The bitterly contested merger between the SWR orchestras at Stuttgart and Baden-Baden/Freiburg will be forced through, starting Thursday morning. The musicians are unhappy at the outcome and many conductors have kept well away from SWR, unwilling to be caught in the aftermath.
With one exception: the Hungarian, Peter Eotvos. He is given a hard time by Eleonore Büning. Read her in the FAZ today.
Liliane Covington, who joined the Warner Brothers studio orchestra in 1936, aged 19, has passed away at 98.
She liked to reminisce about composers whose scores she premiered (you can hear her on soundtrack to this day):
Max Steiner was my favorite. He was very sweet, and he really knew how to write for the oboe. I remember he always smoked a big cigar and liked to go to Las Vegas to gamble. When he got older his eyesight began to fail and he used a huge stopwatch when he conducted. I also loved Erich Wolfgang Korngold for his magnificent musicianship — and such a lack of false ego! I don’t know, he just didn’t have the ego a man with his talent should have had. He would play the piano for us, to show us how we should play his music, and he would make it sound like an orchestra! Such a talent! I liked Bernard Herrmann, too. He came to Warner’s for a film [The Wrong Man (1956)], but he usually worked over at Fox. And I liked Bernhard Kaun, who sometimes did ghostwriting for Max Steiner. Kaun wrote an oboe concerto for me, but I can’t find it anymore. Heinz Roemheld was another gifted musician, and he did quite a bit of ghostwriting, too. I also liked working for Daniele Amfitheatrof; he was a very gentle and undemanding composer. (Sighs) And then there was Dimitri Tiomkin.
– Not one of your favorites, I take it.
Well, he didn’t like women very much for one thing. I remember our sound-man, David Forrest, used to go crazy because he [Tiomkin] kept asking us to play softer, softer, softer, until finally the voices wouldn’t come through; and it’s very hard to play that softly on the oboe.
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The general manager of the Metropolitan Opera has circulated the following bruised-ego letter, with attachments, to his board, complaining about an essentially pro-Met article:
Dear Fellow Members of the Board,
As you know, The New Yorker recently ran a lengthy article about the Met that unfortunately contained many inaccuracies. In response, we’ve sent the following letter to The New Yorker, which was also read aloud at the most recent Board meeting of March 19th. If you have questions, we would be happy to answer them.
(If you cannot read the small print, the letter is fully transcribed here).Our favourite passage reads:
‘Stewart attempts to give the impression that the Board is divided. In fact, the Board solidly supports Gelb and is united in its commitment to securing the future of grand opera, the Met and its employees.’We assume the letter will appear in the next issue of the New Yorker.
Troubled English National Opera has appointed a crisis-management head of communications from the corporate sector. His salary will amount to the cost of at least one production. He has been self-employed for the past year.
His cv reads:
Influential and experienced corporate communications director with an impressive track record spanning corporate communications, investor relations and sales and marketing. Expert at protecting reputation during intense periods of change and skilled at building strategic alliances to drive business profile and generate revenue in both UK and international markets. Highly experienced at leveraging City, media, government and employee audiences to develop blue chip consumer and business-to-business brands, including: Abbey National plc/Santander UK, British Airways, RSA and Deloitte.
Key areas of expertise:
Reputation management crisis communications
Regulatory, Government, Corporate Governance, CR and Public Affairs
Digital media and marketing
City and Investor Relations
Consulting
Building and developing high performance communications functions
Can’t see the benefit, can you?
press release:
Thomas (Coops) joined the firm yesterday and takes overall responsibility for ENO’s media, external affairs and public affairs activities and internal communications. The appointment is one of several moves being led by ENO’s new Interim CEO Cressida Pollock to develop ENO and create new audiences for opera through English language performances which are enjoyable, accessible and affordable to everyone.
Thomas brings over 20 years of experience in blue chip FTSE 100 corporate communications and investor relations roles. He has held senior communications director roles at British Airways, Deloitte, RSA and Abbey National and was managing director of Weber Shandwick’s financial practice.
Cressida Pollock said: “I’m really delighted that we have secured someone with the experience, insight and track record that Thomas offers.”
Thomas Coops commented: “It is an exciting time to join ENO and I look forward to playing my part in helping to deliver ENO’s ambitious plans”
A bleak BBC interview with Stephen Harrison, artistic administrator at the Düsseldorf/Duisburg company, which is struggling with the loss of Oleg Bryjak and Maria Radner. Listen here.
