Everyone has agreed to take a pay cut and work harder. The workers voted 300-7 for the new deal. Play resumes tomorrow with Rusalka.
They’re breaking the ice tomorrow night, but what happened in 2004? And since?
Apparently the last time she played with the orch was December 2004, the Elgar concerto with the late Sir Colin Davis.
Leah Flynn is begging her parents to let her play in the strife-torn town.
One release sold more copies last week than any classical album in any week in the past year.
Almost twice as many as the next contender.
Over 9,000 copies sold in the US, according to the infallible Nielsen Soundscan. 9,106 to be precise.
Cause for celebration?
It’s Christmas at Downton Abbey.
Top of the list is Spotify – surprise, surprise.
#4 is SoundCloud
#8 is Songkick.
But what’s this at #10?
It’s Slipped Disc community partners, Hello Stage!
Check the start-ups list here. Check out Hello Stage right here.
First, that wonderful Grazyna Bacewicz recording.
Then, next Sunday, a whole day contemplating Andrzej Panufnik at Kings Place, London.
I knew Andrzej and liked him a lot. He was open-minded, open-hearted and rigorously principled.
His son, Jem, has made a film that will premiere on Sunday and I will chair a chat afterwards with the rest of the family. Do come.
Click here for tickets and information.
The incoming principal conductor at La Scala Milan is one of the most candid men on the podium, honest with his situation and with himself.
We’ve had a wide-ranging conversation on film for sinfini.com about his life, his work and the massive challenge he faces. There is a short version (click here) about the problems at La Scala, which he describes as the worst in its history, adding, ‘I am not a masochist.’
In the full half-hour film we discuss his memories of Claudio Abbado, Herbert von Karajan, Franco Ferrara and others shaped him. Claudio’s motto was: ‘Keep the door always open.’
Chailly is one of the first to break down barriers between conductors and audience, to explore together new meanings in familiar works. ‘Machine-gun conducting in standard repertoire does not interest me at all,’ he says.
Watch.
James Fountain, 20, a third-year student at the Guildhall School of Music, has been named Principal Trumpet of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
They’re getting younger all the time.
We clicked on a link and found this:
We’re sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our international service and is not funded by the licence fee. It is run commercially by BBC Worldwide, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC, the profits made from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC programmes. You can find out more about BBC Worldwide and its digital activities at www.bbcworldwide.com.
Do you need further help?
Actually, no. If the BBC is now two organisations, public and commercial, the case for maintaining the licence fee is fatally weakened.
There’s a bit of a fuss in Australia over the sacking of the ‘beloved and esteemed’ Artistic Director of the Sydney Youth Orchestra, Max McBride. McBride is a former principal double-bass of the Sydney Symphony and Australian Chamber orchestras, a popular and highly competent teacher.
No cause has been given for his dismissal, but what is giving rise to concern is the ‘deceitful’ way new applicants have been made to pay audition fees to the orchestra believing Max McBride to be in charge, when he was not. Here’s what appears in a petition for the board’s dismissal:
Max was touted on audition marketing collateral as being the Artistic Director without any indication that this arrangement would not continue, and I am disgusted by the way that SYO collected application fees from hundreds of applicants who believed this to be the case. Whilst SYO members have been informed, albeit conveniently after they have wasted time preparing an audition, I am yet shocked at the fact that new applicants have been kept in the dark.
Another case of young artists being ripped off by young artist programs?
Josef Herowitsch, pastor of the Austrian village of Lockenhaus, has died aged 78.
In 1981, he persuaded Gidon Kremer to co-found an adventurous, long-lasting festival in his parish, mostly with emigré artists from Eastern Europe.
‘They send us bishops, who drive people away from attending church,’ said the rebellious Father Herowitsch. ‘Artists bring them back.’
Disney has released a clip of the Hollywood actress going Into the Woods for Stephen Sondheim. The clip is prefaced by the kind of gush you expect on these trailers, but as soon as the movie plays there are flaws that grate the ear. Meryl Streep is a movie actress who sings a bit, not always on the note.
Watch. Listen.
