The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra plays in an acoustic hellhole in Poole. It has longed for years to have a hall in the town whose name it bears. Now it seems the conductor Kirill Karabits may have persuaded Bournemouth’s council leader by taking him to hear Bilbao’s 100 million Euro new hall. Bournemouth may beat London to a decent hall. Read here.

Joel Levine, who founded the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in 1988 and conducted it ever since, will step down in 2018, it was announced today.

Decca have signed the Borodin Quartet to record the Shostakovich cycle of 15. That’s bold. Thee Borodins have been around with various players for 70 years. Press release follows:

Celebrating a milestone 70th anniversary year, the world-leading Borodin Quartet has signed to Decca Classics for a major series of recordings of the music of Shostakovich.

The centrepiece of this landmark season will be the composer’s complete works for string quartet – starting with the release of String Quartets 1, 8 and 14, plus the Two Pieces for String Quartet (Elegy and Polka) on 23 March.

This album will launch a comprehensive series of recordings that will include Shostakovich’s String Quartets 1–15, the String Quartet Movement in E flat major (“Unfinished Quartet”), the Piano Quintet in G minor, op.57, and Podrugi (“Girlfriends”) for string quartet, trumpet and piano. All the recordings will be made in high-definition 24bit/96kHz.

No quartet performs Russian repertoire better than the authoritative players of the Borodin Quartet – Shostakovich himself personally supervised the ensemble’s study of each of his quartets and a profound understanding of his music has been passed down through the generations.

Decca Classics Managing Director Paul Moseley welcomed the signing:

“The Borodin Quartet is probably the world’s oldest quartet, and though the personnel has inevitably changed, its sound and style remain unique. In 1962 Decca made its first commercial recording in the West and now we are delighted to announce its first complete digital Shostakovich cycle. Thanks to the composer’s personal involvement with the original players, the Borodins’ performances of his work are still unrivalled in both their authority and their intensity.”

Whichever party holds power after the election, the mandarinate of Whitehall has decided that the Department of Culture, Media and Sport ought to be abolished. We happen to agree, although for different reasons.

The DCMS has been a disaster for the arts. Its abolition might bring a restoration of independent thought. Read here.

The implications have started to sink in. In their eagerness to land Simon Rattle before he responded to an American vacancy, the London Symphony Orchestra have awarded him the title of Music Director. He is the first to hold it. All past chiefs of the LSO have been Principal Conductor, with essential powers remaining in players’ hands.

The official list:

Principal Conductor

Hans Richter
Sir Edward Elgar

Arthur Nikisch
Sir Thomas Beecham*

Albert Coates

Willem Mengelberg*

Sir Hamilton Harty

Josef Krips
Pierre Monteux
Istvan Kertesz
Andre Previn
Claudio Abbado

Michael Tilson Thomas

Sir Colin Davis
Valery Gergiev

What’s the difference?

In modern parlance, the music director is responsible for every programme, every guest conductor, every artistic decision. He also has the power to hire and fire players. The LSO players who own the company, have guarded this power fiercely to themselves, firing past chiefs over such differences.

If they have now given Rattle the ultimate say on personnel, they will have surrendered their virtue on the first date and will begin the relationship from a position of disadvantage. This is not the LSO we know. We await the details of the deal, but it’s starting to look as if they have given away a lot in the heat of passion.