Category: music

Guitar sales in the UK are at an all-time high. “It’s probably got a lot to do with guitar bands and kids being inspired by young singer-songwriters.”

Bob Dylan complains that modern CD sound quality is terrible. “His main criticism of contemporary CDs is the lack of sound clarity arising when producers try to make each strand of a recording as uniformly loud as possible. ‘You listen to these modern records, they’re atrocious, they have sound all over them. There’s no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just, like … static’.”

“Seven years after being elected as music director and four after his triumphal entry to Berlin with his portrait plastered on bus stops, Rattle, 51, is facing an ocean of troubles that cannot be held back by lashings of charm and spin control. The question being asked is whether he has the intellect, the emotional strength and the clarity of purpose to develop the orchestra for a very different age of media dissemination. Setting aside for the moment the quality of performances, there is no denying that the Berlin Philharmonic is not what it was.”

“New operas are usually commissioned by one or two companies, often on different continents, and are more or less shot out of a cannon – with an opening production assembled without the benefit of a workshop or tryout. There are successes, but even among those, some parts are good, others not.” But new consortiums of educational institutions are banding together to commission opera. And from A-list composers…

The Tehran Symphony Orchestra is performing in Germany. “Western music of all types has an uncertain status under the Islamic government. It was officially banned in October by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but state-run radio and television still broadcast it. Classical music can be heard accompanying Iranian TV and radio programs, and Iranian television recorded Sunday’s concert in Osnabrueck.” Still, the orchestra has to make some adjustments…

The Musicians Union says musicians are suffering because of airline travel restrictions restricting instruments from being carried on. “It says its members ‘are reporting significant lost earnings’ because they are unable to take their instruments on board aircraft as hand luggage. Many instruments are too fragile to be placed in the hold of an airliner, the union told the BBC News website.”

Richard Scheinin has a great time at this year’s San Jose Jazz Festival. But he entertains a nagging question: “Was the ‘Jazz’ in the title of the festival starting to take a back seat to funk, pop, soul? And looking ahead, is San Jose’s jazz festival about to morph into one more ‘jazz and pop’ festival, in which jazz is a guest at its own party? Why does it matter? Because there are a million venues for the Nevilles and Dr. John, who closed Saturday’s Main Stage events. There are, on the other hand, very few venues, a shrinking few, for jazz, which is continually pushed to the margins…”

Seattle Opera’s first International Wagner Competition drew eight singers from five countries and five judges from Europe and North America. “Two $15,000 prizes were awarded — some three hours after the affair started, by Speight Jenkins, general director of the company — to Miriam Murphy of Ireland and James Rutherford of England. Rutherford also won the vote of the orchestra — members of the Seattle Symphony — and the audience.”

There’s a glut of blockbuster albums about to be released in the last quarter of this year. Music sales have been down, so there should be a bump at the cash register. But “most merchants, however, feel the release schedule is so strong that some titles may get lost in the shuffle; for years now, retail executives have lamented that the majors wait until the fourth quarter to release their big projects.”

“Musicians are increasingly using the virtual world to hold live concerts, at specific times and dates, or listening lounges where their music plays when an avatar pays a visit…”