Category: music

“The greatness in this orchestra is right there, so I didn’t need to build it. They don’t bring their egos onto the stage, just their creativity.” What’s more, “[they] give close to 300 community concerts versus 75 in Powell Hall. And they didn’t cut those when they had problems, which said to me this orchestra has its heart in the right place.”

“Sir Peter Maxwell Davies hinted that the ‘horrors’ of the ordeal may even inspire a musical composition. Michael Arnold, a friend and business associate of the composer for 30 years,” has been “jailed for 18 months for defrauding him of more than £500,000.”

“The new acquisitions are a manuscript of Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata for violin and piano and an engraved proof copy of the piano-vocal score of Mendelssohn’s oratorio ‘Elijah,’ each with scribblings by the composer.”

Topping the survey is John Williams’ “Harry Potter” theme. Whether or not the piece actually counts as classical music, the choice “shows that children love lavishly orchestrated music, and that they understand that you can create worlds of magic and mystery with a symphony orchestra.”

“The aim, they say, is to redefine the composer-in-residence for the digital age. He or she will win a modest prize of £1000, and a year-long residency on the website, allowing them to engage with web-site members through a Composer’s Corner blog, a podcast series, online forums, and masterclasses. It will culminate in 2010 a live event with a performance of a new work.”

“The survey, published today, found that those who admit illegally downloading music spent an average of £77 a year on music – £33 more than those who claim that they never download music dishonestly.”

“Last week, the Official Charts Company published figures that showed sales have already surpassed the record of 115.1m singles sold last year by almost 2m, and we haven’t even entered the Christmas run-up. So, has the music industry finally turned a corner and found the panacea to all its woes?”

So, why not Orchestra Hero? What if I could “play” the horn solo in “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks” on a “controller horn” or the bassoon solo at the opening of “The Rite of Spring” on a “controller bassoon”?

The Tchaikovsky Piano Competition used to be the most prestigious in the world. Not now. “There is a general recognition that they [Gergiev and other Russian officials] were trying to do a perestroika, a reconstruction of the whole [competition] and to try to bring it back to its glory days.”

“With 3.6 million followers, Spears is significantly out in front of any other artist on Twitter, according to data from Big Champagne. For those keeping track of figures that largely can’t yet be monetized, John Mayer is a distant second, with about 2.5 million followers.”