Gurre-Lieder – BR-Klassik

BR-Klassik Index – Click here to browse

Click here to watch
 
My friend Hazel has found us a new platform for online classical music concerts. It’s called Br-Klassik, check its Index, and it has a splendid roster of videos including this superb,”Gurre-Lieder”.
 
“Gurre-Lieder“ is an oratorio in three parts for soloists, speaker, choir and orchestra by Arnold Schoenberg, performed here at the Isarphilharmonie by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with the Bavarian Radio Choir and international singing soloists including Simon O’Neill,  Dorothea Röschmann, Jamie Barton, including Thomas Quasthoff as speaker.
 
Conductor Simon Rattle describes it as “the wildest, most beautiful, most romantic work imaginable.” And he describes why the performance of the Gurre-Lieder has special meaning for him: “As an eleven-year-old in Liverpool, I was fascinated by the largest orchestral score that was in the music library – Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder. The volume was almost as big as me and it was really difficult to bring it home! And now, many years later, I am here to celebrate the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra’s 75th birthday with this piece by Arnold Schönberg!”

With their gigantic effort of musicians and singers, Schönberg’s Gurre songs push almost every concert venue to its capacity limits. A border crossing that is, however, rewarded with an unforgettable music and sound experience, beyond the usual concert experience. The Bavarian Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra are reinforced by the MDR Broadcasting Choir.
 
I envisage that we’ll be dipping into the BR-Klassik catalogue often in the future.

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A settlement has been reached in the ugly standoff between music director Rosemary Thompson and the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra.

Rosemary, fired last December after 16 years, sued for unfair dismissal.

Today it was agreed that she would conduct the last concert of the present season in exchange for dropping her lawduit.

The statement reads: ‘Maestro Thomson is thrilled to return to the podium to conduct the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra for the May concert series, after which she will hold the title of Conductor Emeritus.’

Liang Wang filed a lawsuit today against the NY Philharmonic and Local 802 over his suspension from the orchestra.

Press release follows:

May 1, 2024 – NEW YORK – Liang Wang, principal oboe of the New York Philharmonic since 2006, has sued the Philharmonic for suspending him without cause. As the suit explains, the Philharmonic did not suspend Liang for anything he is alleged to have done, but instead, the suspension is the Philharmonic’s cynical reaction to a negative magazine article about long ago events that the Philharmonic knows to be inaccurate. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, also names Liang’s union for failing in their obligation to stand up for Liang’s rights.

The suspension occurred only two days after the publication of an article in “Vulture” – an online publication of New York Magazine – criticizing the outcome of a 2019 arbitration that was favorable to Wang, which in turn was about a disputed event of a decade earlier. Most egregiously as to Liang, the article gave the completely false impression that the arbitration related to allegations of misconduct by him in 2010, in Vail, Colorado. That was not the case. As the Philharmonic’s lead counsel made clear in 2019: “We don’t say that [Wang] engaged in misconduct in Vail.”

But the article nonetheless created a firestorm, and rather than correct the grossly misleading impressions about Wang that were circulating due to the article’s mistakes, the Philharmonic’s actions damaged Wang further.
Alan Lewis, Partner at Carter, Ledyard and Milburn and attorney for Mr. Wang said:

“Liang Wang is an extraordinarily fine person, a devoted husband and the father of two young children. He has an entirely unblemished record in his 18 years at the Philharmonic, and has always conducted himself with dignity, generosity and professionalism.

“The Philharmonic suspended Liang without giving a reason, other than cowering to the public reaction to a magazine article. The writer of that article did not have access to any of the extensive arbitration testimony, resulting in serious errors. But the Philharmonic conferred unwarranted legitimacy on the substantially inaccurate article. Any doubt about this is put to rest by the unfortunate words of the Philharmonic’s own CEO. As he put it in his email to the orchestra announcing Liang’s suspension, the article ‘prompted a lot of strong feelings.’ But feelings are not facts.

