The controversial Marc Minkowski has been told he will not be considered for a third four-year term as chief conductor and director general of the Opéra de Bordeaux.

There have been tensions along the way.

The virtuoso has a new website.

Here’s the pitch:

From the know-nothing website of BBC News

By Mark Savage, BBC music reporter:

Sir Simon Rattle, one of the world’s most renowned conductors, is leaving the London Symphony Orchestra to take up a new post in Germany….

He lives in Berlin with his third wife, the Czech-born singer Magdalena Kozena, and their three children, and is also the permanent guest conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic in neighbouring Austria…

He also appeared at the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, where he and the LSO were upstaged by Mr Bean while playing the theme to Chariots of Fire.

From Will Gompertz, arts editor: … from what he has said to me in the recent past, he thinks Germany is a more conducive place to make world class music.

Oh, ffff’s sake.

Public service broadcasting?

Suite as it comes.

The Chicago writer Howard Reich, who succeeded John von Rhein on the Tribune only 30 months ago, has given up his post on the paper to spend more time writing books.

In the pandemic, there are no concerts or operas to review. What happens after is uncertain.

Reich posted his farewell today: 

And the winners are….

Christoph Wolff and Hans-Joachim Schulze.

Musicologists of the old school, who think about music not social transformation.

Marginally, perhaps, but no more than that.

The LSO’s global brand has diminished since Brexit and any hope of building a new hall has evanesced – though that’s as much to do with Covid and national politics as it is with Brexit. A new London hall was only ever a pie in the sky. In Munich it is a definite mayoral promise.

Rattle lives in Berlin with his young family and can commute to Munich by train. Munich made him a rose-tinted offer to surmount his Berlin Philharmonic period with greater triumphs in the south. Munich will now have a media-friendly figurehead to outshine Berlin’s shy conductor, Kirill Petrenko. It will draw energy from Rattle and he will gain dignity as successor to Mariss Jansons.

It’s one of those deals that is win-win for both sides.

As for the unhappy LSO, having invested so heavily in Rattle and given him unprecedented powers, they’ll need plenty of Covid downtime to adjust to the post-Brexit landscape.

We hear that the Professional Association of Classical Singers in Iceland voted a motion of no-confidence yesterday in the manager of Icelandic Opera, Steinunn Birna Ragnarsdóttir.

They say Ms Ragnarsdóttir has presided over a climate of fear, in which singers cannot complain of maltreatment and low fees, knowing that she would not re-engage them. There are also concerns over safty at work.

The minister of culture, Lilja Alfreðsdóttir, had formed a committee to consider the company’s future.

The city is saddened by the death of Wolfgang Nöth, a Holocaust orphan who turned the Haupstadt into a party capital.

He admored musicians of every kind.

Report here.

Bavarian Radio has confirmed that Simon Rattle will become music director of its symphony orchestra from September 2023, a long time ahead.

The London Symphony Orchestra announced that Rattle, 66 this month, has extended his contract with them until 2023.

It’s looks like he’s trying to have his cake and eat it.

He certainly can’t do both jobs at the same time.

More follows.

UPDATE: The LSO has issued this statement through semi-gritted teeth:

David Alberman, Chair, and Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director, London Symphony Orchestra: “Sir Simon Rattle will extend his current agreement with the London Symphony Orchestra as Music Director until 2023. In view of the special relationship the orchestra has with Sir Simon, he will take up a lifetime role as Conductor Emeritus from 2023 onwards, the first such appointment to this role since André Previn.   Simon will be taking forward a number of significant projects with us over the coming years working from our home base at the Barbican. These include a cycle of Janáček operas, a number of ambitious new commissions and his continued work with young people on our East London music education programmes. We want to thank Sir Simon for his immense and continuing contribution to the London Symphony Orchestra. Simon’s willingness to roll up his sleeves and champion the causes of Classical Music and Music Education in the U.K continues to be hugely important both for us and also for future generations in the UK.”

Sir Simon Rattle: “I am delighted that I will continue in my role as Music Director of the Orchestra for another three years, extending my contract until 2023, and that I will be able to remain closely associated with the orchestra into the future.  My reasons for accepting the role of Chief Conductor in Munich are entirely personal, enabling me to better manage the balance of my work and be close enough to home to be present for my children in a meaningful way.  I love the London Symphony Orchestra. I remain committed to the LSO, and we have plans for major projects in the coming years. I am thrilled that we will be making music together far into the future.”

Statement from Bavarian Radio, wearing a huge grin:

Ulrich Wilhelm, Intendant des Bayerischen Rundfunks: The Bayerischer Rundfunk is delighted that Sir Simon is coming to Munich as our next Chief Conductor. With his passion, artistic versatility and winning charisma, he will be a most worthy successor to Mariss Jansons. Our Chorus and the Symphonieorchester look forward enormously to developing the artistic concept for the new concert hall in Munich’s Werksviertel Mitte together with Sir Simon, who is peerless in his advocacy for bringing the joy of music to people in new ways. I see this appointment as an important and forward-looking signal, particularly in a time in which the arts have faced unimagined challenges as a result of the ongoing pandemic.

Sir Simon Rattle: Ich bin begeistert, die Position des Chefdirigenten von Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks anzunehmen. Es ist eine Ehre, die Nachfolge von Mariss Jansons anzutreten, und ich freue mich darauf, diese wunderbaren Musikerinnen und Musiker in den kommenden Jahren zu leiten. (I am thrilled to accept the position of Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester and BR Chorus. It is an honour to succeed Mariss Jansons in this role, and I look forward to leading these wonderful musicians for many years to come.)

Netflix has a phenomenal hit on its hands with the English period drama, Bridgerton.

Scorned by critics, it has been watched by more people that The Crown, consigning Downton Abbey to premature oblivion.

All the music in the series is played by a string quartet, mostly as Haydn-like adaptations of recent pop hits, such as Billy Eilish’s Bad Guy and Taylor Swift’s Wildest Dreams.

The group is the Vitamin String Quartet, an ad hoc, interchangeable ensemble managed since 2008 by the CMH label.

The individual musicians are not named on any website, or on Wikipedia.

The violist Tom Tally has been named as one of those involved, but why the secrecy?

Can we identify any more?

Here’s a Billboard picture of a live Vitamin SQ concert in 2018.

Is it not a form a slavery for musicians to be made to work and not credited?

And here’s the hit track.