I am very sorry to have to announce that I will be unable to conduct my wonderful orchestra at Thursday’s performance of the Leningrad Symphony. After a period of very painful problems with my neck, and after consulting several doctors and undergoing scans and procedures, I have been advised not to conduct for the next month.
While I am extremely sorry not to be able to perform this extraordinary work, I am delighted that, at very short notice, Jonathon Heyward, the Hallé’s Assistant Conductor, will conduct the Hallé. Jonathon is at the start of a brilliant career, having already achieved significant international success: winning a major European conducting competition prior to taking up his post at the Hallé, and recently being designated Chief Conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Germany.
I have every hope that I will be with you on Thursday night to talk in the first part about plans with the Festival for a major event around the opening of The Factory, a building and an idea we are all looking forward to with a tremendous sense of anticipation and excitement.
The LA Phl has upgraded Paolo Bortolameolli to Associate Conductor for the coming year, up from Assistant Conductor.
He’s got a year to prove himself in the big time.
No pressure.
Edward Walton is the winner of the Piccolo Violino Magico for violinists aged 9 to 13.
He played the Mendelssohn concerto in the final at San Vito al Tagliamento, Italy.
Musicians of the Montpellier national orchestra have sent a message of support to their colleagues at Bordeaux Opera, who are in rebellion against their general director, Marc Minkowski.
Their message follows similar shows of solidarity from musicians in Nice, Toulouse and Paris.
Nous, musiciens de l’Orchestre national de Montpellier Occitanie, souhaitons apporter notre plein soutien à nos collègues de l’Orchestre national Bordeaux Aquitaine dans le conflit qui les oppose à leur Directeur général, Marc Minkovski. L’expertise de l’orchestre, construite depuis plusieurs générations, ne devrait pas être ignorée ou remise en cause.
Un orchestre symphonique est une grande aventure humaine qui se bâtit sur le long terme. Les forces vives d’une maison telle que celle de Bordeaux, indispensables à la vie de la cité et dont chaque membre a été soumis à une très rigoureuse sélection, se structurent autour du respect, de la confiance, et d’un esprit collectif permettant de grandes réussites artistiques quand ces valeurs sont honorées.
A Montpellier nous travaillons ensemble chaque jour dans ce but, et nous espérons, dans un esprit de solidarité avec les musiciens de Bordeaux, la prompte prise de décisions artistiques et humaines permettant à l’ONBA de continuer à rayonner auprès de son public bordelais, français et international dans les meilleures conditions.
Chief classical critic Richard Morrison in today’s Times leaps to the defence of the BBC, which the Guardian accused in an editorial of dumbing down and poshing up the Proms.
…it’s hard to feel anything but dismay at the anonymous editorial published last Thursday, and the butt of social-media scorn ever since. Headlined “The Guardian view on classical music”, it trashes almost every current manifestation of the artform. The Proms are apparently “a magnet for conspicuous consumption” for rich people, providing “status experiences that will convey bragging rights with fellow have-yachts”. Classical music is lambasted for “rejecting innovation”, its audiences unwilling to “expose themselves to the shock of the new”. Oh, and there’s the obligatory dismissal of “Beethoven and other dead white males”.
Yes, but.
What lies behind the summer tiff is more than just an uprising of Guardian Corbynistas against a Blairite BBC whose classical boss and his radio chief once loyally served a Labour Government.
The background is a little more interesting. Under its previous editor Alan Rusbridger, a capable pianist, the Guardian was the go-to paper for classical news and views. Since his retirement to an Oxford sinecure, the paper has relegated classical music to roughly the same degree of attention it accords to classical archaeology. Although it still employs a classical music editor, it has been aeons since the Guardian last broke a music story or ran an eye-catching feature or interview. The paper has no chief critic and a diminished classical profile.
Againist this backdrop of decline, it is understandable that the paper should publish an uncomprehending editorial decrying the falling standards for classical music at the BBC.
Which is not to say the editorial is entirely wrong. The BBC has dumbed down horribly in a futile pursuit of young listeners for Radio 3, which has lost a fifth of its audience in two years. It has franchised the Proms to all sorts of BBC-brand attractions and it is replacing knowledgeable presenters with unimpartial performers. The BBC, like the Guardian, has drifted way off course. The Guardian, on the other hand, has no moral ground from which to attack it.
This is a skirmish at sea between two sinking skiffs.
It has probably gained the Guardian more classical readers than it has seen all year.
The Ulm Generalmusikdirektor, Timo Handschuh, has had enough. Handschuh, 44, will step down in 2021 after 10 years in the job and no further up the ladder.
Ulm is no dead end. It’s where Herbert von Karajan launched his career.
Recognise him?
The Teatro alla Scala invites musicians and music lovers to the funeral of Giuseppe Bellanca, a company tenor who was tragically killed last week when his motorbike was hit by a truck. Giuseppe was 48.
The ceremony will take place on Wednesday 10 July at 16:30 pm at the Chiesa del Carmine, Piazza Del Carmine, 2.
