Category: music

“A German-based quartet staged Saudi Arabia’s first-ever performance of European classical music in a public venue before a mixed-gender audience. The concert, held at a government-run cultural center Friday night, broke many taboos in a country where public music is banned and the sexes are segregated even in lines at fast-food outlets.”

Years ago, “there wasn’t as much expected out of an orchestra. There wasn’t so much sound.” Now both instruments and techniques have improved. We’re putting out more sound. Conductors like it. Audiences like it.”

Argippo, “discovered by a Czech musician as he rummaged through an old archive of anonymous scores, was being staged at a castle in Prague, the city where it had its premiere in 1730.”

“Tan Dun is a kind of rock star of the modern music scene. He won an Oscar for the score of Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Hopping around the world, from Shanghai to Stockholm, from Tokyo to New York, he conducts and introduces his own music to a global audience of rapturous fans.”

It starts with casting. And casting isn’t a simple matter of opening your ears…

“Katharina and Eva Wagner have fought bitterly over the Festival leadership for many years, and it is common knowledge that there has never been much love lost between them. The likelihood of a harmonious future relationship is slim. Questions could also be asked about their qualifications.”

“The plans are part of a broad expansion of Gramophone’s online presence. In the first phase, expected by the end of the summer, it will make its entire archive, including some 100,000 recording reviews and articles, available free.”

“An eight-year-old playwright or philosopher is inconceivable; an eight-year-old pianist able to play a Mozart concerto in public is a miracle that can actually happen. The focus on youth is one thing that makes the BBC competition special.”

“Musical scores came to be written as if dogma, down to the last pedantic detail; performers, even brilliant ones, became mere instruments to the composer’s vision.” But this doesn’t necessaril lead to the best music. Maybe performers should have more power…

TimeWarner, RealNetworks and Yahoo could owe the money to thousands of songwriters and publishers after a judge’s royalty formula.