The Show Must Go Off: Threat To Sue Halts Broadcast

The Age

Friday September 5, 2008

By Raymond Gill

AN ABC Classic FM live broadcast of a concert by internationally acclaimed tenor Steve Davislim and students of the Australian National Academy of Music was cancelled last night after the threat of legal action against the singer.

Maria Vandamme, chief executive of Melba Recordings, moved this week to stop the ABC broadcasting the performance of a new interpretation of Franz Schubert's 1827 song cycle Winterreise (Winter's Journey).

The broadcast from South Melbourne Town Hall was to have been the first live radio broadcast for the academy's students, 12 of whom have been rehearsing for four weeks for the concert, conducted by academy artistic director Brett Dean.

Ms Vandamme refused to comment yesterday, but ABC Classic FM manager John Crawford said Melba Recordings had threatened to sue Davislim if he took part in the broadcast.

The Australian-born singer was unavailable for comment last night. He has been engaged by Melba to record five CDs, including a recording of Winterreise.

"Neither the ABC nor (the academy) has any dispute with the artist or with one another, but because of the pressure placed upon an artist about to go on stage and perform, we have decided to cancel the broadcast," Mr Crawford said.

Bob Clarke, general manager of the academy, which is considered Australia's leading classical music training institution, said the students and Dean were upset.

"They have put so much into the last four weeks," he said, adding that the concert was not Schubert's Winterreise but an adaptation. "This is an an interpretation of it by (German composer) Hans Zender and is 50% longer than the Schubert, and it has wacky things in it like using blocks of wood as instruments."

Melba Recordings is part of the Melba Foundation, a charitable trust founded by Ms Vandamme in 2003. In 2004 it was given a $5 million grant from the Howard government to produce classical recordings by Australia's best musicians and singers.

The ABC learned of legal action on Wednesday even though it had scheduled the concert three months ago. An ABC producer, announcer and two technicians were told of the cancellation two hours before last night's concert, after the ABC conferred with its lawyers.

The ABC broadcast a commercial recording of the Hans Zender interpretation of Winterreise in place of the concert, which went ahead with Davislim.

© 2008 The Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home