Salzburg Festival is ‘a fruit of the First World War’
mainThe 2014 festival, just announced, will aim to reflect the event’s idealistic origins in the aftermath of war. ‘The Last Days of Mankind’ by Karl Kraus will take centre stage. The Australian Cambridge historian Christopher Clark will give the keynote address on his book, The Sleepwalkers, an account of the bumbling diplomacy that bred the global catastrophe. And a new opera by Marc-André Dalbavie will relate the life of Charlotte Salomon, a young Berlin-Jewish artist who was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943. ‘The festival is a fruit of war,’ said its president, Helga Rabl-Stadler.
Much of the rest of the festival will focus on Richard Strauss, one of the festival co-founders, whose 150th anniversary falls next year.
Details here (auf Deutsch).
Christopher Clark is quite popular here in Germany these days. No surprise, as he claims Germany doesn’t have a higher degree of responsibility for the outbreak of WWI than the other powers.
Alexander Pereira is one of the most arrogant music managers the world has ever known. His programming at the Salzburg Festival is absolutely unimaginative (last Summer all Mahler symphonies, next Summer all Bruckner symphonies), spending money is so easy for him by inviting 1300 Venezuelan kids to show off, no wonder he clashed with the politicians over budget………
What is most shameful, after the universal failure of Christoph Eschenbach Cosi fan tutte, Pereira keeps him for Don Giovanni plus adding Eschenbach’s date at Salzburg next Summer with Bruckner 7th (including the world premiere of Rihm Piano Concerto with the steroid banger and a very close “special” friend of Eschenbach, the great Barto “muscle man” Smith!)
http://www.salzburgerfestpiele.at/concert/anton-bruckner-cycle-2014/bruckner7
The way Pereira works is rubbing each others back which is nothing more than COPINAGE
Eschenbach, ha…ha…ha…, his “SELL BY DATE” is passed since a long time. I am not surprise by his choice to promote Barto wherever and whenever he goes. Sadly nowadays Eschenbach’s taste for his “CUTE BOYS” club has gone so low, purely going for someone’s look, nothing to do with artistic talent whatsoever. Take a look at one of his NEW prodigy who will be playing as the soloist with Eschenbach conducting Muenchener Philharmoniker in June 2014:
http://www.iskandarwidjaja.com/
Can anybody give an honest comment if a talent like this deserve to be invited to a major orchestra like Muenchener Philharmoniker as the soloist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC-TAFVxQ4o
Or playing the Bach Chaconne like this which surely won’t get this boy to be accepted in any serious major music conservatories:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oIRM33LSIw
Another member of Eschenbach’s “CUTE BOYS” club trying to get through the Schumann concerto, thousand other violinists could play more in tune than this boy, I wonder what Eschenbach is hearing?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2lg4WxyUi4
The classical music business is full of “dilettante” in the worse sense of its actual meaning
Ooouch….Iskandar Widjaja is the name to watch????? I am just shocked, what is this? Why nobody question Intendant Paul Müller? Yes of course, Müller is a close friend of Eschenbach since his days working at Schleswig-Holstein Festival then Bamberger Symphoniker, now Münchner Philharmoniker. Eschenbach pushes another useless name of prodigy to his close friend who happens to be Intendant of a great orchestra. Didn’t Paul Müller do some checking around before saying Yes? Total embarrasement
What does ‘arrogant music manager’ mean ? Mr Pereira has held posts at the highest level and been successful in Frankfurt, Vienna, Zurich prior to Salzburg. The Eschenbach situation was unfortunate but it was precipitated by the cancellation of Welser Most and supported by the Vienna Philharmonic. The choice of the Bolivar Orchestra was obvious, opportune and highly successful and beyond criticism. All artistic choices are subject to second guessing and criticism but to attack Mr Pereira’s character is wrong !
To Levon, are you referring to pianist Barto who was arrested on possession of cocaine in Florida? Is this the pianist/ soloist Christoph Eschenbach supporting in the whole world? If true this is a joke, the Maestro must be out of his mind
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2008-01-08/news/barto08_1_tzimon-barto-evelyn-smith-eustis
There is an arrest record by the Florida Police here:
http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Tzimon_Barto_2544314/
I am laughing really hard when I watched the video of the young Chinese violinist Dan Zhu playing Schumann violin concerto with Maestro Eschenbach. I remember attending his Mozart recital with the Maestro on the piano at the Kennedy Center. My son who is 13 years old plays the violin much more precisely in tune in comparison to this young man. We decided to leave the recital half way through. The next day we saw how horrible the review came out in the Washington Post about that recital
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-03-13/entertainment/35449295_1_mozart-sonatas-music-review-christoph-eschenbach
As a long time supporter of our beloved orchestra I am extremely disappointed by Maestro Eschenbach’s choice of soloists as he clearly favor nepotism. The cute boys club comment above is right on the money as my insider friends in the NSO told me that Maestro Eschenbach pushes many of his untalented prodigies simply because he is physically attracted to them. Maestro Eschenbach is known to be stubborn towards good advises from the artistic administration of the orchestra; after the failure of Dan Zhu’s debut recital the Maestro insisted that the young man must come back, this time as the soloist with NSO and even worse took him as the soloist in the orchestra recent European tour. His concerto appearance debut with the orchestra was also considered an absolute failure
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2013/01/25/dan-zhu-with-the-national-symphony-orchestra-reviewed/
Big shame to Maestro Eschenbach. Something clearly has gone really wrong with our Music Director, he has lots of explanation to give to his Board and his supporters if he were expecting to stay in his job for a good many years!
The incident with Tzimon Barto was very offensive to the NSO community. I was witness when Mr. Barto came out from Maestro’s dressing room walking around with his undershirt and underpants showing off his muscles. Rita Shapiro, Jeanne Ruesch and Nigel Boon are aware of this, certainly not pleasant knowing how much Maestro Eschenbach pushes the administration to accept his wishes regarding a circle soloists and one conductor prodigy who are way below level and prestige of our orchestra.