Category: music

“Gustavo Dudamel, now 26, is the most-talked-about young musician in the world. Sir Simon Rattle, the principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, has called him ‘the most astonishingly gifted conductor I have ever come across.'” His upbringing in Venezuela’s El Sistema music education program and rapid rise through the ranks of the conducting world are already legend within the music business. “As an international celebrity whose career was incubated by the sistema, Dudamel is uniquely able to champion its expansion at home and promote its adoption abroad.”

There may not be an orchestra on Earth more attached to its own tradition and history than the Berlin Philharmonic, so it’s only natural that change would be a tough sell. But Simon Rattle, the Phil’s chief conductor for the past five years, is all about modernization. “What Rattle and the philharmonic are hoping to do is to build an orchestra of the future. But to achieve this, he also believes the Philharmonic has to find a balance between exploring new music and coming to terms with its musical past.”

There seems to be no shortage of books postulating either that classical music has made itself irrelevant, or that it has never been stronger or more popular. Scholar Richard Taruskin has taken the measure of both sides, and finds that “the discourse supporting classical music so reeks of historical blindness and sanctimonious self-regard as to render the object of its ministrations practically indefensible.” Still, “classical music is not dying; it is changing… Change can be opposed, and it can be slowed down, but it cannot be stopped.”

Met director Peter Gelb’s “decision to ask big-name stars to fill in for sick colleagues is highly unusual. The Met has traditionally employed understudies who must remain within 15 minutes of the stage during all performances, ready for any eventuality. But when he became manager last year Mr Gelb took a new approach – shuffling his stars around so as to field the best cast available.”

“The two composers share a common musical idiom; there are many reasons why inexperienced listeners find it hard to tell them apart.” And yet…

Lost in the flurry of critical insistence that Riccardo Muti be named the next music director of the Chicago Symphony seems to be the fact that Muti, while a brilliant conductor, would embody many of the same flaws that eventually led to the departure of Daniel Barenboim. If he became the CSO’s top man, Muti would be “unlikely to live here or be around much, probably won’t want to get chummy with the community or handle administrative duties.”

After two seasons in the red, the Pittsburgh Symphony announced this week that it balanced its budget for the 2006-07 season. Balance was achieved partly because of a $29.5m gift from the PSO’s board chair. The orchestra is in the quiet phase of an $80m capital campaign.

It was a nightmare scenario last weekend for the Royal Opera House, when star soprano Lisa Gasteen fell ill on the eve of the first performance of a new, high-profile production of Wagner’s Ring. What followed was 24 hours of the type of frantic action that always makes for great storytelling after the fact.

Parents of athletes are well known as long-suffering figures who must be as dedicated as their children for success to be achieved. But for parents of musicians, the job may be even tougher: not only are you expected to ferry your budding virtuoso to endless lessons, rehearsals, and concerts, you also have to help them (or should that be make them?) practice. “So why not leave it up to them? Because we know they would give up.”

Imagine if music didn’t sound good to you. Not just some music, but all music. Now imagine that the world reacts to your condition by assuming that you’re either an idiot or a killjoy. Welcome to the world occupied by sufferers of amusia, a neurological condition under which subjects are “profoundly impaired in recognizing melodies and in pitch discrimination, unable to distinguish between adjacent tones and semitones.”