First press reports of Myung Whun Chung’s voluntary appearance at the Prosecutors Office in Seoul are hostile and prejudiced beyond the norms acceptable in western media.
Sample:
The 63-year-old maestro is suspected of defaming the former CEO Park Hyun-Jung of the city-run orchestra by using his own wife.
Chung’s wife, known only as her last name Koo, allegedly made 10 orchestra employees file a lawsuit with the police against Park in December of 2015, saying “Park sexually and verbally harassed them.”
But in March this year their allegations were found to be false by the police who investigated the case.
Chung’s wife, the 68-year-old Koo, and 10 employees are now under investigation by the prosecution for their false allegations.
So, Maestro Chung is now suspected of trying to drive out CEO Park from the orchestra by using his wife and employees close to him.
It’s hard to believe anyone can receive a fair hearing in Seoul when the Park family control the media.
Usually, the night before the opening Prom is when the BBC issues its list of changes.
This year, they are unusually light.
Here goes:
Ahead of the first night of the Proms 15 July 2016 there are a number of amendments to the published guide we wanted to make you aware of. These are listed below.
Prom 3 (Sunday 17 July)
Please note the performance of Fauré’s Pavane will be the orchestral version not the choral version as published in the Proms Guide.
Prom 4 (Monday 18 July)
We are pleased to announce Alexei Petrenko as reciter in Ustvolskaya’s Symphony No. 3, ‘Jesus Messiah, Save Us!’
Prom 11 (Saturday 23 July)
Please note mezzo-soprano Pamela Helen Stephen has withdrawn from this Prom. We are pleased to announce that mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley will now perform in Tippett’s A Child of Our Time.
Prom 13 (Sunday 24 July)
We are pleased to announce the title of Magnus Lindberg’s new work is Two Episodes.
Prom 32 (Monday 8 August)
We are pleased to announce that the three trebles performing in this Prom are Lucas Pinto (soloist), Matthew Gillam and Joshua Albuquerque.
Prom 44 (Thursday 18 August)
We are pleased to announce that singers Anna-Jane Casey and Hannah Waddingham will perform in this Prom.
Prom 48 (Sunday 21 July)
We are pleased to announce the boys’ chorus in the performance of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – overture and incidental music will be Finchley Children’s Music Group.
Prom 53 (Thursday 25 August)
The title for Emily Howard’s piece is Torus (Concerto for Orchestra). This piece is a BBC co-commission with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
A couple of weeks ago, just after the Brexit referendum, I was accosted at a memorial service by Stanley Johnson, head of the clan.
‘Why won’t you take Boris seriously?’ he demanded.
‘Because I know him, Stanley,’ I replied. He had no answer to that.
Boris is Boris as sure as Brexit is Brexit.
But the fuss being made about his appointment as Foreign Secretary is inflated and absurd.
The UK media are having a field day, as you’d expect. But when EU ministers and politicians hurl abuse at Boris as a clown and a liar we need to get a spot of perspective.
Boris is Boris.
He’s not the French president, a serial philanderer with a personal hairdresser on a 100,000 Euro salary.
He’s not Italy’s former prime minister, who blew tax money on Bunga-bunga parties.
He’s not Germany’s Chancellor, who stands by while a comedian is dragged through the German courts for remarks he made about the Turkish president (Boris won’t be seeing Erdogan any time soon).
He’s not the rightwing Polish prime minister, who routinely abuses foreigners.
He’s not the Hungarian…. oh, we could go on and on.
Boris is Boris. He was a bloody good Mayor of London who beefed up the Olympics, made the buses run (more or less) on time, cleaned up the air a bit and opposed a monstrous expansion of Heathrow. He nurtured the arts and launched a successful charity for young people to learn to play music.
He’ll be a decent Foreign Secretary. Get used to it.
A really useful tick-box list of core repertoire from English National Opera.
Juan Peña, known as El Lebrijano, died yesterday at 74.
A flamenco guitarist of Roma ancestry, he became a powerful exponent of Andalusian and Arab-Iberian culture.
Spanish media are mourning the death of a national icon.
Karen Bradley, who succeeds John Whittingdale as UK Secretary for Culture Media and Sport, is a former tax manager who held a security brief in the Home Office.
Representing a rural constituency, she has no track record on the arts and makes no mention of them in her website c.v.
Looks like she has visited Madam Tussauds.
On the face of it a breakthrough for the bottom-price label.
But it looks like no more than giving Naxos the right to present playlists from its own releases on classical-unfriendly iTunes.
The Royal College of Music (RCM) is pleased to announce three scholarships of £10,000 and above available for Israeli students. The scholarships have been generously provided by The Polonsky Foundation for Israeli musicians looking to further their studies at undergraduate level at the RCM in London.
We are ranked the top conservatoire in the UK, second in Europe and joint third in the world for Performing Arts according to the 2016 QS World University Ranking.
Applicants should apply online by 1 October 2016 at www.ucas.com/conservatoires for our London auditions in December 2016 and scholarships will be awarded subject to successful audition for 2017 entry.
The Labour leader, abandoned by his parliamentary party, will appear on the stage of the Royal Festival Hall tomorrow. Details here.
The South Bank Centre is subsidised with public funds to present arts.
There are plenty of other places for politics to be discussed.
This comes very close to an abuse of purpose by the SBC’s Labour-leaning administrators.
Oper Frankfurt reports it sold 85.06 percent of all available tickets in the season just ended.
That’s up from 80.69% the previous season.
The number of subscribers remained the same. They just went more often.
The pattern is pretty much the same in most major houses. (Except the Met.)
The Director of the Bühnenvereins, Rolf Bolwin, has warned that Brexit could jeopardise cultural exchanges.
‘Opera houses, theatres and orchestras make a major contribution to European integration,’ he said. The loss of a British contribution would undermine the cooperation that has grown fruitfully among 28 countries ‘without any bureaucratic overhead.’
Sadiq Khan says no more cars, taxis or buses from 2020.
Wigmore Hall will have to relax its rules on concertgoers wearing trainers.
