In a sign that Andris Nelsons is breaking the Boston mould, the music director has just named Thomas Adès to the new position of artistic partner for the next three seasons.
The pair worked together in Birmingham, Andris’s previous job.
Andris said today: ‘It is incredibly exciting for me and my beloved BSO that the exceptional Thomas Adès will join us as Artistic Partner and work very closely with us to create fascinating programs for our devoted audiences here in Boston, at Tanglewood, and, through broadcasts and recordings, around the world. Universally regarded as one of the most creative souls in the world of classical music today, Thomas Adès and his accomplishments are extraordinary. As the BSO’s Artistic Partner, Thomas will be involved with the orchestra on every level of his outstanding talents as a composer, conductor, pianist, and teacher. There is no doubt that he will inspire all of us at the BSO to ever greater achievements, which we hope will become special gifts for all of those who so love listening to the musicians of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.’
photo (c) Chris Christodoulou/LebrechtM&A
The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced this year’s awards in music.
Nikolaus Bachler has announced he will step down as Intendant of Bavarian State Opera in 2021, coinciding with the departure of his music director Kirill Petrenko for the Berlin Philharmonic.
Bachler will be 70 that year. He has been in charge at Munich since 2008.
A North London mother has pulled her boy out of school for fear his piano playing will be damaged by compulsory football.
Hayley Bushell says Curtis, 12, suffered a left arm sprain and concussion during rugby lessons. The boy previously competed in Britain’s Got Talent. His mother is a piano teacher.
Curtis has now been transferred to a gentle theatre school.
Molly-coddled?
A statement by the Salzburg Festival in tribute to Nikolaus Harnoncourt admits what had previously been denied with great vehemence – that the festival had accepted a demand by Herbert von Karajan that his former orchestral cellist should not conduct there in his lifetime.
Harnouncourt taught and performed at the Mozarteum from the 1970s but was not admitted to the Festival roster.
The Mozarteum Foundation was also responsible for his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic. After all, Herbert von Karajan did not want him to appear at the Festival during his lifetime.
The Festival then goes on to blur the record:
Karajan and Harnoncourt – those were separate musical worlds. However, they did have one thing in common: they were both after truthfulness in music. Both remained seekers throughout their entire lifetimes, but their searches took radically different paths.
Truthfulness?
The great conductor will be laid to rest this Saturday in a private ceremony at his parish church in St. Georgen.
In Vienna, the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde will celebrate his life and work on April 16 in the Musikvereinssaal.
(c) Marion Kalter/Lebrecht M&A
State auditors have exposed a huge deficit at BR, amounting to 100m Euros over the years 2010-14.
The BR symphony orchestra, radio orchestra and chorus amount to just over 25 percent of the network’s costs.
The record label BR-Klassik has clocked up a 491,000 Euros loss.
There will be a reckoning to come.
Weeks after the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra appointed Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla as its next music director, its offshoot the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group has appointed a new artistic director.
He’s extremely well connected. Stephan Meier – percussionist, conuctor, composer – is presently artistic director of Hanover’s Das Neue Ensemble, which he founded in 1993. His ensemble has worked with Earle Brown, Wolfgang Rihm, Carola Bauckholt, Johannes Schöllhorn, Mark André and Helmut Lachenmann. Meier is also chairman of Musik 21, a national network for new music in Germany.
Meier, who succeeds Stephen Newbould, will remain artistic director of Das Neue Ensemble while leading BCMG.
This is Brett Easton Ellis’s idea of how to draw a new audience to opera. It was commissioned by the Paris Opéra.
