Minutes after announcing a ‘humanitarian’ gift to the opera house in war-torn Donetsk, Anna Netrebko posed with the separatists’ flag and handed her cheque to Oleg Tsaryov, a leading separatist who is under an EU embargo for helping trigger the war in Ukraine. Anna needs to be careful. She could wind up banned by the EU.

Eugene Izotov, oboe, will leave at the end of the season to join San Francisco Symphony.

He follows soon after Matthieu Dufour, principal flute, lit off for Berlin Philharmonic.

To lose one principal is unfortunate. Two starts to look like a trend.

Read here on Chicago Classical Review.

photo (c) Todd Rosenberg

Among pioneers of early instruments, Mahan Esfahani stands out as a vigorous disputant with the consensus of academic correctness on period practice. So his appointment today as professor of harpsichord at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama is not by any means routine. It’s a gauntlet thrown down by the Guildhall at the fusty early-music establishment.

This could be fun.

Jonathan Vaughan, Director of Music, Guildhall School commented: ‘I am delighted to welcome Mahan to the School. As a soloist he has quickly acquired a towering reputation which will inspire our students by example. His breadth of interest in all periods of music, allied to a serious research ethic, engenders an approach to performance that will be embraced by all departments but particularly Keyboard and Historical Performance. As a champion of new music for both solo and ensemble harpsichord we anticipate him working very closely with composition and a variety of instrumentalists’

Mahan Esfahani said, ‘Part of my mission in widening the horizons of my instrument is an investment in young musicians. I am honoured that the Guildhall School has asked me to be involved with nurturing the next generation of harpsichordists.’

Most, I suspect, would pick the Fourth or Seventh, both full of bucolic simplicities and absolute faith in ultimate redemption. Some might choose the Eighth, in the hope that its enormous noise might attract passing shipping.

Myself, I would not want to be without….

I’d better not say which because it’s my Album of the Week on sinfinimusic.com. Click here.

We’ve received news of the death of Kenneth Raskin, associate conductor of the Sacramento Philharmonic and a recent finalist for the top jobs and Illinois and El Paso . Ken was in his 40s. Our sympathies to his family and friends.

The soprano has announced she is giving a million rubles ($19,000) in aid to the opera house in Donetsk, a disputed city whose Russian citizens have voted to secede from Ukraine. The city has come under heavy bombardment from both sides.

Netrebko insists her aid is humanitarian. ‘I have comrades in Donetsk, young musicians, who are living under bombs,’ she said at a St Petersburg press conference. ‘I am not a politician, but I really wanted to lend a helping hand to Donetsk.’

Her motives may be apolitical and well-intention, but making the announcement in Russia was ill-advised. It aligns her with its president’s support for the secessionists. Netrebko is a proud Putinista.

The top headline all day in South Korea has been the struggle at the head of the Seoul Philharmonic between chief executive Park Hyun-jung, who has been accused of bullying and sexual harrassment, and the artistic leadership of Myung Whun Chung, the music director.

Park, a member of the country’s political-industrial elite, has accused the conductor of staging a coup against her. Her supporters in the Korean media describe it as ‘a difference in perspective between a liberal, inefficient art organization and a corporate CEO used to efficiency and productivity.’

Clearly, one of them will have to go. And from what we hear, it’s touch and go which of them will fall.

 vs

That’s the claim.

Mahler’s monster has not been heard in Israel since 1996 or thereabout – with the exception of a Mariinsky performance by Gergiev at his Eilat festival which doesn’t count as it was (a) unrehearsed and ((b) mostly for Russian sun-seekers.

The one I have come to hear is the fulfilment of a life’s dream for Noam Sherriff, doyen of Israeli composers and founder of the Israel Symphony Orchestra, who is about to turn 80. It  is getting three sold-out performances at the opera house in Tel Aviv.  Schools up and down the land have been raided for the choirs and an adult chorus is being flown in from Croatia.

Should be fun. And packed. Details here  (if you read Hebrew).