Category: music

The Fort Worth Symphony thought that it was being innovative when it announced a plan to make some of its 2007-08 concerts more accessible (and shorter) by shaving movements out of larger symphonies. Then the complaints started rolling in, and the orchestra had to make a quick course correction. But the effort to create a less formal and rigid concert experience without offending longtime fans is one faced by orchestras across the country.

Just as the people who design video games are finally gaining respect as artists of one sort or another, those who write the music for the adventures are starting to be recognized in the same way that film composers have been for decades. And while gaming music has only recently embraced the full symphonic scale that epic games have long demanded, one Japanese composer has been churning out the hits ever since Mario and Luigi started bopping turtles.

“Of all the ways musicians have devised to draw an audience to new music, doing away with the price tag ranks among the most immediately appealing. There’s no financial risk for the potential listener, the organizers feel empowered to program whatever music they want since they don’t have to try and gauge how much people will be willing to shell out to hear Composer X’s latest masterwork.”

“If the jazz-as-classical-music model is ever to work, jazz musicians will have to find the same sort of balance classical musicians achieve when they deliver a performance that is both true to the score and also a reflection of themselves. And as difficult as that may be when dealing with Beethoven or Mahler, it’s even tougher in jazz, since the soloists are not only expected to play the music properly but to improvise at the level of jazz’s greatest geniuses. It’s a lot to ask.”

“With the explosion of a new group of top-level female exponents of the instrument, the days of the word ‘violinist’ automatically being associated with a man are fast coming to an end. It’s still more men that jump to mind as major stars in the age range 40-60, but in 10 or 15 years, that’s not going to be true.”

“The Met is selling $100,000 boxes for its opening-night presentation of ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ with soprano Natalie Dessay and tenor Marcello Giordani, the company said Tuesday. That comes to $12,500 a seat, more than double last year’s opening-night high of $5,000.”

“The San Francisco Opera will broadcast its performances once a month beginning April 1 on classical radio station KDFC (102.1 FM) — the first time in 25 years that the company’s offerings will be heard regularly on the air. … In addition to the KDFC deal, the Opera has joined a coalition of opera companies whose performances will be broadcast nationally and internationally by the WFMT Radio Network in Chicago.”

Tim Page listens to a live piano “recreation” of a Glenn Gould performance. Is it good as Gould? “It shows that such ventures are increasingly possible — on the piano, at least (for various technical reasons, it is impossible to imagine this working for violin, cello or the human voice). Moreover, there can be no doubt that Gould, whose fascination with new technology was unlimited, would have been thrilled by this development: The quirky and reclusive genius would have liked nothing better than to give ‘live’ concerts without having to be there.”

“The company had planned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the work by mounting a new production with the original Broadway team.” But a couple of the essential team-members was unavailable so the company decided to postpone.