The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has issued another of its small-sample surveys.

New research from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) reveals that 75% of music enthusiasts believe there are exciting opportunities for the UK’s leading ensembles to expand beyond the EU and to act as cultural ambassadors for Britain on the world stage.

Fact, or wishful thinking?

75% of music enthusiasts believe there are exciting opportunities for the UK’s leading ensembles to expand beyond the EU and to act as cultural ambassadors for Britain on the world stage.

With Britain’s exit from the EU weeks away, the RPO asked a nationally representative sample of 1,462 classical music lovers how they thought British orchestral music would fare once the UK left the EU.

Asked to predict where UK orchestras would tour in the future, the top 10 locations included:

Australia/ New Zealand 40%
Other Commonwealth countries 34%
Non-EU European countries 30%
China 29%
Far East 21%
The Middle East 17%
South Africa 13%
Latin America 13%
North Africa 6%
The USA was the top choice for music enthusiasts of all age groups. The top choices for young people (aged under 25) comprised of the USA (47%), non-EU European countries (23%) and Australia/ New Zealand (22%). Whilst the USA also came top among older people (those over 55), they were also more likely to see opportunities for UK ensembles in China (48%), Commonwealth countries (38%) and the Far East (26%).

James Williams, Managing Director at Royal Philharmonic Orchestra said: “There is no question that Brexit uncertainty has affected British brands across all industry sectors, including the arts. That said, music is one of Britain’s greatest exports to the world in cultural and economic terms – and the UK has some of the finest orchestras in the world. At the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, we seeking new markets, looking for opportunities wherever they exist.’

So the future for British orchestras is an unending Greyhound bus trawl through Howard Johnson motels? And that’s going to attract the best young musicians?

More here.

Your thoughts, please.

 

The Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and music director Sir Antonio Pappano have named Andrea Obiso as their new concertmaster.

Obiso,originally from Palermo, attended the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia from 2016 to last year.

Vladimir Ashkenazy’s retirement, announced yesterday by his management, leaves a troubling trail of open questions.

Ashkenazy, at 82, is more than entitled to his peace and quiet, but why slip away at the weekend like an unwelcome guest, and why make it ‘effective immediately’?

Alfred Brendel’s retirement was announced 13 months in advance, chroegraphed in the media and concluded with the Vienna Philharmonic a few days before Christmas in 2008. Way to go.

Brendel and Ashkenazy were the dominant recorded pianists of the late 20th century. They were public figures and, to a degree, historic personalities. For one to go without saying goodbye is unsatisfactory and out of character. So why?

I hope all is well with Vova and wish him a quiet time.

The conductor was 15 minutes late for the opening night of Lohengrin at the Vienna State Opera.

Today, he didn’t turn up at all, claiming a flight delay.

 

Mostly, he takes private jets.

This is an insult to the audience, the intelligence and to music itself.

 

UPDATE: ‘Everyone knows Gergiev is late’

Recent flooding at the Düsseldorf base of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein has exposed deep-seated structural faults.

The post-war building, engineers say, is no longer fit for purpose.

It will require either massive renovation ,or, more likely, demolition and a complete rebuild.

Either way, the house will shut for five years.

The imperturbable and generally invisible Jan Raes, who lost his job last month as managing director of the conductorless Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, has now been appointed interim CEO of Opera Ballet Flanders in Belgium.

He replaces Bart van der Roost, who was ousted last month after running up a 1.3 million Euro deficit.

Raes, 60, will hold the fort on an eight-month contract (he is also in the running to head the Bozar concert hall in Brussels).

Raes’s appointment in Flanders has come under attack from Peter de Caluwe, head of La Monnaie, who says there is no crisis and no need for an extra pen-pusher: ‘I see a trend here that worries me. Art institutions are increasingly seen as companies. However, the main task of such a house is to create opera and dance. In all the leading opera houses in the world, this is still done with intendants and artistic leaders. I just advocate empowering and trusting artistic leaders as much as possible. Not to put someone above them.’

 

The official obfuscations are becoming more and more obscure.

Here’s why Houston Grand Opera must replace its conductor this week:

HOUSTON – January 17, 2020 – Houston Grand Opera (HGO) announces that conductor Christophe Rousset withdrew today from the HGO premiere of La favorite due to personal circumstances. HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers will conduct all five performances. The production runs from Jan. 24 – Feb. 9, 2020 at the Wortham Theater Center.

Patrick Summers was named artistic and music director of HGO in 2011 after having served as the company’s music director since 1998. 

That must be all we need to know.

Rousset, 58, is the founder of Les Talens Lyriques. He has conducted at La Scala, San Carlo and Covent Garden.

We hear that Eldevina (Kika) Materula, oboist of the Casa da Musica in Porto, has been appoinred minister for culture and tourism in her homeland, Mozambique.

Apart from anything else, her country will get a very clear and resonant A.

And Portugal will be looking for a new oboe.

 

Welcome to the 16th work in the Slipped Disc/Idagio Beethoven Edition

Variations for piano, opus 89, 76 etc.

In December 1958, an American label hired an unknown pianist in Vienna to record the complete solo works of Beethoven. They started with variations on random themes, before working up through the 32 sonatas and five piano concertos and, in July 1964, signing off with a few more oddments and the monumental Diabelli Variations in one of the least assuming Beethoven enterprises on record.

The pianist recalled ‘a rather dilapidated baroque mansion in Vienna’ and constant deadline pressure. He was called Alfred Brendel and the series made his name.

The inaugural variations album, released in 1968, is pick’n’mix heaven – an assortment of doodles on God Save the King and Rule Britannia, Für Elise, the Turkish March from the ‘Ruins of Athens’, a Polonaise opus opus 89, and snatches of many contemporary composers. They are scattered all over Idagio , here, here and elsewhere.

No-one does this stuff with more panache than the young Brendel. He went on, of course, to record most of Beethoven all over again on Philips and you will encounter him quite often in this series.

For a sober contrast to Brendel’s callow enthusiasm, you might try Emil Gilels , the unsmiling John Ogdon or, more animated and altogether more musical, the elegant Anne Queffelec.

 

The Variations opus 76 is where Beethoven first tried out the Turkish march that became an orchestral hit in his incidental music to The Ruins of Athens, opus 113-4. There is a typically sensitive recording in an Emil Gilels collection. Alfred Brendel is way too fast, Wilhelm Kempff (1936) too ponderous, Sviatoslav Richter (Moscow, 1950) positively fractious and Ronald Brautigam on fortepiano is too fragile.

Once again, it’s a French pianist Brigitte Engerer (1991) who finds just the desired delicacy. You’ll love this.

Perfect for Sunday morning.

 

A German film, Crescendo, directed by filmmaker Dror Zahavi, explores the narrative possibilities of Israelis and Palestinians forming an orchestra together.

No resemblance to West-East Diwan.

The conductor, a German, has a Nazi father.