Category: music

“A new report says Canada’s sound recording and music publishing industries turned a relatively healthy profit in 2005… In total, the industry reported operating revenues estimated at $942-million.”

Alfred Schnittke’s ninth symphony, written in a rush as the composer lay dying in 1998, will get its American premiere this week in New York. The work, unfinished when Schnittke died, was completed by Russian composer Alexander Raskatov at the request of Schnittke’s widow.

It’s not even on the radar screen of most music fans, but Christian rock is now an undeniable force in the marketplace, and millions of Americans consume the bulk of their live music while sitting in huge, non-denominational mega-churches.

A $70m recital hall under construction in Melbourne will double the city’s concert output, according to organizers. “The all-acoustic venue, featuring the 1001-seat Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, is the only one of its type in Australia, floating on 38 spring-based blocks to insulate it from outside noise.”

“Print publications increasingly see no need for critics in the age of blogs. With self-produced recording and downloads, the job is in some ways becoming almost impossible; opening the mail or surfing the Internet often sends me into a spiral of despair, because there is far more music pouring in by the day than I can possibly hear and make sense of.”

The band made its new album available to fans who could decide for themselves what to pay. “Fewer than four out of 10 fans worldwide who downloaded ‘In Rainbows’ between Oct. 10 and Oct. 29 purchased it, paying $6 on average.”

Russian soprano Anna Netrebko is Musician of the Year for 2008, identified by Musical America as “a genuine superstar for the 21st century.”

“Jeffrey Tate will become the new principal conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, replacing Andrey Boreyko, who quit unexpectedly for reasons unclear,” according to German media sources. “The English-born Tate is likely to assume the position next spring. His management will probably confirm the appointment no earlier than January.” Boreyko’s departure, while mysterious, is not entirely surprising – the conductor had garnered mixed reviews for his occasionally radical departures from symphonic norms.

Samuel Barber’s lush, beautiful opera, Vanessa, was a hit with critics when it first opened in 1958, but it was quickly blasted by the modernists who ruled the musical/intellectual roost at the time. Now, it’s being restaged by New York City Opera, and Anthony Tommassini says that “it’s hard to imagine today what anyone found so objectionable in the opera.”

The BBC has been trying to blend high culture with reality television talent competitions with its new show, Classical Star. But some observers are horrified by the show’s deceptions. “The goal itself is fatuous; these children are being sold a false prospectus of glittering prizes that can only be available to a true genius… It is an obscene pantomime that plays games with the feelings of young, talented and vulnerable people.”