Strapping in: Don Juan's Inferno by Simon Steen-Andersen. Dir. Simon Steen-Andersen cond. Bassem Samir Akiki. #opera #kglteater

The good folk at Europadisc have been blogging perceptively on Finnish music. This entry looks at broader issues in the history/actuality of Finnish music with neat distillation of some themes from my book The Northern Silence, generously cited. 🙏 🇫🇮 europadisc.co.uk/blog/128/The-F…

👋Velkommen til operachef Anne Barslev👋

I dag d. 1. maj tiltræder Anne Barslev som ny operachef på Den Jyske Opera. Hun kommer med visionen om at forme en skandinavisk arbejdsplads, der favner store klassikere med landsdelsorkestrene såvel som mindre, fleksible operaformater.

Festen becomes, by my maths, the fourth Danish 'Dogma 95' film to be re imagined as an opera. Personally still mourning Lars von Trier's abandoned Bayreuth Ring Cycle... #opera

Sharp criticism of Daniel Harding's 17-year tenure at the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from Johanna Paulsson.

Harding 'has done his best to turn Berwald Hall into a British colony'. Swedish and female composers lose out to 'prestige over public service'. dn.se/kultur/johanna…

Retweeting myself (yuk!) in a bid to double the readership of this...to 8. #HelpAWriterOut

In the last five weeks, orchestras on either side of the Øresund Bridge have played Elgar’s symphonies.

How should we sing an English song, in a strange land? thenorthernsilence.net/elgar-on-the-o… #elgar Elgar Society

Elgar Symphony No 1 from the Malmö Symphony Orchestra.

Should have been Sir Andrew Davis on the podium. Martyn Brabbins took his place. Muted but for its final eruptions. #Elgar

A gentle Thursday afternoon read: Sarah Connolly discussing the merits of different forms of capital punishment, and why she's heading up an opera funded by a regime she previously described as “murdering autocrats stuck in a time warp.'

For VAN Magazine

van-magazine.com/mag/sarah-conn…

I predict this will be THE prom...followed closely by the BBC NOW's Zemlinsky/Schoenberg meatfest on 22 July. #proms2024 #bbcproms

As reported by the Swedish tabloids: Tecwyn Evans, former Glyndebourne chorus master and current artistic director of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra in Denmark, is heading to Malmö Opera as chief (administrative) of the orchestra and chorus. aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/a/…

Conductors Are Just Human Beings. Who Knew? gramophone.co.uk/blogs/article/…

This is now available to stream in the UK via Prime Video JustWatch.

Malmö Symphony Orchestra plays Elgar 1 on Thursday. Should have been under Andrew Davis. Martyn Brabbins will take his place.