This is a Riverdance rehearsal for the current tour with Igudesman and Joo, posted by LPO cellist Elisabeth Wiklander.

Click here to enjoy.

There has to be a comeback from the LSO….

We hear from Amsterdam that every available ticket for the premiere run of Gurrelieder has been sold.

It is the first time Gurrelieder has been staged as an opera and the first time – surely – that Arnold Schoenberg has sold out a run in a national opera house. Apart from the seats behind the cameras on two TV nights, every single space in the 1,600-seat house was either sold at full price or allocated to press and management for Pierre Audi’s production. The run opened on September 2 and closes this Tuesday after seven performances and a public general rehearsal.

These are exceptional results – historic, you might agree.

The French tenor says he’s discussing a Lohengrin at Bayreuth, with Anna Netrebko, conducted by Christian Thielemann. ‘If he thinks I can do it,’says Roberto, ‘it’s going to happen.’

He adds that his partner, the international Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, has been helping him with his German. ‘It’s great to have such a fantastic wife,’ he exclaims, in a Vienna tabloid interview.

Yuki Ota, the Chicago-based flute player who survived an early round when a huge butterfly landed on her face, has taken second place in the international Carl Nielsen competition tonight.

The winner is… Sebastian Jacot from Geneva, former principal flute of the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Saito Kinen Festival.

Congrats all round!

After days of controversy over the final lineup – half of whom are her pupils – the eminent violinist Miriam Fried has stepped down from the jury of the International Indianapolis Violin Competition. A statement said her resignation was to avoid any possibility of jury partiality’.

The contest has been mired in controversy since Slipped Disc first raised the possibility of bias earlier this week.

All six finalists are women, five are Korean.

We hear that seven staff were sacked yesterday in the New York office as part of the company’s restructuring.

Three are senior agents –  Kristin Lancino, Stefana Atlas and Allison Pybus – the other four are assistants.

Kristin Lancino (pictured) joined the agency as Executive Director in May 2013. Allison Pybus was Vice President, in charge of a long list of singers. Stefana Atlas, a former assistant to the conductor Kurt Masur, moved from Paris to New York last year to take the job.

It looks like a policy of last in, first out.

The knives come out at the London office next Friday.

As of now, IMG will be slimming down its services to many artists.

Meet Hanna Wollschläger, a Berlin-based big-voiced soprano who dies as much Wagner as she can get, but there’s never enough to go around.

So between times, she’s Gusti. Just Gusti

Are there any who like to have an Oktoberfest Evening ?

Invite me ! Love to come and sing for you.

You think this is naff? There’s more, much worse, from Victor Glez. Click here.

Dr Gerald Stein, a Chicago psychotherapist and symphony buff, has been thinking about the level of emotion it is possible to communicate from the stage without becoming over-emotional. Your weekend reading begins here.

Jan Mracek took the 15,000-Euro first prize in the Vienna Kreisler contest, which ended last night.

Second was William Hagen, third Emmanuel Tjeknavorian.

Jury members were specifically barred from have any of their students in the competition.

Jan is studying at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna  with the concertmaster of the Wiener Symphoniker, Jan Pospichal.

Chicago Symphony has announced another $2 million gift – to add to the $32 million it received a few weeks back.

CHICAGO—Jay Henderson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA), announced today that CSOA Trustee Randy Berlin and her husband, Melvin, have pledged $2 million to the CSOA to create the Randy and Melvin Berlin Family Fund for the Canon. This gift provides support for artistic excellence in the programming of core orchestral repertoire by German and Austro-Hungarian composers—such as Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Schubert and Schumann—for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO).

“All art forms have a core collection of ‘best works’ or ‘canon’—famous and timeless pieces that have remained appreciated over the centuries,” said Randy Berlin. “The deep awe and pleasure we feel for this music of the past enlarges our capacity to connect with the composers from other places and times who transport us through beautiful sound into worlds we never knew and to audiences around the world who share our appreciation. Great art fulfills our urge to make order out of chaos and helps us to be proud of being human. By creating the Fund for the Canon at the CSO, Melvin and I chose to support the masterpieces of core classical orchestral repertoire on which the CSO built its tremendous legacy. It’s an honor for us to help ensure the future performances of this great repertoire by this remarkable Orchestra.”

The concertmaster of the Mannheim Philharmonic has been declared winner of the violin section of the revitalised event in Bucharest.

Stefan Tarara, 28, adds this trophy to a hatful of previous prizes collected over the past three years.

The jury was chaired by Pierre Amoyal.

Stefan’s teacher, Zakhar Bron, was not on it.