The Guardian

Ariadne ducks the bombs at the Glyndebourne festival

This year’s Glyndebourne opener Ariadne auf Naxos is getting a radical relocation, to a Blitz-time hospital. Director Katharina Thoma tells Tom Service how she drew on the history of the Sussex mansion.

The Telegraph

Guillaume Dufay – Ce Moys de May

The latest in Ivan Hewett’s 50-part series on short works by the world’s greatest composers.

Financial Times

London tightens grip on arts donations

London’s tightening grip on arts philanthropy was laid bare in new research which showed that arts organisations in the capital secured 90 per cent of donations from private individuals.

The Independent

Glyndebourne survived the Second World War by opening its doors to evacuees from east London

The opera venue’s act will be honoured at this year’s festival reports Jessica Duchen.

Classic FM

Biggest ever Stradivarius exhibition hits Oxford

Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum will host the world’s largest exhibition of antique Stradivarius violins in June.

Gramophone

Watch Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker in a cinema near you

The great Italian maestro returns to Berlin.

(Written on May 16, 2013 )

WildKat PR are thrilled to be working with Daniel Harding, a conductor who belongs in the elite circle of world class conductors: a true leader in his generation.

Daniel’s current positions include Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Music Partner of the New Japan Philharmonic; as well as Artistic Director of the Ohga Hall in Karuizawa, Japan and the lifetime honour of Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Daniel began his professional career at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, after assisting the revered Sir Simon Rattle. He then moved on to the Berlin Philharmonic where he assisted Claudio Abbado, before conducting the orchestra at the Berlin Festival.

His upcoming engagements include a new production of Verdi’s Falstaff at La Scala in Milan. Tickets for the performance are available here. 

This is followed by Der fliegende Holländer at the Staatsoper Berlin in April; a wonderful must-see production, with tickets available here.

For more information, visit Daniel’s website here. 

Julian Hargreaves

(Written on November 8, 2012 )

Accentus Music are proud to announce that they have won the 2012 Gramophone Award for DVD Performance. Their critically acclaimed production of Bruckner’s Symphony No 5, performed by the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA, conducted by Claudio Abbado, and directed by Michael Beyer was announced as the winner in a ceremony today in London. The concert was recorded live on 19^th and 20^th of August at the KKL in Lucerne in cooperation with LUCERNE FESTIVAL in summer 2011.

With reviews praising how the ‘sound is excellent, the camerawork sensitive and technically first-rate’, from Gramophone itself, as well as Classical Music Magazine urging readers to ‘simply buy it, mortgaging the cat if need be’, there is no surprise that this production has also won a prestigious a Diapason d’Or.

Previous Accentus Music DVDs also have been highly praised, such as the production of Claudio Abbado and the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, which received a BBC Music Magazine award for best DVD performance.

This autumn, Accentus Music is set to add to success with many much-anticipated new releases including the UK release of Die Thomaner: A Year in the Life of the St. Thomas Boys’ Choir, Leipzig as well as the St Thomas Boys Choir, Leipzig performing the St Matthew Passion. In addition, 2012 will see the worldwide release of the Accentus documentary John Cage: Journeys in Sound to mark the composer’s centenary.

(Written on September 27, 2012 )

The Guardian

Harrison Birtwistle: the music of myth

Harrison Birtwistle’s music has always drawn on the rituals and stories of English folk. But is the bucolic Latitude festival ready for disembowelling and murder?

Jessica Duchen

An operatic top ten

What makes a really good opera production?

LA Times

‘Wilhelm Furtwangler: The Legacy’ is 107 CDs of musical hypnotism

The CD box shows the enigmatic German conductor’s passion.

Toscani collection illustrates conductor’s great heights

RCA’s remastered 48-CD set is irresistible.

Financial Times

The bright continent

Africa Utopia is the month-long showcase that its curator Baaba Maal has dreamt for a decade.

New York Times

Surround Sounds Through the Centuries

Alan Gilbert’s ‘Philharmonic 360′ at Park Avenue Armory.

Arts Journal – Slipped Disc

Abbado, injured in a fall, gives rare interview

The conductor, 79 last week, refused to permit photographs of his facial scratches and bruises but appeared otherwise in good health when he spoke to the Berliner Morgenpost.

The hot young violinist who’s dividing China in two

This is Li Chuan Yun, also known as  Chanyun Li, who many Chinese think is the country’s violin equivalent to Lang Lang.

Lang Lang contracts out his tweets and facebook page

Lang Lang signs to Inverne Price for Social Networking.

