Frankfurt radio has posted a really fine new performance of the Grieg concerto with Alica Sara Ott.

Ms Ott comes on stage in a full black mask, which she removes before she starts playing.

No-one else on stage is masked.

Where’s the logic?

 

 

The orchestra has announced that Andris Nelsons is back this week, recording concerts to be streamed next month.

He has been out of the US for a year and is taking a considerable risk in flying at this time.

At least he is wearing a mask.

The music director has spoken to a Quebec newspaper about the plight of Metropolitan Opera orchestra and chorus musicians who have not been paid by Peter Gelb since March.

For the avoidance of misunderstanding, we present his words in the original French:

C’est inacceptable et douloureux qu’un chœur et un orchestre de ce calibre soient sans paie depuis mars », a-t-il déclaré dans le quotidien québécois Le Devoir. « Je l’ai dit : je ne crois qu’au dialogue. Il est difficile présentement [sic]. Ce qui m’importe, c’est que les gens continuent de se parler dans l’institution. Le dialogue est trop lent. Je ne peux pas y croire. À Philadelphie, on s’en tire, on y arrive. Le Met va y arriver comme les autres. Mais cela me montre une fois encore que, sans filet social gouvernemental, tout cela est beaucoup trop fragile. C’est le triste constat du miroir que la pandémie nous a envoyé. »

In summary: He believes in dialogue. Wants both side to keep talking. Philadelphia is managing better.

Without a government social security net, the Met musicians ‘unacceptable and sad’ situation is simply too fragile.

 

The University of Toronto has named Dr. Ellie Hisama as Dean of the Faculty of Music. We learn from the Ludwig-van site that ‘her research focus centres on interdisciplinary studies, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and the social and political dimensions of music’. Nothing to do with improving and deepening the study of music.

‘As dean, I look forward to opening and leading conversations about how students, staff, faculty, alumni and administrators can work together towards greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Faculty of Music,’ she said.  Yeah, right.

 

The Uruguayan bandoneon virtuoso Raul Jaurena, who earned much of his fame in the US, has died in New Jersey at 79.

Raul worked extensively with Astor Piazzola, performed in the White House and won a Latin Grammy.

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal has just picked an outlier to succeed Kent Nagano.

The Venezuelan Rafael Payare will become its music director in September 2022 for an initial five years.

Nagano held the post for 14 years.

Payare, 40, is married to the American cellist Alisa Weilerstein. A product of Venezuela’s El Sistema, he is presently music director in San Diego, where he renewed recently to 2026. He was previously music director in Ulster.

 

The Serbian mezzo Biserka Cvejić who sang 53 times at the Met in the 1960s died today at the age of 97.

She also performed at La Scala, Covent Garden and at the Vienna State Opera where she sang 372 nights in 26 roles between 1959 and 1978.

Write your own caption.

Apparently there is a Congressman with the surname Yoho.

The star soprano Tamara Sorokina who sang almost 40 roles in as many years at the Bolshoi has died at 88.

She was part of the fabric of the theatre. Her husband was the dancer Shamil Yagudin.

Their son is the Moscow conductor Pavel Sorokin.

 

Two candidates have emerged to succeed Helga Rabl-Stadler this year as president of the Salzburg Festival.

Both are related to her by marriage.

Read here.

Small town, Salzburg.

The British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor has won a new contract from Decca with the release of his sixth album.

Grosvenor, 28, said:’Decca Classics has been my recording home for the last decade, and I’m pleased that we are continuing our partnership.’