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.

Oleg-Bryjak

The Liceu this morning observed two minutes of silence.

 

liceu memorial

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.

david marecek

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.

 

Professor Dieter Gorny ist Träger der Moritz Fiege-Bierkutschermütze 2011.

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.

Dr_Ralph_Vaughan_Williams_with_Roy_Douglas__1953_501406218d92e

photo (c) Bert Hardy/Photographers Gallery

Meet the new-look Dragon Quartet at its Shanghai debut this week.

dragon string quartet

More here.

What took him so long?

Press release:

Gardiner-John-Eliot-11

 

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.’

Peter Manning, photographed by Charlie Hopkinson.

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.

grant_llewellyn

And tomorrow, the sun will shine again…

An artist of outstanding quality, lost today with her husband and baby in the Germanwings crash. Maria was 33 years old.

maria radner1

Maria Radner, 33, a fast-rising contralto, made her Met debut in January 2012 in Götterdämmerung at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, followed by Die Frau ohne Schatten at La Scala two months later.

This season she was due to make her debut at Bayreuth under Kirill Petrenko in Rheingold and Götterdämmerung.

Born in Düsseldorf, she studied with Marga Schiml in Karlsruhe.

Oleg Bryjak, 54, originally from Kazakhstan, was ensemble member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf/Duisburg for 19 years. He commanded major bass-baritone roles on all the world’s great stages.

maria radner

The loss of these two fine colleagues in the Germanwings crash today is irreparable.

The Bayreuth Festival and Deutsche Oper am Rhein have issued statements of mourning.

 

The singing world has been devastated today by the loss of two outstanding professionals who were on board the flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf that came down in the Alps.

The Alberich and the Erda of Barcelona’s production of Siegfried – Oleg Bryjak and Maria Radner – were among the losses. We understand that Maria’s husband and baby were also among the victims.

Words fail.

maria radner

Short lives here.

We have been informed of the death of Mary Clarke, long-serving editor of the Dancing Times (1963-2008), ballet critic of the Guardian and London editor of the New York Dance News. She died at her home on Saturday.

Dance won’t be the same without her.

mary clarke