Bartoli, the brighest spark on the mountain, has made the Whitsun Festival her own.She signed a new contract today.

Watch. Weep. Rage.

Click here.

The finalists in the flute section of the prestigious Concours Genève are:

Results of the Semi-Final round (candidates selected for the Final round)

	Ms Elena BADAEVA 25 y.o., Russian Federation
	Ms Adriana FERREIRA 24 y.o., Portugal
	Mr. Yubeen KIM 17 y.o., South Korea

Whoever’s doing media for the previously unprepossessing conductor Gianandrea Noseda should be up for a Christmas bonus.

First, they used the desperate New York Times – without a music exclusive all year – to splash a thin story about his threatened walkout from Torino. Then, along with various other soft plants, they splashed the balding maestro across the glossies.

Here’s Gianni in the new Vanity Fair, no less.

In some kind of violin-shop-cum-delicatessen.

photo (c) Nigel Parry

The Toronto Symphony has posted a small surplus for the past financial year – $222,349 on earnings of over $23 million.

‘The deficit era is over,’ declared new chief executive Jeff Melanson. ‘I have never had a deficit in my career.’

Always good to claim credit for your predecessor’s achievement.

The ultimate trigger for Franz Welser-Möst’s walkout from the Vienna Opera was a disagreement over a favourite piece of his, Richard Strauss’s ballet, Josephslegende.

Franz’s walkout left Vienna with many empty nights in its podium. Josephslegende was one of the last to be filled.

This morning they announced it will be conducted by the Finn, Mikko Franck.

The Finnish conductor Mikko Franck, who has already been announced to take over the musical responsibility of “Elektra” (premiere on 29th
March 2015), will also take over from Franz Welser-Möst in the conducting of the ballet premiere of “Verklungene Feste | Josephs Legende” on the 4th February 2015 (repeats 5th, 8th, 9th and 14th February).
With “Josephs Legende”, one of the most exhilaratingly sounding ballet compositions is returning to the Vienna State Opera. Ever since the
choreographic version was created for the Vienna State Opera Ballet in 1977 by John Neumeier, “Josephs Legende” counts as one of the pieces
which are directly connected to the “Vienna Ballet”. “Verklungene Feste”, which was also included within the premiere of John Neumeier’s
new version of “Josephs Legende” in 2008, completes the work to produce an evening of ballet dedicated to Richard Strauss.
The soloist couples in “Verklungene Feste” are Maria Yakovleva and Vladimir Shishov, Liudmila Konovalova and Davide Dato, Kiyoka Hashimoto and Masayu Kimoto, Irina Tsymbal and Mihail Sosnovschi as well as Eszter Ledán and Robert Gabdullin. In “Josephs Legende”, Denys Cherevychko is Joseph, Kirill Kourlaev is the Angel, Roman Lazik is Potiphar and Rebecca Horner is Potiphar’s wife.

Handel on the escalator.