The Finnish Ministry of Culture has ordered the Avanti chamber ensemble to repay half a million of euros, which it received in excess of its entitlement. The sum equals to a whole year’s budget and the orchestra says it will go bust if it has to repay.
A petition to the government to waive the debt has been signed by Pekka Kuusisto, Magnus Lindberg, Hannu Lintu, Susanna Mälkki, Sakari Oramo, Kaija Saariaho, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Dima Slobodeniouk, John Storgårds, and Lotta Wennäkoski.
Avanti chamber orchestra has been a major promter of new works by Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Bryan Hymel, who lost his voice in the first performance of Verdi’s Sicilian Vespers, is sitting it out for the second.
Liebe Besucher,
in unserer Vorstellung Les Vêpres siciliennes am 15. März 2018 wird Leonardo Caimi die Partie des Henri für den erkrankten Bryan Hymel übernehmen.
The Murdoch newspaper is the first to state the obvious conclusion of the mishandling of the Levine mess.
I’m inclined to think that the only way for the Met to recover from the devastating effects of the Levine scandal is for Mr. Gelb to acknowledge the obvious: His protracted failure to deal with Mr. Levine’s gross misconduct has made it impossible for him to continue to function effectively as the company’s leader. Hence he should resign, declaring that it’s time for a change. To be sure, it’s at least conceivable that he can successfully restore public trust in an institution that no longer deserves it. But of one thing I have no doubt whatsoever: If Mr. Gelb wants to survive Mr. Levine’s firing, he’d better find a way to release the report of the investigation—now.
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies died two years ago today.
This morning, Susanna Mälkki was rehearsing Von Einem’s Dantons Tod.
Tonight, Speranza Scappucci conducts La Bohème.
How times change.
The Heinrich-Heine-Institut in Düsseldorf has acquired two letters from the poet to the French composer.
Written in July and August 1848 from Heine’s ‘mattress-grave’, contents have not yet been disclosed.
The Hollywood composer has let it be known that he will be conducting his first UK concert in 20 years when he leads the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall on 26 October.
Williams, 86, has a new album out next month with the LSO on Decca.
It’s called John Williams: A Life In Music.
He’s in legacy mode and he always make sure to keep everyone in the orchestra totally involved.
Friends are reporting the passing of Olly Wilson, American composer, bass player and musicologist.
Originating from St Louis, Missouri, Olly obtained commissions from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. In 1995 he was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The Cambridge cosmologist, who died today, discovered serious music in his teens:
‘I first became aware of classical music when I was 15,” he said. “LPs had recently appeared in Britain. I ripped out the mechanism of our old wind-up gramophone and put in a turntable and a three-valve amplifier. I made a speaker cabinet from an old book case, with a sheet of chip-board on the front. The whole system looked pretty crude, but it didn’t sound too bad.
‘At the time LPs were very expensive so I couldn’t afford any of them on a schoolboy budget. But I bought Stravinsky’s Symphony Of Psalms because it was on sale as a 10” LP, which were being phased out. The record was rather scratched, but I fell in love with the third movement, which makes up more than half the symphony…’
