Soloist 'forgets' to attend post-concert CD signing
There were disappointed customers at the Royal Festival Hall last night when the soloist, Johannes Moser, failed to show up for the customary meet-and-greet with buyers of his new CD.
One of them wrote to Slipped Disc:
Some thirty concertgoers were left twiddling their thumbs after last night's otherwise superb RFH concert. It was announced over the tannoy while we were filing out that the soloist, German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser, would sign copies of his CDs at the usual place.
Purchasers of the CD spent a half hour waiting patiently in an orderly queue before a table set up for the purpose. Then, a highly embarrassed official appeared to apologise profusely that the soloist had left the building. I actually found out that he had gone to dinner with the conductor (Andrés Orozco-Estrada ) and orchestra manager at an onsite restaurant…
Those ex-fans won't be coming back any time soon.
UPDATE: Alerted by Slipped Disc, Johannes issued a fulsome apology before the day was out.
Robert King says:
I don't know the circumstances of this particular occasion, but when an artist does such a CD signing after a concert in a big hall, usually someone from the hall management, or from the record company, or from the CD store concerned, collects the artist from backstage (in a post-concert rush with people buzzing in and out of the dressing room whilst you are trying to change and pack up, it is easy to forget that there is also a CD signing to add to the mix) and takes them to the signing position in the public side of the building. That need for collection isn't being diva-ish – an artist in yet another large concert hall in a foreign country can get hopelessly lost in what is often a rabbit warren of pass doors and corridors (even before they try to make their way through an audience who are trying to leave) to reach a table on one or another public level of the hall. So, although it is certainly a shame that Johannes Moser didn't do the signing, it may not have been wholly his fault that he didn't appear…
V.Lind says:
And it would be very unlike him to let fans down callously.
Celia Willis says:
Thank you Robert for your well articulated and reasoned response to Norman's post. There are of course always two sides to every story and indeed in this case neither Johannes nor his management had any idea that a CD signing had been arranged. Johannes of all people takes the greatest interest and care of his loyal supporters. He is hugely embarrassed by this situation and will be posting a personal message on his website when he has finished rehearsals today.
They should have called a bus and ferried the patrons to the restaurant to get the CDs signed.
Olaugh Turchev says:
To the angry "fan": the soloist was gone for dinner in an on-site restaurant? Then GO if you want your scribble so much instead of feeding this sewer story!
More to the point, Celia Willis, who is Johannes's very respected artist manager, has above here made the point that neither Johannes nor his management knew that Johannes was meant to be signing CDs. This sounds like a simple case of miscommunication between hall management / record store with the artist, who seems to have been blamed for something that is not his fault. Artists mostly rather enjoy signing CDs after concerts – and we all know that we need to keep the CD industry going, and that post-concert sales are one of the best times to make such sales, as well as to meet the members of the public who are – bless them a thousand times – keeping the CD industry alive.
You can imagine that poor Johannes may well ask after every concert for ever after: "Are you absolutely sure that I am not meant to be signing CDs afterwards?".
https://www.facebook.com/johannes.moser.566/videos/463225900531428/
Curtis Karwacki says:
Whatever condescension this review is trying to drum up is to no avail and a pathetic pyhric victory if it is one of any sorts. Johannes is a fantastic person whom I've met and worked with personally. He's brilliant and to think that someone would try to review him in this light irritates me.
Charles G. Clark-Maxwell says:
==Those ex-fans won't be coming back any time soon.
That's a bit melodramatic. They are fans after all – they'll be back !
Johannes's fans will have spotted that he has posted an extremely eloquent video apology on his Facebook page (where gallantly he does not suggest that it could be anyone else's fault). He offers to those who contact his record company Pentatone that he will send a personally signed photo, and additionally says that those people can also have a free download of their choice from the Pentatone site.
You couldn't make a more generous apology than that. Bravo to Johannes, and equally to Pentatone.
Why is the word Forgets in inverted commas in title to this article ?
Was there some reason to doubt what he said ?
There is certainly a whiff of the tabloids about SD.