This Week in Classical Music-January 17, 2010

January 17, 2010

Mathieu Dufour

( Phoenix, AZ )
•Schwarz named Deutsche Opera Director
•Dufour Apologizes to LA Phil

This Week in Classical Music 1-17-10

It’s This Week in Classical Music, an update of what’s happening in the classical music world; I’m Randy Kinkel.

There’s a new Director at Berlin’s Deutsche Opera—it’s Dietmar Schwarz, presently director of opera at Theater Basle, which was chosen last year as “Opera House of the Year" by the German magazine Opernwelt. Schwarz starts his term in 2012, succeeding Kirsten Harms. The Deutsche Oper is the largest of Berlin’s three opera houses and the second biggest in Germany. The House recently appointed Donald Runnicles as music director. Spirits are high at the company headquarters; Berlin’s Mayer, Klaus Wowoereit said, “With Dietmar Schwarz as director and Donald Runnicles as music director, the Deutsche Oper is very well set up for the future,” Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit said in a statement announcing the decision. “I am sure that Berlin’s biggest opera house will gain in profile and in popularity with the public with this leadership.”

It’s a lesson all of us have learned at one time or another—be careful what you say to reporters, because it may come back to haunt you! Chicago Symphony Orchestra flutist Mathieu Dufour found this out recently upon his departure from his recent stint with the LA Philharmonic to return to his old gig at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In an interview with A SunTimes reporter, Dufour criticized the LA band, saying they had “No tradition-- no tradition of sound and no tradition of working together as a dedicated ensemble. Maybe they will have that someday in the future.””. The Reporter printed it, and then apologies started to fly… Dufour apologized profusely to the LA Musicians, saying, “ I would like to address a recent article published by a newspaper critic in Chicago, in which I was grossly misquoted. I sincerely hope that none of you have read it, but if any of you have seen it, I beg you not to pay any attention to it. The Chicago reporters seem to like slanting every article to favor Chicago’s orchestra, even if it makes everyone else look bad. I never said or thought any negative things about the LA Phil, in fact I feel quite the opposite. Critic Andrew Patner says he stands by his reporting.

For more on these and other items and events, go to the website, kbaq.org; be listening each week at this time for another update; and join me every weekday at noon for the Mozart buffet—an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries. I’m Randy Kinkel, for This
Week in Classical Music on 89.5 KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.