The excellent Louisa Tuck, principal cello of the Northern Sinfonia, has won the top seat in the Oslo Philharmonic. She starts in November. We congratulate them both.

George Cleve, who conducted all the major US orchestras and was music director in San Jose until the symphony went bust, has died at the age of 79.

Vienna born, his middle name was Wolfgang.

He told the local newspaper: “Orchestras are dying left and right, and I don’t really know what the end is going to be. I’m a believer that people will ultimately realize that they need the arts. It’s not just a luxury at all. I think it’s an absolute spiritual necessity to have the arts, and music in particular, because it’s such a consoling, nurturing, international way of communicating.’

Full obit here.

Early in his career, the controversial German conductor gave an insight on his priorities to our featured interviewer, Bruce Duffie. This is the second in a short series of Duffie interviews.

‘Opera conducting is more an adventure than concert conducting.  And don’t forget a concert usually is from 8 to 10.  An opera like Rosenkavalier begins maybe at 6 and ends at 11.  Tristan is longer, and Götterdämmerung is, my God, six hours!

‘I don’t like to talk about money, but I get the same for Rosenkavalier (as for) a concert.  You don’t make music to make money.  That’s not right, but an opera like Rosenkavalier is so exhausting that you cannot imagine.  You as a conductor have to get them all together.  Sometimes they are not very exact, and you must be friendly since you have to keep it together — which sometimes can be quite hard.’

Read the full interview here.