Fabio Luisi, touring Japan with the Metropolitan Opera, has taken issue with Peter Gelb's suggestion that he is the logical successor to James Levine. 'He said nothing about it to me,' laughs Luisi. 'I said to my wife, look what's in the paper...' In an interview today with the Tages-Anzeiger of Zurich, he says that he's agreed to be principal guest conductor at the Met, which means leading one or two productions a year. His  main job, from next year, will be music director of the Zurich … [Read more...]

Rumours have been twittering all day as to who the big celebrity will be on the next Gaza flotilla. The best best is Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple and a veteran pro-Pal activist. Meantime, a bunch of international bandsters have been doing the Geldof thing - 'Sing out for Palestine' - for release in the first week of July. 'More than six million refugees/This could be you and your family...' runs the opening stanza, heedless of history, reality, poetry. In case you hadn't … [Read more...]

Anna Netrebko and Joseph Calleja are today's dropouts from the Met's threadbare tour of Japan. Treb says she's lived through one Chernobyl, can't face another radiation dose (has she been eating e-coli German cucumbers?). Calleja, the Matese tenor, had 'last-minute misgivings'. Jonas Kaufmann, Olga Borodina and James Levine were previous pullpouts, the last two on genuine health grounds. Calleja will be replaced by Marcelo Alvarez and Rolando Villazon, no bad swap. Treb, for … [Read more...]

It appears that the condemnation by Danish musicians of the Brazilian Roberto Minczuk was more ethical than practical. The Odense Symphony Orchestra will start working with Minczuk tomorrow, unwilling to break an existing contract (they should read this in Berlin). The orchestra chairman told local media that the players had made their views known about Minczuk's tratment of their colleagues in Brazil but they were obliged to respect legal commitments. They start rehearsal tomorrow of the … [Read more...]

The cellist Guy Johnston is putting his youth behind him this Thursday. No more BBC Young Musician of the Year. No more poster boy for a big agency. Lovely Guy - he really is - is setting his sights on playing the music he craves with the people he likes best - and in aid of those who need it most. His birthday party will double as a benefit concert for the Musicians Belevolent Fund and Eyes Alight, a rehab centre for people with brain injuries. There's a good reason for the … [Read more...]

The new intendant of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Martin Hoffmann, has been explaining their departure from the Salzburg Easter Festival. The festival, he said, was no longer following Herbert von Karajan's founding principles and the offer from Baden-Baden was not only 'richer' but allowed the orchestra to perform at lower ticket prices. You can read the interview in German here. I have three questions for Herr Hoffmann (and for Sir Simon, who's in the same frame): photo: … [Read more...]

News is just in that the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark has refused to work with Roberto Minczuk, who has sacked half of the Brazil Symphony Orchestra and is scouring the world for replacements. The Odense action, backed by the country's musicians union, represents further isolation for Minczuk and the rump of his orchestra. Here are the documents: To Mr Roberto Minczuk: Dear Sir Today the musicians of Odense Symphony Orchestra have issued this statement to the press. The … [Read more...]

Reading the German newspapers last week on a train from Berlin to Leipzig, I was startled to read the name of the firm that is designing the stadium for the 2022 World Cup - a tournament clouded by imputations of bribery and corruption on a colossal scale. The firm of architects is called AS&P. That's short for Albert Speer & Partner. The original Albert Speer, as Hitler's architect, tried to rebuild Europe on slave labour and fooled the Nuremburg judges with fake … [Read more...]

The international pianist and pedagogue Vitalij Margulis died yesterday in Los Angeles after a long illness, at the age of 83. His last recital was given in California in November. Born in Kharkov, Ukraine, Margulis studied with his own father, whose teacher, Alexander Horowitz, had been a pupil of Skryabin's. After a busy, though not heavily promoted, performing career in the Soviet Union, he became professor of piano at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1994, holding a … [Read more...]

A book on Mahler in Leipzig, published for the city's historic cycle, reveals a mass of unsuspected detail about his life there in 1886-88. Nothing that changes our fundamental perception of a very young man in an impossible hurry, oblivious to social courtesies. But there are fresh details of his living arrangements in Leipzig and his human relationships that substantially enhance our understanding of his development in his mid-20s. At the heart of the matter stands the enigmatic figure of … [Read more...]