Intermezzo

Prom 34: a little Nacht music from Ingo Metzmacher and the DSO

Prom 34: Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin / Ingo Metzmacher / Leonidas Kavakos - Royal Albert Hall, 10 August 2010

Though the BBC chose not to mention it anywhere, Tuesday night's Prom marked Ingo Metzmacher's final concert as chief conductor of the DSO. Regular readers may have gathered from previous posts the flavour of German orchestral politics, and the extraordinary influence wielded by public funding bodies there. Metzmacher's departure is another twist on the familiar story. Denied the cash required to fill what he considers essential orchestral positions, Metzmacher shocked everyone including his orchestra by choosing to resign.

Der ferne Klang opens in Zurich

Der ferne Klang - Opernhaus Zürich, 9 May 2010

Franz Schreker remains oddly overlooked in London, but interest in his work continues to grow slowly but surely elsewhere. The new Zurich production of his 1912 opera Der ferne Klang isn’t the only one this year – it follows performances in Augsburg and Berlin, and there’s a US premiere in Bard this summer.