The musicians both of the orchestras of Radio France have learned that the Government intends to keep alive the orchestras, but would like to reduce the number of musicians. Therefore they launched a petition with on Open Letter to Prime Minister Valls and the Minister of Culture, Pellerin. Read More →

Osmo Vänskä
Photo: A Marsden

Minnesota Orchestra Music Director Osmo Vänskä and Concertmaster Erin Keefe were married last Sunday in a private ceremony in Minnesota. Keefe, 33, is Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra since 2011, Vänskä, 61, became Music Director in 2009.

Whenever Politics interfere with music, it’s bad. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has cancelled concerts this week by Ukrainian-born piano soloist Valentina Lisitsa due to her tweets against the current Ukrainian government and favourable to the Russian invasion.

Bei den Salzburger Osterfestspielen 2015 sind die Kartenerlöse gegenüber dem Vorjahr um 14,4 Prozent auf rund 3,4 Mio. Euro gestiegen – ein Einnahmenrekord. Die Eigenfinanzierungsquote der Osterfestspiele liegt damit bei 88 Prozent. Insgesamt wurden rund 18.900 Karten verkauft (im Vorjahr 16.400), was einer Auslastung von 94,2 Prozent entspricht (im Vorjahr 88 Prozent).

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Rund 27.000 Besucher wurden dieses Jahr bei den Osterfestspielen der Berliner Philharmoniker in Baden-Baden gezählt. Das elf Tage dauernde Festival hatte damit eine Sitzplatz-Auslastung von nur 86 Prozent. Im vergangenen waren an zehn Tagen 28.400 Besucher in die Festspielstadt gekommen.

Der 1934 geborene spanische Komponist Claudio Prieto ist am Ostersonntag im Alter von 80 Jahren in Madrid gestorben. Prietos Lehrer waren Goffredo Petrassi, Bruno Maderna und György Ligeti. Er hat Symphonien, Konzerte und viele andere symphonische Werke sowie Kammermusik geschrieben. Nach avantgardistischen Versuchen hat er seine musikalische Sprache gemildert und nach mehr Ausdruck in der Musik gesucht. Seine Werke werden in Spanien zumindest regelmäßig aufgeführt. Der Zufall will es, dass das Orchester der RTVE gerade für diese Woche zwei Konzerte mit seinem 12995 entstanden Chorwerk ‘Ensoñaciones’ geplant hat.

Andris Nelsons

The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Deutsche Grammophon have announced a new partnership that will feature a series of live recordings under the direction of BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons. This new recording initiative will launch with a project entitled Shostakovich Under Stalin’s Shadow, focusing on works composed during the period of Shostakovich’s difficult relationship with Stalin and the Soviet regime. The recordings will take place during performances scheduled in the BSO’s 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17 seasons

Kazuki Yamada
(c) Marco Borggreve

Kazuki Yamada has been named Music Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte Carlo, Monaco, as from September 2016 on. He is currently the orchestra’s First Guest conductor. A winner of the Besançon Conducting Competition in 2009, Yamada is also Principal Guest Conductor of Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. In Japan, he holds the positions of Principal Conductor of Japan Philharmonic, Music Partner with Sendai Philharmonic and Ensemble Orchestral Kanzawa and Music Director of Yokohama Sinfonietta, an ensemble he founded whilst still a student.

A councillor in Poland’s third-largest city has tabled a formal inquiry as to why the Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra plays music by Russian composers. The head of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party in the city council, Piotr Adamczyk is in particular concerned about music by Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergey Prokofiev. “Is it quite certain that the Łódź public want to listen to the music of one composer, namely D. Shostakovich and his peculiar pro-Soviet music », the obviously badly informed politician did ask.

The Government in Paris will not follow the recommendation of the Court of Auditors to merge both of the orchestras run by Radio France, the National and the Philharmonique. However the Ministry of Culture is asking the management to save money and to reduce the number of musicians. This is good and bad news altogether, but the danger of a merger being banned, the message coming from the Ministry is a positive one.