Category: music

“From old instruments, performers on modern pianos can get important insights into the sound image that Mozart, Schubert, et al., were aiming for. But music from the 18th and 19th centuries doesn’t just sound different now than on the original instruments; some of it can’t even be played as written on modern pianos.”

The work for solo piano, “composed in honor of Steven Witser, the principal trombonist of the L.A. Philharmonic who died of a heart attack last April,” will premiere in Los Angeles this month.

“David Gockley has a dream, and it’s to transform a parking lot behind the Veterans Building into a multi-storied annex for the San Francisco Opera.”

Use of the little white pills, which suppress such physical effects of adrenaline as trembling, rapid heartbeat and sweating, is widespread among professional musicians facing major performances or auditions. “Most [conservatory] students say beta blockers are not commonly used, but some quietly acknowledge that the drug is more common than outsiders would imagine or administrators might like to admit.”

“Those who believe that such tinkering with the score is a kind of defacement have overlooked the fact that … our status quo, as far as performance goes, is a product of our own place and time. Compare a Brahms performance from the 1930s and today to hear how much the earlier recording represents a different aesthetic.”

“If you want music to sharpen your senses, boost your ability to focus and perhaps even improve your memory, the latest word from science is you’ll need more than hype and a loaded iPod. You gotta get in there and play. Or sing, bang or pluck.”

“While music therapists use a mix of improvisation and proven techniques to help patients, neuroscientists are looking to uncover the scientific basis for music’s healing powers. They are trying to understand how music can help rewire a brain affected by illness or injury, or provide a work-around for injured or underperforming brain regions.”

“In America they use the word ‘vision’ a lot,” the Neapolitan maestro, 68, observed dryly at a press conference, streamed live from Symphony Center over the Internet, in which he commented about the CSO’s 2010-11 schedule. “What is vision? I do not see myself as St. Francis, offering Chicago my beatific visions. Rather, in my first season, I see myself giving, together with this great orchestra, a panoramic view of the history of music..”

‘This whole season represents a mere 86 years of opera’s 400-plus-year history – opera, you might say, from J to M. The newest work, Boris, was completed in 1873, when Ulysses S. Grant was in the White House, the Jesse James gang robbed its first train and Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for trying to vote.’

“At a time when major professional opera companies are singing their swan song — trimming seasons or closing altogether — Center Stage Opera, a small company based in the San Fernando Valley, soldiers on, presenting quality productions.”