First, they went French with Camille Thomas.
Then Austrian-Iranian with Kian Soltan.
Now we hear the yellow label has signed the Dutch cellist Harriet Krijgh.
That’s three in six months.
A Welsh academic, Thomas Breeze, makes the case for toppling a bastion of male pride.
Sample argument:
Initially, the recreational activity of choice was drinking, with an enormous number of pubs springing up in the towns to cater for the hordes of thirsty workers. The social consequences were inevitable. To counter this, nonconformist chapels in the industrial centres preached temperance and self-improvement – and the demon drink was eventually pushed aside in favour of community music-making in the form of choirs and brass bands. The male voice choir was born.
But that was another world. What’s stopping male voice choirs from welcoming women to their ranks now? After all, to claim some sort of cultural exemption would be to place them in the sort of uncomfortable position recently occupied by private members’ clubs, golf courses and – closer to our topic – the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, none of whom convinced with their defence of: “It’s always been this way.”
Read on here.
pictured: Wessex Male Voice Choir
Kazimierz Gierżod, a distinguished pianist and former chair of the Chopin Institute in Warsaw, died on April 1.
He was also rector of the Fryderyk Chopin University.
Musicians at the Cottbus Staatstheater have written a letter attacking the conduct of their music director Evan Alexis Christ. He is accused of abusive outbursts, daily threats and insults. The musicians list a host of rehearsal incidents which they say will be corroborated by other staff at the theatre.
The Intendant, Martin Schüler, disputes the allegations and Christ has asked for the case to be deal with internally. A source close to Christ tells Slipped Disc: ‘The allegations in the letter have either been settled amicably in the past or their content is incorrect.’ But the state minister of culture has referred the matter to a superior board and there is no prospect of a swift resolution.
Evan Alexis Christ, originally from Los Angeles, was the youngest General Music Director in Germany when he was appointed by Cottbus in 2008.
More details of the uproar here and here.
Ronald Vermuelen, who departed abruptly from the strife-torn Melbourne Symphony last month, has been named head of artistic affairs at the Lyon national orchestra and auditorium.
He succeeds Christian Thompson, who has gone to work with Daniel Harding at Swedish Radio.
In Boston, where he has given an outstanding account of the second act of Tristan und Isolde, the German tenor says he’s taking his time before broaching ‘the full marathon’.
He’ll do it in a full staging, he says, ‘in three years’ time’.
‘It is so much fun!’ he cries.
Listen to his enthusiastic interview:
And a clip from the performance:
In the outpouring of grief for the 15 young hockey players who died in a weekend road crash, Canadians are discovering that one of the team was a gifted classical pianist.
Xavier Labelle, 18, was originally from Saskatoon. He played cello before moving over to the piano. And he loved that 18th century master, Muzio Clementi.
We mourn with his family and all of Canada.
UPDATE: We are delighted to report that Xavier is alive. He was misidentified among the dead, an appalling error.
Report here.
Philip Sharp has discovered this unequal advertisement for young composers:
A ‘two ticks’ policy will be in place for female composers, composers who identify as BME, transgender or non-binary, or having a disability, to automatically go through to the second stage of the selection process.
It’s from the Centre for New Music at Sheffield and Sheffield University, inviting young composers to have their music workshopped and recorded by the Ligeti Quartet.
Philip has some trenchant things to say here about identity politics in classical music.
Your views, please?
We are sad to hear of the passing of Marina Horak, an international artist who played with major orchestras before developing a teaching practice in her native Ljubljana.
She studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and in London with Peter Feuchtwanger, playing both piano and harpsichord.
Newton Mansfield, a fixture in the NY Phil since 1961, died yesterday, his son reports.
Of Polish birth, he made his debut in Paris in 1938 and went on to play in Houston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and the Met before joining Leonard Bernstein’s orchestra in ’61 and staying there for the rest of his working life, retiring in 2016 as one of the world’s longest-serving players.
He loved to play.
We have reports of the death in Turin of Alfonso Mosesti, concertmaster of three Rai orchestras from 1954 to 1999 and a crucible of the inexpressible nature of Italian string tone.
A renowned soloist, passionate about little-known Italian composers, he never bothered much with an international career.
The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic will play music by 60 female composers in 2018/19, amounting to 35% of its repertoire output.
Among the highlights are 20 works by Thea Musgrave (pic) to be played in a single week, the resurrection of Dame Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D major and Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène.
The ever-eclectic Sakari Oramo presides as music director.
You see, it can be done.