We hear that Daniele Gatti has pulled out of next week’s concerts and a recording with the Vienna Philharmonic and  Jonas Kaufmann.

They were to have performed Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Kaufmann singing both tenor and baritone/contralto parts.

(Suddenly, we’re feeling a bit queasy. And there’s football on telly.)

mourinho gatti

The Vienna Philharmonic has yet to announce a change of programme. We understand the recording team have been stood down.

UPDATE: The VPO has announced that Jonathan Nott will replace Gatti. Kaufmann will sing both parts in Das Lied. The recording is cancelled.

We regret to share news (from one of his students) of the death in Australia of Alberto Remedios, a stalwart Siegfried at English National Opera and at many international houses.

Alberto was 81. He had lived in Australia since his retirement in 1999.

A Liverpool dock worker, he earned a place at the Royal College of Music and joined the Sadlers Wells company in the late 1950s.

He was the unforgettable Siegfried in Regnald Goodall’s Ring, one cycle of which played in those heady days in his native Liverpool.

A moment’s silence, please.

alberto remedios

How a Wagner hero handled London’s opera snobs.

The Orchestre National de France has found a successor to Daniele Gatti, who has been upgraded to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

The new music director (gentle drumroll) is a Frenchman (louder), Emmanuel Krivine (as you were).

He takes over in September 2017.

Krivine, 69, has been in charge of the Luxembourg Philharmonic for most of the past decade. He is the ONF’s first French chef for more than 40 years; Jean Martinon was the last, 1969-73.

Emmanuel Krivine

The Orchestre de Paris recently appointed Daniel Harding to succeed Paavo Järvi.

Harding vs Krivine? Let’s see.

Riccardo Chailly, outgoing Gewandhaus music director, has pulled out of this week’s three valedictory performances of Mahler’s third symphony on unspecified health grounds.

He will be replaced by the incoming m.d., Andris Nelsons.

Chailly, 63, has cardiac history. He will not have cancelled these concerts lightly.

We wish him well.

chailly 2016