Post from Lisa Batiashvili:

The French culture minister Françoise Nyssen has named a new chief executive for the Ensemble Intercontemporain, succeeding Hervé Boutry whom Pierre Boulez appointed in 1995.

The new chief is Olivier Leymarie, an all-purpose kind of administrator who presently runs the Erda accentus chamber choir and is joint head of production at the Cité de la Musique and the Philharmonie de Paris.

Stéphane Lissner’s company had a really bad year.

In 2016 fiscal, the Opéra lost 9.3 million Euros ($11 million), an amount which would cause heads to roll in most other countries. In France, deficits are the norm.

The good news? Audiences for opera and dance were up  7% on the previous season and the house played to 91% of capacity. Average audience age was mid-40s.

Production costs, however, went through the roof – 40.8 million Euros. Where did that money go?

This is a swanky Beijing residential development named ‘Berliner Philharmoniker’.

Presumably without the orchestra’s knowledge?

It’s always a sign of impending nemesis when leaders cast themselves in the shadow of greatness.

The general director of the Metropolitan Opera, in his latest public statement, manages to quote something Churchill never said and to mention Napoleon in the next breath.

The clock is ticking.

Read here.

Not Gould himself, but a quote from the late Howard Scott, producer of the breakthrough 1955 Goldberg Variations, which has been released by Sony with all the takes that never made the final cut.

‘If Glenn knew Sony Classical was going to release those outtakes, which he rejected – he did not like what he had done in those performances – he would probably come down and shoot anybody who allowed them to be released,’ is a quote from Scott,  who died in 2012, aged 92.

Tim Page, who knew Gould well and interviewed him around the time of his 1982 second attempt at the Goldbergs, thinks Gould would not have minded that much.

‘He insulted this 1955 performance all through the interview,’ says Tim. ‘So, I think he would probably just take it easily because nobody could do worse to this recording than Glenn himself did in our interview.’

That’s the thing about GG: he will never let us rest in peace.

Read more here.

Opus3 Europe have signed the Austrian pianist Aaron Pilsan, 22.

He studied with Alfred Brendel and Andras Schiff.

The Polyclinique du val de Sambre is working with the Conservatoire of Maubeuge to produce recordings of classical music that will be suited to pregnant mothers at all stages of the baby’s development.

Report here.