Category: music

“The son of current and former members of the Philharmonic’s violin section,” newly minted music director Alan Gilbert already has “transformed the relationship between the music director and the players.” He has also “radically changed the seating formation,” a major adjustment for musicians.

“The Met opened its season on Monday night with a new production of Puccini’s ‘Tosca’ by the adventurous Swiss-born director Luc Bondy. When Mr. Bondy and the production team appeared on stage during curtain calls, the audience erupted in boos. If there were cheers among the jeers, they were drowned out.”

“Sir Elton John has come out in support of measures to crack down on music piracy,” explaining in a letter that “the unchecked proliferation of illegal downloading … will have a seriously detrimental effect on musicians, and particularly young musicians and those composers who are not performing artists.”

“The Meyerson is the only concert hall designed by I.M. Pei,” and it’s “an aural marvel.”

“The orchestra is running a string of large deficits – $3.3 million for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, and a projected $7.5 million for the current year – and has maxed out its line of credit.”

“Devoted followers of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, sometimes called “Ring”-nuts, are always ready to jump on a plane or to weigh in on subjects of highly specialized interest; theirs is an accumulation of frequent-flier miles and possible lecture topics rivaled only by those of ex-presidents.”

“Valery Gergiev is the greatest conductor of his generation. Even those who disagree concede that he is the most electrifying. His high profile internationally is based on his spellbinding effect on audiences and musicians alike – not to mention his famous performance of Shostakovich’s Leningrad symphony to an audience of Russian soldiers and tank commanders amid the ruins of the capital of his homeland.”

“If jazz is America’s gift to the world, Japan is the place that knows how to unwrap it. While serious musicians and devotees fret that traditional, noncommercialized improvisation is becoming as esoteric a taste as it is in the land of its birth, jazz in all its forms still pulses through Tokyo.”

“What’s unique about the CSO approach is its combination of razzle-dazzle and high-mindedness.”

“Come to think of it, Palin seemed ripe for operatic treatment all along. The almost primal passions her candidacy aroused, and the personal and political controversies that dogged it, all fit the recipe for music’s most dramatic form. But it wasn’t the brouhaha that inspired Hughes; it was the sonic possibilities.”