We hear that principal flute Gareth Davies has stepped down as the orchestra’s chair.
His successor is David Alberman, principal second violin.
No woman has ever held the job, so far as we recall.
Verena Lafferentz-Wagner, fourth and youngest child of Siegfried and Winifred Wagner, died on Good Friday at the age of 98.
Although she married a high-ranking SS officer who worked for the Race and Resettlement Agency, Verena stayed out of politics – especially those of the Wagner family. She was a regular attender at Bayreuth.
The Amsterdam orchestra has issued a statement, declaring that it has settled its differences with the maestro it dismissed for alleged sexual misconduct. Here’s the text:
Concertgebouworkest and Daniele Gatti close a chapter
After constructive consultations the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and its former chief conductor Daniele Gatti have agreed to issue the statement below. The original decision has thereby become final and irreversible for both parties. Now both parties can and will focus completely on the future.
Statement of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Maestro Daniele Gatti are pleased to announce that matters between the two parties have been resolved following extensive discussions. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra would like to take this opportunity to thank Maestro Daniele Gatti for his artistic leadership during his time as the chief conductor of the orchestra and the contribution he has made to its position in the world of classical music.
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra wishes Maestro Daniele Gatti well, both personally and professionally. He will always remain an important part of the artistic legacy of the orchestra and he will always be remembered as its seventh chief conductor.
As a token of appreciation, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra will release three special recordings conducted by Daniele Gatti: Richard Strauss’s Salome, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 on cd and dvd and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 on cd.
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Maestro Daniele Gatti have agreed that no further announcements will be made.
The results of the Easter Festival, just in, show a drop in ticket sales from 93 percent to 90.5.
Meistersinger sold out, but other events proved less attractive, notably the Eschenbach performance of Dvorak’s Stabat Mater.
In all, 18,800 tickets were sold.
We’ve received news of the tragic death of Yuri Blinov, the first Belarus pianist ever to play at Carnegie Hall.
Yuri, who was 43, was running a 21-kilometre half-marathon in the southeastern city of Gomel when he collapsed and died five paces from the finishing line.
Yuri made his first concert appearance in Leningrad aged 12 with the Belarus symphony orchestra and went on to win the Prokofiev competition at 17. He went on to study at Eastman and lived for some time in the US and performing at notable venues.
But his overriding passion was Belarus and football, campaigning and raising funds for his local team FC Krumkachy to rise up the leagues.
Yuri is very widely mourned.
Apparently, the Messedamm underpass has become Berlin’s second most used film location.
Now musicians are getting in on the act.
This time it is not the stage machinery, but the consequences are more serious – and it’s another cast member of the new production of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
First Ausrine Stundyte, who singws the title role, was rushed bleeding to hospital . Now the Ukrainian bass Alexander Tsymbalyuk, who sings the roles of Old Convict and Chief of Police, has been invalided out after a moped drove into him on the street.
We hear that Alexander has suffered a badly broken leg and will undergo multiple operations.
Colleagues fear he could be out for months.
