The winner of the Bartok International Piano Competition is Ádám Szokolay, 23, a gradute of the Liszt Academy.

Results:
1. prize : Ádám Szokolay – 30,000 €
2. prize: Ádám Balogh Ádám – 20,000 €
3. prize: Peter Klimo (USA) – 10,000 €

The 2019 International Heinrich-Schütz-Preis (mind how you pronounce it) has gone to Sir Roger Norrington, 85.

The prize is worth 30,000 Euros and the citation says he has been, for half a century, one of the most important pioneers in historically informed period practice, ‘after Nicolaus Harnoncourt and Sir John Eliot Gardiner’.

Roger won’t like that.

Such Schütz.

This post is not available in German translation.

The times are truly changing.

Germany’s opera magazine has named Joana Mallwitz, 33, as conductor of the year after her first season in charge at Nuremberg.

Orchestra of the year was Kirill Petrenko’s band at the Bavarian State Opera – for the eighth year running.

Asmik Grigorian was singer of the year for her Salzburg Salome, which was also production of the year.

Opera house of the year was Strabourg’s Opéra National Du Rhin.

The poll was taken among 50 critics from Europe and the US.

From an interview with Zubin Mehta in El Pais:

‘Mi corazón está roto por la situación que está padeciendo. Es un gran amigo y el mejor cantante de su tiempo. No hay nadie, ni Caruso, que haya logrado tantos éxitos.

‘Plácido me visitó en mi casa tres o cuatro veces durante mi convalecencia [por un cáncer] y he visto con alegría que ha cosechado un gran éxito en el Festival de Salzburgo… Volveré a trabajar con él esta temporada; cantará Germont padre en el montaje de La traviata que dirigiré en la Scala de Milán y lo espero con enorme ilusión. Confío en que pueda seguir su carrera con el éxito que merece’.

‘My heart is broken by the situation he is suffering. He is a great friend and the best singer of his time. No one, not even Caruso, has achieved so many successes.

‘Placido visited me at my home three or four times during my convalescence [from cancer]. I saw with joy his great success at the Salzburg Festival. I look forward with great enthusiasm to returning to work with him this season in La Traviata at La Scala where he will sing the elder Germont. I hope he will continue his career with the success he deserves, because he is still young.’

The German conductor Anja Bihlmaier, newly appointed chief conductor in The Hague, has taken a second job in Finland.

She will be principal guest at the Lahti orchestra, where the chief is Dima Slobodeniouk. She starts next year.

The international conducting competition at Besancon, a once-important event that has fallen off the radar, has a Frenchman in the last three:

Victor Jacob, 28

Haoran Li, 33 (China)

Nodoka Okisawa, 32 (Japan)

The final is on Saturday.

Jacob is assistant conductor at Chorégies d’Orange.

The French soprano Sabine Devieilhe, hailed as the next Natalie Dessay, has torn up her diary for the rest of the year and for the happiest of reasons.

Sabine, 33, is expecting her second child.

Paris and Madrid will have to do some recasting.

Here’s what she says:

Chers vous tous,
C’est avec émotion que je vous annonce aujourd’hui que nous attendons notre deuxième enfant !

Cette belle nouvelle m’oblige malheureusement aujourd’hui à renoncer aux Noces de Figaro au Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, à la tournée Libertà avec l’Ensemble Pygmalion ainsi qu’à la Flûte enchantée qui marquait mes débuts au Teatro Real de Madrid.

Dans l’attente de vous retrouver rapidement sur ces merveilleuses scènes, je vous remercie pour votre compréhension. Sabine

Photo © Eric Garault

Social media was awash last night with reports of the death of the international Austrian pianist.

All untrue.

His partner Elisabeth has sent out an email that he is still alive, fighting the same condition that has affected him for the past four years. One of our friends has an appointment to speak to him later today.

Badura-Skoda is 91. He gave his most recent recital five months ago.

UPDATE: The false news spread chiefly on US sites and Chinese social media.

A quick search for ‘berlin trumpet’ on Slippedisc.com will show lots of changes in the Berlin Phil’s trumpet section over the past three years.

One that we missed is the resignation of Gábor Tarkövi as solo at the end of last season. He is now professor of trumpet at UdK Berlin.

There will be an audition for his successor in May 2020.