It's on ebay, and the pedigree is good: “a very rare, superb French certified cello bow by Francois Xavier Tourte, ca.1820". But for how much? The price of a small house in the country.   … [Read more...]

Our scout at the Wagner Bicentenary Concert in Bayreuth yesterday was so bored that he took to counting the number of women in the Festival Orchestra. Not many. Eleven were listed in the programme, but there were never more than seven on stage. The ensemble was drawn from all the best German orchestras. Quality? No question. Equality? Forget it. Given that the Bayreuth Festival is run by two women and celebrates a composer who surrounded himself with strong women,  this strikes us as a … [Read more...]

The British Library has digitised its Wagner manuscripts and put them online. Among the little-seen treasures are an 1836 Polonia overture, written for defeated nationalists, and a Rule Britannia theme, submitted to the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1837 but turned down for performance. The reason? 'It is written on a Theme which is here considered common place.' Someone should give it a world premiere. Proms, anyone? … [Read more...]

Across the table, the Mayor blinked first. Alexander Pereira had planned on spending 61.5 million Euros in summer 2014. The city ordered him to stick at 60m. Pereira said he'd quit, possibly for the gaping vacancy at La Scala. Yesterday, the city backed down. Pereira will see out his contract up to 2016, but there's no love lost on either side. Likely successors? Munich's Nikolaus Bachler or Martin Kušej from Vienna's Volksoper. … [Read more...]

It's a stunt organised by a couple of banks in Prague. No musical interest whatsoever. The conductor is our old Liverpool pal Libor Pesek. … [Read more...]

Clue: he once gave $30 million to the Metropolitan Opera. picture (c) Lebrecht Music & Arts … [Read more...]

Marion Kalter, who works with Lebrecht Music & Arts, has blogged up some of her most intimate images of the late composer right here. … [Read more...]

The BBC has gone following the players into downtown areas where drinkers have never heard a classical concert. Watch here. … [Read more...]

This memoir of Henri Dutilleux, whose death was announced today, is by Robert Fitzpatrick, former Dean of the Curtis Institute. Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013) was a true gentleman and a very gentle man. He was a great friend of Slava Rostropovich and in 1990, he was composer in residence at Les Rencontres Musicales d’Evian of which Slava was President (bankrolled by his friend Antoine Riboud, founder of Danone). The festival also celebrated Isaac Stern’s 70th birthday with a … [Read more...]

The death was announced today of Henri Dutilleux, composer of exquisite orchestral and instrumental works in an unmistakably French idiom. He was 97. Born in Angers, he occupied important positions in Parisian musical life - head of music at French radio and professor of composition - but was unable to combat the overwhelming influence of Pierre Boulez and the ultra-modernists. photo: Lebrecht Music & Arts Signature works, such as  Métaboles (1965) and the cello concerto … [Read more...]

They almost cancelled the Pharos chamber music festival when the European Union bailiffs trashed the local banks. Sponsors vanished overnight and the editors struggled to fill the programme's acknowledgements page . But the artists refused to give up. Asked to reduce their fees, they waived them altogether. Asked to rejig their programmes, they tore them up and started again. Michala Petri, the recorder virtuoso, had been planning a solo recital. So had Mahan Esfahani, the brilliant young … [Read more...]

No sooner has he opened the Mariinsky extension in St bPetersburg than Valery Gergiev has taken charge of plans to build a new concert hall in the capital. The appointment was announced by Moscow's culture chief, Sergei Kapkov. The hall will be built on the site of the demolished Rossiya hotel and will be the centrepiece of a new park beside the Moscow River. Phot: Putin on the site of the demolished hotel … [Read more...]

Extracts from Gottfried Wagner's Afp interview with Simon Morgan have been widely quoted in newspapers and, in some instances, traduced. We reprint the complete interview below, in which Gottfried takes issue not just with his ancestor and siblings but with conductor Christian Thielemann, who has declared Wagner's music to be apolitical.       As the musical world lavishly celebrates Richard Wagner's bicentenary, the composer's great-grandson insists he is no … [Read more...]

A couple of months back, we brought you the authentic sound of Sigmund Freud. Now, thanks to Paris Review, we follow up with the great English novelist, speaking on the BBC on the subject of new words.   … [Read more...]

My first novel is published today in Chinese. I shall attend a publisher's launch at the Shanghai Book Festival in August. … [Read more...]