Category: music

The Nashville Symphony has been hitting many high notes recently. But one little bit of dissonance: “Mary Kathryn Vanosdale, the NSO’s longtime concertmaster, was forced to sit out the 2006-07 season because of an internal dispute.” But she “recently prevailed in a private arbitration case, and so she will reassume her old post as head of the first violin section starting in September.” So what was the beef? The musicians are speculating…

“The critical success or failure of Katharina Wagner’s Bayreuth Festival debut will not only decide on the future of what is arguably one of the most important musical extravaganzas in the world, but also on who takes pole position in the Wagner dynasty.”

Could Leonard Slatkin be on the short list of candidates to succeed Neeme Järvi as music director of the Detroit Symphony? Despite some bad luck in past engagements there, Slatkin has lately developed a promising rapport with the DSO…

“De Waart’s initial contract at Santa Fe is for four years, and he will conduct at least one opera each summer, beginning with Britten’s Billy Budd next year. With the title of Chief Conductor (rather than Music Director), de Waart will be primarily responsible for the company’s orchestra.”

ENO is opening the virtual curtain on its new production of “Carmen”. “ENO Interactive will host video footage of the auditions and rehearsals, along with production diaries, interviews and downloads of songs from the show. Users can ask questions and write reviews, and the site will collate related content from around the web. ENO hopes the site will engage people who do not usually go to the opera.”

Denver’s missing cultural piece is a thorough overhaul of the Colorado Symphony’s home. “The overhaul of Boettcher, which is part of the Denver Performing Arts Complex, would address three main deficiencies: inadequate public spaces, inferior backstage amenities and troubled acoustics. It would include the addition of a wraparound, multistory glass lobby on the building’s Speer Boulevard side and a reconfiguration of the facility’s 2,634 seats.”

Sofya Gulyak is 27, and won the $15,000 first prize playing Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3.

“The Seattle Symphony has dodged a huge fiscal iceberg, it announced Monday, citing extraordinary fundraising efforts that fended off a projected $2.5 million deficit on a $22.5 million budget for the 2006-07 season. Instead of a big shortfall, the orchestra is expected to balance its books for the first time in several years….”

“A real-life drama of succession as riveting as any Richard Wagner opera is casting a shadow over this year’s Bayreuth Festival, raising the anticipation level among devotees of the German master even before the first curtain rises Wednesday at the musical shrine he inaugurated 131 years ago. No matter what the outcome, chances are good that whoever heads the famous German festival — a traditional battleground for Wagner clan members vying for influence — will be part of the family for some time to come. But which Wagner will it be?”

“Debussy left behind piano music in the form of black marks printed on a page. He also left behind a little of himself: piano rolls of Debussy playing Debussy. So elegantly conceived is the first part of this legacy that we sometimes wish the second part did not exist. The scores imply a ‘this is it’ permanence. The composer’s playing of them (now on a CD from the Pierian Recording Society) could just as well be the impulse of a moment.”