“The actual facts – relating to a resolved dispute about events in decades past – were fully vetted in the 20 day long arbitration hearing in 2019 presided over by Richard I. Boch, an arbitrator agreed to by the Philharmonic and perhaps the most renowned and respected labor arbitrator in the nation. And when faced with an inaccurate article relitigating the facts that were thoroughly adjudicated in the arbitration, the Philharmonic’s response should have been to stand by the binding arbitration result – and not throw Liang up as a sacrificial lamb to an angry mob misled by a magazine hit piece. Bluntly stated, the Philharmonic chose cowardice, rather than courage.

“The shockwaves of the Philharmonic’s actions have driven Liang off stage, suspended him from faculties, and cancelled him from festivals and competitions. He is separated from his fans and the orchestra to which he has devoted two decades of his life. While Liang and I are supremely confident in the merits of our case, we can never replace what’s been taken from him already.

“Finally, there are almost no words for the Union’s disloyalty, in failing to perform its solemn duty to protest the unlawful and unexplained mistreatment of Liang Wang. Our system of labor relations entrusts unions with the obligation to stand up for their members who are unjustifiably accused or mistreated. But here, Local 802 has not stood up for its loyal member, Liang Wang, even when he has been subject to mistreatment from his employer – without being accused of anything.

“The matters resolved in the thorough 2019 arbitration were resolved in a final and binding process, which Mr. Wang will not relitigate in the press, or any other lawsuit. He is demanding basic fairness and respect for the rights that are afforded to him and all of his colleagues by the collective bargaining agreement. He is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorneys’ fees from the Philharmonic and Union for their breaches of their contractual and solemn obligations to Liang.”
The case is 1:24-cv-03356 filed in the Southern District of New York.

photo: Liang Wang in 2010

We hear the Los Angeles Philharmonic is about to announce a new president and chief executive.

According to our trusty mole, it’s going to be Kim Noltemy, presently prez of the Dallas Symphony. UPDATE: This report has now been confirmed by all parties. It was originally scheduled for announcement on Friday.

Kim will take over from LAPO’s interim CEO Daniel Song whose year in charge has been frayed by executive pay hikes and plummeting staff morale.

Before taking over Dallas in January 2018, Kim Notelmy was Chief Operating and Communications Officer for 12 years at the Boston Symphony, which has taken both of its last CEOs from the LA Phil.

Expect an announcement before Pacific sunset.

Choice Kim quote: ‘It was always difficult to be a non-musician in a very specialized field like orchestra management. There are so many technical aspects to the work and so much knowledge that is innate to musicians that I had to work hard to learn. I was motivated because I wanted to be good at my job, and I knew it would be valuable for me both professionally and personally to know a lot more about music and orchestral repertoire. There were times that people made me feel stupid or silly for my lack of knowledge, but it just made me want to overcome that inexperience. It also made realize that a lot of people are intimidated or think they don’t know enough to enjoy classical music. My experience helped me strategize ways that my orchestra could reach more people who did not have a musical background or play instruments, and we need new fans!’

UPDATE: Can Kim save the LA Phil?

The conductor Rebecca Bryant Novak is a doctoral student at Eastman School of Music. She’s having a tough time complaining about a particular faculty member.

Here are some of the issues:

…I’ve never been sexually assaulted, but I have dealt with a lot of aggressive, entitled men in this field and the institutions that protect them – most recently at the Eastman School of Music.

It’s impossible, in situations like these, to know how much to share and how much not to, especially in a forum as wide-open as the internet. Over-sharing can feel irresponsible. So can under-sharing. It leaves an awful lot to the imagination.

The ambiguity of that decision is one reason, among many, that so many people in problem situations say nothing. I’m not going to do that. Saying nothing can be the most irresponsible thing of all. But one of many, many costs of going through a situation like this is agonizing over the balance between saying too much and not saying enough.

I’m a doctoral student in orchestral conducting at Eastman – one of very, very few women admitted to the program in its history. Six weeks into my first semester, I had to report a long list of concerns about a faculty member.

