Mahler symphony aborts Macron plan

Mahler symphony aborts Macron plan

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norman lebrecht

July 31, 2019

A 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.

 

Comments

  • We privatize your value says:

    No need to roast Riester. 🙂

  • MWnyc says:

    Maybe the radio orchestras can be moved out of Paris? (The choir, too, if it’s full-time.)

  • Nicolas says:

    « 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

  • Olassus says:

    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.

  • Pedro says:

    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 ) ?

    • Barry Guerrero says:

      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.

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