Brazil kills an orchestra
OrchestrasThis is from the Concerto website, which is linked to the Naxos group: ‘Government decrees the death of the Philharmonic in an agreement signed to manage the Sala Minas Gerais’.
It continues: ‘The government of the state of Minas Gerais decreed the death of the Minas Gerais Philharmonic.’ The orchestra will cease performing in July. It will not go quietly, we are told.
Full story here.
We don’t talk enough about the very good quality of the brazilians orchestras with the one of Sao Paulo who don’t comes enough in Europe unfortunatly and who did some superb records. NEOJIBA project is fatastic to see in concert also.
This is grossly exaggerated. The government is terminating the exclusive use of the hall by the Filarmónica, an excellent orchestra, by the way.
No one is killing the orchestra. However it will be demoralizing for them not to be able to work on their sound the way they used to.
This is typical of the populist politicians, who see classical music as elitist and non inclusive.
But you may agree that dispossessing an orchestra of its home and place of work and glory is tantamount to kill it? For me this is chrystal-clean.
Think of a baseball court that, however excellent its baseball team, will be obliged to share their place with basketball, volleyball, soccer, golf and even waterpolo with the baseball guys.
Do you see the mess?
This is exactly the mindset of the average Brazilian politician. So, in a certain sense, no wonder.
As a former member of the orchestra, I’ll clarify the Filarmonica uses the hall for rehearsals as well as concerts, so between four and seven days a week. Belo Horizonte is not blessed with many large halls suitable for an orchestra to rehearse in, so without the use of this space, the Filarmonica has nowhere to operate. The hall was built specifically to house the orchestra and offices for this reason.
Furthermore, (to my knowledge) the Filarmonica was completely unaware of the discussions regarding this new ‘agreement’, and it has come as a complete surprise to management. It certainly looks like the state government is trying to kill it off indirectly.
The title (by the Concerto website) is a lie. It’s not the government of Brazil (Lula), it’s the government of Minas Gerais (liberal party NOVO, by appointment of the Federation of Industries of Minas Gerais.