I’ve been immersed in Schoenberg all week.

So was he.

That was George Steiner’s chilling phrase for cultural activity in the Weimar Republic.

Now, it’s the new box-set chic.

Read some admonitory words here.

Stunning interviews from the golden age around 1980.

When Italian TV called London ‘the world capital of music’…

They’re still arguing whether the 1973 concert audience objected to its first taste of minimalism, or actively erupted.

Read here.

A lovely valedictory summary after 18 years as music director.

Today’s Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is in large measure (Bramwell) Tovey’s creation, having brought in more than half the players and significantly raised performance standards, as anyone could testify who attended this year’s recently concluded Spring Festival…. 

He arrived initially to conduct local Canadian orchestras on a 1983 tour of England’s Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and wound up being invited back by all of them.

Then came some lunchtime advice from a leading London manager to the young conductor that he should go somewhere and develop his repertoire “out of harm’s way.’’

Read on here.

 

Dallas Opera has called back its former artistic director Ian Derrer to be its new CEO.

Derrer, 43, is presently head of Kentucky Opera.

He succeeds Keith Cerny, who left abruptly in December.

It was announced today in Stockholm that Karina Canellakis will conduct at the Nobel prize ceremony in December and Lisa Batiashvili (pictured) will be the soloist. Canellakis is American, Batiashvili Georgian.

 

The Russians won’t be pleased.

You remember the trouble they went to in order to find him a suitable conductor?

So Radu Lupu rehearsed last night and this morning with Cristian Macelaru and the Gewandhaus Orchestra through a nasty cold.

Then he decided to cancel.

Martin Helmchen is being whisked in.

The Chicago Symphony has announced that a forthcoming US tour by the National Symphony of Cuba with soloist Esperanza Spalding has been called off because the players are having trouble getting visas.

So many officials have been withdrawn from the US embassy in Havana that visa requests are not getting processed.

She has just posted this clip from Covent Garden.

Amazing vocal colours.

😱🗡⚰💉😈

A post shared by @ anna_netrebko_yusi_tiago on

The Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France has named Park Ji-yoon on Tuesday as its new concertmaster.

She is presently concertmaster of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire.

 

Piotr Beczala is among the first to sign a petition calling on the Bavarian State Opera not to scrap Otto Schenk’s 1972 Rosenkavalier production, which had its final performances last month.

Almost 1,000 have signed. You can add your name here.