Gramophone

Fabulous Figaro as Glyndebourne returns to its boots

Seventh production in 78 years a visual and vocal treat.

Jean-Philippe Rolland joins at EMI Classics as A&R president

Succeeds Andrew Cornall from July.

(Written on July 2, 2012 )

The Telegraph

Hay Festival 2012: Sir Simon Rattle’s ‘ideal state’

Conductor Simon Rattle gives advise to amateurs and defines his “ideal state”.

Royal College of Music Chamber Choir: ‘Grit and determination kept us singing’

Sodden but unbowed, the Royal College of Music Chamber Choir encapsulated Sunday’s jubilant spirit.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Gary Barlow: in perfect harmony for Queen and country

Andrew Lloyd Webber, doyen of musical theatre, reveals how he joined pop star Gary Barlow and TV choirmaster Gareth Malone to honour ‘an extraordinary monarch’.

LA Times

Valley and Soka performing arts centers set for second season

Valley Performing Arts Center at Cal State Northridge and Soka Performing Arts Center at Soka University in Aliso Viejo have ambitions for sophomore year.

Leif Ove Andsnes warms up for Ojai Music Festival

The pianist, music director for the 66th edition, will perform with Marc-Andre Hamelin.

Classical Music Magazine

Clandeboye’s former young musicians to return to celebrate tenth festival

Booking has opened for the tenth Clandeboye Festival, taking place 13 – 18 August at the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava’s Clandeboye estate near Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland.

Camerate Ireland launches Derry-Londonderry as UK City of Culture 2013

Camerata Ireland and its artistic director Barry Douglas launched the musical programme for Derry-Londonderry’s year as the first UK City of Culture with a concert on 30 May in one of the city’s historic churches, Christ Church.

The Guardian

A guide to Oliver Knussen’s music

Oliver Knussen’s music packs as much incident and expression into mere minutes than some composers manage in a lifetime.

Mystery of the maestros: what are conductors for?

How do conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle and Valery Gregiev work?

Alfred Deller: a voice from the past

On the centenary of the great countertenor’s birth his grandson recalls how he came to know and love his music.

Tel Aviv Wagner concert cancelled after wave of protest

University cancels booking, saying performance of works by Hitler’s favourite composer would offend Holocaust survivors.

The Independent

Moved by the tragedy behind Berlioz’s Troy story

David McVicar talks about the huge challenge of staging Les Troyens.

Opening ceremony orchestra is silenced

Musicians in the London Symphony Orchestra will have to mime their performance in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics because a live performance is deemed too risky.

Gramophone

Linn Records teams with Universal Music to distribute Studio Master downloads

Back catalogue masterpieces and current titles made available in high-quality digital format.

Australian string quartet acquire rare set of Guadagnini instruments

Matching instruments worth millions on permanent loan to the ensemble.

Financial Times

Making a noise, in its quiet way

As Scottish Opera turns 50, what does the future hold for the company?

(Written on June 6, 2012 )

Telegraph

Composer threatens to withdraw tax after latest opera rejected

Michael Nyman, who has worked as a film composer for 30 years, complained he had proposed to stage a work in Covent Garden but had been rejected.

Classical Music Magazine

RPS Awards announced, with Abbado and Pollini winning

Two Italians in London, Claudio Abbado and Maurizio Pollini have won major awards at the Royal Philharmonic Society awards held at the Dorchester Hotel in London on 8th May.

Sound and Music appoints new chief executive

Susanna Eastburn, currently music director at Arts Council England, is to be the new chief executive of Sound and Music.

LA Times

L.A. Philharmonic extends jazz contract with Herbie Hancock 

The L.A. jazz scene will continue to be led by a legend as the L.A. Philharmonic announced a one-year extension to Herbie Hancock’s contract as the Creative Chair for Jazz.

The New York Times

Don’t sing with your mouth full

Opera, of all the art forms, is singularly associated with food, whether because of the appetites of well-girthed singers or the sensual pleasures celebrated in its rich ragout of music, emotion and stagecraft.

Financial Times

Peak performances

Conductor Stephen Barlow talks about his musical career and his new challenge of putting the Buxton Festival on the map.

Gramophone

Yo-Yo Ma and Paul Simon named 2012 Polar Music Price laureates

This year’s Polar Music Prize has been awarded to cellist Yo-Yo Ma and singer-songwriter Paul Simon. Each laureate receives one million Swedish krona and will be presented with his prize by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

Evening Standard

Get with the Proms programme 

Bookings opens on Saturday for the classical music extravaganza of the year – from Barenboim on the podium to a stage full of 600 singers.

