… Finland.

 

susanna malkki

The Helsingin Sanomat critic Vesa Siren has been looking at the fees for chief conductor in his town, after the announcement that Susanna Mälkki is to take over the Philharmonic from John Storgards.

Vesa has worked out that the Helsinki Philharmonic pays its chief between 10,000 and 15,000 Euros per concert (US $13,000-15,000) and a half-fee for repeats.

Nice work if you can get it. Outside of France and the major German cities, this would seem to be in the upper range of European fees for 2014. Vesa reckons it is average for Nordic capitals.

Let us know if you have further information.

Guy Traviss, the editor of Classical Guitar magazine who’s coming round tomorrow to do some filming, has come up with a remarkable video of Macca getting his fingers around a piece of Bach. Sir Paul was working at the time with Carlos Bonell on a classical guitar concerto.

He demonstrates, among other secrets, how Bach lies at the heart of the Beatles’ song Blackbird.

paul mccartney carlos bonell