Category: music

“Hiring a 40-year-old (Alan Gilbert will be a tad older when he takes over the New York Philharmonic in 2009) who has led just six programs highlights the awkward place several American orchestras find themselves in at the moment. The senior-citizen conductors to whom most orchestras feel comfortable entrusting their podiums are saying no, forcing a little gambling. Will Philadelphia be next?”

The popular broadcasts of opera performances in movie theatres have attracted a following. “Five of the Met’s eight live high-definition movie-theater broadcasts next season will be released on DVD by EMI Classics, the companies said Wednesday. The releases include Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” with Karita Mattila, Marcello Giordani and conductor James Levine; and Verdi’s “Macbeth” with Levine conducting Lado Ataneli.”

“I still completely don’t get the whole product-less ethos of the iPod generation. Why would you want to accumulate, much less pay for, intangible musical files? As one used record store owner I know put it, ‘Downloads have no monetary value, since you can’t resell them.’ Then again, he clearly has an agenda. However, I admit that I’ve enjoyed some free musical experiences more than concerts I paid top dollar for, and I treasure everything in my record collection, including the scads of freebies.”

The Chicago Symphony hopes to name its next music director by the end of the 2007-08 season, and its CEO says that a shortlist of “between three and seven” conductors is already in place. “Those generating the biggest buzz within the orchestra as likely candidates for Daniel Barenboim’s former post are the Italian maestros Riccardo Muti and Riccardo Chailly.”

The orchestra has recorded its third balanced budget after decades of financial difficulty. “Preliminary results point to a $10,000 surplus on a budget of $23 million, symphony officials announced Monday. An 11 percent increase in ticket sales, a 12 percent increase in total contributions and a second annual $1 million-plus Symphony Ball helped produce the positive results.”

The orchestra had lost its main funder. “In June, the Israeli Broadcast Authority announced that it would slash its annual $2.7 million subsidy to the orchestra’s $4.2 million budget by 60 percent. Four years ago, the orchestra skirted financial ruin when its musicians agreed to take a 20 per cent cut in pay. This time, however, the missing chunk would have been too large.” But “the Israeli court ruled July 15 that IBA — in the financial difficulty itself — would have to continue funding the JSO, until additional means from other sources could be secured by the orchetra.”

Warner Music Group Corp. said on Tuesday it decided against bidding for rival EMI Group Plc, two days before a deadline to submit an offer.

“In a rare case of cheerful news for the record labels, the latest phenomenon in a notoriously fickle industry is one nobody dared predict: a vinyl revival. Latest figures show a big jump in vinyl sales in the first half of this year, confirming the anecdotal evidence from specialist shops throughout the UK.”

Three million copies of Prince’s new album were given away free in the UK’s Mail on Sunday. Within minutes, the internet was flooded with copies of the music, free for download. Hundreds of the CDs have also been put up for sale on auction site eBay.

“The double-keyboard piano sounds like a piano, but with fuller chords and denser harmonies. Unlike an organ with additional stops and pipes or a harpsichord with separate strings for the second manual, the double-keyboard piano still has only one set of hammers and strings. And Christopher Taylor still has only 10 fingers. But the two keyboards, one with the usual 88 notes, the other with only 76, lets him try some intriguing moves.”