Category: music

Tempting though it is to pit them against each other, “the spiritual godfather of both new conductors may be Esa-Pekka Salonen, who has influenced and empowered Dudamel and Gilbert to follow the groundbreaking path he cut during his just-ended 17-year directorship of the L.A. Philharmonic.”

Michael Kaiser: “Somehow the cost structure for American orchestras has risen to the point that every orchestra is likely to struggle to make ends meet. I do believe that a group of elite orchestras will survive, and even thrive. … But the number of orchestras that will be able to achieve this status will be limited.”

Russian pianist Georgy Tchaidze has won top honours at the Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, which ended a gruelling two-week search for the world’s most “complete” young pianist on Saturday.

“Our digital culture and demand for instant gratification have made it easier than ever to at least try to learn music. The extent of online instruction varies, from household names like Norah Jones teaching you their songs through Apple’s GarageBand software to ongoing one-on-one classes from Trischka and Lofgren.”

“Government inaction over the exemption of small, live music venues from overbearing licensing laws is putting the future of the live music scene in jeopardy, the head of the UK’s music trade organisation has warned.”

“Most students I know have an extremely broad appreciation of music. Far broader than I did. Obviously classic rock is very popular, but so too are all sorts of vintage and world music. But this also means that those of us who before would have been looking towards the current culture for inspiration are now often to be found, like my stepson, in various backwaters of older music.”

“I’ve Got Nothing is a song that’s been entirely crowdsourced. A youngster called Charlie McDonnell, together with three other teenagers, have created the project as part of BBC’s ChartJackers, an attempt to break into the UK music charts without…well, pretty much everything: money, producer, studio, even musicians.”

“A woman cries out in pain and anguish, her cheek streaked with blood. … In letters of crimson red, the [poster’s] tagline screams: ‘Two fell in love, the others massacred one another’.” (It’s for Tristan und Isolde.) Italy’s flagship opera house “is resorting to shock tactics, risking the predictable wrath of Italy’s conservative opera establishment.”

The emergence internationally of Dvorák’s and Janácek’s operas could not have happened without Yveta Synek Graff’s work as translator, language coach and advocate. “Though her objective of original-language productions by top international casts was clear from the start, she has often had to pursue her Velvet Revolution by indirection: better Czech opera in English or with imported casts than no Czech opera at all.”

“The Hall of Fame is a notoriously top-down institution, with an elite group of insiders making up a nominating committee that pre-selects their own idiosyncratic idea of the worthy candidates. So all of us lowly peons are only allowed to vote for 5 out of 12 possible candidates, which judging from this year’s nominees makes for slim pickings.”