Category: music

“After a decade of Tovey’s directorship, the VSO is a confident, key player on the arts scene. This has happened at a time when things have never been worse for orchestras … By contrast, the once-troubled VSO is a well-run organization with a secure subscriber base and committed patrons.”

“Let’s see, now: In the first part of the opera a blood-soaked violinist dies from gunshot wounds and a child’s father is casually murdered by a self-centred, red-haired woman provocatively dressed in matching lingerie.” And there are three parts left to go. This is The Child’s Dream, which composer Gil Shohat insists is not a Holocaust story.

“Amoeba Music will this year take its boldest stride yet into the online world, launching a digital download store this spring or summer. Amoeba will join the likes of Other Music in New York and ThinkIndie.com, a digital outlet that represents a consortium of the nation’s top indie stores, including Fingerprints in Long Beach, as one of the few independent retail outlets trying to claim a slice of the digital marketplace.”

“The orchestra will work with IODA, a San Francisco digital distribution firm, … to bring its live recordings to iTunes, Amazon.com, and other heavily visited retail sites for download.”

Gay pianist Stephen Hough: “Horowitz once said that there were three types of pianist: Jewish, gay, and bad. Actually I’ve known some that were all three, and instantly a plethora of those who fulfill none of these categories springs to mind, but is there something which makes Horowitz, Richter and Cherkassky (to choose three completely contrasting artists) different from, say, Rubinstein, Gilels and Serkin?”

“The formal silence and respect associated with classical performances is being thrown out by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The ‘Night Shift’ performance held at the Roundhouse in London allows the audience to sit and chat, perhaps mingle a little, while Beethoven is played.” Conductor Vladimir Jurowski and two OAE violinists talk about atmosphere, informality, noise levels and other aspects of this experiment.

“The Arts Council has allocated £374,000 to fund the first year of the new company, whose brief will be to ‘provide new ways for local people to engage with opera, raising the standards of local performances as well as providing a platform to showcase the very best international artists’.”

“Now, at 80, [Charles] Anthony has become a Methuselah of the Met. It is tempting to say that he has appeared too many times to count, but the Met counts things. It says he has appeared in 2,927 performances, the most of any solo artist in its history.”

“The 23-month, three-season contract – which could be extended for an additional eight months – would immediately cut musicians’ pay by 5 percent until the end of this season … Symphony management and players have been negotiating a new contract for nine months to replace the one that expired at the end of last year.”

In response to Rupert Christiansen’s savaging of the reality show Popstar to Opera Star, Rolando Villazón writes, “[Critics] claim they are merely defending the reality of opera, of which the programme is ‘in no way representative’. Would they be as angry watching people play Monopoly because that’s not how economics really work?”