The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's New Year's Day concert is one of the most watched classical events on world television. Sony today snapped up world rights from 2012 on as a token of its renewed commitement ot classical music. Or is it? The annual surfeit of Strauss waltzes is chiefly popular in Japan, South Korea and neighbouring Asian economies. It has little popular appeal in the US and is in evident decline in Europe. Even stuffed with turkey, carp and other seasonal … [Read more...]
Two looming big holes in British opera
August 30, 2010 by
At the closing performance of the Glyndebourne season, chairman Gus Christie announced that Vladimir Jurowski was leaving in three years (as tweeted by Jessica Duchen). By then he will have put in 13 happy years and kept Glyndebourne fresh and challenging throughout, deepening the Wagner content, introducting Russian operas and generally being there through each summer as a hands-on musical leader. The ever-rising Juro will be just 41 when he moves on. That year, 2013, … [Read more...]
How did he get to Carnegie Hall?
August 30, 2010 by
On tonight's edition of the Lebrecht Interview, Sir Clive Gillinson charts his progress from the second desk of cellos in the London Symphony Orchestra to the leadership of the world's most prestigious concert hall.... a rags-to-riches story to warm every musical heart. Or is it? The job may carry a million-dollar tag - the actual salary, Clive clarifies, is much lower than that - but there are high pressures to perform and deep infrastructural flaws. We had a discussion about the hall's … [Read more...]
Breaking news: Duda’s on the move again
August 27, 2010 by
Just under six months ago, the world's hottest conductor shocked the music industry by walking away from his management agency and joining a rival firm. Resisting appeals from Simon Rattle and others, Gustavo Dudamel followed his close friend and agent Mark Newbanks out of AskonasHolt to join former IMG chief Stephen Wright at the newly reconstituted Van Walsum Management. It was a huge coup for Wright with Newbanks, a former cellist, taking over as head of artist management and … [Read more...]
You’ve read the warnings about Ryanair. Now it’s official
August 26, 2010 by
Michael O'Leary's budget airline is not very nice to musicians. Almost 13,000 have banded together on Facebook to form Musicians Against Ryanair, complaining of rudeness, discomfort and an intolerance for musical instruments in the passenger cabin. That protest has just acquired official backing. The Incorporated Society of Musicians issued a press release today, reporting the case of a 12 year-old girl who was turned off a flight after being refused permission to carry her small … [Read more...]
Why Mahler? an orchestral player reflects
August 22, 2010 by
While the London Symphony Orchestra has been on tour with Valery Gergiev and Mahler's fifth symphony, its principal flute and chief blogger Gareth Davies has been reading my new book Why Mahler? in his down time. 'Why Mahler?' wonders Gareth. 'Sitting in Gstaad (Switzerland) playing a relatively minor but essential role in the symphony, I was looking around at my colleagues concentrated faces asking myself that very question.' You can read his closely observed reflections here. I … [Read more...]
Simon’s coming soon to a movie house near you. Maybe
August 19, 2010 by
The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra is extending its brand. Its season opener will be relayed next week to several cinemas in Britain, copying the successful operacasts by the Met, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne and others. The difference is that in an opera there is lots to be seen. In a concert, it's just men and women playing instruments. Will it get an audience? No-one knows. This is a toe-dipping venture. If the reception is warm enough, expect the trend to spread. Press release … [Read more...]
Rolando offers a refund
August 17, 2010 by
I have just been told by the management of the Tivoli Gardens Copenhagen that, two days after his seven-minute recital, Rolando Villazon agreed to renounce his fee. As a result, the Tivoli is now able to offer a refund to people who attended the unfortunate event. I am very glad that Villazon has done the decent thing and hope that he was prompted more by personal conscience than by the torrent of adverse publicity. He is a nice man who is having a hard time. He deserves a break, … [Read more...]
Can this record save lives?
August 17, 2010 by
What you see here is a photograph that cannot be printed in any self-respecting newspaper in the year of our enlightenment 2010. It shows a man smoking a cigarette. Everyone knows that smoking kills. Depicting a man in the act of lighting a fag amounts to an inducement to homicide. That's why no newspaper editor will permit it. So what is it doing on the cover of a classical record? My first response, when I reviewed the record here and here, was that the German producers had erred against … [Read more...]
How to cope with rejection
August 16, 2010 by
The soaring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato was turned down at twelve opera house auditions in quick succession. How did you cope? I asked. Her reply is one of the most balanced and rational self-assessments I have ever heard from anyone in creative life. You can catch it tonight on The Lebrecht Interview, at 9.45pm on BBC Radio 3, and streamed online all week long. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t74vr There's more about Joyce in an op-ed I wrote this weekend for the Sunday Telegraph … [Read more...]
Eugene Onegin, seen from the Royal Box
August 11, 2010 by
For reasons we need not examine here, my wife and I occupied the Royal Box at Covent Garden for the opening night of the Bolshoi run of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Since the Royal Family were in Balmoral, we occupied it on our own, and very comfortable it was. The angle of vision is slightly limited - you don't see right of stage - but you overlook the orchestra pit and can hear just how much of the fifth and sixth symphonies is anticipated in the opera score. The Bolshoi orchestra has a … [Read more...]
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