Category: music

“Can film music ever be construed as ‘classical’? According to the Classic FM Hall of Fame 2008 – which lists amongst its line-up of ‘Top Contemporary Composers’ the names Shore, Williams, Zimmer and someone called Badelt – it certainly can. … Whether a piece is classical or not has nothing to do with the forces involved, but with the way in which it is intended to be listened to. “

“A Stradivarius violin named after its pioneering female owner has been sold in New York for $1.2m. The instrument, made in the 18th century, belonged to Barbara Penny, the first woman to play in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra strings section.”

Norman Lebrecht has had enough of the Karajan worship that seems to be pervading Europe on the occasion of the maestro’s centenary. “Hitler’s poster boy offered nothing to art while ruthlessly crushing creativity… If classical music itself is widely (if unfairly) considered to be elitist, staid and retrospective, we have Herbert von Karajan to thank for making it a safe, corporate entertainment at prohibitively priced festivals.”

Eight years ago, Kansas City’s powerful all-classical FM station was unceremoniously dispatched the AM band and the plug was pulled on local programming. Now, the station is moving in the other direction, dumping its satellite-fed schedule for a completely local sound, and a push for greater listenership and more diverse programming.

Ever since the Columbus Symphony announced that it was at risk of shutting down, arts supporters have been trying to muster broader interest in preserving the orchestra. But are the words we use to drum up such support part of the problem? “Describing the symphony as a cultural-arts institution is like describing the Columbus Zoo as a department of biology. It doesn’t sing. Let’s focus on the music, not the institution.”

“A company in a court fight with the Beatles has agreed not to release recordings purportedly made during Ringo Starr’s first performance with the group until the case is resolved… Apple Corps claims the songs were taped without the band’s consent.”

The National Institutes of Health’s Chamber Music Series is drawing to a close this weekend after 40 years of presenting the world’s best musicians in Washington, D.C. The series’s founder “chalks up the plunge to aging audiences, as well as the wider availability of high-end chamber music. Others view the series’s end more ominously.”

“UBS, the giant Swiss bank, has withdrawn its support of the UBS Verbier Orchestra, an elite training ensemble that is based at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and that has close ties to the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Met’s music director, James Levine. The bank has decided to move its money to a rival Swiss festival in Lucerne, a higher-profile event that has a training academy — but no student orchestra — of its own.”

Pianist Menachem Pressler has had one of the era’s most successful musical careers, and while, at 84, he’s not ready to quit, he’s finally begun to slow down his hectic schedule a bit. “Mr. Pressler and his much younger colleagues in the venerable Beaux Arts Trio, which he helped found as a junior partner in 1955, plan to disband” this summer.

The composer who created a surprise hit opera from The Jerrry Springer Show is setting his sights even lower, planning an opera based on the life of former Playboy centerfold and general train wreck Anna Nicole Smith. “The production, still in the early stages of development, is intended to be shown on the main stage at the Royal Opera House, accompanied by a 90-piece orchestra.”