Category: music

“Yesterday’s fire was probably sparked by welding work in the roof, orchestra officials said. “The blaze was restricted to the roof. Water damage inside the building was limited because of the fire service’s forethought and the water drainage system in the roof.”

“The far-reaching effect of these decisions could be huge. I’d like to think there will always be a Toronto Symphony and a Montreal Symphony – but will there always be a Regina Symphony or a Saskatoon Symphony if there’s an entire generation of young people who have never heard classical music? And outside big cities, there’s no access to classical music except on the CBC.”

“The damage to the building seems to be far less extensive than was originally feared, and the huge concert hall — which seats 2,400 and is famed for its acoustics — escaped damage. “There was very little water damage,” Berlin’s culture minister, Andre Schmitz, told the city’s Info Radio on Wednesday.”

“Musicians were seen rushing in panic from the concert hall clutching instruments they had managed to save as clouds of smoke up to 30 metres high spread across the skyline. Some larger instruments such as pianos and timpani had to be left behind and orchestra members said they had ripped open musicians’ lockers in an attempt to remove as many instruments – some of them uninsurable – as possible.”

The Metropolitan Opera has been revived in the two seasons since Peter Gelb took over the house. Attendance is up, the movie theatre broadcasts have been a smashing success, and artistically, the company is faring well. Of course the budget has increased to $268 million, but…

“Arkiv, a kind of Amazon of classical music that launched in Feb. 2002, offers some 90,000 CD and DVD titles from major and independent classical music labels through its website, Arkivmusic.com. About 5,500 of those titles are otherwise out-of-print. The deal calls for Steinway to pay $3 million in cash up front plus an additional $1.5 million over the next three years.”

“The 21st-century listener hears music, and assimilates it mentally and emotionally, extremely differently than an 18th-century gentleman. Certainly, when music was played in much smaller venues, the loudest thing that the urban man would ever hear was thunderclaps. Perhaps people’s hearing was less damaged than it is now. Today, time goes so much faster. If your watch gained four minutes in a week, that didn’t matter much in the 18th century. If your letter got there three weeks later, it wasn’t a big deal. It is now.”

The blaze broke out beneath the roof of the building directly over the main concert hall, which seats 2,500 and is famed for its extraordinary acoustics. The cause was not immediately clear.

“The company has posted a budget surplus of more than $800,000 for its 2007-08 season, on an operating budget of $51.6 million. This marked the fifth consecutive fiscal year Lyric has recorded an excess of income over expenses.”

Musicians with the Columbus Symphony today will put forward a financial plan “within the budget limitations established by the board and corporate leadership” of Columbus.