Saturday (5/14) on Bloomberg.com, Shirley Apthrop writes, “The Berlin Philharmonic is to leave the Salzburg Easter Festival and start anew in Baden-Baden, the orchestra said last night. The e-mailed announcement came as a shock in Salzburg, where the orchestra has long played a role in the festival founded by its former chief conductor Herbert von Karajan in 1967. Salzburg has reorganized following a $5 million fraud and embezzlement scandal last year. ‘I deeply regret the decision of the Berlin Philharmonic,’ Peter Alward, managing director of the festival, said in a news release also issued last night. ‘The original demands of the orchestra for four opera performances and a significant expansion of chamber music and educational activities could not be met, given the financial situation.’ Baden-Baden’s Festspielhaus, an affluent, privately funded institution in a south German casino and spa town, can offer more financial security than the beleaguered Salzburg Easter Festival. … The partnership with Baden-Baden, mooted already in 2009, guarantees the Berlin orchestra more performances of its annual opera, and more scope for other forms of musical work.”
Posted May 16, 2011