Some of it was hostile, unprofessional behavior and some troubling comments – toward and about other students. Some of the hostility was directed at me, in addition to some gender-based remarks and privacy concerns. By the time I raised concerns, the situation had become extremely uncomfortable. Most of it was clearly documented. And the problems weren’t new. He said he’d gotten “a slap on the wrist” for bad behavior in the past.

The school was well aware of ongoing issues. I took a long report to the appropriate member of Eastman’s leadership. His first advice was that I transfer out of the school all together, because, he said, “I don’t want things to get bad for you.”

I didn’t expect a perfect response, but I was genuinely shocked by the degree – bordering on adulation – to which Eastman protected its faculty – despite clear-cut, chronic issues of behavior and competence. (Badly behaved geniuses are a myth. I’ve never met one – just lots of emperors who have no clothes.)

The first solution I accepted was limiting my contact with the situation. It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it allowed me to get on with my life. When the faculty member objected, Eastman altered the agreement to suit his wishes. I wasn’t asked – just told that if I didn’t comply, I wouldn’t get my degree – despite the fact that several members of the school’s leadership had expressed concern about our having prolonged contact.

I refused, and told Eastman they were welcome to fail me out of the program. What ensued was an administrative nightmare, and it took three tenured faculty members – all women – taking up the issue on my behalf, and my decision to initiate a university investigation (on issues that were largely documented and not in dispute), to even get a partial resolution.

Even then, I was in an enormously compromised position. I lost opportunities I would have otherwise had and lost the potential for references. I also spent the entire first year of my doctorate in a state of constant stress, discomfort, and distraction.

Other students and faculty members in my department offered little support, despite being aware of the situation. Most didn’t even offer a private word of concern. Some excused and enabled the behavior. It is continually shocking to me that an entire professional culture still treats this kind of thing as normal.

I’m a doctoral student, and I came back to the degree after spending time in the professional field. This was a nearly impossible process for me to manage, and it has taken a huge toll on my work and sanity. If one of Eastman’s many 17- or 18-year-old students took this on, it’s hard to imagine how they could make it through. Mine wasn’t the worst situation imaginable, and it was still hugely damaging.

I’ve said repeatedly, for nearly nine months, that the attitudes Eastman operates on – and models for its students – are irresponsible. The situation I experienced is a direct antecedent to the kind of abuse seen at the New York Philharmonic and so many other places. The degree is different, but the mechanisms are exactly the same.

Students are learning those lessons – of fear, compliance, silence, the normalization of abuse – right here, right now. You don’t have to teach those lessons explicitly. You just have to make it clear who is protected and who is not, and the lessons teach themselves.

Eastman has only doubled down and deflected. I have been repeatedly lectured on the rights and status of its faculty members. I have seen some truly extraordinary mental gymnastics performed on behalf of the man I reported. Because – as Eastman’s Title IX Coordinator told me – “He’s faculty, so we trust his judgment.”

Read on here.

The Library of Congress has taken possession of the archive of the Kronos Quartet.

It makes sense. Kronos has premiered more new music than any other US ensemble in the past half century – much of it by American composers.

“Kronos Quartet’s impact on contemporary music is hard to overstate,” said Susan H. Vita, chief of the Library’s Music Division. “It is ideal for the quartet’s legacy as cutting-edge multidisciplinary artists and commissioners of living composers to be preserved here at the Library of Congress, an institution which itself plays a role in the creation of new music and which has long been a preeminent international destination for the living string quartet tradition.”

Pictured: Kronos’ breakthrough work from 1970

Miscast ‘24 – Broadway Unlocked
 
Click here for tickets

Regular readers know that this annual cabaret is one of my favourite shows of the year and I never fail to recommend it to you. The Miscast gala is a one-night-only musical spectacular featuring Broadway’s hottest stars performing songs from roles in which they would not traditionally be cast.
 
This is always fun and frequently spectacular as singers who would be too tall, too short, too fat, too unsuitable for the roles they long to play, render songs they will never have the opportunity to sing in the show for which they were written, and sing their socks off. This year’s show will include a tribute to Jason Robert Brown  and the singers who have appeared in his shows. 

