Mesage from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra:

Juanjo Mena sincerely regrets that due to illness he must withdraw from this week’s performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

It’s a highlight of the orchestral year. Mena must have had a watertight doctor’s note to pull out of it.

His replacement on Wednesday will be the Bach specialist Matthew Halls.

Quite a difference.

 

 

Striking musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will play in full strength tonight at the Apostolic Church of God in South Side’s Woodlawn neighborhood.

Concert starts at 7,30.
Programme:
Rossini, Overture to the Barber of Seville;
Mozart, Violin Concerto No. 5 In A Major, K. 219;
Brahms, Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98.

The concert is free entry. No conductor has been named.

 

His Parsifal performance this Thursday will be Valery Gergiev’s first engagement at the Vienna State Opera.

What they have in common is a relaxed attitude to rehearsal for repertoire works. It could be a love match.

The early-music specialist Andrew Lawrence-King is seething over the cancellation of an offer from the Hochschule für Musik Detmold for him to set up a department for Historical Performance Practice. No reason was given for the withdrawal of the job offer. (Could it be Brexit?)

Andrew writes:

This is an open letter to the students and staff of the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, explaining why I will not be taking up the newly-created post of Professor of Historical Performance Practice, offered to me and accepted at the end of February.

This was a month of extreme contrasts, of intense demands, of high professional and artistic acheivement, and of personal loss. My encounter with Detmold Hochschule became part of this mix of triumph and tragedy.

I know of many cases, involving myself and others, where institutions have mistreated musicians, knowing that there will be little resistance. And I believe that I should tell this story, on behalf of other musicians who do not have the freedom to tell their own stories.

I remain passionately enthusiastic about the idea of establishing a 21st-century Early Music department integrated within a modern conservatoire, founded on cutting-edge research, evidence-based teaching and high-quality performance. I have invested considerable time and money planning and travelling to Detmold for interviews and meetings.

But without any warning to me, and apparently without consulting or even informing the Appointments Commission (the committee responsible for intervewing candidates and selecting a consensus choice), Rektor Grosse emailed me to cancel my week-long first visit and withdraw the job-offer.

This cancellation is most irregular, and may not be legal within the Hochschule’s rules and German law: it would seem to constitute breach of promise with me. At the very least, it is inexcusably rude.

Read his detailed account here.

There has been no official word of Yan-Pascal Tortelier, who was rushed to hospital shortly before his National Symphony Orchestra concert on Thursday night, prompting its cancellation.

The following night’s NSO concert was conducted by the Baltimore assistant, Nick Hersh.

We hope Yan-Pascal, 72 this week, is doing well.

The Besancon Festival has just announced that he won’t take part in pre-selectionn for its conducting competition because he has been ordered to take several days’ rest in Washington before he can fly again.

Yan Pascal Tortelier, souffrant, ne peut prendre part comme il en avait l’intention aux présélections du 56e Concours qui commencent ce 15 avril à Berlin, et se poursuivent à Pékin, Montréal et Besançon. Il devait diriger trois concerts à Washington cette semaine, et doit rester quelques jours encore au repos.

 

The Times of Israel has a feature on Eric Sargon, who got a call to play on the Beatles track, ‘Hey, Jude’. At the time, he was a viola player in the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Sargon, 91, has now gone to live with his family in Jerusalem, where his granddaughter apparently manages his freelance diary.

Read on here.

The film composer will receive the Pope’s Gold Medal today for ‘his extraordinary artistic work, which also has religious aspects’ – or so the citation goes.

Where, exactly?

A Fistful of Dollars? Exorcist II? The Hateful Eight? Bugsy? Once Upon a Time in America?

Has religion lost all meaning?

 

Dr Anita Collins seems to be a very nice person as music teachers go, but her ritualisation of music practice is based on various forms of deception. Is that the best way to immerse a child in the love of music?

What do you think?