The proportion of women in German orchestras has risen to 41 percent, according to the latest stats from the sector association, DOV.

That’s up from just 6 percent in 1971.

Among 129 fulltime orchestras, 14 are already more than 50 percent women.

The DOV head Gerald Mertens says: ‘In the foreseeable future, women will predominate.’

The composer Brett Dean, a former violist in the Berlin Philharmonic, has tested positive for the virus on returning to Australia from a visit to Taiwan.

Dean, 58, is composer of the operas Bliss, and Hamlet.

His agency has issued this statement:

Lynne Williams, head of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, has notified stff and students to return to work next Monday after receiving the all-clear that there is no Coronavirus infection on the premises.

She says that the one carrier worked in a peripheral site and was swiftly isolated.

Guidancde from Public Health England is that the risk of infection is very low and it is safe to reutn.

The school had expected to close for at least two weeks.

Anne Midgette’s successor has been named.

He is Michael Andor Brodeur. The Post calls him ‘a writer, critic and editor who has worked most recently at the Boston Globe.’

But not primarily in music. He starts next week.

Ring any bells?

The latest Slipped Disc review of the CBSO100 season:

BRAHMS GERMAN REQUIEM

CBSO and Chorus at Symphony Hall *****

It was a clever idea to precede Brahms’ Requiem with Mozart’s C minor Wind Serenade for, like the Brahms, this piece is a masterful synthesis of ‘the old style’ with the new. Scored for an ensemble traditionally employed for light entertainment, this carefully crafted piece, cast in Mozart’s favourite key for intense dramatic works, and bristling with contrapuntal ingenuity is defiantly dark in its character, and practically a symphony for wind octet. The performance was a delight. The CBSO wind section played standing, allowing us to savour each individual’s contribution, whilst enjoying the felicities of the ensemble.

Mozart’s formal symmetries were echoed in the mighty construction of Brahms Requiem. The main impression of the evening was the absolute command that Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla had of the large forces involved, the certainty with which it progressed, and the clarity with which it was delivered. The physical disposition of the Chorus into four blocks aided our appreciation of the choral complexities, as we could see as well as hear each entry in the counterpoint and every turn in the harmony.

The work has seven slow movements, which means in some performances, that it lacks drama. This was emphatically not the case here.

One of the most thrilling sounds to be heard in Symphony Hall is the CBSO chorus (180 strong) singing quietly with their characteristic blend of tone and control, and here as the deep darkness of the first movement unfolded, aided by beautifully balanced pianissimo passages in the lower strings.

The relentless tread of “All flesh is as grass” had an alert suppleness that belied its measured tempo and its fortissimo passages stunned with its concentrated power. The jubilant fugue at the end of the movement was steady, but urgently driven; indeed all of the works’ fugues were distinguished in their rhythmic vitality, perfect intonation and character.

The soprano has only one movement in which she sings and Camilla Tilling gave us a sumptuously sung performance, beautifully phrased, with many exquisitely floated moments. Baritone Florian Boesch brought all his lieder singing experience to bear on colouring and expounding the text, with bell-like clarity and a Wagnerian ringing tone.

The chorus was magnificent throughout the performance in the splendour of its sound and unanimity of attack. The apocalyptic vision of the sixth movement in which they play the role of souls awaiting resurrection was spine-tingling, but although the full blooded moments inspired awe, it was the quiet moments that I took away from the evening as the final movement brought the work to a tranquil conclusion and the music that set the opening words “Blessed are those who mourn” returned, this time to the words “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”

Brahms was an intensely private man, and we will never know exactly what his religious beliefs were, but whether you hear it as a religious or a humanist work, this was a profoundly life-affirming concert.

John Gough

Krassimira Stoyanova has pulled out of Hamburg’s run next week of Calixto Bieito’s production of Verdi’s Otello.

They’ve called in the US soprano Ailyn Perez.

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra has just informed ticket-holders that the US baritone Thomas Hampson has been put on a plane back to Switzerland ‘under guidelines from the Ministry of Health’.

The Schubert songs that he was to have sung tonight have been replaced by Mozart’s Hafner Symphony.

Hampson with IPO principal viola and guest conductor Osmo Vänskä

UPDATE: We’ve had a call from Tom Hampson to say he’s completely well. He just got caught in a new tranche of Coronavirus rules.

Bolshoi announcement:
On February 25 in Kaliningrad the formal groundbreaking ceremony for the new Bolshoi branch to be built there took place at the construction site of the culture cluster on Oktyabrsky Island, followed by a gala performance of the Bolshoi Choir, Orchestra, and Opera and Ballet soloists at Yantar Hall in Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad Region.

The Bolshoi Director General Vladimir Urin, Russian Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova, Governor of Kalinigrad region Anton Alikhanov, director of State Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova, president of Social and Cultural Projects Foundation “National Cultural Heritage” Natalia Volynskaya attended the events. The branch in the country’s western most region will become the first in the history of the Bolshoi. It is planned to complete its construction within the project of a cultural-educational and museum complex (including branches of the Central Music School of Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Tretyakov Gallery, Bolshoi Ballet Academy, music school, student campus, housing for artists and tutors) in Kaliningrad by 2023.

Kaliningrad is the former Königsberg, capital of East Prussia, conquered by the Russians in January 1945 and occupied by them ever since.

When the United Nations proclaims that ocupation of territory taken in war is illegal, why does that not apply to Russia?

Or, for that matter, China (Tibet) and Turkey (Cyprus)?

This weekend’s three-part Beethoven survey on Idagio/Slipped Disc will focus on his only opera.

We wull try to make sense of the multiple overtures, the rival editions, the reason why no-one sees a tenor until the second act.

Most telling of all, we ask whether the definitive recording is really as definitive as people think.

Stand by for the first episode in a few hours’ time.

If you can’t get to the opera, curl up with Slipped Disc and Idagio.

The pianist has told Scherzo magazine, ahead of a Spanish tour, that she will not play pieces in the order that is printed in her programme.

In the booklet itself she writes: ‘In this recital, I will not interpret the pieces in the order announced for several reasons. The first is that when I listen to music lists, I always do it in random order. Another is that I want the music to surprise me and the audience, as if it were a box of chocolates. I also believe that every program is a living organism that must be in harmony with how I feel on that day and in that moment. Thank you to everyone who accompanies me in this concert, for coming with ears and open minds….’

Read on here.

Sheri Greenawald has announced her retirement as director of the San Francisco Opera Center the Merola Opera Program.

The ex-singer has led the young artist development programs since the turn of the century. She will step down at the end of the year.

She says: ‘I was so fortunate to have been a soprano who worked happily for 30 years, singing music that was always inspiring, with fabulous colleagues who made the journey so amusing. I have been a voice teacher to all types of voices, from opera singers to church choir singers; I have directed operas, employing skills I learned at the hands of the greats in the business; I have cast many, many operas for Merola with my colleague Mark Morash, and I have led an administrative staff that has been nonpareil. There are no regrets! I wish all the best to those maintaining the continuum of the classical music business, and I will be watching and listening happily from my eyrie, wherever that may be.’

The University of Iowa has named its music hall after Simon Estes, the eminent bass-baritone who first registered at the campus as a medical student, then as a scholar of religious studies.

Estes, 82, had a massive career in Europe before, in 1981, the Met deigned to offer him a role.

In retirement, he has given more than $220,000 in scholarships to students in 54 countries.

Photo: Caitlin Yamada/ Iowa State Daily