Category: music

Classical music’s scrappiest record label proved to be its most prescient when the internet revolution came upon the world. What put Naxos ahead of the game, and what did founder Klaus Heymann see in the industry that convinced him to make a huge online push when he did?

The finale of Mahler’s massive 6th Symphony includes two ear-splitting strokes from a percussion instrument the composer described as a “hammer of fate,” The trouble is, Mahler didn’t really specify what such a hammer would look like, and percussionists in orchestras the world over have to get creative when they see the sixth on the schedule.

The controversial New York Philharmonic concert in North Korea will be aired across the US by PBS, in an unusual broadcast produced by ABC News.

“Israel’s Eliahu Inbal has been selected to become the chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra… Inbal, 71, was assuming the post for the 2009-2010 season, replacing Zdenek Macal, who resigned last year after taking the job in 2003.”

A retired opera singer and arts manager is hoping to raise $3m to start up a new opera company in Jacksonville, Florida. The company, which hopes to mount its first production in spring 2009, plans to stage three operas per season, and has signed the Jacksonville Symphony to accompany its shows.

The NY Philharmonic’s upcoming trip to North Korea has been debated in both musical and political circles, with some fearing that the concert in Pyongyang amounts to an endorsement of one of the world’s most brutal regimes. Loren Maazel has dismissed that idea, but some see in his comments a leftist attempt to equate North Korea’s leader with the Bush Administration.

“UBS, the Swiss finance house, is ending its sponsorship of the Verbier Festival Orchestra after nine years, 100 million Swiss fracs and an advertising campaign that has given UBS high visibility in the international media as a promoter of youth and musical beauty.”

“What will Sydney get for the estimated $700 million to be spent on the planned overhaul of the Opera Theatre at the Sydney Opera House?” More to the point, wouldn’t the money be better spent building a whole new opera theater that actually functions the way its resident companies need it to?

A North Carolina cellist with feet in both the classical and pop worlds has launched an annual program to commission a full-scale symphony, perform it with a local orchestra, and use part of the proceeds to commission the next year’s work. “More than half of the proceeds from each symphony will go to a local charity.”

One of the primary criticisms of the Columbus Symphony’s plan to lay off more than 20 musicians and slash the length of its season has been that the plan ignores the impact such cuts would have on the musicians who have devoted their careers to the orchestra. So the musicians have been working to replace numbers with faces…