The Federal culture budget will grow by almost six percent in 2017 to 1.35 billion Euros.

The increase was announced by the brilliant culture minister (and Merkel confidante) Monika Grütters.

The film industry alone will get an extra 15 million for promoting new work.

Monika Grütters

He has pulled out sick from tonight’s Walküre at Baden-Baden.

Stuart Skelton flies in.

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Brazilian media are reporting the untimely death yesterday of Nicolau de Figueiredo, conductor, harpsichordist, professor and all-round baroque enthusiast. No cause of death has been given.

UPDATE: A heart condition has been reported.

A student of Kenneth Gilbert, Gustav Leonhardt and Scott Ross, Nicolau worked with leading European ensembles, including Europa Galante, the OAE and Concerto Köln.

He made numerous recordings.

Nicolau de Figueredo

In the new issue of Standpoint, I try to assess why the playing of Daniil Trifonov (‘a pianist for the rest of our lives’) affects me as it does.

What is it about Trifonov that sets him apart from all other pianists? He is, on first sight, the least modern of artists. He wears a dark suit, black tie, uncomfortably. On stage, he hunches over the keyboard, unaware of the audience. If he uses a score, he is quicker to turn pages than the fastest of attendants. He makes no pause between pieces, stifling applause for an hour or more.

In return, he delivers a modern benefice, the kind of concentration that has all but vanished from our tweet-shattered attention spans. The tension when Trifonov plays is breathless. And, within that grip, he finds narrative where none previously existed. He is the first pianist I have ever heard who plays a set of Chopin Études as if reciting for the first time a Tolstoy novella.

Read the full essay here.

 

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Things have got so bad they are letting out the architectural landmark for society weddings.

 

Newspaper Finansavisen reported last week that the Opera & Ballet reported a deficit of NOK 67 million that may well be much higher, because actual pension costs for dancers who can retire at age 41 and singers who can retire at 52, are believed to be higher than estimated.

The Norwegian Opera & Ballet has been rocked by internal conflict and severe cost problems that are forcing new cost-cutting efforts. PHOTO: newsinenglish.no

The results for 2015 were much worse than for 2014. Opera & Ballet’s chief executive Nils Karstad Lysø confirmed the Opera and Ballet is in a “difficult and serious” economic situation. Lysø blames it entirely on pension costs.

English report here.

The music director of Opera Omaha has pleaded no contest to abuse of a vulnerable adult after taking $113,669 from his elderly mother, Thelma Gawf, a dementia patient.

Lawyers for John C. Gawf Jr acknowledged in court that he wrote cheques on his mother’s bank account to pay for his own gambling debts between May 2015 and January this year.

They said Gawf, 53, visits his mother every day.

He faces a possible three years in jail and $10,000 fine.

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A recording has turned up of the 19 year-old tenor singing at the Llangollen Eistedfodd in 1955 as part of the Chorus Rossini from Modena. Needless  to say, his chorus won.

Apparently, the recording was issued on CD by the Welsh Development Agency in 1991 but they forgot to send it out. It turned up the other day in a tray of junk.

Story here.

The big man returned to Llangollen 40 years later with his father as joint presidents of the Eistedfodd.

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Happy birthday to the other Petrenko, the one that supports Liverpool FC and writes in its programmes.

Big in Oslo, too.

Raise a craft beer to Vasily.

vasily petrenko

The family has announced the death of Paul Parkinson, who worked for the British Council for 26 years as a hugely supportive music adviser. He was widely known, respected and liked.

A condolence site has been opened here.

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Reports flashed around Moscow early today that Vladimir Urin, 69, had been rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.

The Bolshoi later issued a statement that the director was on leave and ‘undergoing long-planned wellness treatments’.

Never a dull day at the Bolshoi.

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Rachael Lander is a cellist and a recovering alcoholic. Summer, when everyone stays out late, can be the hardest time to resist a drink.

Rachael has posted a brave and self-unsparing account of her struggle, accompanied with practical advice for fellow-musicians on how to stay clean and sober through the summer.

It’s a must-read.

Sample:

In the my first year of sobriety, I got booked to play at Glastonbury, and then unbooked. There were too many cellos, so I got the chop. As the rest of the quartet I was a member of headlined the Park Stage with a brilliant band, I was waitressing in a burger joint on the Kings Road. I was about 8 months sober. The sense of rejection, isolation and injustice was profound. I cleaned bottles of condiments and served burgers to the red trousered people of Chelsea, weeping on the inside. In desperation I rang my sponsor who said, “You’ll hate me for saying this. But rejection is protection. You’re not ready.” I wanted to lob the phone at the wall, but as usual, she was right. I could not have got on a tour bus full of free booze and not drank at that point of my sobriety. I was still suffering huge amounts of anxiety, which peaked when I had to perform.

If you’re not ready, do a Nancy Reagan and Just Say No. We tend to struggle with that, particularly in the competitive freelance game we’re in. Contrary to what our heads can tell us, saying “no” does not herald the end of your career in music or mean that you will never be well enough in the future to work a festival again. There is a saying that anything you put ahead of your recovery, you’ll lose anyway. Looking after yourself first is always the right thing, no matter how alien it feels.

 

rachael lander

Read the full article here.