Taking its lead from Brazil, which has abolished five ensembles, the local government has dismantled the young and highly promising Orquesta Sinfónica de Oaxaca (OSO), reducing its numbers from 60 to 30.

Usual reason: the money has run out.

Maybe the players should try to regroup the other side of Trump’s wall.

 

This is bold and timely. Johann Sebastian Bach used hateful words about the Jews in St John’s Passion and elsewhere. Often, the worst epithets are accompanied by the loveliest music.

So was Bach an early Nazi?

Music director Franz Welser-Möst has convened a debate, long overdue, in Cleveland.

Press release follows.

CLEVELAND – On Sunday March 5, 2017 at 3:00 p.m., Cleveland Orchestra Music Director Franz Welser-Most convenes a panel of guest speakers at The Temple-Tifereth Israel in Beachwood (26000 Shaker Boulevard, Beachwood, OH) to probe the question “Is Bach’s St. John Passion anti-Semitic?”, a lingering claim that surrounds this seminal work. This extraordinarily moving and achingly beautiful telling of the Crucifixion is perhaps Bach’s most daring, forceful, and poetic composition. The panel will explore the context of European history, music, and religion that influenced the creation of Bach’s masterpiece and the intersections of meaning, message, and intent.

In addition to Welser-Möst, the panel includes Rabbi Roger C. Klein, Associate Rabbi at The Temple-Tifereth Israel, and Michael Marissen, Professor Emeritus of Music at Swarthmore College and author of the newly released book, Bach and God. The conversation will be moderated by David J. Rothenberg, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Music, Case Western Reserve University. The event is free, but tickets are required and may be reserved online at www.maltzmuseum.org or by calling the Maltz Museum at 216-593-0575.

Following the March 5 concert preview panel discussion, Franz Welser-Mӧst will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in performances of Bach’s St. John Passion on March 9, 11 and 12 at Severance Hall. 

It has been announced that the 25th Operalia competition will take place in July 2017 n one of the most corrupt oligarchies on earth, the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.

The country is still ruled by its last Soviet-era leader, Nursultan Äbishuly Nazarbayev.

Operalia will be accompanied by the Astana Opera orchestra and paid for by Nazarbayev’s ministry of culture.

Maybe Placido should be more choosy about his pals.

 

 

The new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, out today, contains an extensive entry on the mystic composer, Sir John Tavener, written by Dr Edward Venn of the University of Leeds.

Tavener died in 2013 and the DNB, the ultimate celebrity portal, likes to let the dust settle before composing the last obit.

When I asked about the omission of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, I was told, in a soothing phone call, ‘too soon, young man, too soon.’

By the standard rate of progress, Max should get his entry in 2020.

From a plucky insider plucker:

Here’s a rare opporunity to peer into the arcane world of the harp.

 

 

As the “empress” Susann McDonald (pictured) retires from the University of Indiana, the world will see how fairly the succession process is handled. Will it be her hand-picked proteges, or a spectrum of the best? Will they dare to hire someone who would offend her or her students?

The job has been posted, though not advertised. They are already inviting her ex-pupils as guest teachers. This is a public university with legal responsibilities. But no one outside the harp world ever cares enough to ensure fair play.

If it is fair, they will invite, at least, Yolanda Kondanassis (Cleveland Inst. of Music and Oberlin), Joan Holland U of Mich. and Interlochen), Elizabeth Richter (Ball State U.), pupils of Lawrence and Chalifoux, who were pupils of Salzedo, whose legacy McDonald overturned. And the greatest living harpist, Heidi Lehwalder, Salzedo’s own protege, will she be considered?

And what will happen at the Curtis Institute if Elizabeth Hainen is hired in Bloomington? Big changes are in the offing, and scandalous results seem almost guaranteed. The University in Graz is also hiring a professor of harp. With only two openings in the whole world, after years of no openings, who will win the crown? Note that virtually all University and college harp professorships in the US have been reduced to adjunct (hourly) positions, after there once being dozens of such jobs. It is a dismal time, indeed.

Brazil has abolished another orchestra, this time by social media.

The new Mayor of Sao José, Felicio Ramuth announced on Facebook that the sao josé dos campos symphony orchestra has been permanently closed. He said in a Fb video message that the city cannot pay its water bills, let alone its health care.

The rest of his page is full of pictures of Ramuth visiting a hospital.

More Brazil cuts here.

Monte Carlo Opera have been left scrabbling for a replacement Manon.

Sonya Yoncheva has pulled out with severe back pain.

Two subs step up: Anne-Catherine Gillet for the first performances, Vannina Santoni for the last.

Yoncheva will also miss the main French music awards night, Les Victoires.

More inf at forumopera.

Sonya has messaged:

Chers amis, je suis navrée de vous apprendre que du à des sévères douleurs lombaires, je suis obligée d’annuler mes performances de Manon à Monte Carlo prévus pour la fin de mois de janvier. Malheureusement cela concerne aussi ma participation dans les “Victoires de la musique” 2017 en France.

J’espère que le traitement médical que je viens de commencer donnera ces résultats au plus vite pour pouvoir continuer le reste de ma saison avec succès.
Je m’excuse auprès de ce qui attendaient, comme moi d’ailleurs, mon début dans ce rôle de rêve. Je suis sûre que le future me donnera une autre possibilité de chanter Manon de Massenet.
Meilleurs messages!
Sonya

Composer Buddy Bregman, Verve’s first A&R man, has died at 86.

A nephew of Broadway tunesmith Jule Styne, Bregman was music director for the Eddie Fisher Show and later worked for the BBC and ITV’s Rediffusion.

 

From an AP report: Since 1496, the former Benedictine abbey in Altomuenster has housed a female religious order founded by Saint Bridget in Sweden in the 14th century. It is one of three monasteries of the original branch of the scholarly, monastic order operating today. But with its numbers in decline, Sister Apollonia now lives there alone. …

The Franciscan nun the Vatican put in charge of the closure, Sister Gabriele Konrad, says the collections are just being kept safe, but she’s refused to grant the scholars or anyone else access to the books.

A petition has been started to save these irreplaceable manuscripts. Sign here.

We’re informed that Laura Didier-Gambardella, the Chilean mezzo-soprano died today at the Casa di Riposo Giuseppe Verdi in Milan at 89 years old.

She was a regular Pavarotti partner.

 

Is the outgoing trickle turning into a flood?

Today, the violinst Simone Lamsma – a favourite of the incoming NY Phil chief Jaap van Zweden – quit the crumbling mega-store and signed with boutique Solea Management.

Solea also look after Chopin winner Seong-Jin Cho, Beatice Rana Fabien Gabel, the Modigliani Quartet and Olivier Latry.