Prom 62: Thursday, 1st September at 7.30 p.m. (Israel PO/Mehta)

[PJPJ]

The whole of the Bruch seems to be available via the iPlayer but it seems to be limited to 56Kbps at the moment, unless I'm doing something wrong.

I don't think you are - I tried it out yesterday morning and that's what I got, too. However, the Bruch performance is quite terrific, I think.

[Anna]

Members of the LPO suspended because of letter of protest about the IPO

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/54622/uk-musicians-suspended-over-israel-proms-row

[Nick Armstrong]

Members of the LPO suspended because of letter of protest about the IPO
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/54...rael-proms-row

Thanks for posting that Anna - most interesting!

[BudgieJane]

The only reference to this I can find is in the Jewish Chronicle. Why isn't it in our mainstream newspapers?

[Osborn]

The same thing would happen if you worked for Natwest, BP, The National Trust or the local council. You can't use your employer's name to add weight & apparent support to your private view. Of course you will be disciplined & quite rightly so (whether the punishment fits the crime in this case is a different matter).

[Nick Armstrong]

The same thing would happen if you worked for Natwest, BP, The National Trust or the local council. You can't use your employer's name to add weight & apparent support to your private view. Of course you will be disciplined & quite rightly so

Spot on, Os

[Anna]

The only reference to this I can find is in the Jewish Chronicle. Why isn't it in our mainstream newspapers?

It's in The New Statesman. Is that mainstream enough?

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/09/israel-philharmonic-lpo

[BudgieJane]

Yep. That'll do.

Thank you.

[Anna]

It should be borne in mind that there has been another incident involving a member of the LPO expressing views which purport to represent the Orchestra as a whole:-

A London Philharmonic Orchestra violinist has been suspended after she launched an anti-Israel tirade at a question and answer session.
The incident came shortly before the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra's repeatedly disrupted performance at the Royal Albert Hall last Thursday.
The woman was attending a Proms Plus Intro session at the Royal College of Music, at which three members of the IPO were interviewed for BBC Radio 3. They spoke about their careers and the IPO's current European tour.
At the end of the session the woman said she was representing her LPO colleagues and launched into what was described by audience members as both a "rant" and "anti-Israel diatribe".
LPO chief executive Timothy Walker confirmed she had been suspended indefinitely. The LPO board will decide on what disciplinary action to take.

[Serial_Apologist]

Just goes to show how careful you have to be. If they'd said, "We are members of the LPO, but speaking in private capacities, not on behalf of the LPO", that would presumably have been OK?

[aeolium]

Though the LPO Chief Executive seemed to say in a letter to the Jerusalem Post that the individuals were expressing their own views and not that of the company. Also, as the NS article indicates, disciplinary action was only taken against the four after the 'rant' by an unidentified LPO violinist at a Proms Plus talk. And has the OAE taken any action against its violinists who signed the letter? The LPO punishment seems disproportionate to me, especially when accompanied by that lazy falsehood "music and politics do not mix".

[johnb]

The nine month suspension seems grossly disproportionate and the time that lapsed between the letter being published and the suspension seems rather curious, though the LPO might have instituted disciplinary proceedings against the four much earlier and they have taken some time to come to fruition.

One point worth mentioning is that the LPO, like other orchestras, is in part dependent on sponsorship from various organisations. It would have been relatively simple for some of those organisations to put pressure on the LPO management if they had felt inclined to do so. My impression is that such pressures from pro-Israeli groups are a fact of life in the US.