Miscast  is never less than entertaining and all proceeds go to a good cause. Funds raised from Miscast help to produce some of the most talked-about new work Off-Broadway and support the Youth Company and in-school partnerships that serve New York City public high school students.

Some of the stars who will be performing are Lea Salong, Brian d’Arcy James, Vanessa Williams and a host of others, some of whom will be a surprise on the night.

This year’s show will be filmed live at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC on April 29th and will be available On Demand April 30th-May 5th

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The conductor and violinist Joji Hattori retired a while back to Vienna to run a Japanese restaurant on the Krugergasse.

But he still conducts the Vienna Chamber Orchestra on the side, as it were, and he’s now opened an opera venture.

The Wiener Opernsommer Belvedere consists, in its first season, of ten open-air performances of Don Giovanni, conducted by Joji, who is also the festival’s artistic director.

‘A large selection of food trucks will offer culinary delights,’ he promises.

All is revealed here.

We are informed by the website of Lucerne’s concerthall: Anna Netrebko’s concert on June 1, 2024 at the KKL Lucerne will not take place.

The Swiss reasoning is unusually evasive and slightly obscure:

The KKL Lucerne is not available for Anna Netrebko’s concert on June 1, 2024. The public perception of the soloist remains controversial. Due to the temporal and geographical proximity of Ms. Netrebko’s appearance to the Ukraine Peace Conference, a threat to public order had to be expected. For this reason, the KKL Lucerne was asked by the cantonal and municipal authorities to cancel the concert.

With regard to tickets purchased in advance directly from KKL Lucerne, buyers of these tickets will be informed as quickly as possible about how to proceed.

Tickets ranged from 80-520 Swiss francs a seat.

Proceeding from a recognition that ‘less than 2% of orchestra musicians in the UK are from an ethnic minority’, the Musicians Union has agreed a series of remedial measures with the Association of British Orchestras and the pressure group Black Lives in Music.

The new plan aims to level the playing field through a range of actions, including revising audition processes, maximising trial periods and providing inclusivity training for audition panellists.

The full plan includes:

1 Regular open calls for Extras and Deputies
2 Inclusion of impartial external member(s) on audition panels (without voting rights)
3 All candidates required to audition before being offered a trial (candidates will not be invited to trial without prior involvement in full recruitment process)
4 Screened early round auditions
5 First round, (proper) auditions with both in person and online options
6 First main round auditions to include an unaccompanied/accompanied work and reasonable number of excerpts
7 Audition panellists to receive inclusivity training within the 3 month period prior to recruitment duties
8 Streamlined trial process: maximum trial period of 2 years for tutti and principal positions (appointments to be confirmed within 3 months of completion of all trials)
9 All audition panels to keep a thorough and robust record of auditions and decisions during the trial process; candidates should be assessed using a clearly defined scoring framework alongside a documented and robust anecdotal narrative
10 Anonymised application process.

Your thoughts?

Local newspapers report the death of Serge Gaymard in a fire in his house on rue Jacquart in Reims.

Gaymard, 68, was director of the Opéra de Reims from 2000 until last year.

Staff at the Opéra are in total shock at the tragic event.

Investigators say the likely cause of the fire was smoking in bed.

Winchester Cathedral has announced the departure of Andrew Lumsden as Director of Music after 22 years.

Lumsden, 62, is one of two sons of the organist and chorus master Sir David Lumsden, who died last year.

Winchester Dean Catherine Ogle said: ‘Andy Lumsden has been an outstanding Director of Music at Winchester Cathedral for over two decades. Throughout this time his contribution to the world of English choral music, and sheer musical excellence has been a daily inspiration to congregations and to all fortunate enough to worship here, including growing numbers of people online. In addition to his choral directorship skills, we should not forget his superlative and seemingly effortless playing of the organ. During his time at Winchester Andy Lumsden has trained generations of choristers, contributing not only to their musical and personal formation but also instilling a desire to make worship truly memorable for others. There are many pieces in the cathedral’s repertoire that it will be hard to imagine performed in any other way than with the emotional contours shaped by Andy.’