This has been a busy few days in terms of conductor chat. In case you missed these bulletins elsewhere, here's the good, the not-so-good and the ugly:
GOOD: Juanjo Mena, the dynamic Spanish conductor who has been a favorite podium guest at the Baltimore Symphony over the past several years, has been winning admirers in many other places, too. He just landed a great gig in the UK as chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, succeeding Gianandrea Noseda in September 2011.
Mena will also make his Boston Symphony debut July 31, stepping in for an indisposed James Levine.
NOT-SO-GOOD: American conductor Kent Nagano, who once seemed destined to play a big role in this country's musical life (there was a time when he was often discussed in the New York press as a perfect choice for that city's Philharmonic), has been most active elsewhere.
But his current, well-regarded tenure as music director of the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich has hit a bump. Nagano announced he won't seek a renewal of his contract, which expires in 2013. His decision
speaks to internal troubles of the cultural-political variety, sadly not an uncommon problem in Europe. (Here, where government support is so minuscule, arts organizations usually experience their internal troubles without any political types getting involved.)
UGLY: Gifted conductor and pianist Mikhail Pletnev, founder and artistic director of the much-touted Russian National Orchestra, was charged this week in Thailand with raping a 14-year-old male at a beach resort. According to the AP, Pletnev, who has long had property in Thailand, called this "a misunderstanding," adding, "I have no idea how the charges came about, but I more or less know where they came from." If convicted, he faces a a long prison term.
SUN FILE PHOTO OF JUANJO MENA