Category: music

“In an experiment backed by Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, and by the national lottery, 31 pianos are to be plonked around the capital to encourage people to gather for a singsong with strangers. They will be placed at prominent sites such as the British Library, the Natural History Museum, the Bank of England and Tate Britain. … A full-time tuner will tour the sites on a bicycle to maintain them.”

“In a comic touch, it was announced that the character of Fresh Air was indisposed, and since no replacement existed in New York, the role would be performed by Clean Air, which combined a bracing, clinically pure scent with wistful music, rather like Copland in his bucolic Americana mode.”

“Tears were to be expected; an era was ending, and everyone knew it. The Amato Opera, a feisty local troupe founded by Anthony and Sally Amato in 1948, was calling it a day with a final performance of Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro.’ … At 88 Mr. Amato has earned a comfortable retirement. But he does not intend to disappear, having announced plans to organize a foundation to provide scholarships for young opera conductors, directors and performers.”

“The Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston has announced that Geoff Nuttall is the new director of chamber music, succeeding Charles Wadsworth. Festival General Manager Nigel Redden said Sunday night that Nuttall, the festival’s current associate artistic director for chamber music, will become director next season.”

“There’s a tendency for classical music aficionados to assume that composers are always and only themselves: Beethoven always Beethoven, Brahms always Brahms, Ives always Ives. The reality is that those composers, like all worthwhile artists, have gone through a more or less extended journey to escape from their models and to find a voice, to discover who they are.” Until he made that discovery, Ives did not sound like Ives.

“The trumpet-like instrument, which had been played in Ancient Roman times, fell out of use more than 300 years ago. Now, researchers at the University of Edinburgh along with the U.K.’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) have collaborated to produce the instrument.”

“For a Big Five orchestra to have voluntary talks about modifying a trade agreement, and to alter the terms of it, shows that the musicians were aware of the financial situation,” a deficit potentially as high as $3 million, “and wanted to do their part to help,” said cellist John Koen, lead negotiator for the musicians.

“Joseph Haydn died 200 years ago Sunday, and Austria has been officially marking the occasion with hundreds of concerts, exhibitions and other events dedicated to the music and memory of one of the country’s greatest sons. But Haydn has it hard in a country that also gave birth to Amadeus.”

“Has classical music suddenly become a follower, or even a victim, of fashion? The very word ‘classical’ implies something old and immutable, far removed from passing fads and fancies as if it has always been there.”

“Despite the opposition of some, many Palestinians see the study of Western classical music — part of a broader cultural revival in the West Bank — as a source of hope, a way to connect to the outer world from a hemmed-in and controlled existence, particularly at a time when hope for a Palestinian state seems ever more distant.”