Category: music

The 73-year-old Estonian-American maestro, formerly chief conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony and the New Jersey Symphony, takes the helm next year from Marek Janowski. The Geneva orchestra became famous through a long series of recordings under its founding conductor, Ernest Ansermet.

When the Bang on a Can mainstay first heard Lou Reed’s Velvet Undergound song, “I just remember being completely terrified. I was danger and terror and drugs and sex. It was twisted and relentless.” 35 years later, Lang has rewritten the piece for voice and cello. (For the same LA Phil program, Michael Gordon has turned Vivaldi post-minimalist, and Julia Wolfe has made the drum set Stravinskian.)

“If record labels made the decision to charge much less, fans would not think twice about buying an album on impulse and the resulting sales boost would make up for the price drop, he predicted.”

Roberto Paternostro, the ensemble’s music director, discusses the story behind the invitation from Bayreuth to be the first Israeli orchestra to perform in Wagner’s hometown – and why he understands the opposition to the trip and to Wagner’s music within Israel.

“Ricardo Morales, the principal clarinetist of the Philadelphia Orchestra and one of its stars, is spending this week as a guest principal with the New York Philharmonic.”

“Having just concluded a 13-year stint as music director of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, Germany, he finds himself for the first time without a steady post. “I have always had a major commitment to some institution. Now I have only one commitment – to myself. It’s an amazing feeling.”

In what sense is an American composer still “American” when living overseas? What exactly that means, and in what it inheres, is the real question.

“MOT general director David DiChiera said he hopes to have details finalized soon that will keep the company’s loan payments at half their previous levels until the beginning of 2012.”

Welsh National Opera principal oboist Murray Johnston was sacked in 2008 after 34 years and 50 recordings with the company. WNO management argues that Johnston’s playing had become substandard; Johnston accuses then-music director Carlo Rizzi of repeated harassment following an incident in rehearsal.

“The Detroit Symphony Orchestra announced that the ongoing musicians strike has led to the cancellation of all its orchestral concerts through Nov. 7. Non-orchestral concerts, DSO education programs and rentals will continue as planned.”