The news from Brussels is that Victor Julien-Laferriére has been named winner.

He receives 25,000 Euros.

The second prize goes to Yuya Okamoto.

Third was the Colombian, Santiago Cañón-Valencia.

UPDATE: What went right at Queen Elisabeth Competition.

The Russian president gave his personal blessing today to the hall his trophy conductor built in his garden at Repino.

Everyone who is anyone was there.

More here.

 

We hear from Tel Aviv that the singer Annette Celine died there this morning at the age of 78.

Annette was the daughter of the international pianist Felicja Blumenthal. She founded the Felicja Blumental piano competition in 1999 and reissued many of her mother’s recordings on the Brana label.

This recital, for instance, from Cleveland Institute of Music: not together, nor in tune.

Your Youtube exclusions?

We reported a complaint of a cracked double-bass a month ago, on May 4.

British Airways got in touch with Slipped Disc within the hour, and with the complainant within a few days.

We’re happy to report that the matter was then settled politely and efficiently

The only drawback is this, from BA’s settlement letter:

‘All UK airlines have a limited legal liability and we all use the same calculation to work out how much to pay our customers. Currently, the maximum claim for each customer is £1,217.34.’

Just so you know.

The first post-Cannes release by the festival’s Best Director is a screening of the Traviata she staged at Rome Opera, a visual spectacular.

The film has a UK release on July 9.

No US release has been secured. Could that be because the Met has lockdown on all US cinema chains?

Watch the trailer.

The Festival Palazzetto Bru Zane in Paris, which starts next week, is putting on the first staged performance in Europe for 150 years of Jacques Fromental Halévy’s La Reine de Chypre (1841).

Also in the festival are Saint-Saëns’ Le Timbre d’ Argent (1877) and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne’s Phèdre (1786).

Tempted?

We, too.