The Dutch violinist has pulled out of the opening of the Baden-Baden autumn festival tomorrow.

‘An acute illness during rehearsal’ is the stated cause.

Janine is having a very on-off year.

We wish her better.

Her replacement in the Schumann concerto is the young German violinist Veronika Eberle.

 

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra tells us that the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, in the throes of 85th birthday concerts, ‘has had to withdraw from his scheduled performance with the RSNO due to personal reasons.’

RSNO Music Director Thomas Søndergård said: ‘It is regrettable that maestro Penderecki is now unable to join the Orchestra for these concerts. However, I am delighted that I have been able to make myself available for this. I adore Anne-Sophie Mutter’s playing and am hugely looking forward to her performances with the RSNO.’

Violin soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter said: ‘I look forward with happy anticipation to my first concert with Thomas Søndergård. Krzysztof Penderecki‘s Violin Concerto No2, Metamorphosen is a towering project, and has been my companion since the premiere in 1995.’

 

Tweet from the violinist Renaud Capucon:

Renaud tells Slipped Disc he was flying from Valencia to Paris.

We are receiving further unofficial details of the death of the bass Maxim Mikhailov, whose life support was turned off yesterday in a Moscow hospital.

Maxim, who was 56, was physically attacked on a Moscow street last Thursday.

His head hit the ground with great force and he was taken to hospital in a coma. The injuries to his brain were found to be severe and irreversible and death was announced last night.

This is Moscow 2018. The official media are not reporting the attack.

We have received this statement from the LPO:

Vladimir Jurowksi and The London Philharmonic Orchestra will dedicate their concert at Royal Festival Hall on 8 December to their great friend and colleague Maxim Mikhailov, who was due to sing in Stravinsky’s Threni at that performance.

He performed with the LPO many times including at Glyndebourne (The Miserly Knight, Gianni Schicchi, The Duenna, Eugene Onegin) and in London (Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta 2008, The Miserly Knight / Rheingold extracts (Wotan) 2015 and in Oedipe 2017).

His final concert with LPO, Stravinsky’s Canticles, took place less than a fortnight ago on 10 November. All at London Philharmonic Orchestra will miss him greatly and send their condolences to his family.

The Spanish singer is marking his 50th anniversary at the Metropolitan Opera. He recalls his debut in a house interview with William Berger:

Let’s go back to that night, your Met debut on September 28, 1968, in the role of Maurizio opposite Renata Tebaldi in Adriana Lecouvreur. You were supposed to be making your debut in the same production a few days later, but when Franco Corelli fell ill, you stepped in at the last minute. What do you remember about that night?

‘We used to live in New Jersey in those days, and that Saturday afternoon, I had been rehearsing here at the Met, because I was covering Calàf in Turandot. I went home to New Jersey after the rehearsal, and about an hour after I got back—I guess it was about 7:15PM—Mr Bing [pictured with PD] called by phone, and said, “Plácido, how are you doing?” I said, “Fine, Mr Bing.”

‘He said, “Well, I hope you really are fine, because you are making your debut at the Metropolitan tonight.” I said, “Oh, my god,” and I got back in the car with my father, who was staying with us. Coming off the West Side Highway at 72nd Street, we were stopped at the light—and I was vocalising in the car. I noticed a car nearby and the people inside were laughing at me because I was singing. I put down the window, and I said, “Excuse me, where are you going?” And they said, “We are going to the Metropolitan Opera.” So I said, “Well, don’t laugh, because you’re going to hear me tonight!” I was nervous, but so excited. And the most difficult part was not the debut, but to be in the shoes of Franco Corelli.’

More here.

The Bolshoi Theatre has announced the death in Moscow of the prodigious Russian bass singer Maxim Mikhailov. No cause is stated in the one-line message.

He was seen most recently in the Paris production of Boris Godunov. 

Joining the Bolshoi in 1987, he starred at the 1994 Salzburg Easter Festival as Boris Godunov, conducted by Claudio Abbado. He went on to sing at Covent Garden, La Scala and other great stages.

Maxim was the grandson of Maxim Dormidontovich Mikhailov,the Bolshoi’s basso profundo from 1932 to 1956.

UPDATE: London orchestra laments slain Russian bass

 

Message from London’s Barbican Centre:

Due to an unforeseen engineering issue tonight’s performance of Romeo and Juliet and tomorrow’s matinee of Macbeth have been cancelled.

All customers who paid for tickets with a card will automatically be refunded. …

We are very sorry for the inconvenience and we are doing everything we can to rectify the issue.

We hear that Ramon Ortega has left his position as principal oboe with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Ramon, principal of Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich for nine years, deliberated long and hard before accepting the post a year ago. When he finally decided to leave one of Europe’s top orchestra for the Dudamel-Disney hall, the reason he gave was that the LA Phil was more adventurous, less tradition-bound than Bavaria.

Evidently, that has not worked out.

The LA Phil has posted his seat as vacant.

At the time of his appointment, there was much dissent expressed on oboe sites over the abandonment of an American tradition, fostered by DeLancie and Tabuteau, for a modern European sound.

Word on the vine is that Ramon is returning to his Munich position.

 

The finalists in the Donatella Flick conducting competition, which has been running in London all week, are:

Felix Mildenberger
Harry Ogg
Alexander Colding Smith

Mildenberger, a German, is Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de France.
Harry Ogg (pictured) is English, studying in Weimar.
Smith is an Australian studying in Cincinnati.