The Guardian

Riccardo Muti to conduct Vatican concert in front of Pope Benedikt XVI

Italian maestro will lead Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera orchestra in playing Vivaldi and Verdi to mark pope’s seventh anniversary.

(Written on May 9, 2012 )

The Independent

La Scala chief’s anger lack of state funding for the arts

The artistic director of La Scala has warned that the celebrated opera house is “dangerously close” to privatisation.

BBC Music Magazine

Royal Philharmonic Society Awards shortlist announced

Nominees include conductor Claudio Abbado, composer Harrison Birtwistle & soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek.

Meet the artist: David Briggs

David Briggs is one of the world’s finest organists, but has recently been making his name with transcriptions of Mahler and Elgar Symphonies.

Meet the artist: Iain Burnside

The pianist on the unjustly neglected songs of Martin Shaw and a project at the Barbican.

Gramophone

Francesco Piemontesi sings to Naïve Classics

Pianist will rcord at least three albums for the label.

Norman Lebrecht

Have they heard yet in St Louis?

This year, American composers and the music of Arnold Schoenberg form the focus of Musikfest Berlin 2012 of the Berliner Festspiele, organized in cooperation with the Berliner Philharmoniker foundation and taking place from 31 August to 18 September 2012.

The Times

Plácido Domingo to conduct biggest ever UK opera at Wembley

Wembley Stadium is to host a grandiose prodcution of Turandot conducted by Plácido Domingo.

(Written on April 18, 2012 )

Leading up to their next major release, ACCENTUS Music has published a trailer available to view on YouTube. The production, Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra performing Bruckner’s 5^th Symphony, is the latest in ACCENTUS’ catalogue of successful releases.

Previous ACCENTUS productions featuring Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra have received widespread critical acclaim. Andrew Clarke in the Financial Times praised the ACCENTUS DVD of Abbado conducting Mahler’s 9^th Symphony, writing: “this DVD of last summer’s fabulously fluid performance is an important release.”

For more information on ACCENTUS Music please click here: http://www.accentus.com/

To view the trailer please click below:

(Written on April 2, 2012 )

Today, the jury of the International Classical Music Awards announced that ACCENTUS Music’s production of Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra performing Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 has won its prestigious award in the category of ‘DVD Performance’. The jury deciding the awards is comprised of staff from top European classical music media including Crescendo (Belgium), Fonoforum (Germany), PIZZICATO (Luxembourg), Musik & Theater (Switzerland) and Orpheus (Russia). Remy Franck, President of the Jury, said of the winners: “The winners come from a nomination list comprising 250 CD and DVD productions and are the expression of the highest artistry. In a musical world showing an increasing number of recordings, our choice honors outstanding productions of superior quality and provides reliable guidance to the music lovers.”

Having also been nominated for an esteemed BBC Music Magazine 2012 Award (public voting still open until 29^th February) this DVD has received widespread critical acclaim. In 2011, Andrew Clark in the Financial Times wrote “this DVD of last summer’s fabulously fluid performance with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra is an important release” and Gramophone Magazine reviewer David Gutman wrote: “When the music finally ends and, as in any truly great account of this highly affecting score, one feels that life itself is ebbing away, all present are held in awed silence.”

The ICMA ceremony will be on May 15^th at La Cité, Nantes’ Congress and Cultural Center with a Gala concert at the same place. This concert with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire conducted by Music Director John Axelrod will be broadcast live by France Musique and by many other radio stations of the EBU network.  For more information please click here: www.icma-info.com

(Written on February 20, 2012 )

BBC Music Magazine has nominated the ACCENTUS Music recording of Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra performing Mahler’s 9th Symphony for its prestigious award. The winner is decided online by the public – click here to vote for the ACCENTUS entry. Voting is open until the 29th February.

Having previously been described as “strongly recommended” by Gramophone Magazine, this DVD has already received widespread critical acclaim. In 2011, Andrew Clark in the Financial Times wrote “this DVD of last summer’s fabulously fluid performance with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra is an important release” and BBC Music Magazine reviewer David Nice wrote: “Finest concert DVD ever? I think so.”

The ACCENTUS release of Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra playing Mahler’s 9^th Symphony is available for purchase on DVD and Blu-ray worldwide.

(Written on January 13, 2012 )