The trim was announced today by Gérald Darmanin, President Macron’s budget minister.
Macron is looking for 4.5 billion Euros in public funding cuts in order to stay within EU budget limits.
For once, an apposite arrangement – a Ludwig videogram from the Bamberg Symphony:
The new rector of the Mozarteum Salzburg has resigned before starting the job. Reiner Schuhenn, 55, said he was leaving immediately after the University council refused to endorse his new team.
This is the third failed attempt to instal a new rector after the previous choice, Siegfried Mauser, was convicted of sex offences in Munich.
Qualifications for the job: Speaks German, reads music, takes orders.
We have been informed of the death, early today in Bologna, of the formidable baroque scholar and performer, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini.
Organist, harpsichordist and musicologist, Tagliavini founded the Museo San Colombano, a valued repository of original instruments. As professor of music history at Freiburg in Switzerland, he worked with Marie-Claire Alain and Gustav Leonhardt on the development of period practice in organ and harpsichord playing.
The American soprano Nadine Sierra has withdrawn from Massenet’s Manon at San Francisco Opera in November.
She says the decision was ‘an extremely difficult one to make, but after considerable deliberation I realised the role was simply too heavy at this point in my vocal development.’
Ellie Dehn, a fellow-American, will take over, making her role debut.
San Francisco Opera’s press releases are commendable for their clarity and candour.
Sierra: Photo Merri Cyr
The conductor Myung Whun Chung, re-engaged with his home country, is forming a One Korea orchestra in the hope that musicians from the North will be allowed to join.
Seems unlikely in the short term, but he has concerts planned in Lotte Hall, Seoul, on 18 and 19 August.
Sony Classical France have issued a press release proclaiming the recapture of Patricia Petibon, who made her last recording four years ago with Deutsche Grammophon.
Sources in the Vienna Philharmonic have contacted us through the night to give reasons for the shocking – perhaps unprecedented – resignation of José Maria Blumenschein as concertmaster of the Vienna State Opera and probationary concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic after only one year in the seat.
It is said he was daunted by the phenomenal workload – the Opera functions 364 nights a year and the Philharmonic makes heavy rehearsal demands on its concertmaster, aside from heavy touring.
But there is also a suspicion that this young and highly talented violinist was dismayed by last month’s election in the orchestra, replacing a reform-minded chairman with a regressive one.
Whatever the deciding factor, WDR Cologne has held his position open just in case he changed his mind, cancelling an audition two weeks ago. José Maria will return to Cologne from September 2018.
