We hear that Roman Spitzer, principal viola in the Israel Philharmonic, has won the audition today for solo viola in the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
Useful, with a young Israeli music director coming in.
What’s more, he succeeds a fellow-Israeli, Ron Ephrat.
We reported earlier that a present member of the viola section is suing a former member for selling him a viola that proved to be a fake.
Under German legal convention, the names were withheld.
That convention has now been broken by some Berlin media and we see no reason to preserve fake identities.
So: Micha Afkham, 37, a Berlin Philharmonic violist, bought the instrument his former colleague in the orchestra Helmut Nicolai, who is 69. Read the full story here.
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MusicalToronto has first news of Anna Netrebko’s Canadian debut, a long time coming.
Together with hubby Yusif Eyvazov, she will be singing trios with the star Russian baritone in Toronto and Calgary.
Top ticket is C$450.
Story here.
The Bolshoi Opera has announced the death of Irina Udalova, a soloist with the company since 1985.
She sang the leading soprano roles in Tsar’s bride, Queen of spades, Eugene Onegin, Faust, Turandot, Madame Butterfly, Traviata and more.
The Roman Catholic Church has offered compensation to 422 victims of sexual and physical abuse in the choir school of Regensburg Cathedral, an institution headed for 30 years by Georg Ratzinger, brother of the former Pope Benedict.
Ratzinger has denied all knowledge of the abuse.
The church is offering sums of 5,000 to 20,000 euros to each complainant in the period from 1953 to the 1990s.
The conductor Lothar Zagrosek is among those who suffered at Regensburg.
The church’s offer follows an unequivocal public investigation into the school.
More here.
They couldn’t find a writer so a musician was the next-best thing? Or was the committee just looking to big itself up with a blaze of celebrity? For lyrics written half a century ago and known the world over?
And if literary merit of lyrics had anything to do with it, shouldn’t Leonard Cohen take precedence?
Much as we love Bob Dylan, this gives no cause for cheer.
Don Hunstein/Lebrecht Music&Arts
The Icelandic budget airline Wow has been won over by musicians.
After sweet persuasion by Judith Ingolfsson, professor of violin at Stuttgart, Wow have posted the following message on their website:
If the instrument is small enough to pass as carry-on luggage you can take it into the cabin. Guests traveling with violins or violas can bring them instead of the small carry-on bag included in the ticket price….
No other budget airline has given such a guarantee, except AirBerlin which last week changed its status.
Could this be a trend?
Results have been published of the autopsy into the death of Kwon Hyuk-joo, who was found unconscious in the back of a taxi-cab in Busan yesterday.
Kwon Hyuk-joo, winner of the 2004 Nielsen competition and a graduate of the Moscow Central Music School, had called the taxi to take him back to his hotel after drinking with friends the night before a concert.
The autopsy found that he died of sudden cardiac arrest. He was carrying pills for a suspected heart condition.
A friend said: ‘He had symptoms of arrhythmia but I assume his health has deteriorated recently due to fatigue from a heavy schedule.’
He was a popular performer in South Korea and Vietnam, appeared with Ida Haendel in Keshet Eilon and made several tours of Europe, recording Ravel and Schumann for Universal’s Korean offshoot.
Tragic loss.
Anna Tsybuleva, 25, winner of the low-key 2015 Leeds piano competition, has posted her wedding photo.
Since Leeds, she has gone on to win the admiration of some very eminent pianists.
Hans Joachim Frey, head of the Brucknerhaus in Linz, Austria, will leave next year to turn the Sochi Winter Olympics site – a Putin propaganda project – into an international cultural and festivals centre.
Frey, 51, says he wants to create a ‘Salzburg on the Black Sea’.
The Salzburg press points out that he was recently the subject of a highly negative audit of the Brucknerhaus, which has failed to attract much international attention.
Brotherly love counts for nothing when money is at stake.
A viola player in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – the names have been disguised in court – is accusing a former member of the orchestra of selling him a fake instrument.
The viola he bought from his colleague three years ago for 60,000 Euros was labelled ‘Luigi Mingazzi 1923 Ravenna’.
It turns out to be German-made and worth 50,000 less.
The seller, who now plays in the Munich Philharmonic, is refusing compensation.
A Munich court will pass judgement on October 26 after calling in an expert for consultation.
UPDATE: German media name the two violists.
German media are reporting the case with relish. It is highly unusual for such cases not to be settled within the orchestra, avoiding unpleasant publicity.
We hear that David Blackadder, principal trumpet of the Academy of Ancient Music, has been told that the trumpets he had stolen from him on Monday on a London commuter train have been found safe and (soon to be) sound.
More details as we get them.
In an age of instant online alerts, it’s getting harder for thieves to get rid of their swag.
