös

Franck Ollu

Kazushi Ōno

Krzysztof Penderecki

Alejo Pérez

Robert HP Platz

Emilio Pomàrico

Pierre-Dominique Ponnelle

Christoph Poppen

David Porcelijn

Christof Prick

Hans-Martin Rabenstein

Manfred Reichert

Burkhard Rempe

Peter Richter de Rangenier

Helmuth Rilling

Pascal Rophé

Peter Rundel

Donald Runnicles

Pablo Rus Broseta

Peter Ruzicka

Oswald Sallaberger

Thomas Sanderling

Nello Santi

Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Heinrich Schiff

Urs Schneider

Hanns-Martin Schneidt

Eberhard Schoener

Michael Schønwandt

Holger Schröter-Seebeck

Uri Segal

Leif Segerstam

José Serebrier

Leo Siberski

Nicolas Simon

Stanisław Skrowaczewski

Sir William Southgate

Christopher Sprenger

Alois Springer

Jonathan Stockhammer

Yoav Talmi

Arturo Tamayo

Michael Tilson Thomas

Francis Travis

Wolfgang Trommer

Mario Venzago

Ilan Volkov

Edo de Waart

Hans Wallat

Volker Wangenheim

Ralf Weikert

Günther Wich

Gerhard Wimberger

Jürg Wyttenbach

Lothar Zagrosek

Hans Zender

David Zinman