We have received this appeal from Valentina Scheldhofen Ciardelli, international performer and doublebass teacher at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance:
On August 28, 2024, I was on Flight FR585 from Pisa to Stansted with my double bass. As a frequent flyer with Ryanair, I’ve generally been satisfied with the service, but what happened at Pisa that day was deeply troubling. Despite Ryanair’s stated commitment to supporting passengers with neurodivergence (of which I am one) and recognizing the Sunflower Card, my experience was far from supportive:
I was forced to pay €32 for Priority Boarding, even though my bow could easily fit in the overhead locker. Initially, I was incorrectly told I needed to buy an additional seat for it. I have never paid for priority boarding for my bow case (which is very small) and have always been assisted with priority boarding due to my Sunflower Card without being charged extra. I felt extremely upset when the staff shouted at me without respect, and my boyfriend had to step in. Is this really how Ryanair’s Sunflower Card policy is implemented? It seems no one, neurotypical or otherwise, should be treated this way.
Additionally, I was informed that my double bass—which I had already paid €50 for as per Ryanair’s website—required an additional seat. It’s obvious that a flight case for a double bass won’t fit on an extra seat. The staff member at the counter then asked me to place the double bass on the regular luggage belt, where it didn’t fit. I suggested weighing it on the oversize belt (which I’ve used many times at Pisa), but she lied and told me there was no scale. Later, a colleague of hers said there was a scale, but it was broken. Eventually, they allowed me to weigh the double bass on a faulty scale, charging me €11 per kilo, for a total of €132. This was an unexpected and unfair cost, especially since I’ve flown with Ryanair before and never encountered this issue. If a bicycle can be up to 30kg, why should a musical instrument be treated differently?
Policy Discrepancies: Ryanair’s policies on musical instruments are confusing and inconsistent. While the weight limit for musical instruments is 20kg, bikes are allowed up to 30kg. My double bass, including its case, weighs around 30kg, making it impractical for many musicians to travel with such an allowance.
These issues highlight a broader problem with the current policy and how it is applied. Musical instruments are essential tools for musicians, and traveling with them should be managed with the same respect as other types of equipment.
Gianluca Marcianò happened to be at Pisa airport and witnessed the entire situation. He courageously stood up to defend my rights, for which I am deeply grateful.
As part of the musician community and as someone who is neurodivergent, I urge Ryanair to review and revise its policies to ensure fair treatment for musicians. Increasing the weight limit for musical instruments and applying the rules more consistently would significantly reduce the stress musicians face while traveling.
Swiss media are reporting that the International Menuhin Music Academy, founded by Yehudi Menuhin in 1977, is running a deficit of two million francs after its main philnathropist Aline Foriel-Destezet walked away.
Its board president resigned in June and its artistic director Renaud Capucon appears to have departed. Le Temps alleges he was paid 200,000 francs a year.
Hofesh Schecter is an Israeli choreographer, dancer and composer based in London whose modern dance works are performed all over the world.
He is one of those artists who can be described but not classified. First a talented pianist, switching to dance studies early, he has been a soloist in a ballet company, played drums in a rock group, served as a soldier, made dances and composed music for films and stage musicals – he was nominated for a Tony for his choreography for the Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof– and formed his own modern dance company. His works set out to change minds and ask questions of the audience. Clowns is shocking, a dance film directed, choreographed and composed by Hofesh Shechter as a bold and sarcastic commentary on society’s ever-growing indifference to violence. It features ten world-class dancers from 8 different countries playing out a macabre comedy of murder and desire, asking: how far will we go in the name of entertainment? The 30 minute piece combines Shechter’s bold, exhilarating and tribal choreography with his own percussive, cinematic score, and the camera gets up close to the exceptionally talented ensemble of dancers.
It was commissioned by the BBC and captured live at Battersea Arts Centre in 2018.
… My pick of the week may appear esoteric. It comes from Ludwigshafen in western Germany and is performed by the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz with its British chief conductor Michael Francis.
The composer is an Irishwoman who lived in Paris in the second half of the 19th century and is all but forgotten in both of her patrimonies….
