Category: music

Paul Lansky had an important role in developing computer music. These days he’s turned to traditional instruments. “His conversion, in a sense, is a relinquishing of the need to control, the rejection of what he called an antisocial bent. What drives many creators of computer music is the desire to have total mastery over how a piece of music sounds.”

Legendary ’70s disco-pop group ABBA nabs another honor: their 1992-issued “Gold–Greatest Hits” compilation climbs up to the very top of the UK charts, the oldest album ever to reach that position.

“Cliburn’s evergreen fame has had to be more than he bargained for, if only because it was unprecedented: No pianist before or since has had a ticker-tape parade in New York City. Such fortunes alighted upon what initially seemed to be an all-American boy, born in Louisiana and raised in Texas, who, as time went on, came to look more like a gifted, Deep South eccentric from an early Truman Capote short story.”

“The Concert Association of Florida had made an overture to the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts to, in essence, take over the financially troubled organization.” But will this solve the music presenter’s problems?

“Martha Argerich, who for almost two decades gave very few solo recitals, has always felt uneasy in the spotlight offstage as well. But Ms. Argerich, a brilliant musician whose playing combines prodigious technique with uncanny musicality, overcame her shyness and granted Georges Gachot a three-hour interview.”

A number of European summer festivals are streaming their concerts online this year. “Does anybody actually want to watch classical concerts on their computer screens? Evidently, yes… The real question is whether anybody wants to pay for it.”

“West Virginia Symphony executive director Paul Helfrich will leave in mid-October to take the top administrative job at the Dayton Philharmonic in Ohio… In Dayton, Helfrich replaces Curt Long, who left after 14 years to take a similar position with the Alabama Symphony.”

Summer music festivals can be serious tourist draws, but they also serve as crucial rejuvenating experiences for musicians, who can find themselves ground down by a long orchestra season.

“Add one more discretionary purchase to the already long list of things that could get more expensive because of high gasoline prices – concert tickets. Industry watchers say concert sales were “remarkably robust” in the first half of the year – considering the rise in fuel prices and tough economic times in parts of North America – but artists’ tour budgets may now have to be adjusted up.”

The Cincinnati Symphony bassist who was accused of beating his wife last month has been acquitted of all charges, despite police reports that he continued to threaten her after being taken into custody.