Category: music

“Mozart’s death in 1791 was probably caused by streptococcal infection, renal failure, terminal bronchial pneumonia and a matrix of other illnesses, some dating from his childhood, when the Mozart family spent years touring Europe to show off the boy genius and, to a lesser extent, his sister. Imagine how different music history would have been had Mozart lived…”

From the Top has become one of NPR’s more popular programs, and is “distributed to some 250 NPR outlets and boasts some 750,000 listeners.” Now it will be on TV too, in a new series broadcast from Carnegie Hall.

“The Canadian Opera Company announced yesterday that baritone Pavlo Hunka has withdrawn from singing in its current production of Richard Wagner’s four-opera Ring of the Nibelungs cycle, which concludes on Oct. 1. He will also not be singing in the company’s October production of Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte. Hunka walked out of Ring dress rehearsals eight days ago. At a release party held yesterday at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts for the singer’s new two-disc set of Ukrainian art songs, Hunka revealed that he has been diagnosed with diabetes.”

Ticket sales at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony’s summer home in the Berkshire hills of Western Massachusetts, were down nearly 3% this year, a drop BSO officials attribute to an uptick in rainy days (much of the Tanglewood audience sits on the lawn outside the main shed.) Another factor may have been that perennial Tanglewood superstar James Taylor only played one concert this summer instead of his customary two: one more sellout would have pulled ticket sales even with last year.

“Paris had become one of the last major western capitals without a world-class space devoted exclusively to symphony concerts and a permanent home for its orchestras. But the French government yesterday set out to reclaim the city’s classical music heritage, unveiling a €30m refurbishment of the Art Deco Salle Pleyel in Paris.”

The Chicago Symphony’s Ravinia Festival had a record summer, with 640,000 attending. “We had an excellent year, and there were so many factors in expanding our audience. But the two key things were our strong pop lineup and the Full House initiative designed to build back CSO attendance in the pavilion.”

The St. Louis Symphony has extended the contract of popular music director David Robertson through 2010. The orchestra has enjoyed a resurgence since Robertson took over in 2005, and the new contract continues the trend of American orchestras locking up their maestros long-term, once it becomes clear that the fit is a good one.

In response to public outcry (and what it says is a diminished threat level,) the UK’s Department of Transport says it expects to relax restrictions on airline carry-on bags by next week. “The changes are likely to mean bulky items, including musical instruments, will be allowed as carry-on baggage.” Some restrictions, including bans on liquids and gels, are likely to remain in place for the time being.

Music giant Universal says YouTube and MySpace are enabling the theft of music by Universal artists. “We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars. How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly.”

The Sir Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition is only four years old, but it has already become one of the top conducting awards in the world. This year, it’s also making a bit of history, handing out its top prize to a woman for the first time: 31-year-old Shi-Yeon Sung of South Korea “receives a €15,000 prize and a concert date with the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony.”