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.

The Russian choreographer Sergei Vikharev suffered a fatal stroke today.

After a successful career as dancer and ballet master, he reconstructed Sleeping Beauty for the Mariinsky from Petipa’s original notes and designs, following up with two more ballets.

Read Ismene Brown on his achievement.

From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:

Never forget that Maurice Ravel was more Basque than French. His rhythms and harmonies belong to the borderlands. He is happiest with the smell of Rioja in his nostrils.

There must be other pianists who have paired Ravel’s two piano concertos on record with De Falla’s Nights in the Garden of Spain, but I can’t call any recent releases to mind. Or maybe Steven Osborne’s account is just so thrilling that it has erased them from memory. There is never a moment in this performance when you doubt the absolute rightness of his choices….

Read on here.

And here.

And here.

 

Don Giovanni will be preceded tomorrow by a minute’s silence for the fondly remembered British conductor, who died today in Italy, at the age of 74.

 

The French baritone Ludovic Tézier has pulled out of what would have been his ROH debut in the upcoming Verdi Otello. He is replaced by the Italian Marco Vratogna

Tézier said: ‘Due to health reasons, I was unfortunately unable to attend the first week of rehearsals … When it became apparent that I would be further delayed by two days for a doctor’s appointment, the Royal Opera made the difficult decision to re-cast the pivotal role of Iago. Obviously I am hugely disappointed…but I look forward to returning to The Royal Opera next season to sing King Ferdinand in L’Ange de Nisida’.

 

The title role in Otello is due to be sung by Jonas Kaufmann.

The management agency for Sir Jeffrey Tate has confirmed his death, this afternoon, at the age of 74. The eminent British conductor suffered a heart attack while visiting the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Italy, and could not be revived.

Sir Jeffrey Tate, who was 74, was knighted six weeks ago for services to music.

Born with spina bifida and suffering disability all his life, he has been principal conductor at Covent Garden, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Sao Carlo theatre in Naples.

At the time of his death he was chief conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra.

His disability did not prevent him from working at most of the great opera houses, including the Met. At one point, in the 1980s, he was in line to become music director at Covent Garden. Amiable and sensitive, especially when rehearsing singers, Jeffrey was unfailingly well liked and respected.

He recorded extensively, most notably the Mozart piano concertos with Mitsuko Uchida.

He shared his life with Klaus Kuhlemann, a German scientist.

 

 

NB: (The Academia is an art gallery; first reports that he died in an orchestral rehearsal were misplaced.)

UPDATE: Jeffrey Tate: How Britten changed my life.

The local newspaper in Bergamo, Italy, has reported the death, this afternoon, of Jeffrey Tate, the eminent British conductor. He suffered an apparent heart attack while visiting the Accademia Carrara and could not be revived.

Sir Jeffrey Tate, who was 74, was knighted six weeks ago for services to music.

Born with spina bifida and suffering disability all his life, he has been principal conductor at Covent Garden, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Sao Carlo theatre in Naples.

News of his death is circulating among Italian musicians.

UPDATE: His death has been confirmed by his management agency.

No-one has ever satisfactorily explained the point of the Ernst von Siemens Musikpreis, but the winners aren’t complaining.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, 59, will collect his quarter-million in Munich tonight.

We understand that last night’s Bridgewater Hall concerts by three orchestras to raise funds for victims of the Arena terror attack raised something in the region of £100,000.

Half of the money came from sponsors. The other half, which went straight to relief charities, came in public donations.

The Halle, the BBC Philharmonic and the Manchester Camerata came together for the event. Sir Mark Elder and Stephen Bell conducted. Soloists were Alice Coote, Clare Teal and Guy Garvey.