Slipped Disc

The Beethoven Orchestra Bonn has extended its general music director Dirk Kaftan to 2032, by which time he will have put in 15 years. That will see them covered for the Beethoven bicentenary in 2027. […]

The Malmö Symphony Orchestra has appointed the Vienna Philharmonic concertmaster Rainer Honeck to be its Honorary Guest Conductor. The ‘honorary’ renders the title almost meaningless. He won’t have to do much. Honeck, 64, has been […]

It has become known that the distinguished tenor Lawrence Brownlee will top the bill at the season-opening concert of Moscow’s state-run Zaryadye Hall on September 8. Brownlee, 53, is not troubled by the western cultural […]

The loss of Esa-Pekka Salonen early in the festival was a serious blow. Now Zubin Mehta has pulled out. He has ‘personal reasons’ for not conducting Beethoven’s 9th symphony. Here’s the official notice: Regrettably, guest […]

Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx (was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer who performed in films and vaudeville and on television, radio, and the stage. He is considered one of America’s greatest comedians and he […]

The director of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and the Bolshoi in Moscow has been out in the far east of Russia, inspecting progress on a museum and theatre complex he’s constructing in Vladivostok. […]

The violist Ori Kam has stepped down from the Jerusalem Quartet after 15 years. He says: ‘The past few years have been challenging for me and the quartet’. He speaks also of ‘new professional opportunities.’ […]

The company has announced a triple change at the top. The new music director Andrea Battistoni has jobs all over the world and will have little attention to devote to deep-seated woes. The new board […]

An industry PR has warned in the Wall Street Journal that new regulations jeopardise the singular source of new piano boards. … The specialized wood they use for the soundboards comes from the Tongass National […]

There’s a pair of last-minute changes in Bayreuth’s Meistersinger tonight. Conductor Daniele Gatti is replaced by Axel Kober. Hans Sachs will be sung by Michael Volle, jumping in for the still-unwell Georg Zeppenfeld. What goes […]