Mahler symphony aborts Macron plan
mainA performance of Mahler’s eighth symphony at the Chorégie d’Orange has provoked a change of heart in the French culture minister Franck Roester, who had previously announced plans to merge two radio orchestras and choruses.
Now Macron’s cost-cutting minister is saying they must all survive as a ‘fundamental’ principle for the good of the nation. He told France Musique: C’est important de dire que nous avons une richesse musicale exceptionnelle à Radio France, une richesse que nous souhaitons pérenniser. (…) L’ambition musicale de l’audiovisuel public passe par deux orchestres, par une maîtrise et par un chœur.
Well done, Monsieur Mahler.
No need to roast Riester. 🙂
Maybe the radio orchestras can be moved out of Paris? (The choir, too, if it’s full-time.)
« French culture minister Franck Roester, who had previously announced plans to merge two radio orchestras and choruses »:
Could you provide a real source on your statement above ?
Sorry to say so but this is a fake news for me
I remember Michael Eisner being wowed by Mahler VIII (in New York) and as a result deciding the next day that his Disney Corp. would after all join the Disney family in funding Disney Hall. It was the tipping point.
Paris has three second-class orchestras – apart from the mentioned two, the Orchestre de Paris. They should merge into a top-class one. If Amsterdam, Vienna, Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin can have it, why not Paris ( or London, by the way ) ?
Orchestre de Paris is second class? . . Gee, thanks for updating me. When I heard them live, they sounded pretty darn top-drawer to me. Admittedly, that was two or three decades ago.