Category: music

“The question of how to keep Mozart fresh is certainly topical [in Vienna] this year, and at the Theater an der Wien in particular.” The music house, which was recently converted to accommodate full time opera use, would seem to be a superfluous venue in a city chock full of performance spaces. But Theater an der Wien “wants to present cutting-edge directors and interesting productions, to attract a different kind of audience. [The] theater’s three main focuses will be Baroque opera, which has not really had a performance space in Vienna; contemporary opera (he is commissioning three new works for coming seasons); and of course Mozart.”

The music director of the Charlotte Symphony is severely cutting back the number of concerts he conducts, and has announced that he will step down entirely when his contract expires in 2009. “Perick has improved the orchestra musically, but has been frustrated by its precarious financial situation; at the end of the 2004-05 season the CSO had a deficit of $1.25 million, which is expected to increase when the audit for 2005-06 is completed.”

When the board and management of the San Antonio Symphony made the decision not to renew music director Larry Rachleff’s contract recently, it caught the orchestra, the public, and the entire industry by surprise. But board members insist that, while they respect Rachleff as a conductor, they feel strongly that his primary job as a professor at Rice University in Houston, where he lives, was at odds with the needs of the SAS.

South Carolina’s Charleston Symphony Orchestra is on the brink of bankruptcy due to years of red ink and an inability to generate new donations, even after the orchestra’s musicians took an 18% pay cut in 2003. “The orchestra finished the [2006] fiscal year, which ended June 30, to the tune of $179,000 in the red. At the same time, the orchestra’s cash reserves have plunged 85 percent, from $606,223 to $93,010.” CSO officials have set a February drop-dead date after which the orchestra will be unable to continue operations without a major influx of cash.

A major renovation of Cincinnati’s overly large and technologically challenged Music Hall is long overdue – on this, everyone agrees. But actually mounting such a renovation is a process fraught with peril, all the more so because the building is a National Historic Landmark. “The mission is to create more intimacy between the players and the audience while preserving Music Hall’s legendary sound.”

It’s the year of Mozart in Vienna, with festivals on top of festivals celebrating Austria’s most famous son. So what is notorious provocateur Peter Sellars doing here? And why isn’t his new festival (which claims to be “inspired” by the boy wonder) featuring a single note of Mozart? “The music of New Crowned Hope ranges from operas by John Adams and Kaija Saariaho to a concert series by illegal immigrants living in Vienna. Alice Waters is cooking; Cambodians are dancing a version of “The Magic Flute”; homeless women are serving tea.”

“Long before the closing of Tower Records was announced, the notion that a music store should offer a comprehensive selection of classical recordings had been abandoned. Older discs, which typically sold too slowly to help bricks-and-mortar stores meet their costs, were deleted from record labels’ catalogs. But they remained desirable to collectors, and the Internet music retailer ArkivMusic has recently introduced the ArkivCD program as a way to keep these recordings available.”

“Salvation may well come in digital form” for orchestras struggling with the bottom line. CD sales may be down, but classical fans are discovering downloading in droves, and several forward-looking orchestras are doing everything they can to take advantage.

The North Carolina Symphony has extended the contract of its music director, Grant Llewellyn, through the 2011-12 season. “Since he started in 2004, donors have been giving more money. Major donors wanted to know how long the state would be able to keep Llewellyn, which helped extend his contract.”

Many in the classical music world have long insisted that regular exposure to the form in childhood is the surest way of cultivating a new generation of listeners. But what if it isn’t? What if, in fact, the constant forcing of classical music on children is driving them away? “If you want someone to like something, the only thing you can do is bring them together, once or twice, and then back off. If you try to force them together again and again, or try to play cute games to encourage familiarity and acceptance, you’ll probably end up creating dislike.”