Category: music

“Few can argue with the fact that we’re living in troubled times and that the world is in a somewhat sorry state. Even fewer (less than half of the American population) disagree with the opinion that the US government has had a hand in the mess that’s been created. So why is there such an aversion to musicians taking an active interest in politics?”

“Passionato is providing the world’s biggest collection of high-quality classical downloads, first in the UK and later worldwide. The company says more than 18,000 recordings are available. Many fans of classical music have previously shunned MP3 downloads because of disappointing quality.”

“The Oasis giveaway announced this week seems delightfully old school. In conjunction with the NME, Oasis will make available sheet music for three unreleased songs, Bag It Up, The Turning and (Get Off Your) High Horse Lady, to be featured on their forthcoming album, Dig Out Your Soul (due to be released in October). So it is free music, but the catch is you have to play it yourself.”

Maestro – in which famous people competed against each other as they learned to become conductors – has been the best piece of classical music programming the BBC has done in ages.

“Now that we’re put in touch directly with our audience and that distributors can be completely removed from the equation, we have exactly the same problem selling the music as the distributors had. Just because the songs are available to buy, doesn’t mean we can sell them – in the same way that (and excuse the often-used analogy) installing a landline doesn’t mean that the phone is going to ring. And we can’t blame the distributors any more. The only people that are left to blame are ourselves. And that hurts.”

Gerard Schwarz will step down from the music directorship of the Seattle Symphony in 2011, after more than two decades at the orchestra’s helm. “Schwarz, 61, said there was no pressure on him not to seek a renewal of his contract. However, the last few years have been tumultuous for him, with fierce power struggles on the board and among the staff; disputes between him and SSO musicians; lawsuits; million-dollar budget deficits, and yards of bad press, locally, nationally and internationally.”

Norman Lebrecht acknowledges that everyone else seems to get something out of Messaien’s music that eludes him. “I listen without prejudice to music by misogynists, racialists, one wife-murderer and at least two paedophiles. But with Messiaen, for all his ingenuity, my gorge rises and my tolerance fails.”

When Tony Hall, the ROH’s executive director, came on stage to welcome the audience, he was also welcoming those watching the show live in 113 cinemas across the UK and abroad – a first for the ROH. The point was, he told me, to “start the season with almost an anti-gala, celebrating the new season with people who haven’t visited before”. He added: “This is not a stunt. We want it to be something long-lasting.”

“Justin Davidson, a classical music critic for New York Magazine, ponders when, where and how kids learn to have taste in music and art. He talks about his quest to teach his 10-year-old son Milo about the finer things in life.”

“Despite the inventive staging and all-out efforts of an admirable cast “The Fly” is a ponderous and enervating opera, and the problem is Howard Shore’s music.