Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer has called off the state reception for the opening of the Bayreuth Festival on Monday as a mark of respect for victims and families of the Munich attack.

The celebrity red carpet catwalk will also be scrapped.

Seehofer and other political leaders have notified the festival that, in present circumstances, they cannot attend.

As a mark of respect and mourning, the Staatsphilharmonie has called off its open-air concert tomorrow.

Russians came first and second at the Sydney International Piano Competition.

Andrey Gugnin came first. But it was Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, in second place, who came away with a Universal Music record contract.

Gerard Willems commentating for the ABC at the competition said: ‘When I see [Arseny] play I see the whole history of piano playing begin to unfold before me’.

Universal Music Australia/Deutsche Grammophon awarded Arseny a five-album international recording contract.

L-R: Tom Ford (Universal), Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, Cyrus Meher-Homji (General Manager, Universal Music Australia).

The photographer was first prize winner, Andrey Gugnin.

In an essay publicising his new book, the rightwing philosopher has some disturbing thoughts to about the Ring. Blithely dismissing Wagner’s powerful racism and its influence on Nazism, Scruton continues to regard the Ring as a model for our times, perhaps as a model for the death of democracy.

That is why the Ring Cycle is of ever-increasing importance to music-lovers in our times. Its theme is the death of the gods, and what the gods have bequeathed to us, namely, the knowledge of, and longing for, the sacred. Until we recognise sacred moments, Wagner implies in this monumental work, we cannot live fully as free beings. These moments are the foundation of all our attempts to endow human life with significance. Despite the controversies that have surrounded this great work—its vast length, its dubious later associations with Nazi thought—it constantly grows on the collective imagination. It is not the answer to life in a post-religious world, but it asks the real questions, and shows us one fruitful way of confronting them.

Read the full essay here.

And furthermore: So Wagner has a reply to Feuerbach, and to Feuerbach’s other great disciple, Karl Marx, namely: stop looking to politics for your salvation…

David Krauss, principal trumpet of the Metropolitan Opera, opens up about the differences and difficulties of playing opera, as opposed to symphonies.

Long waits, endless repetitions of the same few pieces and, every now and then, transcendence.

‘Turandot is one of the only opera that feels like the last page of Mahler One.’

The best part comes when David reveals what he received from each of his teachers.

Essential viewing, even for string players.