Alan Gilbert bet the house in Hamburg, performing Gurrelider to open the Elbphilharmonie season.
The violinist Vineta Sareika, who resigned this week as concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, has been awarded an honorary professorship by the Latvian Academy of Music in her home country.
She says: ‘Extremely honored and thankful to become the honorary professor of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music!’
It is not clear whether or not this will represent a time commitment on her part.
Ten have got through to tomorrow’s semis:
Kai-Min Chang (Taiwan)
Xuehong Chen (China)
Junyan Chen (China)
Jaeden Izik-Dzurko (Canada)
Elizaveta Kliuchereva (Russia)
Khanh Nhi Luong (Vietnam)
Callum McLachlan (United Kingdom)
Julian Trevelyan (United Kingdom)
Tomoharu Ushida (Japan)
Ryan Zhu (Canada)
An extraordinary take on the Purcell ode by Sofia Preobrazhenskaya, recorded in Leningrad in 1959.
Beautiful in quite unexpected ways.
Begin The Beguine – Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire
I know you know who Fred Astaire was. Everybody does. But it’s possible you may not have come across Eleanor Powell.
She was simply the greatest female tap dancer in the history of movie dancing, the most versatile and powerful female dancer of the Hollywood studio era. Powell appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in a series of movie musical vehicles tailored especially to showcase her dance talents, including Born to Dance (1936), Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), Rosalie (1937), and Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940).
She retired shortly after starring in Broadway Melody of 1940 because her husband, Glenn Ford, was jealous that she was a bigger star than he and so, in the interest of domestic harmony, this great, great dancer gave way to lesser mortals.
Ginger Rogers, yes, I know you’ve heard of her too, couldn’t hold a candle to Eleanor Powell. Katharine Hepburn quipped about Astaire and Rogers that ‘he gave her class and she gave him sex appeal’ but when you watch this effortless blending of Astaire with Powell, you can see the difference in quality between a good dancer (Rogers) and a great dancer (Powell).
If you don’t believe me, watch this classic clip. It comes from Broadway Melody of 1940. The introduction is a performance of Cole Porter’s Begin The Beguine in a hilarious and unrecognisable version by a group called The Music Maids. But stay for the main event, Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire, two perfect dancers at the top of their form. My authority is unimpeachable, the immortal Fred himself. He told Eleanor Powell’s son, ‘Your mother is a much better dancer than me!’ And it was true.
In June 2022, the late Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini and his son Daniele, who shared a special love for Schubert, recorded their upcoming album dedicated to three essential aspects of the Viennese composer’s piano music: the sonatas, the cycles of short pieces and the music for four hands.
It is sadly Maurizio’s last ever recording, as he died in March 2024 at the age of 82. Thus, this touching and at the same time profound album by two generations of musicians becomes a legacy and a hopeful look into the future: “With the recent death of my father, the perspective with which I imagined the record and the whole process of its realisation inevitably changed”, says Daniele Pollini. “What presented itself as a very special occasion turned into a unique event, in fact unrepeatable. I am therefore very happy to have had the opportunity to make this album dedicated to Schubert and to have shared with my father what was his last recording.”
Folks have lately pointed out the merits of Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, which ‘presents world-class music for people of modest incomes in New York City’ (or so it says on the wrapper).
The series, founded in 1900, has been run since 1941 by just two 2 managers – Joseph Mann, for 32 years until his death in 1972 and Frank Salomon for the last 52 years. Is this a record?
Here’s another. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, presently undergoing a spell of turbulence, has got by for 63 years with just three managers:
Arthur Baker, 18 years
Ed Smith, 22 years
Stephen Maddock, 24 years
Any other comparable paragons of stability?
Christian Thielemann has told La Scala he has to undergo surgery next month and cannot conduct Das Rheingold, which opens on October 28. Simone Young and Alexander Soddy will step in.
Since he misses the beginning, Thielemann will withdraw from the whole Ring, directed by David McVicar. (Walkuere opens in February and no conductor has yet been assigned.
