Category: music

“Though Riccardo Muti did allow the chorus to repeat ‘Va, pensiero’ from Verdi’s Nabucco (which is virtually a second national anthem in Italy) once in 1986 and once in 1996, no soloist has sung an encore at La Scala since the legendary bass Fyodor Chaliapin did it once in 1933 (while Toscanini was out of town). Until the night before last, that is.”

“The New World Symphony’s discerning programming and mix of standard repertoire with the edgy and offbeat has been one of the main glories of its history the past two decades. Yet the Miami Beach orchestra appears to be suffering from artistic growing pains, for its 20th anniversary season is offering the most conservative, even reactionary programming in its history. Populist standards, familiar guests and conventional repertoire dominate the New World schedule to a degree that alters one’s perception of the organization.”

It’s been 45 years since Lorin Maazel last stood atop the podium at the Metropolitan Opera, but the New York Philharmonic’s music director will be returning to the Met next season, leading five performances of Wagner’s “Walküre.” Maazel was approached after music director James Levine, a well-regarded Wagnerian, declined to conduct the production because of scheduling conflicts.

The classical music world is often criticized for ignoring contemporary music in favor of the tried-and-true warhorses, and music schools frequently view new music as a curiosity rather than something to be taught seriously. But at Ohio’s Oberlin Conservatory, the Contemporary Music Ensemble is the group that the top students clamor to join, and several highly successful professional new music ensembles have emerged from its ranks over the past decade.

The city of Miami Beach has approved a $15 million request by the New World Symphony, which trains young musicians for professional jobs. The money will make up 10% of the cost of the orchestra’s planned new concert hall, to be designed by Frank Gehry. $105 million has already been raised, and the NWS hopes to get another $30 million from the county government.

“Ioan Holender, the powerful and sometimes controversial Intendant (chief executive) of the Vienna State Opera, announced today that he will step down from his position when his current contract expires in August 2010… The 71-year-old Holender has been chief executive at the Vienna State Opera since 1988.”

“As the music industry struggles to come to terms with collapsing sales, diverging international markets and the internet-fuelled emergence of highly personalised and parochial buying patterns, is the era of the global musical superstar drawing to an end?”

Why of course, writes Norman Lebrecht. The fake recordings of Joyce Hatto were just the latest frauds. “What made classical records so easy to fake was the proliferation of same works by different artists – hundreds of Chopin waltzes, dozens of Rachmaninov concertos. With the exception of the occasional genius, few of these records betray much originality or can be told apart by the naked ear. That spells paradise for a potential hoaxer.”

“Thanks to Placido Domingo, the superstar tenor who has been at the helm of L.A. Opera since 1999, opera has become a hot ticket in a sprawling metropolis where celebrity obsession is a way of life and movie mania reigns 365 days a year. Opera is still not a way of life here the way it is in New York, but L.A. is well on its way to being caught up in opera fever.”