The trustworthy Arthur Kapitanis reports that the Russian pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev has withdrawn from his role as artist in residence with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal.
The orchestra has not yet removed his programs from next month’s schedules. UPDATE: They have just replaced him with Yevgeny Sudbin.
Health reasons have been given for Pletnev’s cancellation. He suffered heart problems last month but appears to have performed in Russia since then.
The renowned American Berlioz scholar D Kern Holoman has been stripped of his titles by the University of California, Davis, after a university administrator came forward to accuse him of rape.
Danny Gray, director of academic employment and labor relations at UCD, alleges that Holoman molested and subsequently raped him while he was a student at the university in 1987. The abuse persisted for five years.
He maintains the matter was ‘badly mishandled’ by the university when he reported it at the time. At the time of the alleged assaults, Holoman was married and had children.
Holoman, in a statement sent by his lawyer to Gray, said: ‘Our memories of that time differ markedly, but the remorse is very real. I continue to treasure memories of our long friendship and its focus on the beauties of art, literature and history.’
The case is unusual inasmuch as the accuser has been a colleague of the accused for quarter of a century.
Holoman, who is 70, retired from the university in 2013 with the title emeritus, which he has now relinquished. He was formerly Distinguished Professor of Music and Conductor of the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra.
One of the founders of the academic journal 19th-Century Music in 1977, Holoman compiled the complete catalogue of the works of Hector Berlioz and wrote a 687-page biography of the composer. He also edited the critical edition of Roméo et Juliette, published by Bärenreiter in 1990. He is also the biographer of the conductor Charles Munch.
Here he offers advice on how to be a musicologist and conductor:
The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra has issued a statement to local media dissociating itself from James Levine, its music director from 1999 to 2004.
The statement calls for a full investigation to be conducted into the several allegations against Levine and asserts that sexual abuse will not be tolerated by the orchestra.
Levine has no further engagements or connection with the orchestra, the statement concludes.
Must be seasonal.
After the Fine Arts Quartet changed their viola this week and the Enso announced their closure, the distinguished Quatuor Zaide has received the resignation of its founding first violin, Charlotte Juillard.
She will be replaced by Charlotte Maclet.
At least, they can keep calling the leader by the same name.
UPDATE: Charlotte #1 writes:
‘I’ve been doing this for eight years and I thank my three colleagues for everything they’ve taught me. I have funny stories and others even more funny to tell for a good time if I think about everything that happened to us. It was great to finish at the Paris Chamber Music Center in this hall I love. And thank you again to all those who invited us to play, I couldn’t have been more fun than browsing over and over all these masterpieces. I wish us all a lot of music to all five, to follow!
PS: my name “Juillard” has only one I before the two l, otherwise it would be very famous.
The shock has been such that it has taken the musicians more than a week to respond. Here’s what they say:
The allegations against former and long-time Music Director James Levine have left the musicians of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra deeply affected. Amidst the anguish felt in the wake of these events, we extend our admiration for the courage shown by those who have come forward. We stand against abuse, be it in the workplace or in society at large, and these painful circumstances have shed light on the need for transformative change in the way these issues are confronted and the ways in which abuse can be prevented from happening in the first place.
Together with our union, Local 802, we have called upon the management of the Metropolitan Opera to ensure a safer workplace by committing to sharing the results of their investigation fully and transparently. Only in this way can we improve the manner in which these issues are addressed in the future.
In difficult moments, we, as artists, find solace and strength in the power of our voices and in opera itself. Each night this week, as we have readied for performances, we have collectively redoubled our commitment to creating the finest and most artistically vibrant opera in the world. As we find ourselves joining a critical national conversation, we feel fortunate to be able to share the power of musical expression with our audience and work to make our society stronger.
Micah Wilkinson, principal trumpet of the San Diego Symphony, has won the Pittsburgh Symphony audition. He crosses coasts to start work next month.
photo (c) Todd Rosenberg
While an ex-BBC boss advises RTE how to make two orchestras go into one, the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has stood up once more in the Dail to defend the integrity of both threatened orchestras.
