Friends report the death of Ronald Sipes, former principal oboe of the New World Symphony and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon of Valladolid, Spain.

He was recovering from a stroke suffered five years ago when, on New Year’s Day, his life was ended by a second cerebral incident.

Peter Martins, 71, has announced his retirement.

He had been accused by several dancers of physical and verbal abuse, as well as sexual harassment.

The Danish balletmaster has denied the allegations, insisting that he will be vindicated by an internal investigation.

Under pressure, he decided not to wait for the outcome. Martins has been in charge of NYCB for more than 30 years.

Austria has its most right wing government since… whenever.

The Vienna Philharmonic needs to choose a conductor for New Year’s Day 2019.

It calls the German conductor with the most rightwing political views.

For the first time.

A coincidence, no doubt.

 

Last week they said this.

Today it’s…

press release:

Christian Thielemann will conduct the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert 2019 for the first time.

Vienna Philharmonic Chairman Daniel Froschauer emphasizes the relationship of artistic trust between conductor and orchestra. ‘The deep musical understanding and trust which functioned perfectly from the beginning in the opera has carried over into the concert sector and been very fruitful. For this reason, we have asked Christian Thielemann to take the baton for the New Year’s Concert on January 1, 2019.’

The Slipped Disc grapevine has been buzzing with accounts of the Met’s patchwork Tosca last night.

Željko Lučić proved an inadequate replacement for Bryn Terfel as Baron Scarpia,  his voice neither strong nor silky enough to impress a first night audience.

Vittorio Grigolo, subbing for Jonas Kaufmann, did nothing wrong.

David McVicar’s production was safe as houses, Emmanuel Vuillaume’s conducting was on the slow side.

The major breakthrough was Sonya Yoncheva in her role debut as Tosca.

These are scattered impressions from audience members, not a formal review.

Just to keep you posted.

Possibly the biggest buzz was seeing Bill and Hillary Clinton in the orchestra seats.

Expect no Trumps.

We have been informed of the death on December 31 of Maurice Peress, one of Leonard Bernstein’s assistant conductors at the New York Philharmonic, later music director of the Kansas Philharmonic and an influential music professor. He was 87.

Peress had an international career, working at the Vienna State Opera in 1981, the Prague Sprng Festival in 1988 and subsequently touring energetically in China.

He began teaching at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College in 1984, founding a degree program in conducting and leading the Queens College Orchestra.

He is the author of Dvorak to Duke Ellington: A Conductor Explores America’s Music and Its African American Roots (OUP, 2004).

 

The newest concert halls differ radically from the old bourgeois model of pomp and solidity.