The latest tutorial from Berlin Phil’s Sarah Willis is a cracker.

A judge at Wood Green Crown Court has passed a jail sentence on Richard Clews, former horn player at the Royal Opera House and London Symphony Orchestra whose resounding solos have been credited on dozens of recordings.

Clews, 53, was convicted of stealing £185,662 while working as a researcher for the Performing Rights Society which collects airtime royalties for professional musicians.

The court was told that, when health problems caused difficulties with his playing, his income fell from £80,000 as a horn player to £27,000 as a PRS clerk.

Although he pleaded guilty to one offence and repaid the money in full, Clews was jailed for 28 months.

More here.

Clue: he always believed in Vorsprung durch Technik

The public erupted with frustration at the finals of the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition last night when the top prizes went to three Japanese and an Armenian:

1 Kenji Miura
2 Keigo Mukawa
3 Zhora Sargsyan

There were loud groans as a French contestant, Jean-Baptiste Doulcet, was called out for the fourth place and cheers as he was awarded the public prize. The two Japanese winners were greeted with boos and whistles. There were vicious boos for Miura (pictured) on his return for a subsequent prize and further boos for the jury when they were thanked from the platform.

Martha Argerich, who chaired the jury, did not attend until the final round.

Watch video here. Results from 3.50.00.

UPDATE :Experienced critics were pretty upset at the result. This from Alain Lompech thinks the 1st prize should not have been given:

Le Concours Long se fourvoie une fois encore par un palmarès étrange et très contestable ! Le premier prix va à Kenji Miura qui a très mal joué les Valses nobles de Ravel, Dante de Liszt et la Sonate 311 de Mozart ! Et le deuxième prix à Keigo Mukawa qui a tellement mieux joué les Miroirs de Ravel et la 2e Partita de Bach ! Les 3e et 4e prix sont plausibles. Le 5e et le 6e aussi. Mais en réalité le 1er prix ne devait pas être décerné car le niveau global des candidats arrivés en finale était moyen. Réunir un tel jury pour un résultat aussi contestable…

Malte Hemmerich, a young journo working for the FAZ and takt1, has published an article in a German online magazine arguing that too many artists are allowed to carry on far too long past their sell-by dates.

Hemmerich, 28, opens with an attack on Mariss Jansons, music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, who has failed to conduct many of the prestige concerts on his orchestra’s current tour.

Jansons is 76. Hemmerich also calls out Placido Domingo, Thomas Hampson and Maurizio Pollini. (But not Herbert Blomstedt, 92, or Menahem Pressler, 96 next month).

Read here.

Mariss Jansons in action, October 2019

Opera San Antonio has named E. Loren Meeker as General and Artistic Director and Francesco Milioto as its first Music Director.

They seem pleased.

The hereditary director of the Bayreuth Festival has been renewed until 2025.

Now there’s a surprise.

Writing this extraordinary Magnificat which has, apparently, never been recorded before.

Listen intently here or watch below.

Kudos to Emerson Eads and Minot State University.