He said they were essential to Ireland’s ‘musical eco system’ and told the culture minister to do something about it.
Report here.
Kian Soltani, 25, has just been named Credit Suisse Young Artist of 2018, netting him 75,000 Swiss francs and a Lucerne concert with the Vienna Philharmonic and Franz Welser-Möst.
It’s turning into a bumper year for Kian. This summer he won a record deal from DG.
The death last night of Harry Spaarnay has drawn a flood of tributes and sorrow from pupils and friends.
Harry, who was 73, was the master of the bass clarinet, a specialised instrument with a repertoire all its own.
He played classics and jazz with equal enthusiasm and composed between gigs to keep broadening the rep and inspiring other composers. At least 650 scores were written at his behest. Some called him the Godfather of the bass clarinet, though he was never power minded.
Sarah Watts writes: ‘The bass clarinet world is tonight lost for words. Harry Sparnaay – we will all miss you so much. Thank you for your friendship, for your years of love and devotion to our instrument and for the legacy that you have left us. It was an honour to know you and consider you a friend.’
Ever since the first allegations broke against the former music director of the Metropolitan Opera, there has been a rustle of hints, whispers and smears to suggest that James Levine’s alleged conduct resembled that of the great New York Philharmonic conductor Leonard Bernstein.
Coming as they do on the eve of Bernstein’s centenary, these assertions could strip the gloss off what ought to be a joyous year-long reminder of one of America’s foremost home-bred talents.
So what’s the substance?
Bernstein certainly pursued young men all his adult life. He was mostly gay and totally out in all he did. There was no hidden side to Lenny except his business activities, which were handled by Harry Kraut at Amberson Productions. On the personal front, Lenny would kiss orchestra men on the lips, shocking some older members of the Vienna Philharmonic. He was often seen going off with handsome young men for non-platonic discussions. In an age when male sex was unsafe, Bernstein was reckless to the point of abandon.
No complaint ever reached the public domain. No report of a pay-off ever came to light. That’s all we need to know.
The difference between Bernstein and Levine is that Bernstein was, for most of his life, physically attractive and intellectually compelling. His charisma was such that he did not need to proposition men for sex. They flocked to him. There was nothing seedy or underhand about his transactions. All was out in the open for everyone to see.
Bernstein’s life has been trawled by several good biographers, none of whom came up with serious misdemeanour. His letters, published unadorned, reveal nothing untoward.
Any resemblance between Levine and Bernstein is purely superficial. The Lenny Year can go ahead without fear.
Bernstein in his Dakota apartment with Levine, 1987. photo: Music Division, Library of Congress
Anna Krzystek, a prominent performer in Scotland and Finland, has died after being hit by a tram in Brussels, where she was attending a meeting of the International Network for Contemporary Performing Artists.
Anna, who was 48, started work only last year as interdisciplinary performance officer at Creative Scotland.
After studies with Merce Cunningham, she worked with avant-garde groups in Glasgow and was a member of the Helsinki company Oblivia.
photo: Creative Scotland/Eija Mäkivuoti
Buzzfeed and the Washington Post have brought to light the curious case of John G. Briggs, a respected opera critic on the New York Times, who lived a double-life under the pseudonym Nicholas Stanford writing vitriolic columns for southern newspapers about liberal and Jewish bias in US media.
Briggs, who died in 1990, started out as a press agent for Arturo Toscanini. After leaving the Times in 1960 (no cause given), he wrote program notes for the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as a history of the Met, ‘Requiem for a Yellow Brick Brewery’, and a glossy hagiolatry, ‘Leonard Bernstein: The Man, His Work and His World’.
Professor Sid Bedingfield writes in the Post that Stanford ‘described Puerto Rican residents of West Harlem as “vermin.” And he aimed a steady stream of vitriol at Jews. A “clean sweep” of Jews from newsrooms would eliminate communist influence in the media, he told Waring. In one column, he raised doubts about the Holocaust. He contended that the “whole question of concentration camps and six million Jews allegedly murdered therein has had gingerly treatment in the U.S. press.”’
