Breaking: UK orchestra cancels Salzburg Festival

Austrian TV (ORF) reports that the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus have withdrawn from this summer’s Salzburg Festival, due to concerns about ‘facing quarantine on return to the UK’.

The exact reasons may have been lost in translation, but the fact of the withdrawal is officially confirmed.

The conductor remains the same. Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, who lives near Salzburg, will direct the Britten War Requiem with the hastily imported Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, augmented by 13 musicians from ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Wiener Singverein.

Also out of the Salzburg Festival, and for the same apparent reason are the Tallis Scholars.

UPDATE: Statement from CBSO