Category: music

“As it has everywhere else these days, the economic crisis has hit classical music, a particularly fragile corner of the nonprofit world that depends as much on donations as on ticket sales. Most managers are only in the fretting stage, but the plunge in stock prices, the credit squeeze and feelings of diminished wealth among donors and ticket buyers have begun to have concrete effects in a few places.”

“Manchester could play host to an annual 18-week season of performances from the Royal Opera House” under a proposal that would see “the Palace Theatre in the city centre undergo a £100m refurbishment to transform it into a first-class home for lyric theatre and ballet.” But some fear that “that a refurbished Palace Theatre could cannibalise [local] audiences – and eat up public money.”

“Last night came final and irrevocable proof that the country is entering tough economic times, unseen since the 80s: AC/DC have returned to the top of the album charts for the first time in 28 years.”

The Louisville Orchestra has been using video in performances for some time now. But what, wonders Andrew Adler, would the next step in video performance in concert halls look like?

Ned Rorem “has a novel theory that newspapers and critics shaped the county’s musical conservatism in the early 20th century, entrenching a certain Eurocentric repertory because that’s what newspaper people believed their audience wanted to hear and read about. ‘The general public avoids contemporary music. But of course now most contemporary musc is comparatively listenable. It’s a twentieth century thing’.”

According to new figures just released, the underdog of the four major labels suffered losses of $1.2 billion in the financial year ended March 31, far deeper than the prior year’s $455 million. Revenue declined to $2.3 billion from $2.8 billion.

The recordings are fascinating historical documents. They were mostly made in living rooms, at informal social occasions. Listeners applaud and yell “bravo!” The musicians often introduce themselves, as an 11-year-old Heifetz does in a high-pitched voice.

“The peak cabaret experience is a three-way relationship among singer, song (often a standard) and audience in which performers pour their life experiences in thematic shows using the American songbook as a platform; songs are stations in an autobiographical journey shared with the listener.”

It seems that all Madrid is clamoring for the young British maestro to become the opera house’s music director following a London Symphony concert he conducted there this week. “You don’t know how grateful we are that you… would consider the possibility of taking the musical directorship,” wrote the critic of El País. “Our quiet lyrical waters urgently need a certain amount of agitation or, even, the kind of tsunami that you might bring.”

“The Santa Fe Opera and the estate of an employee have reached a settlement with relatives of a family killed in a drunken, wrong-way interstate crash triggered by the worker, who was returning from a business trip.”