It’s a proposition that Joe Horowitz examines in close detail with a couple of radio pals here.

I’ve put it to one side for weekend listening, but there can be no doubt that America changed Dvorak – and for the better. Without his trip, there would have been no New World symphony and no cello concerto.

How much of America he morphed into music is the subject of Joe’s examination.

Le Monde reports the death yesterday of Pierre Henri, inventor of musique concrète and the most important French modernist after Pierre Boulez.

Working in 1950 with Pierre Schaeffer, Henri composed a Symphonie pour un homme seul, followed by several works of electronic abstraction. In 1958 he founded his own studio.

His works achieved wide currency through the ballets of Maurice Bejart and he stood for several decades at the centre of public debate on the shape of modern music.

Ramón Tebar, principal conductor at Florida Grand Opera and music director of the Palm Beach Symphony, has been named chief conductor of the Orquesta de Valencia in his native Spain.

The Columbus Symphony and its music director Rossen Milanov have confirmed Joanna Frankel as concertmaster.

An international soloist, she was previously concertmaster of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic in Durban, South Africa.

The veteran Spectator critic lets rip with a rant:

Mahler said his time would come; the question now, for me, is when it will go. For the symphonies, up until the last, are all flawed; in different ways, but primarily because they peddle sentimentality as courage, heroism, defiance and piety. Furtwängler, who only conducted any of the symphonies fairly early in his career, told his second wife that when he got to the end of the Third Symphony he felt as if he had slept with a meringue in his mouth.

Read on here.

Furtwängler’s hostility to Mahler is well documented, and he’s entitled to his view. But if Mahler’s symphonies are flawed, compared to Furtwängler’s windy symphonies they are the greatest works of mankind.

Carmen Giannattasio has posted:

Hello Friends, unfortunately my knee is again under pain. I’ve partially broken meniscus during last rehearsals and as soon as I terminate this summer run, will operate and fix it. Meanwhile wearing a brace which is not very appealing but helping me a lot. My beautiful collegue Jelena Kordic, who sings Lola in Cavalleria is also under injury.. at least I am not alone;))

Being an Opera Singer can be dangerous;))

Tomorrow last performance as Nedda/Colombina at Semperoper, then off to Torre del Lago for an exciting premiere of Turandot at Puccini Festival which opens on July 14th.

So she’s literally in the cast.

Tomas Zierhofer-Kien’s first season at the head of the Wiener Festwochen has not been a success.

Both of the artistic directors, Nadine Jessen and Johannes Maile, are to be replaced.

Report here.