The Liceu this morning observed two minutes of silence.
Last weekend was tough for David Marecek, chief executive of the Czech Philharmonic. Sunday afternoon he was handling the aftermath of a bus crash that put several of his players in hospital. That evening he was playing Dvorak with the Jerusalem Quartet in the Philharmonic Hall. All in a day’s work. Review here.
Dieter Gorny, head of the Deutsche Musikrat, has been named head of digital at the Federal Ministry of Economy. This would be a wakeup call for a country that blocks more music than it shares.
Gorny, 61, is a former orchestral player who led Essen’s successful bid to become a culture capital.
He was personal copyist to Ralph Vaughan Williams and William Walton, pianist for the LSO in the 1930s, librarian for the BBC Proms during the War and a player in the Tunbridge Wells orchestra for nearly 40 years.
Above all else, Roy Douglas was one of the sweetest, most modest men you could ever hope to meet.
To me, and many others who tapped his infallible memory, Roy could not have been more helpful.
His death has been reported in the local press.
photo (c) Bert Hardy/Photographers Gallery
Meet the new-look Dragon Quartet at its Shanghai debut this week.
More here.
What took him so long?
Press release:
Sir John Eliot Gardiner returns to Wigmore Hall for first time since professional debut there in 1966
4 May 2015
Wigmore Hall, London
Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir make a long-awaited return to London’s Wigmore Hall this May, almost 50 years since he and his newly-formed choir first performed there in 1966. They are joined this time by English Baroque Soloists, formed by Sir John Eliot in 1978, for a programme of Monteverdi, Schubert and Brahms with tenors Krystian Adam and Peter Davoren and soprano Francesca Aspromonte.
The already sold-out performance in London’s premiere chamber music venue is their first UK performance of 2015 in the very venue in which Sir John Eliot Gardiner made his professional conducting debut whilst still an undergraduate at Cambridge University. The programme is repeated in Versailles two days later.
Sir John Eliot Gardiner said:
‘As the hall that saw the London debut of the Monteverdi Choir, I am thrilled to be returning to Wigmore Hall after so many years. Wigmore Hall has firmly established itself as one of the country’s most iconic and atmospheric concert halls, and I am pleased they are welcoming us back with such open arms.’
In a deal reminiscent of the Ewing family, Dallas Opera has swooped for Peter Manning, concertmaster of the Royal Opera House, offering him opportunities both to lead the orchestra and conduct it.
It’s what they call in the City ‘a tailored fit’. And in The Godfather ‘an offer he couldn’t refuse’.
It leaves Covent Garden in a considerable quandary. Its orchestra has been the subject of much criticism lately for hiring too many freelancers on too little rehearsal.
Press release below.
UPDATE from the ROH: ‘Peter Manning is serving as a Guest ConcertMaster and Guest Conductor with Dallas next Season. He still remains a permanent member of the Orchestra of the ROH, and he will be fulfilling the same contractual hours as Concertmaster next Season as with all his previous sixteen Seasons with us.’
DALLAS, MARCH 24, 2015 – The Dallas Opera is delighted to announce the appointment of one of the most esteemed artists on the British classical music scene, Peter Manning, to serve as Guest Concertmaster and Guest Conductor for the company’s landmark 2015-2016 Season.
Mr. Manning will assume the responsibilities of concertmaster for the fall 2015 revival of one of The Dallas Opera’s most beautiful productions: Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, designed by Ulisse Santicchi and conducted by TDO’s acclaimed Music Director Emmanuel Villaume. This inaugural engagement will be followed by a symphonic concert in the spring of 2016 (dates and program to be announced) designed to include both soloist and chorus—also to be conducted by Maestro Villaume. Additionally, Mr. Manning will personally conduct performances in TDO’s extremely popular family subscription series.
Said Dallas Opera General Director and CEO, Keith Cerny: “In keeping with our mission to bring the world’s most talented artists and performers to North Texas, it is a special thrill to invite Mr. Manning to add his legendary talents as a concertmaster and conductor to the upcoming season. It will be a delight to bring him to Dallas to be part of the opera ‘family’, and we are already making special plans for his residency.”
Our chers amis at resmusica.com inform us that Grant Llewellyn has been appointed music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Bretagne (OSB) from the start of next season. Grant, 54, is presently music director at Raleigh, North Carolina. He lives in Cardiff, a short flight from Brittany.
