Putting the "sub" in subventions

The underhanded side of the classical music business across the pond: after the scandal in November surrounding the alleged embezzlement of nearly $1 million from the London Philharmonic by its former financial director, Cameron Poole, we now learn (via Jessica Duchen) of another story. The technical director and business manager of the Salzburg Festival were possibly involved in siphoning off as much as $700,000 from the Salzburg Easter Festival, a separate institution (Intermezzo reported in English on the story which the Austrian paper Der Standard broke last Thursday). The final report should be made public this week; both men have already been removed from their jobs.

There are so many issues raised by these stories: the indignity of the struggling performing-arts field being dealt another blow by people who are supposed to protect and foster it; the fact that accounting is loose enough that these stories have taken years to come out; the reminder that even in this time of slashed budgets, the arts are still dealing with very large sums of money.