Category: music

Prokofiev’s “The Gambler” is “buzzy and exciting, fiercely dramatic and modern, but where are the tunes? There aren’t any. Prokofiev’s own mother reprimanded him over this when she heard him working on the orchestration.”

“Geneva’s opera house has taken the unusual step of issuing a warning to audiences about its new production of Alban Berg’s harrowing opera Lulu, saying it may be unsuitable for people aged less than 16.”

“It’s the same old tune, but the pitch of the blues is mysteriously lower – especially off the coast of California where, local researchers say, the whales’ voices have dropped by more than half an octave since the 1960s. No one knows why. But one conjecture is that more baritone whales indicate healthier populations: The whales may be less shrill because they’re less scarce and don’t have to pipe up to be heard by neighbors.”

“A leading German operatic director, Christoph Schlingensief, 49, is to lay the foundation stone on February 8 in Burkina Faso for an ‘African Opera Village,’ a Berlin-funded aid project to encourage musical theatre.” The project aims to establish an annual opera festival in the Burkinabe capital, one that will “will mobilize and support the indigenous cultural energies.”

There is a widespread “idea that audiences should be open to new things, and that they should be convinced to give them a try.” And yet a person “who comes to the movie theater to see ‘Avatar’ is not necessarily going to be thrilled if I show him ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ instead, even if I’m convinced that he would really love it if only he would watch it.”

“The Chinese musician Lang Lang, 27, has signed for Sony Classical for $3 million, an executive familiar with the move at his old label Deutsche Grammophon told me. A Sony spokeswoman in London said that the company wouldn’t comment,” but it’s an advantageous move for the label.

“More than 3,000 people have signed a petition on the Downing Street website calling on the Prime Minister ‘to ensure that all members of the public have continued, free and open access to the complete historic and valuable musical instrument collection,'” which the museum is to break up to increase room for the fashion collection.

“The path used to be clear — you got a major-label deal, they got you on the radio, you toured and recorded albums. Now all that has changed, really, and the new path is . . . well, what is it? And where does it go?”

Michael Tilson Thomas’s recording of Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony won three trophies, including Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance. Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto was named best contemporary composition, while David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion took the small ensemble performance prize. James Levine and the Boston Symphony, guitarist Sharon Isbin, soprano Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet were also winners.

“The inaugural chief executive of the trouble-plagued Melbourne Recital Centre, Jacques de Vos Malan, has resigned only three months after his contract was extended for two years. The extension [had] surprised Melbourne’s musical community because the [centre’s] first year of operations … was marred by a $1.5 million {Aus] operating loss, the departure of its artistic administrator and a drastically reduced concert program.”